Karen Bischer
@kbischer.bsky.social
320 followers 300 following 510 posts
YA and Children's author (THE SECRET RECIPE FOR MOVING ON, Macmillan; SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS: LEGEND VS LEGEND and SEASONS OF THE YEAR, Capstone). Yankees fan. TV-watcher. Unapologetic 80s music enthusiast. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250242303
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kbischer.bsky.social
Things you can expect me to post about here:
⚾️Baseball (if you hate the Yankees, you've come to the wrong account, tho)
📝Writing/books
📺TV
🎙️Casey Kasem's American Top 40 and other 80s music
🎶 (Any music from the 40s-90s, really)
🏠Old houses and home improvement
🐶🐱My dog and cat
🦉Birds
🤌🏻New Jersey
kbischer.bsky.social
No joke, a few years ago my friend and I went to the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and a middle-aged guy and elderly guy got into it (as the conductor was addressing the audience) and the middle-aged guy was escorted out by a cop. I think a golf umbrella was involved in the altercation!
quietblkgrl.blacksky.app
What would be the wildest concert for a fight to break out at?
kbischer.bsky.social
"He's reached a breaking point in a one-sided relationship. It's always better to be alone than be with a sweetheart who doesn't appreciate you!"

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat (+ Bonus Dog)

*I've Done Everything for You, Rick Springfield #17 this wk in 1981

#caturday
Clarence, an orange striped cat, sits upright on a table while staring sleepily at the camera. His sister, Brandy, a tan floppy-earred mutt with black snout, sits at attention on the floor below him.
kbischer.bsky.social
Baseball season is over for me so...
A "Countdown to Christmas" ornament with Snoopy in a Santa hat resting on his dog house. The display shows 75 days, 13 hours, 3 minutes and 9 seconds till Christmas Day
kbischer.bsky.social
I saw a listing for a copywriter job that said the writer MUST use AI and I just assume the person who made that listing views writing as total nuisance work. And that's not someone I want to work for.
kbischer.bsky.social
I want to hang this on my wall. Figuring out "the thorny problems" is one of the most rewarding/rush-inducing parts of writing and why would you offload that to something that would very likely be plagiarizing something else?
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
kbischer.bsky.social
The sump pump under my house (that I went into debt to have installed in spring 2024...only for it to barely rain since) hearing that a nor'easter is coming:
A still of Phil Collins' face from the In the Air Tonight video with the words "I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lord"
kbischer.bsky.social
"...and then Dr. De Soto glues the fox's mouth shut because he knows the fox wants to eat him instead of repay his kindness for his intricate dental work. The fox FAFO'd, if you will."

- today in Explaining Old School Kid Lit* to My Cat

*Dr. De Soto, William Steig 1982
Clarence, an orange striped cat, sits upright while smizing at the camera. His grampaw was using super glue to fix something, hence the cautionary tale.
kbischer.bsky.social
30 years ago (😳) tonight, the Mariners walked off the Yankees in the first playoffs I was old enough to remember and it was so, so, SO heartbreaking. It led to necessary changes, though, and then things got incredible. I wish they'd realize what isn't working now and, like, do something about that.
kbischer.bsky.social
Well, that was super annoying. Which is a lot better than super painful. But still: annoying.

Changes gotta happen.
kbischer.bsky.social
But...but I was told the league wanted the Yankees to win 🤔
kbischer.bsky.social
This isn't my first midlife-crisis-via-clothes rodeo. Two years ago I saw this circa 1992 Gap sweater on Poshmark. It's a men's but girls in my high school were ALL over it. I had it in white, but always wanted navy. So I got it. Y'all, it's ENORMOUS (it's a medium). The 90s were a voluminous time.
A navy, white and green fair isle sweater
kbischer.bsky.social
Officially entered the "midlife crisis via trying to recapture my youth" portion of my life because these shoes (with the laces in boat knots) were ALL the rage when I was a middle schooler and Kohl's has helpfully added them to their supply so I indulged. It's gonna be all 1990 in here in a bit.
Brown leather boat shoes from Eastland. The ends of the laces are not knotted in boat-y fashion and thus you'd be side-eyed at my middle school, which despite being near the beach, was NOT, in fact, a yacht club.
kbischer.bsky.social
Them: Social media is a vast hellscape that will be humanity's undoing.

Me: But what if Anthony Volpe is the Meerkat?

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8AhfSKc/
An instant classic. Set design: @Mrs Waffle
TikTok video by Doctor Waffle
www.tiktok.com
kbischer.bsky.social
Can we not with ump cam in the middle of a live at-bat?
kbischer.bsky.social
Psst, Yanks, I don't care what your scouting says - the commercial breaks should not be longer than your turn at bat.
kbischer.bsky.social
I miss the days of hitting the SAP button on Fox games. You'd either get the Spanish broadcast booth or just crowd noise if it was glitching and it was so pleasant.
kbischer.bsky.social
I had to interrupt Clarence's World Series, aka dozens of grackles in Grampaw's backyard, to relay this information to him, BTW. Brandy was only mildly interested. Only call her if it's dozens of rabbits.
Clarence, an orange striped cat, and Brandy, a tan foppy-earred mutt with a black snout, stare out a low window
kbischer.bsky.social
"Bruce had marital strife and wrote songs about it. Then he filmed the video for this at the military beach houses where your sister likes to smell goose & deer poop."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*Brilliant Disguise, Bruce Springsteen, #30 this wk in 1987

#caturday
Clarence, an orange striped cat, sits upright while looked slightly peeved at being interrupted from watching birds in the yard
Reposted by Karen Bischer
pinstripealley.bsky.social
okay but Sad Cora + Bregman in this graphic is SUSTAINING me
Cam Schlittler, Alex Cora, and Alex Bregman
Reposted by Karen Bischer
artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social
The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail), by Hieronymus Bosch, 1480-1505
kbischer.bsky.social
For the second time this week: F*** AI
A search that shows my book, The Secret Recipe for Moving On, was part of the Anthropic settlement
kbischer.bsky.social
Same, Clarence, same.
Clarence, an orange striped cat, sits upright while biting a small American flag (don't worry, flag police, I took it away from him once I realized he had an appetite for it.)
kbischer.bsky.social
(The only thing miraculous about the 1994 season was that teenage me didn't die from a broken heart over the strike.)