Leaping Jackalopes!

a compilation of random rabbitiness

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[baddywronglegs]

The people who insist AI is smarter than a human are doing their fucking damnedest to manifest that

[literaticat]

This isn’t a question but for Pete’s sake, Jennifer, now Mac Barnett is dunking on kidlit too?

It’s just…. so tiring.

I'll preface this by saying that while I've met Mac Barnett, I don't KNOW him, I have no special insight into his thoughts, I like a lot of his books and love a couple of them and don't personally care for others, which is fine. So, you know where I'm coming from, I've got no horse in the race as it were!

In case you missed the scandal du jour, Famous Children's Book Author and National Ambassador for Children's Literature Mac Barnett has a new book out for grownups. It's about, well, children's books. Toward the front of the book, there's a quote which I'll paraphrase: "94.7% of children's books are crud." (It's a riff on a different famous quote by a different author about Science Fiction books, that's not the point, I'm just giving you the background here!)

As you can imagine, a lot of people who have a lot invested in promoting children's books were dismayed by this comment. Which is fair enough, tbh, because yes, out of context — (eta: OR EVEN IN CONTEXT!) — what a monstrous thing to say! Like, talk about privileged, buddy, GET REAL, who are you to "crud" all over your colleagues, and the publishers who publish all those books... including YOUR BOOKS btw?

Tracey Baptiste wrote an excellent response about this and why it matters. Kate Messner wrote another excellent response that I think encapsulates what we, people who love kids books, might do about it. I urge you to read both, they are smarter and more thoughtful than I am!

MEANWHILE, a bit of a dogpile commenced, with people clamoring for him to resign his post as Ambassador, saying his books suck anyway, dragging him through the mud, etc etc. OK. Now you're caught up.

The problem (well not the only problem, but ONE of the problems) here is, the alarming quote has been taken so far out of context that it means the opposite of what I think Mac would say he meant it to mean. (ETA: Not that that makes it a GOOD QUOTE, it’s emphatically a shitty thing to say, just — it’s not the *only part* of the thing he was saying!)

Like, if you were to read the actual book in question as a whole, it's a sort of philosophical defense of Children's Books and why they are important. He explicitly says in that text that it's vital to have all kinds of books, that children need to be able to see themselves in books, that children often like different things than adult gatekeepers like (and vice-versa)... in other words, MUCH of the same stuff that all the people who love and write children's books say all the time.

Additionally, it might or might not be important to note that the book was written and originally published in Italy BEFORE he was the Children's Ambassador, he wasn't writing it from that position. His platform and influence NOW is much bigger than it was a couple of years ago when it was written. (ETA: At this point in time, his position in the world is different, and the effects of his words have bigger ramifications than I think he knew when he wrote them. So this was perhaps “ill advised” before, but it feels IRRESPONSIBLE now!)

I think he used the word "crud" because it's an objectively fun word and a riff on the original quote, and "94.7%" because it's funnier than 90%. I think he was showing off, because he loves a little rhetorical flourish and didn't ever think it would escape containment and go viral. He wasn't thinking it through. I think he was writing philosophically from an "ivory tower" of sorts, figuring few people aside from Big Fans would ever even read it and it wouldn't have to serve as a Grand Statement. (It's a niche book!)

The thing is, it DID escape containment. Many of the people reacting to that quote aren't up in the tower, they're grappling with reality in the trenches. If the "94.7%" quote is all they hear, OF COURSE it comes off as snobby and elitist and awful. IT IS.

He's a smart guy. He's talented. He clearly thinks a lot and cares a lot about children's books. And A LOT of what he talks about in the book is spot-on. However. Alarming Quotes get a lot more clicks than Nuanced Philosophical Arguments. And with a platform as big as his, they can do a lot of damage.

If you've got this far and are still interested in reading more about it, I'll also point you toward this interview with Mac about the book from PW. And this is a superb review of the book that gets what's right about his arguments, and what's wrong about them: "Mac Barnett is Right. Mac Barnett is also a snob."

Now if you're still fired up about it, I suggest you go back and read Kate's message AGAIN, and use that energy to #BeAnAmbassador yourself.

[shadow-manor]

#good omens

[alljaneaustenallthetime]

Christmas at Chatsworth

[lgbt-tiktoks]

Description: [A video of a woman riding a galloping horse bareback while holding a large rainbow flag.]

[nattousan]

i felt like these tags really added to the experience, thanks @cynderxdustypaws for your knowledge

[naamahdarling]

This is one of the most powerful images I have ever seen, and I will reblog it every single time because every single time it brings tears to my eyes.

[yellowcomics]

Not For Puppies

support me on patreon!

[fishcrow]

inspired/based on this awesome comic! from @yellowcomics :>

[yellowcomics]

Hehe, very cute!

[rt0no]

[lumsel]

I'm kind of at a point where the "queer spaces" i feel safest in are the ones that have a pet cishet dude or two hanging around

[lumsel]

When a space cares a lot about making sure its members are queer enough to participate, you get a space that aggressively polices the queerness of its members. There's no way around that, it's pretty much tautologically true. Only by paradoxically not actually caring if you're queer or not can a group really accept the full range of what queerness can look like.

[grison-in-space]

Also, a space that has room for a cis straight guy who means well and wants the best for his friends has two crucial things going for it.

1) it has space for people who are learning and might fuck up a bit while they figure things out, and that learning process is probably not so godawful and unpleasant that a guy with other prospects would have to be a fool not to go find some nicer friends. This is nice because it is very difficult to personally embody the entire alphabet at once, and learning how to be good allies to one another is a crucial part of queer solidarity. It's nice for that process not to be painful.

2) it has space for people who aren't yet willing to or comfortable with presenting an externally queer label to continue to exist and soak up the queer vibes and information, which means it's welcoming to actual questioning people rather than the theory of questioning people. Probably it therefore has more interest in actually doing things rather than hierarchy politics.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

3) it's probably not a radfem tar pit interested in weaponising you against people they've decided to hate in a social smear war that benefits nobody and nothing but their need for a power trip

[elodieunderglass]

Oh it’s even more than that! The cis straight guy is very often a ride home, dad or husband. Or a Bob which I will explain in this essay is a signifier of a healthy ecosystem, like frogs are.

This is a 3 am take so consider this a blanket apology and a readmore but if you hate this post you were warned.

If he’s someone’s ride home, then his presence enables queer people to show up. Note this importance in, say, rural America or where the person might use a wheelchair or need care or can’t drive. Or where the meeting place is generally awkward.

If he’s someone’s dad, his presence enables kids to show up. I know a 5 year old trans kid in real life. I know a nonbinary teen in real life who’s allowed to do a lot on their own, but their parents worry, and if they’re hanging out with adults the parents want to attend and meet the adults. Teenagers are so liminal with this.

If he’s someone’s husband, that’s a perfectly common accessory for a bisexual, nonbinary, or trans person. I think it adds a delightful dimension to queer spaces. I think it’s great that there’s a whole class of sexuality that’s “bi wife energy” or “straight except for loving this person” or “straight since I think nonbinary people are considered a different gender to my own - actually I’m completely lost about whether that’s true but we’ve been married ten years?” or “straight except for the fact that my partner transitioned, and we’re still married, and it’s none of your business.” At this point they’re so common that they’re their own subspecies. I think all spaces should have a slightly bewildered guy in his late forties who owns a set of good screwdrivers. I am bi and have one myself; it is a common pairing. “Why would your husband come to your social thing” idk this is a genuine thing people do sometimes in non-tar-pit spaces. They stop by. It’s almost like birds. You meet this incredible ornate, splendid older queer person and then they introduce their husband Professor Robert “Bob” Kevinsworth, who’s just this extremely straight old big fat Linux geologist in a 90s t-shirt with a trout on it, they’ve been married 45 years. Evolutionary pressures mean that the Bob must be relatively drab in order to camouflage themselves on the nest or something; if you want to attract the flashy half of the couple to your garden, then you have to provide habitat for Bob. idk it’s 3:46 am right now. But it’s like frogs; the presence of Bobs indicates a healthy and established ecosystem, like Grison and Derin indicate. Because frogs, who absorb environmental toxins readily through their skin, are an indicator species for pollution and biodiversity; a Bob means there is going to be less toxicity and more diversity.

[And also it’s none of our business but there are an awful lot of queer Bobs (Bob himself, again, possibly being queer) and it’s really none of our business. Sure, maybe that person looks like a straight grandpa. A lot of people do/did. I have always hated the idea that you can “spot” a queer person by their haircut, clothes or youth (largely because I don’t look very unusual or amazing myself.) the oldest nb person I know is a sort of Bob with a big white beard and grandchildren, and I’m sorry but at their age they are NOT going to be getting a different haircut! Let alone pink Shein dungarees and black circle sunglasses to signify their queerness to gatekeepers. A lot of people seeing them would assume they are cishet. Nope! Just old, fat and unfashionable.)

So a space that doesn’t have room for a cishet guy is a space that has made decisions about children, non-drivers, a large proportion of bi and nonbinary people, straight trans women, dads, and so on.

Which is fine in itself I suppose, but what they’re clearly kinda selecting for is a population of able twentysomethings who can all have sex with each other. and the thing is that there’s often a vibe they feel annoyed by seeing people they don’t want to fuck (children, middle-aged people, unfashionable queer people, people unironically wearing trout t shirts).

