"You will feel insecure and jealous. How much power you give those feelings is entirely up to you." ~ Cheryl Strayed

Timeline cleanse

this is a reminder that our subs are open until May 15 -- links in bio :D

Cynthia Wanders My Neighborhood with the shock of hospice behind her / and her ashes scattered on her cherished Pacific.

#Poetry

"Keep moving
through the gloom of a spinned myth"

poets.org/poem/cynthia...

My jam. #Lit 📚

She realized a lot about the catharsis of diagramming sentences. Making diagrams is something I find really satisfying and calming especially delving into the close readings of complex lit and especially poetry

Nothing Ever Happens: “Mister Squishy” and the Year of the Sentence Diagram | Los Angeles Review of Books Hannah Smart writes about her attempt to diagram a 900-word sentence in David Foster Wallace’s “Mister Squishy,” and what the efforts taught her about human inertia and meaningless language.

I’m loving all the diagrams;This article was cool to read not because of the content but because, as an exercise, it got the writer through an extended periods of stasis lareviewofbooks.org/article/noth...

Wow, linguist Lucien Tesnière served in WWI, was captured and continued studying, teaching, translating and speaking a creole the POWs invented. He was cryptoplogist during WWII.

I'm sold on his style.

Open source translation of his book on universal characteristics of language.

The media blackout of Jared Kushner’s historic, ongoing corruption scandal As Trump's son-in-law returns to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, major news outlets are largely ignoring an egregious conflict of interest.

😡 😡 😡 😡
Articles about Jared Kushner's diplomatic role with Iran that mention Kushner has received billions from the Saudi government (2/28-4/19):
NYT: 5 of 58
WashPost: 1 of 43
WSJ: 0 of 40
AP: 0 of 26
CNN Wire: 0 of 18
NY Post: 0 of 17
Chicago Tribune: 0 of 4
LA Times: 0 of 4
Boston Globe: 0 of 2

A white square with the words NaPoWriMo 2026 in black in the top left hand corner. In top right hand corner is an image of a pink firework with a white centre, featuring the words Prompt 21. In the middle of the image is a large yellow firework. Overlaid on top of this is black text with a yellow background reading “Think about a journey of some kind - literal or metaphorical - that has given you joy, and write seriously about joy with as much passion and purpose as you would for the things that give you grief. It may be that arriving at this joy comes suddenly or unexpectedly and not from an aspired-for goal.” In the bottom left hand corner is a blue firework, and in the bottom right hand corner is the name Cherry Potts.

Today's #NaPoWriMo prompt comes from Cherry Potts, and asks you to write about the things that bring you joy. Cherry runs Arachne Press, one of over 70 organisations that have a stall at the Free Verse Fair this year. Come along this Saturday to meet them! FREE tickets at the link in our bio.

the car is backing up, please pay attention BY XIAO XI TRANSLATED BY YILIN WANG be mindful of the rocks behind you, the tiny blades of grass the roar of thunder, and the flash of lightning. watch out for the sprinting kids and cats for the elderly and the hushed trees. take note of the rotting fruits and of the snow that has just fallen. look out for the ants under your car tires the light reflected on broken glass. be vigilant about rolling leather balls of nails with malicious intentions. observe the sorrowful face in the mist the traps that have lost their lids. pay attention to the hands begging for money. beware of firecrackers on the ground that haven't yet gone of. take heed of the sudden uncontrolled sobs from the roadside.

“Observe the sorrowful face in the mist.” A poem by Xiao Xi, translated by Yilin Wang.

I hope the takeover of InfoWars by @theonion.com and @timheidecker.bsky.social that resulted from the bankruptcy brought on by Alex Jones’ evil attacks on the victims of Sandy Hook brings you as much joy as it does me.

Read an excerpt from Leigh Raiford's new book "When Home Is a Photograph" in @hyperallergic.com:

Japan approves scrapping a ban on lethal weapons exports The approval clears a final set of hurdles for Japan's postwar arms sales and facilitate its future sale of weapons such as a next-generation fighter jet and combat drones.

