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Merlina McGovern

@lacalaveracat.bsky.social
426 followers 437 following 275 posts

Copyeditor by day, hobbyist artist by night. Open to freelance editing and writing gigs. lacalaveracat.wixsite.com/website

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Reposted by Merlina McGovern
Aimee Cozza Illustration @aimeecozza.com · 22/05/2026
There are officially over 400 artists on HireHumanArtists.com🎉 More human artists than you would ever conceivably want to even try to look at all at once! Hire one for your next human project, wouldja?
hirehumanartists.com
Directory of No Gen AI Artists
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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Things that help calm the nervous system, quickly: - Box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, repeat) - Immerse your face in cold water (activates mammalian dive reflex) - Humming (stimulates vagus nerve) - Exercise (anything helps, outside even better) - Impeachment and removal
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Becky Hammer @beckyhammer.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming
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Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Bad Bunny at the Grammys: "Before I say thanks to God, I want to say ICE out. We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans."
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Aubrey Gordon @yrfatfriend.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
If the US can abolish USAID, we can sure as shit abolish ICE.
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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Rep. @AOC: I understand that Vance believes shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not. That is a fundamental difference between Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.
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Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Copy Editing Matters, from HHS's release on the new childhood vaccine schedule: All the diseases will still be available to anyone who wants them
Ensures that all the diseases covered by the previous immunization schedule will still be available to anyone who wants them through Affordable Care Act insurance plans and federal insurance programs, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Vaccines for Children program. Families will not have to purchase them out of pocket. Among peer nations, the U.S. will continue to offer the most childhood vaccines for free to those who want them.
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Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
I highly recommend people read @chuckwendig.bsky.social's response to that open letter to SFWA about AI that's making the rounds. Chuck hits it out of the ballpark with this essay.
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵
Racial Resentment Among White Americans by Birth Year and Demographics

This figure presents the same four-panel layout (education, gender, geography, religion) but for White Americans from birth years 1940 to 2000.

Education panel: A pronounced divide shows non-college Whites with substantially higher resentment across all cohorts, increasing sharply for older birth years. College-educated Whites rise more modestly but remain distinctly lower, especially among younger cohorts.

Gender panel: Male and female trendlines rise together, with women slightly higher in mid-century cohorts. Younger cohorts of both genders start lower and climb with age.

Geography panel: Regional lines separate clearly: the South is highest in resentment, followed by the Midwest. The West and Northeast show lower levels, with the Northeast consistently at the bottom. All regions slope upward toward older cohorts.

Religion panel: Protestants show the highest resentment, peaking among mid-century cohorts. Catholics sit in the middle. Non-affiliated Whites show the lowest resentment, especially among younger respondents, with a small rise among mid-century generations.

