Mark R. Stoneman
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Mark R. Stoneman
@markstoneman.com
720 followers 750 following 3.3K posts
Historian, editor, and translator for hire (🇩🇪 to 🇺🇸); longtime resident of Washington, DC, now caregiving in Conway, NH (he/him) 🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦🗽

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Thoughts on designing social web spaces by Mark Bernstein: alistapart.com/article/design… #SocialWeb
Text Shot: People thinking about how to create web spaces for more productive and meaningful interactions might profit from a recent post by Mark Bernstein that draws inspiration from interwar Vienna’s coffee houses. See “Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna,” A List Apart, Oct. 15, 2025. It is also relevant to people interested in online sociability more generally.
November 9, 2025 at 8:38 PM
markstoneman.com
I forgot to mention that a short edition of Stoneman's Corner went out on Nov. 19th:
Newsletter: Snapshots, Great Depression, Siege Humor, stoneman.page/2025/10/19/new…
A lobster and her spouse at the No Kings protest in Conway NH.
November 1, 2025 at 6:55 AM
markstoneman.com
Robin DeRosa has words for a state whose investments in higher education are the lowest per student in the country. See "I Lost My Job" (Oct. 19, 2025), robinderosa.net/higher-ed/i-lo…
#NH #HigherEd
Text Shot: This winter, close to thirty tenured faculty at my regional public university in New Hampshire will “voluntarily” leave their positions… I am gutted for New Hampshire, and particularly for the North Country, the rural area that my regional college serves. Many of the Pell-eligible, first-generation college students that attend my university are students who, data shows, likely would not go to college at all without our university close to home. Because we “live [tax-free] or die” here in the Granite State, students pay exorbitant costs already to access higher education. And now the budget situation means the closing of many, many majors; the reduction of choice in what careers and passions our students can pursue; the possible consolidation or closure of campuses; and the reduction of student support and library services.
October 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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Here are some wild asters in North Conway, NH, last week.
small light-blue/purple asters
October 10, 2025 at 5:50 AM
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This image stems from a federal food aid program during the Great Depression. For me, the quoted recipient of aid represents a familiar story about pride, dignity, shame, and fear that the self-righteous who reject the provision of such aid fail to grasp. 1/2
X-post via https://stoneman.blog/relief
Text Shot: Hayward, California [1940]. Youth on Relief. Looking in his pocket for his surplus commodities card. 'Not having a job is bad enough, but you keep goin' down and purty soon you're here and the spirit is gone. I turn my face when somebody I know real well comes along the sidewalk. It takes the spirit when you're in here and then you haven't anything left.' Black and white photograph of three men and one woman at the front of a food bank line. The man at the very front is looking in his pocket. One arm and one shoe of a man behind the desk is visible, also a small box of some kind and some forms and ink stamps.
October 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
markstoneman.com
Seen in my neighborhood this morning. https://markstoneman.com/uploads/2025/8aad16f7a4.jpg
Bright red foliage with a blue sky. Fir trees are also visible. Yellow foliage against the blue sky. Fir trees are also visible.
October 8, 2025 at 3:28 AM
markstoneman.com
Wild asters seen on my walk in North Conway today https://markstoneman.com/uploads/2025/3f79cfec2f.jpg
close-up of light-blue wild asters
October 3, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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I really like this photo postcard from 1907. The woman looks like so much fun. I blogged a bit about the card because I was trying to work out what I could say without assuming too much.

stoneman.blog/bessa

#OldPhotos #OldPostcards #Gender 🗃️
Postcard with a photo of a woman from above the waist. She is wearing a man's suit and a top hat, and she has a pipe in left side of her mouth. The look on her face is playful.
October 2, 2025 at 12:59 AM
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Freshly blogged: "Photo of a Woman Sporting a Top Hat and Pipe in 1907" https://markstoneman.com/2025/10/01/photo-of-a-woman-sporting.html

What we can say about the person in the photo on this old postcard? Said person wrote the card, so there are at least a few clues.…

