A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. This week I learned that, per the photo above, John Steinbeck was not only a towering figure of 20th-century literature, but also pretty hot! (Thanks to Laura for inadvertently alerting me to this fact.) As if I couldn't
It was towards the end of "Wuthering Heights" that I began to suspect I was going to hell, no matter that Jews don't believe in it. Cathy was on her death bed, expiring from septicemia, and Heathcliff was professing his love and sorrow. The woman next
A weekly round-up of some things that are good. The U.S. women's hockey team declined Trump's invitation to come visit him not once but twice because they know that they (and we) deserve better. Claire Keegan is a stone-cold boss of the novella, and Foster
Hello from the aftermath of the Great New York Snowpocalypse. There's almost two feet of snow on my balcony, but we're still in the grace period before the city turns to a noxious soup of blackened slush and uncollected dog shit, so for now, it'
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good this week. That puppy. Her name is Grace, and she's three months old and perfect. I met her at Animal Haven, the animal shelter where I volunteer each week. Sometimes people ask if I want to take dogs
By the time I watched Marty Supreme two nights ago, I was already a little tired of it. The coverage that has attended it since its Christmas Day release has been as relentless as critics reported the movie's plot to be, and while I don't mind
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. The Bald subreddit may be the most supportive place on the internet. Kevin Smith posted this clip of James Van Der Beek and it's very funny, and I will take funny in the wake of this very sad
Yesterday I had an appointment with an orthopedist in midtown Manhattan. An unremarkable event on an unremarkable if bitterly cold afternoon. I left my Brooklyn home an hour before my appointment and waited for the F train. The announcer said there wasn't one. I got on the G
A brief weekly round-up of some good stuff. The Muppets came back! For one night only, but holy hell do we need whatever we can get right now. Peter Hujar's Day is now available to watch on Criterion and it's an absolutely lovely way to spend
I can tell you exactly where I was when I learned that River Phoenix had died: In the bathroom, getting ready for school. It was right after Halloween, 1993. My mother knocked on the door and told me. I remember being shocked, and sad, and not knowing what to do
A brief weekly round-up of a few good things. Lord Byron's biographer has translated some letters from Lord Byron's boyfriend. Winter behaving like winter. I know it's a pain in the ass but I'm so happy to have some seasonal normalcy. The
I was going to write about bougie sweaters this week. But then ICE murdered yet another person in Minneapolis and, well, much as I like to treat this newsletter as reality-adjacent at best, it's hard to commit sustained thought to knitwear right now. So instead I'm