HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.

Yes.

Put perfectly.

After a year of watching CR, the cast’s panels and the Between the Sheets interviews… I think I can safely say that the most important lesson I’ve learned from them is how life-changing it can be to surround yourself with good people.

Surround yourself with people who are open and vocal about how much they love and admire you, who call themselves your biggest fan and who are there to support you through your path to greatness.

Surround yourself with people who enjoy their own interests unapologetically, who genuinely seek for the things that will make them happy and who are not restrained by what people will think of them. 

Surround yourself with people who aren’t afraid to show affection through words or physical gestures, who are shamelessly in love with their special other and who see that their love is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Surround yourself with people with healing energy, people who will listen to you attentively, who will offer a helping hand when the world is falling down around you, who will try their best to understand your struggles.

Surround yourself with people that are loud, who aren’t afraid to exist brightly and colorfully, who laugh and cry and have fun and feel with every fiber of their being. 

Most importantly, though, be that kind of person. Put positive energy into the world and you will find it coming back to you. This group of nerds is just a taste of what unapologetic genuine shameless love can accomplish. And I feel grateful every day for the reminder that there’s someone out there who, when you least expect it, will show up and love you and make life a thousand times better.

an explanation is not owed

More from the Reading Pile

Fortunately The Milk A fun children's story that can be enjoyed by all ages. Skottie Young's art works perfectly with the wild story (a dad tells the story of why it took him so long to go buy a bottle of milk). It's written by Neil Gaiman, so decide for yourself if you want to support it (I had already purchased it before all the news broke). Harper Collins Children - HC $19.99, SC $9.99

Wrestling Unmasked: Ripping the Mask off the Crime, Politics and Intrigue Beyond The Ring A collection of various articles from the British Wrestletalk Magazine from the early 2020s. They are well written and dive into the ugly history of the industry. If you're a long time wrestling fan like me (since the mid '80s), you probably know most of these stories already. But the articles are well written and in some cases personal. Worth picking up, especially if you are recent fan to the squared circle. Wrestletalk.com - ebook £6.99, print SC £14.99, also available from Amazon

Snarf Quest: The Book A graphic novel of the first story line of Larry Elmore's "Snarf Quest" comic from the back of Dragon magazine of the 1980s. It's entertainingly silly and goofy and doesn't take it's self seriously at all (it features a time traveling wizard, a robot that crash lands in front of Snarf and a dragon that thinks it's a duck). Also, it's Larry Elmore, so all of the women are beautiful and scantly clad, but at least they don't fall into the "damsel in distress" trope. A fun read. If you can find it cheap, snap it up. TSR Inc - Cover Price $9.95 (out of print)

Everyone wins.

I went to whack at a spider while dreaming and then I whacked my bedside table in real life and almost broke my glasses.

In the first-ever union of the Word of God and the Synthesizer, the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals voted unanimously Monday to incorporate the lyrics of Yes into the New Testament. The resulting new Bible, the Revised Standard YesScriptures, will replace the Jerusalem Bible of 1966 as the standard accepted record and vehicle of divine revelation.

“Let us rejoice in this momentous occasion,” said Pope John Paul II in a special service at St. Peter’s. “And let no man be unmoved, remembering the words of Jesus: ’In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky, and they stand there.’ Amen.”

Full Story

In the spirit of the holidays, we have a gift for the best fans in the world: more Death & Dream.

This deleted scene from The Sandman episode "The Sound of Her Wings" gives us a little more insight into why Death is the way she is. We hope you enjoy it.

- Neil, Allan & David