Matthew Rettino

This site needs a break. Post 3 good things, none of which are the cessation of a negative.

1. Meeting the owner of the dog in the balcony across from my appt for the first time in 3 years
2. Pronouncing Socrates ”so crates” while teaching the Apology
2. Storm chips

Rumi (to warmongers):

What kind of lightning are you, setting farms on fire?
What kind of cloud are you, raining down stones?

What kind of hunter?
Caught in your own trap—
a thief stealing from your own house.

-- Rumi, "Water."
trnsl. Haleh Liza Gafori

In lieu of raging and despairing, I will post a poem by an Iranian poet f/b an American poet on irregular intervals.

+

Enjoying my fool spring while it lasts.

Mars c’est patz as grandma would say.

March is crazy.

"Oil enables and accelerates the pestilences inflicted on the earth by modernity—the desertification process that Negarestani describes as Erthication, whose final goal is the absolute leveling that is the ‘Tellurian Omega’ or ‘xerodrome.’ (171) - Simon Ryle, "Xerodrome Lube"

"We drive cars, build freeways, make things out of plastic, construct modern life around oil, so is it we who manage oil or is it oil that controls us?" - Me

Weird #106: “Dust Enforcer” by Reza Negarestani (2008) In which a paranoid archaeologist researchers the horrific demons of the oil-rich Middle East

Awhile ago I wrote this piece on Reza Nagestani's "Dust Enforcer" from his demonological tract about a living, sentient Middle East.

It was last year. The US/Israel had just fired missiles at the Iranian nuclear facilities.

The war foretold is happening now.

matthewrettino.com/2025/06/22/d...

Two pairs of beavers released in Cornwall by wildlife trust Wildlife experts say the release is a "landmark" for nature recovering in Cornwall and nationally.

Enjoy a full minute of beavers being released into the wild in Cornwall. These little fluffbutts are the first to swim in these waters in a very, very long time - the last official records of beavers in the wild in England are from the 1300s. BBC buff.ly/BnMwCOx
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Nic Cage, Army of One

Talking to Students about Generative AI: 3 Questions For Teachers and Students to Consider Megan McIntyre | University of Arkansas ChatGPT. Copilot. Claude. Gemini. Midjourney. Also: Grammarly. Canva. Outlook. Gmail. Google Docs. Microsoft Word. If you feel like generative AI (GenAI) pro…

Teacheres, critical Gen AI folkes, plese share! New article publisshed todaye: "Talking to Students about Generative AI." "Whatever their capabilities, GenAI outputs cannot replace human voices or the critical thinking that writing enables and promotes..."
compstudiesjournal.com/2026/03/09/t...

Did immigrants choose English — or were they pushed out of Quebec's French schools? Documentary filmmaker investigates accounts that immigrant Catholic students, many of them Italians, were turned away from French Catholic schools before Bill 101.

Our founder Guy Rex Rodgers speaks to @mtlgazette.bsky.social about his vital new documentary What We Choose to Remember! Check it out! montrealgazette.com/news/local-n... #montreal

Rettino Editing Services Professional Editing, On Time

I'd like to announce that I'm seeking editing clients. I have experience editing nonfiction but am looking to branch out into editing fiction. Send me a DM if interested. #WritingCommunity #editing #fiction #nonfiction #memoir #academia

This isn't good at all. There was black rain when Saddam bombed Kuwait's oil fields too.

Someone should write a novel called Unannounced for real. It can be about Death and really confuse Publisher's Weekly.

Tomorrow is Daylight Savings
aka Confuse Your Pets Day
aka All Your Electronics Are In On The Conspiracy Except The Microwave and Oven Day

The creator of ChatGPT is named "Altman," as in "alternative to human" and he leads OpenAI, which is completely closed. His main opponent is the company Anthropic, meaning "human-centered" is led by "Amodei," as in "loves gods". Then there's "Gemini," meaning "two-faced," from a cmpany that says it will do no evil. Brilliant work as always Kojima! [picture of kojima, watermark of @mediocre_mason on tiktok]

I haven't written in a shared world before but I imagine the same thing should apply. Very nice rule.

There's a dark places tax when you're writing in a tradition. Take a penny leave a penny.

Perfectly formed squirrel prints in the snow

A little guy was here.

Brownstein: Montreal General Hospital choir is saved, and its members' 'shroud of stress' is lifted The MusiArt choir, which has provided music therapy for 28 years, was going to have to disband because of a funding shortfall. The community organization Les Impatients stepped in to save the day.

Some happy endings do exist! MusiArt continues strong! montrealgazette.com/opinion/colu... #montreal

🧵Five years ago, today, I was exploring a stock pen that 's part of the shieling that gives Loch Poulary it's name, (Gaelic for "Loch of the Pool of the Shieling"). I found it on this 19th century map, so it's at least that old if not older.

Looks up my alley.

fitzcaraldo editions catalogue copy

Coach House Books cover

Oh hell yes. New Munir Hachemi this summer. You gotta read his book Living Things

Dice Traveller by matthewrettino A game of dice and time travel

I designed a game! You play as a time traveler who must play dice to work down a debt.

You square off against a Roman legionary, a Viking, and a pirate.

Can you beat all three?

matthewrettino.itch.io/dice-traveller

Cover of my poetry chapbook Pilgrimages (2025), about Scottish folklore, family history, and a journey through the Outer Hebrides. The Pictish Burghead bull is featured on the cover, between two thistles and an upside-down woodcut etching of a longship. The Cactus Press logo is visible in the upper left.

You can now buy my poetry chapbook Pilgrimages.

devongallant.wixsite.com/cactuspressp...

"From historic milestones to seers and landlords; bog bodies, burial rites, and Neolithic sites, no stone is left unturned on this rich and scenic journey.” - Brooke Lee, The Miramichi Reader

a rainbow and a star with the words " i know you know " ALT: a rainbow and a star with the words " i know you know "

Divining using sand (ḍarab al-raml) happens a lot in medieval Arabic texts (let's not get into the occult science wars about this, shall we? It's just there in the books, okay?).

Turns out there's a term for this that's even more specific than the usual 'geomancy': amathomancy.

Now you know.

Reassuring to see William
McGonagle Knight of the White Elephant of Burma may not have written the worst poem ever.

Oof. Don’t know how I got through Hamnet. That’s a heck of tear jerker.

Remember the Titans about 80 times. Kinda hate that movie now due to overexposure.

Grease once and I was disappointed Aristotle, Achilles, Odysseus, and Leonidas were not in it.