Imagine the world before the internet. Let's say you wanted to hear about some oldster's summer camp experience. Your options were pretty limited. Perhaps you could go to a Rotary lunch or hang out in the local diner or bar, hoping one of the people who drifted in had a story to tell. Or, you could subscribe to a magazine and trust that one of its editors would find and print a reminiscence. You'd spend a lot of time waiting.

Or, in a pre-internet age, where would you find a humorist? You'd go to a comedy club or listen to AM radio, or perhaps NPR on the off-hours. You could subscribe to a magazine or read the cartoons in the New Yorker. Maybe you'd find a garrulous regular at the local bar: hopefully his humor matched yours. Unless Johnny Carson was exactly your speed, you'd spend a lot of time waiting for a joke to land.

But now, in this age of wonders, our summer camp memoirs, our jokey presidential platforms, and our deep dives are ever-ripe, there for the picking. Like a January tomato in the grocery store. What a time to be alive.

And, less you think the pre-internet scenes above an idyll where we were more connected, the links below came from my true pals. When Andrew or Nat pings a link over to me, my curiosity is immediately piqued and my stack of stuff to read must be re-prioritized. And who knows where my friends find these things? Somewhere out there, a fellow got really interested in a pedestrian bridge, went on a months-long jag, and published his findings to his own corner of the internet, knowing that we fellow deep divers would stumble upon his story, read it, and marvel.

The internet is pretty great. Enjoy the reading!

Reading