You can give ChatGPT a photo of an empty bookshelf and ask it to fill the shelves with real books based on what it knows about you. Kinda fun that image gen is so good now!

“Why insist, then, that McCarthy remains a great writer, philosophical dubiousness and stylistic pastiche notwithstanding? The case is indeed harder to make than the contrary one, since, at least for me, it relies so heavily on the evidence of one’s ear.” harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…

For a specific variety of listener, Nirosta Steel was the hot new artist of the summer. It just so happened that Steven Hall, which is his real name, was almost 70 and most of this “new” music on the record ‘My Skyscraper’ was decades old. The album’s earliest inclusions date back to Hall’s day in Poets’ Building days in the early 1980s. “It feels like I’m playing a part in this movie about myself,” he says. “Like being in a parallel dimension.” When decades-old music or books are excavated and celebrated, the artists are often long gone. The difference now is that Hall is still here, posting stories and telling them — with complex effects on his legacy. Hall’s past played first out as an opportunity for nostalgia. Then, it threatened his sudden fame. Jack Denton spends time with Nirosta Steel and unpacks how his rise set off a fractured discourse: nymag.visitlink.me/OJGjF2

“Your lungs are queer. No signs of bronchitis or pneumonia.” “‘Queer’?” “ I said ‘clear.’” “Sorry I must have misheard.” "‘Queer’ makes no sense.” “Sorry.” “I wouldn’t say ‘queer.’” Sorry! Truly.

A giant inflatable pumpkin went on the run in Cary, North Carolina, near Raleigh, after strong winds from Isaias sent it rolling away.

For what it's worth the exact book this writer is carping for was released literally last year to rave reviews penguinrandomhouse.com/books…

I’m certain that others have noticed the popular “two epigraph” trend, in which the first is something esoteric, perhaps from poetry, philosophy, or poetry, and the second is current and quippy. I’m trying to figure out how it emerged, and what the underlying motivations are.

If Yoko Ono wasn't a person would the entire crossword industrial complex collapse?