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[syndicated profile] snopes_feed

Posted by Joey Esposito

Outlets reported U.S. diplomats are now required "to scrutinize the prevalence of abortion and gender-transition surgery among children."

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Nov. 26th, 2025 08:15 pm
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
[personal profile] lightreads
Katabasis

3/5. The elevator pitch on this is two grad students go to hell to retrieve their dead advisor in order to get recommendation letters. As you might expect, there’s a bit more to it than that.

Congratulate me, I finally finished an RF Kuang book. This was my third attempt in five years.

Parts of this are great. Some really sharp and accurate observations of what you do inside your mind as a woman trying to succeed under the authority of an asshole man. My circumstances were different, but boy did she nail the compromises, the things you tell yourself, the ways you try to out-competent misogyny (it doesn’t work that way). This book is also constructed on paradoxes as a magic system, and it goes hard on the double-think you have to engage in to survive that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really like anything else: the characters, the whole hell set of nested metaphors, the romance (god help me, I really cannot with that). I’m being a bit unfair here because I think I’m irritated at this book in part because of how some people talk about it. For real though, some people think this book is like some super deep intellectual masterpiece. And my dudes. I am concerned for you. This is the wikipedia version of formal logic. I know extremely little about this field and I can still tell that. It is not deep. This is not an insult, it’s just, you gotta be able to recognize a spade when it’s in front of you.

This was not really for me, but maybe one of her other fantasies will be, someday.

Content notes: Misogyny, a lot of suicidal ideation, ableism, sexual coercion, murder, gore.
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu

朝方の冷え込みで、猫花壇の不屈の精神が凍ってしまいました。 もともと一年草なので、仕方ないですね。 まるさんありがとう、嬉しかったよ! The chill of the morning froze the cat flo […]
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

About 48 hours after stepping down from my previous volunteer position, I've as-formally-as-I'm-going-to taken up a new one.

The queer club I've written about a bunch, where I've made friends and felt part of a community again in a way that was so desperately needed and so good for me after The Other Events of March 2020, had been run by two people out of the goodness of their heart and very little else about two and a half years ago. It was only this summer that they started saying it'd be nice to have a little group of people to help do things like arrive early, set up the room we rent in the community center and stuff like that, and in the last few months a dozen or so of us have done various things (someone procures tea and biscuits, someone knows the code to get in, I am good at setting out tables and chairs and stacking them away again neatly at the end of the evening...)

It's reached the point where our two original organizers want to step back entirely from running things and just be regular attendees of the club, and a handful of us have offered to do that. So tonight those two and four of us had a video meeting for them to share the details of how to book the room, what the password is for the e-mail account, one of us taking over looking after the money, all that kind of stuff. Also when is the Christmas party going to be.

Of course I took notes and of course I tidied them up and circulated them immediately after the meeting.

For all I adore the two founders, I don't begrudge them their break before they can come back and make use of their projects and ideas because they don't have to run up every month and look after all the admin and stuff.

I love the vibe of this, everyone's happy to pitch in. At the Christmas party someone's going to teach us BSL "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and we're going to wear cozy cardigans and have home-baked treats and maybe mulled apple cider [USian meaning of the word, it's a sober space too which is also great]. Onward and upward, queer club!

30 in 30: ST:DS9

Nov. 26th, 2025 05:51 pm
senmut: Guinan propping face on hand (Star Trek: Guinan)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | Memories of Family (100 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Miles O'Brien, Keiko O'Brien, Kira Nerys
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Miles walks in on a domestic moment






Nerys was slow-dancing to the music with Molly, while Keiko held Kirayoshi and rocked in time. The scene etched itself into Miles' heart as he came in. The moments like this were all too-soon coming to an end as his transfer to Earth was in the works.

At least Molly should keep solid memories of her other-mother, as they referred to Nerys. Video calls would help strengthen ties, he knew, but losing her as a part of their family was the hardest part for he and Keiko both.

Such sad musings were not for now. Kissing his family hello was.

End of an era

Nov. 25th, 2025 11:23 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I was so busy talking about other things yesterday that I entirely missed something I wanted to say.

It's been something like three and a half years...yes I just went and checked, March 2022, I know it wasn't long before I got offered the job I now have (which was May of that year) because it was important that I was still so-underemployed-I-basically-unemployed, pretty much working as a favor to the friends I was working for, and really struggling with job hunting and interviews.

That chance meeting with someone who I got along with so well and who was so complimentary to me meant so much.

Things quickly got complicated and then the rest of my life got more complicated -- I remember having phone calls about the CEO recruitment while I was in Bournemouth for the work conference that I basically abandoned halfway through to deal with the ticket office closure campaign, still the biggest thing I've dealt with at work, and I'd been there barely a year at the time.

I did present at the board and staff away day that summer about EDI; amid people who could really do finance and governance and stuff I felt like such a lightweight with my focus on inclusivity and lived experience and all that, but everyone was supportive and flattering about absolutely everything that I did as a member of that board of trustees. I learned a hell of a lot -- including getting my first experience of being on the other side of a job interview, so soon after I was lambasting them, which was really interesting and did end up useful at work where I've been part of a few recruiting processes since.

Around the new year, with the sad loss of Gary and the impending Trump doom and the potential to lose my job or face a much-changed workplace and my grandma in hospice care, I reached a point where something had to give and it turned out to be this. I e-mailed the new CEO and said I thought I'd have to step down. She was very kind and said that if I could hang on until the end of my term, which them understanding my reduced capacity, it'd make various things easier for them. Since this meant probably no more than attending a few online meetings and the occasional e-mail, I said I was happy to give it a try. I did make an attempt to meet them on this summer's away day, as I was in London that day anyway for work, but it didn't end up happening and that was fine.

Monday was the AGM at which I and the long-time treasurer stepped down: our terms had ended, his job was more demanding now, and I was sad to go but feeling sufficiently battered by the year that I know I made the right decision; I already feel bad that I wasn't able to give this more time and attention in 2025. The outgoing treasurer said his little piece and left the Teams meeting, and then I quickly burbled something about how much this has meant to me, how much I appreciated having been brought in (sadly the person who did so has not been able to be part of the organisation for some time themselves, so they were not able to hear me say this) and how much of a difference it had made to my

They also got me a free Audible credit as a leaving present, which is a perfect gift for me in that I like audiobooks, maybe not enough to faff around setting up an Amazon account (I had shared Andrew's, back in the day, so already lost access to years of Audible subscription that way, sigh), but the thought really does count. When I wrote back to the CEO to thank her/everyone for it, she replied not only being gracious about that but also saying "I was touched by what you said about the impact for you of becoming a trustee and wondered if you might be willing to write a paragraph that we might use when we’re recruiting trustees again or for our Trustees report? It would be great to capture as a quote if that’s possible?"

Yeah, I am very happy to write them a paragraph. Least I can do.

[syndicated profile] in_the_pipeline_feed

There have been some interesting failures recently in Alzheimer’s trials. As long-time readers will know, I consider basically all Alzheimer’s drug trials to have failed to one degree or another, and particularly when it comes to clearing the “will improve patient’s lives in the real world without putting them at too much risk” hurdle. But these two are notable because they’re aimed outside the usual amyloid zone.

First off, Novo Nordisk reported that semaglutide (the company’s GLP-1 agonist drug, of course) failed in two Alzheimer’s trials. This was going to be a long shot, but long shots are worth taking in this area if you can afford to try them. Studies of thousands of patients with early cognitive impairment who took an oral form of semaglutide (Rybelsus, currently approved as a diabetes therapy) did not show improvements in mental function as compared to placebo. The company says that the treatment group showed “improvement of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarkers” in both trials, although it does not (as far as I can see) say what those biomarkers were. And I would wonder how good they are as indicators given that you can show improvements in them and still not beat placebo, personally.

The company’s stock took a hit on the news, which is kind of strange. Surely people weren’t betting on this succeeding? But Novo investors have been a jumpy bunch for a while now as Eli Lilly’s star continues to ascend in this area, so the sight of another possible  life preserver disappearing might have been enough by itself. At any rate, it does appear as if there’s a disease where GLP-1 drugs are not actually beneficial. Novo had some better news today, though, with a once-weekly shot/once-daily pill combination for amycretin, a dual GLP-1/amylin agonist. I see that people are not quite giving up on the GLP-1/Alzheimer’s idea, but it has to be considered an even longer shot than before.

There’s also new in the anti-tau protein area. That’s long been considered a possible Alzheimer’s target, and by “long” I mean decades. But it’s been hard to put that idea to the test in the clinic. Unfortunately, in the last couple of years it has been possible, and the results have not been good so far.  Early last year a Lilly candidate (LY3372689, ceperognastat) failed its own trial. Earlier this year Asceneuron halted work on its own oral anti-tau drug candidate (ASN51), and Biogen stopped BIIB113, another similar effort.

Now all of these are (were) O-GlcNAcase inhibitors, so you could easily make the case that the problem is that might not be a good mechanism to target tau, even if tau itself is a valid idea. But last year Roche bailed on a collaboration for an anti-tau antibody, which went on to fail its trials shortly afterwards. And the latest news is that J&J’s shot at an anti-tau antibody (posdinemab) has also failed its pivotal trial, with no efficacy seen in slowing the disease at the two-year mark. There are other tau programs that are now in the clinic, but they’re clearly going to have to bring something unusual to make you think that they will show interesting levels of efficacy at this point. Good luck, folks. . .

[syndicated profile] snopes_feed

Posted by Jack Izzo

The supposed memo, authored by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, claimed Scouting had become "genderless" and promoted "gender confusion."

Where in the world is Catherine?

Nov. 26th, 2025 03:17 pm
catherineldf: (Default)
[personal profile] catherineldf
An endlessly valid question these days. I am not wearing a striped shirt (one has to have standards), but I have been a. Wrestling with Hell Cold for weeks now and b. Piling on all the events I can get into because no day job and c. Wrangling my data analytics class, Queen of Swords Press stuff, writing, job hunting and sundries.

Some things have begun to dawn on me, albeit quite slowly. I'm unbelievably burnt out. Objectively, I knew this, but I'm starting to reckon with the fact that 5 years of nonstop stress and 60-70 hours week have...dented me pretty badly. The last year of deranged boss and constant threat of being fired did not help either. Add to that my age, my cat who needs medical attention and feedings which require me to be at home (even if I wanted to go back to the cube farms) and the IT job market tanking and I'm starting to let go of it. I'm going to focus on ramping up the press, reviving my dormant editing business and seeing what kind of other WFH I can scare up here and there. Eventually, Social Security will have to be a thing, but even with Jana's added in, it won't be enough to live on and I'll have to work anyway.

On the jollier side, I'm writing again! I cranked out 1000 words of novel draft last night, the most I've written at one time in a while. I have 2 other projects in progress and am gradually getting some ideas for other things. I'm going to be pitching some talks and classes and articles as well and working on new story collections as well. I just reactivated my Professional Editors Network membership and will be rebuilding my profile in the next few days. I have a new small business mentor with the county and am meeting with her next week. I found a support group for unemployed older women and will meet with them next week.

And Queen of Swords Press has a terrific new gay vampire novel by M.Christian out and we'll be releasing an omnibus edition of the Astreiant Series by next month on 12/15! The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett is up for preorder now (please buy direct from us if you can; Amazon is going to crush us on their percentage for this book). The Astreiant Series is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year, so please keep it in mind when you are nominating. Melissa Scott has never won a Hugo and I'd love to change that.

Queen of Swords Press is also WisCon's Vendor of the Month for November so if you buy a backlist title (not the preorder) from us using coupon code WisCon26 at checkout, you get a sale price and we'll donate $ to the con. The proverbial win/win!

I'm adding Jana's boxes and journals to the shop on Ko-fi, along with some of my own projects and offerings. Please feel free to boost if the shopping aspects won't work for you.

More bulletins soon! Have a great holiday if you're celebrating! I'm going to veg out with my kitties and do some writing and editing, before enjoying a good takeout meal from the co-op. I'm booked every waking moment Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday so please don't worry that I'm being left to weep alone into my cranberries. I'm deliberately choosing to have a day off. :-)
[syndicated profile] wordpressdevel_feed

Posted by Jonathan Desrosiers

This post summarizes key discussions from the Core Committer meeting held on November 25, 2025 with project leadership. As with previous check-ins, the goal is to align on key initiatives, gather feedback, and clarify next steps for the WordPress project.

Note: This meeting followed the Chatham House Rule.

Purpose of these meetings

The group briefly discussed what the goals of these meetings are and which groups are ideal to include. Contributors have asked if only committers are invited, or if broader groups are allowed to join as well (component maintainers, team reps, etc.).

After discussing, the following was agreed upon:

  • These meetings are most valuable when committers only attend plus a small group of invited contributors who support that group in establishing and accomplishing project-level goals.
  • This creates a safe space for free, honest, and frank conversations, which is the most prominent reason why these meetings are valuable. 
  • There is certainly value in having more frequent open forums for wider audiences. These should have narrower focuses, and could have guest speakers, and field some questions ahead of time.

Looking ahead: 2026

The next topic of conversation was forward facing around the planning for 2026 and beyond.

Release Planning Post-6.9

The first item related to 2026 planning discussed was to seek clarification on the rough plan for releases going forward.

The main point to underscore out of this discussion is that the intention in 2026 is to return to a cadence of 3 major releases per year. A release in February was proposed, but most felt that was too short.

  • December is really quiet as many people take time off to end the year.
  • February release would mean beta 1 very early in January, leaving just over a month for an alpha period.
  • The features that are being worked on would likely not be ready in time for a February release (more on these later).

