“IT IS THE LAST DREAM OF CHILDREN TO BE FOREVER UNTOUCHED.” In other news, I finished the draft of the novel. This epigraph brought to you by the Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Foundation, and also the letter Q. Read more

I THOUGHT THAT IF YOU HAD AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR THEN IT MEANT THAT YOU WERE A PROTEST SINGER: For some reason my American Conservative column is about gentrification, and why all my oldest friends don’t talk to me anymore. It’s also about U Street, sex as the new politics and vice versa, melodrama, extremism, love, communards, and regret. Oh I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible– Subscribers-only, because if you can’t sell memories what... Read more

LOOKING INTO THE PAST: Old photos superimposed on the present day. Includes a woman walking a bunny, about five minutes and maybe 90 years away from my apartment…. Possibly via Jesse Walker? Read more

SHE APPEARS COMPOSED/WELL, SHE IS, I SUPPOSE/WHO CAN REALLY TELL? Oh hi there! I’m not super excited about debating transgendered identity issues on this blog, because it seems like it could easily become Well-Meaning Cisgendered Hour. And I’m gay enough to kind of desperately dislike the thing where cute married Catholics debate our actual personal lives. Basically no matter how humble and philosophically open the participants are, they also always come across as self-absorbed. So while I’m reading every email... Read more

THE BOREDOMS (IT’S PLURAL!): Victor Morton on how boredom works, or doesn’t work, in movies. I already said my piece about “Police, Adjective” here; but really, you should see that if you can! Read more

“IN HIS IMPREGNABLE ARMOR WITH HIS INVULNERABLE SKIN BENEATH IT.” What is courage, and why? Give three examples. Read more

A LOT OF THINGS THAT AREN’T BARBARISM ALSO BEGIN AT HOME, MORRISSEY!: Ta-Nehisi Coates is hosting a really interesting discussion of spanking, discipline, class, fatherhood, love, race, assimilation… and stuff like that. With bonus gayosity! Read more

YOUR NEW MOTHER HAS GLASS EYES AND A TAIL: Image results for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I can’t believe I never looked for this before. Read more

WERE MIXED JEWISH-CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES POSSIBLE IN LATE MEDIEVAL POLAND? Fascinating stuff. Read more

LAST WEEK I dreamt that I was doing a word puzzle where I had to find the anagram for a six-letter word. The word was YAHWEH… but since I couldn’t read my own handwriting, the anagram I came up with was… wait for it… MAYHEM. The inside of my brain: sometimes surprisingly awesome! Read more