#[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

arbitreneart · 3 years

Text

THE HISTORY OF TISSUE/TOILET PAPER

Put you seat-belts on & grab you popcorn.... this is going to be a wild ride!

So let’s begin....

MEDIEVAL CHINA

the first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China.

From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies of that same year, it was also recorded that for the Hongwu Emperor's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was perfumed.[5]

Perfumed paper, yeeeee!

Going ahead:

Elsewhere, wealthy people wiped themselves with wool, lace or hemp....

less wealthy people used their hand when defecating into rivers, or cleaned themselves with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stones, sand, moss, water, snow, ferns, plant husks, fruit skins, seashells, or corncobs, depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs.

Class divide- even in tissue paper, Jesus Christ!

SPONGE STICK IN ANCIENT ROME

^ A sponge on a stick, known as tersorium or xylospongium.

D. Herdemerten/CC BY 3.0

In Ancient Rome, a sponge on a stick as commonly used, and, after use, placed back in a pail of vinegar.

A 1792 French Revolutionary caricature, depicting the French population using the Monarchist Brunswick Manifesto as toilet paper.^ BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

POOP MENTION WARNING GUYS, kindly skip it & go to the next heading if you think you’ll be disturbed

It’s kinda funny though ngl....

Gargantua dismisses the use of paper as ineffective, rhyming that: "Who his foul tail with paper wipes, Shall at his ballocks leave some chips." (Sir Thomas Urquhart's 1653 English translation). He concludes that "the neck of a goose, that is well downed" provides an optimum cleansing medium.

Did he, did he mean a legit goose-

Yes, yes he did- the beaked bird- may god bless it’s poor soul....

THE ERA OF PUBLISHING

The rise of publishing by the eighteenth century led to the use of newspapers and cheap editions of popular books for cleansing. Lord Chesterfield, in a letter to his son in 1747, told of a man who purchased

a common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, carried them with him to that necessary place, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina; thus was so much time fairly gained ....

At least, at least he gained some knowledge before hand?

A MODERN COMMODITY

Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline-

"The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."

as late as the 1930s, a selling point of the Northern Tissue company was that their toilet paper was "splinter free".

Moist toilet paper, called wet wipes, was first introduced in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s.....

Well here it is folks.... let’s collectively thank Wikipedia & a bunch of other sites....

#toilet paper #history #history time #oh yikes

47 notes · View notes

topfygad · 5 years

Text

Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

One of the things I loved about the Florida Keys and Key West was the food. Oh the food! After driving down the beautiful chain of islands that make up the Florida Keys, we started our three-day stay in Key West by meeting up with Key West Food Tours.

They took us on their Southernmost food tour, essentially a crash-course in Key West’s culinary history. We took away so many foodie tips from our tour guide that by the end of the three hour walking tour, we had a wealth of information on where to find the best restaurants in Key West, which cultures have influenced the Key West cuisine and which signature dishes you need to try.

So as I like to share my travel tips, here are 13 of the top things to eat and drink in Key West, Florida.

Enjoy.

13 Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

1. A Cuban sandwich from 5 Brothers

Florida was one of the first states in America to experience an influx of Cuban immigrants and a large portion of them settled in Miami and the Florida Keys – both places where you’ll find cafes and bakeries selling the classic Cuban sandwich.

It’s thought that the Cuban sandwich – also called the ‘Cubano Mixto’ – evolved from a lunchtime staple enjoyed by cigar factory workers. These days, it remains one of the top things to eat in Key West and you’ll find the best ones at 5 Brothers.

Located on 930 Southard Street in Old Town, this sandwich counter serves up these toasted delights filled with ham, pork, swiss cheese (and sometimes tomato, lettuce, onions or gherkins), flavoured with a slather of mustard and mayonnaise.

You’ll run shoulders with plenty of locals, all popping in for their daily coffee fix, newspaper and other authentic Cuban bites. The grocery store also stocks plenty of Cuban specialties which you can peruse while you wait.

2. A Cuban coffee from Cuban Coffee Queen

The perfect accompaniment to any Cuban sandwich is of course, a Cuban coffee. And you’ll find heaps of places to try what many people dub ‘legal speed’ in Key West. El Siboney, one of the best Cuban restaurants in Key West, is a great place to pick up this super-strong beverage, while 5 Brothers (mentioned above) is also worth checking out.

If you want to join the cool crowds however, head to the Cuban Coffee Queen on Key Lime Square in Downtown or Margaret Street by Key West’s waterfront.

There are many different ways to order Cuban coffee, which we discovered during our Southernmost Food Tour. This includes the Cafecito or Café Cubano (served in a thimble-sized cup), a Café con leche (coffee with steamed milk), a Cortadito (served with a tiny splash of steamed milk) or the Bucci (a strong shot of espresso that’s served with cane sugar.) If there’s more than one of you, you can go with the tradition of ordering a Colada which is essentially an extra-large cup of the sweet Bucci, which you then share between several people in the thimble-sized cups.

Order some Pan Cubano (Cuban bread) and follow the tradition of dunking it in your cup.

sweet Bucci at El Siboney restaurant

3. Puerco Asado from El Siboney

Aside from Cuban coffee, authentic Cuban food is one of the top things to eat in Key West. See if you can book a table at El Siboney, a no-frills Cuban diner which attracts both locals and tourists and has become something of an institution in Key West’s Old Town.

The menu features all sorts of chicken, seafood and beef dishes, but if you’re only visiting once, try the Puerco Asado, a Cuban classic. This slow-roasted pork is often marinated in various herbs, garlic, onions and lime. And it’s a great dish to try alongside typical Cuban staples such as Moro (rice and beans), sweet or green plantains, fried cassava and tamale (steamed corn husk).

4. Empanadas & Arepas

We realised empanadas were big in Florida as soon as we got to Miami. You’ll find them dotted all around the city, especially in Little Havana. In Key West, these Latin American-style pasties are just as big, especially at breakfast time. In fact, empanadas and arepas (a corn meal dough filled with meat, cheese and other fillings) are among the most popular street food snacks in Key West.

Head to El Siboney, Bliss restaurant or Frita’s Cuban Burgers for some of the best empanadas and arepas. As the name suggests, the latter is also famous for its incredible Latin-inspired burgers.

5. Burritos and Tacos from Badboy Burrito

As I mentioned in my post about the Southernmost Food Tour, the burritos and tacos from Badboy Burrito are legendary in Key West.

Try the fish tacos and you’ll be surprised at how fresh they taste – a delicious concoction of grilled fish topped with sour cream, radish, jalapenos and fragrant coriander. When we visited, ours were filled with succulent chunks of tile fish, one of the most sustainable types of fish you can eat in Key West.

Fun fact – Badboy Burrito featured on the Food Network. You’ll find a second shop further up the Keys in Islamorada too.

6. Quesadillas from Bistro 245

Quesadillas are another South American street food that are vying for your taste buds in Key West. And to be honest, I hadn’t paid them much attention until I tried the incredible lobster quesadillas from Bistro 245 at the Margaritaville Resort.

We visited this waterfront restaurant for dinner one evening and their stylish take on the quesadilla – enhanced with tomato, caramelised onions, manchego cheese, mango salsa, cumin sour cream and juicy chunks of lobster – was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Don’t miss out!

