New Orleans, I like you but I do not understand you. Why did a parade with bagpipes and a giant light-up dragon just go by? Is this an every night thing?

Bonsoir, New Orleans

So there’s apparently a pasta shortage and listen, if anything could get me to join the French 75 …

Might want to double-check that with your boss

Just watched One Battle After Another. Pretty good! Apropos of nothing, should I take adult karate classes Y/N

Question based on an odd grocery shopping experience: Trump take celery?

This whole business about how Venezuela “stole our oil” (???!?!?!) is going to read as absolute gibberish to normal people

The same is true for constitutional law. It’s critical—quite literally for purposes of future constitutional meaning—that politicians say and be *seen* to be saying that Trump’s actions are illegal + unconstitutional. And ideally that they take formal institutional action grounded in that view.

For nonlawyers, it’s worth noting that statements like this have—as a formal matter—important legal effects as a matter of international law. If such statements are *not* made, and in volume, future arguments that Trump’s invasion sets a legal precedent will stand on much firmer legal ground.

Usually, when the sleepy and confused president holds a muddled press conference describing his wishes as achieved facts, it’s not too hard for his lackeys to make them come true: slap his name on a building, issue a performative executive order, hike a tariff or two. This one will be tougher.

We’re in the Make-a-Wish stage of Trump’s presidency and he has asked to do an Iraq

Candid answer - as someone who handled constituent affairs calls for years - while they’re not checking the phone right now, the urgency of the moment is important. Show them you care enough to make the weekend call, and be counted that way. Staffers will clock and report this upstream.

Not new, he was indicted in 2020. www.justice.gov/archives/opa...

Rubio says Maduro has been arrested on criminal charges. What is he being charged with? Who issued the arrest warrant that “US law enforcement“ was ostensibly executing?

Starting a watercolor diary of 2026. Let’s see how long I can keep it going

“I don’t know anything anymore” “That sounds very hopeful, Red. That sounds just fine”

Dinah (the little sister): “it wasn't any dream!” Cary Grant: “are you sure? It’s hard to tell once you’ve fallen asleep”

“The prettiest sight in this whole pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges” Happy new year! 🥂

JS: “Champagne is a great leveleler. It makes you my equal” CG: “Well, I wouldn’t quite say that”

Incidentally, Stanley Cavell’s take on The Philadelphia Story is brilliant and everybody should read it

Poor Miss Embry (the lady photographer). I admire her dignity

Watching the greatest movie of the 20th century, The Philadelphia Story

Oh dear

Poppy: a limited series

Barnes & Noble is running a preorder sale for members! Snag MIDDLEMEN (my most anticipated book of 2026!) for 25% off with code PREORDER25.

Decision fatigue turns out to be surprisingly literal

Jazz did a lot of heavy lifting for my sanity in 2025, and for whatever reason (coincidence? not?) it was a really good year for new jazz releases. I wanted to do a little thread about my favorite albums, and give a top five.

A super fun question! My list would include (in no particular order) Lydia Davis Thomas Pynchon Rachel Cusk Cixin Liu Anne Carson César Aira Pierre Michon And based on the past year, I think Katie Kitamura has joined the list

Cranky subtweet deleted. 😇 Getting an early start on my 2026 resolution to be a little nicer online and a little meaner in person

"With astonishing speed, the administration has toppled the most cherished pillars of a free society." A must-read from @radleybalko.bsky.social , even if you've been following Trump's use of immigration enforcement to terrorize communities. newrepublic.com/article/2042...

Did you know that “felon” was a character in literature before it was a term of the law? In this essay I talk about its medieval origins and how felons (to this day) are storybook villains to us, not a person who committed a crime.

Very merry

Let’s see those Christmas stacks! 🎄📚

Joyeux Noël from Proust to all the snobs, the neurotics, the obsessives, the perverts, and the shut-ins!

We need to talk about the fact that Gen Z men all look like Jon Arbuckle’s friend Lyman

Put differently, Proust has been part of me for so long that the “I” in the first sentence of this post and the “I” of the second feel to me like completely different people who just happened to own the same copy of Swann’s Way

I decided to reread Proust this winter, and came across a handwritten note in my old copy of Swann’s Way. I had dated the note: 12/3/08. And that was already at least the third time I’d read it! This book has been living in my brain for MORE THAN HALF MY LIFE

Post-doc positions: "Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. ... [we] invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA..." uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...

I guess it’s school picture day

Catching up on Jeopardy, advise you do same

Doja Cat in a Meta commercial? No! No!!

Something about this time of year and this time of day makes the lighting in my office utterly hideous. I look like a Neanderthal in Zoom meetings. It’s bad for my self-esteem

I think I just saw an unironic “The More You Know” commercial? In 2025? Are those things still alive?

Wishing everyone peace after a difficult night

Get ready for my most niche, least popular post ever get ready here it comes Jorie Graham is name-checked in this Elsbeth episode from several weeks ago!!

Caught Snugging (2025)

Enkidu when I accidentally step on his paw: “huh? Oh, no worries, bro” Lucy when I accidentally step on her paw: “I ALWAYS KNEW YOU HATED ME AND NOW I HAVE PROOF”

i want to be clear about this: worker’s rights also includes the right to be free from racist or sexist or gendered abuse at your job.

We’re up to 1153%! (That 3 at the end is cute—what a 7-year-old would do to make it seem real.) Slowly but steadily making our way toward 50000% bsky.app/profile/hkpm...