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azzageddi.myatproto.social
Medium Dave
@azzageddi.myatproto.social
3.7K followers 1.2K following 670 posts
English professor in Fukuoka, Japan; research focus on utopias in literature with forays into science fiction, ecocriticism, & monster theory. Immigrant, grandad, LGBTQIA+(bi), intersectional equality for all. he/him
https://linktr.ee/azzageddi
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azzageddi.myatproto.social
Medium Dave @azzageddi.myatproto.social · 2d
You might notice I have my interaction settings limited to people mentioned, followers, and follows. Sorry about that, but it really does cut down on the number of unpleasant comments, and indeed, I recommend it to everyone.
Bluesky Post Interaction Settings, with "allow quote posts" turned on, and replies set to mentioned users, users you follow, and your followers only.
azzageddi.myatproto.social
Reminder that the Salvation Army is waaaaay down on the list of charities you should consider giving to.
bigrockbigriver.bsky.social big rock big river, ms ⧖ @bigrockbigriver.bsky.social · 17m
Bigot shit aside, when I was young and poor I participated in their toy drives for years, until one year I found all of the toys at their thrift store the day after christmas.

What kind of evil shit?
November 29, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
catsofyore.bsky.social
Also love @hellocloudy.bsky.social! www.etsy.com/shop/hellocl...
Screenshot from the linked Etsy page showing a print of a black cat running in a blue night scene full of black botanical shapes and stars.
November 29, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
breeze420.bsky.social
"In this silent, serene wilderness the weary can gain a heart-bath in perfect peace."

-John Muir
trees and bushes filled with fall colors fill the frame with a small amount of water in the center.
November 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
washingtonpost.com
Jonathan White fought the first Trump administration’s efforts to separate migrant families.

Now, White says he has a new mission — challenging Democrats that he believes aren’t doing enough to fight the Trump administration.
He reunited families separated under Trump. Now he’s running for Congress.
Jonathan White, a longtime civil servant who fought Trump officials’ efforts to separate migrant families, says Democrats must do more to combat the president.
wapo.st
November 29, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
rahaeli.bsky.social
RIP to Tom Stoppard, who was a generational talent whose work never missed saying something incredibly important about the human condition.
November 29, 2025 at 9:40 PM
azzageddi.myatproto.social
I often think about all the books in our new library, in their tightly packed climate controlled shelves, that don’t turn up in the searches that don’t use the perfect search terms just for them, and thus never get borrowed, because nobody can accidentally encounter them.
azzageddi.myatproto.social Medium Dave @azzageddi.myatproto.social · 50m
About 15 years ago, the university I teach at replaced the old library, where we could go into the labyrinthine stacks to find our books after looking them up on computer, and serendipitously find several *better* books on the same shelf. The new library…
November 29, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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hollowoak.bsky.social
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild

Sehlat
Mugato
Tribble
Targ (do NOT go Targ hunting with Martok, you don't want to be stuck in a Targ blind with him--he has...digestive issues)
Moopsy (holy hand grenade of Antioch effective here too)

I can do this all day, people
hollowoak.bsky.social Chris Womack @hollowoak.bsky.social · 2h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild

Swallow, European (unladen)
Swallow, African (also unladen)
Newt (he got better)
Hamster (yo mama)
Dread Beast of Caer Bannog (barely got away, had to use the holy hand grenade of Antioch--look at the bones!)

am I getting warmer
hollowoak.bsky.social Chris Womack @hollowoak.bsky.social · 3h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Frog emcee
Diva sow
Vaudeville bear
Bird (but, y'know, huge)
Monster at the end of this book (awww, it's Grover)

fuck me that's still not right is it
November 29, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
catacalypto.bsky.social
A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
November 29, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
jonathansellis.bsky.social
A great essay on why close reading is a more radical methodology than most people think and why university managers don’t like those of us who teach it!
November 29, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
gwillow.me
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
blipstress.bsky.social violet allen @blipstress.bsky.social · 5d
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
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shaneivey.bsky.social
MERIDIAN: A world of unsuspected terrors, lifeless and deathless. Homeless, desperate youths gather at a secret church under an inexplicable light in the Missouri sky. Their salvation may show the Agents new meaning in madness. DEAD DROPS: 50% OFF TIL MONDAY. shop.arcdream.com/collections/...
November 29, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
angus.bsky.social
Since Louis CK is in the news again, it's worth restating that he never gave an honest accounting of his sexual misconduct—his initial "apology" and his subsequent statements have been contradicted by the testimony of his victims, and contained elisions and gaps intended to exonerate him.
November 29, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
andycraig.bsky.social
These are not people who make this kind of statement lightly.
rgoodlaw.bsky.social Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 2h
Former US military lawyers speak out:

"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes

1/2
• If the U.S. military operation to interdict and destroy suspected narcotraFicking vessels is a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump Administration suggests, orders to “kill everybody,” which can reasonably be regarded as an order to give “no quarter,” and to “double-tap” a target in order to kill survivors, are clearly illegal under international law. In short, they are war crimes. • If the U.S. military operation is not an armed conflict of any kind, these orders to kill helpless civilians clinging to the wreckage of a vessel our military destroyed would subject everyone from SECDEF down to the individual who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder. Highlighted sentence at the end of the document reads: Again, the bottom line is that, since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are “patently illegal,” anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both.
November 29, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
jamalgreene.bsky.social
This seems like the kind of declaration by a U.S. president that should be mentioned *somewhere* on the front page of CNN or the NY Times, but the fact that it isn't (as of right now) tells us so much both about how this president is covered and the credibility of the U.S. government.
chadbourn.bsky.social Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 9h
Might be kicking off.
Donald J. Trump O+ @realDonaldTrump To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
November 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
ehmaimon.bsky.social
אוי. כתב מחזות נהדרים. :-(
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5h
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter The playwright Tom Stoppard, whose playful erudition dazzled the theatregoing world for decades, has died aged 88. One of a select band of writers from any discipline to earn his own adjective – “Stoppardian” – in the Oxford English Dictionary, he delighted in the most improbable juxtapositions: philosophy and gymnastics in Jumpers (1972); early 19th-century landscape gardening and chaos theory in Arcadia (1993); rock music, dissident Czech academics and the love poetry of Sappho in Rock ’n’ Roll (2006). Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
emericanjezebel.bsky.social
Call me crazy, but I don't think one nation should be allowed to entirely close the airspace of another.

Almost like any nation that does this, with the clear intention of invading with no chance of pushback, should maybe be dismantled.
November 29, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
dceiver.bsky.social
I'd encourage educators to work from the standpoint that AI was, from the off, intended as an assault on their institutions. The Venn diagram between AI evangelists and people who want to replace democracy with techno-feudalism is a circle.
November 29, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
astrokatie.com
The Doctor is right and correct
November 29, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
davidho.bsky.social
I grew up about 4 km from the fire in Hong Kong. I have no words for what happened, but I’m proud of Hongkongers for helping each other: building a real-time rescue map, donating essentials, and housing those suddenly homeless.
Hongkongers built their own SOS map as seven towers burned
When a fatal fire tore through seven high-rise towers in Hong Kong's Tai Po district, thousands of families were glued to a single webpage that offered updates far more quickly than official governmen...
www.abc.net.au
November 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
adamrothman.bsky.social
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
If we would reach a degree of civilization higher and grander than any yet attained, we should welcome to our ample continent all the nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and as fast as they learn our language and comprehend the duties of citizenship, we should incorporate them into the American body politic. The outspread wings of the American eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come.
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Medium Dave
thefarce.org
Hard to think of a better metaphor for what's happened to the Washington Post.
dieworkwear.bsky.social derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 16h
Imagine posing for a photographer friend who sells your image to iStock and a year later, you see this is what The Washington Post has done with the image of you walking on a beautiful fall day
The Washington Post headline reads: "Try a ‘fart walk’ to ease the pressure after that big Thanksgiving meal Whatever you do, resist the urge to lie down. November 24, 2025" Accompanying the article if a black ad white photo of someone walking on what appears to be a cold fall day. The camera is capturing their back as they're walking in a park with leaves on the ground. They are wearing a black coat and black leggings. The Washington Post has added radiating yellow lines from their butt to suggest they're farting. The photo credit says the image is from iStock.
November 29, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Medium Dave
lexialex.bsky.social
Some Brits protest hotel refugees, others hold Santa grotto's for their kids...

This is my friend Suzi. If you can help her Mum with this event, please do:
suziovens.bsky.social Suzi Ovens @suziovens.bsky.social · 1d
My mum is President of a local Rotary Club & she’s holding a Santa’s grotto for the 250 children of a hotel housing refugees. They need help fundraising. If you’d like to help you can donate with this info:

Business Name: Rotary Benevolent
Sort: 30-97-17
Acc No: 39241560
Ref: Refugees Presents
November 29, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Medium Dave
shaneanderson.bsky.social
Oh my god. She's 1000% right. This makes so much sense.

(Credit: Saradoesbookstuff on insta)
November 28, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Reposted by Medium Dave
hauntedtoasters.bsky.social
I spent my evening re-reading Side Quested for the.... third? time and honestly it was such a good move, this webcomic is so damn charming. Funny, but also really full of heart, oh and uh, it's kinda gay?

What's not to love?

m.tapas.io/series/SideQ...
November 29, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Medium Dave
worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
Watch carefully and you can see right through her eyes into the headrest.
#WorldBollardAssociation
November 29, 2025 at 10:57 AM