This is the blog of Kelly Jennings, science fiction writer.
I don't get nearly as many migraines as I used to, and Dr Skull had never actually said this to me. But I can feel him thinking it.
So Dr Skull bought a chinois to aid in the production of some sort of fancy cooking, I can't remember what and probably I couldn't spell it if I could. Glace de viande? Is that right?
 |
| A chinois |
For those of you who do not live with an obsessive cook, a chinois is a fine-meshed conical metal strainer used to puree food or to strain things like clarified butter, which is what Dr Skull and the kid were using it for yesterday.
The name comes from the French. It is called that not because the strainer comes from China, but because it "resembles an Asian conical hat."
Yesterday, Me: "Isn't that kind of racist?"
Dr. Skull: "No."
The kid: "It does sound kind of racist."
Me: "Let me ask the internet."
(Some time passes)
Me: "The internet is divided on the question. Some say it's not racist, others say we should say conical strainer instead."
The Kid: "We can just call it a conical strainer, that's not a big deal."
Me: "It's from the French, and apparently the French are okay with it."
The Kid: "Well, even so."
Me: "Let's call it a conical strainer."
Dr. Skull: "Call it what you want, just find me some cheesecloth."
For those who are interested, it did strain the clarified butter very nicely.
There was a whippet/greyhound mix at the dog park this morning, so Shamus finally had a friend who could run as fast as he could.
Also it was chilly enough that I had to wear a jacket. Fall has arrived!
We celebrated Rosh Hashanah today -- I did most of the cooking, because Dr. Skull is still recovering. We did buy brisket from Zabars, with overnight shipping, which was appalling expensive. But Dr. Skull was not up to making a brisket this year.
Also on the menu: asparagus, potatoes, fried apples with a bit of honey, and both plain and raisin challah.
The kids and I found some running water to throw our bread into. This was surprisingly hard*, mainly because of the flooding we've been having. The place I was planning to go to was barricaded off. But we found a place on Skull Creek that worked.
After that, we had dinner. Uncle Charger came over, and the kid and his husband. Shamus was very glad to see everyone, so glad that eventually I had to lock him in his crate for a bit.
Apple cider and white wine were beverages of choice. Honeycake for dessert.
A good time was had by all.
*In Fort Smith, we would drive over to the riverfront park, but the Arkansas river does not run through Fayetteville.
Look at this beautiful weather:
Days and days with highs in the 70s and low 80s. Yes, please.
We've had a lot of rain over the past few days, and more is coming on. But that's a small price to pay.
And it's almost October. My favorite month, except for February, and February isn't quite as good, since if February comes, can June and July be far behind?
Thank God.
Weather guy says highs in the 70s are on their way. More rain is coming as well, which is fine, except for how much the dog hates rain. What a delicate flower he is!
We've got rain and thunder here. The dog is extremely vexed with me. I am, after all, in charge of the weather.
Dr. Skull and I got both, with relatively little hassle, at the local Walgreens. No side effects except that the injection site is a little sore.
Preliminary research is showing the current COVID vaccine is pretty effective. Get it if you can, that's my advice. Our primary care physician recommended it strongly, saying we still don't know enough about the after effects of getting COVID for him to be willing to risk it.
Meanwhile, Trump's CDC is doing their best to limit people's access to this vaccine and to others.
I'm tempted to believe that this is because they want a nation filled with dead or chronically ill people, but it's not even that. It's simply playing to the ignorance of their base. They know MAGA is fully invested in the lie that vaccines are dangerous and ineffective, so they're telling them what they want to hear. Too bad about all the little kids and old people who will suffer. That's politics!
I've seen more than one "Christian" insisting Kirk was killed because he was a Christian. The claim is he used his platform to preach Christianity, so he was killed.
I don't think they realize what this reveals about their definition of Christianity.
No hate like Christian love.
Dr. Skull and I are getting COVID and flu vaccines today at Walgreens. I'm sure in a day or two, this will become a high crime. Luckily, we're retired, so the university can't fire me.
Jimmy Kimmel, on the other hand...
I was going to ask if we've reached fascism yet, but we passed that goalpost some time ago. The blatant firing of anyone who dares to speak against the MAGA cult or their god du jour is a worrying sign, however.
I'm ready for some real fall now please.
The weather report says rain is coming. Usually we get cooler weather on the other side of rain. Fingers crossed.
I always thought it was Terry Pratchett who said, "A lie can run around the world while the Truth is getting its boots on," but apparently it was Mark Twain (though in a slightly different form).
Thinking about this a lot this week.
I'd wager less than 2% of the "conservative" "Christian*" right who are throwing tantrums about how we are "celebrating" Charlie Kirk's death even knew who Charlie Kirk was before this happened.
By "celebrating" they mean things like quoting Kirk's own words, or refusing to agree that he was a saint and a hero who was nice to everyone and never ever said anything hateful or harmful. If someone says, well, maybe that's not true, they immediately begin shrieking threats.
It's the power they want. They could not care less about who Kirk was, what he said, how he made his fortune. They don't care that he's dead, either, or how he died. They just love being able to hurt people.
I'm banning myself from social media for awhile. The smug bigotry is making me ill.
Sharing for those of you who do not have a 20-something at home to clear things up:
Text: First Panel: Groypers are an ultra-nationalist Neo-Nazi group born out of the 2010's meme culture, led by Nick Fuentes, who in 2019 started what was dubbed "the Groyper Wars." They targeted the left, but also Mainstream Conservatives.
Second panel: Charlie Kirk was one of the main targets of the Groyper Wars. He was considered a "fake conservative" because he accepted debate with gays and Jews. Groypers routinely attempted to derail his debates and force him into extreme positions.
Third panel: Groypers used progressive symbols as strategy to confuse people about their actual beliefs. For example, the protest song "Bella Ciao" was chosen as one of the "theme songs" of the Groyper wars.
Fourth panel: "Hey, Fascist, Catch," is a meme referencing a code for the total annhilation in the shooting game Helldivers2. "Notices bugle OWO what's this" is another hateful meme used to harass the furry community, a common target of the Far-Right.
Fourth Panel Continued: Tyler Robinson is a soldier in the Groyper Wars who has fallen so deep into internet culture that most people can't even recognize it.
So he's a Far-Right Extremist who shot Kirk because he didn't think Kirk was far enough to the right. What reaction to this are we seeing on the Right? Either they have dropped their weepy worship of Charlie Kirk (who to be fair was hardly any sort of hero) and are pretending nothing happened the way they do when someone who isn't trans shoots up a school; or they continue to claim that the shooter was a liberal.
Facts don't matter. Only their feelings matter.
ETA: Here is the Go Fund Me for the Texas professor who was fired. Hat tip N&M.
The screeching over-reaction from the Right after Kirk's death is sure something. You remember how they liked to scream about "witch hunts" when people were fired or impeached because of actual crimes? How they celebrated the January 6 rioters, who were actual insurrectionists?
Every accusation from the Right is a confession.
Teams of Right-Wing jackasses are getting teachers, artists, newscasters, and others fired -- and calling for them to be arrested -- because those people didn't perform pious grief at the death of a grifter. Some of them simply quoted things the grifter said. This, apparently, is hate speech. Not hate speech on the part of the grifter! Hate speech on the part of those who quoted what he said.
As with the professor (and her chair, and her dean) who was fired for simply teaching that there is a difference between biological gender and gender performance, this is an attempt to control speech, to frighten people into saying and thinking only what MAGA thinks is acceptable.
These are the same people who threw tantrums about free speech when people were criticized for saying racist things, or making bigoted jokes. That was a danger to free speech. This? This is justice.
They don't spray for mosquitoes here in my socialist hellhole. I approve, because the spray only sort of works to eliminate mosquitoes, and does a great deal of harm to other insects, which as we all know are in a precipitous decline, as well as harming birds that eat insects.
But this means mosquitoes are pretty bad at the moment. I had one inside the house last night.
They're really bad at the dog park at the moment, so I might have to stop going.
Tips? Suggestions?
The video, which does not show anyone’s face, captures audio of a student objecting to a professor teaching that there are more than two genders. The student says this conflicts with President Donald J. Trump’s executive order and her religious beliefs, and the professor responds she has a right to teach the lesson and the student has a right to leave.
The student clearly set the professor up. She had not "won" in the previous class, when who knows what she said; so she came back with a camera and a specific script. It's not "legal" to teach that trans people exist. Not legal.
The university caved and fired the professor. Of course they did.
When I was in the classroom, I had more than one student run whining to my chair and to the dean because I taught things they didn't like -- for example, that the Catholic church existed before the Protestant church. Or that the world was four and a half billion years old and that learning this fact upset some people during the Modernist era. These were taught as part of the Global Literature class.
I also had a student complain to the chair and to the dean because I assigned a book that had "bad" words in it. (Angels in America.) Another time, as student complained because I assigned a James Baldwin story which was (the student said) against her religion. (The story was "Sonny's Blues.")
In all these cases, the chair and the dean backed me up. That would not happen in today's climate.
Let's be clear: if people can be fired for speaking about trans people, then people can be fired for speaking about anything which is not approved by the party in power. Talking about black people. Or Jews. Or Palestinians. Or feminists, or Quakers, or any group not in favor at the moment.
As P. Z. Myers notes, the world's top university system is being destroyed, and for what? So a herd of whiny little "Christians" don't have to admit that trans people exist, or brown people are people, or that women have rights. It's disgusting.
(Scare quoted because these "Christians" aren't Christian, in that they don't follow Christ. They're Romans, and if they met Christ today, they would execute him. No, not really. They're not brave enough for that. They'd have ICE deport him and talk about what patriots they are for doing so.)
The video is posted on X/Twitter.
https://x.com/brianeharrison/status/1965093848520294565
If you don't want to give X/Twitter your click, below is the transcript:
Prof: Kind of recap our remarks on gender and sexuality we bring from last class. One thing we didn’t get to last class -
Student: I just have a question because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching. Um. Because according to our president, um, there’s only two genders and he said he would freeze um, uh, agencies' funding programs that promote gender ideology. Um, and this also very much goes against I, not only myself, but a lot of people’s religious beliefs. Um, and so I am not going to participate in this because, um, it’s, it’s not legal and I don’t want to promote something that is, um, against our president’s laws as well as against my religious beliefs.
Prof: You certainly have a right to engaging in things that find [unable to hear]. Are you suggesting they are false?
Student: Yes
Prof: You are under a misconception that what I’m saying is illegal.
Student: Uh, can you explain to me how, um, how teaching us, um, about gender identity and transgenderism and, um, and there’s more sexes
Prof: My gender isn’t illegal.
Student: Huh?
Prof: My gender isn’t illegal.
Student: Gender? What do you mean? Your gender is not illegal? According to President Trump’s executive order. If, if you want me to read the paragraph and the order itself...
Prof: If you are uncomfortable in this class, you do have the right to leave.
Student: Yes.
Prof: What we are doing is not illegal. And if you would like to make the claim that it is, you need to talk to the department head or the head of undergraduates.
Student: Well I’ve already been in contact with, um, the president of A&M and actually have a meeting with him in person to show all of my documentation tomorrow. But, um...
Prof: We are also aware and this is part of why there was an observer in class yesterday.
Student: Yes.
Prof: Um, I’m not convinced that your proposal will be effective in stopping me from teaching things that are biologically true because I do have the legal and ethical authority and professional expertise in this classroom.
Student: Okay.
Prof: And it’s time for you to leave.
Student: Yeah. No, I am. I am. I.
It was 56 degrees when I took Shamus to the dog park at dawn. I actually had to wear my hoodie. Nice!
We're going to have a five or six day stretch when the highs are in the low 90's, but then it looks like fall will actually arrive. My favorite time of year!
False fall is over. Highs in the 90s this week.
I was almost ready to break out my sweaters. I did bake bread during the unseasonable cool spell, so there's that.
Meanwhile, here is Shamus playing with his herding ball. He is so happy.
It's the first day it's been both cool and not-humid, so I've opened the windows. The cats are pleased. The dog is extremely confused. I think maybe he didn't know windows could open.
Because of the screened porch, I have this by my workstation:
It's lovely. I am writing in a cool breeze and birdsong and occasional crowing from the rooster next door.
 |
| Shamus confused by the open window |
It's 70 degrees here today, with a low tonight in the 50s.
I love false fall!
Back up into the high 80s next week, but only sixteen more days of summer.
One thing I have noticed about Fayetteville in 2025 (as compared to essentially everywhere else I have lived since about 1995) is that there are kids everywhere. I'm not saying kids with parents -- these are kids from about the age of ten on up to their mid-teens running the streets and parks in small packs or on their own. No adult in sight.
(And before anyone clutches their pearls, these kids are almost universally polite to any adult (me) who they intersect with, though in general they do not interact with adults unless one of them (me) gets in their way with my dog.)
