a librarian's cri du coeur

And when you spend years ignoring some of the amazing things going on in your field, and then dump on the field as a whole, it looks...pretty bad. Especially when you're the National Ambassador for the Thing You're Dumping On.

The call is coming from inside the house. Uplift books. Celebrate the lit. Help it grow. Examine your biases. Who do you defend, and who do you dismiss? Who does the story about 95% of kids books being crud serve? It's not the readers.

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif.

guys i don't know what happened, i just sent out a newsletter for the first time in over a year Chronicling Joy, One Day at a Time bkshelvesofdoom.ghost.io/chronicling-...

...though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.

omg i saw that delroy lindo was trending and my blood pressure spiked but then i saw it was about an OSCAR NOM and i am so relieved and delighted

I think the people at GMail are not anticipating how much inconvenience and agitation I am willing to suffer through just to make their desire to mine my data a tiny bit harder to accomplish.

i hate AI so much that my phone usage is down to under 30 minutes a day, sooooo thanks for your annoying-ass choices, Big Tech

King: you'll love this story King: joe's a chip off the ol' block Joe Hill: dad please stop Hill: i need to find my own voice Hill: i don't want everyone thinking i'm a nepo baby King: i'm sorry joe King: i'm just so proud of you King: DO YOU HEAR ME, PEOPLE? I LOVE MY BOY JOE! Hill: dad stahp

Hey so “underage girls” are…children. The word you’re looking for is children. They’re not like, women-in-waiting or women-lite or whatever. They’re children. I think some of you are very uncomfortable with what that means for you but it is still true.

And so it was that throughout the lands, as news readers named Watson and Crick as the discoverers of the DNA helix, a rousing chorus of “Rosalind Franklin” was directed towards the news.

I feel like we have the opportunity to turn David Lynch's quote into this moment's "Keep Calm and Carry On" and it's a far better rallying cry too.

The f*&%ing library.

Me explaining the MERL deep lore to my partner so that he will understand how this is Very Funny, Actually™

“You think your pain & your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.” Baldwin

“You truly cannot separate the personal experience of having this disease from the social experience of it.” @gavingrant.bsky.social and @anneursu.bsky.social on chronic illness, writing, and family.

Merlin doesn’t seem to have a setting for “Creature that screams at you from the darkest shadows at four AM” and this needs fixing asap.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence the conversation around young men is so similar to racism. Someone says “we need to end racism” and so often the response from a white person is “did you just call me racist????” People with more power are so scared about losing what they know they don’t deserve.

A lesson to be learned here

Man, this is a pretty fucking gross move from Amazon, huh? Good on @bookshop.org for not mincing words, though:

sound is a must

rewatching “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” as homework for a podcast appearance tomorrow in which I will get to explain why it is actually amazing and underrated and romantic and profound despite all the hate it gets, and I’ve simply never seen a man as beautiful as Jim Kirk swooning over his ship

yes.

there will be plenty of things out there that are not to your taste, but this culture of saying yuck to sincerity to get little more than an empty laugh - it will destroy your heart.

Peek-a-boo!

Forever guilty

London

Happy Bat Appreciation Day! The German word for a bat, Fledermaus, means “flutter mouse.” The Basque word, saguzar, means “old mouse.” And the Estonian word, nahkhiir, means “leather mouse.” But to me (and to anyone who’s seen the picture below) the correct term for bats will always be “sky puppies”

King: hey clive i read online that you were pro trans rights Clive Barker: what an odd thing to say Barker: why ever would you feel the need to remark on that Barker: when it's the obvious opinion held by all right-thinking people Barker: but yes

As Detroit's own Grace Lee Boggs taught us, “You don’t choose the times you live in. But you do choose who you want to be, and you do choose how you want to think.” Hard to feel celebratory, here in the Turbulent Era, but I'm proud of the way I've chosen to live regardless ✌🏾

I worked with Clive. Loved it. Loved him. I would do it again. He knows what the fuck is up.

I find that treating art films like genre films and genre films like art films is a strategy that rarely steers me wrong and often leads to some fun and interesting places.

Also, please memorize this: "I INVOKE MY RIGHTS TO SILENCE AND COUNSEL AND WILL NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS WITHOUT MY ATTORNEY PRESENT." That, "am I free to leave?", and identifying yourself in stop-and-ID states are the only things you should ever say to police. Ever.

the level of stupidity here is breathtaking I can't wait youtu.be/IYLHdEzsk1s?...

Happy birthday #entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)! Her stepdad Jacob Marrel & students trained her as an artist. She began painting insects & plants by 13. She wrote, “I spent my time investigating insects. [...] I realized that other caterpillars produced 🧵

we've been rewatching it lately and goddamn, it is exactly what my heart wanted/needed. so smart, so dumb, and so much more heart than I remembered it having. also I love the fights

If you say things like this, you should maybe google what the Great Arsenal of Democracy was doing in 1935, and spoiler alert, it was Jim Crow, denying immigration and citizenship to people on account of their race.

The United States is just a country. It is not special. It is not the first country out of many. We are just one country, and I see my obligation as a citizen of it as doing what I can to make our empire's fall--and our empire IS falling--as painless for those around us and in us as I can.

As sad as I am that a missed yet another opportunity to meet up with one of the GOATS and an integral part of my unholy trinity......HAPPY BOOKIVERSARY @sgj.bsky.social! Thank you so much for Jade, she truly is the best of the Final Girls.

I showed my wife, a historian, the Kristi Noem video. She said “holy shit!” It’s a lot. A brief thread on bodies. It begins in the alt text below… 1/

me: I can't believe it's only Thursday josh: ...it's Wednesday me: fuuuuuuuuuucck

'Path in Snow' by Eyvind Earle (1916-2000). #art

I was trying to say 'on the floor, but 'one with the floor' would work too

how have I never seen this episode, my jaw is one the floor

Five things I did last week … 1. Wake up 2. Brush my teeth 3. Sign autographs 4. Your mom 5. Donate my Elon Sux-mobile to NPR

Chuck Schumer has learned his lesson. by Susan Collins

💯

seeing a lot of "not all Americans" attitude and... yeesh, a lot of Americans really need to contend with the fact that our country is (and has been for a long time) the asshole of the world stage

it would make things easier, as currently I do a lot of "oh yeah, so-and-so tweeted such-and-such... but you know, on bluesky"