The children yearn for Wilkie Collins.

A painting, in the style of the cover of a pulp novel, of a woman in one of those nightgowns that women in old novels and movies commit crimes in. She is holding a pistol, which is smoking. She is standing in a furnished parlor, beside a white door that has a single bullet hole in it.

Tom Lovell, "Shot in the Dark" (1943)

A sunburst chart, created by Florence Nightingale, that shows that most war mortality, in her time, came from avoidable communicable diseases.

Florence Nightingale was a pioneer in data visualization. Here is a sunburst chart she created to show that the majority of war mortality came, in her time, from communicable diseases.

The cyberattack on The British Library in October 2023 knocked out ebooks and almost ever other computer thing there for years.

Ebooks just came back. They were knocked out everywhere using the BL’s license (legal deposit libraries I think? More libraries?)

Distributed physical copies matter.

(At the train station with my dog, sitting by the police hub)

Child: A police dog!

Mother: That is not a police dog.

LADY, MY DOG COULD BE A GREAT POLICE DOG. YOU DON'T KNOW. DON'T ASSUME

They found JKeats01’s Tinder

First up: F grants

These support individual grad students and post-docs (and some college students).

# of new grants issued through April 15 in

FY2024 (the last “normal” year): 652
FY2025: 402
FY2026: 74

Considering History: The American Revolution’s Most Inspiring Patriots Include Enslaved African Americans | The Saturday Evening Post Many of the heroes of the American Revolution were unsung African Americans who used their critical patriotism to effect profound change.

& here on Patriots' Day, as on every other, let's better remember the American Revolution's most inspiring active & critical patriots, enslaved people like Massachusetts's own Elizabeth Freeman & Quock Walker who made the Revolution's ideals their own & helped abolish slavery in the state.

Photo of paperback book titled “Book and Dagger”

Just finished this book - can’t think of a better shot in the arm for current academics than this true tale of Allied scholars’ contributions to winning WWII. Also, a story of the importance of the humanities for nat’l security (and humankind).

Well done, @elysegraham.bsky.social

Home | WO2NET Stichting WO2Net is een kennis- en innovatiecentrum op het gebied van publieksbereik over de Tweede Wereldoorlog

Do you sometimes work on topics related to the Second World War? Then our #siteoftheweek is just the thing for you. WO2Net is a (Dutch) knowledge and innovation centre specialising in public engagement with the Second World War and its relevance to the present day.

Green "poison" book cake

Edible Books!

I don't have any real books to share today, so here is the glorious lineup of faux-folios from April 1! Most photos were by Ben Greer, and featured on @newberrylibrary.bsky.social instagram. First up, The Poison Princess, by Conservation, a Swedish Princess cake with a dire twist! 1/?

Mudie's Select Circulating Library lay at the heart of the Victorian publishing system. Karen Wade's site, now at a new URL, makes it possible to explore the library's catalogues as never before, with an index of 22,000 novels by 6000 authors. curatr.ucd.ie/mudies/
#victorian #bookhistory

A Tibetan Spaniel with a puffed-out chest looks very handsome.

Dog training. Look how handsome

Philly seems to be a city where the people dressed as George & Martha Washington in 30th street station may or may not be from the history conference- could go either way

A cluster of baseballs sprouting from native wild rice in mosaic tile.

A cluster of game balls sprouting from native wild rice in mosaic tile.

A cluster of beachballs sprouting from native wild rice in mosaic tile.

A cluster of soccer balls sprouting from native wild rice in mosaic tile.

And for the conclusion of the CTA Thorndale Red Line series, we bring out the game balls.

Ishmael's classification of "folio, octavo, or duodecimo" whales clearly carries through to sandwiches as well. 🐳📖

Why is each of my black socks a different shade of black?

The word "dreck," from Yiddish drek and German dreck, is also first recorded as a usage in an English text in "Ulysses." The speaker is Rudolph Virag, so it's more obvious how he got the word.

Unsolicited email heading: “Faculty Burnout Study / Invitation to Participate”

He was talking about 17th century poetry, but this must be what Stanley Fish had in mind by a “self-consuming artifact”

my artemis patch came and it looks so good

Practical Archival Skills Training: High Court of Admiralty An introduction to the High Court of Admiralty records at The National Archives

18 June 2026, 9:00-17:00 at The National Archive, Kew. £30.

Every new television show is called something like YOU HAVE OUTLIVED YOUR USEFULNESS

Sent by a colleague

I’m not proud, but one of the clandestine joys of my day is the big green Approved screen every time I successfully authenticate with Duo.

An action figure of Jessica Fletcher from the tv show Murder She Wrote.

My sister got me the greatest birthday present ever!

No, it’s fine that I called up 7 manuscripts to get through today and so far I’ve read half of one

So, You Want to Write a Trade Book April 15, 2026. Mazur 821. 12:00 PM. Get a clear look at how trade books move from idea to bookshelf, including how to find an agent, what to send them, and what to expect throughout the publishing ...

Philadelphia!!

There are two chances to catch lit agent @aliahanna.bsky.social today. I’ll be interviewing her about her book TAKE IT FROM ME: A LITERARY AGENTS GUIDE TO BUILDING A NON-FICTION WRITING CAREER FROM SCRATCH at Temple at noon. Register here!

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