Monica Krausse
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realmnemonica.bsky.social
Monica Krausse
@realmnemonica.bsky.social
140 followers 320 following 98 posts
Retired copy editor. Caregiver. Puzzle person. Crochet person. Dog person. I can see Mexico from my kitchen.
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realmnemonica.bsky.social
Not the world's most pressing problem, but still annoying: Spelling Bee continues to refuse to acknowledge El Paso's iconic plant.
Two photos side by side. On the left, a screenshot showing a New York Times Spelling Bee game in which the word OCOTILLO is refused because it is not in the word list. On the right, a lovely ocotillo plant in front of a deep blue sky.
October 22, 2025 at 12:49 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
Google AI, as helpful as ever.
Screenshot of a Google search. The query is "10-letter states". The AI Overview says: "There are two U.S. states that are exactly 10 letters long: Massachusetts and Mississippi. Here's a breakdown: Massachusetts and Mississippi."
March 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
Another day, another haboob.
Photo of a residential street in a very bad dust storm: Everything -- houses and sky and the few plants -- is brownish-orange, darker toward the horizon. A few white cars stand out. Visibility only extends a few houses down.
March 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
Another West Texas earthquake this morning that could be felt in El Paso (I felt it, then checked the USGS page for a few minutes until it updated to show it). 4.6 magnitude; 5:16 a.m., 30 miles from Carlsbad Caverns. Smaller quakes earlier in the morning. Yes, there's fracking in the area.
A zoomed-in view of the US Geological Survey map showing the quake area at the West Texas border with Southern New Mexico. A red dot at the bottom shows the epicenter; Carlsbad Caverns National Park is across the New Mexico state line and Guadalupe Mountains National Park is in Texas to the west. Most of the map is featureless beige, except for a few roads, state and county lines. A dot at the top marks the small community of Whites City. Other recent earthquakes are listed to the left of the map, including a 2.5 quake 65 km SSW of Whites City at 2:40 a.m. and a 3.4 quake 58 km S of Whites City at 1:58 a.m. A screenshot of a US Geological Survey map titled "USGS Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Day." It shows the western half of North America, including some of Canada and Mexico. Five orange circles show smaller earthquakes in California, and a blue circle shows the one in Texas, which has been clicked on. Highlighted text for that quake says: M 4.6 - 51 km S of Whites City, New Mexico. Time 2025-02-18 05:16:38 (UTC-07:00) Location 31.722 degrees N 104.474 degrees W Depth 6.5 km
February 18, 2025 at 3:32 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
More embarrassing than anything else.
A photo of Monica Lewinsky.
February 7, 2025 at 4:51 AM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
Somehow, they've made the border even more militarized, and now this is what the El Paso sky looks like. (Our house is not near an airport.) It's been very loud, though the noise in this video is from helicopters, not jets. Freakin' waste of fuel bought with your tax dollars.
February 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
Sunset. Ocotillo. Moon and Venus. Border Patrol helicopter.
Photo of a pretty El Paso sunset, with pale blues and oranges near the horizon and some pink-orange streaks that are probably contrails in the center of the photo. At the top, the sky is deep blue sky with a small crescent moon and bright planet very near it. Bare, vertical branches of ocotillo are silhouetted against the sunset, and the view looks down at an office park with city lights in the distance. In midphoto, a helicopter is visible mostly as a bright orange dot, reflecting the sunset.
February 2, 2025 at 3:03 AM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
There was a time when I used Google as a dictionary: If I googled "composite word," f'rinstance, Google would have asked me if I really meant "compound word." These days, it tells me I'm wrong with sh*t like this:
Screenshot of the "AI Overview" from a Google search. It reads: "A composite word is a word that is made up of multiple parts. For example, the word 'Word9' is a composite word that is made up of the words 'Word7' and 'Word8'."
January 29, 2025 at 4:24 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
The absolute best thing in my email today.
A somewhat lengthy press release from AVCX, the online puzzle publisher, about its revised policy toward Donald Trump. This is the key sentence: "So our revised editorial policy as of 2025 is that Donald Trump, his administration, and his allies can kiss our ass."
January 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM
realmnemonica.bsky.social
An elaborate crocheted blanket in progress, textured in grays and whites with variegated pink flowers and other highlights, shown in an untidy heap on a table with the working gray yarn in a jumble in front. There's a television in the upper right background and the edge of a laptop screen in the lower left.
November 27, 2024 at 8:35 PM