Here are a few that jump to my mind.
Young person's guide to canonical singularities by Miles Reid, 1985.
Twenty-five years of 3-folds—an old person's view by Miles Reid, 2000.
Tendencious survey of 3-folds, by Miles Reid, 1985 (same book, Bowdoin -- Algebraic Geometry, as the first one).
On the ubiquity of Gorenstein rings by Hyman Bass, 1963. This also seems to be the first paper with the word ubiquity in the title (via a mathscinet search).
Another one that jumps to my mind is the various Pathologies papers of mumfordMumford.
