Habermas Presentation and Artistic Experiences
May. 4th, 2026 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpip"Jurgen Habermas is the most influential thinker in Germany today". Thus begins Thomas McCarthy's 1975 translator's introduction to "Legitimation Crisis" ("Legitimationsprobleme in Spatkapitalismus", 1973), and he wasn't wrong. Whilst he may have fallen a little off the radar a bit in the last decades (especially after his attempted "post-secular" rapproachment with religion), fifty years as Europe's most important and serious philosopher is a fairly good innings. Habermas dies last month, aged 96, and I was fortunate enough to be offered to give a presentation to the Existentialist Society this weekend on his philosophy of universal pragmatics and communicative action, which was both well-attended and had many excellent questions. The video, alas, missed the first couple of minutes, but everything is available in the transcript.
The weekend was not only an afternoon of deep and complex emancipatory German social philosophy in the idealistic tradition, however. Marc C., joined me for dinner on Friday before we ventured to The Old Bar to see some music; opening act "Trappist Afterland" was a subtle one-man band with Indian sub-continent backing tracks and songs about dogs, Star/Time provided quasi-improvised space-funk, and headline act The Gruntled accurately describe themselves as "avant-medieval psychedelic noise combo"; it all helps when you know several of the band members. The following night, I caught up with Liza D., and we made our way to "Impossiblistic: A Night of Surreal Performances, which was poetry, theatre, music, costume, puppetry, clown shows, and more. It was less surreal than enjoyable nonsense and was just fine.
Between all this, I also managed to visit the "Creative Antarctica" exhibition at RMIT on its last day, on Australian artists and writers who visited that grand continent. Of course, my own emotional and intellectual attachment to said continent is very strong; not too many people can say that they've spent New Year's Eve there. The exhibition was quite delightful. I really like Janet Laurence's "Ice Remembers" and Sally Robertson's "Atlas Cove". But the standout image for me was Frank Hurley's photograph of 1916 of Shackleton and Worsley leaving Elephant Island on a tiny lifeboat that would somehow make it to South Georgia Island over a thousand kilometres away and would lead to the rescue of the crew of the Endurance. It is one the greatest stories of survival against all odds and, for what it's worth, Elephant Island was the last location of my own trip to Antarctica this year. As Sir Raymond Priestley, Antarctic explorer and geologist, poetically put it: "For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton."
The weekend was not only an afternoon of deep and complex emancipatory German social philosophy in the idealistic tradition, however. Marc C., joined me for dinner on Friday before we ventured to The Old Bar to see some music; opening act "Trappist Afterland" was a subtle one-man band with Indian sub-continent backing tracks and songs about dogs, Star/Time provided quasi-improvised space-funk, and headline act The Gruntled accurately describe themselves as "avant-medieval psychedelic noise combo"; it all helps when you know several of the band members. The following night, I caught up with Liza D., and we made our way to "Impossiblistic: A Night of Surreal Performances, which was poetry, theatre, music, costume, puppetry, clown shows, and more. It was less surreal than enjoyable nonsense and was just fine.
Between all this, I also managed to visit the "Creative Antarctica" exhibition at RMIT on its last day, on Australian artists and writers who visited that grand continent. Of course, my own emotional and intellectual attachment to said continent is very strong; not too many people can say that they've spent New Year's Eve there. The exhibition was quite delightful. I really like Janet Laurence's "Ice Remembers" and Sally Robertson's "Atlas Cove". But the standout image for me was Frank Hurley's photograph of 1916 of Shackleton and Worsley leaving Elephant Island on a tiny lifeboat that would somehow make it to South Georgia Island over a thousand kilometres away and would lead to the rescue of the crew of the Endurance. It is one the greatest stories of survival against all odds and, for what it's worth, Elephant Island was the last location of my own trip to Antarctica this year. As Sir Raymond Priestley, Antarctic explorer and geologist, poetically put it: "For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton."
scrupulous
May. 4th, 2026 01:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
merriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 4, 2026 is:
scrupulous • \SKROO-pyuh-lus\ • adjective
Scrupulous describes someone who is very careful about doing something correctly, or something marked by such carefulness. Scrupulous can also describe someone who is careful about doing what is honest and morally right.
// She was always scrupulous about her work.
// Being an editor requires scrupulous attention to detail.
// Less scrupulous companies find ways to evade the law.
Examples:
“Scrupulous directors make sure that the sound of their movies is grossly efficient, so that the dramatic meaning of a scene is apparent even in the worst theatre or home system in the country …” — David Denby, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2026
Did you know?
People described as scrupulous might feel discomfort if their work is not executed with a sharp attention to detail. Such discomfort might present itself as a nagging feeling, much as a sharp pebble in a shoe might nag a walker intent on getting somewhere. And we are getting somewhere. The origin of scrupulous is founded in just such a pebble. Scrupulous and its close relative scruple (“a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is wrong”) both come from the Latin noun scrupulus, “a small sharp stone,” the diminutive of scrupus, “a sharp stone.” Scrupus has a metaphorical meaning too: “a source of anxiety or uneasiness.” When the adjective scrupulous entered the English language in the 15th century, it described someone careful about preserving their moral integrity, but it now is also commonly used for someone who is careful in how they execute tasks.
Like a sprig of yarrow caught in the dark
May. 3rd, 2026 09:18 pmsovayMy poem "Gramarye" has been accepted by Not One of Us. As indicated by the title, it bears some influence from Susan Cooper. The rest was influenced by anger and the sea. I am coming up on twenty-five years as a published author and it started with this pocket-sized black-and-white 'zine. I always encourage writer-type persons of my acquaintaince to send them fiction and poetry.
I regretfully conclude that I am not the target audience for Elizabeth Myers' Mrs. Christopher (1946) when its its banger of a premise—whether the three witnesses to the shooting of a blackmailer will turn in their benefactor of a little old lady who pulled the trigger when the reward is £500—plays out as a Christian thought experiment of forgiveness and love in which there is no suspense after all except for the punch line of the verdict. Its tempted witnesses are not psychologically unbelievable and their different circumstances are drawn in well-written detail, but taken all together they feel like a rigged deck. I am not sure whether I should try the film it was adapted into, Marc Allégret's Blackmailed (1951). On a shallower note, the author had an incredible face in her short life. I was glad to read that she bonded with Eleanor Farjeon.
Well, actually, there are quite a few noir thrillers told from the perspective of a woman, but Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall (1947) may have been my first, too, through its screen translation of Max Ophüls' The Reckless Moment (1949), and I like the cover choice of Jo Cain's New York Harbor (c. 1940) a lot.
I regretfully conclude that I am not the target audience for Elizabeth Myers' Mrs. Christopher (1946) when its its banger of a premise—whether the three witnesses to the shooting of a blackmailer will turn in their benefactor of a little old lady who pulled the trigger when the reward is £500—plays out as a Christian thought experiment of forgiveness and love in which there is no suspense after all except for the punch line of the verdict. Its tempted witnesses are not psychologically unbelievable and their different circumstances are drawn in well-written detail, but taken all together they feel like a rigged deck. I am not sure whether I should try the film it was adapted into, Marc Allégret's Blackmailed (1951). On a shallower note, the author had an incredible face in her short life. I was glad to read that she bonded with Eleanor Farjeon.
Well, actually, there are quite a few noir thrillers told from the perspective of a woman, but Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall (1947) may have been my first, too, through its screen translation of Max Ophüls' The Reckless Moment (1949), and I like the cover choice of Jo Cain's New York Harbor (c. 1940) a lot.
Culinary
May. 3rd, 2026 07:06 pmoursinLast week's bread held out remarkably.
Friday night supper: penne with Peppadew roasted red peppers in brine whooshed in the blender and heated.
Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla.
Today's lunch: diced lamb shoulder casseroled in white wine with baby carrots, chopped leeks, bay leaf, thyme, white peppercorns and salt, with a sliced potato topping (blanched in boiling water for 5 mins, brushed with melted butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper, put on for the final 45 mins or so), served with white-braised fine green beans and baby courgettes.
Writing, WIPs and
May. 3rd, 2026 07:58 pmtrobadoraI've been commenting a bit over at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
polyamships's NSFW 3 weeks 4 dreamwidth posts, and I thought I'd bring some of that over here, because I had more to talk about that wasn't about poly, but more about writing in general.
On the "current favorite poly ship" question I mentioned a ship that's been on my mind all through April - an original trio from an old origfic WIP I last worked on in 2018, and that took over significant parts of my brainspace again this April.
I'd been reading through my old origfic WIPs because March was the month when I suddenly had a lot of inspiration again for the sort of thing I used to write a lot of, back when I regularly wrote origfic - and then this one really hit me hard again.
The basic concept is a clan feud coming to an end when one side is brought down by a third party, and what happens between the survivors and their former enemies. The ship is a V, with siblings from one side and the third from the other. (Side question: am I the only one around here who likes V-shaped ships? They seem to be pretty unpopular in fandom.)
I wrote a significant chunk of this in 2017 and early 2018, and then didn't touch it again until 1st April this year, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, though falling into Guardian and cdramas in general probably played a part. *g* I have almost 60k now - but I guess if I ever do finish it in any meaningful way, it'll probably be at least 200k. What I have at the moment is basically the minidrama version: all the dramatic interpersonal moments; everything else more or less sketched in. To pull it off to full effect would take a lot of work! And maybe one day I'll manage that work - I do want to; I just don't have the time or energy I'd need. But in the meantime I've been having a lot of fun just adding more to that world and those characters' arcs.
I mean, really, a LOT of fun. My writing in April looked like this:
It's a very rare month when my writing is so concentrated on so few stories! But I had two unrevealed exchange stories to work on, where extensions gave me a lot more time to expand, rewrite, edit and improve - that got a lot of my focus. And then the rest of my brainspace got taken over by that WIP.
And then I was wondering how often that sort of thing happens to other people. So here's a poll for you:
polyamships's NSFW 3 weeks 4 dreamwidth posts, and I thought I'd bring some of that over here, because I had more to talk about that wasn't about poly, but more about writing in general.On the "current favorite poly ship" question I mentioned a ship that's been on my mind all through April - an original trio from an old origfic WIP I last worked on in 2018, and that took over significant parts of my brainspace again this April.
I'd been reading through my old origfic WIPs because March was the month when I suddenly had a lot of inspiration again for the sort of thing I used to write a lot of, back when I regularly wrote origfic - and then this one really hit me hard again.
The basic concept is a clan feud coming to an end when one side is brought down by a third party, and what happens between the survivors and their former enemies. The ship is a V, with siblings from one side and the third from the other. (Side question: am I the only one around here who likes V-shaped ships? They seem to be pretty unpopular in fandom.)
I wrote a significant chunk of this in 2017 and early 2018, and then didn't touch it again until 1st April this year, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, though falling into Guardian and cdramas in general probably played a part. *g* I have almost 60k now - but I guess if I ever do finish it in any meaningful way, it'll probably be at least 200k. What I have at the moment is basically the minidrama version: all the dramatic interpersonal moments; everything else more or less sketched in. To pull it off to full effect would take a lot of work! And maybe one day I'll manage that work - I do want to; I just don't have the time or energy I'd need. But in the meantime I've been having a lot of fun just adding more to that world and those characters' arcs.
I mean, really, a LOT of fun. My writing in April looked like this:
It's a very rare month when my writing is so concentrated on so few stories! But I had two unrevealed exchange stories to work on, where extensions gave me a lot more time to expand, rewrite, edit and improve - that got a lot of my focus. And then the rest of my brainspace got taken over by that WIP.
And then I was wondering how often that sort of thing happens to other people. So here's a poll for you:
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17
What's the longest time you stopped working on a WIP before getting back to it?
View Answers
less than 1 year
2 (12.5%)
1-2 years
3 (18.8%)
3-5 years
5 (31.2%)
6-10 years
1 (6.2%)
11-20 years
5 (31.2%)
more than 20 years
0 (0.0%)
What's your longest time between starting and finishing a story?
View Answers
less than 1 year
2 (12.5%)
1-2 years
4 (25.0%)
3-5 years
5 (31.2%)
6-10 years
1 (6.2%)
11-20 years
4 (25.0%)
more than 20 years
0 (0.0%)
How often do you get back to older WIPs?
View Answers
never - I finish it at once or not at all
3 (17.6%)
rarely
8 (47.1%)
often - I regularly poke at old WIPs, and finish some on occasion
6 (35.3%)
always - I never abandon anything for good
2 (11.8%)
it's more complicated than that (see comments
1 (5.9%)
I just want to tick a tickybox!
Done Since 2026-04-26
May. 3rd, 2026 03:12 pmmdlbearNot quite as unproductive as my weeks usually are, and there were some fascinating rabbit-holes to go down (I'll get to some of those later). And, yeah, a lot of good household-related things too. But not quite enough walking, and not nearly enough work (which includes music practice and writing). But some. But between stress around tax time, my ongoing health problems, and what's going on in the world, it's hard for me to be optimistic and hopeful, rather than pessimistic and depressed. So there was that.
With m and N returning from the US on Thursday, G's birthday (observed) on Saturday, getting (folding scooter)Lizzy back on Saturday, and N's next book nearing completion, there was a lot of great conversation and a goodly amount of sushi and other tasty stuff. I have some reviews to write -- hopefully overcoming my writer's block enough to do so. Here's a teaser.
Lizzy. When we got Lizzy back -- over a month ago -- from getting her flat tire repaired, she refused to start, displaying an error code (E8) on her dashboard. The manual does not have a table of error codes -- it says to call the dealer. They didn't know either. So we had them pick her up for repair. That was March 11. They called the factory. Several times, apparently. Finally I got the email saying she was ready to be returned, and that the error had to do with the freewheel lever not being engaged. WTF? Why was that not in the manual??!
Book. I recently read a near-final draft of N's new book, and yesterday I
confirmed with her that I can say a little about it in public. It's
called Paleomythic, and it's the first book in a trilogy. It
is, in fact, a collection of myths -- stories about the history of Earth.
As narrated, with close to scientific accuracy, by the gods themselves:
the planets, continents, and seas that who were
there and made it all happen. The framing story is narrated by Luna.
It's not often that a book makes me cry tears of joy. This one did.
I note in passing that N's first book, The World As it Ought To Be, is widely available, and can be found through her website.
Health. The latest problem is Trigger finger, which I have been treating with diclofenac topical gel and, now, compression gloves. Because I need to use my fingers to pull on my compression socks. I'm also having pain -- probably muscle spasms -- on my left side, which is the side I sleep on. With the arm that Ticia likes to lie on.
Linkies! From last Sunday: Giant octopuses may have ruled the oceans 100 million years ago and Bruce Springsteen’s Chimes of Freedom. From Wednesday, Scientists reverse brain aging, with a nasal spray (nice if it works out, though I doubt it will be released soon enough to help me), and The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI. And from Friday, Scientists Finally Solved One of Water’s Biggest Mysteries and The Chord That Ended Classical Music - YouTube
Sunday Word: Heresiarch
May. 3rd, 2026 01:35 pmsallymn posting in 1word1dayheresiarch [huh-ree-zee-ahrk, -see-, her-uh-see-]
noun:
a leader in heresy; the leader of a heretical sect.
Examples:
His son labels him a 'Heresiarch,' though this particular heresy is an attack not on religion but on the banality of life. (Ruth Franklin, The Lost, The New Yorker, December 2002)
The Waldenses are so called from their heresiarch, Waldus, who, of his own will (suo spiritu ductus), not sent by God, started a new sect, presuming forsooth to preach without the authority of a Bishop, without the inspiration of God, without learning. (Alan de Insulis, quoted in Henry James Warner, The Albigensian Heresy)
When he discusses Nestorius, the great episcopal heresiarch condemned at Ephesus, he says that his error was to think of himself as "the first and only one to understand Scripture (Thomas Guarino, 'St Vincent of Lerins and the development of Christian doctrine' Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, June 2014)
At first I skipped to the second volume, containing the "Philosophy of Abélard," and, after reading that with the greatest interest, I returned to the first, to the life of the great heresiarch. (Prosper Mérimée, Abbé Aubain and Mosaics)
He is constantly provocative of adverse, even of severe criticism; of half the heresies from which he has suffered - not only that of impressionism - he was himself the unconscious heresiarch. (George Saintsbury, A History of Nineteenth Century Literature)
Origin:
'arch-heretic; leader in heresy,' 1620s, from Church Latin haeresiarcha, from Late Greek hairesiarkhes 'leader of a school;' in classical use chiefly a medical school; in ecclesiastical writers, leader of a sect or heresy (see heresy + arch-)(Online Etymology Dictionary)
Am I lost inside my mind?
May. 2nd, 2026 11:20 pmsovayIn the afternoon when the overcast cleared, spatch and I went walking down to the Mystic and I photographed a whole lot of flowers, of which I was happiest with the ones that came out like abstracts.
( I hear the river say your name. )
Physically I am just pretty miserable, but the lilac is breaking out in real bloom and Rob has been showing me potato-quality Deep Space Nine (1993–99). I had tarragon-sautéed mushrooms and zucchini for dinner.
spatch and I went walking down to the Mystic and I photographed a whole lot of flowers, of which I was happiest with the ones that came out like abstracts.( I hear the river say your name. )
Physically I am just pretty miserable, but the lilac is breaking out in real bloom and Rob has been showing me potato-quality Deep Space Nine (1993–99). I had tarragon-sautéed mushrooms and zucchini for dinner.
métier
May. 3rd, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 3, 2026 is:
métier • \MET-yay\ • noun
Métier, sometimes styled metier, is a formal word that refers to something that a person does very well.
// After trying several careers, she found her true métier in computer science.
Examples:
“Turning from his father’s trade of corset-making, [Thomas] Paine tried his hand at business, met and impressed Benjamin Franklin in London, sailed to America, and there found his true metier as a pamphleteer and radical.” — Matthew Redmond, The Conversation, 9 Oct. 2025
Did you know?
Over the centuries, English has borrowed several French words related in some way to work or working, among them oeuvre (“a substantial body of work of a writer, an artist, or a composer”) and travail (“work of a laborious nature, toil”). Métier (pronounced /MET-yay/) is another. It is sometimes translated from its original French as “job” or “career” but in that language it more accurately refers to the trade or profession in which one works (it traces back to the Old French mistier, meaning “duty, craft, profession”). In English we tend toward a narrower meaning for métier, referring either to a job for which one is perfectly suited or a particular field in which one is extremely skilled. This makes it a synonym of another French borrowing, forte.
(no subject)
May. 2nd, 2026 04:55 pmskygiantsWhen I say that reading Aster Glenn Gray's Diary of a Cranky Bookworm feels like spending several delightful hours with an old friend, this is just about the least surprising statement in the world I could possibly make, because:
a.) Aster is indeed a longtime friend, and also
b.) both the book and Sage-as-protagonist are drawing explicit inspiration from many other teen-girl-writer bildungsromans (I Capture the Castle, the Montmaray trilogy, the collected oeuvre of LM Montgomery, etc.) that are beloved old friends to me, and also
c.) every character and interpersonal dynamic in this book does indeed feel like an exact portrait of someone I either was or knew in high school, with pitch-perfect and sometimes painful accuracy
Sage Perrault, Our Heroine, is an imaginative, judgmental misanthrope from a small town in Minnesota who was fortunate enough to form a small tight friends group in elementary school who also proved themselves worthy of her affection by being precocious readers:
- Georgie, Sage's best friend since kindergarten, when her mother (terrified of Sage becoming a miserable loner like Gay Cousin Rachel who Never Comes Home For Christmas) seized on the other precocious reader in class and started arranging playdates with feverish speed. Sensible, driven, raised by an overprotective mom who never got out of town and is thus double determined to Get Out Of Town. Friends outside of Sage: church youth group
- Arielle, the dramatic friend, with inattentive divorced parents, a moderate case of main character syndrome, and a rich life of the imagination often expressed through implausible lies about her past. Passionate in her enthusiasms but will not stop obnoxiously sending you fanfiction that you do not care about. Friends outside of Sage: drama club
- Hilary, the chillest friend; always delighted to run with any bit that she's given and make it more fun and funny, but holds her own emotional cards close to the chest. Has a very nice boyfriend and never talks about him. Wonderful to hang out with at any time but is planning for pre-med so will almost certainly be far too busy to stay in close touch with anyone when they scatter. Friends outside of Sage: almost the entire school, everyone loves Hilary because she's a delight, and the fact that she chooses to eat lunch with Sage and Hilary and Arielle is frankly a great compliment to all of them
This has left Sage peacefully free to hold onto grudges also formed in elementary school, continue happily hating the kids in her class that she has hated since they were all eight, and avoid going through the effort of speaking to anybody else. Unfortunately, it's senior year! College is looming, and with it new tensions and unpleasant questions, such as:
- can being a precocious reader really continue as the be-all and end-all of Sage's perception of her own self-worth? and how can she write a college essay about it?
- how much of what Arielle's told them all about her plans for college is normal bad ideas, and how much is outright lies, and how much is in fact a cry for help?
- how can Sage break it to beloved best friend Georgie that she doesn't want to go to the U [University of Minnesota Twin Cities], which is the ultimate apex of Georgie's ambitions, and instead kind of wants to attend a small liberal arts college somewhere in the middle of nowhere?
- but if she doesn't go to college with Georgie, will she ever successfully speak to another human being?
- and on that topic, is it possible that a Longtime Beautiful Enemy is in fact a human being worth talking to, to despite the fact that she's bad at spelling and was mean in middle school?
Sage, early on: Arielle always tries to blow on whatever flickering embers of bisexuality she finds within herself, which I admire. I'd be far more inclined to play Whack-A-Mole. And obviously part of the book is also that Sage has to stop playing Whack-A-Mole, but the big emotional question of the Longtime Beautiful Enemy subplot is less "will they kiss" [though they do, eventually] than "can Sage build an emotional connection with a new person, at the same time as she's facing fundamental shifts in all her other most important relationships?" At its heart this is a book about friendship in all its different shapes, the different kinds of ties you build with different people and the way those change with you as you grow.
And also, of course, about being judgmental about books and films and art. There's a whole other conversation that I feel like I've been coincidentally having in various different contexts about the purpose of the literary cross-reference in this sort of text; I am definitely one of the people for whom there's a profound self-indulgent pleasure in watching characters react to another work [Kage Baker's infamous Cyborgs Watch D.W. Griffith scene my beloved; what a bad idea to spend a whole chapter on it and what a delight it was for me personally] as long as I don't believe that the author believes that all right-thinking people should agree with the character's opinions. Fortunately I am in no danger of this with Sage. Sage has a LOT of opinions about books and films and art, and I disagree with many of them but so do many of Sage's friends; this, too, is one of the important shapes of friendship.
a.) Aster is indeed a longtime friend, and also
b.) both the book and Sage-as-protagonist are drawing explicit inspiration from many other teen-girl-writer bildungsromans (I Capture the Castle, the Montmaray trilogy, the collected oeuvre of LM Montgomery, etc.) that are beloved old friends to me, and also
c.) every character and interpersonal dynamic in this book does indeed feel like an exact portrait of someone I either was or knew in high school, with pitch-perfect and sometimes painful accuracy
Sage Perrault, Our Heroine, is an imaginative, judgmental misanthrope from a small town in Minnesota who was fortunate enough to form a small tight friends group in elementary school who also proved themselves worthy of her affection by being precocious readers:
- Georgie, Sage's best friend since kindergarten, when her mother (terrified of Sage becoming a miserable loner like Gay Cousin Rachel who Never Comes Home For Christmas) seized on the other precocious reader in class and started arranging playdates with feverish speed. Sensible, driven, raised by an overprotective mom who never got out of town and is thus double determined to Get Out Of Town. Friends outside of Sage: church youth group
- Arielle, the dramatic friend, with inattentive divorced parents, a moderate case of main character syndrome, and a rich life of the imagination often expressed through implausible lies about her past. Passionate in her enthusiasms but will not stop obnoxiously sending you fanfiction that you do not care about. Friends outside of Sage: drama club
- Hilary, the chillest friend; always delighted to run with any bit that she's given and make it more fun and funny, but holds her own emotional cards close to the chest. Has a very nice boyfriend and never talks about him. Wonderful to hang out with at any time but is planning for pre-med so will almost certainly be far too busy to stay in close touch with anyone when they scatter. Friends outside of Sage: almost the entire school, everyone loves Hilary because she's a delight, and the fact that she chooses to eat lunch with Sage and Hilary and Arielle is frankly a great compliment to all of them
This has left Sage peacefully free to hold onto grudges also formed in elementary school, continue happily hating the kids in her class that she has hated since they were all eight, and avoid going through the effort of speaking to anybody else. Unfortunately, it's senior year! College is looming, and with it new tensions and unpleasant questions, such as:
- can being a precocious reader really continue as the be-all and end-all of Sage's perception of her own self-worth? and how can she write a college essay about it?
- how much of what Arielle's told them all about her plans for college is normal bad ideas, and how much is outright lies, and how much is in fact a cry for help?
- how can Sage break it to beloved best friend Georgie that she doesn't want to go to the U [University of Minnesota Twin Cities], which is the ultimate apex of Georgie's ambitions, and instead kind of wants to attend a small liberal arts college somewhere in the middle of nowhere?
- but if she doesn't go to college with Georgie, will she ever successfully speak to another human being?
- and on that topic, is it possible that a Longtime Beautiful Enemy is in fact a human being worth talking to, to despite the fact that she's bad at spelling and was mean in middle school?
Sage, early on: Arielle always tries to blow on whatever flickering embers of bisexuality she finds within herself, which I admire. I'd be far more inclined to play Whack-A-Mole. And obviously part of the book is also that Sage has to stop playing Whack-A-Mole, but the big emotional question of the Longtime Beautiful Enemy subplot is less "will they kiss" [though they do, eventually] than "can Sage build an emotional connection with a new person, at the same time as she's facing fundamental shifts in all her other most important relationships?" At its heart this is a book about friendship in all its different shapes, the different kinds of ties you build with different people and the way those change with you as you grow.
And also, of course, about being judgmental about books and films and art. There's a whole other conversation that I feel like I've been coincidentally having in various different contexts about the purpose of the literary cross-reference in this sort of text; I am definitely one of the people for whom there's a profound self-indulgent pleasure in watching characters react to another work [Kage Baker's infamous Cyborgs Watch D.W. Griffith scene my beloved; what a bad idea to spend a whole chapter on it and what a delight it was for me personally] as long as I don't believe that the author believes that all right-thinking people should agree with the character's opinions. Fortunately I am in no danger of this with Sage. Sage has a LOT of opinions about books and films and art, and I disagree with many of them but so do many of Sage's friends; this, too, is one of the important shapes of friendship.
Perth
May. 2nd, 2026 08:41 pmcmcmckWe took a trip to Perth to visit an old friend, Lesley, who was at university at St Andrews with the Scot and was also my maid of honour when we got wed.
The museum is where the stone of destiny is now kept and also has some very fine Pictish symbol stones:
( More pics! )
The museum is where the stone of destiny is now kept and also has some very fine Pictish symbol stones:
( More pics! )
May Day Full Flower Moon.
May. 2nd, 2026 03:10 pmfull_metal_ox posting in common_natureTaken at 22:25 Eastern US Daylight Time over the parking lot joining Winn-Dixie and a local hotel, the latter outlined by its lights.
Once again, the photo doesn’t reflect what my corrective-lensed eyes actually saw—a serenely luminous disc the pale yellow of Muenster cheese—but the image is stark and dramatic. The lens flare on my cheap-ass burner phone made it resemble a black star sapphire (or, to read the image as suitably floral and local, a spider lily):
(I wasn’t the only one prowling this clear moonlit tropical night in search of food; two of the Burrowing Owls at my apartment complex were out hunting on the side lawn, as a third stood perched at the nest; this represents a full year of continuous occupancy and breeding, reflecting how safe they must feel here. They squawked at my approach, but did not hiss.)
Once again, the photo doesn’t reflect what my corrective-lensed eyes actually saw—a serenely luminous disc the pale yellow of Muenster cheese—but the image is stark and dramatic. The lens flare on my cheap-ass burner phone made it resemble a black star sapphire (or, to read the image as suitably floral and local, a spider lily):
(I wasn’t the only one prowling this clear moonlit tropical night in search of food; two of the Burrowing Owls at my apartment complex were out hunting on the side lawn, as a third stood perched at the nest; this represents a full year of continuous occupancy and breeding, reflecting how safe they must feel here. They squawked at my approach, but did not hiss.)
Recent reading
May. 2nd, 2026 03:36 pmtroisoiseauxRead Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park, which starts with the murder of a North Korean spy in an alley in Oxford, England, and then spends the first half of the book as a slower, more understated read than one would expect from that opening: split between three characters living very different, but entangled, lives in Oxford— a North Korean spy (the protégé of the murdered spy) posing as a Japanese-French grad student, a Korean-American CIA agent posing as a bartender from Seoul to keep tabs on the North Korean spy cell, and a South Korean restaurant owner with a tragic backstory— it's mostly an exploration of identity (what does it mean to be Korean?) until it does in fact loop back around to being a spy thriller, and then several things I was kind of ???/ambivalent about from a narrative standpoint clicked into place. ( SPOILERS )
Reproductive matters
May. 2nd, 2026 04:28 pmoursinApparently this is Still A Thing: Woman denied permanent birth control on NHS wins case with ombudsman. I.e. she was asking for sterilisation, and significant barriers are still being put in the way when women ask for this, compared to men asking for vasectomy.
Conceding that
Female sterilisation, or tubal ligation, is a surgical procedure that involves sealing, cutting or blocking the fallopian tubes to prevent eggs from reaching the uterus. It is usually performed under general anaesthetic via keyhole surgery and requires a few weeks of recovery. In contrast, a vasectomy is a minor outpatient procedure, typically carried out under local anaesthetic in under 30 minutes.
While both procedures serve the same purpose, permanent contraception, the ombudsman’s investigation found that the NHS was in effect treating them as different tiers of care, placing significant barriers in front of women while offering men a more straightforward pathway.
The investigation found that the ICB had denied women NHS funding based on the risk of “regret”, a criterion not applied to men seeking vasectomies.
Critics say women face unequal treatment but others say tighter controls reflect legitimate medical concerns.
While some of this is about its being a more serious operation, a lot of it comes down to 'maybe she will regret it'. Sigh. Not all women are happy with the various forms of long-term contraception which one 'emeritus professor' (it is not stated of what) says are equivalent and leave options open.
This is a different, and very strange, story about reproduction: ‘It’s super weird, super odd, super rare’: meet the twins who have different dads.
I think there may have been some potentially similar phenomena collected by the sort of docs who collected Weird Medical Phenomena - come on down, Gould and Pyle and their Anomalies and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day (1901), which includes 'twins of different colour' which before DNA testing was presumably the only means by which one might even suspect a case of this sort.
Have also looked up papers of doc who also did this kind of thing and see reference to blood grouping in twins, which might also have been a clue to this? or not - would fraternal twins necessarily have same blood group.
Friday Word: Chronomancy
May. 1st, 2026 08:29 amcalzephyr posting in 1word1dayChronomancy - noun.
My apologies--I was at the comic expo last week and still recovering! Thanks to the magic of chronomancy, I can at least backdate my post :-D
Chronomancy is a fantasy word yet at the same time, yet legit enough for Merriam-Webster!. That's because it has been around a long time, and not just in modern usage. Sometimes called hemerology, the practice of using calendar astrology or divination to determine lucky (or unlucky) days has long been used since ancient times.
My apologies--I was at the comic expo last week and still recovering! Thanks to the magic of chronomancy, I can at least backdate my post :-D
Chronomancy is a fantasy word yet at the same time, yet legit enough for Merriam-Webster!. That's because it has been around a long time, and not just in modern usage. Sometimes called hemerology, the practice of using calendar astrology or divination to determine lucky (or unlucky) days has long been used since ancient times.