John Williams

The answer to the first two questions below is yes if certain conditions are met: Putting reviews in front of online readers; not expecting/caring that every review do equally "well," traffic-wise; and caring about subscribers' desires/behaviors beyond clicks. Etc.

Hello darkness my old friend

I think it’s ok that a swing decision is ultimately subjective. We will all live, I promise. Baseball is not science. (And while we’re at it, a pitch that is .015 inches in or out of a perfectly objective box — which the strike zone is not — can equally be a ball or a strike. We lived.)

I ended up watching all of that instead of switching to the World Series. Such was the adhesive force of my anger at how bad that was. Mercy.

I’m halfway through Disclosure Day and, unless an unprecedented second half is coming, baffled by the generally positive reviews.

I haven't said anything here because I have too MUCH to say, like a whole essay's worth of thoughts and feelings, and that's a lot to subject you all to—plus All You Can Ever Know is one of the many books affected by the sale, and I've been told nothing. I am, to be real, sick with anxiety over it.

I sincerely wish I weren’t the kind of person who a) noticed an increasing number of non-spaces in The New Yorker (often after a closed quote, my non-scientific sense tells me) and b) was bothered by it. But alas, as the hotel employee says in Spinal Tap, “I’m just as God made me, sir.”

It is very, very — exceedingly — funny to consider a 21-year-old's political support over "nearly a decade." Perhaps especially when he still looks 11.

🎯

I've been on a reading jag that has led me to a biography of Marx. As a supplement to it, I started watching a video series of a noted scholar teaching Capital, and it is *deathly*. Onward...

World Series between franchises both seeking first title: 2026 MIL TB 1980 KC PHI 1920 CLE BRO 1909 DET PIT 1907 CHC DET 1906 CHC CHW 1905 PHA NYG 1903 BOS PIT 1903, ‘05, ‘06 & ‘07 were the first 4 WS ever

Phew!

Meeeeeh.

R.I.P. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, the warmest and friendliest film critic I ever knew. We used to cross paths at the Middleburg FF, where she was a tremendously welcoming presence. She was at work on a book about the making of All the President’s Men. We need it now more than ever.

Now if we can just avoid having an 85-win team in the World Series, thanks.

Nothing more predictable than college football, after so many years of stupidly having no playoff at all, realizing how much $$ is to be made from one (how they didn't realize that earlier, also vastly stupid) & then quickly destroying it through inflation. No dumber sport, which is saying something

After 9 fascinating, fun, insane, hilarious years at Vanity Fair, yesterday was my last day! What's next? Long story short, I have a few irons in the fire. But I'm also looking to freelance, so if you're in need of coverage related to books, music, religion, politics, or gender, I'm your gal.

It’s in my DNA too, that’s what it means to me.

This is the result of 7+ years of Trump's attacks on @repilhan.bsky.social, Somali-Americans, & the Muslim community. Everyone, regardless of party, must speak out against this fascistic abuse of power. If they can do this to a sitting Congresswoman, they can & will do it to anyone.

Hearing Cameron Winter's voice in public a bit too often these days.

Been digging this whole record lately. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpD...

I left x despite having a large following bc I don’t want to make free content for the world’s wealthiest racist. It’s not worth it to me.

A forgotten Irish composer. A resourceful girl in French India. Two lives driven by ambition and shadowed by tragedy. Yiyun Li’s magnificent new novel, "Music Against the Night," is a symphony of wit, heartbreak, and suspense. My review: roncharles.substack.com/p/a-composer...

I completed my ‘Booker decades’ overview by writing about ten of the best long- and shortlisted novels from the 2010s - featuring memories from shortlisted authors and judges from the decade, inc Tan Twan Eng, Sunjeev Sahota and Robin Robertson:

It's World Homeless Day, and I'll just say: Homelessness isn't some great unsolvable mystery. People are homeless because they don't have homes. This suffering persists not for lack of solutions, but because enormous wealth and power are invested in maintaining the very structures that produce it.

Even though I was rooting for the Yankees and the White Sox are a good story, it would be nice to have LCSes without a wild card in them.

Eva Marie Saint, star of North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, dies aged 102

Whenever I visit, always struck by the disjunction between "Washington" the synecdoche for US empire and "Washington" the beautiful city for the people, just packed with public good and beauty, a promise to be something better. It's good to be upset about the latter's destruction.

I went with albums that I loved between the ages of 5 and 18, since the formative part seems key to the whole thing?

Where does this fall on the scale of No Biggie to I Shouldn't Bother Going to the Gym Today or Ever Again? www.cnbc.com/2026/10/05/s...

I'm writing a new Substack for the Ringer. It's about the media. It's called Now They Tell Us. And it's free. You sign up here. bryancurtis.substack.com/p/why-im-wri...

A friend showed me this last year and I can’t believe I had never seen it before. Incredible on multiple levels.

Meeting a dear old friend in midtown to watch our dear old Yankees. Fall rules.

This is very good. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/m...

I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed

I have a fix for the MLB playoff system, but it involves severely punishing wild card teams and ensuring all other rounds are best of 7, things the league probably doesn’t want to do because those things are good and smart and baseball-centric.

Lots of talk about defending "Western civilization" these days, so here's Richard Wright on what it means to be Western:

The powerful generally do not want a free press to exist. This is not a matter of political partisanship so much as it is an observation of reality. And a more urgent one to acknowledge today, because they are closer to winning. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-free-a...

Oh are you mad I've never heard or heard of Choosing Texas? That's cool, I was too busy watching a Rilo Kiley concert in a cemetery under a full moon because I'm 40

I’ve been reporting on the CDC for years, and have written about many of its troubles over the past year. I was still shocked by the extent of the staff losses and political interference I found when reporting this one. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...

Wow, can't believe they printed this