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Vicki Madden

@vlmadden.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.1K following 3.8K posts

Teacher, very slow writer, lover of libraries & trains. Essays: Heart Problems in A Public Space (Pushcart Notable) and The New York Times Rewilding my 1/3 acre garden, mending and darning socks and my little corner of the world vickimadden.net

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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 16m
This is extremely disappointing. I am currently in France where you can use a coin or a credit card to use a public toilet. How could this design and purchasing process gone one with so many people along the way and nobody questioned this absurd smartphone-centered vision of peeing?
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“If we were to think about work in terms of our humanity — making people feel dignified, valued, and whole — then caregiving is the most important work we can do with our time on earth.” Angela Garbes I'm lighting candles in cathedrals for leaders who care for human dignity, freedom, equality.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Some informed and sensible thinking (yes, actual thinking!) on the AI topic: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | How Scared Should We Be of A.I. Right Now?
The dark and distressing way that Silicon Valley talks about A.I. can be traced to a philosophy that influenced many tech executives.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 16/09/2026
Here's this week's Better Offline: I'm joined by Cal Newport and @adambecker.bsky.social to get the word out that the narrative about existential risk from AI is driven by a religious cult of effective altruists and rationalists. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVS... linktr.ee/betteroffline
youtube.com
Stopping The AI Safety Cult ft. Adam Becker & Cal Newport | Better Offline
YouTube video by Better Offline
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Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 28/09/2026
Here’s the most incredible story you’ll read today. A small plane with four people aboard crashes in a field. Another pilot witnesses it. That pilot happens to be flying a bunch of skydivers. They offer to jump to assist, are given permission. The skydivers happen to be EMTs. Everyone survives.
wisn.com
Skydivers alert emergency crews, assist after plane crashes near East Troy airport
Four people were aboard the single-engine plane when it went down in a cornfield near Carvers School Road in East Troy at about 1:30 p.m.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is so useful for teachers + presenters of all kinds. Most important: the point of slides is to help listeners follow along. In the case of classes, when you break for table talking and application/work time, there should be directions on the slide. People can't remember every word you said!
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Well, one of my Montana Noir family history essays is on the short list at The Masters Review! Ramona Ausubel will choose 10 for an anthology. "Two Black Eyes and a Long Tail" explores my grandparents on Crow land and broken promises and misogyny. Fun stuff! mastersreview.com/best-emergin...
mastersreview.com
Best Emerging Writers 2026 Shortlist! - The Masters Review
Guest Judge Ramona Ausubel is in possession of the final thirty submissions for this year's Best Emerging Writers anthology! Congratulations to all of our writers on the shortlist below, and thank you...
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This aired just the once in 1998 on the live SNL show for which McKay wrote it. It was effectively banned as it never aired again. I wonder why. MEDIA-OPOLY
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Sustainable Farming @sustainablefarming.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
An excellent new video with Benedict Cumberbatch explaining how we can sustainably live on Earth. Already in the first 6 minutes we see the devastating effects on farming from pesticide use since the 1980s: we now have to hand pollinate crops because the bees are gone.
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Edward Hopper @edwardhopper.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Sea and Rocky Shore - 1916 botfrens.com/collections/173/conten…
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Just re-reading a little literary horror, Northanger Abbey.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
At last, some good news!
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I resigned from ExxonMobil today. I spent the last three years doing fossil fuel extraction research at both BP and ExxonMobil. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing to maximize extraction while the window to act closes, and gambling with our lives. More below.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
2001 as we were -- Everything Changes, the Buddhists tell us, so what does it mean to Never Forget? I wrote a little something. vickimadden.net?page_id=178
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Everything Changes, the Buddhists tell us, so what does it mean to Never Forget? Only 1/3 of people now living in NYC were here on 9/11. People die and move away. Others are born or move here from elsewhere. I remember that day vividly, but perhaps not forever. I was home, listening to @wnyc.org
vickimadden.net
Vicki Madden
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The Real Work It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. -Wendell Berry
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
“It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.” Wendell Berry
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A Tree Pit Grows in Brooklyn I planted. Dog pee, exhaust, trash, drought ensued. Yet: monarch caterpillars! Where is the nearest patch of asclepius? Maybe their twitching antennae will lead them. No matter how hopeless things look, take your little local action. #nativegardening #gardening
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The wrong old people keep dying.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The wrong old people keep dying
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In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 01/09/2026
Railroad workers, independent water testers, whistleblowers, and poisoned communities are realizing they're up against the same playbook. A @maximillianalvarez.bsky.social moderatted roundtable from the @rwu-org.bsky.social convention on why solidarity across these fights is the only way forward.
inthesetimes.com
How Communities Poisoned by Data Centers and Toxic Spills Can Stand Together
“No one's coming to save these communities. They have to fight for themselves.”
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
After 9/11, which was very local (2 men on our block died, including a firefighter), I shared this piece with friends. Some wrote back, angry, refuting the idea that there was anything to learn except that very evil people attacked us. Re-reading it now, I feel like it's hard to argue with.
orionmagazine.org
Thoughts in the Presence of Fear - Orion Magazine
Life in the wake of 9/11
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A rebellious teenager, Wendell was sent to Millersburg Military Institute, a boarding school near Lexington. He hated it. “The highest aim,” he recalled, “was to produce a perfectly obedient, militarist, puritanical moron who could play football.”
nytimes.com
Wendell Berry, Writer Who Extolled America’s Agrarian Past, Dies at 92 (Gift Article)
A Kentucky farmer, he railed against agribusiness and championed small family farms and the environment, winning widespread acclaim.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
When I posted this, I didn't know Berry had died. In 2000, I sat next to him at a Luddite Conference in Ohio. I was 8 months pregnant. There were Quakers, Amish, Mennonites, Catholic Workers, hippies from California, preppers. Berry's clarity about the place of place and our connection to it endures
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Emily Green @chanceofrain.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A lovely essay about the possibilities of an eighth of an acre #nativegardening #gardening www.nutsfornatives.com/post/tom-hor...
nutsfornatives.com
Tom Horton: Inspiration from the Chronicler of the Heart and Soul of the Chesapeake Native Plants
Tom Horton Native Plants
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Be joyful though you have considered the facts. Practice resurrection.” Wendell Berry
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Watching this film, combined with all my reading about Dolly Parton's incredible accomplishments especially all the ways she financially supported those in need, has me contemplating how I can live out more fully my complete self, this one wild & precious life. www.thirteen.org/programs/ame...
thirteen.org
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World | American Masters
Celebrate the life and career of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mary Oliver. Shaped by a solitary childhood and rising literary fame, Oliver published more than 30 collections of poetry and essays on n...
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I planted a tree pit garden last year. I winter sowed asclepius tuberosa (butterfly weed)-they really bloomed this year. There is a little monarch caterpillar! In spite of people cutting down my twine fence, dogs pee, trash and cigarette butts, car exhaust, irregular water! #nativegardening #TryIt!
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Barb McQuade @barbmcquade.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The ability of billionaires to influence our politics has destroyed our democracy. So much for one person one vote. They are buying elections. We need a constitutional amendment to rid ourselves of the poison of Buckley v Valeo and Citizens United. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Meet the Megadonors Who Have Poured $1.2 Billion Into the Midterms (Gift Article)
The leaderboard of the top 20 donors is dominated by the tech industry and ultrawealthy Republicans.
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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Dolly Parton becomes the only artist in history to occupy the entire Top 10 of US iTunes with different songs.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
As it should be
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Ross Johnson @rosserford.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We’re going to hear about how everyone loved Dolly, and that feels true. But it’s good to remember, and to her credit, that she was attacked for her AIDS activism, her vaccine advocacy, her LGBTQ+ support and even, more recently, for her reading initiatives. She ALWAYS stood firm when it mattered.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
“We’ll grow our way out of it.” 🇺🇸
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Mark Jones @markjonesmotion.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Fun fact: Dolly Parton spent decades quietly funding band uniforms and instruments at Black high schools across the South - never once putting her name on it. No headlines, no fanfare — just help, given because it was needed. Wonderful Heart ♥️ RIP Dolly ❤️
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Patrick Skinner @pmskinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Live your life so that upon your death people talk about you like they’re talking about Dolly Parton right now.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Featuring Murder Ballads, which seem new to Jad A. but anybody who listens to old-time music knows there are tons of songs about men killing the women they claim to love. Knoxville Girl is one of zillions of murder ballads. overcast.fm/+BCKycFOwIc
overcast.fm
Sad Ass Songs — Dolly Parton's America
We begin with a simple question: How did the queen of the boob joke become a feminist icon? Helen Morales, author of “Pilgrimage to Dollywood,” gave us a stern directive – look at the lyrics! So we di...
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If you didn’t read this superb Mary Townsend piece on Dolly Parton when it first came out, now is the time. @plough.bsky.social www.plough.com/articles/dol...
plough.com
Dolly Parton Is Magnificent | Plough
The beloved Tennessee singer-songwriter gets the joke. Do the rest of us?
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Daniel Radosh @radosh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Republicans have spent the last year trying to defund Dolly Parton
article about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Indianaarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Kentuckyarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Missouriiarticle about proposed GOP cuts to Imagination Library in Washington
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 25/08/2026
Yeah, it sucks to lose a brave person in an era of cowards. I think of her and want to be a little more brave.
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Blue Oleta @blue-oleta.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
And you definitely don't want to use a high-powered 532nm green laser, because it can permanently burn and disable digital camera CMOS or CCD sensors. Green light is absorbed at a very high efficiency by these electronic sensors, meaning concentrated beams easily melt or overload the pixel array.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
He was my Modern Fiction professor at Columbia in 1980. I still have my notebook. That class still influences how I read --that and the year-long Shakespeare course with Ted Tayler. All these years later, I am still gobsmacked by how lucky I was to study literature at Barnard & Columbia.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
We are hosting an event at Catskill Public Library tomorrow! Thursday, 8/20 5:00 pm where we'll learn how and why of seed-saving. I've saving a bunch from plants from @catskillnative.bsky.social which immediately thrive every time #nativegardening #CatskillNY #gardening
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
“Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” – C.G. Jung
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This is just out and it's great (I got to read the UK edition, which came out earlier). The revolution of our time in biology is the recognition of interconnection, symbiosis, and arguably there's a social and imaginative revolution along the same lines....
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I'm sorry but at times I must post about things other than gardening or astrology.
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace."
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Some local plants in these days of August #nativeplants #nativegardening
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
So often we know about the destructive racist events, but not about the brilliant organizing that built Black wealth and community. #historymatters
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Vicki Madden @vlmadden.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
My grandmother lived on her own to 97, and I aspire to 100, but realistically for every Violet H, there are so many people in their 90s outliving their ability and agency. I know many, also their kids. Violet Hensley Dies at 109; Ozarks Fiddler Made Opry Debut at 99 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/a...
nytimes.com
Violet Hensley Dies at 109; Ozarks Fiddler Made Opry Debut at 99
She performed old-time mountain music at the Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson, Mo., for more than 50 years and appeared on “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
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