#and just like. morrises in general

[phoebehalliwell]

I am Feeling Some Darryl Morris Appreciation in this Chili's tonight, so I was wondering: if you were going to give the man an actual arc (because he deserved one dammit!) or change his role in Charmed, how would you do it?

i mean given just like the type of guy he is / his relationship towards magic, i kinda hesitate to give him a plotline centered around magic bc i feel like he'd just be miserable all the time. on the flip side, this is charmed so um like. we really don't have plotlines outside of magic tbh i feel like. a plot where yes it's a magical problem but there is a very human side to it one the girls just like aren't equipped to handle, like. darryl could do that. idk what that would be tho. and then we also like. never see sheila or his kids i would love to see more of darryl's family. i mean. there's always the magical morrises au. okay so what if like. what if like darryl has a nephew or niece or whatever. either his sibling's kid or sheila's sibling's kid. someone like. late teens. but still in high school maybe. 17 or 18. and something tragic happens to this kid's parents i wanna go w a gender neutral name so i don't have to commit to anybody. sam? angel? casey? jesse? jordan. boom. classic name great name. yes so jordan's parents have died so they have to pack up and move halfway across the country to live w their aunt and uncle in san francisco. and jordan's cagey and distant and tbh kind of weird very antisocial not just to their family but like to kids their own age too and darryl's very stressed out because like. aaaa!!!! but then idk there's like. maybe this starts as a constructive gentle conversation that quickly devolves into an argument because we were all mentally ill teenagers were we not? we know how it goes. Anywayz in the conversation now argument some freak shit happens idk what and jordan immediately kinda shuts down and stops completely as if it was their fault and darryl can clock it from a million miles away this kid's a witch. so you know the girls are on the line faster than you can say hocus pocus as it turns out we'll say jordan's dad was a witch and trained them until he was killed by a demon so in order to keep their mom safe they really kind of gave up on the craft but for what it's worth they did love it practicing magic with their father but now it's just like. i mean it reminds them of him. we'll say they had the same power set. and like. it really it rips the wound open fresh every time they practice. heart 2 heart w paige over losing their parents. darryl leo heart to heart after leo's mortal or something we can shift around the timeline about being scared being out of their depth because all they wanna do is protect this kid but how can they protect this kid when he's so out of his depth here. but what i really want what i really really want here is just a little moment of jordan bonding with their cousins right because there's like what about a 15 year age delta there roughly so mikey and dj r just like kids. they're just little kids they don't really fully know what going on especially when jordan first arrives and they're trying to be nice because like they know their parents just died but they're little kids so it's like do you want to play sorry! with us? when all jordan really wants to do is like. go into a coma and never wake up. so jordan was definitely a lil (well, okay, more than a little) snippy with them in the beginning but just a little scene were all the kids are laying on the floor playing sorry (it's a board game if u do not know it was my favorite as a child) and darryl and sheila just like. look over from the kitchen and see like. like a happy, healing family. i would love getting more of an emotional journey from darryl some really secure happy ending specifically tied to his life outside of the sfpd. also a scene where darryl like. teaches jordan tho throw a punch. like he might not be able to teach potion brewing or whatever but like every kid should be able to throw a good punch okay so no don't put you thumb there yep yeah okay now bap! like. dad!darryl por favor.

[wygolvillage]

unlike what seems like a lot of people (since i see this in fanfiction sort of frequently when i have the whim to read) i dont think theres one set “belmont estate” where the family lived, i actually think their place of residence and mode of living changed over the generations

pre-sonia: before they were vampire hunters they were just regular hunters and sort of well-off. in a pretty secluded mountain village, sonia’s grandfather owned a mansion (iirc this was mentioned in the Manual Backstory(tm)) filled with the family’s hunting trophies mounted on the walls. large, cozy, and cabin-esque. this mansion was destroyed in a monster raid on the village shortly before sonia lead her charge on the castle.

trevor era: sonia briefly settled in a smaller village following her victory, to raise her son (not alucard’s in my hcs though bc i dont like it. they were just friends). during trevor’s childhood, he and his mother were required to leave the country since sonia had Abilities (vaguely described as “being able to detect supernatural monsters” so i always hc she had prophetic visions) that those in power saw as threatening and unnatural. knowing what happened to alucards mother, sonia feared being accused as a witch, so she acquiesced. their living conditions while in exile were less consistent but not outright terrible. following the exile sonia secluded herself and her son a lot more, preferring to stay away from prying eyes.

christopher era: since trevor took after his mothers sensibilities, the belmont family stuck with small, woodsy cabins a large-ish distance from nearby settlements, even when invited back into the country. though trevor earned back some respect for the belmont family, they were still feared by many. christopher followed suit, living in a little house in the mountains with his wife and son, soleiyu, though he wasnt as isolated as trevor was later in life.

simon era, juste era, richter era (pre-sotn): simon was at first mostly the same as his predecessors, but following his near-death in cv2 he gained a new outlook on life and feared to waste it in solemn solitude. he moved to one of the villages that had welcomed him during his quest, aljiba, as his victories had gained more respect for the bloodline he felt more assured doing so compared to his ancestors and their rightful caution. through the next few generations, the belmonts stayed there, this being the village where juste, maxim and lydie grew up and where richter and annette lived, too. despite their legendary status, they lead frugal lives, even though they probably could have afforded a mansion. i also think that juste and richter both spent large portions of their childhood being sent to a slightly further away church-based... academy? thing? to ensure their skills were ship shape.

richter era (post-sotn): after losing his connection to the whip in the aftermath of his possession, he entrusted it to alucard to find a new heir, who was in the area while maria was trying to domesticate him (lol)- alucard would eventually pass it on to the morrises, of course, after having crafted the alucard spear to compliment its power. richter, on the other hand... his role was over. he and annette (srry im not an annette divorce truther i think its more interesting if they stay together and the various ways that dracula tried to tempt them to evil and how annette could resist it but richter couldnt and- thats an essay for another day) just kind of left, with richter unable to face the land he had grown up in steeped in legend and legacy. they traveled aimlessly until they happened upon an idyllic valley between two difficult to cross mountain ranges, nearby the sea, and lived there while richter found the peace his turmoiled heart so needed. this is the place that would eventually become wygol, where ooe took place

ooe era: i think following richter moving to that valley, so did other belmont descendants, seeking comfortable obscurity and a hiding place after their bloodline had fallen to ruin. the once scattered family tree mostly ended up reuniting around this area and populating the area, creating a lot of the human structures like the monastery and the church in oblivion ridge (the description for that area also said its the abandoned site of harvest festivals, and i hc that thats why). around this time, nikolai established wygol as an official town. it was unknown to him that this was where the belmonts were in hiding, but barlowe also chose this place as the site for eccesia’s main headquarters due to the distance from others so he could secretly perform his experiments without being questioned by locals, since the existing belmont population was pretty scarce even in the area’s golden years as that hiding place. as dracula grew closer to resurrection, though, monsters began flooding the area, a sign of his return, and most of the belmonts left once more, leaving wygol (and ecclesia) as one of the last places still actively inhabited in the remote valley. the belmonts that left mostly just incorporated themselves into “normal society”, abandoning their old names and family history.

and it mostly stays the same from there since thats where the legacy kind of ends... though i think julius was born in america and wygol would be abandoned by modern day (its the lost village from dawn)

[what-goesaround-comesaround]

Let's talk about some Irish newsies-

Hey! So I thought it'd be cool to look into the research I've found indicationg that some of the newsies might have Irish ties! (I'm Irish so that might explain my interest) I'm not an expert at all or anything, this is just the research I've collminated while scouring through newsies facts.

Oh course this isn't set in stone, this is just information I've found so if I've got anything wrong, please tell me! I was inspired by this post to do my own research. (A lot of my research has to do with the original movie but stick around for some fun facts about surnames?)

And now, onto Jack Kelly :

^This is David's description of Jack in Newsies : a novel by Jonathan Fast which can be found here on pg 9. Both surnames "Kelly" and "Sullivan" have their roots in Irish history.

^on pg 27 of the same book David describes Jack again as "an Irish boy". I just thought this would be worth noting, seeing how David wants to make it obvious to us, the reader that Jack appears to be Irish or of Irish descent.

"Kelly", originally anglicized from the Gaelic "Ó Ceallaigh" meaning 'descendant of Ceallach', an ancient Irish personal name, originally a byname meaning 'bright-headed' or 'troublesome' (fitting huh?) Source found here.

Fun fact for you livesies fans, the reigning chieftain of Ui Maine (mid Galway, South Roscommon, sometimes referred to as "O'Kelly's Country") O'Ceallaigh (c1351), was a renowned patron of the arts. Source found here.

Another fun fact : Jack means Seán in Irish.

Bet you weren't expecting that. Or maybe you were. Anyway, source is found here. I also remember it being a topic of conversation in 3rd class Irish class. Wonder how Spot and Jack would feel about that.

^On pg 23 of the original 1992 movie script found here Jack describes himself as a "mick" which was a commonly used derogatory term used against those of Irish decent/Irish immigrants at the time. However this line was not included in the movie. Source found here.

Now for "Sullivan". The original Irish for the surname Sullivan is O'Suileabhain, however the actual derivation of the name is debated. There is no doubt that the root word is 'suil' meaning eye, but whether it is to be taken as 'one-eyed' or 'hawk-eyed' is usually left an open question. Sources found here and here.

The surname is associated with the southwestern part of Ireland and was originally found in County Tipperary before the Anglo-Norman invasion. Source found here

Also, in both movie and stage versions Jack tells us his father "taught me not to starve" indicating his father may have taught Jack about the horrors of the Famine/An Drochshaol/The Great Hunger that plagued Irish families for years after. Source is found here.

Okay! On to Spot Conlon :

^This is David's description of Spot Conlon from the same book, pg 51 (okay he may not outright say he's Irish but they really said "throw all the stereotypes at him like red hair". But seriously in the Hard Promises script and the Newsies script he's described the same way. I guess they really invisioned that red hair huh?)

Spot is interesting seeing as he is the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, Brooklyn being an infamously known place for Irish immigrants to live due to the Great Hunger/An Drochshaol (translated meaning "Hard Times") or as it's more commonly known as "the potato famine" between 1845-1852. Source found here. At least 1 million people died from this and another 1 million immigrated, a lot to America (although the exact numbers are disputed.) Around this time New York becoming the busiest port city in the world. There was labor work to be had in Brooklyn, in the manufacturing and loading and unloading of goods to be sent around the country and around the world. Irish immigrants who had been left poor and malnourished by the famine had no other option but to take on this manual labour to earn money. Many took jobs by the ports and settled by the Watershed i.e. near the ports. This could be a reason to why we're first introduced to Spot and his "cronies" at the port in the movie. Source is found here and here.

Supposing Spot was born between 1880-1886 (he's quoted to be 14 in real life in this article however it's stated in the Newsies Novel on pg 51 to "be around Jack's age" and it's stated in original script before Newsies was rewritten to be a musical and was still a drama, "Hard Promises" he's quoted to be 19 on pg 28. So take this with a grain of salt.) the U.S. census, which counted both place of birth and parents’ birth place as well, estimated that one-third of all New Yorkers were of Irish parentage. By 1890 as Brooklyn neighborhoods were expanding east and south, the amount of people with Irish stock is at 196,372. Source found here.

Also how people will usually use the name "Seán" or sometimes "Patrick" for Spot (one of the fandom wiki pages cites it as his real name here but admits to having no proof of it). Both of these are traditional Irish first names, Patrick being popularised by the patron saint of Ireland St. Patrick/Pádraig. Might have heard of it-

Now for his surname.

Conlon is an Irish family name, it being a variation of the anglicised version of Ó Connalláin. The name may be derived from two Irish Gaelic words "Con" (the genitive case of Cú, meaning "hound") and "Lón" meaning lion - thereby implying a person who has the characteristics of a lion born of a hound - strength and speed. Source found here.

Conlon had a Gaelic form of Ó Conallain or Ó Coinghiollan in Connacht however it's Ó Caoindealbhain in Munster and Leinster. Fun fact, Connal or Connall is claimed to be a pet name for a sprout or little sprout. Source found here.

The history regarding the Conlon surname is complicated to say the least- however it can be traced back to County Meath, where the Conlon descendants are from an important sept near Trim, which traces back to Laoghaire, King of Ireland circa 432. O'Coindealbhain was also anglicised 'Quinlivan' in Munster. Source is found here and here.

This post isn't letting me include the video of Jack, David and Boots going to Brooklyn to negotiate with Spot and the Irish traditional music in the background but I'll make a separate post about that.

Now, onto Racetrack Higgins.

I'm going to keep this kind of brief. We know Racetrack is described as "tall, skinny gambling Italian beanpole" in the Hard Promises script on pg 1 and he's described as "an Italian beanpole" on pg 5 of the Newsies Script. However the surname "Higgins" is Irish as far as my research has told me, not Italian.

The real Ed "Racetrack" Higgins lived in Brooklyn and is quoted to be the real leader of the Brooklyn union, and was elected vice-president of the general union after Kid Blink and David Simmons were accused of selling out. Source found here. I haven't been able to find much information about Racetrack Higgin's life after the strike or his family life which could connect him to Ireland however I thought it would be interesting. If anyone is curious about the real Racetrack Higgins this source has been really useful!

'Higgins" is an Irish family name with ancient royal connections. It is an anglicisation of O'hUigin, from the Irish word 'uiginn' meaning Viking. The original holder of the name was a grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Tara, and all of the O'Higgins claim a common descent from him. Ancient records show that several members of the O'Higgins claimed a hereditary right to be file or poet in the courts of the Irish Chiefs and Kings. Source is found here and here.

Because of their loyalty to Gaelic culture and religion, the Higgins suffered under the English Crown in Ireland and had lost all their lands in Sligo and Westmeath by 1654. Some of them remained in Ireland as tenants on their own lands, but many of them migrated to Spain where they achieved high office in the service of the King. Source is found here.

Fun fact, Racetrack has the same surname as the current (9th) President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins!

Lastly, on to Crutchy/ie Morris!

^This is from the 1991 original script of Newsies when it was called Hard Promises and was written to be a drama. Obviously this wasn't the movie that we have today but I thought this would be a cool add on. I couldn't find a lot of information about the real Crutch Morris, whom Crutchy/ie is based on. The surname Morris isn't strictly Irish, it's a popular surname throughout the British Isles however with this piece of information I thought it would make sense to research it anyway.

"Morris" (Ó Muiris in Irish) was introduced to Ireland by the Normans, along with the variant Firzmaurice (Mac Muiris). A branch of these Morrises moved to Galway in 1485 CE and later became one of the Tribes Of Galway. The name may also have been an abbreviation of Morrissey (Ó Muireasa), a branch of the Uí Fiachrach clan. Sources found here and here.

The ancient Irish name Ó Muirgheasa (variant Ó Muirghis), a personal name thought to derive from muir, meaning "sea" and geas, meaning "taboo" or "prohibition." Source found here.

The Morris family does have an Irish family crest/coat of arms which I'll post at a later date, further cementing themselves in Irish history.

This is most of the information I have regarding the origins of the characters and their surnames however I could go on about the music in Newsies, the family crests, the housing circumstances of poor Irish immigrants in New York at the turn of the 19th century ect.

If you want to learn more about what life was like for Irish immigrants in New York I recommend reading the non-fiction book The Gangs Of New York (or watching the movie. It isn't completely historically accurate but give a decent overview of what was life) or reading this article by the Irish Times.

I've barely scratched the surface of this topic and hope to go into it father in the future!

May I leave you with this gif of the boys doing some Irish (inspired) dancing and David with his twirl combo!

Ps. If the links aren't working for you I'd be happy to provide a list of the resources I’ve used throughout my research on a separate post if needs be.

pps. @maggs-is-a-muppet @annihilatedthenightstalker @newsies-bun @letter-from-the-refuge thanks for the motivation last night 😌

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Town Where Everyone Was Nice! or Scrooge Is the Lindburgh Baby

Saludos Amigos! The Ride of the Three Cablleros has at long last come to the last stop before it’s final phase. It’s been a hell of a ride so far: Our boys have tried to woo some ladies, performed some black magic, had some sort of drug trip, dealt with Donald’s ego, helped goofy ungoofy himself...

“SEASONS CHANGE, TIMES CHANGE BUT UNGOOFY IS FOREVER AND ALWAYS HE IS ALWAYS THERE” ... I created this magificent stalion.. kinda I think he came out of a styigan hole in the universe from the darkest dark in the dark of the dark... I can’t be sure. Our heroes fought an arrogant prince, found a lost city and helped donald get his smile back. All culminating in our heroes going to Spain for some reason, soundtracking Goofy’s win against Horace in Flamico Dancing, somehow that wasn’t a Covid induced fever dream I had but the actual premise of the episode, and then played some soccer with Daisy’s cousin and Pancho Pete. All in all we’ve had some good times getting here and I feel acomplished having made it this far. While I’ve still got quite a ways to go, getting this far means I really made something.. and not just the 80 something dollars it took to comission all of this. And I genuinely just want to thank all of you for reading these as these have easily been some of my most popular reviews and @weirdkev27​ for comissioning all of this. It’s been easily one of my faviorite projects so far and I look forward to the final leg of it soon. For now though we have one last adventure before the biggest one starts.  But before we can dive into it you probably have a few questions, and since I don’t really need to give Ducktales 2017 a lavish introduction as unlike most stuff so far this show is well and familiar: it’s what got me started reviewing animation on this blog, it’s what got me into the duck community as a full member, and it’s what caught Kev’s attention leading to this entire series. So I have time to answer the questions your probably asking and if your not.. well here’s the answers anyway Wait aren’t you going to cover Louie’s Eleven?: Nope. While I love that episode, I already did a full review of it earlier this year.  I saw no reason to completely and utterly redo the entire thing when my opinions toward the episode haven’t really changed. That being said since I didn’t touch on the boys characterizations in that one too much and since I do want this retrospective to be comprehensive, I will talk about Panchito And Jose’s characterization there briefly during this review at the right time as a compromise. 

Wait why isn’t THIS the last stop since it came out AFTER Legend of the Three Cablleros: Simple.. it felt unsatsfying to both me and kev to end on this one. While their apperance here IS a good one and a big deal... it’s also ANOTHER guest apperance. It’s something I didn’t quite realize for now but outside of the movie.. every apperance after is them guest starring in another series. Their aperances in Don Rosa’s Duck Comics, while awesome and treating them with proper respect, were still them showing up to shake up Donald’s stories and formulas. They were LITERAL guest stars in House of Mouse, and Roadster Racers was entirely just “let’s shove them in there because we can”. Legend.. is their story. Their moment in the sun after too damn long with all three as main characters and while being a lead is normal for donald, Jose and Panchito really HAVEN’T had that shot outside of their home countries. To be the hero of their own fully realized epic adventure. So it just fits best to have the road lead there instead of have all that happen.. then go back to yet another guest appearance. The other major factor.. is that while Legend came out around the same time as ducktales, to the point many compared and contrast both shows treatment of Donald, this episode is what most non-latin american audiences saw first as it took Disney WAY too damn long to air the series over here.. i.e. until Disney Plus launched, finding it somewhere online was the only option despite the series being produced in america with some really big american names voice acting wise. Point is this came first to some people, so i’m using that as a flimsy excuse to put it ahead so we get a better finale. 

Now all that’s settled, let’s dive into “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!” and see what one of the best duck propeties period makes of our boys. 

We open in a remote town in Brazil. It’s the Festival of the Flower.. which is a bit off to me. While it DOES kind of make plot sense.. the problem is the lure was written to Panchito and Jose.. Jose whose a brazil native and could’ve possibly been supscious that a tourist invintation wasn’t in Brazilian Portugese, the countries national language and something I specifically researched just to see what it’d be called. For the record it’d be O Festival da Flor acording to google translate, which still sounds neat, Webby could’ve still said it means festival of the flower. It just feels like a missed opportunity from a creative team that’s taken such pains to make the series feel as authentic as possible and clearly put a lot of hard work and research into making each location feel like it’s real world counterpart.  But it’s a minor thing and we soon get our two plots for the episode: Our B Plot.. is that Dewey can’t stay the fuck off his phone and is taking pictures rather than actually getting experiences with Louie enabling him, while Webby gets increasingly frustrated at Dewey not actually botherting to experince this unique and obscure culture. We’ll get back to this in a bit. 

Our main plot naturally concerns the reason our heroes are here: Donald is reuniting with The Cabs, who in this continuity are his old College friends who Scrooge hates due to having to listen to them practice constnatly and tells the kids they’d hate it worse than his playing the bagpipes. 

Bagpipes are objectively the worst insterument on earth. They are loud, unharmonic and generally just obnoxious. I do respect how important they are to Scotland, home of David Tennant, Grant Morrision and .. Alan Cumming and James Macavoy? Wait what? that’s awesome! Point is Scotland is great but I do not like the bagpipes except when Bugs Bunnny is murdering them. Honestly Donald’s college band was probably more like this. Nothing bad at all just mildly pathetic and mildly pathetic is what got Donald a girlfriend, so it’s not a  bad look

That brings me to another point: Scrooge is pretty obnoxious in this episode. It seems like his sole reason for coming was to bitch about Donald’s old college band. He could’ve just sent them a stern letter like the pros at being a cranky old geezer do. 

I do GET why he’s here as there are some REALLY damn funny bits with him in the a-plot, it just feels like they could’ve justified it better. But on to better things as Jose and Panchito enter the scene after Scrooge claims they “weren’t so cool”.. with Panchito diving from a plane and drifting down on his umbrella

And Panchito shows up dramatically playing the guitar. A truly awesome and worthy intro to our boys. So let’s talk about them in this series. Honestly the two really aren’t that diffrent from usual, though Jose’s lady chasing is given to Panchito, his footloose world traveling lifestyle remains in tact as does his genuine charm while Panchito remains the peppy one, just with his outbursts gone as his guns are replaced with cell phones.. 

Yeah while I do get replacing the pistols because let’s face it the mexican of the group being a gun nut was pretty damn unfortunate, though Don Rosa toned it down and justifed it well, and frankly guns are a hard no for family shows these days unless their laser guns so replacing them I get. But instead of I dunno giving him knives or turning his holsters into pouches carrying his stuff.. he just has two Cell Phones. It’s weird. It dosen’t really make sense other than for him putting on a big shot act and even big stars probably don’t have two phones on them at all times. It’s just a VERY weird update that makes not a whole lot of logical sense and I belivie is thankfully gone by the next ep. The only real issue I have is the two just sorta blend together personality wise instead of being distinct like usual, but that’s also happened in other apperances, so it’s not exactly a new or unique problem, and the two’s voice actors do a great job making both feel like they should. 

Speaking of which let’s just go ahead and discuss that elephant in the room: The Cabs were recast for the first time in ages, which didn’t sit well with friends of legend as Eric Bauza, who’d replaced rob Paulsen, was himself replaced by Arturo Del Puerto and Bernado Del Paulo replaced Jamie Camil and Carlos Aquazi as Panchito. And I have mixed opinons on this one: Replacing Eric was a no brainer: while he’s a terrific voice actor.. he’s not brazilian and the crew of Ducktales 2017 perfer to cast actors who match their characters backgrounds, which again adds to the authenicty of it’s globetrotting and scope. They don’t ALWAYS, Cree Summer isn’t, as far as I know, Egyptian and Catherine Tate, while wonderful, isn’t italian. But for the most part it adds a nice flavor to things and frankly I personally prefer it when Jose is voiced by an actual brazilian man. So that change i’m fine with. Not using Camil though... I do not get. Jamie Camil is a throughly talented voice actor, having done TONS of great work lately , vocing Globgor for star vs and not getting nearly enough screen time as the loveable demon dad, and stealing the show as Don Carnage earlier in the series. While that episode is one of the series weakest, he’s still easily the best part of it and I hope Carnage shows up one last time before the finale. 

So it really makes.. no sense to me to replace him. Not only is camil a bigger named actor, but he was already on the show and even the defense of “well they don’t want actors playing multiple rolls” ended up utterly destroyed by the end of the season, as Christ Dimatopolus not only reprised Storkules, but went on to play Drake and Melon, and picked up a FOURTH role in season 3 as Hades. My point is the show has no real issue with doubling up on voice rolls, so I scratch my head as to why Camil wasn’t given this part too despite being the obvious choice. Del Paulo isn’t a bad actor and is great in the role.. I just scratch my head why he was needed when a perfect actor for the part was right there and already had experince with the character. 

I do think Puerto and Paulo are terrific and do the characters justice, issues with Paulo being there at all aside, and they do a great job and more than earned the roles and I don’t think the mass critcisim of this version of the characters is entirely warranted.. for this episode. This episode while they can meld into each other... that happens in most of their apperances anyway, so it’s not unusual or unique to this series. I will say however that the way their written in their next apperance is utter garbage: they aren’t really given any chances to be distinct, are basically written as one person even worse .. and that one person is a greedy asshole who takes advantage of their friend and never apologizes. I do get why people did not like them in that episode. I do think it has no baring on this one and people should stop bashing these versions as a whole for one terrible episode, especially when Louie has been written pretty badly for the bulk of season 3, yet is still not a bad character. It’s unfair to paint the series as painting them soley as selfish jackasses when it didn’t at first and hopefully wont’ again when they presumibly show up for the finale’s big avengers endgame sequence I hope is coming. For now they aren’t bad and the colors are crisp and the animation nice and bouncy on our boys. 

Since we have two plots here, I’m just going to go ahead and split em since honestly, the b plot dosen’t really impact the a-plot until really the last minute and is basically happening right along side it and in concert with it. Sooooo... 

The Trite B-Plot: As you can probably gather I didn’t really like this one. It’s basically 5-7 minutes of me wanting to punch a child in the face. Or rather Webby wanting to have fun experinces and actually take in the culture while in town, while Dewey just wants to take pictures of everything, make it seem like he did stuff, and generally is obnoxious to webby while Louie supports him wholeheartdly. That last part is really one of the few good parts of the plot as it’s nice for one of the brothers plots to NOT be about them being in conflict or squabbling but just hanging out and having some fun, doubly so since i’ve had to spend a season watching Louie , outside of a few good exceptions be an absolute dick to Huey and also Dewey once. It’s nice to just see him and Dewey bond over a shared intrest: posting shit online and getting good photos. 

And it’s not without GOOD gags: Dewey’s obnoxious captions at one point while Webby continually looses her shit, Louie continually saying “that’s so wise” at Dewey’s bullshit philosphies, Webby’s continued annoyance is delivered great by Kate as always, and the best bit is Webby, utterly pissed at Dewey for refusing to eat Local Cuisine, wolfing down the entire fucking plate, all the dumplings in her mouth at once while Dewey, naturally, takes a picture. Otherwise this is just.. grating. It’s utterly grating to watch Webby GENUINELY try hard to absorb the local culture and really enjoy a once in a life time experince.. while Dewey jackasses about and basically acts like she’s wrong for it and treats his best friend like garbage. Just because i’ts nice it’s not Louie this time doesen’t make one of the kids being a dick without any nuance or character stuff suddenly great. It’s just tiresome. 

And SOMEHOW , despite already not liking it the first time watching the episode.. it’s even WORSE now afterlast years. No not because I watched it while having to put up with Coronoavirus induced Chills, but because another show did this plot 100 times better: Close Enough. One of the best new shows of the year, Close Enough had a plot where exes Bridget and Alex, aka yet aother great set of Kimiko Glenn and Jason Mantzokus characters, went on vacation together, but their attempts to have some ex sex fell flat due to longstanding issues we found about through this plot: Bridget has a bad habit of doing what Dewey did, focusing way more on her social than actually enjoying her vacatoin while Alex has a bad habit of befreinding random weirdos who agree with his worldview. Keep in mind this is the same worldview that spent an afternoon connecting garfield to jesus while pissing in a jug for some reason. Point instead of a character just being a smug dick, it ties into actual character flaws that helped us not only learn more about them but lead to a really heartwarming scene where the two admit they jsut can’t sleep together casually with allt heir baggage, and that they still have a lot to sort out. Before given the show their on having their friends show up from the a plot and all of them getting kidnapped by a robot because Josh skipped a bunch of ads and a 5 year old has to solve some issues and prove she’s not dumb to blow up said robot. What i’m saying is it’s even more insufferable watching this after seeing it done a thousand times better, and fucking watch Close Enough. Thankfully unlike Inifnity Train it’s not reliant on you to get a second season as it’s been renewed proving that even in a cluster fuck like 2020 miracles can happen, but it’d still be nice for it to get more fans during the presumably long wait for Season 2. Let’s move past this, i’ll get to the plot relevant bit for the climax when we get to the climax, and onto the reason your all here. 

The Main Event: A Life Not Wasted

Okay onto the actual plot. Rewinding quite a bit, the boys meet our boys, and we get some good bits. The boys cool new handshake leaves Huey wanting one only for Louie to simply lick his hand. See this is Louie dickery I can get behind because what did Huey expect? I do take comfort in the fact he has actual friends now who will likely do a handshake, fenton very much included. I’m sure Gyro didn’t want one either so he’s had plenty of time to workshop. We also find out one of the boys was dropped as an egg and well.. given Dewey opens and closes his eyes one at a time for this one moment, the ohter triplets just sorta.. silently agre it’s Dewey. IT does explain why he thought Champ Popular would get over..that and Santa Claus is Going to Highschool being his favorite movie. 

So both Jose and Panchito claim to be sucessful: Jose being a sucessful jetsetter and trendsetter, and Panchito being a world famous pop star, never stop stopping. So Donald being donald panics and runs into a alley where Scrooge and Huey join him.  Donald is fully convinced he’s wasted his life and has nothing to show for it. Huey rightfully points out he raised three wonderful children and isn’t that enough? Naturally given Donald clearly has some issues related to this subject and Scrooge has develoved into old man yells at cloud, he agrees it’s not important as money. So Huey decides to help his uncle because he’s the good son.. and because the two are easily the most alike out of Donald and his Kids. It’s something I haven’t really been able to bring up before so I was delighted to realize i could now: Besides the obvious people bring up constnatly, I.e. Huey having inhereted the most of the family rage out of his brothers, there’s the fact both are kind of obessive, both tend ot spiral into panic when a situation goes wrong, both are awkward with women, both are frequently ignored or taken for granted by those around them, and both are awkward adorable dorks who I will give my life to protect. It’s why I think Huey has the best relationship with his uncle of the bunch: He’s the only one who at least TRIES to empahtize with him and support him. While the other two do love him, and Webby of course likely has an insanne and horrifying shrine of him, and scrooge and probably della now in her closet.. and of course lena but that’s less out of hero worship and more out of her insane, over the top, very webby version of love. Point is, he’s the one who genuinely sees his uncle as a person who needs help and love. This was best demonstrated in the scene at the bank back in “Who Is Gizmoduck” as Huey tries to get his uncle a loan using the guidebook and is there soley to help the guy and taking time out of his day to visit the bank. Let’s face it though this is huey: he probably loves visiting the bank. They just got new pens! So Huey decides to put his improv badge to good use... so far the only use he’s gotten is Louie laughing at the fact he actually earned an improv badge and urges donald to simply ACT like he’s sucessful. Scrooge balks at this, because as Wonder Woman 1984 taught us nothing good comes from lies.. or from  banging your ghost boyfriend while he’s possessing someone’s body without said body’s consent and plan to fully live out the rest of your lives togehter without ever considering how fucked up this is. I will..deal with that movie ... soon. But he soon changes his turn and agrees to go along with it to avoid Jose getting upset and them having to pay for everything. 

So Huey suggest Donald keep the lie small, but belivable. Given the law of sitcoms when it comes to anyone saying that and the fact this is Donald, he instead panics and lies that he’s taken over McDuck industries and scrooge has gone full abe simpson in the other direction. 

