Ellen Hokanson
LightNews LightNews
banner
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Ellen Hokanson
@ellenhokanson.bsky.social
4.6K followers 3.3K following 4K posts
She/her.
Writing a #HistoricalNovel for #MiddleGrade + about cross-cultural friendship and misunderstanding in 1824 London.

Alt text:
A white woman on a seashore.
A 1950s photo of a mom reading a book (unseen) to 4, 2, and 6-year-old kids.
Posts Replies Media Videos
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
What on earth is Gmail doing here?

Slapping a Phishing warning on the daily news analysis columns of historian Heather Cox Richardson!

Don’t click those links to primary sources she always provides!

Someone’s reporting, targeting her loud mouth.
Screenshot of my most recent email from historian Heather Cox Richardson (a free letter analyzing the current situation in US politics), with a bright red warning box over it from Gmail. The text in the box says “This message might be dangerous. Many people marked similar messages as phishing scams, so this might contain unsafe content. Avoid clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information.” Then there’s a toggle: Report dangerous /Looks safe.
November 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Lucky enough to marry someone who’ll do a tedious task to make your beloved dining room a little less dinged-up by its long life.
The not-square corner of a room with a curved wall painted a pale golden color. Sunshine comes in a tall white-painted window, multi-paned in the Craftsman style. There’s a step stool, a taller oak stool, a piece of sandpaper on the windowsill, a whole lot of white patches up both sides of the corner line, and more patch marks on the ceiling.
October 21, 2025 at 4:04 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
The last half cucumber of a great cucumber season. Sweet in more ways than one.
A half cucumber, peel still on, awaits its fate on a cutting board.
October 21, 2025 at 12:58 AM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
New book came in the mail. 💙
The title page of an open book. The title is 107 Days. The author, Kamala Harris, has signed her name elegantly in blue ink.
September 23, 2025 at 8:34 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Sharing my captured advice
A bluesky member says “Don’t use StickerMule. They do great work but the owner is MAGA. Instead use StickerGiant.” He shares the website, www.stickergiant.com.
September 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
A map of the 2024 Texas presidential election results by county, showing the whole state red except the major cities and areas in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley, which voted blue.
August 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Hawaiian pidgin is using definition three. The Brits have definition one in mind.
A screenshot from the Merriam Webster dictionary shows three definitions for bugger as a noun. 1 is sodomite. 3 is a small or annoying thing.
August 5, 2025 at 10:27 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
One more! As she walked the aisle cleared through the crowd, a girl dropped her program. Senator Harris picked it up and returned itqwith a happy laugh that must’ve made the embarrassed girl feel fine.

August 2019, Denver

All three photos by Ellen Hokanson
Third in a series. Gym and crowd described in Alt Text for the first image. In this photo, Senator Harris is very close, laughing.
August 1, 2025 at 9:52 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Denver, August 2019
Another photo of Senator Kamala Harris in Denver in August 2019. See prior photo for full description. In this photo she is laughing and clapping.
August 1, 2025 at 9:41 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Denver 2019
A relatively close up photo of Senator Kamala Harris speaking in Denver in August 2019. She wears a white blazer with slacks. Behind her are about 10 layers of bleachers full of people (Denver VIPs) and in the foreground are the tops of a few diverse heads. The wall is painted with of other high schools that compete against Manual High School, whose gym this is. In this photo, her expression is solemn.
August 1, 2025 at 9:38 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Thanks. In Hilo, a town built on a mountainside with a coastal plain, the evacuation map looked like this an hour or so ago:
Shot of a news screen showing a map colored pink along most coastal edges of Hilo, HI. Pink indicates a tsunami evacuation zone.
July 30, 2025 at 4:41 AM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Thinking of my friends in Hilo and Keaukaha, and all windward coasts facing the tsunami.
Thinking also of those directly affected by the earthquake. 8.7 is SO BIG.
A shot of a TV screen showing the tsunami evacuation zone for part of East Hawai’i. A pink evacuation zone covers all of downtown and turns the corner toward the Puna coast.
July 30, 2025 at 2:35 AM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
A screenshot of the top of the bluesky profile of a person calling themselves “Bob” who appears to be a middle aged white man.
July 28, 2025 at 10:14 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
I’m real like the Velveteen Rabbit! Wait until my relatives see this!
A screenshot of the top of historian Heather Cox Richardson’s bluesky page, with the words “Follows you” circled in yellow highlighter and followed with an exclamation point.
July 28, 2025 at 5:24 AM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
I found a relevant recent message from him.
Text message to me (the aspiring author boasting of my progress): Your timing is most propitious, for I have the means to give you a vicarious good day. 14 years after I closed my store a woman just said didn’t you used to own the bookstore over there? Well…my boyfriend says that guy changed my life, I never knew what a joy reading could be till he steered me to a couple books. It’s why I’ve been reading ever since. Now THAT will make a man’s day, and hopefully his sister’s too.
July 16, 2025 at 3:16 AM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
A guy with a throbbing pickup paused to ask old epidemiologist husband what the flag meant.

