I thought everyone knew that Ulysses S. Grant was killed by vampires because he said too much about them in the gay vampire erotica he wrote. What *are* they teaching in schools these days?

Zebulon Vitruvius Pike@vitruviuspike.bsky.social · 19h ago

Well, I did get to hear a description of an infected toenail earlier this morning, despite my best efforts, so that wasn't great. On the other hand, I just got to talk Squirrel Girl with a late tween or early teenaged girl, so on the whole I'm having a pretty good day.

Access to popular culture. Access to information. Access to pronography. Being able to keep up with friends when they aren't near us anymore. Medicine (not health care). Average life expectancy (up 6.6 years for men, up 7 years for women). Infant mortality rate (13/1000 in 1986, 5.31/1000 now).

John Pfaff@johnpfaff.bsky.social · 3h ago

Forty years ago, in 1986, NYC suffered over 1,600 homicides. Homicides would peak at over 2,200 a few years later. There were 305 in 2025.

"Oh, but I need to tell you about my infection first." C'mon, ma'am, it's we've only been open for a few minutes and I'm barely into my third cup of coffee.

New morning practice: tell AI to write what I want to write that morning, and then have a good laugh at just how atrocious the AI product is and go about my day whistling. (I don't really do this because I don't want to waste the water and electricity)

Our cats don't knock glasses off of counters or dishes off of shelves. No, no, that would be too simple. Our cats prefer to knock MY BOOKS OFF THE SHELVES. ENTIRE ROWS OF THEM.

I have been pleading with my boss for us to get these for years, but "they're not safe" THAT'S WHY WE NEED THEM

alix e. harrow@alixeharrow.bsky.social · 18h ago

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

"She"? "She" who? Why are people asking me about "she"? Look, I'm way too busy for this. Someone swapped our cats out last night and left us with these really ugly, frail, sickly cats that keep hissing and clawing at me. Keep crying, too. I need to take them to the vet.

Well, this is darned peculiar. I completely dug that up two days ago, put down new sod--totally redid it. Now it looks like I never touched it! And I think it's closer to the house now. I don't get it.

Terry Pratchett, SMALL GODS (he stole my lunch money when we were kids) Jane Austen, EMMA (spied for Napoleon) Gene Wolfe, BOOK OF THE NEW SUN (every Friday night was "Endangered Species BBQ Night" at the Wolfe household) Iain Banks, LOOK TO WINDWARD (funded the Darien scheme)

BeijingPalmer@beijingpalmer.bsky.social · yesterday

alright let's do real discourse: five books *by bad people* that are still good or great books V.S. Naipaul, A BEND IN THE RIVER Allison Pearson, I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT Kevin Myers, WATCHING THE DOOR Yukio Mishima, CONFESSIONS OF A MASK Neil Gaiman, BRIEF LIVES.

Just helped a bro who not only said, "Thanks, bro!" but flashed me the thumb-and-pinkie-extended hang-loose hand sign. Thank you, student who has time traveled forward from the 1980s!

I'm no fan of GRRM (the person), but I feel like the deaths of friends, sadness & depression, and age-related health problems are actually really good reasons not to be writing, much less working on a personal nemesis.

Inside of you are two Wolofs. (go ahead, I haven't been able to figure out a punchline that works).

Creative, unconventional, and uncharacteristic for the US: create such an idyllic socialist democracy in the United States, in which the rich are heavily taxed and everyone gets UBI & healthcare, that the Iranian military feel insecure and bad about their own country.

yaoi gagarin@mel.bzky.team · yesterday

and the convention theyre creatively breaking? thats right, the geneva convention

Set in the Gulf of Aden & Arabian Sea, it's ostensibly about anti-pirate operations by the US Navy but eventually both sides realize that there's a mammoth, intelligent oceanic whitetip shark hunting them both. (Shark leads USN ships into minefield, etc)

weinberg@weinbergs.bsky.social · 7mo ago

let's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?

let's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?

Nine years ago: The boy just zinged me a good one. Him: Dad, am I the bomb? Me: Yes, my boy, you are. Him: Well, since I'm a little boy, that makes you Fat Man! (He was nine at the time. I have no idea where he found out about Fat Man & Little Boy).

We're not going to miss out on an opportunity to re-up Hallie Lieberman's classic article, "Selling Sex Toys: Marketing and the Meaning of Vibrators in Early Twentieth-Century America."

Selling Sex Toys: Marketing and the Meaning of Vibrators in Early Twentieth-Century America | Enterprise & Society | Cambridge Core

Selling Sex Toys: Marketing and the Meaning of Vibrators in Early Twentieth-Century America - Volume 17 Issue 2

cambridge.org

Coreen McGuire@coreenanne.bsky.social · yesterday

Vibrators! Telephones! Embodied knowledge! Hand transplants! Gender historiography!

this guy gets it

reading about Ruth Pfau, as one should

Uh...may I direct your attention to the anti-Japanese propaganda of the war? Would you care to rephrase?

Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 2d ago

WWII propaganda is good actually

TIL that the Proto-Celtic word for "wanton women" [sic] is "tefentes."

Tomorrow, August 4, 2026, is the day that "There will come soft rains" takes place.

There are two Wulfs inside of you. One is Marie Wulf, a Danish preacher and pietist who wants you to live a good, sinless life by housing the homeless in your house. The other is Rudi Wulf, a Kiwi rugby player who wants to you HIT SOMEONE FOR GOD'S SAKE. Which one wins? (Marie, obviously).

OH NO THEY DIDN'T ADAPT THE COMICS

Dort McGork@exstarwarsfan.bsky.social · 4d ago

The issue isn't that she is black. A black Mary Jane Watson would be fine. The issue is that she isn't playing MJ, not even a particularly similar character, but they call her MJ with the initials meaning something else It's corporate fanservice bullshit while not actually adapting the comics

Any tips on getting a teenager heading to college to stop staying up until midnight every night and start going to bed early enough so that they can get up for 8 am classes?

It will never happen, but every male Senator & Representative, both Dem & Rep, should be grilled about what they are going to do about Max Miller. Are the Democrats going to put pressure on the Republicans to get rid of him? Are the Republicans going to do that? If not, why not?

They helped save the world, after all!

Dr Dr Dr Alfred Prunesquallor, PhD, JD, TLA (Time Lord Academy)@drprunesquallor.bsky.social · 3d ago

Who wants to tell him about the Residents?

I think everyone should have that one friend who will tell them, "It's over. Times have passed you by. Let it go." It may sound harsh, but the person telling you that is a true friend. Which Carville obviously does not have.

Mediaite@mediaite.com · 3d ago

James Carville Tells Fox News He’s Out of the Democratic Party if Hasan Piker Stays: ‘One of Us is Going to Leave’