Just saw a super satisfying video. A homeowner asked a contractor, mostly made up of Hispanic guys, to build a fence around his property. So they came and did it, and a nice job it was. But when the contractor went to settle the payment, the homeowner got belligerent, told them to get off his property, said they were probably all illegal aliens and he was going to call the popo on them immediately. Since it was clear he had no intention of paying them, the next day they came back with chainsaws and sledgehammers and destroyed the entire fence, while the homeowner hurled slurs and insults at them and threatened to call the police.

It's nice when the good guys win one.

Got my annual flu shot and my COVID vaccination today.

Since this is the United States, hubby still doesn't have a job and we have no health insurance, I had to pay for both shots out of pocket.

It cost over $450.

I could fly roundtrip to visit my niece on the Eastern seaboard and pay less than I did today just to avoid getting sick.

It seems... well... odd that people with jobs and healthcare coverage get such vaccinations free of charge, while those who have neither of those things are forced to pay to underwrite the costs, but hello #DeathRattleCapitalism I guess

Rowling may never experience social comeuppance for her actions the way Bill Cosby faced legal jeopardy for his. Trans people are a relatively small subset of humanity, and unfortunately JK Rowling isn't the only person who thinks they shouldn't exist at all. (*ehem*Trump*ehem*) Trying to financially break someone like this by boycott is not going to make a difference to her, but that's not really the point. It will make a difference to the people who are being affected by her cruelty. It will make a difference to those who might think that my love of a pop culture character is greater than my love of real people with real lives.

So it's time to let this shirt go. Just as a lot of people got rid of some garish "Cosby sweaters" back in the 20 teens. And for much the same reason.

I still have my t-shirt that says "When in doubt, go to the library." It's soft and comfortable, it fits me perfectly, I like the sentiment and the design. And I have to get rid of it. Not because I think it's going to do anything to JK Rowling, who continues to rake money in with both claws, no doubt hissing happily. She will never know or care what I think of her.

But it's not for her. It's for my nephew.

He loved the Harry Potter books growing up, just as much as I did. He wrote fan letters to Rowling, thanking her for coming up with such a wonderful world. He came out as trans not long after Rowling went full TERF, and her attitude broke his heart.

At this point, if I wear Harry Potter-related merchandise of any kind in public, I know the message I am giving to the kinds of people Rowling thinks shouldn't exist. They can't know I'm a safe person if I choose to wear that shirt. And while Rowling's opinion doesn't matter to me, my nephew's feelings do.

This surprised and dismayed quite a few LGBTQ Harry Potter fans, who had naturally assumed that the woman who wrote "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" was certainly an ally. The pushback against some of her anti-trans comments led Rowling, who had perhaps gotten used to an adoring public for over a decade, to double and triple down. And now she's actively funding causes that harm trans people.

I know there are a lot of people who don't care about this issue. They love the books, they love the movies, they love the video games, they love everything about Harry Potter and are loath to give any of it up because the person who wrote the series turned out to have some terrible beliefs. (See also Roald Dahl, who was about as racist and sexist as they get.) Recently Jason Pargin made a video essay talking about how pointless it is to boycott the Harry Potter franchise, because so many people love it that the boycott doesn't make any financial difference.

The rumors started when the books were first published. People who felt uncomfortable with the way house elves were portrayed as mostly happy with their servitude. People who pointed out that the wizarding world was, in many ways, far more socially traditional, even backward, compared to muggle society. The ways the notion of pure-blooded wizards mapped extremely closely to early 20th century beliefs in eugenics. (To be fair, obsession with pure blood and persecution of muggleborns was called out as morally wrong in the books themselves.)

And then after the series was complete, there was that business with the Robert Galbraith book "The Cuckoo's Calling." I have not read any of the books Rowling wrote under the pseudonym of Galbraith, but as I understand it the first book features an antagonist who is called out as transgender. (Let me know if I've gotten this wrong, BTW.) That sparked a further social media discussion on transgender people, and as it turned out JK Rowling was not a fan.

If you were alive in the 1990s and 2000s, you most likely experienced the pop culture phenomenon that was (and is) Harry Potter. Frankly, it was hard to avoid. I tried to, as I usually try to avoid reading books in a series until that series is complete. But friends kept urging me, and by the time the third book was on the market I decided to crack the first one open and see what it was all about. Let's just say it was right up my diagon alley.

For the next few years I went to book release parties, I knitted Hogwarts house scarves for family members, I tried my hand at making chocolate frogs before they were commercially available, and I saw all the movies (and muttered about how they'd cut Peeves). My sister sent me a shirt for my birthday with a quote (incorrectly attributed to Hermione Granger): "When in doubt, go to the library." I wore it constantly.

And then things slowly started to curdle and become toxic. Just as with Bill Cosby, there were certain rumors circulating, quiet but persistent.

Then things changed in 2014. Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress publicly called out Cosby for some of the rumors, specifically that he drugged and assaulted women. Women started to come forward with their own stories of things Cosby had done to them. It sparked the #MeToo movement, and Bill Cosby wasn't the only one called out. He was, however, one of the most visible because of his ubiquity in popular culture. Bill Cosby was tried, sentenced, and spent some time in jail but was able to be released due to a technicality (IIRC, he had given testimony about some of his activities after obtaining a promise that he would not be prosecuted). The damage, however, was done. People knew what Bill Cosby had done and they could not see him the same way again.

Now, I told you that story to tell you this one.

If you were born anytime from the early 1960s into the mid 1990s, you grew up with Bill Cosby. It's difficult to explain to younger people how omnipresent he was in popular culture. He did stand-up comedy, he was in "I Spy," he was a series regular on the PBS educational show "The Electric Company" for two seasons, a cartoon based on his childhood and his stand-up show called "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" ran on Saturday morning TV for years (and he provided most of the voices), he was cast in numerous movies, he was in commercials for Jell-O pudding pops. And then there was "The Cosby Show" and its spin-offs. He cultivated a friendly, approachable public image; several pundits referred to him as America's Dad. Even so there were persistent rumors about him, such as that when he did stand-up shows in Vegas he was sometimes seen in public with women who weren't his wife. But people largely ignored those rumors because they enjoyed being entertained by Bill Cosby.

If I'm unfortunate enough to get one of these scabby Monopoly tokens in my change, I will go back to the vendor or to the bank and exchange it for a real dollar. Play money is not legal tender in the United States.

https://www.comicsands.com/mint-dollar-coins-trump-face

"Just ignore the bully and (s)he'll go away."

How many times did you hear that from adults when you were a child?

How often did it work?

If you said "never," you're not alone. Bullies thrive on being *studiously* ignored. It allows them to do whatever they want, picking on the smaller and weaker with impunity as everyone looks the other way.

Bullies are constantly testing boundaries, looking for weak points in the fence to see what they can get away with. Ignore them and they will push even harder. If you want proof, look at Trump. He has broken and destroyed nearly everything he's touched, and the only thing necessary to stop him is for other members of the government, whether Congress or the Supreme Court, to stand up and tell him NO. On the rare occasions when they've done so, he has backed off.

Folks, with both Dolly Parton (age 80) and Tim Curry (age 80) passing on the same day while Orange Turd (age 80) somehow remains upright, I think we need to talk about the very real possibility that the current Grim Reaper is Fred Trump.

#DollyParton #TimCurry #Trump

When Trump first described some nations as "shithole countries," I didn't realize he was envious.

#Cyclospora #TrumpsplosiveDiarrhea

Kentuckians should refuse to pay taxes unless someone can prove they have a living, fully cognizant representative in government.

Petition to rename #MitchMcConnell to "Schrödinger's Senator" (is he alive? is he dead? nobody knows until you open the box!).

#Kentucky #GOP #RampantUncheckedCorruption #DeadPeopleVoteInCongress

I remember wild #dreams. The ones we cobbled together in our own minds from the grab-bag of memory, the human need for narrative, and a healthy dash of monsters from the id. Dreams with no meanings, no sponsors, no credits.

But that changed in my thirties, when the Ad-versaries discovered that REM sleep operated at a specific frequency - a frequency that could be broadcast to.

People used to talk about the latest summer blockbuster. Until one morning when everyone in North America woke up to talk about having the same manufactured dream "sponsored by Meta."

It's not all bad. Some dREMverts are so popular they go into reruns, like that psychedelic cartoon that had everyone running to their RecPharm the next day. Even the nightmares by Jordan Peele have their fans.

But I miss talking to Joe. He's trying to make rent, so he's been sleeping 23 hours a day testing experimental dREMverts, only getting up for a bio break and a Soylent. ("Make money in your sleep," they said. Tch.)

#microfiction

"Stop! Stop, Snow White and Rose Red!" said the old bear. "Don't be afraid."

"Why, it's OUR bear!" cried Snow White. "The one who saved us from the wicked dwarf in the woods!" And she ran to him and kissed his rough, furry face.

And in an instant the bear disappeared, and in his place was a handsome young prince.

"I had been enchanted--" he began, but the rest of his story was drowned out by the wailing of the two sisters.

"NOOOOO, NOT AN ENCHANTED PRINCE! THEY'RE ALWAYS SPOILED BRATS! WE CHOSE THE BEAR!"

#microfiction #FairyTales #ChooseTheBear

I'm an American, so it's endlessly amusing to me that the #WorldCup fandom is going absolutely wild over #ranch, a dressing and seasoning that's been part of pretty much every American's life since the 1970s.

Wondering if I should start a pen pal service where every letter is guaranteed to include a dry packet of ranch dressing, just for former World Cup visitors jonesing for a ranchy fix

RE: https://vmst.io/@iostat/116816533425843409

Sure hope nobody took a rustic unplugged two-week vacation at the end of June only to return and discover their instance, along with their account and all its data, has been wiped clean out of existence and they'll have to start over somewhere else.

This is why admins are advised to give their users three months of advance warning before shutting down an instance. And yes, while I'm glad it isn't going to just be *blip* gone, that doesn't mean I'm at all content with the way this situation has been handled.

#Introduction A life in hashtags! #LaundryFaerie #PugetSound #books #movies #calligraphy #snailmail #chow #whimsy #magical #microfiction #Fantasy #SF #CreativeWriting #knitting #ADHD #Geocaching #Waymarking #PantryMeals #CreativeCooking #Proofreading #CopyEditing #RandomLifeLessons #Library #Silliness #Cats #Resist