We are now as far away from the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark as audiences in 1981 were from its setting of 1936

Ridding the village of bad spirits with flames and bagpipes to start the new year. #Hogmanay

Sitting on the couch, minding my own business and #BellaDogliano stuck her tongue out at me.

This is not hard. Artists are not responsible for ensuring the Kennedy Center remains relevant and successful. The center’s board is responsible for that, in a fiduciary way. All of this energy being directed at artists should be re-directed at the board.

Agreed, @frankcogliano.bsky.social! Adding my grandfather John [Jan] Wajda's 1919 US citizenship application, citing 1918 Naturalization Act included foreign-born individuals serving in US armed forces. He abjured his loyalty to Russia. Bonus: one witness lived on Cleveland's Kosciusko Ave.

With all the nonsense about "heritage Americans," [sic] I'm thinking of my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Gianlnetto, who abjured his loyalty to Victor Emmanuel III when he became a US citizen in 1918. He worked in the Revere Sugar House in Boston. There are no categories when it come to citizenship.

"If experience be called for, appeal to that of our 15 or 20 [state] governments for 40 years, and shew me where the people have done half the mischief in these 40 years that a single despot would have done in a single year ..." Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 12 July 1816.

This has been the worst year. • PEPFAR, the greatest lifesaving program in human history, saving tens of millions of lives, was ended. • An actual secret police force roams our cities, snatching citizens and putting them beyond reach of lawyers and family. • Trump has seized dictatorial powers …

The cover shot for Bella Dogliano's acoustic album, "Young dog in an Old Man's Pub."

Bella Dogliano's made a Boxing Day visit to the pub.

Bella Dogliano is out on Christmas morning wondering where everyone is.

Something very funny about de santis praising Coolidge for “immigration.” Coolidge’s immigration policy was that people named de santis shouldn’t be allowed to come here bsky.app/profile/anth...

More an amusing archive find than a crazy story: first edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations with student marginalia: "Very good indeed. We should no want pots to make our porridge in." (University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections.)

Daughter and wife have created 'The Husband Games,' to pit son-in-law and me against each other when doing Christmas chores. Apparently I was docked points for not being cheerful enough when I went to the shop for missing baking ingredients.

Landry speaks neither Danish nor Kalaallisut (Greenlandic). His main experience is serving as governor of Louisiana (a job he'll continue to hold) which has seemingly prepared him to conduct diplomacy with a NATO ally over Arctic security.

Winter solstice in Edinburgh.

This is going to be such an important book!

I am reminded of Lincoln's famous letter to Joshua Speed in 1855 quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/li...

I can't say I was expecting the Monroe Doctrine to be in the news in 2025. But here we are. So I thought a bit of history and context would be helpful. Check your inboxes or subscribe today! open.substack.com/pub/imperfec...

If I were in God's Waiting Room* I'd be reluctant to make snarky political comments about the recently deceased. *Let's face it, we all are!

I’m just going to tell the story. Back in 2000 I was volunteering for the Gore campaign when he came along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alfre Woodard and Dule Hill to a GOTV event here in MN. He ended up sitting down across from me stuffing his envelopes.

Archie Bunker, also a reactionary bigot from Queens, would have displayed 1000 times more grace and compassion than his spiritual descendant who currently occupies the White House.

The last time a tartan army went to Boston things didn't work out too well for them or the locals.

Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke!

It's remarkable since the World Cup draw how many Scottish friends have asked me just how many relatives and friends I have in the Boston area (and how many bedrooms those relatives have).

Proofs!

The Trump administration's foreign policy "strategy" has engendered a lot of commentary. While the US relationship with its allies is at a low point (and some of the damage may take a generation, or longer, to repair) I think the obituaries are premature. Watch what they do, not what they say.

I have a perverse admiration for the way in which Gianni Infantino has made FIFA an even more despicable organisation than it was during Sepp Blatter's constantly-disgraced tenure www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

At a university event, a leaving do for a colleague. Chatting with a colleague about their young kids & Christmas etc. Colleague asked, "How old are your kids?" "Thirty-two and 29. But it's a cute age," I deadpanned, "and they're really looking forward to Christmas too."(They are!)

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported? NOEM: We haven't deported veterans MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

New book klaxon! Nick DiPucchio's _Before Manifest Destiny_ just arrived. Latest in the Revolutionary Age Series from @uvapress.bsky.social! I edit this series with Patrick Griffin, Lige Gould, & Christa Dierksheide with the peerless Nadine Zimmerli and it's one of the best parts of the job.

The US is down at least $30 billion in tourism for 2025. International boycotts and a loss in appeal to visit due to Donald Trump has resulted in millions of trips canceled.

One thing social media platforms do is meld the British and US higher ed crises into one. I think there are similarities but, tbh, the UK feels much more like a catalogue of shambles and poor policy decisions than a real ideological attack—even if the consequences remain the same.

Going on BBC Radio Scotland to discuss Boston as a destination for the Tartan Army during next summer's World Cup.

Me when I cite myself:

bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it

Makes sense given that the country's returning to the 1840s. IYKYK

I’ve been nominated for the FIFA prize for literature, oh wait, I just found out I won. Imaginary prizes are it turns out, very easy to win.

The boy, his small dog, and his big tree.

Someone should just stand outside the committee room with a big copy of this:

In The Author's Corner of John Fea's The Way of Improvement blog to talk about The Course of Human Events: The Declaration of Independence and the Historical Origins of the United States @uvapress.bsky.social thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/12/04/t...

Sounds like AI or a student who didn't do the reading bluffing through a tutorial🤣: "I think everybody on every side, including people who were denied even the ownership of themselves, had the sense of possibility worth fighting for." www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The Colonial Society of Massachusetts Announces the 2025 Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Early American History This $2500 prize will be awarded to an outstanding previously unpublished essay. Preference to New England subjects. @smh-historians.bsky.social newenglandquarterly.org/whitehill-pr...

🌈 over Edinburgh.

Couple of generations. Two different branches of the same tree.

When I started writing this book in 2021, I knew that the rule of law would be central to its interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. What I didn't know was quite how relevant that matter would be when I finished writing it in 2025.

Seems like a weird thing to tweet on the day when your boss said he’d pardon someone convicted of sending 400 tons of cocaine into the US.