Margaret's Nearly Monthly News - Nov 2022
Oh November: my birthday month! Also the month of Thanksgiving, National Novel Writing, and of asking each other: "Is Twitter dead yet?"
Twitter, either a trash-fire hell-site, a tool for world-changing social activism, or a surprisingly useful earthquake detector. In truth, I've found it to be all of those things (and more) usually at the same time.
At the beginning of the month, it looked like Twitter was on the brink of catastrophic collapse. Now, the death of a thousand cuts seems more likely, and I find they both make me kind of sad. Twitter is where I've met friends and colleagues, people who have expanded my thinking and my worldview. It's where I caught myself doom-scrolling after the 2016 election, and where I cheered along with (what felt like) the rest of the world as Curiosity landed safely on Mars.
It's also where I've been posting near-daily updates to a thread of the whack-a-doo sentences I get on Duolingo since March 7, 2019. (Q: is there a maximum length to a tweet thread? A: If there is, I haven't found it yet.)
I'm cautiously experimenting with Mastodon, but for the time being, I'm still around on Twitter, posting updates from the Duolingo Dystopia.
From my Desk
I'm not under contract! After three years of near-continuous freelancing (usually on 2-3 shows at a time), this is both a relief and extraordinarily disorienting. I had great ambitions for working on my own projects this month, and according to my NaNoWriMo official stats... I've written just shy of 6,000 words towards my official November goal of 50,000.
But you know what? 6,000 words is more than I had at the beginning of the month, and I'll take it. For the writers out there who have hit their 50K, congratulations! For the writers who haven't? Congratulations on making the attempt, that's not nothing!
On the fiction side: My short story, "Observations of a Small Object in Decaying Orbit," along with an interview is available in the current issue of Apex Magazine. The story will be on the web on December 6.
What I'm Reading
One of several college professors of mine who have left us far too soon was historian Nancy Yanoshak. Nancy specialized in Russian history and Women's Studies, and also taught the occasional section of Sophomore Seminar, which is how I first encountered her. For the four semesters that both she and I were on campus, I always took one of her classes. I'm still sad she's no longer with us, but when I heard Hugh Ryan on Fresh Air talking about his new book The Women's House of Detention, I knew it was the kind of book Nancy would have read immediately. Since she can't, I decided to buy the copy she would have. The book is a fascinating history of the titular institution in its many forms and how it helped shape Greenwich Village into one of the first lesbian communities in the United States. A fascinating read and highly recommended.
From the Cutting Room Floor of the Duolingo Dystopia
This month, Oscar, the mustachioed art-teacher from Duolingo, reminds us not to get too comfortable:
Caption: Oscar from Duolingo says, "Everyone has to die," in Spanish and English.
And that's the Nearly Monthly News!
Twelve updates in twelve months! Who would have believed it? Thank you for being here, whether you subscribed from the beginning, or just came aboard. Burning questions? Righteous outrage? Drop me a line. Otherwise, I'll see you in December for my end of year wrap-up and awards eligibility post. Until then, be well.