Farewell, Witcraft, and thanks for the laughs

Another fine literary magazine is closing shop. This time it’s Witcraft, an online publication that, for the past couple of years, offered up a daily dose of comic relief in the form of fiction and poetry.

Witcraft founder and editor Doug Jacquier (featured in a recent Friday Five) recently announced his plans in a message to subscribers and on his Substack. He wrote:

Continue reading “Farewell, Witcraft, and thanks for the laughs”

What will you shed in the Year of the Snake?

I kicked the habit (kicked the habit, kicked the habit)
Shed my skin (shed my skin)
This is the new stuff (this is the new stuff)
I go dancing in (we can go dancing in)

– Peter Gabriel, “Sledgehammer

Happy Lunar New Year, folks, and welcome to the Year of the Snake. It begins today, January 29, 2025.

While many of us in Western cultures have been taught to take a dim view of the slithery creature — thanks to the serpent’s role in the Old Testament story of the fall of humanity — but that is not the case in the Eastern hemisphere. In much of Asia, the snake is “celebrated and revered” as a symbol of transformational change, writes Kimmy Yam in this NBC News story about the Lunar New Year.

Continue reading “What will you shed in the Year of the Snake?”