The figure notes CES 2024 data with GAM-smoothed trendlines.
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Nancy in Florida🫘 @nancyinfl.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
No Kings! Fort Myers Florida!
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Rising up from my posting slumber to say that I love, love, love The Life of a Showgirl. So far, I love Fate of Ophelia and Opalite. The hip-shaking beats have me smiling in the midst of the world's chaos right now.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
If you're angry about how the FDA is limiting our ability to keep our families safe by using misinformed, nonmedical professionals to make decisions about vaccines, please call your reps. I downloaded the 5 Calls app; it makes it insanely easy to call your reps. Happy calling!
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Starting reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I’m really enjoying the daily morning practice.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
The @nightvaleradio.bsky.social live show in Boston was amazing! I was laughing all night. Who knew a night filled with crows and murders and AI bots could be so funny? If you have a chance to see them live, do it!
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I woke up after a terrible dream of arguing with people to please have some humanity and not rip their healthcare away from poorer people. I’m feeling a tremendous urge to be in community. We are not alone. There are so many people who care. We have to find each other.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I think I have hit maintenance on my Mounjaro journey. Spoke with an RD yesterday to discuss. It was super helpful. I wish I’d had this guidance and support at the start, but better late than never.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Got my jog in before the temps reached 90 here (just barely). Loving this part of my GLP-1 journey, where I have energy to enjoy exercise even when it's gross outside.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Today, I'll be trying my hand at baking whole wheat pitas. I've been on a kick making whole wheat bread and tortillas. A lot easier than I previously thought, and still tasty (though my Mexican-American dad scoffs at the thought of WW tortillas, ha!).
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👻 Spooky Scary Jam (they/them)👻 @jaimekay.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
about my experiences with this to try and combat the stigma and shame people feel about using GLP-1 drugs to help with weight loss. People will judge you for being overweight/obese and they will judge you for how you lose weight; don’t worry about their opinions and just do you!
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👻 Spooky Scary Jam (they/them)👻 @jaimekay.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
One of my favorite parts of taking Wegovy so far is that I don’t have cravings for sweets, junk food, high fat snacks, etc. I can eat a little of them and enjoy it, but I don’t crave it constantly. It feels so weird to not always think of food and what I’ll eat next. I’m gonna to keep talking…
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
I think I've finally found something that drives me to be an advocate. My GLP-1 journey has been life-changing. Seeing the stigma that causes people to gatekeep these meds makes me want to share my journey and the research.
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Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
The new weight-loss drugs are changing everything. It's just a matter of time before crank diet purveyors will have to find another line of work. Gift link. www.wsj.com/health/pharm...
wsj.com
Should Everyone Be Taking Ozempic? Doctors Say More People Could Benefit
Anti-obesity drugs are showing promise for an ever-expanding list of diseases
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Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Clinically meaningful #weightloss data for Mazdutide in China, expanding options for GLP-1 medicines. Will survodutide be the first glucagon-GLP-1 medicine to report a CV outcomes trial?
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Seems like great news for folks that have Cigna.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I am heart broken. Before going to bed, we learned that my daughter’s crew team had suffered a devastating act of vandalism.
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Renée @reneestephen.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Ok, this is it, this is the post. You've heard about Ozempic, and maybe the better next gen Mounjaro? These drugs are a profound game changer in metabolic science. The one I'm on is newer and it laps them both. E.g. it cures fatty liver. We've never had a treatment for that!
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Happy Saturday, friends! I submitted multiple agent queries last week and may do a few more this weekend. I'm back in the submitting mood, and I'm feeling great. How's your weekend starting?
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Big G @nupe117.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
GLP-1 weight-loss drugs....... they’re exposing America’s healthcare crisis. ‘It is hard to understand why insurance company decisions would be better or more evidence-based than those of the board-certified physicians who are prescribing the medications'. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Who deserves weight-loss drugs? | David A Kessler
The struggle to obtain these medications illustrates the dangerous mess the US healthcare system has become, writes the former FDA chief
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Just submitted a query to an agent; first one I've done in a few months. Feels good to be back on the querying train again.
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 12/05/2025
People taking Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound, lost nearly 50% more weight than those using rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in the first head-to-head study of the blockbuster medications.
bit.ly
Zepbound beats Wegovy for weight loss in first head-to-head trial of blockbuster drugs
A new study shows that people Zepbound lost about 50% more weight than those using Wegovy. It was the first head-to-head trial of the blockbuster weight-loss medications.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
I feel like I need to get back to a place where I make regular space for creativity in my life. I've been so focused on my health journey recently that I haven't done my daily art and writing. Time to get back to it!
