iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Blue wave, let’s go! Vote early if you’re able, kids!

beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Did you know that there is more than one *gun that's a "breast cancer awareness edition"? You can search to see more, but really, one is more than enough.

A Smith & Wesson handgun with a pink grip and ribbon etched onto the barrel.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Trump wishes he could draw a crowd like this.

An aerial shot of the Power to the People concert, a sea of people (~20,000?) united on the right side of history.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Some kind of successful resolution on Iran." Mmm hmm.

A famous cartoon by Sidney Harris shows two scientists at work at a chalkboard. A black box, between the start of the formula and the brilliant solution, reads: “Then a miracle occurs.” His mentor says, "I think you should be more explicit here in step two."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Those are green, red, orange, and yellow *peppers, Jewel. Not potatoes. ABP, kids. Always be proofreading.

A snapshot of the weekly Jewel sale paper featuring a picture of potatoes, green, red, yellow, and orange peppers, and avocados, but text that reads "Green, red, orange or yellow potatoes."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Not the point, I know, but if you're omitting figures, you use an apostrophe / single close quote — not a single open quote, as here — to stand in for the missing characters. Editor Beth thanks you for your attention to this matter.

An image of the correct way and the incorrect way to use punctuation to stand in for omitted characters in 2026. It's apostrophe-26, not single-open-quote-26.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The lake was the most amazing shade of blue today. This picture almost does it justice.

A shot of Lake Michigan from Lake Shore Drive through Grant Park. The water is a beautiful shade of blue, and a tree in the foreground frames the shot, casting wide shade on the grass and the bike path.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Aw, the Sun-Times building. My grandfather worked there. (Grandpa got this swag when he retired.) Many years later, I did, too. Now that site is sullied with one of “his” buildings.

A tie bar and tie tack featuring the Sun-Times building and set with reddish-pink gems, as if rubies.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

It’s Dawn’s (latest) book birthday!

The cover of Dawn Turner’s novel “Majestic Hills,” a blend of pink and purple as the sky, with houses appearing to slide off the sides of a sphere of what looks like vegetation but which is really the hair atop two silhouetted faces (not seen in this picture).

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Genius, Todd. STOP VOTING FOR REPUBLICANS.

A screenshot of a map, with red ovals highlighting the location of the proposed concentration camp in relation to Southlake Mall and other businesses right off of I-65 and Route 30.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This is magic to me. I first read a draft in January 2024. Dawn brought me along for part of the journey. I'm in awe of her (and fiction writers of all stripes). It's on sale next Tuesday, August 4.

A picture of a blue folder icon labeled "Dawn's Novel."

The ARC (advance reader copy) of Dawn's novel "Majestic Hills."

The hardcover edition of Dawn's novel "Majestic Hills." The cover is a mixture of pink and purple and blue, with houses sat atop what looks like vegetation but which is really the afros of two silhouetted faces.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Holier shit. Holiest shit? It’s maxed out.

A screen grab of the weather showing the air quality index of 500, the highest the scale goes.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I ran some errands first thing this morning, in a vain effort to avoid the heat and humidity. (And it's gonna get worse.) I was booking through one of the stores but paused to snap this. It's amusing *and includes the apostrophe! I understand the omission of the period. Editor Beth will allow it. 😀

A rectangular throw pillow embroidered with the words "Let's Stay Home and Avoid People."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Oh, @garygulman.bsky.social, you gorgeous thesaurus, you! Thanks for such an erudite and splendiferous show!

The promotional poster for Gary Gulman's 7th Hour, an all-new standup show, July 9, 10, & 11 at The Den Theatre in Chicago. (P.S. As much as Editor Beth loves the serial comma, it's used incorrectly in this instance. Unless the creator was using APA style, which, given Gary's oeuvre, may have been the case, come to think of it.)

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Today in "For the Love of God, Hire a Proofreader":

A question from a quiz with the answers jumbled, in once instance including an answer from the previous question.

Question 2 of 8
What should you do if you find one moldy berry in a container?

Throw away the entire container

Wash and eat all berriesRemove the moldy berry and those touching it, then wash the restXX Cook the berries to kill the mold

Remove the moldy berry and those touching it, then wash the rest

It loses nutritional value onlyCook the berries to kill the mold

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Happy 4th of July from my front stoop in 2016, when I snapped this shot, when it was likely that Hillary would be our next president.

