Doc Severinsen turns 99 on Tuesday. Listening back to my chat with him... www.nepm.org/podcasts-pro...

My 9yo has been getting into Nolan’s Batman so I thought it was time to introduce him to the greatest scene involving both Batman & Bruce Wayne c/o Adam West. He wasn’t sure whether to take it seriously or laugh. Which is the correct response. youtu.be/tgCkmUS1IYI

FIREWORK, n. Usually in the plural, fireworks. Preparations of gun-powder, sulphur and other inflammable materials, used for making explosions in the air, on occasions of public rejoicing; pyrotechnical exhibitions... webstersdictionaryonline.com/1828/ai/00751

Counterpoint: the famous version by Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl was sung in soulful 4/4 time, and was arranged by John Clayton, who had played bass with Count Basie.

I hate when I do a Bluesky search for "grammar" and it comes up with Kelsey Grammar!

Lisbon's oldest bookstore survived the 1755 earthquake, still has Fernando Pessoa on its bestseller list — and may have inspired me to buy one tote bag too many. (Is that even possible?) This week's newsletter comes to you from Portugal. roncharles.substack.com/p/a-book-cri...

New post at On a Pacific Aisle, with thoughts on Alex Ross, Stéphane Denève, Pride, and more. pacificaisle.substack.com/p/the-loss-o...

The spirit of place is often difficult to define in a photograph. For me, this comes close. First light streaming through York Minster's Great East Window. One of those fleeting moments that has stayed with me ever since I pressed the shutter button.

Wait what if that romantic influencer stunt yesterday was actually a pumped-up, just-do-it HOMAGE to the plot of An Affair To Remember

TODAY at 1:30pm at ALA @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social in Chicago!

This is wonderful. Finding a mystery daguerreotype with deep historical meaning.

Only Star Wars spinoff I want is the backstory where Yoda learns English but due to teaching cutbacks his lessons are incomplete and he transfers over some of his first language's syntax. Meanwhile, everyone in the galaxy (except subtitlers) learns Wookiee but then they refuse to speak it themselves

Been seeing a girl for the last month or so. We've been on a few nice dates and the sex is amazing. The problem is that she can't use there, their or they're in the right context. I'm going to have to end it.

Check out the trailer for DATA EMPIRE! 😍 www.youtube.com/shorts/ywdGV...

JOB POSTING 📜📚 The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University seeks a research (reference) librarian: yale.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/external_car...

Madeline Kripke kept 20,000 volumes in a Manhattan apartment: dictionaries, shoe store giveaways, and a king's copy of a 17th-century word book. #ThatWordChat guest Michael Adams talks about her collection and what is still being found inside. Watch: bit.ly/ThatWordVideo #Dictionaries #WordNerds

This Saturday in Chicago at ALA! cc: @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social

ok but miss-CHEE-vee-us sounds funnier lol www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/10-w... #words #language

This week!

Greenspan played tenor in Woody Herman's band. The NYT description is a bit like saying, of someone who played for the Yankees, "He always enjoyed playing a bit of catch."

Overeye, v.t. to superintend, observe, look to (1806) webstersdictionaryonline.com/1806/az/00242

Colbert arrives at the Obama Library opening in a tan suit. 😂

Exactly 100 years ago today, we crowned the first girl to ever win the Bee. She had a perfectly ironic last name for a Bee champion: 🛎️ Pauline Bell won the Bee on June 17, 1926, then worked as a teacher and social worker in her home state of Kentucky. She died in 2010 at the ripe old age of 98.

Looking forward to #ALAAC26, the @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social conference in Chicago! #librarians

Looking forward to #ALAAC26, the @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social conference in Chicago! #librarians

lmao, there's a whole YouTube channel dedicated to this! It's called "Black Jeopardy Misses"

As Letty finds out, the story revolves around the first compiler of an English dictionary, Dr Samuel Johnson. When published in 1755, it didn't include any words starting with "X". And it is this fact... which sets Letty on her hunt. uk.news.yahoo.com/norwich-auth...

Rest in Power, maestro Abdullah Ibrahim. Here is a fine NPR Music obit by Martin Johnson.

And your periodic reminder that though "fulsome" does indeed mean, neutrally, "abundant," it also, perhaps more popularly, means "oily and ass-kissing," so one should be careful how one wields it.

And I'm happy to throw "akimbo" onto the junk heap with "begs the question" and reserve my strength for protecting "nonplussed" and "bemused," which need all the help they can get.

The prestige production TV series of mysteries set in the court of Louis XV, "Nicolas Le Floch" is now on youtube! www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Og...

GRATULATION, n. [L. gratulatio.] An address or expression of joy to a person, on account of some good received by him; congratulation. (1828) webstersdictionaryonline.com/1828/ai/00847

Noah Webster was against this sort of inconsistency in English spelling: The proximate reason he wanted to drop the 'u' from 'labor' was because it wasn't in 'laborious'; he wanted 's' in 'defense' because it was used in 'defensive.' (The spellings 'labourious' and 'defencive' were never used.)

If the NYT intended a plural here, even in English, it's "grands chateaux."

And what's crazier to me is that at the end of the end of the day, the team name is satirical Dutch guy! mashedradish.com/2026/05/30/k...

Out now from @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and Jackie Morris― the follow-up to their glorious collaborative books THE LOST WORDS and THE LOST SPELLS. "A radiant, exhilarating, and invaluable creation."―Donna Seaman in @ala-booklist.bsky.social

I was reminded yet again how wonderful and weird English can be. flammable and combustible are synonyms but inflammable and incombustible are antonyms #stupidenglish

Even some of our most reputable bookshops have started carrying nonfiction. Right out in the open where children and the morally enfeebled can see it!

And this gets at a bigger thing, which is the whole idea of turning jazz improvisation into a teachable curriculum. I do believe that improvisation, and all kinds of creativity, are teachable, otherwise I wouldn't be trying to do it. But that teaching can't be industrialized.

Wishing you a fine evening from Ghent.

This was fun! A great way to end Bee Week!

Fayum Mummy Portraits They come from Roman Egypt, mostly dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE. Painted on wooden panels, many were placed over the faces of mummified bodies, giving the dead an astonishingly life like presence. #History #HistoryMatters

So annoying — getting William the Conqueror's emails again

Camera camera in the feeder Who’s the Scarlet Joe Handsomest birdseed eater 🪶

For comparison, the 1976 Bicentennial featured the dignified and historic majesty of the Tall Ships in New York and Boston, and the Guinness World Record for attendance at a classical concert was set by the Boston Pops on July 4.

Unsuperfluous, a. not more than enough, proper webstersdictionaryonline.com/1806/az/00366