Susan Theobald
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sortalazysusan.bsky.social
Susan Theobald
@sortalazysusan.bsky.social
120 followers 100 following 140 posts
Susan, she/her | Bookdealer, photographer/catalogue designer and social media layabout at Blackwell's Rare Books | #ActuallyAutistic
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sortalazysusan.bsky.social
It's funny how you can always tell when a book description is AI generated because it will say something like 'this book would be an excellent addition to any collection', which is of course a complete misunderstanding of book collecting
September 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
discokidnap.bsky.social
When you arrive in hell to steal Satan’s throne
a woman is riding a scooter that has the number 7 on it
ALT: a woman is riding a scooter that has the number 7 on it
media.tenor.com
July 22, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
brainmage.bsky.social
Ozzy, in the underworld, screaming at the ferryman: Charon! Charon!

news.sky.com/story/ozzy-o...
Ozzy Osbourne dies just weeks after farewell show
The heavy metal star reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates on stage at Villa Park earlier in July.
news.sky.com
July 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
Paddington Bear, who as we know is the psychopomp of all British national treasures, is very very veeeerry tentatively taking Ozzy Osbourne by the hand 😬
July 22, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
dinahrose.bsky.social
Ozzy relaxing this evening
Small grey cat sitting on a footstool with his paws elegantly crossed.
July 19, 2025 at 7:21 PM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
Today in incomprehensible brain farts, I asked the bus driver for a first edition instead of a single ticket, so of course I can never catch the bus again.
July 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
iandunt.bsky.social
Difficult to conceive of a more ill-judged decision then the one the Home Office took here. It is an affront to free speech of a kind which is really indistinguishable from what you'd see in a police state.
July 19, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
fortrenn.bsky.social
I mean, I also experience this quite regularly (with early medieval history, not quantum physics), but for me it comes from doing actual research in actual sources and having real thoughts with my own human brain. Travis Kalanick should try it sometime.
A quote from a Gizmodo article about ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick thinking he can make scientific breakthroughs using ChatGPT or (god help us) Grok. Kalanick is quoted as saying: 'I’ll go down this thread with [Chat]GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics. And we’re approaching what’s known. And I’m trying to poke and see if there’s breakthroughs to be had. And I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.'
July 19, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
themountaingoats.bsky.social
framing this any other way than "deranged old man sues everybody who he regards as being to mean to him" is journalistic malpractice
kylegriffin1.bsky.social Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · Jul 18
BREAKING on MSNBC:

Donald Trump has just filed a lawsuit against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters. The claims: libel, assault, slander.
July 18, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
thebadspot.bsky.social
*taps mic*

Ok, here’s The Thing

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Unique ice, 1.5m years old, to be melted to unlock mystery
BBC News went inside -23C freezers to see the ice that could
www.bbc.co.uk
July 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
blackwellrare.bsky.social
Sometimes you just want to make absolutely sure nobody misses your favourite aspect of a book... From the first edition of Gerard's Herbal, 1597 blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
A photo of a large book in a glass case, open on a page with woodcut illustrations of plants - and a slightly smudged but still discernible inky pawprint, likely that of a cat. A note has been jauntily affixed to the clear plastic tape holding open the book, on which 'Pawprint!' has been written in green ink with an arrow pointing to the offending print.
July 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
sadcypress.bsky.social
I used to do Bastille Day parties every year, thanks to an abiding love of stories set in the French Revolution. This photo is from 2006, when we used a kitchen torch to light the candles on the cake so we could sing “Happy Bastille Day to France.”
Photo of a round cake in a dark room. The cake has a ring of candles around its perimeter, and around a French flag painted with icing on its surface. A kitchen torch is the only source of light, as it starts to ignite the slew of candles.
July 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
love when an auction says 'taken out' instead of 'lot withdrawn', implying this footstool was fucking assassinated
July 14, 2025 at 12:52 PM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
Excited to announce my new venture as insect uber. Chauffeured my first satisfied customer from Jesus College to Lincoln College Library, where I assume he had some books to check out
July 8, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
liamsims.bsky.social
DR LIGHTFOOTSOOO
OOWORKESOO
VOL. 1
OOOOO

Spotted this week @queenslibcam.bsky.social
June 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
payoub.bsky.social
Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban
June 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
book-historia.bsky.social
I’m going to the Chateau de Chantilly Très Riches Heures exhibition after @imc-leeds.bsky.social , so I thought I would treat myself to some illuminated manuscript inspired nails ✨
Allie’s hands, with deep blue nails bordered by chrome gold
June 28, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
catsofyore.bsky.social
Lorraine and Puff. 💕 Photo from my collection, no date or other info.
Black and white photo of a light skinned little girl in winter clothing and little button up leather boots standing outside on a sidewalk. Her clothing is very early 20th century. She is smiling at the camera and holding a short haired light colored cat, possibly an orange tabby. Cursive writing at the bottom Reads “Lorraine and puff”.
June 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
alexvont.bsky.social
I’m not bothered by who plays Bond, but I don’t want Tom Holland to waste his prime years on such a dull role unless they make it a musical and let him dance. Then I’m in
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · Jun 27
Tom Holland, Jacob Elordi and Harris Dickinson at top of James Bond wishlist – report
Tom Holland, Jacob Elordi and Harris Dickinson at top of James Bond wishlist – report
Sources claim the three actors lead Amazon’s list of prospective stars to headline a new iteration of the 007 franchise ‘Smooth with a sinister edge’: readers on who the next James Bond should be Tom Holland, Harris Dickinson and Jacob Elordi are rumoured to be at the top of Amazon’s James Bond wishlist, according to a new report. Variety has learned from insiders that the new iteration of 007 would be under 30 and the three actors could be fighting it out for the role. No meetings have taken place and Amazon has yet to confirm anything. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
June 28, 2025 at 7:45 AM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
Good morning to the huge fluffy black cat I just watched make an unstoppable terminator-style beeline through Radcliffe Square in order to sniff the voluminous red dress of a couple having a photoshoot in the gate of All Souls
Stick figure drawing of the scene
June 28, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
edzitron.com
I started writing something important to me tonight. Not really sure what it is, but I’ll share the end of it. Watching the tech industry do what it’s doing sickens me, and I want people to know why.
Nowhere along the line did anyone actually see an opportunity to sell people something they wanted or needed - Large Language Models were able to generate a lot of text or generate pictures, and that barely approximated a thing that society wanted or needed other than it was something that people used to be willing to pay more for and businesses had been vaguely interested in doing these things cheaper, usually by offshoring or underpaying contractors. The fact that three years later we still have trouble describing why these things exist is enough of a sign that the tech industry has no real interest in building artificial intelligence at all - because AI is, at least based on the time before ChatGPT, meant to be about doing stuff for us, which Large Language Models are pretty fucking poor at, because the idea of getting something “done for you” is that you’re outsourcing both the production and the quality control. In any case, it’s enough to make anyone feel crazy. Over the last decade we’ve watched - and while I’m talking about the tech industry, I think we can all say it’s been everywhere else too - the things we love get distanced from us so that somebody else can get unbelievably rich, the things we used to do easily made more difficult, confusing and/or expensive, and the ways we used to connect with people become increasingly abstracted and exploitative. I don’t know what to tell you about these people other than the fact that you should know that they are responsible for the world around you feeling like it’s in fucking ruins. I cannot give you a plan for the future, I cannot tell you what will fix things, but however things get fixed start with people knowing who these people are and what they have done. The reason I am so hard on my peers in the media is that it has never been more urgent that we hold these people accountable. Their ability to act both unburdened by regulation and true criticism has emboldened them to cause harm to billions of peop… Fighting back starts with the truth, said regularly, said boldly and clearly with emotion and sincerity. I don’t have other answers. I don’t have bold plans. I don’t know what to do, other than to explain how I feel, and if you feel the same, at the very least make you feel less afraid. If you ever need to talk, email me at ez@betteroffline.com. I don’t care. I have cracked myself open and spilled myself onto my podcast and newsletter for no reason other than the fact that I feel more alive doing so, and have become a stronger and happier person doing so. All this is possible thanks to technology, and while I have no plan, I know I feel more free and alive when I write and speak about this stuff. I write this knowing that speaking in this way feels “too much” or some other way of attacking me for experiencing emotion, and if you’re feeling that way reading this, look deep within yourself and see if you’re simply uncomfortable with somebody capable of feeling things. We die alone, but we choose whether we live that way. Remember that billions of us are suffering in the same way, and remember who to fucking thank for doing it to us.
June 5, 2025 at 6:07 AM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
One of the most important skills of bookdealing is, of course, a high score in tetris
June 5, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Susan Theobald
midge.bsky.social
When the IT guy takes over my computer remotely
Picture of a translucent hooded, caped, skeleton wrapped around an alarmed looking man seeming to move him involuntarily
May 16, 2025 at 11:51 AM
sortalazysusan.bsky.social
This was a bit of a rush job, but it was v fun to do. Might have another crack at it one day, or something similiar... The Hobbit illumination with Smaug as a weird mediaeval dragon?
A gouache painting of Alice and the White Rabbit, in a mock mediaeval illumination style
May 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM