keri
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keristars.bsky.social
keri
@keristars.bsky.social
1.1K followers 250 following 27K posts
I love museums and history. ★ bed-tethered disabled! AuDHD, POTS, MCAS, and ME/CFS. ★🧑‍🦽★ I miss traveling and being in nature and sewing.

#1 Lizzie W. Champney fan (2025)

location: Jacksonville, Florida
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keristars.bsky.social
went with the canned stuff with beef broth because i didn't want to have to pull out the flour, etc. just pour the can in and wait for it to get the cooked onions saturated with the flavors.

was low on cheese, too, but shredding it takes a lot of exertion and not today, no.

still, look! yum!
A crock of French onion soup. The top of the soup is broken pieces of crostini topped with melted cheese. It's all golden and toasty.
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
keristars.bsky.social
i regret i saved this without saving the artist's name, because it makes me giggle and i always think of otters as cat mermaids now 😻
a four-panel comic. 1. Cute otter in the water, head and shoulders visible. 2. Splash! it dives, tail briefly seen 3. An orange cat on a nearby rock saw it! it says Holy crap 4. close-up on the astonished cat's face as it continues speaking: A MERMAID.
November 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
keristars.bsky.social
but can your pocket be looped around the handle of your briefcase? (checkmate!! 😂)

www.apple.com/newsroom/202...
Product photo of the iphone sock. It's hot pink and has been wrapped around the handle of a stylish black bag. The phone pouch has been threaded through the sock's loop, like a slipknot or something, to keep it secure.
November 12, 2025 at 2:18 AM
keristars.bsky.social
This was my sling, knitting in progress. :)
Eventually i realized knitting is TOO stretchy, so added a column of crochet slipstitch at the upward points of the chevron. (and used it to reinforce the strap, too)
knitting! It's a tube of magenta and cream horizontal stripes, except the stripes are zigzags. The cream stripes are twice as wide as the magenta. It's not complete and a skein of the magenta yarn is at the side. But it's a tube, sock thing and the water bottle is inside. The top is just below the bottle's lid.
November 12, 2025 at 1:38 AM
keristars.bsky.social
Chapter 9, "The Conquest of the West", in The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic has me looking askance at Three Vassar Girls at Home. Champney's choice to visit St Augustine and Fort Marion at the beginning was more significant/layered than I had realized.

(this chapter is very good)
The model for these schools was the original Indian military-style boarding school, founded by Capt. Richard Henry Pratt in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1879. Pratt practiced his “educational” techniques, appropriately enough, as jailor at Fort Marion, Florida before he converted the military barracks at Carlisle into his Indian industrial school. His main goal was, speaking of Indians, “any course towards them which tends to their civilization.” Pratt sent his first students to Hampton Institute but soon came to the conclusion that it was not good “to unite the two race problems” and that Indians needed “fellowship with the whites, and not with the negro” for their “civilization.”
November 12, 2025 at 12:41 AM
keristars.bsky.social
Here is my beloved casserole, and for comparison my square corning ware and the other one i got at home goods (too high on the shelf for me to reach tonight)
I'm holding the casserole dish on its side to show the pretty, petal pink color. The underside isn't glazed and looks like a strange reverse shadow, what's visible of it. My hand is visible on the far left, my thumb in particular. The pink of the dish isn't very different from my skin tone, at least in this photo. The underside of the casserole dish. One of the rectangular handles can be seen, and it's pink like the sides. But the bottom is unglazed and putty-beige color. In big characters pressed into the surface are 19-41 and below that the LE CREUSET logo. Two small casserole dishes are on the portable induction hob. To the left, and sitting on a grey hot pad, is the rectangular Le Creuset with its glossy pink outside and cream colored inside. On the right is a square Corning Ware dish with the earth-toned veggies design. They're about the same height and probably the same volume, though one is rectangle and one is square. In the background of the photo are other kitchen counter things: electric kettle, knife block, etc. But the focus is on the casserole dishes. This photo looks up into a white cabinet. On the left is a riser, on the right are tall ceramic mugs and drunk powders. On top of the riser is a rectangular, lidded dish. It's white with a design of pink and yellow flowers. About 8 inches wide by 3 inches tall. The perspective is a bit off, but it's definitely taller and wider than the Corning Ware dish under the riser. It's the same vegetable-theme Corning Ware that was compared to the Le Creuset before.
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 AM
keristars.bsky.social
Finished chapter 8 of The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic today, mostly about the Supreme Court undermining Reconstruction and the 14th & 15th Amendments. got a bit of whiplash/déjà vu, because really ?? suddenly extremely clear what the "Heritage" Foundation refers to.
Miller claimed that all the rights nationalized by the amendment—what Republican senator John Bingham had called “the nationalization” of the Bill of Rights in 1866—were still granted only by states. The only national rights that the federal government could enforce were limited to access to ports and waterways, travel to the capital, the right to run for federal office, and protection abroad and on the high seas. By this stunning logic, the federal government could ostensibly protect the rights of black citizens abroad but not where they lived, whether in the South or other parts of the nation. The discredited states’ rights argument seemed to have triumphed over the Constitution itself. The judicial retreat from Reconstruction occurred alongside the unraveling of a national political commitment to uphold it. But the Supreme Court was not merely reacting to political developments or public sentiment; it played an active role in destroying the rule of law. The Supreme Court’s intruding into the legislative sphere and upending Congress’s law-making powers went beyond the customary scope of the judicial review of the constitutionality of laws. It simply ignored the plain meaning of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Writing the majority opinion in Cruikshank, Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, a legal mediocrity appointed by Grant, cited the Slaughter-House Cases, revealing how the court built judicial precedent from one bad decision to another. “The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a State from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; but this adds /nothing to the rights of one citizen against the other,” he opined. According to this “state action” understanding of the amendment, the law would not hold southern terrorists accountable for murder because they were private citizens. The Supreme Court effectively declared open season on African Americans. Racist terrorists could now act with impunity, knowing they would never be punished... The violent and legal counterrevolution against Reconstruction inaugurated in the 1870s would accelerate in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, when racial subjugation rather than racial equality became the watchword of the nation. Democratic decay coincided with the triumph of industrial capitalism, as the government and the courts moved to protect the privileges of capital rather than the rights of citizens. It also coincided with and was connected to, as we shall see, the colonial subjugation of western Indian nations.
November 11, 2025 at 2:48 AM
keristars.bsky.social
Here's the results and conclusion from the abstract, as posted to the RECOVER site (to save you a click).

The test they used to measure outcomes is the Everyday Cognition Scale 2 (ECog2).

And if you'd like to see the abstract: recovercovid.org/publications...
Results: A total of 378 individuals were screened, from which there were 328 participants (median [IQR] age, 48.0 [37.0-58.0] years; 241 female [73.5%]; race: 15 Asian [4.6%], 47 Black [14.3%], and 235 White [71.6%]; ethnicity: 52 Hispanic [15.9%]). None of the 3 active interventions demonstrated benefits on the modified ECog2 in the intention-to-treat population by the end of the intervention period. The adjusted differences in mean change were 0.0 (95% CI, −0.2 to 0.2) for BrainHQ vs active comparator, 0.1 (95% CI, −0.1 to 0.3) for PASC-CoRE + BrainHQ vs active comparator, 0.0 (95% CI, −0.2 to 0.2) for tDCS-active + BrainHQ vs tDCS-sham + BrainHQ, and 0.1 (95% CI, −0.1 to 0.3) for PASC-CoRE + BrainHQ vs BrainHQ alone. Secondary participant-reported outcomes and neuropsychological tests showed no differential benefits for any treatment arm. All 5 arms demonstrated some improvements over time on the modified ECog2 and on secondary outcomes. There were no serious adverse events attributable to the interventions. Conclusions and Relevance: This phase 2 randomized clinical trial failed to demonstrate differential benefits for online cognitive training, a structured cognitive rehabilitation program, and tDCS for cognitive Long COVID.
November 10, 2025 at 6:56 PM
keristars.bsky.social
wow i am SHOCKED that none of these helped, though apparently some participants did improve across the study. Just not clearly attributable to this stuff. (possibly pacing better? lying down more ?)

sincere q: is this BrainHQ effective for *anything*??
Participants in the active treatment group were split into three groups: Group 1 received only Brain HQ, an interactive online brain training program (developed by Posit Science, Inc.) with activities designed to improve memory, attention and the time it takes to understand and respond to information. Group 2 received BrainHQ and PASC-Cognitive Recovery (PASC-CoRE), a virtually delivered, small group cognitive rehabilitation program designed to help participants learn skills and strategies for working through distractions and mental tiredness. Group 3 received BrainHQ and active transcranial direct current simulation (tDCS), a cap that provided a non-invasive form of brain stimulation via an electrical current.
November 10, 2025 at 6:36 PM
keristars.bsky.social
i might have seen one in the distance when we were in Lucerne, Switz., but not that I'm aware of! but i just read last month a book with a lot about glaciers from like 1890, loads of pictures.
A view of some of the Alps in the distance from Lucerne, standing on the historic covered bridge so the foreground is water and then the other, modern bridge, and then beyond that the mountains.
November 9, 2025 at 5:16 AM
keristars.bsky.social
this bit does make it sound like they're trying to build on the Gemini brand and using LLM code, but it's not really the same software?

if it's only able to offer results from a specific (albeit broad) database...
While Google has recently been forced to acknowledge that hallucinations are inevitable, the Maps team says it does not expect that to be a problem with this version of Gemini. The suggestions coming from the generative AI bot are grounded in Google’s billions of place listings and Street View photos. This will, allegedly, make the robot less likely to make up a location. Google also says in no uncertain terms that Gemini is not responsible for choosing your route.
November 5, 2025 at 8:22 PM
keristars.bsky.social
ah, yeah, someone else mentioned the Mariel Boatlift, and that's it.

The wikipedia page even mentions that it was rumored that the immigrants were from mental institutions or prisons. 100% this is stuck in Trump's brain as his main reference for asylum seekers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_...
Fidel Castro stated that those leaving in the Mariel boatlift were undesirable members of Cuban society. With Castro's condemnation and reports that prisoners and mental health patients were leaving in the exodus it was believed by some that Marielitos were undesirable deviants.
November 3, 2025 at 2:19 AM
keristars.bsky.social
OH! This might be the answer to something that has perplexed me for 2 years, that he was involved with Temperance.

I couldn't figure out this odd little defense of him in the middle of a 1920ish book. It's so fervent but random??

(Marjorie Dean, College Freshman)
“Let me see,” pondered Ronny. “Why don’t you write on the genius Poe as above that of any other American poet? Illustrate by quoting from other poets and then comparing the excerpts with his work. Read his essay on poetry tonight before you begin to write. It will give you inspiration. I brought a five volume set of Poe from home. Here’s the volume containing the essay you need.” Ronny took from a near-by book-case the desired volume and handed it to Marjorie. “Thank you.” Marjorie accepted it gratefully. “I believe I can write a fairly good theme on that subject. I have always admired Poe’s work.” “I adore his memory,” asserted Veronica solemnly. “I have read every scrap I could find concerning him. He ranked next to Shakespeare in genius. I know he was an earnest worker and a good man. I am sure that he was not a drunkard, but a terribly maligned genius. He was purposely kept down through jealousy and had to sell the products of his genius for a copper. He suffered terribly, but I imagine he had the inner happiness of knowing that not one brilliant emanation of his master mind could be snatched from him by the unworthy.” Veronica’s gray eyes flashed in sympathy for the misunderstood man whose transcendental genius made him an outlander among the writers of his period.
November 1, 2025 at 6:29 PM
keristars.bsky.social
ah, not really kicking him out. Charles will still pay Andrew's rent, and he remains in the line of succession. maybe for Eugenie and Beatrice?

a pity.
Andrew's two adult daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice, will retain their titles as princesses, but Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will have to make her own living arrangements Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne
October 30, 2025 at 9:37 PM
keristars.bsky.social
Wow. I didn't think they'd actually kick him out of the family, but that's effectively what's happening? Despite the Mountbatten Windsor name.

Do you think Charles has long wanted to do this, but Elizabeth refused?

www.bbc.com/news/live/cn...
Summary Prince Andrew is being stripped of his "prince" title and will leave his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge Buckingham Palace says the King "has today initiated a formal process", and his brother will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor As well as the title, the Palace says "formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease" on Royal Lodge - Andrew will move to the royal estate in Sandringham, Norfolk "These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him," the Palace says
October 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
keristars.bsky.social
right?! i think that's why it was so memorable to me, plus the farthingale! And of course, it's hard to hear in the clip, but Elizabeth would have had the biggest, so as to require more fabric, and thus show her wealth/power.

bumrolls/padding were used for ages, and in fact still are!
A listing for "SPANXshape™" Booty-Lifting Brief from their website. ($48.00) It's brief underwear with a high waist and padding on the bum in the shape of an upside down heart.
October 28, 2025 at 2:30 PM
keristars.bsky.social
aw, yeah, love this near the end!

and i love Lindsay Adams's art throughout the article! it's so good.
For autistic people, disabled self-acceptance is a form of survival. It redefines competence through accuracy, not appearance. It says, I am disabled by design flaws in the environment, not by flaws in myself. The social model of disability teaches us that difference isn’t tragedy. It’s data. Every meltdown, shutdown, or burnout is a report from the body about what’s intolerable. Every request for accommodation is a reminder that access isn’t luxury—it’s baseline. Disabled identity also creates community. Once you stop pretending you don’t need help, you start noticing how many of us were pretending the same thing. Solidarity becomes possible when shame is removed from the equation. You stop competing to appear functional and start connecting through shared truth. Liberation begins with language. When you name yourself disabled, you remove the power of those who weaponize the term against you. You make room for justice work that includes you, not in theory but in practice. The neurodiversity paradigm was never about romanticizing difference; it was about protecting it. Claiming disability isn’t about limitation, it’s about accuracy. The kind that builds movements, not myths.
October 28, 2025 at 8:05 AM
keristars.bsky.social
Also, this, about "high functioning" - being able to mostly mask because i was forced to, or having learned ways of stimming that aren't obvious (or whatever) - and it denies the disability, both medical and social models.
The concept of “high-functioning autism” isn’t a compliment; it’s a containment strategy. It’s a way to applaud productivity while ignoring exhaustion. It’s how workplaces exploit autistic brilliance while refusing to accommodate autistic bodies. It’s how schools reward compliance while punishing difference.
October 28, 2025 at 8:05 AM
keristars.bsky.social
I used to say that I was autistic, but felt discouraged from adding "and disabled" because i didn't know how to articulate it other than what could be interpreted as "learned helplessness" or "the sensory things aren't a disability ffs".

I was basically in burnout my entire young adulthood :(
When fluorescent lights leave you nauseous and trembling, that’s not you being a highly sensitive individual or quirkiness, it’s sensory processing meeting architectural negligence. When executive dysfunction keeps you cycling through guilt and delay because tasks scatter before completion, that’s not laziness, it’s an accessibility failure in a productivity-obsessed culture. When you need recovery time after social interaction, that isn’t fragility, it’s evidence that you expend double the energy to perform what others assume is effortless. These are barriers to participation. And barriers are the foundation of disability. Society disables us through noise, expectation, pace, and punishment. We are disabled both by neurology and by the infrastructures that refuse to adapt to it.
October 28, 2025 at 8:05 AM
keristars.bsky.social
i can't remember who Harper is that said this quote and the endnote wasn't enlightening, but dang 🔥🔥🔥
Harper's intersectional reasoning: “We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”
October 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
keristars.bsky.social
about.doordash.com/en-us/news/s...

If you are on SNAP with your EBT linked to your DoorDash account and shop/can shop at Sprouts, Dollar General, Schnucks, Ahold Delhaize brands, Hy-Vee, Giant Eagle, or Wegmans, you may be able to take advantage of waived fees in November.
DoorDash’s Emergency Food Response Delivering 1 million meals for 300+ Project DASH partners nationwide. DoorDash is waiving merchant fees for all 300+ Project DASH partner food banks, food pantries, and community organizations nationwide throughout November, equal to an estimated 1 million meals. Waiving delivery and service fees for 300,000 grocery orders for SNAP recipients. DoorDash and grocery partners are covering the cost of delivery and service fees for an estimated 300,000 orders for SNAP recipients in November, helping families stretch budgets during any SNAP freeze. Customers who have linked a SNAP/EBT card to their profile can shop on DoorDash at Sprouts, Dollar General, Schnucks, Ahold Delhaize brands, Hy-Vee, Giant Eagle, and Wegmans and have their delivery and service fees waived on one order.* Donating food and essentials to local food banks. DoorDash will donate fresh food, shelf-stable items, and household essentials from DashMart locations to local food banks in affected communities. Take Action Now Our response alone cannot match the scale of this crisis. The federal government’s role is irreplaceable. This is an opportunity for Congress to come together and find a way to continue to fund this essential program that keeps Americans from going hungry. We’re also calling on companies, organizations, and individuals to do their part — donate food, funds, or time —to support those most in need. For food banks. If you are interested in partnering with Project DASH, contact projectdash@doordash.com. For individuals: Support the Feeding America network here, or find your local food bank here. *Customers receive $0 delivery fee and $0 service fee on orders placed at select SNAP-enabled stores on DoorDash. Offer valid from 11/01/25 through 11/30/25. Eligible customers will need to use a promo code to redeem, which will be available on or before 11/01/25. Limit one per person. Other fees, taxes, and gratuity still apply. Only available to users who have added a valid SNAP/EBT card to their DoorDash account by the time of purchase. DoorDash reserves the right to modify, cancel, or terminate this offer at any time without notice. See further terms and conditions at https://drd.sh/8ONpZP/. Today, DoorDash is launching an Emergency Food Response, including free delivery for our Project DASH food bank and food pantry partners nationwide, and we’re partnering with leading grocers to waive delivery and service fees for an estimated 300,000 orders for SNAP recipients. “No one should go hungry in America - period,” said Max Rettig, Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy at DoorDash. “Millions of families are worried right now about how they’ll put food on the table. Fighting hunger is core to our mission at DoorDash, and we’re stepping up alongside leading grocers and retailers to help bridge the gap. We know this is a stopgap, not a solution. But doing nothing simply isn’t an option.” "The food security of millions of people who rely on SNAP is at dire risk,” said Eric Mitchell, President of Alliance to End Hunger. “We know that the only viable solution is to ensure SNAP benefits are being delivered in full to those in need of food assistance as soon as possible. We are thankful for the part that companies and organizations across the country like DoorDash can do to try to fill the gap, and we will continue to work tirelessly to make sure SNAP is restored and protected quickly and fully."
October 27, 2025 at 2:53 PM
keristars.bsky.social
oh, this looks very cool, via @jaxlibrary.bsky.social

and it's a Saturday morning!

jaxpubliclibrary.libnet.info/event/14064454
History Chat Seminoles of African Descent Kick off Native American Heritage Month with guest speaker, Dr. Vincent Adejumo as he explores the unique, complex relationship (that included both freedom and enslavement) between Black and Indigenous peoples in Florida in the 1700s to 1850s, their impact in the Seminole Wars, and their legacy after being exiled from Florida from 10 - 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 1, at the Main Library. An audience Q&A will follow the 40-minute presentation.
October 18, 2025 at 11:22 AM
keristars.bsky.social
and the things he's accused of doing by Thaddeus Stevens sure sound awfully familiar these days.

and this passage/quotes omg 👀
Republicans impeached Johnson for his obstruction of Reconstruction, though the first nine (of eleven) articles of impeachment focused on his violation of the Tenure of Office Act in firing Stanton without Senate approval. For Radicals, it was Johnson’s acute racism that made him particularly unfit for the presidency. Sumner explained, “He has all the narrowness and ignorance of a certain class of whites who have always looked upon the colored race as out of the pale of humanity.” In an earlier speech, Julian indicted Johnson for his “career of maladministration and crime,” “capacity for evil,” “depravity,” and “hoarded malignity.” Even Johnson’s secretary, Col. William G. Moore, recalled that he “exhibited a morbid distress and feeling against the negroes.”
October 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
keristars.bsky.social
I've reached Johnson's impeachment and the 15th Amendment in The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic.

