Old enough to know better, too young to care

Most alleged one-shots that supposedly cap out at 5k words are only a couple weeks old or severely malnourished, and once they start receiving proper care and writing sessions, they'll blow up to 25k, 50k, or often even 100k or more. This is perfectly normal and the size they were always meant to be!

But sadly, many writers don't have space in their homes & lives for such a long fic, which is why it's a shame they're often presented as one-shots.

"The 'God Made Trans People' billboard is stupid! God didn't make me! I'm an atheist!" Okay. The billboard sits along a major highway in Kansas. We can deduce that the target audience is not you—it's the centrist evangelical Christians driving along that road who could probably be persuaded to become allies as long as we choose our words carefully and don't make them feel attacked for not already knowing everything about trans rights issues. Another one I see a lot is, "We shouldn't be talking about how right-wing legislation catches [privileged in-group] in the crossfire when [marginalized out-group] suffers far more!" I know. I agree with you. Which is why you and I are not the intended audience of this argument!

The entire point of rhetoric is to win over someone who doesn't already fully agree with you. In this case, let's say that someone is Jennifer, the moderate center-right mom in your neighborhood who doesn't really know or care about transgender issues but would be absolutely horrified by the idea of her teenage daughter having to submit to an invasive inspection of her body just to be allowed to play soccer. Tell her, "Banning trans students from sports will inevitably subject all student athletes to invasive gender-policing," or "Legal restrictions on gender-affirming care will make it harder for you to access the hormone replacement therapy you take to treat menopause symptoms," and she is more likely to question her existing beliefs and listen to the rest of what you have to say than if you lead with leftist talking points that she already has a calcified opinion about or which she thinks do not personally affect her.

Regular people: Wait, the King has easily stolen potatoes? How do I get in on this?

Yesterday was a day where my oldest group was given a free day (a ton of local weather has kept them from recess/outside PE for basically two weeks and all adults in the building are OVER THE DRAMA that has ensued because of cooped up pre-teens).

My kids had options of several different things to do (karaoke, dodge ball, basketball, etc) and they requested to stay in my room and watch Bluey instead. If you are unaware of Bluey, it's this show:

The show is geared toward 2-7 year olds. The titular character is the smaller Blue dog. The bigger blue is the "dad", the little sister and mom are the brown dogs. The voice actors are Australian.

My students were super into the show, talking about their favorite episodes, side-characters, etc. It was cute...until I unexpectedly initiated Fandom Wars 2026 lol.

The kids kept talking about how the characters are British, and I -- mind more on end of year paperwork than the show -- said, "Nah, that's an Australian accent."

One student, in a thoughtful voice, said, "Well that makes sense. They're Australian shepherds."

Another girl got OFFENDED(tm) and shouted, "OMG! NO, THEY'RE BLUE HEELERS! BLUE-Y. BLUE HEELER."

(Cue AP poking her head in due to shouting lol.)

Me: Whoa. This is math class. You don't even have the option of Drama class until 8th grade. Chill.

Student 2: *flails* Blue. Heelers.

Student 1: Australian accent! Australian shepherds!

AP: *backs out slowly while cackling at my pain*

Me: #1. I don't care enough to Google it. Student 3, please Google this to settle our sudden classroom debate.

Student 3: Bluey and dad are Blue Heelers. Other dogs are Red Heelers. They are ALL Australian working breeds.

Students 1 and 2, simultaneously: I told you so!

Not a biologist, but the evolution of mammals is way more granular than you might expect. Humans are the sole surviving species of the genus Homo, which was a real party before the other ones went extinct. You're in for a fun time.

Domestic cats are believed to be domesticated not from tigers, but from the African wildcat:

Which evolved to be small just because it's sometimes more useful to be small.

And no, hamsters are not off-brand rats. They're part of the rodent order, which includes beavers, moles, capybaras, guinea pigs (yes, also wild) and lots of other fun things:

Wakes up from hypnosis where he was about to marry a woman he’s never seen before with his mystery girl’s voice, the instant he wakes up then the cute girl he’s actually fallen in love with now has that voice. Then she drops to the floor and has a fish tail, and then the first girl is suddenly cackling “too late!” and bursting out of her skin. So it turns out she’s actually an octopus woman who drags herself over to the real mystery girl - who’s a mermaid?! They’re real?! - and taking her back into the ocean. And Eric has no idea what’s going on here but okay, one of these women is clearly evil and he needs to go after his mystery girl.

And all of this happens/he realizes what he has to do within like, a single minute.

Prior to this he was just living out a sweet romance after having a Meet Cute with a shipwrecked girl, but okay, guess he’s involved in whatever the fuck this is. Acting first, questioning later.