Colin Dickey
@colindickey.com
Writer of books, most recently Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy. Also Ghostland, The Unidentified, Afterlives of the Saints, Cranioklepty. Opinions mine, not my employer’s. He/him.
Pinned
Colin Dickey
@colindickey.com
· Oct 20
Hello new followers it’s Spooky Season and also Election Time so perhaps I can interest you in some books on ghosts, UFOs & monsters, or our long history of conspiratorial politics?
I can’t remember now who recommended to me Giorgio de Mara’s “The Twenty Days of Turin,” but if you’re listening, thank you. This book rules so hard.
December 28, 2025 at 6:19 PM
I can’t remember now who recommended to me Giorgio de Mara’s “The Twenty Days of Turin,” but if you’re listening, thank you. This book rules so hard.
Bluesky was generally better when we all more or less agreed to simply block dumb accounts and move on rather than quote dunk on them for clout.
December 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Bluesky was generally better when we all more or less agreed to simply block dumb accounts and move on rather than quote dunk on them for clout.
There are six European cities where one is contractually obligated to listen to Cracker’s Eurotrash Girl, and Turin is one of them.
December 27, 2025 at 4:24 PM
There are six European cities where one is contractually obligated to listen to Cracker’s Eurotrash Girl, and Turin is one of them.
Reposted by Colin Dickey
Hello from the world’s most soothing place, the wax fruit museum in Turin.
December 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Hello from the world’s most soothing place, the wax fruit museum in Turin.
Anyway, happy Grunch Games to all who celebrate
A monitor in the airport where I’m at is showing holiday cocktail recipes and the reason I now know “The Grinch” is copyrighted is because they just showed a green drink called “Grunch Games”
December 25, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Anyway, happy Grunch Games to all who celebrate
Home Alone is about a grieving mother who can’t accept it her son Kevin is dead, so she begins to fantasize that the reason he’s not with the rest of the family is not that he’s dead, but that he was somehow left alone, and he’s in danger, and if she can just get back to him it’ll all be alright.
mods are asleep post xmas movie hot takes: home alone (1990) is not a christmas movie
December 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Home Alone is about a grieving mother who can’t accept it her son Kevin is dead, so she begins to fantasize that the reason he’s not with the rest of the family is not that he’s dead, but that he was somehow left alone, and he’s in danger, and if she can just get back to him it’ll all be alright.
Ok I translated it and the title is “Santa Claus Executed”
December 25, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Ok I translated it and the title is “Santa Claus Executed”
Merry Christmas from Italy, everyone
December 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Merry Christmas from Italy, everyone
Hello from Milan, where Marco d’Agrate’s Saint Bartholomew never fails to stun.
December 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Hello from Milan, where Marco d’Agrate’s Saint Bartholomew never fails to stun.
I am sorry but this is total bullshit.
Use your brain for one actual second: aside from “famously unsolved murders,” what do either of these crimes have in common.
Use your brain for one actual second: aside from “famously unsolved murders,” what do either of these crimes have in common.
greatest generation update; ex-Marine traumatised in combat on Okinawa may have been both the Black Dahlia perpetrator *and* the Zodiac killer: www.latimes.com/california/s...
An amateur codebreaker may have just solved the Black Dahlia and Zodiac killings
Two retired LAPD homicide detectives say that both notorious cases are solved -- with a single culprit -- thanks to the work of a novice sleuth.
www.latimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:06 AM
I am sorry but this is total bullshit.
Use your brain for one actual second: aside from “famously unsolved murders,” what do either of these crimes have in common.
Use your brain for one actual second: aside from “famously unsolved murders,” what do either of these crimes have in common.
One of my hotter takes is that a lot of prestige drama is lowkey reactionary because the premise of a lot of that stuff is built around the myth that evil people are inherently interesting
December 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
One of my hotter takes is that a lot of prestige drama is lowkey reactionary because the premise of a lot of that stuff is built around the myth that evil people are inherently interesting
I don’t know anything about this show but the subway ad tagline is “The very best have never faced a challenge like this” and the challenge in question appears to be: tug of war
December 22, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I don’t know anything about this show but the subway ad tagline is “The very best have never faced a challenge like this” and the challenge in question appears to be: tug of war
Reposted by Colin Dickey
the aristocrats
December 22, 2025 at 12:47 AM
the aristocrats
Everyone loves a callback
December 22, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Everyone loves a callback
Reuters reporting Avarar did $345 million this weekend and I haven’t seen a single person on my TL mention seeing it.
I just checked my local Nitehawk and 10 minutes before the noon showing half the seats are empty, the 2, 6 & 7:30 screenings are as of right now less than 10% sold
I just checked my local Nitehawk and 10 minutes before the noon showing half the seats are empty, the 2, 6 & 7:30 screenings are as of right now less than 10% sold
The only conspiracy theory I 100% believe is that no one saw Avatar 2 in the theaters. It did not make a billionty dollars or whatever. No one saw it. Maybe a hundred people. You didn't see it. You don't know anyone who did. Maybe "a friend of a friend" saw it.
December 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reuters reporting Avarar did $345 million this weekend and I haven’t seen a single person on my TL mention seeing it.
I just checked my local Nitehawk and 10 minutes before the noon showing half the seats are empty, the 2, 6 & 7:30 screenings are as of right now less than 10% sold
I just checked my local Nitehawk and 10 minutes before the noon showing half the seats are empty, the 2, 6 & 7:30 screenings are as of right now less than 10% sold
It turns out I’m very good at drinking eggnog
December 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
It turns out I’m very good at drinking eggnog
Reposted by Colin Dickey
30 to 50 feral nogs
December 21, 2025 at 3:50 AM
30 to 50 feral nogs
A few weeks ago, @michellelegro.bsky.social & @johnkilbane.bsky.social and I decided to make a massive amount of eggnog. You could say we went nog wild.
December 21, 2025 at 2:14 AM
A few weeks ago, @michellelegro.bsky.social & @johnkilbane.bsky.social and I decided to make a massive amount of eggnog. You could say we went nog wild.
Me, listening to my hoarder upstairs neighbor hammering nails into something:
What’s she building in there?… I'll tell you one thing, she's not building a playhouse for the children….
What’s she building in there?… I'll tell you one thing, she's not building a playhouse for the children….
December 20, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Me, listening to my hoarder upstairs neighbor hammering nails into something:
What’s she building in there?… I'll tell you one thing, she's not building a playhouse for the children….
What’s she building in there?… I'll tell you one thing, she's not building a playhouse for the children….
This question partially inspired by reading some Henry James and now I’m imagining Bad Finger’s “Feel Like Making Love” but as sung by someone with a name like Archer Denton and what he means is “slow carriage rides while convincing your aunt I have 200 a year”
Random question but when did “making love” go from meaning “wooing” to fucking?
December 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
This question partially inspired by reading some Henry James and now I’m imagining Bad Finger’s “Feel Like Making Love” but as sung by someone with a name like Archer Denton and what he means is “slow carriage rides while convincing your aunt I have 200 a year”
Ask a stupid question, get an amazing and really fascinating answer
Oh hello! I wrote the OED entry for this, and found the earliest known example, which is 1927, in a Mae West play. It's also in A Farewell to Arms (1929); Orwell uses it in the 1930s. These examples are all clear. So, definitely established by the 1920s.
December 19, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Ask a stupid question, get an amazing and really fascinating answer
Random question but when did “making love” go from meaning “wooing” to fucking?
December 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Random question but when did “making love” go from meaning “wooing” to fucking?