Published inLEVEL·PinnedMember-onlyMy Son Failed the Chicken Wing TestI gave him a good life, but I also give him a hard time. It’s a balance. — Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com. There’s been a meme floating around for a month or two that shows a row of five numbered chicken wings, each one a little more stripped of meat than the last…Food6 min readFood6 min read
Aug 13Bye, Ma: A letter to my mother following her passing1036Shane Paul NeilThis is a beautiful tribute, Shane.This is a beautiful tribute, Shane. I had a complicated relationship with my mother, too, and I felt every line. All of it. Your thoughts on therapy, on God, on the need to keep space between you and the difficult people in your life, and most importantly, your desire to…1 min read1 min read
Jun 2The Man Who Should Have Been My Favorite Uncle.552Shane Paul NeilLove this.Love this. I had an uncle Butch, too. And he and I had a lot in common, same as you. Strained relationship, same as you. But unlike y'all, we never really got past the distance between us before he was gone. I'm happy for you, bruh.1 min read1 min read
Nov 15, 2021Yes, White People Feeding Black Babies to Alligators Really Happened3K52Allison WiltzI'm Black.I'm Black. I don't believe any of this. It makes no sense and there is no evidence of anyone doing it, to say nothing of it being some kind of widespread thing. Been arguing about this online for years. Didn't see the Twitter fight, but it is almost certainly about…1 min read1 min read
Nov 1, 2021Member-onlyA Man’s Place is in the KitchenWhen he gets around to it. — I’ve been slightly annoyed with myself that I didn’t cook much this summer. Especially since we upgraded our kitchen in the Spring. But with the cooler temps over the last couple of weeks, I’ve started cooking again. ‘ I don’t know why I was so hard on myself over why…Food2 min readFood2 min read
Oct 23, 2021Member-onlyIt’s Getting Harder to Unplug in the WoodsAnd that’s not always a bad thing. — Five years ago, there was little chance that I would have had cell phone reception on most of the backpacking trails I hiked. This was true even though many of them were no more than a hour or so out of mid-sized cities. But I am writing this piece (well…Backpacking2 min readBackpacking2 min read
Oct 10, 2021Member-onlyWhat’s crazy is that you may have never remembered “Gloria” by Laura Branigan again if I hadn’t…What’s crazy is that you may have never remembered “Gloria” by Laura Branigan again if I hadn’t reminded you. And yet, now that I have, you’re all like, “Of course!” Every now and then, I’ll be walking along, minding my own business when a song that I haven’t heard in…Music1 min readMusic1 min read
Oct 6, 2021Member-onlyA co-worker died over the weekend.A co-worker died over the weekend. We weren’t particularly close, though he was a nice enough guy. As I get older, more and more people seem to die around me, many of them in my age group. And I find myself taking these deaths more and more personally, even those…Death1 min readDeath1 min read
Oct 1, 2021Member-onlyCapturing The MomentDigital photography has made it easier than ever to remember the good times Technology is something else, as my grandmother would say. So many pictures. I’ll take more pictures of my teenage son this year than have ever been taken of me. Outside of school photos with “PROOF” stamped on…Photography2 min readPhotography2 min read
Sep 30, 2021Member-onlyIt’s Fall. Time to Break Out the GrillWhy you’re oh-so-wrong about grilling being solely a summer thing. It’s the time of year when most people are putting their grills away. But I’m just getting started. Why? Allow me to take you back more than twenty years. It’s the late 90s and it’s hot. Maybe not 100 degrees…Food3 min readFood3 min read
