If you like: Vulture.com, David Sedaris, This American Life, Stephen Ambrose, the WB line-up circa 2000.
In the age of the think piece, there's still only one writer who stands as a cornerstone for me -- even if it has been years since she apparently dropped out of the article game for good.
At one time, Sarah Vowell was queen at combining personal observations with research, book quotes and pop culture. It was more rare around the turn of the Millenium.
Remember that time? Being a geek wasn't quite as mainstream. You had a flip-phone, if you were lucky. There was public radio, not podcasts. And Greg Berlanti was just starting out producing his first show, not half of television (and Sarah Vowell wrote about that show).
Vowell was sharp and funny and she wore her heart on her sleeve.
Her books are great, but it's the two essay collections that are not only good reads, but helped shape my idea of what a writer should be.
"Take the Cannoli" and "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" covers topics ranging from the apocalypse, Disney World, the Trail of Tears, arcade games, Tom Cruise, Canada, Abraham Lincoln, the Dallas Cowboys and what it means to be an American.
One of my favorite essays has the title "God Will Give You Blood to Drink in a Souvenir Shot Glass."
"I'm a sucker for Puritan New England and the Civil War. Because those two subjects feature the central tension of American life, the conflict between freedom and community, between individual will and the public good. That is a fancy way of hinting that sometimes other people get on my nerves."
I also like her essay pointing out that you probably shouldn't trust people who compare themselves to Rosa Parks (spoiler: it's usually a sign that person doesn't understand what disenfranchisement really is) and I like her essay about building a canon with her dad.
She encourages the reader to think, to empathize and to have fun.
While the references might come off as a little dated to some of these kids churning out the think pieces -- like a mention of Mel Gibson without predicting some of his crazier episodes from the past decade and a half -- the lessons are still there.
Still, I sometimes wonder. Mel Gibson isn't the only one who has revealed the crazy hiding underneath the surface. For someone who made a study of American life, what does Sarah Vowell see as the state of the union now?
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