Now I want to name a character Indigo Pluto.

It's so funny to me that right-wingers love to pretend to love the Middle Ages and the Crusades and all that and then complain that the Pope shouldn't get involved in politics.

Yeah, I used FreeTaxUSA last year and this year. It's pretty cool.

What about beet sugar?

The first time my daughter lived in a mostly-Protestant-white/Anglo area it creeped her out.

And fifty years ago not everyone used credit cards. I don't think my father ever had a credit card in his entire life; he died in 1980. My mother may have had one after I moved out, I don't know.

A woman went to court, entered a plea,
Saying "Keep my husband away from me
He don't understand what a man should know,
By the time I could teach him he'd be far too old!"
-- "Hammerhead Shark," David Lee Roth

In New England we didn't get that particular load of crap. We did get a heavily edited version of the Revolutionary War, though, and careful omission of details such as the fact that much of the American slave trade was run out of New England.

Ah. I can see how that could be awkward.

I recently rented an Ioniq 5. Theoretical range: 521 miles. (I don't think we actually got quite that much, though.)

We have a plug-in hybrid we love. Our daughter, though, lives where she often commutes to work in -20F. At those temperatures, she doesn't think an EV would work for her.

What's wrong with wearing a kitten as a hat? My sisters and I used to do that all the time when we were kids!

I'm sorry, did you just call Project Hail Mary "hard sci-fi"? The "science" in that is preposterous!

I am so glad I got off that hellsite when I did. Wish I'd left sooner.

Why does anyone stay?

Oh, damn

I encountered fans at Norwescon who said that my work had been what turned them into readers. Others said that my work had been what turned them into writers.

I'd rather create readers. Reading has fewer drawbacks and frustrations than trying to write.

Fellow writers: Which would you prefer?

One good use of the supposed two-week ceasefire is to get back to talking about the Epstein files

I'm back home from Norwescon and trying to catch up on stuff, but there's just too much Bluesky I missed. (The convention was lots of fun, by the way.)

Philip K. Dick did something vaguely similar in CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON, with an entire society built around various mental disorders.

So far, I'm reasonably content with Beehiiv.

The Dow-Jones futures are up because Trump is promising a cease-fire. Don't investors ever learn? If his lips are moving, he's lying.

Yup, I'm very proud of Ethshar

Landover wasn't me. That was Terry Brooks. But thank you for the Lords of Dus praise.

I can't speak for Scalzi, but the great thing about writing is that you can go back and edit so that the thing looks exactly like you planned it even if it was slightly sideways when you first started writing it.

Ah, I see. No, that probably wouldn't work very well.

They didn't cook it right. I've eaten alligator in New Orleans, and it was delicious.

Ha. Back in the 1960s my English relatives came to visit us in the suburbs of Boston, and suggested driving out to California over the weekend. My parents managed to not laugh.

I woke up this morning with a story in my head -- or at least part of one. The title is something like "Library Card," but the part plotted in the most detail is about the "Lies and Slander" room of the library in question.

It's really, really good.

I've always seen it as Spoleto. Anyway, his palace is quite wonderful.

What about Cincinnatus and Sulla?