Jim Wald

Oops, just spotted typo:

Gr*E*y Matter Books

www.greymatterbooks....

East City Bookshop An independent and community-minded bookstore serving the greater Capitol Hill community.

Oh, returning to the subject of independent bookstores selling carefully selected new titles and providing great service: our daughter manages East City Bookshop on Capitol Hill "in Occupied Washington":

You can order online and they'll ship 😉

My other favorite local used bookstore

The Book Mill in Montague

Pure heaven: several floors of used books plus a café and restaurant in a historic mill building overlooking a river.
Plus best slogan ever: Books You Don't Need in a Place You Can't Find

montaguebookmill.com/

As long as we're on the subject of small local bookstores, among the best--though dealing only in used (which is my preference anyway)

1) Gray Matter in Hadley
www.greymatterbooks....

Closest thing to a mini-Strand we have here

Oh, there was also the progressive bookstore on the other side of Pleasant: Food for Thought. Went out of business some years ago. But yes, Northampton still has a lot!

hundred feet south on Pleasant to the strip of shops next to the Mobil station. Lasted quite a while, then went all online. There was a big bookstore next to Black Sheep. I think it then moved to where Nat's store is (several bookstores were located there). I've known Ilan for a long time.

Fascinating. I am trying in my mind to walk down Pleasant: Goliard was at a couple of locations (at one point way down at the north end). In the Carriage Shops were Book Marks (small antiquarian, run by retired insurance exex). Valley Books was in the basement of that bldgm then moved a few

Amherst Books is the official Hampshire College bookstore but I'm 1 of only 4 faculty using it. I urge students to support it, but many buy from Amazon or get bootleg pdfs free online (probably loaded with Russian malware).

"Progressives." Snort. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's sad: we used to have a good number of bookstores and now--in a college town with nearly 35,000 students--this is the only real one left. It's a tough environment for bookstores to begin with and outsourcing and corporate power ruined their textbook market, as well.

Owners seek buyer to keep Amherst Books alive downtown - Daily Hampshire Gazette AMHERST — Occupying a prominent storefront in the historic Cook’s Block on Main Street, just off the main intersection and steps from Town Hall, Amherst Books is the last brick-and-mortar retailer in downtown Amherst where readers can find the latest novel, romance or nonfiction work. While there has been a major shift in the commercial […]

Really delighted my post about the bookstore for sale here

gazettenet.com/2026/...

has been generating such a fine mix of enthusiasm (& nostalgia from those for whom it was a part of their past).

How cool! Indeed it is great

How cool! I remember Goliard, too! And that was back when the town had multiple bookstores. Now it's really just this one (and Ilan Stavans's storefront for his small press down the street by Black Sheep)

Yes, it's still great!

Owners seek buyer to keep Amherst Books alive downtown - Daily Hampshire Gazette AMHERST — Occupying a prominent storefront in the historic Cook’s Block on Main Street, just off the main intersection and steps from Town Hall, Amherst Books is the last brick-and-mortar retailer in downtown Amherst where readers can find the latest novel, romance or nonfiction work. While there has been a major shift in the commercial […]

Anyone want to buy a used bookstore (so to speak)?

Owners seek buyer to keep Amherst Books alive downtown. Longtime booksellers plan to sell store’s inventory and name while hoping a new owner stays in town center - Daily Hampshire Gazette

You see a black square representing the nothingness that was prior to the universe, printed in a book with a wood block. The book titled Robert Fludd "Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica..." (1617), Access the page: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gbbychu2/images?id=gzy3gujm

You see the printed black square from a page in Robert Fludd's "Utriusque cosmi maioris" (1617) that represented the nothingness that was prior to the universe. The square is framed by four sentences in Latin: "Et sic in infinitum" (And so on to infinity). #earlymodern #skystorians

One last note: it is possible that all this is bullshit, but my prof gave me an A and said it was good work, so I'm stickin' by my story.
And dat's dat.

/7x

But the linguistic map of Mass is split in two: Brits in Boston and following fur and trade and stuff, but only as far as they could go and still get back to Boston. Springfield with Dutch ships and traders and trappers going up and down from NYC.

/6

Dat's a different ting.
Er, excuse, that's a different thing. From what I could figure writing this little paper, it was something that develops because of industrialization and European immigrants flooding in to the factories from New England to Chicago. Slavs, or something.
/5

So people in Springfield, Brattleboro, etc, all have that flatter, more nasal accent, from remnants of Dutch and German, etc, a pattern replicated out through NY State and up to the Great Lakes. But the working class accent is a different matter.
/4

Eastern MA, the old 617, is a denatured British accent. Brit traders centered in Boston operated outward and along the shore, stopping in Central MA. (Duh.) But Western MA was influence by north-south trade routes from NYC - the Dutch! - up and down the CT River.
/3

I learned all this by taking a Linguistics class at BU. We had to write a term paper, so I said: Can I write about why my state (Mass.) has two linguistic patterns? We say "R" in Springfield, but not in Boston? My prof okayed it, and I went down the rabbit hole. But there is an answer.
/2

Truth: Public speakers for years were taught "Connecticut Valley English," the least accented. This is where I am from, but I had a working class accent, which is shared by WMass, Upstate NY, and the Ohio Valley. I shall now lecture.
/1

I remember it quite well though I was 13 at the time. Why? Because I know as a historian that responsibility--rather than vigor, energy, or dispatch--was the dominant value behind the idea of a unitary presidency and now the office is occupied by the least responsible president in US history.

Lawsuit to Restore the NEH - AHA Major Update in our NEH Lawsuit Discovery in NEH Lawsuit Reveals How Humanities Grants Were Cancelled On March 6, 2026, the American Historical Association and our co-plaintiffs filed a motion for sum...

⚖️ ICYMI: Over the weekend we shared a major update in our lawsuit defending the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Newly released documents in the case reveal how DOGE and NEH officials decided which grants to cut during efforts to dismantle the agency.

Catch up on what happened:

McSweeney hits the nail on the head again! 😂

Just one of many creative ideas proposed to recruit students to History classes: Feed instructor with lowest student evaluations to lions in Roman-style
spectacle that brings history to life! 🦁

Why this New England college sees its future in Saudi Arabia - The Boston Globe The Connecticut college lost 3,000 international students in just two years, prompting layoffs and academic cuts. Now it’s hoping a first-of-its-kind campus in Riyadh is its path to a sustainable future.

Univ New Haven lost 3K international students. Now it’s hoping a first-of-its-kind campus in Riyadh is its path to a sustainable future
ttps://www.bostonglobe.com/...
There will be tears before evening ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For sure! I just wish the average bourgeois knew more about the roots and reflected on them :)

All true--but it began as a socialist holiday
Alexandra Kollontai 1920. International Womens' Day
Doesn’t this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working class?....we have to look back and see how Women’s Day came about and for what purpose it was organized

www.marxists.org/archive/koll...

Women's History Month
womenshistorymonth.g...

Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris
We Do Declare: Women’s Voices on Independence
Forces for Change: Mary McLeod Bethune & Black Women’s Activism
National Park Service Celebrates Women's History Month
The Women of Five Wars

Women Printers To celebrate International Women’s Day 2016 on the blog, we are showcasing the work of female printers of the 17th century in the Pepys Library. In early modern England, the printing industry…

For International Women's Day:

from a decade ago, the work of female printers of the 17th century in the Pepys Library Magdalene College Libraries