smells like mice

fwiw that kind of “omg they totally should not have made me read lord of the flies in middle school” rhetoric is very close cousins with “children should not be exposed to books about racism and trans people.” you’re coming from the same basic ideology that books written for children are somehow also unsafe for children, that books intended to educate will actually traumatize, and that what children should read should be heavily restricted and censored. it’s anti-intellectualism babes.

I read a lot of coming-of-age stories years before I was ready for them. I was not traumatized, just a little bewildered. I did, however, flash back to them years later and go “oh.”

No one talks about acid rain anymore, either. And that's a very good thing.

see also START and START II, which significantly reduced nuclear stockpiles

International cooperation is actually so effective that most people don’t even notice it happening, and then erroneously believe it can’t solve anything.

This is Art™️.

@pangur-and-grim wikihow drew pre-op Pangur!

…. why…. why does this cat have 23 upper incisors??????

”grad student shanties” is probably an enormous untapped market. people whose lives are miserable slogs, and are educated/pretentious enough to enjoy dated music styles

"Soon may the Ombudsman come, to tell our advisors to move it along. One day, when the bench work's done, we'll take our thesis and go."

@neat-deadandlive-things

If it’s neither wolf nor fox, then it’s cat software running on giraffe hardware.

Our blessed tumblr

A holy site

Came up to me the other day, the middle of his pants totally soaked, and said “mama, I’m having a situation called ‘I peed in my pants.’”

I don’t think I even told you guys about the six months he spent saying “fuck” instead of “truck.”

All this, and also, they can tell you lots about their favorite things. My 2 year old nephew can tell you all about Star Wars (the 8 movies he’s seen at least) and loves going out of his way to bring up how Anakin was good and bad and good again when he died. Trust me, little kids learn and mimic and reenact all the things they get attached to. Also, he named his first fish Jengo Fett, and all following fish Boba Fett, so juries still out on how much he understands clones.

Kids pick up the language that’s used around and to them. Mannerisms too. They are tiny, efficient mimics and it will come out at the WEIRDEST times. Young kids will ABSOLUTELY say all the stuff listed here.

My family’s lore includes the time my mother offhandedly said to Cousin’s son–who was maybe five–that Cousin’s wife certainly did have strong opinions about some minor thing, and the kid let out a sigh and said, in the driest and flattest and most world-weary tone you’ve ever heard, “Tell me about it.”

once i was helping with a class of 3 year olds and during drawing time one girl asked for a lion, specifically a lioness. i drew it and she just looked in silence so thinking she wanted a more liony lion i was like “do you want me to draw a boy lion next?” and she gives me this 🤨ass affronted look and says “umm she doesn’t NEED a man.”