March or April was suggested, and there was a higher level of confidence in that target.

Lining up the release day of 6.9 with State of the Word is an experiment of a new way to celebrate a release. If it goes well, future major releases could be planned to coincide with flagship events. However, this could be complicated and may require additional planning from leadership and involvement with contributors that help plan release cycles.

  • Events are typically planned around budget, venue availability, and regional factors such as the predominant religious holidays or weather patterns.
  • It could limit options for release squad members due to availability issues because of time zone differences, or for people who are traveling to and from the events leading up to release day.

Targeted release dates are also influenced by the features being targeted for each release. So which features are targeted for 7.0?

Possible Features for 7.0

To start this conversation, features that were removed from or were not ready in time for 6.9 were mentioned. These included:

  • Template activation
  • The tabs block
  • Client side abilities for the Abilities API

This rough draft document was shared. Someone in attendance uses this as a way to track any ongoing UX/UI improvements, who is responsible, their high-level status, etc. and will be turned into a proper post in the near future.

Some other features explicitly discussed:

  • WP AI Client work
  • Client-side media editing

The status of the admin redesign project was mentioned. The intention of this was clarified. It’s not about completely redesigning the admin area. It’s more about giving it a new coat of paint and refreshing what is already there. How can we revive WP Admin?

  • How can the settings screens be improved?
  • The view transitions plugin is quite nice and makes the admin feel more modern and refreshed.
  • Site Health and the PHP upgrade warning in the dashboard have gotten really scary and overwhelming. How can these be more approachable, useful, and informative?
  • Can the dashboard be used more effectively?
    • The About page is seen by so few people today with many sites auto-updating major releases.
    • Are there new ways to inform the user about an update that happened? Or educate them on how to better take advantage of newly added features?
    • Previously, the welcome widget was updated with each release, but that practice has stopped.
    • Are there new widgets that can be added, such as “on this day” or “new/unresolved notes” for sites making use of the Notes feature.

WordPress AI Client in Core

Work continues on the AI Client parallel to releases. Because the AI client is a great way to encourage the ecosystem to build around solid foundations (such as the Abilities API), the ideal home for this is Core itself. The combining of these related APIs will unlock so many possibilities for developers and site owners.

  • Core will always remain agnostic. Including a specific model or only integrating with some third-party services is not sustainable.
  • Features can be conditionally available based on the presence of an AI model.
  • Open source models could be used. But oftentimes the experience is bad.
    • Models are quite large.
    • They must download on a per-site basis, which takes time and disk space (even the smallest models are approaching 1GB)
  • Machine-based models such as Apple Intelligence may be an option.

A few more promising initiatives/approaches were discussed.

  1. Browsers are working towards including models within the browser. This means they would already be installed on a user’s machine, and all data stays local.
  2. The W3C WebML working group is working to standardize these tools.

AI can be implemented in a way that browser-based models can be overridden but serve as the fallback/default when no other models or services are configured. In some recent experiments, browser-based models have shown to be very strong when put up against small, state of the art ones.

One exercise that could be helpful is to step back and consider what the use cases are in default WordPress before picking a model. A few possible use cases were mentioned:

  • Searching the media library for specific subject matter within images.
  • Creating a newsletter based on recent content.

An area of improvement for the group is the story being told. How do the tools being built improve WordPress? How do they benefit the user? How does work being done today open the door for empowering functionality later?

A few more ideas were thrown out as ways to improve how well LLMs work with and for WordPress:

  • Improving code base documentation helps LLMs understand the code base better.
  • Including “build for WordPress” as a benchmark within models.
  • Ensure site content and WordPress is accessible for models.
  • Tools like PHPStan and languages such as TypeScript with stricter typing help make the code base more consumable and easier to understand

Raising the minimum required PHP version to 7.4

This conversation focused on the compelling reasons for changing the project’s support policy.

  • Raising the minimum allows the project to move forward with new features.
  • It’s a balance between bringing users with us and not being held back.
  • Not about leaving people behind.
  • PHP 7.4 moves the needle in the direction of being more heavily-typed (see previous TypeScript point above), making it easier for AI models to ingest and understand.
  • There’s a good amount of bloat in the code base that only remains to support older versions of PHP.
  • AI-related SDKs from third-parties have varying minimum PHP requirements. Keeping the minimum required version of PHP too low prevents using some of these.

Understanding Responsible Parties

Throughout the 6.9 release, it was helpful to know who was responsible for or leading efforts for a given feature. It helps the community to better understand where there are gaps and where they can pitch in to help.

When looking at the potential 7.0 features (and beyond), efforts will be made to continue this practice.

Follow Up Action Items

  • Propose additional open/semi-open meeting formats for wider community groups and increased transparency (@4thhubbard & @desrosj).
  • Publish a release schedule for 2026.
  • Determine the targeted features for 7.0 (and possibly 7.1).
  • Consider what would be needed to regularly coordinate release days to coincide with in-person events.

The agenda and raw notes for this meeting are available in Google Docs.

Props @4thhubbard for review.

#committers, #core-committer-meetings

[syndicated profile] aam_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

It’s more holiday stories!

Tradition dictates that as we head into the holiday season, we must revisit holiday stories previously shared by readers. Here are some favorites.

1. The rare books department

I’ve changed up a couple of details from this being super recognizable, but I used to work in a rare books department in a library. People who work in rare books tend to have pretty esoteric passions that lead them there, and these were always on full display at said party. My favorite selections from over the years:

– The brand new head of the department wanted to show off a bit at his first Christmas party, give a speech… and sing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with his 21-year-old, fresh out of college secretary. I was on the party planning committee and tried to veto it politely by asking an HR assistant (also on the committee) who sang part-time in a professional choir if he’d prefer to lead everyone in some secular holiday songs instead, but the secretary thought I was insulting her singing ability, angrily told me that she’d been singing since she was a little girl, and burst into tears. The meeting then awkwardly ended. (In the end, we printed out the lyrics to ‘Let It Snow’ and had a very, very bad a cappella sing-along after the bar had been open for a while.)

– Staff members made medieval hot possets based on a recipe found in a book in the library. Possets are basically cream, egg, spices, and white wine. I didn’t care for the taste since the medieval palate is very different from the modern one, but others did, and didn’t realize how much wine was in the recipe. One of the fellows I only vaguely knew by sight got extremely drunk. He broke the thermostat off the wall, looked at it confusedly, and then in what I can only describe as ‘a Mr. Bean-esque fashion’ stuck it back on the wall. Surprisingly it held there long enough for me to fetch facilities.

– I wasn’t here for this one, but after the posset incident, I heard about a previous party where staff members decided to make a Victorian flaming punch bowl, one where you mix of bunch of different spirits together and stick a sugar cone in it, then set the cone on fire. Fire, sugar, and the Victorian equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea? What could go wrong?

Quite a bit! As soon as they set the sugar cone on fire, the whole thing went up in a FWOOM of flame and the curtains behind the punchbowl caught fire. I always got different answers about what happened next– either the sprinkler system went off, or someone fetched the emergency fire extinguisher from the break room, or possibly both– but that staff party ended very early, and with no one eating or drinking anything. (2020)

2. The cook-off

Our office had a chili cook-off once. The morning of the potluck, it was announced that due to inclement winter weather and some people not being able to make it into the office, the potluck was canceled. Most people took this news with a normal level of disappointment.

A colleague of mine, Barb, had a crockpot of chili cooking at the office. Chaos erupted when Barb read the cancellation email. Yelling, punching things at her desk, crying, screaming, etc. She called HR (who had decided to cancel the potluck, the perpetrator in Barb’s mind) and chewed them out abusively over the phone, and then called her husband to blow off steam, and a handful of others. She yelled and cried at the office for 3 or 4 hours. (It was awful and I complained to her boss.) She ended up demanding that HR reimburse her for the chili ingredients, and they did.

At future potlucks, Barb proudly announced to anyone nearby on potluck day that she didn’t bring anything to the potluck. According to her, she had special permission from HR to attend potlucks without contributing to food (as was the office etiquette) as retribution for how they “screwed her over.” We never had a chili cook-off again. (2022)

3. The rescued rib

My office had a fancy holiday party that had a huge table of sushi and other fancy finger-food appetizers. Enough to feed an army, and constantly replenished by the catering staff. Well…

Someone dropped a barbecue short rib appetizer on the floor, sauce-side down. That person walked away and grabbed a fresh one from the table. A different coworker came along, saw the floor-food, picked it up AND ATE IT like it was the most normal thing in the world. (2021)

4. The turkeys

My old PR firm back in 2009 would let everyone choose a food gift at the holidays and one year it was either a large, organic turkey (that could feed 10) or a very nice cheesecake. A fellow junior employee was lactose intolerant but chose the cheesecake, so I asked her why and she responded that her apartment “doesn’t allow pets.” She thought our bosses were going around and giving employees live turkeys to take home. (2023)

5. The chili deception

Work did a chili cook-off. We had a couple employees who don’t eat meat who basically got mocked by several other coworkers (think those guys who proudly brag about how they won’t eat vegetables and “pick the green bits out” of chicken pot pie, etc.) when they mentioned bringing vegetarian chili.

I got into a Mood about it, and my Moods can be … petty. I decided to bring a vegan option (I wasn’t vegan whatsoever). I spoke to friends of mine who are, though, got all their best recipe tips, tested and worked on it for a month and a half leading up. We ate so much vegan chili. We were so sick of it, but I was bound and determined to figure this out because I hate people who think it’s hilarious to make other people feel bad about what they eat.

I entered my vegan chili in the cook-off but nobody listed ingredients so you didn’t know whose chili had what and it could be “so and so’s secret recipe,” although of course the vegetarian coworker who participated made a veggie version, etc.

The coworkers who had mocked my vegetarian coworkers also mocked their bean-based chili offerings, of course (their chili was so good actually!). They LOVED mine, which to them had what looked like meat in it. Talked it up!

I explained it was vegan. Not a single animal product involved.

Even though I didn’t win anything, I kind of still felt like I did when I saw the look on the one guy’s face. (2023)

6. The oysters

Before I was married to my husband, he worked for a small law firm and the owner/equity partner threw a lovely holiday party at one of the many clubs he belonged to. The man went all out every year! Seriously: think open top-shelf bar, gigantic surf and turf entrees, multiple passed apps for a party of maybe 10-15 people.

One year he decided to offer a raw bar. I was excited, since I love oysters and shrimp cocktail, but was prepared for enough to feed the small gathering.

When we arrived, there was a large table with an abundant display of all sorts of oysters, clams, crab, shrimp, lobster, etc. … with all of the accoutrements. Out of a party of 12, only three of us enjoyed anything on the table other than shrimp. So I posted up next to the table with another spouse – one of the only people who would eat anything off the table – and ate literally between 80 and 100 oysters. It was over the course of a few hours, but from then on, I was known as the girl who ate 100 oysters.

I will never again experience a night of 100 oysters (and about 5 gin gimlets) because shortly after the party, the firm closed as the owner decided to retire. (2023)

7. The murder mystery lunch

My department went to a local, beloved restaurant as part of our holiday outing. We were going to go to their Holiday Murder Mystery lunch where, we assumed, we’d eat lunch while the play was going on. I personally thought there might be a little audience participation required but nothing like what we encountered.

Firstly, when booking the lunch, we were sent a picture of the room we’d be in. It was spacious and well-lit and beautifully decorated! When we got to the restaurant we were escorted into the basement where there were no windows, dim lighting, and a dingy bar. As we sat there, the actors came out dressed as elves, reindeer, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The costumes looked like they were picked up at the Halloween Store discount sale and smelled like they hadn’t been washed in years (yes, I could actually smell them). They moved from table to table, “in character,” and even sat down with us many times … where they stayed for several minutes. Now, I can appreciate the work and skill it takes to improv but after about 10 minutes all I wanted to do was drink my Diet Coke and wait for the actual performance to start – not be forced to talk about Santa’s dismissal of labor laws with a guy in tights. After about 15 minutes of this I realized, with great horror, that this WAS the performance. These actors were going to improvise a play about a murder in Santa’s Workshop for the next two hours.

It. Was. Dreadful. I have never been so uncomfortable in such a “festive” setting. The most surreal part was when they would make dirty jokes and break into song. A guy dressed in a muscle suit with reindeer antlers on his head gyrated behind me as I stared intensely at the table. If there was a crack in the floor, I would’ve slid into it.

What made it worse was the fact that the poor waitress (who apparently been pulled aside at the last minute and told she was going to be waiting on 30 people by herself), was struggling to take orders that we had already placed when we booked the event. We got there at 12pm and by 2pm, we still hadn’t been served. Not only that, but no one had been murdered yet!

When we finally got our food, I realized that things were not going to get any better. The food looked like it could get up and walk away and the dessert was, what I assumed to be, canned apple pie filling with Redi-Whip on top.

We got a break from the show while we ate (or chose not to), at which point we were forced to tell the actors that we had to be back on the bus by 3pm and someone had better get murdered soon. They picked up the improv pace and the workshop inspector faced death-by-wrapping-paper. We were given pieces of paper to write down who we thought did it and turned them in. The motive behind the murder was of a sexual nature, which I thought was a bit inappropriate for an office outing, and we were able to get out of there in time to get back to our bus.

We complained to management but were met with not much more than a shrug. If the food was at least decent, I could’ve brushed off that cringe-worthy “murder mystery” but, alas, there was really nothing redeeming about this outing. Except maybe the waitress, who has my condolences. (2021)

8. The overshare

Long ago there was a party where everyone had to post a fact about themselves and you had to match the coworker to the fact.

