The Critic
@thecritic.bsky.social
fix your hearts or die
Peter Lorre Just Bein' Geing Weird GIF
Alt: Peter Lorre stretching his mouth with both fingers while leering at himself in a mirror from Fritz Lang’s “M.”
media.tenor.comAre intrusive thoughts of an evil nature enough to make a person evil? For instance, sometimes in the winter, when I’m putting on gloves as I’m leaving a store, I look at the neck of the person in front of me and my brain goes “flex your fingers like you’re a killer in a horror movie.”
This is the kind of alternate history daydreaming I do all the time. If it ends up compelling enough, I’ll deep dive on whatever subject driving the wondering and suddenly I’m well versed in geographical linguistic dispersal and phonetic migration.
She was often compared to Chekhov, but I'm going to say it: she was better than Chekhov. RIP Alice Munro, the best damn short story writer. She made each story as dense as a novel. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/b...
Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92
Her stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes.
www.nytimes.comAll the time when we talk about college students, people will say “kids” when only a small percentage of first year students are under 18 and even smaller numbers of higher grades.
Checking on my Twitter account
I have watched that police chief pepper spray himself–less than one second of film –like a dozen times tonight and cackled every time.
I love that this person made a playlist from that corny ass “Punk” CD compilation music.apple.com/us/album/pun...
I love that this person made a playlist from the “Punk” compilation CD. music.apple.com/us/playlist/...
Last night I finished a bunch of crap and looked at my watch 12:30am. Great. I’ll just brush my teeth and go to bed. Look at my phone while brushing. Oh it’s 1:30. Hmm. Okay upstairs to finish my bedtime routine huh it’s 2:30am. Felt like the movie “Looker” and someone kept flash gunning me.
I keep telling my same joke about Sisyphus over and over.
I’ve got an amazing joke about Medea, but I shouldn’t tell it until the kids are gone.
Showed my kid the art student the ad with no preface and watched the shock register, knowing our faces held the same look of confused horror…
Watching anyone do anything on their computer is wickedly aggravating and I silently gnash my teeth every time.
I think hedge funds buying companies, saddling them with other owned debt, then bankrupting said companies to wash that debt away should be illegal, should be punishable by the death penalty, and I believe this should apply retroactively.
I wonder if Henry Kissinger is enjoying the genocide in Gaza from down in hell.
Had to explain to my kids that, yes, there really, really was a show called "Jake and the Fatman" and no, no one got canceled for it.
Caught myself composing in the CMS, like a gotdamn fool. Don't be like me.
The lane control is nice for late night drives when you might be a little bit tired because it keeps you on your toes
Light ‘em up
So Utah, having passed a transphobic bathroom bill, has launched an online form for people to snitch on folks they think are in the "wrong" bathroom or locker room. Be a real shame if people on the Internet flooded it with fake reports: ut-sao-special-prod.web.app/sex_basis_co...
Republicans looking to eliminate federal funding for organizations that have antisemites in their midst sound like they’re arguing for congressional paycuts
Insurance company execs should be mandated to own no less than three seppuku swords: one for the office, one for travel, and one for each of their homes.
Noooooo! God what a talent. What a fucking star.
Poet, essayist, and film director Paul Auster has died. A gorgeous elegy by Lucy Sante, author of "I Heard Her Call My Name." [gift link] www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/b...
Paul Auster’s New York Tragedy
A complicated, generous life yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety.
www.nytimes.com...The doctor lights up. The treatment, after all, is simple. "The great clown Pugliacci is in town tonight,” the doctor says, “Go and see him! That should sort you out.” The patient bursts into tears. "But doctor," he says...
Was reading a single day zoo field trip information sheet sent home and under Drawstring Bags it says kids can pack necessary items and one such example is "deodorant." Ahh stinky middle school kids on a bus. Fun times for teachers.
Nonfiction teaches you how to live. Fiction and poetry teach you why.
For me, the unforgivably damning thing about some of our commentariat is that they think so little of Palestinians as human beings that they believe college students – or anyone else – has to be brainwashed into opposing their genocide and our government's tacit support of it.
“Even from the beginning, they have not always been entirely sure themselves.” Reads a little cleaner to me, but context might change the why of the way it’s phrased originally. But it’s the repetition and the “not always even” that trips it up.
Joe Biden, they are giving you the opening you need. Take it, buddy, take it.
In a staggering moment during arguments to the Supreme Court, Trump’s attorney argued a president could legally order the assassination of a political rival
Trump Lawyer Argues He Could Legally Order Assassination Of Political Rival
"I'm trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into the seat of criminal activity in this country," Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said.
www.huffpost.comIn retrospect, everybody kung fu fighting did not lead to world peace or any other significant improvements.
Using only a singular point of pop culture, where did it all go wrong for humanity?
As an optometrist, I think both your eyes are just too lazy to focus further away, so my prescription is for two eye patches. No, no glasses.
Love that McWhorter's whole beef here is that when you play "4'33," he thinks the only thing Cage wanted you to hear was pretty birds or neutral human traffic. He wants controlled ambient sound that he approves of only. Dude should be hauled in for academic review.
You're not wrong. The reading public just isn't ready for this take.
Such a great book, and the premise is so catchy, the coldest of cold cases.