Some of these certainly flew under the radar, but here are 20 things the US government did this week. / Wake Up to Politics
A surprising number of Americans think they live in the Midwest, even when they're as far away as Colorado or Arkansas. / The Wall Street Journal
See also: A brief but fascinating history of US accents and dialects. / Smithsonian Magazine
A higher-than-normal number of restaurant closings in New York City can be attributed to the fact that sales haven't returned to pre-pandemic numbers, but rents have. / Eater
One theory as to what actually killed Pitchfork: Streaming and AI-based recommendations are a lethal combination for human-generated music writing. / Platformer
Another theory: New music is bad business for labels, who'd rather plunder established catalogs, and platforms, who'd rather generate musician-free tracks. / The Honest Broker
See also: People hated Pitchfork because it mattered. / Hell Gate
A look back at how the artist-first social network Ello, seduced by investors, met an untimely end. / Waxy
“It's a parasitic plant that grows around Mt. Takao… I just added them on a whim.” What Kazuo Oga of Studio Ghibli thinks about when he thinks about backgrounds. / Animation Obsessive
Remembering when, in 1983, When Nick Cave and the Birthday Party played to 30 people at a show in Dallas. / Dallas Observer
In 1976, a Massachusetts judge made headlines by saying he couldn't rule on a cocaine trial unless he'd tried it first, and then attempted to legalize the drug. / Weird Universe
Ten of the world's greatest sandwich styles. / Atlas Obscura