• “The ways in which Frankenstein’s development was influenced by books, conversations, and even a dramatic alpine excursion can be tracked and identified. The potent connection between the novel’s dark mood and two dreadful events that took place during the autumn of its creation proves harder to define.” (New York Review of Books)

• The evolution of Sleepy Hollow. (BBC)

• The Celtic origins of Halloween. (The Conversation)

• A cookbook of gravestone recipes. (Eater)

• On Radu Jude’s Dracula. (Notebook)

• Found: Adult Nanotyrannus. (Science News)

• Reconstructed: Language used with the glyphs of Teotihuacan. (New York Times)

• “New York Didn’t ‘Drop Dead” in 1975—and It Won’t Under Mamdani, Either.” (The New Republic)

• An interview with Gay Talese, the “last literary lion” of New York. (The Metropolitan Review)

• A brief history of artificial intelligence. (Personal Canon)

• “When asked why he had come to the United States, common sense dictated that he provide a bland, inoffensive answer. Instead, he blurted out that he had come to the ‘land of (George) Washington’ to become a revolutionary and learn how to throw off British oppression. Quickly regretting the outburst, he thought for sure that he ‘was lost.’ But the border agent merely patted him on the back, saying, ‘Go, wish you success.’” (Literary Hub)

• This week in obituaries: Mohammed al-Munirawi, Ahmed Abu Mutair, Sirikit, June Lockhart, Maria Riva, Bjorn Andresen, Barbara Gips, Prunella Scales, Michael McKee, Benita Valente, Jack DeJohnette, J. William Middendorf II, Pierre Robert, Anthony Jackson, Arthur Waskow,  Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Daniel Naroditsky, and over two hundred Palestinians killed by Israel during the latest ceasefire.