It’s absurd to say that asthma can be cured by inhaling vaporized oregano oil. You also need to snort crushed croutons and use balsamic enemas—and if that doesn’t work, don’t go to the hospital. Go to the Olive Garden.

On Monday, Juice passed in my arms. He knew love until the end. He was truly a once in a lifetime cat, and my life feels incredibly empty without him. 🐈🧡

Juice is starting his final lap. What I thought might’ve been a sprained paw has evolved into a complicated neurological event. He either had a stroke or the cancer is in his brain, but he’s still fighting, so I will give him all the help I can.

> matched on a dating app with a very Slavic looking man with a very Slavic name > bio says, “Bet you can’t guess my first language.” > message him with, “Ты поваришь по-русски?” > immediate unmatch Well then.

A plethora of Indeed postings have appeared for specialized work that all require a bachelor’s degree, and they’re all paying less than $25 an hour. I’m near San Francisco, y’all. This isn’t be tenable for most people.

I’ve not really seen anybody talk about the dread and frustration that comes out of being an adult and watching your parents enthusiastically make a decision that you know is terrible and short-sighted, a decision that you know you’d be criticized for making.

Don’t let this die. Keep elevating this.

I have a date tomorrow and the guy is driving quite a distance. He asked where it would be “reasonably safe” for him to leave his car because I’m driving into the national park we are going. Oh my sweet summer child, this isn’t SF. Nobody will bother your car in my mountain town. I promise.

My startle reflex for night encounters must be improving living in the woods again because I just startled a rat in the driveway, it ran into my ankle in its confusion (I wasn’t scratched or bitten), and I was just like, “Ah well that happened.🤷‍♀️”

Back with my densest Substack yet on the four different extremes I’m seeing in how men and women relate to each other. 😮‍💨 You might want to bring a drink and a snack for this one. open.substack.com/pub/katekirk...

I, a literal trauma trainer, am required to sit in a training for trauma-informed care. It has on the whole about half as much material as I got through in half as much time. She’s made a big emphasis on the agency’s “trauma-informed interior design”. Hours of my life I’ll never get back.

I am wrapping one substack article in the next few days and immediately diving into another, because holy hell did I read something (in a different study) that absolutely broke me and needs to be discussed.

I have been encouraged to try again with dating and thus far it’s been one single, extended multi-day argument about Marxism. No, this is not a weird metaphor. This has been an actual match and its ensuing conversation.

I had a training on cultural competency today and was in a breakout room with a guy who infodumped on Zoroastrianism. At the end of it, he said, no joke, “So ultimately the way I see it, we’re all just Catholic, but some of us took extra steps.” 🙃

I just spoke to a very enthusiastic, knowledgeable Mexican man as he infodumped to me on tires as best he could in a mixture of Spanish and English, trying to help me make an informed decision on which new tires to get. I love California.

I’m finally covering boymoms as an interpersonal authoritarian outcome for my Substack and my god I feel like a bunch of insecure enmeshed mothers are going to come for my throat.

I see daily on Twitter panic about standard atmospheric events. I have seen this particular thing with my own eyes several times. It’s called ✨resetting the radar✨, and I don’t know why technical issues aren’t someone’s logical first thought when they see something like this. (1/3)

New “don’t high-five your children” just dropped. 🤦‍♀️

I’ve never read Dworkin, but damn at this point I might have to, because damn this is spot on and deeply in alignment with trauma in women and the authoritarian personality.

I’m ending care with my amazing vet because I’m moving and I sent her an email to thank her. She emailed me back, “Thank you for always giving him the best care through all his strange diseases.” Yes, my boy absolutely has some of the strangest diseases known to veterinary medicine. 😂

🧵 Masha Gessen, who lived under Russia’s secret police, is sounding the alarm: the U.S. is now echoing those same authoritarian patterns. Raids, surveillance, fear tactics—it’s not theoretical anymore. We are watching a police state take root in real time. #OnYourSide @mashagessen.bsky.social

This about sums it up.

It's eugenics. It's all eugenics, folks.

The beauty of buying academic books second hand is that some of them come with a micro history of their own: my latest acquisitions include R. Allen Brown’s review copy of William E. Kapelle’s The Norman Conquest of the North (1979) incl. various correspondence 🤓

Pouting because all the other countries are better

look at this absolutely perfect empty-headed angel 🥹🥹🥹

Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the second stage of the Diamond League, clearing 2 meters on her first attempt.

This artist’s business card (from the 70s) is just 🤌. I too am a “creative lethargist” and an “aging cherub”.

I have given up and am systematically closing the apps for my own sanity because there’s just so many terrible people on there. But sometimes there’s people who are not so terrible.

Exclusive: HHS has walked back a national autism registry. The new plan: $50 million for a different autism research initiative. #disability #autism www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/n...

Somebody else shared this on Twitter, but… I have questions. Namely, what are we teaching people about the Black Plague?

Ewwww. Sir go to therapy.

…No.

White House's "statement" completely at odds with the DOJ who admitted sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was a mistake.

“Oh that’s nice! He must’ve raised his niece… …Oh oh my god he should never have raised his niece… …Oh this man needs therapy and to stay away from women.”

The only issues I’ve had because of autism have to do more with people’s perceptions of autism. I’ve written poems and held jobs. I’ve paid taxes. I can definitely use a toilet unassisted. My autism has actually been an asset in every job I’ve ever had.

Mercifully, I am neither a milf nor do I have a big butt.

…Do you want a woman with emotional intelligence because you don’t have any? What the hell kind of opener is this?

My 3 y/o went for a walk with her day care and when they came across some discarded peanut shells on the sidewalk all of the kids freaked out, linked arms, and formed a human barrier between the peanut and the one little kid in the class with a peanut allergy

"It needs to be more aggressively fey," I mutter to myself as I increase the saturation and adjust the hue of 9802 plant assets individually and neurotically, including replacing all the lilypads. I think we're on hour 30 or so?

I don’t know why but today I was reminded of my anesthesiologist from my last surgery, who smiled when I told him in the OR at the start that I was getting scared. He said confidently, “That’s okay, we’re not,” and held my hand as I went under. You’re a gift to medicine wherever you are, Dr. Lee.

this stuff doesn't have the juice it used to because it's become very clear that progressives are at worse irritating and easy to ignore while conservatives want to ship people to torture camps

Absurdly thankful that I keep my car insurance coverage comprehensive and high, because I may find there’s some electrical damage tomorrow thanks to a rat that has decided he wants to live in my engine.

Ummmmmmmmmm 👀 I have concerns.

What a nice day to talk to giant trees.

TIL when iPhones are in close proximity they automatically try to airdrop to each other. I handed my friend my iPhone while he was holding his own and he immediately held them very far apart and said, “No!” like he was scolding a dog.

Sometimes being up late from pain yields beautiful results. I am very pleased with how this first iteration of the Garden of the Gods turned out. It's all irradiated, but it's not like anybody knows that, so it's fine. 😂

Something something “pure” vs “bad” women and… magical thinking? 🤔