Doug Merrill 🌻
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bagatsen.bsky.social
Doug Merrill 🌻
@bagatsen.bsky.social
670 followers 310 following 5.2K posts
Writer, editor, translator, project manager, reformed bookseller. Now Berlin previously Moscow, Tbilisi, Munich, DC, Warsaw, Budapest. Hoya Saxa! YSR! (he/him) Book reviews and oddments at https://thefrumiousconsortium.net
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bagatsen.bsky.social
Oh, your car got mags that be dippy dippy dope
But the whole damn nation got the same
Honey only flock to the bee that's the Pope
Not the President with government lame ...

So you can be the President
I'd rather be the Pope
Pope Leo XIV speaking (singing?) into a microphone
November 23, 2025 at 9:49 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Say the word and you'll be free
Say the word and be like me
Say the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
Pope Leo XIV speaking (singing?) into a microphone.
November 23, 2025 at 9:44 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
My sweetheart and my parents
I left in my old hometown
I'm out to do the best I can
As I go ramblin' round ...

My sweetheart and my parents
I left in my old hometown
I'm out to do the best I can
As I go ramblin' round
Pope Leo XIV sings. A stand guards against a mic drop. Those things are expensive, you know?
November 23, 2025 at 7:36 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Post your favorite Star Trek character(s). Wrong answers only.
The members of the band U2 in a black and white photo similar to those used for their album The Joshua Tree.
November 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
You can play along here homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/f...
In the style of Zohran Mamdani's campaign graphics, the text "But they were all of them deceived, for a sixth mambo was made."
November 9, 2025 at 10:24 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
In the style of Zohran Mamdani's campaign graphics, text that reads "But they were all of them deceived for a sixth mambo was made."
November 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Indeed.
The Mouth of Sauron, seen before the Black Gate.
October 27, 2025 at 6:55 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Here a historical reminder that impeachment and removal from office *is* the compromise.
Mussolini and some of his closest henchmen, illustrating the historical alternative to impeachment.
October 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
"He came in here and he trashed the place. And it wasn't his place."
Destruction of the east wing of the White House, at the behest of Donald Fucking Trump.
October 22, 2025 at 9:11 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Berlin moment.
Part of the facade of an early 1900s building in Berlin. Most of it is painted a pale blue, the trim around the many windows is white, and in front of it all is a tree branch in black silhouette with golden autumnal leaves.
October 21, 2025 at 6:32 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Some of the three or four hundred people who turned up for Berlin's No Kings protest.
Part of the crowd of three or four hundred at the No Kings protest in Berlin on October 18, 2025. The picture was taken with the Brandenburg Gate behind me and the US embassy just out of the frame to the right. Many handmade signs are visible; the crowd is mostly white and spans a wide range of ages. It is a sunny day. The TV tower at Alexanderplatz is visible in the distance. The sky is blue, like the app.
October 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Berlin moment.
A store's sign above its entrance reads "Berlin Moments."
October 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Berlin moment.
Looking north along the Schönhauser Allee in Berlin. The aboveground tracks for the U2 are visible along the right while a contemporary building frames the picture to the left. The dark trunks of the trees are starting to lose their golden leaves, some of which have been blown into piles along the sidewalk.
October 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Unsolicited — and utterly non-symbolic — schtick pic.
The Grunewald Tower in the aforementioned forest, erected in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1899. It is built in the Brick Gothic Revival style, festooned with a bunch of pointy bits, and not phallic at all. Photographed partially in silhouette against a partly cloudy early evening autumn sky.
October 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Captain America punching Hitler in a comic book panel from 1941.
September 23, 2025 at 9:04 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Winning!
A partial screenshot of a Google search. Text reads, "An AI Overview is not available for this search."
September 23, 2025 at 5:46 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Bad, everyone, and with a script that they got from their nephew.
A flooded residential street somewhere in America. Half of a street sign peeks above the waters. It reads, "But her emails."
September 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
"Fascinating."
Science Officer Spock in Star Trek, although in this particular picture he looks more contemplative than fascinated, but who is to say for sure? The Vulcan mind is deep.
September 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Berlin moment.
Construction of a new office tower at Alexanderplatz, mid-September 2025. The view is from ground level up to a bright but partly-cloudy sky, and shows how the tower will overshadow the department store that dates to GDR times. Several external construction elevators are visible. On the first ten or so stories glass already covers some windows; above that level the building is still open to the elements; it has not yet reached its full height.
September 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Happy Mettwoch everybody!
A Mettbrötchen, which is to say a German snack/lunch item of freshly ground beef plus spices and minced onions on half of a crispy bread roll.
September 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Berlin moment.
Near Bahnhof Zoo, a cluttered street scene featuring a man probably 15 meters off the ground abseiling so that he can clean a Primark store sign.
September 12, 2025 at 9:13 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Or maybe the casual contempt on view here?
Yusuf Dikeç, a sport shooter, competing in a pistol event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He holds the gun in his right hand at arm's length with apparent casualness, his left hand still in his trouser pocket.
September 11, 2025 at 10:40 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Caravaggio shows the way, metaphorically of course.
One of Caravaggio's paintings of the head of John the Baptist
September 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
bagatsen.bsky.social
Hitler's first putsch was stopped at the Army Memorial in Munich. After he seized power, he turned the memorial into a shrine for the Nazis who died as insurrectionists in 1923.
Hitler begrüßt eine Ehrentruppe bei der Feldherrnhalle in München, 1938.
September 4, 2025 at 5:58 AM
bagatsen.bsky.social
I don't know if that was the entire point or just lagniappe, but I'm sure it was part of the plan.
A scene of white people in New Orleans protesting the integration of public schools. The teenagers in the picture are probably grandparents today. I'm sure they remember.
September 3, 2025 at 5:38 AM