The New York Times Magazine - 16-06-2019

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THE DAY
THE MUSIC
BURNED
In 2008, the world’s largest
record company lost much
of America’s musical heritage —
and kept it mostly a secret.
Until now.
By Jody Rosen
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June 16, 2019
9 Screenland Reality Hunger By Caity Weaver / 13 Talk Mindy Kaling By David Marchese / 16 The Ethicist A Husband’s Will By Kwame Anthony Appiah
18 Letter of Recommendation Bug Fixes By Paul Ford / 20 Eat How to Make Perfect Sweet Potatoes Every Time By Samin Nosrat
22 Field of Dreams 26 The Day the Music Burned 36 ‘We Are the People We Serve’ 40 The Grass Ceiling
By Mark Leibovich / How do By Jody Rosen / After a 2008 fire By Zoë Beery / As state legislatures By Lizzy Goodman / As the U.S.
you unite a fractious Democratic gutted one of its storage facilities, pass new abortion restrictions women’s national soccer
base and plot a winning the nation’s largest record company across the South and Midwest, team defends its World Cup title
strategy against Trump? No one claimed that little of importance a small, local organization, the in France, its members are
seems to know, but that isn’t had been lost. In fact, the blaze Mississippi Reproductive Freedom preparing for a courtroom battle
stopping an ungodly number of destroyed the master recordings Fund, follows its own compass over equal pay in America.
candidates from giving it a try. of some of the most iconic American on how to best help clients.
artists of the 20th century.
Tom Petty during the recording of the album

‘‘Damn the Torpedoes’’ in March 1979. Page 26.
Photograph by Joel Bernstein
4 Contributors / 6 The Thread / 12 Poem / 16 Judge John Hodgman / 19 Tip / 52, 53, 54 Puzzles / 53 Puzzle Answers
Behind the Cover Jake Silverstein, editor in chief: ‘‘This was a pretty straightforward idea, executed powerfully by Sean Freeman, but we struggled for a while with the question
of which American artist to feature on the cover. It’s difficult to choose a single figure to represent American music. Ultimately, we settled on Chuck Berry, because his influence is so
pivotal and the historical value of his master recordings is so obviously indisputable.’’ Photo illustration by Sean Freeman. Source photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Copyright © 2019 The New York Times 3

Contributors
Jody Rosen ‘‘The Day the Editor in Chief JAKE SILVERSTEIN

Deputy Editors JESSICA LUSTIG,
Music Burned,’’ BILL WASIK
Page 26 Managing Editor ERIKA SOMMER
Design Director GAIL BICHLER
Jody Rosen is a contributing writer for Director of Photography KATHY RYAN
Art Director MATT WILLEY
the magazine. His book about the history
Features Editor ILENA SILVERMAN
of the bicycle will be published in 2020. Politics Editor CHARLES HOMANS
Culture Editor SASHA WEISS
This week he writes about a 2008 fire that Digital Director BLAKE WILSON
destroyed more than 100,000 Universal Story Editors NITSUH ABEBE,
MICHAEL BENOIST,
Music Group master recordings. ‘‘A master SHEILA GLASER,
is an odd kind of cultural treasure,’’ Rosen CLAIRE GUTIERREZ,
JAZMINE HUGHES,
says. ‘‘A record producer I interviewed put it LUKE MITCHELL,
well: ‘A master tape doesn’t look precious DEAN ROBINSON,
WILLY STALEY
or valuable. It looks like something your mom At War Editor LAUREN KATZENBERG
Assistant Managing Editor JEANNIE CHOI
would yell at you for bringing home.’ Yet
Associate Editors IVA DIXIT,
it is an irreplaceable primary-source artifact. KYLE LIGMAN
Poetry Editor RITA DOVE
Our ability to continue listening to much of the Staff Writers SAM ANDERSON,
music we love, through whatever technological EMILY BAZELON,
RONEN BERGMAN,
Photographed by Kathy Ryan at The New York Times changes the future brings, is tied to the TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER,
on March 2, 2017, at 4:17 p.m. preservation of these weird analog relics.’’ C. J. CHIVERS,
PAMELA COLLOFF,
NICHOLAS CONFESSORE,
SUSAN DOMINUS,
MAUREEN DOWD,
Zoë Beery ‘‘ ‘We Are the Zoë Beery is a freelance journalist and NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES,
People We Serve,’ ’’ a former editor at the Village Voice who covers JENEEN INTERLANDI,
MARK LEIBOVICH,
Page 36
reproductive health and sex work. JONATHAN MAHLER,
DAVID MARCHESE,
This is her first article for the magazine. WESLEY MORRIS,
JENNA WORTHAM
At War Reporter JOHN ISMAY
Lizzy Goodman ‘‘The Grass Ceiling,’’ Lizzy Goodman is a journalist and the author of New York Times Fellow JAKE NEVINS
Page 40 ‘‘Meet Me in the Bathroom,’’ an oral history Digital Art Director KATE L A RUE
Deputy Art Director BEN GRANDGENETT
of music in New York City from 2001-11. She last Designers CLAUDIA RUBÍN,
wrote about the musician Kacey Musgraves. RACHEL WILLEY
Deputy Director of Photography JESSICA DIMSON
Associate Photo Editors STACEY BAKER,
AMY KELLNER
Mark Leibovich ‘‘Field of Dreams,’’ Mark Leibovich is a staff writer for the Photo Assistant PIA PETERSON
Page 22 magazine and the author of ‘‘Big Game: Copy Chief ROB HOERBURGER
Copy Editors HARVEY DICKSON,
The NFL in Dangerous Times.’’ He last wrote DANIEL FROMSON,
about the 2020 Republican primary race. MARGARET PREBULA,
ANDREW WILLETT
Head of Research NANDI RODRIGO
Caity Weaver Screenland, Caity Weaver is a writer at large for the magazine Research Editors ALEX CARP,
CYNTHIA COTTS,
Page 9 and a writer for the New York Times Styles JAMIE FISHER,
section. She last wrote for the magazine about LU FONG,
TIM HODLER,
riding a train across the United States. ROBERT LIGUORI,
LIA MILLER,
STEVEN STERN,
Dear Reader: Is Monogamy 9%

Yes
25%
Probably Production Chief
MARK VAN DE WALLE,
BILL VOURVOULIAS
ANICK PLEVEN
Overrated? Production Editors PATTY RUSH,

HILARY SHANAHAN
Editorial Administrator LIZ GERECITANO BRINN
Every week the magazine publishes the results Editorial Assistant ASTHA RAJVANSHI
of a study conducted online in July 2018 by

The New York Times’s research-and-analytics
NYT MAG LABS
department, reflecting the opinions of
Editorial Director CAITLIN ROPER
4,151 subscribers who chose to participate. Art Director
37% 29% DEB BISHOP
NYT for Kids Editor AMBER WILLIAMS
No Probably Associate Editor LOVIA GYARKYE
Not Designer NAJEEBAH AL-GHADBAN
Managing Director, The New York Times Magazine and Vice President, Media: MAGGIE KISELICK Vice Presidents, Media: ELIZABETH WEBBE LUNNY and LAURA SONNENFELD Executive Directors:
JULIAN AHYE (Advocacy, Health Care, Media and Travel) ⬤ MICHAEL GILBRIDE (Fashion, Luxury and Beauty) ⬤ GUY GRIGGS (Auto, Tech and Finance) ⬤ ADAM HARGIS (Home, CPG, Spirits and Real
Estate) ⬤ SHARI KAPLAN (Live Entertainment and N.Y. Studios) ⬤ NANCY KARPF (Fine Arts, Books and Education) ⬤ BRENDAN WALSH (Story X Partnerships) National Sales Office Executive Directors:
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Partnerships: ANDY WRIGHT Global Head of Advertising and Marketing Solutions: SEBASTIAN TOMICH
4 6.16.19
4FREEDOMS
freedom of speech freedom from want

freedom of worship freedom from fear
e d
a d g
n lo .or
o w ism
F d bil
o
PD m 40NINE.COM
@
The Thread
Readers respond to the 5.19.2019 issue. for transitional or palliative care. If I Readers respond to the 6.2.2019 issue.
was having a discussion with a family
RE: HOSPICE CARE FOR CHILDREN about changing our focus of care from RE: A STAR IS MADE
Helen Ouyang wrote about pediatric hospice curative to comfort care, I would often For our annual New York Issue, we featured
centers that provide care and comfort for discuss G.M.C.H. as an option and rec- 12 performers who have made New York
dying children and their families. ommend that they visit to see if it was City their stage.
of interest to them. Financial stresses on
G.M.C.H. to stay open over the last 10 THE STORY,
I have over 500 beautifully cataloged
years have forced many changes. Sadly, ON INSTAGRAM and bound Playbills, collected over
no longer can patients be transferred a 60-or-so-year period — a luxurious
I could not love
quickly, due to insurance and medical this type
hobby, to say the least. Before the show,
eligibility requirements. And due to treatment more! I always read about the ‘‘leads,’’ but I’ve
these financial stresses, often patients So fun! never paid much attention to the ‘‘swing.’’
do not meet requirements necessitating @melinda_keough In fact, I didn’t know, until Scott Heller’s
prolongation of their hospitalization. We wonderful article, what a swing was. I
need better financial support for these will now read about the swing imme-
important services. diately and pay careful attention to the
C.G., San Francisco Bay Area, Calif. role. Good for you, Angelo Soriano. And
thanks, Mr. Heller.
RE: DIAGNOSIS Larry Diamond, New York
Dr. Lisa Sanders wrote about an elusive
Caring for and being with a loved one case of cancer in a young boy that no doctor
immediately before and during their could prove.
death are not experiences that every-
one will have. These are experiences As a retired physician, I found Dr. Sand-
that transform us. What is being done at ers’s most recent case very interesting.
Crescent Cove shows how being sensi- However, I would like to thank her for
tive and kind both to those who are dying mentioning Dr. William Gahl and his
and to those who will continue living is Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the
so essential. Hopefully, such tender places National Institutes of Health. I have had
will become part of health care through- the pleasure of working with Dr. Gahl
out our country. with children who have had cystinosis, a
Dan Zibman, Princeton Junction, N.J. rare disease that he helped to define, thus
making the lives of hundreds of children
I am writing this letter to thank you for much better. I think he represents many at
publishing Dr. Helen Ouyang’s article the N.I.H., C.D.C. and F.D.A. who do great
‘‘The Goodbye Home.’’ Information about work to keep the people in this country Rarely do I read through every article, but
and access to pediatric hospice care is a healthy and safe. So often we hear how last Sunday’s issue was divine. The careful-
large hole in our health care system in little government workers do and maybe ly curated stories and photos captured the
the United States. Sadly, we cannot cure they are not needed. Dr. Gahl and other unstoppable need of the human creative
everyone, but we can intervene to make a federal workers are working for us with spirit to soar, no matter the odds. This is an
better quality of life for children and fam- little or no credit, but without them this issue I will keep to inspire me. Thank you.
ilies when the focus of care changes. The country would not be as great as it is. Rosemary Ravinal
centers reported on in this article are Bruce Kaiser, Medford Lakes, N.J.
trying to provide this. We need to work As the son of a talented pianist and piano
on funding options for these services. teacher, the late Gloria Spiegler, I was
As a pediatric subspecialist in the Bay delighted to see that ‘‘the lounge pianist’’
Area, I began to refer patients to George lives on in Earl Rose, who performs at the
Mark Children’s House when it opened marvelous and legendary Carlyle Hotel.
about 15 years ago. It is truly a remark- My mother performed at many hotels and
Photographs by Brenda Ann Kenneally
able place. Initially, if a patient’s health ‘Before the private clubs in western Pennsylvania, and
was declining rapidly in the hospital, show, I always this facet of her work was the greatest joy
it was possible to transfer them in less of her 60-plus-year career: the contact with
than 24 hours to the beautiful homelike read about the grateful listeners, many of whom became
setting, where they could receive care ‘‘leads,’’ but I’ve friends, kept her going into her 80s. May
focused on their needs, if that fit with never paid this vestige of another era never die.
the desires of the family. Whenever pos- Oren Spiegler, South Strabane Township, Pa.
sible, we would plan at least a few days much attention
or weeks in advance to transfer patients to the ‘‘swing.’’ ’ Send your thoughts to magazine@nytimes.com.
6 6.16.19 Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri

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Screenland
Reality Hunger
Britney Spears’s Instagram account reveals how

illegible ‘‘authentic’’ selves have become on social media.
⬤ By Caity Weaver ⬤ However meager our lives,
celebrity Instagram accounts offer certain reliable
comforts: front-facing studio-quality portraits of
our favorite stars standing or sitting alone in careful
outfits; a high percentage of photos taken from the
manubrium up, so that our entire phone screen is
6.16.19 9
Screenland
dominated by their proportional features. someone has spent decades living the a typographical exhortation about staying
And, if the celebrity is Beyoncé-level cloistered existence of one of the most
The footage ‘‘extra sparkly’’ or a musing from Nietzsche
Source images of Spears: Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images;
famous, a gorgeous unending color story successful entertainers of all time, and has presents Spears about an artist’s inability to endure what
we can fall through forever: a block of a limited understanding of what a regu- as a human is known as ‘‘reality.’’ But her most mem-
white, silver, gold and indigo clearly curat- lar person is like? The aberrant Instagram orable, jolting posts are ones that crop up
ed by someone with the patience to learn account of Britney Spears.
GIF, repeating every once in a while, seemingly with no
color theory. This is the fame trade-off in On Spears’s Instagram, the light is uncal- small motions rhyme or reason to their frequency: Brit-
2019: We give them attention and a lightly ibrated — as likely to charge in from floor- ad infinitum. ney, alone, pretending to be walking on a
engaged readership with the potential to to-ceiling windows offering 360-degree runway inside her home.
Mike Windle/Contour/Getty Images.
translate to advertising revenue; they give California views as to issue from a single The plot of each is roughly the same:
us stylized, intimate glimpses of a life more overhead light bulb located behind her, Spears quickly struts straight-as-an-arrow
elegant and photogenic than our own. casting her face in shadow. Her feed is a toward the camera in a selection of outfits
What is the result when someone place where frenetic, solitary dance rou- that are not particularly fancy — the sort of
ignores these conventions and attempts tines are performed with total commit- clothes a woman might have in her closet,
to use their account like a regular person? ment for Spears’s unseen reflection in the if she had one: a red off-shoulder minidress
Clashing colors, ‘‘Minions’’ memes and mirror of her home gym, which is lined with glittering embroidery; a red off-shoul-
cellphone videos shot from the middle with purple string lights. It is a place where der minidress with flamenco sleeves. The
distance. What is the result when that Britney can share her favorite quotes, be it editing is fast, amateurish and jarring;
10 6.16.19 Photo illustration by Mike McQuade

frequently Spears is back at her point of ori- learn how to edit video clips? And, most Spears’s May 28 published, her Instagram account featured
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse —
gin striding forward in a new outfit before perplexing, what does she want us to feel Instagram runway its first new post in months (an unusual-
video has attracted
she has finished walking out of frame in when we watch? Is she to be viewed as more than
ly long fallow period; before the hiatus
her old one. Every video is overlaid with an innocent girl playing dress-up? An announcement, a typical rate was several
Getty Images. Opening page: Screen grab from Instagram.
28,000 comments.
music, by artists ranging from Beyoncé to empowered stylish woman stomping posts per week). It was an image of an inspi-
Tracy Chapman to Britney Spears. There is across marble floors she bought herself ? rational quote, alongside the caption ‘‘We
a surreal lack of momentum to the clips; A sexy human Barbie with an infinite all need to take time for a little ‘me time.’ :)’’
Spears never seems bound for anywhere closet? Regardless of intention, the clips Subsequent posts have made it clear that
in her vibrantly demonstrated ensembles. are illegible, generating primarily a voy- Spears is continuing to care for herself. She
The footage presents her as a human GIF, eur’s guilty, mystified confusion. made a series of funny faces at the camera
repeating small motions with minute Spears’s mental and physical well-being ‘‘after therapy.’’ She reclined peacefully on
adjustments ad infinitum in the hallways, has been a subject of renewed specu- an inflatable peacock in her lapis pool.
passages, corridors and loggias of the Ital- lation in recent months, ever since she But rather than deterring gossip, each
ianate airplane-hangar where she lives. canceled a planned Las Vegas residency new post has only watered the conspira-
Because the videos are a kind of art and announced an ‘‘indefinite work hia- cy theories flowering in the tens of thou-
brut expressionism, empty of context, tus’’ in January. In April, TMZ reported sands of comments beneath it. Would a
they fill viewers with questions. Who is that she had checked into a mental health message authored by Spears really feature
filming? Why these clothes? Did Spears facility. An hour before the TMZ story was an emoticon smiley, when history has
11
Screenland
demonstrated her preference for emoji? Every generation with exasperation, she addressed the lens: skirts, dragging them ever higher on her
Would Spears really post herself work- ‘‘For those of you who don’t think I post my thighs, before suddenly, rotely, strutting
ing out to a Michael Jackson song two produces a youth own videos, I did this video yesterday. So, toward the camera. Decades of perform-
months after her former choreographer icon hounded you’re wrong! But I hope you like it.’’ And ing have given Spears uncommon poise in
(and rumored former romantic partner) into instability then there was Spears, in a pink dress, a heels, but the display is slightly off-kilter.
Wade Robson accused Jackson of years white dress, a blue dress, shifting back and She doesn’t smile. Because Spears is on a
of sexual abuse in a well-publicized doc- and dissolution forth against the exterior walls of her cav- ‘‘hiatus,’’ this was ostensibly a peek at her
umentary — with a hairstyle and outfit by fame; for ernous palace, clutching at the hems of her free time. But it certainly looks like a job.
identical to those in a video she posted millennials who
13 months earlier? Do apple emoji mean
the legend Britney Jean Spears is about to grew up
release a single called ‘‘Apple Pie’’ or does listening to Top Poem Selected by Rita Dove
that song not exist? 40, it’s Britney.
It’s widely known (though never To the brimming coffers of testimonials about the heart, Maya Phillips adds her fierce
acknowledged on her page) that Spears’s poem — a Father’s Day card with a twist. The heart that powered this father to his mortal
adult welfare is under the conservatorship conclusion has been the source of his charm as well as the driving force behind his all-
of her father. Although herself a mother of too-human paternal shortcomings. An examination of the defective organ yields no easy
two adolescents, Spears is legally unable platitudes about love. The verdict? Forgiveness and, finally, understanding — perhaps
to make personal or financial decisions the most caring gifts a daughter has to offer. In the end, aren’t we all listening hard so we
without his oversight; even minor inci- can find the beat on a crowded dance floor?
dental purchases are tracked. Inevitably,
this arrangement leads people to wonder if
Spears is slapping on a smiley face because
she wants to or because she has been
ordered to by the entity in charge of her.
In recent months, the hashtag #FreeBrit-
ney has gained popularity on social media
among fans who suspect the latter.
Every generation produces a youth icon Ode to My Father’s Failed Heart
hounded into instability and dissolution By Maya Phillips
by fame; for millennials who grew up lis-
tening to Top 40, it’s Britney. The last time
the public watched Spears this closely, It’s okay. I, too, have failed
they mainly saw her in moments frozen at the expected, have sputtered
by paparazzi zoom lenses: Britney with and choked like a rusty valve
a tonsure of long brunette hair studying
in water, have jumped into the pool
her reflection in a salon mirror mid-self-
shear. Spears bleary-eyed and frantic in
only to sink. Little engine, your flawed
the back of an ambulance. Now the photos machinery is nothing like love. You limp
are coming from inside the house — they at last call to the dance floor,
must, to convince an audience of casual but feel no shame
observers that she is not being held hos- in your offbeat two-step,
tage. Spears is allowed to exist out of the your eleventh-hour shuffle
public eye but only if she can prove her in a dead man’s shoes.
existence by sharing private videos of her- There’s nothing left
self with the public. Instagram has made it
but the encore, so go ahead:
not only easier but virtually obligatory for
celebrities seeking favor to show scenes relax, unravel
from their home lives. Yet the histrionic like a loosened knot. Overripe
reactions below Spears’s posts (‘‘Some- fruit in his chest, you blush
thing is very wrong here’’) suggests view- with uncertainty, bruise yourself
ers are seeking not real-life depictions but tender; little heart, tiny treasure,
the boudoir photo equivalent. sweeten to the point of spoil.
Spears’s most recent runway video
opened with Spears before a garment
rack — her eyes rimmed in makeup as
Rita Dove is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a former poet laureate of the United States. She edited ‘‘The Penguin
black as midnight reflected in an infinity
Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry,’’ and her ‘‘Collected Poems: 1974-2004’’ was published in 2016.
pool — angling a phone camera onto her- Maya Phillips has been published in At Length, BOAAT, Ghost Proposal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl and The
self from above. In a perky voice edged Gettysburg Review, among others. Her debut poetry collection, ‘‘Erou,’’ is coming in fall 2019 from Four Way Books.
12 6.16.19 Illustration by R. O. Blechman

Talk By David Marchese
Mindy Kaling on being a boss and how fear improves

diversity. ‘It used to be that if you had one person of
color on a show, that would be considered ‘‘enough.’’ ’
Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya 13

Talk
At 39, Mindy Kaling somehow seems would say, ‘‘You’re so brave to wear those Below: Mindy everyone called chubby. Mindy Lahiri
Kaling as a child.
like both a show-business veteran and outfits.’’ The implicit feeling is: You are Opposite page,
believed she was a great catch. The entire
someone who is still in her creative ugly. Why do you think you should be able top: Kaling and world was telling her that wasn’t true, but
first bloom. It’s not just that her work to wear those things? castmates in a scene she insisted it was.
— as a writer, producer and actor on the How much of a leap did it feel like for from ‘‘The Office’’ Can you tell yet if motherhood 3 has
in 2006. Opposite
sitcoms ‘‘The Office’’ and ‘‘The Mindy you — or for your family on your behalf page, bottom: potential for you as a comedic subject? I
Project,’’ as well as the new movie ‘‘Late — to decide to go into comedy in the Kaling and Emma could write stories about mothers, about
Night’’ — has given classic rom-com first place? It’s hard enough for anyone Thompson in my relationship with my daughter — but
the film ‘‘Late Night.’’
and workplace comedy tropes a jolt of to make a living at that, let alone some- I don’t know. It gets so ‘‘Postcards From
fresh energy; it’s also that she has helped one who had so few precedents. My par- the Edge.’’ 4 I think people are often sur-
change Hollywood’s ideas about who’s ents’ personality type is not to stop any- prised that for someone who seems as
in charge of making us laugh. ‘‘I don’t one from doing anything, and going into open as I am on social media and who
remember lying up at night thinking, comedy wasn’t something that I decided writes things that seem drawn from my
The dream I have is something where to try when I was 26 after having gone to life, I find that stuff really private.
no one who looks like me has ever suc- law school. At 6 years old, I was writing Has your relationship with work
ceeded,’’ Kaling said about forging her comic plays at home. My parents saw me changed since you became a mother? I
career. ‘‘I just thought that I would some- absorb Comedy Central. I was watching am someone who loves work. That will
how find a way to succeed.’’ ‘‘Dr. Katz,’’ you know? Not just ‘‘Saturday never change. But the kind of work that I
Are there kinds of characters or types Night Live.’’ At 15 years old, I was talking do has changed. When I did the first sea-
of people you’re not seeing on television about how ‘‘Frasier’’ was so tonally differ- son of ‘‘The Mindy Project’’ at Hulu, they
that you wish you were? It’s such a good ent from ‘‘Cheers,’’ even though they had were like, ‘‘You could do as many episodes
time for TV! Between shows like ‘‘Shrill’’ the same character. These were things I in a season as you want.’’ And I was like,
and ‘‘Insecure’’ and ‘‘Pose,’’ I’m seeing was interested in. So my parents were ‘‘Can we do the maximum?’’ But waking
people I wouldn’t have seen 10 or 12 years prepared. They were anxious, but they up at 5 o’clock in the morning to do 26
ago. Now there’s an embarrassment of knew there was no stopping me. episodes of TV is not something that I’m
shows with female leads. A world where One thing that’s most striking about going to do again. Right now I’m sur-
I could be the only female writer and only your characters is how they’re typ- prised at how much I enjoy being a mom.
woman of color on the staff of a new show ically so secure and so confident. Is Why is it surprising? I did not think I
David Marchese
would be very unlikely now. Whereas it self-confidence more natural for you is the magazine’s Talk had a big maternal instinct. I’m very
used to be that if you had one person of to play than insecurity? I have made a columnist. impatient, and having a baby requires an
color on a show, that would be considered career of playing delusional characters.
‘‘enough,’’ and two would be considered Those are the kind of characters I love
‘‘confusing.’’ Now you’re encouraged to to watch, and that’s why I wanted to play
have a diverse cast. them. That’s why I like Kenny Powers in
By whom? I think everyone, out of fear, ‘‘Eastbound & Down’’ and Michael Scott
is being more helpful. There are edicts in ‘‘The Office’’ and David Brent in the
from the head of the studio or network original ‘‘Office.’’ It was really an exer-
and from different showrunners. It’s fas- cise in restraint to write my character in
cinating, because the encouragement is ‘‘Late Night’’ 2 and find what was funny
not coming from a sense of ‘‘How great in a character who was more vulnerable
it would be!’’ It’s from fear. and grounded. Those are not usually the
Fear of what? Fear of being called out. adjectives that you would use for a char-
That’s been the most powerful tool. But acter that I was going to play.
it’s been great, because it’s making more It’s also interesting that your character
shows that I am interested in watching. in ‘‘The Mindy Project’’ always took for
You’re often held up as a standard- granted that men were into her, which
bearer for diversity in Hollywood. Do went against the stock thing in roman-
you have any ambivalence about that? tic comedies where the woman often
It’s just one aspect of your career. It used has doubts about why the man would
to be frustrating how much interviewers like her. How much of that show was
would want to talk about my otherness. driven by the impulse to deconstruct
When ‘‘The Mindy Project’’ 1 started, I felt those romantic-comedy tropes? ‘‘The
as though other showrunners could talk Mindy Project’’ was a reaction against
about the character or the story lines or the way that someone who looked like
the casting or what shows inspired them. me would have been portrayed in a nor-
For me, it was all like, ‘‘How come your mal romantic comedy: a sweet, relatable
parents didn’t lock you in the closet as loser who was the best friend to the beau-
the draconian Indian parents that we tiful white woman. I didn’t want to play
know they must have been?’’ Or people a long-suffering Indian woman whom
14 6.16.19
amount of patience that I was worried 1 The sitcom, which

ran from 2012
about. But they don’t tell you that the
to 2017, first on Fox
thing will look so much like you, and do and then on
things that are so sweet and adorable, that Hulu, starred Kaling
you’ll naturally not have the same impa- as Mindy Lahiri,
a professionally
tience that you would have with a stranger successful, personally
or someone who works for you. less successful
In those latter instances, what sets you Manhattan ob-gyn.
off ? I’m remembering how you referred
2 In the film, Kaling
to yourself in one of your books 5 as a plays Molly Patel,
hothead and thin-skinned. That’s funny, an aspiring comedy
because the character that we’re writing writer who is cynically
granted a diversity
for the Netflix show 6 that I’m working spot in the writers’
on right now is also a hothead. That room of a late-night
character is not me, but there are simi- talk show.
larities. One of the things I wanted was
3 Kaling gave
for her to be a hothead because it is so birth to a daughter,
unacceptable in society to be an angry Katherine, in
Asian woman. You’re supposed to be December 2017.
demure and agreeable. I always had so 4 Carrie Fisher’s 1987
much impatience and ambition — these semiautobiographical
things that if you had them, you were novel about a
supposed to have them secretly. But recovering addict’s
familial travails.
that didn’t answer your question. Stu- It was turned
pid phrases like ‘‘reverse racism’’ are into a 1990 film that
a big eye roll to me. When you see the was directed by
Mike Nichols
complaint that it’s impossible now for a
and starred Meryl
white man to get hired on a writing show Streep and
— that’s the dumbest [expletive] in the Shirley MacLaine.
world. But that’s not about me. What am
5 Kaling has written
I thin-skinned about? It’s a good ques- two collections
tion, but it’s maybe too personal. I will of humor essays:
say that, with work, it took me a long ‘‘Is Everyone
Hanging Out
time to realize that when you’re 24 and
Without Me? (And
Opposite page: From Mindy Kaling. This page, top: NBC, via Getty Images; bottom: Amazon Studios.
are losing your temper, it’s sort of ador- Other Concerns)’’

able because you have to give up. You and ‘‘Why Not Me?’’
don’t have any power. But if you’re the you find that your approach as a boss I was excited to talk about with ‘‘Late
6 Kaling and the
boss and lose your temper, you’re just a producer Lang
is different with women than with men? Night’’: my change of opinion about the
tyrant. I still can have a short fuse, but I Fisher are working When you’re a woman and a woman of way you can break into Hollywood. You
deal with it in a different way. I dig my on a coming-of- color who is also an employer, you can’t have these feelings when you’re in those
nails into my skin. age comedy series just be someone who employs people. diversity programs — I remember being
for Netflix about
How did your own work experience as a first-generation You also have to be a mentor. It’s sort a staff writer at ‘‘The Office’’ and feeling
a boss inform ‘‘Late Night’’? That movie Indian-American of your responsibility because there are like, Everyone’s going to know about me
is so much about workplace dynamics. It teenage girl. so few of us. I mean, one of the things and the diversity program, and it means
was a huge part. I remembered the expe- 7 As played by
that Emma’s character says in the movie that I’m not as funny as everyone else. I
rience of being the first woman and the Emma Thompson is that comedy is a meritocracy, which I wish I hadn’t felt that way.
only minority in the writers’ room on ‘‘The in ‘‘Late Night,’’ used to believe. Did people give you a hard time? None
Office,’’ and I also had the more recent Newbury is a prickly But you don’t anymore? You can fall of the writers said anything, but there
comedy icon
experience of being a showrunner — and who is at risk of into this trap when you’re younger was a writer’s assistant who was Viet-
of being cranky. When I was finishing the losing her job and you’re the only person who looks namese, and at lunch one day, in front
movie, I was eight months pregnant and and who, against like you in a room. You can naïvely of the writers, he said that he had wanted
her instincts,
shooting my 117th episode of ‘‘The Mindy think, Wow, I must be so good to be the diversity spot but it had gone to me.
must find a way
Project.’’ So I could relate to Katherine to reinvigorate the only one like me here. It isn’t true. I remember feeling so bad about that,
Newbury’s7 quibbles and impatience. her show. I squeaked in through a diversity pro- like it was this battle royale of minority
There’s a line in the film when Kather- gram. It didn’t mean that I was more people. I remember feeling very embar-
ine is firing a guy on the writing staff, deserving than any other woman. That rassed. I shouldn’t have been.
and he says that she hates women and took a lot of maturity for me to realize,
is competitive with them. Have you because realizing it makes you slightly This interview has been edited and condensed
ever dealt with anything like that? Do less special. That was one of the things for clarity from two conversations.
15
The Ethicist By Kwame Anthony Appiah
your daughter’s welfare and your own.
My Husband’s Will Pits Ask your husband to come with you to

discuss these issues with a competent
lawyer, and try to reach some consen-
Me Against Our Daughter. sus on how to plan for this situation. You
might even propose couples counseling
if he continues to resist.
What Can I Do? This will, no doubt, make him angry,

too. But it will show that you’re serious
about settling this properly. Though fac-
Bonus Advice
From Judge
ing mortality is hard, we don’t buy time John Hodgman
by making our deaths especially inconve-
nient to our loved ones. Aaron writes: Over
brunch, my mother
offered me two
I am applying for a government job, sticks of my dad’s
and I came across the following question: deodorant, one of
Have you ever been dismissed from which she described
as ‘‘practically
employment? Another section provides unused.’’ I refused
a space to explain why and where. In my the latter, a decision
case, I have been dismissed twice in the my mother described
as germophobic.
last five years. The first I have no problem I strongly disagree.
mentioning, as it was because Who’s right?
of budgetary constraints and companywide ————
monetary difficulties. The second First, let’s confront the
issue you wish to
time is a bit tricky. In fact, I don’t include ignore: You stink. This
my employment there on any work could be intentional.
history form, application or résumé. It could be, since
you’re writing from
Some background: Before my
Vermont, that you
first dismissal I had a long history of job use a crystal instead
stability in another state. I moved of normal deodorant,
in 2013 and held a job for six months or maybe you smear
wild thyme up in your
before being hired away by another pits. I don’t know,
company in 2014 (higher pay, benefits, but whatever it is, your
My husband and I have been together leave me homeless. When I try to discuss location). I worked for a solid year before mom can’t handle
for many years and have a teenage this with my husband, he gets extremely being dismissed in 2015 by that same your funk. It’s so bad
that she’s willing
daughter; he also has a daughter from angry. He has even said that for company for the reasons mentioned above. to ruin a brunch
a prior relationship, who is a grown our daughter to have to sell her part I still maintain contact with all my to shove not one but
woman. He is a wonderful father to both. of the house would be O.K. I disagree. previous employers and was even given two name-brand
sticks at you just to
He has covered all my stepdaughter’s I would like to create a trust fund permission to job-search at work after being make you smell
expenses from childhood, and her or something similar so that if anything told of the budget cuts, including using more like your dad
education, including living expenses and happens to him before our daughter my co-workers and superiors as references. (weird). I agree with
vacations. We are not rich but have a reaches full independence, she can have I was hired by another organization you: Pawning off old
deodorant is gross.
good income. He is the main breadwinner. an excellent education while preserving in 2015, before my time was up at the But though I rule
I have no assets or savings myself. her inheritance. Am I missing something, company, in large part thanks in your favor, take
Our house was his property when we or would this be the fair thing to do? to my work history and those references. the hint (and a whiff)
to make sure
met, and it remains his main asset. This is where my problem begins. that your odor levels
His will stipulates that I can live in the Name Withheld I was employed for less than a month before are, at the very
house until my own death if he dies being abruptly terminated. I applied for least, what you
first, but only his daughters actually inherit Preparing for your own death can be unemployment benefits and soon intend them to be.
Illustration by Louise Zergaeng Pomeroy
it. I hope my husband will live another unappealing, and your husband’s response, received notice that my supervisor at
100 years, but should he die tomorrow, though unhelpful, isn’t unusual. Still, it’s the religious organization had contested To submit a query:
our daughter would have to sell her half irresponsible not to plan for these con- my application, claiming misconduct. Send an email to
of the house to afford the excellent, tingencies, whether with life-insurance At the subsequently scheduled hearing, ethicist@nytimes
.com; or send mail
carefree education her sister is still policies or trusts or other arrangements. my supervisor failed to show and the ruling to The Ethicist,
receiving. My pension would be insufficient, It’s also a good idea to have a clear under- defaulted in my favor. My supervisor The New York Times
and I wouldn’t be able to find a standing with the children as to what the then appealed the decision and a second Magazine, 620
Eighth Avenue, New
job that would allow me to support her. arrangements are. hearing was scheduled. At the second
York, N.Y. 10018.
In addition, selling the house to provide You certainly shouldn’t be placed in a hearing my supervisor showed up with (Include a daytime
for our daughter’s education would situation where you must choose between the head of the organization and a co- phone number.)
16 6.16.19 Illustration by Tomi Um

worker. We presented our cases, and soon up her health insurance for Medicaid. It can take our friends; doing them out of a sense
after I received notice that because of She does have a grown son who could of duty is at odds with this idea.
the evidence and testimony I had presented, help her, but she doesn’t want to ask, a thoughtful The strict answer to your question
the judgment was once again in my favor. because they do not have a good relationship. analysis by about your responsibility is that you’ve
Here’s the question: I don’t include I have even offered to pay her to someone who already done more than you had to.
working there on any form, application do basic bookkeeping for me, but she There’s a great deal more that it might
or résumé. The questionnaire, however, says she can’t work for a friend. cares for us be good to do, however. You don’t make
only asks if I’ve ever been dismissed — full What is my ethical responsibility here? to get us to accept it clear whether you’ve actually discussed
stop. If I include the fact I was dismissed I have real concerns that she could be the realities with her the various ways you think she
twice, once including a court case, I evicted and end up homeless. I want to be could be helping herself. You should.
feel as if that’s a huge black mark against a good person and a good friend, but of our situation. Helping her think straight about her sit-
me and essentially immediately removes I don’t think I should have to support her. uation could be a gift of friendship. She
me from the candidate pool. If I don’t may balk at accepting your advice, as she
include the second dismissal, I’m afraid Suzanne Kolasinski balked at accepting your offer of work. But
that this may also give me problems, it can take a thoughtful analysis by some-
namely that it could be unethical, that I’d It’s often useful to distinguish between one who cares for us to get us to accept the
be lying on a government application. the question ‘‘What am I obliged to do?’’ realities of our situation. And unless you
I didn’t have a problem not mentioning and the question ‘‘What would it be good press these issues with her, your resent-
it when I was hired at my current job, to do?’’ What you’ve done for her — offer- ment may well poison your friendship.
and that was directly coming off ing her work, buying her necessities, giv-
unemployment. Gut instinct says not to, ing her money — is what a friend would
Kwame Anthony Appiah teaches philosophy
but I’m still unsure. What should I do? do, not something you had a duty to do.
at N.Y.U. His books include ‘‘Cosmopolitanism,’’
A lot of what’s valuable about friendship ‘‘The Honor Code’’ and ‘‘The Lies That Bind:
Name Withheld flows from our wanting to do things for Rethinking Identity.’’
You have a perfectly good explanation for

both of these job terminations. In the sec-
ond instance, you have a court’s decision
in your favor. A reasonable manager, given
these explanations, shouldn’t remove you
from consideration. On the other hand,
if it ever comes out that you lied on the
form — which, let’s be clear, is what you’re
considering — they’d have reason to fire
you for doing so. (This is an ethical, not a
legal, observation.) Go with the truth and
an explanation. It isn’t a serious offense
to omit from your résumé a brief episode
that would require lengthy context. It is
a serious offense to lie about something
you’ve been asked about explicitly.
I have an elderly friend who sold real

estate until the market crashed in 2008.
Although the market rebounded, she
did not. She has no pension or savings and
is struggling to live on her modest Social
Security check, food stamps and handouts
from charity organizations. She is not
in the best of health, so getting a part-time
job would be difficult but not impossible.
I am in my 50s and doing O.K. financially;
I saved my money, and I still work.
I have helped her out occasionally
by buying her necessities and giving
her money, but I’m becoming resentful.
I don’t think she has done everything to
help herself. For instance, she refuses to move
to a subsidized apartment or give
Letter of Recommendation
Bug Fixes
By Paul Ford
I work in the software business, which parts of MacOS, are open source; the serv- A chance to watch serves more than 100 million different
people working
means that I live in a world ruled by com- er software that powers our digital cloud, together to change
code repositories. It’s owned by Micro-
puter code. A lot of that code is propri- driving data to our phones, enveloping us and improve soft, which is another sign of how things
etary and secret. You can see what it does, in wonderful and terrible ways — much of something, bit by bit. have changed: Microsoft used to write
but you can’t see how it works unless you that’s open source, too. If you’re reading memos about how to ruin free software.
work at the company that makes it. this online, you’re almost certainly using In 2019 you can track every change
We can, however, see some of it. A lot open-source code right now. anyone makes to a codebase, whether
of the world now runs on ‘‘open source’’ The gates of the open-source palace they’re fixing one typo or changing 5,000
code. That means it’s free and reusable, are always open. You can enter by way of files. You can see who made the change,
under the terms of its license. The Fire- websites like GitHub (which is built on and read a description of the change. If
fox web browser and the largest parts of top of version-control software called Git, something suddenly doesn’t work, you
Chrome and Safari are open source; whole which was created by Linus Torvalds, the can backtrack to an earlier version and
operating systems, including essential same person who created Linux). GitHub figure out why.
18 6.16.19 Photo illustration by Jiaxi & Zhe

The secret history of the 21st century I read the works or it doesn’t. Politics, our personal how could it? There’s no central code
is written in code ‘‘commits’’ — which is health, our careers or lives in general — repository, no one source, for American
what coders call changes like bug fixes change logs, these do not provide a narrative of unal- culture. Most people aren’t living their
and feature updates. I like to read com- and I think: loyed progress. But software, dammit, lives thinking, If only this were more like
mits like a newspaper, especially for Humans can can and does. It’s a pleasure to watch the software. When you love technology, this
software I use. I do this partly because I code change and improve, and it’s also is a hard lesson to learn.
want to know what I can do today that I do things. fascinating to see big companies, paid I like knowing how things are made.
couldn’t yesterday. Little things add up; programmers and volunteers learning to That’s the great lesson of software, to me:
perhaps there’s a new way to use the cur- work together (the Defense Department With open code and version control, the
sor keys to add minutes back to my days, is way into open source) to make those foundational document and the human
or a search function that could help me changes and improvements. I read the process are one. We’re usually told to
better organize my email. change logs, and I think: Humans can turn away from the sausage-making. With
In every commit, you can see how the do things. laws, TV shows, chicken nuggets or cor-
code is growing, changing and react- Technologists, being who they are, porate mergers, it’s better not to know.
ing to the world: ‘‘Make image scaling often suggest that we Git-ify everything: Not in software, in which nothing is ever
work without ImageMagick support in congressional legislation, newspaper finished. Watching the commits, you can
eww’’ (from the Emacs text editor). ‘‘Dis- articles and so forth. Sometimes I wish see the story taking shape. Or possibly
ables autofill/autocomplete/spellcheck the ‘‘real’’ news worked like GitHub. But shape the story yourself.
in the hex input field’’ (from a pixel
editor that runs in the browser, called
Make8BitArt.com). ‘‘Fix the bell sound
when Alt+key is pressed. (#1006)’’ (from Tip By Malia Wollan risk of cardiovascular disease and may
Microsoft’s command-line terminal app). even protect against age-related neuro-
I wouldn’t expect a nonprogrammer to How to Fast logical disorders like Alzheimer’s. For his
understand the above, but you can intuit part, though, Kanter is trying desperately
some of what’s going on: that we don’t not to lose any weight. His team’s trainers
need ImageMagick to scale images any- worried about him going 16 hours with-
more, because the text editor can scale out food or water on game days, and so
images on its own; that it’s bad form to before dawn and twice after dark he par-
spell-check hex values, which specify took of carbohydrate feasts: pasta, quesa-
colors; that the bell is doing something dillas, burritos, sandwiches, sports drinks
peculiar if someone holds down the alt and nutrition bars. ‘‘As many calories as I
key; and so forth. can put in my body,’’ he says.
But there’s also something larger, more Don’t fast if you are at all prone to eat-
gladdening, about reading bug fixes. ing disorders or have a medical condi-
My text editor, Emacs, is a free soft- tion that might make it dangerous. (While
ware project with a history going back Ramadan fasting is compulsory for Mus-
more than 40 years; the codebase itself lims, exceptions are made for children,
starts in the 1980s, and as I write this pregnant women and the ill, among oth-
there are 136,586 different commits that ‘‘Fasting is mental over physical, just like ers.) Break your fast carefully by resist-
get you from then to now. More than basketball and most other stuff in life,’’ ing the hurried, gobbler mind-set. ‘‘Don’t
600 contributors have worked on it. I says Enes Kanter, the 6-foot-11 center for lose control of yourself,’’ Kanter says. ‘‘Go
find those numbers magical: A huge, the Portland Trail Blazers. Raised in Tur- slow.’’ Start with lighter fare like soup or
complex system that edits all kinds of key, Kanter, 27, is a Muslim who has fasted salad. Wait 10 minutes before beginning
files started from nothing and then, from sunrise to sunset during the month heavier courses.
with nearly 140,000 documented human of Ramadan since he was 8. This season, Notice the way hunger manifests itself
actions, arrived at its current state. It has Ramadan aligned with the N.B.A. playoffs, in your body. Sit with that feeling, one
leaders but no owner, and it will move so Kanter fasted through seven playoff shared by the 821 million people in the
along the path in which people take it. games. During the year he forgoes food world who are chronically hungry. For
It’s the ship of Theseus in code form. and water a day or two a week. ‘‘Don’t be Kanter, that visceral link to others’ suf-
I’ve probably used Emacs every day for scared to try it,’’ he says. fering has prompted him to devote time
more than two decades. It has changed Intermittent fasting has become a and money to organizations helping
me, too. It will outlive me. trendy tool for losing weight and boosting undernourished and underprivileged
Paul Ford
Open source is a movement, and is co-founder and chief mental acuity and productivity. Adher- communities. ‘‘It makes you think about
even the charitably inclined would call executive of Postlight, ents typically restrict eating to a window the mothers who cannot feed their kids,’’
it an extreme brofest. So there’s drama. a digital product- of eight or fewer hours during the day, he says. Whatever your reason for fasting,
development firm with
People fight it out in comments, over or they limit caloric intake a few days per allow the dull pain it brings to prompt
headquarters in New
everything from semicolons to codes of York, and an essayist week. Studies suggest that following such greater empathy and gratitude. ‘‘Fasting
conduct. But in the end, the software on technology. diets can lead to weight loss and reduced can make you a better person,’’ he says.
Illustration by Radio 19
Eat By Samin Nosrat
How to Make Perfect Sweet Potatoes Every Time:

In which a longtime boiler and roaster becomes
a steaming evangelist.
At some point during every cooking class The first bite makes my point better than Sweet potatoes salted from within? Steaming offers
with tahini butter
I teach, I do my signature move: dramat- any words ever could: Vegetables need to and lime.
no opportunity for either seasoning or
ically add handful upon handful of salt to be salted properly as they cook in order developing the brown, crisp textures
a large pot of boiling water, then taste it to taste good. that sautéing and roasting afford. The
and add even more. Across the room, eye- And yet, every time, someone timidly only good things I’ve seen emerge from
brows shoot up. Audible gasps are made. raises her hand and asks, ‘‘How do you a steamer are tamales, couscous and
More often than not, someone (usually a feel about steaming?’’ dumplings — maybe the occasional
man) will suggest that I’ve overseasoned ‘‘Well, to be honest,’’ I usually respond, artichoke or delicate fish fillet. But baby
the pot. But then I cook broccoli or green ‘‘I hate it!’’ Why steam when I can boil, turnips with their tender greens still
beans or asparagus and serve everyone. allowing my food to become evenly attached should be boiled in water as
20 6.16.19 Photograph by Bobby Doherty Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Margaret MacMillan Jones.
Steam had salty as the sea until their flesh is silky Over the next few days, I couldn’t stop Sweet Potatoes With Tahini Butter
and soft. Long-stemmed broccoli should thinking about the dish, so I made it a Time: 45 minutes
fluffed the potato be tossed with olive oil and flaky salt and second time with orange sweet pota-
into a sponge, roasted in a hot oven until the florets toes, spiking the tahini butter with a lit- 2½ pounds sweet potatoes of any color
(about 4 medium), washed
ready to absorb turn the color of hazelnut shells and shat- tle more soy sauce and some pounded
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (¾ stick),
ter on the tongue. garlic because I knew potatoes could
the golden butter. So I was surprised to find myself fas- take a little more umami and pungency.
at room temperature
¼ cup well-stirred tahini
cinated by a recipe for steamed sweet Now the sauce made my mouth smack.
2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime
potatoes in ‘‘Where Cooking Begins,’’ I lavished lime juice and toasted sesame
juice, plus lime wedges, for serving
the new cookbook from the food writer seeds over the platter and called over my
2 tablespoons soy sauce
and editor Carla Lalli Music. The accom- neighbors. As I watched them eat the hot
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
panying photograph of a platter of still- potatoes, unable to resist taking another
hot sweet potatoes split open, doused bite even as the threat of burning their 1 clove garlic, finely grated or pounded
smooth with a pinch of salt
in tahini butter and showered with ses- tongues loomed, I explained how incred-
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
ame seeds and fresh lime juice sitting ibly simple the recipe was, realizing with
seductively in golden-hour light was so a start that Music had turned me into a 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
enchanting that it challenged my career- steaming evangelist. Flaky sea salt, for serving
long aversion to steaming. I almost Music has always struck me as a cook
always cook sweet potatoes the same just as obsessed with salt, fat and flavor 1. Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a
medium pot fitted with a steamer basket
way: sliced into thick rounds, brushed as I am, so I was curious to know why or footed colander. Place sweet potatoes in
with coconut oil, salted and roasted she chose to steam rather than roast the the steamer. Cover, reduce heat to medium
until dangerously dark. The crisp, salty potatoes. ‘‘Well, steaming is one of the and steam until potatoes are completely
edges, haunted by a rumor of the tropics core cooking methods that I felt I need- tender, 35 to 40 minutes. (Use a skewer or
from the oil, contrast with the creamy ed to include in the book,’’ she began, paring knife to check for doneness; the
potatoes should be soft all the way through.)
interior. The combination is so irresist- ‘‘but I’ve always felt like it’s [expletive].’’
ible that I usually eat a few pieces, still Laughing, she explained over the phone 2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk butter,
blazing hot, straight from the baking that her one exception has always been tahini, lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil
sheet, inevitably burning my fingertips sweet potatoes, which she got into and garlic until smooth. It might seem as if the
butter and liquids will never fully combine,
and tongue in the process. steaming for baby food after her first
but they will — just keep stirring! Taste, and
But Music’s potatoes practically child was born. The potatoes, she said: adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and
beamed off the page; I would have to ‘‘are so fibrous and they have so much of more lime juice as needed.
try the recipe. I still refused to spend their own natural moisture that they’re
$8 on a metal steamer, though — I was actually a terrible vegetable to roast, 3. Set a small pan over medium heat.
Toast the sesame seeds, swirling the pan
certain I’d never use it again. Instead, I and I don’t understand why people are
continuously, until seeds are golden.
set a footed colander inside my stockpot, constantly roasting them. Roasting just They’ll give off some oil and start to clump
added a couple of inches of water and laid makes them more fibrous and leathery, together, so if needed, stir with a wooden
several small, pale-fleshed Japanese sweet and they never, ever really get crispy.’’ spoon to keep them moving so that they
potatoes inside to cook. As they steamed, Music may have changed my feel- toast evenly. They’ll turn a nice deep-golden
shade just as they dry off a bit, about
I mashed together tahini and softened ings about steaming — at least when 4 minutes. Transfer seeds to a small bowl
butter, wondering — with some annoy- it comes to the sweet potato — but I’ll to prevent them from overcooking.
ance — why I’d never thought to combine never be much of an ascetic in the kitch-
the two myself. The butter takes the tahini en. I asked her if, like me, she views the 4. When the sweet potatoes are tender,
from spoonable to spreadable. I added method as little more than an opportu- use tongs to transfer them to a large plate
or platter. When they are just cool enough
the soy sauce, sesame oil and lime juice, nity to make a salty, creamy, acidic and to handle, split potatoes in half lengthwise,
then waited impatiently for the sweet umami-packed accompaniment. ‘‘Abso- and season with flaky salt. Spread tahini
potatoes to finish cooking. lutely,’’ she replied without hesitation. butter generously onto the flesh, and top with
When they were done, I ripped one ‘‘The tahini butter might seem like too sesame seeds. Serve immediately with
lime wedges.
open, salted and spread tahini butter much until you start eating it. And the
over it, then stood eating it over the lime wedges aren’t a suggestion — you Yield: 4-6 servings.
sink. Steam had fluffed the potato into a need them to balance out the potato’s
sponge, ready to absorb the golden butter overwhelming sweetness.’’ Adapted from ‘‘Where Cooking Begins,’’
as heat transformed it from solid to liquid. That was all the permission I needed by Carla Lalli Music.
I gobbled up that first potato and, licking to start viewing broccoli, green beans,
my fingers, forced myself to stop — I’d cauliflower and beets as blank slates
forgotten there was a table of dinner com- ready for the creamiest, most savory
panions waiting in the other room. Once sauces I could dream up. As soon as I
I managed to serve them, we all agreed got off the phone with Music, I ordered
that steaming had performed some kind a steamer basket. I even splurged on the
of alchemy that roasting never does. fancy $18 one.
21
HOW
DO
YOU
UNITE
A
FRACTIOUS
DEMOCRATIC
BASE
AND
PLOT
A
WINNING
STRATEGY
AGAINST
TRUMP?
NO
ONE
SEEMS
TO
KNOW,
BUT
THAT
ISN’T
STOPPING
AN
UNGODLY
NUMBER
OF
CANDIDATES
FROM
GIVING
IT
A
Field of Dreams Photo illustration
By Mark Leibovich TRY. by Doug Chayka
23
I
t was late on a Saturday night in May, and Marianne which seemed to be Williamson’s main preoccupation at this moment. ‘‘Do
Williamson — the best-selling self-help author, spir- you know anything about how this works?’’ she asked me.
itual sage and one of 23 souls vying to be the Dem-
ocrats’ next presidential nominee — was sitting at a IF THERE IS something that unites the nearly two dozen Democrats currently
kitchen island in a large home on the western edge of in the field, it is that no one, really, knows how this works. It’s a cliché at
Des Moines, nursing a generous glass of red wine. Her this point to say that Trump changed politics in 2016, and that everyone —
traveling aide, an extremely tall young woman named candidates, operatives and media — is still scrambling to understand the
Tandra, was seated cross-legged on the floor a few feet implications of his victory. No doubt, Trump humbled the experts (you’d
away, next to a basket of fuzzy baby chickens. hope) and blew up notions of how politicians should behave and what
Williamson was winding down after a long night of voters would allow. He also ushered in a free-for-all mentality that might
campaigning. She had just ministered to the guests at a reception held in account in part for the ‘‘Why not me?’’ stampede on the Democratic side,
her honor, holding forth on a back porch for an hour and a half about the which now includes everyone from Obama’s goofy-uncle V.P. on down to
‘‘moral and spiritual awakening’’ she vowed to lead from the White House the guy live-streaming his visit to the dentist to the spiritual guru sipping
in order to ‘‘heal the low-level emotional civil war’’ underway in a broken wine in front of me as tiny peeps emanated from a basket of chicks. But
America. Now the party was breaking up, most of the guests had left and focusing too much on Trump misses the full degree to which uncertainty
the candidate seemed somewhat forlorn. ‘‘I’m finding this a bit confusing,’’ has become the overriding new norm — in American life, not just politics.
Williamson told me, looking up from the island. Our notions have changed about what it means to be viable, familiar and
She was trying to make sense of the rules determining who would qualify authentic as public actors. Politics is just one arena in which this shift has
for a place in the Democratic presidential debates in late June. At first, she been playing out.
believed she had cleared the Democratic National Committee’s threshold Up close, the early race for the Democratic nomination can resemble
for participation, having received the requisite donations from 65,000 a mass reconnaissance process, with the candidates as advance troops
people. ‘‘But now they’re saying something new about polls,’’ she said. scouting an electorate that their party so badly misunderstood the last
I first met Williamson, who is 66, five years ago, during her only pre- time around. How exactly do you run for president in 2019? What are the
vious foray into electoral politics. She was then one of 18 candidates rules, and what should you say and who is even listening? At their unruly
running for a congressional seat in the Botox Belt of Southern California best, campaigns can be sprawling idea labs. You can learn a lot when no
— Beverly Hills, Malibu, Bel Air — long held by the retiring Democrat one knows anything.
Henry Waxman. Williamson was perhaps the best known among them: I spent a few weeks trying to divine where exactly this has left the Dem-
spiritual counselor to Oprah Winfrey, guru to Cher and even an officiant ocrats, both as individual campaigns and as a chaotic body of energized
at one of Elizabeth Taylor’s (eight) weddings. She won support from Katy particles. There were big and enthusiastic crowds and campaigns trying
Perry and Alanis Morissette, and her campaign events turned up the to play nice with one another, at least in public (and at least for now). Polls
occasional Kardashian. But this had not been enough to send Williamson have been mostly steady, with the best-known candidates (Biden, Sanders)
to Congress. And so now Williamson was doing what every Democratic at the top, followed by a shifting cast of risers (Warren, Buttigieg, Kamala
politician or candidate, successful or otherwise, seemed to be doing in Harris) and a trailing horde of 1-percenters and vanity candidates bringing
2019: running for president. up the crowded rear.
I had seen four of them in Iowa in the previous 36 hours, and Pete Candidates have alternately enjoyed media-darling status or wondered
Buttigieg over the border in Minnesota two nights earlier: Elizabeth why they weren’t breaking through. They hate it when people ask if they’d
Warren in Ames and Iowa Falls on Friday, Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines want to be someone’s vice president or maybe consider (Hickenlooper,
on Saturday morning, Bernie Sanders in Ames that afternoon and Klobu- Bullock, O’Rourke) running for Senate back home (Colorado, Montana,
char again in Iowa City that evening before I returned to Des Moines to Texas) instead of running around telling New Hampshire voters how special
drop in on Williamson. When Williamson first announced her exploratory they and their silly primary are. But there is far less unity among the various
committee in November, her bid to be the Mike Gravel of 2020 — the campaigns, and sometimes within the candidates’ own heads, about how
self-assured oddball who kept the debates interesting — was a solid one: they plan to engage with voters and, ultimately, campaign against Trump.
The only declared competition in the snowball’s-chance lane was John Beating him has quite obviously been a preoccupation of Democratic voters
Delaney, a replacement-level Maryland congressman, and Andrew Yang, since the moment of his election, far beyond the typical level of urgency
a New York businessman and universal-basic-income advocate who has about defeating the incumbent president from the other party. ‘‘Electability’’
said he hopes to campaign via hologram in some states. has thus become even more of a watchword than usual, leading to circular
But six months later, any aspiring Mike Gravel hoping to grab a per- takes in which voters tend to channel the last pundit they saw yammering on
cent or two in the polls had to compete with multiple Western governors TV about so-and-so’s fund-raising prowess or admirable message discipline.
(John Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock, Jay Inslee) and senators (Kirsten I began my tour of the field on a Saturday morning in early May at a
Gillibrand, Cory Booker), a Housing and Urban Development secre- farmers’ market in downtown Des Moines, the first of the season. A few
tary (Julián Castro) and even the 89-year-old Gravel himself (who was candidates were expected to make the rounds here, including Bernie
dragooned into running again by a pair of teenage political activists). Sanders, who (per Twitter) was given a bag of mesclun by an admirer
The border between curiosities and contenders had never seemed so before he headed north to Ames for a rally at Iowa State University, in
porous, and new candidates seemed to be parachuting in every week; the same venue where I watched Elizabeth Warren a day earlier. At first
there was a report the day before that Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York blush, Sanders 2020 looks and sounds quite a bit like the candidate who
would soon be joining the race. monkey-wrenched Hillary’s campaign in 2016. In the student center in
‘‘The more the merrier, right?’’ Klobuchar, an ostensibly formidable Ames, they played Tracy Chapman singing about how finally the tables
hopeful who was polling in very low single digits, told me after a rally in are starting to turn, while Ben Cohen, the wild-haired Ben and Jerry’s
an Iowa City restaurant. She smirked and shook her head. ‘‘That’s what guy, introduced the similarly wild-haired Brooklyn-born Vermonter with
our line is, right?’’ flavorful assurance. ‘‘He’s been in Washington, in the House and in the
Theoretically, this open season of a campaign was a boon to nontraditional Senate, for 30 years,’’ Cohen said. ‘‘He understands the cesspool of what
aspirants like Williamson. Practically speaking, however, it posed all kinds is our political system today. And he’s the guy who therefore will be able
of problems — like the question of how you even got on the debate stage, to flush the crap down the drain.’’
24 6.16.19
Sanders took his usual big swing, aiming less at Trump per se than at been decisively elected three times in an increasingly purple state. Given
the entire corrupt system, including the trivial preoccupations of the idiots Clinton’s defeats in previously blue Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin,
who give you the news. ‘‘You hear the media, and the media will talk about it has become imperative for candidates from the Midwest (Klobuchar,
somebody raised a lot of money today, and somebody attacked somebody Buttigieg) to remind everyone that they possess this geographical fairy dust.
else today, and a poll showed this and that today and somebody said some- ‘‘I think you all know, I announced my candidacy in the middle of that
thing dumb,’’ Sanders said at the rally. ‘‘Or somebody slipped on a banana snowstorm,’’ Klobuchar told the crowd in Iowa City. We did all know this;
peel, you know, and, oh, my God, front-page story.’’ she loves talking about it. ‘‘Yep, I could’ve gone inside, but is that what a
‘‘All right, what is politics about?’’ Sanders went on. ‘‘Think out of the good Midwesterner would do?’’ (‘‘Nooo!’’) In a Fox News town hall a few days
box, not what’s on TV tonight.’’ He warned the young people in the college later, Klobuchar tried to give herself the nickname Heartland Amy, though
crowd against being cynical. ‘‘Don’t let your friends tell you that politics it appears to not yet be sticking.
is all [expletive], and they don’t have the time to get involved,’’ he said. As voters are sounding more like TV pundits, candidates seem more
‘‘Tell them to stop moaning and groaning.’’ He walked off to the Doobie willing than usual to talk like political strategists. They share their partic-
Brothers’ ‘‘Takin’ It to the Streets.’’ ular theories for how they are best equipped to take on Trump. You can of
Circulating in a Bernie crowd, you don’t hear paeans course spin this Rubik’s cube a million different ways
to how their candidate will unite the country and work
well across the aisle. There is some frustration too ‘NO and land on a million different profiles that suit any
particular argument. For instance, Democrats clearly
with the expanding chorus of candidates crowding
out their message. ‘‘Most of these people have no idea ONE need to nominate a candidate who is not a white male
and who is from the Midwest, preferably from a purple
why they’re running,’’ said Ashton Ayers, an Iowa State
student from Ottumwa who has supported Sanders
HAD state, and someone whom enough Republicans are
down with — or so says the future President Klobuchar.
since seeing him speak in the basement of a church
in 2014. ‘‘It’s a big ego trip.’’
EVER ‘‘Hillary Clinton ran a strong race,’’ Klobuchar said
at her rally in Iowa City, drawing cursory applause.
Ayers, who wore a Eugene Debs T-shirt, said he RUN ‘‘But no one had ever run against the likes of Donald
would not commit himself to supporting the eventual Trump before, right? And now we have all learned.’’
Democratic nominee if he or she was not sufficient- AGAINST She spoke with self-assurance, as if she had cracked
ly progressive. He was unconvinced that Democrats some elusive code, but her prescriptions seemed a bit
needed to find the candidate the party establishment THE anodyne and unoriginal, if not necessarily wrong. ‘‘He
LIKES
deemed mainstream enough to take on the incumbent. doesn’t even care who he pisses off, he just sends out
Recent precedent supports his argument. a tweet so that he controls the news cycle,’’ she said.
Obama-loathing Republicans, for instance,
nominated future loser Mitt Romney in 2012, and OF ‘‘Sometimes, guys? You ignore him.’’
J. Ann Selzer, a pollster who has been a fixture of the
Bush-loathing Democrats opted for nonpresident
John Kerry in 2004 (instead of the more inspiring but
DONALD Iowa political landscape for three decades, said that
in a March survey, likely Democratic caucus voters
riskier Howard Dean). If you figure in losing estab-
lishment nominees like Hillary Clinton (in 2016) and
TRUMP expressed overwhelming preference for candidates
who emphasized a ‘‘positive’’ message. They placed a
relative outsiders who actually won (Obama in 2008),
there’s a lot to suggest that ‘‘safe’’ has a shaky recent
BEFORE, much greater importance on health care (81 percent
of respondents) and climate change (80 percent) than
track record. ‘‘I’ve voted for many moderate Demo- RIGHT? they did impeachment (22 percent).
crats in general elections,’’ Ayers told me, including But David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager in
Clinton against Trump. ‘‘They always lose.’’ AND 2008, argues that while you can ignore Trump, Demo-
NOW
crats do need to reckon with what it was about Trump
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, I caught up with Klobuchar that appealed to his supporters, some of whom voted
at a restaurant in Iowa City where she had just held
her own rally. I had encountered her earlier in the WE for him after voting for Obama twice. ‘‘I do think there
will be a question we will all answer,’’ Plouffe said. ‘‘Are
day at the Des Moines farmers’ market, where she
was gamely posing for photos with a macaw named
HAVE we looking for our version of Trump? Are we looking
for the polar opposite? A blend? No matter how you
Jacks perched on her arm. The bird belonged to an
Iowa state representative named Ako Abdul-Samad,
ALL look at this, Trump is a factor in everything.’’
who was accompanying Klobuchar and feeding the

bird sugar snap peas.
LEARNED.’ ‘‘CHANGE THE CHANNEL,’’ Pete Buttigieg was telling
me a few nights earlier in Minneapolis. ‘‘That’s sort
I asked Klobuchar, who had shed the macaw and of what this is about. There has to be a different feel.’’
was now ensconced in a corner booth, whether she was worried that the The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., was greeting a procession of
Democratic field was becoming problematically large. Klobuchar’s main friends in a basement holding room at the Fine Line Music Café, a down-
concern, she said, was getting enough of a shot at a televised stage on town nightclub. In about 20 minutes, he would be speaking at a small-donor
which to be heard. ‘‘After these first two debates, they’re going to have to fund-raiser, for which a crowd of over 400 guests were currently lined up
do something,’’ she said. (A few weeks later, the D.N.C. announced a higher around the block.
threshold for the third and fourth debates.) He was sitting on a couch and jiggling a bottle of water between his right
Debates are vital to a candidate like Klobuchar, whose appeal translates thumb and index finger, clenching it hard enough to leave a large dent in
much better in formats that reward quick thinking and wit. The Minnesota the plastic. He was talking about authenticity, which as a political notion has
senator is at her best in conversational settings — inasmuch as conversa- become an obsession in the Trump years.
tion is possible at these cattle calls — where she can tout her pragmatic ‘‘Now, interestingly, even though the president is fake in some ways, it is
reputation in the Senate and bipartisan bona fides. Klobuchar was the lead true on another level that what you see is what you get,’’ Buttigieg said. ‘‘And
Democrat on six bills that became law under President Trump and has I want to make sure that it’s the one thing I have in (Continued on Page 50)
The New York Times Magazine 25

26
THE DAY
THE MUSIC
BURNED
After a 2008 fire gutted one of its storage facilities, the nation’s
largest record company claimed that little of importance had been lost.
In fact, the blaze destroyed the master recordings of some of the most
iconic American artists of the 20th century.
By Jody Rosen Photo illustrations by Sean Freeman 27

1. ‘The Vault Is on Fire’ Aronson dressed and steered his car to Inter- at least a dozen fire engines ringing the vault, and
state 5. A few minutes later, the air picked up as Aronson looked around he noticed one truck
The fire that swept across the backlot of Univer- a harsh scent: the acrid odor of the fire, riding whose parking lights seemed to be melting.
sal Studios Hollywood on Sunday, June 1, 2008, the early-morning breeze into Santa Clarita, The vault lay near Park Lake, a man-made
began early that morning, in New England. At roughly 20 miles from the backlot. Aronson body of water that appeared in the classic
4:43 a.m., a security guard at the movie studio sped south. When he turned onto the Holly- B-movie ‘‘Creature From the Black Lagoon.’’
and theme park saw flames rising from a roof- wood Freeway, he saw clouds of greenish-black Fire crews began drafting water from the lake.
top on the set known as New England Street, a smoke pouring into the sky. It was 5:45 a.m. They rained water from the tops of ladders; they
stretch of quaint Colonial-style buildings where when he gained access to the lot and made his doused the building with foam fire retardant.
small-town scenes were filmed for motion pic- way to the vault. These efforts proved futile. ‘‘It was like watch-
tures and television shows. That night, main- There, he found an inferno. Fire was blasting ing molten lava move through the building,’’
tenance workers had repaired the roof of a out of the building as if shot from giant flame- Aronson remembers. ‘‘Just a huge blob of fire
building on the set, using blowtorches to heat throwers. The heat was extraordinary. There were that flowed and flowed.’’
asphalt shingles. They finished the job at 3 a.m.
and, following protocol, kept watch over the site
for another hour to ensure that the shingles had
cooled. But the roof remained hot, and some 40
minutes after the workers left, one of the hot
spots flared up.
The fire moved quickly. It engulfed the back-
lot’s famous New York City streetscape. It burned
two sides of Courthouse Square, a set featured in
‘‘Back to the Future.’’ It spread south to a cavern-
ous shed housing the King Kong Encounter, an
animatronic attraction for theme-park visitors.
Hundreds of firefighters responded, including
Universal Studios’ on-site brigade. But the fire
crews were hindered by low water pressure and
damaged sprinkler systems and by intense radi-
ant heat gusting between combustible structures.
Eventually the flames reached a 22,320-square-
foot warehouse that sat near the King Kong
Encounter. The warehouse was nondescript, a
hulking edifice of corrugated metal, but it was
one of the most important buildings on the 400-
acre lot. Its official name was Building 6197. To
backlot workers, it was known as the video vault.
Shortly after the fire broke out, a 50-year-old
man named Randy Aronson was awakened by a
ringing phone at his home in Canyon Country,
Calif., about 30 miles north of Universal City, the
unincorporated area of the San Fernando Val-
ley where the studio sits. Aronson had worked
on the Universal lot for 25 years. His title was
senior director of vault operations at Universal
Music Group (UMG). In practice, this meant he
spent his days overseeing an archive housed in
the video vault. The term ‘‘video vault’’ was in
fact a misnomer, or a partial misnomer. About
two-thirds of the building was used to store
videotapes and film reels, a library controlled
by Universal Studios’s parent company, NBC-
Universal. But Aronson’s domain was a separate
space, a fenced-off area of 2,400 square feet in
the southwest corner of the building, lined with
18-foot-high storage shelves. It was a sound-
recordings library, the repository of some of
the most historically significant material owned
by UMG, the world’s largest record company.
Aronson let the phone call go to voice mail,
but when he listened to the message, he heard
sirens screaming in the background and the
frantic voice of a colleague: ‘‘The vault is on fire.’’
28 Above: Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press. Right: Juan Guerra/Associated Press. Opening pages: Photo illustrations by Sean Freeman.
Before long, firefighters switched tactics, characterized the vault fire as a close call, in which officials. Subsequent articles focused on the fire’s
using bulldozers to knock down the burning worst cases were averted. The New York Times impact on film festivals, which relied on prints
warehouse and clear away barriers to extin- reported that ‘‘a vault full of video and television from Universal’s library. But journalists moved
guishing the fire, including the remains of the images’’ had burned up, but added that ‘‘in no on from the story, and there has never been a full
UMG archive: rows of metal shelving and reels case was the destroyed material the only copy of accounting of film and video losses in the fire.
of tape, reduced to heaps of ash and twisted steel. a work,’’ a claim attributed to Universal Studios The Times’s report was typical in another way:
Heavy machinery was still at work dismantling It contained no mention of a music archive in
the building as night fell. The job was finished the devastated warehouse. The confusion was
in the early morning of June 2, nearly 24 hours Below: The fire at the Universal backlot in June understandable. Universal Studios Hollywood
2008. Opening pages, left: Tom Petty and
after the first flames appeared. was a movie backlot, not a record-company
the Heartbreakers performing in London, 1977.
The fire made news around the world, and the Right: Billie Holiday performing in Manhattan headquarters. What’s more, a series of merg-
destruction of the video vault featured prominent- in 1946. Master recordings of both artists were ers and acquisitions had largely severed the ties
ly in the coverage. But nearly all news outlets said to be lost in the fire. between Universal’s film and music businesses.
In 2004, Universal Studios was purchased by
General Electric and merged with G.E.’s televi-
sion property, NBC, to become NBCUniversal;
UMG was cast under separate management, and
in 2006 fell wholly under the ownership of Viven-
di, the French media conglomerate. When the
fire struck in June 2008, UMG was a rent-paying
tenant on NBC Universal’s lot.
One of the few journalists to note the exis-
tence of the UMG archive was Nikki Finke, the
entertainment-industry blogger and gadfly.
In a Deadline.com post on the day of the fire,
Finke wrote that ‘‘1,000’s of original . . . record-
ing masters’’ might have been destroyed in the
warehouse, citing an anonymous source. The
next day Finke published a ‘‘clarification,’’ quot-
ing an unnamed representative from the record
company: ‘‘Thankfully, there was little lost from
UMG’s vault. A majority of what was former-
ly stored there was moved earlier this year to
our other facilities. Of the small amount that
was still there and waiting to be moved, it had
already been digitized so the music will still be
around for many years to come.’’ The same day,
in the music trade publication Billboard, a UMG
spokesperson again pushed back against the idea
that thousands of masters were destroyed with a
more definitive denial: ‘‘We had no loss.’’
These reassuring pronouncements concealed
a catastrophe. When Randy Aronson stood
Source photographs: Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty Images (Petty); William Gottlieb/Redferns/Getty Images (Holiday). 29
outside the burning warehouse on June 1, he knew Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach,
he was witnessing a historic event. ‘‘It was like
It was the biggest Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus,
those end-of-the-world-type movies,’’ Aronson disaster in the history Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Albert
says. ‘‘I felt like my planet had been destroyed.’’ of the music business. Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and other jazz greats.
Also apparently destroyed were the masters for
The archive in Building 6197 was UMG’s main dozens of canonical hit singles, including Bill
West Coast storehouse of masters, the original Haley and His Comets’ ‘‘Rock Around the Clock,’’
recordings from which all subsequent copies Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats’ ‘‘Rocket
are derived. A master is a one-of-a-kind artifact, 88,’’ Bo Diddley’s ‘‘Bo Diddley/I’m A Man,’’ Etta
the irreplaceable primary source of a piece of James’s ‘‘At Last,’’ the Kingsmen’s ‘‘Louie Louie’’
recorded music. According to UMG documents, and the Impressions’ ‘‘People Get Ready.’’
the vault held analog tape masters dating back as The list of destroyed single and album masters
far as the late 1940s, as well as digital masters of takes in titles by dozens of legendary artists, a
more recent vintage. It held multitrack record- genre-spanning who’s who of 20th- and 21st-cen-
ings, the raw recorded materials — each part still tury popular music. It includes recordings by
isolated, the drums and keyboards and strings on Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, the Andrews
separate but adjacent areas of tape — from which Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, Lionel
mixed or ‘‘flat’’ analog masters are usually assem- Hampton, Ray Charles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe,
bled. And it held session masters, recordings that Clara Ward, Sammy Davis Jr., Les Paul, Fats
were never commercially released. Domino, Big Mama Thornton, Burl Ives, the
UMG maintained additional tape libraries Weavers, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Friz-
across the United States and around the world. zell, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard,
But the label’s Vault Operations department was Bobby (Blue) Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner, the
managed from the backlot, and the archive there Four Tops, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Joan
housed some of UMG’s most prized material. Baez, Neil Diamond, Sonny and Cher, the Mamas
There were recordings from dozens of record and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart,
companies that had been absorbed by Univer- Cat Stevens, the Carpenters, Gladys Knight and
sal over the years, including several of the most the Pips, Al Green, the Flying Burrito Brothers,
important labels of all time. The vault housed Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton,
tape masters for Decca, the pop, jazz and clas- were original masters or what type of master Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, Don Henley, Aero-
sical powerhouse; it housed master tapes for the each recording was. But legal documents, UMG smith, Steely Dan, Iggy Pop, Rufus and Chaka
storied blues label Chess; it housed masters for reports and the accounts of Aronson and oth- Khan, Barry White, Patti LaBelle, Yoko Ono,
Impulse, the groundbreaking jazz label. The vault ers familiar with the vault’s collection leave little Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Police,
held masters for the MCA, ABC, A&M, Geffen doubt that the losses were profound, taking in a Sting, George Strait, Steve Earle, R.E.M., Janet
and Interscope labels. And it held masters for sweeping cross-section of popular music history, Jackson, Eric B. and Rakim, New Edition, Bobby
a host of smaller subsidiary labels. Nearly all of from postwar hitmakers to present-day stars. Brown, Guns N’ Roses, Queen Latifah, Mary J.
these masters — in some cases, the complete Among the incinerated Decca masters were Blige, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails,
discographies of entire record labels — were recordings by titanic figures in American music: Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, Beck,
wiped out in the fire. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Bing Sheryl Crow, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent
The scope of this calamity is laid out in liti- Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland. The tape and the Roots.
gation and company documents, thousands of masters for Billie Holiday’s Decca catalog were Then there are masters for largely forgot-
pages of depositions and internal UMG files that most likely lost in total. The Decca masters also ten artists that were stored in the vault: tens of
I obtained while researching this article. UMG’s included recordings by such greats as Louis Jor- thousands of gospel, blues, jazz, country, soul,
accounting of its losses, detailed in a March 2009 dan and His Tympany Five and Patsy Cline. disco, pop, easy listening, classical, comedy and
document marked ‘‘CONFIDENTIAL,’’ put the The fire most likely claimed most of Chuck spoken-word records that may now exist only as
number of ‘‘assets destroyed’’ at 118,230. Randy Berry’s Chess masters and multitrack masters, written entries in discographies.
Aronson considers that estimate low: The real a body of work that constitutes Berry’s great- Today Universal Music Group is a Goliath,
number, he surmises, was ‘‘in the 175,000 range.’’ est recordings. The destroyed Chess masters by far the world’s biggest record company, with
If you extrapolate from either figure, tallying encompassed nearly everything else recorded soaring revenues bolstered by a boom in stream-
songs on album and singles masters, the num- for the label and its subsidiaries, including most ing music and a market share nearly double that
ber of destroyed recordings stretches into the of the Chess output of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ of its closest competitor, Sony Music Entertain-
hundreds of thousands. In another confidential Wolf, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, Etta James, John ment. Last year, Vivendi announced a plan to
report, issued later in 2009, UMG asserted that Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Little Walter. Also sell up to 50 percent of UMG. The sale is the
‘‘an estimated 500K song titles’’ were lost. very likely lost were master tapes of the first com- talk of the music business; rumored potential
The monetary value of this loss is difficult to mercially released material by Aretha Franklin, buyers include Apple, Amazon and the Chinese
calculate. Aronson recalls hearing that the com- recorded when she was a young teenager per- conglomerate Alibaba. The price tag is expected
pany priced the combined total of lost tape and forming in the church services of her father, the to be hefty: In January, Deutsche Bank raised
‘‘loss of artistry’’ at $150 million. But in histor- Rev. C. L. Franklin, who made dozens of albums its valuation of UMG to more than $33 billion.
ical terms, the dimension of the catastrophe is for Chess and its sublabels. The label’s dominance rests in large part on
staggering. It’s impossible to itemize, precisely, Virtually all of Buddy Holly’s masters were its roster of current chart toppers — stars like
what music was on each tape or hard drive in the lost in the fire. Most of John Coltrane’s Impulse Drake, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. But
vault, which had no comprehensive inventory. masters were lost, as were masters for treasured UMG’s reputation is also based on the great
It cannot be said exactly how many recordings Impulse releases by Ellington, Count Basie, swaths of music history it owns, a canon that
30
2. The Truest Capture

The recordings that burned up in the Univer-
sal fire — like the songs that are blasting from
car windows on the street outside your home,
like all the records that you or I or anyone else
has ever heard — represent a wonderment that
we have come to take for granted. For most of
human history, every word spoken, every song
sung, was by definition ephemeral: Air vibrated
and sound traveled in and out of earshot, never
to be heard again. But technology gave human-
ity the means to catch sounds, to transform a
soprano’s warble, a violin’s trill, Chuck Berry’s
blaring guitar, into something permanent and
repeatable, a sonic artifact to which listeners can
return again and again.
The act of listening again has defined music
culture for a century. It is also the basis of the
multibillion-dollar record industry. Today a
stupefying bounty of recordings is available on
streaming audio services, floating free of the
CDs, LPs and other delivery systems that once
brought them to audiences. The metaphors we
use to describe this mass of digitized sound
bespeak our almost mystical sense that record-
ed music has dematerialized and slipped the
bonds of earth. The Cloud. The Celestial Jukebox.
Something close to the entire history of music
hovers in the ether, waiting to be summoned into
our earbuds by a tap on a touch-screen.
This is the utopian tale we tell ourselves, at
least. In fact, vast gaps remain between the his-
torical corpus of recorded music and that which
has been digitized. Gerald Seligman, executive
director of the National Recording Preservation
Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated
with the Library of Congress, estimated in 2013
that less than 18 percent of commercial music
archives had been transferred and made avail-
able through streaming and download services.
That figure underscores a misapprehension: the
assumption that the physical relics of recorded
sound are obsolete and expendable. ‘‘It feels as if
music has evolved beyond the reach of objects,’’
says Andy Zax, a Grammy-nominated producer
and writer who works on reissued recordings.
‘‘In fact we are as dependent on irritating phys-
ical stuff as we ever were.’’
The objects in question are master record-
ings: millions of reels of magnetic tape, stored
in libraries like the one that occupied the back-
B. B. King in 1971, the year he won a The vault fire was not, as UMG suggested, a lot vault. These archives hold other masters of
Grammy for ‘‘The Thrill Is Gone.’’ minor mishap, a matter of a few tapes stuck in a various vintages: the lacquer, glass and metal
musty warehouse. It was the biggest disaster in masters that predated tape, and disk drives and
the history of the music business. UMG’s internal digital tapes from the past few decades. They
includes Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Queen and assessment of the event stands in contrast to its comprise, as Zax said at a music conference, ‘‘a
many more artists and labels whose catalogs public statements. In a document prepared for a bewildering array of formats: albums, singles,
came under the UMG umbrella during decades March 2009 ‘‘Vault Loss Meeting,’’ the company demos . . . the entire careers of artists we know
of acquisition and consolidation. A key part of described the damage in apocalyptic terms. ‘‘The everything about and artists we know nothing
that legacy — the originals of some of the com- West Coast Vault perished, in its entirety,’’ the about. . . . The future of all of the recorded music
pany’s most culturally significant assets — went document read. ‘‘Lost in the fire was, undoubt- that we have ever heard — and, for that mat-
up in smoke in 2008. edly, a huge musical heritage.’’ ter, all of the recorded music that we haven’t
Photograph by Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images 31

heard yet — depends on our ability to maintain music properly recaptured for the format. Right
these artifacts.’’
It is probable now, sound-savvy consumers are taking the next
It is sonic fidelity, first and foremost, that that musicians leap forward into high-resolution audio, which
defines the importance of masters. ‘‘A master is
the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,’’
whose masters can deliver streaming music of unprecedented
depth and detail. But you can’t simply up-convert
said Adam Block, the former president of Legacy were destroyed existing digital files to higher resolution. You
Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog have no idea. have to return to the master and recapture it at
arm. ‘‘Sonically, masters can be stunning in their a higher bit rate.
capturing of an event in time. Every copy there- But the case for masters extends beyond argu-
after is a sonic step away.’’ ments about bit depth and frequency ranges audi-
This is not an academic point. The recording ble only to dogs. It enters the realms of aesthetics
industry is a business of copies; often as not, it’s and phenomenology. Simply put, the master of a
a business of copies of copies of copies. A Spotify recording is that recording; it is the thing itself.
listener who clicks on a favorite old song may The master contains the record’s details in their
hear a file in a compressed audio format called purest form: the grain of a singer’s voice, the tim-
Ogg Vorbis. That file was probably created by bres of instruments, the ambience of the studio.
converting an MP3, which may have been ripped It holds the ineffable essence that can only truly
years earlier from a CD, which itself may have be apprehended when you encounter a work of
been created from a suboptimal ‘‘safety copy’’ of art up-close and unmediated, or as up-close and
the LP master — or even from a dubbed duplicate unmediated as the peculiar medium of record-
of that dubbed duplicate. Audiophiles complain ed sound permits. ‘‘You don’t have to be Walter
that the digital era, with its rampant copy-paste Benjamin to understand that there’s a big differ-
ethos and jumble of old and new formats, is an ence between a painting and a photograph of that
age of debased sound: lossy audio files created painting,’’ Zax said in his conference speech. ‘‘It’s
from nth-generation transfers; cheap vinyl reis- exactly the same with sound recordings.’’
sues, marketed to analog-fetishists but pressed The comparison to paintings is instructive.
up from sludgy non-analog sources. ‘‘It’s the With a painting, our task as cultural stewards is
audio equivalent of the game of ‘Telephone,’ ’’ to hang the thing properly, to keep it away from
says Henry Sapoznik, a celebrated producer of direct sunlight, to guard it from thieves. A paint-
historical compilation albums. ‘‘Who really would ing must be maintained and preserved, but only
be satisfied with the sixth message in?’’ in rare cases will a technological intervention
The remedy is straightforward: You go back improve our ability to see the artwork. If you were
to the master. This is one reason that rereleases to stand before the Mona Lisa in an uncrowded
of classic albums are promoted as having been gallery, you would be taking in the painting under
painstakingly remastered from the original more or less ideal circumstances. You will not
tapes. It’s why consumers of new technologies, Kurt Cobain in the Netherlands in 1991, shortly get a better view.
like CDs in the 1980s, are eager to hear familiar after the release of Nirvana’s ‘‘Nevermind.’’ In the case of a recording, a better view is
possible. With recourse to the master, a record-
ing’s ‘‘picture’’ can, potentially, be improved; the
record can snap into sharper focus, its sound and
meaning shining through with new clarity and
brilliance. The reason is a technological time lag:
For years, what people were able to record was of
greater quality than what they were able to play
back. ‘‘Most people don’t realize that recording
technology was decades more sophisticated than
playback technology,’’ Sapoznik says. ‘‘Today, we
can decode information off original recordings
that was impossible to hear at any time before.’’
The process of revisiting and decoding can
transfigure the most familiar music. In May 2017,
a new box set of the Beatles’ ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lone-
ly Hearts Club Band’’ was released to mark the
album’s 50th anniversary. ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s’’ is one
of the most famous recordings in history, but
the version most listeners know is the stereo
mix, which was of secondary importance to the
Beatles, their producer George Martin and his
engineer, Geoff Emerick. It was the mono mix
that consumed the Beatles’ attention, and it is to
those materials that the box set’s producer, Mar-
tin’s son Giles, returned, creating a fresh stereo
mix from the mono masters. ‘‘The job was to strip
32 Cobain: Michel Linssen/Redferns/Getty Images. James: House of Fame/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
back layers, to get back to that original sound and These disasters include not only events like fires 3. An Open Secret
intent,’’ he says. ‘‘The detail we can garner from but also instances of neglect and even willful
the mix compared to what they could have done destruction by the labels themselves, a hair- I met Randy Aronson for the first time on a spring
50 years ago is fantastic.’’ raising history that reaches back to the begin- day in 2016. He was living in the same three-bed-
The result is a vivid new ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s.’’ In nings of the music business. room house where he had been jolted awake by a
certain quarters, the album has been regarded as Today industry professionals familiar with phone call on the morning of the fire. It was a small
twee, but Giles Martin’s mix reveals a burlier rock archiving practices question the big three labels’ house, and it was a full one, occupied by Aronson
’n’ roll record. The box set opens new vistas on commitment to preservation. (A number of these and his wife, one of their two adult daughters, the
the album’s themes and adds force to its pathos. insiders, including individuals with knowledge daughter’s boyfriend, three dogs and a cat.
The opus ‘‘A Day in the Life’’ sounds more omi- of the backlot fire, spoke on condition of ano- As a young man, Aronson did some acting,
nous than ever, a portent of late ‘60s chaos, of the nymity, concerned they could face professional and he recently returned to the stage, starring
storm gathering on the other side of the Summer consequences with UMG and other labels.) One in a community-theater comedy about the 1930s
of Love. These epiphanies would not have been audio specialist said: ‘‘Labels need to see payoff: golden age of radio. Aronson has the look of a
possible without masters. ‘‘Working without the ‘We have a release next year from this artist.’ But guy who can do a good screwball turn. He is tall
master tapes,’’ Martin says, ‘‘would be like a chef as far as, ‘We have this inventory on the shelves, and husky, with an elastic face and eyes that hold
having to use precooked food.’’ let’s preserve it’ — that’s not the attitude. An old a gleam. When I arrived at his house, he led me
The ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s’’ masters are kept in a secure recording that’s deteriorating on the shelf is not into the living room, where I noticed a BB gun.
location in London. The tape boxes are marked causing alarm.’’ ‘‘There are coyotes around here,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t
with recording notes that helped guide Martin’s The result is a crisis, a slow-motion assault on shoot at them — I shoot around them.’’ Aronson
mixing decisions. The tapes themselves feature our musical heritage that is poorly understood by was adopted as an infant. His father worked as a
additional recordings — alternate versions, over- many within the record industry, to say nothing repairman for the Otis Elevator Company for 35
dubs, studio chatter — that were included on the of the public at large. Had a loss of comparable years. ‘‘That’s where I got my loyalty to one com-
rerelease. Tens of millions of copies of ‘‘Sgt. Pep- magnitude to the Universal fire occurred at a pany,’’ Aronson said. ‘‘I know that sounds funny,
per’s’’ have been sold over the years; it may seem different cultural institution — say, the Metro- under the circumstances.’’
precious to place special value on the original of politan Museum of Art — there might have been In January 2016, Aronson lost his job at UMG.
a record that is so well known and ubiquitous. wider awareness of the event, perhaps some form He had continued to direct the company’s vault
But the masters in the London archive are unique. of accountability. Yet the conservation mission operations following the fire, overseeing approx-
They have greater fidelity than any copy of ‘‘Sgt. faced by record labels may be no less vital than imately 1.5 million master tapes that UMG main-
Pepper’s’’ that is out in the world. They have more those of museums and libraries. Recorded music tained in storage facilities around the United
documentation than any version anywhere. And is arguably America’s great artistic patrimony, States. He said he was never given a reason for
the masters contain more Beatles music too. our supreme gift to world culture. How should his dismissal but chalks it up to differences of
The same is surely true of many masters it be safeguarded? And by whom? ‘‘archiving philosophy.’’ ‘‘I wasn’t speaking their
destroyed in the Universal fire. John Coltrane language,’’ he said.
and Patsy Cline music has not vanished from the I sought out Aronson more than a year after
earth; right now you can use a streaming service Etta James at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, learning about the vault fire. His account of
to listen to Coltrane and Cline records whose Ala., in 1967, the year of her hit ‘‘Tell Mama,’’ events and knowledge of the vault’s contents
masters burned on the backlot. But those mas- with Billy Foster, her husband at the time. confirmed the picture that had emerged from my
ters still represent an irretrievable loss. When
the tapes disappeared, so did the possibility of
sonic revelations that could come from access
to the original recordings. Information that was
logged on or in the tape boxes is gone. And so
are any extra recordings those masters may have
contained — music that may not have been heard
by anyone since it was put on tape.
There is another defining characteristic of mas-

ters — the ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s’’ tapes, the tapes stacked
on the shelves of Building 6197 and countless
other masters as well. They are corporate assets.
In 2019, most commercial recordings from the
past century-plus are controlled by three gigan-
tic record companies: UMG, Sony and Warner
Music Group. These ‘‘big three’’ labels get to
exploit this material for profit. But they are also
the warehousers of millions of cumbersome mas-
ter recordings. They’re in the storage business.
That task is expensive and complex, and if the
past is an indication, it may be a job for which
record companies are ill suited. The Universal
fire brought losses on an unprecedented scale,
but it was only the most recent disaster to strike
the masters holdings of American record labels.
33
review of legal documents and UMG’s internal appears that the fire consumed no irreplaceable fire, for the names of ‘‘two artists nobody would
records. Aronson admits he would not have con- master recordings, just copies.’’ recognize,’’ to be furnished to journalists seeking
sented to interviews were he still with UMG. But Other newspaper accounts described dam- information on lost recordings.
he insists he is not motivated by animus toward age to master recordings by little-known artists, That same June 3 Daily News article includ-
the company. He agreed to talk, he said, because whose names may have been cherry-picked by ed a direct quotation from LoFrumento: ‘‘In one
he hopes the story of the fire will lead to a broader UMG in an effort to downplay the gravity of the sense it was a loss. In another, we were covered,’’
conversation about preservation. He expressed loss. A New York Times article on June 3 cited he said. ‘‘It had already been digitized, so the
anxiety about his job prospects in light of his recordings by ‘‘pop singers Lenny Dee and Geor- music will still be around for many years.’’ The
participation in this article. ‘‘I am a man of strong gie Shaw’’ as examples of the ‘‘small number of claim about digital backups, which was reported
convictions on what I think is proper storage and tapes and other material by ‘obscure artists from by other news outlets, also seems to have been
preservation standards of music tape,’’ he wrote the 1940s and ’50s’ ’’ that were affected by the fire. misleading. It is true that UMG’s vault-operations
in an email in 2016. ‘‘I am also a 58-year-old man The Times ascribed these assertions to a UMG department had begun a digitization initiative,
who is seeking employment with one of the few spokesman. The Daily News article also invoked known as the Preservation Project, in late 2004.
remaining music companies.’’ the loss of ‘‘original recordings from organ vir- But company documents, and testimony given
There’s no mistaking Aronson’s strong con- tuoso Lenny Dee and 1950s hitmaker Georgie by UMG officials in legal proceedings, make
victions, and strong emotions, about the Uni- Shaw.’’ A possible explanation for the highlighting clear that the project was modest; records show
versal fire. In dozens of conversations and email of Dee and Shaw comes from Aronson: He says that at the time of the fire approximately 12,000
exchanges, he described the event as a personal that a UMG executive asked him, the day after the tapes, mostly analog multitracks visibly at risk
trauma. ‘‘Sometimes I forget that there was life
before the fire,’’ he said. ‘‘Even now, it gets me
choked up, thinking about all those tapes.’’
The fate of all those tapes has been an open secret

for years. It hides in plain sight on the internet,
popping up on message boards frequented by
record collectors and audio engineers. In a 2014
interview, Richard Carpenter, one-half of the
superstar 1970s duo the Carpenters, stated that
masters for the group’s multimillion-selling A&M
albums were lost on the backlot. ‘‘A lot of those
masters . . . they went up in the fire at Universal,’’
Carpenter said. References to the loss of Decca
and Chess masters in the fire appeared more than
three years ago in the Wikipedia entry for Uni-
versal Studios Hollywood and were still on the
page at the time of this writing.
Yet the news has never reached the broader
public. In part, this represents a triumph of cri-
sis management. In the days following the fire,
officials at UMG’s global headquarters in Santa
Monica, Calif., and in New York scrambled to
spin and contain press coverage.
In an email sent to UMG executives and P.R.
staff members on June 3, 2008, Peter LoFru-
mento, the company’s spokesman, reported on
efforts to downplay the story, attaching articles
from The New York Times, The New York Daily
News and The Los Angeles Times that reflected
UMG’s account of events. The officials copied on
the email included Zach Horowitz, UMG’s pres-
ident and chief operating officer. Horowitz, who
has since left the company, declined to comment
for this article.
‘‘We stuck to the script about physical back-
ups and digital copies,’’ LoFrumento wrote in the
email. The company, he claimed, had steered
Jon Healey, a Los Angeles Times writer, toward
a more favorable view: ‘‘We were able to turn
Healey around on his L.A. Times editorial so
it’s not a reprimand on what we didn’t do, but
more of a pat on the back for what we did.’’ That
editorial, published in the paper’s June 3 edi-
tion, offered comforting news: ‘‘At this point, it
34
of deterioration, had been transferred to digital releases. That scenario could have exposed UMG
‘Those songs will never storage formats. All of those originals and digital to a storm of questions, threats and reputational
be heard again.’ copies were stored in a separate facility in Penn- damage from across the industry.
sylvania; they were not the items at issue in the But in the decade since the fire, UMG has
fire. The company’s sweeping assurance that ‘‘the faced little apparent blowback from artists or
music’’ had been digitized appears to have been their representatives. It is probable that musi-
pure spin. ‘‘The company knew that there would cians whose masters were destroyed have no idea
be shock and outrage if people found out the real that a vault holding UMG masters had burned
story,’’ Aronson says. ‘‘They did an outstanding down. (A UMG spokesperson, asked if there has
job of keeping it quiet. It’s a secret I’m ashamed been any systematic effort to inform artists of
to have been a part of.’’ the losses, said the company ‘‘doesn’t publicly
Doug Morris, UMG’s chairman and chief exec- discuss our private conversations with artists
utive at the time of the fire, declined to comment and estates.’’)
for this article; he left the company in 2010. In a The closest UMG came to a public imbroglio
statement provided to The New York Times last may have been in 2010, when, Aronson says, he
Below: The John Coltrane Quartet month, a current UMG spokesman said that the was sent on an unusual business trip to Penn-
at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in company was unable to comment on the 2008 sylvania. He had been told by a UMG executive
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in 1963. fire. ‘‘In this case, there are constraints prevent- that one of the most powerful men in the music
ing us from publicly addressing some of the industry, Irving Azoff, was asking questions
details of the fire that occurred at NBCUniversal about the loss of Steely Dan masters in the fire.
Studios’ facility more than a decade ago,’’ the Azoff, the former chairman of MCA Inc., is now
statement read. ‘‘However, in the intervening the chairman and chief executive of Azoff MSG
years, UMG has made significant investments Entertainment, a live entertainment conglomer-
— in technology, infrastructure and by employing ate, as well as the ‘‘supermanager’’ chairman of
the industry’s foremost experts — in order to best Full Stop Management, whose roster of clients
preserve and protect these musical assets and to includes Steely Dan and the Eagles. A quarrel
accelerate the digitization and subsequent public with Azoff was an unwelcome prospect. Luckily,
availability of catalog recordings.’’ the tapes he was concerned about, multitrack
masters of Steely Dan’s first releases, turned out
Back in 2008, UMG undoubtedly feared the pub- to have been moved to UMG’s Pennsylvania tape
lic embarrassment that news of the losses could vault before the fire.
bring. But Aronson and others suggest that UMG Azoff sent Elliot Scheiner, a celebrated record
was especially concerned about repercussions producer and mixer who had worked with
with the artists, and the estates of artists, whose Steely Dan, to confirm the tapes were intact.
recordings were destroyed. Aronson accompanied Scheiner to the Pennsyl-
Record contracts are notoriously slanted in the vania facility, the tapes were pulled, the matter
favor of labels, which benefit disproportionately was dropped. (Asked about this incident, both
from sales and, in most cases, hold ownership Azoff and Scheiner declined to comment.) In
of masters. For decades, standard artists’ con- fact, UMG documents suggest that Steely Dan
tracts stipulated that recordings were ‘‘work for masters — different tapes than those sought by
hire,’’ with record companies retaining control Azoff — were in Building 6197 when the fire hit.
of masters in perpetuity. It is a paradox of the According to Aronson, these likely included cer-
record business: Labels have often been cavalier tain album masters, as well as multitrack masters
about physically safeguarding masters, but they holding outtakes and unreleased material. ‘‘Those
are zealous guardians of their ownership and songs,’’ Aronson says, ‘‘will never be heard again.’’
intellectual-property rights.
Certain musicians, usually big stars, negotiate UMG avoided bad publicity, but in the months
ownership of masters. (‘‘If you don’t own your after the fire, the feelings of shock and chagrin
masters, your master owns you,’’ quipped Prince remained acute for Aronson and his vault oper-
in 1996, at the height of a high-profile standoff ations colleagues. As for senior executives, it is
with Warner Brothers.) It is unclear how many of unclear how engaged they were in the questions
the artists whose work was lost in the Universal debated, and the decisions made, in the fire’s
vault had ownership of their physical masters, aftermath. ‘‘I got the sense they felt the less top
or were seeking it. But by definition, artists have executives knew, the less accountable they’d
a stake in the intellectual property contained on be,’’ Aronson says. ‘‘I felt I was being shielded
those masters, and many artists surely expected from top execs and carted in for insurance and
UMG to safeguard the material for potential later legal meetings.’’
use. Had word of the fire’s toll emerged, many of There were many such meetings. In Decem-
the biggest names in pop music, and many profit- ber 2009, UMG filed a lawsuit against NBCUni-
able artist estates, would have learned that UMG versal, its former landlord at the vault, seeking
had lost core documents their catalogs rest on — compensatory damages for losses suffered in
a source for everything from potentially lucrative the fire. (Much of what we know about the event
reissues to historical preservation to posthumous comes from depositions (Continued on Page 46)
Photograph by Jim Marshall 35

‘WE ARE
THE PEOPLE
WE SERVE’
AS STATE LEGISLATURES PASS NEW ABORTION
LOCAL ORGANIZATION, THE MISSISSIPPI REPRODUCTIVE
HOW TO BEST HELP CLIENTS. BY ZOË BEERY

RESTRICTIONS ACROSS THE SOUTH AND MIDWEST, A SMALL,
FREEDOM FUND, FOLLOWS ITS OWN COMPASS ON
/ PHOTOGRAPH BY BETHANY MOLLENKOF / PAGE 37

