Kallastra

What made compliment from stranger great:
1. It was compliment of a choice I made in my presentation (haircut) as opposed to my body shape or skin
2. it was given in passing, with zero expectation for reaction or interaction
3. It felt like I had been seen in a “hello fellow human” way /end

It made my day. I have spent the last week or so thinking about what made the compliment great, and wanting to share because I’m a fan of compliment culture, actually /4

So traipsing thru an almost empty DC on a weekend morning, I did not expect to get a genuinely heartfelt “that’s a great haircut” from a construction worker as I walked by /3

I’m firmly middle aged now, so nice and invisible these days. I enjoy it, tho admit that when this transitioned from days I could be sure to be catcalled about my ass or perceived wanton lewdness, it was a bit of an identity shift /2

this reminded me i wanted to post about an excellent compliment I got from a man last time I was in the DC 🧵

11) I know I'm in the rare minority that's still masking because I take things like Covid seriously, but even outside of a pandemic, I have no idea what kind of person would willingly go through an airport unmasked.

It's... you're crammed in with thousands of people, from everywhere. Breathing.

Given that most doctors in the US take on enormous amounts of debt in order to become doctors and then looking at healthcare in US…yup, that tracks

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers in Missouri is offering free vasectomies! If you’re in the Kansas City, Rolla, or St. Louis areas, click the link for more info. www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-pare...

White America wanted stupid. Hey, it’s not as though he was ever smart. Trump was white and he didn’t have a vagina, so that sealed the deal. Even better, Trump seemed like a regular guy you could hang out with at the bar, drink a few beers, and say the “N-word” together.

Some days it feels like feminism peaked in Legally Blonde (2001)

It is true, by the way.

Laws are, in a sense, national traditions. They only have meaning when practiced as a nation, and it only takes a generation for reverence for the tradition to disappear.

People really have no idea how violent, cruel, and intentionally torturous American jails and prisons are.

And most people in American jails have never been convicted of a crime.

For data that confirms the vibes

This song is such a perfect encapsulation of the word “yearning.”

Genuine question:

I get that healthcare loss will logically impact more people than ICE and Nat’l Guard domestic invasions. But morally, the latter is more emotionally resonant & fundamentally wrong.

So why isn’t the latter the D’s media refrain?

“Salt Tabs” - electrolyte salt caplets (I use Salt Stick brand) - absolute game changer

I INVOKE MY RIGHTS TO SILENCE AND COUNSEL AND WILL NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS WITHOUT MY ATTORNEY PRESENT.

Then shut up until you have that attorney present. You cannot invoke your right to silence just by being silent. You have to say the words.

I was avidly reading thru these comments hoping somebody would mention my beloved Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel! 🥰😍

(I too work faster and better when I have an audience, which is not the point, but I absolutely love this book)

for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Amazed at the number of guys who are willing to give interviews about how since they didn’t find love with women they found love with the computer that’s poisoning people in black neighborhoods

Really good article and I had not seen it, so thanks for reposting! and that Lorde misuse…<cringe face> but otherwise helpful description of a topic I was just talking about with spouse earlier!

Tl;dr: in the United States, with very limited exceptions, you cannot sue the federal government without its consent. It's a vestige of the divine right of kings. And it was adopted by the founders for multiple reasons, but one was so enslaved people couldn't sue the federal govt for their freedom.

Cannot pick a favorite but obvs Everybody Hurts was a lifeline for me and so many of my GenX depressed peers. “So hold on!”

(and I just dug my wood box album release out to share with my 15 year old… WHAT EVEN IS TIME)

Released 33 years ago—Oct. 5-6, 1992. Share your favorite track in the comments!

Time to repost a classic.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/

Bluesky, a poem:

I liked the post that everyone hated

I read it too quickly and wasn’t paying attention

Please don’t cancel me

Every so often someone pulls off a triumph.

people name their cars and get sad if those cars stop working

Border Patrol in the 90s were literal cowboys and Customs were mostly clerks and they were more or less traumabonded together under the mission of being The Frontline Against The Terrorism

If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.