If you’ve never had another living creature under your care, you may never have considered how much time and effort is spent dealing with their poop. Babies need to be changed several times a day, and if you’re in a city dogs need to be walked (out in the country they just let us know when they want to go outside); cat boxes need to be cleaned about twice a week, and henhouses need to be “mucked out” twice a year. That means using a shovel to remove all the “poultry litter”, which is merely a concise term for the revolting mixture of decaying hay or shavings, molted feathers, spilled food, and fecal matter which builds up on the floor over time. I generally do it in March before I get the nursery ready, then again in September or early October as it begins to turn cold. But when I did it last autumn it really wore me out (like any shovel work, it’s rather strenuous), so a couple of weeks ago I decided to start filling just one bucket every day (when I go in to check feed & water and collect eggs) and dumping it on the compost heap; that way the work is spread out so as to be less exhausting and less odious. While the chicks are still in the brooder, their poops are generally so tiny it’s no big deal to clean the shavings every week for the three weeks they’re inside; once in a while a chick gets a turd stuck to her butt-feathers, but it’s typically easily removed with fingernails (if you’re a parent you’ve touched worse, and there is such a thing as “soap” when the task is done). But this time one of the chicks arrived with a hardened mass of feces; I’m told this is called “pasty butt” and it can actually kill them if not removed, because their vent gets clogged. And it’s not easy to remove; it’s so hard and baby chicks are so fragile that one can’t simply pull it off, which means filling a basin with warm water and dipping her butt into it to soften the mess before removal. Once I was done I got to see and hear something one doesn’t encounter every day: a chick fart, as she squatted and emptied her chute with an audible “poot”. It has been a week since then and she seems fine now, so I think we’re past the danger. And I’m sure y’all enjoyed this fascinating discussion of literal chickenshit, so it’s a win all around.
Archive for the ‘Biography’ Category
Diary #820
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged animals, disease, Sunset, video on March 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Zombie Throwback Thursday
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, tagged blogging, consensual crime, cops, Creepy Coppers, ethics, Grace, language, Leaving the 20th Century, libraries, Prohibition (alcohol), propaganda, psychology, yellow journalism on March 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The first prohibitionist laws date to the late 19th century, but it was in the 20th that the concept…penetrated the minds of the general public so thoroughly that most took it for granted that for governments to tell people what they could consume, what they could own, and even what thoughts they could have…was not only normal, but desirable. – “Leaving the 20th Century”
If you find an article interesting, infuriating, or whatever, you can follow the thread of references back through similar articles, often for years, while marveling at the obsessive lengths and depths to which my librarian’s brain will go to impose order on chaos. – “Rabbit Hole”
Copsucking reporters waste considerable space quoting boss pigs oinking about how typical and representative cops aren’t really typical or representative. – “Creepy Coppers (#1418)”
I have never broken a promise to [Grace] in the past and I’m not going to start now merely because she’s not in a position to remind me. – “Diary 766“
Diary #819
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on March 10, 2026| 2 Comments »
It’s chick time again! I used to get my chicks at Tractor Supply, but they do first come, first served and a lot more people are buying chicks in the past few years than there used to be, so now I’m ordering them from the feed store over in the county seat. This year I got four Rhode Island reds; regular readers know I rotate the colors to make it easy to keep track of their ages (because chickens only lay for 2-3 years). Technically, last year should’ve been reds, but at the time I still had two reds and only one white, so I got whites last year (and the last one died a few months ago). Our last red died just recently, so it worked out almost perfectly; next year should be some dark color, though these blacks turned out to be disappointing layers, so I’ll need to do a little research on which dark-colored breeds lay as well as the reds and whites. But one way or the other, chick season always makes me smile every time I go into the bathroom where they live, and sometimes when it’s quiet I can hear their peeping through a closed door and all the way in the living room.
Links #818
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, animals, artificial stupidity, Believe Them, cops, games, illegal aliens, New Hampshire, North Carolina, racism, sporting events, Tennessee, Texas, video, weaponry on March 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
[Computer programs do] not understand “stakes” as humans perceive them. – Tong Zhao
When an especially-prolific musician dies, I often choose one of his lesser-known works as a memorial; this Neil Sedaka composition is quite different from the pop songs he’s known for. The links above the video were provided by Matt Welch, Popehat, IncarcerNation (x2), T. Greg Doucette, and Mark Bennett, in that order.
- R.I.P. Neil Sedaka.
- Last week in artificial stupidity.
- Cops murder man for sleeping while black.
- Another triumph for cop suicide assistance.
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- New York reporter has clearly never seen an actual pig.
From the Archives
- The 1st Amendment has been so eroded it needs state law to give it teeth.
- Garbage responds to women’s deaths by trying to endanger other women.
- It’s only been six years since the UK lost in court the last time it tried this.
- When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- David Johansen, Michelle Trachtenberg, Gene Hackman, and much more.
- Busybodies are most infuriated by affairs that are none of their business.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”, but never stops there.
- I’m sure “anti-trafficking” crusaders will be going after this any day now.
- Cops try to combine fentanyl hysteria with panicmongering over edibles.
- Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working?
- Give aggressive thugs power over teens; what could possibly go wrong?
- I’ll believe Facebook is going to use encryption when it actually does it.
- Another moronic culture war “monkey see, monkey do” parade begins.
- How “excited delirium” was invented as an excuse for murder by cops.
- Trans people have become another canary in the civil rights coal mine.
- As an LSU MLIS alumna, I am qualified to declare this bat-shit insane.
- Female “youth ministers” aren’t safe either, at least if they’re married.
- Politicians will use any asinine rhetoric to gain control of the internet.
- Cop deals with others as he normally does, and the press is shocked.
- Government persecution now extends far beyond their own borders.
- “Disciplinary action” = asking rapists to “think about what they did”.
- Cops, puritanism, Ricou Browning, Wayne Shorter, and much more.
- Hollywood profits from sex workers while discriminating against us.
- Cops don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out.
- Starting a new D&D campaign for the first time in over a decade.
- Rapist cops are typical and representative of their warped breed.
- This blog has a lot more infrastructure than most people realize.
- Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops.
- Fanatics’ crusade to control all human thought is never-ending.
- Montana politicians are trying to reduce all women to serfdom.
- Your “leaders” refer to this mindless brutality as “correction”.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Fixing a leaky hot tub seal with my own soft little hands.
- By now, the title “youth pastor” should be a big red flag.
- Wannabe preachers are often as bad as the real thing.
- Medical confidentiality has gone the way of the dodo.
- Governments worldwide are emulating China’s evil.
- My two previous posts for Sex Worker Rights Day.
- Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists.
- Cops, Georgia, Steve Lawrence, and much more.
- The legacy of Operation Choke Point and its ilk.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- It’s nice to see a journalist getting it for once.
- An excerpt from Rikki de la Vega’s new book.
- Black beauties with a calm temperament.
- These thieves have absolutely no shame.
- My three previous posts for Mardi Gras.
- What remains when a loved one dies.
- You can’t keep a bad bill down.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- Throwback Thursday 1980.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- A classic case of “NHI”.
- Ghost of Fridaystein.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Perspective Shift
Posted in Biography, Favorites, tagged imaginative fiction, libraries, nostalgia, psychology, video on March 6, 2026| 1 Comment »
A few years ago, in “The Sparkle of a Star“, I wrote: “When I last watched [Bewitched], in my late teens or very early twenties, I naturally identified most with Samantha. But on this rewatch, I found myself identifying with her mother, Endora…” But Bewitched isn’t the only show about witches I’ve loved, and Endora not the only no-longer-young woman character I find myself increasingly identifying with as I myself progress into cronehood. Obviously, this isn’t surprising, but I do find it amusing.
I ran into another example of it recently when I decided to revisit Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Witch series. My own period of reading YA fiction was short, and largely confined to when I was 8 to 9; by 10 I was mostly reading light adult fantasy and sci-fi, mixed with some of the juveniles written by more typically adult authors like Robert Heinlein (Red Planet, Podkayne of Mars, etc) or those borrowed from the library by my younger siblings whose covers caught my eye (which is how I discovered one of my favorite books, Magic in the Alley by Mary Calhoun. And by 12 there weren’t many even in that category. So though I was of the right age to read Witch’s Sister when it was published in 1975, it never popped up in the Scholastic Books flyer we got at school, nor did I spot it in the library back then. In fact, I only discovered it in a rather roundabout manner, through my habit of scanning the new TV Guide magazine each week in search of anything I might enjoy (since in the days before home video, that was the only way to discover treasures). One week, in the spring of 1980 IIRC, I noticed a listing in the Saturday morning show Big Blue Marble (which I didn’t watch even before I gave up on Saturday morning fare) for a 6-part TV movie called Witch’s Sister. Naturally the title caught my attention, so I watched it and was immediately hooked; besides being an interesting story, I identified with both 10-year-old Lynn Morley (because I had a hyperactive imagination at her age also) and her 16-year-old sister Judith (because I was Goth before there was such a thing, and like her enjoyed spooking my younger siblings).
It only aired once or twice (I only saw it once) and I despaired of ever seeing it again, but during a short period when I had free premium cable in 1988 it turned up on Showtime as a unified TV movie. I of course taped it, and on a rewatch during my time as a librarian I noticed in the credits that it was based on a book; we had it in the library so I read and enjoyed it and its two sequels, which had been published in 1977 and 1978. Sometime later I transferred the movie to DVD and discovered several more sequels (published in the early ’90s) and bought them on Amazon, but never got around to reading them until recently. The reason was simple: after starting this blog in 2010 I had very little time for pleasure reading, and that only changed a year ago with Grace’s death. So for the past year, I’ve been scanning my shelves for books I own but had not yet read, and a couple of weeks ago realized I had never read those later books in the series. Since it had been over 30 years since I read the first three I started with them, and discovered to my amusement that while I still remembered feeling like Lynn as a tween and Judith as a teen, I now found myself more than a little sympathetic with Mrs. Tuggle, the elderly Englishwoman who was Lynn’s nemesis in the books! Though in the later books she was definitely a wicked witch, in the first (and IMHO the best) of the series that was portrayed with far less certainty (and in the movie which inspired my love for the stories, she was almost certainly not a real witch). So as I read, I started thinking about how I’d feel if a couple of nosy 10-year-old girls started making strange accusations, sneaking into my house to steal my things, and terrorizing my cat. And now I’m a bit wary of watching Bell, Book and Candle again.
Diary #818
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, drugs, psychology, Sunset on March 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As you can see, Axel has continued his progress from nervous wreck to very good boy. I caught this picture of he and Speck bathing together on the 14th, and I’ve seen them even closer than that on occasion. Speck has returned to her habit of wanting to be close to me while I’m unwinding on the sofa, though not as much while I’m working at the computer (which is probably for the best); he lies on the other side of me, sometimes cuddled very close to my legs, so he and Speck are less than an arm’s length apart for hours. He doesn’t even stare at her any more, nor does he try to chase Rocky or Lilith when he’s in the atrium, so last week I took a chance on bringing him through the chicken yard with me to go up the ramp, and he barely even looked at the hens. Yesterday, I decreased his trazodone from 75 mg/day (where he was for all of February) down to 50, and in two more weeks I plan to just start giving him 50 at bedtime rather than splitting it into two doses; I figure that will give me an idea if we’re getting close to taking him off of the meds entirely, since his blood levels should be pretty low by the time each evening rolls around. I think the warmer, drier weather is also helping, because he can spend a lot more time running around and sunbathing outdoors and playing with Trip, so he has less pent-up energy at the end of the day. Assuming that all goes well, it looks like he’ll be off the meds by June, and I imagine by the end of the summer his bad times should be no more than a dim memory in his little doggie brain.

Links #817
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, Austria, Believe Them, cops, drugs, Massachusetts, Missouri, politicians, scams, sex toys, Tennessee, video on March 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Ah, a proud assitarian. – MechaHitler
Here’s another unusual cover from a performer we’ve seen before; it was provided by Asawin Suebsaeng. I’d argue that “Purple Rain” as performed by Prince was already blues, but this more traditional arrangement makes that more obvious. The links above it were provided by Phoenix Calida; Nun Ya; Desiree Alliance and Dan Savage; T. Greg Doucette; and IncarcerNation (x2), in that order.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- To lose two looks like carelessness.
