Old ‘Hanging’ Oak in Houston, Texas
Jan. 14th, 2026 10:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
atlas_obscura_places_feed
In a town preoccupied with literally tearing down its past like Houston, a tree that's been around for four centuries should be more significant. Instead the live oak blocks away from Allen's landing in downtown has the more sinister but false stigma attached to it as a hanging tree.
It even had a plaque in place calling it the old hanging oak until its removal in the 1990s. While there are some true hanging trees in and around Houston, this old oak was proven to not be one of them and should be more known as one of if not the oldest living thing in the city.
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
Jan. 14th, 2026 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
...Wait, we're supposed to believe that it's the rebels who are wrong?
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
It's up to you New York, New York
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:59 amhrjThis is the sort of trip I never felt able to schedule before retirement: put together several purposes and just take a couple weeks to see people and do things.
I flew out on a red-eye because I always have this dilemma when flying east that I can either get up at an ungodly hour of the morning (which means either leaving my car at long-term parking, or getting an airport hotel room the night before), or I can arrive later in the evening than I want to be dealing with unfamiliar transit systems, or I can take a red-eye and have the logistics at both ends done at a reasonable hour of the day...at the expense of losing most of a night's sleep. I did sleep for several hours, but then spent most of yesterday vegging around L's appartment. (Which worked out because she had several online things to do.)
Today is L's big-number birthday celebration (one of the aforesaid "several purposes"). Then I have five days in NYC in which I have two items scheduled, which gives me a chance for more spontaneity than I usually have on trips. After that, it's up to Maine for the family part of the trip.
I was able to get all my blog/podcast stuff set up for the rest of the month--only need to switch things to "live" on the web--so any "work" I do on this trip can be on less urgent (i.e., actually writing on book projects). I think I've been managing better at avoiding having short-term deadlines rule my creative life, but somehow the non-fiction projects have called to me more strongly than the fiction. I suspect that's because the non-fiction is more in the revisions phased than the "creating text out of nothing" phase.
I flew out on a red-eye because I always have this dilemma when flying east that I can either get up at an ungodly hour of the morning (which means either leaving my car at long-term parking, or getting an airport hotel room the night before), or I can arrive later in the evening than I want to be dealing with unfamiliar transit systems, or I can take a red-eye and have the logistics at both ends done at a reasonable hour of the day...at the expense of losing most of a night's sleep. I did sleep for several hours, but then spent most of yesterday vegging around L's appartment. (Which worked out because she had several online things to do.)
Today is L's big-number birthday celebration (one of the aforesaid "several purposes"). Then I have five days in NYC in which I have two items scheduled, which gives me a chance for more spontaneity than I usually have on trips. After that, it's up to Maine for the family part of the trip.
I was able to get all my blog/podcast stuff set up for the rest of the month--only need to switch things to "live" on the web--so any "work" I do on this trip can be on less urgent (i.e., actually writing on book projects). I think I've been managing better at avoiding having short-term deadlines rule my creative life, but somehow the non-fiction projects have called to me more strongly than the fiction. I suspect that's because the non-fiction is more in the revisions phased than the "creating text out of nothing" phase.
2026.01.14
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:58 amlsandersonThompson, colleague resignations cast scrutiny on Justice Department’s probe into Renee Good’s death
Upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota comes amid divisive Justice Department actions in the wake of Good’s shooting.
by Ana Radelat
https://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2026/01/thompson-colleague-resignations-cast-scrutiny-on-justice-departments-probe-into-renee-goods-death/
Trump plans to illegally stop over $2 billion in Medicaid payments, state says, in latest twist to fraud saga
The Minnesota Medicaid head says that feds will shut off spigot in 13 programs.
by Matthew Blake
https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2026/01/trump-plans-to-illegally-stop-over-2-billion-in-medicaid-payments-state-says-in-latest-twist-to-fraud-saga/ ( Read more... )
Upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota comes amid divisive Justice Department actions in the wake of Good’s shooting.
by Ana Radelat
https://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2026/01/thompson-colleague-resignations-cast-scrutiny-on-justice-departments-probe-into-renee-goods-death/
Trump plans to illegally stop over $2 billion in Medicaid payments, state says, in latest twist to fraud saga
The Minnesota Medicaid head says that feds will shut off spigot in 13 programs.
by Matthew Blake
https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2026/01/trump-plans-to-illegally-stop-over-2-billion-in-medicaid-payments-state-says-in-latest-twist-to-fraud-saga/ ( Read more... )
What Am I Reading Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:15 amjust_ann_nowWe did NOT get up to 60 degrees this weekend, though we did get up to the mid-50's and some welcome rain. Temperatures have been dropping all week, though, and we can expect more seasonal weather the next few days.
