A Public Service Announcement

And the Stack of the Week

“The Isle of Substack,” by M. E. Rothwell. Thanks to Mikey for allowing me to feature his lovely, clever, Tolkienian maps!

A Substack PSA

According to the stats that Substack sends me, most of you are exclusively email subscribers, which is perfectly fine. I’m glad you’re here. But I encourage you also to try the Substack app, which has recently been splendidly redesigned, both for phone and tablet use. Using the app has several advantages, but to me the best thing is not having to hang on to the old emails of the posts that I want to save: they are all there, easily accessible in the archive on the app—like this:

Just scroll down to find the post that you want.

Another advantage is access to the Notes and Chat features. I don’t use Chat very much, because it’s a feature for subscribers who use the app, and most of you don’t. (However, I’m game for firing up the Chat in the future if enough of you start using the app.)

Notes, however, is worth the price of admission. (Actually, there is no price: it’s free.) It is Substack’s in-house social media network, and it is mostly used by writers on Substack. So it’s sort of like the old Twitter but with no advertising, and with much more edifying discussion. It’s a very friendly and supportive place, and I hope that it will stay that way. Here is the front page of the app, with your reading choices from your inbox at the top and Notes below that:

My one criticism of the app at the moment is that I wish that I had the option of making my inbox my front page, since that is where I like to go most often. As much as I like Notes, sometimes I get distracted by it before making it to the articles—and the articles are Substack’s raison d’être.

Anyway, give it a try and see how you like it. I can’t speak to the Android experience, but it’s very good on iOS, in both its iPhone and iPad variations.

The Stack of the Week

This week’s stack is

M. E. Rothwell

’s Cosmographia, from which is taken the map at the top of this post, as well as this larger view of the “Social Media Archipelago”:

I asked Mikey why Bluesky is absent from this map, but we both agreed that it is an imaginary land that doesn’t really exist.

These maps, however, delightful as they are, give you a false impression of what Cosmographia actually is. Each week, the “Moleskine Notebooks” edition of the newsletter visits a place and explores it through a number of categories: art, verse, cartography, literature, and photography. This edition on County Galway in Ireland gives you a sense of it:

The Moleskine Notebooks: County Galway

Furthermore, the bonus for paid subscribers is the “Atlas Cultura,” which goes in depth with meticulously researched cultural guides to the great cities of the world.

It is always gorgeous to look at, informative, well-written, and well-researched. Let M. E. Rothwell take you around the globe. It’s a lot less expensive than booking flights—and no jet lag!

Thanks for reading, from my fancy internet typewriter to yours.

Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash