• The history and future of American beef. (T: The New York Times Style Magazine)

• On the events planned for the 150th anniversary of the creation of Yellowstone National Park: “These events will reveal a hard truth: that America’s ‘best idea’ rested on remorseless campaigns of Native land dispossession. But they will also make known indigenous resistance to these campaigns, and the survival and persistence of tribal nations who have long been stewards of lands across the Northwest.” (SmithsonianMag.com)

• Deciphered: “An ancient frieze that constitutes one of the lengthiest examples of Zapotec writing found in the Oaxaca Valley.” (Hyperallergic)

• “How racism shaped Illinois before, during, and especially after the Black Hawk War of 1832.” (Boston Review)

• “From Phillis Wheatley to Lil Uzi Vert, Black names and their evolution tell the story of America.” (Andscape)

• Found: A copy of Isaac Newton’s Opticks owned by Newton. (Fine Books & Collections)

• It’s the twenty-fifth anniversary of Con Air. (MEL)

• Visiting CYCO Books in Queens. (The New York Review of Books)

• The life and films of Billy Wilder. (Bookforum)

• This week in obituaries: David Boggs, Leo Bersani, Sheila Benson, Dottie Frazier, Demetrios Papademetriou, Robert Hicks, Sharon Wohlmuth, Duvall Hecht, Alan Ladd Jr., Sally Kellerman, Larry Herman, John Q. Trojanowski, Shirley Hughes, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Autherine Lucy Foster, Sonny Ramadhin, Barry Bauman, John Landy, Val Robinson, Leonard Kessler, Joni James, and William E. Kuenzel.