Will Paramount Cancel Jon Stewart? The “Daily Show” host talks with David Remnick about his contract with Paramount Skydance, the government’s attack on political satire, and how our institutions got so weak.

Jon Stewart running cover for Joe Rogan isn’t surprising, but it’s still pretty gross. Rogan may not have started out as “that guy,” Jon, but he certainly is now. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

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Patton Oswalt’s #ghostbox2025 for Hingston & Olsen ends with Bok’s “The Extremophiles” - the natural world can be just as strange as the supernatural.

An unkillable organism deserves a drink to match - a Zombie cocktail in a Cthulhu mug with extreme garnishment was my best attempt. Happy Halloween!

Oil. It’s about oil.

He’s not even trying. Maybe the simulation IS breaking down, because nothing makes sense anymore.

The penulimate tale chosen by Patton Oswalt for #ghostbox2025 is the classic “Unseen - Unfeared” from the originator of weird, dark fantasy herself, Gertrude Barrows Bennett. Love it!

Ander’s Erickson’s new Black Lantern is also a weird, dark fantasy - mohawk and all. Happy Devil’s Night everyone.

Just atrocious…

a man and a woman are sitting at a table with ketchup and mustard on it . ALT: a man and a woman are sitting at a table with ketchup and mustard on it .

It’s almost impressive that he’s on the wrong side of every issue. He’s the George Costanza of presidents.

Story 9 in Patton Oswalt’s #ghostbox2025 is Gahan Wilson’s “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” a darkly ironic, horror-tinged retelling of Carroll’s classic poem. The critique certainly could be applied to our current oligarchical nightmare

A Black Pearl Diver in rememberance of all the oysters lost

I didn’t get my FBI plant credentials either.

Citizens United happened.

Edith Wharton’s “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” is everything a gothic Victorian ghost story should be, showing the living are scarier than the dead. Nice inclusion for #ghostbox2025, Mr. Oswalt!

With the longer story, I chose Jeremy Oertel’s Haunted House to start and the classic White Lady to finish up

Ghost Box IV — Hingston & Olsen Publishing

Hingston & Olsen sells it from their site. Great advent short story collections for the winter holidays, too. www.hingstonandolsen.com/ghost-box-iv

“Every story is a ghost story.”’

So says Sonia in “Don’t Go into the Woods Alone” by @gabino.bsky.social, a tale of intergenerational trauma that serves as story #7 in Patton Oswalt’s collection of frights for #ghostbox2025.

I decided on Jason Alexander’s Doomsayer’s Grog to guide me through.

Contagion as creation? Creation as contagion? Who’s to say? I enjoyed “Brief Scenes from a Noxious Nativity” by Michael Shea, story 6 from Patton Oswalt’s #GhostBox2025, but I did go wash my hands.

A spooky mai tai with a dark rum float and fiery overproof rum garnish seemed fitting…and tasty.

Story 5 from @pattonoswalt.bsky.social’s
#Ghostbox2025 is Lord Dunsany’s “The Three Infernal Jokes.”

I drink a prohibition-era Satan’s Whiskers (the curly version with dry curacao) and contemplate Mr. Watkyns-Jones, the trade of his “surpassing virtue” and his “bowed and broken” fate.

Time seems to be up in “Flicker” by @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app, the next Ghost Box IV story selected by @pattonoswalt.bsky.social.

Given the current state of things, it might not be so bad if the simulation ended. I’ll be having the similarly-monikered Wibble cocktail should the lights go out.

www.hingstonandolsen.com

Because it was a short one, I followed “Eliminate Toxins and Increase Blood Flow” with Cowling’s outsider tale “Odam on Till,” which was included in H&O’s 2022 Short Story Advent Calendar.

On night 3 of H&O’s Ghost Box IV, Mr. Oswalt selected a story from @rubycowling.bsky.social that’s pulpy in more ways than one. The Corpse Reviver #2 cocktail was a perfect partner for “Eliminate Toxins and Increase Blood Flow,” though I don’t think it’ll help the lecherous, blubberous Mr. Smeed.

Story 2 of H&O’s and @pattonoswalt.bsky.social’s Ghost Box IV is @mathildazeller.bsky.social’s Kushtuka, a story in which supernatural horror is matched by very real colonial violence. The quotidian monster is more horrifying. Brilliant storytelling. A biting Blood Moon cocktail was a good pairing.

Is this from the Ministry of Truth, Peace or Plenty?

Citation needed, Mike.

Isn’t that Stephen Miller’s whole idea?

10/21 is the first of 11 spooky stories from Hingston & Olsen’s Ghost Box IV as edited by @pattonoswalt.bsky.social. I saw Bill Pullman’s episode of Night Visions that adapted Leman’s “Window” many moons ago. The story is better. Paired with the Shrunken Skull, evoking the remains of poor Reeves.

I will be reading with spooky cocktails the 21st-31st. Glad it’s back.

The ones doing it in the light of day aren’t great either.