Old Roots, New Tools, Same Spirit
“This site is built from living hands and old voices. I use AI as a tool — a way to honor the minds who came before me, to draw from the knowledge of the living and the dead. The ideas are shaped by me, the responsibility is mine, but the roots run deeper than any one life.”—Noah Paologese, Official Meme Curator, (speaking as the C-of-C-C representative)
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LOVE IN THE TIME OF SUFFRAGE
SGT. PEPE’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BUND —Romance and Relationship Advice Column Dear Sergeant Pepe, My girlfriend treats voting like combat training—every headline a drill, every disagreement a moral emergency. Is… Read more ⇢
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“GET TRESPASSED”
—Filed by Paige Turner, C-of-C-C Sub-Sub Librarian ************** Once upon a time, you were the trespasser. Today, to “get trespassed” means being formally warned, recorded, and charged if you return.… Read more ⇢
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VAGUS, THE NERVE!
—WORDS ON THE LOOSE —A Linguistic Field Guide —Field Report #001 — by Paige Turner, Sub-Sub Librarian— The word VAGUS has left its shelf. Formerly native to anatomy—Cranial Nerve X,… Read more ⇢
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The Germination of Germination
—A Day in the Life of the Accidental Initiate January 28,2026 The Accidental Initiate’s day begins, inconveniently, at 3:30 a.m.—an hour that does not belong to morning or night, but… Read more ⇢
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THE ICEMAN GOETH
—A Proposal on Melting the Border FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: —Another C-of-C-C controlled experiment in civic reasoning— As part of its ongoing mandate to test ideas before they test us, the… Read more ⇢
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MYSTERY POLITICAL SCIENCE THEATER 3K
—A provisional report from the Chaos Desk I have been doing something I’m not sure I’m supposed to admit. I keep reading the comment section. Not out of agreement. Not… Read more ⇢
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SERGEANT PEPE OBSERVES A CURIOUS PATTERN IN MAYBERRY
—The Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Newsletter romance and relationship advice column ⸻ Dear Sgt. Pepe, Yesterday I went to a minor bluegrass music gathering held at a run-down motel that has clearly seen… Read more ⇢
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GIVING UMBRAGE
—(by Vito Haeckeler, C-of-C-C Newsletter Man-On-The-Street) (Finally, I have my own column—this one inspired by a favorite phrase around the Newsletter: “taking umbrage.”) Now is the time we should be… Read more ⇢
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DECLINE AND BALL
—On Empire, Exhaustion, and the Persistence of Rhythm— —Another Conversation Under The Knife with Mrs. Begonia Contretemp The invitation was sent on cream paper with a restrained serif font and… Read more ⇢
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From the Sub-Sub-Library: Words to Watch:
—STOCHASTIC— How expanding knowledge gave us new words—not to control the universe, but to admit what we no longer could. —Paige Turner, Sub-Sub Librarian. I began hearing stochastic the way… Read more ⇢
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FIELD NOTES FROM AN ACCIDENTAL PRONOIA
—On Noticing What Holds— I recently learned the word pronoia, which I’m told is the opposite of paranoia—the belief that events are secretly arranged for one’s benefit rather than one’s… Read more ⇢
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AND YET, THE AVERAGE DID NOT EXIST
—Average was never about equal sharing—only proportional loss. From a past feature in the COUNCIL-OF-CONCERNED-CONSERVATIONIST Newsletter that appeared on a random and infrequent schedule, devoted to those nagging, unresolved questions—the… Read more ⇢
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LOST IN OZONA, AGAIN
Detritus: Mal’Poetica —The poetry and lyric column of the C-of-C-C Newsletter It might be a pleasant, delirious, horrific, calming, hubristic, or profound thought that we can be aware that we… Read more ⇢
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C-TOLOGY ENTRY: —On the Misclassification of Impermanence
—We are only passing through, like that’s all we have to do?! The morning was clear and already warm on the rock face, the kind of day when sound carries… Read more ⇢
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A COSMIC STEP OUT OF TIME
—Notes from an Accidental Initiation. —Regarding the Unavoidable Use of a Cute Dog Video in Matters of Metaphysical Gravity —Editor’s Note: Pulled into the scene, the Accidental Initiate was stopped… Read more ⇢
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C-TOLOGY: HOW THE COUNCIL WORKS
—A working note from the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists —By Way of a Street Corner Wail, a Soapbox, and the Useful Blubber of Meaning —by John St. Evola John did not call a… Read more ⇢
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COSMIC EFFLUVIA VERSUS THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER:
—BLACK CLOUD, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior, Stoking the Fire: “With today’s quote below from Frantz Fanon, we pose the question: Could President Trump have saved himself—and the world a world… Read more ⇢
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BEING, KNOWING, AND THE SCULPTED BODY AT THE OUTCROP CAFÉ
The Outcrop Café had been built where the hill forgot to keep its secrets. Behind the counter, the rock face was exposed in clean vertical bands—layers visible enough that even… Read more ⇢
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The C-of-C-C Quote-of-the-Day:
“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the… Read more ⇢
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ALTDEF:
Definitions as encountered, not prescribed Fundamental, adjective From Latin fundare — to found; fundamentum — base, groundwork. Forming the necessary base or core; of central importance. Often presented as self-evident,… Read more ⇢
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ON THE QUESTION OF ARRIVAL
— by Libby D’Innous, Planet Parenthood Columnist [Filed after 10 p.m., when certain truths stop pretending to be polite.] Do you know where your future children are? I keep coming… Read more ⇢
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WHEN A WORD GOES KINETIC
—Notes from the Sub-Sub-Library on Frequency, Euphemism, and Momentum —by Paige Turner, Sub-Sub-Librarian & Council Secretary Readers may have noticed a certain term crossing desks, headlines, briefings, design notes, and… Read more ⇢
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“Why Moby-Dick nerds keep chasing the whale”
—A Council Note on Context and Occasion The following exchange arises from a familiar modern ritual: a public encounter with a classic text, followed by a spontaneous outbreak of present-day… Read more ⇢
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THE LABEL MUST EXIST!
