#Ellen Hansen

[mayanhandballcourt]

Photographer Ellen Hansen

[milksteakkk]

more ellen hansen ^_^

[perfettamentechic]

14 aprile … ricordiamo …

14 aprile … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2023: Garn Stephens, è stata un’attrice cinematografica, televisiva, teatrale e musicale americana e, in seguito, una sceneggiatrice. Era nota per i suoi ruoli nella serie televisiva Phyllis e nel film horror del 1982 Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Debuttò a Broadway nel 1971 nella pièce Father’s Day e nel 1973 ha cantato il ruolo di Jan nella produzione originale del musical Grease a New…

[totaly-obsessed]

Woso Celebration Appreciation

Request a player | with @alotofpockets

[thebutcher-5]

I Robinson - Una famiglia spaziale

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo abbiamo continuato ancora una volta con la maratone Disney, giungendo al loro 46° classico e, purtroppo, al loro peggior film animato ossia Chicken Little. Chicken Little è un polletto di campagna che un giorno lancia l’allarme generale, causando il panico nella sua cittadina. Lui dice che il cielo sta crollando ma nessuno gli crede e…

[thoregil]

2024-03-15 Falkevik - Dokkhuset

[abbatoirablaze]

Matched, Elle, Chapter 1

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings:  mentions of death, dubcon/noncon relationship, manipulation.

“Oh, come on,” your mother smiled as she brushed her hand along your cheek, “you should be happy that you are getting matched so early!  It’s an honor.  I was tested on my eighteenth birthday, and didn’t receive my full match until I was nearly twenty because we were waiting on a score high enough for our sigma.”  

“I-I’m not even eighteen yet.  How did they-“

“I submitted your name early,” your father smiled from the head of the table.  He looked to your other four fathers, and they nodded along, “we all talked about it, and knew that we would submit you early for the best possible matches.  And look...it’s an honor that they’re choosing you, Elle.  To have matches even before-“

“It’s disgusting!” you growled, shooting your father a look, “it’s a disgusting and barbaric practice and I want nothing to do with it!”

The epsilon across from you frowned, “honey...we’ve talked about this.”

“No, all of you talked about this,” you growled, taking a moment to glare at each of the men you’d called father, “all of you did this without my permission.”

“Elle-“

“No!” you frowned, throwing your napkin down on your plate, “don’t ‘Elle,’ me, father.  This is not my choice.”

“But Ellie-“

“I don’t need your input,” you hissed at your younger sibling.  The ten-year-old shrunk back in her chair, “mom and dad put it in your head that this is a good thing, but it’s not, Karen.  They’re forcing me to take on five men.  I don’t want that.”

“I don’t know why you’re the one complaining,” your younger brother Alden frowned, “you don’t have to share a partner with four others.  I’m straight.  That means no extra fun for me lest I go to a pleasure house.”

“Alden!” your father grumbled

“Elle-“

“Why can’t men and women just find someone the old school way?” you asked, looking at another of your younger brothers, “I mean, Declan is in love with the girl down the street.  I don’t see why I can’t  just take my time and-“

“That’s how we got into this mess in the first place,” another of your father’s growled, “with men and women who wanted to ‘take their time,’ and ‘figure things out.’  It’s because of generations of that which led to low birth rates as it was.  And then it became the rate at which they were having boys because men wanted their family name carried on so they were aborting the girls...you should be happy you are so valued in our world, Elle.  You and your sister.  The two of you are miracles.”

“See Ellie,” Karen proudly proclaimed, “daddy said we’re miracles.”

“You’re a breeding den for their future propaganda!” you proclaimed, “you don’t mean anything more to them than a cow-“

“ELLEN MARIE MCMANIS,” your mother scolded you, “apologize to your little sister right now.”

You stared longingly at the photo in the inside of your locket. 

Your stomach rumbled as you thought about the last time you’d seen your whole family together, and especially your little sister.  She was only ten when you left home 9 years ago, and she was probably undoubtedly matched and married by now. 

You knew that the rest of your siblings couldn’t have fared much easier, especially once you had disappeared.   

But you hadn’t allowed yourself to fall into that situation, despite how you were already matched before you were eighteen.

Something that supposedly shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Your eyes snapped up to the voice. 

Your heart raced in your chest as you looked at the very familiar man. 

“His name is Lloyd Hansen,” your father said proudly as he and the rest of your family admired the man on the screen, “he’s actually a very big name in the federal government, not just in the quadrants.  You’re very lucky, Elle.  Quite a few of your matches are actually very important men.  It means that you’ll be in the same, if not higher social standings when you move in with them and become their wife.”

Your stomach turned.

It’s not that he wasn’t an attractive man, he was, but you never wanted this.

“According to the file, he’s six foot one.  Tall...and look at those muscles!” your mother gushed, “he looks like a solid young man.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” you grumbled.  You went to stand, but another one of your fathers pulled you back onto the couch, “dad-“

“We haven’t seen the rest of your matches yet,” he frowned, giving you a sad look, “come on, Ellie Bear...you know we can’t look at it without you...”

You sighed.

He was the omega of the group, and your biological father.  You knew that much because you had seen your birth file when you were younger.

And while the two of you always had a special connection, you knew that he was only privy to the match information so long as you were there.

Omegas usually were the last ones in on the loop.   

“I don’t want this, daddy.” He wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you to his side.  You inhaled his scent and buried your face into his shoulder, “don’t make me do this.”

“It’ll be okay, princess...I promise.”

“I’ve been waiting a long, long time for you, princess.” He grumbled huskily, “and I must say, the time away from me has done you well...you’ve matured into quite the tasty-looking little treat.”  

You glared at the man on the other side of the room, “Lloyd...”

“You know...I’d waited a long time for them to allow me to come after you.  When you abandoned your match, I begged the quadrants to let me come after you, but they refused, saying it was probably just cold feet.  But when you didn’t come back for us on your eighteenth birthday, they split all of us into other matches...but  none of them were graded higher than how you matched with us.”

“Let me go...i-it doesn’t have to be like this,” you tried to reason, “I-I’m sure that all of you were much happier with a woman that wanted the match.”

“None of us were happier,” he hissed, “you ran away because you were a scared little girl, Elle...and now, you’re a grown woman.  When the other’s matches fell apart, I started getting in some ears yet again.  They were hesitant, but with a little convincing they allowed me the time off to track you down.  That, and well, Johnny and Jefferson are real charmers...oh, you’ll love them, princess.  When their matches fell to pieces they greased the right palms...scratched the right backs to pull us all back together once again.  I’ll give you this though...you nearly had me...I was coming up on the end of the deadline that they gave us to find you.”  

Worry coated every inch of your soul.  You found yourself looking around the room, searching for anything that you could possibly use to beat him over the head and run with.

“Oh, sunshine, I took great care in making sure there’s no way you could escape us this time...me and Bobby, that is.  We all lost you once, but we don’t ever plan on letting you out of our sights again.”

“Robert Pronge, your delta,” your father smiled, looking over to you as the next slide came up. His picture had him with long, shaggy hair, and a pair of tinted aviators.  You cringed, “he’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s in the same part of government work that your alpha is.  The two of them are very high performers according to the parts of the sealed records that we’re allowed to look at.”

“Ohh, he’s cute.” Your mom cooed, tapping your thigh, “two very large, handsome men already.”

“Now, his profile says that he’s been pulled from a match once before because of irreconcilable differences, but really, that’s because the designated alpha of the group was really a sigma who took his twin’s place.  He caught the error and turned the man in.  He’s a smart man, your delta.  You should be proud.”

“Morals too!” your mom cheered, “he’s a good one for sure, making sure that the matches’ dynamics are followed.  You know Ellie, the dynamics of a pack is very important!”

“Mom,” you groaned, sneering as you looked at her, “you act like we’re some sort of animal pack by referring to the match as a pack.”

“She’s right, jelly bean,” the delta you’d known as another of your fathers answered from the end of the couch, “you know, each of us has an important role in maintaining the family unit.  Your father is our main provider.  The alpha is there to ensure the healthy relationships within our ranks.  The delta, my position is as a peacemaker.  We make sure that everyone follows the dynamics that our alpha sets up and plans for the future.  The epsilon is our controlled chaos.”

“Hey!” You couldn’t help but smile at another of your dads as he gave a faux hurt expression.

“I love your controlled chaos,” you admitted, “you’re the best, bubba.”

He gave you a soft smile and patted your leg, “I love you too jelly bean.”

“See,” your dad pointed out, “he makes the environment fun for our legacies...you and your siblings.  He and the omega, work hand in hand in that.  The omega is responsible for making sure happiness within the ranks is fulfilled.  And the sigma is the one who is the one usually in charge of work life balance.  He takes over the alpha’s responsibilities in their work life and is a secondary provider so that the alpha can enjoy his family just as much as everyone else.”

“It’s not fair-“

“Ellen Marie McMannis, this is not a choice!” your father growled, the remote clutched tightly in his hands, “this is your match.  This is everything our family worked for, and the quadrants have graced you with an amazing option.  You will not spit all over it because you feel like throwing a tantrum.  This is your responsibility.  Your duty!”

“Now, now, Jared...don’t be hasty.  Life isn’t all about the business side of things...Elle, do you love each of us?  Do you feel like your life has been unfair at all, Elle?” your papa, and sigma asked. 

You went to open your lips, but they closed. 

You had never felt unfulfilled, or unloved in your life. 

“Just tell us, and we’ll ask for a match rejection if you haven’t been fulfilled with your life,” he said honestly, “say it, and we’ll look for alternatives, but we just want your happiness.  The quadrants set up this system to ensure that our futures have a future.  And you get to be part of that by taking your rightful place within the system.”

“But-I-it doesn’t feel right.”

Your father went to speak, but your sigma dad gave him a look.  He nodded, and his attention turned back to you.  He gently took your hands in his own, “I know how you’re feeling, Ellie.  When this whole program started generations ago, and I learned about it, I was skeptical of it too.  By the time I’d turned eighteen and been sorted as a sigma, I was pissed.  I had the mind of an alpha, but the emotions of an omega, which I thought made me weak.  I hated the concept and thought it was doomed to fail, just as you do now...but when I matched with your mother, and I met your dads...I fell into a world that I never knew existed.  I felt it was like something just clicked...it all felt right...I didn’t care about being a sigma...and I didn’t care about how angry I’d been about the process.  All I cared about was the dynamic that we could create.  And now, we have the eight of you.  And each of you means something to me...but you are our oldest, Ellie.  You are our first born.  So, answer me this.  Do you hate all of us?  Do you hate how you’ve been raised?  Because if you do truly dislike how you were raised, and this family that we’ve created, it doesn’t mean that our system failed...it means that we’ve failed you.  So tell me, honey.  Did we fail you?”

“If it wasn’t for the thoughtful work of our little chaos maker himself, I wouldn’t have been able to track you as well as I have,” he chuckled, “you know that?  That our tasty little epsilon had worked the strings that was your broken family and got your own fathers to admit that they’d heard snippets of your life but that your mother and alpha kept them quiet.”

“Wh-what?”

 “I mean, your alpha dad tried to keep you hidden when you ran.  He tried to say that he didn’t know where you were,” he scoffed, “he made the rest of your family’s life so hard because of that.  He lost his governor title because of your little stunt, and your family had to move to the rurals just to keep their heads above water.  Thank god that your birth father had those connections that they could fall back on...but after he passed last year...your sigma became unstable...your delta tried to keep him calm, but they had to institutionalize him after your mother passed.”

“M-my mom?”

He chuckled, “sweetheart...you’re all alone.  The only one left is your little siblings, your little sister was matched just as you were, at seventeen.  One of your brothers are matched now, but that was just because their scores were too high to bar...that and your sister took her match in exchange for one of them getting theirs.  Once you ran away the rest of your brothers lost their rights to match and were placed too low on the lists...shame too.  Alden has scored on par with a few other women already and he’s missed out on all of them.  He really is the carbon copy of your omega father, despite coming from Jared.  So compassionate...but he missed out on happiness because of you.  He joined the quadrant corps just to have some redemption...he just finished his first tour, and gave up his chance so that Declan, could get his match...”

“Declan...” you whimpered, thinking of the third born, and the one who’d helped you originally escape.

“Shame about him though,” he smirked as he cleaned his knife, “Little Declan actually had a perfect score with the girl down the street from the two of you and was supposed to be her alpha...he killed himself two days after she was matched.  Too bad that was the same day they sent out the notice that he’d have been eligible for a new match.  And it’s all your fault.”

“Stop-“

“All you had to do was follow the path laid out in front of you, Elle.” He chuckled, “been a good, law-abiding citizen...how does it feel knowing that you ruined your whole family because of your selfish actions?”

“I SAID STOP!”

“Take this.”

You looked at your younger brother, pain in your eyes, “Dec-“

“Stop,” he growled, shaking his head, “stop and do what I say.”

“You shouldn’t be helping me.  You should-“

“This life won’t make you happy and I know it.  Alden won’t help you, and he’s next in line, so I have to do what is right.  I have to-“

“You’ll lose your rights, Declan.”

“I’ll lose my sister if I let this happen.” He said firmly, giving you a stern look, “and you’re more important to me, Elle...you need to run.”

Your heart ached as you looked at your baby brother, “you don’t have to help me.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” he admitted, “and that’s what matters here, Elle.”

“The only thing that matters now, is that I can finally take you home, Elle...you can finally be with us, like you were always meant to be.”

“I-I don’t want to go.”

“That’s not up to you, Elle...it never was.”

Chapter 2

[pitchsidestories]

Masterlist

A/N: We're likely to write a fanfic about every woso player.

Feel free to send us some requests and prompts !

We'll definitely write for ✒️

Arsenal

Jen Beattie

Steph Catley

Kyra Cooney-Cross

Laia Codina

Caitlin Foord

Amanda Ilestedt

Kim Little

Katie McCabe

Beth Mead

Vivianne Miedema

Victoria Pelova

Alessia Russo

Leah Williamson

Laura Wienroither

Lotte Wubben Moy

Lia Wälti

Barcelona

Ona Batlle

Aitana Bonmatí

Lucy Bronze

Ingrid Engen

Caroline Graham Hansen

Patri Guijarro

Jenni Hermoso (former club)

Mapi León

Claudia Pina

Alexia Putellas

Fridolina Rolfö

Keira Walsh

Chelsea

Millie Bright

Niamh Charles

Erin Cuthbert

Jessie Fleming

Hannah Hampton

Lauren James

Sam Kerr

Fran Kirby

Zećira Mušović

Sjoeke Nüsken

Guro Reiten

Eintracht Frankfurt

Sara Doorsoun

Barbara Dunst

Laura Freigang

Sophia Kleinherne

Manchester City

Kerstin Casparij

Laura Coombs

Alex Greenwood

Lauren Hemp

Alanna Kennedy

Esme Morgan

Leïla Ouahabi

Ellie Roebuck

Jill Roord

Manchester United

Mary Earps

Geyse

Ella Toone

Millie Turner

West Ham United

Mackenzie Arnold

Katrina Gorry

Kristie Mewis

Aston Villa

Rachel Daly

Kenza Dali

Alisha Lehmann

Jordan Nobbs

Noelle Maritz

Others

Beth England

Hayley Raso

Felicitas Rauch

Misa Rodríguez

Jackie Groenen

Becky Spencer

Merel van Dongen

Daniëlle van de Donk

Ellie Carpenter

Naomi Girma

Emily Sonnett

Rose Lavelle

Kelley O’Hara

Former Players

Ali Krieger

Alex Scott

Kelly Smith

Ellen White

Jill Scott

Sam Mewis

[atomicbird101]

Sad Butch DeLoria Headcanon

Before leaving Vault 101, after packing his things, he goes to say goodbye to his mother one last time and at least try to make amends in case they never see each other again. Ellen tells him the story of how his father left and it's like "So Big / So Small" from Dear Evan Hansen, and it's bittersweet because she could never kick the drinking habit to be the best mom she could be for Butch.

~

"And I knew there would be moments that I'd miss.

And I knew there would be space I couldn't fill.

And I knew I'd come up short a million different ways,

And I did. And I do. And I will."

~

I like to think that she tried, but she just couldn't. I think maybe she resented Butch more and more as he grew up because he looked more and more like his dad, which caused her to take it out on him more when she was drunk. Although she was a terrible mother, (there's no denying nor excusing that) she does want him to know he can always come back home because she's not leaving anytime soon. Even if she's not sober, she's still there.

~

"Your mom isn't going anywhere. Your mom is staying right here.

Your mom isn't going anywhere. Your mom is staying right here,

No matter what. I'll be here."

~

And maybe he does go back for a day or two after Project Purity, even if it's just to tell Amata about the fate/coma of her best friend. Maybe he needs a brief sense of familiarity now that the Lone Wanderer is dead/could be dying. However, regardless of Ellen's condition, he can't stay, and she wonders for the rest of her life if things would've been different if she loved her son as much as he loved her. Either way, he's not at her side when she dies.

[garadinervi]

A Something Else Reader, Edited by Dick Higgins (1972, unpublished), and Alice Centamore (2022), Designed by Scott Ponik, Primary Information, Brooklyn, NY, 2022

Includes works by Eleanor Antin, George Brecht, Pol Bury, Augusto de Campos, Clark Coolidge, Philip Corner, William Brisbane Dick, Robert Filliou, Albert M. Fine, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hugh Fox, Buckminster Fuller, Eugen Gomringer, Brion Gysin, Richard Hamilton, Al Hansen, Jan J. Herman, Dick Higgins, Åke Hodell, Ray Johnson, Allan Kaprow, Kitasono Katue, Bengt af Klintberg, Alison Knowles, Richard Kostelanetz, Ruth Krauss, Jackson Mac Low, Robert K. Macadam, Toby MacLennan, Hansjörg Mayer, Charles McIlvaine, Richard Meltzer, Manfred Mohr, Claes Oldenburg, Pauline Oliveros, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Charles Platt, Bern Porter, Dieter Roth, Aram Saroyan, Tomas Schmit, Carolee Schneemann, Mary Ellen Solt, Daniel Spoerri, Gertrude Stein, André Thomkins, Wolf Vostell, and Emmett Williams

[mappingthemoon]

Books Read 2023

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations / Mira Jacob

A Grief Observed / C. S. Lewis

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader / ed. Brian Carpenter & Tom Franklin

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure / Dorothy Allison

Weather: Air Masses, Clouds, Rainfall, Storms, Weather Maps, Climate (A Golden Nature Guide) / Paul E. Lehr, R. Will Burnett, Herbert S. Zim ; Harry McNaught (ill.)

Improbable Memories / Sarah Moon

Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery / Adam Clair

The Difference Between / Billy McCall

The Submissive (The Submissive #1) / Tara Sue Me

Last Night at the Casino [v. 1] / Billy McCall

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing / Marie Kondo ; Cathy Hirano (tr.)

Pnin / Vladimir Nabokov

My Heart Is a Chainsaw / Stephen Graham Jones

"Waltz of the Body Snatchers" / Alfred Bester, in Andromeda I: An original SF anthology / ed. Peter Weston

Blue Highways: A Journey Into America / William Least Heat-Moon

The Stars My Destination (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) / Alfred Bester

Laughter in the Dark / Vladimir Nabokov

Man and His Symbols / Carl G. Jung

Mysteries of the Unexplained / ed. Carroll C. Calkins

The Westing Game / Ellen Raskin

The Seven Ages / Louise Glück

The Wild Iris / Louise Glück

Vita Nova / Louise Glück

Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds: A 50-Year Treasury of Art and Design / Stephen Nicholas & Mike Tucker

Where's Waldo? (Where's Waldo #1) / Martin Handford

Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey (Where's Waldo #3) / Martin Handford

Doctor Who 50 Years #3: The Doctors / ed. Marcus Hearn

Rabbit, Run / John Updike

Mother Night / Kurt Vonnegut

Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) / Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, in collaboration with The Policy Standards Office of the Library of Congress

"Descriptive Bibliography" / Terry Belanger, in Book Collecting: A Modern Guide / ed. Jean Peters

The Essential Doctor Who #2: The TARDIS / ed. Marcus Hearn

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited / Vladimir Nabokov

Chicago: City on the Make / Nelson Algren

Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918 / Gilles Néret

American Gods: A Novel / Neil Gaiman

Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968: Art as Anti-Art / Janis Mink

The Empathy Exams: Essays / Leslie Jamison

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families / James Agee & Walker Evans

Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction / ed. Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg

Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project / W. Eugene Smith ; ed. Sam Stephenson

Twilight / Gregory Crewdson ; Rick Moody

Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World / N.E. Thing Enterprises

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams / Steve Horton & Michael Allred ; Laura Allred (ill.)

