We have learned of a website (which we are not linking to) that is charging people to pay to play knockoffs of popular board games like Catan, Wingspan, Agricola and more - different names, crappy art, same mechanics.

This is in no way a defense of Substack, more a shouting into the void that I haven't been able to find a service that meets my particular use case.

IIRC a lot of services want $40/month. For me that's $120/email. I don't have time to figure it out,and when I tried I got burned. So. There are reasons. And I'm pretty sure I'm costing Substack money in this limbo while I'm still searching.

The reason is $, service, and time. I have a quarterly free newsletter with 4000+ subs. Tried an alternative: it went to spam. Opens <50 percent of my Substack rate. Find me a service that actually *delivers* for a reasonable rate *at this frequency* and I'll try again.

“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books

Yeah my pharmacy switched brands to get me my HRT. Turns out that brands gives me blisters. Fun times

Just got a note from my doctor about a global estrogen gel/patch shortage. I'm imagining the amount of unbridled rage this could unleash just in time for the midterms.

There are a lot of designers who go through many iterations only online, without ever printing for a reality check. The table in TTS is as big as it needs to be.

You get your own conspiracy theory! That's like a whole new level of success! 🏆

Don't the Tolkien people have to sign off? If they're on board wtf is the problem?

This is only a new issue to the extent that one side is finally taking the side of the woman who was attacked?

...and that the nuance in many Democrats' messaging made them sound unsure of themselves in a way that was unconvincing to voters. Perhaps this thinking has taken over culturally to some extent, and led people on all sides to be more absolutist? (I do think the divide still exists though)

One of the books I read about US politics in the 90s (Don't Think of an Elephant, maybe?) argued that this was a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals -- that conservatives are less comfy with nuance, want a single black & white answer...

Logic Wiz has something similar as one of their Sudoku variants but it's on a 9x9 grid and the sums on the outside are only for the numbers between wherever 1&9 are (so range 0-35). They call it sandwich.

ICYMI - come birding with me in Colombia Jan 11-20! 🦜 Please share with your favorite birder/ Wingspan fanatic 🫶

The sheer contempt I have for these dipshits and their insistence we should join them in their willfull and gleeful ignorance is beyond articulation

I have birded in Columbia, the District of Columbia, and along the Columbia River. Haven't ever been to Colombia but I feel like I can pre-confirm that birding there will be more awesome. COCK-OF-THE-ROCK, need I say more?

This January I'm going birding in Colombia for 10 days with Good Bird, and a dozen people can join us! Details here: