Jan 20, 2023 4 min read Weekly Digest

Stone Soup Digest 1.20.23

Cake, Elison, Earrings

Welcome to the Stone Soup Weekly Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox every week.

It’s gloomy here in Southern California, but not pouring rain anymore, which is a thrill. When I walk across my lawn, I can feel all the places where deep subterranean tunnels left behind by generations of burrowing rodents have collapsed; the clover sinks beneath my feet.

Last weekend my friend Lucy came over for one of our regular dinners. I knew I wanted to make a cake, but I didn’t have a plan, and coming up with a plan felt a little bit out of reach – my inflammation is high right now, which means my pain levels are high, which means my thinker is very slow. But I pulled some things together and ended up making this.

It’s a lemon-sesame cake with a lemon-raspberry glaze. It was delicious.

Buffy #10 is out now!

The latest issue of The Vampire Slayer is out now, and we’re taking a deep dive into Willow’s big plan! Head to your local comic shop and pick up a copy! If you don’t have a local comic shop, then go to the BOOM! Studios webstore to grab a copy! If you prefer digital, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #10 is available at comiXology and Google Play.

Roly Polies have little personalities

Reading a paper about roly-polies and how they have little personalities and now I'm hooked pic.twitter.com/CMYZ6xVPs5
— darren i (@MegaDarren) January 17, 2023

Well, this kicks ass. Check out the paper on this subject here.

Tiny plant earrings

Look at these tiny, charming plant earrings! Made by friend of the newsletter Nibedita Sen, now available at the Peculiarities Shop!

Personal Canons Cookbook Highlight: Meg Elison

This week’s Personal Canons Cookbook author is Meg Elison. Meg is a Philip K. Dick and Locus award-winning author, as well as a Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and Otherwise awards finalist. A prolific short story writer and essayist, Elison has been published in Slate, McSweeney’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fangoria, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley.

The piece Meg wrote for the Personal Canons Cookbook, Ode to a Grocery Store Sandwich, is gorgeous. It’s about hunger and poverty and care, and it examines the way a sandwich from the grocery store can change everything. Her recipe produces a really deluxe sandwich, and includes a trick I’d never considered before – one that will take your sandwich-making to the next level.

Find Meg on Twitter and Instagram.

Strike News

Union victory! New York City hospitals have agreed to the demands of the Nurses Union! These demands included increased staffing and improvements to working conditions. This is what solidarity can do. More than 7,000 nurses went on strike last week, and it ended in only three days. Read more here.

In less thrilling news, HarperCollins is still failing to attend to the needs of their employees. The HarperCollins Union hosted a second rally outside of News Corp on Wednesday, the 50th day of the strike.

Thanks everyone for showing up to commemorate our 50th day of striking for a better publishing industry! #hcponstrike pic.twitter.com/3GWA87krgf
— HarperCollins Union on strike since 11/10/22 (@hcpunion) January 18, 2023