#David Parr House

[graphicpolicy]

Mini Reviews: Petrol Head, Sinister Sons, one of the best debuts of the year, and more!

Mini Reviews: Petrol Head, Sinister Sons, one of the best debuts of the year, and more! 4 reviews this week! #comics #comicbooks

Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling reviews of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full one for. These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations. Logan If You Find This, I’m Already Dead #1 (Dark Horse) – Despite its wordy title, If You Find…

[yen-sids-tournament]

Happy Birthday U.S.A.

"American" can be impact, essence, feel, experience, message --and beyond! (positive/negative/neutral considerations welcome)

Some fine print details below

full disclosure:

we were going with individual characters but got swept up in who to pick from a story and which story of a group was better. example: we wanted to do Cory in the House for a show but ultimately remembered the mashups so...

Also yes, Donald was officially drafted in May of 1942 and 'served' for many decades (it's why the nephews were left with Scrooge). Walt Disney agreed to do a lot of WW2 propaganda and continued on into the cold war

We are aware Pocahontas (95) is not historically accurate (and not popular on this site) but we couldn't justify leaving her out and there was only so much space so we tied in Brother Bear (03) knowing it wasn't ideal but hopefully better than leaving one of the out.

Camp Rock was almost matched with HSM but for personal sour memories we did not. besides there is so much more HSM relevance than CR relevance.

Now we do expect to see some of y'all mention are animal buddies like Oliver or Lady here, they would've been 12 but we needed the "other" option. (Lady is New England and Oliver is in NYC -plus Dumbo is an American circus)

finally we have realized most of this media is pretty clustered and not the most recent, but it happened this way and we're not sure which to switch out to diversify.

and as usual: all the pics are from image searches we just collogued them together

[generic-man-in-suit-battle]

64 nearly identical, incredibly generic dudes have stepped to the plate to find the LAMEST, most BASIC man in a suit as determined by Tumblr.com! You, the viewer, get to choose who gets to continue and who has to go home and change!

Send propaganda for your favorites in the asks or in the reblogs when polls go live!

SIDE ONE begins June 5th. A week after, on June 12th, SIDE TWO begins. Matchups under the cut:

SIDE ONE, GROUP ONE: June 5th

Richard Watterson (The Amazing World Of Gumball) vs Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl)

Dad Egbert (Homestuck) vs Tony Dinozzo Jr. (NCIS)

SIDE ONE, GROUP TWO: June 6th

Spongebob Squarepants (Spongebob Squarepants) vs Herbert West (Re-Animator)

Trey MacDougal (Sex and the City) vs Jeff Winger (Community)

Tyrell Wellick (Mr. Robot) vs Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

Pheonix Wright (Ace Attorney) vs The Narrator (Fight Club)

Kim Dokja (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint) vs Bob Parr (The Incredibles)

SIDE ONE, GROUP THREE: June 7th

Mark Scout (Severance) vs Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Breaking Bad)

John Reese (Person of Interest) vs Dwight Fairfield (Dead By Daylight)

Tally Hall (Real Life) vs Nathaniel Plimpton III Esq. (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

Larry (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet) vs Agent Brick (Milo Murphy's Law)

SIDE ONE, GROUP FOUR: June 8th

The Elsen (OFF) vs RTGame (Real Life)

Shin (Dorohedoro) vs Stanley (The Stanley Parable)

John Constantine (DC Comics) vs super ☆ business ☆ dancing ☆ night (The Internet)

Vincent Freeman (Gattaca) vs Tad Strange (Gravity Falls)

SIDE TWO, GROUP ONE: June 12th

Frank (Subway Surfers) vs The Slenderman (The Internet)

Almond Cookie (Cookie Run) vs Julian Fawcett (BBC Ghosts)

Frederick (Fire Emblem Awakening) vs Paul Matthews (Hatchetfield)

Jim Halpert (The Office) vs Ted Templeton (The Boss Baby)

SIDE TWO, GROUP TWO: June 13th

Kishibe (Chainsaw Man) vs Anthony Lockwood (Lockwood & Co.)

