Another factor that people don’t like to talk about w/r/t social isolation is geographic mobility. It’s now common at age 18 to move away from your family & most of your friends; then in 4 years either you’ll move again or many of your friends will.

Idea for friends’ birthday presents that doesn’t involve buying anything: You consume the media of their choice within one month of their birthday.

Saw a production of Hamlet where Hamlet was played by an actor who had previously played Louis in Angels in America, and I was like “yeah that tracks, Louis is SUCH a Hamlet,” and now I’m trying to match all the Angels characters to Hamlet characters

My mom took Tylenol while she was pregnant, which led to me making friends at summer camp by teaching the other campers how to conjugate Italian irregular verbs

Fond memories of Beginning Hindi taught by an old-school instructor who seemed to have never heard of FERPA and would loudly announce to the entire class when you failed a test. (Obviously do not do this! but I remember it fondly nonetheless)

There are no angels in Hawaii.

Love to have five Kevins who I trust for advice. Before you change jobs, move to a new city, or break up with your partner, you must first consult the Council of Kevins

Just heard someone criticize people who deal with loneliness by “trying to fill that loneliness with people,” which is kind of like criticizing people who deal with hunger by “trying to sate that hunger with food”

“he’s a piece of shit but he’s my piece of shit” is exactly how I too feel about Louis Ironson

Chomsky bureaucrat / Everett murder poet

You aren't going to solve mitochondrial challenges banning vaccines. You solve them by understanding the true nature of your principal and then convincing tiny mouse shrimp to grow up.

I’ve been guilty of spreading this misinformation in the past, so now I try to spread the debunking. slate.com/technology/2...

I’ve spent a lot of time in places where people use a lot of, like, academic tenderqueer language, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone suggest that you should say “person who immigrated” instead of “immigrant.” I don’t know of anyone on the left who thinks “immigrant” is a bad word.

Calling on Democrats to stop using these words that alienate voters: -A/B/O -mpreg -whump -RPF -drabble -sort by kudos

did Prior Walter write this

Secret third button, which is that one of usages popular on social media is neither the Butler/Austin usage nor the one that means “fake”

I’ve never been on either side of peer review but I’ve always suspected it’s not as anonymous as people pretend it is. One time I was >2,000 miles from my university and told a stranger that I studied [language] and she immediately said “Oh do you work with [advisor]?”

cc @iambic.bot

friendship is beautiful I love my friends!!!!

My conspiracy theory is that they were invented by linguistics professors to teach reduplication

You have to transport baked beans, bacon, and hash browns to the other side of a river, but you can only bring one thing at a time in your boat. If you leave the beans and the bacon together, the beans will touch the bacon

guys it’s been 10 years. if you are a native English speaker in the United States, it’s time to learn how to pronounce “Obergefell” correctly

i am begging everyone to stop repeating the myth that brains are underdeveloped until 25 www.sciencefocus.com/comment/brai...

I read The Shining at 13 which is why, 20 years later, I have a transparent shower curtain to reassure myself that there’s no undead lady in my bathtub

I love a prosodic minimal pair

I am a sucker for old fancy doors which means I am currently losing my mind at the Met Cloisters

I did have a professor who wore black jeans and Chucks to class, but his syllabus was in Computer Modern as God intended

The itch.io shadow ban is very bad but I just found out Electra Mordinson’s 3rd book is coming out this year! Her books are litfic about trans women in Australia, check them out if you like Imogen Binnie or Casey Plett. They’re short & free & can be read as standalones. electramordinson.itch.io

I’m procrastinating so hard on answering an email that I just scheduled a dentist appointment for the first time in two years

This is so interesting bc I often hear English speakers say “we” to their customers / students / patients when they clearly mean “you.” Like a voice teacher said “I’m hearing our vocal cords not coming together all the way,” when the student was the only one singing.

If you are in Chicago you should go see Angels in America on my behalf (through Sept 7) www.invictustheatreco.com/2025-season-...

I once tried to transcribe Anne Lister’s diaries—she was a 19th c. lesbian who wrote partly in a substitution cypher so she could safely write about her sexuality. I taught myself the cypher but then gave up transcribing because her handwriting in regular English orthography was too hard to read.

I’m so sad to hear of Andrea Gibson’s death. This poem is my favorite of theirs.

It’s a hard-knock life indeed.

amazing Caddo word of the day. no notes

This is my favorite mother/daughter argument I’ve ever heard of

Premium pronouns? I see how it is

ANGEL: The forthcoming of 6 is 5-heralded. PRIOR WALTER (checking his watch): Yes.

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie would be such a fun summer blockbuster. Giant sea monsters and lesbians!

“N is for norange” is sort of etymologically correct, in a stopped clock way

Linguistics and Angels in America

I was like “hey I like possessive marking too!” and then I realized they were not talking about morphosyntax

I recently overheard Christian boomers lamenting that young people have lifestyles that violate their parents’ moral values. I assumed they meant LGBT people. Then I realized they were talking about heterosexual cohabitation, which hadn’t even occurred to me as something they might object to.

ergativity should get a trigger warning tbh

If you’re in the mood for Iraq War-era nostalgia, may I suggest Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

Frankly I think the most helpful thing I can do on here at this moment is post a list of trans-affirming resources to which people who are able can donate:

I was reading when another passenger sprayed pepper spray into the subway car as he disembarked. On another occasion, I was groped on the subway, and I don’t think headphones would have prevented that.