In honor of Sandy Koufax's 90th birthday, here's one of the great baseball strips in "Peanuts," from April 16, 1967.

Starting today and lasting until New Year's Day, Barnes & Noble is offering a 25% discount on preorders of "Moses and the Doctor." Offer includes the audiobook and ebook. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moses-and-...

For as much as I admire Rose Byrne's performance, I didn't care for "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You." No character in that movie felt real to me.

Starting today and lasting until New Year's Day, Barnes & Noble is offering a 25% discount on preorders of "Moses and the Doctor." Offer includes the audiobook and ebook. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moses-and-...

Four days after Xmas and my daughter has realized that Xmas songs are awesome and we should sing them all the time....

The two best books that I read in 2025 were "Middlemarch" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." It's hard to think of two books that are more dissimilar.

Ava’s first time ever walking in snow.

Good morning. We’ve got nowhere to go today.

The only time I’ve ever hoped that a kid had access to AI.

One of my Xmas gifts: a Larry Doby coin from the US Mint, with the iconic photo of him and Steve Gromek on the back.

Most gratifying (non-family) happening for my 2025 was the launch of the Satchel Paige Project. A work in progress, I have logged 1,909 games thus far. (I have another 145 as "plausible".) If you have questions, ideas, or wish to help, let me know! marklaurencearmour.wordpress.com/2084-2/

It's Christmas Eve, so I'm reposting my favorite "Peanuts" strip, from December 24, 1967, published during the depths of the Vietnam War, also informed by Schulz's own memories of being away from home over Xmas during World War II.

Timeline cleanser: we’re all ready for Santa tonight.

It's Christmas Eve, so I'm reposting my favorite "Peanuts" strip, from December 24, 1967, published during the depths of the Vietnam War, also informed by Schulz's own memories of being away from home over Xmas during World War II.

LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY GIFT FOR THE BASKETBALL, BOOKS AND BROOKLYN BEER LOVERS IN YOUR LIFE: 2/12 NBA ALL STAR WEEKEND EDITION @squawkinsports.bsky.social w/ @davidjroth.bsky.social @lukeepplin.bsky.social @yaronweitzman.bsky.social TIX FOR 🎄 🕎 🥂 🎅 🏀: greenlightbookstore.com/event/2026-0...

One final announcement before the end of the New Year: The tour for "Moses and the Doctor" will kick off in Brooklyn on February 12, where I'll be talking at Greenlight Books with Patrick Sauer, David Roth, and Yaron Weitzman. Would love to see NYC friends there: www.eventbrite.com/e/squawkin-s...

Newest cookies made.

It's amazing how you think you've seen every Xmas movie made before, say, 1970, and then another crosses your radar and it's actually really wonderful. That happened with me last night, when we watched "The Holly and the Ivy," which is now streaming on Roku. I really enjoyed it. A melancholy treat.

We're turning into a country where the government demands to see people's papers and expects veto power over journalism, and the "patriots" of the Tea Party have suddenly gone missing.

Why would you want to take over the crown jewel of televised journalism if you despise journalism and all it stands for?

Afternoon undertaking.

I don't have much to say about this except that it's weird that a company called WildBrain controlled "Peanuts" for a while. Maybe Bill Watterson was right to hold onto "Calvin and Hobbes" so tightly.

My wife made my birthday cake. Yes, it’s ridiculous, I know, but I love it.

It's my birthday and all I'd want is for ten people to preorder the book that I spent the entire last year finishing up. Is that asking for too much? www.hachettebookgroup.com/grand-centra...

Does anyone wanna see a really good Getty image of Rita Moreno and Sam The Eagle having dinner in 1979?

It's my birthday and all I'd want is for ten people to preorder the book that I spent the entire last year finishing up. Is that asking for too much? www.hachettebookgroup.com/grand-centra...

Today’s free bookshelf find—coming in April 2026.

First time a book I worked on hit Obama’s year-end list. “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” is that good.

So...was Woody Allen just available to dine with random millionaires in NYC?

I often wonder what it would be like to be *that* angry all the time....

This week's newsletter, more deep cuts from "Our Team," this one on the 1940 "crybaby" Cleveland Indians. Out of necessity I had to cut out a ton of Indians' history from 1938-45. You know what they say--kill your darlings. substack.com/home/post/p-...

So, Venezuela, huh?

Closing out 2025 with the best sports book I've read this year--"Blood Brothers," about the friendship and breakup of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. Spectacular writing, deep research, great slice of American history.

I believe in forgiveness for everyone, except people who use “So what are you working on next?” as a conversational icebreaker

How in the world does Tracy Chapman's "O Holy Night" have less than 200,000 listens on YouTube? It's the best version of that song you're likely to find. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWI...

I loved this conversation with Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner on how "When Harry Met Sally" got made. I had no idea that the Billy Crystal character so closely tracked who Reiner was at that point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5-j...

I'm pretty immune to anything this guy posts nowadays, but this one hits in the gut. What a deeply unwell, hateful individual.

Wife and I got waylaid by food poisoning. Parenting today feels like that level in an 80s video game where everything is attacking you at once and your only hope is to play defense.

A very close family member goes to Brown. He’s safe, thankfully, but I’m still outraged that his generation has this as the backdrop of their education.

Can never pass up buying a Reggie! bar in the wild.

Watch out NYC—we’re on the town.

The trilogy of "Knives Out" movies, when viewed as a whole, almost perfectly trace the varying tones and concerns of the ongoing Trump era.

Shoutout to all the Midwesterners who know that the holiday season means homemade Chex mix.

My small town Midwestern public school was way ahead of the curve on this one. There were no AP classes and no full books assigned in English or history classes. We were lucky to get through a single poem.

Even as much as I'd like to participate in a bit of writerly schadenfreude, I simply can't sales-shame an author who's just released a book.

He is, quite simply, the weirdest man in America.

Thinking about buying some more puzzles for my daughter for Xmas, but I better wait for the president to tell me how many she can have. He's allowing two to three dolls, so I'm hoping that he'll let her have maybe four to five puzzles.

All right, @merriam-webster.com, explain yourself: Why is "rundown" as a noun unhyphenated but "run-down" as an adjective hyphenated? Could we just simplify things for us copy editors, please?

If Luke wrote it, you should read it. End of story.

Seeing a lot of despair here from Mets fans, but is it the worst thing to lose a thirty-one-year-old slugger who's likely past his peak? Depends on the next moves the organization makes, but I'm kind of OK with letting Alonso go.