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callys.bsky.social
Cally
@callys.bsky.social
210 followers 170 following 1.6K posts
SFF reader, model rocketeer, tabletop gamer. She/her.
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callys.bsky.social
I have it on good authority that she'll be ON THE WATER in March. The good news is: there will be cake, and most of it won't even be a lie. The bad news....
Photo by Beth Jordan of a dozen or so merfolk around and in a swimming pool on board the cruise ship "Nieuw Amsterdam" during the JoCo Cruise in 2024. Most of them are sitting on the pool deck with their tails in the water. In the background are a hot tub, some fancy cabanas, and a number of two-legged JoCoNauts.
December 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
callys.bsky.social
I love learning all the different linguistic quirks. Here in the Midwest US, a cellar door is one of these. Now I'm curious how wine tasting rooms got the name!
A white or cream colored clapboard house with a cellar door: a short, slanted triangular prism-shaped structure sticking maybe 4 or 5 feet (a meter and a half?) out from the foundation of the house, and perhaps a yard (meter) high. On the face of this outcropping is a door. If you opened the door, you'd find steps down to the basement, and another, more secure, door at the bottom leading into the actual basement. Some cellar doors have two doors that open out from the center, but the pictured cellar door has just the one. There's a children's song lyric that includes the lines Shout down my rain barrel, Slide down my cellar door, And we'll be jolly friends Forevermore.
December 9, 2025 at 9:51 PM
callys.bsky.social
Long ago, when I was a small child, before Starbucks even, there were plastic cup holders for Solo cups that were a mainstay of church basements everywhere. They were cheap plastic zarfs. They held an inner cup, prevented burning your fingers, and provided a handle.
Stacks of colorful plastic short cups with a mostly conical cross section and the top of the handle coming right up to the rim. The bottom of the cup is open, so if you poured coffee directly into them it would pour right out again. Next to them is a stack of cheap plastic Solo brand "Cozy Cups", which are conical with a small flat base. The plastic is thin, and would absolutely burn your hands if you filled it with hot coffee. The colorful "Lifetime Cup Holders" hold the cheap plastic cups firmly, and provide both a handle and a wider base. Not pictured: when inserted into the cup holder, there's an inch or so of cup insert that sticks out the top, so you can theoretically reuse the holder without washing them, though I wouldn't recommend that.
September 18, 2025 at 12:11 AM
callys.bsky.social
It is a Robin, yes, So's this. The Robin found in the US's Latin name is Turdus migratorius (a name it deserves after waking me up night after night by yelling through my window), but its full English name is "American Robin". The European Robin, having been named first, gets to be just a Robin.
European Robin; a small roundish bird with an orange-red face and upper chest, tan belly, and light brown back and wings. It's sitting on a pale branch with its head cocked slightly to one side.
April 27, 2025 at 1:04 AM
callys.bsky.social
I've no idea what the interior looks like, but I came across this Lego-like house in a wealthy suburb. It was so new the garage (not shown but you know EXACTLY what it looks like) hadn't been clad in marble yet.
A white marble (the stone, not the spheres!) clad house with a weird pergola that looks like it's made entirely of Lego. Another view of a cubical white marble-clad house with a perfectly normal house in the background.
January 6, 2025 at 7:35 PM
callys.bsky.social
@tkingfisher.com It's a bit early, but here's a Dies Natalis Solis Invicti card for you.
A holiday card with the text "Wishing You a Joyful Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" and "May the darkness be defeated!" with the image of a bronze plaque from the mid 2nd or early 3rd century depicting Mithras in the act of killing the sacred bull. Mithras is wearing his rather silly looking Phrygian cap, a short tunic, and a dramatically flapping cloak. He looks bored with the whole business. He's holding the bull by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing the bull in the side of his neck with a dagger in his right hand. The bull is, understandably, looking panicked. For some reason there's a scorpion that looks like it's about to sting the bull's back leg. A human Sun and Moon look benignly down on the scene from the top corners.
December 21, 2024 at 9:55 PM
callys.bsky.social
Name a TV show you're positive no one remembers but you.
A promotional picture for the 1975 Mel Brooks written tv show "When Things Were Rotten" about Robin Hood
November 20, 2024 at 11:14 PM
callys.bsky.social
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #154,804!

I just missed the Hellthread, but was in time for Alf, Gandalf, and so many clockfaces.
The Bluesky popup celebrating 10 millions users. Apparently I'm number 154,804
September 17, 2024 at 1:32 AM
callys.bsky.social
The bedposts are not entirely unlike these in knobbliness, but the details are all wrong. Funny how it's hard to find an image of a more than 100 year old bedpost online!
A four poster bed with knobbly tops of the posts, and additional knobbly bits about a foot down
August 12, 2024 at 9:32 PM
callys.bsky.social
May I offer you a holiday card in this trying time? I remember on KUEC you used to bemoan the lack of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti cards, so I made you one.
A statue of Mithras sacrificing a bull with the text "Happy Dies Natalis Solis Invicti"
December 24, 2023 at 11:44 PM
callys.bsky.social
Speaking as someone who also counts change up because my first job had a cash register that looked similar to this picture and which didn't make change, the only problem is if the customer gives you $10.16 on a $4.66 bill. Then I actually had to do the math to give them the $5.50 back they wanted.
December 14, 2023 at 1:33 AM