I am so sorry to hear. Thank you for giving us a chance to meet this wonderful bird. Wishing you the best.

I knew a bird who looked a little like that. He lived to be 26. He was my darling.

Pure Saruman.

Veilguard-appreciator here. Connective tissue-writing sort of like summary-writing--a task necessary but perilous, marrying a horrifying level of responsibility with a perpetual betrayal of what we must compact and reiterate. All my respect, Mr. Epler.

As a kid I read that The Left Hand of Darkness began in LeGuin's mind as the image of two people pulling a sled through a snowy wasteland. That pretty profoundly impacted the way I proceed. Not tropes so much as angles of light. Tropes might emerge in retrospect.

Weirdly, this might be the ONLY way to get anti-gerrymandering laws at this point.

In the ancient days, my friends used to appear at morning cafes in thrifted operatic splendor not entirely unlike what you describe.