UGH

 Not quite hitting a hundred. We should be grateful, I guess.

Nine more weeks of summer.

Inside of a Dog

The humidity inside of a dog's mouth is 87%. 

How do I know this?

Shamus stole my hygrometer off my desk to chew on it this morning and when I noticed and wrestled it away from him, that's what the humidity indicator read.

Horrible little dog.

Rain

It's raining and raining here. I am recovering from the flu or whatever this was. Three to seven days of symptoms if it's flu, doctor google tells me, and then a couple weeks to recover. Ugh. Today's the first day I've felt even moderately healthy.

Meanwhile the house has collapsed around me. If I stop doing any of the housework, it just doesn't get done. The recycling hasn't gone out, the dishes haven't been done, trash is overflowing the container, and there is nothing to eat. Ugh.

I spent all the days I was sick listening to the Murderbot diaries. My eyes hurt too much to read, and I know them well enough that when I fell asleep (often) I would know what I had missed when I woke up again. I'm on the last one now though. Martha Wells needs to write some more. (I do know about this short story.)

I'm considering doing a review of the TV show, which I liked but which was an entirely different animal from the books.

Have to go take a nap right now though.

Still Ill

Still mostly fever and body aches. I do have some nausea now. 

Ugh, I hate being sick. It's such a waste of time.

The little dog is very upset that I won't take him for walks or play with him.

UPDATE: It's not Covid -- I took a test.

Illness

I've contracted some sort of illness -- I don't think it's covid, bc the only symptoms are a fever and body aches. Also I'm exhausted.

The dog is not at all happy that I am ill. He races around the house trying to get me to play with him. But I can barely move.

Here's hoping I'm better tomorrow.

Freedum!

 But not for you:

Happy 4th to Those Who Celebrate

Stolen off of Blusky:

No one is trying to make your kids trans or gay, but they sure are trying to make them Nazis.

Happy 4th to all y'all celebrating what is left of our democracy.

Life in Fayetteville

Here in my new city, it is usually from three to seven degrees cooler than the city I used to live in, and a bit less humid. Three to seven degrees doesn't sound like a lot, but it is the difference between a low of 73 and a low of 70. Or 67, which was the low this morning. It was actually cool when I took the dog for his dawn walk this morning.

All week, also, highs will be in the 80s. 

So long as we avoid the mid-day sun, in other words, this is pretty bearable.

We Made Vogue!

Vogue confirmed the 40,000 number, and gives more details and photos!

Go here.

Fayetteville Pride almost didn’t happen this year. NWA Equality struggled with a significant funding gap back in December, Porter noted, amid rollbacks to DEI efforts across the country under the Trump administration.

“Like a third of our budget could have been wiped out,” Porter said. So NWA Equality participated in a local fundraising weekend called NWA Gives. In years past they hadn’t raised more than $10,000; this year, they raised $36,000.

“We explained to the community, this is what has happened and we need you to step up,” Porter said. “They did, and it was amazing. A lot of people stepped up to make sure we were still able to do this.”

 

 

Photos from the Pride March in Fayetteville

I've seen estimates that 40,000 people attended this year. I was not one of them, because heat and noise and people are all my specific triggers.

Photos here!

Shamus Update

He is still very bitey at times. The tactics given to us by the dog trainers really don't work.

In other regards, he is coming along. He will fetch the ball and bring it and drop it; he will occasionally come when he's called. He sits and he has one premium trick, in which he does a spin.

Housebreaking is about 75/25, so long as I watch him and take him outside when he starts doing the I-gotta-pee pace.

I am still taking him on walks twice a day, which I guess will be as good for me as it is for him -- I've essentially doubled the amount of exercise I'm getting.

He is not a good watchdog. He loves everybody. He would tackle a burglar and give him many kisses. 

He still really wants to play with the cats, but they are still having none of it.

He's maybe 22 pounds now, and getting bigger every day.

Sleepy Guy

Shamus not biting me for once

Earlier Shamus for comparison

Buy My Kid's Art

ETA: Sold out of the limited edition! He might do another run later!

The kid is releasing a limited edition series of print comics, three for $5.00 -- you should all buy a copy!

Go here for more.

Heat Index Calculator

I'm not sure what use this Heat Index Calculator is, except to let me know exactly how miserable it is outside rn.

High on 90 today, humidity of 75, heat index is 109.5. UGH.

ETA: Just took the dog for his morning walk. CHRIST is it hot outside.

Fault Lines Featured on The Fussy Librarian

I'm currently working on the third novel in the Velocity series, working title Down the Core, and in service of that my publisher and editor (Melissa Scott) has arranged for e-copies of the first book in the series, Fault Lines, to be on sale for 99 cents for the next week.

Also, it's being featured on The Fussy Librarian today (you'll have to scroll down with that link).

Walking in the Park

We are taking the dog to dog training/puppy class edition, and they suggest that we get him out among other people and dogs, to socialize him a bit. So I've been doing that this week, despite the killing heat. (I do it before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. when the heat is less killing.)

