I was barely a moment inside Walmart, studying the cucumbers and avocados, when a middle-aged man came up to say hi.

We started talking about the oil boom sweeping Williston, North Dakota. He said his coworkers were losing it out here in the middle of nowhere. Maybe he would lose it too.

"You gotta really be focused on your shit," he said. "And it's hard. And on that note, that's why you should let me take you to dinner."

I declined. He called later that evening to ask me on a date. He said he'd take me to Pizza Hut. I was not pining for a rendezvous with a roustabout [...]

50. Vermont 49. Colorado 48. Alaska 47. Connecticut 46. South Dakota 45. North Dakota 44. Utah 43. Maine 42. Wyoming 41. Iowa 40. Wisconsin

In the 1970s it was unusual to see wealthy families on television. The Jeffersons with their deluxe apartment in the sky, the occasional rich couple flitting over to "Fantasy Island" or booking a cruise on "The Love Boat"—these were the exceptions. But as the economy accelerated, mass culture was suddenly inundated with images of affluence. The wave hit around 1981, as the economy slowly recovered from the stagnant wages and inflation of the 1970s. Rabbit Angstrom, John Updike's scampering everyman, began to make serious money on his appreciating property and selling Toyotas on his father-in-law's lot in Rabbit is Rich; Joan Collins joined the cast of "Dynasty" as the splendid [...]

A phone embedded in the short story "Lonely Heart," in what seems to be a copy of "Guys & Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon."

Produced in partnership with Storyboard.

Blue ripped up most kites and flushed the pieces, but some, especially those received in the exercise yard, he ate.

Blue, who is 20 years old, knew that even temporary possession of written notes was against the rules, but he shrugged it off as a necessary risk. One such "kite" was an invitation, which read, "Look we cookin…send some kinda meat for your bowl." It was scrawled across a scrap of notebook paper, folded seven times [...]

“Granite has taken on the Kleenex brand,” says Carino, the HGTV host. “Now everything’s Kleenex. Most people don’t realize that they don’t actually want a granite countertop.” They might want soapstone. They might want Silestone. What they’re really looking for, Carino says, is “granite-esque.”

The forward-leaning design snobs — the readers of “Dwell” and “Architectural Digest” — have already moved on. They want poured concrete in swirling designs. Carino is trying to turn people on to quartz, which is even harder than granite, even less porous.

—Your aspirational kitchen material is barely valid.

"If Jesus Christ had never been born, there would be no United States of America."

These 46 photos represent just a small part of the awfulness that was 1970s America.

We never get tired of Unhappiness Surveys, especially if we live somewhere that's relatively happier than the states that always turn up on these lists. No matter how bad things are in New York or Los Angeles or whatever thriving urban hellhole you call home, it's nothing like the misery of the "10 most unhappy states in the U.S.," right? Consider Mississippi, America's broken toilet in a vacant lot with waist-high weeds:

Mississippi ranked lower than any other state in Gallup’s basic access to necessities category. Nearly 25% of state residents indicated they did not have enough money to buy food for themselves or their family at some point [...]

So you didn't win a Nobel Prize in Literature this week. Unless your name is Mr. Mo. Although, if you live in Europe, you did win a consolation Nobel Peace Prize at least. (Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is like giving an Oscar to Alf.) Anyway, I know, it’s total bullshit. You totally deserved it. But you might just be a calendar year away from getting the recognition you so obviously deserve. Let me show you the way.

I waited by the phone all week for that congratulatory call from overseas myself! Not for the stuff I’ve already written, which, let’s admit, is pretty amazing. But [...]

So yes, half of India is without electrical power this morning. Half of India is like two Americas, populationwise. Imagine if all of America had no electricity at the time? Once the batteries wore out on everyone's wireless devices, no one could check sports scores or order Fresh Direct. Also, the Psychedelic Furs are one of my favorite new wave bands. I like pretty much everything they did in the '80s. Even "Heartbreak Beat." But my favorite song of theirs remains the opening track of their debut album. (That's "India," above.) Might I like them even more if they'd only recorded that one song? I mean, it's [...]

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose from 5.1 to 5.4 million in May.

— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) June 1, 2012

The image being used on Business Insider to describe today's jobs numbers is of stuff blowing up. "The yield on the benchmark on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.46 percent, the lowest on record." The U-6 (total unemployed, plus marginally attached, plus people forced into part-time work, as percent of labor force) is down from a year ago but up from last month, just under 15%. But here's the long view on jobs; here's [...]

"It is difficult to think of anywhere else in the western world where these debates would have any credibility outside of a fringe party (even if the fringes in Europe are now spreading). Far from indicating America's exceptionalism, it looks more like an awful parody of the stereotypes most outsiders already believed about American politics at its most bizarre. 'Those who follow this race daily may have long since lost perspective on how absurd it is,' said the German magazine Der Spiegel last week." —If you have talked to any foreigners over the last two months*, you may have noticed they are wide-eyed in horror over the people [...]