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@sirosenbaum.bsky.social

8.1K followers 1.4K following 10K posts

The atlas-eater with a jaw for news :: Writing for Flaming Hydra :: Formerly: Providence Journal, Tampa Bay Times, Boston Phoenix, Boston magazine, Bloomberg :: si at arrr dot net

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 20d

Don't break bread. Don't accept gifts. Make sure you spell their name right. If you're INSIDE the salt circle you're ON the record.

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 20d

the rules of journalistic ethics and the rules of Faerie ethics are eerily similar

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 6m

yeah they tried that with me but I never signed nothin, so I just canceled the card they had on file.

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 7m

the dispute's been settled bc they claimed they did the service. I wrote back to say no they hadn't and they'd solicited under a fraudulent name

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 8m

we may have to go to the parasitic wasps, but I'm going to try moth killer first.

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

Moral: ALWAYS go thru Thumbtack, don't let anyone panic-sell you a service

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

we got them scheduled for Friday

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

do you have a contract with them?

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

The actual company is Terminix, which has a truly horrifying reputation

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

That is VERY TRUE and the reason I win at all contests of life

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

Anything else I should do to protect myself? We signed no contract, he didn't even have my email.

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

By this time I've cancelled the card and reported the pending charge as fraudulant to the bank. Checked; there's no "East Providence Pest Pros" registered with the state. File a consumer protection report.
Guy calls me today and I inform him he's not getting this money.

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

Apparently a guy arrives about an hour later, my tenant lets him in, he looks around, places a single pheremone trap, and emails my tenant a $390 invoice.

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

I ask when the exterminator will be at our house. He asks what company I'm calling, and then says "call their direct line" and hangs up.
I call again, say I want to discuss my account. Same guy says they have no record of my number and hangs up.

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

SO ... I got word that we had a moth problem at the house. I called the 401 number on the website for "East Providence Pest Pros." They talked us into what they said would be several treatments at $390 a pop.
Next day, no one shows up in the allotted time, so I call the number. Guy picks up. >

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Reposted

Chubby Leopard @valarmordollars.bsky.social · 1h

Prayers for Dolly...there are other Ds out there tho..

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

hush your mouth

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

Amen and Ameen.

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

Old heads know

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 1h

TIL the hottest most popular girl in my class turned out to be a medical genius and has a book out

I was a homely friendless nerd for NOTHING

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 2h

SMH people posting this like they aint even heard of Hen Wen

Phoebe Barton 🚀🇺🇳 @phoebebarton.bsky.social · 18h

Tumblr poster: Why is the Fantasy Protagonist's Cool Animal Companion always a wolf, a bird of prey, or something cool? If you live in a medieval-ish society, even if you have cool powers to bond with an animal, it's probably going to be a farm animal.

What about a fantasy book where the heroine's Spirit Companion Animal is a pig. And not a cute piglet, but a huge fucking sow. As clever as a human, but absolutely as ruthless as pigs can be.

And the protagonist is like "should I quit eating pork? Does it disturb you, that milk piglet could have been yours." And the pig is like "bitch first of all the difference is that it *isn't* mine, and don't fucking pretend that - given the chance - I wouldn't eat a human child."

keuhkopussirotta: "What are we going to do with him?"
"I propose murder."
"Where would we put the body?"
"I volunteer."
"Are you suggesting we should kill him *because* you want to eat his corpse?"
"I'm sure there are plenty of other good reasons to kill him here, I just can't think of them all right now."

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Reposted

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 4d

Chemerinsky: The Trump extortion demands are unconstitutional as well as odious (gift link). Me: Any school that signs must be shunned, faculty affected must walk. No room for this.

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

awwwwwwwwwwww

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

Question: which societies have/had the least anxiety about the legitimacy of trade interactions?

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

but yeah it's just so abundantly, extravagantly stupid -- "not even wrong" as they say. Where to start. People are not fungible units? Alchemy didn't even work that way? Iron pyrite is in fact, for several uses, interchangeable with gold? "The Middle Ages" isn't even a thing?

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

next up: Catullus!

sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

oh they knew