Yesterday evening I took him to Wilson Park, which was where I used to walk my dog when I was a graduate student here. It's much more developed now than it was then, with a lot of flowers and gardens, a huge play area for kids, and an extensive walking trail which hooks up to the Razorback Greenway, a biking/walking trail that runs through the city.

There is also a public pool, and at 7:00 p.m. lots of parents with small children were there. Lots of splashing and shrieking. Also a lot of people playing tennis on the tennis courts, and some sort of religious ceremony going on in one pavilion. Skull Creek runs through the park, and lots of young adults and adolescents were sitting down by the water, talking or reading on their phones. Some young guys were playing catch in the baseball field.

This is the way life in small cities is supposed to be. This is the sort of community human want to live in.

There's a house for sale on one corner facing the park: 1.1 million dollars. Honestly, if I had it, I'd pay it.

Anyway, all the racket in the park made the dog nervous, plus there were other dogs, and people walking the trail who wanted to pet him. All very socializing. By the time we headed back to the car, he had calmed down a lot.

MAGAs Are Astonished

I mean, who could have predicted Trump would start a war to boost his plummeting approval ratings? Besides anyone who was paying attention, of course.

"How could Trump do this?" some MAGAs are saying. Others, of course, are cheering him on. And a few are going with "We must support the president in this time of crisis."

I'd be laughing if this attack on Iran wasn't just a replay of Bush with Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died, and more than four thousand American soldiers. For what? For lies and corruption.

But as with the appeal to bigotry, "conservative" politicians know what works with their base, and they'll just keep fucking that chicken.

Heat Dome

It's not really that hot here yet, if we're looking at the temperature scale -- low 90s as the highs, seventies as the lows. But the humidity is smothering.

I walk the dog at dawn, when the day is still cool, but even then the humidity is a killer. Also, it soaks the grass at the dog park so that my shoes are wet all the time. (Yes, I only have one pair of shoes. I do have Birkenstock sandals also, but I don't like to wear those to, say, the library, because they make me trip on the stairs.) I suppose I could buy a second pair of shoes.

The dog is still not sure about the dog park. This was only our second day, since he just finished his immunization schedule on Monday. At dawn there are no other dogs there, so it's not that he's overwhelmed by other dogs. Just the new place. He was a little braver today.

Anyway, the weather site says a HEAT DOME, with high heat and humidity, is going to lay down on the SE half of the US for the next ten days, and Arkansas is in the region being DOMED. Ugh.

Thirteen more weeks of summer.

Shamus News

(1) Having a puppy is much like having a toddler. I love him to pieces and I am so happy when he's asleep.

(2) He does a lot of nipping, especially of me, chases my elderly Jasper cat, and widdles in the house. We are taking him to a dog trainer, which is helping.

(3) He weighs 19 pounds as of this morning. That's up from seven pounds when we got him about six weeks ago.

(4) He's a very smart dog, which means we have to work hard at his training, or he will train us. The dog trainer is helping with this, a lot.

(5) At about six o'clock, until about eight o'clock, he is a demon dog, running non-stop and biting me and assaulting the cats. Witching hour, r/puppy101 calls this. I've taken to taking him on a walk around 7:00, which helps a little.

(6) He is crate trained, so if it gets too bad, I shut him in the crate for a little while. He calms down and goes to sleep. Too bad crate-training isn't available for toddlers. (THAT WAS A JOKE.)

No Kings Protests

We had thousands show up for the No Kings protest here in Fayetteville, and according to a local new company, there were 200 people at the protest in Harrison, Arkansas (our most notoriously conservative and bigoted town). 

Around the country, the marches were peaceful, (gift link) except for isolated acts of violence from "conservatives," as when a man in an SUV drove into a crowd of protestors. 

Of course, before the marches began, a man shot two Democratic politicians and their spouses in Minnesota, killing two of them. Police found a long list of other targets, including abortion providers, in his car. He also planned to shoot people at a No Kings march, apparently. I saw "conservatives" claiming he was a "liberal operative." You have to wonder if even they believe their bullshit sometimes. (Just kidding. Of course they don't believe it.)(Just so we're clear, the shooter was apparently an Evangelical Christian and a Trump supporter, as well as a transphobe.)

The Florida governor encouraged people to run over protestors. Similar threats appeared in the comment sections of FB posts about the march -- threats to run over or shoot protestors, promises to murder people who speak against Trump. 

"What king are you talking about?" some said. "What king are you protesting?" Then they threaten to murder people for saying something critical about Trump.

Here in Arkansas, the Evangelical crowd have found a reply that they clearly think is a winner: "Jesus is my King!" they say, and post a little picture of a cross. They'd never put any god before him. Except if it's politically expedient, of course, or it makes them feel better about their bigotry.

("Conservative" in scare quotes throughout because of course they aren't actually conservatives. They're reactionary bigots desperate to hold onto their delusions of supremacy.)

Don't Forget, MAGA Lies about Everything

Over on FB, people (or maybe bots, who knows) are earnestly imploring us not to burn cities down as a form of protest. One meme explained that violence doesn't work against the state, which will always be more powerful than we are. Another said that the state can't handle non-violence, so it is trying to provoke people into violence. Another gave instructions for how to be non-violent in protests.