WHEN BRANDY FOUND OUT SHE WA S PREGNANT FOR
THE FIFTH TIME, SHE WA S 25 AND SINGLE AND
had given birth to her third child two months earlier. Soon after that, she I’m trying to make abortion into a boutique experience, which is not true,’’
lost her retail management job of six years. It was midwinter 2013, and she she says. ‘‘What I do want is for people not to have a shaming experience.
could barely pay her heating bill. ‘‘I knew I wasn’t going to keep it if I could And to have an experience that does not stigmatize. Why can’t you have Red
do anything about it,’’ she says now of the pregnancy. A month later, once she Lobster on the way back from your abortion? She’s got to eat, and what am I
could afford the cab fare, she called a taxi to drive her 20 minutes to Jackson supposed to do, throw her some cold fries and a crappy burger?’’
Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi. Many people in Jackson will not say the word ‘‘abortion’’ in public. They
But once she was in an exam room for her ultrasound, the doctor said prefer euphemisms, like ‘‘taking care of a problem’’ or ‘‘women’s health
there was nothing JWHO could do: The clinic did not perform abortions care’’; even in their own homes, they lower their voices before uttering
after 16 weeks of pregnancy, counted from the first day of a patient’s most the word itself. Roberts has responded to this secrecy with a bullhorn. She
recent period, because the state mandated that those take place at a hos- openly helps people obtain abortions. She takes them to dinner afterward.
pital. The doctor estimated Brandy’s pregnancy at 17 weeks. The nearest She provides them with whatever else she thinks might help them and their
place she could have the procedure done legally was a clinic in Tuscaloosa, families go on with their lives: birth control, books, money for groceries
Ala., about 200 miles away. or child care or Christmas presents. She gives the volunteers who help her
This presented a few problems. One was that Brandy (who asked to money to keep their cellphones on and their gas tanks full, because most
be identified by only her first name) did not own a car. Another was the cost of them are as poor as her clients.
— around $800, twice Brandy’s monthly Temporary Assistance for Needy Hers is not the work of a traditional nonprofit, limited in scope and
Families check. She would also have to stay in Tuscaloosa overnight; like Mis- precise in budget. This is by design. Roberts feels she has more in common
sissippi, Alabama requires a waiting period before a patient goes through with with her clients than the charity organizations that typically serve them, and
an abortion. She would need money for the extra day of child care and for a having previously sought help from charities herself, she loathes what she
hotel, too. As she dressed in the exam room, she ran through the numbers in sees as their paternalism. ‘‘When we say we trust black women, we mean
her head. They added up to an error: She didn’t have the money to support that,’’ she says. ‘‘We give them cash to do what they need to do, because
another child, but she didn’t have the money for an abortion, either. they know their lives better than anybody else.’’
She left JWHO in a daze and was startled when a young woman — black,
like Brandy and like a majority of Jackson residents — appeared beside Planned Parenthood, the A.C.L.U. and the Center for Reproductive Rights
her. Surely, she thought, this was an anti-abortion protester. ‘‘But then she are the legal heavyweights of the reproductive rights movement, spending
asked me if I was O.K. and started talking to me, and I just knew that she millions between them on courtroom challenges to anti-abortion legisla-
wasn’t,’’ Brandy told me. The woman, who introduced herself as Yolanda, tion. Abortion funds concentrate on direct aid, averaging around $300 per
seemed uninterested in persuading Brandy of anything about her preg- case, to clients who face a financial gap between legality and access. There
nancy. She said she just wanted to know if Brandy needed a ride. In the are now 76 such independently run funds, across 41 states, recognized by
car, Brandy explained her predicament. Yolanda said she worked with a the National Network of Abortion Funds.
local black feminist activist who might be able to help; could she give the The more hard-line a state’s opposition to abortion, the fewer funds are
woman Brandy’s phone number? typically there to ferry clients across expanding provider deserts. M.R.F.F.
The next day, Brandy received a call from this activist. Her name was has long been the sole fund based in Mississippi and one of only a few
Laurie Bertram Roberts. Within two days, Brandy had an appointment supporting clients there. (Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, a regional
at the Tuscaloosa clinic. She would get there in Roberts’s car. She would fund in Georgia, began supporting clients in Mississippi in 2016.) Donations
stay with one of Roberts’s friends. Roberts would arrange and pay for usually arrive in single and double digits, and they rarely total more than
everything through an organization she ran called the Mississippi Repro- $50,000 annually. ‘‘We’re run by and for poor folks,’’ Roberts says, ‘‘so we
ductive Freedom Fund. treat our money like poor folks do. As soon as we get it, we spend it.’’ In an
A week later, Brandy stood outside her house around 6 a.m., waiting to average week, she says, she receives 60 calls. There are frequent stretches
be picked up. It was the first time she and Roberts met. Yolanda drove them — lasting anywhere from a few weeks to several months — when she says
straight to the Alabama clinic, where Brandy received a dose of misopros- she has to turn down all of them.
tol, which softens the cervix for a dilation-and-evacuation abortion. On Four decades ago, in the years following the 1973 Supreme Court decision
the way to their lodgings, they stopped at a Piggly Wiggly for supplies to Roe v. Wade, access to abortion looked very different. Clinics opened, and
make Brandy a few heating pads. Sprawled on the couch with a rice-filled within a decade an abortion was rarely over an hour’s drive away, other than
microwaved sock against her back, Brandy tried not to think about the in America’s more remote corners. The procedure was also, initially, covered
reason she was spending the night at a stranger’s home. by Medicaid. That changed in 1976, when Representative Henry Hyde, a Cath-
She was the clinic’s first patient the next morning. With Roberts beside her, olic Republican, attached an amendment to that year’s Department of Labor
Brandy put her feet up in stirrups, took a deep breath and told the doctor to and Health, Education and Welfare Appropriations Act barring any federal
go ahead. Twenty minutes later, a nurse took her to a recovery room, where Medicaid funding of abortion outside of narrow exceptions. ‘‘I certainly would
Roberts stayed with her until another patient entered. With no more time to like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion — a rich woman,
spare from family obligations, they got back on the road. a middle-class woman or a poor woman,’’ he said in a floor speech. ‘‘Unfortu-
PREVIOUS PAGES :
Their only stop between Tuscaloosa and Jackson was nately, the only vehicle available is the HEW Medicaid bill.’’ The Supreme Court
Laurie Bertram at the Red Lobster in Meridian, Miss. Roberts has made ultimately upheld what’s now known as the Hyde Amendment, confirming
Roberts at many such stops at the chain restaurants and roadside that Roe established a negative right: Patients couldn’t legally be denied an
the Mississippi
cafes dotting Southern Interstates. It’s her responsibility, abortion, but whether they could actually receive one was their problem.
Reproductive
Freedom Fund’s she says, to help her clients with far more than just medical In the years between Roe and Hyde, around 300,000 patients annually
headquarters. bills. ‘‘I think sometimes people take me wrongly and think used Medicaid for abortions. Some of the earliest abortion funds ‘‘formed
38 6.16.19
in direct response to the Hyde Amendment,’’ says Yamani Hernandez, Jackson Women’s Health Organization doesn’t publicize which three days
executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Hyde’s each week its doctors perform abortions, but it’s easy to tell driving by: If
oblique angle of attack also reinvigorated the anti-abortion movement, there are protesters outside, then there are abortion patients inside. On a
which had until that point foundered amid failed attempts to overturn Wednesday last January, a rare snowfall had thinned the vigil to a trio of
Roe. ‘‘I would call it pivotal,’’ says Catherine Glenn Foster, the president of beaming young white women. As I approached, one offered me a full-color,
Americans United for Life. ‘‘The movement as a whole realized we could four-page pamphlet with arguments about the sanctity of life and the dan-
push back in a very real way.’’ gers of abortion. Aimed at the clinic’s majority-black clientele, it argued
That movement spent the next two decades introducing workaround that abortion was ‘‘the leading cause of death among African-Americans.’’
constraints that steadily reduced access to abortion. By 1992, the nation’s (According to the C.D.C., it’s heart disease.)
abortion laws were a patchwork that included funding bans, waiting periods Every few minutes, a volunteer walked a patient to the mirrored facade of
and parental and spousal notification requirements. The Supreme Court’s the clinic, waiting a few moments before being buzzed inside. The clinic’s
ruling in a case that year, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania director, Shannon Brewer, worked in an office to the right of its waiting
v. Casey, tried to standardize which restrictions could be permitted: They room. A grid of business cards was taped to the wall behind her desk, many
would be allowed if they did not place an ‘‘undue burden’’ on patients, a of them for staff members at the Mississippi State Department of Health;
phrase the justices left vaguely defined. So anti-abortion activists set about protesters often called in fake complaints, she said, that had to be investi-
testing its limits state by state. gated. She gestured at the other cards behind her — F.B.I. agents, federal
Mississippi proved a model for their experiments. Since 1991, its leg- marshals, local police officers. Brewer talks to them about once a month
islators have, among other restrictions, passed a 24-hour waiting period; to keep tabs on the protesters, who she says enlist a nationwide network
mandated that doctors perform an ultrasound and offer the results before of activists to harass the clinic’s doctors. ‘‘They call their homes’’ — all of
an abortion; and required that abortion clinics meet the same structural which are out of state — ‘‘they put stuff in their mailbox, the neighbors’
standards as ambulatory surgical centers. According to Izzy Pellegrine, mailboxes, put up signs saying, ‘Do you know a murderer lives on this
a Mississippi State University Ph.D. candidate who has studied abortion street?’ ’’ she told me. (Pro-Life Mississippi, which helps to organize many
access in the state, Mississippi once had four abortion clinics open con- of the clinic protests, denied that anyone from the group would try to intim-
currently; now there is only JWHO. Foster would not say whether Ameri- idate an abortion provider.) They also call the clinic on Monday mornings
cans United for Life wants to close clinics, but an annual report from 2012 pretending to be patients scheduling appointments, to figure out when to
describes how her organization ‘‘has worked with Mississippi to enact come stand outside. In a city with fewer than 170,000 residents, seeing a
numerous life-affirming laws’’ and says that ‘‘as a result, only one abortion familiar face protesting outside the clinic where you’re trying to receive
clinic remains in the entire state.’’ It is one of 16 states that have lost at least an abortion is not outside the realm of possibility. ‘‘We’ve had patients pull
50 percent of their abortion providers since Casey. up in the parking lot,’’ Brewer said, ‘‘and they’ll call us and they’ll be like,
Abortion funds grew in tandem with these restrictions and with wel- ‘I can’t come in. Someone I know is standing out there.’ ’’
fare cuts that unraveled their clients’ safety nets. N.N.A.F. formed in 1993, Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi often says he wants to ‘‘end abortion
when 22 individual groups recognized a need to coordinate their efforts. in Mississippi.’’ Local Democratic politicians are not especially aggres-
Hurdles like waiting periods and notification laws had turned a 20-minute sive about abortion rights, though Jackson’s leftist mayor, Chokwe Antar
procedure into a weekslong logistical challenge; laws targeting providers Lumumba, says: ‘‘As a man, I have no place to tell a woman what to do
had shuttered clinics, adding drives and flights. ‘‘Funds will never meet with her body.’’ Abortion rights activists depend, to some extent, on one
the actual need of people who need help,’’ Hernandez says. ‘‘We can only another, and the relationship between Roberts and JWHO is a fraught one.
support about a fifth of the calls we get.’’ Most of those calls, in line with Last year, two anonymous blog posts raised concerns over the resources
America’s poverty trends, come from people of color. ‘‘the only ‘abortion fund’ in Mississippi’’ was spending on what the post
It took the Supreme Court over 20 years to further clarify which burdens
were acceptable to continue placing on patients. In the 2016 case Whole
Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a 5-3 majority decided that to be upheld, ‘I AM NEVER GOING
a law must have ‘‘medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon
access.’’ Requiring abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges from
TO APOLOGIZE FOR
often-hostile local hospitals, for instance, doesn’t make abortion safer, so
those sorts of requirements were struck down. Earlier this year, the Supreme
Court granted a stay to a Louisiana admitting-privileges law — passed in HOW WE DO O U R W O R K .’
2014, before Hellerstedt — that could have left the state with only one doctor
authorized to perform abortions. In a dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued
that as long as all four of the plaintiff doctors obtained admitting privileges, termed ‘‘nebulous, less verifiable assistance’’ than paying for abortions.
the law would not create an undue burden in Louisiana specifically; he did The posts did not name names, but Diane Derzis, the majority owner of
not mention medical benefits. Mary Ziegler, a legal historian at Florida State JWHO and the majority or sole owner of two other clinics in the South,
University who has written two books on abortion law, says that this sort of readily did when I called her: ‘‘It’s about Laurie, specifically.’’ She told me
parsing granular state-level facts ‘‘illuminates a way to hollow out precedents she takes particular issue with some of Roberts’s children sitting on the
without any need for the court to explicitly undo Roe.’’ M.R.F.F. board and occasionally joining her at conferences, despite the
But many states are now moving away from this incrementalist approach. periods when the fund cannot afford to cover clients. ‘‘I called the I.R.S. I
Recently passed bills in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ohio reported it. I feel like a — what’s that called? A whistle-blower,’’ she said. ‘‘I
ban abortion at six weeks, which is usually the point when an internal ultra- want to know — where’s the accountability?’’
sound can detect activity in cells that will later become a fetus’s heart. This Roberts says she is accountable to her board members (five of whom are
is before most people know they’re pregnant. Alabama passed a near-total not relatives), that her travel is mostly sponsored by other organizations and
ban. None of the laws are yet in effect, but many panicked patients will read that ‘‘I am never going to apologize for how we do our work.’’ Hernandez,
a headline about abortion being banned and call a clinic to cancel their the N.N.A.F. executive director, told me her organization has no issue with
appointment. ‘‘Every abortion fund in the South,’’ Roberts says, ‘‘now has Roberts’s methods of operation and considers M.R.F.F. a ‘‘visionary’’ member
to start our voice mail with, ‘Abortion is still legal.’ ’’ of the network: ‘‘She really situates abortion within a (Continued on Page 51)

THE NEW YORK

TIMES MAGAZINE
THE GRASS
CEILING
BY
LIZZY GOODMAN
JUNE 16,
2019
AS THE U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL SOCCER

TEAM DEFENDS ITS WORLD CUP TITLE
IN FRANCE, ITS MEMBERS ARE PREPARING FOR
A COURTROOM BATTLE OVER EQUAL PAY
IN AMERICA.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
DINA LITOVSKY
41
globally. ‘‘This is the first World Cup where I feel an Olympic medal in more than a century. Partly
like — and I’m rejoicing over this — I can count as a consequence of their superior results, from
potential World Cup winners on more than one 2015 to 2018, the women’s team played 19 more
hand,’’ the former player and current ESPN com- matches than the men. In other words, the women
mentator Julie Foudy said when calling a recent aren’t working as hard as their male counterparts
match between the United States and Mexico. for less money; they’re working harder for less
It was particularly important, then, in the money. For the record, the men’s team’s players
IN months leading up to this moment, for the Ameri- association released a statement of full-throated
SPRING can women to keep their focus, minimize distrac- support for their women’s team compatriots and
2018, tions and avoid drama at all costs. Which they did, the mutual goal of equal pay.
with one enormous exception. On March 8, they In her Barnard speech, Wambach said she
sued the United States Soccer Federation, claim- regretted being so caught up in gratitude for what
ing ‘‘purposeful gender discrimination.’’ ‘‘The bot- she and her peers did receive that she ‘‘missed
tom line is simple,’’ the star defender Becky Sauer- opportunities to demand equality for all of us.’’
brunn said in a statement. ‘‘It is wrong for us to be Her former teammates do not intend to make
paid and valued less for our work because of our that same mistake. They are better paid than any
Abby Wambach, the most decorated soccer gender.’’ Rapinoe, also in a statement, mentioned women’s sports team in history, and at least as well
player in American history, gave a commence- the responsibility the team feels to advocate ‘‘on known, but it’s not enough. Not only because by
ment address at Barnard College that went viral. behalf of our teammates, future teammates, fellow the players’ calculations they are making as little
The player who had scored more goals than any women athletes and women all around the world.’’ as 38 cents to their male counterparts’ dollar, but
other, male or female, in international competi- This was 95 days before the team’s first World because these players feel a responsibility to fight,
tion described standing onstage at the ESPYs the Cup match in France and mere weeks before the in public, on the biggest stage possible, while they
year after she retired in 2015, receiving the Icon beginning of its next training camp — a weeklong can. ‘‘It’s wonderful to be a professional athlete
Award alongside two peers, Peyton Manning and blend of intense practice and tryouts aimed at and feel fulfilled, but at the same time, what sort
Kobe Bryant. ‘‘I felt so grateful,’’ she recalled. ‘‘I enabling Coach Jill Ellis and her staff to get the of legacy do you want to leave?’’ Morgan wonders.
had a momentary feeling of having arrived; like, alchemy just right. But the players felt they could ‘‘I had this dream of being a professional soccer
we women had finally made it.’’ As the athletes not wait. ‘‘We don’t always want to be patient,’’ player, and I never knew it entailed being a role
exited the stage, each having, as Wambach put it, Morgan tells me. ‘‘You have to seize the moment.’’ model, being an inspiration, standing up for things
‘‘left it all on the field for decades with the same The lawsuit’s timing may be dramatic, but it was I believe in, standing up for gender equality. But
ferocity, talent and commitment,’’ it occurred to the natural next step in a continuing dispute that now I don’t know a world where I just play soccer.
her that while the sacrifices the men made for centers on equal compensation. Members of the It goes hand in hand.’’
their careers were nearly identical to her own, U.S.W.N.T. have been pursuing fair compensation
their new lives would not resemble hers in one for years, with only marginal improvement: The On a glittering April evening in Los Angeles,
fundamental way. ‘‘Kobe and Peyton walked lawsuit asserts, for example, that from 2013 to 2016, 20,941 fans crowded into the Banc of California
away from their careers with something I didn’t if a male and a female national team player each Stadium, home to Major League Soccer’s Los
have: enormous bank accounts,’’ Wambach said. played 20 exhibition games in a year, members of Angeles F.C., to watch the American women
‘‘Because of that, they had something else I didn’t the men’s squad would have earned an average of trounce the 20th-ranked Belgians, 6-0, in a match
have: freedom. Their hustling days were over; $263,320, while members of the women’s squad of no real consequence. (This was one of several
mine were just beginning.’’ would have earned a maximum of $99,000. The exhibition matches, known as ‘‘friendlies,’’ the
The United States women’s national team is suit also claims that ‘‘during the period relevant women’s team played before leaving for France.)
the best in the world and has been for decades. to this case,’’ the women’s team earned more for Three teenage girls gathered on the south end of
Since the FIFA Women’s World Cup was inaugu- U.S. Soccer than the men’s team did. It cites num- the stadium near the Belgian goal. Two wanted
rated in 1991, the United States has won three of bers from the 2016 fiscal year that indicate that the to head up to the mezzanine to see if they could
the seven titles, including the most recent one in federation had expected a combined net loss for get a glimpse of the Hollywood celebrities in
2015. Since women’s soccer became an Olympic the national teams of $429,929, but that largely the house — Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain,
sport in 1996, it has won four of six gold med- because of the women’s team’s successes it revised Jennifer Garner, Eva Longoria and Uzo Aduba
als. The team has been ranked No. 1 by FIFA for its projections to a $17.7 million profit. were all in the V.I.P. box, hanging out with Megan
10 of the last 11 years and has produced some of In a response filed on May 7, U.S. Soccer denies Rapinoe, who was not playing because of a mild
the biggest female sports stars of the last several many of the specifics provided in the lawsuit, injury. But one of the teenagers, a tall brunette in
decades, from Mia Hamm to Wambach to the including those mentioned above, but it doesn’t jean shorts and a cropped T-shirt, wasn’t ready
current starting center forward, Alex Morgan. The dispute that the men’s and women’s players are to go actress hunting yet. She stood staring at the
squad playing at the World Cup this month in not paid equally. Instead, it asserts that those ineq- action on the pitch, mesmerized. ‘‘Let me just see
France includes Morgan; her accomplice on the uities are a result of ‘‘different pay structures for this last play,’’ she pleaded — and right then, Carli
left wing, the Tilda Swinton doppelgänger Megan performing different work.’’ It characterizes as Lloyd cut back behind her defender and threaded
Rapinoe; and the previous World Cup’s hat-trick- ‘‘misleading and inaccurate’’ the claims that the a perfect pass to Alex Morgan, who chipped it into
scoring hero, Carli Lloyd; along with newcomers women’s team generates more revenue than the the back of the net.
like the elegant but deadly Mallory Pugh and the men’s, while also framing the women’s and men’s The official Time’s Up Instagram account later
ingenious, bruising midfielder Lindsey Horan. teams as so different from each other that they posted a photo of the actresses, all Time’s Up
The American team is favored to successful- can’t legitimately be compared at all. This is true supporters, in their U.S.W.N.T. jerseys, with the
ly defend its title, despite a field of opponents in at least one sense: The women are way, way bet- caption ‘‘It’s time for U.S. Soccer Federation to
whose depth, fitness and all-around sophistication ter. The men’s national team lost in the round of 16 pay their women players what they deserve.’’ That
improved drastically even in the past four years, at the 2014 World Cup and didn’t even qualify for Time’s Up is choosing to formally align itself, and
reflecting the rapid growth of women’s soccer the 2018 World Cup. American men haven’t won its quest for equal pay in Hollywood, with the
42 6.16.19
Jennifer Garner wore one of their names — Mia

Hamm — on her jersey, Aduba wore the legend-
ary goalkeeper Briana Scurry’s number and Jes-
sica Chastain wore the jersey of a player with
whom she happens to share a surname: Brandi
Chastain. It was Brandi Chastain who became
a kind of aesthetic allegory for the spirit of the
national team when, after sinking the winning
penalty against China in the 1999 final, she
whipped off her jersey in celebration. The image
of Chastain in her sports bra, six-pack on display,
triumph on her face, is one of the most famous in
the history of sports, both because it captured a
huge moment in soccer and because it launched
a backlash against Chastain, who was accused of
being disrespectful by critics who appeared to
believe it was cool for male players to celebrate in
this way but uncouth for women to do the same.
Many of the 99ers were in attendance at the
friendly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their
World Cup victory. It was that win that estab-
lished the Americans as women’s soccer’s first
true global stars, the first group of players with
the clout to move the needle on issues big (bet-
ter pay) and small (getting uniforms in women’s
sizes). Before that World Cup, which was held
for the first time in the United States, the team
was accustomed to playing to crowds of 5,000,
but the 1999 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl
drew 90,185 people, still the record for a women’s
sporting event. After they won, the players toured
the country like rock stars, visiting the White
House, Disneyland and ‘‘The Late Show,’’ where
David Letterman referred to them as ‘‘babe city.’’
When the dust settled, however, America’s new-
est sweethearts discovered that they were out of
work. There was still no viable professional league
in the United States.
The 99ers were determined to use the leverage
gained by their victory to start a fully professional
league, the W.U.S.A. But by the time the nation-
al team (including a young Abby Wambach) was
defending its title four years later, the league
ALEX MORGAN (LEFT) AND MEGAN RAPINOE (RIGHT) CELEBRATING WITH had already folded. And so it went for the next
TOBIN HEATH AFTER HER GOAL AGAINST MEXICO ON MAY 26. OPENING PAGES: MALLORY PUGH
DURING A MATCH AGAINST BELGIUM ON APRIL 7. decade. The women’s national team continued
to be among the most elite in the world, but it
returned home after major victories (Olympic gold
women’s national team is particularly gratifying policy requiring players to ‘‘stand respectfully.’’ in 2004, 2008, 2012) to a succession of professional
for the players. They consider their fight to be in (Rapinoe now stands but does not place her hand leagues that never stabilized, all the while clawing
keeping with the larger social-justice stories of over her heart.) ‘‘Who do you want to be?’’ Rapi- out incremental financial advances in a series of
this era, from the rise of explicitly feminist move- noe says. ‘‘What kind of person do you want to collective-bargaining agreements with U.S. Soccer.
ments like Time’s Up and #MeToo to Black Lives be for yourself, but also in the larger context of The National Women’s Soccer League, now in
Matter and L.G.B.T. advocacy. ‘‘It’s one and the the country and in the world?’’ its seventh season, is the longest-running profes-
same,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘I get asked this question a Serena Williams, asked by reporters to com- sional women’s soccer league ever in the United
lot, like, ‘Where does this come from?’ or ‘Why do ment on the women’s soccer team’s lawsuit after States, but its players still do not make a living
you stand up for these things?’ To me, it’s literally a second-round victory at the BNP Paribas Open wage: The minimum salary was just bumped up
all the same, insofar as I want people to respect in Indian Wells, Calif., called the pay discrepancy to $16,538. Major League Soccer pays male play-
who I am, what I am — being gay, being a woman, ‘‘ludicrous,’’ adding, ‘‘I think at some point, in ers a minimum salary in the $50,000-a-year range.
being a professional athlete, whatever. That is every sport, you have to have those pioneers, and The women’s national team’s lawsuit will play
the exact same thing as what Colin did.’’ Rapi- maybe it’s the time for soccer.’’ Indeed, American out in a Los Angeles courtroom on a date yet to
noe began kneeling during the national anthem women’s soccer has its original class of pioneers: be set by the Federal District Court, where U.S.
in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick in Septem- the so-called 99ers, members of the 1999 World Soccer will need to show that the pay disparities
ber 2016; in March 2017, U.S. Soccer instituted a Cup-winning team. At the Los Angeles friendly, between their two teams exist for some reason,
Photograph by Dina Litovsky for The New York Times The New York Times Magazine 43
any reason, other than sex. According to the wom- as we should have and had the worst exit that through the lobby, sweaty and joking with one
en’s lawsuit, U.S. Soccer has said it can’t grant eco- we’ve ever had in the Olympics, and we never another, a few sang the chorus to Lil Nas X’s ‘‘Old
nomic parity because ‘‘market realities are such want to replicate that ever in this program, but Town Road’’ (‘‘Can’t nobody tell me nothin’/You
that the women do not deserve to be paid equally especially this World Cup,’’ Alex Morgan told me can’t tell me nothin’ ’’), which had been a fixture
to the men.’’ Then there’s the ‘‘But you agreed to in an unusually breathless burst. ‘‘That’s definitely in camp. Soon they would shower and have group
be paid less’’ argument, which appears to be cen- in the back of my mind.’’ At the end of 2017, U.S. lunch. The day before, the players also had morn-
tral to U.S. Soccer’s strategy: In April 2017, the Soccer made it clear that Ellis was staying, and ing training followed by lunch, then a meeting
women’s national team and U.S. Soccer signed by 2018 things had stabilized a bit; the team went with the team’s sports psychologist before group
a new collective-bargaining agreement in which undefeated last year. But in their first match of dinner. After training, there are ice baths and
the women gained ground but did not receive 2019, they lost 3-1 to France, a rising power that other recovery work. This is how the players’ lives
the equal pay they were hoping for. ‘‘It was the will no doubt be emboldened this summer, play- are programmed: Eat, train, recover, eat, sleep,
best deal we could get at the time,’’ Rapinoe says. ing on its home turf. repeat. ‘‘Soccer is like ‘Groundhog Day,’ ’’ Rapinoe
The previous agreement had been in place since In filing suit when they did, the players set says. ‘‘It’s great, it’s fine, but it’s not that exciting
2013. As the 2016 Olympics loomed, the female themselves up for a very tense few months — in all the time.’’
players were reportedly considering striking — part because they believe that their performance ‘‘We know the sacrifices we make; it’s no dif-
hoping to leverage their position as defending gold on the pitch holds the key to their progress off ferent than what men make,’’ Carli Lloyd says.
medalists to increase their shot at earning equal it. ‘‘Always and forever, how well the team does ‘‘We’re away from our families. We’re away from
compensation in their next collective-bargaining on the biggest stage is probably the most import- our friends. We’re spending every waking hour
agreement — when U.S. Soccer sued to prevent ant thing,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘That’s what I stress to dedicating ourselves to this.’’ If an international
them from doing so and won. these kids,’’ she continues, referring to the younger squad is a collection of roles filled by a rotating
Shortly before that ruling came down, five players like Pugh and Horan, who walked into the cast of actual human beings, Lloyd is currently
members of the team — Megan Rapinoe, Carli in the ‘‘seasoned veteran in the twilight of her
Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan and Hope career’’ spot, the one Wambach was in during the
Solo, the goalkeeper at the time — filed a federal last World Cup. A two-time FIFA player of the year,
discrimination complaint with the Equal Employ- Lloyd scored a hat trick in the first 16 minutes of
ment Opportunity Commission, which is required the 2015 final against Japan, topping off an already
before you can sue. This February, when the team remarkable run of play. Lloyd is 36 now. She feels
was between training camps, the five original play- as sharp as ever, she says, and has been playing
ers named in the 2016 complaint finally received largely as a second-half substitute in these recent
a response in the form of ‘‘right to sue’’ letters, ‘WE KNOW THE friendlies, scoring thrilling clutch goals. But she
meaning that no determination had been reached SACRIFICES is not likely to get a ton of playing time in France,
one way or another and that they had 90 days to WE MAKE; IT’S NO and even if she does, this is almost certainly her
file suit in federal court. So they did. DIFFERENT last World Cup.
The 2019 Women’s World Cup is expected to THAN WHAT When I joked about how it would be amusing
be the most watched in history. In the United MEN MAKE.’ to try to train with her, she snickered and told me
States, these matches will most likely be among about one reporter who tried that and tore her
the highest-rated soccer games ever played. (The A.C.L. — ‘‘You could hear the pop’’ — and another
2015 final in Canada, between the United States who broke her wrist trying to block a Lloyd shot.
and Japan, averaged 23 million English-language But Lloyd turned wistful when she shared that she
viewers in the States, six million more than the and her husband are planning to start a family in
2014 Men’s World Cup final.) Yes, the Americans the next few years, but in looking at their bank
are favored, but no team in the history of the account she realized: ‘‘I can’t just say, ‘O.K., this
Women’s World Cup has ever won back-to-back is my last game, and I’ve made tens of millions
titles, and the United States has lately shown national team’s world believing that their job was of dollars and it’s stashed away and we’re good.’ ’’
some vulnerability. The last major tournament merely to play the best soccer of their lives and For the moment, Lloyd has no interest in retiring.
it won was the 2015 World Cup. In 2017, it failed are now learning that’s only part of it. ‘‘Everything She remains committed to the lawsuit — though
to perform as well as expected in two invitational is more and better,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘I want them she acknowledges she ‘‘may be done playing by
events hosted on home soil, coming in last in the to understand that it’s better because we earned the time this gets resolved’’ — and to winning in
SheBelieves Cup and finishing second to Austra- it; but it’s also better because we won. The most France. She also deeply enjoys the rigorous two-
lia in the Tournament of Nations. At that point, important thing is continuing to win.’’ a-day training sessions she does when home in
several senior players, in what Sports Illustrated New Jersey. This is all part of what Lloyd calls her
called a ‘‘player revolt,’’ initiated conversations In the lobby of a boutique hotel in downtown eternal addiction to ‘‘chasing something I need
with U.S. Soccer about replacing Coach Jill Ellis. Santa Barbara, where the national team stayed to improve on.’’
This unrest came in the wake of the most psy- during its World Cup training camp in March, They all talk like this, about a state of perma-
chologically gutting performance in team history, well-heeled tourists poured cucumber water from nent dissatisfaction and a pleasure taken in pursu-
at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. For the first time glass vats and discussed where to lunch. The whole ing the very perfection they know is unattainable.
ever, the team failed to make the Olympic gold place smelled like expensive candles. ‘‘No more The one thing every of them has is this superhu-
medal match; they lost on penalty kicks to Swe- Marriott Residence Inn for us,’’ Rapinoe said with man drive. ‘‘Players come in all the time, great
den in the quarterfinals. To say the humiliation a grin after settling into an overstuffed love seat players, sometimes more talented players,’’ says
of this defeat still stings is to put it mildly. ‘‘A lot next to a stunning bouquet of flowers. the forward Christen Press, the squad’s resident
of the players on this team that have never been About an hour earlier, the 28 athletes who were ‘‘What does it all mean?’’ existential philosopher,
to a World Cup did go to the Olympics and were in contention for the World Cup team (23 would who first played on the team in 2012. ‘‘The players
a part of the team that didn’t perform as well make the cut) finished practice. As some traipsed that survive here are the most competitive ones.
44 6.16.19
street sign and a ‘‘challenge coin,’’ the equivalent

of a key to the city. Pugh and Horan are both
Denver-area natives, and both came up through
the hypercompetitive ranks of Colorado youth
soccer. They are models for what Lilli and Reese
plan to become when they grow up: pro soccer
players. ‘‘It’s educational!’’ Lilli insisted of this field
trip for two. Then she showed off the ball, shoes,
shin guards and backpack she had brought to have
signed. By which player? ‘‘Both of them!’’ Lilli plays
offense, and this kind of game-day aggressiveness
will come in handy for her on the field, for sure,
but it may be even more important off the field if
she’s serious about a career in professional soccer.
Watching Horan and Pugh stand only some-
what awkwardly next to the mayor, with their
parents snapping pictures and a local news crew
on hand to document the quaint pageantry, felt
like watching the opening scene in a biopic.
Each is already a groundbreaker: Pugh is the
youngest American player, at 17, ever to play in
an Olympic-qualifying match, and Horan is the
first American woman to go straight from high
school to the pros. They now play for top teams
in the N.W.S.L. — Pugh for the Washington Spirit,
YOUNG FANS AT THE EXHIBITION GAME BETWEEN THE Horan for the Portland Thorns — and they have
UNITED STATES AND BELGIUM ON APRIL 7. high-profile endorsement deals (Pugh with Nike,
Horan with Adidas). Pugh and Horan didn’t know
No one on this team has been here for more than then focusing on showing her best game in camp this yet, but they would each make the World
two years and not felt like they had their face these last months has been enough of a challenge, Cup squad — another milestone reached. But the
planted on the ground. Many just don’t get up. she says, without the added pressure to become question remains: Will one or both of these play-
The people that last here get up.’’ She continues: a civil rights activist overnight. ‘‘It has been very ers break the record so many of her predecessors
‘‘It’s such a small, elite group that you’re filtered hard,’’ Horan says. ‘‘I’ve always just been like: Oh, I could not and become the first in women’s soccer
out if you don’t have that.’’ love soccer. I love being here. I’m so happy to be a history to retire without having to worry about
If Lloyd represents one role in the life cycle of part of this team.’’ But lately, that has shifted. ‘‘I’ve her next paycheck? And if not Pugh or Horan,
a national team player, Lindsey Horan represents always wanted to just stay out of that and focus on how about by the time we get to Lilli or Reese?
its opposite: the young-gun rising star and one of the game, but now I think that is almost selfish, The 28 women suing U.S. Soccer have, in
the picks to emerge from this World Cup a newly because we do have a voice, and so many people some cases, very little in common other than
minted superstar. Her path is itself a testament to watch us, and we’re their inspirations, and we’re their sport. Avowed Christians and atheists, gay
the progress that has been made in opportunities their idols, and us speaking up is huge.’’ and straight, politically active and not, they have
for American women who love to play soccer. The ‘‘four or five girls that are very vocal’’ who nonetheless rallied behind this collective cause.
When Lloyd made her debut on the team in 2005, Horan says helped her reach this conclusion — ‘‘You really do need everyone,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘It’s
there was still no viable professional league in the team leaders when it comes to advocacy a crazy intimate environment. We’re not all real-
the United States. Lloyd played all four years at — have a knack for instilling a sense of social ly, really close, but we’re extremely intimate.’’ At
Rutgers, then came to the national team ‘‘right responsibility in others. ‘‘We try, first of all, edu- the hotel in Santa Barbara, she brought up the
when they were negotiating stable salaries and cation,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘We break down the ineq- concept of ‘‘the double earn,’’ a reference to the
contracts,’’ she remembers. Horan, on the other uities. We tell them: This is why we are choosing unpaid labor taken on by women, especially at
hand, went straight to the pros from high school. to take this stance, for these reasons. We try to home, that goes largely unacknowledged; Rapi-
This is a controversial move. Press calls it ‘‘crazy’’ show specifically how it affects each individual noe was drawing a parallel between that work
for most players, laughing and shaking her head. player, but then also the team as a whole.’’ Could and the work that she and her teammates are
‘‘The league is not stable enough,’’ she explains. someone have declined to join the lawsuit if she having to do to secure equal rights that should
‘‘If you’re playing in the N.B.A., you can make wanted to? ‘‘Yeah,’’ says Rapinoe, slowly. ‘‘It’s already be theirs. The soccer players, differenc-
two years of your salary and pay for your college always possible, and we had some players that es aside, have something powerful in common
anytime you want to go back. But that’s not the took longer.’’ But, she says, ‘‘If you want the door besides competitive drive: They are, every one of
case with the N.W.S.L.’’ open, you have to open it.’’ them, from 20-year-old defender Tierna David-
Advisable or not, by 2012, when Horan got on son to 36-year-old Carli Lloyd, pulling a double
the plane to France to begin her time at Paris Saint- On a welcome bright April day after a very wet shift. ‘‘We really don’t want to be doing all of this
Germain, professional women’s leagues were stretch in Denver, 10-year-old Lilli and her 9-year- all of the time,’’ Rapinoe says. ‘‘We’d much pre-
prominent enough, in the States and in Europe, old friend, Reese, sat in their soccer kits, legs fer to not be engaging in litigations. We’d much
that such a move was possible. It was her dream, so dangling off white folding chairs, in front of City prefer not to have to be the nag in the room.
she went for it. Horan is not much for keeping her Hall. This was a school day, but Reese’s mother We’d prefer to be thought partners and business
cards close to her chest. Getting called up, train- brought them to watch two of their heroes, Lind- partners.’’ Rapinoe sat up a little straighter in her
ing, playing well in international tournaments, sey Horan and Mallory Pugh, receive an honorary seat. ‘‘But obviously that’s not the case.’’
Photograph by Dina Litovsky for The New York Times The New York Times Magazine 45
Universal week’s charts — of hits, not history. ‘‘Nobody and soundstages. In 1958, the Music Corporation
(Continued from Page 35) cared about catalog,’’ says an industry veteran. of America (MCA Inc.) bought the lot from Uni-
‘‘Stuff that was five years old might as well have versal Pictures. In 1964, MCA executives, seeking
and documents that emerged from this litiga- been 1,000 years old.’’ a new source of revenue, developed a studio tour,
tion.) The suit claimed that NBCUniversal, which One insider said, ‘‘Most senior executives in which soon expanded into a full-fledged amuse-
leased the backlot vault to UMG, ‘‘breached their the record business have no understanding of ment park, with rides and attractions.
duty of care,’’ resulting in the destruction of the what masters are, why you need to store them, After two years in the mailroom, Aronson
warehouse and its contents. Legal wrangling what the point of them is.’’ Crucially, masters sought new work on the lot. In the spring of 1985,
ensued for more than three years, until February were not seen as capable of generating revenue. he got a temporary position in the tape vault of
2013, when UMG dropped the suit and the parties On the contrary: They were expensive to ware- MCA Records, the music conglomerate that
settled for an undisclosed sum. (Spokespeople for house and therefore a drain on resources. To would later be renamed Universal Music Group.
UMG and NBCUniversal declined to comment.) record-company accountants, a tape vault was It wasn’t a glamorous gig. The archive was huge
The position staked out by UMG in the lawsuit inherently a cost center, not a profit center. and poorly organized, with thousands of tapes
was the opposite of that in its public statements. These attitudes prevailed even at visionary misshelved or improperly labeled. Aronson’s task
Rather than minimizing the fire’s impact, the labels like Atlantic Records, which released hun- was to impose order on the chaos.
company sought to prove the gravity of the event dreds of recordings by black artists beginning in He had no previous experience with preser-
and the loss incurred. Aronson’s knowledge of the late 1940s. In his Billboard exposé, Holland vation work; he was fuzzy on the basics of sound
the fire’s toll made him valuable to that cause. He mentioned a 1978 fire in an ‘‘Atlantic Records recording. He learned, he says, ‘‘tape by tape.’’
was deposed multiple times and asked by UMG storage facility in Long Branch, N.J.’’ Holland Aronson was a rock fan with a deep apprecia-
lawyers to submit declarations to the court on did not reveal that the ‘‘facility’’ was the former tion for the musical past. He was tickled when
four occasions. ‘‘Although it was never said to home of Vogel’s Department Store, owned by the he stumbled on tapes for favorite albums, like
me, I was certain that they loved my candor for family of Sheldon Vogel, Atlantic’s chief financial the Mamas and the Papas’ ‘‘If You Can Believe
legal reasons,’’ Aronson says. ‘‘I was the perfect officer. Late in the 1970s, Vogel told me, Ahmet Your Eyes and Ears.’’ The work was tedious, but
counter to news releases that said the whole thing Ertegun, Atlantic’s president, complained about Aronson had a strong sense of mission and of his
was a minor event.’’ tapes cramming the label’s Manhattan office. own good fortune. When he arrived at the vault
Vogel suggested moving the material to the each day, he had the feeling he was entering a
4. Cathedral of Sounds empty Long Branch building. cathedral stocked with relics.
The history of music-archiving misfortunes Vogel was on vacation on Feb. 8, 1978, when Less than a year after taking the temp job,
extends far beyond UMG’s ruined vault. It he learned the building had burned down. The Aronson was asked to run the archive. It was a
stretches back decades and encompasses near- 5,000-plus lost tapes comprised nearly all of the period of sea change in the music industry. In the
ly every significant record label. That history session reels, alternate takes and unreleased early 1980s, the first compact discs had appeared
was detailed by a journalist, Bill Holland, in a masters recorded for Atlantic and its sublabels in American record stores. Over the next decade
two-part exposé, published in Billboard in July between 1949 and 1969, a period when its roster and a half, CDs would turbocharge the business,
1997. Holland revealed the loss and destruction featured R.&B., soul and jazz luminaries, includ- a run that climaxed in 1999, when revenue from
of ‘‘untold numbers of recordings, old and not so ing Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Coltrane recorded music in the United States reached
old.’’ Record companies have tossed masters in and Ornette Coleman. Today the importance of $14.6 billion. LPs had dominated for more than 30
bulk into dumpsters and buried them in landfills. those tapes is self-evident: thousands of hours years, but the arrival of CDs encouraged listeners
During World War II, labels donated metal parts of unheard music by some of history’s greatest to replace record collections at huge markups,
masters to salvage drives. Three decades later, recording artists. But to Atlantic in 1978, the tapes paying up to three times the price for an old
employees of CBS Records carved up multitrack were a nuisance. According to Vogel, Atlantic album in a crisp new format. The avidity with
masters with power saws so the reels could be collected ‘‘maybe a couple of million dollars’’ in which consumers snatched up even poor-quality
sold to scrap metal dealers. insurance on the destroyed masters. It seemed CD reissues was a revelation: proof that catalogs
Catalog material by top stars sometimes like a good deal. could be cash cows.
suffered the same fate as obscure recordings. ‘‘We thought, Boy, what a windfall,’’ Vogel says. The result was a reissue boom. Master tapes
Holland discovered that a purge of multitracks ‘‘We thought the insurance was worth far more were essential to this new line of business. But at
at RCA in the 1970s included tapes by the than the recordings. Eventually, the true value of the MCA vault, Aronson and his colleagues faced
best-selling act in the label’s history, Elvis Pres- those recordings became apparent.’’ challenges, the consequences of archiving failures
ley. Countless more recordings have been lost dating back decades. Aronson grew accustomed
to shoddy storage practices. Tapes have been When Randy Aronson began working as a music to finding gaps in the collection, ‘‘tapes that
mislabeled, misplaced and misfiled; tapes have archivist in the mid-1980s, he had no idea what a should have been there and were not,’’ he says.
been marooned on high shelves in disorderly master was. He grew up in central Los Angeles The vault facility itself was problematic. MCA’s
warehouses, left at loading docks, abandoned and, like many L.A. kids, his ambition was to get music tapes were stored on the ground floor of
at shuttered recording studios. In 1972, decades into show business. He did some theater during the film-archive building. The temperature in the
before the Universal inferno, a fire struck an the years he attended college and continued vault was 35 degrees Fahrenheit, the correct con-
MGM Records warehouse. Holland reported acting into his early 20s, performing in dinner ditions for storing film, but too cold for music
that masters for MGM and the jazz label Verve theater while making ends meet with odd jobs. tapes. When masters were pulled and transported
were damaged or destroyed in the fire and in the In 1983, when he was 25, Aronson took a full- to recording studios, they emerged from the frigid
months following, when surviving recordings time position on the Universal Studios lot, in vault into the Southern California heat. Aronson
were kept in an open shed. the mailroom. To work on the lot was to bask received reports that tapes were arriving at stu-
The preservation laxities were dictated by in Hollywood history and Hollywood kitsch. dios in bad shape, cracked and crumbling.
what seemed at the time to be common sense. The site was opened in 1915 in a rural stretch of By 1990, MCA’s music archive had moved
For decades, the music industry was exclusively northern Los Angeles. Gradually, that pastoral to a new home on the backlot: Building 6197,
a business of now, of today’s hot release, of this site became the lot, a bustling maze of offices, sets a big metal shack that had been built to store
46 6.16.19
theme-park souvenirs. A new concrete founda- that the upstairs tenant, a food-service company, lost archive — albeit in sonically inferior form,
tion was poured to accommodate a heavy load had loaded too many pallets of salad dressing with recordings generations removed from the
of tapes, and HVAC systems were installed. Yet into its storage hold, caving in the ceiling above true masters. UMG undertook a global hunt,
problems persisted. The inventory was still kept the UMG vault and rupturing a pipe as it crashed searching for safety copies and other duplicates
on 5 x 7 cards, and the checkout system involved down. At the warehouse, Aronson beheld a gory at a variety of locations in the United States and
scrawled notes in three-ring binders. ‘‘We got scene: collapsed Sheetrock, dangling electric- abroad. The project lasted two years and, by
the vault to a point where it was well organized,’’ ity lines, hundreds of shattered salad-dressing Aronson’s estimate, recovered perhaps a fifth
Aronson says. ‘‘But it wasn’t well inventoried. It bottles and a foot of water flooding a vault that of what had been lost. The recordings were
was hard to sell a return-on-investment on an held 350,000 master tapes, including the entire transferred to Linear Tape-Open, or LTO, a tape
inventory. It was not a company priority.’’ With- Motown catalog. The destruction of all those format used for archiving digital data. Copies
out a proper inventory, MCA had only a vague masters was averted only by quick action: a res- were placed in storage holds on both coasts: at an
idea of what was, and wasn’t, in its archive. cue-and-restoration effort which, according to underground vault in Boyers, Pa., and a high-rise
‘‘When someone asked for a tape, we’d look on Aronson, cost $12 million and entailed the hiring facility in Hollywood. Both vaults are run by Iron
the shelf and see if it was there,’’ Aronson says. ‘‘If of a dozen trucks equipped with 53-foot refriger- Mountain, the global information-management
it wasn’t, we knew we had a problem.’’ ated trailers to freeze-dry wet tapes. and storage giant.
Soon, new concerns arose. In the fall of 1990, Even more than the 1990 backlot fire, the New UMG is not alone in its reliance on the multi-
a Universal Studios security guard started a fire Jersey incident shook Aronson’s assumptions billion-dollar company. Founded in 1951 under
that whipped across the backlot, causing an about how, and where, UMG should secure its the name Iron Mountain Atomic Storage Cor-
estimated $25 million in damage. (The guard masters. Aronson says he urged UMG to aban- poration, the company initially catered to the
was convicted of arson.) The fire reached the don the backlot, shifting the recordings to a safer warehousing needs of American businesses and
doorstep of Building 6197, but firefighters beat location. Eventually, Aronson says, a compro- to Cold War anxieties, promising to secure doc-
back the flames. Aronson began to reconsider mise was reached: Most of the session reels and uments in a nuclear attack. By the 1980s, its ware-
the prudence of maintaining a tape library on multitracks stored on the backlot, about 250,000 houses and subterranean vaults held paperwork
the studio backlot. tapes, were moved to the archive in Pennsylva- and assets for private concerns and public insti-
‘‘For a long time, I was seduced by the lot,’’ nia. This left approximately 120,000 masters — tutions, from banks to corporations to the federal
Aronson says. ‘‘It was like being in Narnia. I saw 175,000, if you accept Aronson’s estimate — in government, which remains a major client.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in a dress smoking a Building 6197. These were the recordings that Today several of the company’s nearly 1,500
cigar. There were camels and elephants walking burned on June 1, 2008. facilities are devoted to entertainment assets.
past. I was so in love with being on the lot, I ‘‘I get why there was a feeling of safety,’’ Aron- Warner Music Group stores hundreds of thou-
hadn’t thought through the dangers.’’ son says. ‘‘We had our own fire department. But sands of master recordings in Iron Mountain’s
Five large fires had hit the backlot in the still I look back on it and I wonder: What the Southern California facilities, and nearly all of
years between the studio’s founding and the [expletive] was anybody thinking putting a tape Sony Music Entertainment’s United States mas-
arson incident. In 1997, another major fire was vault in an amusement park?’’ ters holdings — more than a million recordings —
ignited by an overturned set light. There were are reportedly kept in Iron Mountain warehouses
pyrotechnic materials on the backlot, used in 5. Deep Catalog in Rosendale, N.Y. The Boyers, Pa., facility where
films and featured in tourist attractions. ‘‘The On May 27, 2010, a group of celebrities, politi- UMG keeps most of its United States masters is
King Kong ride had explosions, all day every cians and Universal Studios officials appeared a 1.7-million-square-foot former limestone mine.
day,’’ Aronson says. ‘‘Flames shooting up. Right at a news conference on the Universal backlot The facility offers optimal archive conditions, cli-
next door to the vault.’’ to mark the reopening of New York Street. The mate control and armed guards.
In addition to the backlot archive, UMG speakers, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneg- For labels, Iron Mountain is a one-stop shop.
had tape collections in Pennsylvania, outside ger of California and the president of Universal In addition to providing storage, it runs on-site
Nashville, in upstate New York and in a sepa- Studios, Ron Meyer, praised the firefighters who studios, so staff members can pull tapes and
rate location in Los Angeles. Over the years, the had battled the 2008 inferno and rhapsodized send digital transfers to labels online, avoiding
company’s masters holdings grew as mergers about the rebuilt set. The name given by Univer- any need for recordings to leave the premises.
and acquisitions brought new labels — and new sal to its rebuilding effort struck a heady note of Yet some music-business insiders regard this
tape libraries — into MCA’s portfolio. In 1995, regeneration and renewal: The Phoenix Project. arrangement as a mixed bargain. When masters
the Seagram Company acquired an 80 percent A year and a half earlier, Universal Music arrive at Iron Mountain, they say, institutional
interest in MCA Inc.; the following year, MCA’s Group embarked on its own recovery project. memory — archivists’ firsthand knowledge of
music division was renamed Universal Music In an apparent coincidence, the program’s nick- poorly inventoried stacks — evaporates, as does
Group. Seagram purchased PolyGram Records in name was nearly identical to the one chosen the possibility of finding lost material, either by
December 1998 and soon merged it with UMG, by its former sister company. But UMG’s Proj- dogged digging or chance discovery. (Many trea-
adding several hundred thousand masters to the ect Phoenix would not culminate in a splashy sures in tape vaults have been stumbled upon
company’s archives. Most PolyGram masters — ceremony; no gleaming tape vault would rise by accident.) Tapes can be retrieved only when
including material released on such sublabels as from the ashes. In the decade-plus since the requested by bar-code number, and labels pay
Mercury, Island and Motown — were housed in fire, UMG has shifted many of its masters into fees for each request. For years, rumors have cir-
a rented warehouse in Edison, N.J. the hands of third parties. This is typical of the culated among insiders about legendary albums
One day in May 2004, Aronson got a call from record industry at large: In the 21st century, the whose masters have gone missing in Iron Moun-
a colleague. A crisis was unfolding at the New job of archiving major labels’ masters has largely tain because labels recorded incorrect bar-code
Jersey warehouse. According to depositions in been outsourced. numbers. The kind of mass tape-pull that would
UMG’s later litigation with NBCUniversal, an UMG began Project Phoenix in October 2008. be necessary to unearth lost recordings is both
accident in the warehouse space directly above The plan was to gather duplicates of recordings financially and logistically impractical.
UMG’s tape vault resulted in a broken water main. whose masters were lost. Those copies would ‘‘I’ve always thought of Iron Mountain as that
Aronson flew to New Jersey, where he learned then be digitally transferred to reconstitute the warehouse in the last scene of ‘Raiders of the Lost

Ark,’ ’’ says Thane Tierney, who co-founded Uni- song demos pulled from his vault, while Mike D Seligman says. Eleven years after the fire, UMG
versal’s now-defunct reissue label Hip-O Select. of the Beastie Boys made news by revealing that defends its commitment to conservation. ‘‘In the
‘‘Just endless rows of stuff. It’s perfectly safe, but the masters of their hugely popular 1986 debut last five years alone,’’ its statement says, ‘‘we have
there’s no access, no possibility of serendipity. album cannot be located. more than doubled our investment in storage,
Nearly all the tapes that go in will never come The resurgence of the record industry in preservation and metadata enrichment while
off the shelf. They’re lost to history.’’ the streaming era would seem to bode well for developing state-of-the-art systems to support
the cause of preservation. In 2017, Bruce Res- our global efforts around capturing, preserving
There are other institutions devoted to pre- nikoff, the head of UMG’s catalog division, told and future-proofing our many media assets.’’
serving sound recordings. In January 2011, the Billboard that ‘‘the catalog business is having Even critics concede that to cast blame sole-
recorded-sound section of the Library of Con- its biggest expansion since the CD.’’ A report ly on penurious corporations is to ignore a big-
gress announced its largest-ever acquisition: by BuzzAngle, which analyzes online music ger picture. In recent decades, the cause of film
approximately 200,000 metal parts, aluminum consumption, found that about half the music preservation has made strides, spurred in part
and glass lacquer disc masters, donated by Uni- streamed on demand in the United States last by the politicking and largess of individuals like
versal Music Group. The recordings, dating from year was ‘‘deep catalog,’’ songs three or more the movie director Martin Scorsese, who has
1926 to 1948, are among the oldest extant mas- years old. A catalog boom could theoretically embraced preservation as a crusade. No analo-
ters in UMG’s catalog. Physical ownership of the push labels to digitize more archival recordings. gous effort has taken place within music. Artists
masters was permanently transferred from UMG But a question remains as to how deep ‘‘deep famous for activism around masters, like Prince,
to the federal government; UMG retained the catalog’’ extends. The old songs most listeners have construed the issue strictly as a labor-versus-
intellectual-property rights. The library is free are streaming are either recent hits or classics management struggle, a matter of individual art-
to preserve the recordings, digitize them and by huge artists like the Beatles and Bob Marley. ists’ rights, not as a question of collective cultural
make them available to scholars. The label can Labels may not see much incentive to digitize patrimony. The most prominent musician to advo-
continue to exploit them commercially. For the less-popular material. cate for sound preservation on broader historical
label, it’s a great deal, transferring preservation Some view digitization as a moral imperative. grounds is the singer-songwriter Jack White, who
responsibility for some of its most fragile assets Archiving failures have left untold numbers of donated $200,000 to the National Recording Pres-
while saving on storage costs. analog masters damaged and in states of decay. ervation Foundation and sat on its board.
Today, of course, a seemingly infinite music Gerald Seligman, the National Recording Preser- ‘‘People who have made fortunes in film have
library sits at the fingertips of every smartphone vation Foundation director, sees a ticking time- been more interested in contributing toward
owner. The rise of Napster and file sharing in the bomb scenario: Endangered masters need to preservation than those who’ve made fortunes
early 2000s decimated the music business; as be identified and transferred before they are no in music,’’ Seligman says. ‘‘It’s viewed as a niche
recently as 2015, the industry was widely judged longer playable. ‘‘The figure I hear is about 10 issue, when in fact it’s an existential issue. Musi-
to have been broken by digital piracy. But with years,’’ Seligman says. ‘‘That’s the window we cians themselves don’t seem to understand
the rise of streaming, a new era has arrived. In have to digitize massive amounts of music on what’s at stake.’’
each of the past three years, recorded-music improperly-cared-for perishable media.’’
retail revenues have surged by more than 10 per- But digital recordings are perishable in their 6. The Shadow Canon
cent, with the Recording Industry Association of own right — far less stable, in fact, than record- Until recently, Randy Aronson never listened
America reporting $9.85 billion in revenue for ings on magnetic tape. A damaged analog tape to streaming music. Now he is one of Spotify’s
2018. A full 75 percent of that revenue came from is not necessarily a lost cause: An engineer may reported 100 million subscribers. ‘‘The music
streaming, and more than half of the total went be able to perform restoration work and get the sounds like it was mastered in a Coke can,’’ he
to UMG, in what Billboard described as possibly recording to play. But when a digital medium says. ‘‘But on long drives, it’s the best.’’
‘‘the most dominant year by a music company in is compromised, it is most likely gone. Many The past couple of years have brought chang-
modern history.’’ masters from recent decades are kept on hard es for Aronson. The new archiving job he’d
This streaming boom is only the latest in a long drives, notoriously fragile mechanisms that may hoped for never materialized. Now, he says,
history of technological upheavals in the music not function after sitting for years in a vault. ‘‘My enthusiasm for the music business has
industry. Shifts in format — from wax cylinders Today, labels increasingly rely on digital-tape dimmed.’’ In September 2017, Aronson and his
to shellac discs to LPs to CDs and MP3s and formats like LTO. But LTO is backward compat- wife, Jamie, sold their house, bought a trailer,
now streaming — arrive periodically to trans- ible for just two generations. Labels must either and drove nearly 650 miles to Humboldt County,
form the record trade. The newest development continually retransfer their archives or maintain on the Northern California coast. Today they live
is a shift within a shift, the advent of high-res- outdated playback equipment. in the trailer, in a campground near a state park.
olution audio, with streaming services offering All these problems are exacerbated by the Jamie works in the health care industry. For a
premium products built on high-quality sound. structure of the music business, in which hun- while, Aronson worked as a security guard in a
The platform Tidal recently started a subscrip- dreds of labels have been consolidated into three shopping mall. He recently started a new job as
tion product called Tidal Masters, described by huge ones, which in turn have been absorbed a project coordinator at a nonprofit that serves
the company as ‘‘the ultimate audio experience by global conglomerates. The necessity of safe- low-income residents of Humboldt.
. . . thousands of master-quality songs.’’ As in the guarding a sound-recording heritage may appear Aronson still broods about the Universal fire.
CD era, the industry is trading on the mystique abstract to executives at a distant parent compa- He reflects on his earliest days at MCA. ‘‘When I
of masters — and once again it is running up ny, who may simply see an expense on a balance saw those names on the tape-box bindings, my
against the imperative of keeping those origi- sheet marked ‘‘Storage.’’ mind reeled,’’ he said recently. ‘‘There’s Elton
nal recordings around and in good shape. To The fate of millions of recordings does finally John, there’s Steely Dan. Here I am with Chuck
deliver ‘‘master quality’’ audio, you must return come down to blunt cost-benefit judgments. To [expletive] Berry.’’ Aronson recalls the Bing Cros-
to the masters. The loss and discovery of these invest in comprehensive preservation and digiti- by tapes, the Ella Fitzgerald tapes, the Louis
ur-recordings is a perennial topic of interest in zation programs is not cheap, but it’s not beyond Armstrong tapes. ‘‘The disappointment and
music news: In the past few weeks, Prince fans the means of UMG or the other major labels. responsibility I feel is sometimes overwhelm-
savored the release of a new collection of classic ‘‘It all comes down to funding and priorities,’’ ing,’’ he said.
48 6.16.19
Some of the sharpest pangs come when Aron- it lost money on,’’ says Andy Zax, the producer that recorded one single and led a hard-rock trio
son’s thoughts drift to lesser-known records. A and writer. ‘‘Much of that music, at any given that released two albums. But Bennett released
loss that hits him hard, he says, are the tapes moment, may seem dated, irrelevant, terrible. no recordings after 1978. According to one of
of Moms Mabley, the pioneering black female The most powerful argument for preservation his former bandmates in Los Angeles, Bennett
comedian who released 16 LPs for Chess in the is simply: ‘We don’t know.’ The sounds from the died sometime in the late 1990s. You won’t find
1960s. ‘‘It’s not like Moms was selling in huge past that seem vital to us in the present keep his name in history books, but if you dig into
numbers,’’ he says. ‘‘I doubt there’s many copies changing. Since we don’t know what’s going to his scattered discography you meet an original:
out there.’’ be important, we have to err on the side of inclu- a musician who combined a command of craft
There are more mysterious losses. ‘‘So many sivity and insist that the entities that own our with an insurgent’s flair for the impish and odd
things would come to the vault straight from cultural history do the same.’’ — the kind of weirdness that can’t be faked.
studios and get shelved,’’ he says. ‘‘You know, ‘‘The Prince Teddy Album’’ was Bennett’s full-
Nirvana production masters with extra songs no Recently I’ve been on a hunt — rooting through est musical statement that ever saw commercial
one ever heard. There were Chess boxes that just used record stores and scouring the internet to release. Today it is a musical endangered species.
said, ‘Session.’ Often there was no other info, no find rarities whose master tapes burned in the It was never reissued, and its digital footprint
metadata. Who knows what was on those tapes? UMG fire. Some of these records were reissued appears to comprise just two and a half songs,
We’ll never know.’’ and have found their way onto streaming ser- posted to YouTube by users who, evidently,
The specter of these unknowns hovers over vices. The music may have trickled online else- made transfers from the vinyl. Those songs were
the Universal disaster. But many of the destroyed where, preserved by some private enthusiast: enough to pique my interest: Last year I bought
recordings fit a different profile. They were, you Someone uploaded a song or two to YouTube or the LP online for $75. At the time, there were just
might say, super-deep catalog: masters for thou- digitized an LP and posted it on a blog. Often a few copies for sale; it’s unlikely that many more
sands of also-rans, records that neither clicked the recordings are available only on the vinyl copies are out there. It turned out to be one of the
commercially nor achieved cult status and that was sent out to record shops decades ago. great impulse purchases of my life. The album
slipped through the historiographical cracks. I’ve discovered the riches of labels I’d never throws together muscular funk, blasts of electric
Even if a massive digitization program had been heard of: Back Beat, Argo, Nashboro. I’ve lis- guitar, eerie synthesizer undulations, lush Phil-
in place, it would likely not have extended to for- tened to gospel and blues on Peacock, to psyche- adelphia soul. The inspiration of Sly Stone and
gotten bubble-gum singles, disco one-offs and delic rock on Probe. I took a particular interest George Clinton is audible in Bennett’s singing
other long-lost nonstarters. in AVI Records, whose catalog includes a bit of and in the woozy blend of genres. But a list of
A skeptic might argue that this is as it should everything: rock and funk and soul, a slew of influences doesn’t tell the tale: The cleverness of
be. In the 140-odd years since Thomas Edison disco singles, more than two dozen Liberace the songwriting and arrangements, the slightly
invented the phonograph, countless recordings LPs. As a teenager, I was a rabid record collec- shaggy singing and playing — it seems to origi-
have been made under the auspices of record tor; later, I worked as a pop critic, laboring under nate from its own musical planet.
companies. To conserve anything close to all the impression that my grasp of music history The tone is set by the album-opening song,
those recordings has proved impossible; it may was firm. But tracking down remnants of the ‘‘Don’t Wanna Spoil Your High.’’ It begins with a
not even be desirable. The caretaking of canoni- UMG disaster has been a lesson in the limits of dissonant rumble from a keyboard, which gives
cal material, the Bings and Billies and Nirvanas, standard historical narratives and a reminder way to a chugging groove. A choir of female
must naturally take priority. To ask that the same of music’s illimitable plenteousness. The vault vocalists hoots in the distance, and Bennett’s
level of attention be lavished on all music, includ- on the Universal lot housed another history, a voice rises over theirs, cajoling and cackling,
ing stuff that holds interest only for obscuran- shadow canon of 20th-century pop. as if amused by the sound he’s making and the
tists, is to demand a preservation standard that AVI Records was hit hard by the backlot fire. words he’s singing. The lyrics are enigmatic:
prevails in no other area of culture. If the sole According to UMG documents, AVI’s entire cat- ‘‘Don’t let the facts upset you/Nobody’s out
vestiges of thousands of old recordings are a few alog of 9,866 tapes was destroyed. One of those to get you/I don’t want to spoil your high/But
stray 45s lining the shelves of collectors — per- tapes was the master for an LP by Don Bennett, they’ll get you by and by.’’ The song seems to be
haps that’s not a cultural tragedy, perhaps that’s a ‘‘The Prince Teddy Album,’’ released in 1977 and executing several agendas simultaneously: It’s
commercial-art ecosystem functioning properly. released that same year. Bennett is a fascinating a consolation and a threat, a party invitation, a
Perhaps. But history holds a counterargument. figure who straddled musical worlds. He grew up druggie hallucination, a prophecy, a gag.
Many recordings were ignored for decades, only in Pasadena. In his early 20s, he began writing I’ve played the song dozens of times, strap-
to be rediscovered and enshrined as Imperish- and arranging soul-flavored pop records by inde- ping on headphones and letting the needle drop
able Art. The Velvet Underground were a com- pendent artists. Bennett was black, but he defied on the still pristine LP. Each time, I’m struck by
mercial bust in the late 1960s and early ’70s but the music industry’s racial typecasting. Around the loss of Don Bennett, a singular musician who
have proved to be one of the most influential 1967, he drifted into Los Angeles’s garage-rock left behind so few traces, and by the disappear-
groups in history. Then there’s Nick Drake, the scene; he did arrangement work on records by ance in the Universal fire of an unfathomable
English singer-songwriter who recorded three the renowned L.A. band the Standells and can be number of other recordings, some of which may
LPs of dreamy jazz-inflected folk between 1969 heard singing lead vocals on some recordings by survive only on stray scraps of vinyl, many of
and 1972, before his death at age 26. During another influential group, the Chocolate Watch- which may no longer exist at all, in any form,
Drake’s lifetime, his albums sold modestly. A band. Bennett also has writing credits on songs anywhere. But listening to ‘‘Don’t Wanna Spoil
cult fan base developed following the release of by both bands, including what may qualify as the Your High,’’ I’m struck also by Bennett’s uncanny
a box set; in 1999, Drake’s song ‘‘Pink Moon’’ earliest musical sendup of hippie counterculture presence: his gruff half-laughing voice, captured
appeared in a Volkswagen commercial, and sales and one of the first punk-rock-like sentiments by recording-studio science in the late 1970s and
went through the roof. All three of Drake’s LPs ever recorded, the Chocolate Watchband’s ‘‘Are still crackling with life in 2019, transmitting a
were included in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2005 You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)?’’ message across the gulf of time and space.
tally of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The bulk of Bennett’s musical production ‘‘I’m speaking my words of wisdom, gonna
‘‘The music business intercepted about a cen- dates from a 10-year period between the late make it very clear,’’ Bennett sings. ‘‘Bend your
tury’s worth of sounds, the vast majority of which 1960s and late 1970s. He formed a pop-soul band head right over, baby, I’ll whisper in your ear.’’

Democrats Iowa Falls. Her impeachment call in late April for instance, which I heard again at a rally that
(Continued from Page 25) coincided with the start of her recent jump in night in Nashua, about how his father used to
the polls. Likewise, Warren received a great tell him: ‘‘Joey, a job’s about a lot more than
common with him.’’ Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s deal of attention for her refusal to appear on a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about
2016 campaign manager, later told me: ‘‘The big Fox News and for dismissing the network as a your place in the community, it’s about respect,
idea about Trump was that he was talking plain ‘‘Hate-for-Profit Racket.’’ it’s about being able to look your child in the
and telling it like it is, even though he was lying Both stances won Warren good will from the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be O.K.’ and
all the time. It was authentic lying.’’ party’s liberal base, though spurning Fox was mean it.’’ That basic American promise is dead
‘‘I think about this a lot, especially with all somewhat controversial. To many Democratic and needs to be restored, Biden says. The last
these questions about what authenticity means,’’ strategists, invading Trump’s safe cable space guy won by promising a return to a mythical
Buttigieg continued. ‘‘You can think about it is an underutilized way to provoke the presi- America that was once great; why should Biden
too much.’’ He chuckled. ‘‘It’s supposed to be dent. ‘‘We know that it gets in Trump’s head, and not promise to make everything O.K. again?
effortless, right?’’ Democrats should be all over that,’’ Plouffe said, If anything, Biden is banking on a lack of faith
The echoes of Obama 2008 are unmistakable adding that appearing on Fox News could be a among Democratic primary voters. Trump’s
with Buttigieg. Like Obama in 2008, Buttigieg centerpiece of any ‘‘psy-ops’’ strategy against election left many of them with little confi-
resists the ‘‘I’m a fighter’’ crutch on which so Trump. ‘‘How do you destabilize this guy? How dence that the general electorate could ever
much Democratic messaging has leaned for do you throw him off his game? He is, I think, look beyond, say, a candidate’s unconvention-
decades. ‘‘It can be exhausting,’’ Buttigieg said of very vulnerable to that.’’ al gender (i.e., female) as they learned the hard
this pugilism fixation. He has called it a ‘‘fetish.’’ way in 2016. ‘‘If this was a normal cycle, Joe
He urged me not to mistake his aversion to In the event of an emergency, as many Dem- would not be running,’’ said Terry Shumaker, a
fight-club rhetoric for complacency. ‘‘Dr. King ocrats view the prospect of a second term Concord attorney I met at a backyard reception
was speaking for some of the most marginal- for Donald Trump, it’s natural to gravitate to for Biden in Nashua. Shumaker was wearing a
ized people ever when he said darkness cannot a security blanket, no matter how itchy: Joe ‘‘Biden for President’’ button that he acquired
drive out darkness, only light can drive out dark- Biden, in other words. in 1987 and an official pin from when Shumaker
ness,’’ Buttigieg told me. ‘‘If anything, when he’s In the middle of May, the former vice presi- served as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador
talking about fierceness and urgency and anger, dent was making his maiden swing through New to Trinidad and Tobago. ‘‘If not for Trump, he
it’s dealing with white liberals who are dragging Hampshire. His first stop was a pizza bistro in would still be retired,’’ Shumaker said. ‘‘I think
their feet.’’ Upstairs, a roomful of white liberals Hampton, lunchtime on a drizzly Monday. A he feels called.’’
were stomping their feet in the club, chanting, hundred or so bodies were jammed in, seem- It is frequently pointed out that Biden’s pro-
‘‘We want Pete.’’ ingly half of them New Hampshire state repre- pensity for gaffes presents an even greater peril
They got Pete. He came out to Creedence sentatives wearing name-tag pins, many saying than in previous races, thanks to a vastly less
Clearwater Revival’s ‘‘Up Around the Bend,’’ they had known the former vice president for forgiving social media ecosystem. But in New
which seemed like a strange walk-up song until I years. “Good to see you, man,” Biden said, pat- Hampshire, Biden said a few things that could
learned that ‘‘the Bend’’ is apparently what South ting the shoulders of a guy in a Boston Bruins have made mainstream headlines, and I was sur-
Bend is sometimes referred to by locals, includ- cap near the entrance. prised that they did not. It made me wonder if
ing its mayor. Buttigieg barely mentioned Trump, Like the Democratic field he leads, Biden’s he would actually benefit from the permission
except to emphasize that he tries not to talk too stump speech, at the multiple rallies where I structure that the current president has enabled
much about him. ‘‘This president,’’ Buttigieg said, heard it, was an unruly mess. He name-drops through his ability to get away with so much.
‘‘like all grotesque things, is hard to look away ‘‘Barack’’ a lot. The rest is a familiar-for-him mish- When a woman in the crowd whom Biden called
from.’’ It’s important to try, he went on. ‘‘Because mash: several references to his family tragedies, on fumed about Trump that ‘‘he is an illegitimate
if it’s all about him, it’s not about you.’’ calls for national unity and vows to not to ‘‘get president in my mind,’’ Biden replied: ‘‘Would
Elizabeth Warren seems especially proud of down into mud wrestling’’ with Trump. He had you be my vice-presidential candidate? Folks,
her ability to ignore the inescapable — Trump the week before called him a ‘‘no-good S.O.B.’’ look, I absolutely agree.’’
— as a hockey player with a broken leg would and a ‘‘clown,’’ among other things. Not long ago — five years or so — a former vice
be loath to admit pain. ‘‘Did I even mention Biden’s face tends not to move, but you sense president signing on to the idea that the current
him at all?’’ the Massachusetts senator asked furious activity going on behind his eyes. It is president is ‘‘illegitimate’’ might have been a rath-
me following a house party where she spoke as if armies of little chipmunks are working all er large deal. In 2019, barely anyone noticed — or
in Iowa Falls. I replied that yes, she had in fact kinds of levers, reminding him of what notes they noticed much less than they did a few weeks
mentioned Trump once, in response to a ques- to hit or people to mention and terms that later when the speaker of the House reportedly
tion she received about the special prosecutor could now run him afoul of the Woke Police. said she would like to see the president of the
Robert Mueller and the Russia investigation. ‘‘I Mostly, he seems a bit rusty, stepping gingerly United States in prison.
got a question,’’ she told me, suggesting that it into a world of Twitter vigilantes that did not It made me think of something that Mari-
didn’t really count. exist the last time he ran for president, in 2008, anne Williamson used to talk about when she
Among the Democratic contenders, War- much less the first time, 20 years earlier, when was running for Congress in 2014, about how
ren is distinguished by the think tank’s worth his campaign was incinerated by a video of his things that used to be considered exotic have
of policy proposals she has churned out since lifting a speech from the British Labor leader now been incorporated into the political main-
entering the race, a program she would prob- Neil Kinnock. Flashes of hesitation crossed his stream. ‘‘Today that fringe is baked into the
ably be campaigning on regardless of who face at the Hampton pizza joint. ‘‘My wife, who’s cake,’’ Williamson told me. She might revile
currently occupied the White House. Still, a college professor,’’ he said, then paused. ‘‘A Donald Trump, but she also owed him for this
Warren’s one riff relating to Trump — she junior-college professor,’’ he clarified, before much: In 2020, no candidate, and no idea, can
described how she was against impeaching him clarifying again: ‘‘community-college professor.’’ safely be counted out. This is something Wil-
but changed her mind after reading the Muel- The safe candidate grabs for safe things — liamson could point out from the Democratic
ler report — elicited the loudest applause in the parable Biden has been telling for years, debate stage.
50 6.16.19
Abortion black-girl press and bump under,’’ she says. ‘‘And she would have to come back later for an initial
(Continued from Page 39) the pearls. I was very much the respectability pol- consultation, then a third time for the procedure.
itics chick.’’ She was not focused on reproductive This amounted to a gas bill A. couldn’t afford.
fuller picture of reproductive health, and she is an issues until she developed a crush on one of the She walked out to the parking lot, numb, and
example of someone who is impacted by these women who staffed her dormitory’s reception dialed the number the clinic had given her for
issues taking leadership.’’ N.N.A.F. has offered to desk, and she took up the preferred cause of the the National Abortion Federation, whose hotline
sponsor mediation between Derzis and Roberts. object of her affection — the National Organiza- offers income-based assistance for the procedure,
Roberts lets donors make requests about how tion for Women, which has agitated for feminist but nothing else. When A. said she needed gas
she uses their money, but she says most don’t. J., a causes since the 1960s. Within a year, she had money, N.A.F. directed her to M.R.F.F., which cov-
donor who grew up in the South and is distrustful dropped out of school and become a full-time ered everything. Other than the friend who drove
of ‘‘people who don’t understand the region try- activist, later joining NOW’s national board and A. to the clinic, Roberts was the only person who
ing to come in and do something,’’ told me this becoming president of the Mississippi chapter. knew it happened. ‘‘Miss Laurie is real and didn’t
is one reason to donate to M.R.F.F., rather than M.R.F.F. began as a line item in NOW’s 2013 bud- sugarcoat things,’’ A. remembered. ‘‘Nothing could
a less grass-roots group. (Fearing professional get. Two years later, at the urging of black femi- really make it easy, but she made it easier.’’
consequences, J. asked not to use a full name.) nists she met on Twitter, Roberts left to run the
‘‘People look at us and think, I don’t know what fund independently. ‘‘Laurie’s not from here, but In 1994, worried that Clinton-era Democrats were
that [expletive] is that they’re doing over in Mis- she’s been here long enough that she’s ours now,’’ considering sacrificing reproductive care from
sissippi, why they’re not just funding abortions,’’ Felicia Brown-Williams, who directs Planned Par- health care reform in an appeal to Republicans,
Roberts acknowledges. ‘‘But I cannot come into enthood Southeast in Mississippi, told me. 12 black women met at a Chicago abortion rights
the black community’’ — which has endured cen- At first, M.R.F.F. supported three or four clients conference to have what Loretta Ross described to
turies of coerced sterilization and other forms of a month. Now, Roberts says, it’s an average of 35. me as ‘‘our W.T.F. moment.’’ Ross, now an author
reproductive control — ‘‘and say, ‘We’re just going Roberts said she devotes at least 60 hours of every and lecturer on race and reproductive issues, was
to pay for your abortion.’ We would not be seen as week to that work, for which she pays herself a at the time doing anti-Ku Klux Klan organizing in
credible. I would not see it as credible.’’ $5,000 annual stipend. She also supports herself Atlanta. As the conversation in Chicago went on,
by cobbling together money from writing articles her fellow activists started talking less about repro-
Roberts grew up with the white side of her family in for Jackson’s alt-weekly, attending births as a doula ductive rights and more about how the movement
Minnesota in the conservative Independent Baptist and making jewelry and other crafts. ‘‘But my main surrounding it was failing black women.
Church. She believed abortion was murder until, at job is that I’m the parent of two disabled people,’’ ‘‘One of the things we talked about,’’ Ross says,
12, she saw a picture of a fetus that looked nothing she said: Most of her family’s income comes from ‘‘was that, since the Civil War, the African-Amer-
like the miniature baby doll she’d been given in Medicaid, SNAP, disability and child support from ican community has been subject to strategies of
Sunday school, and began questioning her beliefs. her ex-husband. ‘‘I’m very lucky to be on a fixed population control, trying to make sure that we
‘‘I was like, O.K., somebody’s lying,’’ she says. Begin- income so that I can do this work.’’ don’t have children. So we have to fight equally
ning when she was 16, she had seven children over The years of parking-lot intakes like Brandy’s hard for the right to have the children that we want
nine years, three with an ex-husband she says was are long past. Now each case begins with a call to have. As we thought about it further, we said,
abusive, another conceived through rape. ‘‘My doc- to an automated phone line, then a conversation Well, once we had kids, no one seemed to care. So
tor told me, ‘You have to stop having babies like this via text or email. ‘‘The process of calling funds we have to fight for our right to parent our children
or you’re going to die,’ ’’ Roberts says. ‘‘ ‘You need can be arduous,’’ Roberts says. ‘‘People have this in safe and healthy environments.’’ They eventu-
to get an abortion.’ And he was a damn Catholic.’’ overwhelming pile of obstacles in front of them, ally named their new framework ‘‘reproductive
But Roberts couldn’t afford one, and by the time and then they’re calling these strangers for help justice’’ and their group SisterSong. The idea took
she scraped together the money, she was too far and getting busy signals, or lectures about how decades to gain traction. Khiara M. Bridges, a law
along. She has never had an abortion. they should be running their lives.’’ professor at Boston University who studies how
She has heard similar stories of failed attempts That’s what happened to A., a 25-year-old poor women of color navigate health care systems,
from the more than 400 clients M.R.F.F. has sup- whose abortion the M.R.F.F. paid for in October told me that the concept ‘‘just wasn’t a thing’’ when
ported over the past five years. ‘‘A lot of our caller 2017. If there is such a thing as a typical M.R.F.F. she studied law at Columbia University in the late
stories sound tragic to other people,’’ she said. ‘‘I client, or a typical abortion-fund client, A. was it: 1990s. But at the same time, ‘‘reproductive rights
don’t think of it as tragic; I think of it as life. What’s a young mother whose job couldn’t support a big- alone didn’t make sense to me or the work I was
tragic is that they don’t have what they need to ger family. ‘‘I’m engaged, but when it’s morning doing. It’s just not a useful tool to describe how
make their choices without having to come to me.’’ time, I’m a single parent,’’ she told me of raising people’s lives are on the ground.’’
Roberts lives in a four-bedroom rental house, her two children. ‘‘At the grocery store, I’m a sin- When applied to an individual abortion,
three minutes from JWHO, that she shares gle parent. When it’s bedtime, I’m a single parent. reproductive justice involves taking into account
with all seven of her children, ages 16 to 24. A I just wasn’t ready for any more children.’’ everything else in a patient’s life. After Roberts
hopscotch set of car tires sits next to the front Before going to JWHO, four hours away from helped A. receive her abortion, M.R.F.F. began
walkway, and the only rainbow flag I saw in her home in Southern Mississippi, A. went to paying for her birth control. When Brandy got
Jackson hangs in the window. Roberts, who has Google. ‘‘I tried to have a natural miscarriage,’’ a new job after her trip to Tuscaloosa, Roberts’s
fibromyalgia and often uses a cane or a wheel- she said. ‘‘I read a lot of stuff about organic meth- children helped look after her kids. Reproductive
chair, receives guests in the living room, which ods, and I fell for it and wasted two weeks.’’ (Sites justice is why Roberts named her organization
is strewn with boxes of fund supplies: diapers, recommended everything from swallowing the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund and
condoms, pamphlets. Across the room is an Ikea vitamin C tablets to eating multiple pineapples not the Mississippi Abortion Fund.
bookcase packed tight with volumes of black his- a day.) She found abortion pills online, but they Four years in, Roberts concluded that M.R.F.F.
tory, fund documents and comic books. cost hundreds of dollars, including shipping from couldn’t carry out this mission without its own
Roberts has lived in Jackson since 2005, when China. She gave up and headed to Jackson. physical address. Funding abortions, birth con-
she came to pursue a political-science degree When she arrived, the JWHO receptionist trol, groceries — this could be done from her
at Jackson State University. ‘‘I had the classic told her there were no appointments that day; home. But in a state that (Continued on Page 53)
51 6.16.19
Puzzles
SPELLING BEE RHYME SCHEME GOING HALFWAY

By Frank Longo By Patrick Berry By Thinh Van Duc Lai
How many common words of 5 or more letters can Each answer below is a compound word or common Draw a line from each circled number that goes the
you spell using the letters in the hive? Every answer two-word phrase in which every answer in List A same number of squares as that number — and whose
must use the center letter at least once. Letters may has a double-rhyming match in List B. For example, if end is an arrow pointing to a spot that’s that many
be reused in a word. At least one word will use all 7 List A contained SEASIDE, List B might contain LEE squares further away. Every line points to a different
letters. Proper names and hyphenated words are not TIDE or FREE RIDE. Which “A” answers rhyme with which spot. No lines touch, and no arrow can point through
allowed. Score 1 point for each answer, and 3 points “B” answers is for you to determine. another arrow, line, number or spot.
for a word that uses all 7 letters.
List A
Rating: 8 = good; 14 = excellent; 20 = genius 1. “I hope you succeed!” (4,4) _______________________ Ex. 1 3 1 3
2. Item hanging from a janitor’s belt (3,5) __________

1 1
3. Sticky stuff used to catch insects (8) _____________
4. White animal in the Arctic (5,4) __________________ 3
> 3
5. Supporter of F.D.R.’s economics (3,6) _____________ 1 3 1 3
A 6. Visits tourist spots (9) ____________________________

7. Part of a sitcom’s sound mix (5,5) ________________
8. Branch of the U.S. armed forces (5,5) ____________
X E 9. Tiara wearers at a school dance (4,6) ___________
10. Unethical campaign practices (5,6) ______________
I List B
1. Unglamorous, high-waisted pants (3,5) _________
P L 2. Offensive football position (8) ___________________

3. “Wish you were here” mailing (8) ________________
4. Stupid person, in slang (8) _______________________
N 5. Highest number in roulette (6-3) _________________

6. Groundhog (9) ___________________________________
7. Eruption on the sun’s surface (5,5) _______________
8. Bicycle or moped (3-7) ___________________________
9. Tall building (10) __________________________________
Our list of words, worth 24 points, appears with last week’s answers. 10. Four people in a car’s back seat, e.g. (5,7) ________
DIAGRAMLESS 1
2
DOWN
Half a quart
“____, humbug!”
By Alex Eaton-Salners 3 Elitist sort
4 Push’s opposite
This diagramless crossword is 17 squares wide by 17 5 Muscat’s land
squares deep and has an asymmetrical pattern. The first
6 How sled dogs must work
square across is given with last week’s answers.
7 1989 Top 5 hit for the B-52’s
8 Flora
ACROSS 33 Prominent part of a pout 9 Split in the road
1 “This Old House” airer 35 Corp. money manager 10 Barely got (by)
4 Baby grand, e.g. 36 Stress-free employment 12 What the 12 angry
6 Swiss peak men made up
39 Hybrid
in “12 Angry Men”
9 2015 musical based on Thanksgiving dessert
an Alison Bechdel memoir 14 Neighbor of Cambodia
41 1978 comedy
11 Note after fa starring John Belushi 15 Producers of eggs
12 Sudden shock 43 Coagulate 17 Window parts
18 Candy from a dispenser
13 Flaky Mideast confection 46 Opus ____
19 Cartoon “devil,” informally
15 Throw hard 47 Show on which John
Candy got his start 20 The Falcons,
16 Bring to order?
on scoreboards
17 Free coffee, maybe … 51 Sources of acorns
22 Final letter in
or what coffee may do in 52 Address book no. the NATO alphabet
a coffeepot 53 Nickname akin to Teddy 23 Jumbotron
18 Grp. that meets at school 54 Rival of Uber message, perhaps
21 Verb with “thou” 55 Hole-punching tool 24 Sun: Prefix
22 Off-the-wall 56 Furnace’s output 26 Ms. ____-Man
23 Toffee bar brand 57 Kazan who directed 27 Bottled-water brand 38 What offensive 45 “Sure, I can go with that”
25 Funny Mort “East of Eden” named after a country language is used in 48 Has a chocolate sundae
26 Roofing company 58 Was polite in 28 “Mon ____!” 39 Kind of screwdriver while on a diet, say
names like “Local Shingles” asking for something 30 Mafia big 40 Art lover 49 Cups, saucers,
and “We Work Slate” 62 Stamford’s state: Abbr. 32 Objectivist Rand 42 Spaces to maneuver sugar bowl, etc.
27 Petered (out) 63 Old print-shop employee 34 Settings for Windows 43 Company that 50 “Nay” sayers?
29 Hotel worker 64 Had a mortgage, say 37 Accessory often introduced 59 Raider’s grp.
31 Brewed beverage 65 Things written next to the front door Cabbage Patch Kids 60 “Gangnam Style” rapper
32 Goal in blue books (as is the case here!) 44 Tried not to be seen 61 Gave permission to
52
Answers to puzzles of 6.9.19 Abortion condoms.’’ She sighed. ‘‘I know it don’t look like
(Continued from Page 51) much, but it’s going to be amazing.’’
DON’T QUOTE ME
By May of this year, she had checked off about
M A C H I S M O O S M O S I S G E D S
A B L A T I O N T O R N A D O R A I N
mandates abstinence-based sex education and half her list of improvements, including kitchen
F L Y M Y P R E T T I E S F L Y E R M A has the nation’s highest infant-mortality rate, her appliances, a new bathroom and a tiny food pan-
I U D S T A Y O N P E E S C L I P ambitions were bigger: comprehensive sex educa- try and library on the front lawn. She now oper-
A R E A S E R R P E C S H O O T S
B E A M M E U P S C O T T Y F R A
tion, breast-feeding classes, a food pantry. ates the fund from the house. Paying for construc-
S A M O A N N I H I D I G I T She tried to rent, but when landlords learned tion on top of a steady stream of clients brought
E V E T E S S L E A P S G E E R what she planned to do with the property, they resources down to emergency reserves of a few
M O T T W I C K E D W I T C H D E B S
stopped returning her calls. So in 2017, she says, hundred dollars in April. ‘‘I have to do triage on
I C A H N E R A T S N O U T S Y A W
N A R C O S I R O P A T A S T E she spent $12,000 — almost half the fund’s money each program,’’ she told me. ‘‘If I have a single
A D Z B I T M A P E A S T L I T H E at the time — on a two-bedroom with a cottage mom who’s been a longtime client who’s about
L O A D C A P T A I N K I R K L O T T in West Jackson, one of the city’s poorest neigh- to be homeless, and another person who needs
N O V A S E L M A T O U R K O I
S P Y C A M M I C R E D E Y E
borhoods, which is 98 percent black. She wanted, money for an abortion, and I only have money
T A O S E R G E A N T F R I D A Y she says, to invest in the community, and the loca- for one, which one do I choose?’’
E T U D E E A R S I O N D E I S M tion also offered a slight buffer from anti-abortion A rise in donations began after March of this
D E J A A P S O A P E X A M R P I
M R A Z J U S T T H E F A C T S M A A M
activists. ‘‘They are less inclined to come to the year, when Mississippi’s Legislature passed a ban
A N N E A T E I T U P N A S C E N C E ’hood,’’ Roberts says. ‘‘I don’t think the city of on abortion past six weeks. (The previous March,
N O E S M E R C Y M E E N T I T I E S Jackson would take kindly to a bunch of white it passed a ban beyond 15 weeks.) In May, Georgia
folks showing up to protest a group giving away passed a similar bill that grants full legal person-
KENKEN
diapers to black moms.’’ hood after six weeks. Alabama passed its latest leg-
Last winter, Roberts stopped by the house, islation, and Louisiana also passed a cardiac-activity
which she had taken to calling the ‘‘fundshack,’’ law. (None of these are yet in effect.) M.R.F.F. relies
to make sure the grass was trimmed and the squat- heavily on clinics in all three of those states.
ter that she’d had to evict hadn’t returned. ‘‘These When Mississippi’s 15-week ban passed last
are all going to be new and energy efficient,’’ she year, Roberts remained philosophical about it.
said, pointing to front windows missing half their ‘‘It’s one of those things where it’s awful, but it
shutters. In the backyard, a bare-branched oak has little to no impact on our clients’ lives,’’ she
towered over dense weeds. ‘‘We’re going to have told me then. This year’s tidal wave of legislation,
cookouts and movie nights here.’’ She opened though, has been more unsettling. ‘‘I’ve publicly
the cottage door and waded into standing water. stated a few places now that I feel like this might
ACROSTIC
‘‘We’ll clear all this out’’ — mildewed couches, be the year that the South breaks me,’’ she told
TANA FRENCH, THE LIKENESS — Being easily freaked
out comes with its own special skill set: you develop broken glass — ‘‘and tidy up the little kitchen in me last month. When she thinks of quitting, she
subtle tricks to work around it, make sure people don’t here, maybe set up some beds for folks who need a told me, she considers what would happen to her
notice. Pretty soon, . . . you can get through the day place to stay.’’ The front house, she said, would host clients if M.R.F.F. closed: nothing. As in, no dia-
looking almost . . . like a normal human being.
classes, the M.R.F.F. office, a playroom and what- pers, no groceries, no abortion funds, in one place
A. Tongue H. Nyctophobia O. In tandem ever else clients end up needing. And, if possible, a that’s run by people who have found themselves
B. Alarmist I. Clockwise P. Knock-kneed
C. North Pole J. Hawaiian Q. Elopement
Plan B vending machine on the porch. ‘‘If someone needing all those things and understand what it’s
D. Asteroid K. Talk turkey R. No problem drops $300 in my lap tomorrow, I’m buying the like to need them. ‘‘We are the people we serve,’’
E. Fluted L. How’s that? S. Evolution damn vending machine,’’ she said, cackling at the she said. ‘‘We are poor black women in the South.’’
F. Resistor M. Egyptology T. Sky Blue thought. ‘‘If Plan B is illegal to put in there, I’ll do She added: ‘‘So we have to keep going.’’
G. Egregious N. Loud music U. Siesta
SNAKE CHARMER GOING HALFWAY KENKEN

N C E D E Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each heavily outlined
E B box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, as indicated in the box.
M T E T T U A 5x5 grid will use the digits 1–5. A 7x7 grid will use 1–7.
E H E R A
H V
E V R E E
I T S A N N
H G
T I W T E
Answers to puzzle on Page 52

in the beehive, feel free to include them in your score.
plain. If you found other legitimate dictionary words
panpipe, pineal, pineapple, pipeline, pippin, pixel, pixie,
exile, inane, lanai, lineal, linen, ninepin, nipple, panini,
Explain (3 points). Also: alien, alpine, apian, axial, axilla,
SPELLING BEE
DIAGRAMLESS STARTING HINT

1-Across starts in the 8th square of the top row.
KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. © 2019 www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved. 53
Puzzles Edited by Will Shortz
NOT IN SO MANY WORDS 1
19
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
20
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
21
By Joel Fagliano
22 23 24
Joel Fagliano, 26, is the digital crossword editor of The 25 26 27 28

New York Times and creator of the paper’s daily Mini. Born
and raised in Philadelphia, he often sneaks references to 29 30 31 32
the city into his puzzles, such as 83-Down here. This puzzle is
33 34 35 36
unthemed, which means, without preset answers that constrain
the fill, it has a more open pattern of fresher, livelier vocabulary 37 38 39 40 41
— all clued with wit and a fitting level of challenge. According
42 43 44 45 46 47 48
to our records, it ties for the fewest number of answers (124)
ever to appear in a Sunday Times crossword. — W.S. 49 50 51 52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59 60
ACROSS 72 Promote
1 It was first officially 73 Deli machine 61 62 63 64 65 66
designated in a 76 Auditorium section 67 68 69 70 71 72
1966 Lyndon Johnson beneath the balcony
proclamation
78 Word before 73 74 75 76 77
11 Holders of tiny mirrors
web or chocolate
78 79 80 81
19 Apple Store purchase
79 Bundle
20 What studies show that 82 83 84 85 86 87 88
81 Heather has two, in
men do more than
a children’s book title
women, conversationally 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
82 Onetime U.S. soccer
22 It might require
a quick check prodigy Freddy 97 98 99 100
23 Star treatment 85 Dates not

101 102 103 104
found on the calendar
25 Male swan
87 Hot sauce 105 106 107 108
26 Static, as an exercise
89 Bank takeback
28 Access with a password 109 110
91 Great work
6/16/19
29 “Lord, show me ____” 111 112
92 Without profit
31 World’s largest
cosmetics company 93 Kid around
32 Post office? 97 Owing 10 Number one on 40 Tapped, as a cigarette 82 Standard Windows
99 Greek goddess
Rolling Stone’s “100 42 Delta Air Lines hub typeface
33 Oscar winner Jared
Greatest Pop Songs” list
34 Kitchen cabinet of the moon 43 Getting up there 83 Co-owner of Paddy’s
11 Polite
35 Major academic 100 Police, slangily 44 Puckered fabric Pub on “It’s Always Sunny
12 What “accommodate”
achievements 101 Negatively charged in Philadelphia”
is often inaccurately 46 Many a local volunteer
36 “Yeah, whatever” 102 Oppositely spelled with 84 Not loose
48 Ticker symbol?
37 Having locks 104 Internet ____ 13 ____ Dew (stylized
50 Meanspirited person 86 Afrique du ____
39 Cocktail of tequila 105 Weapon with brand name)
and grapefruit soda 52 Best 88 Desiccated
a distinctive hum 14 Stripped
41 Load 15 Sinclair Lewis novel for 53 A ____ (based on logic) 90 “Pick me! Pick me!”
107 Classic play with a
42 Specious arguer Delphic oracle which he received (but 54 Sinful
92 Agcy. created after
declined) the Pulitzer Prize
45 Risk taker 109 It’s seen near 55 Brave deeds the Manhattan Project
Pennsylvania Avenue 16 Parts of bluffs celebrated in verse
47 One taking the bait
17 Coaches 94 No longer interested
49 Like Earth’s orbit 110 Bright shade of red 58 They’re found
111 Casino attraction 18 Nascar mishap among the reeds 95 Placid
51 2019, zodiacally
112 Buzzer beater? 21 “My Neighbor ____,” 62 Attacks vigorously 96 Scam artist
56 Mine entrance
acclaimed animated film
64 Goldman ____ 98 Between: Fr.
57 Calle ____, landmark street from Hayao Miyazaki
in Miami’s Little Havana DOWN 65 An Emmy is
24 The “Tullius” of 99 Begets
59 Arcade game based on Marcus Tullius Cicero awarded for the best one
1 Kind of conservative 100 The birds and the
a film of the same name 27 Sci-fi weapon 68 Many action-movie villains
2 Put side by side bees, e.g.
60 “You listening?” 30 Tied the knot 71 White coat
3 Something to champ at 102 Clothes-dryer attachment
61 N.Y.U.’s ____ 32 Org. for the 74 Face-to-face interaction?
School of the Arts 4 It makes the earth turn
Vegas Golden Knights 75 Recite from memory 103 Gush
63 Got by 5 Finish with
34 Sauce traditionally 77 Cable inits. for cinephiles 106 Part of a Twitter page
66 Traces left 6 Parts of a college app prepared in a mortar
by burning candles 7 Thomas Aquinas and 80 Muslim niqab, e.g. 108 Private instructor: Abbr.
35 Repeats mindlessly
67 Complete fool others, philosophically 38 Embarrassing sound Puzzles Online Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past
69 Call of the wild 8 Inferior deities when bending over puzzles: nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). For the daily puzzle
70 Catch a break? 9 Put forward 39 Fruits baked in wine commentary: nytimes.com/wordplay.
54
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РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.

June 16, 2019

Tom Petty during the recording of the album

Copyright © 2019 The New York Times 3

Jody Rosen ‘‘The Day the Editor in Chief JAKE SILVERSTEIN

Dear Reader: Is Monogamy 9%

Overrated? Production Editors PATTY RUSH,

of a study conducted online in July 2018 by

freedom of speech freedom from want

6 6.16.19 Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri

and airborne chemicals, leaving clean, healthy air.

“With the Molekule running,

“Finally an air puriﬁer that relieved

Britney Spears’s Instagram account reveals how

10 6.16.19 Photo illustration by Mike McQuade

12 6.16.19 Illustration by R. O. Blechman

Talk By David Marchese

Mindy Kaling on being a boss and how fear improves

Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya 13

amount of patience that I was worried 1 The sitcom, which

are losing your temper, it’s sort of ador- Other Concerns)’’

The Ethicist By Kwame Anthony Appiah

your daughter’s welfare and your own.

My Husband’s Will Pits Ask your husband to come with you to

What Can I Do? This will, no doubt, make him angry,

16 6.16.19 Illustration by Tomi Um

You have a perfectly good explanation for

I have an elderly friend who sold real

18 6.16.19 Photo illustration by Jiaxi & Zhe

Eat By Samin Nosrat

How to Make Perfect Sweet Potatoes Every Time:

who was accompanying Klobuchar and feeding the

The New York Times Magazine 25

By Jody Rosen Photo illustrations by Sean Freeman 27

2. The Truest Capture

Photograph by Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images 31

There is another deﬁning characteristic of mas-

The fate of all those tapes has been an open secret

Photograph by Jim Marshall 35

AS STATE LEGISLATURES PASS NEW ABORTION

LOCAL ORGANIZATION, THE MISSISSIPPI REPRODUCTIVE

HOW TO BEST HELP CLIENTS. BY ZOË BEERY

RESTRICTIONS ACROSS THE SOUTH AND MIDWEST, A SMALL,

FREEDOM FUND, FOLLOWS ITS OWN COMPASS ON

/ PHOTOGRAPH BY BETHANY MOLLENKOF / PAGE 37

WHEN BRANDY FOUND OUT SHE WA S PREGNANT FOR

THE FIFTH TIME, SHE WA S 25 AND SINGLE AND

The New York Times Magazine 39

THE NEW YORK

AS THE U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL SOCCER

Jennifer Garner wore one of their names — Mia

street sign and a ‘‘challenge coin,’’ the equivalent

The New York Times Magazine 47

The New York Times Magazine 49

SPELLING BEE RHYME SCHEME GOING HALFWAY

2. Item hanging from a janitor’s belt (3,5) __________

A 6. Visits tourist spots (9) ____________________________

P L 2. Offensive football position (8) ___________________

N 5. Highest number in roulette (6-3) _________________

SNAKE CHARMER GOING HALFWAY KENKEN

Answers to puzzle on Page 52

DIAGRAMLESS STARTING HINT

Puzzles Edited by Will Shortz

NOT IN SO MANY WORDS 1