Mary Grace 😷
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emgeekay.bsky.social
Mary Grace 😷
@emgeekay.bsky.social
8.2K followers 1.9K following 26K posts
Retired archivist, librarian, linguist, feminist, reader, mom, grandma, pacifist, socialist, supporter of trade unions, the welfare state, and Amnesty International. I like digital preservation and old photographs. Banner: painting by Andrew Nicholl.
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emgeekay.bsky.social
If you can’t go to the #iPRES2025 conference in Aotearoa, you can read some books by Maori authors! I’ve got this one on my reading list. Here is a list of more from the Christchurch library:

christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/disp...

#archives #library #digipres 📚
Cover of book “Kataraina” by Becky Manawatu with kneeling woman in blue against black background.
November 2, 2025 at 11:25 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
This is a very cool, imaginative curriculum with lots of great reading selections by the always awesome @ashleyblewer.com

bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-cat...

#digipres #DigitalPreservation #archives #library 📚
Screenshot from Halt and Catch Fire syllabus website showing woman at a keyboard.
October 29, 2025 at 5:13 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
I like Goldie Williams who mugged for her mugshot.

history.nebraska.gov/exhibit_mug_...
Goldie Williams mugshot 1896, Nebraska Historical Society.
October 24, 2025 at 1:28 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
East Wing of the White House photos from the Library of Congress via Flickr Commons @flickrfdn.bsky.social
East Wing parlour, White House. East Wing entrance, White House. Crowd outside East Wing, White House, Nov. 25, 1913.
October 22, 2025 at 10:12 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Poverty rates across OECD countries. The USA has one of the highest rates. This graph shows “Percentage of persons living with less than 50% of median equivalised disposable income, by gender, in 2021 (or nearest year).” Women are poorer than men nearly everywhere.

www.oecd.org/en/publicati...
Bar graph showing poverty rates across OECD countries. Source: OECD. The countries with the highest rates are South Africa, Costa Rica, USA, and Israel. In most countries women are poorer than men.
October 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
In the USA, there were 36.8 million people in poverty in 2023. In
2023, the OPM poverty threshold for a family of four (two adults and two related children under 18 years old) was $30,900, according to the Institute for Research on Poverty.

www.census.gov/newsroom/sto...
Line graph showing number living in poverty in USA in millions and in percentages between 1959 and 2023. Source US Census.
October 22, 2025 at 2:03 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
In Canada, 10.2% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2023. The poverty line for a single person is earning $$27,624 annually.

www.statcan.gc.ca/hub-carrefou...
Line graph showing percent of Canadians living below the poverty line from 2017 to 2023. Source: Statistics Canada. In 2023, it was 10.2%.
October 22, 2025 at 1:53 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Poverty rates by borough in London, England. Twelve boroughs are over 26%. “London has the highest poverty rate of all regions of England. One in four Londoners [are] living in poverty…”

