Since Andrea Mistretta retired her Mardi Gras poster series last year, here’s her poster from 2011; I’ll start going backward from there in years to come. Happy Mardi Gras, dear readers!
Posts Tagged ‘holidays’
Mardi Gras 2026
Posted in Holidays, tagged carnival, holidays on February 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Valentine’s Day 2026
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays on February 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As longtime readers know, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite of holidays, and I’m not particularly fond of the typical iconography associated with it, either (which is often weird or violent or creepy as hell). So every year I try to share an exception, like this cute little elephant with a “clever” message that isn’t an abysmal pun.
Friday, February 13th, 2026
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays on February 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the August 2021 occurence, which contained quotes and links for every occurrence of this particular day and date combination. And if you value all the work I’ve done fighting for sex workers over the past 16 years, a concrete sign of that (via continuing subscription or one-time donation) would not only be deeply appreciated, but also provide vital resources for the continuance of that work.
Imbolc 2026
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays, paganism on February 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
May the reawakening of the world bring with it the reawakening of good things you thought gone forever. Blessed Be!
Tweet Market
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged animals, artificial stupidity, Barbie, blogging, Denmark, fascism, France, holidays, Hollywood, imaginative fiction, Ladies of the Night, language, left-right myth, Lithuania, nostalgia, politicians, psychology, sex offender registry, Thanatopsis, Twitter on January 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The happy ending here is that despite all their ridiculous mumbo-jumbo and frantic posturing, Death will win as it always does.Ave Mortis, Imperator Mundi.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T18:51:08.690Z
Lost Generation: 1890-1910 (roughly)"Greatest" Generation: 1911-1928Beat generation: 1929-1945Baby Boom: 1946-1963Generation X: 1964-1981Millennials: 1982-2000Generation Z: 2001-2018Generation Alpha: 2019-2036 (end subject to change, depending)
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T21:00:54.989Z
Given the corrupting effect of power, the most powerful person on the planet will INEVITABLY become the worst person on the planet, even if he wasn't to start with.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-15T18:12:36.252Z
"What if flapping your arms very hard will enable you to fly?"
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T18:08:56.505Z
A *big* step up from letting politicians decide.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T18:06:59.349Z
A one predisposed to disobedience since childhood, who has suffered social censure for that inclination since the early 1970s, I've always viewed the American self-image as "rebellious" as a crock of self-aggrandizing bullshit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-19T19:42:19.764Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T02:48:07.776Z
My paternal line did not emigrate to America; America bought our home from Napoleon. IOW America chose *us* rather than vice-versa.My late friend Grace's ancestors were here long before the 1st Europeans.And both of us would tell you that people sworn in this morning are just as American as us.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T18:19:01.037Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T03:55:50.740Z
My X's anniversary is also MY anniversary, though I would nor more expect a computer to grasp that than I would trust it to compose a post on the topic, presuming I was such a narcissist that I would request such a childish thing.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-23T18:10:08.836Z
On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T17:28:38.681Z
The process of obtaining a literature degree taught me that "literary" fiction is rarely better than genre fiction, and frequently worse.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-26T18:03:49.571Z
I have often said that modern US "conservatives" long for an imaginary past, while modern US "progressives" long for an imaginary future.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-27T18:28:49.015Z
The very fact that there is no murderer registry tells you everything you need to know about the "sex offender" registry.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-29T18:15:33.474Z
So basically, the entire movie is a Rickroll.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-30T08:08:05.987Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-31T17:50:42.716Z
What book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T18:45:41.673Z
Slopmaker who makes money from slop wants you to move beyond wanting quality and embrace his slop.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T08:33:17.438Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T02:41:43.416Z
Axolotls always make me smile. I mean, look at this cute little booger! See its happy little face? How could you not smile?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T08:10:14.387Z
How many branches of the Vichy government did General de Gaulle control?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-05T18:17:30.100Z
Psychosis is a reason, just not a sane one.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T07:57:18.251Z
Collectivism is a mental illness.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T18:07:26.157Z
Mammon. The Biblical name for this deity is Mammon. As in, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T17:59:08.165Z
Mrs. Boudreaux, please get off the line; we really need to make a call. I promise we'll be off in five minutes.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T18:01:58.758Z
My turn! It just dawned on me that if the ICE agent were a circus clown, and the woman the ghost of Anne Boleyn, and the roles were reversed, but the ghost threw her head at the clown instead of shooting him, he could juggle it and The Coulrophobia Lobby would be fully on the side of the ghost.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-11T03:59:55.538Z
That is such a cute little piggy though, definitely MUCH cuter than any cop deserves.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-12T19:58:14.596Z
Good grief, my Barbie was a scientist despite having come in an ordinary Barbie box rather than a "scientist" box with a lab coat.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T18:48:52.787Z
"Sorry, neither."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-14T08:56:39.781Z
Perhaps if you'd stop calling politicians "leaders", they'd stop treating y'all like followers.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-15T08:27:31.066Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-16T19:00:03.300Z
A national treasure.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-17T18:58:44.504Z
Mu.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-18T18:25:47.300Z
Diary #811
Posted in Diary, tagged carnival, holidays, psychology, Sunset on January 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Unless there is some compelling reason to do otherwise, I always take down my Christmas tree on King Day, January 6th. This year was not an exception, but it was raining so hard I had no desire to drag the tree across the muddy paddock to the fence line, especially because I don’t actually get dressed in the wintertime except on days when I need to go somewhere. So I put it outside, but it has been a week and I just haven’t felt like moving it yet. Though there’s no real danger of my becoming a recluse, I’m beginning to understand the mindset of elderly ladies in Gothic novels; I have a routine that I am comfortable with and prefer to maintain, so I tend to grumble when I have to break it to go to Aberdeen for some reason like groceries, and I really grumble when I need to drive to Seattle, especially in rainy weather. And if I were wealthy, I probably would have a handyman nearly as old as I am who does those chores for me. I wonder how much it would cost to have a manicurist come to me instead of vice-versa? Alas, too much. But it’s nice to think about, at least in monsoon season.
