Mordecai Martin

Posting my business card and pinning that.

Truly deeply happy for Brazil and Serbia.

You, a fool, easily moved by trends: ugh, steampunk is so over. Me, an intellectual, adjusting my aviator goggles, about to ride away on my penny farthing bicycle with copper colored gears glued all over it: The Long 19th Century

So none of you were going to tell me that Danny Aiello plays the papa who should not preach? You were gonna just let me embarrass myself like that? Woooooow. Some friends.

Despite it having been deep lockdown times and online writing workshops being no fun (and videoconferencing software is actively hostile to Rax’s and my Ashkenazi Jewish conversational overlap style of yapping! I said what I said) I adored learning with @raxkingisdead.bsky.social ! Sign up for this!

The rotisserie chicken place near my house offers a variety of side dishes, almost all of which are shoved into the same rotisserie as the chickens, so that they bake in the dripping chicken fat, which is the key pillar in my argument that Mexico City is the capital of Ashkenazi Jewish cooking.

Spot LIT columnist Hannah Grieco rounds up some mini poetry and prose collections by local writers. Always under 75 pages, chapbooks are often highly thematic, experimental, and offer a taste of an author’s voice rather than an entire meal. Try these:

I don’t know if I have expressed this here sufficiently, but I am an Anne Carson fan (Fanne Carson!) and will celebrate her Nobel victory all year long

מײַנע ערשטערע פּובליקאַציע אויפֿ ייִדיש איז געװען פּובליקירט! מ'קען לייענען װעגן בית־עולמים און חרובֿ־מאַכן אַזוי אין "דער ספּעקטער": www.derspekter.org/enough-with-...

Sometimes I worry I don't know how to behave around normal people because I've never been one. Then I remember that I've cultivated a life full of people like me, and I worry less. THEN I remember that normal people are an oppressive fiction that have never existed, and I relax entirely.

'“This government is unaware of the power of the people, and that is our upper hand. We do not have weapons, but we have zeal. We will be again on the streets, and we will keep returning,” she added. “We are students. We are unemployed. We are ‘cockroaches’ – and we will return.”'

'“This is dictatorship live and in front of us, just to protect a bureaucrat who steals elections for the BJP on Modi’s behest. They are murdering democracy in the daylight in the Indian capital,” she said.'

It’s not spooky time. The season begins with Sukkos, a holy day of acknowledging the frailty of shelter, but offering it nonetheless to all with great joy. It ends with Día de los Muertos, when we welcome our dead and other presences with food and kindness. Think that’s scary? You’re a shitty host.

naw

Last week my kid moved up to “big kid class” at his Montessori (one level above the littlest kids.) I am Emotionally Unwell! I didn’t think long days short years would eat MY face, says man who fully consciously chose to embark on parenting

In the time it took to write this comment in reply to a small, thoughtful thread by @raxkingisdead.bsky.social , my son painted his arms, face and belly orange and blue (KNICKS IN FIVE!) Obviously, even when discussion is civil, interesting, and necessary, social media cannot be redeemed.

What‘s an idea of yours that sits at a perfect intersection of easy to summarize and batshit bonkers? I’ll start: Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs jukebox musical, no skips allowed.

Preorder this book edited by Nathan and translated by DS editor @eyshe.bsky.social

Goes to show, Mel Brooks knows of what he writes

Good morning. And now, let us pledge allegiance to the flag.

found it (or some of it) — in mac OS 27.0, seems Apple hides the kill switch for Apple Intelligence in the Siri menu in System Settings & when you click it (screen shot on left) you get a menu of all your apps & you have to go one by one & flip AI learning off (screen shot on right) - the bastards

Logically, historically, linguistically, I am aware that the “Reggiano” part of Parmagiano Reggiano indicates its origin in Reggio Emilia. It does NOT mean that Parmagiano is the King of Cheeses. Of course not. And yet . . .

Online leftism is a powerful system of self-surveillance that effectively captures & counters righteous anger. People who want to fight fascism have to actually fight it & not be consumed by timeline wars, leftist influencer rage bait & manipulation by outside forces, warns @williamcson.bsky.social.

