#also got the Cookie and Ernie books

[rowlfthedog]

Just purchased The Book and I am, ironically, overjoyed about it

[dduane]

I've been following the fanfic & author discussion and I definitely see the issue with fanfic based on your own work. However, I'm curious how that doesn't extend to, well, everything else. If an author reads a coffeeshop AU based on their works and then writes something similar into a book, how is that different from reading a coffeeshop AU from a completely different media and then writing something similar with the names changed to their characters?

At the fanfic level, for me, it does extend to everything else. Let me tease this out a bit for you.

All writers distill their output at least partly from huge amounts of data, fed into their storymaking systems over (routinely) decades of time. When that input comes along in the form of traditionally "published" material—books or films or comics or whatever—I’d expect there to be an inherent understanding that what one publishes or films may (if you're lucky) wind up in the public consciousness. And thereafter—assimilated and, ideally, much changed and individualized—it may also end up in the work of people who create in the same general way you do.

Where traditionally published materials that I've internalized are involved, I've paid for them (or libraries or similar institutions have paid for them for me). Money''s changed hands, confirming (as it were) the contract between the creators and me. After that, what I make of Paradise Lost or Perelandra is my business.

And my business, both generally and specifically, is subversion. It's a rare work in any genre that doesn't afterwards leave me wondering "But how about if this was done completely differently...?" I.e., "What if a prince rescued a prince?" "What if you don't need a school to learn magic, because the universe teaches you?" And so on. ...The only hard and fast rule I have about this process is one that Heinlein handed me: "Sure, file the serial numbers off that idea and make something else of it. But you have to leave it different, and ideally better, than when you found it. If you're going to be the magpie who makes off with a pretty shiny thing, you must bring back something bigger and shinier in return."

So that's how that operation goes, when I'm dealing with what we might consider mainstream/tradpub works.

But fanfic operates under different rules. No money changes hands (because no money may). Fic writing is founded in a gift economy. And for me, to steal a gift or steal from a gift-giver is vile.

So, per the original question: For me, the primary difference between the two kinds of fics you're positing above is that in the first case, the fic's author and I are (creatively speaking) in a relationship... even if (strictly speaking) it's a nonconsensual one. I therefore feel a responsibility to protect their work from me by not allowing myself into situations where I might, however accidentally, borrow from it. And I also feel a responsibility to protect myself from possible adverse consequences of having seen their work. Safest way to ensure that protection on both sides? Not to see their work.

In the second case, let's say we've got a coffeeshop AU where, oh, I don't know, Bert is a barista and Ernie is a regular customer. (And Big Bird is the manager, and Cookie Monster is—no no, let's STOP this now...) Here it's safe to say that my relationship with either the IP owner* or the fic writer is likely to be nil. The writer doesn't know about me, or (I'm sure) care. They've put their stuff out there on AO3 or wherever for their own reasons, and at least theoretically for others' entertainment. So I'm at liberty to take it as such.

Which is all very well on the face of it. But if I caught myself inserting business from that Bert/Ernie AU fic into something of mine, what I'd consider the right thing for me to do would be to discard that whole line of thought and start over... because this is material sourced in a gift economy, and to me it feels wrong to use a gift this way.

And stressing this point: I'd do that once I'd caught myself. Because as I mentioned at the start of this, all writers pick up and digest concepts and situations that then go "into the pot", as Tolkien said, and get lost over time in the general melange of flavor. If I don't catch myself, and then the flavor of the original gets submerged in the overall taste of the soup to the point where I can't ID it... that could get troublesome. And if I later realize what's happened, it'll pain me no end.

This is why I do not want to see Young Wizards fanfic at all. The chance always exists that if I do look at any of it, I might accidentally internalize it and pop it out, however changed, years later... and would thereby have abused my relationship with the fic writer. (And yes, ever though they would by definition be in that relationship with me nonconsensually, that would not make it right, or all right, for me to do the same thing back to them.) In this regard, I'd sooner be safe than sorry... because being sorry about something you've written is a very sad, bitter place to be.

...Maybe all the above will strike some people as unusually rigorous. (shrug) That doesn't bother me; not least because they don't have to live inside my head, and I do. My creative life doesn't have a billion rules, but this is one that seems obvious to me, and which I do my best not to violate. It's not all about legal exposure. It's about trying to do right.

HTH.

*It's surprising how many potential scenarios I had to throw out just now because I am in relationships with the IP owners, or have been. Pity. The Cap/Bucky one would have been fun...) :)

[loganslowdown4]

I’m gonna attempt to break this down and point out all the stuff in the guys’ rooms for the newest episode because there’s a ton of Easter eggs in here and it’s fun to compile a list!

🧸🧸🧸🧸🧸

And I’m a complete nerd 🤓

Ok let’s start off with

PATTON’S ROOM!

* Ernie plushie (Sesame Street) in homage to LNTAO

* Light blue dad pyjamas

* Chocolate (baby Pound Puppy plushie) from Moving On

* Winnie The Pooh quilt

* Reindeer plushie bean baby from the 80s (I literally used to have these)

* light blue Cat poster

* Orange tabby cat statue (he loves cats, ok?)

* Mrs Fluffy Bottom (bunny plushie from Prince vs Villain short)

* The creepy glowworm from babyhood

* ‘You make me want to die.. of laughter’ misleading compliment card from Virgil from the 12 Days of Sanders Sides (Xmas)

* His glasses

* A plate with a cookie (and a second cookie because he earned it)

* Framed photo of friends (combats the lonely feelings)

* Catholic Youth Bible (from swearing Oath in SvS)

* Braided friendships bracelets in the Roman Virgil and Logan’s colours

* Embroidery thread to make more friendship bracelets in his, Janus and Remus’ colours

* Pizza plushie (from opening shot Thomas saying ‘YouTube Time’)

* Light blue lamp

* The smell of Christmas (in a box!) from Moving On nostalgia episode

* Stitch plushie from opening scene ‘YouTube time’

* Plus the room has the glittery quality that his room did in the moving on episodes

ROMAN’S ROOM!

* Red plush blanket and red silk pillow case fit for a prince

* Red/pink full face cooling sleep mask for beauty sleep

* Wearing his (Beauty and the) Beast onesie from ATHD

* Up poster (part of his 101 Disney poster collection) (plus it mentions ‘adventure’ which is what Roman would want to dream about)

* Glitter/sparkle aesthetic in his room magically flying around; also a soft rainbow glow overlay

* STAR THINGIES (he got them back from the echo-y mind palace)

* Reading Lord of the Rings (TFOTR) (red and white cover!) plus dudes on an adventure with a king and hot elf? It does scream Roman, doesn’t it?

