#Red robin 09 references

[theresamouseinmyhouse]

i was thinking again (unfortunately for everyone else) more abt the tim oyl era and his post rr09 era. Did bruce ever know about tim's cloning attempts? Like, does anybody know about that besides cassie and kon? Because that could possibly have SO much potential

[plutonicbees]

The way you draw tims long hair, is it a wolfcut?

not intentionally, however, I do draw cass with a wolfcut! and i hear theyre a regular pair of horror movie twins. with tim i occasionally reference his red robin 09 hair or just shape it out until I get what I want :)

[medusapelagia]

09 AU-gust: Cleaning Crew

Rating: Teen and up Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson WT: omegaverse, implied reference to prostitution, Omega Steve Harrington, Alpha Eddie Munson, Dad Steve Harrington WC: 2643

Since he started working for a cleaning company three years ago, Steve has never gotten a complaint. He is quick and tidy and when he leaves the house he always leaves a bouquet. It’s not that he has money to spare but it feels good leaving some flowers on the kitchen counter even if it’s not his. Some clients even tip him for it. His work is really appreciated and some clients started to request him specifically. This means more money but less time with his little bug. Every morning, when he leaves the house, his little bundle of joy is still sleeping, and when he comes home they hardly have enough time to play and have dinner, and then his baby girl is ready for bed. “You work too much.” Robin scolds him while cleaning the dinner plates. “I need the money, Rob. You know that.” “You could try to find a better job! Or a new position at the cleaning company.” She insists. “What if they fire me, Rob? I’m an unmated omega with a child! And there is only one kind of job for people like me!”

She shakes his head “That’s not true! I know it’s harder for you but you could go to community college and…” “Look. I don’t have enough time to spend with Elisabeth and you are trying to convince me to go to community college? It makes no sense!” “It would be just for a little bit, and I could help with Lizzie!” She already helps a lot, he can’t ask her anything more. “I’m going to bed. Tomorrow it’s my day off and I’m eager to spend it with Lizzie.”

***

His phone is buzzing. He opens his eyes but it’s still dark. He looks at the caller: Chrissy, his boss. “Hello?” “Hi, Steve! I’m really sorry to bother you but I need a favor. One of our clients had a party last night and tomorrow they are going to do a shooting in the house. His manager requested our best cleaner, saying he would pay double, and I immediately thought of you.” Fuck. It’s his day off! He was already thinking about going to the park with Lizzie and… “Send me the address.” He replies with a sigh he can’t really turn down someone willing to pay him double. His little girl stirs in her sleep. He hugs her, whispering in his ear “I hope one day you’ll know that I’m doing this for you.” He kisses the crown of her head and then he wakes up Robin “Are you up for babysitting duty?” “But I thought…” “They pay double.” She looks sadly at him but nods “I’ll leave her with Vicky. It’s that ok?”

***

The house seems like a battlefield. There are bottles everywhere: whoever the owner is, he likes to party hard. He has already filled four bags of trash with just bottles: it’s a mix of expensive champagne and cheap beers and some bottles of wine. There is a big stain of red wine on a white couch that Steve already knows that it’s going to be a bitch to clean, but he will because he is the best. He works hard, cleaning every surface while he blasts the music in his earphones and dances around the kitchen. He is so concentrated that he doesn’t hear the client entering the kitchen and he yells when he touches him on the shoulder “What the fuck man! You scared me to death!” Steve barks, turning off his headphones and trying to slow his breathing. “Sorry, I thought you heard me. You are quite a dancer by the way.” Steve studies the man for a moment. His voice is rougher than it was and he looks older than he is but he is undoubtedly the same man he knew. The one that left him while he was pregnant. He can’t smell anymore, but he is sure that he still smells of sandalwood. The man’s nose wrinkles. “Why are you upset?” He doesn’t remember him. He got him pregnant but he doesn’t remember him! “I’m just pissed because you interrupted me. Now if you let me finish I’ll be out of your hair in no time.” “Good. I just wanted to offer you a coffee.” “I’m fine, thanks.” He gets closer “You smell familiar? Have we met before?” Steve shakes his head, lying “Maybe I cleaned your house before.” “Did you?” He keeps silent. He can’t fucking smell but he can. “That’s what I thought. Why are you lying to me, sugar?” He keeps still. His alpha’s hormones are futile with him. He just has to… His phone starts to buzz and he looks at the caller: Vicky. “Steve I’m sorry but Lizzie is unwell and she keeps asking for you. I think it’s just a cold but…” “I’m on my way.” The man at his side glares at him “I thought you had a job to do.” “Yeah. Picking up my sick child is more important than cleaning after a wasted shithead!” He rebukes, then he changes back and is ready to leave when the man stops him “I’m sorry. I was a dick.” He puts a pair of crumpled bills in his hand. “I don’t need your pity, Eddie.” He says leaving the house “Do we know each other?” the alpha asks again but he is already in his car.

***

“Steve, I want to talk to you. Can you come to my office as soon as you finish cleaning the house you are working at?” That doesn’t sound good. “Am I in trouble?” “I’d like to talk about that in person. Is that a problem?” It’s not a problem but it’s not good news either. “I’ll be there in an hour, ok?” “Perfect.” He tries not to worry while he finishes working but he can’t. He can’t lose this job. He has a child and… He takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He has done nothing wrong. He is the best. He leaves flowers in strangers’ houses. It can’t be bad, right?

***

“Listen, it’s the first time that we got a complaint about you so I wanted to talk to you personally.” A complaint about him? Who? Why? “Do you remember the job I gave you a couple of weeks ago? It was last minute but with double pay?” Shit. “I don‘t know if you knew that but that was Eddie Munson’s house and his manager was quite pissed because you didn’t clean the house properly.” “I already told you, I got an emergency. I cleaned all I could and I didn’t take the money for the job.” “I know that, but Nancy Wheeler is quite a name in the system, and if she starts talking trash about our services we are doomed.” He nods “I’m sorry. Lizzie was unwell and she needed me.” “I know that you have a child, Steve, and I tried to be supportive, but if you can guarantee a good job maybe you should find another place of employment.” “Are you fucking kidding me? You want to fire me because a drunken music star couldn’t clean after himself while my child was unwell? It was my fucking day off! And still, I was there.” “I told you they were going to pay double. You could have told me that you couldn’t and I would have asked someone else.” “Lizzie was ok when I left…” “Listen, I don’t want to talk about that. You have two options: or you can convince Nancy Wheeler that we are the best or you can find yourself another job.” “Thank you, Chrissy. You are really a friend!” “I hired you when none else would!” “And now you are threatening to fire me!” he yells back, getting up so abruptly that the chair falls to the ground. They stare at each other for a long moment, then Steve says “I’ll see what I can do.” and leaves the office slamming the door behind him.

***

He hasn’t drunk in three years. Not even on Year's Eve. And now he is fucking drunk and parked a few miles away from Eddie’s house. He is sure that he has some kind of security so he should sleep it off in his car and go back home. He should. If he was clever enough. But he never was the sharpest tool in the box. He gets out of the car and gets to the gate, the code is still the same as he used two weeks ago, and so is the door’s one. Five minutes and he is inside the stupid mansion. “Eddie!” he starts to scream, drunkenly “Eddie!” He doesn’t even know if he is on tour or what else. Maybe he is just making a fool out of himself for nothing. But the man is there. “Sugar. I thought you had enough of me.” he replies with a smirk. Steve gets closer to him. trying to slap his face, but Eddie is quicker and grabs his wrist before he reaches him. “What the hell do you want from my life? Haven’t you done enough? Leaving me pregnant was not enough for you? Now you are going to make me lose my job?” he yells “I know that I mean nothing to you, but I need my fucking job, ok? I have to pay for the rent, and the food, and my pup deserves the world and I’m going to give it to her! So say to your fucking manager that you are a dick and that the cleaning company is a good one!” he starts to cry without even noticing “I need the job. I really do. I don’t want to be back on the streets again…” He still remembers how hard it was before he met Robin. How cold the streets were, how no one helped him, and the few that did help wanted something back as a payment for their generosity. He will not get back to the street. He can’t. He really can’t. “What the hell are you talking about? Who the fuck are you.” “I’m Steve, you fucking moron! I’m your high school sweetheart! Do you remember that? Do you remember prom? When you drove me to the woods and we made love and the next day you disappeared?” “Steve? That’s not possible. He died. He died in the arson of his house a couple of weeks after I got my first contract. How the fuck do you know about him?!” “What the hell are you saying? I left the house as soon as that fucking test turned blue! My parents weren’t going to raise a bastard, that's what they said! They called my little bug a bastard!” He falls to his knees, too overwhelmed by the alcohol and the emotion. “Is it you? Is it really you? Why is your smell so… off?” “I… I had a difficult birth. I almost died during childbirth. They saved my life but I lost my ability to smell.” he tries to explain while Eddie kneels with him on the floor. “Is that you? Is that really you?” Eddie keeps asking, trying to find his scent under the alcohol. “It’s me…” he whispers between the tears “I need my job. Please, Eddie, I have never asked anything from you but I need my job. I really do.” Eddie picks him up bridal style and takes him to his room. Steve hears him talking with the security but he is too tired and confused. “Sleep, omega.” he whispers in his ear, and all he can do is obey his alpha.

***

Steve wakes up with a startle. He is not in the apartment he shares with Robin and Lizzie is not sleeping at his side. “Lovebug?” he calls, confused and with a terrible headache. On the nightstand, there is a glass of water and a couple of pills. He takes them and when the door of the room opens he is surprised to see Eddie holding a tray with breakfast. “The pancakes are burnt, but the eggs are edible.” he says. “Eddie? What are you doing here?” “It’s my home, Steve.” “Your home? Oh shit! Shit! Shit! I’m sorry! I was fucking drunk! I didn’t mean to come here, but Chrissy was going to fire me and…” “Your job it’s safe and your lovely housemate is taking care of Elizabeth.” “How do you know her name?” “Your phone kept buzzing and I had to answer. She wasn’t very happy to find out that you almost blacked out at my place but she agreed that it was better to let you sleep it off here and not in your car.” “Lizzie?” “I’m sure she is fine. Do you want me to drive you home?” Steve studies him for a moment “You want to meet her.” he states. Eddie shrugs and then sits on Steve’s bed “Are you sure she is mine?” Steve burst out in a laugh “I’m very sure Eddie. You are the only alpha I have been with. And she looks just like you. Can you give me my wallet please? It’s in the back pocket of my pants.” Eddie takes Steve’s pants and gives him his wallet, inside there is an old picture of Steve holding Lizzie, it was her first birthday. “She has your eyes. And your freckles.” Eddie says, caressing the picture. “And your hair, and your smile. And Wayne's nose I think, but it’s still too soon to say.” “I have a daughter…” Eddie says, astonished. “You do. And it’s the most lovely kid in the world.” Steve studies Eddie’s reaction, then he asks “Would you like to meet her? She knows nothing about you. Only that his dad is a musician and that he is always on tour.” “You would let me?” Steve sighs “I hated you for so long Eddie, but I’m not so cruel to keep you away from your child. If you really want to meet her you have to promise me that you’ll be present in her life, that this is not just a whim of the moment, and that you will stop drinking like you do.” “I’m not the one who was totally wasted last night!” Eddie rebukes, offended. “My house, my rules.” Steve insists “And you will not meet her soon. I want to prepare her and be sure that she wants to meet you too. If she says no then it’s over. Is that ok for you?” “At one condition.” “What?” “That no matter what, if Lizzie wants to meet me or not, both of you will receive a percentage of my royalties.” “I can’t accept that. I have my job and… Oh god. I do have a job, right? Chrissy didn’t fire me for coming here?” Eddie hugs him, trying to calm the omega with his pheromones even knowing that he can’t smell properly. “You are good. You still have your job, your kid, and your house, ok? Now rest a little more and then we will speak.” Eddie is still holding the picture in his hands. “Keep it. I have more pictures at home.” Eddie nods, lying in the bed with his omega “Can I hold you?” “Did you miss me?” he asks teasingly. “Every single day. I thought you were dead. I thought I was going to die too. Without you. But my death was slower.” Eddie kisses his head “Will you tell me what happened?” “I will. But not now.” “Sleep love. I’ll be here when you wake up.” “You will?” “Of course. I'm not going to leave you again sweetheart.”

***

Since he started working for a cleaning company three years ago, Steve has never gotten a complaint. The only one that he got brought him back to the love of his life and to their newfound family.

[tjmsteph]

i’m not trying to be judgemental here but how can red robin 2009 be considered ‘only valuable thing post-reboots’ and the rest of the stuff before it ‘basically useless cause the universe got rebooted blah blah’ if red robin is based on those previous comics? like red robin relies HEAVILY on the lore from robin ‘93 and what led to red robin ‘09 started there, the run itself is a ‘sequel’ of OYL.

i don’t disagree with the age up argument, it’s one i’ve been carrying along myself but it kinda feels pointless to point out in a conversation that is about tim’s entire character, which relies also on more than two decades from 1989 until 2011. zdarsky’s batman run references moments from robin ‘93/crossovers with robin ‘93 during bat-events, they brought back ariana recently. rebirth, a huge influence on tim’s current writing, also takes from robin ‘93. to act like what came before red robin ‘09 is forgotten history i’d argue is not just kinda stupid, but just flat out wrong

‘tim drake is a genius that is always one day from turning into a villain’ ‘he’s basically a bat-lex luthor’ ‘he blew up the league’s bases’ enough. put red robin down. read something else. i beg you. please i beg you please. not even when his life went to shit he became a villain. ‘but he cloned kon 99 times in tt ‘03’ you mean he tried to clone the clone? how insane! he must be deranged!

[silverwhittlingknife]

I posted 98 times in 2021

27 posts created (28%)

71 posts reblogged (72%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.6 posts.

I added 194 tags in 2021

#dick grayson - 49 posts

#tim drake - 49 posts

#dick & tim - 29 posts

#fanart - 14 posts

#damian wayne - 11 posts

#bitimdrake - 10 posts

#thank you artist you are a treasure among us - 10 posts

#comic panels - 8 posts

#why i like dick and tim in comics: an incomplete list - 7 posts

#my fic - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#my instinct is to just have him go back to red robin? it's what most people know him as. it's kinda dumb-sounding but i'm used to it now xd

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Hii i love your Dick and Tim series and I love them too, I’m not sure if u take requests, but it would be so nice if you could fine times where Dick and Tim referred to each other as brothers. Or maybe Dick calling tim little brother ( I’m a sucker for that)

Top 10 Moments of Dick and Tim Being Brothers

Thank you for this delightful ask, wonderful person, I get emotional about this too. ❤ Let's do this!  Here are some of my favorite moments through the years of Dick and Tim getting called brothers.

(in chronological order b/c I’m a nerd & also b/c it lets us save the best for last)

1. “He’s family. The closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have.” (Nightwing 6)

See the full post

227 notes • Posted 2021-08-05 02:00:45 GMT

#4

Dick and Tim being "fine"

Another reason I like Dick and Tim in post-Crisis comics -- I enjoy their parallel terrible coping mechanisms!

Please enjoy this compilation of panels where Dick claims to be "fine."

After his apartment building was blown up, the circus was set on fire, Blockbuster was murdered in front of him, and he blames himself for everything (War Games):

See the full post

227 notes • Posted 2021-09-19 18:38:43 GMT

#3

Top 10 Moments with Dick, Tim, and Food

(in chronological order - it’s sort of a canon timeline but also I was hungry)

Shared food is one of the ways that Dick and Tim are often shown bonding.  And by “shared food,” what I mean is, Dick finds food for Tim.  Please enjoy my ten favorite examples.

