John Scalzi
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John Scalzi
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Tonight in The December Comfort Watches: John Wick! Or, why you shouldn't mess with Keanu Reeves. Or his dog.

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/16/t...
The December Comfort Watches 2025, Day 16: John Wick
John Wick didn’t have to go so hard. It could have just been about what it says it’s about: A retired bad guy named John Wick (Keanu Reeves), who left the life for the simple pleasures …
whatever.scalzi.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Ach, my heart. It breaks.

(Gift article)

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...
Opinion | Stephen King: Why I Hugged Rob Reiner After Watching ‘Stand by Me’
www.nytimes.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Oops, commented to a troll. Fixed.
December 17, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by John Scalzi
It's very important we all go back to Twitter, a website as popular with young people as chlamydia.
Teens turn to a variety of online platforms, but YouTube continues to stand out. Roughly nine-in-ten teens report ever using it. TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the next most widely used platforms.
December 16, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Fuck it I'm off to steal a pie just to show Big Mince it can't push me around
Don't steal pies this Christmas.
December 16, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Still two weeks to go in the year but I'm pretty sure this will end up being my most listened track of 2025:

youtu.be/QGsevnbItdU
"How It's Done" Official Lyric Video | KPop Demon Hunters | Sony Animation
YouTube video by Sony Pictures Animation
youtu.be
December 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
YES THIS

also FOMO goes right out the window, as in, sure, I could go out to all the hot spots OR I could lie here in bed with my iPad watching @dropout.tv with at least one cat dozing alongside, hmmmm, I guess the cool kids will just have to have fun without me
The best thing about middle age is not giving one single solitary fuck about being cool anymore.
December 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
My advice: Like what you like and don't worry about anyone who tells you it's cringe. Life's short and the world's on fire, and as long as you're not hurting other people, you're fine. I mean, I still like U2, too! I don't care who knows it. If other people don't like that, that's a them problem.
I love U2. I feel like I could have glided along, enjoying them, if it wasn’t for that damned internet. Now I am on the defensive or lying low with my fandom. That’s happening somewhat now with Taylor Swift. She’s the biggest star in the world but the backlash has begun. “Mom pop”?
December 16, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Krissy and I stopped giving each other holiday gifts a long time ago because a) it became difficult to think of things either of us wanted, b) when we do think of things, we give them then rather than waiting for the holidays. I also tell people not to get me gifts because I buy myself what I want.
You kid but, for the first time in almost 30 years of marriage, I have no good ideas for her. Guess we’ll see if “you don’t have to get me anything,” is a euphemism or not. (I have gotten her a bunch of books which will be welcomed but no quirky just for you gift)
December 16, 2025 at 12:56 PM
We've progressed from the Black Friday Deals to the Last Chance Shipping Before Christmas Deals but personally I'm holding out for the It's Not Too Late To Celebrate The Holidays deals that drop on the 26th yes yes that's when I'll make my move
December 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
In which writer @lukewinkie.bsky.social chronicles his favorite band becoming Dad Rock in real time. Take solace, Luke, it happens to us all, shit, I remember when U2 was the coolest fuckin' band in the world. Sooner or later, time comes for everything cool.

slate.com/culture/2025...
LCD Soundsystem Used to Be the Coolest Band In the World. How Did They Get So Cringe?
Watching the set at the Knockdown Center, I became aware that my favorite band had become unfathomably lame.
slate.com
December 16, 2025 at 11:52 AM
This just in:

