outsider (extraplanar)

Chinese Tiger Gecko (Goniurosaurus araneus), family Eublepharidae, China

Clothing company Patagonia is currently suing drag queen Pattie Gonia for "irreparable” harm to their brand.

To be clear; Pattie named herself after the region in South America.

So Pattie is asking people to politely ask Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.

I'm extending the invitation to all of you, because suing a drag queen for 'infringement' in the current political cultural landscape is vile. Especially a drag queen who has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, uses her platform to raise awareness for climate activism, and fully aligns with Patagonia's apparent climate-conscious mission statement.

They're claiming they're suing for $1. They're actually asking her to stop using her name, and pay over $1 million in legal fees. They're straight up harassing her.

In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen.

Anyway. Be respectful(ish), but feel free to be annoying on Patagnoia's socials, asking them to 'DROP THE LAWSUIT'

Female birds with confusing names.

The Gardens of Ynn (2024) does for outside what The Stygian Library does for inside.

Before we go on, I have to explain that my maternal grandfather was a gardener, and because of this (and its relative proximity) we visited Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania quite frequently (the Wyeth museum is nearby, which explains that particular obsession as well, I think). When I was little, these trips were mostly confined to the sprawling greenhouse, but at some point, when I was about 11, we were there in the autumn and I explored the grounds for the first time in my memory. The greenhouse is on a rise overlooking a fountain garden in what I now understand is a mix of Italian and French influences, but at the time was just entirely magical. Made with a porous sort of concrete, the fountains were stained, cracked, eroded and covered with lichen, making the decorative grotesques even more so. Particularly the back area, where a dry, forlorn pool was choked with brown leaves and lined with broken statuary. It seemed, and continues to in my imagination, like the setting for something.

Ynn appeals to me because in many ways it delivers on the promise of that autumnal discovery. Here is the garden I somehow felt was behind the garden. Where the insects are unfamiliar, where the day is twice as long and where spending enough time among the strange plants can turn you into a fae or a vampire. Or worse: Ynn fell to ruin because it was infected by a memetic virus called the Idea of Thorns, and vectors for infection remain. If it were to spread to the mundane world, the result would be disaster.

Okay, maybe that guy was a bit fishy. We need the right detective for this case.