Gerald Howard
@ghoward1950.bsky.social
Retired book editor, terminal bookworm, soon to be first-time author with THE INSIDER: MALCOLM COWLEY AND THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. I like movies too.
I might be wrong, but I'm kinda thinking that the investigation into the Trump adminstration's granting of refugee status to the Afghan shooter is going to be less than exhaustive. But how he got into the country, hoo boy, THAT will be exhaustive, you betcha.
November 27, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I might be wrong, but I'm kinda thinking that the investigation into the Trump adminstration's granting of refugee status to the Afghan shooter is going to be less than exhaustive. But how he got into the country, hoo boy, THAT will be exhaustive, you betcha.
Great advice, but now you tell me? Little late for me on the boyfriend emperor front. Or rather the girlfriend empress front.
November 27, ca. 110 or 112 CE: Happy birthday to Antinous, stunning boyfriend of emperor Hadrian. Make sure you get yourself a boyfriend who builds cities for you and then starts a cult in your honor if you were ever to fall into the Nile. 🐊 followinghadrian.com/2016/11/27/t... (See CIL XIV 2112).
November 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Great advice, but now you tell me? Little late for me on the boyfriend emperor front. Or rather the girlfriend empress front.
It's still there. It's still there. It's still . . .
Heard Pat Benatar's "HIt Me With Your Best Shot" on the car radio two days ago and I cannot get it out of my head. Help.
November 27, 2025 at 1:43 AM
It's still there. It's still there. It's still . . .
Rock poet my ass. Jim was the real New York School thing.
What I want is to sleep / inside a strange language,
Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Rock poet my ass. Jim was the real New York School thing.
Can I put in a modest word on behalf of their Tomato Bisque? Use half light cream and half water as additive and give it a boost with Worcestershire sauce. Not bad at all.
Campbell’s fired the VP recorded saying its meat ‘came from a 3D printer’
Campbell’s fired the VP recorded saying its meat ‘came from a 3D printer’
Welcome to 2025.
www.theverge.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Can I put in a modest word on behalf of their Tomato Bisque? Use half light cream and half water as additive and give it a boost with Worcestershire sauce. Not bad at all.
If Alan Dershowitz is in any way a measure "of where I am," shoot me immediately because life is no longer worth living.
I’m still thinking about Bari Weiss saying that Hasan Piker (extremely popular influencer) is less of a measure of where Americans are than Alan Dershowitz (extremely unpopular Epstein associate, his own neighbors won’t sell him a pierogi)
November 26, 2025 at 8:29 PM
If Alan Dershowitz is in any way a measure "of where I am," shoot me immediately because life is no longer worth living.
Strangely enough directed by the same man who made CHRISTMAS STORY. Clearly Bob Clark was conflicted about the holiday.
November 26, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Strangely enough directed by the same man who made CHRISTMAS STORY. Clearly Bob Clark was conflicted about the holiday.
This is, by all objective standards, the product of a delusional lunatic totally disconnected from reality. And yet he is taken seriously and allowed to remain in office. Historians of the future will puzzle over this fact endlessly.
Also, this fat slob has the nerve to call someone else ugly?
Also, this fat slob has the nerve to call someone else ugly?
Trump responds to a detailed report about his waning energy and propensity to sleep through on-camera events by calling the New York Times's Katie Rogers ugly
November 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
This is, by all objective standards, the product of a delusional lunatic totally disconnected from reality. And yet he is taken seriously and allowed to remain in office. Historians of the future will puzzle over this fact endlessly.
Also, this fat slob has the nerve to call someone else ugly?
Also, this fat slob has the nerve to call someone else ugly?
I wonder if a young Richard Nixon ever saw it in the Whittier Playhouse?
November 25, 2025 at 10:26 PM
I wonder if a young Richard Nixon ever saw it in the Whittier Playhouse?
