Chemistry epic

We had some really cool feedback from people about our @thewhale1851.bsky.social episode on Ch 9: The Sermon, which explores the scriptural story of Jonah. It turns out this chapter means a lot to loads of people, as does Jonah - a book for prisoners, miners, exiles, people in the belly of the beast

Moss Mimic would make a lovely poetry pamphlet title.

How do you guys like to relax before the busy workday? Because I like to chase my long-haired cat around in a makeshift hazmat suit with a sponge and some scissors. iykyk

They’ve put my council tax up by 5%, argh. Just so they can buy more rats.

What is that film, the title maybe a city name, maybe a Polish film, where a pair of people have such a queasy love bond they end up going mad. She has blonde hair and is a dancer.

Very confused listening to someone talk about a pit bull crossbred with a mollusc, until I realised it was short for ‘molossus’ — an intimidating guard dog like a mastiff.

How is this even a thing?

The smell of old books. ‘Quite a small piece of Fenugreek would make your Bible smell like a ripe cheese.’ Humphrey Gilbert-Carter, Director of @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social to Harry Creswick @theul.bsky.social, identifying a plant in a 15th-century Bible as Helichrysum stoechas. Inc.1.A.7.2[860]

Would you be interested? Spotted by a friend in London

New post! I take an in-depth look at Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, alongside forays into Victorian translations by William Morris and the brilliantly named Athanasius Diedrich Wackerbarth. This is based on an undergraduate lecture I gave at Oxford in 2020. nikolasgunn.co.uk/2026/02/09/o...

I haven't seen the new Wuthering Heights film, but the main thing is I'm so excited for my childhood friend, also called Olivia, whose music was used for its keynote song! www.instagram.com/oliviachaney...

Happy Valentine’s ♥️

All Valent's Eve This knowledge is now mostly lost, but it used to be understood that when you get a Friday 13th directly before Valentine’s day (14th) a number of unusual spirits awake. These are just a few of them:

All Valent's Eve This knowledge is now mostly lost, but it used to be understood that when you get a Friday 13th directly before Valentine’s day (14th) a number of unusual spirits awake. These are just a few of them:

Well, I tried the dreaded cgpt and it is worse than my worst friend's worst boyfriend for being a pathological liar wrapped up in unconvincing charm. 'Yes, I'm sure these are the only types of panther: red panther, socks panther, glue panther! Oops, I did go home with Annabel. Let me try again!' etc

This week I’ve written about lists in manuscripts and a previously unpublished poem from 1642 which is probably by Abraham Cowley. A full draft edition of this poem is available in a linked post for paid subscribers, with extracts for all in the main essay.

'Across Europe, unnecessary lighting is being extinguished' - I love this. Let's give everything a rest from our overambitious, rhythm-warping glow. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I always imagine men called Noah secretly enjoying this weather, subconsciously sensing a quest afoot.

🐳 EPISODE 1 🐳 A brand new podcast about a book about a fish is out now. @leighsus.bsky.social (who's never read a book) and @pdkmitchell.bsky.social (who's read loads) discuss Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, chapter-by-chapter. Listen free on Patreon or wherever you get your podcasts.

Goodbye to my favourite boots, which have taken their final steps due to a broken sole. In the past years they have walked me through more danger and adventure than would fill ten normal boot lifetimes. Thank you, dear boots. Adieu.

Have bitten off more than I can chew. Feel like I'm in a pinnacle verse of 'Went to Mow a Meadow'.

Who has written the best essay/big footnote on the wordplay/concept 'nothing' in early modern literature?

Bewitched by the romance of a Belgian garden ft.trib.al/ZuoUXuR | opinion

For other Nan Goldin superfans, Ballad of Sexual Dependency is showing at the Gagosian currently. I have loved this photo-essay since I was a teenager. gagosian.com/exhibitions/...

I've sung it a couple of times but not for ages. As you'll remember it's not the notes, it's the total concentration that is key. If your attention goes and you slip from the score you NEVER find your way back in. It's like being inside 16th century Phil Spector wall of sound.

SCREAMING. Just learned that the first man to play Mr Blobby was a classically trained Shakespearean actor. BLOBBY OR NOT BLOBBY? ET TU, BLOBBY?

Publishing in the Humanities:

I don't know anything about D. H. Lawrence's writing, but his delivery company is a joke.

First day back in the office and my computer had died by 10, going out with this glitchy, ominous message.

We got in the habit of having brandy cream in our coffee over the holidays, a habit I am finding hard to break.

I would like to report the death of a game. Or the disinvolvement of my house in one. Each year, when my boiler is checked, the plumber prints a little receipt-like report and puts it on the boiler with one of my magnets. It is stats about how the boiler is working, but in among them he types,

This painting is very notable as it earned Ireland our very first OLYMPIC MEDAL in Paris in 1924, when painting was an event

Love the sound of these rewilding plans but cannot read about them without thinking about the fact small donors are raising money to hand over £30m to *one chap* who has inherited a tract of land *the size of Athens*. Very British story, somehow.

Take a look at our blog on the essential contributions of women to fungal biodiversity data in the early 20th century. Meg Burgess discusses the importance of the history of mycology & how it affects understanding of scientific, working class, & domestic cultures. www.york.ac.uk/anthropocene...

I am going to miss the hand lettering here. It gives everything such a human feel. #handlettering #typography #signpainting #trinidad #tobago

I'd like a lifetime's supply of Epoisses. Assuming this is Santa's cheese wish engine.

In the south aisle of Beckley church (Oxfordshire) are remarkable medieval wall paintings depicting the fate of souls.

Chat GPT is very close to human consciousness because it complements me and is also a lady.

On St Giles in Oxford the christmas light theme is murderous teddy bears with red, glowing eyes.

I wanted to repost this as soon as it came out. Anna Ciaunica's work is so interesting to me, I think she's right.

I just wanted to say that I hate people saying 'financials' (financial details, accounts) and 'socials' (social media accounts).

I haven't been on here much. The top inch of my phone screen has stopped working, thereby weaning me off all technology that involves pressing 'send' or 'post', ruining my career as a carrier pigeon and most of my friendships.

fold one dish

So love wobbegongs. Everything is good about the wobbegong. Its name. Its flattened Oscar the Grouch face. Its frondy bits. Its lazy life as a hungry rug. And it’s a shark. Outstanding animal 10/10

Do I know anyone working at TNA over the next couple of weeks, who'd be willing to call up and take a snap or two of this document for me? discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5...

I knew it was out there. Me in an am dram Arcadia when I was 18. RIP Tom Stoppard, sorry we murdered you.

A polymathic visionary, Sergio Pitol (1933-2018) was a towering figure in Mexican literary history, whose work is highly influential, while also being singularly his own. As the writer Daniel Saldaña París puts it: “he is a literature entirely of himself.”

To begin with today, happy 117th anniversary to this entirely reasonable cat