Happy New Year! 2025 was a shitty year in most ways, but it was a good year for butterflies. These guys (and you guys!) saved me from total despair. I hope you all will fortify yourselves against 2026 by planting more native plants: nativeplantfinder.nwf.org xerces.org/pollinator-c... #butterflies

i know we're all busy but i just overheard a plumber say "parlez-vous français ? non ? you motherfuckers don't even speak french, do you" to a pair of french bulldogs

I have a new piece up @short-reads.org today about wassail choirs, strip clubs, New Zealand and a questionable life plan called the nonstop party wagon.

reconstructed Scythian looking a bit like a guy tending an impromptu bar at an outdoor cabaret punk event

dante made up an entire fake trip through hell just so he could talk about how he coincidentally saw every single one of his enemies there receiving graphically specific and tailor-made punishments

Let’s make 2026 the year of the bog. The world’s most unique and interesting plants, clean water, cooler climate. Bogs deserve our thanks, care, and deep respect. Please join me and love a bog today.

I say this often but it bears repeating: if you make your money from creating art then you NEED to find an art or craft where you just do it for fun and don't try to be perfect or make any money from it, and when anyone tells you to monetise it you say 'No', because otherwise your soul will die.

Just ordered this! Excited to read!

They say imitation crab is the sincerest form of crab

Oh, thank god, it’s usually so hard to find things in my size

One of the things that gets me about this whole "replace people in publishing with AI" thing is that people in publishing (translators / editors / copy editors / authors / etc) are among the worst fucking paid people out there.

This week’s library read. From the 33 1/3 series

TIL the term geese-pilled and I‘m totally geese-pilled. I love their new album so much. Apparently I’m not alone!

I no longer believe art can save the world, but I believe still that it can save me. So in the face of chaos, misinformation, hatred & ignorance, I'm going to make more art, experience more, share more, pay for more & publish more. I started this in darkness & it'll continue to be my light. 🖤🤍

museums should let each visitor touch one thing

Garden & outdoorsy folk, please spread this news: The great people at Monarch Watch have a program where schools, nonprofits & large restoration projects can apply for FREE MILKWEED (only thing Monarch caterpillars eat, can't have too much of it IMO). Check it out! monarchwatch.org/bring-back-t...

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

I yelled “ohmygod” so loud after opening the mail, my husband had to come investigate. The new @mcsweeneys.net quarterly is unbelievable. Their design team is *chef’s kiss*

#Caturday (observed)

Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math

Jumping on the Lonesome Dove resurgence. I heard an interview with Tana French where she cited it as an influence on The Searcher (omg one of favorites), so I read all 850 pages of it this week and holy shit I have a new obsession. It’s so good.

in Paris, I had to see a same-day doctor & I found one. was gravely warned that, as a foreigner, I’d have to pay 32 euros & I laughed & laughed a friend there said “make sure you get X kind of doctor, not Y, because the Y kind charges 74 WHOLE EUROS” & once again I bitterly, bitterly laughed 😭

I think I'd make a really good ghost. wandering around aimlessly at night and groaning are already some of my favourite activities

The kitten hasn‘t yet noticed the neighbor cat giving him a death stare. #caturday

Edinburgh castle failing to render, likely thanks to the AWS outage

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Can we lower the flags for Jane Goodall?

Look closely. I estimate over 100 pollinators on this one native calico aster in my city yard. #nativeplants

A beautiful Sleepy Orange butterfly on a giant orange Zinnia 🧡🧡 #Photography99 📷🌱 #Butterflies 🦋

you never know where you’ll find inspiration

One of my favorite fun facts is why the TMNT are named after artists (it’s because the type of turtle they are is a “painted turtle”). I told my nephew about this and he immediately replied that there should be a Bob Ross turtle. So rather than explain the renaissance movement to him, I-

It is fucked up what they did to the headphone jack

Loved this story by @nadiaborn.com in this morning’s Commuter (@electricliterature.com)!

Tiny cat with tiny amp.

Make a band singular: The Stroke

Dollhouse nap.

@pghcitypaper.com reprinted my @mcsweeneys.net piece. Unfortunately still highly relevant here!

I would love someone to make a global streaming service where I could watch shows from other countries. I would pay whatever for that. Let me see Survivor France or whatever!

My neighbor Wayne – a truck driver and former roughneck – is cranking Juice Newton’s Angel of the Morning Right now and while I think that’s adorable, I’m also going to give him some space today

Saw my first monarch cat in my city yard. Can’t explain how worried I am about this dude. He’s so small! There’s just one! Monarchs are endangered! My milkweed is a little sparse so I bent a frond from a nearby one to make a bridge for him and he’s using it! So proud.

Ooh. @offassignment.bsky.social is reading me. Link to essay (involving waking up surrounded by deer carcasses after a long night in the wilderness) in first comment.