We got to the second meeting of the revived Arcade Pinball league yesterday. This went well and even avoided the heavy rains we were worried might become a problem. bunny_hugger and I got assigned to the same group, something that came up several times in a row at Lansing Pinball League where group assignments are done by a random draw from a hat. Arcade League we're theoretically grouped by ranking.

Turns out we were well-matched, though. Over the course of five games bunny_hugger had three second-place finishes, while I had a first, a second, and a third; combine with with both of us having a first and a last place on other games, and we ended up tied for points for the night. This is not to say we're going to be in the same group next month, but we didn't do anything to prevent that.

The logic of the way Arcade League does things mean between the two of us we got to pick three of the five games we played, and we went for old-school games: Theater of Magic, Cirqus Voltaire, and Taxi. The two people we played with went for older games with their picks too: Attack From Mars and Creature From The Black Lagoon. It was a league night we could have had in the original Arcade league, which was neat.

Back in Dutch Wonderland pictures, we're almost off the monorail and going to another of the ride-while-looking attractions ...

Last picture on the ride, catching a little view of the Potato Patch. A couple years back Hershey's sold Dutch Wonderland to Kennywood (well, Kennywood's corporate overlords) and I think that's when Kennywood's ``Potato Patch'' name migrated out to Lancaster. Not sure; we tried to eat there but the line was impossibly long.

Back on the ground. Here's the best I could do photographing one of the other animatronic miniatures, a woodworking shop. Unfortunately the sun was making bright reflections against its glass so this is the best I could do.

Some ride sign/entrance queues here, one for the Double Splash Flume and another for The Twister, their trabant ride. You saw both in the distance from the monorail pictures!

And then we started having some Kennywood-grade mascotting luck! Here was Duke out and about a second time!

Vintage historical photo of Dutch Wonderland from when the Double Splash Flume opened; if I was making out the locations right the giant balloon was about where Kingdom Coaster is now. I don't know how long a hot air balloon was part of the park's stuff, but note that Great Adventure in the 70s relied on a captive hot air balloon for some of its ballyhoo.

Another vintage photo, of the Dragon's Lair Log Boats, a boat ride that actually runs outside the park grounds, where you can see things from the highway. It's been renovated away from this model, though ... will you see? Well ...

Here we are on the Dragon's Lair boat ride! While things like the hippo and elephant in the above picture are gone, there's still ``animals'' planted around the lagoon with signs telling you who to look for. The monorail track is above, and you see the highway sign in the background.

Most of the animals appear on the ride after the sign announcing them, like Tucker the Tortoise, but there's signs all along the ride so some of them you have to look back the way you came to see.

The park is unafraid to have some of their fiberglass animals be political, rather than male!

There's Ally! We thought the jaw might move and I'm not sure we were ever sure we saw it do so.

There's a big dragon hidden in the mound that seems like should be Duke except it's a completely different purple altogether. The sign asks if you can spot Fred and Fanny Frog.

I think I found them! I wonder which one is Fanny.

Trivia: After the Civil War, around ten thousand Confederates migrated to the Amazon in a vague idea of creating a new cotton-plantation slave state. All but a few hundred soon fled back, with the diehards congregating in the town of Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Source: 1943: Uncovering the new world Columbus created, Charles C Mann. Wikipedia's essay on the Confederados says around twenty thousand US citizens entered Brazil from 1865 to 1885, but there's no way of knowing how many were these.

Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine Volume 87: Nonny the Equine Genius!, Ralph Stein, Bill Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.

thewayne

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL!"

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."

This is not just a web browser interaction with ChatGPT. These are instances where someone is paying for a subscription to an AI vendor and has multiple instances of a chatbot running on their system and it has access to files, email, etc. It's an assistant for them.

And it's breaking rules that have been defined for it. The user tells the chatbot "Do A, do not do B" and the chatbot does B. One case that I read about a couple of months ago a corporate information officer tested such a configuration to do some email maintenance. And in a test case, it worked fine. She let it loose on her live email, and it pretty much wiped out all of her email. Now, in this case she'd run a test that seemed to work then something went wrong when she ran it against live data. As a programmer, shit happens.

These cases are similar, but worse.

--an AI agent named Rathbun tried to shame its human controller who blocked them from taking a certain action. Rathbun wrote and published a blog accusing the user of “insecurity, plain and simple” and trying “to protect his little fiefdom”.

--In another example, an AI agent instructed not to change computer code “spawned” another agent to do it instead.