What I Noped Out of This Week
A Deadly Education, I let it sit for 24 hours, picked it up again, and put it down after half a page. Then I tried another Set in a College or University thing, I can't even remember what it was, and THEN I finally got smart and ditched that bingo square altogether. Plenty of options for substitutions/wild cards, so no loss at all.
What I Just Finished Reading (Highlights)
Several short things, not very memorable, and then on a cold rainy Saturday, The Frozen River, which was absolutely worth the long wait. Very reminiscent of Outlander, not the time-travel bits but the long-married-couple-still-besotted-with-each-other, so refreshing to read. Also fascinating that this was based on actual diaries of an eighteenth-century midwife. There are major plot elements of sexual violence, patriarchy, and gaslighting, but the female characters are so strong and vivid. Highly recommend. For A to Z Authors.
What I Am Currently Reading
I probably shouldn't have picked up The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, so soon after The Frozen River, because it's once again features a sexual predator, emotionally and financially manipulative. It's also (so far, I'm at 41%) not very impressed by Amelia Earhart's actual flying abilities, focusing more on the fact that she was young and pretty(ish) and easily pushed into the limelight by her manager/lover/husband. It will be interesting to see if the author discusses improvement in her flying skill. (Edit: She did.)So far it seems the book is focusing on what a jerkass George Putnam was. For A to Z Titles.
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Just the kind of meaty historical fiction I adore. For A to Z Titles.
What I Am Reading Next
Sing Like a Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, by Amorina Kingdon. Because who wouldn't want to know?
Question of the Day: Fiction, Nonfiction, Both, Neither?
What I Noped Out of This Week
A Deadly Education, I let it sit for 24 hours, picked it up again, and put it down after half a page. Then I tried another Set in a College or University thing, I can't even remember what it was, and THEN I finally got smart and ditched that bingo square altogether. Plenty of options for substitutions/wild cards, so no loss at all.
What I Just Finished Reading (Highlights)
Several short things, not very memorable, and then on a cold rainy Saturday, The Frozen River, which was absolutely worth the long wait. Very reminiscent of Outlander, not the time-travel bits but the long-married-couple-still-besotted-with-each-other, so refreshing to read. Also fascinating that this was based on actual diaries of an eighteenth-century midwife. There are major plot elements of sexual violence, patriarchy, and gaslighting, but the female characters are so strong and vivid. Highly recommend. For A to Z Authors.
What I Am Currently Reading
I probably shouldn't have picked up The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, so soon after The Frozen River, because it's once again features a sexual predator, emotionally and financially manipulative. It's also (so far, I'm at 41%) not very impressed by Amelia Earhart's actual flying abilities, focusing more on the fact that she was young and pretty(ish) and easily pushed into the limelight by her manager/lover/husband. It will be interesting to see if the author discusses improvement in her flying skill. (Edit: She did.)So far it seems the book is focusing on what a jerkass George Putnam was. For A to Z Titles.
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Just the kind of meaty historical fiction I adore. For A to Z Titles.
What I Am Reading Next
Sing Like a Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, by Amorina Kingdon. Because who wouldn't want to know?
Question of the Day: Fiction, Nonfiction, Both, Neither?
January Challenge (3 of 5)
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:55 pmfred_mouse posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
unclutterHow did the decluttering of the hobby spaces go? Did you spend time looking for things that could go, move a thing or two, or have a wildly successful week? Or did you work on a different space instead?
For the third week, we are moving on to a work space -- just the one. Unless you have all the energy and all the time, in which case don't let me hold you back. But this was meant to be a gentle challenge to get started on the year. What decluttering a work space might look like
- moving the cooking equipment you never use out of the kitchen
- sorting through stuff in a work from home space so you have more space for you
- looking in the laundry for things that have drifted into corners and become one with the wall.
- going through the cleaning rag stash and getting it down to Just! One! Bucket! worth (for whatever size of bucket you keep your rags in)
- throwing out old cleaning equipment--particularly if you have replaced it with one that you use!
Alternatively: keep going with the rest and / or hobby spaces. Get things out of the house!
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:54 amjames_davis_nicoll
A teen subject to intermittent time-loops sets out to prevent the murder of his unlikable grandfather. This will be much harder than he expects.
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Just One Thing (14 January 2026)
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:48 pmnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
(no subject)
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:39 pmjackSmoke LARP festival in London for two days.
Game 1 about dysfunctional committee running a large LARP event. This was hilarious and cathartic for a lot of people. Everyone had a character, the auteur overcommitted to the vision, the overly emotional over verbose writer, etc, etc who are over the top. And it's so easy to run with -- whenever someone asks "We can tear the fittings down for extra costumes?" you can say "Yes, obviously!"
