Tearing through Christina Henry's "The Ghost Tree", an author new to me. Oldest and I gave each other horror books for Christmas, both nervous because we were going "off list".😆 But I'm engrossed and can't stop vocalizing as I read. #ThursdayBookChat

Tearing through Christina Henry's "The Ghost Tree", an author new to me. Oldest and I gave each other horror books for Christmas, both nervous because we were going "off list".😆 But I'm engrossed and can't stop vocalizing as I read. #ThursdayBookChat

Attention: We now have a cat in the tree theme song which is a welcome break from the vile Christmas music people keep using for audio on cat in tree content.

this is absolutely true, but the trick is that you’re supposed to kill it Bari executed the lesser known and far more risky “catch and release only to Canada,” but since Canada also has the internet it did not go as planned

Spent Christmas Eve evening with some of my #BikeChi family, packing up 150 cheesecakes and riding around the city, passing them out to neighbors on the street and community fridges for some last minute Christmas cheer 🎅🏽🫶🏽🚲🍰

you indeed cannot make art or class struggle if you're dead, which is why I await support for my class development grant proposals on "History of Agricultural Practices 1500-Present" and "Sanitation Work in the Byzantine Empire"

Wrapping up this year's #ArtAdventCalendar with a sea otter presenting you with a pearl because you deserve it 💜 And many thanks to @jayispainting.earthskyart.ca for organizing this lovely event. Definitely a beacon of light in dark times 🙂

I gotta book coming?

I'd hoped to finish this off by today but oh well (binding is about half done). Given that I started it 7 years ago and then set it down for 6 years, I'm still really happy with where I am with it this year! #ArtAdventCalendar

I did not get my act together to participate in #ArtAdventCalendar this year, but I’ll swoop in at the end with this year’s Christmas card. I took up #linocut relief printing this year and this is a two block print.

Day 24 #ArtAdventCalendar is an array of 50 full-sized paper bags gussied-up with acrylic paint to hopefully bring joy to a few people when they receive their Meals on Wheels delivery. Merry Christmas to all & thanks to @jayispainting.earthskyart.ca for the December diversion.

Let’s take care of each other today.

they’re bluffing when they say you can still get knocked off the nice list this late in the game. santa’s been delivering gifts in japan for hours by now; that list is locked, do whatever you want.

never forget that fatphobia originates in white supremacy and has propagated itself as a tool of social control and one of many tactics to divide society against itself

my festive spirit amidst our grimly stupid reality (2025)

This does not happen every day... Took delivery of a stunning #NewAcquisition for @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Beautiful early 17th century embroidery on this little psalm book, the colour on the ribbon as fresh as the day it was made nearly 400 years ago!

About 25 of these memorials went up in Rogers Park over the past few days, marking the spots where our neighbors were abducted by armed, masked government agents. This sign is at the end of our street. You don’t have to go far to find another one.

hello officer(s)

I drew a Christmas tree and the trimmings, here with tidings.

If there’s one part of the Constitution and its Amendments that everyone in the US understands and holds sacred, it’s the First Amendment. Free speech may be the only value we all agree on. If you tell us something was censored, no matter what it is, we will trip over our feet running to see it.

Lying in bed, tears streaming from my eyes, because I just finished this. Keezy wrote & illustrated an absolutely amazing graphic novel about love, loss, perception, experience & the things that haunt us, & everyone should read it. 100 out of 10. Seriously. Why aren't you reading it right now?

Sale news: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles is on sale for $1.99. If you fancy some queer romance involving smugglers and noblemen this holiday season, I highly recommend it. amzn.to/4jb5IMN

Festive doughnuts acquired!

A gritty reboot of ducktales where huey duey and louie help mine workers in south africa unionize and overthrow flintheart glomgold

Chicago (especially Irving Park, Albany Park, and Lincoln Square): Global Gardens on Lawrence at the river is trying to raise funds to replace lost federal grants www.instagram.com/reel/DSk_9iK...

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

Some absolutely top notch orange cattery here

"Why are you only talking about [horror in the news] and not [other horror in the news]?" Me, trying to process the ten new horrors that sprung up in the time it took you to ask me:

We'll be reading stories for ✨ What Elegant Stars: Queer Tales of Impossible Style ✨ from January 15th to April 15th. Give us stories of satellites and sewists, terminals and tailors, dandies and dying stars. <6k words. 8¢/word. simsub ☑️. multiple submissions 🚫. www.neonhemlock.com/submissions

Subreddits like r/cats have had people coming in asking what breed their (wonderful) adopted kitties are so often, one of the members made this simplified flowchart, which I love. Now I'll be good and pay the Cat Tax - behold domestic shorthair blue tuxedo Mindy ;) 0% Breed, 100% Sass.

Parisot (the Director) tells a story about how Tim Allen just started crying after a scene one day "I don't like these feelings i'm having." Says Tim. "I'm going back to my trailor" and walks off. There's silence for a second. "Oh my god." Says Rickman. "I think Tim just experienced acting."

Jewish Currents is looking for a new editor in chief. I learned so much from Arielle and thankfully, she's not leaving. But whoever takes on the role of editor in chief will be leading the magazine in a very exciting time of expansion. Apply here: jewishcurrents.org/careers?toke...

This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment. It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process

WHAT IS CAUSING THE RISING DEMAND, CNN

This is just a note to say that I have eaten the falcon in a widening gyre and that you were probably saving for anarchy Forgive me it was delicious so rough and full of passionate intensity

How do historians process that kind of material? Well, I read it all. I learned how to recognize the handwriting of every family member (40 cousins in one generation) and other correspondents. I learned how to skim. And then I transcribed 2000+ letters that I needed more time to analyze.

Both Lupus in Fabula by @flameswallower.bsky.social and The Writhing, Verdant End by @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social, @tiffmorris.bsky.social, and @ericraglin1992.bsky.social made it on Blog Without A Face's best horror of the year list! theblogwithoutaface.com/2025/12/22/b...

Gonna be interesting when people use this as evidence in a class action lawsuit against sportsbooks demanding they pay back their losses, and then the sportsbooks sue the shit out of Tate for fraud. Failure to detect that Tate was betting against himself makes them liable.

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

ending solitary confinement is the necessary first step in imagining a justice system that truly serves justice, that serves the people. Solitary Watch helps people whose humanity the current system tries to destroy. at the end of the year, consider helping them in their work.

At least we have the foreign press to tell us how it is

I have, apparently, written 200 of these newsletters, so here's a compilation of some of the previous ones, plus a lot of new romance reviews: www.feliciadavin.com/200/

BLESSED YULE AND HAPPY SOLSTICE TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE 🌲🕯️🌟 THE SUN IS GONNA COME BACK

“DEI isn’t making money” Fam we are watching gay hockey soaps in a bar to get some decent writing in our lives . They got us messed up

It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans. 🧵 1 of 9

Now would be a great time for a 10 episode, 20 hour prestige series about the ten years between 1916 and 1926, covering the establishment of the 8-hr work day & 5-day work week, in the US. Each episode would be one year & the middle episode should be entirely devoted to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

important

They are meeting tomorrow morning. Come out and get your voices heard! Join the progressive coalition at 9 am tomorrow at 121 N LaSalle St for public comment and a press conference.

Also there are 11 more days to submit your queer speculative stories already published in 2025! The editors love reading far and wide, so please especially consider submitting work from journals and anthologies they might not be aware of. www.neonhemlock.com/were-here