Many of these made me laugh

Here is my mum talking firmly about not throwing away things that are old and decrepit 💕 www.swlondoner.co.uk/news/2201202...

CFP: The Roots of the Americas: Multidisciplinary Histories of New World Plants. Tempe, Arizona networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

"Everybody - wake up! It's the #BigGardenBirdwatch!" Will you be taking part today? 👀🌳

I’m doing the birdwatch thing. We usually get a lot of morning garden visits, but today they’re all flying overhead going ner ner na ner ner.

There will be a painful gap in my list of ‘Blog Posts of the Year’ next December; RIP Deborah Cameron and ‘language: a feminist guide’, which has appeared every year since 2019. thesphinxblog.com/2026/01/23/a...

does anyone know what happened to the titanic

We were incredibly saddened to hear of the death of Deborah Cameron, an EMC patron with a deep commitment to Language study into schools. We loved working with her on many occasions + our thoughts are with her + her family. Here she is talking on emagClips 1/3 englishandmedia.co.uk/videos/colle...

When I write bisous on my phone it wants it to be buses, which is charmingly Elizabethan of it 🚌 💋

Loved Hamnet but this also kept popping into my head youtu.be/8P0v8ciiifE?...

One of the most popular and crowd-pleasing arias in classical opera, "Perché non c'è cibo nella mia ciotola, donna?" tells an emotional tale of a desperately malnourished waif and translates into English as "Why Is There No Food In My Bowl, Woman?"

And Blakfullas led the way, Aboriginally, over the last 2 to 3 weeks in making sure this came to light while most other folks saw an ochre painted fulla in the bush as "oh yeah, that's Aboriginal" 😵‍💫 Mob smelt that goona a mile away. #Mobsky

After careful consideration, I have decided to give my grade C in GCSE Food Technology to my cat.

Coming up next month! Talks in Bristol, Cambridge, & Oxford on extinction in museums. Reserve your free place thru the links 👇

Yes! What excellent news. #EarlyModern 🗃️

A gorgeous Wigmore Hall evening: Sabine Devielhe and Matthieu Pordoy doing Liszt, Strauss, Lili Boulanger, Germaine Taillefer- and a knowledgeable and deeply enthused young audience on the under 35s for a fiver deal- who knew there were so many French song fans out there? THREE encores, much joy

1/ A shout out to seriously the most stunning article I have read perhaps ever - Erin Maglaque's in the December @Journalofmoder. I was one of the readers for this piece, and I even wrote in my report that it was such an intense read that I had to go for a walk afterwards to calm down.

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey montrealgazette.com/news/provinc...

There are all sorts of strange creatures in Oxford colleges but this was the first time I’ve seen one of these in a meeting. It ran all over the room like a cat with the zoomies. Efficiently ushered out by our new President. Next time we will put that skill to test at interview stage.

The UK will become an Erasmus+ partner country in 2027. Welcome back! 👋 Erasmus+ provides exchange opportunities for: 🧑‍🎓 students 👷 apprentices 🧑‍🏫 teachers 🎒 pupils and more. Erasmus isn't just a chance to experience a new country (incl. 🇩🇪) and build friendships, it also boosts your employability.

Me having leftover takeaway for lunch at work

Today's artist without a (known) birthday: Parisian Louise Moillon. Painted works involving fruit, here with A+ cockatoo, who is enjoying his moment of fame.

Ukip have submitted a new logo and slogan to the Electoral Commission, swapping the £ pound sterling symbol for a cross, that looks very much like it is modelled on the Iron Cross used by Prussia & Germany 1871-1918 and Hitler's Nazi regime from 1933-45

You know how cats rush you when you open a can? I had to fiddle with a broken lid and then whoosh, all the juice from the black beans went over a very affronted black and white cat.

Academic and Native friends, please share this CFP and/or consider submitting a proposal! The organizers would love perspectives from outside the academy as well. www.historic-deerfield.org/call-for-pro...

