I was concerned this would be a lean year for the toy drive, but my generous gentlemen are coming through as usual! Yesterday I spent all I’ve received so far, and this is what it looked like after I got most of it into my trunk. If you’re wondering why some of them look wet, it’s because it was raining cats and dogs all day yesterday; I would’ve waited for a clear day, but the next one predicted is the 21st, which is obviously too late. Luckily, there’s now a Toys for Tots donation box at Tractor Supply, so I needn’t drive all the way to Olympia; this load was only in my trunk for long enough to drive to the other side of the strip mall to drop them off. It’s not as much as in previous years; I’ve used a $20 per toy limit for ten years now, but I had to raise it to $30 this year, and I was shocked to see how much some things have gone up. But y’all still have another week, so if you’d like to see the toys bought with your contributions next week, you know what to do!
Posts Tagged ‘Presents’
Diary #806
Posted in Diary, tagged holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on December 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Yuletide 2025
Posted in Holidays, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, games, Grace, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on November 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself. Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids. And if you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive! Regular readers know how it works: from today until Tuesday, December 16th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots. Send your donation via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net, and please put “Toys for Tots” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not a regular blog donation; I can also accept donations via Zelle if you prefer not to use PayPal. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you). Mad Emperor Scrooge’s destructive tariffs are going to make toys much more expensive this year, and his pogroms & mass firings, plus the inflation resulting from his idiotic policies, will result in a lot of people having a lot less money for presents. Please help me provide some joy to at least a few little ones, who are even less able to understand economics than politicians. And you’ll also be helping me to enjoy some Christmas cheer in a year when my heart is likely to be heavy.
Diary #804
Posted in Current Events, Diary, Fiction, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged imaginative fiction, Presents, psychology on November 24, 2025| 1 Comment »
Anyone who’s ever perused my Amazon wishlist has probably noticed that it features a lot more weird, nerdy things than the expensive “luxury” things most guys seem to like buying for sex workers. That was true even long before I retired, and it’s even more so nowadays. The reason, as I’ve explained before, is that I put things I actually want on my list, and my tastes run to the odd and nerdy. In the last couple of weeks, several of my generous readers have sent CDs and DVDs from the list, and several of the DVDs were of old movie serials. I’m quite pleased about that because, as some of you have noticed, I’ve increasingly turned my back on the modern world this year. Now, a large fraction of my TV and movie viewing has always consisted of things that aren’t current at the time I view them, and I rarely read any fiction written after I was born (and almost never after I graduated from high school). But since early summer that’s even more true than usual, and probably half of my current entertainment was created between 1920 and 1960. Part of the reason is practical; the new adventure fiction series I’m working on takes place in the 1920s and ’30s, so immersing myself in period fiction helps with mood and color. But the rest of it is purely emotional; this blog and its attendant social media focus mostly on current events, and I needn’t explain how absolutely awful those events have become. Simply put, by the time I’m done with blog writing every day, I am so sick of 21st century political atrocities and media enshittification that I cannot handle one more minute of it. So to those of you who have indulged me with these gifts, please accept my heartfelt gratitude not merely for the kindness of a gift, but also for helping me find temporary solace from a world which feels increasingly hostile to me.
Diary #802
Posted in Diary, tagged Grace, holidays, imaginative fiction, Presents, witchcraft on November 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
As I predicted, my feelings around my birthday were much more complicated this year because Grace was not here to share it with me; I suspect Thanksgiving and Christmas will be harder still, given that I have not spent Christmas without Grace since 1997. But my friends were here with me for my birthday, as they will be at the other holidays, and my generous readers sent me presents: a new sheet set to replace an old one which had torn, several movies, and DVD sets for The Fugitive, Partners in Crime and one of the Jon Pertwee seasons of Doctor Who. Two of my friends have a gift for finding things they know I’ll like that I didn’t know even existed; Yellowbird got me a statuette of a cobra, and Jae found me a cashmere sweater and a charming little kid’s book which I viewed as a sort of extra-long Halloween card. So even though nothing can truly fill the Grace-shaped hole in my life, it’s good to be surrounded by people who care, and are willing to go out of their way to tell me.
Socks for Christmas
Posted in Current Events, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged holidays, politicians, Presents, psychology, Toys for Tots on November 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I don't know what's worse, the fact that I'm surprised by this headline or the fact that I probably shouldn't be:
Don’t do this; little kids should not be responsible for feeding their families. This is like giving them socks as a Christmas present. Obviously, this tweet appeared much too late for me to feature it before Halloween, but Christmas is less than two months off and I’m sure well-meaning puritans who are wholly ignorant of child psychology will probably be back at it again in three weeks. It also gives me an opportunity to launch a sort of pre-season toy drive; regular readers know that I start my annual toy drive the day after Thanksgiving, but since I expect toys to be extra-expensive due to Ebenezer Trump’s anti-Christmas tariffs and many of my readers to have less to share this year, I think it’s a good idea to start a bit early. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating!
Granddaughter of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, Words, tagged abortion, advertising, agency denial, blogging, ethics, fantasy, language, law, politicians, pragmatism, Presents, psychology, STEM, Swedish model, video, violence vs. sex workers on August 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
[Though] practical gifts…may not be the stuff of male fantasy like fancy lingerie and expensive jewelry…they mean far more to me [because] they…allow…me to create the comfortable home I plan to spend the rest of my life in.
– “Brazen Solicitation”
Prohibitionist politicians…think the state has the right to classify a bee as a fish, define pi as “3”, or declare that the laws of the State supersede the laws of science in any other way. – “A Blastocyst By Any Other Name”
The Swedish model is not “partial decriminalization”, and I wish people (especially reporters; we expect lies from politicians) would stop pretending otherwise.
– “Partial Bullshit”
One of the reasons I semi-retired is because I had it up to here…with buying, keeping up with, writing, and jumping through the stupid censor-demanded hoops of escort advertising. – “And Now For a Word…”
Diary #789
Posted in Diary, tagged Presents, psychology on August 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Since my budget is much tighter these days (due to the one-two punch of lower income and tariff-driven inflation), it’s very difficult for me to justify extras like expensive perfume. So it really brightened my day recently when one of my generous gentlemen sent me a bottle of my favorite perfume from my Amazon wishlist, saying that he hoped it would help lift my spirits. Grace always used to insist that I do things (such as getting my nails done or my hair colored) that make me feel more attractive, but since she’s been gone I don’t have that voice any more, and have started feeling guilty about such expenditures during lean times. So it’s really lovely when my readers step up to tell me that it really is OK to be a little bit frivolous, and obviating the problem by making the choice for me.
Diary #776
Posted in Biography, Diary, Favorites, Music, tagged New Orleans, Presents, video on May 13, 2025| 1 Comment »
My tastes in TV shows often run to the eccentric, so I’m never especially surprised when I can’t find shows I enjoyed on DVD. Sometimes the shows were never popular enough, and often they were cancelled after one season; a lot of the time I seem to be the only person who even remembers them. One such program was The Steven Banks Show, produced for New Orleans’ public TV station, WYES, in 1994 by ex-NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff after he semi-retired to the Crescent City; I actually caught it on the Baton Rouge PBS affiliate, WLPB, because it aired at 10:00 PM on Saturday night, just before Doctor Who. At the end of every episode was an address to order a copy of the soundtrack album, and given that I thought Banks’ brilliant comedic songs were the best part of the show, I of course ordered it (and still play it every so often). That single viewing over 30 years ago, just before the beginning of my “year of disaster”, was the only time I ever saw the show; even after the debut of YouTube I could never find any trace of it other than the Showtime special which was essentially its pilot, and an upload of the soundtrack album. Then last month, I discovered someone had uploaded all 13 episodes; I immediately contacted the same generous gent who sent me the two missing seasons of The Muppet Show last year, and he found even better copies somewhere online. So now I’m watching them again; I only wish I could’ve shared them with Grace, because I think she’d have enjoyed all the musical humor very much. Anyhow, here’s the series on YouTube; I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I do.
Diary #757
Posted in Diary, tagged disease, Grace, holidays, Presents, Sunset on December 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »
We intentionally did a little “smaller” Christmas celebration this year, because I knew Grace might not have the energy for a lot of noise and bustle. On top of that, the radiation is taking its toll on her throat, which often hurts her too much to swallow; her oncologist prescribed a viscous solution of lidocaine that she can swallow a few minutes before eating to make swallowing anything rougher than liquid bearable. But she did just fine; after she had a little breakfast we gathered beside the tree and fire and exchanged presents with the friends who usually gather with us on holidays. My friend Sophie helped out quite a bit, bringing a couple of dishes and helping me with logistics just in case I needed to attend to Grace, and though I had to puree her turkey and gravy she was able to eat, and she didn’t even get too tired to socialize. Everyone seemed to like their presents, and in addition to the nice ones Grace got a very important one: Sophie took up a collection from her usual donors and presented me with $1000 toward her dentures, which means we now have enough! As soon as her doctors declare her in remission, we’ll get the impressions taken and her dentures ordered, and by the time they arrive she should be getting over the throat pain; that’s a good thing, because although she loves soup I’m sure she’ll be ready for something more substantial by then!
Diary #755
Posted in Diary, tagged Grace, holidays, Presents on December 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Once again, I was a bit nervous about my toy drive this year, and once again my readers came through! Even better, I discovered that the Toys for Tots organizers had put a donation box in the gift shop at the chemotherapy clinic, so I didn’t even need to drive across town to the Tractor Supply; I just brought the toys with me to the clinic and dropped them off while Grace was getting her therapy. And that was really good, because these first two weeks were full of extra steps (like having to get up two hours before dawn on Monday to get Grace to surgery to install a “power port” in her chest wall so the chemo won’t require as much needle-sticking). Anyhow, the drive is now over for this year; thanks to all who donated, and if you missed it this year make sure you set a calendar reminder for November 28, 2025!
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