Notices by Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us), page 3

Book 128: The Noble Hustle. I picked this up thinking (somehow) that it was fiction by Whitehead. It's actually about the time he got staked to play in the World Series of Poker. It's interesting in that it talks about poker culture. It wasn't interesting in that I don't entirely know how to play poker and the book claims it tells you how to play but doesn't really. I liked getting to know more about Whitehead (just out of a relationship at the time, and in his feels about that and other things)

Book 129: Transitions. A graphic novel translated from the French mostly about a mother trying to come to terms with her 19 year old son who has come out to her as trans. She gets there, but it takes her a long time. This book may not be for everyone because there's a lot of using the wrong pronouns/names and "...but what about MY feelings...?" but I think it's also honest and real and may resonate with some people who are less far along in their acceptance journey. Beautifully drawn.

Book 130: The Future. A story about some overly-powerful billionaires, the potential end of the world, and a possible way around it. Hard to tell more without giving away some story arcs. It was a bit tough to hang with some parts of this because there are both truly awful people as well as some lengthy reddit-type-posts-as-exposition which would not have been my choice. But! The way it all "works out" is fun and ingenious and kept me happily reading.

Book 131: I'd Rather Be Reading. This was a fine short collection of essays by a woman who likes to read and also just likes to immerse herself in the possibilities of books. As a person who reads a lot of these books, there wasn't a lot that was new for me here, but I always appreciate someone's fresh enthusiasms. Apparently the woman has a popular book blog which is well liked though i had never heard of it. A nice gift-y sort of book.

Book 132: Loka. A sequel to a book I'd already read. It's an "epic journey" story involving two teens who decide to circumnavigate the globe for an Anthro Challenge. The catch: one has sickle cell and has never been on Earth before, having been raised on a massive space station. It also takes place in a future time where the earth is primarily (I think?) inhabited by post-human "alloys" which can transfer their consciousness into various bodies. Felt a bit too YA for me, but def, worth reading.

Book 133: Hidden Libraries. This book should have been SO up my street but instead it was a collection of "interesting book rooms" many of which operate(d) with little human intervention with a few subtle jabs at existing public libraries which I didn't appreciate. Many gorgeous (stock) photos and only a few original interviews, the rest gleaned from blogs, news and YouTube which, if you're a real bibliophile, you've probably already read. Lovely, not much new in here.

@simbarr Well isn't this just great?

Here are links to the photographer's page and the knitter's page.

https://josephford.net/project/knitted-camouflage/55224
https://www.ninadoddknits.com/

@evan @BathysphereHat The family friends I did a festive holiday dinner with this weekend had one of those under the tree. Had never really seen one or heard of it before. I was a strong no to this poll but I do celebrate New England tree magic this time of year by standing out in the woods when it snows.

@beep @lzg

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. The days start getting longer any day now. I'm preparing for a bonfire to welcome the longer days and the shorter nights. In some cases, I'm scheduling those emails late into next week. Have a good holiday, wherever you find joy and peace.

Image credit: East Riding Archives, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138361426@N08/25040166009/

@beep @lzg Just say when to stop...

This is a 🦨 footprint. The lil foot compressed the snow so that when it got melty this week, the compressed footprint melted more slowly than the surrounding snow and left this 🦨 footprint tower.

Is is around the corner from my compost pile that I affectionately refer to as the 🦨 feeder.

Since the Emmy Awards have no authority control, I had to learn some esoteric table formatting in Wikipedia so that I could include references for both the four Emmy nominations for Megan Callahan and then the four for Megan Callahan-Shah (after she was married). She's a writer for Saturday Night Live and after seeing someone quietly removing a redlink to her name, I decided maybe to just write up a stub instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Callahan-Shah

Found an image of Dorothy Follis in the Library of Congress' Flickr uploads. Was wondering who she was. Apparently a big deal of a singer and actress (and good at getting into the papers). Had a twelve-year career, was in a few Broadway shows and sang with the Chicago Grand Opera Company and then toured with her own company. Noted for her beauty and her talent, she got married to a newspaper man and died just over a year later at the age of 31.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Follis

Language Log asked why there was no Wikipedia article about badass bibliographer (you heard me) Julia Emily Johnsen. Well, now there is one.

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=66743

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Emily_Johnsen

A champion English one-legged swimmer of the Victorian era? And we have photographs of him from... 1865?

With appreciation for the National Archives UK, I helped turn their blog post about Charles Harold Moore into a brief Wikipedia article about a man whose life is mostly documented for the highs and lows with very little in-between.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harold_Moore

Charlotte Davies was known to me because someone said "Hey that's my grandmother!" in a comment on Flickr Commons and then I looked her up and... wow. I very much believe she was doing the best she could as a young mother in the early 1900s in a world that was (was?) exceptionally judgmental about how women presented themselves. After her high profile divorce/annulment she drops entirely out of public life for which I suspect she was grateful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Davies

Yankel Kalich was married to the well-known actress Molly Picon. They started out in Yiddish theater (her mostly acting, him mostly producing) and wound up being in Hollywood movies like Fiddler on the Roof. They lived in Mahopac New York in a home they called Chez Schmendrick and were together 55 years.

Kalich and Picon toured Displaced Person camps after WWII "anywhere they could find an audience of survivors." I saw his picture in Flickr Commons, wanted to know more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankel_Kalich

Sometimes people suggest articles to me "It's curious that this notable person has no page." I'll get articles to Stub/Start class; other people who want to get more into the details can flesh them out.

It was hard to stop with Stephanie Mills' page because there's a lot out there. She was around the Bay Area during the formative years of the ecology movement and wrote about it. She's known for her valedictorian speech "The Future is a Cruel Hoax." Relatable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Mills_(journalist)

At work today I saw a cabinet card of William Morris Hunt. Someone had left a sixteen-year-old comment on it that mentioned the name of the photographer, Caleb Lysander Howe, saying that he was well-known in Vermont.

Checked Wikipedia, found nothing about him, rectified that. Found his selfie on the internet as well as some amusing ads for his studio from the 1880s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Lysander_Howe

A cool thing about early photographers is their selfies. Unlike a LOT of other people of the time, we know what they look like. C. L. Howe was a VT photographer. I went to see if there were other ones. I found M. M. Hazeltine, known for his Yosemite pix, and found a teeny image of him and his brother working a gold claim in CA in the 1850s. Checked with the library to make sure they weren't claiming copyright for their scan (they weren't) and in to Wikipedia it goes!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Mason_Hazeltine