Don't know how I missed this last summer! It is indeed a lovely book. (Amy, unfortunately not on Bluesky, is a dear friend.)
News junkie, editor, faculty spouse, author of “Book Collecting Now.”
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Don't know how I missed this last summer! It is indeed a lovely book. (Amy, unfortunately not on Bluesky, is a dear friend.)
Also, no surprise to turn around at intermission and see friend and film scholar @lorimarso.bsky.social (and Tom) a few rows back!
This film + THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA show *exactly* where this country is headed. Terrifying . . . and yet a remarkably entertaining watch! Also, my wife just reread your NYT review—thanks!—and I'm about to begin googling purchase-able copies of all of those fantastic dissident Russian T-shirts.
Would be a truly harrowing watch if these women—not all heroes wear capes, but some are Russian podcasters & journalists—didn't manage to muster so much courageous humor. Their lives in 2021, as Putin's crackdown on dissent accelerates, are a preview of Stephen Miller's vision of America in 2027.
At intermission, and OMG
On this perfect New York afternoon, we're trusting @alissawilkinson.bsky.social @justinchang.bsky.social @alisonwillmore.bsky.social and spending 3.5 hours at Film Forum
It’s a minority opinion, but Cassavetes as actor >>> Cassavetes as writer/director
Love his performance in ROSEMARY'S BABY. As a director, he's deliberately unwatchable. He wants to make viewers uncomfortable? Mission accomplished.
He really should start with working on his face makeup
Another #BookSky entry: Macmillan published JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL 55 years ago today. It reads like a long greeting card but sold 1 million+ copies in its first two years and was the nation's best-selling novel in both 1972 and '73. Hardcovers filled mid-'80s thrift shops . . . then vanished!
So Scott Bessent already has his excuse ready to go
IMO, LORDS… is his most successful. I loved THE PRINCE OF TIDES at the time, but it now seems like a way-too-much compilation of characters & tales of varying plausibility. Talked myself into liking BEACH MUSIC—even gave it an upbeat newspaper review!—but c'mon, it's terrible. And then I gave up.
Pat Conroy's THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, published 45 years ago today, was one of my very favorite novels through my 20s, until Conroy's florid overwriting wore me out. On our first Charleston visit, we not only walked the Battery but ventured to The Citadel to see just what a "quadrangle" is. #BookSky
Can't imagine that Mayor 9/11 would embellish a story about law enforcement
As long as I resist clicking on this, I can keep imagining that Rudy G is involved
Keep in mind that the November election is not ranked-choice: Mamdani needs to win only a plurality. ~40% is plenty!
"Unions must step into the vacuum that millions of Americans feel when it comes to their economic lives.… Most people believe the system is broken and are looking for someone to fix it. Unions can provide that leadership." #LaborDay
Not necessarily. Basically, Trump hired a bunch of people to commit domestic terrorism on his behalf, and now they want payment for the job. And sure, he's spent his life stiffing contractors, but this time he can use our money to pay off his army of zealots, so why not?
Definitely the closest until CASINO ROYALE, and of the best Fleming novel! (A shame it's still not a particularly good film.)
Unlikely: The domestic violence incident was on the southbound side of I-93 while Rudy's crash was on the northbound side. Perhaps someone was rubbernecking?
Perhaps because it's largely fabricated
Bond isn't meant to be the smirking superhero that Connery created & audiences quickly came to expect—he is, as Kingsley Amis put it, "a mid-level civil servant," restless, easily bored, frustrated by paperwork & bureaucracy. We've never seen a faithful adaptation of the (underrated) Fleming novels.
Basically: Trump hired a bunch of people to commit domestic terrorism on his behalf, and now they want payment for the job. And sure, he's spent his life stiffing contractors, but this time he can use our money to pay off his army of zealots, so why not?
They brought a *lot* of setup stuff, though—tents & backdrops & microphones & tables & music—and blocked off an entire corner of the park, to force foot traffic through a gauntlet of signs & flags. It took a moment to realize how few passersby were even slowing down.
Even before the more recent HR modules, in which every area is gray and there's no easy solution, the answer was always "tell your supervisor" or "call the HR hotline," whichever is offered. Basically, d).
Wouldn't be surprising if Trump believes that congestion pricing is indeed dead, by his hand. Which of his sycophants is gonna pipe up and tell him otherwise?
Congestion pricing is actually the perfect example here. Trump declared that “congestion pricing is dead” (and that he is the king) Hochul and the MTA told him to fuck off, and now, more than 6 months later, congestion pricing is still alive and working exactly as planned
Maybe Dersh sees this as his last, best shot at getting his name in a Supreme Court decision
Pretty sure there are other World Cup cities where young people are disappearing in a systematic way with the connivance of the government
But I dearly love this track
"Every Zionist who believes in a Jewish and democratic state, every citizen who believes in the values for which we went to fight, must grasp that the responsibility is in our hands.… Refusing to serve is not betrayal of the state. Refusing is the only way to save it."
None of them has heard of batteries
Marc Thiessen: “Just so people understand, wind and solar only work when there is wind and sun. We don’t have technology to store the energy from wind and solar.”
In fairness, Trump really is the world's #1 authority on stiffing contractors
I followed instructions
I liked the early Acuon Conice stuff
On a perfect afternoon in NYC, Republicans are occupying a corner of Washington Square Park, with a handful of guys in Curtis Sliwa T-shirts & camo Trump hats and bewildered-looking women carrying anti-Mamadani [sic] signs. High production values concealing an inability to draw anyone's attention.
Still astonishing: released just five months after BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. That's how hot Dylan was in 1965. And in between, he recorded and released "Positively 4th Street"!
@daniellaurison.bsky.social of @wearehighered.bsky.social on the importance of academics "organizing to resist the unethical, antidemocratic, and frequently illegal and unconstitutional demands of the Trump administration"—especially as institutional leaders too often seek to accommodate (gift link)
On the upside, the BEA is still publishing these statistics, for now
Columbia Records released HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED sixty years ago today, just five months after BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. That’s how hot Bob Dylan was in 1965. (In between, he released “Positively 4th Street.”) Honestly, hard to say much new about an album that kicks off with “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Not only is it no longer unthinkable—there's precedent!
How long will MAGA voters stick with taking Dear Leader's word for it that their grocery bills are actually going down?
You can tell he's writing for John Roberts because "Thank you for your attention to this matter" ends with a period rather than three exclamation marks
This big-screen sort-of-adaptation is HIGHLY recommended
Hand is on the buzzer And I'm walkin' through the door
For years, these guys have watched Trump fail up with zero accountability no matter how high the stakes, so why should they break the mold? www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Who could have possibly foreseen that President Deals might not be a man of his word?
A long tradition
the founders envisioned a madman potentially becoming president what the founders did not envision was the majority of Congress and the Supreme Court becoming part of a cult of personality around said president. it’s both pathetic and horrifying
A magical @lloydcole.bsky.social evening at @citywinery.bsky.social, from “Past Imperfect” to “Don’t Look Back,” with a “Brazil” memorial to @jillsobule.bsky.social.
“There’s no editing Trump now. The show doesn’t end until he says it does. There’s an awful lot of tape to run until noon on January 20, 2028.”
It’s a documentary, but:
The crowd is *extremely* warm and friendly!
Most big-city mayors would LOVE the opportunity to do something, anything, that won't alienate at least half of their constituents. Go on national TV and take a stand on behalf of their city against Trump? That's an 80/20 action. Bring it on.
Can't imagine he read MEIN KAMPF. He doesn't read! But he's seen the pictures, and that's enough for him.
Our tax dollars —> "Promoted"
Maybe in a stadium? with big red flags?
If Trump doesn't attack, he'll no doubt count it as yet another war he ended singlehandedly
The one thing that they don't tell you Is the one thing ya shoulda known And just like that your mind gets blown Wishing @paranoiacs.bsky.social a happy birthday!
Adding insult to injury—the injury being Trump sending $5 million in taxpayer dollars to the family of this domestic terrorist
He’s just overburdened by mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. You can tell from his face, from his body movements and from his lack of social connection.
Five years ago tonight, Trump desecrated the White House in an entirely different way. Walter Shaub: "This abomination may be the most visible misuse of official position for private gain in America’s history. It is an abuse of the power entrusted to this man, the breach of a sacred trust."
I have never done anything to claim any of these, but when I went to CVS for Covid booster last week, they had PRE-CHECKED the box for underlying conditions. Got the vibe they're trying to get as many people thus as possible while they can.
Insightful @philipkennicott.bsky.social on our own King Midas’s urge, “unmoored by reason or logic,” to paint everything he sees—including the sacred White House—gold.
Trump take documentaries
Trump insists that he is the sole reliable source of information today, on inflation, crime, and everything else. He'll dismiss this poll, like every other nonpartisan poll, as fake news. But it's not. In these desperate times, it's a bit encouraging that the MAGA cult remains very much a minority.
"Air pollution from oil and gas causes more than 90,000 premature deaths and sickens hundreds of thousands of people across the US each year, a new study shows..." If MAHA were anything other than dipshit reactionary fantasies & conspiracy theories, it would focus overwhelmingly on air pollution.
Republican merch advertised in the middle of an article about Republicans destroying America’s national parks www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...
“Nearly all presidents receive some flattery from their subordinates. The profuse nature of the praise for Trump, however, bore similarities to other countries where public displays of obedience are prized above all.”
In unrelated news, RCA released the "We Built This City" single forty years ago today. Like countless other music fans, I bought Starship's KNEE DEEP IN THE HOOPLA album, based on the track, and didn't realize until years later that OMG this is AWFUL
Republicans vote to strip their constituents of rebuilt highways or new overpasses, because Dear Leader’s racist whims >>>>>>> voters’ needs www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...
RUSSIA. STARTED. THE. WAR. YOU. LUNATIC.
Will Trump—who always follows the far-right mob rather than leading it—sour on Winston Churchill even though he has long modeled his notorious scowl after Churchill's? www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...
Did we need another Wall Street Journal, with first-rate reportage b/w a predictably right-wing editorial page?
It was cute when Grandpa Joe referred to a record player. More likely that Trump's Beverly Hills "friends" own turntables than removable car stereos.
He literally has no conception of what a "communist" is
Republicans no longer believe in the concept of public health. They're all eugenicists now. If people die, oh well.
Will Trump—who always follows the far-right mob rather than leading it—sour on Winston Churchill even though he has long modeled his notorious scowl after Churchill's? www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...
Seven years ago today, @newyorker.com gave us Barry Blitt's great Sopranos cover. Two years ago today, we finally got Trump's mugshot. And then, seriously, WTF happened
Republicans, both those who have tacitly & explicitly approved of the pardons & the purge, seem 100% confident that they will never be held accountable, much less face Democrat-led retribution. The 2026 GOP gerrymandering is key to a strategy of never again finding themselves out of power.
Waiting for Ronny Jackson's diagnosis of Too Much Awesomeness
As @laurenleharper.bsky.social says, “Agencies cannot get away from responding to FOIA requests by intentionally degrading their capabilities to conduct searches for records. That’s not how it works.” But Trump's people are literally above the law, and they know it. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/u...
Trump's only competition for worst all time
"Mamdani received an average donation of $121 from more than 8,000 donors.… Adams and Cuomo had only 552 and 732 contributors with an average of $699 and $770." Again: More than 10X as many people donated to Mamdani last month than to either Adams or Cuomo. Why are those guys still running?
"I think it's good that Gavin Newsom is aggressively criticizing and trolling Trump" ≠ "I am endorsing Gavin Newsom's presidential bid"
are-we-the-baddies.gif
While we're out of town, we agreed to let an artist friend stay in our apartment if she sent us a few pix of Rae Rae, her miniature Shih Tzu, and OMG
Trump take anything you bought from Europe
The only affordable cuisine of Iceland
From "highly conflicted" to "Highly Respected" in two weeks. Price: $10 billion
@dcinbox.bsky.social is doing the research:
Trump take Wayfair
Nicely put:
How many trillions of dollars is Elon Musk claiming he saved by letting these employees go?
Government efficiency!
