I’m so sorry. This is vile and wrong on every level.

That’s right! I couldn’t remember the name ☹️

Back in Berkeley. The delightfully dilapidated diner on the corner of Shattuck and Hearst that belched burger smoke is now a Sweetgreen. ☹️

Reminded of Miliband's best line

I never thought I’d say this but the Bay is going to have to work hard to catch up

Leaving Chicago: 2 Newberry days, 1 day of river talking, 1 very necessary Dancing the Revolution exhibition at MCA, 3 wonderful Mexican meals from fancy to less so, and avery r young’s gorgeous“Afro surrealist” opera safronia at the Lyric. And beloved friends. Now: coffee, and on to the Bay Area.

Please! Thanks!

🗃️

Elevator sign reads “blinking indicates help is on the way.” It’s not blinking.

Chicago elevator sign feeling a bit pointed

Omg. Please.

Ran into one of the smartest and loveliest people I knew in grad school on the Newberry stairs: lost an hour of manuscript, but gained a whole world of memories and nerdtime

The hand of a 17thc siege engineer is a tad testing on jet lagged eyes though

View of Chicago from a reading room desk

A seventeenth century manuscript describing the crossings on the River Somme

Very happy to be tucked up in the Newberry with a fabulous view

Oxford cat fans will be sad to hear that Trinity's former college cat, Artemis (retired since 2020, and formally thanked by Governing Body for her service) has just died - peacefully in her sleep, at home, aged 18. She welcomed me very kindly when I was a starter fellow. RIP Artemis.

Thread on something that drives me mad.

In the French scholarship, the recent book by maxime martignon is really excellent on how knowledge about the Americas circulated in Paris. Mostly under Louis XIV but gives great context on information networks more broadly

Ooh thanks!

😄

😄

One year we were gazing lustfully at a parrot tulip about to come into flower. I said “it’s kind of vulval,” the Frenchman agreed, and at just that point a big spider crawled out of it. Take that, Monty.

I’m reading (le chic) Gardeners World magazine in which Monty Don goes off on a weird celebration of the sexiness of tulips: Cleopatra and Monroe were tulips, apparently. 👀

Jefferson on Race: A Reader, edited by Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

Jefferson on Race, edited by @agordonreed.bsky.social, is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Thomas Jefferson’s conflicted attitudes—& the impact of race & slavery on American history.

Out March 31 (26 May UK pub).

Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I don’t know how to begin: a sign for an ice cream shop, a child seated on top of a giant ice cream cone, spooning happiness into his mouth

A joyous Budapest image from a trip two years ago. Congratulations Hungary!

Hall of fame FT correction

Congratulations! This is very exciting

A black and white cat stretches out on a bed and folds his little paws in winsome fashion

Good morning!

At QMUL:
- 99 language modules cut
- 50 language modules marked as 'to be confirmed'
- single honours language degrees in questions
- 'possible futures' includes the closure of languages at QMUL altogether

The harm done to language studies is immense, and ramifications are not going to be pretty.

Omg a tiny self portrait of the owner worshipping the Christ Child. So categorically #HerBook

Couverture du livre d'Olivier Ritz, Une histoire littéraire de la Révolution française

Merci @olivier-ritz.bsky.social pour cette belle histoire littéraire de la Révolution française, qui contient aussi une histoire révolutionnaire de la littérature, une histoire politique des médias, et une histoire populaire critique de la patrimonialisation littéraire !⤵️

Colour illustration featuring two girls painting a giant eagg in blue and a hippo like creature up a step ladder also painting the egg in red

Tove Jansson (Finnish, 1914–2001), Moomin and sisters Mymble and Little My paint an #Easter egg #womensart #Moomins