1. Dick makes dinner in Prodigal 1

(My favorite part of this panel is Tim’s weird smushed-face of amazement in the second panel.  “Wow!  A WHOLE PLATE OF FOOD!  Just for me!”  My second favorite part is that I have no idea what food that’s supposed to be.)

See the full post

383 notes • Posted 2021-08-01 02:04:07 GMT

#2

i love them.

622 notes • Posted 2021-11-07 01:07:26 GMT

#1

my favorite thing about the Dick and Tim Batman run (other than DICK and TIM) is that Tim's previous Batman experiences were 1) Bruce being self-destructive pre-Bane, and 2) Azrael,

so Tim’s all “you LISTEN to me?? you do not hurt the criminals?? we work TOGETHER?? like a team? my hero!! my hero for one thousand years!!”

and meanwhile Dick’s sunk deep in “why am I such a failure at everything”

1351 notes • Posted 2021-10-19 16:53:54 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[weemsbotts]

The Disappearing Pitter Patter of Feet: The Colonial Girls Lost in Time

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

Participating in any of our outside walking tours, day or night, includes a trip to Dumfries Elementary Public School and Dumfries Cemetery. One ghost story specifically refers to the appearance of “colonial girls” and in a town filled with Civil War folklore, it is intriguing this particular association attached itself to the school. But if Dumfries Graded School and later Dumfries Elementary Public School operated in the early 1900s, why colonial ghost children?

In 06/19/1795, Mrs. Simson advertised the opening of her Boarding School in the Republican Journal and Dumfries Advertiser. “Where she intends teaching all kinds of needle-work, in silk and worsted; she also teaches the tambour and embroidery, with the art and elegance of shading, and taste in the arrangement of patterns.” She wished to “cultivate their young minds, as well as form their manners” flattering herself “that she has given satisfaction to the parents of those whom she has already had the honour to instruct – and gained the love of her pupils.” Besides for needlework, she advertised “reading, spelling, and writing taught with propriety”.

Mrs. Simson’s indicated that the Boarding School was “at the House of Thomas Lee, Esquire, on the Hill”. The famed Lee family owned property throughout Virginia including the Town of Dumfries and while both Colonel and former Governor of Virginia Thomas Lee and Thomas Ludwell Lee, Sr. died before the 1780s, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Jr. presumably placed a newspaper ad in the Alexandria Gazette on 09/17/1787 for persons wishing to rent “a large Commodious Store house in Dumfries, as well situated being nearly in the centre of the main streets…” Charles Lee also advertised in the same paper and date “…to be leased forever at public auction…about 15 lots situated in the town of Dumfries on the main street opposite to McDaniels Tavern being part of the square now occupied by Henderson, Ferguson & Gibson”. While the Lees rented and sold property in Dumfries, some to the Merchant family, the house “on the hill” likely referred to the area around the current Dumfries Elementary Public School.

In 18th century America, middle- and upper-class white families usually hired tutors to instruct their young daughters the basics of writing and arithmetic, with more advanced and skilled instruction in needlework, music, manners, and other forms of arts and crafts. If the parents could and were willing to send their daughters to a boarding school, they would hone their skills in needlework and come back with a “level up” – a finished needlework to display prominently in the home, discreetly (?) informing guests of the family’s wealth, sophistication, and refinement. These “female accomplishments” were important signals to a society focused on appearance and marriage. Virginia prohibited the gathering of enslaved children for the purpose of education extending from the constant white paranoia that educated enslaved persons were more likely to rebel. However, the Bray Schools in Virginia instructed enslaved persons in Christian education through biblical literacy. Both Williamsburg and Fredericksburg operated official Bray schools ranging from 1760-1774, although Fielding Lewis encountered low enrollment and white hostility forcing him to close the Fredericksburg location sooner.

Although siltation was an issue by 1795, the town of Dumfries still attracted people as the Henderson family resided in Dumfries and Mason Locke Weems had yet to purchase the lot for his book depository. However, we have so little information beyond the newspaper advertisement for the boarding school. Did anyone pay the fee to board their children? If so, which families took advantage of this offer and what were their experiences in Dumfries?

Interestingly, the Republican Journal and Dumfries Advertiser also included the following song in the same paper with Mrs. Simson’s advertisement, titled “Domestic Felicity”. Although not attributed to any person in the newspaper, this song appears in Isaiah Thomas, Jr.’s ed, “The Sky Lark: or Gentlemen and ladies’ complete songster. Being a collection of the most modern and celebrated American, English, and Scotch songs”.

“Though grandeur flies my humble roof,

Tho’ wealth is not my share,

Tho’ lowly is my little cot,

Yet happiness is there.

 *

A tender wife, with mild control,

By sympathy refin’d,

When rage the tumults of the breast,

Becalms my troubled mind.

 *

Three pledges of our mutual love,

Kind Providence has given,

And competence, to nurse their hopes,

Is all we ask of Heaven.

 *

Still, from the little we enjoy,

A little we dispense;

And watch the buddings of their mind

Just blossoming to sense.

 *

With arm entwin’d in arm we fit;

And join their hands to pray;

And teach the accents of their tongue,

To hail the rising day.

 *

At eve again they kneel and bless

The hours which are now past;

And hope their cherish’d virtues may

Prove happiness at last.

*

Accept, Great Father of us all;

Accept their little prayers,

And grant the nurslings of our youth

May crown our silver hairs.

*

Let those whose weak and infant limbs

With tenderness we guide,

Be props unto our age when down

The steep of life we glide.”

(Image: Instruction with Delight. Thomas, Isaiah. Little Robin Red Breast. A Little Pretty Pocket-book Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly. Massachusetts: Worcester, 1787. The Colonial Society of Massachusetts: 18th century Massachusetts Songsters, Volume 54, Music in Colonial Massachusetts, 1630-1820: Music in Homes and Churches)

While the “colonial girls” will not respond to repeated queries (naturally), they and all the ghosts, such as the enslaved persons, represent our quest to understand everyone living in Dumfries. While essays and books are continually written about the white male society, they are not the ghostly figures people claim to see in this town – instead, it is the ones whom society did not equate as equal.

Note: While our closed season begins on 11/01/2020, we will continue to offer online virtual tours! The online tour includes a meeting with the staff and a video of the house. Stay tuned for special virtual November Member programs along with news of possible holiday outside walking tours! Click here to access info regarding our latest & upcoming programs and tours!

(Sources: The Republican Journal and Dumfries Advertiser, No. VI, Vol 1, 06/19/1795; HDVI Archival Files: Dumfries – Town Lots, Newspaper Notices; University of Michigan Digital Text Collections: Evans Early American Imprint Collection Text Creation Partnership; MET: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Peck, Amelia. American Needlework in the 18th Century, 10/2003; Library of Virginia & Virginia Humanities: Encyclopedia Virginia. Bly, Antonio. Slave Literacy and Education in Virginia)

[staraptor-is-my-son]

My Ideal Classic Routes for  Smash Characters

This is just an idea I had and thought it might be cool to share. Some routes are totally new, some tweaked. If I don't mention a character, I have no change in mind for them.

02-Journey to New Donk City (Donkey Kong):

Basically the same, but at some point there's a match with Bowser on Fourside as a reference to the Melee event match

06-Milky Way Wishes (Kirby):

Each match is a reference to one of the bosses and planets from the game mode of the same name.

Round 1-Two Giant Villagers (Twin Woods) on Dream Land (Floria)

Round 2-Blue King K Rool (Fatty Whale) on Great Bay (Aquarius)

Round 3-Giant Pikachu (Kracko) on Skyworld (Skyhigh)

Round 4-Yoshi (Chameleo Arm) on Norfair (Hotbeat)

Round 5-Metal Ridley (Heavy Lobster) on Halberd (Mekkai)

Round 6-Robin, then Dark Link, then Charizard (Computer Virus) on Mario Galaxy (Halfmoon)

Boss-Marx

07-Spaceborne Smash (Fox):

Crazy Hand added to the boss fight to reference both of Andross's hands

09-Luigi's Nightmares (Luigi):

Replace the Toon Links in Round 1 with White Kirbys (Boos)

11-Speedster Smash (Captain Falcon):

The six fastest fighters in the game (not in that order).

Round 1-Fox

Round 2-Little Mac

Round 3-Sonic

Round 4-Shiek

Round 5-Zero Suit Samus

Round 6-Blood Falcon

Boss-Master Hand

12-All Original, All 64 (Jigglypuff):

Adjusted to closer match SSB's Classic Mode.

Round 1-Link

Round 2-Yoshi and Kirby Team

Round 3-Fox

(Bonus Game)

Round 4-Mario and Luigi

Round 5-Pikachu

Round 6-Samus

Round 7-Giant Donkey Kong

13-No Damsel in Distress (Peach):

Giga Bowser is the boss. I think this one is clear.

20-Soar Above the Darkness (Falco):

Either Ganon or Dracula is the boss. You know, darkness.

25-Flame of the Game (Roy):

All of the fire-themed fighters in the game.

Round 1-Mario

Round 2-Captain Falcon

Round 3-Charizard and Incineroar

Round 4-Ken

Round 5-Ridley

Round 6-Bowser

Boss-Either Giga Bowser or Rathalos

27-Two Sides of the Same Coin (Meta Knight):

Boss is Marx, as he can split in two, therefore being both sides of a coin. Fighting the Hands makes sense, but we need more Marx fights anyway.

29-Grapplers! Whips! Claws! (Zero Suit Samus):

Boss is either Giga Bowser or Rathalos, as they have claws.

32-The Black Clad Warriors (Ike):

Boss is Dracula, who wears black.

38-The Deadly Six (Sonic):

Sonic Lost World isn't exactly relevant, but with six rounds in Classic Mode, why not?

Round 1-Purple Captain Falcon (Zazz)

Round 2-Yellow King K Rool (Zomom)

Round 3-Meta Knight (Master Zik)

Round 4-Green Zero Suit Samus (Zeena)

Round 5-Purple Dark Pit (Zor)

Round 6-Incineroar (Zavok)

Boss-Galleom (Sonic fights robots)

39-Royal Rumble (King Dedede):

Boss is Ganon, King of Evil.

51-Up Close and Personal (Mii Brawler):

I changed Falcon's route so it could be given to Mii Brawler. The Mii Brawler Horde is replaced with Captain Falcon.

52-A Journey of Swords (Mii Swordfighter):

Likewise, Roy's route is given to Mii Swordfighter. Also, Ganon appears as the boss, because he has swords.

53-A Day at the Range (Mii Gunner):

I made this one up. It's just a bunch of fighters with guns/arm cannons.

Round 1-King K Rool

Round 2-Megaman

Round 3-Samus and Dark Samus

Round 4-Fox, Falco, and Wolf

Round 5-Duck Hunt

Round 6-Bayonetta

Boss-Master Hand (He has the finger gun move)

57-Witness the Monado's Power (Shulk):

Boss is Galleom as a reference to Metal Face

62-Between White and Black (Corrin):

Crazy Hand added to the Boss to parallel that whole counterparts thing

63-Requiem of Fallen Wings (Bayonetta):

Either Marx or Rathalos could appear before the boss (like Rathalos does in Bowser's route or Galleom in Snake's) to add to the whole wing motif.

64-An Inkredible Journey (Inkling):

The Duck Hunt in Round 3 is replaced with literally any other character with an alt that's actually red. I'd go with Bowser.

[mo-torious-mo-blog]

