Daniel Leonard
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danielleonard.bsky.social
Daniel Leonard
@danielleonard.bsky.social
440 followers 130 following 230 posts
English PhD candidate: animals & self in 20/21C lit
Tennis, jazz, jokes
Ultrarunner, puppeteer, poet
he/him
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
vulture mantra
poster that reads KEEP CLAWING CARRION in the style of the British WWII "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" posters
November 9, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
seeshespeak.bsky.social
Mamdani got a humanities degree.

His win helps to illustrate that one of the central forces driving higher ed’s dissolution of the humanities is the fear that teaching people how power works can also lead to their interest in seizing it on behalf of the less powerful.
November 5, 2025 at 3:42 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
when life hands you bats, make batatouille
davidho.bsky.social David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 17d
These videos of a rat hunting and eating bats will haunt my dreams.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 25, 2025 at 11:14 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
don't we all
text: I have a metaphysics exam coming up, and I need help understanding the content.
October 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
regretteruane.bsky.social
eBay’s been writing poetry again
Screenshot of an eBay listing which reads It's hot, it’s sunny, it’s time to hose down the pigs, a splendidly nice looking man is doing the honours. See how his arms are deep brown from the elbows down, what a delightful picture, and the pigs look happy too.
September 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
birdhistory.bsky.social
The Excitement Of Touching The Eccentric Woodcock On The Back
September 12, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
drewharwell.com
Honestly the most outrageous new change at Cracker Barrel is that, when you fail at the peg game, it says there's "no reason to be embarrassed" instead of calling you an "eg-no-ra-moose." Our country is in tatters
August 22, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
clivethompson.bsky.social
This is really fascinating

Wikipedia's list of linguistic and stylist "tells" of AI writing, the better to help editors recognize it

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
A Wikipedia-style guideline page on avoiding exaggerated wording by LLMs, with two sections titled Undue emphasis on symbolism and importance and Promotional language. Each section lists “words to watch” in a beige box, such as "stands as a testament", "plays a vital role", "rich cultural heritage", "breathtaking", and "must-see". Below, example sentences are shown with problematic phrases highlighted in yellow, including "enhancing its significance", "captivates both residents and visitors alike", "stands as a symbol", "reflects the evolving identity", "vibrant town with a rich cultural heritage", "fascinating glimpse into the diverse tapestry", and "value-driven experiences".
August 20, 2025 at 4:26 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
or your urn
Inspirational illustration of a road leading to the horizon, where it meets a horizontal rainbow(?), a giant half-risen moon(?), and a night sky full of stars. Text: MAY THE >JOURNEY< BE YOUR >JOY.<
July 18, 2025 at 2:27 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
it was the becestershire of sauces, it was the worcestershire of sauces
July 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
I know her!!! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/23/a...
A professional puppeteer builds a world with its own set of rules - The Boston Globe
Sarah Nolen will perform "Party Animals," a show with hand puppets and rock ‘n’ roll, at Boston Common July 5.
www.bostonglobe.com
June 24, 2025 at 1:03 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
become ungovernable
On a sandy passage through tall grass and plants, a duck and duckling walk past a sign that reads "NO EXIT / USE PATH"
June 17, 2025 at 4:26 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
snaps from today's 50-mile hot trot
Me (man with beard, baseball cap, neck bandana, and running vest) smiling in front of fields in the sunny early morning A small stand with cars parked around it, surrounded by a field with foot-tall cornstalks encircling the area and hills in the distance. The stand bears a sign depicting a strawberry with cartoon eyes and legs. The legs have shoes and pant legs, even though the strawberry doesn't have pants, making it seem like the strawberry is a costume with a person inside it whose legs are sticking out through holes. Me (same gear as before, plus sunglasses perched on brim of cap) inside a family-run creamery. In the background, a tile ceiling and checkerboard tile floor. I'm swigging from a glass bottle of some kind of pink soda. I drank the entire soda during the two minutes it took the young woman at the counter (Amish and not pictured) to make me a strawberry milkshake. Tan cows in a grassy field, with silos, farm buildings, and a house behind them. Short power lines run along the right side of the picture, with trees lining the horizon. A few of the cows are looking at me behind the camera.
June 11, 2025 at 11:15 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
dissolving a caffeine pill into decaf coffee, unsure what it's a metaphor for
June 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
inside you there are two rabbits

...eight rabbits

.......twenty-seven rabbits
May 7, 2025 at 4:13 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
@kellylink.bsky.social Just glimpsed the Book of Love "key that is sometimes a knife" in Maya Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon
key in palm, from Maya Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon knife in palm, from Maya Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon
May 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
One of the most shocking things I have read for a while:
t.co/lg46ijHLDF
April 23, 2025 at 11:55 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
title for my death-metal album
a solution to today's New York Times Letter Boxed puzzle: QUIXOTICAL LOBOTOMY
April 9, 2025 at 2:25 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
my favorite recent rounds of heavyweight Letter Box-ing
New York Times's Letter Boxed puzzle solved in 2 words, well under the suggested 6: JACKSTRAWS - SIXTIETH New York Times's Letter Boxed puzzle solution in 2 words, well under the suggested 5: MACHINE - EXCELSIOR New York Times's Letter Boxed puzzle solution in 2 words, well under the suggested 6: EQUILIBRIUM - MAJORLY New York Times's Letter Boxed puzzle solution in 2 words, well under the suggested 5: PHYTOPHAGOUS - SWARM
February 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by Daniel Leonard
brandyjensen.bsky.social
incomparable
January 16, 2025 at 7:23 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Salman Akhtar, 'In Short: Private Notes of a Psychoanalyst' (2024)
January 7, 2025 at 11:56 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Ginger snap.
A frowning gingerbread man carries his own severed leg on a plate. Next to him are a Christmas tree and a table with a glass of milk. The same gingerbread man, now smiling, supports himself with a shiny new bow-bearing candy cane. Next to him are a Christmas tree with boxed gifts underneath and a table bearing an empty glass alongside a plate with a few crumbs.
December 25, 2024 at 4:22 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
It is my opinion that apples taste best when their farms are crewed by very small skeletons
ufw.bsky.social United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · Dec 16
NY state apple farms are operating with very small skeleton crews around this time of year. However there are still farm workers out in the bitter cold pruining trees and work to prepare the land for next seasons harvest. #WeFeedYou
Are New York State apple orchard in the snow
December 17, 2024 at 10:35 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
2050s TV show idea: Goldenmore Girls
November 9, 2024 at 8:18 PM