vesna
@vesnacurlic.bsky.social
archivist & errant historian of migration and medicine.
This is one of my all time favourite New Yorker articles.
Now desperate for a Fawlty Towers -esque workplace comedy about the fact checking department.
Now desperate for a Fawlty Towers -esque workplace comedy about the fact checking department.
In the 80s, a fact checker found that an unedited issue of The New Yorker contained 1,000 errors. (This figure itself wouldn’t survive a fact-check, but never mind.) Zach Helfand delves into the history of the vaunted department.
The History of The New Yorker’s Vaunted Fact-Checking Department
Reporters engage in charm and betrayal; checkers are in the harm-reduction business.
www.newyorker.com
September 17, 2025 at 1:22 AM
This is one of my all time favourite New Yorker articles.
Now desperate for a Fawlty Towers -esque workplace comedy about the fact checking department.
Now desperate for a Fawlty Towers -esque workplace comedy about the fact checking department.
Reposted by vesna
Microfiche implies the existence of macrofiche. Giant leviathans who live in libraries, bellowing news stories to anyone who asks.
January 24, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Microfiche implies the existence of macrofiche. Giant leviathans who live in libraries, bellowing news stories to anyone who asks.
Reposted by vesna
It's time once again for my annual #treebybike post. This is the December 19, 1942 cover of The New Yorker, so one full year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This would be the first real Christmas alone, or without a family member, for millions. Gas and tire rationing had begun that year. #bikesky
November 30, 2024 at 2:52 PM
It's time once again for my annual #treebybike post. This is the December 19, 1942 cover of The New Yorker, so one full year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This would be the first real Christmas alone, or without a family member, for millions. Gas and tire rationing had begun that year. #bikesky
Reposted by vesna
If only my desk were bigger, I could fit more shit on it.
November 25, 2024 at 8:08 PM
If only my desk were bigger, I could fit more shit on it.
Reposted by vesna
Hercule Poirot had it exactly right: stay warm, ride trains, keep a mug of hot cocoa on the night stand and pick the sort of career where people regularly invite you to visit their lavish country estates.
November 21, 2024 at 4:27 PM
Hercule Poirot had it exactly right: stay warm, ride trains, keep a mug of hot cocoa on the night stand and pick the sort of career where people regularly invite you to visit their lavish country estates.
I was never an overly prolific Tweeter, but just hand-deleted all my tweets and felt so sad. It was, among other things, a great record of the accomplishments of my PhD years, a scrapbook of pandemic academia, and a shrine to the academic career I never ended up having.
getting ready to delete all my tweets and feeling a bit sad about the way that space was taken away from us
November 15, 2024 at 1:54 AM
I was never an overly prolific Tweeter, but just hand-deleted all my tweets and felt so sad. It was, among other things, a great record of the accomplishments of my PhD years, a scrapbook of pandemic academia, and a shrine to the academic career I never ended up having.
I've started seeing more academic job postings in my BlueSky feed than strange cartoons, nature is healing.
November 15, 2024 at 1:10 AM
I've started seeing more academic job postings in my BlueSky feed than strange cartoons, nature is healing.
Reposted by vesna
I wish we could prescribe books to each other.
Sounds like you need two Flannery O’Connors!
A little Octavia Butler ought to clear that up.
Read sixteen Mary Oliver poems and call me in the morning.
Sounds like you need two Flannery O’Connors!
A little Octavia Butler ought to clear that up.
Read sixteen Mary Oliver poems and call me in the morning.
November 12, 2024 at 2:29 AM
I wish we could prescribe books to each other.
Sounds like you need two Flannery O’Connors!
A little Octavia Butler ought to clear that up.
Read sixteen Mary Oliver poems and call me in the morning.
Sounds like you need two Flannery O’Connors!
A little Octavia Butler ought to clear that up.
Read sixteen Mary Oliver poems and call me in the morning.
This article appeared in my inbox in this morning and now I’m desperate to read a full-colour photo-heavy biography of Peggy Guggenheim, including her time in Sussex
www.wallpaper.com/art/peggy-gu...
www.wallpaper.com/art/peggy-gu...
Peggy Guggenheim: ‘My motto was “Buy a picture a day” and I lived up to it’
Five years spent at her Sussex country retreat inspired Peggy Guggenheim to reframe her future, kickstarting one of the most thrilling modern-art collections in history
www.wallpaper.com
September 13, 2024 at 4:11 PM
This article appeared in my inbox in this morning and now I’m desperate to read a full-colour photo-heavy biography of Peggy Guggenheim, including her time in Sussex
www.wallpaper.com/art/peggy-gu...
www.wallpaper.com/art/peggy-gu...
