Ted McCormick

@tedmccormick

Historian of scientific, economic and colonial projects in early modern Britain, Ireland, and the Atlantic; books & ; views mine; he/him. Montrealer in Philly, except when I’m in Montreal

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Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 7d

Charles Simic, Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell (New York: NYRB, 2006), plate 7 and page 56

Untitled (Soap Bubble Set), 1936. Glass case with inserts, 15¾ X 14¼ X 5/8 in. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut. Gift of Henry and Walter Keney.

UNTITLED (SOAP BUBBLE SET), 1936

A soap bubble went to meet infinity.

Here's a cabinet containing the implements you need. There's a classroom map of the moon, a clay pipe, a blue egg in a wineglass, and a child's head on a block of wood. There are many versions of this dream ma-chine, but the map, the pipe, and the glass are almost always present.

The heavenly bodies are soap bubbles. They float in the empyrean, cradling the dreamer. The ephemeral bubble ascends into the wintry cold and silence of the sky. It's the soul of the world ascending. Cosmogenies are soap bubbles. The father of our solitude is a child. A soap bubble has no content. After it has burst, there's nothing left of it.

The leap of a ballet dancer is a soap bubble, too. "Our hearts leap," we say. This is the "long bright silence" of Nietzsche's before which we stand in awe. The far and beyond and the near momentarily touch. The world is beautiful but not sayable. That's why we need art.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 11d

meh. been done

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 13d

tbf medieval children were pretty weird

medieval baby Jesus with advanced male pattern baldness and a Saturday morning conference panel sneer

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 14d

if you read the review then you know how stupidly desperate for controversy this kind of coverage is

Wilson attacks Nolan, blares the Guardian

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 16d

anyway. I call this piece “Historians Neglecting the Public”

popular histories piled like bricks in a bookstore, against a backdrop of more popular histories tiling the wall

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 21d

spent some time on the Isle of Man (from Ireland) on a whim last week and am mightily pleased that I did

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 21d

the cover is quite sharp too, but for whatever reason did not display above

The Reformation in Tudor Ireland
Political Theology and Princely Governance under Henry VIII
James Leduc

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 22d

or, etc

Michael Scott quoting Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 23d

been in a bookshop and I have to tell you: all new histories look kind of the same

History shelves and display table at a Waterstones

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· 23d

my latest in the Guardian by Charles V

Masters of time and space, Spain’s dominance comes from deep-rooted principles

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jul 10

We ran it like a business and look what happened Andrew Hindmoor, Haywire: A Political History of Britain since 2000 (Penguin, 2025), p.347

Perhaps, more than anything else, the Post Office scandal demonstrated a moral failing on the part of managers of large organizations to care about the consequences of their decisions or to show even the faintest empathy for the lives of the people working in those organizations.
There were times, during the 2ooos, when identifying and appointing the right kind of managers, and then giving them the authority to get on and do their job and turn things around, came to be seen as the answer to any and all organizational problems. Hospitals, schools, universities and charities were all encouraged to follow the lead set by private firms, most notably the banks, to venerate and empower their managers and, as a part of this, to pay them the going market rate. The Post Office scandal showed what can happen when frameworks are created in which managers are driven by performance targets and subject to not much more than tick-box accountability.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 26

anyway, the NYT is not beating those "actually not a great primer for that many subjects" allegations

The Times plays so many roles: as the place to go to understand the world in real time, as the primer on every subject under the sun and, lest we forget, as a convener and tastemaker that helps define the modern canon.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 25

Explaining to my date that I'm not just choosing the canon, I also invented the concept, at least locally

Gilbert was the first to realize the potential in creating definitive catalogs of culture when he and the Books desk published the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” package in collaboration with The Upshot two years ago, inviting critics, readers and authors into the conversation. As Canon editor, Gilbert will expand on that effort. He will build a team that will work with others across the newsroom to develop canon and signature lists, while ensuring overall quality and cohesion along the way.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 25

it also makes OK litter box lining, in a pinch. Lest we forget

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 25

Imagine writing this series of sentences and not immediately disappearing into the earth. You can't

When we choose the best movies of the 21st century, old favorites like “Parasite” and “Mulholland Drive” surge in popularity again.

When The New York Times declares “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “Wolf Hall” the century’s very best books, it’s no surprise that their readership rises.

And reservations become scarce at Kabawa, Yamada, Tatiana and other top dining spots when we choose New York City’s 100 best restaurants.

Our lists are hardly casual affairs — they are based on statistical rigor, data analysis, shoe-leather reporting, in-house expertise and industry voices. They have each sparked conversation, delight and debate while guiding our audience to new favorites.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 20

kneeling soldier protecting sleeping child from algae

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 19

they also serve who only scuttle and munch

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 15

Shovel your way out of the shit with Dr. Amp's Golden Shovel

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 15

see also

Colin Wright's cartoon of himself being left behind by his "fellow liberals'" running to the left (becoming "woke progressives") between 2008 and 2021, while both he and conservatives stay in their original positions. The woke progressive is calling him a bigot

Colin Wright's WSJ opinion piece celebrating his cartoon being retweeted approvingly by Elon Musk ("Elon Musk Retweeted My Cartoon" is the actual title)

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 13

Bart: it’s the end of civilization
Homer: it’s the end of *Western* civilization

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 12

Yeats, "Meditations in Time of Civil War/VI. The Stare’s Nest By My Window"

The bees build in the crevices
Of loosening masonry, and there
The mother birds bring grubs and flies.
My wall is loosening, honey bees
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

We are closed in, and the key is turned
On our uncertainty; somewhere
A man is killed, or a house burned,
Yet no clear fact to be discerned:
Come build in the empty house of the stare

A barricade of stone or of wood;
Some fourteen days of civil war;
Last night they trundled down the road
That dead young soldier in his blood:
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart’s grown brutal from the fare,
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; oh, honey-bees
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 11

now reading

David W. Bates, An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence (Chicago, 2024)

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 10

idk what to tell you, maybe come up with a better conversation opener next time

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick· Jun 9

This was an interesting, accessibly written and surprisingly quick read; very usable for seminars Essentially, attitudes towards breakdowns disclose ideas of social order, and responses to breakdowns are instruments of social engineering. Starts with the guillotine and ends with Cold War science