A few lighter things at the beginning and end, but the middle is fierce.

• Linkity from Smart Bitches. Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• JK Rowling FAIL. Thank you, Dan Rad, for being a Very Good Human.
• “David Tennant as Thermos flasks”.
• “Chronicles of Narnia if Lucy had a sword”.
• Historically themed tracksuits.
• Neural network paint colors.
• “Ongoing community aid efforts in the Twin Cities”. A digital album you can buy, “with proceeds going to benefit black-owned businesses and Native youth in Minneapolis”.
• “Why this started in Minneapolis”.
• “The cities taking up calls to defund the police”.
• “A timeline of US police protests”.
• Protest murals in Minneapolis.
• “The voices behind the clash at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“.
• Spoken-word poem about white privilege. (via Book Riot)
• Quick little zine summarizing what white fragility is.
• Resource post for white people interested in becoming antiracist.
• Free syllabus “that addresses institutionalized racism in the US”.
• “Just a small reminder. Black art does not exist solely to educate non-Black people. Always be expanding your horizons.”
• Protest art on tRUMP’s White House wall.
• Beware of activism burnout.
• “Looting is the ultimate strike against a system that deems mass-produced objects to be far more precious than life itself.”
• “The FBI has quietly investigated white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement”. Help for you to evaluate the Intercept as a source.
• BOOM. And BOOM.
• About Bruce Springsteen’s song “American Skin”. Listen to the song.
• The movie THE HATE U GIVE is streaming free most places.
• Linkity from Bookwyrm Knits.
• Linkity from kmkat. And more. And more. And more.
• Make a mask that filters more than an N95. (via alexwhitehall)
• And that was just January…
• I mean, really.

Cats on my purple cat sheets, right underneath the ceiling fan!

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! 😮

Bookity

• New releases: AAR (romance) and Gizmodo (sff)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And some cover snark, too.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict. And the Buy Stamps edition.
• Linkity for Poetry Month (the day after Poetry Month ended, d’oh) from bookwyrmknits.
• Mary Oliver reciting “Wild Geese”.
• Preservation Week with Hennepin County Library.
• The Good Omens title sequence won three golds in the 2020 International Indigo Awards. I never skip the title sequence when I watch the show!
• Discworld is coming to tv.
• “Asexuality and the Baggins bachelors”.

Do, Make, Learn, Think

• Things to do if you’re bored.
• On owning (or rather, not owning) your ebooks and music.
• Keep busy helping scientists with research projects.
• Other video conferencing apps besides Zoom have privacy issues. And also, Google Meet will be free soon.
• Download and build free papercraft models of classic computers.
• “Only in 2020 could UFOs be confirmed and we are all unfazed”.
• Don’t jump.
• Mola mola.

Life in These Pandemic Times

• You can preorder Disney face masks.
• Me, masked.
• “Don’t let cognitive biases cause you to engage in risky public health behavior”.
• If you don’t read anything else from my post today, read the article to which he links.
• Good to remember. As is this.
• “Podcasts and webinars by subject matter experts.”
• “What we can learn from coziness culture about the art of staying home”.
• “A message of hope from Neil Gaiman”.
• “How coronavirus has changed Americans’ daily lives”.
• Why time has no meaning and we’re all so very tired.
• We’re trying.
• A positive spin on things.
• A sweet story of Tom Hanks, a kid named Corona, and a Smith Corona typewriter.
• One Brooklyn doctor’s coping method.
• Fanfiction is keeping many people sane right now. (via Book Riot) The Organization for Transformational Works (OTW), which runs AO3, just completed their April fund drive and exceeded their $130k goal by around $328k in five days.
• Linkity from kmkat. And more. And more!

Cookity

• 75+ dinner ideas for when you don’t want to cook.
• 17 “extra easy” dessert recipes.
• Strawberry rhubarb pie.

Gluten Free

• Brazilian cheese bread.
• Cream biscuits.

Artsy Crafty

• Knit a Doctor Who “Weeping Angel” scarf.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• The cutest little bees you’ve ever seen.
• Centaur minifigs!
• Aspects of Barbie.

Cool or Wha…?

• Official Untitled Goose Game socks.

Wha…?

• Gerenuk.
• Online eye exams.
• The Flying Ford Pinto.

LOL

• NASA at home.
• “What’s something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand Twitter account?” (NSFW)
• “A more accurate calendar for 2020 so far”.
• “Everyone’s an epidemiologist”. Hover cursor/long-press for caption.
• Flashback life hacks.
• “An advertisement for cats”.

Reading Update

• Rereading Good Omens fanfic. Reading too much news.

*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem