Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Queueing up emails to auto send on Monday morning instead of right now because I'm not a villain. 050
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 23/09/2026I love getting AI generated emails addressed to Ernest Hemingway. Why yes, I, the Nobel Prize winning (and quite dead) author would LOVE the opportunity to rep my book at your not-at-all a scam book fair. Also, let's use this technology to land airplanes full of people. 150
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Was that Tom Hamilton’s Ring doorbell alert just now? My dogs went crazy. #Guardians 020
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026It would take more characters than Bluesky allows to say what Dolly Parton meant to me. Her music helped me through some hard times. 🦋 060
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 07/08/2026The Odyssey was great! But was…was Calypso wearing the burrito blanket? I could not unsee it. Anyone else think this or just me? 😆 260
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Ha! I knew it!!! Trader Joe’s = Annie’s. The rumors are confirmed! 070
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 15/07/2026When she saw my inspo pic, my nail tech asked if I was going to a party. She was incredulous when I said it was for a conference. I'm looking forward to the 21st biennial Hemingway conference, kicking off officially next Monday in Toronto (and unofficially on Sunday at the Blue Jays game). 270
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 10/06/2026This still from Backrooms reminds me of the time I requested a desk and the asst dean of faculty walked me over to a campus building slated to be demolished and let me pick one from a pile exactly like this. The treatment of contingent faculty is so degrading they make horror movies about it. 180
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Deadlines loom but this day was too pretty to be indoors. Took the dogs on Musser Gap trail, a moderate up and back just 4 miles total, but I think this might be the last long hike for Zelda, who, at 10, has trouble with her back legs some days. #pennsylvania #dogsofbluesky 091
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 19/04/2026Colyer Lake loop hike, spring ephemerals, first fish of the year, first lake swim of the year, and thisss guy. #pennsylvania #fishing #dogsofbluesky #goldenretriever #snek 070
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 21/02/2026Pippin played in the mud, so he got a bath. Now that he’s air dried he has hundreds of cowlicks. #dogsofbluesky #goldenretriever 0231
Reposted by Verna KaleJosh 🐯 Hill @joshtigerhill.bsky.social · 14/02/2026Roses are red The ocean is wet I love you all-in Like my Jeopardy! bet 1329
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 12/01/2026Tonight this guy had a breakthrough seizure lasting over 3 minutes. His regular vet moved to Mongolia (yes really) last week and the semester starts tomorrow so it’s really A++ timing there buddy. 070
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 10/01/2026Weeks of nothing to read followed by every hold I put coming in at once. I wish my public library would let you pause your holds when your turn comes up so you could keep your place in line and get the book when you're ready without having to check it back in and then become #24 again. 170
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 04/01/2026The OP was deleted but in a nutshell it suggested that in difficult times it’s a good thing to find a community with whom you share interests. 150
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 04/01/2026On that note… join the Hemingway Society. Open to all writers and fans, not just academics. 230
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Happy New Year from the “mushroom capital of the world.” Kennett Square #pennsylvania 071
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 24/12/2025His crimes are getting more audacious and it’s probably obvious why we don’t have a Christmas tree skirt. #dogsofbluesky #goldenretriever 0170
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 23/12/2025Retrievers gonna retrieve. All the livelong day. Whether you want them to or not. #dogsofbluesky #goldenretriever 1220
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 23/12/2025News from my hometown: Stubhub marketed a spiritual concert (Lamb of God) as heavy metal show (different, more famous Lamb of God). I'm disappointed that the error was caught early, honestly. Chaos almost ensues doesn't have the same ring. 060
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 22/12/2025Life Writers of BlueSky (biography, memoir, and spaces in between): If you would like to zoom into my graduate seminar this spring to discuss method, craft, ethics, business, or any other aspect of the work, please get in touch here or via my Penn State email. 163
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 16/12/2025December me would like to have a word with November me about her signup for the Holiday Concert cookie table. 040
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 10/12/2025Colleges: don't use AI in your application essay. Also Colleges: * uses AI to evaluate application essays * Professors: don't use AI in your work Also Professors: * use AI to write syllabi, slides, & grade * Students: * also using AI this whole time anyway * Am I already dead? Have I gone to hell? 130
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 10/12/2025I really am going into this horrible future kicking and screaming, but this isn't ravioli ya clankers. 130
