Best of 2024: All Our Number Five Story Picks

Number five stories are often the perfect escapism.

第五个故事往往是完美的逃避现实的故事。

They’re just what you need to lift your mood, to transport you from a long sedentary commute, or distract you from the family holiday gathering underway in the next room.

它们正是您所需要的，可以提升您的心情，让您从长时间久坐的通勤中解脱出来，或者分散您对隔壁房间正在进行的家庭假日聚会的注意力。

Sometimes serious, sometimes humorous, always thought-provoking, they all have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them special—something you’ll want to share with a friend.

有时严肃，有时幽默，总是发人深省，他们都有某种难以言喻的特质，这让他们变得特别——你会想与朋友分享的东西。

If you haven’t already, sign up to receive our Weekly Top 5 newsletter, so you have these number five stories, and our other recommended reads, in your inbox every Friday.

如果您还没有，请注册接收我们的每周前 5 名时事通讯，这样您每周五的收件箱中都会收到这些排名前 5 的故事以及我们其他推荐的读物。

—Carolyn, Cheri, Krista, Peter & Seyward

——卡罗琳、谢里、克里斯塔、彼得和西沃德

## January

##一月

## On Beauty and Violence

## 关于美丽与暴力

N.C.

北卡罗来纳州

Happe | Guernica | December 11, 2023 | 5,021 words

哈佩 |格尔尼卡 | 2023 年 12 月 11 日 | 5,021 字

It can be appealing to try to blow the dust off the old you and reinvent yourself in a place where you’re a stranger.

尝试把旧的自己身上的灰尘吹掉，在一个陌生的地方重塑自己，这可能很有吸引力。

As N.C.

作为北卡罗来纳州

Happe recounts her move to Canada in this beautiful but sometimes difficult read for Guernica, she recalls her Minnesota childhood and her father’s dark moods and explosive temper alongside the casual—and sometimes invited—violence of the playground.

哈佩在这本美丽但有时难以理解的《格尔尼卡》中讲述了她移居加拿大的经历，她回忆起自己在明尼苏达州的童年、父亲的阴郁情绪和暴躁的脾气，以及操场上随意的——有时是受邀的——暴力。

Cinematic details make this essay an immersive read.

电影般的细节使这篇文章读起来令人身临其境。

You can hear a dying deer bleat and imagine its accidental and untimely death.

你可以听到一只垂死的鹿的咩咩叫声，想象它的意外和过早死亡。

You can feel the author’s cracked dry lips; you can taste the copper when they bleed.

你能感觉到作者干裂的嘴唇；当它们流血时，你可以尝到铜的味道。

“The realization dawned: violence runs in the blood of everything, everywhere,” she writes.

“我突然意识到：暴力存在于一切事物的血液中，无处不在，”她写道。

“For me, it took leaving the country to learn this.

“对我来说，离开这个国家才了解这一点。

For the doe from my childhood home, it had been as simple and as quietly done as jumping a fence.” What Happe shows us through this thoughtful piece is that while sometimes you can jump the fence and leave home, you might be surprised by what you’re unable to leave behind.

对于我童年家里的母鹿来说，这就像跳过栅栏一样简单、安静。”哈佩通过这篇深思熟虑的作品向我们展示的是，虽然有时你可以跳过栅栏离开家，但你可能会对你无法留下的东西感到惊讶。

—KS

—KS

## A Knife Forged in Fire

## 一把火中锻造的刀

Laurence Gonzales | Chicago Magazine | January 9, 2024 | 6,814 words

劳伦斯·冈萨雷斯 |芝加哥杂志 | 2024 年 1 月 9 日 | 6,814 字

“What makes a good knife?” In trying to answer what appears to be a simple question, former chef Sam Goldbroch was “swallowed up into the mysteries of metal and fire and force” in becoming a bladesmith in Skokie, Illinois.

“什么才是一把好刀？”在试图回答这个看似简单的问题时，前厨师萨姆·戈德布洛赫在成为伊利诺伊州斯科基的刀匠时“陷入了金属、火和力量的神秘之中”。

In this gorgeous profile for Chicago Magazine, writer Laurence Gonzales commissions a knife from Goldbroch and invites us to shadow the master at work.

在《芝加哥杂志》这篇精彩的简介中，作家劳伦斯·冈萨雷斯 (Laurence Gonzales) 委托戈德布洛赫 (Goldbroch) 制作了一把刀，并邀请我们在工作中跟随这位大师。

Gonzales does what few writers can; he uses keen observation to recast an industrial space into a place of magical transformations.

冈萨雷斯做到了很少有作家能做到的事情；他用敏锐的观察力将工业空间改造成神奇的转变之地。

Read this piece and see the tangerine flame.

阅读这篇文章并看到橘子火焰。

Hear the forge roar, feel its heat, and revel in the alchemy of your tiny 6,000-word bladesmith apprenticeship.

聆听锻造的轰鸣声，感受它的热量，并陶醉在 6,000 字的刀匠学徒的炼金术中。

“A cloud of smoke rose to the ceiling, and a searing sound filled the room like a basket of snakes.

“一团烟雾升到天花板，房间里充满了灼热的声音，就像一篮子蛇一样。

‘This is the moment of truth,’ Sam said, holding the tongs and looking away from the smoke.

“这是关键时刻，”萨姆说，握着钳子，目光从烟雾上移开。

‘This is when it becomes a knife.’” You’ll enjoy the science and history rendered in detailed scene work, but the most beautiful thing about this story is that it celebrates and exemplifies dedicated craft—in forging handmade knives and in revealing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

“这就是它变成一把刀的时候。””你会喜欢在详细的场景工作中呈现的科学和历史，但这个故事最美丽的事情是它庆祝和体现了专门的工艺——锻造手工刀具和揭示平凡中的非凡。

—KS

—KS

## Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet

## 在社交互联网的黎明时期成熟

Kyle Chayka | The New Yorker | January 13, 2024 | 3,986 words

凯尔·查卡 |纽约客 | 2024 年 1 月 13 日 | 3,986 字

In this excerpt from his new book, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture, Kyle Chayka recalls an early internet that allowed “creative possibility” and “self-definition”—a web that many of us miss.

凯尔·查卡 (Kyle Chayka) 在他的新书《过滤世界：算法如何扁平化文化》的摘录中回顾了早期的互联网，它允许“创造性的可能性”和“自我定义”——这是我们许多人怀念的网络。

When he tells us his AOL Instant Messenger username, “Silk,” I immediately recall my first AOL screen name, “RsrvoirGrl.” (Yes, in high school I was obsessed with Quentin Tarantino films.) When he describes posting to LiveJournal, where his writing “became a kind of public performance,” I remember my own musings on Diaryland, another early publishing platform.

当他告诉我们他的 AOL Instant Messenger 用户名“Silk”时，我立即想起我的第一个 AOL 屏幕名称“RsrvoirGrl”。 （是的，高中时我迷上了昆汀·塔伦蒂诺的电影。）当他描述在 LiveJournal 上发帖时，他的写作“变成了一种公开表演”，我想起了我自己对另一个早期出版平台 Diaryland 的思考。

Those diary entries make me cringe when I read them now, but they’re also so unfiltered and passionate; I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t written with such energy since.

那些日记现在读起来让我感到畏缩，但它们也是如此未经过滤和充满激情；我很不好意思地说，从那以后我就再也没有如此精力充沛地写作过。

His later experiences are just as fun to read, and remind me of a few milestones in that evolving space: the way my MySpace profile suddenly fused my online “shadow” self to my physical IRL identity; the first virtual encounter with my future spouse (I’ll never forget the first tweets my husband and I exchanged); the way Instagram initially inspired the photographer in me, and then slowly sucked all of my creativity.

他后来的经历读起来同样有趣，让我想起了这个不断发展的空间中的几个里程碑：我的 MySpace 个人资料突然将我的在线“影子”自我与我的现实现实身份融合在一起；与我未来配偶的第一次虚拟相遇（我永远不会忘记我和丈夫交换的第一条推文）； Instagram 最初激发了我内心的摄影师灵感，然后慢慢吸走了我所有的创造力。

As with a number of pieces I’ve read recently about the broken state of the web, this essay doesn’t really say anything about the internet we don’t already know—or already feel in our bodies, minds, and attention spans.

与我最近读到的许多有关网络破碎状态的文章一样，这篇文章并没有真正谈论我们还不了解的互联网，或者我们的身体、思想和注意力已经感受到的互联网。

But I always enjoy Chayka’s writing, and his thoughts here on what it was like to be online when “being online wasn’t yet a default state of existence” are relatable and served up with just the right amount of nostalgia.

但我一直很喜欢 Chayka 的写作，他对当“上网还不是默认存在状态”时上网的感觉的想法是相关的，并且带有恰到好处的怀旧之情。

—CLR

—CLR

## Tell Me Why the Watermelon Grows

## 告诉我为什么西瓜会长大

Jori Lewis | Switchyard / FERN | November 25, 2023 | 4,744 words

乔里·刘易斯 |开关站 / FERN | 2023 年 11 月 25 日 | 4,744 字

Watermelon has been in the zeitgeist lately.

西瓜最近成为时代精神。

The humble fruit is an important emblem of Palestinian resistance, which means that, over the last three months, images of it have appeared at everything from street protests to Paris fashion week.

这种不起眼的水果是巴勒斯坦抵抗运动的重要象征，这意味着在过去三个月里，从街头抗议到巴黎时装周，它的图像出现在各种场合。

In the context of US cultural history, however, watermelon carries different connotations—racist ones.

然而，在美国文化史的背景下，西瓜却有着不同的含义——种族主义的含义。

Jori Lewis examines these crude and cruel associations in her essay for Switchyard, an exciting new magazine based at the University of Tulsa.

乔里·刘易斯 (Jori Lewis) 在为塔尔萨大学的一本令人兴奋的新杂志《Switchyard》撰写的文章中探讨了这些粗暴而残酷的关联。

She draws on her family’s experiences to show the complicated relationship many Black Americans have with watermelon, but her piece is about much more than the harm stereotypes can do.

她利用家人的经历来展示许多美国黑人与西瓜之间的复杂关系，但她的作品所讲述的远不止刻板印象所能造成的伤害。

Lewis is interested in reclaiming meaning, and as is so often the case, that requires looking beyond US borders and deep into the past.

刘易斯感兴趣的是重新找回意义，而正如通常的情况一样，这需要超越美国边界并深入过去。

This essay is beautifully rendered, taking readers from the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt, to a roadside fruit stand in Senegal, to the agricultural fields of China, in search of watermelon as both sustenance and symbol.

这篇文章渲染得很精美，带着读者从埃及图坦卡蒙墓，到塞内加尔路边水果摊，到中国的农田，寻找西瓜作为寄托和象征。

“The watermelon is a generous fruit: the flesh of one can feed a dozen people and can parent hundreds of melons with its seeds,” Lewis writes.

刘易斯写道：“西瓜是一种慷慨的水果：一个西瓜的果肉可以养活十几个人，它的种子可以孕育数百个西瓜。”

Cultures have associated it with fertility, solidarity, and luck.

文化将其与生育力、团结和运气联系在一起。

Watermelon can both cure hunger and quench thirst, and Lewis bookends her essay with scenes where she lets a juicy slice do the latter.

西瓜既可以消除饥饿又可以解渴，刘易斯在她的文章结尾处提到了她让一块多汁的西瓜来解渴的场景。

By the time she gets to the second instance, watermelon feels to the reader like a thing transformed.

当她到达第二个实例时，西瓜对读者来说就像是一个变形的东西。

“I felt an ever so slight twinge about me in this Black body in a white man’s field and all that has ever meant.

“在白人的田野里，这个黑人的身体以及这一切所意味着的一切，让我感到一种非常轻微的刺痛。

But it was hot, and I was thirsty,” Lewis writes.

但天气很热，而且我很渴，”刘易斯写道。

“I took it with my fingers, and I ate.” —SD

“我用手指拿起它，然后吃了。” —SD

## February

##二月

## How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs

## 我们是如何对不明飞行物失去理智的

Nicholson Baker | New York | January 31, 2024 | 6,751 words

尼克尔森·贝克 |纽约 | 2024 年 1 月 31 日 | 6,751 字

Close Encounters of the Third Kind filled me with wonder as a kid, and an ’80s childhood provided no shortage of material to keep that wonder alive: Flight of the Navigator; The Last Starfighter; E.T.

小时候，《第三类接触》让我充满了惊奇，而 80 年代的童年并不缺乏让这种惊奇永存的素材：《航海家的飞行》；最后的星际战斗机；外星人

But despite being primed to believe, I’ve never been able to fully accept any of the countless UFO sightings and reports that have emerged over the decades.

尽管我已经做好了相信的准备，但我始终无法完全接受几十年来出现的无数不明飞行物目击事件和报告。

I never knew why, only that it all felt …

我从来不知道为什么，只是感觉这一切......

vague.

模糊。

And then I read Nicholson Baker’s lively, informed takedown in New York.

然后我在纽约读到了尼克尔森·贝克 (Nicholson Baker) 的生动、见多识广的报道。

Oh, I thought.

哦，我想。

Duh.

呃。

Regardless of where you land on the believer spectrum, there’s a lot to like here.

无论你属于哪个信徒群体，这里都有很多值得喜欢的地方。

(Well, maybe not for the full-throated evangelists like Avi Loeb, who claims skeptics and critics “behave like terrorists.”) Baker’s stance is clear from the get go, but his fiction career serves him well, leavening his skepticism with crackling phrases like “wiggy-sounding.” He’s dismissing, but not dismissive, which can be a tough needle to thread.

（好吧，也许不适合像阿维·勒布这样大声疾呼的传道者，他声称怀疑论者和批评者“表现得像恐怖分子”。）贝克的立场从一开始就很明确，但他的小说生涯对他很有帮助，用“听起来很假”等尖锐的短语加深了他的怀疑态度。他是在不屑一顾，但并不是不屑一顾，这可能是一根很难穿线的针。

He reports generously, not simply combing through archives but connecting with many of today’s ufology luminaries.

他慷慨地进行报告，不仅是梳理档案，还与当今许多不明飞行物学杰出人物进行了联系。

None of that, though, shakes his well-grounded thesis: our entire flying-saucer mythology is derived from Cold War weapons research, carried out via high-tech balloons.

不过，这些都没有动摇他有充分根据的论点：我们的整个飞碟神话都源于冷战时期通过高科技气球进行的武器研究。

Sure, I’ll still wonder about what might be out there—hell, it’s logically impossible to think we’re the only sentient lifeforms around—but until there’s something a little more undeniable, I’ll be living on Baker Street.

当然，我仍然想知道外面会发生什么——天哪，从逻辑上讲，我们不可能认为我们是周围唯一有感知的生命形式——但在出现一些更不可否认的事情之前，我将住在贝克街。

—PR

——公关

## What Really Caused the Sriracha Shortage?

## 到底是什么导致了是拉差短缺？

Indrani Sen | Fortune | January 30, 2024 | 3,994 words

因德拉尼·森 |财富| 2024 年 1 月 30 日 | 3,994 字

I started reading this essay in a cafe, with a bottle of sriracha sitting on the table across from me.

我在一家咖啡馆开始读这篇文章，我对面的桌子上放着一瓶是拉差酒。

Staring at the iconic bottle—the bold rooster motif, the cheerful bright green cap—I tried to remember when I first heard the rumors of the “Great Sriracha Shortage.” I believe the mutterings started at a dinner party, whispered tales of bottles selling for $80.

盯着标志性的瓶子——大胆的公鸡图案，欢快的亮绿色瓶盖——我试图回忆起我第一次听到“是拉差大短缺”的谣言时的情景。我相信这些窃窃私语是从一次晚宴上开始的，窃窃私语着瓶子售价为 80 美元的故事。

Getting home, I opened my cupboard to check my stash—relieved to see two full bottles snugly in place.

回到家，我打开橱柜检查我的藏品——看到两瓶装满的瓶子整齐地放在原处，我松了口气。

I would make it.

我会成功的。

Secure in my immediate supply, the sriracha dilemma fell from my mind, until I came upon this essay and realized I had no idea what actually caused the shortage.

保证了我的即时供应，是拉差困境从我的脑海中消失了，直到我看到这篇文章并意识到我不知道到底是什么导致了短缺。

I was ready for Indrani Sen to dish the dirt.

我已经准备好让因德拉尼·森揭黑了。

She begins by artfully filling us in on the history of the sauce, its unexpected rise to fame (it’s never even run a marketing campaign), and the deal between two companies that secured its future with a quality supply of chilies.

她首先巧妙地向我们介绍了这种酱汁的历史、它出人意料的名气（它甚至从未开展过营销活动），以及两家公司之间的交易，该交易通过优质辣椒供应确保了它的未来。

But this deal—between Underwood Ranches (the chili farmer) and Huy Fong Foods (the sauce maker)—ultimately led to the problem.

但安德伍德牧场（Underwood Ranches，辣椒种植者）和汇丰食品公司（Huy Fong Foods，酱汁制造商）之间的这笔交易最终导致了问题。

An argument about money caused a fiery end to the 28-year relationship, costing both companies millions.

一场关于金钱的争吵导致这段 28 年的合作关系火热结束，双方都损失了数百万美元。

As Sen writes, the two “soft-spoken patriarchs” remain at odds, even though it leaves: “One man with thousands of acres of pepper fields, but nobody to buy his peppers.

正如森所写，两位“说话温和的族长”仍然存在分歧，尽管它留下了：“一个人拥有数千英亩的辣椒田，但没有人买他的辣椒。

Another with a massive pepper factory, and not enough peppers to keep it running.” A Shakespearean-level feud.

另一个拥有大型胡椒工厂，但没有足够的胡椒来维持其运转。”莎士比亚级别的恩怨。

This hot mess makes for a fascinating read, and hold onto your bottles: it’s still a rocky road.

这篇热血沸腾的文章读起来很有趣，请抓紧你的瓶子：这仍然是一条崎岖的道路。

—CW

—CW

## The Text File That Runs the Internet

## 运行互联网的文本文件

David Pierce | The Verge | February 14, 2024 | 2,992 words

大卫·皮尔斯 |边缘| 2024 年 2 月 14 日 | 2,992 字

I read stories this week that elicited an acute emotional response, and I read stories this week that dazzled with prose.

这周我读到了引发强烈情感反应的故事，这周我读到了令人眼花缭乱的散文故事。

But nothing I read this week felt more urgent or important than David Pierce’s explication of robots.txt, that snippet of code on every webpage that allows (or doesn’t allow) search engines to catalog its content.

但本周我读到的没有什么比 David Pierce 对 robots.txt 的解释更紧迫或更重要的了，每个网页上的这段代码允许（或不允许）搜索引擎对其内容进行编目。

See, robots.txt has effectively functioned on the honor system: search companies agreed not to send their automated web crawlers into sites that expressly disallowed them, and everyone was more or less happy.

看，robots.txt 在荣誉系统上有效地发挥了作用：搜索公司同意不将其自动网络爬虫发送到明确禁止它们的网站，每个人都或多或少感到高兴。

Thirty years later, though, there’s a new breed of web crawler in town.

然而三十年后，镇上出现了一种新型网络爬虫。

These new bots swarm websites not to catalog content but to feed that content to AI, a technology that threatens to replace search as the default means of online discovery (and does so by digesting and regurgitating the content in a monstrous, unciteable form).

这些新的机器人涌入网站不是为了编目内容，而是为了将这些内容提供给人工智能，这种技术有可能取代搜索，成为在线发现的默认手段（并且通过以一种可怕的、难以引用的形式消化和反刍内容来实现这一点）。

Even worse, AI crawlers don’t necessarily respect robots.txt—and there’s nothing legally compelling them to do so.

更糟糕的是，人工智能爬虫不一定尊重 robots.txt，而且没有任何法律强制他们这样做。

Pierce frames the conundrum perfectly: “As the AI companies continue to multiply, and their crawlers grow more unscrupulous, anyone wanting to sit out or wait out the AI takeover has to take on an endless game of whac-a-mole.

皮尔斯完美地阐述了这个难题：“随着人工智能公司的不断壮大，它们的爬虫变得更加肆无忌惮，任何想要袖手旁观或等待人工智能接管的人都必须进行一场无休止的打地鼠游戏。

They have to stop each robot and crawler individually, if that’s even possible, while also reckoning with the side effects.

如果可能的话，他们必须单独停止每个机器人和爬行器，同时还要考虑副作用。

If AI is in fact the future of search, as Google and others have predicted, blocking AI crawlers could be a short-term win but a long-term disaster.” For three decades, websites large and small have depended on search to help build their readership; now they’re caught in a philosophical quagmire.

如果人工智能确实是搜索的未来，正如谷歌和其他公司所预测的那样，那么阻止人工智能爬虫可能是短期的胜利，但长期的灾难。”三十年来，大大小小的网站都依赖搜索来建立读者群。现在他们陷入了哲学的泥潭。

Trust the robots, or sink into oblivion?

相信机器人，还是被遗忘？

—PR

——公关

## An American Education: Notes from UATX

## 美国教育：UATX 笔记

Noah Rawlings | The New Inquiry | February 19, 2024 | 6,839 words

诺亚·罗林斯 |新调查 | 2024 年 2 月 19 日 | 6,839 字

If you’re not addicted to media discourse, I envy you.

如果你不沉迷于媒体话语，我很羡慕你。

I also realize you might need some background before diving into this pick, so here goes: a couple of years ago, a collection of reactionary academics and journalists, hysterical about the purported “wokeness” of US higher education, decided to start their own university.

我还意识到，在深入研究这个选择之前，您可能需要一些背景知识，所以这里是：几年前，一群反动学者和记者对美国高等教育所谓的“觉醒”感到歇斯底里，决定创办自己的大学。

It’s called the University of Austin, but it’s actually in Dallas, in an office complex owned by Harlan Crow, billionaire BFF and patron of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

它被称为奥斯汀大学，但实际上位于达拉斯，位于亿万富翁、最高法院法官克拉伦斯·托马斯的赞助人哈兰·克劳 (Harlan Crow) 拥有的办公大楼内。

UATX’s figurehead is ex-New York Times staffer Bari Weiss, who also runs The Free Press (“For Free People”), an online outlet that spends an inordinate amount of time clutching pearls about gender-affirming care for trans children.

UATX 的傀儡是前《纽约时报》员工巴里·韦斯 (Bari Weiss)，他还经营着一家在线媒体《自由新闻报》(The Free Press，“为自由人民”)，该媒体花了大量时间宣传对跨性别儿童的性别肯定关怀。

Many of UATX’s faculty and fellows have expressed support for Israel’s continuing bombardment of Gaza; at least one has couched the genocide as a matter of good versus evil.

UATX 的许多教职员工和研究员都表示支持以色列继续轰炸加沙；至少有人将种族灭绝视为善与恶的问题。

So.

所以。

In this essay, which is as hilarious as it is rage-inducing, Noah Rawlings describes attending UATX’s “Forbidden Courses” summer program, which it launched in advance of actually enrolling students.

在这篇既搞笑又令人愤怒的文章中，诺亚·罗林斯 (Noah Rawlings) 描述了参加 UATX 的“禁忌课程”夏季项目的情况，该项目是在实际招收学生之前启动的。

Better Rawlings than I, because I would have lost my damn mind.

罗林斯比我好，因为我会失去理智。

Not when founding faculty member Peter Boghossian, who once accused his former employer, Portland State University, of being a “Social Justice factory” (quelle horreur) said he’s so good at jiu-jitsu that he could murder everyone on a bus carrying participants to the program’s commencement dinner.

创始人彼得·博格西安 (Peter Boghossian) 曾指责他的前雇主波特兰州立大学是“社会正义工厂”(quelle horreur)，他说自己柔术非常出色，以至于可以谋杀载着参与者参加该项目毕业晚宴的巴士上的所有人。

Not when Joe Lonsdale, who helped found Palantir, told students that the rise of AI would let humans do “more natural things” with their lives.

Palantir 的创始人乔·朗斯代尔 (Joe Lonsdale) 告诉学生，人工智能的兴起将使人类在生活中做“更自然的事情”。

Not when Weiss, when asked by a student why there aren’t any left-of-center faculty at a school that supposedly prides itself on illuminating truth through dialogue, suggested the left is just less interested in debate.

当韦斯被一名学生问到，为什么一所据称以通过对话阐明真理而自豪的学校里没有中间偏左的教师时，韦斯表示左派只是对辩论不太感兴趣。

No, I think I would have lost it when someone (Rawlings doesn’t say who) uttered the following: “If Simone de Beauvoir were alive right now, she would be very popular, like Jordan Peterson.” —SD

不，我想当有人（罗林斯没有说是谁）说出以下这句话时我会失去它：“如果西蒙娜·德·波伏娃现在还活着，她会很受欢迎，就像乔丹·彼得森一样。” —SD

## March

## 三月

## The Last Stand of the Call-Centre Worker

## 呼叫中心工作人员的最后一搏

Sophie Elmhirst | 1843 Magazine | February 2, 2024 | 4,739 words

苏菲·埃尔姆赫斯特 | 1843 杂志 | 2024 年 2 月 2 日 | 4,739 字

“It reminds me of processed cheese, Sophie,” says Gary, a call center worker, during his chat with Sophie Elmhirst on AI technology.

“这让我想起了加工奶酪，索菲，”呼叫中心工作人员加里在与索菲·埃尔姆赫斯特谈论人工智能技术时说道。

Gary tells it how it is.

加里告诉它是怎么回事。

I love Gary.

我爱加里。

An instantly endearing character, he epitomizes the sense of personality that could be lost as call center work edges further into the realm of the robot.

他是一个立即讨人喜欢的角色，代表了随着呼叫中心工作进一步进入机器人领域而可能失去的个性感。

Don’t get me wrong—we don’t always get a Gary when we call a customer service line.

不要误会我的意思——当我们拨打客户服务热线时，并不总是能接到加里。

Elmhirst recounts, with her trademark dry humor, some of her less enjoyable calls (you will relate).

埃尔姆赫斯特以她标志性的冷幽默讲述了她的一些不太令人愉快的电话（你会联想到的）。

But Gary from Vision Direct has her laughing as he guides her through ordering new contact lenses like they were “engaged in some kind of high-stakes joint project.” Roping him into an interview, she discovers more about the infectious joy he brings to customers, even after 20 years of working in call centers.

但 Vision Direct 的加里引导她订购新隐形眼镜，让她笑了，就好像他们正在“参与某种高风险的联合项目”。她邀请他接受采访，发现他为客户带来的富有感染力的快乐，即使在呼叫中心工作了 20 年之后也是如此。

Can AI ever replicate this?

人工智能可以复制这一点吗？

Perhaps.

也许。

Developments are happening faster than the public or regulators can keep up with, and automating empathy is already in the works.

发展速度比公众或监管机构跟上的速度要快，并且自动化同理心已经在开发中。

In fact, as Elmhirst notes, ChatGPT recently scored better on standardized emotional awareness tests than the general population, according to a paper in Frontiers in Psychology.

事实上，根据《心理学前沿》上的一篇论文，正如埃尔姆赫斯特指出的那样，ChatGPT 最近在标准化情绪意识测试中的得分高于普通人群。

(Not sure if that says more about ChatGPT or the general population.) As is often the case with AI, there is much talk of hybrid roles, but inevitably, there will be less room for the traditional call center worker.

（不确定这是否更多地说明了 ChatGPT 或普通人群的情况。）正如人工智能的情况一样，人们对混合角色的讨论很多，但不可避免的是，传统呼叫中心工作人员的空间将会减少。

The topic of AI use in customer service calls had the potential to be incredibly dull.

在客户服务电话中使用人工智能的话题可能会变得极其乏味。

Elmhirst makes it wildly entertaining.

埃尔姆赫斯特让它变得非常有趣。

Gary makes it human.

加里让它变得人性化。

—CW

—CW

## Kate Winslet Pushes Her Characters, and Herself, to the Edge

## 凯特·温斯莱特将她的角色和她自己推向边缘

Susan Dominus | The New York Times Magazine | March 3, 2024 | 4,947 words

苏珊·多米纳斯 |纽约时报杂志 | 2024 年 3 月 3 日 | 4,947 字

I was an early fan of Kate Winslet, with her unnerving performance as Juliet in Heavenly Creatures and her winsome portrayal of Marianne opposite Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility.

我很早就是凯特·温斯莱特的粉丝了，她在《天堂生物》中饰演朱丽叶，她的表演令人不安，在《理智与情感》中，她与艾玛·汤普森演对手戏，饰演玛丽安。

Then came Titanic.

然后是泰坦尼克号。

A film that launched her career into the stratosphere (and made my mother insist I take a whistle with me for any seafaring).

这部电影将她的职业生涯推向了顶峰（并让我母亲坚持让我在航海时随身携带哨子）。

But despite her fame, Winslet always came across as down to earth, and Susan Dominus’s lovely profile proves this to be very much the case.

尽管温丝莱特名声大噪，但她总是给人一种脚踏实地的印象，苏珊·多米纳斯可爱的形象证明了这一点。

Known for not being precious on set, Winslet illustrates this to Dominus by being interviewed for hours in a chilly beach hut on the English coast (Winslet’s idea).

温斯莱特以在片场不珍贵而闻名，她在英国海岸寒冷的海滩小屋里接受了几个小时的采访（温斯莱特的想法），向多米纳斯说明了这一点。

I chuckled when, in response to Winslet noting she would never say on set, “I’m cold, I have to stop,” Dominus wrote, “I’m cold, I thought to myself.

当温斯莱特指出她永远不会在片场说“我很冷，我必须停下来”时，我笑了，多米纳斯写道，“我心里想，我很冷。

I have to stop.” I was also amused when Dominus got caught out by her own platitude; when she idly mentions she wishes she could have gone into the sea, cold-water swimming fan Winslet brings her back the next day to do just that.

我必须停下来。”当多米纳斯因自己的陈词滥调而被抓住时，我也感到好笑。当她漫不经心地提到她希望自己能下海时，冷水游泳迷温斯莱特第二天就把她带回来，让她这么做。

There are other tidbits thrown in—the half-eaten bowl of oatmeal Dominus spies among the detritus in Winslet’s car, the pastries she eats while expressing horror at Ozempic—that offer just as much insight as the interview itself.

还有其他一些花絮——多米纳斯在温斯莱特车里的碎屑中发现了吃了一半的燕麦片，她一边吃着糕点一边表达了对 Ozempic 的恐惧——这些都提供了与采访本身一样多的洞察力。

Not to say what Winslet recounts isn’t compelling: becoming a famous woman in the ’90s era of waif-like chic was nothing short of harrowing.

并不是说温斯莱特讲述的内容不引人注目：在 90 年代那个流浪儿般的时尚时代，成为一名著名女性简直是令人痛苦。

But, it’s the small asides that make you come away from this piece feeling you know Winslet a little better.

但是，正是这些小旁白让你在看完这篇文章后感觉自己更了解温斯莱特了。

I’d happily swim in the sea with her, however cold.

我很乐意和她一起在海里游泳，不管有多冷。

—CW

—CW

## ‘All These Normal People, Packed Into a Human Lasagne’: My Glamour-Free Night at the Oscars

##“所有这些普通人，都被塞进了人类烤宽面条”：我在奥斯卡颁奖典礼上毫无魅力的夜晚

Stuart Heritage | The Guardian | March 11, 2024 | 1,908 words

斯图尔特遗产 |卫报| 2024 年 3 月 11 日 | 1,908 字

This year was my first time watching the Oscars live.

今年是我第一次现场观看奥斯卡颁奖典礼。

Partly due to being in the same timezone, and partly—I’ll admit it—because I wanted to see Ryan Gosling sing “I’m Just Ken.” (It did not disappoint.) During the show’s many pans to the audience, I noticed the eye-popping frocks, the clapping dog, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie sweetly holding hands, and, now and then, up above the glitzy auditorium, hints of faces peeking down from the ether of the mezzanines.

部分是因为处于同一时区，部分是因为我承认这一点，因为我想看到瑞恩·高斯林演唱“I'm Just Ken”。 （它并没有让人失望。）在演出向观众多次展示的过程中，我注意到令人瞠目结舌的连衣裙、拍手的狗、格蕾塔·葛韦格和玛格特·罗比甜蜜地牵着手，并且时不时地，在耀眼的礼堂上方，从夹层的空中窥视着一些面孔。

A glimpse into the shadow world.

一睹影子世界的风采。

Although vaguely surprised that the audience above the shiny people was so vast, my concentration whipped back to a naked John Cena.

虽然对闪闪发光的人上方的观众如此之多感到有点惊讶，但我的注意力又回到了裸体的约翰·塞纳身上。

Stuart Heritage returned me to the heights with this delightful piece for The Guardian.

Stuart Heritage 为《卫报》撰写的这篇令人愉快的作品让我回到了巅峰。

Only the A-listers saw Al Pacino up close as he skipped all the nominees to quickly growl Oppenheimer for Best Picture.

只有一线明星才能近距离观看阿尔·帕西诺，因为他跳过了所有提名者，迅速向奥本海默争夺最佳影片奖。

(He probably had to get back to that new baby.) Up above, it’s a whole different crowd.

（他可能必须回到那个新生婴儿身边。） 在上面，这是一群完全不同的人群。

I am a sucker for a bit of irreverence, and I thoroughly enjoyed Heritage’s take on spending the Oscars with “the normal people.” In the mezzanines, Heritage joins other press members, crews from nominated departments, and friends and family of nominees.

我是一个有点不敬的傻瓜，我非常喜欢传统与“普通人”一起度过奥斯卡奖的看法。在夹层，Heritage 与其他媒体成员、提名部门的工作人员以及提名者的朋友和家人一起。

Initially, sitting beside a woman mindlessly scrolling through red carpet selfies, he is unimpressed by this version of the Oscars, but as he begins to recognize the groups of people championing particular films, his view shifts.

最初，坐在一位女士旁边，漫不经心地浏览着红毯自拍照，他对这个版本的奥斯卡颁奖典礼并不感兴趣，但当他开始认识到支持特定电影的人群时，他的观点发生了变化。

For these people, the stakes are high.

对于这些人来说，风险很高。

Heritage muses, “It might lack the star wattage of the lower levels, but there is something beautiful and human about going through it surrounded by people who are invested in the outcome.” This essay is a lovely reminder of the hugely collaborative effort behind the films, and what they mean to those who don’t make it to the floor of the Dolby Theatre.

Heritage 沉思道：“它可能缺乏较低级别的明星瓦数，但在那些致力于结果的人们的陪伴下经历它，有一些美丽和人性的东西。”这篇文章很好地提醒了人们电影背后的巨大合作努力，以及它们对那些未能进入杜比剧院的人意味着什么。

A reminder that made this my favorite piece of Oscar coverage.

这一提醒使这成为我最喜欢的奥斯卡报道。

And don’t worry—Heritage doesn’t leave without a celebrity encounter (by getting in the wrong lift).

别担心，如果没有与名人相遇（搭错电梯），遗产就不会离开。

I’ll let you read to find out who.

我会让你读一下找出是谁。

—CW

—CW

## I Lost My Life in 2006

## 我在 2006 年失去了生命

Judith Hannah Weiss | Salmagundi Magazine | June 5, 2023 | 5,936 words

朱迪思·汉娜·韦斯 | 朱迪思·汉娜·韦斯萨尔马贡迪杂志 | 2023 年 6 月 5 日 | 5,936 字

Back in 2006, Judith Hannah Weiss suffered a serious brain injury after a drunk driver crushed her parked car.

早在 2006 年，朱迪思·汉娜·韦斯 (Judith Hannah Weiss) 因醉酒司机撞毁了她停放的汽车而遭受严重脑损伤。

Before the accident, language had been her livelihood—clients paid her to create clarity.

在事故发生之前，语言一直是她的生计——客户付钱给她，让她把事情说得清楚。

She wrote for big-name glossy magazines and was set to ghostwrite a book for a famous doctor.

她为知名杂志撰稿，并准备为一位著名医生代写一本书。

After it, plagued by aphasia and amnesia, she had to relearn to speak and write, tallying the accident’s toll in the words and memories it instantly obliterated and in relationships forever altered.

在那之后，她受到失语症和健忘症的困扰，不得不重新学习说话和写作，统计这场事故所造成的损失，包括它立即抹去的文字和记忆以及永远改变的关系。

In this cogent essay she does the impossible: convey what it’s like to live with a brain recovering from trauma.

在这篇令人信服的文章中，她做了一件不可能的事：传达了大脑从创伤中恢复过来的生活感觉。

“Imagine you are trying to speak and no one can understand you.

“想象一下，你正试图说话，但没有人能理解你的意思。

That’s what it’s like to live with aphasia.

这就是失语症患者的生活。

Imagine you are with other people and you can’t understand them.

想象一下你和其他人在一起，但你无法理解他们。

That’s what it’s like, too,” she writes.

情况也是如此，”她写道。

“Like twenty words are twenty kids playing twenty different sports at the same time, in the same space, in my skull.” Over time as she relearns to walk, speak, and write, Weiss becomes “we,” an amalgam of her pre- and post-accident selves.

“就像二十个词是二十个孩子在同一时间、同一空间、在我的头骨里进行二十种不同的运动一样。”随着时间的推移，当韦斯重新学习走路、说话和写作时，她变成了“我们”，是她事故前后的自我的混合体。

Once the writer who met with famous clients, she is also the woman who has worked hard to navigate life with brain damage—proving that we as humans are always far more than the sum total of what we have lost.

她曾经是一位会见著名客户的作家，也是一位在脑损伤的情况下努力应对生活的女性——这证明了我们作为人类永远远远超过我们所失去的总和。

—KS

—KS

## With Melville in Pittsfield

## 与梅尔维尔在皮茨菲尔德

J.D.

J.D.

Daniels | The Paris Review | March 26, 2024 | 2,155 words

丹尼尔斯|巴黎评论 | 2024 年 3 月 26 日 | 2,155 字

I’ve never read Moby Dick.

我从来没有读过《莫比迪克》。

I know that’s considered a grievous sin in certain circles.

我知道这在某些圈子里被认为是严重的罪过。

However, to those people, I say: well, how familiar are you with Pittsfield, Massachusetts?

然而，我对那些人说：好吧，你对马萨诸塞州皮茨菲尔德有多熟悉？

That’s what I thought!

我就是这么想的！

Not to brag, but I saw Dumb and Dumber in a mall there.

不是吹牛，但我在那儿的商场里看到了阿呆和阿瓜。

Anyway.

反正。

J.D.

J.D.

Daniels has read Moby Dick.

丹尼尔斯读过《白鲸》。

Many times, apparently.

显然，很多次了。

Which is why he drove to Pittsfield to tour Herman Melville’s one-time home.

这就是他开车前往皮茨菲尔德参观赫尔曼·梅尔维尔曾经的家的原因。

Thankfully, you don’t need to have read Moby Dick to appreciate Daniels’ short but transportive piece.

值得庆幸的是，你不需要读过《白鲸》就能欣赏丹尼尔斯简短而感人的作品。

It would help if you like driving on back roads, or fried chicken, or art’s ability to influence your life.

如果您喜欢在小路上开车，或者喜欢炸鸡，或者喜欢艺术影响您生活的能力，这将会有所帮助。

Or passages like “You want to be careful what you wish for.

或者像“你要小心你的愿望。

Inspiration means breathing.

灵感意味着呼吸。

Fish breathe by drowning.” There’s plenty of Melville in here, sure, but you’ll absorb everything you need by dint of Daniels’ own fervor.

鱼是靠淹死来呼吸的。”当然，这里有很多梅尔维尔的作品，但凭借丹尼尔斯自己的热情，你会吸收你需要的一切。

A heartbeat thrums behind every knowing recitation, every memory, every word.

每一次熟悉的背诵、每一段记忆、每一个单词背后都会有心跳声。

And when you actually arrive at the tour, surrounded by people who, like me, haven’t read Moby Dick, you’ll fully understand Daniels’ numb disbelief.

当你真正到达巡演现场时，周围都是像我一样没有读过《白鲸》的人，你就会完全理解丹尼尔斯麻木的难以置信。

How can the world be full of people who have yet to experience such all-consuming beauty?

世界上怎么会有这么多人还没有体验过如此令人倾心的美丽呢？

—PR

——公关

## April

##四月

## Dark Matter

## 暗物质

Meg Bernhard | Hazlitt | April 3, 2024 | 5,908 words

梅格·伯恩哈德 |黑兹利特 | 2024 年 4 月 3 日 | 5,908 字

Meet Frank Warren, the creator and curator of PostSecret.com, a site that displays the most private thoughts of anonymous contributors in postcard form.

认识一下弗兰克·沃伦 (Frank Warren)，他是 PostSecret.com 的创建者和管理者，该网站以明信片的形式展示匿名贡献者最私密的想法。

As Meg Bernhard reports for Hazlitt, the project emerged out of deep pain: not long after college a close friend took his own life, Warren began volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline.

正如梅格·伯恩哈德为哈兹利特报道的那样，这个项目是在深深的痛苦中诞生的：大学毕业后不久，一位亲密的朋友自杀了，沃伦开始在自杀预防热线做志愿者。

There, he learned how to listen carefully to callers as they recounted their despair.

在那里，他学会了如何仔细倾听来电者讲述他们的绝望。

“Frank realized that people needed a way to talk about the messy topics often off limits in everyday conversation,” writes Bernhard.

伯恩哈德写道：“弗兰克意识到，人们需要一种方式来谈论日常对话中经常被禁止的混乱话题。”

PostSecret became an in-person art exhibit and a website devoted to the cultural taboos that keep us silent, a way for us to unburden ourselves of what’s unspeakable in public and within our closest relationships.

PostSecret 成为了一个面对面的艺术展览和一个网站，专门讨论让我们保持沉默的文化禁忌，这是我们在公共场合和我们最亲密的关系中卸下难以言说的负担的一种方式。

Bernhard’s piece is part profile, part delightfully nerdy deep dive into what secrets mean and why we keep them.

伯恩哈德的作品一半是简介，一半是令人愉快的书呆子深入探讨秘密的含义以及我们为何保守秘密。

“What is a secret?” she asks.

“什么是秘密？”她问。

“Knowledge kept hidden from others, etymologically linked to the words seduction and excrement.

“知识对其他人隐藏起来，在词源上与诱惑和排泄物有关。

To entice someone to look closer; to force them to look away.” In revealing some of her own secrets, she invites us as readers to look closer, at the risk of us turning away.

引诱某人靠近看；迫使他们把目光移开。”在揭露她自己的一些秘密时，她邀请我们作为读者仔细观察，冒着我们转身离开的风险。

Since beginning the project in 2004 by distributing 3,000 self-addressed postcards at metro stations in Washington, D.C., Warren has collected and curated over 1 million fears, desires, and quirky notions for public display.

自 2004 年开始该项目以来，沃伦在华盛顿特区的地铁站分发了 3,000 张写有自己地址的明信片，并收集并整理了超过 100 万个恐惧、欲望和古怪的想法供公众展示。

Over time, he’s expanded the project into books and public events where attendees share their secrets with the audience, breaking that all-important fourth wall of the project’s anonymity.

随着时间的推移，他将该项目扩展到书籍和公共活动中，参与者可以与观众分享他们的秘密，打破了该项目匿名的最重要的第四堵墙。

PostSecret arose out of a life lost tragically to inner turmoil; for those who crave judgement-free emotional release, it’s a lifeline.

《PostSecret》的诞生源于他因内心的混乱而悲惨地失去的生活。对于那些渴望不受评判的情感释放的人来说，这是一条生命线。

—KS

—KS

## Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Break Down the Making of Shaun of the Dead, 20 Years Later

## 埃德加·赖特、西蒙·佩吉和尼克·弗罗斯特剖析 20 年后《僵尸肖恩》的制作过程

Jack King | British GQ | April 9, 2024 | 2,522 words

杰克·金 |英国《GQ》| 2024 年 4 月 9 日 | 2,522 字

It took a moment for me to forgive Jack King for making me feel very old with this interview.

我过了一会儿才原谅杰克·金，因为这次采访让我感觉自己很老了。

It’s been 20 years since Shaun of the Dead was released.

《僵尸肖恩》上映已有 20 年了。

Yes, 20 years since a motley group of Brits chose to ride out the zombie apocalypse at their local pub.

是的，20 年前，一群形形色色的英国人选择在当地的酒吧里度过僵尸末日。

(A plan I always admired.) A bastion of understated humor, the film is full of lines I can still quote today, and if I ever receive a zombie bite, I’ll aim to state, “I’m quite all right, Barbara, I ran it under a cold tap.” King honors the passage of two decades by bringing together the stars of the film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, along with the director, Edgar Wright, to talk about the making of this first-ever zombie romantic comedy (rom-zom-com).

（我一直很欣赏的计划。）这部电影是一种低调幽默的堡垒，充满了我今天仍然可以引用的台词，如果我被僵尸咬了，我会说，“我很好，芭芭拉，我在冷水龙头下运行它。”为了纪念二十年的过去，金召集了电影明星西蒙·佩吉和尼克·弗罗斯特以及导演埃德加·赖特，谈论这部有史以来第一部僵尸浪漫喜剧 (rom-zom-com) 的制作过程。

There are fascinating insights into how the film got commissioned and went on to spawn two further spoofs, and I particularly enjoyed learning of the debate over which vinyl records to fling at zombie heads, and the real tears that were shed when Shaun’s mum—the aforementioned Barbara—became a zombie and died.

关于这部电影是如何被委托制作并继续产生另外两部恶搞的，有一些令人着迷的见解，我特别喜欢了解关于哪些黑胶唱片应该扔到僵尸头上的争论，以及当肖恩的妈妈——前面提到的芭芭拉——变成僵尸并死去时流下的真正的眼泪。

Pegg and Frost are as baffled as I am by how much time has passed, remarking how bizarre it is that they are around the same age as actor Bill Nighy was when he made the film.

佩吉和弗罗斯特和我一样对时间过去了感到困惑，他们说他们的年龄与演员比尔·奈伊拍摄这部电影时的年龄相仿是多么奇怪。

(They describe Nighy as the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” of the film shoot; imagine realizing you are now the same age as your Obi-Wan.) But the trio remembers the filming vividly, and warmly, with time not diminishing the dry sense of humor they share.

（他们将奈伊描述为电影拍摄中的“欧比旺·克诺比”；想象一下，你现在和你的欧比旺同龄。）但是，三人组对拍摄过程的记忆生动而温暖，随着时间的推移，他们所分享的冷幽默感并没有减弱。

While reading this, I felt like I had wandered into The Winchester for a pint and a chinwag with Shaun and Ed.

当读到这篇文章时，我感觉自己走进了温彻斯特，与肖恩和埃德一起喝了一品脱啤酒，喝了一杯下酒。

I didn’t want to leave.

我不想离开。

—CW

—CW

## It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now

## 这不是世界现在需要的

Andrew Norman Wilson | The Baffler | April 4, 2024 | 5,166 words

安德鲁·诺曼·威尔逊 |挡板| 2024 年 4 月 4 日 | 5,166 字

In this episodic essay, Andrew Norman Wilson, a visual artist who works primarily in video, takes readers on a ride through several years of his career.

在这篇短文中，安德鲁·诺曼·威尔逊（Andrew Norman Wilson）是一位主要从事视频创作的视觉艺术家，他带领读者回顾了他几年的职业生涯。

If you think that sounds niche or dull, I assure you it is not.

如果您认为这听起来很小众或乏味，我向您保证事实并非如此。

This is at once one of the funniest and most distressing stories I’ve read in months—I laughed, I cringed, it became a part of me.

这是我几个月来读过的最有趣也是最令人痛苦的故事之一——我笑了，我畏缩了，它成了我的一部分。

Year by year, exhibition by exhibition, housesit by housesit, Wilson shows how the art world left him dirt poor despite his ever-growing CV, took a toll on his mental and physical health, and killed his idealism.

年复一年，在一个又一个的展览、一个又一个的房屋看护中，威尔逊展示了尽管他的简历不断增长，但艺术世界如何让他一贫如洗，对他的身心健康造成了损害，并扼杀了他的理想主义。

He anchors this journey in 2016, illustrating how, in the wake of Trump’s election, art-world gatekeepers eager to burnish their social justice bona fides have disingenuously circumscribed the industry definition of what art matters, and why.

他在 2016 年主持了这一旅程，展示了特朗普当选后，渴望真诚地维护社会正义的艺术界看门人如何不诚实地限制了艺术重要的行业定义及其原因。

“It becomes trendy to believe that images within contemporary art contexts can directly achieve the goals of political struggle,” Wilson writes.

“相信当代艺术语境中的图像可以直接实现政治斗争的目标已经成为一种趋势，”威尔逊写道。

“The proliferation of bad faith gestures toward political change and the aestheticized consumption of other people’s suffering sickens me, especially when these expressions still play into the financial objectives of oil barons, arms dealers, and other vampires.” That’s a distressing bit.

“针对政治变革的恶意姿态的泛滥以及对他人苦难的审美化消费让我感到恶心，特别是当这些表达仍然影响着石油大亨、军火商和其他吸血鬼的财务目标时。”这真是令人痛苦的一点。

A funny one involves Wilson putting images of Barney (the dinosaur) on the walls of a place where he’s staying when Barney’s (the department store) comes to shoot photos of him for some reason.

一个有趣的例子是，当巴尼百货公司（Barney's）出于某种原因来拍摄巴尼（恐龙）的照片时，威尔逊将巴尼（恐龙）的图像贴在他住的地方的墙上。

Another comes during a snorkeling trip, when Wilson is surrounded by sea lions: “I’ve found what I was looking for on this island.

另一次是在一次浮潜之旅中，威尔逊被海狮包围：“我在这个岛上找到了我想要的东西。

Something that feels like the opposite of scrutinizing a nondescript object in a white room and then having to read a citation-heavy press release to find out that the object is the product of prison labor, and prison labor is bad.” This essay could read as the bitter whining of a person with a bone to pick, but it doesn’t.

这感觉就像在白色房间里仔细检查一个不起眼的物体，然后必须阅读一份被大量引用的新闻稿才能发现该物体是监狱劳动的产品，而监狱劳动是不好的。”这篇文章可以读作一个有怨言的人的痛苦抱怨，但事实并非如此。

It’s too self-aware for that.

它太有自我意识了。

Instead, it reads as a searing and darkly entertaining indictment of late-stage capitalism’s poisonous influence on art.

相反，它读起来像是对晚期资本主义对艺术的毒害影响的尖锐而黑暗的娱乐性控诉。

—SD

—SD

## Variations on the Theme of Silence

## 沉默主题变奏曲

Jeannette Cooperman | The Common Reader | March 26, 2024 | 4,575 words

珍妮特·库珀曼 |普通读者| 2024 年 3 月 26 日 | 4,575 字

Blessed silence.

有福的沉默。

Quiet time.

安静的时间。

The absence of small, empty talk.

没有琐碎、空洞的谈话。

That’s the kind of silence I had in mind as I read Jeanette Cooperman’s thoughtful essay for The Common Reader.

当我读到珍妮特·库珀曼（Jeanette Cooperman）为《普通读者》撰写的深思熟虑的文章时，我脑海中浮现出的就是这种沉默。

I hadn’t contemplated other kinds of silences, but as she notes, there are many.

我没有考虑过其他类型的沉默，但正如她指出的，有很多。

Consider the silent treatment, where someone chooses to inflict pain by withholding their words.

考虑一下沉默治疗，即有人选择通过不说话来造成痛苦。

Silence becomes fraught and tense.

沉默变得充满忧虑和紧张。

Consider a moment of silence, usually for a life or lives lost.

考虑一下默哀片刻，通常是为了一个或多个逝去的生命。

That silence signifies a deep, collective pain.

这种沉默意味着一种深刻的、集体的痛苦。

“Silence like a cancer grows, whenever power refuses to hear truth,” she writes.

“每当权力拒绝听到真相时，沉默就会像癌症一样生长，”她写道。

“Silence is an unblown whistle, a disappeared activist, a dismembered journalist.

“沉默是一个未吹响的口哨，一个失踪的活动家，一个被肢解的记者。

Silence slides down one generation to the next, keeping pain a secret.

沉默一代代传下去，将痛苦保密。

Silence is what neighbors remember about the shooter.” I hadn’t considered the litany of ways in which silence harms.

邻居们对枪手的记忆就是沉默。”我没有考虑过沉默带来的一系列伤害。

But in addition to giving me so much to think about, Cooperman reminds us of silence’s ability to heal, a welcome reprieve from the hollow cacophony of life which depletes me.

但除了给我很多思考之外，库珀曼还提醒我们沉默具有治愈的能力，这是一种值得欢迎的缓解方式，让我们摆脱生活中耗尽我的空洞刺耳的声音。

“Yet as far as I can tell, every wisdom tradition since time began has praised silence.

“然而，据我所知，自古以来的每一个智慧传统都赞扬沉默。

The stillness they urge is a letting-go, a slowing down, an unclenching of our hands and our stubborn, intractable desires.

他们所提倡的平静是一种放手、一种放慢脚步、松开我们的双手和我们顽固、难以控制的欲望。

It empties us, yet is far from empty.” We often define silence by what is missing, an absence.

它让我们变得空虚，但远非空虚。”我们常常用缺失、缺席来定义沉默。

But in many cases—mine included—silence is what fills us up.

但在很多情况下——包括我自己——沉默让我们感到充实。

—KS

—KS

## May

##五月

## Nothing Could Prepare Me for the Bizarre ‘Live Birth’ Experience at Babyland Hospital

## 没有什么能让我为 Babyland 医院奇异的“活产”经历做好准备

Joshua Rigsby | Thrillist | April 19, 2024 | 1,713 words

约书亚·里格斯比 |惊悚 | 2024 年 4 月 19 日 | 1,713 字

Reading this piece, my first reaction was: “What?” Joshua Rigsby’s visit to the Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland General Hospital is truly bizarre.

读到这篇文章，我的第一反应是：什么？约书亚·里格斯比 (Joshua Rigsby) 参观卷心菜儿童巴比兰综合医院 (Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland General Hospital) 的经历确实很奇怪。

But bizarre is often brilliant, and Rigsby had my rapt attention as he explained how, in a building that looks like a plantation house in Cleveland, Georgia, Cabbage Patch doll “babies” are “born.” For the measly sum of $120, you can have a complete birthing experience (the “Planned Parenthood” option).

但奇异往往也很精彩，里格斯比解释说，在佐治亚州克利夫兰一座看起来像种植园的建筑里，卷心菜娃娃“婴儿”是如何“出生”的，我全神贯注地听着。只需区区 120 美元，您就可以享受完整的分娩体验（“计划生育”选项）。

Rigsby, not ready for full Cabbage Patch parentage, takes the free tour instead—but still gets to witness a birthing ceremony, his description of which left me with fundamental questions about the human race.

里格斯比还没有准备好接受完整的卷心菜出身，所以参加了免费游览，但仍然目睹了出生仪式，他的描述让我对人类产生了一些基本问题。

Upon the birthing announcement over the tannoy, guests gather around a tree on a plaster mound, in which, as Rigsby explains, electronic Cabbage Patch Kids are buried neck-deep, swiveling “their heads in permanent smiles like a scene from Dante’s Animatronic Inferno.” An employee in hospital scrubs declares Mother Cabbage fully dilated (it remains unclear if Mother Cabbage is the tree, the mound entombing the dolls, or some other deity).

在天朗上宣布出生的消息后，客人们聚集在石膏堆上的一棵树周围，正如里格斯比解释的那样，电子卷心菜孩子被埋在其中，深至脖子，“他们的头带着永久的微笑旋转，就像但丁的电子动画地狱中的场景一样”。医院手术室的一名员工宣称卷心菜妈妈完全膨胀了（目前还不清楚卷心菜妈妈是那棵树、埋葬娃娃的土堆还是其他神灵）。

Everyone has to shout “push” and the “faithful pump their toddler fists and sway, pleading with the plush baby to emerge from the dilated tree vagina, as the Dante robot heads swivel and writhe.” That was a sentence I needed to read twice.

每个人都必须喊“推”，“当但丁机器人的头旋转和扭动时，忠实的人会挥动他们蹒跚学步的拳头并摇摆，恳求毛绒婴儿从扩张的树阴道中出来。”这句话我需要读两遍。

Rigsby takes pains to emphasize that this is all done unironically.

里格斯比煞费苦心地强调，这一切都是无讽刺意味的。

Kudos to the staff here.

感谢这里的工作人员。

Cabbage Patch Kids sells a lot of dolls: their marketing, including this experience, obviously works (I refer again to my questions about humanity).

Cabbage Patch Kids 卖了很多娃娃：他们的营销，包括这次经历，显然是有效的（我再次提到我关于人性的问题）。

While I am never going to visit the dilated tree vagina, I am glad Rigsby did—he recounts this extraordinary place delightfully.

虽然我永远不会去参观扩张的树阴道，但我很高兴里格斯比去了——他愉快地讲述了这个非凡的地方。

—CW

—CW

## How ‘Go,’ the Wildest, Druggiest, Horniest Cult Movie of 1999 Got Made (And Almost Didn’t)

## 1999 年最狂野、最毒品、最淫荡的邪典电影《Go》是如何制作的（而且几乎没有制作）

Paul Schrodt | GQ | April 30, 2024 | 7,543 words

保罗·施罗德 |智群 | 2024 年 4 月 30 日 | 7,543 字

I can’t remember if I saw the movie Go in the theater, but I’m guessing I didn’t.

我不记得我是否在电影院看过电影《Go》，但我猜我没有。

(Not many did, thanks in large part to The Matrix sucking up all the oxygen at the multiplex around that time.) I have seen it approximately eight gazillion times since then, however, which made Paul Schrodt’s oral history for GQ even more of a delight than it would have been anyway.

（没有多少人这样做，这在很大程度上要归功于《黑客帝国》在那段时间吸收了影院里所有的氧气。）然而，从那以后我已经看过它大约八亿次了，这使得保罗·施罗特（Paul Schrodt）为《GQ》讲述的口述历史比本来应该更令人愉快。

The gang’s mostly all here: director Doug Liman (who made this in his transition from Swingers indie golden boy to The Bourne Identity franchise A-lister); screenwriter John August; the cast, save for Katie Holmes and Taye Diggs.

这帮人大多都在这里：导演道格·利曼（他在从《浪荡公子》独立金童到《谍影重重》系列一线明星的转变过程中做到了这一点）；编剧约翰·奥古斯特；演员阵容，除了凯蒂·赫尔姆斯和泰耶·迪格斯。

But crucially, the piece communicates how much fun it can be to make a movie outside of the tentpole factory.

但最重要的是，这部作品传达了在支柱工厂之外制作电影是多么有趣。

Improvisational shoots, handheld cameras, and a crew of rising stars who are utterly sold on the director’s vision—it all makes clear that the movie’s enduring cult success stems from the “dance like no one’s watching” ethos of its creation.

即兴拍摄、手持摄影机以及一群完全相信导演愿景的后起之秀——这一切都清楚地表明，这部电影经久不衰的成功源于其“舞动得像无人看”的创作精神。

People tend to compare Go to Pulp Fiction because of its nonlinear timeline and crime elements, but it’s really more like Wet Hot American Summer—small, scrappy, and overflowing with the love the cast and crew had for the project.

人们倾向于将《低俗小说》与《低俗小说》进行比较，因为它的非线性时间线和犯罪元素，但它实际上更像是《湿热的美国夏天》——规模小、斗志旺盛，并且充满了演员和工作人员对这个项目的热爱。

That’s a rare thing these days outside the arthouse circuit, and I have a feeling that number eight gazillion and one is right around the corner.

如今，这在艺术圈之外是一件罕见的事情，我有一种感觉，第八名和第一名就在拐角处。

—PR

——公关

## A Beloved Alley Cat Now Lives in the Watergate.

## 一只心爱的野猫现在住在水门。

Was She Kidnapped, or Rescued?

她是被绑架了，还是被救了？

Andrea Sachs | The Washington Post | May 9, 2024 | 2,882 words

安德里亚·萨克斯 |华盛顿邮报 | 2024 年 5 月 9 日 | 2,882 字

Welcome to the story of Kitty Snows, who lived in Foggy Bottom.

欢迎来到住在雾谷的凯蒂·斯诺斯的故事。

While this may sound like the start of a fairy tale, it contains considerably more lawyers and strongly worded letters than Hans Christian Andersen tended to include.

虽然这听起来像是童话故事的开始，但它包含的律师和措辞强硬的信件比安徒生所倾向于包含的要多得多。

Kitty Snows is a cat who participated in the Blue Collar Cat program, a scheme to rehome strays that cannot be domesticated (having witnessed too much on the streets).

Kitty Snows 是一只参加了蓝领猫计划的猫，该计划旨在重新安置无法驯化的流浪猫（在街上目睹了太多的事情）。

Kitty gets adopted by the community of Snows Court in Foggy Bottom, belonging to “everyone and no one.” She lives in a box on a lawn until two locals—Tom Curtis and Barbara Rohde—find her with sores on her nose and take her to the vet.

基蒂被雾谷斯诺斯法院社区收养，该社区属于“所有人，但不属于任何人”。她住在草坪上的一个盒子里，直到两名当地人——汤姆·柯蒂斯和芭芭拉·罗德——发现她鼻子上有疮，并带她去看兽医。

With the vet deeming her unfit for outside life, they move her to Rohde’s fancy apartment.

兽医认为她不适合外面的生活，他们把她搬到了罗德的豪华公寓。

As Andrea Sachs points out, no one knows how Kitty felt about her relocation from a box to a 14th-floor condo with “impressionistic paintings of a Russian forest .

正如安德里亚·萨克斯 (Andrea Sachs) 指出的那样，没有人知道基蒂对于从一个盒子搬到一间 14 楼的公寓有什么感受，公寓里有“俄罗斯森林的印象派画作……”。

.

。

.

。

[and a] baby grand piano backed up against soaring windows.” (When two detectives turn up at the door, they are informed that Kitty is “unavailable.”) What we do know: the Foggy Bottom Association is not pleased, and the fight boils down to whether Kitty was stolen or rescued.

[和]一架小型三角钢琴靠在高耸的窗户上。” （当两名侦探出现在门口时，他们被告知凯蒂“没空”。）我们所知道的是：雾谷协会不高兴，斗争归结为凯蒂是被偷还是被救。

The legal ramifications of this neighborhood dispute could have made for a dry read, but Sachs maintains a wry tone and delivers every detail delightfully.

这场邻里纠纷的法律后果可能会让人读起来枯燥，但萨克斯保持着一种讽刺的语气，并令人愉快地讲述了每一个细节。

I am sure that, if available for comment, Kitty Snows—no longer of Foggy Bottom but of Watergate West—would agree.

我确信，如果可以发表评论，基蒂·斯诺斯（不再是雾谷的，而是水门西区的）会同意。

(Don’t worry, the “Kittygate” reference is there.) —CW

（别担心，“Kittygate”参考资料就在那里。）——CW

## Surfing the American Dream

## 畅游美国梦

Alexander Sammon | Slate | May 23, 2024 | 5,569 words

亚历山大·萨蒙 |板岩| 2024 年 5 月 23 日 | 5,569 字

I’ve always wanted to learn how to surf.

我一直想学习如何冲浪。

I’ve lived near the California coast for most of my life and have traveled to many places where beginner lessons are plentiful, but I still haven’t taken the opportunity.

我一生的大部分时间都住在加州海岸附近，也去过很多有丰富初学者课程的地方，但我仍然没有抓住这个机会。

What if there was a more accessible and less intimidating way to get me closer to my goal?

如果有一种更容易实现且不那么令人生畏的方法让我更接近我的目标怎么办？

In this enjoyable Slate read, Alexander Sammon visits the American Dream mall, a massive entertainment complex in New Jersey, to ride the artificial waves at Skudin Surf, the largest indoor surfing wave pool in the US.

在这本令人愉快的 Slate 读物中，亚历山大·萨蒙 (Alexander Sammon) 参观了新泽西州的大型娱乐中心“美国梦”购物中心，并在美国最大的室内冲浪池 Skudin Surf 的人工海浪中畅游。

I expected Sammon, who grew up surfing outside in San Diego, to dismiss the chlorine-filled, Shrek-themed experience in a climate-controlled dome as completely soul-stripping, and to write a piece bemoaning another beloved activity now commodified, privatized, and optimized.

我原以为在圣地亚哥户外冲浪长大的萨蒙会认为在气候控制的圆顶中充满氯气的史莱克主题体验完全是一种剥夺灵魂的体验，并写一篇文章哀叹另一项如今已商品化、私有化和优化的受人喜爱的活动。

But Sammon is thoughtful and nuanced, with insights on today’s youth, the future of IRL retail and the American mall, the death of subculture, the unique pastime of surfing, and ultimately, the things we choose to do that bring us joy.

但萨蒙思想深邃、细致入微，对当今的年轻人、现实零售业和美国购物中心的未来、亚文化的消亡、冲浪这一独特的消遣，以及最终我们选择做的能给我们带来快乐的事情都有深刻的见解。

He writes that his $250 surfing session was a silly and manufactured experience, but it was also sort of fun and memorable: “[D]espite seeming like the fakest fucking thing imaginable for an activity obsessed with authenticity, there was actually something somewhat legit in the root of the experience.” —CLR

他写道，他 250 美元的冲浪课程是一次愚蠢且人为的体验，但它也有点有趣和令人难忘：“尽管对于一项痴迷于真实性的活动来说，这看起来是最他妈的假的事情，但实际上，这种体验的根源有些合法。” —CLR

## June

## 六月

## You Wouldn’t Believe How Difficult It Is to Buy Sperm

## 你不会相信购买精子有多难

Danielle Elliot | The Guardian | May 28, 2024 | 4,326 words

丹妮尔·艾略特 |卫报| 2024 年 5 月 28 日 | 4,326 字

I have had two sets of friends go through the intrauterine insemination (IUI) process, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of buying sperm.

我有两个朋友经历过宫腔内人工授精（IUI）过程，所以我对购买精子的概念并不陌生。

I have already been confused—when, on being shown a donor, I was presented with a picture of a child (sperm banks use pictures of donors when they were children).

我已经很困惑了——当我看到捐赠者时，我看到了一张孩子的照片（精子库使用捐赠者小时候的照片）。

I’ve been flabbergasted—at the cost of a single vial of sperm.

我大吃一惊——代价是一瓶精子。

Been dismayed—when it didn’t work.

当它不起作用时，我感到沮丧。

Delighted when it finally did.

当它终于实现时很高兴。

But, as knowledgeable as I thought I was on this topic, Danielle Elliot showed me I still had much to learn about this world.

但是，尽管我认为自己在这个话题上知识渊博，但丹妮尔·埃利奥特向我展示了关于这个世界我还有很多东西需要了解。

Sperm is a hot commodity, with low stock levels post-pandemic and a screening process that accepts only about 4 percent of donors.

精子是一种热门商品，大​​流行后库存水平很低，而且筛选过程只接受约 4% 的捐赠者。

Elliot’s piece is a rollercoaster ride as she races to meet her ovulation cycles.

艾略特的作品就像坐过山车一样，她竞相赶着赶着排卵周期。

With securing a vial of sperm akin to getting a Taylor Swift ticket, I felt my stress levels rising as Elliot dithers on the phone during plummeting stock, wanting to yell, “Just buy it!” at her.

获得一瓶精子就像获得泰勒·斯威夫特的门票一样，当艾略特在股票暴跌期间在电话里犹豫不决时，我感到自己的压力水平不断上升，想要大喊：“买吧！”对她。

Even when sperm is secured, there are many hurdles to cross.

即使获得了精子，也需要克服许多障碍。

One particularly frustrating moment is when Elliot misses a cycle because, as a doctor informs her, “The woman who facilitates sperm shipments will be on vacation next week.” Navigating logistics and expense, Elliot begins to consider other options: after all, $16,723 in, she is no closer to having a baby.

一个特别令人沮丧的时刻是艾略特错过了一个周期，因为正如医生告诉她的那样，“促进精子运输的女性下周将休假。”考虑到后勤和费用，埃利奥特开始考虑其他选择：毕竟，有了 16,723 美元，她离生孩子还差得远。

Written with a searing honesty, you will find yourself deeply invested in this journey.

以一种灼热的诚实写成，你会发现自己深深地投入到这段旅程中。

—CW

—CW

## The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content

## 让你的父母满意的微妙艺术

Jessica Winter | The New Yorker | June 5, 2024 | 1,664 words

杰西卡·温特 |纽约客 | 2024 年 6 月 5 日 | 1,664 字

In this piece, Jessica Winter discusses great examples of adult creators using their parents in films and TV shows over the years.

在这篇文章中，杰西卡·温特讨论了多年来成人创作者在电影和电视节目中利用父母的优秀例子。

Think back to John Cassavetes’ 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence.

回想一下约翰·卡索维茨 (John Cassavetes) 1974 年的电影《受影响的女人》(A Woman Under the Influence)。

Or the amazing scene in Goodfellas when Tommy, Jimmy, and Henry have a meal with Tommy’s mother—played by Martin Scorsese’s real-life mother, Catherine—right after they kill and stuff a dead guy in a trunk.

或者《好家伙》中汤米、吉米和亨利杀死一个死人并将其塞进行李箱后，与汤米的母亲（由马丁·斯科塞斯现实生活中的母亲凯瑟琳扮演）一起吃饭的惊人场景。

Or, more recently, the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, in which the gay comedian interacts with various people on his quest for love and connection, including his parents, who’ve struggled to accept his sexuality.

或者，最近的杰罗德·卡迈克尔真人秀节目中，这位同性恋喜剧演员与不同的人互动，寻求爱和联系，其中包括他的父母，他们一直难以接受他的性取向。

I initially dismissed Winter’s piece as a Top 5 contender because it’s shorter than most longreads.

我最初将 Winter 的文章视为前 5 名竞争者，因为它比大多数长读物都短。

But I kept returning to it, and to one beautiful line in particular: “[It] can be a twentysomething rite of passage to realize that your parents are more than your parents; that they had a life before you; that they were beautiful and moved beautifully and were desired, and still are.” It’s a profound realization, and one that’s taken me into my 40s to really grasp.

但我不断地回顾它，特别是一句美丽的诗句：“意识到你的父母比你的父母更重要，这可能是一个二十多岁时的成人礼；他们在你之前就已经拥有了自己的生活；他们是美丽的，美丽的，令人向往的，而且仍然如此。”这是一种深刻的认识，直到我 40 多岁时才真正领会到这一点。

(For this reason, I got a kick out of the recent wave of #80sDanceChallenge clips in which TikTokers filmed their dancing parents, moving like they did in the ’80s, to the unmistakable beat of “Smalltown Boy.”) For a while now, I’ve wanted to do something similar—not record my parents letting loose to catch a glimpse of their younger selves, but to sit down with them, and all of my aunts and uncles, to ask them questions about their lives, especially their early years: their childhoods in the Philippines, their many firsts.

（出于这个原因，我对最近一波 #80sDanceChallenge 剪辑感到兴奋，其中 TikTokers 拍摄了他们跳舞的父母，像他们在 80 年代那样，伴随着“小镇男孩”的明确节奏。）有一段时间，我想做一些类似的事情 - 不是记录我的父母放松地瞥见他们年轻的自己，而是和他们以及我所有的叔叔阿姨坐下来，向他们询问有关他们生活的问题，尤其是他们的早年生活：他们在菲律宾的童年，他们的许多第一次。

As Winter explores here, the process of turning our parents and elderly family members into entertainment fodder can be fun, emotional, and rewarding, but it may also become tense and uncomfortable, revealing complex generational and family dynamics.

正如温特在这里探讨的那样，将我们的父母和老年家庭成员变成娱乐素材的过程可以是有趣的、情感丰富的和有益的，但它也可能变得紧张和不舒服，揭示了复杂的代际和家庭动态。

This is a quick yet thoughtful read, with a few must-click links that go to Francesca Scorsese’s delightful TikToks, in which she records herself with her famous filmmaker dad in genuinely warm and funny exchanges, like this one where she asks him to identify feminine products.

这是一本快速而深思熟虑的读物，其中有一些必点击的链接，可以转到弗朗西斯卡·斯科塞斯令人愉快的 TikToks，其中她记录了自己与著名电影制片人父亲的真诚温暖和有趣的交流，比如她要求他识别女性产品的那一集。

—CLR

—CLR

## Pork, Love, and Money: Life According to La Piraña Lechonera

## 猪肉、爱情和金钱：La Piraña Lechonera 的生活

Abe Beame | TASTE | June 17, 2024 | 4,262 words

阿贝·比姆 |品尝 | 2024 年 6 月 17 日 | 4,262 字

There is only a loose attempt to profile chef Angel Jimenez here: He grew up in Puerto Rico.

这里只是粗略地尝试介绍厨师 Angel Jimenez：他在波多黎各长大。

He cut sugarcane at 14.

他14岁时就开始砍甘蔗。

His father ran a side hustle grilling on the beach.

他的父亲在海滩上做着一份副业烧烤。

That’s about it.

就是这样。

This isn’t a piece about Jimenez’s journey to get to New York; it’s about the experience he created once he got there.

这不是关于希门尼斯前往纽约的旅程的文章；而是关于希门尼斯前往纽约的旅程的文章。这是关于他到达那里后所创造的经历。

From a converted trailer in the South Bronx, Jimenez runs La Piraña Lechonera, a restaurant slash weekly block party where, on Saturdays and Sundays, he roasts and sells two pigs.

希门尼斯在南布朗克斯区的一辆改装拖车里经营着 La Piraña Lechonera，这是一家餐厅每周举办的街区聚会，每周六和周日，他都会烤并出售两只猪。

I don’t eat meat anymore, so I did not expect a pork-focused essay to keep my attention.

我不再吃肉了，所以我没想到一篇以猪肉为中心的文章会引起我的注意。

I hadn’t accounted for the wizardry of Abe Beame’s descriptive powers.

我没有考虑到阿贝·比姆的描述能力的魔力。

I could hear Jimenez’s salsa music blasting over the roar of weekend commuters on the overhead intersection.

我可以听到希门尼斯的萨尔萨音乐在头顶十字路口周末通勤者的喧闹声中响起。

Feel the atmosphere exuding from the eclectic collection of characters gathered, from tourists to local drunks, all lorded over by the effervescent Jimenez.

感受聚集在一起的不拘一格的人物所散发出的氛围，从游客到当地的醉汉，所有这些都由热情洋溢的希门尼斯统治。

Smell the hot fat as pork is pulled from the oven.

当猪肉从烤箱中取出时，闻到热油的味道。

Taste the meat itself—although things become a bit too visceral when Beame bites into flesh “glossed with fat and pig liquor, shredded without any shredding necessary, in a liminal state between solid and liquid.” Neither Jimenez nor Beame take themselves too seriously and there is a lightness to this piece, which is graced with incredulity and humor.

尝尝肉本身的味道——尽管当比姆咬住肉时，事情变得有点太内脏了，“肉中充满了脂肪和猪酒，没有任何必要的切碎，处于固体和液体之间的临界状态。”希门尼斯和比姆都没有把自己看得太严肃，这首曲子充满了轻松感，充满了怀疑和幽默。

I particularly enjoyed the bullet points on why it takes two hours to get served at La Piraña.

我特别喜欢解释为什么在 La Piraña 需要两个小时才能得到服务的要点。

(A key factor is the trips to check on the cooking trays of pork, “leaving the trailer unattended, which often coincide with breaks to smoke a joint.”) Jimenez could be more efficient.

（一个关键因素是检查猪肉烹饪托盘的行程，“让拖车无人看管，这通常与抽大麻的休息时间同时发生。”）希门尼斯可能会更有效率。

He could be making more money.

他本来可以赚更多的钱。

That’s just not his style, and it’s wonderful.

这不是他的风格，但这很棒。

At one point, Beame muses, “[H]ow the fuck I could possibly describe all of the insanity I was tasting and experiencing in writing.” He nailed it, with words that ooze fun and grease.

比姆沉思道，“他妈的，我有一次可以用写作来描述我所品尝和经历的所有疯狂。”他用充满乐趣和油脂的话语做到了这一点。

—CW

—CW

## Would You Clone Your Dog?

## 你会克隆你的狗吗？

Alexandra Horowitz | The New Yorker | June 24, 2024 | 5,529 words

亚历山德拉·霍洛维茨 |纽约客 | 2024 年 6 月 24 日 | 5,529 字

My lasting takeaway from this piece is that nearly 30 years (!!!) after Dolly the sheep, cloning mammals still feels like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel.

我从这篇文章中得到的持久的收获是，在羊多莉诞生近 30 年（!!!）之后，克隆哺乳动物仍然感觉像是反乌托邦科幻小说中的东西。

Alexandra Horowitz’s excellent reporting on cloning pet dogs includes a sinister trifecta of creepy twins, a company with the Dr. Evil-sounding name of “ViaGen,” and hidden donor dogs.

