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Fandom Trumps Hate 2026
Jan. 21st, 2026 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wongTheir calendar is here -- creator sign-ups open on the 26th Jan:
https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53196.html
Their list of non-profits they're supporting is here:
https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53468.html
Apparently last year they raised $127K!
https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53196.html
Their list of non-profits they're supporting is here:
https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53468.html
Apparently last year they raised $127K!
AI时代 | age of AI
Jan. 20th, 2026 09:47 pmstarandreaMy workplace requires the use of LLM as AI, so I pay particular attention to how it comes up in my hobbies. Every day is a chance to learn more than I knew before.
Will AI replace Chinese teachers | Chinese podcast #184, by Dashu Mandarin 大叔中文
Ben: I don't think I'll be replaced by AI; I'll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
Richard: You'll be replaced by PeiPei.
PeiPei: Follow me!
Richard: If you can't beat them, join them, right?
Ben: 我是觉得呃我不会被AI取代但是我会被会AI的。
Richard: 你会被珮珮取代。
PeiPei: 跟着我干吧！
Richard: 对打不过就加入是吧？
Will AI replace Chinese teachers | Chinese podcast #184, by Dashu Mandarin 大叔中文
Ben: I don't think I'll be replaced by AI; I'll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
Richard: You'll be replaced by PeiPei.
PeiPei: Follow me!
Richard: If you can't beat them, join them, right?
Ben: 我是觉得呃我不会被AI取代但是我会被会AI的。
Richard: 你会被珮珮取代。
PeiPei: 跟着我干吧！
Richard: 对打不过就加入是吧？
on the road
Jan. 20th, 2026 03:00 pmthe_shoshannaI'm in Massachusetts visiting friends and family, and the US border guard was even brusquer and more unfriendly than the one the last time I crossed the border. They used to be reliably genial-while-professional, and now they're barking grumpy questions at me -- and I'm a white English-speaking US citizen with a NEXUS card (pre-screened, "trusted traveler"). A Canadian friend who drove across the border last year said that guards were going down the line of cars waiting to approach the booth and pulling people out to interrogate them on the side of the road, and who'd a thunk it, everyone they pulled out was brown. (When I crossed yesterday, I was the only car in sight, which I'd love to think was because Canadian travel to the US is way down, but probably had more to do with the extremely bad weather forecast that day. I managed to get south of the storm band before it hit, though.)
My obsession with Heated Rivalry continues, though I'm trying hard not to be That Fan at people. I have successfully recommended it to two board members at my church 😈 A friend I'll spend a week with this summer wants to watch it with me then, so I have that to look forward to, and there's a chance I'll get to watch it with other friends this weekend, if they're interested. Meanwhile I'm reading a lot of fic, but also freely DNFing anything that isn't working for me, whether for characterization or bad grammar or spelling it "Rosanov."
["Why, oh why, do people keep incorrectly capitalizing dialog-tag fragments like this?" She wailed. -- I mean, I know why they do it: because autocorrect sees the punctuation ending the quotation and thinks the dialog tag is a new sentence, and the writer is foolishly trusting autocorrect over the evidence of every published text they've ever read. But it drives me nuts; my sense of the flow and pacing of a sentence is very much guided by its punctuation, and this is like hitting a pothole every time.]
Geoff and I have started the new season of The Pitt, and certainly I'm liking it so far! It's interesting how much less chaotic the ER seems than it was in the first couple episodes of the first season. I'm very curious about all the characters they've introduced (and about where Mateo, the World's Hottest Nurse™️, is), and I love seeing Whitaker now a fully qualified MD with his own little ducklings following him around. (Is he still living with Santos?) I don't see an overarching plot yetother than "just how suicidal is Dr. Robby?" but/and I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going.
My obsession with Heated Rivalry continues, though I'm trying hard not to be That Fan at people. I have successfully recommended it to two board members at my church 😈 A friend I'll spend a week with this summer wants to watch it with me then, so I have that to look forward to, and there's a chance I'll get to watch it with other friends this weekend, if they're interested. Meanwhile I'm reading a lot of fic, but also freely DNFing anything that isn't working for me, whether for characterization or bad grammar or spelling it "Rosanov."
["Why, oh why, do people keep incorrectly capitalizing dialog-tag fragments like this?" She wailed. -- I mean, I know why they do it: because autocorrect sees the punctuation ending the quotation and thinks the dialog tag is a new sentence, and the writer is foolishly trusting autocorrect over the evidence of every published text they've ever read. But it drives me nuts; my sense of the flow and pacing of a sentence is very much guided by its punctuation, and this is like hitting a pothole every time.]
Geoff and I have started the new season of The Pitt, and certainly I'm liking it so far! It's interesting how much less chaotic the ER seems than it was in the first couple episodes of the first season. I'm very curious about all the characters they've introduced (and about where Mateo, the World's Hottest Nurse™️, is), and I love seeing Whitaker now a fully qualified MD with his own little ducklings following him around. (Is he still living with Santos?) I don't see an overarching plot yet
(no subject)
Jan. 20th, 2026 11:55 amsoc_puppetFffffffuuuuuck, I just remembered some other ficlets I need to rescue from LJ.
...I'll probably be fine if I have a nap first, right?
...I'll probably be fine if I have a nap first, right?
Today's grump: philosophy
Jan. 20th, 2026 06:09 pmfred_mouse.. I'm not being grumpy at all philosophy today, although I have days when I encounter bits and I have Thoughts and Opinions that can be summed up as 'philsophy sucks'. I have not, historically, engaged very well with particular bits of philosophical thinking and/or the way it is presented.
Today, I'm struggling, because I am being too literal. And because the starting point is swan == white, and then the author is extrapolating out from that. I, however, fall over at the first hurdle, because I have to stop and parse swan==white, and spend time getting out of my comfort zone, rather than starting in my comfort zone. And I get that this is Western Australia is a niche case (and, presumably, anywhere our swans have gone and set up communities) issue.
And not only do I struggle when I encounter this damn thinking. But I get annoyed. Black swans have been known about *in Europe*---the source of most of the philosophy I try reading---for at least 150 years (the Swan River Colony was established in 1829, there were French and Dutch explorers in the vicinity before). These explanations don't start with 'let us assume that there are only white swans' or anything acknowledging this. Or at least, the ones I remember encountering don't.
I hate not being able to grasp the foundational thought on which the next n pieces are built. It makes it so hard to read. I suspect I'm going to skip this chapter and see whether the next one (different authors) is better.
reputation vs reality (but not as it applies to the grandmaster of demonic cultivation)
Jan. 19th, 2026 10:06 pmstarandreaLLM as AI is everywhere in the language-learning space, from chatbot "tutors" to my favorite prompt: "Tell me about this story in another language." So I'm learning, as they say, through immersion.
Here's what NotebookLM produced when I asked for its basic "deep dive" on "The Untamed," using only the episode transcripts as a source. It makes mistakes, but I was particularly interested in what it identified as important and why.
Also, it was unexpectedly funny.
(This is actually a Turboscribe transcript of the podcast NotebookLM produced; I've labeled the speakers "Host 1" and "Host 2.")
( notebooklm analyzes the Untamed scripts: reputation vs reality )
Here's what NotebookLM produced when I asked for its basic "deep dive" on "The Untamed," using only the episode transcripts as a source. It makes mistakes, but I was particularly interested in what it identified as important and why.
Also, it was unexpectedly funny.
(This is actually a Turboscribe transcript of the podcast NotebookLM produced; I've labeled the speakers "Host 1" and "Host 2.")
( notebooklm analyzes the Untamed scripts: reputation vs reality )
Dept. of Holy Days
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:42 pmkaffy_rHe Had More Than a Dream
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had grit and determination, and strength and righteous anger that he controlled in the name of peaceful progress, and pride that he wanted Black Americans to recognize and adopt for themselves. He believed in this country - god knows why, given how much hell America put Black people through, all the way from 1615 to the then-current day - and he worked like hell to make it a better one.
He risked himself and his family, with constant death threats and a firebombing at his home in 1958. He almost died after being stabbed in the same year. He risked his reputation and his legacy, surviving several arrests and jailings. He risked those who believed in him and in what he had to say, because he knew those who hated him would hate those who believed in him.
He fought for what he shouldn't have had to fight for; true understanding of what Black Americans deserve, and what White America has resolutely refused to admit was required.
He fought against nasty, petty, and powerful men like J. Edgar Hoover, who spread filth and lies about Dr. King. Why? Because he was afraid of Dr. King. He hated what Dr. King stood for, so he tried to erase the man. He wasn't the only one.
After his stabbing, Dr. King had one more decade to shake the foundations of this country, to start the Poor People's Campaign and to oppose the Vietnam War. And then White America killed him.
Who called for the assassination? Did someone pay James Earl Ray? All of that kind of misses the point. Ultimately, the real conspiracy is what people in this country have insisted on doing ever since that April morning at the Lorraine Motel.
For more than 57 years America has worked tirelessly to erase his truth. America wants everyone to remember him only as he spoke during the March on Washington, choosing to turn those powerful words into an anodyne formula they want to speed the erasure of real history. Some of them manage to listen to Dr. King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech and cry tears about his unnervingly prophetic commentary.
But they don't like reading his letter from a Birmingham jail. They can't stand his anti-war stance. They loathe his pro-union beliefs, his support of poor people of all colors.
It's still White America that fears him the most; rich white Americans, anti-union white Americans, pro-capitalism white Americans, the people who understand that he had grown so much larger and more dangerous to their power than they'd thought he would be.
Let's remember him for what he was. A warrior.
And I'll try not to be part of the problem, but part of the solution, as difficult as that will be.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had grit and determination, and strength and righteous anger that he controlled in the name of peaceful progress, and pride that he wanted Black Americans to recognize and adopt for themselves. He believed in this country - god knows why, given how much hell America put Black people through, all the way from 1615 to the then-current day - and he worked like hell to make it a better one.
He risked himself and his family, with constant death threats and a firebombing at his home in 1958. He almost died after being stabbed in the same year. He risked his reputation and his legacy, surviving several arrests and jailings. He risked those who believed in him and in what he had to say, because he knew those who hated him would hate those who believed in him.
He fought for what he shouldn't have had to fight for; true understanding of what Black Americans deserve, and what White America has resolutely refused to admit was required.
He fought against nasty, petty, and powerful men like J. Edgar Hoover, who spread filth and lies about Dr. King. Why? Because he was afraid of Dr. King. He hated what Dr. King stood for, so he tried to erase the man. He wasn't the only one.
After his stabbing, Dr. King had one more decade to shake the foundations of this country, to start the Poor People's Campaign and to oppose the Vietnam War. And then White America killed him.
Who called for the assassination? Did someone pay James Earl Ray? All of that kind of misses the point. Ultimately, the real conspiracy is what people in this country have insisted on doing ever since that April morning at the Lorraine Motel.
For more than 57 years America has worked tirelessly to erase his truth. America wants everyone to remember him only as he spoke during the March on Washington, choosing to turn those powerful words into an anodyne formula they want to speed the erasure of real history. Some of them manage to listen to Dr. King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech and cry tears about his unnervingly prophetic commentary.
But they don't like reading his letter from a Birmingham jail. They can't stand his anti-war stance. They loathe his pro-union beliefs, his support of poor people of all colors.
It's still White America that fears him the most; rich white Americans, anti-union white Americans, pro-capitalism white Americans, the people who understand that he had grown so much larger and more dangerous to their power than they'd thought he would be.
Let's remember him for what he was. A warrior.
And I'll try not to be part of the problem, but part of the solution, as difficult as that will be.
FIC: Physicians' Quarters and Medical Academy (Tempestuous Tours)
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:36 pmduskpetersonSo famed is the Empire of Emor for its law system that many foreigners do not realize that Emor holds accomplishments in other arts. Foremost among these arts is medicine.
Until the practice of medical training was formalized in Emor, the knowledge of how to heal was informally passed on by peninsularean men and women who received no special training. Despite these drawbacks, some of the healers were quite good; Koretia's healing women deserve special mention. But the creation of the Medical Academy during the period of the Middle Charas caused knowledge of healing to leap forward immensely. These days, many a healing woman, priest, or bard will travel north to spend time in the Medical Academy, learning valuable lessons.
The Physicians' Quarters next door were created after the Medical Academy, as a place to allow students to work under experienced doctors. The Physicians' Quarters cares for city residents and a select number of soldiers who are undergoing lengthy convalescence.
Because of the doctors' important work, visitors may find it difficult to obtain entrance to either the Quarters or the Academy. I've found that dropping a rock on my foot does the trick.
[Translator's note: The protagonist of Death Mask begins his journey at the Physicians' Quarters.]
vital functions
Jan. 18th, 2026 11:07 pmkaberettReading. Small progress on Index, A history of the (Dennis Duncan); quite a lot of Wrangling My Terrible E-mail Situation feat. skimming geochemistry abstracts; flipped through some of the latest batch of Alex Was Sad cookbooks; also some more poking to see if there's, like, An Official Formulation of CBT-(for-)I(nsomnia), and came to the conclusion that the reason I can't find it is that there isn't. Exactly.
Writing. Alas I have not made sufficient progress this week to announce that the number at the front of the wordcount of The Putative Book has got bigger, BUT I have spent a bunch of time tinkering with ideas and asking you lot things, so. Maybe. Maybe this will be the week the second complete reworking of the introduction actually takes shape.
Playing. I continue with Squardle (via vass) and, despite its shortcomings, Metaflora (via ewt). Sudoku remains The Special Interest Of The Moment.
Cooking. It has been a Weird Week for food because A and I have mostly not been eating together (because A has been unwell and mostly not eating), but: another dal variant for my breakfasts (thereby also ticking off another item on the Cook The Cookbook project list), and lots of minor variations on Leon's ~superfood salad~ from days of yore.
Making & mending. Technically progress on glove and learning continental knitting; in practice I'm probably going to frog it and have Attempt #3 At Tension.
Growing. Lemongrass is germinating! Lithops are germinating?????
At home: the overwintered bell peppers and ancho chilli are turning Ripe Colours. The overwintered jalapeño is extremely unwell and I should... do something about that. Both orchids continue Determinedly Making Flower Stems.
At the plot: I MADE IT TO THE PLOT, Project: Bulk Up The Spinach Seed is progressing, and I have done a tiny bit of weeding and infrastructure (mostly taking down last year's growing supports...). At some point I will want to kick the things that are currently in the propagator out of the propagator in order to sow the next batch of seeds, but they'll get a little longer yet.
And more saffron keeps appearing in the various places it's planted on the patio, though I sincerely doubt any of it will flower...
starandreaI started learning Chinese in the Arisia registration line seven years ago this weekend. I gave myself five years to figure out how hard it would be, and another five to be able to use it. By the end of this year, I'll be more than halfway through the second five years.
I'm pretty sure I'll spend the rest of my life learning Chinese. It's more than a language to me; it's a fundamentally different way of looking at the universe. At the end of the day we're all more alike than different, and I care a lot about the stories we tell. Language is a filter and a tool that lets us share each other's perspectives.
Chinese storytelling is different from English storytelling in part because it's based on different assumptions about why we're here, where "here" even is, what happens before and after this life, and who and what we share it with.
Experiencing this is like sneaking a whole second life into my time here on Earth. So efficient. So exciting.
In conclusion,
♥ Today is "one day," and there's no guarantee of another one like it.
♥ Do what you want to get good at: it's the best practice and great motivation. Plus you get to do the thing, why wait?
♥ As Marci says, "five years" is going to pass anyway. Let's make them interesting.
( notes from Arisia 2019: 'writing outside your comfort zone' )
I'm pretty sure I'll spend the rest of my life learning Chinese. It's more than a language to me; it's a fundamentally different way of looking at the universe. At the end of the day we're all more alike than different, and I care a lot about the stories we tell. Language is a filter and a tool that lets us share each other's perspectives.
Chinese storytelling is different from English storytelling in part because it's based on different assumptions about why we're here, where "here" even is, what happens before and after this life, and who and what we share it with.
Experiencing this is like sneaking a whole second life into my time here on Earth. So efficient. So exciting.
In conclusion,
♥ Today is "one day," and there's no guarantee of another one like it.
♥ Do what you want to get good at: it's the best practice and great motivation. Plus you get to do the thing, why wait?
♥ As Marci says, "five years" is going to pass anyway. Let's make them interesting.
( notes from Arisia 2019: 'writing outside your comfort zone' )
Shoebox of Dreams Kept Under My Bed
Jan. 18th, 2026 03:02 pmglindaSpeaking of making a good start on some new year’s resolutions, I thought I’d break myself easy with the re-read/re-watch project with something fairly short.
I was, for reasons, re-reading a bunch of raven’s fic the other night and came across and re-read their Piranesi fic from yuletide (I think?) a few years back. It reminded me how much I enjoyed the book and made me want to re-read it. In a remarkably sensible move, given that I was just sitting at my computer reading fic and chilling to classical music, I got up and grabbed it from the shelf, sat back down and started reading it, planning just to read the first chapter before bed to get me started on the project. I read half the book that night and the rest of it the following morning. (I pretty much only didn’t just stay up stupid late because I got uncomfortable in my desk chair and in getting up to decant to the sofa realised the time and reluctantly made the sensible choice to go to bed.
( Here be Spoilers )
I was, for reasons, re-reading a bunch of raven’s fic the other night and came across and re-read their Piranesi fic from yuletide (I think?) a few years back. It reminded me how much I enjoyed the book and made me want to re-read it. In a remarkably sensible move, given that I was just sitting at my computer reading fic and chilling to classical music, I got up and grabbed it from the shelf, sat back down and started reading it, planning just to read the first chapter before bed to get me started on the project. I read half the book that night and the rest of it the following morning. (I pretty much only didn’t just stay up stupid late because I got uncomfortable in my desk chair and in getting up to decant to the sofa realised the time and reluctantly made the sensible choice to go to bed.
( Here be Spoilers )
Book Bingo: G1 | An author's debut/first book | Where the Dark Stands Still
Jan. 18th, 2026 08:37 amseleneheartWhere the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
Blurb:
I seem to have fallen into reading books in a small niche genre of Polish folk/fairy tales turned into novels. If I hadn't previously read Uprooted, I might have rated this one more highly. Liska is a good character, but I found the story too derivative - of Beauty and the Beast, Howl's Moving Castle, and Uprooted itself. YA novels can be complex and original but this is not one of them. However, I didn't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it was an enjoyable read.
The cover art is gorgeous and on point.
Blurb:
Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.
Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling [discovery] - she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.
I seem to have fallen into reading books in a small niche genre of Polish folk/fairy tales turned into novels. If I hadn't previously read Uprooted, I might have rated this one more highly. Liska is a good character, but I found the story too derivative - of Beauty and the Beast, Howl's Moving Castle, and Uprooted itself. YA novels can be complex and original but this is not one of them. However, I didn't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it was an enjoyable read.
The cover art is gorgeous and on point.
snowflake challenge #8
Jan. 18th, 2026 12:15 amsvgurl
Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
There are so many tropes that I love but I'll try to narrow it down, though I'm sure I will forget a couple.
Amnesia: I lean toward partial amnesia rather than complete, but I'll read both! There's something really appealing about a character trying to figure out what has changed in their life since the last thing they remember, especially when it comes to the love interest. Seeing them look at a relationship with new eyes or try to struggle to remember the already established one gives me both angst and humorous possibilities, both which I enjoy. And I love it from the other side too! Where the LI wants them to remember but also wants to help them heal at their own pace (while pining!).
Canon Divergence/Fork In the Road: There are always points in canon, or even pre-canon, where I wonder 'what if x had happened instead of y' and it's just interesting to explore the possibilities.
Fake Dating/Relationship/Marriage of Convenience: Whether it is for something low stakes like needing a date for a wedding or trying to escape the "helpful" matchmaking of friends/relatives or a little more high stakes like going undercover, this trope is just fun and full of pining, angst, and potential for others, like misunderstandings and accidental love confessions. All of which I enjoy. I like it when one half of the ship has feelings or both have feelings and think that this is all they can ever get. Or when they don't even consider each other and slowly fall for one another while they're "pretending". This extends to marriages where the ship gets married for "reasons" and then just doesn't want to divorce but thinks the other one doesn't want that.
( a few more )
Hope You Find Someone Better Than Me Tonight
Jan. 17th, 2026 11:38 pmglindaOoooh fandom_trees got revealed, I went looking for a needy tree over the holidays, found one looking for Edge of Tomorrow and thought ‘oh I have that, I should rewatch it’ and wrote this. It was my last watched film of last year and my first finished fic of this year which is pleasing to me. A nice end to my film rewatch project from last year where I pretty much wrote a fic for each film I re-watched.
Possibly/Probably (The Best Friend You've Never Met) (1599 words) by Glinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Cage/Rita Vrataski, William Cage & Rita Vrataski
Characters: William Cage, Rita Vrataski, Dr. Carter (Edge of Tomorrow)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Friendship, final 'first' meeting
Summary: It’s a cliche often repeated, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Cage tries all the same.
Possibly/Probably (The Best Friend You've Never Met) (1599 words) by Glinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Cage/Rita Vrataski, William Cage & Rita Vrataski
Characters: William Cage, Rita Vrataski, Dr. Carter (Edge of Tomorrow)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Friendship, final 'first' meeting
Summary: It’s a cliche often repeated, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Cage tries all the same.
[eyb] you continue magnificently helpful!
Jan. 17th, 2026 11:01 pmkaberettThe context for yesterday's frivolous low-stakes question was of course indexing for Eat Your Books, where I've been stalled on my current cookbook for... a while... for ...reasons... including but not limited to needing to ask for a bunch of new ingredients to be added, and then having a social anxiety about ever touching the work-in-progress again.
And then I did touch it again! And a recipe where I'd requested the new ingredient "mixed leaf salad" had instead... been given the ingredient "mixed greens", synonymous with the base ingredient "mixed lettuces".
The cookbook in question is The National Trust Cookbook; The recipe is Goat's cheese tartlets with pickled cucumber; the headnote to the recipe includes
Serve with a home-grown asparagus, pea and broad bean salad mixed with baby salad leaves.
The ingredients for the salad, helpfully listed under the subheading "To serve", are:
12 spears of English asparagus, woody ends trimmed off 55g/2oz podded broad beans 85g/3oz fresh or frozen peas 70g/2½oz mixed leaf salad with rocket leaves 3 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil 1 tsp runny honey
So I am reassured that the breakdown of opinions falls almost entirely along side-of-the-pond lines, suggesting that the reason I'm going "this is neither of these two things??? if EYB told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean mixed leaf salad I'd be extremely annoyed??? if a recipe told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean lettuces--" because, yes, I think "mixed greens" are a thing that need cooking (probably referring to brassica but I only roll my eyes a little at pre-packaged bowls that decide that various forms of pea, broccoli, and leek also count), and "mixed lettuces" is a strictly narrower category than "mixed leaf salad".
I had absolutely no idea that this might be a point of US/UK confusion, and thank you all for providing me with Data!
Dept. of Memes
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:56 amkaffy_rMusic Meme, Day 19
A song to drive to:
Years ago, Bob and I, and Drs. Bob and Gonzo (respectively the husband of Dr. Gonzo, and his wife, our 300-pound Samoan Attorney*) went on a legendary road trip from Chicago up through Toronto and east through Quebec, New Brunswick, and down to Nova Scotia to visit my mother, thence over to Maine and down to New York to visit Dr. Bob and Gonzo's families. After that, we headed west back to Chicago.
It was a hell of a ride, and we ruined Bob and Gonzo's poor little 4-goat-power Ford Escort. But oh, the memories! Gonzo and I being mistaken for Times Square working girls by a NYPD patrol officer while the two Bobs were behind us in a porn shop, perusing available material ... introducing the doctors to the Bay of Fundy in Halls Harbor and other small harbors, introducing them to my beloved mum and my amazing brother ... dealing with Gonzo's mother, who we learned to llove despite everything ....
And driving. Driving on the flat land between Chicago and Toronto, stopping at an open bar in Toronto for breakfast after driving all night. Dr. Gonzo discovering how much fun it was to drive 80 mph (she'd worried about that, until we were passed by an RCMP car going even faster). Dr. Bob discovering how much he loved driving up and down hills in Maine, shouting "Banzai!" as he did.
Going up and down small hills, then longer hills, higher hills. The hills everywhere on our trip were part of the fun.
My first big hill came accompanied by this song; heading down faster and faster, while the Boss told us about the girl he's in hopeless love with, while the bass and keyboards anchored the song that threatens to go off the rails with his longing, with the multi-part ending not letting go until absolutely necessary.
To this day, I remember the joy of going faster and faster to this song. It's probably lucky that I don't have easy access to it while driving these days.
Here's the original from his breakout album.
Here are links to the previous days of this meme. Day 17, and Day 16 cover the waterfront.
Here is a live version of the song in all its overheated glory All iterations of his E-Street Band were and are fantastic. This was from a performance before the deaths of keyboardist Danny Federici, and The Big Man, Clarence Clemens.
* Ed Sunden gave our beloved bass playing lawyer the sobriquet Dr. Gonzo, naming her in honor of Hunter Thompson's sidekick from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the amazing Oscar, Zeta Acosta, an attorney, writer and activist in his own right.
A song to drive to:
Years ago, Bob and I, and Drs. Bob and Gonzo (respectively the husband of Dr. Gonzo, and his wife, our 300-pound Samoan Attorney*) went on a legendary road trip from Chicago up through Toronto and east through Quebec, New Brunswick, and down to Nova Scotia to visit my mother, thence over to Maine and down to New York to visit Dr. Bob and Gonzo's families. After that, we headed west back to Chicago.
It was a hell of a ride, and we ruined Bob and Gonzo's poor little 4-goat-power Ford Escort. But oh, the memories! Gonzo and I being mistaken for Times Square working girls by a NYPD patrol officer while the two Bobs were behind us in a porn shop, perusing available material ... introducing the doctors to the Bay of Fundy in Halls Harbor and other small harbors, introducing them to my beloved mum and my amazing brother ... dealing with Gonzo's mother, who we learned to llove despite everything ....
And driving. Driving on the flat land between Chicago and Toronto, stopping at an open bar in Toronto for breakfast after driving all night. Dr. Gonzo discovering how much fun it was to drive 80 mph (she'd worried about that, until we were passed by an RCMP car going even faster). Dr. Bob discovering how much he loved driving up and down hills in Maine, shouting "Banzai!" as he did.
Going up and down small hills, then longer hills, higher hills. The hills everywhere on our trip were part of the fun.
My first big hill came accompanied by this song; heading down faster and faster, while the Boss told us about the girl he's in hopeless love with, while the bass and keyboards anchored the song that threatens to go off the rails with his longing, with the multi-part ending not letting go until absolutely necessary.
To this day, I remember the joy of going faster and faster to this song. It's probably lucky that I don't have easy access to it while driving these days.
Here's the original from his breakout album.
Here are links to the previous days of this meme. Day 17, and Day 16 cover the waterfront.
Here is a live version of the song in all its overheated glory All iterations of his E-Street Band were and are fantastic. This was from a performance before the deaths of keyboardist Danny Federici, and The Big Man, Clarence Clemens.
* Ed Sunden gave our beloved bass playing lawyer the sobriquet Dr. Gonzo, naming her in honor of Hunter Thompson's sidekick from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the amazing Oscar, Zeta Acosta, an attorney, writer and activist in his own right.
