![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
the_mary_sue_feed
A New York City woman walks into the Salvation Army and picks up a pink Zara dress with its original tags still intact. She can’t believe how much the thrift chain wants to charge for the donated dress.
TikToker Jessie Jolles (@jessie_jolles) holds up the pink dress, pointing to the strong fluorescent lighting in the thrift store.
open thread – January 16, 2026
Jan. 16th, 2026 04:00 pmaskamanager_feedIt’s the Friday open thread!
The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers.
* If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer.
The post open thread – January 16, 2026 appeared first on Ask a Manager.
2026.01.16
Jan. 16th, 2026 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lsandersonICE ( Read more... )
Giving Trump the Nobel peace prize medal is ‘absurd’, say Norwegian politicians
US president criticised for accepting medal awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado
Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/maria-corina-machado-giving-trump-nobel-peace-prize-medal-absurd-say-norwegian-politicians
At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/16/super-rich-inequality-politicians-extreme-wealth ( Read more... )
Giving Trump the Nobel peace prize medal is ‘absurd’, say Norwegian politicians
US president criticised for accepting medal awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado
Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/maria-corina-machado-giving-trump-nobel-peace-prize-medal-absurd-say-norwegian-politicians
At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/16/super-rich-inequality-politicians-extreme-wealth ( Read more... )
Best Books of 2025
Jan. 15th, 2026 04:53 pmtabacoychanelNot the most quality books I read but the ones that hit me hardest:
- M.L. Wang, Blood Over Bright Haven —Highly cathartic! Really earned that ending.
- Kelly Braffet, The Unwilling—I love when unpleasant characters make terrible decisions; bonus if it includes magic. A meditation on agency, and what it means to not have any, and what choices are left to us. Not for everyone but 100% for me.
- Layne Fargo, The Favorites—Equal parts dishy and wrenching
- Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth — Honestly there is nothing as riveting as rich girl problems. Put my name down for the Edith Wharton Completionist Club.
- Ada Palmer, Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age —Ada makes history sexy using her secret weapon: historiography! Ada’s brain is so weird and so brilliant it should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Adrian Tchaikovsky, Elder Race—From now on Tchaikovsky is only allowed to write novellas. He gets rambly in his novels but this was a perfect chef’s kiss of a genre-straddler.
- Kate Elliott, The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land—The duology that converted me to Elliott and her brand of sprawling worldbuilding
( superlatives and full book list )
‘Semiosis’ in Ukrainian
Jan. 16th, 2026 09:29 ammount_oregano
The novel Semiosis is now available in Ukrainian from Lobster Publishing.
This has to be the most beautiful edition of the book, as you can see in these Instagram reels.
I know just enough of the Cyrillic alphabet to know that СЕМІОЗИС is Semiosis and Сью Берк is Sue Burke.
Meanwhile, my heart breaks for the people of Ukraine. I visited Kyiv in 2006 when it hosted the European Science Fiction Convention, and I was impressed by the elegance of the city and the patriotism of its people. They made sure, back in 2006, that I understood they were not Russian.
the_mary_sue_feed
Spray tans aren’t cheap. Depending on where you live and which type you choose, it can run anywhere from $25 to $80 per session, something you’re expected to repeat every week or so if you want to keep the color consistent. Over time, that adds up fast.
And considering American women already spend more than $600 a year on hair, makeup, and skincare, any trick that promises to cut costs tends to get attention. That’s why the latest TikTok beauty workaround is spreading so quickly: a Harbor Freight paint sprayer, a bottle of spray tan solution, and, ideally, a helpful husband.
"Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program"
Jan. 16th, 2026 10:18 amcvirtue"After 48 hours of torture, Dr. Christie wrote a forced confession — “the best thing I ever wrote,” he later told the BBC, noting that he had made sure the confession included “all my recommendations to the African National Congress” about the best way to sabotage Koeberg and other facilities.
“And, gloriously, the judge read it out in court,” Dr. Christie added. “So my recommendations went from the judge’s mouth” straight to the A.N.C."
