it keeps getting worse the more I look at it...

Magic Johnson was the grand marshal of the Rose Parade today, and as someone who remembers his November 1991 HIV announcement: if you had told anybody that day that he would be alive and healthy 34+ years later, I don't think they would have believed you. Medicine and research—they work.

For my hero of 2025 at @motherjones.com, I wrote about the late great disabled disability justice oracle Alice Wong, including her work with Disability Visibility Project, Crips for eSims for Gaza, and #CripTheVote. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Nothing comes out of these water jets but lies and insinuations. Why did I buy a j'accuzzi?

FASCISTS: lol chomsky is in the epstein files the libs are sooo mad about their hero LIBERALS: the commies are sooo mad about their hero COMMUNISTS: the anarchists are sooo mad about their hero ANARCHISTS: we're sooo mad anyone thinks we like chomsky. sucks for the linguists though LINGUISTS: lmao

extending lab leak to the spanish flu is fucking wild, tbh

A couple months ago I made a very silly error on a complex beaded lace shawl, and it was so pervasive that I had to rip out upwards of 20 rows (about 7,000 stitches) and put the project in time out. I picked it back up yesterday and almost *immediately* made the same error. 🙃 🧶

“There’s a responsible way to use AI” “There’s a responsible way to pay more for electricity, poison Black people, and encourage teens to kill themselves”

I might never have discovered the Vorkosigan Saga if not for the hand-drawn stick-figure book jacket my friendly local booksellers made for Young Miles.

I know I've said this dozens of times by now, but if your first reaction is to smugly state that 'they voted for this,' then you don't hate fascism. You hate not being in charge.

As my kids would say, grammar better

Update: went with a (very large) Metamucil canister this time, but I am definitely actively in the market for an upgrade. (Also, this is officially the first hat of the 2026 donation season!)

Updating this from yesterday. This choice made author/illustrator William Steig the target for censors. For instance, by early 1971, there were calls for the book’s removal in at least 10 states (it was published in 1969). Some examples follow… 1/9 #booksky #kidlit

Here’s to 2026

and now Bob Kafka. this fucking year, man.

Just had a newish friend ask me for the lowdown on multiple pronoun usage (with my consent)... and because all my conversations come with bibliographies, I was so grateful to @joshuaraclaw.com and @kirbyconrod.bsky.social for providing some great assigned reading!

Knitsky/Crochetsky, please tell me there's a way of blocking baby hats that doesn't require getting a Reborn doll... 😬 🧶 (most of the standard baby dolls I'm finding are smaller than an actual baby, and I'm having a hard time finding a baby mannequin head?)

The guy I was with in grad school initially freaked out when I got a standard poodle because he thought living with her would undermine his masculinity. (then his dad met her and was so excited to interact with a dog he wasn't allergic to that he went and got a family poodle too. 😉)

The same people who mock the idea that gender is performed want to make sure they have the correct props

look at how little effort it takes for someone on the conservative grievance circuit to destroy a life millions of college kids have half assed an assignment at the last minute, you eat the F and move on but the effort to push trans people out of public life will use whatever it can get

“ The daughter of a well known conservative operative , whose paper did not answer the topic at hand and had a carefully planned media campaign , had a trans instructor fired for grading a paper according to the agreed upon rubric”

The ACA isn't just "health care for people who don't have a conventional employer." It also disallows something that was incredibly common 20 years ago, which I fear is getting lost to generational memory: insurance companies could deny you health care for essentially any previous health problem.

I can relate, Murderbot. I can relate. #murderbot #slyart

never mind, it's clearly my fault for thinking I was going to be responsible and try to finally get a handle on the ol' ADHD.

So if you're spreading the "every Jew has been in the IDF" myth I'm seeing more and more in antizionist spaces, what you're actually doing is saying "every Jew is from Israel," and, uh, I hate to break it to you, but that's literally Zionism.

A person with measles visited Boston. We're working with local partners to notify those who may have been exposed to measles. Unvaccinated individuals who have been exposed should contact their health care provider immediately. Learn more at boston.gov/measles.

apparently I'm spending my Christmas Eve trying to convince a mental healthcare provider group that my insurance plan is not Medicaid (and does in fact have a contract with them)?

As a reminder, this is law in Massachusetts for primaries. If we call it voter suppression in Ohio, we should call it voter suppression here.

TIFU by referring to this week of work as "quiet." Anyhow, guess who just got a surprise pdf remediation project with *very* funky reading order issues?

With flu cases increasing, it’s not too late to get vaccinated. Find vaccines near you at VaccineFinder.org. Protect yourself and your loved ones by washing your hands thoroughly, increasing ventilation indoors, and staying home if you feel sick. Learn more at boston.gov/respiratory-protection.

honestly how can you trust the safety of a party where instead of building safety via norms of consent they cater to the idea that all that is needed for safety is the right amount of exclusion 🤷‍♂️ That sounds like a bad time to me

Year's Longest Night, this side of the world. Wrap up inside the welcoming dark & bring it in to carry with you, in the light. The light will come tomorrow & we'll welcome that too, & the clarity & warmth it brings— but for now, esp in this era of weaponized surveillance, appreciate the dark, too

Happy 21st December evening everyone. May the Great Veiled Bear pass over you house tonight and not present you with one of his cursed Christmas cookies.

we aren't powerless! never forget that outrage and pushing back works, even if it just buys time until we have more power. this is a marathon, not a sprint

People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind Actual academics:

Look, I get that not everyone likes to label each point on a graph with its value, but if you're not going to list all the values *ANYWHERE* in the text either, you *CANNOT* just give me this.

Another disaster. This one has actual harmful consequences for trans kids and their families.

Occasionally @coachgowron.com says something I'd expect to have seen from pterry.

life in this house: trying to figure out whether Krampus chews his cud (after determining that the Grinch probably doesn't, so no matter what his feet look like, he will wouldn't be kosher)

Deshittification from yesterday: found out in a meeting that a slightly snippy comment I made in a different meeting six years ago ended up tipping the balance on a national service provider's willingness to collect disability demographic data. (score one for snippy comments, I guess!)

I have a work/focus playlist that's about 25 minutes long, and it's perfect *except* that once it stops and I go to take a break, I have a hard time sticking to a ~5 min break. I just figured out that if I end the playlist with 4'33" I can loop it and come back when the sound starts up again!

Counterpoint: this piece by @andreagrimes.com about being scolded over the so-called 'family estrangement crisis':

I always introduce myself in pronoun-sharing spaces with "she or they are both appropriate," but I always get a little thrill in the rare moments when someone goes with "they," and uh... maybe that means something?

but they pinky-swore!!

Reached out for a follow-up after my second-round interview and got "we've identified a candidate and are waiting for HR approval." If the candidate wasn't me, they'd say it wasn't me, right??? 😰

(just tried to tell a cute relatable story, and I think maybe starting it with "that one time I tried to learn Catalan for fun" might have been a mistake...)

it's taken me a while to put this together. but I hope, if you've never heard of her, or even if you have, this tribute to Alice Wong buoys your heart and gives you a good sense of who this incredible person was. www.coyotemedia.org/remembering-...

11% of Britons say they feel 'very negatively' about trans people which just highlights how much this is a top-down hate project with around 95% of the media hating trans people and a high percentage of MPs.