#May Irwin

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Despite what the song says, a kiss isn’t always just a kiss.

A kiss can be political, because it’s the first of its kind or because it’s between two heads of state.

A kiss can also become iconic when it’s captured on film, even if the kiss itself was invasive and unwanted.

With that in mind, here’s a list of some of the most memorable kisses in history.

Scholars debate whether kissing began as a trend that spread around the globe, or sprung up organically in different regions.

Whatever the case, the earliest known written mentions of it are in Vedic Sanskrit scriptures circa 1500 B.C., according to research by Vaughn Bryant, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M University.

These scriptures, known as the Vedas, were foundational to the religion of Hinduism.

After that, kissing continued to appear in ancient Indian and Hindu literature.

The Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic compiled by the 4th century A.D., has a line in which someone “set her mouth to my mouth and made a noise that produced pleasure in me.”

The Kama Sutra, an ancient Sanskrit text on eroticism and love, also has a chapter on kissing that identifies different methods of kissing and types of kisses.

Kissing isn’t just a romantic act. It can also be a sign of friendship or betrayal.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, written circa the 1st century, Judas betrays Jesus by identifying him with a kiss so that armed men can take him away and eventually kill him.

Judas’ kiss has since become a popular storytelling allusion.

It may have inspired the “kiss of death” that appears in mafia literature and film (but was probably never an actual mafia practice).

Perhaps the most famous example is in The Godfather Part II, when Al Pacino’s character gives his brother Fredo the kiss of death for betraying him.

The first people to smooch on film were May Irwin and John C. Rice, who appeared in a short film known variously as May Irwin kiss, Kiss, or The Kiss.

In 1896, the two performers went to Thomas Edison’s studio in New Jersey and reenacted their final kiss scene from a play they were putting on in New York City.

On stage, no one thought the kiss was that sensational. But many felt the close-up footage of them kissing was too risqué.

In 1898, black performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown starred in a short film titled ''Something Good-Negro Kiss,'' the first film to show Black Americans kissing.

In 2017, film historians rediscovered the footage, which was filmed by a white man named William Selig in Chicago.

“There’s a performance there because they’re dancing with one another, but their kissing has an unmistakable sense of naturalness, pleasure and amusement as well,” Allyson Nadia Field, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago who helped identify the film, said in a university press release.

“It is really striking to me, as a historian who works on race and cinema, to think that this kind of artifact could have existed in 1898.”

On the morning of 14 August 1945, patients burst into Greta Zimmer’s Manhattan office claiming the war in Japan was over.

The Austrian immigrant wasn’t sure what to think, so on her lunch break, she went to Times Square in her white dental assistant’s uniform to see what the news ticker said.

The atmosphere there was celebratory. The ticker confirmed that it was indeed V-J Day, and World War II was over.

As Zimmer looked away from the ticker, a Navy sailor named George Mendonsan — who’d started drinking early and mistook Zimmer for a nurse — ran up and aggressively kissed her, leaving his girlfriend behind.

Zimmer struggled to push the stranger off, and they parted ways.

But unbeknownst to both of them, photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt and Victor Jorgensen had each captured the moment, as recounted in The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind The Photo That Ended World War II.

Eisenstaedt’s photo became one of the most iconic WWII images in U.S. history, in part because viewers mistook it for a picture of a Naval officer and nurse celebrating together.

The photo has also stirred controversy, as many people have claimed over the years to be the couple in the image, while others point out that it depicts a nonconsensual moment.

Zimmer said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2005:

“It wasn’t my choice to be kissed...the guy just came over and kissed or grabbed!”

When William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols kissed on a 1968 episode of Star Trek, it was not technically the first interracial kiss on U.S. television.

But it was the one that seemed to have the most cultural impact.

In the episode, titled “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Captain James Kirk and Officer Nyota Uhura encounter aliens who force them to kiss each other through telekinesis.

In Nichols’ book Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, she recalls that NBC was worried how white Americans would react to the scene, so they asked the actors to film two scenes: one with a kiss and one without a kiss.

However, Nichols and Shatner purposefully messed up all of the kissless takes in order to ensure that NBC aired the kissing scene.

During the Cold War, leaders of communist states often greeted each other with what’s called the “socialist fraternal kiss.”

This could be on the cheek or the mouth, but the most famous example is French photographer Régis Bossu’s 1979 picture of the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany’s Erich Honecker kissing on the mouth.

The kiss occurred when Brezhnev visited East Berlin to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (i.e., East Germany).

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the Soviet artist Dmitri Vrubel recreated the image in a mural on the wall’s east side.

He captioned it: “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love.”

[famousborntoday]

May Irwin was an actress, singer and star of vaudeville. Originally from Canada, she and her sister Flo Irwin found theater work after their father died. She wa...

