Typically, I put the shutters back up around the middle of October, when I can see from the two-week forecast that we’re heading back into the rainy season. The main reason for that is, the rains typically precede the cold here, and I don’t want to try installing the shutters in the rain. But this is supposed to be a wonky El Niño year, so I’m not surprised to see a very unusual (for us) alternation of cold and warm, rainy and dry, for the rest of this month. So because the forecast called for light freeze both Saturday and Sunday nights, and rain on both Friday and Saturday, I decided to install them last Thursday. When I designed these, I could handle them alone with some effort, but since my body has been catching up to its chronological age for the past five years, it now takes a lot of effort. Taking them down again in April is much easier because gravity is on my side, but we’ll see how I do putting them back up next October. And I won’t be at all surprised if I start needing help to do it in the next year or two.
Archive for the ‘Biography’ Category
Diary #850
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on October 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Links #849
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, artificial stupidity, cops, drugs, Facebook, fantasy, Georgia, language, psychology, racism, scams, video, Welcome to the Future on October 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’ve never seen [corruption] like this outside…of a TV show.
– Mark Begnaud
I recently remembered another favorite from Sesame Street, and it’s even seasonally appropriate! The links above the video were provided by Shiv Ramdas; Franklin Harris; Jesse Walker and Franklin Harris again; Mike Siegel; David Ley; T. Greg Doucette; and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- Impressively accurate for me.
- “Some believe” ≠ “100% confirmed”.
- R.I.P. Eva Marie Saint and Jim Bakker.
- “Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen.
- Natural stupidity meets artificial stupidity.
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- Careless cops pick the wrong black man to try to frame.
From the Archives
- Nobody is going to give expensive cannabis edibles to your spawn for free.
- Thinking with the wrong head creates its own problems sans political help.
- How long will airlines accept liability for government-brand racial profiling?
- If you didn’t see where this was going, you haven’t been paying attention.
- When a crime resembling the myths really happens, a church is behind it.
- Nobody is safe until this odious practice is recognized as unconstitutional.
- As practical limits on surveillance vanish, legal limits are more important.
- Over 90% of all whores work illegally rather than submit to “registration”.
- Ordinary business arrangements get spun into “exploitation” and “crime”.
- The government is working to ensure these men die in their filthy cages.
- Looking-glass politicians say adding window to bathroom “adds privacy”.
- The impending dark age I have warned about for years has now arrived.
- Cop deals with disagreement exactly as paid to; all claim to be shocked.
- Another individual protection the Establishment is working to eliminate.
- Culture war is driven by idiots refusing to understand how things work.
- When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- “Drug” fantasies are just a pretext for petty torture and fascist profits.
- It took seven years for people to start fighting wannabe book censors.
- Politicians believe “election” grants them license to practice medicine.
- Surely you didn’t think this would stop with libraries and the internet?
- The phrase “conspiracy theory” does not mean “any bizarre fantasy”.
- Anybody still using Facebook products deserves everything they get.
- Many overseas pharmacies don’t care about politicians’ permission.
- Cops, Lovecraft, Captain Kangaroo, Diane Keaton, and much more.
- These abuses are finally getting the attention they’ve long needed.
- Your regular reminder that my writing depends upon your support.
- It is not the job of libraries to enforce parental censorship choices.
- A reminder that I depend on your support to keep this blog going.
- “Worship leader”. How many variations on these titles are there?
- A program is not a “she”, and running a program is not “acting”.
- Every Friday the 13th, I ask non-sexworkers to stand up for us.
- As I’ve said many times, the urge to censor is a mental illness.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Politicians will never stop until privacy is completely abolished.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- I can’t feel sorry for cops hoist with their own twisted petard.
- Some rapist cops are indiscriminate in their choice of victim.
- Cops, Russell Batiste, Jr, gay furry hackers, and much more.
- “Serious domestic incident” seems to mean he raped his ex.
- Conditioning kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance.
- Privacy as we once knew it will soon be a thing of the past.
- Cops, dark ages, Nazca lines, John Amos, and much more.
- Because this kind of prohibition will surely be different!
- Goats view fences as challenges rather than barriers.
- Politicians keep openly trying to destroy the internet.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- Welcome to the “safe” future you keep voting for.
- I’ve been wanting one of these for quite a while.
- Oh look, sensible people were correct as usual.
- All cops will have these within a few years.
- Throwback Thursday Meets the Wolf Man.
- The Ascension of Throwback Thursday.
- Sometimes I really miss the Beatles.
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Victor Throwback Thursday.
- Water for the piggies.
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!
Thank God It’s Friday
Posted in Biography, tagged psychology on October 9, 2026| 1 Comment »
Since I retired, I’ve noticed an unusual phenomenon: I find myself looking forward to Friday, and when it arrives I feel a kind of contentment that lasts until Sunday, when I start to have anxiety about looming responsibilities. As I explained a few months ago,
…since none of the jobs I had after 1987 had traditional Saturday-Sunday weekends, that inability to feel free of looming responsibilities eventually seeped into every day off, aggravating my lifelong characteristic inability to relax into a lifelong Sunday-shaped pathology: unless I was actually under the influence of a drug, whatever tasks I might have to accomplish were always lurking behind me, impossible to ignore regardless of my efforts to pretend they weren’t there. But now, five years into my retirement, I’m at last starting to have a little success in convincing myself that there really aren’t any obligations haunting my free time…
When I wrote that I hadn’t really begun to notice the Friday effect yet, but over the summer it became quite pronounced. Sure, as a child I looked forward to Fridays, not only because I’d have a few days off from the dreaded school and could look forward to Saturday morning cartoons, but also because almost until my early teens I spent many Friday evenings sleeping over at Maman‘s house. In my teens Saturday became D&D day, another good reason to look forward to the weekend, and around 1980 (I think) the local PBS station started playing classic horror movies late Friday night; a few years later they started running Third Doctor episodes of Doctor Who on Friday nights (the Fourth Doctor was on Saturday nights). Then in the early ’90s, while I was a librarian, Fridays became D&D day for a year or so. But that was over 30 years ago, and I honestly can’t recall anything special about Fridays since then, except maybe a few Sci-fi channel shows of the late ’90s and early Oughts; during all my escorting years, Friday was just like any other day, and I can’t recall and special memories of Grace associated with the day.
And yet, the feeling of Friday as somehow special persists, and if anything is slowly growing more pronounced. I have no explanation for this, other than the strange persistence of emotional memories, but it’s not an unpleasant association. So I’m just going to enjoy it, and accept it as a strange and wonderful little blessing from the deep recesses of my brain.
Diary #849
Posted in Diary, tagged Grace, psychology, Sunset on October 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As I explained recently, I’ve been cooking for those I love for most of my adult life, so cooking just for myself can seem like a chore. And that’s even more true when it comes to desserts; it seems almost silly to bake a cake or pie or cookies if I’m the only one who’s going to be eating them. But since I do like my little treat with my tea and show while unwinding in the hours before bed, it’s either make them myself or buy them from a store, which is far more disagreeable to me than making them. And besides, I can’t let all that fruit growing on my property go to waste. So I’ve started to get into the habit of baking on Sundays; when I go into town for groceries on Monday or Tuesday I bring some of the pie or cake or cookies for Chekhov and Yellowbird, and then I have enough for one piece myself each night for most of the week. Last week I got off-schedule and made an apple pie on Wednesday, which meant by Sunday afternoon there were only two slices left; that inspired me to make more crust and simply walk out back for a few more apples to create another pie. I’ve also discovered that making several smaller batches of salsa or whatever seems less daunting than one big batch, so that’s how I’m doing it now. Changing the habits of a lifetime can be difficult, but when one’s circumstances change it’s also necessary. And though it’s probably harder for me than it would be for someone less OCD than I am, I feel like I’m doing OK. And once I settle into the new routines, perhaps I won’t feel Grace’s absence quite so keenly.
Diary #848
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Grace, psychology, Sunset on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes I feel as though Grace is watching over me. The device in the picture is an apple peeler/corer; it works like a charm for preparing apples to cook, because all one need do is stick an apple on those spikes and turn the crank, and the apple is peeled, cored, and spiral-sliced in about 30 seconds. But a few weeks ago, I noticed I hadn’t cleaned it thoroughly enough when I put it away last year, and in the process of remedying that I accidentally unseated the spring you can see at lower left. In the past, I would’ve simply taken it to Grace’s workbench and she’d have fixed it in under five minutes, but this time I had to do it myself. It wasn’t easy, but I found some close-up pictures on the internet and was eventually able to get it back together properly. At least, I was fairly sure it was correct; the moment of truth came on Sunday, when I picked a basket of apples to turn into mincemeat. The first apple I tried fell apart, showing me that I had adjusted something incorrectly, but a little examination and a second messed-up apple showed me what I’d done wrong, and I was soon back in business. It’s a small thing, I know, but I’m easily frustrated by problems that are outside of my scope of expertise, so when I suddenly see what I’m doing wrong and I’m able to fix whatever it is, I feel as though Grace is there behind me, invisibly pointing out what I wasn’t able to see by myself. 
Links #847
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Canada, cops, drugs, Florida, Iraq, Pennsylvania, politicians, psychology, racism, Texas, video on September 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I had a few. – “Officer” Dustin Christina
This video, called to my attention by Mike Siegel, speaks for itself. The links above it were provided by Scott Greenfield, Kevin Wilson, Nun Ya, Jessica Pishko, IncarcerNation, Ryan Marino, and Mistress Matisse, in that order.
- R.I.P. Peter Max.
- Paging Dr. Dolittle.
- Some things never change.
- Cop murders student for getting lost.
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- Some studies just prove what everyone already knew.
- Everything I see makes me more determined never to fly again.
From the Archives
- The predictable result of giving aggressive men power over young women.
- What would you call a gang who conspired to rob a demented old woman?
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- How long will the US ignore the costs of its sick worship of state violence?
- This “monkey see, monkey do” parade is now parading around the world.
- This will continue as long as fools teach children obedience to “authority”.
- The less often I have to mooch like a public TV station, the happier I am.
- In the 21st century, censorship & surveillance are tightly bound together.
- Cops let one of their gang rape a baby for 2 years after he was reported.
- “Sexual misconduct targeting vulnerable women” is used to mean “rape”.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”, but never stops there.
- Censorship is very popular in dark ages, which is why they’re dark ages.
- Cops excuse any right violation with magic words like “crime” or “gang”.
- The naive can’t grasp why so many women are reluctant to report rape.
- Tech cultists want to let a defective algorithm act as its own gatekeeper.
- It took prosecutors 13 years to get this from accusation to plea bargain.
- Stupid authoritarian diktats should always result in political humiliation.
- Who would waste good money to see a program parroting a dead man?
- Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic.
- Predictable effects of prohibition appear; prohibitionists claim surprise.
- When “sex trafficking” is used to mean ordinary “Fly Me To You” deals.
- Politicians viewing kinky porn is less an issue than being psychopaths.
- “Sex trafficking” hysteria rests on pseudoscience, woo, and nonsense.
- Cops, metaphors, pumpkin people, David McCallum, and much more.
- What’s worse than chatbot “therapy”? Chatbot marriage “counseling”.
- Too bad cops don’t spend all their time fantasy role-playing together.
- Are amateurs really so sheltered that this sort of thing shocks them?
- Irish “gypsy whores” tales were quaint even before they were passé.
- Some politicians are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle.
- Women of childbearing age should avoid Alabama if at all possible.
- US institutions and norms used to curb politicians’ worst impulses.
- It’s impossible to know how many of these were actually murders.
- Cop and preacher is like the molester equivalent of a full house.
- Expect nothing but hypocrisy from any part of any government.
- A new censorship regime has been imposed on British subjects.
- If hope y’all realize these ads will be “personalized” by spying.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, rubber chickens, and much more.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- The entire Utah rescue industry appears to be collapsing.
- What happens when puritans are not ignored as lunatics.
- Read this if you wish, but pay attention to the slant.
- Cops, library bats, Maggie Smith, and much more.
- Hypocritical trash behaving like hypocritical trash.
- Welcome to the “safe” future you keep voting for.
- In which Louie really makes a pig out of himself.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- My three previous columns for Mabon.
- The Revenge of Throwback Thursday.
- A rapist cop’s evil begets more evil.
- Oh look, another “youth pastor”.
- Dark Throwback Thursday.
- A good year for tomatoes.
- Throwback Thursday, MD.
- This is called pomace.
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!
Maggie’s Kitchen #19
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, tagged Grace, Maggie's Kitchen, recipes, Sunset on September 25, 2026| 1 Comment »
Most of my own recipes were developed in the ’90s and Oughts, when I was typically cooking for 2-3 people, which means now that I live alone they are usually good for two meals, one fresh and one as leftovers. But I’m also trying to adapt some other recipes to one or two servings, and simplifying them while I’m at it because even though I love cooking for those I love, cooking for just myself sometimes seems like a chore. Furthermore, I now have a lot more eggs on hand because Grace is no longer here to eat them, and with the price of meat going up so much it makes sense to use eggs instead wherever possible. Just recently, I came up with this recipe on the fly to use my own eggs and tomatoes, and it turned out so good I wanted to share it; it’s enough for two (one with leftovers).
Quick Egg Curry
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 medium onion, sliced into wedges
2 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
1 cup basmati rice
8 cherry tomatoes (you could substitute a can of Ro-tel tomatoes)
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp hot Indian chili powder
2 cups water
6 small eggs (if using large eggs, 4)
Chop onions and garlic and sauté in sesame oil until onions are tender, about 4 minutes; during the process add the curry powder, chili powder, and salt. During the final minute add the rice and brown it a little with the onions. Gradually add the water and bring to boil; while waiting for it to boil slice up the tomatoes and add them to the skillet. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until most of the water is absorbed; when you think the rice will be ready in about 4 or 5 minutes, crack each egg into the simmering rice mixture and re-cover. The eggs will be poached at the same time as the rice is done. You can microwave the leftovers, but be aware the eggs will cook a bit more so the yolks will be harder, more like a boiled egg, unless you set them aside and warm the rice first. I still found it surprisingly good the next day even with the more-cooked eggs.
Diary #847
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If you compare this video to the one I took several weeks ago, you can see just how much happier and healthier the turkey is now that he can roam around outside of the coop, safe from literal henpecking. When I took this video on Saturday, I got a good look at the area on his back which was so bad before, and it seems largely healed now. He still spends a lot of his time near the fence, but that seems to be because he’s learned I throw feed corn over the fence when I come out around noon; after that, he wanders all over looking for bugs in the grass. A few days ago I even heard him in the north paddock, under the apple trees, when I opened up the living room window in the morning. I’ve been trying to catch him when he’s making his gobbling noises, but as so often happens with animals doing interesting things, he always stops when I grab the phone! So you’ll just have to be satisfied with watching him strut, unless I happen to catch a better video before this publishes on Monday. At least now I know how to handle larger fowl (I’ve always wanted peacocks) when they start getting too large for the henhouse!
Links #846
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, artificial stupidity, BDSM, Believe Them, Canada, cops, Enshittification, fascism, Florida, Georgia, Google, Hollywood, I Saw My Brain, illegal aliens, Indiana, New York, politicians, racism, Robocops, Texas, video, Washington DC on September 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »
They’re letting police do just about anything. – Randall Kallinen
When Dolly Parton died a few weeks ago, I seemed to be the only one who remembered this 1976 guest appearance on Captain Kangaroo; the video was clearly taken from the edited reruns of old shows aired on PBS in the late ’80s. Of particular note: Dolly reading a children’s book aloud, almost 20 years before starting her Imagination Library charity. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Radley Balko; Lucy Steigerwald; Mistress Matisse & Dan Savage; C.J. Ciaramella; IncarcerNation; and Radley Balko again, in that order.
- Fascism enables idiocracy.
- Polk County, Florida, again.
- Another taste of the new dark age.
- R.I.P. Jay Wiseman and Bob Mackie.
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- Man murdered for being security guard while black.
- Trump worshipers claim his name is a magical charm against entropy.
From the Archives
- Government thinks it even has the right to leer at the inside of your body.
- “Fentanyl” is now another porcine pretext for harassing & robbing people.
- Humans: a swarm of self-important flies panicking over a rotting cow pie.
- Australian cops bravely protect imaginary children from imaginary abuse.
- This will continue as long as fools teach children obedience to “authority”.
- This “monkey see, monkey do” parade is now parading around the world.
- This phrasing strongly implies strangling a woman while on duty is A-OK.
- Missouri politicians govern by edict, sans tiresome democratic processes.
- If something like “trafficking” propaganda happens, it’s usually a church.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Asstoon’s surveillance company will keep outing sex workers to the pigs.
- Why does society allow its medical system to be used for state violence?
- The wholly-predictable results of bad laws, happening just as predicted.
- Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?
- The real culprit: invasive surveillance & onerous infantilization of teens.
- The Japanese are the only people left who can tell fantasy from reality.
- Never forget that “filter” used thus is merely a euphemism for “censor”.
- Government often attacks with civil suits rather than criminal charges.
- Anyone who’s ever closely known a narcissist will see the truth of this.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- The state enriches itself via unconstitutional warrantless surveillance.
- Curated selections of tweets from September 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- Sleeping with a cop is dangerous even if the woman is a cop herself.
- Don’t infantilize young victims of government brutality as “children”.
- As if rude assholes talking loudly on cell phones wasn’t bad enough.
- Politicians will never let go of prohibitionism until they’re forced to.
- All laws should sunset after 10 years unless intentionally renewed.
- Cops, immigrants, Tom Bombadil, Tito Jackson, and much more.
- “Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group.
- Arresting men for fictitious “crimes” against imaginary people.
- Surprising absolutely no one who understands McNeill’s Law.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- It’s a good thing I don’t get emotionally attached to poultry.
- All those who facilitate cops’ evil are enemies of humanity.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Robert Redford, and much more.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- I’m honestly unsure why this doesn’t happen more often.
- The “cops bearing gifts” PR scam is not limited to adults.
- Authoritarians, like leopards, cannot change their spots.
- Can a sex worker win an election in the puritanical US?
- Wannabe preachers are often as bad as the real thing.
- “Criminality” is a status defined entirely by the State.
- Cops, “records”, Roger Whittaker, and much more.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- AHF has a history of financial shenanigans.
- My first and only guest column by a robot.
- Zuckerberg is completely out of his mind.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- “Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen.
- My recipe for fried green tomatoes.
- The Curse of Throwback Thursday.
- Modern Throwback Thursday.
- Thursday of Throwbacks.
- Goldilocks blackberries.
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!
Diary #846
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Grace, psychology, recipes, Sunset on September 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Since last year was a poor one for tomatoes, I ran out of homemade salsa early this year, and had to make do with store-bought salsa this summer. But I had both time and tomatoes last week, so I made a 4-pint batch on Thursday; because I try to tweak my recipes to make too much rather than too little, that actually gave me four pints for canning and another which went straight into the refrigerator for immediate use. Those of you who remember how Grace and I developed the recipe together will not be surprised to hear that it was a bittersweet experience for me; on the one hand I’m not going to deprive myself of good salsa, and using a recipe which had more input from her than from me (because she was the Queen of Spicy Food) is almost like getting a little present from her. But on the other hand…well, I don’t think I really need to explain. And assuming I have enough tomatoes for a 2-quart batch of mincemeat (which does not remind me of her because she didn’t like mincemeat), I’ll be going through that same mixture of pleasure and pain again when I make another batch in a few weeks.
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