iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

The way things are going right now, I’ll be sending this zine from @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social as our family holiday card and everyone’s gonna be getting “Separation of Church and Hate” by @johnfugelsang.bsky.social for Christmas.

“Outlaw Billionaires” zine by Hamilton Nolan and S Mirk

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Wonder why there’s microplastic in our brains? On the beautiful banks of the Neponset, I counted 212 bottle caps in our @neprwa.bsky.social cleanup this morning—not even counting fragments and water bottles. Mass. needs to pass a 21st century bottle bill and/or a producer responsibility law.

A gloved hand holds plastic bottle caps by the marsh

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Trying to re-liquify the honey with hot water and this honey bear hot tub situation has me dying 😂

Honey bear sitting in a deep soup crock of hot water

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

More middle fingers than you’d like to see (3-4 dozen over 3 hrs, including a double birdie from the guy in the Hummer) but they paled in comparison to the *thousands* of waves and honks in solidarity with #NoKings Milton. Felt good to see all these friends of democracy on Boston’s South Shore.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Look for us on the East Milton overpass above I-93 today. #nokings

Colorful sign says We the People Have No King

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

7/ And THEN I pruned about 80% of our hulking English yew bushes, enough to fill like 30 yard waste bags, and dug up and gave away a dozen hostas, and planted more spicebush and a couple of inkberry (and lavender) in that space.

Trimmed yew bushes with spicebush in front

Inkberry spicebush and lavender in front of a much-pruned yew bush

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

6/ I couldn't stop myself so I pulled out about about 60 sq ft of English Ivy in our backyard (after which I had to take a week off, because I kept waking up with numb hands, yikes) and planted a serviceberry tree & northern spicebush, along with some spare asters, goldenrod, and blue violet.

Ripping up a dense patch of non-native English Ivy- this was PUNISHING work but also ery satisfying

Bare dirt exposed beneath what was English ivy, plastic landscaping fabric pulled up

Spicebush and other native plants where ivy had been

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

5/ Worth noting: That red oak tree, now at least 30 feet tall, was just a sprouted acorn circa 2012. Here it is in 2015 vs today:

A skinny, 5-foot tall oak sapling among some flowers in an otherwise flat and empty lawn

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

4/ …New York asters, mountain mint, moss phlox, common blue violet, eastern columbine, wild geraniums, etc.

Removing grass from around a red oak tree to plant more native groundcover - caterpillars love oaks but need a “soft landing” zone to complete their life cycle

Red columbine in bloom beneath the oak tree in May

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

3/ Naturally I got obsessed myself & spent much of the spring doing "further research" 😂 digging up about 50 sq. ft. of lawn, and planting a dozen or so native species like golden Alexanders, butterfly milkweed, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susans, blazing star, sweet goldenrod…

Digging up a layer of sod from the front lawn

Yellow blooms of golden Alexander flowers in April

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

2/ …the typical suburban lawnscape of turfgrass, boxwoods, & ornamental trees & flowers imported from other continents is virtually useless to our native wildlife. In most of the US, the best thing you can do for biodiversity at home is plant an oak tree and/or replace your lawn with native plants.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Important message spotted in Harvard Square today after commencement - congrats to the Harvard class of 2025!

Sticker on a lamppost says Long Live Ideas

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Me? I got obsessed and dug up about 100 sq. ft. of front lawn (and English Ivy in back), replacing it with purple coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, New York asters, spicebush, golden Alexanders, butterfly milkweed, eastern columbine, sweet goldenrod, wild geraniums, phlox, and more. It's so addictive!

spade in the ground digging up turfgrass exposing soil beneath

planted garden in front yard next to split-rail fence, with afternoon sun

yellow golden alexanders in bloom in late April

wild geraniums blooming with small, delicate purple flowers

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

In Harvard Square even the sidewalk trash is poetic metaphor

A wet and dirty stuffed santa in a chimney cast aside on the sidewalk next to a pack of cigarettes

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

This is so abhorrent, but also: how does a president have time for this BS? Being president aged Obama by like 20 yrs— it's a grueling, stressful job. Meanwhile Trump is so petty he's Photoshopping people like some bored teenaged king? heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-20-2...

An excerpt reads: Yesterday the White House posted on social media an image of a hand that has been very obviously altered by adding “M-S-1-3” over the knuckles. A social media post by Trump is superimposed on the image. It says: “This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person.’ They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” The White House account added: “If he tattoos like MS-13, beats women like MS-13, and tramples the law like MS-13—THEN HE’S PROBABLY MS-13.”

