Gwendoline Riley is one of my big personal discoveries this past year, her two most recent reviewed empathetically (they make complex demands on one’s empathy) here by James Wood. Looking forward to Riley’s new one out next year www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Such is the power of an apostrophe.
A lawyer for Nigel Farage (27th Oct 2025) promised "proceedings would be issued forthwith" if the Guardian were to publish "any allegation suggesting that Mr Farage engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour"
A bluff?
The paper has done so
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Haven't checked the math but I figure that's like at least an 80% saving on each purchase.
I had the pleasure and privilege of reviewing @svenbeckert.bsky.social's landmark "Capitalism: A Global History" for @bostonglobe.com. Out tomorrow from @penguinpress.bsky.social. Thanks to @katekilla.bsky.social for the opportunity. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/24/a...
This could incidentally be a good way of selecting for candidates committed to economic justice and the public good, and who recognize the paramount importance of creating a mass movement rather than finding a savior.
3/3
This is worth considering as progressives and the DSA feel emboldened to run for office. Taking a longer view, it might make strategic sense for candidates to signal over and over that they will not seek any higher office than the one they're running for.
2/3
Mamdani has an asset that isn't much discussed.
Having been born outside the US, the office of President is out of bounds, which means he doesn't present a threat to the personal ambitions of a certain layer of prominent politicians in both parties.
1/3
"...in the city they call home."
"...every New Yorker who calls the city home."
So many of Mamdani's paragraph long responses end with these phrases. Don't underestimate the psychic and emotional charge of ending on the word "home," arguably the most powerful word in the English language.
Excellent.
On 8 Sept, at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, do come to the Jaipur Literature Festival event where Suketu Mehta and I will speak about Gujaratis. Do register!
jlflitfest.org/new-york/sch...
!!
About sixth of the public hold extreme/toxic views on mass deportations even beyond asylum.
This is not larger than a decade ago. Elites are shifting *much* more than the public (which is liberalising longterm & frustrated about asylum/boats in the short-term).
perfect
Such is the power of an apostrophe.
Actual freedom of movement, especially for the elderly, people with disabilities and families with children, depends on state-enforced rules like this
Yes. Precisely.
For one thing, devolved planning + nimbyism = really bad outcomes for the country. Reminds me of local pressure to keep "local" hospitals open, even tho local hospitals don't have enough flow of variety of patients to sustain a medical school and therefore struggle to attract high-caliber doctors.
I did a little bit of planning law way back, when in legal practice, and my takeaway was that every aspect of planning and development was a racket for everyone professionally involved.
I learned too late in life what it is that could have made my life complete every day: devoting myself entirely to researching Corvidae. Really quite breathtaking creatures.
I was in Gujarat earlier this year and was struck by how much Gujarati sounds like Bangla or Bengali, surprising giving that so much India lies between Gujarat and Bengal.
I'd bet money that the makers of Brazil, the 1985 movie, in which the main character is a civil servant, were inspired by Kafka (and the clear echoes in British bureaucracy, especially pre-war bureaucracy)
À propos, there's an article or book to be written about discoveries or inventions by folks one might regard as "outsiders" to a field. It's that question or that way of seeing or that technique that requires an outsider unencumbered by the orthodoxies of the discipline.
Nice work led by two UMass physics undergrads who are apparently the first to ask whether viral-type particles actually are stopped by social distancing. The short answer: it depends a LOT on the room temperature.
One takeaway: more physicists need to get involved in public health work.
This thread is hilarious and wonderful.
Tree limbs merging!!
Flippin heck. A beauty. Three limbs!
All so funny
noting the correlation."
I love the otherwise deadpan tone in the piece, all the way through.
