#edith vanderbilt

[secretly-a-catamount]

I updated this work for Braedafina/Serafaeden Week. The prompts I used were Post Series, Class, and Stargazing (although the last one’s the weakest).

————————————————————————

  The eighteen year-old girl watched her reflection in the looking glass with a weary gaze. Could she pass for a boy? It was critical that she could, but Serafina worried that she couldn’t.

  Even dressed the way she was (long-sleeved shirt, long trousers, concealing coat), with her features softened and scars erased by Rowena’s magic, and her mane of black hair — brushed and braided for once — tucked up under a hat, Serafina worried she couldn’t.

  And she had to. She simply had to.

  Everything hinged on it. Everything.

  “Miss?” Essie’s voice penetrated Sarafina’s wooden door, the Lady’s Maid right on the other side. “Are you getting along all right in there? You don’t need any help?”

  Serafina wrenched herself away from the mirror and padded over to the door, unaccustomed to the heavy boots currently swallowing her feet.

  As Essie Walker buzzed into the room, Serafina was surprised to see that her friend had let her dark, curly hair down for once and wore a sunshine-yellow dress.

  “Essie, you’re comin’ with me? Jess—“

  “The baby.” Essie said in answer, running her hands down the dress’ skirt, fingers trailing across tiny daisy embroidered in the fabric. The baby was not Jess and Essie’s child, but simply the newest orphan child that the two had a voluntary hand in raising.

  A second knock on the door, the sound as gentle and kind as the man who made it.

  Braeden’s clothing was as inconspicuous as Serafina and Essie’s were, bland, basic, boring and forgettable. The best feature of his disguise, however, was the lack of Gidean. It was distressing for Serafina to see her lover without his trusted dog, the Doberman was one of the only reasons that she ever let Braeden out of her sight with any regularity. She trusted her friends and family — no one else, of course — but the black dog was the only one she trusted with Braeden’s life completely besides herself.

  So to see Braeden without Gidean, while knowing that she hadn’t been with her best friend on the short walk from his room to hers, set Serafina’s nerves on edge. (Paranoia. That what the doctors said. Foolish, Serafina thought, because it wasn’t paranoia if everything was actually out to get you.)

  Despite her thoughts scuttling about like drunken mice, she sculpted her face into a smile as Braeden walked over to her and pressed his lips to her temple, and then, a moment later, under his soft touch and his softer reassurances, her smile was genuine. (Or as genuine as any of her smiles ever were. Which was to say half-sincere, half-threat.)

  “Are you ready, my love?”

  “Always.”

  “The two of you make me want puke.”

  “Come on now, Ess,” Serafina teased, “It can’t be any worse than the time you walked in on us—“

  Brown eyes widening, Braeden slapped a hand over Serafina’s mouth. “We talked about this! It — it never happened!” He sputtered, his cheeks flaming.

  Essie simply raised an eyebrow (Serafina had always wanted to be able to do that) and pursued her lips. “If you say so, Braeden.”

  She turned and practically bounced to the doorway, stopping only to call over her shoulder, “If you don’t hurry up, love-bugs, this wedding’s going to happen without you.”

  Well-worn boots with mud in their treads made their way down cut bricks, weak winter sunlight shining through glass panes, the air dense and thick, wet and heavy, wrapping around the young man like a doused wool coat.

  He found his aunt sitting at a small, circular table near the middle of the greenhouse, soft hands delicately folded around a cup of steaming tea, nails slightly pointed and painted a gentle sea-shell pink. She wore a plum-colored dress and a shawl around her shoulders made of gray wolf fur.

  Braeden took the seat opposite her, his leg-brace creaking, and took a swig of his own drink, letting the sugary and syrupy liquid settle on his tongue, letting the chill radiate into his aching hands. He swallowed, then spoke. “You called for me?”

  “I did. I felt that we needed to discuss some . . . upcoming events.” She was perfectly poised, still as a marble statue.