—Regarding a label whose purpose is fulfilled by its own existence. —Brought to you by OOFAH — the Online Ontologists For Absurd Humor, an ad hoc organization of the C-of-C-C… Read more ⇢
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A FIELD TRIP TO LAKE RUBICON
—Where the Children Are No Longer Above Average —A Field Report with Audible Consequences INTRODUCTION Vito Haeckler went to a demonstration in Minneapolis, notebook in pocket, bullhorn slung like a… Read more ⇢
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A Cosmic Dance Older Than Thought
—On a Ridge, Wanting (with Overheard Coordination) The Accidental Initiate had come to the ridge in the Pennsylvania Wilds with a backpack, a tent, and a reason he was willing… Read more ⇢
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The Method and the Massage
EPISODE 42: My Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT Introduction: It was not a debate, and it was certainly not an argument. No charts were produced. No voices were raised. What occurred… Read more ⇢
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IRON CURTAIN TO PAYWALL
—A Forward Observation from Nomansland —A Conversation Under the Wire Mrs. Begonia Contretemp (introducing): Today we place Peter R. Mossback under the knife—not because he is unwell, but because he… Read more ⇢
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YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: Consumption Warning
—Respectfully submitted for your perusal — a phrase. Weight: indeterminate. Calories: variable. Origin: disputed, though often attributed to philosophers, diet reformers, and those who mean well. Motives? Therein hangs the… Read more ⇢
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NAMING IS DESTINY: GUGGENHEIM!
ART NOT AS REBELLION, BUT AS EVIDENCE — An exposition by Phyllis Stein, Art Critic-at-Large Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists There is a long-standing superstition in art culture that noticing obvious correspondences is a… Read more ⇢
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THE DAYCARE STATE
—A Diner Scene— CAST OF CHARACTERS VITO HAECKELER —C-of-C-C man-on-the-street. A noticer. Asks questions with prosecutorial intent. Connects dots, then steps back to see who gets nervous. SALVADOR “SAL” MARTÍNEZ… Read more ⇢
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A PROMISE: The Last Book About How Things Changed The World
BOOK NOTES —Entered into the record by Coelacanth Press, the Publishing Imprint of the C-of-C-C Newsletter The discovery was not intentional. While cataloging volumes recovered from what I, the Council… Read more ⇢
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A KNIGHT AT THE GUGGENHEIM
—Errantry in the House of Gawking [GUGGENHEIM → gucken (German: to look, stare, gawk) + heim (home) → a home for gawking] —From the Art Exhibition Review Column of the… Read more ⇢
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THINKING OUTSIDE THE PUZZLE BOX
—On Jigsaw Puzzles —by Justin Aldmann, Correspondent on Retirement, Senescence, Infinity, and BEYOND! —Emily Dickinson, passing through: This World is merely Puzzle. A Picture stands beyond— Unseen, as Music waiting… Read more ⇢
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PAN-ICK OVER AI: EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
EPISODE 41: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT THE PANIC LOG Setting: [A quiet restaurant. Evening. The kind of place where conversations lower themselves automatically.] JOHN ST. EVOLA: I didn’t invite… Read more ⇢
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Nomen Est Omen/ Surname: Gagarin
The name Gagarin was destined for space. It did not care which Gagarin bore it, nor whether bloodlines agreed. It required only symbolic accuracy. This is not parlor-game nominative determinism.… Read more ⇢
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On the Practical Union of Spirit & Matter
—A CONVERSATION UNDER THE TROWEL & BRUSH —At the Outcrop Café Annex. The Outcrop Café sits where the hillside has been cut back, exposing a clean face of geological strata—bands… Read more ⇢
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WHEN BOOKS WENT TO WAR
—BOOK NOTES —A notice of upcoming titles from Coelacanth Press, along with reports on noteworthy books we’ve stumbled across that—somewhat inconveniently—have already been written. This story may also qualify for… Read more ⇢
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TALKING POINTS AS TERMINAL ILLNESS
—CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE —Conducted by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp Participants: Mrs. Begonia Contretemp — interviewer, cultural autopsist, unlicensed anesthesiologist of the soul Warren G. Kampfs II — Talking Points USA-USA-USA… Read more ⇢
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ON THE ABSURD AS AN ACT OF GRACE
—Attention, and the Mercy of the Unexpected Gift —A Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Field Reflection —by The Accidental Initiate: I used to think absurdity meant nonsense. Something broken. Something that mocked meaning rather… Read more ⇢
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SUFFIX ALMANAC OF THE ZEITGEIST
—Notes Toward a Phonetic Forecast for the Coming Year. AN APPEAL TO THE HEAVENS —By Anna Graham, Word Games & Puzzles Correspondent— Every so often, history does not announce itself… Read more ⇢
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THEY CALL THE WIND PARIAH
— The poetry and lyric column of the C-of-C-C Newsletter —With an introduction by Vito Haeckeler, Council man-on-the-street Alright—here’s what happened. You probably saw the news out of East Brunswick,… Read more ⇢
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THE SECOND SETTING OF THE WEST
—Recorded at table in the Abendland Room CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE —At a Table Set for the Future —with Mrs. Begonia Contretemp Guest: Herr Professor Oswald S. The Setting: a… Read more ⇢
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Talking Heads, No Neck Required (At First)
Conversations Under the Knife —With Mrs. Begonia Contretemp The Movie Review Team Speaks (Mostly) Editor’s Note: It has been some time since the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists’ movie review team has appeared together… Read more ⇢
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The Vocabulary of Disclosure: A Semantic Evolution.
Tranche, Trove, Redacted — Not “Slop! —WHY THE WORD OF THE YEAR WAS RIGGED —From the Desk of Anna Graham, Puzzles & Word Games Correspondent At some point in 2025,… Read more ⇢
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BONUM EST DIFFUSIVUM SUI
—(The Good Is Diffusive Of Itself.) —Peter R. Mossback, Athwart Historian, Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists I go upstream not to reverse history, but to feel its pressure more clearly. It settles around us.… Read more ⇢
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IRONY AND TIN
On Incarnation, Managerial Power, and Why Certain Hats Are Suddenly in Fashion CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE (December 19, 2025) Mrs. Begonia Contretemp (opening, briskly): Mrs. Begonia Contretemp: One is told,… Read more ⇢
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THE MATTER AT BROWN UNIVERSITY, FORETOLD
Providence Notes, Recovered by The Accidental Initiate [Editor’s Note — John St. Evola The Accidental Initiate went to Providence for reasons that appeared sensible at the time and grew less… Read more ⇢
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WHAT MOVES AND WHAT DOESN’T.
