David Adger
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davidadger.bsky.social
David Adger
@davidadger.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.4K following 280 posts
syntax and other stuff, mainly more linguistics and cogsci but occasional queerness, poetry, cats and @ans.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈
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davidadger.bsky.social
Look what just arrived early! It’s chunkier than I thought. Open access version on publication day which I think is the 18th on the @mitpress.bsky.social website. I must admit, I’m very fond of the colour!!! 🐦🐦 #syntax #newbook
opened box containing dark green books called Mereological Syntax, one of which is diagonally placed on top of the others pile of 10 dark green books stacked on a wooned tabletop
November 7, 2025 at 2:09 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Lovely catching up with @dannybate.bsky.social at his [[new book] party] tonight. Why Q needs U. Why indeed!?!? 🐦🐦
Author Danny Bate smiling with a copy of his new book in his hands
October 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
In case this is useful to anyone, this is what I sent to my MP, asking him to request Parliamentary scrutiny of the EHRC advice on the Supreme Court Ruling. Roughly based on a letter by @nonbinarybarrister on insta. I think there's not much time on this one
Dear Calvin, I’m sure you're aware that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has now submitted an updated statutory Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations to the Minister for Equalities in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision back in April and that this will be laid before Parliament under the “negative procedure” very soon. You are also, I’m sure, aware that the Code impacts the fundamental rights of both trans and non-trans people in the UK. It will be burdensome, costly and unpopular for those tasked with making it happen. There is also significant legal uncertainty over its lawfulness. Unless it is challenged, the new Code will become Statutory Guidance with no oversight from Parliament. My main worry about this, as someone who fought against Section 28 in the 1980s, and who knows the appalling and decades long impact this had on both gay students and gay school teachers, is that this will lead to the forcible outing of trans people in their daily lives at work and in society in general. If you are trans, you will be legally barred from using the bathroom that is appropriate to your gender as you live your life, and that will out you to your colleagues. This is a total violation of trans peoples’ rights to privacy, and will be devastating for many, especially as many trans people have been living for decades in their felt gender, and their lives will be destroyed. I have many other objections, but this one is, I think, central. Do we really want a Labour government to be responsible for removing rights from a vulnerable group? Please could you write to the Women and Equalities Minister and to the Prime Minister to ask for proper Parliamentary scrutiny, debate and a free vote on any new Code. I also ask you to support any motion tabled in Parliament objecting to a Code that risks breaching people’s human rights. I’m sure you would anyway. with best wishes your constituent David Adger
September 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Am very excited as @backlisted.bsky.social are doing the Tombs of Atuan this week (did they do aWoE? I’ll have to check). I tracked down the same edition I borrowed from Glenwood library in maybe 1978 or 79?
Cover of Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan with robed figures gathering under high vaulted roofs
September 2, 2025 at 5:11 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Hmm. The apple tree has gone a bit ott this year!
A bowl and a large basket full of apples on a red linoleum kitchen table
August 14, 2025 at 7:53 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Wee poem just out in the excellent Scottish literary mag Gutter #poetry #anemone
Printed poem reading: Gutter 32 David Adger Anemone as though someone had pricked the rock and squeezed too hard or taken a poisoned apple and sliced it into a perfect half as though they'd puffed their cheeks and blown a chill bubble of blood from the wet as though mermaids swam under glass, faces pressed close, waiting for it to split, waiting until their coils of hair might tense, hold, and, when a rush of sea disentangles them, pulse into the foam Cover of Gutter magazine issue 32 showing abstract pink gold red maroon bark like texture on maroon cover
August 12, 2025 at 6:37 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
in case anyone wants to check this out, google's still doing it. "Dementia in PhDs" gives this - it even hypothesizes it's due to stress doing your PhD, but it's getting it from the paper linked to which is about PHD (Primary Headache Disorders). As @emilymbender.bsky.social said earlier today Gah!
screenshot of google ai response to a query 'Dementia in PhDs' which says "A higher level of education, such as a PhD, is generally associated with a reduced risk of dementia, not an increased risk. This is often linked to the cognitive stimulation and brain reserve that education provides. While some studies suggest a temporary increase in dementia risk after the initial period of obtaining a PhD, likely related to the stress of the process or other factors, the overall long-term effect of higher education is protective. Here's a more detailed explanation: Cognitive Reserve: Education, including pursuing a PhD, contributes to building cognitive reserve, which is the brain's ability to cope with damage or disease. Protection Against Dementia: A more robust cognitive reserve can help delay the onset or slow the progression of dementia symptoms. Brain Stimulation: The process of earning a PhD involves intense cognitive activity, which can help maintain and strengthen neural connections in the brain. Potential Temporary Increase: Some research suggests that individuals who have recently completed a PhD may experience a temporary increase in dementia risk in the first couple of years after completion, potentially due to the stress associated with the final stages of the degree or other factors. "
August 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Working in the Stone Minimarket Garden in Leytonstone with Terry the cat #caturday
Grey cat looking contented on a garden table with laptop, papers, pen and coffee
July 26, 2025 at 9:28 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Arachnophobia alert! Very happy my poem Spiderlings just appeared in Under the Radar magazine published by @ninearchespress.bsky.social along with a collection of really wonderful poems by amazing poets
Spiderlings but you shouldn’t say their name call them hook-legs little wild stags blisters of salt loop-spinners their cradle is not a trap but gentleness in emptiness one quick jab unclusters them a stop-motion yarrow scatter a panicked flowering but it’s second moult that breaks out desire to cast strands into chancy space to dial sun into sidelit shape to charm the world into a smaller world to charm it into lines and a reel to charm it into prey Cover of Under the Radar Magazine Issue 35 with a pink square on a grey background. The pink square works as a window onto dotted spheres coloured in red yellow and blue
July 18, 2025 at 7:40 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
and in other news, the cover of my new book is here! The book's not out until November (open access with @mitpress.bsky.social), but am liking the green colour!
June 15, 2025 at 10:41 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Missed #caturday but painted this, this morning, with some of the oak gall ink I made last month.
black ink painting of a cat from the side, facing left, sitting up with paws out to the front and tail swooping forward.
June 15, 2025 at 10:40 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Dougie didn’t come home until 6am this morning and is now zonked. What an after party that must have been. #caturday
Black and white cat stretched out sleeping on multicolour rainbow quilt on a bed.
May 31, 2025 at 6:07 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Happy to have my translation of this poem published in the new issue of GrandJournal. The original by Sorley MacLean turns on the fact you can use the Gaelic ciall, 'sense, reason, meaning' as a term of endearment (mo chiall=my love), so doubleness pervades the poem even though it denies it! #poetry
image of a poem, a translation of Sorley MacLean's A Chiall 's a Gràidh, translated as Reasoning with Love: If our language said that sense is equivalent to love it lied. When I saw your face I had no sense of love’s asymmetries. When I heard your voice it didn’t crack open my chest at first. But love breached, unnoticed, and ripped apart my keel swept me aside like drift. With all the judgment I had I made a shadow fight an unreasonable war until from that old hidden place I spoke to love, saying neither of us is worth this. Love was in the house's heart reason in the elegant room but the foolish door between them was broken and my reason said to my love: its not for us, this doubleness love has mixed us up.
May 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
I do hope our wonderful media keep in mind that Reform still has fewer council seats than any other whole-UK party.
table from Wiki showing number of council seats held by different political parties in the UK as of May 2nd. Labour at 6323, Tories at 5035, LibDems at 3009, then Greens at 850. Putting aside parties that don't compete across the whole UK, next is Reform at 808.
May 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
I've just written to my MP about yesterday's supreme court decision. Am still stunned that there wasn't even the semblance of a neutral process in coming to the judgment. Feels like the dark old days of the 80s again
I’m writing to urge you to speak out for your constituents who are trans after yesterday’s decision. People will be scared and worried about simply living their lives, even if the decision was on a fairly narrow basis, as it comes after a long period under the Tories where trans people especially were under constant attack by the press, by the government, and by people that the government had put into positions of power. Labour has always stood up for minorities, and the Equality Act was an important piece of legislation that sought to provide not just equality for people with protected characteristics, but dignity and respect. In these dark days of rising authoritarianism, it’s so important for elected representatives like you to make the case clearly and forcefully that Labour will continue its tradition of supporting minorities and work to halt the backsliding that we see on trans people's ability to live a life of dignity and respect. I hope to hear you standing up for the rights of trans people, as well as of other LGBTQ+ minorities, in parliament,
April 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
This is the most LRB sentence I have ever rea read 🥰 From Mlinko’s review of Krasznahorkai in @lrb.co.uk 20th March. I definitely want to read the book now!
Photo of text that reads ' Death, thou shalt die' has nothing on the apophatic reversals of Krasznahorkai's metaphysics, where art exposes the scrim between us and non-being.
April 5, 2025 at 9:46 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
I am currently out of the office, and will reply on my return.
March 24, 2025 at 8:20 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Dougie isn’t keen on me reading a review of Anne Carson’s Wrong Norma in an old @lrb.co.uk for some reason. #caturday
Black and white cat curled up on a now unreadable open copy of the London Review of Books looking innocently up, paw firmly placed on the title
March 15, 2025 at 7:23 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Aw! Almost the same story with Dougie - arrived bedraggled, flea-bitten, hungry and un-neutered about a month after our cat Merkel died last year, and is now at this level of comfortableness!
black and white cat fast asleep, nose to foot, on a green blanket
March 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Post a photo you took with no context to bring some zen to the timeline.
sun rising through bare tree branches in frosty landscape
March 10, 2025 at 7:43 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
agus tha sinn air fàs nar teaghlach Gàidhlig - fiù 's Dougie, ar cat, a tha a' miamhalaich anns a' chànan (nuair nach eil e na chadal!)
black and white cat dozing on a leather beanbag with paws outstretched
February 24, 2025 at 5:23 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Hello Amsterdam! Ready for some mereological syntax?!
Scene of canal and buildings
February 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
Gaelic scrabble, once again stumping @ans.bsky.social
Scene of perplexed person staring at Gaelic scrabble board with glass of champagne
December 25, 2024 at 3:30 PM
davidadger.bsky.social
And they're off! If you want to follow @ans.bsky.social on the 200 mile Centurion (!) run, the dot following is live.opentracking.co.uk/WD200-2024/?.... Or you could climb into a helicopter and just look for the canary yellow hair!
Picture of Anson holding the race number 147 and initial pre race information
December 11, 2024 at 9:03 AM
davidadger.bsky.social
Phew! Actual printout for final read through of the first full draft of my new book Mereological Syntax. Final stretch here we go!
Title page of book Contents page of book
September 2, 2023 at 12:19 PM