BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Coming here to say—and I do have the type of thinking and speech that interrupts itself frequently—that I love the em dash, the en dash, the hyphen, and the Oxford comma. Once upon a time, I was as a typesetter and production artist. You never forget your first hot type letterpress. 020
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 28/08/2026My favorites were from the earlier seasons where Captain Pioe came to terms with his future tragedy. I feel this season they’re just teasing us! 000
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 28/08/2026It wasn’t even that good, but after the Puppet episode, it felt like Chekhov. Anton Chekhov, Ensign Chekhov…it was recognizable as science-fiction is what I mean. 100
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 30/07/2026I remember interviewing author Susan Griffin (“Woman and Nature;” “Chorus of Stones”) reflecting on her friendship & discussions on radical feminism with poet Adrienne Rich. She said they said made a similar observation—that gender “was and remains the first way they divide us.” 030
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Someone in the early 40s who looks like they’re in their early 30s? 101
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Yes. And the meme of Rod Serling standing in from of Trump at the resolute desk in the Oval Office summed up the sense of dislocation. Remember how so many TV shows in 2017-18 were about landing in or coping with alternative universes? Russian Doll, Counterpart, Man in the High Castle and more. 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/07/2026We were at a watch party that included consumables b/c legalized pot was on our ballot. As more GOP faces began appearing on TV, we decided to go home. I did not literally hide under the bed, but the turning off of tv, computer, and iPhones felt decisive. Like hanging black fabric over the mirrors. 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/07/2026It was as an awful day. And similar to experiencing an unexpected death. The polls had her winning even on that day. So many vignettes. Tears from learning voters were leaving their stickers on Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite. The festival parties that grew increasingly somber…. 210
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Also molecules of animals that couldn’t escape. Very much headache and tears. 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 08/07/2026As a NYRB article in 2017 put it, and following his Senate blockade of Obama’s last nomination to the Supreme Court, McConnell is (or was) America’s “grave digger of democracy.” 060
Reposted by BTBaumJared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Politics now is all cult-adjacent. Personalities and team identification. Real actual struggle for power and a better world requires mature and clear-eyed skepticism. MAGA isn’t the only political cult with built-in denial of reality. Every day we get new and disturbing examples of where this leads. 114025
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 28/06/2026“Eggs belong in the dairy section!” “No, they don’t!! Personally, I don’t think the online world has ever (or could ever) adjudicate this one. 150
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 25/06/2026My marker for feeling ancient was when my nephew insisted he knew that “Liz & Dick” were the same people as “Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.” But when asked what they were famous for, why their names were bandied about, he tentatively said, “they were comedians?” 130
Reposted by BTBaumJane Rosenberg LaForge @elrosenberglaforge.bsky.social · 16/06/2026@rbreich.bsky.social notes on this occasion that five corporations now control up to 90 percent of American #media market. 012
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Not to mention The Parallex View directed by Alan J Paula in 1974. That, plus the two you mention are more incisive than the entire output of Oliver Stone. 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 19/05/2026What would cause this? Aside from the obvious (sulfur running thru their veins). 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 16/05/2026We lived through an Age of Material Abundance! (Unevenly distributed, but still real) How can we make lists of “the best” of any number? Museum curators say that ‘what is loved will be saved.’ Like the survivors in Fahrenheit 451, I hope everyone helps save even 1 treasure before it all blows away. 000
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 11/05/2026You are a fantastic writer and you inspire me with your dedication!! 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 02/05/2026Top 15 shows, gut instincts: Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows Ed Sullivan Star Trek (all of them) That Girl Laugh In Carol Burnett Comedy Hour All in the Family The Mary Tyler Moore Show MASH Seinfeld X-Files Saturday Night Live Mad Men Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul A French Village The Sopranos 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 27/04/2026Either is great! You get to explore the village more that way. But I did love our loop trip spending time meeting cows, goats, dogs, and farmers. We had a company transport our luggage so that made it easy. Enjoy!! 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 27/04/2026We walked the Cotswolds in 2023 and Lake District in 2025. The weather is the only wild card. Walking uphill in the rain for ten miles to reach Beatrix Potter’s house could’ve been improved via taxi. Is your plan town to town in a loop? Or using different villages as a base for your daily walks?taxi.town 100
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 18/04/2026Yes, absolutely. Becerra’s range of experience is exceptional. I never bought that California was a Blue wonderland. We have dire problems. I think Bercerra knows how to improve things and keep all the parts running in the face of complete obstruction from a Federal Govt that is no longer our ally. 050
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Yeah. And I guess we’ll get there soon enough once we build that base on the dark side & head to Mars in search of water as everyone on Earth drinks Coca Cola made with sand. See? We are already on the dark side and we are already changed. 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 13/04/2026C’mon! We have so few nice things these days. I need my happy crew. 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Not quite! Mike Geisbrecht—who was only in Hole for a short time in 1989–has not (and can no longer) write his memoirs. I will say, however, that his memorial service unfolded like a short heartbreaker story told by Raymond Carver. 000
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026TBH, I was transfixed by lead actress Camille Cottin’s proboscis. American just doesn’t cast women without nose jobs. Her real face was stunning and gorgeous to see. 010
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Now that’s an interesting typo!! I meant to say First (1st) season. 122
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Not a movie but very French: “Dix pour cent” aka “Call My Agent!” which ran for 4 seasons. The fist season, imho, was the hottest! 111
Reposted by BTBaumAuthor Myron J. Clifton @deardean22.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Delores Huerta speaks her truth. IMO all recognition for Cesar Chavez should be withdrawn and changed to recognition of Delores Huerta. 1719344
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 18/03/2026All I've seen on the Hulu Streaming app in SF Bay Area is for Eric Salawell on a repeating loop. 100
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 11/03/2026And then, omg, the 7 season masterpiece of French television from 2009, “A French Village (Un Village Français)” every season = one year of WWII from the fall of France to the post war trials of collaborators. We watched it during his first administration. Phew. Quite a story. 000
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 11/03/2026To everyone loving Casablanca, may I recommend “Rome: Open City”? This 1945 film inaugurates Italian neo-realism. And the realism is about how the danger and need for resistance work. And that final shot of the children walking back to the city stands for all the trauma young people must carry. 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 23/02/2026And now, I’m going to dive back into one of most gorgeous novels I’ve ever read about lesbians returning to historic visibility in the 1800s—“After Sappho.” Stunning. 110
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 23/02/2026Just finished reading a thoughtful essay about Pee Wee Herman — “I Know You Are But What Am I?” Even if you’ve seen last year’s doc abt him, this has even more surprising insights about the Playhouse, our ‘90s relationship to technology, and what survived the moral panic/backlash against him. /1 100
BTBaum @btbaum.bsky.social · 20/02/2026Rabbit holes are fun but here’s a great book on the subject: “Fabulosa! The Story of Polari and Britain’s Secret Gay Language.” I mean, the cover alone is fabulosa! 010
Reposted by BTBaumBoston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 17/02/2026“We—that is, Americans—live most of the time inside the cocoon of our small daily lives. Except for fire, flood, or outright war, the history-making world hardly ever impinges on most of us. For the most part, it is over there and we are over here.” New from Vivian Gornick:bostonreview.netTurning a Blind EyeA memoir of daily accommodation to fascism. 11912