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urchinblue.bsky.social
Urchin Blue
@urchinblue.bsky.social
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urchinblue.bsky.social
You say it was incredibly sweet, but somebody much smarter and better and more talented than you has a different opinion. (The screenshot is a video of David Attenborough watching an orangutan using a hammer and saw on a piece of wood.)
Screenshot of a Facebook post from not-at-all-resentful soon-to-be-former City Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg. The post includes a video of David Attenborough watching an orangutan using a saw and a hammer on a piece of wood. The text over the video says, "Me listening to the council president play ukulele after giving my debut at Carnegie Hall before I was old enough to drive a car."
December 22, 2025 at 1:02 AM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Enjoy your well-deserved break! If we see Hamp drama, should we tag you, or nah?
November 5, 2025 at 6:41 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
But her intel is always so reliable!
November 5, 2025 at 3:11 AM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Wait, seriously?
November 3, 2025 at 5:04 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Maybe he made them deliberately bad so that people wouldn’t mistake them for the real thing at a distance? If that’s the case, he still didn’t stick the landing, but that’s my charitable interpretation.
October 31, 2025 at 1:24 AM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Update.
Screenshot of a post on Dan Breindel's Facebook page. The post says "Watch out for Wolfs!" and has a photo of a lawn sign, lovingly crafted by Dan, in the style of Megan Wolf's campaign sign. The sign says, "Stay in! Were Wolf - Guard Schools and Pets." For some reason, the "R" in "Were Wolf" has rounded edges, unlike all the other letters, and the "G" in "Guard" looks like someone dropped it from a great height and it shattered. The sign is appropriate for Halloween because the kerning is horrifying. Another screenshot of a post on Dan Breindel's Facebook page. The post says "Witchy!" and has a photo of a lawn sign in the style of Laurie Loisel's campaign sign (sort of). The sign says, "Beware: Eerie Noises Precede evil Actions." One assumes that this sign was made by Dan's young children, because it was obviously not made by a person with graphic design experience or an adult's understanding of wordplay.
October 30, 2025 at 10:10 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
I don’t know what the outcome of the election will be, but I do know this: This is not the statement of someone who’s confident that she’s going to win re-election. This is the statement of someone who thinks she’s going to lose and is preemptively flipping off the whole project of governance.
October 30, 2025 at 2:56 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Check in with the Fascism Understander
Screenshots of Facebook comments Commenter 1 (to Dan Breindel): On top of just arriving to town and thinking you know enough to run an entire city and lecture people about local politics you also know sociology now too? Wow. Alas. As the internet maxim goes: "The first rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is 'You don't know you are in Dunning-Kruger Club!" You should trust that I have a decades-long commitment to this city, basic reading comprehension skills, and the ability to identify an hominem fallacy when I see one. Life is long and this town is small, so l'm sure we'll have a fun chat when we talk in person. (We've met already.) Hopefully that day will come when you've reflected a little on this stage of your life, perhaps listened to a little Loretta Ross along the way, and realize that the people you're rail'g against can agree on 98% of topics. That takes time, though. In kind, l also wish the best for you and yours. Screenshots of Facebook comments Dan Breindel: I didn't just arrive in town. Maybe you should listen to folks other than the mayor's pals sometime. Again, you are a well-known Sciarra backer pretending to offer an unbiased assessment of me as a candidate here to, what?, hurt my feelings? Mar my reputation? Shake my confidence? Pal, your being here lying like this and trying this hard to hurt me in public is proof positive I did great. You clearly don't know a damn thing about my background, I'd ask you stop spreading myths about it-- they reveal more about you than I. Dan Breindel: This mayor is a Reagan Republican, l'm a progressive Democrat, we agree on very little. Your assumption we all 98% agree on policy is basically fascistic and blatantly absurd. Dan Breindel: and l'd certainly hope you'd know an ad hominem when you heard one, your entire argument here is one. Way to engage on meaningful policy, professor.
October 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Glad I’m not the only one who saw a similarity between those two.
October 20, 2025 at 5:47 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
He’s still at it!
Screenshot of Facebook comments. Commenter 1 (name redacted): In my business I have a pretty good maxim: how you lose the job is why you lost the job. You're really nailing it. Dan Breindel: In the art biz (my actual job) there's a great maxim about this: if the client doesn't get the work, the client doesn't get the work. I don't know you, why are you here? Dan Breindel: you know I already lost weeks ago, right? Screenshot of Facebook comments. (Commenter 1): Yup, Dan. That's the "job" part of my point. Happy to explain further if you're still confused about it. Dan Breindel: …but you know i posted this yesterday though, right? Commenter 2 (name redacted): keep working through it bud, you're getting close! Screenshot of Facebook comments. Commenter 1: Oh dear, you're still not getting it. I can tell you're really going through something, so I'll explain with the hope that it can trigger some self-reflection. Sometimes, when I wouldn't hire someone, they'd act out, be petulant or rude afterwards, and I'd think: "Yup. You're confirming the kind of person I sensed you were." So, you see, what I'm saying is that the way that you've been acting online and in city council meetings since you didn't make the cut for mayor-including this dumb antic-is only confirming the very thing that people suspected when decided to look for other candidates. So, of course I know that you didn't get the job and that time has passed. That is, surely now you understand, my point. I hope this helps. Screenshot of Facebook comments. Dan Breindel: this is much more than I'm going to read, I'm sorry. I am making stuff like this now because it would have been inappropriate during the campaign, just as it would be bizarre for me to still be making stump speeches. My understanding is that you are a longtime vocal Sciarra supporter and friend as well a neighbor of mine. I don't believe this puts you in the right frame of mind to make this sort of judgement nor does it seem like there's any benefit to me to continue with this "debate' or whathaveyou. I wish you all the best and please know I was running to represent your interests as well. There are real problems with this administrations's city management and I congratulate you on your aparent insulation from them. Give the giant louse my love. ❤️ Dan Breindel: yeah ok i read it out of courtesy. you're welcome. since we're discussing each other's skillsets and careers, might I just say you sound like a shit sociologist. 😘 (Note: That last comment was posted 3 minutes after the comment where he said he wasn’t going to read what Commenter 1 wrote.)
October 20, 2025 at 2:43 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Scene: Halloween night in Ward 3. A doorbell rings. Dan opens the door.

Child dressed as Bluey: Trick or treat!

Dan: Hi! Happy Halloween! Here's my manifesto on the evils of form based code!

Child: Do you have any candy?

Dan: GET OFF MY PORCH. WHY DO YOU LOVE THE STATUS QUO?!?!
October 19, 2025 at 10:22 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
The wording of the Facebook post is wild! They’re trying to portray a straightforward campaign advertisement as some kind of gift to the community?
October 16, 2025 at 4:44 AM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Who's behind the VoteForSchoolsNorthampton . com website? There's no attribution, which seems odd. Is it a Quaverly/Mike thing?
October 15, 2025 at 10:35 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Yeah, they were comments to a post by the admin dated October 9 at 8:25 PM.
October 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
urchinblue.bsky.social
According to one of the event organizers, no one was barred from the event. But the Public Comment Northampton admin is still mad, because they didn't roll out the red carpet for Quaverly.
Screenshot of comments from Public Comment Northampton's Facebook page. Contrary to Dan Breindel's allegation that Quaverly Rothenberg was "specifically barred" from the event, one of the event organizers writes, "Also no one was barred from this event." In response, the page's admin writes, "was she welcomed as a spectator rather than a change candidate?"
October 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
But I’m sure the members of the group would apply these “disclosure” requirements across the board. Like, say, if their favorite mayoral candidate had a personal interest in blocking the development of an apartment complex across the street from his house, just as a random hypothetical example.