Game 2 about Superheros matching Nemeses speed-dating style on a reality TV show style. The characters were all hilarious.
Game 3 about the Greek Gods running a gameshow, spiralling slowly out of control. 13/10 for Binney as the overworked madcap Hades. My favourite moment was seeing Hades getting increasingly many semi-anonymous requests handed over from the GM, and as Poseidon writing out a note in the same style and handing it over. And not discovering until the end that Hades had just taken it on board and "More death! Put Hecate in charge! Don't trust Odin! MORE SQUID!!!" had blended in perfectly with all the other notes and he'd gone on to do all those things. And second favourite when hades was waving the post-it representing the necronomicon for an unspecified plan, taking it and helpfully tearing it up before handing it back.
Game 4 Canterbury Tales. Set just before the End of the Wars of the Roses when the tales had just been printed. I had to leave early, with my fate hanging on the outcome, when we'd just heard a rumour that Henry had been slain and Richard captured by Henry's forces. It turned out later that Henry's widow and a putative Edward V Prince in the Tower had both proclaimed themselves, potentially leading to turmoil. But I'm pleased they both had a good chance, and that probably removed the problems hanging over my character from the previous politics 🙂
Game 1 about dysfunctional committee running a large LARP event. This was hilarious and cathartic for a lot of people. Everyone had a character, the auteur overcommitted to the vision, the overly emotional over verbose writer, etc, etc who are over the top. And it's so easy to run with -- whenever someone asks "We can tear the fittings down for extra costumes?" you can say "Yes, obviously!"
Game 2 about Superheros matching Nemeses speed-dating style on a reality TV show style. The characters were all hilarious.
Game 3 about the Greek Gods running a gameshow, spiralling slowly out of control. 13/10 for Binney as the overworked madcap Hades. My favourite moment was seeing Hades getting increasingly many semi-anonymous requests handed over from the GM, and as Poseidon writing out a note in the same style and handing it over. And not discovering until the end that Hades had just taken it on board and "More death! Put Hecate in charge! Don't trust Odin! MORE SQUID!!!" had blended in perfectly with all the other notes and he'd gone on to do all those things. And second favourite when hades was waving the post-it representing the necronomicon for an unspecified plan, taking it and helpfully tearing it up before handing it back.
Game 4 Canterbury Tales. Set just before the End of the Wars of the Roses when the tales had just been printed. I had to leave early, with my fate hanging on the outcome, when we'd just heard a rumour that Henry had been slain and Richard captured by Henry's forces. It turned out later that Henry's widow and a putative Edward V Prince in the Tower had both proclaimed themselves, potentially leading to turmoil. But I'm pleased they both had a good chance, and that probably removed the problems hanging over my character from the previous politics 🙂
VeggieTales
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:39 pmjackTIL more about VeggieTales. I had heard they avoided depicting Jesus as a vegetable. But apparently they specifically (a) will not show Jesus as a vegetable and (b) do not show the vegetables as having a redemptive relationship with Christ.
The show shows some vegetables living on a kitchen counter. Those characters then morph into a Christian-friendly story, either an old testament bible story, or a contemporary "someone learns an important lesson about goodness" story. So you have Larry the vegetable transplanted into a Biblical Joseph role. In the story, God exists. But the plain vegetables aren't Christian. Because the creators think that Jesus died for *humanity* and any other intelligent species was not fallen (like Angels) or not been saved (like Demons) or had its own relationship with God (like Narnia).
And even in the story, none of the characters are ever Jesus, because that would seem disrespectful. What does happen in the later series is that the characters portray nativity plays, where a unnamed non-Christian baby vegetable acts as a non-Jesus baby human character, who is pretending to be baby Jesus. Also in the early series there's a couple of nativity stories with a crib, but you only see golden light from the crib. Or sometimes a swaddled form, but not whether it contains a doll, vegetable, human and/or god :)
https://justinkuiper.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the
The show shows some vegetables living on a kitchen counter. Those characters then morph into a Christian-friendly story, either an old testament bible story, or a contemporary "someone learns an important lesson about goodness" story. So you have Larry the vegetable transplanted into a Biblical Joseph role. In the story, God exists. But the plain vegetables aren't Christian. Because the creators think that Jesus died for *humanity* and any other intelligent species was not fallen (like Angels) or not been saved (like Demons) or had its own relationship with God (like Narnia).
