THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent cattle I have met on walks. You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

Political journalism, and the elite tier of journalism generally, got taken over by billionaire courtiers, conservative activists and sex-pest dipshits and those three groups have largely hounded the real reporters out of the profession as a matter of class self-interest.

100 slightly strange bus stop names. diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2014/08/100-...

Stamp art by Lolly Batty. www.instagram.com/ianwhittlese...

Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. " www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...

“And people did this, just like you, you and me... it was not Hitler who arrested me, not Goering, not Goebbels. The grocer, the janitor, the tailor, the shoemaker, the baker, they suddenly got a uniform, a swastika armband, and there they were, the master race...” Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor

“I chose to repost chives”

Shadenfreude at the certainty that the AI bubble is going to pop really kind of tempered by the equal certainty that taxpayers are going to be on the hook for it.

Rosalind Franklin died at 37 of ovarian cancer attributed to radiation exposure from the methods she & her assistant used to photograph a cross-section of the DNA double helix. Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!

Celebrate the election today, and this great braided flash by @nikwalk.bsky.social in CRAFT. www.craftliterary.com/2025/11/05/s...

Thanks to @jmwwjournal.bsky.social for letting me think thru my own writing journey in this craft/personal essay. As usual, writing this helped me see.

Some happy news—my story “Diva” won Second Prize in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2025! Thanks to @oxfordflashfiction.bsky.social, the judges, and all the amazing writers who took part. Meet the diva 👉 oxfordflashfictionprize.com/2025/11/05/second-place-diva-by-cate-mcgowan/

What an honor to be included with such amazing stories and writers! Thank you to the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize judges and readers. I'm still pinching myself-- second place. I can't believe it!

It is our pleasure to announce the winners of the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2025!! A huge thank you to our wonderful team of readers & the judges María Fernanda Ampuero and Shome Dasgupta Read the winning entries: oxfordflashfictionprize.com/2025-winners/

One thing I love about Bluesky is that if someone posts something that someone else reads and says they don't understand, the original post is explained well to the person who was confused, and everyone goes about their merry way. Community working.

Kogarashi (Japan) - lit. ‘leaf-wilting wind’. A wind that comes at the start of winter & blows the last leaves off of the trees.

Important November Dates 2 Book Lovers Day 3 Sandwich Day 3 Cliché Day 5 Bonfire Night 6 Nachos Day 11 Origami Day 13 Kindness Day 14 Pickle Day 16 Party With A Bear 16 Fast Food Day 19 Toilet Day 26 Cake Day 30 Stay Home Day

On further reflection, handing operation of our Universities over to a professional administrative class with no personal investment in the educational mission of the university or the creation and maintenance of knowledge might have been somewhat in error.

How to scare people around the world: UK: Boo! FI: pöö! FR: hou! DE: buh! ES: uhh! JP: kekeke! CZ: baf! RU: oo-oo! MX: ¡Buu! NL: boe! IT: bù!

Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.

Lord, we gotta tell people the moon landing was real, the earth is round, vaccines work, and everyone in the US has the right to due process…

much like tom holland’s umbrella, always repost

Today, a coalition of seven charitable foundations announced the launch of the Literary Arts Fund, a historic philanthropic investment of at least $50 million to strengthen the nonprofit literary arts field in the U.S.

Would love to talk to Walter Benjamin about how auras might not be such a bad thing after all.

It is hard to overstate the stress produced by the incoherence of academic institutions pumping generative AI when they want to play business and then leaving instructors to deal with the results when they want to play school

Halloween Collective Nouns Bats-colony Witches-coven Owls-parliament Pumpkin-patch Crows-murder Ghosts-congress Toads-knot Vampires-nest Zombies - horde

No plans tonight? Maybe hang out at the coolest bookstore on Bluesky* after hours with a few of your friends! *This statement has not been peer-reviewed. Also, there are a ton of cook bookstores here. But still we are pretty cool.

Things are happening in NFFD land! We’ve got our anthology guest editor & our 4 microfiction comp judges lined up & we’ve decided on a theme for our next anthology!Watch this space!

PSA

Two stories by @catemcgowan.com up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social! mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

Oh hiiiii hard copy of our NEW collection of stories by Gloria Anzaldúa featuring a blurb by the incomparable Xochitl Gonzalez sunypress.edu/Books/P/Prie...

"To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!"--H. L. Mencken

Hundreds of people protesting ICE in downtown manhattan right now. Reads and Broadway. NYPD cops in riot gear on scene.

1st person haters make me tired, but 1st person is also difficult to write and I think a lot of people don't consider some invisible understandings when it comes to writing in 1st where is the narrator when is the narrator how is the narrator telling the story where is the reader how do they know

Today is pub day for my third book: Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century. It is a handbook on how to read. It argues for the foundational importance of *caring* to thought. It offers an anatomy of close reading's five steps so we can hone the skills to perform them. It argues for why to read

The mushroom emoji, 🍄, is a poisonous mushroom called fly agaric. It is also hallucinogenic and is often ingested by people seeking a high, but ending up with mushroom poisoning. Type carefully out there.

a horror movie but you’re being chased through a cornfield by all the story ideas in your notes app you never wrote

Same

@catemcgowan.com This debut poetry collection, Sacrificial Steel, uses art, history, and complex, musical poetic lines and forms to explore the biggest question we have as humans: What does it all mean? Use the link in our bio to purchase your copy! #poetrycollection

"When she slips from the rooftop, her first thought is not I’m going to die, but I didn’t feed the cat." @catemcgowan.com mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

These two very, very short stories are stunning. Run, don't walk to read them! Once again, @catemcgowan.com has hit it out of the park. This woman can WRITE.

Regular reminder that we are still shipping to the US and covering tariff charges. Nothing extra to pay when you receive the stationery ✏️♥️🤗

I feel like I have discovered the greatest thing: since I don't like to read hardcover, I generally wait a long time for books to come out in paperback; but wait no more! The large print versions come out simultaneously and they're paperback. Bonus: nice and easy on the eyes. Living my best life.

Vibe shift indicator

whenever i encounter people who say they can't understand shakespeare verses I always send them this clip from the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing

"It’s been seven years since I left the sea, and still the salt crusts my knees." @catemcgowan.com's "Water Witching" trampset.org/water-witchi...

A #shortstory that changes every time you read it. "Having Weight" by Cate McGowan. Come on by and take it for a spin! thedisappointedhousewife.com/2025/07/29/h...

How ‘Best’ are your wishes if you only write ‘BW’ at the end of an email.

Day dress, Augustine Martin, France, ca 1880. Via Historic Costume Collection, Drexel University.