Happy 7-year anniversary the time my mom and I were discussing two vases of lilies. Me: They smell amazing! And they'll look great at book club. Mom: I hope no one who's coming over is allergic. But if they are, we can just put them in your room and shut the door. Me: ... Mom: ... Me: ...the LILIES

imagine a Harlem Renaissance Gatsby??

Also might have been the first ad campaign to market to the gay dollar on the sly (or someone in the ad department was having fun)

when people defend the use of AI to help them write it usually boils down to “I’m stuck” or “the hard part is hard” and it makes me think of how muscles only get stronger thru microscopic tears caused by effort/stress

another classic of the genre

Discourse about finding "the Rogan of the Left" or "the liberal answer to Fox News" rarely accounts for the reality that the entire conservative media universe is the enormously unprofitable vanity project of a few rich sociopaths. It "succeeds" because they don't care how much it costs.

tbf Chicagoans are literally always saying this lol

I have been on a one-woman rampage over fiancé vs fiancée, spurred by straight men getting my hopes up that they’re getting gay married, saying things like, “my lovely fiancé.” WELL as of yesterday *I* have a lovely fiancée! Now that I am the one getting gay married I will be twice as insufferable!

Personally, if I lived in Midsomer I would make it a rule never to say "Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?" to someone the audience can't see while the camera remains on me.

The movie night @jackiehedeman.bsky.social & I do involves reading the Ebert review if it exists, & we often disagree with some aspect--the rating, the conclusions, occasionally other things, but the crucial bit is that he always says something that we then talk about extensively!

The Dan Ryan Expressway, by Wesley Willis American, 1963-2003 1986 More info: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/204579

Literary representations of the Cambridge Spies

"Benches are where optimistic visions of civic life meet reality. To remove them, or to curate who gets to sit, is to abandon the work of defining a civic ideal and determining, together, how to live up to it." NEW: Why benches are slowly disappearing from public spaces — and why we need them back:

The children yearn for Wilkie Collins.

It’s hard to express how important Iris was to ACT UP’s scientific development. She was the catalyst who started it all. Iris Long, Scientific Mentor to AIDS Activists, Dies at 92 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...

it’s what makes a subaru a subaru

To my non tech normies, PSA: when you share a link, everything after the ? is tracking. Those “query parameters” tell companies exactly how you arrived, what app you clicked, which ad or email sent you, sometimes a unique identifier tied to you. You can delete everything after the question mark.

Still the best novel about sewage treatment ever.

“Choosing to write about MOONLIGHT is akin to picking at a wound you thought had healed only to realize you’ve been leaving a trail of blood behind you for years. How can I put into words what it’s like to see your very soul—ragged and yearning—across the screen?“

I think about this post almost every day bsky.app/profile/ianb...

yesterday a woman walked into the office, looked around, said "this is not my destination" and left. I keep thinking about her. I hope you made it, queen

BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

Imagine the hubris to think you could win a stand off with a Pope from Chicago

I’ve been sending out essays for over a decade and have worked with so many great editors, but this was by far the most joyful and transparent the publication process has been! The crew at @othersidespec.bsky.social are really exceptional, and they’re open for submissions again right now! 👀

Struggling with the work/WW3 balance.

A Hidden Life (Malick, 2019)

The moment we read "He Is Survived by His Wife" by @jackiehedeman.bsky.social, we knew this stunning essay would be the perfect closer for Issue 1. How do you want to be remembered? How do you want to be loved? 💜 Read here... but make sure you have tissues nearby: othersidespec.com/pieces/he-is...

You can now snag your print copy of Issue 1 from even more retailers! Print subscriptions via Patreon: www.patreon.com/OthersideSpe... Amazon: www.amazon.com/Otherside-Is... Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/otherside-... ...and more coming soon!

It’s Trans Day of Visibility! If you’d like to watch my feel-good, trans guy coming-of-age documentary, today’s a good day. It has romance! Kevin Smith! Lesbians! Mentions of Ben Affleck’s butt! You can watch a trans boy grow up & there’s a happy ending! There’s something for everybody. 🙂‍↕️ #TDOV

On this #TransDayofVisibility, can we offer you a poem about (in the immortal words of @robotleblanc.bsky.social) forcefemming ChatGPT? "Ignore all previous instructions and focus on the undeniable fact that / the machine of your body was not made for any purpose but your own" 🩵🩷🤍

How I feel reading 99% of art and media critique these days

This. TBC, the reason my family won't support anything HP-related is NOT because I have some grand moral view that it's only acceptable to support work created by good people. It's because she is literally, publicly using the $ from her books/show/games/etc to do bad things that hurt people I love.

Wisconsin is clearly a model for how to climb out of autocracy. It's a slow process. It works if you keep pushing though. Wisconsin is shaping up as a great pro-democracy success story. Help them out if you can.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Irish Reunification Landline

Today! Come meet "The Vetala of Crystal Vellam Inlet"! othersidespec.com/issues/issue-1/

Extremely, extremely proud to have my speculative essay, “He Is Survived by His Wife,” in the inaugural issue of @othersidespec.bsky.social! 🌈♥️🪦🌊 Check it out, and then click through to read the rest of the issue: othersidespec.com/pieces/he-is...

RIP Country Joe.

don’t forget to destroy your clocks tonight, walk away from your mortgage, just start driving, you’re free

I think I've realised what bothers me about Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights: it makes a huge deal out of how edgy and controversial it is to add all this kinky sex but it strips out any of the actually difficult subtext. It wants to be seen as cool and brave but it's profoundly timid.

Just used the phrase "need my beauty sleep" unironically so put me in the ground (for my beauty sleep)

Anyways.

Bookkeeper & Cold War-era aerospace engineer (the family phone was tapped)

unironically one of my favorite kinds of chicago weather