Jo Cogan
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oaktabby.bsky.social
Jo Cogan
@oaktabby.bsky.social
360 followers 330 following 32 posts
History, Ancient Greece and Rome, Books. And Cats.
Freelance writer and lecturer on Classics and Education.
Posts Replies Media Videos
oaktabby.bsky.social
“Worst-kept secret in the world: all media organisations occasionally screw up… I’d wonder why such close editorial scrutiny should have been entrusted to three key people who…enjoy lucrative careers in corporate and political communications?” -Rusbridger

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump
It is the BBC’s entire governance structure–rather than individual stories–that should cause most concern
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
simonjones.bsky.social
The 11am silence on Armistice Day, London, 11th November 1925.
Photo of crowded London streets, open top buses crowded with people observing silence. (Rol Photo Agency via Gallica https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53155602x)
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
lrb.co.uk
‘There is no getting around the weirdness. We don’t really know what it is or what it was for.’

@tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on the Pearl Manuscript, which includes the only copy of ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Tom Johnson · Supereffable: Mysteries of the Pearl Manuscript
Any book made by hand is unique, but the Pearl Manuscript’s claim to uniqueness is unparalleled: the manuscript...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 26, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
legorafi.bsky.social
Une université américaine lance une enquête sur un professeur d’archéologie suspecté d'être un « antifa » www.legorafi.fr/2025/09/19/u...
Une université américaine lance une enquête sur un professeur d’archéologie suspecté d’être un « antifa »
L’université américaine Marshall a annoncé lancer une enquête approfondie concernant les activités suspectes de l’un de ses enseignants, aujourd’hui décédé, une renommée du monde de l’archéologie, le ...
www.legorafi.fr
September 19, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Teaching grammar 😳

BnF MS Français 574; Gossouin de Metz, Image du monde; c.1320 CE; France (Paris); f.27r @gallicabnf.bsky.social
July 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
barpublishing.bsky.social
Happy #FindsFriday Bluesky! 🏺

We couldn't decide if we wanted a cute animal or a cool lamp so here's both!

This Late Roman terracotta statuette depicts a bear holding an oil lamp (or so we're told).
July 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
archaeohawke.bsky.social
#FindsFriday

One of my favs - Found at Corinium (Cirencester) a knife handle, in the form of a lion eating its prey.

📷 My own.

#Roman #Archaeology #History
July 11, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
thetls.bsky.social
'Arriviste Illumination. / Assiduous Immobility. / Allegorical Interpretation. / Aphoristic Idiocy.'

Artificial Intelligence by Michael Hofmann
Artificial Intelligence
www.the-tls.com
July 9, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
armanddangour.bsky.social
Love's Sting - a charming little poem ascribed to Anacreon (6th cent BC), in my new translation.
I read it here in ancient Greek and in English:
armanddangour.substack.com/p/loves-sting
July 7, 2025 at 5:28 PM
oaktabby.bsky.social
The Shape the Future of the BBC survey is still open - if you’d like fairer political coverage, or more funding for the World Service, or anything else, you can let them know (link to survey is at the bottom of this page):

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Our BBC, Our Future - Audiences asked to help shape BBC’s future
From 27 March BBC account holders across the UK will start to receive an online questionnaire to help identify what they want from the BBC now, and what they want from it in the future
www.bbc.co.uk
June 20, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
fairpoliticsnow.bsky.social
Reform loses nine councillors in 6 weeks. This isn’t being mentioned by the broadcast media. Why not? @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social
Sign our petition for no over platforming of any party and plural fair coverage of ALL parties all year round. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...
June 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
lizaadamczewski.bsky.social
Possibly the only Dartford Warbler musical box in the whole wide world and I wish you a very good day
June 17, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
chapps.bsky.social
Two magnificent reminders of the intense colors of the ancient world. The thymiateria (incense burners) depict women sitting on a well head, each holding unique objects. The tholos-shaped vase depicts three women surrounding a fourth. 🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/

📸 me
Incense burners (Greek thymiateria) were important cult implements throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. This South Italian terracotta example of the second half of the 4th century BCE is exceptionally complex and rare: five women (clothes painted in tones of reddish orange and deep yellow) crowned with flowers are shown around a wellhead. The iconography reflects a local cult, probably that of Demeter and Kore who were widely worshipped in Southern Italy and Sicily at the time. Each of the women carries different objects: a phiale (libation bowl), a pomegranate, a mirror, a skein of wool, a bird, et al. Greek, South Italian, Tarentine, second half of the 4th century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012.546) A fundamental feature of Greek ceramics and their offshoots is that they could be used. By contrast, this vase, with its lid fixed onto the body, serves a purely symbolic function. It belongs to a class of pieces associated with the site of Centuripe in Sicily. They are characterized by elaborate and delicate applied decoration and by refined polychromy executed after firing. The scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The vase was made for the tomb. The background of the bride scene is a brilliant pink, the women’s clothing painted in a multitude of colors, from lilac, to yellow and red. Note that the sealed vessel resembles a tholos-style tomb or temple, with lion-headed waterspouts, triglyphs and metopes. Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (53.11.5)
June 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
The sadness of war

BL Add 10292; Lancelot-Grail (The Prose Vulgate Cycle): 1316 CE; France, N.; f.213r
June 14, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
mauricejcasey.com
A year ago, I found this 1940s photograph of a London vegetarian restaurant on eBay.

The restaurant, known as the Vega, was a popular hang-out run by a German-Jewish couple and their refugee staff.

It was also a front for a Europe-wide and today little known anti-Nazi resistance network 1/
June 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
draperel.bsky.social
“If we want to steer young men away from isolation or online extremism, we need more men to speak publicly about the books that moved them – and to reach out, to each other and to their sons. Dear men, when was the last time you read something to another man? “
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
A novel idea for men’s emotional growth | Letter
Letter: Boys are rarely encouraged to read fiction and talk about its ability to open up inner worlds, writes Vincent Straub
www.theguardian.com
June 7, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
wildjustice.bsky.social
STOP PRESS!

We have launched a crowdfunder to help support our legal challenge against the badger cull licences, which will be heard in the High Court later this year.

Any help you can manage would be massively appreciated.

Thank you! 🦡⚖️🔽

www.crowdjustice.com/case/legal-c...
Legal challenge against Badger cull licences in England
Wild Justice is a not-for-profit company which takes legal cases on behalf of wildlife. CEO: Bob Elliot. Co-Directors: Chris Packham CBE & Dr Ruth Tingay.
www.crowdjustice.com
May 16, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
altyellonatpark.org
We were seeing a 98% drop in exposure over on Twitter. The censorship was so extreme we thought it best to start over somewhere else. We chose Bluesky.

Help us gain our following back
Follow
Retweet
Repeat

Join the park side
@altyellonatpark.org
Black wolf looking straight at the camera. Pine forest behind. Yellow eyes.
December 20, 2024 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
thetls.bsky.social
'Though it wasn’t until 411 BC he took up the oar / in the Peloponnesian War / against “man-loosening” Lysander, // our hero was not unknown / to Thucydides ... '

Litotes by Paul Muldoon
Litotes
www.the-tls.co.uk
May 1, 2025 at 1:21 PM
oaktabby.bsky.social
The peace of wild things: semi(?) wild, very friendly horses enjoying the sunshine in their meadow. The woolly foal was especially sweet!
Foal nuzzling its mother - semi-wild (very friendly) horses on a meadow.
April 7, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
tomgauld.bsky.social
Happy Mother’s Day!
(My cartoon for @theguardian.com books)
Title: Just in time for Mother's Day: Classic literature with added Mums Panel 1: Moby Dick "Ahab! Moby! Enough of this nonsense. Apologise to each other and if you can't get along, stay apart." says Ahab's mother, standing in a little boat and looking sternly into Moby's eye, while her son sits chastened behing her. Panel 2: Casino Royale. "Vodka martini, shaken not stirred... And a sweet sherry for my mother." says James Bond. His mother calls over feom their table "Just a little one." Panel 3: The Lord of the Rings. "You can look for your ring after you tidy your room and walk the dog, Sauron." says Sauron's mother, holding out the dog lead to her son, who replies "Aw, mum!".
March 30, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
asls.org.uk
Had I been less prepared, I would have left
in springtime, when the plum tree in the yard
was still in bloom,
the windows open after months of snow,
one magpie in the road
and then another…

—John Burnside, “The Night Ferry”
published in the @lrb.co.uk, December 2020
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The Night Ferry John Burnside Had I been less prepared, I would have left in springtime, when the plum tree in the yard was still in bloom, the windows open after months of snow, one magpie in the road and then another. I could have slipped away, late afternoon, while everyone was busy somewhere else, the fish van at the corner, children dawdling home from school in twos and threes, a porch light lit against the dusk on Tollbooth Wynd. Give me these years again and I will spend them wisely. Done with the compass; done, now, with the chart. The ferry at the dock, lit stern to prow, the next life like a footfall in my heart.
March 19, 2025 at 4:12 PM
oaktabby.bsky.social
I haven’t seen many blue skies on Bluesky lately - here’s today’s over Oxford ☀️
Sunshine and blue sky over the Bodleian Library, Oxford UK
March 4, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Jo Cogan
goodlawproject.bsky.social
✍️"How did it come to this: that the water of our rivers became first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable?"

💥NEW piece from award-winning nature writer, @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social calling on the government to get serious on water pollution⬇️
goodlawproject.org/update/rober...
Robert Macfarlane: We shouldn't have to risk our health every time we get in the water | Good Law Project
Water companies are drowning in debt and pumping out sewage. It’s time for Labour to get serious on water pollution.
goodlawproject.org
February 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM