Undine Owens
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undineowens.bsky.social
Undine Owens
@undineowens.bsky.social
55 followers 14 following 290 posts
Born, bred, and living in Washington, DC.

Please don’t hurt people.
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undineowens.bsky.social
Initial thoughts (in no particular order) tend to be:
- Political and/or religious upheaval;
- Shifting provenance;
- Bored teenager.

Not the incunabulum, child!
Set of open browser tabs, including: pouncing (art technique for copying images); the Newberry Library catalogue search; catalogue page for the book; search for political history of the region contemporary to publication; webpage on 15th century bindings including another book published by the same printers the following year; links page leading to crests for prominent regional individuals contemporary to publication date. Not shown: database of printers’ devices.
November 18, 2025 at 11:15 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Wrapped up and ready to head back in time. Blue for the Bridgertons, gold for the Featheringtons’ jewelry, paisley for the Sharmas. Let’s go.
Trade paperback book wrapped in paper of light blue, grey, and gold in a paisley pattern. The same book, opened to the cover page: “The Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency Britain” by Ian Mortimer.
November 17, 2025 at 8:24 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
The Cut, “The Costumer Who Changed Hollywood for Good - Paul Tazewell Shares His Emancipated Vision of Oz”: www.thecut.com/article/wick....

Might be paywalled; here are key photos.
Black and white photo of costume designer Paul Tazewell, who won an Oscar for “Wicked”, Part I. Photo, Glinda’s blue-and-lavender “bubble” dress with tiara. Photo of Elphaba’s multi-textured black coat dress with Hat 2.0.
November 15, 2025 at 8:25 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
4/4. ::hops off soapbox::
“Yes, PEOPLE, during an utterly transactional moment in the assessment of innate value, you nailed it :). Also, the man's #Bridgerton and #Wicked co-stars wore t-shirts showcasing pictures from his covershoot. That's adorable :). And crucially, humanity-affirming in a way that serves all of us.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
3/4.
“Or deciding that anyone he can't ‘have’ (‘own’, dominate, command fealty or gifts from) is ugly, worthless, utterly without merit and doesn't deserve consideration. I.e., the vast, VAST majority of us. And the White House. Lots of us can appreciate beauty and value - in a person, in a belief, in a declaration - that's not ‘made’ FOR ME. And that got affirmed in the huge response to JB's SMA win.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
2/4.
“Y'all, NONE of us who read the SMA issue have a shot with the people being pictured, just because we can see them in a magazine. They're people, obviously? A photo doesn't grant us any ownership stake in their lives. I don't know. Maybe I'm just hugely sick of a man for whom there is no gap between finding a woman attractive and reaching out to grab her.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:28 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Ready. And I want to talk about Jonathan Bailey’s “Sexiest Man Alive” win. Hear me out :). 1/4.
“Yes, this is 100% frivolous :), but I think it's significant. We're having a moment when "What is good?" or "What has worth I can value?" is being selfishly conflated with "What is good FOR ME?" There hasn't been an openly gay "Sexiest Man Alive" (SMA) before, I think, out of some fear that women will look at PEOPLE's pick and go, ‘What's the point? That guy isn't FOR ME’.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:24 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Thinking about the SNAP cancellation/“Gatsby” party. And 2016’s electors.

A good system has multiple safeguards. Making a malignant narcissist the world’s most powerful human isn’t all on them.

But they went first. The first group to “follow orders” vs. say “I have concerns. No”.

Can’t forget it.
Link: https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_elec-html/. “The Framers were wary of giving the people the power to directly elect the President — some felt the citizenry too beholden to local interests, too easily duped by promises or shenanigans, or simply because a national election, in the time of oil lamps and quill pens, was just impractical. Some proposals gave the power to the Congress, but this did not sit well with those who wanted to see true separation of the branches of the new government. Still others felt the state legislatures should decide, but this was thought to make the President too beholden to state interests. The Electoral College, proposed by James Wilson, was the compromise that the Constitutional Convention reached. Though the term is never used in the Constitution itself, the electors that choose the President at each election are traditionally called a College. In the context of the Constitution, the meaning of college is not that of a school, but of a group of people organized toward a common goal.” Link: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-1/clause-2%E2%80%934/electoral-college. ELECTORS AS FREE AGENTS “‘No one faithful to our history can deny that the plan originally contemplated, what is implicit in its text, that electors would be free agents, to exercise an independent and nonpartisan judgment as to the men best qualified for the Nation’s highest offices.’ Writing in 1826, Senator Thomas Hart Benton admitted that the framers had intended electors to be men of ‘superior discernment, virtue, and information,’ who would select the President ‘according to their own will’ and without reference to the immediate wishes of the people. ‘That this invention has failed of its objective in every election is a fact of such universal notoriety, that no one can dispute it. That it ought to have failed is equally uncontestable; for such independence in the electors was wholly incompatible with the safety of the people. [It] was, in fact, a chimerical and impractical idea in any community.’ Electors constitutionally remain free to cast their ballots for any person they wish and occasionally they have done so.” Link: https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-ii/clauses/350. “Today few people would consider the Electoral College to be a ‘deliberative’ body as it was once imagined because the Electors are appointed mechanistically to winners according to vote totals in the states. Although the Electors meet in their state capitals at a December date set by Congress to cast their ballots, in practice they simply follow the election returns and never conduct substantive discussion or debate about who should be president. Still, the Electors do possess the legal prerogative to vote as they wish, and under extraordinary circumstances they might exercise that prerogative to change the expected outcome dictated by popular election returns.” USAToday, “Trump Held ‘Great Gatsby’-Themed Halloween Party As SNAP Benefits Were Due To Be Cut Off”: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/02/trump-gatsby-1920s-party/87052157007/.
November 5, 2025 at 11:59 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED.
(For the first time in 2025.)

Excuse me while I scream and gaze respectfully. #JonathanBailey
PEOPLE magazine cover proclaiming Jonathan Bailey 2025's Sexiest Man Alive. Twitter post from July 7th, 2025: "Thinking about @People's Sexiest Man Alive. Yes, it's early, but the current mood is 'Summertime' (1991). Last year, #JonathanBailey lifted the 👑 from 2024's winner, & he's spent 2025 gently obliterating all comers. Name him in November. It's 2025. I think we can handle it :)."
November 5, 2025 at 6:34 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
"Alanna: The First Adventure" (1983) by Tamora Pierce.
November 4, 2025 at 6:22 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
So. We live in a time when problems aren't *considered* unless they matter to a small group of people with power.

Needed to spell that out, to accept where we are and move from there.

This Guardian article on the anemia epidemic set me thinking about it: tinyurl.com/mr6y45km. #publichealth
Article intro: Rose Stokes (Sun 2 Nov 2025 06:00 EST), "Tired all the time? There may be a reason for that". The subtitle soft-peddles a question about why UK women seem so exhausted before launching into the article's exploration of iron-deficient anemia. Key passages excerpted in the following images. A primer on iron-deficient anemia. Segment: "... the University of Washington, puts iron deficiency anaemia as one of the top five causes of disability in women of reproductive age globally. Defined by the NHS as the most common cause of anaemia (when blood lacks the resources to deliver an adequate amount of oxygen to the tissues and organs), iron deficiency disproportionately affects women because – owing mostly to menstruation – they both need and lose more iron than men do. According to the NHS, women between 19 and 49 need to ingest almost double the amount of iron every day as men to stay healthy, making what we eat and how it is made a contributing factor – but this is only part of the story... ... almost one in three women attending its clinics had absolute iron deficiency (iron stores insufficient for an individual’s needs). And while treatment should be simple, it is so hard to come by that many of these women are just having to live with symptoms that can sometimes be life-ruining." TL;DR: Red blood cells carry oxygen to organs and cells, which require it to function. Hemoglobin carries the oxygen; ferritin (from ferrous, "iron") stores iron, which the body needs to make hemoglobin. Remember those O2 saturation monitors we used during the pandemic? They measure oxygen, not hemoglobin. So a person with good oxygen saturation can still have mild to moderate (and worsening) anemia. "Dr Andrew Klein, who runs an iron clinic in Cambridge, says one in three people can’t absorb oral iron, making treatment less straightforward. Even for those who can, it is still a slow process. Intravenous (IV) iron takes just over an hour from start to finish and, depending on the reason for deficiency, can restock a patient’s iron stores indefinitely... ... But it is more expensive than pills – it costs the NHS about £600 a patient (including the costs of the drug, the facility, nursing staff, disposable supplies, admin and blood tests). Part of the problem, Klein says, is that a lack of good quality research into treatment means a dearth of effective cheaper options. The only clinical randomised trial he is aware of showed significant benefit from IV compared with oral iron. 'If I were to develop a cheaper alternative, I would be the richest person in the world,” Klein adds, pointing out that close to a billion women worldwide have iron deficiency." "'Many don’t know that iron deficiency can occur without anaemia," he says, 'so only check for that by looking at haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen to tissue and organs, and anaemic people lack, when ferritin requires a separate test.' So looking at haemoglobin levels in isolation can be a red herring. 'Iron is one of the ingredients that makes haemoglobin,' Richards explains. 'If your iron stores – ferritin – run low, your body steals iron from elsewhere.' Iron is a core component in our mitochondria – the nuclear powerhouse of the cell that makes energy. "So if you have low iron in your muscles, you feel tired. You have trouble walking upstairs, with shortness of breath, chest pain or palpitations. You can feel dizzy. And if this iron is taken from the brain, then women describe brain fog, forgetfulness or an inability to think clearly.'"
November 4, 2025 at 5:49 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Did some quick math yesterday (see attached).

