alix e. harrow

oh!!! 😭😭😭

finally, if this strikes you as performative: correct!! this is a high-visibility public performance of politics designed to make some little PR number-cruncher in some fetid corporate basement go running to their supervisor like "sir! it seems the peasants do NOT like the nazi collaboration!"

"a slightly worse day for the PR department of a megacorp" is perhaps not a compelling campaign slogan but you know what it gets me out of bed in the morning

(also: if you don't see an author's name here, pls do not be weird about it. if i see any smug little posts like "i notice THEY didn't sign 👀" i will personally come to your house and explain relative risk & the politics of visibility!! plus i don't have everybody's personal emails!!)

fwiw, i don't think it's useful to yell at ReedPop/BookCon. they DON'T have a contract with ICE--the giant company that owns ReedPop also owns LexisNexis, which does. this is, frankly, a thin fucking thread to pull, but we decided to pull it anyway 🤷

TO: newyork@relx.com ATTN: RELX CEO Erik Engstrom, Nick Luff (CFO), and Paul Ashton Walker (Chair) Re: Immediate Termination of contracts between RELX subsidiaries and ICE February 9th, 2026 Dear Erik Engstrom, Nick Luff, and Paul Ashton Walker, We are some of the authors that make events like BookCon—run by your subsidiary, ReedPop—possible. Another of your subsidiaries, LexisNexis, has a $22.1 million dollar contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), supplying them with the data they need to surveil and terrorize our neighbors, friends, and families.[1] We condemn any collaboration with ICE and call for the immediate termination of all contracts between RELX and ICE. ICE has a twenty-two year history of discrimination and abuse against immigrant communities. Under the current administration, their efforts have escalated in both violence and visibility—enabled by their partners in big data, including LexisNexis.[2] RELX is a multinational corporation worth $40 billion, of which events like BookCon are only a small fraction. Our power is limited. But BookCon advertises itself as a place where "fantasy meets reality,"[3] and the reality is that RELX is profiting from mass terror against communities of color, including the murder of eight people this year alone. The fantasy is that a bunch of readers and authors could ignore it; we know a villain when we see one. We, as authors, intend to honor our immediate commitments to BookCon and to our readers. If RELX chooses to renew their current contract with ICE–which expires on February 28, 2026[4]–we will be forced to reevaluate our association with all future ReedPop events.

if you're an author attending BookCon this year (or, to be honest, any other ReedPop events, which include NYCC), and would like to add your name to the letter: forms.gle/V7m2YbcGguAY...

something we've been working on for a few days! link to the full letter: tinyurl.com/bookconautho...

oh alix yes 😩😩😩

also i am saying: thank you to all the friends who helped us today!! our house is livable only bc we could keep up with the sewage, which we could do bc we had a neighbor watching the kids and another neighbor bringing us food and another neighbor bringing her sump pump and--

anyway what I'm saying is: i have been awake for 36 hours and I am sore in muscles that are not known to science. if i owe you an email you will find that actually legally i don't

a city vac truck 😍😍😍😍

the city employee will observe the Shit Rink. he will observe the buckets. he will, in time, take pity on you. your savior will come over the hill, from the east, like gandalf on the fifth day--

you have already figured this out. as you will soon say, somewhat hysterically, to the city utility employee, while gesturing at your Shit Rink, "SIR! WE HAVEN'T EATEN CORN IN MONTHS!"

and in the morning, after your portable sump breaks and you have spent ten hours using a shop vac and 5 gallon buckets to haul sewage into your backyard, which has frozen into a Shit Rink, the plumber won't be able to fix it bc the blockage is in the CITY sewer

did you know that if a city sewer gets blocked and you are the lowest house on the street it's possible for all your neighbors' sewage to bubble up from your basement drain. it might also be saturday night in record-setting cold so all the emergency plumbers are busy with burst pipes

happy birthday!

cville: the school district is trying to wriggle out of the raise they negotiated for support staff (who do not make a living wage!!) AND blame the union for it. truly wild behavior.

"are bodies shameful?" "was Anthony Comstock correct?" "is pleasure even realistic" asking all the hottest questions of 1875

in the reddit forum of every liberal town there are like eight to twelve depressed republicans passing around local conspiracies. nobody likes it but they're just part of the ecosystem, like mosquitos

<3 <3 <3

i know the democratic party is not meeting this moment bc senator L. Louise Lucas is not yet in charge of national comms

whereas those of us who were at last night's board meeting are like "WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN" [with outrage]

WHAT IN THE WORLD

a relatable emotion 😂

ISN'T IT GREAT

i like it too when you invest heavily in their favorite fruit or vegetable which is, the following day, no longer their favorite. in fact they hate it

obviously you lack their exacting standards (shadow rides a motorcycle)

basically if you ever thought it would be fun to be miranda priestly's assistant except her favorite movie is sonic 3: have kids

now you might be thinking: why did you not simply choose a sweater that aligned with your child's aesthetic?? ah, but their style is fluid, dynamic, daringly unpredictable. the needs of the past (a black hoodie) are not the needs of today (their older brother's black hoodie)

that thing where your child won't pick out their sweater so you pick out their sweater but that sweater, upon review, does not align with their vision, so now, .05 seconds before the bus arrives, they WILL go pick out their own sweater, actually-- love that. best way to start the day

A METRIC THAT SHOULD BE FORMALLY ADOPTED POST HASTE