And so on.

It's not that I disagree with any of this (though of course LA is not on fire), but as someone who browses MAGA blogs and Extremist RW blogs from time to time, I want to remind you that MAGA doesn't care what we do. They simply will lie, bearing false witness against those they see as their enemies. 

If Trump wants to attack the protestors, he will just say the protestors did this or that violent act. Fox News and MAGA activists will cheerfully spread those lies, manufacturing evidence as necessary. 

Your attempts to fact-check those lies are entirely useless. MAGA will ignore facts, or change the subject, or claim that your fact-checking is a lie (they know it isn't; they don't care).

Non-violence only works when your opponent can be shamed. MAGA is shameless. 

The use of evidence only works when your opponent cares about the facts, or truth. MAGA thrives on lies and bigotry. They want to feel good about hating people, and they will (pretend to) believe anything that lets them do that.

An example: the governor of our state claimed violent protest would never work in Arkansas because our citizens value law and order.  The governor of California responded by pointing out that the violent crime rate here in Arkansas was twice that in California, per capita. How do our local MAGAs respond? 

(1) They ignore the fact-checked claim (they don't care about evidence)

(2) They say our high murder and violent crime rate is "only" in places where black citizens live (bigotry)

(3) They cheer Sanders on, saying what a great job she's doing (pretending to believe anything that supports their hate)

(4) They threaten violence to any protests that happen in Arkansas (pretending to believe protests are violent, even though there have been no violent protests here in Arkansas)

I'm all for non-violence as a form of protest. But we shouldn't shut our eyes to the nature and character of MAGA, or what they're capable of doing.

What I'm Reading Now

I've been writing a lot and reading a lot of books to review for Asimov's and Interzone. But among the non-SF books I've been reading, here are my reviews for the good/not-terrible ones:

Alison Bechdel, Spent

Bechdel is probably most famous for her graphic novel Fun Home, which is about her relationship with her closeted gay father, who eventually is arrested for having sex with a 16 year old boy, and who adamantly opposed Bechdel's expressions of her own sexuality -- she's a butch lesbian, and he wanted her to be (or at least act like) a frilly girlish girl.

My favorite book by Bechdel is the one she wrote about her relationship with her mother, Are You My Mother? That one is heavy on psychology, but it also gives a picture of the fraught and yet deeply loving relationship between mother and daughter, as well as how they both dealt with Bechdel's father.

This book, Spent, is an AU-version of Bechdel's life. In this one, she has a sister instead of two brothers, and her father is a taxidermist, not a mortician, and he's arrested for trafficking in endangered butterflies, not molesting a teenager.  Bechdel is still a cartoonist, but her graphic novels are about entirely different things. This novel looks at our current world, with MAGA supporters and sky-rocketing food costs, as well as poking gentle fun at a certain type of leftist; the Bechdel in the book is writing a graphic non-fiction explanation of economics, or is sort of intending to. She spends most of the book reading about economics, from Marx onward.

I liked reading this one, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it, or what exactly Bechdel was trying to do. I suspect I need to read it a couple more times.

Anna Quindlen, One True Thing

I have a vague memory of having read Anna Quindlen's non-fiction, or maybe her columns in some newspaper? I'm not sure. Anyway, this is the first novel I've read by her, and it's a good one. The subject matter is a bit depressing, as it's about a young woman who leaves a successful career in New York to take care of her dying mother -- guilted into it by her emotionally barricaded father.

The whole dying-of-cancer thing isn't what makes this book good, though. The good part is the character of the mother, who has been a homemaker for thirty years, something her daughter has scorned her for. The novel makes us admire this woman, shows us the beauty of that kind of life. (Mind you, it's a life very few could have -- you need real wealth to afford a life like this one.) Making the home, raising the children, cooking elaborate meals, serving on town committees -- Quindlen shows us how this is a life worth living, even beautiful.

Good writing here too. Spoilers: the mother does die. And there's some ancillary filler about the daughter being accused of murdering her mother that honestly the book did not need. Nevertheless, a very good read.

Anna Quindlen, After Annie

Here, Quindlen gives us another dead mother. This one dies at the start of the book -- she's the Annie in the title -- and the book concerns how her husband and three children, the oldest being a 13 year old girl, deal with the loss of their parent and that parent's income stream. This is definitely a working class family.

Wonderful character development here, and despite the mother's death not depressing. There's grief about the mother, obviously, but the main story is the family learning to cope without Annie, who did most of the heavy lifting in the family.  Again, a very good read.

Kevin Wilson, Run for the Hills

I've liked Wilson's other books, so when I saw this in the new fiction at my library, I checked it out. It's not bad. Four siblings who share the same father but different mothers and very different lives (the father takes up with a different sort of woman each time) go on a road trip, determined to find and confront their father. 

The road trip is fun, and the siblings are well done. The conclusion here, once they find the father (who has taken up with yet another kind of woman (women) and slotted himself into their life, falls flat. The conclusion the oldest son makes, which is that the father is mentally ill, isn't wrong, precisely, but it doesn't really feel like an ending to this quest they've all been on. Though maybe that's the point. Why expect a parent to provide meaning for our lives? Maybe they should have been questing for something else entirely?

Very readable, though.

Stephen King, Never Flinch

This is a Holly novel, in which Holly deals with not one but two obsessed murderers. That's probably the biggest flaw in this novel. Having two bad guys means the novel lacks coherence. It was an okay read, but definitely not one of his best novels. If you like Holly and her plucky detective agency, you might want to check this one out of the library. I wouldn't buy it.

Ugh, It Is Summer

I know it's not officially summer until June 21, but in Arkansas it is summer already. I take the dog on his walkies at 7:00 in the morning and at 8:00 at night and it is so hot and damp even at those hours. (He is a very high energy dog and needs at least two walks a day.)

Sixteen more weeks of summer.

My Kid Does Comics

 My kid draws a comic about Shamus. It is vile calumny, however. Shamus smells like roses.

Legit

My kid sent this to me:

I mean, yes, I'd FAR rather have a trans kid than a MAGA kid. Who wouldn't?

(Bigots, I know. It was a rhetorical question.)

(Image: Little blond girl-appearing child with blond mom. Child says: Mommy, I. think I'm a boy. Mom says: Phew! I thought you were gonna say a Republican.)

Shamus Has His Second Set of Shots

He now weighs 12 pounds -- it was seven pounds when we got him. He has nearly doubled in size.

He is now cleared to walk around the block, but not yet to go to the dog park.

Wildflowers

One detail about living in an area (unlike my old city) where people do not drench their lawns in Round-up and other insecticides is we get more bees and ladybugs and lizards here, besides having many more birds. I tried to get a picture of the ladybug on my fig tree for you, but it flew away home. 

Here's a picture of some wildflowers in the greenspace behind my house. I admire them daily while I am waiting for the dog to pee.

Bonus picture of Shamus, who is growing fast:

He loves his duck.

Gender-Affirming Care

 This is worth a read.

If it's tl;dr for you, it's making the point most of us know and understand. Gender-affirming care for cis kids is and always has been fine. We can shave a cis boy's head, we can put artificial eye and lip color on cis girls (even very little girls) while giving them perms and teaching them how to walk and sit and dance in dresses. 

We can alter cis child's breasts to make them more like their assigned gender: removing breast tissue from cis boys, adding it to cis girls. Or just put cis girls in padded bras, or push-up bras.

We call children by gender-affirming names as a matter of course. (See "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.) No one thinks twice about this.

It's only trans kids we deny this basic care and basic civility too. I'd ask why, but we know why. Transphobes are bigots, and the GOP is getting elected  by pandering to them -- as they did in the 1960s and 1970s by playing to bigotry against black people, and in the 1980s and 1990s by playing to bigotry against immigrants and gay men.

Why can't MAGA voters and Evangelicals see what dupes they are? Well, they can. They know perfectly well that they're bigots. They like having someone to hate. And, of course, they still hate brown people and immigrants and gay men: they just know it's not okay to say so anymore.

Hate is their religion, and spite their motivation. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't doing so much damage to the rest of us.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Dr. Skull and I actually remembered our anniversary this year, and we're going on a date.

Usually we remember our anniversary a couple of days afterwards. "Hey, wasn't Monday....?"

"Oh yeah, it was, wasn't it."

"Well, happy anniversary anyway."

"Same."

Bigots Hurt Everyone

They even hurt themselves, though I find it difficult to care about self-inflicted damage among that class of people. They should get therapy, but of course they'd rather hurt themselves, their own children, and everyone around them rather that admit they need help.

This post is brought to you by a report of yet another cis-woman accused of being a man in a changing room. This one had had a double mastectomy due to cancer, so the attack doesn't even make fucking sense. If this person were trans, the mastectomy would signal that they were a trans man, who would, according to the transphobes, be a "biological woman" with "her breasts chopped off," as they love to put it. So why challenge her (since she wasn't trans) right to be in a woman's locker room?

Well, because they don't actually care what "biological" gender someone has. They care about their right to attack people. They care about being bigots.

Like KJ Charles here in the post below, I feel odd getting upset about cis women being attacked by these haters, since it seems to say cis women don't deserve to be attacked because they aren't trans, when in fact trans women and trans men also don't deserve to be attacked. 

But in fact the attacks are not meant to protect women, or women's spaces. They're meant to make trans people, and non-gender conforming people, afraid to exist in public. And that's what they're doing. 

I cannot tell you how much I am beginning to hate these scummy, bigoted pieces of trash. Therapy is too good for them, frankly. I hope they continue to live their limited, hate-filled, shitty little lives, and I hope they die miserable and alone. And I hope they step in dogshit every single day. I also wouldn't cry if someone keyed their car.

Obviously this crap is primarily going to hurt trans people and it is wrong on that alone, but it's instructive just how willing the GCs are to deprive everyone else of dignity and privacy, as long as they get to deprive trans people of those things.

— KJ Charles (@kjcharleswriter.com) May 21, 2025 at 4:38 AM

Shamus Pix

 He's all tuckered out:

A Good Point

The radical right is using trans people as a way to whip up their base. We all know this, so this post isn't about that. It's about the way the right pretends to care about trans kids, and other kids, as an excuse. 

