Back when Kodi was the canine citizen of the house, Zeus had a pronounced tendency to take over the dog bed, partly because it pleased Zeus to appropriate the dog’s property, as if to say hah! to the larger domestic animal. Then Daisy came along and for a couple of months Zeus stayed out of the dog beds, as if biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to re-establish his lounging supremacy.

That moment came this week, as once again Zeus began to loaf extravagantly in dog territory. What does the dog think about this? Well, inasmuch as Krissy went a bit overboard and we have four dog beds in the house at the moment, the dog’s reaction seems to be to say eh, whatever, and then to go and occupy one of the other beds in the house. This seems to work for everyone.

A spontaneous podcast, in which I answer questions about other authors, pizza, the 2012 presidential campaign, who in history I would fight, whether Seanan McGuire can have a cookie and other questions. Roughly 27 minutes (it was almost exactly 30 when I recorded it, but I took out several minutes of “ums” and “uhs”).

If you want to download it for some odd reason, here you go.

Just a quick reminder that I have a trio of helpful holiday threads for you on the site:

1. A book thread, where authors are telling you about their books in the bookstores;

2. An everything else thread: Crafts, arts, self-pubbed books and more, all for gift-giving;

3. A charity thread: Great places to give this year, suggested by Whatever readers.

Check them out; there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find something you like.

I swear to God this is true: Last night I was having a dream. The details of the dream aren’t particularly important; what is important is that in the middle of the dream it stopped. And this happened:

OFFSTAGE VOICE
Excuse me, did you write your Filmcritic.com
column for the week? It’s due tomorrow at nine,
you know.

ME
Why, yes. Yes, I did. I filed it last night.

OFFSTAGE VOICE
Oh, terribly sorry, then. Please continue.

And then the dream resumed as if nothing had happened.

I suppose it’s nice that my brain is keeping track of these things. On the other hand, dear real world: I sleep to escape you. Stop trying to get in.

I think I need a nap.