Jess Nevins
@jessnevins.bsky.social
Encyclopedist, college librarian, writer, ttrpg writer. I like to talk about Mesopotamia & Vikings. Always outnumbered, never outgunned.
My podcast, "The History of Comic Books in 500 Issues," is at http://500issues.com
My podcast, "The History of Comic Books in 500 Issues," is at http://500issues.com
ICYMI:
I uploaded a new episode of the podcast yesterday:
www.patreon.com/posts/500-is...
It's long (1 hr 40 min), but I think it's my best episode so far. It's about Tijuana Bibles, but about a lot more than just those:
I uploaded a new episode of the podcast yesterday:
www.patreon.com/posts/500-is...
It's long (1 hr 40 min), but I think it's my best episode so far. It's about Tijuana Bibles, but about a lot more than just those:
November 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
ICYMI:
I uploaded a new episode of the podcast yesterday:
www.patreon.com/posts/500-is...
It's long (1 hr 40 min), but I think it's my best episode so far. It's about Tijuana Bibles, but about a lot more than just those:
I uploaded a new episode of the podcast yesterday:
www.patreon.com/posts/500-is...
It's long (1 hr 40 min), but I think it's my best episode so far. It's about Tijuana Bibles, but about a lot more than just those:
One thing I don't hear or read academics discussing enough is the sheer weirdness that results from the entire world having access to your work via the Internet. I can't be the only one who ends up being cited in works about subjects that I barely recognize, much less am citable in.
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
One thing I don't hear or read academics discussing enough is the sheer weirdness that results from the entire world having access to your work via the Internet. I can't be the only one who ends up being cited in works about subjects that I barely recognize, much less am citable in.
Over on Facebook, where I don't have the 280 character limit, here's how I described this episode:
November 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Over on Facebook, where I don't have the 280 character limit, here's how I described this episode:
Similarly, GDT ignoring the sequels to FRANKENSTEIN that John Polidori, Sir Walter Scott, and Thackeray wrote is offensive to me as a literary historian.
November 8, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Similarly, GDT ignoring the sequels to FRANKENSTEIN that John Polidori, Sir Walter Scott, and Thackeray wrote is offensive to me as a literary historian.
I'll be honest, I lost interest in GDT's FRANKENSTEIN when I learned it would be ignoring an integral part of the original novel.
November 8, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I'll be honest, I lost interest in GDT's FRANKENSTEIN when I learned it would be ignoring an integral part of the original novel.
Sometimes I fantasize about traveling into the world of The Crown during its first season, kidnapping Tommy Lascelles, bringing him back to our world, and setting him loose on the Trump White House.
November 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Sometimes I fantasize about traveling into the world of The Crown during its first season, kidnapping Tommy Lascelles, bringing him back to our world, and setting him loose on the Trump White House.
This is the abstract of "Evolutionary Psychology and the Crisis of Empirical Rigor in Feminist Studies," from the forthcoming November 2025 issue of SEXUALITY & CULTURE.
You will hate this abstract more and more as every word passes through your brain. Trust me: the article is worse.
You will hate this abstract more and more as every word passes through your brain. Trust me: the article is worse.
November 7, 2025 at 6:05 PM
This is the abstract of "Evolutionary Psychology and the Crisis of Empirical Rigor in Feminist Studies," from the forthcoming November 2025 issue of SEXUALITY & CULTURE.
You will hate this abstract more and more as every word passes through your brain. Trust me: the article is worse.
You will hate this abstract more and more as every word passes through your brain. Trust me: the article is worse.
Now, look.
It's all well and good to argue that a hot dog or taco is a sandwich, but right here we've got the 24 Nov 1762 entry from Gibbons' journal, which is the first use of the word "sandwich" which the OED recognizes, and *clearly* a sandwich can't have cold meat in it. Look at the phrasing!
It's all well and good to argue that a hot dog or taco is a sandwich, but right here we've got the 24 Nov 1762 entry from Gibbons' journal, which is the first use of the word "sandwich" which the OED recognizes, and *clearly* a sandwich can't have cold meat in it. Look at the phrasing!
November 7, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Now, look.
It's all well and good to argue that a hot dog or taco is a sandwich, but right here we've got the 24 Nov 1762 entry from Gibbons' journal, which is the first use of the word "sandwich" which the OED recognizes, and *clearly* a sandwich can't have cold meat in it. Look at the phrasing!
It's all well and good to argue that a hot dog or taco is a sandwich, but right here we've got the 24 Nov 1762 entry from Gibbons' journal, which is the first use of the word "sandwich" which the OED recognizes, and *clearly* a sandwich can't have cold meat in it. Look at the phrasing!
From an article on the return of the asshole CEO.
I can, sorta, understand a CEO having felt constrained from saying what he felt over the past couple of years and now, under Trump, feeling free to be an asshole boss once again.
But there's something I don't understand--
I can, sorta, understand a CEO having felt constrained from saying what he felt over the past couple of years and now, under Trump, feeling free to be an asshole boss once again.
But there's something I don't understand--
November 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM
From an article on the return of the asshole CEO.
I can, sorta, understand a CEO having felt constrained from saying what he felt over the past couple of years and now, under Trump, feeling free to be an asshole boss once again.
But there's something I don't understand--
I can, sorta, understand a CEO having felt constrained from saying what he felt over the past couple of years and now, under Trump, feeling free to be an asshole boss once again.
But there's something I don't understand--
If this image were a drink I would sip from it very delicately, a tiny bit at a time, so that I could make it last for hours and hours and hours.
November 5, 2025 at 1:50 PM
If this image were a drink I would sip from it very delicately, a tiny bit at a time, so that I could make it last for hours and hours and hours.
Yes, I know it's an image of a Twitter post, but what @philipjboyes.bsky.social writes here remains true.
November 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Yes, I know it's an image of a Twitter post, but what @philipjboyes.bsky.social writes here remains true.
"a slim volume which packs a mighty intellectual punch and which I found remarkably moving in places" "fascinating" "revealing" "poignant" "compassionate"
BAH.
It does NOT provide the spectacle of zombie Proust chasing Fantômas across the rooftops of Paris.
Jerome Prieur, you FAILED.
BAH.
It does NOT provide the spectacle of zombie Proust chasing Fantômas across the rooftops of Paris.
Jerome Prieur, you FAILED.
November 3, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"a slim volume which packs a mighty intellectual punch and which I found remarkably moving in places" "fascinating" "revealing" "poignant" "compassionate"
BAH.
It does NOT provide the spectacle of zombie Proust chasing Fantômas across the rooftops of Paris.
Jerome Prieur, you FAILED.
BAH.
It does NOT provide the spectacle of zombie Proust chasing Fantômas across the rooftops of Paris.
Jerome Prieur, you FAILED.
Text from Ray Ratto's column on Defector about the baseball game last night (defector.com/yoshinobu-ya...).
"The doom that was ultimately theirs" leads to "the doom that came to Sarnath" leads to "the doom that came to Fenway" which leads to the merging of Lovecraft & baseball which leads to--
"The doom that was ultimately theirs" leads to "the doom that came to Sarnath" leads to "the doom that came to Fenway" which leads to the merging of Lovecraft & baseball which leads to--
November 2, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Text from Ray Ratto's column on Defector about the baseball game last night (defector.com/yoshinobu-ya...).
"The doom that was ultimately theirs" leads to "the doom that came to Sarnath" leads to "the doom that came to Fenway" which leads to the merging of Lovecraft & baseball which leads to--
"The doom that was ultimately theirs" leads to "the doom that came to Sarnath" leads to "the doom that came to Fenway" which leads to the merging of Lovecraft & baseball which leads to--
I get e-mails like this from academia.edu and a chill goes down my spine.
