As a nod to the fact that everything we buy now is more expensive and poorer in quality than it used to be, the green sweater I’m wearing is from Old Navy in 2006 and still in great shape. I haven’t purchased a single store bought sweater in the last ten years that lasted more than three winters.

thirty years later and I’m still baffled and dissociating after the first half hour of family holiday photo taking lmao

What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam

To be clear, these weren’t ticket sales because Netflix set up the contracts of the actors so they wouldn’t have to pay them for theater screenings. We can tiptoe around the wording however you want, but this was the studio continuing to profit off a bunch of former child stars with predatory terms.

Looking over this list and yeah, Train Dreams was tied for the best 2025 movie release I saw. (Sinners was the other one, obviously.) Just a gorgeous, gorgeous film. I’m incredibly sad I watched it at home on Netflix and didn’t have an opportunity to see it on a big screen.

“Then they shouldn’t have voted for this!” Bitch, Asheville is a blue college town and the county has gone blue for decades. I am so sick of this “if I pretend disasters only happen to red areas, it means I’m safe because I’m properly on the left!” No. You’re not safe. That’s why we save everybody.

Finally put together the list of all the 2025 movie releases I watched. I have a feeling I'm missing a few, but I was NOT good about tracking streaming releases as I watched them last year.

Happy 2026, y'all! I'm starting the year with some books on sale in North America. the ebooks of all three of these titles are just $1.99 this month on the 'zon. and also, FYI, the audiobooks are INCREDIBLE and can be added for just $1.99.

You can set a goal to Read More without making it about numbers or pressure. What counts: learning to make regular space for reading in your life, figuring out how to find new books, and, yes, quitting what you don't love.

As I've said, racism prevents people from accepting that NYC is one of the safest places in the US from the perspective of violent crime. I've also seen folks post that Alabama has ~717 homicides with a population 3.5 million less than NYC. I'll add: AL's murder rate for white victims is 4X NYC's.🤡

Mayor Mamdani has nullified every executive order issued by Eric Adams after he struck his corrupt bargain with Trump to secure dismissal of the indictment against him.

okay, in the many years I have been recommending her books hither and yon have I been pronouncing Alyssa Cole's first name wrong THIS WHOLE TIME or did the narrator on A Hope Divided just have a fun time with the pronunciation?? www.audible.com/pd/A-Hope-Di...

I am choosing not to take it as indicative of how my year is gonna go that I’m crossing midnight into 2026 barely averting my drunk neighbor from blowing off his hand (thank you former emt/current auntie reflexes) while also battling excruciating menstrual cramps. this means nothing, I’m sure lmao

Nobody thinks a guy doing the YMCA in a frog costume on a city sidewalk is a credible threat to public safety AND Oregon lawyers were able to leverage that perception to discredit the argument that Portland needed immediate federal intervention. Both tactics work in tandem to reinforce the other.

one last time, for the road

Having my final read of the year 2025 as Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was the correct move. In a future where we did kill off our planet and things aren’t perfect, humanity is still stumbling gleefully along across the universe. If that ain’t hopepunk, I don’t know what is.

For those baffled by the Erika Kirk of it all: conservative white women are just as accomplished at grifting and conning as their husbands, who they view the same way their husbands view them: as tools to appeal to the conservative base, not as actual life partners they care for in a meaningful way.

The entire right wing media apparatus is in a rabid frenzy saying every childcare is fraudulent and now people are showing up to random daycare centers demanding to see the children and screaming at daycare workers. This is absolutely insane and I worry this is going to end in a major tragedy.

FWIW, I've never had a year typify "You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fail to the level of your systems" more than 2025. Emotionally and energy wise --fires and fascism factored in -- I've never been more punched out. But I worked and lined up more work based on old habits saving me.

I’m a crew member on the Wayfarer and I couldn’t happier about it

This past weekend we had dinner with our friend who is a Sbux union leader. She clued me into 3 things. Starbucks has not signed a contract with the workers for 4 years. Starbucks has more union violations than any other company in the US. Shareholders are demanding they settle. Keep boycotting.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

This is insane. He's just shooting missiles at people because he can. That's all this is.

I shrieked out loud when I saw @alyssacolelit.bsky.social’s phenomenal An Extraordinary Union on this list. If you’re a historical romance reader (or a historical fiction reader open to romance reading) who hasn’t read that series you should absolutely be snagging yourself a copy. It’s an all timer!

Today Julia Quinn announced JQ Editions, a historical romance special edition subscription service launching on Kickstarter in January. This announcement set my whole brain on fire: it's an intersection of several trends happening within romance. smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/12/juli...

One of the saddest sentences written in the modern era of vaccines: “We will lose our elimination status shortly.”

I have now worn bootcut jeans to the airport twice in the last year and both times I got a leg pat down. This never happened when I was clinging stubbornly to my millennial skinny jeans lmao

If you have a billion dollars, you literally have enough money to never have to hear any criticism for the rest of your life. Just because they’re all addicted to going online and getting yelled at isn’t my fucking problem.

If anyone wants to make a last-minute contribution to St. Jude before this year's winter fundraising efforts wind to a close, you can really help out some children and their families:

This is a helluva piece by local news reporters about the nightmare our city endured. Read every word about the violence & overreach, non-stop DHS lies, disgusting ICE/CPB photo ops, horrible impacts on families & communities & how local Chicago residents fought back.

“You are not entitled to a response from us, or anyone, ever,” is what a US Education Department spokesperson wrote to one of our reporters, @megomatz.bsky.social, after she repeatedly tried to get comment from the department and its officials. My column on the condemnation of good journalism.

When John Doar was head of the Civil Rights Division, he quoted from Shakespeare’s RICHARD III in an eloquent closing argument in the case against Klan murderers. The current head is calling podcasters “hoes” for criticizing the president’s cabinet

Plastic surgery is gender affirming care. Hair growth hormones? Gender affirming care. Electrolysis or laser hair removal? Dick pills! Gender affirming care. Birth control? Gender affirming care. Estrogen for perimenopause or menopause? Guess what that is!

I'm done writing for 2025, so it's time for the ol' Year In Review Roundup. Let's start with one of the defining moments of the cultural year: When Princess Mononoke went back to theaters at the peak of the AI Ghibli wave www.avclub.com/studio-ghibl...

when you have one of the all time great Hollywood asses it may actually be a crime to wear a suit like this

These parents killed their child and we need to say it

Trump, Noem and cronies looted FEMA, which is effectively nonexistent.

When I wrote this in mid-December, there were still a handful of legislative races to go thru to close out 2025. All but one have been resolved and nothing has changed: Dems have still flipped 25 (21% of GOP-held seats in play), and GOP has flipped none. Final remaining is Tuesday.

Charge the CEOs That is the only way this stops

We didn't survive and thrive as a species because we had warriors or hunters - pretty much every omnivore can manage that. We did so because we developed Grandmothers, and domesticated Dogs. Community is what defines us as a species, and every "self-reliant" libertarian shitweasel be damned.

This book (and the series!) is absolutely wonderful. One of my favorite Parker romances, and I’ve read all of them!

Imagine it being easier to just pay the 8 billion dollars and it won't affect you in the slightest. Man what have we done lol

Again, it is utterly shameful & demonstrates the total failure of all of our political institutions that threatening our closest NATO allies with territorial conquest has not immediately ended this presidency.

I cannot emphasize enough how good reviews provide your fave authors with both happiness and algorithmic favor. Most people find new books via Amazon, and Amazon picks the books they want to show you (in part) from sales velocity and reviews.

this year basically all of my holiday baking photos include my adorable niblings, so not sharing those, but my mom snapped this photo of the four foot long cinnamon roll log on Christmas Eve night and I figured you’d all find it hilarious, too lol

Here’s to 2026

RIP in peace our heroes 🫡

Everybody hates it and any claims that “this happens with any disruptive tech” are obvious and pathetic cope. Shut down your AI depts and take the L large corporations. This is not it

Y'all made Christmas so much better for M's family, and we're gonna take that into 2026! While helping M with this, I found out she's also several months behind on rent. Her landlord is very understanding, but that has limits, and this needs to be paid soon. If you can help or share, please do!