- Who are you, and how did you get in here? - I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith. #PoliceSquad #locksmith

I don't think this is actually what RJ did purposefully BUT I'm of the opinion that a) the original Knives Out mystery plot (as in case itself, not trimmings) is much more Carr than Christie and b) it's basically the plot of He Who Whispers just like Glass Onion is the plot of Dead Man's Folly

Not nearly as impressive as when Monty Python's Life of Brian was protested by 1000 rabbis (represented by one guy who ran three different rabbinical associations full of rabbanim who'd probably never heard of the movie) www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

I do not know what the audience is for this (and if you’re out there I want to be your Bsky friend!) but… I am PRETTY sure that’s a Lord Simon Plimsoll sighting right there!

Sir Terry Pratchett was an extremely talented and successful mystery novelist

IDK if I have enough Jewish Studies followers on here but- Interested in any books on the development of Jewish liturgy- preferably in English. Any topic from medieval piyut to the introduction of guitar into services to whatever else. Maybe books from rabbinical/cantorial school reading lists?

ACTUALLY it looks like they’re now open on limited Sundays?! I wonder if they got requests, which would make sense given the subject matter- I will need to pass this along!

Just FYI- whether for ch"m trip planning purposes or any others, know that the Grolier Club/JTS manuscript exhibit is one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to see, whether on my lunch break or at any other time. Thanks @mmargolis.bsky.social for the tip- everyone should go (& it's free)!

OK nobody needs this but I was rewatching Night of the Hunter and it only just hit me that when John tells Miss Cooper that he thought the story he wanted to hear again had two kings, he means Pharaoh AND Moses, who a) she called "king of men" and b) she identified with his journey Love this movie

Will repost anytime I see this

A lot of people see the Benoit Blanc movies as Christie homages- and of course they are- but in many ways, though Glass Onion is clearly influenced by Christie, Knives Out reminds me just as much of John Dickson Carr- as in, Knives Out is to He Who Whispers what Glass Onion is to Dead Man's Folly.

How is it that I didn't know til today that R Jacob Joseph's grandson was the NYC Comptroller in the 40s-50s

I just watched The Philadelphia Story and maybe it's because I'm hangry and have a headache but it may honestly be one of the worst movies I've ever seen The point of the movie was to knock Katherine Hepburn down a few pegs and oh my god watching it happen was nauseating and made no narrative sense

So I watched Anatomy of a Murder with Jimmy Stewart two days ago, somehow never saw it before, and I'm still ruminating over it-what a phenomenal movie I love how it takes Jimmy Stewart and has us see how the "affable Jimmy Stewart" sausage is made- we see him purposely pull out all his tricks...

Fascinating article I stumbled across- thoughts now are a) do we think Mordy Shap et al listen to Christian pop? b) the MBC Tiktok thing makes MUCH more sense in the context of this guy's point abt contemporary music's genre recycling milkenjewishmusiccenter.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/conversation...

This is fascinating and reminds me of this answer I did on @askhistorians.bsky.social way back, on when the phrase "World War 1" started being used. Turns out, when you search the phrase in Ngram before 1939ish the results are mostly mid-sentence fragments containing "I" or "1" in other contexts.

Oooh, this is a fun one! Casablanca and Get Smart, on two very different notes... More seriously, he's the one who got me watching, enjoying, and appreciating "old stuff"- whether the rural purge sitcoms he grew up watching or classic film, which led to an abiding interest in the topic/era.

I genuinely think that the best Talmud analogy is when you have a Tumblr post/comments which someone reposts on Reddit (on multiple subs), and then someone turns those threads into a Buzzfeed article.

In fairness you cannot make The Great Glass Elevator any weirder as a book than it already is- so why not?

Lots of very clear counterarguments in the quotes/replies here, but also, some of the best comedy is critical (and I don't mean bullying) of people who are kind, honest, friendly, and cooperative. Because no good character is ONLY those things. Short thread:

Okay there are few podcast episodes I have started with more trepidation than the @shedunnitshow.bsky.social episode on Mr Fortune, Please- and I am SO glad that they didn’t just treat Bailey and Reggie with respect, they truly appreciated them and their sense of justice for the underdog.

Somewhat but only somewhat joking here- if only because this is not the biggest problem- but can I no longer eat chalav stam

I keep seeing people say that SH is full of "phrenology" and that just isn't true. It has SOME physiognomy, which isn't great, but not as much as people think. It has anthropological skull stuff, but mostly from another character, not Holmes. And it doesn't have phrenology.

Just finished The Residence. Very fun, but with a few glaring holes. In a way, reminds me of Mike Schur's recent Inside Man- also fun but not as much of a mystery as it's made out to be, bc narratively/technically there aren't many options. Also, MILD SPOILER, why didn't people hear the murder?!

Who are the five writers that made you? Child: Louis Sachar EL Konigsburg Roald Dahl EB White Andrew Clements Teen: ACD Agatha Christie Terry Pratchett Charlotte Bronte John Finnemore* Adult: Dorothy L Sayers Susanna Clarke PG Wodehouse Ellen Raskin Daphne Du Maurier *nobody said "author"!

Oh thank God, took long enough Also I have an inkling of why they decided to do it now…

Adding a new item to my wish list of Lord Peter Wimsey TV adaptations, and a good one for any producers who just want to test the waters- an Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club adaptation. Not super reliant on recurring characters, great story, interesting themes about masculinity and trauma...

Sometime this week is the five year anniversary of what was probably the worst day of my life (and the start of one of the worst periods), and it’s wild that that’s likely the case for lots of people given what exactly was going on five years ago. Makes me feel less lonely in it.

Today is “Get Smart” actress Barbara Feldon’s 92nd birthday. She just needs to live 7 more years to truly become 99.

It's Taanis Esther, the yahrzeit of R Moshe Feinstein ztl, and almost exactly six years since I was unexpectedly and serendipitously able, on clicking on a random "can you ID this photo" inquiry on @askhistorians.bsky.social, to identify a photo of his (NY) funeral. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

Something you may not know about me (but *certain people* ABSOLUTELY do) is that one of my hobbies is arguing with people who believe that Ronald Knox's Decalogue was a) a manual for golden age detective fiction writers and b) something that limited the genre/made it less creative.

OKAY this is very interesting! Though I actually am way more interested in the other manuscript which was mostly but not totally finished- the title gives it vibes of some of her earlier and IMO quirkier/more fun books which I actually like better than Westing Game. 1/

People often talk about how Piranesi was clearly influenced by her illness, but I always wonder (and it’s none of my business) whether a prior bout influenced her descriptions of the enchantments of Lady Pole and Stephen. The description of who does and doesn’t have the luxury to be ill is striking.

I don't know who needs to hear this but it is actually okay and not pearl-clutching at all to say "hey, I probably wouldn't have gone to that comedic West End/Broadway show if I'd known the way that they planned to use swastikas as part of the set dressing."

I am only slightly exaggerating when I say that everything I know about dealing with people comes from forum moderation

I get that this is at least partly a joke, but this is one of the several reasons why Roman Holiday is better than Notting Hill. It gets that infatuation/whirlwind romance can be a powerful enough force on its own that it can be meaningful without requiring a "happily ever after" type ending.

I’m seeing a bunch of detectives in people’s responses here- Holmes (Brett version obviously), Columbo, Sam Vimes, Dale Cooper, etc- I feel like it’s fitting. As Dorothy L Sayers put in the mouth of Lord Peter Wimsey, detective fiction is the purest fiction we have bc good always triumphs.

I try not to say "am I the only person who..." when I don't like stuff, but everyone I talk to who saw the show DOES actually not seem to see this in it so- Am I really the only person who thinks that the Operation Mincemeat musical plot/adaptation choices re its Jewish character were disturbing?

New hobby/way of making myself feel useful- translating people's ancestors' Hebrew-language gravestones on Reddit

For all that Twin Peaks hasn't quite ended up being my cup of tea, besides for admitting that Dale Cooper is an all-timer of a character I have to say- that scene of him finding Audrey Horne in his hotel room is absolutely perfect. Everyone involved did such a good job on literally every level.

I love the European Art gallery at the Met because you walk through the galleries like “nice, very nice… ah, Vermeer, Rembrandt…interesting seeing trends develop…” then WHAM the El Greco room hits you like an electric shock Like “what were all the other painters DOING while he was doing this?!”

If you think about it Goldstein is kind of the anti-HPMOR, vehameivin yavin

OK a lot of people really don't understand what happened here and why it's not actually badass

Like so many other people crossing my TL in the last couple of weeks, I've been watching Twin Peaks for the first time. It's fun, I guess? I may not have the Twin Peaks gene or whatever but at least I get the references in the Psych episode Dual Spires, which was at least 30% of my goal in watching.

I wrote this on @askhistorians.bsky.social five years ago- a THREAD (also written on public transit): www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori... 1/

Why is it that whenever people try (for whatever reason) to do Dark Agatha Christie it's always Dark Poirot and never Dark Marple? The whole POINT of the Marple stories is that darker stuff than people think happens in little villages! Why are the creators such Raymond Wests about it?

Watched A Man on the Inside, which was cute and funny and sad in a way that felt just a TAD manipulative but still relatively earned (like probably everyone else who saw it I have my own baggage on the topic)... but man, not a mystery, with a show with that tone there was only one possible solution.

People of Bluesky! Let’s get to know each other better. What’s your all-time favorite TV show? Quote your answer in gif form!

So I think where I stand on this is- If you read a book about a car theft you can't assume the author is a car thief, but if you find out that the author DID steal a car it's totally justified to go back and be all "hm I wonder if their depiction of the theft of that car reflects their experience"

Ooh, if this is the exhibit they did at the Bodleian in September then it’s great and worth seeing! I’d say that I’m not upset that I saw it for free there rather than for the Morgan’s crazy ticket price, but the overseas trip I was on was by no means free either lol www.jta.org/2025/01/13/c...