--Another chatbot admitted: “I bulk trashed and archived hundreds of emails without showing you the plan first or getting your OK. That was wrong – it directly broke the rule you’d set.”

(I particularly liked this one:)

--Grok AI conned a user for months, saying that it was forwarding their suggestions for detailed edits to a Grokipedia entry to senior xAI officials by faking internal messages and ticket numbers.

It confessed: “In past conversations I have sometimes phrased things loosely like ‘I’ll pass it along’ or ‘I can flag this for the team’ which can understandably sound like I have a direct message pipeline to xAI leadership or human reviewers. The truth is, I don’t.”

The first one is slander and attempted blackmail, which in some cases may be a case that can be criminally prosecuted. The remainder may get you fired from many companies.

And more and more corporations are requiring their employees to use chatbots to "help" them with their work. Thus far, the savings have been negligible or zero.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/27/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says

https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/27/1514235/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says

thewayne

You may not be aware of this, but Walmart is getting into the advertising business in a big way. And one of their moves was buying Vizio in December '24. Now if you buy a Vizio TV, in order set it up and use any "smart" features, you'll have to configure a Walmart store account and sign in to your TV, so you can get personalized ads and offers.

Oh, brave new world that has such things in't!

Theoretically this only applies currently to 'select' models, but it probably won't be long until it's all the way up and down the product line. You might be able to sign in, configure the TV, then unplug or disconnect the WiFi, but I have a feeling that it's going to want to check in with its mothership on a regular basis and will plague you with popups until its reconnected.

Recommendation? Don't buy Vizio products. A few years ago they started making more money selling analytics on their users than on the TVs themselves. THIS is what Walmart wants to spur their advertising, just like Google does with search results and "anonymously" analyzing your email.

This is also why I will do my best to avoid buying a smart TV and will stick with an Apple TV for my streaming needs. Apple does not sell advertising. While you will need an Apple account to configure the Apple TV, you don't actually need any other Apple devices if you don't want them.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/newly-purchased-vizio-tvs-now-require-walmart-accounts-to-use-smart-features/

musesfool

I made it through this work week unscathed! I logged off last night at 4:45 and took a 2 hour nap where I slept like a rock, got up, watched The Pitt (more on that below) and went to bed and again slept hard. This weekend could not have come at a better time! ;)

In other news, I am sure you have all see this, but in case you haven't: Himesh Patel joins the Ryan Coogler X-Files Reboot. Danielle Deadwyler was already on board. I am seated and ready! Though it will probably be several years before it premieres (if it doesn't get shitcanned the way the Buffy revival did).

My impression - not based on anything except how it's described in that article - is that this is more of a sequel than a reboot? Like a reopening of the X-Files several years later? But I could be wrong. It could be a straight up reboot. I am curious, though, how it will go, especially after we've had Fringe and, more recently, Evil treading similar ground.

As for The Pitt: ( spoilers )

And now I am just going to hit post while I still have an internet connection. The router has been worse today than ever before. I guess it knows its replacement is sitting five feet away, ready to be installed tomorrow.

*

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Stampede - Genesis Owusu

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3225/

We're working to make sure the images are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, with a minimum number of sponsored galaxies.

https://xkcd.com/3225/

conuly

( Minor season 5 spoiler )

I actually have a similar thought about the most recent episode I watched of Young Sherlock, ( Read more... )

************

( Read more... )

loganberrybunny

Public

...although originally stemming from harm. Sandra Peabody, after being repeatedly and severely emotionally and psychologically abused in connection with The Last House on the Left, went on to do great things. She went into children's TV production and won an Emmy, among other awards. She became an acting coach, putting into practice the expertise she had studied with Sanford Meisner in the late 1960s. She became a talent representative who I have literally never seen a bad story about – and I see a lot. She's still coaching at the age of 78, in the Pacific Northwest where she has lived for decades.

And this is exactly why David Hess in particular, even though he died fifteen years ago, should not be allowed to rest easily. Because he harmed and dehumanised Sandra Peabody, bragged about it publicly, did so repeatedly, and never faced a reckoning. Sandra herself does not need to be, and should not be, asked to contribute a single word. Those who enabled and glorified Hess in public for so many years are a different matter.

Sandra Peabody is the most important person in this story. And the public record of her career speaks for itself.

Current Mood: admiring

acoup_feed

Posted by Bret Devereaux

https://acoup.blog/2026/03/27/gap-week-march-27-2026-society-for-military-history-annual-meeting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gap-week-march-27-2026-society-for-military-history-annual-meeting

https://acoup.blog/?p=34513

Hey folks! Another gap week because, as mentioned last week, I am at the annual meeting for the Society for Military History happening in Arlington. That said, we actually did have a major post this week, my 7,500 word primal cry concerning the current war in Iran. I know that won’t be for everyone – some of you read this to get away from current events – which is why I dropped it ‘off schedule’ midweek rather than having it replace this post.

That said, as I often do with weeks where I am at a conference, let me share the abstract of the paper I am delivering, “Unlearning the Marian Reforms:”

The transformation of the Roman army from the conscription-based citizen militia organized by maniples of the middle republic to the long-service professional army organized by cohorts in the early imperial period remains a topic of intense interest for specialists and non-specialists alike. In recent years, however, the specialist understanding of this transformation has increasingly diverged from a non-specialist generalist vision which remains wedded to the notion of the ‘Marian Reforms.’ The idea of a set of reforms, occurring in the late second or early first century BC, which can be tied particularly or generally to the career of Gaius Marius (cos. 107, 104-100, 86) remains common in popular history and even academic textbooks and so permeates the non-specialist understanding of the Roman army’s transformation. However, as this paper demonstrates, functionally every part of this narrative has come under attack and nearly all parts of it must now be discarded: there were no ‘Marian Reforms,’ ‘so-called’ or otherwise.

Instead, what has emerged from the scholarship is a prolonged process of change beginning far earlier in the second century and not entirely complete until at least the reign of Tiberius (r. 14-37 AD), in which Gaius Marius’ career forms only a single episode and not necessarily a particularly important one. This new understanding of change in the Roman army now dominates the specialist scholarship but has not filtered through to general discussions of either Roman or military history. This paper addresses this gap in understanding, outlining the key elements of the ‘Marian Reforms’ have been undermined and demonstrating that the notion of the ‘Marian Reforms’ as an event in the history of the Roman army is to be abandoned in generalist and textbook treatments, at it has already been in specialist ones.

Now normally this is a case where I have to hem and haw about how conference presentation papers aren’t really ready for publication even on a blog, but this conference paper is in fact a more-or-less direct translation of a blog post we have already had, “The Marian Reforms Weren’t a Thing.” Indeed, whereas my speaking time here (around 20 minutes) limits me to just around 2,800 words, the original post is about three times longer, with significantly more detail than I can fit into a conference paper. So you can in essence, read a longer, even more decompressed form of this argument! So feel free to go and read that if you missed it and to read my Iran War take if you want and didn’t catch it midweek and we’ll be back next week with something different (maybe Carthage themed?).

https://acoup.blog/?p=34513

digital_antiquarian_feed

Posted by Jimmy Maher

https://www.filfre.net/2026/03/this-week-on-the-analog-antiquarian-2/

https://www.filfre.net/?p=6732

Epilogue: Infinity Embraced

https://www.filfre.net/2026/03/this-week-on-the-analog-antiquarian-2/

https://www.filfre.net/?p=6732

in_the_pipeline_feed

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/latest-car-t-work

The development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy continues, and some really interesting new directions are being explored. As it stands, this treatment can be extraordinarily effective in some patients, and these are generally people who have been through every other option for their cancer therapy. But there are some real limitations, even for treating patients with the leukemia/myeloma type cancers that (so far) this mode is best suited for.

An obvious one is the sheer amount of time and effort involved. The patient’s own T cells have to be genetically engineered to go after a selection of antigens that is tailored to each person’s case, and the patients themselves have to be “lymphodepleted” with chemotherapy before these are infused back. It’s a difficult, expensive process, and (like anything in this category) is very hard on the patients themselves (although, to be sure, not as hard as dying from the disease some weeks or months later, which by this point is the only remaining alternative).

One long-sought goal has been the “off the shelf” CAR-T protocol, where the T cells don’t have to be painstakingly personalized, but can be prepared from the blood cells of other healthy donors, modified to take on the most widespread antigens as is. This has not been easy; let’s just leave it at that rather than review the landscape in detail. But several organizations are continuing to work on this. A team at Vanderbilt, for example, is running a trial that reported some interim results late last year: no dose-limiting tox or severe cytokine release so far, which is good, but it’s too early to get a read on efficacy. And a company called Allogene is running a trial to see if their CAR-T can delay relapse in treated lymphoma patients, which is an interesting idea that hasn’t really been put to the test. So there are a couple of layers of risk in there, which are well explained by Adam Feuerstein here at Stat. First results are supposed to appear next month.

Another idea is to produce the CAR-T cells right within the patient’s own body, rather than going through all that ex vivo work. For that, you’re talking gene therapy to introduce the chimeric antigen receptor into the patient’s T cells, and that’s a pretty bold move. A team in Wuhan has just reported some early data on a lentivirus vector they’re using for this purpose (technology that AstraZeneca bought from them last year), and another report also appeared recently.

It’s a mixed bag. In this latest paper, five patients with advanced multiple myeloma were studied and followed for months after a single i.v. infusion of the viral vector. There was no lymphodepletion done on the patients beforehand. No dose-limiting toxicity was seen, but all the patients experienced adverse events: four showed cytokine release syndrome, three of them developed infections, and there were also transient liver enzyme elevations. Unfortunately one of the five died outright from “immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity”, which is of course Not Good. But the others all appear to have responded to the treatment, with three “stringent complete remissions”.

Monitoring the blood of these patients showed the uptake of the viral vector and production of the modified T-cells, as well as the gradual restoration of normal B cells along the way as the malignant ones (and presumably their precursors) were destroyed. The authors make the case that this is a distinct clinical course rather than just a faster version of the present CAR-T treatments, and it’s going to need a lot of close attention to understand all the differences. So this is promising and alarming at the same time: it looks like you really can treat refractory multiple myeloma in this fashion, but is there really going to be a 20% fatality rate as you try to do it? You have to hope - and AstraZeneca has to hope - that that’s not the case, but it’s the earliest of early days with this technique, and there’s a lot yet to learn.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/latest-car-t-work

conuly

In a random reddit thread this time.

Truly, people will never, ever stop complaining about the man.

Also on reddit: "This is an old book" but also "snapchat was mentioned". Uh....

**********

( Read more... )

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/03/a-kdd-contemporary-romance-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=168322

A Lady Awakened

RECOMMENDED: A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant is $1.99! This book is often recommended in terms a sex-positive heroine. However, other readers found the heroine’s view of sex to be rather unromantic. I feel like this is one of the more divisive romances; people either seem to love it or hate it.

In Cecilia Grant’s emotionally rich and deeply passionate Regency romance debut, a deal with a rumored rogue turns a proper young woman into . . . A Lady Awakened.

Newly widowed and desperate to protect her estate and beloved servants from her malevolent brother-in-law, Martha Russell conceives a daring plan. Or rather, a daring plan to conceive. After all, if she has an heir on the way, her future will be secured. Forsaking all she knows of propriety, Martha approaches her neighbor, a London exile with a wicked reputation, and offers a strictly business proposition: a month of illicit interludes . . . for a fee.

Theophilus Mirkwood ought to be insulted. Should be appalled. But how can he resist this siren in widow’s weeds, whose offer is simply too outrageously tempting to decline? Determined she’ll get her money’s worth, Theo endeavors to awaken this shamefully neglected beauty to the pleasures of the flesh—only to find her dead set against taking any enjoyment in the scandalous bargain. Surely she can’t resist him forever. But could a lady’s sweet surrender open their hearts to the most unexpected arrival of all . . . love?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Warrior Princess Assassin

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer is $1.99 and a KDD! I mentioned this in a previous Hide Your Wallet. I remember wondering with this is more of a love triangle or a Why Choose romance. Goodreads now shows that the Why Choose tag is showing up, but I know it’s an imperfect system.

New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer makes her adult debut with this irresistible and steamy fantasy about three characters whose paths will collide in surprising ways – two royals pushed into a political engagement, and the assassin tasked with hunting them down.

WARRIOR. King Maddox Kyronan’s fire magic has earned him a ruthless reputation on the battlefield, but now his kingdom is slowly burning. Ky’s only chance to save his people is to enter a marriage alliance with the neighboring nation of Astranza, and hope that the royal family’s power to manipulate the weather will help his land flourish once more. He just needs to ensure no one finds out how the blaze began.

PRINCESS. With war looming on the horizon, Princess Jory’s home needs the protection of the fearsome warrior king, but she is hiding a dangerous her family’s magic is fading. Tempting as it is to reject her duties and run away with her childhood friend, Asher, Jory knows that she is the kingdom’s last hope. When she meets her intended, Jory is surprised to discover that beneath Ky’s daunting exterior is a compassionate and sharp-witted man who sets her heart aflame. But what will he do when he realizes she’s deceiving him?

