Lunch Break Reads: October 30, 2025

The weekend is almost here!

We've got some heavy stories for today’s lunch break about justice gone wrong, institutions under pressure, and the slow collapse of things we used to take for granted.

First, a beloved Texas day care owner sentenced to fifty years for a baby's death, convicted on forensic evidence that later fell apart. Then, a look inside Costco's cult-like devotion and whether the retailer can survive its own success as the founders fade away. After that, a blistering essay arguing that America's ruling class has deliberately chosen illiteracy, letting kids rot on TikTok while Chinese students actually learn to read.

And we're closing with something lighter: a Jazz Age Adrian Monk in Seattle who invented modern forensics, broke astrological murder codes, and once caught a killer by noticing an out-of-place handsaw at age 17.

Plus: a furloughed IRS lawyer living his hot dog vendor dreams, the evolutionary history of pumpkins, and the winner of Fat Squirrel Week.

Grab your lunch. Let's go.

Brett

She Ran Waco’s Most Sought-After Daycare. Until an Infant’s Death Turned the Community Against Her.

A beloved Waco day care owner was sentenced to fifty years for killing a four-month-old with Benadryl, convicted largely on the testimony of parents whose children's hair tested positive for the drug—tests that were later discredited. This Texas Monthly investigation unravels a case where almost every judge who reviewed it found something wrong, yet Marian Fraser has been tried twice and convicted both times.

www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/marian-fraser-waco-day-care-death-benadryl

Can the Golden Age of Costco Last?

This New Yorker deep dive explores why Costco inspires almost religious devotion among its members, tracing the company's rise from a 1983 Seattle warehouse to a global retail juggernaut with 145 million members who say things like "my Costco." But beneath the feel-good narrative about generous wages and loyal workers, the article uncovers growing tensions: unionization efforts, complaints about Wall Street pressure eroding the company culture, and questions about whether Costco can maintain its values as founding leaders step away.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/27/can-the-golden-age-of-costco-last

We Used to Read Things in This Country

This essay from Noah McCormack argues America is regressing into a new Dark Age as literacy collapses. Tracing literacy as class struggle from feudal Europe to today, it shows how elites once needed educated workers but now, drunk on AI fantasies, believe they don't. While China restricts screen time and invests in education (97% literacy versus America's 79%), American elites embrace illiteracy: rich kids attend device-free schools while poor kids spend hours on TikTok and use ChatGPT for essays.

thebaffler.com/salvos/we-used-to-read-things-in-this-country-mccormack

The Wildest Case Ever Solved by Seattle’s True Detective

This Seattle Met profile resurrects Luke May, a Jazz Age private detective who built modern forensics from his stately Seattle office and solved hundreds of murders through painstaking science. May invented a 400-pound microscope, developed fingerprint powder, broke secret codes, and taught cops how to actually investigate crimes instead of just guessing. His strangest case came in 1923 Oregon, where a housewife was found dead with her face stained black from ammonia.

www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2025/09/real-detective-seattle-luke-may