#what you need to be warm

[starseneyes]

Heart-Warmed and Teary-Eyed: Kindness Matters

I have a P.O. Box that I check once a week. Right now, I mostly use it for letter correspondence with my friend @always-coffee—a tremendous published poet and beautiful human I met by chance online.

Monday she said she mailed her latest letter. So, I stopped by the Post Office on the way home from dropping the kids at school on the off-chance it made it through USPS faster than normal.

I found no letter inside, but a flyer from the Post Office saying they were holding something for me that wouldn't fit in the box. I wondered if Ali had sent a letter that was too tall (because she has such amazing stationary). I had no idea what was about to happen.

I glimpsed the package as they pulled it from a cabinet and wondered what on earth Ali sent me. That was not a letter.

Then I saw The Golden Notebook Bookstore label and knew it was something @neil-gaiman related.

For those who don't know (normal people who don't follow Neil on social media, for example), that is the local bookstore near Neil's home in New York. He periodically signs books for them that are sold with zero markup.

I am a fan of Neil as a writer, but also as a human. I don't follow many celebrities—a side effect of my set-kid youth—but I did follow Neil last year during the WGA Strike. Been a fan of his for ages, and Neverwhere is my favorite book.

Ali knows all this, and I just knew she had done something sneakily sweet.

I rushed home with a smile on my face, trying desperately not to set off the speed-trap on the road back. Let me tell you, driving speed limit when excited is not easy for me!

When I finally whipped into my driveway and sprinted into my house, I carefully opened the package (more excruciating slowness) and tried not to cry happy tears when I saw what was inside. Wrapped tenderly in bubble-wrap rested... a book.

What You Need to be Warm is a poem Neil wrote that features illustrations from some of the best artists in the industry. That in itself is wonderful. But the mission of this little book is what is so amazing.

See, the sale of every copy supports UNHCR—the UN Refugee Agency. This book literally helps people when you buy it.

I have wanted to buy a copy for ages, but you all know I thrift and buy books secondhand. I didn't want to do that with this book.

I wanted to buy it outright to ensure the maximum amount of money went to support the cause. So, I have been waiting until we were a little more stable so I could buy it full-price, outright.

Thanks to Ali, I have a copy that was purchased outright (so it helps people in need) and it is signed!

Yes, it's a signed copy with pen bleed on the opposite page, and all.

I would never do something like this for myself. You all know I am woefully practical and doing things for myself isn't second-nature. I’m working on it, but it is slow coming reprogramming a lifetime of behavior. So gifts like this... oh, they mean everything.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude that such a kind soul would do something like this for me. Thank you, Ali.

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr. Gaiman, I was wondering if you might have any information about the possibility of obtaining the "What We Need to Be Warm" book internationally (outside of the UK and USA) as I am currently in Mexico and would love to purchase it. I attempted to contact Bloomsbury Publishing to inquire about this, but I haven’t received a response yet and it is currently unavailable on Amazon.

Thank you very much! Have a beautiful day :)

It isn't published in the US until October 30th. But it's definitely on Amazon USA, at

[godzilla-reads]

❤️‍🔥 What You Need to be Warm by Neil Gaiman

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This is a very lovely and poignant poem that crosses borders, embraces people, and gives hope to a seemingly hopeless world. The illustrators did such a wonderful job putting pictures to the words.

[always-coffee]

Did YOU know it's World Refugee Day?

Well, it is! And if you haven't snagged a copy of @neil-gaiman's What You Need to Be Warm, you should. The proceeds go to UNHCR.

So, you get a book, which is a beautifully illustrated beautiful poem and you get to help people. Win/win.

If you have a local bookshop, I'm sure they have it. But if you'd like a signed copy, this is the place to go:

The Golden Notebook is excellent, and I've gotten books there myself. Books, in my opinion, also make good presents.

[ourbalancedlife]

[cwrldpc]

Just read this lovely book to my child and they loved it. So sweet and touching.

[inkskinned]

the tradwife movement is the same as it has always been - back in the kitchen, back to breeding - it just has better branding.

when i was younger, i hated pink. i was not like other girls. this is now something i'm embarrassed of - this was not me being a "girl's girl."

but it was expressing something many of us felt at the time: i literally wasn't what girlhood was supposed to be. this is a hard thing to explain, but you know when you're not performing girlhood correctly. it isn't as easy as "i liked x when girls liked y" - because there were other girls that liked x, too - but i never figured out exactly the correct way to like x, or to be interested in y.

now there is the divine feminine. this is the same rhetoric it has always been: women are biologically driven to like pink and ribbons and submitting to our husbands.

the problem is that the patriarchy found a better PR team. because yes, actually, i want every woman to have the choice to be a homemaker. i also want her taken seriously for her legitimate home-making labor. i want her to be recognized as also having a job, just unpaid. i want men to have this opportunity, too.

but it is no longer "i made this choice and I love it." instead it is a sixteen-paragraph rant about how selfish it is that my generation isn't having kids. instead it's long videos about how if you feed your children processed foods, you're going to kill them. instead it is "this is what womanhood is supposed to be. i feel bad for any other choices you're making."

the shame spiral is just prettier. it is large houses devoid of personality. it is the implication: if you don't have this, you aren't happy. the solid, everlasting assurance: women are actually supposed to be submitting. this is the default. this is the natural state of things. all other attempts inflict suffering.

but you can no longer say i'm not like other girls. you can no longer reject this image completely. you cannot find it revolting, even if you know that the underbelly is toxic and festering. sure, it is the same repackaged patriarchy. but the internet does not have shades of grey. you should support and reward other women! your disgust is actually internalized misogyny. not because you are seeing a vision of yourself the way they're trying to train you to be. not because you feel her ghost pass within an inch of your earlobe. not because your father will eventually ask you - why can't you be like her?

because they figured out how to make it beautiful: women will sell other women on this idea, and we will find the singular loophole in feminism. sure, she's shaming you in most of her videos. sure, she implies that a different life is obscene. but she just wants you to be happy! you'd be happier if you were listening!

and the whole time you're sitting there thinking: i'd actually just be happier if i had that kind of money.

[birdsonpowerlines]

We stumbled upon a recent conversation on YouTube between Neil Gaiman and Roz Kaveney for the British Library celebrating the opening their exhibition on Fantasy. The video is called "Why We Need Fantasy: Neil Gaiman in Conversation". The discussion took place in November 2023. You can find the link to the event here:    • Why We Need Fantasy: Neil Gaiman in c...  

In this podcast we reflect on the conversation and what the ideas presented meant to us and made us think about. The topics are wide ranging - from our understanding of how Neil derived the name for Crowley in Good Omens - to his views on the Internet, the origins of many of his writings from comics to novels, his friendships, his family, books he loves, bookshops, and so many other things. For your reference we also included links to some of the themes we ended up talking about for you to explore. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as we learn from and reflect on the ideas presented in this wonderful video for the British Library.

The video for "What You Need to be Warm":    • "What you need to be warm” by Neil Ga...  

John Crowley: https://johncrowleyauthor.com/

https://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/

https://littlebig25.com/

Information on "Violent Cases":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent...

We carry out our conversation using the voice messenger app - Voxer.

If you haven't listened to our podcasts before, we use a voice messenger app to share our thoughts with each other to discuss a variety of topics as we go about our day.

Who are we at the Birds on Power Lines Podcast? We are a mom and young adult child team having the time of our lives talking about things we love and care about! Find the full set of podcasts on YouTube here:    • Birds on Power Lines Podcast  

We are also on (look for Birds on Power Lines Podcast):

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Art: All watercolor art by me: Evelyn Voura for Birds on Power Lines @BirdsOnPowerLines

Music: Music by my child for Birds on Power Lines @BirdsOnPowerLines

Bird sounds from: Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology    • Red-winged Blackbird  

Animation Loop: By Sven Hastedt via: Free Stock Footage http://videezy.com Free B Roll by Videezy Videezy.com

[redgriffun]

When we have successfully moved and found a new home, I will be buying this book. And when I am working as a kindergarten teacher again, I will be using this book in the classroom.

It opens with a simple question, easy to relate to, and then expands into the world...

Yes, I know Neil Gaimans position on Palestine is 'neutral', but the book, possibly conceived as 'neutral' and 'humane' position (like the UN) contains the seeds of neutralitys' downfall.

'you have the right to be here' is the very antithesis of Apartheid state. Such as Isr@el.

And of the white fortress policy which defines our putrid Australian Government crimes against refugees. And more.

We'll start there, with the right to be here.

[reasonsforhope]

People ask me sometimes how I'm so confident that we can beat climate change.

There are a lot of reasons, but here's a major one: it would take a really, really long time for Earth to genuinely become uninhabitable for humans.

Humans have, throughout history, carved out a living for themselves in some of the most harsh, uninhabitable corners of the world. The Arctic Circle. The Sahara. The peaks of the Himalayas. The densest, most tropical regions of the Amazon Rainforest. The Australian Outback. etc. etc.

Frankly, if there had been a land bridge to Antarctica, I'm pretty sure we would have been living there for thousands of years, too. And in fact, there are humans living in Antarctica now, albeit not permanently.

And now, we're not even facing down apocalypse, anymore. Here's a 2022 quote from the author of The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells, a leader on climate change and the furthest thing from a climate optimist:

"The most terrifying predictions [have been] made improbable by decarbonization and the most hopeful ones practically foreclosed by tragic delay. The window of possible climate futures is narrowing, and as a result, we are getting a clearer sense of what’s to come: a new world, full of disruption but also billions of people, well past climate normal and yet mercifully short of true climate apocalypse. Over the last several months, I’ve had dozens of conversations — with climate scientists and economists and policymakers, advocates and activists and novelists and philosophers — about that new world and the ways we might conceptualize it. Perhaps the most capacious and galvanizing account is one I heard from Kate Marvel of NASA, a lead chapter author on the fifth National Climate Assessment: “The world will be what we make it.”" -David Wallace-Wells for the New York Times, October 26, 2022

If we can adapt to some of the harshest climates on the planet - if we could adapt to them thousands of years ago, without any hint of modern technology - then I have every faith that we can adjust to the world that is coming.

What matters now is how fast we can change, because there is a wide, wide gap between "climate apocalypse" and "no harm done." We've already passed no harm done; the climate disasters are here, and they've been here. People have died from climate disasters already, especially in the Global South, and that will keep happening.

But as long as we stay alive - as long as we keep each other alive - we will have centuries to fix the effects of climate change, as much as we possibly can.

And looking at how far we've come in the past two decades alone - in the past five years alone - I genuinely think it is inevitable that we will overcome climate change.

So, we're going to survive climate change, as a species.

What matters now is making sure that every possible individual human survives climate change as well.

What matters now is cutting emissions and reinventing the world as quickly as we possibly can.

What matters now is saving every life and livelihood and way of life that we possibly can.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Good morning, Sleepyhead.

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[writing-for-life]

It’s wonderful, please get it. It doesn’t cost the earth, and it really helps.

Hello Neil! A personal "thank you", from a bookseller in the eastern United States, for your book WHAT YOU NEED TO BE WARM. It's a beautiful and necessary read in these tumultuous times. Your poem and the illustrations that your publisher chose to accompany it are quite literally heart-warming. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'm glad. Each copy literally helps feed someone or keep them warm.

[uncanny-tranny]

Basically, my philosophy around disability fakers is: I would rather a thousand people fake a disability than have one disabled person suffer without care, aids, compassion, or any help.

[havenandart]

if you perchance wanted to draw jay n dick just hangin out. i would have no choice but to love and appreciate you forever

"watch your mouth, little wing."

just thought about dick being a good big bro to jaybin before everything falls apart. ruined my own life for a moment

[hellsitegenetics]

Can U blast this https://urbanshade.org/wiki/Documents/Sebastian_Solace pls

String identified: caTatcaaaaaataactGTtttatcagcatcttcagtctaaaattattatcttataCAagtataaaCCTaatccatttatacattcctaccatccttttattagtCAcatacatagataatatttgtccataAtggtctatattccagagtattGaaacggcaaccaactaaatatctatccagatctagacggttaCACCTcattagttacgtatacttatatctaacattatctgaaggtgatgctaaaattagaattaagaatAtgctactttatcgattgaagtaaatagtctaatctatctccaacaaaacttaaacacaaaacttatattgaggAtaaaaaaagattaatatagaaaattttataaccagatattatattaacttctTctctatttctatgcacatatGagattactTtagttatattattcactttatcattattaaaccaacttcaattcacataAtttgtattgaagtattatacattactatattaaaccatatactaagtctatttattacttattcaagacacaAtttaggttatagaatttttatagaaacagtgtttgctaacctcatagaaaatcctaccaatatactaaattctttaatctaaatattagtttggg

Closest match: Balaenoptera musculus genome assembly, ██████ ████████ genome assembly, Microcephalophis gracilis genome assembly, Carcharodon carcharias genome assembly, Bufoceratias wedli mutated genome assembly, Diretmus argenteus genome assembly, Gonodactylus smithii genome assembly, Homo sapiens genome assembly Common name: THAT FUCKING FISH THAT I HATE

(If this image source is shown to unauthorized personnel, you'll be BLASTed with my wizard beams)

[cozylittleartblog]

yeah like having to deal with the obnoxious middle aged women who thrift to resell wasn't bad enough, now we got the braindead fast fashion bozos cluttering things up too.

its ok shirt, i will love you like somebody else apparently couldn't even if you shed microplastics into the water supply and will fall apart after 7 wears. and then i'll sew you back together like anyone with two braincells to rub together Should