This weekend, the U.S. government eliminated 18F, an internal agency that existed to improve the user experience of federal websites. If you used a federal site and had a good experience, you have 18F to thank. The current administration does not care about empathy. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F

Stuff I’ve Googled while writing #historical #kidlit:
Did public libraries exist before 1894? What games did children play in the 1890s? What happened on the last day of the Columbian Exhibition? Chicago public transit routes in the 1890s? Halloween celebrations at Settlement Houses?

Conditions in a Chicago tenement, circa 1893. The settlement house movement was the birthplace of social work. Residents lived together in a settlement house, exchanging culture and trying to improve conditions for their neighbors. #kidlit #settlementhouse #chicagocommons #hullhouse

Leah Taylor and friends at Chicago commons circa 1894. For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m writing a historical novel loosely based on Leah’s experiences growing up as a settlement house resident. #kidlit #historicalfiction #chicagocommons

I was a kid with a learning disability, and I am now an adult with a learning disability. When I was 8, a social worker told my parents to “just buy me a calculator” because it was a waste of time teaching me anything. Cont.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2Bq4k2h/ listening to the folk music of my childhood today, after seeing A Complete Unknown last night. Pete Seeger, if you could see us now…

When I haven’t been doing content design, I’ve been researching/writing a middle-grade historical novel about Leah Taylor, who moved to Chicago with her family in the 1890s to open a settlement house. I hope I can start to use this space to share insights and updates about this story.

Sometimes I just want to return to the optimism and silliness we felt in 2012. Obama in office, winning the marriage amendment battle in MN, Carly Rae Jepson, binders full of women, legal gay marriage on the horizon. I know we can’t go back, but man, I wish we could.

My grandparents were anchor babies. My 2x ggfather left Odessa with his wife and children after the 1905 pogrom of 1905. They went to Vienna for a short time, where the two youngest children got sick. They were unable to travel, so Samuel left with four other children, including my gg Sophie. Cont.

I’m going back to Highlights Summer Camp for writers and illustrators. July can’t come soon enough. www.highlightsfoundation.org/summer-camps/