the blazing dream of my head is crawling out

What's your favorite crocodile? Mine is the Cuban crocodile.

There are 23-26 species of crocodilia (depending on how you split a couple of species) in three families: Alligatoridae, which has the American and Chinese alligators and all the caimans; Gavialidae, which has the gharial and tomistoma, and Crocodylidae, which contans the true crocodiles.

Cuban crocs have been my favorite of the true crocodiles for many years, ever since I got to work with the pair at Louisville Zoo when I was... much younger.

They were such babies back then...

I love that they gallop!

This is footage from the now-defunct Smooth Waters Wildlife Park, not a pet.

You probably love them too, even if you don't know it- if you've been around the internet long enough, you've likely seen this video.

These are baby Cuban crocodiles being hand-raised as part of a conservation project at the Dragonwood Conservancy, not pets.

Those laser noises are baby Cuban crocs making an affiliative call (not a distress call) when their caretaker shows up!

Last week I was at a meetup where I was the only transfem. I checked the groupchat when I arrived and there was a message from the organiser: "We have a newcomer called X, can you look out for him if you get there first?" I located X, introduced myself, sent a message to the chat say, "I have located X," and continued to talk to him until the organiser arrived. When the organiser arrived, she was not happy with me. It turned out my phone had autocorrected, "I have located X," to, "I had located X," which the organiser interpreted as me passive aggressively telling her that I had already done the thing she was asking about. Her conclusion: I was unreasonable and aggressive in responding to her reasonable request. My explaining what had happened didn't convince her otherwise.

A different occasion last week: in a local trans groupchat, a trans man sent a link to a drag event happening in our town. A few people said they were already going, some said they might go. Then a trans woman replied saying, "Thanks, but I don't really like drag." Her tone was immediately called into question. Her words were assumed to communicate: "I think you are a terrible person if you like drag," even though she never said that. Several non-transfems who had never even heard that drag might not be universally-beloved by everyone were upset to discover that fact. A trans woman simply saying she didn't like this thing became A Big Deal.

Meanwhile, at a different event again, a trans man told a group that he was straight and attracted to women, but he wouldn't feel comfortable bringing home an "AMAB woman" (yes he actually said that). It was quickly brushed over, and after he had left even trans women tried to defend him by saying "he probably didnt realise people would be offended" etc etc. In contrast to the examples above, he is not even aware that anyone was upset by what he said, never mind worrying about what consequences he might face.

Guy tied up in chair: uh…theres just one guy over there.

Mafia boss: Yeah. That’s Lil’ Tony. He’s got one of dem conditions where he’s got multiple mooks n’ his head. But when Big Tony fronts you’re gonna be in big trouble.

The guy from the Barbie movie

One of the co-stars of The Zone of Interest

A Broadway puppeteer

Definitely a musical

Burn your disbelievers into ash with the very radiance they reject.