Auntie G
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auntieg.bsky.social
Auntie G
@auntieg.bsky.social
58 followers 280 following 380 posts
Philly native, transplant to Chicago. Birding, books, and bikes are my thing… and a changing list of odd corners of history. (Oh, and if you get a chance, read the text of Lincoln's speech at the Cooper Union - it'll give you chills.)
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auntieg.bsky.social
Currently reading "Children of Ash and Elm" (Neil Price). Fascinating subject, delightful prose.

Scandinavia had such a wonderfully weird culture that when relatable bits break through it's wonderful. Time to take it back from ignorant posers who'd twist & pervert it to purposes of white supremacy.
Cover to "Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings" by Neil Price, alongside a quote: "The week ended with a day that in English is named after a Roman god, Saturnus. But in the Scandinavian languages, is still Lørdag, derived from the old Norse word for a hot thermal spring. In other words, bath night."
March 17, 2025 at 10:56 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
The next Chicago SF book discussion pick is "The Stardust Grail", by Yume Kitasei. We'll meet on April 26 at 2 PM at the Oak Park (IL) Library. (To attend online, see reply.)

We'll also pick the featured books for May, June, July, and August at the next mtg. (Probably 2025 Hugo nominees.)
1/3
Cover to the novel "The Stardust Grail" by Yume Kitasei
March 17, 2025 at 10:37 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
I just finished "Service Model" by @aptshadow.bsky.social this book last week.

Holy $!@% it's amazing. A hilariously sharp social satire, thoroughly original characters, and an ending that rejects nihilism.

Just in case anyone is looking to fill a slot on their "Best Novel of 2024" Hugo ballot.
Cover art for the US edition of "Service Model", the 2024 novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky Cover art for the UK edition of "Service Model", the 2024 novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky
March 11, 2025 at 10:30 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
You know how there are some authors who are really great at a lot of types of writing, but should NEVER EVER attempt to write a sex scene?

T. Kingfisher is NOT one of those authors.

Oh, my!

[Rushes out to order the three prior books in this series...]
Cover art for "Paladin's Faith", a novel by T. Kingfisher
February 24, 2025 at 1:01 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
The next Chicago SF book discussion pick is "The Ministry of Time", by Kaliane Bradley. We'll meet on March 15 at 2 PM at the Oak Park (IL) Library. (To attend online, see reply.)

We'll also pick the April book at the next mtg. (Hint: We hope to predict a 2025 Hugo nominee.)

1/3
Cover art for "The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley
February 10, 2025 at 2:06 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Chapter 1: Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. - Timothy Snyder, in "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century"
January 27, 2025 at 4:04 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
I have to do this periodically, but...

Once more for the stupid people:
January 24, 2025 at 9:21 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Some of my friends and I have for years used the phrase "Oh, Pudsy, make him stop!".

I've looked on and off for years to find the source, and finally found it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqRk...
November 16, 2024 at 8:41 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Nikole, I see you're still pretending to know what you're talking about based on your misunderstanding of a badly-written general article about a different award.

I pointed you to the WSFS website. Wasn't it you who insisted "intelligent" people check references?
www.google.com/search?q=wor...
Screen-shot from a section of the website for the World Science Fiction Society, the literary society that is the umbrella organization for the individual annual conventions which run the Hugo Awards. The Hugo Awards are presented annually for superlative work in 16-19 categories (depending on the year and how you count them), including fiction but not limited to editing, graphic narrative works, visual art, dramatic presentations, and related non-fiction. The awards make no distinction among the marketing categories like "science fiction", "fantasy", "magic realism", or "mythology", requiring only that the works be a form of speculative fiction. Bottom line: People who insist that the Hugo Award is only for "science fiction" not only don't have their facts straight about this subject, they don't even understand what subject their talking about.
January 26, 2024 at 1:05 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
And since you've multiple times demonstrated a tendency to confidently assert factual errors, I'll give you some advice:

Next time, you presume to dismiss someone else's story (ie, call them a liar), check you facts at the ACTUAL home page.

Google is your friend: www.google.com/search?q=wor...
January 24, 2024 at 5:53 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
November 26, 2023 at 8:14 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
Discovered a magic elixir at last night’s Thanksgiving feast. Smooth, goes down easy, tastes lovely (none of the acetone taste I can’t stand in most clear liquors), warms you up almost immediately.
Mmmmmmmmmmm.
November 24, 2023 at 8:10 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
As of time of posting, there is zero evidence reported by legitimate news services that this is anything but someone whose bad automotive maintenance caused problems at exactly the worst location.

This is why we can't have nice things.

(reported & blocked)
Screenshot of a Bluesky post on Nov. 22 at 1:53 PM with the author name blocked out. Blames (with zero evidence as of the time of posting) a car explosion on Palestinian terrorists. One misspelling, two failures of capitalization, one instance of missing punctuation, and an assumption based in bigotry. Quote: "In what appears to be a palistinian [sic] terrorist attack, a vehicle has detonated on the Rainbow bridge (a Canadian and US border crossing)"
November 22, 2023 at 8:30 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
This entire thread is magnificent. And kind of hilarious.

__________________
FYI: It's a little long, and Blsky doesn't quite do threads very well yet, so I STRONGLY recommend viewing it with your settings with "Oldest reply first" and "threaded view - yes" selected.
Diagram on how to choose "Threaded mode" on a desktop (the app on phones might be different, can't help you there). 1. Go to Settings, 2. choose "Thread Preferences", and once that's open, 3. under the first group of options, "Sort replies", choose "Oldest replies first", 4. and under the heading "Threaded Mode" toggle to "Yes".
November 22, 2023 at 2:13 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Well, that’s a relief!
Negative Covid test
November 20, 2023 at 10:25 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
I was watching the film "1776".

There's a great moment: John Adams had asked his wife in Boston to make saltpeter for the army, and she wondered how to get it all.

Later on, barrels of the stuff are delivered to him -- compliments of multiple small women's groups.

Which got me thinking…

1/2
Screenshot of the lyrics from the Broadway musical-turned-movie, "1776", specifically the lyrics to "Compliments", in which the character of Abigail Adams sings: Compliments of the Concord Ladies Coffee Club, And the Sisterhood of the Truro Synagogue, And the Friday Evening Baptist Sewing Circle, And the Holy Christian Sisters of Saint Claire
November 20, 2023 at 8:58 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
It’s the season for trying out new cookie recipes to get ready for the season of bringing goodies to holiday parties! Nom, nom, nom!

Recipe to follow.
Photo of two small pieces of cranberry cake.
November 16, 2023 at 7:50 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!
November 12, 2023 at 1:06 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
Screen shot of a Tweet from Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA 36th), dated 9:04 EST November 8, 2023, stating: We are facing a looming government shutdown in 9 days. So what is @HouseGOP having us vote on tonight? —Amendment that “Prohibits funds from being used to produce official documents containing the term ‘latinx’ or ‘latin-x’”. House Republicans are not serious people.
November 9, 2023 at 7:21 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
And then after this weekend, Chicago-SF has Dec., Jan., & Feb'ry planned out, before spending the summer on Hugo nominees.
— — —
I've been wanting to do a meeting on The Doors of Eden for years. It's beautiful, goofy, mind-blowing, scary, funny, indescribable.

Plus I always knew not to trust cats.
Picture of the cover of Terry Pratchett's fantasy novel "Hogfather". Picture of the cover of Adrian Tchaikovsky's 2020 Sideways Award-winning alternative history novel "The Doors of Eden". Picture of the 30th anniversary cover of Lois McMaster Bujold's 1986 science fiction novel "The Warrior's Apprentice", the first of Bujold's works about her wildly popular character Miles Vorkosigan. (Preceded in the overall series by "Shards of Honor", about Miles' mother.) Symbol for the Hugo Award, presented annually by the World Science Fiction Convention for the best works in speculative fiction (novels, short fiction, drama, graphic stories and related works, as well as editorial and publishing work). The book meetings hosted by Chicago-SF try to cover as many of the six Hugo-nominated novels as we can before voting closes (usually by the end of July).
November 9, 2023 at 2:14 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Chicago-SF book group will feature "The Mote in God's Eye" on Saturday.

Our monthly meetings are usually on the 3rd Saturday at the Oak Park Library & online via Discord. This one will be at the Windycon SF convention, but is open to anyone joining online.

Click on Alt text for details.
Illustration is the cover of the book "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle. The Chicago-SF group will be holding it monthly book discussion at a special time (4 pm on Saturday, November 11) and special location: at the Windycon science fiction convention (link to the convention in the follow-up post). The meeting is free and open to all who wish to join in via our Discord channel. A link will be provided shortly before the meeting. See also the "Chicago-SF" Facebook page. As always, this discussion is free and open to anybody and everybody. This meetup is hybrid -- we meet both in-person at the Oak Park Public library and online via Discord. A link with which to log on will be published shortly before the meeting. Follow my feed for notices of future meetings, that normally take place once a month (usually the 3rd Saturday) at both the Oak Park Public Library and via our online Discord channel.
November 9, 2023 at 12:38 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Series of photos from the last scene in "Field of Dreams", with captioning showing Kevin Costner's character asking, "Hey, Dad? Wanna monitor each other's porn intake?" Dad replies, "I'd like that."
November 6, 2023 at 1:12 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
Street biking will never be safe if traffic regs = written solely for motorized traffic. Many make no sense for cyclists, some actively endanger us

This means a big % of cyclists just ignore those laws—consequently motorists insist bikes don't belong on the road at all, many try to run us off.

PS:
Two photographs showing 1) lanes on the street painted green for bicycles, separated from motorized traffic by a raised 18 inch-wide cement barrier, with the caption "This is a bike lane", and 2) A lane on a wide (6 other lanes) road, separated from the motorized traffic by nothing but a painted white line on the asphalt, with the caption "This is free parking".
November 5, 2023 at 7:31 PM
auntieg.bsky.social
A quote from the novel "Jingo", by Terry Pratchett: “It was much better to imagine men in some smokey room somewhere, made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over brandy. You had to cling to this sort of image, because if you didn't then you might have to face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who brushed the dog and told the children bed time stories, were capable of then going out and doing horrible things to other ordinary people. It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was Us, then what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.”
November 5, 2023 at 3:19 AM
auntieg.bsky.social
This.

The sheer tonnage of historical ignorance that goes into leftist analysis these days is just breathtaking.

I expect people on the right not to care about facts, because (at least since Trump) that's not really their thing.

But, oh my own people, you are making me want to tear my hair out…
Screen shot from Twitter of the following exchange (from November 4, 2023): Armand Domalewski: From what I’m gathering in the comments and quote tweets here, there is a not insignificant amount of people who think that a) all Jews are European and b) all white people should live in Europe and Europe only Reply from Noah Smith: Western leftists know nothing about Israel or Palestine, so of course they imagine Israelis to be mostly white transplants from the U.S. or Europe, instead of brown Jewish descendants of refugees from religious persecution elsewhere in the Middle East.
November 4, 2023 at 9:15 PM