Shadows and Dust Folklore

Shapeshifters and tricksters are not the same by most folklore. Tricksters are often mischievous but also beneficial not outright malevolent. Shapeshifters otoh weaponize familiarity to enact cruelty, feed on desperation.

Looksmaxxers are proudly shapeshifters. Our stories say never to pity them.

From Twitter Elmo of Sesame Street @elmo · 1h That Bunny was AMAZING. Elmo thinks he should be called Good Bunny! Elmo loves you, Mr. Good Bunny! [emojis of heart, music, and rabbit] Based Yankee @thebasedyankee · 8:04p · Feb 8, 2026 You and Bad Bunny should be deported

Swift reaction is swift

It will be interesting to see who complains the sugar plantation setting was excessive in the coming days, particularly given the current media climate. And it was redundant, but given the Super Bowl's norms subtlety is basically absence. He clearly knew that. A good story told well.

The narrative power of Bad Bunny performing the super bowl is thick.

Presented as a celebration of multiculturalism, but in a core of American hegemony and based in American imperialism responding to Spanish imperialism. And an alternative show running opposite. It's a live-action liminal space.

I treat Rachel Carson's affirmation "in nature, nothing exists alone" in roughly the way TEDTalkers use "may you live in interesting times"

An aged wooden building is surrounded by dried foliage and some evergreen trees and sits under a bright blue sky. The gardens that were left for insects to overwinter in weren’t cleaned up in the fall but it looks like we can start that work soon.

The air smells different today. The wind is cold and will be until the last snow is off the far hills but the air is fresher now and I’m thinking about starting garden clean up.

Knowing forests, it's interesting to read old stories and know a quiet forest opening isn't setting up a twist, it's the warning something was wrong all along. Forests are so rarely quiet.

Unless there's snow. For my money London's "To Build a Fire" is scarier than anything Poe ever put down.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.