First day of classes at UCF. If I did the math right, I'm in my 46th year in or at a school, and this is my 20th at UCF.

typo du jour: primary source databaes.

For those using MIT's recent study on AI to decry AI, please read it first. If you're not familiar with such studies, ask a colleague who is. It's not the big "gotcha!" some claim it to be. Also it was not peer-reviewed when posted. I don't think it has been peer-reviewed since.

New personal best today - 50 consecutive orbits around the sun. 50 is the new 15: I just want to play video games and sleep but have to go in to school every day. 🤪

I just agreed to review a manuscript for a journal. In the manager system, I'm noted as Reviewer 2. LOL. Is this an instruction how to review the ms? A challenge to redeem the concept of Reviewer 2?

Episode IV A New Pope Episode V The (Holy Roman) Empire Strikes Back

Good Friday is the story of a man unjustly arrested and rushed to judgment. Diana Butler Bass tells it for our time, using only pictures from the last two weeks, and it hits so heavy open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Arthurian manuscripts in a property ledger? Why aren't they leading with 'Arthur, king of the Britons' huge tracks of land'?

I had this great joke about Alexander the Great in India, but that was taking things too far.

A joyous and peaceful Passover to those observing.

My wife bought me a laser pointer so I can play with the cats. I love it. Especially turning it off when Abyss is getting ready to pounce. It's like pretending to throw a ball for a dog. She spends several minutes trying to find it.

I'd tell my Achilles joke here, but I'd feel like a heel.

I just got confirmation that National History Day, a program that does more to ignite K-12 students' love of history, learning, and yes, even the United States than anything else I've ever seen, had all its funding cut yesterday by the DOGE-axe at the NEH - including for this year's ongoing contest.

Today be like

Rest of the world, I am so sorry.

A happy and peaceful Trans Day of Visibility, to those who celebrate and those not able to celebrate openly.

The former ambassador to Denmark for the United States, Rufus Gifford, posted this video on his Facebook account: Ht: @hpsc24.bsky.social

Txt STOP to opt out of updates on war plans

Best Star Trek crew. Wrong answers only.

Don't judge a book by its cover. Judge it by its index. (From my Inventing the Renaissance)

Great linkage AND a really informative Vladeck essay

Thank God for Habeas Corpus and judges willing to grant it.

I hate these arguments based on relevance but: 1. Latin is still exceptionally relevant 2. Everyone should have a chance to study it 3. Sitwell imagines a world of soulless worker bees who are allowed no interests 4. Doing interesting things for their own sake is an important act of resistance

When Donald Trump threatens student protests, consider why: throughout modern history, student movements have repeatedly been the catalyst that toppled dictatorships. Authoritarian leaders fear campus activism precisely because it works. Below is a list of 36 student-led pro-democracy movements.🧵

On the work-related good news front: 1. One of my MA students was accepted into Fordham's PhD program; 2. I've been invited and will be able to participate in a conference panel on material culture and consumption; 3. UCF Celebrates the Arts starts in 4 weeks cah.ucf.edu/events/celeb...

Remember, man, that thou art dust. The earl kneels, the ash of the end is written on his brow. A captain of ships kneels, to be put in mind of a death in a far port, or at home, or on a rock of the sea… —George Mackay Brown, “Ash Wednesday” from TRAVELLERS (John Murray, 2013) #AshWednesday #poem

I would write this, but even thinking about it makes me feel my Krafft-Ebing.

Three hours to forget about the world.

After today, I just don't have the words to articulate how I feel. Except, I stand with Ukraine.

Following cuts, NWS unveils new meteorological approach:

PICK A LANE (A modest proposal for a method through which we can Resist without going insane and effectively counter "Flooding the Zone.") 🧵

Henry VIII and the Persistent Reformation. Not what the student meant, but not exactly wrong either. #Grading

For those of us who study the early modern world, this situation is familiar. It’s Court culture.

These are your words of the week genre ethnic cleansing doge potash tariff coup Ahabian www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the...

Is this what life was like under Nero? Quaero amico.

Ahem

Please say hello to [To Be Determined]. 4-5 month old polydactyl floof. Name options discarded so far: Toner Low Tripping Hazard Other Cat Jumping Jack Ash Ash Gordon (Ash - AAAA! He'll scratch every one of us!) Cinderello

No observance of Holocaust Day/Day of Remembrance? Nah. Just coincidence, surely.

I was to give a talk at a big US Attorney's Office next week abt the complicity of German lawyers in the creation of the Nazi state. Yesterday the Justice Department cancelled it. Irony is dead. I've got an op/ed on this I'm looking to place. Help appreciated. #LawSky #Skystorians #Holocaust

Go Gritty!

If you know a trans person… NO YOU DON’T. If you know someone in the country without authorization… NO YOU DON’T. If you know someone who’s no longer pregnant… NO YOU DON’T. #Loveyourneighbor by not telling their business.

Pre Christmas yard sale.

Teddy Bear Toss at the Orlando Solar Bears game tonight!

Abby went to the vet today. Apparently cats like the sink, but she's undecided.

Ready for the TransSiberian Orchestra show!

I have cast my #HoHoHobbyvices gift into the warp - may it arrive where it should and on time!

Time for Black Friday Night Fights! Go #OrlandoSolarBears !

Even Warhammer isn't as Warhammer as the skull of Mary Magdalene in the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Slogging through some 1570s probate records and came across a will that named some of the animals given to relatives, something I don't usually see, with names like Lockwood, Primrose (Prymrosse), and Motherlike.

History Journals Starter pack! go.bsky.app/7QNaJcZ