SPOILERS for all four of these movies! The Substance - This movie is a combination of body horror and satire, and it's incredibly blunt in its message. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a movie star and exercise show host who's fallen out of fashion. She learns about some weird experimental treatment that creates a new, younger body, played by Margaret Qualley; but requires that she switch between them every week. As such, she's able to apply for a job as her own replacement, just calling herself Sue. Since she's young and pretty, nobody cares whether she has a last name or that she never has anything relevant to say, or for that matter that she can only work every other week.

A failing Ron DeSantis higher ed experiment gets a boost

Entirely coincidentally, I've finished a few books as of late that involved a king being killed. With two of them, it's even in the title. So there's sort of a theme here, although the first few books I talk about in this post don't fit into it. The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, by Howard Pyle - This is one that doesn't deal with regicide. Arthur was famously killed, but that doesn't happen in this volume. The follow-up to Pyle's first book on the subject, which focused on Arthur, this one is mostly the adventures of three particular…

I've had another one of my stories published in the 2025 issue of Oziana, and since I've now read my contributor's copy, I suppose I should say a few things about it. The cover illustration is by Stephen Smith. "The Royal Joust of Oz," by Scott B. Blanke - The Yellow Knight has been transformed back into his old Sir Hokus of Pokes form by the son of the Sultan of Samandra, who wanted to marry Marygolden. The only way to break the spell is for Hokus to prove his right to be a knight by winning in a joust, so his friends in the Emerald City arrange one.