wordplay | Network

What I read

Finished The Love Surgeon - not a terribly cheering story even if the awful things the guy was doing finally got ventilated and women did take cases to court and a certain amount of guardrails got put in place around actual informed consent and medical staff who were not docs getting their concerns properly heard and so on. But having read this only today The shocking rise of rib remodelling: ‘I wanted that hourglass shape’ mucking about with women's bodies Because They Can still a thing; and of course there was the Vaginal mesh implants scandal.

I therefore went on and finished Points of Departure, before moving on to Dorothy Richardson, Dawn's Left Hand (Pilgrimage, #10) (1931), for the reading group.

Following which I felt like something that would be a complete contrast, and some weeks ago RD Wingfield's A Killing Frost (2008) was a Kobo deal - years ago I read some of the earlier ones in this series, 'Jack' Frost is the antithesis of police sleuths like Dalgliesh or Lynley, being lower-class, crude, etc, and starting out as a Detective-Sergeant in a grotty provincial town teeming with grotty provincial crime. In this one he's risen to Detective-Inspector but at odds with the brass above him. Not sure I feel inspired to go back over the series (this was the last entry and published posthumously).

Then re-read of Alison Lurie, Words and Worlds: From Autobiography to Zippers (2019) - one of those volumes collecting assorted essays, obits of friends, etc. Delphinium Books do not seem great on copy-editing, though I was vastly entertained by the thought of Mel Brooks' (rather than Mel Gibson's) Passion of Christ.

In the News

A recent article in The Cut highlights the ongoing disconnect between the growing acceptance of fanfiction and the stigma that fans themselves can still experience. Author Brooke LaMantia explores the driving forces behind fanfictions growing mainstream visibility, the creative freedom offered by AO3, and how fans feel about the changing public perception.

While it’s true that fan fiction –⁠ including steamy and sexually explicit fan fiction – might have shed some of its stigma, far from every fanfic reader or writer is eager to now go public with their hobby. […] Case in point: Most of the 12 sources I interviewed for this story requested anonymity, citing fears of judgement, doxxing, or even job loss. One woman would only speak with me if we met in person and outdoors.

Fear of judgement is not the only reason some fans prefer to keep their hobby a secret. For many fans, fanfiction allows them to express themselves and their creativity while exploring interests and sexuality without having to explain or reveal themselves. As one fan states:

Really, I don’t talk to a single soul in real life about this. It is for me and me alone.

Even among those who are open about their fanfiction reading, taboos remain.

In a recent article for Teen Vogue, author Crystal Bell examines why, when it comes to fanfiction, reading millions of words can be seen as an “addiction” –⁠ a word with negative connotation, while reading the same amount in traditionally published formats is viewed as an accomplishment.

The difference isn’t necessarily how much time we spend doing either one, but how much cultural legitimacy we’ve assigned to it. Reading a 400-page novel in a weekend is the kind of thing people brag about. Reading 100,000 words of fanfiction in the same amount of time is “unhinged,” “brain rot,” or evidence that AO3 has taken over your life. One is intellectually respectable. The other is still, on some level, cringe.

The article also looks at other language fans use when speaking about their passion for fandom and fanfiction. The author suggests that the use of dramatic language is simply a way to describe the intensity of those passions.

Fandom makes this especially messy because fandom has always spoken in exaggeration. “I like Heated Rivalry” is a limp little sentence compared to “Heated Rivalry has rewired my brain chemistry.”

OTW Tips

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Please note that some gifts change with each Drive so if there’s a specific gift you really want – ⁠don’t delay! Pins are typically available for a year from when they are released, and stickers normally change with each membership Drive (each April and October). Other gifts change every few Drives, depending on demand.

You can see all currently available donation gifts on the donation form.

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https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-october-2026/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=291955

yuletidemods in

yuletide_admin

All Yuletide requests are now visible:
-at karanguni's app [not quite updated yet but will be updated shortly!]
-at the Yuletide 2026 collection on AO3
-in a spreadsheet
-in a text doc - please note you’ll likely see a “Too Big to Load” message and will need to download the file to view it

Please check back later for pinch hitter prompts.

Enjoy!

Both the main Yuletide 2026 collection and the Yuletide Madness 2026 collection are open for posting works. Before posting your assignment, or posting a treat to either collection, please read the notes below.

( Posting, and to Which Collection )

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dailykos_feed

Posted by Emily Singer

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/28/800118666/elections/susan-collins-attack-ad-bites-her-in-the-ass/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118666

In the final week of her campaign, GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine released a new attack ad that is so elitist and condescending that even Republicans are wondering what the hell she’s thinking. The ad features Maine sports broadcaster Bill Green praising Collins and attacking Democratic candidate Troy Jackson for—I kid you not—being working class and therefore not smart enough to be a…

Source

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/28/800118666/elections/susan-collins-attack-ad-bites-her-in-the-ass/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118666

dailykos_feed

Posted by Jen Sorensen

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/28/800118452/cartoon/decision-2026/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118452

To receive my weekly newsletter with background on each cartoon, join the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon. Follow me on Bluesky or Mastodon Related | Republicans should be panicking in New Jersey…

Source

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/28/800118452/cartoon/decision-2026/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118452

skygiants

Julie Kelleher's The Sea-Glass Shore is a book by friend, but also I think a book that a number of you would be interested in, if you like selkie stories, and community work, and the call of the sea.

The Sea-Glass Shore is a selkie storie that emphatically knows how selkie stories work: when local librarian Jack starts meets the selkie Rona off the coast of his Pacific Northwest town, he clings to the idea that rip to other selkie husbands but I'm different like a mantra. This is a consensual relationship! No skins will be stolen this day! And Rona, herself, is thrilled to be part of the human world, to have company and clothing and a safe place where she feels like she belongs, after a childhood fully shaped by her mother's fear of humanity.

Then Jack and Rona settle down, buy a house, have kids -- and the presence of the kids, two new individuals who have their own distinct relationships to their selkie heritage, destabilizes everything. Living in a two-person idyll and foraging from the sea for food was fine when they did indeed have a two-person idyll, but children come with increased scrutiny, and schooling requirements, and a whole new range of responsibilities. Suddenly Rona can't just be a blithe tourist in the human world anymore; the woman from the sea with no identity and no driver's license now has to keep track of time, and days, and get her children to and from school.

And meanwhile, Jack has built his life and self-image on the bedrock of his trust in Rona -- but does he trust an adventurous child? A dissatisfied teenager?

The kids aren't the only destabilizing force in Jack and Rona's world; the cove where they've built their home between the sea and the shore is also being threatened by the forces of development, and Rona gets recruited into a sort of Charles de Lint-inflected storyline of the battle between a local crow and a sort of sinister Paul Bunyan, as refracted through small-scale community activism. But the book is most interested in exploring internal threats, not external ones, and climax it's building to is about the choices that each member of the family have to make in regards to the ways they relate to each other, and the kind of life they want to live, and the places they feel like they belong.

james_davis_nicoll

Dollmaker-turned-costume-tailor Wakana Gojo has discovered a knack for creating cosplay costumes on the fly. He will need it.

My Dress-Up Darling, Volume Four, volume 4 by Shinichi Fukuda

slashdot_feed

Posted by BeauHD

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/28/0256204/cdc-warns-of-rising-threat-of-drug-resistant-germs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

The CDC estimates that 19 drug-resistant pathogens cause 9.7 million infections and more than 50,000 deaths annually in the U.S., with resistance continuing to outpace development of new treatments. "The agency considers this problem to be one of our most urgent public health threats," reports NBC News. From the report: The report is the CDC's first comprehensive assessment of these drug-resistant pathogens in seven years. [...] The new report offers a detailed picture of these threats in the U.S., including a ranking of which are the most urgent concerns, based on the number and severity of infections they cause and how easily preventable or transmissible they are. The ranking also factors in how many treatment options exist and their costs. [...] The report estimates that 19 drug-resistant germs cause 9.7 million infections annually in the U.S. Of these, four pathogens are ranked as most worrisome, including the fungus Candida auris and the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, which has become resistant to all but one class of antibiotics used to treat it. The other two urgent threats, according to the CDC, are the bacteria Acinetobacter and Enterobacterales, both of which are resistant to a class of antibiotics widely considered a "last resort" for patients. In addition, the report adds a new bacteria to the list of "concerning" threats, which are considered less worrisome but still warrant monitoring: neisseria meningitidis, which causes meningococcal disease. The rare but life-threatening illness can be prevented through childhood vaccinations, but the bacteria that causes it is slowly developing a resistance to penicillin and another antibiotic called ciprofloxacin. The report also offers some good news: The CDC determined that the bacteria Clostridioides difficile, or "C. diff," which causes diarrhea and inflammation of the colon and can be deadly, is causing fewer cases year over year. The agency downgraded it to a serious threat, whereas it was categorized as urgent in the prior version of the report, which came out in 2019.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2325218/greenhouse-gas-levels-set-records-in-2025-un-says?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

conuly

Especially the Japanese maples.

*************************

( Read more... )

petra

Limericks for Spanking (OW), Feminization (Vorkosigan), and Inflation (Anthropomorphic) (94 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, Computers & Software (Anthropomorphic)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sergeant Taura (Vorkosigan Saga), Tumblr (Anthropomorphic)
Additional Tags: Poetry, Limericks, Spanking, Feminization, Inflation
Series: Part 27 of Kinktober 2026
Summary:

Limericks for Spanking (OW), Feminization (Vorkosigan), and Inflation (Anthropomorphic).

Current Mood: roar
Current Music: I may only have one match

katzedecimal

We just had Harvest Home! October just started yesterday! Now it's already time for Wintercearig. This is not fair.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: "High On Emotion," Chris De Burgh

conuly

So, first, the next door neighbor starts trying to talk to me through the window right in the middle of the breakfast rush, aka "the absolute busiest and most hectic time of the day, same as it is in your house". After spending ten seconds listening with no real comprehension of what he was trying to say, I finally replied "Sir, I'm working. If this is important, you'll have to come back and talk to the manager or supervisor during the day". It was six in the morning! FFS.

Then, later, as we're getting them all on the bus, some absolute asshole decides not to wait and instead just ease her way past us. Which is very illegal, and also of course rude and dangerous. She could've hit one of them! She doesn't hit one of them, but she does sideswipe a parked car and knock one of the rearview mirrors clean off. She gets out of her own car, puts the mirror back on, and after confirming that none of us owns the car - drives off! My coworker was infuriated, but I guess he didn't see that coming. I saw that coming and left a note with the woman's license plate number and appearance on it. Though I forgot to put my own phone number, and next time I go in, if I see the car, I'll leave a slightly apologetic follow-up note, in case they need some sort of witness or corroboration. Because fuck that shit.

Some people, seriously.

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

dailykos_feed

Posted by kos

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/27/800118488/culture/republicans-claim-to-value-honesty-and-integrity-i-call-bullsh-t/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118488

In a newly published analysis of polling conducted back in May, Gallup asked Americans which values they believed the country needed most. The answers were encouraging. Honesty (34%), responsibility (32%), and integrity (31%) topped the list, followed by equality (29%) and fairness (26%). Republicans had their own priorities. Asked to name the three most important values, 46%

Source

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/27/800118488/culture/republicans-claim-to-value-honesty-and-integrity-i-call-bullsh-t/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118488

dailykos_feed

Posted by keefknight

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/27/800118462/cartoon/bingo-card-2/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118462

Now more than ever, we modern-day court jesters need your support! Become a paid subscriber to any (or all!) of the platforms below to keep Keef gentleman-cartooning into the future and beyond! www.patreon.com/keefknight keithknight.substack.com ko-fi.com/… kchronicles.com/… Related | Blue wave could wash away GOP’s corrupt gerrymander project…

Source

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/27/800118462/cartoon/bingo-card-2/

https://www.dailykos.com/?p=800118462

slashdot_feed

Posted by BeauHD

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2151204/fords-most-affordable-ev-will-offer-built-in-bidirectional-home-charging?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Ford's upcoming $28,350 Fathom electric truck will include a built-in inverter capable of supplying up to 10 kW of AC power to a home, bringing bidirectional charging to a significantly cheaper EV. Owners will still need additional Ford home hardware for features like outage backup and peak-rate energy management, but the company expects the necessary equipment to cost substantially less than its previous-generation system. CNET reports: The upcoming Fathom will be based on what Ford calls its Universal EV Platform, designed with the aid of its 2023 acquisition, startup Auto Motive Power, with bidirectional power on the plate from the start. The hardware required to invert the battery's DC energy to an estimated 10 kW of AC home power will be built into the truck, so it won't require a separate wall-mounted inverter box. Ford says the Fathom's system will meet all applicable UL 1741 requirements and IEEE 1547 standards to ensure the vehicle is safely connected to the grid. As for the actual hardware you plug into your car, all signs point to the Fathom using the NACS plug type pioneered by Tesla and now widely adopted by new EVs in North America. In terms of the communication standard -- the one that governs how AC power is routed from the slim wall box to the car's onboard charger -- that'll be via SAE J3068, a software protocol developed for high-power, heavy-duty AC charging. [...] However, while Fathom's Universal EV Platform eliminates the need for a wall inverter box, it doesn't completely bypass the need for additional hardware to make your home ready to accept bidirectional power. Say you wanted to take advantage of the Home Power Management feature to draw energy into the Fathom's battery when power is cheapest, and then use that energy to offset peak-hour usage when power is most expensive. You'll have to install at least the Ford Home Power Station in your home, at an additional cost. The automaker hasn't specified pricing, but says that it's working to reduce costs and expects this component alone to cost half as much as the first-generation Ford Home Energy system, which debuted at around $1,300. That could put the new system at roughly $650.

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April 2011

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Page Summary

oursin - Wednesday is getting used to the new pillow
dailykos_feed - Trump’s four-minute homoerotic soliloquy
dailykos_feed - Trump threatens to put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court, and more
dailykos_feed - Neil Young shows rockin’ ain’t free, sues Trump for $10 million
otw_news_feed - OTW Signal, October 2026
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - 2026 Requests + How and Where to Post Fics
dailykos_feed - Susan Collins’ new attack ad bites her in the ass
dailykos_feed - Decision 2026
skygiants - (no subject)
james_davis_nicoll - My Dress-Up Darling, Volume Four, volume 4 by Shinichi Fukuda
slashdot_feed - CDC Warns of Rising Threat of Drug-Resistant Germs
slashdot_feed - Greenhouse Gas Levels Set Records In 2025, UN Says
conuly - The trees are so pretty this time of year, I absolutely love it
petra - Kintober 2026: Limericks for Spanking, Feminization (Vorkosigan), and Inflation (Anthropomorphic)
katzedecimal - How is it already Samhainn??
conuly - Today at work
princessofgeeks - real life strikes again
dailykos_feed - Republicans claim to value honesty and integrity. I call bullsh-t.
dailykos_feed - Bingo card
slashdot_feed - Ford's Most Affordable EV Will Offer Built-In Bidirectional Home Charging

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