Karen Packard Rhodes
@kprhodes.bsky.social
Retired historian and genealogist. Six college degrees! I love learning. I also love genealogy: New England, Canada (Stanstead Co., Que.), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and California. Books, cats & dogs.
We have just passed the worst week of our lives in a long time. Husband of a friend, a young man still, died. One of my dearest friends, who I had just found was also my cousin, died. IRS says we owe lots more, and that's baloney. Going to war on that one. And more . . . I'm a mess.
January 9, 2026 at 7:53 AM
We have just passed the worst week of our lives in a long time. Husband of a friend, a young man still, died. One of my dearest friends, who I had just found was also my cousin, died. IRS says we owe lots more, and that's baloney. Going to war on that one. And more . . . I'm a mess.
Proud of my Indiana roots!
We haven't seen an Indiana squad turn back an Alabama offense this decisively since Antietam
January 2, 2026 at 11:39 PM
Proud of my Indiana roots!
Reposted by Karen Packard Rhodes
Jan 1: this is the year of new Me
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
January 1, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Jan 1: this is the year of new Me
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital
Reposted by Karen Packard Rhodes
For God's sake, don't get sick in 2026!
Gavin Newsom's Epic New Year's MTV Trump Troll
YouTube video by scaredketchup
www.youtube.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:14 PM
For God's sake, don't get sick in 2026!
My first entry in the 2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge:
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2026/01/2026...
#ReadNonFicChal
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2026/01/2026...
#ReadNonFicChal
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge: Hillbilly Highway -- a 20th century migration
Number one among my posts in the the 2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. My category is that of a Nonfiction Grazer, the description of w...
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:47 PM
My first entry in the 2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge:
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2026/01/2026...
#ReadNonFicChal
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2026/01/2026...
#ReadNonFicChal
Got one of those late 19th/early20th century compiled biographies of notable citizens of wherever? Check it. Many of those biographies are . . . "embellished." Here's a case study: karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/how-...
How Accurate is That Biography, Anyhow?
Karen Packard Rhodes's Genealogy Blog
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com
January 2, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Got one of those late 19th/early20th century compiled biographies of notable citizens of wherever? Check it. Many of those biographies are . . . "embellished." Here's a case study: karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/how-...
Fun exercise for my book blog: Sum up My Life in Books 2025, with snarky answers to silly and fun prompts. autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/12/my-l...
My Life in Books 2025
This is a fun little exercise devised by Shellyrae at Book'd Out Here are the instructions: Complete the prompts using titles from th...
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Fun exercise for my book blog: Sum up My Life in Books 2025, with snarky answers to silly and fun prompts. autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/12/my-l...
GeniAus (Jill Ball) provides a blogging prompt each year-end, Accentuate the Positive. Here's my post on the subject for this fading year: karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/geni...
GeniAus's Accentuate the Positive for 2025
Karen Packard Rhodes's Genealogy Blog
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
GeniAus (Jill Ball) provides a blogging prompt each year-end, Accentuate the Positive. Here's my post on the subject for this fading year: karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/geni...
I've actually been doing some blogging! I tried FamilySearch.org new Simple Search feature. Oh, my goodness, the hours I spent with the records it provided on a number of my ancestors! #familysearch.org #SimpleSearch #genealogy karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/fami...
FamilySearch's Simple Search: Simply Amazing
Karen Packard Rhodes's Genealogy Blog
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I've actually been doing some blogging! I tried FamilySearch.org new Simple Search feature. Oh, my goodness, the hours I spent with the records it provided on a number of my ancestors! #familysearch.org #SimpleSearch #genealogy karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/12/fami...
After the batterings of the past several years, I cannot wish "Happy New Year." The best I can wish you is survival.
December 31, 2025 at 3:36 PM
After the batterings of the past several years, I cannot wish "Happy New Year." The best I can wish you is survival.
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
—Bill Vaughan
(found on The Bluebird of Bitterness)
—Bill Vaughan
(found on The Bluebird of Bitterness)
December 31, 2025 at 3:35 PM
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
—Bill Vaughan
(found on The Bluebird of Bitterness)
—Bill Vaughan
(found on The Bluebird of Bitterness)
Humor blog Bluebird of Bitterness outdid itself today. Here's a gem, and, as an author, I can vouch for the truth of it!
December 5, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Humor blog Bluebird of Bitterness outdid itself today. Here's a gem, and, as an author, I can vouch for the truth of it!
Reposted by Karen Packard Rhodes
New in PN: A war criminal without a war
"We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. They can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging to wreckage for dear life are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder."
"We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. They can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging to wreckage for dear life are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder."
A war criminal without a war
It's just murder.
www.publicnotice.co
December 5, 2025 at 12:52 PM
New in PN: A war criminal without a war
"We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. They can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging to wreckage for dear life are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder."
"We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. They can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging to wreckage for dear life are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder."
It is sad to me that anyone has to be told this. It should just be part of one's critical faculties to figure this out. If we have to constantly check up on what AI tells us, why bother with it in the first place?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Don't blindly trust what AI tells you, Google boss tells BBC
Sundar Pichai candidly acknowledged concerns about inaccurate answers generated by Google's models.
www.bbc.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:57 AM
It is sad to me that anyone has to be told this. It should just be part of one's critical faculties to figure this out. If we have to constantly check up on what AI tells us, why bother with it in the first place?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reviving my books and writing blog by participating in the Nonfiction November Challenge.
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/10/nonf...
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/10/nonf...
Nonfiction November, or: CPR for My Neglected Blog
For a variety of reasons I won't belabor, I've not posted in this blog for a very long time. My apologies. I have decided to participate i...
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reviving my books and writing blog by participating in the Nonfiction November Challenge.
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/10/nonf...
autobiographyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2025/10/nonf...
Letter to my descendants: I was your "disruptive ancestor."
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/10/who-...
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/10/who-...
Who was the disruptive ancestor in your family?
Karen Packard Rhodes's Genealogy Blog
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Letter to my descendants: I was your "disruptive ancestor."
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/10/who-...
karenaboutgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/10/who-...
Nasty phishing: Telephone rings. You answer. Nobody there. DO NOT SAY ANYTHING. These jerks are recording voices to clone them for bad, bad scams. In voicemail, the same voice from many different numbers leaves a nothing message. Just delete and move on. Leave these life failures nothing.
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Nasty phishing: Telephone rings. You answer. Nobody there. DO NOT SAY ANYTHING. These jerks are recording voices to clone them for bad, bad scams. In voicemail, the same voice from many different numbers leaves a nothing message. Just delete and move on. Leave these life failures nothing.
Reposted by Karen Packard Rhodes
Three @theguardian.com books cartoons from previous halloweens: 1. Haunted Bookshop
October 31, 2025 at 5:58 PM
On my phone messages: "No donation ask. Should ICE be allowed to remove illegal criminals from our streets?"
My response: But what about the legal criminals? Let's not forget them.
My response: But what about the legal criminals? Let's not forget them.
October 31, 2025 at 3:56 PM
On my phone messages: "No donation ask. Should ICE be allowed to remove illegal criminals from our streets?"
My response: But what about the legal criminals? Let's not forget them.
My response: But what about the legal criminals? Let's not forget them.
I am and will firmly remain an AI skeptic. Get out your bullshit sensors if you use it.
www.cnet.com/tech/service...
www.cnet.com/tech/service...
Turns Out, AI Makes Stuff Up to Try to Make Us Happy
AI is being trained to please us, and in doing so, is becoming more indifferent to the truth.
www.cnet.com
October 5, 2025 at 10:24 AM
I am and will firmly remain an AI skeptic. Get out your bullshit sensors if you use it.
www.cnet.com/tech/service...
www.cnet.com/tech/service...
What a hoot! Banana Ball! The Savannah Bananas! Wikipedia article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna.... Total fun!
Savannah Bananas - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
September 7, 2025 at 6:29 AM
What a hoot! Banana Ball! The Savannah Bananas! Wikipedia article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna.... Total fun!
Left Facebook because Zuck chucked fact-checkers & DEI. Now I'm off Substack because apparently they aren't any better than Facebook about investigating complaints; they just suspend your account, accuse you of spam/scam/whatever, and make the appeal process too difficult. I don't need the stress.
September 7, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Left Facebook because Zuck chucked fact-checkers & DEI. Now I'm off Substack because apparently they aren't any better than Facebook about investigating complaints; they just suspend your account, accuse you of spam/scam/whatever, and make the appeal process too difficult. I don't need the stress.
I've been off for a while. Personal things. I'm trying to get back in the groove, but also trying to perfect the Art of Saying "No." Too much over-commitment has to stop. Ain't as young as I usedta be!
September 7, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I've been off for a while. Personal things. I'm trying to get back in the groove, but also trying to perfect the Art of Saying "No." Too much over-commitment has to stop. Ain't as young as I usedta be!
Scammer follies of 2025:
Got another text from Zoe the "local arborist here in San Rafael."
Previous texts were from TX and AZ. This one from MD, around Baltimore. She really gets around, doesn't she?
It would be funny, except that people actually fall for this nonsense.
Got another text from Zoe the "local arborist here in San Rafael."
Previous texts were from TX and AZ. This one from MD, around Baltimore. She really gets around, doesn't she?
It would be funny, except that people actually fall for this nonsense.
August 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Scammer follies of 2025:
Got another text from Zoe the "local arborist here in San Rafael."
Previous texts were from TX and AZ. This one from MD, around Baltimore. She really gets around, doesn't she?
It would be funny, except that people actually fall for this nonsense.
Got another text from Zoe the "local arborist here in San Rafael."
Previous texts were from TX and AZ. This one from MD, around Baltimore. She really gets around, doesn't she?
It would be funny, except that people actually fall for this nonsense.
Scammer follies of 2025 (2 of 2)
Each from different area code: TX and AZ. Don't live there, either. These fools buy lists and don't care to check the area codes; they just send their dumb xhit out to all and sundry. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Each from different area code: TX and AZ. Don't live there, either. These fools buy lists and don't care to check the area codes; they just send their dumb xhit out to all and sundry. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
August 5, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Scammer follies of 2025 (2 of 2)
Each from different area code: TX and AZ. Don't live there, either. These fools buy lists and don't care to check the area codes; they just send their dumb xhit out to all and sundry. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Each from different area code: TX and AZ. Don't live there, either. These fools buy lists and don't care to check the area codes; they just send their dumb xhit out to all and sundry. Dumb, dumb, dumb.