A Dispatch from the Future

Over a few days this week, I read George Packer's "The Valley," a comprehensive take on Phoenix, Arizona and its surroundings published in The Atlantic Monthly, and it reminded me of how his "The Megacity" from The New Yorker, on Lagos, Nigeria, is perhaps my very favorite in the genre of travel to a city and write about it in detail. This recent Harper's Magazine piece on Branson, Missouri is another recent favorite.