Link: May Irwin

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Chondrichthyes - Myliobatiformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our first order of rays are the Myliobatiformes, or “Stingrays.” This order includes the families Zanobatidae (“panrays”), Hexatrygonidae (“Sixgill Stingray”), Dasyatidae (“whiptail stingrays”), Potamotrygonidae (“river stingrays”), Urotrygonidae (“American round rays”), Gymnuridae (“butterfly rays”), Plesiobatidae (“Deepwater Stingray”), Urolophidae (“round rays”), Aetobatidae (“pelagic eagle rays”), Myliobatidae (“eagle rays”), Rhinopteridae (“cownose rays”), and Mobulidae (“devil rays”).

Myliobatiformes are characterized by their enlarged, expanded pectoral fins being completely fused to their head and body, called a “disc”. Their disc shape ranges from diamond to subrhombic to lozenge-shaped. They are also characterized by the presence or absence of a single small dorsal fin, a long whip-like tail, and one or more stinging spines on the upper tail base (some species have secondarily lost this spine). As a defense mechanism, stingrays will flail their pointed or barbed tails and lodge the spine within a potential predator while they escape. The spine eventually grows back. As rays, their eyes and spiracles are on the dorsal side of their body while their gill slits, nostrils, and mouth are on the ventral side. Most myliobatiformes have blunt, pavement-like teeth for crushing hard-shelled prey and bony fish, though Manta Rays are planktonivore filter-feeders. They give birth to live young, usually 1-10 per litter, depending on species. This is a highly diverse group, and the second largest order of batoids (rays).

Myliobatiformes arose in the Early Cretaceous.

Propaganda under the cut:

Most stingrays are not aggressive if left alone, and some are even curious and friendly. The Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera) especially are known for this behavior, and are often the species of choice for touch tanks in public aquariums, as they will actively seek out attention. In my family’s experience, my sisters and mother were swimming in the ocean two Summers ago, and my sister patted what she thought was my mom’s foot after it bumped her on the back. She then realized it was a Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) when another one tripped my other sister! A school of them was playing in the shallows and had decided to mess with my family. (I only ever get pinched by crabs and spooked by jellies when I enter the ocean ;_;)

Uniquely for its family, the Porcupine Ray (Urogymnus asperrimus) lacks a venomous tail spine. Instead, it defends itself with the many large, sharp thorns found over its disc and tail. Due to its thorny hide, this now endangered ray has historically been a very valuable source of shagreen.

The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray (Mobula birostris) is the largest stingray, growing up to 9 m (30 ft) long, 7 m (23 ft) wide, and weighing about 3,000 kg (6,600 lb), though the average size commonly observed is half that.

Around 35 cm (14 in) in width, the Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray (Taeniura lymma) is one of the most venomous species of stingray and is known to have an excruciating sting. Nevertheless, it is popular with home aquarists for its small size and beautiful coloration. Despite this, it is not well suited for captivity, being a very shy species and prone to refusing to feed. Seldom have hobbyists been able to keep one alive for long in home aquariums. Professional, public aquariums have had much better luck with the species, even maintaining breeding programs.

The composition of venom in freshwater stingrays appears to differ from that of marine stingrays.

Stingrays that live in the deep sea, such as the Deepwater Stingray (Plesiobatis daviesi) and the Sixgill Stingray (Hexatrygon bickelli) are flabby and almost goopy, with a skate-like appearance. The deep sea changes folks.

When threatened, the Crossback Stingaree (Urolophus cruciatus) raises its tail over its disc like a scorpion, as a warning.

Spotted Eagle Rays (Aetobatus narinari) sport 2-6 venomous, barbed spines at a time, but the most danger they have presented to humans so far is via their leaping from the water at the wrong place/wrong time! On at least two occasions Spotted Eagle Rays have been reported as having jumped into boats, and in one incident this sadly resulted in the death of a woman in the Florida Keys. Otherwise, these rays appear to be curious about humans and will sometimes slow down to inspect snorkelers if the human is not acting threatening.

The Chilean Devil Ray (Mobula tarapacana) is one of the deepest-diving ocean animals, traveling from the surface to feed at depths of up to 1,896 metres (6,220 ft). A veined structure of blood vessels warms the ray's brain at colder depths. These rays stay near warmer surface water for at least an hour both before and after deep diving, suggesting that they are soaking up heat to prepare for and recover from their descent into colder water.

Manta Rays (genus Mobula) are incredibly smart. They were the first “fish” in the world to pass the “mirror test” (ie show self-awareness by recognizing themselves in a mirror rather than seeing the reflected image as another manta ray). They also have highly-developed long-term memory, form friendships, and play with each other by blowing bubbles and breaching out of the water.

