David DeGusta

I’ve had two poems published, both in Barrelhouse theme issues: I’ve found my lane!

Which is a little amusing, given that I bought a certain Barrelhouse t-shirt referencing poets at my first AWP.

In all honesty, very happy to have some writing in one of the first lit journals I subscribed to-thx!

BARRELHOUSE Note: This special online issue was edited by the students in Mike Ingram's Fall 2025 Writers at Work class at Temple University. Editors include: Teresina Bova, Charlotte Chadwick, Genevieve DeBlasio, Sydney Dietrick, Sara Glaze, Alexis Hammond, Jack Jones, Madison Kifolo, Aidan Kinniry, Cheyenne Kirby, Laura Lahee, Astrid Le, Christian Lopez, Nicky McKee, Christian Patrick, Idris Settles, L Singleton, Soc Son, Kenna Stewart, Caitlin Weissing, and Maggie Whitfield.

A particular thanks to the Temple University students who edited this special issue of Barrelhouse — they clearly have phenomenal taste and bright futures.

Very grateful to have my poem “Our Survey of Western Dirt” be a part of the latest issue of Barrelhouse. Many thanks to Mike Ingram and his students at Temple (see next post for their names) for including it. www.barrelhousemag.com/online-lit/o...

@mikeingram.bsky.social
@barrelhouse.bsky.social

Besides Oromay’s importance, I wanted to translate it because I think it’s a great story. It’s got it all: politics, love, war, spies, humor, philosophy, and so many memorable characters.

The history is complex, and mostly covered (in English) in specialist volumes. If you have specific questions, or want to dig into the scholarly literature, DM me.

Put simply, the Red Terror refers to “internal” purges of suspected dissidents, mostly in Addis, circa 1976-1978 (western calendar).

The Red Star campaign was launched in 1982 against separatist groups in Eritrea.

Both involved the Derg using violence against opponents, but two separate things.

Very excited to hear that you’ll be featuring Oromay - thanks! One small correction though: the Red Terror and the Red Star Campaign are two different things. If you’d like more background, just let me know. The most informative review about the relevant history was in the Times Literary Supplement.

If you think time at MacDowell might be beneficial to your art (fwiw I bet it would be) then APPLY. They are incredibly welcoming and supportive, the experience was transformative for me and many others, and no, you don’t have to be a superstar to get accepted. So, apply! @macdowell1907.bsky.social

Oh, that’s wonderful to hear! Thanks for taking the time to share that. Happy new year!

Glad you liked Oromay - thanks for posting it!

Glad you liked Oromay!

Fascist idiots obsessed with ‘racial purity’ drove a motley assortment of scientists to flee to the US where they played absolutely vital roles in developing the atomic bomb, allowing the US to win the war and become a superpower so 80 years on Miller could wish we had acted like the fascist idiots

How many ethical violations is Brooks going to be allowed to get away with? (Question applies equally to Dillon Brooks of the NBA and David Brooks of the NYT)

Same. If I had to point to a moment that made me a writer, it was seeing Arcadia at ACT in SF in 2013. Walked in with no idea of what the play was about, walked out forever changed. Amazing production. Went back and saw it the next night, which was closing else I’d have kept going. rip Tom Stoppard.

You helped make paleogroup a great experience - good times!

Oh, sure - that totally makes sense. My only variant (and not saying it’s a better way, just my way) is that I would announce those clarifications to the class as a whole (e.g., north vs south-facing slope). Completely agree that I don’t want to trip up students on non-class vocab.

My policy for questions during an exam is that I will either respond “answer the question as written” or, if a clarification is needed, I will announce it to the whole class. No individual guidance, as that can be unfair. Also cuts down on pleas for help in question form. (Hi Mike!)

You had me scared at Arby’s.

Their conversation seemed to ignore the fact that if you expose people to gambling, a certain percentage of them will get addicted. Especially now with gambling via smartphone apps. That ruins lives, even without cheating. Sports books losing a few bucks to insider info is not the big harm here.

Chauncey Billups lost a coach's challenge on an out of bounds call four minutes into the first quarter last night.

If that dude beat me in poker, I'd be hella suspicious too.

A Tesla Cybertruck with garish graphics depicting Labubu dolls (a fandom Venn diagram I would not have thought overlapped) and a custom license plate reading LABUBUO. Normally I blur the plates of any vehicles I post, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this owner is not especially concerned with privacy or keeping a low profile. #cybertruck #labubu #wtf

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

Spotted in the SF Bay Area. Feels like an inflection point for me, marking the moment when I can no longer maintain even the illusion that I have some tentative understanding of wtf is going on in the world.

I did. But I tried to structure it so that the first few minutes of class weren’t critical for following the rest of the session. That way latecomers could still participate. Also, just because students are in their seats doesn’t mean they are fully “there” yet, so a little warmup is nice for all.

“Fiction: Bringing Game Theoretic Predicaments to Life Since the Second Millennium BC”

Might still need to workshop that slogan a bit.

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

And for those who might respond to such concerns with, “But AI is going to be way better soon,” it’s worth noting that OpenAI’s own researchers just released a research paper showing mathematically that errors (hallucinations) are inevitable in LLMs.

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

It struck me as a fake thing that Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat would get a bunch of C-list comedians to agree to with all kinds of over-the-top requirements (“You must do one knock-knock joke - our leader really loves those. Knock knock, who’s there, hit squad! So funny!”).

Fwiw, the article just says that the center will offer classes in digital content, so the poster seems to have invented the idea that they are adding a new degree/major. But yeah, the notion of something like “The Jake and Logan Paul Endowed Chair of Trolling” is pretty hilarious.

The article just says the center will be offering courses, no mention of any new degrees or majors (which would typically come through a department rather than a center).

Thank you for mentioning Oromay!

I probably shouldn’t admit this (note to other entities, this only applies to Scriptnotes!), but … it actually did prompt me to go back and re-listen to episode 633 with John Gatins on “dormant” projects. 🤷

Admitting and correcting mistakes is exactly the kind of journalistic good practice* that one worries might be jettisoned under the rumored new leadership at CBS News.

* also good human practice.