And even in the story, none of the characters are ever Jesus, because that would seem disrespectful. What does happen in the later series is that the characters portray nativity plays, where a unnamed non-Christian baby vegetable acts as a non-Jesus baby human character, who is pretending to be baby Jesus. Also in the early series there's a couple of nativity stories with a crib, but you only see golden light from the crib. Or sometimes a swaddled form, but not whether it contains a doll, vegetable, human and/or god :)
https://justinkuiper.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the
Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:37 amosprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Elizabeth Enright’s Then There Were Five. That’s right, the Melendys are back! This time, they befriend a local boy with no friends or relations except his horrible uncle, and the Melendy children take him home and ask “Can we keep him???” They gather scrap metal for the war effort, plan a festival (children in books always throw the most satisfying festivals), and put up a truly astonishing amount of tomatoes.
What I’m Reading Now
Onward and upward in Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle! The blurb on the front of this novel praises it as “suspenseful,” which is fascinating because that’s probably the last adjective I’d use to describe it. Absorbing, yes. Full of meticulous portraits of a dizzying array of people, yes. We meet a deeply religious prisoner, a soft-hearted prison guard, Stalin, a prisoner who still believes fanatically in Communism, a prisoner’s wife whose devotion to her husband is cracking under the strain of separation, her friend in their grad student dorm who is trying to wriggle free of being recruited as an informer…
But suspenseful? I wouldn’t call it suspenseful. We’re halfway through the book and we’ve just now meandered back to Volodin, the guy who telephoned the American embassy on Christmas Eve to warn them that the Soviets are planning to steal their atomic bomb secrets. We are not urgently searching for Volodin (well, maybe the fanatically Communist prisoner Rubin is urgently searching for Volodin), we are gently bobbing around in a pool and occasionally bobbing a bit extra hard when we come across one of the ripples caused when Volodin tossed his pebble.
What I Plan to Read Next
National Velvet!
Elizabeth Enright’s Then There Were Five. That’s right, the Melendys are back! This time, they befriend a local boy with no friends or relations except his horrible uncle, and the Melendy children take him home and ask “Can we keep him???” They gather scrap metal for the war effort, plan a festival (children in books always throw the most satisfying festivals), and put up a truly astonishing amount of tomatoes.
What I’m Reading Now
Onward and upward in Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle! The blurb on the front of this novel praises it as “suspenseful,” which is fascinating because that’s probably the last adjective I’d use to describe it. Absorbing, yes. Full of meticulous portraits of a dizzying array of people, yes. We meet a deeply religious prisoner, a soft-hearted prison guard, Stalin, a prisoner who still believes fanatically in Communism, a prisoner’s wife whose devotion to her husband is cracking under the strain of separation, her friend in their grad student dorm who is trying to wriggle free of being recruited as an informer…
But suspenseful? I wouldn’t call it suspenseful. We’re halfway through the book and we’ve just now meandered back to Volodin, the guy who telephoned the American embassy on Christmas Eve to warn them that the Soviets are planning to steal their atomic bomb secrets. We are not urgently searching for Volodin (well, maybe the fanatically Communist prisoner Rubin is urgently searching for Volodin), we are gently bobbing around in a pool and occasionally bobbing a bit extra hard when we come across one of the ripples caused when Volodin tossed his pebble.
What I Plan to Read Next
National Velvet!
That's entertainment
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:32 amlauradi7dwThree guys from Boston say every town and city in Massachusetts
I am reminiscing about the days before the web, when on snow days one would listen to the news radio people speed-read the places with school closures, trying to catch Lexington as it went past.
I am reminiscing about the days before the web, when on snow days one would listen to the news radio people speed-read the places with school closures, trying to catch Lexington as it went past.
Reading Wednesday
Jan. 14th, 2026 06:51 amsabotabbyJust finished: Invisible Line by Su J. Sokol. This was quite good. Xe did a good job in not just complicating utopia—I have a minor dislike of "flee to Canada" as a plot point in dystopian fiction, and the portrayal of Montreal as a bureaucracy subject to limits on its ability to do the right thing is very nuanced and well done—but also making the characters messy and traumatized. The big crisis in the last act could have been averted if the parents talked to their damned kids, but of course they are too paranoid and distrustful from years of living under fascism, so they don't. Looking forward to reading the sequel.
Currently reading: Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits by Jenny Draper. This is really fun—TikTok-sized portraits of history's interesting (not always good) characters. I knew about a lot of them, like Ellen and William Craft and Noor Inayat Khan, but a lot of the others, like Eleanor Rykener and The Chevalier d'Eon, are new to me. It's very fun and conversational.
Currently reading: Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits by Jenny Draper. This is really fun—TikTok-sized portraits of history's interesting (not always good) characters. I knew about a lot of them, like Ellen and William Craft and Noor Inayat Khan, but a lot of the others, like Eleanor Rykener and The Chevalier d'Eon, are new to me. It's very fun and conversational.
