Because too many people let him get away with using the Cass Review to take away puberty blockers.

So glad we're able to see this in Belfast (maybe the first Irish screening?) In the times that we're in, it's important to be asking out loud what it means to live in a society where supports for disabled people are stripped away and the only alternative offered is support to die.

Philip Larkin started writing ‘Aubade’ in 1974, & finished it in 1977 after his mother’s death. It was published in the TLS on 23rd December, apparently ruining a number of people’s Christmases. Larkin, terrified of death all his life, died on this day 1985. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48422/...

Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

Three days left on the general submision window for the debut issue of FANTABULOSA! A new magazine of queer scifi and fantasy! (Trans and BIPOC authors have until 15 Dec!) Send us your queerest SFF! 🧙‍♂️🚀🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️👽🔮 6000 word limit $0.08/word USD More details: www.bona-books.com/submissions

introduce yourself with five musicals you've seen: Merrily We Roll Along Groundhog Day Fun Home Waitress Hamilton

Constitutionally incapable of not scream-singing along: "Called a problem child 'cause I got too wild But now that's how I'm getting paid" ✊

OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS

Oh my God. Bluesky, you know what to do!! @shakespeare.lol beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Given that the big marketing trend of last 10+ years is AO3 tags, we can't just use 'gen' here? (Yes, yes, considerable debate in the community about gen limits but still. I'm an acearo person who doesn't always want Romance, but sell me what your thing *is* not just 'not your fluffy girl thing')

The moment when I figured out the little tree and nearly threw my phone across the room... 🤨 I was thinking cryptic, lateral, story plot, word association. Can reliably say it is not those. #HiddenBooksGame

Absolute carnage in the family group chat as my cousin posts a Christmas riddle from her fiancé’s office that no one can figure out, only to find that someone in the office got ChatGPT to make up the riddle and it’s gibberish that doesn’t have a solution

Literary hivemind! Has anyone read any fiction recently that engages or evokes digital archives - or, even better, the concept of the 'digital dark age'?

A school in Manchester is promoting “No Days Off November” to reward kids with perfect attendance. It’s devastating for public health, it discriminates against disabled and chronically ill kids. It shames them for needing time off & reinforces the ableist narrative of playing through the pain

Universities across the world seeing this: "its only wrong 45% of the time!! Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!! Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay

Can only speak for myself, but think I'm not unusual, by the time you see a GP about mental health issues, you are at crisis point - finding it hard to get out of bed, eat, speak to anyone, deal with finances etc - but sure, tell me about the jobs I can apply for at that moment.

I have worked with various office and thermal printers and when I read that bit in @emilytesh.net The Incandescent I put a sticky beside it. And when I loaned the book to my ex-teacher-Mum she was also having flashbacks to possessed printers she had known. *gently bribes the printer with a biscuit*

Discworld QOTD, from I Shall Wear Midnight

Friends, Spooky season is upon us. Remember... foods dyed black with charcoal can interfere with medications. Don't eat them if you have an Rx

Following Sunday's Bounce Festival screening of Witches at Queen's Film Theatre Belfast we are delighted to be joined for the Q&A by Aisling McCormick and Dr Elspeth Vischer. It should be a fascinating chat! Sunday 5 October at 3:30 pm in QFT: universityofatypical.org/bounce-2025/...

“Ah," said Mr Pin. "Right. I remember. You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where 'traditional values' meant 'hang someone'. - Terry Pratchett, The Truth

when I worked in an independent bookstore, the owner told me the most stolen book was one about getting your first period and if I saw anyone walking out with it, I should just let them go.

when I sent the brief over for the cover design I was like "so don't panic but it has to be a bit like she's banging the goat man in a bdsmy kind of way but it also needs to be deniable/ acceptable for a bookstore shelf" and the cover designer was like say no more I have been dreaming of this moment

(assuming I'm not required to make eye contact for >10 minutes of the time) List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep: 1. Fanwork tagging on AO3 2. Ticketing, presentation of booking fees, front of house management in cultural spaces 3. The concept of legacy in Sondheim musicals.

If this intends to make it legally compulsory for every adult in Derry to carry something called a "Brit Card", then I'm willing to offer some high-paid consultancy on why this plan might be flawed.

If you are a writer interested in reading at our Bounce Open Mic on Friday 3 October we have extended applications until the end of the week!

The School Paper (Part 2) - Gator Days

Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.

I guess I'm glad to have received my degree at a time when Oxford theoretically valued teaching critical reading and thinking rather than typing prompts and accepting the plagiarized error-filled output as a substitute.

Discworld QOTD, from Night Watch

Not everyone can always cancel things during a boycott, but if you can, today is a perfect day to terrorize the shit out of Disney. Do it for a week. Or be like me (the person described in the follow up post) and cancel b/c you forgot you were subscribed. Then make sure to tell them why. I did.

Rich people, especially rich people in the media & entertainment industries right this moment: The point of having fuck you money is saying “fuck you” when it counts.

Not Nazis at all. Just people with concerns.

Abandoning plans for city living to live inside the Tiny Bookshop instead. Granted many of the customers have very strong ideas about the genres/plots of books they clearly have not read, but a small price to pay. Fern and I could run this town / dedicate our lives to the community association.

Discworld QOTD, from Guards! Guards!

Iconic moment at the Downton Abbey premiere

Share one of your favorite moments from a Comic Book film or TV show 🎥📺🖤

It is official. The 14th Bounce Arts Festival kicks off Thursday 2 October until Sunday 5 October 2025, in 16 venues across Belfast and Derry~Londonderry, showcasing d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artistic talent. universityofatypical.org/bounce/

Discworld QOTD, from Lords and Ladies

As with Ballymena, what's useful about the DUP's acquiescence to far right fearmongering about migrants is that it's so very clearly just about the racism. Net migration to NI *for the past 22 years* amounts to less than 62,000 people. That's less than 3k a year, in a state of 1.9 million people.

Sweet & Salty - Gator Days

I keep getting asked for my salty thoughts about the Salt Path as my position on nature cure narratives is v clear! A mere fraction of those thoughts published here @literaryhub.bsky.social, with thanks to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and @nicwilson.bsky.social for their earlier pieces linked below.