• My drop in (I hope) the blue wave

    Hokusai's Great Wave of Kanagawa

    I’m always a little bit nervous about voting early, but I did it: I turned my ballot in Saturday.

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  • witch fulfillment

    witch fulfillment (wich foo l-fil-muh nt), n. the symbolic gratification of the desire to believe in magic, experienced through an exercise of the imagination (as in books, cosplay, neurotic symptoms, religion, etc.). Ex.: The “Harry Potter effect.”

  • Halloween humbug

    My brother and myself as kids dressed up as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

    The older I get, the more introverted I get—and the less likely I am to come to your Halloween party.

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  • sufferage

    sufferage (suhf-er-ij), n. the condition of one whose right to vote has sustained a setback, decline in effectiveness, or even loss, due to suppression, intimidation, or imposed disadvantage.  Ex.: Dodge City, Kansas:  “For this November’s election, local officials have moved [the only polling site for 27,000 residents] outside the city limits to a facility more than a mile from the nearest bus stop, citing road construction that blocked the previous site.”The Wichita Eagle

  • Inviting anxiety to tea

    Atrsy EKG blips

    I was anxious all day Saturday, for no apparent reason.

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  • karma splice

    karma splice (kahr-muh splahys), n. Education, informal. 1. a teacher’s suspicion that she must have done something very bad in a previous life to deserve the grammatically incoherent essays turned in by her students. 2. a student’s suspicion that a teacher’s obsession with grammar indicates that the teacher must have been an authoritarian despot in a previous life.

  • What I’m reading: Fantasy, sci-fi, Buddhism, politics, and pedagogy

    Black and white of Mariko from cover of Bein's Daughter of the Blade

    I don’t usually like reading more than a couple books at the same time, but I currently find myself in the middle of four or (depending on how you count) six different books.

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  • manplain

    manplain (man-pleyn), v. Informal. (of a man) to express dissatisfaction, annoyance, or resentment at the perceived injustice against, or victimhood of, men. Ex.: “It’s a very scary time for young men in America”; “If it could happen to him, it could happen to any man.”

  • Arrogance, fear, and the fixed mindset

    Locked padlock on a mesh wire gate

    I started this blog to encourage myself to write. So far: not a lot of progress on that front.

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  • wish hunt

    wish hunt (wish-huhnt), n. a strong desire to dismiss reasonable inquiries into alleged disloyalty, dishonesty, subversive political activity, etc. as politically motivated and unjustified campaigns, based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence, against honestly held, unpopular opinions. Ex.: Trump’s and his supporters’ dismissal of the Mueller investigation.

ABOUT ME

Mildly introverted. Mostly harmless.


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When I'm 64When I'm 64September 14, 2025

What I’m Reading

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Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson

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Cover of the Signet edition of Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

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Naked Poetry

Stephen Berg and Robert Mezey (eds.)

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The Transgender Studies Reader

Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle (eds.)

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