2017 Tedium Highlight by Andrew Egan: When 53-year-old John Larkin couldn't get past his stuttering, he wrote a song about it. Soon enough, Scatman John was Big in Japan—and everywhere else. 

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Andrew Egan’s 2017 Highlights

December 2017

Sweating the Ugly Truth

The history of the sweater—along with the tale of how a Vancouver house party made the ugly Christmas sweater into the pinnacle of modern ironic taste.
October 2017

We Can Dance If We Want To

NYC is about to lose a bizarre law for a city of its size: A ban on dancing in unlicensed bars or restaurants. How did this bizarre regulation come to life?

Serious Cornhole

You might think of cornhole as a lighthearted lawn game, but it actually has a professional league, a family of stars, and some budding momentum. Really.
September 2017

Stable Rent

What it's like to keep and maintain a pet horse in New York City, the largest city in the U.S., in 2017. As it turns out, it's not particularly cheap.
August 2017

Get Yourself A Treat

How movie theaters nudged film-goers out of their seats with short clips designed around the hard sell.
July 2017

Search By Text

Before the search giant shot for the moon, Google occasionally had to accept the limitations of consumer technology. So they bent the rules instead.

When Time Became Money

The story of the calculagraph—a vintage device that helped pool halls, workplaces, and telephone operators track time—and the phrase that helped inspire it.
June 2017

Pictures For Everyone

The reason we’re so crazy about photos in the smartphone era is in no small part because of early innovations that brought photo processing to the masses.
February 2017

No Comment

The audio commentary track, a staple of films on optical media, may not last into the age of streaming. Is it a victim of indifference by Netflix?
January 2017

The Stammer Of Success

When 53-year-old John Larkin couldn't get past his stuttering, he wrote a song about it. Soon enough, Scatman John was Big in Japan—and everywhere else.

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