A catch-all thread for some of the late-stage FLEISHMAN press. I sort of love that press for a show continues to its end. As someone who writes about culture, it's much less fun when the people who are reading haven't seen what you've seen. So! I loved talking to @ElissaNadworny for All Things Considered. npr.org/2022/12/31/114…

A thousand times this. Characters should be able to say bad/horrible things without the hall monitors descending. (And honestly, if people on Nantucket weren't saying casually anti-Semitic things, I would not think those characters were very well-written.) slate.com/culture/2021/0… Also this Elin Hilderbrand story reminds me of the year we read Jane Eyre AND Anne Frank at my yeshiva and it was legitimately confusing to all of us.

Cannot believe how well the news anchors are doing holding it together after the years of abuse this president and his followers leveraged against them and all the press. Cannot believe I lived to see a Black president and a Black woman vice president in my life. Am realizing that people of color in the White House are the norm for my children. Trump was an aberration.

Listen, Christmas is the worst for a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with Gentiles getting extremely depressed around then every year, but I have something to say about the part of the #MelaniaTapes that goes "they would not do the story." Here it is: That tape is said to have been recorded July 2018. From February 2018, to April of 2019, I tried with all the tenacity I've shown your other faves, to do a profile of Melania Trump. I was in talks with her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham over email and phone.

the weirdest part of CITY HALL is that everyone loves the mayor "get the gumbo out of your yiddish" is a great all-time line

I am very proud, relieved and surprised to say that today is my third anniversary of working @nytimes. I am in constant awe of the institution and the accountability it holds itself to and its careful and precise work, especially in unprecedented times. The truth is hard, as we say, and nobody tries harder to get it right than my colleagues. In the spirit of the brave reporting I watch and read all day, I would like to contribute some truth today.

I have never had a more enjoyable moment that the time I happened upon an explainer of millennial speak at Tuscon dot com and their accompanying photo illustrations. They get better. This is why stock photos were born.

Here is the thing. Is cocaine real? I've never seen it. I've only heard about it. I've been in SO MANY PLACES that cocaine is purported to be rampant and never seen it. So? Alt theory: I have the countenance of a narc and so it gets hidden when I enter the room.

Am very concerned that my desk at the Times will show up in one of those abandoned workplace features. I am mostly concerned because when I was trying to stop smoking (I had taken up smoking a little back during my Gwyneth story but have since given it up). I started chewing on those mint flossing sticks to give my face something to do and fear I've left one on the desk.

But is anyone disturbed by how Christian this all is? No? Ok! Forget I said anything! Shh he's talking about commandments now!

"Your mailbox is lovely, Hubbell."

https://twitter.com/dave_schilling/status/1295031795914686466

"Now you come and say 'Don Corleone, give me justice.' But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me 'Mailbox.'"

Am so proud to be part of an agency that signed the agreement, am so proud to be part of an agency that doesn't sue unions (, am so worried my ex-agent won't take me back). Way to go, ICMP! deadline.com/2020/08/icm-pa… Tonight, my family and I will be getting dessert from the Ice Cream Machine, a local scoop shop that calls itself ICM when it answers the phone.

I just finished The Good Place and am not ok. The show made me freak out in general but I’m extremely depressed now. Did everyone else go through this? To be clear, I had issues along the way. Sometimes I would watch it, delighted, only to have to quickly shut it off because I'd suddenly remember that the entire premise is that they're all dead and I'd freak out. It is a hard space to remain in for hours.

Tomorrow is the paperback launch for Fleishman Is in Trouble. Thank you to everyone who read it, talked about it, spelled Fleishman correctly. I hope you'll tell your friends to buy it, and maybe attend an event this week. Here's the purchase link: bookshop.org/books/fleishma… And here is the list of events I'll be having, hosted on this very internet by the inimitable @MegWolitzer and the singular @j_smithcameron.

Boy can I not wait for this.

https://twitter.com/BookPeople/status/1275170846210998278

Here is why: Emily and I are friends and our books came out at the same time. She graciously read mine; I read her new material in hers but didn't read the whole thing because it's a collection and I read her constantly, so what do I need to reread all those columns for?

Breaking: Cops was still on.

https://twitter.com/mccanner/status/1270486886486888449

More as this develops. Signal me with tips.

Tough week. I'm going to invest in the next generation and fill this NYC teacher's classroom with books for her students' summer reading list. Reading creates compassion and empathy, and a full 75% of our problems are from a dearth of that. Join me. donorschoose.org/project/empath… I'll match the first 5 people to show me receipts in the next hour.

Here's the thing I think about opinions, and I was taught it very young. When the anti-Semite says, "The Jew is a pig," the Jew wants to respond, "I'm not a pig. A pig has hooves, whereas I have hands and feet. A pig has a snout, whereas I have a nose. See? Not a pig!" Instead, the right thing to do is not to allow the anti-Semite to be comfortable telling me his opinion, not o give him space to say them, because those arguments — that I have hands/feet and a nose — do not really address what the anti-Semite is saying.

Many have asked for an update on my friend Lydia, and with her permission, I'm happy to tell you that she learned on Thursday that her cancer hadn't spread, and she is scheduled for surgery this coming Thursday, should she pass a Covid test as expected.

https://twitter.com/taffyakner/status/1257973741566545920

She wants everyone to know that your kind curiosity/queries/thoughts/prayers/good vibes/checking in has made her feel so connected to the world during a time of double isolation: cancer and quarantine. She says this already is a kind of healing, just like Val said.

A lot of talk on here right now about Michael Clayton. I love that movie so much that I read its screenplay from time to time. There is something very special about how it's written — you feel you've read a novel by the time you're done with it. A few years ago, @briankoppelman did an interview with Tony Gilroy about it, and Brian's questions did a great job of summing up exactly what was so special about it. I think it's this ep? stitcher.com/podcast/slate/…

“I think if you’re working out all the time, you’re part of the problem." I'm glad @zachbaron wrote a great Rob Pattinson story, since his karma was so good from the time I wrote about Rob and Zach gave us his tee time for the sake of a scene. gq.com/story/robert-p… Also, am sorry to commit the cardinal sin of sharing a story, in which I mention a previous story, but I still have a hate I bought at the pro shop that day and I think warmly of Zach every time I see it (I never wear it; am not a hat person) for saving my story.