The best part of university presses are the deep wells of scholars, (almost) all of whom are ready to share their actual expertise to make our commentary on the world a little bit smarter. This segment on James Talarico with Joseph Locke, a historian of religion in Texas, is a great example of that.
I do love imagining these pitiful men using their rotted brains to make mental calculations of how much they can upsize their shoe size without destroying their feet or compromising their ability to walk. I also love imagining the blisters they're all now walking around with.
Beside the point but it's sort of wild that the "God" evoked in this ad is theoretically the same God worshipped by Talarico.
The best part of university presses are the deep wells of scholars, (almost) all of whom are ready to share their actual expertise to make our commentary on the world a little bit smarter. This segment on James Talarico with Joseph Locke, a historian of religion in Texas, is a great example of that.
A.I. used to make mistakes like these:
The fact that the raccoons are now banging an empty yogurt carton around on the driveway, the fact that in the early morning stillness it sounds like gunshots, the fact that, even in fog, with ice on the road and snow banks blocking their vision, people are al
The general approval rating of Draft Kings and Fan Duel among normal people is probably pretty negative, but in a sort of obvious way. Some of us participate in it. Almost all of us find its ubiquity in sports annoying. Most nof us see it as a net negative but just accepting that fact is enough to sort of not investigate any further, the way people can kind of say "politicians are corrupt" and then not follow their local races or propositions.
fo his week’s My Time Back, i wrote about @dannyfunt.bsky.social ‘s Everybody Loses, why i think it’s the most important sports book this decade, my own gambling addiction, and why i’m glad it was an illegal bookie who got their hooks in me mytimeback.beehiiv.com/p/everybody-...
I think this is true even with something you expect to dislike. If you're grounded in what you love, you should have the capacity to be surprised by something you expected to hate. If a pan ends up being what's required, having started from that place of openness will make your critique stronger.
I also think his framing of, essentially, “we are all children of God, trans people are children of God” is a way he’ll pretty effectively turn that attack against the people making it without getting bogged down by it—very much on message, speaking in the language, on the terms of those people.
I submit that one of the most foolproof ways of turning around your own mood is to creatively turn around the mood of a toddler.
The POW/MIA stuff driven by Gritz is all so insane, such a fitting precursor to our conspiracy age. From Ganz' WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE: "When asked...if he had evidence of live POWs, Gritz replied, 'I have the same evidence, sir, that might be presented by a clergyman to convince you that God exists.'"
I can send it to you!
Oh that would do it! Been waiting on those words for years
I'm not sure there's a phrase that would make me more excited to check out a new novel than "narrator reminds me of Stephen Florida."
Heart just skipped a beat.
I don't go as far back as Tommy but as someone for whom the 7-59 Bobcats were dearly beloved (I watched almost every game, despite everything), this was a fun read.
One of the worst matches I've watched in my entire life turning into one of the best days for Arsenal in a very long time, lovely.
If you'd like to get a sense of the current state of the party that has held literally every statewide office in Texas since 1994:
"We keep patrolling neighborhoods, running supplies, offering rides, stocking pantries, gathering with each other, showing each other that every moment of fear or anger or grief can come with others ready to feel those things too. They have no answer for these things."
There is no end to the disdain I have for men like this. The most pitiful, entitled, incurious people.
I am grateful that the last year of Mamdani is as real a political reality as the palpable weight, despair, and vacuity that defines most of our politics at the moment.
This great little anecdote is right out of a Grace Paley short story.
Bill Callahan's new record is strong. Great piece about it here:
I don’t know what else to say, but this is not something we can accept.
That all being said, I’ve been thinking all day about how my two-year-old says “pampakes” instead of “pancakes,” and that the parents of every one of those 100+ children killed in the bombing of the elementary school in Iran had a “pampakes" for their precious children.
My hope is that the experience of parenting opens up my world rather than constricts it, gives me a keener sense of vulnerability and need, of love and care. That’s my goal, at least. And I know that being a parent will indeed shape how I see the world in profound ways for the rest of my life.
I’m always wary of bringing my perspective as a parent into interpreting major events—such framing often elevates the experience of being a parent over other types of experience (“you can’t understand this if you don’t have kids of your own”), tends to be self-centered and very reductive, etc.
Life-changing. Congrats!!
This made me emotional because so few people give a shit about what happens to regular Iranians in all this, particularly not the people who will directly create new widows, orphans and refugees one second and deny this country has any responsibility for them the next
I am really glad to see Aaron Parsley's "Where the River Took Us" from @texasmonthly.bsky.social on this list for a National Magazine Award, maybe the single most heartrending, harrowing piece of narrative journalism I've ever read. When you're at a place to read it, I can't recommend it enough.
