#cecil-less-watcher

[lightningzbolt]

TRICK OR TREATS!>:3

Trick or Treat! Have my Halloween vector from a few years ago.

[transfreddietrumper]

For opinion thing

One of my favorite 2020 TMA mutuals from Instagram

🥰

[thehollowwriter]

The Official Bio of Clyde Sentry

Basic Info:

Name: Clyde Sentry

Homeland: The Scalding Sands, but they were born in the Queendom of Roses

Species: Human (at least, we think so?)

Birthday: 1st October

Age: 18

Height/length: 162cm

Dominant hand: Left

Gender: non-binary

Sexuality: Asexual, panromantic

Class: 3-A

Dorm: Ignihyde

Best subject: Magic analysis

Club: News club. Not the newspaper club. They comprise relevant news and announce it to the school. Also weather announcements, which they also play music for, for some reason.

Unique Magic: Ceaseless Watcher. They know. What do they know? Whatever they want to. It has many drawbacks, however. It gives them migraines, and it can be difficult for them to see the bigger picture. They don't like knowing other people's thoughts.The information sometimes overloads their brain and makes them pass out. They cannot see into the future, however.

Family:

Unnamed grandmother

Unnamed mother and father (deceased)

Preferences:

Favourite subject: Music

Hobbies: Investigating things, reading, bowling

Likes: Cats, horror, knowledge, stories,

Dislikes: Spiders (they know things), worms, eye symbols, tight spaces

Favourite food: chicken pasta

Least favourite food: mashed potato

Appearance:

Clyde is neither tall nor short. They're neither thin nor fat. They have hair. Yes, they do. It is long, pink, and sage green. They also have eyes. They are dark pink in colour, like dark gemstones. They have dark skin and pearly white teeth. They also wear glasses.

Personality:

Clyde is an interesting fella. They manage to simultaneously be a shut-in and an extrovert. They're friendly and fairly kind, but they can be cryptic and apathetic at times. They're one of those people who are genuinely nice but have little to no morals. They show very little concern when violence or terrible incidents occur around them.

They're absent-minded and easily distracted. They are very inquisitive and will constantly asks question after question even if it is not wanted. They always look less pale (for their skintone) than before once they've needled stories out of various people.

They will occasionally get suspicious of someone for some random thing and investigate them by following them around. They like investigating in general. When they don't use they're UM they're either extremely horribly wrong or 100% right with no in-between.

They often spout what, to others, sounds like nonsense. They also like to narrate what they are doing sometimes and always walk around with a tape recorder.

They are kind of paranoid and have many conspiracy theories, but nobody can tell if it's satirical or not. ("We're nothing but the playthings of a higher being, going through the motions with nothing but idle movements and stories designed for us." "...Is that a no on the tea?")

When they have a bad day or in a bad mood, they can be found huddled somewhere or staring into the distance, muttering into their tape recorder. (If you really want an example: "The thing that is but is not, what is a face is not a face what is a face, what is a smile is hollow plastic, cotton hair and taxidermied skin.")

Some Fun Facts/Extra Info

•Clyde is twisted from both Jonothan Sims from The Magnus Archives and Cecil Palmer from Welcome to Night Vale. They are excellent podcasts, and I recommend them, especially TMA :)

•Has their own podcast, though nobody knows where their recording booth is or when they started the podcast

•They have a deep, velvety voice that can sound creepy at times

•They have a TERRIBLE fashion sense. Fuzzy pants with a waist coat and sandals, anyone? Occasionally, they manage to look like a librarian, but...

•They're basically living Azul's wet dream with all the blackmail they want at their fingertips but they do nothing with it, apart from the occasional podcast livestream where he starts narrating what a random student is doing and freaks the shit out of them

•They are not made for violence pls don't hurt them 🥺

•They can often be found lurking in the library, reorganising the books

•Some students think they should be at RSA, others think they would make those soft boys burst into tears

•They always stare at Grim when he's in their line of sight

•They never run out of stories to tell

•They almost never stop smiling

•They once made an announcement about the school's third overblot and recommended you stay cautious, as the organisation they cannot name will come collect those poor poor students. Nobody believed them.

Art by @/the-trinket-witch

...........................................

A/N: I hope you like the skrunkle! I hope they capture the essence of The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Night Vale well enough (especially WTNV)

Tagging: @distant-velleity @br3adtoasty @rainesol @theleechyskrunkly @jovieinramshackle

@galaxies-and-gore @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @officialdaydreamer00 @krenenbaker

@offorestsongs @kitwasnothere @elenauaurs @boopshoops @inotonline

@1dont-really-know @kazumify @minteasketches @elysia-nsimp @skrimpyskimpy

@casp1an-sea @offorestsongs @tixdixl @poisoned-pearls @the-trinket-witch

@ramshacklerumble @ghostiidasponk @thegoldencontracts @the-banana-0verlord @cloudcountry

@skriblee-ksk @quartztwst @twstinginthewind

@natsukishinomiyaswife @minutewondertwist

[harpie-raven]

I know it’s been talked about before, but I saw a list of pros and cons laid out by @spooksier (in drawing form, I like their stuff, check it out!) sooooo I must ask again…

Juno’s only advantage here is he is actually a lady that knows how to fight and a trained sharpshooter, otherwise (would the Martian blood do anything here? The other opponents aren’t from “around there” so probably not but maybe), but if he could act first — I don’t even know if Cecil CAN die??? And Jon can smite people — but that does take a sec and would the Ceaseless Watcher even be accessible there? I love you Jon but you’re not exactly a capable fighter without the Ceaseless Watcher. I don’t think Cecil draws power from Nightvale? Does he?? Cecil is a mystery. Would he be less or more dangerous if he did not know where Carlos was— and if it’s —

(I could ramble about this for hours—)

💥 FIGHT! 💥

[impulsivedecisionsat3am]

@cecil-less-watcher

I DID IT. FUCK. SORRY IT TOOK THIS LONG

low quality under the cut ofc

[fai2truther]

STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM

FAI2

This is how you should be streaming I just wanted to give you an example for the visual peeps

FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2

Snow globe instrumental

STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM

Gwen stafani (the song)

FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2 FAI2

Country parx

STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM STREAM

ANY SONG THAT THIS WHITE MAN WITH TWO FUCKING EYE COLORS WILL GIVE US FOR THE LOVE OF OTTO (awsten loves that man in a non platonic way and you know it)

WE HAVE TWO DAYS PLEASE PLEASE

Also shout out @cecil-less-watcher for being a comrade and spreading the word

[geoff-wigington-everyday]

Day Seventy-Nine

Submitted by @cecil-less-watcher

[wheretheforgottenthingslive]

The Watcher's Stir: The Child of Flame & Thorn

Whitehall Palace – Two Days Later

The Queen’s letter had not yet reached Yorkshire, but its implications reverberated through the palace walls like distant thunder beneath marble.

Robert Cecil understood that the Queen had taken action. The courier who carried the message was not one of her usual trusted runners, but rather a young falconer’s boy from Kent—quick, nameless, and chosen specifically to avoid suspicion. Cecil’s men had spent nearly twelve hours tracking him down, and another six hours intercepting him. However, upon opening the sealed parchment, they found not a declaration of state nor a missive to a noble, but a poem:

“Red as flame, gray as rain, Keep your eyes and break the chain.”

Cecil stared at it now under the flickering light of his chamber, his jaw clenched and mind racing. The Queen had always enjoyed riddles, but this was no mere courtly game. This was a code—a call.

She had summoned the girl.

Cecil’s spymaster, Wren, stood beside him, silent and pale.

“She’s bringing her to court,” Wren said quietly. “You were right.”

Cecil exhaled slowly through his nose, bitterly aware of the gravity of the situation.

“Then we have only weeks, perhaps less. The Queen cannot survive the winter—not truly. And if this girl arrives before her death…”

He let the sentence hang, the consequences clawing at his imagination.

A daughter of Elizabeth and Robert Dudley brought to court? It would fracture the realm. The Scottish alliance would burn, and Catholic powers would seize on the uncertainty. Factions would form overnight. The people, long devoted to their Queen, might embrace the red-haired girl as her heir, regardless of what Parliament or God decreed.

“Find her,” Cecil commanded. “Before the Queen does.”

“And if she resists?” Wren asked.

“Convince her.”

“And if she doesn’t believe—”

“Then show her the price of being a Tudor.”

Wren left in silence, and he would not return until the girl was found—or until the court was in turmoil.

Elsewhere, in a shadowed alcove of the French Ambassador’s residence, the envoy from Scotland waited, cloaked in fur and secrecy.

He went by Malcolm Gray, though it was not his true name, and carried a cipher from King James himself, hidden beneath the lining of his coat. His task had been straightforward—ensure the Queen named James as her heir and prevent any other claims from surfacing from the depths of history.

Yet now, he had heard the same rumors. He had bribed the same laundresses, watched the same couriers, and intercepted the same scraps of poetry. The word was always the same:

A girl.

A girl with Tudor fire and Dudley eyes.

If she existed, she was a threat. If she arrived in London, James’s claim to the throne would be contested—not through law, but through legend. And in England, legend was more dangerous than armies.

He poured a dram of French brandy, sipped it, and watched the frost gather outside the window.

He would send word north immediately. And then, if necessary, he would take action himself.

At court, the Queen maintained her mask of calm, yet beneath the surface, London was stirring.

Messengers galloped, spies whispered, and the chessboard shifted.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the north, a girl with fire in her hair and thunder in her eyes was unknowingly walking toward a destiny that no one could stop. Not now.

[ramblingkat]

Fic: Teaching a Lesson

Fandom: Bleach, Welcome to Night Vale

Characters/Pairings: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke, newbie Sheriff’s Secret Police

Prompt for 31 Days on Dreamwidth.  Jan 3-When there's no cops around, anything's legal.

Wordcount: 926

Summary:  Sometimes one must educate children by example. Like when to leave Kisuke and his alone.

Notes: Look at this. Three days done. Progress! 

***

Absently tapping his pen against the table, Kisuke let his mind drift along as ideas and possible variations on the latest mystery tumbled through his mind. There was so much that was odd about Night Vale and its sister city of Desert Bluffs that it was almost overwhelming. 

At least Ichigo seemed to have settled in. After watching him go into the library one day, a group of parents had hired him to bodyguard their kids for the reading program currently going on at the library. It had been hilarious to see Ichigo come back and mutter about librarians. 

Another mystery to explore later. 

Right now, he was testing just what bloodstones were. While he knew there was a gemstone called bloodstone, the makeup of the council approved bloodstones were very different.

He rather hoped the one Benihime had eaten didn’t upset her. Though he still wasn’t sure how she had done that. This place was puzzles within puzzles. An absolute delight. He really did need to make contact with the other scientists in the area so he could compare notes. Not Carlos, as he had already seen the results of getting too close to Cecil Palmer’s interest. But there were plenty of others on the team. 

They were just…skittish.

He supposed he could understand. This place was dangerous, even to something like himself and Ichigo. Though not so scary that they couldn’t adapt. Kisuke was proud of how easily he and Ichigo had settled into this place. It helped that Ichigo was one of the scariest things around.

“Those are illegal,” came a soft voice from a bush by the fence. Kisuke continued to tap his, technically, illegal pen against the table. How adorable! A brand new baby officer of the Sheriff’s Secret Police. She was so new he could practically smell green wood as she shifted in the bush. 

Or maybe he really was smelling it. Night Vale was that sort of place. Plus, she was in a bush. 

He tapped the pen again, and then glanced at the bush. “Where is your training officer?” he asked, curious why someone had left her alone like this. Or perhaps she was simply bait to see what his response would be. Cold, yes, but highly intelligent of the higher ups of the Sheriff’s Secret Police. Sacrifice the less important to see the results.

Watching her like a bored cat as the woman spluttered, he let his senses stretch out, feeling for that particularly shady feeling that was present in all of the Sheriff’s Secret Police. Even the baby officer in front of him had a twist of it in her reiryoku. 

“What?” The new officer seemed startled that Kisuke wasn’t attempting to hide his illegal pen, and was actually talking directly to her. 

Ah, there was the person watching.  With a smile that made the officer in the bush squeak and appear to flatter herself on the ground, Kisuke reached out and bound the woman who was watching the interaction between himself and the new officer. 

Then the watcher began to scream. 

Kido was such an interesting thing. Though he would have thought that they had better mental defenses to keep such nightmares at bay. Seriously, in this place, one should have better mental shields. He knew they taught that at school. Ichigo had been reading off a syllabus that he had gotten from one of the students in the reading program. 

The new officer turned her head to look at the screaming, even as the people passing by on the street carefully didn’t look. But when it involved the Sheriff’s Secret Police, it was better to stick with ignorance over curiosity. 

“I would suggest you go talk to your training officer about how the people who live in this house are invisible to you and yours,” Kisuke said cheerfully, his eyes looking onto the new officer’s own. She was pale from fear, which Kisuke knew was completely his fault. He was okay with that. 

Sometimes one must be the bigger monster. 

“And since we are invisible, nothing we do is illegal, because you can’t see it,” he said cheerfully. “Now, I suggest you go collect your fellow officer and I’ll pretend I didn’t see you here and do to you what I did to her. Okay?”

His voice was soft, as if he was talking to Ururu. Such a baby authority figure. It seemed too cruel for even him to give her a week of screaming nightmares and hallucinations. 

The new woman skittered off, stopping to collect the woman who was no longer screaming.

Glancing down, Kisuke was pleased to see a cup of tea sitting by the papers he had been working on. Oh, how kind. 

“Thank you,” he said to the Faceless Old Woman who only somewhat lived secretly in their home. She and Ichigo had a great time gossiping about the strangeness of Night Vale, even if Ichigo refused to call it gossip. Kisuke didn’t mind. It let him hear a lot about the place from a different point of view. 

The Faceless Old Woman must have some opinions about the Sheriff’s Secret Police. He would have to ask Ichigo to find out. She apparently claimed Kisuke was too much of a mad scientist for her to like talking to him directly. Though she did make her approval and disapproval very clear.

Given the tea wasn’t tampered with and nothing in the house was on fire, Kisuke took it as a sign of approval. 

What an excellent start to the day.

[fuckyeahtx]

Letters From An American

Today in Fuck Abbott and the GQP Harder Than Ever Before Welcome to Fucking Gilead Edition

September 1, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Last night at midnight, a new law went into effect in Texas. House Bill 1927 permits people to carry handguns without a permit, unless they have been convicted of a felony or domestic violence. This measure was not popular in the state. Fifty-nine percent of Texans—including law enforcement officers—opposed it. But 56% of Republicans supported it. “I don’t know what it’s a solution to,” James McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Police Chiefs Association, said to Heidi Pérez-Moreno of the Texas Tribune when Republican governor Greg Abbott signed the bill in mid-August. “I don’t know what the problem was to start with.”

Texas Gun Rights executive director Chris McNutt had a different view. He said in a statement: “Texas is finally a pro-gun state despite years of foot-dragging, roadblocks, and excuses from the spineless political class.”

The bill had failed in 2019 after McNutt showed up at the home of the Texas House Speaker, Republican Dennis Bonnen, to demand its passage. Bonnen said McNutt’s “overzealous” visit exhibited “insanity.” "Threats and intimidation will never advance your issue. Their issue is dead," he told McNutt. McNutt told the Dallas Morning News: "If politicians like Speaker Dennis Bonnen think they can show up at the doorsteps of Second Amendment supporters and make promises to earn votes in the election season, they shouldn't be surprised when we show up in their neighborhoods to insist they simply keep their promises in the legislative session.”

That was not the only bill that went into effect at midnight last night in Texas. In May, Governor Abbott signed the strongest anti-abortion law in the country, Senate Bill 8, which went into effect on September 1. It bans abortion after 6 weeks—when many women don’t even know they’re pregnant—thus automatically stopping about 85% of abortions in Texas. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. Opponents of the bill had asked the Supreme Court to stop the law from taking effect. It declined to do so.

The law avoided the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision protecting the right to abortion before fetal viability at about 22 to 24 weeks by leaving the enforcement of the law not up to the state, but rather up to private citizens. This was deliberate. As Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explained in an article in Slate: “Typically, when a state restricts abortion, providers file a lawsuit in federal court against the state officials responsible for enforcing the new law. Here, however, there are no such officials: The law is enforced by individual anti-abortion activists.” With this law, there’s no one to stop from enforcing it.

S.B. 8 puts ordinary people in charge of law enforcement. Anyone—at all—can sue any individual who “aids or abets,” or even intends to abet, an abortion in Texas after six weeks. Women seeking abortion themselves are exempt, but anyone who advises them (including a spouse), gives them a ride, provides counseling, staffs a clinic, and so on, can be sued by any random stranger. If the plaintiff wins, they pocket $10,000 plus court costs, and the clinic that provided the procedure is closed down. If the defendant doesn’t defend themselves, the court must find them guilty. And if the defendant wins, they get…nothing. Not even attorney’s fees.

So, nuisance lawsuits will ruin abortion providers, along with anyone accused of aiding and abetting—or intending to abet—an abortion. And the enforcers will be ordinary citizens.

Texas has also just passed new voting restrictions that allow partisan poll watchers to have “free movement” in polling places, enabling them to intimidate voters. Texas governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign that bill in the next few days.

Taken together with the vigilantism running wild in school board meetings and attacks on election officials, the Texas legislation is a top red flag in the red flag factory. The Republican Party is empowering vigilantes to enforce their beliefs against their neighbors.

The law, which should keep us all on a level playing field, has been abandoned by our Supreme Court. Last night, it refused to stop the new Texas abortion law from going into effect, and tonight, just before midnight, by a 5–4 vote, it issued an opinion refusing to block the law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent read: “The court’s order is stunning. Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.”

Texas’s law flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents, she points out, but the Supreme Court has looked the other way. ”The State’s gambit worked,” Sotomayor wrote. She continued: “This is untenable. It cannot be the case that a state can evade federal judicial scrutiny by outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry."

The Supreme Court has essentially blessed the efforts of Texas legislators to prevent the enforcement of federal law by using citizen vigilantes to get their way. The court decided the case on its increasingly active “shadow docket,” a series of cases decided without full briefings or oral argument, often in the dead of night, without signed opinions. In the past, such emergency decisions were rare and used to issue uncontroversial decisions or address irreparable immediate harm (like the death penalty). Since the beginning of the Trump administration, they have come to make up the majority of the court’s business.

Since 2017, the court has used the shadow docket to advance right-wing goals. It has handed down brief, unsigned decisions after a party asks for emergency relief from a lower court order, siding first with Trump, and now with state Republicans, at a high rate. As University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck noted: “In less than three years, [Trump’s] Solicitor General has filed at least twenty-one applications for stays in the Supreme Court (including ten during the October 2018 Term alone).” In comparison, “during the sixteen years of the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations, the Solicitor General filed a total of eight such applications—averaging one every other Term.”

So, operating without open arguments or opinions, the Supreme Court has shown that it will not enforce federal law, leaving state legislatures to do as they will. This, after all, was the whole point of the “originalism” that Republicans embraced under President Ronald Reagan. Originalists wanted to erase the legal justification of the post–World War II years that used the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to apply the protections of the Bill of Rights to the states. It was that concept that protected civil rights for people of color and for women, by using the federal government to prohibit states from enforcing discriminatory laws.

Since the 1980s, Republicans have sought to hamstring federal power and return power to the states, which have neither the power nor the inclination to regulate businesses effectively, and which can discriminate against minorities and get away with it, so long as the federal government doesn’t enforce equal protection.

Today’s events make that a reality.

Worse, though, the mechanisms of the Texas law officially turn a discriminatory law over to state-level vigilantes to enforce. The wedge to establish this mechanism is abortion, but the door is now open for extremist state legislatures to turn to private citizens to enforce any law that takes away an individual’s legal right…like, say, the right to vote. And in Texas, now, a vigilante doesn't even have to have a permit to carry the gun that will back up his threats.

During Reconstruction, vigilantes also carried guns. They enforced state customs that reestablished white supremacy after the federal government had tried to defend equality before the law. It took only a decade for former Confederates who had tried to destroy the government to strip voting rights, and civil rights, from the southern Black men who had defended the United States government during the Civil War. For the next eighty years, the South was a one-party state where enforcement of the laws depended on your skin color, your gender, and whom you knew.

Opponents have compared those who backed the Texas anti-abortion law to the Taliban, the Islamic extremists in Afghanistan whose harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law strips women of virtually all rights. But the impulse behind the Texas law, the drive to replace the federal protection of civil rights with state vigilantes enforcing their will, is homegrown. It is a reflection of the position that Republicans would like women to have in our society, for sure, but it is also written in the laughing faces of Mississippi law enforcement officers Lawrence Rainey and Cecil Ray Price in 1967, certain even as they were arraigned for the 1964 murders of James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Henry Schwerner, that the system was so rigged in their favor that they would literally get away with murder.

When they were killed, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were trying to register Black people to vote.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 1, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Last night at midnight, a new law went into effect in Texas. House Bill 1927 permits people to carry handguns without a permit, unless they have been convicted of a felony or domestic violence. This measure was not popular in the state. Fifty-nine percent of Texans—including law enforcement officers—opposed it. But 56% of Republicans supported it. “I don’t know what it’s a solution to,” James McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Police Chiefs Association, said to Heidi Pérez-Moreno of the Texas Tribune when Republican governor Greg Abbott signed the bill in mid-August. “I don’t know what the problem was to start with.”

Texas Gun Rights executive director Chris McNutt had a different view. He said in a statement: “Texas is finally a pro-gun state despite years of foot-dragging, roadblocks, and excuses from the spineless political class.”

The bill had failed in 2019 after McNutt showed up at the home of the Texas House Speaker, Republican Dennis Bonnen, to demand its passage. Bonnen said McNutt’s “overzealous” visit exhibited “insanity.” "Threats and intimidation will never advance your issue. Their issue is dead," he told McNutt. McNutt told the Dallas Morning News: "If politicians like Speaker Dennis Bonnen think they can show up at the doorsteps of Second Amendment supporters and make promises to earn votes in the election season, they shouldn't be surprised when we show up in their neighborhoods to insist they simply keep their promises in the legislative session.”

That was not the only bill that went into effect at midnight last night in Texas. In May, Governor Abbott signed the strongest anti-abortion law in the country, Senate Bill 8, which went into effect on September 1. It bans abortion after 6 weeks—when many women don’t even know they’re pregnant—thus automatically stopping about 85% of abortions in Texas. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. Opponents of the bill had asked the Supreme Court to stop the law from taking effect. It declined to do so.

The law avoided the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision protecting the right to abortion before fetal viability at about 22 to 24 weeks by leaving the enforcement of the law not up to the state, but rather up to private citizens. This was deliberate. As Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explained in an article in Slate: “Typically, when a state restricts abortion, providers file a lawsuit in federal court against the state officials responsible for enforcing the new law. Here, however, there are no such officials: The law is enforced by individual anti-abortion activists.” With this law, there’s no one to stop from enforcing it.  

S.B. 8 puts ordinary people in charge of law enforcement. Anyone—at all—can sue any individual who “aids or abets,” or even intends to abet, an abortion in Texas after six weeks. Women seeking abortion themselves are exempt, but anyone who advises them (including a spouse), gives them a ride, provides counseling, staffs a clinic, and so on, can be sued by any random stranger. If the plaintiff wins, they pocket $10,000 plus court costs, and the clinic that provided the procedure is closed down. If the defendant doesn’t defend themselves, the court must find them guilty. And if the defendant wins, they get…nothing. Not even attorney’s fees.

So, nuisance lawsuits will ruin abortion providers, along with anyone accused of aiding and abetting—or intending to abet—an abortion. And the enforcers will be ordinary citizens.

Texas has also just passed new voting restrictions that allow partisan poll watchers to have “free movement” in polling places, enabling them to intimidate voters. Texas governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign that bill in the next few days.

Taken together with the vigilantism running wild in school board meetings and attacks on election officials, the Texas legislation is a top red flag in the red flag factory. The Republican Party is empowering vigilantes to enforce their beliefs against their neighbors.

The law, which should keep us all on a level playing field, has been abandoned by our Supreme Court. Last night, it refused to stop the new Texas abortion law from going into effect, and tonight, just before midnight, by a 5–4 vote, it issued an opinion refusing to block the law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent read: “The court’s order is stunning. Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.”

Texas’s law flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents, she points out, but the Supreme Court has looked the other way. ”The State’s gambit worked,” Sotomayor wrote. She continued:  “This is untenable. It cannot be the case that a state can evade federal judicial scrutiny by outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry."

The Supreme Court has essentially blessed the efforts of Texas legislators to prevent the enforcement of federal law by using citizen vigilantes to get their way. The court decided the case on its increasingly active “shadow docket,” a series of cases decided without full briefings or oral argument, often in the dead of night, without signed opinions. In the past, such emergency decisions were rare and used to issue uncontroversial decisions or address irreparable immediate harm (like the death penalty). Since the beginning of the Trump administration, they have come to make up the majority of the court’s business.

Since 2017, the court has used the shadow docket to advance right-wing goals. It has handed down brief, unsigned decisions after a party asks for emergency relief from a lower court order, siding first with Trump, and now with state Republicans, at a high rate. As University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck noted: “In less than three years, [Trump’s] Solicitor General has filed at least twenty-one applications for stays in the Supreme Court (including ten during the October 2018 Term alone).” In comparison, “during the sixteen years of the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations, the Solicitor General filed a total of eight such applications—averaging one every other Term.”

So, operating without open arguments or opinions, the Supreme Court has shown that it will not enforce federal law, leaving state legislatures to do as they will. This, after all, was the whole point of the “originalism” that Republicans embraced under President Ronald Reagan. Originalists wanted to erase the legal justification of the post–World War II years that used the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to apply the protections of the Bill of Rights to the states. It was that concept that protected civil rights for people of color and for women, by using the federal government to prohibit states from enforcing discriminatory laws.

Since the 1980s, Republicans have sought to hamstring federal power and return power to the states, which have neither the power nor the inclination to regulate businesses effectively, and which can discriminate against minorities and get away with it, so long as the federal government doesn’t enforce equal protection.

Today’s events make that a reality.

Worse, though, the mechanisms of the Texas law officially turn a discriminatory law over to state-level vigilantes to enforce. The wedge to establish this mechanism is abortion, but the door is now open for extremist state legislatures to turn to private citizens to enforce any law that takes away an individual’s legal right…like, say, the right to vote. And in Texas, now, a vigilante doesn't even have to have a permit to carry the gun that will back up his threats.

During Reconstruction, vigilantes also carried guns. They enforced state customs that reestablished white supremacy after the federal government had tried to defend equality before the law. It took only a decade for former Confederates who had tried to destroy the government to strip voting rights, and civil rights, from the southern Black men who had defended the United States government during the Civil War. For the next eighty years, the South was a one-party state where enforcement of the laws depended on your skin color, your gender, and whom you knew.

Opponents have compared those who backed the Texas anti-abortion law to the Taliban, the Islamic extremists in Afghanistan whose harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law strips women of virtually all rights. But the impulse behind the Texas law, the drive to replace the federal protection of civil rights with state vigilantes enforcing their will, is homegrown. It is a reflection of the position that Republicans would like women to have in our society, for sure, but it is also written in the laughing faces of Mississippi law enforcement officers Lawrence Rainey and Cecil Ray Price in 1967, certain even as they were arraigned for the 1964 murders of James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Henry Schwerner, that the system was so rigged in their favor that they would literally get away with murder.

When they were killed, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were trying to register Black people to vote.

—-

Notes:

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/437665-texas-gop-leaders-drop-constitutional-carry-bill-after-gun-rights

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/16/texas-permitless-carry-gun-law/

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1033068542/texas-voting-restrictions-bill-abbott-republicans

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/texas-abortion-supreme-court-roe-wade.html

Mark Joseph Stern @mjs_DCBREAKING: By a 5–4 vote, with Roberts joining the liberals, the Supreme Court REFUSES to block Texas' six-week abortion ban. Opinions here:

s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentclo…

3,936 Retweets5,180 Likes

September 2nd 2021

https://www.vox.com/2020/8/1/21350679/supreme-court-border-wall-trump-sierra-club-stay-stephen-breyer

https://www.vox.com/2020/8/11/21356913/supreme-court-shadow-docket-jail-asylum-covid-immigrants-sonia-sotomayor-barnes-ahlman

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[fridays--child]

Chapter 1 - But the darkness holds it all in: figures and flame, beasts and me.

Read on AO3 or Wattpad

After the hubris that followed the Industrial Revolution, scholars and civilians are terrified when a new plague epidemic steadily begins killing off not only their way of life, but their population. When Hedy Leander, a foreign volunteer medic gets posted at Morrigan’s Ranch, a rural farming-turned-resort town that’s one of the few unaffected, she’s expecting a reprieve from the death and disease that clings to the bigger cities. But as things become bleaker, the small community will have to learn what desperation to survive can do to not only to their idyllic existence, but to those they thought to rely on.

“No man is an island, entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…”

Hedy had never been a God-fearing woman. Even in her twelve years of Catholic school, her family had been too involved in science and rationality to believe in an eternal and all-knowing watcher, and church visits were mandated to weddings and funerals. But if there was a big guy up there, presiding over her every movement, after the past few days she highly doubted he’d mind too much if she let herself doze for a few moments.

Her Pa had died. After nearly seventy years in the service of medicine, he finally, quietly, gave in to the very disease he tried to cure. The same infection that was sweeping the country like the locust in Exodus. Or so he likened it to. She had cried all she needed to over her reluctant hero, the man who rarely showed paternal love, but showered her in accolades when she, in some form, began to follow in his career path. And though she felt an ache in her chest, in the dimly lit cathedral, with the air thick and sweet with smoke, it could be so easy to put a hand over her eyes and rest quietly. She had been awake for over twenty-four hours.

“Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee."

"Now, please rise for the final hymn.”

“Yes, he was too involved in mankind, the foolish old man,” Gran muttered filthily, as Hedy gently grabbed her elbow and helped the older woman stand. The tip of her ugly feathered hat hit Hedy’s face and obscured anyone behind her’s view. Hedy hoped the small lace veil she wore hid her blush. “He thought he could play God.”

“I think he just wanted to help.” Hedy responded, nodding politely when some of the other mourners turned around in response to the outburst. True or not, it was too soon to speak ill of the dead. “It was his life’s work, he couldn’t just sit by while this happened.”

“Yes he could of,” she retorted, grabbing her small handbag and rifling through it. The pall-bearers were gathering around to carry the empty casket to the cemetery. “He was too proud of his own intelligence, and too damn stupid to realise he couldn’t outsmart it.”

Hedy nodded, too worn to argue back. Though her Pa had only married her Gran in during her childhood, Hedy had learned early on there was no point taking Elenora Leander on. Her previous two husbands had testified to that.

“It was nice that they chose to honour him here, in the city.” Hedy changed tactics, walking along the green lawn of the adjoining cemetery to where his headstone now stood. Four feet high, the stone featured a winged man holding off a skeletal harbinger. A testimonial to the very arrogance Gran was bitter about.

“Though I guess it was nice that they had a ceremony at all.” Gran sniffed.

It was true, however unfortunate it seemed. The death that was occurring on mass across the company meant that funerals had lost any sense of rarity , any sense of closure. Everyone was mourning. There were no bodies to bury, the government decreed that any person who died from this plague, as well as their clothes and anything they came into contact with during their incubation, was to be burnt and then buried. Pa’s body would have been burnt a week ago, and buried in the mass grave they all pretended was not only a few miles out of the city’s gates. This funeral, with the casket and headstone, was a laughable luxury.

“I suppose this put you out of a job.” Gran retorted, pulling a small vial from her purse. Delicately, she let four drops fall onto her tongue, grimacing slightly as she swallowed. Hedy rounded on her, taking the small vial from her grasp.

“I was out a year before this happened,” she replied, taking a sniff of the concoction. She did not recognise the label on the bottle. “And what is this, Gran?”

“One of your Pa’s students gave this to me, said it would help my nerves today.”

Hedy popped a drop on the back of her hand, looking around to make sure no other funeral attendees were watching. Most had already begun to leave. There was to be no wake, no viewing, and no body to bury. She tentatively licked it off her gloves.

“Gran, this is nothing more than brandy with some lavender in it!” Hedy exclaimed, before licking her hand again. “And maybe some form of opiate.”

“Oh good,” Gran took the bottle back, taking a few more drops for good measure. She placed the small vial daintily back into her handbag and closed the clasp with a sharp snap. “I couldn’t very well bring out a flask, could I? The only thing worse than a drunk widow is a hysterical one.”

~

Goodbyes at the train station were a short affair. Despite having lived at Morrigan Ranch for the past twenty years, Gran had decided to live in the city, citing she was old and had nothing left at that ‘run down hick town.’ When Hedy had mentioned was worried about her on her own, she snorted. “Sweetheart, worrying is just something we do to feel busy.”

The train ride itself was uneventful. Morrigan’s Ranch was located three hours out from the city, far enough away to feel rural, but close enough for a weekend trip. Originally a small farming town, its rugged, wild beauty, and relative proximity to both the city, and a quaint coastline hotspot, had made it somewhat of a resort town in recent years. The rich and bored came there to experience living off the land, spending a weekend or two with their hands in the soil before they gleefully returned to their life of privilege. Why a woman like Elenora chose to live there in retirement, Hedy would never understand. But she had enjoyed her childhood trips when she was in the country there, where the livestock and people did not mind an overly curious child with the heavy accent bothering them. She hadn’t been there since she was freshly eighteen, and, despite being posted there for work, was looking forward to staying at a place that was, if fadingly, familiar.

The seven-mile trek between the station and Morrigan’s Ranch via carriage was, unfortunately, less pleasant. The weight of nearly forty hours awake was beginning to toll on Hedy, her head throbbing over every bump and ditch. Despite all her recent practice, she had never been a great traveller. The uneven swaying was threatening her to be ill all over her Sunday best and stupid, too small shoes. Cecil, Morrigan’s own preacher and the organiser of her volunteer unit, had apologized profusely. Cars were already a rarity, and, in this time too expensive for the average person to run. Morrigan’s Ranch only had one vehicle in working order, and it was currently in use. Hedy had waved his apology away, but now, groaning and resting her sick head between her legs, she could really curse whoever was selfish enough to take it away from her.

Sitting across from her, Declan blanched slightly at her green complexion. “If you throw up on me, princess, I will throw you from this carriage.” He had a shotgun casually strapped across his back, and unfortunate part of being an escort on the roads in recent months. Firearms had stopped alarming her a long time ago.

Hedy threw him up a hand gesture, swallowing hard at the saliva pooling in her mouth. “As if I haven’t cleaned you up more times than I can count.” When he chuckled, she continued. “Just please tell me we’re fucking close already.”

“We should be.”

In the encroaching darkness, the surrounding forest and shrubbery around Morrigan’s Ranch seemed more overgrown than it was seven years ago. Everything rustled and echoed through the branches, accentuated by the poor horse who was carrying their load’s heavy stomps as they approached the lights glowing in the distance. She could hear voices in the distance, brutal yet cautious, asking questions about their approaching carriage. If she hadn’t gotten used to feeling afraid, she would have been nervous right now. She saw Declan’s hand twitch towards his gun.

“Pull over.”

Their group was met with a small convoy of armed men and woman, their expressions in the dim light dark and questioning. The carriage driver agreed, and Hedy quickly slid out, glad to feel solid ground beneath her swollen feet. However, her relief was short lived, as one gripped her forearm, roughly taking her Pa’s medicine bag, one of her few prized possession, from her grasp. She could hear Declan arguing with another as they began to surround the carriage and began rummaging through the possessions of the other carriage riders. When no one responded, the same voice spoke again.

“Who are you?” She could hear another gun slowly being loaded and cocked.

“My name is Hedy Leander,” Hedy spat, trying to retrieve her medicine bag from out of her aggressor’s reach. She still hadn’t let go of her forearm. “Anton and Elenora’s granddaughter.”

No reply.

“I’m part of the medical team stationed here. If you give me my bag back, I can show you my pass and papers.”

The woman holding her arm looked up to the first voice.

“Samson?”

“Show me.”

Indignantly, Hedy snatched her bag back and quickly retrieved her papers. Beckoning for one of the men holding a lantern to come over, she at last could see where the demanding voice came from. His face was mostly obscured by long dark hair and a beard, with only the tips of his cheekbones and eyes visible in this light. Though she couldn’t see much more of him, or anyone surrounding him, she noticed he might be one of the few men that had been taller than her. He looked at her pass for a long moment, before handing it back. His voice was softer, but no less authoritative, than before.

“Where’s Cecil?”

“Dealing with border control. Trying to get our luggage through quarantine faster.” She shrugged. “I’m only allowed this bag because it’s got medical supplies.”

One of the other party members, a man who was wearing a wide-brimmed hat despite the night sky, stared inquisitively at the man named Samson. He nodded slightly.

“Okay, let’s get you in.”

Tensions slightly decreased, Declan and Hedy walked the remainder of the short trek by foot, with Hedy downright refusing to get on the now-spooked horse’s carriage again. The one with the hat spoke again.

“Sorry about the, uh, showdown there. We’ve had some issues with poachers recently.”

“I understand. I get why you have muscle here.” She motioned to Samson. Hat man chuckled.

“Hedy!”

As they approached the town hall, the only building illuminated by candles despite it being evening, a shrill yet excited voice called out. Hedy found herself in the arms of Moira, who had run to the convoy and promptly enveloped her with a kiss on the forehead. Though she had not known her long, Cecil’s young wife had always been kind, if slightly over-affectionate, to Hedy and the rest of her team.

“Are you alright, darling?” She held Hedy’s face in her hands.

“Yes, thank you Moira. Cecil did a lovely job today.”

“That’s sweet.” She linked arms with Hedy and bought her forward, into the building. “I apologize for the lack of a welcoming party. It must have been hard to find us here in the dark.”

“Do you have electricity here? I thought Gran said it was recently installed.”

Moira nodded. “We do, only in the town hall and a few of the homes who could afford it. It’s hit the skitz, but we only turn the generators on from 6-10pm each night, and then it’s all candlelight.”

Hedy nodded along, tuning out as Moira quickly explained how the village ran. It had been a damn long time since she had been here.

~

Ave moved as silently as she could, trying to use the wind and night sky to her advantage. Creeping towards the old shed next to the generator, she thought it was ironic that, until only a year or two ago, she was terrified of these forests and what lay in them. She had been raised around a campfire full of tales of wraits and folk in animal skins, who would trick and spirit away those who disturbed their peace. But there was nothing here to be scared of, she knew. The only scary thing out here were the men who tried to steal from them.

Finally reaching the shed, she quickly took a peek at the generator, before removing the loose glass in one of the windows and wriggling her way in. Ave had heard that poachers had been seen in the area scouting for food, and when their trusty generator had broken down a few days later, she could only assume they were the culprits. She had spent too much fucking time, covered in muck, growing those vegetables for them to be stolen by lazier men.

Ave didn’t have to wait long for her suspicions to be confirmed. Raising herself slightly, she peered through the shed window at the two men approaching. She couldn’t recognise either of them, and as they reached the generator, she knew they weren’t a welcome member of their little community.

“The idiots haven’t fixed this yet, think we’re still good?”

“Yeah, should be. You start here, I’ll check one of the other sheds. See where they stock their produce before we go for the livestock.”

Fingers nimble despite her building rage, Ave quickly tested the sharpness of her arrow before loading it into her bow. The poacher had disappeared, and she flattened herself against the wall, pressing her ear to the thin shield between them. She could hear him circle the shed, and as he rattled the knob of the long-broken door, she cocked her bow. Despite herself, she jumped and swore when a fist smashed through the window she had entered through and knocking over a ladder.

The poacher, hearing her, paused for a moment at her outburst. Ave bit her lip, praying that if she stopped breathing it would still her furiously beating heart. She was certain he could hear the violent rattle of it through the heavy silence. Curiously, he raised a lantern to the glassless window.

“What do we have here?”

She lined up a shot, hitting his shoulder.

“You fuck!” His hands reached for his holster at his hips, but she was much faster. Aiming blindly, she closed her eyes and hoped for impact.

Luck was on her side that day. Foolishly, she dared not open her eyes, but strained her ears as she heard him stumble, before a heavy weight hit the ground. Ave counted to sixty three times in silence, before tempting to move again.

She wasn’t sure how long he’d be incapacitated, and at this point, she did not want to find out. Moving as stealthily as she could, she eased herself through the now shattered window and pawed her way to his body. The lantern lay discarded, but it’s light spilled over the man’s spreadeagled body. Tentatively, she placed two fingers on the pulse point of his wrist, relieved yet sickly annoyed at the slow, steady thump that showed life. Moving quickly, she liberated him of his pistol, throwing her bow and arrows back through the window of the shed.  

Pulling the safety off with shaky fingers, Ave pointed the gun to the sky and pulled the trigger. Twice. Then she ran like all hell.

- - - - -

Notes:

Hi! Okay, so posting this is terrifying, but here it is in all it's rough, dirty, and unedited glory. I've had this story floating around my brain for about four years, and chronic illness has finally given me time to write it. I haven't written for fun in about 84 years, so hopefully it isn't fucking terrible. There's about 15 chapters planned so far, so there should be an update once a week.

- - - - - 

Credits: The title comes from 'Rilke’s Book Of Hours: Love Poems To God: The Book of the Monkish Life p. April 1905,' by Rainer Maria Rilke. The reading during the funeral is Meditation XVII Devotions upon Emergent Occasions,' by John Donne.

[elizadoolittlethings]

"The Man in Black s1-3"

THE MAN IN BLACK – YOUR APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR FEBRUARY 5, 2017 GREYDOGTALES 1 COMMENT

Have you met the Man in Black? Has he whispered to you on the airwaves? Your radio is dead, and yet his voice is still there inside you, entreating you to join him… Yes, our Voice of Horror series is back, with a hero of the genre!

Long before Johnny Cash, the Tommy Lee Jones films or even Westworld, there was a single man who embodied the concept of the forbidding stranger, the archivist of the dark – the Man in Black. Can you recall his name, or remember his sepulchral tones? No? Then we shall help. Treats are in store, including some links to where you can listen to, or watch, him in action.

Along the way we bump into Shirley Jackson, Hammer Horror, GK Chesterton, Edgar Allan Poe, Dr Who, Sid James of Carry On fame and S T Joshi, amongst others. Is that enough names yet? For today’s article we must take you back to the days when you made radio shows by rubbing two sticks together, so a few reminders may be in order.

Dyall M for Murder

Valentine Dyall (1908-1985) was the true Man in Black, and it came about because of the BBC. In the 1940s and 50s, they aired a wonderful radio series called Appointment with Fear. This was a series of dramatised horror stories which both drew on the classics and also invited new stories from contemporary writers. Each started with an introduction from the narrator, the Man in Black, either teasing the listener about the nature of the tale to come, or warning them of the terror that awaited them.

Each show was about half an hour long. When Dyall started speaking, you knew you were in the right place. His voice was dark and distinctive (some called him the British Vincent Price), and he had a resonance which just oozed menace. Occasionally the actual story was less interesting than his narration. Between 1943 and 1955 he introduced nine series of terrifying tales, with one more series being narrated by his father, Franklin Dyall. He also narrated a single series of the Man in Black in 1949.

Before we say more about Appointment with Fear, we should mention Dyall’s wider horror credentials. He had a number of parts in film and TV over the years, in addition to his radio work, and his career was packed with the sort of media trivia that we so love.

For our younger listeners, Dyall played the Black Guardian in Dr Who between 1979 and 1983.

“The Black Guardian is an anthropomorphic personification of the forces of entropy and chaos, the counterpart of the White Guardian, a personification of order. The two Guardians balance out the forces in the universe, although the Black Guardian seems to desire to upset the balance in favour of chaos and evil while the White Guardian prefers to maintain the status quo.” (Wiki)

He took the lead role in individual episodes and in three linked serials, which some call the Black Guardian trilogy, playing opposite Peter Davison as the Doctor.

Well Hammered

We mentioned Dyall’s memorable voice, and in Hammer Horror’s film Lust for a Vampire (1971), the character Count Karnstein, played by Mike Raven, was dubbed by Valentine Dyall. He also appeared as the caretaker Mr Dudley in the outstanding 1963 film version of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. Sometimes just known as The Haunting, this is by far the best adaptation, and still sends shivers up the spine.

Going further back, he played a key part, Jethro Keane, in the wonderful City of the Dead (1960). The film was known as Horror Hotel in the States, and is the tale of a young student who seeks information on witchcraft for her college studies. What could possibly go wrong when she travels alone to a mist-shrouded New England village to ask if there are any witches about? Especially when your professor is an intense Christopher Lee, and the man who gets into your car is Valentine Dyall? The usual hilarity ensues…

Two film oddities in Dyall’s career remain worth noting. The first is the attempt to transfer the Man in Black idea to film, again by Hammer. The Man in Black (1949) was a British thriller film which starred Sid James. Adapted from Appointment with Fear, Dyall provided the introduction to the film, as “The Story-Teller”. Sid James, who rose to fame in the British Carry On films, plays a straight role for once, with none of his yuck-yuck dirty laughter. It received mixed reviews, but is worth a look.

His other role, which links to our interest in detectives and will lead us back to the radio, was as Dr Morelle in Dr Morelle: The case of the Missing Heiress. This was another Hammer Film, and was based on the popular long running BBC radio series written by Ernest Dudley.

Ernest Dudley (1908-2006) wrote many tales of Morelle, a psychiatrist with an interest in criminology. In the radio series, the part of Dr Morelle was taken by the silky-voiced Cecil Parker, a stalwart of British period films. It’s well worth seeking out the old-time radio recordings of A Case for Dr Morelle, as the sleuthing doctor is incredibly annoying and condescending to his secretary, Miss Frayne. They’re greatly enjoyable in a sort of ��God, I want to slap this man’ sort of way (and for some unlikely, if not implausible, deductions).

Appointment with Fear

So we’re glued to our radios again, and Appointment with Fear. See, we know where we are – sort of. John Dickson Carr, the prolific mystery writer, was responsible for a number of the original stories and for many of the adaptations of classic tales. Given the number of series, we won’t list them all, but here are some of the adaptations which Dyall introduced:

The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado – Edgar Allan Poe

A Watcher by the Dead – Ambrose Bierce

The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot – Ambrose Bierce

The Monkey’s Paw – W W Jacobs

Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad – M R James

The Beast with Five Fingers – W F Harvey

Markheim – Robert Louis Stevenson

The Hands of Nekamen – Kathleen Hyatt

The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Parkins Gilman

Mrs Amworth – E F Benson

John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) was an American, and yet his detective and mystery stories were predominantly English tales, perhaps due to his English wife and the time he spent there in the thirties and forties.

He was the creator of Dr Gideon Fell, a larger-than life investigator modelled on the author G K Chesterton. Fell is a great figure, an eccentric, corpulent cape-flapping fellow – an amateur sleuth who sees through the mistakes of the authorities. He too was made into a radio series, this time played by another classic British actor, Donald Sinden.

Carr and Dr Fell probably deserve their own article on greydogtales, so we’ll keep this short. There were 23 Dr Fell novels, and Carr wrote many other detective mysteries besides. He also wrote an authorised biography of Arthur Conan Doyle (1949), and with Doyle’s youngest son, Adrian, wrote Sherlock Holmes stories for the collection The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes (1954). Whilst musing on this, we were surprised to find that S T Joshi, a major figure in weird fiction criticism and a Lovecraftian scholar, produced a book-length critical study of Carr, John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study (1990).

Most of the recordings of Appointment with Fear have been lost, but one of the few surviving episodes is an original Carr tale, The Clock Strikes Eight, originally aired 05/18/1944.

Another example is And the Deep Shuddered, written by Monckton Hoffe, an Irish screenwriter, and aired 20/11/45, which can also be found on Youtube.

The Rest of the Man in Black

After Dyall, others took on the voice of the Man in Black. Revived as Fear on Four, the concept ran for five series on BBC Radio 4 (1988-1992), with Edward DeSouza in the key role. A fifth series was broadcast in 1997, but with no Man in Black.

The most recent revival was with Mark Gatiss reprising the role. There were four radio series featuring Gatiss between 2009 and 2011. Whilst not as sepulchral as Dyall, it’s fair to say that Gatiss does have the ability to make ordinary things sound quite unnerving, so he wasn’t a bad choice. We covered Gatiss’ recent audio version of Dracula here last year:

Come Freely, Go Safely: Dracula Returns, Scott Handcock Rules!

Although we must have missed it, apparently The Return of the Man In Black was broadcast by Radio 4 as two Archive Hour specials in October 1998. The documentaries were presented by the acclaimed horror writer Ramsey Campbell, and covered the history of fear and suspense on BBC radio. During the programmes, two complete episodes were presented: The Pit and the Pendulum (from Appointment With Fear) and The Beast With Five Fingers (from Fear On 4).

Buried under names and trivia, we leave you with Valentine Dyall, and his reading of The Pit and the Pendulum.

Sleep well…

wish i could listen

[haidas-anxiety]

The History of Movie Trailers - The Art Form of Coming Attractions

With the occasion film season practically around the bend, the TV screen is stacked with ritzy clasps that assist you with choosing your Friday night date designs in 60 seconds or less. The correct trailer can represent the moment of truth a film's beginning end of the week. Be that as it may, how did these occasionally epic mysteries get their beginning? How about we investigate the starting points of the realistic ceremony that can swing an image to blockbuster or nothing https://gomovies-online.vip/brands-pages/gogoanime What used to be appeared toward the finish of a component film, in this way the expression "trailer", is presently observed on home TV, in theaters and is the #3 type of video saw online today. In 1912 at Rye Beach, NY, a snack bar draped a sheet to show a film cut for the up and coming portion of The Adventures of Kathlyn. Watchers could possibly see whether Kathlyn got away from the lion's sanctum by coming to see the following week's energizing section. From that point, it was the Loew's venue chain that demonstrated the first of what was to turn into a staple of film making. In 1913, Nils Granlund, adman for Loew's, arranged a special film of The Pleasure Seekers, a prospective opening melodic on Broadway. So as to benefit from the enthralled crowd, film of the practices and other key creation aspects were appeared to theater goers to initiate them to go to Broadway.

Granlund took the idea further the following year by utilizing a slide way to deal with advance a forthcoming Charlie Chaplin film at the Loew's Harlem area. With another approach to give declarations and data, Granlund's system was rapidly getting embraced by theater the executives the nation over ready to pay for the most recent innovation. Foremost Studios grasped this training and in 1916 started to discharge trailers for its prominent movies. In 1919 they added a trailer division to the studio to advance all their up and coming movies.

Studios perceived this prospering business however were delayed to move on board. Trailer organizations started to grow in the New York district highlighting appealing slides since they couldn't get their hands on the real film. As studios were buying theater scenes, they turned out to be increasingly intrigued by how their movies were being showcased. A trio of New Yorkers saw the chance and shaped the National Screen Service (NSS), an organization to deal with the special issues and dissemination endeavors for the studios in return for select access to the movies.

The NSS was the essential trailer firm from 1927 to the 1970s utilizing the studio's altering rooms, gear and inert editors to deliver a standard film item for a lot of that time. The look and sound was comparative in nature: boisterous, sentiment, title-solid looks at the story on film. It wasn't until Gone With the Wind that an all the more even conditioned, lighter trailer rose. Along a similar time, Cecil B. DeMille built up the hammy, increasingly absurd forms with substantial voice-overs and alarming pictures to enthrall the watchers while Alfred Hitchcock built up his own eccentric, amusing brand of advancement. His trailer for Psycho included a flippant "Hitch" visiting the Bates Motel and Mother's house. He likewise utilized the new idea of "extraordinary shoots" or exclusively shot scenes utilized only for the trailer. It was freeze outline capacity that prompted the disclosure inside the Psycho trailer that the individual in the shower was really Vera Miles in a blonde wig stepping in for Janet Leigh who was inaccessible.

As the creation quality turned out to be increasingly significant and studios started looking for progressively individualized strategies for promoting, stars took to portraying certain movies and the trailers turned out to be more character situated. Trailers started concentrating on the plot and personas instead of the A-rundown entertainers included. As film goers' preferences advanced, movie producers developed by spreading out to area shooting and more impacts. This implied a progressively complex trailer which offered ascend to increasingly outside firms with fresher strategies and inventive thoughts.

Studios were looking for new designs, portrayals and music to switch up the staid, cutout creations which had originated from NSS for such a large number of years. During the 1960s the bearing advanced toward considerably more modernization and imaginativeness with boutique firms which worked in certain film types. With the expanding advances and prevalence in TV, studios started to consider the little screen advertisements for their style and furthermore their helpfulness in advancing their movies.

As the '60s wore on, the NSS started to be consigned to just time-distinct film conveyance since studios could deliver their own, lower-cost limited time items without them. As trailers advanced, so did the strategies for utilizing them. With another decade came better approaches to improve the creation and promoting of motion pictures and their trailers. Clasps regarded as the best were utilized just as extraordinary shoots and even erased scenes. Studios started purchasing out entire settings for new showings empowering them to catch all benefits from the screenings. With the 1975 arrival of Jaws, another stage appeared also - the across the country, same-day discharge.

With the approach of the MTV age likewise came another age of film advancement. Music recordings and film trailers share certain similitudes, for example, time limitations. With convincing music, altering methods and story aptitude, makers can take advantage of any film in the two and one half minutes designated. The cutting edge trailer's first demonstration, primary body and resolution can briefly abridge a plot, making any film the "best new hit of the year". What's more, since the decision of trailer music can be anything from other film scores, works of art, mainstream music or a standard from the library, the crowd can be moved to tears, delight or dread before the soundtrack has ever been composed.

As innovation goes ahead, the industry will in the end observe computerized trailers supplant the celluloid principles similarly as advanced film duplicates will supplant celluloid movies. Focusing on will turn out to be increasingly explicit; a web trailer intended for a particular type crowd will be developed uniquely in contrast to its cousin, the theater trailer, giving studios more control of trailer arrangement while simultaneously giving them the most adaptability yet.

From a sheet in Rye, NY to advanced arrivals of epic film limited time pieces, the trailer has developed into a specialized gadget, a fine art, a strategy for influence and a rewarding industry. As Cameron Diaz said in The Holiday, "That is the reason they pay me boatloads of money".

My name is Jacquie Galvin from Tampa, FL. I have a four year certification in reporting from The Ohio State University. I have worked all through promoting and publication administrations for more than 20 years and have had more than 100 articles and short pieces distributed. I have additionally been a bulletin editorial manager for the City of Columbus and previous supervisor of the home administrations division of CompuServe Inc.

[wetrumpfeed]

ROAD TO 2020: Important Election Information for Florida, Kansas City, and South Carolina! #Rally Night Edition

Hello! I'm V_M and here are the upcoming elections today! Tuesday June 18, 2019!

All polls for Florida, Kansas, and South Carolina Opened 6:00 A.M. Central Time and Close 7:00 P.M. Central Time! So get there early, bring family and friends, and VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Remember Complacency is Sin!

Great websites to use vote smart elections, us elections, and ourcampaigns!

Important Information Regarding 2020!

Register

Volunteer

Guide

Engage the Right

Work with Scott Presler

OBLIGATORY SIDE NOTES!

IMPERATIVE: BECOME A POLL WATCHER(check your state for more information!)

YOU MUST REGISTER AT LEAST TWO NEW PERSON A WEEK TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP IN 2020!

JUNE 18th, 2019 Elections! (Rally Night Addition)

Florida State House 007 Special Election!

The candidates is Jason Shoaf

The surrounding areas include St. Apalachicola, Port St. Joe, Bristol, Blountstown, Mayo, Wewahitchka, Monticello, Greenville, Altha, Crawfordville, Perry, Carrabelle, and Madison!

"Shoaf is a vice president at the St. Joe Natural Gas Company and owns a property management company and a storage business. He is the nephew of former Gov. Wayne Mixson and the grandson of Cecil G. Costin, who served in the Florida House from 1953 to 1962.Watkins and Shoaf will face off in a Republican primary to represent the GOP-leaning district."

“I find it highly ironic for the silk-stocking son of Gulf County to say I am disconnected from the district,” said Watkins. The one-time stand-up bass player in a bluegrass gospel band that played annually at the Chipley Watermelon Festival, Blountstown Pioneer Day and the Mayo Goat Festival laughed when his north Florida credentials were questioned."

"Jason places Hurricane Michael restoration efforts as a key plank in their platforms. Shoaf, who served on the Triumph Gulf Coast Board to distribute BP oil spill money, also wants to focus on job creation."

Source: Tallahassee News

Additional Sources:

Florida News

Florida State House 038 Special Election!

The candidate is Randy Maggard

The surrounding areas include St. Leo, Dade City, and areas near Zephyr-Hills.

LUTZ — "The Republican seeking to fill an east Pasco-based legislative seat endorses commonality on transportation, the environment and even federal tariffs."

"The similarities between business owner Randy Maggard and attorney David “Mac’’ McCallister, however, ended when they talked about their political resumes and their residences in front of the Pasco Republican Executive Committee last week.It was their first joint appearance in the race for the state House of Representatives District 38 seat formerly held by Republican Danny Burgess of Zephyrhills. Burgess resigned to become executive director of Florida’s Department of Veterans Affairs. The GOP primary election is April 9, and the winner faces Democrat Kelly Smith in June."

"Maggard, 55, stood before the Feb. 21 GOP committee meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lutz, renewed acquaintances and reminded the group he chaired Pasco’s Republican Party for more than a decade. He currently chairs the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board. Gov. Rick Scott appointed Maggard to the governing board in 2011."I know what’s going on on the east side of Pasco,“ said Maggard, vice president of Sonny’s Discount Appliances in Dade City. “People come in my store all the time. We talk about politics.’"McCallister, 67, who said he had lived in Pasco for three decades, acknowledged that he hadn’t been involved in local party politics."

Source from TampaBay

Kansas City Council and South Carolina St. House District 019!

Kansas City Races

S.C. House D_019

Primary North Carolina District 3, July 9th, 2019! Joan Perry vs Gregory Murphy!

http://archive.is/uKsxN

PAST ELECTION RESULTS!

KY Incumbent Bevin wins with less 55%, going to go against Beshear, vote Bevin

VA Primaries

FLASH ELECTION UPDATE!

I want to reiterate over and over again, Roy Moore is running again, don't let him win! The Alabama Primary Senate will be March 3rd, 2020!

