NEW PODCAST! Ian Patterson in conversation with Ali Smith about his latest work BOOKS: A MANIFESTO.

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

Beard trimmer has packed up, in case you see me and wonder how the trek to the Pole is going.

A newspaper article in the Belfast telegraph, titled ‘Before the 1960s, this idea of comingohtdid not really exist in Northern Ireland’.

If you’re based in Northern Ireland, I have a piece about my new @cornellupress.bsky.social book in the @belfasttelegraph.co.uk today!

Traybake with white icing and grey iced inscription (Oscan language written in the Greek alphabet)

British #Epigraphy society conference #cake reveal: a new Oscan inscription from the sanctuary of Rossano di Vaglio, recording restoration work by a magistrate called Nimzis Sadiries, son of Nimzis.

Publication: works.hcommons.org/records/h8cy...

@durhamclassics.bsky.social #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

A man of property Just outside the City of London, in the secluded streets once occupied by the monastic precinct of the Black Friars, is an unassuming warehouse building

As a supplement to the piece in The Times Literary Supplement (@thetls.bsky.social), www.the-tls.com/regular-feat..., here’s a (rather long!) thread on Shakespeare’s house in the Blackfriars, what we knew, and what we now know, with some links to key documents. (1/20)

In the words of Robert Onderdonk Terwillger: cheerfully withdrawn!

Oh absolutely — I should have been clearer that I'm wondering specifically about the "ten-foot bargepole" variant which seems redundant and Krustacean

Yep, see next bloot! Bargepole is British I think and ten foot American, but I'm interested in the hybrid (and seemingly redundant) one.

No, I wasn't clear!

Sorry, yes, absolutely "with a ten-foot pole" has a long heritage too -- I'm wondering about "ten-foot" and "bargepole" together which I've convinced myself is a Simpsons misquotation that's broken containment and become common usage. bsky.app/profile/coco...

Stamp art of the new logo, showing Irish language names on a signpost with Reclaim Your Placename.

Stamp doodle logo for the @cnagaeilge.bsky.social AthGhaelú campaign "to encourage people to use Irish placenames instead of English placenames in all aspects of life."
They've also created a Gealltanas Logainmneacha "to encourage individuals and groups to use Irish-only placenames" #SpéirGhorm

People sometimes say "I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot bargepole". My question is this: the original expression was, I think, just "with a bargepole" (because a bargepole is long). Did the "ten-foot" variant exist before Krusty the Clown's "I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot clown pole"?

Exploring the Prize Papers, a global early modern archive Using language skills, examine previously unknown records from the Prize Papers collection and produce descriptions to support digitisation.

Dream positions: 3 (!!) PhD placements at the Prize Papers with emphasis on finding students with the following language skills: French, Spanish, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages. (Of course, I emphasize the Dutch language!)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/professional...

The book cover for Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation. It shows two men sat on a bench in the 1930s.

"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" is published TODAY by @cornellupress.bsky.social! I tell the story of how queer men didn't just exist in Belfast but could be accepted by friends, family & colleagues... at least until a moral panic about homosexuality in the 1950s. 🧵

Do any #earlymodern #skystorians know of online courses available along the lines of Spanish or Portuguese 'for historians'?

A historical illustration of a group of individuals wearing hats, gathered around a table, with the text: "Hat Wars. New research reveals early modern England's relationship with hats."

An illustration depicts three individuals robbing a person on horseback. One individual is aiming a gun, another person is on the ground, and the person on the horse appears startled. The scene is set in a rural environment with trees. A text box reads: "Upon being robbed by three thieves, William Seabrook 'begg’d of them not to take away his Hat and make him go home bare-headed; then they threw down his Hat in the Road and left it".

A historical illustration depicting the trial of Charles I before the High Court of Justice in 1649. The scene shows Charles I wearing a hat, standing before a group of seated judges and officials in an ornate courtroom setting. The setting includes an audience and distinct period attire.

An illustrated scene depicts a historical courtroom setting with individuals wearing 17th-century attire. One person stands, gesturing, while another sits at a table with documents. A caption below explains radical Leveller John Lilburne, jailed in 1646, being ordered to appear at the House of Lords, and his defiant response.

From refusing to doff hats in court to resisting hat-snatching highway robbers, England’s relationship with hats goes far deeper than fashion. Read more about early modern England's hat wars in new research published in 'The Historical Journal'. 🎩 🔗 https://cup.org/47R0fGt

It's a good question! The writing was on the wall with the Browne Review in 2010 and what baffles me is that academic staff (and students, as I was when it came out) were treated like idiots from the get-go for saying so.

Just goes to show how little we can trust so-called "photographic" "evidence" of my lunch

Any claims linking me to a huge lunch eaten with visible gusto this afternoon are defamatory and say more about the people making them than about the delicious lunch (which I did not eat)

Oh my god if I can get it to work with the Leeds university library I might genuinely become unstoppable

I've had mine since August when we got to Ethiopia, where physical books are a lot dearer and the selection isn't great. I adore it and my ambition this summer is to get myself set up to borrow books rather than buying everything. It's such a great piece of kit.

Feel certain I saw that institutional friend on a top ten list this morning but I can't remember for what

Call for ministers to curb ‘excessive risk-taking’ at universities - Research Professional News Former government adviser says Office for Students should be given “significant new powers”

Broken record here, but we cannot fix, save, improve, renew or whatever English universities if we only attend to taught students, DfE and OfS. Universities are major engines of research, innovation and civic good. Minimally DSIT must also be centrally in the frame.

They're not big schools.

Interested to see how university managers shift their position on staff objections to unethical and unsustainable international student recruitment away from their previous response, which was -- if I'm remembering rightly -- "shut up".

have deleted as not sure the sarcasm was coming through!

Turns out chasing unsustainable student number expansion, desperately trying to recruit international students by fair means or foul, and borrowing recklessly have all been bad for universities. Pretty embarrassing, really, that none of us clever-clever academics ever thought of any of this before.

I am relieved and delighted and think it good at our great age to still be able to change our minds

Amharic lettering spotted!

With The Firearm Revolution out next week, I'm delighted to announce that you can hear me talk about it in person *and live-streamed* at the @royalarmouries.bsky.social on Wednesday 29 April. Book here for your ticket / online link. 2pm UK, 3pm CET, 9am EST.

As an undergrad I got such a kick when I got to study EM England and could have lots of weirdly spelled quotations in my essay, and I'm still that nineteen year old in many ways