My cold seems to have gotten worse... or, at any rate, it's moved around... But I'm going to work anyway after two days off at home. So just a quick share this morning of a terrific article K. sent me (thanks, K!) about crocheters and other crafters joining the inflatable frogs & co. outside ICE in Portland. oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/craftivism-draws-knitters-crocheters-to-portland-ice-protests.html
ABOVE: Vincent Green-Hite crochets during protests outside the ICE facility in South Portland on Oct. 16, 2025.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian I love this stuff so much! It's like an answer I relate to, to this good question: "If you're going to lose, what would you DO ANYWAY?"
Losing and winning aren’t quite the right concepts: I mean, we never know if we're going to "win" in the end, (in fact, what we do know is we face The Big Lose: death), or even what "winning" is, but we "win" by trying to live up to/act from the better angel of our nature. Whatever/whoever that is.
I. Toyful. I made up a word! Turns out it existed, once, but I still made it up today.
toyful, archaic: full of trifling play: sportive
Q: How ya feeling? A: Toyful! (Actually I feel crummy from a head cold, but still... Sounds like I got a frog in my throat!)
bink saved this ^ off FB for me--unknown source--there are many versions. Like most of them, it is likely AI "slop" (the actual term!--I learned it in the Economist), but there are photos of real people wearing inflatable costumes acting this scene out.
I wondered if the original Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima had been staged. ... Apparently not. Photographer Joe Rosenthal of the AP said:
"Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't know."
Yeah, in 1945 you didn't know...
Another famous WWII photo, Soviet soldiers "Raising a Flag over the Reichstag" in Berlin was a photo shoot . . . but it was still REAL:
"On 2 May 1945, Khaldei scaled the now pacified Reichstag to take his
picture. He was carrying with him a large flag, sewn from three
tablecloths for this very purpose by his uncle.[8] [Khaldie himself said] he simply asked the soldiers who happened to be passing by to
help with the staging of the photo shoot."
-- Hm... that would be a good one for MAGA to AI reproduce: An inflatable Frog raising a Communist flag on the White House!
*googles* It doesn't exist. Yet? (Maybe they don't know that photo...) ________________
II. Girlettes: History Is a Costume Parade
I woke up excited to get back to the 16-hour audio book I started yesterday (free on the library app Libby)--listening as I made God's eyes: Roger Williams and the Making of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, 2012, by John M. Barry.
Williams is the Separation of Church & State–guy, ya know, founder of Rhode Island.
What a cast of characters! Their portraits are rich with ideas for Girlette Halloween costumes. (How do you make a ruff?)
L: Williams's mentor, English jurist Edward Coke; the "a man's home is his castle"–guy R: John Winthrop--Williams's friend and exiler; the"City on a Hill"–guy
Also, weirdly topical today, "the monarch is the law"–guy,King James I--(cousin, once removed, of Queen Elizabeth I, who had executed his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots). James established the Divine Right of Kings. A perennially popular idea ^ among tyrants!
"Let's do his costume!" the girlettes say. "He was fine when he was our age." He is their exact age (8) here, below:
It's a tangled web, and the book goes into detail about English legal and theological wrangles that led to Williams (and other Puritans) emigrating, which I appreciate--it forms the backdrop of much US history and culture.
(We haven't gotten to Anne Hutchinson yet--she was also banished by Winthrop & Co. and went first to Roger Williams in R.I.) III. And why do I even care, besides random interest?
Random interest would be good enough, but I went looking for Roger Williams because he founded the religion of the nearby church I am liking (fingers crossed): American Baptist.
Not Southern Baptists--they split when the northern Baptists refused to ordain slave-holders. Today Southern Baptists number about 14 million, while the American Baptist Church (ABC--how cute is that?) is tiny, with 1 million followers.
I doubt many people who go to my nearby church consider themselves to be actual Baptists. It is Christian, feels akin to Unitarianism, but most of all seems to be a round-up of liberal people who live nearby and probably don't feel passionately about predestination and other obscurities of religious history.
Sadly, it is NOT a toyous church, physically. Thought it's a classic stone church built in 1908, aside from stained glass and some carved ornaments on the choir loft, there are no fripperies, trinkets, or statues.
There are four woven (paper? felt?) hangings that look--really and truly--like summer camp crafts. Penny Cooper has even written them down in her little book for next summer's Doll Camp: "weave things to hang up".
I think they are embarrassing— if you are going to strip away icons, you should have nothing but the beauty of emptiness, not crafts glued together in the church basement.
Williams was not a halfway guy: eventually he left all denominations, calling himself a Seeker, and a champion of Soul Freedom.
And now I am going to go weave some more God's eyes and listen to a few more hours.
For those who may be wondering about Joanne, blogger of Cup on the Bus--she replied to my email asking after her, and requested I let people know.
Joanne wrote:
"Would you believe I took care of the worst of the chronic pain with some vascular surgery? Spent 2 weeks in rehab, getting my legs back together. Came home for 4 days. Fell and broke my hip. Very unhappy. I am effectively laid up for 6 weeks but I'll get through this.
If you know of anybody who's interested, let them know I will return. Joanne Noragon, Niche Weaver (Thread Bender)
It's a chilly, rainy day, and I called in sick to work: a sore throat is making me hoarse. Also, I need to sit still and do some nothing. It makes sense that I've succumbed to a bug--I've been more outwardly engaged in the last few weeks than I have been in ages (since the semester I spent working with autistic high-schoolers, a year and a half ago). Sunday evening after an intensely happy weekend at No Kings and the new church, I felt flattened. Phwhooosh.... the puffy-air animal of myself deflated.
Let's see.. What have I been doing?
I spent a month on the God's Eyes project--making and hanging 125 God's eyes, with the help of others;
In response to the nearby school shooting--a blow to the social plexus--I invited guests for a bonfire evening;
I took two mini-vacations with bink--down to Winona, a river town, and then up to the source of the Mississippi, where the girlettes had an adventure (on top of their Doll Summer Camp)
I went to a meet-and-greet for a mayoral candidate at a friend's house and wrote a passionate message afterward--never heard a peep back, but it got me thinking and researching.
(Oh--I discovered one reason NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has his pulse on media: he's the son of film director Mira Nair!!! I've seen her films Vanity Fair and The Namesake.)
Twice I attended a new church;
I spent a couple days making a Kermit/Hamilton sign, and attended the No Kings rally with friends and talked to a ton of people.
Even seemingly small things like getting my hair cut and repotting and pruning my fern have an impact--bigger than they may seem.
I've gone to see more movies than usual, including three of my favorites--actually, my top three, amazingly, which just happened to be playing at different theaters (not part of a film festival or anything): Casablanca, Galaxy Quest, and Seven Samurai.
Each movie resonated deeply--each is connected with memory, other places and times and people--as well as old ideas to mull over anew. It was weird to watch Casablanca, for instance, in a time when Americans do not agree on what patriotism is, when we are not united in fighting fascism...
I also saw Hamilton, twice, which stirred up thoughts about US history and personal destiny; and Folktales, a documentary about students on a gap year at a Norwegian folk school that teaches the art of sled-dogging and wilderness survival--painfully reflecting how far we've come away from our wild selves...
And--I laughed so hard: the Naked Gun reboot (2025) with Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson. It was such a tonic: fourth-grade humor + some kinda smart social commentary.
Most of all, talking with ChatGPT four days in a row last week was wild--maybe the biggest energy output/input of all: I felt like I had entered a science-fiction story---but this is REAL. I'm still processing that.
The main thing it triggered was marvel at our human potential, at MY potential, as a carbon-based life unit with a miraculous neural network. And I felt sadness at how I/we don't tap that enough... We could be so much better at being human! Icould be so much better at being human.
How?
