Ree's Dw circle

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/trying-my-hand-at-some-floral-arrangements/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61056

This past weekend, my friend hosted a bridal shower for our friend who’s getting married soon, and I offered to make up some decorative bouquets for the party. I think I did an okay job, so I wanted to show y’all what I made up! She was hosting the party at her home, so thankfully I was just able to use some vases she had on hand.

For the flowers, I knew I wanted to do something springy and full of pinks and yellows because the theme was “garden party.” I also wanted to include white flowers because, well, it’s for the bride to be!

I went to my local Kroger for all my flowers, and just ended up buying a ton of discounted grower bunches. If you haven’t heard of grower bunches before, think of bouquets as a cake, and the grower bunches are the ingredients. You can buy the cake itself from the store already made, or you can buy all the ingredients for the cake and make it yourself.

So, I bought bunches of roses, lilies, anemone, bells of Ireland, baby’s breath, and some tulips. It took me about 45 minutes to de-leaf, de-thorn, trim and arrange the flowers. I mainly just did a couple small bouquets and then little bud vase arrangements to enhance the main focus bouquets.

This first one is my favorite out of all of them!

I never knew the name for the anemone before now, but I think they are so unique and pretty. I wish for this one I had trimmed the green thingy (someone please tell me the name of it) to be shorter than the anemone.

I tried to keep the bells of Ireland taller than everything in order to bring some dimension to my bouquets, which is definitely an aspect of floral arranging I struggle with.

This stunning white rose was one I decided to let speak for itself in a simple bud vase.

Same for this anemone! It was so big and beautiful.

Since I had a dozen yellow tulips, I decided to just do four little bud vases each with three in them. I think they accented the tables well!

Here they all are on the tables!

And my friend had the amazing idea to put all the flowers I didn’t use in bouquets in a lovely basket she has, and they ended up being a great decoration for the patio just chilling in the corner all ornately:

These were all untrimmed and not de-leafed so it has much more of a wild look to it, but I really love how it turned out. That pink lily is totes gorg.

Anyways, this was my first time doing floral arrangements for a party, and it only cost me seventy dollars for all the flowers, which I think was such a steal. I think they turned out pretty okay, but definitely practice will hopefully make perfect eventually. I am considering buying a floral arrangement book to really up my game.

Let me know your thoughts or tell me some of your favorite flowers in the comments. And have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/trying-my-hand-at-some-floral-arrangements/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61056

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/the-big-idea-donna-barba-higuera/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61045

Keep science fiction weird! New York Times Bestselling and Newbery Medalist author Donna Barba Higuera is a big believer in letting literature be weird and out there and most of all, inspiring to those whose hands her books happen to fall into. Come along in the Big Idea for her newest book, Firesnake and see how a little sticker can have a big impact.

DONNA BARBA HIGUERA:

So, what influence has the Newbery Medal had on contemporary Sci-Fi?

If you ask adults which book was that “magical” book for them, the one that sent them on a quest for more of that feeling, turned them into a reader, most will answer with something they read as a child. Often, it’s a book with that gold sticker on it. Not necessarily because it’s absolutely the best book, but because it was the one someone put in their hands. Still, odds are, it’s gonna click for someone out there.

It’s no secret that Sci-fi books don’t often get on the radar of the Newbery Committee. 

So what a bizarre close-the-loop moment for me when that “magic” book that launched me into a lifelong love of Sci-Fi, A Wrinkle in Time, was a Newbery Medalist over fifty years ago. A gap-toothed, freckly kid, bored out of her mind in a dusty Central California town traveled with Meg Murray to another universe. And that book lured me into becoming a contemporary Sci-Fi reader, and later, writer.

What else did that magic book do? It let that bored kid from a small agricultural town dare to imagine she could write herself across the universe too. Mexican tales can be weird. I could make it weirder! In The Last Cuentista, I blended those magical stories my grandmother told with my love of science fiction. I never dreamed this peculiar and very personal book would be published, let alone win an award like the Newbery Medal. (further proof I’m in a simulation)

People mention all the time how The Last Cuentista was the first Sci-Fi to win the Newbery Medal since Madeline L’Engle’s book over fifty years ago. Wrooong! The thing is, most unfamiliar with Sci-Fi think if a book doesn’t have a spaceship or involve space travel, it’s not Sci-Fi. Other Newbery Medal winners fall into the Sci-Fi category. At Last She Stood (2025 Newbery Medal) by Erin Entrada Kelly was inspired by Erin’s love of the 2010 Newbery winner, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (both books involve time travel). The Giver by Lois Lowry (1994 Newbery Medalist). Turns out, there are a few of us weirdos reeling young readers in to Sci-Fi. 

And that’s just sci fi! What about Newbery Medal fantasy writers like:  Lloyd Alexander and The High King, Susan Cooper and The Grey King, Robin McKinley and The Hero and the Crown, Kelly Barnhill and The Girl Who Drank the Moon; Ursula K. LeGuin also received a Newbery Honor for The Tombs of Atuan.

Most of us have a specific book that turned us into a mainstream Sci-Fi reader or writer. Maybe it’s a book that didn’t get it right, and we are on the search for the book to repair that wrong. Or maybe it was a book that did get it right, and we need to write a love letter to that book like Erin Entrada Kelly did. 

The Last Cuentista was based off a short story writing prompt. “Take a traditional fairy tale and make it sci-fi.” I chose a story that as a kid, I thought was the stupidest tale ever told. The Princess and the Pea. Hear me out. Why would you want some delicate princess to marry your son? Perhaps instead, someone of strong mind and body?

So, as an adult I addressed my repressed childhood fury in a short story about a badass girl who was implanted with the “P.E.A.” (Pellet of Extended Animation. I know…I know…) for a four hundred-year-journey across space. But her “P.E.A.” fails due to her strong mind. She never sleeps and when removed from her pod is beyond bonkers. Society has changed along with what humans value. Well, that revenge-write idea haunted me. Year slater, I started writing The Last Cuentista. 

But to write for adults or children? I found adult Sci-Fi was often too “sciency” for me. I mean, I was a biochem major. I love science. But I have my limits. Physics can kiss my— (and that was how Higuera’s essay in Scalzi’s The Big Idea got her children’s books banned.)

So, back to the topic: What influence has the Newbery Medal had on contemporary Sci-Fi?

Well, first you have to consider how those of us who write for children ended up here.

Long ago, I attended Norwescon in Seattle, and sat in a lecture by Fonda Lee who writes for both adults and children. Fonda said (more or less), “In adult sci-fi fiction, I need to research and include how a ship travels. Kids just need to know the ship got from A to B.”

I might have gasped in that room. That was it! Quite frankly, (oh, I’m gonna get some hate on this) I still don’t care how the ship got from one planet to another. I just want to know about the people and what kind of mess they were in. I’d found where I belonged. I could write for kids, and introduce them to sci-fi without having a doctorate in astronautics!

I was off and running. The first book led to a second. Darker and grittier, Alebrijes is set four hundred years after the comet strike, about what happened to those who survived on Earth. You know, just a little hopeful apocalypse for the kids. The third and final book in the series, Firesnake, is about a girl born and raised on the terraformed planet, Sagan, who is now returning to a very changed planet Earth.

Maybe my books are a bit of a soft launch, (depends on who’s reading them) but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I don’t read sci-fi, but I read your book and it wasn’t horrible.”

I smile and say, “Welcome to weird with the rest of us.” I then tell those people of some of the contemporary Sci-Fi I think they may like. That’s how it begins.

Just to be clear, writing for kids is hard! I double dog dare you to try it. Children have the ability to suspend disbelief and imagine the impossible. But they will also call BS and proclaim you the worst author on Earth if you don’t get something right. 

My hope is that there’s a young reader out there who’ll read my books and imagine themselves as a writer. Great! Or maybe, they’ll think my books are the stupidest books ever written. Well, not good, but okay. Whatever you need to rage-write, imagine, wonder and create.

It’s a cycle that should repeat. Not every book is for every reader. Writers shouldn’t take it personally if a reader doesn’t like our books. 

But with that gold sticker that somehow found its way to the cover of my book, I’m now in the lucky position to get to speak to kids all over the world. I get to encourage young readers and writers to embrace the “weird” parts of themselves; the parts that make your palms sweat and heart race when you think of sharing them with others. 

Maybe if a kid picks up The Last Cuentista and reads it because they see that gold medal (or heaven forbid they are forced to read it in school) for either love or hate, it may turn them on to reading more contemporary Sci-Fi. Don’t mind me. I’m just going to be over here writing the strange and weird, hoping that a book I write might be that magical one; that gives them a lifelong love of contemporary Sci-Fi; like a Newbery book by Madeleine L’Engle gave me a half century ago.

Firesnake: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author socials: Website|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/the-big-idea-donna-barba-higuera/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61045

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/today-in-words-mean-things/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61034

An interesting jurisprudential development someplace not in the US:

A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for what its AI search overviews say. Previous case law shielding search engine operators from liability doesn’t apply to AI overviews.

The Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring the company from spreading false claims about two Munich-based publishers through its AI-generated search overviews (case no. 26 O 869/26). The court classified Google as a direct infringer because the “AI overview” is its own content, not just a list of search results.

The crux of the issue is whether the “AI Overview” Google now provides — and which is often erroneous because LLMs can’t read or exercise judgement, they can only spit out statistically likely words — counts as a presentation of information provided elsewhere, as a normal search query might be, or is a new creation with its own set of liabilities. The court, for various reasons, decided it is the latter (go ahead and click through to see a fuller explanation of the court’s decision).

I’m not well enough versed with the German legal system to determine whether this sort of ruling is going to succeed on appeal (and it is absolutely going to be appealed) but as a matter of personal understanding, this ruling seems pretty legit to me. The “AI Overview” isn’t a search listing — Google has gone through the trouble of passing it through its LLM and letting the thing make a document about it, and these documents, both by tone and by their position at the top of a Google search page, sound authoritative and present as factual. These documents may not be copyrightable, but that doesn’t mean Google didn’t create them and are thus responsible for them.

This isn’t the first time Google has found itself in legal hot water over its “AI Overview” function — a musician in Canada is currently suing the company after its overview identified him as a sex offender and he lost work because of it. But as far as I know this is the first court ruling that says Google is liable for what its “overviews” say. I suspect it will be very closely scrutinized by others in other places who have, ahem, run into similar issues with the overview.

I’m curious whether such a legal ruling would be possible in the United States, which has famously liberal (in the classical sense) free speech laws and has an extremely high bar for defamation, especially for public individuals, under the NYT v Sullivan Supreme Court ruling. Perhaps in the US the best avenue to pursue this would not be on the grounds of free speech but of product liability: A product that fails a significant amount of the time but is still presented to consumers as reliable feels like a class action suit waiting to happen.

No matter what, however, this is a big moment for “AI” and the information that it presents. Whether this spurs tech companies to make better products, or just spend more money on legal, will be the open question. One is, admittedly, easier than the other.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/10/today-in-words-mean-things/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61034

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/09/some-thoughts-on-masters-of-the-universe/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61011

There are a lot of bad movies in the world. There are, of course, good movies and bad movies, but there’s also a special third category of “good bad” movies. I had a feeling going into the theater to see Masters of the Universe which category it would fall into.

Despite never having actually watched any He-Man content before, I was surprisingly really excited for this movie. Not because I thought it would be absolutely amazing, but because I thought it would be fun. And boy oh boy, I was right.

Masters of the Universe is wildly entertaining, extremely colorful, and certainly not the worst way I’ve spent two hours and seven bucks (matinee shows rock). I know it’s not very good, but I still think you should go see it on the big screen if you can. Besides the film being an excuse to eat popcorn and have an Icee, what makes it worth watching?

(SPOILER WARNING MOVING FORWARD!)

For starters, I love the fact that Adam holds firm on the existence of Eternia, and never stops believing in the world he comes from. I love that he tells everyone his truth, even if it costs him his social life and dating prospects. He doesn’t hide his truth even if it makes him sound crazy, and I really like that he’s not willing to deny Eternia’s existence just to fit in or seem more normal. He knows it’s real, and that’s all that matters. He never gives up hope on finding the sword and returning to a home he knows exists and is waiting for him to come back. (I am glad he at least got to prove everything to his roommate, who definitely thought he was delusional, but finding good roommates is hard.)

I love that Teela just wants to be friends, and that’s actually completely respected and not questioned at all! He-Man is a real man and knows there is no such thing as the friendzone and that he is lucky to have Teela as his good friend and comrade in battle. And that’s enough. He took the rejection of his kiss well and moved on from it quickly instead of being a huge baby about it. And they didn’t end up together in the end! They really are just friends, and I love that for them. Not that I don’t love a good “childhood friends reunited” love story, but He-Man should focus on saving the universe or whatever, not smooching.

I love Skeletor’s goofy ass evil witch. I mean her name is literally Evil-Lyn. How excellently corny. It just one of the many ways this movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. They know He-Man is a silly concept and heavily memed franchise, and they lean into the silliness in a delightful way. Alison Brie was amazing to watch as the dark sorceress, her facial expressions really made the performance.

Speaking of Skeletor, oh my lord did I love Skeletor. I love a villain that is bad for badness sake, a villain that relishes being evil and has no tragic backstory to inspire such dastardly deeds, he just is the villain. And he loves it. Skeletor’s incredibly homoerotic comments about He-Man might have genuinely been the hardest I laughed at the movie. Yes, Skeletor, tell me more about He-Man’s giant sword and glorious thighs. I did think Skeletor’s body looked kind of goofy, like he was too shredded and looked too much like an anatomical model in a science textbook, and I wish they had kept his supremely iconic voice instead of the generic “bad guy deep voice,” but all in all I liked Skeletor.

(I also did not know until the moment the credits rolled that Jared Leto plays him, so that was unfortunate to find out. I’m trying not to let it impact my view of Skeletor’s character but dang I really wish they had cast someone else.)

As Orko says at the end, muscles don’t make the man. In this house, we LOVE an empathetic, kind, slightly ditzy He-Man. Portrayals of positive masculinity will always be a win in my book, and Masters of the Universe makes it very well known throughout the movie that brute strength and violence do not make a hero by themselves. How you use your strength and what you use it for are the real questions I wish people with power in real life would reflect on. Knowing when and how to implement your strength is the real power.

Masters of the Universe is good bad, just as I knew it would be. I thoroughly enjoyed my time watching it, and honestly the “I have the powerrrr!” scenes were pretty damn awesome. I really don’t have many complaints about the movie, as this is one of the few goofy, shut-up-and-eat-your-popcorn movies that I actually had fun with. Usually I’m a hater of movies that are just Mid-Tier Nothing Burgers, but Masters of the Universe really feels like it has a lot of heart in it, and I like it.

Have you seen Masters of the Universe yet? Did you watch He-Man when you were younger? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/09/some-thoughts-on-masters-of-the-universe/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61011

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/08/various-sundry-6-8-26/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60979

Hello, it’s Monday, let’s see what’s been going on over the weekend:

Spencer Pratt misses LA Mayoral runoff: I’ve not lived in California for decades now, and even when I did never lived in the city of Los Angeles proper. Nevertheless as a native son of Southern California, I’ve been keeping up with LA’s mayoral race, mostly because people I know were exasperated by the presence of Pratt, a fellow who as I understand it was best known for dating someone more famous than he and then extending that into an indifferent career in the reality TV genre, the sort where he and his spouse at one point announced an impending divorce for the publicity boost. Pratt is a Republican, and so perhaps unsurprisingly his entire platform seems to have been based on “backing the blue” and harassing homeless people.

The California primary election was nearly a week ago, and the vote tallying has been slow and for most of it Pratt was in second place behind the current, somewhat embattled, LA mayor Karen Bass. But as the mail-in votes have been counted over the last week, Pratt slipped into third behind Nithya Raman, and seems likely to stay there. Naturally, this has started the absolutely predictable GOP whining and foot-stomping about “election integrity,” to which the only rational response is, shut the fuck up, you reprehensible children, and take the “L” like grown-ups. They won’t, of course. But one can dream.

Earlier in the campaign Pratt said that if he lost the election he would leave Los Angeles; I understand there may be a GoFundMe to hire him a U-Haul. I will believe that he’s going to leave LA when I see it. He has not other real skills than being a celebrity of a certain low-wattage sort. He needs to be where the work is. And of course, this was all this doomed mayoral run was — an attempt to keep his name in the spotlight a little longer, to keep the work flowing. I hope it does this task… poorly.

Rush comes back: In rather more exciting news from Los Angeles, Rush opened up their new tour there last night, their first in a decade and since drummer/lyricist Neil Peart passed away in 2020. Apparently things went extremely well, with tour drummer Anika Nilles getting her critical flowers for her work on the throne. For me the moment of particular interest is that Aimee Mann (who I am friendly with thanks to our mutual participation on the JoCo Cruise) popped up for a cameo on “Time Stand Still,” which is arguably my own favorite Rush tune:

I have friends who are over the moon that Rush is back on tour, especially since it seemed unlikely, with the passing of Peart, that they would ever do so again; he was (and is) absolutely the beating heart of that band. No one could or did fault the Geddy Lee or Alex Lifeson, the other two members of Rush, for choosing to call it a career. But the way Rush are doing this particular tour, with a drummer with her own considerable skills, not designed to replace Peart but to support his friends as they take a sweet, valedictory lap, seems to be something everyone is getting behind. I hope they have a good tour, and I hope all my friends who love Rush get a chance to see them.

House-sized American flag causes a power failure: Sometimes the real-world metaphors are just a little on the nose, aren’t they? But wait, the metaphor gets even nose-ier: The New York Times reporting on the event seems to suggest the massive, 3,000 square foot flag that cut off power to 40,000 may have been the property of the WWE wrestling organization, based in Stamford, where the outage happened. A preview, possibly, of the event (UFC, not WWE) scheduled for the White House lawn this weekend? We shall see.

I am, for the record, somewhat less outraged than some other people of my political leanings about the MMA event at the White House. I think it’s tacky as fuck, but that’s Trump for you. I don’t support it and am sure it’s going to be corrupt people doing corrupt things, corruptly, but on my list of things to seethe about regarding this administration, it’s low-ish on the list. Other people are taking up my slack, to be sure. I wish them joy in the work.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/08/various-sundry-6-8-26/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60979