28 Comments

I’ve been hoping for a fall out with elon in the early weeks of the new regime as it would be quite funny if all that sycophancy and money spent was for naught

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That was my call too….Elon is such an egomaniac. At some point he’ll think HE is the president and Trump will get rid of him.

Everything Trump Touches Dies, Elon.

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What happened to Bluestocking: 342?

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Nov 8·edited Nov 8

The email went out, including the contents of the post, but there's nothing on the Substack site. Very odd.

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I was just about to ask the same thing! I got a notification last week but it didn't link to anything.

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Same, and I've switched off the emails because I prefer to read on the app. I would love to read 342! I think in the opening lines of this post, Helen is saying she took it down

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author

Yes, sorry — I decided I didn’t need the hassle from drive-by commenters who aren’t my regular subscribers. Drop me a line anyone who missed it and I’ll forward it …

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Very very happy to read that Dark Is Rising is your favorite children's book!

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I try to listen to or read 'The Dark is Rising' every Christmas starting on December 20th and am already looking forward to a repeat listen of the McBurney adaptation this year. We need the Old Ones to rescue us from the gloom of this year.

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This is terrific, didn’t know it existed until now, I’m halfway through 😊

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I also would like to see much louder celebrations over the Dems NOT stealing this election, after all. Can we all laugh at anyone who suggested it was ever a genuine problem?

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Well, that is a worthy quote from Politico, that Trump the infamous teetotaller in fact behaves like an alcoholic parent - at least to some degree.

I would add that her refusal to enter the limelight Iris-ing in on Trump is a wiser display of wisdom.

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Reading this is as close to cheerful as I have felt about the election, so thank you for that.

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Speaking of spicy quotes from Quincy Jones, I love this bit from him regarding Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa from a late in life GQ interview: “Amazing man. What a guy. Eleven-inch dong.” The whole interview is… something. https://www.gq.com/story/quincy-jones-has-a-story

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This is incredible stuff. I had no idea about 95% of it!

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Ditto The Dark is Rising equalled only by Susan Cooper’s non fantasy but v moving children’s book set in the Blitz, Dawn of Fear

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I wrote an old-school letter to Susan Cooper a couple of years ago. She had the courtesy to write back and include a couple of signed bookmarks for my son and me.

I read The Dark is Rising and 'Over sea and under stone' in English classes back when every child was given a book.

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On a separate issue, why has nothing been heard of Trump's mental state since he won the election? earlier this year, there were lots of suggestions that he was following his father in suffering dementia - https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-dementia-evidence-overwhelming-top-psychiatrist-1881247 for example. But since 5 November, nothing. Conspiracy of silence?

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I suspect that Susie Wiles might not last more than a few months (maybe not even as far as the Inauguration). Her forte seems to be campaigning rather than managing politicians, whereas Chief of Staff is definitely a day-by-day, minute-by-minute managerial role. Trump clearly does not like being managed, and I suspect that he will get tired of Wiles telling him "You can't do that", especially if she backs it up with cogent arguments. And she will get tired of being ignored.

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Excellent profile of Susie Wiles. Thanks for sharing.

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Fabulous!

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I know this is going to out me as a proper data dork but I love that graphic on vote share.

Its almost like there's a pandemic hangover effect

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The Sam Kriss article is v good on the folly of choosing an unpopular machine politician like Harris https://samkriss.substack.com/p/i-told-you-so

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The writing is incredible, but help me understand the argument? It seemed to me to say that people were too sharp to miss Biden/harris’s flaws … but not sharp enough to hold in mind the “flaws” of their impeached, convicted, voted-out opponent?

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A little charisma goes a long way.

Whatever you think of Trump, he seems "authentic" to voters in a way that Harris never did.

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“[Harris] moves through the world like a pat of half-melted butter”. So perfect. An absolutely amazing read.

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