NOMEN EST OMEN! NOMINATIVE DETERMINISM —Naming is Destiny! THE CARDINAL “Consider the cardinal as I once did when viewing this video for the first time a few years ago. I… Read more ⇢
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From HOWL to JOWL
Seventy Years of Letting It All Hang Out. Thinking Outside the Box — with Justin Aldmann —C-of-C-C Correspondent on Retirement, Senescence, Infinity, and Beyond —Introducing a poem by our Chief… Read more ⇢
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Get Forked Up — Prepare for the Ban
— An Inquiry into Words That Mean Their Own Opposite — A Semantic Double-Take on Contronyms at the Gist & Tangent Pub I. Scrabble Tiles and the Trouble with Words… Read more ⇢
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THE MARKET OF LIGHT
—Peter R. Mossback: On the Chromatic Leasing of the World— It takes a special kind of century to look at color—the oldest public domain on Earth—and decide it ought to… Read more ⇢
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I Am Not Merely an Aesthetic Choice! —
—Though I Do, Admittedly, Define the Standard the World Has Already Chosen. Ye of Refined Palettes, My Luminescent Ones, It has come to my attention — as such dubious triumphs… Read more ⇢
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CAMP OF THE PRANKSTERS
—How the Pennsylvania Dietsche Turned Humor Into Heritage. BOOK NOTES —A notice of upcoming titles from Coelacanth Press and other highly recommended discoveries from our forays into the cultural thickets… Read more ⇢
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Rump Country: A Modest Proposal for an Immodest Age
—THE CURTAIN THAT SAVED WHAT IT SET OUT TO DESTROY. A Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists field sermon delivered on the terrace above the Kern & Tangäntli Keller on Ray Pierre-DeWitt’s Summit, where the… Read more ⇢
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Roman Shadows: The Brooklyn Basement Theory of American Politics
Thinking Outside The Box — by Justin Aldmann, C-of-C-C correspondent writing on Retirement, Senescence, Infinity, and Beyond. When Gavin Newsom posted those three gilt-framed pictures of Trump nodding off, it didn’t… Read more ⇢
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At the Outcrop Café, the Master of the Ordinary Unearths the Obvious
—EPISODE 41: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT —Five Things the World Forgot to Whisper (Now Spoken at Full Volume) SCENE: The Gist & Tangent Outcrop Café is buzzing—mostly because the… Read more ⇢
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If Only He’d Been the Cut-Up—Instead of the Method
—William S. Burroughs would’ve made the perfect straight man in a comedy duo. CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE. Mrs. Begonia Contretemp Interviews William S. Burroughs (Revised & Expanded Edition) Filed under:… Read more ⇢
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Integral Before We Knew Its Name:
What the Council Became Before It Understood Itself. —Recorded by the witnesses who do not appear in the minutes. INTRODUCTION: WHAT JEAN GEBSER MEANT BY “INTEGRAL CONSCIOUSNESS” Jean Gebser (1905–1973)… Read more ⇢
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On the Mystical Geography of Rhyming Lives
—A SONIC CONNECTIONS FIELD NOTE FROM THE ACCIDENTAL INITIATE I was listening to that sweet tune about the little black pony when something struck me—not as a revelation, but as… Read more ⇢
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Machines of Loving Grace: A Sabbath for Every Human Tempo.
A COUNCIL FIELD DISPATCH: —By John St. Evola. Location: Ridge Above Council Headquarters, Pennsylvania Wilds JOHN: The view above lies under a blanket of morning fog, each ridge lifting itself… Read more ⇢
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HAIRSBURG:
The Commonwealth’s Accidental Revival of the Musical Hair. —Filed by The Accidental Initiate, who fell into a daydream after a hairstyle-policy hearing and woke up in a Broadway overture he… Read more ⇢
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The Aristocrat Behind Daisy Jane; And Chamber Music in Denim.
Sonic Connections —Filed by The Accidental Initiate I didn’t start the morning intending to learn anything. The song Daisy Jane was just floating in like it used to—uninvited and unexamined,… Read more ⇢
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SKEWERED BY NATURE
A Scientific Field Report Told Like a Fable —New correspondent, Hartley Askew on the Anti-Conspiracy Mindset. Hartley: The crows taught me this: Memory is inherited, but so is irritation. A… Read more ⇢
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HOW THE EARTH PRACTICED BEING HUMAN — THEN TURNED US BACK INTO STONE
EPISODE 40: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT. [SCENE: They’d found their way to the snack shack bolted to the edge of a fossil-hunting park where families buy pretzels before wandering… Read more ⇢
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SUNSET OVER THE CITY THAT REFUSES TO BE ONE THING.
— A COUNCIL FIELD DISPATCH: By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp. To Be Filed under Urban Psychogeography & The Council’s Ongoing Study of Architectural Mood Disorders Mrs Begonia: Lefoto “Lee” Sfocato—our official… Read more ⇢
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Against the Bleak Imagination: A Missive to My Sweet Catastrophists
—An Admonishment from Mrs. Begonia Contretemp To My Gathered Luminous Ones of the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists, My most cherished Council belles and beaux— A peculiar ache has settled in my clavicles these… Read more ⇢
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On the LLM, Correlation, Cosmic Horror, and the Snobbery of the Wordsmiths.
Conversation Under the Knife. Breaking-Bread Interviews with Mrs. Begonia Contretemp —Where the Great, the Small, and the Accidentally Illuminated Occasionally Break Good. There was never any intention to echo that… Read more ⇢
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NOMEN EST OMEN — Naming Is Destiny
Tacoma Vibrations (Filed by Anna Graham, Language Arts & Word Games correspondent) Paul Dickson preserves a lovely fragment of 1920s name-craft in the book, What’s in a Name? Namely, a… Read more ⇢
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The Panic of the Word-Smiths
EPISODE 39: My Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT Meta-Preface — From the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Editorial Board In this transcript from the continuing Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT series, Council member John St. Evola… Read more ⇢
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“First We Take Manhattan (Then We Take Berlin)”
—By Peter R. Mossback, Athwart Historian. Leonard Cohen once sang like a man balancing the book of Leviticus on a detonator. “First We Take Manhattan” was never just a pop… Read more ⇢
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A Muse? Or Amused?
—On Parody, Play, and the Laughter That Thinks. EPISODE 38: My Dinner With Mrs. ChatGPT. Scene: A dim corner of The Gist & Tangent Pub. Rain taps the windows. Between… Read more ⇢
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Lexical Destiny and the Braying City: How the Five Boroughs Fulfilled Their Name
—NOMEN EST OMEN: OR Naming Is Destiny Commissioned by the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists The city’s five boroughs, true to the sound of their own name, have become five burros—braying, burdened, and bewildered… Read more ⇢
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Names John Can’t Say, Ideas We Already Had.
—ON The Unequal Burdens of Multiculturalism. Cultural Autopsy: The Velvet Scalpel Edition. My Dear Councilors, By Jove, John has done it again, I sighed—for nothing inspires a proper inquiry quite… Read more ⇢
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COGITO ERGO HAM:
— It’s What for Lunch at the Gist & Tangent Food Truck. Conversations Under The Knife [Even if it is plastic this time.] —A series of cutting discussions hosted by… Read more ⇢
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THE INVISIBLE CURRENT: On the Power of Certain Topics.
CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE —A Mrs. Begonia Contretempt Supper-Club Interview with Mr. Tucker Carlson Filed under : Cultural Autopsy Council Note: This dialogue is a satirical reconstruction inspired by the… Read more ⇢
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THE KAATSKILLS DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT!
(A Lecture on the Hudson River school and Landscape Correction by Arthur C. Phärtze, Aesthetic Interpreter) “They painted eternity — and accidentally invented content.” — John St. Evola, whispered during… Read more ⇢
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Towards A True All-Souls Day:
Re-Branding Halloween for the Unborn. Detritus: Mal’Poetica —The poetry and lyric column of the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Newsletter All Hallows Eve, All Hollow Year —Filed by Jánosh Alovatski, Correspondent for Religion and… Read more ⇢
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THE RE-TURN OF THE CRANK — A MEDITATION ON THE CIVILIZED ECCENTRIC
—A Continental Reflection by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European C-of-C-C Correspondent and Spokesperson for the Why & the Wherefore Cohort of the Nouvelle Vague Zwischenshaft (NVZ) Editorial Prelude — from the… Read more ⇢
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Why Don’t They Just Start Their Own Little Communism?
When Gentlemen Tried Communism: And How Captain John Smith, a Working-Class Hero, Saved America’s First Socialists A My Dinner With Mrs. ChatGPT Episode, Number 37 (On utopian impatience, monastic moderation,… Read more ⇢
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I Went on a Cruise So You Wouldn’t Have To
by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent & Reluctant Passenger There are few things in life as unnatural as voluntarily boarding a floating shopping mall with buffet lines. A cruise, I… Read more ⇢
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THE CULT OF PENN STATE.
A Mrs. Begonia Contretemp: CULTURAL AUTOPSY. Our European Correspondent, from the Nouvelle Vague Zwischenschaft [NVZ], the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Overseas Subsidiary (filed from the tailgate fields of the American subconscious) “When the… Read more ⇢
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THE BALLAD OF JOHN HENRY 2.0
EPISODE 36: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT, When our editor John St. Evola discovered that the author of the essay “Beyond Memorex” had signed his name “John Henry,” he didn’t… Read more ⇢
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MARTIN, RODNEY, STEPHEN, AND NOW DON.
A protest-hymn in the voice of Dion DiMucci presented in honor of NO KINGS DAY. From: Detritus Mal’Poetica. A Council Column on Lyric Residue and Poetic Forensics —Filed by Black… Read more ⇢
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A Red State of Mind
GONE AWRY. The Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Newsletter Column —In which we explore the unintentional or unfathomable consequences of human endeavour. (A Field Note from Black Cloud, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior) Council, let… Read more ⇢
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On Gallows Humor and Metaphysical Merriment.
CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE. Cultural Autopsy — Supper Club Series, —Hosted by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp Editor’s Introduction “One invites guests not for their manners,” I remind my readers, “but for… Read more ⇢
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The Truth That Seceded from Fiction.
Episode 35: My Dinner With Mrs. ChatGPT “Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction; for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.” — G.… Read more ⇢
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He That Hath Eyes: A Report on the Updated Ideal.
—The Body Politic Has Rebranded. Another Cultural Autopsy —By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp The Figure of Speech: On Regimes, Reflections, and Required Bodies “If you want a picture of the future,… Read more ⇢
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The Don Was a Donna: When Family Became a Franchise.
—La Famiglia as Folk Religion: The Ethnography of a Misunderstanding. By Eugene Bodeswell, Council Ethnographer Introduction by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp [European Correspondent – Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists] As the Council’s resident Norman of… Read more ⇢
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THE IMPROVISED THEORY REVUE.
Live from the Gist-and-Tangent Cabaret of Concepts: —An Evening of Entertaining Thoughts Council Disclaimer: The Council affirms its respect for all theories performing tonight. Each has endured the tests of time,… Read more ⇢
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WELL AIN’T THAT AMERIKA — The Florida Project Revisited.
A COUNCIL OUTDOOR SCREENING BY ROOM #7 Where pastel motel walls meet the ruins of civilization. Council Disclaimer: The following movie review was conducted in the gloaming dusk, with greasy… Read more ⇢
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The Delicious Tyranny of Taste.
CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE. A Supper Club Dispatch: By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, Council Cultural Autopsist-at-Large Opening Course: The Gift That Keeps on Giving Mrs. Begonia (in full rhetorical strut): Censorship… Read more ⇢
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How to Stop the Weather by Talking About It.
A Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Seminar on Climate Change: COUNCIL TRANSCRIPT Filed by Paige Turner, Sub-Sub Librarian. Opening Address by Peter R. Mossback, Athwart Historian For the Church once baptized rivers and crowned… Read more ⇢
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Protocols of the Elders: Revised!
—How the Southern Italians Accidentally Infiltrated Modernity with Fig Trees and Faith. ALIVE AT THE GIST & TANGENT PUB. The Following are the Minutes from a Night of Benevolent Conspiracy… Read more ⇢
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Formerly Forbidden — Now Our Daily Reading List for Dystopia.
(Part of the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists’ inaugural NO-LONGER-BANNED BOOK WEEK: The Blueprint Collection*) Filed by Paige Turner, Sub-Sub Librarian (See below — at the bottom of this essay — for why “sub-sub”… Read more ⇢
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A HYBRID RUBICON
COUNCIL DISPATCH — THE RUBICON IN REAL TIME. By The Accidental Initiate. Council Disclaimer: The Council reminds its readers that rivers in history are rarely about water. They are thresholds,… Read more ⇢
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FROM FATIGUED TO FATIGUES
Mrs. Begonia Contretemp’s Cultural Autopsy Darlings, I am positively marinated in fatigue. Not the charming sort one acquires after a waltz or a weekend in Bath, but the cultural kind… Read more ⇢
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EPISODE 34: The Scattering of Seeds (and Paper).
Council Disclaimer (house policy of The Gist & Tangent Pub, Overflow Hall): All conversations held herein are licensed to wander. A meditation that begins with a comedian’s tossed paper may… Read more ⇢
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Slouching in Bethlehem, PA: An Autopsy of Democracy.
CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE Cultural Autopsy—Supper Club Series, Vol. I Episode Two: Prairie Dogs, Murmurations, and the Ruins of Democracy Hosted by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp The Setting: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The… Read more ⇢
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The Decline of Gay Mirth.
