Info you may need to know.

I make tea for people who are sad or tired or lonely, and I listen to them.

The list of commemorations for today, the fifth day of Christmas, begins with the slaughter of the Holy Innocents and ends with all who have died by hunger, thirst, freezing, and the sword. (Some lists put qualifications on "all" but Matthew chapter 25 would lead one to believe that all means all.)

Happy fourth day of Christmas! Happy name day to everyone who has St. Joseph the Betrothed (who is my patron saint), or St. James the Brother of God, or St. David the King and Prophet as your heavenly patron!

Today, for Orthodox folks, is the feast of St. Stephen, the day on which Good King Wenceslas looked out. AFAIK, St. Wenceslas is not the patron saint of dysfunctional families, but perhaps he should be. (And, yes, the picture there is his skull.) charlotteriggle.com/good-king-we...

Christmas present for you (or a child you know): My ebooks on Smashwords are available free to the first 5 takers between now and the end of the 2025. Take your pick, and just enter coupon code DUXWW when asked to do so. See them all here: www.smashwords.com/profile/view... #booksky #kidlit

Words matter.

And if you don't think the leopards will eat your face, think again.

What are you giving people this year? BOOKS! Of course you're giving them books! If they like historical fiction, or stories with strong disabled characters, or stories about saints, they will like THAT GOD'S WORKS MIGHT BE REVEALED. You can get it from Park End Books, or that giant online store.

If you look at everything that needs to be done, and you feel like crawling into a hole and pulling it in after yourself, stop. Pick one thing. Do what you can about that one thing. If we all do one thing, then everything gets done.

Bad framing: ACIP voted to scrap the universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for newborns. Accurate framing: Anti-vax conspiracy theorists appointed to ACIP by Robert Kennedy Jr., who made a fortune as an anti-vax profiteer, voted to expose babies to a preventable, incurable, deadly illness.

An anthem for disabled folks. youtu.be/KmFPWxjmnqE?...

I just read that medieval German winter breads, made with rye flour, dried fruit, and spices, were eaten in winter because celebrations, Christmas, etc. Nothing about humors. I'm curious now - did medieval people change what they ate seasonally based on humors? Did you need more hot/dry in winter?

Me, neither.

I have done many things in my life that were really cool and really stupid, and that I absolutely would not do again. Drinking raw milk is one of them. (Others include rescuing a bat from an attic that was being insulated and handling it bare-handed and walking on an shelf ice along Lake Michigan.)

Bishops and other Orthodox and Catholic church leaders are convening in Nicea in honor of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea - the Council where the Creed was written and where St. Nicholas is said to have slapped Arius. Read more here: charlotteriggle.com/st-nicholas-...

If you're shopping today, you are buying books, right? Check out this one! A picture book about best friends having an overnight, with cookies to bake, siblings to bicker with, a loving godparent with stories to tell, and snow. Lots and lots of snow. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

You might not want to read this article today, but you definitely want to read it. It's important.

i’m not crying you’re crying xkcd: Fifteen Years

This is fascinating. And it shows how little we understand about a technology that is being used for all kinds of things.

I didn't look far enough to see what Phoebe saw: A story supported by a study consisting of a mail-in survey in English and Spanish. That's not going to give you good data about the Orthodox church.

Again: If you are an academic at a public university that locals love - even just the football team - and that relies on foreign students to stay afloat, explain that to your community by writing locally if you can. It's a good solid pitch for a local outlet.

One could write: "The Epstein emails show how New York City elite protected predators." And then just write it. Write what the sources say. Don't compare to today (I assure you they are still protecting predators; millions just voted for Cuomo). Just write what the sources say.

I updated this post to include the news that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese now allows service dogs in all their parishes. Te post also has general info about service dogs, and how to welcome disabled people with service dogs to church. charlotteriggle.com/service-dogs...

