Grateful to the folks at Front Porch Republic for inviting me to share on the passing of Gurney Norman—writer, documentarian, advocate, Kentucky poet laureate, teacher, mentor, & friend. Whether you read them, let me encourage you to read some of Gurney’s words. You’ll be better for doing so.

The best way to prove universities’ value is to get countercultural again.…That means defending inefficient, human-centered learning: strange and premodern practices such as reading an old book, then writing a long essay about it.” newrepublic.com/article/1983...

“[P]art of being a historian during Trump 2.0 is to witness a renewal of debunked mythologies and outdated ideas made fresh by a state apparatus deeply invested in protecting the historical reputation of whiteness.” https://newrepublic.com/article/198384/trump-white-nationalist-vision-future-history

What an amazing conversation between @silashouse and @crystalwilki about the writing of creative nonfiction. Once again, I’m reminded how much these folks rock. Y’all find it wherever you go for podcasts and listen.

“Leaving the next generation ignorant of this historical knowledge, of the institutions, cultural practices, and processes that have either created or nourished division, will only perpetuate and deepen division.” https://newrepublic.com/article/198366/indoctrination-call-education

“As we enjoy ceremonies in 2026, we might also recall that celebration without commemoration is vanity, that flattering memory without truthful history is self-delusion.” https://newrepublic.com/article/198387/trump-reckless-assault-remembrance

A taste of Blight’s usual incisive prose: “official triumphal narratives rooted in a brand of pickled patriotism designed to force the past to serve the present.” Pickled patriotism. newrepublic.com/article/1983...

Progressively getting situated in a new space. This gift from some students seemed appropriate to bring over on Wendell’s ninety-first birthday.

Though a few years removed, I’ve been haunted (in a good way) by memories of Easy Bistro’s “Ode to Peanuts.” Today, Broadbent hams helped me relive that experience.

Here we are: bringing up the rear #SHEAR2025

I love (read: laugh/hate/some such verb) seeing folks (both in & out of classroom spaces) passing off AI-generated ideas as their own believing no one can tell. I don’t begrudge them (this piece shares some of the reasons why) but I “love” it nonetheless. apple.news/AJiQDJ5H9QVO...

A good morning to return (once again) to •The Long-Legged House•

A case against regular cleanings? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/s...

Good friends make for good days

I just did so much damage. Didn’t need to see this.

Some sad confirmation from @bcgl.bsky.social while I was at UW last week—the National Digital Newspaper Program—which builds Chronicling America—has been shut down Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss

Pre-archives time spent writing on a manuscript purportedly arguing about race & early American evangelicalism while uncertain how these pages made it thru a survey course let alone to the desk of a major university press. Friends, given what I had to write, I did not do what the cup encouraged.

Sigh. Not surprising. But frustrating. And, well, disgusting. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/a...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration isn’t only about predicting your weather. For many Americans, it’s also about what sits on their plates. Or perhaps sat. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/c...

As I wait to learn what many friends have found out, namely, that already-awarded and appropriated funding is being disappeared , please let me remind you work of the @nehgov.bsky.social matters.

“[W]hen it works, it trains people to think critically, powerfully and unflinchingly.” Oh, that “we” would want it to work. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/university-defunding-trump-rufo.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

One way to spend a rainy day in March

“I’m a big believer in the humanities—provided they are taught well...rooting students in the best that’s been thought and written. It means academic rigor, it means the contestation of ideas, it means a spirit of inquiry, curiosity, questioning and skepticism.” 1/2

Thomas Merton’s extended discussion of propaganda in his 1966 •Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander• (of which this paragraph is a part) is so very good and, well, prescient.

“Trump likes and admires bad people because he is himself a bad person.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/least-now-we-know-truth-about-trump-and-vance/681872/

No, this is the most ashamed you've felt as an American *so far*.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Department of Education—where sadly too many folks would not be able to distinguish between learning and divisive ideologies or indoctrination if lives depended on it. And, well, they do.

As I reflect today that Dad passed away a year ago this afternoon, here’s hoping that Stephen Wilson Jr. is correct and that I’ll be able to say “Everything I am’s everything he was.” Check out the link shorturl.at/R2QbV and scroll down to see today’s thoughts and video.

Click here: shorturl.at/R2QbV and scroll down as modeled in this video to see today’s addition to my reflections on some of the ways that Leigh Bingham Nash and Stephen Wilson Jr. have helped make life (and grief) richer.

In which I reflect a little on the ways that Leigh Bingham Nash and Stephen Wilson Jr. have helped make life (and grief) richer. shorturl.at/R2QbV

Such a good time spent with a great group of people at the Berry Center last night, hearing from Jason Peters about some of the ways he’s labored to help students engage the values of work and place. And the virtue of carrying a pocketknife.

On April 10, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech for Spelman Colege’s Founders Day. As part of some work on my current project, I’ve read his words from that speech a few times in the last week.

Nearly situated for several months of good and variously productive (in all that word’s meanings) work #sabbaticalliving

Even a really hurried perusal of the fabulous digital map collection of the @johncarterbrownlibrary reveals more than a few sixteenth-century maps—even with sea monsters—referring to the Gulf of Mexico (variants of Golfo de Mexico and Mexicanus Sinus). But, sure, let’s simply make a change. 🤦‍♂️

It’s funny that after nearly forty years, this option right here is still the best way to engage unwelcome news. To be fair, though, it’s also the best way to engage welcome news.

Bill Mauldin on "Mississippi Justice," 12/16/1964.

With the news of UFOs flying around New Jersey, I can’t help but think of this from Abe Partridge. Seems maybe he was on to something. youtu.be/Ftp8vpLWq_0?...

Relishing the slow start that a snow day during finals week offers.

“Like him, she plays the English language like a melody. Her words are rhythmic, carefully chosen, precise and elegant. “ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/books/nikki-giovanni-appraisal.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Here's another of the very long threads I wrote-- this one over months in 2019-- that I was glad to port over from X/Twitter. #VastEarlyAmerica

I know. Those essays aren’t gonna comment on themselves before the end of the week, but, I mean, come on.

Rand Paul spent $50k in campaign donations for a luxury trip to Sweden and Denmark. We wouldn't know about this if it weren't for veteran investigative reporter Tom Loftus and the Kentucky Lantern. If you're not reading the Lantern, you should be. kentuckylantern.com/2024/12/03/u...

Guy comes home. One of the things he wants is chicken-fried steak sandwich. So, Turkey and Wolf, Dukes, Wickles Pickles, Moriarty Meats, Red Hog Butcher, and Treehouse Brewing help make it happen. Mercy.