Working on a reported piece, need to know. How long after a book deal happens is it posted on Publishers Marketplace? Is the date posted the date of the deal or the date of the posting?

I definitely feel safer now.

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · last wk.

Schools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shooters The plastic, non-lethal aircraft, which can smash windows and ram attackers will be at the ready at certain schools in Colorado, Florida and Georgia www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

A little too on the nose! 😂

Just found out about Telegonus. Oof.

*Bluey* would be much more realistic if Bluey and Bingo spent all day on the couch watching their in-world version of *Bluey* on their individual iPads.

Congratulations to Professor Barry Pearson on the release of “Classic Blues” from Smithsonian Folkways! This collection brings together legendary blues artists to celebrate the rich legacy and enduring influence of the blues. The collection also features extensive liner notes by Pearson.

Think I’m gonna have to write a work of autofiction about being trapped at Denver International Airport for seven hours with my family! 🫣

Narrator: It was not a real note.

The logline of my guaranteed-to-be-bestselling high-concept alternate history novel.

francisco varela fan club@paleopragmatist.bsky.social · 2mo ago

this one occasionally crosses my mind and every time it gets me just as good

I, too, have long lamented that modern physics departments have been dominated by pernicious relativists. Will the Provost finally hear my pleas?

You really must consider my sweeping conclusions very carefully. No, you don’t need to see any of the evidence I used to arrive at my sweeping conclusions. Also: You are a relativist.

Somehow I had missed—or repressed my knowledge of—the Peter David–Todd McFarlane ComicFest debate.

Never once questioned.

Since the dawn of time, the corrupt postmodernism youth of Athens have put Socrates to death, again and again. Oh wait, n/m. Onward!

Also, using Zotero takes 3x as long as typing them by hand because I’m constantly using new sources that have crappy/not-quite-right metadata.

Matthew Kirschenbaum@mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I am such a troglodyte, and it has nothing to do with AI. It has mostly to do with laziness, which I know is perverse, but I’ve never been able to be arsed to put all the time in up front, front loading my reference library. A secondary reason is I like the discipline of it. 🤷‍♂️

I never really believed in mimetic desire, but my 3yo is trying earnestly to convince me it really is at the root of all human motivation.

Sure, why not, instead of writing this essay why don’t I spend hours tweaking my CSS to make my markdown editor look exactly like a column of New Yorker type?

A party primer…

Am reminded that Bay Area summers are, fairly literally, bone-chilling.

Making progress.

I’ll just swap out the existing AI policy on my syllabus and refer students to this.

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When your best friend texts you “wake up, new encyclical dropped.

Dr. No is a wacky novel.

I have never really worried about giving spoiler warnings in criticism before, but writing this essay about James, I wonder if I should.

Are there any nationally representative surveys re: which books Americans have actually read? I’ve found a YouGov survey indicating how many people have, e.g., *heard of* The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But does anyone know how many people have actually *read* it?

The Fort Dupont Ice Arena reno cost $39 million and it’s basically completely empty. Also it’s awesome.

I seem not to own medium-sized books.

Not all the news in DC is bad.

The cops are investigating.

Thanks to all our authors from April: Elaine Wik, Robab Vaziri, @johncke.bsky.social , Kim Moody, and @lkonstan.bsky.social . Links to all of these pieces in the thread.

Ah yes, content directly pandering to me

@journalspectre.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Orc Marxism" by @lkonstan.bsky.social is a meditation on the significance of the orc as a literary figure, and an allegory for the masses. Check out The Mismeasure of Orcs by @roberttally.bsky.social out now with @mcfarland.bsky.social press. spectrejournal.com/orc-marxism/