TIL Chicago has had a feral parakeet population since the 60s or 70s - because I saw some green birds flying around on my dog's morning walk.

Book clubs are SO GREAT when you find one that reads things you're interested in, and has good people.

Several months late on this, but I'm listening to Sarah Marshall's "The Devil You Know" podcast, and hearing @yrfatfriend.bsky.social and @michaelhobbes.bsky.social randomly narrate snippets of these news stories was a little unexpected delight.

And spite-driven science!

Bless the urgent care doc who (very sweetly, not judgementally) was shocked and fascinated by my fucked up knee. At this point, I think I'd just like to become a cyborg.

This appears to be the age of my body failing me in new and interesting ways. 🙃

I'm convinced that half of the appeal of football for people is all the innuendos the announcers make.

Hard agree. The first inklings of my love for the genre started in 3rd or 4th grade when a teacher read us Judith Merrill's "Survival Ship."

Surprised your vet didn't recommend a prescription hydrolyzed diet if they actually suspect a food allergy to limit all the other factors. Doesn't always have to be forever - you start trying other foods once they're stable on it to see what's actually problematic.

Recently went through this through this with a SFF book club - and it's certainly been disheartening seeing folks who seem to believe they're feminists and allies refuse to do a damn thing until pushed, and even then, it's too little too late.

In a lifetime first, I finished the book I was reading right as my plane hit the tarmac. (Book in question: 'The Ogress and the Orphans' by @kellybarnhill.bsky.social - definitely recommended if you need a balm on the heart in these difficult times.)

Fucking wiiiiiild

Wh.....what?! What were the tix for?

(This bleet brought to you by perhaps my most elitest pet peeve.)

Tell me you haven't read Marx without TELLING me you haven't read Marx: you spell it "boujee"

Deeming ANY government agency more important/better than the people of the country the agency serves - no matter what state those people are in - is so messed up on so many levels.

I wonder if the unicycle guy I used to see around my old neighborhood in Mpls upgraded to an electric unicycle OR if this is another person.

From tonight's episode of the PBS NewsHour - 2025 was ICE's deadliest year with 32 people dying in ICE custody.

ICE lies, terrorizes, and does so with utter disregard for human life.

Before ICE Shooting, Immigration Agents Repeatedly Used Deadly Force The killing of a Minneapolis woman is latest by ICE and Border Patrol officers in recent months. Others have been wounded or threatened with guns.

Larger context on the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota:

Fed. officers have fatally shot at least 3 other people in the last 5 months & wounded or threatened others. We describe a few of the recent incidents and patterns we've noticed here.

www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/07/i...

Hi @ericlarocca.bsky.social! My book club is meeting about THGWSWLSAOM rn. re: "Enchantment," one of our members is bothered by the Moby Dick quote misattributed to Ahab - she's wondering if that was an intentional, if so, what the purpose? She can't figure it out. Would you be willing to weigh in?

I was not prepared for my dog's new prescription hydrolyzed kibble to be white.

Reminds me about what Jon Stewart had to say many years ago about fact-checking on the Daily Show: "We don't fact-check [and] look at context because of any journalistic criteria that has to be met; we do that because jokes don't work when they're lies."

Honestly the worst, been there recently. Good luck getting it all sorted!

A poll on X asking "Should Zohran Mamdani implement Arabic Numerals in the New York school system?" 52,831 people responded with a result of 57.1% "No" to 42.9% "Yes." The poll was posted November 16, 2025 by @therabbithole.

I'd love to see all the folks who were already having conniptions over common core math try to help their kids do math homework using the Roman numeral system.

I've been watching the Comedy Central show "Corporate" lately, and they definitely predicted AI brainrot 5 years ago.

Season. I meant season. (I'm hoping this is good news for Chicago, and gives folks time to take a breath and better organize, but I know it's bad news for the warmer climes they're heading to next.)

There are certain fights that you need to either never pick in the first place or be certain you're willing to see all the way through.

The shutdown was one of them.

Ppl need to understand what's happening here.

The GOP response to the shutdown was: You're gonna cave, or we're going to hurt vulnerable people by shutting off SNAP. The Dems, unwilling to let that happen, caved.

Having watched that, the GOP is now saying: "Give us what we want on abortion or ..."

Screenshot from Chicago Sun-Times: "US Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino, fellow agents to soon leave Chicago but could be back four-fold in March"

We got our first dusting of snow for the evening, it's not even particularly cold yet, but looks like they can't handle it.