Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · 1d

Hadn’t read through the entire thread before posting that, but I see that several folks have said essentially the same thing, so maybe it’s not that unhinged after all.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · 1d

“Literary fiction” is a genre with unspoken rules, tropes, and expectations, and just as much predictably and gatekeeping as any form of what is condescendingly dismissed as “genre fiction.”

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · 14d

Well, that's a nice surprise! I expected that if I was coming up with that, you surely had in mind something older and more obscure.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · 14d

Cole Porter's "Farming"?

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · 29d

1. The smell of lilacs
2. Bacon
3. An unexpected random compliment
4. "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes," Edison Lighthouse
5. When your favorite author's new book is as good as you hoped it would be

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Sep 12

Enlisted (Fox, 2014).

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Sep 11

And here we have an excellent demonstration of why so few are willing to take position #3. Do so, and you’ll be equated with the fascists, which seems to me a far more fascist position than #3. In almost every case, “You must not say X” will get us to autocracy far faster than X itself will.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Sep 10

There might be a way to be respectful, but I can't see any reason to. The corpse is biodegradable, and that's the most positive thing to be said for the man.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Sep 10

I do think the experiment has failed, and I see no point in pretending otherwise. We had a good long run, though.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Jun 29

Just watched RIVER, thanks to this draft, and adored it!

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Jun 24

Well, since we're all sharing... 🎥

A "100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" Reader's Choice ballot, listing Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Hundreds of Beavers, I Saw the TV Glow, Inside Out, Melancholia, Mysterious Skin, Parasite, Tears of the Black Tiger, and Up.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Jun 23

Delightful news!

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Jun 17

Wonderfalls
Enlisted

Reposted by Keith Chaffee

Vanilla Wine @likeanoldwine.bsky.social · May 24

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Reposted by Keith Chaffee

Queer Hand Luke @lfschleusener.bsky.social · Jun 16

Librarians are the best.

skellyton bones jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · Jun 16

Good for her.

www.postandcourier.com/greenville/n...

SC librarians wore rainbow lanyards when a Pride display was canceled. Then they were fired.

A former Oconee County librarian sued the county claiming she was fired in retaliation for supporting LGBTQ+ rights after a Pride display was canceled.

www.postandcourier.com

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Reposted by Keith Chaffee

Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · May 16

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth

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Reposted by Keith Chaffee

Xavier Horatio Xinicit 🎉 @xinicit.bsky.social · Apr 4

Shit’s so bleak that Shirley Jackson has been put in charge of the Powerball

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Apr 1

So it’s another Dem doing something that looks vaguely *like* action but doesn’t actually accomplish a damn thing?

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 25

Ouch. Choosing Substack as your platform is a massive blunder.

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Reposted by Keith Chaffee

Thomas Long @rayosunlong.bsky.social · Mar 19

Hmmm. Well… let’s find out.

How about a little informal poll?

Hey everyone, let’s see what the party wants…

If you want Schumer to STEP DOWN from leadership, REPOST THIS.

If you want Schumer to remain in his leadership role, LIKE THIS.

(Please don’t do both, lol)

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 11

Ditto. Really dislike the right sidebar.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 5

It was very well-delivered as such speeches go. But this is a moment in which normal will not do. There was no urgency, no sense of crisis, no awareness that our democracy is on the brink of death. The time for decorous norms is long since past; we need more from Democrats in office.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 4

So, yet again, a Democratic member of Congress refusing to do their fucking job.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 4

I saw two of them in the theater when they came out. I remember Whales of August reasonably well -- sentimental drama about elderly sisters -- but I couldn't tell you anything about Anna beyond the name of its Oscar nominee.

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Keith Chaffee @keithchaffee.bsky.social · Mar 2

True-to-life characters with plausible and convincing emotional journeys; an involving story about how we cope (or fail to cope) with trauma, and the challenges of balancing the crucial virtues of kindness and honesty; and prose that is a pleasure to read. Very good stuff indeed. #booksky 2/2

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