Ian Petrie
LightNews LightNews
banner
icpetrie.bsky.social
Ian Petrie
@icpetrie.bsky.social
3.1K followers 1.4K following 20K posts

Historian, Canadian, Philadelphian. Higher ed, urban🚲, books, cats, hockey. At Penn's CETLI; teach South Asia & Hist Sci/Med/Tech.
Disappointing people since 1972.
Posts Replies Media Videos
icpetrie.bsky.social
Stoppard was born in Zlin, Moravia, where his father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company.

(Other literary connections to Bata:
Vikram Seth's father was a "Bataman". And Ngugi grew up near Bata's Kenyan factory in Limuru. This is very niche, as I used to research the global history of the firm)
Modernist postcard in which the block letters of ZLIN are filled with photo montages illustrating the company town. A shoe is the accent atop the I.
November 29, 2025 at 5:48 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
I love it when Miriam's account gets taken over
Series of posts: 67 My #Irish #maid is #chasing me with a #rollingpin again Darn Bridget I'm back Hey
November 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Ours is an elevator in the library!
Plaque in elevator reads: On the 19th day of September, 1984 Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford was temporarily trapped in this elevator.
November 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Interesting new ad strategy from John Helmer in the latest New Yorker
Ad features four identical photos and copy for the same cap
November 28, 2025 at 8:30 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
This is for a three-year non-renewable position at UBC
A cover letter of application that includes the names and contact information (institutional affiliation, address, e-mail address) of three referees; A curriculum vitae; A teaching dossier that includes: 1) statement of teaching interests and philosophy (max 2 pages); 2) record of courses taught including class sizes (if not already included in the CV); 3) evidence of teaching effectiveness, including student course evaluations and peer-review of teaching reports, if available; and 4) examples of pedagogical materials such as syllabi and assessments. An educational leadership dossier that includes: 1) statement of past and potential contributions to educational leadership (max 2 pages); 2) examples of prior curriculum or program development/renewal work; and 3) examples of educational leadership contributions. A one-page statement about your experience working with a diverse student body and your contributions or potential contributions to creating/advancing a culture of equity and inclusion.
November 27, 2025 at 5:54 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
On our table tomorrow. And for breakfast Friday
Screenshot from TOO MANY COOKS: A pie on a desk, captioned "Lars Von Trier, as 'Pie'"
November 27, 2025 at 2:53 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Thanks to @jesuszoidberg.bsky.social for alerting me to this
CNN post notes that this Thanksgiving "Why the heck is everyone talking about AI?" may come up at dinner, and links to an Analysis feature "How to Explain AI to Your Family This Holiday Season". Photo shows Iverson at that legendary press conference.
November 26, 2025 at 11:02 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Ad offers an amazing perspective on higher ed
Ad on side of bus reads "a flawless semester starts here" Photo shows a group of students, three women, two men, gathered around a laptop. "First Wax Free" (ad is for European Wax Center)
November 26, 2025 at 10:25 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Kornafuli Tea, Chittagong

From an 1893 California trademark filing
exhibits.sos.ca.gov/s/exhibits/i...
Text in English and Bangla. Inset image of a tea plantation
November 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
One of my students kindly gifted me this, which "takes you on a journey through the terroirs of the cacao-growing world"
(I initially misread that as terrors)
www.traderjoes.com/home/product...
Small black box labeled in silver Trader Joe's Single Origin Chocolate Passport, with a silver ocean liner Bars arranged like variously colored books, spines reading: Peru Ecuador Ivory Coast Ghana Dominican Republic Colombia Vietnam Madagascar
November 26, 2025 at 6:09 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Gonna shout out the answers to the problems
Screen shot from Lazy Sunder - Samberg and Parnell in the theatre saying "We answered so fast it was scary"
November 26, 2025 at 5:39 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Bob Hoskins showering in THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY
November 26, 2025 at 12:38 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
"Chotiner....Chotiner....Chotiner"
Virginia Madsen looking at a mirror in the therapist's office in CANDYMAN (1992)
November 25, 2025 at 5:35 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Our incredibly unrealistic academic calendar
Nov. 25-26: Thurs-Fri class schedule on Tues-Wed Nov. 27-30: Thanksgiving Break
November 25, 2025 at 5:26 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
JOB: TT Assistant Professor, Philosophy, McGill
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
The McGill University Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy within the School of Population and Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts are inviting applications for a full time joint position at the rank of Assistant Professor (Tenure Track). We welcome applications from outstanding scholars whose work explore the ethical challenges posed by the development and dissemination of emerging or contested medical technologies (e.g., vaccine hesitancy, genomics, precision medicine), especially as they intersect with disinformation and barriers to care for marginalized communities. The McGill University Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and the Department of Philosophy encourage applications from candidates whose applied research draws on any combination of bioethics, philosophy of science or medicine, clinical research, or public health to inform policy and practice aimed at advancing efficient, equitable, and trusted health policies and health services interventions.
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
This is 100% referencing Reformation broadsheets which one of them encountered in college
Bob Odenkirk as a priest saying "I was born out of Satan's ass."
November 25, 2025 at 3:59 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Revisiting MR SHOW which was my first break in the biz
At left, Bob Odenkirk in a dark suit and tie. At right, bald and bespectacled David Cross in a t-shirt
November 25, 2025 at 3:45 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
THE SEPTA HOLIDAY SWEATERS ARE IN!
Red, white and blue sweater with various snowflakes and all the modes of SEPTA transit
November 25, 2025 at 2:53 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Live poultry?
Screenshot from Inquirer story titled: What brings customers to Philly's live poultry stores
November 24, 2025 at 7:34 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Epic handshake meme: Left arm labeled Jahmyr Gibbs Right arm labeled Food poisoning Atop their clenched hands: Explosive runs
November 23, 2025 at 9:38 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
I am confident he can take down Tommy Tuberville
Doug Jones as the amphibian man in The Shape of Water, in a bath tub, being sketched by Sally Hawkins (whose hand, legs and sketch pad are visible at left)
November 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
I always think of Tony Judt on this (though I'd hold the condescension and double down on the public university systems in the heartland)
Passage from THE MEMORY CHALET: "By far the best thing about America is its universities. Not Harvard, Yale, e tutti quanti: though marvelous, they are not distinctively American - their roots reach across the ocean to Oxford, Heidelberg and beyond. Nowhere else in the world, however, can boast such *public* universities. You drive for miles across a godforsaken midwestern scrubscape, pockmarked by billboards, Motel 6s, and a military parade of food chains, when - like some pedagogical mirage dreamed up by nineteenth-century English gentlemen -- there appears...a library! And not just any library: at Bloomington, the University of Indiana boasts a 7.8-million-volume collection in more than nine hundred languages, housed in a magnificent double-towered mausoleum of Indiana limestone."
November 23, 2025 at 5:27 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
If you leave me now
You take away the biggest part of me
Ooh, no, baby, please don't go
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM
icpetrie.bsky.social
Billy P's head in the courtyard before he was reassembled atop city hall
philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/city-...
November 21, 2025 at 4:21 PM
icpetrie.bsky.social
I bet they're selling a lot of Quonset huts with these ads on our student newspaper's site
Steel Master Black Friday sale ad for up to 70% off and free shipping on steel quonset huts
November 21, 2025 at 3:49 PM