Jurretta Heckscher

Beautiful Tulip Staircase at the Queen’s House in London

Beautiful Tulip Staircase at the Queen’s House in London

Thank God.

Great! Congratulations! Looking forward to reading it.

I did not know that Oxford now has a center (centre) called the Environmental Humanities Research Hub.

Its existence delights me.

Eat your heart out, Donald Trump (sorry; I couldn’t resist!).

Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her woo...

Women guarding the Earth! What a powerful inspiration!
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indi...

The Forces Changing Music and Film Criticism The industry is being transformed in the era of YouTube video essays and TikTok screeds.

"Traditional" cultural criticism feels like a dying art, Will Gottsegen writes in The Atlantic Daily. He talks with Spencer Kornhaber about where the medium goes from here:

What makes Canadians different?

Here's an example: excited fans celebrate the Blue Jays' victory by pouring onto one of the busiest intersections in our biggest city (Toronto), then politely moving to the sidewalks to allow traffic to continue by unimpeded.

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

This is going to be a really important book, greatly enlarging the lens through which we must understand the origins and legal scaffolding that structured American slavery. So glad to learn that it’s almost here! Congratulations, @earlymodjustice.bsky.social !

Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People

I find this [free] article literally nauseating. I hope & believe I have more values in common with the Indigenous peoples of the Papua New Guinea rainforest than I do with Donald Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

When I celebrated those terrific Atlantic articles yesterday, I neglected to give the Bluesky names for the authors who have them. They are: Clint Smith, @clintsmithiii.bsky.social; and Annette Gordon-Reed,
@agordonreed.bsky.social
Follow them!

Whose Independence? The question of what Jefferson meant by “all men” has defined American law and politics for too long.

(4) best of all, Annette Gordon-Reed’s brilliantly expansive analysis of what Black Americans have made of the American Revolution, which deserves to be a reference text for all our commemorations in the year to come: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The Many Lives of Eliza Schuyler She lived for 97 years. Only 24 of them were with Alexander Hamilton.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

What Is Colonial Williamsburg For? Telling the full story of the town’s past is an easy way to make a lot of people mad.

(3) Clint Smith’s probing, painful, utterly necessary illumination of the Black presence in Colonial Williamsburg, past and present, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

(2) Jane Kamensky’s review of Amanda Vaill’s new biography of the Schuyler sisters (yes, those Schuyler sisters), which moves out from the book to a searching appraisal of women’s history;

(1) Brilliant, wide-angled insights into Revolutionary-era American history and its meanings just out in the November issue of The Atlantic @theatlantic.com. Three pieces in particular stand out:

I’m a lifelong Phillies fan.
There is only one piece of writing I want to read tonight, and it is this:
mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

This: “Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down” newrepublic.com/article/2013... via @newrepublic.com

Humans Just Pushed Earth across Another 'Planetary Boundary' Earth has breached a critical boundary for ocean acidification, with potentially grim effects for ocean ecosystems and human livelihoods

Earth has breached a critical boundary for ocean acidification, with potentially grim effects for ocean ecosystems and human livelihoods

A poster announcing a teach-in in washington DC. Sunday, October 26th - Sunup to Sundown Washington, DC - The National Mall “AMERICA’S FRONT YARD” FEATURING KELLIE CARTER JACKSON, NICOLE HEMMER, DEREK MUSGROVE, NATE DIMEO, TRESSIE MCMILLAN COTTOM, AMANDA SEALES, JODY AVIRGAN, JAMES FALLOWS, MARTHA JONES, MARCIA CHATELAIN, PAUL BUTLER, NATHAN CONNOLLY, AND MORE

Announcing a good ol’ fashioned Teach-In in Washington, DC on Sunday, October 26th.

We’ll convene for a series of lectures, stories, and conversations to celebrate and stand up for the work of history and museums.

Shoutout to @natedimeo.bsky.social for bringing this idea to us.

See you in DC!

George III to Lord North, his prime minister. September 11, 1774. In response to the petition from Congress. “The dye is now cast. The colonists must either submit or triumph. I do not wish to come to severer measures but we must not retreat…” Lent by His majesty Charles III to the Library of Congress for the “Two Georges” exhibit. Photo by Holly Brewer 9/19/2025

Strongly recommend the “Two Georges” exhibition at the Library of Congress.
It includes original material on loan from the Royal Archives. Here
George III writing in response to the act of association from Congress, September 11, 1774: “The dye is now cast.”

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer

Do you have cancer, or know someone who does? Then please read this free article— and call your Congressional reps., particularly if they’re Republicans. They’re the only ones who can stop the needless suffering and death that otherwise lie ahead for so many of us.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

'Founders Museum' from White House and PragerU blurs history, AI-generated fiction Historians say it's good to highlight America's founders, but the project takes too narrow a view of history.

An awful idea. Why can’t conservatives handle historical truth?
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...

Inside the $7M project to save Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic masterpiece Inside the three-year, $7 million project to keep water out of the 1930s home designed by the legendary architect and built atop a waterfall.

One of the most beautiful buildings on Earth. So gratifying to learn about the dedication and ingenuity with which it’s being repaired by a group of skilled workers, some of them from the local community. (Free article.)
wapo.st/4oRuxjd

Today, marks Ukraine’s 34 Independence Day. It’s the third since the start of the full-scale war and 12th since the Russia-Ukraine War started in 2014.

It’s both a somber and joyful day because for centuries the Ukrainian people have struggled for independence.

It’s light brown/fawn in colour, with apparently randomly placed black speckling. Gently curved at the bottom, rising to a more pointed tip.

Please enjoy the absolute perfection of the egg of the Common Ringed Plover

Look what the cat dragged in The Globe and Mail

“Look what the cat dragged in” (by the great Michael de Adder, North America’s finest cartoonist):
open.substack.com/pub/deadder/...

Heh. Not much a fan of the genre myself, but the Censorious Ones clearly have *no idea* what they’re messing with here!

[writing the constitution]

Benjamin Franklin: Write down "no dumb fucks as president"

Alexander Hamilton: Stop saying that

Benjamin Franklin: I'm tellin' you. You're gonna regret not writing that down