Beyond Curd & Evil
In case I have not mentioned it before, my partner Niles works for a European cheese distributor, which means our fridge is constantly stocked with multiple types of delicious cheeses. We had this conversation after I polished off two little blocks of triple crème brie in quick succession.
For those of you reading this who know Niles personally: no, Penta Creme is a real cheese, and not a pun he made up. But it did make for a timely Halloween-adjacent comic!
I had a magnificent time at the Wisconsin Book Festival last week! My friend Liz came to Madison with me, and we walked around the city, did some shopping, and dropped in on the Book Festival’s book sale where we both found some treasures. Our hotel room had a stunning view of the capital building.
My talk at the festival was so much fun. I had a great chat with Ian Gurfield of Ian’s Pizza and Batch Bakehouse about bread and sourdough and comics and food, and the audience had smart questions, and I was delighted to sign lots of books afterwards! The Wisconsin Book Fest uploaded a video of my talk, so you can actually watch it if you want!
I am really, really happy that I don’t have any conventions or talks for a bit now. I’ve had enough traveling for a little while, and I’m really looking forward to a bit of rest. (And maybe deep cleaning and reorganizing my studio, because I am bad at resting.)
The Only Upcoming Thing:
December 6: I’ll be speaking on a few panels and selling books at Sulzer Regional Library in Chicago!
⭐Chicago Scene Report:⭐
Things here are still scary. Last Friday, ICE agents detained a manager at a comedy club for several hours. This happened in Lakeview, a wealthy white neighborhood on the north side. He’s a white dude and a US citizen, and he was with his mom. When she tried to tell the agents he was a citizen, they reportedly kicked her in the face.
As of the time I’m writing this, agents have tear gassed residential streets FOUR TIMES since a federal judge’s court order prohibiting that exact thing.
They’re still refusing to let anyone (including clergy) observe inside the facilities, but some reports say they have stuffed up to 60 people to a single cell in there, and the detainees are forced to sleep standing up.
No one knows when the agents will descend on their area and wreak havoc. They don’t seem to care if people are criminals or not, citizens or not; they’re attacking people in the peaceful suburbs just as much as in the city neighborhoods. Chicagoans are doing everything they can to pull together and help protect each other, but at the moment, it feels like the rest of the country either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that this is happening to us.
If you’re not in Chicago, and especially if you’re in a red state: please, please share this news with your friends. And call your congresspeople, and tell them: in America, we’re not supposed to have heavily armed masked secret police harassing people and demanding their papers.
What I’m into lately:
Who’s got two thumbs and just purchased Once Upon a Katamari?? THIS GAL. RIP my productivity.
What Toki’s into lately:
Is that a greenie in your hand?? Are you withholding greenies from the Young Prince??
