If you build up a practice of this, you'll get to know other people who are doing it, connect with them, & be familiar with working together with the goal of meeting a threat, even on days when there's no threat.
Lover of flower gardens, libraries, history, buildings and feminism. In Providence. She/her/ma’am
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If you build up a practice of this, you'll get to know other people who are doing it, connect with them, & be familiar with working together with the goal of meeting a threat, even on days when there's no threat.
As I recall, Danica Rome, the first out politician to win office in Virginia, won in large part because she focused on issues local voters cared about like potholes
I don’t want pant length from top of waistband. I want inseam. I don’t want to know if the top is “hip length”, I need inches. Also, I don’t care what height/weight the model is, but if her arm is bent in all the pictures I’m assuming the sleeves didn’t fit.
Time to remind people about the Commercial Pattern Archive — it doesn’t have instructions and search is a bear but there’s two hundred years’ worth of clothing patterns in here including all the big names new and old: copa.apps.uri.edu
I didn’t watch tv most of my life. I would try, but it felt meh. I never knew why. Recently I tried again. Suddenly I saw why. Unending skinny women with perfect make up. The ceaseless stream of raped women. The men centered in nearly every story. The heavy handed gender roles. It’s not fun.
Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑
So, it turns out Rhode Island is the size of the city of Rome plus a few suburbs
This evening remembering when my 91 year old dad died and we asked his gym to put a sign up inviting the guys he hung out with daily to come to the funeral. We lived out of state and knew none of them although he’d mentioned “the guys” often. They showed. Funny thing though. They were all women.
Not to mention most nonprofits. To make it worse, IRS regulations require nonprofits pay staff at the same level as peer nonprofit orgs. So legally you can’t make it a fair wage for work that would be compensated at a higher level in the for profit world.
Last night I finally finished the queen size blanket I’ve been occasionally knitting away at since 2019. I feel…bereft.
Note: my very rough math includes trans people of all ages who are not willing or able to self ID as trans on a survey, but presumes more of them are people over 35
75% of self identified trans people are under 35. Since the median age of Americans is 39, this probably means the actual number of trans people including those who aren’t out is closer to 5.7 million. That’s about as many people as live in our 22nd most populous state: Minnesota.
I would rather not have ‘high risk’ appear on my medical records
I hope they do!
Also, it was unexpectedly raining so CVS sold me a “cheap” little umbrella from their stand by the door - for $17.95 😳
At CVS in Providence today, the pharmacist told me they don’t have the new Covid vaccines in yet, but when they do I have to be 65 or have a high risk condition. So, welcome to masking up even more for a few years. Ugh.
Yes! Definitely sign up and Kevin the program manager will reach out to you.
Bloom Rhode Island has a ‘how to’ video on planting and they can also send over a trainer to your location if you are nervous. They make planting easy. So, check it out at bloomrhodeisland.org/hope-springs...
This year’s bulbs being given away include mini-irises, mini-daffodils, crocuses and blue Glory of the Snow. They’re tiny and best planted in mass - bunches of tiny blubs packed into a wide shallow hole. They bloom in late march-early april & then die back by May. (Works with lawn mowing)
I participate each year with a few of my neighbors. We plant up a tiny public park (parklet?) and the surrounding sidewalk. It’s a fun tradition and a blast to look forward to the flowers each early spring.
The 4th annual Hope Springs free early bulb giveaway is a program by Bloom Rhode Island, a not-for-profit run by a pal of mine. Any group of 3 or more can apply for free bulbs to plant in publicly visible places - like sidewalk strips, parklets, building entries bloomrhodeisland.org/hope-springs...
Cool free thing for people who love flowers in Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket & East PVD Info at bit.ly/hopesprings2...
Apparently it may also help with Alzheimer’s!
Thank you - added to my Tidal best of gospel playlist!
