Hello, Story Makers! Welcome to another edition of The Rabbit Hole, now with a fancy new logo. We're building the wheels for this thing as we stumble down the road. This is a weekly blog series in which I share my favorite story stuff from the internet and beyond. Let's dive in:
Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ Belongs to Everyone (The Atlantic)
Few modern songs have the reach of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Amazingly, the album it was released on, Cohen's seventh, was not initially released in the U.S. This article is a fascinating look at the classic song as well as our idea of a "cover."
How to Keep a Dead Writer Alive, in Seven Books (The Atlantic)
This story covers the often tenuous relationship(s) between biographers and the estates of authors and recommends several books. Are biographers "vultures picking at a corpse or heroes rescuing their subject from oblivion?"
The Atlantic's algorithm had my number this week, apparently. Here lies a charming tale of two friends with an unusual tradition—meeting each other on a walk to exchange a single high five. When one friend gets sick with encephalitis, the high five takes on new meaning.
DJing on the Hedonic Treadmill (Austin Kleon)
Austin Kleon on an approach to the "hedonic treadmill," the idea that being the resilient and adaptable creatures that we are, we can get used to almost anything (metabolizing success, newness rubbing off, etc.). "Juxtapositions from a sequence of experiences are overlooked as a source of creativity."
In Praise of 'Scruffy Hospitality' (Tree Hugger)
With an 11-month old, "scruffy" is the only kind of hospitality I've got. As someone who stress-cleans before people come over, I found this article a comfort. Though I might need to reread it a few times for the wisdom to stick!
Out of free Atlantic articles for the month after clicking the above links? Use Pocket to clip any article to read later. I want to support journalism, but I only have so much disposable income. When you save articles with Pocket, you conveniently circumvent paywalls for both The Atlantic and The New York Times (for now). Happy reading!
As always, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this dive down the rabbit hole.