Harrison Blackman
@hblackman.bsky.social
A shamus of the tiger sort. Journalist at California Post. Suspense, Noir, Mediterranean. Fulbright, WGA, MFA, Princeton. Substack: THE USONIAN. Upcoming Podcast: PASSPORT NOIR.
Today, I'm reposting my illuminating interview with Justin Beal, on his innovative biography of Minoru Yamasaki. architect of the original World Trade Center. www.theusonian.com/p/sandfuture...
Sandfuture
Justin Beal on his innovative biography of Minoru Yamasaki
theusonian.com
Thrilled to have my new book, 'Greece at the Turning Point,' so eloquently featured in H Kathimerini, the best newspaper in Greece. www.kathimerini.gr/opinion/inte...
Το νομοσχέδιο που «χάθηκε» και άλλες ιστορίες από την Ελλάδα του Σχεδίου Μάρσαλ
Τράπεζες που ξέμειναν από βρετανικές λίρες, ένα νομοσχέδιο που «χάθηκε» καθ’ οδόν προς το τυπογραφείο και Αμερικανίδες που μάθαιναν ελληνικά στα μαγαζιά της Αθήνας: ένα ανέκδοτο αρχείο γίνεται βιβλίο ...
kathimerini.gr
Why are so many Princeton undergrads majoring in Operations Research? “That’s an easy answer,” says emeritus professor Robert Vanderbei, one of the former chairs of the department. “It leads to a career of making billions of dollars.” paw.princeton.edu/article/ORFE...
Calculating Fortune
Why operations research and financial engineering has become one of Princeton’s most sought-after majors
paw.princeton.edu
Dating apps suck. In my debut column for @californiapost.bsky.social, I describe what it's like to attend the purported antidote — an LA singles mixer. nypost.com/2026/08/25/o...
The dating apps are failing. Here’s what LA singles are trying instead
On a Thursday evening, I walked into a bookstore in Culver City to participate in an old-school dating activity — the singles mixer.
nypost.com
In 1925, the melodramatic travel writer Richard Halliburton set off to retrace the steps of Odysseus — and fake his own death. Usonian+ exclusive. www.theusonian.com/p/the-glorio...
A 'Glorious' Adventure
When the melodramatic travel writer Richard Halliburton retraced the steps of Odysseus
theusonian.com
Octavia Butler’s now-classic 'Parable of the Sower' depicts a Los Angeles on fire, taken over by lawless homeless camps and ineffectually governed from afar by an American president who wants to restore America to some sort of former glory. Sound familiar? www.theusonian.com/p/parable-of...
Parable of the Sower
Octavia Butler's prophecy of a Los Angeles on fire
theusonian.com
I spoke with Hoyt Richards, one of the top male supermodels of the 1990s, about his 20-year 'cultic relationship' with the New Age cult Eternal Values, explored in the new HBO doc 'Bring Me the Beauties.' paw.princeton.edu/article/supe...
Supermodel Hoyt Richards ’85 Charts Recovery From ‘Cultic Relationship’
Richards is at the center of the new HBO documentary, Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult
paw.princeton.edu
Lin King on her Booker Prize-winning English version of Yáng Shuang-Zi's novel www.theusonian.com/p/taiwan-tra...
'Taiwan Travelogue' and the politics of translation
Lin King on her Booker Prize-winning English version of Yáng Shuang-Zi's novel
theusonian.com
How Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' toys with the Bronze Age's original sin www.theusonian.com/p/the-odysse...
'The Odyssey' toys with the Bronze Age's original sin
How Nolan updates the Homeric poem with ancient (and modern) relevance
theusonian.com
In a James Bond story, the villain explains the conspiracy before it takes effect. In WATCHMEN, the villain explains the scheme after it's too late to stop it. www.theusonian.com/p/watchmen
Watchmen
On the villain who already won
theusonian.com
Forget America. The Usonian is celebrating five years of emails. www.theusonian.com/p/usonia-250
Usonia 250
Forget America. The Usonian is celebrating five years of emails.
theusonian.com
Nice to see I'm not the only one who appreciates MILDRED PIERCE as a foundational parable for L.A. www.latimes.com/california/s...
Appreciation: L.A.'s ultimate monster: The lesson of Veda Pierce
Veda Pierce always had her eye on the bigger house, the fancier car, the richer man. It was a drive that would destroy her life and make her one of the greatest L.A. villains of all time.
latimes.com
A joy to participate in AllRecipes' celebration of a hundred years of Route 66 cuisine. Read here: www.allrecipes.com/route-66-cen...
How the Mother Road Became America's Collective Home Kitchen
Route 66 turns 100 in 2026. These are the stories of the immigrant chefs, family restaurants, and home cooks who built America's most famous highway one meal at a time.
allrecipes.com
The best New Mexican food on Route 66 can be found... in a Shell Station. Thrilled to participate in AllRecipes' exploration of Route 66 cuisine in honor of the Mother Road's 100th anniversary. www.allrecipes.com/best-new-mex...
The Best New Mexican Food on Route 66 Comes Out of a Gas Station
Pancho's Gourmet-to-Go in Pecos, New Mexico serves homemade New Mexican food—green chile, carne adovada, and breakfast burritos—out of a Route 66 gas station.
allrecipes.com
What it's like to be a ghost editor + learn about my book development consultant services here www.theusonian.com/p/the-ghost-...
The ghost editor
On my shadow career as a book development consultant
theusonian.com
Excited that GREECE AT THE TURNING POINT is coming soon—in time for the 80th anniversary of the Marshall Plan! uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gree...
Greece at the Turning Point: Remembrances of US Foreign Service Families Living and Working in Postwar Greece
Remembrances of US Foreign Service Families Living and Working in Postwar Greece
uk.bookshop.org
On May 23, 1960, the evening before the Greek consulting planning firm Doxiadis Associates presented its plan to the Pakistani authorities for the design of their country’s new capital of Islamabad, Constantinos Doxiadis proposed a footrace. harrisonblackman.substack.com/p/unpacking-...
Unpacking Islamabad
A new study of the master plan for Islamabad, Pakistan, using space syntax analysis
harrisonblackman.substack.com
Within one of Princeton's iconic arches there's the inscription, “Here we were taught by men and Gothic towers democracy and faith and love of unseen things that do not die.” To that, Billy Shellman rejoined, “You cannot learn democracy from a building.” paw.princeton.edu/article/he-p...
He Practiced What He Preached and Influenced Architecture
William Shellman Jr. *41 taught in the School of Architecture for 45 years
paw.princeton.edu
Can you believe THE USONIAN has been kicking for FIVE YEARS? To celebrate the Substack’s first big anniversary, new and returning paid subscribers will receive a gorgeous COMMEMORATIVE PENCIL! theusonian.com
Japanese novelist is Kobe Abe is well-known for his Kafkaesque “The Woman in the Dunes.” But he should be better known for “Inter Ice Age 4,” the strangest climate thriller I’ve ever read, featuring fish-people and a malevolent AI. www.theusonian.com/p/inter-ice-...
Bring on the "aquans"
In Kobo Abe's unsung masterpiece, Michael Crichton meets Philip K. Dick
theusonian.com
Saddened to hear of the loss of Jorge Sarmiento, Nobel Prize-winning oceanographer. I learned so much in his course. www.princeton.edu/news/2026/05...
Remembering Jorge Sarmiento, a ‘giant’ in climate studies
Climate scientist Jorge Sarmiento was Princeton's George J. Magee Professor of Geoscience and Geological Engineering, Emeritus, and a professor of geosciences, emeritus.
princeton.edu
📖 Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King won the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for "Taiwan Travelogue," a playful postcolonial novel with a culinary bent u.afp.com/SRbu
Lin King is an International Booker Prize winner! Much congratulations. Pick up "Taiwan Travelogue" today!
Colonial Princeton had a lot less in the way of extracurriculars, but there was apparently way more partying (due to poor water quality), per Dan Caprera paw.princeton.edu/article/diff...
This Is the Difference Between Princeton in 1776 and Princeton in 2026
What did students on campus actually do in the 1770s? Dan Caprera ’16 dug deep to find out.
paw.princeton.edu
In college, I read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. My professor told me, like the series of conflicts between Sparta and Athens, one day the U.S. wars in Iraq would all be conflated as a single conflict. This month's Usonian+ exclusive post: www.theusonian.com/p/the-iraq-w...
The Iraq Wars
Watching history be written before our very eyes
theusonian.com
Lin King’s translation of “Taiwan Travelogue” is up for the International Booker Prize… a novel about the complex relationship between colonial Taiwan under Japanese rule, culinary heritage, and the nature of literary translation itself. paw.princeton.edu/article/lin-...
Lin King ’16’s Translation of a Taiwanese Novel Is Up For the Booker Prize
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuang-Zi explores the island’s colonial era and food culture under Japanese rule
paw.princeton.edu
Great short story by emerging L.A. writer Mary Dahm www.hobartpulp.com/web_features...
What Is It Like by Mary Dahm
She met him in a corporate pocket of the west side, a neighborhood where she never spent any time, in a strip mall restaurant trying to be something it wasn’t. It had all the trappings of a quaint tra...
hobartpulp.com
This story has everything you might want from magazine sports journalism—a deep dive into the history of baseball, a modern throwback, and the fraught dynamics at its core—the national pastime a mirror for America. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Savannah Bananas Bring Back a Negro Leagues Team
The organization is best known for its dance numbers and trick plays. Now it’s reviving one of the most entertaining—and controversial—franchises in baseball history.
theatlantic.com
A historian of science, Burnett spent his life trying to understand revolutions in thought. Now, he's trying to initiate one of his own — to resist social media addiction and big tech's grip on the human mind. My first magazine cover story. paw.princeton.edu/article/atte...
The Attentionauts
D. Graham Burnett ’93, Alyssa Loh ’12, and Peter Schmidt ’20 are leading a movement to resist ‘attention fracking’
paw.princeton.edu
