Started two historical series that I've been meaning to try recently Bernard Cornwell SUCKS Patrick O'Brien writes masterpieces

Having finally read the thing entire, I don't get what the big deal was here (aside from the tedious Gen X things about wanting more sex scenes) It's a review of a movie, and reviews of movies are boring unless they're vitriolic pans. What did you want her to write?

Yankee Papist@yankeepapist.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm glad we all agree that Emily Wilson is annoying now, welcome to all the new haters

I'm sick to death of the unrealistic beauty standards foisted on us by TV, which is why Ross Douthat joining sixty minutes is so important

These people are simply not Americans. This is not how a free man behaves. These people are willing slaves to a man who would sell them out in an instant and spit on their wives and children if he thought he could make a buck from it. Disgusting, vile people, barely worthy to be called human.

I'm glad we all agree that Emily Wilson is annoying now, welcome to all the new haters

Find yourself someone who loves you as much as the city of Somerville, Massachusetts loves closing multiple major crosstown arteries during heavy commuting hours

So I spoke; but he answered me straightway saying, "Wackadoo, radiant Odysseus!"

We're not even getting any good satiric verse out of this imperial decline this sucks

the brown university AI scandal from a few weeks back has two groups of reactions that are engineered to drive me crazy There's a combination of AI-boosters and tender-headed Student Life types both, from their own priors, asking whether using chatgpt during your exam is "really cheating"

if I had a nickel for every expert in the first Origenist controversy working in my university fundraising office I would have two nickels, not a lot, weird twice, etc

We have to go back

Boston Cambridge Somerville Providence ...East Providence?

Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social · 3w ago

QUESTION: What are your FIVE favourite cities anywhere in the world? Bonus points for persuasive explanations why your choices are “right.” Mine (in no order) are: Paris Barcelona New York Montreal Vancouver

Do you think they call it the "Classical Learning Test" because the nearest analogue to what they're actually pretending to test for is "liberal education" but if they called it that they couldn't get buy in from rich right wing cranks and fake universities

writing a book is always an arrogant thing to do, but writing a book and then reading the audiobook yourself borders on insanity

Not a Mainer, not my business, but they should try running someone you want to have a beer with

Started reading the diaries of John Quincy Adams in earnest yesterday and they are a source of great joy, marred only by the fact that the library of America editor is evidently ignorant of Greek. ("αλληλομς"? Really?)

Having a country singer at the Boston pops feels like a betrayal

Look, who amongst us doesn't feel alienated by modernity? but learning decent latin, buying and reading old hard copy media, and getting into fountain or dip pens is a much less spiritually corrosive way to express it than attending boring liturgies led by schismatics

a thing I wonder about with the right wingers (a distinction without a nafka minna for sure) is what percentage of them mainly hate immigrants, gay people, etc in se and what percentage of them mainly hate educated urban liberals and want to spite them by attacking everything they seem to stand for

We had been in our new place less than 72 hours before being visited by the jehovah's witnesses

of course it doesn't crack the top 10 or even top 20 list, but one reason we need the annihilation of Republicanism is that we must be able to criticize our stupid, irrelevant, vain, entitled, pointless, dishonest, and generally-illiterate professoriate without being considered right-wing

The five texts necessary and sufficient to understand everything good about America are: The passage in New England’s First Fruits about Harvard College The Battle Hymn of the Republic Moby Dick The New Colossus Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell

the perfect Bluesky translation of the “Charlie Brown had hoes” tweet

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Saidiya Hartman said “critical fabulation” requires “Narrative restraint.” It’s not just “make stuff up.” Right there in “Venus in two acts” — restraint is “a requirement of this method” (p.12). Before you go all fabulating pls re-read the part about it being “critical.” Thx!!!

*carefully pronounces Detroit like introit*

Knicks being in the finals followed immediately by the World Cup is an unprecedented time for the guys in your life who like sports but also have a BlueSky account

it's a good idea but blue state governors are just as enamored of crushing faculty freedom and job security they just do it for different reasons

John Pfaff@johnpfaff.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It's absolutely infuriating that blue-state governors do not see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to launch their schools into the stratosphere. And I don't mean that in a greedy way. I mean that they could actively work to save US higher ed AND make their schools even better.

The ongoing rehabilitation of 4th edition is absurd and should be mocked at every turn. (Displaying the stupid covers of those stupid books helps.) The one good thing it did is get me back into AD&D2e after six years wasting time with 3.x

Alphastream@alphastream.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Happy 18th birthday to D&D 4E! On this day in 2008, this teenager set out to fix every mistake its parents made. The edition is getting more love than ever, inspiring games like the Draw Steel, Daggerheart, 13th Age 2E, and more!

You never have to hand it to the trump administration but including unitarians in this list is very funny

Leah McElrath@leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Freedom of religion? “This restructuring…has now excluded minority faith/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.”

I hope the ITALIANS know the curia will be speaking ENGLISH in 20 years because they’ve killed latin

I know everyone else likes him now but the same is true if your church has, say, used a particular dead language for its bureaucratic paperwork for the over a thousand years and you decide to change it

Yankee Papist@yankeepapist.bsky.social · 2mo ago

one thing I think is that if your family has run a restaurant for 107 years and you decide to close it you should die