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Cecelia offered him her most gracious smile. "Lady Cecelia Aster Aspidelle of Belleriand."
"By the skies, but you're a trial," he said. He bowed. "Lord Major Dexter Hillsong of Havelock. How do you do, Milady?" (2/3) #wss366

Cecelia tried to observe carefully, counting the numbers of men and types of arms they carried.
The officer took note of Cecelia making careful observations of the Havelock forces. He sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Just who are you?" he asked, eyeing her. (1/3) #wss366

el pasintjaro, folioj de l' hostao… palimpsestecaj / from last year, leaves of the hosta… like palimpsests #hajko #haiku #esperanto

I have decided I may have one more cup of coffee before I descend to my subterranean lair.

A pretty sunset coming down Orchard Hill. #WesternMass

Wow. There are so many pictures of cats on Mastodon tonight… It's almost like it's #Caturday or… Oh.

Tonight, I read a great article by @pluralistic about RSS: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification

Best of all, I discovered the post in my RSS feed reader. About a month ago, I set up FreshRSS: https://stevendbrewer.com/finally-set-up-freshrss/

Having a feed reader again has been transformative. I realized something today: the Web seemed magical when it was a way to connect with real people. When the corporations moved in, it lost that quality. But now that they're enshittified, you can rediscover the open web where it's always been!

War, by any other name, still stinks. https://stevendbrewer.com/war-by-any-other-name-still-stinks/

To be clear, I am not just "anti war." I am also against using the military to attack other countries to destroy things and kill a lot of their people under other circumstances as well.

After dinner, the boy got out his homework while his mom washed the dishes.
"How can you tell which ones are the constant ants?" he asked.
"Constant ants?" Mom said. She dried her hands off and came over to look at his worksheet.
"Yeah," he said. "Which letters are the constant ants?"
"I think you mean 'consonants'…" she said. She tried not to chuckle.
"It's all the ones that aren't #bowels…"
She snorted and tried not to laugh out loud. #wss366

Tanuki-chan is certain that she should be a lap dog — even when she's bigger than the person whose lap she wants to sit on. #DogsOfMastodon

Here's a sound recording of bugling elk: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/sounds-elk.htm

"They were introduced only recently."
"Why do they make that weird noise?"
"I'm given to understand that it's a sound the males make during the #rut."
"The rut? What's that?" Brunhilde asked, eyes sparkling.
"Oh. Um..." The bear scratched his head. "Maybe you should ask your mother." #wss366

A weird noise was heard at the Volpex Picnic Park, pitched both simultaneously high and low.
"Hey! Hey! What was that?" Brunhilde asked.
"Huh?" the bear said. "Oh, that. That was an elk bugling."
"What's an elk?"
"It's a kind of large herbivore," the bear said. (1/2) #wss366

Content warning:alcohol

I have made a Cruzan Blue Cosmo for the purpose of getting started writing comments on my students' papers.
3 oz Cruzan dark rum
1 oz Blue Curacao
1 oz lime juice
2 oz white cranberry juice
2 luxardo cherries

#WritersCoffeeClub Is there a local writing community near you? Do you participate in it?

There are a few. I am on the program committee of the Straw Dog Writers Guild. I also run Straw Dog Writes, a writing group that meets via Zoom on Wednesday evenings. You are also invited!

I recently discovered another: the Western Mass Writers Guild. They are the former NaNoWriMo group. They have a monthly face-to-face meeting that happens to be tomorrow: Support and Accountability in Novel Editing.

"Well," she said. "What do you choose?"
"Thou hast #befogged my mind," he said, raising a hand. "Thou vile witch! What spell hast thou cast that clouds my senses and..."
"It's not hard, Leroy," she said. "I just asked if you wanted chicken or burgers for dinner."
"Oh, thou vile temptress!" he moaned, closing his eyes. "How mayst one choose among such delights that..."
"Okay," she said, rolling her eyes. "Burgers it is." #wss366

I made a big pot of Vermont curry with sushi rice for dinner.

My wife says, "Why would you do that?"
"I love Vermont curry!"
"But why make sushi rice?"
"It's Japanese curry."
"No-one likes that."
"On the contrary, I love that."
"I might have some curry later. But not the rice."

Later she asked, "How is the curry, in spite of the rice?"
"The curry is delicious *because* of the rice!"

There is, as one says, no accounting for taste.

Lambda barked, panting, at the top of the steps.
"Don't drink the water!" Totemo said. "We don't know what it might be contaminated with! Here! I've got a water bottle." (4/4) #wss366

Totemo's arms burned with exertion as she cut her way through the vegetation. She was drenched with sweat and covered with dust and bits of vegetation.
Lambda barked up ahead.
After cutting through one more layer of shrubs and vines, Totemo found herself looking along a narrow alley between two buildings. Weeds were growing up between paving stones. She walked along the alley and found the power canal at the far end, filled with rushing water. Steps led down into the canal. (3/4) #wss366