For heaven's sake, my doing a lot of reading and research on All Things Mesopotamian for the past few years and posting a lot about it on social media in no way makes me a reliable reference source to be cited!
For heaven's sake, my doing a lot of reading and research on All Things Mesopotamian for the past few years and posting a lot about it on social media in no way makes me a reliable reference source to be cited!
November 2, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I get e-mails like this from academia.edu and a chill goes down my spine.
For heaven's sake, my doing a lot of reading and research on All Things Mesopotamian for the past few years and posting a lot about it on social media in no way makes me a reliable reference source to be cited!
For heaven's sake, my doing a lot of reading and research on All Things Mesopotamian for the past few years and posting a lot about it on social media in no way makes me a reliable reference source to be cited!
What?
Why would anyone say something so obviously untrue?
I mean, next you're going to tell me I should start reading books from this pile rather than the other pile!
Why would anyone say something so obviously untrue?
I mean, next you're going to tell me I should start reading books from this pile rather than the other pile!
November 1, 2025 at 10:47 PM
What?
Why would anyone say something so obviously untrue?
I mean, next you're going to tell me I should start reading books from this pile rather than the other pile!
Why would anyone say something so obviously untrue?
I mean, next you're going to tell me I should start reading books from this pile rather than the other pile!
h/t Minsoo Kang.
As a reminder that there are still civilized places where minor things, like a lawmaker concentrating on drawing a gorilla rather than on an official audit meeting of the National Assembly, become scandals.
They become scandals because nothing else is wrong.
As a reminder that there are still civilized places where minor things, like a lawmaker concentrating on drawing a gorilla rather than on an official audit meeting of the National Assembly, become scandals.
They become scandals because nothing else is wrong.
November 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
h/t Minsoo Kang.
As a reminder that there are still civilized places where minor things, like a lawmaker concentrating on drawing a gorilla rather than on an official audit meeting of the National Assembly, become scandals.
They become scandals because nothing else is wrong.
As a reminder that there are still civilized places where minor things, like a lawmaker concentrating on drawing a gorilla rather than on an official audit meeting of the National Assembly, become scandals.
They become scandals because nothing else is wrong.
Vasili Zakharchenko, editor of the Russian science magazine Tekhnika Molodezhi (1948-1949), lets fly (in the Feb. 1948 issue) against what those awful American writers had done to science fiction.
I would say that his criticisms stopped being accurate sometime in the early 21st century.
I would say that his criticisms stopped being accurate sometime in the early 21st century.
November 1, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Vasili Zakharchenko, editor of the Russian science magazine Tekhnika Molodezhi (1948-1949), lets fly (in the Feb. 1948 issue) against what those awful American writers had done to science fiction.
I would say that his criticisms stopped being accurate sometime in the early 21st century.
I would say that his criticisms stopped being accurate sometime in the early 21st century.
Waiting to get my hair cut, and this guy is talking to the stylist and bemoaning the fact that at age 26 he's not married yet.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
November 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Waiting to get my hair cut, and this guy is talking to the stylist and bemoaning the fact that at age 26 he's not married yet.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Dear Great Pumpkin:
This year, in lieu of rising from the pumpkin patch tonight, I'd really appreciate it if you could have a certain someone reenact Mussolini's fate (as represented by this wooden dummy). I think we all would.
You could make it really scary, even!
Yours,
Jess Nevins
This year, in lieu of rising from the pumpkin patch tonight, I'd really appreciate it if you could have a certain someone reenact Mussolini's fate (as represented by this wooden dummy). I think we all would.
You could make it really scary, even!
Yours,
Jess Nevins
November 1, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Dear Great Pumpkin:
This year, in lieu of rising from the pumpkin patch tonight, I'd really appreciate it if you could have a certain someone reenact Mussolini's fate (as represented by this wooden dummy). I think we all would.
You could make it really scary, even!
