Reading

Current Mood: cheerful

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(no subject)

Today has been a very bookish day for me, albeit a highly social one.

Romance book club in the morning; this month, a Regency romance (J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head. (Reminder to self - send

minervacat the book club list, it's just in inconvenient-to-share format.) Good to shake up my usual contemporary/romantasy tendencies, and we had a fun discussion about the perils of how to introduce a large cast of characters (I compared it both to the Baby-Sitters Club *and* Pucking Around, ahahaha), and historical portrayals and understandings of nonbinary and alternate genders, but I think overall I still don't gravitate towards Regency romances in general. Also, the series is literally "Regency Cheesemakers," I would like more cheese content please!

Afterwards, I headed over to Book Passage as a friend was having an event for their book on transportation advocacy (If You Want to Win, You've Got to Fight). Of course we chatted some about specific local bugbears (why do people keep trying to close SF's newest and reputedly most popular park to turn it back into a highway, how do we get things done when we're a small minority against an entrenched system, how do we get across to people that parking on a public street isn't their personal space, it belongs to all of us? how do these lessons apply in a broader context?). Then Heather and I were hungry, so after stumbling across a surprisingly long line at El Porteño (no empanadas for us!), we went down the street to Gott's to address our growling stomachs with chili and sweet potato fries and milkshakes.

Our timing meant we finished eating, looked up into a cotton-candy sunset sky, and both yanked out our cameras to chase the color for awhile. The sun had mostly set by the time we got on the ferry, but it meant we had a lovely view of the city lights as we pulled away across the bay, under the bridge. Unanimous agreement: the ferry is such a relaxing transportation option compared to BART.

And then I came home to the scent of 红烧肉 (hóngshāo ròu, Shanghai red-braised pork belly) wafting out of our kitchen. Now that our cookbooks are all organized and on shelves again instead of half of them being stacks on the floor, it's so much easier to browse through them, which is how

hyounpark spent his afternoon while I was out gallivanting around the bay :)

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Before that, catching up with

bitty and

anirt Friday evening; an amazing rose pistachio cake at Mey Friday morning with Jen,

ladyjax, other Heather, and Cade; solid rehearsal Wednesday at choir as we work on two pieces for this spring about migrant experiences. Time with friends all the more precious now.

(no subject)

I mentioned the other day that my cousin Don had been diagnosed with rapid onset dementia, after a fall in a bathroom and a trip to the hospital.

He died two days ago, in the hospital, with his daughters there. His son was at home, dealing with the aftereffects of a small kitchen fire (apparently some wiring fizzed and went up; they lost one cabinet but other things need repair and also the insurance man.)

I remember Don all the way back to when I was small. He and his older brother, Walt, rode their Indian motorcycles down from Ottawa to Rochester to visit my mom and meet me when I was maybe 2 years old. I remember them from then as being very tall and kind; as I grew up they continued to each be very tall and kind. In the summers as I was growing up Mom and I stayed at Don's place or Walter's place or their older sister Joan's farm for a week or two every year, so Mom could visit her wider family of sisters and nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews, and so I could get to know everyone.

Some of it blurs a bit -- how many back yard picnics? -- but I remember Don and his wife, Jean, taking me up to a cottage they had in Quebec once so we could go canoeing on the lake there, listen to loons calling and just glide over the beautiful clear water. I remember putting my hand in the water in a certain way and a fish just coming to rest inside it for a moment as if it were seaweed. I didn't grab on and catch it, but I could have. Later on, the two of them canoed up the St. Lawrence River for a good distance; it took them a month or more. I asked Jean what it was like, and she made a face and said it was "like walking uphill on your hands". But she did enjoy it.

All the memories are good. I do wish I could have seen him again, but I have him in my mind firmly and that will stay. And 91 years is a good run. He got to see his children married, and play with his grandchildren, and even (I think) one or two great-grandchildren. He loved listening to Irish music, any time it was available.

Hail the Traveler, Donald Hugh McKenna!

(no subject)

Thoughts on the Epstein files, frozen water in Minneapolis, and the cost to all of us if we pamper FOTUS's ego and take over Greenland.

[eyb] you continue magnificently helpful!

The context for yesterday's frivolous low-stakes question was of course indexing for Eat Your Books, where I've been stalled on my current cookbook for... a while... for ...reasons... including but not limited to needing to ask for a bunch of new ingredients to be added, and then having a social anxiety about ever touching the work-in-progress again.

And then I did touch it again! And a recipe where I'd requested the new ingredient "mixed leaf salad" had instead... been given the ingredient "mixed greens", synonymous with the base ingredient "mixed lettuces".

The cookbook in question is The National Trust Cookbook; The recipe is Goat's cheese tartlets with pickled cucumber; the headnote to the recipe includes

Serve with a home-grown asparagus, pea and broad bean salad mixed with baby salad leaves.

The ingredients for the salad, helpfully listed under the subheading "To serve", are:

12 spears of English asparagus, woody ends trimmed off 55g/2oz podded broad beans 85g/3oz fresh or frozen peas 70g/2½oz mixed leaf salad with rocket leaves 3 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil 1 tsp runny honey

So I am reassured that the breakdown of opinions falls almost entirely along side-of-the-pond lines, suggesting that the reason I'm going "this is neither of these two things??? if EYB told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean mixed leaf salad I'd be extremely annoyed??? if a recipe told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean lettuces--" because, yes, I think "mixed greens" are a thing that need cooking (probably referring to brassica but I only roll my eyes a little at pre-packaged bowls that decide that various forms of pea, broccoli, and leek also count), and "mixed lettuces" is a strictly narrower category than "mixed leaf salad".

I had absolutely no idea that this might be a point of US/UK confusion, and thank you all for providing me with Data!

(no subject)

What a week, up and down the whole time. I hope I don't have the flu because I'm supposed to be starting painting classes tomorrow.

I unfortunately have to ask for money again; here's the gofundme campaign.

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There's something nasty in these woodsheds all right

Honestly, we thought better of the Finns, being told how amazing a society they have: How would you feel if your therapist’s notes – your darkest thoughts and deepest feelings – were exposed to the world? For 33,000 Finnish people, that became a terrifying reality While the guy involved seems to have been an absolute horror from a young age in terms of hacking exploits, doxxing and swatting people, etc, we also note that there was actually criminal negligence brought against the company holding the patient data, which sounds a bit grim in terms of regulatory procedures and oversight.

***

This is very peculiar, because you see 'catfishing' and you think it's about monetary fraud, but that didn't seem to be at stake here: How a friend request led a beauty queen to uncover Scotland's most prolific catfish:

[T]hey were all left wondering why she did it. "All of us were pretty much left with no answers whatsoever," Abbie says.

I was wondering about whether there was something similar in play to some of the prolific poison-pen letter-writers in that Penning Poison book I read last year: not all of them were 'women with nature turned sour in the veins and sometimes terrorising whole communities for years with their spite' but that was one category.

***

Now, this is creepy: Manager of women’s football club banned for 12 years after bombarding players with indecent images:

Hamilton denied 24 FA charges of improper conduct, all relating to his time in charge of the club, but an independent regulatory commission concluded that 23 of the 24 were proven. The FA received evidence from four players and a staff member, all of whom detailed examples of Hamilton trying to elicit sexual activity between May 2022 and November 2024.
....
The commission also noted “with sadness” that one of the victims appeared to blame herself, and that more broadly the complainants “feared the consequences of complaining and that it would impact on their chances of being selected”, adding: “Worst of all, some of them somehow felt that it might be their fault.”

He sounds absolutely terrible quite apart from that: “verbally aggressive and bullying management style”.

***

Dining across the divide - this week it's the Grand Canyon - not yet online - because one of the parties is a Yaxley-Lennon fanboy.

***

And this is just a minor thing that agitated the niggles and peeves when it crossed my line of sight earlier today, but if you are writing a historical novel about the first women at the University of Oxford I really don't expect it to be set in the 1920s. That was when they were first, finally, awarded degrees. They'd been studying there much longer, over 40 years.

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The Friday Five on a Saturday

If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?

I know there's a philosophy that experiences make you who you are and you shouldn't wish them away, but I have a few friends who have been through what I feel is a disproportionate and unfair amount of tragedy in their lives. Partner suicide, early death of parents, sudden loss of physical health, financial hardship, homelessness. I don't think any one person should have to go through all of those before the age of thirty. And yet. Here we are. So yes, I absolutely would change that for certain people if I could.
Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?

Uh, neither? Both take work! You have to listen and try to empathise and forgive and communicate. All relationships require effort, and if they don't, someone is being used.
Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?

Yes. It's not very pleasant. But occasionally necessary for the sake of self-preservation.
If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?

Barring a handful of exceptional circumstances, most of which involve an immediate threat to life, lying and making them happy. Life is difficult enough without intentionally causing pain.
Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?

The comforting lie, if it comes to that. I'd hope it wouldn't, most of the time. I'd like to believe that truths can be delivered kindly, most of the time.

(no subject)

Happy birthday,

ranunculus!

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publisher: marvel comics

Beavis and Butthead #20

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Current Mood: fuzzy
Current Music: In the forest of the night

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He fits he sits - KPop Demon Hunters story, Donation Thank-You

He fits he sits (400 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Derpy the Tiger & Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters)
Characters: Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters), Derpy the Tiger (KPop Demon Hunters), Bobby (KPop Demon Hunters)
Additional Tags: Drabble Sequence, A cat being a cat
Summary:

Rumi asks Bobby for help. He comes through. Everyone in Rumi's household is pleased.

*

I added donations to Stand With Minnesota.com's suggested donation sites to the list of donations that I will write thank-yous for. Details and a place to request stories or poems here.

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Daddies’ Issues: JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #11-12 (JLI 45)

Giffen plot and breakdowns, Bill Loebs script, Bart Sears pencils.

The JLE, at this point, was 50% isolated dads. Captain Atom was reconnecting with his kids after missing two decades of their lives in his own title; Animal Man (Buddy) had just seen his wife and children killed in his; Rocket Red (Dmitri) was in Paris missing his wife and kids in the USSR; and Metamorpho (Rex) had just learned about his child’s existence in JLE #5. This issue focuses on those four, mostly on the last three, MOSTLY mostly on the last ONE, as Rex decides to start asserting his visitation rights.

( And maybe committing some visitation WRONGS. )

Current Mood: orderly
Current Music: Fracture my spine and swear that you're mine

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kink list

Fun things to do on a snowy Friday - Kink list updated

I was talking about story exchanges with friends and realized my kink list of yes/no/maybe in fiction dated to 2011.

And that that was 15 years ago.

I overhauled it, so for anyone interested in a dive into my kinks, by all means have at.

you are all magnificently helpful - thank you <3

Today's frivolous low-stakes question is: if following a recipe, to what extent do you consider "mixed lettuces", "mixed greens", and "mixed leaf salad" synonymous?

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: When I look around me, I can't believe what I see

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US Politics: Minnesota under attack

Stand With Minnesota.com has mutual aid opportunities and testimonals of what happens when the president decides he doesn't like a state and sends in ICE to harass everyone.

If you donate 25 bucks to any listed org, tell me about it, and I will write for you in any of my fandoms. Anonymous comments signed with a username are welcome, and I explicitly 100% do not want anything that doxxes you.

Stay safe out there and help each other.

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Exquisite Corpses #8

( You're about to view content that the poster has marked as potentially inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

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birthday

a birthday has been had

I've officially completed all my birthday activities for this year, so I can like, breathe again.

There was recreational axe throwing, joint TV marathons, dinners, gifts and hugs. I chose not to have any kind of party or gathering this year, so just saw friends individually or in small groups, and it worked out OK. I also celebrated

roga's birthday (and will continue to tomorrow), so it all kind of worked out with multiple events.

How have you been doing, friends?

I'm feeling a bit better than I hoped to, at this time of the year.

ETA: I have cautiously started looking at social media again, in very very limited quantities, and as twitter seems like... not the place, I now have a bluesky. IDK IDK. But if you're on there I may also be on there sometimes too I guess.

Current Mood: musical
Current Music: The moon o'er the combers looks downward to find us

US Music: Social Singers in the Northeast - Youth Trad Song Weekend waitlist is open

Do you like to sing socially? Do you like traditional music and music in the style of trad music?

Youth Trad Song is a youth-focused but not youth-exclusive event focused on singing with an awareness of social justice issues underlying the trad song community. It's happening the last weekend of March, 2026, in Connecticut.

Registration has closed, but they have a lot of openings left, so get your name in for the waitlist ASAP!

( But money )

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fandom_actor,
icons

celebrity20in20 Round 19

Link: Round 19 Sign Ups | Round 19 Themes

Description:

celebrity20in20 is a 20in20 community dedicated to making icons of actors and actresses. You have 20 days to make 20 icons about a celebrity of your choice, based on a set of themes for the round.

Schedule: Round 19 sign ups are open NOW. Icons are due February 5, 2026.

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Aquaman #13

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Possibly scraping around for someone

I'd like to think, yeah, still got it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were desperately scratching around for somebody who'd even heard the name of the author of once-renowned and now pretty well forgotten, except by specialists in the field, sex manual. Which has its centenary this year.

Anyway, have been approached by a journo to talk with them about this work and its author -

- on which it is well over 2 decades since I did any work, really, but I daresay I can fudge something up, at least, I have found a copy of the work in question and the source of my info on the individual, published in 1970. Not aware of any more recent work ahem ahem. The Wikipedia entry is a stub.

My other issue is that next week is shaping up to be unwontedly busy - I signed up for an online conference on Tuesday, and have only recently been informed that the monthly Fellows symposium at the institution whereof I have the honour to be a Fellow is on Wednesday - and I still have that library excursion to fit in -

- plus arranging a call is going to involve juggling timezones.

Still, maybe I can work in my pet theme of, disjunction between agenda of promoting monogamous marriage and having a somewhat contrary personal history....