#Israel #Politics

"One person who spoke with Biden said the president felt Netanyahu had humiliated both Blinken and Biden with his back-and-forth about a cease-fire proposal with Hezbollah.

Netanyahu at first told U.S. officials he supported a pause in fighting with the ... militant group, then roundly rejected the cease-fire proposal once it was made public."

It's okay to feel frustrated.

The world is run by warmongers & those who keep trying to reason with them. 🫂

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/27/israel-targeted-hezbollah-nasrallah-beirut-bombing-00181439

I had to pay cat tax on my way back from the local tienda, in the form of many head scritches and belly rubs to pass.

This local suck always runs ahead of me so that I have to pay cat tax twice or even three times on my return route!

Inflation be wild these days.
Plan accordingly!

#CatsOfCoSo #Caturday

All right. Time to try to finish this story and send it off.

TTFN, you beautiful rotters.

#AmWriting

Not looking forward to next week's Rewind Wednesday.

It's important to write, though, because anyone who knows the value of memorial work has been despairing at how many lies are still repeated a year later.

Just finished putting together notes about more of the debunked stories today, and it makes me cry how the actual victims' memories were dishonoured.

They were brutally slaughtered - and then used as props by their country for more slaughter.

We are the worst species, outside of bedbugs.

I'm having one of those days where it's difficult to care about any of my own work, because, like, what does any of it even matter, maaaan.

So, I am off to do a crossword with a friend, add more Spanish vocab to my ever-growing library (I especially love the turns of phrase I pick up from news articles and the food column every Saturday), and then...

Well, then maybe we'll try to get an SF story in a submission queue by day's end? We'll see if my heart's in it on my return. 🤷‍♀️

#TBLVibes

Everyone doin' okay today?

Lot of vibes seem off this morning.

Most of what we do doesn't really matter to anyone but ourselves and the little spheres of influence we can reach.

So take care of yourselves first, eh?

Especially when there's so little we can do about all the big stuff going wrong. 🫂

😊 I doubt myself in a lot of capacities, but boy howdy.

I run a tight Zoom meeting, even when faced with some fascinating personality types in attendance, if I do say so myself.

You see these ducks?

They didn't start all in a row - but they sure as heck are in one now. 👌

Because of the weird way that women in Hollywood are treated, my first experience of Maggie Smith was in Hook (1991), so I was shocked to see her look much younger in so much of what she did thereafter.

What a gift of a career, and a life. May we all be so fortunate to live to our fullest.

Oh, this hit close to home. 👌🏻 Gotta get those steps in during polycrisis!

Definitely interrupted a private moment this morning. #Flower and #NotFlower #BugFriends #Nature

Off to be in meetings all day. TTFN!

Tomorrow's a long day with more Zoom meetings, so I'm posting the weekend #Ekphrasis challenge early.

This one is a reverse challenge! I have here a very short story ("flash fiction"), and I'm encouraging writers, painters, photographers, etc, to let this person's work inspire a poem, a story, a painting, a photo: whatever you feel inspired to create this weekend, after reading it & sitting with its themes.

Post & boast what you create!

#CoSoWriters #WritingCommunity #CoSoArt #CoSoPhotography

For Thorough Thursday, we're reflecting on an oft-told story about a major brawl in baseball's history.

But here, I'm more interested in how the way we tell this story invites us to lean into either the worst of our nature, or ideas about how we can improve.

What kind of group species do we want to be, and what would it take to get us there?

#History #Baseball #Sportsball #HumanBehaviour #Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/and-now-another-religion-baseball

Our very own @stephen_a_allen is a finalist in Rattle's annual #Poem competition!

There will be a Reader's Choice vote among subscribers in February, and I hope everyone who follows Rattle considers participating in that review of all the finalists, to pick the piece they love best for a second financial prize.

(But even without the money, what a lovely top honour! I can't wait to read all these pieces. Congratulations, Stephen!)

#CoSoWriters #WritingCommunity #Poetry
https://www.rattle.com/prize/winners/w2024/

Home internet keeps switching off and on, so today's baseball-history* piece for the newsletter will be delayed.

Turning to an offline project, and going to work in the mall, so I don't lose my mind for now. (Well, more of it.)

---

*You know me well if that topic raised an eyebrow. It's not *really* about baseball. It's about human behaviour, as ever.

#Soon #AmEditing

Taxes finished. 👍🏻

Just trying to figure out the new "secure" (read: labyrinthine) payment system.

Always tricky in a second language, & when double-checking exchange-rate calculations for income.

2023 was also the year in which I fundraised for César, whose kids still died essentially from poverty (one from complications from pneumonia; one after a seizure from prolonged malnutrition) despite all our best efforts.

Definitely some melancholy there.

Too much senseless death in the world.

Ugh. Gotta shake of that bad meeting before sitting down for taxes and editing.

BBL. Talking to trees.

I don't always come out of professional meetings with the voice in my head suddenly sounding like Foghorn Leghorn, with all the "what-for" I want to give to whoever's around, but today I did. 🙃

"Boy, I say, boy~!"

@ACG2 Random afternoon howdy and a hug to you! 🤗🍂🍵

All right. Meeting time, then taxes, then editing.

I'm seeing a lot of hardship on the feed today, and there's probably more coming down the pike.

It'd be super-swell if being mad at ourselves for not being able to fix / prevent everything actually *did* something.

But since it doesn't, try to have grace for yourselves and each other instead.

We're all doing the best that we can with what we've got goin' on upstairs.

Hang in there, keep swimming, use the force, etc. 💙 See you 'round, pals.