Andy Carr

@andycarr

he/him | 🏳️‍🌈 nerd | mid selfies studying US law & politics: LPE, bureaucracy, reactionary movements | union stuff @ The New School, roaming adjunct elsewhere opinions mine, mostly bad site: andyjcarr.com SSRN:

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politics

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y andycarr.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 13

this is the sum total of my YouTube "productivity" playlist btw

screenshot of a YouTube video's bottom-left corner, showing I am but 20 seconds into a video that is precisely 4 hours, 5 minutes, and 38 seconds long: Jenny Nicholson's "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

well this is not much better.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

YouTube ads yet again choosing violence 😐

screenshot of a YouTube ad for Quimbee dot com.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

let's just zoom in on that last paragraph and linger there for a moment. I don't know, it seems...a little odd to have the shortest paragraph in the Gov's entire statement be the one that covers the most-consequential 15 years of the man's life, no? so what did he do *during* the Civil War, exactly?

"In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce District Judge for this district, which office he held until the breaking out of the [Civil] war. When the war was over he resumed his practice at the bar, and continued in it until impaired health drove him into retirement, where he lingered until his death."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

and then the hagiography reallyyyyy starts to wind up here, as former TN Governor Neil S. Brown (another fascinating character – see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neill_S... ) gave a sweeping summary of a life of service:

"EX-GOV NEILL S BROWN
After reading the report, Gov. Brown said: We have met, to-day, to notice the life and character of our late distinguished friend, Hon. West H. Humphreys. It has been but a short time since we were called upon to pay our tribute to the memory of Judge R. L. Caruthers, then recently deceased. These two distinguished individuals were compeers in the Legislature of 1835, and did valuable service to the State during that memorable session; and now, in the fullness of age and after a career of great usefulness, they have gone, almost together, to that bourne whence no traveler returns."

A bit further down, former Governor Brown continues:
"Judge Humphreys was a man of more than ordinary merit. He was one of those self-made men, who are apt to be the most efficient and useful. In his early manhood he settled in [West Tennessee], where his success was speedy and brilliant . . . [Brown then goes on at great length, adding detail about his contributions to a very early State of Tennessee]

In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce District Judge for this district, which office he held until the breaking out of the [Civil] war. When the war was over he resumed his practice at the bar, and continued in it until impaired health drove him into retirement, where he lingered until his death."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

the first of various statements of prominent Nashville Bar members gets off to a really telling start – the man's personal character, interpersonal kindnesses, and the like.

"Upon taking the chair Judge [Frank T.] Reid said: Some years since Judge Humphreys occupied an office [just opposite] my father's office, and there every day or so, for several years, I met him and heard him converse. What I know of him is mainly due to those meetings. There is something pathetic and very touching in calling before me his appearance on those occasions. His dress was homely and clean...His conversation was that of a pure-hearted, genuine, true man...[When] one of our number dies of whom it can be truthfully said, 'Here was a true man, a modest, loyal-hearted gentleman, one who never attempted to wrest an unrighteous verdict or judgment...' in such case I can see the good to accrue, at least to the younger members of the profession, in holding up such a character as an example for emulation."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 12

via The Daily American (Nashville, TN), October 19, 1882. these are 140+ years old, so the scan quality's low, but I'll transcribe as best I can in alt text.

headline of the referenced article from the post, reading: "THE LATE JUDGE HUMPHREYS. LARGE MEETING OF THE NASHVILLE BAR, YESTERDAY, IN RESPECT TO HIS MEMORY."

the opening of the article, which surveys a variety of transcribed statements of prominent Nashville-area lawyers, jurists, and politicians, offering reflections on West Humphreys; it reads:

"A very full and large meeting of the members of the Nashville Bar was held in the Circuit Court room, yesterday morning [October 18], the object of the meeting being to take appropriate action in regard to the death of Judge W. H. Humphreys."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 11

screenshot of my website Dashboard with a little icon that reads, simply, "Bring AI to your site."

ultra-zoomed-in screenshot of the famous Naomi Wolf tweet reading "No! No!!"

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 7

we’re both high up on the suspect list, then 🫡

photo of two sheets of paper with blue highlights and illegible-to-normal-people scribbling on them (editing notes)

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 7

uhhhhh,

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 7

truly love that for this (anonymized) poster, godspeed and god bless 🫡

heavily cropped screenshot of a post that begins with "I had never heard of Quillette, ..."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jul 2

ALSO a Sydney Morning Herald hate account now 😠

google news summary showing a Sydney Morning Herald story with the title "Is Neil the seal lonely and poorly brought up or just a hooligan? (2 days ago)"

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jun 30

lol, of course

screenshot of a post from Sen. Chuck Schumer, which reads:

"No matter how much President Trump tries to steal citizenship from people that the Constitution has said have earned it an reverse the grand American tradition of welcoming newcomers to our nation, the Supreme Court confirmed today that those born in America are American."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jun 25

looks a bit more ominous here, which is how I remember it from my many, many drives along this road on the west side of the facility.

circa-2016 grainy image of the gantry, viewed from a road a few hundred yards away from facility on the other side of a chain-link/barbed-wire security fence, with power lines hanging just above them. the red and white gantry structure is looming over a dense patch of dark-green, leafy trees. (stolen from a Google Maps street-view-screenshot.)

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jun 25

ok but wait, hold up: our ominous megastructure is actually very cool! (the Lunar Landing Research Facility—aka the NASA-Langley gantry—which helped train c. 1960s astronauts how to land on the lunar surface, hence its name.)

1970s-era aerial photo of the ominous megastructure referenced in my post, which is a 400-foot-long, 200-foot-high red and white lattice-frame structure, somewhat like the massive cranes at a shipyard. the structure is over a flat, paved area, with a parking lot next to it. in the background, there are various tidal streams snaking through marshland. (Stolen from Wikipedia's page on the facility.)

Andy Carr@andycarr· Jun 24

weird how there's always vast, essentially open-ended sums of money available to the overseers of these kinds of programs, too – and not, say, three to five new tenure lines across multiple disparate fields? 🙃🤔🤷‍♂️

job listing for the director of one of the "civic centers" referenced in the quoted post – this one at the University of Iowa, but hired and managed solely by the Regents, not any department at the University.

the listing reads in part:

"Required Qualifications
1. Academic record sufficient for tenure at the rank of full professor [at Iowa].
2. [highlighted in the text because I found the breadth of the required academic expertise kind of hilarious] Research expertise in at least one of the Center's core disciplines (classics, economics, history, law, philosophy, political thought, or quantitative political science), combined with a demonstrated ability to engage with academic literature across all of these fields.
...

Compensation
This position is assigned to a Board of Regents Office paygrade 6, with an anticipated slary range of $200,000 to $450,000 commensurate with experience."

Andy Carr@andycarr· May 19

fundamentally unserious institution

screenshot from an email notification sent around my department just a bit ago, the first line of which reads as follows:

"Please note, there is currently no [air conditioning in our department] and no clear indication from Facilities Management as to when it will be fixed."

screenshot of the AccuWeather page for New York (pinned to Astoria, in Queens, still), which shows that it is currently 89º F (31.7º C) and that we're under a heat advisory until tomorrow night.

Andy Carr@andycarr· May 7

thankfully (???) Fordham's on Blackboard, but this is what I see now on The New School's – given it's also finals time there, seems...potentially inaccurate!

screenshot of The New School Canvas landing page which reads:

"Canvas is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance

Check back soon"

Andy Carr@andycarr· May 7

in Lori’s defense, it’s all been downhill since NJ **squints** changed to lefthand drive 😒

zoomed in screenshot from the AI slop above showing a line of identical AI-generated SUVs driving down the left-hand side of a divided arterial road

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 30

things are broadly terrible and there's at least four Discourses I am desperate to avoid at all costs, so I would just like to acknowledge that the YouTube rec algorithm is—regrettably, infuriatingly—really firing on all cylinders today, for me

screenshot of a YouTube video title which reads "Assigning Sex and the City Characters Dungeons and Dragons Classes"

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 24

so beautiful today 🥲 (wish I could see it for myself but my eyes are melting 🫠🥲)

photo of a leafy path through a college campus, with a collegiate gothic building in the background. the sky is perfectly cloudless.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 13

**true for both real and made-up footnotes, btw. here's an early real one to @milesklee.bsky.social and, well,...oof. 🥴🙃

screenshot of footnote 13 (one of the real ones) from the linked and shared draft article. it reads as follows:

"13 Miles Klee, "Grok Rolls Out Pornographic Anime Companion, Lands Department of Defense Contract," Rolling Stone (July 14, 2025), link address to article."

Professor Smith then adds the following note alongside the citation: "If you've made it down to this footnote, stop for a minute and let that headline marinate."

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 10

shoutout to these spooky little freaks all over the Fordham campus; I love them. that’s all.

photo of one of Fordham University’s famous black squirrels, darting across a brick path with a fluffy tail flowing behind them.

another photo of the black squirrel in motion, with their little legs pulled in mid-stride.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 9

what

an advertisement for a new Peacock series called "The Miniature Wife." the picture shows the male lead (whose name I looked up but already forgot) kneeling on a table, looking adoringly at his, well, Miniature Wife (Elizabeth Banks), who is in a pink outfit and sitting on a toy train. she's holding a bullhorn. the ad text reads "A love story with one little problem." I feel like I'm having a stroke.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 9

😌

"lmao don't worry about it babe" / "okay yay [heart emojis]" meme

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 9

Celine calling her lawyers to stop me from using any of the puns I’ve come up with over the last ~13 hours.

photo of Celine Dion in a hoodie with “CELINE” written on the front. she’s holding a phone up to her ear and dialing on the receiver.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 7

dropping my semi-monthly swear word in class in a desperate attempt to refocus everyone’s attention. (…never the one being referenced here. like, obviously. iykyk.)

Rachel Zoe sitting at a dinner table on R.H.O.B.H., with subtitles reading “I really save that word…”

Rachel again, finishing her sentence: “…for very special occasions.”

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 6

starting the LGBTQ+ rights portion of material in my undergrad Civil Rights & Liberties section tomorrow and am lingering on this slide again – prepared for the first time for the 2024 section I taught, and it really resonated then (for maybe-obvious reasons). it feels only more important each time.

a screenshot of a PowerPoint slide showing a few dozen clippings from Bay Area Reporter obituaries of gay men who died during the AIDS epidemic (1981–1990). there are too many to include alt text for all of them, but they highlight a few recurring themes: most were in their late twenties and early thirties; many were couples who died in rapid rapid succession; many included really moving, loving words from those who placed these obituaries in the Reporter.

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 6

serenely going about my evening, realizing it’s for the best that I’m not permitted on said listserv and that I have Only Connect to catch up on anyway

Barbie smiling and walking in a pink, flowery dress with her hair blowing in a breeze, looking content

Andy Carr@andycarr· Apr 6

piecing together goings-on on the con law listserv today from various threads on here andddd