Apparently I haven’t left Italy early enough as a zanzara just dive bombed my ear after I climbed into bed. The latent trauma is real.

It was more a comment about your interviewing proficiency based on your column! Hope it’s a packed house!!

Oh neat, I wish this was taking place in two weeks! Have a great time. I’m sure the conversation you lead will be much more illuminating than my review!

For me it’s definitely tap a word to define followed immediately by closing the book in utter disgust.

The real Elvis surely never got a crowd reaction like that one!

The past two months I’ve texted a screenshot of a news story accompanied by the word “I feel like I’m going crazy” multiple times. The duration of the fall and the ongoing depth of the pit into which we are falling is horrifying; the fact that so many still support and enable it crushes my soul.

Obviously would never dream of telling anyone what to do in such a nightmare situation, but what a terrifying place to be. His focus must be almost superhuman. Incredible.

Sounds perfect. Thanks for the recommendation. Take care.

I’d only read—and really enjoyed—her story Mio marito in a parallel language text, and this post of yours the other night inspired me to buy Le piccole virtú with a credit before leaving Italy. Have to look up ~12 wds/pg, but I’m loving it. Is there a novel (in english) you’d recommend I start with?

I’m so sick of living in a country that tops news sites around the world with its repeated atrocities, atrocities only occur because one political party is slavishly devoted to power instead of the genuine welfare of its citizens.

It’s almost incomprehensible to me that this could happen given the attention and $$$ the Times has given its games division the past decade. “Almost incomprehensible” because the overwhelming majority of that attention has gone to the mobile app at the expense of the print/paper solving experience.

I remember being so excited by the Voyager probes when I was a kid. To know they’re both still functional is one of those things that almost breaks my brain. To know that our current govt is full of people who don’t believe in science breaks my heart.

I thought Beef season 2 was good fun (except the ending, which is dumb). Also The Pitt is good. Art is subjective, and I say this fully aware that today I filed a review of a forthcoming novel that the author’s fans might find overly nitpicky, so don’t let critics dictate what you engage with.

Believe me, that’s basically my reaction to it too at this point. It was my only real habitual pot-smoking phase but at least it was full of creativity!

When I worked summers on Nantucket, we had a DIY water bong built out of an igloo cooler and a 2L with the bottom cut off, perfect for carrying to the beach. (We were idiots.) The cooler’s designer didn’t consider a hit successful unless he coughed frightfully. Sounds like he might be your neighbor!

Not enough money in the world…

Shares up 639% at the moment

@polborta.bsky.social thank you for the past two weeks of commentary, Peter. Please convey my gratitude to Jan as well. I really enjoyed having you two back together, and here’s hoping it happens again soon. Take care.

The competition is stiff, but this has to be the stupidest AI “use case” I’ve ever seen.

Just incredible stuff. The look on his face…

I’ve never seen an Avatar or Titanic and will definitely not be starting now…

Honestly didn’t even need the screenshot…

Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This

“Studies show that overreliance on these digital tools causes cognitive decline, but if current events are any indication, nobody’s making much of a contribution anyway.”

It really is as good as everyone would lead you to believe:

“Some people say, ‘I just use it to brainstorm ideas.’ If you don’t know what to paint, or compose, or write, you’re in the wrong job. Art is the business of making up stuff — go make up some stuff.”

This is why Russia is still fighting, why the war continues and why people are dying: Because Trump and Vance encouraged Putin to believe he could win

Whenever friends and family tell me that I’m such a clean person, I tell them that they have never been to Bosnia, a nation that redefines the conception of “clean” even by the unbelievably high standards of the Balkans.

Yeah, that’s going to go great for him…

Thank you for reminding me about estimated taxes; fetal position I sadly never forget these days.

Whenever book coverage goes away, everybody rightfully talks about its importance, but the only way book coverage stays is by people reading it. If you don’t want to read my reviews, other critics write for the Globe, too, including Kate! So please subscribe to read their work if not mine!