Hello, Delicious Tea

On the other hand, it was Reese Witherspoon's idea (she got the idea watching Wednesday, apparently) and she's really excited about it and I know she absolutely adores that character and LB3 has been in development limbo for close to a decade at this point, so I am hopeful it's at least clearly made with LOVE even if it's not great.

And on the third hand I love that Reese was part of the casting process for Elle specifically and that they cast an unknown actress named Lexi Minetree, and VISUALLY at least the girl is a perfect fuckin fit because just look AT her:

A recent study underlines the dangers of these worsening highs. It estimates that a single day of extreme heat causes approximately 3,400 excess deaths nationally in India. A five-day heatwave is linked to nearly 30,000 extra deaths, according to the paper published in the Frontiers in Environmental Health journal last month. These heatwaves are becoming more frequent, longer and more intense as climate change – driven by the burning of fossil fuels – pushes global temperatures higher. The past 11 years, from 2015 to 2025, were the hottest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). [...]

“My husband plays the trumpet, which is a sort of loud pretzel originally invented to blow down the walls of fucking Jericho and, later, to let Civil War soldiers know it was time to kill each other in a river while you chilled eating pigeon in your officer's tent twenty miles away, yet somehow, in modern times, it has become socially acceptable to toot the bad cone inside your house before 10:00 a.m. because it's "your job" and your wife should "get up." What a world! If one was feeling uncharitable, one might describe the trumpet as a machine where you put in compressed air and divorce comes out, but despite this— despite operating a piece of biblical demolition equipment inside the home every bright, cold morning of his wife's one and only life—the trumpet is not the most annoying thing about my husband.”

Vienna here refers to the song by Billy Joel. When he was young, his parents divorced and his father—originally from Germany—left him behind to grow up with his mother.

He eventually reunited with his father on his first European tour, in Vienna.

He was young and feeling desperate to achieve everything he wanted before he grew old, but then he started to notice that elderly people seemed to have more of a place in daily life in Austria than they do in America. He saw them out and about more, socializing, working, enjoying life.

He later said in an interview,

“I realized they [Europeans] don’t throw old people away like we tend to do here in the States. They allow for people who are aged to have a useful place in the scheme of things, and I thought, ‘ya know that’s a good metaphor for someone my age to consider.’ You don’t have to squeeze your whole life into your 20s and 30s trying to make it, trying to achieve that American dream, getting in the rat race, and killing yourself. You have a whole life to live. I kind of used ‘Vienna’ as a metaphor, there is a reason for being old, a purpose.”

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.

* I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

*The King in Yellow

* The Lottery

* The Masque of the Red Death

* The Monkey’s Paw

* The Most Dangerous Game

* The Nameless City

* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

* There Will Come Soft Rains

*The Yellow Wallpaper

* The Veldt

* “you think those were fucked up? What about [X]!”

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers*

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson**

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard O'Connell

The Nameless City by HP Lovecraft

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

Honorable Mention from the comments/reblogs:

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

*note: this is actually a collection of short stories and clocks in at about 72k words

Baby gifts are unlikely to become treasures. The stuffed animal you give the baby is unlikely to become its favorite - if you give the baby a stuffed animal or indeed anything, make sure it is machine washable and machine dryable. Poo comes out of babies at alarming rates.

Our deck table had been showing its age already when the wind caught the umbrella and cracked it. I wanted to replace it with a mosaic table because I’d been enjoying that art form recently. But I couldn’t get one the size I wanted so I got creative.

I spent a few weeks looking for tile and figuring out a very loose design concept. I started by picking a limited set of tile shapes and a color palette.

Once the tiles arrived I had a piece of particle board cut to size for the base and I experimented with different motifs until I settled on a selection of floral shapes that gave me plenty of variety to fill space without locking me into one repeating pattern.

And then I was off! I basically doodled my way around the table, attaching tiles with Weld Bond (I went through 4 full bottles!) and rocking out to the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.

Once the florals were done it was time for the background…

Over 3,800 1cm glass tiles make up the not-design part of the design. It went pretty quickly though because I just had to fill the space, leaving room for grout.

Once I had the tile done, my husband assisted with disassembly and reassembly. We used the legs off the original table for this one (waste not).

One huge bucket of black grout later…

She is finished.

I did it! And I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Rambouillet fiber from Banshee Fiber Art on Etsy hand spun and chain plied by me on a drop spindle. I've been really happy with everything I've gotten from this shop btw, the braids are always super fluffy and soft no matter the fiber type/breed.

This is only 16 or 17 grams of the total braid, which means I've got plenty left to make a few more. This is the equivalent of sport or dk weight.

I'm really glad my math worked out and I had just the right amount. The lower pectoral fins are made from Malabrigo Arroyo yarn in Cyan and worked out great. I can't wait to spin up the rest and make some more.

Bonus cat!