Lent et Grave

I love this cat, my dear friend of over a decade, so so much. I can't afford another $2k more in vet bills up front, even with pet insurance. Insurance that, on its own, is blowing up to $70/ month. Everything this year is more expensive. That's not an exaggeration even - my rent, all my premiums, food, phone bill. The only answer I can come up with is to start delivering food after work a few nights a week.

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!

After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and being stuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from their jobs, millions of Americans were disheartened to learn that it was, in fact, only Tuesday.

“Tuesday?” San Diego resident Doris Wagner said. “How in the hell is it still Tuesday?”

Tuesday’s arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarish slog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever going to end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so goddamn long.

After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and being stuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from their jobs, millions of Americans were disheartened to learn that it was, in fact, only Tuesday.

“Tuesday?” San Diego resident Doris Wagner said. “How in the hell is it still Tuesday?”

Tuesday’s arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarish slog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever going to end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so goddamn long.

The complaints I’m seeing for The Odyssey are ridiculous.

The race of actors. Some of you are complaining because of black people in Ancient Greece. Did NONE of you watch Hercules: The Legendary Journeys or Xena: Warrior Princess gowing up? Tony Todd was captain of what was essentially the flying dutchman. And Helen of Troy was black. No one complained in the 90s. Most of the actors in Xena and Hercules were from New Zealand. Also saying “Homer wouldn’t approve of how she looks.” It’s widely believed that Homer was BLIND!

Another complaint is the use of casual, modern, American-style English. Again, did none of you grow up with Xena or Hercules? Those shows were improbably anachronistic.

There are people complaining about the film being based on the Emily Wilson translation because they call it “Woke.” Do explain why and how it’s woke. Scholars have said that her translation is the most accurate to the Greek to date, for surpassing the nineteenth century translations we grew up with and pretended slavery didn’t exist in Greece.