Read [Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος]

Robert Benchley continues to write, something like 95 years ago, most of my humor blog this week. But you might like what I had to offer anyway. It includes some pretty fine stuff. I mean Benchley's stuff is. Also, a corrected summary of one of Mary Worth's more arch plots of recent times! Here's what you missed.

And now it's time to get back to the Jackson County Fair and see pictures that weren't bunnyhugger's and some that were!

Capturing the Moment (color) naturally drew several eclipse pictures. We should throw another eclipse, that was great.

I don't see how the raccoon picture failed to win all the ribbons.

But here's some more animal pictures. All pretty solid pictures.

I know what you're thinking: oh, a roller coaster picture? That's got to be bunnyhugger's. Nope! Her picture is the second-place winner up top, of a Zipper ride.

But taking pictures of roller coasters is very much her thing, as see the picture of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk's Giant Dipper at the bottom of the set here.

This category was, I think, signs, and bunnyhugger had three pictures in --- the second and third-place winners, plus that sidewalk theater that didn't get any love.

The full set of Buildings and Architecture pictures. I'm surprised the building on fire didn't get a ribbon, or particularly first place given its drama.

Portraits (color). bunnyhugger got a ... fourth? ... place of a picture of me in front of the state Christmas tree looking like I just got devastating news.

I think this was Summer Fun. bunnyhugger got two pictures, one for the ice cream shot and one for looking up a Ferris wheel. Note that someone else had the idea to photograph a Thunderbolt-type flat ride, upper left corner.

One of the categories let you turn up the weird digital processing way high so here's one of those pictures that, for me, worked, turning what I think was a night lights display into a 70s underground comic style advertisement.

Well, that's enough pictures of pictures. Here's a picture of some of the ribbon-winning entries in ... kitchen stuff, a category I have no conceptual theory of how to judge.

More of the kitchen stuff, including a bunch of books abut how to keep meat and meat products longer.

Trivia: The Japanese calendar seems to have acquired a seven-day week cycle somewhere between 800 and 1000 CE. Source: Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar, Duncan Steel.

Currently Reading: Archaeology, January/February 2025, Editor Jarrett A Lobell.

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Cattitude and I got up at 5:45 so he could pill Kaja, preparatory to her dental surgery. Both the pilling and the medical care went well, and she is on soft food only for 10-14 days. Therefore Molly is too, and we have to give them different treats than the usual dental Greenies. (Kaja will also be getting anti-inflammatories for a couple of days, and gabapentin for five.)

I got email from my brother about Mom's estate. He has done the necessary formwork so Vanguard can give us the money from her account there, where we are co-beneficiaries. His share is already in his account existing account. I tried setting an account up online, which apparently failed at the last minute, so I called and got a helpful person to walk me through the process again, step by step. I had gotten far enough earlier to create security questions, including some that I can actually remember my answers to, and haven't used repeatedly elsewhere. Separately, I need to talk to someone at Amalgamated Bank about the account there, a joint account with both our names on it. I hope they'll let me, as co-owner, close the account and transfer the money elsewhere, rather than sending them a copy of the death certificate, getting the account just in my name, and then closing it.

Mark also said he's thinking of going to London next month to sort through Mom's belongings, photos, and paperwork. So he wants to know whether I'm going as well, and if so, what dates worth for me. (Putting this here so I'm less likely to forget to talk to Cattitude and Adrian and then write back to Mark.)

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Mood::

angry

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Last week:

*Cattitude read Blue Moose, by Daniel Pinkwater, aloud to us, because it's one of his favorites and Adrian had never read it. I've reread the book several times, and was happy to hear it out loud.

*I read Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, by Oliver Darkshire. Decidedly weird, funny fantasy. A lot of the humor is in the footnotes, which seem to be at least a quarter of the text. Also, the title does in fact describe the book. Isabella lives in a poor, out-of-the-way village, whose wizard keeps the local goblin market in check, until one day he doesn't. The goblins sell one thing, unnaturally tempting and dangerous fruit.

*Did not finish: Girls Against God, by Jenny Hval. I don't remember where I saw this recommended, and just couldn't get into it.

Currently reading:

*Installment Immortality, by Seanan McGuire, the latest book in her InCryptid series. I started it late last night, and only read a few pages before turning the light out.

*Twelve Trees, by Daniel Lewis, nonfiction about trees and climate change. I picked this up at the libraru, as a "book with a green caover" for the summer reading challenge.

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It was the end of an extremely long day, one that started with a midafternoon flight, a red-eye to France, and this after missing by inches rear-ending someone on the Interstate. As if stumbling out of Charles de Gaulle airport at 8 am clock time, 2 am body time, weren't enough, we then struggled with figuring out how to get on the metro, and from there to Gare de l'Est, for a nightmarish encounter trying to rent a locker to store our luggage for a couple hours. Then, since we had nearly six hours to go before our next train was ready, we figured out the metro lines and connections to get to a small private museum with wonders we could not have fully anticipated. And after that we had reversed the trip to get back to the train station, there to take several hours' worth of train ride out to the eastern region of France and a train stop that was desolate and all but abandoned. After the frustrating process of finding where there was a list of taxi services, and then figuring out how to use bunnyhugger's phone to call a taxi service --- thanks, phone, for warning that it looks like I'm trying to place a local call while roaming in France, so please press the + key on the numerical keypad that has no + symbol on it followed by the country code for France, whatever the heck that might be --- and try to make my voice, never clear in the best of times, clear enough trying to express what I could piece together from 45-year-old middle-school language classes, to get a taxi that arrived just past bunnyhugger's declaration that there would never be a taxi and we were stranded there. Then on for a ten-minute ride that somehow cost €70 to a boutique hotel, arriving fearsomely near nightfall, after something like thirty hours of our being awake and travelling.

But. We had managed, fatigued but game, to find our way walking from the hotel in the incredibly tiny town of Dolancourt, Aube, to the attraction. Nigloland, one of the most popular amusement parks in France. Patrice and Philippe Gélis, brothers, were inspired by a visit to Walt Disney World in the early 80s and decided to open their own pay-one-price park. And so they created their own, a sort of folk reconstruction of Disneyland as a couple enthusiasts jumping into the deep end of the amusement park business might envision. It's got a half-dozen roller coasters. It's got a galloping horse ride. It's got a walk-through dinosaur park ride. It's got the Rivière des Fées boat ride, and a show about the hedgehogs (mascot of the park, and through the Romani word for hedgehog, namesake as well) of the magical forest. It's got an attached hotel, the Hôtel des Pirates, which we would have stayed at except it wasn't taking bookings for Monday-night-to-Tuesday-morning, and Monday would be the day we hoped to visit. It's got a (modern) salon carousel, a particularly ornate kind of carousel that's all but extinct worldwide.

We had known that we would arrive after the park's closure Sunday. But we made the walk to the gate because we wanted, first, to be sure that our estimates based on looking at maps of the area were correct. And that we could find the entrance to the park. We could indeed; really, it'd be hard to miss, given the town is so small and the park has a 100-meter-tall drop tower you can't possibly miss.

I told bunnyhugger to pose for the Walley World disappointment picture, and took a good-looking one with my new-to-me camera. She got a matching one of me. And we walked the short way back to our hotel to load my first pictures of this park onto my computer, to sleep off so much travel (including a side museum trip), and to savor the day to come. And so that is the teaser. After tomorrow's humor-blog recap post I hope to share with you the full story --- the motives, the pretexts, the development --- of our European vacation.

You get the + symbol on her phone by holding down the 0 long enough.

With that sufficiently teased, now, let's take in some Jackson County Fair pictures from not quite a year ago now:

Some more small pet information. That poster about guinea pig care may seem like it doesn't have a lot of information but it's more than we knew about raising guinea pigs in the 80s.

And now on to the photography exhibits! bunnyhugger had something like a dozen pictures in and I was to see how they looked, whether any won ribbons, and what the competition was like. It was like this.

So here's the Buildings and Architecture, Black-and-White category. bunnyhugger's picture in the upper right took home nothing, even though it's a photo of the same house that won a best-of-class ribbon at Calhoun County's the year before.

A bit more view of the competition here plus some [ Wayne's World voice ] extreme close-ups! (She didn't enter that category.)

She did enter portraits and the picture of me with a Christmas tree, again, didn't place.

Capturing The Moment is another of those categories that seem really hard to explain just what you're looking for. bunnyhugger hadn't entered any of these, I think, but there are some nice moments here.

Trivia: Audubon Society membership rose from 120,000 to 400,000 in the decade after the first Earth Day; Sierra Club membership grew 46 percent in the same ten years. Source: Down To Earth: Nature's Role in American History, Ted Steinberg.

Currently Reading: BBC History Magazine, Vol 24 No 4, Editor Rob Attar.

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Mood::

nervous

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Mood::

calm

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Just finished: Dakwäkãda Warriors by Cole Pauls, I don't have tons to say about this comic—it'll take you maybe an hour to read if that, and it's really cute and fun, and then you read the context around it and it's quite moving and beautiful as well. It's basically a language revitalization project wrapped up in a pew-pew-pew space opera story. It's cool that this exists and I want there to be more of it.

Withered by A.G.A. Wilmot. Listen, cozy horror and other cozy authors! I will make you a deal. You get one (1) scene where the asexual protagonist comes out to their appropriately diverse love interest and they talk about their sexuality and consent in a mature, healthy way, infused with Tumblr therapyspeak, and agree to just hold hands or whatever. In exchange, I want y'all to try excise or subvert toxic tropes like having your main human antagonist being a woman who is haunted by a ghost no one else can see and locked up in a mental institution for 25 years, who has no agency at all, and who at the end realizes the error of her ways and is...cut loose to just be homeless and wander forever, I guess????

Like, aesthetically, I hate cozy. I fucking hate it. I try really hard to not judge the taste of people who like it, because intellectually I get the appeal and there's nothing wrong with liking what you like, but it's very much not for me. And when I have to read and rate a cozy book, I try to keep the ideal reader in mind, not me, a grim and cynical person who likes messy characters and tension in my storytelling. I think there are some cozy, or cozy-adjacent books that are done well (Regency and Regency+magic does low-stakes, mostly good characters in ways that I enjoy, for example) and I don't want to judge the entire subgenre either.

But I do think that there's a tendency for specifically cozy fiction to use didactic storytelling (casts include one of everyone and/or a lot of twofer characters, but these identities tend to be very shallowly written except for where they reflect the author's, conflicts are easily resolved by talking things out, good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished or reformed, discussions about emotion or sexuality are always direct and never in conflict). So if you are going to write a book that includes, for example, instructions for the reader on how to navigate a relationship with an ace person, or how to approach therapy for a mental illness, I'm going to also need you to examine your work for unintentional messaging in a way that I wouldn't necessarily do if you're writing, say, Gothic horror where the protagonist can't decide whether she wants the vampire to eat her or fuck her.

Which is to say that in a world where we get to see multiple Zoom therapy sessions, I do not buy that a mental institution merely drugs a character and does not attempt to help her heal at all. I think that sets up a dichotomy between Good Mental Illness (you know, the kind that makes you pretty and kinda tragic) and Bad Mental Illness (where you get your mess all over other people/try to burn down the family house) that is not good or wholesome at all.

Also, the climactic battle at the end was a huge WTF.

If you, like me, would like to join in on Cozy Horror Discourse multiple years after it was live, here are some links I appreciated:

The Material Basis of Cozy Horror by Moreau Vazh
In Praise of Discomfort by Simon O'Neill

Currently reading: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This one starts with a robot valet murdering his master and not knowing why he did it, so, promising beginning. Humanity increasingly relies on robots to do everything, and as a result, is dying out. Charles, the valet in question, doesn't know what to do without explicit orders, and so he reports to Diagnostics, only to find that robot repairs are backed up due to funding cuts that have eliminated the entire human staff. Also he may have developed a Protagonist Virus that gives him agency and self-awareness, which he very much doesn't want.

The voice in this is great—the first two chapters are basically the robots navigating their way through the murder without being able to deviate from their programming, and it's bitingly satirical and very funny. I'm rather enjoying this.

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Still need time to get back to normal everything, but I figure you all want to know What’s Going On In Mary Worth? How many content warnings does Mary Worth need right now? March – June 2025 before I move on to pictures from the Jackson County Fair, as seen here:

Now on to the turkeys, so bunnyhugger approves of my sending lots of pictures up another day.

Part of me is sorry not to have this turkey's head in focus but part of me thinks that makes the picture.

I think this is the same turkey, just in focus.

Now the turkey just looks like a muppet, though.

Turkey seems annoyed I say the pose makes him look like a muppet and yet ...

Here's one that's a little more chill about being photographed.

And immediately the turkey tries to break out of the bounds of my camera frame.

I understand hygiene as a way to control and limit disease spread especially at something like this where you gather birds from all over the county and then disperse them again, but 5 pm Friday either means wash the birds before the fair starts (in which case, why leave the sign up after that?) or after they've been living together nearly a full week, which seems like maybe too late to do anything. I'm not sure what the point of the sign is, is what I'm saying.

Pile of chickens in some clean wood chips.

And on into the expo hall that has, among other things, the photography exhibit.

Some fairy gardens on display here.

A track for a guinea pig races that I'm sorry to have missed because, like, have you ever seen guinea pig races? Your typical guinea pig can go as many as five waddling steps before remembering they could be not racing instead so it's some fun trying to get them to move.

Trivia: In 1925 the four major (American) newsreel producers averaged a weekly net profit of about forty thousand dollars. By 1928, with six major companies making newsreels (Paramount and MGM had started their own lines, though MGM's was produced by Hearst, itself a longtime newsreel producer), the average was a total weekly net loss of about fifteen thousand dollars. Source: The American Newsreel, 1911 - 1967, Raymond Fielding.

Currently Reading: BBC History Magazine, Vol 24 No 4, Editor Rob Attar.

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Here's a random and utterly incomplete list of some queer movies where there's a happy ending. Sometimes after lots of violence, sometimes after doomful awkwardness, and sometimes just happy.

Pride (based on a true story)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_(2014_film)
(Paramount+, Kanopy)

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Priscilla,_Queen_of_the_Desert
(Amazon Prime, Peacock)
30 years after the movie, folks managed to track down the actual bus used in filming:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/11/the-30-year-hunt-to-find-the-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert-bus-my-jaw-was-on-the-ground

But I'm a Cheerleader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_I%27m_a_Cheerleader
(Paramount+)

Everything Everywhere All At Once
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once
(availble for digital rental etc, possibly not included on any streaming service's subscription at the moment)

The Kids Are All Right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_All_Right_(film)
(availble for digital rental etc, possibly not included on any streaming service's subscription at the moment)

Bound (The Wachowskis first directing credit, before The Matrix. Content note: the film earns its R rating with sexual content but also with some very intense moments of violence.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bound_(1996_film)
(Paramount+, Kanopy)

The Birdcage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birdcage
(Amazon Prime, Peacock)

Happiest Season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiest_Season
(Hulu)

Desert Hearts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Hearts
(Max, Criterion)

Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredibly_True_Adventure_of_Two_Girls_in_Love
(Netflix, Kanopy)

Go Fish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Fish_(film)
(Amazon Prime, Kanopy)

Here's some queer movies I haven't seen that I keep meaning to check out that I think are probably in the same category or at least aren't too doomful, maybe?
Ammonite
Booksmart
Bottoms
Bros
Carol
D.E.B.S.
Fire Island
Love Lies Bleeding
Moonlight
My Own Private Idaho
Nyad
Power of the Dog
Red, White, and Royal Blue
Rustin
Saving Face
TransAmerica
Will & Harper

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Kong Pocha is the second location of a Baltimore Korean pub in Columbia, in the spot where K-Manna briefly was (next to the noteworthy Boro Kabob off Snowden). Where K-Manna had all the personableness of a fast-food joint (while not being fast in the least), now the decor charmingly hints at pretending to be outdoors, with light-adorned awnings accenting the walls and tables separated by movable mini-fences. Rather than experimenting with many nifty offerings like rice bowls and omelets and noodles we had soy garlic chicken. The portion was sufficient for the both of us and came with mayo-slathered fries. The chicken reminded me of Seoul Pub - irregularly sized chunks like someone's grandma might make. I'm usually unexcited about fries, but the the mayo combination worked great.

Chin - located in Ellicott City over by Honey Pig - brands itself "A Xi-an Style Restaurant", that being (I learned) a location in Northern China. Their speciality is hand-torn noodles, most of which come in spicy or pork or spicy pork.

While the place had many vacant seats, we were directed to sign into the waiting list of zero on an electronic screen (which also permitted ordering take-out). We were seated within a couple of minutes, so no big deal, one supposes.

The waiter expertly guided us through the no-pork-or-spicy options. I went for Northwestern style beef noodles, was given a choice of wide or narrow noodles and confirmed that I didn't want any chili oil in it. This landed me a beefy, gingery broth with rice noodles and thin slices of fat-specked beef; I was reminded a bit of pho, not so much in the specific flavor profile as in the comfort-meal vibe. (The specks looked ominous, but did not make for problematic texture).

Spouse went for a seasonal mutton dish. The herby green broth concealed cellophane noodles and finely sliced vegetables, and came with separate little bowls of chilis (which for my sake Spouse skipped), scallions, thin slices of meat, and a pita-like flatbread. That last item was dried to a nearly-cracker consistency, and we were instructed to break it into whatever-sized pieces one chose and throw them in the broth. If my soup was a warm blanket, this one was a picnic on the lawn. I added the beverage described verbosely as "Chinese Osmanthus Sour Plum Drink (Suan Mei Tang)", which was reminiscent of the better less-sweet grades of plum wine in non-alcoholic form, and I should see about finding that in a store sometime. Enough of soup leftovers came home with us to make a serviceable lunch next day. Definitely a place to revisit... though possibly on a cooler, cloudier day.

Ellicott City Diner had opened in the former Double T in the same strip mall as above at the top of the pandemic; we finally got around to trying it. Under new ownership the diner retained the general theme of overwhelming multi-page menus, but I was on a mission - EC Diner had bragged about being a contender for the county's best crabcakes, and has a Wednesday special of their crabcake sandwich with a soup or salad and a desert-of-the-month for about their regular price of just the sandwich. I've been meaning to try it, but they only have it for eat-in, which during the pandemic annoyed me into not prioritizing them.

I should explain for non-Marylanders: crabcakes here are a big deal. If you've had a "Maryland-style" crabcake anywhere outside of Maryland (and possibly a handful of DC places, though don't bet on it), you've never had a Maryland crabcake. If it doesn't have large lumps of crab, it's not a Maryland crabcake - at best it's an extra-large appetizer crab ball, which are permitted to exist, but do not deserve the title of crabcake. Or, it got lost on its way from Virginia. If it's seasoned with garlic or parsley or visible amounts of black pepper, it's not a Maryland crabcake. (Maryland crabcakes do have Old Bay in them in various proportions, and often come garnished with more). If it contains vegetables, it's not a Maryland crabcake - Louisiana and the Carolinas get to exist if they must, but should stay in their lane. If it's shaped like a hockey puck rather than a conical heap with identifiable lumps, it might possibly be a Maryland crabcake, but it probably shipped frozen. If there's more binder than crab, it's definitely not a Maryland crabcake, and it should be ashamed of itself. And if you think Marylanders are obsessed with the whole Maryland thing, you are correct, and we're ok with it.

Anyway, the verdict is that the crabcake is worthy - a generous serving for the price, with balanced seasoning and good crab-to-binder ratio with ample lumps. The soup of the day was cream of broccoli, which was fine; the dessert was creme brulee, which I was too full to eat in place, and by the next day it wasn't particularly brulee and I couldn't tell if it ever was crispy, but that aside it tasted good enough. (As far as "best"... possibly best-for-the-price in the casual category. Cozy's was downright disappointing twice; Timbuktu never disappoints but is pricier and not quite in the county for the purists; G&M is the golden standard but is a bit further out, Lee Lynn are pleasant and with the best summer ambiance, Floyd's are overseasoned, and Corner Stable overrated in every way. And Hudson Coastal are so good about every other kind of seafood that can't be found elsewhere that I've not actually tried the crabcakes there yet. Double T used to be very, very good when I first found them, and this is comparable, but they'd skimped on portions and ratios a bit over the years.)

The diner does have some wines and beers and cocktails; we didn't try them this time. They also have milkshakes - both regular and the trendy over-engineered with too many items perched precariously on top. Spouse had a classic milkshake and reviewed it favorably. He also had a Greek salad; when that arrived without the anchovy they apologized for having run out and offered to make something else, but then found the anchovies and by way of an apology served him a double serving of the fishies to add to the salad, so he was ultimately content, too.

Which probably adds up to more going out for meals than I really should indulge in, but lined up is a return to Ram's Head Waterfront for the sunset.

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Smile! We're putting a camera down your throat! Open wide!

Although I haven't been having any serious tummy issues lately, it's been a few years since they last looked around down there and decided to check things out again.

They knocked me out (well sort of) so I was definitely not feeling any pain or discomfort. They snipped something small and suspicious and reported excess mucus. There was other minor things I'll DuckDuckGo later because it's all in medical jargon.

Although I was 'awake' after the procedure I didn't return to full consciousness until I was back in the car and pulling up to the driveway. (Yes I had a driver.) Late breakfast then bed for a few hours. I was still wobbly on my feet the rest of the day but was mostly okay.

Over time the drugs wore off and all normal aches and pains returned - along with an irritated throat. I'm still okay, just more away how much I hurt an a day to day basis. Mostly muscular. It's annoying.

Need to get my signs ready for Saturday!

Mood::

sore

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Mood::

amused

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Mood::

FIRE!

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They are going to beat you, and eventually kill you, regardless of whether your protest is violent or non-violent.

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A look at the events behind what's happening today in LA.

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Mood::

cheerful

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About a year and a half ago, the president of my synagogue started a project to merge ours with another synagogue. We were supposed to be exploring other options for our future too, but the leaders were really only investigating this one path. Some of us members had concerns about both that path and how this was being done, but power imbalances are a thing, and yesterday there was a vote.

There've been plenty of irregularities, and also some maligning by leaders of dissenters, and at this point it feels like the damage has been done even if the deal ultimately falls through. I've lost faith in our leaders, am disappointed by the unnecessary discord and condescension, and am saddened by the drop in civility and goodwill affecting people I care about. It is possible for people to disagree constructively and work together to address those differences, but it doesn't feel like that happened here. To me this felt more like a conquest than democracy, but as a member of the minority I'm naturally biased.

Maybe this was the swift kick I've been needing for a while to join a movement more aligned with me. I joined Temple Sinai despite it being Reform, not because of it, but our leaders seem to be more interested in the future of Reform Judaism here than in the future of Temple Sinai. My long-time rabbi retired a few years ago, recent trends have been leftward, and I think I've stayed only for my friends (a pattern in my life, I know). I don't want to lose those friendships, but it's time to go make some new friends too.

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I dunno, what do you guys want me to rant about? The Freedom Flotilla? LA vs. ICE? The fact that my government is planning more pipelines while sending in the army to deal with out-of-control wildfires? Or, closer to home, Bill 5 or the Toronto bubble zone law, or...?

This is why people curl up and retreat into fiction.

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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

When I invented the web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going to end in the USA. ... Democracy depends on freedom of speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it. Let’s see whether the United States is capable of acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interest of large corporations. I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated.
~ Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (1955 - )

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My right knee is healing, and stretching worked significantly better than yesterday. I even did a few carefully selected PT exercises this afternoon.

I can do more things standing up, and walking around the apartment is easier. However, I seem to have been leaning too much on the other leg, because my left knee started to hurt earlier. Not badly, but enough that I am putting the cane aside for the moment.

update Monday, 6/9: my knees feel mostly OK today. I am still being careful about walking a lot or standing too long. I just got the mail, figuring the two steps down to the mailboxes would be a useful check of how I'm doing. It was doable, but did hurt a little; I'm glad I decided not to go out. (The sidewalk is down another half dozen stairs, which are a bit more difficult than the ones inside, but the main thing is that this way I only had to climb back up two stairs.)

I heard from the GI doctor's office this morning, and have an appointment Friday at 10:30, which will be telemedicine. I hope my knees will be feeling a lot better by then, but if she had wanted to see me in person, I would have called a lyft and taken the quad cane with me just in case.

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Mood::

amused

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https://revlyncox.tumblr.com/post/785802345857630208

skinnerhousebooks:

A Prayer for My Queer and Trans Siblings
Here you are.
Here, in this holy space,
on this ground that is holy
because you are here.
Here you are, in flesh and bone,
filling up this body that belongs to you alone.
Your pumping heart is a wonder
because it keeps you alive.
Your loving heart is a blessing
because it keeps all of us alive.
The Spirit of Love has a home in you.
May we all see that love in you
and let our hearts become mirrors
for the compassion at your core.
The Spirit of Justice has a home in you.
May we light our wicks
from one another until we are all aflame,
until we burn out every prejudice
we carry in these bones.
Here you are.
Holy as you are.
Blessed be.
Jess Reynolds
Love Like Thunder

https://revlyncox.tumblr.com/post/785802345857630208

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Some thoughts on jobs that used to exist and don't, anymore, because of mechanization, progress, and the potential future job losses to AI.

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I am at Pinewoods!

I mean, I arrived yesterday around five thirty (over 2.5 hours drive from Somerville, _oof_), but it is Saturday night of my first actual session as a camper this year. Of, I guess, four (not counting the work weekend or the crewunion).

I'm very pleased about it!

It's LCFD's spring camp, which has been running in general since 1989 or so, but at Pinewoods since 2023. Pinewoods is starting off the year Gay As Hell, since last weekend was their first camper session --the Boston Queer Tango-- and now is us, the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers.

It is _so good_ to be at an explicitly queer dance camp, full of explicitly queer people. Yes, absolutely, some of those people are the kind of weird where they have never felt misaligned about their assigned gender or are only interested in people with different genders from themself, but even the cishets are the kinds who are excited to be at a big gay camp full of lovely queer people and it makes the space _amazing_. Just...loving, open, gentle, good-hearted, and fucking funny and sexy as well.

(As I remarked to several people tonight, as I looked around the wide range of finery that is the "dress up in fancy dress or costume" Saturday evening dance, "oh no, everyone is hot and I am gay".)

I saw ballgowns, leather hot pants, loud print Hawai'in shirts, mesh tops with harnesses, at least two people with tails, and the usual evening dance array of swoopy twirly swishy fun. I myself was fairly understated, which is to say, my black-and-rainbow kilt, a formal black collared shirt and grey vest, and a loud-as-fuck rainbow bowtie. Oh, and my makeup is essentially "Furiosa, but make it gay".

Beyond the incredible highlights that are just "queer community" and "gay dancing", I am having such a lovely time with the regular programming. This morning I went to a "contra refresher" class explicitly named as a "show up and tell us what you want to work on" sort of basics class. It was being taught by Chris Ricciotti, who is an _incredible_ teacher --I quite literally sat down after it was over and frantically scribbled notes about his flawless ability to mix the dancers around and the fascinating parallels between a robin's chain and a hay.

