iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fundamentally don’t get how this is fun

An ad for the prediction market, kalshi will Republicans hold the house

Never know where my husband’s musical attention is going to turn next but it looks like we’re moving into an extended Luther Vandross period

The cover of Luther Vandross’s album the night I fell in love. It’s a sepia photo of him looking very dapper and serious with a purple border.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 21h

I also am REALLY sick of hearing about book prices being too high when they're actually way too low. Paper is more expensive just like everything else; people have to make a living like everything else. Hardbacks were $20-25 in the 1980s. That's like $65 today!!

“There’s no way we can continue like this,” Broussard says, of how quickly prices are rising. Forty-dollar hardcovers are a turnoff to customers. He posits flipping the model and “going to paperback originals with limited-edition hardcovers” later. Many of the political books he sees doing well—and that are on the indie bestseller list—are pocket-sized paperbacks that are more attractively priced: “They feel like something you can just pick up and carry with you.” Same with Hyperpolitics. Still, it’s not like tossing in a pack of gum—in Canada, the book retails at nearly $26. That’s more than the standard entry-level gift card amount at a major book retailer.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 21h

Are they looking for books that offer pleasure and distraction, or do books like American Canto fucking suck? Clearly there's a market for readers who are engaged in politics, but after ten years of gorging ourselves on terrible gossipy details, we're sick of it and we want to do something about it

The numbers certainly back this theory up. “Like an axe to a tree” is how one editor at a major publisher, who works primarily on adult nonfiction, describes the effect of the 2024 US election on sales: people were so emotionally walloped by the outcome that they flocked to genres that clearly offered pleasure and distraction. But despite the critical hit, some branches of the tree continue to thrive.

Fatigue with the news cycle is a big part of the picture, Broussard says, albeit not the whole one. Another thriving subcategory is books on democracy and civic engagement. A number of titles he names—Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid, Rebecca Solnit’s The Beginning Comes After the End—also appear on the Independent Press Top 40 bestsellers list, hinting at the broader persistence of readers’ desire for self-education. But in choosing what to order for the store, Broussard is currently being

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

There was a meme to this effect about ten years ago - I think it was with an Ariana Grande quote as the second but I can’t find it now. I had it in mind while writing Whack Job for sure

As an axe leaves its mark in the speechless tree, so an evil deed leaves its mark in the evil doer's consciousness.
—JOHN HENRY WIGMORE, as quoted in Cara Robertson's
The Trial of Lizzie Borden
My axe is my buddy, we both cry with the trees Me and my axe will bring the devil to his knees
-INSANE CLOWN POSSE, "My Axe"

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

You know I had to do it to them

My husband and me at David Booth station. He’s wearing a Billy Strings shirt and I’m wearing pigtails and a creeping death shirt with a buff skeleton holding an axe

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Boy is that a lot of axes. That fire axe design is very Shining - the design dates back to 1910. The handles are odd, stylized in a rather interesting way. Those aren’t wood handles. I also see a couple labrys in there under the drones. And Fiennes is very Washington here; expect cherry trees

The poster for the new hunger games movie sunrise on the reaping

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I love this very architectural shot my husband took of the winners of the Kansas Notable Book award

A shot of writers in dressy clothes in front of a small Washburn University screen thing. They are small in the frame, with the eaves of the ballroom above them

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

HALEY WILLIAMS IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS: I'll be the biggest star at this COVID conscious lesbian bar

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Fall is better than spring because cooling down is better than warming up

A picture my husband took on a hike yesterday through Kentucky’s red River Gorge

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

how did i never connect the two of the primary women of the Shining are Wendy

shelley duvall as wendy torrence reacting to an axe

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Obsessed with how much Lewis Powell, who was part of the Lincoln assassination plot, looks like Neil Young

A photo from the book manhunt by James L Swanson. It is a picture of Lewis Powell in 1865. He has is in handcuffs and's a cowboy hat and has a lantern jaw and looks pissed off like Neil Young.. Caption I'm mad. I'm mad Lewis Powell, Secretary of State Seward's , assassin.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Annie Dillard tells you to pick up a broadax, you better listen

"How many of you, I asked the people in my class, which of you want to give your lives and be writers?" she wrote. "I was trembling from coffee, or cigarettes, or the closeness of faces all around me ... All hands rose to the question. (You, Nick?
Will you? You, Margaret? Randy? Why do I want them to mean it?)"
She added: "And then I tried to tell them what the choice must mean: You can't be anything else. You must go at your life with a broadax."

