I was just thinking about St Martin's day traditions in Czechia when I realised Jan Hus was really 'John the Goose'!

You might as well have just sent a pamphlet out saying "start panicking!"

It has been a very strange presidential election. Being able to call the result before the first count is virtually unprecedented.

Read about Conan Doyle's research into early medieval Latin medical texts for his book, The Reception of Latin Medicine in Early Medieval England in his Q&A blog > buff.ly/CHVeRqU #medievalsky @conandoyle.bsky.social

I had a moment today that reminds me why I teach. A student told me "I started reading that Ann Oakley book, and I started to get mad, because she's so right about everything." Dear reader, Sex, Gender and Society was published in 1972!

I'm decoding some manuscript fragments and I realised I recognised <Aga>tha, Luci<a>, A<n>na , Cecelia as part of the Eucharistic prayer, but then I scanned it again, and I thought The TRUMPETS... and that's why I'm going straight to hell!

Please tell me Disney/Marvell are going to sue!

75 kg? What's that in adult badgers?

First they came for the autistics and I said nothing because I was too busy clutching my pearls about paracetamol being demonised.

Everyone should have the right to go to University. Not because it's superior. Not because a degree should be required for every job. But because everyone should have the opportunity to spend a few years learning how to think critically about a subject they are really interested in.

Non amo te, skibidi, nec possum dicere quare

I'm not sure whether to compare the current UN summit to the July Crisis or the Munich Conference, but my inner historian is curled up in the corner sobbing.

I lose sleep over lotsa stuff— but not that!

The sad thing is that I recognise that this is true even though I haven't used Excel in years!

Are we not over the fact that a Fox News host suggested that unhoused people should be summarily executed... The stochastic terrorism that is fueling outrage after outrage is just going unchallenged!

Jobs For Medievalists Tenure-track Assistant Professor of English: Medieval Literature Review of applications will begin 10 November, 2025 The English Department at Trinity University seeks to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor in medieval www.themedievalacademyblog.org/jobs-for-med...

“It was teachers that threw themselves in front of kids — not just saying that they would do anything to save their kids' lives, but actually doing it. And so we are forever grateful for our educators.” I thank Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D. CO) for these words!

There's a lot of international handwaving about the fact that certain people have announced their intention to run for the Irish Presidency, however, the likelyhood of [that one] actually achieving nomination is infinitessimally small.

If you ever had doubts the Dunning-Kruger effect is a real thing, just watch the RFK Jr Senate hearing.

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world.

Wondering why I'm single, and then some absoluetly gorgeous looking guy starts a conversation with me... and I high-tail it to the tram stop because I was afraid of saying something honest like "I think you are cute!"

Non-disabled people specifically were not listening to autistic people who RFK Jr has gone after the hardest, in my opinion, because they're fine with quietly villainizing autism too.

Holy fucking shit

I finally got my author copies. I'm building a nice little collection in my office.

Visiting Belfast I was horrified to find that a proscribed terrorist organisation has somehow snuck a mural up onto a wall there without the knowledge of Sir Kier Starmer, I hope there's a load of cops on the way to scrub it off and arrest the perpetrators

Obviously a lie, since the definition of PhD-level expertise, standard across universities worldwide, is that you can produce original knowledge.

We're Hiring! The Department of Classics and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto invite applications for a full-time, tenure-stream position in Late Antiquity. www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/were-hi...

People who leave their dog outside barking at night are the worst. For the record, this is where my dog sleeps... she's less bothered by the other barking dog than I am. I hate sleeping with my windows closed in summer, but needs must.

I had a big bowl of pho, and now I think I should pack my suitcase.

What I need to say to my Psychiatrist on Monday: I'm not depressed, I'm just really fucking tired. Since January: I've published a monograph and 2 book chapters. I've spoken at 4 conferences. I've co-edited a special issue of a journal (completely outside my field)....

SOS! The crew on 'Handala' have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. Emma Fourreau is a citizen of Sweden. Tag/E the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs NOW: Email: [email protected] X: SweMFA and MariaStenergard Instagram: swedishmfa and mariastenergard Facebook: Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Die CDU hat versprochen ,illegale‘ Migration zu stoppen. Was sie in Wirklichkeit stoppt, sind die wenigen legalen Fluchtmöglichkeiten für Menschen, deren Fluchtgrund überprüft ist. Sie schickt diese Menschen wieder auf eine traumatisierende Reise, die vielen von ihnen das Leben kosten wird.

I see grocery/takeout shaming discourse going around again, so this is your periodic historian reminder that cooking from scratch daily while working has never been sustainable, and for millennia everyone either relied on takeout & restaurants or ate in huge households w/ big dorm-like group dining.

Today I discovered the existence of an antelope species called Saiga tatarica, so funky it looks like it should be playing a funky jazz number in the Mos Eisley cantina through its quite porcine nose. Look it up. You can thank me later!

Off to heidleberg for a few days... just as a storm seems to be closing in!

Gender affirming care for cis folks gets celebrated.

I've realised that I take a higher than average number of flights a year and I hate this fact. but there is no train from Prague to Dublin. There is no train from Prague to Cambridge, there is no train from Prague to Leeds, and a flight to Frankfurt was half the cost of the train!

Heading to Leeds now for the IMC. I'm steeling myself for it to be 10 degrees cooler when I land.

Well, lookie here, @swordsjew.bsky.social 's release last Oct on the bookshop bestseller of the week list, love to see that ! 👀

I really hope it's colder in Leeds next week: right now I'm sweatier that the devil's ballsack!

My panel at @imc-leeds.bsky.social next week. Come for the recipes, stay for an unknown manuscript of the Physica Plinii!

"I asked ChatGPT" "I asked Grok" ok well I asked Gandalf and he said he has not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm

I booked my flights for Leeds. I am now quite broke (and really need to write my paper!)

It's the first day of summer, and I've just given my last private English class of the year. I wish I didn't still have so much bloody work to do.

So I watched Andor, and all I can say is that it is an incredible piece of television which happens to be set in the same universe and continuity as some terrible films like 'The Phantom Menace'. Ignore that completely, and you can enjoy it perfectly as excellent storytelling!

A Czech Middle schooler handed me a thank you note in Irish after our last English lesson. The grammar mistakes seem more Duolingo than Google in origin!

After 3.5 years in Prague, the lack of table service in England feels weird?

Just listening to a journo talking about the ‘the most moral army in the world’ [IDF] as if the last 600 days haven’t happened & 50,000* babies, toddlers & children been murdered by the Israeli govt’s ‘moral army’. This will go down as one of the worst crimes of the 21st C.

Microsoft has disabled the ICC chief prosecutor’s email account. He has also lost access to his email accounts and is threatened with arrest if he enters the United States www.techzine.eu/news/privacy...