i can't be the only one who hears this, right?

so, i'm used to stuff like this from MC Lars (studied Shakespeare at Oxford, pioneered lit-hop) and it's not unexpected from punk bands, like The Menzingers linechecking Nabokov's "Pale Fire", but damn — still a bit of a shock to hear a Henry James deep cut in Olivia Rodrigo's "all-american bitch"

I happened to be in just the right place to read an early draft of this; it was good then and it's even better now, so if you might be interested —

Rath Mercury@rathmercury.com · 3w ago

My latest story, "Herkimer Inquiries", is now free to read on @reckoningmag.bsky.social! I'm super proud of this psychogeographic investigation story. But (LeVar Burton voice)...you don't have to take *my* word for it!

Every natural science has phenomena that make the layperson go, "Huh, that's fun/cool/weird/etc."; and the initiate go, "Oh... oh nono, oh NO — RUN!" Examples: Physics — Fluorescent lightbulbs turning on by themselves. Mech. Eng. — A (diesel) engine running after you switch off the ignition. 1/2

every now and then the contributors' notes on genius toss out a true banger such as "Like many of his songs, this uptempo romp is actually about depression."

woooooo canada day screwin' up my plans for posting so's there are now TWO posts this-week-slash-today woooooo www.dreamtheory.media/the-art-of-f... and in case it wasn't clear donnorum.com/2026/07/08/i...

forgot about the 'the room' joke until pulling the link. remembered the awful pun on a britney spears lyric, tho. (could've spun up some python to manually facet this into a slightly less spoiler-y link, but c'mon. bsky.app should really handle that natively.) www.pulpasylum.com/grow-up-by-d...

listening to a lotta gordon lightfoot today because but of course and so has got me wondering whether or not @joe-hill.bsky.social watched the 1946 Abbott & Costello flick "The Time of Their Lives" at some point before Locke & Key? (collections're boxed up rn, so can't check introductions/endnotes)

"thanks it has thumb holes" is i guess the dude equivalent of "thanks it has pockets"

i just realized that from a certain point of view i appear to be constructing a room-sized lament configuration. although considering that my copy of tcathr is octavo/medium octavo and may end up housed within — maybe? (you know just without all the happy-go-luckiness it had in the hellbound heart)

CB Droege (Manawaker)@cbdroege.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🏰If you will have built it, you can stay. 🎙️ Manawaker Studio presents: "They Will Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Don Norum @donnorum.com 🎧 Listen free on any podcast app ❤️ Supported by Patreon patrons! www.patreon.com/manawaker/po... #FlashFiction #FictionPodcast #SpecFic #NewEpisode #booksky

If you're looking for an anthology with adorably whimsical cover art of a star-crossed synanthropic meet-cute that, statistically speaking, has probably occurred at some point in one or more of the major metropolitan areas in North America, you've got ~7 hours... www.kickstarter.com/projects/par...

Bad Romance: An Anthology of Trash Couples

The 23rd annual Triangulation Anthology: fantasy, science fiction, and horror short stories and poems.

kickstarter.com

always check for bees before you stop and smell the roses (i am not being metaphorical, i am just now nearly having been stung in the nose by a bee nestled down for the night in one of the roses on my regular running route)

how it started*: <Reading Vol. I of the 1963 Medical Journal of Australia> That's... just as sexist as I should have expected given the USAF of the 1960's. * Chapter Approved 2001: The Second Book of the Astronomican was earlier, but collateral. how it's going: www.kickstarter.com/projects/par...

Bad Romance: An Anthology of Trash Couples

The 23rd annual Triangulation Anthology: fantasy, science fiction, and horror short stories and poems.

kickstarter.com

Hofstadter's Observation on O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law: The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum — even and especially when one attempts to account for this tendency.

for every engineering problem there is a physicist's answer that is clear, simple, and batshit insane

ain't no context collapse like seeing your shitposts printed out on a poster board being set up on a stand by a paunchy guy in a suit and tie

prolly 'cause it's been nearly thirty years, but godDAMN did i forget how funny geertz could be

past me will have a lot to answer for

Requirements for the John Wick Merit Badge: Formal instruction or demonstrated achievement (e.g., placing at a competition) in each of the following — 1) Jiu-jitsu or comparable grappling art. 2) Close quarter combatives (striking, misc. weapons). 3-5) Tactical pistol, rifle, and shotgun. (1/4)

everybody at the rap battle's gangsta until the classics major takes the mic

so i was out running last week and a couple of guys LITERALLY cat-called me - like, shouted "MIAOW!" out the window as they drove past. ngl, it was kinda... weird, def. more perturbatory than complimentary, and it took me 'til the end of the block to remember what i was wearing and go, RIGHT. yeah:

So I had this whole running-thought of how using "Hwæt!" to introduce a story to a rambunctious, likely-drunk audience was oddly enough exactly like how "So!" seems to be used in Tumblr posts and it turns out that Seamus Haney beat me to it by like twenty years. (Beowulf. Faber & Faber, 2009) -

Several of the families of Canada geese in the park have just hatched this season's goslings and so if you are or are responsible for a baby or a dog or an other curious and/or rambunctious type mammal of fifty or fewer pounds...

After a long day working at the polls yesterday, I went out on a run this morning and found 'MURICA:

In the same vein as Sonnets[1] Georg[2]: If someone punches a Nazi, they hate Nazis; if they punch three hundred Nazis, they love punching people. They may also hate Nazis. But they for sure love punching. 1: dedalvs.tumblr.com/post/1526697... 2: reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/4003302...

Of all the (unarmed) gendai budō to see busted out for a Chicago high school hallway fight, I think I would have expected sumō the least. (Q.v. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekodam...)

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · 6mo ago

get the kid in the brown hoodie a scholarship

The Climber (adapted by Shin-ichi Sakamoto [@14mountain.bsky.social] from Jirō Nitta's novel Kokō no Hito) is maybe the best story I've read about an ultrarunner, despite being 100% about mountain climbing with no running involved beyond a VO2-max test. Right up there alongside Murakami's WITAWITAR.