“What a many-splendored experience it once was to talk on the phone.”
2. “Champagne Ritual, Made a Little Less Intoxicating”
“The precursor to the American League was known as the ‘beer and whiskey’ league.”
3. “Why Twitter’s C.E.O. Demoted Himself”
“I had a fierce desire to create things, to be independent and prove myself, which caused me to reject authority, but never in a sort of rebellious way. It was more like, ‘I’m going to show you by doing it all myself.’”
4. “When the Assembly Line Moves Online”
“Worker control is precisely what the Microtask model has engineered out — that’s the source of its insidious efficiency. Just as Ford’s assembly lines a century ago brought work to workers who performed a single, repetitive task, Microtask’s software, via the Internet, does the same.”
5. “Innovation: It Isn’t a Matter of Left or Right”
“Stalin would have despised Wikipedia.”
6. “A Dark Transformation to Strains of Swan Lake”
“Basically, I didn’t do anything except work. There was no, like, meeting up with friends for dinner or going to the movies. We’d do 16-hour days, then I’d go home and work out, because I had to stay in shape, and I’d prepare for the next day’s scenes and then get maybe five hours of sleep. It was really, really extreme.”
“She contends that a soapy washcloth under her arms, between her legs and under her feet is all she needs to get ‘really clean.’ On the go, underarm odor is wiped away with a sliced lemon.”
8. “The Candidate Is Not My Type”
“This year, Democratic and Republican candidates alike have largely forsaken modish fonts like Gotham, choosing instead fonts that look like they were banged out on a vintage typewriter or carved into an ancient temple.”
9. “Caffeine and Alcohol: Wham! Bam! Boozled.”
“If the cans didn’t expressly advertise their contents as 12 percent alcohol, you’d never believe it, because the bite of the malt liquor is so well masked.”
“Wood had, as we say now, ‘issues.’”
“With as many as 100 million copies in circulation (no one knows the exact figure), it is the best-selling gun of all time.”