7. Key lime pie from Key West Old Town & Bahama Village

There are so many different ways to enjoy Key Lime Pie and I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to try them all as it’s not just one of the top things to eat in Key West, it’s also one of the most famous dishes you can eat in the whole of the Keys.

You’ll see Key Lime pies presented in various different ways across the region – some are presented with a meringue top (more traditional in Key West), some without; some are topped with whipped cream and most are baked on a graham cracker base. We even discovered chocolate-coated Key Lime Pie on a stick. (I know, amazing, right).

You can guarantee that whichever version you try, they’re going to be good.

The most famous Key Lime Pie shops in Key West include Key West Key Lime Pie Co, The Key Lime Bakery and Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe.

You can also try these gorgeous mini Key Lime Pies (pictured) at the legendary Blue Heaven in Bahama Village. They are out of this world.

8. Other Key Lime treats

From Key Lime cookies and Key Lime jelly beans to tea, chutney and taffy, the use of this citrus ingredient doesn’t stop at pie. Floridians have become quite inventive with its use and you’ll find a whole host of Key Lime-infused treats across Key West and Florida Keys.

Put aside some time to explore the various Key Lime shops across the Old Town. We found all sorts of delicious Key Lime hot sauces which you can try before you buy. And on the none-foodie front you’ll find scrubs and toiletries infused with this tangy ingredient).

9. Conch – fritters, cracked, chowder and burgers

Key Westers (or Conchs as they nickname themselves) pride themselves on cooking with this locally-caught specialty. So whether these squidgy sea snails tempt you or not, you’ve got to try them at least once!

Ease yourself in by trying cracked conch (flash fried in tempura batter) or the conch fritter with your beer at Mangoes. Then if you like it, I can highly recommend the conch sandwich at Fishermans Café on the waterfront. It’s served on a Kaiser burger bun with lettuce, tomato and Key Lime tartare sauce and their sweet potato chips are excellent.

For the best conch salad in Key West, I hear that it’s Johnson’s Grocery, an unassuming shop in the heart of Bahama Village.

And finally, when it comes to conch chowder, try El Siboney, Willie T’s or the Conch Republic Seafood Company on the waterfront and you won’t be disappointed.

10. Hogfish sandwich from Geiger Key Marina

I don’t actually know what hogfish tastes like but I heard a lot of people talking about it while we were in Key West. And the hogfish sandwich – chunks of this white fish encased in soft Cuban bread with Swiss cheese and onions – is a favourite way to enjoy it here.

While not technically in Key West, the Hog Fish Bar on nearby Stock Island, is renowned for this Florida Keys staple. But Geiger Key Marina restaurant is probably one of the best places to try either hogfish, mahi-mahi or grouper sandwiches if you’re staying on Key West island. You’ll be asked whether you want your fish fried, grilled or ‘blackened’. If you go for the latter, the fish will be cooked in a spicy ‘blackening’ seasoning that’s used over the Keys.

Blackening seasoning made by Chef Bobby Stoky of Marker 88 restaurant

11. Rum Runner from the Speakeasy Inn & Rum Bar

When it’s time for a tipple, a rum runner is one of the top things to drink in Key West. It’s a mix of light and dark (or aged) rum, banana, blackberry, grenadine, pineapple juice, orange juice and Bacardi, lime juice or sours and was actually invented in Islamorada in the Upper Keys, as a nod to the rum runners of the prohibition era.

In Key West, you’ll get the best rum runner cocktail at The Speakeasy Inn & Rum Bar, a characterful place in the Old Town, on Duval Street. It was originally owned by Raul Vaquez of Key West’s Gato cigar factory and it stocks over 250 types of rum.

12. Caribbean inspired cooking

Thanks to its proximity to the Caribbean islands and its strong Caribbean community, the food in Key West has many West Indian influences (which made me very happy).

On our first night in Key West, we dined at Blue Macaw Island Eats where you can order Caribbean-style dishes such as jerk rum glazed chicken with plantain, ‘island-style’ salads made with fresh papaya and mango and sandwiches made with authentic Cuban bread.

Over at Blue Heaven in Bahama Village, you’ll find a bounty of Caribbean-inspired curries on the menu with jerk spices and Red Stripe Beer making their way into the chef’s cook books.

Meanwhile, for no-frills Creole food that’s cooked from the heart, check out Mo’s, a Haitian restaurant where the servings are as big as the flavours.

Find authentic home cooking that’s transports you to the Caribbean

13. Stone crab, shrimp and spiny lobster

If you like seafood, you’ll be in your element in the Florida Keys. So once you’ve tried the local conch and lobster, you might like to try a few other types of locally-caught shellfish.

Shrimp here can be served in all sorts of ways. So look out for crispy tempura batter, the famed Floridian ‘blackening’ or jerk sauce. You’ll find it’s used in all sorts of Caribbean curries too.

The Caribbean spiny lobster here is served straight up in its shell (most commonly you’ll order the lobster tail), blackened, in a curry, or used inventively in Latin-inspired dishes such as tacos and quesadillas. I actually tried both the lobster and local shrimp together in a very indulgent fettuccine at Bistro 245 and it tasted incredible.

If crab’s more your thing, Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys are known for their stone crab. Try the popular Stoned Crab restaurant on North Roosevelt Boulevard for expertly-made dishes such as stone crab bisque and their famed ‘steamers’.

And you don’t have to wait for dinner to try Key West’s best seafood. Both shrimp and lobster make their way onto many breakfast menus here. Try the famed shrimp or lobster eggs benedict at Blue Heaven in the Bahama Village.

Have I got you feeling hungry? What are your tips for the top things to eat and drink in Key West? Feel free to leave your comments.

Pin Me

Like this:

Like Loading…

Some of my restaurant visits mentioned were hosted by The Florida Keys & Key West Tourist Board. All views here are my own.

from Cheapr Travels http://cheaprtravels.com/top-things-to-eat-and-drink-in-key-west-florida/ via http://cheaprtravels.com

2 notes · View notes

arcticdementor · 5 years

Link

For as long as all of us can remember, American politics had always meant the same war between Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats were the party of New Deal liberalism, as they had been since Franklin Roosevelt. The Republicans were the party of conservatism, just as William F. Buckley, Jr., announced it in National Review. When America voted Republican or Democrat, national policy might slip a little in one direction or the other, but we always knew more or less what we were going to get. Now we don’t.

Desperate for answers, political observers have naturally latched onto convenient explanations for this disruption. Some fault unruly personalities and politicians. Others blame technologies like social media. Others fear unfamiliar ideas and movements challenging the consensus. In other words, most of us are looking for some irritant or villain in the hope that, if we can identify and eradicate the nuisance, America might go back to its natural order—meaning the 20th-century political world.

But it won’t. The problem isn’t some technology, movement, or institution we can identify and remove. It’s that an entire stale order is crumbling down. The great debate of the 20th century is over. America is heading toward its next realignment.

…

In reality, American parties are temporary coalitions forged as tools to self-govern our republic at specific moments of crisis. They bind fractious collections of people who disagree about many things but agree on how to solve the biggest problem of their age. They rally around a unique ideology forged from sometimes clashing principles important to its different factions. And unbeknownst to them in the moment, they are significantly affected by the waves of moral renewal, called Great Awakenings, that have pulsed through American history. The failure to understand the interweaving of these Awakenings with shifts in the party structure over time is one of the great deficiencies of standard American political history.

