One of mine is this 2013 Deadspin piece by Jeb Lund about horse racing's image problem. I can pull it up any time I've reached the end of my social feeds and have a great time. Lund's always been a terrific writer - him and Dan O'Sullivan are also responsible for writing Andrew Brietbart: Big Deal, Big Coronary, Big Corpse, which is another of my favorite comfort longreads and (in my opinion) is responsible for forever changing the tenor of how huge pieces of shit like Brietbart get talked about after death. But the horse racing piece has always especially stuck with me.
Anyone else have things like that? Articles and essays you carry around with you like a photo in a locket? If so you have to tell me what they are
Every time I read this essay, it leaves me alternating between crying with laughter and howling with despair. Some choice quotes:
The only reason coders’ computers work better than non-coders’ computers is coders know computers are schizophrenic little children with auto-immune diseases and we don’t beat them when they’re bad.
Every programmer occasionally, when nobody’s home, turns off the lights, pours a glass of scotch, puts on some light German electronica, and opens up a file on their computer.
I traded [the ability to lift objects weighing up to fifty pounds] for the opportunity to trim Satan’s pubic hair while he dines out of my open skull so a few bits of the internet will continue to work for a few more days.
