Adam Keiper

Trump Smashed a Obama Legacy Item—Harming Many and Pleasing Few Not even industry lobbyists are rushing to praise it.

NEW: "If you want to understand how mindlessly destructive Donald Trump’s latest move on climate could be, just look at the response from the groups that you would expect to be cheering it most loudly."

Crickets from big business.

www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-epa-...

Meet Kevin Hassett: Conservatism’s Invincible Ignoramus Trump's director of the National Economic Council is a silly man.

Related, from our archives:
www.thebulwark.com/p/meet-kevin...

Kevin Hassett Busted Covering For Trump’s Jobs Fraud Will Saletan exposes Donald Trump’s authoritarian tactics after Trump fires the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for reporting accurate—but politically inconvenient—job numbers.

NEW: Kevin Hassett, the ultimate apparatchik.
www.thebulwark.com/p/kevin-hass...

a couple of guys geeking out about fountain pens

The highlight of the Fountain Pen Supershow for me was chatting with Drew Brown, a legend of the fountain pen community. (I think he's on Bluesky but only lurking @deeseebee.bsky.social.)

An insanely tall model of Orthanc (from The Lord of the Rings), built by Brendan McMahon of Columbus, Ohio. (That's him in the blue shirt.) It's super detailed—you can see the machines and scaffolding underground where the orcs are building weapons of war; the Ents carrying hobbits; an eagle at the top of the tower rescuing Gandalf; et very much cetera. Zoom in if you dare.

A huge model of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with the Capitol visible in the distance (upper left) and the Washington Monument in the foreground. Wayne R. Tyler of Salt Lake City, Utah built this (imagine driving this huge thing all the way from Salt Lake City to D.C.!). Some of these buildings light up. But the coolest thing here is that the design makes use of something that many people consider a flaw in Lego. Certain colors of Lego elements lose their color over time. White pieces in particular tend to yellow. So the builders intentionally used different shades of aging white bricks to make the buildings look more realistic. Check out the Washington Monument, for example, where this trick is used to mimic the distinct colors of marble in the real-life monument.

"New Swinestein"—a castle ruled over by Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, with tons of other Muppets characters hanging out. Linda Pleim of Halethorpe, Maryland built this. So many hilarious little details if you can zoom in. (I especially like Statler and Waldorf farming, and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew as a wizard. Plus Animal and the band rocking out.

A HUUUGE, hyper-densely packed fictional Middle Eastern walled megacity, "Medinat Al Musawrah." Details on the some of the builders in this big collarboative effort are here: https://www.brothers-brick.com/2024/08/24/middle-eastern-megacity-is-a-triumph-of-lego-collaboration-and-creativity/

A few of my and my kids' favorites from Lego Brickfair 2025. (Explanations in the alt text!)

Panoramic photo of the main room of Lego Brickfair in Chantilly, Virginia (about forty minutes west of Washington, D.C.) on August 3, 2025.

View of several tables at Lego Brickfair 2025 in Chantilly, Virginia on August 3, 2025. The yellow castle in the rear right is especially amazing—it's made out of Lego elements, and is a recreation of a very old-style Lego castle (some of the very earliest Lego castles were yellow) but it's cleverly done in such a way that it *looks* like it's made out of Duplo pieces. Basically, it's like a 4x model of a normal Lego castle.

View of the biggest room (out of four or five, or even six depending on whether you count the packed hallways) at the D.C. Fountain Pen Supershow in Falls Church, Virginia on August 2, 2025. People milling around looking at pens.

A table with beautifully colorful fountain pens on display.

It's once again that time of year when plastic lovers descend upon Northern Virginia just outside D.C.—the magical weekend of the massive Lego Brickfair and the Fountain Pen Supershow.

Both showcase the ubiquity and surprising resilience of plastic.

I always wonder how much the attendees overlap.

Yep, reading those as well!

