For a few weeks I've been working on a short essay about my first job and ever since, all of a sudden, I've been getting multiple spam calls a day from that same small town.

Daffodil report: CODE YELLOW @ CYLBURN and a lovely day for it!!

Hell yeah I've read Mavis Gallant, all my homies love Mavis Gallant

Happy Friday, cry with me about a nice whale and nice excavators.

I don't follow sports but I am feeling a sudden hot dog craving that I suspect is due to ambient opening day vibes

Saw bdot workers ticketing cars in the Charles Street bus lane today

This is not actually going to happen so I'm not going to get too worked up about it but this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Poe is so unhappy I’m trying to work at my desk. He sits behind me, just out of arms reach, mewing sadly until I get up and follow him to the bedroom rug for pats. Repeatedly!

ICYMI: start your week off with disgruntled locals and a little bit of hunting-based ethics:

Love the movement and sinister local color pulsing through this short story by @cpasko.bsky.social. Great read for your Sunday.

Daffodil report: not quite peak yet, though a fair amount in bloom. Perhaps a few days/next weekend if these temps continue?

This is lovely:

Delighted to share that my short story "The Flatlander," about central PA and black powder, is up at Grist today! gristjournal.com/2026/03/the-...

Ever since my car was stolen last fall State Farm keeps sending me letters telling me how much money I'd save if I just kicked that irresponsible Courtney Pasko off my policy.

They closed work early due to impending tornado so now I’m eating lunch out of my lunchbox on my sofa at home like some sort of freak

Locking in 🍿

And I was worried I wouldn't have anything when hex opens subs up next week

Got a stash of gifted notebooks you're afraid to get rid of? Donate them here to be redistributed to youth & writers at community events: www.fearnolit.com/notebooked

Walked around yesterday in a t-shirt and now it’s fully snowing on my daffodils. I love March!

Maybe I'm going to be okay after all

"The arrival of a siren does not bother them; they are water-things, all of them;"

"Dad kind of grunted when Mom told him what we were having. He hemmed and hawed and eventually said that he thought we should cook something fancier for Jesus."

Excited for Jung Yun's "All the World Can Hold" launch event, tomorrow at the library!

IT’S TIME TO GET WEIR’D

Diet Coke shortage at the convention center

A small cohort but digging the presses that have broadsides for sale at the AWP book fair. Maybe a bit more practical when you don’t have to go home by plane but I love seeing some nice letterpress in the wild.

If you are coming to Baltimore for #AWP26 you should know that we have: 1) a kickass two story radical bookstore 2) a worker owned vegan restaurant, coffee shop, and bar 3) a packed schedule of evening offsite events with 20 presses and 100+ authors redemmas.org/awp/

Should I send a pathetic email to the magazine I suspect is ghosting me before, during, or after AWP

'Sexy maid. Sexy firefighter. Sexy nurse. She stops for a moment at sexy astronaut, then pivots to a shelf of props. She runs a finger through a faux tiger-skin carpet, looks at the generic label on a fake bottle of wine. “We have an extensive selection of wigs,” I say.'

Nathan told me it's the Pokemon anniversary today. Me: Oh, it's been twenty years already? Wow. N: No, thirty.

Hell yeah: "I tried to say something back, but my voice turned into the bleating lullaby of a thousand goats."

Reading a little about Charles Demuth, who lived in Paris briefly before having to return to his parents' home in Lancaster due to his diabetes (via doi.org/10.4000/tran...)

AWP folks: Red Emma's might not be right by the convention center, but it's one of the best bookstores in Baltimore and has an all-vegan cafe and bar! The Charm City Circulator Purple Line is a FREE bus that will get you directly there to/from downtown. www.baltimorecity.gov/transportati...

Dearest Courtney, My thoughts are, as ever, with you always. We are stationed in the inbox of an underpaid government worker. Morale is low and I fear the worst...

Will my husband [blue recycling bin request] ever return from war [get fulfilled by 311]?

I don't watch Netflix shows anyhow but something about a blond Mr. Darcy makes me feel uneasy.

Office kook is explaining the evils of bottled water, apparently "part of" big pharma

hex is coming to town for one weekend and booked one of the nicest venues in the city..... incredible energy

V annoying work thing is when someone submits a 'critical' ticket so I grab it right away and then when I ask a clarifying question they are never to be heard from again

Hit 'send' on my first submission in three months, please clap

What a dream!

It made me SO happy to hear Jonathan Groff shout out the Lancaster Public Library (and the Fulton! And manure!) on Amy Poehler’s podcast this week 🥹

Trying to figure out which AWP offsites I want to go to based on which bars and bookstores I like best, how far they are from my neighborhood, what journals have sent me the nicest rejections, and whether or not any of my nemeses will be reading

Simply not engaging with the outside this weekend, I’ll see y’all next week when the weather stats behaving itself.

The meditation videos playing in this waiting room would probably be more effective if they weren’t interrupted by a glp-1 ad every sixty seconds

Fantasizing about going back in time to teach better sex ed in 1960's Albuquerque and preventing this idiot, this heartless ghoul from ever being born.

Adore this! "SNAKE: Stop bragging! CAT: What? Am I out of line? SNAKE: Transgressor! Derelict! CAT: Oh come on. Names, they do us nothing."

Folks. Please don't spread panic with unconfirmed reports. The Beat even has this handy-dandy guide now baltimorebeat.com/how-baltimor...