"Draw Me Ishmael"

30 June 2025: I hadn't realized this exhibit was still at the Peabody Essex Museum and was thrilled to get a chance to see it. What a gem this museum is, too. I will think about Anila Quayyum Agha's beautiful "All the Flowers Are for Me" for a long time, too.

Wheatley's grave...

29 June 2025: We had a good day in Boston, but the part I keep thinking about is Copp's Hill Burial Ground. At lunch, I read that Phillis Wheatley was buried there and instantly knew I wanted us to stop by. 

Now if I had read a bit closer, I would have learned that it is believed she is buried there--in what was an unmarked grave in plot for Black Americans--with her newborn baby who died just around the time she did. 

And if I had thought about it more closely, I would have doubted that her burial spot would have been much for anyone to commemorate back in 1784.

But it still felt right and good to walk there, to walk around the grounds, and feel both her presence and her absense.  

Back to Massachusetts

28 June 2025: Spent most of the day in the car with Jane, heading up to Massachusetts for a few days. A bit tired as I write this, but ready for a full day tomorrow. 

Andor

27 June 2025: Given all the political news (including just awful stuff out of the Supreme Court today), it's a heck of a week to start watching Andor. But seeing it was available for a limited time on Hulu, I decided to give it a shot, given all I have heard about how good it is. 

Me being me, I teared up time and again while watching, especially "One Way Out" and "Rix Road." What a show for this moment. 

(On to Season 2, I guess. We'll see how far I can get before the free window on Hulu runs out.) 

"Least Complicated"

26 June 2025: Been humming this one all day after yesterday's concert. (They didn't sing this one, but that's okay!)

Indigo Girls!

25 June 2025: 

[Catch-up post]

Last night, Allison and I saw the Indigo Girls in Richmond. A great show with a great friend!

And I got the bonus of seeing Mike, Matt, and all the pets. 

(Back up to WV this morning.)

Zohran!

24 June 2025: Holy cow! Not sure how it will all shake out in the end, but it's hard not to be very excited about the first round of votes in the NYC mayoral race. There isn't a lot to be excited about, politics-wise, these days. And the establishment Democrats continue to shoot themselves in the foot. 

But this guy? These results? 

Gives me hope!

Heat wave...

24 June 2025: A heat wave settled in today (actually yesterday, but today was fiercer!). Should last until Thursday. Yuck. Got out early and mowed the lawn and did a bit of yard work. I've been more or less inside all day since then except for a brief trip to Walgreen's. 

Reading for the Year's Work essay, taking notes, watching TV, getting the rest of my steps in doing laps around the first floor...there are a lot worse ways to get through a heat wave. 

Grateful for AC that works, a job that lets me stay inside when it's hot, and two cats who aren't that upset about the shut-up windows and are glad to have me here with them.

2006!

22 June 2025: I was sort of keeping track of the upcoming milestone of 2000 days of at least 10,000 steps, but then lost sight of it. Checked yesterday and saw that that was day 2005. Ha!

Anyway, today I hit 2006 days. I think it's pretty cool and weird, but in a good way.

(By the way, a while ago, I realized I was calculating the days a bit incorrectly. So my milestone posts marking the first 1800 days or so were off by a day. Day 365, for instance, was actually day 366.) 

Highs and lows...

21 June 2025: Man, we (Amy, Jason, and I) had a nice night at the Boxcars game: free straw hats, great conversation, and a win in the tenth inning.

Hell of a thing come home to tonight's news. Grateful for the bits of joy in such an overwhelmingly sad moment for our nation and the world. (I swear, at the park I even thought, "I bet I'll look at my phone and see that maniac bombed Iran...")

BabyBud...

20 June 2025: Got to meet Theo today and see Hannah for the first time in a while. Just a wonderful experience all around. 

Board member...

19 June 2025: I could write 10,000 words about this, but will settle for much fewer: I became an official member of Shepherd's Board of Governors today. Big responsibility and not something I am excited about, but I'll do my best. 

"Altitude"

18 June 2025:  Check out Airea D. Matthews' "Altitude," a reimagining of the Icarus story. The whole thing is great, but here's the ending: 

"My fall, well, yes,

those depths matter less.

What I learned by height—

that’s the story."

I read this poem first thing this morning, after another restless night, this time thanks to multiple astonishingly loud thunderstorms, and it--a bit like thunder--knocked me out. 

Long, good day

17 June 2025: 

Things I did today: slept in a tiny bit because I slept awful the night before, mowed the lawn, had lunch with Tim and two recent graduates, helped do a bit of advising for the last group of entering first-year students, did some planning for next semester with Tim (we are taking our students to the Poe House), did some research work, hosted trivia, played with BabyCat and the laser pointer (a promise I made to her yesterday), and listened to a heck of a thunderstorm roll through (with Jo hiding under my chair). 

Not the most exciting post, but I kind of like days like this. 

Only queens...

16 June 2025: Still thinking about Saturday...

The Life of Chuck

15 June 2025: When a movie opens with Walt Whitman, it has my attention. And The Life of Chuck is a sweet and moving film that earns its evocation of the Good Gray Poet. I found myself tearing up and smiling and just really loved it. 

No Kings!

14 June 2025: Didn't take too many pictures, but it was amazing to see hundreds and hundreds of people say "No Kings!" in Shepherdstown. So much love and hope!

Guy who I didn't know says to me, "I'm a Red Sox fan, but we are on the same team here." And then we talked about Aaron Judge for a few minutes. It was awesome. God bless America and baseball.

Nineteenth-century snark...

13 June 2025: Laughed out loud at this bit about nineteenth-century American poet Phoebe Cary (sister of Alice): "Once asked whether she and her unmarried sister had ever had their hearts broken she replied, 'No, but a great many of my married friends have'" (qtd. in Petrino 200).

Interesting to think about especially after seeing Materialists this evening.

Work Cited

Petrino, Elizabeth A. "Speaking Double: Parody as Resistance in Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry." Studies in American Humor, vol. 10, no. 2, 2024, pp. 186-207.

Fixed!

12 June 2025: Very happy to report that the HVAC is fixed. And me, the cheapskate, immediately shut it off. (I got a new tower fan that works quite nicely right now.)

Jo was also impressed by Dustin, the HVAC man, who gave her some head scratches. Here she is, watching him right before he departs, perhaps a bit smitten.

"Don't Worry Baby"

11 June 2025: Thinking about Brian Wilson today with the news of his death. This is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs. A little story that is so cool, so romantic, with tinges of melancholy and (weirdly in a good way?) even maybe the hint of an impending tragedy.

Summer Advising

10 June 2025: I can't even begin to write about the state of the country right now--and more and more, I ask myself how "normal" it is to keep acting like things are normal. But I can't/won't let the bad guys steal every moment of peace or happiness. So, here's a post about some good stuff.

I got to help another group of incoming English majors register for their first semeter--and helped some students in other majors, too. It's not nearly as much fun as it used to be, as I know I have posted about so many times. But I still got to meet these new students and spend time with my colleagues and just feel good about the work we do. 

I'll take it.

Breeze catchers...

9 June 2025: 

First comment about this picture: where were these kinds of poses yesterday, BabyCat? (Don't miss Jo by the door, also catching breezes.)

Second comment: I am so glad this house has that back door with the screen. On days like this, it provides much needed circulation and cool breezes (not to mention the bird songs). It's especially good on a day like this, where the very nice HVAC technician diagnosed a burned out motor on my system. A new part has been ordered and until then, we'll continue to make due without much discomfort. (Ceiling fans help, too!)

Third comment: I am so grateful to have the resources to handle a big-ish expense like this repair. This third comment, in fact, inspired the whole post. Grateful, grateful, grateful. 

Ten!

8 June 2025: She won't pose for a decent picture, but here she is, full of deep thoughts and Lil Soup.

She is still so much herself. The most complicated cat I've ever known.

And man, I just love her more and more every year. 

Boxcars!

7 June 2025: Long day today, but happy to cap it off with some friends at our first Boxcars game this summer.

Almost done...

6 May 2025: A couple of days ago, I titled my post "Almost there..." I want to argue that today's post, titled "Almost done..." sounds the same, but it actually means something different in my head. In the first post, I was talking about an idea--almost having it down. I (think I) finally got it--yesterday.

Today "Almost done..." refers to a decent complete draft of the paper. I have a couple of places where I need to write another sentence or two, but I think I can knock them out on Sunday. (Tomorrow is booked from start to finish with other stuff.)

If I can knock those sentences out, that'll be the last item on my weekly "to do" list: a complete draft. (Yes, those lists are back, and that's okay.) 

It does feel a bit weird to be pressuring myself to have a solid, polished draft of this thing done in the next week or so. The conference is in November and I don't know yet if I'll have 15 or 20 minutes. But the one thing I know is that if I can get things done ahead of time--before the semester starts--I'll be happier. 

Lost and found...

5 June 2025: Last fall, my old laptop just stopped working. I felt mostly okay about its abrupt exit because everything was backed up. But later, I realized a few things weren't including, almost all of my video files. 

I figured this out when I went looking for a series of videos of me arriving home from work and waking up Bing who had, by that time, gone deaf. He always woke up happy to see me and it made me happy. 

And they were gone. 

So, I was bummed.

Every once in a while, I would think, I should just try one more time to see if that old computer will turn on. Today, I finally tried. 

And it worked.

From October 2020, with bonus Wesley content that also made me smile and tear up. Those amazing boys...

You can be darn sure I backed those videos up. 

Almost there...

4 June 2025: I am in a phase of drafting my SSAWW paper where the nuanced version central idea is starting to come together. (I have a thesis, but usually there’s a more specific one lurking, waiting to emerge.) A piece just clicked into place a couple of hours ago—about a lack of authorial intention—that feels promising. There’s just one more piece, I think, and I am on the verge. 

It’s a cool place to be. The frustrating is slowly receding and the next step—a complete first draft—is coming up, Lord willing.

"a 'boom' in it"

3 June 2025: Made my way through a really cool new edition of Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson today and was delighted by a couple of excerpts from his letters that appeared in the editor's introduction.

First, in 1892, he writes about his enthuiasm for the book and notes, “I believe there’s a ‘boom’ in it” (520). 

Second, in 1893, he tells a friend, “I’ve finished the book & revised it. The book didn’t cost me any fatigue, but revising it nearly killed me. Revising books is a mistake” (545).

Work Cited

Griffin, Benjamin, editor. Pudd’nhead Wilson: Manuscript and Revised Versions with “Those Extraordinary Twins.” By Mark Twain, U of California P, 2024. 

A study in contrasts...

2 June 2025: For the "Year's Work" essay, I spent some time this afternoon reading through a new collection of Twain's writing, a collection with a pretty cool theme and idea driving it. I was so disappointed, though, that the editor made a point of highlighting and celebrating these awful AI-generated illustrations he included. They are so janky-looking and depressing. 

Moreover, right after, I reviewed another new collection, this one structured around gathering and celebrating human-created illustrations. The constrasts between the two approaches and their results are stunning. 

And, of course, I keep thinking about the piece I read and blogged about specifically about what Twain can teach us about AI.

Graduation Brunch...

1 June 2025: I was in a melancholy mood for a lot of yesterday, so I am grateful that today offered an opportunity to bring my spirits up. I was invited to a graduation brunch for Louisa, Lucy, and Flora (the first two, from high school, and Flora, from college). I've known these kids since they were little--since the younger ones were in pre-school--so it is mind-blowing to see them so grown-up. But they are also three kids who will do great things in the world. There's that hope I was talking about yesterday.