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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 20h

#books Reference Book Sunday. There are some people who take a delight in discovering new words, and try the patience of their friends by salting them into conversations. I am guilty of this myself, & recommend Robin Devoe's "Dictionary of the Strange, Curious, & Lovely", which induced hyperhedonia.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#books Today we focus on "The Story of Mankind" by Hendrik Willem van Loon. A simplistic, but engaging overview of the history of western civilization. It was presented as a child's 'first history book'. It is fondly remembered by generations of historians, and it won the very first Newbery Award.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 10/2 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Today is our wedding anniversary! Kaja & I got married in 1993– which was the year we started writing Girl Genius! Coincidence? I think not.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#books Today's book is "Musk Hashish & Blood" by Hector France. A semi-autobiographical collection of stories from the wilds of 19th century French Algeria calculated to shock & titillate stay-at-home readers–which it did very well indeed, as well as convince me that I am so glad I was never there.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/30 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) I don't know about you guys, but I myself am really looking forward to a big dose of frivolous, palate cleansing Halloween this year.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#books Today we speak of the charming "Parnassus On Wheels" by Christopher Morley. Written in 1917, it is a great favorite of librarians & booksellers and is about a lady who finds purpose in her life (and romance) by buying a mobile bookshop and striking out on her own (A radical idea at the time).

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics #magicthegathering Girl Genius for 9/28 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Getting ready our next show, which is in L.A. 10/9-11 (scgcon.starcitygames.com/event/scg-co...) We were just in L.A. for Worldcon, but this will be a whole new crowd, because we contain multitudes.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#books Reference Book Sunday! "The Complete Rhyming Dictionary" by Clement Wood. Still in print almost 100 years after it was written. Not just an exhaustive list of words that rhyme, but it opens with a comprehensive course in how to BE a competent poet. Why is this not taught in schools, I ask you

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Reposted by Phil Foglio

Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Good news, everyone! The Internet's attic, archive.org, has a copy of THE FIFTH SON OF THE SHOEMAKER. So any curious reader with Internet access may flip through its pages or download a copy. 👞👞👞👞👞

archive.org

The Fifth Son Of The Shoemaker

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#books Today I present the unjustly obscure "The Fifth Son of the Shoemaker" by Donald Corley. The story of a family of Russian shoemakers that emigrate to New York. Sounds rather pedestrian, yes? Ah, but the prose styling is positively stunning and it's an early (1930) example of 'Magical Realism'.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/25 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) The Kickstarter fulfillment continues! Kaja declared that we'll have a "We can see our living room floor again" party when the time comes. I can't wait. This is the last time we do this ourselves. We're too old for this

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#books I am very fond of fantasy of a certain flavor. Think Dunsany or Cabell. To this list, I easily add modern writer Darrell Schweitzer. "We Are All Legends" is an excellent introduction to his lyrical and engaging prose, and if you enjoy it, you'll be happy to know that he's written a lot more.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/23 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Kaja got her Covid shot yesterday! If she's like me, she'll feel like crap today–but has said that she is still determined to stream anyway (www.twitch.tv/professoress...) at 6PM PST. We shall see.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#books "The Book of Sand" by Jorge Luis Borges. Borges is a writer who has inspired hundreds of today's fantasy writers, whether they know it or not, and he is compared to the likes of Kafka, Márquez, & Lafferty. This is a collection of short stories and is an excellent introduction to his ouvre.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

#webcomics Hey-yo! Got around to updating my spicy Patreon site (www.patreon.com/c/notsafefor...)! It kind of lagged a bit because we were On The Road, but I did a fair bit of sketching when things were slow at the table, managing to intrigue and/or alarm curious customers. Check it out!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/21 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Gardening-wise. it was a "meh" year for tomatoes. My peppers and onions are doing great, potatoes are positively erupting everywhere, and we will be thoroughly sick of kale by the time we go through it all. Time to cook

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#books Reference Book Sunday! "Diderot Encyclopedia of Trades & Industry" by Denis Diderot was published in 1751. It was a scientific overview of manufacturing at the time. This edition (Thank you, Dover Books) skips the technical writing and displays all the illustrations. Invaluable for any artist

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#books Everybody loses their mind when they talk about the movie "A Christmas Story", but how many people know it's an adaptation of several short stories? Some of which are from "In God We Trust–All Others Pay Cash" by Jean Shepherd. Shep was a humorist, performer, and storyteller without equal.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/18 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Had an amusing session with our gaming group yesterday– Our G.M. assumed we were going to launch our attack– but instead we spend the entire time planning and asking questions, which to be fair, is not like us AT ALL.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#books Today's book is C.S. Forester's "The African Queen". An old-fashioned "Adventure story" that holds up delightfully well. Everyone knows the excellent movie with Bogart & Hepburn (And if you don't–go watch it) but the book itself is amazing on a whole different level, and is a joy to read.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/16 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Got the latest Covid shot on Monday–and it really fucked me up all day Tuesday. But I'm not complaining–if just the vaccine was that bad, I figure the actual disease would have almost killed me. Thank you Edward Jenner!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

As I was composing today's book review, I wondered "What the heck was Mike Duncan doing NOW?" Imagine my surprise & delight when I discovered that he went back to doing the Revolutions podcast– and Season 12 covers The Martian Revolution. Why was this not nominated for a Hugo?!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#books Today's book is "Hero of Two Worlds" by Mike Duncan. I'm not big on biographies, I always know how they end, however this examination of the life of the Marquis de Lafayette is fascinating. He was a pivotal figure in two of the most consequential revolutions in history and remained a nice guy

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/14 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Just saw my first "V" of geese heading south & all the spiders are sneaking inside. Time to think about cleaning the garden out for the winter and putting up the giant skeleton–as our ancestors did in the Old Country.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

#books Reference Book Sunday! Clifford Pickover REALLY likes explaining things to people. Thank goodness he does a great job at it. Our first book of his is "The Physics Book", which takes 250 esoteric concepts, and boils them down to a 1 page, easy to understand summery. An excellent bathroom book.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

#books Today's non-fiction book is "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. It is a pity that old Marcus isn't still around, as his book has been in print for close to 2000 years, and those royalties add up. A fascinating meditation on Stoicism and an unparalleled glimpse into the mind of an ancient Roman.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/11 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) I ventured out today and scored a hundred mail tubs from the post office loading dock when they weren't looking. Kaja has begun the general Kickstarter fulfillment! With any luck, our house will be empty by the Holidays

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#books Today's book is "Drive" the first volume of Dave Kellett's excellent ongoing science fiction webcomic (www.drivecomic.com). We hung out with Dave at the last worldcon, where he was up for a Hugo®. Incomprehensibly, he did not win, and this photo shows him the most depressed I've ever seen him

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#webcomics #girlgenius Girl Genius for 9/9 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Kaja says that she will be streaming tonight (www.twitch.tv/professoress...) at 6 PM PST, and she's bought new cookies and everything. Release the Hounds of Jollity!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

#webcomics #girlgenius Girl Genius for 9/7 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) We are back from our overland odyssey! Both Anaheim & Dallas were hot with dealers rooms that tried to overcompensate by freezing everyone. I'm talking 2 shirts, a hat & a coat, and we'd have worn gloves if we'd known.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 9/2 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Here we are drinking our lunch at local landmark: Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. The Tiki Room inside Disneyland is one of our favorite attractions, but we didn't feel like paying several hundred bucks just to get in.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#webcomics #girlgenius Girl Genius for 8/31 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Hey! It's the last day of World Con! It's probably the last world con we'll be at for a few years, since the next 4 are out of the country. We'd love to go– but we don't need the hassle of trying to get back in.

girlgeniusonline.com

Girl Genius

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

#webcomics #girlgenius Girl Genius for 8/28 www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Well here we are in fabulous Anaheim for the equally fabulous World Science Fiction convention! Having a good time!

girlgeniusonline.com

Girl Genius

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/26 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Whew! Managed to get all the pages I needed to do done so Kaja & I are covered while we are off at various exotic locals hobnobbing with our fellow wizards. Our kids (who are not going) have no sympathy, the wretches.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#books "She" by H. Rider Haggard. An insanely influential book about an immortal god-queen who rules through super-science her subjects see as magic. Girl Genius readers will ken that we stole a lot from it. Written in 1887, there's a bunch of racism & sexism in there as well. We didn't steal that.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/24 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Today's word is: Waffles.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#books It's Reference Book Sunday! Today's offering is "Official Rules of Card Games (56th Edition)" put out by the U.S. Playing Card Co. These days card games are either Poker, Bridge, or Pokemon, but writers who set their stories earlier might like a working knowledge of Whist, Pinochle, & Bezique

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#books Todays' read is "Soonish- 10 Emerging Technologies That Will Improve and/or Ruin Everything" by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith. The folks that spoiled space (A City on Mars) analyze future things like space elevators, medicine, and spray cheese in a can and humorously explain why we're all doomed.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/21 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) We are getting ready for Worldcon (www.lacon.org) where we will have a Dealer's Table! Yay! Always nice to have a place where everyone can find you, and (ideally) people give us money at the same time. Living the Dream!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/19 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Kaja has declared that she will stream tonight (www.twitch.tv/professoress...) at 6 PM PST. You really can ask her anything, you know.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

#books Today's book is actually a twofer: "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday" by John Steinbeck. Everybody had his serious work (Of Mice & Men) forced on them back in school, but Steinbeck could be hilarious, and these books prove it. They were the basis of the excellent 1982 film "Cannery Row".

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/17 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Definitely time I got off my butt and harvested my blueberries. For some reason, the assorted wildlife that picturesquely infests my garden devouring everything else never touches them, so that's nice. Worrying–but nice

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#books Reference Book Sunday! Trigger Warning–Today is a gritty one: John Minnery's "Kill Without Joy". Shooting & stabbing is all very well, but if you're a writer, you occasionally want your villain to show some imagination. This book is a dry, workmanlike compendium of different ways to kill.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#books Today it's"Debrett's Correct Form". Debrett is a 250 year old company that is THE final word on etiquette and what to do if you drop your soup on the King (declare a coup). This book deals with proper forms of address, as no one wants to address a count the same way you'd address a viscount.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/14 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) We have incredibly thick fog here in Seattle (which I will take over wildfire smoke any day of the year). My photophobic family are thrilled, but my tomatoes–which were underperforming to begin with, seem ready to quit.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

#books Today's book is "Johannes Cabal The Necromancer" by Jonathan Howard. A delightfully sly story about a man of science who uses said science to facilitate his necromatic quest to steal a hundred souls in a year to secure his freedom & remain a sympathetic character. This requires good writing.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/12 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Kaja is planning on streaming tonight at 6PM PST (www.twitch.tv/professoress...) Where she will pontificate upon the industry, Girl Genius, and how much she hates it when I watch her play and supply Link's dialog.

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

#books Today's book is "A trade of Blood" by Robert J. Bennett. The third in his "Ana & Din" fantasy/detective series, which is rapidly becoming the new literary hotness. This book is as good as the first two, if not better, & it was recently revealed that Mr. Bennett is working on a 4th book! Yay!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

#girlgenius #webcomics Girl Genius for 8/10 (www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) Not much to say today, so here is the comic! Enjoy!

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Phil Foglio @thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

#books Reference Book Sunday! Today it's "The Best Loved Poems of the American People" Selected by Hazel Felleman. Poetry is underrated today, mostly because it has been excised from the curriculum of today's schools. However this is a deficit that can be overcome, & this book is an excellent start.

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