One of the subreddits I follow is Two Sentence Horror. Sometimes they're clever, and often they're terrible.

This guy is great though. He writes two sentences that are mostly devoid of cultural context, and then in the comments reveals which folklore horror story he's referencing. During October, it feels like they're mostly American and European, but many of them are Japanese, so he's not exclusively western.

So for example:

I was out late investigating a recent string of crushing deaths in the local national forest when a bellowing laugh from above caught me off guard.

I looked up towards the source of the sound, and barely had time to scream before a head the size of a boulder plummeted down from the treetops and crushed me to death.

and then in the comments, he gives the full story of Tsurube otoshi.

Or one from Malaysia:

My panicked pregnant wife told me in a terrified voice that the floating head of a woman with entrails trailing behind it had attacked her on the way home that night. As I stroked my wife's hair while trying to calm her I marveled at how she never noticed the scent of vinegar that still lingered on my body.

The story is of Hantu penanggal.

enjoy!

When I think of places that don't accept cash anymore, I usually think of places that are either unstaffed, or don't want to put a single worker at risk of being robbed - parking garages are an obvious example.

Pokey and a friend biked down to a local ice cream shop downtown and were turned down because they've gone cashless. (They had to get cinnamon rolls next door, o the hardship.)

So:
- Are cashless places becoming mainstream?
- Is this problematic because it places barriers on people on the margins?

It's problematic, right? Also, how can it possibly be that much trouble to accept cash at an ice cream parlor that you would phase it out?

So, where do you folks shop for your favorite news?

Mossy Character writes: Sergio Massa v. Patricia Bullrich v. Javier Milei; Claudia Sheinbaum v. Xóchitl Gálvez.

Heebie's take: The hidden downside of clustering all your country's power in a few individuals who came of age before [pick your favorite milestone. Before acceptance of plate tectonics? before 911 existed? before desegregation?]

Is there appetite for a thread?

I don't have much to say, besides general sadness and dread.