First, congratulations to the US. Still a long way to go for full LGBT+ equality, but it’s a major step.

I’ve not posted for a couple of days because I’ve been working on exclusive material for the book version of California Dreaming, which should be out next month. On top of the songs discussed here (and there are thirteen more of those to go) there’ll be entries for I Got You Babe, Once I Was, I Walk On Guilded Splinters, and Love Story (You And Me), an entry on the Monterey pop festival, a “Where are they now?” section, a bibliography and (in the print edition only) an index. Once Caldream is out, I’ll be finishing the series of essays I started on Cerebus…

I’ve also been working on a backlog of Batposts — those will start going up again from tomorrow.

But for now, while you wait for these, some links:

Claiming Tim Farron isn’t a ‘strong liberal voice’ is only possible if you don’t have a clue what liberalism is. There are many good reasons for voting for Norman Lamb over Tim (though I’m a Tim supporter myself), but Tim being illiberal is not one.

Nicholas Whyte on the new Hugo voting proposals

Why coffee pods mean Americans are drinking less coffee

Millennium versus the Home Office

A *wonderful* collection of Tom Swifties (Slate Star Codex, so I’d avoid the comments as a general principle)

Feminist Aspie on how ableism makes autistic women more likely to be abused

And a great short-short story by Peter Watts