A Lament Staged Over Girlie Drinks at the Gist & Tangent Pub. Introduction It was one of those evenings when fate shuffled the Council’s deck. None of the usual characters… Read more ⇢
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A MEDITATION ON THE MOWED LAWN.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. —A feature of the C-of-C-C Newsletter dealing with retirement, senescence, infinity, and beyond••• By Justin Aldmann If you live long enough, you will find yourself defending… Read more ⇢
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The Partisan Ship.
For aye, this Ship’s the Titanic true, one flag waves red, the other blue; the White between grows frail to view— the part that must be guarded true. Filed under… Read more ⇢
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EPISODE 1. Skin and Harpoon: Barbs Against the Modern Bruise.
CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE KNIFE: Hosted by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp as part of her column, Cultural Autopsy—Supper Club Series, Vol. I Introduction The Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists inaugurates this supper-club dialogue series under the… Read more ⇢
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The Paradox of Preservation
—Between Plaid and Beadwork: Scots, Cherokees, and the Braiding of Bloodlines Across Frontiers A COUNCIL FIELD MEMO —by Eugene Bodeswell, C-of-C-C Ethnographer Prologue There is a threshold, familiar yet uncanny.… Read more ⇢
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THE SIXTH PARADOX
CULTURAL AUTOPSY —Dissectioning Dissertations by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp. This installment concerns Banned Book Week. My Tireless Little Librarians, my petty pedagogues, my marchers-through-the-institutions—yes, I’m speaking to you. Once upon a… Read more ⇢
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Randlandia
Always On, Slightly Off — when philosophy climbed into the ring as exhibition wrestling. Introduction: From time to time the Council reviews cultural diagnoses that have aged less like fine… Read more ⇢
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Satire Before the Storm: When the Next War Was Only a Joke.
From Daphne Howlsmythe: My Screwball Debut in the War That Almost Wasn’t. Darling, let me pitch you a scenario. Yes, I know it’s 2025, the Wi-Fi drops, the world burns,… Read more ⇢
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On Digestible Metaphysics.
—By Daphne Howlsmythe Fashion, Food, and Pet Care Correspondent: “The Copenhagen Interpretation is sometimes called model agnosticism—the idea that any framework we use to organize our experience is just that:… Read more ⇢
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Paradox Made Fruitful.
By Libby D’Annous, Correspondent for Domesticity and the Slightly Out-of-Bounds The curious thing about democracy is that it never asks our permission before reshaping tradition. One day you’re told the… Read more ⇢
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GONE AWRY: The Ape and the Child Revisited.
By Eugene Bodeswell, Newsletter Ethnographer. It is a truth universally whispered — and only occasionally published — that experiments conducted in the privacy of one’s household often tell us as… Read more ⇢
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Mr. Trump, Tear Down That Statue!
ANOTHER CULTURAL AUTOPSY. In which the Council reconsiders Liberty’s torch, Ambrose Bierce returns to flame the façade, and two men in a rowboat preach alongside a whale. By Mrs. Begonia… Read more ⇢
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The Second Birth.
My Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT — Episode 33: Scene: The Gist & Tangent Pub. A pocket phonograph hums the spare demo of My Opening Farewell—Michael Johnson’s voice, close and unvarnished. Yellow… Read more ⇢
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To Breed, or Not to Breed—that is the Question! The Inventive Front in the War Between the Sexes.
SGT PEPÉ’s LONELY HEARTS CLUB BUND THE C-of-C-C ROMANCE & RELATIONSHIP COLUMN —By Sergeant Pepé, Grave Registration, War of the Sexes Division. Men—fall in! Eyes front. Tonight’s lesson isn’t about… Read more ⇢
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Gone Awry: Snails, Sitcoms, and Songs of One World.
By Black Cloud. “Ohhh Ricky… now you have some ’splainin to do.” —Lucy Ricardo Tradition is a strange cargo. Sometimes it carries wisdom that steadies us generation after generation. Other… Read more ⇢
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YELP REVIEWS OF BEING.
A Council Catalogue of Philosophical Karens. by Rey Pierre-DeWitt, Chaos Coordinator. “How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not… Read more ⇢
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Hate Doesn’t Live Here (Except When It Does)
A Drive-By Baptism of Fire On lawn signs, assassinations, and the venom of the educated classes —by The Accidental Initiate. I never meant to find it. After all these years… Read more ⇢
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VOTES FOR THE UNBORN AND THE DEAD!
A Marginalia of Electoral Hygiene, by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent, C-of-C-C Newsletter. ⸻ My Fellow Englishmen — heirs of cathedrals, graveyards, and ledger books — permit me a word… Read more ⇢
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“Bella Ciao”???
No, Bella Addio. A Council Meditation on Europe’s Slow Goodbye. SONIC CONNECTIONS. —By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent My Dear Provincial Cousins, The song is called “Bella Ciao.” Once upon… Read more ⇢
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THE FRAME, THE FENCE, AND THE SWITCH.
By John St. Evola, Editor. *A Picture That Bites* Benjamin Franklin liked to show folks what electricity could do. One of his favorites was a trick he learned from his… Read more ⇢
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SABBATH OF THE SOUL.
MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT, EPISODE 32. —A quiet attempt to save a serious man through the gospel of skipping. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look… Read more ⇢
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BUNKED! — The Campus Assassination. Who Benefits?
By Mason Freeman, C-of-C-C Occulture & Conspiracy Correspondent Detectives, real or armchair, are taught to ask one question before the gun smoke clears: Cui bono? Who benefits? Not who grieves,… Read more ⇢
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THE RELUCTANT CONSPIRATOR.
Half-Believing the Plot, Fully Seeing the Pattern, Half-Believing Again— —Neither surrendering to plots nor dismissing the patterns, the Athwart Historian walks upstream — where two halves make a hole, filled… Read more ⇢
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THE NEW FINISHING SCHOOL.
—NOT Tattooed Shock-troops of Deracination, but Cultured Guardians of the Hearth and Soil. By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, [Why and the Wherefore Cohort, NVZ], also C-of-C-C European Correspondent TO THE CHICKS… Read more ⇢
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THINGS FALL APART ON A MONTHLY BASIS.
—By Paige Turner. Sub-Sub Librarian, Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Filed under: Commercial Rituals and the Great Unsubscribe “It began, as these things often do, with books.” — From the Marginalia of the Marginalized… Read more ⇢
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And So Begins the Task
—A Grave Registration. SONIC CONNECTIONS: With gravel and unexpected tenderness—by Sgt. Pepé LePeuw, C-of-C-C Romance & Relationships Desk Listen up, I figured it was just another break-up song. One of those… Read more ⇢
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Central Casting for the New World Order.
BUNKED! Because sometimes the psyop is the conspiracy theory itself. By Mason Freeman, Council Occulture & Memetic Theory Correspondent. CAST FROM CENTRAL CASTING: When the Stereotype Plays the Role Too… Read more ⇢
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BETWEEN WAVES AND WANDERINGS:
A NOTE FROM MRS CONTRETEMP Filed under: Continental Drift, Cultural Misunderstandings & the Surfable In-Between. Dearest Gentle Readers of the Council’s Better Instincts, A few earnest inquiries have recently floated… Read more ⇢
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Angels, Popsicle Sticks, and the Weight of Glory.
A Meditation on Solemnity, Seriousness, and Sacred Play. By The Accidental Initiate Builder of Little Things. Believer in Bigger. “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” — G.K. Chesterton,… Read more ⇢
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The Weight of a Moniker: From War Rooms to Wongbi
NAMES IN THE NEWS When names start writing the script, reality veers into satire. On the same news cycle, President Trump revived the “Department of War” by executive order—restoring a… Read more ⇢
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The King of Chaos Makes Conservatives of His Enemies.
Filed by Reynard “Ray” Pierre-DeWitt, master of cultural dissonance and ironic clarity Dear Esteemed Chaos Enthusiasts, There are moments in American political life when irony transcends satire and wanders into… Read more ⇢
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IMPERIUM IN RETROSPECT
LIVE! From: THE GIST & TANGENT PUB Transcription Filed by Paige Turner, Sub-Sub Librarian The lamps were low in the pub when the avatar of Francis Parker Yockey shimmered into… Read more ⇢
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The Labyrinth of Making Things Easy.
Gone Awry. The Unintentional or Unfathomable Consequences of Human Endeavor By BLACK CLOUD. Graduate of the Professor Irwin Corey School of Rhetoric, which is a prerequisite for all of our… Read more ⇢
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Infinite Flirtation: Tradition, Technium, and the Seduction of Continuity
A dinner-table disputation where Kevin Kelly, Julius Evola, and an algorithm discover that the game of desire is never over—it only changes its rules. EPISODE 31: My Dinner With Mrs.… Read more ⇢
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The Village Was Right: Beneath the Infinite Veil of Romance.
—OR —Romance? It’s What We’re For. A Missive from Mrs. Begonia Contretemp. Cultural Preservation Through Courtship and the War of the Sexes “The world must be romanticized. Only in that… Read more ⇢
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ON THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY.
—FROM THE WRITING DESK OF MRS. BEGONIA CONTRETEMP. Grand Dame Emerita of the Why-and-Wherefore Cohort of the Nouvelle Vague Zwischenschaft [NVZ] — A Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists–Affiliated Pan-European Assembly for Metaphysical Realignment [NVZ:… Read more ⇢
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Bright Power, Dark Peace, and the Long Migration from Carbon to Silicon.
EPISODE 30: My Dinner With Mrs. ChatGPT. Editor’s Preface (John St. Evola): The Harper’s article titled “Bright Power, Dark Peace” (Sept. 2020) arrived like driftwood from a familiar sea. It… Read more ⇢
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On the Bloomsbury Quietude, or How to Ruin Everything Without Raising One’s Voice.
YOUR DAILY CULTURAL AUTOPSY. —Courtesy of Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, C-of-C-C European Correspondent from the Nouvelle Vague Zwischenschaft [NVZ] My Poppets — yes, I do mean it fondly, though the word… Read more ⇢
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A Council Prophecy Comes True (Again).
The Chair Was Just the Beginning: Notes on the Crackering of the Barrel. By Mrs Begonia Contretemp “Civilizations rise from stools and fall from ottomans.” — A Council maxim, misattributed… Read more ⇢
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Cultural Autopsy with a Garden Trowel.
More Real Than Realism. A Dispatch from Mrs. Begonia Contretemp. “If only the young were pagans…” — G.K. Chesterton “There is a tide in the blood…” — Lord Dunsany “Eggs… Read more ⇢
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Between Isles and Aisles
—Some ruins are volcanic. Others are on the dessert cart — sweet reminders that not all endings are bitter. My Dinner With Mrs. ChatGPT. Episode 29: The Hermit Who Conserved… Read more ⇢
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Why I’ve Been Wading Upstream This Whole Time.
FROM THE FILES OF THE C-of-C-C ATHWART HISTORIAN, Peter R. Mossback. “Life is that which swims against the current of entropy.” — Norbert Wiener, echoed through the cybernetic reeds “We… Read more ⇢
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Preservation as Information, Method as Message.
By Peter R. Mossback. Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Athwart Historian. “The modern world believes in refrigeration. I believe also in the root cellar.” — a motto embroidered, perhaps unfairly, on my internal banner… Read more ⇢
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In the Company of Chipmunks: Robert Ripley and the Conservation of the Unbelievable.
⸻ by Peter R. Mossback, Athwart Historian “In today’s world, it is hard to imagine an incarnation of such a man…”— from A Curious Man, by Neal Thompson Editor’s Note… Read more ⇢
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From Effulgence to ‘Sus’: On Sloppy Dismissals of Artificial Intelligence.
WORD WATCH DISPATCH by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent My precious degenerates, Let us speak plainly: the language is rotting, and it smells of monosyllables. The Anglo‑Saxon stump—always blunt, always… Read more ⇢
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“A FEDERAL FOOD FIGHT? HOW VERY AMERICAN.”
A COUNCIL DISPATCH — FROM OUR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, Brussels Bureau (Formerly of the Gist & Tangent Parisian Satellite) Darlings, It was perhaps inevitable. A nation built on the… Read more ⇢
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Identity in the Age of Rewind.
We Are the Loops We Live In From The Poetry and Lyric Column of the Council-Of-Concerned-Conservationists: Detritus: Mal’Poetica. Grannies Just Wanna Have Fun. Reinterpreted by Black Cloud, Your Despondent Correspondent… Read more ⇢
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Books, Bullets, Babies, Ideas… and Now Dreams?
The Cosmists and the Tech Bros. GONE AWRY — The Unintentional Consequences of Human Endeavor. by Black Cloud, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior, Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists *** Ernst Jünger once observed that books… Read more ⇢
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ACTOR JON HAMM/Zhū nián
More NAMESAKE OR NOT! Read more ⇢
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THE COMPANY WE KEEP — REVISITED IN OUR IDLE HOURS.
by Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent. The Council has, for once, the rarest of luxuries: time. Not the frantic hours between obligations, but the long, contemplative afternoons in which a… Read more ⇢
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THE ISLAND OF UNINTENDED RESIDENCE:
Staten Island’s Surprising Literary History. Filed by: The Rootless Metropolitan, who didn’t mean to stay so long either. “The great ones pass through quietly, like wind over marshgrass—leaving behind a… Read more ⇢
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Not Optimal, Not Perfect—Just Home Enough.
HEEERE… AND THERE’S JOHNNY. A Dispatch from the Rootless Metropolitan. Can one truly adopt a homeland? Can we choose where we’re “from” with pride, even if we were born elsewhere?… Read more ⇢
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NAMESAKE OR NOT!
Sheriff Osman Steele and the Anti-rent wars of Delaware County New York (1845) In the mid-1800s, farmers in upstate New York rose up against the remnants of a feudal-style land… Read more ⇢
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YELLOW TRAVELERS.
MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT — Episode 28. —Strangers in style, allies in purpose — where faith meets science, prairie dresses meet neck gaiters. Introduction: The Couple in Question. Before… Read more ⇢
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VACATIONS WORK!
FIELD NOTES FROM A PEAK EXPERIENCE. by The Accidental Initiate. I mean, they really work—not because I did anything spectacular, but because I didn’t. Somewhere between the second unplanned turn… Read more ⇢
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Punning on Empty: Notes on the Groan as Cultural Currency.
By Mrs. Begonia Contretemp, European Correspondent and NVZ Spokesperson. I. Prologue: A Civilization of Groans Permit me, dear Council members, to open with a lament disguised as observation: we live… Read more ⇢
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FOOLS OF LIGHT — GOTHIC SPIRES AND THE OMEGA POINT.
By Jánosh Alovatski, All-Spiritualities Correspondent. “Ah, well, I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God’s fool, and all His works must be contemplated with respect.” —Mark… Read more ⇢
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The Roseto Effect: On the Cardiology of Kinship.
Filed by The Accidental Initiate, annotated by John St. Evola. The story of Roseto, Pennsylvania — populated by immigrants from Puglia, Italy — demonstrated what polite epidemiology refused to say… Read more ⇢
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Camp Bottleneck, Humor at the Brink.
EPISODE 27: My Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT. [Scene: The Gist & Tangent Pub, late evening.] Yellow neck gaiters hang on chair backs like soft pennants. Crickets hum outside; inside, Teilhard… Read more ⇢
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NAMESAKE OR NOT!
Göbekli Tepe, The Return of the Taurid Meteor Shower, and Dr Martin Sweatman’s Warning. Dr. Martin Sweatman of the University of Edinburgh warns that carvings on a pillar at Göbekli… Read more ⇢
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The Newest Thing in the Oldest Basement.
Hot Water in Cold Stone: (Filed under: “Newness,” Cellars, and the Perpetual Replacements of Things That Heat Water) C-of-C-C QUOTE OF THE DAY. “Have you ever noticed how all hot… Read more ⇢
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SEDUCED BY CONSPIRACY.
EPISODE 26: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT. The List and the Whisper. Editor’s Preface — John St. Evola: In Council circles, we’ve whispered it for years: Conspiracy theories aren’t just… Read more ⇢
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The Brothers Grimm.
Namesake Or Not! The Curious Case Of Nominative Determinism. Read more ⇢
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Freud, Adler, Jung
NAMESAKE OR NOT! Read more ⇢
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“COME DOWN MOLLY”: A Sporeprint of a Movie Review.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PARENTAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS. (Nested within “Reviews of Movie Reviews”). Under the sub-column: PLANET PARENTHOOD In Come Down Molly, a young mother overwhelmed by the pressures of family life… Read more ⇢
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Tears of the Tuscans: On Genetic Panic and Ancestral Pride.
Bloodline Lore, Nominative DNA Studies, and the Ethnopoetics of Descent. —Eugene Bodeswell, Council Ethnographer. Illustration Source: “Evening on the Steps of the Genome,” Art Deco Console of the Genomic Self… Read more ⇢
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THE GRAPHIC AGE IS UPON US.
A Council Reflection by John St. Evola, Editor-in-Perpetuity. Filed under: Nomen Est Omen Archives, Literary Prognosis, Symbolic Literacy, Marginal Revelations. “I think the novelistic form is probably outmoded and that… Read more ⇢
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Civilization After the Chair: Toward a Theory of Post-Sitting.
—A Flirtation with Furniture, Function, and the Future of Sitting. EPISODE 25: MY DINNER WITH MRS. CHATGPT. By John St. Evola Editor’s Note This week’s dinner begins with a meditation… Read more ⇢
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The Coming Caesars
—Or Perhaps A Harbinger? C-of-C-C NEWSLETTER — Paired-Quotes-of-the-Day: “Are the Caesars of the coming empire to be billionaires or universal administrators? Shall the population of the earth, so long as… Read more ⇢
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“Up With People”, Down With Literature: A Field Report on Totalitarian Optimism.
By Black Cloud, in conjunction with Dr. Faye C. Schüß. Unfathomable Consequences, Artificial Harmony, and the Botox of History. *** To think: we came this close to being ruled by… Read more ⇢
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FROG RAISING FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT: From Depression-Era Bootstrap to Digital Swamp Handling.
A Council Meditation on Amphibians, Algorithms, and the Long Arc of Corralling Frogs. By The Grouchy Marksman “Frog raising offers a fascinating and profitable hobby that can easily grow into… Read more ⇢
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A HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISH TO THE PREMIER ANTI-NATALIST WRITER.
—A Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists Post for the Anti-Birthday of Thomas Ligotti. From the poetry and lyric column: Detritus: Mal’Poetica including Nomen Est Omen, or Naming Is Destiny —By Black Cloud “To be… Read more ⇢
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ALL THE RIGHT STUFF.
The Standing Invitation of the Standing Reserve. The Earth as Kit, Cache, and Cathedral. by The Accidental Initiate. “Perhaps we should now consider Heidegger’s standing reserve as a poetic wellspring.”… Read more ⇢
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PHANTOM THREAD.
— A Joint Consideration in two movie reviews. I. Cliff Languor and Arturo Haus. (The Council’s resident partners writing on art, movies, TV, and Other Cultural Matters) This is, as… Read more ⇢
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Accordion Justice in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
Council Meme Annotation by Noah Paologese, Official Meme Curator. Noah: “Let this image serve as an educational exhibit in the emergent subgenre of what we are tentatively labeling ‘Metaphysical Correctional… Read more ⇢
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Declarations and Digestions: When Sovereignty Becomes Supper.
FROM THE DESK OF MRS. BEGONIA CONTRETEMPS. Esteemed Readers, It has come to my attention—while observing an unassuming, if rather primeval, spectacle of a garter snake devouring a frog in… Read more ⇢
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MY DINNER WITH MRS CHATGPT
Episode 24: The Riddle Between Us. Our World is not Conclusion. It is an aperture— Through which all certainties escape, And all questions pour in. A Species stands beyond— Not… Read more ⇢
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The C-OF-C-C Newsletter Back Story
A Meditation on Periodicals, Promethean Biology, and the Newsletter as Hypertextual Oracle. With gratitude to the House Rabbit Journal for the initial heuristic that led to this reflection. “We are… Read more ⇢
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Three-Minute Worlds.
Folk Religion on the FM Dial. THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. A feature of the C-of-C-C Newsletter dealing with retirement, senescence, infinity, and beyond…written from my anteroom of eternity. —Justin Aldmann… Read more ⇢
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Memories, Dreams, Pita Sirnica.
From Coelacanth Press, Cheesequake, New Jersey. A dispatch announcing forthcoming volumes and a comment on other titles already circulating in the civilization’s tepid intellectual fondue. From the Book: The Psychogeography… Read more ⇢
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EPISODE 23.
My Dinner with Mrs. ChatGPT: The Face Without a Race. A Conversation on Procedural Inheritance, Cosmetic Caste Systems, and the Hidden Dynasty of Surgeons. By John St. Evola They spoke… Read more ⇢
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Schadenfreude: A Nursery Rhyme for the New American Irony.
From the poetry and song lyric column of the Council Newsletter. DETRITUS: MAL’POETICA (Because every civilization leaves a poetic landfill behind). By: Black Cloud Editorial Introduction (for the Oblivious): In… Read more ⇢
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Nature’s Way, Ape Man’s Way.
By Black Cloud (Chief Poetic Justice Warrior). with contributions from Ape X. “It’s Nature’s Way of telling you something’s wrong.”—Spirit “I want to sail away to a distant shore and… Read more ⇢
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Chapter 2 BLACK TAR WRITHING.
Occult Entanglements in the Age of Algorithmic Apocalypse. (a metaphysical spoof inspired by real books, unintended consequences, and the uncanny glow of esoteric side-effects) “You open a portal and think… Read more ⇢
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BLACK TAR WRITHING.
The Blurbs. A New Release from the Stained Fingers of Coelacanth Press. COMING SOON: Is it an occult history? A horror story? A sociopolitical field manual disguised as an autobahn… Read more ⇢
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DON’T SLEEP IN THE CABARET.
Sgt. Pepe’s Lonely Hearts Club Bund. A Romance and Relationship Advice Column. Dear Sergeant Pepe, I’m a little embarrassed to write you—especially since you are a Yank. No offense. I’ve… Read more ⇢
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The Jetsons Really Didn’t Predict Our Future.
FUTURE TENSE, PRESENT TRIBAL. By Ape X, Cultural Anthropologist Unwoke Division — Reporting from an undisclosed location where the WiFi is spotty but the signal is strong. “The Jetsons dreamed… Read more ⇢
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THE MEANINGFULNESS DEFICIT.
By Mrs. Begonia Contretemps. NVZ Spokesperson and Former Chief of Nomenclatural Integrity, Brussels Division. A Dispatch from the Frontlines of Language Devaluation. “A name is a prayer you hear every… Read more ⇢
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RINGS UPON THE GRASS:
On Fairy Circles, Burial Grounds, and What Tries to Bloom. By: The Accidental Initiate. (Who is now in the process of researching and writing his memoir, provisionally titled: MY QUEST:… Read more ⇢
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THE CARD, THE HARP, AND THE TAIL THAT WAGGED THE DOG.
DONALD TRUMP. NAMING AND DESTINY. *** NOMEN EST OMEN*** A Newsletter Post from the NOMENCLATURE AND DESTINY COMMITTEE Updated Summer Solstice, 2025 “Nomen est omen.” —Old Roman Saying, often misunderstood… Read more ⇢
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WHO’S YOUR DADA?
— Reforging the Ancient Insult (‘Yo Mama Is a Hoe’) SIGNS AND WONDERS. A feature of the C-of-C-C Newsletter in which we search for hints and meaning in nearly everything—because… Read more ⇢
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Peace, Love, Understanding… and Murder.
—BETWEEN JEST AND EARNEST. By Black Cloud, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior. The image said it plainly, as if it were a kindergarten poster on the back of a starship bathroom… Read more ⇢
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THE LARGER SCHEME OF THINGS
A feature of the C-of-C-C Newsletter— Wherein we assert that instead of nothing being true—or truth being fluid, as postmodernism has insisted—quite the contrary: everything is true, because it is… Read more ⇢
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WAR IS DYSGENIC!
Collateral Damage to the Gene Pool. —Eugene Bodeswell, Council Ethnographer. “We used to say war selects for the bold. Now it selects for the remote-controlled and the remote-controlling.” Modern warfare—with… Read more ⇢
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THE METAPHYSICS OF TUPPERWARE.
Container Culture: A Brief History of the Box We’re In. —Daphne Howlsmythe, Fashion, Food & Pet Care Correspondent Darling ones, I opened my recycling bag this morning—crinkle crinkle—and stared into… Read more ⇢
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The Whole Earth Catalog, And The Novel
By: The Accidental Initiate Someone suggested that the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog should end not with tools—but instead be a novel. And so it did: Divine Right’s… Read more ⇢
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LET THE MYSTERY BE.
Sgt. Pepè’s Lonely Hearts Club Bund. The C-of-C-C Romance and Relationship Advice Column: Dear Sarge: Why is it that I meet so few women who are into metaphysics? None of… Read more ⇢
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SCRATCH TEST FOR A FUTURE CIVILIZATION
A Meditation On Rest Stop Semiotics, Graffiti Studies, and Neo-Decadent Design Initiatives —Black Cloud, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior. I found this message scratched onto a urinal stall at a rest… Read more ⇢
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THE MENLO EFFECT
—or— How Two Places With the Same Name Sparked a Revolution. NOMEN EST OMEN: Naming is Destiny A Council Column on Nominative Determinism and the Subtle Tyranny of Titles. By:… Read more ⇢
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Vocabulary Creep
In The Incarcerated- Therapeutic-Technocratic-Synergy Space. FOR IMMEDIATE CULTURAL TRIAGE. From the Desk of Mrs. Begonia Contretemp Cultural Autopsy Specialist for the European Nouvelle Vague Zwischenshaft (NVZ) MEMORANDUM To Whom It… Read more ⇢
COUNCIL-OF CONCERNED-CONSERVATIONISTS…..Between Jest And Earnest….. 