Long article:
2026 Jan 14: NYT: "Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program" by Adam Nossiter. "He played a key role in ending apartheid South Africa’s secret weapons program in the 1980s by helping the African National Congress bomb critical facilities."
https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1893644.html
“And, gloriously, the judge read it out in court,” Dr. Christie added. “So my recommendations went from the judge’s mouth” straight to the A.N.C."
Long article:
2026 Jan 14: NYT: "Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program" by Adam Nossiter. "He played a key role in ending apartheid South Africa’s secret weapons program in the 1980s by helping the African National Congress bomb critical facilities."
https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1893644.html
Snowflake Challenge #7-8
Jan. 16th, 2026 10:19 amnyctanthesI will get to Challenge #6: Top 10 at some point. I want to talk about theatre I've seen, but that requires more time and thought than I currently have.
Also! Tomorrow!![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
threesentenceficathon begins! (pleasepleaseplease let me inspired just a leetle bit...)
Challenge #7: Three Things I Like About Meeee
1. When I start something, I finish it. This can be bad (sunk cost fallacy), but generally (see below) is a plus.
2. I’m funny. For a while I worried that my humor was too off-the-cuff, and I couldn’t translate it into writing. But that’s not true! I rather enjoy reading my own stuff and LOL-ing at myoccasionally frequently juvenile jokes.
3. I say the thing that everyone’s thinking but is afraid to verbalize. When I was younger, I was too blunt, and this honesty was often off-putting. As I matured, I learned to leaven the truth with humor, to manage my tone, to not make it a personal attack, which really, really helps.
Challenge #8: Creative Process
Rather than get into the weeds of my process, which aren’t that interesting, including to me, I’ll just say that, at a macro-level, what most drives my writing process is that when I draft something and determine it’s worth pursuing, I finish it. Once I broke my two-decade plus writing drought, the third piece of fanfic I wrote was a 86K word novel. Did it receive any comments or kudos as I posted it, chapter-by-chapter? Not really. But by god I was going to finish it. Not just finish it, but edit it structurally so that it flowed better. One of the last pieces of fanfic I wrote was an even longer, Nancy Wheeler from ST story which had a very limited audience and required a whole lot of research. Didn’t matter. I *needed* to get closure on it before I could start writing original fiction and apply to graduate school.
This is helping me now that I’ve transferred my creative energy from fanfic to original fiction. Folks, writing a novel is a giant fucking pain in the ass that I do not recommend. And unlike fanfic, I have no guarantees that someone will eventually read it and love it.* Having practice finishing large projects is very helpful (“I know I can do this!”), as is my bull-headed** determination to cross an item off my to-do list.
(For me!) finishing a project is one of the best ways to learn and improve. The sense of satisfaction! The confidence boost! Unparalleled.
* Which eventually happened with both my fanfic novels. Not many people, but I write for niche audiences. :P
** Did I mention that I’m a Taurus and was born in the year of the ox?
Also! Tomorrow!
threesentenceficathon begins! (pleasepleaseplease let me inspired just a leetle bit...)Challenge #7: Three Things I Like About Meeee
1. When I start something, I finish it. This can be bad (sunk cost fallacy), but generally (see below) is a plus.
2. I’m funny. For a while I worried that my humor was too off-the-cuff, and I couldn’t translate it into writing. But that’s not true! I rather enjoy reading my own stuff and LOL-ing at my
3. I say the thing that everyone’s thinking but is afraid to verbalize. When I was younger, I was too blunt, and this honesty was often off-putting. As I matured, I learned to leaven the truth with humor, to manage my tone, to not make it a personal attack, which really, really helps.
Challenge #8: Creative Process
Rather than get into the weeds of my process, which aren’t that interesting, including to me, I’ll just say that, at a macro-level, what most drives my writing process is that when I draft something and determine it’s worth pursuing, I finish it. Once I broke my two-decade plus writing drought, the third piece of fanfic I wrote was a 86K word novel. Did it receive any comments or kudos as I posted it, chapter-by-chapter? Not really. But by god I was going to finish it. Not just finish it, but edit it structurally so that it flowed better. One of the last pieces of fanfic I wrote was an even longer, Nancy Wheeler from ST story which had a very limited audience and required a whole lot of research. Didn’t matter. I *needed* to get closure on it before I could start writing original fiction and apply to graduate school.
This is helping me now that I’ve transferred my creative energy from fanfic to original fiction. Folks, writing a novel is a giant fucking pain in the ass that I do not recommend. And unlike fanfic, I have no guarantees that someone will eventually read it and love it.* Having practice finishing large projects is very helpful (“I know I can do this!”), as is my bull-headed** determination to cross an item off my to-do list.
(For me!) finishing a project is one of the best ways to learn and improve. The sense of satisfaction! The confidence boost! Unparalleled.
* Which eventually happened with both my fanfic novels. Not many people, but I write for niche audiences. :P
** Did I mention that I’m a Taurus and was born in the year of the ox?
mako
Jan. 16th, 2026 07:34 amprettygoodwordmako (MAY-koh, MAH-koh) - n., either of two large mackerel sharks of the genus Isurus, especially the fast-moving shortfin mako (I. oxyrinchus); the teeth of the mako traditionally prized by Maoris for personal decoration.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The shortfin mako is the fastest shark, capable of 74 km/h / 46 mph bursts, and at full growth is only slightly smaller than its close relative, the great white shark. The word is specifically from Kāi Tahu Māori (a South Island dialect) makō, which can also mean shark in general -- in other Maori dialects it's pronounced mangō. The word has cognates in many other Polynseian languages, such as Hawaiian mano, generally always meaning generically any shark.
And that wraps up a theme fortnight of words from Polynesian, which will be the last word-origin theme for a while -- back next week with the usual unsorted mix. And who knows, maybe sometime another theme will show up.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The shortfin mako is the fastest shark, capable of 74 km/h / 46 mph bursts, and at full growth is only slightly smaller than its close relative, the great white shark. The word is specifically from Kāi Tahu Māori (a South Island dialect) makō, which can also mean shark in general -- in other Maori dialects it's pronounced mangō. The word has cognates in many other Polynseian languages, such as Hawaiian mano, generally always meaning generically any shark.
And that wraps up a theme fortnight of words from Polynesian, which will be the last word-origin theme for a while -- back next week with the usual unsorted mix. And who knows, maybe sometime another theme will show up.
---L.
Vouched for by various folks in Minnesota
Jan. 16th, 2026 01:59 pmrydra_wongThis collection of links to local mutual aid funds, food banks, and other organizations doing work on the ground:
https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
the_mary_sue_feed
You never go out to dinner with your partner planning to fight. Most of the time, you’re hoping for a calm night, decent food, and a break from whatever chaos has been building during a busy week.
However, restaurants have a way of creating moments where tough relationship conversations surface. After all, you’re sitting across from each other, phones down, with nowhere to look but your partner’s eyes.
HR vids and edits - recs
Jan. 17th, 2026 01:44 ammificOkay, a few vids and edits. Sound absolutely on with them all!
First, two funny edits by hoechloin (tumblr - links now to gdrive as tumblr censored the posts) with soundtracks and embellishments that make me laugh out loud - Shane freaking out and being his dorky self:
edit 1
edit 2
Fanvids:
an angsty one to Casual by Chappell Roan by Leocities (play it with closed captions to get the most out of the great editing to the lyrics)
and a happier one to Long Time Running by The Tragically Hip by peakyboyos
First, two funny edits by hoechloin (tumblr - links now to gdrive as tumblr censored the posts) with soundtracks and embellishments that make me laugh out loud - Shane freaking out and being his dorky self:
edit 1
edit 2
Fanvids:
an angsty one to Casual by Chappell Roan by Leocities (play it with closed captions to get the most out of the great editing to the lyrics)
and a happier one to Long Time Running by The Tragically Hip by peakyboyos
US politics
Jan. 16th, 2026 06:51 amyhleeBy way of sovay: Stand with Minnesota, appears to be locally vetted. I've made a modest donation to one of the listed organizations.
(Still buried under health + family + work + school stuff as well, sorry - if I'm not responding or late to respond, that's why.)
sovay: Stand with Minnesota, appears to be locally vetted. I've made a modest donation to one of the listed organizations.(Still buried under health + family + work + school stuff as well, sorry - if I'm not responding or late to respond, that's why.)