Humdrum Places - BlogFlock

🧊 ICE Agents Will Join Olympics Delegation in Italy. Many Italians are Angry. - The Independent Variable

2026-01-27T19:02:49.000Z

Mr. Sala [the Mayor of Milan] added: “Bringing to Milan a militia which distinguished itself — this is not my opinion — with criminal acts, which kills, which enters in the homes of American citizens without authorization, I do not think that that is a good idea.”

This is insane. The Olympic Committee and Italian government should ban America from the Olympic Games—and other countries should boycott the World Cup in North America (as should the US team). An untrained and unlawful unit of thugs and murderers shouldn’t be welcome anywhere. And we know they are untrained because they are hiring people based on six-minute interviews and without background checks—not to mention the evidence we can see with our eyes as they escalate situations and are overly trigger happy.

ABOLISH ICE - foofaraw

2026-01-25T20:22:33.000Z

For the crime of helping someone to their feet and legally filming, an American citizen, Alex Pretti, was beaten to the ground by at least six ICE agents. While being beaten, Pretti never once removed the firearm he had legally holstered as someone with a permit to carry. Instead, while being beaten, one of the ICE agents removed Pretti's pistol and ran away. Moments later, unarmed, defenseless, and on the ground, he was executed. As he lay still, an ICE agent continued to empty his clip into Pretti's motionless body.

These are all verifiable facts that you can witness with your own eyes in videos recorded by people who were there. There is no disputing this. Since this incident, more and more videos have been captured of ICE agents attempting to take away the camera phones of observers. These are the actions of murderers who have no intent to follow the law and who have no remorse for the actions that have led to the loss of multiple lives.

As much as I'd love to dedicate this space to the wonderful writing we published this week, it just seems so silly and insignificant.

If you are looking for a way to help people in Minnesota, I've included a number of links below with places to donate and ways to help. If you donate $25 or more to anyone doing good in Minnesota to help feed folks or protect people's rights, I'll send you a free copy of both of our novelletes in print and/or digital, and a free year of Foofaraw[+].

Just email the receipt/confirmation of your donation along with your physical address (if you'd like the books in print) to hello [at] foofaraw [dot] press. I will ship internationally, no matter the cost, as long as there is money going to people in the ground in MN.

@mplsmutualaid | Linktree

Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors

Linktree

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory

Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory

How To Help if You are Outside Minnesota

Last edited January 22, 2026 I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you more or less understand the situation in Minnesota and I don’t have to explain it to you! That sa…

Will Tell Stories For Foodnaomikritzer

Donate to Collective Care Fund, organized by Emily LaJoy

Help Support Refugee & Immigrant Families Affected by ICE Enforcement in Minnesota Over the p… Emily LaJoy needs your support for Collective Care Fund

gofundme.comEEmily LaJoy and Canned Laughter Productions

Donate to Support Benji’s Mission to Feed Families, organized by Benji Gomez

My name is Benji. I started an underground food pantry and delivery servi… Benji Gomez needs your support for Support Benji’s Mission to Feed Families

gofundme.comBBenji Gomez

Donate - Star Tribune Company

The Minnesota Star Tribune Local News Fund Support the Minnesota Star Tribune Local News Fund DONATE NOW DONATE NOW Photo by Brian Peterson A free press comes at a real…

Star Tribune Company

If you’ve vetted any other organizations that could use money, please let me know and I’ll add them to this list.

And if you're looking for a momentary escape, here is the story, interview, and column we published this week.

An interview with the author of Torrents

foofarawfoofaraw

🔭 The Driving Essay

by Nicholas De Marino

foofarawfoofaraw

—Kevin

🔫 Videos of Shooting Appear to Contradict Federal Officials - The Independent Variable

2026-01-24T23:23:17.000Z

NYT

“Appear to Contradict” really?! The videos flat out prove the government is lying. You can clearly see him holding a phone before he’s taken to the ground by a group of gestapo. Then one of the thugs pulls the gun away from Alex Jeffrey Pretti’s holster and runs away with it while he continues to be beaten on by the others, moments before they murder him—while he’s on the ground, defenseless— in cold blood.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK ALL OF THIS. I’m at a loss for words at this point. There are just too many hypocritical contradictions and lies and travesties happening every single day. If you’re not livid and losing your mind right now, if you’re okay with people dying so the rich can get tax breaks and the poor can lose their food stamps and they can kick a few brown people out of the country, then you can go fuck yourself.

Why is it this country has deported millions of people over the years, but now it requires warrantless searches, requiring people to have their papers, kidnapping children, deporting citizens, and murder to do the job now?

🎙️ Erica W. Weems - foofaraw

2026-01-23T17:00:04.000Z

Read Erica's story, Torrents, on Foofaraw now!

Do you believe in UFOs?

I’m so disappointed I haven’t seen one. Yet.

On a scale from 1 to 10—10 being “freaking out uncontrollably”—how do you think you’d handle a situation like this?

I’d say around a 7. I’d be intrigued, but my heart rate would go up to 150 beats per minute. In my current location, I’d freak out about anyone unknown entering my home—safety first.

How do you think things would’ve gone with the extraterrestrial if it wasn’t raining?

Perhaps the end would have been different, since Marcy and Joe remember that it’s risky to use rotary phones during storms, and act out of concern for the exterrestrial.

Something about this is giving 80’s vibes to me—what time period is this set in?

I envisioned a setting more than a time period, but the rotary phone and landline do give 80’s vibes. Also, do kids prank call these days?

When’s the last time you found yourself caught outside in the rain?

I was travelling in Paso Robles, California on the 13th of February, 2025, and had no food with me, so I needed to venture out in a rainstorm to find breakfast. I can’t remember another time I ate pancakes while being completely soaked.

Do you think Joe and Marcy can go back to their lives as normal or will this experience hang over them for a long time to come?

They will continue to wonder what the neighbors think. It’s that kind of a town.

What's a great short story you’ve read recently?

“Ce que disent les fleurs,” by George Sand

What book are you reading right now?

L’aménagement du territoire, by Aurélien Bellanger

I have a sci-fi piece, “The Divine Bottle,” published in abducted cow and a humor piece, “Interrupted Joke,” in Superpresent. I also have a flash piece, “Promenade,” in BlazeVOX and another short fiction piece, “Wind,” in The Razor.

Thanks to Erica for chatting with us about the mysterious and unknown!

☔ Torrents - foofaraw

2026-01-22T17:00:17.000Z

Rain pattered on the window. It had been coming down all day and was showing no signs of letting up. If anything, it was getting heavier by the minute. The extraterrestrial wandered outside, holding its appendages out, as if feeling it for the first time.

“I don’t think it rains on their planet, Joe,” said Marcy.

They waited in the parlor by the large bay window while the rain poured down harder and harder. The extraterrestrial carried on. It gleamed as if lit by a dozen halogen lightbulbs. Marcy would have put something like this on a Christmas tree—a big one, though, like the one at Rockefeller Center.

“Marcy, don’t you think it should come back in?” It had wandered into the parlor through the back door earlier, and had made no trouble, although it had tried to interact with the ficus plant that grew in the corner of the room, near the entrance to the kitchen.

“You call it in.”

“Can it hear me?”

“Who can hear anything with this rain?”

The rain indeed fell as if otherworldly beings were pouring it from gigantic pitchers in the sky. The sound it made on the shed’s tin roof was deafening.

“Hope the bicycles are in.” Joe pictured their wheels rusting right off in these torrents.

Then the telephone rang.

Marcy and Joe looked at each other.

Joe started toward it, but stopped abruptly. “You think it’s the neighbors? Have they seen anything?”

“Who’d look out the window in this weather?”

“We are.”

It was true. And if anyone else saw what was going on, they would be questioned. And if they were questioned, they would be held responsible. And what would happen to the extraterrestrial? It had only arrived that afternoon. In the distance it seemed like a firefly, although it wasn’t the season for them yet.

