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Aaron van Dorn

@aaronvandorn.bsky.social

2.6K followers 850 following 22K posts

Sometime writer and (mostly) analog photography | Award winning chili maker | Baltimore via Jersey City, Kurdzhali, Bulgaria, and Ohio | Friend to cats | He/him

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · Nov 16

[holding a glass of wine, wearing a shawl collar cardigan] We call them 'skeets'

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

"Bar! Ton! Fink! Bar! Ton! Fink!"

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

I don't generally love true crime stuff, but I did really enjoy this. It's weirdly hard to find, and as I mentioned earlier, this book is from the perspective of the reporters, and it would be interesting to see it presented in a more linearly narrative fashion. Lots of potential as a TV show imo.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

Anyway, it's a fascinating story. It also deals in an extremely progressive-for-1993 kind of way that Boggs, Hanson, and Hawkins were all gay or bisexual, and so was their murder victim. The whole thing is just A Lot.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

This actually got them in trouble because they'd university logos and such and didn't have the license for them. This all seems extremely normal to me because I'm old and like I said my mom worked there, but it is super weirdly pre-intenet.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

As a side note, my mom worked for Just Sweats when I was a kid. You'd go in and they'd have sweat shirts and sweat pants in dozens of colors, and you could get an on staff artist to put a puff paint design on your sweats while you waited. I had one with a brontosaurus I was very fond of.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

It's a story about two guys who got used to defrauding the insurance companies and seem to have been building up a business (in this case, a custom art while you wait sweatshirt store) to crash it out for the insurance money when it accidentally became a hit and they were left totally floundering.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

Written from the perspective of reporters, it's a pretty fascinating look at how crime stories like this are reported and what goes into the media sausage (c. 1988). That does mean the back half of the book gets a little thin as the investigation takes on steam and their role is more marginalized.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3h

Just finished "Insured for Murder," by Robin Yocum and Catherine Candisky, two reporters for the Columbus Dispatch who were involved in investigating the insurance fraud and murder scheme that centered around Gene Hanson and John Hawkins, two con artists turned businessmen in 1980s Columbus, Ohio.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 5h

Finally, someone is willing to stand up to Big Lentil

How Healthy Are Lentils?

The New York Times. 1d

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 8h

Honestly, easily 80-90% of a governor's day is attending DC cocktail parties.

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 8h

TIL that "sitting governor of a state getting into an open primary is astroturfing, actually"

Competitive primaries that are organic and don't rely on the party establishment coming in with a big sack of money begging someone very old to save them from someone with actual political beliefs.

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 9h

Republican primary voters apparently not an issue re: the revolution

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 9h

Ladies and gentlemen, the Übermenschen

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 9h

What group chat though, this is just four photos of the same guy?

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 9h

The thing that stands between the masses and Revolution, as it turns out, are Democratic primary voters

Yes, they think the democrats are the obstacle keeping them from the masses that would vote for them if only they ever got the chance.

October 14, 2025 at 2:06 PM

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 12h

a bald man in a suit and bow tie is sitting in a chair talking to another man .

ALT: a bald man in a suit and bow tie is sitting in a chair talking to another man .

media.tenor.com

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 13h

[Portrait photographer who has a fetish for making people look as stupid as possible] That's right, look at me over your shoulder. Yes, exactly, you're doing it. Now make a fist with your right hand and put it against the left side of your face. Perfect, perfect, just like that

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 13h

Also, most literary fiction is now advertised as "memoirs," and bears a similar relationship to the truth

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 13h

Most "literary" fiction of the last 30 years are repurposed livejournals and should have stayed as such

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 13h

It's illegal to build this kind of mixed use structure in most of the US now

Garfield and Friends Screens @garfieldscreens.bsky.social · 13h

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 14h

> When the DSCC does get involved

I think you're mistaking correlation for causation

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 14h

It's an unserious call to solve politics in some sort of eschatological way.

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 2d

Gang, I see you've managed to keep it normal and not at all deranged while I was out of pocket today. Kudos.

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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3d

Volkswagen pegging a whole ad campaign about how just a regular person can afford a Tiguan but casting somewhat famous actor Timothy Simons is as that nobody is weird.

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3d

A true fingerless gloves icon

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 3d

Terribly sad news about one of the greats. Diane Keaton has died at 79.
people.com/diane-keaton...

Diane Keaton, Famed for Roles in 'Father of the Bride,' 'First Wives Club' and More, Dies at 79 (Exclusive)

Diane Keaton has died at age 79. Keaton was best known for roles in movies like 'Annie Hall,' 'The First Wives Club,' 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'The Godfather.'

people.com

Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 3d

Your lips etc