Coleman Ridge
@colemanridge.bsky.social
Retired librarian. I read, train, practice, study, and take classes. Much-married. Somewhat given to getting drunk on words.
Profile picture: "Scribe," by Keith Thompson
Banner artist: Gustave Dore
Profile picture: "Scribe," by Keith Thompson
Banner artist: Gustave Dore
Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence captures current American moods and beliefs as nearly as can be done. Sorel was a early 20th-century socialist and syndicalist whose argument can be synopsized as follows:
November 23, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence captures current American moods and beliefs as nearly as can be done. Sorel was a early 20th-century socialist and syndicalist whose argument can be synopsized as follows:
Dogs are pretty good at reading human expressions.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Dogs are pretty good at reading human expressions.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
I was a bike messenger, and it snowed in early May. That was entirely enough, and I applied for and, by some miracle, got a job as a library clerk. I got my MLS while working that job, and off I went, from a careen to a career.
November 23, 2025 at 12:13 AM
I was a bike messenger, and it snowed in early May. That was entirely enough, and I applied for and, by some miracle, got a job as a library clerk. I got my MLS while working that job, and off I went, from a careen to a career.
I eat oatmeal with raisins and prunes in the morning, and pretend that it is a thin and watery gruel, and that the raisins are grubs, which I must eat determinedly, as my only source of protein. I have never been quite sure what the prunes are.
November 20, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I eat oatmeal with raisins and prunes in the morning, and pretend that it is a thin and watery gruel, and that the raisins are grubs, which I must eat determinedly, as my only source of protein. I have never been quite sure what the prunes are.
The problem with contempt, no matter how justified, it is that it is compounded of feelings of superiority and disgust. The feelings of superiority are bad for you. The disgust, no matter how appropriate, makes you avert your gaze too often, unless motivated by pleasurable feelings of superiority.
November 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
The problem with contempt, no matter how justified, it is that it is compounded of feelings of superiority and disgust. The feelings of superiority are bad for you. The disgust, no matter how appropriate, makes you avert your gaze too often, unless motivated by pleasurable feelings of superiority.
Frankenstein is dreadfully written, but is about building a new self when the one that you were issued won't do. Gilbert and Gubar made this clear 50-odd years ago, and no one has written it back into fiction yet.
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
November 16, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Frankenstein is dreadfully written, but is about building a new self when the one that you were issued won't do. Gilbert and Gubar made this clear 50-odd years ago, and no one has written it back into fiction yet.
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
1. Voluptuous pleasure in the rest periods between sets of overhead press.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
November 15, 2025 at 6:39 PM
1. Voluptuous pleasure in the rest periods between sets of overhead press.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
Real good kids.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
New York Lacked an Affordable Housing Portal. So These Teenagers Made One.
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Real good kids.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
I am reading Marx's Capital for the first time, in NYC, ground zero for world capitalism. It is like Catholicism, very pretty but a little antique.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
November 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I am reading Marx's Capital for the first time, in NYC, ground zero for world capitalism. It is like Catholicism, very pretty but a little antique.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
Treating people as the gender they want to be treated as requires absolutely no gender theory, comprehension of the psychological states involved, or overarching theory of sexual politics. it is common civility, and as such obligatory.
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Treating people as the gender they want to be treated as requires absolutely no gender theory, comprehension of the psychological states involved, or overarching theory of sexual politics. it is common civility, and as such obligatory.
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
I find this poem about the end of the American republic mildly encouraging, because it is 100 years old this year. Likely enough something did die back then, but people reeled along somehow.
November 12, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I find this poem about the end of the American republic mildly encouraging, because it is 100 years old this year. Likely enough something did die back then, but people reeled along somehow.
If the people threatening to leave the city because of Mamdani only would, he would have solved the apartment shortage.
November 12, 2025 at 10:04 PM
If the people threatening to leave the city because of Mamdani only would, he would have solved the apartment shortage.
Some singers, you can never figure out whether they are singing about sex, drugs, or Jesus.
November 12, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Some singers, you can never figure out whether they are singing about sex, drugs, or Jesus.
I am absolutely baffled at assertions that Schumer is cowardly or incompetent because other Democrats folded. What was he to do? Kidnap their family members? Threaten to fire them? Drug them into compliance?
November 10, 2025 at 8:51 PM
I am absolutely baffled at assertions that Schumer is cowardly or incompetent because other Democrats folded. What was he to do? Kidnap their family members? Threaten to fire them? Drug them into compliance?
This article is not as foolish as the title makes it seem. It points out that American men are not newly all fucked up, we are all fucked just as we always have been. We have always drunk more, crashed cars more, got the blues more, killed ourselves more, and so on.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | Bruce Springsteen’s Father Complicates a Powerful American Narrative
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:27 AM
This article is not as foolish as the title makes it seem. It points out that American men are not newly all fucked up, we are all fucked just as we always have been. We have always drunk more, crashed cars more, got the blues more, killed ourselves more, and so on.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Typed on an IBM Selectric that let me correct errors. Videos from a Korean-owned place that had started out a drycleaners with videos on the side. No recording off the radio: copyright violation.
They missed waiting for Sunday low rates to call long distance, and looking for a pay phone.
They missed waiting for Sunday low rates to call long distance, and looking for a pay phone.
November 8, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Typed on an IBM Selectric that let me correct errors. Videos from a Korean-owned place that had started out a drycleaners with videos on the side. No recording off the radio: copyright violation.
They missed waiting for Sunday low rates to call long distance, and looking for a pay phone.
They missed waiting for Sunday low rates to call long distance, and looking for a pay phone.
Arranging oneself like folding a fitted sheet, everything crooked or wrinkled inside and the outside squared and smoothed.
November 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Arranging oneself like folding a fitted sheet, everything crooked or wrinkled inside and the outside squared and smoothed.
"Esposito," the sixth most common Italian surname, means "exposed." It was the name commonly given to babies found abandoned by roadsides or at the doors of orphanages or churches.
-- What's In a Name, Leonard R.N. Ashley
-- What's In a Name, Leonard R.N. Ashley
November 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"Esposito," the sixth most common Italian surname, means "exposed." It was the name commonly given to babies found abandoned by roadsides or at the doors of orphanages or churches.
-- What's In a Name, Leonard R.N. Ashley
-- What's In a Name, Leonard R.N. Ashley
@tkingfisher.com's new Snake Eater is head and shoulders above most of her other work, and most other fantasy, because it comes right out of a beloved, lovingly described landscape. Early on there is a line something like "The sky was so big that it was hard to think." Yes. 1/
November 7, 2025 at 1:38 PM
@tkingfisher.com's new Snake Eater is head and shoulders above most of her other work, and most other fantasy, because it comes right out of a beloved, lovingly described landscape. Early on there is a line something like "The sky was so big that it was hard to think." Yes. 1/
Mamdani ran a smart campaign and made a good victory speech. Now he has to persuade the governor to tax the rich more, get the class of people who produced Trump to build affordable housing even though rents are frozen, and put together a department for managing mentally ill homeless people.
November 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Mamdani ran a smart campaign and made a good victory speech. Now he has to persuade the governor to tax the rich more, get the class of people who produced Trump to build affordable housing even though rents are frozen, and put together a department for managing mentally ill homeless people.
Waiting to vote, I remember hearing an older immigrant asking a young relative to come with him and show him how to vote. The young guy said "It's simple. Just fill in all the bubbles on the left side." That's the straight Democratic ticket, and what an Irish immigrant would have said 175 years ago.
November 4, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Waiting to vote, I remember hearing an older immigrant asking a young relative to come with him and show him how to vote. The young guy said "It's simple. Just fill in all the bubbles on the left side." That's the straight Democratic ticket, and what an Irish immigrant would have said 175 years ago.
"What am I supposed to do now? I want to talk to the boss, right now! Not you, and not your boss. The boss. Now! This shit is just not on."
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
November 3, 2025 at 12:44 AM
"What am I supposed to do now? I want to talk to the boss, right now! Not you, and not your boss. The boss. Now! This shit is just not on."
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
A sin to which I am prone: seeing someone rapt in reading, thought, exercise, or practice, and wanting to interrupt them so they will look at me that way. Like much evil, it is a form of stupidity. Like much evil, it has a virtuous form, to wit, hearing them talk in the voice they think in, and
November 2, 2025 at 12:25 PM
A sin to which I am prone: seeing someone rapt in reading, thought, exercise, or practice, and wanting to interrupt them so they will look at me that way. Like much evil, it is a form of stupidity. Like much evil, it has a virtuous form, to wit, hearing them talk in the voice they think in, and
If you play the acoustic outtake, electric guitar outtake, and horn take of the Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" in that order, they tell a story of dazed inchoate longing becoming driving urgent longing, and then becoming triumphant longing soon to be fulfilled.
November 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM
If you play the acoustic outtake, electric guitar outtake, and horn take of the Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" in that order, they tell a story of dazed inchoate longing becoming driving urgent longing, and then becoming triumphant longing soon to be fulfilled.
It is All Saints Day, on which we honor all those who made Heaven. I am pretty sure all the dead people I know are still in Purgatory, but Purgatory is a pretty good gig. You know you are going to make Heaven eventually, after you get a few things sorted out. Congratulations to all of them.
November 1, 2025 at 12:20 PM
It is All Saints Day, on which we honor all those who made Heaven. I am pretty sure all the dead people I know are still in Purgatory, but Purgatory is a pretty good gig. You know you are going to make Heaven eventually, after you get a few things sorted out. Congratulations to all of them.