The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the automated business support agent of the gate.

Oh, the drama!

roguish familiars, which one would you take on adventure?

The "entrenched bureaucracy" are the people who actually implement the programs people like so much. The nonpartisan professionals who keep the government running. Complaining about them is a talking point straight out of Ronald Reagan's racist mouth. Stop it, you dingbats.

If Clinton and/or Summers went to prison over Epstein, it would be a thing that happened and perhaps overdue. If Trump went to prison over Epstein—this isn't an argument against it—it would potentially be a Constitutional crisis. So yeah, one of those is a fuckton more relevant than the other two.

Extraordinary story.

With the necessary caveat that I'm not a New Yorker, this was always my understanding of what NYC is, why "Theme From New York, New York" is iconic. And it's why I think of NYC as being the most American city in the country.

The thing about the left needing a positive vision for masculinity to counter the right is … they don’t have one either. Their whole thing is “don’t be a woman” as arbitrarily defined by whatever they consider feminine. Apparently some people find this admirable and wish to imitate it

They wanted groveling admiration. The whole thing was always rooted in their insecurities--their personal insecurities about race and gender and whether they were really good people--and it wasn't enough to achieve their stated goals when the whole point was to be validated and stroked.

That is, indeed, all there is and I feel like the Coen Brothers satisfactorily deflated all of today's masculinity discourse thirty years ago but nobody wants to admit just how stupid masculinity discourse really is.

Do you know an outstanding aquarist? We're hiring a Senior Aquarist to help run our cephalopod facility at Columbia University. Our team maintains a colony of 250+ cuttlefish, develops new husbandry techniques (inc transgenics) & studies cuttlefish camouflage and social behavior. 1/3 [Pls repost!]

Adorable young kestrels surprised by a butterfly.

TIL the new Nolan movie is about trying to get a cat to come back to you after it embarrassed itself falling off of something.

Ah yes, the "Thdpsssps"

TBH this is one of the most depressing things for me. I finally have time to write. I don't know if I'll try to get any of it published, but I'm a little panicky that if I do, people will think using things I've learned by reading other writers means I'm using software created by stealing from them.

What the hell, I'll go with 5th edition. No, not THAT 5th edition. This one.

Merge two movies: A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead

Anthony Head was an Ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats home for more than two decades. Thanks for everything Tony x

Said of Anthony Michael Head, while he was still alive: "Tony was unthinkingly kind. To everyone on set. Lots of casts look back on their shows as found family. None are as precious to me as Buffy was." -- Charisma Carpenter There are few better epitaphs than being called "unthinkingly kind."

JUST IN: Judge Mary McElroy (Trump/RI) refers DOJ attorneys to the court discipline committee over handling of fight over trans medical care subpoenas to RI Hospital. Earlier she agreed that presumption of regularity for govt 'no longer holds.' storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Yep. The value of corporations rolling out the rainbow carpet isn't what's in their heart of hearts, it's the society-wide signaling of "acceptance is good, bigotry is bad." Even if entirely insincere, it tells society "we think the majority of our customers expect this," and that's good!

I don't really talk about this, because I'm actually quite private about my personal life, but many many years ago Tony Head took me under his wing and showed me the kind of person I could be. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm the person I am today because of the kindness he showed me.

In case nobody has posted this btw. Jpg is cruddy but alt text has the text

Effortlessly makes a role defined by another icon his own. We've lost you too soon, Mr. Head. Thank you for the times we had.

I feel reasonably certain as an ex-lawyer that at a bare minimum due process includes your attorney being given an opportunity to be heard about the fact that you're dead.

Finally, a Unit of Measurement for a Certain Kind of Moral Depravity… We've all encountered this trope in post-apocalyptic fiction before. Let's give it a name... reactormag.com/finally-a-un...

Wanna put guns in your game? Beware of the terms and conditons. behindthehelm.bearblog.dev/a-brief-obse...

"Yes, I know that Grammie died five years ago. But you know who doesn’t know that? Verizon. She has automatic payments set up that connect to some bank account that we also don’t have access to."

Is Graham Platner a Nazi? No, but he's not not a Nazi, either. substack.com/home/post/p-...

I will say I'm looking forward to a day that will probably never come when an American political scandal over extramarital activities evaporates with a candidate and their spouse announcing they've got an open marriage or an adultery kink or by introducing the rest of their polycule to the press...

the man was quite free never to have declared himself a candidate for the us senate

I'm also befuddled by opposing counsel's failure to address the bad cites, same way the judges are. I didn't practice appellate law (I was an assistant public defender for 25 years), but here's a picture of me from before I retired, noticing a mistake in a prosecutor's motion or brief.

If only someone could figure out how to make milk safe to drink! It'd be such a big deal the process would be named after them.

There is something brutally psychically injurious to being constantly told "just do good work and you'll be successful" while watching people who do the most dogshit work possible do all the succeeding.

Just read the worst historical fiction about the Mongolian Empire. It was all prose, no Khans.

Saying it's a circus moments after being asked about the clown shoes is... certainly a choice.

Oh, it's tethered to reality, alright; specifically, it's tethered to the reality observed in a quote commonly attributed to P.T. Barnum about the birthrate of a certain demographic. Sixty more of them added to the general population every hour on the hour, if you go by his figures....

An exceptionally good piece and worth the read.

In a similar vein, the 20 year war that the French and later the United States could have ended any time they wanted to, but there was so much winning to be won...

"She was famed for her ability to add humanity to material that might seem mechanical or theoretical, as well as for figuring out which pieces of the story were guaranteed to make the audience happy." @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social in his obituary for the late editor & creative, Marcia Lucas:

“I’m Kid Rock.” “I’m Naomi Wolf.” “I’m Kanye West.” “I’m Matt Taibbi.” “I’m Catturd. Those stories, plus Rob Schneider, tonight on 60 Minutes.”

He's still the best dog and a very good boy.

If you take AI cultists at their word about AI consciousness (and you really shouldn't), they're advocates for slavery.

My crankiest old man take is that referring to all art/entertainment/journalism/criticism/comedy/advertising as “content” helped pave the way for broad-ish acceptance of AI slop.

As succinct a summary of what's wrong with pop culture these days as I've seen.

eavesdropping on a couple of english lit academics in st. john, i overheard confirmation of what is surely going to be the biggest literary news story of the year

This is a fantastic interview.

Happy Pride Month. If you're a gay man, please remember your power. People often think that gay men are innately fashionable, which means if you wear some stupid shit for long enough, straight people, including homophobes, will copy you and then you can laugh at them.

The assignment was clearly understood.