It’s going to be a rollicking ride here, folks. Hold on to yer hats. Which you’re probably already doing, because this has been A Week. Heavier stuff down toward the end.

• New releases: Tor.com (YA SFF, fantasy, SF) (plus info about Tor’s virtual books convention), Smart Bitches (romance), AAR (romance)
• Good Omens won a Nebula! 90+ people cosplaying Good Omens.
• Expounding on a “throwaway line” from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Expounding on the concept of the Goblet of Fire.
• On owning a mini-sphinx.
• Pockets and Star Trek.
• That would be a pretty cool film.
• “10 DIY bookstand ideas”.
• “Criterion Channel lifts paywall on films by black filmmakers in support of Black Lives Matter”.
• “How to make this moment the turning point for real change” by President Barack Obama.
• “The myth of ‘official’: Autism and self-diagnosis skeptics”.
• Golden moles.
• “What happens to our brains when we read?”
• Rotary dial cellphone.
• Agreed – you put that back NOW.
• So cute! Also very cute!
• GF potstickers.
• One pot 20-minute coconut chickpea curry.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat. More linkity from kmkat.
• Carcinization. Hover your cursor or long-press for caption.
• SERIOUSLY.
• Oh, yeah.
• It’s true.
• Goodbye, Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s. From Science Times. From Locus.
• Some pictures of my neighborhood Sunday. The list of buildings damaged, looted, or destroyed in the Twin Cities.
• “Engage, educate, donate, and support: Ways you can help” from Smart Bitches.
• The Sesame Street and CNN Town Hall on Racism.
• Ben & Jerry are NOT f*cking around.
• “How cities offload the cost of police brutality”.
• “The racial injustice of American highways”.
• “America’s cities were designed to oppress”.
• “Turns out the only person attempting voter fraud is Donald tRUMP”.
• Visual confirming that yes, masks DO make a difference.
• “What to expect as you return to auto shops”.
• “What it feels like to be working in customer service right now” (dark humor).

“I’m not sure why you say this is a ‘paper trimmer’, Mom, when it’s obviously a cat perch!” -Mayhem

Things are darker and sadder here in Minneapolis this week and because my heart is pretty heavy (but we are safe), this will be one of those whirlwind type linkities.

• Toad Words.
• Discworld meets Harry Potter.
• God playing celestial DnD, Good Omens style.
• A simple way to improve the first line of any story.
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• A quote from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut on the American poor.
• “You don’t always know who is high risk”. THIS. SO MUCH THIS.
• The first paragraph is GLORIOUS.
• BOOM.
• “The risks – know them – avoid them”.
• “How to safely travel on mass transit during coronavirus”.
• You can hardly tell this 102 years old. Or that this is 355 years old.
• This grocery store knows what’s up.
• …well, I guess!
• “The toxic intersection of racism and public space”.
• On gargoyles.
• Some cursed Tuatara facts.
• Some differences between birds with the same name on different continents.
• There’s something weirdly fascinating about these dresses made from butterfly-patterned fabrics.
• “Our cat is obsessed with blanket forts…” Another cat being cute and amusing.
• Minneapolis Sculpture Garden from above.
• Penguins in the forest.
• Some Australia humour.
• “…hand-knitted human-activated coral blanket”.
• NIGHTMARE GHOUL TREE.
• “Intensely chocolate” Black Forest cake.
• Spring linkity from bookwyrm-knits.
• COVID-19 (and more) linkity from kmkat. And more. Knitting linkity. Silly linkity.

“Sun warm. Basket comfortable. Life good.” -Mayhem

Mayhem turned 14 on Wednesday! 😮