"Every one of us has a fuse burning inside. I've solved enough murders to know that's all a murder is, a spark fizzing to the end of it. 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑚. You might think you don't have a murder in you, but you do. It's just at the end of a very long fuse." —𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑓, chapter 7💙📚

There are lots of excellent books about #DDay, but this one is especially great. Gripping, horrifying, enlightening, inspiring, and with a staggering sense of both the breadth of events, and the intimacy of each person's story. Very highly recommended. amzn.eu/d/021lUQBB

I attended a pre-Covid BookCon at the Javits Center. It was a great experience. It saddens me to read this report about BookCon 2026. Book rage? Book people engaging in the kind of behavior you see among shoppers at a Good Friday stampede? 💙📚

The burglars in D.C. fit Wodehouse's sentence: "He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more." Now add this: "Whatever you 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 the heist is, the real heist is going on underneath it." Meaning? The burglars take money, but steal others' lives.

If you want to know more, a fascinating study is Geoff Waite's take on the painting. doi.org/10.2307/2505...

Some scientists are not waiting for their colleagues to do what's needed. Overturning the skepticism about science as well as re-establishing scientists' research capabilities ought to be a priority, but it's clear those who run the Diabetes Assoc. are not ready to step up. #academicsky

Do you need 2 months off when you fail to express yourself clearly? I don't recall my HS English teacher giving me 2 months to fix my essays that had foggy sentences. Maybe these are cultural differences.

Promises made promises kept

Blaming a state's housing shortage on paying workers a livable wage.

Let's say the higher-ups fired you without so much as a "thank you for your service." Wouldn't that be a fertile context in which to find people looking to stick it to the government that kicked them to the curb? In other words, a great time to recruit spies. A lesson in how to treat employees.

"He lied to get us here." The 𝑠𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 was unspoken but somehow louder than what Juliette said next. "He works in banking, Ernest. That he'll tell a few porkies should be assumed knowledge." —Chapter 4, Benjamin Stevenson, 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑓 💙📚

🖕GOP

Meta is unhappy b/c they handed us a boiler plate statement that just repeats things we already wrote at the top of the piece (minus calling our work "sensational"). We sent Meta a full explanation of what was in the piece and provided 10 detailed questions. They refused to answer any of them.

Those who knew Jeffrey Perl are invited to make submissions to a memorial issue of 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝐾𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 by 10 November. Contact Managing Editor, Inbar Graiver. @dukepress.bsky.social

Marina Hyde describing the Prime Minister as a structured absence, while also making the case, pertinent to US politics as well, that the UK government has no long-range vision, nor detailed plan for improving housing, infrastructure, transportation, education.

Sydney Morning Herald takes down opinion piece about AI after author used AI to write it

While we pick at the wound that the earth is on fire, it was a similar weather concern that troubled Paul Celan toward the end of his life: "In early 1970, Celan had another crisis. 'A new ice age is on its way. 𝑆𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑙 reports it will be here in another 250 years.'" — Arno, 𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑙 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛, p. 333

Grasping the obvious so hard, the person almost made a diamond: "People do just die," one former Energy Department official noted www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...

Russia and the USA fueling the separatist movement. Foreign interference from our closest neighbour. I don't have nice words to say about this. Take off, eh? www.bbc.com/news/article...

Back when the Internet Librarian conference met in person, a group that wanted to be seen as cutting-edge played Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" before their session. It was the era when librarians thought "Second Life" would be the new utopia.

Even publications like 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 present an imaginary either/or, a Miltonic you-have-either-heaven-or-hell. (There's two of these on the front of their web site today). As Cory Doctorow has shown, you don't want to forget about purgatory.

The Hallmark Rom-Com in which poet Paul Celan takes a woman back to his room—to woo her by reading his "Deathfugue" (see Anna Arno's 𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑙 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛, p. 135). "She recalled this was not easy to hear."

For people who, for the most part, lack a sophisticated vocabulary, and who don't blink when shuttering an English Department at a university, they worry bigly about words.

Free labor for companies? Isn't university the time when students are free of the concerns of employment, so that they are free to ponder other, non-capitalistic matters? The image makes it look as if the headline warrants celebration.

The US and the UK in a race to see which can outdo the other in decimating universities. The first and second place finishers in that race will both be losers.

We convince ourselves that people with over-the-top reactions to minor setbacks haven't experienced full-frontal tragedy, but I've met people who've witnessed horrific things who are ready to commission Rubens for another 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 painting just because the lights go out temporarily.

Life is a bowl of cherries. And it's great! From Giovanna Garzoni, 1651, because today is her day.

Best new books out in May from Elizabeth Strout, Francesca Albanese and more

They couldn't find any living "radical voices"?

I despair at being told that instead of banning the use of AI we must completely change our pedagogy & assessment practices. This usually means we (the not-billionaire fascists) must expend vast amounts of time & effort to develop less good ways to do things that worked well.

Headline of the Day:

Cesare Pavese on the echo chamber of 1938: "When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the printed page."

Expect this gold to "disappear" under the current kleptocracy in D.C.

Look at how good our upcoming events look on the new website. Major upgrade

Flirting with disaster is not the same as courting it. —Eve Babitz, Eve’s Hollywood

Murder mystery fans know that the foundation of conviction is picking out a probable suspect & trying to make the incriminating evidence stick to the suspect. As fans know, when it doesn't stick, that doesn't bring an end to suspicions about the person. 💙📚

Watching parents in cars exiting an elementary school parking lot, I note not one person braking at the STOP sign. Yet, how many thousand times have the parents told their children STOP, & expected the child to obey? You have to model the behavior you expect. Kids see adults sail through STOP signs.

While giving much to admire in her thoughts about translation, Emily Wilson loses the room with "cognitively tempting," which is about as smooth as "conscious uncoupling," even if it's an effort to maintain a nuance in the original language. For 99 clever bits, readers will remember 1 awkwardness.💙📚

Berenice Abbott, New York Album: Decoration Day Parade, Wind Instruments, 1929

Philomena Cunk on The "Enhanced" Games: "It's like someone built a load of Frankingsteins out of the rotating things in kebab shop windows."

On the "deal" with Iran (commentary by Cesare Pavese from 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐵𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔:

Starbucks finding new ways to disappoint.

"There's no end to the business fraud I'm obliged to deal with in these wicked, wicked times" Asbjørn Krag in Sven Elvestad's 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑠 (1907) 💙📚

Consider this a tangent to his Epstein Island activities.

Always expecting "the help" to clean up your mess, especially when it's astronomical garbage.

Maybe the item below can be used in an argument for a shorter work week. If you need to devote 10 waking hours a week to protect your health...

Time to schlep my old wardrobe to the charity shop, & pick up some tunics and a Gugel, assuming a "vintage" clothing shop has the full historical range of wearable bits. Do you think J.C. Penney will have medieval underwear?

Yesterday, I happened upon this phrase: "𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 literacy." Today, in another article I find: "𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 capital." This must 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 stop. Gertrude Stein could get away with ruminations about roses being roses, but the current repetitions, meant to be grippy, expose a hollowness.

In today's 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 (London), Giles Coren, relative of the host of "Only Connect," Victoria Coren, claims 𝑀𝑎𝑐𝑏𝑒𝑡ℎ is a cozy crime mystery on a par with an Agatha Christie novel. I like his notion, because it's both worthy of consideration & wrong. It may take a post or two to work this out. 💙📚