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Happy birthday, genarti and green_knight!

These are the content notes for "The Release of Human Potentialities."

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Elongated Muskrat has left the White House in disgrace.  While smart people could tell instantly that he is a giant asshole with delusions of competence, it took Republicans nearly 5 months to figure it out.

Today is cloudy and mild.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I've seen sparrows and house finches at the feeders.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a catbird, and a mourning dove. Three fox squirrels were chasing each other around the trees. :D I heard a blue jay but didn't see it.

I put out water for the birds.

An iris is blooming brilliant primary yellow under the maple tree. :D It smells slightly sweet but not as strong as some others.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- I planted 4 green pear seeds in pots.

I watered the patio plants including the strawberry towers.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- I watered the septic garden.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- Of the 6 pots of Ozark coneflowers sowed 2/3/25, 4 pots had two sprouts and 2 pots had one sprout, making this among the most successful winter efforts and definitely one to repeat. I planted these toward the north end of the west strip of the prairie garden.

Yellow coreopsis and pink sweet William are blooming in the prairie garden. :D

EDIT 5/27/25 -- Of the 6 pots of prairie coneflowers sowed 2/3/25, 1 pot had two sprouts and 4 pots had one sprout, making this among the most successful winter efforts. I planted these toward the north end of the west strip of the prairie garden.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- Of the 6 pots of grayhead prairie coneflowers and 6 pots of black-eyed Susans sowed 2/23/25, none sprouted, so I probably won't bother with those again.

I sowed 6 pots with side-oats grama, 6 pots with river oats, and 6 pots with switchgrass. 

EDIT 5/27/25 -- Of the 6 pots of purple prairie clover sowed 2/3/25, 1 had a single sprout and 1 had several sprouts.  Another pot for a different species also had 1 sprout, not sure how that happened.  I planted those in the notch of the prairie garden.

EDIT 5/27/25 -- I watered the newly planted things in the prairie garden.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

(One day early or thirteen days late, depending how you count.)

Books
Finished reading Freya Marske's A Restless Truth. Despite how long it took me to read it, it was a good fantasy romance novel. If it weren't the middle novel in a trilogy with m/m couples for books one and three, I'd be reccing this one to nearly every f/f romance reader I know, actually. As it is, well, that recommendation stands if either you read m/m too or don't mind reading book two of a trilogy as a standalone when it really would work better as book two.

It's not a heist novel, but it pushed some of the same anxiety buttons for me that heist plots do, which is probably at least part of why it took me so long.

A thing I'd like to note: a lot of times when I read f/f romance by an author who mostly writes m/f or m/m, the f/f doesn't ring very convincing to me (same problem with m/f romance authors writing m/m.) This was Freya Marske's second published novel, so I don't know what she "usually" writes, but this did ring convincing. I believed that Violet was bi, and I believed in Maude's lesbian awakening, and I believed in their attraction to each other.

My paper copy of Cameron Reed's The Fortunate Fall arrived in the mail. I read it back in uni (borrowed from the Rowden White Library in the early 2000s) but hadn't owned it until now.

About midway through Jazz Money's how to make a basket, a 2021 book of poems in which Wiradjuri words grow up through the cracks of the English.

Started reading KJ Charles' Death in the Spires. (Waiting for the "in spires" pun to drop.)

Not books but literary analysis: I read Andrea Long Chu's 2022 article Hanya's Boys, on Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life. I haven't read the novel itself, and don't think I want to. And I think Chu is very incisive and good at what she does. But also: wow, mean. Maybe the meanest literary review I've read in I don't know how long. Came away feeling defensive on Yanagihara's behalf as someone who has ever read even one whump fanfic.

Fandom
Prophet: rydra_wong posted her post-canon 'a word you've never understood'. I don't know that I can recommend it to people who haven't read Prophet (I can recommend they read Prophet and then read Rydra's fic) but if you have read the book and liked it and are someone who reads fanfic then I unreservedly recommend this fic. I've been looking forward to this one since Rydra started writing it (under extremely stressful writing conditions) and I'm so happy she did.

