Today I saw my neighborhood obučarka Her shop was closed for a couple of weeks because everyone had the “not showing on covid tests but doctors think it’s mutated covid” that put half the city on our asses I am happy she and her staff made it through

slate.com/advice/2025/... Are work-from-home-induced slides into pajamas and irregular usage of body cleansing liquids as much of a phenomenon as I think they are?

I will not ask the obviously ai chat bot how many minutes are in a moment That would be a fruitless waste of electricity and water Instead I will sit here and seethe

I restocked my single alcohol wipe and small tissue pack stash (For the not really large but still firmly NYC style Mary Poppins-esque purse) Which means I can’t stop thinking about the time someone knocked over a beer at a bar and I triumphantly whipped out what turned out to be a maxi pad

NYSIF rates are going down by 28% for next year But there’s still a 60$/year minimum Which we were already under I guess, happy for everyone else?

This is incredibly useful Is it still acceptable to go on long and meandering philosophical detours in the alt text?

Eva Wiseman is a treasure www.vogue.co.uk/article/most...

Thanksgiving 2025 I woke up I paused to enjoy gratitude for every detail I noticed I considered cooking and then didn’t I participated in a small critical discussion of American policies throughout history Then …

Glasses info request part two: I have a runny nose and it has been raining How are contact lenses?

Twelve days ago I experienced stereopsis It is wild I can just… see where things are in proximity to other things Faces in person are much more recognizable So: how do people mange the details of full-time glasses-wearing? is attempting sports which involve catching objects a bad idea?

Voicememo to accountant: “Hello, good morning. I am integrating bookkeeping software with payroll and have several questions. [insert questions] I am also waiting for [redacted] at [payroll co.], my assigned support human, to wake up and respond to emails. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.”

Closing my S Corp, which means valuing tangible assets, which means valuing a pile of gently used lingerie This leaves me wondering who else from the professionally scantily clad trades has a spreadsheet tracking their impractical sexy garb And what else might be on their spreadsheets

You say “made”, I say “bestowed the opportunity to”

Why (in the sense of an actual question) is the extremely vast majority of dental hygiene products some kind of mint? Related: did you know mint toothpaste isn’t supposed to burn like fire for a couple of hours after you brush? I didn’t until this summer

As part of @everylibrary.bsky.social's roster of events for Banned Book Week (buy a banned book @bookshop.org), Jessica Stoya and I talked about Fanny Hill, criminal and civil book bans, and the US Supreme Court:

It's Banned Book Week, and I'm delighted to be part of @everylibrary.bsky.social's calendar of events by chatting with @stoya.bsky.social about Fanny Hill (aka Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure), a Very Banned book. I mean, it was banned in two countries, at least five times.

This half drunk man was about to tell me why, for the past several months, he has been confidently assuming I am Russian despite my complete inability to roll an r And then he got distracted As tipsy people tend to

It is dumb! It is ignorant! And it also works in one of several ways when it is inescapable for prolonged periods of time.

My completely flaming hot take on “Wayward” is that, as much as it drastically underplays the reality of teen reprogramming camps, it serves as a palatable-to-the-blissfully-uninitiated primer on some of the mind warping tactics Which are often used by the current US administration

… they please replace it with one that is actually representative of how I tend to look?

So, now that the US government is shutting down nonessential operations, is it a good time to tell the consulate that I really dislike my passport photo because I got too close to the old one expiring when I was still recalibrating from a deeply regrettable (and failed) hormone treatment so could…

“Allowed to focus on… where we feel our voices will be effective” 💕

I stay in my own lane and I avoid a lot of pain

In which Rich Juzwiak really knocks it out of the park on sexualized labor, and I am that much more proud to be his colleague slate.com/advice/2025/... For @slate.com’s How To Do It column

I do pay a little extra for the hand-holding tier It works out as less expensive and more efficient than bothering lawyers and accountants with things that are below their level but above my head when I first encounter them

I love the payroll company I use in the US Every time, I get nervous. Revert to North Carolina accent. Say things like “do you have some kind of add on that keeps track of numbers things that aren’t payroll?” Then I apologize and explain that I write about non-business subjects They’re patient

With a little more executive function, the past two days could have each been half at my desk and half on my feet Alas…

My orbs were titillated I injected nothing balsamic Only thoughts and opinions But I suppose some of those could be considered tart, sweet, or simultaneously both

Anyway preorder this new edition of Fanny Hill with a forward by me and a conversation with @stoya.bsky.social. It'll titillate your twin orbs and perhaps induce a balsamic injection.

Reminder that Fanny Hill was banned, litigated, expurgated, rereleased, banned, litigated, edited, rereleased, banned in the UK, banned in the US, litigated, rereleased, and now faces potential bans again. All this for a book with no expletives and espouses a clearly capitalist bourgeoise agenda.

After a ten hour workday, which included makeup and also bits of cleaning during slim chunks of down time which would otherwise have been wasted I need to remove the makeup (Which includes primer, light foundation and powder, and mascara) Why didn’t I train Pixelcat how to help with this?

“Anything that has a new smell may have a mouse in it” - ancient cat proverb

This cat is precious Widget does not care whether I am in a sit-able position at all Unless I have a new-to-him smell Because he is a happy little pillow on the corner of the couch or bed There’s almost always an outlier

Pixel’s favorite parts of the day are when I am sitting at my desk or laying in bed

Meanwhile, any time I change something in my hygiene routine that involves a new scent, I become the most interesting thing in the home to Widget

Somebody gave me a sample of this incredible moisturizer and it is truly incredible but it also smells like if there were some coconut flavored medicine in a way similar to the cherry flavored cough syrup of millennial youth

Thank you 🥰💃🏻

Widget Or at least his tail

That time I did a whole chapter of my book in rhubarb voice because the producer of the audiobook was the producer of Life With Althaar and then the publisher refused for multiple years to acknowledge that audiobook sales should be accounted for and paid out according to contract

After a few weeks of trying (in several contexts) to get at the mats with all three combs Widget took care of them himself The hairball he horked up after was god-level

Ok, yes, I understand we’re saying “gotovo” because the game is finished and Serbia lost But It is very important to me to understand the details of why it is “gotovo” with an “o” when “game” is “igra” so it seems like it should be “gotova” with an “a”

Have I been sneezing for a week and a half because I’m not taking enough antihistamines? Or because I’m having a side effect to the antihistamines?

The cats are obsessed with, at the age of 12-14, a catnip ball in a rawhide strip cage. Whatever makes them happy and gets them moving.

BAHAHAHAHA yessssss

Woooooo—we have overwhelmed him with both options and care Thank you all I am blessed to be a part of this world

Really The friend was like “omg thank you so much for the effort” And I was like “bro—I am me and bluesky is bluesky”

@ajordanxiii.bsky.social I really have to know what “certified master cocksman” means

And also the question that made me go “clearly the world needs step-by-step instructions for vaginal smoking OH WAIT absolutely not”

Spoiler: many many facts about rectums from Dr. Evan Goldstein