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lindybrandon @lindybrandon.bsky.social · 23h

I write about contestants in the Pillsbury Bake-off and their life stories outside of that. Lillian Willis had a different bake-off experience than her white counterparts. In 1949, she traveled to the bake-off under Jim Crow laws.
#baking #geneaology

lindybrandon.substack.com/p/1949-festi...

1949: Festive Upside-Down Cake

The only Black contestant in the 1949 Bake-off, Lillian Willis faced Jim Crow complications head on to bring her cake to the National Competition. A twist on the iconic upside-down cake by Mrs. L. W. ...

lindybrandon.substack.com

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Jason @bloodraynes.bsky.social · 1d

Morning #BlueSky ☕️ Some places have echoes of the past woven into the present that still replay,forever 😳 (Alt for more) Have a great day friends☺️ #PalacesAndGardens #Myth&Legend #EastCoastKin
#ColorADay #YellowThu #31DaysOfHalloween
#PhotographyOfBlueSky #Castles #Rivers #Bridges #Ireland #Folklore

After the picture description, I have a short chilling story to go with this shot.

The picture shows a weathered stone castle sitting beside a calm river, its reflection shimmering clearly in the still water, here in my little Irish village l call home.

The castle is built with thick gray walls, towers, and battlements that rise above a bridge connecting it to the opposite bank.

Surrounding the scene are green grasses and leafy trees, but the mood is far from peaceful, the sky is heavy with dark clouds, and a bright, oversized sun glows eerily through the haze.

The sunlight gives the entire scene a ghostly golden tint, as though the world is caught between dusk and dawn. Thin power lines stretch diagonally across the image, faint reminders of the modern world intruding on ancient ground.

And finally, our picture is finished off with a thin white border frame.

And now for our story, l call it …

The Ghosts of White Castle on the Bridge

On quiet autumn nights, when the river beneath White Castle lies perfectly still, locals swear they can hear footsteps echo across the old stone bridge, footsteps that belong to no living soul.

Long ago, the castle was home to Lord Eamon White, a man known for his pride and his cruelty.

When famine struck the village, he ordered his guards to bar the gates, hoarding food while his people starved.

One stormy night, the villagers gathered on the bridge, torches in hand, demanding mercy. But Lord White’s answer was swift, arrows rained down, and the bridge ran red.

As legend tells, when dawn broke, the castle was silent. Every guard was gone, and Lord White was found at the window, pale and still, his eyes wide in terror. No wound marked his body.

Now, when mist rolls from the river and the air hums with a strange chill, passersby see figures crossing the bridge, pale shapes moving slowly toward the castle, torches flickering in invisible hands.

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 22h

Today’s mandatory faculty mental health slideshow, “Going Through the Motions: How to Function Despite the Fact Your Supervisors Hate You and Your Job Is Destroying You Spiritually,” has been postponed again.

The Faculty Mental Health Fair Has Been Postponed Again

Dear Faculty: Due to concerns expressed by the students, parents, and staff, you are invited to attend a mandatory emergency mental health fair in ...

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Grant Tosterud @granttosterud.bsky.social · 1d

SkyNews13 catches some Splash N' Dash action along the Rio Grande for Day 5 of Balloon Fiesta!

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Bill Amend @billamend.bsky.social · 2d

My friend Matt Inman made a great comic about AI…

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 2d

One of the few things I don't mind waking up early for
#balloonfiesta #hotairballoon #newmexico #newmexicotrue

A view from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta field showing dozens of hot air balloons on the ground and in the air, with the Sandia Mountains in the background.

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🅢🅗🅔🅔🅝🅐 @sheena-mck.bsky.social · 4d

Morning peeps. Monday again #GoodMorning

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Jerry Smith, writer, motorcyclist, Sophie's dad. @jerrysmith6559.bsky.social · 8d

Jan Daub completed the Iron Butt Association's Ultimate Coast-to-Coast ride on a Honda Gold Wing sidecar--at age 80. Remember that if you ever think you're too old for a new challenge. Here's my story about him on Common Tread. #motosky #motorcycle
www.revzilla.com/common-tread...

New Iron Butt record: Alaska to Key West at age 80 - RevZilla

Jan Daub set a new Iron Butt Association record as the oldest rider to complete the ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, in under 30 days.

www.revzilla.com

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 12d

Enjoy! You're going at a great time of year. Keep an eye out for cider donuts

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Hiro Ohta @xlix.me · 13d

The digital world is a binary one; it’s either on or off. Analog is more nuanced; it’s the in-between spaces where magic often happens.

- John Maeda

PHOTO by Andrea Piacquadio. A historic astronomical clock with a vivid, multicolored face is mounted on a stone tower. Golden Roman numerals and zodiac signs encircle the dial, while intricate metal hands and an orb mark time and celestial positions. Figures of a skeleton and other characters flank the clock, part of its animated hourly performance. The structure is richly detailed with gothic carvings, contrasting with the clock’s vibrant blue, teal, and amber hues. Sunlight glints softly on the glass and gold, enhancing the clock’s timeless elegance.

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Paul McO'Smith III @pavsmith.bsky.social · 12d

Humanity 2.0.

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Polly Jackson @buygoodart.bsky.social · 12d

"Sena Plaza #2", mixed media on paper, 16 x 12", 2025.

#StripesonSaturday
#art
#painting
#mixedmedia
#TraditionalMediums

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 13d

🎶 "Bang baaaanggg..." 🎶

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lindybrandon @lindybrandon.bsky.social · 14d

The youngest contestant in the 1949 Pillsbury Bake-off and a woman with amazing energy her whole life, I bring you Fran Cantrell Campbell and her Texas Hospitality Cake.

#baking #cake #Pillsbury
lindybrandon.substack.com/p/1949-texas...

1949: Texas Hospitality Cake

A white studded with pecans and sweetened with a boiled frosting by Mrs. Price C. Campbell, an award-winning baker whose name should be known

lindybrandon.substack.com

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 15d

Coffee run and ran into a friend this afternoon. I am loving this riding weather! Stopped for this pic on the way home.

#motosky #motorcycle #abq #newmexicotrue #sandiamountains

A color photo of my Triumph Street Twin motorcycle parked and set against the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, NM.

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 15d

"The Great Gatsby, [is] the debut novel from the super-advanced Xerox 914 photocopier—an exciting new voice that wrote Gatsby after being trained on a data set comprising a paperback copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby."

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 15d

"Just as Jay Gatsby is an enigmatic larger-than-life figure driven to accumulate wealth at all costs in a futile bid for the love of Daisy Buchanan, the Xerox 914 beats on ceaselessly, printing page after page, for reasons that readers cannot fully comprehend."

Book Review: The Great Gatsby by the Xerox 914 Photocopier

Amid the rise of artificial intelligence, technophobes and Luddites have continued to insist that machines “can’t really write”—at least not the wa...

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 16d

"If we treat the web only as fuel for commerce and private AI engines ... we’ll have a web, but not a commons.... Rewilding the web means recovering ... a civic, literary, interconnected, and collaborative commons that resists enclosure and keeps the web alive."

Mike Amundsen @mamund.bsky.social · 16d

What kind of web do we want to leave behind: human or machine?

In a new piece I reflect on an alternate universe of hypermedia imagined by four pioneers:

* Paul Otlet
* Ted Nelson
* Wendy Hall
* Leonard Richardson

Read the full essay: b.mamund.com/42EZ8a9

The Hypermedia Commons We Missed

It’s time to ask: do we want a plantation of transactions, or a living commons of creativity?

mamund.substack.com

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The Autopian @theautopian.bsky.social · 17d

Remembering Tsutomu ‘Tom’ Matano, Father of the Mazda MX-5 Miata www.theautopian.com/remembering-...

Remembering Tsutomu 'Tom' Matano, Father of the Mazda MX-5 Miata - The Autopian

I met Tsutomu Matano, the renowned car designer known as one of the fathers of the Mazda MX-5 Miata, in San Francisco just over a year ago. You may know him as Tom. It was June 2024, and I was at a Ma...

www.theautopian.com

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 17d

Here's the opening set from ttlc at the Americano Night show at Rust Is Gold Coffee in Abq on Friday.

#ttlc #abqmusic #supportlivemusic #localmusic
#musicphotography #photography #photosky #photographersofbluesky #classicmono #monochrome
#blackandwhitephotography

Black and white photo of the band ttlc performing at Rust Is Gold Coffee in Albuquerque on Friday, September 19, 2025.

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 17d

A few shots from the Americano Night show at Rust Is Gold Coffee in Abq on Friday. This is JD Nash and the Rash of Cash.

#jdnash #rashofcash #abqmusic #supportlivemusic #localmusic
#musicphotography #photography #photosky #photographersofbluesky #classicmono #monochrome
#blackandwhitephotography

Guitarist and songwriter JD Nash performing live at Rust is Gold Coffee in Albuquerque on Friday September 19, 2025. Black and white photo.

Bassist Derek Lujan performing live with JD Nash and the Rash of Cash at Rust is Gold Coffee in Albuquerque on Friday September 19, 2025. Black and white photo.

Keyboardist Ken Easton performing live with JD Nash and the Rash of Cash at Rust is Gold Coffee in Albuquerque on Friday September 19, 2025. Black and white photo.

Drummer Luke Seelau performing live with JD Nash and the Rash of Cash at Rust is Gold Coffee in Albuquerque on Friday September 19, 2025. Black and white photo.

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The Ken Harbaugh Show @thekenharbaughshow.bsky.social · 22d

“People tell me, ‘You didn’t use-ta soapbox like this’.... “Well, we didn’t use-ta be in the midst of an authoritarian takeover!”

If you're not yet a @dropkickmurphys.com fan, you need to be.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

‘This country’s gonna fall on its face. There’s nobody coming to save us’: Boston punks Dropkick Murphys take on Maga

Videos of frontman Ken Casey confronting rightwing provocateurs at the band’s gigs have gone viral, attracting new fans and new safety worries. He wants to lower the temperature – and see other bands ...

www.theguardian.com

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 21d

Hatch green chile haul from the garden this morning. (I can old take credit for the photo; @lindybrandon.bsky.social has the green thumb.)

#iykyk #hatchchile #greenchile #newmexico #newmexicotrue

Five Hatch green chiles of varying curvyness are arranged on a teal background

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 21d

So that's what my dog is saying...

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Alan @alanwordguy.bsky.social · 21d

That is gorgeous!