Coleman Ridge
@colemanridge.bsky.social
Retired librarian. I read, train, practice, study, and take classes. Much-married. Somewhat given to getting drunk on words.
Profile picture: "Scribe," by Keith Thompson
Banner artist: Gustave Dore
Profile picture: "Scribe," by Keith Thompson
Banner artist: Gustave Dore
I named my fists Presumption and Despair because they are paths to Hell from which there is no redemption.
(Should you permit me to hit you often enough and not hit me back too often or too hard.)
(Should you permit me to hit you often enough and not hit me back too often or too hard.)
I named my fists Hercule and Poirot because they’re about to be covered in someone’s little grey cells.
…also because I prefer to sit in an armchair and let my burly sidekick actually do the physical work.
…also because I prefer to sit in an armchair and let my burly sidekick actually do the physical work.
I named my fists Pride and Prejudice, because it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of two fists must be in want of whupping ass
December 1, 2025 at 10:06 PM
I named my fists Presumption and Despair because they are paths to Hell from which there is no redemption.
(Should you permit me to hit you often enough and not hit me back too often or too hard.)
(Should you permit me to hit you often enough and not hit me back too often or too hard.)
You can have a pet rat in NY, but not a pet squirrel. Evidently rats count as domestic animals. That is odd. Lucid, but odd.
November 30, 2025 at 10:12 PM
You can have a pet rat in NY, but not a pet squirrel. Evidently rats count as domestic animals. That is odd. Lucid, but odd.
Catching myself indulging in remorse, grief, fear, or regret out of boredom, as entertainment, rather like a small child tapping on terrarium glass to get the creatures inside to do something.
November 29, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Catching myself indulging in remorse, grief, fear, or regret out of boredom, as entertainment, rather like a small child tapping on terrarium glass to get the creatures inside to do something.
A lot of my Thanksgiving gratitude happens the next morning: no culinary disasters, no social gaffes, I still like them all, they all still like me, my son and I cooked together well, my son cooks better than last year, and we all went through a demanding social ritual happily and skillfully.
November 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
A lot of my Thanksgiving gratitude happens the next morning: no culinary disasters, no social gaffes, I still like them all, they all still like me, my son and I cooked together well, my son cooks better than last year, and we all went through a demanding social ritual happily and skillfully.
Every superhero is a strategy for not becoming a supervillain.
I am tempted to write that every hero is a strategy for not becoming a villain, but suspect that familiarity with pulp fiction may not be just the same as expertise in psychology.
I am tempted to write that every hero is a strategy for not becoming a villain, but suspect that familiarity with pulp fiction may not be just the same as expertise in psychology.
November 27, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Every superhero is a strategy for not becoming a supervillain.
I am tempted to write that every hero is a strategy for not becoming a villain, but suspect that familiarity with pulp fiction may not be just the same as expertise in psychology.
I am tempted to write that every hero is a strategy for not becoming a villain, but suspect that familiarity with pulp fiction may not be just the same as expertise in psychology.
Instead of New Year Resolutions, New Year Revolutions, in which unruly passions, the anima, the inner child, the thymoeides, the death instinct, the intellect, or the conscience overthrow the psyche's former government, and reign supreme for a year.
November 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Instead of New Year Resolutions, New Year Revolutions, in which unruly passions, the anima, the inner child, the thymoeides, the death instinct, the intellect, or the conscience overthrow the psyche's former government, and reign supreme for a year.
"You contaminate everyone around you with joy."
- a sambo teacher
I am told that this is a literal translation of a Russian idiom.
I should add that I was a truly terrible sambo student, and eventually got my knee dislocated. It was a tough school. I was delighted to be able to keep up at all.
- a sambo teacher
I am told that this is a literal translation of a Russian idiom.
I should add that I was a truly terrible sambo student, and eventually got my knee dislocated. It was a tough school. I was delighted to be able to keep up at all.
What is the best compliment you ever received? Putting aside whether or not you believed it.
November 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"You contaminate everyone around you with joy."
- a sambo teacher
I am told that this is a literal translation of a Russian idiom.
I should add that I was a truly terrible sambo student, and eventually got my knee dislocated. It was a tough school. I was delighted to be able to keep up at all.
- a sambo teacher
I am told that this is a literal translation of a Russian idiom.
I should add that I was a truly terrible sambo student, and eventually got my knee dislocated. It was a tough school. I was delighted to be able to keep up at all.
The cat died with great courage, composure, and dignity. He just stopped eating, and after a while lost interest even in being petted. He wasn't having a good time, but showed no evident suffering, so I let him go out his own way.
They are very different from us, but that was a model to emulate.
They are very different from us, but that was a model to emulate.
November 26, 2025 at 1:24 PM
The cat died with great courage, composure, and dignity. He just stopped eating, and after a while lost interest even in being petted. He wasn't having a good time, but showed no evident suffering, so I let him go out his own way.
They are very different from us, but that was a model to emulate.
They are very different from us, but that was a model to emulate.
I supposed to be working on a wheezing senile titter with which to terrorize the youth in martial arts classes. So many things.
November 26, 2025 at 1:19 PM
I supposed to be working on a wheezing senile titter with which to terrorize the youth in martial arts classes. So many things.
Being dispassionate is a particular way of being passionate.
November 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Being dispassionate is a particular way of being passionate.
“You will not be saved by General Motors or the pre-fabricated house.
You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference.
You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.
In fact, you will not be saved.”
www.newyorker.com/magazine/193...
You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference.
You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.
In fact, you will not be saved.”
www.newyorker.com/magazine/193...
Nightmare, with Angels
www.newyorker.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
“You will not be saved by General Motors or the pre-fabricated house.
You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference.
You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.
In fact, you will not be saved.”
www.newyorker.com/magazine/193...
You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference.
You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.
In fact, you will not be saved.”
www.newyorker.com/magazine/193...
This is the best piece of music writing I have read in some time, and so I am listening to Rumours again after maybe 40 years. It is all smooth, muted despair, like much rock then. 1/
theonion.com/man-who-thou...
theonion.com/man-who-thou...
Man Who Thought Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ Was Over In For Thrill Of His Fucking Life
BOSTON—Prematurely assuming he had reached the end of the 1977 rock masterpiece, local man Peter Verran, who thought Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” was over, was reportedly in for the thrill of his fucki...
theonion.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 PM
This is the best piece of music writing I have read in some time, and so I am listening to Rumours again after maybe 40 years. It is all smooth, muted despair, like much rock then. 1/
theonion.com/man-who-thou...
theonion.com/man-who-thou...
Rereading Leiber's The Wanderer, I find that I got many of the principles I lived by as a young man from a fictitious alien catgirl. They worked OK. Evidently having a plan is more important than the plan's source or content. And, had she ever shown up, I'd have been ready. Well, more ready.
November 24, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Rereading Leiber's The Wanderer, I find that I got many of the principles I lived by as a young man from a fictitious alien catgirl. They worked OK. Evidently having a plan is more important than the plan's source or content. And, had she ever shown up, I'd have been ready. Well, more ready.
Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence captures current American moods and beliefs as nearly as can be done. Sorel was a early 20th-century socialist and syndicalist whose argument can be synopsized as follows:
November 23, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence captures current American moods and beliefs as nearly as can be done. Sorel was a early 20th-century socialist and syndicalist whose argument can be synopsized as follows:
Dogs are pretty good at reading human expressions.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Dogs are pretty good at reading human expressions.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
I was a bike messenger, and it snowed in early May. That was entirely enough, and I applied for and, by some miracle, got a job as a library clerk. I got my MLS while working that job, and off I went, from a careen to a career.
November 23, 2025 at 12:13 AM
I was a bike messenger, and it snowed in early May. That was entirely enough, and I applied for and, by some miracle, got a job as a library clerk. I got my MLS while working that job, and off I went, from a careen to a career.
I eat oatmeal with raisins and prunes in the morning, and pretend that it is a thin and watery gruel, and that the raisins are grubs, which I must eat determinedly, as my only source of protein. I have never been quite sure what the prunes are.
November 20, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I eat oatmeal with raisins and prunes in the morning, and pretend that it is a thin and watery gruel, and that the raisins are grubs, which I must eat determinedly, as my only source of protein. I have never been quite sure what the prunes are.
The problem with contempt, no matter how justified, it is that it is compounded of feelings of superiority and disgust. The feelings of superiority are bad for you. The disgust, no matter how appropriate, makes you avert your gaze too often, unless motivated by pleasurable feelings of superiority.
November 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
The problem with contempt, no matter how justified, it is that it is compounded of feelings of superiority and disgust. The feelings of superiority are bad for you. The disgust, no matter how appropriate, makes you avert your gaze too often, unless motivated by pleasurable feelings of superiority.
Frankenstein is dreadfully written, but is about building a new self when the one that you were issued won't do. Gilbert and Gubar made this clear 50-odd years ago, and no one has written it back into fiction yet.
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
November 16, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Frankenstein is dreadfully written, but is about building a new self when the one that you were issued won't do. Gilbert and Gubar made this clear 50-odd years ago, and no one has written it back into fiction yet.
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
Every such self is stitched together from fragments, hideous, angry, and alone. 1/
1. Voluptuous pleasure in the rest periods between sets of overhead press.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
November 15, 2025 at 6:39 PM
1. Voluptuous pleasure in the rest periods between sets of overhead press.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
2. Guilt at so much pleasure when I am moving so little weight.
3. Admiration of the skill that went into finding something to feel guilty about.
Real good kids.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
New York Lacked an Affordable Housing Portal. So These Teenagers Made One.
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Real good kids.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...
I am reading Marx's Capital for the first time, in NYC, ground zero for world capitalism. It is like Catholicism, very pretty but a little antique.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
November 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I am reading Marx's Capital for the first time, in NYC, ground zero for world capitalism. It is like Catholicism, very pretty but a little antique.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
He says in passing that trade starts up between tribes, and only later within them. That describes NYC perfectly.
Treating people as the gender they want to be treated as requires absolutely no gender theory, comprehension of the psychological states involved, or overarching theory of sexual politics. it is common civility, and as such obligatory.
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Treating people as the gender they want to be treated as requires absolutely no gender theory, comprehension of the psychological states involved, or overarching theory of sexual politics. it is common civility, and as such obligatory.
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
(This may be my least woke opinion. I'm never quite sure.)
I find this poem about the end of the American republic mildly encouraging, because it is 100 years old this year. Likely enough something did die back then, but people reeled along somehow.
November 12, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I find this poem about the end of the American republic mildly encouraging, because it is 100 years old this year. Likely enough something did die back then, but people reeled along somehow.
If the people threatening to leave the city because of Mamdani only would, he would have solved the apartment shortage.
November 12, 2025 at 10:04 PM
If the people threatening to leave the city because of Mamdani only would, he would have solved the apartment shortage.