The cool thing about writing a blog about cool things you find on the internet is that other people send you cool things they find on the internet. I could have written that sentence in a more graceful way but I REFUSE. Anyway, shout out to my parents for providing two of this week’s reads. It’s been a dark season for me, which is a shame because I love the fall. But I’m thinkin’ about this woodpecker, who to my ignorant imagination represents independence and persistence, and I will reach for the same.

1. Useful and Obscure Words for Autumn, Merriam Webster. Hibernaculum is my main takeaway from this one: “a shelter occupied during the winter by a dormant animal (such as an insect, snake, bat, or marmot).” Okay!! Time to pull out the candles and fuzzy blankets for my hibernaculum!
2. 50 Fictional Librarians, Ranked, LitHub. There’s some a few librarians I didn’t recognize on here! Mr. Ambrose (Bob’s Burgers) is one of my favorites. Bunny Watson (Desk Set) is also an ICON.
3. 9 Colors Named After People, MentalFloss. Out of these nine, Hooker’s green is my favorite. If there was a color named after me, I like to think it would be Emily green.
4. The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat and Fierce, Angie Manfredi. This anthology of essays, illustrations, and poems by fat authors and other creators was good for the soul. One of the poems I liked best was by David Bowles, called “Seven Things I would Tell Eleven-Year-Old Me.” Here are some lines I loved: From section six: “You are a human being, / unique and wonderful, / unlike anything that has existed / or ever will. Fat? Yes. In body / and in soul, brimming… // You overflow with stardust.” And then later, in section seven: “I make you a solemn promise: / It gets easier…You will be fat again // Fat. And older. And wiser. / With a loving wife / and brilliant children. // They will throw / their arms around / your belly / and whisper / I love you.”
5. Monsters Are Real, Biodiversity Heritage Library. Here’s the description of this Flickr collection: “Many of history’s most fearsome legendary monsters are based on real animals. The BHL Monsters Are Real campaign explores the stories, people, books, and animals that inspired such infamous beasts as Sea Serpents, the Kraken, Hydra, Mermaids, and Leviathans. This album contains centuries’ worth of monster images from books in the BHL collection.” Happy Halloween everyone. This toothy lion man is one of my favorites of the decidedly unsettling collection.