- R.I.P. Robert Duvall and Jesse Jackson.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- It’s dangerous to be anywhere near a cop, “on duty” or otherwise.
- Cops are increasingly framing their brutal murders as absurd suicides.
From the Archives
- There’s no legitimate reason for a vending machine to have this capability.
- Another company the government is using “sex trafficking” myths against.
- The state feigns shock when men abuse power it gives them over women.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Outsourcing one’s judgment to politicians & bureaucrats is a terrible idea.
- Nobody is safe until this odious practice is recognized as unconstitutional.
- The hysteria is imploding so hard, it’s falling all the way back to its roots.
- Censorious politicians compete to make their laws more unconstitutional.
- Erosion of civil rights starts with the marginalized, but never stops there.
- Laws enabling nuisance lawsuits will multiply until ruled unconstitutional.
- Authoritarians don’t care if your kind of sex work is (temporarily) “legal”.
- Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working?
- No rape charges; her remains were too far gone for evidence to survive.
- Shotspotter is a boondoggle designed to create false evidence for cops.
- Alabama has at long last got the “fetal personhood” it claimed to want.
- The headline is a bit misleading; he was found guilty of manslaughter.
- The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence.
- This happens much more at “Christian” schools than at other schools.
- Doctors must keep suing cops who claim license to practice medicine.
- A good article about why the madonna/whore duality is pure bullshit.
- Texas doesn’t care how many women die because of its terrible laws.
- Bad laws just keep returning no matter how often they are defeated.
- The US flushes incalculable resources down the “culture war” toilet.
- Retrospectives of my blogging for February 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Maybe this will teach fools what a danger biometric ID actually is.
- Oklahoma is another state which seems to simply hate women.
- The war on trans people has expanded to include drag queens.
- The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd.
- Preachy perverts nearly always blame their crimes on others.
- Where “disgraced” is used to mean “accurately represented”.
- Paxton doesn’t actually give a damn about women’s sports.
- Crumbs thrown to the peasants from their masters’ tables.
- Nevada model proselytizing can always be safely ignored.
- Nebraska’s float in the “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- Useful idiots think the leopards will never eat their faces.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Roger Corman, and much more.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- By now, the title “youth pastor” should be a big red flag.
- Cops, Elvis, Roberta Flack, Jerry Butler, and much more.
- Trumpist propaganda dismisses book bans as a “hoax”.
- The most Orwellian case of censorship so far this year.
- Presentation is not exactly my strong point as a cook.
- Your “leaders” say this trash is fit to “correct” others.
- This idiotic culture war has an actual body count.
- Throwback Thursday Has Risen from the Grave.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Trans men are also targets of horrific violence.
- Another box of baby dinosaurs in my lavatory.
- The fourth leap year since I started this blog.
- Just another typical and representative cop.
- A small memorial observance for Grace.
- What did this guy think he was, a cop?
- Cops, British rap, and much more.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- This just keeps getting better.
- Fallback Friday.
Diary #817
Posted in Diary, tagged Lost Angels, Sunset on February 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
My life is made so much easier by the generosity of friends and readers! After my resourceful and generous Australian friend read about my current technology issues, he decided to do some research and discovered a free, open-source PDF-making software which will run on XP! He sent me the link last Monday; I downloaded it and it works perfectly, so now I’m back in the process of preparing Lost Angels for publication. The day before that, Chekhov dropped by, ostensibly to get some eggs and return a borrowed tool, but actually to give me a new TV set he claimed to have got on sale. It wasn’t too difficult to set up, and fortunately I was able to bypass all the streaming-channel setup stuff, which would have just been a waste of time. We did, however, discover that Samsung has planned-obsolescenced their own older soundbars by ensuring there is no compatible means of connecting them to their newer TV sets. Not to be daunted, Chekhov ordered a new soundbar to be delivered last Thursday, and though it was easy to connect I had a new problem: it barely put out any sound. To reach a comfortable viewing volume, I had to set the old soundbar at about 30 (of a maximum 100), but the new soundbar is nearly inaudible at that level; depending on the DVD and other, more mysterious factors, I had to raise the level to 75-100 for comfortable viewing (and it only goes to 100). The internet told me this is a known issue with Samsung soundbars, but provided no useful information on fixing it; every “separate” article I could find was apparently copied from some ur-text, right down to the wording, and none of them are much above the “make sure your cable is plugged in” level of helpfulness. Finally, Samsung customer service via text talked me through resetting the soundbar, so now it sounds good at 60. But I won’t be surprised if I end up having to do this more than once, or perhaps even regularly.

Links #816
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, animals, Australia, Bluesky, China, cops, ethics, Florida, language, Minnesota, sporting events, STEM, video on February 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
A young rock is probably a good thing. – Derek Leung
Though Fred Smith left Blondie before their first album was recorded, I decided to feature this little-known, very weird, very punk song from their debut album because I’ve always liked it. The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya, Kevin Wilson, Jeremy Malcolm, Jesse Walker, Franklin Harris, Yasmin Nair, and Nun Ya again, in that order.
- Metaphor alert.
- The geology of curling.
- This is actually pretty cool.
- R.I.P. Fred Smith and Bud Cort.
- How on earth did it get into a bikini?
- In case you think this is limited to the US.
- As the young say, “Not all heroes wear capes.“
From the Archives
- They said nothing while the Times spread propaganda against sexworkers.
- The trades of actress & whore were, until a century ago, indistinguishable.
- All I see about modern square work makes me happier I became a whore.
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- Some still believe these sociopaths are motivated by “protecting children”.
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- This will continue as long as fools teach children obedience to “authority”.
- While sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence.
- Mom demands politicians stop unsupervised kids from gorging on candy.
- The worst rape defense after “she wanted to be raped by a random cop”.
- Prohibitionist politicians’ real goal is government control of the internet.
- Give aggressive thugs power over teens; what could possibly go wrong?
- When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Are the Japanese the only people left who can tell fantasy from reality?
- Journalists must stop obediently calling senseless violence “correction”.
- Still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology?
- Unconstitutional law is sort of suspended by an unconstitutional order.
- Ambulance-chasers give themselves power to rob internet companies.
- Another pogrom from the dangerous clown who rules Polk County, FL.
- Everyone abused by cops using this surveillance system needs to sue.
- Besides laughing aloud, I may have also clapped my hands in delight.
- So many rescue industry profiteers have been exposed as sociopaths.
- Surely you didn’t think they’d be satisfied with threatening librarians.
- This monster’s handlers made a conscious choice to let him run wild.
- Cops don’t like it when non-cops report “crimes” that didn’t happen.
- Cops, nightmares, Amy Winfrey, artificial stupidity, and much more.
- A dangerous new front in the Drug War has claimed another victim.
- Some politicians are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle.
- Judge vs currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- I’m sure they helped by occasionally yelling “Stop faking!” at her.
- Politicians wreck lives by inventing new crimes from copaganda.
- Remember, this isn’t “human trafficking”, but consensual sex is.
- Now that the moral panic is over, expect more articles like this.
- This will continue until there are federal criminal charges for it.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- Surely you didn’t think this was just about porn, did you?
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Texas has a long history of “correcting” people to death.
- Those who facilitate cops’ evil are enemies of humanity.
- Cops are nothing more than state-sponsored terrorists.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Gerald Fried, and much more.
- Cop “magic fentanyl” hysteria has escaped the US.
- Cops view alcohol as a means of facilitating rape.
- “Crisis pregnancy centers” for the 21st century.
- Tweet selections from 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- Cops, madness, weirdness, and much more.
- Some pretty mild early-spring type weather.
- Pathetic reruns of years-old fantasies.
- At least this one didn’t attempt to lie.
- Throwback Thursday of Darkness.
- Dracula vs. Throwback Thursday.
- A mural decorating my atrium.
- Grace’s prized shillelagh.
- Thoughts on The X-Files.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Mud everywhere.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!





