Alison Cook

Sign that says “Immigrants welcome, ICE NOT/ Free Palestine” on the front of the Astoria Food Pantry in Queens.

Please consider giving to the Astoria Food Pantry, which serves immigrants in Queens, many of whom have been prevented from going to work because of fear of ICE raids. The line of those waiting for food was down the block when I passed by today. www.astoriafoodpantry.com/donate-money...

An orange cat laying on its back under a table, its head in shadow and face covered partially by its foreleg.

How your email finds me

Oh dear. That taco. 👹

MOM SAYS YOU HAVE TO PLAY WITH ME

pierogi is speech, can't be compelled

Let them eat cake.

Wolff: We can chart a continued friendship between these two men through flight manifests, photographs, phone calls

This relationship that Trump claims ended in 2000 actually demonstrably continued until at least 2005.

It’s that period in which most of the allegations against Epstein took place.

There’s a reason my newsletter is on Ghost. Would Substack be easier? Yes. Would it amplify my reach? Yes again. But I’d always be waiting for queasy shit like this to hit.

It’s complicated. Technically Rosewater is on one of Houston’s far flung fringes. Yet its name and its sense of the community it serves places it in Clear Lake culturally. I was playing with that and I knew I’d catch some flak 👹

I’m not quite sure “there’s plenty of water for data centers” is the correct take here. I read a lot about western water issues. And, um, yeahhhhh.

A small globe of falafel in cross-section, with sun catching the varying shades of green in the generously herbed ground-chickpea mixture. The outside looks crackly and deep-brown. On the celadon-green plate sits a vivid magenta spear of pickled turnip and a glossy dab of ivory tzatziki.

New on my newsletter: Houston’s best falafel is at a bar in Clear Lake. World-class stuff. Sign up to read about it at alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io

The Tesla diner is unfortunately in my neighborhood so I took a little peek to see boxes of milk and frozen foods out in the heat. Good luck to everyone’s stomachs.

Okay I laughed

YouTube video by FOX 5 New York Ghislaine Maxwell verdict: Guilty

I covered Ghislaine Maxwell's trial from her indictment to her conviction - my report minutes after the jury found her guilty is below.

It will be nothing short of a travesty of justice and a tragedy for every girl she victimized if Trump's DOJ cuts a deal with Maxwell to protect the President.

I’m sorry — *Cracker Barrel* is too woke for the Trump administration?

Cracker Barrel?!?

Once upon a (quaint) time, this would be a front-page scandal: An American president vowing to use the government to go after a political opponent even if it’s “wrong.”

Do we have any evidence that the president's apparently estranged spouse, who does not live in DC, has ever seen an opera www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/u...

Lee is a useful example of a politician so steeped in the online right that he can no longer tell reality from fantasy any longer
www.thedailybeast.com/gop-senator-...

Justin Sun—Trump’s Crypto Guardian Angel—Will Be The Next Billionaire In Space An SEC investigation into Justin Sun's business practices was paused after he invested $75 million into President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform.

An SEC investigation into Justin Sun's business practices was paused after he invested $75 million into President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform.

Socialism is what they called public power.

Socialism is what they called social security. 
 
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
 
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952

He seems very nervous

Any meeting between Blanche, DOJ, or any other Trump representative, on the one hand, and Ghislaine Maxwell and her attorneys or other representatives, on the other, should be audiovisually recorded. Full stop.

Meme. Photograph of two eels, out of the water, sitting side by side on the grass. They are silvery looking on the top, but you can see that their undersides are white. They are shiny, & look exactly as slippery as you would imagine. The one on the left is longer. He is looking towards his right, though his eye is fixed on the future. The shorter eel on the right is looking more straight ahead. It's mouth is open in a look of abject surprise. I'd like you to imagine that these two eels don't know each other, but they are waiting for the same bus. They are both on their way downtown, to interview for the same job at a major marketing firm. Neither knows this about the other, and they are caught up in their own worries. The eel on the left has been unemployed for 8 months, & worries that this is its last shot. The eel on the right just realized that it left its resume on the dining room table. Neither will get the job. Meme text reads: "But we're already stuffed with eel!"

Maybe the fanciest medieval eel recipe was the French "reversed eel." How do you make it? Well...

First, you skin & debone the eel. Then, sew it back together inside out, stuffed with bread crumbs, meats & spices. Then, cook it in red wine.

Kind of a super-fancy eel hot pocket!
🗃️🧪

Quite the dilemma 👹

You gotta eat there. 👹

Very weird. And, as I believe we are about to see, very wrong.

That would be my guess, too. I do like the sci-fi look, but the menu is meh. Needs a sense of humor.

Not so fast.

“Epic Bacon.” 😹

All Beef Snap-O-Razzo Hot Dog is my Feeld name