Larissa Kelly

@larissakelly

Migration is beautiful.

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Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jul 13

www.gpb.org/news/2026/07...

[Fulton Commissioner Dana] Barrett, who ran unsuccessfully in the recent Democratic runoff for secretary of state, said the Justice Department, the State Election Board and the “election deniers of the world” were using fictions about 2020 to sow doubts about Fulton and its ability to run clean elections.

She said it was a pretext for intervention in the county elections operations in 2026 and 2028: “It’s about trying to continue the narrative that Fulton County doesn’t know how to run elections and therefore either take that ability completely away from the county and put it in the hands of the MAGA-controlled state election board or put monitors in.”

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jul 1

Okay, I can see it.

Wikipedia screenshot saying "They believed that there were not one, but two Gods - the good God of Heaven and the evil god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jun 23

It may even surpass a post from a few years back, which objected to apartments in the Del Norte parking lot because seagulls need a place to hang out and eat garbage.

Imagine living across the street from the new 700 unit apartment complex at El Cerrito Bart. One day you live in a house or small apartment building with a view of the Bart lot. Then, one day you wake up and the parking lot is gone. Instead, there's a mid-rise building complete with two to three thousand people and lots more cars in your neighborhood. Talk about destroying a neighborhood!

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· May 15

Invisible Adjunct blog, 2003: www.invisibleadjunct.com/archives/000...

In his "So You Want to Go to Grad School?" column (which I blogged about here), Thomas H. Benton made a compelling case against graduate school in the humanities. He now offers words of wisdom for those who insist on following this very risky pursuit. It's important to note that Benton is not encouraging and endorsing the graduate school option. "I believe that most would not choose to go," he writes, "if they were properly informed about the risks (the most notable of which is a strong probability of never landing a tenure-track job)." I agree. Though aspiring graduate students will readily acknowledge that they realize the job market is "tight," many have no idea of just how grim is the situation in many fields in the humanities.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Mar 24

Don't know if you've seen this Obsidian Wings piece by @hilzoy.bsky.social, but it covers some of the same territory (in contexts where "fighting" is less metaphorical). This quote is something I've thought about a lot over the years. archive.obsidianwings.blog/2007/02/27/l...

Violence is not a way of getting where you want to go, only more quickly. Its existence changes your destination. If you use it, you had better be prepared to find yourself in the kind of place it takes you to.

And another was this: liberation is not just a matter of removing an oppressive government. It can seem that way when you live under tyranny. Nothing is more comprehensible than people living in apartheid South Africa, or under Saddam, thinking: if only that government were removed from power, things would be better. They would have to be. After all, how could they possibly be worse?

Unfortunately, there are almost always ways in which things could be worse.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Mar 4

Agreed, although Shaxs has a point about the Terok Nor aesthetics.

Former Bajoran resistance fighter Shaxs calling Deep Space Nine a "tacky Cardassian fascist eyesore" on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Feb 22

(A line break caused me to miss that the photographer's full name was actually Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji, sorry! He's now based in Lyon, and has continued to take stunning photos of architecture.) domiri.eu

A 360-degree photo showing pillars that form corridors and support the tiled dome of Vakil Mosque in Shiraz, Iran. The pillars are grooved, cream-colored stone, while the dome has starry patterns of tiles in blue, white, and yellow. Because of the 360 perspective, the top of the photo shows an upside-down doorway, open to a bright day.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Feb 22

During the 2010s, physics student Reza Domiri Ganji got permission to take high-quality photos in various Iranian mosques. As a completely avoidable, pointlessly destructive conflict looms, it's worth remembering what can be achieved when people create instead of smash. www.cnn.com/travel/galle...

Interior photograph of a square tower supporting a decorated domed ceiling at the Shah Imam mosque in Isfahan. Three of the four sides of the tower have windows open to a blue sky with white clouds. The walls of the tower are predominantly blue tile with intricate gold decorations. At the ceiling the decorations become more intensive, making gold the main color. The overall impression is of great beauty and serenity, arising from the labor, craftsmanship, and care of vast numbers of people.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Feb 4

Burying the lede here, NPR

Photo from the NPR story about the Westminster Dog Show, depicting a tiny, adorable Italian greyhound looking calm and alert as it walks on a leash backstage in an extremely fluffy pink bodysuit.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jan 28

Here it's important to distinguish between hipster, worldbeat-inspired modern vampires of of the city, and the older vampire stock like Dracula, who claims new construction would literally kill him.

Quote from Bram Stoker's Dracula, which begins as Count Dracula says "I am glad that [the British estate he is buying] is old and big. I myself am of an old family, and to live in a new house would kill me. A house cannot be made habitable in a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century. I rejoice also that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead. I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young; and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may." Jonathan Harker then comments "Somehow his words and his look did not seem to accord, or else it was that his cast of face made his smile look malignant and saturnine."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jan 25

One of Biden's real missed opportunities was the failure to stand by Chris Magnus as Border Patrol commissioner. (He was my city's former police chief and was known for reforming corrupt, violent departments; he was driven out at CBP because he cared more about agency culture than tough crackdowns.)

Quote from October 17, 2022 Politico story "Biden’s top border chief comes under internal fire." It reads: "Five current administration officials who work with CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus portrayed him as unengaged in his job, saying he often doesn’t attend White House meetings on the situation on the border, badmouths other agencies to colleagues and superiors, and has not built relationships within CBP and across other agencies to address the influx of migrants at the border. They complain he is unfamiliar with some of the operations of CBP and instead is focused primarily on reforming the culture of the Border Patrol, addressing its long list of allegations of racism and violence."

Quote from October 17, 2022 Politico story "Biden’s top border chief comes under internal fire." It reads "Some of the officials believe Magnus hasn’t prioritized addressing the high number of migrants attempting to cross the border, but instead has continually tried to shift blame to other agencies. As an example, two of the five current administration officials said Magnus brought his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, pages of grievances about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While CBP is responsible for securing U.S. borders at and between ports of entry, ICE is the agency responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented people within U.S. borders.

After a trip earlier this year to the border to meet with his Border Patrol colleagues, Magnus asked for an emergency meeting with Mayorkas and other senior DHS officials, during which he listed complaints about ICE that he’d gathered during tour stops from the Border Patrol’s rank and file, according to one of the five administration officials, who was familiar with the meeting.

“He’s not in the game,” said another one of the administration officials. “Every time there’s a meeting and he’s in it, we’ll get to a conclusion and Magnus will have some sidebar issue that he wants to raise and we’re all like ‘What the fuck is that about?’”"

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Jan 19

Helen Whistberry has some great designs. whistberry.threadless.com/accessories/...

Picture of red crab against a starry background, floating above a knife. The caption says "Peace was never an option."

"Small Turtle Says Trans Rights" design. Circular image depicting a green turtle against a background of green leaves, framed by water-lily blossoms in the pink, white, and blue trans flag colors.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 27

Making a chocolate mug cake with brewed tea instead of water.

Close-up image of Hedonismbot from Futurama, a gold robot with half-closed eyes who wears a laurel wreath and reclines on the couch that makes up the lower part of his body. He is mashing grapes into his open mouth while saying "I apologize for nothing!"

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 21

Everett Patterson, "Jose y Maria."

Modern version of a nativity scene, depicting a man (Jose) and a pregnant woman (Maria) outside a store in the rain. Jose is talking on a pay phone, apparently trying to find a place for the couple to stay, while Maria wears a Nazareth hoodie and sits on a coin-operated horse. Ads in the store windows refer to various aspects of the nativity story, including "Weisman Cigarettes" and "Starr Beer." In the background, a sign for "Dave's City Motel" reads "No Vacancy" and "New Man ger."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 19

There was a Fresh Air interview a while back with the brain scientist and stroke survivor Jill Bolte Taylor, who talked about how important sleep was for her recovery. www.npr.org/transcripts/...

Transcript 1 of 2 from NPR Fresh Air interview with Jill Bolte Taylor, who says "I did not experience actually much normal traditional rehabilitation. I did have speech therapy where I would go in just about every 10 days. And, but it was my mother. My mother came to my - back into my world and she took over everything. She recognized I was an infant again and we began with rocking. And we began reestablishing a new mother-daughter relationship. And my mother was convinced that nothing knew better, no one knew better than my brain what it needed in order for it to recovery. And so if I was tired she allowed me to sleep. And this is very nonconventional for general rehabilitation for individuals with stroke. And, but my mother, if I wanted to sleep for 12 hours she would let me sleep for 12 hours. And then if I was awake for 20 minutes she would feed me and take me to the restroom. And if I had any energy left over she would give me something to do. She was a teacher."

Transcript 2 of 2 from NPR Fresh Air interview with Jill Bolte Taylor, who says "She had spent her whole life as a mathematics professor at a college. So it was very important to her to pay attention to my needs. And eventually I moved to a six-hour sleep cycle and then I had some energy to work. So for us the best therapy was sleep. And unfortunately in our society it is traditional to take someone, a stroke survivor, and wake them up at 6:30 in the morning, give them amphetamines to make the brain more alert, prop them up in wheelchairs, take them out into a social environment, subject them to input stimulation in the form of loud TVs and radios, and say you know, if you're ever going to recover you have to act like you're going to recover, and that was exactly not what my brain needed."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 5

Thanks to the man who inspired one of our household's most-used Simpsons quotes.

Picture of Snake from THE SIMPSONS, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit as he climbs towards a small window in a steel building filled with curves and angles, reminiscent of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Snake is saying "No Frank Gehry-designed prison can hold me!"

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 4

Thackeray says why use a scalpel, when a club makes such a satisfying thumping noise.

Screenshot from William Makepeace Thackeray's VANITY FAIR, which reads

GOVERNORSHIP OF COVENTRY ISLAND.—H.M.S. Yellowjack, Commander Jaunders, has brought letters and papers from Coventry Island. H. E. Sir Thomas Liverseege had fallen a victim to the prevailing fever at Swampton. His loss is deeply felt in the flourishing colony.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 4

Okay, Anthony Trollope, well-played.

A screenshot from Anthony Trollope's novel THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS, reading:

"What is the name of your place in Ireland?" she asked.

"There is no house, you know."

"But there was one, Frederic?"

"The town-land where the house used to be, is called Killeagent ['kill the agent']. The old demesne is called Killaud ['kill the lord']."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Dec 3

Paragraph from MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot, which reads:

Mrs. Cadwallader said, privately, “You will certainly go mad in that house alone, my dear. You will see visions. We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by. To be sure, for younger sons and women who have no money, it is a sort of provision to go mad: they are taken care of then. But you must not run into that. I dare say you are a little bored here with our good dowager; but think what a bore you might become yourself to your fellow-creatures if you were always playing tragedy queen and taking things sublimely. Sitting alone in that library at Lowick you may fancy yourself ruling the weather; you must get a few people round you who wouldn’t believe you if you told them. That is a good lowering medicine."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Nov 20

Photo of brown Bud Light bottles in a blue bucket.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Nov 20

He had his moments!

Screenshot of William Shatner from the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "Nick of Time."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Nov 17

The lore!

Description of an item in John Oliver's auction to support public media, reading "Leather jockstrap worn by Russell Crowe in the major motion picture Cinderella Man (2005) and later purchased by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, during season 5 of the show, as part of Crowe's "Art of Divorce" auction in which Crowe sold his personal belongings to pay for his divorce. The jockstrap was purchased by Last Week Tonight in order to be showcased at one of the last Blockbuster locations in Anchorage, Alaska, in the hopes of increasing patronage at the video store. The jockstrap has a rich history with Last Week Tonight, as its purchase inspired Crowe to establish the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward at the Australia Zoo, which helped vaccine research for koalas suffering from chlamydia. The jockstrap and Crowe went on to be featured in the season 5 finale of Last Week Tonight."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Nov 16

Fair, although I wouldn't mind if more cities had raccoon fountains.

Picture of a fountain at the Menlo Park Caltrain station. It depicts several raccoons scrounging in and around trash cans.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Nov 16

www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

Screenshot from the 2019 Mother Jones article "Jeffrey Epstein, My Very, Very Sick Pal," which reads "[Stuart] Pivar was also present for a number of Epstein’s science summits. Epstein himself was no scientist, said Pivar, the author of Lifecode: The Theory of Biological Self-Organization and an advocate of non-Darwinian models of evolution. (This was borne out in a recent New York Times story that described Epstein’s interest in cryonics and eugenics and his wish to 'seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women' at his New Mexico ranch.) Epstein was a dilettante, and easily distracted. But he pulled so many prominent thinkers into his social circle, using the promise of his money to create 'some kind of a mini university of thought,' that in Pivar’s view he did 'amazing, incredible, amazing, remarkable things for science.' There were lavish dinner parties with the likes of Steven Pinker and Stephen Jay Gould during which Epstein would ask provocatively elementary questions like 'What is gravity?' If the conversation drifted beyond his interests, Epstein was known to interrupt, 'What does that got to do with pussy?!'"

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Oct 14

(To be clear, the comedy is deliberate; Emily Brontë knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote passages like this.)

Quote from Wuthering Heights:

" “There, I’ve found it out at last!” cried Hindley, pulling me back by the skin of my neck, like a dog. “By heaven and hell, you’ve sworn between you to murder that child! I know how it is, now, that he is always out of my way. But, with the help of Satan, I shall make you swallow the carving-knife, Nelly! You needn’t laugh; for I’ve just crammed Kenneth, head-downmost, in the Black-horse marsh; and two is the same as one—and I want to kill some of you: I shall have no rest till I do!”

“But I don’t like the carving-knife, Mr. Hindley,” I answered; “it has been cutting red herrings. I’d rather be shot, if you please.”

“You’d rather be damned!” he said; “and so you shall. No law in England can hinder a man from keeping his house decent, and mine’s abominable! Open your mouth.”

He held the knife in his hand, and pushed its point between my teeth: but, for my part, I was never much afraid of his vagaries. I spat out, and affirmed it tasted detestably—I would not take it on any account."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Oct 12

What

Wikipedia header revealing that actress Andie MacDowell's full name is Rosalie Anderson MacDowell.

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Oct 6

Feels like Josh Ritter is somewhere in the mix.

Lyrics from Ritter's song "Kathleen," which read

Well, I know you are waiting and I know that it is not for me
But I’m here and I’m ready and I saved you the passenger seat
And I won’t be your last dance, just your last goodnight
Every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied
I’ll be the one to drive you back home, Kathleen, yeah

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Oct 3

Formulated well by Jason Mendoza.

Screenshots from the sitcom THE GOOD PLACE. The character Jason Mendoza is saying "I'm telling you, Molotov cocktails work. Any time I had a problem, and I threw a Molotov cocktail...Boom, right away, I had a different problem." The final image shows the character Eleanor saying "He makes a strong case."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Sep 3

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR also specifically describes propaganda footage of a boat being destroyed.

One of Winston's diary entries from George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. It reads "April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him, first you saw him wallowing along in the water like a porpoise, then you saw him through the helicopters gunsights, then he was full of holes and the sea round him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as though the holes had let in the water, audience shouting with laughter when he sank. then you saw a lifeboat full of children with a..."

Larissa Kelly@larissakelly· Aug 15

Realizing Pedro Pascal has been in at least two recent projects with a reverse-Omelas plot, where the well-being of a single child is prioritized above the rest of humanity's survival.