My mom at the Frick café

Companions

Rosemary for remembrance

This week I submitted my manuscript for Being Pretty in the Eighteenth Century: a Cultural History of Female Beauty to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social This book has been a (long) labour of love and I owe so many thank yous to so many people for helping me reach this stage!

I am heartbroken and horrified that the department where I received my PhD is under threat of closure. This is a dynamic and welcoming community that is at the forefront of American Studies in the UK. I encourage everyone to sign the below petition and rally behind our colleagues in Nottingham.

Just now: The plaintiffs who were arguing that Utah GOP's congressional map is illegal won in court. The judge orders one of the two maps submitted by the plaintiffs ('map 1') be used. The ruling, if it stands, guarantees that Democrats will pick up a congressional seat in Utah next year.

Sat in a restaurant last year listening to someone talk about how they were getting ChatGPT to do their assignments for *an English masters they were doing part-time*. I still think about it occasionally.

When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.

‘There is a disconcerting sense that something much more serious is going on, that all the hokum and stage magic might be misdirection of the sort that enables something secret to enter the room.’ Francis Gooding on Dr John’s ‘very strange record’ ‘Gris-Gris’. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Fight!

The problem was never that Boris Johnson studied classics... Perennial favourite reader's letter from 2021.

Sunset near Lehighton, PA

A remarkable smackdown by Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of the head of the Heritage Foundation

An innovative take on the play which also got the essentials of it, Isabella was actually seeing it for the first time! And asked all the right questions of it…

THINKERY&VERSE - 2025 Season we saw their Macbeth last night. Transposed to New Jersey in the late 17th century after the settler massacre of the Lenape. Duncan becomes Dinah, Birman Wood to Dunsinane becomes from the Piney Woods to Perth Amboy. . thinkeryandverse.org

My forthcoming book, Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale, has been selected for JStor’s Path to Open scheme where it’ll be made fully open access.

We just gave $40 billion to a country that is screwing us by selling to China, so China doesn't have to buy from or deal with the US. That's almost the entire budget for USAID, except instead of saving one South American dude, we could have saved millions of children.

Beginning the day

A cloudy morning here in N. California...I should've played around with the lighting. Phalaenopsis Pure Moon 'Green Pixie' #bloomscrolling #orchids #flowers #blooms #mothorchid #orchid

Just discovered that Mademoiselle de Roselan, wife of the French governor of St Lucia in the 1650s, was, in fact...Indigenous Kalinago! I've read of European men cohabitating with Kalinago in the Caribbean, but not formal marriages where Caribbean women are acknowledged by their husband's titles. 🤯

think new interest in japanese ink painting is good for my brain. needs decisive strokes, can't be retouched, so just have to resolve to keep trying and not feel bad no matter what. this is day 4. can't do bamboo leaves properly yet, (i think i need to move from elbow, not wrist?) but... see above.

hey this is fun

Things Ben Says in Class, October 14th 2025 edition: "There are many ambiguities about Fitzgerald's novel & especially how we read its characters. Tom Buchanan being a white supremacist domestic abuser jackassclown is not one of them."

GET READY FOR FRIDAY! Make plans to get to lovely Bloomsbury if you're in the neighbourhood, or sign up for the zoom link by Thursday evening. (or, if you like to live on the edge, get a picture of a Good Tree ready to bribe me for the clandestine zoom link on Friday) #LowCountries #ArtHistory

Cat at work

Peterborough, New Hampshire on a perfect autumn afternoon.

Psst: A reminder for American writers: High tea is not fancier tea, it’s supper. It’s a more substantial meal with a main dish, rather than tea, biscuits, scones, little snack foods. And it’s high because it’s served on a high table — dining table height — not a low, tea or coffee table.

Early review (two days early, anyway) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Beautifully written, insightful, and engaging, 'True Nature' is a tour de force depiction of a charismatic, restless, self-absorbed, immensely talented literary lion."

It was an absolute joy to write about the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, a nonprofit that works tirelessly to preserve Texas' film history by digitizing tapes and film before they degrade. Their website is a treasure trove of cool state history: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

#FindsFriday 🏺 Bronze chimera: likely emblem (episema) on C6 BC warrior's shield w lion's head on flame-like mane + scaly fierce snake striking from centre. From high status tomb w arms, tools, ceramics + iron wheels of chariot excavated in Melfi, Basilicata. Now in Nat Archaeological Museum there.

OH WOW! Congratulations to our contributor, László Krasznahorkai, for winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature!!! 😍🥳 wordswithoutborders.org/.../view/lsz...

In the Samaria Gorge on the island of Crete, Greece, lies a very deep cave with a continual cold spring waterfall. To reach it, you have to swim about 100 meters in 10 degree (C) water. I spent time thinking about hypothermia I was so cold. Nice payoff tho. Pic of the day #photography

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

📍Barna Woods, Galway. Trees damaged during Storm Éowyn transformed into these beautiful pieces.

“In the future, people will look back and thank John Gibbons for what he has done for Irish farmers, just like his father before him”. Very positive review of THE LIE OF THE LAND in current edition of Village magazine by former Green Party leader, Eamon Ryan.

I’ve been away, but I hope you’re all well. It’s nice to be back & here’s to magical autumn in Brambly Hedge ♥️🍂 (created by Jill Barklem)

Pink empress Mantis

Viaje a las Terranas 🇩🇴

All Greece hates… … God’s daughter, born of love Helen by H.D. (No one does alienation — from society & circumstance — like H.D. Calm distant fire) #poetrysunday

In this NYT review, Jacob Heilbrunn is writing about the past, but could be writing about the Stephen Miller present: "Goebbels had good reason to believe that American bigotry could be exploited for Nazi gain." The spirit of Goebbels stalks the halls of the White House today, and his image.

Georgia, you’re not alone — we’re with you all the way.

I met Bishop (now Archbishop) Sarah in 2022 when she was the speaker for the Church Club dinner. We had a wonderful conversation, including about inclusiveness and I spoke to her husband as well. Really great and of course, historic news!

Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury

Claus Offe was a major thinker who influenced many disciplines. I was privileged to hear him speak once. A very sad loss

She placed this striking young person from the first in a story, saw her, by a necessity of the imagination, for a heroine, felt it the only character in which she wouldn't be wasted; #WingsOfTheDove #HenryJames

At Bus Stop Café, Greenwich Village