Spring has finally sprung here and it’s glorious. My pollinator garden and hydrangeas are coming up, the rose bushes have new leaves, and the grass is greening up. I ventured into the spider-infested shed this afternoon to haul out a couple of chairs so I could enjoy some afternoon sunshine and work on an essay. We need to get an umbrella for the table and then it’ll be perfect.

I’ve held off on actually using our patio because of the difficult and fraught relationship we have with our neighbor, and I’ve decided that’s stupid. It’s our yard and we have an absolute right to use it. And someday, we’ll get a fence and never have to watch her mow her lawn twice a week ever again. And Mission: Backyard Lawn Eradication can begin. And Mission: Backyard Hammock.

2019 Hugo finalist Foz Meadows hits it bang on the crumpet with this (long) essay about Cancel Culture: “The internet might be a liminal space, but object permanence still applies to what happens here: the trolls don’t vanish if we close our eyes, and if we vanquish one digital hydra-domain for Toxicity Crimes without caring to fathom the whys and hows of what went wrong, we merely ensure that three more will spring up in its place.”
“But as much as we developers hope for it to go away, it just. Won’t. Die. IE8 continues to show up in browser stats, especially outside of the bubble of the Western world.” And from people in corporate environments whose employers have internal applications that are specifically coded to only work with IE8. Not that I have any experience with that…
“People and institutions have to stop defining rock and rock ‘n’ roll as music played by men, especially white men, with guitars.” (The irony that this week’s song is white men with guitars has not escaped me. Here, have some Poe.)