Chafic LaRo
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Chafic LaRo
@chafic-larochelle.bsky.social
Writer, jester, occasional rescuer of lost hikers.
Published in McSweeney’s, Points in Case, The Fiddlehead, and more.
Failing upwards since 1990-something.
Book XXV will absolutely NOT be included in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the material. For viewer safety. Sorry, folks.

substack.com/@chafic/note...
Chafic LaRochelle (@chafic)
You don’t need to read Ancient Greek to recognize when something has gone terribly wrong in translation. What follows is a routine editorial correspondence.
substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:13 PM
My favourite club was Underachievers Anonymous. I’ve never really stopped applying their lessons.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
The High School Clubs Nobody Asked For
A Retrospective Study in Organized Aimlessness
open.substack.com
January 25, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Few surrealists come close to Ocampo in terms of vibrance and depth of illusion.

Visions of Quixote (1989) is a personal favourite.

Plus, it pairs quite favourably with 100µg of lysergic acid diethylamide. Or so I’ve been told…
January 25, 2026 at 3:45 AM
“The year vomits itself up anew, and the vomit seamlessly assumes the place of the devoured.”

—Sublunar, Harald Voetmann
January 24, 2026 at 6:16 PM
I know, I know—another goddamn essay about the trolley problem. Except this one doesn’t stop where it’s supposed to.
open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
A Practical Guide to the Trolley Problem for the Existentially Perplexed
Including Several Necessary Clarifications, Long Overdue
open.substack.com
January 21, 2026 at 1:13 AM
I regret many things in my life. Most of them saved me 15%.

New essay about saving money and losing other things.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
I Regret Every Discount Code I’ve Ever Applied
A brief accounting of small savings and permanent damage
open.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:05 AM
Reading The Singularity (Il grande ritratto) by Dino Buzzati has been a nice surprise.
January 16, 2026 at 2:01 PM
I don’t often post about politics or current events. But when I do, it’s usually because the absurdism writes itself.

"Black, brown, yellow, or white—we're itching to leave you red all over!"

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I Am the Government’s ICE Memes, and I’m Here to Make This Go Down Easy
Black, brown, yellow, or white—we're itching to leave you red all over!
open.substack.com
January 10, 2026 at 6:23 PM
I appear to have a medically demonstrable allergy to original thinking.

New essay: Every Time I Almost Have an Original Thought, I Get Diarrhea
open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
Every Time I Almost Have an Original Thought, I Get Diarrhea
On the Metabolic Cost of New Ideas
open.substack.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Am I overthinking this? Or did Homer warn us about AI when he wrote about the Sirens? Creatures that flatter our vanity, promise total knowledge, and leave behind nothing but prisoners, addicts, and bones.
@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social
January 7, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Small correction to @theresthistory.bsky.social series on Justinian and Theodora: there was, in fact, an entire department dedicated to sanding down imperial abs and smearing dung on monuments that felt “too holy.” Understandable this didn’t make the cut.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Emperor Justinian’s Absolute Non-Divinity
A clarifying memorandum for all new appointees to the Bureau of Imperial Moral Hygiene
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:41 AM
Worth a read for anyone interested in:

• AI safety

• mental health tech

• legal accountability

• the sandwich as a latent structure of the self

Happy to answer questions within the limits of the settlement.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
The Sandwich is the Self: Excerpts from the FreudBot™ Lawsuit
Because a sandwich is never just a sandwich
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
This year, as we spend time with loved ones, pray for world peace, and covet the latest gaming console, there should be one question at the fore of everyone’s mind:

Is my partner cheating on me?

Merry Christmas to all.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
Quiz: Is Your Partner Cheating On You Or Are They Actually Santa Claus?
A Helpful Diagnostic for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
open.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, this article contains important information about exits, oxygen masks, emotional abandonment, and why loyalty programs last longer than marriages.

Please read carefully.

Failure to do so will not prevent turbulence. ✈️

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Your In-Flight Safety Briefing Has Been Expanded to Include My Divorce
For Demonstration Purposes Only
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Pretty sure my therapist’s notes now include phrases like “meat API,” “emotionally adequate,” and a named anxiety with deliverables.

Out of professional curiosity (and self-preservation), I tried to reconstruct the rest.

open.substack.com/pub/chafic/p...
What I Assume My Therapist Is Definitely Writing Down About Me
Preliminary Findings on Why I Shouldn’t Be Left Unsupervised
open.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
At some point you stop fixing small problems and start working around them. You tell yourself these things are actually “fine” because dealing with them would take time and energy you simply don’t have.

I made a list of mine.

It got out of hand.

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10 Tiny Compromises That Turned Me Into an “It’s Fine” Guy
How I learned to stop complaining and love the minor inconveniences that are actively killing me
open.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Posting this here in case anyone else has noticed similar issues with Prime.

The goat should have been a red flag.

substack.com/@chafic/note...
Chafic (@chafic)
Posting this here in case anyone else has noticed similar issues with Prime. The goat should have been a red flag.
substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 10:56 PM
trust the reader.
December 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
his name is Douglas. hello, Douglas.
December 11, 2025 at 10:16 PM
“Lasagna, linguini, fettuccini, pastrami, panini.”

—Lil Wayne
December 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
always the snow, always the ice, to the vanishing point
December 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Arctic-industrial vibes. Blue hour in QC City.
December 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
i read vollmann to my 4yo and now she’s evaluating retaliatory necessity on the playground.
new piece up.

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Why I Read William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down to My Four-Year-Old Every Night
On Cultivating Judgment, Restraint, and a Healthy Respect for Justified Force
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:35 PM
No, John. It’s the pencil. Please. Let it be the pencil.
December 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
explains more about the world than any financial guru ever could
December 7, 2025 at 1:42 AM