I really like Adam Gopnik, also from the New Yorker. He often teases out cultural or historical aspects of whatever topic he's on, and he can also make interes

I really like Adam Gopnik, also from the New Yorker. He often teases out cultural or historical aspects of whatever topic he's on, and he can also make interesting analogies between disparate subjects. I particularly liked his semi-regular "Paris Journal" pieces (now collected in "Paris to the Moon"). He used his life in Paris as a way of thinking about life in America. It included a brilliant extended comparison of President Clinton to the children's TV character Barney. "Barney is Bill Clinton for three-year-olds. Or rather, Bill Clinton is Barney for adults. He serves the same role for jumpy American liberals that Barney does for their children: He reassures without actually instructing..."