Morning walk

My inability to read numbers had me convinced this comprehensive exam essay had to be 70,000 words. It's 7000. Aka, about 20 pages, give or take. My panic is significantly decreased.

The Jews are TIRED.

Des Moines is the semi-liberal bastion in Des Moines, and the Des Moines Public Schools are one of the particular bugbears for the Iowa GOP. This is absolutely a specific political attack on the DMPS, on the African community in Des Moines, and on the most diverse city in the state.

Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves the World Day, everybody. 42 years ago today, Lt. Col. Petrov prevented an accidental nuclear war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...

It's only taken 13 years, but we've finally found a treat Jellybean likes: tuna churu tubes. She's even fighting Weency off for it. But only if served in a dish. No eating directly from the tube, she's a lady, thank you very much.

List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep: 1. Yellow fever in the US, especially how it factored into Reconstruction 2. Why Balanchine's body ideals fucked up ballet 3. Haunted history tourism and its conservative approach to race and gender

Look, POC were in Britain before the Romans, but - Georgian England in particular? Can these people REALLY not think of a reason why POC might have been present *at one corner of the triangular trans-Atlantic slave trade*? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Excellent piece by @notrightruth.bsky.social about trans community as the antidote to trans despair. ruthpearce.net/2025/09/25/r...

new scam going around where they hire you for a job but pay you less than the value your labor produced

Shana tova u’metuka / Good and sweet new year this Rosh Hashanah Did you know griffins were important symbols for Medieval German Jews?

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit. Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil. 1🧵 #PlaymobilÖtzi #PlaymobilInfestation

It’s Fat Bear Week.

The old "put your paw over the sprinkler head" trick remains a classic 📸: Keeper Leslie

In Morocco's High Atlas mountains, shepherds Hammou Amraoui and his son hardly need words to speak. Across peaks, they whistle at each other in a centuries-old language, now jeopardised by rural flight u.afp.com/SWg4

One of my favorite poems since childhood, and a poem I share every #autumnequinox. By the 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, sidelined during peacetime, demoted, drifting through a decade of minor posts in remote lands. Poetry, then, is that which is left unsaid. “My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”

Occasionally, I remember my 9th grade geometry teacher yelling at me for "swearing in her presence" because I said I screwed up. I still don't know why she lost her shit over this. I do know I got in-school detention for it.

A 12-foot statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein frolicking and holding hands appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 23. A plaque under the statue states that it has been erected “In Honor of Friendship Month."

You guys do yourself a favor and look at what Eric Adams wore to Rosh Hashanah services at the Sephardic Lebanese Congregation

So did Jesus show up for anyone? I don't think he turned up here.

Every day, I'm a Muppet on a budget. Granted, that Muppet is Bert.

Elrond and Thranduil, I like to think they're friends 😁 #lordoftherings #elrond #thranduil #thehobbit

It's the most wonderful time of the year: FAT BEAR WEEK! Time to look at chonky burs and declare "BURS" out loud to unsuspecting acquaintances. Have you heard the good word of BURS? BURS!

HAPPY BISEXUAL VISIBILITY DAY

Shanah Tovah, New York City. Here's to a sweet and hopeful New Year.

Don't you dare put that baby in pelican mouth.

It's really hard to top Frederick Douglass's commentary on the Preliminary Emancipation, issued #otd in 1862.

The year turns and the sacred song is sung to welcome in joy and blessings. L'shana tova 5786. 🍎🍯🍏 youtu.be/6ZLq_JB8H44?...

u know what 2 do.

L’shanah tovah #JewSky

What's the matter babe you've barely touched your event horizon ribs

a group of people were like "i found a way to live my life as a truer version of myself" and instead of being like "that's beautiful, how can i help" people were like "i don't think schools should have books in them anymore"

Green onion Chee-Wees.

You there, boy -- what night is it? youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk?...

If you thought the academic job market was bad before? Oh lordy, it's about to collapse completely. What a great time to be finishing my dissertation. I'm never going to get a job outside of being an over-educated NOLA tour guide.

September 20th, we celebrate the birthday of Jean Jacques Dessalines—the revolutionary father of Haiti & leader of the world’s first successful slave revolt—we honor his audacity, courage & belief in Black liberation. His triumph inspired oppressed peoples everywhere.

Eighteen hundred men went behind those fences. Today, only six hundred can be found. That means over 1,200 human beings are simply gone... Not relocated. Not released. Not deported with paperwork. Just gone. open.substack.com/pub/dissenti...

"When the moral sense of a nation begins to decline and the wheel of progress to roll backward, there is no telling how low the one will fall or where the other may stop." Frederick Douglass, "The Lessons of the Hour," 1894 hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.319...

You're a kid and you're in your dad's car. What is he about to make you listen to? Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, or Marvin Gaye.

Would you guys still respect me if I didn’t sit in a throne of skulls

This reads like a fucking mob contract. I'm waiting for Marlon Brando to stick some cotton in his mouth and read it aloud. But it's Clay Higgins, so what the fuck else is new? There are so many odious people in Louisiana politics, but he remains one of the worst.

[Huey Long voice]

Since this whole debate is still happening, and since we are still not listening I will summarize what I understand the argument to be in the Lingua Franca of white nerds: Lord of the Rings analogies.

THIS. The time is NOW to stand up. These threats are real.

Today's frozen coffee: French Toast. Not quite as good as the Birthday Cake the other day, but solid. Needs more cinnamon and maple, though. Hoping to get 2 or 3 pages written by 7. Fingers crossed.

HARDEST PHOTO OF 2025 JUST DROPPED

Every day that passes I become more convinced that Magneto was right.

I got ahead of myself, invited friends for Rosh Hashanah on Monday, and I'm now wondering if I own enough forks to feed 4 people at the same time and if I have enough dishes to serve everything. It's been years since we've had more than 1 other person over for dinner, and my kitchenwares show it.

For those deleting our Academia dot edu accounts (due to their new exploitative TOC) make sure to follow the instructions quoted below or they'll force you to accept the TOC before you can get to the "delete my account" button. See you all on the open-source alternative hcommons Humanities Commons!