New (and free) at Fake Folktales: www.patreon.com/posts/second...

If you like Elf on a Shelf, you'll love Panopticon on the John, a system of paranoia and control in which a stranger may or may not be observing you every time you use the toilet.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:

Something my son didn't really appreciate until he started meds is that meds don't do the work for you. Extra time on tests, doesn't do the work for you. Wearing glasses--the most widespread accommodation of all, so common that we don't even think about it--doesn't do the fucking work for you.

Wherein I attempt to warm my shriveled soul: www.patreon.com/posts/first-...

Buy my parenting book! www.bloomsbury.com/us/deaf-baby...

If your government believes that a person’s (let alone a unicorn’s) bootie is an organ of reproduction, then maybe it’s time to reexamine what passes for sexual education. 3/

I just need to say, when I was teaching at university, I was always SO FUCKING DELIGHTED to be able to give accommodations to students. Because my son had an IEP the entire way up through school, and it was never taken seriously and never amounted to diddly-squat.

🙏🏽

My nickname is The Incredible Sulk for a reason. Also: AI sucks

This is sort of my apology for only posting one story in November. November, always my arch-nemesis, had been de-fanged a bit in recent years, but this year it came back to bite me good and hard.

New at Fake Folktales, free for ye: Brother Erne has gone silent for some time now, and some people are more worried than others www.patreon.com/posts/meanwh...

We don’t need to use the grotesque term “double-tap.” It’s from movies. It pretends to be knowing but it’s witless. It pretends to be tough but it’s squeamish. It’s euphemism for murder, a means of turning the dead into rhetoric. That’s why fascists like it: murderous abstraction.

Well, our record is now 0-3, but I'm proclaiming a moral victory since we only lost 8-7 after being down 8-0 after four ends.

Off to the curling club to play the glorious roaring game. And almost certainly lose, because that's how this mini-season is shaping up, but oh well. Worst case, we try to lie back and think of it as draw-weight practice. Which we desperately need, *lolsob*.

Learning to bake croissants and pretzels with my son. Also, weirdly, playing the game Pandemic, because whenever we would lose, we would all race for the hall closet and try to abscond with the toilet paper and hand sanitizer. This was what passed for humour in those days.

There are many more songs about curling than I realized. Some are actually pretty catchy.

This is where the concept of the "weirdness budget" comes in particularly handy. Sure, you COULD spend it all on making a whole new calendar. If the calendar is super important, then arguably you SHOULD. Just remember that readers have to keep track of all the new stuff you throw at them

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: Harbor seal Echidna Skunk Copperhead Lynx

I’m really, genuinely stunned that THE RIVER HAS ROOTS made it into the final round of the Goodreads choice awards for Fantasy, & very grateful to everyone who read & enjoyed it enough to make that happen! Voting closes on Sunday, vote for your faves before then!

This is an excellent book that I recommend to people all the time. Get yourself the new edition.

December is right around the corner, and with it, our somewhat-annual holiday party! Come by during store hours on Saturday December 6th! We'll have tasty treats, discounts, and almost all our staff will be in! Come pick our brains for the perfect recommendations for holiday gifts or for yourself.

This is horrifying and well worth reading. It doesn't apply perfectly to Canada, but it doesn't NOT apply, either.

'Who cares?': Carney, when asked about last time he spoke to Trump Mark continues the tradition of Canadian Prime Ministers being petty bitches. 🚬 gorgeous no notes www.youtube.com/watch?v=o37n...

You know what, I'm just gonna re-up this post

My son says his friend's sibling googled car repair, only read the AI summary, and was in an accident when the "repair" failed while driving. On one hand, this story feels bullshitty*. OtOH, I'm tickled that these are the bullshitty stories young people are telling about AI, ie. that it sucks.

ADHD meds saved my son's life, I will keep shouting this forever, but yeah, he also discovered that he still had to actually DO his homework, lol.

I'm not sure anyone will even see this thread, but we all have projects we wished had gotten more attention. What did you make in 2025 that you feel was overlooked? Tell us about it and share links so more of us can discover it!

DOH. HUGE NEWS in the tariff wars! (Point Roberts is a tiny sliver of America you can basically only reach from Canada.)

OR, you could just ask me what your toddler is saying. I'm not making a joke, I'm actually good at this. Which was a problem, in a way, because my son (who ended up needing speech therapy) was 3, he went from home (where I understood what he was saying) to preschool, where no one understood him.

We Vancouverites, unashamed and obvious tourists, didn't lead a life much different than this, because we melted whenever the temperature was above 25C. Which, in Kerala in November, was every single day

Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!

My new favourite game with the dog is called "Mommy is Boring" and it's where she falls asleep on a mat next to my chair

Welllll... my team this mini-season is going to test this thesis thoroughly, I fear. 0-2 so far, and boy howdy did we suck hard today.

Most woke opinion: since incorporated bodies are people & you’re eligible to run for president of the USA if you were born here OR if you were here when the constitution was ratified, Canada can & should run for president of the USA. Native & First Nations tribal gov’ts can too, also Lake Michigan

New at Fake Folktales: Brother Erne begins telling Frai Moldi some family stories, in hopes of somehow figuring out the truth about what happened to his mother. I'm not sure this particular story offers many clues, but maybe there are more than meet the eye... www.patreon.com/posts/mother...

I went down to Blaine, WA recently to update my Nexus Card documents and was really struck by how almost the ONLY people crossing the border, either direction, were people with Nexus. Meaning there was a line in the "fast" lane, and nowhere else, haha www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

Really wondering when the rodents are going to figure out that we have to throw food at the dog to get her to eat, and some of it sometimes goes under the fridge

DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT

Teetering on the bedside table

New novice league curling mini-season! My team, A Brush With Destiny, went 3-2 last round. We're back for more, now with two new players, and maybe we're 0-1 to start, but we showed we're competitive. I know you love curling updates, so I'll report again next week.

This needs more attention: Zohran SPLIT the straights with Cuomo. ALL of his margin was from LGBTQ+ voters. Every Dem who ever said “we should abandon the transes” needs this shoved down their fucking throat with a ramrod.

In other news: as one of the few people who apparently feels this way, I'm enjoying the hell out of the time change!

Of course the Jays losing is not some kind of metaphor for Canada's struggles with our southern neighbours, certainly not some kind of PROPHECY for how all that is likely to go, I'm not SUPERSTITIOUS, I just kind of... *weep*

The second part (but not the last) of Brother Erne's letter from Santi Prudia in Ninys. Why yes, that is Frai Moldi, but can he help? www.patreon.com/posts/from-s...

Huge thank you to the comedians, musicians, artists and writers who are just as mad and bewildered as the rest of us but are still doing their best to make life worth living for everyone.

We finally made crawfish etouffee with actual crawfish instead of shrimp (thank you, local Chinese grocery!) and WOW it's good

I'm shaking almost too hard to type. I entered SLC airport and heard screams and cries for help. I could see people gathered around, watching. I sped over to discover this woman face down on the floor, four grown men pushing her down, while she cried "HELP ME" and pled for her child.

Finally, a homemade food recipe our picky puppy LIKES! It involves chicken liver, peanut butter, and TUNA, which sounds terrible and is as stinky as you'd expect, but if she'll eat it on her own without coaxing you have no idea how welcome that is.