Cafe

Thoughts on Charlotte's Web

Published December 17, 2013

The best children's book of all time, right?  One thing, though.  The famous words of Charlotte's first web to save Wilbur were, of course, "Some Pig".  Wasn't that just a little off? Our two favorite passages in the book are below:

"But we have received a sign, Edith--a mysterious sign. A miracle has happened on this farm...in the middle of the web were the words 'Some Pig"...we have no ordinary pig."  "Well, said Mrs. Zuckerman, "it seems to me you're a little off.  It seems to me we have no ordinary spider."

"You have been my best friend.  That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you.  After all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.  A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies.  By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."

Our 5 Favorite Articles of 2013

Published December 17, 2013

This was hard! So many amazing pieces from so many great authors--as we near year's end.  Our bias are for those stories about the peculiar human condition though--the ones that stir us a little without hitting us over the head.  Predictably, there are pieces from the New York Times, the Atlantic and The New Yorker--but we also listed a little known piece reprinted in Medium by a writer you probably never heard of, which might be our favorite of all.  It's called "Celebrate Small" and pays tribute to all the wonderfulness of great, small businesses instead of to the flash of the big and shiny...

"The Gift of Siblings" by Frank Bruni, The New York Times

"My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me" by Karl Tao Greenfield, The Atlantic Magazine

"Now We Are Five--A Big Family, at the Beach" by David Sedaris, The New Yorker

"The Secret Life of Grief", by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic Magazine

"Celebrate Small", by Corbett Barr, Reprinted in Medium