{"id":1760,"date":"2026-08-02T11:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2026-08-02T11:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:12:08","slug":"a-rodeo-that-reminds-me-of-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1760","title":{"rendered":"A Rodeo That Reminds Me of Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is an edition of The<\/i> Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. <\/i>Sign up for it here.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

Read more Fauci\u2019s Return to Capitol Hill<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome back to The Daily\u2019s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic<\/i> writer reveals what\u2019s keeping them entertained. Today\u2019s special guest is Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, a staff writer who\u2019s covered the fight over who runs elections in Maricopa County, the arc of the Voting Rights Act, and why election deniers are winning.<\/p>\n

Yvonne has a nostalgic fondness for state fairs and rodeos, and she\u2019s excited for an upcoming one in her home state. She also recommends watching anything with Billy Bob Thornton in it, reading Chris Whitaker for a good mystery, and putting down the hair crimper in the year 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stephanie Bai, senior associate editor<\/p>\n

The upcoming event I\u2019m most looking forward to:<\/b> The Hondo Rodeo Fest in Phoenix, where I\u2019ll watch the Turnpike Troubadours sing and the cowboys compete in everything from bull riding to barrel racing. I grew up going to rodeos and competing in county cooking showcases in small-town Idaho, and even though I\u2019ve lived in Arizona for decades, a big piece of my heart still considers Idaho home. Every now and then, I hit the county rodeos outside of Phoenix because the smells, the riders, the announcers, the food on a stick, and the leather-fringe rodeo chaps all remind me of my childhood. I\u2019ve never been to the Hondo Rodeo Fest before, and my husband\u2014who grew up in a small town near Fort Worth, Texas, and is always looking for an excuse to wear his boots\u2014made plans for us to try the big-city rodeo scene. We can\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n

The television show I\u2019m most enjoying right now: <\/b>My guilty pleasure is watching The Real Housewives<\/i>, and I am loving the new Rhode Island series. (Rosie is my favorite!) I also can\u2019t get enough of the twists and turns of British crime dramas, and I plan on rewatching Jed Mercurio\u2019s Line of Duty<\/i> (which has been on hiatus) before the next season premieres.<\/p>\n

An actor I would watch in anything: <\/b>Billy Bob Thornton. He seems to effortlessly channel a variety of complicated, unpredictable, and funny characters. He has a way of making you root for him, even when he\u2019s skirting\u2014or completely breaking\u2014all the rules. I grew up watching him in Westerns with my dad (The Alamo<\/i> and Tombstone<\/i>), and he was brilliant in Sling Blade<\/i>. I\u2019ve loved him in everything since, including Goliath<\/i>, Landman<\/i>, and yes, even Bad Santa<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A quiet song that I love:<\/b> I can\u2019t stop listening to Flatland Cavalry, a country band from Lubbock, Texas, that a friend introduced me to last summer. Their ballad \u201cMountain Song\u201d takes me back to my childhood in the Mountain West, where I\u2019d spend summer evenings on the back porch of our apple orchard. Our home had a breathtaking view of the area\u2019s towering butte, which resembles a woman\u2019s face, and the song reminds me of my parents, nature, and a simpler time.<\/p>\n

A musical artist who means a lot to me: <\/b>Willie Nelson. He\u2019s part of my core childhood memories. My family spent hours trekking in our motor home to Idaho campsites, the beaches of the Pacific Northwest, and the parking lots of Las Vegas casinos (Circus Circus, anyone?). Those road trips almost always featured my dad behind the wheel, the window half down while he sang along to \u201cOn the Road Again\u201d and \u201cTo All the Girls I\u2019ve Loved Before.\u201d (My mom, on the other hand, preferred \u201cAlways on My Mind.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Best novel I\u2019ve recently read, and the best work of nonfiction:<\/b> I love a good mystery, and All the Colors of the Dark<\/i>, by Chris Whitaker, drew me in for days. Beginning in small-town Missouri in the 1970s, it follows a serial killer and a missing-person case. The story is so gripping and well written, I didn\u2019t want it to end. When it did, I bought all of Whitaker\u2019s other books, which are piled up on my nightstand.<\/p>\n

As for nonfiction, I just binged Regime Change<\/i>, a new chronicle of the first year of President Trump\u2019s second term, by the New York Times<\/i> reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. It\u2019s exceptional\u2014and the reporting is jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n

A cultural product I loved as a teenager and still love:<\/b> I discovered Selena\u2019s Tejano music when I was in middle school, danced to \u201cBidi Bidi Bom Bom\u201d throughout high school, and still listen to her rancheras<\/i> today. (It was an honor to spend time with her dad and sister back in 2005 for a story I wrote about the 10-year anniversary of her death.)<\/p>\n

Read more Look Closer: David Hockney\u2019s Rules of Beauty<\/a><\/p>\n

Something I loved but now dislike:<\/b> Hair crimpers. Love the look, don\u2019t miss the smell of burning hair. A piece of me dies every time I watch my daughter straighten her natural curls, only to singe zigzag shapes into her hair.<\/p>\n

A favorite story I\u2019ve read in <\/b>The Atlantic<\/i><\/b>: <\/b>\u201cThe Missing Kayaker,\u201d by Jamie Thompson. It is an irresistible\u2014and infuriating\u2014mystery.<\/p>\n

Something delightful introduced to me by a kid in my life: <\/b>My 11-year-old daughter is obsessed with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, the new women\u2019s professional softball league, and I\u2019m obsessed now too. Our favorite player is Bri Ellis, who plays first base for the Utah Talons. She is kind, funny, strong, and an inspiration for young girls and the moms raising them.<\/p>\n

The last thing that made me cry: <\/b>I\u2019m going to go full mom here. A few weeks ago, we were up in Prescott, Arizona, for a softball tournament. The weather was perfect, and the bases were loaded, with two outs in the last inning. My daughter had two strikes on her and then nailed the ball out to left field for the game-winning hit. I bawled as she rounded first base and then was mobbed at second base by a sweaty mess of preteen girls celebrating their win.<\/p>\n

A quote that I return to: <\/b>I often recall this 1944 diary passage by Anne Frank, which perfectly encapsulates hope for humanity: \u201cIt\u2019s really a wonder that I haven\u2019t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Week Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Tony<\/i>, a biopic that follows Anthony Bourdain as he begins his career in the restaurant world (in select theaters Friday)<\/li>\n
  2. Etna<\/i>, a novel by Paul Yoon told through the eyes of an ex-military dog returning home after war (out Tuesday)<\/li>\n
  3. The Shards<\/i>, a series adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis\u2019s novel, set at an elite Los Angeles prep school in 1981 (out Wednesday on Hulu)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    Essay<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Is This What Comes After AI Slop?<\/p>\n

    By Will Oremus<\/i><\/p>\n

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    Among thousands of self-published Amazon ebooks that they identified as containing \u201csubstantial AI text,\u201d none was more popular than Daggermouth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Until recently, AI fiction has been easy to dismiss as slop. On Amazon, new-book releases nearly tripled from 2022 to 2025. (That\u2019s probably not because humans suddenly dedicated themselves en masse to the written word.) Many are blatant copycats of existing titles, seemingly intended to trick readers into buying them. Their sales figures are generally meager; the reviews, indignant. A suspicious number of them feature protagonists with the same names. Last year, readers of one fantasy novel noticed a line that seemed to be responding to a prompt asking a chatbot to write in the style of another author. But if a book as beloved as Daggermouth <\/i>were written with a chatbot, it would raise an awkward question: Could AI fiction be getting \u2026 good?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

    Read the full article.<\/p>\n

    More in Culture<\/b><\/p>\n

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