StoryShedding: #6

A fortnightly digest of StoryShed Media for the week of Jan. 18, 2026

I’M REALLY STRUGGLING, IT seems. Probably need to stake a flag on a far-distant summit, which seems to be the communique.

We’ll dig into that with the Shack, but first…

Warm Bake > Hot Take

SO, SO MANY HOT takes here in the Twin Cities this month. Do we like this much attention? NO WE DO NOT.

We are warm bakers, not hot takers. That being said, we rise (like freshly baked bread!) to a challenge and that challenge is the current federal regime.

ICE Out of Minnesota 1/23/26 (photo by Pat Ciernia).

Keep the pressure on, folks. Also…

Here’s what we need, kids—

Hugs, not thugs. (Screengrab from a YouTube cheffy video.)

Thanks for all the hugs.

They feel SO GOOD.

What Is the Sound of One Substack Clapping?

Less reading other ’stacks this week because, well, DEPRESSED. Can you guess why? But a few missives slipped under my locked door.

“This is our crisis scenario,” Carbon Upfront! Substack Lloyd Alter writes, “about a decade from now when we have 70 million seriously ageing baby boomers, mostly alone, trapped in their suburban homes that they cannot afford to keep cool or dry because of a rapidly changing climate, possibly in the middle of an inter-generational political war.”

His essay, written in response to this post by Jeff Giesea, chilled me to the bone and spurred more curiosity about what we, as individuals can do to stem the forthcoming crisis. Not entirely blaming Boomers might be a good first step, but also moving things forward at the ballot box and in the workplace is another possibility.

Nice piece from Edward Renehan slipped into my DMs this past week ahead of Davos. Check it out here.

Apparently a lot of changes in Substackia going into 2026.

We’ll keep you posted as usual.

Into the Shack

JANUARY! Usually so tough, so spare, so vital! What’s happened?

Where’s your spunk?

To all loyal StoryShed subscribers: The StoryShedding digest will now be hitting in boxes on a bi-weekly basis now. Why? Weekly was starting to detract from regular seasonal essays. It’s been cheering to know readers are enjoying the digest and I’m happy to continue it!

Season 11: Stargazing, Episode 1 isn’t going well. It’s having existential issues but management is hoping to smooth out current tensions.

“I can see it in your eye…you’re leaving me!”

The Morning Muse

ALL THAT PERTAINS AFTER the goddess has stripped you of your raw desire.

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

• …every last masticated morsel

• Let’s make like a chevron and sagittate

• It’s open-faced sandwiches and safe recreation in the pavilion all afternoon, dude.

• pyroglyphics

• Elder udder under advisement—over and out

• Larry Shotgun

• splurge merch

• “The winter sun was just rising, its rosy glow blushing the tops of bare trees.”

• Brotides (roaring from the back of the barroom)

• When good intentions yield bad results

• Percocet bathtub paints

• Flabberguested households

• “I have no reciprocal pride for this person, take them away.”

• Bykwon Beedoodle

• An interview with storyteller Tom Cassidy

• Fornicating bushbabies, all bug-eyed and reeling

• stormwalk

• The Blinchley Ouroboros

• Wednesday maybe yes likely no

• A bird in flight / is winged appetite

“Wait, I did WHAT?”

Thought for the Week

[Saint-Saëns] brings into the midst of our present restlessness something of the sweetness and clarity of past periods, something that seems like fragments of a vanished world.

—Romain Rolland, “On Camille Saint-Saëns” from Milton Cross’ Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962.

Tuneage for You

“Hail! California” Camille Saint-Saëns (1915; here performed by La Sirène, le 28 novembre 2021 à l'église de la Madeleine, Paris, arranged by Kevin R. Tam.)