So in my admittedly highly limited personal experience, the exclusionary “queer spaces” just tend to be an elaborate drama-production exercise for twentysomethings to date each other, the rituals are intricate etc.

And all the rest of the weird queer people are just. at the seed swap.

[cyberxbattalion]

[a-book-of-creatures]

Eugh! Blegh! Ptooey!

[earhartsease]

[lemonsharks]

Rb to remind a friend not to put the pffthlarthh in their mouth

[rootin-n-bootin]

So I haven’t really been seeing folks talk much here at all about what’s been going on with Hurricane Helene recovery- but I thought I might share something I thought was cool and important.

Because of how roads have been washed out making homes and towns inaccessible to vehicles, the Cajun Navy (organizations that performs search, rescue, and assistance during disasters) has partnered with Mountain Mule Packer Ranch to use the mules to get medications, food, and water to people in need.

I just think it’s incredible. Despite all the technology you’d think is accessible to help people out, mules are still the most reliable form of transport to save people’s lives

[mikkeneko]

#this IS the technology humans developed for this problem!#carries more than a donkey! calmer than a horse!#surefooted enough to handle rough terrain#and smart enough to find a path for itself#doesn't need the landing space of a helicopter#“I need to move people and supplies where there is no road or even ground” is a problem we have tried to prevent (with roads)#but when it shows up the solution hasn't changed - via @cygnahime

[gallusrostromegalus]

This is also the technology we use for a lot of back country firefighting out west so I promise- y'all are in good hooves.

[madlori]

Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 recently, said that he just wanted to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris.

Yesterday, early voting opened in Georgia, and among the first-day voters was former president Jimmy Carter, casting his vote.

I got unexpectedly emotional about this.

Just an aside...in 2020, the first-day voting in Georgia set a state record with 136,000 voters. Guess how many people voted early in Georgia yesterday?

328,000.

[marta-bee]

Awww, bless. He had friends.

[thehungrycity]

[gwydionmisha]

Bet those students never submit an AI generated essay for the rest of their academic career.

[knightofleo]

A former stray very happy to be inside

[quillusquillus]

I love when you see stray cats experience joy and comfort the likes of which they've never even dreamed and they literally don't know how to respond to it yet. it's like they're just mashing every response button wildly, trying to figure out how to express this overwhelming feeling: PURR? KNEAD? BITE? SCRATCH? WRITHE? SNARL? MEOW? RUB?? ???

[drtanner]

Gosh, that's a healthy motor, lmao. Perfect little baby. :')

[crehador]

so when food is too salty we might say "打死卖盐的" basically meaning "did you beat the salt merchant to death" but one time in an attempt to be a little polite and a little funny to the chef (my mother) i said "……是不是又跟卖盐的有矛盾了" meaning "are you... having a dispute with the salt merchant again" and now it's a whole thing in my family

anyway point being there has been another altercation with the salt merchant

[memewhore]

[voidsnout]

hold on let me google something

[voidsnout]

what the fuck

[triflesandparsnips]

happy Boston Molasses Flood to all who celebrate

[mostlydeadlanguages]

Ea-Naṣir Reassures Two Men (UET V 72)

In this unpublished tablet, held by the British Museum, we find the copper merchant Ea-Naṣir and his associate Ilushu-illassu writing to a couple of men to reassure them.  Although the situation is missing some context, there are some real gems in the context of the famous letter to Ea-Naṣir.

One of the men intimidating the recipients is named Mr. Shorty (kurûm).

Ea-Naṣir complains that people don’t believe him.

Ea-Naṣir mentions giving “the ingots that we talked about” to someone.

The repeated encouragements — “don’t be scared!” “don’t be critical!” “don’t worry!” — sound a lot like Ea-Naṣir is trying to reassure someone that a situation hasn’t gone sideways (but it has).

…

Say to Shumun-libshi and the Zabardabbû: [1]

Ea-Naṣir and Ilushu-illassu say:

As for the situation with Mr. “Shorty” and Erissum-matim, who came here, don’t be scared.

I made them enter the temple of the Sun-God and take an oath.  They said, “We didn’t come about these matters; we came for our businesses.”

I said, “I will write to them” — but they didn’t believe me!

He said, “I had a quarrel with Mr. Shumun-libshi.”  He said, “[…] to his partner.  I took, and you did not […]  You didn’t give to me.”

Within 3 days, I’ll come to the city of Larsa.

Also, I spoke with Erissum-matim and said, “What is your sign?” [2]

I said to the kettle-maker (?), “Go with Ilum-gamil the Zabardabbû, and take the shortfall for me, and put it in the city of Enimma.”

Also, don’t neglect your […].

Also, I have given the ingots that we talked about to the men.

P.S. Don’t be critical!  Get the […] from them!  Don’t worry!  We’ll come to you.  [3]

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