So Tired

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Mostly I’ve done not much of anything since death march with mowers. Okay. It was a very bad death march, but still.

Honestly, I think I’m coming down with something, judging by slight temperature, general nausea and my voice going weird. Nothing serious, but–

It makes me react very weirdly to things. Okay, that might also have to do — all of it might — with stopping Prednisone without a taper.

This afternoon I decided I was losing my temper at people unwarrantedly, then my fans/friends went and looked at the arguments and…

There was the guy who thought science fiction should be no more than 10 years in the future and have all the science. All the science. Super-accurate science. No more than 10 years in the future.

That’s not science fiction. That’s near-future techno thrillers. Younger son will probably end up writing these (after series he’s working on with me.) And they’re completely valid, and I’ve enjoyed some of them. They are not, however all of science fiction. Leave my space opera alone. I bite.

The other ones who came in talking about how the US is too free and this invites communism turned out to be for real Nazis who think fascism is the answer to communism. (I blocked so many people. Yes, they think they won the argument. I think I need to wash just communicating with that type of stupidity over the net.)

He also at one point assumed I am pro abortion on demand and for only fans (somehow) because woman. (Also he thought that Nazis were more moral than communists. Don’t get me started.) Only fans — meh. The porn we’ll always have with us. Porn and cat pictures. I have a high interest in cat pictures (real felines. I don’t even demand they be pets. Big cats are fine.) I don’t look at it. My friends either don’t or don’t talk to me about it. Do I think it’s damaging, etc? Sure. And if I can, if my opinion is asked, I’ll tell people it’s bad for them. But I’m not the boss of the vast majority of people. And I know flat out making that stuff illegal simply doesn’t work.

As for abortion, I think everyone here knows my opinions.

But this touches on something I’ve seen far too often, and when I wrote about not making me a scapegoat, I meant it indeed.

Look, guys, men and women are different. Pretty much from the womb. But there’s a spectrum. And us Odds are, I swear Odd first. We tend to be more “logical” than not.

Yes, I’m sick and tired of people who assume because I was born with a vagina they know my politics. I hate them on the left, where they call me a gender traitor, as though I’d sworn allegiance to the vagina. And I hate it on the right where they assume I’ll do all this stuff and support all this stuff because “of course female.” Including the idiots who say that I might not support all those things that are supposedly women’s preference, but I’ll “betray” it when it gives advantage to women.

I have to assume all the idiots making those mouth noises were born by fission and are single. In fact, they never had a relationship with another human being. Because me? Where I stand I’m the daughter of a man, the sister of a man, married to a man and the mother of two men. And if you guys think that doesn’t matter, you’re as crazy as those people.

Seriously. People aren’t just themselves alone. They are a network of people, and that means they live with other people.

Also, let’s get rid of “I don’t read women, because–” Unless what follows is “they mostly don’t write what I read” you’re being an ass.

Look, as a woman, I admit there is a higher bar these days towards reading women (Or literary fiction. More on that later) because I expect to be sucker punched. I expect at some point there will be a rant against men, or having children, or capitalism or– I even know at least for trad pub women that most of these rants are demanded by the editor. But dear Lord, you get invested in a character, you follow the character and then… smack. Same for literary fic, where they seem to think nothing is as “literary” as making everyone evil and hateful.

But I give women (and some, though rare, and mostly classical) literary a chance.) And if it’s someone I know from twitter say, I really give them a chance.

The other thing is: Can we talk about the fact that not everything women write is romance? My books in general don’t have more romance than say Heinlein books. No, seriously. And I don’t even mean his later books. More like… oh, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

There are some that have more romance, yes, but they are either novelizations of real people’s lives (I challenge you to make Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII interesting without ascribing her some totally improbable romance tot he guy who imported sonnets (as a form of poetry) into English (as I figured he deserved it.)) or the stuff my assistant is currently editing (clearing the stupid stuff the house put in.) Though when I told her those were Romances, she looked at me like I’d lost my mind and told me no, they’re adventure, history and cultural clash, with a little personal attraction thrown in. So, there you have it.

On the serious side, sure, I have more motivation from personal attraction than…. oh, mil sf. (Unless it was Prince Roger.) Or children’s picture books. Usually people in my books are doing things for other people: friends, lovers, children, spouses. Because… well, most people only become heroes in extremes and that’s one way to get the character to move. But my stuff is no more romance than Heinlein’s late stuff was “porn”. When people say that, I always wonder if they’ve read any contemporary romance or mystery (published by the big houses.) Both are likely to contain more explicit sex than anything Heinlein wrote. (And way more than I did.)

Anyway, you see, I’ve been getting a bit cranky. And yeah, it’s probably the prednisone cut-off. I normally just ignore the glaring stupid. And the mildly annoying.

I’m really hoping to finish an installment of Witch’s Daughter tomorrow and to — finally — send section two of NML to the copy editor (I need to implement a couple clean ups my editors suggested first.) And typeset section one, which is back from the copyeditor, so that the paper will also be on pre-order. And I suppose I should investigate Barnes and Noble and the other places. And set things up there.

