A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

'Lab Leak,' a flashy page on the virus' origins, replaces government COVID sites The new page emphatically promotes a theory that many scientists question. Meanwhile, basic information about COVID testing and vaccines has disappeared.

The new page emphatically promotes a theory that many scientists question. Meanwhile, basic information about COVID testing and vaccines has disappeared.

RFK Jr. knows amazingly little about autism For someone who's been talking about it for so long, the HHS secretary got many basic facts wrong.

🚨Here’s a list of just a few of the major pieces of misinformation Kennedy shared about autism🚨

Thank you! I wrote this to be helpful - so glad it’s of use!

I see more criticism here of Democrats in Congress than I do condemnation of Republicans.

And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.

It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.

Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.

Measles, mumps and rubella like this post.

Just reminded of my favorite citation ever, there will be no topping this (thanks @williamgermano.bsky.social)

This is what the government did with 120K+ Japanese Americans in 1942.

I know. I was there in those camps.

Heading out of town now. Let’s connect (where in the world are you?).

10 lessons learned from the Object Lessons series Ten authors from Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series reflect on their contribution to the series including surprising discoveries made about the object itself, and the writing process

Just a chance to raise a virtual glass to Bloomsbury’s “Object Lessons” series on its tenth birthday. Here’s what a few of us had to say about it.

www.bloomsbury.com/us/discover/...

Writing as teaching. Still finding my way around this app, looking for my peeps, looking out for the problems on which I work: writing for real people, teaching real students, reimagining the real work of the classroom. Using tech but without succumbing to AI. Helping others to do exactly that.

Back home from the MLA. The sessions were a vast array of specialized ideas in progress, but the in-person conversations were exhilarating and energized my ideas for and about writing. The Publishers exhibit hall was terrific, as always.

10. Leave you what you don’t need, which means most of your homework. Revise for better, not for perfect. Better is often shorter, simpler, but also clearer and riskier. You can do this.

9. A hum and a narrative. Writers are storytellers. Even scholarly writers are storytellers. Link the pieces. Keep the lights on in your writing.

8.True fact: no reader, no book. So as you revise, pay special attention to what your reader will hear. You wrote it, but the reader makes the writing happen, at least turns the ignition key. You want there to be a hum.

7. Architecture isn’t just making shapely chapters. It’s using language to build a habitable space for your ideas and your reader. So a book is more like a workshop than a museum. Appealing units, good directional signals, openings and closings.

6. What’s an argument? Sometimes it’s really more of a compelling question about something that bothers you. That can be plenty. Don’t be fixated on solving for x. Your contribution may be the discovery of an x and the gift of ways to think about it.

5. You won’t get lost in the revising weeds if you can concentrate on three axes: Argument, Architecture, and Audience. (Don’t have an axe to grind when you’re revising. Have three.)

4. Good revision is sometimes self-centered (“So what do I think?”), but always generous (“Hey, reader, I made this for you.”)

3. So you need to know what work you want the writing to do, and what you hope your reader will do with it in turn. That’s point and consequence.

2. Knowing that you need to revise is never a sign of failure. It’s what every writer does and knows. Good stuff gets cut because it’s not doing the work you want it to.

1. Revising is figuring out what you really think, or getting as close as you can. You may do it once or a dozen times. But you do it for the reader. Always for the reader.

With the collapse of Twitter, BlueSky is a good venue for helping writers move their work forward. Here’s a thread of ten tips on revising (thanks to folks who reached out to me about this). Thread is adapted from my “On Revision” (Chicago, 2021).

Sorry about the Twitter thread, but it had to happen. Thanks for mentioning “On Revision.” I go back to it and (whew!) still like it. An odd thing to say, maybe, but that’s what we each go through when we publish - turning pages, waiting for our own updated response. A kind of revision, I guess!

Hats off, Richard Schoch!

Idea for a tattoo parlor:
“Needles to Say.”

I have no patience anymore for people (critics or otherwise!) who get so anxious when greatness in any medium is put in front of them that they feel they have to "Yes, but..." it. Huge talent isn't that common. So when you see it, let yourselves be awed! You won't lose credibility, you'll gain it.

Auf Wiedersehen, Frau. Last night’s terrific final performance of “Die Frau ohne Schatten” at the Met, a reminder that in this deeply screwed up moment it’s still possible for people to come together to make something beautiful and tender and, well, great.

Sound about right.

Lamont is being generous. Somebody somewhere uses the abbreviation RSFs.

Or should.