Not sure about going to the open casket funeral. Remains to be seen.

This is a dance off. If you see this, repost a dance, or you’re eliminated.

Or perhaps, as the historical records show, it was the date proposed by Sextus Julius Africanus in the year 221, which he chose on the basis that it was 9 months after the date of the Annunciation (which he assumed was the date of conception), and which he calculated as 25 March.

All Fools by George Chapman - YouTube

🎭Dropping this week in our Exploring Sessions - it's All Fools by George Chapman. Solid structure, some interesting set pieces, but the syntax is not pleasing the room. #GeorgeChapman #EarlyModern #Plays #Drama #Theatre www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The Demetrius Dilemma: The Implications of Induced Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the use of the love-in-idleness enchantment is not confined to producing Titania’s comic union with Bottom but is also applied to Lysander and is the source of Demetri...

Can't tell you how thrilled I am to see my PhD student Mary Bellman's first article published! 🥳

'The Demetrius Dilemma: The Implications of Induced Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream' in the British Shakespeare Association's journal, *Shakespeare*:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Thinks we should simply rename the toilet cubicle to "The Pee-quad" ... and you can all call me Ishmael.

RIP Dennis Cometti, the voice of AFL, who gave us the immortal line, "Liberatore went into that last pack optimistically and came out misty optically."

Dear Dr Johnson, you are invited to submit a paper for "insert very important sounding Encyclopedia name here." You are very important. Accepted papers will attract a "insert value well over $2,000 here" processing fee after acceptance.

Oh, how I laughed.

Polo Zanotto building

The World Shakespeare Congress brings together scholars at every stage of their careers — from established researchers to early career academics.
Verona 2026 will be a space for dialogue, discovery, and new collaborations.
#WSC2026

Remember when Doug McClure was on every second movie shown on midday Saturday television? Yes, I'm that many years old.

A photograph of an ornamental carved wooden swan, white with an orange beak, which is on a green ornamental wall bracket. The wall bracket is attached to the sandy coloured wall of a historic building, and flanked by two sash windows. The swan faces away from the wall, looking out towards the street. Image Credit: A Grade II Listed sixteenth-century swan. A carved wooden swan on an ornamental cast-iron bracket, 11 Sadler Street, Wells, Somerset. Image credit: Tony Cooper / Art UK, (CC BY-NC) https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/swan-281128

📢 NEW Will of the Month Post! 📢

This is for everyone who followed our 'Eyrie of Swans' discussion last week, and with particular thanks to @hnewsome-chandler.bsky.social , @lostplayhouse.bsky.social and @tracelarkhall.bsky.social who helped us identify it! 🦢 1/3🧵

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Truly uncanny to see universities all doing the same suicidal things: centralizing decision-making, erecting bafflingly expensive new buildings, stacking the board with money guys, hiding info about the budget, throwing money at consultants. Atriums everywhere! They all got the same memo.

I read that as "an Eyrye of Swannys" (an eyrie of swans)

I read that as "an Eyrye of Swannys" (an eyrie of swans)

Anil Crumble is both peak humour and the kind of thing you may need to speak to your doctor about.

Always Number 8, the greatest little feline ever consigned to the page.

This is the official Bluesky account of the World Shakespeare Congress, taking place in Verona from 20 to 26 July 2026 #wsc2026 #verona #shakespeare

I choose option number 10, this magnificent, cranky bird that reminds me of the Duolingo owl, a very superb owl indeed, from George Withers, A Collection of Emblemes ancient and moderne (1635):

A baby penguin? Caught on an iceberg? This is serious!

FWIW, the first Laws of Cricket (1774) only refer to "the striker" and the "player at his wicket," while "bowler," "fielder" etc. are used. As early as 1830, I've got this from a Field Book to the rules of sports by William Hamilton.

To all the misogynists claiming "batsman" is the traditional term in cricket and that "batter" is a "woke" copout, I give you Exhibit A for "batter" being much older = in The Cricketer's Guide Being a Complete Manual of the Game of Cricket (1896), "Batter" is used throughout.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GUARDIAN Dear Editors, We write in reference to a recent article published in the UK online edition of The Guardian on Friday, 23 January 2026, which carried the following misleading headline: "British crown was world's largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals." The article in question, by Chris Osuh, showcases a new book by Dr. Brooke Newman, The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of Slavery and the British Monarchy (Harper Collins, 2026). But Newman's book is not the original source of that claim. That claim derives from earlier scholarship, the painstaking archival work of a Black historian of Caribbean heritage: the late Roger Norman Buckley. It is unfortunate that the silencing of his original scholarship appears in the profiling of a book advertised as uncovering silences. While it is great to see public attention brought to the history of the Crown's involvement in slavery through the new book and its profiling in The Guardian, the headline compromises The Guardian's efforts to address the legacies of slavery generally and its own institutional links when it extracts and reframes earlier work by a Black scholar as a revelation new to this book. The relevant passage in The Crown's Silence draws on original scholarship by Roger Norman Buckley in Slaves in Red Coats: The British West India Regiments, 1795-1815 (1979). Dr. Brooke Newman repeats Buckley's figures, which she cites (referencing page 55 of Buckley's book, see attached) while changing his "British government" to "Crown." She then converts his careful "perhaps the largest individual buyer" to a more conclusive claim, changing his "British government" to "king" but without citing Buckley for that claim which is on page 56 of his book (see attached) and which, uncited in Newman's book, is the Guardian headline. There is room for popular histories that rely largely on the secondary scholarship of other historians. But other historians have not been silent.

Page from Buckley’s 1979 book

2nd page from Buckley’s 1979 book

An open letter to @theguardian.com about their article last week about the Crown’s Silence, requesting that the Black scholar of Caribbean heritage who did the years of archival research behind this claim, and published it in 1979, Roger Norman Buckley, be acknowledged as the source of this reveal:

Do I have your permission to repost as well, Holly?

This has made me giggle for an abnormally long time!

🎨This year, the @rijksmuseum.bsky.social smuseum in Amsterdam has opened a new exhibition on Ovid's Metamorphoses, featuring an array of paintings inspired by the ancient Roman poet.

Comment your favourite artistic reimagining of Ovid's Metamorphoses below! 👇

#classicsforall #rijksmuseum

Although Life was cruelly ended after just two seasons, I loved the ending in which Damian Lewis's character Charlie Crews reveals to the crime boss how he survived for so long in prison. The impact and the satisfaction level of that moment was amazing.

Or to square it up, perhaps, by having announcers tell a story about how receivers practice catching from their QB every time there is a successful reception.

Hi. Do you look like I might have loaned you my copy of Rudolph Fiehler's Strange History of John Oldcastle (bought in a second hand bookshop in New Orleans in 2016, just like the one pictured below)? If you fit that description, I could really use it back. Thanks.

After the year we’ve all had, if it’s okay with you, I think I’d just as well jingle only two-thirds of the way.

Apparently the Barmy Army cheered the players leaving for rain -- they do realise, don't they, that a draw means the Ashes definitely stay with Australia? The only way for England to win the Ashes is to be on the field to bat for an unlikely, but still possible, win.