Steve Irwin’s death was a freak accident. He was swimming and passed overtop a 2 m (6.7 ft) long Short-tail Stingray (Bathytoshia brevicaudata), and the animal reacted reflexively to his shadow by stabbing its barbed tail repeatedly into what it perceived as a predator. By an insane stroke of bad luck, the spine from the stingray’s tail pierced right through into Steve’s chest. (And no, the barb did not become lodged and he didn’t pull it out; that’s a rumor. Venom or no, there’s not much you can do about being stabbed in the heart.) Fatal stings are very rare, and only around 20 stingray-related deaths have been recorded in history. Steve loved all animals and would not have wanted people to hold his death against literally all species of stingray, let alone the single one that accidentally took his life. Even as a joke, using Steve Irwin to hate on an animal does a great disservice to his legacy. So if I hear a word of stingray-hate in Steve’s name, I’m calling the guards. >:C

[kindahoping4forever]

Via Cal on TikTok

[wiiildflowerrr]

Cal, 21 May 2025

[haven-of-dusk]

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Apparently PETA is going after Steve Irwin’s zoo.

[the5sosarchive]

5SOS posted on their IG story — May 21st, 2025

[amerikan-fury]

Anyways here’s Vancouver Canucks Miku

[orangadore]

[sugarcoatedvein]

- 🦢🫧🎧🪞🩰 -

[wokeup5sostrash]

Hey Gents!

[edge-oftheworld]

I don’t really talk about it much on here because I’m extremely lucky to be able to understand exactly what’s going on in my body, but it’s scary to live for years as someone who Gets Things Done in a way your peers don’t really understand, be putting effort into so many things you care about, and then suddenly lose the ability to do not only that but also basic tasks overnight after a deadline, and bit by bit after many. it’s scary getting really irritable sometimes to the point of violence, just when you were meant to be celebrating the rewards from your hard work, the only impact of the work you did that you can see is that you overdrafted your ability to do anything. including have a basic conversation without getting grumpy or crying. and your body is going to make you pay it back with interest, you already know that, but you don’t know how to start filling yourself back up. you’ve only ever enjoyed being on the grind, hard at work on exciting things.

I don’t know how many of you have been through the kind of burnout that’s years of needing 12hrs of sleep a night but with terrible insomnia, waking up to what feels like a hangover for weeks on end with little relief then rinse and repeat without having a single drink, feeling too sick to eat and needing to exercise to emotionally regulate but being unable to, anxiety that doesn’t come from worry but you’ll pick that up too at some point, dissociating every time you try to do mentally taxing tasks that you’re PAID for so it takes an hour of grounding yourself just to get five minutes worth of productive concentration, falling asleep the minute you feel a little safe by being in the presence of loved ones. but I suspect I’m not the only one.

I’ve had songs for the energetic and angsty times leading up to this. for the exasperated times and the brain fog and the times where all my limited energy is tied up in feeling things. that I need to, need to acknowledge, but it’s overwhelming and I live in a haze for weeks as a result of. songs telling of the kind of youth I wish I had, even when I was sold something else. songs for the months spent as a teenager trying to be there for my friends, worrying for them, distracting me from worrying for myself, trying to cling on to positivity and hope amongst it when I had to choose to make a discipline of always seeing that. I’ve had songs for healing and when healing is harder than expected and songs that have the right level of musical complexity to capture the layers of everything that’s happening in my head, making it sound good, telling me it’s gonna be okay.

I don’t know how I could ever say thank you for this. but I do know that I see parts of myself in the people behind these songs, of course I do, and I worry for them as a result and ache for them because it’s hard enough to feel this way when no one knows me or feels the need to control me or mould me into what they think I should be. I’d do anything to keep them all healthy and happy and all of their loved ones too and I don’t think it’s strange as a fan to take that seriously. I hope we can understand the need to treat them gently, and to while not questioning their privacy and the fact that they’re never going to tell us everything they go through, listen to our intuition when we catch something we relate to and treat what they’ve shared with us or hinted at with the dignity we would if someone we love told us something vulnerable. be kind in our expectations and be intentional in the fan culture we create because it does make its way back to them.

and the same goes with all of you. we’re bonding over the same things. I know a lot of this fandom is in the stage where interpersonal relationships are hard. we don’t mean to be grumpy of frustrated but we are. and I’m sending love to all of you. we can get through this together. it’s what they’ve always longed for isn’t it?

[toastedwendigo]

The guys! I need more funkos NOW!!!

[kindahoping4forever]

Ashton performing with Eternity Speedway @ Desert 5 Spot LA - 11 April 2024

[wiiildflowerrr]

Ash on Tiktok, 10 May 2025