Sue Hemberger
@smhemberger.bsky.social
Loves books, food, movies, cities, conversation, and trees. Sociable introvert. Deinstitutionalized academic.
I keep thinking it’d be great if there were a way to hook grad students up with retiring scholars eager to pass their libraries down. For now, I’m just dropping off subsets of books I won’t use again at the monthly Book Thing in Baltimore. But 7 box limit + 2 HR RT drive makes it slow going.
November 24, 2025 at 4:22 AM
I keep thinking it’d be great if there were a way to hook grad students up with retiring scholars eager to pass their libraries down. For now, I’m just dropping off subsets of books I won’t use again at the monthly Book Thing in Baltimore. But 7 box limit + 2 HR RT drive makes it slow going.
November 24, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Mary Poppins. Multiple times. My mom was obsessed, lol!
November 24, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Mary Poppins. Multiple times. My mom was obsessed, lol!
Dropkick Me Jesus (through the goalposts of life)
November 22, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Dropkick Me Jesus (through the goalposts of life)
ITA. I think (no doubt influenced by your work!) that the post-Rev/pre-Con period is really important and interesting wrt con’l development. And maybe settler colonialism could be a productive framework for thinking about citizenship and expansionism simultaneously in this state-building moment.
November 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
ITA. I think (no doubt influenced by your work!) that the post-Rev/pre-Con period is really important and interesting wrt con’l development. And maybe settler colonialism could be a productive framework for thinking about citizenship and expansionism simultaneously in this state-building moment.
At a time when nation-states were not yet the established/presumptive/normative unit of government.
November 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
At a time when nation-states were not yet the established/presumptive/normative unit of government.
The Dead
Blood Simple
Comfort & Joy
Sherman’s March
Blood Simple
Comfort & Joy
Sherman’s March
November 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
The Dead
Blood Simple
Comfort & Joy
Sherman’s March
Blood Simple
Comfort & Joy
Sherman’s March
Great book! I passed my copy on to a friend who got another friend to read it whose spouse read it afterward…. I lost track at that point but I bet the recommendation kept making the rounds!
November 20, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Great book! I passed my copy on to a friend who got another friend to read it whose spouse read it afterward…. I lost track at that point but I bet the recommendation kept making the rounds!
Two clarifications:
1. The fight is still real and the victor is not pre-ordained.
2. To the extent that each branch is better positioned to win some types of battles, those built-in advantages are principled. Secrecy/energy/dispatch = desirable wrt foreign crises but not for domestic policymaking.
1. The fight is still real and the victor is not pre-ordained.
2. To the extent that each branch is better positioned to win some types of battles, those built-in advantages are principled. Secrecy/energy/dispatch = desirable wrt foreign crises but not for domestic policymaking.
November 20, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Two clarifications:
1. The fight is still real and the victor is not pre-ordained.
2. To the extent that each branch is better positioned to win some types of battles, those built-in advantages are principled. Secrecy/energy/dispatch = desirable wrt foreign crises but not for domestic policymaking.
1. The fight is still real and the victor is not pre-ordained.
2. To the extent that each branch is better positioned to win some types of battles, those built-in advantages are principled. Secrecy/energy/dispatch = desirable wrt foreign crises but not for domestic policymaking.
IMO, Jeff Tulis (jktulis.bsky.social) has the best take here: The Constitution doesn’t make rules so much as structure institutional fights in such a way that some contests are rigged to favor one branch over another but available resources/levels of investment/alliances leave outcomes up for grabs.
November 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
IMO, Jeff Tulis (jktulis.bsky.social) has the best take here: The Constitution doesn’t make rules so much as structure institutional fights in such a way that some contests are rigged to favor one branch over another but available resources/levels of investment/alliances leave outcomes up for grabs.
Yeah, he only hit my radar at that moment, so I always thought badly of him and wondered why on earth Harvard chose him as President.
November 17, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Yeah, he only hit my radar at that moment, so I always thought badly of him and wondered why on earth Harvard chose him as President.
Nope — I’m depressed enough already. Total a-hole whose current claim to fame is he can imitate Trump. Which I suppose is a slightly better look than gleefully trashing the possessions of unhoused folks…
November 15, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Nope — I’m depressed enough already. Total a-hole whose current claim to fame is he can imitate Trump. Which I suppose is a slightly better look than gleefully trashing the possessions of unhoused folks…
Have you encountered invented spelling? I was skeptical, but it really reinforced phonics (and taught that fear of making a mistake shouldn’t inhibit you from trying to express yourself). Once they were reading, repeated exposure to words in print standardized their spelling in most cases.
November 12, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Have you encountered invented spelling? I was skeptical, but it really reinforced phonics (and taught that fear of making a mistake shouldn’t inhibit you from trying to express yourself). Once they were reading, repeated exposure to words in print standardized their spelling in most cases.
Term limits, instructions, referenda, and recall were the norm in the revolutionary state constitutions. The US Constitution was explicitly designed to shut that shit down. Delay (longer terms), dilution (larger districts), and indirect elections were used to insulate reps from popular opinion.
November 11, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Term limits, instructions, referenda, and recall were the norm in the revolutionary state constitutions. The US Constitution was explicitly designed to shut that shit down. Delay (longer terms), dilution (larger districts), and indirect elections were used to insulate reps from popular opinion.
Had that problem with Rosenberg’s Trial of the Assassin Guiteau just this morning! (Last opened in the early 1990s when it lost out to Foucault’s I Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my Mother for the “dueling discourses” slot in my Law & Lit syllabus. Good times, lol!)
November 11, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Had that problem with Rosenberg’s Trial of the Assassin Guiteau just this morning! (Last opened in the early 1990s when it lost out to Foucault’s I Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my Mother for the “dueling discourses” slot in my Law & Lit syllabus. Good times, lol!)
I organize by category not color, but lots of books fit multiple categories for me. I tend to remember covers and, as a result, I not infrequently find myself looking for a book of a particular color. And I am foiled by publishers that give the spine a different color than the cover. Don’t do that!
November 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I organize by category not color, but lots of books fit multiple categories for me. I tend to remember covers and, as a result, I not infrequently find myself looking for a book of a particular color. And I am foiled by publishers that give the spine a different color than the cover. Don’t do that!
As a lefty white woman, for decades now I’ve felt that the Democratic party has welcomed the GOP’s misogyny. The message to people like me has felt like “suck it up cuz where else are you gonna go?!”
November 10, 2025 at 3:04 PM
As a lefty white woman, for decades now I’ve felt that the Democratic party has welcomed the GOP’s misogyny. The message to people like me has felt like “suck it up cuz where else are you gonna go?!”
Thank you for your service.
November 10, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Thank you for your service.
Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm
Force Majeure
Force Majeure
November 6, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm
Force Majeure
Force Majeure
Thanks!! FWIW, it looks like this specific issue (use of the husher) was litigated/upheld by the DC Court of Appeals in 2019 (Sup Ct declined review) Blades v. United States, 200 A.3d 230, 238-41 (D.C. 2019). www.acludc.org/cases/blades...
Blades v. United States - Asserting Public Right of Access to Full Jury-Selection Proceedings in Criminal Trials - ACLU of DC
Mr. Blades was convicted of assault with intent to kill while armed and related offenses, after a trial in which was conducted in a manner that is quite common in D.C. Superior Court. First, the judg...
www.acludc.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Thanks!! FWIW, it looks like this specific issue (use of the husher) was litigated/upheld by the DC Court of Appeals in 2019 (Sup Ct declined review) Blades v. United States, 200 A.3d 230, 238-41 (D.C. 2019). www.acludc.org/cases/blades...
Please cite that case.
November 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Please cite that case.
Depending on the judge, the whole process can be inaudible. IME, a prospective juror might receive/answer initial screening questions via a written form or the judge might ask those questions audibly & have members of the pool answer with a show of hands (which then leads to further inaudible Q&A).
November 6, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Depending on the judge, the whole process can be inaudible. IME, a prospective juror might receive/answer initial screening questions via a written form or the judge might ask those questions audibly & have members of the pool answer with a show of hands (which then leads to further inaudible Q&A).
That’s the norm in DC (assuming you mean the individualized part of voir dire with the white noise machine turned on). And has been for years.
November 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
That’s the norm in DC (assuming you mean the individualized part of voir dire with the white noise machine turned on). And has been for years.