“The Ukraine conflict looks entirely different from the Russian perspective than it does from the so-called West. Both sides are entrenched in ideological narratives that tell some parts of the story and ignore others,” @andrewohehir.bsky.social writes.

"Small-town independent theaters are special because they are the antithesis of the movie-theater corporatization that has exacerbated our nagging, national loneliness." @colemanjspilde.bsky.social goes home for a lovely @salon.com feature on North Dakota movie houses. www.salon.com/2025/12/18/n...

Amazing! Did not know this.

Today in "Don't Trust AI to Tell You Facts": How several different "AI" programs messed up the simple fact of to whom I dedicated a book, and what that means for how much you should trust "AI" to tell you the truth about things (spoiler: not much at all): whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/13/a...

Amanda has @moiradonegan.bsky.social on this week too ⤵️

Clearly true. I have no idea whether this battle can be won, but if so that has to emerge organically from people embracing certain kinds of big-screen experiences, whether that's a new wave of Hollywood blockbusters or Nolan/PTA auteurist-type material. Think I just typed myself into gloom ...

I think this is peak 2025 Bluesky. In the best possible sense. Magnificent.

PSA on the value of reading books: You learn the weirdest things. In 1939, Erwin Schrödinger secretly moved to Dublin, for somewhat obvious reasons, and settled with his wife (and mistress!) on the same street where my dad lived at the time (age 12). But did they have a cat?

"This fantasy of a white-right reconquest of Europe — disconnected from any understanding of Europe's actual history — has erotic allure for the meme-nurtured, semi-adult, proudly ignorant gamer-dudes who hold far too much power in our stupid and stupefied society." www.salon.com/2025/12/07/t...

Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.

For sheer implausibility, might be the most amazing conclusion to a match I've ever seen. They were absolute toast, done and dusted, a week ago — until Parrott scored *5 goals* across 2 matches. I shouted so loud I woke up my dad — and he's been dead since 1991.

It is indeed an important day of commemoration, but I ain't goin' with the poppies or the doleful laments for handsome youths cut down in noble sacrifice. Wilfred Owen, killed in action months after writing this — and two weeks before the armistice www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/...

This is really good. Serwer has first-person geek experience, and I think the treatment of both LOTR and D&D, in historical and cultural terms, is nuanced and fair: They are awesome in many ways, and created awesome community. They are also products of their time.

Yeah as others have noted, Tom Edsall's piece on Mamdani, Democrats and the youth vote is very good, and almost entirely fair. But let's consider the astonishing bad-faith argument of Clintonite consultant Paul Begala, making the "centrist" case 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

Unlike you, I can read and that’s why I know what the constitution says.

Did women ruin politics? Except for Trumpy women? or, no, wait: Did liberal feminism ruin politics? Can Trumpy women save it? third try: Did [something/something/gender/girls/feminism] ruin [Democrats/politics/America/Mamdani]? Can Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema still save us?

Full respect for the older gentleman who's collecting cans & bottles along my residential block in the Bronx while delivering a loud and vigorous rendition of Hall & Oates' "Maneater"

Ma dude😍

Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...

Yeah, I'm hearin' stuff like this all over the place. There's a reason the Gang of 8 are all politically invulnerable for different reasons, but the party leadership will pay a well-deserved price here. So, unfortunately, may the rest of us.

RIP Baudrillard you would have loved this shit

With a “WOW!,” President Trump posts a claim about DOGE and “royalties linked to Obamacare” that originated on a satirical website. That site’s own About section reads: “Everything on this website is fiction… If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.”

I skipped this article for a while because I figured I'd read enough about the NYT's Mamdani coverage. I don't want to say the headline does the article a disservice - it is also very much about that - but goes well beyond as well

Well yeah and hibachi law combines (and supersedes!) all this: We must all paint-brush sauce on grilled wings, crank the undeniably rockin tunes and crack open a beer on a brisk autumn day. (Alcohol-free if desired.)

Seriously, what does it say about Man City fandom when a Sunday home match against *Liverpool* FFS has loads of empty seats? The upper level at Emirates looks to be half full, and there are visible empty seats in the midfield VIP section. No other big team has such (literal) fair-weather fans.

no amount of state propaganda will ever convince me this man is my enemy

This Field of Dreams theme park sucks

You know, I didn't intend this as the exact opposite of whatever-it-is that Jonathan Chait just argued. But I'm definitely OK if that's how it seems! www.salon.com/2025/11/08/z...

I’m watching this dizzying political makeover like I would a bad Christmas romcom

Let me tell you what Madonna's Like a Virgin is about. It's not about some nice cis-het she/her. Tell that to the fucking tourists. It's about he/they/it agender system in a kitchen-table relationship anarchy arrangement. In Portland.

Magnificent. Although arguably unfair to Chiang Kai-shek, who looks like Lorenzo de Medici compared to Cuomo

Tais-toi, putain. (not you @samthielman.com )

on this day in 1930, writer Sinclair Lewis becomes first American to win Nobel Prize in Lit. “Call me a socialist or any blame thing you want to, as long as you grab hold of the other end of the cross-cut saw with me and help slash the big logs of Poverty and Intolerance to pieces.”

The old world* is dying. The new world** is waiting to be born.*** Now is the time of monsters.**** * Dick Cheney ** Mamdani *** elected **** They did the mash

Intriguingly, "Smell the Onions" is the name of *both* an unreleased Metallica outtake from '97 with no vocal track (available on some compilations), and a jazz-funk fave from Clifford Coulter's explosive 1970 LP "East Side San Jose"

Dick Cheney did more than anyone else to build up expansive and destructive executive branch powers in the wake of 9/11; he lived to see another president turn those same powers against his own daughter. He should be a warning sign to the GOP today but too many of them are in the cult.

🚘 🥰 🌖

You laugh, but this is how the exododus went extinct

That’s helpful, thanks Google AI

All these things can be true: 1) clearly one of the greatest World Series ever; 2) Yes, the Dodgers bought the championship, although they also had to fight for it; 3) MLB's destruction of the Oakland A's, a legendary underdog franchise with a remarkable history, was corrupt and unforgivable

Cigarettes used to be cheap enough that you could give a whole pack out to each trick or treater instead of just one or two loosies. Failed fucking empire

Genuinely hilarious that Bill Kristol has more moral clarity in the moment than Chuck Schumer

I've been wondering about a use-case for AI video I could totally get behind.

It's that time of year again so break out a Karlheinz Stockhausen Halloween mask!

Perfect.

New York’s elite thought they could stop Zohran Mamdani. Now their summer of plotting has turned into a season of panic.

'The "uncle" who Frodo said got rich by adventuring with Dwarves is actually a distant cousin, he clarified on Monday.' - Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, The Shire Post

Zohran Mamdani caught lying that he understood Plato’s allegory of the cave, yet when asked to explain it, he seemed to instead explain Baudrillard’s theory of Simulacra and Simulation where reality has been replaced by symbols and signs, which seems similar to Plato’s theory but is not the same