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
This is a really interesting piece, and these points are ones I notice a lot in the discourse around GLP-1 drugs: much of the antipathy to them is in & of itself fatphobia, anger or anxiety that takers are “cheating” their way out of the fat = lazy, slim = hard work paradigm.
This idea of “doing it properly” is a pervasive one. For decades, people have had the idea that weight loss must involve hard work: consistent, difficult exercise and sacrificing pleasures such as delicious meals. The willpower involved is seen as admirable; the idea – which has been debunked by research into obesity – is that anyone can have a slim body, if they only try hard enough. By contrast, using injections to lose weight is perceived as easy, even “lazy”, and unworthy of the praise that gets lavished on people who are seen to have changed their bodies through sacrifice alone. Perhaps this is why people are keeping their jabs to themselves.Gail Bohin, a clinical psychologist for the NHS’s specialist weight management service in Gloucestershire, says this idea that people on GLP-1s are “cheating” is widespread. “It’s all tied up with a bigger picture of living in a weight stigmatising culture, because people are seen as personally responsible for gaining weight, and then the association of that is: it’s your fault that you became diabetic, or that your joints are playing up. People use phrases such as ‘soft options’ or ‘easy get-out’ about GLP-1s, which just shows the underlying attitude that it is completely within your control to fix this and you should just try harder.”
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New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 07/05/2025
New weight loss drugs “are not a panacea for the obesity crisis that has engulfed the nation,” writes David Kessler, a former F.D.A. commissioner. “But their effectiveness underscores the fact that being overweight or obese was never the result of a lack of willpower.”
nytimes.com
Opinion | In a World of Addictive Foods, We Need New Weight-Loss Drugs
We may now be at the brink of reclaiming our health.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Another great community book club discussion. When the world feels full of outrage, it is nice to spend time with decent people who care about literature and community.
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Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The OG GLP-1 medicine twice daily Exenatide from the salivary gland of Heloderma Suspectum to the clinic for type 2 #diabetes Approved by the @US_FDA April 28 2005. Happy anniversary to the groundbreaking molecule that launched a new class of transformative medicines #T2D
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Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
While the latest GLP-1 medicines are “new” exenatide was approved April 28 2005. Congratulations to John Eng, Amylin Pharma and the hundreds of visionary persistent investigators who gave birth to the class of GLP-1 medicines for type 2 #diabetes www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiHH...
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Oh lord, I made the viral "two-ingredient" bagels (whole wheat). Friends, they were neither bagels nor two ingredients. Bleh.
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Spencer Nadolsky DO @drnadolsky.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Is obesity due to fast food and lack of wanting it enough?
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Had such a wonderful time at a local library book club. Definitely recommend going out and finding community when you're feeling down.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
The rain and the cold couldn't keep us from the Boston protests! Such an inspiring day full of community and unity.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Here's my healthcare hot take: If insurance refuses to cover life-changing metabolic drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound for weight loss, then doctors should no longer be able to tell you to fix a chronic condition like hypertension or FLD or heart disease by losing weight. #glp1
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
I keep going to an online dictionary for work, and this photo keeps popping up and making me giggle.
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Spencer Nadolsky DO @drnadolsky.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Who needs April Fools’ Day when people still believe: 1. Artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar 2. Obesity is due to a lack of discipline 3. GLP-1 meds are just a bandaid 4. LDL cholesterol doesn’t cause heart dz 5. Carbs are inherently fattening
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
The amount of misinfo/bad info on GLP-1s (Ozempic, Mounjaro, etc.) on this app is awful. These are metabolic drugs that are life-saving for those with diabetes and those with obesity. Would you say that taking blood-pressure medication is cheating? Then stop saying that for people on GLP-1s.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I kinda like these gray Saturday mornings when I don't have any pressing errands to do. It's like even the sky is saying, stay in and have a cozy and relaxing morning.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
I feel sheepish as I've been avoiding the news since so much of it is awful and depressing. But watching the speeches from @aoc.bsky.social and @sanders.senate.gov from their Arizona rally, I feel energized and hopeful, and supported for the first time in a long time.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Happy Wednesday, all! Been in a funk for a bit and haven't posted. But the sun is shining, and I'm feeling a tiny bit of joy creep in.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Just started playing Asylum, a point and click horror adventure game by @agustin.me. The style and mood are perfect so far! Can't wait to see what spooky things await.
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Merlina McGovern @lacalaveracat.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Been throwing myself into nutrition information to avoid becoming depressed by current events. It's amazing to me how much "influencer" bad info/disinfo is out there. Driven by greed and anti-expert vibes. Give me the scientific method any day.
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Jam @jamandbeeceramics.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I envisioned sea kittens catching tiny fish. #ceramics #handmade
Handmade ceramic flower bud holders in the shape of a cat, holding an orange fish.
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