rabbitstitch

[rabbitstitch]

The 11th book for my 2025 Book Blanket is The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, presented by Re: Dracula with Stephen Indrisano as narrator and Sam Stark as Roderick Usher.

This one gave me fits. This is the third version and its one that I'm mostly happy with. I love the crack on the image, and I tried doing a bunch of color changes to achieve it, which kinda worked but it was super thick and I didn't trust it to hold up to use and washing. I also tried a solid white square with embroidery floss, which didn't look great. Doing a chain of black on the white square split the difference perfectly and if it does come off, I can replace it without having to figure out how to replace a whole square.

I have two ratings for this one. My rating for The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe is ⭐⭐. I like Poe. I like Gothic literature. I didn't like the Fall of the House of Usher. 🤷‍♀️ BUT, as for the audio from Re: Dracula, Stephen Indrisano, Sam Stark, Tal Minear? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! It was gorgeous to listen to. I'm also listening to Carmilla and plan on listening to Dracula in May.

[rabbitstitch]

Just a quick note from your friendly neighborhood bookworm/indie author

if you use kindle for the majority of your library, they will be shutting down the function that allows you to download your files and transfer them via USB on the 26th of February. Which doesn't sound like a huge deal, but this also means that if a book is taken off Amazon for any reason—like it being banned—they can scrape it off your kindle as well. So maybe backup your library?

[rabbitstitch]

This is a big deal. Bigger and more mainstream organisations are standing up and speaking out.

The American Bar Association 2/10/25 statement rebuking Trump's administration & emphasizing the importance of the Constitutional balance of powers

summary of daily political news by legislative historian and reporter-analyst Heather Cox Richardson including a synopsis of the ABA statement and an equally impactful NYT op-ed by 5 previous Secretaries of the Treasury, warning that DOGE's access of the Treasury systems could cause “irreparable harm.” Excerpt:

"It is not for the Treasury Department or the administration to decide which of our congressionally approved commitments to fulfill and which to cast aside. [...] While significant data privacy, cybersecurity and national security threats are gravely concerning, the constitutional issues are perhaps even more alarming.” [They reiterated] the key principle outlined in the Constitution: “The legislative branch has the sole authority to pass laws that determine where and how federal dollars should be spent.”

My longer abridgement of H Cox Richardson's quotes from & synopsis of the ABA statement below:

Today [2/10/25] the American Bar Association took a stand against the Trump administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself” as it attacks the Constitution and tries to dismantle departments and agencies created by Congress “without seeking the required congressional approval to change the law.”

“The American Bar Association supports the rule of law,” president of the organization William R. Bay said in a statement. “That means holding governments, including our own, accountable.” He cheered on the courts that “are treating these cases with the urgency they require.”

“[R]efusing to spend money appropriated by Congress under the euphemism of a pause is a violation of the rule of law and suggests that the executive branch can overrule the other two co-equal branches of government,” Bay wrote. “This is contrary to the constitutional framework and not the way our democracy works. The money appropriated by Congress must be spent in accordance with what Congress has said. It cannot be changed or paused because a newly elected administration desires it. Our elected representatives know this. The lawyers of this country know this. It must stop.”

He called on “elected representatives to stand with us and to insist upon adherence to the rule of law…. The administration cannot choose which law it will follow or ignore. These are not partisan or political issues. These are rule of law and process issues. We cannot afford to remain silent…. We urge every attorney to join us and insist that our government, a government of the people, follow the law.”

[rabbitstitch]

There are so many Republican lies about immigration with most coming from Musk and Trump himself. Trump says undocumented migrants are being housed in NYC luxury hotels. Musk says NYC is paying double the going rate to house them there. Both are lies.

Federal funds were legally dispersed by Congress for emergency migrant housing, under a strict set of guidelines. The hotel is a closed dilapidated building that is undergoing refurbishment. NYC is spending twelve dollars and fifty cents per person to house these people in the dead of winter so they won’t be on the streets straining already taxed social services. $12.50 to keep someone alive in a frigid New York winter.

Trump/Musk/DOGE illegally used a government computer system to pull back the money already deposited in a city bank account. Not only was it illegal but they didn’t inform anyone in NYC they were doing it. City auditors and accountants went to work the next morning to find $80 million mysteriously missing and to also find the city liable for tens of thousands in overdraft fees. Once they traced it back to the federal government they contacted their bank who politely waived the overdraft fees when Trump’s illegal action was explained.

Once Congress authorizes money for something it is against the law to use it for other purposes or to withhold it from its intended purpose. NYC will have to join everyone else in federal court to get it back.

The richest man in the world and his orange billionaire puppet won’t spend $12.50 to keep a human being from freezing to death.

[rabbitstitch]

2025 Book Blanket Update #1

Woo! 10 squares are in the bag! Honestly, very surprised that I reached 10 this quickly seeing as how I've been in a reading slump since college. Here's how it's going so far:

Books

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

Witch King by Martha Wells

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

The Adventures of Isabel by Candas Jane Dorsey

Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

There There by Tommy Orange

Sources

Local Library

Queer Liberation Library

Personal TBR collection

Books in Progress

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

The Removal by Brandon Hobson

The Lost Continent by Terry Pratchett

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu from Re: Dracula (weekly miniseries)

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe from Re: Dracula

[rabbitstitch]

My 10th book for my 2025 Book Blanket is There There by Tommy Orange! The cover is so VIBRANT; I wish I had a different orange for it. I really wanted to get the orange, yellow, and black in there, but it HONESTLY looks like a Reese's Pieces package to me. 🫤

My rating for There There is ⭐⭐⭐⭐. This is my 3rd time reading it (this time for a book club), and even though I really like this book, i still don't know what to think about it really. I get more from it every time. its a hard and emotional read that gets into questions of identity, history, connections, and loneliness. With 12 distinct and interconnected narrators in Oakland, California in the days leading up to the Oakland Powwow, Orange pulls no punches, and you really don't want him to. It's a book I really recommend, but you should also double check the content tags because its an incredibly weighty novel. Get a notebook to keep with you as you read and take notes on all of the history and music and quotes you don't recognize and then dig into them, its a treasure and will really open your eyes. (It certainly did mine).

[rabbitstitch]

Something you can do to help!

Got a quick, easy action item for anyone with a couple minutes to spare.

The Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act is back in the Senate. If it does not pass, federal wildland firefighters will be facing a 50% paycut here in a couple months (yeah, I said FIFTY). I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who would keep working their job if their pay got cut by fifty-percent. And right now, that cut is poised to come right at the start of the worst of fire season. I'm sure I don't need to explain why this is NOT GREAT.

Please use this handy dandy form to contact your representatives and ask them to pass this act. Call them too, if that's a thing you've got the bandwidth for!

If you're not in the US, a simple signal boost is much appreciated!

[rabbitstitch]

*cackling*

If OTW weren’t around, this wouldn’t be “scaremongering”: It would be the inescapable status quo.

[rabbitstitch]

My ninth book for my 2025 Book Blanket is Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Not my favorite square, because I feel like its impossible to get the correct color placement and ratio that I would want. But then again, I'm an unreasonable perfectionist about my own work so 🤷‍♀️

My rating for Starter Villain is ⭐⭐⭐! I LOVE the premise of this book. And I LOVE the story! A guy gets dropped into this wacky situation! There's ultasmart cats! The dolphins unionize! It's got the start for all the things I wanted, but I also wanted so much more. Which is a lot to put on this short book. I'll be honest and say that Tumblr fiction has really spoiled me for really good takes on "Villains™️ are not always the actual villains" narratives. So, while I love it, it's gotta be 3 stars for me personally. (I'm def reading more John Scalzi, and you should read Starter Villain).

[rabbitstitch]

Heads up, NeilMed Pharmaceuticals’ has issued a precautionary recall of over 89,000 bottles of NasoGel Spray due to possible microbial contamination.

These bottles would have been available for purchase through 2024.

This initial recall was issued last week as of February 5th 2025 but the new prevention.com article just dropped today which is what a friend sent to me.

The FDA says some of the following SKUs were included in the recall:

GSP30-2R-48-ENU-USL

GSP30-0R-96-ENU-USL

GSP30-ARA-INTL

GSP30-SWE-INTL

GSP30-ENG-INT

GSP30-MAL-INTL

GSP30-SPA-INT

The affected product was sold in 20 states and also sold in the countries of Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom

[rabbitstitch]

I am becoming aware of the effect a lack of trust in the media has had on people, paired with a dearth of research skills.

[rabbitstitch]

Important! Your pet's RFID chip number might have been disconnected this week.

Is your pet chipped? They should be. Do you know who made the chip?

Pet RFID chips are so small that there's really only room on them for a serial number. When your lost pet is brought to a shelter or a vet's office, they can scan the chip, read that number, and then type it into a program that draws from a series of linked databases to find your name and phone number. That's how they find you, and tell you that Silly Lilly von Wigglesbottom has gone wandering, and she's safe and sound, and would you come get her, please?

Texas-based Save This Life, which provided chips to vets and shelters all across the US, has all at once and abruptly gone dark; their database is just gone. Their customers were not given warning and so did not know to change their registration to another company. A lot of animals have basically become anonymous now.

If you don't know what company you've been using, call your vet's office and ask what pet chip number they have on file. If the chip number starts with 991 or 900164, it's probably a Save This Life chip.

If it turns out yours is one of the affected cases, the chip itself will still be fine! There's no need to add another, or anything like that. You'll just need to transfer the number to another company, and your vet should be able to recommend the one that they like the best.

[rabbitstitch]

The threat was loud and clear: Report your so-called “DEI” employees or else. What exactly “DEIA or similar ideologies” means is up in the air, but the message was out there. And so was the email address of the DEIA snitching hotline. Fake emails quickly started to roll in. ‘I don’t care, fuck these McCarthyite bastards,” one BlueSky user said, with an screenshot attached of an email to the hotline where he ironically reported Donald Trump and JD Vance for being “put in their positions solely because of their race and/or gender despite the fact that they are wholly unqualified for their jobs and, in some cases, have criminal records.” “Anyone have a script to fire off a billion e-mails an hour??” another user asked in the replies. “Anyone can email anything of any size even if it crashes the site,” one X user noted. The scope and effectiveness of this latest phase of Trump’s anti-DEI crusade remains to be seen.

[rabbitstitch]

🇺🇸recall of various types of canned tuna due to fucking botulism <- CAN KILL YOU 🇺🇸

this involves some pretty big name tunas. if you eat canned tuna in the united states, you are going to want to check this list. botulism is one of the biggest deals in food poisoning. THESE CANS CAN FUCKING KILL YOU

EL SEGUNDO, CA, February 7, 2025 – Tri-Union Seafoods has made the decision to voluntarily recall select lots of canned tuna products sold under the Genova®, Van Camp’s®, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s brand names. This voluntary recall is out of an abundance of caution following the notification from our supplier that the “easy open” pull tab can lid on limited products encountered a manufacturing defect that may compromise the integrity of the product seal (especially over time), causing it to leak, or worse, be contaminated with clostridium botulinum, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning. Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled. Consumers feeling unwell should seek immediate medical attention. No illnesses associated with the recalled products have been reported and the recall is being conducted to ensure consumer safety. The impacted products were distributed to retail stores as follows: H-E-B label - Texas Trader Joe’s label – Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin Genova 7 oz. - Costco in Florida and Georgia Genova 5 oz. - Harris Teeter, Publix, H-E-B, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart, and independent retailers in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Texas Van Camp’s label – Walmart and independent retailers in Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey

some emphasis mine. this is not a comprehensive list of retailers. these cans were sold in more stores than what is listed, and there is no complete list of affected stores. long story short the pull tab has a defect that makes these cans the perfect environment to give you botulism. and botulism is REALLY REALLY FUCKING bad. it is one of the deadliest forms of food poisoning and commonly grows in dented or damaged cans. unfortunately, the recall announcement does not currently include images.

tumblr does not let me make tables, so I cannot easily format all the necessary information in a way that I am confident will be easy to read and understand. so here is the list of names, and check the FDA link for the specifics of what can codes and best by dates are affected.

Genova Solid White Tuna in Olive Oil 5.0 oz

Genova Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil 5.0 oz

Genova Yellowfin Tuna in 0live Oil 5.0 oz 4 Pack

Genova Yellowfin Tuna in Olive 0il 7.0 oz 6 Pack

Genova Yellowfin Tuna in in Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Sea Salt 5.0 oz

Van Camp's Solid Light Tuna in Oil 5.0 oz

Van Camp's Solid Light Tuna in 0il 5 oz 4 Pack

Trader Joe's Solid Light Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil

Trader Joe's Solid White Tuna in Olive Oil

Trader Joe's Solid White Tuna in Water

Trader Joe's Solid White Water Low Sodium

Trader Joe's Solid White Water No Salt Added

H-E-B Solid White Tuna in Water 5.0 oz 4 Pack

if you recognize these types of tuna or buy tuna from those stores, stop reading here and click the FDA link at the top for more information. not all cans in these lines are being recalled, but the affected cans have best by dates into 2028.

from the wikipedia entry about botulism:

The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, and trouble speaking. This may then be followed by weakness of the arms, chest muscles, and legs. Vomiting, swelling of the abdomen, and diarrhea may also occur. The disease does not usually affect consciousness or cause a fever.

...and these vague symptoms, which may not even all appear in someone with botulism, eventually lead to muscle weakness and paralysis to the point someone is unable to call for help, and might eventually stop being able to breathe. while fully conscious.

from the foodsafetynews article on this recall:

In foodborne botulism, symptoms generally begin 18 to 36 hours after eating contaminated food. However, symptoms can begin as soon as 6 hours after or up to 10 days later.

according to the wikipedia article, 5%-10% of people who get botulism will die with timely medical intervention. without medical intervention, botulism kills 50% of the people it infects. this is emergency room ASAP level stuff.

please send the FDA link to anyone you know who eats canned tuna in the US. although no illnesses have been attributed to this defect yet, it may only be a matter of time as the seals on these cans degrade. please do not become the first.

[rabbitstitch]

You can only wear the two randomly assigned colors* for the rest of your life, ( trying to wear any other colors the items will change to one of the two other colors) how do you feel?

*Different tones/shades of the randomly chosen colors are allowed. Pastel, neon, etc. will also fall under the base color and are therefore allowed.

Spin the wheel to find out which colors you must wear

[rabbitstitch]

PSA: never discuss private affairs in your DMs, especially contraception and abortion. Social media moguls will absolutely sell you out to the government. There are already cases of people being charged based on evidence in their DMs.

[rabbitstitch]

'Don’t Just Do Nothing: 20 Things You Can Do to Counter Fascism' is a zine by Jewish anarchists on how people can organise and act in this changing terrain. Download it (it's free), read, print and distribute it IRL!