- Oh, boy. This is just a fantastic response to being told you can’t teach DEI at a private university. – via @mjsdc.bsky.social
- If you grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock, you likely need a measles booster.
- I am irrationally upset that The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is ending its 54-year run. – via kottke
- The Last of Us returns for season 2 on April 13.
- I have always loved making paper airplanes.
- Some good news: From 2008-2022, cervical precancer rates dropped by a whopping 80% among women aged 20-24. – via YLE
- Sex, Drinking and Dementia: 25 Lawmakers Spill on What Congress Is Really Like is nowhere near as wild and crazy as the headline would have you believe. If anything, the whole piece reads more like, “Aw, shucks! These people are just plain old good regular folks like you n’ me!” Don’t bother.
In other news:
- This is how you become a Nazi bar.
- After Georgia banned abortion, its maternal mortality committee detailed the “preventable” deaths of two women, which led to the state… dismissing all thirty-four members.
- Democrats who censured Al Green are as clueless as they are feckless. Right now there’s too much appeasement and not enough fighting.
Posts tagged “writing”
The War Books
A paper I wrote for an English class at the University of Florida at some point in 1996
- Congratulations to Dr. Patric Gagne, author of Sociopath: A Memoir, which was recently included in the NPR Books We Loved list for 2024. – via @patricgagne
- This is probably a day late and a dollar short, but I found great success following the suggestions in this How to Cook a Turkey: Turkey Temperature & Doneness guide from ThermoWorks. Maybe bookmark it for next year?
- If, like me, you save every cool knot-tying video you find, give a follow to @knot_short on Threads or Instagram.
- Pretty much everything is 25% off at Field Notes this weekend. An annual subscription makes a great gift for the lovers of little notebooks in your life. [Ed. note: This is not an ad! I just really like the brand.]
- There are far too many football games to watch this weekend. If you get tired of leftovers, bake a batch of my favorite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I promise you’ll love them.
- If you are worried about your writing, just remember that somehow, Palpatine returned. – via @zacharyseda
- It’s in the Game: MADDEN NFL on Amazon Prime is a new 4-part documentary series all about the Madden NFL video game (which I’ve been playing for 34 years). There’s a great article at The Athletic with all kinds of details.
- Just started watching the latest Keri Russel show The Diplomat on Netflix. Only through S1E3 but so far it’s at least as good as The Americans, which I loved.
- Selling Christmas wrapping paper that is impervious to standard scotch tape should be considered a war crime.
- Anyway here’s a cheerful piece about how the Sun will eventually destroy all life on Earth (but not by exploding, so, you know, there’s that) – via @astrokatie.com
Sociopath: A Memoir
A collection of publicity, essays, and reviews
For some reason reading this scathing review of To Have and Have Not, my favorite Hemingway novel, really made my day. You will never please everybody, and that’s okay.
We have got to be living in a golden age of notebooks. I’m sure there is an obscure German word that defines an addiction to collecting notebooks paired with the overestimation of how much actual writing any one person can possibly accomplish. I adore my dozens and dozens of Field Notes and Moleskines and already have more than I am ever likely to fill, but holy hell these Keepbooks from Studio Neat are gorgeous.
“I tell [aspiring writers] you learn to write the same way you learn to play golf. You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.”
Tom Clancy