Reading

Whatcha Reading? July 2025, Part Two

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/whatcha-reading-july-2025-part-two/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=148837

Ship or luxury white boat lay on sand beach, skyline background. After storm always return sun. Yacht on st.johns beach. Entertainment summer vacation yachting. Boat yacht landed on sand coast. It’s our last Whatcha Reading of July. Here’s what we’re reading as we reach the end of the month:

Lara: Inspired by my best friend, I’ve been reading old Tessa Dare books obsessively and voraciously. It has brought me a tremendous amount of comfort with trumpetings of Good Book Noise.

Shana: I’m reading Single Player by Tara Tai. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I love the setting—a queer romance in a video game company—but I’m feeling kind of meh about enemies to lovers romances these days.

Amanda: I couldn’t get into The Governess Game by Tessa Dare. The heroine meets the hero for all of five minutes and spends her days fantasizing about marrying him. I’ve moved onto King of Wrath by Ana Huang, and that’s hitting much better. The dark and dark-adjacent romances are really doing it for me right now.

Susan: I’m reading The Silent Concubine by Qiang Tang and Bai Li Jun Xi, ( A | BN ) and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The translation is Bad, and the protagonist is both passive and oblivious, which is a bad combo in a palace intrigue book.

But the love interest is unhinged and I do want more queer palace intrigues, so…

A | BN | K

Update: protagonist has lost his temper, none of the love interests were prepared for this

Sarah: I read Liars Like Us ( A | BN ) and the romance was missing from my romance novel. You know the unclean hands doctrine, where evidence is declared inadmissible because the means of acquiring it weren’t valid? This guy has, forgive me, unclean peen. Not that his peen is itself unclean (there is at least one shower scene) but everything about this relationship is supremely fucked because of how it began.

There was a lot of horniness though.

Elyse: I finally had to DNF Soulgazer ( A | BN | K | AB ) because after six chapters I still didn’t understand the magic system or the world. It felt like a lot of Romantasy word salad.

Lara: You lasted longer than I did. I made it about a chapter before I gave up.

Tara: I’m reading Relationship Material by Rachel Spangler and I’m enjoying it. It’s an f/nb romance and the author is nonbinary.

Susan: I’m also reading a webtoon called Sealed With Lips, and it’s very silly. The protagonist is on a revenge spree after being reborn, and there are regular reveals of new Horrors that she’s been through. But she and the love interest match each other’s level of ruthless and vengeful, and it’s very dramatic with all of the face-slapping, so I’m enjoying it

Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/whatcha-reading-july-2025-part-two/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=148837

Keeps Declining The Easy Way Out

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/keeps-declining-the-easy-way-out/384714/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=384714

Read Keeps Declining The Easy Way Out

I manually enter the details, but it's declined again.
Customer: "There must be some way to force or bypass that; I know there is money on the card."
Me: "I'm sorry, sir. If it's declined by the card company, there is nothing I can do."
Customer: "This is bull-s***! I know there is money on that card! Get your manager! Now!"

Read Keeps Declining The Easy Way Out

https://notalwaysright.com/keeps-declining-the-easy-way-out/384714/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=384714

NASA losing nearly 4,000 employees to Trump administration's 'deferred resignation' program

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/nasa-losing-nearly-4-000-employees-to-trump-administrations-deferred-resignation-program

Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have chosen to accept the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" option, reducing the agency's workforce by more than 20%.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/nasa-losing-nearly-4-000-employees-to-trump-administrations-deferred-resignation-program

Nice game

Posted by Paul Campos

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/nice-game

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152813

A’s rookie Nick Kurtz:

Game	At bats	Runs	Hits	Runs batted in	Walks	Strikeouts	Home runs	Stolen bases	AvgBatting average

Jul 25@Astros	6	6	6	8	0	0	4	0	.305

His 19 total bases ties the record set by Shawn Green.

Watch on YouTube

His nickname is “the Big Amish” because he’s from Lancaster PA, and does a churning butter motion after he hits home runs.

The post Nice game appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/nice-game

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152813

embellish

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/embellish-2025-07-26

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 26, 2025 is:

embellish • \im-BELL-ish\ • verb

To embellish something is to make it more appealing or attractive with fanciful or decorative details.

// The gift shop had cowboy shirts and hats embellished with beads and stitching.

// As they grew older, the children realized their grandfather had embellished the stories of his travels abroad.

See the entry >

Examples:

"Shell art isn't a new genre; it's been with us for centuries. The Victorians often framed their family photos with shells. ... The medium also came to the fore in the 1970s when everything was embellished with shells, from photo frames and mirrors to trinket boxes and even furniture." — Stephen Crafti, The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 2025

Did you know?

