Hemlock and Silver

Sep. 8th, 2025 05:00 pm
psocoptera: ink drawing of celtic knot (Default)
[personal profile] psocoptera
Hemlock & Silver, T Kingfisher, 2025 fantasy novel. My hold queue really did me a solid giving me this book this weekend, exactly in time to have enough of it left to keep me company through three hours of waiting my turn for voir dire this morning. Perfect to have an effortless-to-read, entertaining page-turner (in contrast to my other current book, which might turn out to be good but is not effortless). Like I often say, I like Vernon's stuff and this was one (particularly the "breaking a fairytale down for parts and rebuilding it into something new" kind of thing, although also structurally a lot like what she does in her contemporary horror). It was cinematic and inventive and I liked the protagonist and definitely recommend it if you like Vernon.

Also I am now on a jury for the next two weeks.

Klingelstreich!

Sep. 8th, 2025 08:55 pm
[syndicated profile] languagehat_feed

Posted by languagehat

The Guardian story I’m posting (by Kate Connolly) is adequately represented by its headline: Doorbell prankster that tormented residents of German apartments turns out to be a slug. Here are the paragraphs of Hattic interest:

At first they had suspected the so-called klingelstreich (bell prank), a sometimes popular pastime among German youths. Ding dong ditch, knock-a-door run, or knock-down-ginger as it is variously referred to in English, it typically involves children or youths ringing on a doorbell then running away before they are caught.

But when the ringing continued even after the arrival of two police officers, despite the fact that no one was at the door and a motion detector had failed to activate, a closer look at the metal bell plate revealed the presence of the slug, or nacktschnecke in German – literally a “naked snail”.

If it were any other paper, I’d complain about the lack of capitals on the German nouns, but hey, it’s the Graun, and I’m just glad to learn about ding dong ditch, knock-a-door run, and knock-down-ginger — I don’t remember knowing any special terms for this obnoxious practice. Thanks, Trevor!

[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Briana Viser

It's September, and everyone knows what that means. It's the beginning of spooky season, pumpkin season, and cozy season. Wherever you fair better, in fear, in snuggles, or in orange, these cute and scrumptious orange cat memes are sure to get you in the spirit of the new season. Autumn is my favorite season because it brings new life to the barren heat of summer. New life can also resemble decay, in which you get falling leaves and browning of greenery. 

Pumpkin spice season is officially here, and what better way to celebrate than with orange cats who are basically the second best thing to your spiced pumpkin latte from your favorite local cafe? You put on your soft sweater for the first time this season, your cat hair all over it from last winter, and go outside to order your favorite flavored drink. Orange cats are not just cute, they're special for their unique color. Get yourself your pumpkin pie, latte, pasta, dessert, and anything else while you stroke your pretty orange cat and scroll through cat memes. 

sovay: (Rotwang)
[personal profile] sovay
Unless I lost track of one in the phone tree, I have just spent my afternoon calling five different doctor's offices, garnished with one bookstore and one library, and I would still like a refund on selected and considerable tracts of physical existence. In other news, while I have always had an inevitable affection for the mild-mannered character acting of Donald Meek, I have not seen him anywhere near recently enough to explain his appearance in last night's dreams, especially not the one with the used book store crumbling literally on the edge of some awful revelation. Over the last three days, I mainlined a rewatch of the first two seasons of Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–17) and just before bed had started re-reading Paul French's Midnight in Peking (2011), which in the years since I originally read and much later wrote about it has garnered at least one nonfiction rebuttal and more contextually interested explorations, because nothing engages the human instinct for rabbit holes like a cold murder case. No offense to Donald Meek, I'm not sure where he came in.

P.S. Stop the presses, Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson will be adapting Daniel Pinkwater's Lizard Music (1976)? They had better get the Surrealism.

Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in 36

Sep. 8th, 2025 04:41 pm
sylvanwitch: (The Surprise)
[personal profile] sylvanwitch
Greetings, fitness friends and welcome to another week!

I hope it's been a good one for you, full of opportunities to meet your personal goals, whatever those may be. As always, please do share with us your ups and downs, and don't be afraid to shift gears and change goals if you need to. We're here to listen, not to judge.

My Week in Review )

May the week ahead be better than the one you've left behind!
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Laurent Shinar

Look, we get it, being a feline pawrent and having to put up with people telling you to your face that your cat is not your biological child is tough. In fact, it is far worse than tough, it inspires blind fury, especially when there is no retort you can throw back into these peoples' faces. But now, with this list, you have a URL to throw in their face that will send their argument flying all over the place.

