Amanda Watson

I have done so little For you. And you have do little For me. That we have good reason Never to agree. I, however, Have such meagre power, Clutching at a Moment, While you control An hour. But your hour is A stone. My moment is A flower. -Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"

I, however,
Have such meagre power,

Clutching at a
Moment,

While you control
An hour.

But your hour is
A stone.

My moment is
A flower.

-Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"
#everynightapoem As ever.

So much of it is Boy's Own Adventure Story (treasure-hunting! cryptography!) and then boom, we've got an extremely Jamesian horror.

How to Protect Your Right to Culture The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.

Culture might seem a less consequential right than free assembly+ its infringement makes less spectacular news than repressive violence. But the repeal of the right to culture is grave.

honored to be with @isanchezprado.bsky.social in @hyperallergic.com today!

hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

Why has no one gif'd the scene from Slow Horses S3 episode 1 where Kristin Scott Thomas says "Can you just think before you speak, and then perhaps not speak"? Because that gif would come in so handy.

I needed to watch a minute's worth of a wolf chomping on a pumpkin today, maybe you do as well?

1)You may remember the articles criticizing liberal students for their hesitancy to make friends with conservative students—alleging that they were less open-minded than their conservative counterparts.

Deadline extended! You have until Monday October 20th to put in an abstract! #queerbibliography #transbookhistory

@bibsoc.bsky.social @bibsocamer.bsky.social @obs1922.bsky.social @transbookhistory.bsky.social @thetransfemininereview.com @sharpnews.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org

Happy looking ghost annotation at the top right of a printer page.

Boo!

History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."

A woman sharing an elevator with me last night saw my mask, clutched some paper towels to her face, and asked nervously, "Are you sick?" No, I said, I'm trying not to *get* sick.

I've given up on expecting ppl to take Covid precautions, but it's discouraging when they don't even understand why.

I think my favorite might be the Colonel almost telling the boy to pitch a rock through the window if he sees the figure again, but stopping himself just in time: "Another time, like a brave English boy, you just throw a stone -- well, no, not that exactly..."

I don't think "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" was one of the stories MRJ read out loud to his friends, but I still like to imagine the expressions on their faces as they listened to an entire opening paragraph in Latin. #pleasingterror

NO

I once bought something at a certain chain drugstore and had to click through a survey question that asked: Was the employee I interacted with smiling?

I was so horrified that I never went to that store again, and if I could find the person responsible for the survey, I'd egg their house every day.

Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan Tutte, and Don Giovanni. He also taught Italian at what would later become Columbia University and established the first opera house in NYC (and the US).

The more I look at this, the more ridiculous it gets.

It’s impossible to overstate how much “abolish ice” is the normie position now here in chicago — just countless random moms at toddler soccer on a park district field asking me where I bought my anti-ice t-shirt. average people don’t like our neighborhoods being terrorized.

The Crime of Human Virtue Sometimes it really is as simple as good vs. evil. This is one of those times. Human virtue is our great crime against the fascist project; it's also our great weapon against it.

I wrote about a new Nazi party that seeks to criminalize all human virtue, and how that means that human virtue is the greatest weapon against the new Nazi project.

www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of...

"wait, are they counting that tiny sliver of a bridge as a bridge??"

All too true (though I would also add "passed away after a long battle with multi-factor authentication")

In what turned out to be a multi-day parental tech support project, we got my mom's email account recovered, a few favorite sites bookmarked, and then my aunt and I figured out how to connect her printer. My reward will be reading @kjcharleswriter.com's new novel on the train home.

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

I want psychologists to study the impact of the current regime on our executive functioning, and then -- in addition to all the criminal trials that the authoritarian fascists deserve -- I want a massive class-action lawsuit against them for the theft of our ability to focus.

Quite possibly “get a poet to be your librettist” is a lesson more opera composers should take to heart!

That too! It feels like this story looks ahead to later weird fiction in that regard. Reminds me a bit of Robert Aickman.

“Oh Whistle” is maybe my favorite James story. Something about the vivid sense of place combined with the escalating series of manifestations leading up to the final reveal of the ghost, which is described so unnervingly. 😱

I will be in book deadline mode all month but will drop in for the 🐋 shenanigans whenever I can!

A remarkable, much-needed political ad, and also read @katelynburns.com on her reaction to it: www.patreon.com/posts/you-ha...

The guy behind those ‘Friend’ ads in the subways is tired of talking to New Yorkers New Yorkers are taking note and even scribbling their own graffiti on the ads. Avi Schiffmann, 22, says that's the point — but doesn't feel like talking to them.

"Gothamist...asked Schiffmann if he’d like to join us as we spoke to passers-by about the posters and his product. But he repeatedly declined and asked that we not identify him...'I'm just tired of talking to New Yorkers,' Schiffmann said. 'It’s just such a ordeal, I just don't want to do it.'"
🤣🤣🤣

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...