Servant #2 “Let's follow the old Earl, and get the Bedlam To lead him where he would; his roguish madness Allows itself to any thing.” #KingLear_2025 “Boys of Bedlam,” folk song, Steeleye Span youtu.be/Uz9tggUNlIU?...

The man who ended USAID is the world's first trillionaire

THIS IS AMAZING. ALSO WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DID WE FORGET TO RUIN?

teaching Woolf is going great, as you can see

FOOL. Sings. "He that has and a little tiny wit— With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain- Must make content with his fortunes fit, Though the rain it raineth every day." #KingLear_2025 A longer version of this song appears at the end of Twelfth Night: youtu.be/42FTiZzIvpU?...

Attended this great Anselm Kiefer exhibition last week in St Louis with my dear @lisasass.bsky.social Some tremendous paintings, a few left me cold or baffled, those giant ones in the main hall truly were colossal and overwhelming. I will say that his work must be a preservation nightmare.

When I read the full transcript of the interview, I realized there had been no pushback, no corrections, no challenging follow-ups. The entire interview had been an open-ended opportunity for Trump to tell rambling lies, only to have them cleaned up into a more polished product.

In late 19thC France, the modern world looked bright, bold, joyous. And here it is in pictorial form in Paul Signac's 'Les Andelys, les bains' (1886). It was a time of astonishing experimentation when artists were rethinking how we see.

We've got you 👍

Nvidia accounts for roughly eight per cent of the market capitalization of the S. & P. 500, the highest concentration in any one stock in at least forty-five years. - Stephen Witt, Information Overload, New Yorker, Nov 3, 2025 #sundaysentence

Clown: “Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.” #ShakespeareSunday Twelfth Night

Before our summer holiday in Wales, with mountains and hydrangeas in mind, she laid in so many tubes of cobalt, ultra-marine, and cerulean that I, too young to have any geographical notions as to where we were going, knew for a certainty that Wales would be blue. #SundaySentence SylviaTownsendWarner

I love this ridiculous mashup of olde english font and midcentury motifs, nothing says "colonial" like a multi-colored sputnik ball

If you're thinking of doing #NovellasInNovember, you're in luck - here is an A-Z of brilliant novella suggestions! www.stuckinabook.com/an-a-z-of-br...

FBI: "We didn't zip tie children." REPORTER: "Here's a photo of a zip tied 14 year old." FBI" "OK, we didn't zip tie YOUNG children."

Rep. Adam Smith: "This country has not agreed to have the death penalty for drug smuggling. If we want to have that policy conversation, we can have that policy conversation, but the president has unilaterally decided that lethal force is going to be applied. It's an enormous expansion of power."

I guess someone heard from Tylenol’s lawyers.

Looking back at October reading - It was a cracking month! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/l...

Through the mail slot today. Four from @archipelagobooks.bsky.social plus print copy of a regular read. I’m moving away from as many digital subscriptions.

GONERIL By day and night, he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other #KingLear_2025 I,3,4-5 William Shakespeare Goneril (Costume Design for 'King Lear') (1953) Robert Colquhoun National Galleries Scotland

The sharp, dark, dazzling fiction of Beryl Bainbridge is being reissued by @dauntbookspub.bsky.social, starting next year with ‘The Bottle Factory Outing’ and ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ with new introductions by Yiyun Li and A.K. Blakemore.

Breaking WaPo: The White House just fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that was expected to review some of Trump's construction projects, including his planned arch in Washington. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Still makes me chuckle… Miriam Margolyes on The Age of Innocence: ‘I said to Mr Scorsese ‘Why do you have so many English actors in this? Why are you making a film about posh types when your milieu has always been the criminal gangs of New York?’ And he said ‘Because I’m interested in brutality.’

What a day for a walk to Andy Goldsworthy’s extraordinary Hanging Stones on the North York Moors #AndyGoldsworthy

BREAKING: millions go to church every sunday and call the priest "father" but he's not really their dad.

In 1977, the Times Literary Supplement asked writers to nominate the most underrated and overrated books & authors of the past 75 years. Philip Larkin's nomination of Barbara Pym led to the rediscovery of her work. See all the underrated candidates here: neglectedbooks.com/?...

29 years ago @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social assigned me this book. I did not read it. But now I have performed my teshuvah (repentance)... onebrightbook.com/2025/10/28/b...

Eric is a Missouri congressman. He is quite literally dependent on the federal government for his paycheck, his housing, and his free healthcare. He’s a tax recipient.

Loved this, especially the discussion on resonances with other texts, including DRACULA, PETER PAN, THE SECRET GARDEN and A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS. So insightful! #BookSky 💙📚

This was an absolute joy to do. Thanks for all the positive responses already!

Man, interrupted. Wonderful portrait by the great Quinten Metsys of Antwerp, whose day is today.

Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 84th day out of the last 96. 12 days of work in over 3 months. With full pay and benefits. The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown. It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.

Did you know that over 1.3M active duty service members and veterans rely on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their families? Now you know.

Don't look now but a special BONUS episode of the pod is coming your way! Featuring @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social and this bad boy

Clown: “Well, God give them wisedom that have it: & those that are fooles, let them use their talents.” Twelfth Night #ShakespeareSunday

“We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.” Tennessee Williams #SundaySentence

Walter Sickert's 'Noctes Ambrosianae,' (1906) holds a pun. Ambrosian Nights: ambrosia is the food of the gods; 'the gods' is the nickname for a theatre's gallery, the high place where the cheap tickets are, where the impecunious, sit.

‘And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,    A highwayman comes riding—          Riding—riding’ ~ Alfred Noyes #BookWormSat

If members of the United States military are truly being paid their salaries by a private individual, the American people should know who that individual is. Now.

JUST IN: The ENTIRE East Wing of the White House has officially been DEMOLISHED, per AP.

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

New ICE recruiting methods have resulted in half of this group of absolute winners failing AN OPEN BOOK TEST

From a great Russian novel to a great American novel for the #1925Club - John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer: 1streading.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/m...

If the National Guard is really in D.C. to protect federal property, they should probably have been at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. two days ago

lol this shirt

“He'd rather powerwarsh a barn than trouble hisself with th' knickknacks of everyday livin'.” Jan Karon #SundaySentence

Sir Andrew: “What is "pourquoi"? Do, or not do? I would I had bestow'd that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting. O had I but follow'd the arts!” Twelfth Night #ShakespeareSunday

“In America, pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists more likely to succeed.” Richard Russo #sundaysentence

“And if it’s around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.” A #SundaySentence by Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes