John Dugan

Forkish overnight country brown. The chestnut color is a tell, no?

Aromatherapy

Anise pick me up.

Broken Eggs, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1756

I need Jackson Lamb’s cheery optimism as a palate cleanser from that loss in the Bronx.

Becoming an ancient crone who tells mystical tales to the English majors in my classes about the halcyon days when the college library was wall-to-wall stacks of wonderful books rather than 80% coldly sanitized monochrome “flex spaces”

Chapman just wanted it to be maximally psychologically damaging to the Yankee fan base.

Not the most important thing, I suppose, but Hegseth's last sentence is interesting: "Their place in history is settled."

This epitomizes the yearning of all authoritarians: To control not just the present and the future, but the past. Nothing can be re-examined or re-thought. No questions allowed.

Having a wonderful time at Hopkins at the “Oratory and Rhetoric
in the Generation before Cicero” conference. And met this very cool Etruscan duck decanter.

Don't Do a Ph.D. Now At least in the United States

Yep. Don’t sacrifice your 20s on a losing venture. musgrave.substack.com/p/dont-do-a-...

Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Plotting Coup in Brazil

What a difference a hemisphere makes. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...

This man fomented an insurrection, then bestowed pardons and military honors on its perpetrators.

Here, he praises "free speech," then attributes all political violence to his ideological foes and vows to crack down on their organizations. We're living in an Orwellian nightmare.

This is so good. Thanks!

Complete theft. I’ve lost track of
From where.

So often such puns just lead to obscurity. And whatever starts in vagueness stays in vagueness.

My girl is distraught over Roman Anthony’s injury.

This (great) thread confirms my sense that the priority now is not to patch up coalitional differences. That's step two. The priority is to get everyone across the opposition to understand that we're not in a pluralist, politics-as-normal world. We're in a zero-sum world. The stakes are existential.

New C.D.C. Director Is Fired, White House Says

Dr. William Foege, 89, who helped end smallpox in the 1970s, recently wrote: RFK Jr.’s “words can be as lethal as the smallpox virus.” And his actions are more lethal still. He’s waging war on America. That’s an impeachable offense. He must be removed from office.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...

Outlook email doesn’t recognize “lucubration” as a word. I mean wtaf.

Thoughts:
1. This will pass
2. The fascists' fall will be as grotseque as their crimes.
3. History has already judged them, as has God

But
1. we know not when / how, only that it will be worse and longer than we fear
2. no one is coming to save us
3. Undoing some of the damage will be much work

Cicero seated at a writing desk with quill and knife in hand, next to a revolving book stand, and cupboard holding books

Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 257; Somnium Scipionis, with Macrobius' Commentary, & glosses; 1383 CE; Italy (Bologna); f.2r @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Got a good feeling about this kid.

More terrible news.

Very excited to be part of this stellar lineup. Congrats to Matt Roller for organizing this conference.

Awww. Just wanted to limit distractions to focus on the intricacies of the Causa Curiana.

YouTube video by Visoiu NBogdan The Scarlet Pimpernel

m.youtube.com/watch?v=QD0c...

Hi Liv! Just practicing occasional deactivation to cleanse the palate. Looks like a cool conference. 😊

Wearing (Down) the Body: Asceticism in Late Antique Monasticism Podcast Episode · Women Who Went Before · 08/14/2025 · 1h 2m

This is *excellent.* podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

My deeply learned and humane friend Vered Kenaan has written this beautiful article about Yocheved Lifshitz’s gesture of hospitality. journal.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/articles/13/...
See also this interview where Vered discusses her article. journal.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/articles/13/...

That place wrecked me like the Green charioteer.