"Don't Speak Latin in Front of the Books"

So you get out your Fascism for Dummies book for the 15 things you do, and we tried to include as many of them as we could in the most artful way possible. How were we supposed to know that this clown car in Washington was going to basically use the same book that we used? So I don't think it's prescience so much as the sad familiarity of fascism and the karaoke menu of things that you go through to do it. You could list them from the show, or you could list them from the newspaper.

Tony Gilroy, creator of Andor, wasn’t allowed to use the word “fascism” during press junkets in 2025.

Interesting interview in The Hollywood Reporter.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

The drunk uncle theory.

You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there

Two panes of a comic. In the first, Jimmy Olson steals a giant wheel. In the second, a reporter is seen saying "...obile has, I repeat, lost its wheel "

Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.

Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

I don't think it is only our job to teach students how to read long novels; it may also be our jobs to teach them how to live without an online surveillance state. To learn without intrusive apps. To swap notes. To write in a book's margins. To exist in their communities in slow, clunky, human ways.

Old tweet from @shelfcomedy: me: god, why must you give me your hardest battles god: i don't. you are my weakest soldier and these battles are so easy. it's an email why are you crying

The morning so far

Cover of the book Don't Trust Fish

An orange cat curled most of the way into a ball, but with his back legs stretched out so he looks like a shrimp.

We also have a Stormageddon, aka Stormy!

Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.

"LGBTQ children's books ≠ teaching kids about sex."

Oooh! Just remembered Sufjan Stevens' "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!"

Turns out I have a ton of favorite songs w/ absurdly long titles:
Radiohead "Where I End & You Begin"
STP "Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart"
Caroline Polacheck "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings"
Death Cab "I Will Follow You into the Dark"
Nirvana "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle"

My husband's going to disown me for this one, but also The Breeders' "Drivin' on 9." Like nails on a chalkboard.

I should not have read this thread, b/c now I have ALL of the worst songs stuck in my head.

My personal contribution to the list is Smashing Pumpkins' 1979. Absolutely the most tediously bland song I've ever had the misfortune of hearing.

Timeline cleanse ❄️

I AM ON FIRE; KEEP CLEAR OF ME.

Bilbo looking at his phone top on bottom is ChatGPT After all, why not? Why shouldn't I keep it? You're absolutely right — you found it, it's been with you a long while, and it's only natural to feel fond of something that's served you so well, especially when someone like Gandalf suddenly seems to want it for himself.

Bildinhalt: Man sieht einen Waschbären, der zwischen zwei großen Bäumen hängt – mit ausgestreckten Armen und Beinen, als würde er sich verzweifelt festklammern. Die Situation wirkt angespannt und instabil. Text im Bild: • Oben beim Waschbären: “ME” (Ich) • Linker Baum: “STAYING INFORMED ON THE AMERICAN DUMPSTER FIRE” (Informiert bleiben über das politische/gesellschaftliche Chaos in den USA) • Rechter Baum: “MY MENTAL HEALTH” (Meine mentale Gesundheit)

A valentine that says You Make My Jaw Drop, then the inside that says "With their mouths closed, pelical eels are long and skinny. When they open their mouths to grab food, they can balloon out to engulf animals much larger than they are" then the back has a little snailfish that says "Take action to help animals in the deep sea by slowing down climate change ang vocally opposing deep sea mining

Hey cuties. You need a valentine set right now, I can tell. It's only $20. You get 20 of them, 4 designs, & each one has a little fact inside.

I need a little more cashflow into Skype a Scientist to do the amount of shit I want to do this year. These valentines are a good start!

SquidFacts.net

Whatever my uni declares, I am not going to engage with AI. I am not going to use AI or teach students to use it. I am going to continue to explain to students why it is harmful. Absolutely absurd to allow this anti-intellectual, environmentally devastating technology into the university at all.

Nemik talking to Cassian Andor: "The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind forty atrocities than a single incident."

Me, the week before the new semester starts:

Hey, I know a lot of you use Discord.

You need to get on this survey and make it damn clear to them that this would be the absolute wrong direction. The last thing we need is the slop-spewing environment-chewing plagiarism bots invading there, too.

discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...?

Important info for teachers.

What I Would Tell Eve Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary Eat the fucking apple. They are going to blame you regardless. You might as well go to the gallows with a full belly knowing more than God.

they'll kill you when you tell them you're not mad
they'll kill you when you tell them you're furious
might as well be furious

A chonky orange and white cat loafed in front of a chonky entirely orange cat.

A very large, fluffy orange cat looking over his shoulder at the camera.

May I present my sister's cats, Chester and Morris:

all this is both foolish and unnecessary

A secret passage leading to a multi-story library with a spiral staircase.

The last 30 minutes of The Goonies.

Welcome to 2026. 🥳😮‍💨

A very craggy beach rock full of little holes for critters to hide in.

Mossy rocks at the water's edge.

Here are some cool beach rocks.