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Roadside Attractions and Hawaii

2026-05-11 · 16:44 UTC ·The Browser ·3 min read

Brief

The Browser newsletter (11 May 2026) spotlights two longform cultural pieces: Zoe Kurland’s 4,500‑word “Roadside Attraction” (Offing, 8 May 2026) and Leanne Ogasawara’s ~1,500‑word “A Love Letter To Hawaii (And Japan)” (Dreaming In Japanese, 6 May 2026). Kurland’s essay charts how the rise of automobile travel in the 1920s spawned roadside spectacles — often the ostentatiously largest object of a given type (chair, duck, teapot, ball of twine/stamps) or paranormal curiosities — and cites evocative outliers like a giant empty picture frame used to frame mysterious lights. Ogasawara’s piece treats Hawaii as a linguistic and temporal threshold: a ‘translator’s paradise’ where the writer feels she ‘slipped sideways in time,’ emphasizing the islands’ extreme remoteness and cultural ties to Japan. The newsletter also lists editorial staff (Caroline Crampton, Uri Bram et al.) and advertises the paid Full Browser recommendation service.

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Roadside Attractions and Hawaii

By Caroline Crampton • 11 May 2026 | View in browser

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Roadside Attraction

Zoe Kurland | Offing | 8th May 2026As more Americans began to drive in the 1920s, demand emerged for things that they could stop and look at. The resulting attractions are usually either the world's largest something — "chair, duck, teapot, ball of stamps, ball of twine, etc" — or paranormal or sci-fi curiosities. Occasionally, you find something weirder and more evocative, like a giant empty picture frame for looking at mysterious lights (4,500 words)

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A Love Letter To Hawaii (And Japan)

Leanne Ogasawara | Dreaming In Japanese | 6th May 2026

Hawaii is a translator's paradise. "Every time I come to Hawaii, I feel like I’ve slipped sideways in time — back toward something I thought I’d left behind in Japan. It is probably the most remote place in the world. Where is the nearest landmass? California? Easter Island? Or is it Japan? Hawaii is truly in the middle of nowhere, and maybe that is why it has always felt like a time slip to come here" (1,500 words)

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