Richard Pearce Moses
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pearcemoses.bsky.social
Richard Pearce Moses
@pearcemoses.bsky.social
240 followers 200 following 1.3K posts
Retired archivist. Fellow, Society of American Archivists. Author.

The Order of Lazarus (https://hamlit.org/the-order-of-lazarus/).
Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (https://www2.archivists.org/glossary-old)
More: www.pearcemoses.info/
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pearcemoses.bsky.social
Finished The Mourning Fields by friend and local author @thedancerwrites.bsky.social. Stories based on Greek myths set in modern times. Great tales and some really beautiful sentences.

Read more at: atmospherepress.com/interview-wi...
Book cover. Author's name (David Beaumier) at the top, title (The Mourning Fields) at the bottom. Anatomical heart in the center.
October 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
I don't remember plastic, but do remember ones made from bamboo. Possibly from Pier 1 (or its predecessor). 1960s.

And look what I just found on Amazon.
Bamboo backscratcher: a long, thin strip of wood, curved at the end.
October 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Doesn't show the thousands of people that showed up for #NoKings in Bellingham, Wash. Rain didn't discourage the crowd.
Crowd outdoors in rain gear. One sign reads The old world dies, the new on struggles to be born. Crowd with protest signs listening to speakers at #NoKing rally.
October 18, 2025 at 11:27 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Needed a little inspiration to get started editing the novel and ran across this quote from Jane Smiley that Matt Bell shared in one of his lectures.
You don't know what you're writing until it's done. So if a draft is 500 pages long, you have to suspend judgment for months. It takes effort to be good at suspending judgment, to give the images and story priority over your ideas. But you keep going, casting about for the next sentence. — Jane Smiley
October 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Last sail of 2025. At bow watch on the Schooner Zodiac.
Man with cap, sunglasses at bow watch, jib sheet behind him, horizon of sea and sky
September 10, 2025 at 4:51 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
IANAL, but compare the amount to statutory damages listed in US Copyright Law (17 USC 504), potentially between $750 and $30K per violation. If the court finds infringement to be willful, as much as $150K per violation.
(c) Statutory Damages .- (1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are li-able jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work. (2) In a case where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that infringement was committed willfully, the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000. In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200. The court shall remit statutory damages in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107, if the infringer was: (i) an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives acting within the scope of his or her employment who, or such institution, library, or archives itself, which infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords; or (ii) a public broadcasting entity which or a person who, as a regular part of the nonprofit activities of a public broadcasting entity (as defined in section 118(f )) infringed by performing a published nondramatic literary work or by reproducing a transmission program embodying a performance of such a work.
September 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Crewing the job is a tough, dangerous job
Bow spit of Schooner Zodiac in Bellingham Bay. Sun near horizon, Lummi Island visible
September 4, 2025 at 5:16 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
#2 is timely. Everyone in my writing group is going on about Gideon the Ninth. I've tried to get into it several times (to no avail), and I feel an obligation to give it another go. Maybe someday, but not today.
2. I just don't want to bone Channing Tatum Got nothing against the man! He seems lovely! I'm very happy that he has a very successful career, thanks in part to his good looks! Still, even if he came up to me tonight and asked if I'd like to take him out for a spin, I would politely say no. This is something I come back to whenever I start reading a book that seemingly everyone in the entire world has adored, but I just can't get into. Taste is wholly subjective. You can look at someone and think they're obviously, objectively beautiful, but that doesn't mean they have to do it for you. No-one's in the wrong there. It's fine. Just move on.
September 1, 2025 at 2:48 AM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
I'm surprised: per Google's ngram view, spacetime appears more often.
Graph showing frequency of spacetime, space-time, spacetime continuum, and space-time continuum in books between 1960-2022. Spacetime more common than space-time by a wide margin. By contrast, space-time continuum more common than spacetime continuum, but by a small margin.
August 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
About 18 hours after the tsunami came through about 1:00 AM Pacific time. Water level rose maybe a foot.
Bowsprit of a schooner with the jib furled, Lummi Island low on the horizon, sun setting over the water
July 31, 2025 at 6:46 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Alas, I'll be in airports all day
July 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
From Berke Breathed's Academia Waltz, 1978, on John-Paul II's becoming pope.
Comic "Academia Waltz" by Berke Breathed. A dog is reading a newspaper: "Pope jokes... Hee hee... Say, what would we have if they had elected Cardinal Seecola instead of Cardinal Wojtyla?.. Pope Seecola... hee, hee, hee, hee... [Lightning bolt] ZAP Oh, well, aren't we the sensitive one today...
May 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Alas, no pets. But I crew on the Schooner Zodiac, which has a ship's cat. Behold Abby in one of her favorite locations: heat from the engine room warms the desk in the charthouse.
Black and white cat sleeping on a desk, on top of a chart of the San Juan Islands, next to the leather-bound ships log embossed with "Zodiac"
May 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
An early Berke Breathed pope joke from The Academia Waltz, which ran in the Daily Texan.
Cartoon from Berke Breathed's Academia Waltz. A dog is reading a newspaper. "Pope Jokes . . . Hee, Hee . . .Say, what would we have if they had elected Cardinal Seecola instead of Cardinal Wojtyla? / Pope SeeCola. Hee, hee, hee, hee. / ZAP [lightning bolt] / [Charred dog silohette] Oh, well. Aren't we the sensitive one today?
April 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Agreed, and happy to report that my favorite source of news breaks the trend.
The Guardian's website, with banner at the top and a photo of protests in Manhattan as the top story. Headline reads "'Hands Off' protests take off across US and in Europe to oppose Trump agenda"
April 5, 2025 at 10:03 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
I'm horrified that minority groups are being scapegoated as a political distraction from the destruction of the country. It's nothing more than vindictive bullying.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Protect trans lives.
The flowers surrounding the words Protect Trans Lives. Art by Beth Sobel.
March 31, 2025 at 4:00 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
I remember when those came out. I'd been using another typewriter for years, though.
Royal Futura Portable typewriter with blue and gray chassis.
March 28, 2025 at 3:01 AM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
More than one state.
Paths of flights in the Caribbean turning to avoid debris from Starship 8.
March 7, 2025 at 4:18 AM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Magnitude 5 about 80 miles NW of B'ham. Single jolt.
Shakemap of earthquake north of Vancouver BC. Gold star is epicenter, red dot is my home, blue squares indicate reports from people who felt it.
February 21, 2025 at 10:51 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Laughs with 8-hole punched paper tape
Telex Teletype with a punched paper tape reader on the left, keyboard in the center, and phone dial to connect on the right.
February 4, 2025 at 10:34 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Highly recommend No Shelter but the Stars by @virginiablack.bsky.social. Strong story and characters, well crafted! The best I've read in some time.
Book cover: No Shelter but the Stars [by] Virginia Black. Enormous moon in a dark, star-filled sky above a rocky, barren landscape.
January 27, 2025 at 1:00 AM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
In so many action movies, the action/pace is so fast that everything's a blur. IIRC, Captain America: Civil War lost me because I couldn't focus on anything. Only watched it because a scene was filmed in my old office building. (I know those stairs well.)
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: Civil War. Coming up the stairs inside the Baker Center (Clayton State University). He's wearing a maroon henley. Hair is long and dark, left arm is metal.
January 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Won the game, going out with UNDERTOW: on a triple (89 points), plus the other players' unused points. Total of 201 for the game. And, I won the previous game, to boot.
Scrabble board
January 16, 2025 at 10:35 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
Future archaeologist!
The Cerne Abbas Giant is a hill figure near the village of Cerne Abbas, in Dorset, England. It is currently owned by the National Trust, and listed as a scheduled monument of England. Measuring 55 metres (180 ft) in length, the hill figure depicts a bald, nude male with a prominent erection, holding his left hand out to the side and wielding a large club in his right hand. Like many other hill figures, the Cerne Giant is formed by shallow trenches cut into the turf and backfilled with chalk rubble.
January 10, 2025 at 11:19 PM
pearcemoses.bsky.social
I've heard both turn the a/c [up | down] ways to mean "make it cooler." But I've also heard turn it down in the sense of "less power" to make it less cold.
Graph showing frequency of use of turn the air conditioner up (less frequent) and turn the air conditioner down.
January 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM