andypatton52.bsky.social

Angela Anger at the Monarch Tavern tonight, with Sam Kay on bass

It's nice to hear that a Jewish Museum has opened in Baghdad. The Jewish population in Iraq must be tiny, but there is a long history: Jews were slaves there 2,500 years ago.

Tetley Malthouse, Mill Street, Leeds, winter 1973, photo by Peter Mitchell.

Annals of the trilled R, gently stroked L, Lamenting O of local literature, Open, on this, their one-page book, a still Land-language chattered in a river’s burr… —Douglas Dunn (1942–2026), “The Harp of Renfrewshire” from NEW SELECTED POEMS 1964–2000 (Faber, 2003) www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

👊🏾❤️💯

Behind us, Glencoe of the Slaughter, Achnacone, field of dogs, Achtriachan, where the water-bull lurks among thin fish tickled by weed, and the Great Herdsman of Etive over us like a black axe… —Alison Fell, “Rannoch Moor” in The Edinburgh Book of 20th-Century Scottish Poetry (EUP, 2005) #poem

A very interesting article by Musa Al-Gharbi on education and why it doesn't help those without what he calls "Symbolic Capital." musaalgharbi.substack.com/p/on-educati...

Ospreys are disappearing along the US East Coast due to a shortage of Atlantic menhaden, a crucial food source for ospreys. One company alone harvested nearly 300 million pounds of the fish in 2024 but somehow claims they’re not at fault. 🧐

Tilley is content. The morning is off to a good start.

In the latest Harris/Harvard polls, it looks as though Republicans are slightly more likely to vote in the midterms than are Democrats. This makes no sense to me. I recall reading somewhere that there is a cohort of progressives who are more likely to go to a protest than to vote. Yeesh!

Well, this is disheartening. The latest Harvard Harris poll shows that Republicans are slightly more likely to vote in the midterms than Democrats. (63% of Republicans versus 57% of Democrats.) I guess the midterms don't matter as much to Democrats.

When the ugliness of Putin’s invasion adds the ugliness of destroying books. Yes, I think of TIGANA and the erasure of history and identity. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Yesterday I sat in a nearby park and read Zagajewski's poetry. "To Go to Lvov" was the poem that struck me most this time. What a poet!

If you're interested in the Arday scandal, this is a worthwhile prospective from Roland Fryer at Harvard. He's an economist and brings that knowledge to bear on this. www.wsj.com/opinion/jaso...

#OtD 18 Aug 1936 the gay socialist poet Federico García Lorca was most likely executed, during the Spanish civil war. "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace." workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e...

🎓 Has the push for viewpoint diversity in Canadian academe actually worked? HxCanada will spend two days auditing its own record, including whether heterodoxy has become its own orthodoxy. Details and RSVP👇

I'm enormously impressed by Roland Fryer, the Harvard economist. Here he's interviewed about the controversy in over his study of policing and violence. open.spotify.com/episode/6qbL...

A 2,000 year-old blue glass wine cup inscribed in Greek ‘EYΦPAINOY EΦωПAPEI’ “Be glad that you are here” Roman drinking cups like this were used to welcome guests at social gatherings. 1st century AD 🍷 📷 Corning Museum of Glass #EpigraphyTuesday #Archaeology

"White liberals do black people collective damage when they elevate plagiarists, liars, and thieves like Jason Arday, Claudine Gay, and Rachel R. Hardeman...it causes many to question honest black academics who earned their positions through merit." (From Free Black Thought, Aug.1st)

This is "One Year The Milkweed" painted by Arshile Gorky in 1944. He often began by drawing from nature. It's painted very thinly, often running down the canvas. His best works have such a unique quality of close-up observation and a freedom to depart from the real.

Last night, when the moon slipped into my attic-room disguised as an oblong of light, I sensed she’d come to commiserate. It was August. She travelled with a small valise of darkness… —Kathleen Jamie, “Moon” from SELECTED POEMS, (Picador, 2018) #poem #poetry www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...

Today’s Canadian painting is “Jelly Shelf” painted by Mary Pratt in 1999.

Fascinating story. I hope the treehouse remains.

Young men are falling behind educationally. Increasing numbers remain in the family home well into adulthood. Rates of disability support payments continue to rise. Mental health diagnoses have proliferated. quillette.com/2026/07/28/m...

This is by the Welsh painter, Thomas Jones. I'm not sure of the date,but it must be 1780 -1782. He had settled in Napoli and did these small detailed paintings of the battered walls and buildings of the city. I didn't know his work, but saw in the exhibition, Napoli Ottocento, which was terrific.

www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

This still life by Cezanne is so compelling when seen in the flesh. The image here doesn't reveal how compelling the volume of the pitcher is. The orange has a blue shadow that outlines it. (!) I think it's done to make the orange feel like a sphere you could pick up. And the grey blues and browns.

www.freetheinquiry.com/p/even-free-...

It's a dog's life: 🔊 #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...

In case you didn’t have enough reasons to love Spanish football, here’s some more wholesome content of the male players paying their respects to the women’s team, which also won the world cup www.instagram.com/reel/DbEsgxe...

“in 1901… rising rents forced the family to abandon [Orkney] & move to Glasgow… Within five years of their arrival in the city, his father, mother & two brothers had all died, worn out by stress & poverty” —Andrew Watson on the life & work of Edwin Muir #poetry besharamagazine.org/arts-literat...

I have to admit that I didn’t know, and I even thought the Spanish player Cucurella’s look was quite original, when it comes to his hair, but I was unaware of this: If he let his hair grow , it’s so that his autistic son can easily recognize him when he watches him on TV. Truly, this Spanish team ❤️

China just got a heliostat plant – a concentrated solar power (CSP) station using a large field of computer-controlled mirrors, [heliostats], to reflect the sun on to a tall central tower – to power 170k homes a year and save 130k tons of CO2. The US is getting a ballroom.

Y saltó Don Gato. 😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹 And Top Cat jumped in. 😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹

More FAFO fun for Amnesty.

And yet, still not as stupid that those who voted for him.

Just a girl living her dream chasing active volcanoes!

This is a terrific illustration -- for elected officials but also for media figures -- of the incredible power of simply refusing to take a bullshit dodge for an answer. Keep asking the question, over and over again, and make the weasels squirm.

I thought I'd post a painting by David Reed, the NYC artist. He's such a great colorist, and the best student of art's history that I know. This one is from 2009-2011.

Ravenna really is a kind of miracle.