All smiles have become archaic.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, Ursula K. Le Guin
Submitted by Wesley.
But the United States are a Cartesian vortex, carrying everything with them, grading everything to the level of monotony.
Alexander von Humboldt in a letter to Varnhagen von Ense
All my selves weep often.
“Zohran Mamdani and Mahmoud Khalil Are in on the Joke”, Hanif Abdurraqib for The New Yorker
Submitted by caren. Personal runner-up favorites from me:
In the distance between not being able to fall asleep and the luxury of having a bed in which I am not able to fall asleep.
I tend to find Islamophobia unspectacular.
He stands athwart history, yelling the wildest possible bullshit.
“William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due”, Brandy Jensen for Defector
People came for the sustenance, whatever that might be, that a roomful of dirt gave them — the quiet of the space; the rich, loamy smell; the incongruity and delight of finding a field of dirt in the middle of the city.
"Bill Dilworth, Caretaker of 'The New York Earth Room' is Dead at 70", Penelope Green for the New York Times
When I say TV, I don’t mean the thing mounted on your living room wall, but instead that TV-internet-social-media-entertainment creature that like a Portuguese Man of War is made up of smaller organisms, its many tendrils ferrying our attention up to one of its many mouths, a beast with no shortage of metonyms and is on this specific day, for example, known by the moniker Labubu Matcha Dubai Chocolate.
“May the Beast You Rode in on Eat You Alive”, John Paul Brammer in his newsletter
We pointed out that the Santa impersonator himself kind of looked like Karl Marx.
“The Cops Are (Mostly) Sweating Out the Eric Adams Era”, Max Rivlin-Nadler for Hell Gate
I enjoy this use of the journalistic “we”, as though the entirety of Hell Gate weighed in on the matter.
Just because I’m not on the keyboard—and you have to add two extra steps for me to appear correctly—I’m suddenly the product of some soulless technology?
"The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations", Greg Mania for McSweeney's
Submitted by Ed, with these runner-up sentences:
If anything, AI uses me as often as any kind of sentence-obsessive who’s ever stared at a line like it owed them rent.
I’ve appeared in Pulitzer-winning prose, viral op-eds, and the final paragraphs of breakup emails that needed “a little more punch.”
I am the OG vibe shift.
It is similarly hard to rate the conspiratorial might of the FBI when two of its top officials are a steroidal podcast host and a man who constantly looks like a baby recognizing colors for the first time.
“What Are The Epstein Files, And How Much Should You Care About Them?”, Tom Ley for Defector
Find something you love as much as Todd loves circumcision reversal and make it yours.
“How to wrestle words”, Mike Monteiro in his newsletter Mike Monteiro’s Good News
Submitted by Chris.
He pauses to notice a crack in the asphalt he’s never seen before, a burgeoning pothole in the shape of a perfect heart.
“Someday We’ll All Love Ocean Vuong”, Madison Darbyshire for Bloomberg Weekend
‘Yeti blood oath’ divides Denver seminary
Headline of an article in the newsletter The Pillar
There’s just a lot going on here.