The Unique Joy of Spending Thanksgiving Alone in a Casino |
In the last two weeks, I've lied to everyone who even casually inquired what I was up to for the holiday. I begged out of every kind invitation to Thanksgiving dinner that came my way. Using lies. Every time. I lied like a stinking rug. The thing is, on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I'll get up early, take a look at the weather, throw a bag in the car, buy some coffee, then drive across the state to a casino I like, where weeks ago I rented a fairly pricey room in the hotel tower with a nice view of Adirondack foothills. I'll spend this afternoon playing poker before grabbing dinner, where I'll slowly and gloriously read the newspaper over my only holiday drink, probably something unlike me—something festive and dopey, with spices, like a hot toddy. Then I'll eat a pot gummy, dick around with some dice, and go to the sports book to bet Thursday's football games before heading upstairs to take a long bath and maybe watch a movie. How do I know it will go this way? Because I did the same thing last Christmas, and the one before that. It was easy. I lied about my plans. Spent the day by myself. Long drive, casino, cards, newspaper, bath, television, silence, a long elevated view of the deep wild under slate-gray skies, and food. |
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| There Are Only Two Options Left In Ukraine |
Valerii Fedorchuk, a Ukrainian soldier who carries himself with both assurance and stirs of sadness, points toward the valley below us, where a row of ruined buildings scars the horizon. Heavy artillery rumbles from that direction, followed by plumes of smoke. Wherever the shells end up landing, it's not where we stand, in the hills surrounding the Bakhmut front in eastern Ukraine. It's a bright August afternoon and he's taken me here to provide a panorama of the battlefield. Ukraine's counteroffensive against entrenched Russian defenses is underway and moving. It's going slower than many Western observers predicted or hoped, but it is moving. And every meter of land matters in a war that many of those same observers believed would be over in seventy-two hours last February, with the Kremlin in control of their proud, smaller neighbor. That didn't happen, in large part because of people like Fedorchuk. Fifty years-old, barrel-chested with a trim salt-and-pepper beard, his call sign of "Soul" neatly fits his disposition. He strikes me as the kind of father who, in peace time, would be at every one of his kid's soccer games, encouraging yet not afraid to let the referee know when a foul is missed. He's not in peace, though. And as an artilleryman with the 3rd Assault Brigade, he's resolute in what must be done in the weeks, months, perhaps years to come. "Victory will be achieved when we kick the enemy out [of Ukraine] and make them realize we don't need them, that they should stay where they belong." |
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The Best Black Friday Luggage Deals of 2023 |
Nothing says "I've got my shit together" like a matching luggage set. Your carry-on matches your checked bag? Yeah, you mean business. When you show up to your hotel and have travel coordination on point, perhaps you will intimidate them into an upgrade. A luggage set is penthouse material. Since this level of class can come at a steep price, make sure you snatch up your set on sale. Travel gear can get pricey. That Rimowa—which coincidentally turned 125 this year, happy birthday—ain't gonna come cheap. But even if Rimowa is too good for a sale, there's plenty of good luggage that's not. We've got some of the best options for you below. |
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Welcome to Brandon Sanderson's Fantasy Empire |
Sanderson has been extremely popular among fantasy readers for more than a decade, but last year, he made international headlines for raising $41 million on Kickstarter (doubling the previous fundraising record) to self-publish four secret books and deliver them directly to 185,341 fans. No publisher, no Amazon, no bookstores. "I think some of the things [traditional publishing companies] do in New York are wrong-headed," he says. "Somebody has to step up and say, 'Here's another way.'" But not everyone was thrilled by the runaway success of Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter. "Today is a really good day to support your favorite author who hasn't made $18M in the last few days," tweeted Natania Barron, a fantasy novelist based in North Carolina. Some critics of Sanderson's Kickstarter campaign also expressed concerns that backing the project was tantamount to proxy-donating to the Mormon Church, whose members are known to tithe, and which, like many religious traditions, has a complicated history with LGBTQ rights. Another Sanderson critic emerged just a few hours before this story was originally scheduled to go live: Jason Kehe, a senior editor at WIRED magazine, who spent even more time in Sanderson's orbit than I did. In his viral profile, "Brandon Sanderson Is Your God," Kehe criticized Sanderson's prose, reputation, clothing, eating habits, state of residence, faith, fans, friends, and family for being—among other adjectives—"depressingly, story-killingly lame." Unsurprisingly, a legion of fans came to Sanderson's defense on social media. Sanderson paid it forward by donating some of his Kickstarter proceeds to almost every other publishing project on the platform last year, so I ask if he was surprised by all the criticism. "I wasn't surprised. When you're at the top of your field, you're a lightning rod for criticism, and that's actually healthy. The industry needs that. We don't need people criticizing the person just starting out. This is where the criticism should go," he says, pointing to himself. |
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Inside the Weird and Wonderful World of Miniatures |
Miniatures draw us in in a way no other artistic expression does. Think of Alice, kneeling in that long hallway in Wonderland, peering through the tiny door into the miniature garden: "How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers." I felt that longing. We all feel it. I found myself focusing on why. That was in a hotel near Philadelphia at Miniaturia, a gathering of hundreds of miniaturists buying, selling, and making things together. I was corresponding with Robert Off, who turns out to inhabit the highest stratum of working miniaturists. When Off was a child, his mother contracted polio and was sent away; his father often left to visit her. Left by himself an enormous amount, Off began casting and painting lead soldiers. He looked now at these miniatures—Homer's solitary studio, the room where Eleanor endured sixteen years of solitude. "For some reason, my boxes tend to be about lonely people," he told me. |
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The 25 Best Menswear Deals In Nordstrom's Black Friday Sale |
Black Friday is my favorite time of year, and of all the amazing sales happening, my favorite to shop is, of course, Nordstrom's. From an e-commerce editor, that's high praise and a bold statement—but it's true! Instead of opening dozens and dozens of tabs, and scouring website after website to find deals on sneakers, menswear, and accessories before they sell out, Nordstrom has everything in one place. The best brands, the best items. And some of the best sales. Even though Black Friday has passed, Nordstrom is still stocking their site with major mark-downs that are too good to pass up. They have hundreds of styles on sale, but I've picked the 25 best, can't miss ones right here—there's everything here, including everyday essentials from brands like Adidas and New Balance and Nike to designer must-haves from Versace and Balenciaga and Off-White. Keep scrolling, and grab these selects before it's too late. |
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