"Heteropessimism" is a great neologism, and this is a fascinating piece.

Anything But a Human Man

A burgeoning genre of pop culture depicts women falling for frogs, planes, and now wicker. What’s so wrong with Homo sapiens?

thecut.com

I have to lock up Worst Cat when I feed the cats, or he'll bolt all of his food, then run to steal the girls' food, which he can't digest. I often use this time to cook, since it's the only time I can work in the kitchen without him constantly trying to stick his whole head in whatever I'm doing.

Oh, is it hay-snail migration season again already?

Lisounours@lise-l.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ils étaient mi-cerf mi-escargot, et re mi-cerf derrière

Another picture from last night at The Brewed. A lot of the decor there is collectibles in cabinets or arranged on displays, but this is a literal work of art.

At The Brewed on Milwaukee, which has absolutely incredible horror movie decor. But this takes the everliving cake.

Hey Chicago-area TTRPG fans: This event has the potential to be rad as hell.

The Defense of Skullface Castle • iO Theater

Join a multi-table epic role-playing game with up to 96 people at 16  different tables defending a single castle from an undead army. • Created by a former Wizards of the Coast narrative designer •...

crowdwork.com

Nothing but respect for @tkingfisher.com's Digger

Mad Scholar Frights@mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 3w ago

Nothing but respect for MY Digger

100% down for "I'd cook a meal for them" replacing "I'd die for them" as the hyperbolic response to a character someone likes, animal they see online, etc. Most of those characters and creatures would probably appreciate a meal more than a death anyway.

shameless wrestling addict@draculaflowniece.bsky.social · 3w ago

id die for you. [realises that doesnt mean anything] id kill for you. [realises that's just poser talk] id cook you little meals.

Just got out of a critic screening. In the multiplex lobby, 10 people in their late teens or early 20s were having a spirited conversation about the movie they just watched. Grinning, gesturing, arguing, agreeing. Love to see that! I ask what the movie was. It was DIGGER, which I'm seated for now.

Digger

Alt: A two-second clip from the movie Digger, with a man in a maroon suit gesturing with arms held wide in front of a large audience

static.klipy.com

This is not the end of this sentence, but I thought the opening screen reading "The new trend in parenting, giving up" was a fine start.

Here's a sign I've never seen in a restaurant bathroom before.

Really enjoyed GAME CHANGER's season 8 finale, but it goes in a sour direction, with the performers and judges griping about the long shoot day, and pushing to wrap and go home. So it is BONKERS to find out, via Variety, about all the extra business the show had planned: variety.com/2026/tv/news...

Wild story about someone either using a fast-food drive-in's AI order-bot to do their math homework, or to make a funny social video. Or both. Can this actually be true? I hadn't heard about AI order-bots before, and it seems hard to believe they're this multipurpose and not single-function.

Ordering Some Breakfast Pi

Manager: "Can you check the CCTV from last night?" Me: "I can. Why? What happened?" Manager: "Just pull up the CCTV for the drive-thru, from about 12:30 AM onward." I do so and see a young guy pull up...

notalwaysright.com

A comment on the bird feeder posts led me to Rosemary Mosco's webcomics, and I am enjoying them so much. rosemarymosco.com/comics/bird-...

Finally fixed and refilled my camera bird feeder after months of it being down, and it immediately rewarded me with a salacious cardinal upskirt shot.

Either Halloween decoration started early this year, or Cthulhu summoning started early this year. I'm fine either way.

Some mornings you just need to take a virtual ride on the world's longest glass water slide through stunning scenery on a Chinese mountain.

INSANE! 2-MILE GLASS Water Slide Ride Down the Mountain! | Longest Glass Water Slide in the World!

YouTube video by Attractions 360°

youtube.com

Weirdly, it wasn't curiosity or general acclaim that got me to go see COYOTE VS. ACME. It was the Reddit AMA. The weird, wry, but completely straight-faced sense of humor here got to me, and finally sold me on who the movie was aimed at. www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

I took the dialect quiz people have been talking about here, and can we please just talk about this answer specifically

Comedy shot:

A Witness Interviewed By the Local News Tries To Get Autotuned and Go Viral

YouTube video by Game Changer Shorts

youtube.com

It's 97 degrees out. Our upstairs air conditioner died. I'm trying to get some work done at the kitchen table. So of course Worst Cat is having a sudden attack of separation anxiety.

I got in trouble once at the bank for trying to collaborate on a project with the bank teller this way, I slid her a note saying "don't be alarmed, work with me and we can both make a lot of money"

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 2mo ago

1. So, at the Worldcon this year there was a person who was going from panel to panel, bothering panelists by trying to get them to "collaborate" with them on a project and sliding the proposed project to them on a piece of paper. Folks, I cannot stress to you how obnoxious this sort of thing is.

This thread about someone trying to hijack convention panels to get authors to "collaborate" (meaning "How about you write this story I had AI generate the idea for, and we'll share the credit"), have I ever told you about the time I watched someone hit up George Lucas with The Worst Collab Pitch? 🧵

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 2mo ago

1. So, at the Worldcon this year there was a person who was going from panel to panel, bothering panelists by trying to get them to "collaborate" with them on a project and sliding the proposed project to them on a piece of paper. Folks, I cannot stress to you how obnoxious this sort of thing is.

Must we keep getting proof that this is the dumbest timeline?

The twists, and also the turns.

Rewatched 9 TO 5 on Tuesday night just to spend a little more time with Dolly Parton. I'd forgotten about the joyously demented fantasy sequences. It's midway between very much of its era and still highly relevant, but mostly it's a showpiece for the stars, particularly Dolly in her first film role.

Oof, what a great summary of her career, and what good advice.

Jill Lightner@jilllightner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Street art in her honor from SE Seattle

Don't know if YouTube is responding to my searches, trending searches, or algorithm opportunists jumping on Dolly Parton's death, but suddenly my front page is packed with Dolly duets I never would have imagined. They're all naturally pretty delightful. Sabrina Carpenter? Pentatonix? Why not?

Dolly Parton - What's Up? ft. Linda Perry

YouTube video by DollyPartonVEVO

youtu.be

Another hard hit to take. Yes, the music was wonderful and I loved her in movies as a kid. But the older I got, the more I appreciated what a smart, frank, no-nonsense advocate she was for women's rights, self-determination in any form, and plain old kindness to others. What a legend.

Dolly Parton, Country Music Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80

Known for her outsize persona, appearance and talent, she rose from rural poverty to become a top-selling singer, songwriter and entrepreneur.

nytimes.com

Time for the annual sea shanty sing aboard the Tall Ship Windy!