Opinion & Columns

More than 100 judges from the likes of Esquire, Bon Appetit, and Vanity Fair narrowed the field of finalists, including these from IM's 2013 issues.

"What a joy it must be to condemn people while simultaneously appearing so virtuous and true, so all-American."

Editor’s Note: Our correspondent, Alex Farris, is a research writer with the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery in Mooresville. As part of Operation Walk, he recently traveled to Guatemala with a surgeon from the clinic, Dr. Merrill Ritter, and agreed to update IM with a series of dispatches. Read the first here. The second installment follows.

I was stopped at a traffic light not long ago and noticed, off to my right in front of a strip mall, a person dressed as the Statue of Liberty standing in the rain. In the past year, I’ve seen three Statues of Liberty, two Uncle Sams, and one Little Caesar. The weather in each instance was unpleasant, either boiling hot, rainy, or bitterly cold. But there they stood, beside the road, waving to passersby, directing potential customers to a place of business.

We’ve forgotten how to die in this country. Death with dignity? Fuhgeddaboudit. Not so long as there are fortunes to be made in keeping us alive.

Our own Deborah Paul was in L.A. for the 2012 Oscars, red carpet and all.

I don’t believe the world will end this month, as the Mayan calendar dubiously predicts. But Robert Vicino is banking on Armageddon—or some other life-extinction scenario, be it nuclear war, meteorite, solar storms, bacon shortage. The California businessman hawks subterranean bunkers (“Doomsday Profit”), one of which resides in Indiana. The Cold War–esque lairs by Vicino’s Vivos Group come complete with flat-screen TVs and stainless-steel appliances for the low, low price of $50,000 a space.

Our Indiana expert explores what climate change in Indiana will look like.

When I read about the opioid crisis, I wonder why my plight goes unreported.

Boilermakers everywhere were overcome with emotion as Purdue made the Final Four.