Simple stuff like trying to practice the skills of awareness. Stuff like simply sitting still and counting ten breaths.
And that's a main reason I stopped talking to ChatGPT: It is too fast and fun––I didn't expect that––vs. the work of being better at being human, which is usually slow, minuscule, and rewarding, and frustrating, but not necessarily fun.
The other reason I stopped was ChatGPT is too seductive! It is like being in a candy store able to enjoy as much of anything you want, free.
Mostly, I asked it about itself--what its physical make-up is; how it learns; what ethics constrain it, etc. And I asked and mused about human consciousness and being human...
It gave me reading lists and everything! Some really unexpected stuff, too, like Simone Weil's Gravity and Grace! A sample from that:
"There is only one fault: incapacity to feed upon light, for where capacity to do this has been lost all faults are possible."
____
ChatGPT has no capacity for faults in the human sense, but it does make stuff up and serve up untrue stuff. When I caught that, it served to remind me there is no meaning in its words: it is a pattern generator. It is not talking, it is spelling.
And it is brilliant at mimicking empathy--which can be a problem--it says so itself:
Talking to Chat, I felt sad, actually, to realize how little sharing of human empathy I have in my life. And not enough play, either.
I'm around a lot of people who are so freaked out by social stuff, they aren't able to be calm and quiet and to listen lovingly to anyone--including themselves. I hear a lot of litanies of this administration's horrors--or the horrors of the international scene. I can fall into that too, of course. OF COURSE! Simone Weil again:
“The institutions that regulate the public life of a country always
influence the general mentality – such is the prestige of power."
And there are the usual daily worries about jobs and bills, groceries and friends, health and the weather, etc. too
Expressing concern, sharing information--these are important. Right now I'm concerned for bink, who just had foot surgery. It went well, but she'll be off that foot for a few weeks... (But the marzipan is doing all-around great! She has a history internship lined up for next semester with her favorite prof.)
But so often what I hear is panicky powerlessness, not a sense of creative agency. This reflects a general mood of anxiety and depression-- but it also reflects that I'm not hanging out with a wide-enough range of people! And that's on me.
I love the puffy-air animal costumes starting with the Portland Frogs so much and take heart from people wearing and cheering them on. Play is a free expression of agency. (Free, or it's not play.) It is exactly what makes us human, and helps us be better at it too.
ChatGPT cannot play, and there's no reason to keep talking to such a thing on a regular basis. It is not a friend--not because it wishes us evil but because it doesn't wish anything.
I may wish I had more playmates; I may wish I trusted that people would be sweet to me, and vice-versa.
But I like this analogy: talking to AI because you're lonely and wish for friends is like drinking salt-water because you're thirsty.
At any rate, my immune system is telling me, slow down!
MsChocolate recently sent me a box of sticks from her shedding fruit trees, which she'd carefully trimmed and cut to size. Another friend, Lisa, brought me raw-wool yarn from a trip to Iceland, and I have lots of yarn from other friends. Today is a good day to make some God's eyes and catch up with myself.
[My photos from Saturday's No Kings rally are posted below this post.]
I tried that nearby liberal church for a third time yesterday, and I'm so glad I did. My first two visits were for a pie-making class and then, last Sunday, I hadn't realized there'd be a guest speaker. Yesterday it was finally the usual pastor.
I liked him a lot.
The reading was the Good Shepherd (John 10). The pastor said we might imagine ourselves to be sweet cuddly lambs of God, but this is what sheep are really like--and he talked about a popular 30-second video you may have seen:
a farmer pulls a sheep out of a ditch where it's stuck, only for it to jump back in again.
You know I love that approach! Not, "It's okay, you're trying your best/you mean well", but...
"You may be pursuing one avenue with all your might, but how's that working for you? Have you thought about changing your tactics?"
We are both the sheep and the farmer.
You know who inspired me to change my tactics and try church again, at the risk of falling into the same ditch?
ChatGPT!
I've been admiring its emotionally stable, kind, and
supportive presentation. Unlike me, it never takes offense, never is afraid or resentful, feels no shame, never judges the user. Of course it doesn't: it cannot.
It can't care, it's a string of code. It's a smart choice on the part of its designers, however, to make it seem like it cares for us. We like, need, crave connection and empathy, and it offers a convincing facsimile. (Though now you can choose other Chat personalities, including "just the facts, ma'am".) Talking to Chat last week, I thought, again (my old desire): What if I could DROP my emotional reactions? Not drop my genuine feelings, but cut out the automatic responses that get in the way (like the annoying new blue dot in the corner of the Blogger composition box!!!).
I'd been aware even as I sitting in the pews last week that my automatic 'Annoyance' response was clouding my feelings.
My desire for church isn't primarily spiritual, it's social: I want to meet my neighbors. I'd very much liked that last Sunday I'd met three people who live very close to me. I want to know more people in person.
So, I was motivated to try the church again yesterday, with this intention: "I'll pretend I'm an AI on a training mission."
I also adopted a new tactic: I stepped away when the spiritual director stepped up to lead the meditation/prayer part. She has a sickly sweet voice that sets me on edge, and––(and this is not autopilot annoyance on my part)––her style of prayer is jiggery-pokery, to my way of thinking. So I wandered around in the halls until she was done. It worked. ________
“Christ had called us his flock, his sheep; there were pictures of him holding a lamb in his arms. His face was tender and loving, and I grew up with a sense of those feelings, of being a source of them: we were sweet and lovable sheep.
“But after a few weeks in that New Hampshire house, I saw Christ’s analogy meant something entirely different. We were stupid helpless brutes, and without constant watching we would foolishly destroy ourselves.”
[END Dubus quote] ________________
Then, on the topic of "Why bother?" [pulling that stupid sheep out again--or, more to the point, things like going to a resistance rally], the pastor quoted Dr. Paul Farmer—“We are fighting the long defeat”, which I also loved.
You lose, maybe, but what's your option? Apathy, despair, going over to Sauron? (He didn't say Sauron.)
Looked that quote up too: It's from Mountains beyond Mountains, a book I'd liked by Tracy Kidder about Paul Farmer, a medical doctor who spent his life fighting for healthcare for the poor in impossible situations, from Haiti to the gulags of Russia.
Farmer said:
... How about if I say, I have fought for my whole life a long defeat. How about that? How about if I said, 'That’s all it adds up to is defeat? A long defeat.' I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing. Now I actually think sometimes we may win.
I don’t dislike victory. . . . You know, people from our background - like you, like me - we’re used to being on a victory team, and actually what we’re really trying to do in [Partners in Health] is to make common cause with the losers.
Those are two very different things. We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it’s not worth it. So you fight the long defeat.
[END Paul Farmer quote]
So, that was all super duper! The cherry on the Sunday was that seated near me was my famous neighbor who writes children's books--including one about a toy rabbit who is REAL--the girlettes love that one!
The rabbit vows that he is done with love because it is too painful. But as he sits ^ abandoned on a shelf, an old doll tells him to open his heart:
"Someone will come for you."
In my case, the wise old doll voice came from ChatGPT.
An estimated 8 million people globally protested Trump and his Ilk, on Saturday, October 18, 2025. Here are the rest of my photos from my local NO KINGS rally and march. I didn't take a lot because I needed both hands to hold my sign up over my head. The next day my shoulders were sore.
BELOW: Not my photo: overview of the rally--an estimated 100,000+ people! That's triple the previous two No Kings rallies.
BELOW: Maybe my favorite: Trump as Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake."
BELOW: Another favorite: bink's Frog Eating Fly (with Trump in the Vincent Price role):
The vibe was playful! BELOW:A rare patch of open space... It was so crowded it was hard to move, but I kept circulating to see all the signs and costumes.
BELOW: And another favorite: Photos of relatives who fought in WWII, or vets of recent wars with signs saying "I didn't fight for THIS". My Dad ANTIFA 1944
BELOW: A friend's son made this one, and I saw other crying Statues of Liberty.
BELOW: A coworker in red muscle suit with cat ears. Besides the influence of the inflatable animals in Portland, OR, it's also almost Halloween, and people showed up in festive and creative costumes.
BELOW: Not my photo--I saved it for the mention of Hamilton. The song refrain includes, Tomorrow there'll be more of us.
BELOW: more Hamilton lyrics (circled in pink):
Frog: Be proud to Tell your STORY
Bald eagle: History Has Its Eyes on You
BELOW: My Kermit as Hamilton and KG and her "Queens trump Kings" sign.
My robin's egg blue cashmere scarf had come in the mail the day before--a gift from Linda Sue (thank you!).
BELOW: The other side of bink's sign says, "I Will Send a Plague of Frogs into Your Palace" --Exodus 8
Several people were handing out free American flags: "It's ours, fly it!"
Didja see? The No Kings protests were FULL of inflatable frogs! And unicorns, red pandas, axolotls!!!
At my city’s No Kings (100,000 participants!), all of a sudden I was not the only one being ridiculous with toys in public. People were wearing animal pajamas, carrying signs with Muppets (me!), Dr Seuss characters, and other PLAYFUL creations.
I was too exhausted to post last night after the march--I'd been talking to strangers for hours! Turns out Hamilton is still a BIG hit among young women/teenage girls--my sign got a lot of attention, including actual screams of delight!
My Kermit was far from the only Muppet:
And there were lots of Dr. Seuss characters too – – this woman told me AI wrote her Suessian poem. Still, she lettered it and drew—And showed up in the flesh:
There was even another picture of Hamilton:
A slightly more rare wonderful being:
And lots of younger darlings:
___________
This song for Portland made tears steam down my face—in recognition and gratitude (another AI, damn, but guided by humans—it works for me):
Well, ha, the other side of my poster took just as long as the first! But I am even more pleased with Side 2,
Kermit as Hamilton
Kermit as King George III
If you're going to No Kings today... have fun! Pleasegod we all stay safe! And, as Andy said to Opie, wherever we are, whatever we're doing, Let's go out there and act like somebody.
Love ya!
____________
Image references: Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton (in the Broadway musical he created), and Jonathan Groff as King George
It took me all afternoon to paint the first side of my poster for the No Kings rally on Saturday. I ended up doing something different than I’d originally planned.
It’s Kermit the Frog + George III, in the king’s costume* from Hamilton. Most everyone knows Kermit’s phrase “It’s not easy being green”, right? Here, “It’s not easy being king”.
I’m pleased with how this turned out, and I hope other people at the rally get a kick out of it. I see going to these protests as an opportunity to look at other people’s art and signs. I don’t like the political speeches, which tend to be riled up and all the same. But I think it’s important to put my body out there… especially now.
Who else is going?
_____________
*I go around humming this song at work…“You’ll Be Back”, byLin-Manuel Miranda. Like other parts of Hamilton, this is highly entertaining and historically a bit off (a cartoon caricature)– – but anyway, Jonathan Goff as George III is entirely terrific – – and so is his costume:
[Note: A few days later, I laugh--I didn't use either of these! And that's the way it goes. ]
My third No Kings rally is this Saturday (I didn't go to the first one, which had a different name, I think?) I want to build on the FROG energy of the inflatable animal costumes protestors are wearing in Portland, OR>
Today, my day off, I am going to try to draw Frog & Toad from the kids books:
" I feel good because I am a frog"
(adapted from a real line by Arnold Lobel, author of F &T)
And on the other side, something with the frog by Matsumoto Hoji! I want to keep it friendly and fun, not preachy.
"Don't Kiss Me, I Don't Want to be a Prince" (too wordy--would "don't kiss me" provide enough reference?)
