Kirke D.A. Elsass

@kelsass.bsky.social

1655 Followers 1298 Following

Historian; writing on cement and its role in co-creating life in the U.S. by making the environments of prisons, sidewalks, & basements; developing publicly available curriculum for Yale Environmental Humanities; love being outdoors; he/him/Dada

A set of four images with a single caption "The New Haven Gas Light Company knows from long experience that its Home Economics Department is a builder of goodwill. Upper left—Girl Scouts' class in cooking. Upper right—Mrs. Frances S. Mathis, director, Home Economics Department. Lower left—Miss Ruth McIntosh, assistant director. Lower right—Brides' Cooking class." The director and assistant director portraits are each a full body photograph of them dressed in all white and standing next to a table with cookware and ingredients. Similarly dressed women stand next to an instructional oven and range for the girl scouts class photo.
A lightly bearded guy in sunglasses and a running hat that reads The War on Cars stands in the main waiting room of Chicago's Union Station with its soaring barrel-vaulted ceilings and travertine columns with ornately carved capitals.
Damas' family members said another detainee reported hearing Florence staff "laughing and saying he was faking," as Damas cried for help, Ellis recounted to the Star.
"Imperialist undertones": global south condemns US-Israeli war with Iran
Snow related complaint summary in New Haven that reads "Narrow lanes around and approach to traffic calming island at base of hill"
Snippet of an old notebook with a set of branching lines that go up and out from a point labeled one that represents a common ancestor. There are about 20 endpoints, four of which are labeled A, B, C & D to represent extant organisms. Two sets of marginalia, difficult to read, are scrunched along the side and oriented almost 90 degrees.
National Endowment for the Humanities grants page with message 403: Access denied you are not authorized to access this page
But with the Trump Administration, one hand can giveth while the other taketh away. With Nexstar owning a national cable news network and a publication that focuses its coverage on the government, would anyone be surprised if the FCC imposes conditions on a Nexstar-Tegna deal that give the Trump Administration an ongoing oversight of the "fairness" of the Nexstar news outlets? This was at the very center of the Skydance-Paramount FCC approval and while there is little of the animosity evident here as we saw between Trump and CBS News, the temptation to further squeeze any opposing viewpoints - hi there Chris Cumo - may be too great for the Trump Administration to avoid.
Message confirming cancellation of a Disney plus subscription
Torso and thighs of a uniformed and vested person holding a high-powered rifle in the foreground, with a nuclear reactor in the background
Google Map view of Saint Petersburg, Russia with the city limits visible as a red dotted line
a cat sleeping between a keyboard and an elevated laptop in front of a window with a sunny and verdant streetscape outside
sign that reads princesses against kings! in purple marker with a bunch of sparkly glitter paint added for emphasis
A mass of World War One veterans gathered on the steps of the US Capitol with signs naming the states and cities from which they have come. One sign also reads "pay bonus"
text that reads I'd rather be on my bike in Detroit with a silhouette of a bike on the left side. On the other side is a silhouette of a cross-legged person with an radiating orb in the upturned palm of one outstretched hand and some tiny people in the other.
Letterhead with OMB seal and line title Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget. Opening paragraph that reads In implementing President Trump's Executive Orders, OMB issued guidance requesting that agencies temporarily pause, to the extent permitted by law, grant, loan or federal financial assistance programs that are implicated by the President's Executive Orders.
AI symbol next to text reading Here is the foundational research on these topics, followed by a 2016 Washington Post piece attributed to Barack Obama.
sketch of layered rock in a stratigraphic column with the layers carrying over into a table of chemical analysis that shows the percentages of calcium carbonation, magnesium carbonate, silicon dioxides, and a couple other oxides that are found in each rock layer
text at the top of a 1970 real estate listing that reads "Dog's name is 'Captain'--he's harmless!"
Photos of outdoor swimming pools above text reading "If there is no swimming pool in your town, write any office of the Portland Cement Association and you will get free literature telling you how other towns have made their swimming pools pay for themselves."
Black and white photo of two concrete silos towering over a barn with text beside it reading "no repair or perpetual upkeep required for concrete. the maintenance is built into it."
Section three no person shall ride or drive at an unusual or immoderate rate of speed through any of the principal streets of the city, whereby any person may be endangered or unreasonably inconvenienced
Script printing that reads compliments of commissioners of prisons. Fred. G. Pettigrove, Secretary
1880 catalog sketch of a mustached man in a rubberized full-body suit with a thick button colored, straps around his ankles, and his hands in pockets to demonstrate how thoroughly the suit can cover him.
Meme of the cartoon rodents Pinky and the Brain. Text reads Gee, Brain. What are we gonna do tonight? Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to write a dissertation.