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themonkeycabal · 3 years

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Wandavision Ep 6 Spoilers

No really, spoilers.

Previously on Wandavision — Wanda told SWORD to shove their drones right straight up their asses, Vision woke up to the reality that his utopian sitcom life was in fact a dystopian hellscape, their children were extremely creepy, and Agnes was being bizarre as hell and super sus. In the real world, Acting Director Dick was a dick, and Darcy and Jimmy welcomed Monica into their sciencey weird-crime-fighting team. Monica also mentioned an aerospace engineer she knows, which some suggest may be the first mention of Reed Richards in the MCU. I have conflicted feelings about the Fantastic Four. Mostly I never liked them. But, I'm open to revising my opinion.

Oh, and also X-Men 'Verse Pietro showed up suddenly and that was fun.

Anyway. the roommate and I tried to sort out a timeline — so Monica unBlips and goes back to work at SWORD three weeks later. AD Dick tells us Wanda stole Vision's body nine days previously. That means, just three weeks ago Wanda was in the middle of a battle, lost her boyfriend, was Snapped, was then unsnapped to fall right into the middle of another battle. Lost THREE additional teammates. And then sometime in the following week found out a shady government agency had Vision's body and she probably went "OH HELL NO". Because that's what I would say. So she goes to SWORD, dents a few doors, takes Vision's body and swans off to New Jersey. Look, she's been through a hell of a lot in the last couple weeks, is what I'm saying. I don't blame her a tiny bit. But, also, I don't think she's entirely behind this.

10-year old boy plus video camera = the 90s. Obnoxious opening credits. But, you know, I kind of liked them (as a one off). WAYYY better than last week's.

It's Halloween, and *sigh* Billy is breaking the fourth wall and narrating to the camera. There's childish twin bickering as you expect, Tommy's the wild and crazy twin, and Billy's the buttoned up twin. And Pietro is passed out on the couch at 4 in the afternoon. Living his best life. He teasingly scares the boys, chases them around, and there's awkward child acting.

Wanda comes down the stairs in the classic Scarlet Witch costume, and says she's a Sokovian Fortune Teller. Sokovia was more wild than I realized.

Genuinely funny flashback to Wanda and Pietro trick-or-treating in Sokovia as kids, 'the year we got typhus'. lol. Was it the fish that gave them typhus? Or was that just a special treat? Wanda doubts this version of events, and Pietro suggests she suppressed the memory due to the trauma. This gives Billy the chance to tell the camera that mom's been weird since uncle Pietro turned up to crash on their couch.

Next it's Vision's turn to appear in the classic Vision costume. Yikes. Wanda thanks him for humoring her, and he says there were no other clothes in his closet and they have a very weird second where he's not playing along and she's not sure what to do, and then he breaks into sitcom character says something about "just kidding, i know how much you love mexican wrestling" like it's a luchador costume, and then there's some super weird flirting. TMI you two.

Meanwhile, Pietro is a large child and the kids love him, of course. So there's that.

Back to Wanda and Vision, she's ready to take the kids out trick-or-treating, but Vision says he can't go, he's on the neighborhood watch and must patrol the streets ever-vigilant for wild gangs of child hooligans who might TP trees. He's gone off-script and it takes Wanda a second to figure out how to play this. She says it's the boys' first Halloween so he has to be there. Pietro breaks up the almost argument and says he can be a father figure-type and he'll help with the boys. Vision's still pretty off-script but Wanda doesn't fight it but looks uncertain, and he goes off to protect the night — or early afternoon.

Pietro is a child hooligan and wants to go do hooligany things with the kids. Wanda says he doesn't have a costume and he grabs Billy and they speed off only to return dressed in classic Quicksilver duds. Well, cheap-looking, thrown together Quicksilver duds. I laughed. The hair. lol. Good one.

Outside in the real world. The Hex field is still kind of glowing red and making bad force field noises. It only started doing that when Wanda got pissed in the last ep. Oh, goody, it's Acting Director Dick. I've learned his name is Hayward. I don't care.

Blah blah Stompy Mc-I'm-In-Charge blah. Monica is not pleased about the whole trying to kill Wanda with a missile while she was talking to her plan. AD Dick just says "now we know who we're dealing with". Um … what? You tried to kill her and her response was to tell you to go away. Yeah, boy, she's a monster.

Darcy is there to helpfully remind AD Dick that Wanda made him look like the fool he is. ILU girl. "Hey, there he is; the guy who almost got murdered by his own murder squad." Jimmy just makes a 'i'm so disappointed in you and your choices' face at him in the background.

I despise characters like Hayward. They are so tedious. Narratively they are there to incite conflict, but given the situation conflict naturally exists, surely there are other ways to bring up/drive that tension without the trope of the government heavy ready to solve the problem with the most extreme amount of force available to him. OH no! Our plucky heroes will have to find a way to save the day and fight the Man! Can they do it? Boring. It's too bad General Talbot went insane and then died; he could probably give tips on How Not To Be That Guy.

Anyway

Hayward wants to know if Darcy works for him and she's like "dunno my dude", Monica claims her, AD Dick says "which one of you is the sassy best friend" and Jimmy's like, that is quite enough Acting Director Not Very Nice Man. "There's no time to diminish your colleagues when you're about to start a war you can't win." AD Dick just wants to take out Wanda so the whole nightmare ends. Monica's like um, we literally do not know what's going on. Like, for real we have no clue. So that might not, in fact, end the nightmare, Director Murder Britches.

They argue a lot and Director Dick goes off the rails. Dude's like more unhinged than seems warranted. Unless he's just so embarrassed that he pissed himself when Wanda returned his murder drone to him, he's decided SHE MUST BE DESTROYED FOR THE GOOD OF … NEW JERSEY AND MY SOILED UNDERWEAR OR SOMETHING.

"Captain Rambeau, you are an impediment to this mission!" Oh no! He's gonna tell her all about how hard it was to survive in a post-blip world, all those lucky blipped don't know what it was like! You just can't understand! Monica tells him not to use that as an excuse to be a coward. I'm so bored with this scene. Let me guess, the trio will have to go behind his back to save the day.

"Maybe it's a good thing you weren't here with your mother died. Because, clearly you don't have the stomach for this job." … non-sequitur much? Or is he saying she would have inherited the Director-ship (which should probably not be how that sort of agency works, let's be real). Is this scene five hours long, or does it just feel that way?

The Dick banishes the trio from his base.

"Hayward is way over-stepping his provisional authority". Jimmy Woo, you're so great. Monica says he's up to something. Yeah a tactical nuke and murder. Clearly he doesn't want to actually solve the problem, he just wants the problem to go away with a big show of macho explosions and whatnot. I suspect he might be in over his head, like he was not meant to be Acting Director, let alone Director. Also, he's a boring cliche stereotype and I loathe it.

JIMMY! I legit did not see that coming. He just pure hauls off and clocks one of the soldiers escorting them off the base, to a transport truck or something. Monica seems just as surprised for a second but then she's like "hell yeah!" and jumps in. Darcy sort of stands back and watches. lol. "Why didn't anyone tell me the plan?"

Oh look, it's my shipping container! They put the soldiers in there. Guys, it was for Hayward. Come on.

The trio disguise themselves with ponchos, which is a big step up from the usual MCU disguise of "baseball hat". That was a good bit in Ant-man and the Wasp "it's not a disguise, it just looks like us at a baseball game" (I watched that like last week. I missed Luis). Anyway …

Back in the sitcom world. The kids are ready for their early afternoon trick-or-treating. They're still talking to the camera. It's so awkward. I'm not a fan. I get it's meant to reproduce the very 90s Nick-era sitcoms and so, you know, it's spot on. Still, though.

Pietro is encouraging and supportive. "Unleash hell, demon spawn!"

Dang there are a lot of kids in that neighborhood. Wasn't Vision wondering last episode why there weren't any kids? Is the program correcting itself?

Wanda tries to test Pietro, asking him about some kid at an orphanage when they were kids. Pietro calls her on it, and says he knows he looks different. Wanda wants to know why that is. He says, "You tell me. I mean, if I found shangra-la, I wouldn't want to be reminded of the past, either." Hmm.

The kids speed off with uncle Pietro. Wanda wanders over to talk to neighbor Herb, who has a g-man earbud in and is clearly part of the neighborhood watch. In the background Pietro is stealing all the candy and smashing pumpkins and spraying the place with silly string. The hijinks are so wacky. Wanda tells Herb maybe Vision can help out with the chaos, and Herb says Vision isn't on duty. Oh no, he lied to her!

Herb goes weird "is there something I can do for you, Wanda? Do you want something changed?" Hmmm.

Elsewhere Vision is wandering the wild streets of Westview. He finds people caught in some type of weird decorating loop, the woman seems trapped but aware.

Commercial time! What the fuck was that. "Yo-magic! The snack for survivors." No, really, what the fuck.

Night has fallen, the twins and the twins walk the streets. Wanda's making the boys give back all the candy they stole. She says Pietro is a bad influence. He says "I'm just trying to do my part, kay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and ultimately give you grief. I mean, that's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"What happened to your accent?"

"What happened to yours? Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump in the street for no reason." AHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHA! no really AHAHAHAHAAH! Thank you, Pietro! Holy shit, perfect. That's some delicious shade. I expect to see this gif'd fifteen different ways when I load tumblr today.

"Next thing I know, I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me."

The kids interrupt. And now all of a sudden Tommy can zoom. Character development!

Everyone is so careful to give Wanda what she wants. Why? She's not cruel. Who wants to keep her pacified? And whoever it is cannot possibly be pleased with AD Dick messing things up. Assuming it's an outside or outside-ish force/entity, of course. I mean, I don't think she's doing this entirely, she might be the battery powering it, but despite her thing last episode to get SWORD to leave her alone, she does seem a little confused about the where, why, and how things are going.

"Don't go past Ellis Avenue." Just a kid thing or a boundary of the sitcom control world?

In the real world, our heroes are sneaking through a tent city and into the server room. The scene with Pietro and Wanda discussing his accent is playing in the background. Darcy seems put-out that Pietro was recast. lol. "He brought the wrong face."

Darcy hacks into Hayward's devices. "Hayward figured out a way to look through the boundary." "And he didn't share it with the group." I don't like Hayward.

Something is blipping on the map on the computer. Jimmy asks if it's Wanda, but Darcy says "it's tracking the decay signature of vibranium". So Vision. Monica wants to know why Hayward is tracking Vision. Well, I'd super like to know what SWORD was doing with Vision in the first place, because they weren't just storing him, they were doing something. So …

Jimmy notices that there are other dots, the ones closest to Vision, who are other residents. Jimmy says the ones near the edge of town are barely moving.

Back to Vision. He's found a cul-de-sac to patrol. Everybody's frozen in place, the street lights flicker. Eerie. They're all dressed for Halloween. Does this mean the field is shrinking, or the effects spreading and so it's closing in, slowing and then freezing people who were earlier moving about just fine? Vision is unaffected by this whatever it is. He turns himself into himself and flies off, up above the town. part of the town is dark, and part alive with voices and laughter.

He spots a car at the edge of town. It's Agnes. She seems frozen-ish, but when he asks what she's doing there, she says "Town Square Scare. Where is it?" all robotic like. Vision helpfully tries to give directions. lol. "Took a wrong turn, got lost" she says.

Vision touches her head and she wakes up. "You! You're one of the Avengers. You're Vision. Are you here to help us?" "I am Vision. I do want to help. But, what's an Avenger?"

Hmm. Well, I guess he did say last week that he couldn't remember anything before Westview.

"Am I dead?" she asks. "No, why would you think that?" "Because you are."

What was news coverage after the Snap like, do you suppose? I mean, ridiculous, of course. But, like, I think they had bigger problems then wondering about snapped/dead Avengers, didn't they? Well, maybe not. "WHERE ARE AVENGERS TO HELP US?" or "HOW DARE THE AVENGERS NOT HELP US!" "TOTALLY THIS IS ON THE AVENGERS!" "WE'D ALL BE DEAD WITHOUT THE AVENGERS!" "NUHUH! BOO AVENGERS!" "EXCEPT VISION WHO DIED HEROICALLY, WE ALL LIKE THAT AVENGER!" "TONY STARK AND PEPPER POTTS SHARE THE DECORATING TIPS THAT TRANSFORMED THEIR RUSTIC RESTORATION PROJECT INTO A CHARMING FAMILY HOME".

Agnes starts screaming "Dead" at Vision. She's not coping well. Vision says he's going to try and reach outside town and try to figure this all out. "How? No one leaves. Wanda won't even let us think about it." I SUSPECT YOU, AGNES! Why would Wanda keep everybody trapped and miserable? I could see if she did it on accident, but this implies she's purposefully hurting people. I don't buy it. Agnes, again, seems to be in the right place at the right time to make Vision doubt Wanda. You're a very suspicious character, Agnes.

She starts to laugh. "All is lost." Vision touches her had and she resets to sitcom Agnes. Somehow she can move again, she turns the car around on Ellis Ave and heads back into town. So, that answers that.

Vision walks across the Eillis Ave to the field beyond.

Meanwhile, Darcy continues to hack. Monica gets a text and says "that's it! My way back into the Hex will be here in an hour." Jimmy's all ready to boost a ride to take her to meet her aerospace buddy. But, Darcy says, nope. Can't do it. Monica's been through the Hex twice, and it's rewritten her cells. "It's changing you." Monica is undaunted. "I know what Wanda's feeling and I won't stop until I help her." Alrighty then.

Jimmy's finally going to get to hotwire a car! But wait, Darcy's not going with them. AD Dick has something hidden behind one last firewall. Darcy thinks it's big and can help them. She's going to find it.

I don't think Jimmy had to hotwire that humvee. It just started right up. Motorpool, pfft - they always leave the keys.

Back in Westview. Halloween continues at Town Square. Pietro asks Wanda where she was hiding all those kids. Whu? Says Wanda. "I assume they were all just sleeping peacefully in their beds. No need to traumatize beyond the occasional holiday cameo, amiright?" What is Pietro. "Hey don't get me wrong, you've handled the ethical considerations of this scenario as best you could. Families and couples stay together. Most personalities aren't far from what's underneath. People got better jobs. Better haircuts for sure."

"You don't think it's wrong?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm impressed. It's a pretty big leap from giving people nightmares and shooting red wigglywoos out your hands." No, really, what is Pietro? "How'd you even do all this?" Hmmm.

"I don't know how I did it. I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. Just endless nothingness." She looks back at Pietro and for a second he's dead Pietro. Poor Wanda.

Darcy continues to hack Hayward's systems. Cataract classified weapons something something. They're still tracking Vision. Who continues his walk across the field and comes to the hex. He tries to push through it. Looks painful. SWORD rolls out to go overreact at him. He makes it through the barrier, kind of. It's a struggle.

Hayward standing there looking like a jackass "he really does want out, doesn't he?" Like he’s just amused by this turn of events, or watching a lab rat try to get out of the lab.

Darcy's standing behind watching all of this. Bits of Vision sort of fly off and back into the Hex. Darcy says "oh no!" and runs towards him, screaming for them to help him. Way to give away your sneaky hiding, girlfriend.

In Westview. Billy looks up, he can hear what's going on outside. "I hear daddy in my head. He's in trouble."

Vision calls for help, while SWORD prioritizes arresting Darcy. Phil Coulson would never have behaved like this. Boo to SWORD. Vision is dissolving. It's kind of gross and sad.

Wanda asks where Vision is, and Pietro interrupts "Don't sweat it, sis. It's not like your dead husband can die twice." Wanda wallops him with some red wigglywoos.

Billy sees soldiers and thinks Vision is dying. Wanda stops everything and makes a big red boom. The Hex appears to be expanding. Whoops, now you've done it AD Dick. He runs away like the brave brave guy he is. They leave Darcy handcuffed to a jeep. "Are you serious right now?"

The Hex overtakes Vision and then Darcy. Trapped soldiers become clowns, and we're in the circus. Well, SWORD seems like a circus, so Wanda's not wrong. I'm pretty sure Jimmy and Monica made it, but sadly the bravest Director who ever braved also escaped. He deserved to be a circus clown. Better luck next week, Wanda.

Credits.

Well, I just don't know anymore.

Hayward doesn't care about Wanda, except where I think because of this someone will figure out what he was doing to Vision's body. And Vision is ultimately the thing he cares about in all this. I hope Wanda drops a house on him.

Hmmm.

Quit suggesting I watch Age of Ultron next, Disney. It’s not happening.

#wandavision #wandavision spoilers #wandavision liveblog

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outoftowninac · 3 years

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THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH

1942

“The Skin of Our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder was written in early 1942 and premiered on Broadway in November of that year, after tryouts in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New Haven. It opened at Broadway’s Plymouth Theatre on November 18, 1942. By 1942, Atlantic City was no longer one of the regular cities to host out-of-town tryouts. Baltimore and Washington were also on the try-out schedule, but were dropped when rehearsals were delayed due to cast commitments.

It was produced by Michael Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan with costumes by Mary Percy Schenck. The play is a three-part allegory about the life of mankind, centering on the Antrobus family.

The original production starred Tallulah Bankhead (as Sabina the Maid), Fredric March (George Antrobus), Florence Eldridge (Mrs. Antrobus), and Montgomery Clift (as son George). Bankhead won a Variety Award for Best Actress and the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Actress of the Year for her role as Sabina. When she left the production in March 1943, she was replaced by Miriam Hopkins. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The phrase used as the title comes from the King James Bible, Job 19:20: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."

There were Broadway revivals in 1955 and 1975 with another revival planned for 2022 at Lincoln Center. There was a production at the Central Park Delacourte Theatre in 1998.

Although the play was never filmed as a motion picture, a San Diego production aired on PBS TV in 1983.

There were also television productions in 1951 and 1955 (above with Helen Hayes and Mary Martin), 1959 (UK), and 1961 (Germany).

The play’s second act is set on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Acts One and Three are set in the fictional New Jersey town of Excelsior. The author, although not born in New Jersey, had ties to the state. He attended Princeton University, and taught school in Lawrenceville NJ. His now-iconic play “Our Town” had its first performances at McCarter Theatre in Princeton.

In 1931, Wilder wrote a one-act titled “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden.” Almost the entire play takes place during an automobile journey from Newark to Camden, New Jersey by a family on their way to visit a married daughter, who has recently lost a baby in childbirth.

In Atlantic City, the Antrobuses are present for father George's swearing-in as president of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans. Sabina the maid is present, also, in the guise of a scheming beauty queen, who tries to steal George's affection from his wife and family. Children Gladys and George each attempt their individual rebellions, and are brought back into line by the family. The act ends with the family members reconciled and, paralleling the Biblical story of Noah's Ark, directing pairs of animals to safety on a large boat where they survive the storm and/or the end of the world.

The real Atlantic City in 1942.

The play capitalizes on Atlantic City’s reputation as a popular spot for conventions, beauty pageants, fortune tellers, and gambling (in the form of Bingo) - all things the city is still known for today. Many productions include Atlantic City’s famous rolling chairs in their design.

Although the original production was set in the present (1942) some modern productions also set the show in the present day, meaning set designers are free to use more modern Atlantic City iconography.

#Atlantic City #Thornton Wilder #The Skin of Our Teeth #Broadway #Boardwalk #Theatre #1942 #New Jersey #NJ #Stage

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incorrectbatfam · 4 years

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For the vampier au: how do they each get turned?

The year is 1000 BCE. Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul rule the Persian empires as two of the first vampires in existence, existing largely in secret. They make it their goal to turn as many people over to their side as possible, whether by battle or biting. Biologically, Damian was born a vampire and they utilize some arcane magic to make him appear as a child forever, because even back then people knew that children were far better at getting their way than adults. Honed as a weapon for literally millenia, Damian Al Ghul practically becomes a cryptid in his own right. Villagers shared stories of people who saw the child and never being the same—or worse, never returning. The Al Ghuls were responsible for the most well-known vampires in history, including the famous Count Dracula.

The year is 800 BCE. At 200 years old, Damian was still considered very young for a vampire. He is sent on a mission to turn to their side a young lady who was practically viewed as a goddess by other women, and who aspired to become one of the greatest poets of all time. Talia dropped Damian off on the island of Lesbos. Faster than lightning, the child warrior swooped down and bit the legendary Sappho. Now an immortal, Sappho dedicated her eternity of free time to her passion for writing, where she composed her famous Ode To Aphrodite. Eventually she got bored of Greece, so she changed her appearance and set off exploring the greater Asian continent.

The year is 1206. Genghis Khan had conquered much of the world. Under the Mongol empire, it was as common for women to serve in army as men. One of Khan’s most distinguished fighters came from the Manchuria region. She was a mercenary for the army, a lone wolf. And though she found thrill in battle, she was lonely. And, as fate may have it, so was Sappho. They met in a village where the army was stationed and forged a tight-knit partnership. They laughed together, they fought together. And the thought of being separated was unimaginable. So when Sappho revealed herself to be a vampire, the Mongol warrior jumped at the chance to become one too. And so she was transformed with consent, and together they roamed the world in search for adventure.

The year is 1775. The two girls had heard of this supposed New World and the colonies Britain established. They wanted to see it for themselves. Changing their names and appearances to something more Anglican, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain boarded a ship set for what would become modern-day New Jersey. Immediately they found a stark lack of immortals there and they didn’t want to be the only ones, so they set off on a biting spree, turning men, women, children, and even a few farm animals (two dogs, a cat, a cow, and a turkey) without care. One of these victims was an elderly English nobleman named Alfred Pennyworth. Cassandra took the animals under her wing, while Stephanie felt bad for Alfred because he seemed to have nobody around. So the girls “adopted” Alfred as their grandfather so he wouldn’t be lonely either.

The year is 1871. Haly’s Circus was the most popular traveling show during Europe’s Industrial Age. Disguised as mother and child laborers working behind the scenes, Damian and Talia were on the lookout for new potential soldiers. And who would make a more perfect killer than the swift, agile Flying Graysons? Talia tried persuading John and Mary nicely, using Damian’s adorable boyish face, and they did give in. At least, at first. But within a few months of John, Mary, and Richard being turned, the parents changed their mind. They wanted nothing to do with Ra’s Al Ghul’s agenda and threatened to expose the vampires to the world. Talia had no choice but to get rid of them. She paid a lower-level mortal criminal to rig the ropes and douse the trapezes in holy water, which would lead to the downfall of John and Mary. The press reported it as a tragic accident. Alfred, who was at the circus during his holiday when it happened, couldn’t help but notice the burn marks on their hands. He chalked it up to coincidence or a prior unrelated injury in the end

The year is 1920. All that the grieving Richard Grayson wanted was to get away from the ghost of his past. He traveled to America, settling in the subpar city of Gotham, New Jersey. As much as he wanted to drink his troubles away, it was just his luck that he arrived at the beginning of Prohibition. His apartment was near a speakeasy, though, so he frequented that. The underground bar itself was owned by mob boss Jason Todd, who was notorious for brandishing guns and picking drunken fights—and winning all of them. But his streak would end when he had one too many glasses of moonshine and challenged an unwilling Richard Grayson to a fistfight. “What, you gonna back out, ya little dick?” Jason taunted. The former Flying Grayson himself wasn’t in the most sober state ever, so after some convincing and people placing betting money on the table, they took up the challenge. It was the roughest fight that bar had ever seen, and in a final act of self-defense, Richard bit Jason. (Granted, it wasn’t in the neck, but a bite was a bite). Jason becoming vampire wasn’t the worst consequence. No, it the older one being stuck with a terrible nickname: Dick.

The year was 1965. One of Ra’s fortune tellers predicted an influx of young soldiers arriving in Vietnam before war was even declared, and Ra’s sent his grandson to a rural village in the country undercover to find more recruits as the League of Assassins’ influence was diminishing. The environment of thick, bushy jungles worked in Damian’s favor as he was able to hide and strike on French and U.S. soldiers. He even managed to turn all but two members of a New Jersey infantry. Later on, the government reported one of the drafted soldiers, Duke Thomas, as missing, but in reality the young man went into hiding with two other vampire soldiers on his squad. And it was a reasonable move—mass media was on the rise and the last thing anyone needed was vampires being exposed as real to the public. Not only that, but Duke displayed abilities that the other two didn’t have, likely attributed to the combined effects of vampire magic and chemical agents like Napalm used at the time, and neither General Grayson nor Lieutenant Todd knew what to make of it.

The year was 1999. A teenage Tim Drake was out on a late-night grocery run to get more supplies, because 2000 was in just a few months and everyone was preparing for the supposed end of the world. He made the grave mistake of taking a shortcut through Crime Alley in an effort to get home on time, and was bitten in the leg by a “homeless” kid who seemed to appear out of nowhere before scurrying off. He didn’t experience anything strange for the next few years. He got plenty of sunburns, but he burned easily even before the incident. He kept his bedroom dark and stayed awake all night, but so did a lot of teenagers during that grunge/post-punk era. Silver felt weird, which he brushed off as an allergy. He avoided churches but that was because religion was never his thing. He craved red meat and avoided garlic, but hey, people had their likes and dislikes. It wasn’t until about five years later, when Tim realized he hadn’t aged a day, that he considered doing some research.

The year was 2019. Bruce Wayne was at one of his famous Wayne Enterprises gala on New Year’s when he met a stunningly beautiful woman named Talia. She slipped a little something into his drink when he wasn’t looking. Bruce couldn’t remember what happened after that, only waking up with a killer hangover and strange hickey on his neck. He had been Batman for a while now, and when he started experiencing unexplainable things he sought the help of the magician Zatanna, who found out that somebody turned him into a vampire. If he wasn’t brooding before, he definitely was now, and it didn’t help that the butler was a smartass. Alfred revealed to Bruce that he had been a vampire the whole time, looking over the Wayne family since Thomas’s father’s father, because the wealthy Waynes made easy targets for the supernatural. In an attempt to make Bruce feel less alone, Alfred invited Stephanie and Cassandra over for dinner (“Alfred, great to see you again! It’s been, like, a hundred years!”). It was over dinner that Bruce asked questions and the older vampires told their stories, and Alfred offhandedly mentioned something about Haly’s Circus that caught Bruce’s attention. Fresh burn marks from touching a trapeze? Something didn’t seem right. Though the case was over a century old, Bruce did some searching on the Batcomputer and found too many discrepancies in the Flying Grayson case for it to be just a regular accident. With Stephanie and Cassandra’s help, Bruce traced the parents’ deaths back to the League of Assassins. But one new questioned surfaced after all this: what happened to Richard? That question would be answered a few weeks later when Bruce dug up another cold case: a file about an MIA Vietnam War soldier from Gotham, Duke Thomas. He tracked down Duke’s whereabouts, and it turned out he was hiding from the League of Assassins with two other missing people from history: the circus performer Richard Grayson and mobster Jason Todd. Bruce offered him the best damn thing in their eyes: sanctuary. He took all three of them under his bat wing and they joined his immortal crusade against Gotham crime. Some time later, Talia introduced Damian to Bruce under the guise that Damian was Bruce’s son, citing the night she met Bruce at the party. Damian only agreed to Talia’s infiltration plan because he was sick of how Ra’s treated him, like an object rather than a being. So although the paternity test came out negative, Bruce still insisted that Damian was his son and kept him. As for Tim Drake? His story is pretty much the same: deducing Batman and Nightwing’s identities and demanding to join them—classic Timmers move

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footloose-travel · 3 years

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Lazily Meandering Maine’s Untamed Coast

I’ve spent time in Maine only a few times before, and it was mostly to go to specific places for a “vacation”. This time we worked our way up from New Jersey, through parts of New Hampshire, then when we reached the Maine border time shifted, and everything slowed down. Our first week in the Lebanon area, where John had hoped to skydive, it rained pretty much every day. We mostly did some housekeeping type stuff; I wrote and John got only one jump in. We cooked and took our time, getting used to humidity and the sound of rain on our trailer roof. We learned the season up here doesn’t really start until Memorial Day weekend so a lot of campgrounds and things to do weren’t even open yet, but it didn’t deter us from enjoying the feeling of the area. As we moved further up the coast the weather cleared up and the stunning views, clear blue sky, cool breeze, vast ocean, lighthouses, boats of all sizes and shapes, salt water, delectable seafood, fishermen, flowers bursting with color, and calming, fragrant forests filled our senses. Maine is beautiful and we’re really pleased to be taking our time meandering through. It has a rough, raw beauty intermingled with an almost meditative calm when experiencing all the nature it has to offer. The small charming towns almost don’t seem real and the buildings are easily over a hundred years old. We’ve already mentioned in a previous post how much we enjoyed the Botanical Gardens and the boat cruise down the Kennebec River. Since then, we’ve walked through Camden Hill State Park and enjoyed the picturesque view of the iconic Maine harbor below. We heard about Nervous Nellies Jams and Jellies from someone at our campground and made it a point to go since it was so highly talked about. Turns out it was even more of a treat than we expected, and the ride there was wonderfully scenic. There’s a small gift shop type store that actually does sell jams and jellies, but the real wonder of the place is the acres of Folk Art designed and created by the owner Peter Beerits. He also lives on the grounds and repurposed old farm equipment, and other found materials to create figures and animals in all manners of styles that occupy old buildings (some authentic) in Wild West Style. These include a jail, a lawyer’s office, a saloon, a fortune teller and even an old-style blues club. We spent hours there, exploring and appreciating the art. I did buy some of their homemade jam and it’s quite good. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is a 2120 ft long cable-stayed bridge over the Penobscot River. There’s an observatory built into the bridge that allows visitors to go up 420 ft in the air that gives an amazing 360º view of the river, and is the tallest bridge observatory in the world. I opted to stay on the ground, while John took the elevator to the top. He said the views were impressive. Fort Knox is close by to the bridge and sits on about 124 acres of land. It’s considered to be one of the best-preserved military forts in New England and was named for America’s first Secretary of War, Major General Henry Knox. We had a chance to tour through the fort and get a feel for what it felt like to be there, as well as enjoy the panoramic views of the river. As you can tell, we’re really enjoying Maine and plan to stay a while longer to explore some more. It’s a great place to be this time of year. For all the photos see John and Charlotte’s flickr sites. Just click on either of our names.

#World tour #Maine #Nervous Nellies Jams and Jellies #Fort Knox #Penobscot Narrows Bridge #folk art #Kennebec river #flowers #forests #seafood #New england #lebanon #Camden Hill state park #coast #coastline #untamed #wild

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psychicrajsharmabestastrologer · 1 year

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#Best Fortune Teller in New Jersey #rajsharma #usa #newjeresy #health problems solution #best astrologer in new jersey #astrologer rajsharma #famous astrologer in new jersey #spiritual healing #tarot reading #spiritual psychic healing #astrologer #new jeresy

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kinrecc · 5 years

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·✧ HOPE OF MORNING: 8tracks | youtube

hey !! so, this playlist is old but ill always. be proud of it so yeah !! so basically this playlist is about everyone and their deaths, or as i put in the description a song for every character and their trial. i hope this is ok and i hope everyone enjoys it!

★ mod maya.

✪ TEEN IDLE - MARINA wish i was a, wish i was a teen, teen idol / wish i was a prom queen, fightin for the title (sayaka maizono)

✪ SEVEN NATION ARMY - THE WHITE STRIPES and im bleeding, and im bleeding, and im bleeding right before the lord (mukuro ikusaba)

✪ PRETTY FLY FOR A WHITE GUY - THE OFFSPRING the world needs wanna-bes / hey, hey, do that brand new thing (leon kuwata)

✪ IDOLA CIRCUS - NERU FT. KAGAMINE RIN we know your true nature / putting on a fake face (chapter one)

✪ I AM NOT A ROBOT - MARINA im vulnerable, im vulnerable / i am not a robot (chihiro fujisaki)

✪ WAR CHILD - HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD girl you a dime / im a diamond (mondo oowada)

✪ LITTLE GAME - BENNY hush boy, oh hush boy / dont say a word / throw on a jersey and no one gets hurt (chapter two)

✪ HALL OF FAME - THE SCRIPT you can run the distance / you can run a mile / you can walk straight through hell with a smile (kiyotaka ishimaru)

✪ BURNT RICE - SHAWN WASABI reality is lemons and the internets my lemonade (hifumi yamada)

✪ MANEATER - NELLY FURTADO make you work hard / make you spend hard / make you want all of her love (taeko yasuhiro)

✪ FIRE, FIRE - FLYLEAF fire, fire, fire / fire from the tongues of liars (chapter three)

✪ BOYS WANNA BE HER - PEACHES the boys wanna be her / the girls wanna be her / i wanna be her (sakura oogami)

✪ HOW TO SAVE A LIFE - THE FRAY where did i go wrong / i lost a friend / somewhere along in the bitterness (chapter four)

✪ YOU’RE CRASHING, BUT YOU’RE NO WAVE - FALL OUT BOY clear your throat and face the world / the verdict falls like bachelors for bad luck girls (chapter five)

✪ WITNESS - MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE god likes me / i am the best / fuck everybody else / suck on my dick / im perfect (junko enoshima)

✪ COPS AND ROBBERS - THE HOOSIER blame simon! / cause he said / you got two lives down and one life left (last chapter)

✪ FORTUNE TELLER - ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD if youre rich enough / if youre famous enough / youve got love and youre alive (yasuhiro hagakure)

✪ WE ARE YOUNG - 3!OH3 this is all i can take / so farewell / cause youre never gonna find me now, gonna find me now (aoi asahina)

✪ I CAN’T DECIDE - SCISSOR SISTERS i cant decide whether you should live or die / oh, youll probably go to heaven / so dont hang your head and cry (touko fukawa)

✪ NO GREY - THE NEIGHBORHOOD you could do it for the money / but the money makes it all the same / everythings sunny / but the sunshine fades away (byakuya togami)

✪ SKELETON KEY - DESSA dont waste your worry on me / i always find i need / come and go as i please / ive got my skeleton key (kyouko kirigiri)

✪ HOPE OF MORNING - ICON FOR HIRE and the hope of morning makes me worth the fight / i will not be giving in tonight (makoto naegi)

#dr kin #dangan ronpa kin #dr #dangan ronpa #makoto naegi kin #makoto naegi #junko enoshima kin #junko enoshima #sorry for such a huge playlist kjdlkj #hh how do i tag this?#playlist #sfw #thank queue!

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keywestlou · 3 years

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CAPTAIN TONY.....ARGUABLY KEY WEST'S MOST BELOVED RESIDENT

Captain Tony was a unique personality who in his lifetime became the conscience of Key West. An icon unquestionably. Part and parcel of the island.

He died at 92.

Tony is remembered as a saloon keeper, boat captain, rum runner, gun runner, politician, gambler, Key West mayor, and a story teller.

Married several times. Actual number not certain. Perhaps 4. Married to his last wife 38 years. Fathered 13 children.

Jimmy Buffett was a good friend. Ran one of Tony’s mayoral campaigns. When Tony died, Buffett wrote a song commemorating him: Lost Mango in Paris. The song’s opening line: “I went down to Captain Tony’s / To get out of the heat / Heard a voice call out to me / ‘Son come have a seat.'”

Tony’s father was a bootlegger. Tony dropped out of school at 9 to sell liquor which was illegal at the time.

Tony was lucky to get to Key West.

He got involved with the New Jersey Mafia. Screwed them on some horse races. Became persona non grata. The Mafia thought they killed him in retribution. Dumped his body somewhere in New Jersey. He was not dead. Escaped to Key West.

I know only one of Tony’s children. A daughter nick-named Toni. Warm and charming. Loved her father. Even though long dead, she arranges a birthday party for him each year at Captain Tony’s. I have been fortunate to attend several.

Steve knew Captain Tony personally. He wrote of him in TACOS paragraph 14.

An old man came from the bar next door / In his T-shirt he looked like he had slept on the floor / He had a cigarette and a lot to say / And a poker game if I wanted to play / At first I thought he was full of baloney / He said his name was Capt. Tony / He’d eat a burrito and we’d listen to his wit / Thinking back, he never did pay for it / Tony shot a robber one night late / The guy ran past my store while trying to escape / When I asked Tony about it the next day / Without hesitation he explained it this way / He said he aimed for the leg but to his surprise / He hit him right between the eyes / They found the guy later it wasn’t hard / A block away in Miss Jesse’s yard.

Back to today.

The House’s Special Committee Hearing re January 6 began with a bang! Four Capitol and Municipal Police Officers testified. Honest and more sincere witnesses I have never seen.

Their testimony made most of the House Republicans and Trump look like liars. Which they are. Trump’s claim it was a “love fest” did not hold up. Nor some Republican House member’s claim that the insurrectionists were tourists.

A Washington, D.C. Police Officer testified. He suffered a heart attack, concussion, and traumatic brain injury. He was dragged down the steps of the Capitol, beaten and tasered.

While he was testifying, his cell phone was in his pocket and on silent mode when a message came in. He did not read it till his testimony had been completed. A vulgar threatening voice said, “I wish they would have killed all you scumbags, ’cause you people are scum…..Too bad they didn’t beat…..you more…..They stole the election from Trump and you know that, you scumbag.”

The caller appears to have had a limited vocabulary.

The Officers were clear as to what they thought should done from this point forward. They advised in effect the Committee should dig deep. Besides charging the insurrectionists themselves, the identities of those who helped plan and finance January 6 should be discovered and charged.

I recall hearing in a TV newscast last week that on 3 consecutive sundays, for 3 hours each time, a group met in the White House to plan January 6.

Everyone from any walk of life who was involved should be charged, convicted, and sentenced to long jail terms.

A proposed outline for a bipartisan infrastructure bille was passed in the Senate last night. The vote 67-31. Seventeen Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats.

The proposed bill is for $1.2 trillion.

Trump advised immediately the bill was a “terrible deal.”

Biden advised the bill was “the largest federal investment in public transit ever…..the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak.”

COVID is on the rise in Key West, as in all of Florida. Cause involves the Delta variant, the unvaccinated, and the July 4th holiday weekend. More infections will come because of the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest and mini-lobster season which have brought huge crowds to Key West this past week.

I personally am aware of several new cases this past week. Three had been vaccinated. One I had a brief conversation with 12 days ago in the Chart Room.

Nationally, the unvaccinated are spewing the virus everywhere.

At least half the U.S. population has failed to be vaccinated for a number of reasons that do not carry weight. Some are realizing they initially were wrong. Want to correct the situation by being vaccinated.

Fear however friends and family members will get on their asses. So they are disguising themselves before getting vaccinated. Missouri an excellent example. People getting vaccinated in “secret.”

Insanity! First in failing to be vaccinated initially for any reason. Second, to be ashamed or whatever what people will say.

In my opinion, the Monroe County School Board is heading in the wrong direction re the mask issue. Schools are scheduled to reopen August 12. The Board’s present concern is limited to masks.

No official policy yet. However it is leaning towards “optional.” The Board Chairman said, “Parents know what’s best for their children.”

Amazing! Even here in little Key West and relatively small Monroe County elected officials are half assed doctors.

Even in Washington, D.C. House members consider themselves half assed doctors. Speaker Pelosi said we are going back to wearing masks. The Republicans are in an uproar.

The solution a simple one. If one or two House members get sick and die, everyone will then understand. A harsh way to learn. One invited upon themselves, however.

A sad occurrence. The Key West Naval Station is the site for the Army’s Special Forces Operations School. The School has been operating there for a number of years.

One of the attendees died yesterday while training in a pool

No other information available at this time.

Enjoy your day!

CAPTAIN TONY…..ARGUABLY KEY WEST’S MOST BELOVED RESIDENT was originally published on Key West Lou

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 6: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WANDAVISION spoilers through episode 6, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU.

It’s Halloween in Westview, and WandaVision is going all out. From the most comics-accurate looks for Scarlet Witch, Vision, Quicksilver, and even Wiccan to an eerie “Wicked Witch of the West” getup for Agnes, this episode isn’t messing around with its pop culture references. Oh yeah, and the whole thing feels faintly like an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, too!

Let’s get to work, because there’s a lot to unpack on WandaVision episode 6…

Halloween in Westview

The episode’s title is “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” which on its own already sounds like the kind of cover blurb you’d see on an issue of Marvel Comics. Marvel in particular is known for using the “All-New!” designation, sometimes in titles for the books themselves.

The first issue of the second The Vision and the Scarlet Witch series from Marvel Comics took place on Halloween night, so the pair have a history of canonical adventures around the holiday. That story had absolutely nothing to do with the events of this episode, though.

Sitcom Influences

The format and intro are definitely supposed to resemble Malcolm in the Middle, which began in January 2000. Tommy and Billy both break the fourth wall to talk to the viewer just like Malcolm (Frankie Muniz). The theme song practically tells you to stop questioning the reality of Westview and just enjoy what’s going on. How very Mystery Science Theater 3000 of them.

We wrote more about the sitcom influences of episode 6 here.

Pietro, Peter, and Quicksilver

Nope, nothing complicated about the whole Peter/Pietro/Quicksilver thing at all. Nothing we had to write an entire article about to try and make sense of, nossir.

The recap makes sure to show Avengers: Age of Ultron footage just to drive home that we have two different versions of Quicksilver here.

Interestingly, Peter’s speed effect is very much how his power was represented in Age of Ultron, not how it was in the X-Men films. He seems to have at least SOME of the memories of MCU Pietro…assuming that’s who he is in the first place.

Tommy says Billy is afraid that Uncle Pietro is a vampire. Well, we do see him in an undead form later on, so close enough! Plus there’s a strong chance that he represents an entity that’s trying to siphon energy/magic from Wanda.

Pietro is quick to point out that he has the “XY chromosome.” Any excuse for him to announce the letter X, considering which version of Pietro we’re talking about.

He mentions “‘Uncle Peter’ to the rescue.” The Evan Peters version of Quicksilver was referred to as Peter Maximoff.

Pietro dresses as the comic version of Quicksilver, as does Tommy, who has the same powers (while claiming to be dressing as the cooler twin, a slam on both Billy and his mother).

At one point, right before Pietro and the kids run off, Tommy describes something as “kick-ass” and Wanda repeats, “Kick-Ass?” out loud. The movie Kick-Ass starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson (the MCU Quicksilver) as the titular character while Evan Peters (the other Quicksilver) played his best friend.

Pietro and Tommy say, “I feel the need for speed!” The quote is from 1986’s Top Gun. Also, Tommy’s superhero name in the comics is Speed, so there’s that. If we stretch realllllly (unnecessarily!) far, we can connect the upcoming Top Gun sequel to Marvel, as it stars Miles Teller who played Reed Richards in Josh Trank’s woeful Fantastic Four reboot.

Wanda lashes out at Hex Pietro when he is cavalier about Vision’s fate – “It’s not like your dead husband can die twice.” The taunt is super cruel and doesn’t feel like something either version of her twin would say. Wanda’s violent reaction certainly speaks volumes about just how attached to this manifestation of Mr. Maximoff she is – not very.

Wanda doesn’t seem to fully trust this version of Pietro, who knows a suspicious amount about what’s really going on here. He’s asking a lot of painful, pointed questions she’s not ready to address.

Peter’s tattoo says “MoM” – Multiverse of Madness, Mother of Mutants, Magneto’s Own Mutants, or a red herring? We’re sure the internet will have fun theorizing regardless.

That You, Mephisto?

Some of Uncle Pete’s exclamations have strong Mephisto energy “Unleash hell, demon spawn!” “The kids need a father figure” “Damnit, if Westview, New Jersey isn’t charming as Hell…” Has the rumored Marvel Comics villain behind all this integrated himself in the The Hex passing as Pietro? We shall have to see.

The town’s theatre is called the Coronet. Classic poem ‘The Coronet’ is written by an English metaphysical poet called Andrew MARVELL. It’s about a dude who knows the sins of man led to the death of Christ. He tries to make a new crown for Christ’s head in a bid to atone, but finds that there is sin in this too, as the devil is entwined in it and therefore he might achieve some glory with this new creation. Fitting.

Wiccan and Speed

Billy and Tommy are starting to resemble their comic book counterparts more and more. Billy in particular is wearing his “Wiccan” costume from the comics, and Tommy continues to conform to his “Speed” color scheme…except when he dresses like his Uncle Pietro as Quicksilver.

Ellis Avenue

Ellis Avenue is an odd reference. Warren Ellis has written many, many comics, but nothing of note with the characters involved in WandaVision. The closest thing would be Marvel Ruins, a dark, cynical, horror version of the Marvel Universe where everything went wrong. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver had very minor appearances in there.

The closest other thing would be Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., a probably non-canonical series that teamed Monica Rambeau, Machine Man, Boom Boom, Elsa Bloodstone, and The Captain teamed up to fight…lots of weird shit, to be honest…including several reality altering threats.

Agnes

In her daze, Agnes mentions getting lost, with Vision pointing out that she supposedly grew up in this town. Agnes also talks about making a “wrong turn.” This might have something to do with Agnes’ claim in the first episode that she didn’t actually come to town until AFTER Wanda and Vision had (jokingly citing a visit from her mother-in-law as the reason).

Agnes’ crazed laughter goes perfectly well with her witch costume, giving off some wicked Wizard of Oz vibes.

Agnes’ license plate number is either DA1 B2C or 0A1 B2C. Whichever it is, this is an incredibly generic plate number, either a nod to the artificiality of Wanda’s overall illusion or perhaps an indicator that Agnes is creating this as something that looks “fake” in order to further blend in. Which brings us to…

Is it possible that Agnes is “faking” her confusion here and in episode 5?

Similarly, her “naughty” sweatpants had a rather sinister, possibly demonic, font to them, didn’t they?

Scarlet Witch

Wanda describes her Halloween costume as a “Sokovian fortune teller” while dressed as her comic self. Vision is also his comic self, but is identified as a professional wrestler.

Vision

Vision is apparently supposed to be dressed like a Mexican wrestler, but c’mon, even though it’s no longer era-appropriate there was a Honeymooners-esque “Man From Mars” joke right there!

When Vision collapses to his knees on the ground with his cape blowing in the wind, the shot is composed much like his death scene in Avengers: Infinity War. Wanda’s magic is again the culprit of his demise, albeit unintentionally this time.

Vision showing how selfless he is again – even as he’s being ripped apart he’s trying to save the people of Westview instead. Another pure reminder of Vision’s introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron when he proved he was worthy enough to wield Mjolnir.

Vision apparently has no memory of being a member of the Avengers, which is certainly strange.

Thanks to Wanda, Vision is an Avenger Disassembled! Get it? Anyone? No?

The Yo Magic Commercial

Yo Magic is a yogurt snack, but the commercial has a real strong Shark Bites vibe. Shark Bites were terrible, you probably would have died too if that was all you were allowed to eat on a desert island.

“Snack on Yo Magic!” MIGHT indicate that someone or something is feeding off of Wanda’s deal here, or perhaps she is channeling the mystical energy of someone even stronger than herself to keep The Hex alive.

There’s yet another reference to the Infinity Stones in this commercial. This ad features a kid alone on a desert island who grimly ends up looking like ol’ Red Skull on Vormir – he’s the sole (Soul) survivor. There’s no doubt in our minds these commercials are all about both the stones and horrible moments from Wanda’s past.

Cataract

SWORD director Hayward’s top secret project “Cataract” included experiments on Vision’s body, as revealed by Darcy. A cataract is “a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision” – has Hayward weaponized Vision? He’s definitely up to something nefarious.

The Cataract is also one of the stages in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

Westview

The town motto on the altered billboard when the Hex expands is “Westview: Home is Where You Make It.” This was less visible on the earlier version, although the juxtaposition of the old and new billboards calls to mind the “Twin Pines/Lone Pine” sign from Back to the Future.

The Coronet theatre’s marquee features The Incredibles (2004) and The Parent Trap. The former is about a superhero family who retires to the suburbs, and the latter is about reunited twins! Both properties are owned by Disney. The Incredibles have often been likened to the Fantastic Four, and in September, 2019 director Brad Bird publicly shot down rumors that he was in the running to helm Marvel’s First Family reboot. The voice of Frozone/Lucius Best in The Incredibles is none other than Samuel L. Jackson aka the MCU’s own Nick Fury! It’s likely that The Parent Trap in question here is the 1998 version, given the time period. This would help place this “era” of Westview somewhere between 1998 and 2004.

Wanda expands The Hex to save Vision, sucking in most of SWORD and Darcy, too. Since we now know that when you are enveloped by the barrier it changes you on a cellular level, Wanda could accidentally be creating a range of new superheroes. How much bigger can The Hex get as Wanda’s anger grows and how many people will it affect?

Monica Rambeau

Darcy unveils evidence that Monica’s DNA has been altered by crossing the barrier of The Hex twice. It seems like she’s well on the path to becoming her superpowered comics counterpart. WandaVision is turning out to be our longform superhero origin story for Monica Rambeau! Of course, Darcy has also now been pulled through the barrier – will she be affected in the same way?

Darcy and Jimmy Woo

Monica and Woo are off to meet her “guy” who will help them – who will it be? We have our theories.

Darcy is seen wearing a Mickey Mouse watch when she’s hacking into Hayward’s files. Probably no need to point out this Disney connection!

Among the names of the people who drop down when Darcy is emailing Jimmy Woo:

James Gadd – works in post-production at Marvel Studios

James Alexander – a visual effects producer on WandaVision

Back in episode 4, Darcy referred to the other people she was travelling with to the SWORD camp as “the full clown car.” The joke pays off again in episode 6 when a bunch of SWORD gets sucked into The Hex and turned into clowns.

As far as we know, Jimmy has still not identified the Westview man in witness protection he’s been searching for since episode 4. This mystery will survive another week. What if it’s…Pietro? Nah. Unless…

Random Marvel and Halloween Stuff

In the background, one kid is dressed as an off-brand Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat. The first Mortal Kombat came out in 1992, fitting a more ’90s aesthetic.

Someone is dressed as Jason Voorhees, and his sweater is striped like Freddy Krueger’s, the peanut butter to Jason’s jelly. The iconic slashers faced off in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, so it’s a mash-up that suits the time period.

Wanda tossed Quicksilver over some fake tombstones. One of them is for Janell Sammelman. Janell Sammelman worked on WandaVision as a first assistant director.

Pietro and the kids are shotgunning “Kane Cola” which on the one hand sounds like it could be an “extreme” ‘90s/early oughts drink like Jolt Cola or Surge (remember those ridiculously stupid commercials?), but with all the X-Men teasing they’re doing, maybe Garrison Kane was a soft drink magnate in the MCU before his powers manifested. No? Ok.

Could Wanda asking about the kid in the orphanage who “had the skin thing” be a reference to maybe another mutant kid? Former Brotherhood colleague Toad?

One of the houses is made up with a sign that says “Macabre Mansion.” They’re …probably not referencing best-forgotten Marvel villain Madam Macabre or similarly obscure Moon Knight villain Dansen Macabre (get it?).

During a flashback, Billy and Tommy are shown playing Dance Dance Revolution, which came out for home consoles in 1999. Also, in their room, on the right, is that Dogpool? A dog doll colored in the style of Deadpool?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Wanda closes apps (people) to reduce load times. Or maybe they’re video game NPCs. In any case, it’s disturbing.

The post Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 6: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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pandithramdev · 2 months

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psychic reading in New Jersey USA

PandithRamdev Kumar Ji is a world renowned Indian Astrologer, Psychic and Spiritual Healer in UK and currently resides in uk. PandithRamdev Kumar. specializes in palm reading, horoscope reading, black magic removal, as well as other services to resolve all of the problems in your life through providing solutions with special protective prayers, pujas, mantras and yantras. AstrologerRamdev Kumar began his training at 9 years old and comes from a long lineage of pandiths, priests and spiritual healers. He has solved many complex problems for the past 20 years and has developed a very positive reputation amongst his clients, gurus (teachers) and peers for having the ability and gift to solve even the toughest problems. By consulting him many of clients were satisifed by his best results with permanent solutions he is best Indian Astrologer in uk. Our AstroRamdev Kumar Ji can perform many of pujas and prayers in uk. By doing this pujas he can solve all kind of problems like Business, Financial and Personal. He is a world famous astrologer in uk. His services were provide by entirew uk through online Astrology and Horosocpe in uk. Comapring to all of the astrologers one of the best Indian Astrology and Horosocpe reader is Our AstroRamdev Kumar Ji. His aim is to bring a peaceful life to you and your family.

#top indian astrologer #psychic reader #famous astrologer

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junker-town · 4 years

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The Girl in the Huddle

How Elinor Kaine Penna became a pioneering pro football writer in an industry where women weren’t welcome

“I didn’t know you were a big sports fanatic,” says a server named Ellen, wandering over to Elinor Penna’s table after overhearing her story about visiting Baltimore Colts training camp. “I know the Indianapolis Colts, but … the Baltimore Colts!”

“Well, I was,” Penna replies. “That was one of the most interesting things that ever happened, how they got the Colts out of Baltimore.”

We’re sitting in the dining room at the Garden City Country Club on Long Island, where she eats often enough to greet the staff by name — and to know what she’ll order. So instead of looking at the menu, Penna, 83, has started laying out a slew of old photos and magazines featuring a common subject: her.

“Ellen, look at this — this is 60 years ago,” she says, holding up a photo of her and Johnny Unitas. “The reason we’re having this lunch is because I was writing about football for 40 newspapers and I wasn’t allowed in the press box, being a female.”

“Really, back then?” Ellen replies. “Oh, my God.”

“Now look at all the women on the sidelines,” says Penna, a bemused smile crossing her neatly painted red lips. “It’s so easy for them — I’m so jealous.”

To say Penna was a pioneering woman sportswriter is an understatement. Working under her maiden name, Elinor Kaine, through the 1960s and early ‘70s, she was a bona fide sports media phenomenon with the syndicated columns, TV deals, book deals and trash talk from disgruntled peers to prove it. Though she’s intermittently remembered today for her widely publicized fight to get inside an NFL press box, Penna’s work meant so much more than that.

She was written up in Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Day, Newsweek and Vogue (which called her football writing “funny, gossipy, frank and technical”) while getting bylines in Esquire, after that magazine called her “the best fortune-teller in pro football.” Her challenges to the sportswriting establishment were twofold: first, she was a woman, and, second, she refused both reverence and jargon, favoring a gossipy, bright tone that had more in common with contemporary blogs than it did the work of her stodgy peers. Fans treasured Penna’s fearlessness and wit, her willingness to comment on both what other writers wouldn’t think to (players’ marital status and pregame rituals) and what they wouldn’t dare to (juicy rumors about front office discord and trades). As one admirer put it, “She must have blood-stained shoes from stepping on so many toes.”

Skeptics — and sexists — dubbed her “pro football’s Tokyo Rose,” a nickname that unfortunately stuck: “the only woman in what was designed as a man’s game, and like Rose, an irritant.” In short, as one fellow columnist surmised, “Women like these hurt the men’s ego.”

But 50 years after what her friend Larry Merchant dubbed “The Kaine Mutiny,” Penna lives between Long Island and Miami in relative obscurity. Her very active Twitter account (@NFL_Elinor) has 329 followers; she plays in survivor pools (she won $3,000 a few seasons ago) and watches all the games — just on a substantially bigger and more colorful TV than in her early days covering the game.

“Imagine looking at a game on a 10-inch black-and white screen, you’re not going to see any of it again, the announcers are boring and that’s that,” Penna says. “It’s so much more fun now! You have a lot of replays. You can even tape a game and save it for later.”

It’s true that sports have changed dramatically over the course of Penna’s life. She was born Elinor Graham Kaine in Miami Beach in 1935, when there were just nine teams in the NFL. She grew up between Chicago and Miami — or between Wrigley Field and Hialeah Racetrack, as she tells it. Her well-off family owned horses, and racing was Penna’s entrée into the ever-entwined worlds of sports, gambling and high society.

After barely graduating from Smith College in 1957 with a degree in mathematics — where she had spent most of her time convincing boys to drive her to nearby racetracks, and playing pranks on her classmates — Penna spent a year working in an aeronautical engineering lab at Princeton while taking flamenco guitar lessons on the side (a clause that doesn’t sound real but somehow is).

Meanwhile, she began to see the appeal of the NFL: friends would come to visit her in New Jersey on Sundays since from there she could get Giants and Eagles games. Once she moved to New York a year later to become the librarian at an advertising agency in the then-brand-new Seagram Building (essentially living the plot of a minor character on Mad Men), Penna immediately fell in with the classy and sports-crazy crowds at places like P.J. Clarke’s, the now-defunct Toots Shor’s, Gallaghers Steakhouse — Midtown institutions that were, at that point, still hip.

Clarke’s, a famed destination for movers and shakers from Sinatra to Steinbrenner, was a particular favorite: she briefly dated the restaurant’s late owner Daniel Lavezzo Jr. (“It wasn’t really a huge romance, but he would be my best friend to this day if he was still alive”).

Among the monied, cosmopolitan crowd at Clarke’s, Penna’s sports fandom flourished. The Giants would come after home games: Charlie Conerly, Frank Gifford, Dick Lynch, Emlen Tunnell. The panelists of What’s My Line?, like Dorothy Kilgallen and Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf, made up another table. “Sunday night at P.J. Clarke’s was really something special,” Penna says, “and with all those people, at least half of them were interested in football.” The restaurant even fielded its own touch football team for a very casual league in Central Park, and Penna played: one column explained she “can throw a football 35 yards, has great hands, and describes her running style as ‘very Mel Triplett.’”

Going to Giants games at Yankee Stadium was an event: “I remember that we would wait and plan our hats, and suits, and high heels!” she says with a laugh. “People dressed to the teeth — they weren’t just in sweatshirts. It’s so awful now.” Her roommate briefly dated Tim Mara, so they could get season tickets on the 50-yard line (which they paid for, Penna notes: at one point the price went up from $20 to $25, and “we used to crab about it”). There was the game, and then the game after the game: “Everybody waited in the Stadium Club [a VIP lounge, basically] for Frank Gifford to come and pick up his wife Maxine,” says Penna. It was also where she started meeting the people who would become her sources.

Penna, who had grown up around gambling because of her family’s racing bona fides, recognized a market inefficiency and saw an opportunity. Plus, she was tired of her day job at the agency. “There were bookmakers in all the sports restaurants in New York at that time, and they were all taking football bets,” she explains. “Nothing was legal, and so at that point they didn’t put the line in the newspaper — I don’t think it was allowed.”

