So @princetonupress.bsky.social had a sale, of which word reached me at a vulnerable moment so now I am the proud owner of yet another pile of books. A mix of professional and personal interest, looking forward to digging in! 📚

Hesiod is such a wild read. 'Women are a scourge from the gods, try to be born on the 24th day of the month for good luck, and wear a hat when it rains because otherwise your ears will get wet.'

Can I just point out that a car does not magically stop if you shoot the driver in the face? So even if someone is trying to hit you with their car, if they're that close shooting them solves absolutely nothing. Of course, she clearly WASN'T TRYING TO HIT ANYONE, but even if she was.. #minneapolis

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

So there'll finally be a general strike in the US now, right? Now that the 'president of peace' has illegally gone to war with another country and kidnapped it's president? Surely time for a total halt to the economy until Trump is removed, right? No? Still no? Just let it happen? #venezuela

When they turn off the old year before the new one starts

It continues to astound me how media will happily call up humanities scholars to comment on all kinds of news, but never connect this to 'maybe this is why the humanities are important.' Reporting on budget cuts to universities is consistently focused on finances, followed by 'unis disagree'.

The word “Research” is doing way too much work. We need separate words for “creating new verifiable knowledge” and “looking shit up on the internet”

Safe to say the CCC was a success!

Beautiful Coimbra! The first day of the CCC was filled with fantastic papers, with more to come over the next three days. Hopefully I can make a fitting contribution with my own paper on Thursday!

Lexi has decided that she MUST accompany me to the CCC in Coimbra tomorrow. Just look at this cat-shaped space in the suitcase, it's clearly meant to be!

Now that I'm working extensively with Roman terracotta stamps, can/should I call myself a stamp collector? 🤔

What a great time to join Bluesky, right in the middle of fresh listserv drama! In all seriousness, it's shocking how some very senior scholars casually deny that classics/ancient studies have societal use. Our disciplines cannot be detached from politics, nor should they!

"This is a Classicists List not a political one." A field of study is doomed when it surrenders its claim to be relevant to the real world, to how we live our lives in relation to other human beings, & cultivate mutual understanding. Isn't that the very point of the humanities?

Hello world! Attempt #2 at short-form social media, to talk about history, academia, books, and cats. And whatever else I feel like :) Let's hope this one does not descend into madness like Twitter!