@erobertlee.bsky.social
English PhD with work in American Studies and Classical Reception. African American Literature, American 19th/20th Century, Science Fiction, Du Bois.
Josie and the Pussycats (2001) is better than actually good media too
Josie and the Pussycats (2001) is better than Game of Thrones.
November 11, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Josie and the Pussycats (2001) is better than actually good media too
When I teach Science Fiction, I always insistently start with /Utopia/ because it cannot be stressed enough that the earliest technologies we are studying and most study are governmental, the structures that are invented to organize people larger than a family unit. Du Bois was big on this too
They called them Near Abroad Direct Action Operations, NADA Ops. The "joke" in the CalSec cafeterias, which made its way out later in the hearings was that "What does the operator say when asked if there are civilians in the area? Nada...oops!". Even decades later, Arizona didn't find it funny.
November 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
When I teach Science Fiction, I always insistently start with /Utopia/ because it cannot be stressed enough that the earliest technologies we are studying and most study are governmental, the structures that are invented to organize people larger than a family unit. Du Bois was big on this too
It's funny that baseball cards and such are accidental flash cards. I don't like star wars much, but I loved the Decipher card game, so I can tell you the species of every alien that was in half a frame in the mos eisley cantina scene or the imperial officers at the death star conference
i cant remember anything except the full details of every magic card
November 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
It's funny that baseball cards and such are accidental flash cards. I don't like star wars much, but I loved the Decipher card game, so I can tell you the species of every alien that was in half a frame in the mos eisley cantina scene or the imperial officers at the death star conference
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This is what you say when it’s obvious that something is real and there’s productivity coming out of it
GOLDMAN SACHS CEO: INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY IS REAL, THERE'S REAL PRODUCTIVITY COMING OUT OF IT
October 30, 2025 at 3:56 PM
This is what you say when it’s obvious that something is real and there’s productivity coming out of it
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Esther ... Number one ....For me...
"oh Esther mean"
Oh no my brother in Christ spice comes with heat... Write that down
"oh Esther mean"
Oh no my brother in Christ spice comes with heat... Write that down
October 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Esther ... Number one ....For me...
"oh Esther mean"
Oh no my brother in Christ spice comes with heat... Write that down
"oh Esther mean"
Oh no my brother in Christ spice comes with heat... Write that down
One time the gate next to ours was going to Fort Myers and the guy on the PA was just dripping venom about people not holding their own boarding passes. A dad in the last family to get on told his teenagers "if you're not holding your own boarding pass, you're going to have your ass handed to you"
do you ever have things that someone has said to you that live forever in your head (non-serious edition)? some older boomer hippie guy said “hahmmus gives you fahts” to me 26 years ago at a free fridge and i think of it every fucking single time i buy hummus to this day.
October 27, 2025 at 1:04 PM
One time the gate next to ours was going to Fort Myers and the guy on the PA was just dripping venom about people not holding their own boarding passes. A dad in the last family to get on told his teenagers "if you're not holding your own boarding pass, you're going to have your ass handed to you"
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Doomerism is chickenshit. an embarrassment to every ape that threw a rock at a bear to protect the tribe. if you actually believe this doomer shit what are you posting for? it's chickenshit and i will have no truck with it. you had something better to do with your life than make the world better?
June 19, 2023 at 6:10 PM
Doomerism is chickenshit. an embarrassment to every ape that threw a rock at a bear to protect the tribe. if you actually believe this doomer shit what are you posting for? it's chickenshit and i will have no truck with it. you had something better to do with your life than make the world better?
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i think i would honestly find this whole discourse more tolerable if people simply said what they were actually saying, which is that they think the Democratic Party is too associated with femininity (and secondarily, with black people) and that they want to correct this
October 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
i think i would honestly find this whole discourse more tolerable if people simply said what they were actually saying, which is that they think the Democratic Party is too associated with femininity (and secondarily, with black people) and that they want to correct this
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A theory - a portion of Platner's relatability isn't that he's working class, it's that he's a downwardly mobile failson in a way that resonates with his online supporters
![Early life
Platner was born in 1984 in Blue Hill, Maine. 111[21 He was raised in Sullivan, a coastal town in rural Maine near Acadia National Park, and Ellsworth. 131 14] 151 He is the elder of two sons born to restaurant owner Leslie Harlow and lawyer Bronson Platner. (51 (31 121
His grandfather was the modernist architect Warren Platner.