After lunch, Chris was running a "queer dance history" panel, which was half him sharing and half open to the class. It was amazing --something like 40 people were crammed into the camphouse to hear and share their stories. I cried repeatedly --tearing up at the tales of the first time someone ever tried a skirt on (including one gentleman, at 89, doing so to show support of his trans granddaughter, and then discovering that he _loves_ skirts and immediately sought out more) and of a couple celebrating their twentieth year together, and tenth year married (and especially counting back in my head to remember that means they very well might've married the first year it was legal country-wide. Remember that the DoMA is not even ten years old.).

Mostly I cried with joy at the earnest, soppy lovefest happening back and forth at the panel between the elders, who were expressing their joy that other people are taking up the torch and keeping the community going, and the youth, who were expressing their joy that they didn't have to start from zero, that the groundwork had been laid. Everyone joyous at how far we have come, and excited to find out how far we can go.

The straights don't know what they're missing, when they box themselves up miserably into binary assignments and strict policing of their own and each other's presentation.

The only mar has been how incredibly _tired_ I am in general. But even that is coming with comfort: this afternoon I took a ninety minute nap, and I settled in to sleep while listening to the soft sound of a light rain in the nearby trees. I woke up to the delicious pounding of pouring rain on the roof of my beloved little cabin, and mama nature did me the courtesy of even ceasing shortly after so that I could walk to the dining hall without getting entirely soaked to the skin.

(Yes, the subtext is that I am once again in Kitty Alone, the best cabin in all of Pinewoods. I truly try not to be a diva about it, and I truly am grateful that I keep winding up in this perfect little paradise, where I'm so familiar with the space that unpacking is a breeze.)

So because of that, I'm off to bed now. No more rain, but the trees are gently dripping, and the moon is shining through the clouds. This is my home.

~Sor
MOOP!

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2025 Jun 7 11:40 am:

benjalvarez1 on Twitter:

WATCH THIS: https://x.com/BenjAlvarez1/status/1931375699786334704

Click through to see the video. You really, really should. Sound is irrelevant.

Text: "Tanks, fighting vehicles and howitzers arrive in Washington, D.C. ahead of next week's military parade. They departed from Texas on June 2." Two minutes and forty seconds.

Allegedly that train is a mile long and is transporting:

• 28 Abrams tanks (M1A2 main battle tank)
• 3 armored recovery vehicles (M88)
• 28 Bradleys (M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle)
• 5 Paladins (M109A7 self-propelled howitzer), and
• 28 Strykers (infantry carrier vehicle)

Source: 2025 Jun 6: @USAMilitaryChannel on YT [not official military channel]: "1-Mile Military Train -Texas to D.C. with Tanks, Armor, and More for Army's 250th Parade". I do not know if that source is reputable or if that inventory is accurate.

USA Today is reporting that "The military vehicles will be joined by 1,800 soldiers". (Source: 2025 Jun 6, USATODAY on YT: "Watch: Tanks, fighting vehicles head to DC for Trump's military parade", CW: face full of Trump, alt: screenshot).

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that maybe the guy who attempted one coup already bringing a well-armed military force into our capitol city and, crucially, within artillery-range of the Pentagon, is just throwing himself a birthday party, but also maybe not.

ETA: For those of you confused by this, thinking, but doesn't he already control the military? You might want to watch this video about the rise of Xi Jinping.

Now, obviously, Trump would never play a long game like Xi did. But, 1) there are other ways to achieve the same end and 2) he doesn't have to, because his buddies, the Dominionists, did.

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Mood::

the OPPOSITE of nostalgic

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Over the course of about six hours this week, the weather went from "pleasant warm early-summer" to "holy bananas, it is hot and sticky high summer" and I was not emotionally prepared for it. But I am promised thunderstorms today, and I got cucumbers at the farmer's market, and will finish swapping out the cozy linens for the crisp ones, and all of that will help.

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As it was written in the spreadsheets, so it has come to pass.

New project: Upon A Star by PigeonCoop Designs from the book Cross Stitch In The Forest.

Have I learned my lesson about dark Aida, many similar shades of one colour, and fractional stitches? No. Have I learned to check HOW MUCH of each shade I'll need when using threads from my stash? Also no.

Floss toss to confirm I still like the colors:

Colors of thread against the fabric for Upon A Star cross stitch project

The first few stitches.

First project to clear off the backlog: 1960s mod lady for the cover of my sewing notebook. There will be text "Sewing Notes" vertically in the blank area on the right. I did the French knots for the eyes a while ago and they have gone horribly wrong - the knots have both pulled through to the back! Lesson learned, don't do french knots as part of a tour of traveling backstitch. I am just going to do new knots over the top of them.

Cross stitch work in progress of a 1960s mod lady

Bonus, I found the missing small Permin kit tucked away in the folder with the mod fashion lady! I guess this was my emergency backup stitching when we moved. Way to go, Past Diane! You put it in a safe place all right.

Cross stitch kit of an outdoor scene in shades of green

Mood::

blah

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Mood::

determined

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May was not a great month for reading. I didn't listen to audiobooks on my trips for work. I think I am feeling burned out, which reduced my capacity to enjoy reading. I think exercising my reading muscles is the only way out of this.

I did read "Fuzzy Nation" by John Scalzi, "Bloodmarked" by Tracy Deonn, and "Go Luck Yourself" by Sara Raasch.

"Fuzzy Nation" was a cute little book that I was able to borrow digitally from the library. It was just the thing when I was out of town. Scalzi (with permission from the original author's surviving family) took a story from the classic age of hard science fiction and did a "cover" with some more modern themes. It worked. I could see the bones of the old tradition, and also admire what he did with it.

"Bloodmarked" is the second book in a series. The third book is out in hardback. The fourth book is not out yet. The characters are compelling and the action is fast paced. It's stressful to care so much, but putting characters in stressful situations is how fiction works.

I read "Go Luck Yourself" which is the sequel to "Nightmare Before Kissmass." I like the series, and I hope the author can write more in this world, but she doesn't sound hopeful about that on her Tumblr. I liked the first one a little more, but that might be partly because you need more world-building in a first book, and I like that part.

Onward.

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Mood::

amused

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I haven't read any dreamwidth for a little bit, but over on Facebook I think there's only one non-jewish person I've seen say anything about the fire attack in Boulder on mostly elderly people walking in solidarity with hamas's hostages.

I don't have time to write it right now but I definitely want to write more.

This one's about right: gift link:nytimes - Jews Are Afraid Right Now

And this one is every time I read it a slight bit more infuriating, because it came out in an email blast from new republic, and barely manages to accept that nobody deserves to be hit with a flamethrower, but instead spends all its time on why the act was the opposite of politically useful, as well as a bunch of time on what awful Netanyahu is doing. Violence against Jews is tragic and undermines the Palestinian cause

Readers may remember an essay back in 2021,
Dear American progressives your Jewish friends are terrified by your silence, in which the author knows how so much of the time it seems especially in progressive spaces any attack on Jews is met with discussion of the Middle East.

Anyway, I'm out of time and finding that last reminds me I need to figure out an alternative for pocket.

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Veterans Rally today at 2EDT on the Mall near Air and Space, so nearest Metros are L'enfant and Archives. It's also live streamed Unite4Veterans.org, and they've got the Dropkick Murphys.

Later today a vigil at WWII. Stuff with Cliff Cash the rest of the weekend, like at FOX 'news' and Heritage. And Non-cooperation training with FreeDC tomorrow.

Later this evening, I just noticed there's celebrating nonmonagamy with World Pride. I think I'm pretty much missing world pride?

Tomorrow, the World Pride parade. 50501 is walking in it. Acro at Franklin Park to watch the parade. I'm sure all sorts of really cool stuff in the evening.

Sunday, some sort of Pride March to the Lincoln.

Here, we will go to Food Bank in an hour ish, not sure for the evening. There's a kink place if you wanted to drive like over an hour and have sweetie be bored and I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to do.

Tomorrow and Sunday nights I'll be mostly on my own because EverQuest. I do know a couple people in the city, but I think both of them are busy sunday. And borrowing a car I've only driven across town to drive well over an hour feels weird anyway.

We've watched a few episodes of The Last of Us. Last night we watched Constantine.

Wednesday evening into yesterday was very very nice.

There's been a lot of very very nice. Including shower time.

I attended a webinar by one of the people whose research gets us that 3.5% figure for how much of the population on resisting authoritarianism. Just got the recording and additional resources. I feel vindicated in my insistence for the last however many years that divesting oneself of anyone the other side of Center is incredibly unhelpful and one should only do for one's own sanity. Because you need to build Bridges and connections on values.

It's Moon time so there's only so much seducing I'm trying this morning anyway. We will have the house to ourselves for at least part of tomorrow, tomorrow morning at least. Need to figure out what's manageable.

Running out of time. Need to get some coffee into me.

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Mood::

determined

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Mood::

cheerful

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