Janet D. Stemwedel

@docfreeride.bsky.social

12745 Followers 1824 Following

Academic philosopher, lapsed chemist, occasional science writer, perpetual ethics booster. All views my own. (she/her)

A photo of the cover of the book “The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie” by Chanda Prescott-Weinstein.
Screenshot of my weather app showing current temperature of 86 F and a chance of snow starting less than 22 hours from now.
An open red briefcase packed with small stuffed squirrels wearing little blue “H&A at SJSU” shirts.
Me, a white woman with brown hair and glasses wearing a white KN95 face mask and Stanford doctoral regalia (black with red accents).
Five white reindeer, each wearing a lei, with heads turned slightly to the viewer’s right.
A “murder board” on a black bulletin board framed with ye”crime scene” tape, with index cards of many colors and images pinned to it, some of them connected by thin red and white twine. The question that is the focus of w”murder board” is “COULD IT BE WRONG TO LOVE TRUE CRIME AS MUCH AS WE DO?”
A spooky array for a seasonal pedicure that includes a dark red rose in a goblet of dry ice, square dishes with a pink mini bath bomb and dried rose petals, a green scrub with little eyeballs, a green lotion, raspberries and cream; small ceramic skulls and pumpkins, a white column candle with vats, and a black silk flower arrangement.
Three irregularly shaped slices of bread with stripes of yellow (Swiss) and orange (cheddar) cheese melted upon them, sitting on a rounded square plate that is an array of skinny red rectangles on a white background.
Gloriously overcast beach. White waves crash against light brown sand.
My right hand, palm facing upwards, with significant areas of black smudge on both palm and fingers. Seriously, it looks like I used my hand to erase a whiteboard.
Me in my dragon/CEO form, in black suit with dragon-y print green, black, and white shirt, wearing a reddish dragon mask (or IS IT A MASK??)
A bunch of already-made signs of questionable aesthetic value and marginal pithiness, on a table with a black tablecloth. I reckon you can do better!
The Busy World of RFK Jr. by Luke McGarry (which is Richard Scarry’s Lowly Worm driving an apple car, only the apple is RFK Jr.’s head).
A raised bed full of recently turned earth with five green seedlings. Not pictured: five different kinds of seeds just below the soil surface.
STEPHENS: I’d say the lowest-quality institutions created since the 1990s have names like Columbia and Berkeley — these are essentially factories of Maoist cadres taught by professors whose political views ranged almost exclusively from the left to the far left. COTTOM: I would counter, Bret, that the lowest-quality institutions are the for-profit colleges created as paradigmatic economic theories of exchange value that churned out millions of students in “career ready” fields who found it hard to get a job worth the debt — colleges not unlike the one that our current dear leader once ran as a purely economic enterprise.
If Tesla goes below $114 Musk will get margin called. This forces him to liquidate his shares which will send Tesla stock into a death spiral and his whole empire will crumble. Musk will do anything to prevent this. And Trump will too. So … keep the pressure on.
A “Tide to go” pen and a black Sharpie permanent marker.
A skeleton holding a gold shovel facing a figure in a white cloak whose face is obscured (and who has a reddish figure in green pants who might be a demon behind them).
Crocheted Moo Deng hides behind a crocheted koi, both alongside a crocheted squid.🦑
Crocheted Moo Deng (the famous baby pygmy hippo from Thailand) in profile on the ledge of a black music stand, creeping up on a blue mechanical pencil.
A crocheted Moo Deng, facing slightly away from the camera.
A stripey grey kitty with amber eyes sits on a patio table with her mouth open as if to say, “What are you even doing with your life, you foolish human?” Honestly, that’s a fair question.
A white ceramic casserole pan with a Field Roast holiday roast and a glass loaf pan with a Tofurkey holiday roast.
A glass pan holding rectangular slabs of grilled tofu and a round white ceramic handled container with circular slices of grilled zucchini
A rectangular glass pan of dark brown bread stuffing.
Three butternut cheesecakes in foil pans. Two of them are marbled with chocolate.
Crumbled dried bread in a stainless steel bowl.
A stout glass jar with a black screw-top packed with cranberry orange relish.
A strainer full of shredded zucchini (lightly salted) perched over a stainless steel bowl, waiting for the moisture to leave the zucchini and drip into the bowl.
Two glass baking dishes filled with slabs of tofu between which are nestled shiitake mushrooms and garlic cloves, all of it swimming in a brown marinade.
A stripey grey cat licking her nose with her pink tongue.
A tenor saxophone player, seated behind a music stand, dressed in a jumbo shrimp onesie.
A ratatouille galettes (recipe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/ratatouille-galette/ ), with sliced tomato, red onion, Japanese eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash framed by a browned rectangle of puff pastry. Underneath is a base of goat cheese, cream cheese, fresh herbs, and garlic.
A stack of postcards in a quart sized freezer bag on a wooden table with three pens next to them. The postcards feature a picture of a cornfield & farmhouse, along with a cardinal & a pink carnation, with the text “Ohio votes Tuesday, Nov. 5. Visit VotingMattersOH.org for voting info.”
The Pacific Ocean meeting a light brown sandy beach with breaking waves. In the foreground are light brown boulders. In the background is a slightly overcast blue sky.
A package (6 rolls) of Trader Joe’s Super Soft Bath Tissue.
A white schnauzer-y doggo on her back on a bed with spring green sheets getting her tummy scritched.
A cast iron skillet containing three-quarters of a plum clafoutis, a golden brown cake-like dessert flecked with slices of red fleshed plums.
Screenshot of weather app showing San Jose at 101 F and sunny. High: 103 F, low 67 F. Excessive Heat Warning.
A Spicy Dead Lady cocktail (salmon pink cocktail in a cocktail glass with a lime wheel)
A Purple Haze cocktail from Wilma & Frieda’s in Palm Springs, a light purple cocktail in a stemless cocktail glass with a sugar rim garnished with a purple orchid.
Screenshot of my weather app showing Palm Springs as currently 93F and sunny with a predicted high today of 102F, low 70F, and more of the same the next couple days.
Skeet from me today: Breaking new ground in administrative fuckery today, and I have seen some things…
Skeet from me, 2 days ago: Being appropriately vague in social media posts is a transferable skill.
A white woman with brown hair and red-rimmed glasses not quite smiling.
The old lady from the movie Titanic saying, “It’s been 84 years.”
A Tesla Cybertruck, parked across the street from San Jose (California) City Hall.
A glossy zine cover with an illustration of two angry dudes in profile pointing fountain pens at each other’s throats, with text that reads “Weird Tales from the SJSU Philosophy Department: THE MEMO WAR of ‘64”
A flock of wild turkeys outside the glass doors of a county courthouse.
A large bronze frog, front legs akimbo, with a toadstool in foreground.
The old lady from “Titanic” saying “It’s been 84 years.”
A drawing board covered with green and yellow sticky notes.
A large yellow tropical drink in a hurricane glass with a garnish of pineapple chunk, orange slice, and dark cocktail cherry. I cannot remember precisely what the drink was, nor the name of the restaurant near the shore in Santa Barbara where I enjoyed it during my vacation in August, but it was lovely.
A small round plate with dark blue border stacked with chocolate chip pancakes next to a larger plate (same pattern) holding plain and blueberry pancakes.
Three round sour cream coffee cakes with cracked brown sugar topping in foil pans, cooling on the stove top.
A red translucent cocktail in a cocktail glass on a green countertop with coffeemaker, measuring cups, and other kitchen clutter behind it.
Image of a skeet whose visible handle reads “Philosophy of Science Ass …” The truncated word is “Association.”
A white woman with red-framed glasses and a white KN95 face mask in a cream and gray hedgehog onesie on a BART car.
A round bowl with slices of sourdough batard, a round plate with canonical caprese (sliced tomato topped with fresh mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with basil leaves), and a square plate with beet “caprese” (slices of roasted beets on a bed of baby arugula, topped with goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar) on a wooden table.
A Blackberry “Margarita” (though it’s made with bourbon rather than tequila, so I HAVE QUESTIONS!), a purplish drink in a tumbler with ice cubes with a perfect plump blackberry skewered by a toothpick balanced on the glass, sitting on a paisley runner on a blonde wooden table.