We have fantastic windows/glass doors into our small urban yard, but, you know, in Somerville there are abt 5-6 months where that's not the v most useful. I'm embracing the browns and textures of seed heads and grasses and branches. We planted 1 kind of evergreen, which is growing. But this spring..

I love hearing a 17-yr-old go on about how much she misses Al Gore and the world would have changed if he'd won and wait he really DID win and yes she knows it all really started with Reagan...

Today was the greatest day - I spent the entire morning reading, and then in the afternoon my mentee came over for nearly 4hrs and we finally submitted her first college app (!). A few more to go, but we'll get those all in in the next week or so. What a great day!

What in the world happened to that one little candle?

This is such a great editorial -I hope every single elected official in Mass is reading the series and tapes them all to their office walls. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/21/o...

Went to spinning this morning, saw my (tad bit older) friend who just got her hip replaced a few months ago. "Happy Chanukah" she said, with an eyebrow lift. "Yeah," I responded. And then we proceeded to talk about where we were this weekend. We all are definitely not okay.

Florida is a strange place for oh so many reasons, but one odd thing to me is seeing plants outdoors that I only know in their munchkin version, indoor plants.

Anyone in Somerville/Boston area know about repairing smaller home appliances? I have a fantastic Cuisinart toaster-oven, but after 8-10yrs I'm now getting ErL error. Called cuisinart, no help. Looked up repair, it's all ovens/fridges. Any ideas on repair shops for smaller kitchen appliances? Tx!

I never reported on Quackenbush's lab, but I've reported on someone else modeling the transcriptome. This type of research is incredibly important as we try to deeply understand-and combat-diseases. This story is powerful, the loss is far bigger than just one lab. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/05/b...

I admit it, I'm scrooge - this country created a commercial holiday from a religion that is not mine that lasts like two fucking months and is inescapable . But this xmas song list has me in *tears.*

Oh I'm so sorry you feel "ashamed" and are now saying you're going to step back from your other duties and *only* focus on your care for the young men and *women* at Harvard. (Harvard, I sure as hell hope your lawyers are already working on the legalities of firing him!)

This is a longshot bc I don't know how many Bos area folks I'm connected to here: I have some jewelry I inherited that I'm looking to sell. Anyone had any good experiences/have recommendations?

Please someone write this story so I can forward to friends: what Google AI has done to smaller media websites, that is, Google Zero. Anecdote: was having someone over, said I'd made a green tomato chutney w/ last of my tomatoes, she said she asked ChatGPT and it recommended a couple of cheeses. 1/

I love these and I share many of these opinions (so do I fit into this same niche?)

We visited the Klamath right when the dam came down (was incredibly moving to report gastropod.com/bringing-sal...), this story is both so exciting-fish made it past additional barriers to reach headwaters in just 1yr!-& depressing, w/ $millions for restoration now not showing up. Still, good news!

I don't mind cold but I don't love Boston winter- it's so long, I love being outside & I love green, it's not the ideal time for either (unless you ski, I don't). So fall always feels a bit foreboding. But I have to say, Boston falls are so fking gorgeous and perfect that it almost compensates.

Everything's falling apart so I just decided to play hooky for one afternoon next week and got a single ticket to the final week of Hamilton here. Will I cry, a lot, even more than I did the first time I saw it? Probably. T said I'm going to come home that evening emotionally wrecked.

I know in the scope and scale of what's been lost in our country are immeasurable and heartbreaking, but I can't stop thinking about the loss of the entire East Wing of the White House. I've been there! It's part of our national history! It's a building with deep historic significance!

This is the greatest video - whenever T and I see audo ads on tv we always yell at the screen - where are all the other cars? Car commercials make it seem like it's just you, your shiny new car, and nothing else to hinder you from destroying the beautiful natural landscape you're tearing up.

NEW: We just secured a court order temporarily stopping the Trump Administration from demanding that states turn over personal, sensitive information about SNAP recipients to fuel their cruel immigration policies. We'll keep fighting this in court as the case continues.

I don't know how many Gastropod folks are on here, but we're looking for questions for our upcoming Ask Gastropod ep! Do you have a question that you haven't been able to figure out, a food science and/or history conundrum that's left you perplexed? We're here for you - email [email protected]!

Conversation at my bfast table: "I made myself a whole breakfast but I really just want to eat the kale." T: "You always just want to eat kale." "People who think kale is punishment aren't using enough olive oil."

Done. Not much I can do from here at the moment, but I can do this.

Everything is depressing so instead I'll talk about rain- we've had a couple of years of drought in NE and so as we've started to fill our little urban plot with native plants we wanted help watering- thus our new rain barrel. Which brings me such joy! Plus my secret joy abt the barrel:

It was a super interesting conversation from a fascinating book - listen to Gastropod and then go read the whole thing!

I recently spoke to a writer (doesn't cover science) who insisted that something was settled science in humans based on one mouse study - it wasn't appropriate timing, but I wish I could have sent them to TON! The tool below can help any & all journalists incorporate science & understand why/how!

The news gets more and more alarming, but thanks to our governor (and all the wonderful scientists and public health officials and policy makers) my spouse and I just walked around the corner to CVS, without an appointment, and got our covid and flu vaccines today.

I'm going to tag my cousin @mgraber1.bsky.social who is a literal international expert/scholar in constitutional law. Mark, @kendrawrites.com is a brilliant journalist - can you help her out?

I just typed to some friends 'the depth of the delusion is so demoralizing and depressing.' Alliteration unintended, but I think that's my general state of being.

I'm just going to put this out in the universe - I'm mentoring a truly delightful 1st gen college-bound senior who's had some tough times but is super smart with limitless passion and curiosity. Her *dream* school is Northeastern. Do I know anyone who knows anyone in admissions she can talk to?

I don't think Lucy's on here (and I miss seeing her posts on the bird site), but as a fellow child of the DC area — I'm no longer a local, though Lucy moved back — I agree with this list. Especially calling the airport "Reagan." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cri...

It's an odd reaction, but Billy Bragg's "There is power in a union" literally always makes me cry. (Yes, it's on right now.)

Any of my Somerville folks see this article abt Newton? @benforward3.bsky.social? heatmap.news/energy/newto...

I'm reading a news newsletter and it's talking about the relationship between T and Bibi and calls Huckabee 'arguably the most staunchly pro-Israel high-ranking...' and I wish there were another word for these people who love Jews bc we'll eventually, in their theology, be dead Jews. Pro-rapture?

Anyone have any recommendations about tomato hornworms? I didn't even know they existed until I figured out why the upper leaves were being defoliated and then I saw one and IT IS HUGE and the image is now BURNED onto my brain.

‪@actfortransit.bsky.social‬ I live in Somerville, Ma, grew up in Rockville-was just telling a friend (who'd been in Silver Spring) that after yrs riding a bike, now adding ebike, I feel like ebikes are the future of transport for everyone. I amended that- maybe not in 'burbs, bc of say Norbeck Rd

But it's bikes that are the problem and need to be tightly regulated and ticketed.

I love people in my replies sticking up for journalists. (I truly love it! I'm a journalist! Please, love us and support us!) My point still stands: headlines, v short news briefs, not equipped to deal with our current situation.

I had to drive my mom to the airport at 5am and I caught some NPR news (I love NPR, I support NPR, I can't listen to much NPR these days). It just hammered home to me how ill equipped news desks are for the current situation. There was like a 1-2min news read that was like reading a press release -

We received a mean email about how someone tried to listen to the show a few times but couldn't bc of my co-host 'affect.' I know, I know, I shouldn't engage, but I wrote back an email I was proud of, would be ok if it were screen shot. Explained she's 100% Brit, been in US for more than 20yrs...

One of my personal joys in life is going to the local farmers' market, but I know that not everyone has time/opportunity, and I love that there are new(ish) CSA models like this amazing one -https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/15/lifestyle/family-dinner-local-food-delivery-csa/

BREAKING: 1 in 4 nursing homes say they will be forced to close if Republicans pass Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. No grandma should be kicked out of her nursing home so that Mark Zuckerberg can buy another Hawaiian island.

This should be like THE headline EVERYWHERE. Pain for thee but none for me. (in addition to the fact that the bill IS CREATING A POLICE STATE)

If anyone has solar panels and is producing more than they use (in Mass we don't get paid back for that overage, we just bank it), I found out that you can apply that overage to anyone else in the Eversource system. 1/

We've been planting as many native species as we can to support native bees - love to see them buzzing around! - but I knew nothing about this amazing, critical, inexpensive threatened-by-T's-cuts native bee research lab www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

The Armenian genocide meta movie Ararat (movie abt making a movie abt the Armenian genocide). Not a bad movie, but poor guy - movie theater full mostly of Armenians plus this Jew.

If Joe Biden did not know that Russia was ejected from the G8 in 2014 precisely because it invaded Crimea, & that Justin Trudeau was not PM at the time, we would be having a National Conversation™️ about how Democrats can continue supporting a senile president who is a huge national security danger.

From Rabbi @marisaelana.bsky.social: May Iranians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Palestinians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Israelis, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May all the war-mongering authoritarians be deposed & may they [yet] experience real justice..

A thousand times yes! And it's a bazillion times better for us/the planet than driving. (I'm a Bostonian/Somervillain, but I was struck by a NYC fact-that I double-checked-that more people take the NYC subway *every day* than fly, anywhere in the US, every day. )

I imagine I'm not alone in thinking that this California move (which I can't imagine it'll hold, but still) could start serious rumblings about the breaking apart of the union?