Embellish came to English, by way of Anglo-French, from the Latin word bellus, meaning "beautiful." It's in good company: modern language is adorned with bellus descendants. Examples include such classics as beauty, belle, and beau. And the beauty of bellus reaches beyond English: its influence is seen in the French bel, a word meaning "beautiful" that is directly related to the English embellish. And in Spanish, bellus is evidenced in the word bello, also meaning "beautiful."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/embellish-2025-07-26

A Cereal Killer Way To Get In Trouble

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/a-cereal-killer-way-to-get-in-trouble/384900/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=384900

Read A Cereal Killer Way To Get In Trouble

I’m stocking shelves in the cereal aisle when a man strolls up, holding a box of cereal that’s already open. Not just the cardboard, the bag inside has clearly been torn, and there’s a flake stuck to his shirt.
Customer: "Hey. Just tried this. Not for me."

Read A Cereal Killer Way To Get In Trouble

https://notalwaysright.com/a-cereal-killer-way-to-get-in-trouble/384900/

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Entry tags:

Maybe the Last Retirement Preparation Post?

I've hit another key milestone: the first payments from my annuities are in my bank account. When I get the account statement at the end of the month, I should be able to figure out exactly what's being withheld for taxes. Evidently it isn't what I calculated from that they told me previously, because one account sent me more money than I thought they would and the other sent me less. (Overall it's about what I was expecting to some in. I just like to know exactly to the penny what my money's doing.)

At this point, other than watching my budget, the next stage in money neepery will be doing taxes, which will take a couple years to settle in. (Maybe more, given T's messing around with this-is-not-actually-a-social-security-tax-cut-and-will-expire.)

I'd calculated how much "take home" would feel comfortable for me, and currently I'm getting several hundred more than that per month. If you look at what my Bayer take-home was (after taxes and retirement and everything was taken out), I'm currently getting about 90% of that. Some of my expenses are higher (e.g., healthcare) and some lower (though for various reasons I'm averaging about the same amount of driving at the moment, which I was expecting to be a bigger savings). So...not bad. Not bad at all.

Seditionist considered too racist to serve in the first Trump administration to head Institute of Pe

Posted by Scott Lemieux

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/seditionist-considered-too-racist-to-serve-in-the-first-trump-administration-to-head-institute-of-peace

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152811

Congratulations again to the “but I just wanted 2019 back” voters:

Darren Beattie is a white nationalist and bigoted lunatic. He's pushed for sterilization of "low IQ trash." He praised January 6 *on January 6.*

[image or embed]
— Matt Ortega (@mattortega.com) Jul 25, 2025 at 6:39 PM

This isn’t the first time Beattie has been deployed as an MAGA trolling device:

A senior State Department official said in a statement on Friday that Mr. Beattie was appointed by the institute’s board of directors, which includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Mr. Beattie drew scrutiny during Mr. Trump’s first term. In 2018, Mr. Beattie was fired by the White House for attending a gathering with white nationalists two years prior. He had appeared on a panel with Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigrant site VDare, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a “hate website.”

But in 2020, the White House appointed Mr. Beattie to a commission that helps preserve sites related to the Holocaust. The decision was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group.

This is also another takeover of an independent agency that is blatantly illegal under current law, but the incumbent Supreme Court isn’t interested in any law that might constrain Donald Trump.

The post Seditionist considered too racist to serve in the first Trump administration to head Institute of Peace appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/seditionist-considered-too-racist-to-serve-in-the-first-trump-administration-to-head-institute-of-peace

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152811

Cat helps tenants catch 17 mice while maintenance keeps making excuses so they deliver evidence duri

Posted by Etai Eshet

https://cheezburger.com/41633797/cat-helps-tenants-catch-17-mice-while-maintenance-keeps-making-excuses-so-they-deliver-evidence

Cats have always moonlighted as furry landlord supervisors, delivering progress reports in the form of deceased rodents with the professionalism of quality control inspectors.

When apartment maintenance operates on the same level of scientific rigor as elementary school science fairs, these feline consultants become the only reliable source of pest documentation, complete with photographic evidence that would impress crime scene investigators.

https://cheezburger.com/41633797/cat-helps-tenants-catch-17-mice-while-maintenance-keeps-making-excuses-so-they-deliver-evidence

It's his lovely summer body

Posted by Ayala Sorotsky

https://cheezburger.com/9762296320/its-his-lovely-summer-body

Good Stuff

Posted by grrm

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2025/07/25/good-stuff-3/

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/?p=9811

It’s been months since Parris and I last went to the movies, but we finally got out of the house last week, and bopped down to the Violet Crown to catch SUPERMAN. I’m glad we did. Supes and I are old friends, and this is one of the best Superman movies in a long time… maybe ever. This new Superman reminds me of the version I used to read about when I was a kid, the strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. (And yes, an innocent, of course, he’s always been an immigrant. And an illegal immigrant, when you stop to think if it). The film looks great, and James Gunn did a great job with the casting. Rachel Bosnahan was terrific as Lois Lane; I’d say it’s between her and Margot Kidder for Best Lois Ever. And there’s no doubt whatsoever for the Best Lex. Nicholas Hoult was far and away the Best Luthor of All Time, a truly chilling villain. The kid in the cape was excellent as well. I hope he gets to play Kal-El in another dozen movies.

