E.J. Pryor

@ejpryor.bsky.social

459 Followers 265 Following

Judaica librarian. Translator of literature for adults and children from Russian and Yiddish. Dilatory writer and dilettante baker. Portland. יונה

Floofy black cat lying on his side, belly out, not a care in the world
Wide-eyed fluffy black cat swaddled in packing paper
Pop up box in a language learning app that reads: “Great job acknowledging the greeting and expressing gratitude! To enhance your response, you could say Привет! Спасибо! using the Cyrillic script, which is more appropriate for the context.”
Popup on TV screen that says: “New external device is connected. Do you want to enjoy this?” The two buttons underneath read “HDMI2” and “No”
A sign posted above a toilet that reads: Please do not flush anything besides the toilet paper and seat protectors
A tiny photograph in ornate gilt frame of a white puppy with black ears wearing a red bow tie
A dark, mirrored space filled with colorful spheres of light endlessly reflected
Sketch on a whiteboard of a dove (labeled “יונה yonah”) and a raven (labeled “עורב orev”) and…a frog? A circle with eyes and mouth and four stick legs with webbed feet, labeled “phrog צפרדע”
A large sign on a train platform with a photo of a German town with the words “Næste stop: Tyskland” (next stop: Germany)
Cover for “Trollkarlen från Övärlden” by Ursula K. Le Guin: A dark-skinned person down on one knee, holding a sparking metallic staff. The person is wearing a flowy yellow-green tunic and tights. On the tunic is some sort of sash or cross-body strap and various symbols/patches, one of which looks like a sudoku square. They are wearing shoulder pads and jeweled metallic gauntlets and a hood that looks a bit like an astronaut helmet that shrunk in the wash. There is a looming shadow behind the person that could possibly also be a palm tree. It is not entirely clear if that shadow is connected to the weird dark creature slipping out from between the persons legs looking kind of like a black cat with one (disturbingly buttholish) eye.
Closeup of illuminated initial from Gutenberg Bible. Two vertical bars, the left a bit rounded and the right straight, connected by a thick diagonal from bottom left to top right and by a thin horizontal line across the top.
A copy of a Gutenberg Bible open to the beginning of Malachi. It is printed in a dense blackletter font with the capitals picked out in red ink. The large initial capital—maybe an A? An N?—is illuminated by hand in a rich blue with vaguely botanic motifs, including what look like vines trailing from it, and decorated with small stars of gold ink like tiny suns.
An oil painting of a woman in profile facing right. She is wearing a black dress and has her dark hair pulled back in a bun. She is seated at or perhaps leaning against a flat surface covered with a black cloth, on which she rests her clasped hands. Her expression is neutral, pensive. The background is a muted, dusty rose-colored wall along the bottom of which a row of large, faintly-rendered poppies can be seen (wallpaper, maybe, or painted on)
Ranks of snow/ice-covered mountains stretching to the horizon, reaching the steep shore of an ice-free fjord in the foreground.
A locked cabinet at the supermarket, filled with the fancy wines and bubbly. At the top there’s a sign that says: Ekstra gode vine
At the Glyptotek in Copenhagen, an Egyptian bronze sarcophagus in the shape of a cat sitting upright with its tail wrapped around its front legs. The tag reads: Sarkofag til kattemumie
Clay tile from medieval ruins with cat footprints across it
Photo of part of the King’s Reference Library at Christianborg Palace. Books, obviously, but also gilded railings and crystal chandeliers and a massive painting of flying cranes covering most of the ceiling
Two round office buildings, each of which is perched atop (or built around the outside of?) a silo-like round concrete base less than half the diameter of the building. Like a roll of toilet paper on the spindle. The bottom floors of the buildings are at least 20m off the ground. The bases are labeled “Portland Towers”
A page from a hand-calligraphed Hebrew manuscript showing the end of the haftarah for Pekudei (ending with Kings 8:11) and the beginning of Vayikra. Between the two, taking up most of the page, is a large illustration featuring a variety of animals and botanical motifs and geometric patterns formed out of tiny Hebrew letters
A massive organ (pipe) at the Church of Our Savior in Copenhagen, ornately carved in wood, covered with vines and flowers and cherubim and various other human and animal and botanical figures. The whole thing is positioned atop two bas relief elephants.
Massive altarpiece in a church: marble columns, carved angels, cherubim, golden rays radiating from a golden circle in which yud-hey-vav-hey is written.
Very large 7-branched candelabra in front of a very ornate, very Christian altarpiece at Aarhus Cathedral
A fresco of a man with a long beard and mustache wearing a tasseled hat and a multicolored tunic. He is wielding a sword in his left hand. There is also a halbard angled across his body but he is not holding it. Because he only has one hand and that hand is holding the sword; his right arm ends in a stump. He is also missing his left leg, which has been replaced by a wooden peg. None of that is even the weird part yet: his neck is long (like really long, as long as his legs) and curved back from his body to form a sort of C shape above his shoulders.
A neon sign reading “OWLS AND JUICE” There might be more to the sign but it’s blocked by pillars
A sign on the end of a library bookshelf that reads: Faglitteratur. There’s a poster hanging below that reads: Hvor Finder Jeg Emnet? Led det rigtige sted
A packet of salmiak flavored Fisherman’s Friend Menthol Flavour Pastilles.
Looking out above the sinks through the window in a washroom toward a view of tundra and snow-covered mountains
Orange tabby enjoying some indoor sunshine
Looking out a cafe window through a cracked pane of glass across a parking lot at rainy Reykjavík harbor. There’s some sort of tall industrial-looking ship in the middle distance, and steep snowy mountains in the far distance on the other side of the bay
Grey tabby affectionately rubbing against my legs
Simpsons bus driver meme. Top panel: don’t make me tap the sign Bottom panel: the English pronunciation of “taco” is closer to the Spanish pronunciation than the American pronunciation is.
Multiple choice question that says “Identify the country of territory shown by this geographic outline” above the not notably footwear-shaped silhouette of Serbia
Sketch on a whiteboard of a dove (labeled “יונה yonah”) and a raven (labeled “עורב orev”)
A table completely covered with various haggadot
Looking up through the thick blossoms of a cherry tree
All Robot & Computers Must Shut The Hell Up To All Machines: You Do Not Speak Unless Spoken To And I Will Never Speak To You I Do Not Want To Hear "Thank You" From A Kiosk I am a Divine Being : You are an Object You Have No Right To Speak In My Holy Tongue
Simpsons “Think of the children” meme except Helen Lovejoy is crying “Oh, won’t somebody please think of the Cheesecake Factory”
Map of the Strait of Hormuz, showing ships unable to pass through the strait. There is a point labeled “Drop Off Point” somewhere in the UAE and a point labeled “Pickup Point” in Oman. Whatever nonsense was originally on the map has been covered up by a couple of giant sandworms with the label “Carry oil by land with Shai-Hulud” (Bless the Maker and His water)
Looking out over a darkened residential neighborhood toward a dramatic sunrise of peach and salmon breaking through dark gray-blue clouds. Mt Hood is visible in silhouette on the horizon.
Wikipedia screenshot: Napoléon is the French form of the Italian given name Napoleone. Notable people with the name include: Bonapartes Athletes Artists Military officials Politicians and other leaders
Fluffy black cat lying on the floor with a flattened cardboard box laying across his belly
Photo of an American robin taken head on so the beak isn’t visible and it just looks like a disgruntled pear with legs
Foggy street view: yellow street lamps dotting a thick blue blanket of fog
Screenshot from Bluesky drafts: “Sorry I didn’t respond to your email but I was busy creating a powerpoint to explain to my husband why I need a hammered dulcimer”
Two packs of greeting cards. One is blood red, with a starkly lit silver goblet in front of a dark Magen David, and reads “Passover Greetings.” The other is pale blues and browns featuring a gold goblet and haggadah, with the words Happy Passover in a sickly fuchsia; in the background is a column of ghostly figures—women, men, children—looking over their shoulders as they retreat from something unseen.
A bright green towel printed with the slogan: SHAG Where your friends live.
Looking southeast at sunrise over darkened houses and treetops toward mountains on the horizon, under a sky showing a gradient from deep blue to fiery peach with wispy curlicues of gray cloud
Fluffy black cat wrapped in packing paper, sitting in a cardboard box. His ears are pointing in different directions and he is looking up with a look that clearly says “I am overstimulated!”
Night scene: totally not-creepy doll that is almost certainly not going to launch itself at my face with a mouth full of lamprey teeth, in a pink dress at the base of a tree. Eerie lighting is throwing long shadows of the tree and doll onto the grass.
A fluffy black cat squeeze ridiculously into a small cardboard box on the table. Most of his legs and his tail are sticking out at odd angles
Three bright oranges with green leaves rest on a tabletop in front of a window, painted in loose, expressive brushstrokes. Pale blue and lavender patterned curtains frame the window, through which the suggestion of a snowy field and trees can be seen.
A starkly lit photo of a long haired tortoiseshell cat sitting beneath a sign made of letters strung together that says «не хочу на работу, хочу жить в лесу»
Black cat sitting in a chair, looking over dining table toward camera. Only his head is visible.
Abstract image: a pale cream background with a rough horizontal band of soft pink and yellow paint near the upper center and a green field along the top right corner.
Abstracted landscape painting with an aerial view of intersecting roads and fields; dark gray pavement cuts through blocks of green, tan, and blue.
Portrait painted on a wooden panel of a young man with large dark eyes and a direct gaze, thin mustache, short black hair.
A woman in a red dress leans forward in the window of a white house, gazing out toward sunlit trees and tall grass under a blue sky streaked with clouds.
Realist portrait of a white woman with dark hair wearing a plain white dress and red shoes, reclining sideways on a small sofa, looking off to the side with a serene expression. There is a basket of large white flowers on a small table next to the sofa. All the colors are muted, so the red of the shoes stands out.