Robert W. Williams

I can imagine a news story describing a similar, more contemporary research report:

Doomscrolling before sleep produces night terrors. Other maladies possible.

Thank you for the information. Your upcoming course will be interesting.

I'm just seeing your post on teaching such a romance course.
If I may...
How might you arrange the readings in the course? By themes (narrative arcs, protagonists/antagonists, settings?)?
By authors?
By some other way or even combination?
I'm not a literature specialist, admittedly.
Thank you.

I'm sorry that you're experiencing all of this.
I am one of your many well-wishers and positive-vibe-senders from across the pond.

Sloppe shoppe -
not AI data center.
Or 'slop shop' works if the character count is tight or the inkwell low.

"Preamble. So tasty. Tastiest foreword I've ever eaten. And I've eaten lots. Article 1 wasn't as bad as I expected. Some parts gave me indigestion. Can I say that? I'm gonna say that. Loved Article 2. Hit the spot! Gonna wait on Article 3. I dipped the amendments in ketchup and ate 'em like fries."

O Fortuna, Colossus of Time,
May your child Serendipity smile upon us.

[Prayer from the apocryphal 12th Century Tome of Scribery and Magick.]

Autumn - I mean winter - landscapes are tremendous. Summer is a fortunate memory and Spring is becoming ready to bloom. Winter is now.
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting this link to the article. I never - probably never - would have encountered it.

Retirement in a word?
If I may:
A proepilogue?

Awkwards perhaps, maybe even a bit morbid.
But it's more succinct than my go-to Tennyson:
"'T is not too late to seek a newer world".

3/3
I finally said to Alfred, guilt edging my words, my words mangling metaphors: "What shined once may shine again. But don't leave things unplugged for too long."

Alfred left my house shaking his head. I was still his eccentric neighbor.

[Thanks, Uncle Duke, for photos & stories that inspire.]

2/3
We brought Tux home. He was so happy; his antics lit up our home. In the livingroom or kitchen his soft humming filled the air.

But later, years later, LEDs became the rage. Tux didn't like being put into a backroom. When we'd pat the switch on, the glare was so intense. Nothing like before.

"Why do you keep this old thing around?" Alfred switched on the lamp & received a jolt. A little nip on the fingers. The lamp was not amused.

"Sorry about that." Should I tell Alfred that when we first found Tux abandoned on a sidewalk, he seemed so cute w/ his filaments flickering curiously.
1/3

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Clyde, however, is something completely different!"

Yes. I'm on T**ttXr for the (Mount)doom-scrolling, and Bluesky for the shire-strolling.
Thanks for asking.
Might you be enjoying this azure site?

I'm sorry that this is so stressful.

Thank you, @romgothsam.bsky.social, for organizing #AScareADay for lo! these many Octobers. I enjoy the arrival of Autumn b/c I know #AScareADay is "frighteningly" close.

I really liked:
The Little Room
Charon
Mystery of the Blue Jar
Ten Excerpts...
Midnight Meat Train
Eleanor Atkins...
Two in One

#AScareADay Fogg "The Path She Sings"
A song's power isn't only in its melodies & lyrics, but also in its singing by one's beloved. Their voice & intonation, the missed lines, all convey what was dearest in life and will be dearest in death.
The singer, it seems, endures longer than the song itself.

3/3 #AScareADay Palumbo "Bleeding Hearts"
...Then love returns, perhaps differently, maybe unexpectedly.

Unfortunately, the botanical analogy portends a continuing cycle.

In the interests of enjoying how the seeds of love are being planted, I appreciate that Palumbo ended the story at that point.

2/3 #AScareADay Palumbo
Love might be reborn in a manner paralleling the life cycles of our botanical friends.
Perennial plants grow from seeds, bloom, weather adversity, wither, but regrow later.
We blossom in love, basking in its heat; they leave; we fall into sadness w/ bitter winds blowing....

#AScareADay Suzan Palumbo "Bleeding Hearts"

In the story the emotional traumas of lost loves & loved ones are painful, but might be lessened through a mysterious process that heals via plants growing & seemingly reducing the trauma in the humans. A bit of blood is involved. Results will vary.
1/3

3/3 #AScareADay Nadler, Howard "Portrait"
Sal retains self-awareness during his entrapment in the painting. He's "an observer of the observers", but unable to speak or escape.
Sal has the subjectivity of self-consciousness, but lacks the agency to act (a trait of subjectivity) b/c he is a painting.

2/3 #AScareADay Nadler, Howard "Portrait"
Sal is now trapped in the painting & visible as himself. He sees what happens in the world outside the canvas.
Sal sees the monster engaging in what the painter views as his own life.

What might be a Halloweenish interpretation of the story?

#AScareADay Nadler, Howard "Portrait"
Artistic perspective & painting go brush in hand.
Perspectives abound in this graphic story. Who sees what from which vantage point?
Sal paints what he sees as a monster; on-lookers see a self-portrait.
The monster escapes from the painting somehow. And...
1/3

I've not read a story quite like this. It's interesting b/c readers need to piece together the story arc via the scant info provided in the different sources, which are further informed by the biblio writer's choices of what to extract. Then I as a reader must fill in the gaps via my imagination.

4/4 #AScareADay Sen "Ten Excerpts"
I find it interesting that the student creating the bibliography is named "Ranita Gaur". Perhaps she is a Ratnabari, too, and is researching her own roots, both familial and cultural.
The short story ends. The author doesn't indicate Ranita's personal reflections.

3/4 #AScareADay Sen "Ten Excerpts"
Ashanti Gaur (text #10), another Ratnabari, expands the qualities of a particular culture to a global scale & in so doing seemingly adds IMO a metaphorical facet. The women cannibals fight against patriarchal power & even sacrifice themselves for other women (#8).

2/4 #AScareADay Sen "Ten Excerpts"
But further research seems unlikely. As Shalini Gaur, a Ratnabar descendant living in the West writes, Ratnabari are not given a voice (text # 9), and they cannot return to the island, b/c they are "too alien now for the home of our great-grandmothers" (#9).

#AScareADay Sen "Ten Excerpts...Ratnabar Island"
Several excerpts seek to explain Ratnabari culture by clothing it (just as w/ the children brought to England) in concepts & manners home-grown in the West, but which fail to understand what the Ratnabari themselves understand about the world.
1/4

2/2
#AScareADay Stubbs "Uncontainable"
Rochelle knows inexplicable things that others cannot perceive or else refuse to believe b/c of appearances: e.g. Good Wife Henny re: the kid's deaths.
Later, Rochelle struggles w/ sickness, the result of which is revealed horrifically to Kate at Henny's house.