In American high schools, many teenagers are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end — often just one or two per year, according to researchers and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by The New York Times. trib.al/gNp7kWK

An active shooter alert was issued at Brown University, according to a post on the university’s website.

Hours of Edgar Allan Poe Stories Read by Vincent Price & Basil Rathbone

How did the C.I.A. lose a Nuclear Device in the Himalayan mountains where it still remains missing. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A bonus Daily Cartoon by Brendan Loper. #NewYorkerCartoons

“The Lord of the Rings” grew in the telling, but, more significantly, the reader grows in the reading; such is the source of Tolkien’s power, and it is weirder and more far-reaching than even he could have foretold. www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...

Families washed out of tents as floodwaters course through Gaza

The U.S. has registered its highest number of cases in 33 years. www.jezebel.com/meales-outbr...

After saying under oath that the DHS has never deported a veteran, the DHS Secretary was confronted by a deported veteran. www.jezebel.com/kristi-noems...

BREAKING: Indiana Republicans FAILED to pass a new 9-0 congressional gerrymander after enough GOP senators sided with Dems. The GOP's 7-2 map stays in place. Trump is trying to re-gerrymander maps nationwide. At least 11 Indiana Rs got death threats after he called for primaries—but it still failed

BREAKING: Democrats and Republicans in Congress just voted to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act to restore federal workers’ union rights – the first time the House has voted to overturn a Trump executive order in this term. https://bit.ly/4oNyBQc

Drumroll, please: a collection of the New Yorker cartoons you liked on Instagram this year (including this one, by Guy Richards Smit). See the rest: newyorkercartoons.visitlink.me/re6x3C

The US government is now a mafia organization.

James Marshall's "George and Martha": The Illustrated Children’s Book I’ll Never Stop Recommending to Adults www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/m...

Tomorrow!! 👇👇

Israeli Ban on Media Entering Gaza Remains, as Legal Challenge Is Delayed www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...

A clip from my Substack “live” on J.R.R. #Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters earlier on today. @tolkiensociety.org @tolkienguide.com @digitaltolkien.com

“I started this because I read Virginia Woolf ’s diary and, undaunted, decided, what the hell?” From an excerpt of Eve Babitz’s journals in our new Winter issue.

Trump Insists Tariffs Will Buoy the Economy. For Now, He’s on Damage Control. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/u...

Leaders of a Catholic church near Boston kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it.

‘Yellow line’ that divides Gaza under Trump plan is ‘new border’ for Israel, says military chief

Born on this day in 1894, cartoonist E.C. Segar introduced Popeye to the world in 1929 in his comic strip 'Thimble Theatre.' You can catch some of Segar's original work now along with other OG faces of the newspaper comics section in our exhibition 'Sunday Funnies.' #Popeye #cartoonist #art

Breaking News: Alina Habba resigned as U.S. attorney in New Jersey after a panel of federal judges ruled last week that she was serving in the position unlawfully.

The adult world of A.A. Milne's fiction beyond the world of Winnie-the-Pooh.

A date which will live in infamy. Today, we commemorate the more than 2,400 Americans who were lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor. We are forever indebted to the courage of those who stood up for democracy and freedom — and we will never forget their sacrifice.

Only 12 survivors of Pearl Harbor are still alive — all centenarians — and this year none was able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii to mark today's commemoration. @audreymcavoy.bsky.social apnews.com/article/pear...

Now we need a bird that warns about vampires.

With this weekend's snowstorm, Chicago is seeing the snowiest start to the winter season since 1978 — which is the snowiest winter in recorded history. blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/07/c...

After trudging through snow and ice in 30 pairs of boots, we’ve chosen the best options that will keep you warm, dry, and stable all winter long. nyti.ms/4pmpqHC

Or flashback to graduate school.

Frank Gehry, who died Friday at 96, redefined architecture with buildings like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Here are 12 of his essential, stunning projects.

A really nice piece in the Seattle Times by Paul Constant about Larry Reid and the Fantagraphics Bookstore! https://ow.ly/kls550XE97G

This month in England, Jane Austen-themed parades, parties and exhibits marking the authors’s semiquincentennial will culminate in the Yuletide Jane Austen Birthday Ball in Bath. Here's how her most ardent fans, known as Janeites, plan to celebrate her birthday: nyti.ms/4ppNg5p

Judge Dismisses Harvard Antisemitism Lawsuit by a Former Student www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...

Enjoy the holidays! And then apply for MVSA 2026, “The Underground,” April 10-12, 2026, hosted by Xavier University Cincinatti, OH! The deadline has been extended until January 5. 2026. See the full CFP here: midwestvictorian.org/conference/

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians, which are supported by the Israeli military, have reached record highs. Palestinians have a right to live in freedom and safety, not in fear of settler attacks.

Israeli Forces Kill 2 Palestinian Teens During Raids Across Occupied West Bank

Israeli Forces in Gaza Kill Seven Palestinians in Latest Violation of October Ceasefire

How Israel’s Settlement Surge in the West Bank Is Displacing Palestinians www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/w...

Steve Cropper, Guitarist, Songwriter and a Shaper of Memphis Soul Music, Dies at 84 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/a...

One of the all-time greats - guitarist, songwriter, producer, icon. Rest easy, Steve. variety.com/2025/music/n...

St Louis residents— Bill Kartalopolous will be speaking about Joe Brainard's C Comics at Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (Wash U.) tomorrow (Wed., 12/3) at 5:30 pm at the Steinberg Auditorium. People of the World: Relax!

Who would imagine violence in the hands of Franklin the turtle? Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, apparently. lithub.com/a-kids-book-...

#Onthisday in 1894, at the age of 44, the author Robert Louis Stevenson died. Ten years later a collection of excerpts from his writings was published titled The Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson. Read it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-wisdom-of-robert-louis-stevenson-1904 #OTD

President Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake at a White House event for a second time in a month on Tuesday, as his Cabinet officials provided updates on their work. During a roughly 75-minute stretch, Trump's eyes were closed or he visibly struggled to keep them open. https://wapo.st/4ovQTFo

and we all want Bill Belichick to share in the bounty

Sarah Aziza on Gaza, genocide, and the graveyard of meanings: “Confronted with the monster’s throat, you reached for what you knew. Language as reflex, flinging vocabulary at void.”

The lack of progress on setting up an international police force in Palestine suggests that Donald Trump’s claims of peace are misplaced, writes Daniel DePetris.

“The attack of April 30th, 2024, remains an untreated wound, with the university thus far avoiding any official reckoning with its role in the most extreme night of vigilante violence endured by any Palestine solidarity encampment nationwide.”

📍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃, 𝐖𝐀: Elaine Miles, a Native American actor, says she was stopped by ICE while walking to a bus stop — agents dismissed her legally issued tribal ID as “fake,” refused to verify it, tried to take her phone, and only released her after she was detained. #AbuseOfPowerWatch