iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Jumping onto this (and building on the work of Julia Hillner, cited here): if you're interested in bringing some of these sources into the Latin classroom, this open-access edition includes the letters of Galla Placidia, Anicia Juliana, and other imperial women: pixeliapublishing.org/book/letters...

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Me (laboring): How can write a letter of rec that conveys something genuine, something specific about this student? Naviance (Letter Upload Site): How bout some slop?

Letter of rec website that includes "compose with AI" button.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Spotted this on Naviance this morning when I was uploading a letter of rec. Are they *encouraging* recommenders to use LLMs?

Photo of tabs that say Upload File and Compose (with AI stars)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Spotted just before the First Day of Class: an omen that all my cringy bad jokes will all land this semester.

A picture of a school bus. On the front, the words "School Bus" have been altered to read "Cool Bus"

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Has anyone encountered this abbreviation before? (It's 18th century-- too late for Cappelli.) By context, I would guess "etc etc" but that's just a guess.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Would you believe: this real "cleaning robot" was created (by a 6-year-old) almost entirely from materials found in the recycling bin. I'm starting to think that *paying* for children's toys is a huge scam.

A picture featuring several bits of garbage taped together, with a googly-eye added at one side. It would take a child's imagination to believe that this thing was any kind of "robot."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

With myself at left: engaging in smalltalk. With myself at right: talking at people about my nerdy interests

Illustration from a children's book. At right is Mr. Chatterbox, who smiles and talks; at left is a figure silently frowning.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Posting my favorite gajillion-ton museum catalogue here: "Terme di Diocleziano: la collezione epigrafica"

Picture of several books on a shelf. One of which is huge, must way a gajillion pounds, and has a beautiful image of Mithras. Title is "Terme di Diocleziano: la collezione epigrafica."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Finally targeted by the fake book club scam. I was beginning to feel left out.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I don't love the experience of flying, but I DO love long, uninterrupted periods of reading. I think tomorrow is going to be a fumetti flight.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

That's what I'm talking about. (Well, no, I'm not actually talking about it, but I'd like to be.)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

"The Letter Z in Light of Latin Inscriptions (First to Seventh Centuries AD)"-- this is what I'm here for!

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I love the quotation marks around "return date." Like they don't even pretend that I'll be returning them by then.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν ἀνθρώπου δεινότερον πέλει

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Well, I took care of that hornets' nest. (Probably didn't need the zelda shield, but my kids insisted)

Picture of a man in jacket, hood, scarf, and gloves, holding zelda shield

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Okay, this was a pretty fun authorship-credit to write.

Authors listed include: Cornelia, the women of Vindolanda, Pompeia Plotina, Egeria, Paula and Eustochium, Marcella, Hedybia, Algasia, Therasia, Galla Placidia, Anicia Juliana, Anastasia, Euphemia, Amalasuintha, Gudeliva

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I wonder how often, in plagiarism cases, I have heard a student say "This was the first time...."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The "six genders" thing is just ridiculous. As the fifth-century grammarian Priscian writes, Latin has SEVEN genders: masculine, feminine, neither, both, promiscuous, uncertain, and fluid.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

But perhaps not as much of a flex as the 19th-century title-pages in the Patrologia Latina volumes by J.P. Migne, publishing classical works but with 1000-word titles that largely praise him:

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Proofs of a new edition (not mine) of Willetrudis's Verses about Susanna. Do I have the juice to proof an entire book this morning? Probably not, but I'll get a good start. (Image, from the introduction, showing a page of the sole surviving manuscript)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

This legal analysis of the Hormuz blockade makes me feel like I'm in a Patrick O'Brian novel:

Paragraph reads: A vessel that ignores warnings to return to port or divert from its intended destination inside the blockade area will likely be boarded by U.S. forces. U.S. Marines attached to the U.S.S. Tripoli, currently operating in the Arabian Sea, are trained to conduct such boardings and continue to train for these missions. Additionally, U.S. special operations teams are trained and available to conduct both opposed and unopposed boardings. Once U.S. forces have captured the ship, it would be searched, and a decision would be made to either return the ship and its cargo, if not contraband, to the owner or to seek condemnation of the vessel as a prize. Rooted in admiralty law, prize law requires a capturing belligerent state to seek adjudication over its claim by a domestic court authorized to make determinations as to whether the capture of the vessel and cargo was lawful. If the capture was lawful, the belligerent state may take ownership of the vessel and/or cargo. In the U.S., district courts have exclusive jurisdiction to hear prize cases.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

So, my wife went to the kids' elementary school for "career day" today to talk about being a lawyer. I just got this message:

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

My newest reading accoutrement: A HAMMOCK

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

My kids are old enough to play ball now, and my dad gave me his old glove (from the mid-60s). Just got it relaced.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

"invito quidem Mercurio sed propitia Minerva" Are there any scholarly publishing houses looking for a motto? (this is from the preface of Hilberg's 1918 edition of Jerome's letters)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I'll tell you when I've had enough!!!!!!!

Message on a google doc reading: "You've reached the document limit for comments."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Using my skills of deduction, I now believe that the grocery store has changed its ordering system to count by the bunch rather than by the banana.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Statue base of Cornelia, self-styled(?) "Mater Gracchorum." (CIL VI.31610=ILS 68=ILLRP 336)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

"I forbid you absolutely from learning the (Latin) pronunciation of the French...he who speaks in such a way earns himself the reputation of a poltroon."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

For the hive: anyone happen to know how to find a photo (if one exists) of IG II2 1099 (= ILS 7784 = CIL III 12283 etc etc)? It's the letter of Plotina Augusta to Hadrian on the Epicureans.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I sometimes co-edit Latin texts with students. Students write the commentary on the Latin text (which I then edit), and I write the volume intro (which the students then edit). Tbh, reading their feedback is always my favorite parts of the project.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Map discovered in my kitchen. Includes "ork fortris."

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I believe he's pulling a "Reverse Leap-Day William"

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Latin terms that should be used more often: "nudius tertius"

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Mulling cover images for the next volume in our series of student editions of Latin texts written by women:

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Not quite within her lifetime, but here is Isotta Nogarola (d. 1466) among the women depicted in Foresti's 1497 De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

A curiosity: a 1908 critical edition of Egeria that has an introduction written...in a vernacular?

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Maybe this is earlier than you have in mind, but Fronto borrows a copy of Ennius's "Sota" from Marcus Aurelius, and then sends him back a copy in "littera festiviore" (ad M. Caes. 4.2.6)

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Came across "per valle ipsa media" in Egeria, so I've been looking for examples of "per + abl." No luck in Pinkster's Latin Syntax or Adams' Social Variation. But thanks be to the gods of philology (that is to say, to the lexicographers), the TLL has finished P.

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

And here's the link: ianls.com/wp-content/u...

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Thomas Hendrickson @thomashendrickson.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Trying to order a book from an Italian publisher. They say, "Fine, but we're not shipping it until after Epiphany." I truly love Italy.

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