It makes sense that so many kids here would be out on their own -- we have free public transportation (though its range is limited to the university area and areas where most students live -- but that's also where many of the parks are) and free bikes and scooters that anyone can use and miles and miles and miles of bike trails they can range through the city on.
In Fort Smith, on the other hand, there weren't even sidewalks in most places, and anywhere a kid might want to go (a park, a theater, a library) was distant enough that they had to be driven to it. There were public buses, but they cost $1.25 each way and only ran from 8:00 to 5:00, and also only went to places like Wal-Mart. In the parks, there were small children at the playground with their parents, but any age from five to twenty might as well not have existed.
Also, in Fort Smith, everyone hated kids, from what I could tell. At least on the local FB page, everyone was always complaining about children doing horrible things like playing outside or riding their bikes in the street. (See above, no sidewalks.)
Here in Fayetteville, people seem to like kids, though also they don't pay them a lot of attention. Kids are yet another group that lives here, is the attitude, and isn't that cool. It really improves the experience of living in the city, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because they're part of humanity, and it's nice to see a full range of humans? Maybe because it's how a city should be, and the life of children should be.
Anyway, 10/10, all cities should be like this.
As always, I'm reading SF for review. One really excellent book I read for review is a collection of short stories by Theodora Goss, Letters from an Imaginary Country. I won't review it here because I'm reviewing it there, but I recommend it highly.
Books I'm not reviewing for SF outlets:
Joan Austen-Leigh, A Visit to Highbury: Another View of Emma.
I came across this one on the shelf at our library, saw it was an epistolary novel (my favorite!), as well as being fan-fiction for Emma. I was sold. It's a story told as a series of letters between Mrs. Goddard, who you will remember runs the girl's boarding school in Highbury, the one Harriet attends, and her sister, whom she hasn't seen in seventeen years. Aside from Harriet, there are two romances, a ship captain lost at sea, and a couple of orphans. Just the sort of novel a Jane Austen heroine would have loved, in other words.
Joan Austen-Leigh is descended from one of Jane Austen's brothers, and started out writing fan fiction for a Jane Austen society "magazine," which is to say several mimeographed pages stapled together and distributed at the society meetings. This is, of course, how many writers in the science fiction world got their start, though they were usually writing slash fiction rather than straight romances. Anyway! I liked this one a lot, and am now on the lookout for Austen-Leigh's other books, which our library does not have.
Anne Tyler, Three Days in June
I checked this out of the library some time ago, I think, but I didn't read past the first few pages. I can't remember why. It's a perfectly acceptable Anne Tyler novel -- what my kid calls "family books," which is to say books about families and their lives. Here, the only daughter of a divorced couple is getting married. We follow the events of the three days in June around the marriage -- the day before, the day of, the day after. It's very readable, as all Tyler's books are. I liked the cat. And the ending is nice, if not exactly a surprise.
It's also really short, so you can read it in a few hours. 6/10, if you've never read Tyler, don't start here.
Anne McCaffery, Various Dragonriders of Pern books.
I loved these when I was in my teens, and my library has several of them, so when I was lately suffering with the kidney stone, I checked a bunch out via e-books and read them straight through. They are what my kid calls mid, not gonna lie, but they held my attention enough that I read I think eight of them before I'd had enough -- Dragonflight, Dragonquest, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums, The White Dragon, and about half of Renegades of Pern. Oh, and Masterharper of Pern. Seven and a half, I guess that is.
If you have somehow managed to miss these books, they are about a planet, Pern, where every 200 years 'thread,' or a vicious kind of fungus, falls from the sky (crossing through space from another planet, except cold kills it, so don't ask me how). The early colonists used genetic engineering to make a local species, a kind of flying lizard, large enough to ride on, and also it spits flame. So when thread is falling, dragon riders fly out and burn it from the sky. This is science fantasy rather than science fiction, but the whole special boy/girl chosen by the dragons and lauded as a hero thing works well with the soap opera plots. I also liked the Harper Hall parts of the books a lot, as I recall.
Anyway, if you need something mid about dragons to read, there are a ton of these.
Another successful cabinet meeting with Dear Leader
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) August 26, 2025 at 5:46 PM
[image or embed]
Surely even those in the MAGA cult are ashamed of this sort of groveling from their leaders?
No, what am I saying? Members of the cult are shameless.
