More good news on vaccines A two-in-one mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna targets seasonal influenza & COVID-19. It produced robust and durable immune responses w/o safety concerns in a small mid-stage trial. mRNA is the future. We can’t afford to lose it. 🧪 www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Diamanda Galas’s The Litanies of Satan Robyn Hitchcock’s Yip Yip Song Ministry’s Jesus Built My Hotrod Pylon’s Feast on My Heart Tori Amos’s Little Earthquakes Patti Smith’s Gloria

Hemingway was once bet that he couldn’t write the world’s happiest short story in just 5 words. He replied,

@michaelstipe.bsky.social Please know that the video of you telling your “shut up” story is bringing hoy to so many people. I already have a lot of REM tshirts, but I may buy another one because of how tickled I am.

I wrote this about my friend Nikki Delamotte a few years ago too. anniezaleski.substack.com/p/i-am-tryin...

Oh, you want these romances, you say? Congrats, they exist! Historical bicycle riders: A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell Victorian werewolves: Soulless by Gail Carriger Queer dragon shifters: Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha (aka the horny dragon book) Hockey historical: Puck and Prejudice by Lia Riley

I love @emmaswiftsings.bsky.social ‘s Dylan covers. This is an especially gorgeous version of a gorgeous song. (And the organ part is done exactly right, imho.)

“Everything is meaningless, in its own way/ Like a starry night, or a snow covered winter’s day” - find out why & how in my next memoir, “Stranded In the Future” due for publication this July.

I’m glad to see @kenjennings.bsky.social celebrating Life’s Rich Pageant month.

For my money, the way thousands of regular people are self-organizing to resist data centers is one of the most cautiously hopeful stories going right now. www.themountaineer.com/news/no-cryp...

This made me chuckle.

PBS kids is sending me

1965 founding legalistion of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Title 20 U.S. Code. Chapter 26. Section 951. "The Congress finds and declares the following: The arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States." (cont'd.)

one of the greatest human triumphs of my lifetime is the relentless, unceasing, heroic effort by DECADES' worth of doctors and scientists to find a cure for a disease much of the world didn't take seriously for years because it predominantly affected a community they thought kinda deserved it

Note to self:

Who can tell me something about Minnie Wright, who is credit with translating Perrault's fairy tales (as well as some others)? When I try to look her up, I primarily get information about the character Minnie Wright in the play Trifles.

What is novel written from the POV of a woman feeling sorry for herself?

Free online info session about our grad programs at MGA. Learn about our flexible, online, affordable, career-ready programs in technical writing, professional writing, digital communication, teaching college writing, creative writing, public relations, and strategic business communication.

Beautiful song.

We are hiring for an assistant professor in rhetoric and composition. If you are interested in this position, you will need to submit your application within the next two weeks, if possible. MGA is a great place to work! Let me know if you have questions. careers.insidehighered.com/job/3444849/...

BEN HORNE WUZ HERE

@michaelstipe.bsky.social I hope that you’ve been able to enjoy your birthday, despite all of the chaos going on. Finding joy is important!

Such a great song (and entire album).

The Cure’s “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep” would make a decent blues song. Maybe with some acoustic slide guitar.

Me, a historian: "The term 'the sixties' doesn't refer to the calendar specifically—one may posit any number of plausible start dates for the decade, and indeed the one thing we can say with certainty is that 'the sixties' didn't begin on ... " "Well, shit. Never mind."

some wild dancing...

Always worth a post

Here’s to 2026

Ten million posts about the state of AI and they’re all just iterations on a Shel Silverstein poem written when the Atari 400 cost half as much as a used car

FWIW, I've been using blue books in class. It's not been a very big deal.

For lunch today I had a sandwich consisting of toasted homemade bread with turkey, English cheddar, pesto, and mixed greens. With applesauce on the side. It was a wonderful lunch. I look forward to having it for lunch again tomorrow.

Now would be a great time for a 10 episode, 20 hour prestige series about the ten years between 1916 and 1926, covering the establishment of the 8-hr work day & 5-day work week, in the US. Each episode would be one year & the middle episode should be entirely devoted to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Here's a question I've enjoyed asking on various social media platforms. What are vocabulary words you have learned from songs? For example, I learned the word "raze" from REM's World Leader Pretend.

Cinnamon and honey on toast is so good.

Paul McCartney has the opportunity to do the most awesome thing ever www.notreble.com/buzz/2025/12...

Theda Bara as the Virgin Mary (1917)

Thank God the Pee-Wee Christmas special is free on YouTube. REALLY need it tonight.

This entire weekend

Rob Reiner directed some of the most beloved movies of all time, including Stand By Me, This is Spinal Tap, and The Princess Bride. His production company also made movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Before Sunrise and Michael Clayton. The film industry has lost one of its titans.

#RandomChristmasGIF #CaryGrantChristmas #TheBishopsWife

Swimming to Cambodia is wonderful! @scalzi.com is on a roll!

I adored Bread of Angels and Heart the Lover. Several others on here are high on my tbr list.

I love this movie, and @scalzi.com ‘s description is spot-on.

This is a gorgeous version of one of my favorite Merle Haggard songs. youtu.be/vxx2i9hkHKE

Virtually every institution I engage with regularly—the university, healthcare—is falling to pieces in front of my eyes. But live music? It continues to deliver everything its social contract has always promised: community, joy, a vision of a better world. Go to the gig.

Hey all, The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships. Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits. You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

I'm glad I'm just a hobbyist, and don't need to make a year-end music list until--well, until I feel like it. But I just reminded myself that I have not heard a better lyric this year than Emma Swift's devastating "Desperate times call for desperate pleasures."

I've named my fists Hall and Oates because whoa-oh here they come, watch out boy, they'll chew you up