S T R E T C H
December 16, 2025 at 3:29 AM
The dudes in r/conservative appear to be universally appalled at the President's post about Rob Reiner, and I gotta tell you, when you've lost the pandering sycophants of r/conservative, you've finally gone too far
December 16, 2025 at 3:23 AM
One of the things that gets me is that I haven't had any problem getting things optioned or getting writing or development deals at any point in the last decade, and I am white as milk laced with chalk (and old to boot) sooooo maybe the problem here is something else
One of the things that always strikes me about reading these right-wing diatribes against diverse hiring in media is it's always just a given in them now that white women were also wrongly (in their eyes) given too many opportunities. www.compactmag.com/article/the-...
The Lost Generation
For fifteen years I’ve scalped tickets to pay the bills. But in January 2016 I almost managed a real career.
www.compactmag.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by John Scalzi
It hasn't even been twelve hours, but all three of us have been overwhelmed with requests from media for comment and I'm mostly writing this now so they'll leave me alone.
this is such a painful loss. my heart is broken.
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that,...
wilwheaton.net
December 15, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Today in The December Comfort Watches: This is Spinal Tap. Because it's one of the funniest movies of all time, and I think Rob Reiner would want us to remember to feel joy, even, and especially, when surrounded by sadness.

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/15/t...
The December Comfort Watches 2025, Day Fifteen: This is Spinal Tap
For more than two weeks, I had it on my schedule to write about This is Spinal Tap today, December 15, 2025. The day before this, director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer were (allegedly) m…
whatever.scalzi.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Tonight's sunset.
December 15, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by John Scalzi
Posting this again because I've been getting questions: at this moment there is no licensed merch for Murderbot or Sanctuary Moon except what is on Worldbuilders Market worldbuildersmarket.com/collections/... where it's sold for charity fundraising. And they are getting a new t-shirt design soon.
Martha Wells
Worldbuilders Market is the official online shop of Worldbuilders, a geek-centered nonprofit supporting humanitarian efforts worldwide. We carry a wide variety of officially licensed merchandise from ...
worldbuildersmarket.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by John Scalzi
New spots are open! Come get that novel ready for submission in the new year 🎊🎊🎊
I'm available for developmental edits on full and partial manuscripts for a limited time! Full details here:

open.substack.com/pub/danieljo...
December 15, 2025 at 8:45 PM
This is probably accurate and also at this point I can't arsed to do any of that. I decided a while back that I wanted social media to be my recreation, not my job. I could try to be an influencer, or I could write novels and other stuff I actually enjoy doing. I'm happy with my choices.
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
December 15, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Oooooh, Allen Steele's Coyote trilogy is back in print!

www.facebook.com/Allensteeles...
Allen Steele
BACK IN PRINT TODAY: THE COYOTE TRILOGY This is something I’ve been waiting for all year: the re-release of my most famous work, the first three Coyote novels — COYOTE, COYOTE RISING, and COYOTE...
www.facebook.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:22 PM
If you weren't there you can't know how gripped the US was by "Luke and Laura," I mean, shit, I'd never watched a soap opera episode in my life and yet as a junior high school student I knew all the details, it was wild

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/a...
Anthony Geary, Luke Spencer on ‘General Hospital,’ Dies at 78
One-half of the ultimate soap supercouple with Genie Francis, he won a record eight Daytime Emmys and starred on the ABC daytime drama over a 40-year span.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Counterpoint: Without my "Charmin Wrapped" how would I have known that on August 3rd I used 192 feet of Charmin Ultra Strong in just one session, that might be an actual record, also, as an aside, there's a limit to how long you can let pizza sit unrefrigerated and it's apparently less than six days
please, I don't need a "2025 wrapped" on every product I use.

I'm looking at you, Charmin toilet paper
December 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Apropos to a post I'm not going to quote: no, you are not fucking obliged to battle the fucking right on fucking social media, or go to where they are. Why make yourself miserable shouting at bots (who don't care) or trolls (who get off on your misery). Make your fucking social media enjoyable, FFS.
December 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Slightly longer thoughts on the passing of Rob Reiner, and what a remarkable storyteller he turned out to be.

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/15/r...
Rob Reiner, RIP
I don’t have much to add about Rob Reiner and wife Michelle Singer’s shocking death that other people haven’t said better, likewise any more to add about his career and political …
whatever.scalzi.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM