So many are fond of misguided generalizations, calling America a Christian nation, a zombie nation, a TV nation … but it was chef and food writer James Beard who hit the nail on the head: America is a sandwich nation.

Sandwiches are the food of the people — cheap, nutritious, easy to assemble in large quantities — what better vehicle for delivering the flavors of a regionally and ethnically diverse nation to people on the move?

The only thing aristocratic about sandwiches is the name — borrowed from John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, a rather unenlightened Enlightenment-era figure who most certainly did not pioneer the concept of placing delectable morsels between two pieces of bread. He may, however, have had a penchant for snacking combined with an aversion to getting his fingers dirty — and he did play some part in making sandwiches trendy for the first time.

It was during the industrial revolution that the sandwich took off as a portable and easy-to-eat meal for workers. In America, wave after wave of new arrivals reinterpreted the form. Thanks to them, today there are sandwiches that add up to far more than the sum of their parts. A symbol of local identity and heritage, the most beloved among them inspire loyalty, passion and a cultlike following.

Sandwiches matter. When election season rolls around, candidates invariably hit sandwich shops across the country looking to buff up their populist cred, while being careful to avoid missteps like John Kerry’s devastating 2004 “Swiss cheese incident” at the temple of cheesesteaks, Pat’s in Philadelphia (food critic Craig LaBan predicted that requesting the wrong cheese would “doom his candidacy” in Philly — quite the exaggeration, but the story of his cultural faux pas did spread like wildfire).

Attention fanatics: As the member of a clan of sandwich obsessives, I am well aware that putting together a slideshow like this is a treacherous endeavor. More than a “best of,” this list is an exploration of the beauty of the sandwich — a mere point of departure. (I left off hot dogs, didn’t venture outside of the U.S., choose only one hamburger, and one barbecue joint — each is more than worthy of a slideshow of its own.) Let’s talk about the sandwiches we love in the comments (we’ll add them to our new Trazzler iPhone app so we find local writers to cover these local institutions). You can find many more sandwiches on Trazzler.

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Witnessing the battle at Chancellorsville, Whitman wrote about the haunting beauty of nature juxtaposed with terrible suffering: “Amid the woods, that scene of flitting souls — amid the crack and crash and yelling sounds — the impalpable perfume of the woods — and yet the pungent, stifling smoke — the radiance of the moon.” In the absence of politically motivated shrines, nostalgic reenactors or Walmart parking lots, the battlefields of the past tend to be peaceful places of contemplation — blank, benign spaces where we are required to re-create this stark juxtaposition, filling in the horror and conjuring up the history with our imagination.

There’s just something about October … the waning light, the long shadows, the reap-what-you-sow natural order of things. We may not live in an agrarian society anymore, but most of us still feel a primal pull this time of year to the fields and forests of the fall countryside. A whole travel industry has sprung up to accommodate our desire to do little more than meander under the blue skies and look at leaves.

If the story of spring is a fragile romance full of hope, then that would make autumn a perfectly plotted, three-act tragedy we can’t tear ourselves away from. Blossoms are ephemeral, but we know a long summer is waiting in the wings once they fall to the ground. Autumn’s climactic last burst of color and deciduous denouement stirs different, perhaps deeper feelings. These 13 drives will take you into the leafy heart of North America where you can revel in fall’s fleeting beauty. Share your favorite fall road trips in the comments.

You can find more autumnal travel on Trazzler.

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In “The Silent World,” Jacques Cousteau identified the moment when he came unbolted from his terrestrial life, discovering a new way of being the sea: “I put my eyes under and civilization vanished … I was in a jungle never seen by those who floated on the opaque roof.” It’s hard to imagine what the average human’s understanding of ocean life was before scuba tanks and nature documentaries. Even Cousteau started out blowing up reefs to study them. As he traversed the oceans, what began as an existential quest evolved into a growing consciousness of the fragility and interconnectedness of all living things on Earth — and a call for conservation.

Beneath all cities, lies an alternate dimension, not necessarily the “dark, underground, loathsome vice” of Dostoevsky (though there’s plenty of that, too), but a real warren of subterranean spaces that is mostly hidden or off-limits to surface dwellers. Many communities were intentionally founded above natural caves, which proved useful for food storage, refrigeration, defensive purposes and escaping extreme weather. Other towns were carved into solid rock or set atop tunnels for protection from invasion.

Medieval Europe is often portrayed as a dark time of pestilence, filth, violence, intolerance and ignorance — a disconnect between the splendor of the Roman empire and the cultural explosion of humanism during the Renaissance. The truth is far more complicated.

Geniuses like Fibonacci, Averroes, Aquinas and Dante didn’t exist in a vacuum. Universities that are still in existence today were founded during this time, Aristotle was revived, books came into their own, and the mathematical and scientific advances of the Muslim world filtered into art, design and architecture from the periphery of the continent. These 11 spots reveal a glimpse of the cultural and artistic splendor of the Middle Ages. You can find more medieval travel spots on Trazzler.

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