James M. Fraleigh
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jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
James M. Fraleigh
@jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
1.6K followers 790 following 3.2K posts
Deadlines are my lifeline! Solo copyeditor (academic, scholarly, textbooks, trade/narrative nonfiction) and proofreader (any genre!). 🍩 appreciator. Enthusiastic New Jerseyan 🤌🏻 user. Trivial Democratic apparatchik. He/him.
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jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Gloopy Spelling Bee don’t pony Nadsat. Sam-I-Am in for many tolchocks to the gulliver.
A screenshot of the November 12, 2025, New York Times spelling bee puzzle. Letters are B A T N R V, and the center is the letter eye. The word BRITVA—slang for “razor” in the constructed language Nadsat from A Clockwork Orange—has been entered and rejected.
November 12, 2025 at 1:22 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Totally read the highlighted bit in the going-steady sense and imagined Marty leading Frankie through the guts of the Copa, The Crystals serenading each turn, bribing and glad-handing his way to a primo table for him and the pontiff:
A paragraph from a November 11, 2025, New York Times story that reads, Pope Leo’s move to connect with the film world could be seen as an extension of one of his predecessor’s interests. In 2013, the year he was elected, Pope Francis founded Scholas Occurrentes, a global educational movement that developed a project for youth communities around the world to create short films highlighting their identities, histories and values. Martin Scorsese, who had a long relationship with Pope Francis, is producing a feature-length documentary titled “Aldeas — A New Story” as part of that project. The documentary includes what is said to be Pope Francis’s final on-camera interview, recorded at Vatican City last December, months before his death. The sentence about Scorsese and Francis is partly highlighted.
November 11, 2025 at 11:18 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
A red pen leaked across my desk earlier this week, and I’m still finding dots of ink, including this, on one of my bookmarks, which now looks like I’ve received a warning from the Joker:
A joker from a US playing cards company bicycle-back deck, depicting a stylized king of spades riding a bicycle. On the left-hand side is a splash of red ink that looks like a bold drop.
November 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
A Reddit post to r slash mildly infurating, depicting the front and back of a black T-shirt. The front has the words "Because I FUCK the fish" with FUCK in big red italic neon-sign-looking letters over a jumping salmon; the back is blank. The post reads, Bought the "Women fear me, fish love me, because I fuck the fish" shirt and waited months for it to come. There was a misprint and now I own a shirt that only says "BECAUSE I FUCK THE FISH" on the front. From the Simpsons, Troy McClure, a tanned man in a pink polo with a rusty brown Reagan-esque wave of hair, and crows' feet and bags under his eyes, leans forward while talking happily on the phone and sitting in a futuristic sphere chair, free hand clenched into a pump-ready fist.
November 7, 2025 at 6:41 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Emperor Palpatine, leering from beneath his black hood, with GOOD in big meme capital letters beneath his face
November 5, 2025 at 10:39 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
From the film JFK, Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison, wearing glasses and a gray three-piece suit, stands in a courtroom, in front of the stenographer and, farther back, Wayne Knight posing as a person seated in JFK's limo on the day of his killing. Diagrams depicting the unlikely pathway of the so-called magic bullet through JFK and Governor Connally sit on easels behind Knight.
November 4, 2025 at 4:55 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
It is a glorious bright breezy-chill day in the NYC–Northeast NJ area, perfect for picking Democrats at the polls, then maybe having a nice wander around the city or burbs with your “I Voted” sticker on and checking out fall foliage at its peak:
An oak tree, freeform in shape and branching, with most of its leaves still on, rusty red from fall change and the rising sun, against a pale blue morning sky.
November 4, 2025 at 11:53 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
"Sir, Lord Chotiner demands an update on the pursuit!"
From The Empire Strikes Back, Captain Needa, a white man in an Imperial Navy uniform and cap, stands with an expression conveying his grim acceptance of doom next to a window depicting the star-flecked blackness of space.
October 27, 2025 at 9:59 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
HUGEST of thanks to the amazing @friendlyashley.bsky.social for recommending @backblaze.bsky.social as data backup. After I came home yesterday to these messages on my desktop, Backblaze and Ashley’s kind guidance got me going on my laptop. $8.25/month is the cheapest work insurance you’ll ever buy.
A Windows blue screen of death that reads, Hard Disk Error. Please run the Hard Disk Test in System Diagnostics. A Windows blue screen of death error that reads, Boot Device Not Found. Please install an operating Hard Disk. A Windows blue screen of death error, except even more stark, plain white text on black, that reads, error: no boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed.
October 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
"I was married, but I'm not married anymore. Women don't like the vehicle."
From The Wacky Races cartoon, a side view of Dick Dastardly's Mean Machine car. Sort of a Giger-esque organic rocket, it starts with a spike, has yellow stylized bat wings on its hood and passenger compartment like shark fins, and a purplish body with a W and the digit zero-zero in red paint on the door. The crew compartment is a bubble with near-360-degree visibility, and both Dick, dressed in 19th-century motorcar-driver wear, and his canine companion, Muttley, sit inside. The engine is contained in a bulbous rear section with at least six mini-rockets surrounding a larger central rocket jutting from it. The tires have Ben Hur–style spikes from the axles.
October 16, 2025 at 9:57 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
I wasn’t kidding about the Studio 54 cocaine chic of the Space Dust candy packaging:
Three packets of Space Dust candy, a 1970s knock-off of Pop Rocks. Each depicts a shiny air-brushed portrait of a happy planet, orange, grape, and cherry colored, gleefully inhaling a glittering stream of the candy. These are close to the powder-huffing cartoon cocaine-culture imagery one might see at American discotheques of the day.
October 13, 2025 at 1:26 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
I saved this shot from the @columboscreens.bsky.social account as a reaction image:
Johnny Cash, a white man with thick, mulleted dark hair, wearing a black shirt, sings outside. The caption is “I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.”
October 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Behold! Grape Ape!
Below the Portland Voodoo Doughnut sign, depicting their famous chocolate voodoo doll doughnut, a white hand holds a round Donut with no hole, mostly dusted in grape sugar, and partly covered in dense purple sprinkles.
October 7, 2025 at 1:56 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
The early TV ads were even more gonzo:
October 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
The owner misser misses his owner. (Outside Boxer Donut in Nyack, NY)
A beagle, wearing a harness, its tether leading up and off screen, stands on a macadam street and looks over his right shoulder to where his owner entered a doughnut shop.
October 4, 2025 at 11:31 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
From The Simpsons, we see several kids in Bart's fourth-grade class, seen from Bart's perspective, plus Miss Krabapple, all leaning in smiling in anticipation. Milhouse speaks for everyone, in this case saying, "Say the line, Ahab!" instead of "Say the line, Bart!" because I have misappropriated this to top-post on the line every Trekkie knows from Moby Dick.
October 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
when you keep a 2-month calendar printout up for schedules and you have October and November up and there's that barest baleful peek of December at page bottom
From the original Star Wars, a tactical screen on the Death Star bridge, rendered in 1970s computer graphics on a black background. The gas giant Yavin, marbled with red bands, with the blue-green fourth moon's position tracked horizontally with hollow green circles. The barest bit of Yavin 4 is peeking out from the side of its parent planet. A red digital countdown shows 9 minutes, 7 seconds before Yavin 4 is in the Death Star's sights.
October 1, 2025 at 12:24 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
“Hepatitas, bless my soul!

I really love that rock ‘n’ roll!”
From the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Meat Loaf, dressed like a 1950s greaser with black Elvis-like hair and some Frankenstein-like stitching across his forehead, holds his finger up to someone off screen. An adoring Columbia looks on from screen right.
September 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Could’ve had a house for this back ‘round April 2020.
A 30 pack of Charmin ultra soft toilet paper, sitting on the trunk lid of a black car.
September 17, 2025 at 8:43 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
"Many Scroads and Groinks knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Glunt that day, I can tell you!"
From Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis as Louis Tully, possessed by Vinz Clortho. Wearing black glasses, a dress shirt over a mustard turtleneck, and a colander covered with wires and circuitry held in place with a chin strap, Vinz looks wild eyed as he raves about the McKettrick supplicants or whatnot.
September 16, 2025 at 4:52 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Seems like a good time for a short break. Through this week, maybe thru start of fall if I can. Get your seasonal vaxes, check out from here now and again, get outside, call or see friends, use your local library, attend your town meetings, and go support a cause with your voice, money, or self.
From Andor, Luthen Rael, an older white man with a high hairline, looking tired and strained, tells someone at screen left, "I have friends everywhere."
September 9, 2025 at 1:06 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Just hook it to my veeeein
From the Apple weather app, the weather at 5:55 AM Eastern, in Westwood, New Jersey, 52° Fahrenheit and clear, with a full moon, with a high of 73 and a low of 51.
September 8, 2025 at 9:56 AM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
Turtle Club member represent:
Dana Carvey, bald, crossing his eyes, wearing round-lensed glasses, and making a turtle-like or George W. Bush–like beak out of his top lip, wears a huge suit and dress shirt with tie, all rounded like the shell of a turtle.
September 7, 2025 at 9:21 PM
jamesmfraleigh.bsky.social
“He’s sold moon rockets to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum, it put THEM on the map!”
From The Simpsons, Lyle Lanley, a Professor Hill–from–Music Man type in a straw boater and old-timed clothes, stands on chair at a town meeting while pointing with rolled-up paper and showing skeptical folks a model of Springfield with a monorail running through downtown.
September 7, 2025 at 12:38 AM