Most of them don't know any trans kids. Hell, most of them don't know trans adults. (They will often claim they have a "best friend" who is trans, but you can be sure that if you spoke to the trans person -- assuming that trans person isn't invented entirely -- they would frown and say, "Now who is that again?")

They don't care about trans kids, trans people, trans athletes, or for that matter women's athletics in general. They care about having an excuse to hate. That's all they want. That's their entire motive.

They join churches that encourage them to hate. They follow blogs that encourage them to hate. They watch Fox News, which whips their hatred into a frenzy. They use violent, hateful, bigoted language. They vote for MAGA politicians, whose entire platform is aimed at creating hatred and bigotry.

And then they claim they just want to "protect" trans kids -- and trans adults -- who after all can't possibly know what they need. No, only this transphobic stranger who has never even met you knows what you need. 

One of the weirdest tenets of mainstream transphobic thought is how the genteel transphobe believes they're more concerned about trans people's health than trans people themselves are.

— Evan Urquhart (@evanurquhart.bsky.social) May 18, 2025 at 7:33 AM

Officially No Longer Professing

I have cleared out my office, turned in my keys, given back my laptop and iPad, and gotten my very last paycheck.

As they say in French, Bye, Felicia!

It's True

Conservatives aren't opposed to immigration. They're opposed to certain kinds of people immigrating. Namely, brown people, black people, poor people. Thus, white "refugees" from South Africa? Perfectly fine. White guys who can bribe Trump sufficiently? Fast-track that citizenship!

Conservatives aren't opposed to education. They're opposed to certain people getting an education. Poor kids. Middle-class kids. Brown kids. Public schools are evil not because they teach kids that trans people exist. They've evil because they teach kids whose parents can't send them to private schools.

Conservatives aren't against abortions. Conservatives get (and pay for) abortions all the time. They're opposed to those people getting abortions. You know. Poor people. Young people. Working people. Brown people. Those people should be raising a raft of future low-wage workers, or future prison fodder who can be used as slave labor. Also those parents should be working two or three jobs to feed those children they didn't want and can't afford. If they really can't afford them, why, their children should be seized and given to deserving (white, Christian, wealthy) parents. Or else funneled into the prison pipeline, see above re slave labor.

Conservatives aren't against government-funded healthcare. For example, in our grate state of Arkansas, Sarah Huckster Sanders is having her Ozempic paid for by our tax payers. And when Conservatives retire, they're entitled to their Medicare and social security checks. No, what they're opposed to is those people getting "free" healthcare. (Poor people, brown people, disabled people.)

And so on. Conservatives believe the law exists to control and punish other people. Not them. 

It's why they get so upset when other conservatives define them as part of the class of "those people." Wait, they cry. Our law was supposed to hurt those people. Not me!

From here, where the comments are great.

It's Still MAY

 I mean, look at this:

UGH.

Nineteen more weeks of summer.

Puppy

Having an eight week old puppy is just like having a toddler, except the puppy pisses on the floor more. (At least, from what I can remember, this is true.)

Also, like my toddler, the puppy doesn't like to walk on grass if the grass is wet. (Well, my kid never liked to walk barefoot on grass at all, even if it wasn't wet.) This is a problem since the housebreaking guides all say take him out first thing in the morning and last thing at night, which is when the dewy, dewy grass is the wettest here.

On the other hand, unlike my particular toddler, Shamus does sleep all night. 

Conversation in the delagar household

My computers have always been school-issued, but since I am retiring, I have to hand in my old Dell laptop. (I asked the school if I could buy it but they said no.) So I looked around and decided on a Macbook Air, and bought it before Trump's tariffs could drive up the price.

This is my first Mac. I've always been a Dell/Windows person, because the school always bought my computers (see above). Today as we were driving home from the dentist, Dr. Skull asked me how I was enjoying my Mac experience.

Me: I like it, now that I'm starting to figure it out.

Dr. Skull: I knew you would.

Me: It lets me log in with my fingerprint.

Dr. Skull: That's cool.

Me: What would happen if my finger got amputated, though?

Dr. Skull: Well, I guess...I don't....

Me: Or what if I got acid burns on my fingers? How would I log in then?

Dr. Skull: WHY WOULD YOUR FINGER GET AMPUTATED?

Me: I just mean, what if --

Dr. Skull: WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO FIND ACID?

Me: I just meant if.

So What Are the GOP up to Now?

 Over on Fraser Sherman's blog, he has a collection of the appalling (and sickening) lies being pushed by the Right. I saw someone on FB just yesterday repeating the lie about litter boxes in classrooms because kids "identify as cats."

P.Z. Myers details his family's attempts to obtain the Real ID now necessary for air travel. I'm not flying anywhere anyway, not with airport security as over the top as it is at the moment, but you do have to wonder why conservatives are so intent on limiting the ability of (certain kinds of) people to travel.

Alas, A Blog gives us a visual aid:

Conservatives continue to think white people are the real victims. Well, and cis straight men. They're the real victims.

A cis woman gets kicked out of a Boston hotel for not performing her gender correctly. Conservatives insist it's just trans people they hate, but actually they hate anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definitions of what "normal" is -- in the case of women, that's skinny tiny blonde Christians who smile pretty and wear "nice" dresses. And are submissive to male authorty, of course.

Shamus Picture

 The dog formerly known as Finn (now named Shamus) is settling in well. He wants to play with the cats, but they will have none of it. Junti has gone so far as to hiss at him, but Jasper just gives him looks of cold disdain.

He is hard to take a picture of since he only keeps still when he is sleeping.

Finn Achieved

ETA: We have decided on Shamus as his name.

We still haven't decided on a final name, but he is home and beginning to adjust.

 He's just a little guy.

He's still a little nervous about stairs, but he's an excellent writing partner:

Puppy

We decided against the Corgi puppy when we heard the price -- four thousand dollars, to which I say, holy shit, are people really paying four thousand dollars for a dog?

Instead, we are adopting this little guy:

He's a mix-breed from a shelter, part Australian shepherd and part unknown. His current name is Finn, and we are debating what name to give him once he's ours. I was for Boyd. Dr. Skull proposed Spot. (The dog has no spots.) We are tentatively considering Bowser, but we will see.

Finn's a nice name also. We could keep it..

Feel free to propose names in the comments!

So What Will I DO with My Retirement?

(1) Read a lot of books. 

(2) Write a lot of books, stories, and reviews.

(3) Take many walks and ride my bike on the many, many bike trails in this town.

(4) Dr. Skull wants a puppy. We might get a puppy. If so, I'll be housebreaking a puppy, and also taking it to the nearby dog park.

The puppy we're looking at on Saturday

(5) Sleep late, like every single day. 

(6) Grow some plants. Not like a serious garden, but herbs and the fig tree and such.

(7) Hike more.

(8) Visit art museums. Our financial advisor guy asked if we have plans to travel, but that's the only plans to travel we have -- we'll go to Crystal Bridges more and maybe overnights to nearby cities that have good art museums. I'm not that in to travelling, which makes me anxious. I like to be home in my own house with my books. 

(9) Take Greek and Latin at the University here in town. I've already applied for admission, which struck me as kind of funny. Yes, I have a doctorate from you guys, can I come back and take some undergraduate classes?

That's my plan so far. That's my agenda.

More Storms

It's been rain and then heavier rain all day. It's nice to be able to stay home and work on my novels and reviews.

Also, I am roasting a chicken for dinner. It smells delicious. You can get really good chickens at the Co-Op, also with great veggies.

Home Alive

 I made it home ahead of the storm, in case any of you were fretting!

From the Party

 There was cake!

Also I got a clock, which I guess is the modern equivalent of a gold watch.

Last Day of Teaching

It's my last day of teaching. There's also a party, to celebrate my escape. I find myself ambivalent. On the one hand, I have had enough of teaching and it is definitely time to leave. On the other hand, what am I if not a professor of English?

I guess we'll find out.

When I was in graduate school, and as a young professor, I used to say, "All I want out of life is day after day with nothing planned. Is that so much to ask?"

Oh, and there is a huuuuge storm heading through Arkansas. It looks like it will be over before I start my drive back up the mountain, but of course I am fretting. It would be deeply ironic if I died in a tornado on my last day of work.

XKCD Stings Today

 The original is here.

Disaster Relief

So remember that talking point before the election, when Trump's regime was claiming Biden diverted FEMA money* to send illegal immigrants money? Such outrage from the Right. Such exclaiming about brown people eating the dogs and cats while Biden was paying their rent.

We had tornados rip through Arkansas on Easter Sunday, and another set just before that. To her credit, Sarah Huckleberry Sanders applied for disaster relief.

Trump has denied it. You can't, after all, fund FEMA and give billionaires huge tax breaks at the same time.

As you can imagine, this has our local MAGA Republicans outraged. The hyena isn't supposed to eat THEIR faces. Tom Cotton, among others, has written a letter begging Trump to reconsider. Better polish up those boot-licking skills, Tom, you're gonna need them.

Easter Sunday tornado hit about a mile from my house

*Biden did no such thing, of course. The FEMA money went to the victims of the flood. As we should know by now, every accusation from today's conservatives is actually a confession. They accuse because that is what they are doing, or would do if they had the chance. See also: accusing trans people and drag queens of pedophilia and assaulting women.

What I Like about Living in Fayetteville So Far

 (1) The weather. We're only fifty miles north of where we used to live, but the weather is so much better. Clearer, crisper air, about five degrees cooler on the average, and one beautiful day after the next. Well, we did have that tiny tornado on Easter Sunday. But other than that!

(2) The library. So many books! Also, it's three stories tall and I need books on all three levels (first floor is where the holds are picked up, second is the fiction, third is the large print and non-fiction), so why join a gym when I can just go to the library. 

Downside: everyone in town loves the library as much as I do, as it not only has a ton of books but also programs for every age group -- story hour, cooking classes, yoga -- all day long. So sometimes it is not just hard but impossible to find parking at the library, despite the three-story parking garage and auxiliary parking out back. I mean, this is good, I love a city where people love the library; but it's a little frustrating when I have to leave without going in because I can't park.

(3) The Co-Op, or Ozark Natural Foods Co-op. Locally owned and supported by residents, the Co-Op provides "locally grown, responsibly sourced" food, some of it from local farmers and artisans. I could live on their chicken pies. The kid says I already do.

(4) The infrastructure. Fayetteville is inhabited by people who care about the community. It's a city being built for and run by the people (who are pretty much 90% progressive). So we have bike and walking trails and parks everywhere, recycling not just permitted by encouraged, green spaces (though not as many as there used to be), that library, and a planning board that thinks about the aesthetics of the town, not just giving tax breaks to billionaires. You don't know what most cities are like until you live in a city that makes sense.

There's also free public transit, funded by the university and the city, but only in certain areas.  If you don't happen to live in those areas, the free public transit isn't that useful. Nor does it really keep students from bringing their cars to school and then driving like toddlers around the city, sadly. (We do have a lot of rich kids from Texas whose daddies have bought them GIANT trucks and SUVs to tool around town in, and like many 18 year olds they have no sense of self-preservation.)

(5) The variety of restaurants. In Fort Smith, we had one good restaurant -- Las Americas -- and a couple of burger joints that were okay. The Chinese food sucked, the pizza sucked, the general American food restaurants were mediocre. Here, these are so many good restaurants that we are hard pressed to choose what we want. And there are other good ones we haven't even tried. Excellent pizza, outstanding Chinese food, diners, breakfast places. Amazing.

(6) The university. I'll admit I've only skirted the edge of this resource. Come fall, I plan to be studying Greek and Latin there. And there's a theater, a huge library, museums, an immense gym -- all of this will be accessible to me once I'm a student. Cannot wait.

(7) Bookstores. All Fort Smith had was Bibles a Million. Here, there's the Dickson Street Bookstore, as well as a Barnes and Noble, and several smaller secondhand shops. With the library, though I have less need of bookstores. And my purchases from Thrift Books have plummeted.

(8) Jeni's Ice cream. I can get it via Whole Foods but also through my local Harps. The kid accuses me of being obsessed, and I do admit I tend to horde pints of it. My favorites at the moment are the Cold Brew and Coconut Milk; Milk Chocolate; Darkest chocolate; Brown Butter Brickle; and Boston Cream pie. However, Jeni's is coming out with new flavors, which I await in anticipation.

(9) Bird song. There are so many more birds here. I love their singing, especially in the morning, though they sing all day. A hawk hunts the green space behind the house. Watching him hunt is beautiful. There's a rooster living next door, whose crowing charms me. There are more insects here too, which is why there are more birds, I suspect. Fort Smith residents tended to drench their yards with Round-Up, which killed off the insects, and maybe the birds that ate them. Though maybe the birds just left for better fields -- I did used to see birds in the park down by the river there.

(10) The children. There are children here, and they play outside. I could go weeks without seeing a child outside in the Fort. The kids here walk home from school, which is possible because most of the neighborhoods here have sidewalks. An ice cream truck trawls my neighborhood every day around 4:00. An ice cream truck! Do you know how long it's been since I saw one of those?

(11) Dogs. Partly this is because I live by the dog park, but I'm seeing so many dogs. All on leashes, I might add, again opposed to the Fort, where people let their dogs run wild. Also, hardly any of them are pit bulls. 

(12) My new house. It's on this quiet street not too far from a dog park. I have a deck. I have that marvelous view off the deck, of the green space behind the house. This neighborhood is also so quiet at night. It's wonderful. 

Junti Contemplates the Green Space

The Trade Off

 From over at Alas, A Blog:

I stay off of Twitter these days, because it's 90% ads and 8% hate and silly misinformation, with only 2% posts anyone sane would care to read, but from what I can tell, this is absolutely accurate. Most people are bewildered or angry about the tariffs and the tax cuts for Elon, but so long as Trump lets them hate trans people and immigrants, it's fine.

Why Trump Supporters Still Support Him

The fact is, they think they're immune from the actions taken by the Trump regime. They think the hyenas aren't going to eat their faces.

Think about what that means. 

It means they're fine if these things happen to us. If my kid is arrested or assaulted for doing something like pissing in the wrong bathroom, that is fine with them. If my kid's professor or friend or neighbor is deported because they're Hispanic or Muslim, that's fine with them. If you or your spouse or your friend gets fired for being "woke," that's fine too. 

That's what they want to happen. 

If your neighbor or you, for that matter, if you're arrested because you supported the wrong person in the latest election, or if your business collapses because people can't afford to buy things, that's great! If your disabled child can't get the help they need because Trump's regime cut funding to your public school, as far as they're concerned, that's wonderful. If your kid dies because you can't afford the health care they need, hey, shouldn't have been born poor or "weak," should they?

When it happens to them, you might ask, will they be sorry? Well, they'll be sorry for themselves. But they're still going to say fuck you, because you had it coming. 

Dr Skull's Health Improves and I get a Tasty Dinner

 The pain clinic put Dr. Skull on steroids, which has improved his pain level so much that he was able to cook dinner for me for the first time in months. Chicken Marsala, mushrooms, asparagus, bread, and Death Water. This is the high life, y'all.

What Am I Even DOING with My Time

(1) My kid and his husband are moving into a townhouse. Their current place is 441 square feet, and their kitchen has no drawers. The new place has no washer/dryer, but there's a laundromat literally half a block away. Anyway, I'm only ancillary to this move, but it's still been occupying some of my time.

(2) Home Repair. We've been putting in a walk-in shower, because Dr. Skull has trouble using tub-showers anymore. His back injury precludes stepping in and out of tubs. I've been helping him in and out, but that's a short term stop gap. The walk-in shower is nice, and we hired a contractor to handle all the various plumbers and so on, but MAN it's a lot of work on my end even so.

(3) Medicare. I've almost got everything worked out, but again, a lot of work on my end.

(4) Reading for and writing reviews. This is fun work, but it's still work.

(5) GRADING PAPERS. This is the last set of comp papers I will ever have to grade. That is all that is keeping me going at the moment.

(6) Various medical and dental appointments. Most of these are for Dr. Skull, and one of the doctors is located in Fort Smith, which means a lot of driving.

(7) The current political situation. Contacting my reps daily. I'm pretty sure it's doing no good at all -- they keep sending me responses telling me I'm wrong and to stop worrying my pretty little head. But I persevere. I was glad to see the Supreme Court standing up to Trump. And of course I continue to donate to the ACLU, which is doing stellar work.

Ugh

I just realized that if I retire I have to clean my office out.

Three More Weeks

Three more weeks until the end of the semester. Well, four, if we're counting exam week.

Can I make it?

It's hard to say. I'm grading the major papers for my Comp I classes and HONESTLY.

Happy Pesach!

Tonight is the first night of Passover. I'm doing much of the cooking this year, since Dr. Skull is not able to stand or to grip things well. He did make the broth for the matzo ball soup, and he is supervising me on several other dishes. What are we having?

• Matzo ball soup
• Roasted chicken
• Potato kugel (made with actual schmaltz)
• Grilled asparagus
• KFP matzos
• Several desserts of affliction, including candy fruit slices, macaroons, and KFP chocolate cake
• KFP wine (not Manischewitz, actual wine, which is available here in our new city)

The kids and Uncle Charger are coming to the Seder. I'll share pix if I remember to take any.

Chag sameach! Gut Yontif! Don't forget to throw out your yeasted things*!

*We did not throw out our yeasted things.

That's Professor Emeritus to You

The university board of trustees has granted me Emeritus status. The main benefit to me at the moment is I get to keep my university email. Yay!

STOP THE CHILD ABUSE

 A cartoon:

(Transcript: First panel: A woman wearing a teeshirt that says "Adult Human Female" is practically sobbing with outrage. She says, "We need to act to ban trans care and make sure children develop naturally and healthily!" Next panel: a woman gobbling a burger and fries asks, "So you're going to do something about ultra-processed foods and additives? Against rampant child malnutrition?" Third panel: Same woman in a hockey suit asks, "Will you ban ballet classes, since they alter children's muscles and limbs forever? Or contact sorts like hockey or football, for giving them lifelong head traumas and concussions?" Four Panel: Same woman, looking disgusted: "Or is hunting down a handful of trans kids who just want to live their life as themselves and participate in society more urgent than all this?")

I've noticed transphobes who bleat about "natural development" and "mutilating children" could not care less about the damage being done by sports programs around the nation, or yes, ballet, for that matter; or about the damage being done by social expectations for little girls to be skinny and cute above all; or such "mutilations" as nose jobs, breast enlargement surgery or breast reduction surgery for boys with gynocomastia. That's all fine.

I've also noticed they don't worry about "natural" development when they're putting braces on their kids teeth, buying them eyeglasses or contacts, and dying their own hair. All that is fine too. It's only the nasty transes we have to police.

Note: I would have never let my kid play hockey or football, and probably would have hesitated about ballet, for the reasons stated above. But I'm all for braces, eyeglasses, and whatever anyone wants to do with their own hair. My point here, though, is entirely other. They don't really care about trans kids. They care about being allowed to be bigots. Trans kids, and trans people, are a safe target right now. Ten years ago, they would have been attacking gay people. Thirty years ago, feminists. Fifty years ago, black people. It's all the same playbook, just different targets.

MURDERBOT TRAILER!!

It airs on May 16. I cannot wait.

May 2025 ON BOOKS

My Asimov's column, "On Books," for May 2025 is now live on the site.

It'll only be available for a few weeks, so get it while it's hot.

In this column, I review these books:

Kaliane Bradley,
The Ministry of Time

John Wiswell,
Someone to Build a Nest In

Jon Evans,
Exadelic

Beth Revis,
Full Speed to a Crash Landing

Beth Revis,
How to Steal a Galaxy

Madeline Ashby,
Glass Houses

Cebo Campbell,
Sky Full of Elephants

Kingfisher,
A Sorceress Comes to Call

Michael Bérubé,
The Ex-Human 

The Bradley book has just been nominated for a Hugo. Well-deserved!