trustforlondon.org.uk/data/poverty...
Horizontal bar graph showing poverty rates by borough in London, England for 2023/2024.
October 22, 2025 at 12:15 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Cool! Here is a t-shirt from Syracuse Cultural Workers that has kind of the same message.
T-shirt with slogan "well behaved women seldom make history."
October 19, 2025 at 11:19 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Here's mine:
Mary-Grace written in moon features.
October 11, 2025 at 5:47 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Disappointed that these t-shirts I ordered from Peace Love Canada were made in Haiti, not in Canada.
Two t-shirts promoting Canada.
October 11, 2025 at 4:16 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
What a treat to arrive just before Thanksgiving in Canada! I am looking forward to reading this book by one of the pre-eminent human rights scholars in the world @alexneve.bsky.social, and giving thanks to human rights defenders everywhere.
Cover of book by Alex Neve entitled “Universal, Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World.”
October 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
I bought this yogurt maker from Lee Valley Tools. I should be able to make Greek yogurt with it, save money, and reduce plastic containers. I’m just waiting for a milk thermometer from cheesemaker.ca (thanks @fagankara.bsky.social for the heads up about that company).
All the parts for a yogurt maker.
October 8, 2025 at 1:03 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Head of a skeleton with burning cigarette by Van Gogh.😱
Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Antwerp, January-February 1886 oil on canvas, 32.3 cm x 24.8 cm Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
October 4, 2025 at 8:58 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
I spotted this at the London, Ontario airport sans telephone directory and thought of you @ianausten.bsky.social ☎️
Payphone at airport.
September 29, 2025 at 2:58 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
I’m baking four kinds of cookies today to take when I visit my grandchildren. I’m so glad it is cooler today so the kitchen isn’t so hot!
Tray of shortbread cookies.
September 6, 2025 at 6:17 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Here is Margaret Atwood's short story in response to the Alberta government book ban. It is not a very good story, and with book bans, we will be left with fairly limited literature.
Here's a piece of literature by me, suitable for seventeen-year-olds in Alberta schools, unlike -- we are told -- The Handmaid's Tale. (Sorry, kids; your Minister of Education thinks you are stupid babies.) John and Mary were both very, very good children. They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits. They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex. Although they claimed to be Christian, they paid no attention to what Jesus actually said about the poor and the Good Samaritan and forgiving your enemies and such; instead, they practised selfish rapacious capitalism, because they worshipped Ayn Rand. (Though they ignored the scene in The Fountainhead where “welcomed rape” is advocated, because who wants to dwell, and also that would have involved sex and would de facto be pornographic. Well, it kind of is, eh?) Oh, and they never died, because who wants to dwell on, you know, death and corpses and yuk? So they lived happily ever after. But while they were doing that The Handmaid’s Tale came true and Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job. The end.
September 1, 2025 at 8:13 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Children’s picnic ready to go! Pasta salad, pinwheel sandwiches, veggies, fruit, chocolate chip cookies, and lemonade. I hope Enid Blyton would be proud. 🌞🐞🧺
Pasta salad, vegetables, and fruit. Pinwheel sandwiches. Chocolate chip cookies.
August 23, 2025 at 12:33 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Rare Book Collections in Today’s Life

Date: Sept 9th at 190 Wortley Road, London, Ontario or Sept 10th at Weldon Library, Western University or Sept 11th online

Details and registration: www.journal.dsartistrylabs.com/home/collections/workshop-collections

#library #archives 📚
Poster for free workshop on rare books.
August 21, 2025 at 12:14 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
A fine tribute to a great actor, Terence Stamp.

www.rogerebert.com/tributes/ter...
Terence Stamp in the film "The Limey."
August 18, 2025 at 3:45 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Here you go.
Blueberry cornbread cooling on a rack.
August 14, 2025 at 11:38 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Blue cheese ball

16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c crumbled blue cheese (8 oz)
¼ c chopped toasted walnuts

Puree cheese in food processor until smooth, refrigerate for a few hours. Make into one or two balls and roll in walnuts. Refrigerate.
A cheese ball coated in walnuts.
August 14, 2025 at 12:14 AM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Pita chips

Cut pita bread into triangles, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with parsley and black pepper, and then with coarse sea salt. Bake at 400 F for 5 minutes.

~ James Barber
Baked pita chips on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
August 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
They should have made a film about Joseph Rotblat instead of Robert Oppenheimer. He was the only physicist on the Manhattan project who refused to continue making the nuclear bomb. He shared the Nobel Prize with the Pugwash Foundation for work toward disarmament.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...
Joseph Rotblat photo from the Nobel Foundation Archive.
August 9, 2025 at 12:17 PM
emgeekay.bsky.social
Never again.

Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 🕊️🕊️
From Wikipedia. Photo of Hiroshima bomb via US government. Photo of Nagasaki bomb via Charles Levy. English: Left picture : At the time this photo was made, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column. Six planes of the 509th Composite Group participated in this mission: one to carry the bomb (Enola Gay), one to take scientific measurements of the blast (The Great Artiste), the third to take photographs (Necessary Evil), while the others flew approximately an hour ahead to act as weather scouts (08/06/1945). Bad weather would disqualify a target as the scientists insisted on a visual delivery. The primary target was Hiroshima, the secondary was Kokura, and the tertiary was Nagasaki. Right picture : Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
August 5, 2025 at 12:43 AM