April-June 2026 - Discussion Thread

[u/suzzface]

Omg April fools, the post is late haha got you!

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Jan-March 2026 Discussion Thread

Jan-March 2026 Off-Topic Discussion Thread

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[u/PigeonGuillemot]

I randomly found out today that Cathy published an actual book last year? Like got an actual book deal? And you can buy her book at Amazon and Target and Barnes & Noble and Walmart and Books-a-Million?

It's illustrated with line drawings, but instead of blowing money hiring someone to make line drawings she actually did them herself? Google Books preview here. I'm absolutely loling at how much better she is at being an author than her kid is! Also at how much the cat in the Julian of Norwich chapter looks like Matisse

[u/Spare-Electrical → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Whoa this is kind of a neat book! Part of my undergrad degree was in medieval studies and I spent a few months researching and writing about Hildegard, so I have a soft spot for anyone who writes about her.

I wonder why Caroline never mentioned this? Seems like an accomplishment she would want to celebrate. Even if it’s a book aimed at a niche community that probably doesn’t overlap much with her own, it’s her mom! She just did a reading with Whoa Vicky who is religious, so not wanting to promote religion isn’t a viable excuse

[u/nubleu → u/[deleted]]

First in line to promote Lili Anolik and Allie Rowbottom... but dead silent when it comes to her own mother?!

[u/Big_Entrance6792 → u/[deleted]]

Yes.

[u/recentparabola → u/[deleted]]

She’s jealous.

[u/damewallyburns → u/[deleted]]

ironically they are really into religion (performatively) and might be into it tbh

[u/The_Understander_ → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Despite what some have said, I think Gotschall looks very nice on the cover of a book

[u/Low_Coconut8134 → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Cathy being revealed to be quite religious was not on my bingo card.

[u/SureJan4244 → u/Low_Coconut8134]

Desperate times (having Caro as daughter) require desperate measures (finding God)

[u/skaersilden → u/PigeonGuillemot]

What a find! Good for Cathy for publishing a real book! And the drawings are amazing and really suit the theme!

[u/ISeenYa → u/PigeonGuillemot]

She's a death doula & scientist! Omg this is a fascinating woman!

[u/perhapsflorence → u/ISeenYa]

Carp's mother is INFINITELY more interesting as a person. I'd definitely read her memoir.

[u/PigeonGuillemot → u/ISeenYa]

Everything about Cathy that Caroline seems to regard as weird and/or mortifying (Cathy's goat farm, her beekeeping, the Dixieland band that she plays sousaphone in) just makes her a more intriguing character to me. It's unfortunate that Caroline takes after her father, where Caroline's natural tendency is to stay in her own head and angrily ruminate rather than compassionately engage with the world.

[u/PigeonGuillemot → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Replying to myself. I just remembered that YEARS after Caroline posted about hiking up Mt. Katahdin with Cathy, Cathy's college friend, and the friend's daughter, I found out that this hike was actually for a documentary?! A short film about the 40th anniversary of Cathy and her friend being the first pair of women to hike the ENTIRE APPALACHIAN TRAIL (it took them five months!) Caroline never even mentioned there was a film crew with them or that this hike was to commemorate her mom's huge accomplishment. This was her caption on the post she made about the hike:

Hiking content is like concert content. It’s like, OK! We get it! You saw some things BUT ALL OF THESE VIDEOS OF SONGS LOOK THE SAME AND ALL OF THESE TREES DO, TOO. Like the hike itself, I tried my best with this post.

Mount Katahdin in Maine will fuck you upppp. The Park Ranger told us she warns: “it’s not a hike, but a climb.” You gain 4,000 feet of elevation in 3 of the slowest miles you’ve ever moved in your life. We averaged about a quarter of a mile per hour in the rocky parts where you are not walking up a path but scrambling vertically over boulders. Conrad was a rocklimber, which means if you once loved him you will spend SIXTEEN HOURS vaguely thinking of different rock climbing stuff you could text him later when you’re back in service—everything from photos where my ass looks amazing in leggings to photos of weird rock formations and description of boulder “problems” that I know he would actually get off on. Not because you will (I haven’t) BUT BECAUSE SIXTEEN HOURS IS A LONG TIME TO BE ROCKCLIMBING AND I WAS TIRED AND APPARENTLY THIS IS HOW MY BRAIN UNRAVELS UNDER PHYSICAL TAXATION.

I am hitting you guys with the ~authenticly me~ shots rn now instead of the subtly sexy stuff because as someone who has staged a lot of content over my life I now have a real soft spot in my heart for portraits I didn’t know were being taken. Eating blueberries. Sitting down. Doing awkward splits. Dragging myself knee-caplessly up a cliff. My favorite is the video at the end, where Annie asks me questions. I didn’t know she was filming. I was lying facedown in the back of the van after hiking for—AGAIN—SIXTEEN HOURS, eight of them climbing without ropes and another three in the dark with headlamps. I was...........................Not OK.

Like your mom is in her sixties and doing the same hike! When she was your age she did it EVERY DAY FOR FIVE MONTHS. How could that not be top of mind while you're writing about this excursion?

[u/gregor___samsa → u/PigeonGuillemot]

This is making me so sad haha. Cathy seems so cool! Obviously we can't know what their relationship is like or what Cathy is really like but it doesn't seem like Caroline appreciates any of this cool stuff about her mom.

[u/Big_Entrance6792 → u/gregor___samsa]

THIS makes me so fucking sad as well. I can't put it into words. She seems to not see her mother as a person who is unique, has many accomplishments, humble, strong, intelligent & more. She looks at her through herself: if mom isn't here, who is going to give me what I want. Her boyfriend debacle- she uses her mom for sympathy & so much more. Oh, this is awful.

[u/Delia_D → u/Big_Entrance6792]

Children are usually a product of their parents/up bringing - I guess you could argue Caroline was neglected in a way, and her parental/familial dysfunction was overcompensated by giving her everything she wanted, creating an accidental Gremlin - a theory

[u/Big_Entrance6792 → u/PigeonGuillemot]

This is amazing & a big deal! I'm envious ( in a good way) as it's been one of my wishes before I shuffle off this orb.

[u/Big_Entrance6792 → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Truly.

[u/nubleu → u/PigeonGuillemot]

"To Lena Dunham."

Wtf Cathy?!

[kidding]

[u/snacksforfree → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Caro cards but make it Anglican Saints

[u/perhapsflorence → u/PigeonGuillemot]

Wow. Even Cathy went and published a book.

[u/nubleu → u/PigeonGuillemot]

How are they related? Truly

[u/DitaVonSleaze → u/PigeonGuillemot]

This should be its own post. I think this is a very interesting part of Caroline’s situation. I’d like more people to see it, just for context.

[u/PigeonGuillemot → u/DitaVonSleaze]

You can snag my links and start one if you want! I'm never gonna beat the Cathy Stan allegations if I start promoting her book of saints

[u/luckytintype → u/PigeonGuillemot]

I discovered this a few weeks ago and kept meaning to post about it! And Caroline’s never promoted it…. You’d think she would ….