Chandler J. Birch

The thing about self-indulgence is that enough other people are into it it’s benevolent fanservice!

really, a lady-knight might be anything—a propaganda poster, a radical mascot, a sacrificial symbol, a queer saint—the somewhat fervid fantasy of an awkward twelve-year-old—except a living woman. this is, more broadly, how the medieval past works in the popular imagination: not as actual history, but as a series of symbols which might be manipulated into whatever narrative serves you best. it's a vocabulary inclined naturally toward the authoritarian, i think—all those rightful kings and grateful peasants, holy quests and virtuous wars. what is a knight, other than the fiction that there’s a throne worth kneeling to and a state worth killing for? what is a lady-knight, other than a sort of cringe lean-in feminism?? girlboss, gatekeep, god save the queen! still: i circled back to her. i was always going to.

@alixeharrow.bsky.social just sends this newsletter out and doesn’t charge for it at all, good gracious

that’s my secret captain, I’m always annoying

COMPUTER ENHANCE. ENHAAAAAANCE

A Calvin & Hobbes 4-panel strip: 1. Calvin running at high speed, jubilant 2. Calvin skidding to a stop; off-panel bubble reads "Calvin, stop running through the house!" 3. Calvin spiking the reader, cheerful. His bubble reads "the law is on the books, but it would take all their resources to enforce it." 4. Calvin running off-panel. Off-panel bubble reads "CALVIN!"

Evergreen reminder

yall are worried that fictional villains will teach people the wrong lesson but sixty years of fiction has failed to teach people that that nazis are the bad guys so idk

My guy walking around like “if you hand him your purse it will prevent him from robbing you”

“Ideas, gentlemen, are bulletproof” and actually sometimes that is quite a dispiriting fact

I just started watching it for the first time and am having a BLAST

I'm sorry, but "they took over the whole federal payments system, fired the career staff, and won't let anybody see what they're doing" is not a situation in which you wait for more information. It's a situation in which you assume the worst. There's no explanation for it other than rampant crimes.

The guy-in-hot-dog-suit “we’re all trying to find out who did this” meme with the text “this is because of DEI.”

my goodness this show does not feel 35 years old

one thing about this town is that literally everyone is cheating on partners whom they despise to their marrow

so I’m watching Twin Peaks

Please tell me this is referencing a real person’s IMDb credits

My two-year-old learned how to say “awesome!” and is bestowing it on everything. The dogs? AWFUM 😀 We’re watching Encanto after snack time? AWFUM 😀 Mac and cheese for dinner? AWFUM 😀

That’s the cool thing, god is always asking them to do the thing they were going to do anyways!

Having grown up in it, “long periods of silence listening for God” is not the vibe. God couldn’t get a word in edgewise

God I hope it’s not too late for noted PoE content creators @ccr-grindcast.bsky.social and @leemcleod.bsky.social to talk about this on their PoEcast episode tonight

I have confidently said “not my first rodeo” at an awful lot of things that were very much my first rodeo

I know Talia Badassmotherfucker Lavin is difficult to fit in your byline but they can do crazy things with font sizes nowadays

extremely common Applegate W

When Animorphs ended, fans were vocal about how they didn't like the depressing ending.

K.A. Applegate responded with amongst the most brutal letters I've read.

It takes a generational talent to tell your fans "If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad."

subscription block lists are neat but there's something very satisfying about hand-blocking the 130-odd dweebs currently in Raichik's follower tab

Remembered mid-scroll that I have not finished Arcane season 2 and not one of you has trigger discipline on your posts so BYE

"they won't stop at trans people" - ok even if they did stop at trans people they still need their ass beat, right?

u ever think how it must eat jj abrams up that his kid has already figured out how to write an ending that isn’t balls. I think about it a lot

setting a reminder to circle back in 3 weeks for your 8-essay series on how much Arcane absolutely rules