You absolutely don't need to be Irish Catholic to savor the quiet genius of Alice McDermott, her novels are universally human. But if you ARE IRC, oh my, oh my, oh my. As in, wait, what is MY family doing in YOUR book? #AliceMcDermott
November 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
You absolutely don't need to be Irish Catholic to savor the quiet genius of Alice McDermott, her novels are universally human. But if you ARE IRC, oh my, oh my, oh my. As in, wait, what is MY family doing in YOUR book? #AliceMcDermott
Here is your Thanksgiving affirmation.
(In a "Revised Edition" yet)
(In a "Revised Edition" yet)
November 24, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Here is your Thanksgiving affirmation.
(In a "Revised Edition" yet)
(In a "Revised Edition" yet)
Musk and Zuckerberg, the sad little boys who were socially crippled from an early age and whose hundreds of billions of dollars can't buy them a single real friend. And they know it.
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Musk and Zuckerberg, the sad little boys who were socially crippled from an early age and whose hundreds of billions of dollars can't buy them a single real friend. And they know it.
It seems like they are at that point in submarine movies when the depth charges are finding their target and water is spewing furiously from every direction and the door locks can't be closed and . . . .
As a columnist at Vanity Fair who served under four presidents (I mean, editors), I ought to have some residual insight as to what’s going on at that wacky spacecraft but, nope, not a clue.
November 24, 2025 at 4:20 PM
It seems like they are at that point in submarine movies when the depth charges are finding their target and water is spewing furiously from every direction and the door locks can't be closed and . . . .
Heard Pat Benatar's "HIt Me With Your Best Shot" on the car radio two days ago and I cannot get it out of my head. Help.
November 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Heard Pat Benatar's "HIt Me With Your Best Shot" on the car radio two days ago and I cannot get it out of my head. Help.
Charles Ludlam, the genius behind the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, photographed by Peter Hujar in his apartment at 55 Morton Street in the Village. I lived on the same floor there as Ludlam and Everett Quinton for three years, a memory I cherish.
November 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Charles Ludlam, the genius behind the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, photographed by Peter Hujar in his apartment at 55 Morton Street in the Village. I lived on the same floor there as Ludlam and Everett Quinton for three years, a memory I cherish.
Serious question: Which is worse, that the terms in that "peace plan" (really a surrender document) were dictated by the Kremlin or the US came up with this disgraceful document itelf? Some choice.
Rubio told senators that the so-called Ukraine peace plan, which reads like a list of Russian demands. was actually given to the Trump team by Moscow, according to a Republican senator. Now Rubio's denying it and insisting it really is a US plan. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/u...
Rubio Insists U.S. Authored the Ukraine Peace Plan
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Serious question: Which is worse, that the terms in that "peace plan" (really a surrender document) were dictated by the Kremlin or the US came up with this disgraceful document itelf? Some choice.
I saw THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD on Million Dollar Movie in NYC in 1958, and it was so good/bad that I had nightmares about it for a long time. I've watched it a dozen times since, and I think it is the best sci-fi movie eve made. And quite obviously directed by Howard Hawks.
Let's talk about my favorite 'remake', The Thing (1982).
Haunting, horrifying, powerful. From cult classic to true modern classic, one of the scariest movies ever made.
Then there is The Thing from Another World (1951), which more closely follows the story 'Who Goes There?'
Who's seen them either?
Haunting, horrifying, powerful. From cult classic to true modern classic, one of the scariest movies ever made.
Then there is The Thing from Another World (1951), which more closely follows the story 'Who Goes There?'
Who's seen them either?
November 22, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I saw THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD on Million Dollar Movie in NYC in 1958, and it was so good/bad that I had nightmares about it for a long time. I've watched it a dozen times since, and I think it is the best sci-fi movie eve made. And quite obviously directed by Howard Hawks.
Translation: "THAT didn't work. How do we get out of this contract with the fastest result and the least legal and financial hazard?"
