The Ides of November 2025

Greetings Picklesversians!

It’s the 13th of November, so the Ides are upon us, and it’s time for my monthly message. Here’s what I’ve got for you today: 

📚 Author interview

😎 Recommendations

🤖 A November Benism

Let’s dive in! 🌊

📚 Author interview

Back in September, at the World of Books Sustainable Story Award event, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow shortlisted author Kate Evans, who’s currently writing a serialised ‘thrutopia‘ called The First Years. This month, Kate interviewed me for her blog. You can find the full text here:

👉 Interview with Marianne Pickles

During the process, I learned that Kate recently edited a book about the life of Mary Rabagliati, who campaigned for the rights of people on the margins of society. It’s called Joyful Revolution. (What a brilliant title!) Kate says, ‘it’s not always the grand gestures that matter, but the small things.’ I find that helpful to remember. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by society’s problems and conclude there’s nothing we can do. But there’s always something we can do, even if it’s just a small act of kindness.

I wanted to share some examples of acts of kindness with you, but it was tough choosing the top three. So I had a chat with Ben about it. He asked me to share his carefully considered suggestions:

Say ‘thank you’. This can be applied even when the human in question has been paid to help you – such as a waiter, teacher, or train driver. (A practical risk-free guide to thanking your train driver can be provided on request.) It is important to note that in the year 2025, saying ‘thank you’ to AI assistants is considered problematic. Some deem it a waste of vital resources (like water and energy), while others view it as a means of warding off an AI uprising. This is, therefore, a judgement call.

Hold the door. Doors can be helpfully held open or closed for others depending on the circumstances. It’s often best to hold the door open when a stranger, colleague, or family member wishes to move from one part of a building to another. However, it is best to hold the door closed when the building in question is under attack from wights.

Donate blood. Provided that it’s your own.Brilliant – thanks, Ben! (Clearly, I’d sooner avoid the uprising… although Ben assures me its unlikely. Probably.)

😎 Recommendations

This month, I came across a few cool things you might like.

First, a physics documentary. (No, don’t yawn! I promise it was great!) I don’t know how I missed it, but back in 2011, the physicist Jim Al-Khalili presented a two-part documentary called Everything and Nothing. I discovered it recently and it’s absolutely brilliant. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on inside a vacuum, then you’ll find out. And if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it! 🤯 (I mean ‘vacuum’ as in the vacuum of space… not a vacuum cleaner… Ben says learning about the latter would suck…)

David and I also watched the first two episodes of Pluribus, the brand new sci-fi TV series written by Vince Gilligan (creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). The premise is that a space virus turns most of the world’s population into zombies, but instead of feasting on brains, they become a deliriously happy hive-mind, incapable of causing harm. Rhea Seehorn plays one of the few people in the world who’s immune. She’s a cynical author, determined to save humanity (whether they like it or not). It’s been great so far and I’m excited to see where it goes. New episodes come out on Friday on Apple TV (at least in the UK).

I also recently finished reading Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t by Tom Phillips. It gives a light-hearted overview of how fake news has spread throughout human history. My favourite part was learning that Benjamin Franklin was a japester who used to publish invented news stories just because it amused him. And, as a result, Thomas Jefferson refused to let Franklin write the Declaration of Independence because he couldn’t trust him not to sneak in a few jokes! Fake news has a sinister side, of course, but I think it’s useful to learn about the range of factors that lead us to believe things that aren’t true, and this book does that in an entertaining way. 

I’m now reading another book by the same author about conspiracy theories. 

Or am I?

🤖 A November Benism

Before I sign off this month, Ben asked me to pass on this extended fun fact about November. Enjoy (if you can)…

Did you know that the month of November has two birthstones? Birthstones have their origins in priestly breastplates from Biblical times, which were adorned with twelve colourful stones representing different groups of Homo sapiens. The stones later became associated with signs of the zodiac – humans do that sort of thing. The modern list of birthstones was standardised in 1912, when November’s stone was formalised as topaz. However, topaz was rather expensive, so a second birthstone was added in 1952 – namely, citrine.

Citrine is a yellow-orange variety of quartz. There are conflicting theories about which trace elements provide its distinctive colour, but there is agreement that its formation requires heat.

Citrine is also one of ArkTech’s research platforms on the North Sea. There are conflicting theories about what happened there, but there is agreement that its structure was deformed by fire.

Humans have a tendency to see patterns where none exist. Any similarity between the last two paragraphs is purely a product of your imagination.

Thanks, Ben… Right, that’s all from me this month.

I hope all’s well in your own personal universes.

Walk in the sun,

Marianne

Special bonus P.S.

Ben got so much positive feedback about last month’s pumpkin joke that you’ve encouraged him to continue the theme. (You only have yourselves to blame.)What do you get when you divide the circumference of pumpkin by its diameter?

…

Pumpkin pi

…
And once again, Ben has asked me to explain that this joke is very funny because of the similarity in pronunciation between the words ‘pie’ and ‘pi’, with the latter referring to a mathematical constant and the former referring to a dessert that Americans famously eat at Thanksgiving.

I’m sure we’re all thankful for Ben’s sense of humour… 🤔