Yours,
Jess Nevins
This year, in lieu of rising from the pumpkin patch tonight, I'd really appreciate it if you could have a certain someone reenact Mussolini's fate (as represented by this wooden dummy). I think we all would.
You could make it really scary, even!
Yours,
Jess Nevins
Y'know that list of oddball professions listed in the 1881 British census that makes the rounds every now and then--"Colourist of artificial fish" and "Proprietor of midgets," etc?
This is a list of jobs in cotton manufacturing.
"I'm a breaker scutcher like me father before me."
This is a list of jobs in cotton manufacturing.
"I'm a breaker scutcher like me father before me."
October 31, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Y'know that list of oddball professions listed in the 1881 British census that makes the rounds every now and then--"Colourist of artificial fish" and "Proprietor of midgets," etc?
This is a list of jobs in cotton manufacturing.
"I'm a breaker scutcher like me father before me."
This is a list of jobs in cotton manufacturing.
"I'm a breaker scutcher like me father before me."
(From the Wikipedia page on Music of Mesopotamia)
Naturally, "many instruments, perhaps popular ones, that scholars are unaware of" caught my eye.
The Sax-a-Boom?
Gene Belcher's blue keyboard?
Will Riker's Trombone Chaude et Sexy?
Picard's Ressiker Flute?
Rob Wasserman's stand-up electric bass?
Naturally, "many instruments, perhaps popular ones, that scholars are unaware of" caught my eye.
The Sax-a-Boom?
Gene Belcher's blue keyboard?
Will Riker's Trombone Chaude et Sexy?
Picard's Ressiker Flute?
Rob Wasserman's stand-up electric bass?
October 31, 2025 at 9:35 PM
(From the Wikipedia page on Music of Mesopotamia)
Naturally, "many instruments, perhaps popular ones, that scholars are unaware of" caught my eye.
The Sax-a-Boom?
Gene Belcher's blue keyboard?
Will Riker's Trombone Chaude et Sexy?
Picard's Ressiker Flute?
Rob Wasserman's stand-up electric bass?
Naturally, "many instruments, perhaps popular ones, that scholars are unaware of" caught my eye.
The Sax-a-Boom?
Gene Belcher's blue keyboard?
Will Riker's Trombone Chaude et Sexy?
Picard's Ressiker Flute?
Rob Wasserman's stand-up electric bass?
Men! Men! Not me!
I feel *fine* looking at Rosie the Riveter. I mean:
I feel *fine* looking at Rosie the Riveter. I mean:
October 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Men! Men! Not me!
I feel *fine* looking at Rosie the Riveter. I mean:
I feel *fine* looking at Rosie the Riveter. I mean:
I opened up an innocuous e-mail and found this waiting for me inside.
Clearly, the administration at work has decided to punish me in a most insidious fashion.
Clearly, the administration at work has decided to punish me in a most insidious fashion.
October 30, 2025 at 9:23 PM
I opened up an innocuous e-mail and found this waiting for me inside.
Clearly, the administration at work has decided to punish me in a most insidious fashion.
Clearly, the administration at work has decided to punish me in a most insidious fashion.
It finally happened! I got a question about the history of pro wrestling!
Unfortunately, for some reason I am not considered a scholarly source, so I had to find an actual written source to answer her questions.
In the middle of doing so, I discovered this article, which sounds all sorts of neat.
Unfortunately, for some reason I am not considered a scholarly source, so I had to find an actual written source to answer her questions.
In the middle of doing so, I discovered this article, which sounds all sorts of neat.
October 27, 2025 at 4:45 PM
It finally happened! I got a question about the history of pro wrestling!
Unfortunately, for some reason I am not considered a scholarly source, so I had to find an actual written source to answer her questions.
In the middle of doing so, I discovered this article, which sounds all sorts of neat.
Unfortunately, for some reason I am not considered a scholarly source, so I had to find an actual written source to answer her questions.
In the middle of doing so, I discovered this article, which sounds all sorts of neat.