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The Washington Post
‘Dad, I Feel Like I Want to Die’
Every once in a while, you run into one of those long magazine-style Sunday newspaper articles that you think you’ll just skim but inextricably grabs you and draws you in. Stephanie McCrummen’s ambitious piece on Creigh Deeds was one of those I didn’t expect to read to the end, but it was so powerful, so gripping, that it was impossible to put down. Mr. Deeds was the Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia just a few years ago, but disaster struck a year ago when his mentally disturbed son brutally attacked him with a knife and then killed himself. Ms. McCrummen, one of America’s most talented writers, managed to get Mr. Deeds to let her into his troubled, tormented life as he struggles a year later to make sense of a senseless tragedy. — Peter Baker
Pro Publica/NPR
Black Mark on the Red Cross
During Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Isaac, Americans donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Red Cross, trusting that the charity would know how to distribute aid and help victims of the storms. But their trust was misplaced. Uncharacteristically, the Red Cross botched the job. Supervisors ordered dozens of trucks usually deployed to deliver aid to be driven around nearly empty instead, “just to be seen.” And that’s just the beginning of a long list of misdeeds, leaving hundreds of victims in the lurch, according to this investigation by ProPublica and NPR. — Samantha Storey
Medium
Forgiving Till It Hurts
How do we process and respond to the cruelties of the world? By choosing to see people as mere reductions of their malice and resentment? Or with kindness? Cord Jefferson tackles these big questions in this touching essay — called “On Kindness” — about his mother, her cancer and the challenges of rising above anger. — Dan Saltzstein
Hazlitt
The ‘MeFites’ Are Family
In 1999, the website MetaFilter began as a “weblog” for sharing links to “the best of the Internet.” But over time a community grew up in the comments of this old-school site, turning it into a venerable online institution, a family, a collective of people using pseudonyms who would sometimes connect in real life to help one another in extraordinary ways. Stephen Thomas writes about his experiences and those of other MeFites at Hazlitt, an online magazine from Random House of Canada. — Patrick LaForge
Astronomy Central
It Takes a Solar System
You feel small? You’ll feel even smaller when you examine this stunning exploration of the scale of the solar system by John Brady, the founder of the website Astronomy Central. Earth is a squirt. Jupiter is the king. — Dave Smith