iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Happy to report that my essay "Nanci Griffith and the Sound of Sense" has just been published by House House magazine. Reimagining Nanci Griffith's imagist genius - with some considerations of Frost, Yeats, and Amy Lowell. www.househousemagazine.com/nanci-griffi...

househousemagazine.com

Nanci Griffith and the Sound of Sense | Tom Powell — House House Magazine

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Agasgani @agasgani.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Some of you are still posting about politics and I need you to understand that Bluesky is now a Cabo Verde stan platform thank you for your attention

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Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Democrats, and many non-MAGA folks, still don't realize that Republicans are playing for all the marbles. They're all in. If they can't get power, they will burn it all down. Trump is not leaving peacefully or legally. We have to prepare.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Idle question: why does anyone choose to be the “Never Happened” Guy? Related question about the “Well, Actually” Guy ….

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Mark D. White @profmdwhite.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

"You will be blocked in the order in which your bullshit was received."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 05/04/2026

The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

We finally have our marching song. Please broadcast it as far as your voice can. youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w?...

youtu.be

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

“Cognition bender” enters the lexicon … “… the US President announces a major military attack on a foreign country and even the straightest arrows think, 50% chance it’s an attack, 50% chance president is on another cognition bender.” - John Marshall, Talking Points Memo

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

I wonder if Trump’s new National Security Strategy reads better in the original Russian?

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

All across the country today some pretty great college students are raising money for Camp Kesem, a program for kids who have a parent with cancer. I would sure be grateful if you could help, either through this link or elsewhere. Thanks! donate.kesem.org/fundraiser/6...

donate.kesem.org

Kesem 2026

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

So now 135 pages of manuscript and I finally believe this will be a book.

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

NEW FOLLOWERS: you MUST have a profile pic (not neccessarily of yourself!) and/or a header image, a biog + a couple of posts or I'll assume you are a bot/troll/bad faith person and block you. Please do the *minimum* to show you're not a scammer!

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Yes. I recall a thought experiment from grad school: if the universe will end momentarily, and the last thing you can do is press or not press a button that will allow one last flower to bloom for five extra minutes, would you press the button? A thousand times yes.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

I am delighted to report that my daughter is editing a new literary magazine that is already getting great reviews! Do please check out the debut issue - and consider making a submission. www.househousemagazine.com

househousemagazine.com

[ ] House House Magazine

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Let us learn the Way of Toad.

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Dr. Jamie LH Goodall @lhistorienne.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

It’s still my birthday month, so why not do a giveaway of one of my books? 📚 🏴‍☠️ Rules: like this post and be following me for 1 entry. Share this post for another entry! Winner will be randomly selected and announced at 9:00 am (ET) on Friday, May 23rd!

media.tenor.com

a close up of a man 's face with the words `` the opportune moment '' written on the bottom .

Alt: a close up of a pirate Captain Jack Sparrow’s face while he speaks with the words “the opportune moment” written on the bottom.

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The Unhurried Reader 📚🦊🇺🇦🇬🇱 @theunhurriedreader.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Because this heartfelt story is so important, so vital in the course of our history and the pattern of this moment, @annelouiseavery.bsky.social has very kindly shared it here in its entirety, as a thread. #IslandOfFlowers #IslandOfFriends #OldFox 🦊🧡

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

This is how your email finds me.

A man sitting and looking towards the viewer of the engraving. The man leans his arm on a parapet and is surrounded by female personifications of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture as well as a winged angel with fanfare trumpets (Glory), Father Time with his scythe and the skeletal figure of Death clutching an arrow; a putti holds aloft a wreath and carries a palm. The image is part of a larger engraving, made around 1600, and nowadays at the BM 58490001 (Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/58490001 ).

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

This is the correct response for every university to take with the Trump administration, as the latest demand of a *consent decree* on Columbia demonstrates. They intend to kill you anyway. Do not cooperate.

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

The lesson for universities is you may as well fight back. You'll lose the money either way. The only question is whether you keep your dignity.

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Roger McCarthy @rogermccarthy.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Gleichschaltung.

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Ansley Erickson @ansleyerickson.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Thrilled to see this collective approach, demanding that the 60 (now) targeted institutions work together and against anti democratic threats to higher ed. Sign!

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Lee David Dalton @leedaviddalton.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Anyone who thinks any university faculty anywhere in the US is full of Maoists, or has more than one or two Maoist cranks, should try organizing a faculty union—or chairing a faculty senate, or a department, or even just a single faculty committee

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Djinn & Tonic @djinnandtonic.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I told OPM what I did last week

Greetings,

This email is in reference to the email dated February 22, 2025. In that email, you indicated that I needed to tell you what I did last week, in several bullet points

I drank a whiskey drink
I drank a vodka drink
I drank a lager drink
I drank a cider drink
I sang the songs that remind me of the good times
I sang the songs that remind me of the better times
I got knocked down
But I got up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down

Please direct all further inquiries about this matter to my supervisor.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Isn’t there some kind of big sportsball thing this week? I hear both Donald Trump and Taylor Swift will be there, so it must be very important.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

In 1959 the Grammy Album of the Year was a soundtrack by Henry Mancini. NOT Kind of Blue. NOT Mingus Ah Um. NOT Brubeck’s Time Out. NOT Coltrane’s Giant Steps. In 1969 the Grammys picked Blood, Sweat, and Tears. NOT Abbey Road. Pick a year. Seriously. Now why exactly don’t I watch the Grammys?

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Bluesky! I just unfollowed - and muted - one person who in the past few hours reposted TWENTY-FIVE posts, most with attachments, into my timeline. Please do not be this person.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

With everything going on in the world, the burning question that at the moment is literally keeping me up at night is whether Elizabeth commissioned Twelfth Night. Opinions, informed and otherwise, very welcome.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Washington Post last year: “Democracy Dies in Darkness” Washington Post today: “Now that Democracy is Dead, Let Us Entertain You” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/b...

nytimes.com

The Washington Post’s New Mission: Reach ‘All of America’

This week, The Post began trying out a new mission statement: “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.”

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

This thread. My father wanted to have time to write a book titled “Braxton Bragg: Albatross of the Confederacy.” In a war with more than its share of floundering commanders, Bragg took the biscuit. A political general with little ability and even less impulse control. Hegseth’s kind of guy ..

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

May I recommend The House of Dudley by @drjoannepaul.bsky.social? Erudite, of course, but also written in a masterful style that conveys Dr. Paul’s extraordinary knowledge of the subject with an enviable and easy grace. A book that with any luck will improve my own writing by example. I hope.

drjoannepaul.bsky.social

Dr Joanne Paul (@drjoannepaul.bsky.social)

A "sparkling historian" ✨- The Times #thehouseofdudley "visceral and illuminating ... her style is cinematic" - Wall Street Journal 💚🇨🇦

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

This photo, from President Carter’s funeral, says it all.

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same old ghost 🌿🪻 @sameoldghost.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Ciabatta laden with apricot jam and mild cheddar cheese doesn't fix all problems, but it does fix some of them

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Has anybody else ever noticed that James Russell Lowell and Bob Weir are the same guy?

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

I try very hard to avoid politics in this setting, and usually succeed. But to see the Washington Post, which brought down Richard Nixon in the face of graphic threats from Nixon’s attorney general, now reduced to toadying for our dollar store Mussolini is sad and pathetic.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Things I have learned about England from the BBC and folk songs: If you move to an idyllic village in the Cotswolds, someone will inevitably be murdered and for some reason you will be expected to find the killer. If you go out on a morning fair, something eerily disturbing will happen shortly.

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Who Did What Now @whodidwhatnowpod.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Was Juana “mad” or was she just sick of your shit Philip? #history

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Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

🦊Competition Time! For Christmas, I'm giving away a special wintry prize! Win a copy of my Reynard the Fox book, a 'Fox for All Seasons' journal, a charming Arctic fox, a tin of Christmas tea & some raspberry dark chocolate! Simply like, retweet & follow & a winner will be drawn on the 15th!🦊

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

When I was in college I watched Citizen Kane for the first time and hated it. Then I took a graduate film course, learned exactly why it was important, saw it again, still hated it. Just watched it again, loved every minute of it. I am certainly not more sophisticated. Wonder what changed …

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

In a quirky mood, I compiled a Tidal playlist of fourteen of my high school rock band’s songs. Our audiences wanted beach music, but we presented them with Jimi Hendrix. This pleased us more than it pleased them. Sorry, kids.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

From “A Kentish Garden” by Edith Nesbit, who taught generations of children that boundaries are often fictions. “There, in the splendour of the sultry noon, The sunshine sleeps upon the garden bed Where the white poppy droops a drowsy head And dreams of kisses from the white full moon.”

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Petting dogs increases oxytocin levels and decreases cortisol levels. So petting dogs makes us happier and less stressed, which increases longevity, which makes us statistically more likely to reproduce. Petting dogs is evolutionarily adaptive. Dogs are breeding us to pet them more. Go dogs.

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Bluesky academics (I'm not yet!), let's get to know each other! Quote this and tell me: 1) a project you are working on and 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about. 1. Early modern constructions of indigenous peoples 2. The Valladolid Debate as Dueling Aristotles

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Tom Powell @tompowell.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Now that I’m here: former philosopher, wrote a book on Kant that inexplicably did not rocket to the top of the summer beach reading lists. Then an attorney. Now writing early modern intellectual history, focusing at the moment on the moral psychology of colonialist imaginings of indigenous peoples.

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