My Great Aunt once acted in a sketch comedy show where she was a grandma who thought she could solve every problem with "Chiclets and pretzels." It aired on MTV of all places, so it was a real thing. But I've never been able to find it again.

Last week I learned you can get "nutmeg mania" from putting too much nutmeg in scones.

Banana bread is cake not bread and we all know it

There is only 1 (one) good piece of writing left on the internet and it is this by @alexshephard.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2015...

What I love about this is it's in line with what a lot of people (most?) said when the play first came out! It's a theater-bending (if not breaking) play. It's always been so. This person is not alone in feeling this way! (Clarification: I think it's one of the greatest things ever written.)

KESHED LAUNCH ALERT. Tix now on sale for the official launch event on publication day, 12th Feb 2026, at Waterstones in Leeds, Terri motherfucking White in the interviewer's chair, it's gonna be awesome. Early chance to see my "performance" of the intro too 👀📚 www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

A gorgeous beaver dam near the #AppalachianTrail at Beartown Mountain, MA. I love how the autumn leaves have collected on the water like a woven carpet. The water level is very low elsewhere in the forest, so I hope this spot is providing some comfort to all the animals.

One time my dentist was playing Kenny G and I told him about the scene from Wayne's World where the worst torture Garth can imagine is being at a Kenny G concert getting dental work but my dentist didn't get the joke so I had to explain that most people don't like the dentist and he was offended.

One of the pernicious things about AI is how I now have to constantly wonder if AI is the reason some tech is getting worse. Maybe it's my slow decline into irrelevance? Maybe it's just technology sucking for normal non-AI reasons? (But, to be clear, it's usually AI.)

I've been using the "swype" method of typing on phone keyboards since the 2000s and I've always loved it and been very fast with it. But in the last year it feels like it's getting everything wrong all the time. Is this my cognitive decline or has "AI" been introduced that makes it worse?

I decided this little #porcupine needed slightly better production value, so I've stitched together several views. Additional notes: I took these videos on the Charcoal Trail of Olivia's Overlook in Richmond, MA.

Here’s another poem for National Poetry Day. This one is called ‘A Brief History of Modern Art in Poetry’.

Important news: a porcupine eating dinner.

Hey, @foofarawpress.bsky.social, when is part two of Mark Keane's story "Splodge -- part one" coming out? Is there really a part two? I really enjoyed the slightly absurd tension and the tiny painting details of part one. foofaraw.press/splodge-part...

I'm bothered by the phrase "even a broken clock is right twice a day" because people usually use it incorrectly. Sure, sometimes they get it right, but...

25# shorty super strength beer bag

"Saggy Cantilevers" is the name of my band. (I'm watching The Last Wright documentary.)

Lovely, layered, textured, knobby, fat, cantilevered, patterned, beautiful #mushrooms from my morning walk.

Very excited for the new English translation of the Juan José Saer book The Event pubbed by @openletterbooks.bsky.social!!! One of my favorite authors discovered through their brilliant press. www.openletterbooks.org/products/the...

Autumnal wildflowers line the entry path to a forest walk. #autumn #wildflowers #berkshires

too genre for the litheads, too lit for the genreboys, too academic for the cool kids, too low class for the academics, too angry for the soft, too soft for the hardcore, too normie for the weirdos, too weird for the normos, but above it all, just too hard to die

Starting a new review service that rates hotels on how much water gets on the bathroom floor when you take a shower. "Three socks" means that's how many times I had to dry my socks.

"The Cure for What Ails You," my story about an experimental drug that finds you true love, is live now on Porter House Review!

I have 5 food themed poems in this issue of The Argyle! Mine are here www.theargylelitmag.com/theme-04-gas... but there’s so much good stuff in this issue, check it out!

Aaghagagh! I just got an acceptance from a lit mag that I am super excited about. A bit early for details (it won't be in print for 6-12 months) but it's an indie press that I *absolutely* love, and it's for one of my favorite oddball stories I worried would not find a home. #writingcommunity

I just want to say that I avoided driving behind trucks loaded with lumber or pipes even before the Final Destination movie.

