Stuart Ellis-Gorman

Oh I see how it is. Leaving me out. We'll see how things go once the crossbows come around.

Update 32: Hardcover! · Dandies & Dandyzettes Okay! I've gotten back the test copy of the hardcover, and I'm very pleased.Initially, my plan was to use this cover design for both hardcover and paperback, but I kind of like the idea of doing the p...

Update on Dandies & Dandyzettes: hardcover test! www.kickstarter.com/projects/204...

Time for a ✨ Holiday Special Giveaway ✨ (also to celebrate 6k followers!). Includes a Tamashii Nations 2025 Exclusive Gundam Mk-II figure, and lots more!

To enter: Follow + Like + Repost. 🍀

Winner will be picked at random next Friday 28th November, international post all ok! Good luck 🎉

Come watch Pierre and I chat to @seedlinggames.bsky.social and @lukegearing.bsky.social about @samsorensen.bsky.social's ridiculously ambitious massively multiplayer rpg(?)-wargame(?) hybrid!

Hollandspiele European and UK customers: our games are available exclusively at Second Chance Games. We no longer sell to Europe through our own site. We are a small weird publisher that specializes in small weird ...

oh it's Trans Awareness Month? well, are you um aware that my weird boutique board game company Hollandspiele is having a sale until this Sunday with $5 off all boxed games, 10% off orders of $100+, & a free card game if you buy 2+ games?

support a cool trans woman (me)

hollandspiele.com

I'm kind of curious, even if it looks a little too spreadsheet-y for my taste.

I do object to the choice to make you play supporters of King Stephen. I'm an Empress Matilda supporter for life. The game description says Matilda "believed she should rule", but Henry I picked her as his heir.

My partner and I are binging classic Film Noir (65+ movies in the past 2 months) and we always let out a cheer when we see his name in the credits. Big fan of the weird little guys he plays.

Ugh, so hard to choose. First ones that come to mind:
Castles of Burgundy
Here I Stand
El Grande
Nevsky
Arquebus
Memoir '44
Korea: The Forgotten War
Pueblo
Love Letter
Mage Knight

Would be a different list tomorrow, if not later today.

Collections: Hoplite Wars, Part I: The Othismos over Othismos This week (and next) we’re looking at hoplites, the heavy infantry of the ancient Greek poleis in the (early? mid? late?) Archaic and Classical periods, into the Hellenistic. In particular, I…

This week on the blog: Hoplites! We're taking a crack at explaining the long-running debate over the nature and significance of the ancient Greek heavy infantryman, the hoplite, and the phalanx in which he (mostly) fought.

acoup.blog/2025/11/14/c...

Been thinking about this overnight and I have come to the horrible realisation that I do in fact very much want a lavish in depth book detailing every single ridiculous Dungeons & Dragons toy, colouring book, back of cereal packet hologram, view finder etc

God help me.

Display about Black soldiers in World War II removed from US military cemetery | CNN Politics Decades ago, as some of the bloodiest fighting in World War II ramped up in Europe, 19-year-old 1st Lt. Jeffersons Wiggins, along with hundreds of other Black soldiers in, were tasked with burying the...

This is the same administration that has ordered the return of a Confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery--one which celebrates the "loyal slave" narrative as represented by the images of the "faithful mammy" and a body servant (slave) in Confederate uniform. 🗃️
www.cnn.com/2025/11/13/p...

Hollandspiele European and UK customers: our games are available exclusively at Second Chance Games. We no longer sell to Europe through our own site. We are a small weird publisher that specializes in small weird ...

sale's on!

hollandspiele.com

Best film noir?

Follow up, thoughts on noir films that were filmed in color?

A list of sentences to remind us of film noirs we saw: It's double because it's a train Orson Welles is Irish for some reason Misty airport shootout The big swede All the money blows away lol "That cat is as dead as a doornail" Peter Lorre is barely in it, annoying neighbor in it too much Wife explodes The box is full of radiation The pickpocket lives in a shack for some reason The guys name is raven, evil old guy, magic trick girl Bogart bullies his friend on a train and then the friend explodes The hitch-hiker is murders Laura is dead but then she isn't He kills TWO PEOPLE ostensibly by accident and is so stupid Mister Teatime is the bad guy Guy breaks out of prison, has two girlfriends, is stupid He solves his own murder Florist takes his rightful place in a gang of thieves Hawaii Tony Curtis is a dick and he tries to break up this couple Petrol station guy has to go find evil girlfriend? There's almost three Mrs Carrolls actually Why pay for Bogart and then not show Bogart? She just wants to run a restaurant and her daughter is the worst Its a heist and the German guy gets caught cause he watches a girl dance for too long Orson Welles is a Nazi for some reason It's about a Maltese Falcon He's warm like a baby spider She Should be in all the movies how can we get her in all the movies? That lady cannot stop lying Bogart is just trying to run a newspaper over here (I'm running out of characters, it goes on like this but you get the idea)

My partner and I have watched over 50 Film Noirs in the past two months. We're keeping a spreadsheet of them all, with a single sentence for each to remind us of what happens in it. These are presented for you without their attached film titles, hopefully for your amusement.

At this point I'm not even really upset or annoyed by this, but it does make it feel like a farce.

How am I supposed to take professional feedback seriously when the different evaluators can't even agree on what they're actually evaluating?

Just feels like a box-ticking activity.

Basically every professional evaluation I've had, a cycle:

Me: I know the previous feedback, & my weak areas, so I expect they will focus on X, Y, or Z.

Feedback: No mention of previous criteria, here's some out of left-field random critiques that probably aren't even in the evaluation document.

YouTube video by Adam Savage’s Tested Adam Savage Tours Medieval Crossbows (at @metmuseum)

I may have been working on other things recently, but if I see somebody talking about crossbows (especially ones I quite admire, like those in the Met) I cannot help but watch. In that vein, I really enjoyed @tested.com's latest video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zret...

I would of course be remiss if I didn't mention that I wrote a book that I expect many who enjoyed this video would also enjoy. It even includes several of the crossbows covered in the video! Available from the publisher and most booksellers.
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Medieval...

YouTube video by Adam Savage’s Tested Adam Savage Tours Medieval Crossbows (at @metmuseum)

I may have been working on other things recently, but if I see somebody talking about crossbows (especially ones I quite admire, like those in the Met) I cannot help but watch. In that vein, I really enjoyed @tested.com's latest video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zret...

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

SDHist is proud to announce War Story: Occupied France as the recipient of the fourth annual Summit Award: sdhist.com/war-story-oc.... Congrats to designers Dave Neale and @djackthompson.bsky.social and publisher @ospreygames.bsky.social!

YouTube video by Hollandspiele Vonnegut’s Board Game: Preservation, Annotation, Context

We're thrilled to announce @amabel.bsky.social's video essay “Vonnegut’s Board Game: Preservation, Annotation, Context” as the recipient of the 2025 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award. More info on the award here: sdhist.com/amabel-holla.... Check out the essay here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xXy...

A list of sentences to remind us of film noirs we saw: It's double because it's a train Orson Welles is Irish for some reason Misty airport shootout The big swede All the money blows away lol "That cat is as dead as a doornail" Peter Lorre is barely in it, annoying neighbor in it too much Wife explodes The box is full of radiation The pickpocket lives in a shack for some reason The guys name is raven, evil old guy, magic trick girl Bogart bullies his friend on a train and then the friend explodes The hitch-hiker is murders Laura is dead but then she isn't He kills TWO PEOPLE ostensibly by accident and is so stupid Mister Teatime is the bad guy Guy breaks out of prison, has two girlfriends, is stupid He solves his own murder Florist takes his rightful place in a gang of thieves Hawaii Tony Curtis is a dick and he tries to break up this couple Petrol station guy has to go find evil girlfriend? There's almost three Mrs Carrolls actually Why pay for Bogart and then not show Bogart? She just wants to run a restaurant and her daughter is the worst Its a heist and the German guy gets caught cause he watches a girl dance for too long Orson Welles is a Nazi for some reason It's about a Maltese Falcon He's warm like a baby spider She Should be in all the movies how can we get her in all the movies? That lady cannot stop lying Bogart is just trying to run a newspaper over here (I'm running out of characters, it goes on like this but you get the idea)

My partner and I have watched over 50 Film Noirs in the past two months. We're keeping a spreadsheet of them all, with a single sentence for each to remind us of what happens in it. These are presented for you without their attached film titles, hopefully for your amusement.

The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Can not overstate how important this is

Really reaping what I sowed as I mark all these exams. Assign essay questions I thought, it'll be easy, you definitely wont regret reading over a hundred exams later.

archive.org/details/retu...

We watched The Return of Doctor X, a pretty low budget 1939 movie that mashes up Frankenstein and vampires in a sci fi film that is Humphrey Bogart's only foray into the genre.

It's not amazing, but it's pretty fun, 62 minutes long, and free to download on the Internet Archive