Anyway, if I snap at you, it’s partly because I swear I’ve been besieged by strange idiocy and infuriating coincidences (including but not limited to the fact the lawn guy showed up after the lawn was done. Yes, he had good reasons, but still… Argh) and the fact I’m just touchy. I’ll try to be less touchy. I don’t like ME when I’m touchy.

In more amusing news: I know I have a mutant cat who can taste sugar. Indy keeps finding ways of breaking into or getting to things that are sweet. I suspected this since the first time I found him face deep in the sugar bowl omnoming away, but now I’ve secured that stuff where he can’t get to it, he’s resorted to stuff like…. licking the bowl where we had the grapes, because there’s some sweet stickiness left behind.

I guess he fits in with all geeks. No. I’m not giving him mountain dew. Geesh. Cats don’t do well on caffeine.

Also I found the Paul French book, then lost it again. I know, I know. “I sense some resistance” … I guess.

This too shall pass. On the good side, there are a bunch of things I’m doing more competently — or at all — than I was when we moved three years ago. Including the death march with mowers. When I tried to mow before, the asthma attack almost killed me. This time, there were only peripheral allergies. I’m also managing doctors’ appointments (the making of) and such much better than I was. So, there’s hope. I guess altitude was seriously messing me up.

Oh, yes, if you sent a check to the fundraiser, we might not cash till labor day. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but we don’t have a bank closer to us than two hours and hate doing banking on the phone. We will try to make it before that, but it depends on Dan’s schedule. Again I’m sorry. I know it’s a massive inconvenience, and we’ll try to make it sooner. But it is what it is. Dan just had it forwarded, since the last one came in on the 31st. (Not sure why.)

Anyway, I leave you with the inevitable cat picture.

That’s Dan’s and my legs under the fuzzy blanket. Circe is on me, Muse is on him. Indy is squarely between us (weirdly not demanding we hold his paws) and Havey is also kind of in between us. We were, needless to say, watching a British mystery. (A not bad one, though also not great. Is it me or have British mysteries turned into shows about emotional disregulation with everyone from policemen to suspects going on rants and throwing punches? It didn’t use to be that way and frankly? it just looks stupid. So I end up doing other stuff while watching, or I make too many tart comments.)

And now I’m going to feed the bosses and go to bed. The cat food timed dispenser stopped working and if I leave it too late, they open it and carpet the living room in cat food. I thought it was Indy, but no, it’s Circe, his sister. (I yelled at her when I caught her doing it, and she went and got Indy, apparently under the impression I wouldn’t yell at her big brother. She was wrong.)

I’ll try to be more productive tomorrow.

142 thoughts on “So Tired”

  1. Indy and Circe are somehow appropriate for a science fiction author. Are you sure they don’t have some Alien Cat in their genes?

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    1. NOT AT ALL actually. They seem like very odd cats and all their relatives which are spread out in my fandom are just as odd. Including the newest generation which are their nephews and niece.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I thought it was Indy, but no, it’s Circe, his sister.

    You need to offer this to your idjits as proof girls also do engineering. 😸😸😁

    Liked by 4 people

  4. Stopping prednisone without a taper can cause a relative adrenal insufficiency crisis whose symptoms can include all you mention including low grade fever.

    Including, er, death.

    tsk tsk tsk

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I should have asked for a taper. I forgot this doctor doesn’t know me and how I tried to die when stopping pred without a taper before. Most doctors think they don’t need a taper for a short course, but–

      Liked by 1 person

      1. [sigh]

        ”most doctors…”

        I keep a 4 inch binder of medical records I take to any visit but also keep an updated 2-3 page History in large enough font they can read and hand it to aide when they check me in, telling them “I’ll answer any questions AFTER you’ve read this”. Most practices tolerate me despite this intrusion into their routine as they either know me well or appreciate the info after they read it. I do try to follow the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version style book.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I take Dan as my independent mobile brain. BUT he didn’t come with me to that appointment, so I forgot to tell doc.
          AND yeah. It put me in the hospital before, stopping pred without a taper.

          Liked by 1 person

        1. you know, there’s nothing to stop one from cutting pills in halves and quarters to make your own rapid taper other than crumbly tabs and bitter taste…

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    1. You no doubt know that cold turkey for steroids is hard. You might consider trying DMSO by mouth to see if it helps various issues, probably with a teaspoon in 6 or 8 ounces of water twice a day working up to a larger dose. I take 1 tablespoon (15 mls) twice a day and it helps with generalized pain and, unexpectedly, improved my vision which it turns out is a thing that it does. Who knew? Make sure you get really pure DMSO if you venture on this path.
    2. Cats can become diabetic, like dogs. We had a cat that liked watermelon, pancakes, and tortilla chips.
    3. Romances aren’t just or even originally bodice-rippers. They were in fact imaginative and poetical adventures. It’s nice to know someone besides me understands what the word really means.
    4. I could not agree with you more abut people assuming that certain characteristics mean you MUST hold certain opinions. Like you I’m not a fan of porn, soft or hard. I’ve watched it in the past (and read some) and after the first dozen or so films it becomes boring. I’m not pro-choice though I very reluctantly understand that prohibiting abortion altogether is not realistic at this time. It must be just as annoying to conservative blacks, hispanics and others for people to assume they must hold certain political positions because their skin is darker than that of others.
    5. I never bought a book (or not bought a book) based on the sex of the author. I go based either on word-of-mouth or reviews, or a description of the contents. There are great women authors, especially in mystery writing.

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  6. There’s a fun sort of “I don’t read women” troll argument, that involves trying to pretend that after all of this time, I am still so delusional or oblivious that I think Sarah Hoyt is a man, despite the extensive talk of specific medical complications while she bore her sons to term. Yuup, yuup, yuup, I have only ever read the manliest of men, if we can assume that I have approximately the reading comprehension of a rock, or that I am a very special grade of paranoid and delusional.

    I’m not saying that I am not paranoid, or that I am not delusional. I’m clearly a bit paranoid. The delusional is maybe open to interpretation or at least to debate between reasonable men.

    What I am saying, is that it would probably go beyond what is commonly understood about my judgement to suppose that I am perceiving the world that way. (I may over or underestimate the level of flaws that people see in my thinking. I have different information about my thinking. My feeling about that is still very swingy, because it depends a bit on the self awareness I have in my working memory, and also on my emotional state. )

    I do have some guesses about whether the most recent thing, if I can remember, is written by a man or by a woman. My fiction reading seems to prioritize authors I have some experience with, and in some cases I have either enough outside information to guess from, or I can research some semi-reliable evidence.

    I can sorta understand the thought that NSDAP and the Italian fascist party are the only sorts of politics that can do the magic of saving us from communism. From my perspective, that is a mistake that classifies someone as being much too rooted in actual communism. My basic view is that Jesus is the answer.

    I apparently have fringe views within Christianity about the end times. My view is that ‘like a thief in the night’ means that a lot of the specific models are not questions necessary to answer. If one has the resolve or conviction to stick to Christ to the end, to any of the possible ends, it does not matter.

    If the communists take over the world, and murder all of the Christians, that is a win for me even if they are successful in murdering me, as long as I do not abandon Christ. Bending to other humans to avoid the consequences of them being unhappy is always a loss, if I really know that they will be murdery. They violate whatever expectation in the first place, by being unconditionally murdery, and offering me a false choice of an out, and I should expect them to not deliver on not murdering me, or not torturing me. But, maybe it does not matter if it is Catharists taking over the world, or Anabaptists, or Pastafarians.

    It is basically an ensemble forecast, that would be deterministic perhaps if knowing the innermost hearts of every human. Humans do not have that knowledge.

    Christians can maybe through the holy spirit have some additional knowledge about whether other Christians are true Christians. Fruits.

    The end times message, I interpret as a warning about a level of discernment needed. There are two cases, that may initially seem like they overlap. One is where there is still a critical mass of true Christians around, that one could live in fellowship with, and should. Peace can still hold with them, but maybe not with those outside, which is a different set of questions. The second is the case where peace has failed, there are few true Christians left, and there is a lot of false church and false christians, teaching untrue things.

    Two different cases, two different categories of errors from trying too hard to avoid the other category by blind rote.

    I am definitely in error myself, because of trying too hard to follow my own understnadings too blindly, for so much of my life.

    Anyway, thinking that the mass magic of politics is strictly necessary to deal with the political problems of living in this world is a msitake. Christians are meant to use their reason and make an effort to do some things in this world, but we are not meant to assume by blidn rote that we must be successful at anything by the world’s standards. I tend to think that a lot of people are too slow to cut their losses, but also there is strong evidence of logs in my eye, and that I am pretty prone to depression, and some of the ‘slothful’ failure modes.

    Anyhow, conventional political thinking almost always has some magical thinking somewhere that it rests too much emotional weight on.

    As for near future techno-thrillers, yes. But maybe also especially autistic hard science fiction.

    I don’t object to those sub genres, and may even attempt at times to write them myself. However, I very definitely do not force myself to only consider reading or writing those. I am quite open to writing rubbery and soft science fiction, or other genres, where I am deliberately relaxing assumptions of rigor.

    There’s a joke also about planning documents being inherently fiction. My planning about technology cannot be entirely realistic very far into the future.

    Sometimes I wake up optimistic, and also over estimate what I might accomplish that day.

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    1. I’m not renouncing Jesus. Doesn’t matter if some government is going to throw me in a reeducation camp, or I’m going to be beheaded by some crazy jihadi. While I was raised, confirmed, and think of myself as a Catholic, my loyalty and obedience to the church hierarchy is pretty much non-existent. In my opinion, the Catholic Church as a world-body long ago succumbed to the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

      And just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. If paranoia keeps you aware of your surroundings, and making sure your ccw is on your person, then you’re already a step ahead of everyone else.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. To me, porn is pretty much like smoking, drinking, and eating too much. Anything in excess is pretty much bad for you. In moderation, or in subclinical doses, even poisons and toxins may produce greater benefits than detriments. As long as men and women are participating of their own volition, and aren’t actively hurting anyone else, if they want to take, post, and view pictures of each other, I’ve got no beef with them.