Twitter.com/motorious_cafe

[CHANGING MY NAME TO: Mo (first name) Torious (last name)] i asked my parents if I could come up to westchester to have dinner with them, or to briefly stay while I looked for an apartment. They said no. It’s funny, Dr Tabar at Belkvue Hospital (Dr Mounir, intake), told me that I should cut off my relationship with my mother. The only reason my father asked me to attend her 80th birthday party, was to keep up appearances. Before the night was over, and after my speech (unmmmzm....I got you a car), he told me in no uncertain terms that I am no longer welcome in his house. I dove get it. His brother Ladipo Fayemi is a caseworker at HRA HASA, who never once intervened for me, and who nobody in that agency thought to refer my case to. Mr. McCoy, used to make fun of the name. No matter, I no longer want to be called that. I told them that since my father still continues to lie about not having received a copy of the doctored IRS Filings which Lucy Ostrofsky (acting in house counsel) had filed, directly ignoring my instructions, before I was forced out of the company and off the corporate bank account (it takes 3 members of management: myself, Richard McGinnis (Kurt Salmon Associates), President of Motorious Retail Stores (m&m/Mars Family: sponsor of Kyle Bush’s Toyota at NASXAR), patent holder, casino slot machine algorithms) and Philip Munger (who once, unbeknownst to me, withdrew $5,000 in cash from his personal Citibank account, and deposited it into my (the corporate) account, triggering FBI Money Laundering Red Flag: I have never even seen $5,000.00 in cash in one place in my entire life. I spent $500 to $10,000/month on my AMEX PLATINUM: and repaid it within 30 days. Beginning in 1992. Until I didn’t and went bankrupt for $60,000. Bottom line: I don’t trust the man, and he and I no longer have a relationship. All he and my mother have done is agree with the psychiatrists who keep diagnosing me with paranoid delusions that I run a company. All this, I believe, because the only company he ever ran, ended up in trouble with the IRS. I’m beginning to be really suspect about his book selling and his AIDS Charity for orphans in Africa. Before he kicked me out of the house, he asked me if I wanted to help him with his Foundation, and I said « no » I want German citizenship. A look at my brief work history shows I never stay in 1 place very long. What’s wrong with having wanted a change and to seek opportunities abroad? Science Advisers, led by Norman Heyman, Jean Robert Le Shufy, and Kevin DeVito (New Capital Horizons, the US arm of New Capital AG in Switzerland: COPE Holdings (XTERA DAX | NASDAQ) Zuggero, CEO | lent ICV, llc (Integrated Concepts Vehicles, llc, Flipboard.com/@ICV_llc, the first $137,000 after I had lent the corporation $60,000. MOTORIOUS MONEY GRID: says $100,000.00 loan am was made by Phil Munger on November 1, 1999. If that had been the case, why were none of the vendors at the show paid, and why did I receive a phone message on December 31, 1999 from Philip Munger: joe@planetvida.com.br, the DAY AFTER I received a message from Wayne Irving of Spin Records that he had secured $25 Million from ING Barings? My only Full Time Employee: John Goodwin, who I met at Pump No 8 at the Mobil Gas Station in Rancho Palos Verdea, took a salary of $80,000.00 + benefits + expense reimbursement, where on July 2, 1999 he secured an LOI with the Make A Wish charity for a proposed October 31, 2000 Charity Rade at Texas Motor Speedway. He had 9 months to secure a deal with Ford to provide NASCAR vehicles for the event, which was supposed to commemorate 100 Years of Motorsports in America, and also commemorate both Ford and Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary. Moose returned saying that the sponsors (especially the protected sponsor, Coke, will not let the drivers out of their contests to drive the event) Autoweek Magazine, the same issue it quoted several drivers as wanting to participate, reported that My Apple Laptop « had ears ». Motor Trend Magazine wrote an article entitled « The Automotive Analyst », a « fictitious story about a Wall Street analyst having problems with his wife, while talking to his shrink. The concluding sentence: « Build The Car » My only contribution to Ford would have been when I called the $3 million monstrosity (Focus) built by John Colletti and Motor Trend: Ian Cartabiano has penned a sick Mis-Engined Ford Focus Rally Car, which was to have shared a platform with the Renault R5 (Nissan: where Doi had previously worked after NCIS). That, and the referral from Mark Stehrenberger to Scott Sharpe Racing, to [Ford Tuner: I ferget] , who wrote a proposal for tuning the 4.0 liter Jaguar V8 for the Motorious Show Stand, as a potential BMW M5 competitor. Of the $137,000.00 loan, $50,000 went to Mark Stehrenberger Design, who was to generate 3 proposals for the Deusenberg PHAETON: Mercedes Benz Ocean 4 door convertible concept...to. E build at the DRESDEN Factory in Germany), the other $50,000 went to Robert Marianich in Huntington Beach, who was to have converted his studio, and built a « clay resurfaced » proposal of the RIVOLUZIONW: 1999 LA Auto Show, next to Shelby Series One (I met Carroll at Jay Leno’s, where he asked me to contact his assistant, Pearlita Shelby, about helping him with production of the OLDSMOBILE AURORA Engined SERIES ONE: autopsia.wordpress.com, slated to return to INDYCAR, to replace the Honda unit, now that they created Touring Car. I wanted to get the rights to MG ROVER (BBC: BMW’s English Patient), known as Rover Sterling 825 in America (Acura Legend): ARCONA | After the misérable failure of Phoenix Holdings, which paid Queen Elizabeth the nominal sum of £10, and then before becoming the four most overpaid executives in the UK Auto Industry. I even went so far as to ask Lakshmi Mittal (Arcelor Mittal and Harris’s) if he would help me to purchase Land Rover from TATA. CAR AND DRIVER MAGAZINE (Hearst Publications: Vladimir Putin) April Fool’s | Toyota buys Oldsmobile Trademark for $5,000. FIAT acquire the right to the Oldsmobile Aurora Engine through my partnership with Carroll Shelby, Gets the Oldsmobile Dealerships (10 year warrante on the engine), Change the nage to Alfa Romeo, and modify the engine for use in US Alfa’s, like the GT-V8, Spider Véloce (Duetto V8: BMWfilms.com Béat the Devil). Unfortunately, John Goodwin went bankrupt, my ex-wife had a hidden camera in our bedroom vent (Waiting to Exhale, Bernadine’s Rage: 6624 Oceancrest Drive, RPV, CA, 90275). And all of our personal and my corporate accounts were closed on August 14, 2001, due to malfeasance on her part: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY [The Private Bank: Union Bank of California (Mitsubishi Sumitomo: KIRETSU): Peggy Fahnestock, Gloria Marquez: who refinanced my BMW Financial Loan from JP Morgan Chase, because it was higher interest rate than a similarly situated white nan, all other things being equal. The VENDETTA (redesigned Rivoluzione: 200 LA Auto Show, was in an accident THE FIRST DAY I DROVE IT. I didn’t even make it to the highway. There was at least $100,000? In customization (hand hammered and rolled Aluminum body parts riveted and bonded to the steel: Robin Officer, Captain Metal, Magic Mountain, CA (A Kiwi). who I believe, was interviewed on the Jay Leno show dresses in drag. By keeping all the receipts to every modification, the insurance company: GEICO, had to first restore the vehicle to its original condition, THEN, cover all the replacement customization which they did, before canceling my policy the sane day the lease on my 328i was repossed, with $5,000.00 worth of renderings and sketches by Ian Cartabiano, which actually appeared in Bimmer Magazine in 1998. My mother refuses to give me my birth certificate. Whats wrong with this picture? mo torious On Oct 14, 30 Heisei, at 2:25 AM, mo torious <1.mo.torious.mo.1@gmail.com> wrote: David Ebersman, Will you be the part time CFO on my private placement? except for the fact that Angel List is formerly Google, and I found it impossible to do due diligence on who people claimed to be. since I came from Wall Street, and have helped raise over $500 Million for companies during my career, even though it is many years later, I still know many of the same people. The first person who made a referral for me, was Paul Howard of HQH: Hambrecht & Quist Healthcare, in NYC, when he introduced me to his MIT Sloan School Claasmate, Douglas A Doi (founder of Doi Golf). I see his name on many research publication footnotes, such as the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE ARTICLE: The Beginning is the End of AIDS. The second referral came from Barney Hallibgby, who introduced me to Doug Casey at Gates Capital at 200 Park Avenue, New York, NY, who floats Government Bonds and Municipal Bonds for manufacturing, such as at the March Global Port, which was a former military base turned into a commercial port. As part of the 3Q/2001 earnings report, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal, William Clay Ford, III made two announcements: 1. We are no longer pursuing our aftermarket strategy. (usurped and mismanaged by Jacques Naaser) 2 We can no longer afford to spend 11.1% of sales, on Marketing/Advertising. Bad news for Ogilvy/Mather. Possible 11.1% increase in margins. William Clay Ford: Uber is losing hundreds of millions to billions every year. If All the risks are borne by the driver, why can’t they turn a profit? The following article on the same page of the WSJ, was that The Blackstone Group « was looking for its next big deal ». Instinct tells me to defer from inviting them, or Goldman Sachs or any of its clients (like Facebook and Twitter) to participate in this private placement. http://fortune.com/2012/02/01/meet-the-man-behind-the-facebook-ipo/ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B5gQoZEZn04 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O8PM_EybRdo https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/facebook-not-feeling-friendly-with-nasdaq/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/09/04/facebook-sets-another-new-low-nyt-rips-cfo-ebersman/ mo torious On Oct 13, 30 Heisei, at 10:56 PM, mo torious <1.mo.torious.mo.1@gmail.com> wrote: M_DriversLicense (@onyx_project) 2/6/28 H, 12:51 PM i-am-motorious.tumblr.com/post/129742049… ⁦‪@AngelList‬⁩ ⁦‪@UBSf1‬⁩ ⁦‪@UBS‬⁩ frontinalispartners.com ⁦‪@Ford‬⁩ @LapoElkann_LE ⁦‪@Zurich‬⁩ ⁦‪@CreditSuisse‬⁩ pic.twitter.com/2pZqP9LAin

[timidizzy]

I posted 1,813 times in 2021

95 posts created (5%)

1718 posts reblogged (95%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 18.1 posts.

I added 285 tags in 2021

#batman - 38 posts

#robin - 36 posts

#dc comics - 36 posts

#detective comics - 34 posts

#stephanie brown - 31 posts

#batgirl - 25 posts

#tim drake - 24 posts

#spoiler - 24 posts

#red robin - 19 posts

#toh spoilers - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#this babs design bugs me cause they took the fun parta of steph's batgirl costume added more fun things and were like okay give it to babs

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Actually, I'm going to rant about this cause I haven't before.

How DC treats Barbara Gordon makes me sick

And I'm not referring to the paralyzing her for a man's story or the blatant ableism. This is all awful but it's been discussed, and rightfully so. I just wanna rant about something I genuinely haven't seen anyone talk about. I fully believe people have talked about it, I'm not about to be like wow why doesn't anyone talk about this, I just personally haven't seen it.

DC tosses her around between the men characters like she's just a toy for them to play with. Dick and Babs are a wonderful pairing I personally love, and they're the OG when it comes to Babs dating Bat-Men. But then Bruce Timm got his horny hands on her and starting writing her to be with Bruce. It was never canon, but in his own works he goes out of his way to make it canon. Then Arkham paired her with Tim, and then the comics did that thing where she WAS seeing Jason then went back to Dick but still had feelings for Jason? I guess?

My point is the only Wayne boys they haven't had her fuck is Duke and the literal ten year old. Do they not see how gross that is? They're flippantly throwing her at the men in a family and going "which one are we going to have her date this time?" Barbara Gordon is a character who has gone through her own stories and developments and she still gets treated like a love interest for whatever Wayne boy they prefer this week.

102 notes • Posted 2021-09-29 08:44:55 GMT

#4

See the full post

109 notes • Posted 2021-06-29 18:26:15 GMT

#3

Sometimes I remember that people were so homophobic that Dick in The Lego Batman Movie being excited about "two dads"(Bruce and Batman) made people pissed, but also they couldn't tell that Joker is blatantly, unapologetically gay in that movie. It's so funny.

142 notes • Posted 2021-07-22 01:57:36 GMT

#2

Me desperately trying to explain how to distinguish the Robins from each other:

Okay no so like yeah they all look similar but they have different heights and ages, right? Um... And like small different features like Jason’s hair and Damian’s eyes....Well, when DC doesn’t forget to add them.. Well their personalities are different! Just pay attention to the personalities! Well... That only works when DC doesn’t accidentally swap them, too.... Uh.... Their outfits? No... Modern takes for Jason’s make his look similar to Tim’s... Uh. Okay just remember what heroes they turn into later and then we can work backward from there. Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and Robin--Robin, Robin, Robin and Robin.... You get it? Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, right. Uh...Well I mean those aren’t all of them but let’s just start with those they’re the only ones DC cares about. We’ll get to the rest later. YES the REST--

191 notes • Posted 2021-02-18 05:47:26 GMT

#1

I think it’d be interesting to see an AU where all of the Batkids resemble the decade they were created in. Like wouldn’t that be cool?

Like Dick would be

Jason and Tim would be vibin like

See the full post

210 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 10:00:12 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TD Theories>Beth’s Arc>Fairy Tale Templates

Red Poncho Foreshadowing (Red Riding Hood) 08/30/2015

Little Red Riding Hood Theory 08/31/2015

Beauty and the Beast Parallels (Disney) 12/20/2015

Slabtown/Wizard of Oz References 03/05/2016

How Tom Sawyer Helps TD 06/06/2016

How Carol is Just Like the Widow Douglas 06/22/2016

Apple Theory 01/21/2017 (Snow White)

Chronicles of Narnia: Another Template 02/23/2017 

More Fun Fairy Tale Templates for TD 03/18/2017 

Robin Hood Template 10/07/2017

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 11/09/2017

Josh Wearing Nutcracker Shirt 12/10/17

Frosty the Snowman and the Greenhouse Connection 01/22/2018

The Wizard of Oz (TWOO) Updated 12/04/2018

Richard III Template 04/18/2019

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 09/19/2019

The Meaning of T.M.: King Arthur Template 12/02/2019

Alice in Wonderland Template 05/18/2020

The Wizard of Oz (Updated) 05/ 28/2020

The Divine Comedy Theory, Part 1 12/17/2020

The Divine Comedy Theory, Part 2 12/18/2020

Thomas Mallory as a Template 02/20/2021

Hallucination Theme

[truesportsfan]

5 NHL teams that improved their Stanley Cup odds at the deadline

With the NHL trade deadline now passed, it’s time to take a look at which teams made the moves that could potentially put them over the top… or at least aid them on their quest for the Stanley Cup.

Fears of disrupting chemistry be damned. Often times at the NHL trade deadline, general managers, coaches and players will speak of not trying to disturb the rhythm of their roster.

This was the justification Julien BriseBois used last year when asked why he and the Lightning decided not to make any deadline additions. It makes sense, not wanting to ruffle the feathers of guys on the team by shipping out one of their buddies to bring in a new toy. However, when things go south, like they did for the Lightning in their first round matchup vs Columbus last year, the question can always be asked: “why didn’t we do more?”

This year’s deadline saw many teams throw caution to the wind and choose to buy, buy, buy. Because while your team may be good, it can always get better. That appears to be the mindset of these clubs as we examine the five teams that improved their Stanley Cup odds at the deadline.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Tampa Bay Lightning

Notable Additions: F Blake Coleman, F Barclay Goodrow and D Zach Bogosian (via Free-Agent Signing)

The Lightning got an early jump on the deadline, sending former first-round pick Nolan Foote and a 2020 second-rounder to the New Jersey Devils for Blake Coleman early last week. A lone bright spot in the Devils season, Coleman — or “Pickles” as he’s affectionately known among the New Jersey faithful due to his affinity for drinking pickle juice — brings some offensive punch and responsible two-way play to the Lightning lineup.

Prior to joining the Lightning, Coleman racked up 21 goals, just one shy of the career-high 22 he scored last season. While he won’t be looked upon as a contributor on the power play — just one of his 21 goals have been scored on the man-advantage —  he can be counted upon for his play at the other end of the special teams battle. Coleman averages 2:45 on the penalty kill per game this season and has three shorthanded goals as an added bonus.

The Lightning further bolstered the bottom of their lineup with the addition of Barclay Goodrow from the Sharks. While the price was quite steep, sending away a first-round pick in the package, Goodrow adds a stabilizing presence to Tampa’s fourth line. He won’t score as much as Coleman, but he has a playoff Game Seven overtime goal under his belt and sports a 52.2 Corsi For percentage this season, according to Hockey Reference, which is a tremendous 2.8 percent higher relative to the rest of his former team.

The Lightning also signed defenseman Zach Bogosian to a one-year contract. It can be argued how much Bogosian can add to the Bolts’ back end, as he’s played in just 19 games this season for Buffalo, recording one goal and four assists. However, throughout his career, Bogosian has been a minute-muncher on defense, averaging 21:43 per game. While the Lightning would be wise not to utilize him to that extent, he does give them an extra body on the blue line come the playoffs.

For a team that decided to stand pat at the deadline last season, general manager BriseBois took a different approach this time. Might have something to do with last year’s first round debacle — just a hunch.

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Pittsburgh Penguins

Notable Additions: F Jason Zucker, F Patrick Marleau, F Evan Rodrigues and F Conor Sheary

The Penguins dove in to the trade deadline head first this year and emerged with one of the league’s most consistent scoring wingers, as well as a brand new third line. The line to help Jim Rutherford just keeps on growing.

By acquiring Zucker from the Minnesota Wild, the Penguins seem to have answered the age-old question of “what could Sidney Crosby do with a bonafide top-line winger?” The answer: directly combine for five goals in the first seven games they’ve played together.

We’ve watched Crosby drag nearly 40-year-old Bill Guerin to his second Cup in 2008-09, morph Chris Kunitz into an Olympic gold medalist, aid Sheary in his first and only 20-goal season (more on you later), officiate my parents’ wedding and mitigate their subsequent divorce, etc, etc.

Sure, there was a brief love-affair with Phil “the thrill” Kessel, but Crosby has never had a partner like this riding shotgun. The chemistry they’ve already displayed is staggering and it’s likely to get better.

The Penguins have added a plethora of new depth players. Pittsburgh sent promising young forward Dominik Kahun to Buffalo for Rodrigues and old friend Sheary. Rodrigues has flown under-the-radar the last few seasons in Buffalo, but brings some jump and play driving ability to the Pens bottom-six. It’s been well documented what Sheary has done with Pittsburgh (see above), and it’s not hard to think he’ll have an easy transition plugging right back in wherever the Penguins slot him into their lineup.

On top of that, Marleau, one of the most prolific scorers of the last 20 years, now slots in as a middle-six forward for the Pens. The depth on this team is absurd and may even give Tampa a run for their money scoring-wise. Through all the injury troubles they’ve dealt with this year, the Penguins have developed a “plug and play” mentality that has paid dividends. With the addition of four new forwards, Pittsburgh once again looks like a team primed to win a Stanley Cup.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Edmonton Oilers

Notable Additions: F Andreas Athanasiou, F Tyler Ennis and D Mike Green

The Oilers made a pair of trades with the ailing Detroit Red Wings, acquiring the speedy Athanasiou and veteran defenseman Green. It’s easy to love the Athanasiou move, as it gives the Oilers more depth at center, as well as the addition of a player that can not only keep up with the speed of its roster, but potentially outpace much of it.

We’ve seen flashes of what Athanasiou can do, topping 15 goals in his first two full seasons and netting 30 last year. Now he may be utilized in a lineup that is built upon his greatest asset — speed. Whether or not he gets a shot to skate alongside Connor McDavid or winds up centering the Oilers third line, Athanasiou is a move that seems too perfect not to work out.

The Green deal, however, is much more of a question mark. Long gone are the days of Green potting an outrageous 30 goals from the back end. He hasn’t scored double digit goals since 2016-17 and only has three to his name this season.

Yet, Green can still work a man-advantage if needed, as he averaged 2:25 minutes worth of power play time per game this season, and chewed up a healthy 21:39 of ice-time per night during his tenure in Detroit. For a team whose major flaw is often seen as the defense, it can’t hurt to have a veteran like Green to rely on for bottom pair minutes, instead of stop gaps like Joel Persson and noted good-guy Brandon Manning.

Ennis, despite his age and diminutive size, has remained an effective forward the last few seasons. Sporting 14 goals and 33 points this season, Ennis adds some depth scoring to a roster that is often seen as top-heavy.

After failing to reach the playoffs in three of the first four seasons of McDavid’s career, Edmonton went all-in at the this year’s trade deadline to assure that the fifth season won’t go to waste.

Washington Capitals

Notable Additions: D Brenden Dillon and F Ilya Kovalchuk

During the height of his career, the case could have been made that Kovalchuk was the most well rounded player of his time. Consistent 40-plus goal scorer, elite playmaker, shorthanded specialist and power play quarterback. Before his foray into Russia, Kovalchuk was a Swiss army knife (Swiss hockey stick?) of a player.

Today, that’s not the case. However, Kovalchuk’s play has surprised many during the second-half of the season following his tumultuous departure from the Kings organization. After the Canadiens took a flyer on him for a league-minimum deal, the Russian winger has recorded six goals and seven assists in 22 games. This was enough to convince the Caps to acquire him for a third-round pick in 2020.

Kovalchuk, a good friend of Alex Ovechkin, has seen his best days come and go. Yet, he should be able to add some scoring punch and special teams production to the Capitals roster. Also, how great would the post-Cup shenanigans be between Kovy and Ovi?

Dillon, while lacking the instant name recognition of some of his peers, has been a model of defensive proficiency during his nine-year career. He can’t be counted on for anything in the offensive zone, but he can chew up tough minutes and provide a steadying force to the penalty kill. Besides that, Dillon is a heart and soul player who will endear himself to his new teammates in short order and establish a strong voice in the locker room.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Carolina Hurricanes

Notable Additions: F Vincent Trocheck, D Sami Vatanen and D Brady Skjei

This one might be more aptly titled an “honorable mention” if we’re being honest. There’s little doubt that following these three moves, the Carolina Hurricanes roster is now better than the one that finished out that wild game in Toronto last week. Considering the team lost Brett Pesce and both of its NHL goalies in that game, that isn’t tough to believe.

While Sami Vatanen and Brady Skjei are solid NHL defensemen that will keep the Hurricanes alive in their push for the postseason, it’s just not reasonable to believe they can totally fill the holes in the roster left by Pesce and Dougie Hamilton — who was on a Norris Trophy candidate pace.

Also, the Canes surprisingly did not pursue any options in goal, despite Robin Lehner, Louis Domingue and Michael Hutchinson being available. For now, it seems as though the plan in net is to roll with the unproven Anton Forsberg and rookie Alex Nedeljkovic. Not necessarily a recipe for success.

Vincent Trocheck is a tremendous addition that will help the Canes offense in short order. Though it came at the cost of Erik Haula — a great player in his own right — Trocheck is a bit like a Barkov-Lite player. He’s got tremendous offensive instincts, a wicked release and a sound two-way game. Plus, he’s got term left on his contract and appears to fit right in with the Hurricanes plans for the future. But does it do enough to put this team over the top?

While the Canes were active on deadline day, it’s tough to say how much more of a contender they’ve become given their injury woes. However, if there’s a team that’s used to shirking the expectations and traditions of the hockey world, it’s this bunch of jerks.

Next: Grading every NHL team’s 2020 trade deadline

Follow FanSided NHL for more news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage about hockey in all forms throughout the entire 2019-20 NHL season and beyond.

source https://truesportsfan.com/sport-today/5-nhl-teams-that-improved-their-stanley-cup-odds-at-the-deadline/

[topworldhistory]

Santa kidnapping children and murderous mice were par for the course in the Victorian-era Christmas card tradition.

In the 19th century, before festive Christmas cards became the norm, Victorians put a darkly humorous and twisted spin on their seasonal greetings. Some of the more popular subjects included anthropomorphic frogs, bloodthirsty snowmen and dead birds.

“May yours be a joyful Christmas,” reads one card from the late 1800s, along with an illustration of a dead robin. Another card shows an elderly couple laughing maniacally as they lean out a second-story window and dump water onto a group of carolers below. “Wishing you a jolly Christmas,” it says beneath the image.

Morality and a strict code of social conduct embodied the time period of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901), but the Victorians still had their fair share of questionable practices. They thought nothing of posing with the dead or robbing graves and selling the bodies. Their holiday customs evolved with just as much curiosity. Clowns, insects and even the Devil himself had a place in early holiday fanfare.

“In the 19th century, the iconography of Christmas had not been fully developed as it is now,” says Penne Restad, a lecturer in American history at the University of Texas in Austin and the author of Christmas in America.

Printing and Postage Reforms Trigger Christmas Card Tradition

The first Christmas card, circa 1843.

Christmas didn’t gain momentum until the mid-1800s. In 1843, the same year that English author Charles Dickens created A Christmas Carol, prominent English educator and society member, Sir Henry Cole, commissioned the first Christmas card. Even with an impressive print run of 1,000 cards (of which 21 exist today), full-fledged manufacturing remained only a sideline to the more established trade in playing cards, notepaper and envelopes, needle-box and linen labels and valentines, explains Samantha Bradbeer, archivist and historian for Hallmark Cards, Inc. It took several decades for the exchange of holiday greetings to catch on, both in England and the United States.

“Several factors coincided to produce a broad acceptance of greeting cards as a popular commodity,” says Bradbeer, including a higher literacy rate and new consumerism stemming from increasing levels of discretionary income. But postal reform and advances in printing technologies were the two factors that really pushed Christmas cards into the mainstream.

The Postage Act of 1839 helped regulate British postage rates and democratize mail delivery. A year later, with the passage of the Uniform Penny Post law, anyone in England could send something in the mail for just one penny. Then, in October 1870, right before the holiday season, the British government introduced the halfpenny, making mail service affordable for nearly all levels of society. Standardized rates and delivery soon followed in America.

At the same time, wood cuts and other cumbersome printing processes gave way to the mass production of images. The first mass printing of Christmas cards occurred in the 1860s. By 1870, when printing could be done for as little as a few pennies per dozen, hundreds of European card manufacturers were producing cards to sell at home and to the American public. German immigrant Louis Prang is credited with popularizing the Christmas card in the United States through his Boston lithography business.

Fringe Cards Featured Dark and Bizarre Imagery

19th-century Victorians put a dark and twisted spin on their seasonal greetings. Some of the more popular cover models included anthropomorphic frogs and insects.

View the 8 images of this gallery on the original article

As the popularity of Christmas cards grew, Victorians demanded more novelty. “By 1885, unique and even bizarre cards with silk fringe, glittered attachments and mechanical movements were popular, but the more common Christmas card motifs related to flora and fauna, seasonal vignettes and landscapes,” Bradbeer says.

Among the bizarre were a large collection of dark and outlandish designs. An army of black ants is shown attacking an army of red ants on one holiday greeting with the caption, “The compliments of the season,” printed on a tiny flag. Sullen and brooding children, random lobsters and Christmas pudding with human elements made frequent appearances on Christmas cards printed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

But why did Victorians exchange such eccentric holiday cards, and what do they mean?

“I think it’s important to understand that ‘festive’ cards as we know them now are very much a 20th-century phenomena,” says Katie Brown, assistant curator of social history at York Castle Museum. According to Brown, although some of the history is lost, designs were made to serve as conversation pieces as much as they were made to celebrate the season. Many Victorian Christmas cards became parlor art or people added them to their scrapbook collections.

Greeting cards, in general, are linked socially, economically and politically to the culture, period and place of their origin and use. “Sentiments and designs that may seem unusual today were often considered signs of good fortune, while others poked fun at superstitions,” says Bradbeer.

Folk customs influenced the design of many Victorian Christmas cards. In British folklore, for example, robins and wrens are considered sacred species. John Grossman, author of Christmas Curiosities: Old, Dark and Forgotten Christmas, writes that images of these dead birds on Christmas cards may have been “bound to elicit Victorian sympathy and may reference common stories of poor children freezing to death at Christmas.”

“I believe the cultural interest in fairies, secret places and strange creatures that developed, maybe beginning with seances, elves and so on, in the Victorian era may have something to do with some of the fantastical Christmas cards,” says Restad.

St. Nicholas Teams Up With the Devil

A German postcard reading "Gruss vom Krampus," meaning "Greetings from Krampus."

An English legend popular during the Victorian era said that St. Nicholas recruited the Devil to help with his deliveries. Together, they determined which children had been naughty or nice. The Devil, who appeared under various guises, kidnapped the disobedient kids and beat them with a stick. Santa is the creepy antihero on a variety of Victorian-era holiday cards, where he can be seen peeking through windows and spying on children. The Devil is disguised as Krampus on some, making off on sleds and in automobiles with the children deemed naughty.

READ MORE: Meet Krampus: The Christmas Devil Who Punishes the Naughty

Today, despite the rise of electronic communication and social media, billions of Christmas cards are bought and exchanged around the world each year. 

“As artifacts of popular culture revealing graphic, literary and social trends, they provide both visual pleasure and important historic information,” says Bradbeer, even when that information is symbolized by dead birds. 

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2EpB2F2 December 16, 2019 at 09:38PM

[celebritylive]

A Christmas tree, a rottweiler and an egg facing off for a grand prize can only mean one thing: The Masked Singer is back!

The singing competition’s second season returned to Fox on Wednesday with 16 new undercover celebrities, eight of whom took the stage for their first performances.

While the producers made the clues harder for season 2, host Nick Cannon shared during the premiere that the 16 celeb contestants have a combined 42 Grammy nominations, 140 films, 35 No. 1 hits, 21 platinum records and 22 Broadway shows between them. The competitors also boast a total of 29 kids, 28 tattoos, eight divorces and two Time Most Influential People honors.

Judges Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke returned to try to figure out which actor, musician, athlete, politician or influencer could be under the disguise, and Cannon asked each contestant after their performance what makes them the embodiment of their character.

Wednesday’s special two-hour episode consisted of eight characters facing off in four pairs. And just like last season, the studio audience then voted to pick the winner of each battle. The four losers went on to sing in one of two smackdown rounds. The judges determined the winner of the smackdowns, and the two losers were ultimately unmasked at the end of the episode.

Here’s how everything broke down when The Masked Singer introduced its first crop of costumed performers.

Faceoff No. 1: Butterfly vs. Egg

BUTTERFLY

Clues: “For the past year, I’ve been waiting patiently in my cocoon for the promise of metamorphosis.”; “After achieving success in many stages of life, I found myself terrified by the one place I used to call home,” followed by an image of London’s Big Ben; “I’m here to take you to church. Can I get an amen?” Song: “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj Judges’ guesses: Fantasia Barrino, Mel B, Cara Delevingne, Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross What makes them the Butterfly? “Bless your heart, thanks for asking! I love to float gracefully and I’ve got a lot of soul in these wings.”

EGG

Clues: a snow globe; a swan; a skateboard; “I’m strong on the outside, vulnerable on the inside.”; “You might figure that coming to The Masked Singer is a bit of a leap for me, but after years of being on top of the pyramid, I’m here to join the ranks of the greatest, most versatile entertainers of our time.”; “I’m going for the gold.” Song: “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga Judges’ guesses: Adam Rippon, Christian Siriano, Jonathan Van Ness, Jonny Weir What makes them the Egg? “I’m always egg-stra and I do enjoy a good sparkle.”

Winner: Butterfly

RELATED: The Masked Singer Mascots Walk the Emmys Red Carpet — What Celebrities Are Hiding Inside?

Faceoff No. 2: Thingamajig vs. Skeleton

THINGAMAJIG

Clues: a cupcake with the number four; a briefcase with magic tricks inside; athletic sneakers; a fashion shoot; “I’m here because I like to sing, though you may think that’s not my thing.” Song: “Easy” by Commodores Judges’ guesses: Steph Curry, Dennis Rodman, Michael Strahan What’s a thingamajig? “A thingamajig is a thing that likes to majig.”

SKELETON

Clues: a Christmas party; Las Vegas vibes; “I’ve been around the block a few times, but I’m far from dead.”; “I’m tired of playing second fiddle.”; “I finally get that spotlight all to myself.” Song: a mashup of “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang and “Good Times” by Chic Judges’ guesses: Dana Carvey, Jon Cryer, Nathan Lane, and Martin Short, who Jeong is certain it is. What makes their bones shake? “I have no booty to shake. So all I can do is shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake a boom.”

Winner: Thingamajig

SMACKDOWN

After Egg’s fierce performance of “One Way or Another” by Blondie and Skeleton’s soulful rendition of “Hard to Handle” by Otis Redding, Skeleton beat Egg to stay in the competition.

Faceoff No. 3: Ladybug vs. Rottweiler

LADYBUG

Clues: a KSOR TV camera; a classic game show setup with a spinning wheel; bridges; “After a lifetime of drama, I could really use a little love and a lot of luck.”; “Being born into the limelight means keeping up with every piece of gossip and family feud.”; “Now after years of spinning my wheels, the chance to be anonymous makes me feel like I’ve already won a prize.” Song: “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler Judges’ guesses: Lily Collins, Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lynn Spears, Willow Smith What makes them the Ladybug? “I’ve been through so much in my life. I just feel so lucky to be here.”

ROTTWEILER

Clues: a fantasy championship ring; bitten by a rottweiler as a kid; a bodyguard throwing a football; Friday Night Lights reference; “Look your best in order to perform your best.”; “Being a hungry competitor is actually how I rose to fame. It happened almost overnight.” Song: “Maneater” by Hall & Oates Judges’ guesses: JC Chasez, Nick Lachey, Brian Littrell, Bruno Mars, Russell Wilson What makes them the Rottweiler? “I’m loyal. There’s a bit of a wait and see attitude.”

Winner: Rottweiler

RELATED VIDEO: Robin Thicke On The Release Of His New Song

Faceoff No. 4: Tree vs. Ice Cream

TREE

Clues: the number 30; a bag of sugar; pots and pans; a black and white television showing Tree singing; an “expert in delicious treats”; “When the season is over, there’s no use for me.”; “I’m more than just one thing that you know me for.”; “I can dish out more talents to make the world smile.”; “I’m like the old-school entertainer who could do it all.”; “That’s why I’m here, to jazz up my career.” Song: “High Hopes” by Panic at the Disco Judges’ guesses: Beverly D’Angelo, Zooey Deschanel, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Rachael Ray What makes them the Tree? “Well, I’m festive and fun and I like everyone to gather ‘round and have a good time.”

ICE CREAM

Clues: a money gun; gold coins; a mansion with a pool in what looks like California; karate moves; headphones and a turntable; emojis; “For me, every day is cheat day.”; “Growing up, I caught a lot of flack for doing the thing I love the most.”; “Even my mom and dad had their doubts. But I believed in my ridiculous dream and I turned my fantasy into a reality.”; “I’ve got over a billion reasons to be proud of my hard work and determination.”; “I am used to performing in front of millions of people.” Song: “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus Judges’ guesses: Diplo, Rob Dyrdek, Calvin Harris, Marshmello, PewDiePie, Evan Spiegel What makes them the Ice Cream? “I’m sweet and everybody loves me.”

Winner: Tree

SMACKDOWN

Ice Cream sang Devo’s “Whip It” and Ladybug countered with “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar, but the panel chose Ladybug to stay in the competition.

UNMASKING

Egg turned out to be Olympic ice skater Johnny Weir, and Ice Cream was revealed to be videogame streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins.

The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET) on Fox.

from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2lR34Dv

[bountyofbeads]

Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/sunday-review/brett-kavanaugh-deborah-ramirez-yale.html

Wow.

"During his Senate testimony, Mr. Kavanaugh said that if the incident Ms. Ramirez described had occurred, it would have been 'the talk of campus.' Our reporting suggests that it was."

"At least seven people, including Ms. Ramirez’s mother, heard about the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Two of those people were classmates who learned of it just days after the party occurred"

And there is also another alleged incident of sexual assault: "A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student."

"Hey, so while we're talking about all the ways that #KavanaughLied, let's figure out who paid off his mortgage and credit card debt?"

"You know, because there's still the possibility that person could have business before the Supreme Court. Or maybe already has." Matthew Chapman @fawfulfan

Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not.

Deborah Ramirez’s Yale experience says much about the college’s efforts to diversify its student body in the 1980s.

By Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly | Published September 14, 2019 | New York Times | Posted September 15, 2019 9:48 AM ET |

Ms. Pogrebin and Ms. Kelly are reporters with The Times and authors of the forthcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”

Deborah Ramirez had the grades to go to Yale in 1983. But she wasn’t prepared for what she’d find there.

A top student in southwestern Connecticut, she studied hard but socialized little. She was raised Catholic and had a sheltered upbringing. In the summers, she worked at Carvel dishing ice cream, commuting in the $500 car she’d bought with babysitting earnings.

At Yale, she encountered students from more worldly backgrounds. Many were affluent and had attended elite private high schools. They also had experience with drinking and sexual behavior that Ms. Ramirez — who had not intended to be intimate with a man until her wedding night — lacked.

During the winter of her freshman year, a drunken dormitory party unsettled her deeply. She and some classmates had been drinking heavily when, she says, a freshman named Brett Kavanaugh pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it. Some of the onlookers, who had been passing around a fake penis earlier in the evening, laughed.

To Ms. Ramirez it wasn’t funny at all. It was the nadir of her first year, when she often felt insufficiently rich, experienced or savvy to mingle with her more privileged classmates.

“I had gone through high school, I’m the good girl, and now, in one evening, it was all ripped away,” she said in an interview earlier this year at her Boulder, Colo., home. By preying upon her in this way, she added, Mr. Kavanaugh and his friends “make it clear I’m not smart.”

Mr. Kavanaugh, now a justice on the Supreme Court, has adamantly denied her claims. Those claims became a flash point during his confirmation process last year, when he was also fighting other sexual misconduct allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, who had attended a Washington-area high school near his.

Ms. Ramirez’s story would seem far less damaging to Mr. Kavanaugh’s reputation than those of Dr. Ford, who claimed that he pinned her to a bed, groped her and tried to remove her clothes while covering her mouth.

But while we found Dr. Ford’s allegations credible during a 10-month investigation, Ms. Ramirez’s story could be more fully corroborated. During his Senate testimony, Mr. Kavanaugh said that if the incident Ms. Ramirez described had occurred, it would have been “the talk of campus.” Our reporting suggests that it was.

At least seven people, including Ms. Ramirez’s mother, heard about the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Two of those people were classmates who learned of it just days after the party occurred, suggesting that it was discussed among students at the time.

We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaugh in his freshman year that echoes Ms. Ramirez’s allegation. A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly. (We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier.)

Mr. Kavanaugh did not speak to us because we could not agree on terms for an interview. But he has denied Dr. Ford’s and Ms. Ramirez’s allegations, and declined to answer our questions about Mr. Stier’s account.

Yale in the 1980s was in the early stages of integrating more minority students into its historically privileged white male population. The college had admitted its first black student in the 1850s, but by Ms. Ramirez’s time there, people of color comprised less than a fifth of the student body. Women, who had been admitted for the first time in 1969, were still relative newcomers.

Mr. Kavanaugh fit the more traditional Yale mold. His father was a trade association executive, his mother a prosecutor and later a judge. They lived in tony Bethesda, Md., and owned a second home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. As a student at a prominent Jesuit all-boys school, Georgetown Prep, Mr. Kavanaugh was surrounded by the sons of powerful Washington professionals and politicians. He was an avid sports fan and known to attend an annual teenage bacchanal called “Beach Week,” where the hookups and drinking were more important than the sand and swimming.

Ms. Ramirez grew up in a split-level ranch house in working-class Shelton, Conn., perhaps best known for producing the Wiffle ball, and didn’t drink before college. Her father, who is Puerto Rican, rose through the Southern New England Telephone Company, having started as a cable splicer. Her mother, who is French, was a medical technician.

Before coming to Yale, Ms. Ramirez took pride in her parents’ work ethic and enjoyed simple pleasures like swimming in their aboveground pool, taking camping trips and riding behind her father on his snowmobile. She was studious, making valedictorian at her Catholic elementary school and excelling at her Catholic high school, St. Joseph.

She and her parents took out loans to pay for Yale, and she got work-study jobs on campus, serving food in the dining halls and cleaning dorm rooms before class reunions.

She tried to adapt to Yale socially, joining the cheerleading squad her freshman year, sometimes positioned at the pinnacle of the pyramid. But Ms. Ramirez learned quickly that although cheerleading was cool in high school, it didn’t carry the same cachet at Yale. People called her Debbie Cheerleader or Debbie Dining Hall or would start to say “Debbie does … ” playing on the 1978 porn movie “Debbie Does Dallas.” But Ms. Ramirez didn’t understand the reference.

“She was very innocent coming into college,” Liz Swisher, who roomed with Ms. Ramirez for three years at Yale and is now a physician in Seattle, later recalled. “I felt an obligation early in freshman year to protect her.”

There were many more unhappy memories of college. Fellow students made fun of the way she dropped consonants when she spoke, but also ribbed her for not being fluent in Spanish. They mocked her knockoff black-and-red Air Jordans. They even questioned her admission on the merits. “Is it because you’re Puerto Rican?” someone once asked her.

“My mom would have preferred me to go to a smaller college — looking back at it, she was right,” Ms. Ramirez said. At Yale, “they invite you to the game, but they never show you the rules or where the equipment is.”

It wasn’t until she got a call from a reporter and saw her account of Mr. Kavanaugh described as “sexual misconduct” in The New Yorker that Ms. Ramirez understood it as anything more than one of many painful encounters at Yale.

Ms. Ramirez also did not see herself as a victim of ethnic discrimination. The college campuses of the 1980s had yet to be galvanized by the identity and sexual politics that course through today’s cultural debates.

Years after graduating, however, she started volunteering with a nonprofit organization that assists victims of domestic violence — the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, or SPAN. She became a staff member for a time and continues to serve on its board. Gradually she embraced her Puerto Rican roots.

This awakening caused Ms. Ramirez to distance herself from the past. She fell out of touch with one Yale friend — who had asked Ms. Ramirez to be her daughter’s godmother — after the friend’s husband made fun of a book she was reading on racial identity. The husband, a Yale classmate, was one of the students she remembered being at the dorm party that difficult night.

“If I felt like a person in my life wasn’t going to embrace my journey or would somehow question it,” she said, “I just let them go.”

Mr. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings were wrenching, as he strained to defend his character after Dr. Ford’s searing testimony. Thousands of miles away, Ms. Ramirez, who was never asked to testify, also found the hearings distressing. Her efforts to backstop her recollections with friends would later be cited as evidence that her memory was unreliable or that she was trying to construct a story rather than confirm one.

Ms. Ramirez’s legal team gave the F.B.I. a list of at least 25 individuals who may have had corroborating evidence. But the bureau — in its supplemental background investigation — interviewed none of them, though we learned many of these potential witnesses tried in vain to reach the F.B.I. on their own.

Two F.B.I. agents interviewed Ms. Ramirez, telling her that they found her “credible.” But the Republican-controlled Senate had imposed strict limits on the investigation. “‘We have to wait to get authorization to do anything else,’” Bill Pittard, one of Ms. Ramirez’s lawyers, recalled the agents saying. “It was almost a little apologetic.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island and member of the Judiciary Committee, later said, “I would view the Ramirez allegations as not having been even remotely investigated.” Other Democrats agreed.

Ultimately, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, concluded, “There is no corroboration of the allegations made by Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez.” Mr. Kavanaugh was confirmed on Oct. 6, 2018, by a vote of 50-48, the closest vote for a Supreme Court justice in more than 130 years.

Still, Ms. Ramirez came to feel supported by the very Yale community from which she had once felt so alienated. More than 3,000 Yale women signed an open letter commending her “courage in coming forward.” More than 1,500 Yale men issued a similar letter two days later.

She also received a deluge of letters, emails and texts from strangers containing messages like, “We’re with you, we believe you, you are changing the world,” and “Your courage and strength has inspired me. The bravery has been contagious.”

College students wrote about how Ms. Ramirez had helped them find the words to express their own experiences. Medical students wrote about how they were now going to listen differently to victims of sexual violence. Parents wrote about having conversations with their children about how bad behavior can follow them through life. One father told Ms. Ramirez he was talking to his two sons about how their generation is obligated to be better.

Ms. Ramirez saved all of these notes in a decorative box that she keeps in her house, turning to them even now for sustenance. One person sent a poem titled “What Is Justice” that has resonated deeply with her.

“You can’t look at justice as just the confirmation vote,” she said. “There is so much good that came out of it. There is so much more good to come.”

This essay is adapted from the forthcoming book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”

[frenchchive7-blog]

25k2/Table Topics Ideas, Toastmasters International, FANDOM powered by Wikia



Table Topics Ideas

This is a list of ideas for Table Topics sessions. Feel free to use one of these for your next session!

Interview With The Wrong Skills Edit

Pick someone and have them describe their job and what would be the most important attribute to excel in that position. Then pick someone whose going to speak about why they would be the best candidate for the position, having the wrong skills.

What if the playground rules were changed so that everyone had to agree on one game to play every recess?

What if a driver was allowed to run a red light if he or she was sure that no one was coming?

Explore other rules.

Famous Composers Edit

The Table Topics Master used the events of a famous composer's life. This is how it worked

He put the names of four cities (Vienna, Berlin, Paris London) in five different envelopes

He handed the envelopes to the four speakers.

Speaker ONE opened his envelope and started to prepare a talk on Vienna.

The Table Topics Master told us of the composer's early life in Vienna.

The Table Topics Master told the SECOND speaker to open her envelope. She did so and started preparing a talk on Berlin.

The FIRST speaker gave his speech on Viennaz

while the SECOND speaker was preparing.

The Table Topics Master told us about the composer's time in Berlin, and before asking the second speaker to speak, told the THIRD speaker to start preparing. And so it went.

At the end, we had to guess the composer's name.

Submitted by Eric l

Unusual objects Edit

The Table Topics master brought unusual implements and tools from around the house.

Everyasdfasdfse is.

After the speech, the club could guess what the implement really was. Submitted by Sue.

Twenty Questions Edit

The Table Topics master chose five subjects.

Then he played 20 questions with the club until they finally deduced what the subject was.

At that point, the designated speaker had to stand up and give a talk for 1 to 2 minutes about the subject.

The subjects were things like: Encyclopedia Brittanica; Camembert cheese; the Internal Combustion Engine; Winter; and (of course) Toastmasters International. (This does take rather longer than 15 minutes so is good for a meeting that is short on prepared speaking. Submitted by Eric)

Plan a vacation Edit

Prepare cards with transportation options (car, motor home, airplane, balloon, etc) and cards with your budget ($5000, $100, just won the lottery, etc). Each participant takes a transportation and budget card and describes their vacation.

Stop time Edit

If you could stop time for an hour, what would you do with that hour? (Submitted by Bob Brentin, Midland 2399, Tuesday Talkers 5652) ..

Celebrity dry cleaners Edit

We had one envelope with a bunch of celebrity names, and another envelope with some ordinary service occupations.

The speaker picked a name and an occupation, and then had to explain why they would recommend that person to do the job, as if they were referring him to a friend or as if they were a job reference.

Oprah Winfrey would be an excellent beautician because she loves to talk about.

Tom Cruise would be a great pool man because.

Michael Jordan is a great gardener because he can.

(Submitted by Doug Hirt, President, Allmerica Articulates, #9114/62)

15 minutes of fame Edit

Everyone wears one of those old style cheap Zorro/Halloween/Party masks and (now that no one knows who you really are) :) becomes a famous person in history i.e. Lincoln, Washington, King etc.

Give them topics like. Tell me President Washington, How did you motivate the troops to cross the Delaware that cold wintery night? etc.

(Submitted by Mike Gerrick - Youngstown Executive Toastmasters 408)

What completes the pattern 2 4 6 8 .

What has four sides, and it's the same sides?

What shapes are round and which ones are round and wide?

What shape has eight sides?

What do you swing on?

What slows you down, so you won't get hurt?

What animal waddles?

What shape is eight sides minus five?

Is the number 18 even or odd?

In the park there are 2 dogs, 3 birds, and one kitten. How many legs do the animals have?

Needy Nudists Edit

Once people become aware that you are a Toastmaster, you will find that you will get requests to speak on behalf of other organizations. Would you demonstrate such skill by giving us a fund raising solicitation for the Needy Nudist Network.

(Submitted by Bill Dobson - D40 Webmaster

Faking it Edit

One of the newer TV shows is called Faking It. In this show, contestants pretend they are in radically different careers for a week and try to fool a panel of judges. You have been selected for the show and your new career is going to be a Haitian Voodoo witch doctor. How are you going to prepare for this role?

(Submitted by Bill Dobson - D40 Webmaster)s is called faking tiOPne Edit

Musical notes Edit

One of my all time favorites (and it can be varied each time) is to take several 30 seconds cuts of various musical pieces and tape them. When you play a cut from the tape, ask the participant to explain what thoughts the music brings to them (i.e. theme from The Godfather, Vivaldi's "Spring," Little Richard's "Good Golly Ms Mollie," Pavarotti singing an aria, or The Barney Song) Really makes no difference about the music, it all brings some thoughts to the presenter. I have Doo Whop, Opera, Country, Frank Sinatra, TV Themes, etc. Takes a little time to prepare but can be used over and over again.

(Submitted by Ronald J. Bower - DTM, Club 3478, District 37)

(Some of these tips originally appeared on http://regionvi.62toast.com/tabletopics.html) -- 09:35, 15 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Witnesses for the Prosecution Edit

This is a pre-trial hearing into an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs. Liz Perri, Managing Director of Perri, Perri, and Stench, President of Perri's Awful Fashions. I a the Honorable Mr. Aubrey Derrick presiding.

On November 27th between the hours of 7:00 PM and 7.30 PM, Mrs. Liz Perri was murdered by person or persons unknown. Her body was found on the landing outside the church by Toastmasters arriving for the meeting at 7:15 PM

Those of you who were given envelopes are suspects and you will need to clear yourself by implicating another speaker in your defense. At your time to speak you will open your envelope revealing the method of murder.

Mrs. Perri's body had suffered various injuries as listed below:

She had been stabbed with an intricately carved Arabian dagger

A red silk dressing gown cord had been used to garrote (Strangle) her.

She had been shot with a small caliber bullet used in a Baby Browning automatic pistol.

The bolt from a crossbow protruded from between her shoulders.

Sundry chest wounds had been made by a Japanese Samurai sword found near the body.

A post mortem investigation revealed that she had recently ingested a lethal dose of arsenic contained in 7Kg of peanuts of the type used as snacks in Toastmasters meetings.

Her lungs contained water and his clothing was saturated

Her skull had been crushed by a bloodstained rock found near the doorway

Photo prompts Edit

From Brian Christiansen Print out the following page: http://puzzlephotos.blogspot.com/ (the pictures come out about , sometimes 2, to a page) and use the pictures as the prompts for the table topics. The speaker can either tell what the particular item is or bluff about it.

Predictions Edit

Print out a bunch of Nostradamus's quatrains, give one to whoever is chosen to speak, and have them be clever and thus tell us what the prophecy means.

Round Robin Story Edit

One person starts a story. The second speaker has to continue the story and so on, until all the speakers are done.

This is a departure from the regular table topics routine, where everyone attending the session gets to participate. The TTM acts as conductor and may intervene when needed. A topic is started, then carried forward by the audience one by one. The aim is to try to pick up where the previous speaker left off rather than speaking on the same topic. The audience may rearrange themselves in a circle for this round, or the Table Topics master may decide how to go about it. Time limits can also be decided as such. (Usually with larger numbers the time limit is brought down). In this round, it should be left to the guests and first timers to decide for themselves whether to be part of the Round Robin session, or just observe. They may change their seats accordingly.

One variation of this session is to have an ongoing story wherein everybody chips in a bit and takes the story forward. With shorter time per speaker, it's possible to have 2 or more consecutive rounds. In more extreme versions, each speaker could be allowed just a sentence or a limited number of words. If not time or word-dependent, the TTM may decide when to pass it on, or the next speaker may make a signal like a clap and start off if the current speaker flounders.

The timer is, of course, at odds in this round - sometimes the Timer is relieved of duties and the Table Topics master doubles up as timer.

Round Robin Edit

Especially useful when the topicmaster doesn't show up: everybody thinks of one question. The first person asks a question, that person answers it and asks a question of the next person and so forth until the last person asks their question to the person who started it..

Fun Geography Edit

Print out flags from some obscure countries. The speaker has to talk about the country for 2 minutes. The topic masters adds some real fun facts about each country.

This can be done with the names of geographical features - mountains, lakes, rivers. Get really obscure ones and had people tell which they were and discuss the location. (Submitted by Joy).

Childhood smells Edit

A recent Table Topic at our club was one of the best we've ever seen - our member handed out small plastic containers with cotton wool soaked in a scent - dettol, perfume, etc. and asked the participants what memories this scent evoked. One member said the dettol reminded him of boot camp!

A really worthwhile Table Topics and well worth a try.

Dream Wedding Edit

In one meeting, our table topics master gave us a funny scenario to describe our big day. When I was chosen, I told everyone a thief had snatched our wedding chest filled with treasures. I would snap a photo of him and his car then call the police. My Speechcraft supervisor described how he went headfirst into his friends wedding cake, how embarrassing! If you are planning to wed in the future, I hope it's romantic and memorable.

Olympic torch Edit

In one meeting, held the week when the Olympic torch was to past through our city, our table topics master created a paper/cardboard Olympic torch. In place of the flames, paper "flames" were made containing different subjects about the Olympics. These ranged from the economic impact the Games would have on our city to why frog jumping should be an Olympic sport.

Beach party Edit

Our next meeting was a "beach party." It ranged from name tags made out of paper in the shape and artwork of watermelon, Beach Boys music being played before and after the meeting and beach paraphernalia ranging from beach towels, balls and water guns spread across the whole room.

For the Table Topics, the Table Topics Master used the beach materials in the room as well as sea shells with subject labels ranging from surfing to nude beach colonies.

Well, these are two great ideas we have used. Hope this helps someone.

James Ellisor TechOraters

Activism Edit

One time, I used some threads from a few newsgroups - the clean ones :-) I read a posted messsage, a response post, then asked the hapless speaker to assume the role of the first person and answer the reponse.

I don't remember the exact topics - one was about censoring the Internet. The ".activism" groups offer a wealth of interesting discussions. Maybe the recent discussion here on DTM requirements would prove to be stimulating.Jane

Fortune Cookies Edit

One idea someone else suggested during a discussion from a recent officer training I attended was to have the speaker pick a fortune cookie and use the "fortune" as the topic to talk about. Afterwards the speaker can eat the cookie!

Gift exchange Edit

We have a kind of gift exchange. A member picks a wrapped gift from under the 'tree' (last time it was a couch), or steals one from another member. Then the member has to explain why he (she) thinks this is the most wonderful gift in the world.

John Fleming, CTM

Colour me pink! Edit

On small slips of paper write out some unusual or very descriptive colors (day-glo orange, pea green, flamingo pink etc), make a list of questions along the lines of:

Tell us why you plan to paint your house this color Explain why all your clothes this summer will be in this color Tell the person to your right why he/she should buy a car in this color.

Ask a Table Topics respondent to pick a slip and ask them the next question on the list. You never know what you'll get.

Hint: It helps to call on someone who is known to have a wild imagination for the first response. After that people will get the idea that anything goes on this theme!

Chris Copeland, ATM

Just three minutes Edit

Our Area Governor last year introduced our club to "Just 3 Minutes" to fill in time before the contest winner was announced. I'm not sure of the origins of this game. Perhaps other Toastmasters know and can also share interesting and entertaining fillers for when the judges are "out".

Just three minutes sounds alot like a BBC radio program called "Just a Minute". You can find out more about it here[1].

Rules for Just 3 Minutes Edit

Two teams of three players are pitted against each other. The topic which they are to talk about is chosen by the Just 3 Minutes Master.

The team which is the first to speak is chosen by lot. The teams shall nominate the first, second and third speaker. Teams continue to use this order until the time has been used up.

The winner of the contest is the team which is still speaking when the allotted three minutes has run out.

The team which is NOT speaking can challenge the speaker for various faults. When a challenge has been made by a team member, the clock will be stopped until the challenge is adjudicated by the J3M-Master. If the challenge is successful, the next speaker for the challenging team takes over the subject; otherwise, the challenged team continues.

Hesitations - ums and ahs, etc

Pauses - which are too long or too frequent

Repetitions - of words of phrases

Tautologies - saying of the same thing using different words - such as 'myself' or 'Next, following 'that' or 'The reason why. '

Changing the topic - including not speaking closely enough to the topic.

If a player challenges unsuccessfully 6 times, that player cannot speak or challenge again, and the other members must continue without them.

We had a lot of fun with Just 3 minutes. At times I stopped dead when I realised I had repeated myself and was waiting for a challenge!

Thematic Questions Edit

In Rooster Rousers, the Toastmaster picks a theme the week before, and the Table Topic Master simply tosses out questions that relate to the theme.

So, to invent an example, if the Toastmaster chose the Edmonton Transit System as a theme, all table topic questions would relate to the public transportation system in Edmonton, i.e., a typical question might be 'What would you do to improve the Sunday bus service?'

The number of times a request for table topics ideas is an indication to me that a large number of clubs do not approach table topics the same way that we at Rooster Rousers do.

John Fleming, CTM back to top back to Resources home page

Identify this Picture Edit

Cut pictures from the newspaper or magazines. Have the table topics respondent come up and pick one and tell the club what is happening in the picture. (Of course, no captions are attached to the pictures.)

Norma Whetzel EPA and Galloping Governors Toastmasters back to top back to Resources home page

Unusual Objects Edit

Table topics respondents are given an unusual object and asked to tell everyone what it is and how it is used. As an alternate, they might be asked to sell the object to the club.

Have an object in a bag that the respondent has to feel and describe to the club. The club then guesses what was described. Alternatively, the respondent may look at the object before descibing it.

That's MY Favorite Quote Edit

One of my favorites is to have slips of paper with a saying or quote. The respondent has to explain what the saying or quote means to him.

Dear Abby Edit

Give each person a "Dear Abby" question and have them give their advice. These could made up by the Table Topics Master or real ones clipped from the advice columns.

Norma Whetzel back to top back to Resources home page

Book Swap Edit

Have a book swap. Have members bring a book that they "sell" to the rest of the club by telling them why they like the book. After all members have had their chance. Each member bargains for the book that her or she liked best from the explanation. Everyone gets a chance to speak and to get a new book.

Norma Whetzel back to top back to Resources home page

Auction Edit

Hold an auction. Have each member bring a "white elephant" from home to sell or come prepared to offer a service. Each member auctions off his or her item/service. This raises money for the club, as well as serving as a fun table topics session.

Norma Whetzel back to top back to Resources home page

Check the Catalog Edit

Toastmasters has table topics materials in the catalog, including 2 sets of questions/materials for table topics. You might want to check it out.

Norma Whetzel back to top back to Resources home page

That's not my Birthplace! Edit

If there are people in your club born in different areas (and/or different countries), try this: "What do people think they know about your birthplace that isn't true?"

Dan Goodman back to top back to Resources home page

Time Traveler Edit

"Suppose you could go back in time and talk to yourself at the age of ten. What advice would you give yourself?"

Dan Goodman back to top back to Resources home page

Editorial Opinions Edit

Read a paragraph from different letters to the editor of your local paper and have the members respond with their opinions.

We have a theme for each of our meetings, so one technique is simply to start thinking about the theme as soon as you arrive at the meeting.

Introduce Me Edit

We had been having trouble doing proper introductions of speakers: they were getting so boring.

So I asked the Table Topics Master to make up enough topics for the entire club and write each one on a card. I did an educational session on introductions and had each person write information about herself on a card. Then the Table Topics Master handed out her table topics, and each person passed her card with her bio information to the person on her right. Then, in turn, each person introduced the person to her left and her table topic, using the cards.

Everyone got a turn to give a table topic and to introduce another person.

(WordSupply) back to top back to Resources home page

Twenty Questions Edit

I ran a twenty-questions table topics session on Monday. Went down really well. I chose five "answers" - A Pen, A cellular telephone, Encyclopaedia Britannica, a computer, Information Technology.

I put each answer into a separate envelope marked 1 to 5.

I asked the first speaker to open his envelope.

Then we played 20 questions.

When the meeting guessed the answer in the envelope, the speaker had to give an impromptu on the topic.

The topic was thematic, in that Information Technology is the concept that ties the four previous items together.

How to play 20 questions:

Elect a questionmaster (the TT master) The Questionmaster (QM) has in his/her mind, a word or more than one word. The QM tells the meeting how many words are in his mind. Also tells meeting whether it's animal, vegetable or mineral or abstract, and if the words contain the definite or indefnite article. The meeting may confer with each other, and ask questions of the QM. The QM only answers yes or no. The meeting has 20 questions to guess the object. Example:

The pen: mineral, two words, contains the definite article.

Encylopaedia Britannica: two words, abstract or vegetable and mineral. (the paper is vegetable, the ink, mineral).

Information Technology: Abstract, two words.

Erich Viedge back to top back to Resources home page

Fortune Cookies Edit

A couple of ideas we've tried in our club which went over quite well.

The Tabletopics master has each participant pick out a fortune cookie out of a jar, and provide an impromptu response on the fortune they selected.

What's my Definition? Edit

The Tabletopics master provides each participant with a very obscure (but actual) word from the dictionary, and the participant comes up with a convincing definition.

Win, Lose or Draw Edit

Another Table Topic approach I like is a variation of Win, Lose, or Draw.

Write a down a thing, idea, phrase, or whatever for each of your table topics questions. Call up one person, show them the thing and give them one minute (or less) to try to draw something that represents that thing.

Then call a second person to speak for 1 to 2 minutes on what was drawn (they don't know what the thing you wrote down was).

If you wish you can have the audience guess what the thing was. This is a fun way to add a twist on to Table Topics.

Victor Peters Terrapin Toastmasters

Show Appreciation Edit

Our club meets at a nursing home that does not charge us anything for the room rental. To show our appreciation to the nursing home, we occasionally collect money from our members for a donation. For example, last Christmas season, the club held two "auctions". Members brought in an item from home - baked goods, small toys, handcrafted gifts, or whatever - and as part of table topics each member who brought things gave a pitch for their item. Then other members bid on the items and the money collected was donated to the nursing home.

This was a great way to collect money and show our appreciation - and it was gave a fun twist to a couple of meetings.

Nancie Ryan Business Oriented Toastmasters back to top back to Resources home page

Group Story Edit

We had a situation today where the Topicmaster didn't show. I suggested we try a group story.We started at one end of the room and progressed to the other end. It was a lot of fun. If you ever get stuck, give it a try.

Rick Davis ATM Cincinnati NIOSH Toastmasters back to top back to Resources home page

Zen and the Art of Table Topics Edit

The Topics Master at our last meeting introduced some Zen-like topics, i.e. What is the difference between a stream, a creek and a river? Why is the deer on the deer-crossing sign along the highway always facing left? (And the all-time favorite) What is the significance of life? Why are we here? Our club had great fun with these.

Sillamint back to top back to Resources home page

Grab Box Edit

My club has recently done a few unique table topics, and here they are.

The first one came from the Toastmaster Magazine. A member brought in a box of about 15 items. When each person was called on to do their topic, they chose an item, and gave their topic about the item.

How's Your Sales Technique? Edit

One of our newer members came up with a really fun idea. She started by telling us she was in charge of Marketing at a new corporation, and was hiring sales people. She asked everyone called upon to demonstrate their sales techniques, and 'sell' the product to the audience. She then handed them an envelope with an item in it. A few of the items were a pocket knife, a needle threader, and a 'Great Job' pin.

Techniques for Table Topics Edit

At another meeting, we tied the table topic in with the educational program. The educational program was about how to answer table topics by either rewording the question, not answering the question but asking your own, or taking the opposite side than you were asked. Each person who did table topics after this portion had to do one of the above. It was a great learning experience for everyone, and opened our eyes to new ways of answering table topics.

Sharon Last Word Toastmasters back to top back to Resources home page

Word Play Edit

Write words on small pieces of paper. Have each speaker pick four pieces of paper and make up a story using all 4 words. (You can also require using the "word of the day".) Variations of the word are ok (If the word is "microscope", then "microscopic" may be used in the strory).

Dave Schneider back to top back to Resources home page

Food Ideas Edit

Most memorable meal

Favorite food

Least favorite food

Strangest food ever eaten

Worst meal

Strangest place ever eaten

Make those Introductions Edit

Spend a minute or so reviewing basic introductions. Then bring up each speaker and have them pull an object out of a bag, and have them introduce what they have extracted. (Vegetables work well. "It's MR. CARROT. Please introduce Mr. Carrot as our next speaker." Not only do people get practice with introductions, but they get to take home a part of a salad.)

Gesturing Edit

One person speaks and another stands next to the speaker and performs all gestures. Working on street repair. The joy of dancing. Wrestling a bear at the State Fair. Demonstrating Tupperware. Rock Climbing.

Would you live here? Edit

Discuss a weird place to live and defend the place as a nice place to live.

Next to a nuclear power plant.

In a swamp.

Bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Top of the Matterhorn.

Use questions only while telling a story Edit

Describe your first job interview.

Your best vacation.

The three little pigs.

Goldilocks and the three bears.

Washington crossing the Delaware.

Alphabet soup Edit

Start each sentence with a word that begins with a specific letter (first "a", then "b", etc.), then next person says sentence with next letter. Apples are my favorite fruit. Bananas are better. Can you believe what we are talking about? Don't you think it would be better if we spoke about Politics?

