StoryShedding: #5

A weekly digest from StoryShed Media for the week of Jan. 4, 2026

SO, IT’S BEEN A difficult first month of the year—uh, week. Right?

Let’s dig in. Take the chill off.

Warm Bake > Hot Take

FRESHLY BAKED JANUARIES HAVE a distinct odor—I’d say aroma, but that wouldn’t be the right word for 2026 so far: an overwhelming stench of hot takes and not enough doughy-woahy inviting warm bakes.

My “hot take facial tic” has been flashin’ like a westbound railroad crossing and it’s not even a full week into the year. Let’s run down the list, shall we?

• Starting a war with Venezuela? Tick VG.

• Murdering Americans in their own streets. ICE’ll be knocking on your door next.

• U.S. healthcare system in financial free fall? Got it. Ouch.

• No functioning American government? Hello, Congress? SCOTUS? Anyone?

• Communication breakdowns in families, communities, individual selves? Hotline to a psychiatrist, STAT!

So, what’s a person to do? It’s a valid question—one I understand everyone is asking.

You can bake it, but you can’t take it anymore.

I read ya loud and clear, Signal. (Photo by StoryShed Media.)

And another thing I’ve been stewing over, y’all. Listen up.

People are gonna judge you no matter what you do. That’s why doing your best involves showing up and giving it your best shot. You’re not going to win ’em all but that’s part of the plan (or so I’m told by former adults no longer on this material plane).

I grew up with a lot of animosity coming at me for doing what I considered creative work. I don’t think I stopped once, but did have a hugely despondent moment in the summer of 1995. That’s a story for another time, but suffice to say I survived it. And a shit-ton of other, possibly worse things. Here’s what I’ve learned…

Some folks wanna bring you down, and will wait outside your door until they see your sorry hide cold and crinkly and belly-up. What’s funny is to give them that—to a point. Thespian Hour, my sweet Flower of Power. Fake it until you get the psychic reach-around. And then go for the kill, Bill.

Me? Just over here keepin’ the lovin’ oven warm … and not overheating.

What Is the Sound of One Substack Clapping?

OK, OK. I WILL admit I’ve been restacking a lot of Notes lately, and I’m curious. Does anyone else restack a Note that includes a Substack essay just so they can remember to go back and read it in more detail later? Cos I do that. A lot.

There’s more great writing than I have time to read, but I make a point to give it my best shot. What I can’t do currently in the way of paid subscriptions I try to make up for in sheer reading. And sharing. Whatever I can.

So, what’s been on my radar?

* * *

While we mourn the murder of Minneapolis resident Renée Nicole Macklin Good, let’s remember her not only through her life but also her poetry.

This stunned me and its ending brought me to tears:

You can read her entire poem here.

* * *

Lee Bacon of Mistakes Were Made kindly reminds us that “we can’t control the universe. But we can always give a hug to someone we love.” Do yourself a hug by going to read his marvelous “Toward Eternity.”

Thanks for writing it, Lee.

* * *

Shannan Mann of the Beautiful Losers Substack is takin’ names and numbers with her recent essay “Against the Cult of Productivity.” Younger writers seem especially quick to glom on to the cult by “strategically dealing with audience churn” and “optimizing output.” Fuck that shiz.

I’ve a complete Season 11 mapped out, but not entirely drafted. From this vantage point, I can see episodes 1 and 4 as problematic, and episodes 2 and 3 as oddly enticing. So write those first?

Maybe, maybe not.

Sometimes when you start on something that attracts you, it allows psychical space for the ones that—at the time—particularly don’t. “Let it all grow dark and rich and strange,” Mann writes, “and maybe even glow and pulse and fill with imperceptible light. Let the worms of wisdom do their work.”

Glow lil’ glowworms, glow!

* * *

Regular StoryShed Media subscribers might not be aware that for over a year now I’ve been joyously collaborating with Boston writer and photographer Sheila Moeschen on the Curious George Questionnaire, which introduces Substack creators to new readers (and potentially, subscribers). We’re keeping it free as we enter 2026, and always happy to discover new respondents and have former ones return for chats and new collaborations. If that interests you, follow George! As our mascot, George often mysteriously dips “out in the field,” still bringing home new curiosities and friends.

Look for his latest find next Friday morning, January 16.

Stray Cats guitarist Brian Setzer at the grave of Eddie Cochran (internet screengrab 2025).

Into the Shack

BIG WIN OVER HERE at StoryShed HQ this past week: I’m back on Scrivener (a word processing software that’s miles above MS Word, Apple Pages, etc.) after I left my old Macbook Pro as a media player and bought my new Macbook Air a couple years ago. The license lapsed, but I was able to get Scrivener 3.0 for a 45% discount and that’s cool because I’m filing it under StoryShed Media LLC’s business expenses for 2026. I’m pumped.

Now I need to relearn Scrivener. lol.

Season 11, Episode 1 is still in draft mode, but had a research expedition last Sunday to an aquarium shop in south Minneapolis—alas, they don’t carry octopuses. Oddly, the co-owner was a former journalist (TV, the local ABC affiliate I think he said) and he was fascinated by my project into octopus intelligence. I am too! I’m now hoping Mall of America’s SEA LIFE aquarium can help me out, or on the retail (dead octopus) side, Fortune Fish and Gourmet just north of where I live.

Stay tuned. Definitely dropping first episode by end of the month.

The Morning Muse

STORYSHED MEDIA IS AVAILABLE for your next “brainstorming” meeting or children’s balloon-animal birthday party. Let’s go racin’ in the sheets—of paper—together.

Without further ado, here’s the Morning Muse from the past week:

• The friends you have might not necessarily be the friends you need.

• An insufficient attempt to relieve a depressed standup comedian: “I demand that you immediately Billy Crystalize!”

• high-density liverwurst

• Chester Alan Arthur Cheeseborough, Esq.

• “It’s Monroe, doc!” “Donsluritis, to be precise.”

• blaster pad

• Roasted apatina

• “I would buy stuff like my father’s aftershave but let’s first consider the implications.”

• a shot of potato

• border shag

• Brigadoom: Two European tourists discover a magical MAGA town that appears for only one day every 100 years. Songs include “Come to Me, Bend That Knee” and “Tether on the Hill.” “Almost Like Being a Slut” was one of its hit songs.

• Naturally occurring stupid

• Better this than that, buh less of those than this

• Aldo Fusconi

• To an over-amorous date: “Hey. Make like a submarine and lower that periscope.”

• Idegyro: A ballerina of the mind

• “Bivalve pancakes for the whole table!”

• Kaylee’s downstairs

• A prayer wheel, but only to be used as a spare.

• Stinky Magee and the Dual Quad Carburetors
  ”Who’d you go see last night?”
  “Stinky’s DQC at the Beam House.”
  “Whoa. Any good?”
  “The best!”

…only with backup. (Photo by StoryShed Media, 2026.)

Now off you go, you small boys!

Thought for the Week

“The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. It’s hard to make strangers care about the good things in your life.”

—Stephen King, “The Body,” end of Chapter 20

Tuneage for You

Take us out, Mr. Jimmy!

“A New Life” Jim James (2015) <3