    ” as though I’d sworn allegiance to the vagina. ” I have to admit I laughed my ass off when I read that. Such a good turn of phrase.

    I’ve never bought (or not bought) a book based on the perceived sex of the author. Number one, pseudonyms. Unless you’ve read the bio of the author, most of the time the first of their books you’ll never know if they are a man, woman, cockroach, or some multiple-eyed, tentacled monstrosity from deep space or some other dimension. And I’d sit with both angels and demons to listen to a good story.

    My little fuzz ball is curled up in her bed at my feet at the moment. Hope she soon catches that mouse she let loose in the den here last night; so, I don’t mind her resting up for that. I know they say cats don’t have sweet receptors, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t tasting something else. And taste is more than just the receptors. Thermal properties, smell, and texture, and breakdown products need to be accounted for too.

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    1. Again, if my friends hit onlyfans, they don’t tell me about it, and they seem to have it under control. Given most of them are happily married I don’t think they do but IT’S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. I don’t ask my female friends if they read “hot” romance either. None of my business. If they ask for advice and help, then I will.

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      1. I know at least a couple of the folks do, and at least one is a lady, because we chatted about the lady who did a “Victorian OnlyFans” (I don’t know if that was the actual title or just how they described it to fashion-dumb me) account as clothing show-off, and showed her ankles for the intro-page or something similar.

        And the one that is… custom made fans. Like, painted hand fans.

        Liked by 1 person

    4. “Porn,” to me, is where the consummation of sexual relationship(s) is the central theme around which all else revolves. I have no handy examples of those.

      “Romance” is where the seeking of sexual relationship(s) is the central theme around which all else revolves. (I’m not getting in the argument about whether or not HEAF is an absolute requirement for the genre.) My examples on the bookshelf would be McCaffrey’s “Restoree” or a couple of LMBs novels.

      “Main line,” of whatever genre, is where neither consummation nor seeking is the central theme. Action, adventure, mystery, whatever are the theme; but the characters do have a healthy attraction to those they find sexually interesting, maybe to one specific individual or individuals. Consummation is optional. Sarah’s works largely fall into this categorization. (This does assume that the world build does have multiple characters, though. A few do not, but making a singleton character with no interaction interesting is a rather difficult job.)

      The last alternative, “asexual,” well – that is either a children’s book (as they should be), or is extremely boring to me. I do have things like the Oz books for the first – but none of the latter. Boring books get sent back into the wilderness from whence they came.

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  8. It’s very tiring to be surrounded by idiots.

    It makes this dragon decide to hide in his cave to avoid killing the idiots. 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

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  9. Rest up and take care of yourself, my heart when I read this because something about the wording reminded me of Jerry Pournelle’s last post. (Also, two only moderately old neighbors of my parents passed away recently with no warning so may be paranoid right now).

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I am opinionated to the point, either that or finally old enough to know I haven’t really got a fucking clue, that I am slowly learning to think first, meds cause anger, I hate what prednisone does to me, I decline it now. I don’t need steroids to be an angry old man, got that covered thank you. I am trying to adjust my meds, so I hide mostly now. Good luck and write on. ( yes that was a pun from the sixties, Right on!) Has any one seen what channel Laugh In is streaming on?

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Not read female authors? Pffftttt!

    After Heinlein, one of my favorite (early teenage) authors was Andre Norton. Then there is/was Ursula K, and Marian Z Bradley.

    And just recently I read “The Best Way To Bury Your Husband” by Alexia Casale (female, natch).

    So….don’t tell me I don’t read female authors.

    I challenge you to a dual at twenty paces.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Oh My, Indy is a BIG boy! Seriously I think he would rival our monster cat Mack (Sunday Sunday Sunday Monster Cats!!!). If anything I think Indy is a bit longer/taller than Mack was. I don’t know if it’s just that cat nutrition (I mean kitten food is like growth fuel, combined with early neutering you get HUGE and not just fat males) and cat veterinary are so much better. Or is this classic selection caused by domestication, with them getting larger and more suitable for human companionship?

    Beats me, darn it Jim I’m a retired software engineer not a feline geneticist. Add it with the brain power (and it sounds like Indy is genius level cat) and it is a little scary as cats have lots of natural curiosity. The size increase also means a bit more brainthan the Mk I felis domesticus. That curiosity was useful for a predator (what’s under here? oh look a nice tasty lizard!!!). Are we unintentionally uplifting cats?

    That said I look forward to our Felis sapiens masters, they’ll probably treat us better than the Democrats would…as long as we keep the crunchies coming.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. From what I’ve heard, domestic cats are getting smaller. Makes sense, I think, because pressure in the wild would favor bigger bodies for retaining body heat in cold temperatures and for catching bigger prey, as well as outcompeting other males for access to receptive females, and those pressures mostly don’t exist when they’ve got a mutual support relationship with humans (who also, these days, tend to remove the ability to reproduce). But that’s just what I’ve heard…not even sure where I heard it, so grain of salt and all that.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Such people have obviously never met Othercat. Big paws, stocky body, weighed in at 32 fuzzy pounds last I checked. Big boi monstercat. Definitely maine coon and Himself knows what else. House cat? More like big-as-a-house cat. Big as at least two of the orange fuzzmonster, and Doofus is not a small boi.

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        1. Yowza, I know Maine Coons can get large (saw a 25 lb Orange whole tom at a show, He was gorgeous but a bit daunting). At 32 pounds you’re well into bobcat terrain. I love cats, but as I say they are probably the most hard wired critter that makes a decent pet. Put something like that into fight or flight mode and you may be the one that has to flee…

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          2. Othercat is a big lapcat when he wants to be. Good with kids, but a holy terror when he hunts. Never claws people or nibbles on them. He was a stray when I found him years ago, much smaller but still big for his age. Doesn’t quite have the bobcat ears, but looks bigger than he is because of the massive amount of floof he carries.

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          3. Our Little Boy is part Maine Coon, we think; his mother was pretty good-sized and looked the part, as did all his siblings. He was second-smallest in the litter and weighs about 14 pounds now; another one of those bricks of muscle in a fur coat. His biggest littermates were almost twice his size as kittens and looked even more Maine Coony than he did. (He has less of that look the older he gets.) I really wish I knew who adopted them, because I’d love to see if they’re as monstrous as we’d expect.

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      3. Mind you my data is NOT trustworthy consisting of 10-12 cats from the 90’s on and 20+ semi-ferals in the 60’s and 70s. But I remember only one cat frm my youth (a gnarly old tom we called Tigger) that exceeded 15 lbs (he was 17 lbs weighed by difference, I brought the bathroom scale out to measure as an 8 year old scientist). The ladies were tiny 8 lbs would be a big one and most of the males were under 12 lbs closer to 10. None of the 9 neutered male house cats we’ve had were under 12 lbs at fighting trim (Neutered males run to Chonky so they tend to get more spherical as they age) and at least 3 were solidly over 15lbs with Mack as the outlier at 19. The semi-ferals were free fed Purina Cat chow. Most of our house cats (all of whom were/are random bred) started out on kitten food and ate a mix of decent quality wet and dry cat food.

        I could see smaller being selected for. Cats have a head size and body weight similar to those of human infants. Their cries to some degree mimic the pitches of human children. So, hitting that sweet spot might give you a reproductive advantage.

        Cats were so little studied until the 80’s that I suspect establishing a baseline is rather difficult. With them rivalling (and exceeding in some cases) dogs in popularity for pets, the veterinary types are paying them far more attention these days.

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        1. Portuguese cats top at 6 lbs. Now this might be lack of cat-aimed food. But they’re mostly semi-feral and tiny.
          Every time I see a cat there I think they’re kittens.

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        2. The largest of our cats is Turtle, the male who was neutered at 5 months old — he’s now 17 months old and just short of 15 lbs. Chunky but still pretty energetic. Next biggest cat is Ginger (female, spayed at 8 mos old) at 11 lbs 5 ozs, then Callie (female, spayed at 6 mos) at 11 lbs even, Saraya (mama, spayed 2 mos after she had this litter) at 9 lbs 10 ozs, finally Tabby (female, spayed at 7 mos.) at 9 lbs.

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      4. We’ve had both, smaller cats running 6# – 8#’s, and larger cats pushing 15#s+ and they were solid muscled cats, not excessively fluffy. (Okay, the long hair monster cats were fluffy because they had long hair.) All our current cats are heavier 12#s+. Not a main coon in the bunch. (That we know of. Most were tiny strays when we took them in.)

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      6. Re wild cats getting larger: It depends on any open ecological niches. The Eastern U.S. population of coyotes is getting larger, to some extent from interbreeding with domestic dogs, but the thought is the niche where wolves used to exist is open, so the animals that used to be wolves prey are an abundant resource, and larger coyotes are more able to take some of those down, so they are more successful reproducing. Weird east coast hunting restrictions could be contributing as well (I think the article I read was New Jersey).

        Not sure what open niche or abundant slightly larger prey could be encouraging feral cats larger. Out here they don’t seem to be out of the domestic cat size range.

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          1. Though I have seen not huge cats toting home full grown squirrel kills, I think a lot of cats could have issues with some of the rats I have seen out here. There’s a reason rat terriers were bred.

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        3. Some speculation that the bigger coyotes are wolf/coyote hybrid too. Loan wolf will mate with coyotes. Where packs will go out of their way to kill coyotes.

          The only species that declined in Yellowstone/Teton ecosystems after reintroduction of wolves were the coyotes. Because the wolves reduced the population until a better balance was reached. The smaller canines, and other meat eaters, like fox, badgers, bobcat, even cougars, and bears, all have benefited from wolves in the ecosystem. Smaller ones because the coyotes were competing in their niche. Bears because they can take over a kill, and have more left over lost kills (elk, deer, etc., that “got away” but didn’t ultimately survive the pursuit). Cougars? IDK what that speculation was.

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  14. Look, can we just get a ruling from the officials in the replay booth that all flavors of the fascistii and all flavors of the communists are the same picture?

    Just because one set fought the other set last century does not make them different – monarchists countries fought each other in part I of the World War, and nobody is insisting that the British and Russian flavors are uniquely and totally different than the German and Austro-Hungarian flavors in any fundamental aspect. Sure, each had different characteristics, but all had a monarch, sho had power.

    Being nationalist-socialists and internationalist-socialists is very much a sprinkles-or-not question. The ice cream is still the same centrally-planned death flavor.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Just because one set fought the other set last century does not make them different –

      Gangs fighting over turf: Bloods vs Crips, MS-13 vs TdA, etc.

      Liked by 2 people

          2. On the kerfuffle yesterday, I’ll just say after one of them jumped from someone yelling at him to “this person must be Jewish” I’ll just say Oblensk Nazis (pretending to be American) are worse than Illinois Nazis.

            Liked by 2 people

            1. Does this stuff feel official enough that we need a new Rooskie Mir screening phrase, like the ones for Winnie the Xi, to tell them to repeat without quotation marks?

              I mean, there are still a fair number of high elevation windows in Moscow, and screening for defenestration risk might be elucidating…

              Liked by 1 person

                2. Lots and lots are creatively obscene (there’s one established insult that translates as “May a (male reproductive organ) grow out of (your, his, Putin’s) forehead”), many are scatological (“May children poop in (your, his, Putin’s) soup”), and they go on and on.

                  No clue yet on whether any of these are insubordinate enough to get an FSB troll in trouble.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  2. My local G&S group is putting on a version of The Mikado that is set in Transylvania and substitutes one Vlad Dracul for the Mikado. There’s a part in the Act I finale where the chorus is shouting rudely to cover up someone’s attempt to reveal something they don’t want revealed.

                    They actually got a Romanian to give them a nine-syllable insult, listed on the supertitle as “Vulgar Romanian insult.” Apparently, the translation is something like “go stare at a stallion d*k.”

                    Liked by 2 people

                  3. Look up Alexander Solzhinitzin’s (?) Russian Prison Camp Speech. My college roommate majored in Russian and said it was basically a dictionary of profanity.

                    This is why I can say, ” incestuous son of a female dog,” in Russian.

                    Liked by 2 people

  15. Kitties!

    And yes, it’s just been that kind of a week. (How did I get a screw in the tire sidewall, how… sigh.)

    …That last actually has an odd if expensive upside. I now know I have to replace the rest of the tires ASAP. Something that got lost in the shuffle because right when I should have replaced them – well. Family death. And then relative shenanigans. Lot of things got lost in the shuffle. Sigh.

    Liked by 3 people

  16. I assume (or at least strongly hope) that you are referring to the Isaac Asimov/Paul French book. I’d have fears for the state of the nearest wall if it really were a book by David French. [VBEG]

    OTOH, I recall David Starr, Space Ranger. Sorry walls.

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  17. Re cats/ caffeine: we have ONE cat (out of four) who likes coffee. With cream, of course. I allow her ONE drop of coffee-with-cream-and-vanilla in the mornings and she has now accepted this and quit trying to dive into my cup.

    Perhaps sugar-cat could be allowed ONE DROP of the yummy soda beverage.

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          1. FYI. We have two new water fountains (can’t get filters for the in bowl ones and they don’t work without filters). Steel bowl and lid. But lid just “sits” on top with pump slot. Pump is slotted and locked to the lid. But lid is not locked to the bowl. Which means, highly likely engineering cat Indy and apprentice would not have any problem taking it apart. Bonus pump will run without being plugged in unless want it running 100% of the time (which turns out, I do). OTOH the chord is thicker than most, even USB. Pump a lot quieter than the tower version.

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            1. Yeah, we used to have those. They took them apart and lined the pieces by type.
              also when the downstairs one was out of water, Indie tried to fit it with the spout of the upstairs one. WHY? I don’t know. I think he thought that would fix it.

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    3. I had one cat that I had to rinse out my Bailey’s Cream mug immediately, or she would be nose down in it to lick out the last bit of it. At least I don’t think she was an incipient alcoholic, though – never got into the wine or bourbon glasses.

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  18. Don’t care about the sex of the author. I want a good book to entertain me or inform me depending on the genre. (I read 95% non-fiction.)

    Same standards apply to entertainment of other types, with the exception of the creators that virtue signal their insane politics.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “….creators that virtue signal their insane politics.”

      Then that’s probably not entertaining.

      Informing? Most likely, but not in a positive uplifting educational way.

      Like

  19. We had a thunderstorm rumble through the other night with some pretty heavy rain, which resulted in one of the window wells filling up with water again (it flows in underground, not over the top) and coming through the window frame. After half an hour of using the shopvac to clear it out, and the carpet shampooer to suck up the water in the carpet, we’re dry again. I recaulked around the window frame, and caulked the window shut, and stuck a ground pump in the well so that next time we get a hard rain I can just plug it in to clear the water. But along the way I appear to have caught a head cold, which is making my voice hoarse. And my wife is upset with me, for reasons.

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      2. I am female, so obviously pro-abortion and pro-only-fans.Dear Lord. It makes my head hurt.

        The kind of people who think this want to steal and/or destroy female super powers.

        Trans “women” are so jealous of our powers and feminine wiles they attempt to become us by resorting to becoming super villains, hence the outrageous get-ups they don.

        They even purchase infants gestated by actual women in an effort to throw the unwary off the scent and pretend to be families. (And other nefarious reasons I prefer not to speculate about)

        If they can convince true women to murder their infants and use their wiles, not to create families but to destroy family happiness, they win. And they don’t even have to destroy the planet with a death star.

        If you ever wondered how the Aztecs managed to pry so many babies away from their distraught mom’s for sacrificial purposes, wonder no more.

        With the right propagand you will, in a generation, have mom’s begging for the opportunity to sacrifice their children and grandchildren.

        Ask Margaret Sanger. No doubt she would be thrilled to know that the expected default state of a female’s mind is pro-child sacrifice and that women should be proud to be mere playthings.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Apparently, there was a trans “woman” who wished that “she” could get pregnant so that “she” could get an abortion. [What The Heck]

          Liked by 1 person

          1. He wanted to be the first transwoman to have an abortion and wanted a uterus implant for that.

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            1. Yep.

              I can honestly say that I understand a trans “woman” wanting to be able to have a baby but I’m “WTH” about a trans “woman” wanting to be the first trans “woman” to get an abortion.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. Anything to be In With the In Crowd.

                Notice how the pro-abortion crowd never actually supports a woman choosing to give birth, merely reluctantly admits it happens.

                Liked by 1 person

      3. doesn’t polling put abortion support more or less underwater for women not fitting into AWFUL or “inner city” demographics?

        Liked by 1 person

        2. What I’ve heard is that it depends on a variety of factors like when it happens, and the amount of enthusiasm that the woman in question has for the practice. The later the abortion takes place, the less likely anyone (man or woman) is to support it. And there’s a lot more support for, “Well, I guess I could let *other* women do it,” than there is for “Abortion is great!”

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          1. The surveys also tend to define abortion in creative ways. (always check the definitions)

            Such as any medical treatment that could result in harm to the unborn child.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. I mean, I don’t care what people do with their private time (And sufficient baby oil) and I certainly don’t think it’s the end of civilization, but I’m also certainly not FOR onlyfans.
      As for abortion, what part of “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was opaque. Without life, you can’t do the other two.

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  21. Ok, I have been thinking about this. Nazis are just Commies with extra stupidity added on. They take the same central control of everything and worship of the state model, add a veneer of private property (you own the factory, but the government sets your production goals, your methods, your wages, your working conditions, etc) and racial silliness on top.

    All the stupidities involved with the Commies, and even more to boot.

    so these idiots are arguing that the cure for “dumb and evil” is “dumber and evil”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. It’s not like the Russians Commies had any overwhelming like for those Jews before 1949, and after Israel’s existence started generating a pull on educated and technically adept Soviet Jewish folks to emigrate, being Jewish in the workers paradise became even more of a problem.

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    2. The one thing that might make fascists better than communists is that they’re much less likely to cause famines (at least, if they have starved their own people to death, I haven’t heard of it), whereas communism *always* causes mass starvation. And that is literally the best thing I can say about either of those totalitarian nightmares. As an American, I have only one answer to the “pick one” ultimatum: NO. Delivered with a bullet if necessary.

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        1. China’s a bit of a mixed case because they’re fascist, but officially communist. And it’s forbidden to suggest that Mao was less than 70% (I think that’s the number) right. So there’s always a push to revert back toward Mao, and away from the changes introduced by Deng.

          Supposedly Xi has been making moves in that direction, though I’m not sure how far he’s gotten.

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            1. Under fascism, the control of businesses is indirect. This can lead to the attention of the bureaucrats wandering elsewhere, and ignoring your business for a time (though they will eventually start to scrutinize you again).

              Under communism, owning the businesses is literally the point. So no such luck.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Nope. German bureaucracies and Soviet bureaucracies attention both wandered around based on whim. Doing experimentation that tangled up critical production would get one arrested in both, but there were locally-directed development efforts and competition between various organizations in both system, with the various engineering development not under close control of the Party.

                In both instances the state is in charge, whether they let business operators run free a bit within the old structures of ownership and boards of directors and such, or keep them on tight reins as directly controlled state run concerns.

                Plus you really can’t make definitive structural conclusions using wartime expedience decisions. I’ve read firsthand accounts of Hitler explaining to underlings how he was planning on rounds of nationalization of German businesses after he won the war, in line with his socialist ideals, but centered on his German nationalism. He just had zero truck with the international socialism centered in Moscow.

                Those Germans were not lying when they called themselves the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Worker’s Party).

                Liked by 1 person

                1. ?

