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sm9eb.bsky.social
Orion🌈&sm9eb
@sm9eb.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1K following 3.5K posts
Archaeologist specializing in Late Neolithic/Halaf Şanlıurfa, Turkey; D.C.-born; foodie; astronomy & gardening buff; former guardian of Urfalı cat Commander Orion 🌈🖤; current guardian of not-a-Guest-anymore Cat Italy!
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sm9eb.bsky.social
#FreeDC!!! Free DC!!!
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Cowardly Senator, former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and former running mate with Hillary Clinton for Vice President on why he sold out the entire Dem caucus and everyone who can't afford healthcare in Virginia, like me, who will probably die if my cancer comes back now.
A statement by Senator Tim Kaine, a scab and a coward
November 10, 2025 at 4:56 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Oh wow, I'm looking it up on GoogleMaps. The night view--!! There's a bunch of Phrygian stuff around there, too!
November 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Mood
November 9, 2025 at 4:44 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Italy is learning to make mouse pie. No soggy bottoms here!
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith on the Great British Bake Off are on a large computer monitor. A black and white cat stands on the desk in front of it, back facing the camera.
November 9, 2025 at 6:31 AM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Look, the Mamdani sign generator works.
#HalafNotTwitter
The Halaf cultural horizon in the Late Neolithic of Southeastern Türkiye, Noryhern Syria and Northern Iraq is dramatically understudied for a period between the develooment of domestication and the rise of craft specialization, urbanism, and class-based inequality. The sign says in bold letters "HALAF for Any Attention At All."
November 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Thanks to F'book memories, which is usually gut-wrenching, for this slice of UVA from 9 years ago, Nov. 8, 2016. @larrysabato.bsky.social

I can't believe we're back here.
November 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
How about the snore-purring kind?
This tuxedo cat, Italy, is snoring.
November 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
It isn't even 10am yet and everyone already needs a palate cleanser. Here. He's purring VERY LOUDLY and I can't move.
A tuxedo cat, Italy, who woke me up earlier just so we could snuggle curled up on his left side with his right arm raised and his nose tucked down. He is round. He has a black back and mask and white chin, arms, and belly. He is purring loudly.
November 6, 2025 at 2:46 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Hey! Look what came up in my Shop Made in DC email! @artologica.net
An artistic neuron agaibst a cloudy blue background by Michelle Banks
November 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
They are really, really high!
Little wild persimmons in silhouette on tree branches. A road at McCormick Observatory with trees arcing overhead, including a wild persimmon. A road at McCormick Observatory with trees arcing overhead, including a wild persimmon. Alden House and its sign are on the right.
November 5, 2025 at 1:06 AM
sm9eb.bsky.social
I still have a bunch from the Natural History Museum path that I need to clean and process! One tree is way too high to reach so I'll have to keep my eye on it for dropped fruit. Students tipped me off to the lower, reachable one, so I didn't want to take too many. Those still need ripening, too.
Ripe wild persimmon pulp
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
sm9eb.bsky.social
I found two wild persimmon trees at McCormick Observatory! It's my favorite place in the entire state and has been for years, but this is the first time I spotted them!
A flattenened orange ball--a wild persimmon--hangs from a branch against a backdrop of trees wit yellow and orange fall leaves. A late 19th century astronomical observatory with its large white fome and brick foundations to the right and a rectangular building for teaching, a small museum, and research on the left, also brick. It has a chimney on the left; the full Hunter's Moon looks like it is perched atop the chimney.
November 4, 2025 at 11:37 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Update
November 3, 2025 at 9:37 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Just saw this:
November 3, 2025 at 9:37 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Active attacker at Shannon (formerly Alderman) Library!!
Be careful people!! @scholarslab.bsky.social !!

I'm not on campus but I can pick up people if they need it; just DM me.
November 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
YES, it is!!! Little man sends greetings.
A tuxedo cat with sleepy eyes says, "It's time for Second Sleep!"
November 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Mr. Big Mittens

(Side note: he's really bitey today! Don't disturb Second Sleep!)
A tuxedo cat named Italy with a black mask and back, white belly and arms, and eyes that say, "I eant to bite you because you're disturbing Second Sleep!" holds onto a kicker toy made of red, white, black, and yellow Maryland flag cloth in the pattern of the Calvert coat of arms. (Maryland has the best US flag, everyone agrees.) Italy gas very big paws!
November 2, 2025 at 3:35 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Draw me like one of your Maryland girls.
A tuxedo cat named Italy with a black mask and back, white arms and belly, and roguish green eyes betrays his Virginia birth by patriotically embracing a kicker toy decorated in the flag of a vastly better state, Maryland, proving you can put a Maryland flag on anything. He lounges on a soft forest green handmade sweater. He has pink toe beans.
November 2, 2025 at 3:17 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
Halloween at our UNESCO World Heritage site was pure delightful chaos, as usual. No major costume themes.
Halloween trick-or-tresting on the UVA Lawn. A child is in a little pumpkin costume. The person next to her has a job application costume. The Rotunda--a round brick building with a white pediment, columns and steps--is behind them. A big red metal blow up balloon animal like a Jeff Koons statue at Halloween trick-or-tresting on the UVA Lawn. The Rotunda--a round brick building with a white pediment, columns and steps--is behind the crowd. Halloween trick-or-tresting on the UVA Lawn. This view is of the East Range and one of the rooms under a collonade is decorated in pastels as Wahooland. Halloween trick-or-treating on the Lawn. A child is dressed as a jellyfish with a luminescent top and lights that shine as tentacles.
November 1, 2025 at 2:42 AM
sm9eb.bsky.social
BOO! HappyHalloween; how do I make this stop.
October 31, 2025 at 1:54 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
I went to the annual @thenrao.bsky.social Jansky memorial lecture tonight, which this year honored Jean Turner.
Let us all pause & reflect on this being the machine that, if I remember properly, once controlled the Very Large Array in NM, the radio telescopes featured in Contact.
#Astronomy #UVA
A very old 70s or early 80s computer featuring some huge orange and yellow switches and black rectangles at the top. It's like if you made a space computer for the Muppet Show.
October 31, 2025 at 1:31 AM
sm9eb.bsky.social
@matthewcappucci.bsky.social Can you update the Melissa news for your Bluesky followers who have left The Other Place when you get a second from the breaking news, please?
October 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
From meteorologist Matthew Cappucci at The Other Place. When the NOAA planes can't go in, ypu know it's bad.
October 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
sm9eb.bsky.social
We do so drink tea (writes the American about to turn on her electric kettle for another cup of 2nd flush Darjeeling).
October 27, 2025 at 4:50 AM