Tom Bentley

Friday frolic, with a sort-of Boulevardier, and sort of not: Jack Daniel's single malt (not the usual recruit for this #cocktail), Atost aperitif and Cocchi vermouth. Not bad, but I couldn't really taste the whiskey much, so not sure if this will be a repeat. #whiskey

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

Heads up ⬇️⬇️⬇️

The odious, groveling cowardice of our alleged president: #treason www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

Good stuff on writing with feeling to evoke feeling: #fiction #novels #emotion https://www.thenovelry.com/blog/how-to-make-readers-cry

www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202... #books #reading

Absolutely nothing will stop me 👇

Yes, they’re banning books about butts and farts. You really can’t make this stuff up. Via @everylibrary.bsky.social action.everylibrary.org/buttsfarts

George Saunders, articulating with verve, emotion and grace about how using AI to write our stories evades our very humanness, in all our human faults, fancies and flights. #AI #writing #stories #fiction Model Behavior: George Saunders on.substack.com/p/model-beha...

Kruk and Kuip: a living institution of good cheer, the deepest of friendships, and stellar broadcasting. Thirty-six years isn't enough. #baseball #Giants #friendship #decency www.mlb.com/giants/news/...

Trump just announced plans to repeal one of our most popular and effective forest protections! I'm joining the @SierraClub to write a personal comment to protect the Roadless Rule. share.sierraclub.org/s/nh5apII7 Destroy pristine environments for corporate greed and blind waste? No.

I did love to read that Annie Dillard played tackle football. She was intrepid, found (and shared) awe in the smallest and biggest pockets of the natural world, and could wing words like a possessed demon/angel/angel/demon. #AnnieDillard www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/b...

Couple of fingers of Booker’s (the Big Easy release) as my Sunday turns the corner. Yes, l do have a glass that says “The good shit.” And since Booker’s is the good shit, ergo… #bourbon #whiskey

Just another summer day on the Monterey CA coast. Ain't it purty? #Monterey #California #PacificOcean

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single person in possession of Jane Austen's bedroom must be in want of a solid novel outline. Or something like that. #JaneAusten #writers #writing #fiction www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...

Friday fun: an Old Fashioned w/ Old Forester single-barrel rye (130 proof—whoohoo!), Angostura bitters, Demerara simple syrup, orange slice, splash of soda water (I know, not the classic). Flavor! #cocktails

Fascinating parsing of the initial paragraph, with lots of nuance and probing, of Johnathan Franzen's novel "The Corrections," coming into the 25th anniversary of its publication. #fiction #writing #novels www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The feminist movement was never a threat to men. Secure men have always understood that. They stood beside women, fought for equality, and some proudly called themselves feminists too. If women having equal power feels like oppression to you, feminism isn’t the problem.

There are some things that simply bring people together. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is one of them. Now, funding for this remarkable literacy program is being threatened. Sign the petition to support the Imagination Library Via @everylibrary.bsky.social bit.ly/46B3b8Y

Tonight’s delight: a Boulevardier w/ Whistle Pig 6-year rye, Cocchi sweet vermouth, Gran Classico (better than Campari). And here’s to Dolly Parton, an American original, and a big soul with a big heart. #cocktails

Wow. Dolly was a giant in heart and soul. (And Emmy Lou and Linda, quite the backup singers).

Absorbing short piece on rage, memory, resignation and opaque longing. Good stuff!

www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

You mean people actually help other people sometimes? Even when it's not for profit? Good piece by Nicholas Kristof on the lift of doing good, even—or particularly in—in challenging circumstances: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/o...

Tonight's delight: a variant on the Black Manhattan (because it has some sweet vermouth too): Old Forester Single Barrel (130 proof—yowsah!), Cynar amaro, Cocchi vermouth, Peychaud's and Angostura bitters, brandied cherry, orange twist. Pretty durn good. #cocktails

Good stuff from Tim Ferriss, with snippets of interviews with famous writers (like Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Godin and more) on writing approaches and processes. #writing #writers tim.blog/2026/08/07/w...