…

America throughout its history has had five distinct sets of parties, which scholars call party systems. Each underwent a similar cycle of birth and collapse. During each party-system era, America had two major parties competing on fairly equal terms for about half the national vote. Those parties ruled for decades, attracting consistent coalitions around stable ideologies that were nothing like the Democrats and the Republicans we know today. After decades of battles, however, America slowly changed. When the issues America designed those parties to debate were resolved or faded away, the parties turned into weak institutions coasting on old ideas. Eventually, they crumbled in what the scholars call a realignment. Realignments are the moments in which we tear an entire old order down and build a fresh new era with new coalitions, new ideologies, and new ideas. In the rubble of the old system’s collapse, the American people then create two new coalitions designed to debate new solutions to the nation’s new problems. Sometimes new people or ideas take over the husk of an old party. Sometimes a party simply dissolves and a new one takes its place. Either way, a new era begins with two new coalitions trumpeting new ideas ready to engage in the next era’s great debate.

…

America’s very first party system emerged out of the great debate of the Founding era: an explosive question over the nature of the new republic. When the Founders created their republic—of a kind never before tried in history—they themselves had no experience of how it might actually work. They had lived their entire lives in a world of kings. While they agreed on the importance of creating a republic founded on reason and liberty, they had different ideas about how to achieve it. Washington’s protégé and Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, dreamed of a strong commercial republic that would grow to challenge the Old World’s great powers. Washington’s Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, envisioned a decentralized republic of farmers, who he believed had the virtues necessary to stave off tyranny. Fighting broke out in Washington’s government over issues like Hamilton’s banking and economic plans, and the correct stance on the revolution in France. These questions, however, were aspects of a great and important national debate. Was America meant to grow into a meritocratic world power of commerce, great cities, and standing armies? Or was it to be a nation of independent farmers, wary of such pretensions? That debate created America’s first parties, the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.

…

Jackson’s presidency alarmed a lot of people, from commercial elites who feared his war to destroy the Bank of the United States (something like the Federal Reserve) to Southern plantation barons who resented his use of Federal power to stamp out state nullification. They rallied around another frontier stateman, Kentucky’s silver-tongued charmer Henry Clay. Clay and his followers became the Whigs, who wanted to build roads and canals as the nation expanded west, to encourage education and modernization, and to grow the nation into a meritocratic republic of national improvement. America launched another great debate. Would America be a rowdy populist republic for the common folk, or a meritocratic republic of modernization and reform? As America moved into the 1840s, the Whigs and Democrats had both built popular machines with parades and bunting and spoils while infrastructure and cities had sprouted further and further west as the nation grew. It turned out again that America could be both.

A new debate, however, had now captured the nation’s attention. When President Polk invaded Mexico, winning vast new territories stretching to the Pacific, America would have to debate whether to admit each new state carved from that territory as a slave state or a free one. America was also in the midst of a great religious revival, the Second Great Awakening, sparking a new fervor for moral reform and for causes like temperance, women’s suffrage, and, most powerfully, for the abolition of slavery. Newly impassioned abolitionists refused to watch slavery spread farther. Slave-state leaders feared the implications of adding more free-state senators. The Whigs and Democrats, both of which had Northern and Southern wings, wanted to get back to normal politics, meaning the dead Jacksonian issues. They made clumsy efforts to push past this national distraction. Instead, in 1852 the issue ripped the Whig Party apart, bringing the Second Party System down with it.

…

In 1896, a 36-year-old former Democratic Congressman from Nebraska named William Jennings Bryan walked into the Democratic National Convention in a longshot bid for the presidency. Few took it seriously. Securing the speaking slot at the close of debate, Bryan delivered a powerful speech on the biggest populist issue of the moment, free silver—moving America away from the gold standard to spur inflation that would eat away the growing debt of farmers while sticking it to the banks. In reality, it was a populist anthem. Bryan lionized farmers and working people, hurled invective at elites and cities, and ended in silence like a religious figure with his arms outstretched as if in crucifixion. The next day, the Democrats nominated him for President. Then Bryan pushed out his party’s leadership and threw out its playbook. He replaced them with the ideas and agenda of a populist third party movement then sweeping the American plains called the People’s Party. As Bryan campaigned on a whirlwind national tour to wild and adoring crowds, America’s elites, terrified at a man they saw as an ignorant bumpkin and demagogue stirring up populist fury, rallied to Republican William McKinley. Bryan lost the election—McKinley’s better organization and money ultimately chipped away at his early lead—but by the end the campaign, Bryan had changed the Democratic Party irrevocably.

…

By the 1920s, that debate was over too. America had implemented its reforms and emerged as a wealthy and powerful world power in the hedonistic throes of the Jazz Age. Its politics once again went into decline. Then, in 1929, America plunged into the shock of the Great Depression. By the end of Republican Herbert Hoover’s first term, unemployment was about 25 percent, and in some places worse. Many Americans now lived in tented refugee camps, dependent on soup kitchens to eat. Most alarming, many Americans turned their gaze longingly at the dictatorships abroad, which seemed to be thriving, and began to lose faith in the American republic. In 1932, America threw Hoover and his party out of office in disgust, electing Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had promised them a New Deal. It was time for a new debate, one over how to update America’s institutions in light of the devastation. Roosevelt, however, had no idea yet what his New Deal would even be.

…

That’s what the “liberalism” and “conservatism” we now take for granted as two poles of a political spectrum are really all about. They’re ad hoc coalitions for a specific moment in history: the catastrophe of the Depression and the aftermath of the global war that followed it. Like every American party system, our Fifth Party System isn’t a permanent battleground between rival dispositions of humanity. It’s part of one era’s great debate. That debate, like the debates that created each of America’s previous party systems, was an argument over a specific collection of problems important at a unique moment in America’s history. For the better part of a century, American politics has revolved around this same fight over Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. That debate, however, is over. Which is why our parties are now in the process of falling apart.

…

This New Deal debate continues to drive our parties today. Democrats continue to think in terms of New Deal liberalism. Republicans continue to fight against big government. Yet that debate, notwithstanding all the sound and fury of our politics, is essentially over and has been for many years. America resolved it decades ago, sometime in the 1990s, and everybody knows it. The American people reached a consensus. As in every party system, neither party won the debate outright. America adopted some of what the Democrats proposed but agreed to some of the limits that Republicans proposed. It agreed that government would indeed take responsibility for many matters of health, safety, and welfare. It would have Social Security, Medicare, and an Environmental Protection Agency. America also agreed that those responsibilities shouldn’t be unlimited in scope, and that national planning isn’t always the best way to meet them. There will be no more Great Societies.

America has always taken something from both camps. It accepts Hamiltonian policies wrapped in Jeffersonian ideals. It brings the people into the center of politics as Jackson wanted, while modernizing and reforming as the Whigs hoped. It reunites North and South. It takes reforms from both the Populists and the Progressives. Despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, both parties accept this resolution and have for years. No matter what they say, Democrats wouldn’t really attempt to implement a new Great Society even if they could. Nor would Republicans really abolish Medicare, or any of the other New Deal programs Americans like. All of American politics is organized around a dead debate.

