National decline is most evident in watching Americans try to figure out overhead space on planes.

Just four recent acquisitions I'm moving off my desk. Some Latin Arabic type from Rome; Engraved bio of John of the Cross; Martini's history of China; and another of the only known copies of a unique San Francisco Chinese imprint from the 1880s (probably the most important yet).

In a true first, someone is refusing to accept that I didn't see their email and so ungenerously did not reply within 24 hours with a thank you.

Looking at some mid-Tokugawa movable type, and absolutely chuffed to see something fun. Our printed pre-printed lined paper before printing the text, leading to some funny registration bloopers. Usually the lines and text are all a single form. Not so here

Italy has moved me to tears for 3 days straight. Bravo ❤️

See the problem is, when the left points out Trump is a rambling idiotic madman, all the right hears is nerd voice. When the right, however, says Biden is stumbling, they get the satisfaction of making fun of nerds for failing at our own area of alleged proficiency.

What a wonderful day of meetings, making more tasks that will somehow be completed during times when I am just in meetings. We should have more meetings to discuss meetings.

Also worth remembering, as we talk about Free Speech, that the first speakers the current administration targeted were those demanding the freedom and safety of the Palestinian people.

there's no contradiction between "hating trans people" and "wanting to fuck trans people". have you guys heard what men think of women

The life of the mind sounded much more appealing when the mind was not so fucking exhausted. Can I redo? Life of the potato? The blooming onion? Any other suggestions?

#rarebooks & #bookhistory folks: in case this new Princeton exhibition on global book-making has gone under your radar, you should check it out now!

Just finding some Grolier bindings in the stacks

was talking to my therapist who doesn't know anything about lifting about the gym and it was so funny. she was like "pushing to failure sounds like a very toxic mindset"

Some good news during these trying times: I'll be heading to Lexington in Dec to start a tenure track library faculty position at the University of Kentucky as their new (and first full-time) Head of King Library Press, one of the oldest bibliographic teaching presses at a US college or uni. 1/2

There were like eight Black writers at national pubs and journalism schools and like seven of us have been fired for taking stands against genocide abroad and racism at home lolsob

The boards of PWI composed of mewling Ivy educated suburban whites have completely given over editorial and intellectual agency to the right. American elite cultural reproduction is most notable for claiming peoples' spines in exchange for occasional business class flights and steakhouse dinners.

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

You don't understand the depths of human vanity and depravity until you have been looped into a 57 email-long chain trying to move $500 dollars between university ledgers.

The Beauty and Value of Eastern Bilingual Manuscripts of the Bible by a (brilliant!) KU Leuven colleague Maxime Maleux alongthesilkroad.com/2025/09/12/t...

I’ve always been so proud to be at UCLA, not because of any nonsense from administration, but because its diversity is energetic, uncontained, explosive. When I meet my new students, I feel I know them, because I grew up in the same California as them. I think that’s what this admin hates.

I have had this exact conversation too many times: Parent: there are good people on both sides! Me: one side would like to outlaw my gender and sexuality, and some of them would want my death. Parent: Well those people are wrong. Those aren't my conservatives. We need to be able to disagree again

🧵 Felix Nussbaum (1904-44) was a German Jewish art. He has left us a profound record of man’s inhumanity to man. He charted the inner life of an artist facing a world gone mad. His work is amongst the most important of the 20th C as a witness to evil. [1]

Following the killing of Charlie Kirk, Democratic officials roundly condemned the violence and offered heartfelt condolences to Kirk’s family. But the right acted quite differently and called for war and vengeance. My write-up on the fallout from the assassination, in today’s piece.

The asymmetrical media response to political violence in America is, in itself, one of the most important contributing factors to how we arrived at this place of escalating political violence.

Every Democrat is about to declare political violence bad and the right will continue fomenting political violence with absolutely no change to rhetoric... By which I mean they will keep calling for violence.

It only took two years, but UCLA has finally begun starting to clear a travel debit associated with my name from... When I left here for Yale and came back as an invited speaker?

God looking like this sure explains a lot

New Mexico just launched universal preschool.

Lawless suprem(acist) court

Had an aneurysm and decided to take my reading Russian into speaking Russian. So those are my Fall plans. Can't ever help but fall for languages in forbidden places.

This is going to be happening everywhere soon. To begin killing expertise, remove librarians. www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke...

Deferred maintenance on HVAC system and a legacy power plant has basically meant UCLA has had to shut down multiple buildings, including the library. No notice, really, so many are at home working this week. Your reminder: American infrastructure is failing at rates faster than we can imagine.

It always seems like there are two types of artists: artists who scrape old pizza cheese off of dumpster cardboard to save money and artists with trust funds and jeans that are perfectly distressed.

We are cooked. Utterly cooked.

real

This is already shaping up to be the worst academic jobs year since 2009. Perhaps even worse, but that's still TBD. Solidarity to everyone on the job market.

👉🏼 Rare Books Job Alert: Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western is hiring a director of rare books and university archives. 👈🏼 Pros: Cleveland rocks; our collections are fab, esp in history of print and science; you get to work with me 🥰 Cons: 🤷🏻‍♀️ employment.case.edu/psc/ERECRUIT...

Annual Sweden pilgrimage done. Have seen my two favorite Scandinavian icons. The Buddha (from a Viking hoard) and my niece

Early mid career moment: wow, proofs for a book chapter I wrote! When did I write and submit this? Footnotes are surprisingly ok.

Student's final presentations. I failed to teach them to ignore me

"Academic libraries have evolved far beyond being mere repositories of content..." opens an email from Clarivate. I always find this dismissal of the core function(s) of the library depressing and frustrating. As if our primary mission is neither enough nor relevant. Neither is true.

Some stuff from our Getty visit

Wild week here at CalRBS, and have been way way too busy to take photos. But we made it to our Biomed collections on campus this morning, which is always a delight

It's officially my book's publication date! The online open access version is available now, link below. Read online or download the pdf copy I want you to have, all without having to go to some shady website for a pirated copy! www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

I have a hard time imagining a class insane enough to consider both the Vergil Vaticanus and Manzanar concentration camp printing, but hey...

Ain't no summer without an RBS outbreak. Feel like these summer intensives need mandatory masking going forward.

I have gotten permission to clarify: no books from special collections were stolen. These were books that were still in circulation (but 17th century wood block editions). No manuscripts, all print obviously.

Good thing I turned down a Smithsonian job for something that seemed more stable. Quite the news day here at UCLA.... www.latimes.com/california/s...

I promise you, your local library has Chinese rare books cataloged as part of circulating collections. This guy, who has been an issue at the UCs, is likely one of a national scale scheme. dailybruin.com/2025/08/08/m...

These guys