While I’m out of town andTulip is at her doggy camp, Mishmish has apparently taken over the dog bed. I anticipate there will be territorial ‘negotiations’ when we return.

In order to avoid a Naomi Wolf Moment, but also to be transparent about the learning curve, I should note that the 8 men Henderson attended 'to the gallows' were not executed there. They were likely made to stand ON the gallows as punishment. John Shehan was, however, hung for burglary. Mea Culpa 🗃️

Tulip’s sleep away camp bedtime story pictures make me a bit weepy. I’m looking forward to picking her up in a few days.

The Red Line is just so very broken . . .

It’s ‘mystery box’ day in the archives: like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you can never tell what you’re going to get. In this folder, writs of execution (on property, not life) from 1869 & 1792 are side by side. Other than suffering from historical whiplash, I’m finding really helpful stuff 🗃️

In 1787, Joseph Henderson, Sheriff of Boston billed Suffolk County £1.13.4 for distributing copies of the Constitution, £1.16 for putting two men in a pillory and cutting their ears, the same for executing 8 men, and £10 for administering a year’s worth of whippings! 🗃️

Archival Name(s) of the Day are: John Pantaloon and Prophylax D. Kavanah

Whenever my archival research moves back a decade or forward a decade (c1790s-1830s), the shift in style of language, handwriting, or materiality of documents or documentation seems pronounced. Do other scholars notice this too? Ten years but different worlds, it seems 🗃️

The world is terrible, but not *everything* in the world is terrible. Proof? Puppies! Mine, specifically, but all the other puppies too, and especially yours, if you have one. If you don’t, I’m happy to share! #tinyjoys #uglydogs

The tug of war between reading archival materials and petting the archive dog is constant 🗃️

It’s absolutely ridiculous to miss Tulip and Mishmish as much as I do, but I do, in fact, miss them precisely that much.

The ones who got away . . .

I’ve spent the day drinking soup and napping as I try to avoid coming down with a cold. Thinking about the lovely graffito I saw yesterday in Boston. I think we could all do with more courage!

Hey @eve.gd, I just watched 'The Voyager Conspiracy,' and I hope that a discussion makes it into your book. I want to know what a Pynchon man such as yourself has to say about it!

Despite assiduously masking on the bus, in the airport, on the plane, and in the subway, being vaxxed to the max, and lathering myself with hand sanitizer, I am feeling that tell-tale tickle in the back of my throat that augurs a cold. I’m hoping it’s just a case of what Roo calls a ‘biscuit cough’

After hiding for a day or so, Mishmish has decided that the cat sitter is worthy of Throat Biscuits™ This is her highest and rarest endorsement!

As the semiquincentennial of the Revolution ramps up, I find myself more interested in the African American Thomas Jefferson who cleaned windows for the town of Boston in the 1810s, than the Thomas Jefferson of Monticello who enslaved African Americans to do this sort of work for him for free 🗃️

This is the correct nomenclature futurism.com/future-socie...

Research trips are incredible fun, but man do I miss my critters when I’m away from home 🥲 #uglydogs

When you find a bell ringer named Nathaniel Bell, and a Town Clerk named Thomas Clark in one folder of papers, you start to suspect that there may be something to nominative determinism after all! 🗃️

How your email finds me

When Boston set out to build a new prison in 1820, the prison committee’s manuscript minutes were bound in scrap paper that featured engravings from what appears to be a gothic novel, and I simply cannot get over how cool this is 🗃️

Never forget Cricket.

Today’s archival research has been weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable other than the random fragment of a poem about vegetables on the back of an 1819 receipt tendered to the Boston Board of Selectmen 🗃️

Watching the sun set over Cambridge this evening, I felt something missing from my soul fall back into place. Onward.

Traveling all day on only black coffee and a bag of Cadbury’s Chocolate Mini Eggs is a really, really bad idea. Do not ask me how I know.

Thank you, #uglydogs for explaining your lovely hashtag community! I’m glad to meet y’all, and of course there are no #uglydogs!

Can someone please explain the #uglydogs hashtag to me? Often there aren’t dogs, and when there are, none of them are ugly?

Just imagine how much better life in the US would be if, rather than putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, there were suggestions like: cover your cough with your elbow, return shopping carts, use earbuds when playing music in public, say please & thank you, respect others, and don’t be mean 🤷🏻‍♂️

Keep looking up, BlueSky friends. Let’s try again tomorrow.

It’s been 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 days since this dingbat . . . no, I can’t even say it here. Too embarrassing. I love her, but she is a total dingbat.

Sleep tight, skeeters. Let’s try again tomorrow. Volume up for purrs 🔊

The world is burning, but look at how absurdly beautiful my cat is. I adopted her a few weeks after I attempted to take my own life. She reminds me daily that there are things worth fighting for, living for, and cherishing. I won’t give in to despair or bitterness, and I hope you don’t either.

Tonight’s bedtime is proudly sponsored by prescription Ativan. I’ll try again tomorrow.

I have been muting accounts all day, and I won’t stop until my feed is nothing but lichens, pets doing cute things, and that bloke who talks about otters.

I, too, love Flaming Hot Cheetos!

another boring picture of my boring dog

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.

It might be time for the Camberwell Carrot . . .

Please remember to hydrate & eat something; get up+stretch if you’ve been sitting too long; leave the house if you’ve been in all day; look away from the news & social media if you’ve been doomscrolling. The bad news will still be there when you return, but you’ll be replenished to fight anew.

My entire adult life

Hey, @mlmcgill.bsky.social, look what I found while I was rummaging through an old laptop. We were all so young!!!

this is all i have today

Fresh strings, a small neck adjustment, and a good polish always helps boost my spirits!

I pretty much scraped through this week on Zoloft and dog hugs.

This is just to say I have disemboweled the llama dolly you bought me, and which you were probably hoping would last a week or two. Forgive me. It was so plush and so visceral

More joy for you, @jandrewsinclair.bsky.social!

Mental health check-in. How are you doing today? I am very much a peach atm 🍑

I clapped my hands together while making a point in class today, and the very second I did, the whole building shook as we experience a 3.0 earthquake. My students were so impressed! I explained to them that the humanities are powerful! www.thestate.com/news/local/e...

In the Early Modern period, handwriting mattered: use of Secretary Hand, Italic, or a mixture of both spoke volumes. In this fantastic thread, @samklai.bsky.social brings the paleographical receipts in exemplary fashion 🗃️