oh to be a cat in a sunbeam

Robin | he/him

[smooth-goat]

icon description: realistic graphite illustration of a white teenage person looking over their shoulder. he is wearing a white headscarf over a black shirt and smiling with teeth showing. the paper of this illustration is partially torn up in curls to reveal a sepia-toned colored pencil drawing of a young woman with short curly hair in the exact same position and expression.

header description: somewhat low-resolution photo of trees over the bank of a small creek

[cyber-corp]

in all fairness, toddlers are funny as fuck. babies will cry because they are experiencing at least ten different senses for the first time all at once and it’s a bit overwhelming for them. fair enough. toddlers will make the most wretched sound you’ve ever heard because you wouldn’t let them run out into a car park and die

[chutzpahchesed]

Babka King Chris finds food for thought in Israel

Jewish Telegraph, July 2026

WHEN social media influencer Chris Caresnone made his first trip to Israel just over a year ago, he knew very little about the country — including nothing about the events of October 7.

But he is a fast learner and has embraced all aspects of Israeli society, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze, on his quest for good food.

“About a year ago, I was invited by a group called Reality to go to Israel,” the Chicago-based food blogger told me. “A lady named Debra Feinberg reached out and was like, ‘Chris, I’ve been following you for a while, and I think you’d be great for this organisation that gets people to Israel’, because my Jewish audience was starting to grow.

“I was thinking that I need to get to Israel because it would be good for the energy, ethos, brand, and content.”

Chris, who has hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, continued: “I’ll be honest, I had heard stuff about Israel and Palestine, but I was ignorant. I didn’t know much about anything until I was in Israel. I was wet behind the ears. I didn’t know about the bombs or October 7. All I knew was, I’ve got to get to Israel.”

Chris, whose real surname is Campbell, said the first thing that struck him about Israel was that it wasn’t all Ashkenazim.

“We ignorantly think that all the Jewish people on Earth are eastern European,” he told me.

“It’s not from a place of hate, just that we don’t know. But then when I went to Israel, I’m like, man, there’s people my colour who are Jewish and Israeli.

“As far as food, I would say excellent. It all felt fresh, even the fried food.”

Chris, who is known as the Babka King, was a little surprised about the lack of babka in Israel.

“There’s some, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not really Sephardic, Mizrahi,” he said.

There was another aspect of Israeli life which surprised him — the driving.

“It’s a little hectic,” he laughed. “I don’t know if I want to drive over there. I personally thought the vibe of Israel was super cool, and I plan on going back as often as I can.”

Despite being a six-foot two-inch black man with a beard, Chris said he has never encountered any problems getting into Israel, apart from being stopped constantly by people who recognise him.

“The reach is getting so big now, so many people notice me in the airport, and it’s not even just Israel, it’s back home too, New York, Chicago,” he smiled.

“I have to stop and take pictures every few minutes, so that’s not really a problem, but it’s something that’s a slight disruption.”

Although it was never his original intention, Chris’ social media feed is now heavily Jewish, leading to many Jewish dinner invitations, including from rabbis for Friday night dinner.

“I’m kind of Jewish now,” he joked, “I’m embedded and I see what’s going on, but my first time in Israel? I heard that this is apartheid, but I see all kinds of people there walking freely. I’m a black America dude, clearly not Israeli, clearly not Jewish and not only do I walk perfectly fine, people come up to me and show me love.”

Chris, who says he grew up Christian but is not very religious, had his babka obsession started by a Muslim.

“And that turned into this movement, so to speak, of humanity, which I think is the most beautiful thing ever,” he explained.

“I started making culture content, showing love to different cultures. I did like 50 cultures. I didn’t even make any Jewish or Israeli content for seven or eight months.

“I feel like I get so much love within the community, and I’m just treating y’all normal like how I treat everyone else.

“I was told the way you have to look at it is, imagine if someone gives you a glass of water every single day.

“Eventually, it’s just another glass of water. But imagine you’re walking through the desert for four months, and then someone gives you a glass of water, it’s a bigger deal. And it’s not because the glass of water is any different, it’s because the context of the situation.

“It’s so big and powerful, yet it’s a matter of just being human and showing humanity.

“And the whole food, the babka was really just life’s way of Hashem, the universe, God, whatever we wanna call it, it was the Trojan horse to get my energy amplified.

“It’s more than food. I don’t feel like a food guy at all. I feel more like a bridge builder.”

During his trips to Israel, he has also spent time with Ethiopian and Druze communities.

He described Ethiopian food as “ridiculously good”, adding: “I have tried other cultures that are mixed within Israel. That’s what makes Israel’s food scene so unique. It’s almost like the opposite of what people are trying to say.”

The 42-year-old was raised around the North Shore of Chicago, which, he said, has one of the largest Jewish populations in America.

“I didn’t really have a lot of Jewish cuisine outside of matzo ball soup,” he explained. “When I got a little older, I started working in restaurants in different areas, and sometimes affluent areas.

“I started trying things that I probably would not have tried had I not worked in a restaurant. So my horizons got expanded because of that.”

He said what he realised about kosher food was that the food was still good despite the restrictions (apart from gefilte fish, which he has never been fond of).

As expected, his videos from Israel, while garnering mainly positive comments, do receive a number of hateful comments.

He had changed his name to Caresnone to reflect the fact that he wasn’t letting hate get to him, but it is a situation that has provoked a lot of thought.

“Here’s something I’ve been asking myself a lot recently,” he said. “Am I trying to be right or am I trying to solve the problem? I have learned that a lot of times I was trying to be right, not trying to generally solve the problem.

“On my birthday, February 2, I went out with some people and I had a buddy bring a girl he had met like once or twice.

“He should not have invited some girl he had just met to my intimate personal birthday dinner, but it is what it is. So we’re all sitting there at this restaurant and it’s a good 10 of us. We were talking about food and I’m like one of my new favourite cuisines is Israeli food. I’ve been going to a lot of Israeli restaurants.

“And this girl who’s sitting next to me, she goes, ‘oh, excuse me, what did you say?’

And I’m like, ‘I like Israeli cuisine, it’s fire, I love it’. And she says, ‘there’s no such thing as Israeli cuisine, it’s all stolen, they steal everything’.

“She invited this new energy when we were just talking about food.

“I’m with my buddy Kareem KWOE Wells, who’s considered King of the Mitzvahs, a black Christian in Chicago who’s known for doing the most epic and powerful mitzvahs in the country. Me and Kareem went at her. We weren’t rude or ignorant, but I was starting to feel myself losing composure, because I’m part of the humanity tribe, but I’m also very entrenched in the Jewish community and Israel.

“Then she made a comment along the lines of ‘I should be able to say whatever I want to say’ and then I matched her with that.

“I’m a pretty intimidating figure. And I looked at her, and I’m like, ‘well, I can say what I want to say, too’. I was giving her energy that wasn’t welcoming. I didn’t cuss her out or anything. And everyone else at the table thought I handled it well.

“But I was trying to be right. I wasn’t trying to solve the problem. So much so that she said, ‘maybe I should get out of here’. And I looked at her and go, ‘yeah, maybe you should’.”

He continued: “Fast forward. I’m on the way to Israel, on a 10-hour flight. I get a DM: ‘F*** Israel, f*** you, you black monkey’.

“I was immediately reminded of my birthday. I thought about that moment and I asked myself, do I want to be right or do I want to solve the problem?

“Being right would be to either call that person a racist or antisemite, or to ignore the person, or to call them an idiot, that you’re wrong, you don’t know anything about nothing. Or am I trying to solve the problem genuinely?

“So I typed to that person ‘I love you, brother’. Then we’re going back and forth, but I’m always bringing it back to humanity. I’m trying to solve the problem.

“And instead of looking at this person as a racist and antisemite, which he’s showing himself to be, I saw him as this person who’s hurt, who believes a narrative, who thinks he understands something, he obviously doesn’t know me, and that’s what I saw now.

“So I was able to not take it personally because I want to solve the problem. I don’t care about being right. I don’t care that he thinks I’m this. I’m trying to solve this.”

He added: “That guy who called me a black monkey. He equated me being aligned with Israel as equal to hating Muslims.

“I know Jewish people for a fact do not hate Muslims. But this person believed that all Jews and all Israel, or anyone who stands for that, hates Muslims. I’m like, brother, a Muslim sent me my first babka.

“A Muslim has created a lot of this, you know what I’m saying? He was the one who sent me the babka.”

The guy eventually apologised for his ‘black monkey’ comment.

Chris has also received death threats because of his Israel content.

He joked: “How you gonna hate me because I’m eating the babka? I’ve never once come out and said I’m pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. I said I’m pro-humanity, which includes Israel.

“I don’t think that’s controversial. I’m looking at a Jewish person, you got arms, you got a head, you got feet, you’re one of us. If the aliens come down, I don’t care if you’re Jewish, Muslim, green, yellow, it’s us versus the aliens?

“Like I said, people coming at me crazy for eating the food, which is interesting, because whoever’s throwing out that slur or that energy, I’ve probably done their culture too.”

Chris describes his job as to move “in a light, which is very Jewish! Very tikkun olam, from what I’ve been learning. And I feel like before I even knew what tikkun olam was, and before I even knew what being chosen people was, and before I knew any of the core premises of Judaism, I align with a lot of this stuff.”

Chris is hoping to spread his wings more. He is keen to “get my butt out to Europe, I know there’s a lot of people telling me I need to go to Australia and Mexico City, where there’s a big Jewish population.”

One of his favourite restaurants in Israel is called Pitmaster.

“I have learned that the Israeli community loves to dance,” he said. “Pitmaster is an experience. Everyone’s dancing. They stop between the meals and they dance and it’s like a vibe. They are gonna bring two more to the United States. And in America, you’re gonna have to make alcohol more of a thing, because these people weren’t dancing because they were drunk, they were dancing because they were joyful. In the States, you’ve got to get people drinking.”

He added: “So when you ask me, am I aware of how what I do affects the Jewish community and the people of Israel specifically. I want to be clear and say I’m not a Jewish content creator. I am not an Israeli content creator.

“I’m a humanitarian creator who happens to also include Jewish and Israel on the humanitarianism, and also, I just happen to be really cool with them like anyone else.”

In one of his newer videos, Chris talks about volunteering in Jerusalem with Colel Chabad.

“It reminded me that sometimes the best part of travelling isn’t just what you experience. It’s what you can give back. If you’re visiting Israel, I genuinely recommend adding this to your itinerary.”

You can follow Chris on all social media platforms @chriscaresnone

[jewishbarbies]

we need to bring back public hatred for paparazzi. I’m so tired of actors defending themselves against assholes with cameras and being smeared as egotistical divas. they’re glorified stalkers who get paid to harass people. end of. the things these freaks get away with would send normal people to prison but we’re supposed to think it’s okay just bc they’re paparazzi. they SHOULD get shut down for being openly misogynistic. they SHOULD get told off and reported for following someone to their private residence to doxx them. they SHOULD face charges for just about running people over in their pursuit of the next hot celeb. this is not normal. and, actually, these people DO deserve to get punched sometimes.

[bumblebeebats]

How is it that you can a music library of like 1,200+ absolute bangers but as soon as you put it on shuffle in a group setting it's like. anime opening you added in 2010. homestuck parody song. musical artist who was cancelled last year for kidnapping and eating children in his basement. Hamilton

[bumblebeebats]

I can't believe some people are actually reblogging this like "Tch. Omg, so embarrassing OP, I can't believe you would ever admit to liking Hamilton 😏 " like ok, first of all congratulations for hatching as a fully formed adult in 2022 from the pure white egg of a virgin swan i guess. Raised in a cave on a diet consisting solely of nuts and berries and leftist twitter clapbacks. "ooooooh, I've never had a complicated relationship with a piece of art that was phenomenally well-received at the time but aged like milk as later reflection revealed the fundamental flaws in its premise that were in fact present from its inception but which I didn't notice because I was 17 and hadn't heard of neoliberalism yet" Should we throw a party? Should we invite Anthony Fantano? Anyway second of all. you draw the line at Lin Manuel Miranda but you're fine with basement guy?

[transgender-dumpster-princess]

For me a big part of “sex work is work” is that sex work should be socially viewed as totally legitimate work. I should be able to put sex work on my resume. I should be able to lean on the skills and knowledge I gain in this field and have that experience be respected. Right now I have a gap in my resume. But I’m also consistently doing advertising, social media management, inventory, merchandising, customer service, upselling!!! I’m working self directed, I’m solely responsible for every aspect of my business. I deserve respect, fuck.

[natequarter]

not only are most people completely unaware of the devastation of indigenous languages in the americas, most people are completely unaware of the devastation of indigenous languages in europe. never mind occitan, they don't know about basque! it's wild! bleak! existentially horrifying!!!

[natequarter]

the last few centuries of french history involved, amongst other things, a concerted effort to establish "french" as a legitimate country and cultural identity, and crucially as a language, which sounds like an absurd statement if you know nothing about the languages of france. french is a language, yes; it exists and existed in the late eighteenth century. but it was limited primarily to the north of france and was certainly not spoken or even understood across the country. other languages within france were banned and french was enforced following the french revolution and even to this day other languages indigenous to france have very little legal protection and are not recognised as official languages.

that's just one country in europe. one. and many people straight up have no idea about any of this!

[natequarter]

did you know france has celtic languages? breton is the only celtic language spoken outside of the british isles. did you know france has germanic languages? alsatian, for example, is spoken in the east of france, unsurprisingly in alsace. it's not even the only french germanic language. did you know france has a number of languages and dialects known as langues d'oïl closely related to french? norman and picard, for example, are spoken in the north of france. did you know that france has gallo-romance languages? franco-provençal (which has a number of dialects) is spoken in the east of france, as well as parts of switzerland and italy. did you know that france has a language most closely related to catalan, the langues d'oc? occitan is spoken in the south of france and has a rich literary history. did you know france is home to basque, or rather euskara, a language isolate which predates indo-european languages? romani dialects! corsican! so much more than just french! there are even extinct jewish dialects of occitan! extinct langues d'oïl like angevin! so much linguistic diversity and all anyone talks about is french.

[anthropologist-on-the-loose]

It is not nearly common enough knowledge that most Native tribes in the U.S. don't actually own all of the land within their reservation. There are millions of acres of reservation land that tribes don't legally own and they have no control over how that land is used. Like, there are a lot of different concepts tied in with the land back movement, but a major one is literally just getting reservation land back into tribal ownership.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Do NOT include your age or anything that indicates it (like when you graduated high school) in your resume. Do NOT include your full address in your resume. Do NOT include a photo of yourself in your resume. Do NOT include your gender identity or sexuality in your resume. Do NOT include your life story and especially your struggles with things like unemployment, homelessness, single parenthood, addiction, lack of reliable transportation, etc in your resume.

Your resume is for showcasing your RELEVANT LIFE AND WORK SKILLS, not for handing potential players everything they need to potentially discriminate against you or have a biased idea of you before an interview. Resumes should be professional but also short and to the point; this is not a college essay, it's just to catch an employer's interest enough for an interview.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

If you aren't applying for something like a modeling or acting position, there is literally never a reason to include a photo of yourself in your resume and it is in fact illegal in the US for employers to ask for photos or videos of applicants because those are used to discriminate against people on the basis of race, gender, age, conventional attractiveness, etc.

Edit: Apparently it's not illegal for an employer to ask for a video even if asking for a photo is a form of employment discrimination! Do not provide a fucking video in an application!!

[justanapparatus]

why is it that when someone is struggling mentally we always ask if they've tried therapy and never give them $5000

[justanapparatus]

therapy:

another responsibility for the stressed person

requires time and money they probably don't have

takes a lot of luck and hard work and time to be effective

$5000

$5000

[wiisagi-maiingan]

"America is so young compared to other countries, we have no real history!"

We have archeological sites that are thousands of years old with evidence that people have been here for much longer, you just don't consider Native people part of this country's history unless we're being killed by colonists.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

"Listen to marginalized people about their experiences" does not mean "parrot everything a marginalized person says and never ever have your own opinions on things" because marginalized people disagree with each other in our communities!

We are not monoliths, we have our own individual experiences and opinions, and you either have to listen to a lot of varied perspectives and come to your own conclusions or you have to tokenize a few individuals as authorities on their communities at a whole (often using them to erase or undermine people who disagree with them).

Like there are so many situations and discussions where your input and opinions as an outsider to the community are neither needed nor wanted, but you've still gotta use your critical thinking skills and form your own conclusions and opinions. Just deciding on a singular stance and blindly parroting what the handful of individuals you agree with say instead of actually using your brain does far more harm than people think it does.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Are you actually respecting a community's boundaries by not engaging with conversations or are you just tokenizing a handful of people who validate your preconceived beliefs and ideas at the cost of everything and everyone else?

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

i am like just interested enough in the new odyssey film that i would check it out, but THREE HOURS????? you expect me to sit in there for THREE HOURS????

[nlog-sama]

i dont know what love island is but from what ive heard its like danganronpa for people that use snapchat

[phoenixyfriend]

Game show called "What's Wrong With You" where a bunch of doctors compete to see who can diagnose a mystery illness (chronically ill patient whose lab results keep coming back normal despite obvious symptoms) first and most accurately.

Pros:

Doctors paying off their medical loans with prize money

Chronically ill people getting free testing (MRIs, CAT scans, X-Rays, bloodwork, etc) and possibly a diagnosis

You can ding points for 'anxiety' and 'you just need to lose some weight'

Doctors are incentivized to find an answer, not just find something billable

Cons:

HIPAA

Wrong Diagnoses made because they were rushing

[notaplaceofhonour]

it’s so funny when people are anti-censorship and horror movie fans but also fans of the soviet union, like … we understand censorship was so bad in the USSR that horror movies were effectively illegal, right?

it was literally against the law to frighten audiences for entertainment value

[notaplaceofhonour]

feel like a lot of people in counter-cultural/alt subcultures like the USSR for the same reason a lot of punks like Nazi aesthetics/swastikas, because You’re Not Supposed To™️, and Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me™️

[cardassiangoodreads]

Another thing about the homeschooling post is that people will bring up that “you can always get your kids socialized via extracurricular activities!” So as a huge band geek, I did several of the extracurricular things that are common “socializing activities” for homeschoolers. I was, for instance, in a community youth symphony and a lot of other group music activities that aren’t specifically tied to attendance at a specific school or district. Homeschoolers were common in those, for several reasons but mainly a) they had extra time to get especially good at a musical instrument, such as for the several hours of practice per day that is required to have a shot (not a guarantee, a shot) at a pro career, b) cultural perceptions of classical music as a hobby fit in with the ideological goals of the kinds of far-right Christian fundamentalist parents who tended to homeschool their kids in a metro area with top-of-the-line public schools but also a lot of religious diversity (Detroit suburbs) (my point with this is that it was specifically a desire to shield their kids from other religions + the "wrong" kinds of Christians, not education quality, that was why these people homeschooled) .

The homeschool kids were never well integrated with the rest of us. Plunking a kid in a group of other kids for a few hours per week, especially when most of it is in an organized activity that doesn’t require you to talk to anyone (e.g. orchestra rehearsals where you all just drill your parts and are quiet most of the rest of the time other than deciding which stand partner turns the page or whatever), is not “socializing.” A lot of the stuff that truly teaches kids social skills in school was the time in-between classes, or in classes between lessons, where we had breaks to just talk. That's where school social dynamics are really formed. You don't get that in a biweekly orchestral rehearsal where it's a structured activity for two hours per week other than a 20-minute break, one that can be spent socializing, going to the bathroom and getting a snack, catching up on homework or rehearsing other music, or some kind of solitary leisure activity like reading or playing a Game Boy (this was pre-smartphones, so there's probably even more of that now). When we socialized during the break, it was either with people we already knew from school, or it was with other kids who "seemed cool" which generally involved that either they or we made the initiative to speak up and introduce themselves. That's not a skill that a homeschool kid is going to get if this is their only non-home socialization. That was a skill that people learned who went to public or private schools where they had things like lunch and passing period and, in primary school, recess, or where their classrooms had a lot of time to work in groups.

I realize I set up the specter of "fundie weirdos were the people who homeschooled where I was" so I want to be clear, it's not like these homeschoolers were weird in the way that would get cliquey high school kids to ostracize them no matter how social they tried to be. There were a couple of people who dressed like they were from a living history museum, but most didn't (and also, we were band geeks; if anyone's not going to judge you for old-fashioned clothes, it was us. I knew multiple band kids who dressed like they were from the 1950s just because they wanted to!) And none of them were trying to proselytize, or were off-puttingly antisocial. It was just that they.... weren't putting themselves out there. I remember taking the initiative to talk to one of the homeschool girls and introduce her to my group of friends, and she wasn't really interested; she just wanted to stay in her seat and practice during break. And yeah, as an introverted awkward kid too, that would probably be what I'd do if I was in a situation where I didn't already know people! I get it. But this illustrates why these kinds of extracurricular activities aren't the best way to "socialize" your kid on their own. And some homeschoolers didn't even get that: I remember there were kids in my geography bee competitions where that was their "socialization." An activity where pretty much every kid is there with their family the whole time, other than in a room where you're all just taking a test quietly. I didn't get to know any other kids from other schools at those competitions either. How is that "socializing" at all?

The same is true btw if you instead just have your kid come to school for an individual elective class, like one otherwise-homeschooled girl I knew who came to our middle school for orchestra and French. The same issues with my after-school youth orchestra were apparent there in our orchestra class. With French she got to work in groups a little bit more and get to know people, but she still was the odd one out when everybody else was already friends and had existing dynamics they were able to develop over the rest of the school day.

So I'm sorry, but homeschool "socialization" just isn't a substitute for the kind you do in a school. I haven't even gone into how all of these are in the case of specific hobbies or interests that the kids already have expressed an interest in (or their parents steered them toward), so even then, who they're meeting are people with similar interests. But in a larger school, you have to get along and find common ground with people who initially seem like they have nothing in common with you. And how that is an essential skill to navigating the work world and larger adulting that is just not being taught if their only interactions are with their family and then a handful of kids with the same preexisting hobbies. Even if you go to a specialized arts school, you're still meeting kids who have different artistic interests than you. If you go to an academic magnet school, you'll meet kids who are more into the humanities while you prefer STEM, or vice versa. Speaking as someone who has attended both of those things: there's just a distinct experience you'll get at any school that involves throwing hundreds or thousands of very different kids together that is not replaced by homeschooling or unschooling, and it's one that is much closer to what it is like as an adult in pretty much any community (university, workplace, place of worship, volunteering, just going to the grocery store) and therefore an essential skill for socialization!

And because this is Tumblr, I always have to add the caveat that I have an autism diagnosis and I have struggled with social skills my whole life, and people suggested to my parents many times that they should consider homeschooling for me that reason. They rejected it because they knew that I'd be far more socially stunted if they did that, that even if socializing at school was difficult, it was necessary and they could be there to support me when people were genuinely cruel - and that was better than just forgoing socialization at all. They were correct. I'm a much better-adjusted autistic adult for that.