For you see, this collection of cute cat children wearing their beautiful baby onesies is great for two things. First, it shows that cats can be just like kids, even down to wearing the exact same clothing. And second, it gives buckets of legitimacy to dressing up your catto in whatever colorful ways you may see fit without worrying about the judgey eyes of society. So pour yourself another coffee and get ready shove those snotty remarks that Noreen keeps jabbing you with down her doggo obsessed throat.
 

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

Twisted Shadows by Allie Therin

Sep. 8th, 2025 09:29 pm
profiterole_reads: (X-Men - Xavier and Magneto)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Twisted Shadows by Allie Therin was a masterpiece! It's the sequel to Liar City, a story about an empath and a specialist investigating murders in a world where empaths are tracked down by several organisations.

The author has set up a complex tapestry of characters for a thrilling plot. I can't wait for the final tome.

If you're looking for some wonderful m/m slow-burn, the flirting has reached scorching temperatures!

Weekend happiness

Sep. 8th, 2025 08:21 pm
ruric: (Default)
[personal profile] ruric
Following a bit of a grey and wet start with an impending chill in the air we've had a few days of sunshine.

Saturday and Sunday were both warm and if not sunny throughout had bursts of sunshine and I was able to spend a chunk of time on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon down on the allotment.

Despite being somewhat neglected over summer there were courgettes to harvest (and a ton of windfall apples which I will be picking up and stewing tomorrow). I got a significant amount of clearing for winter started which made me feel productive. Something about gardening and allotment feeds my soul in a way that few things do.

I also had a bit of a B&Q spree and bought a load more bulbs for the remaining pots at home - which will be planted over the next couple of weeks because gosh darn it I am finally learning to pace myself in the last few days of my 61st year.

I have varnish/stain for the back door and paint for the gate/front door some of which I intend to apply tomorrow as I celebrate the start of my 62nd year riding this burning hunk of rock through space.
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Ayala Sorotsky

All cat people know - every cat deserves love, care, and a place to call home. Cats are such affectionate creatures, full of love just waiting to be given. And another thing every cat person knows, is that we're all here ready to recive that love from cats. It's a meowgical phenomenon, and if you're a cat person, you definitely know it. The magic of cats is their love, and they just want a home to give it in.

And cats know this themselves. How do we know it? Because cats make it very clear. Some feral strays are begging to be adopted, both because they know a loving home is the place to be, and because they know this is where they can give their cat meowgic to the hearty hoomans who adopted them.

One such new cat pawrent shared their story of their cat adoption - a strictly stray orange who was extremely hungry, ate whatever the kind person could give him, and decided: "This is a suitable place. I live here now." Such as he is. The entire online feline family shared their own stories of how street cats basically adopted them. Or, more accurately, adopted themselves into their homes. We're rooting for these brave cats adopting themselves.

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

When I sat down to write last night, I noticed that the last time I had left off working on this particular story, I had ended with a character brushing her teeth and going to bed. I knew that I had mentioned characters brushing their teeth before (enough that A. had commented on it), so I got curious as to just how much my characters brush their teeth. I searched all my story files for the word "teeth," then looked through those hits to see how many of them refer to brushing their teeth, as opposed to anything else characters might do with their teeth. I found 23 occurrences of characters brushing their teeth (gritting was a distant second tooth-related activity, with eight occurrences). Dividing my lifetime fiction production by this means that my characters brush their teeth, on average, every 63,000 words. I'm pretty sure this is high, but (obviously) I've never seen this statistic from another writer. It's a meaningless statistic, but since I could calculate it, I did. And then, having done so, I decided to share it with you. Have a great day!

Honestly, bloody technology

Sep. 8th, 2025 07:31 pm
oursin: Cartoon hedgehog going aaargh (Hedgehog goes aaargh)
[personal profile] oursin

Yesterday evening I was trying to print something out and printer status popup kept telling me that there was a paper jam.

No sign of actual paper jam when I pulled out the paper tray, also looked behind printer cartridge, etc etc.

Did a little light internet searching and discovered that Lo, 'Tis A Knowne Thingge, and here are several fiddly things you can do which might fix it.

By which time I thought I would leave it until the morrow.

So, on the morrow (today) I had Other Things To Do First, so I only got round to turning on the printer just to see what it would do just now.

Whereupon it spontaneously printed a scruffy and mangled page - WTF, had this been somehow lurking hidden and unseen? - and then presented itself as ready for duty.

And lo and behold, mirabile dictu, it has printed A Thing for me.

Just a moment while I go to the foot of our stairs.

Of course, whether this happy state of affairs will continue to pertain is in the lap of Hardy's Purblind Doomsters.

More compost

Sep. 8th, 2025 11:07 am
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
This morning my hot pile is back to being hot.  That is above 125F.  I'm not surprised.  I am a little surprised that the other pile, the one using failed compost + horse manure + ash has heated up nicely.  It was at a respectable 110F this morning.  I suspect that my guess about PH was correct as I don't think the amount of horse manure added would have had this dramatic an effect by itself. 
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Blake Seidel

Now that it's meowfficially September, the time for pumpkin spice everything has arrived. Actually, it arrived for us about two weeks ago, but we were too embarrassed by our desire for it that we waited until it was more "seasonally appropriate". It's just so calm and comforting, the smell of the cinnamon, the sweetness of the pumpkin, and of course, that rush of caffeine. 

But purrhaps you're not a fan of pumpkin spice (it's okay to be wrong, we accept you as you are), and in that case, we have something else for you to fill your Fall cup with: sugar, spice, and meowverything nice! And by that, we mean hissterical cat memes and tweets. They have the sweetness of a cat tempting you with the furbidden belly floof, the spiciness of a cat that has been fed 0.465 seconds late, and the purrfect cuteness that we know and love from our feline friends.

So you see, here at I Can Has Cheezburger, we like to cater to all needs. The only thing you need to love is cats, and if you've read this far into the article already, we're pretty sure that you're in the right place. Enjoy these sweet felines with an extra shot of floofiness!

Is your inbox feline too professional? Add some cats falling off counters. Subscribe here!

Pre-filming Ceremony: HQ(ish) Photos

Sep. 8th, 2025 07:12 pm
facethestrange: (zhubai: eyes)
[personal profile] facethestrange posting in [community profile] sid_guardian
I was collecting references for a drawing, and I ended up finding all 7 cast pictures from the pre-filming ceremony in HQ or nearly HQ (the smallest one is the group one). At least I think that's all of them - if there are more, I would love to know. :D

under the cut )

Queen Anne's lace

Sep. 8th, 2025 05:51 pm
lamentables: (Default)
[personal profile] lamentables
In response to [personal profile] shewhomust's question about my last post, here are a few more pictures of wild carrot (aka Queen Anne's lace). Wikipedia tells me that 'Queen Anne's lace' is North American usage, but it's the name I was taught as a child in the UK.

Queen Anne’s lace

The flowerhead (umbel) with many teeny white flowers and a single dark pink one at the centre. Not all the flowerheads have a pink one, and the internet tells me that the purpose of this flower is uncertain. But it's definitely not a male/female thing, as I had assumed.

Queen Anne’s lace

As the flowers turn to seeds, the umbels curl inwards, forming the 'sceptre' in my previous post.

Queen Anne’s lace

Queen Anne’s lace

The Spectre (1987) #10

Sep. 8th, 2025 05:25 pm
iamrman: (Sogeking)
[personal profile] iamrman posting in [community profile] scans_daily

Writer: Doug Moench

Pencils and inks: Gray Morrow


Millennium tie-in.

The Spectre is pulled into the fight against the Manhunters.


Read more... )

[syndicated profile] smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Friend of Wigner is actually private slang in physics, which means 'willing to talk about Quantum Foundations'


Today's News:

Oops! They Did It Again

Sep. 8th, 2025 01:00 pm
[syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

Will you guys ever get tired of seeing wedding missed marks? 'Cuz I'm thinking, "no."

Let's test that theory, shall we?

 

What the bride wanted:

What the bride got:

That'll buff out.

 

A lovely leaf motif:

And a lovely...oh good grief:

Actually, that leaf design is so popular I have two wedding wrecks based on it:

Whoah. This baker needs to make like a tree, and get out of tree decorations.

(Hm. I feel like that line didn't go quite right. Maybe I should follow it up with something clever.)

So.

YEAH.

(Theeere we go.)

This next one's in reverse order; here's what Anthony L's bakery replaced another bakery's initial wreck with, and with only an hour and a half to do so before the wedding started:

Not bad for less than two hours' work, right?

 

Especially when you compare what the original cake (again, from another bakery) looked like:

Am I the only one who thinks this looks like Play-Doh? I keep expecting it to spring to life, claymation style. And then maybe turn into a giant demon dog and terrorize a nerdy New York accountant.

Just me?

 

Here's a fun, modern pattern:

Aaaaand the fun stops HERE:

It's never a good sign when your cake is crying.

 

Goodness gracious, great balls on wires!

Seriously. They're like shiny little bubbles of joy - totally cute.

 

These, on the other hand, are just...

...balls.

 

Thanks to Krista V., Emily B., Allison I., Anthony L., Tempest J., & Sarah B. for feeding our horrible wedding wreck obsession.

*****

P.S. In case your life was missing a set of cat butt magnets, I found you some:

Cat Butt Magnets

There's also a set for dogs.

You're welcome.


:D

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

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