Spader, a white man in his 40s with short hair looking down at someone. the subtitle says: Less sugar in the coffee

After a short much-needed break, I’m back in novel mode, so my remaining Spader Season film reactions are all going to be very short. I started writing a longer piece on Secretary (2002) and may pop it on my blog at some point…

Oh you should! I love your passion for Dean and it would be great to find out more about his work

I also watched The Watcher (2000) & it’s so bad it’s not even worth reviewing. I love Keanu Reeves, but he was terrible in this. Spader inexplicably wore a garden centre-style body warmer fleece, had boring hair, & didn’t lizard tongue once. That’s all you need to know.

#JamesSpader #SpaderSeason

Mary Gaitskill's Bad Behaviour, a penguin modern classics with a white cover and black and white photo depicting a party centred on a woman by a window holding a glass of wine and looking miserable while people interact around her

I also finally got around to reading the Gaitskill short story it’s based on; it’s much darker & definitely not a love story & I loved that too, for very different reasons (Gatskill wasn't keen on the film, critiquing it in her essay collection Oppositions). Her collection Bad Behaviour is brilliant

The Illuminated Man is more than a biography of J. G. Ballard.

Completed by Nina Allan after the death of Christopher Priest, it’s a moving story of imagination, loss, and the legacy of science fiction.

Out next week!

a man and a woman in suits and ties are sitting next to each other in an office . Alt: a white man and woman in suits are sitting next to each other in an office. Not looking at her, he's holding out his hand with a look of slight annoyance. She leans down and spits her gum onto his palm

But for now, all I say is: I love it. The performances from the two leads are perfect and they have such great chemistry.

Spader, a white man in his 40s with short hair looking down at someone. the subtitle says: Less sugar in the coffee

After a short much-needed break, I’m back in novel mode, so my remaining Spader Season film reactions are all going to be very short. I started writing a longer piece on Secretary (2002) and may pop it on my blog at some point…

Short Works - My Favourite Holobiont by Ever Dundas - BBC Sounds A new story from Ever Dundas about the challenges of living in a neurotypical world.

My short story My Favourite Holobiont is now available to listen at your leisure:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

It’s about the relationship between an autistic aunt and her autistic nephew and how they navigate a neurotypical world.

I hope you all enjoy it!

#BBCShortWorks #BBCRadio4 #Autism

Forg 🐸 (idk why he has a beard)

😍

Truly

Ugh. Gross

"Since joining the UnMute roster, Shaw said she had been booked for her first gig in London. 'It’s probably the highest fee I’ve ever been offered. I hope this is part of a movement where it can just become standard over time, so that nobody else coming up ever has to have the worries that I did.'”

"Disabled musicians are paid about £4,000 less per year than non-disabled peers, research shows, and almost six in 10 (57%) reported facing career obstacles"

‘No one’s tried this before’: a new live music roster aims to ensure opportunities for disabled musicians UnMute has been founded to overhaul ableist booking practices, representing artists with specialist access requirements often deemed too costly by venues

"Lansley hid his autism for 10 years, scared of losing opportunities to perform if he asked for adjustments. Now, [he] has created the UK’s first roster of disabled musicians, aiming to get [disabled] artists on to lineups & address the career barriers they face"

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

New Research-backed Paper Warns that Diagnosis Delay and Symptom Disbelief is Putting Neurodivergent Children and Young People at Greater Risk A new commentary on research explores the strong link between neurodivergent (here identified as Autistic, ADHD, Dyspraxic/DCD and Tourette’s syndromes) children and young people (CYP) with joint hy.....

Nope on those "Autism is overdiagnosed!!!" headlines. Autism is UNDERdiagnosed, and undiagnosed autistic people's autistic traits and associated health and care needs are denied, leading to avoidable suffering and unfairly reduced quality of life.

pressreleases.responsesource.com/news/104052/...

"The way we autistics process is often on hyperdrive. The activities that are like strolling for many allistic people are like sprinting for us. We need rest, more frequently and in greater durations than non-autistic people." Advice from Neuromess, at TPGA:

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/10/we-g...

Concrete tower

Paying homage at the shrine once again

This is why denial of accommodations because “that’s not how the real world works“ or “it’s not fair to everyone else“ needs to stop.

This is why punishment of neurodivergent traits and struggles needs to stop.

It’s literally killing us and no one cares.

Did you know that Autistic people are at a 9x or greater risk of dying by suicide as compared to non-Autistic people?

It’s true 😔

It was true even before *gestures outwardly, with great fatigue* all this happened

We deserve to know regardless of perceived ability/need

Adult diagnosis matters.

This dystopian world we live in, where a horse can die on national TV and the racing just continues like nothing happened. 💔

STOP SUPPORTING THIS ABUSE!

#YouBetTheyDie #Aintree #GrandNational

Vote Scottish Greens anywhere in Scotlan on May 7th. We're standing in every region in the country. use your peach ballot paper to vote Scottish Greens.

Wherever you live in Scotland, you can vote Scottish Greens on May 7th. 💚

DWP forcing disabled people into work - but no plan for Access to Work increase Just as the DWP is hell-bent on forcing disabled people into work, it's also quietly cutting Access to Work. Make it make sense.

DWP forcing disabled people into work - but no plan for Access to Work increase

Just as the DWP is hell-bent on forcing disabled people into work, it's also quietly cutting Access to Work. Make it make sense says @rachelcdailey.bsky.social
www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...

My late diagnosis story as a Black Autistic woman. I shared it on the webinar and am sharing it again for Autism Acceptance Month. Black women are often misdiagnosed, diagnosed late, or never diagnosed, facing hurdles and unnecessary trauma just to be seen and heard 🌻

a joyful golden retriever mid-sprint through green grass under a canopy of pink cherry blossoms

i feel like you all need this

The Missing Guidebook to Neurodiversity Studies (and Why We Wrote It) Introducing a Very Short Introduction

I've written a brief post about our new book, why its important to me, and what we hope to achieve with it.
open.substack.com/pub/neurodiv...

Submissions for the 2026 Barbellion Prize are open!

The Barbellion Prize celebrates & promotes writing that represents the experience of chronic illness & disability.

Subs open 2nd April-1st September, 2026.

Judges: Penny Pepper, Dr David Bolt & Letty McHugh.

Full details: barbellionprize.org

Next week’s disability cuts will make people destitute – and you might not understand how bad they are until it’s too late | Frances Ryan If new claimants don’t meet strict criteria, they’ll lose half of the health element of universal credit. Don’t ignore that: in life’s lottery, that could easily be you, says Guardian columnist France...

“Ministers justified reducing support for people too disabled or ill to work by arguing it would remove the “perverse incentives” that discourage employment… as if a twentysomething bedbound with ME just needs “incentivising” to get back to the building site”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As others have said... if you say, "well, I don't use generative AI to write, just as a collaborative editor," you just aren't qualified to be a writer. You're also just plain foolish given that editing like writing is a creative act and one that requires the full concentration of the human brain.

Debunking "Profound Autism" and Anti-Neurodiversity With Ember Green — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM Ember Green debunks "profound autism" and anti-neurodiversity, with its cherry-picked numbers, fear-mongering, and speaking over autistics.

As harmful autism disinformation campaigns go, grievance parents‘ attempt to break off “ #profoundAutism” as a separate diagnosis via smearing #neurodiversity advocates is notable—mostly for its spitefulness. Select observations by @embergreen.bsky.social:

thinkingautismguide.com/2026/03/debu... 1/