Darrel “Hope Is Alive” Plant
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darrelplant.bsky.social
Darrel “Hope Is Alive” Plant
@darrelplant.bsky.social
1.4K followers 500 following 8.5K posts
I was never enough of a been to be a has-been.

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darrelplant.bsky.social
We got her and her sister 2 years ago from a shelter as 3-month-olds and they‘ll still go into launch mode most of the time when you get within arm’s length.
A long haired tortoiseshell cat, tail arched, stands on the back of a blackberry-colored couch in front of a marigold wall and a set of lace curtains.
November 29, 2025 at 3:11 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Over on FaceBook (“The Other White Hellsite”), the Library of Congress posts the heartwarming Thanksgiving story of Rebecca the White House Raccoon, intended for a meal but treated as a pet by the Coolidge family and I’m reasonably certain if given to Trump would end up on RFK Jr.’s holiday table.
Image: Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, half-length portrait, standing, facing front, holding her pet raccoon Rebecca. Published between 1921 and 1923. National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. It doesn't feel like Thanksgiving until we've shared the story of Rebecca the raccoon. In 1926, Mississippi supporters of President Calvin Coolidge sent him a raccoon to kill and serve for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead, the first family adopted her. The Coolidge family, who also kept dogs and canaries, were kind pet owners and quickly built her a little house of her own. They let her roam the trees on the White House property. Her adventures were routinely reported in newspapers and she gained quite a bit of fame, making a star appearance at the 1927 Easter Egg Roll at the White House, for example. Otherwise, she often wandered around the White House at will. Her favorite activity, the first lady reported, was playing in a half-filled bath with a bar of soap. When Rebecca went out on the town with the first lady, she sported bling – an embroidered collar identifying her as the “White House Raccoon.” She vacationed with the first family, escaped often, and pretty much ruled in the way she saw fit until heading off to a graceful retirement at the Rock Creek Zoo (now the National Zoo) when Coolidge left office in 1929.
November 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
A rusty light yellow light truck with a magnetic door sign (red on white) reading “Pizza Planet Delivery Vehicle”
November 27, 2025 at 3:55 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Movie still of Hellboy as a child. Small horned demon with an outsized right hand, standing between two people mostly out of frame on either side. On the left the person carries a carbine with a cross on a chain dangling from the end of the barrel.
November 27, 2025 at 3:24 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Sometimes fall hits all at once.
Small tree in the parking strip next to a red SUV. The tree is bereft of leaves but the ground beneath the tree is covered with yellow leaves to the point where the grass is hidden within a three-foot radius of the trunk.
November 26, 2025 at 10:09 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Combining "alien" and "yeti": the Mugato draws an even taller line
November 26, 2025 at 12:05 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
I made my first pies in like 50 years this summer and they were rhubarb and they were glorious.
November 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
How many avocados can I trade for a new phone?
November 25, 2025 at 9:19 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Coming soon, my Trending Rankings
Bluesky's Trending items from 4:14PM Pacific 24 Nov 2025 Star Wars Rankings James Come Charlie Brown The Archers DOGE Shutdown
November 25, 2025 at 12:15 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
You know why he's mad…
jmail.world/thread/HOUSE...
November 21, 2025 at 11:27 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Miss Kitty’s going to that Backyard in the Sky in a little bit. Her original owners got her at the pound, then brought her back after several years when they got a puppy for Christmas. Renamed Noël, my sister-in-law had her as a first pet for several years after her husband died… 1/3
November 20, 2025 at 11:15 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Sunset from the tarmac flying out of Kona, Hawai’i two years ago today after a week on the Big Island with my dad.
November 20, 2025 at 9:49 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Is this like how I want to go back and tell 14-year-old me to stick with D&D because 50 years later there are actual dungeonmaster jobs?
November 20, 2025 at 1:37 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Sorry, rain forests.
AI-generated satirical image for the cover of a game titled SimWhiteHouse, showing cartoon trees, a circular drive and fountain, and a building resembling the White House with one end being demolished by a large excavator.
November 19, 2025 at 10:09 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Uh, okay…
Screen capture from the Peacock streaming app Header reading: Because You Watched Late Night with Seth Meyers The Mist Dead Silence The People Under the Stairs The Hitcher The Skeleton Key The Visit
November 19, 2025 at 7:41 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Temu Toht
November 18, 2025 at 11:52 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
I do kind of enjoy shooting, but I haven’t touched a gun in 15+ years and it was 30 years the time before that. My mother’s HS had a rifle range in the basement; she had a sharpshooting medal.
November 18, 2025 at 12:29 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
So there's a National Geographic story about research into human hibernation and has nobody seen what happens when you wake up from space sleep?

• Kirk strands you on planet
• Gentle-voiced computer kills your crew
• Acid-blood monsters try to kill you

Don't invent the Torment Hibernator!
2-page spread from the November 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine Searching for Sleep Mode The image is the head and upper chest of a reclining figure wearing a plastic body suit and a clear, plastic helmet with an air hose attached.
November 17, 2025 at 10:13 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
"Computer: He desired. He desired desiring. He desired being desired. He desired desire itself…"
November 17, 2025 at 7:43 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?

(Technically, it was the next calendar year, but this came out a month after I turned 16.)
November 17, 2025 at 5:52 AM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Currently working on a truly hideous mustache
November 16, 2025 at 5:28 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
@noisycrow.bsky.social points out her fave dish includes carrots, celery, and some mushroom. We ran across it at a restaurant in downtown, then when they were closing in 2014 she asked the owner if he knew anywhere she could find it, and he begrudgingly mentioned an ex-chef’s place in the ‘burbs.
November 15, 2025 at 10:14 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
We used to have a real (smart) country…
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Oh, come on…the article—arguing that ‘A House of Dynamite’ and other nuclear war-related movies have soft-peddled the effects—is fine, but someone put that photo on it.
Nameplate from a New York Times Opinion article: What ‘A House of Dynamite’ Didn’t Show By Spencer Cohen Mr. Cohen is an editorial assistant in Opinion. The photo shows a young man with round glasses and a helmet of straight reddish hair with bangs touching the top of his glasses.
November 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM
darrelplant.bsky.social
Friday at last.
November 15, 2025 at 5:07 AM