However, the country now faces an onslaught of new problems our parties were never designed to address. Our national debate is still built around a fading mirage of industrial-age America. We no longer live in the America in which a single high school-educated worker can support a middle-class family with an industrial job. America is no longer a beacon of the “free world” in a cold war, exporting its bounty to the world—cars, appliances, movies, and music—as the only untouched economy after a devastating war. We stand at the cusp of a global social and economic transformation—from an industrial to a global information economy—as significant as the transformation from the agricultural world to the industrial. The new economy is fast, mobile, disruptive. Competition comes from all corners of the globe. We live differently. Cultural rules and customs are changing constantly. What’s more, we’re still only at the beginning—whether the future will be defined by robotic workers, artificial intelligence, gene splicing, new information networks, or something else entirely. We’re all like 19th-century farmers looking at a cotton gin, unable to see the legions of factories, motor cars, and urban metropolises about to spring up from the fields. The Democratic and Republican parties have nothing important to say about the next set of problems facing America. They lack even the language to think about them. We won’t find the solution to our problems in either the New Deal or the fight against the excesses of big government.

All that remains is the right disruptive force to knock these decaying party coalitions apart. As we know all too well, there are plenty such forces swirling all around us. The question isn’t whether America’s Fifth Party System is going to come flying apart. The question is when.

…

We therefore face a choice. We ought to renew our parties now, while we can. We shouldn’t cede our future to forces outside our control, left to hope whatever happens to emerge are parties that channel our differences in healthy ways in a useful debate about our future. With an eye on history’s lessons, we should act first, now, to renew our politics around a new debate we choose. Moreover, one debate in particular cries out. All the problems that loom ahead come back in some way to one issue: the perceived decline of the American Dream. Although we often talk about the American Dream as a dream of prosperity—a house in the suburbs, a good job, and a middle-class lifestyle, if not a chance at great wealth—it’s actually something more. The American Dream is a promise of social equality. America throughout its history has always made an implicit promise to its people: that America will offer all its citizens equal dignity and a level playing field to achieve their dreams, whatever they may be. Our transforming world provides new opportunities for some Americans. For others, however, who worked hard and played by the rules as they understood them, the rewards they believe were promised won’t come. It’s no surprise they believe that they were cheated, that the game is rigged, that people in control aren’t honest, and, most critically, that people like them no longer have a fair shot. There’s a growing fear across America, one felt by very different groups of people who disagree on many other things, that the American Dream is fading away, if not entirely gone.

#frank j distefano #the american interest #read the whole thing

0 notes

rizuno · 8 years

Note

Write me a ficlet about Stiles finding random love poems/notes written on little scraps of paper stuffed in weird places, like between the seats in the Jeep, in the pockets of hoodie he swore he just washed so how could there be intact paper in there, in his shoes, under his pillow. Who is writing all these notes and how do they keep randomly appearing on Stiles person!?!?!

This is unbeta-d, and I am subjecting you dear reader(s?) to poetry written by me masquerading as English!Major Derek Hale. BASICALLY I’m SORRY ABOUT THE CRAP POETRY OK. also im really fuckin pissed off about the spacing of the poems but tumblr is adamant about pretending to not know what the fuck im trying to do when i try and reformat it i need to stop before i just delete this whole post in a fit of RAGE

For RachelBBY

Scraps

The first time it happens, Stiles doesn’t think anything of it. He figures he just wrote it himself in English and then forgot. It’s just a neglected scrap of paper hiding amidst other papers under his desk, sacrificed on the altar of a weekly allowance with everything else he throws out as he cleans his room. He only really glanced at it anyway, he was preoccupied with being pissed off at Derek for being Derek, thinks it said something about heartbeats and irregular spaces. So that was the incident, he supposes.

The second time he’s got his hand stuffed in the crease of Roscoe’s passenger seat in a desperate search for just one fucking quarter, just one, and withdraws a crumpled piece of paper instead. “How long has that been there?” Stiles asks himself as he de-crumples it to read it. He snorts. Obviously quite a while, it’s a poem, and Stiles knows he didn’t write this one, which means it’s circa the Scott/Allison Era.

you laughed

it was Tuesday

you didn’t know I was there

“Not half bad Scotty,” Stiles murmurs, not bothering to finish the rest of it as he tosses it aside and resumes the quest for one measly quarter cause he just wants a burger. Out of life, all he wants is to eat a burger right now. It’s not so much to ask? Right?

He bitches and moans to Scott about his inability to find a quarter and thus eat a burger, but forgets to ask him about the poem thing. The next time he sees Derek, Derek flips him a quarter with a smirk. “Oh, fuck you,” Stiles says, but pockets the quarter and eats him that fucking burger later that night, after they have all managed, miraculously, to not die. “Victory comes in all forms,” Stiles informs Scott sagely in between mouthfuls. So that’s the coincidence, in all its glory.

The third time has Stiles paying the fuck attention, because he’s digging around his back pocket for the quarter Derek gave him, and just as he remembers he spent it already, his fingers close around what must be a receipt. Stiles heaves a grunt of disgust, no curly fries for him then, and glances at the scrap of paper uninterestedly, out of habit, as his arm moves to toss it into the trashcan across the hall. And then he freezes. It’s not some forgotten transaction, it’s a fucking poem. What the fuck. Stiles unfolds the paper and reads the words in their entirety this time, standing in the middle of the hallway as other students stream around him as they head to class. It’s not very long, but it feels like Stiles takes several hours to read it. He reads it like it was meant for him. It must be? Right?

I think

you don’t think of me

all that often

but I think of you

quite often

I’m thinking of you now

I think of you in the morning

I think of you in my bed

at night

I wonder

if you’re thinking of me now

Stiles swallows. His mouth has gone dry. He feels like he just walked in on someone watching some really hot porn. He feels…intimate. He feels…like he’s now late for science. Stiles whirls around in a flail of limbs and pelts to the science lab. But that scrap of paper he doesn’t toss aside. That scrap he keeps. So there’s the pattern.

Stiles was sorta expecting the next one but he wasn’t prepared to find it lying on his keyboard; not there when he went downstairs to grab a soda and now there when he returns.

He tells himself his fingers are shaking with caffeine intake as he reaches out to unfold it, where it lays so innocuously.

He licks his lips, then reads.

I know you’re thinking of me now

will you think of me tonight

in your bed

with your own hands upon yourself

gasping

flushed

and undone

“Ffffuck,” Stiles hisses out between his teeth. There is no way he’s gonna make it to tonight. He’s got a really great jerk off session going, standing there right in front of his desk at 3:30 in the afternoon, pants only pulled down the bare minimum. He’s like feeling it, he is totally ready for this, ‘makes his knees weak’ orgasm he’s coming up on. And then of course, Scotty has to burst in freaking out about supernatural crisis 3B or 6A or whatever number letter combo they’re on now.

“Come on, man!” They both yell at the same time, Scott throwing up his arms and facing the wall as Stiles fumbles to stuff himself back inside his pants. Scott feels the need to ask why. Stiles rants that it’s the privacy of his own fucking room. Scott mutters something about how Derek thinks they need info. “Since when do you listen to what Derek thinks,” Stiles says petulantly as he tosses Scott a bag of Doritos and moves to sit back at his desk. Scott eats the chips on Stiles’ bed as Stiles furiously looks up shit to the best of his ability. The moment is already forgotten. That sort of awkwardness has happened before, and will probably happen again. Which come on Scott, werewolf, use those supernatural senses for once. After Scott is gone Stiles wonders what four times means. Also he mourns the loss of one of the greatest orgasms he never got to experience.

He finds the next one two nights later, under his pillow as he stretches out on his bed. He’s so relaxed and he’s in bed at a decent hour. Derek did not manage to piss him off when they came across each other briefly earlier in the evening and Stiles is ready for some nappy naps. When his fingers brush the edge of the crinkled bit of paper the first feeling he gets is surprise. It’s quickly followed by a quick dip of excitement in his gut. He doesn’t bother to switch any lights on. Too much effort. He reads it by the light of his phone.

I whisper your name to myself

after you’ve left

it’s fairly pathetic

but then last week

you trapped yourself inside your own hoodie

so at least I’m not alone

And Stiles knows. “Derek,” Stiles whispers furiously. He chucks the paper as hard as he can away from him. Which, it being paper, isn’t that far. It flutters down to rest on the bed beside him. That fucking asshole has been laughing at him this whole fucking time. So that’s what comes after a pattern. Epic fuckery.

Stiles sees Derek first thing the next morning; he’s having like, a pre-game huddle with the Erica-Isaac-Boyd triumvirate in the back parking lot behind the gym. “Stiles,” Derek greets him, the hint of a smile on his lips. “You are pathetic,” Stiles snarls at him. Derek’s jaw clenches and his expression turns cold and distant. Stiles whirls around and marches off in righteous fury. Stiles has enough fucking going on in his life without that kind of shit. Stiles thought, he’d thought…it doesn’t even matter what he thought. He was stupid and a dumbass for thinking it.

So naturally he finds the next poem sandwiched in between the pages of this month’s Great English Novel during 3rd period of that day. Stiles isn’t sure when or even how Derek got it in there, but it certainly wasn’t after this morning. He almost doesn’t read it, doesn’t want to give Derek the satisfaction, but he’s Stiles. He must fucking know. He can’t not.

I dreamed of you

it was warm

and bright

and we were safe

you took my hand

and my heart blazed brighter

when I woke

I pretended that it was the future

and if I am patient

that it will be

any day now

“What,” Stiles whispers. His own heart is sinking fast within his chest. His hand clenches down on the poem. “It was all real,” He realizes out loud.

“What?” Scott whispers from the seat behind him.

Stiles whips around in his seat to face him. “Cover for me,” Stiles begs.

Scott doesn’t know what’s going on, but he doesn’t hesitate. “Go,” he says.

Stiles slips from the room, so preoccupied he doesn’t notice that he doesn’t trip or smack into something once.

Derek won’t be at his apartment. Instinctively, Stiles knows this. He jumps in Roscoe and heads straight for the preserve.

The burned out husk of the Hale house looks as tragic and decimating as ever, but that feeling is especially poignant for Stiles at this moment. He gives Roscoe’s wheel one last squeeze, for luck or bravery or whatever, and steps out of the jeep. He tries to repress a shiver as he looks at the charred and broken edifice before him and fails. This had seemed so much simpler, less complicated back in 3rd period. No, Stiles can do this, he absolutely can. He leaps up what’s left of the front steps and barges through the door. “Derek,” he calls.

A few moments of silence, and then a resigned sigh. “What?” Derek asks, voice flat as he materializes out of wherever he was.

Stiles waves the hand that has not once unclenched on the poem in Derek’s general direction.

“You’re serious?” He accuses.

Derek’s stone face takes on a look of frustration. “Yes, Stiles, I’m serious.”

“I…I mean…why?”

Derek sighs like it’s obvious. “I wrote you poems Stiles.”

Stiles seizes upon a detail he has the mental facilities to deal with at this moment. “Why poems though?”

Derek rolls his eyes. “I’m an English Major, Stiles.” Which rude because, like,

“How was I supposed to know that,” Stiles says defensively.

They stand in silence. Derek doesn’t seem inclined to word anymore today and Stiles is furiously thinking.

“You wanna,” and his left hand, the one not still grasping the poem, makes an abortive movement towards Derek, “hold hands?”

After a moment, Derek uncrosses his arms and says, “Okay.” He reaches out, and then they’re holding hands, bridging a gap between them. It’s kind of…awkward. But it’s only awkward in that Stiles suspects feelings are present kind of way, because Derek’s thumb strokes gently along the back of his hand and Stiles feels kinda like, heart blazing or whatever.

“I think of you pretty often,” Stiles admits. “Like, a lot.”

Derek swallows. “Okay.”

BONUS:

First Poem

your heartbeats are

irregular spaces

I dwell there

and refuse to meet your eyes

when you glance my way

Second Poem

you laughed

it was Tuesday

you didn’t know I was there

I have kept it

for myself; that laugh

longing

for your real

and intransigent

presence

#sterek #derek hale #stiles stilinski #teen wolf #ficlet #drabble #fanfic #FOR RACHELBBY

208 notes · View notes

stag28 · 7 years

Link

"to discover the real reason for Barcelona’s visit, you had to go to an upmarket restaurant in midtown Manhattan. There, over a sumptuous liquid lunch, Bartomeu and vice-president Manel Arroyo spent the day schmoozing executives from some of Wall Street’s blue-chip companies: Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, BlackRock. Since Bartomeu took over as president in 2014, he has had two main aims: to burnish the club’s global reputation, and then use that reputation to print money. His stated goal is to make Barcelona the first club in history to break €1 billion in revenue. And because Barcelona already make plenty of money in Spain, that money, as Bartomeu puts it, “must come from the international market”. [..] the club’s commercial department has been scouring its brains identifying new revenue streams. You can now get an FC Barcelona university qualification in anything from architecture to psychology to big data. You can buy a bottle of FC Barcelona Tempranillo red wine. You can even pay to hire the Barcelona team bus for a function. Barcelona, the football club built by Joan Gamper at the start of the 20th century as an expression of Catalan regional identity, is now a global brand being leveraged for purposes that are only tangentially connected with football. [..] Enrique does Ironman triathlons in his spare time, but it had taken just three seasons for the Barcelona job to exhaust him. Historically speaking, it was a decent effort. Since the Second World War, only two Barcelona managers have ever made it past four seasons. Frank Rijkaard did five, and ended up a hollow, haunted husk of a man, his managerial career destroyed. Johan Cruyff did eight, and had a heart attack. [..] “Money is secondary. Before anything else there should be principles, values. Barça has lost them.” Johan Cruyff, 2015 For all the turmoil off the pitch, for all the quixotic results on it, Barcelona are not in crisis. Three big wins have put them top of La Liga, and even given them a faint hope of turning things around against PSG on Wednesday night. But there is a far more subtle and tectonic battle taking place at the world’s most famous football club, and it goes much deeper than their outgoing manager. In a way, it is a battle for Barcelona’s soul. Joan Laporta was president of Barcelona between 2003 and 2010, and oversaw perhaps the most remarkable transformation in the club’s history. When he took over, the club had just finished sixth, their lowest position since the 1980s. Within three years, Frank Rijkaard had led Barcelona to their first ever Champions League title. When he departed, it was Laporta’s decision to turn down Jose Mourinho and appoint an untried coach called Pep Guardiola. For a certain section of the Barcelona fanbase, Laporta’s reign was a return to the good old days. He brought back club legend Johan Cruyff as an adviser and appointed him honorary president. He invested heavily in La Masia, the club’s academy, which he calls “our dreams factory”. He believed in playing football the Cruyff way: a quick passing style that went all the way through the club, from the under sevens all the way to the first team. For a few golden years, on and off the pitch, Barcelona charmed the world. But in 2010, Laporta was replaced by his former vice-president Sandro Rosell, who offered a different vision of the club’s future. Rosell, a former Nike executive, believed Barcelona needed to face up to the realities of the marketplace or get left behind. He accused Laporta of leaving the club in heavy debt, and promised a more robust financial model that would give Barcelona the financial clout to compete for the world’s best players. The signings of Neymar and Luis Suarez, for a combined total of around £120 million, gave Barcelona one of the most feared strike forces the sport has ever seen. [..] Suarez apart, Barcelona’s recent transfer history has been a catalogue of expensive failures. Much-heralded new signings like Arda Turan, Andre Gomes and Paco Alcacer have failed to make much of an impact. Established players like Dani Alves have been allowed to leave without being adequately replaced. The result is a strangely lop-sided Barcelona team: still good enough to beat most sides, but shockingly vulnerable on their off-days. Meanwhile, the fabled La Masia production line is showing signs of drying up. Like his predecessor Tata Martino, Enrique has been accused by some Barcelona fans of neglecting the academy; in fact, over his three seasons he has given debuts to 16 La Masia graduates. And while the likes of Munir and Rafinha may yet establish themselves, the vast majority have simply not been good enough. Promising youngsters like Alex Grimaldo and Gerard Deulofeu have been let go. And so Barcelona have been forced to rely ever more heavily on the usual suspects: a small core of increasingly untouchable stars: Messi, Suarez, Neymar, Iniesta, Busquets, Pique. [..] there has been some encouraging news too. The latest Deloitte Money League saw them overtake Real Madrid in terms of revenue for the first time since Deloitte started compiling the list two decades ago. At €620 million, it may still be some way short of Bartomeu’s €1 billion target. But off the pitch, Barcelona are making enormous strides. [..] The state of Barcelona in 2017, then, can be summarised thus: an unbalanced squad hampered by poor recruitment but elevated by a clutch of genuine world-class stars, a two-tier dressing room, a neglected academy, and unprecedented commercial performance. [..] To understand the modern Barcelona, you need to understand the modern Real Madrid, and to understand both, you need to understand Manchester United. During the 1990s, United did not just dominate English football. They changed the way football clubs thought about generating money. They were the first club to exploit the emerging markets of east Asia, the first club to recognise the money-spinning potential of corporate hospitality, the first club to set up their own TV channel. By the turn of the century, they were the richest club in the world, and Real and Barcelona were among the many continental rivals looking on enviously. Florentino Perez won the Real Madrid presidential election of 2000 on an audacious promise to poach Luis Figo from Barcelona. During the subsequent years, a period that came to be known as the “galacticos” era, Real embarked on one of the most stunning acquisition policies the sport had ever seen. Over four successive summers, Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham arrived at the Bernabeu at a total cost of €218 million. Later years brought Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez. When United signed Paul Pogba last summer, it ended an unbroken 16-year period during which Real had held the world transfer record. [..] there was a method to the madness, and it was inspired - believe it or not - by The Lion King. Real’s executives had studied the way Disney managed to create not just a box-office smash, but a long-term entertainment brand that generated merchandising and spin-off revenues long after the film had left the cinemas. That would be the Real model: put on a show, bring in the crowds, and then shake them down for every last cent. United may have blazed the trail, but Real went further than anyone before in redefining a football club as content provider and the football itself as an entertainment commodity. “The best players pay for themselves,” explained Jose Angel Sanchez, the club’s marketing manager. “They will deliver the best performance and the best spectacle. Real Madrid is a brand, and the product - the players and the games - is the content. Everything we do flows from this.” In July 2003, Madrid unveiled their latest signing: David Beckham. The press conference was held at 11am in order to make the evening news in Asia. It attracted the second-highest live television audience in history, after the funeral of Princess Diana. “That was a turning point, because of what he represented,” an unnamed Madrid director discloses in Sid Lowe’s Fear and Loathing in La Liga. “His arrival was the scientific proof that the spectacle was more important to us than the game itself.” [..] Keeping their galaxy of stars happy and balancing the books required sacrifices to be made elsewhere. The focus on signing prime attacking players left the squad woefully unbalanced. [..] Meanwhile, the club’s training ground was sold to pay for further spending. “Real Madrid has no game plan,” wrote Santiago Segurola in El País. “It is the product of a commercial idea that has relegated the actual sport to a secondary role. It spends enormous sums of money signing up stars, but they do not make a team. They are, rather, a disappointing mosaic, with some players in their twilight years, and others included solely for their commercial appeal.” [..] as Guardiola’s home-grown squad swept all before them, it was possible to see them as a rebuke to the entire galactico ideology, a triumph for the cantera, for localism, for organic talent. Just as Cruyff and Laporta had envisaged. Off the pitch, however, something quite different was happening. [..] When Laporta wrested control of Barcelona in 2003, the club were in dire trouble. Wages were a whopping 88 per cent of income. The commercial operation was primitive. Laporta noted with chagrin that while United were charging €2 million for a friendly, Barcelona commanded just €300,000. [..] while Rijkaard and then Guardiola were taking La Masia’s finest right to the top, Laporta was busy turning Barcelona into a lean, mean commercial machine. He renegotiated the club’s debt payments. He went on a subscription drive that increased the club’s membership by more than 60 per cent. And when the opportunity presented itself, he was not averse to signing a galactico of his own. Rosell used his Nike contacts to seal the signing of Ronaldinho in 2003, who over subsequent seasons would be followed by the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Unlike at Real, however, all this was done with a veneer of idealism. [..] In recent years, the slogan “mes que un club” has become a convenient stick with which to beat Barcelona. But briefly, fleetingly, it seemed to ring true. [..] Once Rosell arrived, that changed. The Unicef logo was moved from the front of the shirt to the small of the back, the bit you tuck in. In came the Qatar Foundation, followed by Qatar Airways in 2013. [..] [Bartomeu's] visions have a much broader scope. His next project is the expansion of the Camp Nou from 97,000 to 105,000, with the number of VIP seats rising from 1,800 to 10,000. For the first time, naming rights for the stadium will be sold to the highest bidder, who will likely have to fork out hundreds of millions of euros. [..] Bartomeu’s reponse is that in order to maintain Barcelona’s position at the top of world football, commercialisation is not an option, but an obligation. All of which brings us to perhaps the most important question of all. Does Barcelona make money to exist? Or does it now exist to make money? [..] Clubs like to tell us that financial success and football success are intimately linked, feeding off each other in a sort of virtuous circle. Win football. Make money. Use money to buy players. Win more football. Of course, they have to say that. It provides a flawless justification for their avarice, looks great on a boardroom Powerpoint presentation, and has the tangential advantage of sounding vaguely plausible. But at the very highest levels of the game, the relationship is far more complex than that. [..] “The formula that has made clubs grow in the past was this: sporting success leads to social success, which in turn leads to economic success,” he explains. “But we want to develop in a way that not everything hangs on victories or defeats. We want to make sure that the club remains a reference around the world, even when there is a failure.” [..] What he is admitting, in essence, is that he believes the primary function of the modern football club is not merely to win, but to insure itself against the prospect of losing. Of course, Bartomeu is not indifferent to whether Barcelona win or lose. It is just that from a business point of view, he would prefer it not to matter. This is a vision that gnaws at the very essence of what constitutes sport. All sporting competition, whatever it is, incorporates an element of uncertainty. [..] Successful companies abhor this. Uncertainty is bad for investors, bad for the market, and thus bad for business. Which is why modern superclubs are so keen to eliminate sporting risk at every opportunity [..]. Bartomeu, it may or may not surprise you to learn, is in favour of “wild cards” for big clubs who fail to qualify automatically for the Champions League. On the pitch, you can never eliminate chance entirely. Off it, however, you can come incredibly close. [..] wittingly or not, they have bought into the same cycle of boom and bust that Madrid did more than a decade ago. For the same forces that generate stability in the boardroom often militate against it on the pitch. The modern superclub is a restless beast. In order to keep the show on the road, it needs to keep reinventing itself, to attain a state of almost permanent transition. [..] This is, after all, an entertainment product. Madrid discovered this. Now Barcelona are discovering it too. Some seasons they will win everything. Others they will win nothing. But as long as the club is run sensibly, even their years of failure will constitute relative success. Here again, the United model is instructive. [..] on the balance sheet, they have still managed to grow their revenue for 12 straight years in a row, Champions League or no Champions League. If this is failure, then every club in the world would love a piece of it. [..] Barcelona’s successes will not look like the successes of the past. The game changes. There is little point comparing the current academy crop to the Messi generation: of the eight La Masia graduates who played in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, five made their debuts between 1998 and 2004, a period generally considered to be Barcelona’s nadir. [..] Clubs change. Never again will there be a generation of academy graduates like that of the Guardiola era. Never again will there be a Barcelona shirt free of advertising. It may be regrettable, but if you aspire to play elite football in 2017, it is simply the price of doing business. Barcelona are not in crisis. In a way, this is the point. It would take not just one catastrophe, but many, for Barcelona to be truly in crisis ever again."

#footballbusiness #Barca

0 notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

a closed starter for @infernalight

"Oh go fuck yourself." Husk bit out, full of rage and hate and ready to throw himself to the wolves. Angering Alastor would have to do the trick. Didn't hurt that he actually didn't want to this shit.

"I'll serve booze to your shitty clientele but I'm not helping you find more victims for that fucked up radio show of yours."

#[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ infernalight ] ── alastor #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down

3 notes · View notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

"I heard you down the hall. What's the matter this time?" to Husk. from @girlishgiggle

Husk had woken up in a cold sweat and apparently he had been crying out in his sleep too since apparently Mimzy who had been staying down the hall had been able to hear him.

Since Alastor had taken his soul Husk had started having dreams, well, nightmares more like. Visions of pain and anguish and screaming souls and a deep pervasive sense of dread that he is next. It's just a matter of time till hes a voice on the radio.

"It's just a fucking dream, Mimzy. I'm fine," he curtly replies, trying to keep his tone even. But even with the effort he's putting in its evident he's lying. His fur was up on end and he was ever so slightly shaking.

That dream must have been bad.

#[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down #[ girlishgiggle ] ── mimzy

4 notes · View notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

For Husk: "Easy does it, wouldn't want to ruin a disaster." from @girlishgiggle

Husk scowled at Mimzy and flipped her off while pointedly took another swig of the dogshit cheap alcohol he had scrounged up, "Fuck off, Mimz, on my my fucking break and I don't want to deal with your bullshit right now, got enough on my fucking plate."

They had been friends once, pretty close friends. They had pulled each other out of a couple pretty tight spots. He had offered her a great kindness when he had the power to actually do so.

And she had thrown it right back in his fucking face. No good deed really does go unpunished, especially in fucking hell.

#ive decided to give you when the chips are down husk for this lol #[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ girlishgiggle ] ── mimzy #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down

5 notes · View notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

Closed starter for @helluvah0tel

Husk was drunk. Husk was often inebriated, or buzzed, or tipsy, in his time in hell he had rarely been truly and properly drunk.

He had not intended to drink as much as he had, he had intended to simply drink himself to sleep, but with the nightmares he'd been having since he has lost sold his soul had been making it harder and harder for him to get much any rest.

So he had started drinking that night and had not stopped, and now it was no longer the night and Husk was truly and properly drunk. And probably late.

He was pretty sure Alastor had wanted him for something but he couldn't remember what.

He'd probably figure it out soon enough.

#tw alchoholism #tw substance abuse #[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down #[ helluvah0tel ] ── alastor

3 notes · View notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

a closed starter for @infernalight

This was it.

Husk was going to keep his soul, he was going to get back enough souls to keep the casino running, he was going to get one up on this smug bitch of a moth.

Four of a kind. Four fucking aces.

The chances were astronomically small that he even got this good a hand and he hadn't even used any of his powers to manipulate the deck -- a stipulation of the deal made to get him this game in the first place.

The literal only way that Val would be able to beat him would be if he had a royal flush and both a four of aces and a royal flush in one game? Fucking impossible.

Husk laughed as he slammed down his cards, grinning nearly ear to ear, "Read them and fucking weep Val, I fucking win."

And then he saw Val's face.

Val did not have a poker face. Val, notoriously, did not have a poker face.

And he did not look upset. He did not look like a man who had just lost a sizable portion of his staff and wealth.

He was smiling, and smugly at that. He looked like a cat who had just caught a mouse and had decided it wanted to play with its food.

"Lo siento, gatito," He said with a little flourish of his cards as he flipped them over, his smile widening to a grin as he saw the look on Husk's face fall.

A royal flush.

Valentino had a royal flush.

The dealer pushed the pot over to Valentino and Husk could almost feel it, feel the sudden loss of a soul, feel the sudden loss of agency.

It was over.

He was over.

#t: my apologies kitty #[ tbt ] ── infernalight husk val contract #[ infernalight ] ── valentino #[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down

0 notes

gambling-bartender · 7 months

Text

a closed starter for @bossmanvalentino

This was it.

Husk was going to keep his soul, he was going to get back enough souls to keep the casino running, he was going to get one up on this smug bitch of a moth.

Four of a kind. Four fucking aces.

The literal only way that Val would be able to beat him would be if he had a royal flush and both a four of aces and a royal flush in one game? Fucking impossible.

Husk laughed as he slammed down his cards, grinning nearly ear to ear, "Read them and fucking weep Val, I fucking win."

And then he saw Val's face.

Val did not have a poker face. Val, notoriously, did not have a poker face.

And he did not look upset. He did not look like a man who had just lost a sizable portion of his staff and wealth.

He was smiling, and smugly at that. He looked like a cat who had just caught a mouse and had decided it wanted to play with its food.

"Lo siento, gatito," He said with a little flourish of his cards as he flipped them over, his smile widening to a grin as he saw the look on Husk's face fall.

A royal flush.

Valentino had a royal flush.

The dealer pushed the pot over to Valentino and Husk could almost feel it, feel the sudden loss of a soul, feel the sudden loss of agency.

It was over.

He was over.

#t: my apologies kitty #[ husk ic ] ── looking in the bottom of the bottle #[ husk era ] ── when the chips are down #[ tbt ] ── bossmanvalentino husk val contract #[ bossmanvalentino ] ── val

1 note · View note

topfygad · 5 years

Text

Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

So as I like to share my travel tips, here are 13 of the top things to eat and drink in Key West, Florida.

Enjoy.

13 Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

1. A Cuban sandwich from 5 Brothers

2. A Cuban coffee from Cuban Coffee Queen

If you want to join the cool crowds however, head to the Cuban Coffee Queen on Key Lime Square in Downtown or Margaret Street by Key West’s waterfront.

Order some Pan Cubano (Cuban bread) and follow the tradition of dunking it in your cup.

sweet Bucci at El Siboney restaurant

3. Puerco Asado from El Siboney

4. Empanadas & Arepas

Head to El Siboney, Bliss restaurant or Frita’s Cuban Burgers for some of the best empanadas and arepas. As the name suggests, the latter is also famous for its incredible Latin-inspired burgers.

5. Burritos and Tacos from Badboy Burrito

As I mentioned in my post about the Southernmost Food Tour, the burritos and tacos from Badboy Burrito are legendary in Key West.

Fun fact – Badboy Burrito featured on the Food Network. You’ll find a second shop further up the Keys in Islamorada too.

6. Quesadillas from Bistro 245

7. Key lime pie from Key West Old Town & Bahama Village

You can guarantee that whichever version you try, they’re going to be good.

The most famous Key Lime Pie shops in Key West include Key West Key Lime Pie Co, The Key Lime Bakery and Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe.

You can also try these gorgeous mini Key Lime Pies (pictured) at the legendary Blue Heaven in Bahama Village. They are out of this world.

8. Other Key Lime treats

9. Conch – fritters, cracked, chowder and burgers

For the best conch salad in Key West, I hear that it’s Johnson’s Grocery, an unassuming shop in the heart of Bahama Village.

And finally, when it comes to conch chowder, try El Siboney, Willie T’s or the Conch Republic Seafood Company on the waterfront and you won’t be disappointed.

10. Hogfish sandwich from Geiger Key Marina

Blackening seasoning made by Chef Bobby Stoky of Marker 88 restaurant

11. Rum Runner from the Speakeasy Inn & Rum Bar

12. Caribbean inspired cooking

Thanks to its proximity to the Caribbean islands and its strong Caribbean community, the food in Key West has many West Indian influences (which made me very happy).

Over at Blue Heaven in Bahama Village, you’ll find a bounty of Caribbean-inspired curries on the menu with jerk spices and Red Stripe Beer making their way into the chef’s cook books.

Meanwhile, for no-frills Creole food that’s cooked from the heart, check out Mo’s, a Haitian restaurant where the servings are as big as the flavours.

Find authentic home cooking that’s transports you to the Caribbean

13. Stone crab, shrimp and spiny lobster

If you like seafood, you’ll be in your element in the Florida Keys. So once you’ve tried the local conch and lobster, you might like to try a few other types of locally-caught shellfish.

Have I got you feeling hungry? What are your tips for the top things to eat and drink in Key West? Feel free to leave your comments.

Pin Me

Like this:

Like Loading…

Some of my restaurant visits mentioned were hosted by The Florida Keys & Key West Tourist Board. All views here are my own.

source http://cheaprtravels.com/top-things-to-eat-and-drink-in-key-west-florida/

0 notes

topfygad · 5 years

Text

Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

So as I like to share my travel tips, here are 13 of the top things to eat and drink in Key West, Florida.

Enjoy.

13 Top things to eat and drink in Key West Florida

1. A Cuban sandwich from 5 Brothers

2. A Cuban coffee from Cuban Coffee Queen

If you want to join the cool crowds however, head to the Cuban Coffee Queen on Key Lime Square in Downtown or Margaret Street by Key West’s waterfront.

Order some Pan Cubano (Cuban bread) and follow the tradition of dunking it in your cup.

sweet Bucci at El Siboney restaurant

3. Puerco Asado from El Siboney

4. Empanadas & Arepas

Head to El Siboney, Bliss restaurant or Frita’s Cuban Burgers for some of the best empanadas and arepas. As the name suggests, the latter is also famous for its incredible Latin-inspired burgers.

5. Burritos and Tacos from Badboy Burrito

As I mentioned in my post about the Southernmost Food Tour, the burritos and tacos from Badboy Burrito are legendary in Key West.

Fun fact – Badboy Burrito featured on the Food Network. You’ll find a second shop further up the Keys in Islamorada too.

6. Quesadillas from Bistro 245

7. Key lime pie from Key West Old Town & Bahama Village

You can guarantee that whichever version you try, they’re going to be good.

The most famous Key Lime Pie shops in Key West include Key West Key Lime Pie Co, The Key Lime Bakery and Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe.

You can also try these gorgeous mini Key Lime Pies (pictured) at the legendary Blue Heaven in Bahama Village. They are out of this world.

8. Other Key Lime treats

9. Conch – fritters, cracked, chowder and burgers

For the best conch salad in Key West, I hear that it’s Johnson’s Grocery, an unassuming shop in the heart of Bahama Village.

And finally, when it comes to conch chowder, try El Siboney, Willie T’s or the Conch Republic Seafood Company on the waterfront and you won’t be disappointed.

10. Hogfish sandwich from Geiger Key Marina

Blackening seasoning made by Chef Bobby Stoky of Marker 88 restaurant

11. Rum Runner from the Speakeasy Inn & Rum Bar

12. Caribbean inspired cooking

Thanks to its proximity to the Caribbean islands and its strong Caribbean community, the food in Key West has many West Indian influences (which made me very happy).

Over at Blue Heaven in Bahama Village, you’ll find a bounty of Caribbean-inspired curries on the menu with jerk spices and Red Stripe Beer making their way into the chef’s cook books.

Meanwhile, for no-frills Creole food that’s cooked from the heart, check out Mo’s, a Haitian restaurant where the servings are as big as the flavours.

Find authentic home cooking that’s transports you to the Caribbean

13. Stone crab, shrimp and spiny lobster

If you like seafood, you’ll be in your element in the Florida Keys. So once you’ve tried the local conch and lobster, you might like to try a few other types of locally-caught shellfish.

Have I got you feeling hungry? What are your tips for the top things to eat and drink in Key West? Feel free to leave your comments.

Pin Me

Like this:

Like Loading…

Some of my restaurant visits mentioned were hosted by The Florida Keys & Key West Tourist Board. All views here are my own.

from Cheapr Travels http://cheaprtravels.com/top-things-to-eat-and-drink-in-key-west-florida/ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Cheapr Travels

0 notes