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Best New Yorker U.S. Journal

U.S. Journal features reporting from across America. These pieces explore American life, communities, and stories beyond the coasts.

10 picks · 1972–2023

Top authors: Calvin Trillin (7), Mark Singer (2), Paige Williams (1)

A Small-Town Paper Lands a Very Big Story
Paige Williams · July 31, 2023

In Southeast Oklahoma, a father-son reporting duo’s series on the county sheriff led to an explosive revelation.

Tamales on the Delta
Calvin Trillin · January 6, 2014

A culinary festival in a world capital.

The High Mark
Mark Singer · March 25, 2002

Mark Singer on Cooke City, Montana, where “high-marking”—a dangerous snowmobiling sport—is king.

I Pledge Allegiance
Mark Singer · November 26, 2001

A liberal town’s school system meets the new patriotism.

AN ATTEMPT TO COMPILE A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO CHICKEN WING
Calvin Trillin · August 25, 1980

U.S. JOURNAL: BUFFALO, N.Y., about the custom, unique to Buffalo, of treating the chicken wing as a culinary specialty. The writer intended a short history…

Confessions of a Grownup Trick-or-Treater
Calvin Trillin · November 20, 1978

Calvin Trillin on the origins of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and why the New York neighborhood is particularly suited—in spirit and architecture—to celebrating the holiday.

Stalking the Barbecued Mutton
Calvin Trillin · February 7, 1977

U.S. JOURNAL: KENTUCKY about barbecued mutton, a unique regional specialty of western Kentucky. With Tom Chaney, a Kentuckian, the writer resolves to seek …

Swissness
Calvin Trillin · January 20, 1975

New Glarus, Wis. emphasizes its Swiss heritage in order to draw tourists. The promotion that helped increase the tourist traffic mostly dramatically in the…

The Lower East Side: A Sunday-Morning Tale
Calvin Trillin · February 24, 1973

Calvin Trillin’s Sunday-morning visits to Russ & Daughters, Tanenbaum’s, and Ben’s Dairy, on the Lower East Side, to buy breakfast ingredients for the perfect bagel with lox and cream cheese.

Eating Crawfish in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Calvin Trillin · May 20, 1972

From 1972: Calvin Trillin writes that there are crawfish (or crayfish, or crawdads) all over the country, but outside of Louisiana they are all but ignored.

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