I love the strange ephemera of old books. Actually, I love all ephemera. This is for a little project I’m cooking up for the group @amityf.bsky.social is organizing.

Amazing to see how deforested the area was at the time. It was still the legacy of Indigenous management practices. Then, timber fed building and steamboats. May 10, 1823 the “Virginia,” became the first steamboat to make it to Fort Snelling. A surprise to most, who doubted they would make it.

Vince Mpls@vincempls.bsky.social · 8h ago

#OnThisDay Aug 5 1851: Faced with mounting debt and settlers already pouring in, the last 2 Bands of the Dakota reluctantly sell their land in the "Treaty of Mendota." This also forces them onto reservations and opens almost all of the vast Southern Minnesota Territory to white settlement.

I saw three young women and a young man walking evenly spaced across Main Street SE at a crosswalk, and I said, that looks like the Beatles. Once they got across I realized there was a photographer in the street and they were indeed going after an “Abbey Road” reenactment.

Self-Portrait Along the Boarder Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932 https://botfrens.com/collections/127/contents/30360

A friend of mine from back in my misspent youth just tracked me down and sent me a photo of when I was a salty dog!Here's me in the Gibraltar marina painting the deck of the boat I was living on at the time. I didn't have any photos from this time in my life... until now! Age ~20

One of the best parts of Farmfest:

If you get a chance to see #NorthernFireDynamic at Powderhorn Park or Burning Man, just do it!

Just ran into my second grade teacher, who I haven't seen in decades, and she told me I was the smartest student she ever taught. How's your day goin'?

My experience with the Kensington Rune Stone makes me a sucker for this type of story.

Jennifer Ashby@jenniferashby.bsky.social · yesterday

Local students & a sculptor in Livorno conducted an elaborate prank in 1984 by planting fake Modigliani sculptures in the Fosso Reale for authorities to find when investigating the local legend that he threw works in the canal. Deemed authentic before they came forward - a media sensation ensued.

This is where I live. Yes, I'm incredibly lucky. My house is in the picture if you look closely...

Weather Report: a drying, gritty wind. Hotter than forecast. Thistledown flying & the lanes banked with straw. All the pasture a dust bowl. Hay for this winter being fed early. Lime tree seed birds spinning from the trees, skating over the ground on their sails & wheels. Emotional Weather: free

😳 Rep. Pete Stauber indicates there's something gravely wrong with Tom Emmer's health: "You have no idea what Congressman Emmer is dealing with right now. If you did, you would've never made that comment. He's fighting for his damn life today!"

Again *minnesota first volunteers knock on their coffin lids*

Doug Mack@douglasmack.bsky.social · yesterday

In colonialism news, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) has introduced a bill to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. territories based on his (incorrect, false, bullshit) view that there's rampant "birth tourism" and the fact that SCOTUS has ruled that territory residents don't have full rights

ICE will pay CoreCivic more than half a billion dollars over five years to reopen a defunct 1,600-bed prison in rural western Minnesota as an immigrant detention center.

ICE, CoreCivic to open Appleton immigrant detention center this year • Minnesota Reformer

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pay private prison company CoreCivic more than half a billion dollars to reopen a defunct 1,600-bed prison in rural western Minnesota as an immigrant detention...

minnesotareformer.com

I’ve been dealing with impostor syndrome in my songwriting, and I realized yesterday that I sound exactly like a dad who improvises songs in the car that his kids actually LIKE, and that’s… probably sorta great?

There’s a nationwide blood shortage and I went in to donate today. I honestly got a little teary: my husband died of leukemia, but I’d been banned from donating because I’d studied in England and they were worried about Mad Cow. The rules are now changed. This is my first donation in 27 years.

making lunch and testing out the vinyl digitizing setup again. Since I got my dad's vinyl cleaning stuff recently, I'm testing it with one of the cleanest and most beautiful albums of all time ~

Eating sushi in an alley, as one does.

I hate how plausible the story is AND how a 100 year old poem from the Spanish Flu and WWI is still applicable.

Corny Monday.

Dear Readers, I am looking for some recommendations for some more recent works in the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and English Politics during the 19th century. Not looking to be overwhelmed, but I am I know nothing about the historiography of these topics.

hot take: philosophy and gender studies have the same relationship as the men’s and women’s divisions in sports

Seriously Minneapolis and Saint Paul, I need to know where we are watching women's baseball today. I don't think I can risk A Bar of Their Own which I assume will be packed (I'm coming with a mom with bad knees.) Anywhere else having a watch party? ⚾

I walked around the fairgrounds after the auditions last night. Soooooon.

One of the great experiences of my life was heading out for a bike ride on a trail that went out into the western suburbs of Mpls in 2010 or -11, coming over a low hill in SLP, and seeing an actual goddamned zeppelin hanging low on the sky

Audrey Farnsworth@audipenny.bsky.social · 5d ago

Batman the animated series made me believe in a formative manner that there’d be a whole Fucking lot more goddamn blimps in my life. But there’s almost no blimps. Every time I see a blimp, I gasp. I shouldn’t have to gasp. Blimp should be around for my life. Where blimp

I think I had a joke about metaphysics, but I’m not sure if I really do.

Between me and my buddy Sean D&J Glove Repair is well represented at the Seattle ballpark tonight!

I adore the reality of the fake scenery on the OG “Upstairs, Downstairs.”

Online Launch at 7 pm! meet.google.com/mpt-odsf-vhh

amityf@amityf.bsky.social · 7d ago

What are you doing this weekend? Will it be something normal like enjoying a bike ride? OR will it be something silly like demonstrating all 18 uses of Dr. Bronner's soap? Singing the #1 song on the day of your birth? Join us on Friday evening for Opening Ceremonies of Doing Silly Sh*t Together!

For la mia famiglia: behold, a prune cake