Everything is shit except that the Duolingo chess course is now available on my app.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Completely ruined from my day's work, but the main furniture is back in place so I can contemplate the Great Divide from the comfort of my chair.

In Intriguing Furniture news: yesterday I visited Lichfield Cathedral and found a new 13 metre long table made from a 5000-year-old oak log discovered perfectly preserved in a peat bog in 2016. The cut planks took 9 months to dry out, losing 2 tonnes of weight in the process. Definitely haunted...

A little Tuesday Tudor treat in the form of vine and grapes on the barge boards of the Hall’s 1601 Elizabethan extension. Still looking good after 424 years!

Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum. This magnificent #Roman monochrome mosaic makes quite an impact! 📷 by me #MosaicMonday #Archaeology

The condition of fabrics from pile dwelling and wetland settlements is amazing. This charred ball of thread was found at the site of Marin-Epagnier/Préfargier. It was made of hemp or lime fibres, and dates about 3900 to 3300 BC. The thread measures a total of about 10 m in length. 📷 Laténium 🏺

Turns out the ceiling (from the late 60s maybe) was nicotine colored all this time.

"I'm Almost Home, But The Wind Is Strong And Dangerous From Here On" "Be Careful!" " Hang In There!" At The Somewhere Park, 3 East Japanese Tree Frogs. 2025/09/21.

Fingers crossed

Fiction people: my kid is looking for her next reading obsession! She wants a book about a couple in which the man is feminine presenting/behaving, ie, he's at least a little bit pretty, and he isn't the dominant/in charge/bossy half of the relationship. She says NO MANGA. Any ideas?

Other than leaving Kevin behind, I basically want to be her. I could write a thread about it.

What movie do you consider perfect?

Uh. Hi.

How cats celebrate the autumn equinox 🎨 Cécile Berrubé

sigh

Haunting vacant basilica, illuminated by just six candles. Wonderfully complex space by Anthonie de Lorme, whose day was today.

Today we visited the two Lascaux replicas, words can’t do them justice! 🥹😭 Both were amazing in their own way: the older one felt intimate and sits right by the original cave, while the newer one is stunningly precise thanks to modern scanning. The photos are from the smaller exhibits afterwards.

After a true rest day yesterday, I put away seasonal clothes and scrubbed my bedroom carpet today. Will also put clean sheets on all the beds. Tomorrow, laundry and emptying bookshelves prior to painting. Mon-Tue-Wed, painting the library. Even the ceiling.

Guess what? My Microsoft OneDrive has become corrupted and stopped working. Now waiting on a solid-state external drive to arrive so I can back up all my files before I attempt to uninstall and reinstall.

Dyed moose hair in an exhibit at Grand Portage National Monument, used in traditional embroidery by the Grand Portage Ojibwe, especially before trade beads became available during the fur trade.

The Roos Carr figures are dating to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. They were inadvertently unearthed by laborers during ditch maintenance at Roos Carr in 1836. Approximately two meters beneath the surface, the workers discovered a collection of well-preserved...🧵1/3 📷 me #archaeology 🏺

Take a closer 3D look at each of the Lewis Chess pieces in the collection at the National Museum of Scotland on this link: sketchfab.com/3d-models/le...

Late night secrets: a month after I needed antibiotics for a nasty spot on my leg, I have another spot two inches away that has formed a wicked-looking ecchymosis. I think they're fly bites I get while wading in weeds. Tall boots in the garden from now on.

Why isn't there a GIF of Ralph Fiennes eating this painting

A fun fact about this area is that cougars live wild here, and every so often one starts hanging around an elementary school and recess is canceled until it moves on.

A Cedar Waxwing perched on Alder Buckthorn in my backyard. This is an highly invasive plant so it'll need to go as I'm working on building up native plants in my yard.

1/ It was one of those days - I had been chasing mist all over south #Shropshire and was getting absolutely nowhere. I started off on the Stiperstones at sunrise, followed by the Long Mynd and then Titterstone Clee, but despite the forecast there was no mist to be seen anywhere.

I should be able to turn my internet off, completely, no questions or doubts, and everything except internet browsing should still work.

I didn't know until a few years ago that the British Museum had posted high-res images of the Tonindeye (Zouche-Nuttall) Codex, and as I was taking a coffee break just now and looking at them it occurred to me that other people also might not know and find them as interesting as I do.

Found while looking for other things: lovely Gs in this MS, the last part of the composite codex BNF lat 5018. Late-8th c., from the vicinity of Lorsch, though I'm confused by the various accounts of this MS and lat. 7906 by Lowe & Bischoff. Anyway, nice Gs, big and little! @ccurran.bsky.social

This manuscript by Anselmus Faust, dated 1612, is the oldest surviving European manual on bookbinding. Written in Latin & Dutch, it was created for the St Bernard's Abbey near Antwerp. What makes it especially unique is its rare dos à dos binding: 2 books bound back-to-back, sharing a single spine.

How many of these jars would we use in a year? Pasta twice a month is 24. Probably we want to eat pasta more often than that.

Yyyaaaayyyyy!

I'm going to make myself chicken salad for lunch because I deserve it.

Have no fear, Republicans will bail you out at some point with a huge chunk of taxpayer money to pay you for not being able to sell your products because of their policies. Then you can post on social media that you’re voting for them because you are against socialism.

The high tunnel tomatoes look great but have no flavor and we couldn't get through them fresh anyway. Apparently my only choice is to sauce them. I am furious. I had other plans.

stone steps

Pheeeewwwww. The potatoes took forever to cook!

And here I go: quadruple batch of cottage pie. The original recipe makes an improbably small amount considering the work involved. Double fills a casserole dish. Quadruple will do us for the whole winter.

Unauthorized Cucurbit is turning out to be a pumpkin. I grew a zillion varieties last year, so this will be interesting.

A nice morning to water the garden

Gee

I'm looking forward to cooler weather so I can slide back into my limited-bullshit mode of home cooking. There is the roast chicken There is the pot of beans There is the bolognese and that is basically it.

Week 3 and kiddo still finds much of school to be intimidating and unfriendly, and she's still bored much of the time, but boy does she get excited whenever there's a little bit of a challenge.

Linnet on a spray of Barberry by_Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues 1580s. Could have gotten a job w/ William Morris 3 centuries later!

Oh god oh god oh god. Today's the day: the annual deep clean of my daughter's room. She's filled my laundry baskets with stuff but I have more to move out, furniture to shuffle, walls carpet & drapes to wash and dry, and furniture to put back in. It's the last deep clean of the year.

A weekend of capitals - before the rain came on.

Something beautiful for the weekend! An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago! The shell’s central display has been described as an example of aesthetic intention by the toolmaker. West Tofts, Norfolk. 📷 MAA Cambridge University #Archaeology