historian here! Yes

Reason #537 I am unsuited for the Olympics or really any serious competition: I would absolutely stop to pet that dog.

AMERICA! "A Sorceress Comes to Call" by @tkingfisher.com, is on sale for $2.99 for Kindle this week!

A friend of mine is currently in need. Any sharing or contributions, no matter the size, are deeply appreciated, especially in times like these.

*cronch*

Briggs wrote this book five years ago, and i think it would be good for those of us who don’t know this history to catch up. Trump is not an exception. He *is* “who we are.”

Nothing like armed, barely regulated cis men, who chose a profession of violence, being given legal free reign to burst into the bathroom at any moment, to make cis women feel safe... I feel like this should have been a SNL skit from the early 90s for a government-funded, terror-based laxative.

Four and a half MILLION dead children

"Possible outbreak?" asked my partner. "Yep", I replied. "Sooooo", he said, "TB, or *not* TB? That is the question?" *headdesk* *headdesk* headdesk*

I rung in 2026 being violently ill and disoriented to the point of barely able to speak and spouse took me into the ER. Weeks & many tests later still no answers, but only mild lingering issues. Thankful that I don't need my gallbladder removed (main initial hypothesis) but worried about a repeat.

the horror of this is compounded by the fact that the whipple building sits on the same military fort where 1600+ Dakota, mostly women and children were held in a concentration camp in 1863, where over 300 died

🧵In my expert opinion as a researcher of vehicle ramming attacks, what has been publicly described in the video evidence does not support the claim that Renee Nicole Good was attempting a deliberate ramming attack when she was shot in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. 1/7

This is my baby, Brân. A GSD mix we found at a rescue as a puppy. We had over 14 yrs with him. He loved curry, spicy food, and pretty much anything we ate and he was allowed to try. He was a lap baby, gentle with puppies & kitties. Yesterday was his last day. He was spoiled and held every moment.

Those hermit crabs can exfoliate me down to my bones. And then some kids find them, make a weird alter in their club house, and that's how I become immortalized, by the news clippings when their parents sneak in thinking they'll find drugs and find my Bone Cult. Bone Cult: You'd wish it was drugs.

Just interviewed for a lab position at a teaching hospital in Boston and if I do not get the job (unfortunately likely), it is going to become my life's ambition to work there because medical science lab + office International Food Days is literally the most perfect place to work that I can imagine.

Took a nice sunset photo the other day and forgot to post it so here it is now.

Playing an arrogant, book-thieving cultist in an eldritch horror LARP yesterday has been the most fun I've in ages. The character was brought low by her own ambition and a spear-gun! The LARP was online and really well done! The different channels for scenes and rotating groups worked great.

Decorated part of the house last night for the first snowfall of the season. A few garlands, pine wreaths, festive placemats on the dining table. What I'm missing is a larger-than-life-sized Krampus to randomly hide in closets and a giant, wicker & straw Yule goat to set fire to in the field.

I need this today so very badly. If I had the energy, I'd build and crawl into a blanket fort, ferally hissing at anything bipedal that disturbed my reading. Instead I'll be on the couch, curled around a heating pad, maybe with a blanket thrown over my head while reading... still going to hiss.

being ruled by tiny men bereft of both curiosity and the ability to feel wonder is a terrible fate

I'm tired of hurting. I would like to bury my heart under some floorboards. Just give it a little vacation amidst the dust and creaking wood. Or maybe in a tree hollow, it couldn't feel too much worse if a woodland critter had a few bites.

I was reading a book the other day and the author threw in a passing mention to a bridge in Cork, Ireland which I’m pretty sure was a gift to me personally because what do you mean the locals have called it The Shakey Bridge for so long that recent conservation works were forced to retain the wobble

Sometimes you change your expression in the mirror to a smooth and sultry smile, just to remind yourself of what you could maybe someday be.

Now that they have actually litigated the legality of throwing sandwiches, we need someone to take one for the team and chuck a burger at someone so we can finally answer the question that has divided Western society for generations

I want to have a Gothic horror pajama party. Flowing nightgowns and house robes, candelabras, wandering the hallways and grounds of a rented old house in the countryside, gathering together by firelight and watching a film or reading aloud a thrilling classic ghost story.

icymi: the city commission meeting is tomorrow night, i’d like to get to 500 signatures today. even if you’re not local, please sign! help me save my town’s little free libraries and little free pantries! www.change.org/p/amend-city...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I have adulted (panickedly fixed up a resume and submitted it) while tired, nauseous, and futilely trying to ease a massive tension headache. No reward snack (nauseous) so I would like a reward *something that doesn't involve more effort on my part like being unconscious inside a soundproof coffin*

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

I don't need a mere massage. I need someone to rip out my spine and bludgeon my back with it until the muscles are tenderized.

Folklore and history focused account by an incredible, knowledgeable individual!

This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.

"And what do we say to the god of Death?" Me: "Take me now!" Death: "Is that a come on?" Me: "No, you spawn of a desperate herder and the slowest goat, let me on the damn boat!"

The view out the living room window here is one of my favorites. Currently there's a rainstorm but enough soft, ambient light that the trees look glowing with gold, orange, and scarlet foliage against the grey sky, and the wind carried a parade of dark golden and orange leaves swirling by.

Queen

Indulging in a Massachusetts autumn morning: grey, rainy day, vibrant foliage, clam chowder, and looking for horror books to read in between chores, studying, and doom scrolling. Gothic horror is appealing as I too wish to be without physical form, drifting through an old manor and wild moors.

Really tired of the days of nausea, abdominal pain, and my body feeling like a house of horrors. This is October, the horrors are supposed to be on the outside, not inside. *looks at news* Not outside like that! I need a creepy manor by the seaside to recover while slowly uncovering a mystery.

A weekly (soon to be daily!) reminder that I need a new job! My Narrative Design contract at InXile ends 10/17 and I would love to have something resembling gainful employment before then if at all possible. www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-b...

With science falling under increasing attack, this medical historian is here to remind people of the power of #vaccines. THREAD🧵 Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7

I finally cleaned up my messy cablework

If anyone is interested in attending an officially licensed Hobbit Festival this October 7th-12th, please let me know. I am unable to attend due to elderly dog health problems and schedule conflicts and am trying to sell my ticket to someone who would like to go. burgschneider.com/pages/middle...

Therapist suggested I carry a small notebook to write things down during the time between sessions that I might want to discuss. So I am getting a booklet with Field Notes written on the front to write down my observations while studying myself in my natural habitat.

Approaching the time of year when mosquitoes finally go back to Hell and I can start thinking of hosting outdoor feasts looking out on the forest behind the house and drinking something spiced while sitting next to a bonfire.

So apparently the younger dog picked up giardia and passed it to the elderly dog, and from the looks of things also to my spouse and I. Additionally, it's the monthly my body hates me time, which includes my digestive tract. So many to-do's this week and next, so little will.

My mom asked for a bag of cat litter delivered as a birthday present and this the commercial my brain spat out: New litter with glitter! So you can see everywhere your little shite gremlins have tracked it over the house!

My hope for you is that you always feel safe and warm, and that you will someday inherit a haunted mansion on the moors filled with restless ghosts, grumpy cats, and at least 2 cozy libraries hidden behind secret doors.

probably a good time to bring this back

Yesterday I got to walk around Yale campus and later a hiking spot doing photography things with a group of lovely, kind, and creative people. Today I get to meet up with and spend time with two friends I haven't seen in person since before the pandemic.