iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Having reached a certain age, and Since it seems like we're going to be talking about Tom Cruise again for a hot minute, I'm giving myself permission to say after years of silence that in the whole of my life I have never felt any particular kind of a way about Tom Cruise.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I really admire John Mulaney's refusal to actually host an award show. He just turns up to present, does a tight 2.5 of killer material that without even trying is a 100% funnier than anything else we've heard or will hear all night, and then bounces. He's the Lone Ranger of awards shows.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If the age gap between the second Mrs de Winter and Maxim is keeping you from engaging with the story, may I suggest you keep reading, because I promise you that's going to be the least of her problems.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"We're really putting the entire fate of this planet into the hands of an alcoholic out-of-work trucker?" is 💯 the sentence I want at the midpoint of a page-turner disaster novel! 😀

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

It's amazing how many 20 year old fashion models hold senior positions in hospitals, law firms, and government agencies on series television.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Thanks to Jimothy, i now know that the French for raccoon is "raton laveur" - Little Washing Rat. Such a beautiful language...

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Uh oh. Sounds like a certain someone saw Night At the Museum on TV last week...

Photo of an heroic equestrian statue with the White House and Washington Monument visible in the background. The horse is rearing on its hind legs atop a
rocky plinth. The officer rider in period uniform, is seated solidly in the saddle and flourishing his hat with one hand while holding the reins with the other.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Happy June 27. Corn be heavy soon... IYKYK.

Photo filled to all four sides of the frame with hand-sized stones.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I feel we're at an interesting point with AI where we have to acknowledge that people are capable of very very bad writing all by themselves.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I live in the PNW, I haven't watched a Knicks game since Bill Bradley was playing, and I couldn't name you a single player currently on the team if you paid me, but as a New Yorker born and bred I thought I should tune in tonight AND JFC WHAT A THRILLER!!

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

The Netflix algorithm continues to operate by some unknowable and idiosyncratic process of its own: "Because you enjoyed The Boroughs, you might like this documentary about Theodore Roosevelt..."

PR Art for Netflix series The Boroughs. Painterly images of (clockwise from upper left) actors Molina, Geena Davis, Clarke Peters, Bill Pullman, Denis O'Hare, Alfre Woodard, arranged on either side of their names against a sunset background. Below them, a cul de sac of desert ranch houses with a blast of astral light shooting up from the one in the center.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

They look like a 1950s jazz vocal group - any minute they're gonna bust out with "Undecided" in five-part harmony.

Late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth Meyers, all in dark suits and ties, pose smiling on the set of The Late Show.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I wonder, is it too late for me to grow up to be Emma Thompson? I mean probably it is, we're actually the same age, but possibly in some kind of spiritual sense? One could aspire? In any event, Happy Birthday to her! Truly "a star danced..."

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Reposted by Margaret Layne

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I suspect this is going to be one of those Oscar years where the nominees genuinely come close to reflecting the breadth and depth and variety of the movie year, and the list of winners doesn't.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Just came across the observation (wish I could remember where) that if C.S Lewis submitted The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for publication today, they'd make him change the title to A Wardrobe of Lions and Witches, which is a very good trade joke but also I can't stop thinking about that now.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Jacob Elordi: "You don't need to search for your Heathcliff. Your Heathcliff will find you..." So you better start running NOW, girl.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

I enjoy the Summer Olympics, but you can't beat the Winter games for the number and variety of events in which you might die in front of millions of people.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

If I were on the Kennedy Center staff I would be making arrangements with the family to have the Kennedy bust quietly removed to an undisclosed location for safety. What's he gonna do - fire everybody?

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

"Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon." Happy Winnie the Pooh Day! Happy Birthday, A.A. Milne!

Watercolor by Ernest Shepard shows a small light-brown stuffed bear holding the string of a large red balloon and floating into a blue-and-white summer sky. A small buzz of honeybees off to the left keeps him company.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

"I want everybody to be smart. I want 'em to be as smart as they can be. A world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in." --Garson Kanin, 1946 (Born Yesterday)

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

The books that most engaged, engrossed, moved, and/or delighted me in 2025!

Cover Art for: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn; Mona Acts Out by Mischa Berlinski; The Hymn To Dionysus by Natasha Pulley; The Frozen River by Ariel Lawton; If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio; We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough; The Favorites by Layne Fargo; The Doorman by Chris Pavone; King Sorrow by Joe Hill

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

In the interests of everyone's sanity, let's please remember that The Odyssey is not an historical document; it's an adventure fairy-tale in the context of historical event, the Ancient Greek equivalent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is a one-eyed cave-troll giant in it. There is

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

"No one needed a magic wardrobe that opens into Narnia if they had a library card; if you had a library card, you had a thousand magic wardrobes to choose from, ten thousand....A library card was as good as a sword drawn from a stone." - Joe Hill

Illustration showing a pillared, many-leveled Gothic library and in the middle a young girl in a flared skirt, standing with her back to us, her feet planted on either side of a giant open book, her long hair whipping in what appears to be a powerful wind. She looks up at a tall pointed window glowing with light, and the space around her is filled with white winged objects that might be birds or might be the pages of books.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

"Better get some untaxed income, you've got to pick a pocket or two..."

