iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

When Dr. Oz condescendingly holds forth about what a savings it would be if Americans were forced to work five more years before qualifying for Social Security and Medicare, he clearly relishes the idea of a lot more of us dying before we're allowed to retire.

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Reposted by Patrick Leary

Martin Hewitt @vicmanch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

New ECR opportunity, courtesy of JVC and BAVS. Please spread the word as widely as you can!

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Interesting, I'd like to see that. Ten years earlier, in his memoir, he mentions meeting John Lane and reels off the names of the Yellow Book's contributors, but contends, oddly, that all periods of English literature, including the '90s', are somehow the same.

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Reposted by Patrick Leary

Martin Hewitt @vicmanch.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

@bavs-uk.bsky.social Calling all BAVS members! This year's AGM is tomorrow (23rd Sept) at 1.30pm BST. You'll have received a meeting link via the BAVS Newsletter email. If you can, please do come along. As well as the formal business, there is an Open Forum to discuss future activities.

bavs.ac.uk

BAVS Annual General Meeting (AGM) papers – BAVS

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm so sick of the billionaires always getting their way.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Mea culpa! That’s one historical detail that has escaped me completely.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Spoken like a man who has never pursued pinball wizard status while feeding one quarter after another into Bally's Fireball. Never mind the plunger -- it's the flippers that matter, John. Control is all about the flippers.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm so sorry for your loss, Rebecca. This is our beloved Bean (at right) with her best buddy, Abi. They met up for playdates every week. Both are gone now, but they made us, and each other, very happy for a long time.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Love that “What Was?” and “Who Was?” series for kids from Penguin. They’re very well done.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There’s just no substitute for handling and leafing through the real thing. I’ve been a small part of a project devoted to building a collection of 19th-c illustrated British periodicals and prints to loan out for classroom use and can hardly wait till it gets off the ground.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Fantastic, Scott—lucky students.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Marvelous. I’m sure that Janet Olson, archivist at the WCTU archive in Evanston, Illinois, would be interested to see this.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’d expected a rout, but Zeynep clawed back enough break points to keep it interesting. She’s not in Iva’s class as a player, but she’s definitely coming along with her game.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This is fascinating, especially to old Cagney fans like me.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

OK, but I kind of like "rub elbowing."

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A HathiTrust collection where I've stashed some of my favorite memoirs, etc., re: 19th-c. British authorship and publishing. Recently expanded, but suggested additions are always welcome. babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=lis... #victorian #19th-c. #bookhistory

babel.hathitrust.org

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Reposted by Patrick Leary

Jessica R Valdez @jrvaldez.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Please spread the word to graduate students about this professional development workshop on Friday. We (the program organizers for this past year's RSVP conference) will share advice on "How to Conference Effectively." rs4vp.org/how-to-confe...

rs4vp.org

How to Conference Effectively – RSVP

Get ready for the 2027 conference season by learning tips and tricks from the pros! Our 2026 conference committee are ready to share their expertise.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I know you know -- I was just trying to clarify for Zendaya.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Shelton would be the first American to win the title since Roddick did in 2003.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I vividly recall a member of the Green Party of Florida telling me, just before the 2000 election, that there was no difference between Gore and Bush--"they're just tweedledum and tweedledee," he said, with a knowing smirk.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Not just any boulder, but a *prehistoric* one. So many of the boulders one sees these days just haven't been around that long.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Yes! “You do not buy photographs from Otto Leipzig, you do not buy Degas from Signor Benatti. Follow me?”

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Or as he tells Smiley in Smiley's People (1982): "I spent fifteen years at the Circus trying to be an English gentleman. You know what I am now? A cheap Austro-Hungarian in expensive clothes. I've come home." I love Hepton's performance in that sequel, and that scene with Guinness in particular.

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Josh Smith @smithjj.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Excited that my first monograph, The Politics of Reading at the British Subscription Library, has been published by @degruyterbrill.bsky.social. The book examines the political, social and intellectual culture of late 18thC Britain through books and reading habits. brill.com/display/titl...

brill.com

The Politics of Reading at the British Subscription Library, 1789-1832

"The Politics of Reading at the British Subscription Library, 1789-1832" published on 08 Sep 2026 by Brill.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

So sorry, Kate! Unasked-for advice: take Benadryl anyway. Also ibuprofen.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

“Bauhaus-inspired ballpoint”? Puh-leez.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Our Iga's constant companion is called Snuggle...

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Well, as you’re kind enough to ask…here she is with her best pal, Snuggle.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

She is such a sweetie. Her name is Iga!

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Very nice article. Quite apart from everything else, her tennis is so smart and graceful it is a joy to watch. And judging by interviews, she is a delightfully warm and thoughtful person.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Peter Coviello in The Defector, courtesy of Rusty Foster: defector.com/dolly-joseph...

So it isn’t the vulnerability of “Jolene,” the grandeur of “I Will Always Love You,” or the absolute-banger pure pop perfection of “9 to 5” that catches me up about Dolly. Go watch the videos, the performances, the interviews. Like almost nobody else, Dolly Parton made goodness—actual humane large-hearted unbelittling funny filthy gregarious workaday decency—seem like the most natural thing in the world, an ordinary habitude, as easy as stepping off the bus. It shines off her like a cloak of light.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

You’re so right! She is the gold standard in so many ways.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Completely lost focus at 5-3, wound up in a tiebreak she squeaked through. So many errors down the line! If she can’t maintain her concentration from first point to last from now on this is going to be a short tournament for her.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Uh-oh, time for another purge of "U.S. military leaders" I guess. Pretty soon there won't be any, just followers.

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Reposted by Patrick Leary

Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

A clip from a little seen film called THE LONDON NOBODY KNOWS (1967) If you’re a JAMES MASON fan & history fascinates you’ll love this. Here he visits a decrepit Theatre in Camden about to be demolished.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in: Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

No gatekeeping from this Texan, neither, and that too goes for all y'all.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The thrill of first reading MEWC has never left me, nor the urgency of attention to lived experience. He taught a generation of historians to remember of those we study that they lived through those times and we did not, and so we must ever be wary of "the enormous condescension of posterity."

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I think most longtime Chicagoans have heard of it. It’s a disaster whose echoes are still felt here.

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Bill Bell has such a lovely blog post up about "reading in retirement". I vibrated in agreement with everything he says about the many meanings one's books hold, and how they come to represent a kind of "accidental autobiography": crusoesbooks.wordpress.com/2026/08/25/r... #bookhistory

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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

We fans of 1940s and 50s radio shows are mourning the death a week ago of astonishingly versatile actress Peggy Webber, just shy of her 101st birthday. Webber was ubiquitous on radio, though often uncredited. @thr.com ran an informative profile here: www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

hollywoodreporter.com

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