For everyone who’s nervous to get the shingles vaccine because you heard it hurts like hell, I am here to tell you it did not. It was like any other shot. (Having said that, now I’ve probably doomed myself to painful reactions in a few hours.)
Regret sucks
Thank you. I will let you know if the auction house can’t find a solution in the next week or two
Ok so weekend after this one, I have to wrap 45 rose bushes in burlap.
Won a painting at auction in Germany last month. The auction house are trying to thread the needle to get it to me in America. So far it’s been returned to sender by DHL and refused by the post office.
Note: I say “in our culture” because according to science so far, there’s little difference between our genders biologically (especially compared to most other living things). The differences seem to mostly come from nurture, not nature.
Being a community activist is a ton of (often thankless) hard work and risk, not to mention being great at listening and bringing together disparate voices. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. These are women’s skills in our culture
As an entrepreneur, I’ve noticed women lead in new professions and industries because the old boys club isn’t there yet to cut them out. As soon as things are more established (safer, wealthier, a clearer means to power) men come in and push them out of leadership
As an advisor to Gather RI’s biographical library of women and gender expansive people’s biographies, I can tell you ‘activists’ is the easiest topic to find women leaders in, second only to actors. www.gatherri.org/library
Calling all cat ladies! The Scottish Gallery just posted a bunch of new pieces by UK artist Kate Black featuring women living so very happily with their cats. Go here and scroll about halfway down the page... scottish-gallery.co.uk/artists/kate...
No idea how I ended up subscribed to it, but I just noticed an email post from @aaronregunberg.bsky.social Substack that he started in June. June this year. When we already knew very well that Substack is backed by and platforming Nazis and their friends. Why wouldn't Mr Left be elsewhere?
The asbestos removal alone will cost $$$
Just to piggyback on this, I just sent this over to a friend of mine who is a regional director for a big grocery chain. His full response: “Strap the fck in. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Gardening anguish: I’ve spent the past decade growing climbing hydrangeas, chocolate vines and climbing roses so every side of my house is covered in green leaves and flowers. Text from the painters today: can you prune off all the vegetation so we can get started? 😭😭😭
Thank you for NOT using Substack for this.
Perhaps you can drop your vote off at the nearest US consulate or military base? Which is a pain in the ass and may also invade your privacy but
The landlady told me
what the actual fuck
Adorably the Royal Botanic Gardens of Canada’s biggest lilypad was so small that it only held 3 stones and an acorn. Highlights of all participating botanic gardens are collected in Denver Botanic Garden’s Insta stories (Denver invented the weigh off & runs it)
Yay! It’s the 3rd annual WATER LILY WEIGH OFF WEEK where 35 botanic gardens around the world compete to see how much weight their largest lily pad can hold. Currently Kew Gardens are in the lead with 168.7 lbs! Held on insta #waterlilyweighoff25
So my cousin who’s a college librarian in Western Mass just called crowing, “Captain No is gone! Captain No just took a job at another library” “Where?” “URI” So, if you or someone you love works for the URI libraries: Thanks, sorry and better luck next time
Etsy, Chairish, 1stDibs, Auctionet, Invaluable — all the US’s online sources for top vintage decor and art - will be kneecapped by this. Plus Saatchi Online and ArtFinder, the global platforms thousands of indie artists use. Not to mention the big auction houses…
Somehow in my focus on RI, I had never realized all the Massachusetts town on our northeastern border went for Trump in 2024. Fall River, Westport, Swansea, Rehobeth, Somerset… a red wave right on our blue border.
It makes RISD a hell of a lot more dependent on his largess. Their finances were already strained by the pandemic. RISD’s total endowment is 17% the size of Brown’s.
Toured two old houses this week. Both had built in bookshelves. Neither had any books. Like, no books, zero. One lady had filled her bookshelves with Live Love Laugh signs. I mean. I know I’m not the alien here
Time for a new tagline contest?
Pointing out the image credits for this particular story are for a ChatGPT product
Reminds me of the staged photos many career women of that era had to do with this kids to reassure the public its ok, she may be successful but she’s still a ‘good woman’ Men didn’t have to do the same photos
First good-enough-for-the-cat tomato of the year! Sunny has been sniffing the tomatoes from our farmers market since July but nothing worth a nibble so far until we got this locally grown beauty from Seymour Foods in PVD
Keep writing that stupid book
An ant could be president and we would be 1,000 times better off right now if she were
Flower gardeners: Have you seen this year’s heritage chrysanthemum offerings from 3 Porch Farm? They are nothing like chrysanthemums you commonly see - i am convinced this is the next flower gardening fad now that we’ve bought all the dahlias 3porchfarm.com/pages/mum-ca...
Garden lovers: The fun 2025 water lily weigh off has begun! 37 botanical gardens around the world are posting videos this week revealing how much weight their biggest 2025 lily pad can hold. First one out of the gate beat last year’s winner!: www.instagram.com/reel/DNltDQ5...
I know you know that stuff. I was just saying in general, the man has no background in anything that would lead me to think he could be an activist. I have zero expectations of him beyond fumbling along as governor and then subsiding back to obscurity in the suburb he came from
His background is being on town council for a mainly white town of 36k people, inheriting a board role in his grandfather’s small business, and running a small “health & fitness” business of his own. (Any idea?) He doesn’t have any activist experience nor much life experience outside RI suburbs
The whole thing felt like a r/relationship_advice story and I wanted to call out “dump him!”
I dont know what’s actually going on. It’s none of my business anyway. I’m just the sleepless neighbor watching the ocean out my window. But wow how depressing. You marry the man who’s supposed to be your life partner and he puts up with you while waiting on his life partner, his best bro friend
Half an hour later, the woman emerges. She stands alone a dozen feet away from the men. They act like she’s not there. Finally, after she pulls down her hood & makes a production of fixing her long blonde hair in a ponytail, they turn, join her and all walk back inside together.
A honeymooning male/female couple rented the cabin next door They arrive and sit side by side on our shared deck. Only she talks. They go inside. At 2am a truck pulls up. Cabin lights go on & stay on. At 7am, two men emerge, stand closely together on our deck, both chattering away.
Love you. It helps if you put that gift shop link in the post itself, because if I have to hunt it down something will distract me on my way there
PSA: go apply the urgent security update to your Apple devices. Don’t wait. Do it right now
If you are from RI, picture 3 Providences laid side by side. That’s DC. Now can you imagine how clown car crowded it will be with all those troops?
You can walk across DC. It’s a bit smaller than 3 Manhattans laid side to side. Except it’s short (no building is allowed by law to be taller than the capitol) and full of squares and parks. So picture a 3 Manhattans with no skyscrapers and more green space.
@markwarner.bsky.social
How does a Senator worth ~$100million send out spam texts, featuring a photo of him on his multimillion dollar gentleman’s farm, asking for poorer people to pay for his next campaign … while calling himself a democrat? Honey, pay for yourself and help us fundraise for candidates who need the money
The directions don’t mention the waterline, but yeah i think legally I can stroll wherever I want at low tide
😭
74.3% of America’s school teachers are women and yet 100% of Rhode Island’s six new school administrators are men. What lesson are we sending kids about gender roles vs merit?
Photo from my housesitter taken while she read over my memo explaining that the cats would be far too shy to come out for at least 24 hours
So I rented a tiny shack on the beach in South Kingstown and the instructions say “You can only walk on the beach directly in front of the shack, otherwise drive (less than a mile) to other beaches and pay to park at them.” That’s idiotic, right? Also, I think not current RI law
Tell me you know absolutely nothing about the art of storybook illustration, and perhaps have never loved a storybook in your entire life, without telling me
Normally I get my Covid shot in the late fall for more winter coverage, but YLE is urging everyone to get vaccinated NOW before the feds change the rules about who can get it (expected momentarily) yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
Second day in a row I took a little nap in the afternoon and my god how good it feels. The ultimate luxury
It’s weird to me that people keep starting new Substacks and still don’t know that Substack is extremely bad news Please get off Substack 😭 www.anildash.com//2024/11/19/...
Bluesky’s guidelines post simply details all the laws they intend to follow. It doesn’t say a word about the organization’s ethics, morals, philosophies, leadership or beliefs. Its goals are to follow the law and make investors richer. Don’t expect more and you won’t be disappointed.
Confusing to read Ellen Degeneres quotes about how much “nicer” people are in the UK and why she fled the US because Trump made it less safe for queer people like her…when the UK is the birthplace of terfs Maybe Ellen doesn’t know LGBTQ has a ‘t’?
Now I have to time online bill pay payments to allow an extra two weeks for a check to be cut, mailed, arrive and be processed. Plus merchants who’re used to getting cash from card charges in 2-3 days, are waiting a week or more. That makes small business cash flow dicier.
Why are banks slowing their normal cashflow to a crawl? What is scaring them? Or are they making so much from holding funds for an additional 3-10 days that it’s becoming industry standard?
Banking weirdness: CitiBank is now putting all credit card charges into “pending” status for 6 business days (not including weekends) so merchants don’t get their money when they expect. It used to be 2-3 days Citizens Bank bill paying system switched to paying big bills by check instead of ACH
I mean it’s Putin so who cares now, but posterity, ugh you really want your grandchildren to see that in a museum exhibit about us someday? Dreck.
Think of the gorgeous diplomatic gifts given throughout history from frankincense to exquisite works of art… and now America’s giving dreck we probably got a good bulk rate deal on. How many world leaders have we saddled with an eagle desk statuette? [shudders]
I’m reading this wonderful, spot-on essay and thinking the whole time, Oh my god I have to track down the woman who wrote this and follow her!, and then I scroll up to the byline. It’s you. Whose newsletter I’ve subscribed to ever since it started. It’s you doing what you do best. Thank you
Nothing makes you suddenly aware of how absurdly your cats have you wrapped round their paws than having to detail the daily routine for a new petsitter “After she’s licked the plate upstairs, run downstairs to fill her bowl with medicated treats while throwing his treat in the air past his head”
WTF is wrong with white Gen Xers? Coming to adulthood during Reagan & the first Bush mixed with a hearty dose of sideeye for boomer Summer of Love idealists ruined us
For American writers interested in being part of a potential class action suit against META for the theft of our work to train AI. If you want to join in, do it quick. Thanks, Ruth, for the info and links.
Why would you not wait until the end of peak summer season, just two weeks away, before shutting down one of the most popular bridges to summer tourism activities in the state to repave? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/14/m...
City parks - the delicious combination of trees, fountains, benches, pathways and all the different people enjoying it with you
Lawyers and EDs never think to warn you about this. They may not realize it. They just say, “what’s your address?” No online privacy service you pay can erase that record. Google won’t erase it from search (although if asked they will erase other things).
If you start a business or join a nonprofit board, whenever possible use a commercial address (the organization’s or a rented box) on all paperwork. Why? Because otherwise your home address often appears on state databases that any fool online can look up. And you can’t get it erased.
What!?
Rape is as old as time and it has taken place in every corner of the world…
Oh fuck no
Yes, driving in DC is absolutely terrifying
Just saying, the location wasn’t picked at random
That’s 1 block above Black Broadway where Black entertainers reigned supreme in the first half of the 20th century. It was at the heart of DC’s riots when Martin Luther King was assassinated. And it’s 3 blocks from Ben’s Chili Bowl serving every Black celebrity you can think of since 1958.
And now for some comic relief: Seen today at what the realtors now like to call, ‘Providence’s Technology & Innovation Center’ (aka Atlantic Mills) Did anyone think to measure the big box before they rented a crane to hoist it through a top floor window?