Not to be too Guy Who Lives In Mexico And Has Only Watched Children Media For 3 years Since His Child’s Birth, but Ed Sheeran being publicly so devoid of conscience that he loses his backing band from behind him is giving a lot of the orchestra turning on Ernesto De La Cruz at the end of COCO vibes

Jack! It’s Marvin! - Whadda ya mean Marvin who?! Your cousin, Marvin Kirby! Nevermind! Listen, you know that new super hero you’ve been looking for? Well listen to this!

Waking up my wife from her nap like “Honey, college fund is handled.”

Is @marvelcomicshqs.bsky.social still publishing “What If . . . “ titles? My 3 year old just happily screamed “It’s Penguin Iron Man!“ and I feel like they’d be leaving money on the table to not make moves on this.

Despite numerous responsibilities today and a long full day of activity the day before, in between, I managed to stay up until 3 AM, reading the Wikipedia plot summary of every episode of Black Mirror. Which, in a way, is also an episode of Black Mirror, though not a very good one, I fear.

For anyone fasting next Monday: consider the coffee taper

Me, mid-planning a pozole to make for my wife’s whole family for Día de La Independencia when they all come: wait, am I the only member of your family who likes cooking large amounts of food for you all since your grandma got too old?! My wife, smiling slightly: I was wondering when you’d realize

Call out to my translator friends: I'm collecting recent instances of genAI mistranslations for use in class, particularly involving French, German and English. Would be glad to see any examples you've come across.

I guess it just goes to show: even when sex is an exquisitely restrained yet passionate performance by Matthew Macfadyen in a millennial romantic comedy adaptation of a regency era satire of bourgeois values, it’s still sex, and sex is about power 😞

Why is this cover of Machiavelli’s the Prince just that screenshot/gif of Darcy’s hand after he helps Elizabeth into the carriage in Pride And Prejudice (2005)? Weird direction to take this, Penguin Classics

Do what you can for this man, for his children, for Gaza, for Palestine. Do it today, and then do it again tomorrow, and then do it always. We are small and sad and terrible alone. Together, in the love we have between us, we are mighty.

Made a meme from the funniest and most wonderful thing my kid did this morning

Today, in using the internet to defeat the internet: comparison shopping phone lockboxes vs like, a simple cable lock set up and a bag it would fit on

Begging my 3 year old with tears in my eyes to stop referring interchangeably to the characters Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) and Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano) in Disney Pixar film Ratatouille (2008, Dir. Brad Bird) as “Rata-Oonie” Do I blame his mom’s bad influence? Of course. But also? Society.

Strega Nona* in the kitchen, Big Anthony** at the table. *Know my limits, mysterious but wholesome ingredients, beloved by all for my sagacity. **MORE! I SAID MORE PASTA! MORE PASTA!! MORE!!!!!!!!

Spending our 7th wedding anniversary the traditional way: my wife is teaching her overwhelmingly huge public university class; I’m distracting myself from mosquito bites by reading a translated memoir by a dude who spends all his free time illegally hiking around the Choronobyl contamination zone

Was the whole band recruited for Secret Wars by the Beyonder? Or maybe just Ringo? Or maybe an alternate universe where the Beyonder abducted not superheroes, but rock bands, and Secret Wars was more of a battle of the bands type situation? Much to ponder

I knew I liked that woman for a reason

my kid’s watching Finding Nemo, his first time, probably my second time only since he was born. This movie WRECKED me BEFORE I was a dad. That one other time, it took a while to recover. Anyway, cried, of course but a different scene than usual. Interesting

Happy birthday to the rootin’-tootin’est honkytonker of a writing teacher I’ve ever had and a hell of a personal essayist, bluesky’s darling @raxkingisdead.bsky.social! For Rax’s bday, maybe treat her to a good ol’ fashioned liberation of Occupied DC! Or at least a root beer float.

You know, in one sense, there are many ineffable, oblique, and difficult to trace influences forming contemporary global literature, but in another, very real way, it's just another beautiful path coffee takes toward expressing itself through the human spirit

As we end this strange and mournful day, I am sorry to say that my 3 year old only tolerated Jolene, and while the clip of Dolly’s scene with Miss Piggy intrigued him, he interrupted Rocky Top by flopping over and saying “I’m tired.” I’m doing my best here, but I fear for the coming generation.

The link at @haymarketbooks.org is live.