Sarah Brand
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sarahbrand.bsky.social
Sarah Brand
@sarahbrand.bsky.social
2K followers 1.2K following 530 posts
DC-adjacent. local elected/activist, data nerd, sometimes SF/fantasy writer, live-in photographer for my cats. opinions are mine and do not reflect the views of my cats. elected official account: @sarahbw.bsky.social
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sarahbrand.bsky.social
Photo of Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica (played by James Callis), looking solemn in a suit with an open collar and no tie, beneath the Nov. 9 NYT headline "Mamdani Isn't the Future of the Democrats. This Guy Is."
November 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
An adorable fluffy white dog in dappled sunlight, holding a knife in its mouth by the handle and ready to stab
November 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
What I know going in:

- early found footage horror movie, I think it was the first to really break out
- "WHAT THE F--- IS THAT???"
- someone stands in a corner
- most importantly, it was filmed on my home turf in Montgomery County, Maryland
The MARYLAND MENTIONED meme: a happy anime girl in an Orioles hoodie surrounded by Old Bay, the Maryland state flag, a crab, the Ledo's Pizza logo, and a beer that I guess is from Maryland???
October 11, 2025 at 1:56 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
All right, I'm bringing back #SarahFinallyWatches, where (on the old site) I would watch a movie that everyone else has already seen and livepost it. Tonight, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)!

(As you might imagine, this thread will get long. Mute at will.)
Poster for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999). At the top, a spooky forest silhouette. In the middle, the movie's title in white all caps with a strange red symbol above it. At the bottom, close-up on a photogenic young white person with wide, scared green eyes and (I assume) a grisly fate in store.
October 11, 2025 at 1:52 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
A small beige dog with big dark eyes and folded-over ears is having a PTSD flashback with helicopters and soldiers (the helicopters, in this case, are Xanga)
October 4, 2025 at 5:03 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Warning for folks who are pregnant (or trying) and going to protests: we can't say for sure that tear gas causes miscarriages, but what we do know is alarming. Grateful to @gwensnyder.bsky.social for sharing her story and @blackavar-inle.bsky.social for linking this study: doi.org/10.3389/fepi...
Excerpt from Hassan et al., "More than tears: associations between exposure to chemical agents used by law enforcement and adverse reproductive health outcomes," published in 2023 in the peer-reviewed medical journal Frontiers in Epidemiology: This study establishes an association between tear gas exposure and adverse reproductive health outcomes and strongly supports adding adverse reproductive health outcomes to the growing list of safety concerns about the use of tear gas on the public. The implications of these findings for reproductive, perinatal, maternal, and infant safety are particularly concerning, as this study identifies potential populations who may be more vulnerable to health impacts of tear gas, including pregnant people. Of note, our sample included 19 participants who reported being pregnant at the time of exposure to tear gas, 10 of whom reported a subsequent pregnancy loss (52%), a much higher rate than the expected miscarriage rate of 26% for all pregnancies (30). Given the small sample size, we cannot draw significant conclusions about tear gas exposure and pregnancy outcomes, however this finding raises numerous questions about the risks that tear gas may pose to pregnant people, and to short and long-term fertility.
September 20, 2025 at 9:25 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
WaPo live update: DC mayor and police chief frame takeover as potential “opportunity” By Katie Mettler At their joint news conference Monday afternoon, Washington’s mayor and police chief framed the federal takeover of the D.C. police department as a potential “opportunity.” “The fact that we have more law enforcement presence in neighborhoods … you know, that may be positive,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said.
August 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Happy #Caturday. Please enjoy some facts about my friends’ cat:

* his special water dish is a Pac-Man cup
* his name, Katsu, is Japanese for “pork cutlet”
* he is mostly unflappable except when he can’t go to bed because my friend is not in bed for him to lie on top of
Katsu, a big orange cat, drinking water from a plastic Pac-Man cup
August 2, 2025 at 4:41 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
I'm not even going to look for the context
Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social: The replies here are so funny because they're all like "oh SKYDADDY?!?! You talked to SKYDADDY?!?!" and I don't know what to tell you but a lot of people from a lot of different faiths actually do pray about stuff to think about it particularly this old ass Sunday school teacher from North Carolina (quote-posting Roy Cooper @roycoopernc.bsky.social: I have thought about it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina. And then there's an embedded video with I guess a younger Cooper and his family with a big cross in the background?) ...then "View full thread" hiding an unknown number of posts and apparently some twists and turns... Reverend Doctor Party Meats, PSA Grade P... @buckrawheat.bsky.social: If you're not getting a corn dog as one of your sides we are not gonna be friends Mollz @dopestatistics.bsky.social: This is quesadilla erasure smh
July 29, 2025 at 12:19 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
me explaining a nine-book series of medieval romances that all have exactly the same plot:
Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s2e22 ("The Wire"). Caption: The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature
June 27, 2025 at 10:38 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Three-panel screenshot from Brooklyn Nine Nine. Rosa: Ugh. I can't believe I'm gonna (original text replaced with "hate read the article"). Jake: Well. You don't HAVE to. Rosa: Nah. I'm gonna.
June 27, 2025 at 1:53 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Is the curtain in the wrong place? Yes. Did our cat Midnight pull it down? Undoubtedly. However, she cannot comprehend the idea of wrongness; her soul is too pure.
June 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Incomplete list of things we tried before this:

* Cone of shame (effective but uncomfortable)
* Reverse cone IN SPACE
* Flat cone, Regency debutante edition? idk
* Pajamas designed for cats, not pictured. let's just say they raised the question of why "the cat's pajamas" means "something great"
Sophie in the Cone of Shame, consumed with misery Sophie in the Reverse Space Cone, which was fabric and flexible with a cute pattern of planets and stars, and in retrospect, doomed to failure Sophie in a flat, very wide lavendar collar with lace around the edge. She is ready for a Regency ball or perhaps the Kentucky Derby.
June 7, 2025 at 11:15 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Happy #Caturday! Five days after Sophie's surgery, she is already more alert and getting her appetite back. The pajamas—a 6-9M human baby onesie with several safety pins and a hole I cut out for her tail—are to keep her from wrecking her sutures.
Our cat Sophie is sitting on the arm of our couch in front of the back door (left) and our YA bookshelf (right). She is wearing a short-sleeved beige baby onesie (strategically altered) and looking straight at the camera.
June 7, 2025 at 11:00 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Update: Sophie survived her high-risk surgery and is resting at home. Thank you to everyone who sent your good wishes, and to Lake Forest Animal Hospital in Gaithersburg for saving her life.
Sophie resting under a table after coming home from surgery. Her front arm looks funny because they shaved it to put in an IV.
June 3, 2025 at 8:34 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Please send prayers, thoughts, and/or good vibes for our cat Sophie today. She is so precious to us and we just want her to be okay.
Sophie, our brown tabby cat, lying on the carpet in front of a laundry hamper. She is looking up and to the right.
June 2, 2025 at 5:16 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
“They avoided one another's faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard... No one said anything. The cowards, thought each man.” ― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
May 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
A literal block of wood should not come at me this hard
Image of the game board for the Cracker Barrel peg game (the wooden insult triangle), which has 15 evenly spaced holes for the peg. Stamped (carved? I don't woodwork) on the board, and forever on my brain, are the instructions and scoring: "JUMP ALL BUT ONE GAMES. JUMP EACH TEE AND REMOVE IT. LEAVE ONLY ONE - YOU'RE GENIUS. LEAVE TWO AND YOU'RE PURTY SMART. LEAVE THREE AND YOU'RE JUST PLAIN DUMB. LEAVE FOUR OR MOR'N YOU'RE JUST PLAIN 'EG-NO-RA-MOOSE.' CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE." A yellow peg (like a golf tee) is in the board. Off to one side is a little pile of other pegs in the usual colors: blue, yellow, white, and orange. There can never be an even number of each color when you set up the game, and yes, I'm still bitter about that.
May 5, 2025 at 2:36 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Tumblr post from valntinemorgenstern: “The Great Unanswered Question: What the hell happens to every country on the planet that isn't the US in YA dystopias” Reply from hungrylikethewolfie: “#maybe all ya dystopian futures are just highly localised #and every other country is busy doing their thing #'do you think the US will be attending the olympics this year?' #'I don't know; I think they still have that hell-portal open' #'I'll put them down as a maybe' (via archnemeton)”
April 4, 2025 at 11:29 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
And this is while Wall Street is still hoping the tariffs will go away after Trump makes his next 5D chess moves.
Headline from New York Times home page: “Tariffs Set Off Wall Street’s Steepest Plunge Since 2020.” Below, a graph shows how six countries’ stock indexes have changed since Inauguration Day 2025. Approximate changes are: Germany +4.5%, China +4%, UK -0.5%, Canada -3%, Japan -10%, US -10%. All six countries’ indexes dropped sharply today. Headline below the graph: “S&P 500 Is Down Almost 5% as Trump’s Moves Stun Markets.
April 3, 2025 at 11:14 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
I’m exploring similarly terrifying situations in my WIP, but I worry I have made one of my characters too powerful:
In fact, on the day after Dagmara and Ryszard left for East Ustkowo. Piotr was ready to perform extraordinary feats. He found certain relevant papers and put them neatly in his briefcase. He donned his coat, shoes, and hat. Then, without any outside prompting, he left the house.
March 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Has anyone seen our cat? Anyway, here’s a picture of a curtain.
A sheer beige window curtain hangs down to the carpet. A silhouette behind the curtain is shaped suspiciously like Midnight, our black cat.
March 23, 2025 at 1:47 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Screenshot of today’s Carolyn Hax column at the Washington Post. Text: “Dear Carolyn: My best friend farted on a bus packed with people. She was sitting on a hard plastic seat, which amplified the sound horribly. She said, ‘Oh, God. Excuse me.’ A guy said to her, ‘It happens.’ She replied, ‘Why did it have to happen NOW?!’ They laughed about it and started chatting. He asked her to dinner (nothing with beans!). They have been seeing each other for three months. If they get married and I am asked to give a toast, should I mention the event that brought them together? — K.” Geordi Drake meme: top half, Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation (played by LeVar Burton) puts up a hand and frowns at “meet cute.” Bottom half, Geordi points and smiles at “meet toot.”
February 28, 2025 at 4:53 PM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
Yes, that’s definitely why.
Bluesky post from February 9, 2025 with the author redacted. Text of post: ChatGPT thinks the Chiefs already won the Super Bowl. Maybe these games are actually fixed? Screenshot: A text bubble asking ChatGPT, “Who won the last 5 super bowls?” ChatGPT answers, “As of February 9, 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs have won the last three Super Bowls, achieving victories in 2023, 2024, and 2025. This accomplishment marks the first time…” (the rest isn’t important)
February 22, 2025 at 12:16 AM
sarahbrand.bsky.social
“I am the Blelder. I speak for the trees.”
Statistical average of a longtime Bluesky user (which by complete coincidence looks exactly like the Lorax)
February 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM