40% off sale ends today!
also! this week's writing, 11/22/24
Like the title says, the 40% off sale ends today. This is your last chance for an annual sub at only $30/year. Help me feed the orange cat, read some paywalled post, and most of all keep me scribbling so I can keep showing up in your inbox!
Seriously, thanks to all who contributed, and I hope some more of you will come onboard; substack has been a lifeline for me as the media industry has largely collapsed. I really appreciate your support.
Okay; here’s what I published this week!
Parenting
Wrote about raising a trans adolescent, which is not much different than raising a cis adolescent. (Business Insider)
Politics
RFK Jr. is a massive public health threat. (Public Notice)
Talked to Mary Angela Perna about our fascist hellscape. (Constant Politics)
Game Over, Bill Paxton, and complying in advance. (EIH)
Abortion is an economic issue. (EIH)
Cultural Criticism
An interview with the punk band the Linda Lindas. (Grammy.com)
AI poetry is better than human poetry if you don’t like poetry. (EIH)
BLINK TWICE and the master’s tools. (EIH)
SPELLBOUND is a Disney princess story about eldercare that doesn’t really work. (Chicago Reader)
Poetry
Dada blues. (dadakuku)
You will often hear that Dada is a state of mind.
Yes, you often hear that Dada is a state of mind.
Well, Dada is the microbe camped out in your behind.
Two spooky/ominous poems; one below, click through for the other. (Dark Winter)
The Birds Fly Up
The birds fly up,
The birds fly down,
The birds fly underneath the ground.
In layers of silt, beneath our feet
Their feathers rustle, deep on deep.John walks up,
John walks down,
John walks to another town.
Dust in his mouth; dust in his shoes.
Birds overhead, in ones and twos.
A poem I wrote before the election which turned out to be prescient, unfortunately. (Synchronized Chaos)
Before You Go
Last chance! Exciting sale! Etc!
I have a close relative who came out as trans recently. He had long been "gender fluid" and that may actually be what he still is--he has no plans for surgery, just hormones. But I agree completely that he is still the same person as before, and went through an adolescence (as a girl) with the usual bumps and splats.
He is close to 6 feet tall, but that is heredity, not anything that transitioning has done. Before, as a she, he was the same height and bulk and probably (had s/he been interested in sports) have had the advantages that everyone now is shrieking have to do with being trans. In fact, trans kids who become aware early, and have parents willing to allow puberty blockers, don't develop the sex hormones that give them their main "birth sex" characteristics later in life.