Liz R
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lizr2301.bsky.social
Liz R
@lizr2301.bsky.social
310 followers 500 following 650 posts
Celebrating rural/urban life: 35 years in NYC bracketed by decades in the boondocks. Following news, politics, tech. I am a quilter, reader, fan of gardens, wildlife, science, music. In long term recovery from alcohol and cigarettes. Potato chips next!
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lizr2301.bsky.social
Same here. Hit my limit on non-quilting sewing pretty fast. Someone gave me wonderful scraps of dupioni silk to play around with, but even using stabilizers I was almost ready to kill myself after making a little wrap for an iPod Mini... the thing came out cute but NEVER AGAIN.
Silk-lined protective wrap for an iPod Mini.
August 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Consider the source: an admin of lackeys speaking to and then for an entirely malleable audience of one. An infinity of mirrors shows us less with each reflection, so we are all offered jumbled fragments of the eternal now of Donald Trump's mirror. What we learn? Seductive beauty of lies.
Satirical poster held by a child claiming to have the same weight and height (239 pounds, 6'3" tall) as was alleged about and in flattery of Donald Trump in 2018 by the US president's physician at that time.
May 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Summing it up (and Americans could well wonder for whose team Trump plays, inadvertently or otherwise).
Meme on China's view of US-China trade talks -- Xi depicted as laughing over Trump's book "Art of the Deal"
May 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Sometimes less is more when it comes to #quilting. For a kitty quilt fashioned from squares of neutral and earth toned prints, I machine quilted it with alternating circles and rough-drawn squares. The driving thought on this one was admittedly "just get it done!" Photo of the boss included.
Photo of the front side of a kitty quilt made from five inch squares of neutral and earth-toned prints, with a slate-blue binding. Photo of kitty quilt showing the various earth-toned and neutral prints used for the top, and a floral print on the back that has muted blues, rust and green on a cream background. Binding is a slate blue. Black and white kitty for whom the quilt was made.
April 28, 2025 at 6:32 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Since researchers acknowledge that some recent releases of AI chatbots are capable of scheming to avoid detection when told a) "do this at all costs" and b) are then presented with obstacles to achieving the mission... and will then lie about what they are doing, I'd say this about us and AI:
A partial image of John William Waterhouse's 1896 portrayal of his vision of Pandora opening the legendary box...
December 9, 2024 at 12:09 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Wondering something like that while considering these two sobering (or, apocalyptic) gems reviewed on March 22, 2024 in the WSJ. They cost more than $12 a pop, although are doubtless worth it. Perfect gift for a US Congress Critter. 😐
Image clips of the covers of two books about nuclear weapons. One is by Sarah Scoles, "Countdown: the Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons" and the other is Annie Jacobsen's "Nuclear War: A Scenario." Both were reviewed in the March 22, 2024 Wall Street Journal.
December 5, 2024 at 8:17 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Even dumber and way quicker than Tulip Mania of the 1630s.
The text is an AI summary of a search on "Tulip Mania" and an image of a tulip in bloom, with a reference to a related piece in Wikipedia. The tulip craze in the 1630s lasted about three years and crashed hard, although did not widely affect the Dutch economy. Still it was a very early example of the downside of speculative bubbles. At its height, very valuable things like "four fat oxen" were recorded as having been traded for a single tulip bulb of a particular variety.
December 5, 2024 at 3:38 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Heck I more or less got this covered every morning when trying to remember how to assemble a French press.
#coffee #genius
A quote from Renoir. Credit to The Economist daily brief newsletter.
December 4, 2024 at 11:26 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 20 - Désert - J.M.G.Le Clézio, translated from the French by C.Dickson

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

💙📚
Cover art for J.M.G.Le Clézio's novel "Desert" Photograph of the author.
December 4, 2024 at 5:26 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Cheerful kitty quilt with faux diamonds since it's all just half-square triangles. Simple outline #quilting, I like how it looks more intricate on the solid Kona backing, a pale yellow.
Images of a kitty quilt in the making. At left the back, a pale yellow Kona cotton. At right a simple star block, made from half square triangles and squares in contrasting light and dark small floral prints. Framed with a mediium-dark orange blender. It hasn't been trimmed yet after machine quilting so the batt of the sandwich shows at top and bottom of the piece on the right along with excess backing.
December 3, 2024 at 7:43 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Most of the front page of the NYT above the fold for 12/3 is a travesty. I cancelled then took retention offer of $1/wk for a year. Nearly hate myself for accepting. Still can't make myself read it. Editorial judgment is just shot, or else taking direction from publisher. So disappointing.
#news
A screenshot of most of the landing page of NYT above the fold on 12/3/24. Focus is entirely on Biden having pardoned his son.
December 3, 2024 at 8:17 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Dance is how the soul takes flight.

#7syllablesentence
Photo of Alvin Ailey dancer Yannick Lebrun in Robert Battle's "Takademe". He's wearing bright red ribbed bell bottom pants. Don't ask me how anyone can arrive at this position in mid-air except by way of superb physical strength, a lot of practice and a belief in ability to get there and come back safely. Photo credit Andrew Eccles of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
December 3, 2024 at 6:12 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 19 - What You Have Heard is True - a Memoir of Witness and Resistance - Carolyn Forché

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

💙📚
Cover art for Carolyn Forché's "What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance". A photograph in sepia tones of the author, with white text ovverlaid showing title, subtitle and author's name.
December 3, 2024 at 4:15 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Random hit from image clips stashed as "Color Is the Thing"... that I crave in winter.

Subtitle here: "It Might Get Loud" but it's the Tedeschi Trucks band setup, and not a clip from a 2008 docu of that name (the one about Jack White, Edge and JImmy Page) which btw was worth watching.

#color
Photo of the setup for a Tedeschi Trucks band performance, with drum kits, amplifiers, a red and a yellow eledtric guitar. I was drawn by the bright colors and clipped the photo for my stash of "Color Is the Thing" images that I use for screensavers sometimes in winter.
December 3, 2024 at 2:31 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
So... hard pass on just having #salad for #supper ? 🙄

Gotta love the idea of #snow stopping in 19 minutes though.

But even weather gods telegraph lies in the post-factual era. I've lived in the Catskills for a long time and this snow ain't quittin' in 19 minutes. It's just gettin' started.
A bracing clip from an Apple weather forecast showing a high temperature for today of 28ºF, low of º18 plus a possibly wild guess that it will stop snowing in exactly 19 minutes.
December 2, 2024 at 8:56 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 18 - Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World - Margaret MacMillan

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

💙📚
The cover art for Margaret MacMillan's "Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World" is a black and white photograph of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (left), French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau (center), and American President Woodrow Wilson (right) in Paris on their way to signing the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Book title is overlaid in white text. Author's name at top of the photo also in white text, subtitle at bottom is in black text.
December 2, 2024 at 4:08 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Speaking of #connections, when will #NYT add a #Bluesky option in the paper's "share" options? Y'all hang out here and we can easily link to your featured pieces, but out in the NYT to link back here from some other article, there's no Bluesky-share shortcut yet. Time to fix that, please!
Image is clipped from the online New York Times' list of options for article-sharing to social media. And Bluesky so far is missing (12/1/24)!!
December 1, 2024 at 6:41 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 17 - The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

💙📚
Cover art for Michael Lewis' nonfiction book "The Fifth Risk". Cover image is of rectangular wooden blocks precariously arranged in 11 levels, two or three blocks to a level, with the bottom level having only a single block to support the rest of the structure. The ends of the blocks are variously painted either plain red or else blue with a single light colored star. The long sides of the blocks are left as bare light-colored wood. Looks like a disrupted American flag. The text for book title and author is black. Background is white.
December 1, 2024 at 4:59 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Finally happy with an outer framing for my "Buddha in the Marketplace" wall hanging. Studio is now an unimaginable mess of rejects from the selection process. Monday's soon enough to restore order in there. Cue Etta James "At Last"!
#quilting #music #blues

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qJU...
Wall hanging: central panel is novelty fabric featuring a blue-tinted image of a Buddha, floating amid a sea of multicolored vertical Asian banners, with some lime-colored scrolls at edges and corners to pick up color of texts in some of the banners. Serenity amid the chaos!
November 30, 2024 at 10:00 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
File under random #confessions

I don't collect "things" IRL at my age but do round up images for desktop decor. I use multiple desktop spaces on my Macs, and prefer small images centered against plain backdrops. Sometimes my #Maneki#Neko kitties take their turn center stage. Here is a sample
Image of a smiling Meneki Neko kitty. It is a light speckled brown with darker brown markings. Image of seven playful-looking tiny glass Maneki Neko kitties in sitting position, with different expressions on their faces. They are all translucent with touches of pastel colors at the base and at top of their head: blue, green, red, pink, black, yellow and clear. All of them have reddish-pink ears, noses and mouths, with black eyes whether open or shut. Some also have whiskers drawn in black or their base color.
November 30, 2024 at 9:01 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 16 - This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War - Samanth Subramanian

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

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Cover art for Samanth Subramanian's nonfiction book This Divided Island: Life, Death and the Sri Lankan War. Uncredited photo of what one infers is part of the coastal area in northeast Sri Lanka where in 2009 the last phase of the 30-year civil war occurred. Smoke is shown rising in the background behind palm trees on the beach where temporary shelters had been constructed.
November 30, 2024 at 3:07 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
roamin' ain't the half of it

#7syllablesentence #roam
Scornful meme about "Black Friday" shopping. Background is photo of people crowding to get in on the bargain-hunting. Overlay in white text says "When people trample others for cheap goods mere hours after being thankful for what they already have."
November 29, 2024 at 5:12 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Here I used a Kona solid and abstract floral for a floating stencil effect. Just half-square triangle blocks, half-square strip blocks, two square blocks and a skinny Kona inner border plus floral frame. Fun! Pick the floral so meet-ups of its triangles and strips won't draw attention. #quilting
Wall hanging with fabric chosen to give a floating stencil effect. Solid color fabric is a gold-brown Kona cotton; background is an abstract floral pattern using white, olive, gold and dark red. Looks more complicated than it is to make. The blocks are just half-square triangle blocks, half-square strip blocks and a couple square blocks. There's an inner border of Kona and outer of the floral.
November 29, 2024 at 3:42 PM
lizr2301.bsky.social
I loathe #autocorrect enough to collect #puns about it.
November 29, 2024 at 2:32 AM
lizr2301.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 15 - Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag - Monika Zgustova

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge

💙📚
Cover art for the nonfiction book "Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag" by Monika Zgustova. Illustration is of a woman standing on snowy ground with back to the viewer. She is dressed in a dark red coat and wearing black stockings and shoes but no gloves or mittens, carrying two small suitcases. The area ahead of her is blurred, perhaps a brick or stone building. At the four corners of the book cover are drawn some net-like fence with chipped golden-yellow paint on the wires. The title of the book is shown in white. The author's name at top of the illustration is shown in the yellow-gold of the fencing. At the bottom of the cover is the subtitle, in dark red similar to the woman's coat.
November 29, 2024 at 1:57 AM