Everything2.com has baked you a pie! (Do not eat it.)

The Best of The Week

I've been reading a lot of fan fiction-turned published fiction recently (e.g., The Path of Ascension, but also a lot of crappier books that I get 10% through and put down), and there is an emergent hole in the new books on the (self-published, Kindle) market; despite having no editor, they generally have pretty good spelling, complex narratives, and not especially bad writing styles; they certainly do more writing than I ever managed. But they don't know their vocabulary. A 'overstuffed bag' becomes a 'teeming bag', 'nuclear deterrence' becomes 'nuclear dissuasion', 'unscathed' inexplicably becomes 'unchecked'. Some cases are maybe spelling errors, like when 'hotels' becomes 'hostels', or honestly not caring, as when failing to notice that a rapier is not a double-handed war-sword.

My theory is that spellcheckers and/or Grammarly give people the feeling of having proofread without having actually proofread. My other

A village in Perthshire, Scotland.


"There's the castle, the distillery and the moorland, that's about it"
— a local, during my visit


It was the only dry day during a winding road trip up to the Isle of Skye many years ago. We'd driven from Kelso in the rolling Scottish Borders countryside, through Edinburgh, stopped in Dunkeld to visit Dougie Maclean's pub and camped

In ancient Rome, when a woman married, her family or other persons acting on her behalf would pay a dos (dowry) to her husband's family, as a preemptive financial compensation to their household for having an additional mouth to feed. Following the transition of the Roman empire from the pagan Religio Romana to Christianity, the customs and legality of transferred wealth and property changed as the religious connotations of marriage changed. In pagan Rome, divorce and remarriage had not

News for Noders

November 1: The IRON NODER CHALLENGE starts today and runs through December 1. It's never too late to sign up, and all writeups get rewards.

November 1: Happy Birthday Zephronias!

November 5: Bonfire Night in the UK.

November 11: Veterans Day in the US.

November 13: Everything2's Birthday.

November 23: Thanksgiving in the US.

November 27: Happy Birthday Estelore!

If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.

October 1: Oh no! It's The 2023 Halloween Horrorquest!

October 17: Happy Birthday gnarl!

October 31: Something spooky will probably happen today. It usually does.

October 31: prepare yourselves for the XVIth Iron Noder in November!



If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.

September 8: Happy birthday svntax!

September 16: Feliz cumpleaños Ancientsnow!

September 18: Happy birthday Stuart!

September 25: Happy birthday Templeton!

September 26: Stanislav Petrov Day.

September 27: Happy birthday Uberbanana!


If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.


August 4: Happy birthday avalyn!

August 6: 広島

August 9: 長崎

August 27: Happy birthday Bitriot!

If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.

July 1: Canada Day.

July 4: America Day.

July 25: Happy birthday TanisNikana!

July 26: Happy birthday teleny!


If you have anything to add to this calendar, let Tem42 know.