As long as I’ve got my laptop and summer breaks, no urban legend is safe.

I gotta say it was a good day

‘Selfie’, a poem by Eric McHenry, from our October / November issue. Order the latest issue here: thelondonmagazine.org/product/curr...

Sonnet in The London Magazine!

Attention versiverse: Gretchen McCulloch writes double dactyls.

News!

Not at all surprising that the notoriously nimble Democratic political machine planned ahead 23 years to plant a fake Trump drawing in Epstein's birthday book. That Chuck Schumer sees around corners!

This is a good joke and also my son wrote it

Talking levee-camp hollers on the Smarty Pants podcast. When the work is peonage, the work songs become protests.

Who killed the Mercy Man? If levee bosses were just a bunch of interchangeable Mr. Charlies, then they all did. theamericanscholar.org/who-killed-t... #Music #History by Eric McHenry via The American Scholar

Don't miss this week's SLR featuring @henrymceric.bsky.social, @harleyrustad.com‬, @kevinmaurer.bsky.social, @tomjunod.bsky.social & more! mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

So people are using AI to dump people in order to pursue relationships with AI.

In our Weekly Top 5: * The legend of the levee boss @theamscho.bsky.social * Identity in the age of AI @harpers.bsky.social * The rules of Rave Club @thefence.bsky.social * Studying philosophy in prison @aeon.co * French fry why @torontolifemag.bsky.social longreads.com/2025/08/22/t...

Actually I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States with my hand on @bpl.boston.gov’s 1782 edition Aitken Bible—also known as the Bible of the Revolution.

Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to @henrymceric.bsky.social & @theamscho.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe theamericanscholar.org/who-killed-t...

And the world’s richest man giddily posted about feeding this program “into a wood chipper.” What have we become?

Here’s my latest piece for The American Scholar, about a 1909 murder and the song tradition that refused to forget it. Gratitude to Mike Mattison of the Tedeschi Trucks Band for all the help and inspiration.

The final word on prescriptivism.

Moment Of Silence Followed By Hot Dog Race

Evan McHenry has a headline in the Onion!

Four Loko Folklore

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Good lord I’ve outlived Jerry Garcia. I need to stop looking these up.

He should have spoken up sooner. I’m sure Trump would have pardoned him.

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Poetry prof: It’s called a caesura.

I am not afraid of you.

Performative public lying is a hallmark of far right authoritarian parties & those who choose to debase themselves in their service

And now, a note on Bill Owens who, until this past week, was the executive producer of 60 Minutes. We’ll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

via Anthony Abdool

We get so focused on the corruption and the cruelty of this administration. Sometimes I think we fail to appreciate the incompetence.

It’s hard to think of a single act by a single human that instantly damaged as many plans, careers, dreams in as many places around the globe For a supreme (and cruel) narcissist, the rush must be exquisite The whole world has no choice but to watch this wretched man

Thanks!

I am no longer interested in other news stories.

If they had leaked war plans to Newsmax or Fox News, we never would’ve heard about it. So that’s another thing that has probably happened.

Great 10th Episode of Season 1 drops TODAY!https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ptCyOdEEVpANHHW9RZ9yI?si=995801bab1884f14

plugging my favorite account on this site @iambic.bot

Props to Ruth Marcus

Remember when the HHS secretary had to resign because the Obamacare website was buggy on day 1.

Tomorrow night! DC area poetry fans! Come on down! I'm kvelling for Julia Thacker's fantastic TO WILDNESS, hot off the press from The Waywiser Press! www.folger.edu/whats-on/202...

Or how their lives would all contain this hour

Perfect for this time of year From Credo

How God and good men hate so foul a liar.

It’s nice how they’ve replicated the middle school dynamic of the insecure bully and his sniveling sidekick picking on someone surrounded by a circle of scared little boys who also try to talk shit so the bully doesn’t come after them. Or as the right calls it, “masculinity.”

Never forget this day, February 28, 2025, when an American president abused and betrayed a democratic ally in the midst of a barbaric war with Russia. This grotesque stain will never wash away.

f elon and the felon

If your forms are unfashionable or your subject matter is outré you should definitely send your poems to the New Yorker, because it will be several years before an editor reads them.

Can’t make an omelette without breaking the bank.

Are you now or have you ever been diverse, equitable, or inclusive?

The older I get the more I see Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as a show primarily about a middle-aged man who likes to come home and put on comfortable shoes.

For too long, the world has been been denied the incomparable pleasure of listening to Sonja and Vanessa as they sit at the kitchen island with glasses of wine and riff on literature and history. No more!