Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

New-Cleckit Dominie

@ncdominie.bsky.social

1.8K followers 160 following 7.1K posts

University maths teacher (failed academic); very amateur local history; slightly worse photography. Uaireannan beagan Gàidhlig cuideachd. Same handle on the elephant site. Web: http://www.dominie.scot.

www.dominie.scot.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 4m

OTD, 1825, the Scotsman identifies the real problem with the new steam railways: nomenclature.

Newspaper para complaining that "the word 'loco-motive machine' is neither convenient, appropriate, nor distinctive... Automotive is a barbarous combination of Greek and Latin. Autokulion (self-rolling) has too learned a sound for familiar use."

1 2

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 27m

Black-headed gull in winter plumage. 🪶

Against a background of ripples, a mostly white gull with a small black patch behind its face.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 11h

Taing mhòr, a Dhàibhidh!

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 11h

Something else that strikes me is how _unexplained_ the ghost is in this story. Normally we get at least a few hints about what it is or what it wants; here the protagonist has simply stumbled into something he's not equipped to understand, and it's going to make no concessions to him.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 13h

And she knows it...

1 2

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 14h

In nicer news, it is Luath's birthday, and she has therefore had chicken.

(This was the pre-chicken, "Where is My chicken, human?" stage of the festivity.)

Luath, a brindled greyhound, stares into the camera.

5 1 37

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 15h

Unfortunately that's pretty accurate. The other side is looking even more in need of TLC; here's part of it reflecting the building across Cathedral Street.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 17h

truly starbucks is the Fields Medal of newspapers

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 17h

Because I am far too online for my own good, I immediately thought of the Jason Momoa / Henry Cavill meme.

Foreground: a swan poses elegantly. Background: another swan, its head crouched and its wings in the attack position.

1 1 7

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 17h

Some swan-on-swan violence on the big pond in Queen's Park today. A coot watches the amateurs indulgently.

A swan spreads its wings and sprints across the water towards another swan, which is trying to escape. To one side is a coot.

1 1 9

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 21h

If you'll forgive me, I'm going to have to drop this topic, though — honestly not an attempt to "win" by walking away, but I've lost too much sleep to cope with it right now. Original post deleted lest it suggest I was condoning the celebration of murder.

1 1

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 21h

I honestly don't know whether they intended that, and that's part of the problem. (I have certainly seen and heard things in the last week that are utterly indefensible. I can't condemn the entire movement but it is far too willing to consider some of us as legitimate collateral damage.)

1 1

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 21h

Deleting an earlier post because, with no offence at all to the folk who've responded, I find I don't have the bandwidth to cope with the resulting conversations. Sorry about that.

2 1 8

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 22h

It leaves me still feeling uncomfortable, but still less so than if it were the fash. The latter are unambiguously bad news; the P solidarity movement in my experience of it consists _mostly_ of folk who don't want me dead.

1 1

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 22h

Sorry: clumsy shorthand. I was thinking of folk whose identity is substantially based on being Not Catholic, regardless of what positive beliefs they might have. Commonest IME among Free Presbyterians, Evangelicals, and certain football tribes; rare among Episcopalians.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 22h

An awful lot of cultural Protestants aren't too keen on them, for a start.

In the last month I've also seen the plain cross (not the crucifix) used by both sides outside an asylum hostel in Falkirk. You'll be pleased to hear it did leave me deeply worried.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 22h

(NB: I'm not arguing for special treatment for the saltire here, and I'm not taking the bait on constitutional matters. It's more about people's relationship with public symbols generally.)

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 22h

If the contest over a symbol causes people to consider and use it more cautiously, that's good. I've not seen the contested status of other symbols (e.g. the Christian cross) prevent folk from genuflecting to them, though.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 23h

I can't see that being the outcome, tbqh.

1 1

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

Grass, webs, dew.

Low-angle photo of a head of grass arching in front of a chaotic canopy of wet spiderwebs.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

It feels to my weird-kid-in-school radar as if the bullies have been let out again. Not sure they're any more numerous, but suddenly they're a lot louder and they're strutting as if they own the playground. Sorry to hear you've been running into them.

1 2

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

Nobody knows how much She endures.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

This is the Web we could have had, and we gave it away for nonsense like this place.

(There is a whole page about things that look like billhooks but aren't. Mr Burgess, I salute you.)

Palustris @palustris.bsky.social · 1d

A conversation about hedge-laying led me to the 'A Load of Old Billhooks' website: www.billhooks.co.uk If you're interested in traditional rural crafts, it's an impressive resource, covering Europe as well as Britain. This is what the internet was made for.

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

There is _so much_ for a Hound to disapprove of. Today, for example, the butcher greeted Her but did not throw the contents of his shop at Her feet. It was iniquitous.

1 2

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 1d

Luath, a brindled greyhound, snoozes disapprovingly.

2 16