Jessamyn

Rural tech geek. Researcher. Librarian resistance. Moss collector. Postcard enjoyer. I own MetaFilter. ✉️ box 345 05060 ✉️ (she/her)

library blog: https://librarian.net
personal blog: https://jessamyn.com/journal
reading list: http://jessamyn.info/booklist
ABOLISH: ICE

Public Key

npub1prsjp48zup4rrp4xldg66x7zff2ykvusk47awlhsmaqhm3apl95s53eh8y

NIP-05 Address

jessamyn_at_glammr.us@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsq3cfq6n3wq633s6n0k5ddr0py54ztxwgt2lwh0mcd7stac7slj6gzm6863

Author Public Key

npub1prsjp48zup4rrp4xldg66x7zff2ykvusk47awlhsmaqhm3apl95s53eh8y

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Last Notes

2024-10-05 02:58:37

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I should be. I just rebooted my BirdNet server yesterday because there was some upstream outage that meant my device wasn't recording but I'll check in tomorrow, make sure everything's back online the way it's supposed to be. 🦆

2024-09-19 23:17:17

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I have only one and I keep thinking "I should really get more of those"

2024-09-18 18:07:45

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Yeah your experience is, sadly, not that uncommon.

2024-09-07 19:08:00

(note: the spider in the picture is not the spider in the taxonomic hierarchy)
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/097/834/619/822/892/original/086fe1f53e1eb8a9.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/097/835/587/827/142/original/c713d79fd1564233.png

2024-09-07 18:55:45

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Want to see somethign REALLY cool? The local library over there has a Flickr album from when they were filming the first movie.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136029667@N04/albums/72157657832801573/

2024-09-05 16:24:31

Today is my birthday. I am one of those people who enjoys a little fussing over my birthday. I am going to work (I like my job).
Send me a picture of something you like (pet, nature, headline, gif, food, book, I am not particular)?
🎂
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/085/841/764/060/105/original/e18adbbf07ee32cb.jpeg

2024-08-29 21:50:30

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Mediocre jam that I nonetheless always buy because it's cheap and locally made and the proceeds benefit the Friends of the Library.

2024-08-28 15:55:23

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alt text: Rear bumper of a red Tesla car with a bumper sticker that says "bought it before we knew how awful he is"

2024-08-28 02:49:13

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🏆

2024-08-28 02:48:00

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Thanks for the suggestion. It's definitely not on my "to read" list and it looks interesting. My only question is whether there are any Nazis in it or extreme sadism? Those are really my only two nopes.

2024-08-28 01:19:47

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Book 88: The Fan Who Knew Too Much. I don't know how this wound up on my list but it may have been the cover which has nothing at all to do with the book. The main protagonist is a very nerdy awkward woman who is a "professional fan" (goes to cons, gets paid to write about them etc) who has a friend-of-sort-of-friends get murdered and she and the sort-of-friends try to figure it all out by staging a sort-of con of their own. Definitely the type of story I was in the mood for.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/036/999/420/403/862/original/7a492ab7e5951612.jpeg

2024-08-28 01:15:12

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It is very very good and very very heavy.

2024-08-24 23:15:05

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It's here, like just today in some places (I am in New England, the northeast) My partner showed up and almost got one today. Unfortunately his insurance compay didn't recognize the code for the vax in their system so he has to wait a week. 🤦

2024-08-23 20:25:03

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Book 87: This Great Hemisphere. I knew this book would be a difficult read and it was. It's a distant future novel about a post-technological world in which some people are invisible and there is huge social stratification between visible and non-visible people. As you'd expect, it's a commentary on extreme racial injustices and prejudices and just how evil people in power can get, in ways even they themselves might not expect. It's brutal and full of trauma and some moments of great joy.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/013/003/890/452/167/original/da310c0d1bb516dc.jpeg

2024-08-22 19:56:39

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I agree that is great.
I'd be concerned a little bit that it might be because they are like mine and only barely understand the tech involved. Everyone's first password is just the last four numbers of your phone number. I can hack into half the accounts in my town. (I am not in charge of the tech here and do not get to make policy decisions but I can roll my eyes at the ones that are made)

2024-08-20 00:45:26

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That is the day we met, Ethan!

2024-08-19 18:24:01

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Sometimes I just like seeing old photos of big groups of friends. Like many, I have become somewhat strange in the wake of COVID--traveling less and typing more, not entirely unhappily. But spending time in Boston with @npub1lq5…6wl7 and pals, many of whom I still keep up with at some level, was a definite joy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/debcha/13829637864/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/990/076/514/338/577/original/42220d11a97731da.jpg

2024-08-19 17:33:11

Happy #WorldPhotographyDay
Shuffling through my 20-year old Flickr account, I realized that my most "popular" photos are not necessarily my favorites. The ones I like are the ones that have some sort of personal meaning or that represent things that are no longer there.
My mother (RIP) kept a lot of things. This is a cancelled check from my father (RIP) to an airline that's been defunct since 1991 written from a bank that's been defunct since 1991. It was written on my mother's birthday.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/989/860/958/360/216/original/ec3c647094a8843b.jpg

2024-08-17 15:37:57

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Book 86: Nicked. I knew M. T. Anderson from the book Feed and now he writes books for adults. This promised to be a book about grave robbing and a pox epidemic that takes place in *checks notes* 1087! If you're one of those "Likes to think about ancient Rome" people and that synopsis sounds appealing, then this is the book for you. I liked but did not love it. It had a lot of new words, many of which felt a little extra. The basic story line is solid with some fun queer overtones. Few women.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/978/100/998/089/180/original/49eeaea208265d02.jpeg

2024-08-17 00:12:49

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Team All Moons Are Good Moons!

2024-08-16 23:31:23

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Counterpoint: it's the moon and it's freaking great and anything that encourages people to look at the moon is okay (tho I agree entirely with your larger point)

2024-08-15 20:33:42

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And just in case anyone cares, it's pronounces more or less like SHWAR-eh-chay BEEB-lee-oh-teh-kuh
Looks like mice and worms are the most likely animals to be represented in this turn of phrase.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/967/873/585/339/202/original/1b7070680eee860a.png

2024-08-15 20:10:00

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Neat! Is Pt Portuguese?

2024-08-15 20:09:11

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Hey that is neat. In a lot of ways Romanian is a very close-to-Latin romance language (so they tell me) and to my friends who know Italian, they say they are very similar.

2024-08-15 17:34:12

The Romanian word for "bookworm" translates literally to "mouse of the library"
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/967/232/779/363/650/original/141c2a3bfc5ce04d.png

2024-08-15 17:23:15

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Book 85: The Comfort of Ghosts. This book is the LAST in an eighteen book series so it has the sort of "wrap up" quality you might expect in a book like this: a lot of nostalgia; a lot of retreading old story lines and some new facts about them; a decently happy ending even given the setting which is in and around London just after WWII when stuff was still a mess. I was happy this series wrapped up right around when I was getting tired of it as being maybe a bit too precious and fairy tale.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/967/187/034/906/292/original/631646fabf67f71a.jpeg

2024-08-13 15:05:32

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Book 84: Bellewether. Don't know how this book wound up with me, it's definitely more normie than what I usually read. It's a tale about a house on Long Island in the 1700s and the family that lives there, juxtaposed against the same house which is now a historical museum in modern times. Some nice historical research, a tale of French and British soldiers, and possibly a ghost. You get glimpses of Manhattan. Schmaltzy but not in an entirely bad way, a happier ending than I'm used to.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/955/315/633/087/172/original/39d7a91c7622a26a.jpeg

2024-08-05 18:42:03

The mining of the public domain
https://www.librarian.net/stax/5566/the-mining-of-the-public-domain/

2024-08-01 00:28:17

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As someone who was on ALA Council and who spent a lot of time and energy giving IFLA a hard time (from ALA) for their last mess up here, this is supremely disappointing.

2024-07-27 17:50:42

I am very curious if there's ever been a library in an #Olympics opening ceremony?
Because I KNOW there's never been a library threesome (implied) hookup in an Olympics opening ceremony before. The official Olympics account on X posted a screenshot along with
"The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think"
Some video w/o the "We're gonna continue this behind closed doors" ending. Can't believe the library didn't put this all over social media. 💗
https://youtu.be/TgzDfVfn6w8&t=257
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/859/696/712/343/796/original/b8302ab0f8fd2474.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/859/697/962/681/770/original/8c09a2dd165ff46a.png

2024-07-27 17:21:42

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The NBC Sports YouTube channel has some of it.
https://www.youtube.com/@NBCSports/videos
This page is clickbaity but has some options laid out in case there's something you already have that will work.
https://cordcuttersnews.com/how-to-watch-the-2024-paris-olympics-live-on-roku-fire-tv-apple-tv-more-the-complete-guide/
CBC has some live events from their home page
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/video
BBC likewise
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/video

2024-07-25 16:46:19

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The presentation was by LAWYERS! (I mean it wasn't about copyright but still...)

2024-07-25 16:41:19

Extremely online folks and/or librarians. I went to a legal training last night for some town business, your normal Powerpoint type of thing.
I think we need to talk about how average people understand and implement Creative Commons licensing because it's often not good.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/witness-stand-person-front-view-113887198
#CreativeCommons #copyright
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/848/071/280/828/809/original/cb4e07a440eb4d3a.jpeg

2024-07-25 14:00:51

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I had a bear in my driveway last week and I'll be honest, I might go with moose (though would not pet one)

2024-07-20 16:38:00

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Give that baby all the lunches.

2024-07-17 21:31:50

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Oh Ruth this is incredibly... sweet at its core and shows such a great deal of care for the people whose work you're describing, including your own. I hope it got a good reception.

2024-07-15 19:20:30

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That's a sweet item but it's been a while since I've used CL, how does "Contact at number in reply" work? Or does it not.

2024-07-15 16:45:17

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Good luck with your re-entry. When I got back from Australia I found I dreamt about it for months afterwards. Such an interesting Dr Seussian place.

2024-06-20 18:25:51

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We had a bunch of tiny borbs which were clearly babies and Merlin had no idea what they were (I could see their sounds getting recorded, but their register was so high my partner couldn't hear them at all). They were rounder than anything I'd seen in the area and I kept going back trying to see the adults and finally got near enough to one that it registered and I could spot it.

2024-06-20 18:20:56

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How neat. I IDed my first Northern Parrula this week and it was a treat.

2024-06-14 15:20:36

"The Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is, specifically, books by and about queer people. Anyone in the US can apply online to get a free library card. Their collection is available through Libby."
https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/
via this always great newsletter https://www.theinfophile.com/
:better_pride:

2024-06-13 22:57:37

"Texas Christian University police later determined that [former TCU employee] stole 105 antiquities valued at $266,200 [FROM THE LIBRARY BASEMENT]."
"...over 400 individuals had access to the [LIBRARY BASEMENT] room that housed the objects"
(emphasis mine)
And of course as with a lot of foreign antiquities, these were donated to TCU for shady-ish purposes by a guy who probably shouldn't have "owned" them in the first place. An interesting heist recap story.
https://www.texasobserver.org/the-heist/

2024-06-13 20:30:01

The tiny all-volunteer website I help run [@best_of_mltshp](https://mefi.social/@best_of_mltshp ) uses Fastly as our CDN through their Fast Forward program. Today they're adding a free tier for their services
https://www.fastly.com/pricing/
I admit, I don't even totally understand all the things they do for us, but https://fosstodon.org/@haubles worked with our team to get it all set up. They're on Mastodon at https://fastly.social/@devs Really happy to work with them and pleased at this good news so that more people can share this excellent service

2024-06-05 17:39:12

"This more recent sense of the digital divide—a systems thinking divide, in which users’ lack of understanding of the interrelatedness of things is being weaponized against them—is what I work on the most."
Me talking about what I perceive to be the latest digital divide in this month's Computers in Libraries.
https://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jun24/West--The-Latest-Digital-Divide-Systems-Thinking-vs-Misinformation-and-Malfeasance.shtml

2024-06-04 23:03:52

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This guy's name is Bum Farto and the categories on his Wikipedia article are: 1919 births, Missing people, People declared dead in absentia, 20th-century American criminals, and Firefighters. I don't think I have anything more to add except amazement no one had written this article before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bum_Farto
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/560/844/846/920/002/original/abf6ef9e48bc15c2.jpg

2024-06-03 20:27:07

I am getting somewhat emotional reading about all the parts of S.220, An act relating to Vermont’s public libraries, which was signed by Vermont's governor today.
- empowers the Department of Libraries to develop model selection and retention policies for public libraries (PL)
- requires the DOL to provide Continuing Ed for public library staff (they do this already)
- extends enhanced penalties for criminal threatening in all PL
- lowers the age of patron confidentiality in PL from 16 to 12

2024-06-03 19:00:42

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My usual rule of thumb is only articles about under-represented folks on Wikipedia but I made an exception for Bill Harris without actually knowing he was a gay journalist so Happy Pride Month and please enjoy the wide array of things this man did in his journalism career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Harris_(journalist)
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/554/221/941/591/889/original/06aa21993a2a0b5a.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/554/222/096/470/158/original/ee38a887ef3aee06.png

2024-05-26 18:39:55

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Was reading a talk about the 200th anniversary of Braille (thanks @npub17ge…4etg) and he noted the passing of David Holladay who wrote early Braille translator software to help support his wife, Caryn Navy, a blind math professor when they were students at MIT.
He had a newsletter (about accessible computing) which was also published on cassette.
He continued to write and work on Braille software for his entire life, now with Wikipedia page!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holladay
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/508/857/953/709/779/original/dc49b4c2e07a2dd5.jpg

2024-05-20 19:21:34

I wrote an opinion piece about Vermont's Data Privacy Act which is sitting on the Governor's desk while the big tech lobby pressures him not to sign it. Threaded here so people can read it and I don't just give you an image with a huge alt text wall.
---
I support Vermont Data Privacy Act a bill which has passed the House and Senate and is on its way to the Governor's desk. Vermonters deserve to be able to understand and control how their personal information is collected and used online [1/7]

2024-05-18 23:06:45

If you participated in the discussion about Libby and maybe-targeted ads and privacy policies, you might like to read The Register's deep dive on what they could determine about what actually happened from @npub160w…p722
https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/18/mystery_of_the_targeted_mobile_ads/

2024-04-28 01:54:48

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Was watching one of my goofy British cop shows last night and noticed one of the actors seemed to have his shit totally together. Looked him up, did not find much info in the usual places despite him having been a Shakespearean actor since the 1970s.
Threw together a Wikipedia article (simple to get started, someone with a better theater background please make it better) and then found 14 other pages that mentioned him. Meet Leo Wringer. Played Marvin Gaye on stage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Wringer
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/346/343/933/866/003/original/9ada353168234233.png

2024-04-21 01:52:08

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A pal noted that it was weird that 41st VT governor Nelson Fisk had a Wikipedia page while his wife Elizabeth Hubbell Fisk, who had revitalized a kind of woven textile art, did not.
I wrote one. I will note that some of this is "Bored rich white lady finds something to do and Vermont likes to write about their own" but some was definitely not and I enjoyed learning about her and scaring up old sources from the Wayback Machine and Newspapers.com #weaving #textiles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hubbell_Fisk
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/306/679/719/473/396/original/d3230f1732087bbc.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/306/700/046/483/504/original/3c2ac625d2b7abeb.jpg

2024-04-19 18:51:44

My "day job" is working at the Flickr Foundation helping nurture and grow Flickr Commons. We're approaching an important milestone, re-opening the doors to Flickr Commons, a collection of photography collections all of which have no known copyright restrictions.
It's been around since 2008 and is comprised of nearly two million photos. Do you work for a GLAM institution that might want to be part of it? If so, please read our main post and send us your details. 🤩
https://glammr.us/@flickrfdn/112299229081607353
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/299/385/099/490/088/original/b3d39d787d662ac6.jpg

2024-03-24 20:56:58

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Found this smiley photo of Rose Koller on Flickr Commons and left it in a tab for later. Today I dug in to try to figure out more about her. Not that much info for someone who doesn't read German. I also have a nagging suspicion she may have gotten married and changed her name and perhaps did a lot of work under that name. I did notice that she seems to have been a VERY early forensic facial reconstructer, so I added her name to that page too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Koller
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/152/667/633/741/437/original/52e29f0ace3bd312.jpg

2024-03-21 20:35:18

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Saw a close-up magic performance (on YouTube) by Markobi who took home an award from the World Championship of Magic (held only every three years) and was surprised that he had no Wikipedia page. I made a small one. Very little info on this young magician.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bittar

2024-02-29 18:23:01

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Ran into a pic of Perriton Maxwell and thought "He looks smug" and indeed I think he probably was. Editor of a ton of things and he told Who's Who he wrote more books than he actually did. I tried to make his Wikipedia page fact-based.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perriton_Maxwell

2024-02-14 00:20:53

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Carolyn Kellogg was cited in a lot of articles as the former LA Times' book editor but did not have her own Wikipedia page. Now she does. #WomenInRed #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Kellogg

2024-02-04 21:51:37

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Saw a post on scots mastodon about "the Black Gaels" and thought it was interesting. I then went down a rabbit hole of learning about these Gaelic speaking twins from Cape Breton who probably inspired a Kipling character. At one point I was watching a YouTube video of a 1997 historical society presentation where they were playing a cassette tape that was much older. The image I saw w/ the post was, sadly AI-generated and will probably be the one everyone thinks is real
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_George_Maxwell

2024-02-02 02:42:35

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Saw a WP page I'd edited, not created, had been moved back to draft space saying "needs more citations". This is the equivalent, in my opinion, of someone saying "Try harder" and always feels unwelcoming. So, because I have a certain level of privs, I moved it BACK into main space, added three more airtight citations AND a fair use book cover image. Such a spite edit. 😂
The book, The Toothpaste Millionaire, was written in 1972. I knew the author. You might like it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toothpaste_Millionaire
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/859/574/480/938/782/original/037c8b9db9029763.png

2024-01-21 19:06:44

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Read an article about a spectacular map collection. The man who had collected all the maps (along w/ his wife) had no Wikipedia page. Seemed like an oversight, now corrected.
I think about these things often: it's easy to find citations (and thus write articles) for rich white men who accumulated and distributed their wealth. This is part of why English Wikipedia skews this way. Endeavoring to get more into Women in Red for my next articles. Anyway, here's Harold Osher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Osher
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/795/499/668/247/308/original/70d088f59f558d98.png

2024-01-07 17:04:31

New Year new #Wikipedia list. Reebee Garofalo was one of the original people who put together Rock Against Racism Massachusetts but you may know him as the snare player for the Good Trouble Brass Band playing in the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. He was cited in a ton of other Wikipedia articles and made that Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music chart you may have seen in an Edward Tufte book. A good guy to get to know, deserves a longer article but this is good for now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reebee_Garofalo
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/715/738/921/531/048/original/ed505ac993b8e0a4.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/715/743/973/426/592/original/f9bd6aa75a42e305.jpg