iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

wonder how much my friends paid the Times to push this story onto my newsfeed

Teaser for New York Times story: "The Scientific Case for Being Less in Touch With Your Friends."

MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

nothing can go wrong if we tell the cataloger to teach a library instruction session for a comparative literature seminar on the Brothers Grimm, they said

A slide deck for a one-shot on the Brothers Grimm titled "My Mother, She Killed Me; My Father, He Ate Me; The Librarian Was Helpful, Though."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Seriously, if you're having a hard day, click through to that blog post. You will not regret it.

Detail from one of the images, showing baby dragons hanging out.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Before today, if I thought of dragons in relation to Edward Burne-Jones, the painter, I thought of his paintings of St. George and the dragon

St. George stabs a dragon through the throat while a woman looks on. Taken from Wikimedia Commons.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Apparently minority opinion: coffee should not be crunchy

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This may be the best chart I have ever seen in my entire life

A chart labeled "Symbolic Resolution of Social Contradictions in Gidget."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Eleanor loved humans and she also loved dogs. She was rescued from a hoarding situation and it was obvious that she had had positive interactions with dogs and puppies at a formative age. Here is a photo of her guarding Bella the beagle from attack by Perdita, the dog disliker, while Bella sleeps.

Bella, a beagle, sleeps on a couch. Eleanor sits on the arm of the couch and watches the other cat (not in shot) to deter attack.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Eleanor the cat has died. Here is a screenshot of the tweet in which I introduced her to Twitter in December of 2016.

Text of tweet: "Everyone, this is ELEANOR. Eleanor's hobbies include imitating a bat and meowing for attention every ninety seconds." Accompanying image: a black kitten looking determined.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I found a Rarity-81 word worth 94 pts in OUTLIER. EAGLE EYES · 839 points · 10 rare words. Only 16 players have ever found it in all of Outlier. 2 finds no one else found today. OUTLIER: the daily word hunt where the rarest words win. Can you beat me? playoutlier.com/s/5FWAUQ

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I try not to get too in the weeds with the ridiculous things these people say when they do such terrible things but I'm sorry, this is too much. How can someone who was absent for months without explanation "define workhorse?"

An article from CNN about Thomas Kean, Jr., the disappearing congressman. It quotes Speaker Mike Johnson as saying of Kean, "There are shoe ponies and there are workhorses. This guy [Kean] defines workhorse."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

And whatever registered there, registered alone.

The Richardson Hotel in Buffalo, which was in its previous iteration the New York State Asylum for the Insane.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I believe they call this "girl dinner"

A pickle, a Three Musketeers bar, and some mozzarella sticks.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A sixteenth-century Humpen, or giant communal drinking vessel, depicting the various stages of a woman's life. As we all know, the two most important of these are the "reading to geese" era and the "being comforted by surprisingly buff skeletons" era.

A vessel on display at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The first failed attempt at the Hale Telescope lens. (Visiting the Corning Museum of Glass.)

A gigantic pockmarked, cracked piece of glass.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

This is possibly my favorite line from a movie review ever

The line: "Sex, the wonderplay of the season ... is startling, even bold in spots, but very, very nice."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I know this is an actual US congressman (for a little while, anyway) but in every photo I've seen of him, he looks like a British comedian pretending to be a US congressman to wind us up

A CNN article about Andy Ogles losing his primary.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Toto, I don't think we're in the Midwest anymore

A display of various cheeses with an explanatory display banner reading WHAT IS A CHEESE CURD? I have never been less in the U. P. (For reference, I am at the Fly Creek Cider Mill store near Cooperstown, New York.)

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

we are the last institution in our consortium to have a copy of this so we're holding onto it even though a) it is in bad condition b) it scares us you're welcome

A screenshot from WorldCat of a catalog record for a book called Marionettes Are People by Edith Thane. Summary: "How to make and manipulate marionettes."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

paperclips are evil even when they are not distressed, cf. Clippy

A stupid meme I made where Clippy (rot in hell) says, "It looks like your document doesn't have a rust stain. Do you want help with that?"

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Going to drink about seventeen of these over the weekend

Description of a drink served at Applegate Farms, a local ice cream parlor, called a Frozen Shirley Temple: cherry Italian ice blended with ginger ale.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Good to see Douglas is still finding ways to irritate Carolyn

The Guardian headline: "Airline Pilot Skywrites 'I'm Bored' Over England-Wales Border."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Emily visits the exhibit. She finds a handout with no info but a QR code, in a touch of brutal realism. But the back credits her gran and the DAR or whatever they are.

