“They’re just not willing to accept that there is such a thing as a sincere and genuine liberal religious tradition.”

"This kind of thing is specifically what AI is not capable of...a human touch, a moment of sincere kindness."

Idea: When you're filing your taxes, it'd be like when you make a donation to your alma mater, you get to check the boxes for where you want your money to go (financial aid, library, "area of greatest need," etc.). How many people would check "war," do you think?

Then the pandemic hit, and I thought, “Everybody’s into sourdough and nobody trusts the cops. The time has clearly arrived.”

When you're a greyhound, every time is naptime.

Every time I text a friend "happy birthday!" a message pops up asking if I want to create a reminder so I remember their birthday next year. Dude, I've clearly got it covered already, so...no.

And here is our one-sheet that you can hang up/distribute!

"I have still yet to see one positive feature of AI that has made my life better, but the negatives are piling up..."

when someone’s net worth reaches a billion dollars it should roll over to zero like the scores in old video games

Time to call your reps! No matter where you are, no matter who your rep is they need to hear from you. Script is available at @5calls.org.

I love witty banter in any genre, and so THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY by @scalzi.com was a real delight. If this book were a person it actually *would* be fun at parties!

Book bans harm authors and their readers in surprising and insidious ways, writes @authorgracelin.bsky.social, who explains how new legislation might help stop the spread of book banning in her home state of Massachusetts. gazettenet.com/2026/03/09/g...

TOPIC: Do you use contests, conferences or challenges to help you move forward with your work? What makes that kind of external motivation helpful--and are there any you would particularly recommend? #kidlitchat

"I'm moderating a panel about AI in the literary world on Thursday. My main question to all of the panelists will be: WHY? How has AI made anything about the literary world better? Or the world in general?"

Heard a strange sound

If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.

"This isn’t because screens are inherently attention-destroying. It’s because the dominant platforms have been deliberately engineered to fragment attention in service of advertising revenue." aeon.co/essays/what-...

High Five Books and Tui Sutherland onstage at the Academy of Music in Northampton MA for the launch of Wings of Fire book 16!

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 646528: Reading the classics is great. But if you want to connect to a modern audience you also need to read modern books.

My whole critique group participated! #50PreciousWords #12x12challenge

Can't believe I still need to submit my tax return to this government.

“We are being undermined by a clown show of greedy billionaire priorities that are not of service to the parks or country,” one employee said.

Happy birthday to this one! Seven in people years, 54 in dog years (according to the chart at the vet). Midlife crisis involved trying to eat a candle and a bar of soap.

"But he had just realized that hope was a job, and somebody had to do it, and today that somebody was him." -THE LIONS' RUN by @sarapennypacker.bsky.social

Why do I have to pretend that I'm going to print something in order to save it as a PDF. Why do I have to engage in a little ruse.

"Protecting kids and teens from discussions about sex is not saving them from assaults. And books are not causing the assaults."

"People often talk about how our brains are not equipped with the circuitry to meaningfully triage all the terrible news we’re bombarded with in the present day."

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback..."

The disappearance of YA book collections in public libraries–and the parallel winnowing of YA librarianship. Where are young people supposed to BE young people? That, plus an extremely long roundup of censorship news: bookriot.com/the-disappea...

When books are removed, voices disappear. Sometimes, this is even the intent. thehill.com/opinion/educ...

On my second year of #12x12PB and I've found critique partners, gotten feedback on manuscripts, and seen some really great webinars/workshops. @12x12challenge.bsky.social Learn more: www.12x12challenge.com/membership (registration for this year ends tomorrow!)

being an artist is just decades of going "ugh I wish I knew how to draw" over and over again until you die

Are you in Massachusetts and looking for a reading challenge? Check out the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB) adult challenge (www.massbook.org/readingchall...) or student challenge (www.massbook.org/student-read...)

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

"Carrying their papers in case they are stopped in the street and forced to prove their citizenship because of the color of their skin—in the United States of America." www.libraryjournal.com/story/minnes...

Sleeps for the better part of each 24-hour cycle but has to be up at 6am for Important Dog Reasons

"The findings suggest that abortion bans force pregnant people who otherwise would have sought abortion care to take on the substantially increased health risks associated with continued pregnancy"

With Congress preparing another vote on the SAVE Act, advocates warn its documentation requirements could make registering to vote more difficult for millions of women—threatening both access to the ballot and progress toward gender parity in political power.

"Being from New England should be in the DSM, but in a good way. I feel stronger because of it." @joshgondelman.bsky.social www.thatsmarvelousnewsletter.com/170-gamblers...

"...for a long time, we used to think that making people’s lives better was important and valuable."

GM: Charisma check. Mamdani: [rolls natural 20] GM: that’s a d6 how did you Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people's bodies. Her bosses halted her work. Now she wrestles with the secrets that 3M kept from her and the world. (Published May 2024)

That teachers buy supplies out of their own meager salaries while we make new tax laws to make billionaires more billionairey is unconscionable. We need an entirely new system, but in the mean time, NO INCOME TAX FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATORS.

"...the crime rate of CBP agents and offices (sic?) was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States."

Oh, no. This one hits very hard. What a loss for librarianship in particular, and the world at large.

New Blog Post: Executive Function Theft https://hedgehoglibrarian.com/2023/08/14/executive-function-theft/ In which I name something that's been bothering me.

Article from 2020

Thanks to @taralazar.bsky.social for organizing #Storystorm! I'm starting the year with so many new ideas, and even better, I'm in the habit of writing down a new idea every day.

“Change the way you get your news.” We don’t believe in paying journalists.