DoctorSyntax
@doctorsyntax.bsky.social
Alter ego of Peter Ginna. Editor, writer, & occasional blogger on books & publishing. Former editor & publisher at several houses. Author of WHAT EDITORS DO: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing. Website: peterginna.com
This is the most loser-coded image imaginable, big "villains in an '80s breakdancing movie" energy
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 14h agoJD Vance: "We don't want the next administration, whoever -- god forbid you're gonna have President El-Sayed in three years ... "
We are seeing an increased ICE presence in NYC - making it imperative that NYers KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. I wrote a comic with @mayor.nyc.gov @nycimmigrants.bsky.social @davidhahn.bsky.social @elllewrightart.bsky.social @tayloresposito.bsky.social to do that! DOWNLOAD: www.weteachnyc.org/resources/co...
Oscar Hammerstein had a terrific 1943, with Oklahoma! opening in March and Carmen Jones opening in December. Finding himself the toast of Broadway again after a long string of failures, he took out a self-deprecating ad in the January 5, 1944 issue of Variety listing his flops. An absolute legend.
Giant thermometer poster like outside the church during fund drive: IS IT A WAR YET?
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoSen. Rand Paul: "I've had the debate with this administration ... they told me this isn't a war. I said, why isn't it a war? They said, 'Well, a constitutional war has to have significant casualties' ... initiation or declaration of war is *before* the casualties."
Today’s must-read if you love literature, #publishing, archives, Mark #Twain, or hippies. Brought a literal tear to my eye #writing #editing 🗃️
Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · 4d agoSo, I really hope I get to tell this story in longer form in the near future, but it it’s burning a hole inside me. Most of it comes from an interview with Bob Hirst this weekend. Bob has been Exec Editor of the Mark Twain Project for 47 years, before which he was part of its staff for ~15. 1/16
RFK told Dana Bash that Lyme disease “almost certainly” came from gain of function research. Which is utterly false. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
Lyme Disease Did Not Come From a Secret Military Lab, Contrary to FDA Chief's Claim
Bacterium that causes it circulated long before the lab opened, decades of evidence show
medpagetoday.com
I love Talarico and hope he wins. But he’s already raised $70M On the flipside, control of critical state legislatures will come down to seats where candidates raise 0.1% of that. I’ve researched the highest leverage swing district candidates you should donate to secure.actblue.com/donate/donat...
Donate to the candidates on the front lines of the fight against MAGA gerrymandering
These are anti-MAGA state candidates in *extremely* close races
secure.actblue.com
The only Odyssey hot take you absolutely need to read is Lord Dunsany's.
![THE RAFT-BUILDERS
[by Lord Dunsany]
All we who write put me in mind of sailors hastily making rafts upon doomed ships.
When we break up under the heavy years and go down into eternity with all that is ours our thoughts like small lost rafts float on awhile upon Oblivion's sea. They will not carry much over those tides, our names and a phrase or two and little else.
They that write as a trade to please the whim of the day, they are like sailors that work at the rafts only to warm their hands and to distract their thoughts from their certain doom; their rafts go all to pieces before the ship breaks up.
See now Oblivion shimmering all around us, its very tranquility deadlier than tempest. How little all our keels have troubled it. Time in its deeps swims like a monstrous whale; and, like a whale, feeds on the littlest things—small tunes and little unskilled songs of the olden, golden evenings—and anon turneth whale-like to overthrow whole ships.
See now the wreckage of Babylon floating idly, and something there that once was Nineveh; already their kings and queens are in the deeps among the weedy masses of old centuries that hide the sodden bulk of sunken Tyre and make a darkness round Persepolis.
For the rest I dimly see the forms of foundered ships on the sea-floor strewn with crowns.
Our ships were all unseaworthy from the first.
There goes the raft that Homer made for Helen.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:utdci2ewhpqzfl6uukt4kdkc/bafkreifikhyonuxtvq335lsvoml4gbqzng6yxvposhuz6a7i7rae5nz3zy)
Knock me over with a feather Charges Dropped in Reflecting Pool Case as Prosecutors Say Work Was ‘Botched’ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
Charges Dropped Against Ex-Olympian David Hearn Accused of Damaging Reflecting Pool
A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false.
nytimes.com
Important post from @janefriedman.com on guideline changes at the Association of American Literary Agents, blurring conflict of interest guidelines & allowing agents to make money from writers in more ways beside sales commissions #writing #editing #publishing janefriedman.com/agent-busine...
Agent Business Models May Be Shifting: What I Fear Will Happen | Jane Friedman
When the new AALA Canon of Ethics goes into effect, authors must be more diligent and sharp in evaluating who they partner with.
janefriedman.com
I spoke with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour about the disastrous changes to historic preservation rules, and the President's assault on the Smithsonian. There's a connection, of course. www.pbs.org/video/target...
PBS News Hour | Federal board votes to weaken historic site protections | Season 2026
Board packed with Trump allies votes to weaken protections for historic sites
pbs.org
thinking of signing up for Plato's Cave Premium so I can watch the shadows on the walls with no ads
What destroyed the trust of the American people in government was mfs like this guy and his orange leader, who made politics out of public health in the most cynical way possible. Of all the disgusting things Trump & co have done, I believe this is the greatest crime, with the most lasting damage.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.Sen. Roger Marshall: "Who didn't have a friend who took this vaccine and had some time of complication? A stroke, a blood clot, a young man getting some type of heart inflammation. That's what destroyed the trust in the American people for our government."
This is a good time to watch Matewan. It’s one of my favorite labor films of all time — a John Sayles classic. My late friend Haskell Wexler received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography for his camera work in this film.
Siskel & Ebert / Matewan / 1987
YouTube video by HazBeenEdits
youtu.be
Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · last mo.#OtD 1 Jul 1920 members of the @MineWorkers went on strike in Mingo County, West Virginia. Over the next 13 months, a virtual war existed in the county. Here is our podcast episode on the history of the West Virginia "mine wars": workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e57-...
"Feels Like Rain" (1988) - John Hiatt. Performed by Buddy Guy (featuring Bonnie Raitt) in 1993. #coffeebreak 🎶🎧 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY0s...
Feels like rain - Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy
YouTube video by whaton2earth
youtube.com
My kid works at a library and found this note sticking out of a book. Dear Scarlett's parents, good job raising a rockstar. 😁
"Guilty pleasure" presumes I feel any guilt about it.
The collective everyonehateselon_ made this in London, UK. 👾😆
I am agnostic on both CN and EW,saw The Odyssey and enjoyed it a lot, and 100% agree with the below. I’ve seen many of her criticisms in other reviews, and she made other smart points some reviewers didn’t
will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · last wk.look i haven’t seen the odyssey yet, but i will see it and honestly expect to enjoy it, because i am cringe enough to enjoy CN films. and i also enjoyed reading wilson’s review and just don’t get what the big deal is. criticism is allowed to be critical and as she notes it’s hardly punching down
Ok Hollywood, these are our terms. You will deliver one hundred billion dollars to a designated location in unmarked bills or our professor keeps reviewing your films
"Do the thing you can do instead of beating yourself up over not doing the thing you're not doing" is honestly life-changing, even life-saving, advice.
Leiracal@leiracal.bsky.social · 12mo agoThis concept was introduced to me as "run the dishwasher twice" and was an important part of my executive functioning recovery as well as my path to self-acceptance.
Years ago I ran across this line from G.K. Chesterton and it has lived on my mental bulletin board ever since: “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”
Angus Johnston@angus.bsky.social · 2w ago"Do the thing you can do instead of beating yourself up over not doing the thing you're not doing" is honestly life-changing, even life-saving, advice.
