This is fairly emblematic of the thinking of the sector of Trump apologists who argue that the culture itself *forced* conservatives to hold their noses and watch Trump deliver the crackdown McCarthy started.

This is not only the oldest surviving ice cream shop in NYC, it's also the best ice cream I've ever eaten. Around here, summer 2025 is known as hot fudge sundae summer.

me, starting Lonesome Dove on wednesday: can’t wait to settle in and slowly read this gigantic book all summer long me, emerging 96 hours later, wild-eyed, weeping, twigs in my hair: hey cowboy you ever think about how everyone you’ve ever met carries with them some enormous unspeakable loss

“He moved me around like a rag doll, twisted me like a flex toy. I handled him like I was taking revenge on everyone who’d ever wronged me.” —excerpt from “Conversations You Have at Twenty” by Maud Newton Join us in celebrating Narrative Prize winner Maud Newton’s @maudnewton.bsky.social birthday!

I'm looking forward to talking with Lee Hawkins, author of I AM NOBODY'S SLAVE: HOW UNCOVERING MY FAMILY'S HISTORY SET ME FREE, for the @mcnallyjackson.bsky.social festival! Tuesday 6/3, 6:30 pm, South St Seaport. Would love to see you fellow family historians! www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/resear...

Kew Gardens, Queens (NYC)

"Adult children seem increasingly likely to publicly, even righteously, cut off contact with a parent, sometimes citing emotional, physical or sexual abuse they experienced in childhood... This cultural shift has contributed to a new, nearly impossible standard for parenting." Yeah how unreasonable.

Are you struggling with your novel? It's okay. It happens to ALL of us. My 3-week course, Getting Your Novel Unstuck, returns next month. It's designed to get your novel draft moving again with a fresh charge of energy and a solid plan to carry you forward to the end. cariluna.com/getting-your...

Here's something anyone using generative AI in their creative process* should know: work written by AI cannot be copyrighted.

Unboxing FINISHED COPIES of Misbehaving at the Crossroads! I can’t believe it’s here! PS Shameless plug: Have you pre-ordered your copy? 😊

Between one thing and another I'm very behind on my newsletter, but the next installment will include an Art & Kinship installment with Morgan Jerkins (fantastic author most recently of ZEAL) and lots of links.

I recently read @iamlisako.bsky.social's MEMORY PIECE. A good companion read to PARABLE OF THE SOWER, with Y2K era art, tech, and activism storylines that extend to the future. Recommended.

Last year I removed the rest of the English ivy and Japanese honeysuckle from this slope in front of my house to plant natives. The ivy roots were intense. The slope is kinda treacherous when wet.

Relatable.

NYC park and nature lovers: you can submit written testimony here for the city budget hearing on parks, to ask the mayor to restore funding for our wild and green spaces. There's a script if you're pressed for time. www.ny4p.org/general/test...

Hey NYC, get ready to Get Lit! @lailalalami.com will be joining @allofitwnyc.bsky.social and @nypl.bsky.social on Tuesday, May 6, for a fantastic book club event celebrating The Dream Hotel. Get your tickets here: bit.ly/42OHGiY

Ordinarily I would be anxiously ruminating over X but am distracted by the implosion of Y.

Excellent.

I've been reading "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation" by @maudnewton.bsky.social & listening to @adeemtheartist.bsky.social's "Heritage of Arrogance" on repeat this week. Powerful stuff.

It’s hard to keep up with all the evil stuff this administration is doing, but if I stay online and keep doomscrolling, I just might do it.

Some other native plants that survived last summer's drought and the winter road salt in my NYC roadside tree bed: New England aster, wild columbine, and I think smooth blue aster.

US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts reut.rs/4cHdnz3

I cannot believe discourse has fallen so low that I am almost tempted to quote David Brooks with approval.

WOW. One of the Venezuelans whom Kristi Noem tried to render to El Salvador's slave prison managed to avoid removal and was able to make it to immigration court, and you'll never guess what happened: THE GOVERNMENT GAVE NO EVIDENCE OF HIS GANG MEMBERSHIP. Due process ftw

Spring restoration efforts are picking up in the wild spaces of NYC parks, if you're looking for a way to feel grounded and connected, and to tend something meaningful. www.nycgovparks.org/events/volun...

"On the rooftop patio of the General Services Administration headquarters, an agency staffer recently discovered something strange: a rectangular device attached to a wire that snaked across the roof... a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk’s vast and private Starlink satellite network."

The chokecherry I planted by the curb last fall has officially survived last summer's drought and the winter onslaught of road salt. Finally, a solid NYC hellstrip planting.

WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the government may not use federal benefits or funds to coerce parties to surrender their constitutional rights. This is what the Administration is doing ..” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...

Seeing the authoritarian principles of my conservative Christian childhood imposed on our society is something I've always feared, but the years of worrying don't lessen the blow of watching it happen.

If you need a little respite, @orionmagazine.bsky.social is having its coolest virtual event maybe ever on April 16, feat. @lutimestwo.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and @amyray.bsky.social (of Indigo Girls fame)! Register here, it's gonna be a fun time: orionmagazine.org/event-worksh...

If you're in the NYC/NJ/Brooklyn area, I'm going to be in conversation with Jacqueline Woodson to celebrate ZEAL's release on Saturday, April 26th 💗 Register here! www.eventbrite.com/e/the-free-b...

Everything about this is appalling, corrupt, and very scary. The gleeful absurdity is intentional, but Trump and co are deadly serious about expanding their gulag.

"The world’s most famous university has done the right thing, and this is major news. It shouldn’t be. But less than three months into the second Trump administration, we are surprised by simple dignity. Capitulation would have garnered smaller headlines." — M Gessen

Some personal news: the Department of Homeland Security has given me, an immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts, seven days to leave the U.S. Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?

the man literally bought one of the most influential social media companies in the country for $44 billion and converted it into a right wing propaganda platform

Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is still on U.S. Naval Academy shelves. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Memorializing the Holocaust” are not. An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office led to a purge of books that are critical of racism — but preserved volumes defending white power.

I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that our world has turned into a game of "choose your billionaire fighter." I guess it's always been that way, but now it's overt—and practically celebrated by a significant part of the population

The European Union and China are now starting negotiations to abolish EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. This is a major strategic failure for the United States.

As a friend said on sending this to me, we have taken one tiny step back from the precipice.

"Like Amazon, but with human beings."

“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, explaining he wants to see a deportation process “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.”

I've had a copy for years but somehow hadn't read PARABLE OF THE SOWER until now. Depending on your perspective, this was either a perfect or crucial or terrible time for it. Probably all three. In any case, I devoured it and am on to the sequel.

Researchers in Texas have developed a system that transforms common biomass into water-harvesting materials. The system requires minimal energy while being scalable for off-grid communities, and produces 14.19 litres of water daily per kilogram of material. buff.ly/LjuAsM7 #ShareGoodNewsToo

A federal judge has ordered the White House to restore The Associated Press’ full access to cover presidential events: “The Constitution requires no less.”

"It is entirely unclear where migrants who have already been deported to El Salvador must now file their petitions... The Trump administration has taken the position that these individuals can’t file habeas petitions at all; they are simply stuck in [the megaprison] indefinitely with no recourse."

The government's position, Sotomayor says in her dissent, is that even “United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.”

The McKinley tariff of 1890 “backfired immensely on the United States.”

BREAKING: NC Supreme Court has temporarily blocked appeals court decision that would've disqualified roughly 267 ballots and required more than 61,000 voters to cure registration/ballot deficiencies within 15 business days in order for their votes to count. Story to come. #ncpol

An extraordinary separate dissent from Justice Jackson accuses the majority of trying to pass off its dirty work under the cover of the shadow docket and explicitly invokes Korematsu, the Japanese internment case. Wow. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...