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path / Jack Kornfield

The Gin Closet: A Novel / Leslie Jamison

The New Kid on the Block / Jack Prelutsky ; James Stevenson (ill.)

A Book of Common Prayer / Joan Didion

Mariette in Ecstasy / Ron Hansen

Camp Damascus / Chuck Tingle

The Mass Production of Memory: Travel and Personal Archiving in the Age of the Kodak (Public History in Historical Perspective) / Tammy S. Gordon

Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas / Rebecca Solnit & Rebecca Snedeker

Other Voices, Other Rooms / Truman Capote

Fabulous New Orleans / Lyle Saxon ; E.H. Suydam (ill.)

Weird Pennsylvania: Your Travel Guide to Pennsylvania's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets / Matt Lake

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence (Griffin & Sabine #1) / Nick Bantock

Sabine's Notebook: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues (Griffin & Sabine #2) / Nick Bantock

The Golden Mean: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes (Griffin & Sabine #3) / Nick Bantock

Breath, Eyes, Memory / Edwidge Danticat

Last Night at the Casino, v. 2 / Billy McCall

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions / Randall Munroe

Collection-Level Cataloging: Bound-with Books (Third Millennium Cataloging) / Jain Fletcher

Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics) / Barbara Johnstone

My Misspent Youth: Essays / Meghan Daum

Slender Intuition: Essays on Artist's Block / Brian Hitselberger

The Mister / E L James

Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place / Scott McClanahan

The Transcriptionist: A Novel / Amy Rowland

Explanations/Opinions below the cut:

Ok so I have several reading lists/stacks that I rotate through: my to-read spreadsheet (which has almost 300 titles listed in chronological order by date added, with the oldest being from 8/22/2014), my to-read bookcase/nightstand (which holds ~50 books I’ve acquired over the past few years but haven’t yet read), a stack of oversized unreads that don’t fit on the nightstand shelves (this gets its own list bc I need to read them and find a permanent home for them before the stack gets too tall), and “interruptions” (books that override the list order bc I didn’t want to wait to read them, for whatever reason).

Maybe it’s weird that I’m so attached to reading things “in order”? Idk. I’ve always been like this. It’s only a mild compulsion – obviously, I am perfectly capable of ignoring what’s supposed to be next on the list, in favor of reading something that catches my interest more strongly in the moment, but in general, I like to read things either in the order I added them to the list, or the order I personally acquired a physical copy (if I went by the list only, I’d be drowning in unread books [yay, college town thrift stores], so I gotta stay on top of that pile pretty regularly). So that is why I am often reading things that I first became aware of/added to my list nearly 10 years ago. Sometimes this practice results in feelings like, “Dang, I wish I would’ve actually read this 10 years ago,” but also sometimes, “WOW, I’m so glad I’m reading this RIGHT NOW, as opposed to 10 years ago when I first heard about it!”

I think my favorites this year were Mariette in Ecstasy; Other Voices, Other Rooms; Crapalachia; and Speak, Memory.

Mild disappointments were the essay collections by Leslie Jamison and Meghan Daum, two authors I’m pretty sure I discovered via popular and relateable quotes reblogged on tumblr ca. 2014, but the collections taken as a whole just had too many moments of cringe – casual classism, arrogant self-absorption, and other annoying and unrelateable qualities typical of privileged 20-something writers (this tone definitely appealed to me when I was a naïve and melodramatic snotty 20-something, so there’s that).

As a kind of memorial, Rachael and I read David’s three favorite books: The Stars My Destination, Mother Night, and American Gods. In all the time I knew him, including all the times we used to sit on the porch together, reading quietly while he drank whiskey, I never thought to ask him his favorites. I kept looking for pieces of him in the stories, wondering what lines stood out, what made a book memorable, what did it say about him that these were his favorites.

Being an elder Millennial, I’m in the stage of nostalgically re-acquiring important artifacts from my childhood, so that’s why there are some children’s books on my list. Where’s Waldo? was one of the most coveted books in my grade-school library! There was always a list of people waiting to check it out, but usually, whoever actually had the book that week would let the other kids gather around and look together.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw was a recommendation from my goth teenaged birthdaughter <3 which I probably read too much personal symbolism into but maybe not!

I thought John Updike was overrated, lol.

Favorite photography book: W. Eugene Smith’s Dream Street. His pictures made me so homesick, and it was wild because he took them from 1955-1957 but they still really, REALLY, to me, looked like the Pittsburgh of my ‘80s/’90s memories (bc Pittsburgh doesn’t change, and also the “idea” or “brand” of Pittsburgh in the ‘80s/’90s was ofc consciously referencing its industrial working-class past). He took over 10,000 photos but was never able to “finish” the project to his intense, obsessive standards of perfection (I KNOW THAT FEEL) and felt it failed to capture the multifaceted essence of the city. WELL, not in my opinion at least!

PS I'm moonmoth on LibraryThing.

[harrietmwelch]

Harriet the Spy is my all time favorite book. I don’t think I’ve ever related to a fictional character more. There was a period of time in my life where I would read the whole book every single day because I related so much to Harriet. As an adult, I still relate to her. If I was a fanfic writer, I would write a fanfic of Harriet the Spy as an adult and all of her friends as adults. Did Marion Hawthorne grow up into a Lady Hitler as Harriet predicted? Did Pinky Whitehead even survive into adulthood? Beth Ellen Hansen and Harriet probably became better friends as adults and Harriet and Sport probably sadly grew apart. Where did Janie go to college and what did she study?

[perfettamentechic]

14 aprile … ricordiamo …

14 aprile … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2020: Mario Donatone, all’anagrafe Mario Giacinto Donatone, attore italiano.  (n. 1933) 2019: Bibi Andersson, Berit Elisabeth Andersson, attrice svedese. (n. 1935) 2018: Isabella Biagini, all’anagrafe Concetta Biagini, attrice cinematografica, showgirl e imitatrice italiana. (n. 1943) 2014: Leila Durante, o anche Ducci, attrice italiana. Figlia dell’attore e poeta romano Checco Durante e…

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

Series info...

Book one in the Dear America series

A Journey to the New World

The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 by Kristiana Gregory

When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864 by Barry Denenberg

A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 by Patricia McKissack

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847 by Kristiana Gregory

So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 by Barry Denenberg

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 by Joyce Hansen

West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 by Jim Murphy

Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 by Kathryn Lasky

Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763 by Mary Pope Osborne

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912 by Ellen Emerson White

A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence, Gonzales, Texas, 1836 by Sherry Garland

My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 by Ann Rinaldi

The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868 by Kristiana Gregory

A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861 by Karen Hesse

The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 by Ann Turner

A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919 by Patricia McKissack

One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 by Barry Denenberg

My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941 by Mary Pope Osborne

Valley of the Moon: The Diary Of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846 by Sherry Garland

Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849 by Kristiana Gregory

Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932 by Kathryn Lasky

Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg

My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 by Jim Murphy

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty, Boston, Massachusetts, 1968 by Ellen Emerson White

A Time for Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C., 1917 by Kathryn Lasky

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan, Perkins School for the Blind, 1932 by Barry Denenberg

Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935 by Katelan Janke

When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917 by Beth Seidel Levine

Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873 by Marion Dane Bauer

Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson, Green Marsh, Massachusetts, 1774 by Ann Turner

All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder, The Santa Fe Trail, 1848 by Megan McDonald

Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl, New York Colony, 1763 by Patricia McKissack

I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City, 1909 by Deborah Hopkinson

The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 by Kirby Larson

Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918 by Lois Lowry

Cannons at Dawn: The Second Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1779 by Kristiana Gregory

With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Behind the Masks: The Diary of Angeline Reddy, Bodie, California, 1880 by Susan Patron

A City Tossed and Broken: The Diary of Minnie Bonner, San Francisco, California, 1906 by Judy Blundell

Down the Rabbit Hole: The Diary of Pringle Rose, Chicago, Illinois, 1871 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

[kp777]

By Andy Rowell

Common Dreams Opinion

July 21, 2023

“We need to hold governments to start to act sensibly now and reduce emissions,” one expert said.

As leading climate scientists watch the devastating, breakneck speed of unfolding climate disasters unfolding across the globe—from record soaring temperatures to catastrophic flooding—many are aghast at how rapidly their worst predictions are being now being played out in real-time.

Some are also now admitting that they might well have underestimated the speed and scale of our impending climate crisis and how bad things could get.

This is deeply ironic because, for years, those scientists who sounded the alarm over climate change were attacked by the oil industry or their funded front groups for exaggerating or playing “chicken little.”

“The research community must be brutally honest. We are on a pathway to 2-3°C, and probably closer to the upper end of that range.”

But now some of the most senior climate scientists on the planet are speaking out about their concerns.

Speaking to the BBC Thursday morning, Sir Bob Watson, who is currently emeritus professor of the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said, “I am very concerned. None of the observed changes so far (at +1.2°C) are surprising. But they are more severe than we predicted. We probably underestimated the consequences.”

He added “The research community must be brutally honest. We are on a pathway to 2-3°C, and probably closer to the upper end of that range. We are likely to pass 1.5°C in the mid-2030’s and 2°C around 2060. Current pledges and the policies needed them are totally inadequate.”

As the BBC notes, although Watson’s “comments are candid on the state of action on climate change, many of his colleagues will agree with his conclusion that we are on course for a temperature rise of 2.5°C or more.”

And Watson’s colleagues do concur. Ellen Thomas, a Yale University scientist who studies climate change told TheGuardian “It’s not just the magnitude of change, it’s the rate of change that’s an issue.”

Thomas added: “We have highways and railroads that are set in place, our infrastructure can’t move. Almost all my colleagues have said that, in hindsight, we have underestimated the consequences. Things are moving faster than we thought, which is not good.”

Other leading scientists agree too:

Meanwhile, others are being candid that nothing will change until we reduce our use of fossil fuels. “I’ve been expecting this for 20 years,” Professor Camille Parmesan, from the National Center for Scientific Research and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report author, told Bloomberg. “This is just going to keep happening given that we’re not reducing emissions.”

Speaking to TheGuardian, James Hansen, often seen as the Godfather of climate science, warned we are hurtling towards a superheated climate because “we are damned fools” for not acting sooner. “We have to taste it to believe it.”

He told TheGuardian: “There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas amounts. These superstorms are a taste of the storms of my grandchildren. We are headed wittingly into the new reality—we knew it was coming.”'

“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis.”

“This does not mean that the extreme heat at a particular place this year will recur and grow each year,” he continued. “Weather fluctuations move things around. But the global average temperature will go up and the climate dice will be more and more loaded, including more extreme events.”

In a so far unpeer-reviewed scientific paper, Hansen and colleagues said: “It seems that we are headed into a new frontier of global climate,” one not seen for millions of years.

They warn: “As long as more energy is coming in than going out, we must expect global warming to continue.”

Al Gore is another who is alarmed by what they are witnessing: “Everywhere you look in the world, the extremes have now seemingly reached a new level,” he told TheNew York Times in an interview. “The temperatures in the North Atlantic and the unprecedented decline of the Antarctic sea ice, both simultaneously. We see it in upstate New York, we see it in Vermont, we see it in southern Japan, we see it in India. We see it in the unprecedented drought in Uruguay and in Argentina.”

“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis,” Gore added. “If the world is not permitted to discuss the phasing down of fossil fuels because the fossil fuel companies don’t want the world to discuss it, that’s the sign of a very flawed process.”

But it’s not too late to act. As Watson said: “We need to hold governments to start to act sensibly now and reduce emissions.” And its not just governments. It’s the oil industry, too; as Gore points out, this is a fossil fuel crisis. Created by the fossil fuel industry. Because their decades-old public relations strategy of denying the evidence, spreading doubt, and delaying action is the reason our world is on fire right now.

Andy Rowell Andy Rowell is a staff blogger for Oil Change International in addition to working as a freelance writer and investigative journalist who specializes in environmental, health and lobbying issues. He is a senior Research Fellow at the University of Bath and Director of the Tobacco Tactics team at the Tobacco Control Research Group, which is a partner in the global tobacco industry watchdog,

Full Bio >