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[ SECRET POST #6837 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6837 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 20 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Timing and Distribution

1) Nothing like a Disney bundle price increase right on the heels of the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco. I wonder if they held off on the announcement until 24 hours after saying he'd return?

2) Having just watched the latest Death in Paradise spinoff, it struck me as curious that a successful show like Silent Witness has not done the same (though maybe it has? Anyone know?)

In a way though, it's like the show has had various spinoffs within the same show. ( Read more... )

I also thought about this issue given this article which argues that technology will continue to make the cost of content creation fall to where practically anyone can create marketable content, especially since consumer expectation of what counts as entertainment and information has changed due to cost and access issues as well as demographic changes. As a result, companies that invest heavily in it will expect to get paid in different ways. ( Read more... )

3) It's fun to see how many people over time at Board Game Arena have recognized my Merlin icon. It's a little fannish high five.

4) Sister Boniface's episode of Doctor Who struck me as a sign of changing times. Twenty years ago the fan would have been the geekiest cast member, probably the reporter, but here various cast members are fans and it's mainly the tall, matinee idol detective.

5) Interesting to see how U.S. films are getting less viewing overseas, mainly due to China's restrictions on how many can be shown there. I thought this bit was interesting as well: "The the top French films released were all English-language movies co-produced with the UK among other countries, and did more business in the UK than in the US or China." I didn't realize France even made films in English.

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Day 1709: "That is un-American."

Posted by Matt Kiser

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2025/09/24/day-1709/

Day 1709

Today in one sentence: A shooter opened fire from a nearby rooftop at a Dallas ICE field office, killing one detainee and critically wounding two others; Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC after a weeklong suspension, defended free speech, and denied he mocked Charlie Kirk’s killing; former FBI director James Comey is expected to be indicted for allegedly lying to Congress, even though Justice Department prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to bring a case; Trump privately promised Arab and Muslim leaders at the U.N. that he would block Israel from annexing the West Bank; Democrat Adelita Grijalva won Arizona’s 7th Congressional District special election by 42.9 points; measles cases in the U.S. climbed to 1,514 this year – the highest since 1992; U.S. Park Police removed a 12-foot statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein from the National Mall; and Trump replaced Biden’s White House portrait with an image of an autopen in his new “Presidential Walk of Fame.”

1/ A shooter opened fire from a nearby rooftop at a Dallas ICE field office, killing one detainee and critically wounding two others. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot. The FBI said it was investigating the incident as “an act of targeted violence” and FBI Director Kash Patel posted images of unspent shell casings, including one marked “ANTI-ICE.” Investigators, however, haven’t confirmed a motive or determined whether the shooting connects to other recent threats or attacks on immigration facilities. (CNN / Associated Press / New York Times / NBC News / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / Axios / Washington Post)

2/ Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC after a weeklong suspension, defended free speech, and denied he mocked Charlie Kirk’s killing, saying: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” He said the Trump administration “tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show […] to take my show off the air,” adding, “That’s not legal. That’s not American, that is un-American.” ABC suspended the show after FCC Chair Brendan Carr criticized Kimmel’s jokes and warned “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Carr later claimed Disney made a “business decision” and denied threatening ABC stations with “remedies” and possible license revocations. Nexstar and Sinclair said they would continue to pre-empt the show. Trump, meanwhile, attacked Kimmel’s return, saying “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” calling the network a “true bunch of losers.” He added, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.” (New York Times / Vanity Fair / NPR / Bloomberg / Politico / NBC News / Axios / The Hill)

Four Democratic senators opened an investigation into Nexstar and Sinclair after the companies refused to air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” following Kimmel’s remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In a letter, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Chris Van Hollen pressed the companies to explain how their decisions “may relate to regulatory issues pending with the Trump administration.” They warned that if the suspensions were tied to seeking favors from regulators, it could create “the appearance of a possible quid-pro-quo arrangement that could implicate federal anti-corruption laws.” Both Nexstar and Sinclair have pending business before the FCC. (NBC News)

3/ Former FBI director James Comey is expected to be indicted for allegedly lying to Congress, even though Justice Department prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to bring a case. Trump fired U.S. attorney Erik Siebert last week for refusing to prosecute Comey, and replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump lawyer with no prosecutorial experience, who is now presenting evidence to a grand jury before the statute of limitations expires next week. The case centers on Comey’s 2020 testimony, where he said he didn’t recall a Hillary Clinton referral and denied approving media leaks. Sen. Ted Cruz pointed to Andrew McCabe’s account that Comey had approved one, calling their statements “irreconcilably contradictory” and that “one of them is lying under oath – a federal crime.” (Washington Post / ABC News / Reuters / CNBC / CNN)

4/ Trump privately promised Arab and Muslim leaders at the U.N. that he would block Israel from annexing the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and faces pressure from far-right allies to move toward formal annexation ahead of elections. Arab leaders, however, warned Trump that such a step would collapse the Abraham Accords and end Israel’s regional integration. Trump tied his pledge on the West Bank to a separate “21-point plan” for Gaza that calls for a ceasefire, release of hostages, Israeli withdrawal, and an Arab-led postwar security force. (Politico / Wall Street Journal / Axios)

poll/ 79% of voters said the U.S. was in a political crisis after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and 71% called political violence a very serious problem – up from 54% in June. 53% were pessimistic about free speech protections, and 53% overall said democracy wasn’t working, though 74% of Republicans said it was. Trump’s approval, meanwhile, stood at 38%, Democratic Party favorability at a record low of 30%, and Republican favorability at 38%. (Quinnipiac)

⏭️ Notably Next: Congress has 6 days to pass a funding measure to prevent a government shutdown; and the 2026 midterms are in 405 days.

✨ Well, that’s fantastic. Democrat Adelita Grijalva won Arizona’s 7th Congressional District special election by 42.9 points. Once sworn in, she will become the 218th signer of a bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote to release federal investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein. After she signs, House rules require at least seven legislative days before a floor vote, which could come by mid-October. (CNN / ABC News / Bloomberg / Politico)

✏️ Notables.

FBI agents said they seized “secret” and “confidential” records from John Bolton’s Washington office, including files on weapons of mass destruction and U.N. matters. The search warrant cited potential Espionage Act violations. Bolton’s lawyer Abbe Lowell called them “ordinary records” from decades past and said “nothing inappropriate was stored or kept.” (Politico / Washington Post)
Trump is expected to sign an executive order approving a deal to move TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new company with American investors. ByteDance would keep under 20% ownership, while Oracle would store U.S. user data and monitor the algorithm. Trump said Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and the Murdoch family will be involved, calling them “really great people, very prominent people” and “American patriots.” (Reuters / NBC News)
Measles cases in the U.S. climbed to 1,514 this year – the highest since 1992. Utah reported 41 cases tied to a school and a Chick-fil-A, while Arizona confirmed 46 along the border. Vaccination rates in both states are below 90%, short of the 95% threshold needed to prevent outbreaks. (Bloomberg)
The United Nations said a White House videographer caused the escalator malfunction that interrupted Trump’s arrival and speech at the General Assembly. U.N. officials said a Trump staffer “may have inadvertently triggered the safety function” designed to prevent objects from being caught in the machinery. A U.N. official also said the White House was responsible for Trump’s broken teleprompter. (The Hill / NBC News / Associated Press / New York Times)
U.S. Park Police removed a 12-foot statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein from the National Mall, saying it was “not in compliance with the permit.” The piece, titled “Best Friends Forever,” showed the two holding hands with a plaque that read: “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Axios)
Trump replaced Biden’s White House portrait with an image of an autopen in his new “Presidential Walk of Fame.” Trump maintains the device “was illegally used” and that Biden “never gave the orders.” (CNN / Bloomberg)

Today last year: Day 1344: "Inflection point."
Four years ago today: Day 248: "Delays and excuses."
Five years ago today: Day 1344: "There won't be a transfer."
Six years ago today: Day 978: "A betrayal."
Seven years ago today: Day 613: Lingering stench.

Support today’s essential newsletter and resist the daily shock and awe: Become a member

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https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2025/09/24/day-1709/

Entry tags:

Miscellaneous things this September

I did a thing at work today that I was scared of. I was hoping it would be the kind of thing that is only scary in my head, and that was only partially the case, but it's mostly done now (I hope) and that means I'm mostly done with the most important things I need to do before the end of September deadlines, which means I'll finally have more time to study for my exam in early October, fingers crossed. I'll be so relieved when that's over, and I'll finally have more time again for other people and hobbies. It's so mean that I have so little time for Silksong rn and I won't be able to play Hades 2 1.0 when it comes out, boo.

Last week we went on a company outing to play "topgolf," which is basically golf played from a balcony with a different scoring system etc. I'd never played golf before, I don't particularly feel the need to do it again but it was fun to try out. I did have a sore arm the day after which, I know I have noodle arms but somehow I'm still sometimes surprised when I get reminded of it.

Years ago I got a voucher for a spa as a birthday present and then never used it because I couldn't decide what for, and then recently I decided to treat myself and try something out so I got a pedicure for the first time. It was nice! And now I have glittery teal toenails and that makes me happy when I see them.

Heads Up

Thanks to everyone's excellent advice (and how-to instructions), I will be locking down my journal in a few days and locking all my fic on AO3 to the archive.

I will also no longer comment on unlocked political posts or posts that I think could be deemed sensitive, but please don't think I don't have opinions about those issues or that I don't want to interact with you.

Love y'all.

Entry tags:

how do your gardens grow

some good things

Today's post brought THREE of my (latest batch of) books from Oxfam, of which two were non-work-related: Index, A History of the (Dennis Duncan), which recessional mentioned when it was first published and which I am only just now managing to get to, and Chihuly at Kew, the exhibition book for the 2019 installation. I am having so many feelings about getting to flip through professional photography of all this art again. I'm so so pleased.
I mentioned these books to simont, who promptly went "hold on, isn't that the one that has a good Wikipedia article?" Turns out it very much is.
To my delight, despite the fact that I'd not been to the plot in something like two and a half weeks (between ten days away and the post-event collapse seguing immediately into A Cold that A brought home for us) all of the peppers various in the greenhouse were looking perfectly happy with themselves. HURRAH for Svaemskog terracotta watering bits + 2l drinks bottles. This is actually the happiest the chillis have been all year, given my... erratic... ability to leave the house; I am looking forward enthusiastically to the fruits of Expanding The System Further next year.
The ancient spinach seed is coming up! In vast quantities! That I was expecting to be dead and thus sowed all of across half a bed! There is going to be SO much spinach and even I will get to turn some of it into seeds for saving purposes, probably, and much of the rest of which I will go "oh right, I have discovered I like adding fresh spinach to the sad emergency noodle pots" about.
Brought home A Pannier Full Of Food, about which I am feeling very good given the Neglect. I am looking forward to turning a suitable array of tomatoes into part of the ongoing cooking project (at which point I will have some leftover puff pastry, so will also do the banana tarte tatin).

(I have not today achieved my Assigned Reading, by which I mean "30 pages of The Challenge of Pain, with notes", because instead I finished reading the last five pages of yesterday's thirty pages and still need to go back and Make My Notes on, like, twenty of those pages. I am learning so much neuroanatomy good grief. But there is bread, and there is yoghurt, and there is drying laundry, and I went to the plot, and I have started digging myself back out from under my pile of PD e-mails, and there was an excellent sunset.)

Fantastic Four

https://xkcd.com/3146/

One perk of being born at 0.88c is that your birthday is over two days long.

https://xkcd.com/3146/

Current Mood: sad

Reading Wednesday, CW: past crime of rape.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Teaching

I love to teach.
My current horseback riding student is lovely and I know I'm making a big difference in her horse handling/riding ability. One of her major complaints is that her horse Dollar walks at a snail's pace. When she mounted up we talked about her position in the saddle. She was slouched back with much of her weight in the back of the saddle "riding on her pockets", as she was taught. Her position was telling Dollar to stop, then she would kick him to ask him to go. The instant she moved her weight forward, onto her thighs instead of her butt, the horse moved forward at twice the speed. Not only that, he moved off at an even faster walk when she asked him to. Sitting up (in balance) is also way safer.
Lisa has homework though. Dollar is a very laid back gelding who has been allowed to ignore human commands. Obviously he thinks he is higher in the pecking order than humans. I was very aggressive with him, and got some nice brisk responses. As I said to Lisa "the lead mare would never allow him to drag his feet, she would lay into him and remove hair from his hide for such a slow response." I am not suggesting such a drastic move, but Lisa needs to be far more aggressive and less tolerant than she has been. The more I demanded, the quicker he moved. The faster he moved, the more focused he became. Horses move focus to the lead animal, human or horse. They feel safe with the lead animal. Dollar kept trying to follow me around in the arena because being next to the dominant animal is the safe place to be. He is going to be a great horse for Lisa once they get this sorted. Their next challenge is for him to learn that he will -always- get a release for the right answer. Dollar will be so, so happy when communications are better. For the past number of years he's just been hauled around, pulled on and given contradictory signals. I'm always in awe of the tolerance of horses like Dollar who just keep trying to please their humans even when the humans put them in impossible, often painful situations.

