Tom Powell
@tompowell.bsky.social
Former philosophy professor and attorney, nascent historian and writer on Tudor intellectual history.
Chapel Hill, Oxford, Charlottesville, God only knows where next. Would very much like to live in a P. G. Wodehouse novel if that can be arranged.
Chapel Hill, Oxford, Charlottesville, God only knows where next. Would very much like to live in a P. G. Wodehouse novel if that can be arranged.
So now 135 pages of manuscript and I finally believe this will be a book.
August 1, 2025 at 2:09 AM
So now 135 pages of manuscript and I finally believe this will be a book.
Reposted by Tom Powell
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!
Please do the *minimum* to show you're not a scammer!
December 20, 2024 at 8:08 AM
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!
Please do the *minimum* to show you're not a scammer!
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.
A thousand times yes.
make art! if it's the end of the world, you might as well make art! if it's not the end of the world, then the future will be better because people made art right now!
July 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
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.
A thousand times yes.
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
www.househousemagazine.com
[ ] House House Magazine
www.househousemagazine.com
June 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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
www.househousemagazine.com
Let us learn the Way of Toad.
Relatable, Toad.
May 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Let us learn the Way of Toad.
Reposted by Tom Powell
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!
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!
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.
media.tenor.com
May 15, 2025 at 1:42 AM
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!
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!
Reposted by Tom Powell
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
🦊🧡
🦊🧡
An Island of Flowers, an Island of Friends.
The Stoat who ran the flower shop in Dorchester was originally from Madeira, his stately old family having established themselves there during the Napoleonic Wars. His kit-hood on the island in the parish of Santo da Serra had been idyllic,
The Stoat who ran the flower shop in Dorchester was originally from Madeira, his stately old family having established themselves there during the Napoleonic Wars. His kit-hood on the island in the parish of Santo da Serra had been idyllic,
May 13, 2025 at 6:42 PM
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
🦊🧡
🦊🧡
Reposted by Tom Powell
This is how your email finds me.
April 14, 2025 at 7:39 AM
This is how your email finds me.
Reposted by Tom Powell
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.
They intend to kill you anyway. Do not cooperate.
Ambassador Spock modeling the proper “fuck you, make me” response to intimidation tactics. Our current-day institutions could learn a lot from him.
April 11, 2025 at 12:50 PM
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.
They intend to kill you anyway. Do not cooperate.
Reposted by Tom Powell
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.
Exclusive: Weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered NIH to pull $250 million in biomedical research grants to Columbia University, the agency is freezing all remaining grant money owed to the university until further notice. scim.ag/4if5Rg1
NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University
Amid negotiations with Trump, the university could risk losing nearly $700 million
scim.ag
April 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM
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.
Reposted by Tom Powell
Gleichschaltung.
March 29, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Gleichschaltung.
Reposted by Tom Powell
Thrilled to see this collective approach, demanding that the 60 (now) targeted institutions work together and against anti democratic threats to higher ed.
Sign!
Sign!
I spent the weekend a little obsessed about getting word to tenured professors at the 60 targeted schools who are also U.S. citizens, but now there's an even easier way to share.
sites.google.com/umass.edu/we...
sites.google.com/umass.edu/we...
Home
March 20, 2025
Dear Presidents, Chancellors, and Boards of Trustees of the 60 Universities that received a March 10th warning letter from the U.S. Department of Education:
You are on the frontlines ...
sites.google.com
March 24, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Thrilled to see this collective approach, demanding that the 60 (now) targeted institutions work together and against anti democratic threats to higher ed.
Sign!
Sign!
Completely psyched for #RenSA2025 and #Shax2025! 🙂
March 20, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Completely psyched for #RenSA2025 and #Shax2025! 🙂
Reposted by Tom Powell
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
(I am shocked, actually; I had not thought of Bret Stephens as being so, well--stupid, uninformed. he sounds here like a rightwing talk-radio lunatic spewing lies about "commies" in places he has never visited & knows nothing about first-hand or even reliably second-hand. N Y Times columnist?)
One columnist, a professional pundit, is living in a paranoid delusion. The other, a sociologist, is living in America.
March 15, 2025 at 4:04 PM
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
Reposted by Tom Powell
I told OPM what I did last week
February 23, 2025 at 1:27 AM
I told OPM what I did last week
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.
February 9, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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.
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?
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?
February 3, 2025 at 11:01 PM
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?
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?
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.
Please do not be this person.
January 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
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.
Please do not be this person.
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.
Opinions, informed and otherwise, very welcome.
January 27, 2025 at 9:42 AM
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.
Opinions, informed and otherwise, very welcome.
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...
“Democracy Dies in Darkness”
Washington Post today:
“Now that Democracy is Dead, Let Us Entertain You”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/b...
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.”
www.nytimes.com
January 17, 2025 at 11:50 AM
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...
“Democracy Dies in Darkness”
Washington Post today:
“Now that Democracy is Dead, Let Us Entertain You”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/b...
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 ..
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 ..
So somewhat besides the point, but Braxton Bragg was, in fact, a damn shitty commander.
Famously so.
But then 'Pete Hegseth is a fool and intellectual lightweight, in addition to being of poor moral character ' is rapidly becoming just as famous.
Famously so.
But then 'Pete Hegseth is a fool and intellectual lightweight, in addition to being of poor moral character ' is rapidly becoming just as famous.
Next level but
January 13, 2025 at 11:32 PM
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 ..
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 ..
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.
A book that with any luck will improve my own writing by example. I hope.
Dr Joanne Paul (@drjoannepaul.bsky.social)
A "sparkling historian" ✨- The Times #thehouseofdudley
"visceral and illuminating ... her style is cinematic" - Wall Street Journal
💚🇨🇦
drjoannepaul.bsky.social
January 12, 2025 at 3:05 PM
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.
A book that with any luck will improve my own writing by example. I hope.
This photo, from President Carter’s funeral, says it all.
January 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
This photo, from President Carter’s funeral, says it all.
Reposted by Tom Powell
Ciabatta laden with apricot jam and mild cheddar cheese doesn't fix all problems, but it does fix some of them
January 6, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Ciabatta laden with apricot jam and mild cheddar cheese doesn't fix all problems, but it does fix some of them