ghostofasecretary

[ghostofasecretary]

Chicago, 1941 ph. Charles Cushman

[ghostofasecretary]

TIL the reason you don’t find much Lyme’s Disease in California is not because we don’t have Ticks, or Lyme Disease Vectors; but rather: because the Western Fence Lizard (if you live anywhere in California this is your regular Garden Variety Lizard) has adapted a passive immune response that makes their blood lethal to Lyme Disease Bacteria. Any Tick that feeds on one gets its gut cleansed of Lyme Disease as a side effect.

Fucking neat.

[ghostofasecretary]

[ghostofasecretary]

obviously everything happening in the us is horrific but (like everything in trump's traveling carnival of government) it's mostly exceptional in now slapdash and clownish the cruelty is. let us please not forget that the EU has been paying foreign governments to torture and murder asylum seekers for years -- and australia's been doing the 'sending refugees to unaccountable offshore camps' thing for more than two decades. & like i say this not to detract from the justified fury and outrage for the situation in the usa but to urge everyone to analyse it not as some bizarre abberation but as something that fits alongside a long list of policies long pursued by the usa and other imperial core nations

[ghostofasecretary]

every now and then I make a post about food safety and someone says "[other food company] would NEVER" and then I look them up and they sell products containing a fuckload of lead

[ghostofasecretary]

Is there a food you don't like that is considered very popular?

[ghostofasecretary]

A Pair of Victorian Reverse Painted Crystal Intaglio Earrings, 1870

[ghostofasecretary]

thanks for the comments and asks saying i'm being mean for very mildly saying i don't like when people make social decisions based on horoscopes.

your behavior has made me realize i should be "meaner": horoscopes are fake.

the position of planets and balls of gas did not in any way impact your personality or destiny. it has nothing to do with what kind of people you are compatible with, despite what an app or magazine told you.

i think sincere belief in horoscopes shows a concerning propensity to trust pseudoscience and a susceptibility to confirmation bias.

i'm pretty tired of having to tiptoe around this kind of thing and include disclaimers. if you genuinely think you shouldn't be friends with someone because of the date they came out of a uterus, you're being a clown.

[ghostofasecretary]

Miss Muriel Gore in a Fortune Dress [detail] - Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley

[ghostofasecretary]

'Blue Heron'. A.J. Casson. 1957.

[ghostofasecretary]

"Then in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in the dark vaults beneath the earth, [Fingon] took his harp and sang a song of Valinor that the Noldor made of old, before strife was born among the sons of Finwë; and his voice rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard before aught save cries of fear and woe. Thus Fingon found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him. Maedhros it was that sang amid his torment."

"In that hour Lúthien came, and standing upon the bridge that led to Sauron's isle she sang a song that no walls of stone could hinder. Beren heard, and he thought that he dreamed; for the stars shone above him, and in the trees nightingales were singing. And in answer he sang a song of challenge that he had made in praise of the Seven Stars, the Sickle of the Valar that Varda hung above the North as a sign for the fall of Morgoth. Then all strength left him and he fell down into darkness. But Lúthien heard his answering voice, and she sang then a song of greater power. The wolves howled and the isle trembled."

"[Sam's] voice sounded thin and quavering in the cold dark tower:  the voice of a forlorn and weary hobbit that no listening orc could possibly mistake for the clear song of an Elven-lord. He murmured old childish tunes out of the Shire, and snatches of Mr. Bilbo's rhymes that came into his mind like fleeting glimpses of the country of his home. And then suddenly new strength rose in him, and his voice rang out, while words of his own came unbidden to fit the simple tune. [...] and then he stopped short. He thought that he had heard a faint voice answering him."

And I do think about this multiple times a day.

[ghostofasecretary]

slug & snail nails by annaxnailz

[ghostofasecretary]

The three sleepy geeblets

[ghostofasecretary]

god in hell, before chatgpt people used to have some class. when we needed info we’d ask narnia blogs

[ghostofasecretary]

random nattering

some lines i think about sometimes: "Her school uniform was no match to the way she carried herself." "she thought the best way to live on this earth was to tread softly."

some words are drifting around my head about dressing to be decorative, or about shedding loveliness around you. they aren't quotes, though

moving is a lot, getting dressed is fun, perfume is great. "i should relax" --guy who is in a very stressful transitory phase voice. REGARDLESS THO. NONE OF THESE STAKES ARE THAT HIGH MY DAYS ARE JUST REAL LONG

did some paperwork, paid a bill, scheduled some stuff. go me. etc etc

did not get as much packing done as i'd hoped

did take pictures of furniture!!

should put my room back together and get ready for bed <3

[ghostofasecretary]