Comics
I cackled out loud (very loudly) at the (nsfw-ish) recent Dumbing of Age strip titled 'Fingering'. And then went "aww" in a sad way at the next page. Joyce and Dorothy are both going through some things, and afaik poor Joe has no idea.

Making
Made another linocut, this one a bookmark-shaped print of stacks of books. It came out nicely: I'm pleased. I like the idea of bookmark-shaped lino printing: it's a manageable size for a project, and produces objects I can use, or that I can give as gifts without worrying about giving clutter.

Tech
Felt the urge to spend some days spending more time changing my laptop's window manager configurations than talking to people. You know how it is. And it does look better than it did before, although somehow I changed the lockscreen without realising I'd done so, which was a bit of a shock when I locked the screen for the first time after that.

It was after I wrote that post (Tuesday last week, I think?) that my laptop's wifi card started disconnecting randomly while I was using it and needing the external wifi/radio switch[*] jiggled to reconnect it. Then it stopped reconnecting and I had a crash course in Linux kernel drivers for WWAN, WLAN, and Bluetooth, what rfkill does, the difference between soft-blocked and hard-blocked wifi, etc.

( cut for length )

Games
More Slay the Spire: still no infinity deck, but I got the 'Ooh, Donut' achievement for killing Donu with a Feed card. So that was satisfying.

Garden
I bought a little (less than one square metre) pop-up greenhouse tent thing, set it up outside, and planted the basil cutting there. A few days later I woke up and found that it was gone. Tent and all.

I have no idea what could cause that. Did I not put the stakes in deep enough? Did some basil-loving animal come into my back yard? ???

Weather
It's finally cold. Cold enough, in fact, that last week I purchased an electric foot warmer for those "oops, my toes are all corpse white" times. I'll keep looking for a less e-wasteful solution, but I'd like to still have toes by the time I come up with it.

Miscellaneous
Last week I had to get a routine blood test. I noticed that there was a case under the exam bed across the room from the chair I was in. I couldn't tell what instrument it was, it was a bit too broad and flat for a trumpet. Banjo, maybe? Ukulele? "Aha," I thought: "an opportunity to make small talk as the humans do!"

When it was my turn in the conversation to provide a line, I asked "What instrument do you play?"
"I actually don't play an instrument," the phlebotomist said. "It's funny that you thought I did..." and then followed my gaze to the case. "Oh! That's not an instrument. A patient gave me that. She was cleaning out and thought I might like it. It's actually an arm. A rubber one, for practising giving injections. She thought I could give it to the company, but they have their own training materials. I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Fancy dress, maybe?"

Happy birthday, redroanchronicles!

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Gentleness Is Strength." I'll be soliciting ideas for caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, strongmen, tough guys, superheroes, supervillains, other gentle and strong people, caregiving, feeding each other, babysitting, brushing or braiding hair, catching someone who's falling, lifting heavy things, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, gyms, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, other polyhomes, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, self-control, intentional neighboring, altruism, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

Clay of Life depends on the friendship between a blacksmith and a golem.

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on kindness for survival.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting, of which the vampires in particular are gentle with others.

The Moon Door features a women's chronic pain support group, which is all about being gentle with each other.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis is about Shaeth learnng how to take care of his new followers.

Path of the Paladins balances gentleness and strength.

Peculiar Obligations is about Quakers and pirates learning to help each other.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is fantasy with a gentle angle.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Here are the location notes for "The Release of Human Potentialities."

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This post talks about time and money.



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These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "The Release of Human Potentialities"
Birdfeeding
How to Make a Mosquito Bucket of Doom
Birdfeeding
Neutrinos
Philosophical Questions: Stealing
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 5-23-25: Het
Waterfox
Celebrate Sherlock Holmes Day with 21 Queer Detective Reads!
Pennies
Birdfeeding
Poor Life Choices
Fossils
Birdfeeding
Hard Things


"Not a Destination, But a Process" has 134 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 86 comments.


"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It needs $86 to be fully funded. Lawrence shows Stan around the campus at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.


The weather has been delightfully cool here, and we got some rain. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several starlings, several catbirds, several blackbirds, several mourning doves, several robins, a pair of cardinals, two brown thrashers, a grackle, a blue jay, an adult fox squirrel, two young fox squirrels, and a skunk. Asiatic lilies have buds.  The pink peony and poppies are done blooming. Irises are winding down. Currently blooming: dandelions, honeysuckle, alliums, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, red coreopsis, white peony, blackberries, irises, tomatoes, tomatillos, Washington hawthorn, privet, mock orange, dogwood.  Mulberries and raspberries have green fruit.

I have a bee tree again! :D 3q3q3q!!! I am so excited. While walking through the savanna, I heard the lawnmower sound, so I checked the most recent bee tree and the girls were back to-ing and fro-ing overhead. *GLEE*

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

We walked around the south lot, then my partner Doug mowed that. 

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I fed the birds.  I've seen several sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a young fox squirrel.  Robins are foraging the newly cut grass.  We found a toad in the south lot, and I moved him to the shadier garden under the maple tree.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I sowed partial shade wildflower seed mix in a pot on the old picnic table.  I sowed cypress vine seeds in the septic garden and around the support wire of the telephone pole.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I watered the septic garden, patio plants, and a few other things.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden, hollies, and Colorado blue spruce.

My partner Doug plans to mow the savanna next.

I've seen two catbirds, a grackle, and a female cardinal.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I started trimming around things in the house yard.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I finished the first bit of trimming around things in the house yard.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I started trimming in front of the log garden in the house yard.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I finished trimming in front of the log garden in the house yard.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I trimmed brush along the path from the driveway to the savanna.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/26/25 -- I trimmed brush along the east side of the house.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

55. Don't Kiss Me, the Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore, 2006, non-fiction, art, history, biography, 4/5

Separate book post because some people, entirely reasonably, choose to avoid Nazi references (although choosing to be a fascist is imo a "chose not to be warned" life experience).

( Context is good actually. )

Don't Kiss Me, the Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore, 2006, which is a collection of essays about the lives and art of CC & MM, plus a generously illustrated catalogue of the Jersey Heritage Trust's collection of Cahun and Moore's art, letters, and other archived documents such as news clippings (leaving out only the contents of CC & MM's published books). Some of the essays were more edifying than others. "On a le dieu qu'on mérite, tant pis pour soi". The art is what it is, and this collection represents what Moore / Malherbe possessed at the time of her death. The couple had presumably lost some of their personal art collection to Nazi destruction, both intentional and careless, when their home in Jersey was occupied after they were arrested for 4 years of active resistance (Cahun claimed the couple had created and distributed around 2,500 pieces of anti-Nazi propaganda!). This book and this collection isn't a complete overview of Cahun and Moore's works. Warnings for brief mentions of Nazi crimes against humanity, attempted suicides, and anorexia.

My fave photo is Je Tends les Bras in which Cahun gives surreal life to a stone gatepost.

Transgressive art positioning a gravestone as a phallic symbol, or Cahun clinging to hope over death? Clue: it's not exactly a traditional Hope and anchor. I note again that androgyny is not masculinity and making jokes about phallic symbols doesn't imply the joker wants one for herself.

Claude Cahun repeatedly visually referenced herself with symbols of female genitalia, including pussy cats, and seems to have imagined the anti-Nazi art and propaganda campaign she and Marcel Moore engaged in as resistance cats toying with Nazi eagle-birds.
- 1940, Nazi soldier-eagles on the beach overlooked by Cahun's enthroned cat.
- 1945, shortly after the couple's release from prison, Cahun made a portrait of herself with a Nazi eagle uniform badge between her teeth (like a cat with a bird). Significantly, the badge was a gift from the uniform of one of the German soldiers held for desertion &c, in the same prison, who Moore / Malherbe and Schwob / Cahun encouraged and supported.

Happy birthday, aedifica, the_rck and thornsilver!

These are the character notes for "The Release of Human Potentialities" Part 2: Cora & children.

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