Wheeee, Friday. It’s still too frigid for the frozen snow drifts in our yard to melt, and 50% of my household is once again ill. I’m ready for the weekend, is what I’m saying, and House of Cards Season 3, and — some blessed day — the experience, now almost forgotten, of stepping outside my house without snow boots. Still, I am grateful for this week, the week that brought Nicole back into our midst! And it was also the week that gave us Mallory’s ode to The Ideal Woman:

“Mother, how will I know when I am a woman?”

“You will wear a ruby the size of a bird, and clutch a baby unicorn with sad eyes to your breast. That is how you will know.”

I Dedicate this Novel to the Man Who Convinced Me to Stop Writing Silly Genre Fiction and Crank Out a Thinly Veiled Memoir

“I am certain I’ve been queer my whole life, and for most of that life I could not have told you so.”

Shrill and Mallory saw Jupiter Ascending and yelled about it.

“Edward and I think of our style as sort of ‘medieval suit of armor meets oppressive and claustrophobic wealth'”: Jane Eyre’s ancient fire-ravaged Gothic castle got the Great House Therapy treatment, filling a void in your life you never knew existed.

Kelly Davio’s new column for The Butter, The Waiting Room, will explore the places where illness, disability, and body image intersect. More pats of Butter: Swinging with Absalom, How to Soften a Fall, and The Meaning of the Moon.

You will love this new short story by Lesley Nneka Arimah:

“Why won’t you let yourself enjoy this?” my mother says, and it echoes Udoma’s why won’t you let me have this so closely I suspect a conspiracy. When I say nothing, she turns to me, naked hen in hand, and asks a question whose answer has thorned my side.

“Nne, what do you want from me?”

“I Remember It All So Clearly, The Time I Courted That Girl I Spent A Long Time Getting to Know First” and other songs from The Hold Steady Album Where No One Gets Wasted Or Shows Questionable Judgement

At times we all need some good poetic advice.

“I look up to the forever-dark sky and blink, but the images remain impressed on my eyes: reverse shadows of impossible tiny things. I wonder how long the world has been storing the true heart of itself out of sight in tiny and forgotten moments.” If you haven’t yet, you should definitely read this gorgeous, haunting story about mermaids by Kendra Fortmeyer.

Who published it, Playboy or Cat Fancy?

Now I am going to make this Coffee Cake French Toast for dinner because I think I deserve it. Have a wonderful weekend, Toasties.