October 1, 2025 at 3:09 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Meanwhile, the other day, the same admin accused the author of a letter to the editor of having a financial interest in the Phillips Place development because the admin *imagines* that the letter writer *might* want to move there someday *if* her current housing situation doesn’t work out.
Facebook comment from the Public Comment Northampton page. The group admin is responding to a letter to the editor in support of Ben Spencer and more senior housing downtown. The comment is directed at the previously discussed FOIA Warrior and reads, “(Letter writer name redacted) is married to (Planning Board Member name redacted), right? (Name redacted) of Planning Board fame, the same board who rammed through the Phillips Place project? Looks like now (Letter Writer) will have a place to downsize to if their State Street house proves inhospitable. ‘Opponents of the project also took aim at board member (name redacted), who disclosed at the beginning of the meeting that he had attended a meeting of the local chapter of Strong Towns, a nonprofit that promotes urban planning projects. (Name redacted) said they had discussed the O'Connell project as part of the meeting but that he had left the room around that time, and said he felt he didn't need to recuse himself from discussing the issue at the Planning Board meeting.’ Strong Towns, strong connections, indeed. 🤣🤣🤣 l love these people. Bwahahaha! (OMFG.) The blatant self-serving nature of their public service. 🤣🤣🤣 I might be the last person in town to…” Continuation of the previous post: “…l love these people. Bwahahaha! (OMFG.) The blatant self-serving nature of their public service. 🤣🤣🤣 I might be the last person in town to understand all these relationships, but it sure is compelling.) No wonder there's no money for those paraeducators: we gotta fluff those retirement nests.”
October 1, 2025 at 3:06 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
“My disclosures are that I work too hard, I care too much, and I embarrass those around me who can never compete with how incredible I am.”
Post from the Public Comment Northampton Facebook page. The poster, who is also the group’s admin, writes: “A practical manifestation of transparency in community! (Group member’s name redacted) such a brilliant idea! Let’s require public disclosures of conflicts of interest for elected officials the way academia requires them of its researchers! Maybe for every vote on City Council and School Committee, we could mandate, in our city’s charter, a written disclosure from each elected official who votes. My disclosure? - I am working as an advocate/Mama Bear on behalf of my children’s interests with respect to education, housing, and Civil Rights within their hometown of Northampton. (No financial support from them. But their in-kind contributions to my life are huge.)
October 1, 2025 at 2:46 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
The same FOIA Fan posted this earlier today, as a comment to their own post. I don’t even know where to begin.
Screenshot of a Facebook comment, with the poster’s name redacted. The comment says, “I am hoping to get some volunteers from donor lists to share all potential vested interests. I would love to see who is willing to disclose. There is plenty to share but I would love it instead to be something that all campaign donors step up and do for themselves. For all of the talk about civility I can’t think of anything more “civil” than disclosing interests just as you would in an academic setting.”
September 30, 2025 at 9:57 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Presumably this post, written on the Public Comment Northampton page this afternoon, is by the SOSer in question, referring to their FOIA findings?
Post on the Public Comment Northampton Facebook page. The poster’s name is redacted. The post says, “It seems like some voters would like to see vested interests that affect our local government publicized. Thoughts?” Below is a comment from another poster (name also redacted), saying, “I think it’s fair game as long as documented.”
September 29, 2025 at 7:43 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
By that logic, it would have been better for the opening ceremony to happen 3 weeks before the preliminary, rather than 6 weeks before the general.
September 23, 2025 at 10:56 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
He's doubling down in the comments. Ace Tayloe pointed out that the stage was completed a month ago, and Dan responded, "yet the ribbon cutting just occurred.... 🤔" which is "electioneering."
September 23, 2025 at 10:54 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
No, he's right! I've talked to at least EIGHT DOZEN voters who were totally going to vote for Dan but then they switched their allegiance to Sciarra because they heard that a bandstand opened at the library. The election was rigged! Rigged I tell ya!
September 22, 2025 at 9:53 PM
urchinblue.bsky.social
Love to promote more MAGA influence in local politics, because I’m a REAL progressive.
September 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM