The flooded Oxford was a nice pull from La Belle Sauvage, which is an great standalone adventure in its own right - one that I may have enjoyed more than the two latter books of the trilogy. I just started The Secret Commonwealth last night which looks to be a sequel to both stories.

Whoever takes the time to link all these stories is the hero(/ine) of Halloween.

Oh and another one that still haunts me was another comment that was about the author having a weird experience with her mom in the morning as a little girl. The mom seemed different to her and scared her while getting ready for school. The author ran into the kitchen crying to the grandma, that mom was scaring her,…

If that sort of thing unnerves you, read M.R. James’s short story “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad.” Its image of a faraway figure climbing strangely over the rocks, never getting any closer, has haunted me since I first read it decades ago.

My vote for the best story of all time would be Venka by Benthic Born from 2016 (one of the winners that year, but I’ll link to the comments version, which is a little longer and has a few extra details).

Seriously. That and that humblebrag ass thrift store one. Jesus. “So the fry cook and I saunter over to the 1950's garage and the gentleman confesses to the murder. Quite an odd morning I suppose, but what a great haul!”

Um... “Toe head” brings a very different (and much more hilarious) picture than does a “towhead.” Likewise “heard animal” and “herd animal.”

It was believable up until the point where you decided to wear head to toe thrift stores clothes without washing them first. 

My mom passed, violently and suddenly, in 2017. I wasn’t able to see her body or say goodbye because they wouldn’t let me. But since then, anytime I’m in a financial bind or short on money, unexpected money arrives in my mail. I can’t explain it but I know it’s her. And oftentimes, I’ll be walking around a store, and…

This story isn’t scary, and there are so many other stories on here that I doubt anyone will read it...but it IS true, I wanted to share it somewhere, and folks in my normal life would probably roll their eyes, so...

I don’t for a second believe this is a true story, but it was really well written and I loved it.

When I was about 22 one of my close friends, T, completed suicide. His housemate found him. None of us knew what he’d been going through. He was the life and soul. It was hard.

Eh, maybe the stress will get to him and Mother Nature will vote to remove him. 

If I made a Sondheim reference and someone responded with they prefer The Phantom of the Opera, that’s my queue to not take them seriously.

That whole thing read like a gender flipped Talented Mr. Ripley for the Instagram Age.

I didn’t know anything about this before this Jez article (because I’m 44) but I read Natalie’s essay and just... holy shit, kids. Why are you like this?

I used to be such a fan of Little Women. But after reading more about Alcott’s life, I increasingly am so tired of the rosy version of her life as written in Little Women. Her life which she based much of it on was so much more fascinating and complicated. I’d much rather see a movie about her idealist/neglectful…

All I know is that there is no way any other actress will top Claire Danes’ crying face. 

I love Professor Bhaer, and Laurie was an entitled douche. I SAID IT.

I’m a lot less terrified and a lot more determined to live the life I want to live because I realize that I’m lucky to be here at all and we all gotta die of something.