In the News (#1603)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged abortion, agency denial, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, California, censorship, consensual crime, cops, drugs, fascism, holidays, hysteria, internet, law, New York, Pennsylvania, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, rescue industry, scams, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Vultures Descend, Theatrics, transgender, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), Wyoming on January 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If stings worked we wouldn’t still be doing them. – Alex Andrews
The “sex trafficking” moral panic is over, but the rescue industry isn’t:
Let’s talk about the American tradition of the human trafficking sting – part press conference, part moral panic, part budget sinkhole. Across the country, these branded operations promise to crack down on exploitation and rescue victims…Since agencies don’t release itemized budgets, we built conservative cost models using…Local news reporting, booking data…court records…Known staffing levels and standardized pay/benefits rates…Publicly documented tactics (decoy operations, press briefings, multi-agency involvement)[, etc]…All told, these efforts can run $10,000 to $30,000+ per arrest – whether or not a trafficking charge ever materializes…
Customers need to teach these nosy creeps a lesson by shopping elsewhere:
Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets…their face, eyes and voice[-prints will be] collected and stored…the [management vomited the word] “safety” a[s a ludicrous justification for fascist collaboration with cops, spooks, and goons]…Legislation aiming to block businesses from using such systems was introduced in the City Council in 2023…But [of course it went nowhere], and other supermarket chains like Fairway already use biometric collection systems…
Another judge doing what judges should do more often: nullify tyrannical laws:
Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down laws including the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills…[because] they violate the state constitution…[which clearly states] that competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions…the state…[absurdly] argued that a…[medical procedure] is not health care…
The psychopaths who market chatbots as “intelligent” need to be sued into bankruptcy:
…Sam Nelson…routinely turned to ChatGPT to…ask for help with…drugs…ChatGPT started coaching Sam on how to take drugs, recover from them and plan further binges. It gave him specific doses of illegal substances, and…consistent encouragement…Then, last May…the 19-year-old…died from an overdose, just hours after [more bad advice from]…ChatGPT…Nelson’s death…joins a growing list of tragedies connected to ChatGPT and other…chatbots. In November, seven lawsuits were filed against OpenAI in one day [because] ChatGPT gave awful responses to vulnerable people who ended up…co[mmitting] suicide…[or] other[wise spiraling into] mental health crises…OpenAI [is directly responsible because it falsely advertises] ChatGPT as a trustworthy source for health information…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1555) 
Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:
New York Governor Kathy Hochul just signed a law that’s going to get expensive fast…[it] forces websites to slap unscientific warnings on their services [falsely] claiming that features like algorithmic feeds and push notifications cause [“]addiction[“]…compelled speech…[is] blatantly unconstitutional, and courts have already rejected nearly identical schemes. But Hochul and [other busybody politicians] either don’t care or don’t understand First Amendment basics, so New York taxpayers are about to fund a losing legal battle whose only real purpose is generating headlines for those politicians pretending to care about “protecting the children”…
What would cops do if you shot someone dead in the street?
A…[Father]land Security [goon murdered] a neighbor [because he] fired gunshots into the air [to celebrate the]…New Year…in…Los Angeles…The [murderer claimed he could fly, therefore shots]…fired [into the air were in reality] at [him, therefore it was self-defense even though he] was in his apartment when he heard…[the] shots…he [also claimed he was a super crack shot who was firing]…to disarm hi[s victim yet killed him instead. LAPD is hiding the deranged goon’s identity]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1600)
This is why some of us are wary of demands for “regulation”:
Passional Boutique & Sexploratorium…of Philadelphia…is now [being harassed] by [the] Trump…[regime] for selling an undergarment…the [FDA] sent a [threat] letter to Passional stating it was illegally selling breast binders…[which] the FDA [absurdly] classifies…as a medical device. Businesses that distribute them in the [US] must be registered with the FDA or [else]…Passional was one of only 12 businesses…including companies in Singapore and the Netherlands, that [were thus threatened]…They included Seattle-based Tomboyx…and Manhattan-based For Them…During a Dec. 18 news conference, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary [vomited the moronic phrase]…“transgender ideology” [in reporters’ faces]…
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!
Throwback Thursday 2012
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged blogging, dirty, holidays, hysteria, propaganda, psychology, racism, Thanatopsis, The Implosion Begins, yellow journalism on January 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If you think I’m going to let the people who aided and abetted the most violent and widespread campaign of persecution against sex workers in American history get away with pretending they were on the side of truth all along, you must not have read very much of my work.
– “New Year’s Eve 2021”
People would be a lot happier if they could truly learn the difference between “I want” and “I reasonably expect to get in the actual world that exists”. – “Life As It Is”
In the big picture, any order we manage to impose on the universe is as ephemeral as a sand castle, and will soon be obliterated by time and tide. – “The Big Picture”
The moral panic is over, but its rotten fruit have burst, spewing xenophobic, anti-sex, authoritarian poison all over American society. – “New Year’s Eve 2024“
Little Christmas 2026
Posted in Holidays, tagged carnival, holidays, Italy, witchcraft on January 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If you’re wondering who La Befana is and what she has to do with Christmas, I suggest you consult my column from this day in 2015, which also (not by coincidence) contains links to the columns for the previous four years. That should give you all the information you need to understand why I’m wishing some of my readers a Merry Christmas, some a Good Epiphany and others a Happy King Day, and welcoming all of you to the Carnival season!
New Year’s Day 2026
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays on January 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Happy New Year, dear readers!
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