* Plus multiple bookmarks so he can reread his favourite parts (or find parts that the other sides would like)

* Oh hey Katana

* Little Roman fan made wooden dolls

* Pictures from skirt PS, 80s PS, selfie as Prince from vine days

* Sticky notes (red): YOU GOT THIS PAL! (either from himself or Patton); WWLOJD? (What Would Leslie Odom Jr Do?) plus a picture of the man himself (a crush? 😏); Take Dance Classes AGAIN (is this in reference to Thomas can’t dance? ‘I can box step with the rest of them! 5 6 7 8 no need to demonstrate!’)

* Scented candles for sleep

* REMUS omg was I right about them sharing a room? Hahaha he steals a star thingie because he knows Roman loves them

* Roman Youtooz toy from last year

* Lavender sprays for sleep

* Moisturizer for skin care (a prince has got to slay)

VIRGIL’S ROOM!

* Dark aesthetic from Accepting Anxiety episode

* Purple and grey bedding

* Watching a Jack the Ripper conspiracy video on his computer (re: what videos he would make if he had his on YouTube channel from Q&A)

* Green Day t-shirt (specifically American Idiot album) (also featured album on wall in Accepting Anxiety episode)

* Plain purple sleep hoodie (the man cannot be without a hoodie)

* Whiteboard with ‘# of days since last total disaster: 5’ but who knows what his definition of disaster is…

* Black dry erase marker for whiteboard

* Cobwebs on night stand

* MARCUS! Plushie spider

* Patton’s FamILY card

* Huge (almost empty) purple bottle of melatonin (used to aid sleep)

* Book for Grimms fairy tales (decidedly did NOT swear on his ‘bible’ from SvS)

* Nintendo switch

* Not sure what the things standing up are? Maybe candle/lights?

* Also a mood light off to the side

LOGAN’S ROOM!

* The periodic table on the wall with rainbow colours (that’s just perfect)

* Dark blue dad pyjamas and eye mask (probably for a proper nights sleep) plus he replaces his glasses with an eye mask

* Dark blue matching bed sheets because UNIFORMITY

* All the plushies! All of them. I think he needs the most comfort

* Gravity Falls journal #3

* Another self insert fanfic from Roman! (Possibly not the Sherlock one that Roman wrote for Christmas because this is thinner and has different stickers on the cover, but ahhhh that’s so SWEET)

* Blank cue cards for new slang words to learn

* A FINISHED Rubix cube

* His glasses

* A crossword day by day calendar

* A blue alarm clock 11:30pm? (although it’s pretty late, Logan, is that really a good sleep schedule?)

* An empty jar of crofters (because they are so darn collectible)

* A 10th doctor funko pop (and a Tardis underneath all the plushies!)

* A blue mood light behind the plushies

* And he has a Clapper lol

THANKS FOR READING EVERYONE!

[fanficmemes]

So. There is this fic. Where Big Bird use a ritual with muppet sacrifice to make Mr.Hooper return to life, but he return as a zombie that start killing everyone in sesame street.

It is only 1700 word.

But OH BOY the cursed. I cannot speak about it without sending quotes to describe some of the parta, cause like, this is a masterpiece.

""So he drew a pentagram on the ground with chinese symbols on it. Then he grabbed Elmo and cut his intestines open with a knife, spreading all the shit-filled bowels like butter on a sandwich.

"Oh yeah cut Elmo open like a salad of fermented monotreme madness!" moaned Elmo whorefully and anti-feministically.""

This is like the start and already we are peaking. So, Mr. Hooper return to life, with: "his eyes red as the venemous cunt of a raped enchilada and his skin green like putrid herpes vigor".

If there is one thing dead dove crack fic always get, is DESCRIPTIONS.

After the sacrifice function Big Bird wanted to be fucked in his cloaca by Hooper, but he refuse, and prefer to rape Oscar the grouch with a broken glass bottle. We also get to know Oscar eat aborted babies, of which he have a collection in his trashcan. Big Bird jelous kill the Grouch, that mean:

"In doing so, Oscar's bowels unleashed a massive torrent of putrid yellow diarrhea, which Mr Hooper drank with much pleasure."

Hykes.

After traumatizing us with this, Mr.Hooper start burning alive muppets and eating their genitalia.

"Then he shoved her into a sawmill and obliterated her flesh into a million bloody pieces, forcing them all down Cookie Monster's mouth.

"Oh God I'm gonna be sick!" barfed Cookie Monster, vomitting his own stomachal lining, but Mr. Hooper squeezed his balls, prompting him to sadly devour more of Abby's pieces."

Also the Count apparently really like this (?) and start masturbating with a pencil sharpener, while Grovel think maybe it is better to suicide.

""I'm going to remove the fetus of my own life!" cried Big Birds sadly, putting the coat hanger in his eyelids.

"No, don't kill yourself, to sacrifice to one's misery for the bliss of death is to deny reality it's fair due!"

"Weren't you about to comit suicide as well?"

"Fuck you Big Bird!""

Masterpiece i tell you. MASTERPIECE.

Mr Hooper decide he need to kidnap every children of the city to make the bigger flesh dildo ever made. Also he explode Baby Bear.

At the end Big Bird decide that he have to kill Mr.Hooper again, and go to the library to find a ritual. There he find Bert and Ernie having bdsm sex, that when discovered what is happening decide to help him. That mean they have a threesome and doing that magically the book they need get out of the bookshelf.

And this scene happen:

""Good, they even got the ingredients we need!" said Big Bird, pointing at Baby Bear's putrid remains.

Big Bird ate the rotten bear flesh, then did a twirl, and bright white light began to envelope him. Earnie couldn't believe it, Big Bird turned into Sailor Saturn!

"By the power of Satan, be raped by wapanese cocks by all eternity!" said Big Bird with the gigantic buckteeth he acquired.

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mr. Hooper said meanly, but it was too late, pink light began to glow on his limbs.""

Everything is well what finish well.

And also Big Bird rip out his face.

In all of this, i need to recount the best quote of the fic:

"Why could life not fall into the enthropy driven despair of emancipation, why does the price always become more expensive than the desire outcome of a heart so tainted by the condolences of fate? Why was fairness not an universal factor that drives correspondency to its full potential, to ensure a better trade by which our capacities are judged? Why did he have to lose so much to gain nothing at all?"

MASTERPIECE of cursed crack.

10/10 read it and wished I hadn’t!!!

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I’ve been going through old photos, and so here are a few showing inside the house I lived in until I was 9, what I call “Mom’s house”

1- I had said how my family had one big bed room divided into smaller ones by bookcases. Here you see it, with this pic of Pop reading to me. And I think you can see just how insanely flat my feet are even here!