The telephone continued to ring.

Joe walked across the room, past the kitchen door, and reached his hand toward the curving handset. It trembled as it rang again. He picked it up.

“Hello?”

Some crackly sounds spewed out of the receiver.

Marcy came over, straining to hear.

“Hello, Bosworth residence,” Joe repeated what their parents had said while they were growing up.

More static.

“I think the rain has affected the telephone line.” Joe held the handset away from him, frowning.

Artwork by Tony Tran

Marcy turned back to the window. The extraterrestrial was jerking its appendages in different directions. Almost as if it were attempting to dance—the way Joe did, when people tried not to comment.

“I really think it should come in,” said Joe, putting down the receiver. He walked to the door, opened it, got hit by a sheet of rain, and shut it immediately.

Marcy stared. “I’ll get towels.”

The telephone rang again.

“Who in the world could be calling?” Joe started toward it.

“Hey—the floor.”

“Oh, right.” Joe stared at his dripping button-down shirt. He remained where he was.

The jangling of the telephone pierced the humid air.

Marcy hesitated, then picked it up.

Joe stood impatiently by the door.

“Hello.” Marcy listened intently, then jerked her head back as a crack sounded through the receiver. “Ow!”

“Ow...” came faintly through the line.

Marcy knitted her brow and cautiously drew the receiver closer to her ear. “Is anyone there?”

There was some static, and Marcy held the receiver away again, anticipating another loud crack.

“What in blazes..?” Joe walked over.

“Joe! We just polished the wood!”

But he’d already come over. Rivulets streamed from under his slippers.

More crackling. Then a whoosh—or was it a “Woooo...”?

“I can’t make heads or tails of it,” Marcy said, and almost hung up, but Joe caught the handset before it reached the telephone base.

“Hello?”

“Your fingers are wet.”

“Sorry.”

“Soooooo,” came through the receiver.

“Who is this? Is this Frankie?”

Frankie was the daughter of the neighbors down the road. She’d already gotten in trouble for prank calling.

“Keeeeeeey...”

“See here, now this is not funny. It’s raining buckets and you shouldn’t be making prank calls.”

“Keeeeeeey...”

“This is just too much!”

“Joe! Look!” Marcy cried. She was at the window.

The extraterrestrial stood in the rain, staring back at her.

She waved.

The extraterrestrial came closer.

Joe shivered as he held the handset. The cord dangling from it shook.

“You really should change.”

“I thought you were going to get towels.”

“You’re already inside, ruining the wood floors.”

The extraterrestrial came closer to the window. At the same time, the telephone receiver crackled. Joe nearly dropped it.

Sheets of rain pounded on the house and the sky changed to steel grey.

The extraterrestrial gleamed all the more.

A crack sounded, and Marcy looked over to the telephone, but the noise was coming from outside. A blinding flash lit up the room, draining color from the curtains, table, telephone, and every other object in the room. A crash followed. An earthquake? Now both of them were trembling. But the banging rolled into a rumbling, and thunder followed.

The room went dark.

Marcy made out Joe’s figure by the side table in the darkness.

“Joe! Let go of the telephone!”

There was a thump and Marcy jumped.

“I dropped it.”

“You ok?”

“Well, I didn’t get electrocuted, if that’s what you’re wondering about.”

“Ohhhhhhh...”

“It’s that darned telephone line. We should have it looked at,” said Joe.

Before Marcy’s eyes could fully adjust to the darkness, they were accosted by another bright light.

The extraterrestrial was approaching, the light emanating from it getting stronger and stronger.

“Is that lightning?” Joe asked.

“It’s our friend.”

Another “Ohhhhhhh...” came from the telephone receiver, as it swayed from its cord where Joe had let go of it.

The extraterrestrial moved toward the door.

Joe came and stood beside Marcy.

The extraterrestrial opened the door and walked in. Joe looked over at Marcy, expecting her to say something about the floor, but she just watched, mouth agape. In any case, there didn’t seem to be much water dripping from the extraterrestrial. Perhaps its glow deflected water—or at least hid it.

A limp sound putted out of the telephone’s receiver. The extraterrestrial walked toward it.

“Stop!” Marcy and Joe yelled at the same time.

But the extraterrestrial picked up the swinging handset just as another bolt of lightning blazed through the sky.

“Owwww...” came from the receiver.

“Owwww...” responded the extraterrestrial.

Marcy and Joe tumbled toward it frantically. They reached the side table just as it vaporized in front of their eyes.

Marcy and Joe stared at the spot where the extraterrestrial had stood.

Thunder crashed. It was farther away this time.

“What did it say? Why did it leave?” asked Joe.

“Too wet.” Marcy shook her head.

Erica W. Weems writes technical documents, miscellaneous articles, and fiction. She is also on staff at a theatre. She volunteers at a museum, enjoys dancing, and explores botanic gardens. Her fiction has appeared in BlazeVOX, abducted cow, Superpresent, and The Razor.

📚 Story/Day/Year - The Independent Variable

2026-01-21T03:00:01.000Z

One Word at a Time

If you know anything about me, you know I love a good story—so much so I started my own short fiction litmag, but that’s neither here nor there. Michael Staniforth is doing a review of a different short story every day of the year and it’s been a joy to follow along.

🔭 The Driving Essay - foofaraw

2026-01-20T17:00:32.000Z

An Interview with the author’s 2007 Ford Focus.

Read Nicholas’s column, “The Driving Essay,” on Foofaraw now!

First off, how many of these stories are true?

Most, probably. I’ve got corresponding dents, stains, and scorch marks. On the other fender, my “check engine” light’s been illuminated since mid-2009. You could track down the demented artists, horny anarchists, and that incontinent hitchhiker for corroboration, but you’d still have to overtake subjective experience and selective memory in the passing lane. On the other fender—there’s an advantage to having fenders rather than hands—this ain’t exactly Stephen King’s “Maximum Overdrive.” Sing along if you know the words, “Your mileage may vary.”

The great American road trip. Now there’s a comfortable trope! Why not assembly line that?

That David Copperfield, bumper-to-bumper shtick is pure cruise control. And do you really want to read about the glacially slow fossilization of the algae and plankton that went into the production of my plastic glove box handle? To hell with the glacially slow fossilization of the algae and plankton that went into the production of my plastic glove box handle! You can take the glacially slow fossilization of the algae and plankton that went into the production of my plastic glove box handle and shove it up your asphalt! You ever read “The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí”? Now there’s an autobiography I’d tailgate.

I thought the whole point of that book is to make you quit reading.

Audiot!

I don't know enough about cars to get that.

Banause!

Gesundheit. Each chapter of your book begins with an air freshener scent that foreshadows calamity. How'd you arrive at that device?

I wanted to demonstrate the impotence of capitalism as a problem-solving method for endemic corruption. It only masks and distracts as our collective social upholstery autocannibalizes. It’s morbid, ironic skill application, like in that Stephen King story, “Survivor Type.”

I’m with you on the power of smell. Maybe you overheard that story I tell whenever we rumble road kill to distract from the lingering putridity? The one about dementia and my host mom in Japan. How she took care of her aging mother and would cook her favorite food whenever she got upset and confused. The smell calmed her down. Sweet, kinda sad, and wholly unlike unholy skunk.

You’re drifting. And why don’t you ever share the story about when you drove me on a flat for three miles because it’d just snowed and you didn’t want to put on a donut in the cold? My poor rim!

But I always changed your oil! I even used the numbers on that stretchy sticker that looks like a holiday window cling. That’s twice as often as in the manual!

Oil changes are the undercarriage, not the roof rack. You need to rotate tires. You don’t try—you just do. Fifty-one percent of turns are right turns, you know that?

Was that a Seinfeld quote?

The one where Kramer and Newman try the Michigan bottle deposit scam. I gotta tell you, seeing the walk-in trunk of that USPS truck sparked something in me, ohhh boy.

Not my jam, but you do you. I get the pop culture thing, though. I find more emotional resonance with Homer than, well, Homer. It’s about shared experiences and nouveau mythological touchstones. Plus, you know, there are no new ideas.

Even that David Mitchel book “Cloud Atlas” felt like a carpool karaoke live stream in an airport beater. And the not-McDonald’s robot slavery transcript felt like a high-interest auto loan on a model with zero resale value. Storytelling is a zeitgeist thing. Look at you, writing from year-old notes while stories with the exact same ideas keep popping up on foofaraw!

Remember Erin Brandt Filliter’s “Eroticauto (AKA: a Carlequin Romance, AKA: 50 Shades of Grease)” back in August? That was a banger.

And what about that horror CNF piece you've been shopping all year? The one with that discount BetterHelp psychiatrist's five-things-you-can-see bullshit. Salena Casha did it better with “What She Would Give” in June. And your riff on carcinisation like that one of Joel Glover’s Cavendish stories, “The Announcement," back in October of 2024. Hey, did you catch that? We're plugging other writers like at the end of a foofaraw author interview. Maybe you should ask Kevin to interview you about this one …

[Editor’s note: I think I have too many questions about Nick’s sanity to even know where to begin with an interview…]

That's too meta, even for me.

Again with the brake calling the accelerator pedestrian! How can you even justify this odyssey? You haven't driven a car in almost a decade.

Fair. Any parting shots?

Fuck you, Lightning McQueen. Also, those self-driving cars in Philip K. Dick’s “The Game Players of Titan” are almost here, and given their track record so far, we should rethink that whole “vehicular manslaughter” thing.

—Nicholas De Marino

🤡 Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize - The Independent Variable

2026-01-20T06:14:30.000Z

NY Times

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace”

This is pure insanity. What a childish, insecure, petty old man. The narcissism and selfishness to try to take over a country for what you think is a personal slight is next level. And as every sane person knows, it wasn’t a slight because he doesn’t deserve jack shit; this only goes to prove that even more, along with every other action he’s taken in the last decade.

💎 Adam Sandler: “I Will Make At Least 50 More Movies Before I Am Dead, and 25 of Them Will Be Good” - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T17:48:33.000Z

World of Reel

When Sandler digs deep into a performance, like the one in “Punch-Drunk Love,” there’s an eccentricity to it that most mainstream movie stars simply don’t have. He taps into something that I can best describe as wounded, awkward, and —quietly?— explosive — a kind of emotional instability that feels authentic. You have to endure the disposable comedies so that, every once in a while, Sandler can reach this type of performance out of the bag.

It’s wild that Sandler wasn’t nominated for Uncut Gems. I thought he was going to have a chance to win it that year, and to not even get nominated was a tragedy. When I see him show up in something that’s not a slapstick Happy Madison production, I’m always thrilled. He’s never bad, and often times surprises delightfully.

📚 You shouldn’t buy a colour e-reader (yet) - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T17:47:51.000Z

Z1NZ0L1N

As long as colour electronic paper is as grainy as Kaleido and as slow as Gallery, you should stick with black-and-white E Ink displays (or go with colour LCD/OLED). If and when colour e-paper improves enough to be worth it, you’ll still have to think long and hard about how and why you’ll use your device, and choose its size and shape accordingly.

This was interesting and informative. I’ve been looking at another e-ink device since my Kindle seemed to go kaput last week. I use it more for reading longer submissions to Foofaraw as I’m all-in on print again, but haven’t figured out what device would work best for that and reading articles.

🤡 As Kennedy Center Rebrands It’s Mired in Black Tape - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T17:47:38.000Z

NY Times

How insecure and petty do you have to be to have the name Kennedy blocked out with black tape until they can add your name. Last Trump news for the day, I promise/hope…

💸 Trump Sets Fraudster Free From Prison for a Second Time - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T17:46:51.000Z

NY Times

In 2021, a convicted fraudster named Adriana Camberos was freed from prison when President Trump commuted her sentence. Rather than taking advantage of that second chance, prosecutors said, Ms. Camberos returned to crime. She and her brother were convicted in 2024 in an unrelated fraud.

