I mean, people generally don't say "he's an autistic writer" unless they specifically want to reference the fact that this is an autistic person who writes, whereas they would say "he's a gifted writer" when they mean that he's very good at his job as a writer.

I think this is a case of a word being used in two different ways. There is gifted, meaning "good at", and Gifted, as in the special categorization of giftedness. I think in your example, the former definition is being used.

It's like stoic (unemotional) versus Stoic (specific philosophy).

extended chimes at midnight,

Whoever designed that must have enjoyed causing mild suffering.

Anyway, the extra stuff you're hearing lately is almost certainly because of Lent.

Sadly, this phenomenon persists all year. Many of the bell towers involved aren't even attached to churches.

I have a memory of staying overnight at a relative's home as a young child. They had a mechanical clock that would chime every half hour, even in the middle of the night. I could not understand how they slept with this racket. It is genuinely baffling to me that for some people, it's "just background noise" and they don't even notice it unless you point it out.

Someone remembered the Reddit posts about using dryer lint as a firestarter and had a 💡 moment.