Ben Wetherbee ⚓❄🐝

Title slide for "The Human Depths: James Baldwin's Counterimage of Burkean Logology," with images of Kenneth Burke and James Baldwin

Saying rhetoricky things tomorrow about two of my favorite writers

📍ISHR 2025 in Copenhagen

My most masculine quality is how much I love little collectible lighthouse figurines

I try to live by a few straightforward principles in times of upheaval, when those in power try to confuse and daze us with endless cruelty. One of which is 擇善固執: choose what's good, and be stubborn about it.

This is a good one:

kairos.technorhetoric.net/13.2/topoi/r...

And this collection might be worth digging thorough:

upcolorado.com/utah-state-u...

An alternate timeline where the giants from Attack on Titan are used for basketball instead of warfare

Screencap of Google AI saying MDCCLXXV is 1625. It's 1775.

Thanks, Google. No one wants this. (1775 is the correct answer.)

Student eval comment from this semester, lol

It's these "tanking the economy is good, actually" reply-guy congressmen who give sophistry a bad name

giardiniera in mac & cheese

In this Ohio diner, it was a tradition: eggs and waffles, big cup of Folgers, then open the old text message app to read about the administration's secret plans to bomb Yemen. But now the woke mob wants to take all of that away.

YouTube video by ContraPoints CONSPIRACY | contrapoints

new video
youtu.be/teqkK0RLNkI?...

Three posts from the account "Endless Screaming," consisting of the single word "AAAHHHH."

The entirety of my "Discover" feed on BlueSky right now. Perhaps a glitch, but one that suits the moment to a T.

ContraPoints uploading a new video has the same energy as me returning a stack of research papers.

YouTube video by WIRED History Professor Answers Dictator Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Terrific, timely explainer from @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social via @wired.com

me, after playing 90 minutes of hockey, backchecking like mad, falling over repeatedly: *tired, a little sore, feeling pretty good overall*

also me, after tapping my knee against the corner of a metal shopping cart: *dies in pain*

Me: Not as boring as hearing "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" on alt-rock radio for the 600th time in 1999

Cover of Elaine Scarry's The Body in Pain

When you're almost 40 and play too much hockey

I grew up on Lake Michigan but I adore Superior equally. The two Greatest Lakes, to be sure.

A beautiful fuckerpants, though, and my beloved neighbor.

I think this is from @wetherbeephd.bsky.social's Twitter. Had to share it, for obvious reasons:

Sounds like a job for the Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric! (Which unfortunately doesn't have a Bluesky handle.)

contemporaryrhetoric.com

I'm sure the records of American government offer some real gems, but this has be a nominee for Stupidest Week in the History of the Executive Branch, right?

(A) I went to drop-in hockey this morning.
(B) While I was skating, Trump rescinded his freeze on federal grants.
(C) Therefore, my playing hockey is a civic imperative.

This airtight syllogism is brought to you by sweating a lot and needing my blades resharpened.

Just got accepted to ISHR 2025 in Copenhagen ... so I really hope the orange goblin doesn't declare war on Denmark anytime soon.

Northern Michigan is hella unionized. It sure beats the alternative.

Shout out to the college girl sauntering down my block in the snow, belting out Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" loud enough for the neighborhood to hear.

The "submitted but ghosted" category is too real. ☠️

Same! But I also have a long list of concept-only ideas I haven't even logged there.

I'm not even on the market ... lol. I just want a log of all the stuff I mean to do.