"Independent bookstores make quiet comeback as big chains dominate retail" "About 422 indie bookshops opened in 2025, up 31%, defying predictions of retail consolidation"

When Trump & his toadies say the US is more respected around the world, they couldn’t be more wrong. And the respect for him, personally, is so low as to be subterranean.

Goo goo g'joob is to walruses as coo, coo, ca-choo is to Mrs. Robinsons

It's funny (not funny) how this ubiquitous symbol screams 'beware, incoming trash!' I have an instant reaction of revulsion whenever it pops up.

EXCLUSIVE: When ICE arrested a Connecticut high school student last week, it was trying to rearrest his father — a former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan who spent three months in ICE custody last year. My latest at @ctinsider.bsky.social — www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/... #nutmegsky

The gall of this coming from someone who made his conversion to Catholicism a huge part of his political narrative among a party that has wrapped itself in Christianity for 50 years www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/u...

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

Not dunking on Zack or this post, I’m just always struck by how easily American journalists will admit that the media shapes public polling and political outcomes when they’re not talking about America.

ProPublica dropped a bombshell on how Trump dismantled every guardrail that stopped him in 2020 — and replaced them with election deniers. Just in time for the midterms. 🧵 #SheShed

It's not a counterpunch, guys. The pope didn't throw a punch. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/u...

Me, when the world is outgrooving itself:

I keep seeing ads on Peacock that the Whopper tastes "better than ever," and bizarrely the ads say nothing about WHY. I actually had to research this. The company has a Feb. 26 press release saying it's now letting "guest feedback impact the future of the brand." Here's a snippet: (1/3)

BREAKING: the judges who dismissed high-profile cases in immigration court against two international students who have advocated for Palestinian causes, Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, were fired yesterday, alongside four other judges. /w @haleaziz.bsky.social and @nicknehamas.bsky.social

good morning

how much money does the marine corps lose

me: [awakening one morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed in my bed into a gigantic insect] how orwellian

Exclusive: The acting director of the CDC has delayed publication of a report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists.

"Anyone who disagrees for any reason with my hot take should abandon their chosen profession fast" is quite a statement for Emma Tucker to make. It's also one of the stupider things I've ever seen anyone say, and I've read a lot of things Elon Musk has said. (1/2)

NASA demonstrates that the federal government can be effective and can pursue goals that aren't—or aren't immediately—commercializable. That vision of government is compatible with social welfare programs like Medicare and ambitious projects like the New Deal

The Shingles vaccine is linked w/ reduced risk of Alzheimer's in 4 large natural experiments Today, the potential of high-dose flu vaccines vs standard dose in a large retrospective age 65+ cohort for less Alzheimer’s. More pronounced in women (like Shingles vaccines) neurology.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

I'm proud to declare the first Wednesday of every April to be Start By Believing Day. Victims of sexual violence are often met with doubt or shame, causing additional negative effects to their wellbeing.

News -- Kush by Saba plans to open in Somerville's Union Square later this month. bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/kush... #restaurant #somerville

I was weirdly so, so amused by this clip from the @thedollop.bsky.social episode posted today about saloon owner Billy McGlory.

We're partnering with You Can. to host an Overdose Prevention Kit Assembly Event. It's on April 9 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. and at the Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library. Kits are mailed out across #Massachusetts to people in need. www.cambridgepublichealth.org/events/you-c...

Glam-entations

Whoever is out there making actual stickers of Yeats and putting them up on the light posts … well done. Well done indeed. I needed to see this today.

Thank you to everyone who supported this campaign. Together we were able to do things never seen in American politics, to set a new standard from what we should expect from the people who try to represent us. What we built matters, regardless of the outcome. And the work isn’t over.

HEAP MA helps eligible households pay a portion of their winter heating bills. Find out if you qualify! 🏡🔥 www.cambridgema.gov/HeatingHelp

Alaska vowed to resolve the murders of Indigenous people. But when one nonprofit asked state law enforcement officials for a fundamental piece of data — a list of Indigenous murders they’d investigated — the state said no. (Published Aug. 2025 with @adn.com)

who wants a #SXSW review thread from me? no one? too fuckin bad!

Newly uncovered memos show the basis for RFK Jr's decision to end the Covid vaccine recommendation for pregnant people and children. They're light on evidence and heavy on ideology, sources told me in my latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

ICE has killed someone new.

Trump’s NBC interview. Brace yourself for a torrent of bullshit: “Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet.”

Simple information about what the SAVE Act would actually do to American voters. Tens of millions would lose their right to vote unless they spend lots of $$$ and jump through bureaucratic hoops before November.

Massachusetts sets up online site to report ICE misconduct www.universalhub.com/2026/massach...

How the Hell Did We End Up Here? From the failed ethno-nationalist revolt in the early 1990s to the triumph of MAGA extremism - A history of the Republican Party, Part II. Some thoughts from my new piece: 🧵

It's one thing that a Sony digital audio recorder I buy has gone up in price 59 percent within two years and three months, but I was also struck by the shipping options: I can pay either nothing, $11, $17 or $19 to get something shipped with identical arrival estimates.

And then wow, this thread

Oh, this thread

I wonder if there will be polling that captures somehow the reaction among Trump fans to Trump trying to kill electric vehicles, then causing gas prices to leap by causing a war in the Middle East. (Which the, uh, peace president said his election would prevent.) “Sign me up for an EV,” maybe?

Let’s fight: Here’s a thread of my favorite local businesses. Judging will be 100% arbitrary and biased. 1/?

[TW: graphic fracture, sound of breaking bone] Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) badly breaking the arm of a Marine veteran protesting the war Iran.

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

I’m introducing a policy order on sidewalk snow removal at our City Council meeting this Monday! Some cities like NYC and Boston have recently been exploring increased municipal sidewalk snow clearance. Cambridge can follow these cities’ leads and expand sidewalk snow clearance here as well!

“The bill’s language allows scrutiny based on ‘views’ and ‘opinions’, a standard that echoes some of the darkest chapters of American surveillance history.”

City councillor Ayah Al-Zubi calls on Monday for Cambridge to gets its municipal accounts the hell off Twitter within 60 days of enactment. cambridgema.primegov.com/viewer/previ...

To my surprise, the State Police response to my public records request included more than an hour of video taken from the helicopter over the protest at the federal building on January 10. Potentially of interest, there were -four- people on the roof of city hall. They operated the drone. 1/?

Listen...these dudes changed the locks on her mailbox They marked her mail undeliverable and returned it to the sender They blocked her & her tenants from receiving doctor’s bills, medications, credit card statements, car titles, property tax statements, & more ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/posta...

Border Patrol released Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56 yo man, nearly blind with serious medical conditions, at "an old address & his family had since moved" in Buffalo, NY in the winter. "His family was not initially notified." He was found dead. @news4buffalo.bsky.social www.wivb.com/news/local-n...

In Minnesota, despite showing documents proving active immigration cases, pending visas, or even US citizenship, residents were arrested and detained by ICE for days or weeks. But many who were later set free are now encountering a new challenge: ICE isn’t giving back their immigration documents.