I Love This Idea!  However, I Think You Could Do Midsummer Night’s Dream if You Start And End The

Please remember that you CANNOT rely on rulings like this.  A conservative administration could force the FDA to change its ruling, with little or no warning.  The only way to protect access to abortion in the US is by voting out anti-abortion politicians at all levels.

Don’t get me wrong -- I think this is a great move by the FDA!  Despite the headline, though, there is no guarantee that everyone in the US will always be able to get abortion pills by mail.

Finally, some good news.

👉🏿 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/health/abortion-pills-fda.html

Are there people who don’t?  I tell my cats that I love them and I’ll be back whenever I leave.

Oh I take it way further than that.

I tell them about any errands I have to run after work that will lead me to being later than normal.

I tell them approximately how late I will be because of those errands and reassure them that I will in fact be home.

I remind them how close the weekend is.

On weekends I tell them where I’m going, how long it will take me, and offer up treats or a trip to the dog park as a bargaining chip for letting me go out.

I tell them to have good naps while I’m out.

I tell the small one, “No poops while I’m gone.”

I tell the big one not to be scared if it’s stormy outside.

I tell them they are good girls

I tell them I love them.

And ONLY THEN do I leave the house.

One of the soap vendors at my local Ren Faire has a big sign, “SOAP,” outside of their shop.  There are bars of soap displayed prominently.  The person handing out samples usually says, “Would you like a sample of soap?” or something similar.  

They also have a chalkboard where they tally the soap eaters for the day.  There are almost always at least 10-20.  On a hot day, when people have been hitting the beer booths heavily, they can get more than 50.

The market for this card may be larger than you think.

I’m still reeling over the fact when I went with my friend to a renaissance fair, there was a lady who was handing out samples. My friend took a bite of it and all I heard was

“My lord that’s soap”

This is very well done, and I love the Small God series.  However, I read the title, and my first thought was, “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of Elder Bunnies!”  And now I can’t stop thinking that.

What is he an elder of?

No one knows, exactly.

Not an elder of rabbits, since foxes can also be fluffy, as can cats, and so very many of the other dangers that stalk the night looking for a belly full of bunny; the prince with a thousand enemies can run and run forever, but in time, his legs will always be exhausted, and he will always be caught.  So no, he is not an elder of bunnies.

Not an elder of plush toys, which slip from his realm as they lose their youthful vigor and dewy softness, slipping into the realm of the Skin Horse, small god of Involuntary Reality.  He doesn’t save them, doesn’t protect them, doesn’t particularly mourn them once they are gone.  So no, he is not an elder of stuffed things.

Perhaps he is an elder of an aesthetic, of the ones who realize early on that a suitable amount of fluffiness can conceal an infinite number of knives, the ones who dress the hatred in their hearts in lace and bows and pretty pinkness in order to seem more harmless than they are.  He is an elder of appearances, and a small god of that which seems defenseless but is all the more dangerous because of that illusion’s grasp.

He is not a small god of goodness or of evil, but of the misunderstood and picked upon that can nonetheless defend itself no matter the danger.  Even rabbits, the icon of softness and vulnerability, have claws that catch and jaws that bite, and the foxes of the world forget this at their peril.

.……………………………

Artist Lee Moyer (The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, Starstruck) and author Seanan McGuire (Middlegame, Every Heart a Doorway) have joined forces to bring you icons and stories of the small deities who manage our modern world, from the God of Social Distancing to the God of Finding a Parking Space.

Join in each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many tiny divinities:

Tumblr: https://smallgodseries.tumblr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallgodseries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallgodseries/

Homepage: http://www.smallgodseries.com/

Ace cupcakes!

this took forever, but I think it’s worth it

for all of my ace folks out there <3

[swoon] 

Moomin pride icons!!! Show your pride this month with tove jansson’s beloved Moomins!

Free to use with credit! 🏳️‍🌈

Have yourself a pretty decent little Christmas, a not-so-bad Hanukkah, a mediocre Hogswatch, and/or a reasonably happy Whatever You’re Having.  Enjoy it in your own way, whether that’s glittery or gloomy.  You certainly don’t need my permission, but if you want someone to say, “Yes, it’s ok if this year isn’t the best, the brightest, the most amazing ever,” I’m here for you.  (And if it is the best and brightest and most amazing, that’s ok, too.)

I was looking at making a family christmas card for the first time in our eight years of being a family, and i feel. just.  kinda bummed out.  all these cards on shutterfly are foil-stamped and covered in glitter and say things like “merriest christmas,” “happiest holidays,” “best year ever,” “awesomest year ever.”  and maybe for some people it was.  but this wasn’t our glitteriest happiest merriest awesomest year.  and i know it wasn’t the happiest merriest awesomest year for a lot of other people too.  

for me one of the crappiest parts of commercialized christmas culture is all this pressure to make it pretty.  to be the -est: the best, the merriest, the happiest.  like if you go get professional photos taken at a christmas tree farm with wavy hair and coordinating outfits and put those photos on a embossed glittery card then somehow it erases the fact that your wife lost her job or your new baby spent three months in the nicu.  

why isn’t it ok to just have a mediocre christmas? why isn’t it ok to have a christmas card that just says plain old “happy holidays” with a mediocre pixelated cell phone pic of your family where the toddler isn’t wearing pants and you have your glasses on and no one matches?  why isn’t it ok to say this ISN’T going to be the merriest christmas? that no one is getting the shinest newest cell phone or toy because dad is in the hospital and we can’t afford it?  that some families are tired and stressed to even put up a tree or hang up lights?  

when you can’t do Big Best Christmas the way all those perfect families on instagram do christmas, the way all those families in commercials and sitcoms do christmas, it starts to make you feel.  like.  left out.  like your little bit of christmas isn’t enough.  like your twenty-dollar plastic tree with tinsel and two ornaments isn’t enough.  like your .99 cent felt stockings with names glitter-glued on isn’t enough.  

the world chants joy!! merry!! bright!! stocking stuffers!!! and you just feel alienated because the world is bellowing CHRISTMAS!! at you through a megaphone but all you want is just to whisper it quietly this year.  not every year is going to be your best christmas ever.  christmases aren’t an escalating crescendo of personal happiness and fulfillment.  some years will be harder than others.  i just want it to be a normal, good, happy thing to just have a little christmas.

Sometimes, Cards Against Humanity games get it right.  (I still prefer Bards Dispense Profanity though.)

@katy-l-wood put this in the tags, "#deciding what to eat for dinner #EVERY NIGHT #what should I cook? #babe what do you want for dinner? #I love food #but when I have to ask that question #I suddenly forget every food I like #and it never ends #personal"

My partner and I have this problem! It doesn't help that neither of us are good enough cooks to decide something on the spur of the moment that we'll both enjoy, so we have to plan a week's worth of dinners before we get groceries.

One thing that helps us is having a spreadsheet of dinner options. It includes where the recipe is, what type of protein it has, and what cooking method it uses. (We should probably add how long it takes, but we haven't gotten around to that.) This lets us look for slow cooker recipes or a way to use up the package of ground beef in the freezer.

This isn't perfect -- we still spend a lot of time staring at the spreadsheet, trying to find something that we're in the mood for and haven't done two of the last three weeks. However, it helps a lot with the "I suddenly forgot every food I like" problem!

Also, librarians are being called groomers and pedophiles for having books about LGBTQ+ people in their collections, and for having books about actual history as it pertains to people who aren’t WASPs.  The people who are trying to legislate and scare us out of existence are going after anyone who supports us as well.

Even if you aren’t LGBTQ+ or BIPOC, if you think we deserve to have rights, you need to speak up before the leopards starting eating your face, too.

every time i see discourse about pedohysteria amidst a trans genocide i think about that news article from 2016 about the mexican immigrant who voted for trump because trump said he’d get rid of all the “bad hombres” from mexico, only to be deported himself because it turns out what trump was really saying was that he wanted to deport all mexicans, not just “the bad ones”

not just him, but there were many other examples too, like white conservatives who have mexican immigrant friends and family or people in the community important to them who were mexican immigrants, and they voted for trump because they thought trump was just getting rid of “criminals”, and then they regret it when their families and communities get torn apart by deportations of their spouses, their friends, their favourite restaurant owners, etc.

anyways, i hope young queers, trans people esp, understand that when conservatives talk about “pedophiles” and “groomers”, they’re not talking about actual child abusers, they’re talking about all queer people. they’re talking about all trans people. it’s why in florida, they’re categorizing “drag” as a child sex crime, and making sex crimes against children punishable by death. they’re trying to execute every single trans person, and that’s just the rhetoric they’re using

so stop buying into the pedohysteria. it’s easy to think “well, i’m not a pedophile, so i’ll be safe” when you don’t realize that in the eyes of conservatives, every single queer person is a pedophile and deserves death, and contributing to their rhetoric by trying to figure out which trans woman is a pedophile is just accelerating your own march to the gallows