Frank Herbert: I've told you 100 times Herbert: if only you'd listened to me about having a butlerian jihad and also finding the guiding light of islam, then maybe none of this would have happened King: wait how is islam related to this? Herbert: inshallah

That being said, what is happening to DC now is a travesty. My mom was born in Romania, and she said it reminds her of Bucharest under Ceaușescu. We need to do so much more than de-Trumpify the Mall and get rid of the National Guard. I love DC, but Statehood is the only way it can truly thrive.

DC gets a bad rap from... well, everyone. But this is a real-ass city with culture and community that are worth celebrating. I met my wife, lifelong friends, and all sorts of rad people here. My career blossomed. Once I factor in free museums and bike lanes, I can't imagine living anywhere else.

Too often, we neglect the subtleties of Homer's original text. For instance, this famous passage: Odysseus is coming And everybody's jumping His wife has many suitors His son, a godly tutor His giant horse is wooden His guilt is a great burden So if you like to party He'll make you a dead body

Just canceled my DashPass and sent this email to DoorDash. I encourage you to do the same if you support D.C. home rule. press@doordash.com and ir@doordash.com

The arguments against language reclamation haven't changed much in the nearly 20 years I've been working in this field: "It costs too much." "People are choosing to abandon their languages, so let them." "They have no practical use." "It's just sentimental nostalgia." Fuck All That, a thread:

Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die

When cultural preservation comes at the expense of speakers’ decisions, sometimes it's O.K. to let a language die.

newyorker.com

Some of these deaths were caused by the thousands of paramilitary goons zooming around our streets doing Kavanaugh stops. Funny how Trump's ~10,000 National Guard and federal LEOs aren't actually making our streets safer

Road deaths up sharply in the nation’s capital, despite goal of reaching zero

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser pledged to eliminate traffic deaths in the city. More than a decade later, they still haven’t gone down.

washingtonpost.com

I think The Odyssey should have had a culturally appropriate cast IE all Greek IE every character played by Jason Mantzoukas.

The decision about whether out-of-state National Guard troops remain deployed here does not actually belong to DOD, it belongs to the governors who deployed their troops here. Tell every governor to recall their troops: freedcproject.org/guard

National Guard Out Now — Free DC

freedcproject.org

Sanho Tree@sanho.bsky.social · 3w ago

Taxpayers are paying $1.6 million per day for a pointless military occupation of the nation’s capital. “The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed Wednesday the National Guard will remain deployed in Washington, D.C., through Inauguration Day 2029.”

The 13th annual international Gender Census 2026 is now open until at least 13th August 2026! survey.gendercensus.com It's for anyone whose gender (or lack thereof) isn't described by the M/F binary. It's short and easy, and results are useful in academia, business and self-advocacy. #LGBTQ

Goffman GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS is essentially one long shitpost, change my mind

Went to @glenstonemuseum.bsky.social and they have @jennyholzer.bsky.social temporary tattoos in the gift shop. If I were going to get a permanent one, which is best? A SINGLE EVENT CAN HAVE INFINITELY MANY INTERPRETATIONS maybe?

Really enjoying the Telemundo commentator who calls it the "selec[θ]ión española" #linguistics

Five living authors that you've read five books by each: Akwaeke Emezi Ben Hatke Stephen King R. F. Kuang Ann Leckie

Whitney Gegg-Harrison (she/they)@writerethink.bsky.social · 4w ago

Five living authors that you’ve read five books by each: Lois McMaster Bujold Becky Chambers NK Jemison Jo Walton John Scalzi

I told you guys

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 4w ago

Male brains and female brains are all just human brains.

It's that time again! #pridereads 1. Felicia Davin THE SCANDALOUS LETTERS OF V AND J, which came recommended by @gretchenmcculloch.com. I recently read LES MISERABLES and it was fun to read a T4T genderfluid epistolary romance set in the same time and place

HELLO ACADEMICS INTERESTED IN DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION PLEASE TAKE FIVE MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS SURVEY. :) It's IRB approved and everything!

Dr. Liz Norell@liznorell.bsky.social · last mo.

Faculty: Help us build a wish list for accommodation requests! We invite instructors to share perceptions of disability support services for students in #HigherEd. Take a short survey (IRB approved) here. Questions? Get in touch! Corrected link: uofmississippi.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

But there is a real reluctance to just speak up and present yourself as an authority, when you ARE an actual authority. And it felt weird that I sort of had to present my bona fides to be taken seriously. Anyway, it turned out fun and I was glad I spoke up. But the kicker is…

lol @ DC Mayor being listed as a "state" office

Philip Bump@pbump.com · 2mo ago

Tried to figure out which elected officials in the U.S. have the largest constituencies. (Inspired by a @taniel.bsky.social post!) www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar...

I went to Harvard ... daily, when I worked in the bookstore receiving room

your friend oriana@schwindter.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"we premiered at cannes" no you paid to have your short film screened at a venue within the city limits of cannes

I was thinking about ranking Patterson second (after Silverman). This lost him my vote

Martin Austermuhle@maustermuhle.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Interim At-Large CM Doni Crawford and At-Large candidate Jacques Patterson are forming a RCV alliance, asking their supporters to rank the other candidate second. It's meant to fight Elissa Silverman, also running. “D.C. does not need to go backwards to fix what’s broken,” says Crawford.

You also need to read this fanfiction of The Snake Fight Portion of Your Thesis Defense if you are or preferably were someone who exchanges academic emails

The statement by students, also written out in the alt text

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

hearing that Mayor Bowser was booed at Howard commencement. Saw a flyer on FB purportedly from Howard organizers cutting her support for youth curfews in the city, support from AIPAC, and capitulation to Trump as reasons for the protest

This thread uses Bourdieu, feminism and political economy, and makes the case that the Met Gala is Good, Actually while acknowledging that, empirically, it sadly seems not to be Art 🔥

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3mo ago

When I see a beautiful painting, even if it's in someone's home, my first thought is not "why is this person showing off?" Even if that person bought the painting and hung it on their wall, I think the artist first. What was their intention? How is their skill? What is the meaning?

If the Klein is Naomi Then carry on, homie If the Klein is Ezra Ignore what he says, brah

lauren@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 7mo ago

good piece with an incidental insanely brutal takedown of klein

People in DC and people all over this country know the danger guns pose to our lives. That's why DC has strong laws on guns. That's why we need national action on gun control. And it's why this regime needs to stop attacking and attempting to undo DC's local laws on gun safety.

Italo Calvino (If on a winter's night a traveler) and Georges Perec (Life, a user's manual) taking the Oulipo project beyond form and into the realm of meaning

Megan L. Cook@meganlcook.bsky.social · 4mo ago

In honor of me reading all of these thesis proposals, what was *your* senior thesis about?

This is why I recruit business majors to take intro to cultural anthropology

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement

I wrote a piece on Substack about the closing of Hampshire College. Such a sad end of an era. open.substack.com/pub/susandbl...

On Hearing of Hampshire College’s Closing

….End of a Hopeful Progressive Era?

open.substack.com