spent the afternoon chucking the year's worth of accumulated program ideas into @readercon.org 's suggestion box, as I do. you've got until January 31 to make sure it's not just me in there! readercon.org/contribute

sorry not sorry?? (best on desktop; saves your progress)

today in technology: is my car refusing to remote start because the app just updated (vexing but hopefully will be fixed soon) or because it's single-digits Fahrenheit out (deeply defeating the purpose and making me long for the days when I could have a non-app aftermarket remote starter installed)?

I need to take a poll on the number of people who think the final Hilary Tamar book is worse than the others versus good or even better. It's definitely different, but last time I reread it, I thought it was the best of the four. Anyway: read them, they are amazing. steelypips.org/weblog/categ...

truly humbling how bad I am at counting I solved the daily Clues by Sam, Dec 8th 2025 (Easy), in 05:17 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 cluesbysam.com

Moby-Dick (which I would have to buy a paper copy of, because all three of my copies are ebooks) and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. (via @cofax.bsky.social )

if the narrator in a work of fiction is telling the story by talking to "you," and the "you" is a character in the story, then the narration is first-person, NOT second-person. (via @avaayers.bsky.social )

there is a lot of stuff in those settings; go check them out

when do the clocks go back and is it possible that the game will still be going?

thank you to @lingthusiasm.bsky.social for telling me about www.etymonline.com which is free and so useful!

do you think (spoiler's) friend called Morales who painted many murals ... was named Miles? @amalelmohtar.com I solved the daily Clues by Sam (Oct 19th 2025) (hard and all green, go me!) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 cluesbysam.com

I cannot fathom how an entire two hours about "narf" did not reference Pinky and the Brain even _once_. what is this world coming to

check the thread for the video version

ahhh Madeleine E. Robins has written a fourth Sarah Tolerance book!!! whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/14/t... I loved these Austen noirs back in the day (this post about the first two is from 2007, woof; obviously a third was since published): steelypips.org/weblog/2007/...

today's batch of pictures I took at the Fuller Craft Museum, this time all from the exhibition on quilts and baskets (I don't know why the images aren't previewing, sorry). a soothing quilt: katenepveu.tumblr.com/post/7973032...

thank you, putting it on my list!

today's links to pictures I took at the Fuller Craft Museum, starting with the last of the Ukrainian folk art exhibition--runs through November 2 and well worth seeing for those within range of Eastern Massachusetts! katenepveu.tumblr.com/post/7972127...

I wrote up some other books because I felt bad about dusting off the booklog to frustration-post. The goal was to get to Freya Marske's latest, CINDER HOUSE: steelypips.org/weblog/2025/...

in August I went to the Fuller Craft Museum outside of Boston and took a ton of pictures, which I've finally finished queuing at Tumblr. last museum trip, I posted the pictures here directly; but adapting the text to the character limits took forever. so this time, it's just Tumblr links, sorry!

anyway I found METAL FROM HEAVEN so frustrating that I had to dust off the booklog to get it off my chest: steelypips.org/weblog/2025/... still looking for post-Broken Earth suggestions!

zooooup! (that's the noise I made looking at these)

cat's haunted

just read METAL FROM HEAVEN by August Clarke, which feels so emphatically post-Broken Earth trilogy that I was shocked not to see it in the acknowledgments. which made me wonder: what else is post-Broken Earth? I'm incredibly far behind on all reading, so please tell me anything no matter obvious.

family movie night last night was Shane Black adapting Richard Stark's Parker novels in a new Prime flick called Play Dirty. coincidentally, I very recently binged the entire Parker series. thoughts: Black is such a good fit for Donald Westlake that I was surprised he hadn't adapted him before. 1/

deeply impressed by the volume this flock of house sparrows in my backyard is achieving. they just have a lot to say, all at once, very loudly! (I also enjoy that they don't give a shit about me, less than 20 feet away and clearly visible. or the dogs, for that matter.)

SteelyKid and Argos both enjoy it when Argos visits

I know it's hard to get across certain things in ballet because you don't have words [*] nevertheless it is really something to see an adaptation of The Great Gatsby in which class is simply ... not present [*] except the book's first and last lines in voiceover

oh no I got called on during the first of the New Bedford Whaling Museum's sessions for the Moby-Dick book club they warned us that we might be but I still wasn't really expecting it and hope I didn't ramble too much anyway it was interesting, come join for the next two!

my morning laugh, anyway

so yes last night I read The Great Gatsby for the very first time! and then paused, thought, reread it. many of you like this book! and I would sincerely like to know what you enjoy about it. (I do NOT want to know why you didn't like it or for you to argue with/criticize people answering me!)

really, Nick Carraway, do tell me more

I realize this will make sense to like two of you but: how cool!!

hat tip to @failbettergames.com on this one! their newsletter is fun, you should check it out: sendy.failbettergames.com/sendy/subscr... (sorry for the horrible link)

#cluesbysam is Guess Who as a logic puzzle, and today is the first day I didn't make any mistakes at all, which is satisfying. (Sometimes I just ... get "innocent" and "criminal" mixed up in my head? they are not natural opposites to me.) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 Less than 7 minutes cluesbysam.com

@swingingstorm.bsky.social this re: Hadestown popped out of my Tumblr queue and reminded me of our discussion! www.tumblr.com/theriverbeyo...

it looks so fuzzy!

Do you know the REM song "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville"? Here's a fabulous article by Ingrid Schorr, the woman who inspired it, about how history gets made. www.hilobrow.com/2011/09/23/r... (via @orzelc.bsky.social , who I used to visit in Rockville every weekend)

I forgot the Hugos were last night!! congratulations to @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social @emilytesh.net @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social @dianapho.bsky.social !!!!! locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo...

some quantum physics for your morning!

halfway through Media Club Plus's episode about THE SIXTH SENSE and I can confirm that, as @amtebbel.bsky.social suspected, Kids These Days (*) do indeed think that "I see dead people" is a Kendrick original (*) that is, SteelyKid and the Pip, who are 17 and 13

it looked really startlingly realistic from down the block!

as someone who basically writes for a living: this is extremely true. (h/t @orzelc.bsky.social )

such comical-looking birds

so I've bought a new phone, which FedEx received on Thursday 7/24 in Illinois. It landed in New York (my state) on 7/25 to arrive by 7/27. Its tracking info next updated on Tuesday 7/29 from ... Arizona. you might think that since it was already late, FedEx might send it along quickly. 1/?

it's a lovely sunny day that's not, for a change, too hot, with a bit of a breeze, and so all's right with the world if you're a pupper

hey Internet--whenever I have to deal with a Phillips-head screw, I always have better results with a flat head screwdriver than a Phillips. am I missing some great advantage in not learning to use a Phillips properly?

I regret to say that something about the way their heads are aligned, and possibly also the blurry branch in the foreground, gives me the impression that they are some kind of three-eyed cryptid. But Chad did get out of there alive, so it can't be too bad ... right?

turns out that between 11 and 13, children change a lot?!?!

a story from @epbirdsall.bsky.social and it's in an anthology called Murderfish?!? sign me up!

me to @orzelc.bsky.social : "How did you do this?!" Chad, looking at me like I'm the one who's weird here: "Carefully."