danjswrites.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

My beloved 19-year-old cat has entered his final days. He doesn’t appear to be in any pain but is a shadow of the cat he was just last week. It’s hard to see and even harder to know whether or when to intervene. At the moment he still purrs when given a gentle scritch, but is that enough?

submitted 4 hours ago • 0 comments

I’ve got the flu and our boiler broke so no heat or hot water and somehow this just feels fitting for the times.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

They can change the term all they want, I’m still queer.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Of all the horror Trump has unleashed the dismantling of USAID is the most shocking. For less than 1% of the budget they’re creating widespread famine and illness. That will cause more social collapse and refugees heading west, which will feed rightwing parties in Europe. Which is probably the goal.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

In retrospect, I was dead on.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

The @nytimes.com has to stop referring to Israeli “military actions” in the West Bank when they are clearly acts of terrorism intended to further a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Dear Amazon, one of the books in the “Celebrate Black Voices” email you sent doesn’t belong. Hire a human to check these things before you send them out.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve been blocking every source on Facebook that pops up with a story about Lively/Baldoni but there’s a never-f-ing-ending supply of so-called content providers peddling that story. It’s insane.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

I’m addicted to home decoration instagram. It’s amazing how much time one can spend looking at beautiful houses filled with gorgeous furniture and breathtaking art and home goods. Not to mention the videos of hand-turning wooden bowls and crafting exquisite ceramics. Suddenly my world is perfection.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

I’m back to getting all my news via The Daily Show, just like I did in Trump 1. It’s not nearly as effective without Trevor, but it’ll have to do.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

So the White House website has apparently deleted the Spanish language pages, the LGTBQ+ pages, and the Disability pages. So they’re pretending that there aren’t any Spanish-speaking, queer, or disabled people in the US. Good luck with that.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

It’s day 3 and I’m already overwhelmed. There are far too many fires burning simultaneously. Then I got outraged by a clip of Vance and Melania responding to yesterday’s sermon only to discover that it was an edited fake. You can’t believe anything online, including propaganda from your own ”side.”

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

It really creeps me out that whenever a famous person dies people post photos of themselves with the deceased. Tell us how they and their work impacted you, but please don’t advertise the fact that you met them once. It’s offensive.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Just finished my first read of 2025 and it was a good one. Telling the story of a group of teens who have spent years training for a 23-year interstellar journey to a habitable planet, this book delivers a finally calibrated exploration of the exhilaration, boredom, and terror of space travel.

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

I just discovered that NYC has an interactive rat map and I’m not cool with that.

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

Nobody knows how the US got to this point. Nobody knows…

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

I just spent a very depressing hour closing the 254 open windows on my iPhone. It's like rummaging through my brain's trash, littered with scraps of every random thought I've had over the past year. Terrifying.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

On my morning walk I was thinking about how to balance my desire to restart my writing and revising routine with my need to be realistic about what I’m likely to manage. Setting realistic expectations will hopefully avoid the cycle of failure, guilt and paralysis. Here’s to trying.

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

There must be a easily washable and reusable surface we can all put our menorahs on instead of tinfoil

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

Ending the year with a cracked crown and a tooth extraction, which pretty much sums it up

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

A Palestinian-American writer I follow on Instagram posted about how difficult the ongoing genocide has been for her. A number of white Americans responded saying, essentially, “yeah, same for me.” And, no, it’s not the same for you. Have some awareness please.

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

How nice of the city to put up this reminder in case the tourists off the cruise ships forget where they are.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

I couldn’t care less about the people involved but everyone should read this complaint both for the list of outrageous behavior the accused admitted to do having done and for the incredibly elaborate smear campaign the accused and his company devised to protect themselves. Scary.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

2024 was a shitty reading year for me in terms of quantity. I had a number of long periods during which I couldn’t focus enough to finish—or sometimes even start—a book no matter how great it was. But I did consume some fabulous books. Here are six that really stood out for me.

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

And another thing: the argument that telling students the truth about Israel’s policies is antisemitic and risks harming Jewish students is based on the same flawed and harmful logic that argues that teaching about institutional racism is racist and might harm white students.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

It infuriates me that many American Jews, who have long fought for civil rights and free speech for all, are now using their leverage to stifle criticism of Israel. There is nothing antisemitic about calling Israel’s war on Gaza genocidal and we should not be sheltering students from that realty.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

We recently moved to a town in the Penedès region of Cataluyna. The guy we’ve hired to repair our terrace and build some closets is also a viticulturist at his family’s vineyard.

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve become pathologically terrified of black plastic.

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

I watched a writing workshop yesterday and it was very informative—but why are people still using HP references in their presentations? Regardless of your feelings on JKR why use a reference that’s guaranteed to turn off a large portion of your audience?

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Just when you thought the worst was over…

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

We’re having what the local weather folk call a “coastal event” and I’m playing loud music to drown out the howling wind. But I can still hear it.

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

As an editor I spent decades correcting the use of their and replacing it with his/her. After making myself switch to using their as my default for the past few years it has finally started to feel natural. Change can be slow and awkward but it’s always possible.

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

“Chief executive officers of health care companies often receive threats because of the nature of their work.” I don’t condone threats or violence, but the cause of threats isn’t the “nature” of their business but rather how they choose to conduct it.

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

Now that this is the hot app I’m feeling awkward and out of place.

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

Not to be a stickler for wording but I think anything involving “fire” is more than a test of something called a cease-fire. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/w...

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

I came of age in the 70’s and the only queer characters I came across were caricatures written and/or played by straight men. I was so excited by Another Country because Rupert Everett was not only crazy hot but the character felt like a real person—and he turned out to be a Soviet spy.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Some people freak out at the concept of genders but putting a man-faced, breasted dragon with wings on a building is just fine.

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

Favorite new word: Artbarf

submitted 90 days ago • 1 comment

I have book paralysis! There are literally hundreds of books in my TBR list and nearly a hundred on my (virtual) bookshelf and I can’t choose what to read next. I need a personal book selector.

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

I just broke through my longest reading drought in years. I kept starting books and then getting stuck and putting them aside. It wasn’t until I started I CRAWL THROUGH IT that I finally got into thr groove and finished a book. Thanks @as-king.bsky.social !

submitted 91 days ago • 1 comment

There goes the funding for the Jewish space lasers.

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

Trump’s designated head of the Department of Education wants to stop schools from promoting “unpatriotic concepts” about American history—which is itself a totally unpatriotic concept.

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

My brother on visiting me: "It's ironic that we can bring fascism to Spain." Indeed.

submitted 97 days ago • 0 comments