Truth or Dare Edit

Everyone writes down a secret about themselves that no one knows about. Each speaker takes one of the notes, reads it, and states who they think wrote the note and why.

Archaeology for beginners Edit

Put everyday stuff into a bag and let each speaker select an item to discuss. However, the year is 2525 and the speaker is an archeologist. They will explain their opinion as to what the item was back in the 20th. century and how it was used.

Miss this movie Edit

The speaker picks a really bad movie they have seen. They then must persuade the audience to see it.

I had lunch with Queen Elizabeth Edit

Each speaker tells about a time (real or imagined, but preferably real) when they ran into a celebrity.

Dr Phil and Oprah Edit

Check out the TV listings to see what the current topics are on OPRAH or PHIL. Each speaker discusses the topic.

Magazine pictures Edit

Interesting pictures are selected from magazines. Each speaker picks one at random and discusses what is going on in the picture. eg. A man is sitting at a desk reading, while another person is looking out the window.

Variation #1: Have the volunteer explain why this person would be a good candidate for a toastmasters member and how they would go about convincing them to join.

Variation #2: Choose pictures of plates of food and have member explain why it's their favorite meal of all time.

Fortune Cookies Edit

Each speaker picks a cookie, reads the message, and discusses how it applies to them.

Weekly world news Edit

Take interesting articles from the weekly tabloids (Weekly World News is especially good). Each speaker is required to discuss and/or defend and/or explain the amazing things reported (Man finds green glob in closet. and it eats his dog)!

You won't believe this, but Edit

Each speaker is required to tell an amazing story about themselves. The members then vote for each speaker as having told the truth or not. The speaker who fooled the most people either way, wins topics.

What have you done this time? Edit

Bring a camcorder to the meeting and pick members at random. Have each stand up, and, under the glare of the camera lights, grill the member about the "terrible" thing he or she did. Interview each member for 1 minute, then play back the tape.

The world's best job Edit

Have each member write down on a piece of paper, the job that they would consider the best job in the world for them. Then pass the papers to the person on the left. Call on members to stand and explain why the job on the paper in front of them is the best job in the world. Or the worst

The perfect education Edit

List a number of educational classes on a board. Each speaker picks one of the classes and explains why that class is the most important class to take to round out an education. Once used, the class is "removed" from the board.

Awards Edit

Make a list of "accomplishments" (best underwater basketweaver, best nuclear power plant designer, best TV remote control switcher, etc.) and print them on pieces of paper. A speaker selects the award and must "award" it to another member. That member must get up and "accept" the award.

TV commercial Edit

Collect some products off the grocery shelf or hardware store. Each TT speaker selects one of the items out of a bag and has to do a TV commercial on that product.

Instant toast Edit

We're all toastmasters. Select an appropriate setting for each speaker, then let them make an appropriate toast for the occasion. eg. You're at your high school reunion. You are asked to give a toast to one of your favorite teachers who is now deceased. You are at a political meeting in town. A visiting US Senator from your party is at the meeting and you are asked to make a toast to the Senator. Your next door neighbors are celebrating their 25th Wedding Anniversary. You are asked to make a toast to them.

The Impromptu Murders Edit

Each person would be given one line and would have to weave a story from it. Here are a dozen different story lines to use:

It was a dark and stormy night as lightning flashed through the window pane.

When the guests heard the noise they stumbled down the hallway only to discover.

The police arrived and asked everyone to.

Fearing for my own safety I told the Police, "I couldn't have done it because I. "

Seeing that now was the right time, the butler stepped forward and declared.

Old Mrs. Marple didn't think anyone knew about her relationship with the deceased. * I then stood up and told the group.

Gasping for breath and holding her throat, the maid stumbled into the drawing room.

It was then that the front door burst open and who should step in but.

"No!", I cried. "It was I who did it, for you see the dead man was my. "

Surprising everyone, the dead man picked himself up off of the floor, looked around at the gathering and said.

Just when all had felt the mystery solved, the light went out.

The policeman then stepped forward and announced to the guests, with a big smile on his face.

Famous Valentines Edit

The meeting closest to Valentines Day: The Topics Master brought red carnations. Pairs of people were asked to participate instead of individuals. The first man was asked to play the role of Ceasar and give the carnation to 'Cleopatra' along with a suitable declaration of love. 'Cleopatra' then had to reciprocate and present a carnation to him. Other pairs were 3rd graders who constantly tormented each other, but secretly liked each other. A couple just celebrating their 50th valentines day together, a father to his very young daughter, etc. Dave Schneider

Campfire stories Edit

Another meeting, the Topics Master asked everyone to sit on the floor in the center of the room, or on chairs brought to the center. All the lights were turned off and a flashlight was used to simulate a campfire. The Topics Master gave the titles and particpants told campfire stories. Dave Schneider

Close this! Edit

Presumably to get practice at closings, participants were asked to give the closing of a speech, briefly described by the Topics Master. Dave Schneider

We had an interesting time with a table topic based on those little round disks called "POGS". I picked out several of them with distinctive pictures, and said that each participant would be from a planet or country with a distinctive coinage. They were to tell us the story about why that particular image was inscribed on the coin. ( ie. famous character in history, notable landmark, etc.) Dave Schneider

Deal with it Edit

We usually tie our table topics to the evening's theme. Last week our clubs theme was "Dealing with it." I pasted situations on the back of playing cards which ended with the phrase "Deal with it." For example: You enter a room and reach in to turn on the light switch. Suddenly your arm is grabbed by a six fingered furry hand which you realize isn't human. Deal with it. Dave Schneider

The X Files Edit

This week our theme was the "X Files" We had to discuss a scenario which was "bizzare"

For example: God has an infomercial on channel one.

Instant Art Critic Edit

Once I gave each person a sheet of paper on which children had drawn weird pictures. Toastmasters were One Minute Art Critics and had to discuss the significance of the work.

Bag of Pennies Edit

One of our good Table Topics was bringing in a bag of pennies and you had to talk about something that happened in the year that was stamped on the penny, or something you were doing during that year. Lots of fun.

Jeopardy Edit

Make a display board with pockets representing the money categories for a jeopardy game. Label each pocket with the money value ie, $100, $200, $300. In each pocket place a table topics question. At the top of the category place a general theme for the column. All participants are "winners". Award them each with a mini $100,000 candy bar.

Noah's Ark Edit

Noah is trying to pick the animal that will take the last two seats on the ark. Pick an animal from a bag and without identifying the animal to the group, try to convince the Table Topics Master (ie. "NOAH") that you - and your spouse - deserve the last two spots. Some suggested animals:

bear

armadillo

mouse

hippopatamus

rattlesnake

sloth

kangaroo

orangutan

Roving Reporter Edit

The table topics master can act as a news anchor calling on toastmasters who act as on-the-spot reporters or as the man-on-the-street reacting to a news item. This is fun if you look for strange headlines or morph some normal ones. For instance, Toastmaster John Doe, you are on the spot at Interstate XYZ where a tractor trailor truck full of quarters has just overturned and is spilling out onto the highway. Give us your eye-witness report.

A variation would be to pick historical or catastrophic events from the past or even potential future events and get their reactions and eye-witness reports to these.

Hopes & Dreams Edit

Volunteers talk about a specific resolution they had made last year. What resolutions did you make last year and did you follow through on them ? What will resolutions will you make this year ?

What Were You Doing When. Edit

Ask volunteers to talk about what their lives and what they were doing when a significant historical event happened. Some examples:

What were you doing when John F. Kennedy was shot ?

What were you doing when the first man walked on the moon ?

What were you doing during 9/11 ?

What were you doing during when the worst natural disaster you've experienced hit?

Buy My Product Edit

Volunteers to come up to the podium and randomly pick a product out of a paper back or look at a picture of a product that has been cut out and mounted on a card. Ask them to introduce it as a new product that they are bringing to the market place. Explain why the audience will want to purchase it.

One Table Topics Master brought in a bag of chocolate bars that had been re-labeled with new names. Club members had a great time creating marketing spiels for their "new product" and got a treat to take home with them afterwards. There was no lack of volunteers!

Thought-provoking Questions Edit

Ask thought-provoking questions.

Think back to your childhood.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Who was the person that had the most impact on your life?

Who was the most important person in our life?

Or consider history.

Who was the most important person in history?

What figure in history has made the most significant contribution to mankind?

I want that Parachute ! Edit

You are in a plane that is struggling with engine trouble and it's obvious that it's about to go down. Unfortunately, there is only one parachute on board. Your task is to convince the other passengers to give you the parachute. Good luck—there may be some very famous or important people on board.

41.246.219.193 11:56, 17 February 2009 (UTC)Jasper

That's my job Edit

What are essential qualities you need for a certain job position? Explain what they are and tell us why it's the perfect job for you.

Some example jobs:

Spokesperson of an important political party

Taxi Driver

Being in Charge of a Tender Board in a government department

Commercial Pilot

Trolley Car Operator

Stewardess

Cashier at Walmart

(Variation: If you really want some fun, think of really weird, off-the-wall jobs titles.)

Ruler of the World Edit

Humans are not the only species on our planet. Why shouldn't another species become dominant and rule the world? Explain why the following animals should be the next world rulers.

Charity Ball Edit

Last night you met a famous person at a charity ball. Describe your first meeting (imaginary) with someone famous:

a sports figure

Bill Gates

Charlie Chaplin

Garfield

Isaac Newton

Spiderman

Albert Einstein

Michael Jackson

Mike Tyson

Ronald Reagan

Plausible Explanation Edit

Ask volunteers to come up and give plausible explanations and definitions for the meaning of odd-sounding words. Some examples: gound, twee, ort, absquatulate, Floccinaucinihilipilification, pandiculation, jillick, bogglybigglyboo, bumpf, eesome.

Philosophy of Life Edit

Give volunteers the name of a cartoon character and then ask them to tell you about their philosophy of life.

Nobel Prize Edit

As volunteers to explain why they should win the Nobel prize for . patience, sense of humor, creativity, innovative thinking, tap dancing, window washing, parenthood, courage, genius IQ, serenity, magnetic personality, leadership skills, calm in a crisis, witty retorts / pickup lines, speechwriting, etc.

That's News to Me Edit

Pick your favorite historical character and pretend that you are him/her come back to life and talk about how you feel about modern times or some recent news headline.

Magical Moments Edit

There was a huge flash of light and a crashing sound in the backyard. When you went to investigate, you find a very hot piece of multi-colored stone in a small crater . after it cools down, you put it in your pocket and as you carry it around with you, you discover that it gives you magical powers. Describe how you came to realize that you suddenly could . see through solid objects, walk through walls, become invisible, leap fantastic distances, make things disappear, run faster than a locomotive, hear what animals are thinking, make things levitate, wish yourself to specific locations, freeze everyone with a snap of your fingers, see into the future, make anyone tell the truth.

My Best Seller Edit

Have volunteers draw out different Book titles and talk about the book they have just written and which is coming out in print tomorrow. Some examples of some book genres and possible titles:

Romance - Love in the afternoon and evening

Self-Help - Ten easy ways to get rich

Home and Garden: Quick recipes for people who can't cook

Fix-it: How to do darn near anything

The best places to shop

Horror: The thing that crawled out of my bathtub

Mystery: Did the dryer really eat my socks ?

Children's Classic: The little red BMW

Fiction: The richest man in babylon

Animal Stories: 101 Gerbils

Encyclopedia: Grafitti

Poetry: By Humphrey Bogart

Funky Fortune Edit

Your great uncle that you didn't even know existed died and is leaving his entire multi-million-dollar estate to the family member heir that convinces the executor of his estate that they would be the most appropriate guardian for his beloved . pet gorilla, giraffe, porcupine, 20 ft pink flamingo statue, green 1977 volkswagen with pink polka dots, alien wax museum, collection of top hats, church steeples, collection of liberty bell replicas, vacation home in Siberia, his stuffed bat collection.

A Day In the Life. Edit

Imagine that you are anyone you like!

Imagine that you are the family pet. Describe yourself and/or your family on a typical day. Try one of these: Parakeet, cat, dog, chicken, lizard, snake, pot-bellied pig, bullfrog, turtle, horse, goat, ferret, mice, hamster.

Occupations e.g. Ice-cream man, baby, your boss, your enemy

Crisis Line Edit

You work for a crisis line. What advice would you give to the person who called with the following question? (Think of a variety of questions that caller's might ask - choose a mix of serious and funny questions for variety.)

Speak your Mind Edit

You are about to take a trip and they overbooked the flight and have to bump you on a another one. So as a courtesy to make up for it, the airline upgrades your ticket to first class. You get on the airplane and find yourself seated, cocktail in hand, next to a famous person with the perfect opportunity to speak your mind. What would you say ?

Bill Gates

Bill Clinton

Madonna

Mike Tyson

Alec Baldwin

Saddam Hussein

Alan Greenspan

Teddy Kennedy

Sandra Day O'Connor

Tony Blair

Prince Charles

Martha Stewart

Bart Simpson

George W. Bush.

Fidel Castro

Ariel Sharon

Osama bin Laden

Amazing Stories Edit

Have speaker tell an amazing story about themselves. Members then vote on whether or not each speaker has told the truth or not. The speaker who fooled the most people either way, wins.

Fun and Questions Edit

Give volunteers some unusual tasks. Some examples:

You just got stopped for speeding. See if you can talk your way out of a ticket..

Explain why frog jumping should be an Olympic sport.

Mystery Edit

Announce that one of the members has had jewelry stolen from the second floor bedroom of their mansion. Call the first participant and give them a role to play. Ask each to defend themselves and then draw a role for the next person and call someone else up at random.

The gardener

The butler

The TV Repairman

The housekeeper

The plumber

The pizza delivery boy/girl

The night watchman

The visiting professor

The mother-in-law

Dual Role Play Edit

Call two volunteers up to the lectern at once and assign them each a different role. Then give them an imaginary situation and have them pretend to have a telephone conversation about it. For example, one person can be a school principal and the other a parent calling about a child's bad grade.

Have the each participant call up a replacement for themselves for the next role play.

essay writing service cheapest Edit

Provide a list of funny "world records" and have each volunteer draw one and explain how they came to be the world record holder in this area.

Murder She Wrote Edit

Provide a very general description of a murder and have participants explain how they committed it without getting caught.

Life-changing Experiences Edit

Explain that Toastmasters can have a major impact on a person's life. Ask each participant an interview question about this participation in Toastmasters. For example:

Toastmaster A, why have you remained a member for 32 years ?

Toastmaster B, what do you like best about Toastmasters ?

Toastmaster C, tells us about your worst speaking experience ?

Toastmaster D, tell us how Toastmaster's has benefitted you in your job ?

Toastmaster E, tell us why you visited your first Toastmaster's meeting and why you joined it afterwards?

Embarrassing Situations Edit

Provide a list of embarrassing situations and have volunteers draw one and explain how they would handle it.

A Little Word Fun Edit

List four random, unrelated and very different WORDS on each slip of paper and then ask participants to draw one slip of paper and tell a story using the four words they chose.

Unusual Phrases Edit

I used the following four unsual phrases and asked the Talkers to incorporate tem into their speech.

It was on the third day that the heat became so intense that the camels were suffering from heat exhaustion.

If I knew beforehand it was going to rain so heavily I would never have bothered.

It didn't matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get all the monkeys off the bus.

I just could not understand why there was a Chinese man on the roof.

Would you work with a Saxophonist or a Violinist? Edit

Your company has expanded and your boss wants to hire an additional person to do exactly your job, alongside you. Three resumes show exactly the same level of qualification; all are amateur musicians. They differ only in their chosen musical instrument:

one plays Violin

one plays Saxophone

one sings

Which one is best suited to do your job?

Charade Edit

Have folks play a game of silence charade in the Table Topics round in the spirit of working on gestures and facial communication. Put together a list of 20-25 words. Give each person 5 words. The time to get through a stack of 5 words can be from 30secs to 2mins. Have the rest of the club try to guess the word. Use words such as: baseball, dribble, swim, confusion, happy, surprise, phone, etc.

Toastmasters Funniest Home Videos Edit

Have Toastmasters come up and tell about their funniest or most embarrassing moment as if they were describing an America's Funniest Home Video clip.

Book of quotes Edit

Each participants selects a number between 1 and 339 and that is a page in the book "Don't Forget to Sing in the Lifeboats" by Kathry and Ross Petras, a collection of intersting quotes. Works with many other books of lists as well.

Save unused table topics questions for emergencies Edit

After the meeting, if there are questions the topic master prepared but didn't use, the secretary or Sergeant at Arms of the club can collect them and save them for emergency situations when the assigned topicmaster is unavailable. For this to work the questions must be complete enough to be used as is.

Debate Edit

Two speakers are called out simultaneously and they have to decide among themselves, to take opposing stands on one topic given. It's advised to first give around a minute to both sides to present their points, followed by 30 second rebuttals. (Lesser time per rebuttal if more rebuttals wanted) Who goes first can be decided the TT Master or from a flip of coin. The TTM should take care to be sensitive on choice of topic so that there's equal speaking room on both sides of the argument. And the debate shouldn't descend to chaos or get personal or too polarized or rhetorical. But hey, this is just a table topics round!

In voting for the best speakers, it may be decided to vote for the individual speakers, or for the pairs that spoke.

One idea to prevent conflict or hard feelings between the opposing speakers is to make them switch sides in their closing statements and point out where they agreed with the opposite person ;)

Turncoat Edit

In this round, one speaker debates with himself/herself. A topic is given, and the speaker has to adopt one side of the argument. At a certain time or at the whim of the TTM, the speaker must immediately switch sides. A bell or other such sound device may be used. This can be very entertaining if the speaker is able to effectively change sides mid-sentence. This round isn't advised for novices, however!

Typically, a minute of unhindered speaking could be allowed at start to allow the speaker to get into the topic, and the time after that may be thrown open to turncoats as per the TTM. Alternately, time could be given at the end for the speaker to sum up and take a final stance without being pinged by the TTM.

Word Jumble Edit

Instead of full-fledged topics, the TTM can keep several chits having a simple word each. The table topics speaker has to choose 2, or more (speaker's choice, or TTM decides) chits, and give a table topic speech that involves these words. We can have Challenge slots wherein an advanced speaker may be invited to take up 4 or more chits and string a speech from the disparate words.

This round involves very little brainwork on the part of the TTM, so highly rated as a face-saver for a hastily assigned TTM role!

Candidate For office Edit

The TTM tells the group; "You are campaigning for a new office. Tell us your position on the relevant key issues, and why we should vote for you. Also provide us with your campaign slogan." Some sample offices are:

Mayor of Whoville

Foreign Minister to the Animal Kingdom

Planning Committee Member for Procrastinators International

Student Body Treasurer at Beverly Hills High School

Bored Supervisor for the Inanely Mundane Club

Chief Bottle Washer

President of the Society of Disinterested Youth

Vice-President of the committee to Eliminate Presidential Vice

Chairman of the Anarchists International sub-Committee for Establishing Organizational Rules and By-laws.

Murder Mystery with a Twist Edit

The TTM tells the group that a Mr. John Doe attended last week's meeting, but because his suit was the same color as the wall, nobody noticed him for 2 hours. Mr. John Doe was murdered immediately after the meeting and every Toastmaster except for the TTM is a suspect. All of the Crown's (or State's) evidence is based on the what the Toastmaster did at the previous meeting and they have to stand up and explain the evidence, confess or throw someone else under the bus. At the end of Table Topics, members vote for the best speaker and who they think the murderer is. For example:

The humorist's joke was so funny, the coroner says that he may have died laughing.

The grammarian's word of day was so difficult, Mr. Doe may have died of a twisted tongue.

Somebody took a photograph or used a cell phone during the meeting and Mr. Doe's pacemaker malfunctioned.

The timer turned the lights on and off so many times, it triggered an epileptic fit.

Mr. Doe may have died of the shame of not being noticed by anyone and it was the duty of the VP of Membership to greet and welcome all visitors.

Mr. Doe may have died because a speech topic was so upsetting.

The TTM can make up additional stories about members that were absent the previous week.

Charles Kennedy - Rose City Toastmasters

The Toasty Awards Edit

This Table Topics can become a popular annual event around Oscar time. I bought a cheap microphone at the dollar store and put on a polyester leisure suit from the Goodwill store and transformed myself into Chuck Winkandnod, interviewer of the stars. I pretended I was on the red carpet at the Toasty awards honoring the talented Toastmasters that were starring in the latest Hollywood blockbusters. Before the meeting, I asked a fellow member to take a picture with a flash every time I said the phrase "The paparazzi are going nuts". As each member is called to the front, I make up a tabloid story about them being romantically linked to an actor or actress in the news e.g. TMZ recently showed a video of you canoodling with Sandra Bullock at the back of a restaurant. Before the member can talk about the rumour, I ask them to talk about their latest project. What kind of movie is it, who are the co-stars, was the film violent or controversial, etc.

Charles Kennedy - Rose City Toastmasters

The Lost Art of Complaining Edit

After being a Toastmaster for a while and giving evaluations with tons of positive feedback, we become conditioned to sound encouraging and supportive which is great, BUT we lose a very important skill along the way. It is complaining!

For this Table Topics session we will revitalize our ability to effectively complain!

Pick a number 1 – 10 for your topic to complain about.

Note: Listening to people complain about things is quite entertaining and should bring some laughs!

1. A spider crawls across your living room floor.

2. You find a $20 bill at the grocery store.

3. You are waiting in line to get gas.

4. You get a blender for your birthday.

5. While waiting in line at Starbucks, a child takes the last 3 sample brownies.

6. You find a scratch on your car.

7. Someone cuts you off while driving.

8. The seat is left up on the toilet.

9. Your boss gives you a new project.

10. Someone spreads a rumor that you are insensitive.

John Bridge, DTM, TM2 T-Mobile Toastmasters #5137, Bellevue, WA.

S Sales Topics

Pick Random objects and have someone sell it. This one was inspired by The Wolf of Wall Street in the scene where he said sell me this pen. You can have them talk about colors, options, varieties and how it can be used. The whole object of sales is to get people out of their comfort zone, and this will certainly do that.

Pen, Car, Table, Couch, Pot, Computer, Watch, Flower, Television, Shampoo

example: Pen - This pen will certainly be of great use to you for signing any of your important documents and should be in your pocket or pocketbook. It can come with red, blue, black or even green ink, yes even green ink! We have many different models that can come in a wide variety of colors and even finishes. It can be dull, chrome, steel, black, red or any color option we can think of. I was at the bank yesterday making a deposit (I love deposits) and I realized I had no pen to sign my deposits, that's never a good situation to be in. I definitely could have used this lovely pen that I'm sharing with all of you today. Everybody needs a good pen and this one certainly can fit that bill for all of you here today.

You get the idea I think

Matt Victoria, Toastmasters club #6847, Edison, NJ.

[ultimatepsychguide]

Psych 1X08: Shawn vs. The Red Phantom (Guide)

(00:11)

SHAWN: Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than…

-Shawn is referring to “The Adventures of Superman,” as this was the introduction.

(03:34)

SHAWN: (reads notepad) Flower doodle in the upper right-hand corner is excellent. This horse at the bottom doesn’t look anything like My Little Pony.

-My Little Pony is an entertainment franchise, originally created as a toy line for girls.

(03:59)

JULIET: I’m not sure yet. His name is Malone Breyfogle.

-There are multiple characters in this episode that are based off of characters in comic books. Malone is Matches Malone, a mob boss once impersonated by Batman. Breyfogle is Norm Breyfogle, an artist who worked on several Batman projects.

(05:05)

SHAWN: Who are you kidding right now? I pulled you out of a Starbucks.

-Starbucks is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain.

(07:51)

SHAWN: This mattress. It feels like one of those mattresses where you can bounce a bowling ball, but the glass of wine doesn’t spill. Gus, go find a glass of wine and a bowling ball.

-Shawn is referring to the Tempur-Pedic mattresses. They ran commercials testing this theory.

(08:49)

GUS: How does some 18-year-old kid still living at home make that kind of money? SHAWN: Lemonade stand? That is, if instead of lemons, he’s using heroin.

-It is a popular American tradition that kids would start a lemonade stand to start learning the basics of business and economics.

(09:38)

SHAWN: I see. Okay. Okay, I’ll bite. (leans against the car and crosses his arms) Where is he, Chocolate Columbo?

-Gus’s Nickname! Episode: 1 Season: 4 Series: 4

-Columbo is an American television show about a homicide detective.

(11:18)

GUS: We can’t just walk into the con. SHAWN: I’m sorry, “the con”? GUS: Yeah. SHAWN: You’re calling a place filled with overweight teenagers battling mild cases of scoliosis and advanced bed-wetting “the con”?

-The con is an abbreviated version of the word convention. There are many conventions around the world that host a variety of topics, the most popular being comics. Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine has a sideways curve.

(11:55)

MAN: We can’t risk alienating the Star Trek fans.

-Star Trek is a very popular science fiction media franchise, involving the original tv show as well as the movies, old and new.

(12:05)

SHAWN: We work for George. Takai? SECURITY: You mean Takei? SHAWN: Yeah. Those closest to him know exactly how he likes it pronounced, okay? You think you can have a convention without Commander Chekov? GUS: (whispers) Sulu, jackass.

-George Takei is a popular American actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek. Shawn mistakes him for Pavel Chekov, who is also in Star Trek.

(13:02)

SHAWN: Now for the love of Scotty…

-Scotty is another character in the Star Trek series. He has a common catchphrase associated with him, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

(13:28)

SHAWN: Dude, some guy in a wolf costume with a light saber just said hi to you.

-Shawn is referencing Star Wars: A New Hope.

(13:45)

WOMAN: Hey, guys. I’m Talia. This is Dent.

-The name Talia is a reference to Talia al-Ghul, an anti-hero within the DC comics, and Dent is a reference to Harvey Dent, commonly known as Two-Face is a supervillian to Batman.

(14:16)

GUS: Fortress of Attitude. SHAWN: What did you just say to me? GUS: Fortress of Attitude. It’s this site that reviews movies based on comic books.

-The name of this site is an allusion to the Fortress of Solitude from Superman lore.

(15:04)

GUS: That’s Hiltz Kooler.

-Hiltz Kooler, this is a reference to the character of Hilts, “The Cooler King” in The Great Escape.

(15:37)

SHAWN: Wait, wait, wait. Is this the movie you dragged me to where the hero had big nipples on the outside of his costume? KOOLER: Damn those nipples.

-In Batman and Robin, this rendition of the batsuit had nipples. There was much criticism about them.

(16:26)

COORDINATOR: Who’s this? The crowd clamors. SHAWN: This is my sidekick, Magic Head.

-Gus’s Nickname! Episode: 2 Season: 5 Series: 5

-This one is throughout this entire episode, this is the only time I am going to mention it on this guide.

(16:34)

MAN: You’re a psychic? Like Professor X? GUS: Professor X is a telepath, not a psychic.

-Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, is a main character within the X-Men series, comic books and movies alike.

(19:10)

-Guest Star! George Takei as himself!

(19:30)

SHAWN: You hired us personally. We met you in Chicago at a screening of that movie with the whales. GUS: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

-Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

(20:21)

SHAWN: This place is trashed. GUS: Maybe Johnny Depp stopped by. (laughs at own joke as walks around room) SHAWN: I’m sorry, did that joke just arrive in a time machine from 1992? GUS: He used to trash hotel rooms. SHAWN: Used to. The man has kids now. He lives in France. GUS: You got a better version? SHAWN: Of course I do. How about that lame-o who’s dating Kate Moss? GUS: He’s British and nobody knows who he is. SHAWN: Okay, fine. Too inside. Stephen Dorff. Always solid.

-Johnny Depp is a popular actor, who is most known for Pirates of the Caribbean. Kate Moss is an English model and businesswoman. She was dating Pete Doherty at the time, but they eventually split up. Stephen Dorff is an American actor. All 3 victims of Shawn and Gus’s jokes were known to either trash rooms or do things of that nature.

(21:30)

SHAWN: Oooh. Keith Moon.

-Keith Moon was an English drummer for the rock band, The Who.

(22:58)

SHAWN: (raises hand) Hi. Missing kid, worried mom. Can we focus here? GUS: Since when did you get so structured? SHAWN: Since you turned into Urkel (stammers) and you just became (stammers) Jan Brady… GUS: Wow. SHAWN: Tina Yothers… There’s… There’s not an exact match for that.

-Urkel is a popular character on the TV show, Family Matters, being known for his stammering and awkward interactions. Jan Brady is the middle child on The Brady Bunch, being known for her jealousy of her older sister and her insecurity about have freckles and glasses. Tina Yothers is best known for her role as Jennifer Keaton on Family Ties. 

(24:00)

LASSITER: It’s leather. I didn’t Scotchguard it!

-Scotchgard is a brand of stain and water repellents.

(24:29)

SHAWN: Look, dude, I got a date with that Talia girl from the studio in, like, an hour. A nice romantic walk on the beach to Jim’s. Best scungilli in Santa Barbara.

-Scungilli, also known as Whelk, is a kind of sea snail.

(25:41)

SHAWN: Okay, then you and I need to create a third imaginary assistant that’s completely incompetent. I think her name should be Beatrice. What say you?

-Shawn is referencing the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice is a character.

(28:13)

SHAWN: Bad news, he just became a face on a milk carton.

-It was popular to show the face of a kidnapped child on a milk carton to make sure the public is aware and on the lookout.

(28:35)

PINEAPPLE SIGHTING!

-If you look for a while, the woman walking behind Shawn and Gus has a Pineapple bag.

(29:38)

SHAWN: No, this is messed up. (picks at pastry) This isn’t a churro. This is… I don’t know what this is.

-Originating in Spain and Portugal, churros are a sweet pastry.

(32:00) There is a strange noise here that is similar to the sound the Whale Probe makes in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

(32:15)

SHAWN: Judgment day? It sounds bad. That’s, like, the day that you’re judged. GUS: In T2 it was the end of mankind. (opens comic) Though I doubt our kidnapper has first-strike nuclear capabilities.

-T2: Judgment Day is the second movie in the Terminator series. They are science fiction action movies.

(32:35)

GUS: You don’t know where those have been. They could have bird flu on them or something. SHAWN: Bird flu. Wow. Look at you. How can you read a comic book at a time like this?

-Avian Influenza is a variety of influenza caused by viruses attaching to birds.

(33:00)

GUS: Why don’t you ask your friend, George Takei? SHAWN: I would. But once he starts singing Afternoon Delight, he just goes to another place.

-Afternoon Delight is a hit song known for its close harmony and sexually suggestive wordplay.

(40:27)

SHAWN: You know what, guys, this is weird, I’m not getting anything. I think one of these babies might be evil, blocking my abilities to communicate. Damien?

-Shawn is referring to Damien Thorn, a main protagonist in The Omen series.

(40:45)

SHAWN: No, don’t be ridiculous. You need to go home with your child. Relax. Take a load off. Refresh yourself. January, I think January. Come back in January.

-This episode was the mid-season finale, so this is a hint that Psych won’t be back on until January.