“‘Being precise allows you to make things up.’” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Today is publication day for The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life. Find USA, Canada, and UK ordering links here: smallstuffbook.com The book is about how you got disconnected from the physical world, why it's not your fault, and how to reclaim gratification in everyday life.

Ten years ago today, J. D. Vance called Trump “cultural heroin” in The Atlantic: “To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution … He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t," Vance wrote of Trump. Read the piece: theatln.tc/foJ8lGw3

“This week, I am French. I’m as French as a deposed dauphine, as French as a film plot of perfumed deceit.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Ian Bogost last month on 747s, and the Qatari gift of Air Force One. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

U.S. ambassador to NATO: It’s good that the world is finally discovering that you can eat fast food in your car while taking a phone call.

Pushing the DC fireworks back 90-120 min will only make conditions worse when it comes to smoke hanging around. This year's weather could enhance the mess. www.capitalweather.com/dcs-firework...

Had to whine in order to publish that first sentence on the left, 10 years ago. The compromise was turning “when” to “if.”

Phil Kennicott on the “Great American State Fair” and its thin crowds and “Northrop Grumman Sky Tunnel theater.” wapo.st/4uZJodn

As the Trump administration has pursued this agenda, the president’s sons & an investment bank run by the sons of Commerce Secretary Lutnick have also been looked for ways to profit from the critical metals frenzy, while their dads help push some of the same deals www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"You could have been born at any point in time, but here you are, alive when ice cream, antibiotics, and indoor plumbing have all been invented, and Mel Brooks is turning 100." www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Trump said he paid for a new walkway himself ($689,000). Actually, taxpayers did—thru funds normally reserved for the Park Service. 900+ park projects across the U.S. received $0 this year, as money flows to Trump's ideas (like replacing stucco w/gold filigree): www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

As zeitgeisty pop songs go, I feel like ELLA LANGLEY’s “Choosin’ Texas” has grown massive enough to contain the vast unknowability of Texas itself — and I wrote about it for @notus.com www.notus.org/this-hugely-...

“.. The development, confirmed to The Associated Press by a Pentagon official, comes amid a growing, weekslong, flu outbreak at the U.S. Air Force’s boot camp .. that has sickened nearly 300 people. @apnews.com apnews.com/article/pent...

From a 1997 profile: "A securities analyst who has studied Trump’s peregrinations for many years believes, 'Deep down, he wants to be Madonna.'" www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...

“Reflecting Pool has everything. It’s a drama. It’s a farce. It’s a whodunit. It’s a murder mystery. The victims are ducks.” wapo.st/4oIEmAc

The lede on this @skornhaber.bsky.social visit to see Vanilla Ice! www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Fascinating short read on the eternal allure of the rabbit hole, and the documents that can clog it: the JFK assassination, the Epstein files, the UFO reports...

In three straight elections, more people voted for someone else.

Here at the Reflecting Pool where a big chunk ofTrump's blue paint-apoxie has peeled off the bottom of the pool and is bobbling in the water.

“…the water is more or less the color of a sour apple Jolly Rancher now. It looks like they're brewing Yodas in there. It is so uncannily green & visibly slimy that it feels inevitable that video will soon surface of RFK Jr. splashing around in it with jeans on.” defector.com/promises-mad...

We've already been here. In 2019 I wrote about Trump's July 4 rally on the Mall: wapo.st/4vbBqhZ

“…the Iranians have achieved their key strategic aims—regime survival above all—while the Americans have achieved none of their own…” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

If George Saunders’ “Vigil” is on your nightstand, here’s this: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

One of many astounding details in this piece on deep fakes: “Now thousands of N. Korean gov’t operatives were applying for remote jobs at U.S. companies, using A.I. to impersonate Americans on video calls & then funding a nuclear weapons program with their salaries.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/u...