  “You mean my proposal to Serafina.” Braeden said flatly, the sweet-tea suddenly bitter and cloying in his mouth.

  “Yes.” Edith responded, crossing her ankles. “That is what I would like to discuss.”

  “And what part of it exactly would you like to discuss?”

  “Its entirety. The fact of the matter is that you simply cannot marry her.”

  “And why is that?” Braeden clutched the glass so hard his knuckles went white. He took several shallow breaths and then set the glass down gently. Edith watched his repressed anger hungrily, her dark gaze stabbing through him like a needle through an insect.

  “Now, darling, don’t be upset. I simply want what’s best for you, what’s best for the whole family, and I’m not certain that Serafina is . . . right for you.”

  “I love her. I will always love her.” Braeden responded, wondering not for the first time in his life if it was normal to want to claw your aunt’s face off.

  “Will you? You’re at a difficult age, Braeden, one where, if not properly guided, you’ll make decisions you’ll later regret.” For a second her face was a paper-mask, her smile drawn on by a crooked hand, her eyes flat and dull, and then he blinked, and she wasn’t, back to a flesh-and-blood woman whose only signs of aging were the threads of silver woven into her dark hair and the faint lines at the edge of her dark eyes and pitiless mouth. “And that’s to say nothing of how it would . . . look. While I don’t believe it, people do talk and, well, they say the most . . . dreadful things about your Serafina. About what she actually wants out of your relationship.”

  A ugly flush spread across Braeden’s face, the idea that anyone would ever think that of Serafina disturbed him.

  Edith calmly took a sip of her tea, as if she hadn’t just ripped his world to shreds with her soft voice and perfectly manicured nails. Her movements were precise and controlled, calculated, and Braeden suddenly felt that his aunt wasn’t human at all, but something mechanical, made of gears and wires, completely and utterly unable to be pursued by matters of the heart simply because she did not have one.

  “I do.” His voice was steady.

  “Than I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss—“

  The rest of the officiant‘s words were cut off by Serafina’s lips and the feeling of her fingers entwining in his hair.

  Somewhere behind them Essie and Waysa cheered, while Rowena was almost certainly being the source for the polite clapping.

  “Braeden, darling, you really do have to consider the consequences of your actions.” 

  “I have.”

  “Than you see—“

  “I don’t care what you want.” He interjected, standing abruptly. “I care that she’ll be happy, that is my main priority and it will always be my main priority, and if you can’t understand that,” he looked away for a moment, took a deep breath, and then continued, “I will marry her. With or without your permission.”

  “Braeden, wait!”

  But he was already gone.

  “You really missed something,” Essie nuzzled her head in the crook of Jess neck, “I almost cried.”

  “Waysa did cry.” Rowena said, leaning against the unlit fireplace.

  “So?” Waysa (who was sitting on the couch with Jess and Essie) countered, “I cry when I’m happy.”

  “I must make you cry often then.”

  “Quiet frequently.”

  Wrapped in each other’s arms, Braeden and Serafina sat on the windowsill, unaware of their friends teasing.

  Braeden whispered to her, his mouth gently brushing against her ear, “I used to sit on this windowsill every night and wish on all the stars that I’d have someone who would love me one day.”

  “You sound as if you still don’t believe it.” Serafina whispered back, smiling.

  “Of course I don’t,” Braeden admitted, “what man could possibly look upon a goddess such as yourself and believe that you choose him?”

[scarred-serafina-fan]

Yeah get over your girlfriends brutual murder where she died in your arms and go dance with some spoiled rich middle schooler Braeden! Gosh it's been six months!

