I just read an excellent 4,709 word article in the New York Times Magazine and thought I would share the link with you all - for a few reasons. First, the beginning paragraph (below) is a good one. Secondly, I found it fascinating to watch how the author, Jonah Leher, builds the story and transitions from topic to topic. It's a good read - as a writing student, a city dweller, and a small business owner. In light of our most recent class, it is also interesting how Leher chose to end the article - with a quote and only wrapping up the last major topic of the article. The other main topics he wrapped up as part of the transitions. The article is A Physicist Solves the City.

Geoffrey West doesn’t eat lunch. His doctor says he has a mild allergy to food; meals make him sleepy and nauseated. When West is working — when he’s staring at some scribbled equations on scratch paper or gazing out his office window at the high desert in New Mexico — he subsists on black tea and nuts. His gray hair is tousled, and his beard has the longish look of neglect. It’s clear that West regards the mundane needs of everyday life — trimming the whiskers, say — as little more than a set of annoying distractions, drawing him away from a much more interesting set of problems. Sometimes West can seem jealous of his computer, this silent machine with no hungers or moods. All it needs is a power cord.