This must be the most English Christmas story ever: a friend had her plans disrupted because the vicar of St Boniface required her presence at the pop up Christmas choir.

An original Klecksographie by the original mothman, Justinus Kerner.

Electronic review systems for journals are broken: I’ve received daily nagging reminders for a week to complete a review due TODAY and this morning at 5 am the machine wrote to me that my review was late . . .

Coining a new word: detitlement

RIP Jane Goodall. I can’t think of a bigger influence on my children, inspiring optimism in the face of climate devastation.

And there we have it: ICE are deporting a great guy who works in my building with asylum papers.

The Sissi Experience in Vienna is only worth it for the home gym.

UBC Queer and Trans German Studies is hosting Andrea Rottmann (FU Berlin) as the next Tobin Distinguished Lecture in Queer and Trans German Studies! The event will take place in person at UBC as well as online. We would be grateful if you could pass the announcement on to your networks.

My dog sneaked a Scottish elevenses when I wasn’t looking: coffee and a Tunnocks caramel wafer (elegantly unwrapped).

If you happen to be in Glasgow and can find your way to an unsignposted special exhibit of Alasdair Gray you can see among other things the original art for “Poor Things”

I’m just leaving this out there without commentary.

Arriving back in Scotland and what’s missing from the picture?

I picked up this nineteenth-century trompe l’oeil painting of paper ephemera in Vienna. What a find.

Heading into Midsommar takes me back to midnight last year, flying into Umea, Sweden.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/a... On how my brilliant colleagues at the Smart Museum handled a difficult situation and used it as a moment to promote new research on provenance.

I had to turn down a major international invitation and am so sad about the situation.

teamLab at Smart Museum. Perfect for spring.

Two different staff members at UChicago Medicine misidentified me as Irish in honor of St Patrick’s Day this morning.🧙‍♀️

Excited to be traveling to Stanford for a talk on Tuesday.

www.littlesparta.org.uk/support-us/ please join me in supporting Little Sparta after the devastating storm damage.

This is what I would call a village legend, but it seems my great grandfather was some kind of a barefoot runner.

Brrrr it’s a brisk morning in Chicago.

The weather is what we Hebrideans call coarse. Bliadhna mhah ur/ happy Hogmanay from Chicago!

This year I made it both to Worpswede - filled with family memories - and the fine Paula Modersohn-Becker show.

Mercury glass/at the Lake

Thanks to @finebooks.bsky.social for featuring Elena Ganzevoort and her sparkly collection of Art Nouveau publishers' bindings, an honorable mention in the 2024 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize! www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...

I just watched season two of The Diplomat, and honestly, watching English and US politicians scrapping over Scottish “secession” (US) and “woolly tribesmen” (fictional British PM) without featuring any Scottish characters except for the FM and a marginal FO officer (waiting for him to matter) - odd.

Shiny, Bookish PRESENTS For... YOU! Now in its fifth year, for this #NewberryLibrary Advent Calendar, we'll look at SO MANY pretty packages from our Henry Probasco collection. For instance, this stunning 18th c. fore-edge binding I didn't know we had... December 1 (1/24) bsky.app/profile/drka...

A home-made advent calendar from the war years; Ruhr Museum.

As far as I’m concerned, this Thanksgiving turkey is merely a necessary prelude to turkey curry.

Today is the day I had a little travel medical emergency and met a lovely German pharmacist who gave me a homeopathic remedy 🙏

Zollverein Essen: yes, dark, Satanic, and photogenic.

One last Alasdair Gray archive post because I can’t stop thinking about it. This is a letter he wrote his wife, Morag. What a heartfelt thing to express and a beautiful thing to receive.

Happy to have a new essay out on Goethe's collection catalogs and nineteenth-century inventorying practices in this great new volume.

Just received the 5th tenure review request of the month - where to draw the line . . .

Playing in special collections: in this 1776 Hamburg almanac, Werther is blowing his brains out in October, but the book starts with an illustration of Emilia Galotti. If you you know, you know.

A new administrative avatar? Actually a Meiji ghoul representing the lure of the West. #meijimodern #smartmuseum

I can only conclude from the floods of emails received today that no-one else is getting an academic spring break either.

Helen Wehrle in der Herman Haller Revue, ‘Wann und Wo’, erschienen Nr. 38 Ernst Schneider. 1927

Some highlights from our boardgame collection at #MADD UChicago

Canova, Sketching in Clay, at the Art Institute of Chicago. How much more poignant than marble.

One of my students in seminar yesterday countered my interpretation of a gendered term in Genette as something only an English speaker could think. Sweet summer child, English is not even my first second language.

Why is there not a Wegmans in Chicago? I am in Erie and *this is what I am missing from PA. For a foodie city, the supermarkets are dreary.

Artists' Things is finally out! A different side of the Paris artworld explored through artists' personal possessions. If you've ever wondered what objects filled the homes, studios, and pockets of French artists, this is the book for you! shop.getty.edu/products/art...

Maybe this was not the best weekend to drive from Chicago to upstate New York.

Just because Lessing calls Adam Smith an Englishman doesn’t mean y’all should. Sometimes this appears to be my main educational mission.