Trump gleefully plucking his gold participation peace medal out of its presentation box

The actor Ron Moody as the master pickpocket Fagin gleefully holds up a stolen gold pocket watch by its chain while singing "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" in the movie musical OLIVER!

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

I suppose partly because it expresses so beautifully my own relationship to Stoppard's work (I had the joy of casting 3 of his plays for my home theatre), this is one of the best tributes I've read so far. I know no one that's ever been part of "Arcadia" who hasn't been permanently magicked by it.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Hey, chyron check, Local News Broadcast: Senators/Congresspersons voting in favor of a bill vote YEA, not YAY (charming though that is to imagine).

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

This is how I'm going to look every time someone dislikes one of my posts...

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

You go, tiny king! Shakespeare is only as hard as you tell yourself it is. Happy St. Crispin's Day!

youtu.be

5 year-old Henry V St. Crispin's Day speech Shakespeare

YouTube video by A Hatch

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Wow, hadn't seen Campbell Scott in a while. The paternal genes are really asserting themselves these days.

A strong-featured actor in his 60s with silver hair and deepset blue eyes glaring fiercely at someone off camera. He looks startlingly like his father the actor George C Scott

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

The most grudging biscuit-making you've ever seen. #Caturday #catsofblusky

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Today it was pointed out to me that you can sing "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" to the theme song from The Muppet Show and I have no idea how I'm supposed to live the rest of my life with that information.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

In celebration of Julie Andrews' 90th birthday today, here is the opening sequence of Darling Lili, one of her most exquisite and quintessential performances on film: elegant, ethereal, entrancing. The winding, silver-thread melody and luscious orchestration are by Henry Mancini (of course),

youtu.be

Julie Andrews - Whistling away the dark

YouTube video by Cayetano López

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

None of it is even remotely funny anymore, but credit where it's due, the recurring claim by TFG that he ended the long conflict between Cambodia and Armenia -which I'm sure will come as a surprise to both countries - legit cracks me up every time he says it.

Map showing relative locations of Cambodia, on the SE corner of the Asian landmass, and Armenia, 4000 miles away to the northwest.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Imagine someone showing up at your neighborhood community event and proceeding to insult the host, their home, the amenities provided, all the other guests, the guests' friends, and all of *their* homes, and then expecting to be told how wonderful they are...

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

I love when the TikTok fashion influencers do one-word responses to celebrity gowns on the red carpet and they say something like "traumatizing" and you can't tell from either the tone of their voice or the dress whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

There's nothing more nerve-wracking to me in film or TV than an EVA to fix the solar array - because it's ALWAYS the stupid f**king solar array, why do they even keep putting these things on spaceships if they're just going to jam or bend or snap off in some crucial way & start flapping around??

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I miss the days when in spite of other differences we might have at least we could mostly all agree that Nazis and slavery were bad.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

"Anybody that's ever studied history in any sort of serious way knows that you feel a range of emotions, and 70% of the time those emotions are not positive emotions that make you feel good

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Portrait of a cat who has triumphed (for today) in evading a wellness trip to the vet.

A fluffy white-chested tabby cat against the wall under a table, peeking out from behind a paper shredder and a recycle basket.

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Reposted by Margaret Layne

Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

maybe its too blunt of an object but i will go to my grave thinking a big part of why we got here is a refusal to say dumb people and dumb ideas are dumb. we were too polite, and instead we said "that's an interesting take" when we should have said "shut the fuck up, you absolute dumbass."

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

NYT Connections is getting increasingly schizophrenic. It's either "things that are red" and "animals you find on a farm," or "homonyms for islands of Micronesia missing one letter."

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

"Although Americans take for granted that fame, once tasted, is addictive, it is possible simply not to want to do it any more..." A typically insightful and elegant essay by Adam Gopnik in appreciation of the inimitable & famously reclusive Tom Lehrer and the high art of political satire.

newyorker.com

How Tom Lehrer Escaped the Transience of Satire

The late songwriter’s targets are mostly forgotten—so why do new generations keep discovering him?

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

If the paparazzi and stan photos from the location shoots of The Devil Wears Prada 2 are to be believed, it's a movie entirely about fashion-forward people walking out of buildings and crossing streets, sometimes while talking on the phone.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

I wonder how one gets added to the WhatsApp group chat of EU leaders? There has to be some serious shade getting thrown on there.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Man, Bernie Telsey is spinning that theatre Rolodex like a particle accelerator this season. #GildedAge

Collage of four actor headshots. Left to Right: Phylicia Rashad, Jordan Donica, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victoria Clark.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

My mom used to describe a certain kind of person as SMEEVY - I think it was a coined word, a cross between "smarmy" and "skeevy," I've never heard anyone else use it, but I think of it every time I see Mike Johnson. The smeeve is strong with that one.

A dark haired man in a blue suit and hornrim glasses, smirking over his shoulder at the camera and looking exceptionally smeevy.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

It's probably not officially in the etiquette books because it seems like something you shouldn't have to say, but I'm pretty sure that if you're dropping bombs on somebody you should take off your f****** hat.

Vance and FAUXTUS watching the attack on Iran. Trump is wearing his red MAGA baseball hat.

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Margaret Layne @emelleghostlight.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

I'm kind of loving it that at the rate it's going theatre social media will eventually create a complete performance-by-performance video record of every single time Rachel Zegler sang "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" on the Palladium balcony from the beginning of the run to the end.

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