Black and white portrait of Ursula K Leguin, leaning on her forearms to the right, smiling winsomely, with salt and pepper hair
“As you read a book word by word & page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read & re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you.”
Among the good: the Center for the Art of Translation has announced a new project to open a literary & cultural center in San Francisco. It will include an all-translated-literature bookstore & host events. Article by Molly Templeton in Reactor Mag has other news, too. reactormag.com/the-book-new...
Reading “The Red-Headed League,” in which Holmes and Watson come across a vegetarian restaurant in 1890 London. Curious about history, I found this: londonist.com/london/food-...
Interesting article on French roadways signs covers everything from the country's history, typeface importance, and the info a person can digest at 80 mph.
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
Please go to this for me! I live 550 miles away and would have made it part of a weekend away but I have a previously planned trip/family obligation to somewhere almost 2000 miles away.
A PBS News graphic asking, "Have you retired and then returned to the workforce?" prompts viewers to fill out a form as part of reporting.
Have you retired and then returned to the workforce?
We want to hear from you. Please fill out our form: https://bit.ly/3UeMObS
As we continue celebrating Black History Month we wanted to highlight the work of Andrew Jackson Beard, who invented the Jenny Coupler, which is an automatic railroad car coupler.
This became one of the most important safety inventions in train history.
The more you know ♥️
"I do not write for such dull Elves / As have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves" - Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra
For any elected official who needs to hear this, I impart a lesson learned from the NFL:
When the other team is tired and on the back foot, you don’t call a timeout so they can catch their breath. You grind their fucking face into the dirt until the final whistle blows and you’ve won the game.
If you vote to continue funding for ICE, I'll donate to your next Democratic opponent.
I liked Sager very much, too. She's a reason to see the OSJ Traviata. I'm sorry I missed Avery Boettcher. I hope I have another opportunity to hear her in the Bay Area. Sager is singing Nedda at OSJ in Feb, btw.
I do this all the time. Half the time, I take the subway to go to the next town to see a movie in a theater.
I'm going to unfollow you until you start addressing ICE's violence.
Thank you for a great run of episodes.
I support many of your initiatives but right now I don't want to hear more about the economy or rich people getting richer. I want to hear what you're doing to stop ICE shooting people in the streets and the Administration's attempts to take over other countries.
happy New Year!
I'm not sure if you wanted people to comment here but to me, the person at right is an active participant in the music-making.
A house surrounded by several trees decorated with Christmas lights. The sun is setting in the distance.
For centuries, Christmas was associated with rowdy street celebrations of feasting and drinking, and for many Christians, it “was not in good standing as a holiday,” said Thomas Ruys Smith, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of East Anglia in England.
buff.ly/gVoeMpw
Reading #TheBellyofParis by #EmileZola ( #BrianNelson, translator). Came across reference to Rue au Lard. It was a real street until 1975, when the construction of the Forum des Halles eliminated it. #LeVentredeParis
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_au_...
Just read more
I was strongly moved by this story by Pamela Gordon of @theguardian.com, about a boy put into foster care by his mother at age 13, who grew into a man who couldn't/didn't learn how to live in society without trouble. Social services didn't help (enough).
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
If you take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, you may have noticed a flurry of news coverage since late October about an extensive recall of thousands of bottles of atorvastatin, the generic version of Lipitor. (@us.theconversation.com)
https://to.pbs.org/47SVJrd
I understand this is a luxury with everything going on in this country and around the world, but I'm struggling to finish a book recommended by a friend for my annual October scary read. I'm 3/4 of the way through & I'm determined to finish it, but Interview with the Vampire is a slog.
“They” is not a “made-up pronoun.” It has been in use since the 13th century. And has been used by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen.
“Them" is also not a “made-up pronoun.” It has been in constant usage since before the 12th century.
Chaya Raichik is a dangerous, bigoted fool.
It's weird how Tylenol caused autism (first diagnosed in 1943) before it was even invented (1955). What a clever drug.
A view along the Reflecting Pool, with practically no visitors.
Slideshow of today in Washington DC, and how it looks when a terrorizing government scares people away.
By me, no paywall: fallows.substack.com/p/a-summer-a...
Also people keep asking me if I find AI translation helpful in my work and AI TRANSLATION IS NOWHERE NEAR COMMERCIAL QUALITY and NO I DON'T EDIT AI TRANSLATION BECAUSE IT'S MUCH FASTER FOR ME TO JUST DO THE ACTUAL TRANSLATION THAN EDIT CRAP because PAINTING CRAP WITH GOLD DOESN'T TURN CRAP INTO GOLD
Hmm. That's different.
If you, regular person, did anything like this after a fatal car accident, you would be prosecuted for a variety of crimes, including insurance fraud.
If you then repeatedly lied to the courts about it, like Tesla did, you'd get prosecuted for that too, plus stiff monetary sanctions.