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The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds
Grantland’s deep dive into Diplomacy—the cutthroat board game of alliances and betrayal that has obsessed strategists, politicians, and competitive nerds for decades.
27 min · 6,193 words
You're probably using the wrong dictionary
James Somers argues that modern dictionaries give flat, pedestrian definitions, and that Noah Webster's 1913 dictionary, which John McPhee relied on for his writing, offers vivid, literary entries that make ordinary words worth looking up. The essay covers Webster's role in shaping American English and explains how to install the 1913 edition on Mac, iPhone, Android and Kindle.
15 min · 3,408 words
A Cocktail Party in the Street: An Interview with Alan Stillman
Edible Geography's 2010 interview with Alan Stillman, founder of T.G.I. Friday's and Smith & Wollensky, on how he opened the first Friday's in 1965 as a public cocktail party for single men and women in Manhattan, and how it reshaped American casual dining. An expanded version of a piece for the New City Reader food issue.
18 min · 4,085 words
Why I Wrote PGP Part of the Original 1991 PGP User's Guide (updated in 1999) "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." -Mahatma Gandhi It's personal. It's private. And it's no one's business but yours. You may be planning a political campaign, discussing your taxes, or having an illicit affair. Or you may be communicating with a political dissident in a repressive country. Whatever it is, you don't want your private electronic mail (email) or confidential documents read by anyone else. There's nothing wrong with asserting your…
8 min · 1,951 words