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Margaret Atwood seems to be claiming some kind of unusual prescience for herself when writing The Handmaid's Tale:

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Atwood said she believed the plot was “bonkers” when she first developed the concept for the novel because the US was the “democratic ideal” at the time.

Me personally, I can remember that the work reading group discussed it round about the time it first came out - and I remarked that it was getting a lot of credit for ideas which I had been coming across in feminist sff for several years....

I think the idea of a fundamentalist, patriarchal, misogynist backlash was pretty much in people's minds?

I've just checked a few dates.

At least one of the potential futures in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976).

Margaret O'Donnell's The Beehive (1980) .

Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue (1984) and sequels.

Various short stories.

Various works by Sheri Tepper.

I'm probably missing a lot.

And assorted works in which there was an enclave or resistance cell of women embedded in a masculinist society.

I honestly don't think a nightmare which was swirling around at the time is something that can be claimed as woah, weird, how did I ever come up with that?

I'm a bit beswozzled by the idea that in the early-mid 80s the USA was a shining city on a hill, because I remember reviewing a couple of books on abortion in US post-Roe, and it was a grim story of the erosion of reproductive rights and defensive rearguard actions to protect a legal right which could mean very little in practice once the 1977 Hyde Amendment removed federal funding, and an increasingly aggressive anti-choice movement.

cimorene

I intend to watch the three released episodes of Heated Rivalry so I can know what everyone (my wife) is talking about, but I haven't got to it yet. I am obviously spoiled by Tumblr posts but I haven't watched the bits between the gifsets.

I rewatched Derry Girls over the last two weeks while attempting to knit this nephew sweater (made it to first sleeve cuff again, finally!). That show is so good, and it's so frustrating, because there's nothing more that's like it! All the main adult actors are also so good, but none of them have a long back catalogue of other comedy to watch! And of course the writer, Lisa McGee, needs time to write more things.

I have a long list of things I've been intending to watch and rewatch, but it feels like I don't have enough emotional bandwidth, or attention, or something, for starting new long things that are going to be dramatic.

So I've been watching a ton of non fiction instead:

➡️very old Folding Ideas and Hbomberguy videos

➡️Mentour Pilot's back catalog of aviation disaster explainers (previously I was familiar from watching over

waxjism's shoulder)

➡️Defunctland episodes that aren't too Disney-focused (a mention on Tumblr reminded me and I've only seen a few before)

➡️KyleHatesHiking videos about true crime, accidents, and missing persons cases related to hiking and outdoor sports (recommended by my sister last week)

➡️BobbyBroccoli science scandal documentaries (there's a new movie on Nebula, but otherwise I've watched them all before)

Meanwhile Wax is filling our bird feeders (seed and tallow ball) sometimes multiple times a day and the bird traffic is constant. Sipuli will sit by the window watching them like tv. Tristana is happy to sit in a chair facing the woodstove and watch the fire like it's a tv, sometimes for hours.

sovay

After years of not even being able to pirate it,

spatch and I have finally just finished the first series of BBC Ghosts (2019–23), during which he pointed out to me the half of the cast that had been on Taskmaster. I recognized a guest-starring Sophie Thompson.

This article on the megaliths of Orkney got Dave Goulder stuck in my head, especially once one of the archaeologists interviewed compared the Ring of Brodgar to sandstone pages. "They may not have been intended to last millennia, but, now that they have, they are stone doors through which the living try to touch the dead."

I wish a cult image of fish-tailed Artemis had existed at Phigalia, hunting pack of seals and all.

Any year now some part of my health could just fix itself a little, as a treat.

Current Music: MGMT, "Electric Feel"

mrkinch

Today was even more fun than yesterday! I parked at So 51st Street half an hour or so before high tide, walked out to the Bay and then slowly northward. First thing I saw was a flock(!) of Snowy Egrets. They're not very social so it must have been a flock of convenience for foraging. A little later I saw another swimming Sora, so I feel very fortunate. Ridgway's Rails were calling, one from a bush right in front of me, but I had no hope of finding it. But never fear. On return one swam towards me and perched on a log at the water's edge, so ten feet away or so? Very fortunate.:) ( The list: )

Swallows! We have Tree Swallows all year but far fewer in Winter, so seeing them was exciting.

oursin

This week's bread: Country Oatmeal aka Monastery Loaf from Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's Bread (2:1:1 wholemeal/strong white/pinhead oatmeal), a bit dense and rough-textured - the recipe says medium oatmeal, which has seemed hard to come by for months now (I actually physically popped into a Holland and Barrett when I was out and about the other day and boy, they are all about the Supplements these days and a lot less about the nice organic grains and pulses, sigh, no oatmeal, no cornmeal, etc etc wo wo deth of siv etc). Bread tasty though.

Friday night supper: groceries arrived sufficiently early in the pm for me to have time to make up the dough and put the filling to simmer for sardegnera with pepperoni.

Saturday breakfast rolls: adaptable soft rolls recipe, 4:1 strong white/buckwheat flour, dried blueberries, Rayner's Barley Malt Extracxt, turned out very nicely.

Today's lunch: savoury clafoutis with Exotic Mushroom Mix (shiitake + 3 sorts of oyster mushroom) and garlic, served with baby (adolescent) rainbow carrots roasted in sunflower and sesame oil, tossed with a little sugar and mirin at the end, and sweetstem cauliflower (some of which was PURPLE) roasted in pumpkin seed oil with cumin seeds.

m_findlow posting in

fandomweekly

Theme Prompt: #282 - Catharsis
Title: Necessary distraction
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: After a difficult day, each of them has their own way of dealing with it.

( Read more... )

sovay

Crossing recent streams, tonight I participated with

rushthatspeaks in a reading of The Invention of Love (1997) in memoriam Tom Stoppard with a Discord group that does a different play every week. I was assigned Moses Jackson, the straightest himbo ever to play a sport. I consider it a triumph for the profession that I did not catch on fire enthusing about field athletics.

When I read in passing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) had begun life as a one-act comedy entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear, I went to fact-check this assertion immediately because it sounded like a joke, you know, like one of the great tragedies of the English stage starting out as the farcical Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter and then a ringing sound in my ears indicated that the penny had dropped.

Speaking of, I have seen going around the quotation from Arcadia (1993) on the destruction and endurance of history:

We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again. You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for a corkscrew?

Stoppard was not supposed to have known the full extent of his Jewishness until midlife, but it is such a diasporic way of thinking, the convergent echo of Emeric Pressburger is difficult for me not to hear. I keep writing of the coins in the field, everything that time gives back, if not always to those who lost it.

Current Music: Annie Bartholomew, "Mountain Dove Song"

ecto_one_spengler posting in

fandomweekly

Theme Prompt: #282 - Catharsis
Title: lines in the sand, language of eye contact
Fandom: House M.D.
Rating/Warnings: PG. Makes reference to somewhat outdated terms regarding the autism spectrum, but other than that, decently wholesome.
Word Count: 533 words
Author's Note: Another one of the times my brain has a sudden burst of motivation for something, this time regarding a curious episode of House in which there's one of the few times he manages to truly connect to a patient. Kind of a magical moment for me (an autistic doofus of a man with too many interests). Also yes this means I am kinda leaning towards a "House is actually somewhat in the spectrum someplace" headcanon, I do what I want.
Summary: The best approximation of how Dr. House is feeling during the events of the main case of "Lines in the Sand".

--
( A case quietly ends.. )

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: My computer
Current Music: House M.D. episode clips

mrkinch

Today's high tide was a little lower than yesterday's but still high enough to be interesting, so I went down to Meeker Slough about 11 am for the 11:50 high. I wanted Wilson's Snipe but someone told me they are no longer on the little island off the footbridge; I'll go looking some other time. Still no birds in the berry trees yet but I expect there will be eventually. I saw two species of duck I hadn't found at Arrowhead, a pair of Northern Pintail and a pair of Gadwall, as well as Northern Shovelers and Green-winged Teal. I had two particularly interesting sightings. There was a small flock of Savannah Sparrows in the vegetation right at the Bay's edge, looking like Song Sparrows but not quite, with different behavior, as well. But the best moment was looking out over the flooded marsh dotted with American Coots and noticing one that was tiny. Also not black. I identified it as a Sora just about the time it flew off. Gosh, it was little. ( The list: )

I hope I can go there again tomorrow, check out two other areas. We shall see.

oursin

What is this that this thing is, when, okay, one is aware of all the woozing and grumbling about the various delivery services, but here is the ROYAL MAIL being pretty bad.

Yesterday I had an email saying they had delivered a parcel.

There was no parcel.

I looked at the proof of delivery and behold, that was Not Our Front Door they were sticking it through, it was the wrong colour and one could see the corner of a glass panel (ours is solid wood).

So I went on to their site to try and delve a bit further and, my dears, it is HORRENDOUS, one suspects it is designed to make people Just Give Up.

For example, the 'contact us' link, that actually goes to a 'Help and Support' page that lists a whole range of possible contingencies that one has to sort through to discover one that matches the occasion.

And once I had come across the Advice relating to item (presumably) misdelivered to wrong address, advice was, to contact the sender.

I have no bloody idea who the sender was being as how I was not even expecting a Royal Mail delivery, have been back over my emails and texts and no, I did not receive any previous message involving that particular tracking code.

There is a passing allusion to possible scanning errors.

The only means of contacting them is by phone, and when I tried, and had made my way through the menu options, the wait to speak to a person was 50 minutes.

I am leaving all this pro tem in case a) it was misdelivered and gets put back into the system b) it never actually existed in the first place.

But, really.

And in other, perhaps more minor (?) annoyances of Modern Life, what is this thing that this thing is of 'Cooking Instructions on Back of Label'? that you then have to detach, in the hope that it will actually come off in one piece that one can actually decipher....

ETA Parcel has now turned up, either in today's post or popped through letter box by neighbour to whom it was delivered in error.... Is friend's book I was in anticipation of.

oursin

Happy birthday,

gillo and

laughingrat!

sovay

Realizing last night that I have for decades thought of myself as a full year older than I chronologically can have been for my first real job—I was fifteen—led into a crumble-to-dust reminiscence about the number of bookstores once to be found in Lexington Center, which gave me some serious future shock when we walked into Maxima while waiting to collect our order from Il Casale and it occupied the exact same storefront as my second job, also as a bookseller; it was perhaps the one form of retail to which I was natively suited. My third job was assistant-teaching Latin, but my fourth I accidentally talked my way into by recommending some titles to a fellow browser.

spatch's anniversary gift to me was a paperback of Satoshi Yagisawa's Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (trans. Eric Ozawa, 2010/2023). It was teeth-shockingly cold and we all but ran with our spoils back to the car.

( Twenty-four hours every day. )

We had set out in search of resplendent food and found it in polpette that reminded us of the North End, a richly smoky rigatoni with ragù of deep-braised lamb, and a basil-decorated, fanciest eggplant parmesan I have encountered in my life, capped with panna cotta in a tumble of wintrily apt pomegranate seeds. Hestia investigated delicately but dangerously. After we had recovered, Rob showed me Powwow Highway (1989) right before it expired from the unreliable buffer of TCM because he thought and was right that I would love its anger and gentleness and hereness, plus its '64 Buick which has already gone on beyond Bluesmobile by the time it is discovered in a field of clunkers and a vision of ponies. It has no budget and so much of the world. As long as we're in it, we might as well be real.

Current Music: David Byrne, "What Is the Reason for It? (feat. Hayley Williams)"

mrkinch

U drove her partner, Chris, and me down to MLK Jr Regional Shoreline to see what rails the King Tide would force into view. We saw Ridgway's Rail and Sora, and U even got a photograph of them together, hiding in the flooded vegetation. We also saw three species of goose where one would think there would only be Canada Geese, but a Brant has been hanging out with the Canadas for so long it's no longer considered rare. Such a cute little goose amongst the hulking Canadas! Today there were also two Greater White-fronted Geese in the flock, not so very unusual but less regular than the Brant. And I guess it's realy Winter because we saw nine species of duck.:) ( The list: )

There's a boardwalk/pier out over the marsh that's closed in Winter because thousands of shorebirds roost there, primarily Willets and Marbled Godwits. Today among them were a dozen or so Black Turnstones, three Snowy Egrets, two Great Egrets, and a Great Blue Heron. Oh, and twenty or so Black-necked Stilts flew in, settling amongst the gray and brown. It was lovely.

sovay

spatch and I have been married for twelve years. A round dozen of anniversary gifts looks as though it adds up to the woven road of silk. Here we are still, intertwined and traveling.

Current Music: The Mountain Goats, "Fishing Boat"

cimorene

Medium Man is a large size. It has more fabric in it than Small Woman (the size of me). It doesn't have more fabric than a sweater for

waxjism, but she is too warm-blooded to wear sweaters really, so the last time I knitted one for her was over 10 years ago.

It's a lot of knitting. It's going. There are setbacks.

There are gauge issues. And challenges of imagination.

( Knitting Talk )

badly_knitted posting in

fandomweekly

Theme Prompt: #282 – Catharsis
Title: Rainsong
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: No.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Healers have their own way of dealing with the stresses and burdens of their craft.

( Rainsong... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

oursin

People asking me last night 'what do you/are you working on?'

Duh. I flannelled and gave the general field, rather than saying: I completed my PhD over 30 years ago, I have published 6 books, 3 co-edited volumes, and getting on for 70 articles and chapters, have done assorted meedja appearances, have lost count of the reviews I've done -

Not to mention the website, the blog, the assorted things that fall into the category of other -

'My Deaaar, it's all a long story and rather complicated' and my most recent publication was not even in my field, it was being a sort of Litry Scholar.

Thing is there were some persons of maturer age there who were, I gathered in conversation, getting back into the academic swing, so I might have been doing that, rather than trying to get back up out of something of a trough?

Did mention, apropos of cute cuddly spirochaete, that I had worked on History of Loathsome Diseases of Immorality: but gee, I am large, I contain multitudes, and I have been going a long time.

ETA

Not that I consider the organisers of 'prestigious World Conference on Women’s Health, Reproduction,and Midwifery, scheduled for 08-10 June 2026, in Paris,France' to really Know Who I Am since they are begging and pleading for my attendance on the basis of my 'remarkable work' a recent review of a book on the history of abortion.

Okay, they do offer partial support for accommodation and registration, and brekkers and lunch at the conference (this implies, o horrors, breakfast sessions).

oursin

Happy birthday,

darkemeralds!

mrkinch

I didn't get to the gate til 10 o'clock, but I got there. It was quiet to start but I encountered more activity up Laurel Canyon where there were sunny spots. I saw very few Winter visitors, a lot of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a few Hermit Thrushes, and one Golden-crowned Sparrow. There are two places up Laurel Canyon Road where I have regularly seen multiple sparrows, but not this year, at least not yet. At one there was a maybe fifteen Dark-eyed Juncos and a Spotted Towhee; a little further along I saw the Golden-crowned Sparrow, but that was all. It seem like the usual birds were here early and kept going south. We'll just keep looking and hoping. ( The list: )

No warblers, just locals, but no nuthatches or creepers, either. Good to be out, though.