Paul Cote

Do all those hustle culture guys whose schedule is like…

Wake up at 4am.
Eat a tiny meal.
Exercise for 15 minutes.
Tiny snack.
10 minute nap.
Splash around in a bowl of water.
Get dressed in practical clothes already laid out.

…realize that’s the same agenda as a literal baby?

“Laugh, so they’ll know you’re one of them. Laugh, or he’ll kill you. Laugh, and maybe you won’t be next.”

A real gut punch, from @petridishes.bsky.social

What We Gain by Forgetting In Linn Ullmann’s memoiristic fiction, the erosion of memories is a feature, not a bug.

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about Linn Ullmann’s new novel, Girl, 1983, a fascinating work of autofiction that pushes us to consider how what we forget might be as important to storytelling as what we (think we) remember.

Gift link here: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

For this teen from Gaza, her legs are the least of what she’s lost Part of a generation of young amputees, Marah Maher is learning to walk again. Every step brings her closer to an unimaginable future.

Marah Maher had just begun her final year of high school when the war started.

Now she is part of a generation of pediatric amputees from Gaza, grieving her family and longing to go home as she learns to walk again in the United States.

Gift link below - thank you for reading.
wapo.st/40cgCcS

Judge Doom from Roger Rabbit, smiley with mild satisfaction on account of he just solved “the trolley problem” by replacing LA’s trolley system with “The Freeway”

That’s why he remains the only person to successfully solve the trolley problem:

I do kind of miss when the news was just on the news and not a bunch of other places where people got mad at you for not also being the news.

List of films and their corresponding posters: It’s Such a Beautiful Day, Moonrise Kingdom, There Will be Blood, The Boy and the World, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Green Knight, The Fabelmans, The Boy and the Heron, The Tree of Life, and Bright Star

My hypothetical NYT Top 10 Films of the 2000s. Limited myself to 1 per director. Honorable mentions to Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, Ennio, Persepolis, Pan’s Labyrinth, Royal Tenenbaums, A.I., New World, Inglorious Basterds, In the Mood for Love, All or Nothing, and Tale of Princess Kagura

These Watery Works Offer Sharks, Thrills and Magic

My first piece for the @nytimes.com Book Review considers two middle grade novels which are distinct in scope and motivation but aligned in their depictions of rites of passage achieved through the recognition of adult solipsism and corruption.

Here’s a gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/b...

Beautiful, profoundly moving review from @rvoronacote.bsky.social about grief and the allure of AI as a means of avoiding all difficult emotions.

*guy who cant possibly comprehend that sometimes a visual artist has an aesthetic seeing that there's a new wes anderson coming out* WUUUughhguuhghghhhzzzuuuuuh??? WHUhh????? Bbbbuhhhh....????

If you inherited a movie theater, what’s your first double feature?

Every movie made for adults in 1985 was about Sylvester Stallone and his robot dog fighting ninjas, and ever movie made for kids was about a cartoon mouse and his family slowly dying of radiation poisoning.

This is easily one of the best magazine features I have ever read. It is funny, educational, comprehensive and detailed about multiple technical topics while staying accessible to a general reader. I wish I could nominate it for a National Magazine Award. It is well worth your time.

The best parts of Andor are when, after 40 minutes of gritty Army of Shadows cosplay, they cut to Mon Mothma walking down a hallway with some googley-eyed Muppet as she’s urgently whispering “please Senator Goofenscrub, I need you to vote against The Emperor’s Glorbanflib genocide act!

Donate to Stand by Sarah: Stroke Recovery Fund, organized by Bridget Scala Help Support Dr. Sarah Kaplan Browne’s Recovery Two weeks ago, my lifelong and b… Bridget Scala needs your support for Stand by Sarah: Stroke Recovery Fund

I know times are hard, and so much demands our attention, but my dear cousin has suffered a catastrophic hemorrhagic stroke, and those of us who love her are trying to alleviate the resultant financial strain. If you can help, either by donating or sharing, I’ll be so grateful.

gofund.me/1281207e

Pub day for these beauties!

People will always say they’re your friend and they support you no matter what but then they’ll say some toxic shit to you like “you have to let go of the cursed amulet, it’s changing who you are” and “don’t let its power corrupt you” all because they want the amulet for themselves

Guest column | Words aren’t enough to describe grief, but they can still be a refuge For all its agonies and loneliness, grief continually asserts itself as a creative force.

My latest piece for @washingtonpost.com's Book World is an essay on grief literature, drawing significantly on Lauren Markham's Immemorial (a beautiful book), with some forays into Roland Barthes, and a bit about a tree that I think might remember my late mother.

Here's a gift link: wapo.st/4cqRvrD

49% of Troy was like "they tried to kill us yesterday" but 51 were chanting HORSE! HORSE! really loud

YouTube video by The Muppet Show Vault The Muppet Show - 201: Don Knotts - “The Windmills of your Mind” (1977)

For those who just watched the Severance season finale, may I share the following oldie but goodie with you:

This is awful. I get why these stories are being highlighted - pointing to the abundant lies of the administration.

AND, people who ARE associated with gangs shouldn’t be snatched up and shipped off to prison camps, either here or in other countries.

No one, NO ONE should be treated like this.

To all the Democrats who spent the last 10 years insisting we need a “strong Republican Party”: well, we got one. What did we need it for, again?

Walter Goggins as Uncle Baby Billy in The Righteous Gemstones

Walter Goggins in The White Lotus

Retire the comedy and tragedy masks and replace them with Walter Goggins

"This is going to ruin the tour."
- Justin Timberlake talking about his DUI arrest and Chuck Schumer talking about his own recent congressional record

Remember yesterday? It isn't over. Call again today. Find your senators' numbers at ☎️ reps.fyi. If you can't get through at their DC office, try their state office.

CALL THEM TODAY - Dems are privately saying they are just being performative! And intend to cave! Call today and tell them you can’t save face if you abandon seniors and children and workers and people with disabilities and people in poverty and ALL OF DC

VERY IMPORTANT: This is just a trick. It's a way for Democratic senator to say they oppose the bill while letting it pass. It's not much of a trick. I mean, everyone will see it. But still this is simply a way of hoodwinking constituents. If they want to vote for it just vote for it.

No Federal Funding CR Without DOGE Guardrails - Passed House ⭑ 5 Calls UPDATE (03/11/25): The House has passed the GOP continuing resolution with a narrow 217-213 vote. The legislation now moves to the Senate where …

You've made 4,000 calls to your Senators to oppose the CR in the last *35 minutes* alone!! 🔥📞🔥

Keep up the pressure 👉 5calls.org/issue/cr-con...

There’s no reason to have a Democratic Party if it won’t go to the mat to save the Department of Education. It’s a fundamental belief that children in America deserve better futures. It’s tremendously simple. You cannot continue funding a government that would close this.