Koutarou Amon (Tokyo Ghoul) vs Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Brian Pasternack (Yuppie Psycho) vs David Tennant (Real Life)

Thomas "Neo" Anderson (The Matrix) vs Connor (Detroit: Become Human)

SIDE TWO, GROUP THREE: June 14th

Elder Price (The Book of Mormon) vs Roddy St. James (Flushed Away)

Frank Grimes (The Simpsons) vs Robert Philip (Disney's Enchanted)

Meursault (Limbus Company) vs The Entire Cast Of Succession (Succession)

Mumbo Jumbo (Hermitcraft) vs Roland (Library of Ruina)

SIDE TWO, GROUP FOUR: June 15th

Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows) vs James Wilson (House MD)

Castiel (Supernatural) vs Jonathan Harker (Dracula)

Tohru Adachi (Persona 4) vs Bobby (Company)

Aaron Hotchner (Criminal Minds) vs Francis York Morgan (Deadly Premonition)

All polls are in the tag #round one

[siblingshowdown]

Sibling Showdown!!!

This showdown consists of 64 sibling sets facing off against each other, as well as a few one-off polls of sets who didn’t make the actual bracket but who I wanted to include in some capacity.  Polls will last a week.  Round One of section A will go live on April 16, with section B going live the day after, section C the day after that, and section D the day after that.

Propaganda is allowed!  I just ask that it be kept positive.  Argue for your faves instead of against someone else’s.  Every sibling set who made it in the showdown is there because someone wanted them to be, so keep it kind.

Will the winners be the siblings that love each other the most?  That are most capable of killing other sibling groups with their bare hands?  That have the most sibling swag?  It’s up to you to decide!  You get to choose the manner and parameters you judge each sibling set for.

Section A:

Edward and Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs. Seiko and Ryuunosuke Tanaka (Haikyuu!!)

Wirt and Greg (Over the Garden Wall) vs.  Han Yoojin and Han Yoohyun (The S-Classes That I Raised)

Shigeo and Ritsu Kageyama (Mob Psycho 100) vs.  Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long (RWBY)

Sans and Papyrus (Undertale) vs. Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado (Demon Slayer)

Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed) vs. Hikaru and Kaoru (Ouran High School Host Club)

Vi and Jinx (Arcane) vs. Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara (Naruto)

Sokka and Katara (Avatar: the Last Airbender) vs. Maya and Mia Fey (Ace Attorney)

Vash the Stampede and Millions Knives (Trigun) vs.  Lucas and Claus (Mother 3)

Section B:

Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo Hamato (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) vs. Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack Parr (The Incredibles)

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner (The Animaniacs) vs. Jazz and Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom)

Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Ducktales) vs. Sitka, Denahi, and Kenai (Brother Bear)

Dion, Frazie, Razputin, Mirtala, and Queepie Aquato (Psychonauts) vs. Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private (Madagascar)

Eda and Lilith Clawthorne (The Owl House) vs. Snap, Crackle, and Pop (Rice Krispies)

Bonnie and Clemont (Pokemon X and Y) vs. Annika and Brietta (Barbie: Magic of Pegasus)

Candace, Phineas, and Ferb (Phineas and Ferb) vs. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup (Powerpuff Girls)

Nani and Lilo Pelekai (Lilo and Stitch) vs. Kai and Nya (Lego Ninjago)

Section C:

Maddie and Buck Buckley (911) vs. Steven, Shirley, Theo, Luke, and Nell Crain (The Haunting of HIll House)

David and Alexis Rose (Schitt’s Creek) vs. Dennis and Dee Reynolds (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

Jonathan Byers, Will Byers, and El Hopper (Stranger Things) vs.  Prue, Piper, and Phoebe (Charmed)

Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, Viktor Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy tv) vs. Mary, Billy, Freddy, Pedro, Eugene, and Darla (Shazam! movies)

Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain-Wayne, and Duke Thomas (DC comics) vs. Simon and River Tam (Firefly)

Elliot and Darlene Alderson (Mr. Robot) vs. Kara and Alex Danvers (Supergirl TV)

Connor, Kendall, Siobhan, and Roman Roy (Succession) vs. Sharpay and Ryan Evans (High School Musical)

Thor and Loki (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs. Sarah and Felix (Orphan Black)

Section D:

Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, Amrod, and Amras (The Silmarillion) vs. Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene (Greek Mythology/Sophocles’s Theban plays)

Coronabeth and Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb) vs. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)

Nico and Bianca Di Angelo (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) vs. Declan, Ronan, and Matthew Lynch (The Raven Cycle/The Dreamer Trilogy)

Alec, Isabelle, Max Lightwood, and Jace Herondale-Lightwood (Shadowhunters) vs. Lark and Sparrow Oak (Dungeons and Daddies)

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire (A Series of Unfortunate Events) vs. Linus and Lucy Van Pelt (Peanuts)

Boromir and Faramir (The Lord of the Rings) vs. Bellamy and Octavia Blake (The 100)

Katniss and Primrose Everdeen (The Hunger Games) vs. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March (Little Women)

Kiryu Kazuma and Nishikiyama Akira (Yakuza) vs. Cain and Abel (the Torah/the Bible)

[suugrbunz]

𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 31 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 !!

Richard Winters— good old-fashioned lover boy by queen

Lewis Nixon— linger by the cranberries

Ronald Speirs— gimme shelter by the rolling stones

Harry Welsh— can't take my eyes off you by frankie valli

Carwood Lipton— once in a lifetime by the talking heads

John Martin— vicious by lou reed

Edward Shames— lua by bright eyes

Floyd Talbert— small talk by call security

Bill Guarnere— electioneering by radiohead

Joe Toye— kiss me more by doja cat

Don Malarkey— pushing up daisies by the academics

Lynn Compton— crazy little thing called love by queen

Eugene Roe— needle in the hay by elliot smith

Babe Heffron— it's all too much by the beatles

Shifty Powers— subterranean homesick blues by bob dylan

Joseph Liebgott— cry baby by cage the elephant

George Luz— stay with me by miki matsubara

Bull Randleman— how far we've come by matchbox twenty

Skinny Sisk— our house by madness

Frank Perconte— toothpaste kisses by the maccabees

Skip Muck— born in the usa by bruce springsteen

Alex Penkala— don't go breaking my heart by elton john

David Webster— cemetery gates by the smiths

Edward Tipper— st elmo's fire (man in motion) by john parr

[eatingdownmillroad]

I love this account idea! I just moved to Cambridge, so you have given me some places to try - thank you

Welcome to Cambridge! It's a great city, I hope you like it here. A few recommendations, on and off Mill Road:

196 cocktail bar

The David Parr House on Gwydir St

Relevant Records for brunch

Navadhanya

Foodstuff (independent, ethical food delivery)

MJP@ The Shepherds in Fen Ditton

[the-home]

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Another hidden gem in the UK is the unassuming home of the late artist/decorator David Parr, submitted by a reader. David Parr worked for a Cambridge decorative arts firm F. R. Leach & Sons, that commissioned the period’s best designers for large houses and churches to hand paint the walls. 

Parr was one of those painters and when he died in 1927, his granddaughter inherited the house. Clearly, he’d been adapting the designs he painted for wealthy clients, into his own home. 

Over the decades, the walls had been badly damaged by damp and were painted over with green gloss(!).  The design was painstakingly recreated on the replastered walls.

Lovely design in the entrance hall. 

Removal of the glossy green paint- remember none of this is wallpaper- it’s all hand painted.

I can’t believe this isn’t wallpaper, but more than that, I can’t believe that some fool painted it over. How did they even get that off? This was a serious hidden gem, b/c it was all covered.

Pretty blue flowers in the kitchen. 

When the granddaughter died, a historian bought the house when someone tipped her off about it. 

She found all sorts of things, like paint pots, that Parr probably used to do the walls.

This is a master bedroom with a sink. 

This is cute- it’s the little trike that the staff uses for outreach.

https://www.instagram.com/davidparrhouse/

[inexpensiveprogress]

186 Gwydir Street

The David Parr house is a new discovery for Cambridge. The exterior was very shabby and the interior was a mystery to most of the world, but it is highly decorated in the Arts & Crafts style. The house was owned by David Parr, who worked for F. R. Leach & Sons. 

The company Leach & Sons were mostly employed in Cambridge restoring and painting churches and the university. Most noted is the work at All Saints Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge in 1870 for George Frederick Bodley. William Morris was previously employing Leach at Jesus Chapel as early as 1866. 

  Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. William Morris Designed Ceiling. Executed by F.R.Leach & Sons

After working as Morris's executant painter at Jesus College and for Bodley and Kempe at All Saints' F.R.Leach developed a flourishing practice as a decorative artist on his own, and also branched out into the design of stained glass. Further research is needed to establish the complete corpus of his work, but during the 1870s and 1880s he carried out schemes of decoration in the Churches of St Clement, St Edward, Holy Sepulchre and St Michael. Painted work inside Scott’s new Master’s Lodge at St John’s College is also ascribed to him. In St Michael's, he worked under the younger Gilbert Scott to decorate the chancel arcades and east wall in 1874. Four years later he also painted the nave and designed stained glass for the west window. The firm was continued by his son, Barnett Leach, at the original premises of 36-37 City Road, until well into the middle of this century. †

 Interior of All Saints Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge. Designed by George Frederick Bodley and executed by F. R. Leach and Sons.

We may state that the roof of the nave has been richly decorated with black monograms of the Holy Name, and varied scroll work in red colour on the plaster ground... Great praise must be given to Mr F. R. Leach, our fellow-townsman, who is carrying out these works, for it is no small credit these days to be able to work out such details in free hand drawing. . . and we rejoice that so important a step in the education of the Art workman should be so successfully illustrated in Cambridge. †

My memories with the Parr house don’t factor him at all, but I do remember Mrs Palmer. The shop that I have my artworks in is just over the road from 186 Gwydir Street and I would see her walking up and down the road with her walking stick and large coat. Elsie Palmer came to Gwydir St in 1927 aged 12 to look after her grandmother, David Parr’s wife. She lived there for 85 years and inherited the house, got married and had a family within this gothic revival interior. 

When she died the property was preserved and has been in the process of being cleaned and restored. As when the house was opened I wasn’t allowed to take photographs inside all of the photos are scavenged from other people who could. 

† Duncan Robinson - Morris & Company in Cambridge, 1980

[cscclibrary]

[Horizontal graphic; background yellow streaks on black. Black, blue, and orange text: “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade / ALA American Library Association.” Image courtesy of the American Library Association.]

In 2020, the American Library Association released a list of the 100 most frequently banned and challenged books from 2010-2019. Most of them are for children and young adults, or are commonly assigned in schools. They range from century-old classics to current popular novels. Some were challenged for predictable reasons--swearing, violence, or sex. Many were challenged because they contained LGBTQ+ content. Some were challenged because they critiqued social institutions.

All of them are available either in the Columbus State Library or via the OhioLINK system. Clicking on any of the titles below will tell you where you can find the book; OhioLINK items can be requested and sent to the Columbus State campus. In the case of a series, the link usually leads to the first title in the series. Enjoy your right to read!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Looking for Alaska by John Green

George by Alex Gino

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Internet Girls (series) by Lauren Myracle

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Bone (series) by Jeff Smith

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss

Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg

Alice McKinley (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

It’s a Book by Lane Smith

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer

Bad Kitty (series) by Nick Bruel

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine

In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco

Lush by Natasha Friend

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Bible

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar

House of Night (series) by P.C. Cast

My Mom’s Having A Baby by Dori Hillestad Butler

Neonomicon by Alan Moore

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle

Dreaming In Cuban by Cristina Garcia

Fade by Lisa McMann

The Family Book by Todd Parr

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Habibi by Craig Thompson

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah Hoffman

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan

Stuck in the Middle by Ariel Schrag

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

1984 by George Orwell

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesle´a Newman

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans

My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis

Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack

Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology by Amy Sonnie

Skippyjon Jones (series) by Judith Schachner

So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

The Color of Earth (series) by Tong-hwa Kim

The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

The Walking Dead (series) by Robert Kirkman

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S Brannen

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

“A princely endowment”

“On 17 February 1550 the council issued instructions for the settlement of lands to Elizabeth to be completed and a month later (which is a mere twinkling of a bureaucratic eye) letters patent were issued in her favour on 17 March.

They granted her dozens of manors, houses and other parcels of land, grouped by county. Most were situated in an arc to the immediate north-west of London. One group centred round the old De La Pole manor-house at Ewelme in Oxfordshire, where the red-brick church and college still stand much as they were in Elizabeth’s day. Another larger holding clustered round Ashridge, one of Elizabeth’s childhood homes on the Buckinghamshire-Hertfordshire border, some two and half miles north of Berkhamsted. Berkhamsted itself, Hemel Hempstead, Great Missenden and Princes Risborough were included in this part of the grant.

Then there was a string of manors in Huntingdonshire, stretching up towards Northamptonshire, where Collyweston, the great country palace of Elizabeth’s great-grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, formed another nucleus. The group of manors included Uppingham and Preston, across the Rutland border, and Maxey, then in the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire. These estates lay in a line below the town of Stamford in the extreme south of Lincolnshire. Stamford was the seat of the Cecil family, which had begun its ascent thanks to its connection with its powerful royal neighbours at Collyweston.

In Berkshire, Elizabeth’s lands focused on Newbury, including the town and a ring of other manors around it which had belonged to Elizabeth’s former stepmother, Jane Seymour, and to her stepfather (as husband of Catherine Parr) and suitor, Thomas Seymour. There were other, remoter estates in Dorset, Hampshire, and, remotest of all, another manor of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s at Caistor in Lincolnshire.

Finally, Elizabeth was given Durham Place in London, the former London residence of the prince-bishops of Durham, as her town-palace, and Enfield manor and forest as her suburban retreat.

It was princely a princely endowment. (..)

Now it is clear that Elizabeth had in fact been in informal possession of most of these lands and their income since much earlier in Edward’s reign. For instance, when Seymour had been in discussion with Thomas Parry about the financial side of his proposed marriage with Elizabeth, the broad disposition of her estates seems to have been the same as in the 1550 letters patent. ‘I told him,’ Parry testified, ‘where the lands lay, as near as I could, in Berkshire, Lincoln and others.’ Even then Elizabeth was scheming to improve her property by exchange, and Parry explained that she was confident that Sir Richard Moryson, another scholar turned councillor, would ‘help her to have Ewelme for Apethorpe’. In the event, as the patent makes clear, Elizabeth went one better and got her coveted Ewelme without having to surrender Apethorpe, which formed a useful part of her Northamptonshire territories.”

David Starkey, Elizabeth: Apprenticeship

[inky-duchess]

History Bites: Worst Marriages

In History Bites, I pick the best moments of history and the antics historical figures in order to give you inspiration for your WIP. Think of History Bites like prompts, only juicer and 90% accurate (results may vary).

Marriage is a battlefield sometimes. History is patterned with thousands of terrible husbands, murderous wives and backstabbing. Naturally it is in us as writers to explore the drama and shed a light on marriages that would probably benefit from a trip to the Jeremy Kyle Show.

George I of England and Elector of Hanover was married Sophia Dorothea of Celle, in an effort to enrich his impoverished family. The marriage was extremely unhappy as George slept around and paraded his youthful mistresses before his wife. Sophia, lonely and isolated, began an affair with Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, a Swedish count. But with the double standard, George was incredibly wroth about his wife being unfaithful. He beat Sophia and divorced her, keeping her imprisoned in Hanover whilst he went to England to rule. He also had Königsmarck murdered for good measure and kept Sophia's children from her so she never saw them again.

George IV only Caroline of Brunswick because his father made him. George was repelled by her the first moment they lay eyes upon her and she didn't like him either. George was drunk for their wedding ceremony. On their honeymoon, they managed to sleep together twice which proved just enough. Caroline fell pregnant with Princess Charlotte. The couple lived separately him hating her and her hating him. A minister once told George that his greatest enemy was dead and George's reply was "God, is she?". When George became King, he barred Caroline from being crowned. She was hammering on the door of Westminster Abbey the entire time he was bringing crowned. She died three weeks later.

The parents of Prince Albert, Enrst of Saxe Coburg wed Princess Louise. Ernst was a bit of a fuck boy and had dozens of mistresses but like George I didn't like his wife finding love either. Though Louise gave him two sons, Ernst did not love her. When Louise took a lover, Ernst cast her out and forbade her to see their sons ever again. She died without ever seeing them.

Mary, Queen of Scots had been raised in France and married to a French King but when he died she returned to Scotland. Immediately, royal matches began to vie for Mary's hand. Mary chose Henry, Lord Darnley to be her husband as he was an heir to England as she was and she like how he looked. It wasn't long before Mary realised how much of a spoiled brat Darnley was. Mary refused to sign a document that would entitle him to rule as monarch after her death. Darnley eventually conceived a child with Mary but some say that he wasn't pleased as the child pushed him away from the throne. Darnley joined a coup of men aiming to drag Mary down. In an effort to paint her as an adultress, they fell upon her secretary the Italian David Rizzio in front of the pregnant Queen. Though the event was shocking, Mary managed to give birth to her son James. A few months later, Darnley paid for being the worm he was. While he was staying at a house at Kirk o' Field, somebody tried to blow up the house. He survived the house blowing up, but not the assassin who strangled him to death. Mary might have been involved.

Isabella of France was only a child of 12 when she married the English King Edward II. It was meant to be the pinnacle of the Anglo-French alliance but it was a disaster from day one. Edward spent the wedding chatting and giving his wedding gifts to his favourite, Piers Gaveston. The triangle of Queen, King and favorite went on for a while, with Edward and Isabella popping out a few children. Isabella was mainly sidelined in her early marriage on account of Edward's relationship with Piers but after a coup by the nobles, Piers was murdered. In the few years after, Edward and Isabella found common ground and had a few happy years. Then came Hugh Despenser, a tall hulking knight who Edward immediately befriended (or boned, in my opinion). Hugh and Edward brought the killers of Piers to justice and began terrorizing the nobility including Isabella, whose children were stripped from her. Isabella had a trick up her sleeve however. When Anglo-French relations deteriorated, Isabella volunteered to go negotiate with her brother the French King. While negotiating she asked that her eldest son be sent to her so that he might meet the French. Isabella jumped to action the first moment her son arrived. She dressed in mourning for her husband and raised an army to depose him with her son as replacement. Isabella invaded England along with her lover Roger Mortimer and won the crown for her son. She had Hugh Despenser executed and imprisoned Edward who died mysteriously in prison.

Henry VIII is probably the worst husband. He went out of his way to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon who saved his kingdom while he was off playing soldier in France and struggled to birth an heir, giving him only a daughter. Henry's eye wandered and he set his sights on Anne Boleyn. He abandoned Catherine and took up Anne as his wife. The vivacious and challenging nature of Anne soon began to tire Henry as well as Anne's two miscarriage and her birthing of a daughter. He arranged for his councillors to frame Anne for adultery with notable courtiers including her brother. Anne was executed. Henry then married Jane Seymour, who was Anne's opposite. But when Jane dared to ask mercy for rebels, Henry threatened her by asking her whether she recalled what happened Anne. Jane died giving birth to Henry's long awaited male heir. Henry cast his net about Europe to find a bride and set his eyes on the young German noblewoman Anne of Cleves. On New Year's Day 1540, Henry tried to surprise Anne by bursting into her chambers in disguise, one of his favourite tricks. Anne was understandably appalled at the sight of the fat, balding man trying to kiss her leading Henry to storm out and began shouting about how ugly she was and how she smelt. He tried to stop the wedding but the contract was binding so they married. Henry likely couldn't perform in the bedchamber but blamed Anne for being appalling. He divorced Anne and married the teenage Katherine Howard. Though he was smitten with her, it did not stop him from having her executed because she had had previous sexual relations (which very well may have been abuse by male authority figures) and had begun an affair with one of his gentlemen. Henry soon turned to Katheryn Parr, who had her eye on another marriage. Katheryn agreed to marry Henry and for a time they were happy. Henry soon got jealous of Katheryn's literary accomplishments and disliked her intellect so he began proceedings to have her arraigned for heresy. Katheryn talked him out of it and narrowly escaped execution. Henry died living four wives in their grave and two thankful to be alive.

Though the marriage of Philip of Spain and Mary I of England was politically successful, it failed on a personal level. Philip hated living in England and wasn't exactly happy to be wed to a woman a decade older. Mary however was in love with him. She believed she was pregnant twice but each case turned out to be a phantom and false alarm. Philip left Mary to tour his lands in Europe, staying away as long as he could. Mary was distraught without him and often wrote him letters asking him to return to her. Philip proposed marriage to Elizabeth, Mary's sister whilst his wife was dying. Mary died broken hearted without her husband at her side.

Catherine the Great was only a minor German Princess when she wed the heir to the Russian throne. Peter was scarred from smallpox, under the thumb of his overbearing aunt, ill-mannered, obsessed with playing soldiers and torturing animals. Peter got so drunk at their wedding that he could not consummate the marriage but they soon did. Peter kept a mistress and continued to dislike his clever wife. He would order his regiments to get out of their beds and march at his command as well as his wife. Catherine lived in fear of her husband. Peter's aunt the Empress Elizabeth permitted Catherine to have affairs so that she could conceive an heir and Catherine soon gave birth to her son Paul. Peter ascended to the throne but lost it after six months to his wife who may or may not have had him murdered.

[generic-man-in-suit-battle]

32 contestants have survived round one and proceed through the tournament! Will your fave make it to round three? Will they ever wear anything other than their plain ass probably uncomfortable suits? Who knows!

Send propaganda for your favorites in the asks or in reblogs when polls go live!

ROUND TWO begins June 26th. Matchups under the cut:

SIDE ONE, GROUP ONE: June 26th

Richard Watterson (The Amazing World Of Gumball) vs Dad Egbert (Homestuck)

Spongebob Squarepants (Spongebob Squarepants) vs Pheonix Wright (Ace Attorney)

Bob Parr (The Incredibles) vs Roland (Library of Ruina)

John Reese (Person Of Interest) vs Larry (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet)

SIDE ONE, GROUP TWO: June 27th

Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) vs Jeff Winger (Community)

The Elsen (OFF) vs Stanley (The Stanley Parable)

Mark Scout (Severance) vs Tally Hall (Real Life)

super ☆ business ☆ dancing ☆ night (The Internet) vs Tad Strange (Gravity Falls)

SIDE TWO, GROUP ONE: June 28th

The Slenderman (The Internet) vs Kevin Price (The Book Of Mormon)

Julian Fawcett (BBC Ghosts) vs Robert Philip (Disney's Enchanted)

Paul Matthews (Hatchetfield) vs Mumbo Jumbo (Hermitcraft)

Anthony Lockwood (Lockwood & Co.) vs James Wilson (House MD)

SIDE TWO, GROUP TWO: June 29th

The Entire Cast of Succession (Succession) vs Jim Halpert (The Office)

Tohru Adachi (Persona 4) vs Connor (Detroit: Become Human)

Aaron Hotchner (Criminal Minds) vs David Tennant (Real Life)

Jonathan Harker (Dracula) vs Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

All polls are in the tag #round two

[mrsomewhere]

Top 100 most banned and challenged books of the last decade:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Looking for Alaska by John Green

George by Alex Gino

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Internet Girls (series) by Lauren Myracle

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Bone (series) by Jeff Smith

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss

Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg

Alice McKinley (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

It's a Book by Lane Smith

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer

Bad Kitty (series) by Nick Bruel

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine

In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco

Lush by Natasha Friend

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Holy Bible

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar

House of Night (series) by P.C. Cast

My Mom's Having A Baby by Dori Hillestad Butler

Neonomicon by Alan Moore

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle

Dreaming In Cuban by Cristina Garcia

Fade by Lisa McMann

The Family Book by Todd Parr

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Habibi by Craig Thompson

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Jacob's New Dress by Sarah Hoffman

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan

Stuck in the Middle by Ariel Schrag

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

1984 by George Orwell

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

Awakening by Kate Chopin

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesle´a Newman

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans

My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis

Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack

Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology by Amy Sonnie

Skippyjon Jones (series) by Judith Schachner

So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

The Color of Earth (series) by Tong-hwa Kim

The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

The Walking Dead (series) by Robert Kirkman

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S Brannen

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

[alwaysalreadyangry]

what's your dream home?

ooh good question! in terms of housing, i like a lot of different styles of architecture... i think my dream would probably either be a very old house, or a midcentury space-age modernist nightmare. 

my granny has lived in a 17th century cottage for decades (when they bought it in the 60s it didn’t have indoor plumbing) and honestly that’s kind of my dream house, except it’s in the middle of a tiny village in suffolk. 

also a big fan of the house green knowe was based on, the manor at hemingford grey:

the oldest parts of the house date to around the time of the normans, hence why it looks so old. one of the oldest still-inhabited houses in england, i think.

otherwise, i love old lock-keepers’ cottages. and they have the added benefit of being very near canals...:

to change tack completely, i like how these futuro houses look, but most of the examples aren’t furnished, and i think they’re a bit small and you might feel claustrophobic after a while. high ceilings soothe me.:

there was also a gorgeous tall (mid-entury?) modernist house for sale somewhere in the US recently that i loved, but i can’t remember where or who designed it, so it’s lost to the mists of the internet. basically: really old, modernist without being boring, or really weird and futuristic?

oh, and interiors-wise, have to also give a shout out to the david parr house in cambridge:

[robert-hadley]

David Parr house Cambridge