The clerk at Barnes & Noble was clearly out of patience when, after asking if they had the second _Calculation of Volume_ book, I asked her where to find the Heated Rivalry series. “Believe me sir, those are out of stock too.”

All I want for Christmas is for Orville Peck and Conan Gray to record a duet together.

I understand that a lot of folks have been misled by fear-mongering and powerful regressive voices but it’s still astonishing to me that so many have fallen for the idea that oppressively policing other people’s gender identity and expression could in any way be part of an enlightened future.

Because if you care about securely owning a movie that you love--as opposed to "owning" it only until a license agreement over which you have no control expires without warning--you need a DVD or Blu-ray. The hardware may be yesterday; the concern is very much of this moment.

The President of the United States has the exact same power to pardon a state-court conviction that you or I have—which is to say, none.

I’m excited that The Necromantics is now out in paperback! Link in the comments if you have a loved one that would treasure a holiday gift full of reanimated corpses 🧛🏻‍♀️♥️ ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

Just learned about this story today...what an embarrassment for the system: Cal State says staff AI use 'resulted in errors' in legal filing edsource.org?page_id=745499

Who has made this 🤣

He had to die so that the birds we know and love could live

Marley was dead

I don’t know, I still randomly trip out over the fact that the President told states to specifically gerrymander for him. And they did.

For Pete Hegseth, does the “fog of war” actually require literal fog or smoke?

For the AIDS Dead by Frank Bidart www.divasofverse.com/2017/12/for-...

Good front-paging.

This was so hilariously bizarre and grotesque. The Borges connection that the author makes in the afterwards is insightful. Definitely an author to follow.

I don't wish this job on anyone, but someone should do a history of how Trump's social-media pronouncements get particularly rageful/hateful/insane on holiday weekends. Maybe there's something about being alone while others celebrate, or vague, in-and-out awareness that he's waning and hated, etc.

"Modernism can best be understood as a cultural field of force triangulated by three coordinates: formalized academicism in the arts; technologies of telephone, radio, automobile, aircraft; and the imaginative proximity of social revolution." Perry Anderson (modernism debates contra blackfriday)

thanksgiving reminder: after your turkey comes out of the oven it is important to let it rest inside a wall or floor for 1 to 2 hours

excited my grocery store had the gay rainbow carrots

clarence thomas has no jurisprudential argument, he just hates women and thinks the constitution doesn’t protect a varia suit

10/10 no notes!

Same for literary studies. Non-tenure-track lit studies scholars I know you're out there and publishing articles and books. And if you're tenure-track and know NTT authors, let me know about their work! I can reach out and confirm that they're cool with being listed.

I have so many stories about my institution to share, but the tedium of telling them would exhaust you all (and me).

wearing slippers and pajamas to the airport is antifa now

Sometimes I think about how many people were convinced that the Vice President of the United States lost the presidential election because she didn’t contort herself to do this show. If it’s true it says a lot about this country.

i’m going to bless you all with the good news that Olivia Nuzzi isn’t real. if you hold this truth in your heart and live it out faithfully, you will miss nothing in life.

Madame Morrible may not have sung much in Wicked: For Good but nonetheless she brought the house down

Five hours apart

the Harvard Crimson called Epstein a “child sex offender” while the Chronicle of Higher Ed called him a “disgraced financier” and that pretty much sums up where we are with higher ed journalism

Lots of thoughts after the Sigur Rós @sigurros.com concert last night in downtown LA:

The Aftermath of Aftermaths! Thank you all for a wonderful conference experience, but especially our visitor on the last slide. See you in LA in 2026!

A leader would not have lost eight colleagues tonight. This happened because you let it happen or because you’ve totally lost control of the caucus in one of the most important moments since you’ve been Democratic leader. Either way, it’s on you. You need to step down. We need someone who can lead.

Tonight was a very bad night.

500 badges, programs, folders all set— whoa @navsa2025.bsky.social

NEW: Jury finds D.C. sandwich thrower Sean Dunn not guilty of misdemeanor assault www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

@mattseybold.bsky.social's proposal to (among other things) reestablish faculty and students' control over their data & work here is...brilliant, actually? (Tho it would strip upper admin of their power to decide WHO gets to buy that data...😢) theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/mamdani-wi...

HOT LIBRARY INTEL: you can ask your library to purchase specific titles for their collection, usually right through the library's website. Librarians can't know every single new title, nor can they mind-read what their patrons might want to check out. Give it a shot!

None of this is going to happen and the halal carts in nyc are already there and amazing, but this is the id of MAGA politics, "we can won so we can force everyone to do what we want" projected onto people who don't think that and wouldn't try. bsky.app/profile/stac...

Hectic 24 hours that involved finishing _Middlemarch_ again and convincing Microsoft Copilot that a source that it keeps mentioning, allegedly edited by one of my mentors, does not exist. Certainly the day was not ideally beautiful.

Appreciated the discussion on this weekend’s Amicus in which @mjsdc.bsky.social and @dahlialithwick.bsky.social referenced the White House’s pride in its so-called “banger memes.”

Abracadabra with a harp I’m so sat

updated schedule now posted on the @navsa2025.bsky.social website. the darker and more dangerous things get, the more it matters to think real thoughts, together. we are getting very excited to see many of you all here in DC soon. navsa.georgetown.edu

Whoever made the casting decision to put Kristin Scott Thomas opposite James Callis on _Slow Horses_…well done!

yeah good call to unleash this on college students with the highest levels of institutional endorsement

I think for me it is North by Northwest, Vertigo, and The Birds.

Guillermo del Toro @realgdt.bsky.social at tonight’s screening of _Frankenstein_. I liked Jacob Elordi’s performance, the set design of Victor’s lab, and the rendering of the creature’s education! Certainly has me thinking about the novel—loved hearing about how del Toro thinks of the Romantics.

W/ my collaborator Martha Kenney, spoke to Natasha Singer for this piece out today about Cal State’s sweeping, costly, and non-transparent “AI-empowered university” initiative.

This demented doughnut completely captures my vibe for the weekend (after I finished reading a novel and answering emails)

Note to future self: maybe starting the week off with an early morning teeth cleaning is not a good idea.