Mixed Metaphors

I didn't actually get nutmeg mania, but I did think the scones tasted soapy. At first I thought I'd not properly rinsed out the mixing bowl. But I looked up "does too much nutmeg taste soapy" and sure enough it does! I also learned about nutmeg mania and I'm blaming all future problems on it.

I did recently find a box of cassette tapes of a "talk show" my brother and I recorded when we were little and I can confirm listening to those was amazing. We were running around the room while recording so about half of it is unintelligible. But still, good stuff. Podcast worthy at least. 🤣

Like, 99.9% of the fantasy genre is also playing with/derivative of/inspired by other literature and myth, but not always quite so specific about it.

Which is particularly funny in this case because we're talking about a game called Hades II! How dare anyone do the same thing to the game in their critique of the game that the game is doing itself?

I have stories and books like this stored away in my brain. I used to go to my library and check out shelves in alphabetical order. Of the ones that stuck, some are probably extremely well known and some trivial and unfindable. But I don't know if it would actually be good for me to read them again.

Exactly! I love literary fiction, video games, and genre pulp. I wish we could approach video games and genre pulp with the same critical eye and analysis and deep understanding that we do with literary fiction without getting shouted down.

My Great Aunt once acted in a sketch comedy show where she was a grandma who thought she could solve every problem with "Chiclets and pretzels." It aired on MTV of all places, so it was a real thing. But I've never been able to find it again.

The author incriminates two specific books as being meme-ified YA fantasy, and--for gamers who do read--those are two of the books they probably read and love. So not sure the fiction allusions are helping win friends in the gamer community.

I find many (not all) people who respond this way to game criticism are also the same ones who complain video games aren't treated more seriously as "art" by whoever they think of as making that judgement. They want art critique to annoint their beloved with exclusively high praise.

Last week I learned you can get "nutmeg mania" from putting too much nutmeg in scones.

Banana bread is cake not bread and we all know it

I'm not 100% sure though it seems within spitting distance of you. (I realize, though, that in the US we think of a two-hour drive as a close neighbor.) Somewhere right past the "Butter Tubs" is the best I can name right now. She'll be at the reading too so we'll place it all then.

Beautiful. I've stayed in Settle a couple of times, driven over the Butter Tubs, and hiked the area. I'm very excited for this book! (Though that was the case even before learning the geography of it.)

Those light cycles better be life-size working replicas.

Just ordered it from Bookshop.org based on the snippets I've found. I've read maybe one other non-fiction sports books in my life, so probably will name this the greatest. In the fiction realm (and the real world) I have a tumultuous and not exclusively positive relationship with JCO.

My favorite article of the year!

Also, because of you, I'm now pouring through some Joyce Carol Oates' boxing essays and they are by a wide margin the best thing of hers I've ever read.

The Nobel Prize in Literature Is Boring Now László Krasznahorkai, who was awarded the prize on Thursday, is a brilliant novelist and consummate laureate. But has the Swedish Academy lost its sense of fun?

There is only 1 (one) good piece of writing left on the internet and it is this by @alexshephard.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2015...

It's my favorite article every year. Not just about the Nobel, but in general.

Well, we'll definitely be there now! I want the travel crown. Super excited about this working out.

Charlotte is from the dales, not the moors, apparently. But the landscape there features heavily in her art, so she's invested in your book now too.

I'm in the mountains of Western Massachusetts. Moved here recently-ish after decades in Brooklyn.

In Feb I'll be in the Yorkshire moors with @charlottesmithson.bsky.social to see the Goldsworthy "Hanging Stones." She's game to stop in Leeds on our way back to Manchester. On her birthday, no less!

Seriously, this person is kind of correct. Coming to NYC and going to see a random Broadway Play and expecting it to make sense is something people have been doing for at least 50+ years.

I love that the original audience responded this way too! It makes me feel like the play is working.

What I love about this is it's in line with what a lot of people (most?) said when the play first came out!

It's a theater-bending (if not breaking) play. It's always been so. This person is not alone in feeling this way!

(Clarification: I think it's one of the greatest things ever written.)

Book Launch: Keshed by Stu Hennigan | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Book Launch: Keshed by Stu Hennigan today.

FYI it looks like that link has changed. The event link I found instead is:

www.waterstones.com/events/book-...

An evening with Stu Hennigan for Keshed in Leeds | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about An evening with Stu Hennigan for Keshed in Leeds today.

KESHED LAUNCH ALERT.

Tix now on sale for the official launch event on publication day, 12th Feb 2026, at Waterstones in Leeds, Terri motherfucking White in the interviewer's chair, it's gonna be awesome. Early chance to see my "performance" of the intro too 👀📚

www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

Shockingly, I'm going to be in the Leeds-ish area on the evening of February 12th... (This is shocking because I'm normally in the US.) It's someone else's birthday but she says she's up for it. This is like my #1 book launch wishlist. Amazing timing thanks for planning it around my travel.

Thanks for this. I was worried there was no one anywhere on BlueSky talking about a book.

A beaver dam has created a small lake in the forest. The autumn leaves have collected on the surface of the water at the dam, making it look like a plateau of land.

A close up of the beaver dam. The sticks and logs are piled and entwined like knitting, the leaves collected on the water are like a speckled carpet.

A gorgeous beaver dam near the #AppalachianTrail at Beartown Mountain, MA.

I love how the autumn leaves have collected on the water like a woven carpet.

The water level is very low elsewhere in the forest, so I hope this spot is providing some comfort to all the animals.

One time my dentist was playing Kenny G and I told him about the scene from Wayne's World where the worst torture Garth can imagine is being at a Kenny G concert getting dental work but my dentist didn't get the joke so I had to explain that most people don't like the dentist and he was offended.

Before I left my job, I got a bad annual review despite my small team generating half the company revenue. The CEO said I was "too nice" and "cared about people liking me." I asked him to provide an example of a bad decision I'd made as a leader because of this personality flaw and he could not.

One of the pernicious things about AI is how I now have to constantly wonder if AI is the reason some tech is getting worse.

Maybe it's my slow decline into irrelevance? Maybe it's just technology sucking for normal non-AI reasons?

(But, to be clear, it's usually AI.)