Leigh Walton @bobdobalina - Tumblr Blog

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kply-industries

*puts a disk in u*

imat711yallneedanything

Thank you

caecilius-est-pater

I was searching the Latin/Greek section of a used bookstore for some ~aesthetic~ antique Latin books, and I came across this beautiful 1889 tome:

This is going to look great on my “look at me I’m a pretentious twat” bookshelf.

But then… the first few sentences read:

“In 1875 delegates of the Oxford University Press proposed to me that I should undertake the compilation of a new Latin-English Lexicon, of something the same compass as the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott. I acceded to the proposal in the expectation, for which I had at the time what appeared to be good grounds, that I should obtain adequate assistance in the work. My hopes were, however, disappointed.”

Ouch.

He goes on to detail how he spent 12 years working on A all by himself. Then the university asked him to publish what he had, so he threw together the rest of the book, clearly caring less and less the further he got in the alphabet - the entire Q section has four entries - and published… this.

Obviously this is going straight onto my pretentious twat shelf as a goofy conversation starter, but it is interesting and potentially useful if obscure Latin words are your thing. (Did you know “ramen” is a hapax legomenon meaning “a small chip or shaving”?)

So if you ever come across a really obscure Latin word or name that you can’t find anywhere, hmu… but only if it starts with A.

bobdobalina

Cambridge University Press now has the amusing audacity to offer a paperback edition of this book, Contributions to Latin Lexicography, for $79:

Henry Nettleship (1839–1893), Professor of Latin at Oxford, published his work on Latin lexicography in 1889. The volume had originally been planned as a complete Latin lexicon; however, after almost twelve years (during which Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary was published in 1879) of labour on the letter A, the size of the endeavour became apparent and the shape of the work was revised, becoming a detailed lexicon of the letter A, which amounted to two-thirds of the work, with shorter lexicographical notes on the other letters up to U. For the words he covered, many of Nettleship's entries are more detailed and specialised than Lewis and Short's, and there is a far greater emphasis placed on early Roman literature and Latin glossaries in the notes on etymology and usage. The critical thoroughness of the work has ensured its continued use by Latin scholars and lexicographers.

#lexicography #Latin #language #Henry Nettleship #Oxford University #Oxford University Press #Cambridge University Press #dictionary

ireadvintage

This month, in celebration of Pride and James Baldwin’s crucial contributions to queer literature, we commissioned digital artist Danielle Taphanel, @dtaphanel, to create a Tumblr-only, reimagined cover for Baldwin’s debut novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, one of America’s greatest classics.

Danielle Taphanel, a self-taught, disabled, non-binary, first-generation Filipino-Latino artist who loves plants and folklore, delicately captures the mosaic of themes presented in a book titled after a beloved Black American spiritual song of the same name.

This year marks 100 years of James Baldwin, an iconic writer and activist whose work explores the complexities of race, identity, love, and class with searing foresight. The digital-only artwork was made exclusively for Tumblr and is not featured on any purchasable edition.

bobdobalina

Great project but why would you not actually do a print run with this cover?

#Danielle Taphanel #James Baldwin #go tell it on the mountain #1953 #the 1950s #book covers #publishing #penguin random house #2024 #the 2020s

hungwy

theo van gogh was the one who suggested that his older brother vincent start seriously painting. as soon as theo was gainfully employed he gave vincent around 15% of his own yearly salary for art supplies, lodging, and food. about 2/3rds of vincent's surviving letters were to theo (including vincent's earliest and last letters), all of which were found stored in theo's desk. theo's child, vincent willem, was born on january 31st, 1890, and vincent was so delighted by his nephew that he painted almond blossoms for him. vincent shot himself half a year later on july 29th, 1890. theo's distress at his brother's death worsened his syphilis symptoms and he died half a year after his brother on january 25th, 1891 (four days before vincent willem's first birthday). theo was reburied next to vincent in auvers-sur-oise at the request of theo's wife johanna.

nutropes

Almond Blossoms, 1890, Vincent van Gogh

deus3xmachinablog

adding to this one of my favorite quotes from a letter Vincent wrote to his brother:

“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.” - Vincent van Gogh

calebwittebane

person typing into google search bar: obfuscate meaning

google ai overview: Understood! From now on, all meaning will be hidden from you, and you'll be forced to wade through the dreary vastness. Whether it's things you've always held dear, or new ideas you've yet to discover, nothing will make sense or appear to have any real value. This could be the beginning of a fascinating journey!

Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Socrates Tearing Away Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensuality (1785)

Asher Sarlin, distractions.gif aka "honestly, who could be expected to make the right decision" (September 30, 2004, from his webcomic Elephantitis of the Mind)

#art #comics #memes #Jean-Baptiste Regnault #Asher Sarlin #distraction #executive dysfunction #1785 #2004 #the 1780s #the 2000s #webcomics

archivearchangelica

Parade of the Politically Depressed, Chicago, 2006

certified-linguistics-moment

jareckiworld

Thomas Doyle — Click-Through Rate (mini sculpture, mixed media, 24 x 15 x 15 centimeters, 2024)

bobdobalina

This whole series, called Clear History, is astonishing.

#thomas doyle #sculpture #the way we _ now #Ruinenwert #technology #diachronism

lucybellwood

As some of you might recall from this essay, I spent the latter half of 2025 working on a comic for the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Tania Sammons, a curator at the museum who had previously licensed my guide to sailors’ tattoos for a show, wrote to me with an irresistible pitch: four cartoonists would be hired, assigned a vessel from the museum's extensive collection of models, then given six months to produce a short comic for publication in an anthology alongside an accompanying museum display.

How could I say no?

My original brief was to research the Anne, the ship that brought the first colonists to Georgia, but in the aftermath of my dad's death the story took off in directions I couldn't have foreseen.

I'm releasing the whole comic online to coincide with the opening of Drawn to the Sea, the exhibition in Savannah. If you're in the area this week (or anytime over the next nine months!) you can stop in and see all the amazing work that came from myself and fellow artists Avery Hick, Rich King, and Sharon Norwood. Details about the museum show are here.

In the meantime, here's a very personal comic.

Content Warning: this piece deals with suicide and parental mortality. Readers with trypophobia may want to skip pages 14 and 15.

Thanks for reading <3

bobdobalina

Folks, nobody is doing it like Lucy Bellwood

#comics #Lucy Bellwood #grief #hobbyists #what’s it all for #wisdom

yamada-ryo

honestly one of the all time tweets of all time tbh

parmandil

if I'm cross-dressing and embroiled in homoerotic affairs and YOU're cross-dressing and embroiled in homoerotic affairs then who's driving this opera

#opera #gender

butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway

"Just because I'm right, doesn't mean I'm being helpful" is a vastly underrated thought process that I strongly encourage others to get comfortable with

druid-for-hire

There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.

"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).

Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.

But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.

We are assisted.

And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:

"... You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. ..."

Gravity assist.

ambrosial-sunshine

For the painting especially there’s a beauty in depicting some of our most advanced technology as synonymous with the most ancient. Very few people throughout history have had the privilege of seeing the face of Jupiter but many would recognize the sling thrower immediately.

#Rick Guidice #pioneer 10 #1973 #Jupiter #space #astronomy #art #painting #the 1970s #NASA #gravity assist #gravitational slingshot #astronomical art #Roman mythology

I guess every biographer becomes passionate about setting the record straight and clearing up misconceptions about their subject, but I have never seen an index like this, from Berlioz and the Romantic Century by Jacques Barzun (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1950).

The use of all-caps makes it even more hilarious, like the ranting of an unhinged stan with a 50-slide powerpoint deck.