Finnydotca
@finnydotca.bsky.social
Canadian. Former journalist, former writer and editor, former civil servant, former cat nurse.
Happy Twelfth Night to all who celebrate. I would, but it’s also Drynuary, and I can’t have it both ways.
January 5, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Happy Twelfth Night to all who celebrate. I would, but it’s also Drynuary, and I can’t have it both ways.
Happy Advent eve to all who celebrate. Ad te Domine levavi animam meam.
November 29, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Happy Advent eve to all who celebrate. Ad te Domine levavi animam meam.
I don’t know what real editors would say to this, but I’d say that in my experience, problems with sentence cadence, having too many all the same length, for example, is a solid tell for a very amateurish writer. And also, one of the easier things to help a writer with. So, a sign of poor editing.
November 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
I don’t know what real editors would say to this, but I’d say that in my experience, problems with sentence cadence, having too many all the same length, for example, is a solid tell for a very amateurish writer. And also, one of the easier things to help a writer with. So, a sign of poor editing.
Happy Grey Cup Sunday to all who celebrate! Allons-y Alouettes!
November 16, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Happy Grey Cup Sunday to all who celebrate! Allons-y Alouettes!
For those who, like me, are HUGE Lois McMaster Bujold fans, there is a new Penric/ Desdemona novella out. Always a couple of evenings of pure pleasure.
November 13, 2025 at 1:50 AM
For those who, like me, are HUGE Lois McMaster Bujold fans, there is a new Penric/ Desdemona novella out. Always a couple of evenings of pure pleasure.
The Louvre heist made me think about heist novels, an honourable and venerable genre, and I really don’t understand why no one has made a series out of Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder novels. They made one movie with Redford, and no one has done anything since.
October 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
The Louvre heist made me think about heist novels, an honourable and venerable genre, and I really don’t understand why no one has made a series out of Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder novels. They made one movie with Redford, and no one has done anything since.
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he did not exist. The second greatest trick was convincing occultists that there was anything arcane about summoning him. Forget the circles and symbols, just go hang out at Mar a Lago. He’ll drop by your table.
WTAF? What did I just read @swin24.bsky.social?
This. Cannot. Be. Real? Can it? 🤢 open.substack.com/pub/zeteo/p/...
This. Cannot. Be. Real? Can it? 🤢 open.substack.com/pub/zeteo/p/...
October 20, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he did not exist. The second greatest trick was convincing occultists that there was anything arcane about summoning him. Forget the circles and symbols, just go hang out at Mar a Lago. He’ll drop by your table.
Browsing new restaurant listings, I saw one that advertised “chicken halal bacon and ranch poutine”. That’s my city.
October 6, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Browsing new restaurant listings, I saw one that advertised “chicken halal bacon and ranch poutine”. That’s my city.
I saw a post that said, with an air of stating the overly obvious, that the antidote to fascism is communism.
No, It was one of them. The others were Massive War, Death of the Dictator, and Seeing What Happened To Other Countries.
Communism was the antidote in Yugoslavia and East Germany
No, It was one of them. The others were Massive War, Death of the Dictator, and Seeing What Happened To Other Countries.
Communism was the antidote in Yugoslavia and East Germany
September 15, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I saw a post that said, with an air of stating the overly obvious, that the antidote to fascism is communism.
No, It was one of them. The others were Massive War, Death of the Dictator, and Seeing What Happened To Other Countries.
Communism was the antidote in Yugoslavia and East Germany
No, It was one of them. The others were Massive War, Death of the Dictator, and Seeing What Happened To Other Countries.
Communism was the antidote in Yugoslavia and East Germany
Another way I know I’ve strayed into the Discover feed: people are describing unpleasant sounding meals with great moral satisfaction. Oh, you put your quinoa in a BOWL, did you? With kale and beets? How nice. I’ll just wipe this chicken gravy off my face with a handful of lasagna so I can read that
September 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Another way I know I’ve strayed into the Discover feed: people are describing unpleasant sounding meals with great moral satisfaction. Oh, you put your quinoa in a BOWL, did you? With kale and beets? How nice. I’ll just wipe this chicken gravy off my face with a handful of lasagna so I can read that
You know what would cheer me, in this mire of fascist misery? If the Nobel committee gave the Peace Prize to Biden. Lord alone knows what it could be for, but I’d laugh and laugh and laugh…
September 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM
You know what would cheer me, in this mire of fascist misery? If the Nobel committee gave the Peace Prize to Biden. Lord alone knows what it could be for, but I’d laugh and laugh and laugh…
Sometimes I think, hey, I started in IT in the mid-nineties, I should have become one of those guys who spouts a bunch of techie sounding nonsense and gets a billion dollars for it.
Then I remember my soul.
Then I remember my soul.
August 27, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Sometimes I think, hey, I started in IT in the mid-nineties, I should have become one of those guys who spouts a bunch of techie sounding nonsense and gets a billion dollars for it.
Then I remember my soul.
Then I remember my soul.
I just opened my Divine Office app to see that today is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz, after offering to die in place of a man with a family. A new saint for the times ahead.
August 14, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I just opened my Divine Office app to see that today is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz, after offering to die in place of a man with a family. A new saint for the times ahead.
Just watched the first hour or so of Everything Everywhere All At Once and it confirmed my previous impression that it was way overhyped. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not all that great a movie, either.
August 11, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Just watched the first hour or so of Everything Everywhere All At Once and it confirmed my previous impression that it was way overhyped. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not all that great a movie, either.
People who enter a discussion of beliefs and say, “religion is nonsense” are a special sort. Sure, whatever. But for the record, religion isn’t nonsense. Religion is the human response to the perception of the sacred and the spiritual. It may be a bit silly. But then, we are.
August 9, 2025 at 5:54 PM
People who enter a discussion of beliefs and say, “religion is nonsense” are a special sort. Sure, whatever. But for the record, religion isn’t nonsense. Religion is the human response to the perception of the sacred and the spiritual. It may be a bit silly. But then, we are.
Speaking as a resident of one of the world’s great pierogi centres (we spell it perogy here, we’re simple people of the plains) I am not at all surprised that pierogi makers have been revealed as heroic defenders of justice and truth.
Slava varenyky!
Slava varenyky!
August 7, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Speaking as a resident of one of the world’s great pierogi centres (we spell it perogy here, we’re simple people of the plains) I am not at all surprised that pierogi makers have been revealed as heroic defenders of justice and truth.
Slava varenyky!
Slava varenyky!
Times are bad but there is one tiny comfort in all the darkness. Now, when you’re lying awake at night, reviewing in your mind how you have been pretty much a total waste of life, you can reflect “at least I never starved an entire population”. Even if I’d had the chance, I don’t think I would have.
August 5, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Times are bad but there is one tiny comfort in all the darkness. Now, when you’re lying awake at night, reviewing in your mind how you have been pretty much a total waste of life, you can reflect “at least I never starved an entire population”. Even if I’d had the chance, I don’t think I would have.
As a tech manager I worked with people who were extremely intelligent, but in a certain limited way. I liked them a lot, but they were who they were. In particular, their tendency to a kind of game-oriented reductionist materialism make the current tech CEO ideas about AI very understandable.
July 30, 2025 at 9:51 PM
As a tech manager I worked with people who were extremely intelligent, but in a certain limited way. I liked them a lot, but they were who they were. In particular, their tendency to a kind of game-oriented reductionist materialism make the current tech CEO ideas about AI very understandable.
I’m a little surprised by the lack of ‘Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, was a senior Mossad agent’ discussion in the MAGA meltdown over Epstein. I’ve never read the book that started the allegations and I have zero idea whether they have any merit at all, but they’re the sort of thing they like.
July 13, 2025 at 3:09 AM
I’m a little surprised by the lack of ‘Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, was a senior Mossad agent’ discussion in the MAGA meltdown over Epstein. I’ve never read the book that started the allegations and I have zero idea whether they have any merit at all, but they’re the sort of thing they like.
For those familiar with Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment, I have a strong suspicion that Trump’s pronouncements are going to become increasingly Nuggan-like until you’re seeing threats of a 500% tariff on scotch terriers and Brazilian wax jobs.
July 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
For those familiar with Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment, I have a strong suspicion that Trump’s pronouncements are going to become increasingly Nuggan-like until you’re seeing threats of a 500% tariff on scotch terriers and Brazilian wax jobs.
Reposted by Finnydotca
A lie is a word spoken against the fabric of reality. It’s like a metaphysical stitch ripper. When someone lies the way Trump does, there is simply no way to predict the resulting destruction. Last time there was a plague.
February 19, 2025 at 2:13 AM
A lie is a word spoken against the fabric of reality. It’s like a metaphysical stitch ripper. When someone lies the way Trump does, there is simply no way to predict the resulting destruction. Last time there was a plague.
Apropos of nothing, people die all the time. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Some mornings I like to tell myself that.
July 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Apropos of nothing, people die all the time. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Some mornings I like to tell myself that.
The debate about the semantics around “fascism” was always absurd, because a characteristic of radical right movements is that they are chameleon-like. They can be futuristic and iconoclastic. They can be traditionalist. They can be royalist. They take on the colour of the nationalist spirit.
July 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
The debate about the semantics around “fascism” was always absurd, because a characteristic of radical right movements is that they are chameleon-like. They can be futuristic and iconoclastic. They can be traditionalist. They can be royalist. They take on the colour of the nationalist spirit.
The Modern Herod
I admit no illegally
Held fascination
With the prospect of imminent
Assassination
But maybe there could be
A curtailment of terms
If, like Herod, he suffered
A surfeit of worms
I admit no illegally
Held fascination
With the prospect of imminent
Assassination
But maybe there could be
A curtailment of terms
If, like Herod, he suffered
A surfeit of worms
July 1, 2025 at 9:02 PM
The Modern Herod
I admit no illegally
Held fascination
With the prospect of imminent
Assassination
But maybe there could be
A curtailment of terms
If, like Herod, he suffered
A surfeit of worms
I admit no illegally
Held fascination
With the prospect of imminent
Assassination
But maybe there could be
A curtailment of terms
If, like Herod, he suffered
A surfeit of worms
Just like I have no idea what Americans mean by “liberal”, I also don’t know what a “democratic socialist” is. Is that what the rest of the English speaking world calls a social democrat? Or does it mean a socialist who belongs to the Democratic Party? Dog alone knows what they mean by socialist.
June 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Just like I have no idea what Americans mean by “liberal”, I also don’t know what a “democratic socialist” is. Is that what the rest of the English speaking world calls a social democrat? Or does it mean a socialist who belongs to the Democratic Party? Dog alone knows what they mean by socialist.