The Psychology of Pessimism

ChatGPT Image Sep 26, 2025, 10_47_39 AM
ChatGPT Image Sep 26, 2025, 10_47_39 AM

If the universe had a mood, it would be Monday. Entropy marches, coffee cools, batteries drain, and socks vanish into an event horizon behind the washing machine. Against this cosmic backdrop, optimism can feel like a form of bad arithmetic. Yet here we are—hairless apes who invented anesthesia and sourdough starters—still arguing about whether the glass is half full, half empty, or a … Read the rest

Noon To Noir

By Eric Le Roy

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Content 18+ As we study history together, I often show documentary films to my students. When these films are about the distant past, there is a voice (or person-moderator) who walks us through the information, using whatever illustrations can be mustered. But as we get nearer to modern times the documentaries come to life: actual human action in black and white. From the late 19th … Read the rest

Come To The Cabaret, Old Chum

By Eric Le Roy

Content 18+ The gray days turn now to early darkness – light-swallowing afternoons that have me leaving the apartment with my dogs when it is still daylight and returning 30 minutes later to sudden winds and the pitch black of precocious night. These afternoons end quicker than friendships when talking about places like Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Believe me, I know.

In the morning, … Read the rest

The Usher

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Photo by Mariana Montrazi from Pexels

Content 18+ Lou was sitting at the table in the cafe eating his sandwich and staring absently at the milling about of other people. It was random of course, but it also seemed strangely choreographed, as if they had all secretly made plans to move this way and that, occupying tables, chattering and eating, paying and leaving. And he wondered why he saw them … Read the rest