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Alan Scherstuhl

@alansch.bsky.social
951 followers 623 following 324 posts

Editor/writer hanging in there, thinking abt books and jazz. PW, NYT, Sci-Am, elsewhere on occasion.

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Reposted by Alan Scherstuhl
Will Hermes @willhermes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
So many gems in Dolly's late ‘60s/early ‘70s catalog — you can hear Joni, Dylan, Aretha, Melanie, English folk-rock, California psych-folk. Here's a 60-song mixtape stream of deep cuts, rarities + covers (plus videos) to celebrate the singer/songwriter, global pop icon, and exemplary human being.
newmusicoldmusic.substack.com
RIP Dolly Parton: 60 songs + footnotes
Deep cuts, rarities, covers, podcasts. A celebration of (and short syllabus on) the late great country music singer/songwriter, international pop icon, and beautiful human being.
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Chris Schweizer @schweizercomics.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Just a reminder that there's a Will Shakespeare miniseries from the heyday of BBC historicals starring Tim Curry as Shakespeare and Ian McShane as Marlowe, and it's on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpxC...
production stills of Curry and McShane in costume
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Alan Scherstuhl @alansch.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I hope his last word was “anticipa—“
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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Here are a series of essays I wrote about Dolly tied to albums at the beginning, middle and end of her vast, prolific career, if you're looking for a little themed reading. www.dontrocktheinbox.com/on-dolly-par...
dontrocktheinbox.com
On Dolly Parton, Brilliant In Every Era
Today marks an unfathomable loss: Dolly Parton has died. Brilliant artist, devoted philanthropist, remarkable human; to list her achievements here feels redundant, as the cult of Dolly has long since ...
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Stephen King's President Warren G. Harding @popeawesomexiii.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
What's the most uncomfortable place to have sex? Still gotta go with Ohio.
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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I talked to this person years ago about a job writing about the ultra wealthy and he told me I was a bad fit because I was obviously going to make jokes about them. I remember this, to be honest, because the hat was present then too www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/b...
nytimes.com
Forbes Fired Top Editor After Discovering He Received Secret $6 Million Payment (Gift Article)
Randall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, received the money from the founder of Shook Research, which has worked with Forbes on content about wealth advisers.
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ered @ered.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Seen some talk of unethical fiction, so here’s my take
Three panel comic titled Unethical Fiction: 
1. Made with AI
2. Printed on human skin
3. The author uses their profits to fund a hate group.
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Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I didn't think THE NOSE by Nikolai Gogol would be filmable but I hadn't counted on the pinscreen animation skills of Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker. This 1963 short is silent with an improvised score by Hai Minh
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 21/07/2026
I wrote about what's happening to the web now that everything is A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/t...
nytimes.com
How Google’s A.I. Search Is Imperiling the Open Web (Gift Article)
As Google incorporates more artificial intelligence into search, people are spending more time on Google. Some website operators are crying foul.
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J. Robert Lennon @jrobertlennon.com · 18/07/2026
Also in recommendations today, Ann Leckie published a fantasy novel (!) in 2019 and it is an absolute banger. Ending reminded me of Blood Simple, narrated in second person by a rock YEAH YOU HEARD ME
bookshop.org
The Raven Tower
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARDGods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods, and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this masterful first fantasy novel fr...
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Drewcifer Rising 🎃😈 @drewdietsch.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Please read this book. An essential American parable about how we sell our entire selves to the most charismatic of con men. I'll never forget the ending of this book, and deeply want to see a film audience grapple with it.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 15/07/2026
you can receive the news of a nationwide parasitic diarrhea outbreak with a victim mindset or with a money mindset. dynamic pricing means you double down and take advantage of lower prices while everyone else avoids lettuce. real hustlers meet the parasite head on and triumph through adversity 👊
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Maria BOO!stillos @mariabustillos.com · 10/07/2026
Insightful, many-layered piece from @raxkingisdead.bsky.social about what Thurber called The War Between Men and Women; the 20th c. view has morphed but remains essentially intact
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I can't believe we still have to remind people of these things but: most rape victims don't file police reports. (You're reading one right now.) Shock, denial, need to appease the rapist, nominally friendly behavior toward the rapist, etc. are all common reactions
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 25/06/2026
(while being killed) stay alert everyone this is just a trial balloon for them killing someone more important
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Jake Cole @jakecole.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
It’s such a funny gambit for centrist Dems to keep pressing the panic button over the guy everyone loves who pushed the dust-covered Do Good, Popular Things button on his desk day one and keeps starring in videos of being run down on the street by grateful denizens dapping him up.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 02/06/2026
‘Larry McMurtry bemoans the fact that readers take his characters at face value and misidentify cowboy selfishness as heroism. “I don’t think these myths do justice to the richness and fullness of human possibility,” he said.’ @jrobertlennon.com revisits McMurtry. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
J. Robert Lennon · Buffalo Bones: Larry McMurtry’s American West
McMurtry bemoans the fact that readers take his characters at face value and misidentify cowboy selfishness as heroism...
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 26/05/2026
False equivalence. This is a convo about ownership. Spend $10.99/mo on CDs and in a year you've got 12 CDs. Yours forever even if you go broke and can't buy more. Spend $10.99/mo on streaming and then have to cancel? You've spent the same $ and you have...nothing. These are not equivalent systems.
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Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 26/05/2026
RENAME THE WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE FOR SONNY www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbfY...
youtube.com
The Bridge (Remastered)
YouTube video by Sonny Rollins - Topic
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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Or Gen-AI prose is fairy food. It looks the part on the plate, and you can sometimes even get your fork into it, but put it in your mouth and it's gone in an instant, leaving behind no taste, no texture, certainly no nutrients, only the faintest memory of the 'mouthfeel’ of someone else's meal.
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Tom Ewing @tomewing.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
This is a really interesting piece that tells me a lot of things I didn‘t know about running an indie label in the mid 20s and goes against some of the discourse received wisdom too www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...
theguardian.com
‘Major labels are trying to scoop up everything’: the chaotic future for indie music companies – and why vinyl isn’t working
As stalwarts Sub Pop and Rough Trade celebrate big anniversaries, insiders speak candidly about the challenges they face. Can streaming ever ensure their survival?
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Dia Lacina @dialacina.com · 30/04/2026
Forget cigarettes, bring back USA UP All Night
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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
This is excellent, and especially thrilling because it's the first thing I've read on this topic that gets past its supposed inevitability to assess what AI ed tech is actually like, and what it actually does. www.newyorker.com/culture/prog...
newyorker.com
What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools?
“I find myself speaking with my kids about A.I. in the same terms that we might discuss a creepy neighbor who lives down the block,” Jessica Winter writes. Read her report on the push for A.I. in educ...
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caroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Nancy 4/23/26 … 🐈‍⬛
Sluggo’s envious of Nancy’s relationship with Nancy Jr…. While wishing for a pet, he suddenly sees a very cute cat in a pile of garbage
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 10/04/2026
When you see one set of footprints, that’s because a chatbot is non-corporeal.
indy100.com
Artificial intelligence Jesus chatbot sparks debate over future of faith
For some evangelical Christians, a personal relationship with Jesus is central to their faith. Now, a tech company called Just Like Me is offering to take that concept to an unprecedented level, allowing users to engage in video calls with an artificial intelligence-generated avatar of Jesus for $1....
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NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller April 10,1947
NANCY BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER 
P1- NANCY IS BED, SHE CAN’T GET TO SLEEP SO SHE IS COUNTING SHEEP. 

SHE IS IMAGINING THE SHEEP JUMPING OVER A FENCE 

P2- NANCY CONTINUES TO IMAGINE THE SHEEP ARE JUMPING OVER THE FENCE 

P3- SUDDENLY NANCY REMEMBERS ITS BE KIND TO ANIMALS WEEK

P4- NANCY IS HAPPILY COUNTING THE SHEEP, BUT INSTEAD OF JUMPING OVER THE FENCE, NANCY IS IMAGINING THE SHEEP ARE RIDING AN ESCALATOR UP AND OVER THE FENCE
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David Cantwell @cantkill.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Today is both Merle Haggard's birthdate and the 10th anniversary of his death... I honor one of America's great songwriters by picking 10 of my favorite cover versions of his songs, by Charley Pride, Johnny Cash, JD Crowe, Johnny Rodriguez, Bettye Swann and more. At No Fences Review
open.substack.com
The Merle Haggard Songbook
Ten years after his death, David shares some of his favorite 20th century covers of Merle Haggard songs
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bat ghoulson 🎃 @mathewolson.com · 04/04/2026
newest Nancy ends with one of the most important panels ever, what a gift from @cashbrowns.bsky.social
nancy sluggo olivia jaimes and caroline cash holding hands and skipping in front of a banner that reads "how life is when you don't read the comments"
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The thread o’ tweets @threadotweets.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
James Urbaniak @JamesUrbaniak
We're just three MCs and our beats are sick

(Screenshot of twitter trends)


Nate Silver

Matt Walsh

Barbara Stanwyck
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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · 01/04/2026
I'm speechless.
Screencap of Netflix newsroom website featuring an announcement of a four-year deal with Clarkesworld to create a new science fiction anthology series.
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 29/03/2026
In all seriousness though, elder millennial jokes aside, I think it’s important to resist the media framing of any mainstream resistance to the status quo as just the shrill nonsense of middle-aged women with nothing better to do. This isn’t the first time they’ve run out this playbook.
Early 20th c political cartoon depicting suffragettes as dowdy middle-aged women
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Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
In honor of Jessie Buckley's Best Actress win--richly deserved, even if I didn't love Hamnet the movie--I'm recirculating this piece about Shakespeare biography onscreen & on the page, the fruit of over a year spent reading versions of the Bard's life.
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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
It is *fascinating* to me how quickly some people have gone completely from “we all must work in the office! human collaboration is vital and only happens in person!” to “I can replace all these pesky people with chatbots!” Definitely some commentary there about our society and who gets to choose.
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Matt Orion @orionmatt.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
We don’t talk enough about the greatest wedding scene ever filmed 🎥
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
One big problem with the world is how few people in power I can imagine sitting down and reading a book
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Alan Scherstuhl @alansch.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
At one point in Song Sung Blue Hugh Jackman is like “no, I can’t possibly sing Neil diamond songs, my regard for the man is too great” and Kate Hudson is nominated for acting like that is not just explicable but kinda sexy
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Alan Scherstuhl @alansch.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Epigraph in Ali Smith’s “Glyph”
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dr. rich traditions, JD @helldude.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
i genuinely cannot process how debased our ruling class is. these guys will walk around all day in shoes that don't fit rather than tell their boss he's wrong. this whole thing where they pretend a stupid evil guy with brain damage is qualified to run every aspect of everyone's life is unacceptable
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Matt Thompson @mvthomster.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
create a massive cultural problem, then externalize the responsibility and cost onto friends and relatives
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Will Hermes @willhermes.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Gift post, no paywall. The playlist was SO fun to make, brought me back to my NYC days in the '70s / '80s. Willie was a mixed bag for sure, like a lot of family. But goddamn his jams are hot.
open.substack.com
RIP Willie Colón: a 30+ song primer
Notes on the pan-American salsa innovator + New York City legend (e.g. Bad Bunny's shout-out in "NUEVAYol"), and a streaming playlist primer for folks who think they don't like salsa.
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priscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
it's molting season for RFK Jr
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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I've said it before: the defining characteristic of white supremacists is that you wouldn't want to fuck them.
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John Shirley @johnshirley2024.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
"In late 2024, his company donated $100,000 to President Trump’s second inaugural committee. A few months later, the prosecutor on his case was fired by a White House official, and a few months after that, the government dropped the criminal case entirely."
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Lmao come on man. This is B tier Columbo villain stuff
 Shortly after the law enforcement investigation into Jeffrey Epstein became public in the mid-2000s, Donald Trump called the Palm Beach, Florida, Police Department to express gratitude, according to a newly released document.

“Thank goodness you’re stopping him,” Trump said, according to the document. “Everyone has known he’s been doing this.
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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Evening at the inn in the 1620s and everybody is totally blotto. And Adriaen Brouwer is here to immortalize it! Today was his day.
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Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
This week's review covers THE GREAT STRIKE (1917), an Australian documentary of the important labor action that was screened exactly once and then pulled and censored. Only 15 minutes out of an hour runtime survive moviessilently.com/2026/02/16/t...
moviessilently.com
The Great Strike (1917) A Silent Film Review
A strike in New South Wales was caught on film and turned into a feature-length documentary. These fragments are all that remained after the censors got through with it.
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Guy posting about how we need to defend our great and noble heritage, the only one which can produce works of great art: *turns on another episode of Family Guy, the seventh one he’s watched today*
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vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Okay then
Steven Pinker ® @sapinker • Follow
I have no relationship with Epstein & have taken no funding from him. Our circles have occasionally overlapped:
In 02, my lit agent invited me to join a group of east-coast TED speakers Epstein flew to CA. In 14, Krauss seated me next to him at a lunch, & someone snapped a photo.
11:09 PM • Jul 10, 2019 from Provincetown, N CPinker, Steven
<Pinker, Steven>
to Lesley Groff
Mar 28, 2012 5:47 PM

star_border
Dear

Unfortunately I'm out of town that day, but if Jeffrey is around on Monday the 16th, I'll be back and would be delighted to meet with him.

Best,
Steve
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Jake Cole @jakecole.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Contrary to the frantic beliefs of all the Silicon Valley blood bois, immortality has always existed and it is in the form of art and/or creating something with your mind and hands that will live far beyond the limits of human flesh.
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