MC

@crutchingreader.bsky.social

361

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Cranky queer disabled book nerd. My kid and my cat both move faster than me. Avid romance reader. Writer and researcher. Erstwhile historian of modern Russia and the Soviet Union.

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A corollary this made think of: these days the best way I avoid burnout is just scrolling by people who are entering into the 101 work in a way that annoys me. People were generous with me once, and if I can’t extend the same and might get snippy with a newbie I’m actually holding the work back.

If you are a politically engaged person, the best thing you can do is provide guidance and access to people who aren’t versed in this stuff. Most of my work is 200-300 level, not entry, but I try to make sure that messages I craft make sense for people scrolling by. We need them!

Hey #romancelandia and @fatedmates.net listeners: Lorraine Heath’s The Earl Takes All is on major ebook sale today for $1.99! It took me a second to verify since BookBub has the audacity not to just label the book as “Gorilla Twins.” I haven’t read this yet but now I will be!

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It's a GREAT time to remind all y'all that you can read "What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia" by Elizabeth Catte, instead of that crappy dude's crappy memoir.

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I haven't felt this self-conscious about my stutter since becoming an adult. People are being relentless ableist assholes. Please understand how speech disorders work and realize whatever shit you're thinking about Biden, we can perceive what you are essentially saying about ALL OF US.

Hey wow as someone with a stutter y’all are not kind At all Do you know what happens when you have the kind of stutter where you swap words? Your brain makes an association in a split second and you go “no, not that”, especially when nervous, and it just blorts out of your mouth.

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🗳🇺🇸

My kid had a 44 day stay, and we were still paying off the bill the last time the GOP tried to kill the ACA. I guess they want my HELLP syndrome to be my child’s “personal responsibility.” It’s truly vile.

Ah, FB memories serving up some winners. This is what an itemized $1,330,000 NICU hospital bill looks like (only 96 days to get there). The apple is there for scale. Here’s why I share it. Too many ppl don’t know abt lifetime caps and pre-existing bans. Bc the STILL-VULNERABLE ACA banned them.

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minecraft for tricorder

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I'm a single-issue voter. My single issue is that I'd like to continue voting.

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OH MY GOD Y'ALL!!!! WE DID IT!!!! Truly unbelievably grateful and emotional to see this number. This may be the best "How it Started, How It's Going" of my life. Thank you, y'all, for helping us make this happen. Under no circumstances should you fuck with romancelandia.

As a parent with trans friends and friends who are parents of trans kids, I can attest that the NYT’s trans panic has done some work on second wave feminist Moms who struggle with singular “they,” but I suspect the MAGA apologia may be a bridge too far.

I don’t think the normie libs who I suspect are the core subscriber base for the New York Times et al actually WANT to see the MAGA/GOP apología those publications are now flooded with- but they’ve grudgingly put up with them. Hoping more of these subscribers have finally had enough.

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Good morning, today is March 1592, 2020. It has been 622 days since Elon Musk took control of twitter.

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Is there any lesson to be taken from the French moderate liberal and left earnestly trying to cooperate and help one another defeat a reactionary threat to democracy? Yes there is, until anyone one degree off from my personal political leanings pisses me off over anything, and I mean anything.

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That's the good stuff.

A cool thing about America, since we all need those: I just took a phone survey for the CDC about vaccines! Which are also great! That was, in its way, a little galvanizing for all the democracy related stuff left to do this year to make sure we still *have* a CDC in 2025.

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Thanks to everyone who recommended comfort reads, watches, and listens. I assembled a whole bunch of your suggestions in a big-ass blog post! If you're looking for something nice to put your brain, there are a ton of great ideas here:

A Living Compendium Of Stuff That’s Just Nicehomewiththearmadillo.blog Wherein the people come together to recommend a crowd-sourced repository of comfort watches, listens, and reads.

I lived in Russia during the “oh, the authoritarian crackdown is Very Here” part of 2012. There were some days we didn’t go out much. We watched a lot of TV. I worried about the older journalist who came to my apartment for an interview wearing an opposition symbol. He was and remains fine.

Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.

My kiddo refers to our household as a “family of book dragons” so I snagged several of these!

New Buy it Now unlocked, and THIS ONE ships worldwide!!! Have you ever wanted a dragon? Or a book? How about a BOOK DRAGON? This vinyl transfer sticker will give you both, and it's also rainbow holographic! $5 each! www.32auctions.com/o...

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maybe seizing and arresting the Supreme Court majority for aiding and abetting an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government can be a "core constitutional duty" and an "official act," why not

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My first guess was that this was William Riker's Wikipedia entry.

How I introduce myself in an icebreaker session

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Fight voter suppression with #romancingthevote supporting #fairfight and #voteriders go do what you do best: buy #books ! There are manuscript reviews and resources for #writers too! #edenappiahkubi #thebennetwomen #herownhappiness #audiobook #cds #signedbook#romancelandia #helpsky

I feel like the last time I had a real pulse on the normies was when my hometown newspaper (mid size city near DC and Richmond), had an opinion columnist who sometimes wrote about national stuff but also community issues. A lot can be laid at the feet of the murderers of local journalism.

I think that pundits in the major papers are also almost all fringe weirdos at this point

Oh, fuck all the way off into next week. You know what else makes communities hard to navigate? When they aren’t compliant with nearly 34 year old civil rights law and you can tell just by looking at the goddamn sidewalks. To say nothing of how many unhoused folks are disabled and need services!

Also, as a disabled persion with serious mobility challenges, Gorsuch can *fuck entirely off* with his "Those with physical disabilities report [encampments] can pose a special challenge for them, as they may lack the mobility to maneuver safely around the encampments."

Biden’s ads in my Philly metro media market are pretty good even according to Extremely Online Me; I feel reasonably confident the Dem gains in the Philly suburbs will hold this cycle and more Trump sound bites can only help.

The only reason to set the debate this early is to get those clips as early as possible. I'd be realy, really surprised if they're not airing nonstop in Pennsylvania and Arizona by the holiday weekend.

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Let’s shift our focus, ok? Donald Trump was fucking incoherent tonight. Yes, he’s always incoherent, but his answers were wholly detached from reality. You know what works better than appeal? Disgust. And there’s a lot in his answers that would disgust people if it were pointed out. So point it out.

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This is a cool example of what the Biden administration is good at: small, wonky changes that meaningfully make public services easier to access. Am excited about Martin O' Malley as SSA head: a rare politician who cares about implementation. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Social Security to drop obsolete jobs used to deny disability benefitswww.washingtonpost.com For decades, Social Security has used obsolete jobs like pneumatic tube operator and nut sorter to deny disabled claimants.

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It's super common for trauma survivors to avoid self-care, because it's hard to do that stuff when you're convinced you don't "deserve" it and/or doing the self-care stuff "won't matter" anyway. A lot of realistic recovery is having those thoughts-- & doing the stuff anyway.

I’m on my fourth or fifth pair of well reviewed medium-cost noise cancelling headphones since 2020. While I’m probably harder on them than the average user as a neurodivergent parent, I’m glad my partner got the fanciest Bose ones from work so I can maybe save for those next time. Sigh.

It really does drive me nuts how dropping money on “nice” things isn’t enough anymore - you’ve also got to do scads of research to figure out if you’re just paying for overpriced crap or the real thing (if it even exists anymore).

I hate robocalls and am nervous about my parents getting scammed (and my dad worked in information/data security!). I’ll be calling my reps.

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I just read that it is a symptom of C-PTSD to be aggressive but also incapable of tolerating aggression from others and I feel like they need to post that on the login screens for every social media app like the cancer warning on a pack of cigarettes