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LilacSunday

@lilacsunday.bsky.social
808 followers 1.2K following 646 posts

History, art, science, genealogy, California, and wildlife. Breast cancer survivor. Profile 📷: Self Portrait of Sarah Goodridge, 1830.

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Reposted by LilacSunday
RobinK @templeofhate.com · 17/08/2026
»WhatsApp messages show talk of wiping Israel off the map, support for the Iranian regime and claims that anti-Jewish hostility is understandable« 🎁 link (no paywall)
thetimes.com
Inside the Green Party group chats that discussed ‘killing Zionists’
WhatsApp messages show talk of wiping Israel off the map, support for the Iranian regime and claims that anti-Jewish hostility is understandable
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
OTD: There Will Come Soft Rains. "Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down." www.rogerebert.com/mzs/silhouet...
rogerebert.com
Silhouettes and Warnings: On Reading Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" On the Exact Day When It's Set
The events of Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" occur today: August 4, 2026.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
June 10, 1692: Bridget Bishop, the first victim of the Salem Witch Panic, is hanged on Gallows Hill. 📷: The April 19, 1692 warrant for the apprehension of Giles Corey, Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs, and Bridget Bishop on suspicion of witchcraft.
The front page of a chilling document. The page is torn at the left margin and the brown ink is faded, but the script is neat and it is completely legible.  It begins:
"There being Complaint this day made (Before us) by Ezekiell Chevers and John putnam Jun'r both of Salem Village Yeomen: in Behalfe of theire Majesties, for themselfes and also for theire Neighbours Against Giles Cory , and Mary Waren both of Salem farmes And Abigaile Hobbs the daughter of Wm Hobs of the Towne of Topsfeild and Bridgett Bushop the wife of Edw'd Bishop of Salem Sawyer for high Suspition of Sundry acts of Witchcraft donne or Committed by them..."

Essex County Court Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 112. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Judicial Archives, Massachusetts State Archives, Boston. MA.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Just had a delightful "what the hell is that" moment. A Yellow-breasted Chat was using my hummingbird feeder as a perch. 20 years in this house and I've never seen one, I had to look it up. 📷 Kent Jensen, Macauley Library, Cornell University
Picture of a bird perched on a branch, giving us the side eye.  It has long tail feathers and a vivid yellow breast.  Those long tail feathers really add some drama, it's a good looking bird.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
"...one mushroom vendor sells psilocybin-infused chocolate bars called “Dolosnax,” with an illustration of the park on the label." I say this lovingly, as a suburban cannabis-using cat lady: don't buy psychedelic mushrooms from strangers in SF's Dolores Park. www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...
sfgate.com
San Francisco's Dolores Park has a whole secret marketplace
"We're just trying to make a living out here."
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Speaking of King Charles II, New Haven Connecticut has streets named after the three regicides who are known to have fled to the New England colonies: Edward Whalley, William Goffe, and John Dixwell. King Charles II sent men to find Whalley and Goffe, but my Puritan ancestors protected them.
An overhead sign at a busy intersection in New Haven Connecticut with three traffic signals, showing the directions of Whalley Avenue, Dixwell Avenue, and Goffe Street.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
To commemorate the Restoration of the English Monarchy on May 29, 1660, here's a snippet of the charter granted by King Charles II to Connecticut in 1662, granting the colony autonomy and territory that reached westward to the Pacific Ocean. Good times. Text at avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century...
Approximately the upper third of the framed royal charter, with an image of King Charles II in the upper left within the initial letter C.  It opens with "CHARLES the Second, by the Grace of GOD, KING of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting."  Image by Kenneth C. Zirkel posted on wikimedia, charter at the Museum of Connecticut History.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
"He's been a stray cat too long, he'll never adjust to life as an indoor cat." Aforementioned former stray cat below, confidently allowing himself to be photographed relaxing on my pillow after dinner.
A big beautiful glossy black cat with a very satisfied look on his face, photographed head-on as he reclines at the head of the bed on a pillow with a pink pillowcase. He's surrounded by other bedding, including more pillows and the looming edge of the comforter.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This is fascinating and feels very important and we live in the future yadda yadda, and I still feel deeply unsettled at the idea of "...making the human a first-class node in the computing network, with the same kind of low-latency, high-fidelity participation..." spectrum.ieee.org/wetour-robot...
spectrum.ieee.org
The Future of Physical AI Isn’t Smarter Robots, It’s Smarter Interfaces
Putting the human back into the computing loop, one neural signal at a time
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
"“Nearly anyone can get into robotics, which is the true holy grail,” Huang tells me. Making it possible for people to control robots with spoken or typed commands, or by demonstrating an action, is the “critical unlock for robots in society..."” It's moving so fast. www.wired.com/story/i-gave...
wired.com
I Gave My OpenClaw Agent a Physical Body
The coding skills of AI models are about to make it much easier to build and deploy robots.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
You win, hummingbirds. Traffic dropped at two feeders so I just refilled one feeder. Big mistake! Due to swiftly savage territoriality, hummingbirds per feeder is exponential. 1 feeder = 1 hummingbird chasing off all other hummingbirds; 2 feeders = 5 hummingbirds feeding simultaneously.
static.klipy.com
Hummingbirds at Feeder Interaction
Alt: Not my gif, but it's a hilarious close-up slow-motion video of a hummingbird in flight extending its legs to pull another hummingbird off a feeder.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Dr Irina Manea @shieldofskuld.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Worn out by Viking raids, King Aethelred attempted at the beginning of the 11th century to mobilise society by minting some very special and extremely rare coins with Christian motifs. Two of them have been found in Jutland, Denmark.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
I'm wondering how gasoline rationing would work this time around. During the 1970s gas shortages, people could buy gas on alternating days based on the last digit of their license plate. This was easily gamed by switching license plates between cars, I wonder if digital records would nix that.
Associated Press photo of cars sitting in gas lines at a Texaco station on Long Island, New York, during the 1973-1974 gas shortage.  Lots of contemporary four-door sedans, including a few convertibles.  I can practically smell the cigarette smoke.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Sound on, these puffins are wonderfully chatty!
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This is disturbing. If the goal is preventing "long-term structured damage to our nation’s agricultural base", how is paying farmers to tear down orchards preferable to, say, using that money to find another market for 50,000 tons of food?
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Merchant Adventurers’ Hall @merchantshallyork.org · 04/05/2026
You know what day it is? We almost forgot. Yes it’s your annual reminder that Yoda was infact a medieval monk. (Smithfield Decretals at the British Library). #maythe4thbewithyou #starwarsday
We are looking at a section of a medieval document with a grey creature with big ears and claw like hands that looks a lot like yoda. They are wearing a red brown cassock.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 04/05/2026
The Star Wars Day x Medieval Monday mash up that no-one asked for or wanted... May the Fourth be with you. All images available on Digital Bodleian: MS. Douce 178, fol. 049v; MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 79r; MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 21v; MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 79v #MedievalMonday
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Are folks who were vaccinated decades ago overconfident in our own & herd immunity against the measles? I'm 58, I requested an MMR titer & it showed "equivocal" immunity against the measles & mumps. I thought I and we were safer. My doc recommended another dose, which I just received.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Oh, for the lost art of letter writing... youtu.be/mI_sV_wEVKw?...
youtu.be
Bryan Cranston and Ferdinand Kingsley read a FEROCIOUS letter exchange
YouTube video by Letters Live
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Reminds one of the legend of the doomed Queen Catherine Howard running down the hallway at Hampton Court Palace crying out to King Henry VIII for mercy.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
1,600 years ago, someone went to the afterlife with a copy of the catalogue of ships from the Iliad. 🏺 It's got me wondering what written work, if any, I'd want to have tucked in my pocket when I go. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...
smithsonianmag.com
Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the 'Iliad' Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy
The excerpt from Homer's epic poem features his catalog of ships, a famous passage listing the Greek forces that sailed to Troy. It may be the first Greek literary text found in the context of mummifi...
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Greetings and happy #420 from California! 🥬 I love a feel-good story about tech entrepreneurs using their power for good. “We just saw all these people wanted to buy weed, all these people wanted to sell weed, and it wasn’t working,” Lee said. “None of it worked.” www.sfgate.com/cannabis/art...
sfgate.com
How 2 engineers quietly built a $1B California cannabis behemoth
"We essentially become this utility company."
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
(Un)Happy #TaxDay in America! In 1944, LIFE Magazine's Alfred Eisenstaedt took pictures of stressed American taxpayers at an IRS information center in New York. The image below looks like a still from a movie about a woman who tried to beat Bette Davis at something. www.life.com/history/unha...
A black and white photo of a woman's head and shoulders in 3/4 profile.  She is leaning forward to our left and rests her head in her right hand, as if she's resting her right elbow on a counter (which we can't see) while an IRS agent gives her some bad news.  She's dressed quite nicely, there's a bit of netting attached to her hat and what we can see of her coat is fur though it might just be the collar.  Eisenstaedt took these candid photos from about 40 feet away.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
So many chickens! Malevolent, whimsical, surrealist, abstract, anthropomorphic, nightmare fuel...go on, click that chicken link.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I kinda want to know what happens…
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
"...it invites us to embrace a deeper, 7-dimensional understanding of the very fabric of our reality." This feels like a good time to re-read The Doors of Perception. phys.org/news/2026-04...
phys.org
The secrets of black holes and the Higgs mass could be hidden in a 7-dimensional geometry
One of the greatest mysteries of modern physics, the "black hole information paradox," might have finally found an elegant solution, and the answer could also reveal the origins of the mass of fundame...
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Rancho Gordo is a trademark bully, they are sending cease and desist letters to people who combine the generic words "bean" and "club". Acquiring trademarks for basic words has become abusive. They aren't THE bean club, they are a bean club. Story at quoted 🎁 link below.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Here’s a fun riff on the desert island actor game. Here’s your dilemma: If you only have a 5-year stretch of films starting with 41-45, then 46-50, and on to now (ending with 2021-2025), which clump would you pick? My final 3 would be 86-90, 96-2000, and 2011-15 But I’m going 2011-15.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
The site of the tomb of St Cuthbert who died #otd 687 in #Durham cathedral
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
March 20, 1413: King Henry IV dies in Westminster Abbey's Jerusalem Chamber. "It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die but in Jerusalem; Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land: But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie; In that Jerusalem shall Harry die." 2 Henry IV 4,5
Closeup of Jeremy Irons as England's King Henry IV in the BBC Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare's history plays.  Hot dog, he was good.  In this image, we can see the upper edge of his throne behind his head, he's wearing his crown and looking suspiciously at someone, most likely his son & heir Harry or a member of the Percy family.
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Reposted by LilacSunday
Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Stamford Bridge is open for transit, English king Harold Godwinson said. “The only thing prohibiting transit across the bridge right now is a huge Norwegian berserker hacking people to pieces with an axe,” he said. “It is open for transit should the beserker not do that.”
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Women are standing in long lines to buy fashion accessories popularized by people who died before they were born? I want to play! No, not CBK. I want to rock a barbette, the strip of cloth under the chin popularized by Eleanor of Aquitaine. I don't have a crown, so I'll pin it to a fillet. 👑
Katharine Hepburn in profile as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter."   She's wearing a crown and her hair is exposed in the front. Based on the way the fabric headdress is draped, I think she is wearing a white barbette under her chin and up to the top of her head and a white wimple loosely around her neck and up the back of her head where everything --crown, wimple, and barbette-- is pinned together and to her hair.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
"Some diurnal insects, like certain ants and bees, use time-compensated sun compasses that adjust for the sun's daily movement." Thank goodness ants are small. Last week I got lost in broad daylight in the city where I've lived for 19 years. 🐜 phys.org/news/2026-03...
phys.org
Nocturnal ants use lunar compass and sophisticated calculations to travel at night
It's well known that many animals, including migratory birds, butterflies, and even fish, use the sun for navigational purposes. Nocturnal animals are dealt a more difficult hand, however, as the moon...
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Lipase. DNAse. Citric acid. IYKYK.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Fascinating! [translated] "...transition between the Gallic period and Antiquity to the modern era...unknown medieval structures, including fragments of decorated tiles from the 13th and 14th centuries...a burial area containing eleven graves, some of which date back to the Carolingian period."
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Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 20/02/2026
Love Your Pet Day 🐾 Medieval manuscripts are full of dogs, birds, rabbits and other companions. Sometimes helpful, often looking chaotic! Shelfmark: Bodl. 264, fols. 20v, 57v, 58r, 20v More pet content coming soon: Pets and Their People opens 11 March at the Weston Library.
Medieval manuscript illustration featuring a human figure in a patterned robe gesturing towards a rabbit playing a horn. The scene is adorned with decorative floral elements and gold accents.Medieval manuscript illustration showing a person riding a donkey, followed by a running dog and a wolf. The scene is surrounded by decorative floral patterns with gold leaves. The text above is in Old French.A medieval manuscript illustration features a person seated, adorned with a gold robe, and gesturing towards a green parrot perched on their hand. The scene is bordered by intricate blue and gold designs.A medieval illustration depicting a person holding a circular object, possibly a mirror or shield, facing a creature resembling a goat with a long, curved tail. The scene includes decorative foliage with multicolored leaves. The background is parchment-like, typical of manuscript art.
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Roses are red The dot is pale blue Here's a mote of dust in a sunbeam From a distance of forty AU 🧪 🔭 🌍
A portion of the pale blue dot image framed inside of a heart with a bold blue outline. The heart is surrounded by a blue color that approximates the appearance of the Earth pixels in the image.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
"It was a shocking contrast to the peaceful site of Wandlebury.” How soft your fields so green Can whisper tales of gore... ---Led Zeppelin, "The Immigrant Song" www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
independent.co.uk
Students unearth remains in possible execution pit on training dig
The discovery was made at Wandlebury Country Park near Cambridge
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Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
On San Francisco’s Haight Street, an abandoned Fotomat kiosk stands near a billboard touting the future of AI. Fotomat starting renting videos in 1979; for a mere $7.95 (~$36 today) you could rent a movie for 5 days. www.sfgate.com/obscuresf/ar...
sfgate.com
Extremely rare building hiding on SF's Haight Street faces uncertain future
"You'd see it on the horizon and always know what it was."
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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
#Genealogy research ftw (and by one of the very best). Not that it changes minds, necessarily, but this work is so important to demonstrate how pervasive immigrant experience is, and how shallow the history that is often invoked against birthright citizenship or against immigrants generally.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Do we still play #CougarOrNot? San Francisco's pawed prowler, swoopy-tailed sneak thief, murder-mittened miscreant, leonine lurker, has been caught on camera. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...
sfgate.com
'Majestic' young mountain lion found in wealthy SF neighborhood
San Francisco Zoo officials have arrived on scene.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
I know this doesn't compare to the ~2 feet of snow about to fall on Boston, but California has another 400 mile long fog bank visible from space. #CAwx www.sfgate.com/weather/arti...
sfgate.com
Advisory issued over Calif. weather phenomenon visible from space
A massive fog bank has reappeared in the central San Joaquin Valley in California.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
A 400 mile long fog bank in California's Central Valley kept the San Francisco Bay Area sunless, rainless, and cold for weeks. The rains have finally come, and I guess I am a mushroom rancher now. #MushroomSky
A cluster (bouquet?) of tightly packed mushrooms on my lawn, about 16 inches across and 8 inches high, consisting of many round flat beige caps with brown dots in the center.  Five stalks can be seen on the left with smaller (younger?) spotted caps.  It would make a great headdress for an actor on The Last of Us.
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
San Francisco woman gives birth inside a Waymo driverless car. "The company said its rider support team detected “unusual activity” inside the vehicle and called to check on the rider as well as alert 911." www.sfgate.com/business/art...
sfgate.com
San Francisco woman gives birth in a Waymo self-driving taxi
Waymo's self-driving taxis have been in the spotlight for both negative and positive reasons. This week, the automated ride-hailing taxis went viral after a San Francisco woman gave birth inside a...
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Moose (Maine) Mountain Lion (On a hilltop, watching people on a California hiking trail) Cedar Waxwings (A migrating flock got drunk on overripe berries and made a purple mess on my deck. California) Bobcat (Observed me with disgust. California) Glow in the dark scorpions (California)
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
My favorite gift idea came from @ibogost.com: a hot dog. "If you keep it hot, I promise they will eat it right away—a gift for you to behold."
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
"Sephora tweens" made me stop shopping at Sephora. Skincare lines for preschoolers makes me want to move to the forest, dress myself in moss, and learn to speak the language of the night birds. Gift link. 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/s...
nytimes.com
‘Dystopian’: Skin Care for 4-Year-Olds Gets an Icy Reception
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Hollow Crown Fans @hollowcrownfans.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings; How some have been deposed; some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;" - Richard II (A3, S2) #ShakespeareSunday
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LilacSunday @lilacsunday.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits... Richard II 3,2 #ShakespeareSunday The Iron Crown, portions of which have been dated to c. 500 CE. At the Duomo of Monza.
A circlet of gold set with precious gems arranged in the form of crosses. Commissioned by the mother of Constantine the Great? Maybe. Used at the coronation of Charlemagne as King of the Lombards? Maybe. It was definitely used in the coronations of medieval Holy Roman Emperors, and Napoleon Bonaparte used it to crown himself king of Italy.
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