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 04/12/2025I was elected president of the Hemingway Society, and celebrated with my favorite Creamery flavor. (OK so I ran unopposed, but any excuse to eat Peppermint Stick, a seasonal flavor available only 2-3 weeks of the year.) #pennstate 070
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Penn State's head coach search reminds me of filling a TT role in an academic dept. WHO O WHO CAN FILL THIS ROLE? How about the highly qualified and experienced adjunct who has been here forever whom everyone already likes and who wants the job? AGAIN, WHO O WHO CAN IT BEEEE? *dramatic flailing* 030
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 03/12/2025The only medication that has ever helped my migraines was discontinued in 2017 because it was so old it pre-dated FDA efficacy tests. I ASSURE YOU IT WAS EFFECTIVE. Anyway, I've been in pain for three days but seem to be coming out of it now.media.tenor.coma cartoon cat with a green leaf on its head is in the rainAlt: Ghibli cartoon character Totoro with a green leaf on its head is in the rain 050
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 02/12/2025When the kids go sledding wifout you. (Even stealing a glove did not prevent this sad turn of events). 2202
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 30/11/2025Pippin stole and chewed the pompom off this Santa fascinator and his punishment is having to wear it while being publicly shamed. 280
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 29/11/2025Someone in a Reddit thread made a reference to “purse-flavored gum” and suddenly I’m 8 years old again. Just like in that Proust fella’s long book. 050
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 29/11/2025In a 1959 piano book I flipped through tonight. Headphones were just about to become a thing too. Family togetherness is cooked. 020
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 23/11/2025Saw Wicked: For Good seated beside a lesbian couple, one half audibly sobbing, the other kept holding up her arms to show her date (and me?) her actual goosebumps and did a good job not noticing when I almost drank her drink instead of mine. 160
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 23/11/2025Losing streak + students already gone for break = dirt cheap seats. Ended up being a big win with the crowd chanting “Terry! Terry!” #pennstate 0100
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 21/11/2025Hot Ones is my guilty pleasure. As a person who can't even eat a jalapeno w/o crying, I love to watch celebs run that gauntlet. The new one w/ Winona Ryder is wonderful as an interview too though. I didn't know she was a book collector. My 8th grade delusion that we could be BFFs has been revived. 1110
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Join me in Toronto next summer for the International Biennial Hemingway Conference. Proposals accepted through 30 November. Share widely--especially with grad students. Student travel funding and discount student housing available: hemingwaytoronto2026.comhemingwaytoronto2026.comHemingway Society Conference 021
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 13/11/202510 months ago I braved the cold to eat some bagels at the grand opening of a new campus building that went kablooey yesterday--gossip consensus is steam in a pipe exploded. The building cracked & shifted & thankfully no one was hurt, but the $125 mil building is unusable for the foreseeable future. 040
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 12/11/2025Mostly cloudy in Centre County but I got a small peek of the aurora through the clouds. #aurora #northernlights 070
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 12/11/2025Get to know your Mutuals, list 10 random things you like: When bees sleep on my flowers The quiet when it’s snowing Cherry pie Poodles Catching a fish Steve Martin Small town festivals Bass clarinet solos David Mitchell’s character Marinus Yard sales 041
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 11/11/2025First snow of the season. Button bush has pretty spring flowers, but I like it best for its long-lasting fall foliage. #pollinators #bloomscrolling #snowday #nativeplants #pennsylvania 0151
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 08/11/2025Facebot just rolled out a new AI feature in the group I admin that I promptly switched off. This one is a "Quiz" bot posting the world's easiest trivia. The thing is, this happened in the LearnedLeague group. GTFO. Thanks to the member who reported the post. Have now turned that feature off too. 170
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Among the other good news, in my local school board race the woman who homeschooled her own kids and who supports private armed guards in schools and the dude who has no idea how public schools work except that he kind of recently attended one both got trounced by qualified candidates. 1220
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 05/11/2025W/o any spoilers, can someone tell me if Orbital gets around to having a plot? So far we've circled the earth 3x, someone did a workout & we've named various countries the sun has shone on or not shone on. If there is a plot I will keep reading but if this is it I'll use my own orbits differently. 220
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 31/10/2025Pretty sure this cartoon imprinted on me as a child and that’s why I became a modernist. 030
Verna Kale @vernakale.bsky.social · 29/10/2025It’s like when my h.s. basketball team went all the way to state and fought a good fight against Ray Allen. Still the hardest I’ve ever taken a sports loss. 120