So in 1961, she decided to go it alone and start a weekly newsletter called Lineback. First, Penna befriended a bookie in Vegas, who she would call every week to get the following Sunday’s lines. Then she would type them up and add the most interesting news from around the league, which she gleaned by subscribing to the local papers in every single city that had an NFL team — so many papers the post office wouldn’t deliver them, and Penna had to walk to Times Square and haul them all back to her apartment at 69th Street and 2nd Avenue. Then she would make 500 copies or so, and by Thursday, five or six select restaurants (which would each pay $10 a week) had a stack of copies of Lineback on the bar.

In other words, she was aggregating. “In the New York papers, they covered the Giants; In Chicago, they covered the Bears,” she explains. “They would write one article about the visiting team — like on a Friday — and that was it. But just think about it: 12 teams and no national news about them at all. No TV, no radio.” The paper had two droll slogans: “America’s oldest and only pro football newsletter,” and “You don’t have to like football to like Lineback.”

Penna began to meet more and more people in sports after she started the newsletter, and got better and better intel from fans, avid gamblers, team staff and players. She may not have been allowed inside the press box or in the locker room, but as one anonymous editor put it, “She can gather more inside information, without venturing inside a single locker room, than J. Edgar Hoover, Walter Winchell and Louella Parsons combined.”

She started selling subscriptions — $3 each — and counted Yankees manager Casey Stengel and Ethel Kennedy among her readers. (Penna was particularly proud of her incarcerated subscribers: “Send a subscription of Lineback to your favorite convict,” she told one paper.) Even NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle eventually got onboard, despite the fact she continually ribbed “The Big Bopper,” as she called him, in Lineback’s pages. Her readership started in the hundreds, and would eventually grow to thousands — all served by her and a group of friends stuffing envelopes in her living room.

By the mid-60s, it was a cult favorite: “Religiously read by the George Plimpton set,” as one paper described, though Penna says she never met the Paris Review co-founder. “The foremost, chicest professional football newsletter in the land … that is becoming the rage of the game’s emerging social set,” said another. Esquire called it “the most accurate and interesting inside information about professional football.” It was even called “sexy.”

“But it wasn’t!” Penna protests with a laugh. “Just to be the only girl made them think it was something.” She pauses. “When a football newsletter’s sexy, that’s going to be the day.”

It’s true, though, that Penna delivered football news with a rare humor and irreverence. Before pundits, Twitter and blogs made them sports’ most valued currency, she understood the power of a quick, bold take — especially when accompanied by a good one-liner. She described Vince Lombardi, for example, as “the Sophia Loren of football: top attraction, big on top, very volatile but warm of temper.”

“My aim is to go against the public relations garbage, which makes every team sound like it has 40 All-Americans in perfect health waiting and ready to go,” she told one reporter.

Some of her peers reviled her unorthodox approach. Others, like Larry Merchant, who was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News when Penna came on the scene, relished the way she turned things upside-down. “She had a take on what was going on in pro football that lined up with the direction sportswriting was starting to go into in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” says Merchant. “Dealing with professional athletes like they were 6-feet tall, not 10-feet tall; talking about their backgrounds and personalities, not just how many yards they gained that day. It was also a time when pro football was starting to emerge as a very powerful force.”

“The human interest stuff is what I was interested in, and that goes across genders,” Penna says. “When television came, instead of reporting the game the way it had been done for centuries, they had to look for another dimension — so people became writers. Old sportswriters weren’t writers.”

Uncovering trivia about player’s personal lives was one thing, but it was Penna’s accuracy and scoops that wound up getting her widespread attention. A big break came when she was one of the only sportswriters to pick the Browns over the Colts, who were 7-point favorites, in the 1964 championship game. What made her do it? She leans over confidentially: “Nobody else did.” After that, she was regularly called Nostradamus.

She was the first to posit that Lombardi would leave the Packers in 1968 (though she had guessed he would come home to New York), and she scooped the location of the 1969 Super Bowl by calling hotels in New Orleans and innocently asking for Super Bowl-weekend reservations. At the same time, she was reporting on how Donny Anderson was the only man on the Packers who wore black silk underwear and compiling lists of football players “with first and last names which could pass for first names.” She loved Steve Stonebreaker: “the ultimate in names.” Nothing was off-limits, and everything was at least a little bit funny.

Soon, she started getting punnily titled spots in papers around the country: “Female on the Fifty.” “Girl in the Huddle.” “Powder Puff Picker.” “From the Weak Side.” “Beauty and the Beef.” The one that eventually stuck was “Football and the Single Girl.” Despite their gendered titles, the columns had the same peppy mix of football miscellany found in Lineback — and were certainly too insidery for the novice.

Penna was also commissioned by teams and papers around the country to write guides to football specifically for women, including one that was syndicated nationally before the very first Super Bowl, and a chapter in the 1968 Encyclopedia of Football. Somehow, though, rather than patronize her audience, Penna proffered entirely lucid, often hilarious and highly educational introductions to the gridiron.

“Men pro football fans have certainly made it hard for a girl to enjoy the game,” one began. “They pretend football is too complicated for a female to understand, hoping to keep the gridiron a no-woman’s land. Beat them at their own game!” It proceeds to instruct women to do exactly what men do to this day: note extremely obvious facts about the game as though they are revelatory, and use well-worn football cliches to sound in the know:

“Before the play you might volunteer the fact that third down situations (and use the word — it’s very ‘in’) make you terribly nervous. If the team makes a first down, say, ‘I was worried they might not make it. Football is such a game of inches, isn’t it?’ and smile.”

Another evergreen tidbit: “Any girl who wants a sophisticated football fan to fall in love with her should talk about the offensive line. That is one line that is guaranteed.”

She started doing additional widely syndicated columns just to pick the following week’s games, touted with full-page advertisements insisting “Elinor Kaine can outpick ANY MAN!” while challenging readers to not “let her get away with it.” There was another column for Football News, and racing coverage in the offseason. Regular local TV appearances followed, and by 1966 she was making picks weekly on NBC’s Today.

“Most of the time when I was on television, I was not on television because they wanted me personally as a football writer to be on,” Penna insists now. “They wanted a girl, and they didn’t care what I said. I made the picks because nobody else wanted to.” She appeared on What’s My Line? and To Tell The Truth, always stumping the panelists who could never fathom that a woman would write about football.

Penna generally downplays the sexism she faced, or deflects with jokes — but there’s no question it was inescapable. There’s how she was constantly introduced: “Pert,” “pretty,” “reasonably pretty,” “nicely developed intellectually and otherwise,” etc. In the early days, when she was trying to get on the mailing list for NFL’s weekly press releases, the head of PR told her he couldn’t send them to her because “you don’t work for a newspaper and you’re a girl.” So each week, he left a copy at the reception of the NFL headquarters, and she went to pick it up. Eventually he decided it would be alright to send them — as long as he addressed them to “Mr. E. Kaine.”

At one point, she applied for a press credential for a Giants game. “Listen, girl: the turf at Yankee Stadium is sacred,” the team PR rep told her. “No female is ever going to put her foot on it — at least as long as I’m here.” Penna recalls the incident with typical good humor: “Through the years, the Giants have been the most old-fashioned, backwards organization possible — and here they are in New York City, which is a shame.”

She sent application after application to the Pro Football Writers of America, which were ignored until Rozelle invited her to dinner with the head of the organization and insisted they allow her in. She never met most of her newspaper editors, never went to the offices; at that time, there were almost always two papers in every city, and the more prestigious ones would never pick up her column.

Penna got a slew of hate mail — “and they aren’t all love letters either,” she joked at the time. It may have been less profane than the responses women sports reporters get now (though Al Davis was known to refer to her as “that bitch”), but it was certainly no less mercurial. “I get a royal ribbing on how a woman can be expected to know, comprehend or delve into the man’s world of professional football,” she told one interviewer. “They say I ought to get married and go to the kitchen because they don’t agree with what I write. They’re people who are stupid or don’t have a sense of humor, or both.”

Then there was the fact she was single for most of her professional life. When I ask if she ever felt pressured to quit and get married, she interrupts me: “No, no, no. I never wanted to do that. I don’t know what I wanted to do ...”

Penna was asked about it at the time, too — specifically about what her parents thought. “They think I should be married,” she said. “You know, we are a square family, and they think I should be married to an executive and having children. They don’t say anything, but they seem to be puzzled by my entire life.”

Most of the time, her personal life was just one more source of jokes. One anecdote that appeared over and over quoted a nameless escort as saying, “I thought I was out with [storied journalist and racing fan] A.J. Liebling.” Penna dryly insisted she had “army of beaus,” all of whom she told to buy a subscription to Lineback. “Nobody ever said no,” she added.

Looking back on it, she sighs. Penna doesn’t have much patience for self-indulgence or over-seriousness, but the realities of what she went through are still daunting. “Some of these things are just so incredible,” she concludes.

The incident that Penna is, unfairly, best known for is her battle to get in the press box at the Yale Bowl, where the Giants and Jets were slated to face off for the first time in a 1969 preseason game. She had been admitted as working press for the first time at Super Bowl III earlier that year, though relegated to an auxiliary press area in the stands. Otherwise, she had been paying to get in alongside the fans.

Penna met a lawyer who offered to file a show cause order in New Haven Superior Court against the Jets, the Giants, Yale, and the New Haven writer who was managing the press box, demanding an explanation for why a registered member of the Pro Football Writers of America was not being admitted to an NFL press box.

What followed was a media firestorm: Penna’s challenge was covered from coast to coast. “I don’t want to take over the press box, I just want to sit in it,” she said at the time. “It isn’t fair to base the availability of press box credentials on the gender of the applicant. I mean, we were all born by the luck of the draw, weren’t we?” Eventually, the teams and school acquiesced and gave her the credential — but not before smearing Penna and claiming the case was a publicity stunt backed by the publisher of her upcoming book. “But wait until she sees where she’s sitting,” the press box coordinator sneeringly told one paper.

