Laura B.
@hecate527.bsky.social
Interests are Samuel Johnson's 18th century circle (particularly Hester Thrale Piozzi), reading, writing, scientific journals, University Presses, face blindness/prosopagnosia, embroidery, web comics, &c.
"I grew up thinking everything would be perfect if we just had a little more money. Instead the money just blew everything apart. Humans will money themselves to death the same way some dogs and fish will eat themselves to death." -Mark Vonnegut
November 27, 2025 at 2:07 AM
"I grew up thinking everything would be perfect if we just had a little more money. Instead the money just blew everything apart. Humans will money themselves to death the same way some dogs and fish will eat themselves to death." -Mark Vonnegut
Johnson and Boswell really are the ur detective/sidekick pairing. Portly, older, grouchy, neurodiverse, genius widower and younger, alcoholic, womanizing, sycophantic (but ok, also a genius) bounder. That's like 90% descriptive of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
November 15, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Johnson and Boswell really are the ur detective/sidekick pairing. Portly, older, grouchy, neurodiverse, genius widower and younger, alcoholic, womanizing, sycophantic (but ok, also a genius) bounder. That's like 90% descriptive of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
"Without truth there must be a dissolution of society. As it is, there is so little truth, that we are almost afraid to trust our ears; but how should we be, if falsehood were multiplied ten times? Society is held together by communication and information." - Life of Johnson
November 5, 2025 at 6:29 PM
"Without truth there must be a dissolution of society. As it is, there is so little truth, that we are almost afraid to trust our ears; but how should we be, if falsehood were multiplied ten times? Society is held together by communication and information." - Life of Johnson
You tell them, Mrs. Knowles!
October 30, 2025 at 4:59 PM
You tell them, Mrs. Knowles!
"Some people just want the apocalypse in their lifetime." -T. Kingfisher
September 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
"Some people just want the apocalypse in their lifetime." -T. Kingfisher
No, Michelob AmberBock is what you get when two of the hosts of Have I Got News For You! merge with each other. @michaelianblack.bsky.social
started to look this up and was reminded how good Google is now
September 22, 2025 at 11:41 PM
No, Michelob AmberBock is what you get when two of the hosts of Have I Got News For You! merge with each other. @michaelianblack.bsky.social
Happy birthday to the great cham, Sam Johnson. Hope somewhere he's driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman who can hold up her end of the conversation!
September 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Happy birthday to the great cham, Sam Johnson. Hope somewhere he's driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman who can hold up her end of the conversation!
Fun fact: the little leftover threads after an embroidery project are called orts.
September 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Fun fact: the little leftover threads after an embroidery project are called orts.
Moll Flanders has 48,000 reads on Goodreads, which is more than Dickens's Pickwick Papers or Bronte's Shirley, both under 40,000. Color me surprised, or, alternately, what Defoe???
September 5, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Moll Flanders has 48,000 reads on Goodreads, which is more than Dickens's Pickwick Papers or Bronte's Shirley, both under 40,000. Color me surprised, or, alternately, what Defoe???
I'll never trust a biography that says Jane Austen loved Fanny Burney - the evidence is so flimsy, & seems the opposite of how a historian should operate, to exaggerate a few mentions straight to love. (But then I don't even trust declarations - people say/write things for all kinda reasons.)
August 25, 2025 at 8:20 PM
I'll never trust a biography that says Jane Austen loved Fanny Burney - the evidence is so flimsy, & seems the opposite of how a historian should operate, to exaggerate a few mentions straight to love. (But then I don't even trust declarations - people say/write things for all kinda reasons.)
Learning new things as an adult is fun psychologically. I can't play piano, but I can slowly teach myself simple songs. W/ a new song, at first I'm like "This is so hard, it's going to be impossible!" And then once I've learned it, I'm like "well that's nothing, it's a baby song for piano babies."
August 19, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Learning new things as an adult is fun psychologically. I can't play piano, but I can slowly teach myself simple songs. W/ a new song, at first I'm like "This is so hard, it's going to be impossible!" And then once I've learned it, I'm like "well that's nothing, it's a baby song for piano babies."
Ok I've been taking a break from reading the Piozzi Letters and I have to tell you A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by @tkingfisher.com is DELIGHTFUL. (Doughlightful?)
August 13, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Ok I've been taking a break from reading the Piozzi Letters and I have to tell you A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by @tkingfisher.com is DELIGHTFUL. (Doughlightful?)
Lol ... How often does Boswell actually forget anything that was said? How convenient. 🤨
August 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Lol ... How often does Boswell actually forget anything that was said? How convenient. 🤨
There's a venn diagram of people who read obscure books about Samuel Johnson's circle and people who track their books on Goodreads, and it's just me in the middle.
August 1, 2025 at 1:37 AM
There's a venn diagram of people who read obscure books about Samuel Johnson's circle and people who track their books on Goodreads, and it's just me in the middle.
Still fixated on how absolute Boswell it is to include what a rollicking good time he and Johnson had after finding out HT's son died. To paraphrase: I was like should we feel guilty? Johnson was like no it's cool as long as they don't know. [BOSWELL, MAKING SURE THEY KNOW.]
July 31, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Still fixated on how absolute Boswell it is to include what a rollicking good time he and Johnson had after finding out HT's son died. To paraphrase: I was like should we feel guilty? Johnson was like no it's cool as long as they don't know. [BOSWELL, MAKING SURE THEY KNOW.]
The competition for anecdotes and letters for publication after Johnson's death is queasy. Reminds me of the scene in Dickens after Scrooge dies and everything in his bedroom is looted.
July 28, 2025 at 12:03 AM
The competition for anecdotes and letters for publication after Johnson's death is queasy. Reminds me of the scene in Dickens after Scrooge dies and everything in his bedroom is looted.
I'm reading the letters HT wrote to Queeny and Fanny Burney around her marriage to Piozzi, and they make me so sad - they're gushing with affection but in reality all those relationships were broken and she really wasn't much of a mother. But the pretense of adoration... Also FB remains intolerable
July 27, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I'm reading the letters HT wrote to Queeny and Fanny Burney around her marriage to Piozzi, and they make me so sad - they're gushing with affection but in reality all those relationships were broken and she really wasn't much of a mother. But the pretense of adoration... Also FB remains intolerable
I was an intern at OUP, organizing files. Found a letter from Tom Lehrer, addressed to the "Myrmidons of OUP" granting them permission to freely republish whatever of his lyrics they desired, however the saw fit ... Foreshadowing his generous "just leave me alone and use whatever you want" policy.
July 27, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I was an intern at OUP, organizing files. Found a letter from Tom Lehrer, addressed to the "Myrmidons of OUP" granting them permission to freely republish whatever of his lyrics they desired, however the saw fit ... Foreshadowing his generous "just leave me alone and use whatever you want" policy.
Boswell doubling down on using the Thrales's sons death as a "gotcha" to insult Hester. Whatta charmer.
July 27, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Boswell doubling down on using the Thrales's sons death as a "gotcha" to insult Hester. Whatta charmer.
My sight reading is rusty, but this looks like a pretty tune by Mr. Piozzi? I don't think HT cared much for music outside of being an accomplishment to acquire for her daughters, but hey, competence is attractive. Now who's got a harpsichord, a bass, a couple violins, and some spare time ...
July 27, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My sight reading is rusty, but this looks like a pretty tune by Mr. Piozzi? I don't think HT cared much for music outside of being an accomplishment to acquire for her daughters, but hey, competence is attractive. Now who's got a harpsichord, a bass, a couple violins, and some spare time ...
"She always seemed to be a genius of that eccentric kind, which is mighty apt to be accompanied by 'a plentiful lack' of common sense." (Elizabeth Carter on Hester Thrale Piozzi.) Fair enough?
July 27, 2025 at 1:23 AM
"She always seemed to be a genius of that eccentric kind, which is mighty apt to be accompanied by 'a plentiful lack' of common sense." (Elizabeth Carter on Hester Thrale Piozzi.) Fair enough?
Hey footnote, I'd say Sophia Streatfeild was more the woman Hester Thrale was convinced her husband was (quite plausibly) in love with, less her "close friend," but you do you
July 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Hey footnote, I'd say Sophia Streatfeild was more the woman Hester Thrale was convinced her husband was (quite plausibly) in love with, less her "close friend," but you do you
It's a little on the nose how Henry Thrale, a relentless philanderer, proceeded to basically eat himself to death against all medical advice. Like yes, he's a man of appetites, we get it. 🙄🙄
July 27, 2025 at 12:54 AM
It's a little on the nose how Henry Thrale, a relentless philanderer, proceeded to basically eat himself to death against all medical advice. Like yes, he's a man of appetites, we get it. 🙄🙄