[6]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qjzrpzlcmir3bkss4b5nh6ox/bafkreigrcnf5bdm2cguirtiec6dyf2jabse3dfpsabeot2oq3znflhsgei@jpeg)
October 22, 2025 at 3:02 PM
A theory - a portion of Platner's relatability isn't that he's working class, it's that he's a downwardly mobile failson in a way that resonates with his online supporters
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vulgar freudianism has a higher hit rate and way less dangerous failure mode than vulgar marxism, and you can get WAY more vulgar doing freudianism than marxism
Thinking of sporadically posting 'another W for vulgar freudianism' without context and never explaining
October 20, 2025 at 3:14 PM
vulgar freudianism has a higher hit rate and way less dangerous failure mode than vulgar marxism, and you can get WAY more vulgar doing freudianism than marxism
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Every angry screed about how Biden blew it just does not acknowledge the whole reason Biden was unpopular was because he did the exact economic policy they claimed to want instead of pummeling the workers with austerity until Doordash servants worked for pennies and Subway footlongs were $5 again.
October 14, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Every angry screed about how Biden blew it just does not acknowledge the whole reason Biden was unpopular was because he did the exact economic policy they claimed to want instead of pummeling the workers with austerity until Doordash servants worked for pennies and Subway footlongs were $5 again.
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One thing we've learned in the last 12 hours: The Sinclair-Nexstar ban on Kimmel, in terms of his reach, means nothing in an era when late-night shows have an afterlife or simultaneous life on streaming. Kimmel's average audience is 1.6M. On YouTube, last night's monologue is already at 8.4M views.
September 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
One thing we've learned in the last 12 hours: The Sinclair-Nexstar ban on Kimmel, in terms of his reach, means nothing in an era when late-night shows have an afterlife or simultaneous life on streaming. Kimmel's average audience is 1.6M. On YouTube, last night's monologue is already at 8.4M views.
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CHOTINER: So You created us right
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: In Your image
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: And sometimes we do bad things
GOD: Oh Yes
CHOTINER: And then you send plagues and floods
GOD: OK I think I see where you are going with this
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: In Your image
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: And sometimes we do bad things
GOD: Oh Yes
CHOTINER: And then you send plagues and floods
GOD: OK I think I see where you are going with this
September 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
CHOTINER: So You created us right
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: In Your image
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: And sometimes we do bad things
GOD: Oh Yes
CHOTINER: And then you send plagues and floods
GOD: OK I think I see where you are going with this
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: In Your image
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: And sometimes we do bad things
GOD: Oh Yes
CHOTINER: And then you send plagues and floods
GOD: OK I think I see where you are going with this
This is a great post and follows up to a fantastic point about the meaningful optimism of immigrants. This has historically been the source of a lot of American civic virtue. The people who thought America was the land of opportunity came here and made it that way
Convert's zeal applies to civic religions too.
September 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
This is a great post and follows up to a fantastic point about the meaningful optimism of immigrants. This has historically been the source of a lot of American civic virtue. The people who thought America was the land of opportunity came here and made it that way
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the Will Smith track “Wild Wild West” just came on the radio and:
1) it was weird that for several years whenever Will made a tentpole movie he also rapped about it in partial character
2) we should make more actors do this
1) it was weird that for several years whenever Will made a tentpole movie he also rapped about it in partial character
2) we should make more actors do this
September 20, 2025 at 6:43 PM
the Will Smith track “Wild Wild West” just came on the radio and:
1) it was weird that for several years whenever Will made a tentpole movie he also rapped about it in partial character
2) we should make more actors do this
1) it was weird that for several years whenever Will made a tentpole movie he also rapped about it in partial character
2) we should make more actors do this
Even better Ed Asner was the chairman of the parent company to the NBC analog that wanted a fight with an overreaching FCC. Has any actor meant more to the business of fictional television than Asner?
Didn’t Aaron Sorkin have a short-lived show about a SNL-type show and at some point Stephen Webber plays a network exec who decides to stand up to the administration on an FCC issue?
Sorkin always did have realism issues.
Sorkin always did have realism issues.
September 17, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Even better Ed Asner was the chairman of the parent company to the NBC analog that wanted a fight with an overreaching FCC. Has any actor meant more to the business of fictional television than Asner?
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Not food-related, but important information! The National Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum (in beautiful Rochester, NY) has just announced the 2025 players' choice nominees for induction into the HoF!
Thoughts?
See link in replies to cast your vote!
Thoughts?
See link in replies to cast your vote!
September 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Not food-related, but important information! The National Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum (in beautiful Rochester, NY) has just announced the 2025 players' choice nominees for induction into the HoF!
Thoughts?
See link in replies to cast your vote!
Thoughts?
See link in replies to cast your vote!
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i refuse to choose, i live in america, by god, if i want katsu curry for breakfast and tandoori chicken pizza for lunch and a sushi burrito for dinner, i barely even have to leave my neighborhood
September 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
i refuse to choose, i live in america, by god, if i want katsu curry for breakfast and tandoori chicken pizza for lunch and a sushi burrito for dinner, i barely even have to leave my neighborhood
Honestly, I think a solid number of them are afraid of being killed. I don't want to give Ezra Klein et al. more credit than is strictly necessary, but I think they'd be nuts if they weren't thinking that at least a little, which explains the bizarre media behavior.
September 15, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Honestly, I think a solid number of them are afraid of being killed. I don't want to give Ezra Klein et al. more credit than is strictly necessary, but I think they'd be nuts if they weren't thinking that at least a little, which explains the bizarre media behavior.
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I wonder if there's a word for an actual economic downturn which bums you out like a vibecession, but it's not just vibes.
Trump is in danger of getting trapped in the same "vibecession"dynamic that doomed Biden — only this time, the structural signals are flashing red and Trump's signature legislation is toxic.
Trump stares down dangerous economic doom loop
Trump is in danger of getting trapped in the same dynamic that doomed Biden.
www.axios.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I wonder if there's a word for an actual economic downturn which bums you out like a vibecession, but it's not just vibes.
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ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE CAESAR LOST AT PHARSALUS:
"Honey, would you pass the Pompey dressing? This salad you made is utterly flavorless"
"Fuck off, ASSHOLE"
"Fine, I'm ordering a pizza from Little Pompey's"
"Honey, would you pass the Pompey dressing? This salad you made is utterly flavorless"
"Fuck off, ASSHOLE"
"Fine, I'm ordering a pizza from Little Pompey's"
I wonder what the alt history would be if Ceasar had lost the Battle of Pharsalus to Pompey
September 8, 2025 at 10:21 AM
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE CAESAR LOST AT PHARSALUS:
"Honey, would you pass the Pompey dressing? This salad you made is utterly flavorless"
"Fuck off, ASSHOLE"
"Fine, I'm ordering a pizza from Little Pompey's"
"Honey, would you pass the Pompey dressing? This salad you made is utterly flavorless"
"Fuck off, ASSHOLE"
"Fine, I'm ordering a pizza from Little Pompey's"
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Yes, literacy is important -- but literacy means more than "how to use X". It also includes understanding what X (here, LLMs) is and when NOT to use them.
Synthetic text that reads as authoritative but for which no one is accountable is poison to the information ecosystem.
Synthetic text that reads as authoritative but for which no one is accountable is poison to the information ecosystem.
September 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Yes, literacy is important -- but literacy means more than "how to use X". It also includes understanding what X (here, LLMs) is and when NOT to use them.
Synthetic text that reads as authoritative but for which no one is accountable is poison to the information ecosystem.
Synthetic text that reads as authoritative but for which no one is accountable is poison to the information ecosystem.
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Big news:
Snack Stack is back with a deep dive into the cultural history of Chicken in a Biscuit
It's weird, it's fun, it takes some surprising turns!
snackstack.net/2025/09/07/t...
Snack Stack is back with a deep dive into the cultural history of Chicken in a Biscuit
It's weird, it's fun, it takes some surprising turns!
snackstack.net/2025/09/07/t...
The curious history of Chicken in a Biskit
Investigating the midcentury moment of meat-flavored crackers
snackstack.net
September 7, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Big news:
Snack Stack is back with a deep dive into the cultural history of Chicken in a Biscuit
It's weird, it's fun, it takes some surprising turns!
snackstack.net/2025/09/07/t...
Snack Stack is back with a deep dive into the cultural history of Chicken in a Biscuit
It's weird, it's fun, it takes some surprising turns!
snackstack.net/2025/09/07/t...