Libby Weber

21h

From a Catholic guilt Norfolk abbey was built, To which WIlliam d'Aubigny gave freely. The North Sea, it's said, never gives up its dead When East Anglia's winter comes eely.

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD@greenleejw.bsky.social

In 1107, King Henry's butler founded the abbey of Wymondham, & he donated 2 things to help the monks get by: 1. the right to salvage shipwrecks on a nearby coast 2. a rent of 2,000 eels per year Time for an eel picnic on the beach! 🗃️🧪

One silver lining to having to wear 2 layers of polyester vestments for 2 services each Sunday during multiple heat waves is that due to having to wash them more frequently, my surplice is whiter than it's been in years.

Pulling out Tomás Luis de Victoria’s O Quam Gloriosum quickly devolved into the Spam song (Quam Quam Quam Quam…. Lovely Quam! Glorious Quam!), complete with lines from the sketch and the director calling us all nerds. #professionalism (Aren’t you sad you missed out, @sloanaroan.bsky.social ?)

Lunch/recess is happening at the school across the street and a not-small chorus of children's voices is currently chanting/shouting "WE HATE TRUMP." The kids are all right.

@george-station-cat.bsky.social

EVERY TIME a conductor gives us a correction on how to sing the word "darkness," be it interpretive, highlighting syllabic stress, observing consonants, fixing vowels, or clarifying early releses; EVERY GODDAMNED TIME, I mutter, ✨I CAST MAGIC MISSILE AT THE DARKNESS✨ #professionalism

Libby Weber reposted

Dinosaur Comics!

@qwantz.com

sorry to all chosen ones in my audience but i stand by my words. listen: just tell yourself this is just part of the challenges you're to face on your extra-special chosen journey www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...

Libby Weber reposted

The Onion

@theonion.com

Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First https://theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351/

Libby Weber reposted

George The Station Cat

Night night sweet dreamies Sometimes the greatest mistake isn't trying and failing, but never finding the courage to try at all And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is step off a train that's no longer taking you where you want to go

@publichealthguy1.bsky.social

It was a busy weekend that included such things as cannibalizing a broken organ bench to make its replacement a more usable height, experiencing the supernatural through Mozart, making a new friend, & being more unruly than not just 1 but TWO sets of child choristers. I'll take it. #professsionalism

Libby Weber reposted

public health guy

all of us just watched these university admins wield enormous power against palestinian student orgs, including unaffiliated ones, so these excuses land flatter than ever

NBC News@nbcnews.com

The university noted that fraternities are not “Recognized Student Organizations” at UChicago and therefore have no formal affiliation with the school. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

nbcnews.comSexual assault reported at fraternity house near University of ChicagoA 21-year-old woman told police the incident occurred at a party held by the university’s Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity earlier this month, the school said.

Had a lovely rehearsal for a Catholic wedding I'm singing on Saturday, but hoo boy, that Celtic Alleluia is embedded deep in the old prefrontal cortex like a goddamned sleeper agent activation phrase.

The last time Spouse and I went to see Midsummer Night's Dream, he referred to Bottom as "the ass clown."

Libby Weber reposted

The Onion

@theonion.com

Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately https://theonion.com/nation-s-indigenous-people-confirm-they-don-t-need-spec-1839033177/

Spouse: Can I use you as a test subject for something musical? Me: Okay. Spouse: What’s going on with the time signature? [plays The National’s I Should Live in Salt] Me: [fails] Spouse: I think it’s 9/8, but 2+2+2+3, so 4.5/4 and a straight bar of 4/4 Me: …upon whom are you inflicting this?

Spouse: [plays Down Down the Deep River] Me: Oh! I know this one. [pulls up the lyrics and follows along] Oh. Fuuuck. Spouse: Right? You know this. You’ve lived this. [we listen all the way to the end of the song and are both silent and not entirely okay]

Me: …this is the old married music theory/musicologist version of making me a mix tape, isn’t it? Spouse: Pretty much.

Spouse: There are like six pianos on this, too. And the instrumentation changes frequently, too. Me: Okay, we have the melodic structure of the song kicking up and then getting occasionally stuck on the lyrical themes but with a steady upward trajectory and I am LIVING.

Spouse: The same singer/songwriter did a three chord song that doesn’t change for six and a half minutes, cut down from eleven minutes, which is equally brilliant but in a completely different way. The orchestration also evolves, but it seems so straightforward til you listen to the lyrics.

Spouse: [plays Don’t Swallow the Cap] Me: [lights up to hear 4/4 but is waiting to have it all cruelly snatched away] Spouse: Well? Me: No changes yet. Spouse: It’s a straight up 4/4 rock song. BUT after the first 2 you expect more rhythmic trickery. Me: So that’s it? Spouse: For this album.

Spouse: So do you want to hear some songs with interesting modulations? Me: Babe, I listen to musical theatre, I’m good with those. Spouse: But five key changes in 90 seconds? Someone is doing something interesting here. [Plays 30 seconds of Okkervil River’s We Need a Myth] Me: OK, I get it.

Spouse: [plays 1 phrase of Demons] Me: [flings hands in the air] Me: [girds loins and listens and finally starts subdividing out of desperation] Spouse: You’re on to something there. Me: It’s in 7 and it stays there? Spouse: But is it in a slightly shifted 3 or 4? Me: [meep]

Spouse: See, I hear this as 4/4 minus an 8th note from the 4th beat. Which is different from 3/4 with an extra-long 3rd beat. It’s not 2+2+3, it’s 2+2+2+1. There’s a 4th beat that’s strong, not merely a weak addition to the third beat. Me: … Spouse: And then there’s track 3. Me: [sighs]

Spouse: I just wanted to know how hard it was. You gave me good feedback, a good, honest response. So that was track 1. On to track 2. Me: [meep] Spouse: Same question. I think this is easier. Me: HA.

Today is for wanting to go out & connect with new folks, but also to hunker down in in a safe corner & hiss at anyone who approaches. (Un)fortunately, it's a day of moderate work event schlepping, so neither of those impulses is gonna win. TFW practicality is your better angel.

Libby Weber reposted

Victoria Strauss

@victoriastrauss.com

Canada is refusing to issue ISBNs to books primarily generated with AI. This illustrates both the urgency of the problem of the growing flood of slop books, and also the toothlessness of addressing it on the honor system without there also being consequences for lying

youtu.beThe Biggest Ball of Twine (w/ Patton Oswalt) - Drunk HistoryYouTube video by Comedy Central

As one who hails from the Mecca of Albino Squirrels, I could not love this more.

Al Yankovic@alyankovic.bsky.social

My extremely inebriated friend Patton Oswalt narrates the epic saga of The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota on a brand new episode of DRUNK HISTORY! youtu.be/afXtQ6ghzsA?...

youtube.comAlbino Squirrels in Olney | Wildlife on One | BBC EarthYouTube video by BBC Earth

PS And if you haven't had the pleasure, please do enjoy this delightful two-and-a-half minute BBC feature on my hometown's white squirrels, narrated by David Attenborough! www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvX...

LA: busiest container port in the US; critical infrastructure San Diego: world's largest concentration of military assets; critical for defense So yeah, it tracks that the clown who borked global supply chains & our military by embroiling us in an unnecessary, no-win war doesn't know that.

Spouse: Just back from a quick pee outside. Me: The dog, I hope? Spouse: Yeah, she dragged me back in before I could go.

chicagotribune.comBrittany Williams: Let the Northwestern band play the pregame showThe Northwestern marching band, a fixture of the football game day for a century, was sidelined at the first game at the new Ryan Field.

Brittany Williams in the Chicago Tribune: Let the Northwestern band play the pregame show "Thanks for the stadium, but please remember who it was built for." (As we say in the trombone section: she's a bonehead; she's a GENIUS!) www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/05/o...

Spouse: [opens YouTube] Me: …were the dogs good this week? WeRateDogs: The dogs were good again this week. Me: THANK GOD.

youtu.beLord of the Rings with Yo-Yo Ma - Sept. 26, 2026 - Michigan vs Iowa - Michigan Marching BandYouTube video by Michigan Marching Band

Holy Shit. Go Blue. #lotr25 #yoyoma #howardshore #lordoftherings youtu.be/cIw6vpfDIus?...

dailynorthwestern.comNUMB will not perform pregame at new Ryan FieldThis is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available. Last updated Oct. 1 at 12:00 p.m. The Northwestern University Marching Band will not perform on the field pregame ...

1st response: WHAT THE ACTUAL 2nd response: holy shit does it feel good to be upset about something relatively low-stakes that I actually have a small lever of power to do something about as a NUMBalum with strong letter-writing skills.

Assuming this is accurate, it's still a far cry from a public recommitment to featuring NUMB in on-field pregame shows, but it's good to know NUMBalums retain our well-honed ability to be loud. Go 'Cats.

Glad the ‘Cats ate the lions tonight, and New Ryan Field looks amazing! Time will tell if the pregame kerfuffle was warranted, though I doubt we’ll ever know exactly how much was poor decisions and how much was damage control. I’ll take the win.

The plot kinda-thickens? Alumni Relations/Athletics: "Amid all the buzz around the new Ryan Field, there have been assumptions that [NUMB] has been sidelined at the opening game—or that the band has been excluded from playing on the field before games in the future. This is simply not accurate."

"The plan for the Homecoming game next week & for future games is for the band to have the opportunity to play on the field as part of pregame activities. In addition, NUMB will have the opportunity to invite its alumni members to join them on the field at halftime for the Homecoming performance."

Maybe, just maybe, it might not be the best idea to cede all aspects of game day programming at a school whose athletics program dates from the 1890s to companies run by entities that exist to extract short-term profits. But what does a bonehead like me know? (As in, I marched trombone in NUMB.)

PS I also lettered in varsity fencing all 4 years (we earned conference titles 2 of those years...) & was a repeat Academic All-Big Ten honoree, so I get to be disappointed on both the student athlete AND marching band sides of this travesty yaaaaaaaay. #northwestern #bigten #newryanfield #NUMB

I mean, Northwestern is a charter member of the Big Ten conference with a century-old tradition of pregame shows that feature the marching band. You see that history in our pregame shows and those of the other OG schools like Michigan, Purdue, and Wisconsin. So again, who would do this? WELL.

That would be Oak View Group, backed by private equity firm Silver Lake, & Legends Global, backed by private equity firm Sixth Street Partners, with an assist by JMI Sports, technically separate from JMI Equity, but both share a founder in former Padres owner John Moores.

Semi-ironically, my household is currently flying an N Cat flag and I'm in a NU tee today. We don't stop bleeding purple just because current decisions-makers have made some wrong-side-of-history calls of late.

The NUMBalums called for letter-writing aid. Rohan answered. Several of us shared our letters, and the common thread is wondering whose bozo idea it was to cut the marching band out of pregame when we appear on the field in their own freaking markeitng image for New Ryan Field.