Peter Schmader
@jpschmader.bsky.social
“I just said that, Mr. Kerby.” | Mrzutý 🧵
“Mothers never get the credit they deserve.” @helenshaw.bsky.social
“This World of Tomorrow” and “Oedipus” Dramatize the Power of the Past
Tom Hanks plays a time-travelling tech titan, and Mark Strong and Lesley Manville star in a modern tragedy.
www.newyorker.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:15 PM
“Mothers never get the credit they deserve.” @helenshaw.bsky.social
“‘Troublemaker’ is a repository of astounding resourcefulness; a detailed curriculum vitae; a crack against the soft rump of the modern screen-addled slacker.” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
Reintroducing Jessica Mitford, the Activist With a ‘Concrete Upper Lip’
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:59 PM
“‘Troublemaker’ is a repository of astounding resourcefulness; a detailed curriculum vitae; a crack against the soft rump of the modern screen-addled slacker.” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
“My son knows that I am a writer and that I write about our planet. Since I’ve been sick, I remind him a lot, so that he will know that I was not just a sick person.”
A Battle with My Blood
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.
www.newyorker.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
“My son knows that I am a writer and that I write about our planet. Since I’ve been sick, I remind him a lot, so that he will know that I was not just a sick person.”
Reposted by Peter Schmader
Day After the Funeral - 1925
https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3104526
https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3104526
November 21, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Day After the Funeral - 1925
https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3104526
https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3104526
Reposted by Peter Schmader
That the New York Times killed Big City — its last metro column — and now has its author, Ginia Bellafante, writing about Nuzzi-Gate instead of New York City is more enraging than Nuzzi-Gate
November 22, 2025 at 12:42 AM
That the New York Times killed Big City — its last metro column — and now has its author, Ginia Bellafante, writing about Nuzzi-Gate instead of New York City is more enraging than Nuzzi-Gate
“armour of resilience”
‘Her amazing smile was undimmed, and I would try anything to summon it’ | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 12:43 AM
“armour of resilience”
“What might look edgy in the recesses of 4chan looks craven when blasted from official U.S. government accounts.” @jenszalai.bsky.social
Pop Culture Got Stale. Counterculture Went Right-Wing.
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
“What might look edgy in the recesses of 4chan looks craven when blasted from official U.S. government accounts.” @jenszalai.bsky.social
“The story is fearless and fly-specked.”
. . .
“Kerouac’s prose is honest and rough, take it or leave it. She tastes life at first hand.” @dwightgarner.bsky.social
. . .
“Kerouac’s prose is honest and rough, take it or leave it. She tastes life at first hand.” @dwightgarner.bsky.social
Her Father Wrote ‘On the Road.’ She Lived Her Own Version.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:16 PM
“The story is fearless and fly-specked.”
. . .
“Kerouac’s prose is honest and rough, take it or leave it. She tastes life at first hand.” @dwightgarner.bsky.social
. . .
“Kerouac’s prose is honest and rough, take it or leave it. She tastes life at first hand.” @dwightgarner.bsky.social
I came to Rachel Cooke through Backlisted podcast. And not only did I get Cooke (and the Backlisted crew); I got Carmen Callil as well. Bless you, Rachel Cooke.
@backlisted.bsky.social
@backlisted.bsky.social
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
open.spotify.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:41 AM
I came to Rachel Cooke through Backlisted podcast. And not only did I get Cooke (and the Backlisted crew); I got Carmen Callil as well. Bless you, Rachel Cooke.
@backlisted.bsky.social
@backlisted.bsky.social
“You can take any month in the past quarter-century of The Observer and find more than a dozen memorable pieces with her byline.” @timadamswrites.bsky.social
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 12:10 AM
“You can take any month in the past quarter-century of The Observer and find more than a dozen memorable pieces with her byline.” @timadamswrites.bsky.social
“I kissed her goodbye, buttoned up my social disguise—for it was a chilly evening—and joined the other dressed-up people on the streets of Rochester.”—Kenneth Tynan
(It’s not a bad idea, if you can, to read the whole of it.)
(It’s not a bad idea, if you can, to read the whole of it.)
Louise Brooks Tells All
From 1979: With unself-pitying acuity, a screen icon whose career ended with enigmatic suddenness recalls the highs and lows of moviemaking in the silent era.
www.newyorker.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:59 PM
“I kissed her goodbye, buttoned up my social disguise—for it was a chilly evening—and joined the other dressed-up people on the streets of Rochester.”—Kenneth Tynan
(It’s not a bad idea, if you can, to read the whole of it.)
(It’s not a bad idea, if you can, to read the whole of it.)
“Outside, a haunted Francis Phelan or two trudged past the bar window, shoulders to the rain.” @danbarry58.bsky.social
At 97, the Bard of Albany Still Spins Tales of Gangsters and Politicians
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:55 AM
“Outside, a haunted Francis Phelan or two trudged past the bar window, shoulders to the rain.” @danbarry58.bsky.social
“‘EVERYTHING MUST GO,’ a banner reads. Just as the emptying Rite Aid has transcended consumer drudgery and morphed into some sort of void, I, too, can transcend the need for earthly items.—Kelly Karivalis
Dying Shopping Malls Are the Roman Ruins of Our Civilization
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:38 AM
“‘EVERYTHING MUST GO,’ a banner reads. Just as the emptying Rite Aid has transcended consumer drudgery and morphed into some sort of void, I, too, can transcend the need for earthly items.—Kelly Karivalis
“The room was hazy with cigar smoke and strewn with pastrami and coleslaw.”—David Denby
The Comic Genius Who Pushed Television Further Than It Could Go
In mid-century America, no one quite knew what TV would be. Sid Caesar made the medium into something new and remarkable—until the medium unmade him.
www.newyorker.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:00 AM
“The room was hazy with cigar smoke and strewn with pastrami and coleslaw.”—David Denby
“The time passed in a kind of degraded fever dream. . . .
“A voice woke him up: ‘Is there someone in there?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘What are you doing in there?’”
“A voice woke him up: ‘Is there someone in there?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘What are you doing in there?’”
So fun to write this short tribute to a classic @newyorker.com story: Up and then Down, by Nick Paumgarten.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/tak...
But don't read that read the original. It's about eight thousand words long and it will make your day better.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/tak...
But don't read that read the original. It's about eight thousand words long and it will make your day better.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
Up And Then Down
Late on a Friday night, Nicholas White got stuck on an elevator in a nearly empty office building.
www.newyorker.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:53 AM
“The time passed in a kind of degraded fever dream. . . .
“A voice woke him up: ‘Is there someone in there?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘What are you doing in there?’”
“A voice woke him up: ‘Is there someone in there?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘What are you doing in there?’”
“Oh, the pain of the emptied notebook . . .” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
Rushdie Returns to Fiction, With Mortality on His Mind
www.nytimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:48 PM
“Oh, the pain of the emptied notebook . . .” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
From Jesse Green: “For the first time in film, we see where all that seemingly effortless art came from: from the endless brain work and bullheadedness of craft, fighting to stay afloat on a sea of mediocrity.”
When Hollywood Depicts Broadway Genius, the Results Rarely Sing
www.nytimes.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:40 PM
From Jesse Green: “For the first time in film, we see where all that seemingly effortless art came from: from the endless brain work and bullheadedness of craft, fighting to stay afloat on a sea of mediocrity.”
“the intense, fleeting, overwhelming joy of it all.”—Edward Hirsch
Opinion | With Baseball, I No Longer Care Who Wins
www.nytimes.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:16 PM
“the intense, fleeting, overwhelming joy of it all.”—Edward Hirsch
A coda to the West posts.
Bill Moyers Journal; 728; A Visit with Dame Rebecca (West)
Bill Moyers talks with the provocative, witty, profound queen of British
letters Dame Rebecca West. Novelist, critic, literary lioness — she's
amassed a body of work including 11 books of nonfiction, ...
americanarchive.org
October 27, 2025 at 1:32 AM
A coda to the West posts.
The Gideon Lewis-Kraus run-up to today’s entry in The NewYorker Classics: “West found Joyce almost beneath contempt. The bureaucratic march toward his conviction was nevertheless ‘more terrible than any other case I have ever seen in which a death sentence was given.’
From Rebecca West: “The little band of Fascists gathered together in a knot by the door, and after they had wiped their faces and composed themselves, they went out into the street.
The Crown Versus William Joyce
www.newyorker.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:33 AM
The Gideon Lewis-Kraus run-up to today’s entry in The NewYorker Classics: “West found Joyce almost beneath contempt. The bureaucratic march toward his conviction was nevertheless ‘more terrible than any other case I have ever seen in which a death sentence was given.’
From Rebecca West: “The little band of Fascists gathered together in a knot by the door, and after they had wiped their faces and composed themselves, they went out into the street.
The Crown Versus William Joyce
www.newyorker.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:18 AM
From Rebecca West: “The little band of Fascists gathered together in a knot by the door, and after they had wiped their faces and composed themselves, they went out into the street.
“literary buried treasure.” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
She’s John Cheever’s Daughter, Except When It Comes to Keeping Secrets
www.nytimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:54 PM
“literary buried treasure.” @alexandrajacobs.bsky.social
“That phrase, ‘total loss’ had been used repeatedly since the accident, a death sentence for my vehicle, but it illuminated what hadn’t been lost.”—Courtney Proctor
What Would Joan Didion Do?
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant." -JD
open.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
“That phrase, ‘total loss’ had been used repeatedly since the accident, a death sentence for my vehicle, but it illuminated what hadn’t been lost.”—Courtney Proctor
“And there is little evidence that his tantrums, swerves and reversals are strategic and thought-out, as his supporters sometimes insist, rather than the products of impulsivity, mood and circumstance.” @sangernyt.bsky.social
Trump, Long Erratic on the World Stage, Reaches a New Level
www.nytimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:13 PM
“And there is little evidence that his tantrums, swerves and reversals are strategic and thought-out, as his supporters sometimes insist, rather than the products of impulsivity, mood and circumstance.” @sangernyt.bsky.social