Happy birthday to me.

Hwæt! A new edition of the Electronic Beowulf has been released by Kevin Kiernan (University of Kentucky). You can explore it here: ebeowulf.uky.edu Beowulf is one of our greatest literary treasures, and the unique manuscript is held at the British Library.

Happy "There Will Come Soft Rains" Day! Ray Bradbury's greatest short story takes place on August 4, 2026 (in most editions; see alt text). If you haven't seen it, you must watch this incredibly disturbing animated Soviet version (Uzbekfilm, 1984.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oxP...

The perfect movie doesn't exi- Sorry, forget what I was saying. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FqC...

WICKER | Official Trailer | 2026 [HD]

YouTube video by Roadshow Films

youtube.com

I once gave my (young adult) daughter some important but difficult-to-hear life lessons. I now find myself in a parallel situation, and she said, "You know, you once told me [life lessons]," and BOY DO I NOT LIKE THIS ONE LITTLE BIT.

Hey @benzimmer.bsky.social here's a job for you!

Avery Pattullo@luciapattullo.bsky.social · 5d ago

Now I'm wondering whether anyone has ever made an International Phonetic Alphabet crossword. It would take care of the all diacritic/accent mark issues, but I imagine you'd have people coming at you with dialectal difference pitchforks, particularly for vowels (e.g., the /pɛn/ - /pIn/ divide)

Was just realizing how many books by my friends I currently have on my desk! Yay Bluesky! @moudhy.bsky.social @norsebysw.bsky.social @dannybate.com @susiedentwords.bsky.social (N.B. I've only met one of these in person, and haven't even corresponded with others. Nonetheless they're my friends.)

Hey! If you were published at Daily Science Fiction, be aware that a site called Science Fiction Weekly has stolen the entire story database & posted it on their site. All of my DSF stories are there without my permission. sciencefictionweekly.com

That thing where I feel old when I encounter someone who has never written a physical check, but now it's even worse because that person is 40 YEARS OLD.

Today's dull #fandom antedating for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "wkf", for "well-known fan" (i.e. a moderately but not extremely prominent fan). Only a few months earlier in 1953, but also added a bracketed 1942 for "w.k. fan". sfdictionary.com/view/2628/wkf

Haley Stevens's accent has people talking. Is it really a Michigan accent? (spoiler: yes. It really is - tho see the note below) I had fun talking with the New York Times about one of my very specific niches of expertise (Michigan English). www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

How Haley Stevens’s Accent Became a Flashpoint in Michigan’s Senate Race (Gift Article)

How the politics of raised a’s and disappearing g’s briefly came to dominate the Michigan Senate race.

nytimes.com

my email is tomtomorrow at gmail and I would be delighted to hear from an interested publisher.

If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...

The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 2w ago

The idea that we have a special duty to prevent the death of languages is instantly compelling to anyone who loves languages. But is it true? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I love how small NYC is, that I can be out for dinner in Boerum Hill and randomly run into two of my favorite people, @katesloan.com and @paxwords.bsky.social. Nothing beats encounters like this.

Big antedates for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction for Tucker-related terms, i.e. putting names of real people into your novel (hi @scalzi.com!). -ization '70→61 -ize 73→63 -ized 81→64 sfdictionary.com/view/3033/tu... sfdictionary.com/view/1436/tu... sfdictionary.com/view/3034/tu...

Scan _that_, AI bros!

Ada Palmer@adapalmer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Historian friend was reading a civil war era letter in an archive, the letter said “In this envelope I include my smallpox scabs” and sure enough there they were. Had to call CDC for a hazmat team.

The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae has a post open for a classicist (preferably with doctorate, lexicographical experience an advantage): job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/6...

Fuckin' AI and Republicans, man. When I was young, vegetables were cheap and safe, and writers and editors were important and valued. Now letters are free and tomatoes are a fortune.

😆

Cool site archiving 300 years of ASCII-like text art, i.e. pictures made out of letterpress type forms / ornaments / rule. garden-of-flowers.heikkilotvonen.com?essay

I have a long exchange with @stoya.bsky.social in @slate.com discussing the meaning and history of "kink": slate.com/advice/2026/...

My Boyfriend Told Me to Say Something New in Bed. His Reaction Really Surprised Both of Us.

Well, that's confusing.

slate.com

Particularly nice antedating today for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "time opera", an extravagantly dramatic story based on time travel, after "space opera" (itself after "horse opera"), from 1953 to 1948. sfdictionary.com/view/2708/ti...

Today's unbelievably trivial antedating for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "thud and blunder", referring to violent adventure stories, from April to February 1940. (There's a non-SFnal 1918 in there too.) sfdictionary.com/view/1477/th...

I enjoyed speaking with Zach Hefland at the New Yorker about the collective plural! www.newyorker.com/sports/world...

British Grammar Invades the American World Cup

The World Cup has brought Britishisms to U.S. soccer coverage. “Linguistically, as on the pitch, the Americans can often be found ball-chasing,” Zach Helfand writes.

newyorker.com

We don't have that many terms used _in_ fantasy fiction, so today's new Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction entry is a good one: "sellsword". Popularized by Gardner Fox; quotes from Gary Gygax, Lin Carter, GRRM of course, &c. sfdictionary.com/view/3164/se...

In my experience, scholars of a particular historical period are the LEAST uptight about "accuracy" in fictional representations of their period, which is why, as a medievalist, I can assure you that A Knight's Tale is the greatest movie set in medieval England that has ever been made.

Major antedatings for some genre abbreviations for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "SF/F" (science fiction / fantasy) from 1981 to 1954 (as "SF-F"), 1963 (as "SF/F") "SF/F/H" (… #horror) from 1979 to 1973 ("SF, F, & H") sfdictionary.com/view/2352/sff sfdictionary.com/view/359/sffh

Important genre antedating for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "science fantasy" in the sense 'genre combining SF & fantasy'. From 1948 to 1940, in reference to C.A. Smith (abt. his Weird Tales stories, which are not classic SF, thus prob this sense). sfdictionary.com/view/1618/sc...

I offer a substack to note the latest update (#39) of GDoS. The photo is the late Gary Simes, whose unfinished dictionary was placed at my disposal. Over a year on, I have reached its end. From there and elsewhere I offer the usual lists of new terms and predates. open.substack.com/pub/jonathon...

GDoS Upgrade #39

Up in the Nosebleeds

open.substack.com

This is _crazy_