                  Under communism, the government owns the business. That’s literally part of the textbook definition of it. Under fascism, you technically own your business, but the government tells you how to run it.

                  It ultimately didn’t matter if the Soviet bureaucrats let their attention wander. You were at best a manager of a business that they held legal title to.

                  Under fascism, you still hold legal title. When the bureaucrats get distracted by the latest “Oh! Shiny!”, you might be able to exercise a little bit of initiative until their attention wanders back to your business.

                  Consider a collective farm (communism) versus a farm you own where the government tells you what to grow (fascism). Under the former, the government owns everything. Whether the farm succeeds or fails is ultimately irrelevant to you because it’s all the same result to you personally. Under the latter, if you do particularly well you might be able to keep some profit for yourself once you’ve delivered your quota to the government.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. Under the latter, if you do particularly well you might be able to keep some profit for yourself once you’ve delivered your quota to the government.

                    Which is a pretty good description of the US since the 16th Amendment, ain’t it?

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                  2. So you are saying an avowed socialist dictatorship with central control of the economy and the legal system and secret police arbitrarily arresting people and sending them to death camps where a person can still hold nominal title to property is totes different than an avowed socialist dictatorship with central control of the economy and the legal system and secret police arbitrarily arresting people and sending them to death camps where title is seized by the state.

                    Gotcha.

                    Liked by 1 person

  23. But are you tired of the winning?

    What they are not saying, is that this is potentially another major funding hit to Democrats. Cartels may have been a major remaining sponsor of the American left.

    Forex, how many of you think Beto O’Rourke was popular enough with Texans to have funding from internal sources?

    It has been speculated that some of the lavishly funded and big losing political campaigns have effectively been laundering from criminal organizations. If you buy a bunch of office furnishing news, and resell it later, the money from the sales can be collected by corrupt insiders.

    https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/08/08/new-trump-authorizes-military-action-against-the-drug-cartels-n2192604

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Forex, how many of you think Beto O’Rourke was popular enough with Texans to have funding from internal sources?

      Beto is another John Kerry; his wife is supposedly rich enough to have bankrolled his campaigns. He’s probably working thru a PAC for deniability reasons.

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        1. The FEC will let some questionable things slide. For example, they found that a donor paying off Edwards’s baby momma that worked for his campaign wasn’t a campaign finance violation.

          Like

    2. Yep. Hit the Democrat funding from the cartels.

      Then, as an encore, take out the gang funding in the big Dem cities.

      There is a reason gang violence has been allowed to fester in all these places.

      There’s lots of money in crime and drugs. Be a shame if it didn’t get to the politicians fronting it.

      Liked by 2 people

  24. if you like British mysterys then I recommend Bookish. About 1920s bookstore owner who does consulting detective work.

    I just binged the series and enjoyed it.

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    1. We just bought Seasons 1-7 of Shetland. Enjoyed what we saw on broadcast, and it’s available, though the DVDs are Region II only. Lonpoo player FTW. (I chuckle every time the logo comes up.)

      I gather the series is still ongoing. Hope it’s not too grimdark.

      Liked by 1 person

  26. Item: So one of the clues in Words of the Night, points to it starting in 2033, if I remember correctly, and interpreted it correctly. Which means it is less than ten years into the future.

    Anyway, the first few scenes of the book take place seem to strictly follow principles of aeronautical engineering, for the case of a flight being misplaced into a pre-Radar version of Earth. Then, everything changes when the dragon attacks.

    Genre is actually very much not hard sci fi, but the author tries to do research and keep things self-consistent, with whatever mad internal logic this story or that story or the other story has.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. My wife goes to the British mysteries that pop on the public stations, mostly as background, but she does properly watch the new episodes. “Midsommer Murders” is sort of like that small town in Maine where everyone is either being murdered or doing the murders. The per capita rate must be about 1 in 100 get offed every year. It was also voted the least realistic police show by some law enforcement group, so that makes it very entertaining. Almost no physical violence at all, albeit plenty of emotional subplots.

    She also has, as the last choice, the endless reruns of “Columbo” on one of those side channels on the OTA broadcast stations. It interesting to see Peter Falk through the years.

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    1. We liked “Murder in Suburbia,” a 2 season (2005) show currently on Amazon Prime. It has a light hand; will not keep you up at night. The investigating detectives make a good pair.

      “River,” also on Prime, with Stellan Skarsgård, 6 episodes. No spoilers.

      Liked by 1 person

  29. I’ve been to the Only Fans front page. It’s kind of amusing, really. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that the site was a wholesome site. And that’s no doubt what the idea behind it started out as. But when the previous porn streamer site kicked off all of the porn streamers (and promptly went bankrupt), they all moved to Only Fans. And Only Fans didn’t immediately step in to stop them.

    So now the name is synonymous with porn.

    A few years ago, the owners announced that they were going to ban porn streaming. The widespread belief at the time was that this was to attract investors who might be skittish about being linked to “adult content”. But they almost immediately realized that the vast majority of their userbase would end up leaving if this happened, and backed down.

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