the despair and whatnot

June calendar page for 1898 with a kneeling figure picking flowers surrounded by plants and butterflies by Theo Nieuwenhuis.

Rijksmuseum.

cats on quilts ♡

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

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Question 1/3

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I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.

There will continue to be attacks on trans students, especially transfeminine students, at Historically Women's Colleges, but there has also been an explosion of amazing advocacy and creative work coming out of these spaces. Mount Holyoke, the oldest of the Seven Sisters + my alma mater + the first historically women's college to adopt an explicitly trans-inclusive admissions policy ALSO has the first transfem literary journal of any HWC. You should follow Blockers on instagram (they don't have a site yet) and support their work.

I'm in touch with the editors about mail subscriptions off-campus and will update this when I get confirmation of where off-campus people can buy copies!

linked tree (includes options to donate to Ghanaian projects)

"The Love Cup" Pendant

c. 1907

Painted enamel and gold

by Phoebe Traquair, Scottish