Bess Lovejoy
@besslovejoy.bsky.social
Wrote Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses & etc. Now: research, podcasts, journalism, weird fiction.
BessLovejoy.wordpress.com
BessLovejoy.wordpress.com
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for my year-end writing circle! Please note the timing is a little flexible — we have folks interested from around the globe, so we'll try to find a time most suitable for everyone. besslovejoy.com/last-word/
Last Word Society
The Last Word Society: A Year-End Writing Cohort Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, Pieter Claesz via the Met · Public Domain A number of students who have taken Re-Enchanting the World T…
besslovejoy.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for my year-end writing circle! Please note the timing is a little flexible — we have folks interested from around the globe, so we'll try to find a time most suitable for everyone. besslovejoy.com/last-word/
Our very famous madame Lou Graham apparently had a little diamond-encrusted dagger that she used as a hatpin (and also as a dagger for when people would try to rob her) and I love this. (Thank you to writer & historian Hannah Brooks Olsen for this info!)
November 14, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Our very famous madame Lou Graham apparently had a little diamond-encrusted dagger that she used as a hatpin (and also as a dagger for when people would try to rob her) and I love this. (Thank you to writer & historian Hannah Brooks Olsen for this info!)
Listening to a talk about how Seattle was founded on sex work and gambling and honestly, not sure much has changed?
November 14, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Listening to a talk about how Seattle was founded on sex work and gambling and honestly, not sure much has changed?
Need a special word to convey the feeling of opening up an exciting advance PDF of a wonderful local writer's book and Acrobat saying: "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary using AI assistant."
November 14, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Need a special word to convey the feeling of opening up an exciting advance PDF of a wonderful local writer's book and Acrobat saying: "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary using AI assistant."
Today is brought to you by discovering they make gluten-free graham crackers, and then eating an entire sleeve of said crackers.
November 11, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Today is brought to you by discovering they make gluten-free graham crackers, and then eating an entire sleeve of said crackers.
Do you like shadow puppets, weird dreamy art, Macbeth, and/or gruesome anecdotes about Mary Shelley? If you checked any of the above, I've got you covered with a piece on Manual Cinema's latest: www.thestranger.com/TheaterAndPe...
The Human Magic of Manual Cinema
Centuries before haunted house attractions or horror films, audiences thrilled to magic lantern shows. Also known as phantasmagorias, these performances featured hand-painted glass slides illuminated ...
www.thestranger.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Do you like shadow puppets, weird dreamy art, Macbeth, and/or gruesome anecdotes about Mary Shelley? If you checked any of the above, I've got you covered with a piece on Manual Cinema's latest: www.thestranger.com/TheaterAndPe...
The fact-checker in me has been compelled lately to point out that the subsidies at debate in the shutdown are the *expanded* ones from 2021. They are not *any subsidies at all* or the existence of the ACA in general, whatever Trump may be frothing about. www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...
The health insurance subsidies behind the government shutdown
Harvard Kennedy School's Mark Shepard discusses health insurance subsidies and why they have become such a sticking point for lawmakers.
www.hks.harvard.edu
November 10, 2025 at 12:38 AM
The fact-checker in me has been compelled lately to point out that the subsidies at debate in the shutdown are the *expanded* ones from 2021. They are not *any subsidies at all* or the existence of the ACA in general, whatever Trump may be frothing about. www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...
Being chronically ill is like having a luxury shopping habit that's not actually any fun. And doesn't involve any luxury products.
November 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Being chronically ill is like having a luxury shopping habit that's not actually any fun. And doesn't involve any luxury products.
I was today years old when I discovered that the desire to escape enslavement was once considered a mental illness in some quarters. jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/200...
Drapetomania - 2005 - Question of the Month - Jim Crow Museum
jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 AM
I was today years old when I discovered that the desire to escape enslavement was once considered a mental illness in some quarters. jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/200...
Spotted @markyarm.bsky.social at the Legendary Easy Street Records, which also happens to be my favorite breakfast joint in town. I love how it's always 1994 in there.
November 8, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Spotted @markyarm.bsky.social at the Legendary Easy Street Records, which also happens to be my favorite breakfast joint in town. I love how it's always 1994 in there.
Cool event alert, London edition — this event at the British Library on maps, the mysterious, and the uncanny looks just great. Go in my stead! events.bl.uk/events/mappi...
Mapping the Mysterious | British Library
Reading a map often requires a knowledge of keys and codes as cryptic as any crossword puzzle to unlock its secrets. X might mark the spot but what other t
events.bl.uk
November 6, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Cool event alert, London edition — this event at the British Library on maps, the mysterious, and the uncanny looks just great. Go in my stead! events.bl.uk/events/mappi...
Still looking for a few brave souls for The Last Word Society — a tiny year-end creative circle for research-based writing + accountability.
We’ll meet Tuesday eves, Nov 18–Dec 16, to share work + keep each other accountable.
Details → besslovejoy.com/last-word/
password: Research
We’ll meet Tuesday eves, Nov 18–Dec 16, to share work + keep each other accountable.
Details → besslovejoy.com/last-word/
password: Research
November 6, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Still looking for a few brave souls for The Last Word Society — a tiny year-end creative circle for research-based writing + accountability.
We’ll meet Tuesday eves, Nov 18–Dec 16, to share work + keep each other accountable.
Details → besslovejoy.com/last-word/
password: Research
We’ll meet Tuesday eves, Nov 18–Dec 16, to share work + keep each other accountable.
Details → besslovejoy.com/last-word/
password: Research
Glad that if I have to live in the US of A, I live in Washington state. I just got off the phone with my insurance broker, who explained that as a result of some defensive strategies by the state, my health insurance tax credits are increasing significantly — not decreasing, let alone ending.
November 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Glad that if I have to live in the US of A, I live in Washington state. I just got off the phone with my insurance broker, who explained that as a result of some defensive strategies by the state, my health insurance tax credits are increasing significantly — not decreasing, let alone ending.
The neighborhood association that set up an ofrenda in my building's lobby seems to have put a challah out instead of pan de muerto? It's not even Shabbos so I am confused.
October 31, 2025 at 7:24 AM
The neighborhood association that set up an ofrenda in my building's lobby seems to have put a challah out instead of pan de muerto? It's not even Shabbos so I am confused.
Brought to you by the 1.5 hours I just spent interviewing a widow about her amazing husband's career. There were tears, bon mots, a show and tell. This is not an assembly line.
October 29, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Brought to you by the 1.5 hours I just spent interviewing a widow about her amazing husband's career. There were tears, bon mots, a show and tell. This is not an assembly line.
I'm sure this whole "Use ChatGPT and double your output" thing that creatives (ugh) are now pressured to do makes sense superficially, but it does not take into account the bandwidth it takes to hold a subject in your mind/heart and treat it carefully. Writing & art are not factory widgets.
October 29, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I'm sure this whole "Use ChatGPT and double your output" thing that creatives (ugh) are now pressured to do makes sense superficially, but it does not take into account the bandwidth it takes to hold a subject in your mind/heart and treat it carefully. Writing & art are not factory widgets.
Reposted by Bess Lovejoy
A haunted house but it's a library of empty shelves with signs that you can just get the books on Amazon.
October 29, 2025 at 10:32 PM
A haunted house but it's a library of empty shelves with signs that you can just get the books on Amazon.
In the Seattle area? Consider supporting this at the Northwest Detention Center/Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma on Saturday.
Join La Resistencia for our 11th annual Día de Los Muertos on November 1st.
October 29, 2025 at 1:29 AM
In the Seattle area? Consider supporting this at the Northwest Detention Center/Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma on Saturday.
Sometimes paintings are also short stories. Like this one, Figures in a House by Antonio López García www.march.es/en/palma/col...
www.march.es
October 28, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Sometimes paintings are also short stories. Like this one, Figures in a House by Antonio López García www.march.es/en/palma/col...
RIP to another great place I used to work.
Welp, after 9+ years, my time as Mental Floss’s science editor has come to an end. I could not have asked for a better bunch of weirdos to be my co-workers (and who also got laid off). You know what this means: a thread of greatest hits! 🧵1/n
October 28, 2025 at 12:18 AM
RIP to another great place I used to work.
This Peter Schjeldahl quote in a great Jen Graves piece from 2007: "Art is a zone of permanent floating confusion amid the petty certainties of life, and people who can't handle it should really go into the family business and leave the rest of us alone." www.thestranger.com/visual-art/2...
Art School Confidential
Gage Academy: A Classical Art School with Very Modern Problems
www.thestranger.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:44 PM
This Peter Schjeldahl quote in a great Jen Graves piece from 2007: "Art is a zone of permanent floating confusion amid the petty certainties of life, and people who can't handle it should really go into the family business and leave the rest of us alone." www.thestranger.com/visual-art/2...
I've been fascinated by the idea of apiaries in cemeteries since hives were set up at Green-Wood in Brooklyn. So I loved writing about the Catacomb Bee Collective at Evergreen-Washelli in Seattle. Can we just agree they have the coolest logo? seattlemag.com/outside/hive...
Hives Among the Headstones
Discover the role of bees as messengers in old stories and traditions. Understand their significance in life and death.
seattlemag.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:38 PM
I've been fascinated by the idea of apiaries in cemeteries since hives were set up at Green-Wood in Brooklyn. So I loved writing about the Catacomb Bee Collective at Evergreen-Washelli in Seattle. Can we just agree they have the coolest logo? seattlemag.com/outside/hive...
This will probably get me on some kind of list, but once again for those in the back: Judaism is not the same thing as Zionism. One is a religion and a culture, the other a nationalist ideology. Many, many Jews are not Zionists.
October 22, 2025 at 3:21 AM
This will probably get me on some kind of list, but once again for those in the back: Judaism is not the same thing as Zionism. One is a religion and a culture, the other a nationalist ideology. Many, many Jews are not Zionists.
Some excellent points here.
What, if anything, did the No Kings protests accomplish?
I've seen that pop up in everything from genuine inquiry to sneering dismissal. For anyone asking or facing that question, here's an answer.
Everything isn't all fixed, of course. But the protests accomplished at least these seven things:
I've seen that pop up in everything from genuine inquiry to sneering dismissal. For anyone asking or facing that question, here's an answer.
Everything isn't all fixed, of course. But the protests accomplished at least these seven things:
7 Things the No Kings Protests Accomplished
The political emergency isn't over, of course, but who thought it would be. Here are seven things this weekend's protests accomplished.
www.arcdigital.media
October 21, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Some excellent points here.
For those of you interested in the discussions around human remains in museums, I wrote about the new policy at the Mütter Museum and the controversy that led to it: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/14/f...
From controversy to clarity: how a Philadelphia medical museum is rethinking the display of human remains
In 2023 the Mütter Museum was at the centre of a scandal around the repatriation of Indigenous remains. Now, as the dust begins to settle, a new leadership team is looking to the future
www.theartnewspaper.com
October 17, 2025 at 11:37 PM
For those of you interested in the discussions around human remains in museums, I wrote about the new policy at the Mütter Museum and the controversy that led to it: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/14/f...