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gracehill.bsky.social
Grace Hill
@gracehill.bsky.social
2.1K followers 710 following 810 posts
not as good as I once was, but sometimes as good once as I ever was
#actuallyautistic #audhd
parent, caregiver, spouse, wfh

📍 central Appalachia, because I'm too stubborn to leave

matriarch, [redacted]
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gracehill.bsky.social
It’s to blame out of staters (and there sure a lot of them, even to this day), but there are also plenty of local gentry who benefit from this. Thinking of this bit from Deer Hunting with Jesus:
Sometimes I think the GOP emits a special pheromone that attracts fools and money. The lives and intellectual cultures of these, the hardest-working people, are not just stunted by the smallness of the society into which they were born. They are purposefully held in bondage by a local network of moneyed families, bankers, developers, lawyers, and businesspeople in whose interests it is to have a cheap, unquestioning, and compliant labor force paying high rents and big medical bills. They invest in developing such a labor force by not investing (how's that for making money out of thin air!) in the education and quality of life for anyone but their own. Places
November 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Extremely high, imo
1. Executive Summary Americans owed more than $1.6 trillion on auto loans through the fourth quarter of 2023, with more than 100 million active auto finance accounts.' Despite the size and prominence of this market, detailed information about the market is limited or non-existent. In February 2023, the CFPB launched the auto finance data pilot and issued nine market monitoring orders to three banks, three finance companies, and three captive lenders= to provide information about their auto lending portfolios. This allowed the CFPB to better understand loan attributes that may result in increased consumer distress. This report is the first of a series using data from the collection and provides a detailed analysis of financing negative equity, where the trade-in value offered for a consumer's vehicle is less than the outstanding loan balance and the unpaid balance is rolled into the new loan. Including negative equity in financing can place consumers further underwater on their next loan which, for example, may increase the risk of a deficiency balance if the consumer cannot repay the loan. Key findings from the report include: 1. More than 10 percent of borrowers financed negative equity from a prior vehicle loan into a new loan. Between 2018 and 2022, 11.6 percent of all vehicle loans in the dataset included negative equity, 32.1 percent included a positive equity trade-in, and 56.3 percent had no trade-in. The percentage of loans in the dataset that included negative equity ranged from just under 8% in 2022 to just over 17% in 2020. Loans observed in the data had larger loan amounts, larger monthly payments, and higher interest rates than transactions with positive equity or no-trade-ins. For loans in the data in which negative equity was included in financing, the mean negative equity amount was $5,073 for new vehicle financing transactions and $3,284 for used vehicle financing transactions. Other reports indicate that the number of transactions that
November 28, 2025 at 3:46 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
it’s getting serious at our house
a photo peering over OH’s shoulder. He is using a yardstick and a baking scraper to measure out cuts on the croissant dough he’s spent the last three days prepping
November 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Country students can thrive!

Love this essay. There’s a lot in it, but what I saw was that teaching close reading can help empower students.
It was easy to compare the university to the state's mountains: a site of extraction, a public good that had been plundered by the wealthy and left as a shell. All of this is true, but it's not the only truth. Because several times a week I walked into classrooms of students. Nothing there was missing: my classes were full in every way. Where everything else everywhere else felt exhausted, the classroom was overflowing, plentiful. It was a space for analytic thinking, longform attention, clear expression, cooperative conversation- democratic society and a richer life. All we needed was a poem, a few hours each week, and trust in what we could do, in what we did do, together.
November 27, 2025 at 5:26 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
Once again, I am pointing to this article, which makes it clear that Appalachians are paying the health prices for PJM’s electricity. Virginia wouldn’t tolerate that kind of filthy power generation, so they shuffle it over to us.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...
Holding on tight' to coal The smoke from two coal plants near West Virginia's border with Pennsylvania billows over the city of Morgantown, adding a brownish tint to the air. Nearby sits the 502 Junction substation, connected to those plants and a third one about 43 miles away via existing power lines, which will serve as a terminus for a western prong of the PJM plan for new lines that will extend to another substation in Frederick, Md., then south into Northern Virginia. The 502 Junction substation, to which transmission lines are connected, in Mount Morris, Pa. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post) The Harrison plant pumped out a combined 12 million tons of coal pollutants like sulfur and nitrous oxides in 2023, more than any other fossil fuel plant in the state, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. The Fort Martin plant, which has been operating since the late 1960s, emitted the state's highest levels of nitrous oxides in 2023, at 5,240 tons. After PJM tapped the company to build a 36-mile-long portion of the planned power lines for $392 million, FirstEnergy announced in February that the company is abandoning a 2030 goal to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions because the two plants are crucial to maintaining grid reliability. The news has sent FirstEnergy's stock price up by 4 percent, to about $37 a share this week, and was greeted with jubilation by West Virginia's coal industry.
November 27, 2025 at 4:16 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
I don’t think FB is a reliable source for the state of rural America. 🤷🏼

I will tell you I was teaching in a rural, poor, public high school over a decade ago, and the lesbian high schoolers were making out by the lockers just like the straight kids.

Snapped this photo last month in a tiny town:
An enormous wooden pride flag roadside sign painted on a board with a smaller temporary yard sign that says: “NO DATA CENTER COMPLEX IN TUCKER COUNTY.”
November 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
sometimes my children ask me for things:
can you rewrite this as about you and papa Emily Zanotti  @emzanotti- 1h My children are not on the autism spectrum because I took Tylenol while pregnant. They're on the autism spectrum because I, a person who will wear only one type of shoe and can't eat food that is “too, potato-y.” had babies with a man who has an encyclopedic knowledge of European aristocracy but a limited ability to process social cues. Grace Hill 11:03 AM My children are not on the autism spectrum because I took Tylenol while pregnant. They're on the autism spectrum because I, a person who will only wear perfectly matching socks and can't eat food that is too spicy-hot, had babies with a man who has an encyclopedic knowledge of video game releases over the last three decades but a limited ability to process social cues.
November 25, 2025 at 4:20 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
These people are so far out of touch with reality, and have so many deaths on their hands. This is horrific.
Most concerning was FBS guidance around the resuscitation of newborn babies. On the one hand, FBS courses gave basic advice for an emergency, though experts say their instructions were flawed. But Saldaya and Norris-Clark also claimed resuscitation was often an unnecessary act which deprived babies of the chance to choose to begin their lives. In her book, Norris-Clark called it "meddling" and "sabotage". . Babies, Saldaya said in a 2024 podcast, "need to learn how to breathe on their own" , adding, "It is so profound to marinate on this idea of your baby walking with this story at his back or her back, that she knew how to get born. And she claimed her breath." If an FBS-trained birth keeper was attending a birth, Saldaya and Norris-Clark taught that it was for the mothers, not the birth keeper, to decide if or how to help an infant unable to breathe. "When I attend a birth," said Saldaya, on a 2024 podcast, "like, for example, I would never resuscitate a baby. That's cuckoo bananas to me."
November 22, 2025 at 3:42 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Sometimes I make homemade meatballs and on those days I remember they’re delicious:
35 meatballs in serried ranks, on a metal cooking rack (so they’re crisp underneath) nb, I bake them at 400F for about 20 minutes, because my broiler is aged and sets off the carbon monoxide alarm. Also, I’m too lazy to do a second cooking step, so I just slap them on a plate and spoon some sauce over top. INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 large egg 3 ounces greens chopped (3-1/2 cups whole; 1-1/2 cups chopped) 3 scallions, white and green parts, finely sliced 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 ground turkey 1 pounds Italian sausage, 1 cup shredded mozzarella (preferably whole milk but low-fat will work) 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, plus more for serving 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs 1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce, homemade or good quality store-bought INSTRUCTIONS 1. Preheat the broiler and set an oven rack on the second-highest rack. Line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil and grease with the olive oil. 2. In a bowl large enough to hold all of the ingredients, beat the egg. Add the chopped spinach, scallions, and garlic and stir until evenly combined. Add the ground turkey, turkey sausage, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and bread crumbs. Using your hands, mix until evenly combined. Shape the mixture into 1-1/2 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. 3. Broil the meatballs until golden brown on top, about 10 minutes. 4. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce in a large pan on the stovetop. Add the broiled meatballs and simmer over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are fully cooked. 5. Freezer-Friendly Instructions: These can be frozen in their sauce for up to 3 months. When ready to serve, reheat the meatballs in their sauce on the stovetop over medium heat until hot in the center.
November 22, 2025 at 12:35 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
Massive star!

www.universetoday.com/articles/new...
November 21, 2025 at 3:41 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
the original Why Choose
Spock, Kirk, and McCoy from Star Trek, the original series, all looking very serious
November 20, 2025 at 4:23 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
without downloading any new pics, describe your gender
We do not currently have any gender in stock. We apologize for the inconvenience.
November 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
Just spent an hour on the phone to find out this incredibly fucking vague email was generated because an unauthorized order was autogenerated in their system and then canceled--by who? No idea.
supplies. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you. Unfortunately, we were unable to process your order, and it has been canceled. We understand that this may be frustrating, and we want to provide clarity on why this may have happened. Your order may have been canceled due to one of the following reasons: You requested to cancel your order, and this is confirmation that your request was processed. We were unable to obtain the required information needed to bill your insurance. We were unable to reach you regarding your upfront payment required in advance of shipment.
November 18, 2025 at 8:56 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
I was thinking about this, and I realized this is basically the cross-quarter part between the solstice and "Groundhog Day." And maybe until the spring equinox? We should celebrate Cross Quarter days more, I think!
A graphic, courtesy of NASA, titled Cross-Quarter Days. If the Earth is in the center of a sphere, the North Pole runs through the top and the South Pole runs through the bottom. The equator projects out onto the sphere. But, the Earth is tilted, so the plane of the ecliptic (the pizza shape of the solar system) is tilted on this sphere. The ecliptic is also projected on the sphere. The place where the ecliptic and the equator cross and the equinoxes. The Autumnal Equinox is on Sep 22 and the Vernal Equinox is March 2. The place where the tilted plane of the ecliptic is highest above the equation is the Summer Solstice, June 21. The place where the plane of the ecliptic is lowest below the Equator is the Winter Solstice, December 21. The cross-quarter days are halfway between the solstices and the equinoxes. 1st is February 3, 2nd is May 5, 3rd is August 7, and 4th is November 7. The Doom Days are the short gray days between the Winter Solstice and the first cross quarter day on February 3. And maybe out to the vernal equinox.
November 18, 2025 at 8:53 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Add muted words and tags Posts can be muted based on their text, their tags, or both. We recommend avoiding common words that appear in many posts, since it can result in no posts being shown. South Duration: 24 hours Text & tags
November 18, 2025 at 12:58 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
The thing is… Charlotte is in NC. And I think there might be unforeseen consequences. “North Carolina has voted for the Republican candidate in all but one presidential election since 1980” and perhaps that bird won’t fly there. Or maybe it will: (note that Charlotte is in Mecklenburg County)
White vast majority Black or African American about, eh, 25% of whites? Asian maybe a fifth of blacks? American Indian and Alaska Native much smaller Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander basically nonexistent Some Other Race about a third of blacks, and contains most Hispanics and Latinos Two or More Races slightly larger lock, and also contains about half Hispanics and Latinos Chart: FOX8 • Source: U.S. Census • Created with Datawrapper A chart showing percentage of whites versus minorities in North Carolina counties. Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is, is only 47% white, which might be why this is happening
November 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
New evergreen quote, imo:

“if you then chronically underfund your… institutions, and treat your…workers with contempt…you …are in fact running a giant heritage museum in which the only…workers you respect are the dead ones.”
* Coal mines where one miner died and another has been the target of an underground rescue each had histories of significant health and safety violations leading up to the incidents. (Gazette-Mail, 11/11/25) https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/wv-mine-sites-of-fatal-incident-rescue-effort-had-serious-safety-violations/article_defaa9f6-9b27-431c-a28b-80759ce0132c.html ou know a country by its values. By what a country values. And it turns out that what a country values can change over time. Sometimes, though, there's a sort of cognitive delay between the country you think you are in, and the country you've actually become. For example, you can keep selling yourself, to foreigners, as the country of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and luring busloads of tourists to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, and put a statue of George Orwell in front of the BBC, and imagine yourself a cultured and literate nation, which the rest of the world admires for its devotion to the written word - but if you then chronically underfund your cultural institutions, and treat your cultural workers with contempt, many people will suspect you of being full of it. And as the decades pass - and fewer and fewer Shakespeares and Austens and Orwells emerge from your little island - even more people will begin to suspect that in truth you do not value culture at all, and are in fact running a giant heritage museum in which the only cultural workers you respect are the dead ones. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/11/britain-value-culture-striking-workers-a-british-library-zadie-smith
November 17, 2025 at 2:26 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
your last saved meme is your moral philosophy
don't get the discord subpoenaed
November 17, 2025 at 1:47 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
In the morning eat breakfast at the Tudor's in Chapmanville (trust me):

tudorsbiscuitworld.com/menu-item-ca...
The Tootie, a ham, egg, and cheese biscuit the side of a grown man's fist.
November 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Go back the way you came until you hit the King Coal Highway, take a left at Calico Mountain until you hit Logan and merge onto 73. Spend the night at the very comfortable lodge at Chief Logan State Park:

wvstateparks.com/parks/chief-...
an aerial photo of the lodge, all brown and green and kind of boring--but the mattresses are new and the sheets are soft
November 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Then take a leisurely drive down the Kanawha River, past where the Gauley River flows into it, to where it becomes the New River. Keep going on Rt. 60, and if you need to stretch your legs, Cathedral Falls is an easy on and off.

www.nps.gov/places/cathe...
a photo from the NPS website of Cathedral Falls, spilling down the side of a mountain
November 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
Road trip idea!

This is low-mobility friendly, but probably best done not in winter. Get thyself to Charleston, WV.

You can fly into Yeager Airport (clutch those armrests, because, uh, the drop-off at the end of the runway is legendary.) Then rent a car.
an aerial photo of the runways at Yeager Airport. The runways are on top of Coonskin Ridge (I shit you not, that's the actual name of the hill.)
November 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
It’s from here:
[NAME], [AGE], lives in [BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR HOUSE] in the heart of [CITY OR LOCATION] where [WACKY OR INTERESTING HOUSE FACT] and [BOOK YOU ABSOLUTELY LEFT OUT ON PURPOSE #1] and [BOOK YOU ABSOLUTELY LEFT OUT ON PURPOSE #2] - two books [PRONOUN] was reading while [PROFESSION, CRAFT OR PASTIME] - sit on [PRONOUNI [LOCATION IN HOUSE YOU WOULD STRATEGICALLY LEAVE TWO BOOKS YOU WANT EVERY VISITOR TO SEE]. [EGREGIOUSLY PRETENTIOUS ACTIVITY], like a [NAME OF ARTIST] song come to life.
November 15, 2025 at 2:24 AM
gracehill.bsky.social
I have read one of these!! I chose these because they’re proper coffee table books—you could use them for boosting a toddler in a chair 😂
PLUNDERING APPALACHIA THE TRAGEDY OF MOUNTAINTOP-REMOVAL COAL MINING Creatures of the Deep In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live In Erich Hoyt Second Edition
November 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
gracehill.bsky.social
This book is so good!

As someone who speaks one way at home, and another way in public, as someone who has chosen as Cliopher did, to let others mispronounce my name and modify the way I speak, to fit in, because I have been afraid to do otherwise—reader, I cried at this scene.
Cliopher paused, wondering how far he should go; but this was a small good, a small truth, upon which who knew what could hinge? He had never stopped before, regardless of whether something was uncomfortable, regardless of whether it was considered indecorous and uncouth to speak the truth one felt. “You do not waver here, Sayo Vawen, on the small matter of what you know is correct, what is true, what is right. It may not matter, seemingly, to me; though you do not know how many bitter tears I might have shed for this small matter. But I can see very clearly in your face how much it matters to you. “You are in a different situation—certainly than I am now, but also than where I was when I first entered the Service, when I was a little older than you. I fought to be taken seriously, as a young man with a funny accent from very far away. I modified my accent, and let people misspeak my name, and learned to fit in. You do not need to.” He looked around the room again, at Zaoul and Kiri, at Aioru and Lord Eldo, at the pages and the secretaries and administrators who formed the heart of the government. They were all watching him with odd expressions, serious and troubled and, here and there, uplifted. “The weight of general opinion is one of the strongest forces in the world. It is the current of human society. It is the motive force of change, the thrust of what gets done. It seems unstoppable, inevitable, immutable. “It is not.
November 14, 2025 at 1:38 AM