Our 9 Favorite Feature Stories This Week: Lobsters, Stalkers, And Brain Eating Amoebas
This week for BuzzReads, Peter Andrey Smith tells the story of a girl who survived a brain-eating amoeba attack — against all odds. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.
1. Survivor No. 3 — BuzzFeed
One year ago, Kali Hardig went swimming at an Arkansas water park and the next day was rushed to the hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a rare, 99% fatal condition: a brain-eating amoeba. This is the miraculous story of how she lived. Read it at BuzzFeed.
2. The New Face of Hunger — National Geographic
Three photographers went to three different corners of the country in order to put faces to a troubling statistic, that even in our rich, often overweight nation, one sixth of people struggle to get enough to eat. Read it at National Geographic.
3. Stalker in the Attic — Mashable
Patrick Michels brings the eerie tale of two Texas teenagers who were apparently the victims of cyber — and then real-world — stalking. After the abuse suddenly stopped, “The community, wrapped in forces they still don’t understand, is left to wonder how 12-year-olds, or their phones, could be capable of such a complex scheme.” Read it at Mashable.
4. The Strange Case Of The Congressman Who Resigned And Never Left — BuzzFeed
In 2011, he resigned in disgrace after alleged sexual relations with an 18-year-old girl. Kate Nocera asks: Why is former Rep. David Wu still wandering the halls of Congress? Read it at BuzzFeed.
5. The Weird, Scary and Ingenious Mind of Maria Bamford — New York Times Magazine
Sara Corbett profiles the comedian: “When she does her stand-up, when she acts on television and most notably in several web series she has written and starred in, she plays an exaggerated version of herself — a tremolo-voiced woman with a stunned expression, trying to navigate a world of people whose confidence is appreciably higher than her own.” Read it at the New York Times Magazine.
6. One of a Kind — New Yorker
A powerful piece by Seth Mnookin about a family whose child suffers from a genetic condition so rare it was unknown to science — and their quest online to find others. Read it at the New Yorker.
7. My Travels with Larry — The Globe and Mail
How does a lobster worth $3.50 on a wharf end up selling for more than $60 by the time it hits a plate in New York? Ian Brown follows one lobster’s journey to find out. Read it at The Globe and Mail.
8. My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers — Gawker
A hilarious journey into the fried-and-breaded hell that is the new TGI Friday’s all-you-can-eat appetizer special by Caity Weaver. “Earlier I said these mozzarella sticks taste like garbage. I would like to amend that statement. They taste worse than garbage.” Read it at Gawker.
9. My Runaway Childhood — Narratively
A painful personal essay by Melissa Chadburn about her flight from her abusive, mentally ill mother — and into a potentially even scarier world. Read it at Narratively.
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/sandraeallen/our-9-favorite-feature-stories-this-week-7-14