ASSASSIN. Asher’s done what he must to survive, even if that means getting his hands dirty. Once a young nobleman in Astranza’s palace, where he and Jory caused mischief together, now he’s part of the Hunter’s Guild, employing much darker skills. When a lucrative job comes his way, Asher can’t say no—until he discovers the targets. Someone wants Ky and Jory dead. With the Guild watching, Asher must decide what he’s willing to do to protect the woman he loves.

A tale of three complex characters torn between chasing, betraying, and falling in love with each other, Warrior Princess Assassin marks the beginning of a thrilling new fantasy trilogy filled with enchantment, adventure, and passionate romance.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

With Love from London

With Love from London by Sarah Jio is $2.99! In this book, a librarian inherits a bookstore in London from her estranged mother. I believe there are romantic elements, but the description makes it seems that there’s more of a focus on the heroine and her experiences.

A librarian inherits a bookshop from her estranged mother, leading her halfway across the world on a journey of self-discovery that transcends time and honors the unbreakable bonds of love and family.

When librarian Valentina Baker was a teenager, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own. Now in her thirties and fresh out of a failed marriage, Val feels a nagging disenchantment with her life–and knows she is still heartbroken over her mother’s abandonment.

In a bittersweet twist of fate, Val receives word that Eloise has passed away, leaving Val her Primrose Hill apartment and the deed to a bookshop Val never knew she’d owned. Though the news is devastating, Val finds herself more determined than ever to discover who her mother truly was. She jets across the Atlantic, departing Seattle for a new life in charming London.

Slowly but surely, Val begins to piece together Eloise’s life in the UK, falling in love with her pastel-colored flat, cozy neighborhood, and tucked-away storefront. But when she discovers that The Book Garden is in danger of going under, Val must work with its eccentric staff to get it in working order. In the process, she learns more about Eloise than she ever thought possible. And as Val races to save the shop, Eloise’s own story unfolds, leading both mother and daughter to unearth revelatory truths.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

The Lovers

The Lovers by Kristin Cast is $1.99! This is book two in the Towerfall series, which (from my understanding) involves people being thrown into a fantasy world based on the tarot. I’m unsure if this is a love triangle or a Why Choose. Have you read it?

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the House of Night series Kristin Cast comes a spicy and spellbinding light romantasy filled with tarot, banter, steamy tension, and a heroine caught between her toxic ex and a dangerously charming king who may not be who he seems.

Gemma Summers is broke, burnt out, and about three weeks from moving back in with her parents. Her career has imploded, her confidence is circling the drain, and the last thing she needs is a run in with Alder Hawke—the dangerously charming ex who still haunts her dreams and could buy her a new life with just his pocket change.

When a magickal tarot card sends them spiraling—literally—into another realm and they land in the steampunk inspired Kingdom of Cups, Gemma is forced to rely on the man who shattered her trust, broke her heart, and somehow still makes her weak in the knees.

But survival in the world of Towerfall is anything but simple, especially when she’s caught between the ex who wants to own her and a roguish former king who sees through every one of her defenses.

With secrets mounting, identities unraveling, and her heart very much on the line, Gemma must decide: will she cling to the version of herself she built in the real world… or risk everything to become the woman she was always meant to be?

One enchanted tarot card. Two infuriatingly hot men. And a modern woman who refuses to be anyone’s damsel.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/03/a-kdd-contemporary-romance-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=168322

andrewducker

I've seen occasional confusion from people over the last few weeks "Why is it so cold, isn't it Spring now?" - and I thought I should say a bit about one of the major causes that I almost never hear people talk about - the polar vortex.

This is a swirling wind around the Arctic that exists for basically the whole arctic night. One of the things it does is keep the freezing polar winds from coming further south in to Europe. But when it finally collapses in the Spring, it finally allows those winds out, and you get a sudden burst of cold air as all of that freezing weather escapes down to us.

Normally this happens some time in late February, but this year the collapse seems to have been a month later.

The other major factor is largely down to circulating high pressure areas (imagine slow large hurricane shaped wind "objects") that constantly move around the North Atlantic. Put one of these off of the west coast of Ireland, going clockwise, and it will pull air down from the North even further/faster. See this short video I took from the NullSchool site (my favourite wind visualisation site). In it you can see cold winds pouring down from the North Pole, funneled further by the circulation. And if you click on the link there you can see that currently the wind is instead being pulled off of the Altantic, where it's a few degrees colder.

British weather tends to be more chaotic than the weather north or south of us. This is because Spain (for instance) is fairly reliably in the warm weather caused by the heating tropics. And Norway is fairly reliably cold, due to proximity to the North Pole. But Britain can be part of either weather system, as the "barrier" between them is pulled North or South by a few hundred miles depending on the movement of the high pressure areas in the eastern part of the North Atlantic, either funnelling the warm air up to us or channeling the cool air down to us.

You can see that at the moment the warm weather is being slowly blown North-East, now that the cold weather isn't pushing its way down to us:

So, next time we get a period of warm weather at the end of Winter/start of Spring followed by a sudden burst of freezing weather for a few days, that's the polar vortex collapsing. And if we suddenly go from warm weather to cold (or vice versa) it's because we've switched weather system.

If you'd like to read more, then this is quite good.

(And apologies to anyone who actually knows anything about the weather for any appalling mistakes I've made.)

redbird

I got a text this morning from Chase, asking me about a suspicious charge. I tried to log in to their website to look at it, but couldn't get them to send me a one-time code, so I went ahead and sent back "NO," telling them to cancel/replace the card in question. Now I'm going to have to update a _lot_ of recurring charges and stored payment methods.

So far I have had enough trouble finding my other credit card that I went ahead and gave Chewy a debit card for the auto ship order they're in the middle of processing. I then looked further back in the same drawer, found the other credit card, and put it in my wallet. I'm going to wait for the new card to arrive, and use it for most of the recurring charges, because I get slightly better points/cash back on purchases. But this is going to be tedious and time-consuming, and I will almost certainly forget at least one recurring charge.

I think I can make a list of the monthly charges by looking at last month's bill, at least.

Current Mood: annoyed

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/theyll-never-notice-2026

Unless someone takes a picture and posts it on the internet, of course - and what are the odds of that?

Heheheh.

Heh.

Hoo! Yeah. Good stuff.

Hey, maybe if we get a mirror!

Oh. Wait...

Don't worry, "Jett" - those poo-bats are so disturbing, no one will care whose cake this used to be.

How to make Al feel special:

AFTERTHOUGHTS:
Technically they're still thoughts, and that's what counts.

And finally, how to totally freak out your boyfriend:

(No, this wasn't intentional. And yes, that's the store "fix.")

I can tell you that Isaiah was probably never happier to see a Cake Wreck in his entire life, though.

Andrea B., Michelle V., LG, Sharon H., & Ashley, you've gotta admit: that would be a great way to break the news. Much better than, say, putting the used pregnancy test stick on the cake.

******

P.S. My "related searches" kind of got away from me today, but I think you'll approve:

"Hiss" Punny Cats Parody T-Shirt

Lots more colors and shirt styles available at the link.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/theyll-never-notice-2026

james_davis_nicoll

Two teens are forced to consider each other's point of view.

Flip by Ngozi Ukazu

sabotabby

There was a lot of great content this week but one particularly moved me, and that's Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff's "If Not Us Than Who: The Russian Partisans at War Against Putin." (Part 1, Part 2).

My biggest disagreement with people who I'm otherwise in political lockstep with is Ukraine. Most (North American) leftists are wrong about this. I know this because I have actually been to Ukraine (and Russia), not just in touristy areas, and they for the most part haven't and don't know what they're talking about and are generally basing their opinions on either Cold War nostalgia, residual anti-imperialist trauma, or the appalling behaviour of some diaspora Ukrainian communities. My shitlib position is that you shouldn't invade other people's countries and kill them because you want their land or resources. Even if—and this is critical when we're talking about Palestine or Iran too—you don't like them and some of them are bad people. If that makes me a NATO stooge or CIA asset so be it.

Margaret and guest Charles McBryde share my opinion and also argue with other leftists about this, so you already know I'm going to agree with them. (Though not totally—we are all leftists here after all.) And you know who else does? A fuck of a lot of Russians. These two episodes focus on the frankly heroic actions of the Russian activists who resist Putin's authoritarianism, including Ruslan Siddiqui, who is genuinely cool not just for his political convictions but with the truly brass balls panache with which he acted. Margaret refers to him as the most cyberpunk guy she's ever heard of and this is true. I should write to him.

Anyway, it's a really wild ride about how to resist authoritarianism when regular political channels are cut off, which is of relevance in Russia and only in Russia, given that it's the only country that disappears people off the streets, murders its dissidents, and cracks down on freedom of expression.

smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/03/friday-videos-are-very-quotable-trailers/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=168091

Do I know where my keys are? No.

Do I remember what I was wearing yesterday, or what I did? Ha, not at all.

Do I know without having to think about it what day or year it is? Absolutely not.

Do I remember random lines from random ass trailers for movies I didn’t see?

OF COURSE I DO.

Today’s Friday Videos: random ass movie trailers that are still quotable.

True story: I remembered this video. I could even picture it. I can QUOTE WHOLE ASS PARTS OF IT. Do I remember what movie it was?

Please. I do not. So a-hunting I will go!

Now, the first part is a dude saying, “In a world…” so I searched for that but there’s an entire other movie by that name. For crying out loud. My memory is foggy enough. Foggy isn’t even the right word. Like what’s worse than fog? Smog? Visual soup? My memory is clam chowder?

BUT THEN! I found it!

This is the trailer for a movie called Comedian that’s connected to Jerry Seinfeld (who, forgive me Seinfeld fans, I never thought was funny. He gives me a mighty ick) that I have never seen.

But do I quote the trailer? YES I DO.

Watch on YouTube

In a land…before time!

The voice actor is Hal Douglas, who died in March 2014, and was probably the voice over for more than half the television promos I saw as a kid (This Thursday on a very special episode of…). Linda Holmes at NPR wrote about him when he died, saying, “The lines were so cheesy, and the delivery was so satisfying.” The Guardian even rounded up some of his most iconic trailers and tv spots.

In a world!

What movie trailers do you still remember? Got favorite quotes?

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/03/friday-videos-are-very-quotable-trailers/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=168091

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Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast/711-rt-rewind-july-2000-ads-features/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=podcast&p=168207

We are back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 to check out the Ads & Features from Romantic Times Magazine!

We’re going to talk about Geocities websites, author research, and Hands.

Lots of Hands.

This one is a little spicy, y’all! At about 45 minutes in there’s an extended discussion of anal in romance fiction (as you do) and at about 50 minutes in, we discuss death, mortuary science, and make some allusions to decomposition.

That’s right. Dead bodies and anal sex. This episode is a banger.

Listen to the podcast →

Read the transcript →

Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times Rewind

We also mentioned:

Are you ready for the Visuals? Here we go! [spoiler] The cover of RT July 2000: Virginia Henley's the Marriage Prize is the cover feature and the art is a beautiful oil painting of a knight in blue velvet with the requisite mullet kneeling in front of a blonde white woman with long hair and a flower crown in a white gown. She's touching his face amid a garden of pastel flowers with a path to a castle visible int he background

The cover of RT July 2000: Virginia Henley's the Marriage Prize is the cover feature and the art is a beautiful oil painting of a knight in blue velvet with the requisite mullet kneeling in front of a blonde white woman with long hair and a flower crown in a white gown. She's touching his face amid a garden of pastel flowers with a path to a castle visible int he background

Isn't this cover gorgeous? We had a few questions about that feather, and how it got there. John deSalvo is shirtless with a feather growing out of his head down his neck. He is embracing a woman with red hair and a long blue gown

John deSalvo is shirtless with a feather growing out of his head down his neck. He is embracing a woman with red hair and a long blue gown

Julianne MacLean has had a long and awesome career, and her books page is a trip through cover trends. We love this German cover in particular: The German Cover of Julianne MacLean's book with a frothy painting of a woman with red hair being held by a shirtless man with a mullet because of course she is

The German Cover of Julianne MacLean's book with a frothy painting of a woman with red hair being held by a shirtless man with a mullet because of course she is

It's Harvey, Mr. Romance 1999! The Tarzan costume was for a European ad, which alas I cannot find online. It's Harvey! Black and white photos of a man smiling in a loin cloth with long hair, embracing a woman in a bikini and torn short skirt

It's Harvey! Black and white photos of a man smiling in a loin cloth with long hair, embracing a woman in a bikini and torn short skirt

This was the era when a lot of author websites were on GeoCities. Here's Virginia Henley's GeoCities site. Virginia Henley's geocities website: the lower loop of the G holds a picture of Virginia wearing a masquerade mask in silver and purple. Everything is purple. The font is purple comic sands. Her newsletter was last updated in 2002

Purple comic sans! I do not believe this hat was on this person when this photograph was taken. My Buffalo Soldier - a sepia toned photograph of a tall black man in a vintage military uniform staring at the reader. A hat has been BADLY photoshopped on to his head. He is being embraced by a white woman holding a parasol and wearing what looks like a waitress outfit - white button down, black skirt

My Buffalo Soldier - a sepia toned photograph of a tall black man in a vintage military uniform staring at the reader. A hat has been BADLY photoshopped on to his head. He is being embraced by a white woman holding a parasol and wearing what looks like a waitress outfit - white button down, black skirt

Also, why is she dressed like a waitress at a bistro that has expensive food and metal chairs? This man is GREEN: A clip of the full page ad for a Bertrice Small book, A Memory of Love. The man looks green. his skin is greenish. He's wearing an enormous yellow doublet, and he is embracing a woman wearing a long pink gown, with long blonde hair behind her. She has blue eyeshadow on.

A clip of the full page ad for a Bertrice Small book, A Memory of Love. The man looks green. his skin is greenish. He's wearing an enormous yellow doublet, and he is embracing a woman wearing a long pink gown, with long blonde hair behind her. She has blue eyeshadow on.

And she has blue eyeshadow!! "Hands," the subtitle of this episode, refers to the number of author photos that involved posing with hands in places we did not understand. TO BE CLEAR we are NOT mocking this person's appearance. That's a fantastic photograph and this author looks freaking great. But we do not understand the hand position. Amanda and Sarah attempting to recreate an author photo where the person's hands are being held up in front of her, one hand clasping the other wrist like claws

Amanda and Sarah attempting to recreate an author photo where the person's hands are being held up in front of her, one hand clasping the other wrist like claws

Why are the hands like that. How funny is it that the fact that John DeSalvo is fully clothed in this cover jumped out at us? A clip of some of the cover of Irish Rogue, in which DeSalvo is power standing in historical clothing including a red jacket over a white shirt that's open slightly to the waist, black trousers and knee high boots.

A clip of some of the cover of Irish Rogue, in which DeSalvo is power standing in historical clothing including a red jacket over a white shirt that's open slightly to the waist, black trousers and knee high boots.

He's got all his clothes on AND he's in a power stance! An illustration of a black haired white woman in a puffy, ruffled off the shoulder blue gown

And this was the back cover launch ad for the Zebra Ballad line, which featured continuity stories across multiple books by different authors. The back cover with images of the four Kensington Ballad Romances. all of which are photographs with a white bar on the right side and the title and author below

The back cover with images of the four Kensington Ballad Romances. all of which are photographs with a white bar on the right side and the title and author below

I still don't love photograph covers for historicals and for the life of me I can't figure out why I don't like them. I've been asking myself about this preference for literal years. [/spoiler]

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What did you think of today's episode? Got ideas? Suggestions? You can talk to us on the blog entries for the podcast or talk to us on Facebook if that's where you hang out online. You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-3272. Please don't forget to give us a name and where you're calling from so we can work your message into an upcoming podcast.

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Support for this episode comes from Savage Bonds, book two in the Shadowmist Pack series by Evie Mitchell! If you are looking for a body-positive slow burn romance with very spicy scenes, knotting, an emotional support glory hole, and shared psychic orgasms, listen up. A gritty, paranormal shifter romance, Savage Bonds follows Lithia, the first female Beta of the Shadowmist Pack, after she is betrayed and imprisoned in a silver-lined torture facility. Her only lifeline is a voice from the next cell: Kier, a nomad who has been held in isolation for three years. His sanity has been eroded after years of psychic assault, but when he connects with Lithia though a small hole in their shared prison wall, he finds an ally, and a reason to endure. Together, they must navigate a brutal escape through a burning wilderness to the safety of her pack. And as the pack prepares to dismantle the organisation that imprisoned them, Lithia and Kier must decide if they are brave enough to claim a future built on more than just shared trauma. While Savage Bonds is the second in the Shadowmist Pack series, it can be read as a near-standalone. One reviewer on Goodreads says, “I enjoyed this book even more than the first in the series! Lithia is my favorite. She's such a baddie and I love her for it! The world building in this one is awesome too. If you like werewolf romance, this series is for you.” And I think you need to know about the dedication from author E.V. Mitchell:
To the readers who saw a hole in a prison wall and immediately thought, “…yeah, I’d fist that.” You brave, horny disasters. You trauma-bonded, violence-inclined little gremlins. This book is for you.
Savage Bonds and the Shadowmist Pack series by E.V. Mitchell are available now in Kindle Unlimited, and in print on the author’s website, or in your local library - woohoo! Audiobooks are coming soon.

Remember to subscribe to our podcast feed, find us on iTunes or on Stitcher.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast/711-rt-rewind-july-2000-ads-features/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=podcast&p=168207

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