Which is why i’m not enitrely annoyed by Scrooge’s presence: while they don’t even handwave him being here, Scrooge putting on an old man act, and sometimes getting back at donald for it is solid gold the whole damn time and some of David Tennat’s best comedic acting on the show, so it makes up for him being a grumpus.  And while i’m not usually not a fan of liar revealed plots, this one works for me.. mostly because it’s rooted in character. Here Donald is lying.. but because of deep seated neurosis he’s yet to fully tackle. While he loves his boys and is proud of htem every day... it’s very clear Donald hates his life and how it turned out. We got bits of this back in House of the Lucky Gander, with Donald’s first thought upon thinking he’s about to die is “I wasted my life” and feeling entirely like a looser. This episode brillinatly builds on that: it shows a Donald who simply feels.. he acomplished nothing. It’s easy to see why as his parents were happy and sucessful at whatever they did from the looks of it and how well taken care of the kids were, his uncle is the richest duck in the world and it’s greatest hero and explorer, his sister is the only one who could rival that record, and his cousin constnatly gets riches and fame handed to him. Donald.. by comparison.. is just a normal guy whose house is in his rich uncle’s pool, who has no job, no partner, and only really the love of his family. He spent his life on adventures he didn’t want to have living int he shadow of someone he grew to resent before the Spear of Selene incident blew things up for a decade. And then when he was free instead of becoming a big sucess... he blew the rest of it being overprotective of his boys and bouncing from dead end job to dead end job. It’s easy to see why he sees himself as a failure despite having lived a good life: compared to everyone else, even his sister who mooned herself, in his life.. he feelsd far behind. And as someone whose felt they were far behind countless times and only now is realizing they haven’t and it’s a marathoon ot a sprint I naturally relate. So his wanting to play big shot for just ONE day, to be the big hero like scrooge, teo be a sucess for five minutes with his best friends.. it’s understandable and relatable. 

So Donald continues the ruse, leading to a great bit where the cabs all try to avoid picking up the check “WE can’t all keep whistling nonchalantly” before Scrooge is forced to give Donald the money to in the best joke of the episode.. and I mean FORCED. He and donald get into a fight with their hands under the table and Huey eventually gets fed up with that and has to BITE his uncle’s hand just to get him to do what he shoudl’ve done ruse or no given he’s the richest person there. The reason I take special offense to this.. is that my fairly wealthy grandpa and grandma, my mom’s dad and his wife for the record, would buy us dinner EVERY TIME they were near town, a nice steak dinner with whatever we wanted to most of the time. They knew we couldn’t afford such luxury half the time and wanted to treat us and spend time with us. Since my grandpa’s passing, my Grandma and her New Husband have continued the tradition since then, if obviously not this year for damn obvious reasons, thought hey sent us a really nice dinner to cook for christmas in the same spirit. What i’m saying is when you know your relatives arne’t as stacked as you , you pay for the fucking meal especially since i’ts a special occasion, and even for someone as stingy as scrooge, it comes off as a dick move. 

We then get the best scene with the episode, just inching out the climax as the three simply talk, remince on old times, have a good rib like old friends would. It feels natural and wonderful to watch and gets even better when the three hear the radio and end up having an impromptu dance and musical number. Also Jose’s umbrella is also a flute somehow. 

Point is the boys have a good time and Donald gets carried away, with the boys planning a world tour. Huey, while happy to endulge his uncle in a badly needded ego boost, isn’t happy to endulge this and scrooge is unwilling ot pay, more resonably this time. Huey eventually talks him out of being a moron and tells him he has to tell the honest truth and while that dosen’t work this does. 

So as Donald goes to face the music, we have come to our climax. Phrasing. 

The Finale: Ay Carumba

So we come to our finale. Backing up a scene or too to the B-Plot, webby is interviewing a local about the festival when she gets stuck in a loop. So far in the episode we’ve had hints something is up with the people as they go all yellow eyed.. and webby finds out why as she notices the “person” she was interviewing is, in a hilarious and disturbing review.. a horrignly realistic hand puppet.. and upon stealing Louie’s phone, she points out there’s no shots of anyone’s feet.. and the reason why is that the giant flower the feast is about is a mean green mother from outer space and he’s bad. And Webby finding that out’s got him fighting mad.  Webby and the boys naturally run to warn the remaning boy and scrooge and they all run out only to get blocked out of town and captured. Dewey looses his phone inside the plant monster.

In a great joke, Scrooge ended up actually throwing his back out with the old man act, so our heroes are all captured and it’s up to our stars to save the day.  So while his family is in peril, Donald finally comes clean with Jose and Panchito naturally being upset.. for a second before Jose admits he lied to and an irate panchito.. is forced to admit he also lied. Jose is a flight attendant, hopefully he’ll get his own mini series where he accidently murders a dude on disney plus, which is a nice update of his globe trotting ways, as it’s a resonable way for someone with no money to get around the world these days and Panchito is a birthday party muscian. They all however chuckle over this realizing they haven’t come as far as they thought.. and they still have each other. It’s a nice way of modernizing Rosa’s jobs for them and their hard luck lives he set up and I love this. IJt’s just a sweet emotoinal scene that makes donald, and his friends, realize they aren’t faliures and life isn’t just about reaching some arbitrarity goal.. just like Soul taught me aka the actually great movie I watched on Christmas Day.  But since Donald’s family is in peril Jose suggests theys till play the gig.. just like they did ion acapulco thus we get the second best scene of the episode and another worthy rendition of The Three Caballeros as our heroes beat the shit out of the plant, free the kids and the plant straighens out scrooges back. 

It’s beautiful, psycadelic, and utterly awesome. Seroiusly the bright boldend colors are awesome and so’s this sequence. Easily one of the show’s best.. and it’s a show that contiains the greatest scene in television history

So that masterclass concludes with Donald signing.. badly.. and blowing the plant hte fuck up. Our heroes win and head off in the sunchaser. No idea what Launchpad is up to, probably has another ex in the area. Point is our heroes win, Dewey deletes his photos because “If there was no pics it didn’t happen” (So wise) and Donald decides to get the band back together, prompting scrooge to do an animal house on Panchito’s guitar... you.. you know you have to pay for that right? you aren’t a loveable frat man and he wasn’t ‘singing and I gave my love a cherry. Your obligated to get him a new guitar. You know that right?

So with that the episode wraps. This is a pretty good episode. While the subplot is bad and it should feel bad the main plot is emotional, well done and really adds more depth to Donald’s character while giving us a hell of a show with the cabs. The College Band background gives the boys a unique flavor this time around, not musically but in how they know each other and helps set it apart from the countless other reunions. It’s a truly bright, colorful and fun episode with some great gags and great performances. As I said Puerto and Paulo really knock it out of the park as the boys and while I would’ve preferred Jamie Camil, Paulo was still utterly excellent, though Puerto was the clear standout of the two. While their second apparence would be disapointing characterization wise, overall this was a fun introduction to two of disney’s best into it’s best universe and one of Season 2′s Standouts. 

Next Time on the Ride of the Three Cablleros: we begin our massive finale look at The Legend of the Three Cablleros. Donald gets dumped by a nightmare of a person and finds an inhertance, new friends, and some sort of hot adventure god in his new cabana. Good times. Until then goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[pollylynn]

Title: Fabulist WC: 900

“We, Mr. Castle?”  —Victoria Gates, Castle, P. I. (7 x11)

Nicole Morris does not have a daughter. Nicole Morris does not have any children at all. Nicole Morris with her black eyes and implacable silence, does not appear to be parent material.  It’s not a sin that really makes the highlight reel, given that Nicole Morris is a murderer for hire. She is an operative whose mission was not merely to take one life, but to ruin another in the process. But she doesn’t have a daughter, and lying about having a daughter to Shana Baker seems especially . . . villainous to her somehow. 

Certainly this fixation has something to do with Shana Baker herself. It has to do with a well-appointed, but rather generic apartment she doesn’t seem to have spent much time in, and her single-minded devotion to Sparkles the Shedding Machine. 

It has, particularly, to do with Shana Baker’s office, with its artistic alphabet prints running all around the perimeter and its carefully framed blocks of construction paper and tiny handprints made with poster paint. It has to do with the fact that the woman had a decidedly odd vocation, and yet, given the office, the meager bank account, the long, long hours she dedicated to the children of New York’s rich, famous, and difficult to deal with, vocation seems to be the only word for it. And Nicole Morris lied about having one of those children, about being—or at least wanting to be—one of those difficult-to-deal-with parents. That seems, to her, especially villainous. 

She’d like to leave it at that. She’d like to file her Nicole Morris–related baggage in one of Shana Baker’s meticulously organized horizontal cabinets and get over it, but the baggage might not be about Shana Baker at all. It might still be about Shana Baker’s office. It might be about a particular moment there, with him crouched down in front of those meticulously organized horizontal cabinets and tossing the absolutely casual comment over his shoulder. People do insane things for their kids. You’ll see. 

And she had seen, of course. Brian Whitman’s unhinged recorded message had absolutely nothing on the look of abject fear on the man’s face when he thought the deal for his son’s admission might be unraveling. She’d seen the long line of Type-A, high-powered moms and dads holding their kids’ hands on the way into Eastborne, not leaving it to the Nanny, to the Au Pair, to the hired help every one of them most definitely has. 

She had seen herself in that line, or one like it. She had seen him in that line—astral projections or ghosts or simple inevitabilities of the not-too distant future—and she had felt . . . a thrill. She’d felt terror, too, of course. That’s eternal when this subject swims up into her conscious mind. She had felt the rib-kick of conviction that she will never want alphabet artwork or framed handprint butterflies, that her not-a-baby-person status is just the tip of the iceberg and she will be an absolute disaster when it comes to children. She’d felt all that in Shana Baker’s office, but she’d felt a thrill, too, an eagerness for the challenge. 

She doesn’t know how they’ll do it. She thinks about their madcap life and the fact that they have just mutually agreed that it’s not going to get any less madcap any time soon, because he’s going to keep on with the PI thing and hijinks are more or less a certainty. She sort of envisions him in a Philip Marlowe–style trench coat with a baby Bjorn strapped to his chest beneath it. She’s sort of a puddle of goo after she envisions that, and this is not the time to be a puddle of goo—not while she’s still  dotting her Is and crossing her Ts on the Shana Baker Case. So she blots out the image. She tries to, anyway. 

It helps to think about Nicole Morris and her villainy. That’s a good blotting-out strategy. It’s excellent for focusing her mind on something other than jumping him and getting started with this madcap adventure immediately or sooner, and she needs to focus her mind on other things. The thrill in Shana Baker’s office is one thing. The Nicole Morrises of the world are another thing, entirely, and there are too damned many of them running around free for the two of them to go careening down that path right now. 

Plus . . . she likes their life at the moment. She likes savoring expensive wine and spontaneous Sherlock Holmes role play. She likes the idea of making out at will in his shiny new office. She likes their wedding rings and the way life is ineffably different since they slid them on. 

And there’s still the terror. There’s still the conviction. Those are exaggerated enough that she knows they’re ridiculous. But beneath that layer of hyperbole, there’s still the dead-serious worry that for all the work she has done with Burke and without him, the cracks in her psyche are just too many, too wide, too structural for her to love the way a parent needs to love. 

There’s all of that, but there’s also the thrill. There’s also the fact that she thinks Nicole Morris is a black-hearted villain, and she—Kate Beckett—would never lie about having a daughter. 

A/N: The murderer must have been lying about having a kid. That’s a thing. This is not a thing. 

images via homeofthenutty

[animlenet]

8 Cats Who Were Famous Before The Internet Was Invented

Just like dogs, it doesn’t take much for a cat to become famous nowadays, if you've got access to a camera and an honest understanding of how social media works. But within the past, cats didn’t get to play the piano on YouTube to travel viral. Here are a number of the simplest known cats in history, before history went digital:

Caterina, the cat who owned Edgar Allan Poe Writers and cats go together like pints of frozen dessert and spoons, so it’s no surprise that Edgar Allan Poe’s cat makes the list. While Poe wrote a terrifying (of course) tale called “The fisher,” his actual cat was a tortoiseshell, named Catterina. She reportedly perched on his shoulder as he sat right down to write, probably to offer him storytelling pointers. Caterina also attended Mrs. Poe, who was losing a battle with tuberculosis, by lying next to her to stay her company until the top. Catherine reportedly died shortly after Poe himself died. Perhaps she was a figment of Poe’s imagination, or, more likely, he was a figment of hers. Snowball, the cat who owned Hemingway 

Renowned writer Hemingway kept many cats throughout his life, but his first was an all-white kitten named Snowball gifted to him by a ship captain named Stanley Dexter. What made Snowball unusual is he was polydactyl, having six toes on his front paws rather than the standard five — cats with extra toes are considered lucky stumped. Snowball lived a pleasant happy life in sunny Key West, Florida.

Why he's so famous is that his many descendants still live at the Hemingway Home and Museum, and lots of them even have extra toes. And in 2017, all 54 of the present generation of Hemingway cats survived the wrath of Hurricane Irma, so I assume they’re lucky ashore, too. Morris, the cat who owned 9Lives cat chow Probably the foremost famous advertising cat within the world, Morris began because the spokes-person for Purina’s iconic pet food in typical Hollywood fashion — he was discovered by talent scouts. Adopted from a shelter, the “finicky” orange tiger-striped cat first appeared in print in 1968, and until 1978 was the foremost popular cat within the world.

When the first Morris died, a replacement Morris — also a rescue cat — took up the mantle as pitch-cat. There are other Morrises to follow since, as a beacon not just for pet food, but also pet adoption and rescue. the present Morris lives it up in l. a. , California. All Ball, the cat who researched Koko the Gorilla Koko the gorilla, the primary non-human to be ready to communicate in signing, had an easy request for Christmas in 1983: she wanted a kitten. Her research team tried giving her a stuffed toy but she wanted a true one. After much deliberation, they decided to let her adopt a kitten for her birthday in 1984. Koko chose one out of a litter, a male Manx kitten with no tail, and signed the cat’s name as All Ball.

Koko and every one Ball made headlines everywhere the planet as she took gentle care of him as if he were her baby. But it had been to not last; after just a year together, All Ball got out of the research building and was struck by a car. Koko was inconsolable, signing “bad sad” over and once again. While she eventually got more kittens, she never forgot All Ball. Room 8, the cat who visited the school Room 8 was an enormous gray tabby that wandered into Elysian Heights grade school in Southern California at some point in 1952. Named for his “homeroom,” he patrolled the grounds fastidiously; he came to high school a day during the year and through summer recess we assume he took a sabbatical to a aviary.

He became the school’s mascot and was beloved, subject of books and films and even a fashion spread in Look magazine. He finally retired over the Rainbow Bridge at 22 years old and was buried with honors at the famous l. a. Pet cemetery. Sam, the cat who sank the Bismarck This cat might not have polydactyl toes but he sure was lucky, though an equivalent can’t be said of his ships. His first assignment was on a famous vessel; unfortunately, it had been the Bismarck, a German battleship famous for A) being supposedly unsinkable and B) being sunk on its maiden voyage.

The cat was found floating on bits of the shipwreck by British Royal Navy and brought aboard and given the name Oscar (what his name was aboard the German ship is unknown). He then went on to sink two more ships within the same way and was renamed Unsinkable Sam. The Navy finally got wise and gave Sam to a sailor who had gone ashore, and as far as we all know, caused no more maritime disasters. Trim, the cat who discovered Australia Way back within the late 18th century, when sailing around “discovering” things was a career, Captain Flinders took his cat with him. Trim, a tuxedo, served on Flinders’ ship HMS Reliance then on HMS Investigator, which mapped the whole circumference of Australia between 1801 and 1803.

However, on his return to England, Captain Flinders was captured by the French, due to a touching war with Napoleon, and he and Trim were imprisoned on the island of Mauritius for a time. Flinders survived and was released; Trim, however, went missing and Flinders assumed he was eaten by another prisoner. There are statues of Flinders and his faithful companion Trim in both his English hometown and in several Australian cities. Tabby and Dixie, the cats who ruled the White House Tabby and Dixie were two kittens gifted to President Lincoln by his secretary of state William Seward in 1861, and that they became the primary official White Housepets. Although technically Tabby belonged to Lincoln’s son Tad, Tabby and Abe were fast friends.

Lincoln reportedly even fed the cats at the table during formal dinners, claiming Dixie was smarter than his entire cabinet. When a reporter asked Mary Todd Lincoln if the president had any hobbies, she replied: “Cats.”

[earlyandoftenpodcast]

(Lewis Morris, a prominent landowner in New York, a central figure in the Morris-Cosby dispute of the 1730s, and owner of a truly terrible powdered wig.)

During the early 1700s, the colony of New York is divided by two successive bursts of factionalism, one over taxes and the other over a ridiculously trivial salary dispute.

>>>Direct audio link<<<

(iTunes) (Spotify) (Podbean) (Libsyn) (YouTube) (WordPress) (Twitter)

Transcript and Sources:

Hello, and welcome to Early and Often: The History of Elections in America. Episode 35: Fight, Fight, Fight!

Last time, we talked about New York’s political history in the two decades after Leisler’s Rebellion. In the aftermath of the Rebellion, New York was divided into two rival factions, the pro- and anti-Leislerians. Several times, governors were sent to New York with instructions to be conciliatory to both sides, but unfortunately, each governor soon aligned himself with one faction or the other.

