Norman Mailer Interview: On Muhammad Ali, Hemingway, Churchill, and MLK (a video)

https://youtu.be/32hSpwLr9v8?si=pJJpsGkR6NB7gTOD

 

A timely New York exhibition immerses listeners in voices from the Holocaust

At New York Historical, rare, unheard recordings collected by Claude Lanzmann for his monumental film “Shoah” feature testimonies that still demand to be heard.

https://www.jta.org/2025/12/03/ny/a-timely-new-york-exhibition-immerses-listeners-in-voices-from-the-holocaust

EVERY WEEKDAY MORNING after I’ve held my sign, I see this Frank Gehry building right ahead of me as I’m about to descend the steps to get the subway home.

 

MY PLACE. This morning.

 C-SPAN 7:00-10:00 seven mornings a week. 

IT WAS 19 DEGREES this morning. Too cold for this old guy to hold his sign. So I watched—just finished watching—this documentary on Netflix. Smart. Wonderful.

 A VIEW FROM MY COUCH two days ago:

The Big Fail

(New York MAGAZINE)

Student achievement has fallen off a cliff. And neither Trump nor the pandemic is to blame.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/public-education-failure-american-test-scores-trump-pandemic-liberals.html

 

Sabrina Carpenter condemns ‘evil and disgusting’ ICE video that uses her song

Pop star calls out White House’s ‘inhumane agenda’ after post that soundtracks immigration raids to her song Juno

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/02/sabrina-carpenter-ice-video

 

NAPHEESA COLLIER interviewed by SUE BIRD (a video)

https://youtu.be/8wFHCurXhVw?si=6YlfmHZt13bnFhve

COOL VIDEO.

 

https://youtu.be/Ml_oY_zTFJA?si=DEuN6cAvQJ3Hx4u0

Historian Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat On Understanding Trump and Autocratic Behavior (on Simon Rosenberg’s podcast which I watch/listen to regularly)

https://youtu.be/F5koz58DkBc?si=llW50QEoWuUmU5yl

A GUY younger than me (who isn’t?) in my apartment lobby pulled out a paperback copy of a Norman Mailer book to show me. I didn’t tell the guy I’d given all my books to the Salvation Army. But I thought maybe I’d kept at least one Mailer book. I had. I started re-reading The Armies of the Night last night. It’s about the anti-Vietnam War 1967 march on the Pentagon. It’s phenomenal. 

Sitting at the counter for breakfast (bowl of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and home fries, 2 cups of back coffee) at Joe Jr’s at 16th and Third Avenue. My frequent place after holding the sign.

 

A Battle with My Blood

When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family. (The New Yorker)

By Tatiana Schlossberg

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-battle-with-my-blood

John Green on Anxiety, Hope and his Next Book. (A video)

https://youtu.be/9zDAGzA5stQ?si=dvkF8jJPEborkQl5

Cynthia Erivo surprises her old school with a tear-jerking performance.

https://youtu.be/RcVHn1RvP40?si=Y1vEQLDlUf1P2gUj

‘EARLY MORNING’

Al Gore on America’s Noticeable Absence at COP 30 Climate Conference | Amanpour and Company

https://youtu.be/A3JZzszAQp0?si=aQTNPibXHCKaxNDs

DYLAN bootleg, 1956-1963. New.

 https://youtu.be/4J3F3Oj4bX4?si=fHoc98KaDxVTo9bu

 

How Mamdani built an ‘unstoppable force’ that won over New York

The mayor-elect built the greatest field operation by any political campaign in the city’s history – by getting New Yorkers to talk to eachother. Can Democrats learn from his success?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/zohran-mamdani-campaign-new-york-democrats

 ‘AMERICAN TUNE’. Paul Simon.

https://youtu.be/06Gmp0Xvm1Q?si=bIjgYjlj2iFpLK6N

 

How to Endure Authoritarianism

A visit to a poet’s home in Kraków recalls the lessons of Eastern Europe’s dissidents.

By Adam Gopnik

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/how-to-endure-authoritarianism

I STARTED READING THIS TONIGHT. I bought it this afternoon. I’m lucky. It’s what I wanted. Hoped for.

EAST WING.

 

WHEN I WAS BORN in 1947, there were around 2.5 billion people on earth. NOW there are over 8 billion people. 

 

18! Gold Gloves and 4 Cy Young awards.

AI Could Wipe Out the Working Class | Senator Bernie Sanders

https://youtu.be/dthbi4lzO58?si=KTcxyqEwn2aYb-RD

At breakfast out after holding the sign I liked the look of the hat.

 

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the “War from Within”

Peace abroad and war at home? It’s an unusual note to strike in an electoral democracy.

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/donald-trump-pete-hegseth-and-the-war-from-within

 GREAT MOVIE:

 BREAKFAST:

 Dr. Jane Goodall. RIP.

 

 

 

Trump’s attack on George Soros is the next step in the autocrat’s handbook

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/27/trump-attack-george-soros

 

NYT’s EZRA KLEIN interviewed by THE NEW YORKER’s DAVID REMNICK

https://youtu.be/Va2jVkcGWyQ?si=s2YAHQzF7zlaYGKY

 A DISCUSSION:

Atlantic Watch:  The American Revolution

https://youtu.be/rS-do2GHZbg?si=POh7e-VQVkbP1TF5

Just this evening walked by the police station a half-a-block down the side street. This flag must have been put up a few days ago. The photos of the three policemen from there lost on 9/11 are always out front.

 

The Living Room Where History Still Happens

Gloria Steinem, now 91, is still at the center of vital conversations. On Tuesday, she gathered a circle of nearly 30 women at her home to talk about women’s health.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/style/the-living-room-where-history-still-happens.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

Why Trump is targeting Boston and its Democratic mayor as part of his ‘immigration enforcement blitz’

Standoff has been building since March between Trump and Michelle Wu, who last week said to ‘stop attacking cities to hide your administration’s failures’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/05/boston-ice-trump-michelle-wu

 GOT THIS TODAY.

MY OLDEST GRANDCHILD’S PHOTO from her first game at the University of Wisconsin. She’s been there a week or so.

I HELD THE SIGN ALL SUMMER. The sign’s message has meaning every day. Thursday school starts here. I’m excited. 

 

 

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Latest Epiphanies

“Eat, Pray, Love” was a huge hit in part because readers imagined they could be like its author. Her new book, “All the Way to the River,” shows how dubious that notion was.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/01/all-the-way-to-the-river-love-loss-and-liberation-elizabeth-gilbert-book-review

BACK in my NYC apt. wearing a hat I got in Jackson, Wyoming.

 

RUTH MESSINGER endorses ZOHRAN MAMDANI—-Five boroughs against Trump

https://youtu.be/Ane52XeOZ4o?si=moJxwEucqLRG4bqp