"Meet the artists behind Noble Signs, a Brooklyn-based design studio that specializes in custom hand-painted and neon signs for restaurants all over New York... Noble Signs is also preserving and rescuing classic signage from shuttering businesses..."

The Dying Art of Hand-Made Restaurant Signs | NYT Cooking

YouTube video by NYT Cooking

youtube.com

For most of us

I have previously written about one reason that billionaires find the AI story so compelling: at root, many billionaires just don't believe most other people are actually, fully real. How could they? Achieving billionairehood requires that you inflict pain on vast numbers of people. 13/

Happy book bday, @staciegrey.bsky.social! SHE HAD ENOUGH is out today from @sourcebooks.bsky.social. Set in San Francisco—my old stomping grounds—this was such fun to perform! Smart, fast, fun—go get it! @audiofilemagazine.bsky.social "Six friends. One dinner. And a secret that won't stay buried.”

One more bit of Thoreau to kick off the week. This project was incredibly meaningful for me. These essays are startlingly current, and many have had only cursory recordings. I hope you’ll have a listen. On @libro.fm: libro.fm/audiobooks/9... On Audible: www.audible.com/pd/Strange-A...

Congrats to this year's Shirley Jackson Awards winners, including my friends @nadiabulkin.bsky.social and @datlow.bsky.social!

2025 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners - Locus

The winners of the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards for outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy fiction were announced Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Readercon 35 in Burling...

locusmag.com

Lindsey Graham was one of the main subjects of a @theatlantic.com cover story I wrote in 2020, on why people collaborate with regimes they know are immoral. Here's a gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

History Will Judge the Complicit

Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?

theatlantic.com

Happy (almost) birthday, Henry David Thoreau, born the 12th of July, 1817. Have a listen to celebrate! Dive in with a little or a lot. There is something here for you. Links in the comments. @spokenrealms.com @audiofilemagazine.bsky.social #audiobooks #thoreau #henrydavidthoreau #concord #read

“It is not an era of repose. We have used up all our inherited freedom. If we would save our lives, we must fight for them.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts, given July 4th, 1854

BTW, if you've ever read SJ's Biography of a Story and taken merry note of the bonkers "Exalted Rollers" letter, I've seen a photostat, including The New Yorker's dated receipt stamp, so whether or not the letter was earnestly intended, it certainly existed and was sent to the magazine.

🗽LOLGOP🗽@thefarce.org · last mo.

This @bcdreyer.social essay on copyediting Shirley Jackson is an excellent day to finish your Lottery Day weekend. The opposite of being hit in the head with rocks by your neighbors and family.

They do not want *this*, no matter how ill-defined, or possibly undefinable, *this* is. And they certainly do not want people who are super into crypto or AI or funding ICE but training them better, basically, they do not want the Dem waiter to KEEP BRINGING THEM THE SOUP, SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT 7/x

“[F]or roughly two years we ran an experiment with AI narration across a decent portion of our new releases. We went in with genuine conviction, and we came out having made the decision to return to exclusively human narration for all new content.” www.blinkist.com/magazine/pos...

In the Age of AI, the Human Voice Is More Powerful Than Ever

A first-person essay from Tom Anderson, VP Content at Blinkist, on why a company built for the audio era chose a human voice over a perfect one.

blinkist.com

Have we reached peak impersonation scamming?

This is an extraordinary collection and I am so honored to be a part of it. Joyce Carol Oates’ stories are haunting, dangerous and magnetic, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of these amazing actors performing her work. #audiobook #newrelease #psychological #suspense www.audible.com/pd/The-Frenz...

“It’s like raaaaaiiiin On your fascist parade…”

Tara Dublin, Rock Star Author📚❤️‍🔥🤘🏻@taradublinrocks.com · 2mo ago

😂😂😂😂😂

“There's no way, I don't think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching.” ~Rep. Peter King, August 29, 2014, on the occasion of Obama wearing a tan suit.

Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · 2mo ago

Republicans will be like "look, we can't afford [insert government program that actually helps people]. It's just basic accountability." And then Trump will spend $60 million in tax dollars to do this shit on the WH lawn.

see then i thought THIS must be a photoshopped joke. but i asked google the question 3 times in a row and behold: the saturfish cometh

Tobias Wilson-Bates@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When you keep doing this it feels like arguing with a drunk friend who is entirely wrong about something but won’t give up

Breaking news: The Pentagon is moving to recruit hundreds of troops to appear as spectators at President Trump’s UFC cage-fighting event on the White House lawn, and requiring those who attend to pay their own way and meet height and weight requirements.

Pentagon recruiting troops to watch White House UFC fights, memos show

Internal messages reviewed by The Post stipulate that military personnel must pay their own ways and meet strict physical requirements to be eligible.

washingtonpost.com

Happy book bday to the 4th book in Joshua Moehling’s Ben Packard series, BENEATH A BROKEN SKY. I have loved performing these from the first, and they keep getting better and better. For anyone who loves character driven suspense, crime fiction & procedurals. www.audible.com/pd/Beneath-a...

Gratitude post alert: it pleases me to no end that a quick search for my name on Audible brings up such variety! I love my job. And I am so grateful to all the authors & publishers & producers that have imagined my voice in so many different ways. Let’s make audiobooks!

So: this beauty went live yesterday—some of Thoreau’s most remarkable work. A dozen essays that are startlingly relevant to today’s world. “Slavery in Massachusetts” & “A Plea for Captain John Brown” are particularly resonant in our fraught political environment. (1/2)

A very happy belated book birthday to this absolutely charming cozy! What a delight to be back in this world with these characters (& my old NorCal stomping grounds). Tx to @maddieday.bsky.social & @tantoraudio.bsky.social! @audiofilemagazine.bsky.social #audiobook #cozy #cozymystery #newrelease

ChatGPT: you’re right you’re so much smarter than him. He’s so schlubby and you’re so suave. Columbo will never catch you.

The room. Consider reading it? It’s an idea.

Sen. Adam Schiff@schiff.senate.gov · 3mo ago

AI is reshaping industries and our economy, and it’s crucial that young people and our workforce are equipped to succeed in this landscape. Proud to introduce a bipartisan bill with Sen. Rounds to ensure students and educators have the resources they need to harness the power of AI.

Maybe I’m an optimist, but when I see businesses jamming AI in everything, using it to replace human talent and experience… without having a grasp of what it can (AND CAN NOT) do, I am reminded of producers thinking software could replace expertise in my old career. And I’m not scared.

“Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Pride flag as a symbol of hope and liberation,” Charles Beal, the president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, said in a statement announcement the deal. “Today, that symbol is restored to the place where it belongs.”

Michelangelo Signorile@msignorile.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Trump admin caves again. Interesting. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/n...

Everything Mamdani is doing in NYC is wildly popular and even winning grudging approval from those who voted against him: Competence, compassion and delivery on things that make lives better—without compromising ideals. That “coastal” strategy would work in the Midwest and everywhere else, Elissa.

Today's the day. America has no king. Come out and stand together in solidarity for freedom. #NoKings Find your event: www.nokings.org

Amazing work FL, GA, VA, PA, IL, NC, OH, NY, and NJ. You’re showing up. From small towns to big cities, massive crowds are already gathering and the day is just getting started!

“Pope Leo made a plea on Wednesday for countries to offer their ​citizens universal healthcare, calling it a ‘moral imperative’ that ‌people have access to the health services they need.” www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Pope Leo calls universal healthcare a 'moral imperative'

Pope Leo made a plea on Wednesday for countries to offer their ​citizens universal healthcare, calling it a "moral imperative" that ‌people have access to the health services they need.

reuters.com