Benjamin Fletcher, who served from 1692 to 1697, sided with the anti-Leislerians, because that was his best bet at making money through corruption. After he was recalled to England to answer for his actions, his successor, Lord Bellomont, who served from 1698 to 1701, swung in the opposite direction. He was there to fight corruption, and so he wound up siding with the Leislerians instead. But he died unexpectedly, and then Lord Cornbury, who served from 1702 to 1708, reversed course again, and followed the corrupt, anti-Leislerian policies of Governor Fletcher.

It was only with the arrival of William Hunter in 1710 that things finally calmed down. Governor Hunter was competent and well-liked, unlike his predecessors, and he soon put an end to the factionalism by being nice to both sides. So that’s where we left things off last time. Governor Hunter was in office and the pro- and anti-Leislerians had gone away.

Today, we’re going to look at the next two periods of factionalism. The first round of factionalism took place during the 1710s and 1720s. This was a rivalry between the two most powerful economic groups within the colony, the merchants and the big landlords, over who should have to pay more in taxes. The next round of factionalism took place in the 1730s. This time the cause was a personal rivalry between the governor and some of the other  leading men of the colony.

But first, the fight between the merchants and the landlords. To begin, we need to talk some more about what the economy of New York was like at this time. Most of the American colonies only had one group of rich families. For instance, in New England, all of the rich men were merchants, while in the Chesapeake, all of the rich men were plantation owners. In New York, however, there were two different kinds of rich families, with different interests: the merchants and the big landowners. Now, obviously merchants often used their money to buy land, and landowners were often involved in trade, but families were more focused on one thing or the other. They were distinct enough to form two separate interest groups, at the very least.

There were four main merchant families in New York around this time. None of them were English. Three were Dutch, the Philipses, the Van Cortlandts, and the Schuylers, while the fourth, the DeLanceys, were founded by a French Protestant. All of these families were intermarried with each other. They traded in all sorts of goods, and with all sorts of people, from the Iroquois to Europe to the Caribbean.

The landlords I’ve already talked about a bit. These men were the recipients of those large estates being handed out by Governors Fletcher and Cornbury. Well, they were already rich men beforehand, but the extra land certainly helped. In fact it made them some of the biggest landowners in the colonies. These were much larger estates than the plantations in Virginia, although they were run very differently. Tobacco didn’t grow up there and slave labor was ineffective. So instead, the land was parceled out to tenant farmers, more like how the nobility in Europe might rent their land out to peasants.

And though these estates were huge, much of the land went uncultivated, since not many people wanted to be tenant farmers when they could be freeholders elsewhere. So despite their great size, these manors might have only a few dozen or a few hundred families living on them. And over time the land was subdivided and sold off, so this wasn’t really like a permanent Old World aristocracy.

Some of these manors were given feudal privileges, such as the right to hold courts and to demand corvee labor from their tenants, but in practice those feudal elements didn’t amount to much.

But these landlords were still powerful men. They basically controlled the government on their lands. Their tenant farmers could vote, but in practice they almost always voted for whoever the landlord supported. Three of the estates were large enough to have their own delegate in the Assembly, and in each of those cases, the delegate was always a member of the landowner’s family, and the elections were uncontested until the 1760s.

The two most politically active landed families were the Morrises, who were English, and the Livingstons, who were Scottish. Both of those families will pop up again several times.

So those are the merchants and the landlords. Now, what was it that these two groups disagreed about? What makes this split politically important?

Well, the main issue was taxation. In New York at this time there were two sorts of taxation. The main type was taxes on imported goods and a few other things like liquor. This tax hurt the merchants most of all. The other, less important type of taxation was a property tax, which was only imposed irregularly, on an as-needed basis. This tax harmed landowners most of all.

And unfortunately for New York, the colony was still in debt, so taxes were going to have to go up, one way or another. I think you can see where this is going. The stage was now set for a fight over who was going to foot the government’s bills. Would import taxes go up, or land taxes? Over the last few decades the merchants in New York had been growing richer and more influential. They resented the fact that the burden of taxation fell more heavily on them, and now they had enough clout to fight back.

So although Governor Hunter had successfully ended the last period of factionalism, already there were new problems brewing.

When he arrived in New York Hunter acted as though he would be friendly to both sides, just like with the pro- and anti-Leislerians, but soon enough he began to side just with the landowners. That seems to happen a lot with these governors: they come in, planning to be bipartisan, or at least saying they’ll be bipartisan, but soon they figure out it’s better to side with one faction over the other.

Why Hunter sided with the landowners over the merchants isn’t exactly clear. At the time, people thought he’d decided on the basis of a friendship with Lewis Morris, one of the leaders of that faction. Or maybe he just thought that the landowners had better arguments. Or maybe he disdained merchants in general, as being socially inferior to the landed gentry. Or maybe it was that the merchants were mostly Dutch. Who knows. Probably some combination of those things.

In any case, within a few years it was clear what the new dividing lines within New York were.

As it happened, the merchants controlled the Assembly for the first several years of Hunter’s administration, and they refused to raise regular tax revenue to pay for the government, knowing that the burden would fall mostly on them. But as a result, the fiscal situation was growing increasingly dire, and Governor Hunter had his back against the wall.

So in 1713 he called for new elections, hoping that the next Assembly would be more compliant. He and Lewis Morris, that landowner friend of his, led a concerted campaign to win the elections. They published several pamphlets, attacking the merchant faction, calling them “a Few Whimsical, Factious and Angry Men”. They argued that taxes on imported goods were mostly paid by the rich, and that taxes on land would hurt both rich and poor landowners alike.

However, that wasn’t enough to win the election. Both factions wound up in about the same position as before. So, since they couldn’t win at the polls, Hunter and Morris had to hammer out a compromise with the opposition to keep the government running. Hunter would get his revenue, but he agreed to give the Assembly much more direct control over how that money was spent going forward. That’s a common pattern you’ll notice: with each crisis, the assembly within a colony would use its leverage to get more and more control over finances, greatly increasing its power over time. The rise of colonial legislatures in this way was one of the most notable trends in eighteenth century America. And because of this self-government, by the time independence came around, the colonists were pretty used to ruling themselves, since the governors had already become weak figures.

Anyway, Governor Hunter also agreed to a bill which naturalized foreign born New Yorkers, whose citizenship had been in doubt. Even with this agreement, most of the merchants still stood in opposition, but enough men defected to get everything passed.

In fact, Governor Hunter became so frustrated with how unruly the Assembly was that he wrote a satirical play about it, called “Androboros: A B[i]ographical Farce in Three Acts”, which was actually the first original play to be printed in America.

In this play, instead of an Assembly, there’s an insane asylum, full of inmates who are very obvious stand-ins for Hunter’s political enemies, but with names like “Fizle”, “Mulligrub” and “Doodlesack”. These buffoonish inmates are plotting to overthrow the keeper of the insane asylum, very obviously a stand-in for Governor Hunter himself, and replace him with one of their own. First they smear feces all over a minister’s robes and try to blame it on the keeper, and when that doesn’t work they try to lure him into a trap door, only to fall in themselves. In the end, the inmates are defeated in their ludicrous scheming, and the keeper retains his position.

Apparently this play was never performed back in the 1700s, it was only printed. But you may be interested to know that just last year, in 2017, a theater company in New York performed the play for the first time ever. That’s one way to keep history alive.

Anyway, in between writing plays and verse, Governor Hunter also made sure to further strengthen his relationship with the landowner faction. In addition to his friendship with Lewis Morris, he also became friends with Robert Livingston, from the other big landowning family. In 1715, he made sure to give the Livingston manor its own seat in the Assembly, which meant that he was one man closer to controlling it.

And in fact, in the elections held that next year, a number of prominent merchants lost their seats for whatever reason, which meant that Governor Hunter and the landowners were now in power.

Well, in power within the colony at least. But since the merchant faction was now shut out from New York’s government, they changed tactics. Rather than try to control the Assembly, they instead appealed to the Board of Trade in London, hoping to talk them into blocking some of the Governor’s new taxes. Basically, they were unhappy with the way their boss was running things, so as a workaround they tried to appeal to their boss’s boss.

That was the best way to get power. If you had London on your side, you were in charge. But unfortunately for the merchants, two could play at that game, and Governor Hunter had plenty of connections in England himself. After a few years, the Board of Trade backed Governor Hunter, with some minor reservations.

That actually takes us to the end of Governor Hunter’s time in New York. He left the colony in 1719. He’d only served as governor for nine years, which really wasn’t that long of a time, considering how slow things moved back then.

Anyway, his successor was another Scottish guy, William Burnet. Unfortunately, Burnet was a less skilled politician than Hunter. Although Hunter had sided mostly against the merchants, he was still on friendly terms with them, and he hadn’t let factionalism get too out of hand. As far as I can tell he was widely respected, even by his rivals. Governor Burnet, on the other hand, was not so tactful. Upon arrival, he promptly sided 100% with the landed interests. He didn’t feel the need to conciliate the merchants at all.

He also broke with precedent by not calling for new elections. Normally, when a new governor arrived, he would dissolve the old Assembly. But since the 1716 Assembly was already dominated by his new allies, Burnet decided to just keep that Assembly in place. Why rock the boat? That was a legal thing to do, but it was unpopular.

He also removed the last members of the merchant faction from the Council, as supposed enemies of good government.

On top of that, Burnet pursued some unpopular economic policies. For instance, he tried to cut off Albany’s trade with Quebec, since he thought that it undermined New York’s security. Naturally, Albany didn’t like that at all. There were other important issues as well, which I’m not going to get into, such as how trade with the Indians should be regulated.

The point is that Governor Burnet was doing a lot of stuff that was bound to make him unpopular, regardless of whether or not it was a good idea. None of this led to an immediate wave of opposition, but discontent was growing over time.

There were special elections to fill vacant seats in the Assembly in 1723, ‘24, and ‘25, and the merchants won each of them. Governor Burnet, as undiplomatic as always, tried to challenge the qualifications of one of those men to sit in the Assembly, by arguing that he wasn’t a citizen. But as I mentioned already, 10 years ago Governor Hunter had agreed to a bill which naturalized foreigners, specifically over concerns like this. So the Assembly unanimously agreed to seat the man, which must have been a major rebuke to Burnet.

By now the opposition to Burnet was becoming more open. Burnet reacted with threats rather than negotiations, which turned opinion against him even more. The merchant faction lobbied the Board of Trade in London to block some of the governor’s legislation, this time successfully.

Finally, the pressure against Governor Burnet built to the point that he agreed to hold elections for the first new Assembly in 11 years. The merchants did very well for themselves, unsurprisingly. But actually, it didn’t really matter. The year after that, Burnet was removed as governor of New York and made governor of Massachusetts instead. So he was out of New York’s hair. Actually, he was soon out of Massachusetts’ hair as well, since he died within two years of being transfered.

The next governor of New York, John Montgomerie, wound up siding with the merchant faction, but he also died quickly, after only three years in office.

But in fact, by this point the merchant/landowner rivalry was starting to lose its potency, thanks to various changes within the economy. By the 1730s, the economy of New York was becoming complex enough that you could no longer so clearly distinguish between merchants and landowners as separate interest groups. And divisions were opening up within the merchant faction. Previously, the merchants in Albany and New York City had had similar interests. But Albany was shifting away from just trading furs. Now they were shipping a wide variety of local goods, which meant that their interests now aligned more with their landowning neighbors than with the merchants of New York City.

So, after less than 20 years, things in New York had once again changed enough that the old factions withered away. But New York never stayed placid for long.

That brings us to the Morris-Cosby dispute of the 1730s. Unlike the previous struggle we’ve just been talking about, which was straightforwardly about two competing economic interests, this dispute began as a minor personal disagreement over salary that escalated into something bigger.

The first person in this dispute is Lewis Morris, the big landowner who had been an ally of Governor Hunter. At the moment, he was serving as chief justice of the supreme court. All you really need to know about his personality is that he was very much a politician who loved to be in the thick of partisan fighting.

The other figure in the dispute is the new governor, William Cosby. Cosby was another man like Fletcher or Cornbury: in it to make money for himself rather than to govern well. He wasn’t qualified for the job and he only got the appointment thanks to his wife’s connections. He also had a rather authoritarian temperament.

When he arrived in New York, Governor Cosby quickly sided with the merchant faction which still controlled the Assembly. They agreed to raise the money he wanted and to give him a good salary, while he agreed to not call for elections.

Now we come to the minor dispute which sets everything else off. It’s a little bit involved, but don’t worry about the details. None of this will be on the test.

Apparently in New York at this time, for some reason it was standard that when a new governor arrived, the man who had been serving as acting governor in the interim would give to the governor half of the salary he had earned while acting as governor. Governor Cosby asked the former acting governor, Rip Van Dam, to give him his share, but Van Dam refused.

Cosby sued Van Dam to collect the money, but he figured that his case wouldn’t have a chance if he had to face a jury of unsympathetic New Yorkers. So he tried to come up with a workaround, a way to avoid having his case be tried by a jury. The solution he came up with was to order the New York supreme court to sit as a court of exchequer. I won’t get into all the legal technicalities here, but basically what that means is he wanted the supreme court to hear his case and decide the matter itself, under special rules which bypassed the need for a jury.

However, this was a controversial move, and it wasn’t clear whether or not Cosby’s request was legal. Did the governor have the authority to create a new court on his own authority, just like that, or did he need the Assembly’s approval? The case was brought before the supreme court, which at the time consisted of three men, Lewis Morris, the chief justice, who came from the landed faction, and two other men from the merchant faction.

The first issue the court had to decide was whether or not it had the authority to hear the case in the first place. Unsurprisingly, Chief Justice Morris said no, that the Assembly had to approve the creation of any new courts. The governor’s authority was insufficient. But the other two justices said that yes, the governor did have the authority. A typical partisan split.

However, although Morris had been outvoted, he used his position as chief justice to simply shut the proceedings down and stop the court from hearing the case any further. To be more precise, he insulted the arguments of his colleagues and then walked out, which prevented anyone from rendering a verdict. Which I would think is legally questionable tactic, but back then everything was a bit legally dubious, given how primitive the courts were.

After this, Governor Cosby decided not to press his lawsuit against Van Dam any further. Instead, he escalated the matter in a different way, by removing Morris from the supreme court.

I suppose things could have ended there, but Morris wasn’t the sort of person to take this blow lying down. He decided to take the feud public, by running for a vacant seat in the Assembly. You remember two episodes ago, when I described an unusually spirited election where both sides led big parades of men on horseback? Well, that was this election. I won’t go over the specifics again, I’ll just remind you that Morris won. But that wasn’t the end of it. Morris’s victory was merely the first step in a bigger escalation. What had been a petty dispute among the elite was about to become a partisan dispute among the people at large.

Morris and the other leaders of his faction -- I’ll just call them the Morrisites from now on -- the Morrisites decided that public opinion would be a useful weapon against the governor. So they came up with a platform that they thought would have broad appeal. According to the historian Michael Kammen: “Lewis Morris, Sr. built a coalition of Hudson Valley farmers and New York City artisans along with small traders there and in Albany. To hold their support he offered the farmers better roads, cheaper money, and favorable land laws; he offered the petit bourgeois protection against imports, subsidies for local production, and restrictions against peddlers; and for the middle class generally, the burden of direct taxation would be shifted to imposts paid by the larger merchants.” They also focused on good government, with bills to regulate the sheriffs, to regulate the courts, and to increase the power of the Assembly.

So this was a broad coalition. It wasn’t simply rich vs. poor or merchants vs. landlords. As usual, there were a lot of things going on at once.

In order to spread their message and, just as importantly, to attack their enemies, one of the first things the Morrisites did was found a newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal. There was already a newspaper in the colony, but it tended to support the government’s point of view, since the guy who printed it was also the official printer for the government and he didn’t want to lose those valuable contracts. But this new newspaper was very much in the hands of the opposition.

Morris and his associates started churning out essays. They criticized the government, they criticized the governor. Even the ad page was politicized. There were advertisements for lost animals in which the descriptions of the animals suspiciously resembled notable politicians in the colony.

Naturally, this sort of brazen attack on the leadership provoked a backlash. Within three months Governor Cosby was working to get the paper shut down. He even had certain issues of the Weekly Journal burned in public.

And in late 1734, he had the newspaper’s printer, John Peter Zenger, charged with libel. Normally, this would have been a slam dunk case, since at this time it was very, very easy for the authorities to convict people for libel. But Zenger had a good lawyer, who made the novel argument that statements couldn’t be libelous if they were actually true. Believe it or not, that wasn’t the standard approach back then. Even if you told the truth about someone you could still be convicted for libel, which is part of why it was so easy to get convictions. But not this time. Zenger was acquitted by a jury after only a few minutes of deliberation. Later on, this would be seen as an important precedent for freedom of the press in America, but at the time maybe the most important impact was that it further hurt Governor Cosby’s popularity.

That same year, the Morrisites managed to take most of the seats in the New York City Council. They made gains in the Assembly as well, but since there had been no general election held in the last six years they were unable to take it over completely. Everyone agreed that it was time for a new election. Even the Assembly itself had unanimously agreed to a statement saying that the current Assembly should be dissolved. But if an election were held, Cosby was almost certain to lose out, and so he held back.

Since there were no elections to win, the Morrisites decided to attack Cosby by undermining his support in Britain. And so Lewis Morris himself went to London, carrying with him a petition with 34 complaints against the governor, including that he interfered with elections by denying Quakers the vote.

The Morrisites had a number of demands as well. Firstly, that Cosby be removed from office, or at least have his powers reduced. They also wanted a number of reforms to the electoral system. They wanted elections to the Assembly to be held every 3 years or less. They wanted the seats in the Assembly to be reapportioned by population. And they wanted to increase the number of officials in New York City and Albany who were elected rather than appointed. (And of course there were other, non-election related demands as well, but I’m focusing on the election stuff.)

But like with so many such journeys by colonists back to the mother country, Morris found it hard to get his message across. He spent all of 1735 in London, making very little headway with anything. According to him, Englishmen were “unconcerned at the Sufferings of the People in America”, and “the most Nefarious Crime A governor can commit is not by some counted So bad as the crime of Complaining of it”. In fact, at one point he was more or less offered the governorship of New Jersey as a bribe, just to make him go away. Morris declined.

But as it turned out, none of his struggles in London really mattered, since in March that next year, Governor Cosby died of tuberculosis. He’d only been governor for three and a half years. Random deaths were really a big deal back then. It’s amazing how often stuff like that happened.

So back to New York. Although Cosby was dead, the factionalism continued on a little while longer. This time the issue was who should serve as acting governor.

When there was no governor in New York, the eldest member of the council was supposed to be acting governor. Before Cosby had arrived, that man had been Rip Van Dam, the guy who got sued. But Cosby had since removed Van Dam from office, so now the acting governor was supposed to be some other guy named George Clarke.

Clarke was confirmed by the Council, but Van Dam claimed that he should be named acting governor instead, although I think his claim was very tenuous at best. But for months on end, the Morrisites agitated on Van Dam’s behalf, using their newspaper to undermine Acting Governor Clarke. After some local elections in New York City were won by supporters of Van Dam, there were enough fears of a popular revolt that Clarke moved into the nearby fort for safety, along with his family, and he shipped in extra gunpowder to the city just in case. But things calmed down once word reached New York that London had approved Clarke as acting governor. That settled the matter immediately.

But in fact, this burst of factionalism was coming to an end regardless. Acting Governor Clarke agreed to hold new elections, the first in 9 years. The Morrisites finally took control of the Assembly, but Clarke had signalled to them that he was open to a reconciliation. Most of the Morrisites took him up on the offer, including Lewis Morris himself. They were welcomed back into the fold. After all, there hadn’t been that much dividing them in the first place.

Clarke served as acting governor for 6 years and during that time the old party animosities all dissipated.

So that was the end of the Morris-Cosby dispute. Not much more than a blip in history, all told.

Though there were some changes in New York as a result. For example, the reformers did pass a bill which mandated that elections be held at least once every seven years, as was the case with the British Parliament.

Also, the Assembly began to keep records of which members voted for or against a particular bill. Before, like in Massachusetts, no records had been kept to say how delegates voted. One further step on the road to accountable government.

And in general, New York took one more step on the road to full-blown populist politics. The elites found that popular opinion could be a useful weapon, but in order to get popular opinion on your side, you had to offer the people things that they wanted, and you had to learn how to make your message heard. Newspapers, propaganda, parades, etc. And as the factions fought for popular support, the people became politically aware. Once politicians started offering them things, they came to expect it, and to demand more and more.

Though I don’t want to overstate things. The will of the people was still of secondary importance. London mattered much more. And once the dispute between the elite factions went away, so did the need to appeal to the people, so there were no permanent parties set up or anything like that. The people didn’t stay fully politicized once their leaders stopped trying to politicize them.

(By the way, I’ve been using the word “populist” a lot lately without ever really defining it. All I mean by it is that the people as a whole are involved. I don’t mean “populist” in the sense of any particular ideology, or any particular style of politics. Just “populist” meaning the people, in whatever sense. Just so we’re clear.)

Next episode, we’ll look at the last period of New York’s history before the American Revolution, as the storm clouds begin to gather. So join me next time on Early and Often: The History of Elections in America.

The podcast is on twitter, @earlyoftenpod, or go to the blog at earlyandoftenpodcast.wordpress.com for transcripts of every single episode. And if you like the podcast, give it a good review on iTunes. That helps. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

Themes and Directions in Middle Colonies Historiography, 1980-1994 by Wayne Bodle

A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York by Patricia U. Bonomi

The Myth of the “Middle Colonies”: An Analysis of Regionalization in Early America by Robert J. Gough

The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature, edited by Kevin J. Hayes

At Fraunces Tavern, a 300-Year-Old Play Gets Its World Premiere by Juliet Hindell

Colonial New York: A History by Michael Kamen

Governor Fletcher's Recall by James S. Leamon

The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I by Herbert L. Osgood

The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century, Volume II by Herbert L. Osgood

Election Procedures and Practices in Colonial New York by Nicholas Varga

From British Colony to Independent Nation: Refashioning Identity by Steve Wilmer

[lysical]

I was introduced to a lot of the Batfamily via the Morrison run. How screwed up is my perception of them? Comics are an effing minefield of characterization—I know, I’m a Hank Pym fan because I ran into him first in one of his highly rare likeable periods. Any tips/recs? It feels like everywhere I go the characters aren’t the “real” ones, and idk where to find these “real” ones. (This goes for Tim too, although you seem understandably down on him lately & might not want to talk Drake anymore

It does vary by character, actually. There are some fundamental things he does that are a bit out of there, and other things that are just plain offensive, but he’s not the absolute worst to come in on, as damned by faint praise as that is. 

Long post ahead

Bruce: Morrison and I fundamentally see the character very differently. He sort of subscribes to some ideas about Bruce as Batman that I just don’t like re: emotions, life, family. He uses a lot of allegories and devices in his work and the depth is there, I just don’t agree with what he was doing and had to say about Batman on a fundamental level. Post-Crisis Bruce is a bit all over the place. A lot of different writers got their hands on him and the dark and gritty post-Jason transformation of the character was intense and permanent. Because of this, coming into Morrison doesn’t really hurt you that much--especially since for a lot of it he’s functionally dead. Maybe check out some runs like Hush (more emphasis on the family), Dark Victory (some young Dick Grayson), Batman: Year One (say what you want about Miller, but it’s a decent book and the atmosphere and art are great for an introduction to the modern character), and then hop over to some of Bruce’s team books. Sometimes characters get distilled well over in their team books compared to their solos (especially since the Bat Department is...weird at times). Maybe check out Superman/Batman, the old team up from the early 2000s. For Bruce it’s just best to cast a wide net and read a variety. JLA: Tower of Babel is a good one to see Batman and the wider superhero community in conflict, which brings in a lot of Batman’s negative aspects in a way that was decently balanced and didn’t villainize him via narrative even as the characters might have felt that way about him (Young Justice certainly did XD), but I havent’ read it in a long time so ymmv. 

Dick: One of the few characters that didn’t get that bad a hand by Morrison, or too much of a characterization shift (his character shift had happened during the Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson period, although the latter more than the former). Unlike new 52 onwards, while he was softened a little to pair effectively with Damian, it wasn’t too much as we saw at times later and how fandom kind of tends to portray them (’Shut the hell up, Damian’ comes to mind). The Dickbats run was a nice change and development for Dick, a natural progression. The things that were sort of tweaked to create conflict with that transition (Dick not wanting Batman, some characterization behind that) were pre-Morrision, during Battle for the Cowl and the setup to Morrison, so while they follow on from that they’re mostly absent from the run. For the modern Robin Dick stories, go for Teen Titans: Year One, Dark Victory, Batman: Year Three, a couple of the other year ones are decent, although some incorporate those characterization shifts, but that’s comics. I’d go back to New Teen Titans (starts in Pre-Crisis, goes into Post, but the book doesn’t have a huge change due to the crisis and it’s just a really good run, deserving of being the benemoth during that time period that it was) to get the best of Dick on a team, then maybe check out Prodigal (follows on from Knightfall, Dick’s first run as Batman), skip Nightwing: Year One (it’s got tiny amounts of Dick and Jason bonding but Dixon ripped everything else about Dick’s early Nightwing period to shreds). From there, depends if you want his solo or his team stuff, he’s a pretty easy character to follow. I like to start chronologically with him because then you see the shifts happen as he falls back under control of the bat-books, and his solo and team stuff have some interesting contrasts (I lean towards his team stuff generally because Dick has always been about that for me, rather than running solo). 

Babs: Birds of Prey is her essential stuff, I don’t think Morrison really did that much with her but my memories of it all are a bit vague now. I’d personally take anything when she’s romantically involved with Dick with a grain of salt, that relationship was a bit of a disaster and they both do terrible things to each other (I believe the one responsible for it all is Devin again but it’s been a while since i visited that train wreck) and there’s some victim-blaming that happens that’s not so good. I prefer Oracle having a bit of distance from the Batfam, as she’s just surpassed being someone who is under Batman’s authority and is just crucial to the entire operation of the superhero community in general, so Bird s of Prey. 

Jason: Hnng. Here’s where Morrison really just decided to throw away established DC continuity and try his hand at a bunch of crap that fell completely flat. Just toss it and purge, tbh. Winick got Jason back late in the run but it was too late for that. Maybe there are tiny aspects of characterization that aren’t bad (Pride and Prejudice) but Morrison misunderstood Jason on a much more fundamental level. Also the red hair was probably some attempt to make a witty visual pun and add ‘depth’ but there are so many problems with it. Continuity-wise it makes so sense with how pre-crisis and post- worked, particularly for Jason, and additionally Morrison is realllllly wishy-washy with his ‘EVERYTHING IS CANON’ stuff that it rings false, plus in Pre-Crisis he was like...blonde I don’t understand. The implications of Jason being forced to dye his hair are absolutely disgusting for Bruce and go back into that fundamental problem I have with how Morrison sees Bruce. Jason, Post-resurrection suffers a lot of DC writers not knowing what to do and unloading a lot of DC’s baggage and some unconscious, problematic tropes onto him. Read his Post-Crisis origin (Batman 408 on, there’s the origin and some issues after set up by his original Post-Crisis writer Max Collins) and maybe all his Post-Crisis, pre-Death stuff since there’s honestly not a lot and it’s fairly obvious when Starlin starts pushing for his death. For post-resurrection, Under the Red Hood, Lost Days (it goes off the rails at the end, so I only half rec it honestly), Outsiders 44 and 45, Countdown (but only if you’re skipping the plot and just reading the Jason (&Donna &Kyle) bits, it’s one of the most even-handed treatments he actually gets in Post-Crisis but the book is otherwise terrible). Then just go straight to RHatO Rebirth. 

Tim: Ignore new 52 and Rebirth entirely. Red Robin is a book a lot of Tim fans really like but I personally think it’s bad in general and also don’t like what the writer does with Tim, but ymmv. Tim’s origin is also pretty weak and his initial mini and series aren’t that great at establishing him as a proper character outside ‘this kid is Robin pls like him we want to get away from the controversy of the last one’ so it’s hard to connect with him there without nostalgia glasses. By Knightfall (1994ish) on, that’s where he’s more of a character himself, and his stuff from about then through to the early 2000s is the best (before Geoff Johns got him in Teen Titans and Didio started doing Things, which basically led us to today to be honest). Personally, I think Tim functions best in a team, there are aspects of what his writers do in his solo where they just...missed the implications and it kind of grates on me. His stand out book imo is Young Justice (the og comic not the cartoon which only shares the name and nothing else tbh). 

Steph: Another who actually got treated decently well during the Morrison-era, as opposed to the crap she was dealt earlier during her time as Robin and War Games. Steph’s Batgirl run is something I definitely recommend, and her stuff with Dick and Damian in Morrison’s era is contemporary with that. Her origin is actually really good and compelling, so I’d dig into that (TEC 647, i think, is her first appearance). She kind of just revolves around Tim during his run and their relationship is kind of...there are implications there that are a bit cringe. Her stuff with Cass on the other hand is really enjoyable so I’d recommend those. Her brief Robin run is decent if melancholy considering what we know happens, and I wouldn’t touch War Games with a ten foot pole. 

Cass: Shafted from the mid-2000s on, tbh. She got a bit blessed with a solid creative team to start her off in her Batgirl run, it attempts some pretty deep and interesting explorations of her character that while not perfectly executed are still really good comics. I’d just read her No Man’s Land stuff, follow her book and stuff with Steph and pretty much just ditch out when One Year Later hits. Her Black Bat outfit is cool and there is some retroactive backpedalling by DC to justify shafting her but it’s all Morrison era anyway so you might be familiar already. 

Damian: Morrison created him and he took a lot of liberties with that backstory which unfortunately have had a lasting impact for Talia, which is frustrating. As Damian’s creator, what you see is what you get. Morrison didn’t want him to be likeable and he also didn’t really want him to be permanent (ties in again to how Morrison sees Bruce and family tbh), other writers gave Damian development later, but despite being around for over a decade now, there is still a lot of push and pull between writers about his characterization and development. It’s unfortunate but there’s a noticeable lack of consistency with Damian and his development that is frustrating to read. Probably read Tomasi’s stuff if you want Damian’s softened, developed arc and avoid other stuff. I’m not the best for Damian because most of his stuff is during the new 52 which I wasn’t around for and am picking through only occasionally. 

Hope this helps. 

[smoothshift]

Alternate history of motoring - 1st part (1950-55) via /r/cars

Alternate history of motoring - 1st part (1950-55)

Decided to write and post this, starting a little series. It would come in 5-year installements (so the next one will be 1956-60) once a week or so.

1950:

Americas:

Most of the year went as in our timeline.

However, the start of the Korean War in September brought change. Customers, fearing more rationing, started slightly turning towards smaller import cars. While the usual fullsizes strongly remained king, cars like the VW Beetle or Morris Minor gained noticeable ground in the early '51 model year.

Seeing that, the US makers started seeking solutions.

By late November of 1950, GM and Ford already started their work. The Ford Anglia, Consul and Zephyr, as well as the Holden 48-215 and Opel Olympia, got federalized and opened to decent sales for the Holden, Consul and Zephyr, and somewhat weaker for the Opel and Anglia. Still, by the end of the year, it' was decided that the next generations of them would be developed with at least a partial focus on the US market.

In the same vein, the sales of the Henry J rose, though not to British/Australian car levels.

However, Chrysler and the independent makes were faced with trouble, not having such overseas divisions to import cars from. The only exception was Nash, which was already working on the American, a compact car.

Chrysler decided to work around the problem by investing in diesel engines. The plan involved rolling out 3 diesels, a 100 HP 241 ci Hemi V8 (Plymouth, Dodge), a 115 HP 276 ci Hemi V8 (DeSoto), a 135 HP 331 ci Hemi V8 (Chrysler) and a 160 HP 405 ci Hemi V8 (large pickups). The engines were planned to be ready by 1952, shortly after the gas Hemis. A compact car was also in development, but on the back burner.

Meanwhile, Studebaker, Packard, Hudson, Kaiser and Willys merged into United Auto Manufacturing (UAM), in order to survive the competition. They started working on a new, unibody compact to fight the Consul, Zodiac and Holden. They decided to pull off a large gamble by hiring W.E. Deming, the statistician behind the concept of reliability as the main manufacturing axiom, and paying him more than the Japanese offered. (Yes, it means not-so-reliable Japanese cars.) The rationale was that if the UAM can't fight on prices, they would fight on quality.

Europe:

Most automakers were scrambling to make a car for the developed market. While many companies had different approaches, all the vehicles are quite similar - 1000-1300 cc of cubic capacity, 4-door sedan unibody (with some other body options), compact size.