“So LeRoy [Neiman, the artist and Penna’s close friend] and I hop into my car — I had a Cadillac convertible that was just incredible — top down, drove up to the Yale Bowl, parked, and when I got to the bottom of the stairs to the press box, they said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, we don’t have any seats — we’re totally full.’ This was about 11 in the morning,” Penna remembers. “They showed me to … I think it was probably a newsreel photographer press box under the regular press box, which had like four folding chairs and no place to type. They said, ‘We’ve saved this for you.’ That was the story.”

There were empty seats in the press box, as Penna’s writer friends relayed to her, but she still wasn’t allowed in. The game was a big deal because the Jets were the reigning Super Bowl champions and it was the first time the New York teams had ever played each other, so she had a tighter deadline than usual — but Penna couldn’t file on time because she couldn’t type.

“It was the writers who were against me, the teams didn’t give a shit,” she says now. “They didn’t want me in there. No girl. They wanted it just for themselves.”

So, for the first time, she wrote about what it was like to be a woman sportswriter. “The Establishment, the New Haven sportswriters, the Jets and the Giants conspired yesterday, and yours truly watched the Jet-Giant clash practically by my lonesome in a separate and very unequal situation,” she wrote as the lede for that week’s column. “I’m not crying,” she told another writer who interviewed her about the incident. “I’m just tired of getting treated like garbage. I hate to get kicked around by such little people. I really don’t know what I’m going to do — I don’t want to be made a fool of any more.”

Fighting to get inside the press box unintentionally brought Penna an entirely new degree of visibility. It also inspired more ire from both women and men, including other women sports journalists of the era who saw it as attention-seeking. The attention, though, finally got her inside a press box at the Orange Bowl by the invitation of the Dolphins — generally, she just stuck to watching in the stands, where one peer described her as having a transistor radio in one ear, a portable television in a shopping bag at her feet and a thermos of martinis. “If you got right down to it, I never particularly wanted to go into the press box especially since I wasn’t writing about the game itself — I was just annoyed that I couldn’t,” she says now. “Wouldn’t you rather sit in the stands at Yankee Stadium?”

“I’ve yet to find a writer with a sense of humor who wanted to keep me out of their press box. And I’ve never met a good writer who didn’t have a good sense of humor,” she wrote about her press box battle later in 1969 for Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists — the same month that organization admitted women for the first time. “I’m lucky I’m not a baseball writer. If it sounds like football is conservative, provincial and full of old fogeys, baseball has a mind that’s strictly centuries B.C.”

At the time, going into the locker room as a woman was a complete nonstarter, as one might imagine. “Some of the guys said they would come out [of the locker room], the ones I knew — all I had to do was come down and ask,” she says now. “The whole thing about going into a locker room is so overrated. What those players say in the locker room is so boring, when you think about it — unless it was that Rams[/Saints] game last year with the foul, and you interview the guy who says he didn’t do it but he did, or something like that. But otherwise there’s nothing that comes from the locker room that’s interesting, and never has been.” At the time, of course, she had a quip: “They give you the same answers whether they have their pants on or off.”

Her book, Pro Football Broadside, came out that same year and was widely serialized in early 1970. Ostensibly framed around the idea of presenting football from a woman’s perspective, in reality it was just a smartly written survey of the state of the league, filled with both the basics of the game and anecdotes from some of its most memorable characters (the image of Joe Namath shaving his legs in the middle of the locker room stays with you).

“There is something basically discomforting about a gal sportswriter,” one review began. “Too many times it’s just a gimmick; in Elinor Kaine’s case, though, it’s downright embarrassing. She’s good.”

Pro Football Broadside begins not with an explanation of the game or a list of the teams, but in the locker room, where Penna vividly describes various players’ pregame routines and superstitions based solely on secondhand observations because, of course, she wasn’t allowed in. She talks about the pharmacy used to get players through the season, from vitamins to morphine and amphetamines, as breezily as she does the preferred cologne of the New England Patriots (Estée Lauder Aramis).

She describes the game in thoughtful, fresh terms: “If it is taken two at a time, football can be broken down for spectating purposes into 11 individual duels. Watching one duel at a time is absorbing. Superb athletes, football players use finesse, quickness and cunning as much as size and strength. The mini-wars are violently sophisticated and highly unpredictable.”

And within the book, there’s no concession to the amateur: Penna covers the pros and cons of “establishing the run,” the futility of prevent defense and punting (“super conservative” but “[Don] Shula would rather eat worms than run on fourth and inches”), while explaining Norman Mailer’s theory of the hypersexualized relationship between the center and the quarterback and allowing one center to describe the way different quarterbacks’ hands feel against his inner thigh. Penna describes spirals thusly: “The ball is never served with an olive. It’s always served with a twist.”

Penna covers racism and segregation in college football and the pros in frank terms, even explaining it wasn’t easy for Black players in Green Bay to get a haircut. She cites renowned sociologist Harry Edwards’ assertion that “[B]lack athletes have long been used as symbols of nonexistent democracy and brotherhood.” The book concludes with a call to get women in football: “According to doctors, who claim that nature made women the hardy sex as an ally for childbearing, women are physically as well as emotionally suited for football.”

“I don’t think it sold 10,000, but I may be wrong,” she says now. “When they’re on eBay for $2, I always buy them. I have two or three in my kitchen.”

By 1971, Penna had been invited to be on the CBS pregame show, NFL Today with Pat Summerall and Jack Whitaker. She’d known them for years prior to getting the gig, where she would just make the weekly picks — despite that, she says they barely greeted her when she came on set.

She’d already found warmer reception, though: Penna married an Argentinian horse trainer named Angel Penna in 1971 in a surprise ceremony at a dinner party she threw in New York. Angel had just gotten a job managing the stable of a French countess, so at the end of the 1971 season, Elinor decamped alongside him to live in a castle. “Perhaps it’s our male chauvinism, but we are glad to hear that Elinor Kaine has departed to become one of the newer Americans in Paris,” the Daily News wrote upon her departure. “Her track record as a cutie-pie, self-styled football expert was a low-class, put-on performance.”

At 35, her career as a sportswriter was over.

Penna looks at me skeptically over my salad. “You’re going to have too much stuff.” She’s right.

Epilogue

These days, Penna watches football more or less like the rest of us. From a big, comfortable office chair, she has access to both a TV set to RedZone and a desktop computer with Twitter open.

“You’ve gotta be careful,” she says, opening a tab up to check on the state of her survivor pool. “I’m trying not to tweet, but I can’t help it — I could do it all day. It’s exactly what I was doing 60 years ago: a gossip column.”

Penna’s a prolific quote-tweeter, particularly when it comes to her longtime home team, the Giants. She speaks — and tweets — with the easy assurance of a born pundit. Her commentary ranges from “terrible snap” to various critiques of players’ and coaches’ hair: Kliff Kingsbury’s hair is too short, Ryan Fitzpatrick’s beard is too long. She likes Andy Reid because he doesn’t have those “Adam Gase eyes.” “Isn’t it amazing that Belichick doesn’t open his mouth when he talks?” she’ll ask out of the blue, flashing a grin, ever observing the details that other sportswriters ignore.

“I think that reporters are missing that now — the gossip angle,” she says. “Now they would over-do it — take the fun out of it. And there’d be [law]suits.” When Penna was working, the league was still sort of the Wild West: in the middle of rapid expansion via the NFL-AFL merger, and only very recently a mainstream phenomenon. Monday Night Football, for example, was born in 1970. Now, the amount of money and power at stake makes playfully prodding players, coaches and owners seem impossible, especially if you want to maintain your sourcing.

“It’s so big. Think how big it is!” Penna says, reminiscing about the era when all the games were on one day. “And the London stuff — completely ridiculous. It’s not good for the players or for the home fans, who can’t go unless they’re really rich.”

After spending almost a decade in France (where she couldn’t watch football), she moved with her husband to the same house she lives in now on Long Island, spitting distance from Belmont Park. They started antique shops in Connecticut that have since closed, but she still sells 19th century English pottery online; Angel died in 1992.

I ask the woman Merchant had described as the “female Grantland Rice” if she had ever thought about returning to writing. “Never,” she replies. “Sometimes I say, ‘That would be a great idea for a column, but not for me to write about.’ Think about Jerry Jones. You wouldn’t want to interview him, because he wouldn’t tell you anything. But you could write columns about him, by reading what other people say.”

“Elinor laughed at the pretensions of men who patronized women with their pseudo-expertise,” Merchant wrote on the occasion of Penna’s retirement from sportswriting. “She poked fun at the juvenile antics of grown men who played, coached and owned. She fleshed out the people hidden under all that armor and money.”

“She would come up with these anecdotes that ordinary sportswriters at the time wouldn’t care about, would never find out about,” he says now. “It tickled me that this woman had created a space for herself. One of the reasons I love New York is because I met so many people who had sort of made up their lives in different ways that nobody could have anticipated.”

Penna had made something entirely new with her newsletter and her columns, not only because men wouldn’t let her in the room but because she didn’t like the rote, dull writing they were doing in that room anyway. She exposed the fallacy of football’s mystique with frankness and humor, while encouraging women to participate with the confidence of a man: knowing next to nothing about a topic (especially one as ultimately inconsequential as football) and loudly sharing opinions on it anyway.

“I don’t know what my goals were then,” says Penna. “I wasn’t trying to lay any new roads. I didn’t give a shit about that. Trailblazing...that had nothing to do with it at all. I was having fun.”

It’s perhaps because she’s so resistant to the idea of being labeled a pioneer that Penna’s accomplishments have been mostly forgotten; quitting the industry and changing her name also likely had an impact. She remembers being asked to sit on one panel about being a woman in sports media with a shudder. “Natalie, they were the most boring people,” she says. “You wouldn’t want to sit with them for five minutes. They had no sense of humor and took themselves so seriously.”

That’s what Elinor reminded me: This is supposed to be fun. Yes, 50 years later, women have only made it to the men’s professional sideline, not onto their gridiron as she called for all those years ago. But as I try to guess how she might end this piece, I have to laugh — that’s probably a lot closer than they’d like us to be.

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