The approval clears a final set of hurdles for Japan's postwar arms sales and facilitate its future sale of weapons such as a next-generation fighter jet and combat drones. n.pr/3OCCED1

this sounds like something out of a bulgakov novel

🔥 “I’m so glad people are finally waking up to your cruelty — and to the idiocy of your star disciple Pete Hegseth.”

@wajahatali.bsky.social eviscerates Hegseth’s pastor Doug Wilson (with @timmiller.bsky.social & piers in the front row)

I hope Doug gets mouth cancer again from spitting all that venom

Shot called, @aftermath.site coming through as expected bsky.app/profile/papa...

You're absolutely screwed America. Fucked beyond help.

Painting of a floating cross-section of Silbury Hill, showing interior chambers beneath a landscape with trees and sunrise. Text reads: Which failed utopian community are you joining?

Before you answer: these were places started by real people with real grievances – loneliness, inequality, the daily grind, the feeling that there had to be a better way. The solutions just might have needed some work. 🧵⬇️ (1/5)

Judge rules Trump administration violated the First Amendment in fight against ICE-tracking ICE Sightings - Chicago Land Facebook Group and Eyes Up developer won a preliminary injunction against the government.

So many of these strong First Amendment cases -- challenging the Trump admin's censorial campaign to chill dissent -- are winning. Here's another win for free speech against surveillance & ICE tracking: www.theverge.com/policy/91461...

Bad draft is a lot easier to fix than a blank page

Still absolutely obsessed with this. 😂

Man at City Council Meeting Makes Devastating Case Against Proposed Local Data Center A former programmer spoke up during a city council meeting in a small town in Ohio, making a well-articulated argument against data centers.

"We are being asked to drain our reservoirs so a chatbot can write a poem."

How a school program from Baltimore is using hip-hop to teach social-emotional skills Nationwide, schools are looking for better ways to connect with students and support their emotional well-being. A Baltimore-based organization called “We Do It 4 the Culture” is using hip-hop and storytelling to help students learn empathy and express themselves. Ali Rogin speaks with founder J...

Nationwide, schools are looking for better ways to connect with students and support their emotional well-being. A Baltimore-based organization called “We Do It 4 the Culture” is using hip-hop and storytelling to help students learn empathy and express themselves. https://to.pbs.org/4934j6e

One obvious obstacle to physical authenticity is Silver’s leg: cut “close by the hip” in the text, all the actors to play him are bipedal; therefore, they all had to fold and secure their left legs in what must presumably be a very uncomfortable position, making the role physically challenging (Stevenson [1883] 2012, p. 85). Such an arrangement must also make moving like Stevenson’s Silver very difficult. Fleming accounts for this by using an action double for Beery, most clearly in his murder of Tom, allowing the audience to believe in his physical prowess (Fleming 1934, 55:33–56:27). Newton maneuvers impressively on the crutch but does little to convince the viewer of any physical threat. This fact allows for film adaptations to further soften the Silver character as we will discuss in the next two sections: where Stevenson’s Silver appears to use his disfigurement to disguise his physical abilities, making him dangerous, film adaptations often use it to blunt any real threat. Charlton Heston, for example, is a menacing presence in the 1990 Turner Pictures adaptation, but his age and awkwardness of movement are a clear contrast with Wyeth’s dynamic, nimble Silver. With the possible exception of Tim Curry—who is younger and more agile than his cinematic counterparts—in the playful 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island, the Silver of the screen must rely more on his wits, his charm, and his presence of character, than on any physical threat he poses, in order to manipulate his crew, Jim, or Jim’s friends.

Happy birthday to Tim Curry – proven by ACTUAL SCIENCE to have given the pre-eminent screen portrayal of Long John Silver

From Braemar to Hollywood: The American Appropriation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pirates
—Richard J. Hill & Laura Eidam, Humanities 2020, 9(1)
www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/9/...

I can’t believe that the stunning publicity model of “AI IS GOING TO MAKE YOU ALL JOBLESS AND HOMELESS, PEASANTS” has worked out so poorly for tech billionaires hoping that it would result in worldwide seamless adoption of AI junkware. A whole mystery really.

"Software that dominates" is also an extremely normal tagline