Impersonation scams targeting writers are an epidemic. To defend yourself: check any out-of-the-blue email that purports to be from a real person in publishing or Hollywood against Writer Beware's Impersonation List writerbeware.blog/2024/03/15/t...

No country that arrested librarians and booksellers was on the right side of history. But that's what's happening in Arkansas. And this is where your whole country is headed with H.R 7661 and S 4925. Via @everylibrary.bsky.social action.everylibrary.org/arkansasact372

With feeling: a couple of wistful, yearning poems served warm by those literary types at @electricliterature.com: #poetry electricliterature.com/two-poems-by...

Nice piece on the use of character flaws, often big ones, offset by other traits that pull in readers and keep them reading: #fiction #novels #CharacterFlaws https://www.writersdigest.com/how-to-create-morally-gray-characters-readers-will-root-for

Good piece on author handwringing (done it myself) on a book's beginning, even after the final galleys are gone. #novels #writing #fiction #authors www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/b...

Tonight’s frolic: A French 75, w/Venus Spirits gin, Paula Kornell champagne (a rosé, something I hadn’t tried before), fresh lemon juice, Liber Demerara syrup, twist. Pretty durn good; might have another. #cocktails

There have been nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools since 2021. The Books Save Lives Act protects the freedom to read and defends the right of every person to see themselves in the pages of a book. #library #books via @everylibrary.bsky.social www.saveschoollibrarians.org/booksavelives

A freshly-baked monarch sunning on a sunflower in our backyard today. Credit goes to @heybourget.bsky.social for both the photo and the butterflies, since she planted all the milkweed that attracts the moms-to-be laying their eggs. We've had a monarch bonanza this summer!

Well, all of them aren’t THAT simple, but good overview here of working measures to improve writing: https://www.writersdigest.com/how-to-be-a-writer-in-10-simple-steps

My paean to the pleasures of the Big Sur region, coastal poetry: https://medium.com/globetrotters/big-sur-and-surrounds-zounds-5921fc609f71

Do you want the Federal Government controlling your local school libraries? Help stop the Federal Book Ban Bill today!  action.everylibrary.org/hr_7661 via @everylibrary.bsky.social

Tweets disappear. Emails get buried. But a postcard on a desk? That gets noticed. civicmail.org/about-campai... via @civicmail.bsky.social

Good—(God!); what? hath, we wrought…? (Dunno) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/punctuation-internet-texting-generational-divide/687632/?gift=8-Jj1zvOmyW4EAUIhrtUkWg5C0AfTSM0Jnylm40IC6s&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

As mama said, there will be days like this…

Hahahahahahaha

Tonight's delight: an Old Pal, w/Woodford rye, Dolin dry vermouth and Atost aperitif. (Supposed to be Campari for the bitter, but none about, and Gran Classico is better anyway.) Lemon twist and Friday away! #cocktails

The Builder’s Creed seths.blog/2026/07/the-...

This guy or gal came by the house the other day, and has been hanging around the neighborhood. It’s a juvenile red-tailed hawk, and obviously well-dressed. Plenty of varmints in the nearby fields to terrorize.

Ahh, c'mon. No machine could think and write for you. That would take it stealing from all the accumulated knowledge in history, not paying the actual writers for it, and regurgitating limp pap. Oh, wait... www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Friday delight: a variant on a Manhattan (called a Manhattan Beach by the Atost folks, but I varied their recipe even more): WhistlePig 6-year rye, Atost—thanks Marie!—aperitif, and Cocchi vermouth, with Angostura bitters and candied (yum) orange peel. Not a bad thing... #cocktails

Friday frolic: a Black Manhattan variant, with the last dribbles of a too-large Knob Creek bourbon, amplified with some Woodford Reserve bourbon, Cocchi vermouth and Montenegro amaro. Peychaud's and Angostura bitters, and brandied cherry to boot. Takes the pain of too much bad news away. #cocktails

View from a cliff at Ft. Ord Dunes State Park (north of Monterey, CA) today. Dazzling stuff, and walking down that little canyon to the water was just as good.

Fabulous is not a strong enough word to describe the heart, soul and grit in this essay.