$22,656.16 (37 days of Speaker Johnson's annual salary)
+ $15,731.51 (33 days of Rep. Grijalva's annual salary)
= $38,387.67 should be docked from his 2025 pay.

No work? No pay.

Plus $1,089.04 each added day he singlehandedly keeps the House closed.
October 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Ubi periculum: Papal bull issued by Pope Gregory X to set conclave rules after it took 3 years (1268-1271 CE) to elect his predecessor's successor.

The big incentive was, no Pope, no income. ::shrug:: Since Mike Johnson is singlehandedly keeping the HoR on recess, I think he shouldn't get paid. [+]
Fresco, "Gregory X" by Buonamico Buffalo account (c. 1330 CE).
October 26, 2025 at 6:22 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Day 74, excuse me. Time had gone awry here.
October 23, 2025 at 11:52 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
While having the most lucrative year of his life.

In January, I'd like an account of how much wealth this POTUS amassed + how much federal money he spent on himself (redecorating, weekly golf trips, frivolous lawsuits/🪖 deployments).

How many federal employees will be fired/furloughed in 2025?
Forbes article, September 2025. As of September 10th, the POTUS had made $3B in 2025, raising his net worth from $4.3B in 2024 to $7.3B, or by 41%.
October 23, 2025 at 11:39 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey 2025 (July 2025): content.schwab.com/web/retail/p....

::rubs eyes:: For something both different and right at the center of the point: What do Americans need to feel financially safe, and how do we change things so that safety becomes normal?
Chart from SeekingAlpha (https://tinyurl.com/yc7supx4), showing the net worth Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers say that it takes to be 1.) Wealthy or 2.) Financially Comfortable. The average thresholds across generations are 1.) $2.3M or 2.) $839,000.
October 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Here's the official description of the job: www.uscp.gov/careers/qual....

Here are images from the first search page of "US Capitol Police" officers. ::runs eyes::. The day-to-day role of security officers is to protect a place by screening out people with ill intentions. Screen, not shoot. [-]
Screenshot from link above, "Qualifications & FAQs" for becoming a U.S. Capitol Police Officer. Note: Not only does it require a full background investigation (not "check", investigation). And any applicants who are former military members require documentation of an honorable discharge. It reads as if the recruiters haven't wavered on their priorities. I just wonder if ads like that will attract strong applicants. Maybe the point's just to attract attention, in which case, job well done 💭. Two rows of new Capitol Police officers swearing in. A few police officers patrolling the rotunda like museum security guards :). Set of U.S. Capitol Police jn windbreakers with bicycles, about to patrol the grounds. The only "armor" on the officers are bike helmets.
October 12, 2025 at 9:32 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
C'MON, DC! Ad on a Metro bus.

Glad for the #USCapitolPolice. Their courage and dedication on January 6th - there aren't words. They were crucial to stopping a direct attack on our republic.

That's not the job this ad is selling. [+]
Photo taken by the author, 10 October 2025. Ad covering the entire side of a Metro bus, advertising US Capitol Police jobs starting at $83,362. Okay. The central panel, with the largest letters, reads "BE ONE OF [obscured by lamppost] US". One font size down: "ANSWER THE CALL". The central figure is a man in full combat garb (see next ALT text) with a US Capitol Police emblem to the bottom right. Zoom in on the ad's human figure. This man's gun runs from his right shoulder across his body past his left knee. Not a gun expert by any means - DC native; guns are illegal - but based on media culture, this is some kind of assault rifle? Something heavy; the model is holding it with two hands, the front one perhaps hooked into a purpose-built handle?, and the space between the trigger and the magazine suggests that maybe it's designed to be fired while balanced on the shooter's shoulder. I just can't see, purely from a physics standpoint, how a gun that big with that many bullets, would be designed for a person to shoot and move solely on the strength of their two arms. You could do it, but it's impractical, even if the shooter is spraying bullets vs. taking careful aim. What cause would a U.S. Capitol Police officer have to "spray bullets", anyway? Also, why does this giant rifle end in something that (in my ignorance of guns) looks like a silencer? The point is, who is this image of the job being sold to? Question.
October 12, 2025 at 9:04 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Giant energy drinks, like the standard 16 oz. for Rockstar or Monster, contain 160 mg. of #caffeine. Small cans of Red Bull (8.4 oz.) contain 80 mg, or 114 mg. for a 12 oz. can.

A 12 oz. can of #CELSIUS? 200 mg.

Your health, your choice. But choice has to be informed to matter, so PSA. [-]
Back of a standard can of CELSIUS, highlighting size of drink and caffeine content.
October 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Trying to keep this succinct.

Our 🧠 model for caffeine consumption is still 2-3 cups of drip coffee, morning at "the office". The size of a cup is ~8-12 oz. today, a cup = ~95-142.5 mg. caffeine, 2-3 cups = 190-427.5 mg.

The FDA's daily caffeine limit for healthy adults maxes out at 400 mg. [+]
Photo of the standard, waxed-cardboard 8-ounce disposable coffee cup. From FDA, "Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much?" (28 August 2024; https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much): "Daily Caffeine Consumption for Most Adults For most adults, the FDA has cited 400 milligrams* a day — that's about two to three 12-fluid-ounce cups of coffee — as an amount not generally associated with negative effects. However, there is wide variation in both how sensitive people are to the effects of caffeine and how fast they eliminate it from the body. Certain conditions tend to make people more sensitive to caffeine’s effects, as can some medications. If you are concerned about a condition or medication, or if you’re pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or breastfeeding, we recommend talking to your health care provider about whether you need to limit caffeine consumption."
October 9, 2025 at 6:01 PM
undineowens.bsky.social
Caffeine content spreads into:

- Slipping caffeine into odd comestibles (ex. yogurt) to make them imperceptibly addictive;
- Marketing caffeinated drinks to teens/under-25s;
- Raising caffeine content per volume, so people are consuming higher doses that they realize (tinyurl.com/3v375ucy). [+]
Title card for YouTube video on caffeine in Panera lemonade, linked above. Food Theory (29 Jan 2023), "Death by Lemonade": https://youtu.be/N4wW85WZMJQ?si=_Y10stDICqJacd30.
October 9, 2025 at 6:26 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Back to #publichealth! It's a central interest - I always return eventually :).

Traveling a lot lately, for medical stuff/mental health, and I've noticed the explosion of CELSIUS™ #energydrinks: convenience stores, vending machines, in the take-and-go freezer at fast casual restaurants. [+]
Photo of CELSIUS energy drink cans through a freezer door. Audible flavors appear to include Cosmic Vibe, Tropical Punch (partially obscured), Wild Berry, and Mango Passionfruit.
October 9, 2025 at 5:18 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Sir, you have the background, credentials, reach, & ties to Illinois to be a rally point for a legally-based challenge. In the ⚖️ of public opinion, if Congress/the DOJ don't act.

There is no "aisle" in the real world. Bring 👥️ of sense & duty together to make the case.
@adamkinzinger.substack.com
October 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Q (meme): "What should we do with [the WH ballroom] after Trump leaves office?"

A: Why should we allow it to be built? Why is the POTUS being allowed to manipulate federal resources for vanity projects w/o challenge or oversight?

No POTUS has enriched himself more while gold-digging so vigorously.
Forbes (10 September 2025), "Presidency Boosts Trump’s Net Worth By $3 Billion In A Year": https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2025/09/09/presidency-boosts-trumps-net-worth-by-3-billion-in-a-year/. From FORBES: "Donald Trump lost money during his first term. Out of office, he found a formula for profiting off politics—now he’s piling up billions. ----- Donald Trump just had the most lucrative year of his life. The president is now worth a record $7.3 billion, up from $4.3 billion in 2024, when he was still running for office. The $3 billion gain vaulted him 118 spots on The Forbes 400, where he lands at No. 201 this year."
September 30, 2025 at 3:34 AM
undineowens.bsky.social
Q (meme): "Why did humans stop building wonders?"

A: Curious what %tage "un- or under-paid labor" is part of that. As a world, we're the richest we've ever been. If we wanted to, couldn't we build more wonders and pay people properly to do it?

I don't think people have to be the cost of wonder.
Quote from "A Room with a View" (film; 1985): THE REVEREND MR. EAGER: Remember the facts about this church of Santa Croce; how it was built by faith in the full fervour of medievalism. MR. EMERSON: Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workers weren't paid properly.
September 27, 2025 at 7:28 PM