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This is how people who are always talking about America B sound

A passage from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: "Besides," added he, "when one lives in the country-"
"It's waste of time," said Emma.
"That is true," replied Rodolphe. "To think that not one of these people is capable of understanding even the cut of a coat!"
Then they talked about provincial mediocrity, of the lives it crushed, the illusions lost there.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“No, not that one - I mean the one in Pounding Mill, VA. But it does look like there might have been an axe murder or two there.”

A worn sign depicting a log cabin next to a sunny lake. Says Timberline Lodge: 100% comfort

The timberline lodge as seen from Google Maps it is an abandoned as fuck motel

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I’ve seen better chart arguments in Reddit comments. You need to cite “All I Want For Christmas Is You” here, not “We Belong Together”, and “I Will Always Love You” is originally a country song.

Ella Langley’s song “Choosin’ Texas” has spent 21 weeks atop the Billboard charts, outpacing songs such as Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” In the first week of August, for the first time ever, the top five songs on the Hot 100 were country singles. Even Taylor Swift’s latest release, a generically poppy tune tied to the movie “Toy Story 5,” has been marketed as a country song — an apparent acknowledgment that there are advantages to identifying with the genre she left behind in 2014.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

another P!NK memory: on a recent family vacation, my baby brother kept insisting "no, you were REALLY into pink, i remember this so clearly". he mentioned it several times and i kept being like "i'm pretty sure i never liked her" he was thinking of return of saturn era gwen stefani lol

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Before and after the fastest $1800 I ever spent

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

what made dolly feel so magical was that she overflowed with good faith. everybody got the benefit of the doubt, everyone was just trying their hardest, especially the people who did her wrong. in an insincere world, that's usually a vulnerability, but instead it was her greatest armor

In 1967, a 21-year-old Dolly Parton arrives on a set in Nashville to fill the role of backup singer for Porter Wagoner, the biggest name in country music television. His TV variety show reached over three million people at its peak. At first, viewers complained about Dolly and resented her for displacing a previous backup singer, Norma Jean.

Before long, though, Dolly was all anyone wanted to see. Long story short: Her relationship with Mr. Wagoner disintegrates. He disparages her in the press and sues her for $3 million when she leaves.

In one of our interviews, I opened my laptop and called up a publicity photo and inelegantly pointed out the obvious: how Mr. Wagoner in his pimp jacket has his arm around her as if he owned her. Her response surprised me.

Well, it’s more complicated than that. I mean, just think about it. He had had this hit show for years. He didn’t need me to have his hit show. He wasn’t expecting me to be all that I was, either. When he hired me as a singer, he was just hiring what he thought was a right pretty little girl. But I was a serious writer. He didn’t know that. I was a serious entertainer. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know how many dreams I had.

There it was again, Dolly’s particular gift, to present two opposing thoughts, juxtaposed.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Coming to the realization that I have to start taking posting more seriously if I really want to transition out of my day job

A far side cartoon. Two parents watch a kid playing video games imagining a Help wanted page for September 2, 2005 which reads Nintendo expert needed $50,000 salary plus bonus and a bunch of other such listings. The caption is hopeful parents.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Thankful to be exiting my whole-ass-bathtub-in-the-living room era

A big deep white bathtub on a pallet in my living room

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

At a place in my life where I have to explain that the fancy bathtub cleaved in two pieces in my backyard is actually a sign of progress

A fancy deep white bathtub split in two pieces sitting in my backyard

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Reading a book about Tupperware. At a trade convention for novelty housewares in 1948, one of the top awards went to this contraption: the Smoker’s Robot, for lazy bones who want a bed cig

50s advertisement for a cigarette stand with a hose for smoking

where finding it
Harveys
is half the fun!
it's the new smoker's robot
• for smokers in bed!
• invalids!
• lazy bones!
350
Here's the life of Reilly' for smokers-in-bed! Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette... in the bed, bathtub, anywhere! No ashes to worry about in the middle of a TV mystery thriller—no danger of a fire if the sandman steals an base. Collects cigarette ash, sparks and butt-automatically! Prevents burns on rugs, bed, sheets, furniture.
Makes a nice gift if you can bring yourself to part with it!
Harveys Gifts, Fourth Floor, Downtown ... Also Madison and Clarksville

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

ok now i want that shirt, and good news i can get it for a whopping $56!!! and i agree about the bird flipping. like you can't just try to bring a little of this energy??

the beatles about to shoot the abbey road cover. ringo and paul are gesturing happily to the camera like showmen

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

and also despite living in kansas i'm not a farmer, i don't have to know about cow genders. having said that, with this new information i see Cow Tools in a new light

a cow standing behind a table of bizarre, misshapen implements with the caption "Cow tools". Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

now, had i heard of a freemartin before three minutes ago? no, but i am smart enough to google "intersex cattle" and see that there are cows on the trans spectrum, which is awesome.

By John Hunter - Hunter, Plate XXX from the "The Works of John Hunter, F.R.S., with Notes. collated by Palmer, J.F. (1835-40), Longond, Longman Rees Orme Brown Green & Longman; from the reissue 1837-40., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48759327

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

these dumbasses call themselves farmers and yet they've never heard of a freemartin?

a tweet from Dixon Wolfe How many genders are there?

@TPAction
is educating the public at the Iowa State Fair today!

And there's a picture of him and his ugly friend holding up a sign saying "there are only two genders ask a farmer"

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

everyone's talking about how bad the wigs are for the Beatles movies, and they're bad, but we're not talking enough about how bad the costumes are. they are spending $400 million and they couldn't spring for actual denim. this isn't even a color match!!!!!

a side by side of george harrison wearing actual denim while shooting the abbey road cover and then whoever's playing george in the beatles movie wearing some kind of blue shirt. he's also flipping off the camera.... very dignified

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

how am i just now noticing that one of RFK Jr's eyes is like two inches below the other eye

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Another one!! Thank you PandaHuman9657

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus
Across the Board: How Games Made Us Human by Tim Clare
Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Of course logic doesn’t matter

Omemiame0 13h • • by author
They don't care. Their goal is for us to not use any toilet and to not be visible in public.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The fact that cis men could invade women’s spaces by simply claiming to be trans men never occurred to me but it’s such a great point

A post from kscompliancecrew on instagram. Three men in bright yellow shirts with “ reported to management for being a man in the women’s bathroom”. Caption kscompliancecrew Yesterday two Compliance Crews enjoyed public facilities in our Kansas communities --pools, libraries, and more! While out, we made sure to follow ALL LAWS including SB244, which prevents us from using men's facilities (the ones we've been safely using for decades) at the threat of fines and even jail time.
This is what the #kslegislature wanted, right?
1 day ago

Comments
sp_jones 8h
What happened when it was determined you were following the law?
Reply
Hide replies
kscompliancecrew 8h - Author
We were free to go and moved on with our days. Nobody was required to show ID or "prove" their sex. Which brings up the point that any cis male could walk into a women's restroom claiming to be a trans man. This law creates more problems than it solves.
Reply
sp_jones 8h. • by author @kscompliancecrew all so dumb. Glad you guys were able to leave without any further incident.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This photo I found on Wikipedia, from the first day of investigations into the 1981 Hyatt Skywalk disaster, immediately reminded me of BACKROOMS

View of the side wall, during the first day of the investigation of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. Photo by Dr. Lee Lowery, Jr., P.E.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

New-to-me 1886 axe murder in Salem, VA, my husband’s hometown. Justifiable according to the jury but apparently not the neighbors.

BENT MOUNTAIN THE SCENE OF A TER-NIBLE TRAGEDY.—SALEM VA., November
27.-Bent
mountain, in this county,
was
the scene of a terrible tragedy last night.
A man by the name of Thomas Webber, who lives in that section, upon returning home found a man by the name of Collins with bis wife.
Webber remarked that he
was going
to kill Collins.
said
As soon as he
this he struck Collins with an axe,
splitting his bead open.
Death
was in-
stantaneous. No further particulars have been learned.—Richmond Dispatch.

CONTINUED UNTIL To-DAY.—The case of Thomas J. Webber, for killing Henry Collins recently, was called in the county court Inst Monday, but on account of the absence of an important witness it was continued until to-day (Friday), when it is probable it will be heard.

