I volunteered with a crisis line for a while. I talked with folks with the gun in their hand and with folks who were just sad and didn't want to bother their friends or family. I never felt any of them were wasting my time. Call if you need it, every time you need it.

We're going to have to take the White House down to the studs to fix the damage he's done. Same for the Country.

The cost of health care is one of those kitchen table issues Republicans claim they're good at.

"How can we help those who have become joyless and without courage if we are not ourselves bearers of courage and joy?" ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Say hello to Megatron, the #TinyBabyTerrapin who is wintering in my classroom this year as part of the Terrapin Education and Research Partnership (TERP). Terrapins are the Maryland State Reptile.

Faith leaders have chained themselves to the doors of San Francisco's immigration courthouse, blockading the building in the predawn hours. missionlocal.org/2025/12/fait...

Thing my parents said to me: "It's not you I don't trust, it's everybody else." Thing I say to my teen: "It's not your cold cognition I don't trust, it's your hot cognition." In both cases the response is the same: eye roll, muttering.

This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites. The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.

Thought spouse and I might be the only adults without kids at this showing is Muppet Christmas Carol, but adults far outnumber children in here.

This carrot has been practicing yoga.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet." — Frederick Buechner

Democratic leadership didn’t want to stick their necks out for him. The GOP didn’t want him even referred to as a “Maryland man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, his congressional representative fought for him. And we should never forget any of this. apnews.com/article/abre...

AI is not a real person, but it is trained on all of the worst things people have ever said in some of the ugliest corners of the internet.

Two weird sea slug tricks, thanks to the @scifri.bsky.social podcast. First, and most relevant to me because my seventh grade is learning about photosynthesis right now: there are sea slugs that suck chloroplasts out of algae and become temporarily photosynthetic. www.rutgers.edu/news/solar-p...

"I'll burn down your house" - legally actionable, boring, common "I told the trees about you" - legally acceptable, foreboding, unsettling, the plants know your name and hate you

I don’t want to be more efficient. I don’t want to get faster. I want to be deeper, more authentic. I want to be strikingly me. I want people to have shivers when they look at my art. Even if it takes time, I want me to enjoy the process and people to wait eagerly for my art and feel amazing

If there are ghosts here, I think they're friendly.

Getting the dog-in-law ready for a sniff walk. She was very excited.

The most realistic scene in DS9 is when Gul Dukat whined about how the Bajorans never erected a statue in his honor. A prophetic text.

(TW: GROSS) Today in "Adventures in Suburban Wildlife" I had to dispose of half of a dead squirrel that was in my yard. My assumption is that the local fox and/or raptor population dealt with the other half. This was an adult grey squirrel, fattened for winter, so prob not the neighbor's feral cat.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value.

Birthday girl wanted purple. My food coloring couldn't cope with the buttercream. So birthday girl is getting goth cake. Hope she likes it.

Artists deserve to be paid. Piracy is theft. Libraries are free.

The claim that Hep B vaccines only have 5 days of safety testing is false: www.voicesforvaccines.org/jtf_topics/w...

!!!EMERGENCY CATURDAY!!!

"the USPS is a miracle. it's in the constitution. for the price of a single stamp you can send a letter across the country, from Hawaii to Maine. Trump is trying to take that away from you. He's attacking Christmas cards and wedding invitations. It's un-American and it has to stop."

"The priest at a Catholic church in Dedham on Wednesday defended his parish’s decision to replace nativity figurines of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with a sign reading “ICE was here,” saying the gospel is clear about treating immigrants with respect." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/03/m...

I ordered something this morning and I have already received four automated emails about it. It hasn't even shipped yet. This seems excessive.

All I want for Christmas is for the worst people in the world to experience some consequences

Artists and scientists need each other.

I used to play backgammon with my dad, often enough that I wrote an essay about it in high school. Now I want someone to give me backgammon set for Christmas. Alas, even if I had a backgammon set I'd have no one to play it with.

I know this already, and this graph is still mind blowing.

It's officially "My public school classroom is entirely secular and I will not impose even a whiff of Christianity on my students even if that makes me a grump," season. Snowflakes are secular. Santa is not. Mittens are secular. Reindeer are not. Cocoa is secular. Elf is not. #edusky

World AIDS Day matters — even if the Trump administration refuses to recognize it. We honor the lives lost, stand with those living with HIV/AIDS, and renew our fight to end this epidemic. www.forbes.com/sites/davewe...

Both things are true, the essay is terrible and the professor is being targeted as part of a larger campaign against trans people. Only one of these is really important right now.

The panopticon grows.

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

Looks like I'm gonna repost this every year.

The teenager bought seven nice sweaters for sixty bucks today. Thrift stores ftw.

I'm gonna be stuck here a while.

Here it is with the byline and alt text

Scout loves it when the family gets together for TTRPG because it means she gets so many treats.

This is the same recycled bile that was spewed about Italians, the Irish, and Jewish immigrants from anywhere. It was bullshit then and it remains bullshit now.

And that's not even the most repugnant thing in this post.

126 confirmed cases in WV, more than 3500 cases in TX, 3 babies dead in KY, 2 babies dead in LA, Pertussis is preventable. We have had a safe and effective vaccines for generations. Pregnant women and anyone who works around infants should get boosted. Anything less is criminal negligence.

Here are my top 10 dogs carrying big sticks!

I swore an oath to the Constitution in 1986. I've upheld it through 25 years of service and every day since I retired. If Trump's trying to intimidate me, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to our country to be silenced by bullies who care more about power than the Constitution.

Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other. Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq