Delighted to see that the Department of Homeland Security acknowledges that their immigration laws are "endangering American communities." Less delighted to see that nobody who publishes to the DHS webpage can write a grammatically correct sentence. I guess we only teach those to immigrants.

Library Day 9 of 10, Beinecke 2024, & really regretting only asking to come for 2 weeks. This morning I hit 1400 entries in my database: I now have recorded 1404 MS copies of 654 disparate EM poems on servants & tradesmen in 220 (or so) different trades, including at least 347 distinct epitaphs.

I'm so grateful to have gotten to spend all last week (& next) at the Beinecke, staffed with some of the world's friendliest and most helpful librarians, guards, & facilities staff. Readers no longer have access to in-building coffee, but the fellowships folks have really stepped up their swag game.

I'm the only one in the house awake right now, but out of consideration for the other human, this is the only photo I'll share.

My followers have doubled overnight, so I guess I'm one of the cool kids at last! Hi, new people! I have a book on readers of Shakespeare's sonnets, my current research project is on epitaphs about 17th century servants and tradesmen, & I live with the two best cats in the world.

If I read enough epigrams in a row, I start to read the period and slash at the end of each one as a cymbal crash: "Such Malsters as ill measure sell for gaine / are not meere knaues, but also knaues in graine." Ba-dum-TSS. Does this happen to anyone else? (Folger MS V.a.339, 220r or 226r).

I like his tuft of white at the throat! My cat has a similar marking.

Thanks also to @FolgerLibrary for acquiring (& allowing visits to see) such an interesting manuscript, & for bringing me & @MiyamotoBen together as friends & eventual collaborators. Here B. celebrates (w/ cake) our @FolgerResearch fellowships (2019-20 cohort)!