Look, it's not that it makes sense. It's that it wins games. I think, anyway. I've never really tracked it.

#1574; In which the Audience participates (Part 1)

  — October 19th, 2025

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Flying painting by Carly Monardo

You know those days that come around every so often that plant flags in your life and scream, “You’ve come this far, there’s no turning back now!”? Some call them milestones; others, churlish reminders of mortality. I just use the colloquial “birthday.”

Well, I had one. And my wife surprised me with this lovely painting she’d (secretly) commissioned from our friend Carly Monardo. (Click the image above for a closer look.)

The painting is of me and my dad. Anyone’s who’s read my “One More Chance” essay may have an inkling of what this means to me.

It’s hanging framed in my office right now, and every glance at it hits me with a miniature poke in the soft tissues. It’s amazing what one work can simultaneously symbolize:

My relationship with my dad, whom I love and miss terribly;
My wife’s cleverness and thoughtfulness;
My friend’s artistic talent and in a broader sense, the friendships I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had in this exceptional career;
And even the idea of synthesis in general — it’s a picture of me now, flying over the California coast where I live now, with the version of my dad and even the specific airplane that I remember from years ago.

It’s a reminder that we’re who and where we are because of many different factors that have propelled us to this place — and we’ve been molded and shaped and tempered by those who’ve loved, encouraged, supported and yes, even fought with us along the way. All those days were hammers and all the people blacksmiths, and we ourselves are yet glowing brightly.

dangit if Dad had been a metalworker that metaphor woulda worked PERFECT

This Weekend: SPX & TopatoCo Open House

This Saturday, the 26th, in Easthampton, Mass., TopatoCo’s having an open house and tag sale, where tons of overstocked, discontinued, and clearance apparel items — including some of my own older designs, to say nothing of those from other favorite artists! — will have their prices slashed and left to bleed out on (presumably) folding tables. GO GO BUY BUY

I think “tag sale” is a regionalism? Here in California, when strangers enter your premises and leave with goods they did not pay the full retail price for, we call it a “burglary.”

All the details are at the TopatoCo website! If you are not in traveling range of Easthampton, or have had your traveling privileges revoked by the state, you may still visit that fine merchandisery on-line. I hear a rumor that my new Piranhamoose, Arabic, and Knitting Survival shirts have arrived in stock and are shipping now.

Also this weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, in a giant webcomics clotted mass which will include friends such as John Allison, Kate Beaton, Danielle Corsetto, Aaron Diaz… from there the alphabetical-surname convention sort of breaks down, but you get the idea. I am going to make and bring some Fiction Generator posters, I think!

The AUTOMATED Fiction Generator Mark-II

Insert one thrupenny bit.

Behold the next step in Fiction-Generating technology! I was frankly astonished at the speed and felicity with which Marksmen wrote me this morning with programmed versions of the Fiction Generator 2000. Many thanks to Dean R., Nicholas N., Dan, Rod V., Terry L., and Jonathan G. who sent me a Python file.

But I must give top honors to Liam Cooke’s version! This is, as copywriters would say a century ago, “An IMPROVED Model—Frees operator from labor and ensures consistent results FAR SUPERIOR to those hand-wrought. (Circulars sent free.)”

Tremendous thanks to all who undertook this of their own volition — and to those who’ve written about posters, watch for an announcement hopefully later this week.

Brass Piranhamoose!

Check this out! Marksman Mike M. sent me this brass etching of everyone’s favorite aquatic forest carnivore. It’s thick, heavy, tremendously attractive and a magnificent kindness on Mike’s part. Thanks very much, Mike! It will occupy a place of honor on my desk. (Click the pictures for a closer look.)


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