The Deep End

I’ve spent the past few years writing for the “Why Is This Interesting?” newsletter. Here are a few of the strange and wonderful things I got to write about:

Keith Jarrett and the ECM Sound

I wrote about a legendary Keith Jarrett piano concert that helped define the sound of ECM Records, an immortal jazz label that’s perfect for late-night conversations or deep-focus editing sessions.

The Future of AI Writing

I would never use a typewriter to draft an article anymore, and future generations will rely on AI-augmented tools as much as I depend on spell-check. But we will always need humans to do the understanding part. The rest is code.

Norm Macdonald and the Shaggy Dog Story

Shaggy dog stories are a classic kind of joke that breaks all the traditional storytelling rules, twisting and extending a stupid, absurd, or obscene concept far beyond its expected limits. Nobody could land these jokes better than Norm Macdonald.

The New Masses and the Great Depression

Hard times can kindle radical solutions. Economic recovery requires many years of turbulence, but the story of the New Masses magazine shows us how a generation of writers survived the blast furnace of the Great Depression.

How Playing Euchre Can Change Your Life

Webster’s 1913 defines the word “confabulation” as “Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation.” That activity is the most mundane, inefficient, and wonderful of all pastimes. Confabulation is the heart of euchre, my favorite card game.