OEH: Pride in LGBTQ folks.

TPG: Is it specific to trans people?

OEH: Nope. Pride in everybody.

TPG: Okay. (Drives away.)
Morning sun shines on a flower garden where an old man in a ballcap bends over, working. In the background, a string of little flags in a spectrum of colors hangs over an iron glider bench in a lattice-backed arbor. Behind the fence is a brick house. In the foreground, a large pride flag hangs over the flowers. It’s a rainbow flag with the triangular insert in stripes of black, brown, pale blue, and pale pink with a triangle of white. (Unseen is an equally large US flag mounted on the other corner of the porch.)
June 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
I did some serious momming for myself on my birthday. Baked the cake and it tasted right.
A woman with long white hair is smiling over a layer cake with white frosting and lit candles that say 72. A slice of layer cake on a yellow plate. It’s two layers of yellow cake with a thick layer of lime filling in between. The frosting is buttercream but I ran out so the middle is lime curd. Is your mouth watering yet?
June 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
As you say, boomers remember My Lai, with strong emotions. Courts treated the scapegoat for the massacre as a murderer, initially sentencing him to life in prison.

From Wikipedia:
YS District Court for the Middle District of Georgia granted him a new trial, but that ruling was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His initial life sentence having been modified to a term of 20 years and then further reduced to ten, Calley ultimately served three years of house arrest for the murders.
June 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Hey, it’s summer
The side of a old gray house is lined with blue-flowered catmint, a tumble of deep red roses and a tall Black Lace elderberry bush with maroon leaves and pale pink flowers. In the background is a wooden fence with an arched gate.
June 7, 2025 at 6:28 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Tell us more about how Harris’s failure belongs to her and the party, not us white Americans. Be sure to explain how it relates to the data here.
Two graphs show the voting performance of Black and White Americans in presidential elections since 1960. Harris got 42% of the white vote, better than any recent candidate except Obama 2008 (43%).
May 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
My firstborn son, the one who followed his heart to New Orleans, is almost middle-aged! I’m far away so I’m grateful to his beautiful co-worker for this.
A smiling baker, a Black woman in a Whole Foods headwrap, holds up a frosted birthday cake decorated with script that says “39 Feeling Fine.”
May 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Details on the Snail Mail campaign
The plan: Snail mail Emails get deleted Voicemails get ignored But physical mail? It stack. It lingers. It clogs the system. Every letter has to be scanned, sorted and logged. The system isn’t ready for us White House daily mail: ~5,000 Add 10k more? Disruption. Add 200k? Pressure. Add 1 million/day? Chaos, in envelopes. It’s a storm they’re not prepared for. Who we’re mailing: The White House Congress (Your House rep + 2 Senators) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Address list (screenshot this!) The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington DC 20500 Find your Congresspeople at Congress.gov/contact-us Supreme Court 1 First Street NE Washington DC 20543 DOGE 1650 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20504 DHS 245 Murray Lane SW Washington DC 20528-0075
April 23, 2025 at 12:32 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
The goal? Chaos. As this administration creates chaos for the people… The people are gonna create chaos right back. If their goal is to wreak havoc for us… then we’re gonna do the same in return for them.
April 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
Project Mail Storm A peaceful protest A postal uprising We’re flooding the system One envelope at a time
April 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
ellenhokanson.bsky.social
This guy’s replies are full of tone policing women. I am blocking him.
Screenshot of the bluesky page of @ leocostello dot bsky, who describes himself as ’Goddamn right I’m woke.’
April 16, 2025 at 10:51 PM