Inside the Twisted, Worldwide Hunt for a $7 Million Stolen Car |
Joe is a detective for hire who specializes in recovering stolen cars. But not your car. Joe doesn't look for cars stolen from parking garages or shopping malls—everyday transportation whose value lies in the number of miles they carry us. Joe Ford specializes in recovering cars whose value lies in not being driven much at all: rare, collectible, fetishized cars that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions or tens of millions of dollars, prized not for their ability to get from here to there but rather for their beauty, the artistry of their design, the care with which they were built, and perhaps most of all, their provenance. "I'm in a niche of a niche of a niche," he says. People end up doing all kinds of jobs in this life. You sometimes wonder if, given a few left turns and different choices, the guy playing center field at Yankee Stadium could have ended up a taxi driver instead. Or vice versa. But Joe . . . Joe Ford is what happens when a particular set of skills, personality traits, and turns of phrase lead a person into the only thing he should be doing. It's rare. And when you see him at work—when you see him move easily among both the shady creatures of criminality and the millionaires on those yachts—you wonder whether you, like him, have found your place in the world. |
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The Best Books of 2024 (So Far) |
Welcome back to another year in books, dear reader. Just a quarter of the way through 2024, we're already enjoying an embarrassment of literary riches—and now, we're here to spread the gospel about our favorites. The best books of the year (so far) are taking us to dazzling new frontiers. In the fiction landscape, a spate of new novels offer visions of humanity from unlikely narrators, including robots, aliens, and the undead. Meanwhile, it's shaping up to be an outstanding year for memoirs; new outings from luminaries like Leslie Jamison, Sloane Crosley, and Lucy Sante will grab you by the heartstrings and refuse to let go. In the nonfiction space, some of our finest intellectuals have released titles that help us make sense of our changing world, from the culture-flattening force of algorithms to the future of work. Here are the Best Books of 2024 (so far). |
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What I've Learned: Sheryl Crow |
I've always struggled with the weight of everything. I come by that genetically. When I first started taking off, I could not figure out how to hold all the energy coming at me. So I went and studied with this woman named Sharon Salzberg; she teaches mindfulness meditation. I do mindfulness at least thirty minutes in the morning. Wherever I am. Two cups of coffee. Focus on breath. It's a practice of letting everything go. It's about finding compassion for yourself and your imperfections. |
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The Ageless Appeal of Armani |
If the latest menswear from Giorgio Armani feels familiar to you, that's proof of concept. When the Milanese designer introduced his radically reimagined interpretation of traditional tailoring in 1975, he established a design language that was both comfortable and impressively durable. Nowadays you see it everywhere. But no one executes it quite like the maestro himself. The key in all of this is softening things up while stripping them down. Armani's clothes are defined by movement and ease—a thoroughly contemporary idea of masculine bella figura. When they debuted, that was a far cry from the rest of the market. Though the Neapolitan tailors of the thirties had devised a way to do away with much of the stuffing in a suit jacket, the highly structured, British take on construction continued to dominate the world of tailored clothing. Even designer ready-to-wear, still in its infancy in the early seventies, had a tendency toward rigidity. |
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Jeremy Allen White's The Bear Season 3 Coat Is Poised for Superstardom |
If you've seen The Bear, you know that Carmy Berzatto is the king of some ultra-niche menswear grails. Costume designer Courtney Wheeler's selection of outfits for the character, played by Jeremy Allen White, achieved near-instant bestseller status as soon as watchers identified the wardrobe pieces from seasons 1 and 2. There was that perfect white tee from Merz B. Schwanen, some damn nice vintage Levi's clocking in at $2,500, and now, if set photos from season 3 are to be trusted, we may be adding another banger to Carmy's coveted wardrobe: a waxed tin-cloth trench coat from Filson. Before you get your hopes up, you should know that this jacket has been discontinued. Though Filson's chief creative officer, Alex Carleton, teased a possible return to our friends at Gear Patrol—"We regularly reissue products from our archives. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the Duster's return if there's sufficient interest"—right now the only way to score one for yourself is to hunt around on a site like eBay. (We like to imagine that's where Carmy found his, scrolling through the site and placing a bid after a very long night of cheffing and panic attacks.) |
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Is "Doomslang" Making Us All Numb? |
I never thought the end of the world would sound so casual. "How are you? Aside from the world burning and all." This has become my go-to pleasantry—the default, dystopia-flavored greeting I use on Zoom calls, emails, and catchup texts with old friends. It isn't just me: Ever since the Trump presidency, End Times vernacular seems to have trickled its way from fringe conspiracy forums into jocular chitchat among well-cushioned urbanites. In 2024, conjuring catastrophe in quotidian conversation is practically good manners. Openers like "Did you have a nice weekend?" are followed by the obligatory "I mean, other than the slow creeping demise of the planet." Social media is awash with doom-themed memes (the "This is fine" dog engulfed in flames; a screen grab of Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation saying, "Everything hurts and I'm dying"; a pleasant woodland background overlaid with "I'm thinking of joining the cicadas this summer and just screaming for six weeks straight"), emoji combinations (🧟♀️🦠💀🌎🔥⏳🥲), and colloquialisms ("dumpster fire," "hellscape," "hate it here lol"). It all seems to suggest that The End will arrive any day now… and yet, everyone is being weirdly chill about it. |
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Welcome to Add to Cart, in which Esquire editors tell you about the clothes, shoes, watches, gear, gadgets, booze, and anything else we're coveting right now. - The Editors at Esquire |
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Keyboards and screens may be necessary evils, but a great pen is an underrated joy. It turns the mundane (taking notes, keeping lists) into something genuinely enjoyable. And while I respect all the design and craftsmanship that goes into luxury pens—same with cars, watches, and fashion—I'm not going to buy one for a long, long time. I also think more people should become everyday-carry guys. You feel a lot more put together when you carry a nice pen, a nice lighter, and a pocket knife with you every day, everywhere you go. So what's the amount of money I can reasonably spend on a pen? About $20. Until I get a big salary, become an investment banker, or give up and try law school (all unlikely), there's only one pen I'm going to keep on me every day. It's the Parker Jotter. |
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Buy one TV, get another one on the house. |
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It's time to enter the future. |
| A slew of styles to get you through the warm weather. |
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We're at a watershed moment. With the introduction of titanium on the newest iPhone 15 Pro models, the iPhone phone case cottage industry is getting thrown on its head. If you have a titanium iPhone, you don't need a case anymore. The back won't crack, and the front won't crack unless you take a hammer to it. When was the last time you even rocked a caseless phone? Probably not within the last decade. Now that it's not a protection thing, we're looking at a new era of iPhone case. These days, the case is more a tool. Whether it's a tool to show off your personality or a functional tool, it's its own thing now. One of the most popular functions is as a wallet—or at least a part-time wallet. |
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