Holly M. Wendt

And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Photo credits (clockwise from top-left): Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Turkey Stearnes, Josh Gibson, Sol White from the SABR-Rucker Archive.

Big news from SABR: For the first time ever, complete Negro Leagues player and team statistics are now available for download in the Lahman Baseball Database. sabr.org/latest/negro... @seanlahman.bsky.social

I'm teaching not one, not two, but THREE writing classes this winter, so come join me and get some words on the page!

writerscircleworkshops.jumbula.com/winter-2026-...

What if I can't leave for work because it would startle the deer currently grazing in the yard?

I've done this and got to read a fabulous book AND learned a lot about writing reviews. Highly recommended!

I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this

feeling normal, as you can easily ascertain by me casting on a new knitting project

At many institutions (including mine), recruiting students *is* a significant component of faculty responsibilities (on top of all the other ones, of course), though faculty have no say in actual admissions decisions. Not sure what I'm even contributing here, except to say we're exhausted.

There she is

TOMORROW! Don't miss @writesloud.bsky.social! Join us for free from anywhere in the world via Zoom. Register here: zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I don't hate Duck Duck Go, and you can set the address bar at the top in settings.

Moreover, they are the biggest plagiarism machines in the history of the world. They can not get answers correct without one of us having done it for them in the past, and then getting our work stolen by the corporation that designed the plagiarism machine and got all the money for it

Stealing Home The "scrupulously detailed" (Los Angeles Times) story of how the fight to build Dodgers Stadium, and transform Los Angeles into a big league city, ...

The Dodgers are in the World Series, McCarthyism is back, and there isn't nearly enough housing to go around—all of which makes this a good time to read Stealing Home. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eric-...

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC

Yet again, we can't afford to let LLMs become a source of epistemic grounding for society.

Growing up, ballet was as far from my working-class roots as possible, yet my construction worker father encouraged my passion to dance on pointe. Many thanks to @riverteeth.bsky.social for publishing this essay about dancing with my father toward my dreams.

riverteethjournal.com/beautiful-th...

... not as sparkle motion as I had hoped.

Sparkle motion!

Just completely mesmerized by Josh Naylor's cleats.

Been having a great time pivoting to Something Else because no one can access the readings or see their peers' stories that they need to respond to by tomorrow on the platform we have been endlessly encouraged to use.

Can't upload my lecture about societal collapse in a science fictional AI-run city built on a system of generational life debt to the sprawling Canvas site of my uber-capitalistic pro-AI university because Amazon Web Services are suffering a technical failure. (In this essay, I will...)

A flyer for a free reading by Hannah Grieco on October 28 at 7 p.m. EST at Lebanon Valley College Bishop Library. The background is white and features a photo of the author Hannah Grieco on the right side.

We are a week away from this reading by Hannah Grieco / @writesloud.bsky.social at Lebanon Valley College! Join us in-person on 10/28 at 7pm Eastern OR join us on Zoom (zoom.us/meeting/regi...). Hannah's collection, FIRST KICKING, THEN NOT (@stanchion.bsky.social) is fantastic. Come through!

No one wants AI, no one asked for AI, it will burn the planet, destroy art & jobs, & produces nothing of value - except capital accumulation in the form of a commodities bubble. It is tech dystopia; regression thru technology; techno-anti-futurism; capital accumulation as de-development 2/2

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Every time someone suggests some use for AI, it’s something I’d rather do myself, rather not do at all, or rather not see anyone do, ever. That practically every one of these uses is bad for the environment and our brains, and relies on unethically built algorithms, is almost beside the point.

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary. Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from). The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe. Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat? This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight: * Waste of public resources on military theatrics. * Fraud in the name of “public safety.” * Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect. Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here. When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness. Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control. Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard. Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we score a run?
ESTRAGON: Yes. Let's.

They do not score.

The Barrelhouse conference, Conversations and Connections, is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026.

The @barrelhouse.bsky.social conference is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026, and we're open for registration! It's $95, and that includes the one-day conference, 1 book, 1 meeting w an editor, and your choice of literary stuff from our partner presses. www.barrelhousemag.com/conference

Short Relief was one of the best parts of my writing life. Big ups to @euqubud.baseballprospectus.com for making it happen & bringing the joy back into the timeline from time to time.