Gregory Hays
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aristofontes.bsky.social
Gregory Hays
@aristofontes.bsky.social
3.4K followers 1.3K following 13K posts
Teacher, Latinist. Neither the son of true believers nor of good reputation. Once translated Marcus Aurelius, but I don't speak for him. (Neither of us speaks for UVA.) Minor outlying island. Can serve briefly as a boat. He/him.
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aristofontes.bsky.social
Count von Count from Sesame Street, doing his HA-ha-ha-ha-ha chortle
November 29, 2025 at 1:25 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
🎬 Recent viewing: Post-WWI ghost story reminiscent of The Others and The Sixth Sense. Pretty good overall but doesn't quite stick the landing.
Poster for The Awakening (2011). Rebecca Hall shivers in front of a wintry landscape with a vast mansion in the background.
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
GONNA SHOOT YOU RIGHT DOWN
RIGHT OFFA YOUR FEET
TAKE YOU HOME WITH ME
PUT YOU IN MY HOUSE
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Pope Leo on mic
November 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Spiderman pointing at other Spiderman
November 22, 2025 at 4:16 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Cartoon by Hergé. Captain Haddock, overwhelmed, says 'Wat een week, he?' Tintin responds "Kapitein, het is woensdag.' Snowy the dog is investigating the captain's drink.
November 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Dr. Manhattan on Mars: 'I am tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.'
November 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Bad, but also quite dumb.
Screenshot of Twitter exchange in which Caitlin Flanagan confuses Ayatollah Khomeini (long dead) with Ayatollah Khamenei (still very much alive), is briefly and politely corrected by Lydia Kiesling, and then tries to talk her way out of it ('I think they speak through history with one voice').
November 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Achievement unlocked
Label on my account: 'Posts a lot: more than 50 times yesterday'
November 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
In other UVA news, I'll be in conversation with my colleague @ingerkuin.bsky.social at @ndbookshop.bsky.social next Saturday, Nov. 22 at 4 PM to talk about her new book on the Greek philosopher Diogenes.
Cover of Inger's Kuin's 'Diogenes. The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic,' with an image of Diogenes from Raphael's 'School of Athens.'
November 14, 2025 at 9:36 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
What used to be our local toy store, before we started winning so bigly with the tariffs.
A closed storefront, the windows covered with brown paper.
November 14, 2025 at 2:38 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
The omens are bad, folks.
Opening shot of 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' (1964). James Mason as Timonides and Alec Guinness as Marcus Aurelius watch in a bleak pre-dawn landscape as Mel Ferrer (Cleander) interprets the sacrifice (a small bird).
November 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Pam from The Office: the 'they're the same picture' shot.
November 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Doing my annual rewatch of 'Fall of the Roman Empire.' I like this movie more some years than others; this is proving to be one of the others.

I will say that James Mason and Alec Guinness are very funny in the Provinces on Parade scene (in a film that otherwise takes itself very seriously).
James Mason as Timonides, Alec Guiness as Marcus Aurelius watch the parade. Stephen Boyd as Livius stands to attention in the background.
November 8, 2025 at 8:05 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
I think it might actually be possible to do this in Panama? It has weird geography.
Map of Panama
November 6, 2025 at 1:21 AM
aristofontes.bsky.social
The Maltese Falcon. I'm basic.
Sydney Greenstreet (seated) as Caspar Gutman and Peter Lorre (standing, holding a small gun) as Joel Cairo.
November 2, 2025 at 8:21 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Jasper, a good and handsome boy.
November 2, 2025 at 4:49 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
The real SCS.
Storefront of SCS Sofa Carpet Specialist
November 2, 2025 at 3:01 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
More fruits of my desktop cleanup.
Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy on the cover of 'Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders.'
November 2, 2025 at 2:39 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Randomly found this while cleaning up my desktop. It feels like a decade ago. (So little gold trim!) Also, look at the size of his pupils, even from this distance.
Elon Musk, wearing a baseball cap and steepling his fingers (he is standing) addresses a meeting of the cabinet. Russ Vought looks at him attentively.
November 2, 2025 at 2:08 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Seems like a wise move if he wants to remain governor of the Great State of Canada
New York Times headline: 'Carney Says He Apologized to Trump Over Ad Reviving Reagan's Tariff Criticism'
November 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Sorry, Firstname Bunchofnumbers, but today is not your day, nor will any future day be your day.
Profile for stephen21551.bsky.social, an account with an orange @ sign as their avatar. They are followed by 86 mostly trash accounts, are following 197 academic-y people, and have zero posts or replies. Straight to jail!
October 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
Panel from one of the Tintin books. Captain Haddock, overwhelmed, says "Wat een week, he?" Tintin responds "Kapitein, het is woensdag.'
October 29, 2025 at 12:18 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
[Stares at wall.]
Brittany, a 38-year-old mother of three, lives in Greenup, Kentucky, and works 35 to 40 hours each week as a home health nurse. She also has received Snap benefits for a few years. “It’s not like I receive benefits and not work,” said Brittany, pushing back against the misconception that people who receive food stamps just sit on the couch. They allow her to get “most of the necessities throughout the month and then I just pay cash for the rest of them”, said Brittany, who did not want her last name used. If the Snap funding is cut off, she said, she would have to work on the weekends to make up the difference, which would mean she would have “hardly any time with my children”. Still, she supports Trump and blames Democrats for the shutdown because “they are not agreeing on anything that the Republicans offer”.
October 26, 2025 at 10:44 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
What if we replaced "Boats in the Caribbean" with "Yale Law School" I am just thinking aloud here
Opinion piece in The Free Press by Jed Rubenfeld: 'Trump's been bombing boats in the Caribbean. Is this legal? I thought the answer was an obvious no. It turns out to be much more complicated.'
October 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
aristofontes.bsky.social
The Willem Dafoe in Spiderman meme: 'I'm something of a print journalist myself'
October 26, 2025 at 3:22 PM