Newsom Tells Nation That Trump Is Destroying American Democracy www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/u...

I have watched the pr*sid*nt of the Un*ted St*tes—in my constitutionally protected opinion—behave and speak (‘What if a bomb dropped on yeh head right now?’) like a Qu*ens m*bster. I am ashamed for my country.

NO KING!!! NO EMPEROR!!! NO DICTATOR!!! Happy (real) Washington’s Birthday! (22 Feb. 1732, N.S. / 11 Feb. 1731, O.S.)

Remembering Mort Künstler (1927-2025), the ‘king’ of pulp covers and a leading American historical artist. I interviewed him in 2008 for my ‘Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History’ (2d ed). He was generous with his time, discussing the covers he painted for Classics Illustrated in the year 1953.

Honouring Black History Month: CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED/ACCLAIM SG61, NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS (March 1998); cover by Steven Musgrave. [CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED trademarks and associated copyrights are the property of First Classics Inc. All rights reserved.]

The Coming War on Dissent newrepublic.com/article/1908... via @newrepublic.com

In honour of our neighbour to the north and friends worldwide, I’ve decided to adopt the Canadian/British spelling of such words as colour, realise, centre, etc. (Having written for a Toronto publisher in the past, it comes naturally.) I know it’s a little thing, but there it is. We do what we can.

Remembering Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025).

In the late 1980s, during my much-missed National Book Critics Circle days, I reviewed for Spectrum—a Little Rock alternative paper—Claudia Koonz’s “Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics.” Given the new administration’s current direction, it’s time to read it again.

Happy Burns Night!

So proud of Bishop Mariann Budde and the Episcopal Church.

This month keeps sending me back to the 1955-58 Capitol Sinatra for music to match my post-November 5 mood. These are the albums—‘In the Wee Small Hours’; ‘Where Are You?’; ‘Only the Lonely’—that most directly speak to me in this moment. (At least I haven’t drifted—yet—into the dark ‘No One Cares.’)

Saturday, 23 November 2024.

A young Johnny Hallyday (years before “Retiens la nuit,” etc.) behind Simone Signoret in "Les Diaboliques" (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955).

Now more than ever.

Satire.

From my friend, author Jerry Hogan of Fayetteville, AR: ‘In January 1839, Nelson Orr, a Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, was mortally stabbed by Willis Wallace, a Fayetteville "grocer"… Orr was … connected to and part of the hierarchy of the Cherokee Nation…’

Happy memory: a festschrift I edited and dedicated to the Scottish Stevensonian scholar David Daiches. International contributors (Jenni Calder, Richard Dury, etc.) wrote papers for the ‘RLS 2000’ conference, Little Rock, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Robert Louis Stevenson’s birth.

‘Babylon Berlin,’ Seasons 1-4; Liv Lisa Fries and Volker Bruch; German with English subtitles. More timely than ever—highly recommended.

Moxie (L) and Boots (R).

Yslan Hicks and Bill Jones, Chicago, September 2024.

First post. Just so you’ll know it’s me.