Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

When we show up, we win.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Democrats are back in array!

Motown is Joe-Town!

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The willow is too close to the house.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Republicans in disarray!

You are here: Home / Books / Late Night Open Thread: Balloon Juice Book Club After Dark

Late Night Open Thread: Balloon Juice Book Club After Dark

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The Poe Cottage was one of the minor sight-seeing spots of my childhood, since it was just a short bus ride away. Even by NYC standards, it was tiny — no bigger, in my memory, than an extended-stay hotel suite…

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50Comments

  3. 3.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I think it was in high school when I checked out a ‘complete works’ of Poe and found out he was a comedian.  Pretty damn funny, too.  The somber stuff gets so much attention you’d never know that wasn’t his main gig.

  4. 4.

    AlaskaReader

    Two things:

    As I face up to an acceptance of my mortality, one of my fears that resides front and center is the certain knowledge that I’m not going to get to read all the books that I had hoped, and then I factor in all the new books I try to keep up with.  …and, …well,

    ….read while you can.

    Just picked up Stephen Wright’s book – Processed Cheese.  (fair warning – nsf)

    ( oh, and not to be confused with Steven Wright the stand up comic)

    DelicateSear was the Executive Vice President of Context and Control.  Nifty title, huh? MisterMenu made it up himself. He enjoyed being creative. What DelicateSear really was was the company wrangler.  She puts the boobs back in the bra. …..

    …there are smiles to be had and more on every page. Unique, irreverent, even amid the inanities, but insightful nonetheless, …for what world do we occupy right now if not one chock full of inanities, …

  8. 8.

    TBone

    I discovered Poe in our school library in first grade. The Pit and the Pendulum. Couldn’t stop reading and went on to The Telltale Heart. It was my first encounter with written horror.  I can remember that day so clearly, and all these years later can still feel the shock and chills.  Blood ran cold! Not my favorite genre but I have a paperback copy of The Gold Bug and Other Short Stories.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    Not napping, but sleeping.  No rapping at my chamber door.  But feel free to rock out at my cheer door.

    Go 49ers!

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    I very much enjoyed the latest Mike Flanagan series on Netflix based on The Fall Of The House Of Usher, which is basically a clever run-through of a lot of Poe’s stories while also being a searing indictment of the 1% and in particular the fuckers who unleashed the opioid epidemic.

    I already knew I’d watch most of the cast after seeing them in previous Flanagan works, but I now know I’d listen to Bruce Greenwood reading all 7000 volumes of the Collected Speeches of Chairman Norman St-Pringle Battersby of the North West Riding Branch of the Yorkshire Men’s Felt Nappers and Brushers Maoist Collective and never get bored with his command of smooth diction. Which is nice to know.

  23. 23.

    satby

    No ravens in my part of the US, but had quite the murder of crows in my yard only yesterday feasting on the bird and pumpkin seeds I put out. Snow cover here (as of yesterday) was as tall as my boot tops, 10 inches or so. It’s snowed another 2 inches since then and the winter storm warning continues until this afternoon.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: Sounds like a good day to stay indoors.

    It was warm yesterday, but a cold front came through overnight, and it got down into the high 30s in the wee hours — not cold enough to require covering the citrus trees but that may come tomorrow. It’s supposed to be sunny today with highs in the 50s. Way too cold for my wimpy cracker ass.

  27. 27.

    raven

    @NotMax: What I remember is that they set up a huge camera platform right in the middle of the crowd and blocked the view of lots of troops who were not fucking happy!

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    Marvelous anecdote just came across in a WW2 documentary.

    Upper class British woman itching to do something appreciative for the troops wrote to the nearest base where Americans were stationed, inviting a half dozen to attend a luncheon. Letter also included “Please, no Jews.”

    On the appointed day she opened the door to find six black G.I.s.

    “There must be some mistake,” she uttered.

    Came the reply, “Oh no, ma’m. Colonel Cohen doesn’t make mistakes.”

  31. 31.

    trnc

    @satby: Magic came out when I was in middle school, and a friend of mine seemed to only remember one particular part of the movie.

  37. 37.

    MattF

    There’s a good book by Daniel Hoffmann, Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe, published in 1971, republished 1998. Unsurprisingly, about Poe. Goes into the peculiar question of why the French think Poe is a very great author.

  39. 39.

    LiminalOwl

    @NotMax: I first saw her in The Last Remake of Beau Geste.  (Can’t find a good clip with her in it, but in any case I was there to see Michael York and Marty Feldman. As identical twins.)

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    Poe’s essay “The Imp of the Perverse” is an excellent description of what’s now known as intrusive thoughts.

    A peculiar fact from cosmology: Edgar Allan Poe also seems to have been one of the first people to formulate what is now known as Olbers’ Paradox (if the universe is infinite or big enough that it can be treated as such, so that a line drawn in any direction from Earth will eventually end in a star, why is the sky dark at night?), AND to guess the correct answer to it (light travels at finite speed and the universe has a finite age).

    (edit: I misremembered: the question is a lot older but he was one of the first to get the answer)

    @MattF: I recall Jules Verne mentioning Poe quite a lot and seeming to regard him very highly.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @kalakal: My understanding is that Poe was one of the first American authors to be recognized by Europeans as a first-rate talent.

    I think Poe contemporary Herman Melville and his novel Moby Dick also found recognition abroad before they did here, although not in his lifetime. When Melville’s magnum opus was first published, American reviewers were like, “This is so disappointing. And he seemed like such a promising talent!”

    That was it for Herman Melville’s professional literary career. His friend Nathaniel Hawthorne got him a job at the U.S. Customs House in New York, and in his off hours Melville wrote poetry and an occasional short story like “Bartleby the Scrivener.”

  43. 43.

    Ken

    @Geminid: The full title is Moby-Dick; or, a Whaling Manual with a Few Chapters of Human Drama Tacked On at the End. So you can see why reviewers were disappointed.

  44. 44.

    kalakal

    @Geminid: I think you’re right about Poe

    Moby Dick had a weird publication history, it was first published in London as The Whale and got mostly really good reviews except for the London Athenaeum which hated it. One problem was it didn’t have the epilogue so readers got a first person narrative in which the narrator didn’t survive.

    The US version a month later had the epilogue but got bad reviews ( mostly lifted from the London Athenaeum ) 

    The real problem I think is that he was known to the public for his light travel-adventure stories like Typee and they were expecting more of the same. Instead they got a book that is not light in every sense of the word

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    Putting in a fundraising plug for the Poe House in Baltimore.  Their long planned annual fundraiser had to be cancelled due to this week’s snow.  (It had been sold out.)  They are hoping to raise $5,000.

    The Poe House is fascinating, because it is so small, with such a tiny twisting main staircase.  Easier to see how average people lived, and to imagine how severe the financial conditions, in hard times.  You could see how cold some of the rooms could be.

    Edgar Allan Poe’s Birthday Event Canceled! We Need Your Help, Poe Nation.

    Undone by the weather, Poe House’s celebration for Edgar Allan Poe’s 215th Birthday is canceled. On this of all days, help us weather the storm.

    Donate to support the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum

    Due to inclement weather and University advisory, we are very sad to cancel The Poe Toaster Murder Mystery & Poe Birthday Event. Our disappointment is profound, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our ticket-holders. This was a sold-out event just a day before the weather hit Baltimore. Ticket-holders will be offered refunds and/or the opportunity to donate their tickets. We also appeal to you, Poe Nation, to help us for Poe’s 215th Birthday.

    Fellow lovers of literature, poetry, and history rightly imagine that working at an organization devoted to celebrating Edgar Allan Poe’s legacy is a dream position. It is also a weighty responsibility, as Poe Baltimore’s mission is to maintain and interpret the historic landmark and keep Poe’s chamber door open to visitors. Programs can be whimsical and fun, but our greater purpose is to raise support within our community. The dedication of museum funds and countless staff and volunteer hours invested in planning make this cancellation a financial setback.
    Please help us recover funds lost to the storm. Our goal is $5000.

  48. 48.

    frosty

    So the Baltimore Ravens playing their first playoff game on Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday? Seems like a good omen to me. As an aside, I went to my old boss’s retirement party on Thursday. The Ravens cheerleaders were in another private room. They didn’t visit (sad) but Poe the mascot did!

    I think there are three of them. You can guess the names of the other two.

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