YouTube video by ShekuKannehMasonVEVO Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: 3. Adagio

A #BlueskyLullaby for tonight: The gifted young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was around 20 when he recorded this with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Simon Rattle. It's the third movement (Adagio) of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto. See you around.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHav...

Ha, it sort of looks that way, doesn't it? But I'm trying to read the series / sequels / related books together, while also constrained by what my library has available at any given moment.

First page (of four) of the score to Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, Op. 85, III. Adagio.

Second page (of four) of the score to Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, Op. 85, III. Adagio.

Third page (of four) of the score to Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, Op. 85, III. Adagio.

Fourth page (of four) of the score to Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, Op. 85, III. Adagio.

If you can read music and want to follow along:

YouTube video by ShekuKannehMasonVEVO Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: 3. Adagio

A #BlueskyLullaby for tonight: The gifted young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was around 20 when he recorded this with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Simon Rattle. It's the third movement (Adagio) of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto. See you around.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHav...

So [DARK TOWER SPOILERS AHEAD] in the final books of the series, "Stephen King" himself becomes a character—which is to say, Roland and part of his ka-tet enter our world to confront their creator. And King's real-life accident becomes a central plot point, and the characters become involved in it.

Ah, true, yes, hahaha. I mean specifically that he was still working through his near-fatal accident. (I can say a bit more if you don't mind spoilers.)

(Each of these was a hard choice, though.)

Let me answer idiosyncratically: my favorite Stephen King novels by decade.

My favorite (so far) from the 1970s is 'The Shining'; from the 1980s is 'Pet Sematary'; from the 1990s is 'Gerald's Game'; from the 2000s is 'Under the Dome'; from the 2010s is '11/23/63'; from the 2020s is 'Billy Summers.'

The one I've already reread was his novella 'The Body' (which was the basis for the movie 'Stand by Me').

I'm not sure which of the others I'll reread when I wrap up circa Thanksgiving, except 'Salem's Lot' will be among them.

Before I read any of the Dark Tower books, one of colleagues warned me that in the later ones King was "working through some stuff." And booooy did that turn out to be true!

Definitely true! And I think some of his books—'The Institute' being a great recent example, and 'Carrie,' and probably several others—are perfect for a certain kind of kid.

Excellent! Good to know! Thanks!

Really interesting point on the women characters. So many of them are unforgettable ('Carrie' and 'Misery' and 'Cujo' and 'Gerald's Game' all instantly come to mind).

So leaving out 'Salem's Lot'—on the grounds that my judgment may have been warped by my miscalibrated expectations—and without having thought this through, I could make a case for at least 'The Shining,' 'Pet Sematary,' and 'The Body' (a novella collected in 'Four Seasons') on the top tier.

'Salem's Lot' was eye-opening for me, bc it was among the first I read this year—and I'd been expecting King to be a writer like, I dunno, Michael Crichton: clever plot ideas but wooden characters and bad writing. My expectations were so low that 'Salem's Lot' knocked me over. I'll reread it in Nov.

I was just telling someone else a few words about 'The Stand':
bsky.app/profile/adam...

Because it's poorly done? Or because it's well done, and you're kindly warning me away from it?

Exactly!

One advantage of mixing audiobooks and screen/paper books!

Yeah, I can certainly imagine being spooked out by 'Pet Sematary' if I had read it as a kid, but that would have been it. Reading it now it's true hug-your-kids nightmare fuel.

Just read it in June. As a colleague pointed out to me a few days ago, it combines so many different story types well (disease outbreak; post-apocalypse; cross-country journey; angels-vs.-demons; epic with many characters). It's very impressive and understandably beloved. But not among my favorites.

Part of the point I was making:
bsky.app/profile/shan...

I did see 'The Green Mile' in the theater when it came out, but remember very little of it. I'm staying away from movie and TV versions of his works as I read these, although I have seen a few in years past and am looking forward to both 'The Long Walk' and the new 'Running Man' this year.