Giraffes are fake af

I dislike how most unscented versions of detergents and soaps are labeled "for sensitive skin" or--even worse--"for babies." What? You want the exact same product but without the unnecessarily added chemicals? Fine. Here you go, little baby.

The sometimes tricky thing about satire, especially in close 3rd POV: does some bit of mockery represent the author's view, the character's view, or is it meant to satirize the particular way of thinking itself? Is Scalzi mocking lit fic or mocking people who mock lit fic? You have to go by vibe.

I would like to get into the Hollow Knight discourse: it is indeed hard.

I hope this ishmael finds you whale

I love the word "thing" in literary prose. "Abandoned thing," "hollow thing," "miraculous thing." It's like tofu, a little plain and bulky on its own, but it soaks up the taste of its marinade and expands the flavor. "Thing" infuses itself with its adjectives. #amwriting #amreading

Groundhog Day is the best Groundhog Day movie.

Am I alone in thinking "COFFEE FLAVORED AMARETTO COFFEE" is a confusing way to describe amaretto flavored coffee beans?

I'm 80% of the way through the latest John Scalzi novel when he mocks literary fiction as being all "stories about depressed housewives getting divorces." I know this book is a satire, but, come on man, don't be a jerk to your own people. Must one add to the worst possible book discourse?

Anyone else hanging out in their basement due to a tornado warning?

One weird thing the Libertarians and Marxists in my life have in common is they both argue all art should be free. I'm not even saying I entirely disagree. But, like, if we're going to entirely recreate society, can we start by disrupting hedge fund managers instead of artists?

A month ago I read Detective Novel by Craig Rodgers (pubbed by @malarkeybooks.bsky.social) and I'm still thinking about it. I haven't posted a rambling book review in a while, so here it goes. First: it's great! A spare, staccato, hypnotic human story.

It has come to my attention that quite a few people online think "three-act structure" just means a story has a beginning, middle, and an end, and that no matter how you structure your story it (by tautological definition) has a three-act structure.

A 1937 photography project that aimed to illuminate the impacts of the Great Depression instead whitewashed the experience of rural America. Now, the once-excluded photos of Black Southerners will finally be displayed.

Stay fierce, my friends! #TransRights #art

It's hard to know if I'll like a pair of socks until I've worn them a few times, but that means I'm always reluctant to buy too many socks at once. This is to say that I'm considering going back to the J.Crew factory store at the outlet mall to buy a bunch of these socks I'm currently wearing.

One thing about Reddit writing subs (I know I know): everyone is constantly mean and condescending to lit fic writers, self-justified by how supposedly mean and condescending lit fic writers are. Yet I've never actually seen a lit fic writer be mean and condescending about genre fic on Reddit.

One time when I was exiting the NYC subway there was a woman carrying a sleeping baby and struggling to carry her folded stroller up the stairs with her free arm, so I offered to help. She said thank you and... handed me the baby.

OK, hear me out...A LORD OF THE RINGS remake, but with these two taking the One Ring to Mordor:

The first constant listed in the Wikipedia page "List of mathematical constants" is "One" e.g. "1." As in the number/unit/glyph. This brings me some measure of peace with our place in the universe if not on this troubled Earth. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... #amwriting

It turns out I am very good at the LinkedIn game "Zip." I pretty much solve every puzzle in 4-6 seconds and it tells me I am in the top 99% every time. Is there any way to monetize this skill?

I am three quarters of the way through reading a wild book about aliens, vampires, sentient tornados, hive minds, and heaven that has been a weird, befuddling, and barely-understandable ride, only to now discover it's the second book in a duology of which I did not read the first. 💙📚

We can learn a lot from how little my mom cares about popular culture. We should all aspire to know less about brands.

I still haven't fully gotten over the loss of Martin Amis. I also still haven't fully finished reading his final book, Inside Story. When it's done, it's done. I'll have read everything Amis ever published. I kind of never want to finish it.