The Trump admin is really crushing it with their midterm strategy

Of course @bstaples.bsky.social, who at the NYT produced one gem after another about forgotten histories of African Americans, writes a sharp review here, about the cynical deployment of Black Americans to Vietnam and the grotesque internal discrimination they faced. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/b...

Watched the pilot of ER last night because I’m such a fan of The Pitt and cannot get over these two.

In which @peterbakernyt.bsky.social ‬⁩ slyly uses Trump’s favorite phrase in the (finally) accurate context.

So basically only Silicon Valley and pharmaceutical companies could afford spots during the Super Bowl this year

Still outraged that a bunch of toilets ruined a really good Phil Collins song.

I watch football once a year and each time my husband and son have to re-explain to me what a down is

I’m showing up tonight for Bad Bunny and good commercials.

The normalization of this kind of discourse and imagery and stunt is one of the most insidious poisons to have seeped into modern GOP politics.

Raise your hand if you've worked with Book World's @johnwilliams.bsky.social and found him to be one of the most casually erudite, perceptive, and nimble editors you've ever known. 🙋‍♀️

They’ve gotten DOGE’d, essentially. It’s a deliberate tactic. Gut until the institution doesn’t work. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

Given how volatile and terrifying these situations are, I am blown away by the bravery of the citizens who continue to film them at close range.

Anecdata: —Life in DC in recent months has been shadowed by omnipresence of National Guard. But almost no one "hates" the NG members, or blames them. They're doing their best, mostly ramping down rather than amping up tensions. —People around the US fear and *hate* ICE and CBP cowards. For cause.

Nice little country you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.

Barry Blitt, Air Mail.

Tfw your childhood pediatricians reunite to tell you that you have osteoporosis

No better metaphor for this man’s narcissism than the two gilded mirrors he’s put in there — mirrors! — each the size of the framed Declaration of Independence. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

And now, your moment of zen. From the divine @seremony.bsky.social. (The images really are spectacular.) A December Photo Essay open.substack.com/pub/sarahmur...

Yes, and: While not advancing the ball can be a legitimate argument, can there *ever* be enough stories about the US committing torture right now? And isn’t TV the far more powerful medium to tell them?

Google AI just told me that Jennifer Senior wrote “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”. When I followed up, asking why it thought so when I’d written absolutely nothing by this name, it basically said, Oops, our mistake, turns out that’s a Prince song. We are so doomed

the best student gifts I ever get, bar none, are signed copies of work they did long after leaving me class like senior theses, law review articles, etc. Gives you the hope and energy to keep going in a draining profession when you know you're equipping them to do great work in the future.

Setting aside all speculation about Wiles’ motives (conscious or un-), I think what we’re now witnessing is that moment when chunks of the White House staff start to realize that Trump’s narcissism can’t be contained and say it out loud.

Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama. Us: Across your entire career? Reiner: In a 6 year period. Us: That sounds- Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.

An observation about the Oliver Sacks story that’s morally neutral (though I, like everyone, am horrified): I am once again struck by how many peoples’ professional lives are really about the psychodynamics of self-cure.

It will also be the highest full moon in the sky until 2042, so really, there's no excuse for any of you to be indoors

Everyone should do themselves a big fat favor right now and go outside and stare at the supermoon.

Amazing that in the 90s we considered it bad form for presidents to make bad land deals in the Ozarks www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/w...

However MAGA chooses to explain this away will be one of the most extreme examples of cognitive dissonance theory in the history of ever.

From the incomparable @jvl.bsky.social

Traffic fatalities for kids rise on Halloween. Drive carefully. Study of 42 years of Halloweens and 1 ,580,608 traffic crashes reveals relative risk of a pedestrian fatality is 43% higher on Halloween compared with control evenings. A typical Halloween results in 4 additional pedestrian deaths.

New Yorkers! If you’re free, please consider attending. George’s book—a work of fiction! where his career began!—is terrific, and he’s a thoughtful and engaging thinker with a megawatt brain and supersized heart…

Does anyone else see the heist at the Louvre and the wrecking ball to the East Wing as some kind of perverse cosmic alignment? Like thieves are brazenly walking off with pieces of our countries’ histories in broad daylight?

Am current reading the galleys of George Packer’s novel, “The Emergency,” a terrifying parable about today’s America. Believe it or not, he imagined *exactly this.* Uncanny. Amazon link: a.co/d/ff5dDBv m.economictimes.com/news/interna...

Please excuse your Gen X colleagues who are unable to focus today

The Atlantic’s journalists will not sign the Pentagon’s press policy. Statement here from editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg:

King of the bespoke resistance vid doing a no-king resistance vid.

Happy Columbo’s Day

First rule of scamming: Learn to spell.

She may have had regrets about it, but she was wrong. Best Oscar outfit ever.

Golden ratio.

This, by @collinshughes.bsky.social, is an exemplar of a review, imho. Intelligent about the play; respectful and perceptive in its criticism (she talks about the subtle requirements of successful stage acting); and nuanced, giving credit where credit is due. So good. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/t...

Argh.

The Atlantic re-upped this story today, so I’m sharing it too. One thing I’d say: I wish I’d suggested “Don’t Feel Bad If You Have Insomnia” as the headline. That’s really what it’s about. Draining away the stigma — both of the condition and how we solve it. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

24 years today.

McWhorter ATE this column. One per week, please (begs the befuddled Gen X parent of a Zoomer). www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/o...

Friends! On Sept 18, I’ll be speaking with Dr. Arthur Caplan about grief and the challenges of accessing end-of-life care at the 3rd Annual Faith Sommerfield Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Completed Life Initiative. Free and open to the public! #endoflifecare www.eventbrite.com/e/third-annu...

Drove back from Montreal a couple hours ago and the new tariff rules are so confusing I had no idea whether I was supposed to declare the vintage Nirvana T-shirt I bought for $24 or not

Enjoying the deadpan register of Trump coverage these days.

If you’re an admirer of beautiful obituaries (I am—there’s nothing like a well-lived life told well), you must read this remembrance by @seremony.bsky.social of her mother, Sam. I teared up raised a glass today; so should you. And the sausages line is hilarious. open.substack.com/pub/sarahmur...

This beer is Vermont in a can.