Jack Burke, who cooked for the one percent, reveals a world where nothing is off the menu — including the client who sent lunch back seven times and the party with models, naked but for blobs of mayo

A Kentucky reseller is trying to sell a Fruit of the Loom shirt on eBay for $2,128 because she believes the tag shows a cornucopia, even though the company insists its logo never included one. She's had zero bids in a year. This MIT Technology Review piece follows the Mandela effect believers who've spent a decade seeking vindication, including a 51-year-old Massachusetts man who's been "ostracized" by family for pushing cornucopia theories and thinks physicists manipulating quantum reality might be changing the universe. Scientists say it's just memory contagion amplified by the internet. The piece explores why some people easily let false memories go while others turn conspiracy theories into their identity.

Crossroads was a tiny Texas biker bar where drag queen Beyonca Deleon ran karaoke nights that mixed bikers in leather, gays in crop tops, cowboys, college kids, liberals and conservatives into what everyone remembers as "a lovefest of humanity singing at the top of their lungs." This Noema essay argues that at a time when Americans are increasingly siloed by algorithms and residential segregation, places like Crossroads perform a sacred service by forcing social friction. The author traces the sociology of "hub spaces" versus "havens" and "hangouts," explaining why shared activities like singing supercharge bonding across diverse groups under intergroup contact theory.

In 1998, filmmaker Pamela Gordon met Craig, a 13-year-old who'd absconded from a Nottingham children's home and was sleeping in an alleyway on cardboard. She spent 18 months filming him for a Channel 4 documentary as he bounced between rough sleeping, a half-derelict squat, and the flat of Jodie, an 18-year-old heroin addict who became his unlikely protector. His mother said he was "a nightmare" and there was no sign he'd ever lived in her house. This Guardian piece follows Craig for 27 years as he cycled through 170 offenses, taught himself to live as "a druggie" because he knew how, and panicked at jobcentre appointments feeling "like I'm 13 years old again." It wasn't until 2019, when an inquiry revealed decades of sexual abuse at Beechwood House, that Gordon learned what Craig had been running from. On June 29, 2025, he was found dead on steps a mile from that original alleyway, released into emergency accommodation after his final prison stint with nowhere else to go.

Really hope you enjoyed the selection of stories today. I am always interested in hearing from you. If you have thoughts on how I can make this email even better, do not hesitate to reach out.

Brett

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