Peter Richardson

Where to, Nick?

Experts note that 1939 was a peak year in American film history ("The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind"), but it was also a stellar year for Los Angeles literature ("The Big Sleep," "The Day of the Locust"). Global conflicts were roiling, local corruption was in the news, and criminal syndicates were consolidating their grip on local unions and businesses, including film studios. In this course, we will consider Los Angeles during what may have been its most incendiary year, paying special attention to film, literature, politics, and organized crime before the Second World War.

I will teach my Los Angeles course live and online through Cal State Monterey Bay's OLLI program. We will focus on one incandescent year (1939), with special attention to film, literature, politics, and organized crime. Click for details. olli.csumb.edu/courses/view...

Course Sessions

Cal Lutheran is offering my online course on Rolling Stone magazine's first decade. Four two-hour courses, one per week, starts March 3. Click for more info.

City on Fire: Los Angeles in 1939 (Best of OLLI) | Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC Berkeley Experts note that 1939 was a peak year in American film history (The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind), but it was also a stellar year for Los Angeles literature (The Big Sleep, The Day of the Locust)...

The good people at Cal's OLLI program are offering my Los Angeles course again. It focuses on LA during a single year (1939) and under four aspects: film, literature, politics, and organized crime. Click on through to the other side. olli.berkeley.edu/course/3017

The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP The mainstreaming of transgressive ideas is the culmination of a yearslong conservative project.

Please stop calling them intellectuals. Intellectuals tell the truth and expose lies about the major issues of the day. Edgelords try to shock or provoke by posting extremist views.

The cavalry isn't coming. Or rather, we ARE the cavalry.

I don't assume that, sorry if that's how my remark came off. Do you agree that many tenured faculty are OK with a two-tiered system? Now it looks like the wrong tier is becoming the norm.

Tenure has been phasing out for many years now. The vast majority of college instructors don't have tenure or the prospect of tenure. In fact, they have no reasonable expectation of continued employment. Would have been nice if tenured faculty objected to the obvious inequity of that system.

They are the vast majority of college instructors.

How about the Parable of the Bad Samaritan?

The Post lost $100m in 2024. If it did that every year for two centuries, it would lose $20b. Bezos's net worth today is $250b. He could publish a great newspaper if he wanted to. He doesn't.

CM's prose style causes me to feel fatigue and hostility.

Keeping David in my thoughts.

As you say, the money comes from television. Sports is more valuable to television now because it's the only thing viewers will watch in real time. That means they will sit through the ads.

bsky.app/profile/star...

I also have deep misgivings about this beard.

Can the Counterculture Rise Again? Donald Trump and tech billionaires have killed the counterculture that thrived in past eras of protest. Can today's artists lead the resistance again?

Jonathan Taplin's piece for Rolling Stone never mentions Theodore Roszak, who named and parsed the counterculture and technocracy back in 1969. In the 1980s, he also predicted Silicon Valley's glide to surveillance and control. His absence here makes it harder to answer the article's main question.

They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted. Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.

The university under the leadership of Bari Weiss, Niall Ferguson, and Joe Lonsdale isn't a bastion of free speech and open inquiry? Shocker.

Completely impractical for a public research university.

Very low crime rates. High wages. Impressive literacy rates and life expectancy. All the children are above average. But somehow they're all desperados now? Save that for the rubes.

Early days.

The original headline was "Videos Show Increasingly Aggressive Federal Crackdown in Minneapolis."

‘Like a Military Occupation’: Clashes Rise With Federal Agents in Minneapolis

How does any of this make us safer?

Now scheduling events and interviews to promote "Brand New Beat," my forthcoming book about the first decade of Rolling Stone magazine. Publication date is April 7. Let me know if you have something in mind. More info at bookselling websites of your choice.

Oy.

Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”

This decision (and the one at Oklahoma) will make it harder to recruit and retain faculty. Also: Why serve on these faculty committees? Sounds like a demoralizing waste of time. www.texastribune.org/2025/12/24/t...

I'm thinking about the two faculty committees. Why have them at all? Demoralizing and a big waste of time. This decision (and the one in Oklahoma) will also make it harder to recruit.

I reread the paper. It's essentially a sermon about God's plan for men and women, fortified with an appeal to her 1A rights, submitted for credit in an upper-division psychology class. She also rebukes her classmates for going along with the effort to eliminate gender. (Huh?)

The update: An absurd defeat for the university, but the football team did OK this year, so maybe they can build on that. Note: The student failed the assignment because she barely mentioned the assigned reading, not because she mentioned the Bible. www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Lou Cannon Dies at 92; Journalist Chronicled Reagan as an Author

Lou helped me with my first book, a biography of Carey McWilliams. (As it turns out, McWilliams helped Lou with his first book.) Lou thought more highly of Ronald Reagan than I do, but he was a skilled reporter and biographer whose work I've often cited. RIP Lou. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/b...