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mary beard
61.9K posts
user avatar
mary beard
@wmarybeard
Classicist (thanks to George for the pic)
the-tls.co.uk/category/a-don…
Joined December 2010
1,153
Following
292.8K
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  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Aug 1, 2021
    My daughter’s Wedding today. So happy. I hope the haters don’t pile in but they probably will.
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  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Nov 5, 2019
    The uk will be doing a lot better when so many of us don’t confuse being clever (and I am all for being clever) with being a posh boy in a suit sprinkling latin. (I am all for Latin too, but not the sprinkled variety!)
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Jul 12, 2020
    Have I just heard right? Did Gavin Williamson say THE PURPOSE of education was to get a job? Now I dont think any of us in higher ed aim to turn out cohorts of the unemployable.. but THE PURPOSE???
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Sep 6, 2022
    If you are curious about Boris Johnson's reference to Cincinnatus in his goodbye speech - he was a 5th century BC Roman politician who saved the state from an invasion, then - job done - returned to his farm ('to his plough'). He was also an enemy of the people.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Aug 17, 2017
    Can we shout, once and for all, that the reason for going to uni is NOT just about getting a bigger salary. Ffs, it is about EDUCATION.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Jan 28, 2022
    Let’s face it. Party-gate is not really a matter of who consumed what when. It is about INTEGRITY (or not) and a wider culture of entitlement at the “top”.I was waiting to see how Gray reported on that. This last development leaves a very nasty taste indeed.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Jun 8, 2018
    thanks all. I'm hugely pleased to have been made Dame. sure there are things I worry about (empire? ), and I expect a twitter torrent; but i am still pleased that studying classical civilisation can make you Dame. Happy. It's an honour for all who explore the ancient world 0
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    May 14, 2021
    Thanks for all your good wishes re my retirement present. Let add that my old supervisor John Crook 40+ years ago gave me the money to get my PhD thesis typed. I asked how to pay him back. 'Do it for for someone else one day!' he replied.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Jun 25, 2023
    I don’t see how you are supposed to “hold your nerve” if you have no money.
    692K
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Aug 10, 2020
    My husband just observed, as I am sure others have, that if the govt hadnt been so keen to get rid of coursework from school exams, the graders might have had more to go on this year.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Nov 16, 2019
    When a guy who wants to build a bridge between Britain and Ireland calls a universal broadband scheme “crazed”, it is hard to know what his standards of “sanity” are.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    May 29, 2022
    I hope that everyone wanting the return to imperial weights and measures can multiply 1lb 12oz by 3!
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Mar 25, 2019
    There is something terribly depressing (and revealingly symbolic) about a load of (mostly) posh hardline men turning up at Chequers in their (mostly) posh cars to "sort Brexit". I fear it says it all.
  • user avatar
    mary beard
    @wmarybeard
    Nov 28, 2018
    If I was taking a punt on the future, I'd back Mark Carney over Jacob Rees Mogg...wouldnt you?

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