10/10 no notes

Prochaine séance du séminaire "Changement climatique et conflits religieux", Iméra, Marseille, 14h30-16h30. -Lundi 19 janv : Oury Goldman (Paris I) : "Pourquoi s'intéressait-on à la nature en temps de troubles ? Savoirs et pratiques naturalistes au cours des guerres de Religion (1550-1620)".

Sunday evening is for falling asleep over a book

This is a stunning resource, beautifully presented - congratulations to Ros Smith Kathy Acheson and their team emwmlibrary.com

art

Samedi matin [Allégorie].

be the tiny but unflappable roe deer you wish to see in this world

Barnabe Rich explaining that "bookes are like cheese"

'Investing in languages is not a sentimental project; it is a strategic one.' Great blog from Martha Lane Fox martha6j5h2.substack.com/p/britain-is...

New @hepi-news.bsky.social report shows continued fall in foreign language study in England at A-level. Language teacher recruitment consistently falls well below government targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was reached. on.ft.com/4l5SYX4 (Full report www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/31/n...)

Bump for my CFP for Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo... Deadline 14 February! Have had a few abstracts already and it's shaping up to be great. 🗃️

Trains from Oxford to the Cotswolds are being halted early today due to anticipated snow. GWR says “Network Rail have advised there will be no trains west of Great Malvern after 15:00 and no trains west of Oxford after 18:00”.

Friends, I hope you’ll share this widely. The @jcblibrary.bsky.social is hiring 2 3-yr research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas. Info is here and I’m happy to take questions offline: brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-...

This shows the function of "independent" regulation. It is not to improve the working of an industry, but to allow the government to avoid responsibility.

My father brought me a plastic bag filled with old photos, from the 1890s to the early 2000s: mostly family, but some postwar cricket. Here’s Peter May and I think Ted Dexter (judging from names recorded on other pics), 1958 - must be Cambridge when international sides still played there.

The vast melancholy space after the tree. Fortunately the cat has busily redistributed Christmas decorations all over the house, for some vestigial holiday feeling.

« Pedro Sánchez affirme que l'Espagne n'a pas reconnu le régime de Maduro, « mais elle ne reconnaîtra pas non plus une intervention qui viole le droit international ». » Y’en a qui disent les mots en Europe mais c’est pas chez nous 💀

it's funny when watching US movies or tv shows i used to be like "man, they sure do use food poisoning as a plot device *a lot* in america..." then i learned their food poisoning statistics and it blew my mind. that's just how they live! people DIE of food poisoning regularly in the US. it's MAD.

Got to my office to find a treat for the archives fellow from @stuartjones.bsky.social on James Bryce: the first nonconformist student @trinityoxford.bsky.social who went on to be jurist, politician, diplomat, and is now in the dining hall as well as on this cover. Congratulations Stuart!

Cat 😸Tube Transport System #ThursdayThoughts

The last 2025 issue of the JEMH just dropped, a Special Issue on Environment & Empires. Don’t miss it! #earlymodern #envhist #envhum

“oh, i wish there were some kind of punctuation to chain these two sentences together” the humble semicolon:

got back from the dentist to find that not only @micahtrue.bsky.social's new Jesuit "Relations": a biography had arrived, but that my mother was already reading it and discovering new ways to get at me: if you're too busy to come down soon, she said, you could always send me a message in wampum...

Hé Bluesky, j'ai créé un petit jeu. Il s'appelle Fausse Commune, et il va mettre à l'épreuve ta connaissance des régions françaises. C'est gratuit, c'est absurde, c'est rapide, ça marche sur téléphone ou ordi. C'est là : faussecommune.fr

We're watching Rear Window and the Frenchman is ready to throw over his beloved Hitchcock bc Jimmy Stewart is drinking something labelled Montrachet that seems to be a rosé. Mum and stepfather watching steadfastly without comment in hope that someone will bring them some wine soon.