Someone at my library has a sense of humour.

Most successful Christmas present by far was the butterfly wand toy Ramona.

I am stalled partway through some mystery audiobooks/shows I was enjoying, and I had to push myself to finish the mystery I was reading. Realizing that there is only so much suspense/jeopardy I can take right now. Maybe I should be reading cozy fantasy even though it’s not my usual jam.

Can’t remember if it was @superwendy.bsky.social or @janetwebb.bsky.social that I learned about Sarah Stewart Taylor’s AGONY HILL from, but thank you! I am currently reading the equally good sequel, HUNTER’S HEART RIDGE. Mysteries set in mid-1960s Vermont.

We are basically turning city government and policing over to FIFA for the duration. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Just realized that tomorrow is the 22nd, not the 23rd, and also that I had mentally added a year to the age I will be turning next week, so turns out that for Christmas I have given myself the gift of time. A year and a day, as the old tales have it!

I have been thinking about how hard and slow it will be to reverse this, in large part because a lot of nominally liberal people are just fine with it.

To mail a package from Canada to my parents in the US, I had to fill out an online customs form, download an app and fill out a second form for US duties, and show the QR code from each at the post office.

Me: Ramona is being good about the tree so far. (it’s her first Christmas with me) Ramona: what if I bite this fake branch? I haven’t put ornaments on yet; should be fun!

Ending semester grading with the creative projects and reflective writing from my literature/gender studies courses, and as always they are a balm for the discouragements of teaching in These Times. Students do really engage and care about their learning!

Only her second semester in the role, and Ramona is absolutely crushing this Grading Assistant thing.

🍿🍿(I mean this is serious but also the fight will be interesting).

Why do I spend days dreading a phone call that turns out to be short and perfectly pleasant? (An outcome that was entirely predictable). How much of my life have I wasted this way?

Thinking about getting her one of those cat cave beds for Christmas, but she’d probably prefer a paper bag.

Now I have to grade though, and since we were in the pub for 2 1/2 hours it felt only right to order drinks as well as food, and all I want to do is nap…. Can’t win ‘em all, including this game.

Grading, what grading? The Whitecaps are in the MLS final!

I commented on a student’s fountain pen, we discussed De Atramentis’ Jane Austen ink, then last night they asked me what my favorite Austen novel is. The tonic my burnout needed.

I learned about this because my cousin Jessica is one of the women profiled. Interesting to see a "mommy" site with a story about how moms are standing up to ICE. www.scarymommy.com/lifestyle/ho...

I borrowed the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair from my digital public library because I was curious about Olivia Nuzzi's "abstract nude" and that's 5 minutes of my one wild and precious life my curiosity stole from me.

Wait until The Atlantic learns about Universal Design for Learning. I just give *everyone* time and a half on my exam now. Because how fast you can finish does not measure anything I want my students to learn. (There are learning outcomes where speed matters, but they are few).

This is a good article, but left me wondering why achieving in school is framed as a competition, and whether it must be. Why do you have to win or lose to learn? (This is why my undergrad college discouraged talking about grades).

She all leg. Just the one.

First Sunday of Advent! My favorite liturgical season arriving *just* when I was thinking I need to practice hoping more.

Softening butter when you have radiant in-floor heating and a cat.

I relate to so much of this. Especially “remember when expectation meant something other than dread?” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/o...

Headed into the final (half) week of teaching with a pile of grading I’m behind on, so of course it’s my weekend to bake cookies for church.

I love this poem, and often read it with students!

Christmas trees arriving at the hardware store. It smells amazing on this corner.

I don't know, when I look at this chart, I think "We can pay now or pay even more later." I am mad about all of this, and yes I pay property taxes.

Two things I look forward to as end of year grading looms: 1. The projects and research papers that students really poured their hearts into; 2. Sampling new to me music from Best of 2025 lists while I work.

“Oh, that modem is old and has been decommissioned.” Then why didn’t you replace it before it died and I have to be without home internet for a week? What do we pay these fucking companies for? (Also while they have me on the chat, magically there is a cheaper plan they can offer me).

My internet is out, I have tried all the obvious things, and I am really looking forward to spending most of my day tomorrow trying to get tech support from my service provider. (Tomorrow because I can finally be home during the hours when there is theoretically human tech support).

Today in class (in both sections!) when I asked my students if they knew anything about John Wayne someone said “Oh, John Wayne Gacy?” Which I guess says something about who is getting a cultural afterlife right now, at least for young Canadians. Or about what they are into. 😂

Can’t wait for my first student paper with a weird bamboo metaphor.

A lot more people need a Honey No friend. A Better Just Zip It friend. A Don’t Press Send friend. A Don’t Air That In Public Friend. I might start a rent-a-friend business. For a small fee, run that by someone who will tell you “Oh hell no.”

Nuzzi’s piece coming out alongside the emails between Summers and Epstein feels clarifying. Guessing one reason this dreck got published is that a lot of men want to hear that their hitting on young women in professional contexts is a) welcome & b) interesting/important/worthy of breathless prose.

This is the best thread you'll read today. #SpreadLove

I had some second thoughts about the novel I assigned this semester, which is new to me and which TBH I skimmed pretty quickly before choosing, but now that I'm rereading it and starting discussion in class I am enjoying it. The students so often make the book for me.

So much about this episode is funny but maybe my favorite part is that in Musk’s original post (embedded here) the image is of the Odyssey, not the Iliad.

Ugh, I just read some really vacuous advertorial content about how a school my kids once attended is working with AI.

It can be hard to look forward these days, so the news that there will be a Season 2 of Deadloch in 2026 is very welcome!

I finished an actual, physical book last night for the first time in months. It was Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd, a quirky, funny-sad mystery. Deciding what to try next to keep busting the slump.

I adopted Ramona in April so she is only now learning about the joys of in-floor heating.

Well, I hope I'm around in a decade to find out if Elon managed to sell a million robots and "earn" his trillion. (It's a mad mad mad mad world).

Douthat was dull for so long, the Times must be loving this. Hate dunks pay the bills. (Also of course we should call out platforming this shit, it’s a conundrum).

Lynda Barry knows the real Halloween monsters: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

@rohanmaitzen.bsky.social @ds228.bsky.social I loved your conversation about Vanity Fair. What is more gratifying than a student wanting to finish the class work 30 years later? 😂

Headline: Trump Administration Providing Weapons Grade Plutonium to Sam Altman Me: That's, like, a metaphor, right? No, no it is not: futurism.com/science-ener...

It’s not like I didn’t already think this situation was really fucking bad, but I was beginning to think it was way fucking worse.

I bet you will see my 80-something churchgoing parents. Also is “Marxists on full display” a naked bike ride reference?