The Pipwick Papers
I write this as I wait (impatiently) for a breakfast delivery. Yes. I have discovered somewhere that will deliver a cooked breakfast on a Sunday morning and, yes, this is the most exciting event of 2015. In case you have a similar service in your area, here is some reading material for you to consume in between running to the window and peering out from behind the curtains. If you are breakfastless, just enjoy the articles, I guess. If you can.
The machine moves through 73 steps in less than a minute, suggesting a desperate search by Rube as he upends his house looking for the comic. At one point, a ball drops, and a mechanized dog springs out of his house to grab it. The machine finishes — the cartoon was in a cupboard — and Dexys Midnight Runners’ "Come On, Eileen" plays. (The name of the machine, I learn, is "Eileen.")
Rogue Wounds by Daniel Mason for Lapham's Quarterly is a fascinating piece dipping into the history of faking illnesses