these divas at the plant nursery

choosing to believe my dahlia tubers aren’t dead but are instead sulking, damp teenagers

Orangey

I am saying that those departments do not deserve saving more than the ragtag department that is the equivalent of the shitty local team at the start of a feel-good sports movie, and the idea that they do is designed expressly to throw some colleagues under the bus. That is my whole point.

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

“It feels like Jonathan Haidt is meant to scold the student body and belittle them." In grad school his book was pre-assigned to all undergrad developmental writing classes one year. I told my class they didn't have to read it, bc it was such garbage that I didn't want to have to finish it.

from "What A Young Wife Ought to Know" (1901) Emma Drake's conviction that infertility may stem from young women...forgetting to poop?

my garden’s first peony & a neighbor’s incredible rhodey

Reading supplies

I refuse. Radicchi-no.

Irises are so weird. These giants predate my stewardship of this garden so I leave them be

My informed take as a publisher is that the tethering of job security and academic freedom, in the form of tenure, to a book of all things is a disaster.

I occasionally check facebook again (marketplace can be good, sue me) and the overuse of this 😲 emoji to register surprise, delight, sadness, shock is deranged. And I think the way the emoji reacts pop out at you is demonic. I hate emoji slop culture. Thank you for listening to this TED talk.

literal piece of tail

moms, daughters, grandmas — it’s all tricky and hard but the love is real 💕

“The post-trauma plot is skeptical of the opportunity narrative. There is no righteous ass-kicking, no overdue apology, no miraculous forgetting. But there is a loosening, a letting go…It wonders what it’s like to be defined by something and still have to exist.”

my kid loves to ensure maximum coziness for all toys

it’s columbine bloom time motherfuckers

Health cake

student presentations in critical theory quite entertaining

the type of woman I am now is to do some light gardening with curlers in my hair

If recent screencaps are any indication of how I’m feeling…

I’ve got some thoughts in today’s Chronicle. www.chronicle.com/article/dont... (Sans paywall:) archive.ph/Blzzk

you guys had to name the garden twine that?

skunk cabbage & good light

behold the student artwork on the cover of their literary magazine!

Molly Clark Hillard on Tess of the D'Urbervilles, "Never in my readings...have I wondered what to call the events that befall Tess. Never have I felt Tess to be reduced to a pornographic joke between male author and male readership...Never, in other words, have I acquiesced to Tess's destruction."

I love this take on costume as art. She's wearing a paint splash

How could I have forgotten that there is NO enjoying met gala photos on bsky. It is impure.

Met posting on main! This is both vaguely disturbing & totally beautiful? Hard to go wrong w that face (Claire Foy)

Faculty members from the West Chester APSCUF chapter marched at Love Park on May Day. How did you advocate on May 1?

accidentally bought a jar of "sulfite free" sun-dried tomatoes at the store, and let me tell you -- I think there are some reasons for sulfites

NEW RAPE STUDIES (@sunypress.bsky.social 2026), edited by Michael T Dango, Erin A Spampinato, and Doreen Thierauf, is a fascinating and necessary book. I’m so honored to be a part of it.

nobody cares about hearing a stranger’s dreams. that being said, last night I dreamt that I was giving a big presentation but looked down at my notes & it was just a flier of Kohl’s Cash coupons

"What are you reading?" Who cares. It's how I'm reading that matters. I'm uncovering relationships between form and content you can't even imagine

I don’t have a joke for this, but maybe some Melville person does?

Embiid jawing at Jaylen Brown after making a bucket.

@pjmaciak.bsky.social being correct

Happy May Day! Do as @ashleyrattner.bsky.social suggests and tape this 1911 IWW image to your mirror. Recite the text to yourself as often as needed. publicdomainreview.org/collection/p...

Happy May Day! Do as @ashleyrattner.bsky.social suggests and tape this 1911 IWW image to your mirror. Recite the text to yourself as often as needed. publicdomainreview.org/collection/p...

sometimes when I’m bored & don’t want to doomscroll I search Libby for the worst books. And I think I’ve found it.

Bachelor’s Button & Bluebells

Hey, it's Mel Micir, talking about AFTER ATASCADERO, her unbelievable factual/counterfactual history project-in-progress about the founding of University City, MO and the rise and decline of the American Woman's Republic! artsci.washu.edu/ampersand/tw...

this post in turn reminded me of Big Boy — at our local the smoking section was in this weird little atrium (plants love cigarette smoke)

She’s no beauty queen and she’s also called Philadelphia Fleabane. So, much to love.

who else remembers greasy spoons where the smoking & non-smoking sections were separated by a half wall or a small folding screen

there’s a new discount/overstock plant nursery near me & I hope they’re ready for me to be creeping through on the regular

“A concern for beauty is not a retreat from the world but a way of remaining within it despite all its inadequacies.” <— my lovely & brilliant colleague Patrick Clement James. I know nothing about opera but still loved reading this

honestly did not know that Jeff Koons looks like a Lutheran pastor