C. McGuinn Freeman

Normally I would find the woman doing a photo shoot with her pug puppy, on a bluff over the Yellowstone, while dressed in a giant poofy princess dress irritating? annoying? enraging on a bad day?
But today? WTF? I'll take all the fun I can get. Moar silly outfits. Moar baby dogs. Instead of bombs.

If you were at work today and you got a phone call from your wife that France just blew up your kid's school, your lifelong opinion of France is probably not going to be anything other than "Death to France"

The leaders of Israel and the United States are war criminals.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Oh goody. A war *and* a swarm of bot followers.

I put up the patio table umbrella. It's 56 degrees out there and sunny.
I know we're at war, but there's nothing I can do about it but keep trying to get my work done. In the sunshine, I guess. In Montana. In February.

With all apologies to Woolf and all the casualties of both world wars, “I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times”

Unfortunately Schumer also wants war with Iran so this is just another example of why he's not fit to represent Democratic party, whose voters don't share his beliefs

Yet thou didst kill my children.

Watering again today. Backyard now. Only have one hose spigot, so summers go like this. One day water front, one back. Also have greens sprouting under plastic hoops.
In Montana. In February.
Didn't get a winter. We're at war. Guess I'll buy some seed potatoes.

Poll results are back... I have received way more query rejections (600) than almost any other #writer.

I have queried harder, edited more, lost time, money, dignity on trying. Yet no agent. For those who say they deserved it for working hard...

I did more. When is it my turn?

"This side of town..." scoffs the girl who has to get on a plane for a Chinese duck!
(Just blowing you grief ... )

Reading 2 new biographies of recently deceased male writers I admired and I'd really love for us to kill the Romantic idea that "being an artist" means you can fuck over your wife/wives and children for your art.

Oh, it's nice to know he's still right side up ...
But apparently, we are quite robust. Saving my pennies for a long old age in the end times ...

I would quit Substack altogether, but it's the easiest way to see if my 90 year old semi-estranged father is still alive. Did he post this week? Yes he did. Was it not as smart as he thinks it is? Also yes, but the dude is 90.

I think you're on the other end of town, but I'd kill for regular access to Chinese roast duck ... sorry the Zabars one sucks though.

In my utopian vision of the future, instead of offloading all the pointless, annoying work tasks (like reports that none one will read and needlessly opaque forms) to robots, we restructure work and society so that the pointless tasks don't happen at all.

Woolworths sells ... food? In Australia?
Sub-surprise -- Woolworths still exists in Australia?

I'm watering. And have seeds sprouting under hoops. I'm hoping that giving up hope of actual precipitation and forging ahead will bring punitive precipitation for my sins.

Boy Scouts have been dead to me since they were shitty to my brother after the divorce in the 70s, since they sexually harassed me & other women trip leaders in the BWCA in the 80s, since they told my grandmother they'd rather have no scouting in her farm town than have a woman lead the troop.

As democrats, as progressives, as people who love democracy and rule of law and fairness and justice and respect for humanity, we have to hold the line on protecting *everyone*. No one gets left behind. Everyone has a right to thrive. When Newsom threw trans folk under the bus, he lost my vote.

Oh good gracious. I should check if I still have one around somewhere.
This and Ordinary People (shot in our high school) means I've always got an easy way to show people how grim it was growing up in the heart of prep world.

Luckily the woman with the FOUR unleashed GSD/malamute mixes on my dog walk did have them under voice control, since she had zero leashes.
Ruined my afternoon though. I can handle my 1 reactive dog, but I trying to figure out how I was going to deal with her 4, as she approached, was very not fun.

The problem with small chicken keeping is you're dependent on your ranch store for chicks. After stopping in every morning this week, and being told "tomorrow" by the time I got there today the breed I want were sold out. SO annoying. I have a hen getting bullied who needs friends who match her.

Chili crisp! The best! Crunchy bits of chili, onion, garlic (sometimes black beans) in fragrant oil. Use it as a finishing drizzle on eggs, anything over rice, basically anything at all.

I've got iris and bulbs coming up, and the gooseberries are starting to bud. My hippie tree guy told me I should water them, so here we are.
(Ugh. Paying for water this early?)

I'm watering my trees. In Montana. In February.
Because we've had less than a 1/2 inch of rain so far this year.

Who would have ever guessed that having a large percentage of the population being totally ignorant about history, civics, the way government works, being able to tell truth from lies and manipulation, could be a really bad thing.

On Copenhagen Gushing about a city I visited for six days—embarrassing!

@aliciadkennedy.bsky.social had a newsletter about this not long ago with a bunch of terrific-sounding places all across the $$ spectrum.
www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-copenha...

Short grain California "sushi" rice -- yes, always. At least three times as I was taught in Taipei in the 80s. If you don't? Who knows? You'll unleash the malevolent rice spirits, dishonor your ancestors, and you'll have gummy rice to boot.

There is no fraud crisis.