JCS
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theotherprofessor.bsky.social
JCS
@theotherprofessor.bsky.social
English professor at Illinois State University focusing on Victorian Studies, Children's & Young Adult Literature, Visual Culture, Comics & graphic novels, Literary Fairy Tales, and Lewis Carroll. http://ghostofthetalkingcricket.squarespace.com
Reposted by JCS
In American high schools, many teenagers are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end — often just one or two per year, according to researchers and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by The New York Times. trib.al/gNp7kWK
December 12, 2025 at 10:28 PM
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An active shooter alert was issued at Brown University, according to a post on the university’s website.
Active Shooter Alert Issued at Brown University
In an emergency alert, the school told students and faculty to lock doors, silence phones and hide. A suspect was in custody.
nyti.ms
December 13, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Hours of Edgar Allan Poe Stories Read by Vincent Price & Basil Rathbone
Hours of Edgar Allan Poe Stories Read by Vincent Price & Basil Rathbone
Record label Caedmon Audio specialized in spoken-word recordings, pairing great literary works with great actors. They got James Mason to read the poetry of Robert Browning, multi-Oscar winner Walter ...
www.openculture.com
December 13, 2025 at 7:57 PM
How did the C.I.A. lose a Nuclear Device in the Himalayan mountains where it still remains missing. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
How Did the C.I.A. Lose a Nuclear Device in the Himalayas?
A plutonium-packed generator disappeared on one of the world’s highest mountains in a covert mission that the U.S. will not talk about.
www.nytimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 6:57 PM
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A bonus Daily Cartoon by Brendan Loper. #NewYorkerCartoons
December 13, 2025 at 12:30 AM
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“The Lord of the Rings” grew in the telling, but, more significantly, the reader grows in the reading; such is the source of Tolkien’s power, and it is weirder and more far-reaching than even he could have foretold.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
The Hobbit Habit: Reading “The Lord of the Rings”
From 2001: “The Lord of the Rings” grew in the telling, but, more significantly, the reader grows in the reading; such is the source of Tolkien’s power, and it is weirder and more far-reaching than even he could have foretold.
www.newyorker.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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The U.S. has registered its highest number of cases in 33 years.
www.jezebel.com/meales-outbr...
Hundreds of South Carolina Schoolchildren Are in Measles Quarantine, Thanks to Low Vaccination Rates
South Carolina is the latest state to see a serious measles outbreak, as the U.S. has registered its highest number of cases in 33 years.
www.jezebel.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:03 PM
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After saying under oath that the DHS has never deported a veteran, the DHS Secretary was confronted by a deported veteran.
www.jezebel.com/kristi-noems...
Kristi Noem’s Humiliating House Hearing
After saying under oath that the DHS has never deported a veteran, the DHS Secretary was confronted by a deported veteran.
www.jezebel.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:22 PM
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BREAKING: Indiana Republicans FAILED to pass a new 9-0 congressional gerrymander after enough GOP senators sided with Dems. The GOP's 7-2 map stays in place.

Trump is trying to re-gerrymander maps nationwide. At least 11 Indiana Rs got death threats after he called for primaries—but it still failed
December 11, 2025 at 9:35 PM
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BREAKING: Democrats and Republicans in Congress just voted to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act to restore federal workers’ union rights – the first time the House has voted to overturn a Trump executive order in this term. https://bit.ly/4oNyBQc
December 11, 2025 at 10:06 PM
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Drumroll, please: a collection of the New Yorker cartoons you liked on Instagram this year (including this one, by Guy Richards Smit). See the rest: newyorkercartoons.visitlink.me/re6x3C
December 11, 2025 at 11:00 PM
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The US government is now a mafia organization.
December 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
James Marshall's "George and Martha": The Illustrated Children’s Book I’ll Never Stop Recommending to Adults www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/m...
The Illustrated Children’s Book I’ll Never Stop Recommending to Adults
www.nytimes.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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Tomorrow!! 👇👇
AI Is Not Inevitable

join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience

zoom.us/webinar/regi...
December 10, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Israeli Ban on Media Entering Gaza Remains, as Legal Challenge Is Delayed www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...
Israeli Ban on Media Entering Gaza Remains, as Legal Challenge Is Delayed
www.nytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 11:32 PM
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A clip from my Substack “live” on J.R.R. #Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters earlier on today.
@tolkiensociety.org @tolkienguide.com @digitaltolkien.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
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“I started this because I read Virginia Woolf ’s diary and, undaunted, decided, what the hell?”

From an excerpt of Eve Babitz’s journals in our new Winter issue.
buff.ly
December 9, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Trump Insists Tariffs Will Buoy the Economy. For Now, He’s on Damage Control. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/u...
Trump Insists Tariffs Will Buoy the Economy. For Now, He’s on Damage Control.
www.nytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
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Leaders of a Catholic church near Boston kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it.
Massachusetts Church Keeps Anti-ICE Nativity Scene, Defying Diocese Leaders
The Christmas display, which replaces Jesus, Mary and Joseph with a sign saying “ICE Was Here,” has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders and immigration officials.
nyti.ms
December 9, 2025 at 2:55 PM
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Born on this day in 1894, cartoonist E.C. Segar introduced Popeye to the world in 1929 in his comic strip 'Thimble Theatre.' You can catch some of Segar's original work now along with other OG faces of the newspaper comics section in our exhibition 'Sunday Funnies.' #Popeye #cartoonist #art
December 9, 2025 at 12:18 AM
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Breaking News: Alina Habba resigned as U.S. attorney in New Jersey after a panel of federal judges ruled last week that she was serving in the position unlawfully.
Alina Habba, a Trump Loyalist, Resigns as New Jersey’s Top Prosecutor
Ms. Habba resigned on Monday, after a federal appeals court last week found she had been serving as U.S. attorney unlawfully.
nyti.ms
December 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
The adult world of A.A. Milne's fiction beyond the world of Winnie-the-Pooh.
December 8, 2025 at 3:56 PM
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A date which will live in infamy.

Today, we commemorate the more than 2,400 Americans who were lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

We are forever indebted to the courage of those who stood up for democracy and freedom — and we will never forget their sacrifice.
December 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM