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Leopard

[Fiction] A young boy plays with the truth as he skips school one day:

"Your stepfather walks toward you. He takes your chin in his thumb and forefinger, and turns your face back and forth, as though it were a piece of merchandise he was thinking about buying.

"'You must have fallen pretty easy,' he says. 'When you faint, you go down hard. You don’t have any cuts.'"

AUTHOR: Wells Tower
PUBLISHED: Nov. 10, 2008
LENGTH: 18 minutes (4559 words)
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The Whole True Story of the Dougherty Gang

Three siblings—the two brothers, carpenters, and the sister, a stripper—rob a bank and lead police on a 15-state chase. But what motivated them to do it?

"PASCO SIBLINGS SOUGHT IN SHOOTING ALSO WANTED IN GEORGIA BANK HEIST. By the evening of August 4, the FBI had issued a press release stating that the three Georgia bank robbers and the three Zephyrhills shooters were one and the same. The image of a gun-toting, bank-robbing trio of siblings hit reporters like a shot of Jack Daniel's; it was exhilarating; it was old-school. DOUGHERTY GANG ON THE LAM! Lee-Grace made the biggest splash. "A gun-toting stripper—what's not to like?" asked one commenter. A series of X-rated photographs she had taken for some guys who ran an illegitimate poker club where she gave lap dances later found their way into the public domain, most likely with a price tag."

AUTHOR: Kathy Dobie
SOURCE: GQ
PUBLISHED: Jan. 10, 2012
LENGTH: 29 minutes (7475 words)
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Making It in America

On modern manufacturing in the U.S. and the unskilled-skilled labor gap—with 92-year-old Standard Motor Products serving as a case study:

"Across America, many factory floors look radically different than they did 20 years ago: far fewer people, far more high-tech machines, and entirely different demands on the workers who remain. The still-unfolding story of manufacturing’s transformation is, in many respects, that of our economic age. It’s a story with much good news for the nation as a whole. But it’s also one that is decidedly less inclusive than the story of the 20th century, with a less certain role for people like Maddie Parlier, who struggle or are unlucky early in life."

SOURCE: The Atlantic
PUBLISHED: Jan. 10, 2012
LENGTH: 32 minutes (8102 words)
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