Vanity Fair is reviewing its “ties” to Olivia Nuzzi? She WORKS there as an EDITOR. Who wrote this headline?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/s...
Vanity Fair Is Reviewing Its Ties to Olivia Nuzzi
www.nytimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Translation: "THAT didn't work. How do we get out of this contract with the fastest result and the least legal and financial hazard?"
And I just remembered their Danish ring, which made waking up for breakfast a thing of joy.
Tell me more about Ebinger’s bakery
November 21, 2025 at 4:39 AM
And I just remembered their Danish ring, which made waking up for breakfast a thing of joy.
I was his editor for LIBRA, the greatest experience of my working life and an honor unsurpassed in my lifetime. Don is not just a genius, he is a gentleman.
The novelist Don DeLillo turns 89 today. Throughout his career, the books of this perennial Nobel Prize favorite have overflowed with ideas, language, personas, and historical fragments that, released into the minds of readers, transcend their fictional origins and become part of the real world.
Don DeLillo - Library of America
www.loa.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:15 AM
I was his editor for LIBRA, the greatest experience of my working life and an honor unsurpassed in my lifetime. Don is not just a genius, he is a gentleman.
Having flashback memories of Lundy's in Sheepshead Bay. And yes, I am old enough to have those memories. Ask me about Ebinger's Bakery, go ahead . . . .
Finally went to Brennan and Carr in Sheepshead Bay. Have wanted to go forever and my son convinced me tonite. Wood paneling, a cashier, good prices — basically 1973. Ordered the Gargiulo burger (roast beef on top of the burger) and dipped in au jus. And onion rings. Even better than I thought. Mmm.
November 20, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Having flashback memories of Lundy's in Sheepshead Bay. And yes, I am old enough to have those memories. Ask me about Ebinger's Bakery, go ahead . . . .
Wow, this trick worked so well for Tawana Brawley, she figured it was time for a reprise.
Also, "body modification artist" is a thing?
Also, "body modification artist" is a thing?
"Greene allegedly drove to Pennsylvania and paid a body-modification artist $500 to carve the wounds on her face, neck, and upper body, using a pattern she had provided in advance. Investigators later found matching zip ties in her Maserati SUV."
Again: matching zip ties in her Maserati SUV.
Again: matching zip ties in her Maserati SUV.
A staffer to a New Jersey congressman allegedly paid an scarification artist $500 to wound her as she staged a scene with zip ties and “Trump Whore” written on her stomach, federal prosecutors say
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Wow, this trick worked so well for Tawana Brawley, she figured it was time for a reprise.
Also, "body modification artist" is a thing?
Also, "body modification artist" is a thing?
The Great Bridge, David McCullough
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 20, 2025 at 2:55 AM
The Great Bridge, David McCullough
I am grateful to Kevin Lozano of The New Yorker for this excellent review essay on THE INSIDER, which puts Malcolm Cowley front and center, where he belongs
www.newyorker.com/books/under-...
www.newyorker.com/books/under-...
The Man Who Helped Make the American Literary Canon
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the country’s literature was widely considered provincial. Then Malcolm Cowley set about championing writers like Kerouac and Faulkner as uniquely American.
www.newyorker.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I am grateful to Kevin Lozano of The New Yorker for this excellent review essay on THE INSIDER, which puts Malcolm Cowley front and center, where he belongs
www.newyorker.com/books/under-...
www.newyorker.com/books/under-...
I'm thinking that "Nuzzi" can evolve into an adjective, as in, "His writing is entirely too Nuzzi for comfort." In time it will be lower case, as in "Oy, that is so nuzzi." And thus a narcissist and opportunist and crap writer will have enriched, however slightly, the language. #nuzzi #lizza
I'm a retired book editor, but I am almost tempted to "get back in the arena" for the opportunity to write "Nuzzi?" on a flag or in the margin.
I’m sorry. Editors have already claimed that term. bsky.app/profile/sste...
November 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM