On Civics and Short Stories

On Tuesday, I was walking to the bar and trying to figure out what I actually knew about the First Amendment. Specifically, does the law extend freedom of speech rights beyond U.S. citizens to everyone in our country? If so, why, and how are those rights guaranteed to non-citizens?

The answers are murky. Bridges v. California (1941) might guarantee those rights, but it’s probably more complicated than that. Frankly, I think I have a better handle on the explanation but it seems irresponsible and embarrassing to half-ass it here.

Perhaps you feel that the First Amendment clearly applies to non-citizens. Or maybe you believe that cuts to federal research are setting us behind by decades. If so, there’s probably a protest for you nearby on Saturday.

Pod 225

On the new episode of the podcast, we do not discuss these important issues of our times. Instead, we discuss the new large notebooks from Field Notes and our notebook of the week, the Itoya Oasis.

March Story Log

I’ve been tracking every short story I read this year. [Jan] [Feb]

A few thoughts on reading stories last month:

• I’ve discovered a bookseller from Seattle who logs her stories on Bluesky because her list occasionally overlaps with mine.

• Matthew Weiner cited John Cheever as an influence on Mad Men, but I was still struck to discover how much the minor Cheever story “Just Tell Me Who It Was” molded Don and Betty.

• My friend Michael Ferreter wrote “Music City Row,” published in Tales of Music Murder and Mayhem.

• “Côte de Nuits” by James Kaelin was a page-turner that I could see in my mind’s eye from the first page to the last. I’m not surprised McSweeney’s chose it as their first story featured on NYT Audio and their website.

• I’ve read “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak” by Jamil Jan Kochai a few times. I came back to it again because it’s in the 2023 O’Henry Best Stories collection that includes many of the stories below. I could read it once a year.

• Yiyun Li published a short story, “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies,” in The New Yorker about a woman’s life in the aftermath of her two teenage sons committing suicide. I was surprised that only two weeks later, the magazine published her personal essay, “The Deaths—and Lives—of Two Sons.”

• I read many excellent stories this month, but Colm Toibin's “Five Bridges” has stuck with me the most.

My list for the month:

• “The Good One” by Venita Blackburn (McSweeney’s 77)

• “Playspace” by Clare Beams (McSweeney’s 77)

• “The Mad People of Paris” by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “Just Tell Me Who It Was” by John Cheever

• “Music City Row” by Michael Ferreter

• “Ira and the Whale” by Rachel Glaser (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “The Commander’s Teeth “ by Shuayama Gomez (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “An Incessant Discourse” by Yuri Herrera (McSweeney’s 77)

• “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak” by Jamil Jan Kochai

• “Côte de Nuits” by James Kaelen (McSweeney’s 77)

• “Just A Call Away” by Mieko Kawakami (McSweeney’s 77)

• “Snake and Submarine” by Shelby Kinney-Lang (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “Techniques and Idiosycnracies” by Yiyun Li

• “The Mother” by Jacob M’Hango (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “The Frenzy” by Joyce Carol Oates

• “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Ann Porter

• “Wisconsin” by Lisa Taddeo (2023 O’Henry Stories)

• “Five Bridges” by Colm Toibin

• “Problems” by John Updike

• “Trust Me” by John Updike

• “Hatagaya Lore” by Bryan Washington