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Philip Nolen

@philipnolen.bsky.social
338 followers 319 following 1K posts

Idler. Sometimes, an actor.

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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Two-thirds through the fourth “Dungeon Crawler Carl” book, and my enthusiasm is waning; the D&D narrative arc is by necessity repetitive (defeat bosses, level up abilities, proceed down to the next floor), and I have FOUR MORE BOOKS to go. This pop culture fad might burn brightly, but briefly.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I know Kubrick shit all over King’s plot, but THE SHINING is ideal viewing for spooky season. No gore, just unremitting dread. I’m watching it again, for the umpteenth time, tonight.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Suzanna Clarke, author of the wonderful JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL, has a new book out. Go get it!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Current view.
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Reposted by Philip Nolen
Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If a sentence in your newscast starts with “President Trump says…” you’re failing your audience.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I just found out that Daniel Singer, former Disney Imagineer, and playwright of “The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged),” has died after a long battle with cancer. In 1996, Singer saw me in Orlando Shakes’s production, and laughed at the bits we added. He praised us afterward. I am grieving.
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Reposted by Philip Nolen
William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I think ‘rote memorization’ is underrated. Having a ton of shit laying around in your head leads to connections and being able to more precisely describe things.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Has technology brought us full circle back to the Automat? These are the first vending machines I have ever seen for HOT food: pizza (left), and hamburgers.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
O Boston! The sightseeing was fascinating. The MEN were occasionally stunning. The food was delicious. But it’s the weather I’ll miss. Gloriously cool.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My friend Mark has brought me to Fenway Park for a game; he is legally blind, and carries a red-tipped cane. As we entered the park, he kept telling people he was looking for the umpire’s entrance.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
FENWAY! Go Sox!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Mounted cops! And I mean that in the dirtiest way possible.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Monument to Samuel Eliot Morison, sailor and historian. DREAM DREAMS, THEN WRITE THEM, AYE, BUT LIVE THEM FIRST
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Monument to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of “The Liberator.” I AM AN ERNEST I WILL NOT EQUIVOCATE I WILL NOT EXCUSE I WILL NOT RETREAT A SINGLE INCH AND I WILL BE HEARD MY COUNTRY IS THE WORLD MY COUNTRYMEN ARE ALL MANKIND
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Pretty cool monument to the Vendome hotel fire, June 17, 1972, which killed nine firefighters when the building collapsed. There are real roses left on the sculptural hat and coat carved to look as if it’s been thrown over the monument wall.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
No shortage of Irish-centric monuments in this town! This is Patrick Andrew Collins: “BORN IN IRELAND AND ALWAYS HER LOVER.” The feminine figures to the left and right represent America and Ireland, respectively.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
View typical of my perambulations in Boston: a statue of a founding father (in this case, Alexander Hamilton) surrounded by quaint brownstones.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My chocolate soufflé has arrived, and two gay Jews just sat down next to me. They haven’t stopped talking since they sat, and now I am trying to think how I can postpone paying my check so that I can continue listening to their flirty, amusing banter.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
On a whim, I walked to a highly rated French restaurant (my hotel’s location is ideal), and although it’s Monday, the maître d’ clucked his tongue and offered me a table al fresco. As I dine, I now watch Boston’s hoi polloi walking and jogging by. Accidental win!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Outside the entrance to the Boston Public Library are statues to the arts and sciences, engraved with the names of luminaries from each magisterium.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
How I’m going to feel after walking 6 miles or more today. (What asshole snapped off the hands?)
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum is what happens when an insane rich woman hoards art. No wall plaques describe any items. ISG placed all items personally, without regard to provenance. Her will commands that no item can be moved, no items may be added, nor any item removed. INSANE. OVERWHELMING.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My view as I wait in a long line to enter the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My American history tourism options mostly exhausted, I now turn to more esoteric pursuits. Today, a one hour hike from my hotel to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the way, I discovered the Back Bay Fens, an “Emerald Necklace“ of lakes and parks. I wish I had packed a picnic.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In my wanderings in Boston, I stop to examine public monuments which are ignored by most passersby. Today I found this Officer John O’Reilly tribute to patriots and heroes, but only the Irish ones!
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Joseph Fink, we're going to win @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
As an American Jew, this is why the proposition of Israel never made sense to me. You do not create a place where Jews are safe by making it so only Jews are safe. You do so by creating a place where everyone is safe and free. There is no other way
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Also on Copley Square is Old South Church, which has this “God Loves Trans People” banner. Though atheist, I immediately relax a bit when I see any American church express love, instead of a desire to punish or proselytize.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Trinity Church, the first example of the distinctly American “Richardson Romanesque” architecture style, soon copied by builders across the country.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Sitting in Copley Square, this busker began playing “When You Wish Upon a Star” on his trumpet. I hadn’t encountered any manifestation of Disney since I arrived, until now.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Saw this charming statue duo of the tortoise and the hare, as a tribute to all those who have run the Boston marathon.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Views from my refreshingly chilly stroll downtown. Nice monument to Irish refugees, my progenitors!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I strolled by this lovely opera house, so naturally I thought of @operahockeyguy.bsky.social .
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I returned to Boston Common, to discover myself in the middle of a cannabis carnival! Just walking through the crowd of hundreds of potheads, I got a contact high.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The John Harvard statue is called the Three Lies: He was not a founder, but rather an early benefactor, of the college. The inscribed date of the founding is off by two years. The likeness is not John Harvard, but Stephen Hoar, a handsome nephew of Harvard’s 4th President.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The quintessential New England experience today: I rode cheap, efficient, public transportation to Harvard Yard, on a cool, sunny, day.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This sculpture is outside King’s Chapel, practically across the street from my hotel. The weary expression on this enslaved woman’s face is haunting, sad, terrifying.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Modern Boston, viewed from colonial Boston (Old North Church).
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The genteel look of the captain’s quarters on the USS Constitution surprised me.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I wish there were public spaces with this level of dignity, back home.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Halfway to Bunker Hill - the name of this place means I am fated to lunch here. The North End is comically dense with Italian restaurants.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This Old North Church bust was said by the Marquis de Lafayette to be the closest likeness of Washington, better than any other portrait. “This was the man I knew.”
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The tourists are coming! The tourists are coming!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I’m getting used to cramped dining spaces. Union Oyster House has been in operation for 200 years (1826), and the building itself is 100 years older than that!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Afternoon tea to wake up after a day walking all over the public parks. After this, back to the hotel for a shower and a nap!
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This monument is supposed to represent human connection, and the protection we give each other. I got the concept, but I can’t say I find this very pleasing. My brain has a hard time orienting the figures in space.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Who’s dressing the ducklings in Boston Public Garden, I’d like to know?
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Well, now I’ve seen it all. A monument to anesthesia! The inscription reads, “To Commemorate the Discovery That the Inhaling of Ether Causes Insensibility to Pain, First Proved the World at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston October AD 1767”
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My view from a shady bench, in Boston Public Garden.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Indispensable Man.
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Philip Nolen @philipnolen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Views of Boston Public Garden.
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