iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I'm as delighted as anyone that Katie Zacharia is out on her ear, but note that the "Trump only fires women" pattern continues. I don't want Zacharia (or Guilfoyle or Noem) back, but wouldn't it be fun if occasionally one of the viciously incompetent men got fired, too?

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

8-yr-old: C'mon, we're late for school! Me: We're ok. Here, let me play you a song. [Puts "Space Oddity" on car stereo.] 8: [rapt attention during drive to school] [sits in back seat silent as we reach parking lot] [refuses to move until song is done] There may be hope for the future after all.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Update: we are now halfway through the Circe episode and they are doing spectacular work. We have talked about kink & nationalism & drag & Esperanto & empathy & dogs & mortality & corsets & the Crystal Palace & kidneys & potatoes. I have so totally the best job.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Me: Oh I despise flakiness, get it together, people Also me: late for work after missing my exit because I was too busy thinking about trees

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Buckle up, everyone. Tomorrow the Senior Seminar starts talking about the Circe episode of Ulysses. I have the best job.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I'm not doing it. I'm not writing a think piece on "gee livestreaming an execution might be morally wrong." This is not a topic on which there is any ambiguity. Anyone who needs an explanation on this should go sit in a corner for some quiet time until they can play nice.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Phishing text: Hi. Any recent changes in your life? Me: No stir of air was there, Not so much life as on a summer's day Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass, But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In case it's not obvious: any Dem who fails to clearly, unequivocally, and affirmatively support trans people gets no campaign support from me.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New York Times: AI MAY KILL US ALL! Me: How? NYT: Tech bros are scared of it! Me: On what grounds? NYT: SHOULD WE REGULATE? Me: Yes. Obviously. But how, exactly, is it going to kill us? Did you ask follow-up questions? NYT: Insiders are saying it may kill us! Me: Using. What. Means.

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Catherine Rockwood @martin65.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A BOOK. From a press I trust and admire 💙 and in a terrific cohort 🎉 @riverriverbooks.bsky.social

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I keep reminding myself that it's actually a good thing that there are more interesting things in the world than I have time to commit to. Better to be frustrated I can't take Spanish classes / sign up for an online reading group / through-hike the Appalachian trail than to be bored, right?

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

All right, y'all, I can't stand it any more. This semester I am actually going to do it. If any of my students can't afford to buy the books for my class, I will damn well pay for them myself. Making this a public commitment to be sure I follow through.

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Catherine Rockwood @martin65.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

"And then – the icons rustled, exclaimed – music. Ann always forgot it was coming. Followed by the dogs, cream-colored and dapple, sweeping in through the leftward gate in a soft and living wave." www.bulbculturecollective.com/read/let-me-...

bulbculturecollective.com

Let me go (Honey oh) - Catherine Rockwood — Bulb Culture Collective

Erin wanted to go down to the dog park again but Ann, Erin’s mother, couldn’t face it today.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Sometimes I ask an AI a question in my field, just to see how the technology is coming along. I am delighted to report that it never takes me more than two (2) exchanges before it says something objectively false. Not "I disagree" false, "you've misidentified the author of the paper" false.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Is it just me, or is that thing on the White House lawn basically just a white supremacist bouncy castle? When is someone going to tell Trump he's old enough to have a grown-up birthday party?

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Scene: Grocery store, suburb near Boston, Monday morning. Man with strong Scots accent in "Scotland" soccer shirt: Excuse me, do you have any rrrrocket? Grocery guy: Any what? Soccer fan: Rrrrrocket. Grocery guy: Rocket? Soccer fan: Rrrrrocket! For SALATS.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

This evening seemed like a good night to introduce the kids to the third Indiana Jones movie.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Do you live in Massachusetts? Please write to the Board of Higher Ed telling them not to create reduced-credit BAs. Affordable college is a great goal, but gutting college education is not how to achieve it. This system will mean the rich get an education and the poor get a job certificate.

actionnetwork.org

Protect the Value of the Baccalaureate Degree in Massachusetts

Reduced-credit baccalaureate degrees are being sold under the guise of affordability. But the answer to the college affordability crisis is to address costs and restore adequate state funding — not to...

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Reposted by Rachel Trousdale

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Read this whole piece.

Mamuka spent 119 days in detention, about four months, but under normal circumstances, he should have been released. He was arrested on February 5 in Alabama, where he was detained for five days, then moved to Winn where he spent another 114 days before dying in custody. Unless something changed between the middle of March and early June, he did not have a final removal order so ICE couldn't move him-instead, Mamuka had a case pending before an immigration judge this entire time, and may have still been waiting on a final hearing when he passed. He was classified as the lowest risk level in detention, he had no mandatory detention flag, he was not a known terrorist or a suspected gang member (problematic as those categories are, and he never had a prior detainer, so it's unlikely that he ever had a run-in with police.

All of these factors, combined with the nature of his arrest, support a straightforward conclusion that he should not have been in detention in the first place. Using the national ICE detention average daily rate of $150, the US taxpayer spent $17,850 detaining this single person without any evidence that it served the interests of public safety or national security.

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LRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 03/06/2026

eavesdropping on a couple of english lit academics in st. john, i overheard confirmation of what is surely going to be the biggest literary news story of the year

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Dan "Mr. Bones and Me" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

You can either join your union, go to the meeting, and get in the fight, or you can watch them kill higher education in the US. This will not pass. There will not be a natural reset. You fight or die.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

PSA: when I say on the syllabus "There is no acceptable use of AI in this class," what I mean is, there is no acceptable use of AI in this class. The more you think this policy does not apply to you, the more it actually does.

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Like every Mother's Day today I am asking that you consider a donation to @nationalbailout.bsky.social to help free mamas who are separated from their families by the injustices of pretrial detention systems. secure.actblue.com/donate/freeb...

secure.actblue.com

Donate to #FreeBlackMamas

With your generous support we are able to continue to bail out community members, provide life-changing supportive services and resource groups who are organizing to transform the criminal justice sys...

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Collins: This tumor, like my repeated votes to gut the ACA, is benign.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Remembering the time I somehow went to a party at Ted Turner's penthouse (Ted was not home) and got to tag along on the tour of the place that Ted's girlfriend the writer Elizabeth Dewberry gave to Salman Rushdie. Highlights included dropping Ted's World Series ring on the floor.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Me: OK, kids. I need five minutes — just five — where I am allowed to concentrate on what I am doing with no interruptions. [15 seconds elapse] 8-yr-old: Mommy, when your five minutes are up, do you want to do the fortune teller I jut made?

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

For my whole adulthood, people have been asking me to act LESS like I have a vivid inner life. AI really steals all the worthwhile jobs.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Me: Random Lady: WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ICE Me: ...if ICE had existed when my ancestors got here, I'd be dead? RL: I'm not talking about ancestors. My ancestors committed genocide on Native Americans. Me: um RL: WHY ARE YOU GETTING SO EMOTIONAL

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Colson Whitehead @colsonwhitehead.com · 15/04/2026

“Everybody’s using AI for everything nowadays, and if you don’t, you’re a misfit outsider who should be stoned to death in the town square, and then resurrected virtually from your data so you can be stoned to death in the virtual town square, for infinity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Just Because I Wrote This Doesn’t Mean I’ll Be On Your Panel About A.I.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Hey US-ians, have y'all called your reps yet today? Seems like now is as good a time as any to say "I'd prefer fewer war crimes, please."

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Normally I have my ducks more or less in a row, but we've hit the point in the semester when my to-do list is doing one of those slapstick routines where all the clowns get stuck trying to fit through a door.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

If someone asks for a list of Jews at your institution, the correct thing is to give them a list of people who saved Jews in WWII. "Sure, you want Loukas Karrer...Chrysostomos Dimitriou... Can't forget Miep Gies... My pal Oskar Schindler..."

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

one of my strongest and clearest takeaways from spending all of Lent knee-deep in ICE death reporting is that Camp East Montana should be razed to the ground and every single person who built it, worked there or approved their decisions deserves criminal charges. it is beyond what I imagined.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This is just what I thought — in his coterie of malicious incompetents, the only ones he bothers firing are all women?

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

If Trump is firing people who make him look bad, I have a suggestion for who should be next in line.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

"All writers use AI" yes that book I published in 2010, totally AI-generated, I'm so glad that I have a timeshare piece of this AI-access time travel portal with Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, and Ray Bradbury.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I 100% support the right of anyone, regardless of gender identity, to wear whatever the hell they want. What I do not support is their right to demonize trans people while doing it. Where's my pitchfork? Grr.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I'm teaching John Lewis' *March* today in my Graphic Novels class and it is exactly what I need right now.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

"Gosh it's surprising how old ladies can express such intense rage" listen, my great-aunt Eleanor would stab you with a fork if you beat her at croquet or failed to use the subjunctive; if she were still alive she would be wearing Stephen Miller's skin as a coat by now.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I wrote a poem about an exiled octopus and I am so happy that it has found a campsite at 32 Poems.

The Octopus / is not a desert animal. Nevertheless / I can imagine the palm-leaf shelter / it constructs by the oasis, its suckers / clinging to the jagged stem it scales / to pluck the dates; the small pool where it tends, / with sands selected from glistening deposits, / its own salinity. I am watching the sunrise / with my son. The dunes drift in every direction, / home to lizards, scorpions, the odd clever crow, / one old coyote. Nowhere in my body / is a bone for anyone to chew. All I have / between me and the punishing ultraviolet / is my own intelligence, the little I can build. / What are we doing here? Nowhere in the legends / is an explanation. Nothing can account / for my presence, our survival. Here we are anyway. / Once, twenty million years ago, this mesa / was an ocean bed. Now I'm pulling / the covers over my quaking head, now / I'm suffling them off, hoping / that amid these wastes I'll find a fish.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Some of my students are such awesome, smart, responsible, hardworking people that it actually helps me get up in the morning despite the entire rest of the goddamn world.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I'm really proud of how my finely tuned multitasking skills allow me to freak out over Iran and the revocation of trans Kansans' drivers licenses and ICE's kidnappings and murders all simultaneously.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

We're not a country. We're a drunk guy in a bar randomly punching people for looking at us funny, and then weeping "I really love you, bro" into Putin's neck.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

If anyone asks, please let them know that we do currently have enough snow, thanks.

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Rachel Trousdale @rvtrousdale.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Tonight! I have a slight cold and may be in the process of developing laryngitis, so this is your opportunity to hear my work being read in a voice that sounds like a bullfrog going through puberty.

tentreesbooks.com

Poetry Reading & Open Mic Night

Ten Trees Books, Natick's Independent Bookstore, online shopping page. Support small and local by purchasing your books online with Ten Trees Books!

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Michael Harriot @michaelharriot.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I've told this story on ContrabandCamp but it's worth sharing for BHM because it's one of the greatest stories ever. A thread.

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