The Jury Acquitted Him.
The trial of Thomas J. Webber, for the murder of Henry Collins, on Bent Moun-tain, lo December last (the particulars of which are well-known to our readers) was concluded in the county court last
Friday, the jury rendering a verdict of acquitial.
The evidence of othere, and
the statement of Webber, were such as to convince the jury that Webber had committed a justifiable homicide.
After
bearing the evidence the care was submitted to the jury without argument, and in less than twenty minutes the jury returned with the above stated, verdict,
which seems to give entire satisfaction.
In fact we have never heard any one ex-ess a belief that it would be otherwise. e following
gentlemen composed the
Coleman Smith.
J.W
Bashong.
F.
Morgan,
H. Rhodes.
Allen
Anderson, John Owens.
John Strickler,
Wi.
Henderson.
A. Brown, James II. Peck, Wi. A:
George F.
Heller, L.
Marshall.
We
learn that the jury were
unanimous in favor of the verdict rendered

THE OLD LOVE TOO STRONG.—

Thomas Webber, of Bent Mountain, who killed Henry Collins last December for undue attentions to his wife, and who was subsequently tried for murder and acquitted, has lost to some extent, if reports be true, the sympathy of the people of the locality in which he resides. He went back after his acquittal to his old home and lately decided to live with his wife again. Accordingly he rented another house and having fitted it up as
comfortably as he could, he and his wife and children moved into their new home.
On the first night of their occupancy, however, a number of unknown men visited the dwelling and pulled it down over their ears, warning them at the same time not to attempt to live together again in that neighborhood.

Roanoke Times.

The Times is altogether in error in the above item, and does Mr. Webber an injustice. From reliable parties we learn that Webber did not go back to his home with any intention of again living with his wife ; but a few days ago he did go there after his children, and took them away, together with some of his household effects. That night, however, some unknown parties went to the house formerly occupied by Webber, and tore it down, but at the time no one was in it, and Mr. Webber was then at the house of a gentleman near Salem, to whom he had engaged to work.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I always think of Dr. George Tiller when Kansans protect abortion rights. 17 years later and our state is somehow still a site of refuge, even in the wake of Dobbs

A photo of Dr George Tiller in a lab coat

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

@emilystjams.bsky.social woodworking spotted in a bookshelf subreddit

A lovely bookshelf with many books including woodworking

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Can we get Hank Hill a copy of Whack Job

A shot from the new King of the Hill. Close up of Hank Hill’s glasses reflecting an anime battle axe with pink detailing. Caption gentle guitar music playing

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I have some concerns to address with this Kansas travel blogger

Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made on Amazon.com.
Over the years, l've come to love the spirit of an independent bookstore. Each is unique, and bookworms can rejoice in page-turning experiences no matter which shop they visit.

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

This isn’t a truck, it’s a narrative device. And the narrative is “parking lot after a Jason Aldean show”

An enormous lifted white truck that seems to be rigged to hell with lights everywhere you could put lights

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

My dog has recently gotten into witchcraft

Three dog toys - a giraffe, a highland cow, and a destroyed Lambchop - arranged in a circle

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

We have two new friends in the front garden. I’m calling them Matt Stone and Trey Anastasio

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

BILL JAMES FUN FACT: he has a Fire King jadeite collection to rival Martha Stewart - or he did, because he gave it to me and it’s mine now 😊

A collection of jadeite dishware - large and small plates, mugs, bowls - arranged messily on a table among paint and cleaning supplies

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

My husband got LivePhish With this week and now the cats have turned into tarpers

My cats Frankie (grey and white longhair) and Lola (tortoiseshell) on a paint tarp looking right at the camera

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

journey one of the weirdest words in tech

Start your home security journey Shop Blink

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

lmao 11 minutes and 15 seconds of this

Graham Platner: “I am running as a Democrat, despite my party trying to destroy my life.”

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

HBO celebrating Patricia from Widow’s Bay’s Emmy nominations

A photo of an HBO title card for a show called surviving a serial killer

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RMJ @rmccarthyjames.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

no recent professional accomplishments BUT the restaurant i went to last night posted our drink order on main (pot pie in KC - best espresso martini of my life???????????)

an atmospheric shot of a dark and stormy and an espresso martini in a sunlit bar

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