A #Tolkien Thread on Hobbit Architecture for your weekend pleasure. Let's start with The Hill. Some smials like those on Bagshot Row, are delved straight into the face of The Hill, while Bag End is made by cutting a courtyard into it and tunneling 'round the circumference. Tolkien loved variation!

So wonderful to see this chat with Claudia Roden at 90 and still going strong. Such a legend! How Claudia Roden Preserved Her Passover Table From a Lost Jewish Egypt www.jewishfoodsociety.org/stories/clau...

It's the grand finale of my series Meet the Badasses What Helped me make my new EP, True Stories of Time Travel. I'm making today's a thread. 🧵 If you're in the Triangle, or even if you're not, my record-release show is Friday at Rubies on Five Points in Durham. Early show: I start at 7 pm sharp.

My daughter made a most beautiful and delicious cake so I just had to show it off

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

are YOU sufficiently wary of the ides of March? BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

Illinois, we've got less than one week until primary Election Day ! Have questions about how to cast your ballot? Visit iwillvote.com/il for more info. And if you requested to vote by mail, return your ballot ASAP! Your vote is your VOICE — make sure you use it!

"Your steadfast commitment to our strategic mission, despite the multiple tramplings, maulings, and other encounters we shall henceforth refer to as 'terminal networking opportunities' has not gone unnoticed." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-m...

Post your favorite Lord of the Rings Character. Wrong answers only.

Stan Lee cameo in Princess Diaries 2 means it's part of the MCU.

#Miniatures I really enjoyed painting/constructing this 1984 Grenadier Writhing Crusher into an exploring scientist and guard team.

#Miniatures I finished this intrepid space explorer today, mostly to try out my new sci-fi background.

Friday timeline cleanse- fresh home from her “spa day” at the groomer

My new EP True Stories of Time Travel is available for pre-order at Bandcamp, but you can buy a CD at tonight's show at Local506 in Chapel Hill. I go on at 8, and then there's Severed Fingers, The Malamondos and the 20th anniversary show of Blood Red River! thekingteen.bandcamp.com

#Miniatures Three stout medieval soldiers finished last night. They are mostly Essex with switched heads from either Essex or Heritage.

On my way! 🚄🛤️

I’ll be talking about my recent research on the Bayeux Tapestry in a public lecture here in Bristol on Thursday 30 April. Attendance is FREE and includes a drinks reception 🍷 Everybody welcome! Please join us if you can and help spread the word! #medievalsky #skystorians

This local Wolfdog joined an Olympic ski event and triggered the finish-line camera. This is Nazgul. He snuck into a cross-country skiing sprint this morning and raced the homestretch with some competitors before being escorted home. 14/10 someone get him a medal

It was a pleasure to perform two songs on the stage of the Egyptian Theatre here in DeKalb! Thanks to #SCA and Carraig Ban for the opportunity and Cerian for the recording. Carraig Ban Birthday Bash Scribe's Song www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOpl... Benevento www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcY1...

Don’t talk about this a lot online but I published an academic book recently and I think it’s pretty good. Thinks with the categories of prophecy, apocalypse, & history to rethink the early euro Middle Ages. Would love to talk more about it! #medievalsky bookshop.org/p/books/betw...

Coworkers ready, bring on Monday

Friday timeline cleanse

No one knows it but my house is famous. Come on out to Local 506 in Chapel Hill on Feb. 27. I'll be opening the Blood Red River 20th Anniversary Show! local506.com/event/blood-...

Gotta be dog heaven. So much room to run and so many people to chase you.

MAA 2026 Publication Prizes We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Medieval Academy of America Publication Prizes: The Haskins Medal: Travis Zadeh, Wonders and Rarities: The Marvelous Book That Traveled the World and Mapped the www.themedievalacademyblog.org/maa-2026-pub...

Post your favorite Lord of the Rings character. Wrong answers only.

#Miniatures This is one of the first miniatures I ever purchased. Missing his torch and repainted except for his shield which is off a Kingmaker tile. Heritage Dungeon Dwellers 1215c Henchman 3 by M. Carr. Because of the dungeon base pattern I had to make a new dungeon themed background to photo it

I am very excited to report that a project I have been working on for 3+ years is finally seeing the light of day! Along with @byzcapp.bsky.social and Jesse Torgerson, we debut a new annual section in Digital Philology that proposes the dataset as a new genre of publication. odfms.hcommons.org

We put on an all-Yiddish community production of fiddler on the roof in Philadelphia and cast member and local artist Sofie Rose Seymour created the most amazing show poster that ever was

Free for download until Feb. 12: Calahorra Bartoloma, The Great Palace. #MedievalSky #MedievalMiddleEast #GlobalMiddleAges #Byzantium www.cambridge.org/core/element... Thanks to Pasts Imperfect for the notice!

do you have a "chainmail guy?" @amanda.omg.lol does (or used to) youtu.be/mZ_EALNa0ww?...

Come sing with me Friday Feb 6 at the Sidetrack Bar & Lounge in Chapel Hill. 7-9:15 p.m. Two sets!

#Miniatures Two more completed this week Rohirric foot and Elf Ranger

Damn. Just…damn.

Made (and given) as a gift for the host of my Tuesday night DnD game, who plays a dwarf warrior and collects moose statues etc. #Miniatures

Today is Charlemagne’s death day in 814 CE. In his honor, I give you the best depiction of professors writing in their offices while attempting not to socially interact with each other on any level. It’s from the Aachen Gospels. 📕

Abolish DHS. If you can imagine a world before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you can imagine a world without the Department of Homeland Security. My latest at @startribune.com. (gift link)

Distressing. bsky.app/profile/esqu...

so I'll be in Boston (Cambridge actually) to give a talk next month and I'm delighted by the poster they designed #medievalsky

#miniatures My latest, a slightly modified Metal Magic C1023l (v2) Female Fighter with Sword on mount C1023d (v2)

For $0.00 you can read what Bret Devereaux (of ACOUP fame) called an "absolute banger of a Tolkien essay" and what my mom (of giving birth to me fame) called "very timely and relevant": "What Lies and Threats: Nationalist Myth-Making in The Lord of the Rings" on @speculativeinsight.bsky.social!

Breaking news and congratulations to the team, Sulawesi preserves evidence for the oldest art yet recorded, and strengthens claims for the early colonisation of Australia. At 68k BP this art is almost 30k years earlier than the accepted record for Europe. Bravo🏺🦣🎨 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Saturday night timeline cleanse

it's true! please give it a listen!

Hail and farewell, Edith Renfrow Smith, age 111, Grinnell College's only Black student when she attended in the 1930s, and in 1937, the first Black woman graduate in the college's history. www.npr.org/2026/01/06/g...

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my favorite medievalist! I am so lucky for our life together

The shooting in Minnesota is a reminder that while authoritarian governments may justify abuses of power by directing them at scapegoats or vulnerable populations, the goal is ultimately to deploy them against anyone they wish to www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

A little midweek peace and calm

Here's a tracker of all the people (40) ICE has shot, including someone celebrating New Years by shooting his gun who was killed by an off-duty ICE goon. www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...