Twain's sold-out 1868 lecture tour, The American Vandal, took its title from a bit in his dispatches from the Holy Land (which would become the bestselling "Innocents Abroad") where he recounts American tourists collecting souvenirs by literally chipping pieces off ancient monuments. So, yeah...

I don't know. For some reason I like the people who the totalitarian kleptocrats are palpably afraid of.

Reading books is the best thing you can do for your mental health. Last night I stayed up to 3:30 reading Mike Bloomberg's memoir cover to cover. What can I say? Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors of ice cream & somebody still orders the Daiquiri Ice (me). Read books. But not "Bloomberg By Bloomberg."

Judith Friedlander, author of a book about the New School for Social Research + the University in Exile, says: "The New School has pulled itself back from the brink just in time on many previous occasions. This time, I fear, it will be different."

tl;dr the doctrine is kleptocracy

Remember the top risk factors listed in the SpaceX IPO prospectus were…adverse legislation.

Had to wait in short line just now to vote in a relatively high-certainty primary. Volunteers shocked by turnout. People just want to use it before they lose it.

Now available for preorder, arriving in warehouse 10/02/2026: dukeupress.edu/content-mach... Duke UP gave me a discount code for 30% off paperback preorders: it's E26CNTNT ♥️👍

Started with 8K worth of talks. Wrote 2K more. Frankenstein'd it down to 4K...not including footnotes. It's the journal's problem now.

Everything cute is sponcon. sigh

At the end of a long archive day and, ya know what, I kinda hate post-2000 materials because people creating the documents that were later archived put less information in them assuming that the internet would live forever

So great, and far too rare www.kqed.org/news/1208842...

“Dolan’s head of corporate security takes such an expansive view of his mission that his employees will functionally cosplay as cops—patrolling the neighborhood, snooping on protesters if they happen to be in the area. You don't have to enter a Dolan venue to be under his watch.”

Remembering the first time I saw Lionel Messi score a World Cup goal. I was a 25-year-old dumbass with a flip phone, two official flatmates & two more people living on our couches, listening to a Cold War Kids EP on the CD player while we watched on my new Plasma TV.

I wonder if the Odyssey has anything to say about stealing people's identity, property, and livelihood?

Schadenfreude traffic was so intense yesterday that Forbes temporarily shut down its "real time billionaire" tracker this morning, opening up an opportunity for trollsite, ForbesRichest.com, which is "not affiliated with Forbes." The old hacker internet's still got a little juice left.

"...and in the process, dooming dozens of boys born in the Chicago area over the next few years to names that would be mispronounced for decades to come."

"The kind of training a journalist needs most today is not training in the tricks and machinery of the trade. If he is to be a competent judge of public affairs, he needs the broadest and most liberal education." - Hutchins Commission, 1947.

The last hour of this is an episode unto itself. And it’s filled with so much wisdom—about the arc of a career, about a changing world, about a child’s grief and a parent’s legacy. My deep gratitude to @mattseybold.bsky.social and the father whose voice he shares!

Wedge issue.

Canada loves Critical Rest Studies. Don’cha’know.

Nadella’s WSJ interview is pretty hilarious in light of what he said at Davos just six months ago.

Really appreciate the depth the reporter brought to this piece. Plus, I get to read the thoughts of @drbritwilliams.bsky.social! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/22/b...

Some schadenfreude here obvs, but I also want to acknowledge that passive investors with Fidelity & other pensions that went hard on SpaceX lost about $5 billion in aggregate wealth today. Elon took hit to his vanity, but there are people who hate him whose retirements are being stolen by this IPO.

time for this again

Related texts.

The world’s first former trillionaire.

If you have been impersonating me in order to sell pure-bred sheep… 🐑 …nice work.

i am begging everyone to go meet other human beings in real life

Straight people once again struggling to find themselves adequately represented.

“The government is also set to propose new legislation that will promote the use of books in classrooms.”

I’m contemplating a podcast episode about Deep Blue Something’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and am looking for people with a story about maybe staying too long in a not-great relationship because maybe you liked the same movie or song etc? Let me know if this is you or someone you recall kind of liking.

Civility is a scam.

“The problem is not the nightmare. The problem is the inability to have one.”

I woke up melancholy, but my people made it impossible to remain that way.

states shouldn’t legislate “cultural literacy”

This episode has been my commute listening as I’ve been droving to and from @4thstreetfantasy.bsky.social the last three days. It’s been great. What I didn’t know is the last thirty minutes or so is the hardest but best thing you could listen to on father’s day (which I just did).

INDIANA CREME FRAICHE GOES GLOBAL

Literacy IS a superpower. And we can all be superheroes.

hfd

I’m so broken that the first thing I thought was, “that’s the Kazin introduction.”

cognitive surrender, you can ban it www.reuters.com/technology/n...

Make the bad guys pay: A Democratic message that the white working class will hear. They respond to gestures of power. A THREAD.

I do sometimes wonder whether making bibliographies for every episode is a good use of my time, but when over 200 people link-out during the first day, including 29 clicks on thus Iris Murdoch essay from 1964, I feel really good about my labor.

CAROL is Anti-Malthusian allegory. TREASURE is Ricardian. So, I think the natural choice is MUPPET GUEST LECTURE.

i before e except after kleptocracy

Another reminder that Murdoch and Stebbing should be much more widely read

I’m only 1/3 of the way through, but it’s well worth listening so far just to hear them explain the decision to do close readings of Donne in relation to sleep

I do sometimes wonder whether making bibliographies for every episode is a good use of my time, but when over 200 people link-out during the first day, including 29 clicks on thus Iris Murdoch essay from 1964, I feel really good about my labor.