It’s Friday! The fourth (and final) Friday in October! Are you ready to get your spooky on? And by this time next week, will you be joining me in National Novel Writing Month?
Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of the first edition of Friday Five, which replaced my previous Friday Links. I have not, over the course of this last year, stuck strictly to my original redefinition of the post: only the five top stories of the week, plus notable obituaries, links to my own posts, and five videos. Some weeks I have two or three categories of links each of which contains five stories. But my goal of limiting how much time I was spending assembling a post which fewer people have been reading since the inauguration of that which has put many of us into compassion fatigue and so forth, has been obtained. So, since I find it impossible not to read the news and bookmark stories I find interesting, this is going to continue!
Which brings us to the Friday Five: the top five (IMHO) stories of the week featuring good news, top five stories, top five stories of interest to queers and our allies, top five sci fi stories, the bottom five awful news stories, and five videos (plus my blog post and notable obituaries).
Good News:
Free rent in Seattle, no catch: Landlords’ faith inspired a gift for tenants.
What Would Jesus Pod? Episode 20: Politicon and Christians Against Trump.
Judge rejects conservative Christian group’s request to halt Drag Queen Story Hour.
This one needs explaining: usually Shapiro is the one making deranged attacks on queer people, women, racial minorities, and the left in general. So I have to acknowledge when he says something good: Shapiro criticizes conspiracy theories about bomb threats to Dems.
Wild bear trapped in a Chinese hydropower station is saved after a dramatic 14-hour operation.
Stories of the Week:
Did the Maya create the first ‘comics’?
Op-Ed: Cis People’s Feelings Must Not Take Precedence Over Trans Rights.
How I Accidentally Wound Up Running a Outlaw Biker Gang. Undercover ATF agent tells all.
New York City Cops Arrest Three More Proud Boys.
Queer stories of the Week:
Can Trump Actually Erase Transgender Rights? Two Legal Experts Weigh In.
Human Rights Won’t Be Erased, We Support You. We Fight With You.
Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls Being Gay a Gift From God.
LGBTQ characters on television reach record high.
Science Fiction and Fantasy:
LEV GROSSMAN: WHY WE’VE ALWAYS NEEDED FANTASTIC MAPS.
My Genre Makes a Monster of Me.
Can Science Fiction Save the World?
Aliette De Bodard: Cannibalizing A Draft (Or: The Art Of Rewriting).
Awful News:
Conspiracy theories about Soros aren’t just false. They’re anti-Semitic.
Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact from Opinion .
Saudis admit killing of journalist was premeditated.
Suspicious packages: Who were the targets, when were they discovered, who intercepted them?
Trump’s anti-trans memo joins a long list of attacks against transgender people.
In Memoriam:
The Funeral Crashers of Seattle – A pair of uninvited party guests used to show up at Seattle events back in the day, steal slices of cake, and get into fights with each other. This story is weird and cool and have a very bizarre surprise midway through!
Dorcas Reilly, inventor of the green bean casserole, a Thanksgiving favorite, has died at 92.
A moment of silence, please, for the mother of green bean holiday goodness.
Gay Games co-founder Paul Mart dies.
Joachim Ronneberg: WWII hero who thwarted Nazi nuclear plant dies at 99. They parachuted into the mountains, skied to the base, blew it up, then eluded 3000 Nazi soldiers to escape to Sweden. In later years, Ronneberg liked to describe his team’s harrowing escape as “a good skiing weekend.”
Joachim Ronneberg: Norwegian who thwarted Nazi nuclear plan dies.
Things I wrote:
Transforming Otters and Traveling Trees.
Pure unbounded love thou art, or an ex-evangelical looks at trans hate in the church.
What’s spooky for me may not be spooky for you.
Videos!
Courthouse security footage shows Lewis County Judge R.W. Buzzard chase after two inmates who attempted to escape his courtroom in Chehalis, Wash., on Oct. 16, 2018:
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/state/washington/article220552130.html/video-embed
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Man sets fire to parents’ home while trying to kill spider with a blowtorch:
https://abcnews.go.com/video/embed?id=58728855
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Ghostly Grimpoteuthis Octopus Glides By ROV Hercules:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Panic! At The Disco: It’s Almost Halloween:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Ty Herndon: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” Official Music Video:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Font Folly 
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