What are we painting today? #BobRoss

Rough vibes on this website today, likely because people feel Hopeless and Helpless Because Can't Stop It and No One Who Is Supposed To Is Trying To So Now We're Fighting Each Other™. I recommend activities such as book, or potentially instrument if you like instrument, or even do talk on phone.

collards, ham hock, black eyed peas, and large piece of cornbread

When you get a mailer this fall trying to convince that the socialist city councilors are bad, it’s coming from this guy and people who think like him.

On X, a senior U.S. Justice Department official is promoting a post that praises colonization as “one of the greatest things that ever happened to the backwards parts of the world.”👇

yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

A functional country would shut Grok down permanently. Like, immediately. Right now. Last week. Whatever. Just flip the switch. Obviously.

If you're looking for pieces for an undergrad classroom that help show how historians do their work, we've got you covered. For instance, there's David McKenzie's exploration of a shady dentist-cum-gold miner.

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Pour one out for the Latin American historians. May the gods of patience be with you as you do your public-facing work right now.

Always remember, Republicans in Congress could stop this at precisely any moment they choose.

It was a much warmer year than normal for NW Oregon in 2025, near record warm for some locations. 2025 was in the top 5 warmest years on records for Salem and Portland. 2025 was in the top 20 warmest years on record for Eugene and Astoria. Source: NWS Portland, Applied Climate Information System

PORTLAND, OREGON - Comics Studies Program hiring instructors. Courses could include: Writing Comics, Comics Theory, Comics History, Special Topics in Comics, and others. jobs.hrc.pdx.edu/postings/48699 @comicspsu.bsky.social @helioscopepdx.bsky.social

This is why Scandinavians are famously uninterested in design and style.

The public forum 'New Ways of Engaging with Colonial Pasts' is two weeks from today at SPUI25 in Amsterdam. Tickets are free but registration is recommended. It might be live-streamed too. Check out the link below ⬇️ to learn more. 🗃️🏺 www.spui25.nl/programma/th...

The best and most consistent thing about Stranger Things is the opening credits. I never skip them.

Serious Q: given FOX's track record losing defamation cases ( or at least settling for an extraordinary sum, see Dominion), can the city of Portland sue successfully? Do municipalities do this?

The group 314 Action hopped into a Dem primary in a safe Portland, Oregon district last year to spend $1.7 million backing state rep Maxine Dexter against progressive county commissioner Susheela Jayapal. @314action.bsky.social denied it, but had received $1 million from AIPAC. More in tax docs:

My new book — Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction — is now available as an e-book (paperback in March 2026)! The book offers a concise history of humanitarianism in an international perspective, from the 18th century to the present. More info here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

How Christopher Caldwell thinks ordinary Americans should swing their arms…

Brigitte Bardot is part of the connective tissue from my first book to my latest. She frequented Club 55 outside St. Tropez, a beach club started and operated by Bernard de Colmont, the amateur explorer at the center of our graphic history 'In the Land of the Lacandón'.

Madison friends: come to Glou Glou to see Max and his trio tonight at 7!

a valued collectible!

I had an interesting exchange with the chatbot issued to students by my university about the advisability of using it—at a university. It thought this was a terrible idea.

Merry Christmas! My state of the field essay on the history of sexuality in Modern France was published in open access yesterday by @frenchhistory.bsky.social. Check it out at academic.oup.com/fh/advance-a...

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

Given this thread, I gotta plug this wonderful book by Lisa Leff, The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust (OUP, 2015).

Calculated marketing among the key target demographic of Marco Island, FL

attn @jonathynebriggs.bsky.social @rpanchasi.bsky.social

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

Important update on road trip.

Just another stupid day at work

I flew from OR to KY today to drive my dad to FL tomorrow and this is what he’s packed for the road trip.

Historians! I'm going to be at AHA, and I'm bringing my recorder. Find me and tell me the most influential writing advice you've ever gotten.

I was LUCKY. That's the rub. I was lucky. Other people should've gotten lucky and had these jobs. But I got lucky and did. It's not a meritocracy. It's not DEI (obviously--if you've met me, I'm big white Midwestern suburban dad energy all the time). It's luck. Because 250 people applied for my job.

4 weeks from today at Spui25 Amsterdam. @redgillett.bsky.social, @ferenclaczo.bsky.social, @jochenhung.bsky.social, @gerthuskens.bsky.social, @paulvt.bsky.social, @laurenlauret.bsky.social, @lucyjgaynor.bsky.social, @bierjess.bsky.social, @scouperus.bsky.social, @annevanmourik.bsky.social

Important point: university isn't just for posh kids; Erasmus+ gives non-posh kids same chance as posh kids to study abroad, which they otherwise wdn't have; & covers vocational & other non-university training & education exchanges. And if more students come to the UK, that increases UK soft power.

Youth travel and exchange has often been a prelude to deepening European integration. It has been a fundamental first step. There are many historical examples—including the UK. Ask me how I know 🤔

This is what happens to your car in Portland on fire.

#kimbrodkin in the kitchen tonight: onion galette, fresh mixed greens, olive oil, balsamic, Willamette valley Pinot noir

I'm not sure if people realize the murder strikes are taking place across a large region. It's quite staggering. www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...

Youth travel and exchange has often been a prelude to deepening European integration. It has been a fundamental first step. There are many historical examples—including the UK. Ask me how I know 🤔

EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

⬇️ A fab public event in Amsterdam 16 January 5pm. Put together by @nataliescholz.bsky.social, @stevenvanwolputte.bsky.social and I will be in interdisciplinary conversation about word and image, academy and general public, history, anthropology, art, storytelling, & European colonial legacy. ⬇️ 🗃️🏺