T-Rex: It's TOTALLY LEGAL for you to pay me fat stacks in exchange for a legal service I provide! For example, you might coerce me into mopping the floors of your supergross nasty restaurant bathroom/hole by promising me money.

T-Rex: I believe this is called "having a job"!

T-Rex: And similarly, if I find out an embarrassing but non-criminal secret about you through legal means - like maybe you're a celebrity having an affair?? - it's again TOTALLY LEGAL for me to tell, or not tell, anyone this secret.
Dromiceiomimus: True.
T-Rex: AND YET, if I seek your fat stacks in exchange for the service of not sharing this secret, I've committed a crime!

Utahraptor: Yeah, that's blackmail!
T-Rex: Correction: that's the paradox of blackmail!

T-Rex: Unlike all the other Major Crimes, blackmail is made of legal acts, and it's only the COMBINATION of these legal acts that's illegal! All I'm doing is offering you a lawful service at a price, which you can accept or refuse without coercion. The exact same thing happens when a kid offers to mow your lawn, dude!

T-Rex: Only when the kid does it it's "not a crime" and he "shouldn't go to jail, mister".
T-Rex: PFFT.
T-Rex: PFFT, I SAY, WITH ALARMING REGULARITY.

October 3rd, 2013: This weekend I'm in LA for IndieCade! If you're going be sure to check out To Be or Not To Be in the reading room because that is where I will be! And if you're NOT going to IndieCade, me and David "Wondermark" Malki are doing a reading / funtimes event on Sunday that you can come to! We'll have books and it will be SUPER RAD:

You should come!

One year ago today: "dreaming non-fiction" is a nice way to write "even while sleeping, i obsess over past mistakes"

– Ryan