I strongly disapprove of the decision to have an extremely loud rock band play in the middle of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on a Sunday afternoon #getoffmylawn

The two most satisfying moments so far on my trip home to Delaware: --Revealing to my high school friend that not everyone calls it "water ice" --Explaining to my Ohio children what scrapple is

I also did not want to cut my children’s sandwiches into star shapes, a problem for which there was an extremely straightforward solution

Rob Larson@ironicprofessor.bsky.social · 3w ago

Max three hours! Prioritize people!

I have definitely noticed an uptick in deep backlist sales from the OSU Press list. It's not the perpetual bestsellers but one-offs from decades ago that even I, after seven years at the press, have barely heard of. www.404media.co/ai-companies...

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

404media.co

Original artwork available via everydayoriginal.com. Pachycephalosaurus Brown and graphite pencils on Hand Book Journal Company sketchbook paper, approximately 207 x 130 mm. Another small page of studies from c.2018. As with others from then, I would do things a little differently now. 1/2

I am so fucking tired of creating accounts

Convalescing from toe surgery (it's a thing) and I'm so glad I stumbled across this documentary. I just wish it was more than 20 minutes long. vimeo.com/1197413135

The Memories of Others: Akihiko Okamura's Ireland

A short documentary film uncovering Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura’s extraordinary work in Ireland during the Troubles, and the artistic and emotional impact of its recent rediscovery. After a ...

vimeo.com

My favorite part of the print @theonion.com is "passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood"

HyperEssays has had full-text search of John Florio’s and my own ongoing translation of the Essays (w/ Cotton/Hazlitt’s as a placeholder) for a while. Today I’m happy to announce that the original Middle French text is also searchable on the site. 🥳 hyperessays.net

HyperEssays

HyperEssays is a project to create a modern and accessible online edition of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne.

hyperessays.net

Want to know more about the US at 250? ReadUP! Here are some suggestions from university presses & their expert authors, reflecting on the American experiment from the Founding to today: https://bit.ly/4xQZlFq

Annual Report cover Minneapolis Public Library 1966 Images: Hennepin County Library Organizational Records Collection; digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/coll...

I just heard Dan ask our child, "Should we listen to Charles Mingus or Charles Mingus?" Say what you will about Dan, when he finds something he likes sticks with it.

Dan Gearino@dangearino.bsky.social · last mo.

Listening to Mingus’ Changes Two and thinking I may like it more than Changes One. Is this a cry for help? I feel like Two is more of a “listen to the whole thing” record while One is mainly about enjoying “Sue’s Changes.” m.youtube.com/playlist?lis... #jazzsky

This is an excuse to repost my favorite live video of Sue’s Changes, from Montreux. This performance basically contains all the things in life. m.youtube.com/watch?v=cklE...

Charles Mingus - Montreux 19750725 (3/5) Sue's Changes

YouTube video by oct opus

m.youtube.com

NEW: The Water Defenders, the award-winning book on the historic 2017 metals mining ban in El Salvador, is now available as a beautiful graphic novel. “If you’re in need of some inspiration... look no further than this crucial and absorbing account." Preorder now: ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

@ruthbenghiat.bsky.social just interviewed this book's authors! Ordinary people CAN stop corporate greed! The Water Defenders How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed @johnelkington.bsky.social @rbreich.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed

The graphic adaptation of the acclaimed story of El Salvador’s grassroots environmental and human rights victory over a multinational mining corporation.

ohiostatepress.org

We chatted with NiemanLab about the Porter Square Review of Books!!

Book reviews are an endangered species. So this independent bookstore decided to start publishing its own.

“We’re not just going to complain about it!”

niemanlab.org

It's that time again. I'm really, really excited about these books. Some highlights in comments. Email me OSUP_publicity@osu.edu for review copies! bit.ly/fall-26-s

The Ohio State University Press: Fall 2026 Catalog

The Fall 2026 catalog of the Ohio State University Press.

bit.ly

I am incredibly honored and excited that my story won the Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize judged by Jemimah Wei. Enormous thanks to @fracturedlit.bsky.social, @tommydeanwriter.bsky.social and @jemmawei.bsky.social

I officially entered my tribute band era last night. Dead Letter Office was fantastic, as was being surrounded by joyous sweaty co-fans swapping stories of their first shows and favorite songs. @remhq.bsky.social

Thank you to @jessiegaynor.bsky.social at @literaryhub.bsky.social for giving SCRAP THEORY a boost! lithub.com/sneaking-the...

“Sneaking the Scraps Out the Back Door.” On Black Feminist Traditions of Memory Keeping

There is already a Black feminist tradition of using the arts as historical preservation. A dynamic sampling of contemporary literature and art created by Black women considers the forms of poetry,…

lithub.com

Jamelle Bouie: The cruelty is still the point of the Trump regime. “This isn’t a border security policy. It’s cruelty as governance — directed at people this administration has decided don’t deserve dignity.” [youtube.com]

The Cruelty is Still the Point

Hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall in New Jersey are on hunger strike. They're being forced to work without conviction, beaten, denied medical care, and served maggot-filled food. The Secretary of Homeland Security says they're "meeting the caloric standard." This isn't a border security policy.

youtube.com

Homeland Security killing endangered species.

Los Angeles Times@latimes.com · 2mo ago

A wildlife biologist discovered a decomposing Peninsular bighorn sheep that was embedded in bladed wire installed in Imperial County’s Jacumba Wilderness.

AMAZING NEWS!!! So excited to announce that my hybrid essay collection THE LUNATICS’ BALL is the runner-up for the Gournay Prize and will be published in the 21st Century Essay series by Mad Creek Books (the literary imprint of Ohio University Press) in 2027. My dream publisher!

"Not one, but two David-vs-Goliath victories." Human rights advocates extraordinaire Robin Broad & John Cavanagh, authors of THE WATER DEFENDERS, talk with @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social about why this story of grassroots activism is so instructive for the current moment. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUJ4...

Lucid Q&A May 22 clip: Lessons in Resistance from graphic version of "The Water Defenders"

YouTube video by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

youtube.com

Welp there’s no unseeing this

There was a time, not long ago, when state policies helped to make the crucial first steps of deploying renewable energy. I spoke with @joshuabasseches.bsky.social about his new book: insideclimatenews.org/news/2805202...

How Utility Companies and States Shaped America’s Clean Energy Transition - Inside Climate News

A new book examines “renewable portfolio standard” laws and the ways utilities drove the bus.

insideclimatenews.org

Looking for new avant-garde theatre? Jake the Cat is performing American dramatist Edward Albee's seminal one-cat play Box at this year's Edinburgh fringe. It's a one-cat show for Jake, and the cat he's performing to is his big brother Joe. Aug 2nd to 25th, Tickets £9, concs £6, 7.30pm, no comps.

i was such an avid reader of stuff i did not even get CLOSE to understanding as a kid and all it did was make me read more, and ask more questions about the world. there's a concerted effort from almost every consolidated power on this planet to make people less curious!!!!

Luke O'Neil@lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Please do not say the sentence "kids don't want to feel the adult behind the book" but also yes they fucking do. One of the best parts of being a kid is reading a book that is just out of your grasp of maturity. Feeling like you're getting an early preview of the world.

This senior living activity schedule took an unexpected turn

Bluesky can be annoying for various reasons but it's also the only social-media platform I look at regularly that isn't an exploded septic tank of LLM-generated word diarrhea