Good Candidates for North Carolina Governor. One is Commissioner of Labor Cherie Killian Berry Why she should be chosen? She had 2,505,628 votes in 2016 compared to Cooper who had 2.3 million votes. She pulls close to 50% in blue counties such Pitt and Martin, also Lt Gov. Dan Forest is a good option as well.

http://archive.is/IMkGm

November 5th, 2019 multiple statewide elections will be held in Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia!

FUTURE ELECTIONS!

Election Date! Election Candidate! Election District! Election Area! Tuesday, September 10, 2019 Dan Bishop North Carolina District 09 *The surrounding counties includes Union, Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson,Richmond, Scotland, Anson, and Mecklenburg Tuesday, September 10, 2019 (R) winner North Carolina District 03 The surrounding area includes Jacksonville, Havelock, Farm and Greenville, New Bern, Avon, Morehead City, Belhavel, Swanquarter, Columbia, Aurora,Kitty Hawk, Wanchese, Duck, Manteo, Nags Head, Ayden,Sandhill, Kinston.

Remember to start registering yourself and at least three new people every ten days for the 2020 election! Thanks! MAGA 🔜KAG!

Keep the faith, work hard, and go to rallies (important to protect your identity though because of crazy NeverTrumpers) (NT)

Thanks once again to the beautiful people of the MAGA Movement! We love and cherish each and every one of you Deplorables'! 🐸🐸🐸

President Trump Accomplishments!

President Trump Donation Page

REMINDER COMPLACENCY IS SIN! EXUDE CONFIDENCE, NOT COCKINESS! WE MUST FIGHT FOR EVERY VOTE, IT'S NOT OVER TILL ITS OVER!

~ KEEP UP THE ENTHUSIASM! BE CONSISTENT! ~

~ LESS THAN 505 DAYS TILL THE ELECTION!~

President Trump Caucuses/Primaries!!!

*(reminder to IA, NH, and NV voters, set the bar high. Vote for President Trump in big numbers, don't let him down!

http://archive.is/5wuT7

Prediction: President Trump Gets Nomination by the end of March 10th Primaries with around 1,300 to 1,500 delegates. If accurate that means President Trump has 23 weeks (165 days) to essentially campaign for the general while Democrats continue the primaries well into to the summer.

Work :

http://archive.is/OdyDR

May you have a blessed rest of your day! God Bless You and God Bless the United States of America!💖🇺🇸😍💖😍🇺🇸💖

submitted by /u/Vernon_Mansae [link] [comments]

[robgrayofficial]

Hello! I'm V_M and here are the upcoming elections today! Tuesday June 18, 2019!All polls for Florida, Kansas, and South Carolina Opened 6:00 A.M. Central Time and Close 7:00 P.M. Central Time! So get there early, bring family and friends, and VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!Remember Complacency is Sin!Great websites to use vote smart elections, us elections, and ourcampaigns!Important Information Regarding 2020!RegisterVolunteerGuideEngage the RightWork with Scott PreslerOBLIGATORY SIDE NOTES!IMPERATIVE: BECOME A POLL WATCHER(check your state for more information!)YOU MUST REGISTER AT LEAST TWO NEW PERSON A WEEK TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP IN 2020!JUNE 18th, 2019 Elections! (Rally Night Addition)Florida State House 007 Special Election!The candidates is Jason ShoafThe surrounding areas include St. Apalachicola, Port St. Joe, Bristol, Blountstown, Mayo, Wewahitchka, Monticello, Greenville, Altha, Crawfordville, Perry, Carrabelle, and Madison!"Shoaf is a vice president at the St. Joe Natural Gas Company and owns a property management company and a storage business. He is the nephew of former Gov. Wayne Mixson and the grandson of Cecil G. Costin, who served in the Florida House from 1953 to 1962.Watkins and Shoaf will face off in a Republican primary to represent the GOP-leaning district."“I find it highly ironic for the silk-stocking son of Gulf County to say I am disconnected from the district,” said Watkins. The one-time stand-up bass player in a bluegrass gospel band that played annually at the Chipley Watermelon Festival, Blountstown Pioneer Day and the Mayo Goat Festival laughed when his north Florida credentials were questioned.""Jason places Hurricane Michael restoration efforts as a key plank in their platforms. Shoaf, who served on the Triumph Gulf Coast Board to distribute BP oil spill money, also wants to focus on job creation."Source: Tallahassee NewsAdditional Sources:Florida NewsFlorida State House 038 Special Election!The candidate is Randy MaggardThe surrounding areas include St. Leo, Dade City, and areas near Zephyr-Hills.LUTZ — "The Republican seeking to fill an east Pasco-based legislative seat endorses commonality on transportation, the environment and even federal tariffs.""The similarities between business owner Randy Maggard and attorney David “Mac’’ McCallister, however, ended when they talked about their political resumes and their residences in front of the Pasco Republican Executive Committee last week.It was their first joint appearance in the race for the state House of Representatives District 38 seat formerly held by Republican Danny Burgess of Zephyrhills. Burgess resigned to become executive director of Florida’s Department of Veterans Affairs. The GOP primary election is April 9, and the winner faces Democrat Kelly Smith in June.""Maggard, 55, stood before the Feb. 21 GOP committee meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lutz, renewed acquaintances and reminded the group he chaired Pasco’s Republican Party for more than a decade. He currently chairs the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board. Gov. Rick Scott appointed Maggard to the governing board in 2011."I know what’s going on on the east side of Pasco,“ said Maggard, vice president of Sonny’s Discount Appliances in Dade City. “People come in my store all the time. We talk about politics.’"McCallister, 67, who said he had lived in Pasco for three decades, acknowledged that he hadn’t been involved in local party politics."Source from TampaBayKansas City Council and South Carolina St. House District 019!Kansas City RacesS.C. House D_019Primary North Carolina District 3, July 9th, 2019! Joan Perry vs Gregory Murphy!http://bit.ly/2x2mR4S ELECTION RESULTS!KY Incumbent Bevin wins with less 55%, going to go against Beshear, vote BevinVA PrimariesFLASH ELECTION UPDATE!I want to reiterate over and over again, Roy Moore is running again, don't let him win! The Alabama Primary Senate will be March 3rd, 2020!Good Candidates for North Carolina Governor. One is Commissioner of Labor Cherie Killian Berry Why she should be chosen? She had 2,505,628 votes in 2016 compared to Cooper who had 2.3 million votes. She pulls close to 50% in blue counties such Pitt and Martin, also Lt Gov. Dan Forest is a good option as well.http://bit.ly/2WLz60k 5th, 2019 multiple statewide elections will be held in Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia!FUTURE ELECTIONS!Election Date!Election Candidate!Election District!Election Area!Tuesday, September 10, 2019Dan BishopNorth Carolina District 09*The surrounding counties includes Union, Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson,Richmond, Scotland, Anson, and MecklenburgTuesday, September 10, 2019(R) winnerNorth Carolina District 03The surrounding area includes Jacksonville, Havelock, Farm and Greenville, New Bern, Avon, Morehead City, Belhavel, Swanquarter, Columbia, Aurora,Kitty Hawk, Wanchese, Duck, Manteo, Nags Head, Ayden,Sandhill, Kinston.Remember to start registering yourself and at least three new people every ten days for the 2020 election! Thanks! MAGA 🔜KAG!Keep the faith, work hard, and go to rallies (important to protect your identity though because of crazy NeverTrumpers) (NT)Thanks once again to the beautiful people of the MAGA Movement! We love and cherish each and every one of you Deplorables'! 🐸🐸🐸President Trump Accomplishments!President Trump Donation PageREMINDER COMPLACENCY IS SIN! EXUDE CONFIDENCE, NOT COCKINESS! WE MUST FIGHT FOR EVERY VOTE, IT'S NOT OVER TILL ITS OVER!~ KEEP UP THE ENTHUSIASM! BE CONSISTENT! ~~ LESS THAN 505 DAYS TILL THE ELECTION!~President Trump Caucuses/Primaries!!!*(reminder to IA, NH, and NV voters, set the bar high. Vote for President Trump in big numbers, don't let him down!http://bit.ly/2XCHPDj President Trump Gets Nomination by the end of March 10th Primaries with around 1,300 to 1,500 delegates. If accurate that means President Trump has 23 weeks (165 days) to essentially campaign for the general while Democrats continue the primaries well into to the summer.Work :http://bit.ly/2wXl80Z you have a blessed rest of your day! God Bless You and God Bless the United States of America!💖🇺🇸😍💖😍🇺🇸💖 #robgray