Garlic cloves and bread from a fresco originally from Herculaneum and now at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN), Italy. Photo by Sophie Hay

Happy National Garlic 🧄 Day! Greeks & Romans loved garlic—but Mesopotamians loved it 1000s of years before them. The Greek ἄγλις (Latin alium) is an Akkadian loan word. At Pompeii, there was even a garlic seller (aliarii) workshop ( 📸 by @pompei79.bsky.social): pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpic...

and a frankly petrified wave at the "transformative budget model" coming our way! www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/bfpa...

NY Times headline reads: Yale’s New President Pushed Policing as Head of Stony Brook University In her four years at the state university, Maurie McInnis drew criticism from faculty members who said some of her decisions violated academic freedom.

institutional neutrality www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/u...

In an interview with the News last month, McInnis praised the Buckley Institute for inviting McMahon to speak at Yale. At a Family Weekend talk in October, McInnis suggested that organizations like the Buckley Institute may have helped Yale avoid targeted federal funding cuts. McInnis said in an interview last month that she was not “aware of” plans to meet with McMahon. Peart wrote that the secretary’s schedule and meeting with McInnis was only confirmed on Wednesday.

hat tip across Long Island Sound to our very successful former president, a real profile in courage

yaledailynews.com/articles/mcm...

we've accepted higher ed governance structures where a proliferation of mid-level admins carry water for high-level corporatist admins who have not taught or researched at the universities they head. both layers are always already on their way up & out, leaving those of us who stay always salvaging

I see they’re axing their undergrad degrees in music theory and musicology as well. OSU has an outstanding music theory program and (no inside knowledge) I would bet you that the faculty maintain this small major on top of their regular teaching load at a cost of zero additional resources

Small archives are the best

[P]

Increasingly I keep being told by normies that they would “love to go to the symphony someday” and it’s starting to drive me crazy because if you want to go, you can just go! It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime thing! It’s not expensive! You don’t have to know anything! Just buy a ticket and go!

US media is going to be all-in with Vance in 2028. What should be a historic repudiation of Trump and his entire regime will end up being a nailbiter because Vance likes to give journalists juicy insider information.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

Always exciting to see the Avignon Papacy in the news

Sharif University in Tehran was just bombed

Founded in 1965, it is one the most elite science and engineering institutions in the world. Alumni include the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman to win the Fields Medal

Here is the list of other alumni

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Not weighing in on Avi Lewis one way or another (as noted, he's mostly "Jenny's brother" to me, and also "Naomi's husband") but "We believe in more pipelines" sure is a take in 2026.

(incidentally, this is Naomi's Klein's husband)

This is amazing, AMAZING news for Canada's political landscape.

Musicologists! I’m looking for someone willing to review The Cambridge Companion to Florence B. Price by Samantha Ege and Alexandra Kori Hill. For the Journal of Musicological Research!

Althia Raj: Who will hold Mark Carney’s Liberals accountable, if not the New Democrats? A year into Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tenure, pressure from the left is noticeably lacking, Althia Raj writes.

Who will hold Mark Carney’s Liberals accountable, if not the New Democrats? | @althiaraj.bsky.social

Really good piece:
www.thestar.com/politics/pol...

very here for Steven Van Zandt, who is clearly so very over the fascism bsky.app/profile/alex...

T.S.A. Tipped Off ICE Agents Before Arrests at San Francisco Airport

Did you see the viral video of a woman being handcuffed by ICE agents at SFO Sunday night?

They knew where to find her because TSA officials tipped them off under a new Trump administration program.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

It must be *infuriating* to TSA agents, who are NOT getting paid, to see lazy ICE agents, who ARE getting paid, lounging about the airport and doing nothing to help either them or passengers.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

“Musician Angels Appear to Saint Hugo of Lincoln", 1632 by Vicente Carducho.
Hugh, the founder of the first Charterhouse in #England was offered the bishopric of Lincoln in 1186 - he accepted only after this chorus of angels sang to him (Museo del Prado) #Carthusian

“WRITE A HISTORY? You mean a real history, of course, not the ruck of pious romances which the Government calls history & compels the nations to buy. I shall be glad to do it, for in my clandestine trade I am like an artist who paints beautiful pictures, but lives among the blind.” - Mark Twain

Judge orders 1,000 Voice of America staffers back to work in rebuke to Kari Lake A federal judge has ordered more than a thousand Voice of America staffers back to work by Monday. It's a major defeat for the Trump administration's effort to cut the news outlet to the bones.

A federal judge has ordered more than a thousand Voice of America staffers back to work by Monday. It's a major defeat for the Trump administration's effort to cut the news outlet to the bones. n.pr/3NJLNco

The ‘Sinners’ Movie Syllabus - AAIHS The 'Sinners' Movie Syllabus is a curated educational resource inspired by the 2025 film 'Sinners,' directed by Ryan Coogler. This syllabus delves into the multifaceted historical, cultural, and socia...

Wow! #Sinners www.aaihs.org/the-sinners-...

The sound mixing is driving me batty.

Also, when admins decide it’s majors they care about, it’s hard not to see that as an opportunistically chosen metric based on who they can threaten with it. If they could attack certain departments based on *too many* majors and not enough gen-ed credit hours generated, they’d do that instead.

Against Technofeudal Education Pillars For Protecting Our "Core Infrastructure" From OpenAI

"Decisions about multi-million dollar EdTech subscriptions are made without faculty governance, usually without faculty input, and sometimes by a single individual (often a CTO) who may have zero teaching experience."- @mattseybold.bsky.social
theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...