An exhibit handout: "The Romeo and Juliet of the Revolution."

"Presented by Beverly Chandler and the Ladies of Liberty."

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Other Revolutionary War reenactors, or maybe the same ones, roam the crowd holding lanterns. No one pays any attention to them. Are they ghosts? We also get a close-up of the strange cloth-draped barrel and a giant wheel attached to nothing.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

REVOLUTIONARY WAR REENACTORS circle each other balefully in the center of the room, making intense eye contact. Why? Who knows. They're not meant to be enemies because they're both wearing US uniforms. Lovers?

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Close-up of the letter in the case. Again, zero context provided. Also the case is visibly filthy.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

It takes place in a mysterious pink-lit (!) room. We see an exhibit case with letters in the foreground. No explanatory text. Just letters in a glass box on a white column. In the background are a barrel draped in cloth, an occasional table with a lantern and a handout on it, and a garbage can (?).

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I'm sure this actress is a nice person but she has been directed to look like a mannequin and it's creepy

Emily, flashing her unnerving Stepford Wives smile. Not a thought. Not one thought.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

We have the obligatory "wow, she's wearing a dress" scene, hampered only by the fact that she's wearing a pretty bland dress

A woman with Regency hair wearing a red coat dress.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The ENTIRETY of the work Nate has done on an exhibit that is opening in less than a week.

Nate's whiteboard. In addition to the Ben Franklin idea he has "In the Footsteps of William Penn," "Weaving Our Connection (?)," and "Viral." They're all crossed out.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

We pull back and GLOVES GLOVES GLOVES OH NO OWOOOGA OWOOOGA WHITE GLOVES ALERT

He is holding a 1770s letter while wearing a lab coat and fucking WHITE COTTON GLOVES.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The portfolio contains eighteenth-cemtury documents in plastic folders (ed. note: no) They are the letters of a Continental Army soldier named Jonathan Ellis to his lady friend, Mary Rutherford According to the woman, they were Grandmother's favorite collection. Why are they being carried around?

A foxed handwritten document in a clear folder (or possibly, God save us, laminated).

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

We have Young Mom again (I'm probably more sensitive to it now that I'm in my forties)

A mother and a daughter embrace. They are the same age but mom's clothes are baggier.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Yes, it's 2026's To Philly With Love! And the promo uses the A word. We've had "archival historians" in Christmas at the Plaza, and we had an "archives room" in USS Christmas. But now we have an Archivist.

Hallmark promo for To Philly With Love. A man and a woman, described as a teacher and an archivist, hold hands in front of Independence Hall.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Reading a book about bibliotherapy and really enjoying its list of recommended reading for those with marital problems

Suggested reading for "Marriage Problems" includes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

apparently when he emailed Epstein "sorry about this. anyway, let's talk about fun new adventures!" what he meant was "I'm sorry for the countless women you raped." GOOD TO KNOW, THANK YOU FOR THE CLARIFICATION, TED TALK MAN

Jack Stripling: So let’s talk about what appears to have been your last email exchange with Epstein. This is in March of 2019. It’s after The Miami Herald investigation. And Epstein’s lawyers have written a letter to the editor of The New York Times essentially defending this much-criticized plea deal that Epstein had made all those years ago, right around the time you met him. And Epstein sends you a link to this letter without comment. And you respond: “Sorry about this. How are you in general? I am mostly very good with some fun new adventures.” What did you mean by sorry about this?

Dan Ariely: So first of all, this was a long time ago. I don’t exactly remember. But look, crime breaks my heart. Predatory sexual crime, much more than that.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

checking in with The Chron and a) he absolutely should have regrets b) what the fuck is going on with his facial hair

An article from The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Dan Ariely Emailed With Epstein for Years. He Has (Mostly) No Regrets." It is accompanied by a picture, in which he is wearing what I can only describe as half a beard, and not in the hipster/Old Order Amish way.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

damn, I had a good idea about who the next PM should be

Google informing me of what I already suspected: there is currently no Member of Parliament named William Pitt.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

A portrait of Poe reflected in the glass frame of the (Gorey?) cover art for a collection of his poetry. Taken at the Poe Museum in Richmond.

A photograph I took of a lithograph (?) showing a raven flying as the word NEVERMORE appears in the heavens. Reflected in the glass of the framed lithograph is a framed portrait.

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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I unironically love this evening bag but there are so few occasions to carry it.

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