They think “Theater Kids” is an insult? I wore that name with pride. Theater kids DGAF about anything but the show. Anyway, we’re more fun.

How “theatre kid” became the new right-wing epithet:

“.. We are a ton of energy and we can be chaotic, but .. What they’re talking about is the person who refuses to stay silent in the face of something that needs to be spoken to.”

@sopandeb.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

Happy #caturday

Suspect In Brown Shooting And MIT Killing Found Dead In New Hampshire Storage Unit The attacks left two students and one professor dead.

So thats over and done. I guess. Feeling a little numb.

Definitely an accomplishment. Yay us!

Breaking free is the perfect term, providence is like a vortex with heavy gravitational pull, hard to escape. I’m in the glowing blue bubble of Portland, Oregon and I too haven’t been home sick until Saturday. Glasgow sounds incredible. Congratulations on getting out completely

So glad to know there’s another BlueSkyer out there who gets it. I could have written 12 more posts and still felt like I was only scratching the surface of how life was/is on the East Side. I was so happy to leave that small world, but I still love the place.

Indeed. In NYC he was already a joke. How we laughed leaving the elevator.

Brings new meaning to the word reprehensible.
I know one person I’ll have no qualms about speaking ill. I’ve already started with the ill speaking. Got a sweet celebration planned starting with dancing in the streets.

Then there was the time I rode in an elevator with the toxic orange Cheeto flaming fartbag and poor murdered Ivana. Yes, I said it. The 80s were wild.

17/ To sum up, Providence is small. Small town small. There is no 6 degrees of separation in Providence. You’re lucky if you have 2 degrees of separation from anyone. Partly why I left. But I am forever and always a Providence native who loves my hometown and this is so fucking tragic and stupid.

16/ Brown University is not a school hiding behind Ivy covered walls, it’s an intrinsic part of that community. What happens there affects not just the Brown community but the community that surrounds it. Brown’s heartbreak and shock are also Providence’s heartbreak and shock. Simply devastating. 💔

15/ Yes, other terrible crimes do occur, Providence is a city with all the problems cities can have. Maybe there are more break-ins on the East Side because that’s where a lot of the wealthy live and they have good stuff. But we never once walked around worrying about getting shot. Never. Ever.

14/ Almost everyone I grew up with would have similar experiences and stories to tell. A couple of things I want to note, gun crime is not rampant in Providence. Does it happen, yes. But the East Side is incredibly safe. The kinds of crime that happen there are mostly bike thefts, and break-ins.

13/ My father taught many of my schoolmates from both Lincoln and Moses Brown. And when he retired he was made Professor Emeritus of Brown Med School. There’s so much more, but that’s enough for now. Here’s a thing, I know my experience of Providence and Brown isn’t singular or extraordinary…

12/ my dad was chief of surgery at Rhode Island Hospital, and was head of the surgical rotation for the Brown medical students. By the time I left Rhode Island, every one of my doctors had been a student of my father’s. All except one were women. Go dad! Hard to describe how small a town Providence…

11/… and met one of my dearest lifelong friends while his band was setting up on the Lower Green to play at Campus Dance. I’ve lived on Thayer Street so close to campus that I would have been in that lockdown on Saturday. My father was an instructor at Brown Medical School…

10/ Since I was forced to attend church, I was happy to discover Manning Chapel. So much better than stodgy boring regular mass. my junior year of college, I spent many hours riding around with my boyfriend, who drove the Brown shuttle bus on Friday nights. I’ve danced at five or six Campus Dances…

9/ I did my high school senior project at Brown in the Brown theater department. I went to many plays and films at Brown when my friends were attending school there. I first saw Rear Window at Brown when it was screened for a film class when it was not available commercially.

8/ At least eight people I went to high school with went to Brown, including my best friend at the time. The hours we spent at the GCB drinking beer and playing video games. Three of my boyfriends went to Brown. Many many Brown students and alumni as housemates. I worked on Thayer Street for yonks.

7/ The best radio station in town was Brown’s WBRU. 95.5. Eclectic doesn’t even begin to describe it. They played almost everything. WBRU introduced me to some of my favorite music to this day. The first time I was allowed to walk more than a few blocks from home, was to Thayer Street. The coolest.

6/ My friend B grew up in a beautiful big old colonial across from Barus and Holley. The Brown Spring Weekend concerts and shows were where we went to see all the cool bands, local and national. So many happy hours dancing on Pembroke Field to incredible music. I was 13 the first time I went.

5/ My neighborhood was full of Brown professors. I learned to skate at Meehan rink, two big blocks from my home. We all learned to skate there. At 15 I sprained my ankle skateboarding in that same parking lot. My friend Sue’s father, Brown professor, had his office in Barus and Holley. Been there.

4/ It’s difficult to describe how enmeshed Brown and the East Side are. My life is inextricably connected with Brown, even though I never attended as a student. And my experience isn’t unique or rare. Many of our neighbors were Brown alumni. Many of my friends’ parents were Brown professors…

3/ Memorable or not to the geographically challenged, Providence, infamously described by the Wall Street Journal (or was it The Times?) as a smudge along the highway on the way to Cape Cod, is eccentric, historic, beautiful, atmospheric. My home “where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air.”

Most of you won’t know Providence, RI. Or Rhode Island, really. I’ve met actual Americans who have asked me if Rhode Island is a state, or confuse it with Long Island. It happens. Makes me worried about what they’re teaching in geography. You’d think being the smallest state would be memorable.

Devastated by the shooting at Brown University. I know it’s real, but I can’t quite take it in. Not an alumnus, but growing up as an East Side kid, Brown was part of our playground and the surrounding College Hill neighborhoods are still my home turf. A thread, probably…

Wouldn’t that be a dream come true? A cohort of Ripleys with a whole bunch of Vasquezes for backup.