Peter McCullough
@mcculloughp.bsky.social
Mostly post about things I like, make, or grow. 🌱🪡🏳️🌈 + climate, environment, arts, early modern culture. Prof. of English, U. Of Oxford.
I do love a bit of irony of a morning.
November 10, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I do love a bit of irony of a morning.
Reposted by Peter McCullough
“I am no longer an artist, interested & curious. I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on forever.
Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, & may it burn their lousy souls”
Paul Nash - 1/2:
Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, & may it burn their lousy souls”
Paul Nash - 1/2:
November 9, 2025 at 10:34 AM
“I am no longer an artist, interested & curious. I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on forever.
Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, & may it burn their lousy souls”
Paul Nash - 1/2:
Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, & may it burn their lousy souls”
Paul Nash - 1/2:
'A generation unkind to their parents, and their children, pure in their own eyes, cruel hearted, whose teeth were as knives to shred the poor of the earth, shred them small. Where a general corruption that way, no good to be hoped for; the country will not last long.' (Lancelot Andrewes, 1617)
November 8, 2025 at 4:04 PM
'A generation unkind to their parents, and their children, pure in their own eyes, cruel hearted, whose teeth were as knives to shred the poor of the earth, shred them small. Where a general corruption that way, no good to be hoped for; the country will not last long.' (Lancelot Andrewes, 1617)
Cripes (full thread).
The wheel with the black & white stripes, the grouping of those little metal spheres, those metal curves at the bottom, no picture of Marie Curie has been so well composed. Maybe Fritz Lang arranged it.
November 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Cripes (full thread).
Outlook has moved the delete icon from the solemn, easy-access splendour it deserved at the far right of a message into a crowded cluster on the left and it's doing my head in.
November 6, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Outlook has moved the delete icon from the solemn, easy-access splendour it deserved at the far right of a message into a crowded cluster on the left and it's doing my head in.
I’m determined that my 1990 grad school FQ sees me through to retirement.
November 5, 2025 at 6:14 PM
I’m determined that my 1990 grad school FQ sees me through to retirement.
Tho't I'd check where Donne's sermons were in the new humanities library. Gratified that they were all checked out, but shelved under history of religion, separated by a whole floor from all of his other presumably more 'literary' works. FFS. Talk about a judgment on one's life's work. #earlymodern
November 3, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Tho't I'd check where Donne's sermons were in the new humanities library. Gratified that they were all checked out, but shelved under history of religion, separated by a whole floor from all of his other presumably more 'literary' works. FFS. Talk about a judgment on one's life's work. #earlymodern
If transitory things, which soon decay,
Age must be loveliest at the latest day.
(Donne, ‘The Autumnal’)
Age must be loveliest at the latest day.
(Donne, ‘The Autumnal’)
November 1, 2025 at 3:48 PM
If transitory things, which soon decay,
Age must be loveliest at the latest day.
(Donne, ‘The Autumnal’)
Age must be loveliest at the latest day.
(Donne, ‘The Autumnal’)
Reposted by Peter McCullough
Oh so hate clicks are actually what they’re after
November 1, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Oh so hate clicks are actually what they’re after
Time to close the curtains and turn the lights off in the front rooms. #halloween
October 31, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Time to close the curtains and turn the lights off in the front rooms. #halloween
Reposted by Peter McCullough
Just watched a very depressing Northwest Tonight full of vox pops - 'I'm not racist but I don't want Muslims (or that sort) round here' and you start to wonder if these people don't actually understand what racism means.
October 27, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Just watched a very depressing Northwest Tonight full of vox pops - 'I'm not racist but I don't want Muslims (or that sort) round here' and you start to wonder if these people don't actually understand what racism means.
What lines.
Nor holy rapture wanted they
to praise
Their Maker, in fit strains
pronounced, or sung
Unmeditated; such prompt
eloquence
Flowed from their lips, in
prose or numerous verse,
More tuneable than needed lute
or harp
V, 147-151
to praise
Their Maker, in fit strains
pronounced, or sung
Unmeditated; such prompt
eloquence
Flowed from their lips, in
prose or numerous verse,
More tuneable than needed lute
or harp
V, 147-151
October 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
What lines.
If you care about, or have questions about, integrity and inclusion in the church, watch and listen to this.
youtu.be/LLM_J8YH8Fk?...
youtu.be/LLM_J8YH8Fk?...
The Dean's Sermon
YouTube video by Southwark Cathedral
youtu.be
October 27, 2025 at 10:10 AM
If you care about, or have questions about, integrity and inclusion in the church, watch and listen to this.
youtu.be/LLM_J8YH8Fk?...
youtu.be/LLM_J8YH8Fk?...
🔥
AI is not sentient. It doesn't have a survival instinct. What's happened is that corporations have decided that we'll all obey capital if it can pretend to talk.
October 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
🔥
Oh look. Another Schwarzman Centre.
Here are the companies destroying the east wing of the White House
October 24, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Oh look. Another Schwarzman Centre.
Reposted by Peter McCullough
how far we've come from George Herbert in 1633 describing new Rome and old Rome as "Sinne's nipples"
A rift that took 500 years to repair: King Charles prays with the pope
A rift that took 500 years to repair: King Charles prays with the pope
Joint prayer in Sistine Chapel is symbolic act of rapprochement between Catholic church and Church of England after centuries of division
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:41 PM
how far we've come from George Herbert in 1633 describing new Rome and old Rome as "Sinne's nipples"
Reposted by Peter McCullough
Can't make this up: "'Trumpery' became a fashionable word" in 1840s England to describe the overuse of cheap decorative elements on houses. (Muthesius, Stefan. The English Terraced House. Yale U Pres, 1982. p242.)
October 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Can't make this up: "'Trumpery' became a fashionable word" in 1840s England to describe the overuse of cheap decorative elements on houses. (Muthesius, Stefan. The English Terraced House. Yale U Pres, 1982. p242.)
Reposted by Peter McCullough
A letter from the age of truth. Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. We need more of this in our public discourse. Call vile ideologies and the people who peddle them out for who and what they are.
October 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
A letter from the age of truth. Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. We need more of this in our public discourse. Call vile ideologies and the people who peddle them out for who and what they are.
OMG.
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
OMG.
Top live coverage by proper local journalists covering a county council meeting.
The meeting is now on hold because the speakers aren’t working in half of the room, which we confess doesn’t give us great confidence that OCC will be able to turn streetlights on and off to a new schedule every night.
October 21, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Top live coverage by proper local journalists covering a county council meeting.
Is it too much to hope that this kind of utter trash is a sign of desperation in the face of a public that doesn't want AI? (rhetorical question)
A new iPhone app, Endless Summer, uses AI to create photorealistic vacation photos starring you — no travel required
Too burned out to travel? This new app fakes your summer vacation photos for you | TechCrunch
A new iPhone app, Endless Summer, uses AI to create photorealistic vacation photos starring you — no travel required
techcrunch.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Is it too much to hope that this kind of utter trash is a sign of desperation in the face of a public that doesn't want AI? (rhetorical question)
Thank you. 😱
The sun will set tomorrow (Monday 20 October) in Oxford at 18:01 🌇
It’s the last time it’ll set after 18:00 until Wednesday 11 March 2026.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
It’s the last time it’ll set after 18:00 until Wednesday 11 March 2026.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
October 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Thank you. 😱