Journal 12/5/25

Not gonna make it to the Cherry Lane kickoff event tonight, due to the forecast of freezing rain for later this evening. My youngest son has a school obligation to attend, and I don’t want him driving in that crap. Since I have a beast of a 4-wheel drive (affectionately named Red Sonja) I’ll be sticking close to home and driving him instead.

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Occasional Vortex part-timer Angeli stopped in today, and told me of another store closing here on the main drag. This one is a decent-sized anchor and has been there a long time. I suspect that by this time next year the business district of Columbia will be a ghost town, unless the new incoming borough council can do something to stem the bleeding caused by the ineptitude of the previous mayor and borough council, the absentee landlords, the burgeoning homelessness problem, and the utterly scum-fuck parking enforcement nitwits.

But it won’t be my problem, now will it? The Vortex online store requires no parking meter.

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My wife, author Mary SanGiovanni, has written what is pretty much the best writing-related essay of 2025. You can read it for free here, and I encourage all of you to do so, particularly if you are a woman.

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And for more on the Scares That Care 2026 Women’s Writing Symposium, go here.