"Seven days to Bellus! Waste anything but time!"

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” -Edward R. Murrow

Next Monday is Indigenous People's day. So @realDonaldTrump wants everyone to read my book on who discovered America: Spoiler alert, it wasn't #Columbus

When I was a technical illustration student at @risd (Rhode Island School of Design) in the mid 1980s we had an assignment to design a futuristic vehicle--it could not be an automobile. This is what I came up with (Oh, and it's a marker rendering).

I'm so glad that I and a hundred thousand Americans along with British, Dutch, French, and West Germans faced down the commies on the Iron Curtain to keep the Russians from taking over, just to have #Trump hand it all over to Putin without a second thought. It makes we wonder what it all was for.

Can't believe this actually needs to be said. But it does.

October 2018: Soylent Green is developed.

In the living room/Wunderkammer eating homemade #sundayroast of Meatloaf, mash, green beans and high alcohol beer. I hear a noise and looked out into the alchemical garden and saw a bunny rabbit chowing down on Wormwood. I wonder what hallucinations she'll have. I wish @docbotz was here.

When I was a kid attending St. Cecelia's grammar school they had those steamed Stewarts Sandwiches. I loved those! I know they were mostly fiber and vegetable substitute but I still loved the taste. Unfortunately, they don't make them anymore.

Trump is a toddler whose face and hands are covered in cookie crumbs but insists he never touched the cookies.

With @realDonaldTrump 's crazy quotes about #TYLENOL causing #Autism I thought I'd run this little pram I wrote in 2015 about how vaccinations cause autism. www.nj.com/opinion/2015...

I don't want to change the world I'm not looking for a New Jersey...

In 2001 in Berlin for a history of science fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science I rode the Berlin U-Bahn by myself so I could sing Iggy Pop's 'Passenger' all night long. "I am the Passenger, I ride and I ride and I ride and ride..."

Too young for Vietnam, too old for the Gulf. What did those who served in the 70s and 80s do? Not much, we just kept World War Three from happening. We kept the Russians from taking over, you know those guys @Realdonaldtrump loves.

Who says history doesn't rock? Teaching the history of the Philistines tomorrow, so you know that we will be doing some slinging lessons in class. Although much later, I do love this depiction of a slinger from Trajan's column. 🪨

This week in 1978 I was about to graduate from Tank School at Ft. Knox. We received our orders for our first duty stations. I was headed to West Germany and the First Armored division to patrol the Iron Curtain. I was off to see the world on Uncle Sam's dime. I was never so happy.

I have literally thought about this on a weekly basis since you told me this as an undergrad. I cannot think of The Inklings without laughing.

One of the greatest literary anecdotes in history. When JRR Tolkien began reading Lord of the Rings to his Inkling friends at the Eagle and Child in Oxford, Hugo Dyson reportedly rolled his eyes and exclaimed, "Oh no, not more F---ing elves!

"If I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness..." --Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

All because a MAGA candidate in a Republican district tried to out-MAGA the incumbent with the anti-immigrant idiocy. Politicians in Republican primaries have every incentive to push things as far right as imaginable and we're all going to suffer from it. Another problem with gerrymandering here.

During the Covid lock-down I used music to introduce each World History on-line class. For the lecture on the 1980s I used Kraftwerk's 'Pocket Calculator.' The students had never heard it before. I think they liked it. @KeanUniversity www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBy...

May 1, 1898: the battle of Manila Bay, Commodore George Dewey calls out to the Captain of the USS Olympia, "You may fire when ready, Gridley!" With that single command the US became the world's first Super Power.

As a Northerner going to boot camp in the South, I thought they were making fun of me when they tried to serve me Grits. I thought, "Hmmm, mashed potatoes for breakfast?" Was I wrong. My buddy from Georgia told me "just put butter and syrup on it and they taste great!" No, they didn't .

My very last class before I retired was my history of alchemy class. I tired to explain to the students what a 'Dutch Oven' is. I started laughing so hard I collapsed on the floor still laughing. Hopefully they got the joke. sites.google.com/a/kean.edu/b...

