Gerard DeGroot
@groovydegroovy.bsky.social
Historian, journalist, dad, dog lover, Emeritus professor. Writes book reviews for The Times. Exile from Facebook and Twitter, still getting the hang of Bluesky. https://gerarddegroot.substack.com, www.begurvilla.net
Happy birthday Joe.
September 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Happy birthday Joe.
Just checking. Is anyone still on Bluesky?
September 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Just checking. Is anyone still on Bluesky?
Maybe screwing up really badly in Alaska was just a cunning plan to distract attention from the Epstein files.
August 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Maybe screwing up really badly in Alaska was just a cunning plan to distract attention from the Epstein files.
It's a relief to have Humphrey feeling better, but the special food the vet prescribed for wiggly tummies makes him fart. So I'm sitting here, reading a book, with a nice glass of white Rioja. The boys are at my feet and Humphrey is farting -- loudly and noxiously. Bliss.
August 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM
It's a relief to have Humphrey feeling better, but the special food the vet prescribed for wiggly tummies makes him fart. So I'm sitting here, reading a book, with a nice glass of white Rioja. The boys are at my feet and Humphrey is farting -- loudly and noxiously. Bliss.
Today is the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Most of the physicists who built the atomic bomb opposed its use in war. Yet they also derived immense joy from building it. Today I’ve written about their moral anguish and their efforts to stop this terrible weapon from being used.
Eighty Years Ago Today
The moral anguish of the Manhattan Project scientists
open.substack.com
August 6, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Today is the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Most of the physicists who built the atomic bomb opposed its use in war. Yet they also derived immense joy from building it. Today I’ve written about their moral anguish and their efforts to stop this terrible weapon from being used.
In 2008, I visited Rwanda for the UN. There I met an aid worker who ran a charity for sex abuse victims. I wrote an article exposing the problem. Then the bad guys took over. The aid worker was deported and I was banned from entering the country. Because apparently there's no sex slavery in Rwanda.
A Brief Encounter with Sex Traffickers
How I came to be banned from Rwanda
open.substack.com
August 3, 2025 at 1:52 PM
In 2008, I visited Rwanda for the UN. There I met an aid worker who ran a charity for sex abuse victims. I wrote an article exposing the problem. Then the bad guys took over. The aid worker was deported and I was banned from entering the country. Because apparently there's no sex slavery in Rwanda.
Today's my 70th birthday. Contrary to my own expectations, I'm celebrating this milestone. I've written something quite personal about my determination to embrace life and discard the restraints I've imposed. Let the fun begin.
Threescore and Ten
Embracing life on turning seventy
open.substack.com
June 22, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Today's my 70th birthday. Contrary to my own expectations, I'm celebrating this milestone. I've written something quite personal about my determination to embrace life and discard the restraints I've imposed. Let the fun begin.
Today’s piece is about patriotism — the understated British kind. I was planning to ignore yesterday’s grotesque parade in Washington, but in the end I found I couldn’t do that. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, by the way.
For the Love of Country
Nowadays, patriotism carries dubious overtones
open.substack.com
June 15, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Today’s piece is about patriotism — the understated British kind. I was planning to ignore yesterday’s grotesque parade in Washington, but in the end I found I couldn’t do that. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, by the way.
Yesterday I looked out my kitchen window toward the school playing field and saw that it was Sports Day. Yes, it’s that time of year. For me, the years seemed to roll back like a film projector in reverse and I saw my younger self running in the Parents’ Race. It was a bittersweet memory ...
Sports Day
Against my better judgement, I've always entered the Parents' Race
open.substack.com
June 7, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Yesterday I looked out my kitchen window toward the school playing field and saw that it was Sports Day. Yes, it’s that time of year. For me, the years seemed to roll back like a film projector in reverse and I saw my younger self running in the Parents’ Race. It was a bittersweet memory ...
Where did all this evil come from, all these people willing to implement Trump's warped vision of America? My latest piece addresses this conundrum. I’m still a bit confused, but I think I now understand how a society can turn towards evil. As Goya said, 'the sleep of reason produces monsters'.
Trump's Willing Executioners
A lesson in the cultivation of evil
open.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Where did all this evil come from, all these people willing to implement Trump's warped vision of America? My latest piece addresses this conundrum. I’m still a bit confused, but I think I now understand how a society can turn towards evil. As Goya said, 'the sleep of reason produces monsters'.
I'm feeling nostalgic about the Biden administration. So here's a photo of Joseph Robinette Bidog, a.k.a. Joe, at nine weeks, in 2021.
May 17, 2025 at 10:30 AM
I'm feeling nostalgic about the Biden administration. So here's a photo of Joseph Robinette Bidog, a.k.a. Joe, at nine weeks, in 2021.
Writing 8647 on a beach with shells is dumb, but harmless. Comey's tweet of it was really dumb. The administration's reaction is monumentally dumb. The whole thing reminds me of elementary school. Petty arguments, tattle tales running to the teacher. America needs to grow up. It's embarrassing.
May 17, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Writing 8647 on a beach with shells is dumb, but harmless. Comey's tweet of it was really dumb. The administration's reaction is monumentally dumb. The whole thing reminds me of elementary school. Petty arguments, tattle tales running to the teacher. America needs to grow up. It's embarrassing.
On Saturdays, I like to resurrect a review I once wrote of a book that delighted me. Since corruption, greed and larceny were in the news this week, I've decided to feature House of Dudley by @drjoannepaul.bsky.social It’s a fresh look at Tudor times - opulent, lively, quirky and enormously clever.
A Tudor Crime Family
The Dudleys were the shakedown artists of King Henry's court
open.substack.com
May 17, 2025 at 8:48 AM
On Saturdays, I like to resurrect a review I once wrote of a book that delighted me. Since corruption, greed and larceny were in the news this week, I've decided to feature House of Dudley by @drjoannepaul.bsky.social It’s a fresh look at Tudor times - opulent, lively, quirky and enormously clever.
Kseniia Petrova is a brilliant researcher doing cutting edge work on Alzheimer’s and cancer. She’s currently being held in a ICE detention centre in Louisiana, charged with smuggling frog embryos into the United States. Who benefits from this idiocy? Please spread this story widely.
A Genius, Thwarted
The case of Kseniia Petrova exposes a dangerous epidemic of anti-intellectualism
open.substack.com
May 15, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Kseniia Petrova is a brilliant researcher doing cutting edge work on Alzheimer’s and cancer. She’s currently being held in a ICE detention centre in Louisiana, charged with smuggling frog embryos into the United States. Who benefits from this idiocy? Please spread this story widely.
It’s the weekend, when I dig through my archive of reviews and look again at a book that deserves attention. This week I’m shining a light on The Ruin of All Witches by @malcolmgaskill.bsky.social. It's a riveting story of a witch scare in colonial New England, that maybe offers a lesson for today.
If Life is Hard, Blame a Witch
Absurdity is sometimes a safe harbour
open.substack.com
May 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
It’s the weekend, when I dig through my archive of reviews and look again at a book that deserves attention. This week I’m shining a light on The Ruin of All Witches by @malcolmgaskill.bsky.social. It's a riveting story of a witch scare in colonial New England, that maybe offers a lesson for today.
On VE Day, I remember my parents and the life they forged as Dutch immigrants in America, refugees from a war that could so easily have destroyed them.
On VE Day ...
I remember Jan and Johanna, my parents
open.substack.com
May 8, 2025 at 9:30 AM
On VE Day, I remember my parents and the life they forged as Dutch immigrants in America, refugees from a war that could so easily have destroyed them.
On Monday, Trump announced that he wants to turn Alcatraz back into a prison. He also said that he’s going to impose a 100% tariff on foreign films. The connecting link here is films. Today I discuss Reagan, some films, Jon Voight, tariffs and prisons, all linked in Trump’s febrile imagination.
