Just in time for the holidays, I'm pleased to announce the last new title for 2025 in @universitypress.cambridge.org series Elements in Historical Theory and Practice: María Inés La Greca's "Gender, Theory, and History: on the Knowledge and Politics of Bodies". 1/2

Born OTD 100 years ago, steady supporting player in movies and tv Harry Guardino (d 1995). In film best remembered as Clint Eastwood's boss in the 1st and 3rd Dirty Harry films; on tv as DA Hamilton Burger in 70s rebooted Perry Mason. Star turn as a deranged officer in S1 of the Outer Limits ('63).

Layla the Mighty Huntress decides to teach her stuffed bunny who’s boss, clearly enjoying doing it on camera.

On today's @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses, our last new show for 2025, and Yule love it--the annual Xmas special. We open with a triptych of Oscar Peterson (who left us 18 years ago tomorrow. Then an assortment of holiday themed jazz from oldies (Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton 1/2

Marking the winter solstice with the last menorah lighting of Hanukkah 2025.

Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.

In what is surely the most original answer I've seen yet to a question on my medieval England exam asking students to define good and bad kingship, a student has likened the evaluation of Anglo-Saxon kings to Major League Baseball scouting, with contemporary chroniclers as the scouts.

Congratulations to David MacDonald on his new title in the @universitypress.cambridge.org Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series "Myths, History Wars, and Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation in Canada and Other Settler States doi.org/10.1017/9781.... Downloads free till 31 December.

Born OTD 100 years ago, Kasey Rogers (d 2006); best known for tv roles from 60s on (including a recurring role on Bewitched), she had a late 40s and 50s film career under the short-lived stage name Laura Elliott; notable turn as doomed wife of Farley Granger's character in Strangers on a Train.

Lit our first night of Hanukkah candles in the shadow of the awful news from Australia.

Happy 100th birthday to actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke. A presence in tv, theatre and films since the mid-50s. My favourite Van Dyke performance, the overlooked mid-60s comedy The Art of Love with James Garner, Angie Dickinson and Elke Sommer.

On this cold and snowy day ,🥶 an all-CDN edition of @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses, leading off with Jane Bunnett; some vintage Oscar Peterson; Charlie Biddle and Oliver Jones; 2 Alberta acts: P.J. Perry, and the A/B Trio; we close out with @jodiproznick.bsky.social's album Sun Songs.

Born OTD 100 years ago, song and dance man, actor, and celebrity Sammy Davis, Jr., d. 1990. Despite losing his left eye to a car accident in 1954 he had a long career, including as a member of the "Rat Pack" and helped break several show biz race barriers; his song Candyman was a big hit in 1972.

In cooler happenings, The Saint Louis University Center for Iberian Historical Studies is hosting this awesome thing in Madrid for junior scholars new to the archive. www.slu.edu/arts-and-sci...

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

Just received in the mail today, this new collection of verse from poet Billy Collins. I am looking forward to reading these as a break from term-end grading. Layla (right) notices a kindred spirit on the cover, doubtless a portrait of the modernist poet and critic Ezra Hound.

Born OTD 100 years ago: multiple Tony winning stage actress Julie Harris (d 2013). While the theatre was her preferred venue, she also had a career in movies and TV, notably as the love interest of James Dean in his debut East of Eden, and a late career regular turn on Knot's Landing.

On today's @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses we salute Cassandra Wilson on her upcoming 70th birthday with 3 tracks, and mark the 50th anniversary of Queen's Night at the Opera with 4 different takes (across 4 distinct genres) on their classic Bohemian Rhapsody by: 1/2

Me responding to reviewer 2. #cogsci #philosophy #philsky #philosophysky #budapest #academicsky #academia

Released OTD 50 years ago, Queen's (the rock band, not the university) masterpiece A Night at the Opera with its immortal and much-memed signature track Bohemian Rhapsody.

Layla takes a cuddle break and fully ‘enhounds’ me which is always delightful but does somewhat inhibit my grading of papers for which 2 free hands and the computer, all of which she’s leaning on, are required.

Happy birthday to my lovely wife @jagwoolf.bsky.social. And to devotees of medieval English history, it's the 905th anniversary of the White Ship Disaster that killed the sole male heir to king Henry I's throne and gave rise 15 years later to the infamous "Anarchy". But of course you all knew that.

I'm pleased to announce another new title in @universitypress.cambridge.org 's series Elements in Historical Study and practice is out and downloadable for free till Dec. 5. Chiel van den Akker, Knowledge and Narrative. doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Born OTD 100 years ago, US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1968 during run for the Dem presidential nomination. On his televised funeral in 1968 I watched his teenaged son Bobby approach and touch the casket. I hear RFKSr's shade shrieking at what his son has become.

On today's @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses, pt 2 of our series on Joni Mitchell and Jazz: first half, several cuts from the new box set "Joni's Jazz"; 2nd half, jazz covers of Mitchell compositions by Herbie Hancock w Norah Jones, pianist David Lahm, and Canadians Diana Krall and Eniid. Tune in!

