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My dear friend Zoe and I cohost a podcast called : Conversations on Shinto, in which we talk about our faith, its cultural, historical, and other contexts, and try to bring knowledge and community to others. You can give it a listen at anchor.fm/cleyerapodcast

*finds long S*

Man I could really go for ſome cheeſe ſteakſ

Yesterday and today I did something I haven't done in a long time: make masala chai! (Masala = spices, chai = tea)

Making masala chai is heavily based on personal preference, but if you'd like a starting template, you can try this:

SUPPLIES: small pot, water, milk, black tea, fine sieve, sugar, dry spices**

1) Add equal parts water and milk (let's say 2 cups water, 2 cups milk) to a pot

2) Add dry spices** to liquid

TO BE CONT'D

Pic from ManilaSpoon.com

one of my favorite things to annoy my anglophile partner: singing "My Country Tis of Thee" when the English national anthem comes on during a game. 😉

This is why Japan can't have nice things. A temple is bulldozing its toilet because some hikers can't behave themselves.

Read on in my latest for : unseenjapan.com/jurinji-temple

Way back when, I worked at the University of Pittsburgh's Japan Information Service, and one day, I got a call about a

Read on in riverside-wings.com/2022/11/23

This tweet hit nearly 70k likes. I feel like the responses were an excellent case in point of pre-Nov. Twitter's good and bad points.

On one hand, it got others sharing unlikely but true stories from Japanese and world history. On the other hand, I had people doing everything from accusing me of lying and belittling the Revolutions of 1848, to going "lol, still boring," to calling me slurs.

I'm not gonna miss the way the site was built to drive rage and the worst instincts of its users

Shoutout to whoever gave my novel its first rating (5 stars) on Amazon. Thank you so much!

It's a stressful day for alot of Americans. Here's our family's kitties for those that may just want some pet pics.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed with @jpderboghossian
of the Queer Armenian Library for , in which we talked , writing, and the worst advice I've ever been given. Please give it a listen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Hard on the heels of Confluence's launch, it's Queer for the New Year! My story "Hatsumōde," which is a sort of postlude to , is one of the stories that are appearing within. Preorders open soon-- meanwhile, here's the Goodreads link: goodreads.com/book/show/633245

Thanks for your support, and please spread the word!

I finished another "CoSo for Twitter Ex-Pats" piece, this one on how to turn off the news do-dads and how to manage the columns.

Hope it's helpful.

lolapoliticka.substack.com/p/c

For all its flaws, Barnes and Noble was the bookstore I first got to know after moving back to the US in the mid-1990s. I tried, and failed, to write a novel then, in the hopes it would reach B&N's shelves.

I wish I could go back in time and show young Nyri that she did it.

If anybody tries to convince you that history is boring, just remember that a bunch of samurai in 1848 learned how to say "shiver me timbers" from a guy named Ranald MacDonald.

So a man goes to the doctor and says he doesn't know whether to put an O and an F at the end of the Armenian alphabet. Doctor says that's no problem, go see monk and famous linguist Mesrob Mashdots, he'll know what to do.

The man sobs. "But doctor,"

US and International readers can get paperbacks from my friends at Sapphic Sweets and Reads, and have the satisfaction of supporting an bookstore: shop.sweetreadsict.com/product

For readers in the US, you can get the paperback direct from the press at tinyurl.com/confluencepaperbac and cut out the Amaz_n middleman.

There are eleven days until launch for my novel, ! Read on below to see where you can get yourself a copy.

Researching an interesting concept this morning: human powered rail lines of the 1880s in Japan.

Not a thing I knew existed, but here we are.

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Dr. Nyri A. Bakkalian

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