亚历山德拉·霍洛维茨（Alexandra Horowitz）关于克隆宠物狗的精彩报道包括令人毛骨悚然的双胞胎、一家名字听起来邪恶的公司“ViaGen”的公司，以及隐藏的捐赠狗。

She starts with the twins, which are really clones: a pair of neatly trimmed dogs named Princess Ariel and Princess Jasmine, part Shih Tzu and part Lhasa Apso, each with a different misaligned eye so that they mirror each other as they “pant in tandem.” They are clones of an original dog named Princess, rescued by retired police officer John Mendola.

她从双胞胎开始，它们实际上是克隆人：一对修剪整齐的狗，名叫爱丽儿公主和茉莉公主，一半是西施犬，一半是拉萨犬，每只都有不同的错位眼睛，因此它们在“一前一后喘气”时会互相镜像。它们是一只名叫“公主”的原始狗的克隆体，被退休警官约翰·门多拉救起。

When Princess succumbed to cancer, Mendola contacted ViaGen, which has a patented dog cloning technique, to recreate her.

当公主因癌症去世后，门多拉联系了拥有狗克隆专利技术的 ViaGen 公司来重新创造她。

To discover more about the process, Horowitz travels to the company’s hundred-acre ranch in Texas to meet its president, Blake Russell, who says things reminiscent of Jurassic Park’s John Hammond: “One day, my pastures are going to be filled with baby rhinos in draft mares[.] Would that not be the coolest thing ever?” The cloning process involves surgery on two other dogs—one to provide the eggs, one to be a surrogate.

为了了解更多有关这一过程的信息，霍洛维茨前往该公司位于德克萨斯州的百英亩牧场会见其总裁布莱克·拉塞尔，他说的话让人想起侏罗纪公园的约翰·哈蒙德：“有一天，我的牧场将充满母马中的小犀牛[。]这不是有史以来最酷的事情吗？”克隆过程涉及对另外两只狗进行手术——一只提供卵子，一只作为代孕狗。

ViaGen doesn’t own these dogs; they rent them from what they call “production partners.” (It is not clear what later happens to these “production” dogs.) As a scientist who studies dog behavior and cognition, Horowitz is a worthy guide through this world, and her concern for “the unseen animals whose bodies are used in making a clone” is apparent.

这些狗并不属于 ViaGen 公司；他们从所谓的“生产合作伙伴”那里租用它们。 （目前还不清楚这些“生产”狗后来会发生什么。）作为一名研究狗行为和认知的科学家，霍洛维茨是这个世界的一位有价值的向导，她对“那些身体被用来制造克隆的看不见的动物”的担忧是显而易见的。

So, too, is her skepticism on whether the owners, longing for the return of a beloved pet, are getting a true replica, explaining that “[t]here can be no cloning of the world that shaped the original, no repetition of the scenes and smells they encountered.

同样，她也对那些渴望心爱宠物回归的主人是否得到了真正的复制品表示怀疑，她解释说，“塑造原始世界的世界不可能被克隆，他们所遇到的场景和气味也不会重复。

Life leaves its mark.” This thought-provoking piece will have you digging out your old copy of Brave New World.

生命留下了痕迹。”这篇发人深省的文章将让您挖掘出旧版的《美丽新世界》。

—CW

—CW

## July

##七月

## I Drove a Cybertruck Around SF Because I Am a Smart, Cool Alpha Male

## 我在旧金山开着一辆赛博卡车，因为我是一个聪明、酷的阿尔法男性

Drew Magary | SFGATE | July 9, 2024 | 1,964 words

德鲁·马加里 | SFGATE | 2024 年 7 月 9 日 | 1,964 字

If you’ve seen a Tesla Cybertruck in person, you know that photos can only do it partial (in)justice.

如果您亲眼见过特斯拉 Cybertruck，您就会知道照片只能部分公正地描述它。

It’s massive.

这是巨大的。

It’s massive.

这是巨大的。

It looks exactly like what a seventh-grade boy would draw in his notebook alongside pictures of, like, throwing stars.

它看起来就像一个七年级男孩在笔记本上画的东西，旁边还有飞镖之类的图片。

It looks like it comes with a preinstalled vanity license plate that reads B4D4SS.

它看起来像是预装了一个牌照，上面写着 B4D4SS。

It looks like a can of energy drink became sentient and watched Starship Troopers without noticing the subtext, then designed a car.

看起来就像一罐能量饮料有了知觉，在没有注意到潜台词的情况下观看了《星河战队》，然后设计了一辆汽车。

Yet, it exists.

然而，它确实存在。

People own them and drive them down the street, seemingly without shame.

人们拥有它们并把它们赶到街上，似乎毫不羞耻。

Drew Magary is not one of those people.

德鲁·马加里不是这些人中的一员。

He is also not an automotive journalist.

他也不是汽车记者。

He’s a columnist and a very funny writer who happens to resemble the quintessential Cybertruck owner.

他是一位专栏作家，也是一位非常有趣的作家，恰好与典型的赛博卡车车主相似。

And when he rents one, the result is the perfect piece for a hot summer week: short, breezy, and refreshing.

当他租了一件后，结果就是一件适合炎热夏季的完美作品：简短、轻松、清爽。

“You know how Apple will occasionally confuse the world by doing away with standard features like a headphone jack?” he writes.

“你知道苹果有时会通过取消耳机插孔等标准功能来让世界感到困惑吗？”他写道。

“OK, well, imagine a car built entirely out of that kind of gimmick.” Magary’s experience with the car is as entertaining as you’d imagine, even when people aren’t giving him the finger simply for driving it.

“好吧，想象一下一辆完全用这种噱头建造的汽车。”马加里对这辆车的体验正如你想象的那样有趣，即使人们并没有仅仅因为驾驶它而对他竖起中指。

He’s offended by its fighter-pilot steering wheel.

他被它的战斗机飞行员方向盘冒犯了。

He can’t figure out how to turn off the one giant windshield wiper.

他不知道如何关闭那个巨大的挡风玻璃雨刷。

He nearly crushes himself with the retractable roof.

他差点被可伸缩的屋顶压死。

But really, it’s his disdain for Elon Musk and the Cybertruck’s obvious target audience—“the kind of men who use speakerphone on airplanes”—that really animates the proceedings.

但事实上，正是他对埃隆·马斯克和赛博卡车明显的目标受众——“那种在飞机上使用免提电话的人”——的蔑视才真正激发了整个过程。

Writing about people rather than things is where Magary has shined since his Deadspin days, and this piece is no exception.

自《Deadspin》时代以来，马加里一直在写人而不是事，这本书也不例外。

Will it make Cybertruck owners happy?

它会让 Cyber​​truck 车主满意吗？

Definitely not.

绝对不是。

Will it make you happy?

它会让你快乐吗？

Massively.

大规模地。

—PR

——公关

## Pooping on the Moon Is a Messy Business

## 在月球上拉屎是一件很麻烦的事

Becky Ferreira | WIRED | June 25, 2024 | 2,276 words

贝基·费雷拉 |有线| 2024 年 6 月 25 日 | 2,276 字

Ever thought about what might happen if you passed a bowel movement in space?

有没有想过如果你在太空排便会发生什么？

(My guess is no.) Here on Earth, gravity pulls your poop down, and flush toilets immediately whisk it away.

（我的猜测是否定的。）在地球上，重力会将你的粪便拉下来，冲水马桶会立即将其冲走。

On the moon, where would it go?

在月球上，它会去哪里？

Let this squeamish thought sink in, and then buckle up as you read Becky Ferreira’s fun Wired story.

让这个令人不安的想法深入人心，然后系好安全带，阅读贝基·费雷拉 (Becky Ferreira) 有趣的《连线》故事。

“At the dawn of the Space Age,” she writes, “American crews literally just taped a bag on their butts when they had to go, a system that infamously resulted in escaped turds floating through the Apollo 10 command module.” More than 50 years ago, the first astronauts on the moon left nearly 100 “poo bags” across six landing sites—and they’re still sitting there today.

“在太空时代的初期，”她写道，“美国宇航员在不得不离开时，实际上只是在屁股上贴了一个袋子，这一系统臭名昭著地导致了阿波罗 10 号指令舱中的粪便漂浮。” 50 多年前，第一批登上月球的宇航员在六个着陆点留下了近 100 个“便便袋”，至今它们还留在那里。

I didn’t count how many unexpected phrases and laugh-out-loud lines there are in this piece, but I was thoroughly entertained from Ferreira’s opening paragraph to her last line.

我没有数过这篇文章中有多少意想不到的短语和笑声台词，但从费雷拉的开头一段到最后一句，我都被彻底逗乐了。

Potty humor aside, she provides a fascinating look into this less-appealing aspect of space travel.

除了如厕般的幽默之外，她还对太空旅行中这个不太吸引人的方面进行了令人着迷的观察。

For NASA and other space agencies to return to the moon, and for companies and billionaires like Richard Branson to launch a new era of tourism, a solid waste management system (pun intended) must be in place.

对于美国宇航局和其他航天机构重返月球，对于像理查德布兰森这样的公司和亿万富翁来说，要开启旅游业的新时代，固体废物管理系统（双关语）必须到位。

And what about those very old Apollo poo bags left on the lunar surface, teeming with microbiota?

那么那些留在月球表面、充满微生物群的非常古老的阿波罗便便袋呢？

What can they tell us about the emergence of life in outer space?

关于外太空生命的出现，它们能告诉我们什么？

“Answers to some of the most profound and ancient questions about our place in the cosmos,” writes Ferreira, “may indeed be waiting in Neil Armstrong’s 55-year-old spent diapers.” A worthy addition to this 💩 reading list.

费雷拉写道：“有关我们在宇宙中的地位的一些最深刻、最古老的问题的答案，可能确实在尼尔·阿姆斯特朗 55 岁的旧尿布中等待着。”这是这个💩阅读清单中值得补充的内容。

—CLR

—CLR

## The Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet

## 塑造我们星球的神秘深层微生物

Ferris Jabr | The New York Times Magazine | June 24, 2024 | 5,966 words

费里斯·贾布尔 |纽约时报杂志 | 2024 年 6 月 24 日 | 5,966 字

Deep within the Earth’s crust, an ancient underworld teems with intraterrestrial microbes.

在地壳深处，一个古老的地下世界充满了地内微生物。

They’re tiny but mighty, and different from their cousins above ground—breathing rock instead of oxygen, for one.

它们虽小但功能强大，与地面上的表亲不同——例如，它们呼吸的是岩石而不是氧气。

They’re also extraordinary, having carved massive caverns over time, “engaged in a continuous alchemy of earth,” writes Ferris Jabr.

它们也很非凡，随着时间的推移，雕刻出巨大的洞穴，“参与了地球的持续炼金术，”费里斯·贾布尔写道。

They’ve survived the planet’s cataclysmic events over billions of years, possibly even helping to form the continents and lay the foundations for terrestrial life.

它们在地球的灾难性事件中幸存了数十亿年，甚至可能帮助形成大陆并为陆地生命奠定基础。

I’m drawn to writing about Earth that frames its vast geological history in an accessible and beautiful way, and Jabr does exactly this, bringing inanimate rock, and these amazing microbes dwelling deep within it, to life.

我喜欢以一种通俗易懂、优美的方式描写地球，描绘其浩瀚的地质历史，而 Jabr 正是这样做的，让无生命的岩石和居住在其中深处的这些令人惊奇的微生物焕发了生命。

He explores some of the principles of Earth-system science, which studies Earth and life as a single self-regulating system, and the idea that living creatures—humans, animals, plants, microorganisms—aren’t just products of evolutionary processes, but participants in their own evolution.

他探索了地球系统科学的一些原理，该科学将地球和生命作为一个单一的自我调节系统进行研究，以及生物——人类、动物、植物、微生物——不仅是进化过程的产物，而且是自身进化的参与者。

In other words, he writes, we are Earth.

换句话说，他写道，我们就是地球。

My favorite science writing informs as well as awes.

我最喜欢的科学写作既能提供信息，又能令人敬畏。

Much like Jabr’s story on the social life of forests, this piece reminds me of the interconnectedness of all things, and challenges and shifts my understanding of this wondrous physical world we live in.

就像贾布尔关于森林社会生活的故事一样，这篇文章让我想起了万物的相互关联性，挑战并改变了我对我们所生活的这个奇妙的物质世界的理解。

—CLR

—CLR

## August

## 八月

## Trekking Across Switzerland, Guided by Locals’ Hand-Drawn Maps

## 在当地人手绘地图的指导下徒步穿越瑞士

Ben Buckland | The New York Times | July 17, 2024 | 2,793 words

本·巴克兰 |纽约时报 | 2024 年 7 月 17 日 | 2,793 字

Frustrated with how predictable traveling has become in the digital era, Ben Buckland decided to walk across Switzerland, relying only on hand-drawn maps from the people he met along the way, including local cheesemakers, a chef, and a farmer whose family had lived on the land since the 1600s.

本·巴克兰 (Ben Buckland) 对数字时代的旅行变得如此可预测感到沮丧，他决定徒步穿越瑞士，仅依靠沿途遇到的人手绘的地图，其中包括当地的奶酪制造商、一名厨师和一位自 1600 年代以来全家就生活在这片土地上的农民。

“I wanted to know what it would teach me about how technology and convenience have changed the way we travel,” he writes.

“我想知道它能教会我什么关于技术和便利如何改变我们的旅行方式，”他写道。

“I wanted to be lost, and to find my way through the artwork of strangers.” At first, I found this goal as annoying as it was inspiring.

“我想迷失方向，并在陌生人的艺术作品中找到自己的出路。”起初，我发现这个目标既令人烦恼又鼓舞人心。

Going on trips with my 6-year-old daughter has transformed the way I travel, and gone, for now, are my flâneur days, when I’d set off on foot in one direction to see where I ended up.

和 6 岁的女儿一起去旅行改变了我的旅行方式，而现在，我那种闲逛的日子已经一去不复返了，那时我会徒步朝一个方向出发，看看我最终会到达哪里。

Still, I couldn’t resist Buckland’s words and stunning photographs, his spontaneity, and his willingness to trust the people he encountered.

尽管如此，我还是无法抗拒巴克兰的话语和令人惊叹的照片、他的自发性以及他愿意信任他遇到的人。

I love his thoughts on making maps, even the simple sketches he received; reading a map is an “act of empathy,” he writes, a way to learn about a person through the details they see.

我喜欢他制作地图的想法，甚至是他收到的简单草图；他写道，阅读地图是一种“同理心行为”，是一种通过人们所看到的细节来了解一个人的方式。

By the end, Buckland walked about 250 miles over 12 days—along lakeshores, up mountains, into villages, and through the heart of Switzerland.

最后，巴克兰在 12 天内步行了约 250 英里——沿着湖岸，爬山，进入村庄，穿过瑞士的中心地带。

A lovely piece on serendipity, being present in the moment, and seeing the world through others’ eyes.

这是一篇关于机缘巧合、活在当下、通过别人的眼睛看世界的可爱作品。

—CLR

—CLR

## Scrabble, Anonymous

## 拼字游戏，匿名

Brad Phillips | The Paris Review | May 15, 2024 | 2,489 words

布拉德·菲利普斯 |巴黎评论 | 2024 年 5 月 15 日 | 2,489 字

My husband and I have played an ongoing game of Wordfeud, a Scrabble clone, for over five years, so I was powerless against Brad Phillips’s Paris Review piece, in which he recounts playing speed Scrabble against a bot every day for the past 25 years.

我和丈夫已经玩了五年多的 Wordfeud（拼字游戏的克隆版）游戏，所以我对布拉德·菲利普斯（Brad Phillips）的《巴黎评论》文章无能为力，他在文中讲述了过去 25 年里每天与机器人玩速度拼字游戏。

On one particular day, he played 19 three-minute games before breakfast, 13 of which he won.

有一天，他在早餐前打了 19 场三分钟的比赛，其中 13 场他赢了。

Matches were limited to three minutes.

比赛时间限制为三分钟。

Scrabble is Phillips’s obsession, a not-necessarily-healthy replacement for alcohol addiction, a compulsion that holds a hint of shame.

拼字游戏是菲利普斯的痴迷，它不一定是健康的酒精成瘾替代品，而酒精成瘾是一种带有一丝羞耻感的强迫症。

The game isn’t about improving Phillips’s vocabulary, it’s about instantaneous anagrams, strategy, and rote memorization.

这款游戏的目的不是提高菲利普斯的词汇量，而是关于即时字谜、策略和死记硬背。

Apparently this is true for the most serious professional players.

显然对于最认真的职业选手来说也是如此。

“When playing Scrabble, language explodes then settles quietly on your rack, having been decommissioned,” he writes.

“玩拼字游戏时，语言会爆炸，然后静静地落在你的架子上，已经退役了，”他写道。

“Each letter is a weapon only in the service of point accumulation and can no longer convey meaning by joining with its fellow letters.

“每个字母都是一种武器，仅用于积分积累，不再能够通过与其他字母结合来传达含义。

A word on a Scrabble board is a mathematical fact, not a unit of expression.” In addition to a litany of fun anagrams I attempted to memorize—CAUTIONED also spells EDUCATION, for one—I enjoyed the twist this piece takes when Phillips goes on the road to a meeting of the New York Scrabble Club.

拼字游戏板上的单词是一个数学事实，而不是一个表达单位。”除了我试图记住的一连串有趣的字谜之外（例如，“小心”也拼写“教育”），我很喜欢菲利普斯在去纽约拼字游戏俱乐部参加会议的路上时这首曲子的转折。

Up until this point in his life, he’d never played against strangers in person.

到目前为止，他还从未亲自与陌生人交手过。

There were actual Scrabble boards to play on, tiles stored in purple velvet Crown Royal bags.

有真正的拼字游戏板可以玩，瓷砖存放在紫色天鹅绒皇冠皇家袋中。

The whole vibe feels almost calming.

整个氛围感觉几乎平静。

There, Phillips played four opponents head-to-head, and for the first time in a quarter century, he learns something new about how to play the game.

在那里，菲利普斯与四名对手进行了面对面的交锋，四分之一个世纪以来他第一次学到了如何玩这项游戏的新知识。

—KS

—KS

## How to Start a Professional Sports Team, Win Games, and Save the Town

## 如何组建职业运动队、赢得比赛并拯救小镇

Dan Moore | The Ringer | August 13, 2024 | 8,467 words

丹·摩尔 |铃声| 2024 年 8 月 13 日 | 8,467 字

It wasn’t that long ago that Oakland was a major-league sports mecca.

不久前，奥克兰还是大联盟的体育圣地。

The Warriors and A’s enjoyed dynasties in basketball and baseball, and despite recent irrelevance, the Raiders boasted one of the most committed fanbases in American football.

勇士队和运动家队在篮球和棒球领域享有盛誉，尽管突袭者队最近变得无关紧要，但他们仍然拥有美式足球中最忠诚的球迷群之一。

That has changed drastically over the past five years; now, only the A’s remain, and they’ll be gone come October.

过去五年，情况发生了巨大变化。现在，只剩下 A 了，到了 10 月份他们就会消失。

Regardless of your feelings about sports, you can imagine the effect this mass emigration has had on folks in The Town—and as one of them, I’m here to tell you your imagination’s not lying.

不管你对体育的看法如何，你都可以想象这种大规模移民对镇上人们的影响——作为他们中的一员，我在这里告诉你你的想象力没有说谎。

That’s likely why I was so charmed by Dan Moore’s story about the birth of the Oakland Ballers.

这可能就是为什么我对丹·摩尔关于奥克兰球手队诞生的故事如此着迷的原因。

The baseball team is the latest in a series of community-minded clubs that have popped up in multiple sports across the country, but you can bet that none of those other teams went from an idea to Opening Day in the space of nine months.

这支棒球队是全国多个体育项目中涌现的一系列具有社区意识的俱乐部中最新的一个，但你可以打赌，其他球队都没有在九个月的时间内从一个想法变成了开幕日。

On paper, it makes no sense.

从纸面上看，这没有任何意义。

Two childhood friends just .

两个儿时好友而已。

.

。

.

。

make a team?

组建一个团队？

They win the trust of city council, community leaders, and cultural ambassadors alike?

他们赢得市议会、社区领袖和文化大使的信任吗？

They secure a contaminated public park and manage to clean it and erect a stadium in less than five weeks?

他们保护了一个受污染的公园，并在不到五周的时间内设法清理它并建立了一个体育场？

Thankfully, Moore was there to chronicle the entire against-all-odds process, and his admitted homerism is part of what makes the piece so appealing.

值得庆幸的是，摩尔记录了整个克服一切困难的过程，他承认的荷马主义是这部作品如此吸引人的部分原因。

He, like Ballers founders Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel, grew up an Oakland sports fan.

他和 Ballers 创始人保罗·弗里德曼 (Paul Freedman) 和布莱恩·卡梅尔 (Bryan Carmel) 一样，从小就是奥克兰体育迷。

He knows the heartbreak.

他知道那种心碎的感觉。

He also has no illusions about the impact a minor-league sports team (a sub-minor-league team, if you want to be brutally accurate about it) can reasonably expect to make on a city’s psyche.

他对一支小联盟运动队（一支亚小联盟球队，如果你想准确地说的话）对一座城市的心理产生的影响也不抱任何幻想。

But when you get to that first game, Moore sitting in the stands with the other 4,200 fans, high on the sense of possibility, you’ll probably react like I did: heading straight to the Ballers’ website to score some tickets.

但当你观看第一场比赛时，摩尔和其他 4,200 名球迷坐在看台上，充满了可能性，你可能会像我一样做出反应：直接前往 Ballers 的网站购买一些门票。

—PR

——公关

## In Kosovo, Techno Is a Symbol of Resilience

## 在科索沃，科技是韧性的象征

Lale Arikoglu | Condé Nast Traveler | August 17, 2024 | 3,735 words

拉莱·阿里科格鲁 |悦游《悦游》 | 2024 年 8 月 17 日 | 3,735 字

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the end of the Kosovo War.

今年是科索沃战争结束25周年。

In January, Kosovo joined the Schengen Zone, which marks another milestone: Kosovars are now able to travel freely across Europe without a visa.

一月份，科索沃加入申根区，这标志着另一个里程碑：科索沃人现在无需签证即可在欧洲自由旅行。

In this story, Lale Arikoglu gets a dose of Kosovo’s nightlife in its capital, Pristina: hitting up bars, clubs, and underground venues; speaking to partiers, promoters, and organizers as she hops from one hotspot to the next; and capturing the excitement and sense of possibility in the air.

在这个故事中，拉莱·阿里科格鲁 (Lale Arikoglu) 在其首都普里什蒂纳 (Pristina) 体验了科索沃的夜生活：去酒吧、俱乐部和地下场所；当她从一个热点跳到下一个热点时，与派对参与者、发起人和组织者交谈；捕捉空气中的兴奋和可能性。

Kosovo’s electronic music scene, which has grown in isolation, is “driven by Kosovars, for Kosovars,” she writes, and is an essential part of the country’s rebuilding.

她写道，科索沃的电子音乐界在孤立的环境中成长，“由科索沃人推动，为科索沃人服务”，并且是该国重建的重要组成部分。

Like Berlin—where techno-fueled nightlife emerged from the city’s ruins after the wall fell—Kosovo has found in the sound of electronic music “both its post-war struggle and collective euphoria.” In the spirit of some of my favorite rave reads, this piece is more than a lifestyle feature; it celebrates the beauty of club and rave culture across borders, and the dance floor as a space of resistance and freedom, of escape and release, of community and unity.

就像柏林一样——柏林墙倒塌后，科技驱动的夜生活从城市废墟中崛起——科索沃在电子音乐中找到了“战后的斗争和集体的喜悦”。本着我最喜欢的一些狂欢读物的精神，这篇文章不仅仅是一种生活方式的特征；它是一种生活方式。它颂扬跨国界的俱乐部和锐舞文化之美，以及舞池作为抵抗和自由、逃避和释放、社区和团结的空间。

Joined by an old friend whom she once partied with in Glasgow, Arikoglu recounts what sounds like a dizzying, sleep-deprived tour of the city, but also slows down to reflect during quiet moments: “The night is only just beginning,” she writes, “but while the dance floor has yet to fill up, the space between our bodies feels less like an absence and more like a pause amid change.” What comes next for Kosovars remains to be seen, but Arikoglu’s soulful story makes one thing clear: Kosovo dances to its own beat.

在一位曾经在格拉斯哥参加聚会的老朋友的陪伴下，阿里科格鲁讲述了一次听起来令人眼花缭乱、睡眠不足的城市之旅，但她也会在安静的时刻放慢脚步进行反思：“夜晚才刚刚开始，”她写道，“但当舞池尚未填满时，我们身体之间的空间感觉不像是缺席，而更像是变化中的停顿。”科索沃接下来会发生什么还有待观察，但阿里科格鲁深情的故事清楚地表明了一件事：科索沃按照自己的节奏跳舞。

—CLR

—CLR

## Here a Bee, There a Bee, Everywhere a Wild Bee

## 这里有一只蜜蜂，那里有一只蜜蜂，到处都是野蜂

Anne Casselman | Hakai Magazine | August 20, 2024 | 4,395 words

安妮·卡塞尔曼 |哈凯杂志 | 2024 年 8 月 20 日 | 4,395 字

Imagine the thrill of discovering a new species—a creature no one else has ever documented.

想象一下发现一个新物种的兴奋——一种没有人记录过的生物。

For Hakai Magazine, Anne Casselman introduces us to the melittologists (bee biologists) who are doing just that with surprising regularity.

安妮·卡塞尔曼 (Anne Casselman) 在 Hakai 杂志上向我们介绍了蜂毒学家（蜜蜂生物学家），他们以惊人的规律性从事这一工作。

Amid the poetic litany of plants in the west Kootenay region of British Columbia—purple onion grass, bitterroot, limestone hawksbeard—we meet Rowan Rampton, then a graduate student at the University of Calgary who stumbled upon Hoplitis emarginata, a relative of the mason bee seen only a handful of times in northern California and southern Oregon.

在不列颠哥伦比亚省西部库特尼地区充满诗意的植物中——紫洋葱草、苦根草、石灰岩鹰须草——我们遇到了罗文·兰普顿(Rowan Rampton)，他当时是卡尔加里大学的研究生，他偶然发现了Hoplitis emarginata，它是石工蜂的亲戚，在加利福尼亚州北部和俄勒冈州南部只见过几次。

Bee identification can be tricky, but rewarding.

蜜蜂识别可能很棘手，但很有价值。

As Casselman explains, the field guide Common Bees of Western North America groups specimens into comical categories such as “bees that are extremely large” or “bees that are very hairy.” For his winged wonder, Rampton turned to his mentor Lincoln Best, an expert taxonomist with the Master Melittologist Program at Oregon State University, who identified the bee under a microscope.

正如卡塞尔曼所解释的，《北美西部常见蜜蜂》实地指南将标本分为滑稽的类别，例如“非常大的蜜蜂”或“毛茸茸的蜜蜂”。对于他的翅膀奇迹，兰普顿向他的导师林肯·贝斯特求助，林肯·贝斯特是俄勒冈州立大学蜜蜂学硕士项目的专家分类学家，他在显微镜下鉴定了这种蜜蜂。

I learned much from reading this piece, but what I found most fascinating was the singular symbiotic relationship between a bee and their preferred plant.

我从这篇文章中学到了很多东西，但我发现最令人着迷的是蜜蜂和它们喜欢的植物之间独特的共生关系。

For example, Proteriades (a subgenus of mason bees) has a love connection with a plant called Cryptantha.

例如，Proteriades（石蜂亚属）与一种名为 Cryptantha 的植物有着爱情联系。

Their “stems are like pale green miniature pipe cleaners that twist up and end in curved sprays of minuscule flowers, which open like popcorn kernels.

它们的“茎就像浅绿色的微型管道清洁器，扭曲起来，末端形成弯曲的小花，像爆米花一样打开。

.

。

.

。

.

。

These bees have evolved Velcro-covered tongues to scrape the pollen out of the flower’s narrow corolla, and special brushes on their legs to comb pollen into a pile that it then packs onto its belly to take back to the nest for its larvae, which specialize in digesting this one plant’s pollen.” Discovering these beautiful relationships are critical to conservation efforts.

这些蜜蜂进化出了用维可牢尼龙搭扣覆盖的舌头，可以将花粉从花朵狭窄的花冠上刮下来，它们的腿上有特殊的刷子，可以将花粉梳理成一堆，然后将花粉塞到腹部，带回巢穴供幼虫食用，幼虫专门消化这种植物的花粉。”发现这些美好的关系对于保护工作至关重要。

Only when you understand which plants bees prefer and why, can you devote time and energy to protecting them and their habitat.

只有当您了解蜜蜂喜欢哪些植物以及原因时，您才能投入时间和精力来保护它们及其栖息地。

The more you know, the more you can bee a friend to the pollinators among us.

您知道的越多，您就越能成为我们当中传粉者的朋友。

—KS

—KS

## September

## 九月

## Protecting the Prairie

## 保护草原

Sarah Smarsh | Orion Magazine | August 27, 2024 | 4,071 words

莎拉·斯马什 |猎户座杂志 | 2024 年 8 月 27 日 | 4,071 字

When we bought a patch of prairie land nearly 30 years ago, we wanted to be careful with it.

近三十年前，当我们买了一块草原时，我们想小心对待它。

Clearing space for the cabin that is now our home, we did it by hand: handsaw, chain saw, and a beat-up lawnmower to deter tree sprouts.

为现在我们家的小屋清理空间，我们用手锯、链锯和一台破旧的割草机来阻止树发芽。

We preserved as much bush and as many trees as we could to minimize any adverse effects of our presence; as a result, our carefully culled canopy of ash, oak, evergreen, and poplar has always shaded us from summer heat while neighbors rely on air conditioning.

我们尽可能多地保留灌木丛和树木，以尽量减少我们存在的任何不利影响；因此，我们精心挑选的白蜡树、橡树、常绿树和杨树的树冠总是为我们遮挡夏季的炎热，而邻居们却依赖空调。

For Orion, Sarah Smarsh writes about the hard work and missteps involved in clearing her property in Kansas.

莎拉·斯马什 (Sarah Smarsh) 在《猎户座》中讲述了她在堪萨斯州清理财产时所付出的艰辛工作和失误。

In removing eastern red cedars, she’s letting the light in, reclaiming space for tallgrass prairie that was born after glacial retreat, but eventually choked out by “woody encroachment” humans fostered in the name of agriculture.

在清除东部红雪松的过程中，她让阳光进来，为高草草原开垦空间，高草草原在冰川消退后诞生，但最终被以农业名义培育的“木质侵蚀”所窒息。

“In contrast to the European colonizer’s idea of a vast ‘nothing’ in the middle of the country, the prairie is among the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world,” she writes.

“与欧洲殖民者认为该国中部一片‘空无一物’的想法相反，这片大草原是世界上生物多样性最丰富的生态系统之一，”她写道。

I fell in love with Smarsh’s writing after reading her book Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.

在读了斯马什的书《中心地带：在地球上最富有的国家努力工作和破产的回忆录》后，我爱上了她的作品。

Her voice is strong and lyrical, laden with purpose.

她的声音有力而抒情，充满目标。

It’s also distinctly no-nonsense; nothing is wasted.

这也显然是严肃的。没有任何东西被浪费。

She understands and acknowledges her privilege: “The meaning that animates my life is a connection to this place—where my own farmer ancestors, poor white immigrants and beneficiaries of genocide and land theft, helped dismantle the ecosystem I now feel called to protect.” In revealing how the prairie was consumed by colonization and agricultural practices time has proven detrimental, Smarsh’s piece is equal parts fascinating history and ecology lesson.

她理解并承认自己的特权：“赋予我生命活力的意义是与这个地方的联系——在那里，我自己的农民祖先、贫穷的白人移民以及种族灭绝和土地盗窃的受益者，帮助摧毁了我现在觉得有责任保护的生态系统。”在揭示大草原如何被殖民和农业实践所消耗时，时间已被证明是有害的，斯马什的作品既是引人入胜的历史，也是生态学的教训。

To be good stewards of the land, she and her husband are working hard to turn something back into nothing.

为了成为这片土地的好管家，她和丈夫正在努力工作，让一切变得一无所有。

—KS

—KS

## Living In A Lucid Dream

## 生活在清醒梦中

Claire L.

克莱尔·L。

Evans | Noēma | July 1, 2024 | 3,921 words

埃文斯|诺埃玛 | 2024 年 7 月 1 日 | 3,921 字

Claire L.

克莱尔·L。

Evans experienced a lucid dream for the first time after a long night of sleeplessness.

经过一夜的不眠之夜，埃文斯第一次经历了清醒梦。

Then she did what writers do: she followed her curiosity and wrote about it.

然后她做了作家该做的事：她追随自己的好奇心并把它写下来。

For Noēma, Evans researches history’s lucid dreamers, visits online dream communities, and surveys modern science as a prelude to personal experimentation.

为了诺埃玛，埃文斯研究了历史上的清醒梦者，访问了在线梦想社区，并调查了现代科学，作为个人实验的前奏。

She discovers that with a little practice, she could occupy that liminal space between sleep and wakefulness at will.

她发现，只要稍加练习，她就可以随意占据睡眠和清醒之间的临界空间。

(I won’t spoil the seemingly easy method to entering lucid dreamland.

（我不会破坏看似简单的进入清醒梦境的方法。

I’ll just say that the door to wakeful altered reality involves a mindfulness activity.) This piece is brain-bending in more ways than one; it explores not only lucid dreaming but the definition of consciousness itself, all along its curious spectrum from deep sleep to daydreams.

我只想说，通往清醒的改变现实的大门涉及正念活动。）这篇文章在很多方面都令人费解。它不仅探索了清醒梦，还探索了意识本身的定义，从深度睡眠到白日梦的整个奇妙范围。

“Dreaming and waking perception are both illusory; they’re models constructed by our brains that turn sensory stimulus, or its absence, into meaning,” writes Evans.

埃文斯写道：“梦和醒时的感知都是虚幻的；它们是我们大脑构建的模型，将感官刺激或感官刺激的缺失转化为意义。”

“In waking life, short of a heavy psychedelic experience, that illusion is all-encompassing; there’s no other level of consciousness to ‘wake up’ into.

“在清醒的生活中，如果没有沉重的迷幻体验，这种幻觉是包罗万象的；没有其他层次的意识可以‘醒来’。

But in lucid dreams, we can examine the construction closely.

但在清醒梦中，我们可以仔细检查其结构。

Does this make a lucid dream more conscious than waking?” Perhaps.

这是否会让清醒梦比清醒时更有意识？”也许。

While lucid dreaming can feel real and it may be enticing to learn how to enter them, Evans reminds us that dreams—as amazing as they can be—are strictly solo and somewhat lonely.

虽然清醒梦感觉很真实，而且学习如何进入清醒梦可能很诱人，但埃文斯提醒我们，梦——尽管它们可以令人惊奇——完全是孤独的，而且有些孤独。

Now, if only there was a way to share the experience with someone else.

现在，如果有一种方法可以与其他人分享经验就好了。

—KS

—KS

## One Man’s Journey from State Prison to a Revered San Francisco Restaurant

## 一个人从州立监狱到受人尊敬的旧金山餐厅的旅程

Nico Madrigal-Yankowski | SFGATE | September 14, 2024 | 2,118 words

尼科·马德里加尔·扬科夫斯基 | Nico Madrigal-Yankowski SFGATE | 2024 年 9 月 14 日 | 2,118 字

In 1995 at the age of 16, Michael Thomas killed 14-year-old Gabriel Alcazar Jr. and was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

1995年，16岁的迈克尔·托马斯（Michael Thomas）杀害了14岁的小加布里埃尔·阿尔卡扎（Gabriel Alcazar Jr.），并被判处25年至终身监禁，在州监狱服刑。

While incarcerated, Thomas fell in love with baking as part of his work in the prison kitchen but never dreamed he’d be able to cook and bake on the outside.

在监禁期间，托马斯爱上了烘焙，这是他在监狱厨房工作的一部分，但他从未梦想过自己能够在外面做饭和烘焙。

Today, he’s honing personal recipes and working four days a week as a prep cook at Flour + Water in San Francisco’s Mission District.

如今，他正在旧金山 Mission District 的 Flour + Water 餐厅磨练个人食谱，每周工作四天，担任预备厨师。

You must make time for this beautiful and moving essay about what can happen when someone chooses to see the best in us.

你必须腾出时间来写这篇美丽而感人的文章，讲述当有人选择看到我们最好的一面时会发生什么。

—KS

—KS

## Elevate Me Later

## 稍后提升我

John Semley | The Baffler | September 12, 2024 | 3,291 words

约翰·塞姆利 |挡板| 2024 年 9 月 12 日 | 3,291 字

When my husband announced that he’d gotten us tickets to see the movie Longlegs one weekend a few months back, I was thrilled.

几个月前的一个周末，当我丈夫宣布他给我们买了电影《长腿》的门票时，我很激动。

I love horror movies—so much so, I once drove away a roommate who couldn’t take all the screaming coming from the TV in our living room—and this one was getting great buzz.

我非常喜欢恐怖电影，以至于有一次我赶走了一位无法忍受客厅电视里传来的尖叫声的室友，而这部恐怖电影引起了很大的轰动。

Fast forward to today, and I still haven’t seen Longlegs.

快进到今天，我仍然没有看到长腿。

My husband and I got ticket refunds in advance of the showing we were due to attend.

我和我丈夫在我们预定参加的演出之前获得了门票退款。

Our decision was based on a wave of disappointment that swept through fellow horror heads who got to Longlegs first.

我们的决定是基于一股失望的情绪席卷了那些首先接触到长腿的恐怖分子。

Without exception, these friends told me it wasn’t scary.

无一例外，这些朋友都告诉我这并不可怕。

And if a horror flick isn’t scary, what the hell is the point?

如果恐怖片并不可怕，那还有什么意义呢？

As John Semley argues in this very smart essay, Longlegs is in keeping with a trend in the genre, which “prize[s] aesthetic sheen and psychological depth over typical hallmarks of the genre, like gore, jump scares, or heavy-breathing serial killers in dinged-up goalie masks.” Problem being, this can—and often does—strip the genre of its unique allure.

正如约翰·塞姆利（John Semley）在这篇非常聪明的文章中所指出的那样，《长腿》符合该类型的趋势，即“重视审美光泽和心理深度，而不是该类型的典型特征，例如血腥、惊吓或戴着破烂的守门员面具的喘息连环杀手。”问题是，这可能——而且经常确实——剥夺了这一类型的独特魅力。

Great horror doesn’t do analytical work for you; rather, it begs you to analyze it on your own, perhaps in the dark, and certainly after your heart rate has gone back to normal.

巨大的恐怖不会为你做分析工作，而是为你做分析工作。相反，它要求您自己进行分析，也许是在黑暗中，当然是在您的心率恢复正常之后。

“Where many of the classic horror films felt like they were smuggling meanings into them, these new cycles pushed (or ‘elevated’) any buried subtext to the level of text,” Semley writes.

塞姆利写道：“许多经典恐怖电影感觉像是在偷偷地往里面偷窃意义，而这些新的循环将任何隐藏的潜台词推向（或‘提升’）到文本的水平。”

Now, there are some movies that Semley groups in the elevated category that I will defend to the death, chief among them Robert Eggers’s The Witch, a near-perfect, utterly terrifying movie with an ending so good I had to see it in theaters more than once.

现在，塞姆利将一些电影归入较高的类别，我将誓死捍卫，其中最主要的是罗伯特·艾格斯的《女巫》，这是一部近乎完美、完全恐怖的电影，结局如此美好，我不得不在电影院不止一次地观看它。

But he articulates precisely why I wasn’t enthralled by The Babadook, It Follows, or Midsommar; why I hated the remake of Suspiria with a fiery passion; and why a recent rewatch of Hereditary left me cold.

但他准确地阐明了为什么我不喜欢《巴巴多克》、《它遵循》或《仲夏夜惊魂》；为什么我如此讨厌翻拍《阴风阵阵》？以及为什么最近重看《遗传厄运》让我感到冷淡。

It’s time to let horror be horror.

是时候让恐怖归恐怖了。

Let my monsters go.

放开我的怪物吧

—SD

—SD

## October

## 十月

## He Handles Custody Disputes, Death Row Cases, and Biters.

## 他处理监护权纠纷、死囚案件和咬人案件。

He’s Salem’s Dog Lawyer.*

他是塞勒姆的狗律师。*

Douglas Starr | Globe Magazine | September 5, 2024 | 3,376 words

道格拉斯·斯塔尔 |环球杂志| 2024 年 9 月 5 日 | 3,376 字

Raise your hand if the first thing you thought of when you saw this headline was Walt, the lawyer from Detroiters who’s terrible at DUIs but “kind of a mack when it comes to dog bites.” Just me?

如果您看到这个标题时第一个想到的是沃尔特，请举手。沃尔特是一位来自底特律的律师，他在酒后驾车方面很糟糕，但“在狗咬伤方面有点无能”。只有我？

Fine.

美好的。

The point is, attorney Jeremy Cohen is also kind of a mack when it comes to dog bites, but not quite in the same way.

关键是，杰里米·科恩律师在处理狗咬伤问题上也很狡猾，但方式并不完全相同。

He argues on behalf of the dog, and has managed to save a number of not-very-good boys from enforced euthanasia.

他为狗辩护，并成功地拯救了一些不那么优秀的男孩免遭强制安乐死。

This profile starts as a curio, but very quickly becomes fascinating.

这份个人资料一开始只是一个古董，但很快就变得令人着迷。

When a dog bites a human or attacks another dog, is it irredeemable, or are there in fact multiple factors that can account for the violence?

当一只狗咬人或攻击另一只狗时，这是不可挽回的，还是实际上有多种因素可以解释这种暴力行为？

Cohen may have been voted “most likely to need a lawyer himself” in law school, but his genius is unpacking those factors without also condoning the dog’s behavior; behavior training is a constant in the deals he strikes, but so is placing the burden of the dog’s behavior on the human owners.

科恩可能在法学院被评为“最有可能自己需要律师”，但他的天才在于在不纵容狗行为的情况下解开这些因素；在他达成的交易中，行为训练是一个常数，但将狗的行为负担强加给人类主人也是如此。

And time after time, everyone leaves the courtroom—or, as is more likely, the town government select board meeting—satisfied that justice has been done.

一次又一次，每个人离开法庭——或者更有可能的是，镇政府选择董事会会议——都对正义得到了伸张感到满意。

Douglas Starr hits his marks ably, establishing Cohen’s arc and motivations (and F.

道格拉斯·斯塔尔（Douglas Starr）巧妙地达到了目标，确立了科恩的弧线和动机（以及 F.

Lee Bailey friendship?!) alongside his legal exploits, which elevates this from novelty weekend read to something both entertaining and thought-provoking.

李·贝利的友谊？！）以及他的法律功绩，这将这本书从新颖的周末读物提升为既有趣又发人深省的东西。

Belly scratches for all!

所有人的肚子都抓伤了！

* Subscription required.

* 需要订阅。

—PR

——公关

## My Accidental Daycare

## 我的意外日托

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian | The Cut | October 9, 2024 | 6,855 words

阿托莎·阿拉克西亚·亚伯拉罕米安 | Atossa Araxia Abrahamian剪辑| 2024 年 10 月 9 日 | 6,855 字

At the start of this piece, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is busy sniffing out a strange smell wafting from her kitchen, which—spoiler—turns out to be dog excrement.

在这篇文章的开头，阿托莎·阿拉克西亚·亚伯拉罕米安 (Atossa Araxia Abrahamian) 正忙着嗅从厨房里飘出的奇怪气味，剧透一下，原来是狗的排泄物。

That beginning sets a candid tone for an essay in which Abrahamian throws the door wide open to a chaotic period of her life.

这个开头为亚伯拉罕米安向她生命中的混乱时期敞开了大门的文章奠定了坦率的基调。

Evicted by a cartoon-villain-esque New York landlord, her children’s daycare shuts down, leading Abrahamian to take in a pod of displaced under-fours (some of whom enjoy feeding her dog diarrhea-inducing tidbits).

亚伯拉罕米安被一位卡通恶棍式的纽约房东驱逐，她的孩子们的日托中心被关闭，导致亚伯拉罕米安收留了一群流离失所的四岁以下儿童（其中一些人喜欢给她的狗喂导致腹泻的食物）。

Take a moment to reflect on the maelstrom one small toddler can inflict upon a home.

花点时间思考一下一个小孩子可能会给家庭带来的混乱。

Now imagine as many as seven of them.

现在想象一下多达七个。

In a two-bedroom house.

一栋两居室的房子里。

Every day.

每天。

Turning her home into a temporary daycare was meant to help stressed-out parents for a few days, but weeks go by as Abrahamian watches her old nursery struggle against the endless bureaucracy required to reopen at a new location.

将她的家变成临时托儿所的目的是为了帮助压力重重的父母几天，但几周过去了，亚伯拉罕米安看着她的老托儿所与在新地点重新开放所需的无休止的官僚作风作斗争。

Wading into the fray, she develops a forensic interest in the rules around emergency exits, student-teacher ratios, and background checks.

涉足这场争论后，她对紧急出口、师生比例和背景调查等规则产生了浓厚的兴趣。

Her disbelief at bureacratic pedantry reaches a fever pitch as her desperation increases, resulting in a scene reminiscent of Judy Hopps and Flash the Sloth at the DMV in Zootopia.

随着她的绝望加剧，她对官僚迂腐的怀疑达到了狂热的程度，导致了《疯狂动物城》中朱迪·霍普斯和树懒闪电侠在DMV的场景。

If you are wavering on reading over 6,000 words on the woes of parents who have the resources to pore over daycare rules and regulations, I can assure you that the level of emotion brought to this child-sized saga is worth it.

如果你对阅读超过 6,000 字的关于父母困境的书犹豫不决，因为他们有资源仔细研究日托规则和规定，我可以向你保证，这部儿童篇幅的传奇故事所带来的情感水平是值得的。

—CW

—CW

## Chortle Chortle, Scribble Scribble: Inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s Last Court Reporters

## Chortle Chortle，Scribble Scribble：与英国最后的法庭记者一起走进老贝利

Sophie Elmhirst | The Guardian | July 11, 2024 | 4,689 words

苏菲·埃尔姆赫斯特 |卫报| 2024 年 7 月 11 日 | 4,689 字

This week, I have reached back and pulled a piece from the heady summer days of July.

本周，我回顾了七月令人陶醉的夏日的一些片段。

I missed it then, and maybe you did, too.

我当时就错过了，也许你也错过了。

Even if not, it is worth a second look.

即使没有，也值得再看一眼。

I’m a longtime fan of Sophie Elmhirst and her wry and dry character studies, and she does not disappoint here.

我是索菲·埃尔姆赫斯特和她讽刺而干巴巴的人物研究的长期粉丝，她在这里并没有让人失望。

Her main subject is Guy Toyn, a court reporter for the Old Bailey, who suits its creaking machinations perfectly.

她的主要拍摄对象是老贝利法庭的法庭记者盖伊·托因（Guy Toyn），他非常适合老贝利的阴谋诡计。

With a booming voice that lacks a filter, Toyn relays court life by mimicking various characters, including Idiot Judge, Pretentious Barrister, Moaning Gen Z, and Miscellaneous Drunk.

托因用未经过滤的洪亮声音，通过模仿各种角色来传达法庭生活，包括白痴法官、自命不凡的大律师、呻吟的 Z 世代和杂七杂八的醉汉。

He is unapologetically old school—which seems to put Elmhirst a bit on edge—but also wonderfully theatrical.

他是毫无疑问的老派——这似乎让埃尔姆赫斯特有点紧张——但也非常戏剧化。

Elmhirst watches him pull trousers over his red shorts and T-shirt to go into court and chuckle loudly over a smuggling case that involved cocaine secreted inside bananas.

埃尔姆赫斯特看着他把长裤套在红色短裤和 T 恤外面走上法庭，并为一起涉及香蕉内藏可卡因的走私案大声笑了起来。

This world is portrayed with delightful aplomb: Elmhirst’s descriptions of the press quarters, a “suite of rooms in terminal decline,” made me feel I could see the “disconcerting” yellow stains on the red-swirled carpet, detect the light smell of toast, and feel the bizarreness of the “museum-worthy beige laptops” stacked amongst old shoes and ladders.

这个世界被描绘得令人愉悦、泰然自若：埃尔姆赫斯特对新闻发布区的描述，“一套处于衰落末期的房间”，让我觉得我可以看到红色漩涡地毯上的“令人不安的”黄色污渍，闻到烤面包的淡淡气味，感受到堆放在旧鞋和梯子中的“值得博物馆的米色笔记本电脑”的怪异。

Toyn takes his job seriously—after all, he is, as Elmhirst explains, reporting on what happens in these courts “in all its variety and ugliness, because people should know what was happening on their streets, in their towns, in the darker recesses of society.” Not all of Toyn’s stories get picked up by the national press (as Toyn notes, they want stories of “a woman killing a man, ideally a middle-class white woman killing a man”), but on his website, Court News UK, he reports what happens behind every door.

托因认真对待他的工作——毕竟，正如埃尔姆赫斯特所解释的那样，他正在报道这些法庭上发生的“各种各样和丑陋的事情，因为人们应该知道他们的街道、城镇和社会更黑暗的角落里发生了什么。”并不是托因的所有故事都会被全国媒体报道（正如托因指出的那样，他们想要“一个女人杀了一个男人，最好是一个中产阶级白人妇女杀了一个男人”的故事），但在他的网站英国法庭新闻上，他报道了每扇门后面发生的事情。

Toyn cannot take his eyes off the kaleidoscope of stories these courts hold.

托因无法将目光从法庭上千变万化的故事上移开。

His own story is just as fascinating.

他自己的故事也同样引人入胜。

—CW

—CW

## The Future of Film May Just Be Old Movies

## 电影的未来可能只是老电影

Abe Beame | The Ringer | October 23, 2024 | 5,422 words

阿贝·比姆 |铃声| 2024 年 10 月 23 日 | 5,422 字

When vinyl record sales began to rise in the mid-’00s, the phenomenon was dismissed as a hipster affectation.

当黑胶唱片销量在 00 年代中期开始上升时，这种现象被视为时髦的矫揉造作。

After 17 straight years of that rise, however, the truth became clear: people enjoy engaging with art in a meaningful way.

然而，在连续 17 年上升之后，事实变得清晰起来：人们喜欢以有意义的方式参与艺术。

Dropping the needle, flipping an LP at the end of a side, reading liner notes, even just looking at the art while you listen; it’s all part of treating music with intention, rather than relegating it to the noise of a background stream.

掉下唱针，翻动一张唱片的一端，阅读唱片笔记，甚至只是边听边看艺术作品；这是有意识地对待音乐的一部分，而不是将其降级为背景流的噪音。

That same energy animates Abe Beame’s illuminating story on the resurgence of repertory theaters in the post-COVID cinema world.

同样的能量也为阿贝·比姆 (Abe Beame) 讲述了后疫情时代电影世界中话剧复兴的富有启发性的故事注入了活力。

Whatever’s at play here—and Beame investigates multiple factors—it’s more than just nostalgia.

无论是什么在起作用——比姆调查了多种因素——这不仅仅是怀旧之情。

It’s a rebuke of Hollywood’s franchise/remake/sequel addiction, of theatrical chains pumping digital files onto ever-bigger screens, of movies being an afterthought as people text through the screening.

这是对好莱坞对特许经营/翻拍/续集成瘾的谴责，对影院连锁店将数字文件投放到越来越大的屏幕上的谴责，对人们在放映时发短信时电影成为事后诸葛亮的谴责。

Rep cinema’s survival, Beame writes, “speaks to the essence of cinema and what many want out of it—not to simply consume a piece of content, but to get something deeper, richer, and more communal.” That realization is one more and more theater owners are having in more and more areas.

比姆写道，代表电影的生存“体现了电影的本质以及许多人想要从中得到什么——不是简单地消费一段内容，而是获得更深刻、更丰富、更具有公共性的东西。”越来越多的地区的剧院老板都意识到了这一点。

In the beginning, it was easy to look at revival screenings in LA and Brooklyn and Austin and think of it as vinyl for movies.

一开始，人们很容易看到洛杉矶、布鲁克林和奥斯汀的复兴放映，并将其视为电影的黑胶唱片。

It is that, absolutely.

绝对是这样。

But it’s not vinyl in 2006; it’s vinyl now.

但这不是 2006 年的黑胶唱片；而是 2006 年的黑胶唱片。现在是黑胶唱片了。

—PR

——公关

## November

## 十一月

## Stevie Nicks: ‘I Believe in the Church of Stevie’

## 史蒂夫尼克斯：“我相信史蒂夫教会”

Angie Martoccio | Rolling Stone | October 24, 2024 | 6,580 words

安吉·马托乔|滚石 | 2024 年 10 月 24 日 | 6,580 字

Sometimes I look for escape in my reading, a much-needed break from the news cycle.

有时我会在阅读中寻找逃避的机会，从新闻周期中摆脱出来，这是急需的。

If I’m lucky, I’ll find the shift in perspective I seek and a little inspiration to boot.

如果幸运的话，我会找到我所寻求的视角转变和一些启动灵感。

Enter Angie Martoccio’s lengthy Rolling Stone interview with Stevie Nicks.

安吉·马托乔 (Angie Martoccio) 接受《滚石》杂志采访史蒂维·尼克斯 (Stevie Nicks) 的长篇采访。

I loved this piece for a couple of reasons.

我喜欢这首作品有几个原因。

It’s clear that Martoccio has done her homework.

显然 Martoccio 已经做好了功课。

She establishes such a strong rapport with Nicks that this transcends a mere interview; it feels like a conversation between friends.

她与尼克斯建立了如此牢固的关系，这超越了单纯的采访；感觉就像是朋友之间的对话。

Nicks and Martoccio tread a lot of ground, though one refrain is about being bold enough to make choices that are right for you as a woman: Nicks talks about not looking back after ending her relationship with Lindsay Buckingham; she discusses the abortion she had while in a relationship with Don Henley in the ’70s; and she relates advising Katy Perry to leave the internet to avoid toxic musical rivalries.

尼克斯和马托乔走了很多路，尽管有一点是要足够大胆地做出适合你作为女性的选择：尼克斯谈到在结束与林赛·白金汉的关系后不会回头；她讨论了 70 年代与唐·亨利 (Don Henley) 恋爱时堕胎的事；她还建议凯蒂·佩里离开互联网，以避免有毒的音乐竞争。

Fleetwood Mac may be no more, but Nicks suffers no lack of creative outlets.

弗利特伍德麦克队可能已经不复存在，但尼克斯队并不缺乏创意。

In addition to writing songs, she wants to spend more time drawing after being on the road for two years.

除了写歌之外，在路上两年后，她还想花更多时间画画。

(Nicks was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration and she’s worried she won’t be able to draw if she loses her sight.) “I have so much poetry that just doesn’t make it to the piano,” says Nicks.

（尼克斯被诊断出患有湿性黄斑变性，她担心如果失明，她将无法画画。）“我有很多诗歌，但就是无法弹奏钢琴，”尼克斯说。

“Or makes it to the piano and I realize that it’s really just not meant to be a song.” After a lifetime as an artist, Nicks is living proof that inspiration doesn’t happen to you—it’s a happy byproduct of putting in the work.

“或者弹到钢琴上，我意识到这真的不应该是一首歌。”作为一名艺术家一生，尼克斯就是活生生的例子，证明灵感不会发生在你身上——它是投入工作的快乐副产品。

—KS

—KS

## The Alchemists

## 炼金术士

Kim Cross | Bicycling | October 23, 2024 | 6,503 words

金·克罗斯 |骑自行车 | 2024 年 10 月 23 日 | 6,503 字

It was tough to read anything this week, but this feature on the women who led a cycling revolution in Afghanistan was an enjoyable distraction from all the doomscrolling.

这周读任何东西都很困难，但是这篇关于领导阿富汗自行车革命的女性的专题文章是一个令人愉快的分散注意力的方式，让人们从所有的末日卷轴中转移注意力。

Cycling was forbidden for women there, until a grassroots movement emerged.

那里禁止女性骑自行车，直到一场草根运动出现。

Cross introduces us to a few fearless athletes who were at the center of it: teenage girls who rode bikes despite the rocks that boys hurled at them for doing so, despite the anger it provoked in men and elders in their community.

克罗斯向我们介绍了几位无所畏惧的运动员，她们是这场运动的中心人物：十几岁的女孩们骑自行车，尽管男孩们向她们扔石头，尽管这激起了社区里的男人和长辈的愤怒。

For them, a bike was not simply a mode of transport; it was a symbol of freedom.

对他们来说，自行车不仅仅是一种交通工具，更是一种交通工具。它是自由的象征。

Cross chronicles their coming-of-age journeys: How sisters Zakia and Reihana, whose family owned a bike shop in Bamyan, were in natural positions to take up cycling.

克罗斯记录了她们的成长历程：扎基亚 (Zakia) 和雷哈娜 (Reihana) 姐妹的家族在巴米扬 (Bamyan) 拥有一家自行车店，她们是如何自然而然地开始骑自行车的。

Or how Zahra, stubborn and confident, taught herself how to ride on an adult-sized bike when she was a girl, frustrated that boys around her could travel swiftly and freely on wheels.

或者扎赫拉，固执而自信，当她还是个女孩时，她如何自学如何骑成人尺寸的自行车，她对周围的男孩可以骑着轮子快速而自由地旅行感到沮丧。

Zakia and Zahra became friends and began to teach others to ride: “They were simply girls teaching other girls a skill that expanded their world.” In 2013, they formed the first coed cycling club and team in Afghanistan, which then led to winning races and slowly changing attitudes.

扎基亚和扎赫拉成为了朋友，并开始教其他人骑马：“她们只是教其他女孩一项可以扩展她们世界的技能的女孩。” 2013 年，他们组建了阿富汗第一个男女混合自行车俱乐部和车队，随后赢得了比赛并慢慢改变了人们的态度。

“Afghan men cheering Afghan women in sports was itself a revolution,” writes Cross.

“阿富汗男性在体育运动中为阿富汗女性加油本身就是一场革命，”克罗斯写道。

In 2021, when the US withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban returned to power, those freedoms gained through cycling were erased.

2021年，当美国从阿富汗撤军、塔利班重新掌权时，那些通过骑自行车获得的自由被抹去了。

The women and their loved ones managed to escape with the help of an American cyclist and activist who had worked in the country, and Cross recounts their evacuation stories in nail-biting detail.

这些妇女和她们的亲人在一位曾在该国工作的美国自行车手和活动家的帮助下成功逃脱，克罗斯以令人紧张的细节讲述了她们的疏散故事。

Ultimately, this is a story of great loss—the loss of dreams, of rights, and even one’s homeland—but it is also a story of great courage and inspiration.

归根结底，这是一个巨大失落的故事——失去了梦想、失去了权利，甚至失去了祖国——但这也是一个充满勇气和灵感的故事。

—CLR

—CLR

## ‘It Wasn’t Sexual in Any Way!’ 50 Years of Streaking – By The People Who Dared to Bare All

## “这根本就不是性行为！” 50 年裸奔——来自那些敢于裸奔的人

Simon Hattenstone | The Guardian | November 6, 2024 | 4,755 words

西蒙·哈滕斯通 |卫报| 2024 年 11 月 6 日 | 4,755 字

I would happily go for a drink with any of the people featured in this illuminating piece on the history of streaking.

我很乐意与这篇关于裸奔历史的启发性文章中的任何人一起去喝一杯。

Not in the hope that they would whip their clothes off, but because each has a certain joie de vivre, rare to find nowadays.

并不是希望他们能脱掉衣服，而是因为每个人都有一定的生活乐趣，这在当今很少见。

Although streaking can be used to draw attention to various issues, Simon Hattenstone focuses on the people who have bared all just for a laugh.

虽然裸奔可以用来引起人们对各种问题的关注，但西蒙·哈滕斯通（Simon Hattenstone）关注的是那些为了笑而裸奔的人。

There are different levels of the fun-seeking streaker.

寻欢作乐的裸奔者有不同的层次。

Michael O’Brien, for example, unveiled himself just once, drunkenly, at an England-France rugby match, before pursuing a quiet career as a stockbroker.

例如，迈克尔·奥布莱恩 (Michael O’Brien) 在一场英法橄榄球比赛中醉醺醺地只露面过一次，之后就开始了安静的股票经纪人生涯。

Then there is Mark Roberts: 583 streaks and counting.

然后是马克·罗伯茨：583 次连胜并且还在增加。

Yes, Roberts has trotted his beer-toned body across a public arena 583 times.

是的，罗伯茨已经用他啤酒色的身体小跑穿过公共竞技场 583 次。

(He claims if he were an Adonis he would “be a poser.”) This stalwart of streaking has a career ranging from Wimbledon and the Olympics to the Super Bowl.

（他声称，如果他是阿多尼斯，他就会“成为一个装腔作势的人。”）这位坚定的裸奔者的职业生涯从温布尔登、奥运会到超级碗。

(He even branches out from sporting events on occasion: “I did the Queen three times!”) Erika Roe, another one-and-done-streaker, made such an impression at her Twickenham rugby match dash that it’s still what she is best known for, 42 years later.

（有时他甚至会从体育赛事中拓展出来：“我三次挑战女王！”）埃里卡·罗伊（Erika Roe）是另一位一帆风顺的裸奔者，她在特威克纳姆橄榄球比赛中给人留下了深刻的印象，以至于 42 年后，这仍然是她最出名的事情。

She isn’t thrilled by this, which leads to possibly one of my favorite quotes of all time: “I couldn’t give a monkey’s rusty fuck about being written off as a streaker or what people think of me.” Hattenstone nods to some serious stuff—legal ramifications, etc.—but mainly revels in the delightful characters and butt-based puns painted on people’s wobbly bits.

她对此并不感到兴奋，这可能是我一直以来最喜欢的名言之一：“我不能因为一只猴子生锈地被认为是裸奔者而被注销，也不能因为人们对我的看法而生气。”哈滕斯通承认一些严肃的事情——法律后果等——但主要陶醉于令人愉快的角色和描绘人们摇摇欲坠的屁股上的双关语。

There are photos for when your imagination fails you, and I particularly enjoyed the ones of flustered-looking British policemen attempting to cover people’s modesty with their helmets.

当你的想象力失败时，有一些照片，我特别喜欢那些看起来慌乱的英国警察试图用头盔遮盖人们的谦虚的照片。

We need a treat, so this week please bask in the warm glow of a full moon.

我们需要款待，所以本周请沐浴在满月的温暖光芒中。

—CW

—CW

## Last Days of Soho

## 苏荷区的最后几天

Francisco Garcia | The Fence | November 12, 2024 | 3,430 words

弗朗西斯科·加西亚 |栅栏| 2024 年 11 月 12 日 | 3,430 字

I used to work in a post-production house in Soho, London.

我曾经在伦敦苏豪区的一家后期制作室工作。

I remember self-importantly carrying tapes between edit suites (yes, tapes) and eating a lot of free biscuits meant for clients.

我记得在编辑室之间自以为是地携带磁带（是的，磁带）并吃了很多为客户准备的免费饼干。

I thought I was pretty cool.

我以为我很酷。

I wasn’t—Soho was the cool one.

我不是——苏荷区很酷。

The narrow streets emanated vibrancy from every colorful nook and bustling alley.

狭窄的街道上每个色彩缤纷的角落和熙熙攘攘的小巷都散发着活力。

Drinking warm beer on a street corner outside a packed, steamy pub, I would watch deals go down (business and drugs on equal cadence), pity lost tourists peering at the street names set hopelessly high on brick walls, tut at young fops in salmon-pink trousers and raised collars meandering over to Soho House, and feel the warmth of couples embracing under historic arches.

在街角一家挤满了人、热气腾腾的酒吧外，我喝着热啤酒，看着交易下降（商业和毒品同样节奏），怜悯迷路的游客凝视着高高地挂在砖墙上的街道名称，对穿着鲑鱼粉色裤子和立领的年轻纨绔子弟蜿蜒走向苏豪大厦，感受情侣在历史拱门下拥抱的温暖。

It felt alive, on the cusp of something more.

它感觉还活着，正处于更多事物的风口浪尖。

Transient.

瞬态。

Not once did I consider the actual residents of Soho—until now.

直到现在，我还没有考虑过苏荷区的实际居民。

In this piece for The Fence, Francisco Garcia explores the underlying tensions in this tightly packed square mile of central London, reporting on a “three-way stand-off between ‘business,’ local authority, and residents.” (Pedestrianization and al fresco dining are particular points of contention.) The steady gentrification of Soho drastically diminished residents from the heady days of 1881, when they numbered 16,608.

在这篇为《栅栏》撰写的文章中，弗朗西斯科·加西亚 (Francisco Garcia) 探讨了伦敦市中心这片拥挤的平方英里地区潜在的紧张局势，报道了“‘企业’、地方当局和居民之间的三向对峙”。 （行人专用化和露天就餐是特别争论的焦点。）Soho 区的稳步中产阶级化使居民数量从 1881 年的 16,608 人的鼎盛时期大幅减少。

Only 2,600 or so stalwarts remain, many of whom are “long-term social housing tenants, rather than recalcitrant millionaires.” But despite depleted numbers, a robust community organization called The Soho Society is still taking umbrage at many new development plans, much to the chagrin of property developers like Soho Estates (run by John James, the larger-than-life son-in-law of a former Soho porn baron).

只剩下 2,600 名左右的坚定支持者，其中许多人是“社会住房的长期租户，而不是顽固的百万富翁”。但尽管人数已经减少，一个名为“Soho Society”的强大社区组织仍然对许多新的开发计划感到不满，这让 Soho Estates（由前 Soho 色情大亨的传奇女婿约翰·詹姆斯经营）等房地产开发商感到非常懊恼。

I appreciated Garcia making me think about this area in a new way—and making a land dispute fascinating.

我很感激加西亚让我以一种新的方式思考这个领域，并使土地纠纷变得有趣。

I was filled with nostalgia as he entered those magic streets, walking along as “[p]ost-theatre punters spilled out of the theatres, to mingle with the spirited dregs of the post-work crowd,” reaching a “pile of fresh sick .

当他走进那些神奇的街道时，我充满了怀旧之情，沿着“剧院后的观众涌出剧院，与下班后的人群中充满活力的渣滓”一起走，到达“一堆新鲜的病人……”。

.

。

.

。

proudly splatted outside the entrance to Tottenham Court Road.” Good times.

自豪地溅在托特纳姆法院路入口外。”美好时光。

—CW

—CW

## December

## 十二月

## I Am Cat Lady

## 我是猫女士

Sandra Beasley | VQR | November 1, 2024 | 4,127 words

桑德拉·比斯利 | VQR | 2024 年 11 月 1 日 | 4,127 字

I’ve had my two cats, Kaia and Ashira, for nearly a decade, but it feels like a lifetime, as if they have always been part of our household.

我养了我的两只猫 Kaia 和 Ashira，已经近十年了，但感觉就像一辈子一样，就好像它们一直是我们家庭的一部分一样。

Life with them doesn’t always feel linear, though, and they look and act exactly the same today as they did when we adopted them.

然而，与它们一起生活并不总是感觉是线性的，它们今天的外观和行为与我们收养它们时完全相同。

Sandra Beasley’s VQR essay on cats and being a cat lady follows a double abecedarian structure: the first letter of each paragraph is guided by alphabetical order, from A to Z and then from Z to A, which plays on this timelessness.

桑德拉·比斯利（Sandra Beasley）关于猫和成为猫女士的 VQR 文章遵循双重初学者结构：每个段落的第一个字母都按字母顺序排列，从 A 到 Z，然后从 Z 到 A，这体现了这种永恒性。

Beasley writes about her own cats, Whisky and Sal, and on the sorts of things that we human companions think about.

比斯利写了她自己的猫威士忌和萨尔，以及我们人类同伴思考的各种事情。

Between me and my husband, am I the cats’ favorite human?

在我和我丈夫之间，我是猫们最喜欢的人吗？

Where will we draw the line on the cost of their veterinary care and medical treatments?

我们将在哪里划定他们的兽医护理和医疗费用的界限？

Sprinkled into some of these alphabetized vignettes are Beasley’s reflections on marriage and life without children.

这些按字母顺序排列的小插曲中散布着比斯利对婚姻和没有孩子的生活的反思。

One line in particular gave me pause: “Cats sense grief, a friend tells me, and move toward it.” Still, there is a delightful lightness and randomness throughout, such as the detail about a man at the 2018 Wichita Cat Fancy Cat Show who “wore his cinnamon-and-white Sphynx draped across the back of his broad shoulders,” or the image of young Beasley trying to teach her childhood cat Iditarod commands: “I ran circles around our basement, leash in hand, all the while shouting ‘Mush!’ at a confused cat.” While you don’t need to be a cat person to appreciate Beasley’s piece, I’ll bet one of my cats’ lives that you’ll enjoy it more if you are.

其中有一句台词让我停了下来：“一位朋友告诉我，猫能感受到悲伤，并走向悲伤。”尽管如此，整本书仍然充满了令人愉悦的轻松感和随意性，比如 2018 年威奇托猫奇幻猫展上一位男士的细节，他“宽阔的肩膀上披着肉桂色和白色的斯芬克斯猫”，或者年轻的比斯利试图教她儿时的猫艾迪塔罗德命令的形象：“我手里拿着皮带，绕着我们的地下室跑了一圈，同时对着一只困惑的猫大喊‘穆斯！’。”虽然你不需要是一个猫迷才能欣赏比斯利的作品，但我敢打赌，如果你是猫迷，你会更喜欢它。

—CLR

—CLR

## Jude Law’s Beautiful Disappearing Act

## 裘德·洛的美丽消失之举

Sam Parker | GQ | November 12, 2024 | 5,786 words

萨姆·帕克 |智群 | 2024 年 11 月 12 日 | 5,786 字

One of my favorite festive movies is The Holiday, in which jolly antics ensue after Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swap their homes for the holidays.

我最喜欢的节日电影之一是《假期》，凯特·温斯莱特和卡梅隆·迪亚兹交换住所过节后，随之而来的是欢乐的滑稽动作。

Judging by the number of TikTok videos, I am not the only one getting ready for this annual indulgence, and Jude Law (Cameron’s love interest) is getting top billing.

从 TikTok 视频的数量来看，我并不是唯一一个为这一年度放纵做好准备的人，裘德·洛（卡梅伦的爱人）名列榜首。

Eighteen years on, Law still has that famous mega smile: In this absorbing British GQ profile, Sam Parker notes that when Law orders a drink he “can’t help but flash the waitress a smile so full-watted it is frankly a bit much, like watching someone pay for a pack of gum when all they’ve got on them is a £50 note.” But the smile is now more sparing, at least on camera.

十八年后，劳仍然保持着那个著名的灿烂笑容：在这篇引人入胜的英国《GQ》简介中，山姆·帕克指出，当劳点一杯饮料时，他“情不自禁地向女服务员露出灿烂的笑容，坦率地说，这有点过分了，就像看着有人付钱买一包口香糖，而他们身上只有一张 50 英镑的钞票。”但现在笑容少了很多，至少在镜头前是这样。

Over the last few years, Law has moved away from heartthrob, into darker fare.

在过去的几年里，劳已经不再是万人迷，而是变得更加黑暗。

Parker explains how in the historical film Firebrand, for example, Law plays Henry VIII “as a doleful, distracted tyrant, prone to sudden and revolting acts of violence.” Law was so committed to the role he even wore perfume during filming to make himself smell like rotting flesh.

例如，帕克解释了在历史电影《火把》中，劳如何将亨利八世扮演为“一个忧郁、心烦意乱的暴君，容易发生突然的、令人反感的暴力行为”。劳对这个角色非常投入，甚至在拍摄过程中喷香水，让自己闻起来像腐烂的肉。

(Intrigued after reading this piece, I watched Firebrand: Law is indeed unrecognizable; no charm or flirtatious looks in sight.) While this story is gentle fare—nothing too deep or personal to find here—it is still a fascinating look at Law’s career trajectory.

（读完这篇文章后，我很感兴趣，观看了《Firebrand：Law确实面目全非；看不到魅力或调情的外表。）虽然这个故事很温和——没有什么太深奥或个人的东西可以在这里找到——但它仍然是对Law职业轨迹的一个迷人的观察。

Parker has also done his homework, reaching out to Law’s colleagues such as Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Rober Downey, Jr. So if you, too, are an acolyte of The Holiday, have a read before this year’s watch—you’ll appreciate that smile even more.

帕克也做了功课，联系了劳的同事，如娜塔莉·波特曼、格温妮丝·帕特洛和小罗伯·唐尼。所以，如果你也是《假日》的追随者，请在今年的观看前读一读——你会更加欣赏他的微笑。

—CW

—CW

## The Most Polarizing Thing on Wheels

## 车轮上最两极分化的东西

S.C.

S.C.

Gwynne | Texas Monthly | December 11, 2024 | 4,454 words

格温|德克萨斯月刊| 2024 年 12 月 11 日 | 4,454 字

A few weeks ago, I came across my first Tesla Cybertruck.

几周前，我遇到了我的第一辆特斯拉赛博卡车。

I was ambling over to the local pet store in the sleepy little mountain town where I live when the incongruous silver beast glided into the store’s tiny car park, sliding between a rusty pickup and an F-150 laden with hay bales.

我正在慢悠悠地前往我居住的那个沉睡的小山城的当地宠物店，这时这只不协调的银色野兽滑进了商店的小停车场，在一辆生锈的皮卡和一辆满载干草捆的 F-150 之间滑行。

I stopped and gawked, half expecting Marty McFly to nip out for some cat food.

我停下来，呆呆地看着，半期待马蒂·麦克弗莱会溜出去吃点猫粮。

Since then, friends have texted me of further sightings around the area.

从那时起，朋友们给我发短信，告诉我在该地区有更多的目击事件。

Cybertrucks are here, and we are fascinated by them.

赛博卡车来了，我们对它们着迷。

But why the interest?

但为什么有兴趣呢？

And why are people actually buying a truck that looks like an origami project gone too far?

为什么人们实际上购买一辆看起来像折纸项目的卡车太过分了？

S.

S。

C.

C.

Gwynne tries to answer these questions in his Texas Monthly piece on Elon Musk’s passion project.

格温试图在《德克萨斯月刊》关于埃隆·马斯克激情项目的文章中回答这些问题。

Cybertrucks shouldn’t be successful: They arrived behind schedule and cost twice what Tesla said they would.

赛博卡车不应该成功：它们的上市晚于计划，而且成本是特斯拉所说的两倍。

Worse, as Gwynne writes, people found them to be “a compendium of defects and malfunctions.

更糟糕的是，正如格温所写，人们发现它们是“缺陷和故障的概要”。

The list includes: dying batteries, sticky accelerators, wheel covers that gouge the tires, warping tailgates, trim pieces that fall off, malfunctioning wipers, software that seems to work only when it wants to, and body panels that don’t come close to fitting.” Musk himself has also become an increasingly controversial figure, with some Tesla drivers buying bumper stickers that read, “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” Nevertheless, last July, the Cybertruck surged “to become the third-best-selling electric vehicle of any kind in the United States.” People seem to want a truck that could survive a Mad Max-type scenario (as long as it doesn’t involve a steel ball).

清单包括：耗尽的电池、粘性加速器、刮伤轮胎的轮盖、翘曲的尾门、脱落的装饰件、故障的雨刷、似乎只在需要时才工作的软件，以及不太合适的车身面板。”马斯克本人也成为一个越来越有争议的人物，一些特斯拉司机购买了保险杠贴纸，上面写着：“我在知道埃隆疯了之前就买了这个。”尽管如此，去年 7 月，Cyber​​truck 飙升“成为美国第三畅销的电动汽车”。人们似乎想要一辆能够在疯狂麦克斯类型的场景中幸存下来的卡车（只要它不涉及钢球）。

Gwynne notes it was perhaps not an accident the Cybertruck debut coincided with Musk’s political turn to the right; this is a truck of the time.

格温指出，Cyber​​truck 的首次亮相与马斯克的政治右转同时发生也许并非偶然。这是当时的卡车。

There is fun in this piece, with Gwynne test-driving different vehicles Top Gear-style (Cybertrucks are pretty fast), but he doesn’t shy away from the real reasons these trucks are coming to a mountain town near you.

这篇文章很有趣，格温以 Top Gear 的方式试驾不同的车辆（赛博卡车速度相当快），但他并没有回避这些卡车来到你附近的山城的真正原因。

It shouldn’t have worked, but there’s something about Tesla.

它不应该起作用，但特斯拉有一些东西。

Even now.

即使是现在。

—CW

—CW

Browse all of our year-end collections since 2011.

浏览我们自 2011 年以来的所有年终系列。