Except the image is clearly false, no courts found he was a member of MS-13, and scholar of MS-13 Óscar Martínez commented: “I covered MS-13 for over a decade: its history, crimes, symbolism, cruelty, pacts with Salvadoran governments. I wrote a book about it. Never, ever, did any of the hundreds of sources I spoke to say anything that would allow us to believe Trump's strange interpretation of tattoos.”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

I saw these throw pillows at an open house today, and they gave me an unreasonable amount of joy

Pillows with tom seleck and bill murray dressed as old time military leaders

Pillows with Mr T and Patrick Stewart in old time military regalia

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

To our dog, the sidewalk is an aromatic magazine full of news and feature stories… and smears of bird poop are the free cologne samples he rubs all over himself

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

This was the HUGE protest crowd in Boston and it felt so good to be among so many fellow defenders of democracy. But even this is the tip of an iceberg: there were more than 2 dozen protests planned in Eastern Mass alone, hundreds or maybe thousands more people in Salem, Waltham, Newton, etc.

Map of HandsOff protests in Eastern Mass

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

They cut cancer research. They’re attacking our scientists & universities. They kidnapped a legal PhD student off our streets. They’re dismantling the very democracy born here 250 years ago. WE. ARE. WICKED. PISSED. #HandsOffBoston

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

My favorite Boston specific sign today:

Sign at HandsOff Boston reads “in Boston we only like ICE in our coffee”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Some more good signs from #handsoff Boston:

Real men destroy the patriarchy / demolish systemic injustice

Lots of signs at HandsOff Boston including “eww it smells like DOGE shit”

MAGA is a cancer I should know I’m an oncologist

Sign says In Boston we only like ICE in our coffee

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Some of my favorite signs from today’s #HandsOff protest in Boston:

Statue of Liberty covering her eyes saying I can’t look

Sign says “do not panic, organize” with school of small fish eating large trump fish

Sign at HandsOffBoston says I can’t fit all this shit in one sign

Sign says we all want this horrific nightmare to end

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Here's the sign I ended up making for tomorrow's #HandsOff protest in Boston. (Saturday, 11am-2pm, Boston Common to City Hall Plaza, see you there!) You can print it in two halves on 8.5 x 11 paper, and then tape them together on a hunk of cardboard (with packing tape, since it might rain).

Cat looking angry, or indifferent, hard to tell, next to hands off protest sign

protest sign that reads: Get your soft little HANDS OFF! EPA art Social Security Libraries NIH Cancer Research clean Energy Immigrants Education Public lands Free Speech

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I know this is a typo, but have we considered just tossing multiple billionaires out of an airplane? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/03/n...

Highlighted article text that says "Senator Bernie Sanders led a group of senators in a failed fight to block a new multibillionaire bomb sale to Israel."

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I made a couple of fun and painfully GenX signs for Saturday's April 5th #HandsOff protest, but the organizers have some pretty excellent and maybe more effective printable templates — the only difficulty is in choosing: brandfolder.com/s/trktmftbhr... Anyway, see you on Boston Common this Saturday!

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Declined and reported it, to what end who knows. One of the Airbnb cofounders is part of DOGE and voted Trump in Nov. (after 20+ years of voting Democrat, like what is even happening) though he’s not actively involved in the company anymore. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/u...

Scrrenshot of reporting user for homophobic message on Airbnb

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

11 years on Airbnb, 156+ guests, and we have never, *ever* seen anything like this. America… you’re broken.

Airbnb screenshot showing 11 years Superhost status and 156 reviews averaging 4.94 stars

Booking inquiry for April from Shawn asking, “Just curious if that pedofile (sic) flag will be flown?”

Positive Airbnb review of Shawn highlighting “respectful”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Yes, I recall the age of American “greatness” when we were… [checks notes] shut out of global leadership by our scorned and betrayed friends, of course, sure, very great indeed. Today’s @hcrichardson.bsky.social: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-12-2...

Former allies have expressed concern over sharing intelligence with the U.S. in the future, and yesterday, 34 army leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, Japan, and Australia met in Paris without inviting the United States.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Hey Boston, I’m playing Irish ☘️ and other tunes at the most excellent Monument Restaurant & Tavern in Charlestown this Saturday, 3pm-6pm! Why not come raise a pint and your spirits and forget about the horrors of 2025 for a couple of hours?

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Back to back emails in the doombox this morning: A) If Trump admin ignores court rulings, we’re screwed. B) Trump admin defies court order, terminates millions in NIH grants

NY Times essay: the One Question That Really Matters: If Trump Defies the Courts, Then What?

Boston Globe story: NIH terminates millions in research grants, defying court orders

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Despite a judge’s order that Trump can’t just halt Congressionally approved money, the NIH funds research into cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc. through a grant process, which the admin has simply… stopped reviewing. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/b...

Political cartoon meme of an engorged elon musk sucking down a firehose of government subsidies while a starving “greedy cancer researcher” gets one drop

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Remember, don’t buy anything today (2/28) for the Economic Blackout. Gen Xers, channel your inner Lloyd Dobler.

John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler saying “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career.”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

This is so, so f'cked up. The Dept. of Ed has set up a *snitch portal* for parents and teachers to report schools that continue their diversity, equity, and inclusion measures. www.ed.gov/about/news/p... They even quote a Moms For Liberty fanatic spewing hateful nonsense on a dot-gov site. Awful.

Screen grab from DOE website: “For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies—but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely,” said Tiffany Justice, Co-Founder of Moms for Liberty. “Parents, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools. This webpage demonstrates that President Trump’s Department of Education is putting power back in the hands of parents.”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The right claims those of us with basic empathy have the “woke mind virus.” I think it’s time we diagnose them with Russian Brain Worm. (Another devastating and scary day in democracy’s collapse.) heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-1...

Russian operatives are now pushing the rise of the far-right in Europe through social media as they did in the United States. Russian president Vladimir Putin has long sought to weaken the democratic alliances of the United States and Europe to enable Russia to take at least parts of Ukraine and possibly other neighboring countries without the formidable resistance that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would present.

Russian state television praised Vance’s speech. One headline read: “Humiliated Europe out for the count. Its American master flogged its old vassals.” Russian pundits recognized that Vance’s turn away from Europe meant a victory for Russia.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

One of my favorite real estate articles I ever wrote for the Globe was about nature’s “housing market,” and ever since then I can’t help but notice prime woodland real estate like this.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Quincy’s mayor Tom Koch just revealed that 2 giant statues of saints will adorn our new police and fire building- they cost $850,000, and one features St. Michael CRUSHING a guy’s neck, and like… does no one in this city remember George Floyd? WTF? www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2...

A statue of St Michael standing on someone’s neck

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Updated chart (reflecting 2015 Snowmageddon and the continuing No Merci Bro Coup of 2025): Number of times per week I get the lyrics of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins in my head ("The world is a vampire" or "Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.")

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Chart: Approximate no. of times per week I get the lyrics "Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage" or "The world is a vampire" in my head, over time:

chart (over the album art for Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) showing a dramatic increase in 2025

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Relatedly: I didn’t realize I probably have ADD until our daughter got tested, but the haphazard way I shovel the driveway should have been a clue. 😂 (It's not just the chaos of our descent into tyranny—same driveway for 16 years, any normal New England homeowner would have a system by now, but...)

a haphazard, seemingly random criss-cross of shovel paths in a snowy driveway

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

What if a city like Boston or Montreal or a state like Vermont boosted small business and economic activity (and morale) in winter by giving every household like 50 “Snow Dollars” on Jan 1st that can only be spent at local small businesses before the proverbial snow melts at the end of February?

a small round disc made of compacted snow, formed by an ugg boot's treads

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

We’re Doing It All Wrong, Exhibit 3,177

An excerpt from “What If We Get It Right,” in which Soul Fire Farm founder Leah Penniman bemoans how being an organic farm requires costly certification while it’s free to ravage the atmosphere and poison the soil through conventional farming.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I keep thinking how the Jan 6 pardons have a real “Azkaban jailbreak” vibe where all the most notorious Death Eaters go free. Not loving it!

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

6/ If we want to preserve the architecture that defines our cities, and add housing to stabilize home prices, at a more gentle density than high-rises, then we NEED to allow the multifamily conversion of old single-family homes. All the condos in the Back Bay used to be single-family townhouses.

brick row houses in Boston's Back Bay - formerly single-family townhouses, most have been subdivided into condos and rental apartments.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Why we need to allow two- and three-family homes BY RIGHT — a thread. 🧵 1/ At last week's zoning board of appeals meeting in Quincy, Mass., a homeowner presented her application to convert her single-family home to a two-family by dormering the attic and adding an exterior staircase.

architectural drawings showing existing and proposed front elevations of a house

architectural drawings showing existing and proposed rear elevation of a house

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

This is a very good answer to a question that haunts me. “It is impossible to be both honest and optimistic when discussing the American future. But it is possible to teach kids to appreciate what we have, the importance of protecting it, and how to build your own world in the ruins.”

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

A tiny tip I included in my home buying 101 book, when scouting communities to live in: A city that’s actively planting street trees believes in, and cares about, its future.

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

It’s been wicked cold out, and I love it. In the #climatechange era, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for seasonable weather. Can’t remember the last time I saw the Charles River nice and frozen (like in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’).

The Boston skyline and frozen Charles River seen from a Red Line subway car

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Jon Gorey @jongorey.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Not a great head space the past few days given both the metaphorical and horrifyingly real fires of 2025 — but my Libby hold on “What If We Get It Right” just came in, and damn if the buoyant optimism of @ayanaeliza.bsky.social hasn’t recalibrated my hopometer. It’s a life raft for climate despair.

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