A shot of the American flag, taken from underneath as it waves in the wind, with sun filtering through the trees behind it.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This amuses me! Newly Added and Leaving soon

A shot of the menu screen for Howdy, showing”Dirty Dancing” as both “Newly Added” *and “Leaving soon.”

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The dew point is 75 right now. Teetering on the brink of Oppressive. Yup, that's a good word for it.

A chart detailing the dew points for June - August and what the various temperatures correlate to in terms of how it feels: <35°F is Very Dry, 35-50°F is Dry, 50-60°F is Comfortable, 60-64°F is Slightly Humid, 65-69°F is Humid, 70-75°F is Very Humid, and >75°F is Oppressive.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

You can own a happy little tree! Indiana PBS station to auction off Ross painting nwitimes.com/article_2866...

Page A3 of the Northwest Indiana Times featuring a photo of a Bob Ross painting that will be up for auction. It's a lovely, placid scene of a snow-covered mountain in the distance, with pines and other trees and shrubbery surrounding a calm lake that begins in the foreground and extends toward the mountain.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

OK, I’m pretty geeked about being in IMDB:

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I snapped this surreptitiously, hence the blur (spares me having to blot out the license plate), but: Who paints a Cybertruck ... BEIGE?! Like they're not stupid and ugly enough already? What made you decide to customize your "sick" ride by making it the color of most vomit?

A photograph taken from behind a Cybertruck. It's painted beige ... for some unfathomable reason.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I was delighted to see my first-ever screen credit. (I edited the PowerPoint that was used to secure the remaining funding for the project, as well as the script.) 2/2

Part of the credits for the American Masters episode "W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

AI is so "smart," it can't use the proper tense? Yikes.

A screen grab of a Copilot Search with the headline "Bill Kurtis' Last Episode" and body copy that reads "Bill Kurtis' final official episode as a full-time judge and scorekeeper on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me aired on Memorial Day weekend, May 23, 2026. This marked the end of his 12-year tenure on the show, which he joined in 2014 after hosting The CBS Morning News and Cold Case Files.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I'll see your bear and raise you a duck.

A photo of a stuffed yellow duck with a tuft of white hair and orange feet sitting, like a person, not a duck, on the floor of a thrift store, its head hung down so its beak is touching its white tummy. Its wings look more like arms. It looks very dejected.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

JD is pathetic in a different way than Trump, but still pathetic. With alt text:

Headline: An Iowa lobbyist was caught offering $100 cash payments—plus referral bonuses—to pack JD Vance's Des Moine's rally this week.

Just hours before Vice President JD Vance too the state in Des Moines, an ethanol lobbyist with deep connections in the Reynolds administration offered money to contacts willing to attend the rally.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I can’t recall the last time I read a book in one sitting. What a nice way to spend an afternoon. I heartily recommend it. Belle is a very good writer.

A photo of Belle Burden’s memoir “Strangers.”

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Chucking at the idea of showing up to Mothers' Day with a cake that says "Mom."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Now I get it, @jamisonfoser.bsky.social. It was their best show yet. I, too, hope it’s being filmed so everyone can see it.

The marquee for Bruce Springsteen’s Land of Hoe & Dreams American Tour. No Kings, No Kings, No Kings.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Sigh. Don't make me edit *dishware, people ...

A plate with lemons and blue and white flowers around the edge with "Everyday is a fresh start" in the middle. "Everyday" in this use is one word. It should be "every day," two words.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Missed opportunity, Bee. (Yes, I know proper nouns aren't allowed.)

A screengrab of an attempt in The New York Times' Spelling Bee spelling out "Bananarama."

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

It's impossible to confuse one for the other. Who needed a liver? How much did they pay the doctor?

An illustration of the liver, spleen, pancreas, and gallbladder. The liver is by far the largest organ, whereas the spleen is much smaller and tucked under the left lobe of the liver.

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Really, The New York Times? *This is your top pick for me? A profile of a grotesquely out-of-touch woman with such bad fillers, her lips don't meet? With the subhed: "... Mrs. Sánchez Bezos seems to have influenced the uber-rich to stop apologizing, and start enjoying themselves"? 1/

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beth4158 🙄; also ❌👑 @beth4158.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Haven't checked on Donnie's stock in a while. Oh, it dipped into the $8 range. Good job, investors!

A screen grab of a chart plotting Trump's DJT stock performance since it was first offered. At its peak, it was trading for about $100 per share. A the moment, it's trading at $9.42 per share. Its 52-week low is $8.30.

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