Reposted by vesna
с днем знаний /"Happy Day of Knowledge" to all celebrating the start of the semester! this day was a national holiday in the Soviet Union and I love the rich record of it found in the SovInfoBureau photo collection at Fung Library. Here are just a few images from Alma-Ata, Moscow, Tashkent, & Kyiv📜
September 3, 2024 at 2:42 PM
с днем знаний /"Happy Day of Knowledge" to all celebrating the start of the semester! this day was a national holiday in the Soviet Union and I love the rich record of it found in the SovInfoBureau photo collection at Fung Library. Here are just a few images from Alma-Ata, Moscow, Tashkent, & Kyiv📜
I’m slowly watching Dickinson and enjoying it immensely, but can’t help but think about how the show would have killed on tumblr dot com in its heyday. I feel like I can see the gifsets in my minds eye.
January 16, 2024 at 12:57 PM
I’m slowly watching Dickinson and enjoying it immensely, but can’t help but think about how the show would have killed on tumblr dot com in its heyday. I feel like I can see the gifsets in my minds eye.
Reposted by vesna
Books. For anyone thinking of giving me presents. What I want is books.
December 21, 2023 at 10:17 PM
Books. For anyone thinking of giving me presents. What I want is books.
Really, very sad news
The Return of Martin Guerre blew my mind when I was an undergrad and I delighted in teaching it for the past two years to my historiography students, watching it blow their minds each time
The Return of Martin Guerre blew my mind when I was an undergrad and I delighted in teaching it for the past two years to my historiography students, watching it blow their minds each time
deeply saddened to announce that Natalie Zemon Davis has passed away
her work on early modern European cultural history profoundly shaped the thinking of successive generations of scholars
her warmth & generosity touched the lives of so many family, friends, students, colleagues, and comrades
RIP
her work on early modern European cultural history profoundly shaped the thinking of successive generations of scholars
her warmth & generosity touched the lives of so many family, friends, students, colleagues, and comrades
RIP
October 23, 2023 at 5:24 PM
Really, very sad news
The Return of Martin Guerre blew my mind when I was an undergrad and I delighted in teaching it for the past two years to my historiography students, watching it blow their minds each time
The Return of Martin Guerre blew my mind when I was an undergrad and I delighted in teaching it for the past two years to my historiography students, watching it blow their minds each time
Loved sinking into MARIANA by Monica Dickens (1940) this morning before work. The novel’s reissuer, Persephone Books, calls it part of the “hot-water bottle” genre. Its cosy comforts were particularly welcome on this frigid October morning ❄️
October 23, 2023 at 12:39 PM
Loved sinking into MARIANA by Monica Dickens (1940) this morning before work. The novel’s reissuer, Persephone Books, calls it part of the “hot-water bottle” genre. Its cosy comforts were particularly welcome on this frigid October morning ❄️
Reposted by vesna
Happy #Halloweenturthur! 🎃 At one point in the history of Halloween postcards, artists decided that witches should be attractive Gibson girls. And I’m not mad about it.
(From the Grossman collection of the Winterthur Library)
(From the Grossman collection of the Winterthur Library)
October 3, 2023 at 3:49 PM
Happy #Halloweenturthur! 🎃 At one point in the history of Halloween postcards, artists decided that witches should be attractive Gibson girls. And I’m not mad about it.
(From the Grossman collection of the Winterthur Library)
(From the Grossman collection of the Winterthur Library)
Was horrified by meal deals when I first went to the UK but it didn’t take me long to convert. Still not rushing out for a prawn mayo anytime soon but I also miss the simplicity and affordability of a meal deal!
The weird thing about this thread, as an American who lived in the uk for 12 years, is that British pre-packaged sandwiches are SOOOO much better than the ones we get here in the US, on average. I seriously miss some of them, especially the xmas dinner sandwiches you get in the fall.
England never ceases to take my breath away.
October 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM
Was horrified by meal deals when I first went to the UK but it didn’t take me long to convert. Still not rushing out for a prawn mayo anytime soon but I also miss the simplicity and affordability of a meal deal!
Should have done this instead of my PhD tbh
TIL that St Andrews used to have a qualification called Lady Literate in Arts. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Li...
October 2, 2023 at 1:40 PM
Should have done this instead of my PhD tbh
Not thrilled that it’s 27 degrees Celsius on the first weekend in October, but slightly pleased that I get a bit more time wearing the delightful baseball cap I acquired this summer ✨
October 1, 2023 at 8:46 PM
Not thrilled that it’s 27 degrees Celsius on the first weekend in October, but slightly pleased that I get a bit more time wearing the delightful baseball cap I acquired this summer ✨
spending my final day before starting my new job attending a virtual symposium on archives and intangible cultural heritage aka living my best life
September 19, 2023 at 1:32 PM
spending my final day before starting my new job attending a virtual symposium on archives and intangible cultural heritage aka living my best life