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[maerobotron]

Despite having a degree in history, I am not at all precious about historical fiction (I watch the Tudors as a comfort show, and can I count the ways it breaks history?) but I am reading the most egregious set of novels that I could set down but I actually want to see how badly this goes.

I will give the author this, she readily admits she has no basis for this story. She is unapologetically a Richard 3 fangirl. Richard did everything right-and here I give her some well deserved side eye, because NO and if your study of history makes you come to that conclusion, I have doubts about your method.

If her goal was to tell a love story, I am not sure she does that. If her goal was to paint a sympathetic portrait of Richard and/or Cicely Plantagenet, that definitely didn't happen.

But here's what I do not understand: how do you write about a woman like Cicely sympathetically and turn around and make every other woman so vapid and unbearable? How do you believe Richard so heartily, rightfully calling out Tudor propaganda but add every single stereotype of the Woodville women into this story? I guess I just don't understand how you can afford to have the nuance for Richard, but not for the women you're writing about.

And like, maybe it's not even about the women, maybe it's about Richard, so then, why make Cicely your character? Just make up someone. Then you can hate the Woodvilles all you want.

As to the other criticisms this story deserves, well. Just no, that is not a rant for tumblr.

[maerobotron]

See, SEE how bad I am at this.

So I was thinking about Steve the other day, because I wanted to check on his lawsuit, but!!!

The teacher who was suspended ended up leaving the school district, which? Yeah, what can you do at this point.

[maerobotron]

So Steve (not anywhere close to his name) was part of the music community too (did I forget we had yearbooks in the house, I did), and while it does not mean he's not invested, it still doesn't explain why he is invested. Like, I'm still kinda stuck on this point that this could be a very legitimate interest (and not necessarily related to abuse he may have suffered) or he's nosy? Which me too I guess, but I don't have the funds to file lawsuits. But then there's also what if he is gross.

More interesting to me was an article that quotes him extensively as a part of a little known conservative group, Citizens for Smallville. I imagine there are a lot of these little known groups, and absolutely, conservative beliefs are varied, so I know that there is conservative in Smallville, and then there are CONSERVATIVES in Smallville, and I'm not saying that he's CONSERVATIVE but he is quoted as saying the group is secret because they fear retribution from other Republicans.

Which, fair. The problem is I know both of these conservatives. I keep my mouth shut, and my face hidden because I cannot adequately control my expressions.

So anyway, he was part of a group to recall the mayor, but then the secretary of state said, "we don't do that here" and I may have opinions about that, but like, okay.

I want to know what the mayor did. This is a few years old.

[maerobotron]

Listen, this might be insecurity, or boredom, or people pleasing or whatever, or I'm just feeling a spiral of doom related to some life things, and I'm not at all good at keeping up on these kinds of things, except, oddly, xanga? which dates me?

I'm starting to get to the point where I don't give a damn, but I'm not there yet.

Anyway, there's some small town drama that I just have to speak about so I am reviving a dream of mine called Harriet the Suburban Spy.

The short introduction to this is that between COVID and a mental health crisis, I moved back to my small hometown from a big city and I hate it and spend a lot of time ignoring my grandma when she says that "Smallville is a great town to live in" and the local paper gives addresses about police calls and more than once I have seen people comment about how "Smallville's crime rate is horrifying, and I would never move to the big city!"

(DC is a possibility here. I'm not likely to stick to one topic regardless. My thoughts about Superman and Smallville are complicated though and my partner is required to listen to me on this, so I might just leave it in his capable hands)

SHORT INTRO???

More under the cut, I know I'm wordy, and this is probably not interesting.

I'm the worst. I was not a popular kid in high school, which I'm cool with, but I was on the periphery of a lot of things, and one of those things was the school's music program. And in my hometown, the music program is big. Probably not as big as sports, cause, this is the United States, but big.

And also toxic. Glee, toxic even.

Oh yes friends. We had 2 show choirs. My sister (twin, estranged, complicated) was part of the freshman one but then there was a weird religious thing where even dancing was iffy, so she quit, but still, I did get to see some shit.

In any case, late last year the beloved (BELOVED) show choir director was placed on suspension pending investigation. The kids are out of control, but what that means is anyone's guess, and frankly, to be incredibly millennial, the boomers in this town are wild and out of control has meant anything from wants to take on more leadership at church to terrorism. This guy has been with the district for 30 some years, and that's a long time, so the little town freaks out, and I have friends who have kids in these programs start defending the heck out of this guy, and I'm just thinking, not only have I been in the district's music program (band, orchestra, choir) but I've also attended more music functions in this town because of Smallville's biggest cheerleader, my grandmother, and I have never interacted with this guy, and normally I trust these friends, but for some reason I have a bad feeling about this guy. But whatever. I can't judge without any evidence, and I am unlikely to meet this guy in my everyday life, so I'll let my tiny sister (best friend, fellow gossip) know about this, and we reminisced about other sister's time in this and other music endeavors and we both largely forgot about this. The guy was reinstated a few weeks later and the investigation resolved, and I thought it was probably resolved more because of a booster threatening rather than an actual conclusion, but whatever.

Until this week, when "Local alum sues school district" and I'm like what... The alum in question: we overlapped a couple of years, but I don't know him, but I was intrigued by this whole thing. What is his part on this? Now, the local paper already has some issues, but I was especially intrigued by the fact that they didn't say anything substantial about who this is. The reason for the lawsuit is because the district has not provided information that he has requested regarding the investigation.

Here's the thing. I don't necessarily find it weird that a random guy with no apparent ties to the investigation is interested. If kids are being harmed, or lack proper adult supervision, this is a community issue. I am also concerned. But I'm still like, who is this guy and what is he doing? It is one thing to be concerned and another to file a lawsuit.

I will admit. I do not care about this town. It used to be a swamp, and in my opinion, it can go back. And part of my reasoning is because I have come across too many people in this town that are interested in protecting the powerful at the expense of those who are not. And of course this is every town, and the world, yeah, yeah, but this is my hometown and I can hate it without anyone's permission. It does not surprise me that the district is not handing over information. They are barely willing to hand out transcripts (ask me how I know). And maybe this is a lawsuit to help correct that. But I still don't know why he cares so much.

So like, if you're interested, stay tuned for more details. If you're not, I am sufficiently amused.