#CrossDressing
Postcard with a photo of a woman from above the waist. She is wearing a man's suit and a top hat, and she has a pipe in left side of her mouth. The look on her face is playful.
October 1, 2025 at 6:42 PM
markstoneman.com
Via https://www.threads.com/@adam_kinzinger/post/DPPROQEEpHp?xmt=AQF0w6o53Ysm6zguqRu9RvcI9ic6LHmNpP3FWloSAucgiQ
Text Shot: Quoth Adam Kinzinger @adam_kinzinger@threads.net: I will say, watching the behavior of the Generals today, respectful but reserved and apolitical in the face of Trump was heartening. Hopefully the next generation of officers, the young ones, see that and take it to heart.
September 30, 2025 at 10:29 PM
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"Poster: 'Books are Weapons in the War of Ideas'" https://markstoneman.com/2025/09/27/poster-books-are-weapons-in.html
Text Shot: Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons. – Franklin D. Roosevelt, on poster titled "Books are weapons in the war of ideas" (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1942), via Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96502725/. This is the poster I take my header image from: a 1942 U.S. government poster that features an illustration of little Nazis burning books and a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt on a book towering over them. I include the quote in this post.
September 28, 2025 at 12:59 AM
markstoneman.com
As a teenager, I hiked all of these mountains, sometimes adding 2.25 miles of dirt road from where I lived. From left to right, these are Tripyramid, Whiteface, Paugus, and Chocorua. I also used to enjoy canoeing on Lake Chocorua.

Crosspost from stoneman.blog/mts #Photos #NH #NewHampshire
Snapshot of the mountains named in this post from the shore of Lake Chocorua. Blue sky and some clouds.
September 27, 2025 at 9:39 PM
markstoneman.com
I took this picture today in Wonalancet, NH, from the small cemetery where my grandmother lies.

Crosspost from stoneman.blog/wonalancet #Photos #NH #NewHampshire
Blue sky, small white wooden church in the camera's focus, a small road and power line in front of it, trees on either side, a mowed field in the foreground and a small wooden post fence from the cemetery.
September 27, 2025 at 9:25 PM
markstoneman.com
A prophetic comedy for these upside-down times: "Rapture-Palooza" (Lionsgate, 2013). Also foundational: "Idiocracy" (20th Century Fox, 2006).

Repost from stoneman.blog/rapture (April 21, 2025)
RAPTURE-PALOOZA poster with Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson, A MATCH MADE IN HELL.
September 23, 2025 at 5:45 PM
markstoneman.com
Freshly blogged: "A Sunflower Garden Opposite the Russian Embassy in DC"
Snapshots of a Ukrainian victory garden opposite the Russian embassy in Glover Park at stoneman.blog/sunflowers
#SunflowerGarden #DC #СлаваУкраїні #ПутінІдиНахуй
Sunflowers at sunset with a bit of the Russian embassy in the background. A Metrobus seems to be hiding behind the leaves.
September 20, 2025 at 3:25 PM
markstoneman.com
This World War II poster identifies the link between civil rights and military strength: "Bonds and justice will smash the Nazis, not bondage!" 1/2

Adapted repost from stoneman.blog/bonds

#WorldWarII #CivilRights #Justice #MilitaryPower
A black man's left forearm and fist and a white man's left forearm and fist shown striking a big swaztika. The black man has a broken chain dangling from his wrist. The text reads, 'Bonds and justice will smash the Nazis. Not bondage!'
September 13, 2025 at 12:53 AM
markstoneman.com
The Russo-Japanese War differed in many ways from Russia's current war against Ukraine, but this old postcard speaks to me: "Your size and weight don't count in my style of wrestling."

See stoneman.blog/russian-bear...

#OldPostcards #RussianBear #Ukraine #RussianWarInUkraine
Man in a red Japanese outfit talking to the Russian Bear in green army trousers and brown army boots as he sits on the ground and holds his head. Stars over his head indicate the hits he took. There is ocean behind them and then the sun, indicating the far east. On the horizon, four warships have been blown into the sky.
September 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
markstoneman.com
A couple of the app icons optimized for Liquid Glass are showing weird white or grey partial borders on my iDevices. I'm looking at you Drafts and Overcast (the two on the left of the accompanying image). I hope this is not going to be a widespread phenomenon.
x-post from stoneman.blog/liquid-icons
Row of app icons from a screenshot of my iPhone in with black wallpaper. From left to right, the apps are Overcast, Drafts, Ivory, and Ulysses.
September 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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A positive view of immigrants in a 1903 Puck cartoon inspired by Theodore Roosevelt
https://stoneman.blog/immigration-cartoon-1903
#immigration #prejudice #cartoons #history #migration 🗃️
Illustration shows President Theodore Roosevelt firing a cannon to send a life-line to a ship in distress on rough seas with dark clouds labeled 'Prejudice' forming overhead; the rope spells out the word 'Tolerance'. A rainbow shines on the left with the word 'Liberty'. In the lower right corner is a quote from 'The President's Reference to Immigrants'.
September 12, 2025 at 5:24 AM
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#InformationDisorder #NewsMedia
Text Shot: It’s a common refrain that the news industry has failed to come up with a functioning business model in the Internet age, but that’s not entirely true. Jettisoning the requirement to report news in favor of inciting the rage and fear and hatred of your audience before serving them up ads for guns and bunkers is a perfectly functional business model. It might not be journalism, might be the opposite of journalism, but the checks clear. – Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Knopf, 2025), chap. 2.
September 4, 2025 at 10:11 PM
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What 19th-century European understandings of war and dueling can tell us about Putin's murderous invasion of Ukraine and how he labels his war: https://markstoneman.com/2022/08/11/more-than-a.html (blogged 3 years ago)
#PutinsWar #RussoUkrainianWar #LanguageMatters #HistoryMatters #PastAndPresent 🗃️
Text Shot: If we take the Clausewitzian metaphor of war as a duel somewhat literally, the Russian invasion of Ukraine becomes a struggle between two equals, two entities with the same dignity, the same right to exist. After all, duels have traditionally been fought between two parties capable of giving satisfaction for a perceived injury by one to the other’s honor. An officer could duel another officer, but not a sergeant, a lowly conscript, or a civilian occupying a more modest social position. By calling its invasion a “special military operation,” Russia denies Ukraine’s worthiness and sovereignty. It casts Ukraine and Ukrainians as other, fundamentally inferior, or devoid of honor, so to speak. Rejecting Ukrainian statehood outright, the term “special military operation” facilitates what the talking heads in Russia discuss openly on state TV: genocide, the elimination of Ukrainian culture, ethnicity, and language.
September 1, 2025 at 11:01 PM
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Yesterday I blogged about some lists I found in a recipe box of my grandmother's:
https://markstoneman.com/2025/08/30/cookie-baking-lists-from-my.html

#FamilyHistory #WomensLives
Index card (3 x5 inches) with Grandma's summary of her Christmas cookie production between 1977 and 1985. 753 med to lg in 1977, 1042 tiny in 1978, 1352 tiny in 1979, 1192 tiny in 1980, 1067 med to lg in 1981, 438 med to lg in 1982 ('six varieties only'), 529 med in 1983 ('five varieties only'), unknown for 1984, 538 in 1985. Note with Grandma's Christmas cookie count for 1979. 1,352 that she classified as 'tiny', of which: 103 Pfefeffernusse [sic], 155 Anise flops, 63 anis drops, 48 date-nut, 156 olasses, 144 crescents, 105 chocolate chip, 158 peanut butter, 990 Swedish cherry, 75 white sponge, 84 white spritz, 96 chocolate spritz, 75 green spritz.
August 31, 2025 at 12:27 PM
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The sky outside a supermarket in North Conway, NH, early yesterday evening https://markstoneman.com/uploads/2025/d5325dc091.jpg
A parking lot with cars, mountains in the background, at sunset, with peach-colored clouds in the sky. The camera is pointed up at the sky this time. Only the sky at sunset with clouds is visible.
August 29, 2025 at 2:21 AM
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I missed this NYT report from July 16, 2025, by Shawn Hubler. https://archive.ph/9lLIt
#CivilMilitaryRelations
Text Shot: The California National Guard had 72 soldiers whose enlistment was set to expire during the deployment. Of those 72, at least two have now left the Guard and 55 others have indicated that they will not extend their service, according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is fighting Mr. Trump’s deployment in court. That number, if troops act on it, would amount to a 21 percent retention rate, far lower than the Guard’s typical 60 percent rate, officials said. –“Trump’s National Guard Troops Are Questioning Their Mission in L.A.” https://archive.ph/9lLIt
August 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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#LanguageMatters #ПутінІдиНахуй 🇺🇦
Text Shot: When Putin says that “all root causes of the crisis … must be eliminated,” he is referring to his sorry-ass excuses for ordering the illegal invasion of Ukraine. His words are nothing more than empty rhetoric to justify seizing Ukrainian land, kidnapping Ukrainian children, raping and murdering Ukrainian civilians, torturing and starving Ukrainian prisoners of war, seeking the eradication of Ukraine’s language and culture, and more.
August 16, 2025 at 1:38 AM