When Life Shouldn't Imitate Art
Beware of septuagenarian presidents who like films
open.substack.com
May 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
On Monday, Trump announced that he wants to turn Alcatraz back into a prison. He also said that he’s going to impose a 100% tariff on foreign films. The connecting link here is films. Today I discuss Reagan, some films, Jon Voight, tariffs and prisons, all linked in Trump’s febrile imagination.
On the weekends, I like to reprise an old book review that perhaps has special importance to the here and now. Today, I've selected The Gallery of Miracles and Madness, by @charlieenglish1.bsky.social For reasons that should be apparent, it brings what RFK Jr has been saying about autism to mind.
But Is It Art?
When Madness and Modernism Collide ...
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 2:15 PM
On the weekends, I like to reprise an old book review that perhaps has special importance to the here and now. Today, I've selected The Gallery of Miracles and Madness, by @charlieenglish1.bsky.social For reasons that should be apparent, it brings what RFK Jr has been saying about autism to mind.
It’s cold here in Scotland. I should be in the garden, but instead I’ve decided to stay inside where it’s warm and write about conspicuous consumption. What happens when the ‘two doll policy’ takes hold and Americans have to learn to do without?
Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
In austerity, lies hope
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It’s cold here in Scotland. I should be in the garden, but instead I’ve decided to stay inside where it’s warm and write about conspicuous consumption. What happens when the ‘two doll policy’ takes hold and Americans have to learn to do without?
Eighty years ago, Russian and American armies met on the Elbe. Germany was essentially defeated. An American, Joseph Polowsky, was among the first group to cross the river and shake hands with Soviet soldiers. That experience shaped the rest of his life. This is his little story.
Crossing into Canaan
When two armies met on the banks of the Elbe eighty years ago
open.substack.com
April 28, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Eighty years ago, Russian and American armies met on the Elbe. Germany was essentially defeated. An American, Joseph Polowsky, was among the first group to cross the river and shake hands with Soviet soldiers. That experience shaped the rest of his life. This is his little story.
The best way to undermine your confidence in yourself as a caring human being is to find that the dogs' water bowl is empty. I'm a worthless piece of shit.
April 26, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The best way to undermine your confidence in yourself as a caring human being is to find that the dogs' water bowl is empty. I'm a worthless piece of shit.
You know who won't ever play baseball or write poetry? Children who die an early, needless, death because their parents have been encouraged to be suspicious of vaccines. Those poor kids in Texas who died of measles will never pay taxes, never hold a job, never go out on a date. That’s dead certain.
An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy
As the parent of an autistic child, I'm worried
open.substack.com
April 26, 2025 at 9:02 AM
You know who won't ever play baseball or write poetry? Children who die an early, needless, death because their parents have been encouraged to be suspicious of vaccines. Those poor kids in Texas who died of measles will never pay taxes, never hold a job, never go out on a date. That’s dead certain.
As the father of an autistic child, I've spent the last thirty years dealing with the ignorance of people like Robert Kennedy. I therefore feel that I have the right to a good old rant. So here’s a rant.
An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy
As the parent of an autistic child, I'm worried
open.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 6:23 PM
As the father of an autistic child, I've spent the last thirty years dealing with the ignorance of people like Robert Kennedy. I therefore feel that I have the right to a good old rant. So here’s a rant.
Trump’s Oval Office looks like an explosion in a bling factory. He flew in his gold guy from Mar-a-Lago to do the makeover. But what does all that gold mean? What about the portraits on display? In today’s piece, I unpack all the grotesquerie, desperately searching for a message within the madness.
Washington Up, Roosevelt Down
There's a lot to learn from that atrocious decor in the Oval Office
open.substack.com
April 23, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Trump’s Oval Office looks like an explosion in a bling factory. He flew in his gold guy from Mar-a-Lago to do the makeover. But what does all that gold mean? What about the portraits on display? In today’s piece, I unpack all the grotesquerie, desperately searching for a message within the madness.