However, many companies approach it differently - for example, Citroen was making the Ami a flat-4 FWD car, the Saab 93 was going to be a 2-stroke FWD machine, while the VW Type 3 was going to have a Beetle-derived rear flat-4 transaxle, notably, with an optional diesel.

The list of makers in that idea included Ford, Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Simca, VW, NSU, DKW, BMW, Saab, Volvo, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Austin, Hillman, Standard and others.

Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo revolutionized the performance world by making the Alfetta, a mid-engined performance coupe with a 235 HP 2.0 V6 supercharged engine in the middle. The car was the world's fastest, and achieved notable victories in performance. Other makers, like Jaguar or Aston Martin, started developing similar ones.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the engineers of GAZ in the USSR started working on a relatively affordable, 600 cc small car, with the intent of it being cheap enough for most Soviet car owners.

Asia:

In Japan, the first kei cars, a class of cars limited to 200 cc and 280x120x130 cm, started being produced. Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and Suzuki all entered the class.

China started designing a similar sort of car, but larger and 300cc. While it was called a "people's car", the engineers slowly started seeing this goal as impossible, due to the Chinese society being seemingly too poor for that.

1951:

Americas:

As the war went on, (sub)compacts and imports retained their popularity, which was showed by the fact that Holden, Opels, Fords, VWs and Morrises all received new styling for 1952, as per US custom, and the ongoing projects kept running.

However, seeing the new Alfa's fame, UAM decided to start working on a similar supercar. This was part of a larger development project, involving the development of a new range of fullsize cars - and the supercar was meant to have a similar suspension setup and V8 engine to the new Packards.

But what shook the US auto industry were "Deming system" 1952 UAM cars, which were of better quality than their competitors, though it was offset by a higher price. While the original sales were just OK, an ad campaign and word of mouth helped them. These cars got especially popular in rural areas, where customers wanted simple, reliable cars.

Mopar's new gasoline Hemi V8s were also a good development for the company, burning less fuel than the competors, while having better performance.

Europe:

The new midsize cars, like the Opel Kadett, BMW 1200, Standard 10 or Austin A50 started appearing, with more coming and decent perspectives on the US market.

However, many of the automakers ended up spending a lot on them, and had trouble recouping the costs or continuing development - this especially touched small brands, like BMW, Borgward or Hotchkiss. Also, the sales figures were worse than expected.

What actually sold well, though, was the Citroen 2CV van - a cheap, reliable vehicle that could haul a family. Citroen quickly found itself doing well, and even started exporting to the US, with quite limited success, and other companies started looking at their business model more closely.

Another revolution were the redesigned Opels, Fords, VWs and Morrises - the practice started bringing image-conscious customers towards these brands, and made others think about new '53 styling.

Also, as Hotchkiss started merger talks with UAM, the French goverment started working on its own Jeep-like vehicle, produced by Renault. The Hotchkiss Jeep was something they didn't want made by another country's company.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR temporarily abandoned its economy car project to focus on defense.

Asia:

China took a similar approach to the USSR - abandoned the "people's car" project to focus on defense.

However, the kei car segment was booming - most manufacturers had at least one of these 150 cc cars, and smaller brands started feeling the competition from ones like Toyota, Hino or Nissan.

1952:

Americas:

Faced with rising unionism, UAM began looking into outsourcing production. Finally, in June, they started working on a new investment - a "Deming system" factory in Tijuana, Mexico, in order to bring better quality than the Big Three at lower prices. The factory was meant to produce compacts and subcompacts by Willys, Studebaker and Hotchkiss.

The 1953 model year brought a lot of new stuff.

For one, GM, Ford and UAM all had all-new compacts - the 1953 Holden line, with independent suspension (except for the ute), the FWD Ford Taunus and the Deming system Willys Aero/Studebaker Lark. They ended up selling like hotcakes, stealing buyers from cheaper fullsize models.

Also, Mopar debuted all-new car designs and Hemi V8 diesels. The cars themselves caught on, and the diesels weren't doing bad either, although they were limited to buyers who did not care about the rough operation of these machines.

However, on 28th November 1952, the market suffered a huge downturn. The reason?

Well, President Dewey authorized an atomic attack on Pyongyang. The world stood in shock, and the attack is often seen as the cause of Joseph Stalin's 7th December 1952 fatal heart attack. Car sales quickly fell, and makers lowered R&D expenses to almost zero.

Europe:

More midsize family cars were hitting the showroom floors, and smaller makers found themselves in trouble. Hotchkiss was bought by UAM and BMW went to Mercedes-Benz.

Citroen could have suffered the same fate, but 2CV and HY orders were coming in quickly. Seeing that, other brands also started working on their own economy cars and vans.

The French government, with Hotchkiss now being an US-owned maker, accelerated its work on a "light troop carrier". It was meant to be a Renault 4CV-based light amphibious vehicle, and its similarity to the Schwimmwagen led many to calling it "Le Schwimmwagenoix". It had a lot to do with Ferdinand Porsche working on it, following his late father's design work for Renault.

On the sports car front, Mercedes-Benz and Lancia joined the fight against the Alfetta. The new 320RS and Stelvio were seen as great performance cars, and the Stelvio was exceptionally good, thanks to being engineered by Lancia's new recruit, Enzo Ferrari.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the idea of a "car of the people" appeared in the form of the AWZ P70, a low-power, partially wooden, yet practical FWD minibus. The Western press even showed it as an example of a good car for so little money.

Of course, the atomic bombing of Pyongyang made things... somewhat worse on the economic front.

Asia:

After the Japanese government gave significant incentives for company mergers, they started quickly happening. In fact, by the end of the year, only Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Suzuki and Hino were left on the scene.

India started working on its "national car" program. It was meant to be conducted by Hindustan's factory, and the car design was strongly inspired by the new AWZ - and even the Pyongyang attack didn't stop them.

1953:

Global politics:

On 4th January, 1953,the USSR joined the Korean War by dropping a nuclear bomb on Seoul. This started the nuclear war stage of the conflict, with both sides using them.

However, both countries’ leaders knew what dropping a bomb on the rival’s territory would mean and kept the attacks to Korean soil. Nevertheless, further economic stagnation ensued.

What’s more, on 26th February, the Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, would nationalise the country’s oil, shaking the market. The US feared that for some time, but was too tied in Korea to stop him.

Egypt, Jordan and Syria dealt another blow to the oil market with a joint operation to capture the Suez Channel in March, making it harder to export oil. When it comes to producing the black stuff, May’s Arab power struggles after King Ibn Saud’s death did not help. The country went through a 7-month-long civil war, ending with the victory of his son Turki, the continuator of the dynasty.

This also let to the European NATO's near-downfall - the USSR threatened to cut oil supply to any NATO member. The only country to stay was Germany, supported by the US when it came to oil.

24th November brought the start of the peace movenent. A demonstration against the war and related draft in New York turned into a brawl with the police and an ostentatious burning of draft cards. Similar events happened in LA (7th December) and San Francisco (19th December).

Americas:

1953 had some of the worst sales for years, and model year 1954 had the worst opening in years. Still, new car designs were significantly different, in order to draw customers.

It also had compacts and subcompacts gaining even more ground, with Holden even outselling Chevy's debut (that said, Chevy's designs were rather old by the point). This made GM decide to start making Holdens in Van Nuys, and the Ford Taunus also got US manufacturing by the end of the year.

Chrysler's new compacts, the Plymouth Lancer (Chrysler in Australia) and Dodge Coronet, as well as the company's diesels, including a new I6 one, and the purchase of Borgward gave it a well-needed boost.

The compact commercial vehicle segment also shone, with Holden's Half-Ton Ute, Ford 's Transit and VW Transporter fighting for domination.

Nash's compacts were buying it some time, together with redesigned fullsizes.

Seeing that, GM and Ford started independently developing "senior compacts" - cars that would slot between compacts and fullsizes.

Also, imports were making huge inroads in the US. Not only were Holdens, Opels, Fords of Germany , Hotchkisses and Borgwards (though the first had "gone native") sold through Big Four dealers, VWs, Saabs, Morrises, DKWs, etc. were selling better than ever.

Despite the push for economy, a GM dealer from New Orleans, Mike Persia, fitted a Holden Deluxe coupe with Oldsmobile mechanical parts and widened wheelarches, as well as stripping the interior. The car was raced in NASCAR, and achieved great victories there, with Mr. Persia finally selling the design of the Holden TSC (Track Special Coupe) to GM.

In the same year, after the Brazilian president's appeal, Ford and Chrysler pledged to biild factories there, while GM decided to build one in Chile.

Europe:

As in America, the market had a slump, yet the cars were greatly restyled to attract customers to them.

Germany's decision to stay in NATO led to gasoline having to be rationed, which had a bad effect on the German luxury car market. While Mercedes-Benz and BMW survived, Borgward was bought by Chrysler and Ferdinand Porsche sold his company to work for Citroen.

VW, meanwhile, scored a hit with the diesel-optioned Type 3,a Beetle-based, contemporary-styled 4-door sedan.

Meanwhile, the center of luxury was moving to France, with the new Delahaye 400,boasting of a 4.0 V12 and Citroen-licensed hydropneumatic suspension, was launched. It was the fastest luxury car of the time.

Also, Bugatti built the Type 302, a 4.5 V12 mid-engined supercar - the world's fastest, reaching 270 km/h and winning the 1953 LeMans.

This overshadowed Jaguar's new, mid-engined XK170. What's worse, the Jag went through engine trouble during LeMans.

France also completed its new, Renault-based light military vehicle - an amphibious one. However, many experts deemed such things irrelevant in the era of the atomic bomb.

Competitors to the Citroën 2CV in the form of the Ford Brompton (UK) and Harz (Germany), small, yet 4-door FWD vehicles that sold quite well.

The Portugese government decided to start a "national car" program to lower the country's foreign dependence.

Poland also decided to work on such a thing, starting to test microcar prototypes.

Asia:

Japan's car industry kept on developing, with the new Toyota Crown, a contemporary-styled large sedan and rebodied Austin A70, seen as a reach beyond cheap kei cars. Still, the quality was what you could expect from an underdeveloped country.

The Japanese makers started looking towards expansion - Toyota began estabilishing an assembly in Taiwan, and Isuzu had sights set on the French Indochina.

Despite droughts weakening the economy, the Indian national car project kept on continuing.

1954:

Politics:

The Korean War continued, despite protests all across the US.

Its continuing was helped by the fact that many African-Americans enlisted, hoping to use it for societal ascent. The viewpoint was reinforced by the GI Bill being extended to all servicepeople.

While the US had the military upper hand, it was having funding problems, due to many politicians opposing further funding for it, sometimes for racially-charged reasons.

In Europe, the Suez Coalition (Egypt, Jordan, Syria) restarted the sale of oil in March, and a month later, Iran did the same thing.

Noticing their dependence on the Arab nations, European nations started diplomatic efforts to bring about the Euro-Arabian Oil Commonwealth, similar to the already existing one for coal and steel.

Also, France and South Vietnamese forces won the battle of Dien Bien Phu, stopping the Vietcong, and started preparing an offensive.

Americas:

1954 brought an end to the fuel crisis and saw a start to a scrappage scheme, meant to give the army more steel and help the car market, as well as the GI Bill extended to car buying and loans.

The biggest winners were compacts and subcompacts, cheap enough not to require a large investment besides the scrappage money. UAM, with its cheap Mexican manufacturing, and GM’s leasing benefited the most.

Sales were also boosted by all of the Big Four rolling out new, striking fullsize designs for all brands, from Chevrolet to Packard (unibody at Ford and UAM), new GM, Ford and UAM V8s, UAM’s torsion beam suspension, as well as Nash abandoning the segment to focus on compacts and imported Peugeot subcompacts.

That year is also seen as “the American performance car’s birthdate” - Packard rolled out the Talladega, a supercharged V8 supercar that debuted in the 1954 LeMans, and Holden started making the ASC with some roadworthiness changes.

Cadillac began the development of the Eldorado, a sporty 4-door sedan/convertible to fight the new Delahaye.

Opel was removed from the US market, and the Kadett and Olympia models were transferred to Holden, and added to their Australian offerings.

Seeing how the Deming process was kept at a lower cost by Mexican manufacturing at UAM, the rest of the Big Four started working on their own Mexican assemblies.

Europe:

The Citroen 13CV, a groundbreaking luxury car, was released. Not only it had hydropneumatic systems all around, it had striking fastback bodywork with an opening rear window and a drivetrain tuned by Ferdinand Porsche and Maserati brothers. It was meant to be a prelude for the upcoming 6CV, 9CV and 16CV.

At the same time, Delahaye began work on the 2500, a smaller luxury car and a 13CV rival.

The British government instituted an antitrust law, which stopped the planned merger of Morris and Austin. However, these companies made their own mergers - Morris with Lanchester and Daimler, and Austin with Rover. Austin-Rover began adopting the Deming system.

Still, their joint project, a 3-wheeled sub-Minor/A30 economy car, the Mini/A10, hit the market. Unfortunately for them, it was overshadowed by the Hillman Imp, an Alec Issigonis-designed FWD small car with surprisingly good handling.

Jaguar, following financial troubles, went bankrupt, which was a surprise for the performance car world.

Mercedes-Benz, with the new Delahaye, Packard and Bugatti on the market, as well as the Eldorado and 16CV in development, started working on the 400S and 400RS - “new standards in luxury”.

Meanwhile, BMW, their subsidiary, started making a licensed version of the new Fiat 500 - a decision that helped the company’s finances a lot. The Fiat itself also was a success in its native Italy.

The 1954 LeMans was the spot of fierce competition between the new Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Packard Talladega, Lancia Stelvio and Mercedes 320RS. However, the winner was unlikely - it was the Lotus 6, a lightweight mid-engined race car using tuned Jaguar XK120 mechanicals. After the race, Colin Chapman was approached with orders for a road-going version, and by the end of the year, there was one.

Behind the big companies was TVR with its 2000, built in a similar way with Bristol parts, yet not as refined. Still, TVR ended up in a similar situation, and by the end of the year, there was a production 2000.

Asia:

India’s new “national car”, the AWZ-derived Hindustan Premier, ended up being quite successful. Still, it did not motorize the largely-undeveloped country, as its cost was still relatively high.

Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Nissan developed the Land Cruiser Series 30 and Nissan Patrol, two Land Rover-derived 4x4s. They were quite unrefined, yet successful in developing markets, thanks to the low prices.

1955:

Politics:

The war continued to draw ire, now on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Also, it was so damaging and costly that the participants wanted to end it.

In July, the American scrappage scheme ended and finally, on 27th October, the Tokyo Agreement between 5 leaders, Thomas Dewey, Lavrientiy Beria, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung and Syngman Rhee ended the war and drew the border on the 37th parallel north.

By that time, the Franco-Vietnamese anti-Vietcong offense was already ongoing, with good results for the South.

Americas

Good car sales continued. While the end of scrappage slowed down cheap car sales, the rest of the market made up for that.

UAM showed some new things that changed the US car scene. The first was the '56 "Low Step" series of Studebaker pickup trucks, which used a less bulky frame design to give more space, also offering typical UAM quality, as well as good-value Mexican production. '56's UAM design also showed their new diesels, from Hotchkiss 4-bangers to Hudson/Kaiser V8s, which gave Mopars a run for their money.

Chrysler was falling into financial troubles, as they couldn't get enough sales during the scrappage scene, as Borgwards were relatively expensive, and their cars were showing reliability problems.

GM and Ford's new intermediate vehicles, the RWD Holden Superior (AU-only)/Chevrolet Chevelle/Pontiac LeMans/Oldsmobile 76/78/Buick Special and the FWD Ford Fairbank/Mercury Comet, were also hits, well-slotting between the compacts and fullsizes, offering both I6s and V8s.

Meanwhile, the Holden ASC got a more "civilian" version, the Sport Coupe, with an SBC 281 ci V8, and competitors for either - the Studebaker Sport Lark/Super Lark, with a normal Studebaker V8 and a 374 ci Packard one, respectively.

Also, GM began working on a cheaper, more mass-market alternative to the Packard Talladega, the Corvette, and Ford's Thunderbird was meant to be the same.

This year also had the first Japanese car stateside, the Toyotas: 200, Crown and Land Cruiser. However, all were derided for a lack of refinement, with very few sold in that only year of sales.