There’s been some great SF on television as well. The Murderbot stories are always a lot of fun, and the TV show did them justice. I look forward to another series.

ANDOR was this year’s highlight, though. Far and away the best of the Star Wars spinoffs. Looked gorgeous, Diego Luna was first rate, and there was a realism and tension to the story that was sadly lacking in most of the other spinoffs.

It’s nice to see someone doing science fiction right.

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2025/07/25/good-stuff-3/

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/?p=9811

Posts claim unmarried Tennessee woman was denied prenatal care. Here's what we know

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/26/tennessee-woman-prenatal-care/

The woman, who did not share her name with the media, told her story at a town-hall meeting on July 17, 2025.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/26/tennessee-woman-prenatal-care/

Quick!

Posted by Ayala Sorotsky

https://cheezburger.com/10531325440/quick

Some people can’t be told, you know, they have to learn the hard way

Posted by Scott Lemieux

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/some-people-cant-be-told-you-know-they-have-to-learn-the-hard-way

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152809

Krugman issues a Tokyo storm warning:

So U.S. consumers will soon be suffering. But why are U.S. manufacturers so upset with the Japan deal? Because in combination with Trump’s other tariffs this deal actually leaves many U.S. manufacturers worse off than they were before Trump began his trade war.

This is clearest in the case of automobiles and automotive products. Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on all automotive imports, supposedly on national security grounds. This includes imports from Canada and Mexico. And here’s the thing: Canadian and Mexican auto products generally have substantial U.S. “content” — that is, they contain parts made in America. Japanese cars generally don’t.

But now cars from Japan will pay only a 15 percent tariff, that is, less than cars from Canada and Mexico.

OK, it’s not quite that straightforward, because imports from Canada and Mexico receive a partial exemption based on the share of their value that comes from the United States. Yes, it’s getting complicated. But we may nonetheless now be in a situation where cars whose production doesn’t create U.S. manufacturing jobs will pay a lower tariff rate than cars whose production does.

Wait, there’s more. Trump has also imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, which are of course important parts of the cost of a car. Japanese manufacturers don’t pay those tariffs.

Overall, the interaction between this Japan deal and Trump’s other tariffs probably tilts the playing field between U.S. and Japanese producers of cars, and perhaps other products, in Japan’s favor.

If this sounds incredibly stupid, that’s because it is. So how did this happen?

You might imagine that making a deal with one of our most important trading partners must have involved a team of experienced, skilled negotiators backed by economic experts. But in reality it was clearly pure amateur hour. Look at the photo at the top of this post, from CNBC. It shows Trump with a card in front of him laying out one much-hyped though probably meaningless part of the deal, a promise by Japan to invest in America. How much? The card says $400 billion, but that number was crossed out by hand and replaced with $500 billion, which somehow became $550 billion in the final announcement.

Next thing you’re going to tell me that Trump will start modifying weather forecasts with a Sharpie. Oh, wait.

So Trump’s negotiators probably had no idea what they were doing, and didn’t realize that in their frantic rush to conclude a deal they were agreeing to tariffs that would be highly unfavorable to U.S. manufacturing.

Why were they frantic? Trump has been the subject of considerable mockery over having made big promises about his ability to negotiate trade deals, then coming up empty month after month. So he and his people were surely anxious to make some major announcements before his self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1 — anxious enough not to realize quite what they were agreeing to.

And of course they may also have hoped that a splashy trade deal would move the news cycle off Jeffrey Epstein.

In summary, American consumers and American manufacturers will be worse off because of this deal. Pure amateur hour, but Trump could announce a deal and get some favorable headlines and that’s all he cares about, aside from raising tariffs because he thinks the US was more prosperous during the McKinley administration.

The post Some people can’t be told, you know, they have to learn the hard way appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/some-people-cant-be-told-you-know-they-have-to-learn-the-hard-way

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?p=152809

Won’t Get Lost Because Of What You Found

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/wont-get-lost-because-of-what-you-found/384735/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=384735

Read Won’t Get Lost Because Of What You Found

When I was still working in retail, people would often come in from the streets and try to hand random items someone had lost on the sidewalk in front of our store. Legally, the sidewalk is not part of the store but belongs to the city. As such, any lost items need to be turned into the city's lost and found office (otherwise it might count as stealing), which is very out of everyone's way and has ridiculous opening hours.

Read Won’t Get Lost Because Of What You Found

https://notalwaysright.com/wont-get-lost-because-of-what-you-found/384735/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=384735

Innocent

Posted by Ayala Sorotsky

https://cheezburger.com/10532063232/innocent

When YOU Are The Client From “Hell”

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/when-you-are-the-client-from-hell/385058/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=385058

Read When YOU Are The Client From “Hell”

I'm dealing with a prospective supplier. My surname is rather long and annoying to spell, let's say for the sake of the story that it's Hammeringell, so I invented a shortcut that usually works great, but...

Read When YOU Are The Client From “Hell”

https://notalwaysright.com/when-you-are-the-client-from-hell/385058/

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