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

What are you reading this week? Are you planning your October reading yet?

AO3 art scams

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Entry tags:

Captain America #391

Writer: Mark Gruenwald

Pencils: Rik Levins

Inks: Danny Bulanadi

Cap and Paladin have been captured by Superia, who plans on turning them into women.

( Read more... )

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Zappy bit of metal drives the plot

Today I woke up from a dream
where the brain chip Spike had in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
was retasked by US law
to enforce modern slavery
as punishment for a crime
where the crime was notionally theft
and the theft was inability to pay a bill or pay back a loan.

Also they had, like, prepackaged debt that could be bought and sold and traded around,
so they didn't have to prove it was originally your debt,
they just had to get your thumbprint on you 'accepting' responsibility for the debt now,
kind of like when companies pursue debt from dead people
and their heirs might not know any better.

But even within that very loose definition of debt
the standards of evidence were insanely low
like debt recovery people in the here now who don't even prove you have the same name or address
just pursue someone with vaguely the same initials
or a similar postcode
and leave it up to the 'debtor' to prove they never were that person.

Put it all together with a chip in your brain though
and it applied aversive stimulus
whenever you failed to demonstrate remorse
ie
said things like
I didn't do it
it wasn't me.

... now I'm awake I only find the whole thing implausible
because the cyberpunk future costs money
and just trashing someone's credit rating and waiting
is practically free
so why brain bomb them
when they'll sign up the old fashioned way
and queue up for zero hour gig economy work
instead of becoming legally property
and an owners responsibility.

Just seems too spendy.

However
thinking about murderbot
the answer becomes
some people have too much power
to leave it unplugged.

So it's brain bombs for the ones with the weapons
or the lawyers who enforce where to point them.

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Wednesday has attended an online seminar on the Chevalier d'Eon

What I read

Finished The Return of the Soldier.

Started Carl Rollyson, The Literary Legacy of Rebecca West (1997) and decided that I was possibly a little burnt-out on his Rebecca-stanning and took a break.

Moved on to Upton Sinclair, Presidential Mission (Lanny Budd #8) (1947), which occupied most of the week's reading.

On the go

Picked up the Rollyson again.

Have embarked on Anthony Powell, The Military Philosophers (A Dance to the Music of Time #9) (1968).

Up next

No idea.

Entry tags:

Well, it's starting - Age of Revelation - X-Men #22

( Scott, get out the good china we have visitors! )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Sept 24th 2025

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question (courtesy of

ysabetwordsmith): For those of us who do yarn crafts, what kinds of yarn do you prefer working with and why?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Entry tags:

on the road

(no subject)

I'm up here at my sister's, not quite a hundred miles north of home, while the new floors are put in. It's all SoCal, and yet a completely different microclimate. I woke to the tut-tut-tut of some bird we don't ever hear at home, and other chirps and twitters equally unfamiliar. Over that, though, the very familiar caw of crows.

As I did the morning walk with the little dog, and listened to the local crows up in the eucalyptus and pines, I wondered if the crows that follow me at home were watching for me to come. Now that the sun is lowering a bit, we're back to increasing numbers, so I might have thirty or so swirling around me when I throw unsalted peanuts out. so exhilarating to watch them!

Here they don't know me, of course, so the calls can't be to let me know they are there. I'm sure the lives of humans are ignorable, except as annoyances that send them into the trees. I wondered about that sky civilization as I trod the path to the dog park. So much going on at the tops of the trees, that we barely notice!

It's such a relief not to be toiling with packing, though of course unpacking lies in wait to pounce when I get back. Then I'll only have three or four days before I take off for my October east trip, so most of my share of the unloading will await me on my return. The big job (and the fun one) is the library.

Speaking of, since it's Wednesday, let's see, what have I been reading? The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell, which is part of a book discussion that I've been following since the start of the year. One book a month in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series. The discussion happens at the start of each month over Zoom, and what interests me is how folks from either side of the Atlantic read the work. Also, non-genre reading. This time I'll be on the train when the discussion rolls around, so I hope I have connectivity, but if not I'll listen to the recording. At least that way I can skip ahead if the fellow who leads it gets prolix over an obvious point as he has a tendency to do. The academic curse; students above a certain age level are too polite to say 'Zip it! We got the idea already." (High schoolers had no such restraint, and middle schoolers invariably signalled boredom by more physical means.)

Anyway I had the leisure, for the first time in a couple of months, to make chocolate chip cookies. So I can have those and tea and do some reading. Heigh ho, I will go do that now.

Discworld: Fanfiction: Ridcully and the Stuck Drawer

Title: Ridcully and the Stuck Drawer
Fandom: Discworld
Rating: G
Length: 600 words
Summary: Mustrum Ridcully does not believe in being thwarted by anything, not even a drawer

( I say we open it )

Entry tags:

books

On Reading in Retirement

Perhaps the odd thing is that my overall reading patterns *haven't* changed that much in retirement, although I do have more time for it. A substantial amount of my reading continues to be non-fiction for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, and that continues. In fact, I have to fight the temptation to spend most of my productive time working on that. But today I wanted to talk more about fiction.

Pre-retirement, my pattern was to have an audiobook going for commuting and my lunchtime bike ride (though bike rides were also for podcasts, since they fit better). If an audiobook really grabbed me, I'd find excuses to do things (like house or yard work) to continue listening. I generally also had one print book in progress at any given time, but they took a long time to finish because I didn't have a fixed context for reading. (Sometimes I'd read them during the break in my weekend bike rides.) Despite doing most of my buying via ebooks, they mostly just piled up because by the time I was done with work and other things, I didn't want to stare at a screen any more.

So what's changed? Well, for one thing, I cancelled my Audible subscription as part of paring down fixed expenses while I get settled into my new budgeting. But I decided it was well past time to actually get a local library card, and now I'm discovering the joys of Libby for audiobooks. I can't necessarily get the instant gratification (and there are plenty of audiobooks they just don't have), but I always have something going. And the borrowing logistics mean that once I've borrowed an audiobook, I make sure to prioritize it.

Print books aren't making any more of a dent on my time than they did previously, in part because my bike ride breaks are pretty much all LHMP all the time. So consumption is about the same.

Ebooks are getting a bit more of my attention. I'm trying to keep the iPad with the books (long story, two iPads for different purposes) charged up so that I can grab it when I'm in the mood. I'm gradually capitulating to the need to track about four different ebook apps, since Apple Books can get weird about showing me non-Apple books that I've side-loaded via the laptop. (It's not all-or-nothing. Some non-Apple books show up on my phone but not the iPad. And some do show up on the iPad.)

That brings us to reading during my recent New Zealand trip. Part of the trip plan was to include lots of relaxation time, and I cued up a bunch of books I'd been wanted to get to. One thing I found (when giving myself time and context for reading) was that I want to be more hard-nosed about DNFing when a book just isn't working for me. And one of the things that more and more doesn't work for me is books with blah prose.

There were several of those during the NZ trip. Stories that had a good premise, and themes that should be appealing to me, but the writing was just...not good. Not bad. Not awful. Just not *good*. Stories where if felt like the author was explaining the story to me rather than telling it. Stories where there were too many WTF moments in the plotting. Stories where the prose was relentlessly pedestrian. And because I started half a dozen novels in quick succession on the trip, it was easy to compare the ones that *did* work for me. Books with singing prose. Books with solid plot and character work. Books where I didn't want to get up from the couch until I'd finished them.

I need to get caught up with my "things I've read" posts, which will have more specifics.

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hxx: ninefox comic

Candle Arc #1 color cover

Working on Ka-Blam setup while taking a break from The Trailer Assignment That Is Trying To Shank Me. :D Just processing files at this point, a.k.a. "this will double as color testing and partial thumbnails for Candle Arc animation WIP." I'll update when :knock wood: it's available via POD through Indyplanet.

Preview at Buttondown. (This is an email newsletter, but it's archived online. You do not need to sign up.)