This is amazing, Melissa! ❤️❤️

Released on this day in 1987, the sixth studio album by #DepecheMode was "Music for the Masses". It featured such recognizable tracks as "Strangelove" and "Never Let Me Down Again".

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

"The TV remotes, the dog’s water bowl, the lamp with the retro paisley design that we never turned on—gone, gone, and gone." @kmschillaci.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social bendinggenres.com/vanishing-po...

"The TV remotes, the dog’s water bowl, the lamp with the retro paisley design that we never turned on—" I love this brilliant piece by @kmschillaci.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social 💙💙💙 bendinggenres.com/vanishing-po...

The world sucks, but I have a new story, Vanishing Point, up at @bendinggenres.bsky.social, which makes me happy. Great big thanks to the editors, and also to my @smokelong.bsky.social March Micro Marathon workshoppers! (NO, autocorrect, I don't mean worshippers!) bendinggenres.com/vanishing-po...

New bff. Or…gff? ❤️🐐

I started writing short stories when freelancing began to feel terrible. I needed to write short, weird things instead of click-y things. @wigleaf.bsky.social was one of the first journals I fell in love with. A dream pub. One day, I hoped! Today I have a story there. 😱🥹

Well worth a little traffic on the drive home. 🗻🌲

"the parts that matter I remember & none of it matters but oh how it did for a while — my best friend’s first taste of alcohol vodka on the tongue of a girl I wanted...." So 1988. Love this by @amorak.bsky.social in @trampset.bsky.social 🤘

"Earl suggests we try trapping the goat in a sheet and I picture limbs punching out, like how Cas’ belly will look if she keeps trying to do it with Earl." I do love a story with a goat! Wonderful storytelling, @sarahillswrites.bsky.social in @fracturedlit.bsky.social 🐐🧡

I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, "no. get out."

excited to learn a quirky story of mine has been picked up by @bendinggenres.bsky.social for their June issue! 🎉

Strains bounds of propriety? Strains…bounds…of…proprietary? Am I having a stroke? What is happening?

*crab-walked

"He hopes the crab won’t see the red, a wavelength not seen by most creatures because it’s too long, like the light being carried from their namesake nebula" beautiful writing, @lumchanmfa.bsky.social - in Cutleaf

Tapirs: voted animal most likely designed by a toddler.

NEW STORY⚡️🐸 “A City by an Ocean with a Plant by a Window, and a Cat” by @emilyrinkema.bsky.social is now up! Art by @keelyhoneywell.bsky.social flash-frog.com/2025/05/12/a...

"We lick our lips, pull our dresses a little higher over tanned legs, tricks learned to lure white boys like them, watching their eyes linger and then pull away..." @lumchanmfa.bsky.social in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social !! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pitheadchapel.com/mission-boys...

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

In Trump's first 100 days, he alienated us from our allies, crashed the stock market, decimated U.S. cancer research, expelled American toddlers, lost the Canadian election by proxy, and threatened your Social Security checks. But at least he focused on the important stuff.

hot damn - this made my day, @lumchanmfa.bsky.social!

"He had a sparse but black mustache. T-shirts that said, Let’s Boogie. Keep on Truckin‘. Gas, Grass or Ass: Nobody Rides for Free, which made me laugh..." So good, @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ In @reckonreview.bsky.social. reckonreview.com/august-ficti...

"I don’t know if that’s true, or if this rainmaker can answer my prayers, but he has four cases of dynamite strapped to the bed of his Ford, and the blackest eyelashes I’ve ever seen..." This is a beauty, by @mynachang.bsky.social. ⬇️🧨⬇️🧨⬇️🧨

"Washington Stories Fund grants of up to $7,500 are available to public humanities projects. The deadline to apply for 2025 is May 31." Never been a more important time than now to apply, fellow Washingtonians! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Excited that my quirky "Rod the Ice Cream Man" story will be resuscitated in this year's flood! Yay! I believe there is still time to submit yours! ⬇️🌶️⬇️

Gary, on park patrol.

⬇️🌶️⬇️🔥⬇️

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

"We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement. The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights." Let's see more of this. ⬇️ www.harvard.edu/president/ne...

"You punched the air & smiled & you became, honey, the one song I’ll play on repeat my whole life, tapping out the rhythm against the table as the tomatoes simmer in the pan" Damn. This is so good. ⬇️🍅

"We talked in our own accents, used our own language, told them our creation stories, fed them laksa and posole and bamya." Beautiful story for the hopeful, and also the less so. @pleomorphic2.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

"There’s a weird tightness to Gladys’ leathered face, her leathered fingers still working, when Bernice says, 'I don’t think that’s scratching.'" @sarahillswrites.bsky.social in @flashfrog.bsky.social !! 🔥⬇️🔥⬇️🔥⬇️

"The timing was perfect. The artificial intelligence used to create previously nonexistent proteins with the potential to provide new cancer treatments, tackle plastic waste, deliver life-saving vaccines, capture carbon and other essential tasks has hit its stride.." www.geekwire.com/2025/from-no...

At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.

This! Do this! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

This person said her daughter drew this. Impressive!

From the snowy Santa Fe State Capitol!

"His mom’s voice is wilted lettuce, soft green with blurred edges, as she nudges him from couch to bed" Love the use of synaesthesia in this sensory treat from @kmschillaci.bsky.social - so much creativity here

But he can now smell colors and has a strong desire to lick metal objects like the doctor’s stethoscope, otoscope, ophthalmoscope. WOW!! So happy to see @kmschillaci.bsky.social killing it again with her amazing writing! Check out her latest in Ghost Parachute ( @brettpribble.bsky.social )!

This story is brilliant, @kmschillaci.bsky.social! The sister in the background...the way you hold back in that last paragraph. So good.

"Why a horse? they asked. Why not? he replied, and, suddenly, some in our country loved horses. They painted pictures of them on their houses. They rebuilt their cars to resemble them." @ronburch.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute!!! 🐴⬇️🐴⬇️🐴⬇️🐴⬇️

Once again, I got an opportunity to get my artwork published with Ghost Parachute. Thank you @brettpribble.bsky.social Read this amazing story by @kmschillaci.bsky.social

Thrilled to have my story "Dizzy on the Pitch" -- born and raised in a @smokelong.bsky.social workshop! -- in Ghost Parachute this month, along with artwork by @damicandrea.bsky.social!! ❤️⬇️

Motivation! ⬇️

In bloom right outside my office door, but I only took the one obligatory pic!

JUST IN: The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was placed on administrative leave this morning, following a meeting between IMLS leadership and DOGE staff.

The magnolia tree on Newkirk Avenue. The earth always wakes up, no matter how many times we try to put it to sleep.

Pug paws full of sand 🐾 🧡