The King of Comedy was as acid a condemnation of American aspiration as I've ever seen. Trump's cabinet is filled with Rupert Pupkins. They audition in their basements with makeshift Oval Office sets and emerge like Patels, Lutnicks, Noems, and Leavitts.

I will write MUPPET TAXI DRIVER for free.

My story "CanLit Book Club" was shortlisted in @mgliterary.bsky.social's recent fiction contest -- and now, you can read it online: www.moonlitgetaway.com/new-fiction/... (Note: There are technical errors in the post that aren't fixed yet. Please try to ignore the random numbers in the text...)

"i think this sad excuse for a short story has melted my brain, or at least my creative faculties. i need to lie down. take a good long nap. maybe for the rest of the day. maybe for the rest of my life." Read "CanLit Book Club" by Jeff Cottrill: buff.ly/u9H3Mqj   #WritingCommunity #5amWritersClub

Or go get a job at your daddy’s business after dropping out of college. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Hey #Toronto book lovers: This Saturday, I'm going to be at Indigo (Bay/Bloor location), promoting, selling and signing my new novel, Performance Reviews! I'll be there at noon and plan to stay until I either sell all my copies or get really bored. Please drop by and say hey. #CanLit #books

Robert Duvall at thirty, virtually unrecognizable as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. youtu.be/iRmIef02Ajk?...

Intermission at Some Like It Hot, and we still haven't heard this tune... youtu.be/Hw1t7OCESUw?...

About ten minutes until Some Like It Hot. Will I be able to handle the heat? We'll see.

A Texas man murdered his own daughter over Trump and Texas didn’t even charge him with a crime.

Intermission at Summer and Smoke. So far, Summer's been spending a lot of time with her glass collection, while Smoke's just complaining about all the no-neck monsters. (The lighting was low)

An excellent Valentine's Day movie, btw

Okay, I'll give Mirvish and the New York Times some credit: They know how to use hyphens correctly. I *should* be saying they should've written the blurb in a way that didn't require so many hyphens. But after working with "professional" writers who have no idea how hyphens work, this pleases me.

Hey #Toronto book lovers: My novel Performance Reviews is now available at a THIRD Book City location! This time, it's the midtown store (Yonge and St. Clair). More info on the book at jeffcottrill.com/performance-... #books #CanLit #BooksWorthReading #Canadianbooks #torontowriters #novels

Seeing two plays this weekend: Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke at Crow's Theatre today, and Mirvish's Some Like It Hot tomorrow. Both by myself. (What, you didn't think I had social plans for Valentine's weekend, did you?)

I'm running out of stuff to watch on Crave. But there's The White Lotus. Is that as good as everybody says? Worth twenty-some hours of my time?

👽🧘The Alien Buddha’s Best of 2025 is now available!!! 🏆📅 Over 425 pages of work, featuring 130+ authors from around the world. Black and white print amazon.com/dp/B0G7HGCTHD -- $22.25 Color print amazon.com/dp/B0G7HX4M5W -- $38.75

Hey #Toronto readers: My novel Performance Reviews is now available at Queen Books! (Queen East at Carlaw) It's The Office meets Taxi Driver. What happens when your job starts to drive you insane... literally? More info at jeffcottrill.com/performance-... #books #CanLit #BooksWorthReading #author

happy birthday gromit 🥹 🎂 🐶

Age verification? I had the Sesame Street disco album.

🐶

Hey #Toronto readers: My novel Performance Reviews is now available at a second Book City location! The Greektown one. 348 Danforth, at Chester station. More info on the book at jeffcottrill.com/performance-... #books #CanLit #BooksWorthReading #Canadianbooks #torontowriters ##torontoauthors

"God's Lonely Man." Taxi Driver was released half a century ago yesterday. Still cinema's greatest depiction of urban alienation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3c3...

Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER, written by Paul Schrader, was released 50 years ago today. It was shot by Michael Chapman, Marcia Lucas was the supervising editor, and has the final score by Bernard Herrmann. The cast: DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Keitel, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd.

News In Photo:

Don't forget, the big game is today! I've got all my money on Team Ruff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrmj...

"The Madness East of St. George" by @JeffCottrill.bsky.social - Winner of MoonLit Getaway’s 2025 Short Fiction Contest. Read the winning story: buff.ly/GJ2nme5 #5amWritersClub #WritingCommunity #LitMag #WritingContest #AmWriting

Jeffrey Bezos is destroying the Washington Post for the same reason Musk destroyed Twitter and Ellison is destroying CBS—oligarchs oppose the free press when if it threatens their wealth and power. They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.

"Treason doth never prosper: what ’s the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason." —John Harington

Trying to watch the Brad Pitt movie about the cars going vroom. Spoiler alert: car go vroom.

Stayed in last night and watched a bunch of SCTV videos on YouTube involving Catherine O'Hara. This is still one of my all time favorites from. SCTV "You think it's not scary to get depressed?" youtu.be/GMVrMHQk95s?...

Look. Books. Books for your reading. Tissues if you have a cold. A Goorin Bros. bag to fill space. Already sold one and we've barely started. Tell your Hamilton peeps.

On my way now. Good news is, I'll likely make it on time. Bad news is, I had almost no sleep last night. I hope they're selling energy drinks. Or have good advice on how to sell books when you should be sleeping.

Never mind jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university: 1) Business Ethics (ha ha ha) 2) Satire (though the prof said he wanted to call it "Hate Literature') 3) Milton (but should've been called "Foucault & Friends") 4) Canadian Fiction (or Why Michael Ondaatje Is Better than You) 1/

John Candy and Catherine O'Hara made the world a better place. Canada and the world is a better place for them having existed.

Today!

So I didn't really want to see the ping-pong movie, but I went to see the ping-pong movie. I thought it would be a standard sports drama, but it was really two-and-a half hours of people yelling at each other and hurting each other. Surprisingly little ping-pong.

A reminder that she was in her early 20s when she completely upturned the world of sketch comedy, creating literally dozens of characters and inhabiting dozens more celebrities with her look and voice.

This is hilarious. Can’t believe she’s gone.

Well, this is crappy news. The one time I saw her in person was backstage at the Genie Awards around 1999 or 2000 (I was covering it for a student paper). I snapped a pic of her, and she smiled graciously. I should look for that pic. globalnews.ca/news/1164535...

Toronto cinemas showing this feels like a zoning violation. Tariffs should have been applied. 📽️

I was delighted to be a guest on Doreen Nicoll's lovely Small Change pod cast, talking about the press, our wonderful store windows and of course, Sharp Words, which is happening this Saturday: doreenn.substack.com/p/noelle-all...

This Saturday, I’ll be back at the annual Sharp Words book fair in Hamilton. Same times, same venue (Bridgeworks). But this year, I’ll have two novels for sale – my new one, Performance Reviews, and my 2022 debut, Hate Story. Hopefully we won’t get snowed in like last year.

This Saturday, I’ll be back at the annual Sharp Words book fair in Hamilton. Same times, same venue (Bridgeworks). But this year, I’ll have two novels for sale – my new one, Performance Reviews, and my 2022 debut, Hate Story. Hopefully we won’t get snowed in like last year.

Check that your furnace and water heater exhaust pipes are clear, y'all. Carbon monoxide is a killer. #hamont #toronto #snowmageddon

An important message for Toronto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kN7...

Hamilton friends, Sharp Words is just one week away! Come down to Bridgeworks next Saturday to see all the great books available and catch this wonderful panel featuring all the Hamilton Literary Award Winners as well!