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Judge orders Trump to halt White House ballroom construction unless Congress OKs it
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:21 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
dailykos_feedA federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to suspend its construction of a $400 million ballroom where it demolished the East Wing of the White House.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group’s request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote, “I have concluded that the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.”
"The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued for an order pausing the ballroom project until it undergoes multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress.
The White House announced the ballroom project over the summer. By late October, Trump had demolished the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that he said will fit 999 people. The White House said private donations, including from Trump himself, would pay for the planned construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
Related | Dumb and disturbing developments in Trump’s ballroom boondoggle
Trump proceeded with the project before seeking input from a pair of federal review panels, the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts. Trump has stocked both commission with allies.
Judge temporarily halts construction of Trump's White House ballroom
Mar. 31st, 2026 08:21 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe Republican-appointed judge ruled that Trump was the "steward" of the White House, but not the "owner".
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They Will Kill You Is a Gore Fest Running Thin on Substance
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:30 pmtordotcom_feedThey Will Kill You Is a Gore Fest Running Thin on Substance
If I had a nickel for every time a woman tried to save her sister from wealthy devil-worshippers, etc…
Published on March 31, 2026
Image: Warner Bros.
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Emmet Asher-Perrin</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-they-will-kill-you/">https://reactormag.com/movie-review-they-will-kill-you/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844589">https://reactormag.com/?p=844589</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>They Will Kill You</i> Is a Gore Fest Running Thin on Substance</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">If I had a nickel for every time a woman tried to save her sister from wealthy devil-worshippers, etc…</div>
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Published on March 31, 2026
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<p>To begin discussing <em>They Will Kill You</em>, there’s an immediate aside that comes up about the fact that two films featuring devil-worshipping wealthy folks who are trying to sacrifice a woman and her sister to appease their dark lord were released <a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-ready-or-not-here-i-come/" type="post" id="843456" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">within a week of each other</a>, and the plots were so similar that the trailer of one was cut to omit that fact entirely. (The trailer for <a href="https://reactormag.com/zazie-beetz-they-will-kill-you-trailer/" type="post" id="835417" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this one</a>, in fact.) Given the state of things, I’m hardly one to look askance at <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/holy-shit-two-cakes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two similarly decorated cakes</a> and call myself the injured party.</p>
<p>Having said that, the greatest praise I can offer this film is that it is a diverting way to spend 94 minutes. If that’s all you’re looking for (and your tummy is unbothered by excessive, silly gore), go forth and enjoy! Extra cake for you, everybody is a winner.</p>
<p>My first point of disconnect from the experience is a tonal shift that occurs right at the start. The opening of the film features Asia Reeves (Zazie Beetz) and her younger sister trying to escape a sadistic home. It is a dark, tense sequence with nothing remotely fantastical about it, and we get the background of our protagonist in full: Asia shoots their father when he catches up to them, but on hearing the sirens, she runs. She leaves her sister with their abuser still alive, and winds up getting caught anyway. Ten years later, she’s arrived for her new job at The Virgil, a fancy building in New York with a dark secret. If you assume that she’s looking for her little sister, Maria (Myha’la), you’d be head of the class.</p>
<p>The film promptly descends into gonzo violence and absurdity, a world that feels totally disconnected from its first ten minutes: We learn that the building’s residents have a pact with Satan for eternal life, and their goal is to sacrifice Asia to keep that pact. They are immortal, so Asia can’t kill these people—only slow them down. Her sister is a maid in the building, and sometimes “the help” also get to join the pact (though they stay “the help,” of course). So Asia is stuck trying to outwit a bunch of wealthy, unkillable acolytes. There’s no more filling in between the lines; that’s the entirety of the story. What’s more, there’s practically no dialogue from that point on outside of questions about where Asia is, and why they need her to just give up and allow herself to be sacrificed.</p>
<p>It feels as though screenwriter Alex Litvak and co-writer/director Kirill Sokolov had a book full of action sequences they wanted to film and made some sparse choices about the plot as an excuse to knit the whole thing together. Obviously, <em>They Will Kill You</em> has the vaguest echoes of the seminal <em>Get Out</em> and its more direct companion <em>Ready Or Not</em>, but both of those films were explicit commentaries about the institutions they were critiquing. <em>They Will Kill You</em> pretends to try—there are one or two pieces of extremely on-the-nose dialogue to that end—but knows it doesn’t really have to. Asking your audience to root against wealthy death cults isn’t a tall order when the general populace is pretty fed up with the uber-rich pretending that they have society’s best interests at heart. </p>
<p>Acknowledging that there is a clear racial aspect to this disparity could have been one place where <em>They Will Kill You</em> distinguished itself. The outline of a suggestion is there via The Virgil’s (mostly) POC staff and (mostly) white residents, the elevation of its superintendent (Patricia Arquette’s Lillith Woodhouse) and her husband (Paterson Joseph’s Ray Woodhouse), and the disagreement between Lillith and Ray about continuing to participate in this heinous ritual. But the way the film goes about addressing these issues only raises more questions: Ray tries to help Asia, and when he’s caught, he tells his wife that he used to believe in what they did for Satan because they were “cleaning up the streets” but now they were just murdering unfortunates. So, apparently, Ray thinks that some impoverished people are worth saving and others aren’t? Or that certain types of criminals deserve to die?</p>
<p>That kinda seems like a big deal?</p>
<p>The action sequences are cribbing a lot from giants of the genre in ways that feel frankly self-indulgent. Asia begins her evening at The Virgil sitting up in bed and clutching a lighter with a samurai etched into its casing, every flip of the lid suggesting the cut of a katana and a spray of red. It turns out that Asia also packed a machete, and soon she dispatches her first assailants with <em>Kill Bill</em>-esque gouts of blood. Later on in the film, Maria asks Asia where she learned to fight like that, and Asia glibly replies, “Prison.” You’d assume that meant we were in for a flashback of epic proportions, where we finally get introduced to Asia’s sensei? Ah… nope. That was the whole joke. Also, the samurai-style trappings are quickly dispensed with and never really return.</p>
<p>There are grotesque body horror elements to contend with as well, as the immortal denizens of the building recover from every indignity that Asia visits on them. The only one that really garners the enjoyment it should is Sharon Vanderbilt’s (Heather Graham) plucked eyeball that rolls about trying to find Asia as her head regrows. It’s a lot of fun (even if the “regrowth” aspect doesn’t make much sense) until you notice that the eyeball can apparently <em>hear</em> all by itself? Sans ears? At which point, a really enjoyable bit promptly falls flat. Even noting that, I sort of wish the eyeball had become more of a main character throughout the film’s duration—it was one place where the film’s better tonality comes clear.</p>
<p>The pig head on a stick as the avatar for the Devil is less exciting than they clearly think it is, though. If you’ve seen Peter Jackson’s earlier zombie films or anything Sam Raimi puts out or you went through a Cronenberg phase, this is just more of that thing you’ve already seen done better.</p>
<p>The movie keeps upping the ante for action, and ends in the sort of bloodbath you’d expect, but the machinations stop being interesting long before we reach the summit. There’s also setup for a sequel that feels entirely unearned, though not surprising. It’s a shame because Beetz deserves a better career than the one she’s currently embarked on, and she is dead fun to watch. Someone give her a better action hero than this.[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-they-will-kill-you/"><i>They Will Kill You</i> Is a Gore Fest Running Thin on Substance</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-they-will-kill-you/">https://reactormag.com/movie-review-they-will-kill-you/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844589">https://reactormag.com/?p=844589</a></p>
Read an Excerpt From These Familiar Walls by C.J. Dotson
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:00 pmtordotcom_feedRead an Excerpt From These Familiar Walls by C.J. Dotson
Preteen Amber ignores her family’s misgivings when she befriends the troubled new kid in the neighborhood…
Published on March 31, 2026
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Stefan Raets</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-these-familiar-walls-by-c-j-dotson/">https://reactormag.com/excerpts-these-familiar-walls-by-c-j-dotson/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844345">https://reactormag.com/?p=844345</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-vertical">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Read an Excerpt From <i>These Familiar Walls</i> by C.J. Dotson</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Preteen Amber ignores her family’s misgivings when she befriends the troubled new kid in the neighborhood…</div>
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<p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/c-j-dotson/" title="Posts by C.J. Dotson" class="author url fn" rel="author">C.J. Dotson</a></p>
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Published on March 31, 2026
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<p>We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from <em><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250336583/thesefamiliarwalls/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>These Familiar Walls</strong></a></em> by C.J. Dotson, a suburban horror novel publishing with St. Martin’s Press on April 14th.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>In 1998, desperate loneliness pushes preteen Amber to ignore the misgivings of her family, particularly her younger sister, when she befriends the troubled new kid in the neighborhood—a boy with dead eyes, a fascination with fire, and no remorse. Their turbulent relationship is brief but creates lasting consequences.<br><br>Twenty-two years later, in 2020, he resurfaces to kill Amber’s parents, and is in turn betrayed by his accomplice and killed in Amber’s childhood home.<br><br>After the deaths, Amber inherits the house and, in an effort to save money, moves in with her husband and two children, hoping to reclaim some sense of stability in the grief and chaos surrounding her. Instead, she finds that the familiar walls are haunted by more than just bitter memories and lockdown stress. She shifts in and out of dreamlike trances, her reflection won’t meet her gaze, and a menacing voice whispers to her from the gathering shadows. Although she tried to brush off the strange happenings as stress-fueled hallucinations, Amber is soon forced to admit that something much more real—and more dangerous—haunts her family. But Amber has deadly secrets of her own, and she must resolve these long-buried truths or lose the life she’s contrived for herself.</p></blockquote></figure>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">A Secret Place</h3>
<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>May 2020</strong></p>
<p>Amber made her way to the room off the hall to the garage, formerly her and Hannah’s playroom, where she’d had the movers leave her home office supplies. As Ben called the kids to lunch, Amber shut and locked the door. She turned, letting her gaze wander. If she set her desk in the corner under the window, filing cabinet and printer in arm’s reach, the room would still be half empty. Maybe she could get a small sofa, and the built-in shelves were perfect for jigsaw puzzles and books.</p>
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<p>Tightly wound muscles in her back loosened, and Amber savored a bubble of growing pleasure in her chest; her office, a space for no one else, and the quiet to work in it, all alone.</p>
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<p>The movers had left the furniture along the wall farthest from the window, and boxes filled the middle of the room. Amber shifted the cardboard stacks out of the way. When she lifted the last box, the contents within slid with a series of soft <em>clack-clacks</em>. Opening that one first, she found a surprising number of candles, a handful of trinkets, a little green lighter, and a small decorative mirror with an oversized, ornate frame.</p>
<p>Amber had no plan for these things, but it might be nice to arrange them on the built-in shelves, at least until she had a better idea. She started with a candle, a vanilla-scented pillar of creamy off-white. She set it on the shelf, scooped the lighter out of the box, and lit the wick. The soothing glow heightened the relaxation of this much-needed alone time. Amber let her gaze linger for a moment on the small flame.</p>
<p>Next, she pulled the little mirror from the box. As she turned, an impression of motion in her peripheral vision made her pause. She glanced back down at the glass, and when she blinked—was her reflection slower to open its eyes than she’d been? The impression left as fast as it had come, and she saw nothing more than her face, tired and small in the overwrought frame.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, Amber didn’t actually like that mirror much. Rather than prop it up next to the candle, she set it to one side, face down.</p>
<p>The next candle came in a glass jar, dark green, with three wicks. She set it next to the first, began to turn away, then paused and picked up the lighter. Eyeing her desk, considering whether she could lift it or if she’d have to drag it across the carpet, Amber touched the flame to each wick. Artificial pine scent mingled with the vanilla.</p>
<p>Lifting the desk proved possible, if strenuous. Amber walked it halfway across the small space before she set it down, leaned over, and pulled another candle from the box. This one was pink, in a holder with beads on it, and she lit it as well and set it with the others before she finished moving her desk. Everything would be right where she wanted it. When had she last felt this content? On her way back across the room, she stopped to fish out another candle, bright red and never burned. She lit it and set it down. A handful of tealights followed. Her wheeled office chair rolled easily to the desk. She put a sculpted-wax sea turtle candle on the shelf, one she’d had for so long she didn’t remember getting it, and lit the wick. Like the desk, the filing cabinet was too heavy to move in one go. That was okay, Amber didn’t have to rush. While she paused, she lit two more candles. A smooth, shiny wax sphere in swirling, glittering shades of brown came next, but the shelf was too full. That candle went onto the next one up. She set another simple pillar next to it and lit them both. Three more tealights fit in one hand. Two thin candles in old fashioned holders went one on each end.</p>
<p>Time to start unpacking the office supplies. First, Amber reached into the box of decorations again. She felt around, paused, and glanced in at a clutter of odds and ends. She pushed aside a framed photo of her wedding day and moved a clumsy, handmade mug from Xander. No more candles.</p>
<p>Irritation marred Amber’s relaxation. She wanted to light another candle. The annoyance gave way to perplexity. Wasn’t it strange that she’d run out? Hadn’t she just been surprised by the number of candles in this box?</p>
<p>Amber turned to the shelves and her last scrap of soothing calm melted away.</p>
<p>Nearly twenty candles flickered there, the flames small but numerous enough that the room had grown warm. The tall ones singed blackening spots onto the bottom of the shelf above them. Grimacing, Amber leaned forward and blew them all out. Ribbons of smoke drifted up from the wicks and Amber stared, her mind moving slowly.</p>
<p>Why had she lit that many candles?</p>
<p>She retraced her actions and shook her head. The furniture was arranged how she wanted it, she’d been working until the moment before, but the details were fuzzy. Strange.</p>
<p>“I’m tired,” she told herself, surprised by the rasp in her voice. “It’s been a long couple days and I just had a… a weird blank moment.”</p>
<p>The wicks left the room vaguely smoky, a scent that brought Nathan Teldegardo to mind, as he’d been the summer they’d met. A smell of smoke had always hung around him, sometimes faint but never missing.</p>
<p>All the tension she’d banished while setting up her office crawled back up her spine, across her shoulders. Her one relaxing moment, spoiled. She wasn’t ready to go out again and put all the priority back on her role of parent and wife, but it was either that or keep working in the too-hot room, trying to ignore her unease and the hint of smoke.</p>
<p>Rubbing her temples, Amber went out to face the rest of the day with a hesitant stride.</p>
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<p class="has-sm-font-size">From <em>These Familiar Walls</em> by C. J. Dotson. Copyright © 2026 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.</p>
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<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-these-familiar-walls-by-c-j-dotson/">Read an Excerpt From <i>These Familiar Walls</i> by C.J. Dotson</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-these-familiar-walls-by-c-j-dotson/">https://reactormag.com/excerpts-these-familiar-walls-by-c-j-dotson/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844345">https://reactormag.com/?p=844345</a></p>
icanhascheezburger_feedSometimes all it takes is one moment outside for everything to change.
Some days are just off. Nothing is really wrong, but nothing feels right either. This rescuer didn't plan to sit outside for lunch, but the weather was nice, so it happened anyway. That's when the cat showed up. Just sitting there, watching. He was thin and a little rough looking, but calm.
He walked by, kept his distance, and that seemed like the end of it. But a few hours later, he was back, this time right up on the deck like he had made a decision. One can of food later and he was fully committed, eating like he had been waiting for this exact moment. Sneezing, clearly under the weather, but still gentle and friendly.
He curled up on the blanket and stayed overnight. By morning, with the rain and colder weather, leaving him outside didn't feel right. He moved into the garage, safe and out of the weather, while a vet appointment got set up.
Now he is still thin, still recovering, but already showing his purrsonality. Very affectionate, very happy to be there, like he knows he landed somewhere good. Mr. Bingley showed up at the right time and made himself at home.
Oh no, I agree with Nancy Mace!
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:18 pmpharyngula_feed
The latest scandal: Kristi Noem’s husband, Bryan Noem, has been revealed to be a cross-dresser by the Daily Mail. That’s a terrible source, but it’s been confirmed by others that he was a member of an online fetish community.
“Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” Kristi Noem’s representatives told The New York Post.
Why be devastated? It’s her husband with whom she has had three children, so she had to have known something…except I guess she may have been distracted by her own cos-playing as ICE Barbie, and her dalliance with Lewandowski. Maybe she should try this kind of play with her partner?
Of course, there’s the usually baseless whining that it made her vulnerable to blackmail by foreign agents, but has that ever been a real thing? There are gay people working within the Trump administration, so that doesn’t scare anyone anymore — I’m sure there are others who have their own peculiar (to a straight Republican, anyway) behaviors. Let them all hang out!
I am mildly distressed by the fact that I might share an opinion with crazy Nancy Mace, though.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posted that the news was personal matter and a distraction from other “priorities.”
I agree, it’s a personal matter, and I wouldn’t hold that against either Noem. I have other priorities, like seeing corrupt fascists chased out of the government.
Next Week in Upper Arlington, OH
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:19 pmscalziwhatever_feed
I’m popping up to the Columbus area next Monday at 6pm to take part in an event sponsored by the Ohioana Library, celebrating 100 years of Ohio authors (of which I count as one, considering that 95% of my novels, including my debut novel Old Man’s War, were written here in this state). In my event we’ll talk a bit about me and also a bit about Roger Zelazny (born in Euclid, OH), making a throughline about science fiction in Ohio. It’ll be fun! Plus I’ll probably sign books and may even talk a bit about my upcoming novel Monsters of Ohio. It seems appropriate.
In any event: See you at Storyline Bookshop in Upper Arlington, April 6 at 6pm!
— JS
Kristi Noem's very bad month takes jaw-dropping turn
Mar. 31st, 2026 07:00 pmdailykos_feedThe bad news keeps rolling in for Kristi Noem, the fired former head of the Department of Homeland Security. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported that her husband is a crossdresser who wears large fake breasts and hot pants while messaging with online adult entertainers.
According to the report, Bryon Noem sent at least $25,000 to interact with fetish models, whom he communicated with using a phone number that easily identified him as the now-former DHS secretary's husband.
Experts say his behavior opened his wife up to blackmail that could have endangered U.S. national security.
“If a media organization can find this out, you can assume with a high degree of confidence that a hostile intelligence service knows this as well," former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told the Daily Mail.
Now we're not here to kink-shame. If Bryon Noem has a thing for, as one model reportedly put it, "huge, huge ridiculous boobs"—on himself or others—that's his business.
And given that his wife appears to be openly cheating on him with odious former Trump administration aide Corey Lewandowski, our dude Bryon is more than owed some payback in the form of straying from his marriage with big-boobed models.
However, we can shame him for pretending to be some holier-than-thou Christian who claimed to have stayed with his wife because of “his calling from God to support her,” as an unnamed family member told the New York Post earlier in March.
We can also shame him for apparently being so careless and sloppy with his communications with the models, since it could’ve endangered American national security.
As for Kristi Noem, her representative told the Post she is "devastated" about the revelation that her husband was living this secret life.
"The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” the representative said.
But again, it's hard to feel bad for Kristi Noem, who wasted millions of taxpayer dollars to fly around the country with her alleged fuck-buddy so she could film ads promoting herself and stage stunts to torture immigrants.
Noem’s detractors also are accusing her of lying about her knowledge of her husband’s reported fetish, saying it’s something that’s been openly known in Trump world for years.
“Kristi Noem said her family is blindsided by revelations her husband is a cross dresser and gay. That isn’t true. She knew all about her husband which is why she lives with Corey Lewandowski in the D.C. area. That’s why her husband never divorced her. It was their arrangement,” Laura Loomer, the right-wing conspiracy theorist who somehow ingratiated herself with President Donald Trump, wrote in a post on X.
“Literally everyone in the admin has known this forever,” she continued. “I’m shocked it didn’t come out earlier. They can divorce and move on and live their lives without keeping secrets. I feel bad for Corey’s wife. She is the widow of a firefighter who was killed on 9/11.”
What a mess.
Judge blocks Trump order to end funding for PBS and NPR
Mar. 31st, 2026 06:47 pmdailykos_feedA federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. The judge said the First Amendment right to free speech “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”
“It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch,” wrote Moss, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
Related | Trump pretends to defund public media with meaningless order
The judge noted that Trump’s executive order simply directs that all federal agencies “cut off any and all funding” to NPR, which is based in Washington, and PBS, based in Arlington, Virginia.
"The Federal Defendants fail to cite a single case in which a court has ever upheld a statute or executive action that bars a particular person or entity from participating in any federally funded activity based on that person or entity’s past speech,” the judge wrote.
Last year, Trump, a Republican, said at a news conference he would “love to” defund NPR and PBS because he believes they’re biased in favor of Democrats.
NPR accused the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of violating its First Amendment free speech rights when it moved to cut off its access to grant money appropriated by Congress. NPR also claims Trump wants to punish it for the content of its journalism.
Last August, CPB announced it would take steps toward closing itself down after being defunded by Congress.
Related | Even Big Bird’s suing Trump
Plaintiffs’ attorney Theodore Boutrous said Tuesday's ruling is “a victory for the First Amendment and for freedom of the press.”
“As the Court expressly recognized, the First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power — including the power of the purse — ‘to punish or suppress disfavored expression’ by others," Boutrous said in a statement. "The Executive Order crossed that line.”
Labor secretary spins new jobs report—before it’s even released
Mar. 31st, 2026 06:00 pmdailykos_feedLabor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is muddying expectations ahead of what could be another disappointing jobs report later this week.
“I'm looking forward to Friday's numbers to see exactly what the trends are,” she told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, before blaming last month's depressing report on a “strike” and “the weather.”
“But again, it's a snapshot in time,” Chavez-DeRemer added. “So I'm looking forward to these numbers.”
Bartiromo, whose job whitewashing Trump’s failures has never been easy, then slipped in a question that many Americans are asking as unemployment increases: Where are the jobs?
“We're seeing them in, you know, a lot of the cybersecurity—in the security job—so it's been good,” Chavez-DeRemer responded. “But we did have to keep our, you know, foot on the gas pedal to make sure that we're creating those jobs for all Americans.”
But that might be harder to maintain as prices continue to rise, driven by President Donald Trump’s expensive war in Iran.
Chavez-DeRemer’s word salad is unlikely to inspire confidence among the majority of Americans who say it’s a bad time to be looking for jobs—a sentiment that has persisted since Trump took office.
Trump and Hegseth scream at the world as their war spirals
Mar. 31st, 2026 05:00 pmdailykos_feedThe Trump administration is lashing out at America’s allies in Europe after their refusal to help President Donald Trump clean up the global mess he created by attacking Iran.
Early Tuesday morning, Trump assailed the United Kingdom for declining to help him launch strikes on Iran, writing, “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”
He claimed that “the hard part” of the conflict is now over and that Iran “has been, essentially, decimated.” Trump argued that the U.K. should go to the Strait of Hormuz and “TAKE” oil, concluding, “Go get your own oil!”
In another post, Trump whined that France has denied the U.S. permission to use its airspace for bombing runs into Iran, writing, “France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the “Butcher of Iran,” who has been successfully eliminated! The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!”
His sentiments were echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a press conference a few hours later.
“There are countries around the world who ought [to] be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well. It’s not just the United States Navy. Last time I checked, there was supposed to be a big bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like that as well,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also argued that the NATO alliance was weak “if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”
The comments from Trump and Hegseth come after Italy and Spain also refused to allow the U.S. to use its airbases or airspace, respectively, to support attacks on Iran. Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters on Monday that the U.S. actions were “profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust.”
Traditional U.S. allies are declining to be involved in the conflict that has severely impacted access to oil, causing gas prices to spike above $4 a gallon in the U.S. for the first time in four years. The shortage was triggered by Trump’s actions, which he has failed to justify to Americans or to the rest of the world.
Trump has suggested that America intends to steal Iran’s natural resources and attack civilian infrastructure, which could amount to war crimes. He has chosen to ratchet up the conflict rather than admit he was wrong when he asserted that Iran would quickly fold.
The administration blundered into its Iran war, adding another element of global instability after more than a year of tariff policies that have backfired against the American economy. Instead of accepting blame for his own actions, the Trump administration has chosen to complain about the rest of the world.
how do I train my team to do my job without making it obvious I’m planning to leave?
Mar. 31st, 2026 05:59 pmaskamanager_feedA reader writes:
The company I currently work for was perfect for me when I started in the corporate world — low-key, the owner is very hands-off, and my bosses let me work without micromanaging. But recently we’ve become a lot bigger while still keeping that “small business” mindset.
Our profit has more than quadrupled in the past seven years, but the number of employees in headquarters has not increased in response (we’re still fewer than 20 people). A daily catch phrase is, “It’ll slow down eventually … right?”
It’s wearing me down to a point where I need to find another job, and I have started to actively job search. My concern is, I honestly do the job of three people (with three different managers) and I know they won’t be able to hire and train someone between me putting in my notice and leaving. No one else at the company is currently able to do the majority of my work.
How can I start prepping and training my coworkers to do my jobs without making it obvious I’m planning to leave? Or potentially putting my job in jeopardy before I can get a new job?
Or this a situation where I just need to let it go and say, “Not my responsibility”?
The latter.
If your employer were as concerned about this as you are, they would be creating time and structures for you to cross-train your colleagues. They’re not, so you don’t need to.
There are some limits to that: the more senior your job gets, the more it’s your responsibility to ensure things like that are taken care of. If you’re a department director saying “no one will be able to cover even the basics if I’m buried in an avalanche tomorrow, oh well, too bad,” that’s a problem. That kind of planning is part of that job. And even if you’re not that senior, at a certain responsibility level in some cases it would be part of doing the job well to identify the must-do areas that other people need to be trained in and ensure that happens, or point it out to someone who can — or to say to your own boss, “Here’s a major point of weakness in our coverage, here’s what the consequences could be if I were suddenly not here, and here’s what I think we could do about it — but I don’t currently have any time to do it.”
So if you haven’t done that last part, you should. You don’t need to make it obvious that it’s because you’re thinking about leaving; frame it as thinking about what would happen if you were suddenly hospitalized, won the lottery, got eaten by a wild boar, etc.
But if they don’t make it a priority — which means carving out actual time for you to do it by moving back other priorities and doing the same for the people you want to train in your areas — then you don’t need to either. You’ll have flagged it for them, and the next steps are up to them.
All that said, if you have time to work on some transition documentation that you can leave behind, that’s a good thing to do … but it doesn’t sound like you have a ton of spare time for that, and it’s not something you should work extra hours to get done (since again, if it were that important to your employer, they’d ensure you had time to prioritize it). Moreover, when people leave behind detailed and beautifully organized documentation for their work, it often never gets looked at by anyone — so it’s definitely not something you should contort yourself to achieve if it’s not easily doable. (For that same reason, if you do it, aim for a couple of pages of bulleted info, max. The idea is just to leave the most key info for whoever needs it when you’re gone, not to write a detailed manual to how to do your job — again, unless you’re asked for that and given enough time to do it.)
But it’s very normal in office-type jobs not to be able to hire and train someone before a person leaves. Most people give two weeks of notice, which isn’t enough time to advertise the job, interview candidates, make an offer, and then wait for that person to give their own notice. So it’s not unusual that they won’t be able to do that; that’s how it normally goes and companies muddle through.
“Muddling through” can mean that they back-burner projects you were working on out of necessity, or half-ass them in ways you wouldn’t have, or kill certain projects altogether, or bring in outside help. Or sure, occasionally a team will crash and burn because someone leaves, but it’s surprisingly rare for that to be the result. More often, their solutions just might not look like how you’re doing everything now, but they’ll figure it out.
Regardless, it’s not yours to solve because this is not your company! Flag the concern, and then leave it to them to decide what to do about it.
The post how do I train my team to do my job without making it obvious I’m planning to leave? appeared first on Ask a Manager.
25 Criminal Kitties Caught in the Act by their Pawrents
Mar. 31st, 2026 09:45 amicanhascheezburger_feedIf you thought that cats are smooth criminals who always get away with their crimes, then this collection of criminal cattos caught in the act will certainly change your mind.
Our dopey cat children are just that, dumb. Sure, sometimes they have some of the brightest and best ideas to have ever happened. But considering how rare it is for them to come upon such ideas, and how often we cat pawrents catch them in compromising positions. It seems only right to deem them to be dimwhitted. Which is a quality that is very much captured in this collection of criminal kitties caught on camera.
Each and everyone of these single brain celled cats has been captured in the middle of their criminal acts. Either undeterred by the presence of their pawrent or simply uninterested in their punishment. Leaving us cat lovers with a delightful collection of cat clawminality to enjoy, which is all the more enjoyable when it is not taking place between the walls of our own homes.
Kara Makes Friends (Sorta) and Must Save Krypto in the New Supergirl Trailer
Mar. 31st, 2026 05:02 pmtordotcom_feedKara Makes Friends (Sorta) and Must Save Krypto in the New Supergirl Trailer
I just think there are other ways to create tension than putting cute animals in danger
Published on March 31, 2026
Screenshot: DC Studios
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Molly Templeton</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/supergirl-trailer-2/">https://reactormag.com/supergirl-trailer-2/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844587">https://reactormag.com/?p=844587</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Kara Makes Friends (Sorta) and Must Save Krypto in the New <i>Supergirl</i> Trailer</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">I just think there are other ways to create tension than putting cute animals in danger</div>
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<p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/molly-templeton/" title="Posts by Molly Templeton" class="author url fn" rel="author">Molly Templeton</a></p>
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Published on March 31, 2026
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<p>What did we say last time, DC Studios? We said DON’T HURT THE DOG. But of course they didn’t listen. </p>
<p>The latest trailer for director Craig Gillespie’s <em>Supergirl</em> gives a little more sense of what kicks off the plot of this movie—and it’s not pretty. Avert your eyes, dog-lovers: The villainous Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) takes a shot at Krypto, who then “has three days.” And he’s all Kara (Milly Alcock) has got, you know? We get friendly, people-loving Superman (David Corenswet) on a TV screen to drive this home. She hasn’t found her people. She thinks she doesn’t have any.</p>
<p>But at that point, she hasn’t met Lobo (Jason Momoa) yet. Or Ruthye (Eve Ridley), the kid with whom she’s going to team up with on “an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.” (She may also be teaming up with Lobo; the synopsis refers to an “unlikely companion,” which could be either. Or both!)</p>
<p><em>Supergirl</em> <a href="https://reactormag.com/new-dc-studios-heads-james-gunn-and-peter-safran-reveal-their-first-ten-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">used to have the subtitle <em>Woman of Tomorrow</em></a>, which is the name of the Tom King & Bilquis Evely comic series that inspired the film. It has since lost that subtitle. The basic plot—the team-up with Ruthye, the villain—remains the same; the color palette, though, is notably different from the comic, which might make a person wonder how much else the movie has changed.</p>
<p>The screenplay is by Ana Nogueira, who is working on a whole pile of DC productions. Director Craig Gillespie (<em>I, Tonya</em>; <em>Pam & Tommy</em>) remains an odd choice for this project.</p>
<p><em>Supergirl</em> is in theaters June 26.[end-mark]</p>
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<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/supergirl-trailer-2/">Kara Makes Friends (Sorta) and Must Save Krypto in the New <i>Supergirl</i> Trailer</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/supergirl-trailer-2/">https://reactormag.com/supergirl-trailer-2/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844587">https://reactormag.com/?p=844587</a></p>
New Wrinkles in Time: A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
Mar. 31st, 2026 05:00 pmtordotcom_feedNew Wrinkles in Time: A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
The further adventures of the Murry family as they work for greater peace in the universe.
Published on March 31, 2026
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/new-wrinkles-in-time-a-wind-in-the-door-and-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-by-madeleine-lengle/">https://reactormag.com/new-wrinkles-in-time-a-wind-in-the-door-and-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-by-madeleine-lengle/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844230">https://reactormag.com/?p=844230</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-vertical">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">New Wrinkles in Time: <i>A Wind in the Door</i> and <i>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</i> by Madeleine L’Engle</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">The further adventures of the Murry family as they work for greater peace in the universe.</div>
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<img decoding="async" width="740" height="407" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wind-in-the-Door-header-740x407.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="cover of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind in the Door" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wind-in-the-Door-header-740x407.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wind-in-the-Door-header-1100x605.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wind-in-the-Door-header-768x422.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Wind-in-the-Door-header.png 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure>
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<p>In this <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/front-lines-and-frontiers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bi-weekly series</a> reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.</p>
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<p>Today, I’m going to look at <em>A Wind in the Door</em> and <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em>, the first two sequels to Madeleine L’Engle’s best-selling children’s book <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>. <a href="https://reactormag.com/from-camazotz-to-stranger-things-a-wrinkle-in-time-by-madeleine-lengle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I reviewed that first book recently</a>, and enjoyed revisiting it so much, I decided to pick up the sequels, books I’d never got around to reading.</p>
<p>I had told my wife about a boxed set of L’Engle’s work that I saw online for a reasonable price, and she bought it for my recent birthday. So, for this review, instead of books from the library, I’ve got my very own copies to read. I had thought that <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em> was the first book of a trilogy, but it turns out this boxed set contains five books, labeled as the “Time Quintet”: <em>A Wrinkle in Time,</em> <em>A Wind in the Door</em>, <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em>, <em>Many Waters</em>, and <em>An Acceptable Time</em>. This edition was published in 2007 by Square Fish, a Macmillan imprint I’d never encountered before. The cover paintings are by Taeeun Yoo, although they are more illustrated borders than full paintings.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="915" height="670" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/LEngle-Wind-in-the-Door-and-Swiftly-Tilting-Planet.png" alt="covers of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet" class="wp-image-844231" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/LEngle-Wind-in-the-Door-and-Swiftly-Tilting-Planet.png 915w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/LEngle-Wind-in-the-Door-and-Swiftly-Tilting-Planet-740x542.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/LEngle-Wind-in-the-Door-and-Swiftly-Tilting-Planet-768x562.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 915px) 100vw, 915px" /></figure>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>About the Author</strong></h3>
<p>Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) was an American author who frequently wrote for children, with themes that featured science fiction and fantasy. She also wrote a play, short stories, poetry, books for adults, and works on Christian theology. She found success with <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>, and many of her later works were set in the same universe as that original book. <a href="https://reactormag.com/from-camazotz-to-stranger-things-a-wrinkle-in-time-by-madeleine-lengle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I reviewed <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em> in a previous column</a>, and that review contains additional biographical information. The works of Madeleine L’Engle’s <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/madeleine-lengle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have been mentioned many times on Reactor</a>, and I would especially draw your attention to <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/mari-ness/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">essays by Mari Ness</a>, who looked at a number of L’Engle’s books.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Some Thoughts on Fantasy Tropes</strong></h3>
<p>Folk and fantasy tales are often based on common tropes and share familiar themes—for example, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hero’s journey</a>, as discussed by Joseph Campbell in his book <em>The Hero With a Thousand Faces</em>. There are three common tropes in particular that I personally do not care for, and since these tropes are central to <em>A Wind in the Door</em> and <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em>, I’d like to discuss them before looking at the books themselves.</p>
<p>The first trope is the idea of a protagonist being deliberately tested. In <em>A Wind in the Door</em>, Meg is told she will have to face three tests to heal damage both to the universe at large and to her younger brother. But it seems these tests are shaped by her evil opponents, which raises the question: are the forces of good and evil colluding to test her? It reminds me of the biblical tale of the trials faced by Job, where Satan seems to be acting as a subordinate of God, and not a rival. In <em>A Wind in the Door</em>, we never get an answer of why Meg specifically has been chosen for these tests. In <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>, she is on a mission to rescue her father, and their family bonds are crucial to that rescue. But in <em>A Wind in the Door</em>, there is no such bond.</p>
<p>The second trope I dislike is the idea of the intrinsically evil other, an opponent who is simply evil for evil’s sake. I much prefer tales with well developed protagonists and antagonists to those populated by cardboard heroes and villains. In <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>, the forces of evil were never really defined or named, but in these two sequels, they are given a name: Echthroi (a Greek word that means “enemies”). And it is made clear that they are the architects of the evil that plagues our world. This attribution of evil acts to the influence of an outside force takes away the agency of the people performing those acts. Human anger, greed, and selfishness are quite sufficient to generate suffering in the world without any outside force. And branding opponents as agents of evil prevents us from understanding their own motivations, making it difficult to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. One of the strengths of <em>A Wind in the Door</em> is that, after engaging in the trope of the evil other throughout the book, in the end Meg moves beyond labels and works to understand her opponents.</p>
<p>The third trope that tries my patience is that of special bloodlines. <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em> shows the world at the brink of a nuclear holocaust, and sends young Charles Wallace through time to find a “Might Have Been,” a decision that could alter the course of history, and remove the threat of war. And it turns out that the branch in history came from who married who in the past. In the days of kings and nobility, bloodlines and breeding were seen as a force that gave people innate nobility or other special qualities, but this idea has largely been discarded in modern times. Despite being abandoned in the real world, however, the idea of certain bloodlines being special persists in fiction. While genetics shapes our biology, it is environment, upraising, and education that shapes a person, their ethics, and their behavior.</p>
<p>It is a testimony to L’Engle’s storytelling ability that she was able to keep me engaged through both <em>A Wind in the Door</em> and <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em> despite the books being shaped by tropes I dislike.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><em>A Wind in the Door</em></strong></h3>
<p>About a year after the events of <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>, Meg Murry is still scrappy and impulsive, although she now is more self-assured and in a relationship with Calvin O’Keefe. Her youngest brother, Charles Wallace, tells her there is a dragon in the yard, but she initially doesn’t believe him. What concerns her are the bullies who are harassing Charles Wallace and beating him up at elementary school, where his discussions of issues beyond the comprehension of his fellow students, and even his teachers, are causing him to stand out from the crowd. She goes there to confront Mr. Jenkins, the principal of the school (and her old nemesis). He is not eager to listen to a youngster, but does not have his own viable solution to Charles Wallace’s problem with bullies.</p>
<p>Later, in her own yard, Meg has an encounter with a creature who appears to be Mr. Jenkins, but disappears with a scream that leaves her terrified. Later, out at their favorite stargazing spot, Meg and Calvin see what Charles Wallace had told her was a flock of dragons, but is actually a single creature with a plethora of mismatched wings and eyes, who greets them with the statement, “Do not be afraid.” This creature is a cherubim, Proginoskes, who fits the biblical description of angels and cherubim (which is quite unlike the version embraced by most art and popular culture). Progo, as they nickname him, is quirky and abrasive, and turns out to be one of the best characters in the book.</p>
<p>He is joined by a large dark man, Blajeny, who is a “Teacher,” and is there to teach Meg how to be a “Namer,” which will involve three tests. As a character, Blajeny is unfortunately a wasted opportunity, as he never becomes anything more than a mysterious presence. Progo takes Meg to another planet, and shows her how forces of evil, the Echthroi, are wreaking destruction across the universe, destroying or ‘X’ing things from the size of stars right down to tiny living cells. This explains why Mr. Murry is off doing scientific work for the government during this adventure, because astronomers have detected some of this destruction on the macro scale.</p>
<p>It then turns out school bullying is the least of Charles Wallace’s problems. His health is deteriorating, and Mrs. Murry thinks it might be farandolae, invisible organelles within his mitochondria. Meg’s success with her tests may be the key to saving Charles Wallace’s life.</p>
<p>At this point, one would think that Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace might recall their previous adventures and experiences in the previous book, but they don’t. Perhaps it was felt that writing a sequel without referring to the previous volume would make it more accessible to new readers. But the adventures of the characters in <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em> were so transformative that not mentioning them makes the story feel a bit disconnected and strange (and since Mr. Murry had become capable of teleporting to other worlds by using his mind, his new role of consulting with the government seems a vast underutilization of his abilities).</p>
<p>Meg’s first challenge comes when she meets three versions of Mr. Jenkins, and must decide which is the original. Surprisingly, once Meg figures it out, she feels compelled to ask him to accompany them on their next adventure. Mr. Jenkins agrees, even though, after seeing the evil copies of himself and hearing about evil creatures who want to destroy the universe, he would be well within his rights to curl up in a ball, ignore her invitation, and cry a little.</p>
<p>Progo then takes the trio to a far-off world where they can be transformed into something small enough to interact with the tiny farandolae. There, they meet a mysterious silver mousy/shrimpy creature named Sporos, who turns out to be a farandole himself. And then they are transported to a cell within Charles Wallace’s body. It turns out the Echthroi are there, encouraging Sporos and his fellow farandolae to selfishly not transform into the next stage of their existence, a process essential to Charles Wallace’s health. And it is up to Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Jenkins to encourage them to embrace their destiny. Meg learns to “kyth,” a way to link telepathically to other people and creatures. Learning Mr. Jenkins had once been kind and provided Calvin with new shoes when his own abusive family would not, Meg begins to appreciate him, and that generosity turns out to be a key to completing this second test.</p>
<p>Meg’s final test, to interact with the Echthroi, involves her developing a rapport with them, and “naming” them, a process I didn’t really understand, but seems to be a way that love and understanding can overcome the forces of hate. And it will be no surprise that, in the end, everyone is reunited, Charles Wallace is healed, and Mr. Murry returns home just in time to hear what happened (reacting with a remarkable degree of acceptance).</p>
<p>L’Engle is adept at rooting her tales in the details of ordinary life, and those are the parts of the book I enjoyed the best. I found the more fantastic parts of the narrative less than believable, even though they were wrapped in the trappings of science.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em></strong></h3>
<p>This book jumps forward ten years. Meg Murry is now married to Calvin and carrying her first child. He is overseas to present an academic paper at a conference, and it is Thanksgiving, so Meg is spending the holidays with her parents, and sleeping in her old attic room. Charles Wallace is now a teenager. Calvin’s mother, the abrasive Mrs. O’Keefe, has decided to accept an invitation to dinner, and her presence has unsettled the family.</p>
<p>Of course, the family is even more unsettled by the looming possibility of a nuclear war, threatened by a South American dictator called Mad Dog Branzillo, who leads the fictional nation of Vespugia, located somewhere in the Patagonian region. Mr. Murry receives a request for advice from the President, which amazes Mrs. O’Keefe (in this, she reflects the viewpoint of readers who might feel the Murry family is a bit too intelligent and capable to be believable). Mrs. O’Keefe decided to come to dinner because she is convinced that Charles Wallace has something important to do, and teaches him a verse she says will protect him, a verse taught to her by an Irish grandmother, which resembles a prayer known as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate.</p>
<p>Charles Wallace goes out to the stargazing rock and recites a portion of the verse, which summons a winged unicorn named Gaudior. The unicorn tells him he must travel through history and view it through the eyes of a series of other people (with most of those people being located near the Wallaces’ present-day home). Only by telepathically merging with these people scattered in time can Charles Wallace find the “Might-Have-Been,” a point where a person’s actions can be changed to prevent the impending nuclear war. Gaudior warns that during their travels they will face attacks from the Echthroi. As he moves through history, Charles Wallace will kyth with Meg, which will help anchor him to the present day. This at first seemed to be overly complex, with Meg linking telepathically to Charles Wallace who is linking with people from the past, but it did serve to keep Charles Wallace’s episodic adventures in the past a bit more grounded.</p>
<p>Charles Wallace first observes a boy in the mythical past who rides a giant bird. Then, after he and Gaudior survive an Echthroi attack, he observes a boy who is an early Welsh immigrant to the New World, who also knows the verse Mrs. O’Keefe taught to Charles Wallace. We see the Welsh travelers intermarry with local inhabitants. And through this series of different characters from over history, we see the ancestors of the O’Keefe and Murry families face witch trials, survive the Civil War, and encounter other challenges. We also see how some family members emigrate to Vespugia, tying the families to the current-day dictator.</p>
<p>Traveling through both time and space is dangerous, and Gaudior and Charles Wallace survive a gripping sequence that revolves around the perils posed by a wet rope after they lash themselves together (sometimes a threat posed by a common object is easier to imagine than monsters or existential threats). Throughout these adventures, Meg gathers information in the present to help guide Charles Wallace in his efforts. To be honest, I found some of these segments tedious, with the people from the past feeling like clichés instead of characters. And, as I mentioned above, I find narratives that involve promoting the specialness or superiority of certain bloodlines to be distasteful. The one historical episode I did find satisfying was learning about Mrs. O’Keefe’s past and seeing the traumas that had shaped her life, making her a more sympathetic character. Like the other books, the interactions between family members and the details of their ordinary lives were my favorite elements of the story.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></h3>
<p>Madeleine L’Engle’s work remains in print for good reason. She had a wonderful gift for telling stories through elegant prose, and grounding even the most fantastic elements with details that made them feel real and lived in. Her characters are compelling, and her stories are suffused with positive messages, without being heavy-handed. While the books sometimes rely on storytelling tropes and conventions I do not enjoy, L’Engle kept me engaged and turning the pages.</p>
<p>And now I turn the floor over to you: If you’ve read <em>A Wind in the Door</em>, <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</em>, or other books by L’Engle, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/new-wrinkles-in-time-a-wind-in-the-door-and-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-by-madeleine-lengle/">New Wrinkles in Time: <i>A Wind in the Door</i> and <i>A Swiftly Tilting Planet</i> by Madeleine L’Engle</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/new-wrinkles-in-time-a-wind-in-the-door-and-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-by-madeleine-lengle/">https://reactormag.com/new-wrinkles-in-time-a-wind-in-the-door-and-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-by-madeleine-lengle/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=844230">https://reactormag.com/?p=844230</a></p>
my rock-star coworker will quit if she has to return to the office
Mar. 31st, 2026 04:29 pmaskamanager_feedA reader writes:
I am a high-performing, respected, well-liked senior contributor on a 25-person team at a global tech company. Since Covid, we have all been successfully working remotely. Recently, the company has enacted a “hybrid work” policy, which for me means I am supposed to go to the office three times a week. Because our team and those we work closely with are scattered around the globe, this means we are often going to the office to sit on virtual calls. Our team also has 12 contract workers who are not required to be in the office due to the terms of their contracts and desk availability. Additionally, the director of our team, Scott, is considered a teleworker and is grandfathered in, so the in-office policy doesn’t apply to him. There is one other non-contract employee who doesn’t live near an office and is also grandfathered in.
I give you all this context to ask for advice on advocating for a high-performing colleague, Molly, who has been given an ultimatum: move to be close to an office (without any moving assistance) or she will “exit the company” in the next few months. Molly started as an intern with the company and performed so well that she was hired full-time. She’s now been with us nearly five years and has been fully remote the entire time. She is one of the top performers on our team and is my star mentee who is expected to follow in my footsteps. This is important to note as my skills and knowledge make me somewhat of a “unicorn,” and my boss is always trying to find people who have similar skillsets.
Molly and I share a manager, Claudia, whom we both trust and respect. When this hybrid work policy was implemented towards the end of 2025, Claudia followed all the correct paths in HR to request an exemption for Molly to be redesignated as a teleworker based on her performance and value to the team and company, but it was denied. Claudia is very upset about this, and I do believe the decision was out of her hands and that HR has just drawn a hard line in the sand around this new policy. Scott, Claudia’s boss and our team’s director, also supported this exemption for Molly, and said he took it all the way up the chain to advocate for her. I believe both when they say they did all they could.
Beyond Molly’s stellar performance, I am outraged that this hybrid work policy is already being incredibly unfairly applied (see context above), that this decision will affect the entire team’s morale, and that the loss of her will mean I will most likely have to pick up the slack. (I already take on a lot of work beyond my core responsibilities, and I’ve made it clear with both bosses that I’m having better work boundaries in 2026 for my own mental health.) It has not been made clear if we’ll be able to backfill Molly’s role.
As her senior peer, what, if anything, can I do to advocate for her to stay? It’s really a simple ask of HR: redesignate a top-performer as a teleworker. As of now, Molly’s situation is largely unknown to most of the team. But I’ve been thinking, is there power in numbers? Assuming I get Molly on board, could I campaign to the rest of the team and ask them to “sign” or in some way show their support for Molly, and then share this evidence up the chain of command and to HR? I have a good amount of influence with the team, and I am willing to burn some professional capital on this crusade for fairness to keep my star mentee. I know something like this is a hail Mary at this point, so I’d appreciate any guidance!
You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it.
The post my rock-star coworker will quit if she has to return to the office appeared first on Ask a Manager.