iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 17/09/2026

“Fear cannot be where knowledge is….” —James Stephens, ‘Irish Fairy Tales’ (1920)

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 29/08/2026

Now that’s one literate feline. (photo credit: @annthebrave.bsky.social)

Closeup photo of a gray cat at rest in front of loaded bookshelves.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 25/07/2026

Current reading: Colin Asher’s #biography of Nelson Algren, ‘Never a Lovely So Real’ (@wwnorton.com, 2019) One highlight so far: Algren’s conviction for stealing a #typewriter in Texas. #chicago #literature

Photo of the hardcover of Colin Asher’s biography of Nelson Algren, ‘Never a Lovely So Real’

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 24/07/2026

“[R]eading a good book makes one modest.” —Christopher Morley, ‘Parnassus on Wheels’ (1955)

“I think reading a good book makes one modest. When you see the marvellous insight into human nature which a truly great book shows, it is bound to make you feel small—like looking at the Dipper on a clear night, or seeing the winter sunrise when you go out to collect the morning eggs. And anything that makes you feel small is mighty good for you.”

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 23/07/2026

Nothing like a barrel cactus for a pillow.

Cat snoozing contentedly in a window resting its head against a cactus

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 30/06/2026

My 1926 soprano saxophone and my 1926 Underwood No. 5 typewriter in our 1926 Chicago bungalow.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 03/05/2026

Always follow Strunk & White’s wise advice: “Omit needless words.”

Edited headline from the New York Times reading, “Behind Voting Rights Case, Racism”

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 15/04/2026

My 30+-year-old cactus blooms every half dozen years or so, and this year it's time. Just what we need these days.

A cluster of cacti with a large pink blossom

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 08/02/2026

R.E.M.’s album ‘Murmur’ is as old now (43 years) as Glenn Miller’s hit “Tuxedo Junction” was when ‘Murmur’ came out.

Album cover for ‘Murmur’ by R.E.M. (1983).

Sheet music cover for the Glenn Miller recording “Tuxedo Junction” (1940)

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 31/01/2026

“Well said the Wiseman, now prov’d true… That the displeasure of the mighty is Th[a]n death it selfe more dread and desperate….” —Edmund Spenser, ‘The Faerie Queene’ (1596), 4.8.1–4

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 31/01/2026

Oh for pity’s sake, YES, Chuck, obviously spending IS one of your levers — as precisely (checking notes) EVERYONE has been telling you for over a year now. smh www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 19/10/2025

Scenes from the Boyd ladies’ participation in today’s #NoKings protests in Chicago. The kazoo and tambourine are their preferred instruments of joyful noise in resistance.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 09/07/2025

Nothing like a really accurate clock in a train station. (Seen just now in @rtachicago.bsky.social’s Union Station.)

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 14/06/2025

What we're protesting is no fun, but it's best to laugh at clowns and celebrate America with joy—so that's what @annthebrave.bsky.social and I did today (along with thousands of others filling the streets). #NoKings #indivisible #resist

Portrait of two people protesting the Trump regime with signs on their hats reading "Down with Trump" and "Trump Must Go," with American flag in the background.

Picture of a woman with a sign on her hat reading "Down with Trump" with other protesters, signs, flags, and skyscrapers in the background.

Man holding an American flag with a sign on his top hat reading "Trump Must Go" with other protesters in the background on a city street.

Man in a red shirt with a sign on his top hat reading "Down with Trump" waving a large American flag on a flagstaff above a crowd of rally-goers on a city street.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 26/04/2025

Easy edit for this headline.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 23/04/2025

Black licorice jellybeans are still my go-to fave in the Easter basket, but they have a new contender hard on their heels.

Empty wrapper of a “Twix Egg” candy on a pink tablecloth with a daisy pattern.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 22/04/2025

The gall of Musk's Department of Education to email asking me to feed them still more info for DOGE's datasets. (No offense to the faithful public servants who still remain at @altdepted.bsky.social. Strength to your hands!)

Screenshot of part of an email from the U.S. Department of Education soliciting submission of the FAFSA form.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 19/04/2025

My protest placard for the #50501 demonstrations today (and as long as we need them). Written on a Dutch-language typewriter made in Germany (in 1954) — because America doesn’t need to be first if we build good friendships. #resist #nokings #stoptrump

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 22/02/2025

Honestly though it’s totally unfair to actual muskrats, who are adorable and ecologically important.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 13/02/2025

A very personal thanks to the employee(s) in the U.S. Department of State who processed our daughters' passport applications—submitted during the Biden administration but received just now. Your workdays must be hell, but thanks for taking care of a couple young citizens in need.

Photo of the covers of two U.S. passport books.

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 13/02/2025

This is from Edmund Spenser’s sixteenth-century poem, ‘The Faerie Queene’ — or maybe it’s straight out of Ted Lasso’s mouth.

Quotation from Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 25/01/2025

Seen in a neighborhood diner:

Vintage sign in a cafe reading “Only YOU Can Prevent Narcissism”

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 13/01/2025

“One may speak out like sword stabs, but the tongue of the wise is healing.” —Proverbs 12:18, trans. Robert Alter (@wwnorton.bsky.social, 2019)

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 10/01/2025

After an unexpected illness after Christmas, my father passed away this weekend. We grieve his loss, but celebrate his life and legacy with joy! For those who may want to come to a celebration of his life in Evanston, Illinois, here are the details: boydsnest.org/news/2025/bi...

Portrait of Bill Boyd, with details of a memorial celebration

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 15/12/2024

Not a spoiler, I promise! But one highlight for me in the new Christmas-themed Netflix movie ‘Carry-On’ is when we get to see a portable typewriter go through the machine. Could be documentary footage of me at security—except OBVIOUSLY would be in its case! 🤣

Photo of a paused movie showing title information and an airport security-scan image of a mechanical typewriter

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 15/12/2024

I don’t care what anyone else may say: the track by Blues Traveler on ‘A Very Special Christmas 3’ (1997) is great.

Screenshot of an Apple Watch playing the tune “Christmas” by Blues Traveler

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 08/12/2024

“Her heart—like every heart, if only its fallen sides were cleared away—was an inexhaustible fountain of love: she loved everything she saw.” ―George MacDonald, “The History of Photogen and Nycteris” (1879), in ‘The Complete Fairy Tales’ (@penguinbooksusa.bsky.social, 1999) #relationalspirituality

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 24/11/2024

An expression of George MacDonald’s I’ll be borrowing: “you’ve got a tile loose.”

A page from ‘The Complete Fairy Tales,’ by George MacDonald

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Jon Boyd @jonboyd.org · 24/11/2024

Be good. He’s watching you.

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