I am going to be a bit of a jerk. The media circus for a decade plus of "Everything causes cancer" walked to this could run. There is no medical conspiracy of this admin that doesn't hae a eugenic or New Age point of origin. None of this is new.

Take anyone who claims to be an 'artist' of any kind (painter, sculptor, writer, whatever) . If you scratch the surface just a little, if you don't find a selfish bastard, they are not a real artist. That's just the way it is. It's not a nice thing to say, but it's honest.

I'm so old I had a Walkman.

At 19yo I could stand in the commander's cupola of my tank for a two week field mission and not even notice. At 65yo I just spent five minutes sweeping the floor and my back is in excruciating pain. I'm downing a bottle of Bayer Back and Body extra strength pills. Getting old is the worst.

@nujofficial.bsky.social The main news media is giving journalism a bad name. @lisanandymp.bsky.social (probably not really her) @ofcom.bsky.social traduced to judge from their inaction We need press reform or we'll get more fascism.

It is in August that Hindu people celebrate Krishna Janmashtami, the birthday of the Lord Krishna (no year is given).

It's now four years since @docbotz passed. To me, it seems like only yesterday. "I met Lisa when she was employed at the Route 22 Bob's Big Boy I remember Lisa up on Snake Mountain hill With those big brown eyes that made my heart stand still..."

This month in 1848 the British Frigate HMS Daedalus on a home bound course in the Mediterranean has what will become the most famous Sea Monster sighting of the 19thC. Some argue it inspired Jules Verne. That inspiration however, was from the French Corvette Alecton in 1861.

"It is astounding to what lengths. . .credulity will go; there is no lie so shameless as to lack a supporter." Pliny the Elder, discussing werewolves, 77CE

Did you miss yesterday's #CoffeeWithACodex with @lisafdavis.bsky.social, featuring the realistic facsimile of the Voynich Manuscript? Fear not! It was recorded, and I just posted it to YouTube. Take an almost-look at one of the world's most inscrutable manuscripts. youtu.be/LlwjwLYTJug

"We killed it because we are awesome but now its ruined and there is no proof we are lying" seems to be a common end to a lot of these monsters stories for some mysterious reason.

Coming home from the pizzeria the radio played "I'll Stop the World." I was instantly transported to the 1980s and my days as a tank commander. My stoner loader had attached a car stereo to the radio of the tank so we could listen to the local rock station.

In the original Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston and his crew land on the planet (which turns out to be Earth) on Thanksgiving day 3978.

Movie blaspheme: Mel Brooks, while a few of his movies have a few funny bits, did not make funny movies. I'm only saying what you're all thinking.

Cryptozoologists never seem to engage with history. They don't seem to be familiar with the incident during the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941 where the crew of an M3 Lee medium tank encountered a Bigfoot-like creature on the edge of the Bayou. Unfortunately, they machine gunned it to pieces.

That the play is the tragedy, "Man," And its hero, the Conqueror Worm – Edgar Allen Poe

Just found this photo on my computer from 2018. @docbotz's favorite seat in the Bodleian Library. @bodleianlibs

I'm sooo old I can remember a time when every new TV series wasn't a Star Trek connected thing. Hey, hey guys, come up with some original ideas!

The Nazis had the most advanced weapons the world had ever seen, designed by some of the smartest engineers on the planet. The Allies had stuff that looked like it had been designed by Willey E. Coyote. Spoiler: The Allies won. So, why did the Nazis loose? Because they were Nazis.

I hadn't been to a @popeyes.bsky.social in ages, so when they opened one up not far from my house I went in. I was very disappointed to see they no longer serve Cajun Rice.

We didn't know how good we had it in the early 1970s. I loved Libby Land TV dinners. If I had been a good boy all week I'd get one on Saturday night to eat while watching Emergency! The box folded out into a tray. I mean there was the threat of nuclear annihilation and all, but whatever...

I like to run out this little pram every once in a while.