I continue to see so many of our current problems in the racist shits 160 years ago. whether these ideas began then, I'm not fully certain, but i think so.

also 👀 at the impeachment
Buckalew protested that there were no protections against voter “fraud”— the very idea of black men voting was fraudulent to him. He called it “degraded suffrage.” The issue of fraud kept appearing in congressional debates over Reconstruction. Senator Sherman proposed a registry of voters to allay objections, which were really just attempts to derail black voting. Democrats and conservatives strenuously opposed Trumbull’s new Freedmen’s Bureau bill, complaining about its cost and expanding the powers of the federal government, though simple racism was behind both critiques. Senator Willard Saulsbury of Delaware objected that “the great mass of the people have been taxed to support in idleness a class who are too lazy or too worthless to support themselves.” Though the Civil Rights Act did not include a provision for black voting, Johnson still vetoed it. In his veto message, Johnson dropped all pretense of concern for freedpeople. He argued that those newly emerged from slavery cannot be said to have all the “requisite qualifications” for citizenship and complained that the law would make citizens of all blacks, Chinese, taxed Indians, and “gypsies.” He even claimed that it discriminated against white foreigners by making all African Americans born in the country citizens. In declaring “the perfect equality of the white and colored races” in federal law, it infringed on the rights of the states to discriminate based on race, for instance by upending laws against interracial marriage. Endorsing the Black Codes, Johnson charged that the Civil Rights Act interfered with the judicial authority of the states to punish their citizens and was thus unconstitutional. In providing for a federal remedy in cases of discrimination, it operated “in favor of the colored and against the white race.” Pioneering an argument that is still used by racists today, Johnson claimed that in giving rights to black people, the government necessarily took them away from whites, as if rights were a finite resource. He also rejected the law because it “centralized” power, by linking black equality to the federal government. Stevens charged Johnson with being “guilty of as atrocious attempts to usurp the liberty and destroy the happiness of this nation as were ever perpetrated by the most detestable tyrant who ever oppressed his fellow-men.” He had usurped the powers of other branches of the government, violated the law, and obstructed the execution of the law. How Congress would deal with the “first great political malefactor” would determine the future of American democracy.
October 17, 2025 at 1:57 PM
keristars.bsky.social
oh look i actually synced my paperwhite so a highlight showed up on the phone app for quoting.
"The entire political and legal machinery of the restored Johnsonian state governments was geared to commandeering black labor, criminalizing black freedom, and upholding white supremacy."
The entire political and legal machinery of the restored Johnsonian state governments was geared to commandeering black labor, criminalizing black freedom, and upholding white supremacy. Northern Democrats, conservatives, and economic elites applauded Johnson’s politics of appeasement, seeking a quick reunion and revival of the South’s lucrative plantation economy. Radicals and abolitionists, however, became increasingly outraged at reports of the abuse and killing of freedpeople, of the draconian Black Codes, and the failure to move toward black citizenship. At no point, Garrison wrote, had abolitionists deluded themselves that “the abolition of slavery against the wishes and efforts of its supporters” would immediately secure justice for freedpeople or “remove every barrier of complexional caste.” But even he was surprised at the extent of former slaveholders’ viciousness and was convinced that the North heard only a small portion of the “enormities” being committed against ex-slaves. One of his correspondents warned of a system of “African peonage” being set up in the South, and Garrison revived “The Barbarism of Slavery” column that he had written before the war to highlight southern atrocities.
October 15, 2025 at 11:02 PM