It's pub day for @isaacbutler.bsky.social's The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars! Isaac's account of the late-20th century war on art has dizzying echoes in the present and doubles as a history of the modern GOP, and it's a pleasure to read to boot.

NEW: This is what a 6-3 Supreme Court looks like. On a rainy Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the reality of today's high court was abundantly clear as the court handed down four 6-3 decisions moving the law to the right. Today, at Law Dork:

The fact that MSG is creating dossiers on activists who say things they don’t like shows exactly why private companies should not be allowed to use dangerous surveillance technologies like facial recognition.

normie translation: there are legal limits on what you can print without hard evidence if you don’t want to get sued into oblivion. many times, all journalists can do is publish what they can while writing it up in a way where readers can connect the dots

JUMANJI comes *out*

“They say people in Philadelphia are mean and rude. They say the same thing about Paris. It’s not true; the people are very helpful. I feel like people here would help you if you need help, just in the way that people in Paris would do the same." www.inquirer.com/soccer/world...

Four Frenchmen skipped work to be here for the World Cup. Highlights: “There’s nothing Italian about [the hoagie], but it was good" “We had what you call Cheez Whiz. It’s not cheese, but it was good” "He’s like ‘Go Birds.’ I thought he meant pigeons or seagulls" www.inquirer.com/soccer/world...

Sing, muse, of some absolute shit

Memento but it’s just that thing where you know you have 30 seconds to either do a thing or write down a reminder to do it before the idea is lost forever

love this for her

Gentlemen, I also see those tempting food trucks in New Haven. But we just spent 45 minutes stuck in Milford and we must press on if we are to reach Mystic by nightfall

The Odyssey but it’s just driving I-95 through Connecticut

House of the Dragon features a warship called the Bitchfist, jokes are made about queer punk bands, Team Dresch announces its first new album in 30 years.

Low-key liberal accomplishments coupled with high-profile policy concessions to the right and aggressive conservative virtue signalling — this is exactly the strategy moderates have recommended for Democrats here, of course. Didn't work too well. Maybe some lessons there.

A lot of people don't realise this but in the UK we have to replace our Prime Minister every two or three years or else the rights revert back to Marvel

I'm part of the very specific fragment of the population for whom this image is the best joke of the week.

arguing with palestinians for not wearing masks on a podcast. genuine wrecker shit

I wrote about the new season of House of the Dragon, in which things actually happen!

I wrote about the new season of House of the Dragon, in which things actually happen!

Happy Sunday. I took JD Vance to church. nymag.com/intelligence...

get with the game, spelling bee

House of the Dragon’s second season ended with a whimper. Its third season kicks off with a bang. slate.trib.al/J4OKHER

5/ My latest w/Katherine Long, Neil Mehta and Brenna Smith www.wsj.com/business/med...

so Toy Story 5… kind of wrecked me? I guess that’s what happens when you make a whole movie out of the most devastating scene in the entire franchise. On Cowgirl Jessie, Sarah McLachlan, and [sob] “When She Loved Me.”

Macadam (pavement) and macadamia (nuts) both get their names from people. But not the same people.

you really get the distinct sense that vance takes joy in nothing, which matters politically because voters like to know that you enjoy *something* about life

so Toy Story 5… kind of wrecked me? I guess that’s what happens when you make a whole movie out of the most devastating scene in the entire franchise. On Cowgirl Jessie, Sarah McLachlan, and [sob] “When She Loved Me.”

Jimmy knew a joke could only surprise an audience once. If something was off en route to a great line he'd shout "Bup bup bup!" to cut the actors off, then go back so a big laugh wasn't wasted on a bad take. Writers loved him for that. And for lots of other reasons too. We will all miss him. 5/5

I started listening to James Burrows read his memoir, "Directed by James Burrows," today. It is simply wonderful and revealing in ways that are touching, astonishing, and filled with insight into the actors and writers Burrows worked with so incredibly well.

The Comeback cast James Burrows as the soul of sitcoms because he understood better than anyone how half-hour comedy could cut right to the heart. RIP, and please, read Directed by James Burrows.

After spending all day on Twitter: People are essentially evil. After spending all day in the real world: People are essentially decent. After spending all day on Bluesky: People are essentially 38 years old.

💔💔 Daveigh Chase, star of ‘The Ring’ and the voice of Lilo in Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ dies at 35. She was homeless and living in Los Angeles near the hospital where she died, the Los Angeles General Medical Center, according to her father www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

I also don't think it's a total coincidence that the apex promoter of the Mars colonization grew up in apartheid South Africa: Mars colonization fantasies always include the idea of escape from the terrestrial political reality of having to share space with one's lessers.

I would be less concerned about Penske's media consolidation if their websites were not uniformly a nightmare to read

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS : I will never ever ever vote against American treasure Adam Schlesinger. RIP.

Name a tv show you’re positive no one remembers but you (and yes, I did solve the clues)

Checking in on view counts on the Washington Post's new "Make It Make Sense" podcast and I dunno, man. Seems bad.

aiming my penalty kicks back and to the left

The $499 "American-made" Trump Mobile phone finally shipped. But repair experts at iFixit just tore it apart and found the exact opposite: a 2-year-old phone made in China, spray-painted gold, with a fake flag on the back. Read the full investigation: 👇 www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/so-much-fo...

a perfect bit

the only good use for the Sphere is to let Terrence Malick make a fourth version of Voyage of Time

Just to be clear, this isn't the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear is based on. This is Buzz Lightyear the toy.

Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old child, is dead after a Mississippi police officer shot into a car and killed him. Family members say his mother was holding him in the passenger seat. The officers were responding to a shoplifting call over a box of diapers at the Senatobia Walmart.

did a little NPR to talk about Obsession, Backrooms, and why Gen Z is suddenly the moviegoing-est generation around.

A federal judge in Mississippi booted all lawyers from a case on Tuesday after finding that counsel on both sides had used generative AI to draft legal filings and left hallucinated sources in the legal record.

some day I’m going to quit my job and make a million dollars inventing a coffee mug with an AirTag in it for those ADHD mornings

Disclosure Day is flawed because it lacks a moment where Josh O’Connor turns to the camera and says “Actually digital broadcast signals offer superior quality to the compressed images of cable and streaming as well as the ability to share multiple signals simultaneously on the same channel”

This was excellent.

[whispering to date]

Not believing in science really comes back to bite you, doesn’t it?