Leah
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dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Leah
@dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
220 followers 300 following 610 posts
Linguist in LA. Vitam faciunt balnea vina Venus.
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dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
The mighty Santa Cruz, pictured here at near-peak flow
Aerial photo of the Santa Cruz river flowing through the outskirts of Tucson. Well, not so much flowing. The channel is mostly dry and dusty but you can see a little trickle in the middle that just kind of sadly stops and disappears. There's also an area in the channel where a few green plants have managed to grow, standing out from the beige desert dirt.
January 13, 2026 at 12:10 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Joots!
High heel calf boots made of denim. Honestly I don't know how to alt text this in a way that can convey how bananas this article of clothing is.
January 11, 2026 at 12:28 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Choosing signs for tomorrow
Photo of posters on a wood floor: "Only Losers Work For ICE"; "Fuck ICE", "Dykes Against ICE", "Quo usque tandem abutere Donalde patientia nostra?"
January 10, 2026 at 5:31 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Come to think of it, they went after the Greeks in that hearing too!
Testimony continues: "MRS. FLANAGAN: Put in the record that he was the greatest dramatist in the period immediately preceding Shakespeare. MR. STARNES: Put that in the record because the charge has been made that this article of yours is entirely Communistic, and we want to help you. MRS. FLANAGAN: Thank you. That statement will go in the record. MR. STARNES: Of course, we had what some people call ‘Communists’ back in the days of the Greek theater. MRS. FLANAGAN: Quite true. MR. STARNES: And I believe Mr. Euripides was guilty of teaching class consciousness also, wasn’t he? MRS. FLANAGAN: I believe that was alleged against all of the Greek dramatists. MR. STARNES: So we cannot say when it began."
January 7, 2026 at 3:52 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Brings to mind the House Unamerican Activities Committee hearing where they investigated whether Christopher Marlowe was a Communist
Screenshot showing HUAC testimony between Representative Starnes and Halley Flanagan of the Federal Theater Project: "[Starnes quoting Flanagan:] ... They intend to remake a social structure without the help of money—and this ambition alone invests their undertaking with a certain Marlowesque madness.” You are quoting from this Marlowe. Is he a Communist? MRS. FLANAGAN: I am very sorry. I was quoting from Christopher Marlowe. MR. STARNES: Tell us who Marlowe is, so we can get the proper reference, because that is all that we want to do. MRS. FLANAGAN: Put in the record that he was the greatest dramatist in the period immediately preceding Shakespeare.
January 7, 2026 at 3:48 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Most extraordinary of all to me (but tucked in a corner you could easily miss!) was a set of tablets, including the Tripod Tablet that proved Ventris' analysis of Linear B as Greek!
ke-re-a2 *201 VAS[ ti-ri-po-de , a3-ke-u , ke-re-si-jo , we-ke *201VAS 2 ti-ri-po , e-me , po-de , o-wo-we *201VAS 1 ti-ri-po , ke-re-si-jo , we-ke , a-pu , ke-ka-u-me-no[ qe-to *203VAS 3 di-pa , me-zo-e , qe-to-ro-we *202VAS 1 di-pa-e , me-zo-e , ti-ri-o-we-e *202VAS 2 di-pa , me-wi-jo , qe-to-ro-we *202VAS 1 [ di-pa , me-wi-jo , ti-ri-jo-we *202VAS 1 di-pa , me-wi-jo , a-no-we *202VAS 1
January 1, 2026 at 4:55 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Rounded out the year by visiting the extraordinary "Kingdom of Pylos" exhibit at the Getty Villa, which included treasures from the Griffin Warrior's tomb - apparently their first time outside Europe.
Pure gold keftiu cup from the Griffin Warrior's tomb (sadly smooshed when part of the tomb collapsed.) Egyptian art shows Minoans carrying vessels just like this. Handle of the sword buried with the Griffin Warrior. The ceramic piece that gave the tomb its name. The display text noted that when you look closely, the griffin here is actually losing a battle with a lion, and Griffin Killer Warrior might have been a more accurate name. Image from the imprint of a gold Minoan-style showing a priestess venerating a Goddess.
January 1, 2026 at 4:52 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Browsing through old London Reviews and found this incredible letter
A letter from Norbert Hirschhorn of Minneapolis: "An example of the woes of indexing known to many paediatricians was mentioned in the New York Times obituary of Waldo Nelson, author of the Nelson Textbook of Paediatrics, in March 1997. 'The book was a family affair. Dr Nelson would call out items from each page as his wife and three children wrote them down on index cards. The children were not eager to help, but Dr Nelson insisted that it was a contribution to their education. In humorous retribution, his daughter Ann introduced a line in the index. Under ‘birds, for the,’ she listed the entire book, pages 1-1413.' Nelson insisted that the entry was removed from subsequent editions."
December 18, 2025 at 5:38 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
La moneda más grande del mundo, según Guinness. Sí es muy grande.
December 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Took me half a second to realize they meant soundtrack for the Ken Burns documentary
Screenshot from Spotify showing "Compilation: The Civil War (Original Soundtrack Recording)"
December 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
My wife and daughter, shining
Photo from our dining room. My wife sits with our toddler on her knee. Two menorahs are lit on the table, each with one light for the first night plus the shamash.
December 15, 2025 at 4:59 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
There are kinds of guys out there we've never even dreamed of
"Personal life" section of the Wikipedia page for Vincent Kosuga, one of the perpetrators of the onion fraud that led to the Onion Futures Act: "The son of a Russian Jew who converted to Catholicism, Kosuga was a devout Catholic. He donated a significant amount of his fortune to the church, and was rewarded with private audiences with three popes. Kosuga carried a .38 caliber pistol and a billy club with him at all times. He drove stock cars in his spare time and was a licensed pilot. He once survived a plane crash near Oswego, New York when the plane he was flying ran out of fuel mid-flight. He was left in a body cast after the crash, but made a quick recovery."
