I’m DNFing the movie version of people we meet on vacation. It’s my least favorite Emily Henry anyway, and I’m hating the movie version.

I think I get it: Trump and his people are so corrupt, there’s a kind of purity in it. Where extremes meet.

*insanely frustrated sounds* PEOPLE. "Moreso" is not a word. It's two words. And where you're using the non-word "moreso," you should simply be using the word "more." Try it. English speakers have been using "more" in this way for centuries. It's a thing.

Am I weird or pragmatic (or both?) I don't actually mind people talking during a movie, AS LONG AS THEY DON'T DO IT DURING DIALOGUE. I can watch a car chase or a sex scene or a long, slow day-in-the-life moment while also listening to commentary. BUT I CAN'T HEAR 2 PEOPLE TALKING AT THE SAME TIME.

My new year's resolution for 2026 will be to slowly move toward a 100% biodegradable wardrobe. I have no idea how long this will take. Sigh.

Moments when you realize viscerally that you are neurodivergent: reading a scene in a book in which a sensory-enhanced character describes feeling everything on her body, and I’m like: that’s a Tuesday.

Okay. I’m reading a book that’s actually well written, but the author is STILL making up irregular past tenses. Now it’s “pat.” “She pat the bed bedside her” instead of “patted.” How can they not HEAR how wrong that is?

If I’m going to drag my brain out of writing depression, I need to feed it. Possession excited me, and I need more. What do you recommend? I read next? If it’s contemporary literary fiction that thinks about literature and has romantic elements to it, like possession, that’s a plus.

One of the difficulties of meditation is, the moment I start paying attention to my breath, breathing becomes difficult and laborious. And there’s no way too get back to autonomic breathing without turning my attention away from my breath. I’ve been meditating for months w/o improving. Suggestions?

Remember “Birthday” by the Sugarcubes? I was just listening to it and remembering how delightful it was, and realizing that it could be read as being about a pedo grooming a young child. Am I the problem?

Why did Dick Cheney wait until his brand of evil was almost obsolete to die? It's like he didn't want us to take any delight in it.

Re-reading Byatt's Possession has me hungry for other lit fic romances. Can anyone recommend any others?

Not Writing A wasp rises to its papery nest under the eaves where it daubs at the gray shape, but seems unable to enter its own house. Jane Kenyon

Did you all know that chili crisp is amazing on cottage cheese?

Wow, that was a strong one!

Can every single writer who sees this right now, drop everything and look up the word “smirk“? It does not mean what most of you think it means.

Even though I risk some doof flying in here with cultural and class sensitivity, I stand by the principle that if you’re going to be a professional writer, you MUST know what the words you’re using mean, and how to use them.

Is it just me, or are bay leaves the world’s biggest scam?

The biggest fiction mistake millennials and gen Zers make is trying to use high flown language without reading 18th/19th century books. They almost inevitably use the idioms wrong, mix metaphors, and outright misconstrue the style. I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m saying read the classics first!

“Her neat script was scrawled across the page,” ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???? #BadEditing #AlsoBadWriting

Note to self: no matter how many eggs you eat, eggs and toast for breakfast will ALWAYS leave you hungry all morning.

If you shop at Free People, or would like to but it’s too expensive, they’re running an insane sale on TikTok RN. Every item, including designer collabs, is under ten dollars. I’m guessing these are return items. Oh, actually u don’t even need TikTok here’s the link: lirvonia.com?source=email...

Sooo … while I’m happy they’re making a new series of Lynley and Havers mysteries, I’m not thrilled that they named it just #Lynley, or that Havers is attractive now. One of the best things about Havers was that she wasn’t conventionally attractive.

OMG! This! A thousand times this! www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6WhvFBQ/

Argh. For the fiftieth time: “alumni” is PLURAL. Singular male is “alumnus” and female is “alumna.” I’d be fine doing away with the female version and just having everyone be an “alumnus.” Pick your poison, but please stop using “alumni” as singular, bc then we won’t have a singular and a plural.

Why is cheese so good?

Sigh. You know, there’s a word that means “increasingly less.” That word is “decreasingly.” Sigh.

“Hearty” vs. “hardy”: in short, soup is hearty, people are hardy. A laugh is hearty; a throat is hardy. An idea is hardy; its expression is hearty. “Hearty” means full throated, robust, substantial, full of heart. “Hardy” means tough, durable, sturdy, rugged.

Wait. I finally gave in and looked up The Cruel Prince on Libby AND IT WAS AVAILABLE. What hellscape have I wandered into? #booksky

I'm stuck on the fourth episode of Ironheart. Why is the first teenaged Marvel superhero to outright MURDER someone a Black girl?

I will never get over the fluffy sounds my cats make when fighting.

Okay, I LOVE Jeremy Allen White, and I LOVE Bruce Springsteen, and this seems like a marriage made in Heaven. But. White is not disappearing into this role, at least not in the trailer. That's Carmy Berzatto with a guitar. And it's SUPER jarring. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQXd...

To be fair, I'm SURE there are a lot of folks who flew on Epstein's plane who had no idea what the man was up to. He was clearly a star fucker, and if you're Big Important, a lot of your social life will include such people, if only bc your Big Important friends get rides from them. BUT ...

Why TF did a dude at the airport sit DIRECTLY behind me, lean into the soft back of my seat, and immediately get onto a loud phone call, when there’s several long, completely empty rows of seats RIGHT HERE? And only my annoyed comment got him to move, not BUMPING INTO MY NECK.

AGAIN: to infer is to receive and to imply is to give. A implies X, and then B infers X from what A implied. Yes, I DO come here and correct English when I’ve read an egregious error printed in a BOOK.

PEOPLE! “THUSLY” IS NOT A WORD! People started adding the “ly” AS A JOKE, bc “thus” is an adverb without it. It became a habit, and now we have a new generation that doesn’t know it’s a joke. But the word “thus” still exists, and we don’t need another word that does the exact same thing.

Unpopular Opinion: stop calling Jeffrey Epstein a pedophile! He was an ephebophile. I’m not being pedantic. They are substantively different, but NEITHER ONE IS WORSE OR BETTER THAN THE OTHER.

Wait, does the fact that I know and love so many other songs in The Bear mean that I’m fundamentally a Mid Westerner? I mean the BoDeans? Really? And Lone Justice?That’s all 80s Ohio or Michigan shit

TFW you order in from a good restaurant, and somehow manage to order the three things they make that are kind of bland.

I wonder what it's like to know that you're going to go down in history as the corrupt lapdog of a stupid fascist, and just go ... *shrug* "meh."

Non-negotiables: Of the place Less is more Vibrant collaboration #TheBear

Then more I think about it, the more I realize that the MCU plotlines are way too much about superheroes solving problems that they themselves caused, or that their associated government agencies caused. Thor was bored so he started a war and was cast out and needed to prove himself. Cont.

Don’t get why I need to say this, but the adverb “both” is only used WHEN IT’S UNCLEAR THAT TWO PEOPLE ARE BEING OR DOING THE SAME THING. If you’re “both sharing” something, “sharing“ indicates the both-ness. If you’re “both into each other,” “each other” indicates both-ness. You don’t need “both.”

OMG, our critical NITRILE GLOVE vulnerability! China could grind us to a HALT!!!

Some of you might be interested in this:

I’ve really had it with how incompetent PresAux people are. Especially Mensah. And they’re naïve about everything but they’re overly suspicious of #Murderbot? It’s not funny, it’s just tiresome.

“To pair” means to put together ONE thing with ONE other thing. Because a pair is TWO THINGS ONLY. You can’t “pair” a polo shirt with khaki pants and brown shoes. You can “match” the three, but not “pair”.

Who are today’s line editors and proofreaders? I keep reading books published by the big four with really basic mistakes all over them. What’s worse, many are mistakes propagated by the Internet, that I think the editors and proofreaders aren’t catching because they don’t know they’re mistakes.

“To hurdle” and “to hurtle” are different verbs. You probably mean the second one; and if you don’t know the difference, you DEFINITELY do. LOOK THEM UP.