Imaginary fraud for 100 bucks by poor people: straight to jail. Real fraud for millions of dollars by people in power: come on in, the water’s lovely. Oh wait, I forgot, they are “eliminating fraud and waste.” Weird.

🏈 Trump Says He Will Sign Executive Order Giving Army-Navy Football Game an Exclusive TV Window - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T17:41:15.000Z

THR

It is not clear what the executive order will say, or what legal mechanism there is to enforce an exclusive broadcast window. FCC chairman Brendan Carr reposted Trump on Sunday, which is suggestive of the order being directed at his agency, which regulates broadcast TV stations.

So much for the free market. We already have state run media with Fox and CBS, might as well tell us what we can and can’t watch at this point.

Week 03—2026 - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T04:31:58.000Z

🫀 A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion. - The Independent Variable

2026-01-19T02:31:19.000Z

ProPublica

She wouldn’t. In a region that had legislated its commitment to life, she would spend her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

I admit, I’m a bit heated right now, and there are obviously a lot of parties at fault in the way this all went down, but if you voted for Donald Trump, you voted for a system that allowed/caused Ciji Graham and women like her to die.

Deaths that would be preventable in any country without barbaric laws that control women’s bodies. It feels like these people would rather let both the woman and fetus die than save the life of the woman. It’s fucked up.

Now... - The Independent Variable

2026-01-18T04:46:19.000Z

...I just gotta get Kottke to link to Foofaraw somehow... So if you're the magical person who got this site in front of Jason last week, this is directed at you. Go tell him about Foofaraw, a zine of surreal storytelling and worldly observations, which publishes some of the best short stories, novellas, wacky columns, webcomics, and soon, a giant anthology!

It's inspired by the likes of Clarkesworld, Uncanny, and McSweeney's, but also the New Yorker, with our regular columnists, weekly media guide, and more.

We could use a couple more paid subscribers over there as we raise the rates we pay to writers starting July 1st.

January 2026 - The Independent Variable

2026-01-18T04:31:55.000Z

Did you know we produce a little single-page zine every month about the prior month's news? And you can get it in your mailbox on some nice paper too! What's better than getting something in the mail?

Upgrade

We are a bit late this month for a few reasons.

First, I tried to enjoy the holidays and basically took two full weeks off to kick back and relax with my wife and two pups. That part was absolutely wonderful.

Then January started and shit hit the fan immediately here in the US. It got me thinking about how I could potentially continue to make this little “paper” while also cutting back on the news that seems to be killing my mental health and draining me from the inside out.

As you’ll see below, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. And honestly, I’m not sure I should. I have serious questions for anyone who isn’t full of dread and anxiety, and constantly on edge right now—and ignoring it won’t solve anything.

So here we are… looking back at all the wonderful things that happened waaaay back in December 2025 with a completely revamped and redesigned LLoN for the new year. There are probably a few details here and there that might need to be updated and improved, but welcome to 2026.

😵‍💫 Yeah, same. - The Independent Variable

2026-01-18T04:27:45.000Z

Kottke

Umm… so this happened… the godfather of linkblogging somehow came across this silly little site and linked to it… bringing over 4,000+ visitors…

I don’t ever go into the Ghost dashboard, so I had no idea until just now as I was getting ready to send out the first Little Letter of Nonsense this year (late as usual…)

🎉 Weekend edition vol.087 - foofaraw

2026-01-17T17:00:21.000Z

It's been a while since we've been in your inbox, but that doesn't mean things have slowed down.

Our next novelette in print comes out on Feb 1, everywhere books are sold, but you can buy it directly from us right now—if you're so inclined.

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor

A short novelette about pop stardom, social media influencers, and the lengths people will go for fame or to walk in someone else’s shoes.

Foofaraw Press

We also launched a brand new litmag and site on January 1st, which has published 17 pieces already, with more coming—every single day!

Quotidian Bagatelle

microstories and more—every single day

Quotidian BagatelleQB

Since there's plenty to read linked below, I'll leave you to it and see you back here on Monday for the return of The Media Guide.

But first, a quick detour about truth...

Here are some stories you might've missed from the end of 2025:

🪲 Transformation

by E. Florian Gludovacz

foofarawfoofaraw

🍝 Blessed be the bolognese

by Christy Hartman

foofarawfoofaraw

And the new year started just as great, with three wonderful stories so far:

🎳 Alette in lane six is a self-righteous bitch

🗿 Joan’s Stone on Loan

by Lyss Buchthal

foofarawfoofaraw

Plus, we published a really great speculative poem from Andrew Maust:

🦠 Post-Apocalyptic Procyonid Plague

by Andrew Maust

foofarawfoofaraw

Don't forget to read all the wonderful author interviews we've done as well!

🎙️ E. Florian Gludovacz

An interview with the author of Transformation

foofarawfoofaraw

🎙️ Christy Hartman

An interview with the author of Blessed be the bolognese

foofarawfoofaraw

🎙️ Ben Daggers

An interview with the author of Alette in lane six is a self-righteous bitch

foofarawfoofaraw

🎙️ E.J. LeRoy

An interview with the author of Moon to Moon FM

foofarawfoofaraw

🎙️ Lyss Buchthal

An interview with the author of Joan’s Stone on Loan

foofarawfoofaraw

➡️

Next week:
An interview with an automobile and an alien amidst a torrential downpour

The Bodies by D.H. Parish

a 46-page print novella

foofarawfoofaraw

👹 GWAR cover "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan - The Independent Variable

2026-01-16T19:11:14.000Z

YouTube

I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use a break from all of the news and this feels like the perfect antidote to give my mental sanity a little rest.

Humdrum Places - BlogFlock

🧊 ICE Agents Will Join Olympics Delegation in Italy. Many Italians are Angry. - The Independent Variable

ABOLISH ICE - foofaraw

🔫 Videos of Shooting Appear to Contradict Federal Officials - The Independent Variable

🎙️ Erica W. Weems - foofaraw

Do you believe in UFOs?

On a scale from 1 to 10—10 being “freaking out uncontrollably”—how do you think you’d handle a situation like this?

How do you think things would’ve gone with the extraterrestrial if it wasn’t raining?

Something about this is giving 80’s vibes to me—what time period is this set in?

When’s the last time you found yourself caught outside in the rain?

Do you think Joe and Marcy can go back to their lives as normal or will this experience hang over them for a long time to come?

What's a great short story you’ve read recently?

What book are you reading right now?

Do you have anything else you'd like to share or mention?

Thanks to Erica for chatting with us about the mysterious and unknown!

☔ Torrents - foofaraw

📚 Story/Day/Year - The Independent Variable

🔭 The Driving Essay - foofaraw

An Interview with the author’s 2007 Ford Focus.

Read Nicholas’s column, “The Driving Essay,” on Foofaraw now!

First off, how many of these stories are true?

The great American road trip. Now there’s a comfortable trope! Why not assembly line that?

I thought the whole point of that book is to make you quit reading.

I don't know enough about cars to get that.

Gesundheit. Each chapter of your book begins with an air freshener scent that foreshadows calamity. How'd you arrive at that device?

But I always changed your oil! I even used the numbers on that stretchy sticker that looks like a holiday window cling. That’s twice as often as in the manual!

Was that a Seinfeld quote?

Not my jam, but you do you. I get the pop culture thing, though. I find more emotional resonance with Homer than, well, Homer. It’s about shared experiences and nouveau mythological touchstones. Plus, you know, there are no new ideas.

Remember Erin Brandt Filliter’s “Eroticauto (AKA: a Carlequin Romance, AKA: 50 Shades of Grease)” back in August? That was a banger.

That's too meta, even for me.

Fair. Any parting shots?

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