iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 14h

An XKCD-style map of the United States I'd like to see: State university presses that use "University of ____ Press" vs. State university presses that use "University Press of ___" vs. Other weirdos

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 16h

I decided to email my college president to see if she'll visit my class this semester. Intellectually it makes sense, and I did this once before (about ten years ago?). Anyway, why not, right? College presidents should hang out in classrooms.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 17h

Credit where due, they picked a gorgeous day for a fire drill ☀️👩‍🚒

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

You have to wonder if those kids from Summerlin, Nevada knew how useful their band name would be for social media memes.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I’m minding my own business, going down rabbit holes, staying up too late, when suddenly one friend texts about her breakup and another sends me juicy feedback on something I drafted. So now I want to stay up all night! But the breakup friend commanded me to go to bed.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Now that everyone’s done atoning, here’s a playlist of hip hop songs named for Marx Brothers movies (well, the ones I could find). open.spotify.com/playlist/5Ru...

open.spotify.com

Marx Dawgs

Playlist · ben.carp-fr · 7 items

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Frederick Mackenzie still has the best description of the Fire of 1776. Today is the 250th anniversary of an event that says more about the American Revolution than we want to admit! yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

yalebooks.yale.edu

The Great New York Fire of 1776

Who set the mysterious fire that burned down much of New York City shortly after the British took the city during the Revolutionary War? “An elegant, re...

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When I got my PhD, my brother said to me, “I hope you don’t expect me to call you ‘doctor’ now!” So I pointed out, “You didn’t call me ‘mister’ before!”

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Thanks for the #Mets memories, Howie Rose! Thank you for helping teach my son about the game. My dad was at the first game at Shea, and my son and I got to meet Howie in the press room in 2024. 💙🧡

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Grown men crying as Howie calls his last Mets game

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The rain is coming early to the Mets radio broadcast booth as they say goodbye to Howie Rose 🥹😭

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Constitution Day seems like a healthy idea, but frankly we could use a Wisdom day

Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏

Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

How awesome would it be to live in a world where you express a historical opinion and Jamelle Bouie pops up like the State Farm guy to engage with you?

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s probably the sign of a healthy culture (or the cold winters) that they spend more time dreaming up violent crimes than committing them.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history,” he [Trump] wrote. (NYT) (Worst person you know meme, etc.)

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Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏

Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“The dwarves shelved too greedily and too deep…”

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

LGBT folk of Davis Square can rejoice! Oh, not Diesel Cafe, never mind

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We’re all going to have to cover ourselves in mud, like Arnold at the end of “Predator”

(From NYT): “She said she had relayed to faculty member that in Florida, where she had been a college president, she knew of universities that were exploring heat-mapping technology and other tactics to keep tabs on faculty members”

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Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏

Tor Books @torbooks.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Thrice-Bound Fool is the epic, rollicking next chapter in the bestselling and “awesome as hell” (Nicholas Eames) fantasy adventure series that began with The Blacktongue Thief. Coming 10/13/2026! vist.ly/5htnb

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Interestingly Bunch was the first historian of the 14 people who have led the Smithsonian. Usually it’s a scientist.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

As the president makes up stories about 9/11 (when his actual reaction was bragging that the collapse of the towers meant that he now owned the tallest downtown building), I keep thinking of this post. His followers love this about him! timothyburke.substack.com/p/repost-tru...

timothyburke.substack.com

[REPOST] Trump Is A Suicide Bomber, And That Is His Appeal

A Reminder of a 2024 Post That Continues To Be Validated By This Administration

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Neighborhood ambient music report: someone’s playing “Careless Whisper” by George Michael! 🎷 Police haven’t reported the names of any suspects, but a spokesperson assured the public that guilty feet don’t have sufficient rhythm to evade the authorities for long.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My mom won that game for the #Mets through the power of focusing on the television

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I anticipate a lot of arch remarks

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

This also annoys me as a historian. Btw why does everyone (especially centrists) keep falling for this? Rush Limbaugh turns “liberal” into a dirty word, all of a sudden pundits insist we must run away from the label.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Disco is not yet dead in my neighborhood, where someone’s playing “Last Dance” by Donna Summer Pretty fitting, since it’s my last day of summer! youtu.be/561fy1vqIo8?...

youtu.be

Last Dance

YouTube video by Donna Summer - Topic

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

And I, for one, welcome our cookie overlords…

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Can we talk about how ridiculous it is that California puts the URL of the DMV on its license plate? Like, who is stopped at a traffic light and scribbling that down?

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Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏

G. Patrick O'Brien @gpatrickobrien.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Teaching a class on the Revolution or Early America this fall? Be sure to check out the freshly published article in Remembering the American Revolution at 250. Read Spencer Wells', "Damned Loyalists: Weaponizing Conscience in a Revolutionary World," here: journals.h-net.org/America250/a...

journals.h-net.org

Damned Loyalists: Weaponizing Conscience in a Revolutionary World | Remembering the American Revolution at 250

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Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏

Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 18/08/2026

being named frank beard from frankston in a band with guys with famous beards is like winning the nominative determinism lottery

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This honestly made me feel better—all day I’ve been thinking the name “Harp” is annoyingly too close

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

🎶 Rubber ducky, I’m parasocially fond of you… 🎶

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

At the ballgame today a toddler in front of us was asking for “vodka” and his parents nervously explained that he’s just really into penne alla vodka

static.klipy.com

Sure Jan Brady Bunch

ALT: Sure Jan Brady Bunch

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

For the historian crowd, this is also the thesis of everything Shane White ever wrote

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The Beastie Boys tried to warn us that every generation must fight for the right to party. The price of partying is eternal vigilance. Amen.

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I will literally do anything to avoid working on syllabi

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

This is the type of thing instructors do to get good end-of-semester evaluations!

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Not for nothing, but Freddie Mercury also once sang: “Now, I got mortgages on homes I got stiffness in my bones…”

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Played a game with my mom about how many people she’s met with Wikipedia pages and we came up with five: F. Lee Bailey, Jr., Robert Caro, Mehmet Oz, a friend of my brother’s and an ex of mine

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

At the restaurant this evening they had a playlist going of “one-hit wonders from the ‘90s” and omg…if you could only see that I would walk 500 miles for princes who adore you even though it’s just a little crush and it’s one last call for alcohol so black velvet if you please

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Benjamin L. Carp 🎏 @bencarp.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

@gpatrickobrien.bsky.social here’s another encouragement post. I’m looking forward to the book, and it’s going to be a real thing of value, so get some miles under you today!

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