Some good stuff:
* Ian Frazier on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy — a story called “The Toll,” with Frazier’s characteristic love of lists and place names;
* Susan Orlean’s Onward and Upward with the Arts piece on Brendan O’Connell, who paints pictures based on photos he’s taken at Walmart stores;
* Patrick Radden Keefe’s “A Loaded Gun,” a long engrossing Reporter at Large story about Amy Bishop, one of the rare women who suddenly snapped and killed a bunch of people — colleagues at the school in Alabama where she was a professor — with a gun she had in her purse; and
* Zadie Smith’s fiction piece, “The Embassy of Cambodia.”
Plus, an abundance of hilarious cartoons…
…and since this is the anniversary issue, what has become a tradition of sharing some of the near-winners in the competition for cover illustration. This is my favorite runner-up:
another eye opens 