Matt Weiland

Paul Laity · After Martha For the hospital, and for the NHS, it was a closed case, another preventable death: medicine is imperfect, such things...

'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Hennepin History magazine Dialing Dahlberg: A Minneapolis phone book's moment of Hollywood Fame tl;dr the movie production team went to great lengths to use the correct prop, but due to the unusual publication schedule of the annual phone book, they got or mocked up the wrong edition, not the one the real Woodward would have pulled off the shelf, if he hadn't just called Directory Assistance as in the book.

A few years ago, @garyhornseth.bsky.social and I wrote an entire researched local-history article about the Minneapolis phone book that Robert Redford pulls off the shelf at the Washington Post in that scene from "All the President's Men"

"obliged to choose between complaint and comedy, I choose comedy"

I wrote a book called "Stories Are Weapons" which is a history of psychological war in the United States. In it, I describe how the US military came to a simple definition of rhetoric used for destructive purposes in war (so-called psyops) vs. for democratic debate. Want to know what it is? (1/3)

It will delight me to send you a copy, Gerry!

Book covers of Lance Richardson’s True Nature and Caroline Tracey’s Salt Lakes

Alaska reentry has its ups and downs but amazing reads are an up.

"the jarring juxtapositions whiplash the viewer between bleak slapstick (the car is on the roof!) and horror (the car is on *the roof*)"
--Nathaniel Rich on Richard Misrach's photos of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath

"a first-time crop artist"

Let's see...

$5.50 in 1965 was worth $17.21 in 1983.

A ticket to the 1983 Prince show for Minnesota Dance Theatre at First Ave cost $25.00.

Therefore Prince was 45% better than the Beatles.

Finally: the All That and a Bag of Chips scandal

Delighted to receive my galley of @cetracey.bsky.social’s forthcoming masterpiece on our planet’s imperiled salt lakes—“a debut as gorgeous and vibrant as the lakes she loves,” as I put it in my blurb. Enamored of that pastel cover so evocative of Utah. Preorder below!

bookshop.org/p/books/salt...

On this day in 1958, Art Kane photographed 57 musicians at 17 East 126th Street in NYC for Esquire magazine. It was a Great Day in Harlem, 67 years ago today.

Sonny Rollins is the only musician from this photo still living.

#SonnyRollinsBridge

Speaking of water books...

"What his brilliant colleague Richard Powers has done for trees and oceans, Robert Macfarlane here does for embattled waterways."―Pico Iyer, @airmail.news

^natural world

Obviously she writes better than her editor.

Out early next year: SALT LAKES by @cetracey.bsky.social. A book that captures the nature world and the human one with rare clarity and feeling.

Out in paperback this week: the celebrated biography of Agnès Varda by @carrierickey.bsky.social.

"Enthralling."―The New Yorker
"Intellectually satisfying and inspiring."―WSJ
"One of the best books ever written about the intersection between a director’s personal life and their work."―IndieWire

Galley of A Guardian and a Thief on display at Island Books. Visible behind it info counter, posters on the wall, and an upsidedown rainbow umbrella hanging from the ceiling

Today in: can I sneak read this book at the front desk galley mail: A Guardian and a Thief by @meghamaj.bsky.social coming from @aaknopf.bsky.social in October. Be nice to your future self and preorder a copy today! islandbooks.com/book/9780593...

AP to end its weekly book reviews In a note from Anthony McCartney, AP Global Entertainment and Lifestyles Editor, on Wednesday, shared by Jeff Rowe: Dear AP book reviewers, I am writing to share that the AP is ending its weekly book reviews, beginning Sept. 1. This was a difficult decision but one made after a thorough review of AP’s story offerings and what is being most read on our website and mobile apps as well as what customers are using. Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews. AP will continue covering books as stories, but at the moment those will handled exclusively by staffers. I want to thank you for your time and commitment to reviewing books for the AP. All current review assignments through Aug. 31 will be honored and your invoices will be paid. (Please submit those as you normally would, and file final invoices by Sept. 15.) I want to take a moment to thank Carolyn, who has coordinated reviews and made sure relevant titles were covered, and Mark, who has edited the reviews and incorporated best practices for trying to get reviews to appear in search results and get as many readers as possible. Thank you again for your diligence and work on reviews. I wish you all the best.

The @apnews.com says that its ending its weekly book reviews.

This is delightful.
Would pay premium for a social media platform that consisted only of people suggesting books for Anne Trubek's mom forever.

Opinion | The Number How a country collects and interprets data reveals a lot about what it values.

Worth reading again: John Lanchester's profile of the BLS (which also appeared in Michael Lewis's recent book, "Who Is Government"). Gift link:

wapo.st/4l7AJjR

"In fact, the crowd was so quiet [hearing "Purple Rain" for the first time], producer David Z had to tweak the recording. 'I cheated and put a crowd from the Minnesota Vikings in the audience track.'"

Minneapolis Tribune, Sunday, August 7, 1983. Item in music news column with two photos from the Aug. 3 concert at First Avenue. One is Prince playing guitar with arm raised and a kind of wild look on his face, and the other is Loyce Houlton of the Minnesota Dance Theater with Prince beaming at her, on stage. The text says the concert, with tickets at the high price of $25, raised about $2,300 for the dance company. Houlton had caught Prince, who took classes the MDT, while the Purple Rain album/movies rehearsals were underway two weeks before. Crowd estimate: 1,100.

42 years ago today, on Aug. 3, 1983, Prince "and Friends" (soon to be known as The Revolution) performed songs for the first time that would appear a year later on the soundtrack album and in the movie "Purple Rain."

In the fifties the covers of Anchor Books were printed with a flat color process that limited them to three colors and black, each printed separately. Edward Gorey turned this limitation into a virtue and many of his covers, like this one, have a distinct Japanese woodcut flavor.

prestige Sumerian myth

Some great worms of recent cultural history

1. Lowly Worm, in Richard Scarry BUSYTOWN books (1960)

2. Slimey, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm on SESAME STREET (1971)

3. Sandworms, in Frank Herbert DUNE (1965)

4. The ones in Carlo Ginzburg THE CHEESE AND THE WORMS (1976)

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: SciFri Book Club July 2025 Meeting - FROSTBITE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Want to meet other SciFri Book Club members, talk about the book selection, and find more resources for deeper learning—all without leaving your home? Our community meeting is the place for you! This...

This month, the #SciFriBookClub has been reading “Frostbite” by Nicola Twilley, a book about the hidden global network that keeps food cool.

Join us this Thursday, July 31, at 8:00 PM ET for our "Ask the Author" virtual event. Come with your queries and wonderings.

RSVP Here: buff.ly/BKwPX0Q

What is "fish & amp chips"? It looks like someone screwed up somewhere in the signmaking process and included the HTML code for ampersand: "fish & chips"

HAPPENING TONIGHT: If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, come join us at the @cwclub.bsky.social for an important conversation on SHADE, with journo @samkbloch.bsky.social!

Bloch’s new book, “Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource,” expands on an article published in Places in 2019.

Heat Wave | Eric Klinenberg What Chicago needed was a social autopsy, a study of the institutions and relationships that permitted this catastrophe.

What a line, from this 2002 classic:

"Most of the victims, like Joseph Lazcko, came into contact with the two things that might have saved them, air conditioning and attention from state agencies, only after their bodies were delivered to the morgue."
thebaffler.com/salvos/heat-...

Congrats to one-of-a-kind Ed Park on his new book