one thing i'm always gonna do is watch an emma thompson interview

The existence of Connecticut, the Constitution State, implies the existence of Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma States.

Stoppard was one of the all-time greats, and Arcadia in particular is a work of unparalleled beauty, audacity and heart. RIP.

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952

authors you have the chance to do the funniest thing right now

Sudden 10PM power outage. Whole town. I step outside. Three college kids use their phones as flashlights. One drops her phone on the sidewalk. It audibly shatters. She *screams*. Her friends turn to help, instinctively putting their phones away. It is pitch black. Nobody understands what happened.

Austen. To my surprise, it’s not even close.

The funniest thing is not that Joyce Carol Oates goaded Musk into pretending to be a real boy, it’s that he’s so transparently bad at it.

There should be a thing on Bluesky where, if you hammer on the Like button hard enough, fireworks explode over a person’s house and they get like a gift basket.

(hesitates, looks across the table to where my opponent has dropped several cards on the floor, spilled the marinara sauce for their mozzarella sticks into his lap, and appears to be chewing on a… is that… a green seven from a Shrek-themed Uno deck?) Yeah, too rich for my blood

Stories can’t save the world. But. Stories show us a world worth fighting for. Stories inspire and console us. Stories bring us hope. As Chesterton says, it’s a story which tells us that the dragon can be slain. Stories can’t save the world. But we can’t save the world without stories.

Imagine having seen a Fast and Furious.

Hoping the AI bubble bursts before Thanksgiving just so I can avoid some really depressing conversations about how great AI is.

So apparently, the US Gov, in their most recent series of dog whistles, are pulling LOTR references and are outright saying that their fascist reign of terror is akin to protecting the Shire. Absolutely fucking not. The comparison is a straightforward dogwhistle, don't let them confuse you.

The Lord of the Rings ys about how learninge, love, and gardeninge save the worlde.

"I asked ChatGPT" "I asked Grok" ok well I asked Gandalf and he said he has not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm

A prequel plot which exists only to turn a character into the later, better version of the character will always be insufficient. See Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy, Gandalf in Rings of Power, Han in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Very much this. If you like Star Trek and you aren’t a lefty, then you don’t like Star Trek.

The good news is that you’re safe in Rivendell; the bad news is that you have an all-day meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

What’s it like inside your head?

Thei wante us talkinge alone on our phones to a demon thei created, and not goinge places and being wyth each othir yn art and joy and communitye. Thei want cinemas to shut downe, and broadwaye to go darke. Thei want wryteres to stop writinge. Thei want to sell us hell and have us pay for it.

Can we just appreciate how stunning young Ursula K Le Guin was

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

and it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the six and seventh eighth, ninth, and tenth and after that are even bigger numbers bigger numbers bigger numbers bigger numbers bigger nuuu~uumbee~eeers...

with alt-text

So happy that Taylor Swift’s new album has given so many people the opportunity to be joyless scolds. What a gift. How lucky we are to have nothing important to worry about.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Did everything just get… spookier?

If there's someone doing work out there on the fringes that matters to you, please let them know, because this world is going to tell them the opposite every day.

It's coming on Equinox I've found no balance for to speak of just salt on my shoes just recycled blues mariancall.bandcamp.com/track/equinox

Out here watching #RingsofPower for basically the first time, and there’s a lot that’s admirable and ambitious, but I fear that it doesn’t escape the trap of being basically incomprehensible at any level beyond what is literally happening on the screen right now.

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Shire Reckoning: In Case Of Emergency, Break World. Have a listen:

Sometimes it's nice to remember that even Marcus Aurelius was like "you don't have to comment on everything bro"

The problem with writing podcast notes after a glass of wine is that I already know I’m going to have to edit the hell out of them the next morning. Will I really talk about the ‘90s video game Doom on a podcast about The War Of The Rohirrim? I mean, I might.

Gladwell has always been the quintessential charlatan, using his capacity as a storyteller to worm his way into the hearts (and wallets) of bored audiences eager to hear that there's one cool trick that could unlock the truth of the world. Still, turning on trans ppl in an hour of need is a new low.

I really think at its heart philosophy is one giant battle, taking place over many eras and nations, between people who are basically pleasant bureaucrats and people who are sexy murder poets, and it’s both super important and super boring that the pleasant bureaucrats must win.

Humblebundle to support World Central Kitchen, and get a bunch of my books from @tordotcom.bsky.social including Murderbot and Witch King! #booksky www.humblebundle.com/books/martha...

the line for ethel cain looks like if you turned the saturation down on the line for chappell roan

Once and Again. And also Ed, for sure.

The two wolves inside me started fucking and now one is going to grad school for theater

sitting next to someone in a coffee shop who just told a writer "my best writing advice is to find out what people will pay you for and write about that" and now im gonna spend a full hour thinking about how wrong she is and how much capitalism has broken her whole-ass brain.

I’m out here asking the tough questions.

So excited to start this new project! Follow along!

The proactive use of profanity to prevent the unwelcome intrusion of generative AI into your research process is going to have serious implications for academia, as I discuss in my upcoming paper, “Disenshittening The Internet: A Policy For Reducing Dumbfuckery.”

I’m genuinely curious what the experience of listening back to the first season of Serial would be like.