George Santos, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Flynn, Lil Wayne, Conrad Black, Roger Stone, Rod Blagojevich — why isn’t Trump making them fight for clemency in the octagon? So many missed opportunities in this non-spectacle: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Hegseth “shows up on military bases looking as exuberant as a bored househusband who just got a kitchen pass from his wife for a weekend of paintball with the boys. … He talks with practiced drama, like he’s constantly trying out for the lead in a school play.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

people who work and invest in AI frequently ask me why their work polls so badly

The only modern behavioral trend that irks me more than "Welcome in" is everyone closing their window shades on airplanes. STOP THAT. Thank you, @dgraham.bsky.social. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

“‘It’s a bunch of people going up to Wilmington just shaking their hands at the clouds.’” nymag.com/intelligence...

A total pleasure to work on @ibogost.com’s grand profile of the disappearing Boeing 747, which used to be part of Americans’ everyday life but is now basically just a POTUS chariot. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Steve Martin on Diane Arbus and Disneyland? Click. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

“This continent has paid thousands to officers and men who have been loitering about playing foot-ball and nine pins ... whilst they ought to have been defending our forts,” Abigail Adams wrote in 1777. @sallyjenx.bsky.social on our national pastimes: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

American250 versus Freedom 250. What a mess. Rep. Huffman (D-Calif): Trump “has co-opted America’s birthday to rake in foreign donations, siphon taxpayer dollars … into this shadowy LLC, and use it all to celebrate himself instead of the country.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

SpaceX is carving out “archipelagos of regional monopolies” with the help of the Trump administration, causing huge jumps in rural Internet bills. wapo.st/3Si4g1z

The public comment portal for Trump’s “triumphal arch” is open until June 15: parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm....

Julia W. Howe, while submitting a certain poem to The Atlantic: “I am sad & spleeny, & begin to have fears that I may not be, after all, the greatest woman alive. Isn’t this a melancholy view of things? But it is a vale, you know. When will the world come to end?” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Another Trump casualty: “Shear Madness,” forced to end its 39-year run tonight. wapo.st/4ujxDxM

“…a DOGE official working with the Department of Homeland Security described the goal of declaring 2.7 million living people dead: making immigrants so miserable that they self-deported or went to Social Security offices for help, where they could be arrested.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

On global temperature inching closer to body temperature: "The more the world’s conditions mimic our bodies', the more likely fungi are able to overcome this thermal barrier that’s protected us for millions of years." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A Jan. 6 rioter has been hired to work inside a Pentagon office that requires a top-secret clearance and manages highly classified military operations: wapo.st/437arYG

"Tilly’s creation is equal parts Cyrano de Bergerac and Tootsie. And it may end up as Fight Club — or worse, Oppenheimer — but it started as A Star Is Born.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/m...

Developer of bunker HOA said he chose Igloo, S.D., bc it was far from "known nuclear targets." But seems like it's on the eastern edge of the triangle of ICBM fields; & what about westerlies? Good or bad placement, @nukestrat.bsky.social, @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social? www.wsj.com/us-news/a-lu...

"'The leader knows that people are going to be more likely to be loyal if they don’t have many other career options, so when I say losers, I kind of mean it literally.'" www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Vanilla Ice to TMZ: “I don’t even vote, so I don’t even care." Hooray for America at 250. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/a...

I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”

We’re at “a cultural & technological moment in which humans are sliding into a more passive role in many activities … a massive societal experiment foisted on us by Silicon Valley, the animating question of which is: What is a human for?” www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

"The 10,500 generators attached to data centers in Virginia produce enough pollution to harm public health even if used rarely ... That’s enough to worsen lung & cardiovascular conditions for people in the region & cause at least 3 premature deaths each year." www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said.  About three months before the Pentagon announced plans to lend money to Vulcan Elements, Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took an undisclosed stake in the company. @robert-faturechi.bsky.social

“That dark blue, if it is that dark, oh man, that’s going to look very, very dismal,” says a professional color consultant. It’s “going to very likely be a more sharp & accurate reflection versus the original gray color,” says Swimming Pool Steve. wapo.st/3PqlRnd