I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

That’s a beautiful shade of blue on the walls. 💙

I do a lot of exasperated complaining about liberals (I am, after all, a leftist), so here's one about my fellow leftists:

Universal basic income and universal services are awesome. They are NOT, however, reparations, and way too many of us pretend otherwise.

4 frame street reporter comic. the reporter, off frame, asks someone waiting for the subway, with a dark long jacket, a gold and red scarf and round glasses : miss! any thoughts about the newest study showing that trans people's mental health deteriorates after starting gender-affirming treatment? she replies : kaltiala's paper didn't measure mental health deterioration. it measured how many trans people visited a psychiatrist after getting their diagnosis from the finnish gender clinic, which forces trans people to be screened extensively every 3-6 months during their treatment. this paper counts any visit to a psychiatrist, including when the patient is cleared of any issue, as a sign of "mental health deterioration". that metho- dological flaw is mentioned in the paper*, but that didn't stop any of these powerful anti-trans bigots to share it online. *erin in the morning : "Fact Check: New Finnish "Study" Does Not Prove "Trans Youth Care Leads To Worse Outcomes" *kehraaja.com (in Finnish)

Mental health care

Me hitting the stigma filter in ZocDoc

Very unimpressed by pop neurodiversity influencers and their AI apologia.

More bullshit claiming that anti-AI stances are classist and ableist and racist.

Meanwhile, AI is built on exploited black labor, kills disabled people every day, disposesses the working class, and drinks all our water.

Check out @sbristow87.bsky.social's sketches of Aleck Woad!

Aleck, protagonist of @andrewmreichart.bsky.social's books WEIRD LUCK IN THE CITY OF THE WATCHER and TIME TRAVELING BLUES IN THE CITY OF THE WATCHER, made his Weird Luck webcomic debut last week.

weirdluck.net/comic/2-1-12...

White Americans suffer from that need. White Americans need to believe that one another are all moral actors who just whoops, slipped up, made a bad choice.

Everyone else knows that has never been true, not in the last decade, but also not at any point in the history of this country. Not once.

Don’t know why this is coming back but yeah.. giggling about how it’s a nother “TACO”

Ignores the fact the stress causes harm , and it’s a control tactic .

It’s boundary testing

Yeah so he is just going to keep doing the thing where we are in a constant state of uncertainty, confusion, stress, and tension because that is what abusive people do and the people who are in a position to address this are asleep at the switch.

Screenshot of email from Groupon offering Fifty Shades of Foreplay Fungus Removal Dog Vaccination Package

Not sure I miss Groupon

bzbzbzbz.bzbzbzzzbz.bzbzbzzbzbzbz.bzbzzzbzbz.bzbzbzbzzbzbz.bzbzbzzzbzbzbz.bzbzbzbzbzzbz.bzbzbzbz.bz

I've seen people trying to defend it today by saying "No, no, I just use it to brainstorm, bounce ideas, I do the actual writing" and with all the kindness in the world I need to tell you: if there is a stage of writing you are not good at, you need to get good, not use the plagiarism machine.

I’d give anything for my adult child and their spouse to be together in the same country. I wish a life of joy and love for these beautiful friends of yours.

None of Ryan’s family will come to New Zealand for this happy occasion, so let’s get his best friend here for the wedding! Ryan and Grey are two of the people I caught when they sought refuge from Texas here in Aotearoa.

That is lovely!

He looks like the kind of guy who bullied you in high school, only to slide into your DMs fifteen years later trying to hook up.

Albuquerque church sign reads: Frontier and Golden Pride welcome ICE

Albuquerque 🥂💪🏼😂😇
New Mexico

I have to say that the people in my mentions saying "everybody knew this" about the Chavez disclosures are pissing me the hell off.

No, you did not know that Cesar Chavez raped Dolores Huerta. If Huerta's own family didn't know, you didn't know either. Come on.

This reminds me that I have not recently passed on one of my life lessons, the kind that most people will never need to know, but that are really important if they come up in your life. Namely:

It is possible for appendicitis to go away on its own.

Obviously you should treat it. BUT:

It was so interesting. And everyone who worked there were so excited to talk about their work. Even as a fourth grader, I felt bad that most of my fellow students were not matching the farmers enthusiasm.

just want to note that the usps workers' rights have been absolutely gutted. they have a 90% turnover rate within the first three months, and workers are often expected to work 7 days a week, 10+ hrs a day. oh, and sundays? they deliver for amazon (which you can see in the image below actually).

bsky.app/profile/beeb...

The two that stand out are the Coors brewery (the smell was sickening) and an earthworm farm where they wanted to alleviate world hunger by providing earthworm meal for high protein baking. They served us cookies, but I was the only one willing to eat one.

The kids are not playing dumb. They are playing WHITE

like so many of you

Where you think your REFUSAL to hold anybody accountable for harming Black/ Queer / POOR

you need to watch these kids BRAG about how easy it was to play you

because you can’t talk about WHY THE FUCK IT WORKED

I can’t help but notice that in the last month or so I have been getting 3-5 emails a day from WP trying to get me to resubscribe at very low introductory rates.

Right we all know someone whose politics may not be that problematic but the way they organize their LIFE

is that hierarchical and they commit similar atrocities to keep it that way

Using the SAME levers

And won’t let us fix them …

In hopes they too can harm without consequence

Looking for originality?

"Mathematically formulated to satisfy your craving for weird fiction, poetry, and memoir, featuring stories from 34 human writers." @autonomouspress.bsky.social

I'm honoured to be called human 😁

#Anthology
#Bookstoburn

books2read.com/u/b5NLBw

Guys and New York Dolls

Interview with Hao C. Tran - Autonomous Press How has the experience been so far of having a book in the world? It’s a sense of relief that I have finally achieved a dream that one day I would write a book about Vietnam to honor my mother and my ...

We are delighted to share this interview with Hao about his first book, Skinny Woman in a Straw Hat. And you can stay tuned for a new book (and interview) later in the spring. He is a beautiful storyteller.

autpress.com/2023/09/inte...
@autonomouspress.bsky.social