The bed was a “captain’s bed”, meant to replicate a ship’s bunk, so it was high up with drawers under it, and I had this large wooden box I’d sort of vault myself up onto it. I loved that bed. It had a large hollow area underneath I’d hang out in, and latter my parents built a canopy on it for me. I miss my ”captain’s canopy” bed. Now I sleep on a futon set on springs on the floor, kinda the opposite of that bed!

Not surprisingly it was one of the science books on those shelves that led to the revelation at 6 that I could read ANYTHING if I broke things down enough. Don’t know what a word means? Look it up. Don’t understand all the words in a definition? Look it up.

2- Before I had my own bed I spent the first four years of my life sleeping between my parents. I dunno what Pop and I were watching, but Cookie Monster joined us. I also found a pic of me with my Ernie puppet. I still have them, but then I have almost all my childhood toys. I saw pics of me at Christmas when I was 1, and I still had at least part of all the toys!

3- Mom and me. I haven’t found many pics of the scientific equipment that was always lying around, but hey, there is a telescope at least.

4- And that is Pop and I at the kitchen table! It was a table he made, where he fiberglassed over the top. It’s on the porch now, but I’d love to have it in the house again. Books and magazines weren’t just allowed at the table, they were almost always ON the table! LOL

5- And this is the living room! Ok, we had a front room for guests, but this is where we lived. That big ol’ kerosene heater was how we heated the house. The toy fire engine on the piano was Pop’s as a child, and yes, I still have it even after all those years of being played with. There is a photo after, with Pop’s help, the thing my brother was building reached the ceiling and you can see the other wall. In that shot you have a poster from The Empire Strikes Back of a Star Destroyer, a large poster of the US at night from space, a velcro Winnie the Pooh target game, and…yeah…a frames collection of family snapshots. This is typical family living room decorating, right?

6- There you see the family tv! I wasn’t joking that my family didn’t even have a color tv until I was 9. My folks had a couple of these little tvs, and they would be in different rooms at different times. Maybe that’s why I am baffled by people being critical of old movies or tv for fuzzy or B&W images. When I was little EVERYTHING I watched was fuzzy and B&W!

Oh, and yes the living room walls are pink. They still are. Mom painted them that way sometime in the late 1960s, and I it never got repainted. Well, my brother and I did do a bit of drawing on the wall and slapping stickers on it. A lot of it she did find ways to cover once my grandma was living there without us.

Sorry about the quality of the pics, but they were neglected all these years. I just thought it was fun to see how alien the hyper neat, interior decorated, state of the art luxuries, upper middle class world you see in most movies and tv are to me.

[letterboxd]

Puppet Love.

Puppeteer Sarah Thomson relives her childhood through the new Sesame Street documentary Street Gang, and recommends 20 more puppetry films for both felt novices and reticulated foam professionals.

To an Antipodean of a certain age, the brownstones of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing looked incredibly familiar. Not because we’d ever visited Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn, or even New York, but because they looked like Sesame Street.

Such was the reach and power of the Children’s Television Workshop phenomenon. In making a concerted effort to connect with inner-city children in post-war America’s lower socio-economic neighborhoods, Sesame Street not only platformed and validated those same inner-city neighborhoods within American homes, but had also broadcast a version of them to the rest of the world.

I grew up in New Zealand with a version of that neighborhood as my kind-of babysitter, courtesy of well-worn VHS tapes of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. And, when I saw Lee’s aforementioned classic (at probably too young of an age), detailing racial tensions and police brutality, wondered whether Oscar the Grouch was in Mookie’s trash can. I also grew up to be a puppeteer. Funny that.

Trailblazing ‘Sesame Street’ producer Joan Ganz Cooney and friends on set.

The notion that entertainment for children could be both educational and compelling; both targeted and of broad appeal, is a notion that has been core to all the children’s entertainment I’ve ever been lucky enough to be involved with. And as Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street lovingly shows, it was Children’s Television Workshop—and force-of-nature producer Joan Ganz Cooney—who really wrote that playbook. Making television with heart and attention to detail, but also with all the audience testing and social sciences usually reserved for Madison-Avenue clients, Sesame Street was, as one archival talk-show clip puts it, “what television would do if it loved people, instead of trying to sell to people”.

Not all felt and warm fuzzies, there’s also a bittersweetness to Street Gang. Interviews with the children of seminal figure Jon Stone, composer Joe Raposo, and the legendary Jim Henson lean more than a little into the idea that teaching the world’s children might often come at the expense of your own. And the permeating, unifying political ideology shown in its wonderful archival footage of the Street’s early days is a little lacking on modern Sesame Street, with Frank Oz (the original Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, as well as Miss Piggy, Animal, and Yoda) dubbing it a “shadow of what it was”.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz and ‘Sesame Street’ director Jon Stone. / Photo by Robert Fuhring courtesy Sesame Workshop

But when it was great, god it was great: Stevie Wonder and Grover; Big Bird learning about mortality; Oz and Henson’s sublime Bert and Ernie comic interplay; The Pointer Sisters teaching you to count; hilarious parody; jaw-dropping guest stars; sensational music; and (don’t tell my Muppet family, but) Kermit the Frog’s personal theme isn’t ‘Rainbow Connection’, it’s Joe Raposo’s beautiful, multi-layered ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’.

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street—based on the book of the almost-same name by Michael Davis, and very much focused on the early years of a show now into its sixth decade—oozes with the same heart and care that the first decades of its subject are full of. Marilyn Agrelo’s film, produced by Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts, is a real love letter to the potential of creativity in education and state-funded content that prioritizes people over profit.

“I am somebody!” Reverend Jesse Jackson and kids on ‘Sesame Street’.

Before he appeared on Sesame Street in 1971, Reverend Jesse Jackson compelled the readers of his column not to miss the 1970 Sesame Street Cast Tour:

“Children shouldn’t miss this as it is one of the most creative and innovative education forms in mass media today. What ought to make you happy is that Black people are involved from the outset. They are everything from production editors and writers to actors and the message of Sesame Street is that children don’t live in a little lily-white world but on streets and in real neighborhoods, in cities as well as suburbs that all types of people are involved in making real.”

48 years later, in 2018, the Sesame Street gang came 8,944 miles to my neighborhood, with Oscar-winning ‘Man or Muppet’ composer Bret McKenzie as their human song partner (the show was in his hometown, handily). Performing live, the characters onstage had helped raise the adults in the audience, now present in great numbers, with their own enthralled children in tow. The gang’s a little different these days (most heritage characters are now in new pairs of very caring hands) but the song remains the same: one of laughter, inclusion and compassion.

In an increasingly fragmented world, with an ever-growing focus on the individual, perhaps the most radical thing we can continue to ask children might just still be: “who are the people in your neighborhood?”.

Not enough puppetry in your media diet? Whether you’re a felt novice or a reticulated foam professional, here is a list of twenty further places to travel into the magical realm of puppets.

Related content

Andre’s list of 100 Best Stop Motion, Puppets, Marionettes and Gekimation

Brianna’s Worlds of Puppetry mega-list and dozens more puppetry documentaries

Tom’s list of Muppets feature films and specials

Puppet Movies (That Aren’t The Muppets), a list by TheDude3445

A Filmmaker Five from puppet-loving director Quentin Dupieux

Follow Sarah on Letterboxd

‘Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street’ is screening in select theaters and is streaming now on VOD.

[veldian]

tell us more of ur think tank hcs i personally am at the edge of my seat

HELL YEAH ALRIGHT HERE WE GO. some of these might be against canon in some way but that's your fault for trusting me with this

ALSO, AS USUAL, I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE. THIS GOT VERY LONG. when i think about the tanks i go fuckin wild with it

starting with pride headcanons to get the ball rolling

all the tanks are nonbinary, but additionally, dala is a trans woman and 0 is a trans man

8 hates gender he fucking hates it. every day he wakes up and says "today i will make gender my bitch" and then he does. he says this in the game too you just don't know cuz he only speaks in static (don't factcheck this)

if you ask 8 what pronouns she uses, they will shrug and give you a "i dunno" noise. sometimes it'll make a non-committal hand movement and some unintelligible noises. good luck

god this bitch (borous) is gay! good for him! good for him.

he's also intersex! i don't remember where we got that hc but i like it and im holding onto it

okay but borous calls himself bi because yeah Men, but he also loves dala very much and doesn't want to misgender her. also as previously stated, 8's main goal is to confuse everyone about their gender so the tanks all stick with mspec labels to be on the safe side. you never know what'll happen. gender is a ticking time bomb

bi gang: klein, borous, 0

pan gang: dala, mobius

don't ask her about any of her identities she doesn't know the answer either: 8

have i gone off about polytank dynamics enough? i don't think so

8 and dala started dating first because horny bitches gravitate towards each other. they can also "pass" as a "straight couple" so hopefully no one at work will look at them and call them slurs. hopefully

klein and borous knocked things out of the park for being the first gay scientists ever

8 and dala became polyam icons and pulled 0 in. trans bitches gravitate towards each other

klein and borous did the same with mobius. bitches with facial hair gravitate towards each other

???????

idk and then all six of them started dating somehow. the end

somewhere along the way klein and 8 were like "i like you a little too much" and now they're inseparable

okay anyway. misc hcs

ive mentioned this before but when i pretend everything is in modern times, 0 is a tiktokker and he thrives on the attention and making fun of his coworkers on the internet

"watching steven universe repeatedly when i felt even slightly bad transed my gender" - doctor 8 old world blues

i just remembered i made a carrd for the tanks as if they were kinnies in their early to mid 20s

8 kinned pearl su. borous kinned werewolf cookie. 0 kinned rimmer red dwarf. mobius kinned... morbius forbidden planet. obviously. klein refused to put his kins on it. DID DALA KIN FROM DANGANRONPA

i think at one point we had a half-joking hc where klein gets nauseous if he sees blood

and then that changed to he can't see others blood, only his own

while borous can't see his own blood, but he's fine seeing other ppl's

i know borous said that gabe barked at everyone, but i think gabe trusts the other tanks because he knows borous does

borous set up a kissing booth with gabe. the crowd goes wild

when the tanks get together they usually go to klein's. he's the leader or something. also he has a fucking bar in his house.

he complains about them the whole time but you can really tell he loves having people over. why else would he deck his house out like that? he LOVES hosting stuff. house husband

if you saw my chart where i said klein would rather die than do dishes, i was so wrong. his house is pristine. its easily the cleanest

klein's love language is acts of service. he goes over to his partners' houses when they feel awful and clean stuff up for them when they can't. he also makes them food if they want it. he only complains a little, but you can tell he's mostly teasing

did you know klein has five mugs in his kitchen in-game. he's literally prepared to host his partners at any given moment.

the group have learned that letting 8 come over when their house is a mess is a Huge mistake. it goes from 8 trying to help "tidy up" to "im going to put your books and albums in alphabetical order by artist also your clothes are going to be hue-sorted"

"8 why are there only 8 books on each of my bookshelves"

"it looks better"

"it literally does not"

8 can no longer stomach going into 0's house

on the other hand, 0 hates staying in 8's house. the ticking of all their clocks is sensory hell

on 80 date nights they have to do rock-paper-scissors for which house they go to. or they go out. they love each other but their houses drive the other fucking nuts

oh speaking of their houses. yes dala said she didn't like Literal Teddy Bears but that is null and void considering she has teddies in her house

and she has 5 on her bed. five of them :)

she named all of them after her partners! its mostly cute but there is a slight bit of concern because they know what she does with them <__<

not that 8 has any place to judge. mobius found batteries under its pillow once. all 8 said was "they can vibrate." mobius regrets touching them.

i don't know what to say about dala's mannequins i don't have anything funny im just scared

WHY ARE 0 AND KLEIN THE ONLY ONES WITH BATHROOMS IT DRIVES ME INSANE 0'S BATHTUB ISNT EVEN LAYING DOWN ITS AGAINST THE WALL WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT GENERATOR IN HIS BATHROOM DO THE OTHER TANKS JUST SHIT OUTSIDE I'M SEEING RED

mobius and 0 are both into robotics, and they worked together to make muggy, so they've had date nights where they mainly tinker with electronic things.

0 gets very excited when he makes a breakthrough, and seeing that warms mobius's heart. mobius made a habit of kissing 0 on the forehead or squeezing 0 into a hug when they figure things out.

(0 remembers he likes men.) 😳

dala/klein date nights are essentially just them drinking and gossiping chatting

i asked polycule for some more, so here are ones from your local think tank kinnies

borous -

"klein and borous both like classical music in very different ways. klein mostly likes it to feel smart (see: wheatley) but he just started associating it with the others so it felt nicer And borous just likes it bc hes borous"

klein also likes jazz, but so do all the rest of them

8 has a cochlear implant

"dala likes dressing up to look pretty (see: runway) but is personally embarrassed by it (until she gets encouragement) bc she feels like the others dont support that"

"0 loves collecting and reading those stupid magazines with the birthday party products and themes that ud wanna buy from as a kid but are way too expensive"

"mobius has a secret love for puppetry and will try to bring it up sometimes whenever he can. hes made 3 separate sets of the other tanks as puppets and they freak 0 out"

"borous, in an attempt to better his faults, has started learning from dala and 8 on how to take care of plants instead of what he did before. his basement turns into a cool little green house cozy cuddle area"

"to add on: 8 gardens to cope whenever hes alone bc (projects onto ur kin) he mood drops very fast when alone"

"mobius likes dressing in cozy sweaters and fancy stuff"

0 -

"0 doesn't like anal that much" (thanks.)

dala -

"their new rap album called boyz in the tanks" (THANKS.)

and to top things off, :) here are the normal names for them all, created primarily by our borous kinnie

klein - Ernest Klein (nicknamed ernie)

mobius - Wilbert Mobius (nicknamed bert)

borous - James H. Borous (nicknamed jamie)

dala - Dala Theodore (HER NICKNAME IS TEDDY ITS GENIUS)

8 - Emmett Handley (nicknamed 8 + emmy)

0 - Robert O'Barrick (nicknamed 0/O + robbie (HIM SHARING HOUSE'S NAME IS INTENTIONAL. HE'S TRANS HE PICKED HIS NAME WHY DID HE DO THIS))

[themuppetmasterencyclopedia]

Telly Monster

PERFORMERS Martin P. Robinson 1984-present

Brian Muehl 1979-1984

DEBUT 1979

Telly Monster is a slightly neurotic young monster who lives at 1304 Sesame Street.

Telly was initially conceived as a monster obsessed with watching television; his name is short for Television Monster. In his early appearances on Sesame Street, Telly had antennas coming out of the top of his head, and his eyes would whirl around when he watched TV. A segment of his first appearance appears on the 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD set. This one-note personality, along with the antennas and whirling eyes, was soon dropped, and Telly became the worrying, easily frustrated character he remains today (however, in the Talk, Listen, Connect episode Deployments, he is still shown to be an expert on TV and computers).

Telly was originally performed by Bob Payne for his first few appearances in 1979, then by Brian Muehl who used a low, gruff-sounding voice. Muehl also developed Telly's worrywart personality, making Telly a character who always needed reassurance in order to be confident. When Martin P. Robinson took over in 1984, he originally began with the personality Muehl already established for the character, using a voice similar to Muehl’s Telly voice. However, Telly evolved over time, gaining a much stronger emotional range. “His main thing now is that he believes totally in whatever he’s into,” says Robinson “And he can turn on a dime and that doesn’t belie what he was feeling before. He can go from great joy to great sorrow and it’s all totally genuine.”

Early on, Telly was often paired with Oscar the Grouch, whom he tries to befriend against tremendous odds. The two were traveling companions in Follow That Bird, and Telly is a member of Oscar's fan club, the Grouchketeers. The two starred in two recurring sketches together: "Ask Oscar," which Telly introduced; and "Sneak Peek Previews." Their most recent pairing together was in a sketch demonstrating words that begin with the letter B. (First: Episode 4248)

In recent years, Telly has often been seen in the company of his good friend Baby Bear. Telly has a great love of triangles, and owns a pet hamster named Chuckie Sue. Telly has a favorite toy doll which he named "Freddy." When Telly was a baby monster, his favorite toy was a stuffed animal horse which he named "Clark" before he got "Freddy". In the video Bedtime Stories & Songs, when Telly comes to Big Bird's nest for a sleepover, he brings a menagerie of different stuffed animals that almost overflow the entire nest. He also plays the bassoon, the tuba and, of course, the triangle. He also occasionally appears as a Monster on the Spot reporter. He also often jumps on a pogo stick, after Mr. Handford taught him how to in a 1993 episode.

Modern versions of the Telly puppet have movable eyelids to let his eyes widen, a handy technique when the monster is in panic mode. There are also two Telly puppets that have been interchangeably used throughout the show. The more frequently used version is a "sack puppet", similar in design to Cookie Monster or Rowlf the Dog, where the arm sleeves are directly attached to the base of the puppet. The second version is a full-body version of the character, with legs and feet attached. The puppet's arms are stuffed, with visible arm sleeves similar in design to the arms of Ernie or Fozzie Bear.

For Sesame Street's 40th season, Sesame Workshop featured a digital promotion called "Muppetbook", which featured profiles similar to those seen on Facebook. The profile listed squares, circles, and Woody Allen movies (too much anxiety) as Telly's pet peeves. Among his favorite songs are "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and "Don't Cry Out Loud."

FILMOGRAPHY

Sesame Street

Big Bird in China

Don't Eat the Pictures

The Muppets Take Manhattan

Follow That Bird

The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years

Learning About Letters

Sleepytime Songs and Stories

Sesame Street, Special

Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson

Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake

Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration

Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Streets Forever

Sesame Street Stays Up Late

We All Sing Together

The Great Numbers Game

Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic

Elmopalooza

Elmo's Musical Adventure: Peter and the Wolf

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland

CinderElmo

The Street We Live On

Let's Make Music

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BOOK APPEARANCES

The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites (1981)

City (1982)

More Who's Who on Sesame Street (1982)

Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book (1983 reprint)

People in Your Neighborhood (1983)

A Baby Sister for Herry (1984)

Lovable, Furry Old Grover in Please Don't Push the Red Button (1984)

A Silly Sesame Street Story: The Three Little Pigs (1984)

Big Bird's Book of Rhymes (1985)

Big Bird Joins the Carnival (1985)

Ernie's Finish the Picture (1985)

Follow That Bird Activity Book (1985)

Follow That Bird coloring book (1985)

Sign Language ABC (1985)

A Bird's Best Friend (1986)

Find the Shapes (1986)

Through the Year (1986)

The Runaway Soup and Other Stories (1987)

Colors (1987)

Shape Up! (1987)

Big Bird's Square Meal (1988)

Going Places (1988)

A New Playground on Sesame Street (1988)

Oh, I Am So Embarrassed! (1988)

The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words (1988}

Come As You Are (1989)

The New Who's Who on Sesame Street (1989)

Museum of Monster Art (1990)

How to Get to Sesame Street (1991)

Sesame Street 123 (1991)

We're Counting on You, Grover! (1991)

What Do You Do? (1992 edition)

Grover's 10 Terrific Ways to Help Our Wonderful World (1992)

Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad (1992)

We're Different, We're the Same (1992)

Elmo's Mother Goose (1993)

From Trash to Treasure (1993)

Around the Corner on Sesame Street (1994)

Bright and Early with Elmo (1994)

Elmo's Big Lift-and-Look Book (1994)

Sesame Street Stays Up Late (1995)

B is for Books! (1996)

Elmo's Lift-and-Peek Around the Corner Book (1996)

Rise and Shine! (1996; reworked as Up, Up, Up! in 2011)

Elmo's Christmas Colors (1997)

Pumpkin Patch Party (1997)

The Sesame Street Word Book (1998)

Elmo's ABC Book (2000)

Watch Out for Banana Peels (2000)

Elmo and the Monsters (2001)

Clap Your Hands! (2002)

[itsaboutbooks]

Book Club, the novel adaptation

THIS WAS AN EXPERIENCE LET ME TELL YOU. 

I roll on up at 6:55 for the 7pm book club. I walk in and there's an immediate flurry because my presence means we need another table. In point of fact, the new table added two seats and they were all filled by the in so whatever guys, you would have needed another table anyway. 

I sit down and everybody is passing around these treats. There's no escaping Ernie's cornbread. He's VERY serious about the cornbread. But it's good cornbread so it's fine. But I successfully refused salami, mozzarella, oreos, milanos, some sort of ritz mix, and some chocolate covered mini cookies. 

Mary comes in, wheeling in a book cart, upon which is a carafe of coffee, some paper cups and a pint of half and half. Another woman whose name I can't remember walks in right then and Mary pounces on her: 

"Did you get my email??"

"No...? What was it about?"

"About coming at 6:30 so you could learn how to make the coffee."

"Oh," glances meaningfully at the clock where it says it's 7:02.

"GIVE ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER."

So we know Mary is a person to watch.

We're settling in and the last woman comes and sits next to me. She says to the person next to her, who is the one who was supposed to come at 6:30 but didn't, "I wonder if we can have decaf next time, I can't have caffeine this late."

The other woman addresses Mary, at the far end of the table. "Mary, Annette wants to know if we can have decaf next time."

"I'm sorry, I can't really hear you."

The message is passed up to Mary. Mary: "I just opened this container of coffee."

Annette's representative: "Well maybe we can get decaf next time?"

Mary: "Is that ok with everyone else? *I* don't drink coffee," (gestures meaningfully to her water bottle "so it doesn't matter to me." 

Attention turns to the guy who leapt for the coffee as soon as it was wheeled in

Annette's representative: "I mean, we're all old. We shouldn't have caffeine this late anyway." 

Silence. 

Coffee guy: "I don't mind. I'll drink whatever's here." 

Mary: "Well, the library provides the coffee." 

Annette's representative: "But surely we could ask for decaf?"

Mary: "Except I think that they provide coffee for ALL the book clubs, so..."

Annette: "Oh, it doesn't matter, I can just bring my own drink." 

Annette's representative: "Maybe we should just bring our own coffee. Coffee isn't that expensive."

Ernie: "We could run it like a club and take dues." 

Mary: "Hahahahaha. Let's have the new people introduce themselves." 

I fear Mary. 

Anyway, it's me and another girl a little younger than me that are new. She moved her a year ago from San Jose. There were 16 people there, of which about 5 were in my general age demographic, another 3 were my parents age and the other 8 were my grandparent's age. 

Ernie goes first, so I go last. 

Ernie's book is about code breakers in WW2. This led to an amazeball side discussion between Ernie and Stan about their respective WW2 experiences (!) which took a long time for a book club that's supposed to be an hour and requires 16 people to give a book summary. 

Then DeNell goes, she's talking about a thriller that she's only partway through.

Then Stan's wife goes. This woman is a retired physics professor, which is pertinent because this review makes her sound like an idiot. She's also had a stroke and is hard to understand but she goes for it.

Stan's wife: "Do you know how the amazon on the computer lets you have a sample of a book so you can decide if you want to buy it?" everyone nods. "Well, I got a sample of this book called The Master Algorithm and I wanted to read it because Stan and I watch this show, I don't know if any of you have ever seen it, it's called Numbers. It's about these two brothers and one is an FBI agent and the other is a math genius and the one brother gets all the cases and the other brother solves the cases using algorithms, and I wanted to know what an algorithm really was because I never had that in my math classes in school. So I read this sample and what I realized was I should have read the second part of the title which was the search for the algorithm that will unlock learning so it was about looking for a special algorithm and not what an algorithm is. What I learned was that I did not need to buy this book."

Silence.

Someone: "Did you read another book, then?"

Stan's wife: "No. I looked up what an algorithm is and I wanted to tell you because that's what I learned this month and also maybe no one else knows what an algorithm is either. What it is, is a set of instructions you give a computer. The example that I saw that made the most sense to me was doing the laundry. Doing the laundry is an algorithm because you decide if something is a white or not, and if it's a white it goes to the whites, and if it's not it goes with the darks."

Silence.

Then Stan talked about his book, a murder mystery set in the Shetlands.

Mary finally started reading the Agatha Raisin books. But because I fear Mary I do not mention that they go downhill pretty fast from where she's at.

The next lady talks about a book about a woman who went to Syria before the war on a Fullbright to study the Koran, and this is the sequel she read, about her life in Jerusalem with her Syrian husband and their child.

Then Paige, the other new girl, talks about a book she read that was historical fiction set during the Irish Potato Famine. She says, "I had no idea the English were so culpable for that, refusing to provide aid."

I nod because I've read some of that history and that's right.

Stan: "But didn't the Irish refuse help from other countries?"

Silence.

Stan: "I know that England didn't help but other countries offered to help and Ireland refused, right?"

Paige: "I can't imagine why, when they had so many people starving to death."

Stan: "I'll look it up."

Me: side-eyes Stan. I choose not to remind him to cite his sources.

Lois: "I should probably pass because I read two books and then I decided which one I would talk about and I put the other one away, and then when I got ready today I couldn't find the one I wanted to bring, and I don't remember the title or the author. It was ok."

I almost DIED.

Her husband read this book about the guy who created the Ultima video games. He went on and on and wasn't interesting. 

The next guy is the coffee enthusiast, and he read a history of Scotland from 1700-2000, and he gives a ton of detail. Too much, because it's already past 8pm and there's 5 of us left.

The next guy read a book called "Hope Never Dies" an Obama/Biden murder mystery. I laughed out loud.

The next lady says, I should probably pass, I'm almost halfway through Lady Chatterley's Lover but I'll probably be done with it by next month.

And then there's an 8 minute discussion of it vs Bridges of Madison County and whether she should try to continue reading another book her mom gave her for Christmas.

The next woman is Annette's coffee advocate and she read a historical fiction book about an Iranian woman poet who had to live out her life in exile and there was some scandal about her romantic poems and between that more explicit than expected discussion and the conversation about Lady Chatterley's Lover, I have to tell you, I'm full up on my quota of minutes spent discussing sex with random octogenarians.

Then Annette goes and she talks about some random thriller she picked up and then says, "Sometimes I read more and sometimes I read less and lately I'm reading less so I'm also going to recommend a TV show that I've been watching. It's mysteries set in a modern day western setting, which I normally avoid westerns but it's very good, and it's based on a series of books, it's called Longmire. I haven't read the books and I don't want to because I like the show so much but I'm sure they're good."

Buddy: "They are!"

Annette: "And the library has the DVDs so you can get them here."

Stan: "They're streamable, too, I don't know if they're on Netflix or Prime but it's one of those."

Annette: "I don't do the streaming anymore, I only get the CDs because the streaming doesn't have enough old stuff but I like to get the TV shows from the library because you can get an entire season at a time instead of just one disc."

And then I went and it was over.

[kelleyandmickey]

October 2, 2019

I have passed the one month mark! Things are challenging, but I am doing my best to battle through.

My mental health has been taking me for a ride lately, and I have also been pretty homesick, and then actual sick. I have been told that pretty much everyone gets sick in their first month here, so I guess it’s a bit of a rite of passage.

I don’t get along amazingly with my roommates, and I feel a bit alienated because I am not Mexican. They have friends over late at night a lot, which is not something I love, especially after I’ve just come home from work. But I don’t want to be “that” roommate, so I’ve just been living with it. Since I have passed 30 days, Taylor and I can put in a voluntary move request and possibly get a room together, which would improve things significantly.

But among the not great things, there are some great things!

On my one month anniversary (September 26), I completed the “Mormon Challenge”, which is inspired by the musical, The Book of Mormon. In the song “Two by Two” (listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_NYZesRdY ) Elder Price sings about his dream mission location being Orlando because of SeaWorld, Disney and Putt Putt Golfing. Well, the challenge is just that, all three of those things in one day. My steadfast cohorts from the pavilion, Eric and Eva, and I started the day at SeaWorld at 10am (I got lucky, and an annual passholder gave me a guest pass he wasn’t going to use, so I got in for free!). We rode all the roller coasters (I have been told that they’re the best in Orlando, and I agree), saw the Sea Lion show, and then my early childhood dreams came true with a visit to SeaWorld’s newest land: Sesame Street! We walked through the land (very immersive and interactive!), and met Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, and my preschool favourites: Ernie and Bert! It was probably one of the best themed lands I have been to! Kudos, SeaWorld! After about 5 hours at SeaWorld, we hopped a Lyft to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We were already feeling pretty spent, so we only did one attraction: we had a FastPass for Toy Story Midway Mania. From there, we took the Friendship Boat to the Swan and Dolphin to play a round of Putt Putt at Fantasia Gardens. Despite working 4 summers at a Mini Golf course, I am still pretty terrible at it. Challenge complete! But we were hungry after all that excitement, so we added a bonus stop at Disney Springs to have Guy Fieri’s Chicken Guy, which is my favourite place to eat on property as of now. This day was my first proper adventure off of Disney property. Overall, a very tiring, but fantastic day! 

This week has been a crazy one at Epcot, with the Food and Wine Festival, the final shows of the IllumiNations fireworks show (which has been running in some capacity since 1988, and in the most recent version, Reflections of Earth, since 1999) and the opening of a new temporary show, Epcot Forever. The park hit capacity on both Saturday and Monday, meaning we had more than 60,000 guests come through the gates! Crazy! For the final IllumiNations show on Monday, we had guests staking out their spots as early as park open at 9am (the show was at 9pm!). I was upstairs at post 1 (inside the shop) for most of the night, so I missed most of the nuttiness down on the promenade, but I can only imagine! It’s pretty cool to be working at Epcot during this time of significant change, we get to see so many things happening. I’ll have been here for THREE different fireworks shows on the World Showcase Lagoon in my time here, with the opening of HarmoniUS next year.

Yesterday, I finally got to see my wonderful actor friend from back home, Justine and her husband Evan, who came to visit me at work. Justine and I have known eachother since we were in the same year at MRU, and we have done Naughty but Nice for 3 seasons. I am so excited that she’s recently moved here, and I hope we get to hang out lots! We’re already planning to go to shows together, and to see our friends in the We Will Rock You tour next month :)

Also yesterday, I was feeling a bit down, and I got an e-mail from the service centre saying I got a package. I didn’t order anything.... I went to pick it up, and lo and behold, it’s an envelope full of my favourite Canadian candy sent to me by my amazing best friends, Tori and Connor. It was just what I needed, and I am so grateful <3

I think that’s all for now. Talk soon!

[regular-or-decaf-blog]

Dear Mom

Thanks for your love these past 27 years. For all the hugs and kisses. For the support and the prayers. 

Thanks for teaching me to feel deeply, and to fervently care about other people. For Husband Training, and for teaching me to appreciate a well-ironed shirt. For showing me what it looks like to be a great friend. 

Thanks for your smiles and your patience. For listening to me and my ideas. For helping me realize that the world doesn’t revolve around me (or Ashley). For all the wonderful cakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, morning coffees and Sunday lunches after church.

Thanks for passing down your paralyzing fear of snakes and your outgoing personality. For your storyteller side, and your charming wit. 

Thanks for showing me how to play Ernie when your spouse is Bert (no offense Brianna and Dad). For showing me how to sleep in, and how to roll with the punches. For teaching me to love, well hate first, but then love, books. For showing me how to properly enjoy a day at the beach (also, a special thank you to Mexican food and SPF 100). 

Thank you for showing me the meaning of hospitality and an open, welcoming home. For crying in front of me, and for being mushy with Dad. 

Thanks for sitting through winter-weather track meets for me, and not always leaving the room when Dad and I start talking about sports. For giving me an example of dedication. For fighting through the tough times. For showing me what it means to take good care of your momma, and how to be a good sibling. For loving to laugh. 

Thanks for showing me that it is possible to make someone cry in a 30-second commercial. For sending me gummy bears and sour worms, chocolate covered peanuts, and huge packs of gum at every holiday. For loving coffee and board games, and evenings (that turn into late nights) spent with friends and family.

Thanks for loving Jesus and teaching me to do the same. For reading the Bible to me and praying with me.

Thank you for teaching me to trust God and be content with his plan, even when that means working on trains. For showing me that Christians aren’t perfect, and that’s okay. 

Thanks for never giving up on me, and never giving up on yourself, and never giving up on our family. For staying up late to make treats for your co-workers (especially when I got to sample them). For loving Devin like your own son. 

Thanks for being my biggest fan. For encouraging me in my gifts and letting me be me. For giving me permission more often than a lecture. For teaching me about responsibility and second chances. 

Thanks for adoring Brianna, and crying at our wedding. For buying me wacky socks even though she hates them.

Thanks for making me watch White Christmas, and It’s a Wonderful Life, and for being sentimental about things like peanut-shaped snowmen. 

Thanks for telling me stories about you and dad dating at IWU, and about my birth (oh the blood clots...) and about Grandpa Dean.

Thanks for never hanging up on a phone call with me without saying, “I love you.” And for blow-drying my pants in my apartment bathroom right before my college graduation, after Brianna spilled iced tea on them. 

Thanks for thinking that I’m funny.   

Thanks for loving sunny days, and long walks, and ice cream. 

And although we currently don’t live within 1,000 miles of each other, thanks for still being my mom. 

Out of all the combinations of mothers and sons in the world, I thank God that he put you and I together. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So for all i’ve mentioned, all I haven’t, and for all that hasn’t happened yet, thank you Mom. 

I love you too.

[janiklandre-blog]

Saturday, February 11, 2017

10:34 a.m.  39 this morning vs 19 yesterday morning, sun seems to be coming out - computer room facing east a parking lot, also garbage disposal area and the building next to mine where once upon a time the honey mooners were shot - 60's? - later a fire and events to which I was invited, Germans - now inhabited by millionairs, billionaires? - this is new York, why Jasa wants to sell my building - built in the early 80's - neighbors fighting tooth and nail this high rise - 14 floors, a block of tenements razed to build it - hundreds of people evicted - I've watched that happening - I keep watching it happening in this neighborhood in houses bought by jared Kushner, Trump's smart son in law, ruthlesslessly harassing old people - who lived a life time in those houses, built the city, built this neighborhood and many die when having to live without heat, hot water, vermin, loud construction - I was evicted by fire twice, first from the 18 square feet loft at 128 Second Avenue - my painter friend Paco Sainz (see his obit in the NYT. December 1998) and I paid $200 a month - now a Nigerian pays $6000. Unrest in NYC is expected when it gets warm - I am looking for ways not to be here - by appearance I am upper classes white most likely rich woman - now you touch me and I go down - not my favorite way to go - anyway - it was council woman Miriam Friedlander who enabled this here building where I am sitting to go up - rumored to have been a communist once upon a time she died not too long ago and certainly can be googled - she had this building go up for her poor buddies in this neighborhood who were the first to occupy it and like she have died - when I came in 2000 and thanks to two fires, low income (social security, some $500 a month at that time) and a fluke got the 3E apartment facing the loud Bowery - Ernie Guggenheim from some such family, very wealthy mother, apt. in Nevada, house in Greece, at 341 East 6th where I had moved after the 1978 fire in the loft - he was a paying visitor of what I called my quasi super - Dale Legler - they both are dead now - anyway, I was holding Ernie's computer while my side of the building, the Western part was devasted by the fire coming up the airshaft from the basement (smart Dale Legler told NYT reported Edward Wong a young man had left a candle burning - he was my friend, told me he had not been in the building for two days - but Edward Wong bought Dale's story, Dale had been nursing along the decrepit boiler - that I had been nursing before I got Dale into the house - Ernie got the landlord, Greenbaum to write a letter that he had lost everything (not one thing) and made a bee line to this here building where at the time a Jewish woman, Janet, forget her last name was still manager who had the power to assign apartments - Erniie got one on the 13th floor facing East - grat view, great sun rises, quiet - we both moved in on April 1st, 2000, he passed me and said: This is the way the cookie crumbles, Marianne - a friend said to me: face it, the guy is smarter than you are. He had Medicaid, had a hip operated he had injured digging a weel in Greece, got a home care aid, attended every party here and loved the free booze - I never go - asnyway, one day he said: I'm fed up, every time I make a little money they charge me more rent, I am moving to Greece.o he did and Dale told me he died and then Dale died of leukemia. I can write his life story too. This house was built for poor people - one old woman on my floor, about to 100, occasionally says a few words to me, typical of this house, everybody thinks you must be a crook for having gotten in here and stays away from you - she told me she was an artist but never had hesard of Gaugin (spelling?) - anyway, she told the place had bveen crawling with rats and other vermin - there still is other very pesky vermin - anyway - the heating system cannot be controlled in the apartments - mine is dreadfully overheated - and sitting here, freezing, I can see why - this line of apartments can barely be kept warm and mine must be overheated. Zero ventilation, in the summer people spend hundreds of dollars on ancient air conditioners - I hate air conditioning and rather swelter - or go to central park and the roof at night - but C.B. loves the air conditioning. So, because I am freezing here though in down jacket, I will probably stop before too long. You do sense the mood I am in - my failed investigative reporter mood - one good friend, a Greek and computer whiz - once said: a brilliant person can be anything - doctor, lawyer, engineer and a number of people do call me brilliant - others a pest. I was a great teacher, a reasonably good daughter, mother, wife, partner, friends - though many have expected more of me - including myself! - I've done what I could fighting rather adverse circumstances - that - a smart person would not have gotten into. Many books - that I've written, never managed to publish, many burned in the 2000 fire. And as one of my several psychiatrist freiends said to me: you were such a knockout, what you could not have done with your looks. But I had amother who insisted I use my mind rather than my looks - of course I could have used my mind better than I did - 20/20 hindsight. Yesterday - I did avoid street crossings - it was very cold and icy - after all the cars must be provided with good roads - pedestrians - f them - and so I discovered how interesting the block is on which  I live - sidewalk around my house clesred with snow blower by Zac our excellent super - 4th street not too bad - entered a "scent" store - lovely woman - neighborhood woman who would love into my functional building that by now is 80 or more percent Chinese. They do talk to each other, loudly in not Mandarin but the other Chinese, have a community, cook up a storm, now have a garden on the roof. Neighborhood people cannot even get on a waiting list - 3000 and closed. I doubt any Chinese is on the waiting list - talked to a woman in rthe laundry who had just arrived from Hong Kong, son rich man in Sweden. Anyway, perfume is expensive but for $15 I bought myself a tiny vial of Channel 5 - could not think of any other perfume. Amazing how many stores and restaurants are on one block - once upon a time mom and pop store fronts. Then C.B. texted me come to meeting and hear K.H. talk about her grandma, Dorothy Day - now about to be sainted, a lot of commotion, I stayed home and had a talk with B.L.W. - a lot more interesting - by 10:30 C.B. did show up - doubt by this time she really wanted to come - but her mother also is a Prussian and she has the same sense of duty other Prussian friends have - also is on time, which I appreciate - but - I asked about Waleed in Finland - no word on asylum, son not the righ papers to go to school, he cannot work, thinking of return to Iraq - told her about physical therapy I found, Weil Cornell, liked the doctor a lot beter than her's - Cornell Weil on East 8th, her Mt.Sinai - large and impersonal I took two calls - am freezing, have lost my track - just wsnted still to say that this morning I went to Bean where I've been meeting Dinah - we had a longer talk, C.B.m