M. John Harrison's "The Crisis"

My gaydar set off on this one immediately. False positive? Read for yourself (it's a really good short story all on its own). And for those of you like me unfamiliar with "mercuric sulphocyanate" — voilà  pharaoh's serpent!

— a History!

transferring this to "Books We Have Read" I realize we didn't comment on the subtitle "A Graphic History". May mitigate some of our criticisms of the book … or not?

"No Sex Please, We're Gay"

Tip of the hat to Ken Jost for calling our attention to this critical review of Call Me by Your Name in last week's Post. A complementary critique from The New Yorker also appeared last month. (Complimentary critiques of course elsewhere abound.)