Amelia Bloody Rose

OHHHHH she cribbed the mob boss song from George Michael! Okay, that tracks

I'm trapped in Laser Taylor Swift Purgatory at the Space Place, send help

Pretty sure the one where she sounds like a 13-year-old who has just discovered double entendres and is giggling about dicks is pretty true to life, though

So I've had this theory for a while now that Taylor Swift has No Imagination and that all her songs are autobiographical to some extent, but the one she sings about being a mafia don having his protégé whacked is challenging that theory

The ... characters in LW? Or the Teens of Today?

A post from SketchesbyBoze on The Other Site: "Been reading Little Women and I’m struck by the teen characters’ knowledge of history & literature, the casual allusions to Pickwick Papers, King Cophetua, St Martin of Tours. And young readers would have known the references. The decline in our collective knowledge is shocking."

I like Boze, but she seems to be disappearing up the prestige asshole lately. This is not a good comparison: fictional teenagers from 2 centuries ago to real teenagers today. Today's teenagers have different points of reference, but they have a lot of culture to filter through

My brain went right to Strong Bad

(Traumatizing myself by finding a story by Edgar Allan Poe in our Reading Comprehension Books while a classmate stumbled through one of Aesop's fables)

(Full disclosure: I was the kid who got in trouble for "not paying attention" during Read-Aloud Time because my classmates' excruciating struggles with reading aloud made it impossible to stay trapped in their allotted paragraph, so I'd read ahead, so I feel ya, Boze)

Also, what counts as "good"? I've seen brilliant discussions centered around the Left Behind series, or Twilight, and (former) Harry Potter fans seem very good at analysis. The deep dives into shallow stuff are often the most interesting

And yes, it's hard to wade through the junk and find something nutritious, but I think that comparison is still flawed. I'd like to see a study on how much of cognition is taken up now with trying to FILTER information to find the good stuff

I think the increased access to many flavors of story is a good thing overall, but it makes it harder to have common reference points when people have such diverse story experiences

The amount of information blasted at teenagers is overwhelming; the brain has to pick and choose what to pay attention to, and some things are more accessible to teens now

A post from SketchesbyBoze on The Other Site: "Been reading Little Women and I’m struck by the teen characters’ knowledge of history & literature, the casual allusions to Pickwick Papers, King Cophetua, St Martin of Tours. And young readers would have known the references. The decline in our collective knowledge is shocking."

I like Boze, but she seems to be disappearing up the prestige asshole lately. This is not a good comparison: fictional teenagers from 2 centuries ago to real teenagers today. Today's teenagers have different points of reference, but they have a lot of culture to filter through

Harley cuddled up next to Dad on a different couch

You know how people always post about how their cat is the sweetest? They're wrong. Harley is the Sweetest Cat

A chunky tortoiseshell cat sleeping on the back of a gradually sinking couch cushion. Her tail sticks out at an angle, and her face had they most contented expression possible on a cat

Got some bad news about this chunk yesterday. She hasn't been eating, which is alarming because she is a bottomless pit usually. Turns out it's an inoperable tumor in her throat, so Harley is not long for this world. I've been petting her every time I go by; she's very confused

Harley cuddled up next to Dad on a different couch

You know how people always post about how their cat is the sweetest? They're wrong. Harley is the Sweetest Cat

A chunky tortoiseshell cat sleeping on the back of a gradually sinking couch cushion. Her tail sticks out at an angle, and her face had they most contented expression possible on a cat

Got some bad news about this chunk yesterday. She hasn't been eating, which is alarming because she is a bottomless pit usually. Turns out it's an inoperable tumor in her throat, so Harley is not long for this world. I've been petting her every time I go by; she's very confused

... yeah, I'm out. These jerks don't need ME while they play out their trashy little drama

I should update this thread! #MST3k

bsky.app/profile/amel...

*slides in* House of Usher, you say???

Anyway, I may not make it through this book because everyone is a JACKASS. Which is obviously the point, but it's so relentlessly dismal that I'm fighting the very reasonable urge to say, "Well, good luck sorting your shit out" and walk away from these dysfunctional twits

Like, Henry James' attempt to write a 10-year-old boy being charming to his governess is so off the mark that it makes the reader think Well, this kid is obviously possessed by the ghost of a CREEP. Very smart of Mike Flanagan to lean into that in The Haunting of Bly Manor

So what with The Discourse I realized I had never read Wuthering Heights. So far it is doing nothing to disabuse me of my suspicion that 19th-Century Gothic authors were only theoretically familiar with the concept of children

Fun with linguistic ambiguity

Ohmygod! #Booksky! Did you know that if you order @oliviawaite.com books from @ballastbookco.bsky.social, you can get it personalized AND request a small doodle? I GOT A LITTLE FLIP BOOK OF A SHOOTING STAR, PEOPLE!!! I was promised that the doodle would bring joy & WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!
💙📚🌈

[people dicking around in the theater after the show]
"Were you folks planning to stay for the next show?"
"Oh, no, sorry, we just had a baby!"
You WHAT.

sure you might have seen my name in the big pdf that got released titled “list of draculas currently operating in the united states.” here’s why that’s NOT a big deal:

I did the math for him paying for every American's groceries for an entire year. It checks out