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
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danielleonard.bsky.social
First citation in the OED is from 1737. Before Mr. Green Jeans, there was Mr. Green's Spleen
1737 The day-mare Spleen, by whose false pleas Men prove mere suicides in ease. M. Green, Spleen 39
November 11, 2025 at 2:55 AM
danielleonard.bsky.social
works cited
six incognito tabs related to Rocky and Bullwinkle
November 11, 2025 at 12:41 AM
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
danielleonard.bsky.social
new meaning
graphic with text reading "Weed the People" in the lettering style of the preamble to the US Constitution, plus an eagle carrying a stem with marijuana leaves in one claw and a bunch of spliffs in the other
October 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
for the uninitiated:
Microwave (Oops!) is a disaster that occurs in SimCity 2000. When the beam from the orbiting satellite misses the microwave power plant and hits something else instead, the microwave disaster is initiated. A large fire will start near the receiver dish.
October 27, 2025 at 2:01 PM
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
danielleonard.bsky.social
epilogue
In an illustration, Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad walk off into the distance. Toad is wearing a hat with a rakish feather. The text reads: "It turned out to be a very pleasant day after Toad's birthday."
October 2, 2025 at 10:04 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Lydia Davis, __Our Strangers__
England My left hand keeps trying to type another e into the word acknowl- edgment, making it acknowledgement—the British spelling—while my right hand keeps deleting the e. Maybe my left hand grew up in England.
September 5, 2025 at 6:17 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
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
Still frames from the TV show Arrested Development. George Michael and GOB walk through a store; George Michael holds a box. George Michael says, "You know, say what you will about America—13 bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice."
June 13, 2025 at 1:55 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
Sickos meme. A man with shaggy eyebrows, stubble, and pointy teeth presses gloved hands against a window, looking in from outside. He wears a black shirt with white letters that read SICKOS. Under a crescent moon, he laughs maniacally to himself: "YES... HA HA HA... YES!"
May 31, 2025 at 6:30 PM
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
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
clown makeup meme (happy version)
clown makeup meme, something like: 1. things are pretty bad, maybe i'll become a clown 2. with this makeup I am starting to look more like a clown 3. thanks to my rainbow wig I now really feel almost like a clown 4. oh yeah I've got my classic puffy foam red nose, I am thankful that despite what is happening in the world I get to spend today being a clown!
March 11, 2025 at 1:32 AM
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
danielleonard.bsky.social
Thanks, this helped. @chronicle.com
Conversation with the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Chron" AI chatbot: Chron: Hi, I'm Chron! I will use the Chronicle's archives to answer your higher education-related questions. Me: Students in my first-year writing course wish to begin each class session with an inaugural salute. How should I handle this suggestion? Chron: While the students' enthusiasm is commendable, incorporating an inaugural salute at the beginning of each first-year writing class session would be misplaced and counterproductive. (highlighted by me:) Such ceremonial practices are better suited for rare, formal occasions rather than regular classroom meetings. (end highlight) Instead, consider redirecting this energy toward more meaningful and educationally valuable activities that align with the course objectives and foster student engagement.
January 28, 2025 at 3:28 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Salman Akhtar, 'In Short: Private Notes of a Psychoanalyst' (2024)
January 7, 2025 at 11:56 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
My feed:
Directly below Laine Nooney's message, a message from Gumby Screens: Pokey the horse and Prickle the dinosaur pulling up in a yellow car to a large brown building labeled PIANOS.
December 30, 2024 at 1:12 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
prescient Pogo (June 3, 1952)
Bold Weevil: I'm makin' a SEWER-VEY of the swamp mind, Mr. Howland Owl. WHO'S gonna WIN th' 'LECTION, sir? Howland Owl: Whoever BUYS the most of my MACHINE VOTERS, Mr. Bold Weevil. Weevil: Is that FAIR? Sellin' VOTERS that way? Owl: FAIREST way to sell'em in the wide world. OPEN to ALL ...... Weevil: But couldn't the OPPOSITION sort of tippie-toe in an' SET the eother party's machine voters to votin' the WRONG way? Owl: Never THO'T of THAT. Think anybody'd be THAT sneaky? Weevil: Could BE. Owl: Uncle JOE PALMER must be RIGHT---- political honor is DEAD... A man can't depend on gittin' the Election he pays for NO more...
November 5, 2024 at 2:13 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Biff Wiff in the Shirt Brothers sketch from I Think You Should Leave (old man with a long white beard and a patterned blue polo shirt): "Promise me a million times that you will never do another rule."
October 28, 2024 at 5:08 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Translated from the Polish by the author and Robert Hass.
"Christopher Robin" by Czesław Miłosz - full text here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/14328754-Christopher-Robin-by-Czeslaw-Milosz
August 29, 2024 at 5:47 PM
danielleonard.bsky.social
Spring Kay Ryan / May 5, 2011 It would be good to shrug out of winter as cicadas do: look: a crisp freestanding you and you walking off, soft as new.
August 18, 2024 at 5:01 AM