iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The Ashmead’s Kernel! A triploid mutant, probably a chance seedling in the 1700s, it is one of the few European apples that also thrives in North America. Tough skin, firm flesh, juicy, a gingery semi-tart flavor I really enjoyed. Browns very quickly.

An Ashmead’s Kernel apple, which is small, round, and yellowish-green but with brown russeting throughout.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I noped out of Flanagan in the middle of Midnight Mass, which relied on devout Catholics being willing to suicide in large numbers. Like, I’m not Catholic, but I’m PRETTY SURE that’s a tough one! Even with vampires in the mix. He wanted the pageantry of Catholicism but none of its substance.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I was going to say. I have a top-down raglan pattern I love, but even as written for S/M/L the visual repeats broke around where you split off the armholes. So I re-mathed the pattern on the fly both times I knitted it for XL, and it worked out pretty well — better than as written even for S.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Soap opera actors used to be reliable greats, but these days there are a few audiobook readers who have never had acting careers. Their faces aren’t even “made for radio”! I just think the genre has matured. (Authors still shouldn’t read their own books though. Consistently terrible.)

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Reposted by Glowria Shine

David Marshall @illdave.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This 1965 transit map was the MBTA’s first dedicated rapid transit-only map, and the first to use the line colors as we know them today. The first subway tunnels built in America are still in use today under the Boston Common. #mbta #mbtahistory #publictransportation

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Heyyy, just this morning I ran across a PDF form on the Mass General Brigham hospital website with the word Massachusetts misspelled. Especially ironic because you really don’t need to use the whole name! Mass or MA will do fine! (No, I didn’t make a stink about it.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

There’s the fantasy of secession and then there’s the financial reality. The country of Texas bankrupted itself in 10 years and begged to be admitted to the US. Imagine the taxes a Free Maine or Free Alberta would have to levy! Infrastructure, trade deals, diplomats? Not cheap.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dang, in Mass., medical assistants (and RNs and LPNs) can give shots under protocol, all the time. Is this lay midwives, then? I assume not CNMs (NP midwives).

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My good deed of the week: I noticed my boss had a flu shot appointment in her calendar, and convinced her to go back today for an updated Covid shot. (My appointment is Friday, for both. They always lay me low, but probably not as low as Shingles shot #2.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Agreed. Cars should be more expensive, slower, and face urban combat for parking spaces! A crappier car experience is the only way to persuade pale to really on walking/biking/public transpo.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I really liked the Davis side of Somerville, where the one-ways alternate. But yeah, your example makes no sense. I currently live on the world’s narrowest 2-way street, and even with parking on one side we make it works! Talk about traffic calming: inching forward to make sure we avoid bumpers.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I used to live in Davis and the crosswalk at Holland St for Curtin Field was like a daily affirmation for peds. You push the button, and the light immediately starts to change! You DO exist! …Last time I walked through Andrew Sq, I jaywalked in both directions after waaaaiting for my turn forever.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I also know someone who bought a whole-ass wedding dress at the Burlington Savers ($20) last year for a costume, though I think she bought a Medium and had to tailor it up. Anyway my assessment of Saverses is that Hanover is the most plus-size friendly for formal stuff.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The Savers in Norwell/Hanover. The selection isn’t huge, but they do carry bigger sizes (I routinely see XXL, and I know I’ve seen sparkly tops in 1X and 2X), and the prices are low enough ($20-30) you can tailor/hack if necessary without fear.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Behold the Esopus Spitzenberg. Small, leathery skin, very crisp, very tart, so juicy! Enjoyed very much.

Round dotted red apple what is deewicious: the Esopus Spitzenberg

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I feel you. But St last they are not calling it The Chest.

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Reposted by Glowria Shine

WelcomeToDot @welcometodot.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That hate crime where you meet someone else who is from Boston traveling, but really they live in Lexington, and when you tell them you live in Dorchester, they feel compelled to say “Dorchestah” in an exaggerated Boston accent.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I had the misfortune to attend a guest lecture by one of those “futurist” provocateurs who said that with AI in a robot-servant body, you’ll never go to a barbershop again! And I was like, Does he even KNOW what roles barbers / hairdressers serve? (Also, dude was bald.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I think if my name rhymed with Hitler, I’d change it. Especially if I ever intended to be famous.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We’re in our Macoun phase now. I wanted them so bad I paid farmers market prices, and they do not disappoint. Like a Macintosh, only crisp and not mushy! (I also picked up some Esopus Spitzenbergs, also great, but I didn’t take any pictures of them.)

A macoun apple with two bites taken out of it

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I use NOAA topo maps (okay mostly so I can scare the pants offa myself about future coastal flooding), but same.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yeah, also, you don’t bring your own beverage because part of the etiquette is the interviewer (or their staff) offers YOU a beverage. If they don’t, they’re stingy or potentially unpleasant. If they do, you get insight into their hospitality culture. important things to suss out in interviewing!

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Reposted by Glowria Shine

DotNews @dotnews.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The United States Postal Service says it is looking at all options— including a new location— if the lease for the 02122 retail postal branch in Fields Corner is not renewed next month. www.dotnews.com/2026/09/24/p...

dotnews.com

Postal Service 'looking at all options' as lease is set to expire at Fields Corner 02122 office - Dorchester Reporter

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is looking at all options in case their lease is not renewed for the retail postal branch in Fields Corner at the O’Hearn Building, 218 Adams St.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Ugh, the heat came on. Doesn’ the furnace know how expensive oil is right now?? (We have a 50:50 chance between two El Nino winter types: mild as hell, and Snowpocalypse. I’m not saying this means Snowpocalypse, but ugh.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

How to sneeze with mashed potatoes in your mouth: 1 quick and easy lesson!

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Oh, I know! I used to keep track of my boosters by “Fall of a year ending in X” based on my grad school dose. I got one in 2025, sooner than needed; perhaps you can guess why. (And I’m glad I’m now at a place that offers TDaP boosters; my last old-skool doc offered only TD after a certain point.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Same! I got a TDaP and MMR on the same day, to complete my enrollment in graduate school. (And lo, I did need that 2nd MMR shot.) Easier than tracking down my childhood vax records in that all-paper era! Surprised they didn’t want meningitis vax as well, but I think that came in a little later.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I once had a boss who liked to respond to binary questions with “Great, thanks.“ That was not an option, my guy, thank you for being so blatant about your shitty reading comprehension. He wondered why I got snippy with him the third time in one afternoon. But of course bosses like that never learn.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Holy shit, I know a staffer at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH, 81st annual meeting) who needs to be fired: 1000 people wandering around the Hynes/Pru complex with lanyards sporting “Strength Through Unity.” Fascist cosplay? They were all wearing suits.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This bout of morning insomnia is brought to you by the closures of BOS runway 9/27 (i.e. 90 and 270 degrees, or east-west) for the installation of Whoopsie Gravel to arrest overruns. Great in theory, but now ALL the west coast red-eyes approach Logan directly over my house at 5am.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You are right! We even use gas for hot water and my stove and dryer (i.e. we’re piped for it), and oil was STILL the cheaper solution for heating the building.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Yeah, we looked into natural gas when we replaced the (6-unit) furnace in 2015, and oil was still cheaper then, by a lot. I last looked into heat pumps in 2024, and… yeah, no, we’d need to spend half a million on draft-proofing and electrical upgrades first! We’re stick with oil for some years yet.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

FWIW, I had a birch die on me a few years back, and waited for the stump to rot (no plan, just learning), and lo, I thought the birch grew back! It did not. Now I have a volunteer/invasive white mulberry. (Someday I’ll replace it: maybe a prunus.)

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I have a 40-year-old oak in my yard, not sure what kind but I think red. Really big canopy, quick growth, but the shade it gives is dappled: I can grow things under it that just die under a Norway maple. (Columbines, wild-type bleedinghearts, daylilies.) It drops a branch every now and then.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I wonder where the pee variations originate. My Navy kin always said piss up my leg, not down my back!

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I assume it’s not literally terroir, but temp/atmo/rain that decides whether a variety tastes true outside its origin region, or not. I’ve hated all the Honeycrisps I’ve tried that are not actually from the upper Midwest. Local heritage cultivars for the win.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Bah, they’re mushy right off the tree. (In central Mass.) I’ll still eat them while I’m in the orchard, and someday I’ll buy/make myself a cider press, but the ones I take home are the Macouns.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

They’re so mushy tho! I only use Macs for cooking although I’ve had (exactly once) a Mac-only soft apple cider, which was fan-effing-tastic. But Honeycrisps are too sweet; what you really need for eating is a Macoun.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Asian pears. Apple texture, pear flavor. Very juicy even when the flesh is firm, tough skin. Sweet but not too much so. I like the smaller varieties, ripe off the tree if you can get them. They do grow well in the Northeast US!

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

First* of the fall varietal apples: Paula Red. Flesh softish but not too mushy, a bit tart but not strongly so. A good all-around apple. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Red * Zestar, Ginger Gold, I know. I just don’t care about either of those.

en.wikipedia.org

Paula Red - Wikipedia

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Interesting book, but I recommend reading it rather than listening if you find it annoying how an author reading his own work can completely mangle the name “Monongahela” every time he says it. Some authors-readers are more suited to it than others! share.libbyapp.com/title/10215213

share.libbyapp.com

The Infernal Machine

A fast-burning fuse of a book, every page bursting with revelatory detail. - ERIK LARSONA sweeping account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York and the detective duo who transforme...

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Also, “fun“ fact, J. Edgar Hoover was a librarian before he joined the FBI (age 24, during WWI) and his superpower was bringing cataloging prowess to disorganized files on anarchists. He had a particular hate/ambition in his heart for Emma Goldman, and marshalled his powers to get her deported.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Here’s at the end of Labor Day, I am here to tell you that Nellie Bly and Emma Goldman overlapped in life?? Like, they met and Bly interviewed Goldman for a profile. (Also Goldman spent like 5 years running a lunch counter and doing free love in Worcester in the 1890s????) What a life she had.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Why is spinach dip so hideous to look at, but so delicious?

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I was working at Harvard when Kanye West, now Ye, showed up unannounced at the Design School on a Sunday and gave a speech to the students who (ofc) were at work there. Note that the Design School is for architecture/urban planning, and not fashion design, his apparent interest. All were nonplussed.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I voted by mail, more than two weeks ago. (And getting a mailed ballot is uh the reason I knew the primary date.) It’s super weird to see those low numbers, though!

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This morning I had cause to staple up my petticoat hem, so it wouldn’t be visible below my skirt. …It worked! But it’s proof I need to do some major pintucks on the petticoat for it to be useful.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I also feel like my exposure to foreign morphemes is based 80% of watching movies with their original sound. I can’t always reproduce what I’m hearing (especially not at first), but it’s nice to hear sounds that don’t exist in English and recognize their parallels in different languages.

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Glowria Shine @pearlyescent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I really enjoy the prosody and intonation of languages I don’t know well, and it feels like a real accomplishment to start hearing word boundaries based solely on matching the subtitle to the sounds. (Also subtitles are an art; they’re usually shortened vs. the script so they can be read quickly!)

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