Ellen Cushing

New York

Staff Writer at The Atlantic

I write about food (mostly) for @theatlantic and my email address is [email protected] 🌞

Articles

The Perfect Logic of Katy Perry in Space

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Katy Perry climbed aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocketship with a smile on her face. She held a daisy, in tribute to her daughter, Daisy.
The Absolutely, Positively Correct Way to Load Your Dishwasher

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

When the couples therapist inevitably asks, I’ll have an answer ready: The trouble began in August 2017, when my boyfriend and I moved in together, and I quickly revealed myself to be an absolute ding-dong at loading the dishwasher. I am not what you would call “precise” or “tactical” in really any aspect of my life, but certainly not in front of an open dishwasher. I lack the structural engineer’s mind for space optimization, or maybe I lack the functional adult’s patience to figure it out.
Americans Will Never Quit Soda

3 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

A young woman is at a diner with friends, being stared down by a waitress with frosted lipstick and no time to waste. What she wants is a soda—but for whatever reason, she can’t bring herself to have one. Same with the girl at the pool party, and the one at the drive-through, and the one sitting in what looks like a sorority house, and the guy at the convenience store.
Kosher Salt Is Actually Just Big Salt

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Listen1.0x0:009:17Listen to more stories on harkWhen I was a child, in the 1990s, there was only one kind of salt; we called it “salt.” It came in a blue cylindrical container—you probably know the one—and we dumped it into pasta water and decanted it into shakers. I didn’t know that any other kind existed, and the women who taught me to cook didn’t seem to, either: Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Moosewood Cookbook all call, simply, for “salt” in their recipes.
The Failed Utopia of the Starbucks Bathroom

2 months ago | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

In Blaine, Washington, there is a very special Starbucks. Like every Starbucks, this one has tables and chairs and coffee and pastries and a pacifying sort of vibe. Also like (most) Starbucks, it has a bathroom, open to anyone who walks in. The bathroom is important because this Starbucks is located about three-quarters of a mile past Peace Arch, the busiest border crossing west of Detroit, and a wretched, wretched place where you can sometimes get stuck in a car for several hours without warning.
Americans Need to Party More

Jan 4, 2025 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

We're not doing it as much as we used to. You can be the change we need. This much you already know: Many Americans are alone, friendless, isolated, undersexed, sick of online dating, glued to their couches, and transfixed by their phones, their mouths starting to close over from lack of use. Our national loneliness is an “urgent public health issue,” according to the surgeon general.
The False Promise of Seasonal-Color Analysis

Dec 30, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

As long as people have been able to dress in color, we’ve been desperate to do it better. In the mid-19th century, advances in dyeing technology and synthetic organic chemistry allowed the textile industry, previously limited to what was available in nature, to mass-produce a rainbow’s worth of new shades. The problem was, people began wearing some truly awful outfits, driven to clashy maximalism by this revolution in color. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
You’re Probably Eating the Wrong Panettone

Dec 19, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

Once considered the worst pastry on Earth, the Christmas treat is now being sold by high-end fashion brands. On the internet, there exists a $102 loaf of bread that people talk about like it’s a drug. It’s a panettone—the fruitcake-adjacent yeasted bread that is traditional to Italy, and to Christmastime—and it is made by the California chef Roy Shvartzapel. Like most panettone, it looks like a giant muffin, with a dramatic domed top and gold-printed paper wrapping around its sides.
The Perennial Urge to Reinvent Thanksgiving

Nov 27, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Ellen Cushing

This is an edition of The 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. Sign up for it here. Sometimes, at a party or on the internet, you will encounter someone who is unimpressed by human ingenuity. The pace of technological progress has stalled, they’ll say. Our art is getting dumber. We aren’t as creative as we used to be.
Thanksgiving Should Be in October

Nov 26, 2024 | msn.com | Ellen Cushing

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