Briar in Blue
@auroraworeblue.bsky.social
260 followers 610 following 190 posts
Please don't follow me for my Science of Reading skeets. Please. She/Her
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auroraworeblue.bsky.social
Like, Spuds MacKenzie? America's glorious past is SPUDS MACKENZIE?
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I swear to god this is like one of those soft rock radio station commercials:

*Amy Grant plays in the background*

"Playing the hits from your childhood to justify our murderous regime with less talk and fewer commercial breaks!"
A screen shot from the Wikipedia for How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley. It reads:

Content: the ten pillars of fascism
1. The mythic past: Fascists draw on a mythical past to justify a glorious future.

2. Propaganda: Propaganda in fascist politics often operates through inflammatory speech, stirring hostility and manipulating emotions, and displacing reasoned public debate with fear and division.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
There are two wolves inside of you.
#booksky #Romancelandia
From left: a Kobo ereader with a lock screen image of Miranda Neville's romance novel "The Dangerous Viscount." On the cover, a half naked man gently places his face into the bosom of a dark haired woman dressed in bedsheets and lying back across a bed, her eyes closed. Because it's e-ink, the cover is black and white.

A hardback edition of "Silver Pigs: A Detective Novel in Ancient Rome" by Lindsey Davis. The cover is slightly torn and features a Roman bust and an ink well full of red ink that is so red it resembles blood.

Both books are framed on top of a honey oak background.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
It's a Harlequin Historical about a young member of the gentry whose mother is murdered and who seeks refuge with her widower neighbor. They set out on an adventure across Tudor England (he works for Henry VIII, you see) to solve the murder and protect the lady's inheritance. I did read it haha.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
Yeah, I know. I would be one of the aforementioned Romance girlies. And I like to think that I have a brain.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
All of us are honorary Romance girlies in times like these.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I'm not surprised romance readers are reading the book; I'm surprised that it broke the algo. Usually, these recc lists are more about content vs what people are reading, but this has clearly hit a tipping point toward the latter.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I was tongue-in-cheek and referring to myself as a "girlie."
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I am one of them, so. Literally, who do you think enjoyed "A Wedding to Protect Her Fortune"?
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I mean, GR doesn't recognize what DNF is, so it will recommend books like those as it just sees it as another shelf you have. I have never seen a book so completely unrelated to the "you liked" book recommended before. I mean, A Wedding to Protect Her Fortune is a Harlequin Historical.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
Yeah, it's a journey across Tudor England, and it's a marriage of convenience with a neighbor to protect her from a villainous cousin. It's cute and short.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes.
#romancelandia
A grainy screenshot of the sidebar of the desktop version of Goodreads. It says:

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Because you enjoyed A Wedding to Protect Her Fortune:
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America's turn towards authoritarianism. On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible...

View all books similar to A Wedding to Protect Her Fortune
Reposted by Briar in Blue
internethippo.bsky.social
What's your secret to being online all the time without contracting computer madness? For me it's being pure of heart
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
One of the bullets had Italian brainrot engraved on it? Am I understanding this correctly?
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
Don't get me wrong, Twitter is and was The Bad Place, but I think I would have spiraled if I hadn't found people that had already experienced what we went through and had actual advice.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
Every year, a distraught mother comes to TikTok because she's just learned her (insert number) grader isn't reading, and every year this discourse on that app is how that mother is a lazy, uneducated moron.

And every year, I'm glad I didn't have TikTok when that happened to me.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
The world is terrible, but Maine exists.
A view across Eagle Lake in Acadia National Park in Maine, USA. The sky and the lake are almost the same bright blue. Rolling mountains fill the background. The foreground is framed by summer green foliage. There are several rocks jutting out of the lake close to the shore. The clouds are wispy and few.
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
For those inclined, here's the pattern. It makes a 12" finished block. It's kind of an Ohio Star. #quilts
A diagram patter on graph paper for an ohio star variation quilt block. The outlines and shading are all in blue. The pattern calls for:
1 4.5" square in a square block
12 2.5" neutral squares
4 2.5" neutral/color half square triangles 
4 2.5" x 4.5" main goose color flying geese
4 2.5" x 4.5" main goose neutral flying geese
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I promise I didn't mean to do this, but the spirits of Merryweather and Flora must have possessed me while I was picking out the fabric for this project. #quilting #quiltingsky #sewingsky #handmade
Two Ohio Star variation quilt blocks. On the left is an unfinished block. Its main color is a very vibrant pink. On the right is the same block, finished, with the same fabric as the pink, this time in a vibrant blue colorway. The colored fabrics feature a snake motif. The neutral fabric in both blocks is an off-white wildflower print with blue blossoms and brown leaves and flowers. It's giving "make it pink, no make it blue".
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
The real answer is "it's ingredients don't contain gluten, but be wary of cross contamination as it is not certified gluten free." Not "it contains an ingredient not on the label."
auroraworeblue.bsky.social
I don't think I'll ever get over how Google killed its legacy in the name of AI. Just destroyed itself and for what? The Google search "Kirkland Everything Bagel Seasoning Gluten Free" vs the actual label. Notice how there's *no malodextrin* in it. You have to scroll quite a bit for the real answer.
A google search for "Kirkland everytbing bagel seasoning gluteb free" the AI overview says in part: No, the Kirkland Signature Everything Bagel Seasoning is not gluten-free, according to Instacart. While the seasoning blend itself doesn't inherently contain gluten, the ingredient list includes maltodextrin, which can be derived from wheat, and hydrolyzed soy protein, which can be derived from wheat or soy. A nutrition label for said seasoning, which lists its ingredients as sesame seeds, salt, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onion, black sesame seeds, poppy seeds. THERE'S NO MALODEXTRIN.