The Nest

by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The simple way to think about it is that you’re helping rewire the old signals in your brain. You’re teaching your brain a new story.”

rewiring old signals

He took a deep drag and exhaled energetically. He felt better almost immediately.

Melody’s birthday was usually a grim-weather affair occurring when it did, in the waning days of February. New York in February was still weeks away from any sustained sun or morning birdsong or tender plant shoots breaking through the mottled dirt. The holidays and New Year celebrations were already a distant memory, as diminished as the lingering, soot-covered curbside snowpack that would finally melt under a gloomy March rain only to expose neat little piles of desiccated dog shit.

If you want to predict a person’s behavior, identify his or her incentives. Leo wasn’t saying, I’m so fucked up, he was saying, I’m going to fuck this up. He

There were three things Paul Underwood assiduously avoided: the beach, watercraft, and so-called street food.