We asked Outline staffers what their favorite stories of 2018 were. Here they are, in no particular order.
Neopets was run by Scientologists
This piece by Sarah Bellman destroyed the nostalgia any of us may have had for our Kacheeks on the virtual pet-raising site. “[Investors] hired this lady who wanted to bring Scientology to onto the site,” Neopets co-creator Adam Powell told Bellman. “We fought that as hard as we could.”
The million-dollar brownstone that no one owned
Cole Louison untangles the mystery that left him without a home: who owned the house from which he was mysteriously evicted?
Dear Fuck-Up: Should I apologize to the women I’ve hurt?
Our resident fuck-up Brandy Jensen’s bimonthly advice column is always a good read, and this particular edition resonated deeply.
Unconventional Wisdom: Religion is not always about certainty
Phil Christman writes about the fluidity of his faith: “I don’t want to abandon Christ because he occasionally fails to act as my personal Mood Improver. And my tradition tells me that there are things I can know about God by enduring through these dry periods. It’d be nice to find out whether that’s true. I can’t do that without staking the one life I have that it is.”
24 hours at my local Dunkin' Donuts
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to spend 24 hours at a Dunkin’ Donuts? So did Laura Yan: “I’ve been living on-and-off in Crown Heights for the past few years, and I’ve grown to love my neighborhood. Yet the customers of [my local] Dunkin’ Donuts felt like complete strangers who lived in a different world. I didn’t want to be so far away from that world: I wanted to get to know them. So I decided to spend 24 hours there. This is what it was like.”
My dad painted the iconic cover for Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung,’ and it’s haunted him ever since
In this moving, wide-ranging essay, Robert Silverman examines his father’s most famous work, and how a record company ripped him off.
All hail the monumental-horror image
“You may not have heard of the monumental-horror image before, but like the Supreme Court and pornography, you know it when you see it,” writes Sean T. Collins. Here are 57 creepy examples.
Academics explain David Foster Wallace to me
A conference on David Foster Wallace might sound like the most insufferable thing in the world, but Daniel Kolitz’s experience at it was actually kind of nice, and only a little awkward.
How to beat LinkedIn: The game
Joe Veix shows us how the impossible — beating LinkedIn: The game — is possible.
How everything on the internet became clickbait
“Why Do Humans Consume News?” asks Kevin Munger. “So They Aren’t the Only Ones Who Don’t Know Who The Fuck Yanny and Laurel Are.”
Delaware’s opioid crisis
Paul Blest returns to his hometown, Wilmington, to see how the opioid crisis has ravaged it.
What is my dog?
Kelly Conaboy paid the $189 to find out who her rescue dog, Peter, really was.
Ethics in news consumption
Can you be a good person if you don’t read the news? Yes, says Leah Finnegan.
The booming business of luxury chicken diapers
Anything can be sold in capitalism, including very nice diapers for your chicken.
Breaking Monopoly
Jeremy Gordon rewrites the rules for the interminable real-estate game.
Rainbow Farm: The domestic siege that time forgot
A standoff at a pot farm in Michigan ended up with two men shot dead by the FBI. It was big news — until 9/11 happened about a week later.
How to deal with jet lag
Inveterate globetrotter Vincent Bevins offers his tips for coping with jet lag — including learning to love it.
