It won’t be a 7/4 fireworks record if he doesn’t shut up until 7/5

Thomas Jefferson has been dead for 200 years. He would like about current US: -State of US winemaking -amount of universities and books -select corners of the internet Would dislike: - oafish monolingual president - shoddy neo-classical fake arch - spread of equality to nonwhites and nonmen

Someone eventually is going to do an Xmas Carol parody with T*ump and E*stein and I want to tell that person now that we aren’t in the mood

You can tell the oligarchic nature of things where the Supreme Court will endlessly expand Trump's power except where they believe he could further crash the economy (hence tariffs and Fed decisions).

A museum of the past two years. Under each item, the words: “this went really hard if you were stupid”

Mamdani is obviously the leader of New York metropolitan dems and that is amazing I don’t know why we have to nationalize everything and make it so weird. Let wins be wins!

This is mostly because the Nixon Foundation, after seeing what the Trump folks get away with on a daily basis, decided to test the revisionism waters by paying some 20 year old to spend all day EpicPosting on IG. As a sweaty sucker for exactly that sort of content, it’s no surprise Vance said this.

You all have permission to start arguing about great books courses once you have done everything possible to fight against the corporate takeover of the university and the private equity mindset that wants to defund any pure academic discipline. You can infight once you have survived!

As I become older, I have a new appreciation for old man books. Jim Harrison, Peter Heller, etc... Reading The Farmer's Daughter now and I think The Woman Lit by Fireflies is one of the best pieces of fiction ever written.

I need there to be a Long Story Short-style cartoon based on the novel Nothing to See Here.

Makenna Goodman’s fiction still delivering. The Shame is so good

The Yale English Department, long considered among the best in the world, is admitting four PhD students next year. That is a sign of the real problem. The canary has rolled out of its cage and is now on the floor.

I am only interested in reading "State of the Humanities" pieces from people who have taught first year courses in the last five years, not from isolated academics who exacerbated (or remained silent for) the precarity thrust upon the generation below them.

It’s one bag of chips, Michael. What could it cost, $9?

Live by the $39 Costco blowup pool die by the $39 Costco blowup pool

New poem in @kenyonreview.bsky.social. It’s a really great issue.

Makenna Goodman’s books are a balm to my soul

This is what Trump's done to the people's house: A third of it is rubble. Another third is a cage match. What a metaphor.

happy birthday america, i got you the corpse of a 30 year old one hit wonder shuffling around in front of a fight pit next to a giant hole in the ground that used to be the east wing all at the pleasure of an octogenarian rapist with dementia

Universities are being run like businesses. Businesses close and spring up all the time in the smash and grab wreckage of private equity. Universities can never be start ups. They need deep time. Every candidate for the rest of this century needs to talk about a return to caring for the young.

This book also is extremely good

Just finished this and it’s very good. It reminds me a lot of the shift when Overlord came out. A directness when it’s really needed

From Pope Leo: Today, among the goods that are universally intended for everyone, we must also include new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data.

The Utah Symphony had an amazing end to its season last night. Excellent program and my first ever Bruckner Symphony

Celebrating the unofficial beginning of summer with new Jorie Graham and attending to a very slow smoking brisket.

Receiving a contributor copy remains among life’s greatest pick me ups

Been writing 1000 words a day of a bonkers prose project.

A story about KY GOP Senate nominee Andy Barr: In 2019 he got mad at AOC and demanded she come to his district to visit a coal mine. She said yes, which he didn't expect, so he withdrew the invitation. Then it turned out there were no working coal mines in his district. Because he's an idiot. 1/3

I have a poem in this issue and I am in amazing company!

VAN HOLLEN: An individual who was pardoned by Trump went on to molest 2 children, & he tried to buy their silence by saying he would give them funds from your slush fund. Can you commit to not making that person eligible for a payout? BLANCHE: You're obviously lying V: I am reporting what he said

Friends, I’ve been around politics for over 50 years. I’ve never seen anything as brazenly crooked and corrupt as what Trump and his cronies did today.

When the kid asks for an orange cake with a surprise green inside, that’s what he gets

Truly the Make-a-Wish Director. It's all what he can experience while understanding and doing nothing.

Just about 5000 words into the third day of working on a project that feels weird and energizing enough to keep going.

the basic logic of plessy — that the constitution has no bearing on social inequality — undergirds every roberts court ruling on the state’s ability to deal with the effects of racism from parents involved to calais.

A martini and the 2007 production of Eugene Onegin

Using a weed whacker in front of one's house feels too public. Everyone staring. Weeds flying everywhere.

Having had both a long higher ed career and a long secondary career, being able to be in coffee shops in the middle of the day working on certain days is a huge benefit of higher ed life. Coffee shop grading day!

There should be a word for the 35 minutes before you have to pick your kid up. "The time when nothing can start" or "Pace around and tidy a single dish"

"Here are my grievances in alphabetical order"

How many times Comey must go back to October 2016 in his head.

I have to record something and everytime I hit record I forget how to breath and speak

If there’s a more relaxing show than The Durrells in Corfu I haven’t seen it

Needed this book for an article I’m working on. Could find it nowhere except for $7 on eBay. It’s a treasure trove of gems from 1985.

The same week the NYTimes was devoting its significant resources to producing this ridiculous piece about Lauren Sanchez Bezos's call for rich people to not worry and be happy, Ryan Hass, an independent journalist in Oregon, was investigating this horrifying story about a death in an Amazon plant.

Before you get upset, know that Truman also issued an Easter message that included the f-word and praise for Allah.

Trump is calling for a record $1.5T defense budget. Roughly half of this spending will go to private contractors, many of whom routinely price-gouge the government. Reminder that Don Jr. and Eric Trump are big investors in drone companies looking to obtain defense contracts. See the problem?

Remember that women named Karen who made all her money job coaching grad students? What ever happened to her? She was a sad bridge between College Misery website golden age and what followed

Little flowers everywhere

I don’t think I can recommend that a Lacan deepdive right now will help anything but a Lacan deepdive has helped me. And the Freud deepdive I have planned once my Ebayed Standard Edition arrives will only add to it