December 11, 2025 at 12:11 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Learned about a really funny law
Text from the first paragraphs of the Wikipedia article titled "Onion Futures Act": "The Onion Futures Act is a United States law banning the trading of futures contracts on onions as well as 'motion picture box office receipts'. In 1955, two onion traders, Sam Siegel and Vincent Kosuga, cornered the onion futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The resulting regulatory actions led to the passing of the act on August 28, 1958. As of May 2025, it remains in effect. The law was amended in 2010 to add motion picture box office futures to the list of banned futures contracts, in response to lobbying efforts by the Motion Picture Association of America."
December 11, 2025 at 12:07 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Maybe you missed this part of the article
Screenshot from the article linked in the previous comment: "Maintain meds. Exercise can give you a huge leg up on your ADHD symptoms, but it doesn't replace your medication. Don't stop your other treatments unless your doctor says it's OK."
December 2, 2025 at 11:16 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Do we have any records of what kind of accent Bonnie Prince Charlie had when speaking English or Scots? It must have been phenomenally strange.
Screenshot from the Wikipedia page for George Murray. It describes Charles Stuart as "a young man brought up in Italy whose first language was French, and whose mother was Polish."
November 13, 2025 at 6:37 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
wait this is cool
Screenshot showing text from one paragraph in the "Bees in Mythology" Wikipedia page: "Bees have a special status for Albanians. The bee is considered a sacred animal, associated with human life. When an animal ceases to live, Albanians use the verb ngordh or cof; when a bee ceases to live, they use the verb vdes (which is used to refer to human death). Meaning that for Albanians bees are beings of a higher caste, like humans. The bee also has a special status in the Albanian customary law – the Kanun – which dedicates specific laws that deal with beehive possession, damage and theft, the value of the bee, and the ownership of swarms of bees."
October 27, 2025 at 9:46 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
The big protest downtown is during kiddo's naptime so we went to an early one in Alhambra
Me standing in a protest crowd in a park, with my daughter in a stroller. She has a sign she made with crayon scribbles, and I have one that says "If Not Fascism Then Why Fascism Shape?"
October 18, 2025 at 7:08 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
I've never been totally satisfied with the explanation for the singular / plural forms of Os. Wiktionary says this (but no cite) - I would like to read this argued more fully
Screenshot of part of the Wiktionary page for the Old English section of the word "os": "The genitive plural ēsa (attested in ēsa gescot 'the shot of the ēse') and names such as Esegar display i-mutation, despite being a u-stem. This is likely a fossilization from an earlier stage between Proto-West Germanic *ansu and early Old English *ons, in which i-mutation was applied to the attested declined forms due to the word’s archaic meaning, rather than its active usage."
October 10, 2025 at 6:20 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Photo of a sling stone used in the siege of Perusia during a civil war (41-40 BCE). It is carved with the letters OCTAVI FELAS: "Hey Octavian, you suck dick!"
September 19, 2025 at 2:38 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Learned tonight that Mayan glyphs use the same symbol for heart, masa and tamal. These people knew what's up.
Photo of a sheet showing three variants of a glyph. Pronounced ohl (heart) or waj (tamal/masa).
August 30, 2025 at 4:38 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
I must also recommend to measure word enjoyers (or haters) to learn about Navajo classificatory verbs. You think it's hard to keep classifiers straight? Try having completely different verbs based on the properties of the direct object.
Screenshot from the Wikipedia article on Navajo grammar: "To compare with English, Navajo has no single verb that corresponds to the English word to give. To say the equivalent of Give me some hay!, the Navajo verb níłjool (non-compact matter (NCM)) must be used, while for Give me a cigarette! the verb nítįįh (slender stiff object (SSO)) must be used. The English verb to give is expressed by eleven different verbs in Navajo, depending on the characteristics of the given object."
August 30, 2025 at 4:29 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Victorian moment
Photo showing some text from a recent piece in the London Review of Books: "The celebrated cavalry officer Colonel Burnaby, who had volunteered for the campaign [against the Mahdi], was heard shouting 'Isn't this fine sport, my boy,' just before being fatally stabbed in the neck."
August 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
Objectively this is a very funny way to begin a love spell
Translated first lines from SM I 42, a spell to make Gorgonia daughter of Nilogenia fall in love with Sophia, daughter of Isara. The text reads: "Fundament of the gloomy darkness, jagged-toothed dog, covered with coiling snakes, turning three heads, traveler in the recesses of the underworld, come, spirit-driver, with the Erinyes, savage with their stinging whips; holy serpents, maenads, frightful maidens, come to my wroth incantations, before I persuade by force this one and you, render him immediately a fire-breathing daemon. Listen and do everything quickly, in no way opposing me in the performance of this action; for you are the governors of the earth."
August 14, 2025 at 10:23 PM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
IMO it's important to know that some ancient Greco-Egyptians went in to some life or death court cases wearing this little guy under their tunics
Illustration from PGM 36. It's a line drawing that I think is a curly-haired guy holding an ankh and restraining a snake. He has a big grinning face drawn on his chest. The style looks like something a cool teenager in the 80s would have drawn and inexplicably the guy also looks like he's leaping off a skateboard.
August 14, 2025 at 2:18 AM
dreamsofvenus.bsky.social
And he kept doing outrageous radical stuff like uh this, so much that the ruling class deported him to Tasmania for life. WTF. (William Cuffay, in case I'm not the only one just learning about this.)
A screenshot from the Wikipedia article about Cuffay. It says: "He was a significant player in having the Master and Servant Act amended, so employers could no longer have their employees imprisoned if they left their jobs without permission."
August 13, 2025 at 1:03 AM