The Right to a Bed in Zohran Mamdani’s New York

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/news/new-york-journal/the-right-to-a-bed-in-zohran-mamdanis-new-york

DC News Now: Woman who pulled TikTok prank arrested, charged in Montgomery County. “A woman in Montgomery County is facing charges after officials with the Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD) said she used artificial intelligence (AI) to falsely report that someone broke into her home earlier this month. Police said it’s a viral prank on TikTok.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/22/dc-news-now-woman-who-pulled-tiktok-prank-arrested-charged-in-montgomery-county/

NBC News: ‘AI homeless man prank’ on social media prompts concern from local authorities. “As the prank gains traction online, local authorities have started issuing warnings to participants — who they say primarily are teens — about the dangers of misusing AI to spread false information.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/13/nbc-news-ai-homeless-man-prank-on-social-media-prompts-concern-from-local-authorities/

I’m A Crotchety Knit Wit

Because of an early snowfall, I am not getting out much these days, so I like to find things to do that can be accomplished while sitting on the couch.  Those things include writing for this blog, reading, and making hats for homeless people.

My daughter-in-law works for a non-profit group that finds homes for the homeless, and there is an ongoing need for all sorts of things for the participants in their programs. Last spring, I volunteered by helping some of them to use computers. I am only moderately qualified as a computer lab supervisor, but my skills were usually sufficient for the task. I also contributed by donating some hats that I had made the previous winter. It had been several decades since I had previously knitted, but I found that the skills came back to me fairly quickly. I was helped by some YouTube videos, for which I am very grateful.

Yesterday, as I finished making a cowl and started making another hat, I wondered why knitting and crochet patterns persist in measuring items horizontally by stitches and not by inches or centimetres. Now that I think about it, my first musing was actually about the peculiarities of pattern abbreviations.  Here, to give you a taste of this is a section of the pattern I am currently using.

Rnd 10: Switch to larger hk, ch 2, hdc2tog by inserting hk in same st as join and next hdc, ch 1, *hdc2tog, ch 1; rep from * to end, sl st in beg hdc2tog.

Rnd 11: Ch 2, hdc2tog beg in last ch-1 space made at the end of the previous rnd, then in next ch sp, ch1, [hdc2tog by inserting hook in same ch-1 sp as last st, then in next ch sp, ch 1] around, ending the last hdc2tog in same ch-1 sp as beg of rnd, join with a sl st in top of 1st hdc2tog. Rep Rnd 11 for patt until piece measures 9 ½(10)” from beg.

To be honest, I haven’t actually completely understood Rnd 11 yet, but I plan to get to it later today. I feel pretty good about myself that I actually think I can do this. In any case, if you look at the end of this instruction, you will see that the piece is measured vertically by inches, but the horizontal measure is by stitches.

The workaround for this is a gauge that one is supposed to do before actually beginning the project. For this hat, the gauge is “12 hdc x 20 rows = 4” on smaller hook.” The pattern also helpfully suggests that it saves time if you do this first. I, of course, have not done this.  I suspect my hat is going to end up much bigger than the one in the illustration. Maybe there is a homeless person with a big head or lots of hair who will appreciate it anyway.

Here’s the thing. If you do the gauge sample piece and find that your stitches are bigger or smaller than they are supposed to be, you have to do the math to figure out how many more or fewer stitches or rows would be required to get to the desired size. Alternatively, you have to experiment with different needle or hook sizes to achieve the same result.  Presumably, there are fastidious crafters who actually do this, but I’m willing to bet there are a lot of ho-hum crafters like myself who prefer to bumble along and see how things turn out.

So, that’s why I ask the question, why not just specify a measurement in the pattern instead of stitch numbers?  I have a feeling that the originators of knitting and crafting patterns back in ancient history were really good at math, or at least better at it than I am. Alternatively, there may have been a secret coven of crafters who worked tirelessly to ensure that they all always worked with the same tension on their yarn. It may have been like the women who lived together for so long that their menstrual cycles coincided. Or, maybe they are the same group of women. Who knows?

Not being in a coven or coinciding my cycles with anyone, I am left with the uneasy feeling that the tension on my crochet hook is probably not what it should be, but I feel only slightly guilty about not having done the little gauge piece in the beginning. I mean, really, how much can it possibly matter?

Don’t answer that.

#cowl #crafts #crochet #gauge #hat #homelessPeople #humour #instructions #knitting #patterns #snow #tension

Making Hats in the Cold

I’ve been making hats. 

It’s a pastime I began a couple of years ago and I picked it up again this winter. When you arrive at the confluence of time, isolation, terrible weather, and a supply of random leftover yarn, that’s what you do.

I’m not a great knitter or crocheter, but I can handle a beginner’s pattern like nobody’s business. I am making the most of the internet’s supply of free patterns for beanies, toques, and bobble hats (without the bobbles).

In my imagination, I’m making these hats for homeless people. I would prefer to be doing something personally, practically, helpful for them, but when it is  -20C or below for a couple of months, the urge to walk about the streets leaves in a hurry. So, I’m making hats.

To be honest, I’m doing this more for me than for them. I need something to do. I have been housebound for several weeks aside from one excursion to extended family for Christmas and one trip to the grocery store. Otherwise, this is it. I’m enjoying the warmth and comfort of my suite and occasional visits with my family upstairs, but I have been outside almost never.

I have taken out the trash, shovelled the drive once, plugged in my car’s block heater twice, but otherwise have not experienced the outer world for longer than about two minutes. It is bl**dy cold out there, folks, so I need something to do.

I have cleaned my suite a few times, done laundry, walked up and down my short hallway, looked out of my window, read too much news online, watched far too much television, and tried to sketch the faces of TV hosts, but otherwise have been almost entirely unproductive. Eventually, the need to be useful kicked in.

This effort began by finishing a blanket that I had started last year, but then I had leftover yarn and, well, I’m a boomer. We don’t waste anything. I wondered what I could do with a supply of about one ball each of three colours of yarn, and the answer (as per Google) was crocheted hats.

Then, when I was sorting out a storage drawer, I discovered a supply of similarly inadequate quantities of yarn. They were all of different weights and purposes, but I figured that with enough determination and flexibility I could make them work. So, that is what I did. I made hats.

They are of various sizes and colours, the stitches are not all “according to Hoyle,” but I think they might serve a useful purpose. I tried them all on and some of them fit me, some are too small, and some are too big. Without even trying, I think I covered the target market.

I have no idea whether homeless people want homemade hats or not, but I’m going to assume they do. If not, I really have nothing to do while I’m watching television. If they take them, they are doing me a favour, and I want them to know I appreciate it. Very much. These hats are keeping me sane.

#beanies #bobbleHats #coldWeather #crochet #hibernation #homelessPeople #idleness #toques #yarn

OMFG!

Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."

Watch that clip in Aaron's post.

via Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lypzw476j723

#Kilmeade #FOXnews #morons #HomelessPeople

Laughing Squid: Man Builds Tiny Homes With Attached Bicycles to Give Dignified Shelter to the Toronto Homeless Community. “Ryan Donais was so concerned about the safety of the people living in the increasing number of homeless encampments around Toronto, that he designed and built really tiny homes attached to bicycles for portability. These Tiny Tiny Homes provide safe shelter with solar […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/01/10/laughing-squid-man-builds-tiny-homes-with-attached-bicycles-to-give-dignified-shelter-to-the-toronto-homeless-community/

John Brown of Haddington, explains the commandments, and vain expenditures. Malachi and Nehemiah show excessive spending murders the poor (by using up aid). It banishes the gospel.

Can spending be critiqued without being able to give exact dollar amount which is too high?. Give Brown’s answer today, and you may be thrown from the nearest mountaintop.

How can you protect the poor and support the gospel today?

#christian #homelesspeople #globalsolidarity #opentable #jesusculture