We hope as you enjoy your weekend you’ll also find some time to kick back and survey some of the best writing from around the web. Check them out, but don’t forget to check out Hulafrog’s Weekend Guide to the best Chester County activities for families this weekend.

• “How Trees Calm Us Down”, by Alex Hutchinson for the New Yorker. 
  • If you had to choose between ten trees and ten-thousand dollars, your health would be better in the long term if you chose the trees. Find out why.

• “Thirty-Three Hit Wonder“, by Nick Paumgarten, for the New Yorker.
  • A must-read 2014 Profile of Billy Joel:
  • “In a Slate tirade a few years ago, “The Worst Pop Singer Ever,” Ron Rosenbaum wrote, “No career re-evaluations please! No false contrarian rehabilitations! He was terrible, he is terrible, he always will be terrible. Anodyne, sappy, superficial, derivative, fraudulently rebellious. . . . Billy Joel’s music elevates self-aggrandizing self-pity and contempt for others into its own new and awful genre: ‘Mock-Rock.’ ” He called Joel “the Andrew Wyeth of contemporary pop music.” When I mentioned this to Joel, he said, “What’s wrong with Andrew Wyeth?”

• “Workplace Features of a Super Fun Tech Start-Up and Also Pee-Wee’s Playhouse“, by Joyce Millman, from McSweeney’s.
  • An ironic robot
  • A genie who will grant your every wish (as long as he’s receiving an acceptable return on his investment)

As always, please feel free to comment with responses to the Covered Bridge stories or suggestions of your own.

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