Born OTD 100 years ago, actor Rock Hudson (b. Roy Scherer Jr, d 1985). A closeted gay man playing hetero roles (incl comedy,w. Doris Day), he would be an early celebrity victim of the AIDS crisis. Apart from roles in films such as Giant, he had a long running TV role in 70s series McMillan and Wife.

I'm pleased to announce "Race, Genetics, History"- the latest title in the @universitypress.cambridge.org series Elements in Historical Study and Practice is out this morning and available to download free till Dec 1. DOI: 10.1017/9781009635363. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

And then think of what a cornered psychopathic human being with the morals and instincts of a rat and control of over five thousand nuclear warheads would do.

Attending my NACBS in Montreal today (my first of this conference since 2004), and shortly chairing session on Historical Writing in 19th C Britain and Ireland.

Last chance for free download today!

A peculiar question coming from someone with this surname! (unless it's a social media pseudonym)

Born OTD 100 years ago, actor Richard Burton (d 1984). As well known for his tempestuous private life as for his performances. Some of his many notable roles include The Robe, Where Eagles Dare, Becket, and The Spy who Came in from the Cold.

OTD 50 years ago the Great Lakes Freighter Edmund Fitzgerald foundered and sank with all 29 crew lost; Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the tragedy in his 1976 song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, two versions of which are featured on today's @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses at 2 pm.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

Two students from my rather good 4th year seminar (where we are doing a role play about statues and naming controversies) just Bcced me on their in-role emails as a concerned board member and the university head of advancement. If I didn't know better I'd swear they were pros!

Born OTD 100 years ago, American actress Doris Roberts (d 2016); best known for tv roles on Remington Steele and, latterly, Everybody Loves Raymond. In a 7-decade career she earned 5 Emmy Awards.

RIP Diane Ladd. A long career as far back as the 50s and some bravura performances such as in Alice Doesn't Live here Anymore. I once saw 24 year old Ladd in a 1958 episode of the classic tv cop show "Naked City" and was staggered how much she resembled her daughter Laura Dern at that age.

On today's @cfrcradio.bsky.social Dark Glasses at 2 EST, we pay tributes to 2 departed jazz giants, electric bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Jack de Johnette. Plus Oscar Peterson, a long track from Miles Davis's classic Bitches Brew, and new music from Ontario roots musician Kate Weekes.Tune in!

[thread] Some upcoming titles in the @universitypress.cambridge.org series Elements in Historical Theory and Practice: 1."Knowledge and Narrative"-Chiel van den Akker. 2."The History of Contingency and Future Oriented Thought"-Thomas Moynihan. 3."Gender, Theory and History"-Maria Ines La Greca

Left: the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Right: the Prince Formerly Known as Prince

Happy 100th birthday to actress/director Lee Grant (née Lyova Haskell Rosenthal) whose long career saw her in film, theatre and TV from 1951 to 2020 (career interrupted for 12 years by refusing to name names to HUAC). 1/2

The Department of History at Queen’s University seeks a postdoctoral fellow to start July 1, 2026. Applications are due on January 15, 2026 for the Marjorie McLean Oliver Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The full position description can be found here: www.queensu.ca/history/abou...

Congratulations to @kreskildsen.bsky.social on the publication of his @universitypress.cambridge.org THINGS OF THE PAST: a modern yearning, in the Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series. Free to download till 13 November at DOI: 10.1017/9781009342988. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Born OTD 100 years ago, British actor Robert Hardy (d 2017). Familiar to Millennials from Harry Potter films, his varied roles included Leicester in Elizabeth R, Prince Albert in Edward VII, Churchill, FDR and perhaps most belovedly, vet Siegfried Farnon in 70s series All Creatures Great and Small.

BOO! It's Hallowe'en Week and time for the annual scary music themed episode of Dark Glasses on @cfrcradio.bsky.social at 2. Tunes from Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans, Lou Donaldson, Ahmad Jamal, Philly Joe Jones, Jackie McLean, plus Canadian acts Jane Bunnett, and Murley Bickert and Wallace. Tune in!

3 years later and I'd like to stress this: Orderly progression, cumulative development, incremental improvement. These concepts are not to be confused with the concept of progress. They carry none of the temporal expectations and moral assumptions that progress carries 1/2

Born OTD 100 years ago, legendary late night host Johnny Carson (d 2005). A show biz career that started in the US Navy in World War II finished up with 3 decades of hosting The Tonight Show.

I'm delighted to welcome another title to the CUP @universitypress.cambridge.org series Elements in Historical Theory and Practice. Maria Grever, Contested Public Monuments. doi.org/10.1017/9781.... This is available for free download till Nov 5 2025.

In 1978 as a 2nd year undergraduate at my current institution I received a letter indicating that I was awarded a book prize in Canadian history named for the gent below and from his private library. I duly wrote a sincere thank you letter. 1/2

Just heard Prof. Donald Wright giving the 43rd annual Archives Lecture at Queen's, on his many forays through the fonds of A.R.M. Lower, the distinguished Canadian historian of the early to mid 20th century. A great talk, with some good questions from students in my 4th year historiography seminar.