Sometimes, Bluesky is just absolutely amazing.

Pale Arms@palearms.bsky.social · 3d ago

That guitar is Gentry herself, cut live with the vocal before Capitol had Jimmie Haskell add the strings, which is why they sound like weather moving in behind the table rather than a band. The song never says what went off the bridge, and the arrangement is just as good at withholding.

Went down a rabbit hole on this song that I knew from when I was a kid in the 70s. What a heck of a song. Not just the storytelling, the minimal use of the main guitar. If you haven't heard in a while, take a minute. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlPN...

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe (Lyrics)

YouTube video by WeAreThe60s

youtube.com

Got an article accepted, and the only requested revision was the correction of a single item in the works cited. Been doing this stuff for almost 40 years, and if I'm lucky I'll do it for 10 or 20 more. Never experienced that, and probably never will again.

Don't post about pottery much, but I like to make bowls from actual elephant ear leaves I pull from the garden. Press them into the clay, trim around them. Easy to make, but they always come out nice.

We have this big box of tissues, and I know this is not the actual pronunciation or of course origin in the French, but we can't stop calling them "mouse choirs."

I'm not sure this is my smartest take on deconstruction (does it make sense?), but I appreciate students paying enough attention to write it down.

Teaching the American lit survey. We have noticed a pattern in the short stories, so have started a tracker:

I love to post current news for students in my Am lit survey to signal the internet has opinions about our readings. Got a new one for when I teach Ishmael Reed as (adjacent to) the Black Arts Movement. What could be more Ishmael Reed than hating Hamilton? www.newsweek.com/toni-morriso...

Toni Morrison Funded Anti-Hamilton Play Because She Hated Musical So Much

Writer Ishmael Reed has been one of Hamilton's most ardent critics and wrote a play called "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda" in 2019.

newsweek.com

I didn't know I had a Chicken Parmigiana deficiency, but we went out for Italian, and now I'm on the mend.

Good discussion in my theory class, where we're wrapping up early theorizing with some TS Eliot. His theory that poetry just evolves impersonally, the poet is just a "catalyst," lead to a fun comparison: does Eliot just want ChatGPT to write his poetry?

House full of awesome young people: folks who play D&D with the kid, also an undergrad working on a quilt with my wife. Making a batch of mac and cheese for a communal meal, and the last step involves some cheddar that, once I dumped it in, turned out to be moldy. Excuse my language, by dag nabbit

@gruber.foo Reading you on anti-AI stuff on Bluesky. You realize teachers/profs/writers are over-represented on Bluesky. For us, AI is really just a nuisance--a tax on our time. I realize other fields benefit more. It's like someone inventing a technology to turn Helvetica into Arial. You'd gripe.

Last semester in my Am lit survey (Spring 2026), I had a student inspired by our readings to get a tattoo. This semester (with her permission) I'm sharing the pic and asking students to guess what reading prompted it. A fun easter egg for the semester. Going to buy a candy bar for who guesses first.

Lifetime achievement unlocked. Reader, I did in fact make it to a gas station.

Had an undergrad student publish his first (I think) article. He's heading off to Oxford for grad school this fall. What a great feeling. There's a guy who's going to make his mark. press-start.gla.ac.uk/press-start/...

Trying to get an article out to a journal, and there's 10 pages of submission guidelines, including all kinds of style minutiae. *Please* don't do this. I'm glad to adapt the article if you want to publish it, but don't make me spend days changing stuff before you even send it out for peer review.

Bearded dude with a guitar playing covers in a beach bar last night: Beatles, Neil Diamond, etc. Then, Pink Pony Club.

In Virginia Beach for a family vacation, and googled to see if we could find music for after dinner. Just someone playing covers or such while we had a drink. Discovered Wilco is playing two blocks away tonight. We must have rescued a Genie or something.

This is easily the best 4th of July thing I've read. So inspiring.

Prof. Nicole Holliday@mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is the best of who we are and what we represent. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

My wife's birthday was Wednesday, and we've been joking that Thursday was 90% her birthday, etc. Today she's down to 70% her birthday. Neither of us have any idea what that means. She gets to call the shots, but just not so much?

As a favorite Simon and Garfunkel song this is a bit of a bank-shot, but it's a lovely meditation on the country, mixing optimism and sadness. Recommended for your July 4 listening. music.apple.com/us/album/ame...

America by Simon & Garfunkel on Apple Music

Song · 1968 · Duration 3:35

music.apple.com

Found a dog wondering around the neighborhood, wrangled him, found his tag, called his owner and gave him water and pets while we kept him contained until the owner could pick him up. Good deed for the day achieved. Now we can be terrible people the rest of the day.

I am beloved by dogs and children. Adults, not so much.

My wife and I are both 59 this year, and naturally you start thinking about the end of careers. I remark to her that most academics don’t “run through the tape” but gradually draw back in their last few years, taking on fewer responsibilities. She suggests: don’t burn out, but fade away.

Big decision tonight: Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein? Decided to go with the latter, but I'm sure we'll get to the other this week.

Tried two new recipes yesterday on my family: A NYT French bistro steak recipe, and Pommes Anna. Steak was kinda a bust: not nearly as good as our standard stovetop steak. Pommes was promising, but didn't quite turn out right. I'll try again. Family is a sport for putting up with these experiments.

"Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows." ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH 69% VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 68% www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...

Filling out a Concur expense report. Talk about death by a thousand cuts.

Is it too much to ask that all I want for Father's Day is that promised sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League?

Blanching garden tomatoes to remove their skins before I make a recipe from the great *Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking*. Feeling very virtuous, and also kinda old-timey.