GO AND MAKE THESE CHANGES unless you are okay with gmail scanning all your emails and attached content.

Just received a lovely email from a listener who enjoyed my introduction to the new audiobook of Dickens's complete works....which was doubly nice to receive as I hadn't realised it had come out!

Reading buddy.

He was a fop when he ran with Hillary. Nothing new.

At "Why major/minor in English?" event last night, 4 current majors were eloquent, charming, incisive & practical about why this study matters so much to them personally now & how they're getting incredible internships & insights about its value to their futures. The humanities matter y'all. #HeyMac

I have always disliked that book. And now I know it’s because it was a prophecy.

The Walton family (who own Walmart) are worth over $400 billion, yet many of their employees are on SNAP. Bezos is worth over $400 billion, many Amazon employees require SNAP. The people who need help are not the problem. It’s corporate greed. It’s an unwillingness to pay a living wage.

Get off X. Get off TikTok. Boycott/cancel Paramount and WB. Get off Facebook, Insta, and WhatsApp. Easy.

The Victorians were right!

Color me shocked.

Printing presses kept their letters in cases. Capital letters went in the upper case. Smaller letters went in the lower case. This is why we say ‘UPPER CASE’ and ‘lower case.’ Ok, but what did we call them before the invention of the printing press? MAJUSCULE and minuscule.

This week in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. Boffin and Wegg near the Bower, in a still from the 1921 Danish silent film version, direct by A. W. Sandberg. Check out the amazing Danish Silent Film website for (most of this) film and more. www.stumfilm.dk/en/stumfilm/...

Got my performance review.

1. Charles Dickens 2. The Pittsburgh Steelers 3. Why music pre-1995 was better than music since.

Finished all my prep for the upcoming Dickens Day on 11 October, where the theme is Dickens and Art. I'll be talking about the use of art in Hard Times. So what does this 1842 watercolour have to do with Hard Times? A good question. You can still register to attend: www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

🎉 Happening TOMORROW! Make sure to follow #DHSS2025 #DataGenderSociety to join us from afar!

Drones n Roses

Ah yes, the hardcore libertarian.

Sure doesn’t sound like he was mourning appropriately. Impeach?

NEW ISSUE ALERT! It's a happy day when you find the latest VPR in your mailbox. This number includes the 2024 VanArsdel and Expanding the Field essays as well as articles on asylum periodicals and the bookselling trade. Treat yourself to some delightful reading: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55567 @rs4vp.org

Time to break out the chart

1 Second to Mars #MakeABandSingular

It is quite simply dishonest to describe TPUSA as a “free speech” organization and not even mention the “Professor Watchlist,” as NPR just did. Reporting on a crime does not entail adopting the victim’s views.

Asymmetrical warfare. Leading liberal voices are generally too decent to descend to this. Leading right-wingers generally have no such integrity or shame. And so this garbage always gets traction.

What day is it sir? Why it's DICKENS DAY sir! Join us in London on 11 October for a day of readings and papers on the theme of Dickens and Art. More details and booking form here: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Hegseth has to talk up physical combat and war. He’s too drunk and stupid to win a spelling contest.

"Sauron pushes the boundaries of ring technology" - Gondor Telegraph

Apparently Guillermo Del Toro has ruined Frankenstein by… being relatively faithful to the source material. Oh my.

Americans’ “hearts” are really horrifying, I guess.

Any Republican who has “accomplished what she set out to do” over the last ten years is a really twisted, sick, disgusting individual.

Cassidy is a clown and can stuff it. Everyone knew RFKJr is a total kook. To cry wolf now is pathetic and insulting.

There's a lawsuit about AI stealing your work. It's the same lawyers taking on Elsevier et al in a separate case. Academics: 1. Check if your work is in LibGen at www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... 2. If so, let the lawyers know at www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

@annagk.bsky.social and I are welcoming short pedagogy articles/approaches that use Dickens's Working Notes, or that center compositional process or serial form in some way. If you teach Dickens, check out the dickensnotes.com platform!

Our little void clearly feeling better now than he did last Saturday, when he had to go to the hospital. Right as rain now … but a little less furry than normal.

These are militarized occupations of some states by others. Outrageous. Dangerous.

Buns ‘n’ Roses

An entitled young fool whose ignorance about current events is matched only by his ignorance of history.

Abstracts due September 8th!

#FelineFriday today for #InternationalCatDay. 1. 🖼️ ‘The Awakening Conscience’, William Holman Hunt, 1853, @tate.bsky.social 2. 🖼️ ‘Old Woman by the Fire’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1846, Wightwick Manor & Gardens. 3. 🖼️ ‘The Love Potion’, Evelyn De Morgan, 1903, @demorganfoundation.bsky.social.

Anne-Marie Millim considers how #Dickens ’s journals championed the view that only a native speaker can master a language. Learn how contributors to #HouseholdWords and #AllTheYearRound worked to implement a prestige language in VPR 57.4: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

A very cool technology that allows students to interact with John Maynard Keynes’ ideas as he develops them is called a book

And the fitting conclusion to #DickensSymposium2025: a libation!

1) Wuthering Heights 2) Villette 3) Picture of Dorian Gray 4) Bleak House

Off we go! Natalie McKnight and @drchrislouttit.bsky.social opening this year‘s @dickenssociety.bsky.social Symposium in Boston

Thrilled to share that my monograph 'Model Women of the Press: Gender, Politics and Women’s Professional Journalism, 1850–1880' is one of the two winners of the 2025 Robert and Vineta Colby Book Prize, awarded by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals @rs4vp.org

Headed to Boston for #DickensSymposium2025 and already a bit of a weather snag. But can’t wait to get there and see my peeps!

VPR's special issue "Currents and Currencies in the #Victorian #PeriodicalPress" is out now! Huge thanks to guest editors Victoria Clarke (@vjctorianist.bsky.social) and Annemarie McAllister. Check out their intro essay: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org

Make America Sick Again