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agrippina

@agrippina.bsky.social
122 followers 117 following 526 posts

Writing and editing (treaties, trade, and other foreign policy; novels, poetry, flash fiction). Mostly on here with domestic life.

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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I realize I'm not the first person to make this complaint, but the Six Seasons series of cookbooks---which has some of my favorite recipes and I'd recommend them to anyone---appears to be unedited. Lots of basic errors (e.g., ingredients in the title but not in the recipe) throughout.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is my first time reading Adorno and is he actually this much of an asshole or is it some quirk of translation?
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
THE TWENTYSOMETHING ECONOMIST I'M EDITING WITH A VELVET HEADBAND AND CHARLI XCX SHIRT: I'm like soooo bad at writing lmao, thanks for all your help! ME, SWEATING THROUGH A PAGE ABOUT HETEROSKEDASTIC ERRORS: uhhh yeah. Anytime
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm only 20 pages in so TBD! But the main topic at hand seems to be expressionism vs reality, particularly in a capitalist society, so I'm really looking forward to reading both sides.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
(from #13 of the Radical Thinkers series, "Adorno et al: Aesthetics and Politics")
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I like a good straightforward opening sentence. "The conflict between Ernst Bloch and Georg Lukács over expressionism in 1938 forms one of the most revealing episodes in modern German letters." I'm sold, I'm locked in, I'm simply too seated, etc
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My man doesn't deserve to be bodied by Wikipedia like this
The contents from Herman Melville's Wikipedia entry. One reads "1845-1850: Successful writer", "1850-1851: Hawthorne and Moby-Dick", and "1852-1857: Unsuccessful writer."
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Finally reading Billy Budd and after a slowish start I'm having a fantastic time. Nobody has ever done it like Herman Melville.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I've always enjoyed the H Street festival but these days I get verklempt about it. There is an effort to crush us into submission and we're still out here. Our friends, our neighbors, our community is really all we have.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This stuff sounds cool in dystopian fiction but I have to emphasize how profoundly banal it is. It's miserable and we're exhausted. Luckily DC still has funk music.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Even as the despot tightens his grip on the occupied capital, locals gather for a festival in the shadow of armored vehicles and watching soldiers with their sidearms.
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
rip annie dillard
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I've had multiple endocrine dysfunction issues and have been on various HRT since I was in my 20s. The recent availability and lower expense of HRT medication has been a godsend. Yes, this shoudn't solely be in the hands of private companies, but everybody who wants HRT should have it.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
There are valid and important points to be made about predatory marketing, to say nothing of the cesspool that is Instagram, but IMO this article veers a bit too close to "do they really NEED hormones?"
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Having a solid base of carbs and greasy food is important wine bar prep!
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The experience of reading is more than scanning words on a page and matching them to dictionary definitions. Engage with a work, push back, struggle a little. It's not supposed to be a passive experience!
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
As someone finishing Victor Hugo's Ninety-Three, this observation is SO spot on. Umberto Eco even says as much in his essay "Hugo, Hélas!: The Poetics of Excess" - the extraordinarily dense and repetitive prose lends to the scale of the revolution and the odds against it.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I would simply like people to be normal about gender for five minutes.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Or what seems to be proof that whoever made this has clearly never read Rooney or Ferrante (and maybe not Dostoyevsky?) because anyone who had wouldn't say the themes are unappealing to men
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
What's the most offensive aspect here? The idea that Rooney and Ferrante "focus on themes" that are inherently unappealing to men? That men can't be expected to care about women writers or women's interior lives? That men are fragile snowflakes who need books that make other men nod approvingly?
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Apropos of nothing I resent the idea that we as writers can't tell the difference between using a spell checker and having an AI tool generate your work. This whole "oh, but where do you draw the line? Isn't it so nuanced? Don't be a gatekeeper!" stuff insults the intelligence of everyone involved.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Tomato season = pasta, salad, and of course the silken tofu with pickled tomatoes from Hetty McKinnon. If you haven't bought sungolds yet this year now is the time! #cookingsky
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The short answer is that I love and value my work more than ever and I intend to keep doing it until my integrity is threatened or they march us out of the building.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
We all know we're under stress, but there's nothing quite like someone reminding you if they had your job they would jump out of a window.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Got an accidental psychic suplex from a stranger at a professional event yesterday when I described my current role and someone replied "What gives you the strength to keep going?"
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Mental health has, well, it's been better, but summer produce has cheered me up a lot. Plus a beautiful Penedès we enjoyed at a neighborhood picnic. #cookingsky #winesky
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
People's writing, even nonfiction, represents a lot of labor, care, and aspiration. I treat it with the utmost respect no matter what. Can we please leave the "all art is suffering and you should have your heart ripped out every day" back in, like, 2005?
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Re: editor discourse, I can't think of anything more harmful than letting writers believe abuse is part of the process. Editing is a conversation, a relationship, a team effort. It can deflate your ego---a lot of writing is learning you aren't as clever as you thought---but it should never be cruel.
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Seriously, though, this is part of the weird moralistic way people talk about writing (of any kind) that dissuades people from pursuing it. No, writing is not always a journey of pain and misery that only the strong survive. It’s just not always sunshine and lollipops, either. It’s just work.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
That video of the people getting their hands splashed with chocolate like small children really made me think about infantilization of wealthy people but there's something else going on, too. Every service industry has to find new ways to cater to people affected by (waves hands)
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A much-needed perspective in a publication that's well worth your time and investment. These days "experience" seems to signal that you're paying for an intangible sense of luxury and self-importance. Why is that so hot right now? Why do we need restaurants to validate us?
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Rafael M Batista @rafmbatista.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Patriot front marching from Union Station right now. White supremacist and neo-fascist organization. Cowards.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I'm already the kind of person more inclined to think of military flyovers as "waste" versus "inspiring", but flyovers every ten minutes is both wasteful and intolerable in a city under occupation. And this is the rehearsal! We have seven straight hours of this tomorrow.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
This is so alarming and maybe related to the growing notion that discomfort is harm, that art (and life?) is meant to be experienced without friction or challenge to your pre-existing opinions. I don't know where it originated or how to remedy it.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I've briefed the president of the United States but I don't think I'll ever match today's career high of convincing two lawyers to delete a paragraph
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Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 23/06/2026
can god create a new doubt so doubtful that not even He could raise it
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
monnezzaglia ("leftover") pasta + caramelized cabbage + homemade ramp pesto + Loire chenin blanc = dinner done quick. PS check out our newly stained fence!
#cookingsky A bag of monnezzaglia ("leftover") pasta of all different shapes, sizes, and colors.#winesky A bowl of pesto pasta with a newly-stained fence and flowers and a bottle of wine.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
DC is coming up on a full year of occupation, a full year of our neighbors getting snatched from the streets, seeing the National Guard patrol my streets every day, and losing what little self-determination we're allowed under home rule. I love this place more than ever. It's DC vs. everybody.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
There's an underground tamale place in our neighborhood. You get a heads-up about when they're open and place your order a week or so in advance. Another neighbor pours free margaritas on the porch while you chat with everyone else eagerly awaiting the best refried beans of your life.
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Jessi Grieser @jessgrieser.com · 10/06/2026
Wake up y’all new structure ambiguity exercise just dropped. #linguistics
An image of a Health poster hanging on the wall. It shows a variety of fruit organized in rainbow order. And reads “download advice on feeding newborns to teens”
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arr @arr.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
A writer called my developmental edits "a revelation", and compliment aside it's a nice reminder that there's no substitute (or automation) for another set of eyes.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Used some Samin Nosrat and Nigella Lawson recipes as a jumping-off point for this delicious ras el hanout chicken and orzo with rhubarb, dates, and shallots. Served with Oller del Mas' Superbloom pet nat. #cookingsky #winesky
A gray casserole dish on a decorated white marble plate. A black cat is on the table, examining the dish intently.The dish is now uncovered. A roast chicken is in the pot, surrounded by dates, orzo, rhubarb, shallots, and other ingredients. It is very orange from turmeric.The chicken and orzo now in a bowl, with a bottle of Oller del Mas's Superbloom pet nat.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The sweaty desperation here is sickening. On some level they know they're cheating, they know they shouldn't do this. They have to cope by saying we all do it. We don't.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Hi, I'm a working writer who doesn't use AI because I have "incredibly valuable" relationships with researchers, translators, and archivists at the Library of Congress.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Cold weather cooking for an unusually chilly weekend: mushroom bourguignon and polenta, plus a 2017 Hardscrabble from the inimitable Linden Vineyards #cookingsky #winesky
A wooden table with a fork, bottle of wine, and white bowl. The bowl has polenta and mushroom bourguignon with parsley and pearl onions. The wine bottle is a 2017 Hardscrabble from Linden Vineyards.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Maybe more alarming than the AI prose is how every other sentence is a heinously overwrought metaphor and a real human judge called it "restraint"
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
If I hear a single person in Friendship Heights insisting that nothing's really changed I am going to scream louder than Achilles before the Trojans
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The mutual aid work I've done for years (with the blessing of the DC government) now puts me and my fellow volunteers at risk of arrest. The National Guard walks up and down my block every couple hours. Our local golf course, designed as a refuge for Black golfers, is being seized by the admin.
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agrippina @agrippina.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Two nights of morel pasta, including the "Miles Morel-es": my husband's decadent mac and cheese (left) and my more spartan pasta with ramps (right). Plus a romorantin from Frantz Saumon that I'm still thinking about. #cookingsky #winesky
Two roasted morels on a bed of rich and creamy mac'n'cheese.Sauteed morels with shallots, ramps, and gruyere, plus a bottle of Frantz Saumon's romorantin and two glasses.
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