Hey folks: This is not a real blog post, this is my more-or-less monthly round up of the things I did when I wasn’t here (and the tip jar because I’ve got to eat).
I have written three actual blog posts I’m proud of in the last 24 hours, and there’s more coming down the pipe soon. But these posts do help me keep organized.
First of all, last month I was honored to be writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about homelessness and Appalachia again. Please do click on that and share it around and tell people how much you like it, because it helps me get invited back!
Next, thank you for all the kind words about my two posts for Where Peter Is. I’m really grateful to Mike Lewis for hosting me at a minute’s notice.
I’m going to just link to all my detective work on the very silly story of the demise of the Catholic tabloid Church Miitant here, in order, plus Mike’s article involving the same mystery, so you can catch up if you have absolutely nothing more important going on in your life.
–First, we have a writeup on Truth Army, the Coocoo for Cocoa Puffs conspiracy theory website that momentarily claimed it was the new owner of Church Militant.
–Second, we find out the three-million dollar reason that Truth Army and its dapper CEO, Joe Gallagher, quickly deleted their video and pretended nothing had happened– plus the introduction of a bloke named Geoffrey Sando.
–Next, we have Mike Lewis’s piece on the very weird happenings when Church Militant disappeared from the internet forever.
–And finally, my blog post on where, exactly, all the donation money was going for the brand new, suspiciously cheap, Church Militant website, and who’s running it over there (spoiler alert: it rhymes with Shmichael Shmoris).
I don’t have any more updates on that story just now. But it might interest you to know that Joe Gallagher seems to have changed his X/Twitter account to an anonymous troll account called Ronald Regains which mostly posts about herbal remedies. Truth Army’s X/Twitter account no longer exists, the ai-generated articles on their website have been deleted, and the interview with Mrs. Sando does not appear with the other interviews on Truth Army’s website anymore. I wonder how that lawsuit is going.
I’ll be sure and update you guys if there’s any more news.
As usual, please remember that you can follow me on social media.
You can follow my blog’s Facebook account, but don’t bother friending my personal Facebook account because that’s just for people I know and I usually don’t take friend requests I don’t recognize. You can follow me on Twitter, which I still call Twitter and which is where I do most of my clowning around. You can follow me on Bluesky and Threads, and I wish you would because Twitter is a sewer and I’d love to clown around somewhere else. And I promise to try to remember to go back to my Tumblr blog just as soon as I can.
And finally, as always, the boilerplate.
I am working as hard as I can on various writing projects, and I’m finishing a great big one by the beginning of May. I get a very small paycheck for clicks on Patheos, and we’re grateful when that hundred dollars or so comes in at the end of the month. I get a bit of book royalties now and then. But I am still very dependent on gratuities from satisfied readers. I’m not going to act like Church Militant or a similar outfit and claim my writing is an “apostolate” or something important like that. It’s merely me making art to try and earn a living. My paypal gives you the opportunity to sign up to pay a bit every month like a Patreon or a magazine subscription, and this is a huge relief to me because I can predict when it’s coming and plan when to pay bills, but any time anyone throws me a few bucks it’s greatly appreciated. I know the Paypal button says “donate” but it’s not really a charitable donation; I pay taxes on it like a tip.
The absolute worst time of the month for me is the middle, because rent is due to be mailed the fifteenth and the utility bills are often due at the same time. Lately I have managed to keep our heads just far enough above water that we have not gotten kicked out or shut off, but we’ve only been able to pay the past due and the late fee on so many things that we’re having a very hard time keeping our heads above water. Because of February and March being so difficult, the thought of getting everything together in April is scaring me to death. So, if you like what you read, now would be a great time to throw a penny in the cup.
You can tip “The Little Portion” on paypal,or Mary Pezzulo on venmo.
And now I’ll go back to writing worth your time!
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