Advent starts today for Orthodox Christians. @somemyrrh.bsky.social has wisdom to share with priests and teachers during this season. She wants them to know that the normal disciplines of Advent don't always work for disabled folks. somemyrrh.substack.com/p/accommodat...

"What if one of YOUR favorite politicians/celebrities/etc is on the list?" Did you all not notice how quickly we dropped Neil Gaiman when we found out about the things he did? Do you know how beloved that guy used to be and how loathed he is now? I think that right there should answer your question.

I learned yesterday that, back in September, the bishops of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America decided that service dogs would be permitted in all of their churches. This is part of the Archdiocese's ongoing efforts to make our churches more accessible to people with disabilities.

Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage

“There must be blood”— the unbreakable law of revolutions and fairy tales. This I knew. That's the beginning of the poem. You need to read all the way to the end.

BREAKING: Trump’s ICE bans Christians and all people from praying “in front of or inside” the Broadview ICE facility. So, forced prayer in school is good, but volunteer prayer for the prisoner is banned. This is what white nationalist Christianity looks like. This is Trump’s fascist America. Smh.

I implore all of us who were rightfully buoyed up by Tuesday's voting results to look up the term "extinction burst" as it relates to behaviors. And GET READY. You only win by riding out the fight to the very end. Do not cave, do not negotiate, do not appease. Keep fighting. Love you.

Wish the devs would stop fucking up this perfectly good product they accidentally made.

Not only are pecans yummier than almonds, they're better for the bees and for the planet.

I love Halloween. A bunch of middle school boys (who came in a cloud of Axe body spray) liked the boxed mac & cheese so much, they said that our house was the Best House Ever! Given the weather, I told them to take a couple of handfuls of candy each, which they did. (And we still have some left!)

We have two baskets that kids can take treats from, one with candy and small toys, the other with packs of ramen and boxes of Kraft mac & cheese. As one kid left the porch, he told his friends, "I got mac & cheese! It's CHEEEESE, Gromit!"

I kinda like this plan.

Hey, friends. When you're helping people who rely on SNAP and other benefits, it's best to give food. A gift card for a specific grocery is okay. A credit-card gift card that can be used anywhere isn't okay. Don't give cash. Details at the link. www.patreon.com/posts/how-to...

1/ At 3 am on 28 Oct 1944, the Italian ambassador to Greece presented the Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas with an ultimatum: Surrender to the Axis forces, or face war. Metaxas was said to have responded with a single word: No.

If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation. Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net

When a media outlet doesn’t give strong coverage to a big protest, it’s a problem for the protest. When a media outlet doesn’t give strong coverage to the single biggest one-day protest in US history, it’s a problem for the outlet.

Well … unlike me (I’ve been saying this for quite some time) … Sam is actually a man who knows things.

Have you noticed that, when a recipe says the prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 40 minutes, they start the prep timer after you have chopped the onions, peeled and sliced the carrots, and minced the garlic, and they use magic onions that are cooked until soft and golden in less than 10 minutes?

Introduce yourself using the one food you refuse to eat, the one movie you'll never watch again, and the one song you can't stand: Food: Liver. (Although that's rarely on offer. Of more ordinary foods, the one I will not eat is broccoli.) Movie: Tommy Song: Inna Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly

“More than half of the work done by women in the period between the 16th and 18th centuries took place outside of the home, and around half of all housework and three-quarters of care work was conducted professionally for other households” [England] phys.org/news/2025-10...

I love this.

This seems both useful and achievable.

This is literally making my stomach hurt. www.bbc.com/news/article...

My book includes a story about St. Thorlak of Iceland, and one about St. Gerald of Aurillac. Both men showed traits of behavior and personality suggesting that they were quite likely #autistic. Tylenol and food dyes didn't create #autistic folks. We have always been here.

Frightening analysis of the use of Facebook and radicalisation of people to far right beliefs. This also reminds me of analysis of social media networks in enhanced exposure of anti vaccine rhetoric.