One posted a fact about their kinks, which, while perfectly acceptable as a kink, still did not belong at work. (2023)

9. The cheesecakes

My husband’s former employer threw great holiday parties. Excellent food and entertainment. They also provided gift bags for all the guests which were typically distributed as you were leaving. The bags differed a little each year but usually included things like a Amex gift card, bottle of wine or sparkling cider, pair of movie tickets, etc. One year the bags included a gift certificate to a local bakery known for their cheesecake. That particular year, the bags were already available at each place setting and tables were assigned for a sit-down dinner. (In previous years, things were served buffet style and you sat wherever you want.)

There was a DJ who was spinning tunes after dinner. Most people were either dancing or mingling around – except for one of my husband’s coworkers, ‘Larry,’ who had a well-earned reputation as a cheapskate. After consuming a multitude of adult beverages, Larry was stumbling around and rummaging through unattended gift bags. My husband’s boss eventually saw what was going on and confronted Larry. Larry had pilfered about 40 cheesecake bakery gift certificates and about an equal number of Amex gift cards.

His excuse? His daughter was getting married the following summer and he figured he could use the gift cards to pay for wedding expenses and insist his daughter serve cheesecake for dessert at her wedding. Boss took the gift cards and certificates from Larry, called him a cab, and sent him home. There was a company-wide email that went out Monday morning telling employees what had been in in the bags and if anything was missing to please contact HR to have the items replaced.

The following year the company went back to handing out gift bags as you were leaving. (2023)

10. Something nicer 

One of our coworkers was a daughter of a Laotian immigrant who taught traditional cooking classes at the local community center. Her spring rolls were legendary. The daughter would always bring a large tray – enough for at least 1 per person if not 2 – of them to the annual all-company holiday potluck (300 people). You could always tell when her dish arrived – first you would hear murmurs, then a dull roar, an email would go out, and then a stampede down stairwell. Even people who usually abstained from the potluck would go down and get at least one.

One year … she and the precious spring rolls weren’t there. We found out the mom was in a bad car accident a couple days prior and was not expected to make it so daughter was at her bedside. A collection was taken and PTO was donated (company matched all offerings) and mom sadly passed after a few more days (shortly before Christmas).

First day the company was open after New Year’s there is a commotion at the front door. This employee and her entire family came to the main entrance with THOUSANDS of these spring rolls for the employees as a thank you for donations and financial/PTO assistance. We feasted. I happened to work in the department next to hers and for several months following, whenever she was missing her mother she made those spring rolls and brought some in to share with our floor. I left there two years ago but timed my last day to coincide with the annual potluck so I would have one last chance at those spring rolls. (2021)

The post the chili cook-off chaos, the cheesecake theft, and other stories of holidays at work appeared first on Ask a Manager.

wednesday

Nov. 26th, 2025 01:46 pm
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[personal profile] summersgate
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We had a rainy morning but now (1 pm) it's sunny. I spent the morning getting back into mosaic mirror painting and immersed in researching granny square type crochet patterns that would work for a baby blanket for upcoming Rowan. I'd like to weave a thin blanket for summer (cotton yarn) on a pin loom and then also crochet a thicker winter one. I am having a hard time deciding pattern to do and then what kind of yarn to buy. Black Friday sales make me think I should hurry up and buy something but I know how impulsive I can be and think I should be REALLY sure.

Couldn't sleep last night, again. I was up from 1:30 till about 4. I watched most of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (enjoyable) and finished a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle that I started back in October. Went back to bed and slept till 7. Had a few interesting dreams that I wish I remembered.

*****
The sunshine is calling. Next up; take Rainy for a little walk down back and then let the chickens out for the afternoon, collect eggs and pick up poop from last night in the coop. My method now-a-days is to clean the coop everyday. Pick up the poop with tongs. About once a month I add more pine shavings. When it gets really cold I'll put a thicker layer of shavings on the floor. I hate the big job of cleaning the whole coop so I prefer to do a little housekeeping everyday.
ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
AI Slop Recipes are Taking Over the Internet and Thanksgiving Dinner is what my feed greeted me with this morning, and geez, it's making me feel even more fiercely determined re the mini cookie cookbook of recipes I've made and loved that I'm trying to put together to send out with holiday cards this year. Though I need to get off my butt with those, too, still haven't ordered them.

In the meantime, the current status of this year's Thanksgiving meal:

- Main: Kristina Cho's Chop Shop Pork Belly, from her Chinese Enough cookbook. Pork belly is currently air-drying in the fridge; all we have to do Thursday is roast it. Will be serving with rice (or possibly a rice stuffing, see below), and ...

- Cranberries: Kay Chun's Cranberry-Asian Pear Chutney, as always since 2001. This is done and chilling in the fridge. But I was chatting with Marissa Ferola (who runs Nine Winters in Huron Village, Cambervillains), and she shared her daughter's cranberry sauce recipe with me, with fivespice and black pepper and mandarin and chinkiang vinegar! So that sounds intriguing. And I think both will go great with the spices of the pork belly.

- Stuffing: I found Rize Up's KPop Gochujang Loaf in stock last week, which means THIS IS THE YEAR I am *finally* making Mandy Lee's red hot oyster kimchi dressing. Seriously, this has been on my Thanksgiving bucket list for years. Between the New England tradness of oyster stuffing, [personal profile] hyounpark's well-documented love of oyster kimchi, and me finally putting all the pieces together, I am so stoked to make this. There's still a possibility we may get fancy and put together a rice-based stuffing on the side, as that's what my mom and [personal profile] hyounpark prefer, but we'll see. But I do need to get started on it.

- Cornbread: I was trying to de-dairify our favorite custard-filled cornbread, but the experimental batch yesterday proved that coconut cream does not behave the same way dairy cream does; it was pretty obvious when there was a giant crater lake of liquid coconut cream after an hour of baking when it should have settled into a layer in the cornbread, and upon slicing into the cornbread, said pool of coconut cream completely spilled over like a spring river. So the backup plan is to try it with our local dairy's A2 cream, since our issues are lactose intolerance rather than dairy allergies or veganism. I'd also been picturing flavoring it a la Betty Liu's lemongrass corn soup, so I may steep the coconut *milk* with the lemongrass, but leave the cream alone. (I'd steeped the coconut cream with lemongrass before, but I'm wondering if that also might have created custardization issues. Won't have time to fully experiment before the big meal tomorrow, but I have paths to follow before next year.) But this will bake Thursday along with the pork belly, so I do need to scrape the remains out of the cast iron skillet in prep for tomorrow.

- Orange veg: We're going with kaddo bourani in lieu of our default Orange Vegetable Soup trend of the last few years. Given all the other experimentation I tend to put on this menu, it's always good to have some reliable old faves on the docket as well. I'm making the meat sauce right now, but will probably not start the pumpkin part until this afternoon, as I need to do both the stuffing and pie crust before the pumpkin hogs the oven all afternoon/evening.

- Green veg, cooked: Which is why Andrea Nguyen's sesame salt greens (from her cookbook Ever Green Vietnamese) are back as well. Based on the greens we have in the fridge right now, it's gonna be collards to make the Southern boy happy :) It's stovetop, it can be done pretty close to last minute, but I might try to slip this in tonight and just rewarm tomorrow. If not, I'll make them while the pork is roasting Thursday.

- Green veg, raw: I was irked that some random reel came across my Instagram feed this week that said, of Thanksgiving dishes Sagittarius is salad. But the reasoning was basically atting me, hahaha. "It's like, chaotic, nobody quite knows what could be in it, it could be from anywhere in the world, any type of salad." Which is tempting me, don't get me wrong, to pull in a Midwestern dessert salad, hahahahaha 😁 (I'd probably go strawberry pretzel, LBR.) [Also, I could have sworn I wrote a thing about Midwestern dessert salads here, but I can't find it to link to, so maybe it's just in my notepad of things I've been meaning to post about? Must rectify that.] But Eric Kim's Roasted Seaweed Salad (from his Korean American cookbook) will also be on the table again. This one's easy - will be made during the half hour the pork is resting waiting to come to the table.

- Potatoes: uh I guess we should figure this out, right? But we're looking for something different from our usual scallion cheddar or maple miso mashed potatoes. And I don't want to do anything that involves mandolining or tiling a bunch of potatoes either. We will probably default back to some kind of basic mash, though Kristina Cho mentioned Sriracha Twice-Baked Potatoes on her Substack, and while the potatoes we have on hand are too small to do that properly, we could certainly run with the general flavoring principles. I may try to outsource this to Leonard and Sara though!

- Miscellaneous: If I get ambitious, I also really want deviled eggs and I have like two dozen options for recipes with Asian flavorings.

- Dessert: I did manage to get ahold of passionfruit, so Alana Kysar's Liliko'i Chiffon Pie (from her cookbook Aloha Kitchen) will be gracing our table again. And that's first up for today: I need to get started on the crust so that's out of the way before I work on the filling.

And with that, I'd better get moving! Especially because I may need to make one last dash out to the supermarket for forgotten ingredients (mostly for the pie: gelatin, eggs). Wish me luck.

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