Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley’s two sons believed their parents were affluent, highly educated Canadians, who happened to live and work in America. In fact, they were Russian spies who had been deep undercover for several decades.
An eloquent profile of Tonya Harding, the former professional ice skater caught up in a scandal at the time of the 1994 Winter Olympics, and subject of the new Oscar contender I, Tonya. The piece encompasses poignant reflections on survival, life after infamy, and subjective views of the truth.
The 1999 piece that helped launch Anthony Bourdain’s career as a writer and broadcaster. In it, he offered readers the inside track on the restaurant industry, warts and all. It was apparently sent in to the magazine as an unsolicited manuscript.
An insight into the world of aviation enthusiasts. Their activity is memorably described – “Their interests are so basic that they seem abstract: to appreciate planes; to record them; to appreciate them by recording them; and to record their own passion for recording.” Yet the piece shows how the information that they gather about the comings and goings of air traffic (including military and VIP flights) can fan out into public and political life.
A moving and troubling piece recounting the experience of four boys abducted by a religious militia in Nigeria and forced to join their army. http://www.bit.ly//nyt-boko
This piece examines a memoir written by a former waiter at Paris’ celebrated Brasserie Lipp. In the manuscript, this unassuming man describes the horror of the Holocaust and deeds of extraordinary derring-do including infiltrating the SS, joining resistance groups, and hunting Nazis after the war whilst serving as a member of the French Foreign Legion. It’s far from clear whether large parts of the story are true or not, but perhaps that’s not the point.
The story of a couple who were on an American commercial ship sunk by a German U-Boat early in the war.
A look at the empire of a successfully returned 1980s televangelist, who gives supporters his “miracle spring water”.
The story of Joe Howlett, a disentangler who worked helping whales in distress. It is also a story about the killing of whales, and their conservation.
The story of Gherman Titov, the “bad boy cosmonaut turned elder statesman of space”.