Europe:

Diesels kept gaining ground, with Borgward, BMW, Volvo, Peugeot, Citroen (Ami, 6CV, 9CV) and both Austin and Morris Group cars getting them. By then, not only fleet customers were getting such cars - they were getting more and more common on the average driveway.

In the UK, Austin-Rover and Morris were taking two different routes - AR began improving their quality, while also making the '56 designs appealing and introducing the Rover P5, while Morris risked large loans for making new car designs for Lanchester and Daimler, neglecting the 1956s. Rootes Group bought Standard-Triumph.

In Germany, the VW Type 3 was challenged by the new Opel Kadett. Meanwhile, both brands started working on sports csrs using these two's mechanicals.

Citroen revealed the 6CV and 9CV, looking much like the 13CV, but with less complex styling and mechanicals, while work on the 16CV and the range-topping GT continued, with the Porsche-Maserati team leading them.

In Italy, the new Fiat 600 had its premiere, attracting many 600 buyers. On the opposite end of the scale, the 2nd gen Lancia Stelvio surfaced, with a 4.7 V12. It was the fastest car in the world.

However, LeMans had another Lotus victory on the track, showing that the Six wasn't a one-hit wonder. Lotus was working on its own, non-Jaguar engine.

In Poland, the new microcar, Mikrus, debuted as a small 4-door sedan, and was directed to production. The USSR restarted its national car program after the war.

Asia

China resumed its national car program, as defense was no longer as prioritized, and a symbol of the Great Leap Forward was needed.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the economy was growing, and another company expanded - the Dutch colonies had a Hino factory set up, and Suzuki, now talking Citroen 2CV licensing, took its chances in post-nuclear-war Korea, or what was left of it in the south.

That is all for now. Hope you enjoy.

[phoebehalliwell]

diff anon - but maybe have a storyline that began in S7 of witches going missing and showing up dead but they arent moving on and instead taken somewhere. It would explain why they couldnt summon prue after she died. Then having it revealed that the elders knew about some witches souls being taken. Prue being angry that even after she died she was replaced by the elders and her sisters were not safe anymore. Then the effects of the not being able to move on making her going to extremes?

ooh even like. prue being kind of the leader of lost souls desperately trying to carve their way back to the real world so they can finally have an opportunity to move on but idk either the elders don't want the souls to move on for one reason or another like there are some souls there that they can't have reincarnated bc they were too powerful and dangerous in their previous life or maybe keeping those souls in limbo idk helps keep some balance maybe in a whitelighter sense because whitelighter are souls not reincarnated so maybe there's something there so the elders task the charmed ones with the task of hey there are restless spirits and you need to stop them before they rip a hole in spacetime so the girls have been going against prue unknowingly, still not seeing her face to face because prue is the only one who has like. made it out or whatever had the opportunity to reincarnate (we can even say specifically because the elders pulled her out so they wouldn't have a charmed one in the mix because that ws simply too volatile) but prue refused to move on instead going back to help the souls still trapped so she's at like highest rank or whatever and her generals or whatever refuse to let her face this new challenge head on because she's the only one who knows the pathway to get out she's the only one who can help them get out but idk when we lose a soul very important to prue she's like no i gotta face this myself in which she squares off with paige but upon this reveal this first meeting there's this hesitancy this sense like hey do i know you but prue's still riding off the death her friend or whatever and like idk maims paige who barely escapes with her life anyways paige is back at the manor clinging onto life for however long the narrative needs to keep this on the dl for but when she comes to piper and phoebe are like woah wait wait what happened u almost died was it their leader why didn't you use your potion and paige is like i don't know because we'll say spirit memories are fuzzy and she's only ever seen prue in pictures the secret ones obvi bc lord knows there aren't any of her around the manor lol but paige is just left with this overwhelming feeling of i knew her, i couldn't hurt her. meanwhile prue's on the other side like okay that was weird. because i have no idea who that is. but i did feel something. idk what. and we can say a soul who's been trapped for like ages maybe a century or so maybe a warren witch if we feel so inclined (or, alternately, a relative of sheila's & we sow seeds for the magical morrises spin off) and she's a real intuitive spirit type like no no like [this is how the spirit world works whatever] like you have to lean into that feeling you have to embrace it don't shy away from it don't let your feelings turn to anger because there might be no coming back. meanwhile, piper and phoebe are gearing up to go back into the spirit world to avenge paige and finally put an end to this and we'll say the elders found a backdoor a sneaky shortcut in this way they'll have the upper hand meanwhile paige is still at the manor trying to remember exactly what happened in the spirit world and then it clicks it was prue oh my god she's gotta tell phoebe and piper. but paige wasn't there for the dossier on the new info so she goes in through the front door where prue is waiting and she calls her by her name and we see prue brimming with all these emotions the penny's gonna drop when boom coming in through the back is piper and phoebe and piper maybe takes out the other witch who gave prue the sage advice and of course prue recognizes piper so there's that rush of emotion but she just killed (? maybe. they're all already dead) this person who gave her this advice and it's becoming clear that it's been the charmed ones wreaking havoc and hurting the spirits and prue doesn't know what to do with this hurt and betrayal but it quickly sours to anger and then she becomes a dark spirit meanwhile (which i should probably think of at least one more transition work but no <3) piper and phoebe immediately

clock prue and pump the breaks and then they see paige like guys! it's prue! and they're like yeah no got that part, but now prue's on a murderous rampage so they gotta get the hell outta dodge and maybe that's the s8 midseason or something maybe the s7 season finale leaving us with two hefty to-dos: 1) bring prue back from evil and 2) whitelight a fire under the elders' asses because What The FUCK was that??

[itsblackasme]

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 A hearing is scheduled for public comment on the release of Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Dariel Morrise Shazier into the DPH/Del Paso Heights community of Sacramento County. Shazier has no ties to Sacramento. I am against the release of Shazier into the Del Paso Heights community, the City of Sacramento, and Sacramento County. I've heard tale of law enforcement agencies writing letters in opposition of this parole move but I think it's just to save face for the General public aka US, because no one from outside of the county is allowed to parole to another one unless they have permission from the county they're trying to transfer to FIRST. If approved, Shazier would live at an address near Grant High 🏫 in Del Paso Heights. Shazier would be monitored for one year, and then eligible for a full release from supervision to live unmonitored in the community. Here's what you can do to let your voice be heard regarding this matter. 1 - Tell the Santa Clara Judge Why You Object, Either in Person or By Phone If you'd like to address the court by either of these methods, you must notify the Sacramento DA's office by email at SVPShazier@sacda.org to schedule a time. You can attend the placement hearing in Santa Clara on August 26th at 9 a.m. The hearing takes place at the Santa Clara County Superior Court, Courtroom 32 (http://bit.ly/2KyjlWk) A telephone conference will take place on the same day at the Greater Sacramento Urban League (3725 Marysville Blvd). Dariel Shazier has no previous connection to the City of Sacramento or Sacramento County, and there is no guarantee he will not re-offend. I adamantly oppose the placement of Dariel Shazier in Del Paso Heights as it puts MYSELF, MY FAMILY, MY NEIGHBORS and THE COMMUNITY'S YOUTH at risk. 😥😖😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡.... #NODarielShazier #WEDONTWANTHIM #NOTINMYHOOD #DPH_STANDUP🤘🏿 Other ways to get active shown in the comments➡️➡️ (at Del Paso Heights, Sacramento, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B07VNfmhw-LcwpryXMnzxsauhWN0HYgKtHT9dc0/?igshid=uxeu4zxk14af

[sindibadstore]

8 Cats Who Were Famous Before The Internet Was Invented

Just like dogs, it doesn’t take much for a cat to become famous nowadays, if you have access to a camera and a good understanding of how social media works. But in the past, cats didn’t need to play the piano on YouTube to go viral. Here are some of the best known cats in history, before history went digital:

Catterina, the cat who owned Edgar Allan Poe

Writers and cats go together like pints of ice cream and spoons, so it’s no surprise that Edgar Allan Poe’s cat makes the list. While Poe wrote a terrifying (of course) tale called “The Black Cat,” his actual cat was a tortoiseshell, named Catterina. She reportedly perched on his shoulder as he sat down to write, probably to give him storytelling pointers. Catterina also tended to Mrs. Poe, who was losing a battle with tuberculosis, by lying next to her to keep her company until the end. Catterina reportedly died shortly after Poe himself died. Perhaps she was a figment of Poe’s imagination, or, more likely, he was a figment of hers

Snowball, the cat who owned Ernest Hemingway

Renowned writer Ernest Hemingway kept many cats throughout his life, but his first was an all-white kitten named Snowball gifted to him by a ship captain named Stanley Dexter. What made Snowball unusual is he was polydactyl, having six toes on his front paws instead of the usual five — cats with extra toes are considered lucky at sea. Snowball lived a nice happy life in sunny Key West, Florida.

Why he is so famous is that his many descendants still live at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, and many of them also have extra toes. And in 2017, all 54 of the current generation of Hemingway cats survived the wrath of Hurricane Irma, so I guess they’re lucky on land, too.

Morris, the cat who owned 9Lives Cat Food

Probably the most famous advertising cat in the world, Morris started out as the spokes-purrson for Purina’s iconic pet food in typical Hollywood fashion — he was discovered by talent scouts. Adopted from a shelter, the “finicky” orange tiger-striped cat first appeared in print in 1968, and until 1978 was the most popular cat in the world.

When the original Morris died, a new Morris — also a rescue cat — took up the mantle as pitch-cat. There have been other Morrises to follow since, as a beacon not only for pet food, but also pet adoption and rescue. The current Morris is living it up in Los Angeles, California.

All Ball, the cat who researched Koko the Gorilla

Koko the gorilla, the first non-human to be able to communicate in sign language, had a simple request for Christmas in 1983: she wanted a kitten. Her research team tried giving her a stuffed toy but she wanted a real one. After much deliberation they decided to let her adopt a kitten for her birthday in 1984. Koko chose one out of a litter, a male Manx kitten with no tail, and signed the cat’s name as All Ball.

Koko and All Ball made headlines all over the world as she took gentle care of him as if he were her baby. But it was not to last; after just a year together, All Ball got out of the research building and was struck by a car. Koko was inconsolable, signing “bad sad” over and over again. While she eventually got more kittens, she never forgot All Ball.

Room 8, the cat who went to school

Room 8 was a huge gray tabby that wandered into Elysian Heights Elementary School in Southern California one day in 1952. Named for his “homeroom,” he patrolled the grounds fastidiously; he came to school every day during the year and during summer recess we assume he took a sabbatical to a bird sanctuary.

He became the school’s mascot and was beloved, subject of books and movies and even a fashion spread in Look magazine. He finally retired over the Rainbow Bridge at 22 years old, and was buried with honors at the famous Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park.

Sam, the cat who sank the Bismarck

This cat may not have polydactyl toes but he sure was lucky, though the same can’t be said of his ships. His first assignment was on a very famous vessel; unfortunately it was the Bismarck, a German battleship famous for A) being supposedly unsinkable and B) being sunk on its maiden voyage.

The cat was found floating on bits of shipwreck by the British Royal Navy and brought aboard, and given the name Oscar (what his name was aboard the German ship is unknown). He then went on to sink two more ships in the same way, and was renamed Unsinkable Sam. The Navy finally got wise and gave Sam to a sailor who had gone ashore, and as far as we know, caused no more maritime disasters.

Trim, the cat who discovered Australia

Way back in the late 18th century, when sailing around “discovering” things was a career, Captain Matthew Flinders took his cat with him. Trim, a tuxedo, served on Flinders’ ship HMS Reliance and then on HMS Investigator, which mapped the entire circumference of Australia between 1801 and 1803.

However, on his return to England, Captain Flinders was captured by the French, because of a little war with Napoleon, and he and Trim were imprisoned on the island of Mauritius for a time. Flinders survived and was released; Trim however went missing and Flinders assumed he was eaten by another prisoner. There are statues of Flinders and his faithful companion Trim in both his English hometown and in several Australian cities.

Tabby and Dixie, the cats who ruled the White House

Tabby and Dixie were two kittens gifted to President Abraham Lincoln by his secretary of state William Seward in 1861, and they became the first official White House pets. Although technically Tabby belonged to Lincoln’s son Tad, Tabby and Abe were fast friends.

Lincoln reportedly even fed the cats at the table during formal dinners, claiming Dixie was smarter than his entire cabinet. When a reporter asked Mary Todd Lincoln if the president had any hobbies, she replied: “Cats.”

[yahoonews7]

In a series of conversations last September, senior Department of Justice officials worked with representatives of the Australian government to hammer out an arrangement to win the release of a pair of Australian bloggers imprisoned in Tehran. At the same time those talks were taking place, Attorney General Bill Barr and his lieutenants were speaking to the Australians about another matter: getting their help as the Department of Justice looked into the origins of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Barr, like his boss, President Donald Trump, had long had a view of the Russia probe that bordered on hostile, and his review has been widely seen as an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation, which led to the indictment of multiple Trumpworld associates. Just days before the culmination of talks in September—which coincided with an official Australian state visit—Trump himself pushed Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help Barr with this inquiry. Barr followed up about the Mueller re-investigation, two U.S. officials and a third individual familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast, even as American and Australian officials finalized their arrangement to try to free the pair jailed in Iran. According to four sources—including those two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official—the American government agreed to help facilitate the release of the Australian bloggers, in part by agreeing to pull back from pursuing the extradition of an Iranian scientist held in Australia. News of the arrangement didn’t reach the senior ranks of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs—the team in charge of coordinating the government’s diplomatic engagements on overseas hostage-related matters—until days after the deal was finalized, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. Another individual familiar with the conversations said officials in the hostage affairs office were frustrated by the lack of communication from the Department of Justice, claiming they had been cut out of a process they would have normally helped lead. At the time, the team was in conversation with Americans whose family members were held hostage in Iran. The cohort was actively lobbying the Trump administration to raise public awareness of the hostages’ cases in the hopes that it may put pressure on the Tehran government. The discussions between Washington and Canberra raise questions about why the Department of Justice engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to help win the release of Australian hostages from Iran and whether the president’s request to have the country assist in Barr’s Russia inquiry influenced the department’s decision-making.The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not provide an on the record comment for this story. In an email to The Daily Beast, DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Barr himself did not have “any conversations with the Australians about Australian bloggers or an Iranian scientist.” To Claire Finkelstein, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, “this story suggests that the president is continuing to use the authority of his office to pressure foreign leaders into assisting him in covering up Russia’s assistance with his 2016 victory. This is the same conduct for which Trump was impeached, and the reporting suggests that he is undeterred.” She added, “If the administration engaged in this swap as part of a deal with the Australian government in which it would support Trump’s counter-narrative to the Mueller Report, then department officials are actively using U.S. diplomacy to undermine our U.S. national security interests.”* * *Since the first year of his administration, former and current aides say that they’ve seen Trump “light up,” in one former senior White House official’s words, when internally discussing his impending announcements of rescued hostages, and would press aides on unusually specific details of the operations or negotiations, including on how his count of released hostages compared to that of his predecessor, President Barack Obama.And when it comes to enlisting foreign powers to help the Trump administration probe the feds, the president views it as a top priority. A senior administration official said that they’ve heard Trump on multiple occasions mention that any ally of the United States should help, if they can—and that chasing leads on suspected origins of the Mueller investigation is a matter of “national security.” Trump’s phone call and Barr’s subsequent conversations with the Australians came at a time when the White House was in the midst of fending off allegations that the president had engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukraine. Top Democrats had obtained a whistleblower complaint alleging in part that President Trump had withheld vital military aid from Kyiv to force the Ukrainians to announce a probe into his 2020 political rival, Joe Biden. As an impeachment probe gathered steam on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration appears to have ramped up its efforts to find willing foreign partners such as Australia to help investigate Mueller’s probe while also offering to help Morrison get his citizens out of Iranian prison.In May of last year, about a month after the release of the Mueller report, Barr tapped Connecticut’s top federal prosecutor John Durham to lead the department’s inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation. On May 24, President Trump lauded the department’s efforts, calling the Mueller investigation “the greatest hoax, probably, in the history of our country,” adding that he hoped the attorney general would “look at Australia.”Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation laid out how Australia played a role in the origins of the FBI probe. Former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos has repeatedly claimed that he told Australia’s former foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, who was then high commissioner to the United Kingdom, that Russia had obtained negative information about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and that Downer informed U.S. law enforcement.Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, wrote to Barr on May 28 to say Canberra “stand[s] ready to provide you with all relevant information to support your inquiries,” according to a copy of the letter published by Australian media outlets.And in September, President Trump officially asked the Morrison government for help in his phone call with the prime minister. It’s unclear if Trump spoke with Morrison about the hostage situation during the conversation. (Although Trump later discussed the hostage arrangement with Barr and other senior officials in his administration, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.) But by the end of September, even before Australia’s state visit to Washington, members of the Morrison government and senior officials at the Department of Justice were in conversation about what the U.S. could do to help with the release of the two Australian bloggers.* * *In July of 2019, the Tehran government arrested Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who were traveling through Iran, for flying a drone near an Iranian military installment. The two were transferred to Evin Prison, one of the most notorious detention facilities in the country.During Morrison’s visit in September, senior officials at the Department of Justice and top representatives of Morrision’s government worked on the plan to bring the bloggers home. The U.S. would step back from pursuing an extradition order for an Iranian scientist held in Brisbane. That would allow for the scientist’s release back to Iran. In exchange, the Australians could get King and Firkin out of Evin Prison.Reza Dehbashi Kivi—a 38-year-old Iranian scientist studying in Queensland, Australia—was accused of exporting military radar equipment to help the Iranian regime detect stealth planes. The U.S. sought his extradition on six counts, including conspiring to export special amplifiers classified as “defense articles” under the U.S. munitions list, according to one of Kivi’s former attorneys.“The U.S. government alleged he had exported these devices and required some sort of export permit to do that,” said another individual with knowledge of Kivi’s case.Kivi remained in prison while Australia’s Attorney General’s office decided whether or not to extradite him to the United States.It wasn’t until the Australian team left the U.S. that senior State Department officials in the hostage affairs office learned from representatives of the Australian embassy in Washington of the discussions between the Department of Justice and the Morrison government. Officials at State were told that the attorney general’s office in Australia would work directly with Barr’s office on the timing of the releases.“Political capital should be used, first and foremost, for American citizens and U.S. lawful permanent residents,” said one individual familiar with Iranian hostage affairs issues.Although there isn’t always a clear blueprint for handling hostage negotiations, the State Department — specifically, the presidential envoy for hostage affairs — ordinarily helps run point. And while the Department of Justice does play a leading role in the extradition process, its bypassing of the State Department on the conversations with the Australians is alarming, former officials say. “The hostage unit in the [State] department acts as a coordinator. They’re supposed to be in on this process,” one former U.S. official who worked on hostage affairs told The Daily Beast.Kivi was released from prison and returned back to Iran on Sept. 29, 2019—nine days after the Australian state visit to Washington. On Oct. 5, the Australian government announced that Iran had released King and Firkin. (The two did not respond to requests to comment for this article.)At the time, there was speculation that the two events might be linked. A person directly familiar with Kivi’s case said there’s no question about it. “I have no doubt that that communication had taken place between the U.S. and Australia which affected the release of Mr. Dehbhashi,” the person told The Daily Beast. The Australian Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. But a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade acknowledged to The Daily Beast that Australia "made clear it was willing to assist with any U.S. inquiry into the origins of the Russia probe" but said that occurred well before King and Firkin were detained.The spokesperson said former Australian ambassador Hockey “confirmed this willingness in a letter to Attorney-General Barr.” The spokesperson repeatedly dodged questions from The Daily Beast about the conversations that took place between U.S. and Australian officials during Morrison's State visit in September. The office of Australian Attorney General Christian Porter directed The Daily Beast to a statement when King and Firkin were released from prison. “I considered that, in all the circumstances of this particular case, Mr Dehbashi Kivi should not ultimately be extradited to the United States,” Porter said at the time. “Ultimately the Attorney General can and should take into account a considerably broader set of considerations.”* * *As the discussions were underway in Washington in September 2019, State Department officials working on hostage affairs were in New York, meeting with the families of Americans detained in Iran. Since Kivi, King and Firkin were freed, Americans with family members detained in Iran have continued to put pressure on both the U.S. and Iranian governments to facilitate their release. For more than 13 years the Iranian government has consistently maintained that it is unaware of the whereabouts of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in the country in 2007. In the fall of 2019, a United Nations working group concluded that there was “an on-going case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran for Levinson”—a possible sign that the former agent was alive and that the Iranians were working toward a solution to the situation.But last month, Levinson’s family announced that they believed he had died in Iranian custody.—with additional reporting by Asawin Suebsaeng and Rachel OldingRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2K4xcDZ

[animlenet]

This marsupial is the only animal that's always pregnant

Just like dogs, it doesn’t take much for a cat to become famous nowadays, if you've got access to a camera and an honest understanding of how social media works. But within the past, cats didn’t get to play the piano on YouTube to travel viral. Here are a number of the simplest known cats in history, before history went digital:

Caterina, the cat who owned Edgar Allan Poe Writers and cats go together like pints of frozen dessert and spoons, so it’s no surprise that Edgar Allan Poe’s cat makes the list. While Poe wrote a terrifying (of course) tale called “The fisher,” his actual cat was a tortoiseshell, named Catterina. She reportedly perched on his shoulder as he sat right down to write, probably to offer him storytelling pointers. Caterina also attended Mrs. Poe, who was losing a battle with tuberculosis, by lying next to her to stay her company until the top. Catherine reportedly died shortly after Poe himself died. Perhaps she was a figment of Poe’s imagination, or, more likely, he was a figment of hers. Snowball, the cat who owned Hemingway Renowned writer Hemingway kept many cats throughout his life, but his first was an all-white kitten named Snowball gifted to him by a ship captain named Stanley Dexter. What made Snowball unusual is he was polydactyl, having six toes on his front paws rather than the standard five — cats with extra toes are considered lucky stumped. Snowball lived a pleasant happy life in sunny Key West, Florida.

Why he's so famous is that his many descendants still live at the Hemingway Home and Museum, and lots of them even have extra toes. And in 2017, all 54 of the present generation of Hemingway cats survived the wrath of Hurricane Irma, so I assume they’re lucky ashore, too. Morris, the cat who owned 9Lives cat chow Probably the foremost famous advertising cat within the world, Morris began because the spokes-person for Purina’s iconic pet food in typical Hollywood fashion — he was discovered by talent scouts. Adopted from a shelter, the “finicky” orange tiger-striped cat first appeared in print in 1968, and until 1978 was the foremost popular cat within the world.

When the first Morris died, a replacement Morris — also a rescue cat — took up the mantle as pitch-cat. There are other Morrises to follow since, as a beacon not just for pet food, but also pet adoption and rescue. the present Morris lives it up in l. a. , California. All Ball, the cat who researched Koko the Gorilla Koko the gorilla, the primary non-human to be ready to communicate in signing, had an easy request for Christmas in 1983: she wanted a kitten. Her research team tried giving her a stuffed toy but she wanted a true one. After much deliberation, they decided to let her adopt a kitten for her birthday in 1984. Koko chose one out of a litter, a male Manx kitten with no tail, and signed the cat’s name as All Ball.

Koko and every one Ball made headlines everywhere the planet as she took gentle care of him as if he were her baby. But it had been to not last; after just a year together, All Ball got out of the research building and was struck by a car. Koko was inconsolable, signing “bad sad” over and once again. While she eventually got more kittens, she never forgot All Ball. Room 8, the cat who visited the school Room 8 was an enormous gray tabby that wandered into Elysian Heights grade school in Southern California at some point in 1952. Named for his “homeroom,” he patrolled the grounds fastidiously; he came to high school a day during the year and through summer recess we assume he took a sabbatical to an aviary.

He became the school’s mascot and was beloved, subject of books and films and even a fashion spread in Look magazine. He finally retired over the Rainbow Bridge at 22 years old and was buried with honors at the famous l. a. Pet cemetery. Sam, the cat who sank the Bismarck This cat might not have polydactyl toes but he sure was lucky, though an equivalent can’t be said of his ships. His first assignment was on a famous vessel; unfortunately, it had been the Bismarck, a German battleship famous for A) being supposedly unsinkable and B) being sunk on its maiden voyage.

The cat was found floating on bits of the shipwreck by British Royal Navy and brought aboard and given the name Oscar (what his name was aboard the German ship is unknown). He then went on to sink two more ships within the same way and was renamed Unsinkable Sam. The Navy finally got wise and gave Sam to a sailor who had gone ashore, and as far as we all know, caused no more maritime disasters. Trim, the cat who discovered Australia Way back within the late 18th century, when sailing around “discovering” things was a career, Captain Flinders took his cat with him. Trim, a tuxedo, served on Flinders’ ship HMS Reliance then on HMS Investigator, which mapped the whole circumference of Australia between 1801 and 1803.

However, on his return to England, Captain Flinders was captured by the French, due to a touching war with Napoleon, and he and Trim were imprisoned on the island of Mauritius for a time. Flinders survived and was released; Trim, however, went missing and Flinders assumed he was eaten by another prisoner. There are statues of Flinders and his faithful companion Trim in both his English hometown and in several Australian cities. Tabby and Dixie, the cats who ruled the White House Tabby and Dixie were two kittens gifted to President Lincoln by his secretary of state William Seward in 1861, and that they became the primary official White Housepets. Although technically Tabby belonged to Lincoln’s son Tad, Tabby and Abe were fast friends.

Lincoln reportedly even fed the cats at the table during formal dinners, claiming Dixie was smarter than his entire cabinet. When a reporter asked Mary Todd Lincoln if the president had any hobbies, she replied: “Cats.”

[thesinglesjukebox]

RUSSELL DICKERSON - BLUE TACOMA

[5.00]

And here's another vehicle in which heaven can be found in the back seat of.

Anthony Easton: I am surprised at how muddy this sounds, and how generic the verses are. After, almost a decade of screwing in the back of pick-up trucks one would think that both the audience and the performer would be bored, but they keep being released. It's kind of frustrating, because Dickerson knows how to sing, and the guitars have a prickly edge. Plus, I like the idea that the truck is more important than either the girl or the singer. [5]

Ian Mathers: The structure, the instrumentation, etc. are all fine. It's everything draped over it that I hate so viscerally (and, honestly, probably unfairly): vocal style, sentiment, imagery, everything. I'd punt a radio playing this out a window, but when I try and step back a little and listen to the melody, it's actually fine. I'd assume there's something suspect going on with me, some classism or something, and maybe there is; but I don't have a ton of money, and I grew up in the country enough that I heard plenty of pop country growing up (and didn't loathe most of it the way I do most of the examples I hear now). But here's the thing about when your knee jerks: it's still a real reaction. [2]

Julian Axelrod: There's something about this song that I find incredibly peaceful. The stock road trip imagery is smeared and impressionistic, as if faded by memory. The depiction of romance is surprisingly lived-in and intimate. And the chorus feels sprawling and expansive, like the midpoint of a long drive when it feels you'll never stop moving forward. I don't know if I love the song itself, but I kinda want to live inside it. [6]

Juan F. Carruyo: Please keep this breezy car commercial music away from me [0]

Taylor Alatorre: It'd be easy to dismiss this as the output of a formula already codified by the likes of Sam Hunt, Locash, Dustin Lynch, and Randy Houser. It's got the quiet-loud dynamics, the barest rhythmic hint of hip hop, and those sprightly power chords that are the universally recognized symbol of the Interstate Highway System. But it's the little variations on this formula that show how this was crafted with care: the unexpected snare roll in the middle of verse one, the seamless integration of synthetic and live drumming, the outro that thoughtfully picks up where the guitar solo left off. And there's Dickerson himself, who sounds calmer and more self-effacing than many of his male country brethren. He references Shania but doesn't wave the reference in your face for cool points; her song is just another part of the scenery. The end result resembles that stable of 2000s rock bands that were lumped under "post-grunge" but were really just power pop by another name. The world needed a less angsty Daughtry, and it looks like Nashville has him. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I like how the hook makes it sound like Russell Dickerson's pickup truck is the name of a city in California. Because for all the joy he's finding in this moment, it's his car that's acting as the conduit for all experience. Even with everyone around him, his Tacoma's interior provides a liminal space between the outside world and intimacy with his lover. "Blue Tacoma" thus works because it's nonintrusive but still affecting: a perfect soundtrack for exactly what he's singing about. [6]

Edward Okulicz: Heard it all before but still somewhat into this -- it's a big, anthemic melody and Dickerson gives it a joyous, top-of-sand-dune delivery. He gives lines like "never runnin' out of golden road" a hint of wonderment, and the line "missin' turns 'cause that's our song" with goofy charm. Maybe songs like these have their success rest on how much the performer makes you like them, so this is a winner. The lite-beats and echoes of the chorus line date the song a bit, not just to the early days of bro-country, but also the late 90s, so points off for that. Still a solid entry in the genre I like to call "sunbelt pop" in the hope someone else will pick it up and run with it. [6]

Crystal Leww: It's been said again and again here that the best country songs are about small intimate moments from ordinary people. "Blue Tacoma" sounds like a roadtrip down the PCH when the weather has cooled just slightly but the sun is still shining. It's a vivid and bright image, narrated by Dickerson, who sounds so thrilled by the idea that she loves him, that she chose him. I was dismayed by the direction that country took the last couple of years -- a Serious Man backlash to the Sam Hunts and Maren Morrises of the world who made this kind of bright, poppy country -- but I'm glad that there's still a healthy undercurrent of folks like Dickerson. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[mobileautorepairpros]

FYI: DIY Car Club

Working on your own car can be rewarding, especially when you take your finished efforts out for a spin. But, finding the space for do-it-yourself car care can be a rare commodity, especially in crowded urban areas, gated communities, or where garage space is otherwise occupied. Well, our Lauren Morrison found a car club in Sacramento, California that’s designed just for DIY’ers.

LAUREN MORRISION: “Whether it be a homeowner’s association that frowns on you fixing up your car in the front yard, or a garage that’s just too small, finding the space to work on your car is a pain, but not if you’re a member of the DIY Car Club here in Sacramento, California.

ROBERT MITCHELL: “It’s always been a hobby and a passion. I built my first car when I was 9 years old in my dad’s tool and die shop. That’s just me.”

LAUREN MORRISION: A passion, and nowhere to practice it, is how Robert Mitchell came up with the do it yourself car club concept.

ROBERT MITCHELL: “It started out with 3 of us working out of a little 600 square foot garage that was part of an old auto shop and…..we found more people that wanted to get involved.”

LAUREN MORRISION: With about 40 active members today, the club has moved to a larger space, where members can rent a spot by the hour, day, week, or month to do anything from a tune-up…to a full on frame off restoration….like Kate Dargan and her 1951 Chevy pickup truck, “Irene.”

KATE DARGAN: “It’s her time now. She gets a whole new look for her next 50 years.”

LAUREN MORRISION: While this is Kate’s first restoration, that’s part of the beauty of the club…there’s always another gearhead, like Cliff Miller, hanging around to bounce ideas off of.

KATE DARGAN: “I mean, he can look at the parts and say, oh that goes there. So it’s kind of like having a friend, or your uncle hanging out with you working.”

LAUREN MORRISION: While you’ve got first timers, you’ve also got old pros, like Miguel Willet, who estimates he’s had around 500 cars in his lifetime….but the 1967 Firebird Convertible he’s working on now is something special.

MIGUEL WILLET: “One day, I came home and it was gone. My dad had sold it. So I think I’ve been looking for one the rest of my life.”

LAUREN MORRISION: While Miguel actually uses several different shops he says this car club keeps him coming back.

MIGUEL WILLET: “I find that I’m here more than those places, mainly because the access to other people, the camaraderie, you know, somebody brings food and you know you need to eat and you’re not stopping and they show up. All that stuff means a lot to me.”

LAUREN MORRISION: Young or old, expert or novice, there’s really only one rule to join…you’ve got to have some kind of vintage vehicle. Beyond that, the club has you covered.

ROBERT MITCHELL: “Jack stands, floor jacks, tune-up equipment, most of the general basic tools they would need if they don't have them themselves to completely restore a car.”

LAUREN MORRISION: With members who come from far and wide…

ROBERT MITCHELL: “We have people in the Bay area that drive all the way up here and bring their vehicles to work on them because there’s nothing like this around.”

LAUREN MORRISION: This gearhead gathering place is a do it yourselfer’s paradise!

ROBERT MITCHELL: “Everyone here loves old vehicles, one way or the other. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a Chevy, a Ford, a Dodge, a Pontiac, an AMG, an Alfa Romeo. It doesn’t really make a difference. They all love old, classic cars.”

from MotorWeek Entries http://ift.tt/2z8HLmn via IFTTT