Caleb Crain
@calebcrain.bsky.social
Into #birding, #CrossFit, and sometimes writing. Wrote the novels "Necessary Errors" and "Overthrow"
More at https://calebcrain.substack.com and https://steamthing.com.
New short story! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/clay-fiction-caleb-c
More at https://calebcrain.substack.com and https://steamthing.com.
New short story! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/clay-fiction-caleb-c
Pinned
Caleb Crain
@calebcrain.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Hi, new followers! I wrote "Necessary Errors," a gay coming-of-age novel set in Prague a year after the Berlin Wall fell, and "Overthrow," a novel about Occupy protesters aswim in surveillance. My short stories have won n+1's Anthony Veasna So prize and the Paris Review's Susannah Hunnewell prize.
“ ‘The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation’ … [But] in 2024, food-at-home is no longer 33% of household spending. For most families, it’s 5 to 7 percent.”
This is an insightful but deeply upsetting article about why everyone in the US feels poor, and why the current political situation emerges as a direct result.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:10 AM
“ ‘The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation’ … [But] in 2024, food-at-home is no longer 33% of household spending. For most families, it’s 5 to 7 percent.”
Dobie pads used to be banana yellow and now they’re canary yellow. As if they thought no one would notice.
November 26, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Dobie pads used to be banana yellow and now they’re canary yellow. As if they thought no one would notice.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
What would Waldo do?
WWRWED?
The Emersonian question about AI
calebcrain.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
What would Waldo do?
“And, as he did in Bacurau, Mendonça casts Udo Kier—perhaps the most emblematic actor of ’70s cult and exploitation cinema—in a bit part here, if for no other reason than he simply could.”
The Secret Agent
4columns.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
“And, as he did in Bacurau, Mendonça casts Udo Kier—perhaps the most emblematic actor of ’70s cult and exploitation cinema—in a bit part here, if for no other reason than he simply could.”
Why on earth not?
Duffy on his demand that air travelers not wear slippers or pajamas: "It honors our country ... don't take your shoes off and put your feet on the chair ahead of you"
November 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Why on earth not?
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Federico Castelluccio, best known for playing Furio Giunta in the Sopranos, is a master painter and art collector. He discovered a long-lost painting by Baroque artist Guercino and assisted with the restoration on Artemisia Gentileschi at the Getty bsky.app/profile/coli...
November 23, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Federico Castelluccio, best known for playing Furio Giunta in the Sopranos, is a master painter and art collector. He discovered a long-lost painting by Baroque artist Guercino and assisted with the restoration on Artemisia Gentileschi at the Getty bsky.app/profile/coli...
Reposted by Caleb Crain
“Bayazid had never quite given up the fantasy he nurtured in boyhood, of discovering himself a child of some minister or prince.” A short story by Daniyal Mueenuddin, the author of “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.” https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/TZ7L2C
“The Golden Boy,” by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Bayazid had never quite given up the fantasy he nurtured in boyhood, of discovering himself a child of some minister or prince.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 AM
“Bayazid had never quite given up the fantasy he nurtured in boyhood, of discovering himself a child of some minister or prince.” A short story by Daniyal Mueenuddin, the author of “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.” https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/TZ7L2C
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Chekhov’s earliest stories were “childishly comical”. During the translation process, says Rosamund Bartlett, “we would just collapse in fits of giggles”.
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
‘He was just trying to earn a few kopecks’: how newly translated stories reveal Chekhov’s silly side
With daft jokes and experimental wordplay, the first comprehensive translations of his lesser-known stories show Anton Chekhov in a new light
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Chekhov’s earliest stories were “childishly comical”. During the translation process, says Rosamund Bartlett, “we would just collapse in fits of giggles”.
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Reposted by Caleb Crain
How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
This is not wrong.
This is not wrong.
Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:26 PM
How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
This is not wrong.
This is not wrong.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Alass paw Yaawk
Boston’s about to see the birth of a thriving black metal music scene, as foretold in the prophecy that hath now come to pass.
November 23, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Alass paw Yaawk
“The people who had the worst mental and social outcomes on average were simply those who used ChatGPT the most.”
Making sure an AI release is safe for psychologically fragile users seems to be at odds with making it an addictive product.
Making sure an AI release is safe for psychologically fragile users seems to be at odds with making it an addictive product.
What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
“The people who had the worst mental and social outcomes on average were simply those who used ChatGPT the most.”
Making sure an AI release is safe for psychologically fragile users seems to be at odds with making it an addictive product.
Making sure an AI release is safe for psychologically fragile users seems to be at odds with making it an addictive product.
In San Francisco, where all the billboards advertise AI, or as my mother calls it, A-1.
November 22, 2025 at 1:00 AM
In San Francisco, where all the billboards advertise AI, or as my mother calls it, A-1.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Refreshing queenseagle.com to see what headline they come up with
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Refreshing queenseagle.com to see what headline they come up with
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Only in New York baby only in the USA
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Only in New York baby only in the USA
Reposted by Caleb Crain
The gentlest, firmest, weapon for us to use in the culture wars, from Goethe:
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
October 31, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The gentlest, firmest, weapon for us to use in the culture wars, from Goethe:
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
Reposted by Caleb Crain
8675309 is prime, and so is 8675311, so if you ever need a middlin'-large pair of adjacent primes to test your cryptographic suite, all you need is a 1980s earworm and a +2 and you're all set.
Man, everything is so bleak, anyone got a fun fact or little bit of trivia they want to share
November 21, 2025 at 3:28 AM
8675309 is prime, and so is 8675311, so if you ever need a middlin'-large pair of adjacent primes to test your cryptographic suite, all you need is a 1980s earworm and a +2 and you're all set.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Not to be missed, this footnote: The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
November 20, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Not to be missed, this footnote: The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
"Things happen" sometimes, like when you walk into an embassy to apply for your marriage license while your bride-to-be waits outside, but then you get bonesawed to pieces for having exercised freedom of speech as an US-based journalist and have to be carried out in a series of suitcases.
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 11:18 PM
"Things happen" sometimes, like when you walk into an embassy to apply for your marriage license while your bride-to-be waits outside, but then you get bonesawed to pieces for having exercised freedom of speech as an US-based journalist and have to be carried out in a series of suitcases.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
bro loved to beef
November 18, 2025 at 10:54 PM
bro loved to beef
Reposted by Caleb Crain
In which @alexanderchee.bsky.social and @calebcrain.bsky.social propose that Moby Dick, dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, might be read as “a love letter.” www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/epis...
Episode 17: Queequeg and Ishmael in Love (with Alexander Chee, Aaron Sachs, and Caleb Crain)
The latest episode of The World in Time.
www.laphamsquarterly.org
November 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
In which @alexanderchee.bsky.social and @calebcrain.bsky.social propose that Moby Dick, dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, might be read as “a love letter.” www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/epis...
Reposted by Caleb Crain
Ok fine.
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Ok fine.
Reposted by Caleb Crain
can bad prose be sexually transmitted
November 18, 2025 at 2:02 AM
can bad prose be sexually transmitted
Heterosexuals, man. They’re making me feel so staid and chaste.
November 18, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Heterosexuals, man. They’re making me feel so staid and chaste.