Michael J. Steudeman

@msteudeman

rhetoric, education, neurodiversity, dad humor. Author of Absence of National Feeling: Education Debates in the Reconstruction Congress (U. Press of Mississippi, 2025).

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Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· 20d

OH HI HANDSOME I TOO HAVE MY LIFE TOGETHER I SWEAR I AM NOT A TINY VULTURE

A molting female cardinal with no feathers on its head.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· 20d

hello lady cardinals! look at my beautiful plumage i have my life together, i swear

A cardinal having a rough time with molting season

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jul 7

dropped by the paint store for some swatches, thought these two colors complemented each other well

Paint swatches for “Conservative Gray” and “Privilege Green”

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jun 16

“The guy next to me looks a little like Robert DeNiro.”

That “Four Freedoms” free speech guy painting by Norman Rockwell

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jun 12

The Mysterious Production of Eggs

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· May 14

I just don’t finish articles anymore when they’re this crowded with ads. I can’t.

A USA Today article almost completely obscured by advertisements and notifications.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· May 12

summertime for academics

A LEGO beach scene with a boo and a ghost under a spiral umbrella. A LEGO crab walks beside them. In the water a LEGO stingray swims by two LEGO starfishes.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· May 5

this is the weirdest captcha-type quiz I've ever seen. Something about the size and stacking choices made on the burgers took me aback. Also the weird watermark over the burger--is that Cthulu I'm looking at? And why four burgers? These machines are getting weird about how they evaluate my humanity

The image is a CAPTCHA for web security. It gives the instruction: "Select the image from the same category as the reference image." It then provides a picture of a spaghetti for the reference. The comparison photos are three pictures of a train, four pictures of cheeseburgers, and two elephants. The images all appear to be AI-generated riffs on enormous cheeseburgers, with some strange background watermark patterns overlaid on each.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Apr 28

The admin just had to have their state propaganda get out ahead of this

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Apr 5

face your fears

Lego minifig of Animal Crossing owl Blathers holding a pair of dangerous insects

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Apr 2

The George W. Bush Presidential Library still has this banner in storage. Maybe DJT can bust it out again tonight.

Bush standing in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Mar 11

Apparently DOGE’s definition of “DEI” included crucial sanitation infrastructure for majority-Black counties in Alabama apnews.com/article/sewa...

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Mar 5

Thanks to our child’s bath bomb, we now know what it would look like if Walter White dissolved a Minion in hydrofluoric acid

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Feb 15

over on the PA subreddit folks have identified that Sen. Fetterman’s mustache makes him look like Dr. Robotnik and now I can’t unsee it

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Feb 13

If Gov. Shapiro were serious about making kids learn cursive, he’d require students to use flexible dip pens and write in Spencerian script. All children deserve the chance to write like a 19th century diplomatic envoy preparing a formal treaty

An example of Spencerian Script handwriting style — an elegant handwriting form with line variation

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Feb 13

why does this description sound more like a tech company than a federal department?

The U.S. Dept of War web page description on Google: “The Department of War serves as an innovative leader in developing technology to protect all Americans on and off the battlefield.”

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Feb 13

Same energy.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 24

bookended by The Whig Identity and The Whig Ultimatum

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 20

Indeed, accusing democracy of being effeminate was essential to Nazism. See, e.g., Kenneth Burke, “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s ‘Battle,’” p. 167:

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 19

found my new email signature

Screen capture of Chaos from the game Hades 2. Dialogue reads, “Spawn of Hades, I have no further wishes to communicate with you this often at this length. I likely shall use fewer words with you henceforth, I think.”

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 18

These days my mental state vacillates between William Hogarth’s “The Distrest Poet” and “The Enraged Musician” (1741)

A poet sits at a desk, hand over his head, clearly distressed by the conversation on the other side of the room between a bill collector and the poet’s spouse.

A bustling scene with a drummer, singers, and other noisemakers, irritating a man up in a window with his hands over his ears

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 6

I think about this panel from Matt Groening’s School Is Hell comics a lot

It reads: “The horrible secret of adulthood: the bullies, cheaters, tattletales, and sniveling toadies who tormented you in school are now trying to sell you insurance, explaining why a payraise for you is currently impossible, informing you your tax return is being audited, and telling you why your country has just declared war.”

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 4

“The Divine Raffaelle, represents Mars, in the attitude of War, with a drawn sword uplifted and ready to strike, while an unarmed Angel from behind, with gentle but irresistible force, arrests and holds the descending arm.” - Charles Sumner, “The True Grandeur of Nations,” July 4, 1845

Image of angel restraining the God of War from Raphael’s “Creation of the World” mosaic in the Chigi Chapel

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Dec 20

how it feels to get the academic job you want

A scene from Bluey. After great effort, Bentley the dog hangs from the playground monkey bars, saying “I’d like to get down now”

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Nov 17

What Star Wars hill am I willing to die on? I get this question a lot. I’d have to say the peak of Mount Umate on Coruscant, the only visible part of the city-planet’s surface.

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Mar 1

This guy had great hand-eye coordination

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Jan 20

Someone needs to write this book for us burned out academics

Michael J. Steudeman@msteudeman· Nov 24

I went to the gaslight museum in New Orleans. They kept lying to me & making me think I was crazy