Rebecca Spang
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rlspang.bsky.social
Rebecca Spang
@rlspang.bsky.social
13K followers 2.4K following 3.8K posts
Professor of History, sometimes administrator at big public university in Midwest. Writes about money, French Revolution, restaurants. Friend to vert paleo.

ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow.

once/future Mainer
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rlspang.bsky.social
There’s only one of us left, but I’m not going without a fight!!!
Photo of Orange traffic sign at entrance to a university “Beware of pedestrian”
November 17, 2025 at 6:36 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
It’s been a hide in the linen closet sort of #Caturday
A medium haired white cat (brightly lit) looks out from between a stack of towels and some washcloths. On the shelf below are neatly folded, white bed linens
November 15, 2025 at 11:14 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
I'm sorry, I don't think I can alt-text caption this ridiculously cherubic, balding, middle-aged businessman in pseudo-Roman gear who (for reasons obviously related to the city's name etc.) featured in the publications of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
November 15, 2025 at 7:03 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
From my brilliant friend and colleague @richardtn.bsky.social who (having spent much of his life at the race track) knows a thing or two about gamblers
We are currently a nation trapped in a Trump casino watching those we trusted with our lives and our country go on tilt at the craps table. Or at blackjack. Some of you have seen this happen: the loser at Texas Hold’em, betting beyond his hand because he is pot-committed, and having put too much in already, feels that it’s too late to fold, push back from the table, and walk away. Even if you never gamble, never set foot in a casino, you have probably seen at least that scene from Goodfellas where Joe Pesci’s character goes on tilt, losing at blackjack, telling the dealer “hit me again!” Obscenities flavoring every utterance like salt on popcorn, as he keeps borrowing, betting, losing, far beyond his credit limit. It’s a hypnotic scene, mesmerizing, the cliched “car crash in slow motion” from which we cannot look away, the inevitable cascading of ruin and despair. Only we are watching the legislators who asked us to trust them to do what’s right for the country get up every day and vote to do what’s wrong. Last week they voted to give a half-million dollars apiece of taxpayer money to those of them who had been determined to be material witnesses to the crime of insurrection. What will they vote for next week? Gamblers on tilt don’t walk away. They borrow until no one will lend; then they steal. The addict dies with the needle in his arm. Every Republican needs to see their party as it now is. Those who had enough and entered a program are long gone. We’re down to the hardcore now, too weak to help themselves, too numb to feel, just filled with need and self-loathing. The ugly days are ahead.
November 15, 2025 at 3:51 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
I have to tell you what really happened to the plums...

Elise New seems to have offered them to Woody Allen in exchange for his involvement with her edX MOOC.

One creepy slimey scammy thing after another in those files.
(via splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app)
email from Elise New to Woody Allen: Dear Woody, Tel: Fax As I know Jeffrey has told you, I really enjoyed our conversation on the plane last spring about William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just to Say." You offered a reading of the poem that seemed to me completely persuasive and plausible and, yet, also, one that is not strictly dictated or delimited by the lines themselves. These are lines that seem to me unusually open to divergent readings-- including, for instance, a reading much more coaxing and seductive; another, much more defensive and manipulative; another, much more about language itself as a mode of sharing. I left our conversation wanting to explore with you the aggressive (or maybe mock aggressive) reading you gave, as well as the way this poem, perhaps more than many, sustains so many readings. You helped me think about Williams's poem as it seems in some ways more like a "script" than a poem, a poem written in such a way as to be turned by different voices in different directions, a poem that might even be "directed" by the reader. I'd love to hear you read the poem again and, if you are willing, to discuss it a bit with me on camera for my upcoming Massive Open Online Course on American poetry.
November 13, 2025 at 3:42 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
For fans of Cavell's _Pursuits of Happiness_ I give you a real-life remarriage comedy. At least, I hope it was a comedy! If anyone wants to go dig around in census etc. records and discover "what happened next" (or, before) go right ahead. _Nashville (Arkansas) News_ May 3, 1911
newspaper clipping with text "A. K. and Ama Buzbee were married at the court house in this city last Saturday, Justice W. O Dorsey performing the marriage. The couple had been married before but were later divorced."
November 12, 2025 at 2:46 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
From the less well known work of L. Frank Baum, The Sea Fairies (1911)
"Stop stop!" cried the monster... "Do you mean to tell me that the earth people whom I have always respected compare me to the Stannerd Oil Company?... On what a disgrace," moaned the Octopus. "What a cruel, direful, dreadful disgrace"
November 10, 2025 at 1:32 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
This is really so enjoyable and fascinating. It’s the Haitian “Marseillaise”
November 7, 2025 at 1:12 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
Really excited to be at this performance of music from the earliest years of independent Haïti
November 7, 2025 at 12:14 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
I like it. I liked mine too
Selfie of a short, slim white woman. Her brown-auburn hair is up and she has gold “plastic” glasses. Wearing lightweight “leopard” print (but with no black) turtleneck, ditsy floor length skirt in same colors, and an autumn leaves scarf (around waist).
October 28, 2025 at 1:29 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
I see your witch and I give you "littlest witch"
Beloved and very well behaved late Maltese (2006-2023) patiently sits with small witch hat on his head. A small orange pumpkin on the hearth in the background.
October 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 2:40 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
Hand made sign on cardboard “Protesting for free since 1773” Reverse. NO KINGS. And text from Declaration of Independence
October 18, 2025 at 4:51 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
Some oldies but goodies
October 18, 2025 at 5:03 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
A late dinner of cheesy potato cakes and mushrooms
October 16, 2025 at 2:25 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
#Caturday!!!
A fluffy white cat curled into C shape with chin pointing gently upwards is on the couch to my immediate left
October 11, 2025 at 4:29 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
At the Cincinnati Zoo, feeding a giraffe
Photo of myself in profile with a giraffe’s face level with mine
October 5, 2025 at 5:57 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
Husband returned from fast visit to his mother (central Missouri) with this 1927-28 Montgomery Ward catalog and I can’t stop looking at it.
Cover shows a young woman looking at said catalog Women’s dresses Dollar bargains, including 30 rolls of “Japanese crepe” toilet paper Color illustration of women’s and children’s sweaters
September 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
I have never seen him sleep here or in this pose, but I guess he knows how we all feel this #Caturday
A white cat with an especially fluffy tail lies on an Eastlake-style settee. He is on his side, legs spread, head looking as if he is about to faint. The furnishings and barely visible house plants add to the surprisingly bright image of “Decadence and decline, c. 1899”
September 27, 2025 at 9:32 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
I didn’t dig up the dahlia tubers last fall. We had a seriously cold winter. But this dahlia decided to thrive anyway. Be like dahlia!
A dark maroon water lily dahlia bloom against messy background of its foliage and many many self seeded marigolds
September 19, 2025 at 3:32 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
It's completely petty, but I am hugely delighted to discover that my History professor office is a MUCH better zoom background than my Interim Dean's office ever was
Screenshot of me (middle aged white woman with reddish brown hair pulled back, glasses, dangly pearl earrings, black-white scarf, black sleeveless top over sheer white one) against a backdrop of neatly stacked (vertical and horizontal books), many French with white bindings, rainbow bindings of HWJ. Also visible, some small ceramic dogs and Freud action figure.
September 15, 2025 at 4:24 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
It’s #Caturday and not a second too soon!
High contrast and tightly cropped photo of a medium hair white cat sleeping atop a simple red oak Arts & Crafts arm chair, cushions covered in gold teal paisley
September 13, 2025 at 4:05 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
Emergency cat wisdom: put AWAY your phone and play with something tangled or feathery. It will be more fun!
September 11, 2025 at 3:21 AM
rlspang.bsky.social
What would Bowie’s “I’m the first in my family who can spell” have sounded like?!!
September 5, 2025 at 1:24 PM
rlspang.bsky.social
Ready to go
Hand lettered poster reading “Everybody [rainbow colors] united (red white blue) against the broligarch$”
September 1, 2025 at 4:54 PM