Ben Friedlander (he/him/his)
@mongibeddu.bsky.social
Poet, editor, scholar in Maine. Now available: Nice: The Collected Poems of David Melnick (https://nightboat.org/book/nice/). Free 🇵🇸; end the genocide now!
Holiday camaraderie in the long line at the grocery store
November 26, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Holiday camaraderie in the long line at the grocery store
Reposted by Ben Friedlander (he/him/his)
No email from a library system stirs the imagination like a notice my scan is ready to download through WORLDCAT. The great cat that surrounds the world? That nuzzles the roots of the world-scratching-tree? The great world cat who is and was and shall be? That cat???
November 25, 2025 at 8:19 AM
No email from a library system stirs the imagination like a notice my scan is ready to download through WORLDCAT. The great cat that surrounds the world? That nuzzles the roots of the world-scratching-tree? The great world cat who is and was and shall be? That cat???
Annoying as hell when submitting a letter of recommendation requires ranking the student in numerous categories, but good god the school that has a drop-down menu for each one.
November 25, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Annoying as hell when submitting a letter of recommendation requires ranking the student in numerous categories, but good god the school that has a drop-down menu for each one.
Do kids still make crank phone calls? I haven’t received one in god knows how long. Not counting spam and robocalling—institutionalized crank.
October 28, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Do kids still make crank phone calls? I haven’t received one in god knows how long. Not counting spam and robocalling—institutionalized crank.
“deskilling students AND stealing their data” says it all and with the succinctness of Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.”
grifter bubble corporate welfare at public expense, deskilling students AND stealing their data
"...the university is paying OpenAI $16.9 million to provide ChatGPT Edu to more than half a million students and staff."
CSU is paying a private company so that company can access the captive market of students and faculty. Meanwhile CSU faces funding shortfalls.
CSU is paying a private company so that company can access the captive market of students and faculty. Meanwhile CSU faces funding shortfalls.
October 26, 2025 at 1:18 PM
“deskilling students AND stealing their data” says it all and with the succinctness of Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.”
I don’t understand a journal interface that only lets me print ten pages of an article but does let me download a PDF—which I can then print in full.
October 26, 2025 at 12:32 PM
I don’t understand a journal interface that only lets me print ten pages of an article but does let me download a PDF—which I can then print in full.
Saying the unspeakable part out loud.
October 22, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Saying the unspeakable part out loud.
Tying up loose ends on a long chapter isn’t impossible, but then neither is tying a cherry stem with your tongue.
October 19, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Tying up loose ends on a long chapter isn’t impossible, but then neither is tying a cherry stem with your tongue.
POST-CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA
Blank checks
and imbalances.
Blank checks
and imbalances.
October 17, 2025 at 12:23 AM
POST-CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA
Blank checks
and imbalances.
Blank checks
and imbalances.
“‘The banana plant’…wears the autumn wind and is broken by the autumn wind”—Dōgen
October 13, 2025 at 3:31 PM
“‘The banana plant’…wears the autumn wind and is broken by the autumn wind”—Dōgen
Edited an article with a long passage attributed to the wrong person (and much made of that misattribution). Didn’t even get an acknowledgment when it later appeared in a book.
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 12, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Edited an article with a long passage attributed to the wrong person (and much made of that misattribution). Didn’t even get an acknowledgment when it later appeared in a book.
The Democratic Party: “When they go low, we go high. But when they go right, we follow.”
September 24, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The Democratic Party: “When they go low, we go high. But when they go right, we follow.”
I managed to reserve ten pounds of sour cherries from what I thought was a local farm, but it turns out they’re in Ohio (not Maine). The search continues…
August 1, 2025 at 10:27 AM
I managed to reserve ten pounds of sour cherries from what I thought was a local farm, but it turns out they’re in Ohio (not Maine). The search continues…
I’m going to start asking cashiers if they want to round down.
July 2, 2025 at 12:31 PM
I’m going to start asking cashiers if they want to round down.
The cat gets so mad when she musters all her cuteness and yet I still don’t bend to her will.
June 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
The cat gets so mad when she musters all her cuteness and yet I still don’t bend to her will.
The top ten movie lists aren’t convincing me to watch more movies. Has cinema become a mid art form?
June 25, 2025 at 11:11 AM
The top ten movie lists aren’t convincing me to watch more movies. Has cinema become a mid art form?
A powerful flame has gone out but not the light it shared with us.
Alice Notley passed away Monday night in Paris, where I'm writing from. This will come as a shock to many, but she was battling a number of maladies in recent months, and things had gotten difficult rapidly. Her work is out there. Please feel free to spread the word.
May 20, 2025 at 3:18 PM
A powerful flame has gone out but not the light it shared with us.
I thought I’d lost the thread but I see now it was the wrong metaphor: my thread’s been stripped.
April 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM
I thought I’d lost the thread but I see now it was the wrong metaphor: my thread’s been stripped.
Heard about an IRB request at my university turned down because it included the phrase “climate justice.”
April 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Heard about an IRB request at my university turned down because it included the phrase “climate justice.”
Sad news.
Renowned jazz critic Francis J Davis died Monday morning, 78, at home, in his sleep. I've added a notice to the website for his Jazz Critics Poll, which he founded in 2006 and has led for 19 years. I'll update the site as I know more: hullworks.net/jazzpoll/
Jazz Critics Poll
hullworks.net
April 16, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Sad news.
I wonder what bookseller got the titles purged from the Naval Academy Library. I hope they sell at a premium, with part of it going to appropriate causes. He’ll, I’d buy from this list:
media.defense.gov
April 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I wonder what bookseller got the titles purged from the Naval Academy Library. I hope they sell at a premium, with part of it going to appropriate causes. He’ll, I’d buy from this list:
I started grad school in my thirties so it’s strange to think that many of the comp students I taught back then are already in their fifties.
April 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I started grad school in my thirties so it’s strange to think that many of the comp students I taught back then are already in their fifties.
A book so awful I erased all traces that I’d read it.
March 30, 2025 at 9:25 AM
A book so awful I erased all traces that I’d read it.
One of those days when I wish the students would meet me where I’m at, not the other way round.
March 25, 2025 at 2:21 PM
One of those days when I wish the students would meet me where I’m at, not the other way round.
Is there an antonym for Schadenfreude? The pain you feel when good things happen to those you hate.
March 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Is there an antonym for Schadenfreude? The pain you feel when good things happen to those you hate.