Connie Willis's *The Road to Roswell*, published in 2023, is a light-hearted, delightfully clever sci-fi comedy that never takes itself too seriously. In contrast to some of her other work, this is a simple plot, with just enough Willisy twists to keep me interested. A little absurd and whimsical, the characters are real and believable, even though surrounded by the seemingly impossible.

The pragmatic Francie is heading to Roswell, New Mexico for her friend’s UFO-themed wedding — only to be abducted by a polite and extremely inconvenient alien. What begins as a bizarre kidnapping quickly turns into a road trip involving cowboys, conspiracy theorists, and other unexpected, slightly odd travellers. Despite the silliness of the premise, the characters are well-drawn and the dialogue is sharp, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

Thre are no jump-scares, no dystopia, no Alien horror, just a charming, comic

On May 11, 2000, archetype recommended Paul Oakenfold's Gatecrasher mix to the nodegel. 25 years later, I'm giving it a listen, and man, is it still good! Though created before I was born, it is still ahead of its time. Today has been utterly bonkers at school; one of those days where you're basically at a sprint all day (fellow educators, can you relate?). The mix is a good outlet for the chaos within, although I wish I was at the club. If you are/were a fan of trance/techno/house, give it a listen. It's available on Soundcloud, and probably elsewhere.

Alex Jones has said a lot of crazy shit and absolutely none of it was as wild as finding out that there's microplastic in the dickmeat.

Yeah OK, the microplastics are getting into algae and stuff, and sea turtles are choking on beer cartilage or whatever, that shit sucks for sure. But pretty el fucking rapido after an interested, concerned, literate person might start to worry about the threat of things going any farther than that, a bored researcher read an article about the most recent method