Sometimes you’re poking around in the Unabridged dictionary and it gives you absolute GIFTS

Someone on here mentioned Helen Sword (who I generally like!) the other day, and it reminded me that I should write about how much it bugs me when writing advice uses diet-culture metaphors. (Caveat: I haven't read this one [because when I first saw the title, I went "oof, I'm not reading that"].)

A real - actual - I swear to god - argument happening over on Twitter right now is whether or not faculty should be regularly forced to retake the GRE

Good morning, it's Worse out (though still not nearly as bad as what a lot of you are dealing with) and I'm waiting to see if the free little outdoor concert I'd planned to go to will be canceled or rescheduled or moved indoors or if they'll just go for it and see who's willing to show up (not me!).

honestly, in bits here

I took a break from work and doomscrolling to play through one of my favorite albums of all time at the piano (doubling vocals only - I'm pretty good at that and *very* bad at figuring out chords on the fly), but I forgot that albums in 2011 were way longer than they are now. 56 minutes??

Absurd numbers of PhDs as a way of saying a character is brilliant. That's not how that works at all. (I don't think I've ever seen a humanities one - "She has PhDs in philosophy, French literature, art history, American studies, and ethnomusicology!")

Metaxas is a pretty big deal on the evangelical right but the main thing I remember about him is he used to write for VeggieTales and the series creator did a Twitter thread where he wistfully implied they're no longer friends because Metaxas was driven completely insane by Black Lives Matter

This is one of my most frequent copyediting corrections!

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Hanging from a cliff’s edge by your fingers, or one hand being heroically grasped by another person. You try it. See how it goes

The problem with instrumental music is you have to just take the artist’s word for what the music is about. The artist can say, “This music is about mountains”, but if there are no words, which might potentially connect the music to mountains, there’s no way to check whether that’s true.

I wasn't *banned* from watching it as a kid in the 90s, but it was clear that my mom thought it was Too Rude and I was uncool enough that that mattered, so I never got into it, which is why there are other things in my brain where Simpsons references should be.

...the "this is gender-affirming care" meme started w/trans ppl pointing out a double standard: procedures readily accepted/approved for cis ppl are denied to trans ppl. but cis ppl have turned it into a way to mock MAGAs' gender anxieties. maybe instead of mocking them, ACTIVELY SUPPORT OUR RIGHTS

At 36:00, Eric tells the story of when he went into a sandwich shop with his pal Ryan Miller from Guster, a Fruit Bats song was playing, and Ryan yelled "THIS IS HIS BAND" to everyone there and pointed at him. (Nobody cared.)

update: (www.styleweekly.com/filling-up-t...)

My phone wants me to install an update so I can "describe an idea or upload a photo, and it'll be transformed into a high-quality audio track with lyrics in Gemini." 😖😖😖

good morning, you should watch this

lol I don't want this, I get up at six, that's so much winter morning darkness

this seems like a perfect time to remind everyone that i want to pitch a tv show about the viol consort that got tricked into accompanying Drake on his circumnavigation, think The Office meets Our Flag Means Death

next week I'm doing a ridiculous transit journey (walk, trolley, subway, train, subway, subway, train, bus, walk, then back the next day) because I'm too scared to drive on I-95 for a few hours, which illustrates how little I understand the Sean Duffy type guys we have completely different fears

the Levon Helm Studios drama is stressing me out parasocially my faves are all Team Amy, but The Algorithm wants to make sure I see posts from both sides and aaaughghhhh this is so messy and technically none of my business, I've never even been there

you guys, I didn't know she was like this, I don't live in Michigan and I try not to get overinvested in other states' Senate primaries I've seen some mainstream news things like "it's a tight race between the safe normal lady and the risky lefty guy" and I do not think she seems very normal

brother (arts admin for a school district): I have a panic attack the first time I have to deal with someone who has strong opinions sister (insurance? something about insurance?): I lose all my self-esteem when it turns out I'm not actually good at spreadsheets

This is how I was reminded that it's the anniversary of the Trump assassination attempt - my Instagram post for this show says "I spent my evening seeing Aoife O'Donovan and Hawktail instead of doomscrolling. ❤️ (Okay, I doomscrolled before and after.)"

I have returned from the annual convention of the National Puzzlers' League, and naturally I brought puzzles to hand out to everyone there. If you'd like to solve them yourself, here they are! www.ericberlin.com/2026/07/12/t...

Oh, he's like *alive* alive? Huh.

*pinches bridge of nose, eyes closed, takes a deep breath* so do we have ANY idea how many living US Senators there are right now?

good morning, I opened this app and made the wrong assumption about which Republican senator had died for a minute (I mean, the other one's probably dead too, etc.)

A common question about alt text is whether or not it's appropriate to mention attributes like race or skin tone. A common response is, "It depends." In this post, Tolu Adegbite explains how race can be relevant and important in providing context. medium.com/shopify-ux/t...

I woke up the morning after the election deeply freaked out about food safety, and oh boy I don't like having that validated 🙃

Today marks 1000 days since Puzzmo launched! If our games make you happy, let us know 🥳 🎂 www.puzzmo.com 🎂

UHF (Film: 1989 / DVD: 2002)

I have a ton of work to do today but I also need to read every post speculating/joking about Mitch McConnell

I had one this year where the water pressure was "you get to drink from... the FIRE HOSE!!!" (UHF, 1989) level and couldn't be adjusted. It was Painful and also made me feel like a bad person for wasting that much water. 😬

You probably wouldn't publish an article filled with mistakes, so don't do it with transcripts or video captions, either. Auto-transcription services can be a great starting point, but that's what they are: a starting point. They still need editing to be publication ready.

waaahhhh :( (I technically *really* did not have time to go, between work deadlines and other concerts & stuff, but I was gonna! I haven't been to a show at Longwood in a couple years and I miss it!)

some things I love about live music:

New Allison Russell album out today! I'm on my third listen this morning.

In today's Ask the Indexers blog post, our panel tell us what they wish people understood about our niche job - mainly, that it really is a job, and that no, a computer/AI can't do it. Read more here: buff.ly/VREMHpE #IndexSky

I appreciated this ASI page about the reasons AI-generated book indexes aren't adequate, and I hope it helps stave off the era of my career where people email me like "I had Claude make the index, can you just give it a quick proofread?" and then I scream.

I'm indexing one of these books right now!

Delco is the only subgenre of Phillyness that could support its own universe. It's hard to explain but there's everything from inner city to the most remote scary woods you've ever seen. Like the New Jersey devil might be working in the service department at a Chevy dealership in Aldan. Who knows

I'm pining for fall, I want to wear my big sweaters

saying "and now they are not going to let us have it" will definitely make people sympathize with you, you're doing great, it won't make anyone think about The Allegations at all 😬😬😬

Just saw Mitch McConnell's first night as Mary Todd Lincoln, he's alive but the gimmick casting is really starting to hurt this show, sad to see

For anyone with Oxford Academic access through their library and doesn't want to wait for a physical copy, my book is now live on OUP's digital portal! 😁 academic.oup.com/book/63100 Hopefully, I'll have a promotional discount code to offer soon, if you're looking to get the print version.

The 19th century is the Ronald Reagan of eras

My concert countdown spreadsheet says it's 27 days until Weird Al. 😀 weirdal.fandom.com/wiki/27