Den of Yarn

New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns to the charming fantasy world of Swordheart in Daggerbound, a delightful and unexpected new romantic adventure.

Disillusioned scholar Learned Edmund is on a familiar mission: moving a sacred artifact from one dusty temple to another. It is hardly the epic saga he imagined.

Everything changes when bandits attack. In a moment of panic, Edmund violates sacred law and seizes the relic—an ancient sword. But the blade does not reveal rusted metal; instead, a strikingly handsome warrior emerges. Wielding twin daggers of blue steel, he swiftly dispatches the attackers.

The stranger is known as the Dervish, an immortal fighter imprisoned within the enchanted steel for centuries. Bitter and resentful of his confinement, he intends to loathe Edmund just as he has despised every previous master.

What all five of my examples have in common is that they are minor elements in the text; they are not main ideas. In fact, your usual practice of reading which focuses on main ideas would dismiss them all as marginal or trivial. Another thing they have in common is that, although they are minor, they are nonetheless conspicuous, eye-catching: they are either surprising or repeated, set off from the text or too long. Close reading pays attention to elements in the text which, although marginal, are nonetheless emphatic, prominent—elements in the text which ought to be quietly subordinate to the main idea, but which textually call attention to themselves.

Most of you have been educated to ignore such elements. You have been taught to seek out and identify the main ideas, dismissing the trivial as you go. This has had to be trained into you: read to a young child sometime, you will notice she has the annoying habit of interrupting the flow of the story to draw attention to some minor thing. Close reading resembles the interruptions of that child. It is a method of undoing the training that keeps us to the straight and narrow path of main ideas. It is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas.

"Asexual people are often assumed to “lack” attraction. But in reality, many report rich and varied forms of attraction that don’t map neatly onto sexual desire.

So instead of asking “how does attraction work?,” we asked:

What do people actually mean when they say they feel attracted to someone?" "Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data, we identified and validates seven different forms of attraction:

intellectual

aesthetic

emotional

platonic

sensual

romantic

sexual

These aren’t just theoretical distinctions. Statistically, they show up as separate but related dimensions—meaning people really do experience attraction in multiple, distinguishable ways." "Our findings demonstrate that both asexual and non-asexual experience multifaceted forms of attraction.

Put differently, the seven forms of attraction our study identifies are not “ace-specific” categories—they’re general features of human attraction. But starting from an asexual lens helped us see those features more clearly."

Storms in Kansas

Some points of interest:

Corporate profits are soaring. After taxes, they now take 12.3 percent of national output, far above their postwar average of 7.3 percent.

Adjusted for inflation, hourly wages have risen 3 percent since the end of 2019, Ip noted. Corporate profits over the same period have risen 50 percent.

The Economic Policy Institute calculates that since 1979 the productivity of American workers has grown 90 percent while the pay of the typical worker has grown 33 percent. Had wages tracked output, the average worker would earn $16.40 more an hour today.

The profits are concentrated among the largest corporations. Earnings at the 500 biggest US firms rose 28 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2021, and their profit margins reached 14.8 percent. The seven technology giants known as the “Magnificent 7”—Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla—grew their profits 63 percent.

1) Yes in fact I feel the same way!

2) Yes, I like fantasy but they sound like someone really cool and mature

3) Sure why not, not a deal breaker at all

4) Unsure, would have to see if they are otherwise amazing, to compensate

5) Nah sounds rather off-putting

6) Results for people who would never date

Legitimately self-compassion is the biggest mental health life hack of all time. I'm NOT talking about self-esteem. You do NOT have to like yourself one bit. You don't have to believe that you're a good person who deserves good things. You just have to believe that you're a person who deserves the things all people deserve.

You can't get from "I'm the Worst" to "I'm a worthy and lovable person" without passing through "I'm just a regular fuckup like everybody else."

Thanks! I visited a family friend once as a college student and she had a guest basket waiting for me, and I was obsessed--it was such a thoughtful hosting gesture.

Obviously there's no one-size-fits all way to do this, but I love that it's something you can put together even if your guest is crashing on the couch. I try to stock mine with a mix of items that are commonly-forgotten items, toiletries that someone staying over unexpectedly might want, and a few little treats. Also permanently stored in the guest room are several extra blankets, a window AC unit (my house does not have central AC, so this is good for summer nights), a small space heater, and a portable fan, so whoever is staying over can get the temperature to what they like.

Packed into that basket currently:

Full size bath towel and a few washcloths

Travel sized shampoo, conditioner, body wash

lotion and fragrance, just for vibes

disposable razor

a couple tampons and pads

individually wrapped toothbrush and small toothpaste, floss

body wipes, mostly cause I had extra from camping

little packet of tissues

a couple new hair ties and a folding travel brush

one android-compatible charger, and one apple-compatible charger (and there's a power strip on either side of the bed, for ease of access.)

A card with the wifi network and password written out

a bathbomb, just cause

bottle of water