It's Always Midnight in Petroleum City
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #70: Fricasse
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the strange and mutable document that is...
The Confession
“The Sun” by Edvard Munch, 1911 - 1916 I am by genes and time and bad luck a madwoman. A madwoman is shut in her own mind, but she can speak more freely than...
Gone fishin'
Hi beloved readers, With me having just handed in the manuscript for my second book (about the Christian Right, much of it inspired by the work I did for...
Labor Pains and Gains
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #69: French Dip
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which Talia and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...
The Christian Right's Masculinity Problem
There’s a diagram that’s instantly familiar to a good many people who have been educated as evangelical Christians. It was originally designed and...
The Making of Donald Trump: The Nineties
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #68: Francesinha e Francesinha Poveira
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which Talia and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...
The Rise & Fall & Rise & Fall & Rise & Fall of Rudy Giuliani
By the time you read this, Rudy Giuliani will have surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Georgia for his role in the racketeering case against Donald...
What is "The Great American Novel"?
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwich Special: Flashback
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which Talia and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...
Herman Melville Goes to Maui
Ed. Note: When my grandparents moved to Maui in the 1930s, they settled in Lahaina. That’s where my grandfather was as he watched several Japanese bombers...
Notable Sandwich #67: The Fool's Gold Loaf
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which my editor David Swanson and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s...
The Making of Donald Trump: The Eighties
In Sunday’s Culture Club post for paid subscribers, we took a look at how the media covered Donald Trump’s rise in 1970’s New York, as the flashy real-estate...
The Making of Donald Trump
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #66: Fluffernutter
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the bizarre document that is Wikipedia’s List...
The Christian Right's Deal With the Devil
“Witches' Sabbath” by Francisco Goya, 1821-23 It was a frigid desert-winter day on January 15, 1992, when a couple on the run were apprehended by Las Vegas...
The Village Voice's Hip-Hop Nation
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Oppenheimer, Shatterer of Worlds
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
A Killer Reading List
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
A Lineup of Midsummer Classics
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
“There Are More of Us Than There Are of Them”: How To Be A Feminist in 2023
247 years ago today the United States declared independence, and it only took another 144 years to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the vote. The...
The Best of National Geographic
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Summer Special: A Notable Soup
With the temperatures getting higher, the air harder to breathe, and a book deadline looming like an angry sun, this seemed like an opportune time for the...
"You Have To Kill Mom Every 20 Years": How To Be A Feminist in 2023
It’s been a year since the landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s been a terrible year for women in America — a year of increased...
Bits and Bobs
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #66: Fish Finger
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the bizarre document that is Wikipedia’s List...
Down the Rabbit Hole
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #65: The Fishcake Butty
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the bizarre document that is Wikipedia’s List...
An Agoraphobe in Paris
Hi all, Many thanks to my favorite editor and not incidentally damn good writer David Swanson for pinch-hitting last week, as I was off … in Paris of all...
Among the Thugs
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwich #64: Fischbrötchen
Welcome to Notable Sandwiches, the series where Talia and I trip merrily through the ever-evolving document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches in...
Whitman and Baldwin and Ginsberg, Oh My
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #63: Falafel
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which my editor David Swanson and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s...
There Comes a Time for Boycotts
An Irish National Land League rally, January, 1881 On Sunday, September 19, 1880, in the town of Ennis, County Clare, the Irish politician Charles Stewart...
Tears Amid the Alien Corn
Today is the start of Memorial Day weekend for America, a time of cookouts and car sales and patriotic flag-waving. But at the moment, in the nation-within-...
Poetic Mixtape
Artist’s book from the Orphist movement, art by Sonia Delaunay and poem by Blaise Cendrars, 1913 Every once in awhile—especially after writing too much—I...
The Ultimate Guide to Back Issues
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I talk about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers....
Notable Sandwiches #63: Egg
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which my editor David Swanson and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s...
On the Naked State of Madness
there’s been a kind of fug of bloodthirst in the air lately—you can feel it—the way people are lined up behind a subway strangler, calling him a superhero,...
Open World
Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I talk about what we’ve been reading, writing, and (once again) playing, for paid subscribers. Please...
Notable Sandwiches #62: The Elvis
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, a weekly feature in which my editor David Swanson and I nibble our way through the bonkers document that is Wikipedia’s...
A Country Devouring its Children
This past weekend, a gun-man opened fire at a mall in Allen, Texas, killing eight, including three children. Due to Talia dealing with illness—and rather...
Battle Dad
Welcome to Culture Club, a weekly feature where David and I discuss what we’ve been reading, watching, or—in this case—playing, for paying subscribers. Enjoy...
Notable Sandwich #61: Dyrlægens Natmad
Welcome to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I trip merrily through the ever-evolving document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches...
Strike! Strike! Writer's Strike!
The Writer’s Guild of America is on strike. Author’s note: Hello ladies, gents and gentlethems! After the past week’s much-needed breather I am back on the...
Stray thoughts/hiatus
Hi all, Just a notice to say we’re off til next Tuesday, at which point we’ll surge back, cresting a wave of no doubt brilliant newsletters emerging from my...
Brain Storms: The Best Books on Madness
Edinburgh, 1920 “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood, For I had lost the right path.”— Dante From time immemorial, man’s...
Notable Sandwiches #60: Doughnut
Welcome to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the ever-evolving document that is Wikipedia’s...