Me.

Author outfits old pickup truck to be traveling banned bookstore: 'A rolling rebellion in the Deep South'

The work she’s doing now? Converting a rusty 1940 Ford pickup truck into a traveling banned bookstore. She calls it “The Banned Wagon.”

“I was originally thinking of opening a regular bookstore, but after the fight over banning books in Fairhope, I was inspired to go this route instead,” Fugett shared with the Alabama Political Reporter.

Her goal with The Banned Wagon is to put banned and challenged books “back into the hands of the people who need them the most.” That includes LGBTQ+ youth, and other marginalized communities. But Fugett also knows that everyone needs access to books that challenge their worldview.


This is a replicable tactic for dealing with censorship.

Another option is to stash diverse titles in Little Free Libraries, in BookCrossing, in any swap shelf you see, and so on. Poke a bigot in the eye, share banned books!  Here are some ideas.

Today is partly cloudy and mild.  It rained a little yesterday, enough to leave small puddles in the road, but the ground is still bone-dry here.  Further predictions for rain continue to fluctuate wildly, but hopefully we'll get some more eventually.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, patio plants, irises, and a few others around the house yard.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I watered the new picnic table, septic garden, telephone pole garden, and a few savanna seedlings.

EDIT 9/20/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
 

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the yard.

I picked half a dozen groundcherries.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I watered the irises.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

The sky has clouded over, air is cooling a little, and I heard thunder.  I'm not sure it'll amount to anything, though.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

I finished making the corncob broth.  \o/  It tastes delicious -- delicate, slightly sweet, summery, sunny, with notes of corn and grass.  This is sooo much better than regular vegetable broth!  If you dislike vegetable broth, this is well worth a try.  I now regret every corncob that I tossed straight onto the compost pile.  Also I'm annoyed that I only discovered this at the end of the season.

I started with this recipe for inspiration.  This time I used the 6 corncobs that I had, some dried onion chips, about 1/4 teaspoon white peppercorns, and three large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley.

Anyhow, I filled a tray of large ice cubes because I want to try this in stir-fry sauce to add volume.  I got three cartons that are about 1 1/2 cup each, plus a big one that is probably about 4 cups and suited for crockpot use.  I expect it will work anywhere I would normally use regular vegetable broth, possibly also chicken broth.

Next time I make this, and there will be  a next time, I will make it in a large crockpot as usual.  I'll use a quartered onion, and I might throw in something else.  I suspect that lemongrass would work great, and celery or celery leaves might.  Broths are flexible; you can toss in whatever you have or like.  With a large crockpot I can get a great deal of broth with minimal effort.

Today I made Three Sisters Succotash.  I want to write up my version because it's a bit different than the Iroquois-inspired one that I started with.

Then it occurred to me that I had half a dozen fresh corncobs, so I am making corncob broth to see if that's any good. 

An argument that large language models should be called goLLuMs. 

There is so much potential for satire and mockery here.  :D

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Embroidery is a fibercraft hobby of making things from colored thread on fabric. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider embroidery as a form of protest. Make something beautiful that will last.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like crafty, cross_stitch, everykindofcraft, get_knitted, justcreate, sewing, and sewing101.

( Read more... )

Consider Hope-Scrolling

Today’s goal is to boost your mood, inspire positivity, and restore some bits of faith in humanity. Now is the time to acknowledge the importance of regularly searching for hope and applying the benefits. The hip new slogan for this process is known as hope-scrolling.


I aim to do this as a counterbalance to the often dark things I post regarding climate change, activism, etc. It's challenging because there aren't as many positive news sites as mixed or gloomy ones, and they don't update as often. Sometimes I can find good science news. I used to pull fun educational things or amusing animal videos from YouTube, but I don't really want to support a site that's mistreating its users. :/ Still, I'm always keeping my eye out for sources of upbeat news.