Our next Natalie Barney Salon is in a few weeks! Join us at Swoon Books & Wine for a Belle Époque salon in honor of Dayton's original romance writer, Natalie Clifford Barney, the legendary lesbian writer, memoirist, and salon hostess. 1/2

I spent most of the day thinking and writing about dance. It was a good day.

"Let us say that about one-fifth, then, of the papyri circulating at the peak were copies of the Iliad: so, between 200,000 and 500,000 Iliad rolls" — Netz, Reviel. “A Quantitative Model of Ancient Literary Culture.” Chapter 5. In Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture, 536-7 (CUP 2020)

“Maybe it upset my grandparents, but I decided I should just go do what I wanted to do, which was enter the modern liberal cultural society of New York. I didn’t want to be drunk on medieval piety anymore.” 😇 A terrific read

Commentary: Trump’s attack on TPS for Haitians is an attack on Springfield, Ohio’s entire community ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/07/10/t...

RIP Bonnie Tyler. And RIP Tandi Iman Dupree. This remains the best stage entrance by a drag queen of all time, even some 25 years later, and the best use of Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” ever. youtu.be/IHQA5vqn6rw?...

Work authorization for our Haitian neighbors in Springfield ended today. To help support hungry families donate to Viles Dorsainvil's non-profit organization: ancljkuy.donorsupport.co/page/FoodBox...

Too Many Books? No such thing! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/s...

It is an absolutely beautiful summer day in Dayton, Ohio. Perfect to take my thoughts for a walk. Grateful for this guy for some of these friends for keeping me company on campus today.

Been listening to Mavis Staples sing this beautiful cover on repeat all afternoon. youtu.be/AqfIe8qEc70?...

Patriot front marching from Union Station right now. White supremacist and neo-fascist organization. Cowards.

Our Natalie Barney salon kick off event was a huge success! Save the date for 12 August for our next salon!

“If the Court rules the wrong way, we are looking at an immediate, manufactured humanitarian crisis.” KF Senior Fellow @mariateresakumar.bsky.social warns that the Supreme Court’s pending birthright citizenship decision is not only a constitutional question but also a test of the American promise.

We are gearing up for our year of Alumni Chair programming! Exciting things in store, and our first event in Saturday 27 June! udayton.edu/arts-science...

Got a ton of writing done today!!!

Looking forward to unpacking this document (and our university leadership's reflections on it) with my colleagues in the fall. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

We can't wait to see ya'll in Dayton in just a few weeks! ftm18dayton.my.canva.site/ft-m-18/

Today’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, begins with a census. The Torah counts people because people matter. Every tribe. Every family. Every person. Voter suppression and gerrymandering are designed to diminish voices and decide whose votes count and whose voices can be diluted or ignored.

The owners of Wheat Penny and Meadowlark are putting the finishing touches on their new restaurant coming to downtown Dayton. Known as Piccolo Orsetto, the venue will offer various breakfast and lunch dishes 7 a.m.-3 p.m. seven days a week.

Sherrilyn Ifill reminding us, "No democracy can survive if tens of millions of its citizens refuse to fight to protect it because they 'don’t do politics.'”

Hackers have compromised Canvas, the learninge management system used to teache college courses. The hackeres have made the system slow, inefficient, unresponsyve, and yn manye cases ympossible to use. Studentes and Professors so far have not noticed any difference.

BREAKING: Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment for the Humanities Funding In Historic Case This afternoon's ruling declared that the mass termination of more than 1,400 grants by the NEH was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.” https://bit.ly/4wmbFg8

No grading for me today….

I notice the Fake News Media refuse to report on Trump’s plan to settle all future geopolitical disputes through the power of dance

No better time to revisit Antigone than the present. Join us for a Symposium on Ancient Music and its Modern Performance this weekend in Cincinnati!

Musicological confessions: I was today years old when I figured out that this Suzuki-famous tune was NOT by Mozart and NOT from a piano sonata, but actually from a quintet by Boccherini. Still learning new things! youtu.be/MdUrjUfvruE?...

Getting ready for our Symposium "Ancient Music and its Modern Performance" featuring a new production of Antigone at the U. of Cincinnati. Rewatched Juliette Binoche in the 2015 production with Anne Carson's translation and feel completely gutted all over again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVP8...

Chag Pesach Semeach! We have snacks at the Passover table along with the Seder plate because everyone can use a bit of a nosh during the Seder.

New Action Cookbook Newsletter! It's April Fool's Day, but we live in odd times. You can't make up a story stranger than our reality, and we're all too on-edge for normal pranks. Here are, in my opinion, the only acceptable pranks for The Times We Live In: www.actioncookbook.com/here-are-the...

WE'RE SOOOO BACK. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Story by @josephcox.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/judge-allows...

Once upon a time, you'd go to give a talk at another university and a nice administrator would hand you a W-9 to sign and they'd send you a check in the mail for the honorarium. Now you have to spend a half hour entering data on a Special Contractor Website that was designed in a lab by sadists.

if ya missed it...#Oscars www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dWV...

In celebration of pi day, let us be constantly irrational.

A new piece of flash fiction by the one, the only Masha Kisel in Hawai’i Pacific Review. Check it out! hawaiipacificreview.org/2026/03/12/t...

anyway, next time he makes up fake stories about SNAP recipients ask him if they should just get FirstEnergy to pay for their bills

We have a chance to send @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social back to the Senate this November.

Hey Friends, Where does one stay in Vienna, Austria these days? Neighborhoods? Things to see? Places to eat? We need advice! Danke!

I just love Patti Smith singing Nirvana. Do you? youtu.be/CoNeYFtbOTQ?...

Purim/iftar crossover spotted!!

Es ist vollbracht youtu.be/8sURg5yT69U?...

As Sara Ahmed writes in Complaint! "Although complaint can be a shattering ... to make a complaint is often to fight for something. To refuse what has come to be is to fight to be."

Help me celebrate! My 81yo father successfully saw and then responded to a text message. #proudson

Radish hamantaschen? Yes, please! youtu.be/QLaYNkjoRyo

Ribbon cuttings are fun! But not as fun as a new romance novel bookstore that’s also a wine bar!

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." —FDR, 1937

Reached that moment where I THINK I finished drafting a book chapter and now have to print it out and write all over it with pen to see if any of it makes any sense whatsoever.