[smolandweirdwriter]

Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts

I forgot that the book takes place in 1899 for some reason, but regardless I'm very eager to see how that's handled (since I read it when I was much younger, I doubt I would have picked up on that). but I mean that's just fascinating given the history of the civil war (Cornelius Vanderbilt was a union man--not in it himself, but donated a giant steamship worth about 1 million USD). Also fun fact: George Vanderbilt paid his staff New York wages, which were higher than Asheville wages-- up to the equivalent of $73-ish dollars for the highest working members.

sera and her pa are adorable! little serafina not wanting to eat her veggies is my favorite thing & in a modern au he would definitely be the kinda guy to mix spinach into her brownies to try and trick her into eating vegetables

also serafina first line: "Did." do with that what you will

can serafina get rabies? she says she's been bitten by rats before...

love the sprinkling of 1890s southern dialect lmao

SHE'S THE CRC!

I forgot how good the imagery in this book is!! the descriptions of sounds and nature are incredible!!

mr Vanderbilt has over 22 THOUSAND BOOKS that's the kinda life goal I aspire to

serafina made up stories after reading she's just like me for

au where serafina is a PI & part-time novelist perchance?? (Braeden is a vet ofc)

Sera's pa: if anybody ever asks you who you are or where you're from, you don't answer, got it?

Sera: got it

Sera, the second she meets Braeden: hi I'm serafina here's my social security number

OH BRAEDEN FIRST DESCRIPTION WHAT "... or she'd see their twelve-year-old nephew riding his horse across the grounds, with his sleek black dog running alongside." (p. 12)

"Sometimes she dreamed of wearing fancy dresses and ribbons in her hair and shiny shoes on her feet" props to Robert Beatty for not making her have internalized misogyny and hating "girlie" things. the main fight scene is done in a dress if I recall and I'm so ready to read it

she mentions Braeden a lot (calls him "the young master" or "the nephew" but still, good foreshadowing)

awww poor sera wants a real family but also loves her pa *sigh* EMOTIONAL CONFLICT

sera describing the basement as "hers"!!!

the butler's 11 year old assistant gobbling cookies in the middle of the night is so real im sorry. but also sera standing in the shadow watching him & pretending they're friends chatting is gonna make me cry

oooh the rats and bugs all fleeing from cracks in the walls when the man in the black cloak arrives!!!

mr Thorne first line: "Don't worry. We're going right in here..." creepy lil shit

"her legs felt like explosions of speed" idk why but that line made me laugh. the book is so well-written but for some reason that line just feels very, idk, childish? it kinda took me out of the experience but maybe that's just me

"friends had to help friends. she didn't know much about life, but she knew that." she doesn't even know the girl but considers them friends and wants to help her. serafina seems to think Braeden is kinder than she is, but honestly I don't think that's true. I think Braeden is more willing to trust people, but serafina is more willing to sympathize with them, & I think she has preconceptions of people in power being bad (mr v, mr Thorne-- though the latter turned out to be true--rowena, etc) which turns out false

"A tall man in a black cloak and hood, his hands stained with blood" we have our first Mr Thorne description folks!!

"Just stay still, and this will all be over," he said, pulling her toward him. Serafina suddenly realized she'd made a dreadful mistake. This was far more than she could handle." oh god the places my mind instantly went to? dark, awful places. this book is disturbing and I'm inly 19 pages in-- how did I read this so gleefully as a kid?

"...as if the man wasn't of his own mind but possessed by a demented, ravenous demon" I don't quite remember but isn't it true that the cloak can speak to the wearer? so did it take over mr Thorne at some point? did hearing that voice all the time affect him and further corrupt him? did he ever get confused when he took the cloak off, maybe in the beginning, and think perhaps he didn't want to put it back on again, but in the end the urge for power and youth was too great? oooh angsty fanfic ideas.....

"Death was so near that she could see its blackness and hear the screams of the children who had gone before." this book is so dark how is it for children???? it's incredible I love it

ik she's looking for a place to hide from a guy trying to pull our her soul but her thought process when searching for a hiding spot reminds me of playing hide n seek

"She was the CRC. No trap or weapon or evil man was going to catch her." hELL YEAH

ahhhh description of serafina. collar bones that don't connect to other bones --> cats have a detached collar bone. four toes not five--> cats again. (also as a kid who was tiny and short and having been thought practically dead at birth, serafina was always inspiring to me)

"Mice are timid and prone to panic-induced mistakes at key moments. Just stay still little mouse, [she thought]." oooh nice callback to this exact thought about mice when she's hunting rats earlier

Also did I mention how much I love the chapter titles being encircled in brambles that form the shape of her face or a panther?? that's just cool. if I can actually write something good enough to be published, I'd love to have something like that

Babe wake up new slang just dropped: “gnawin’ on leather” 

Her pa doesn’t like mr poe gives “my dad won’t let us watch horror movies so you have to sneak them over in a different dvd cover if we’re gonna watch a horror movie when you sleep over later tonight” omg rowena & serafina girltime au?? (Lol sorry)

Oooooh the dynamo’s busted I wonder what thaaat meeeaannnssss (hehehe)

Biltmore being one of the few homes to have electricity is a nice reminder of the time period

“she’d been trying to follow [her pa’s] rules at least some of the time” lol

“Spotting an upholstered chair she felt an overwhelming desire to run her fingernails over the plush fabric” REAL

Her being shocked at flower vases & the idea of flowers INSIDE the house is so funny

Awwww poor sera, looking for her momma and siblings everywhere…

Serafina is super smart. just putting that out there. She’s brilliant and I love her

Oop the first description of Edith Vanderbilt kinda gives chatgpt-generated ngl (obviously it wasn’t bc it predates chatgpt & shitty ai writing generators, & this book is SO MUCH BETTER than anything an AI could generate regardless) 

“A refined and attractive woman, Mrs. Vanderbilt had a pale complexion and a full head of dark hair, and she seemed at ease in her role of hostess as she moved through the room.” Idk what about this makes me think “AI generated” but it just DOES

“Serafina loved to climb the tapestries at night and run her fingernails down through the soft fabric” AGAIN SHES SO REAL FOR THIS

OHOHOHO MR THORNE NAMEDROP:

“I’m sure that most of you already know Mr. Montgomery Thorne,”… Mrs. Vanderbilt said with a gentle sweep of her arm toward a gentleman. “He has graciously offered to play [the violin] for us today.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Vanderbilt,” Mr. Thorne said with a smile as he stepped forward. ... To Serafina, who’d been listening to Biltmore’s visitors her entire life, he didn’t sound like he came from the mountains of North Carolina, or from New York like the Vanderbilts. He spoke with the accent of a southern gentleman, maybe from Georgia or South Carolina.”

Serafina having an eye for fashion was NOT what I was expecting from this reread lol (she describes mr t’s outfit then says “all of which she thought went nicely with his silvery-black hair and perfectly trimmed sideburns”)

Hmmm interesting she actually sympathizes with/likes mr Thorne at first?? I did nOT recall that

Lol serafina liking to watch mr Thorne’s fingers move as he plays and wanting to pounce on them is so Cat of her

OMG BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN

Apparently he looks “sickly, a little frail even” which I do not recall, but hes also got “watchful, sensitive brown eyes” and “a rather fetching tussle of wavy brown hair”

“Are you lost?” WE GOT IT WE GOT THE LINE but more importantly we got the NEXT LINE which is “May I help you find your way?” And hes described as not timid or shy but also not overly confident which I LOVE (fun fact this line is very similar to one of the characters of my other favorite kid’s book series, Keefe Sencen’s “you must be lost” line)

Lol Braeden always sharing his food with Gideon annoys the chefs i LOVE him

OMG HE BOWS TO HER WHEN SHE GIVES HIM HIS NAME LIKE SHE’S A PROPER LADY!!!!! MEN!!!! TAKE NOTES!!!!!! THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE!!!

Name drop at last, missing girl’s name is Clara Brahms. Honestly I’m a little sad Clara isnt a recurring character later on. Braeden, Serafina, and Clara could’ve been a good trio 

OOOOHH “She had heard the servants in the kitchen joke that their master must have secretly found the Fountain of Youth” what a NICE SET UP for how the black cloak keeps people young & serafina’s suspicion of mr Vanderbilt

Mr Vanderbilt: *wears dress shoes to go riding*

serafina: criminal activity right there. Lock him up

Least accurate part of this book is the implication that serafina uses a hairbrush lmao

New slang: spit nails (means be really mad)

“I’m twelve years old. I’m grown up.” Mmmm not quite, but I agree with the spirit!

“Just tell me what’s wrong with me. I want to know. Why are you ashamed of me?” scuse me, I’ll just be over here… crying… in the corner

Ohhhh serafina back story… she could’ve had 3 siblings (AU where all of her siblings survive, but they’re humans too & her pa raises them all???)

The midwives wouldn’t even help a baby??? And the nuns were so mean for what? Like at least consolidate the man, he’s trying to keep a child alive, don’t just tell him “it’s going to die. You should kill it now” who DOES THAT??

It’s so funny to me that serafina didn’t realize she was the baby in the story until after it was over. i get that it’s a kids book but still!

Oooooh nature v nurture very nice very nice

Oh wow I forgot serafina was almost kidnapped when she was probably around 2-3ish (her pa says she was walking/wandering around, so I assume it’s around that time?)

“It’s plain to see that you’re not like other girls” WOW sera’s pa just went there lmao

Ok so when I was first reading this, I remember shipping Leandra and serafina’s pa SO HARD and wanting her to have a proper mother-daughter-father type family, yknow? 

The implication that bright/stereotypically “good” things can ensnare your soul too is so fascinating. That good things can be bad for you too… fascinating

“Her pa had told her to leave them to it, that it wasn’t any of her business, that they weren’t her kin, but who was he to say who was kin and who wasn’t? He stole babies out of the woods!” Help why is this so funny 😭 

Ooohhh she wants to find Braeden! And she keeps thinking of Clara as her friend. I’m so annoyed Clara wasn’t brought back now ugh

Awwww she’s wondering if she can think of Braeden as a friend

Awww poor serafina 

Serafina: *sees dress shoes* THE DEVIL’S APPAREL!!!

Huh apparently there’s a concealed door to the right of the fireplace in the billiard room? Wonder if that’s true

Oooh and it leads to the smoking room, with a similar one leading to the gun room. VERY curious if this was made up for the sake of the story or not

Haha serafina spitting on the back of her hand and using it to wipe her face and hair is so Cat

Serafina loves closets lol 

HES ARRIVED!!!!!!!! BRAEDEN!!!!!

Help why is this whole page so funny 😭

Serafina canonically climbing up a tree to get away from a dog and staying there until her pa got a ladder to get her down is so Cat I can’t

“[Shadows…] [which] reminded her of griffins, chimeras, and other twisted creatures of the night which were half one thing and half another.” OOOOH good foreshadowing!!!

I like this part

when he asks why he’s never seen her and she says “maybe you’ve seen me before and you’ve just forgotten” and he says “I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED YOU”!!!!

hearinf him say her name has tremendous power over her!!!! I’m going to be sick 😍

smolandweirdwriter reblogged trialserrors Pinned Postsilversickles-deactivated202101 This blog is a safe space.Nazis, TERFs, pedophiles, bigots, Tr*mp supporters, Islamophobes, exclusionists, queerphobes, and anyone who can’t reblog this post, etc, do not interact. I will block you.emo-bunny-1317 FollowHell yeah!#safe space

smolandweirdwriter reblogged smolandweirdwriter Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: chapter Nine and TenMr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, BraedenSerafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeNMr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERERNice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was realSerafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters me: WIVESAnyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something WE FOUND THE GLADEscarred-serafina-fan Djffjjfjvjgnng I'm gonna assume sisters since they were nine but that's freaking funny lolsmolandweirdwriter oh my god I didn’t even read the dates 😭 I’m so stupid

smolandweirdwriter Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: chapter Nine and TenMr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, BraedenSerafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeNMr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERERNice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was realSerafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters me: WIVESAnyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something WE FOUND THE GLADE#serafina and the black cloak#serafina and the black cloak reread

smolandweirdwriter

Serafina and The Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: Chapter Seven and Eight

I got bored so my thoughts will be on two chapters at once now (so this goes faster)

Braeden is canonically a horse girl

lol serafina is scared of horses

mr crankshod is a lil sus (I say like I’ve never read the book before)

still. I don’t like him

me personally I would not walk into the forest at night but 🤷

no bc lowkey I hate bugs. I’d be thinking about them walking all over me the whole time (UNFORTUNATELY, I do love camping and nature. Just not the bugs. Which yes yes I know biodiversity they’re good for the environment et cetera et cetera. I wish I loved them— I never kill them in the house or anything, I take them outside, but I just don’t like them

Sera and Gidean trusting each other!!

oooh when Braeden freezes when he gets scared, nice allusion to how the rats/scared creatures freeze

They’re allies!!!

something I find very interesting is that to serafina EVERYONE can be separated into Friend or Foe. Clara and Nolan, whom she barely knows? Friends.

Braeden is such a horse girl

ooooh he’s helping her into the carriage like a GENTLEMAN

“I’m sorry there aren’t any blankets,” Braeden said. “Not even a good cloak to sleep under.”

”I’ll pass on the cloak, thank you,” Serafina said with a smile, and Braeden laughed.

they’re so 12 year old coded lol

Braeden backstory!! & emotions

Mr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, Braeden

Serafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeN

Mr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERER

Nice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious

Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)

Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was real

Serafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters

me: WIVES

me, realizing they’re nine: … Childhood lovers who could never fall in love properly because they never grew up?

me, sighing: sisters

Anyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something

WE FOUND THE GLADE

WE MET SERAFINAS SIBLINGS!!!!

AND LEANDRA!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!

oooh is a creature of the night good or bad? Or is right/wrong/good/bad something we need to decide for ourselves?? Fascinating implications & queries for a kids book

”why do I deserve a present?” “Because we’re friends, right?” SO CUTE!!!!!!

braeden being loud af in the tunnels lol

braeden hanging 30 feet in the air lol

serafina wanting to knock the pieces of the chess set over to watch them fall is so Cat (yes that is what I dub the term)

lmaoooo Mr Thorne calling Mr Rostanov “daddy” aged SO WELL

serafina: let’s go through peoples stuff

braeden: let’s not

Braeden as they go through every room: I like this guy! He can’t be evil! I like this guy too! And this guy!

Serafina: you like too many people

Raphael Room, Van Dyck Room, Sheraton Room, Old English Room, Morland Room

Love knowing this is actually true!!

“The pumpkin pie, like all pumpkin pie, looked like something a dog would eat” UH! I beg your pardon?? Pumpkin pie is DELICIOUS

Serafina softening to Mr Vanderbilt and seeing how much he cares for his staff and guests!!

Ooooh Mr Thorne is getting sick!!!

Haha Braeden saving serafina from getting her eardrums ruptured

ohhhhh he’s playing the piano because clara is good with the piano

Braeden somehow knowing what kind of food serafina likes and bringing it to her is friend goals

GUYS Braeden says that Mr Thorne owned an estate “before the war between the states.” That’s the civil war, in 1861. It’s been almost 38 years since then. But Mr Thorne isn’t described as an old man at all. But he couldn’t be a fully grown adult and own property 38 years ago but still appear as if he’s in his 40s. Right??

but also Mr Thorne’s death is sooooo overdue. Child murdering evil plantation-owning racist piece of shit got what he deserved

UGH all the descriptions of the night and the stars and nature make me SO MAD I live in a giant polluted city

A good couple pages:

“The time for sneaking and hiding was over. She was going to make sure one man in particular saw her. And tonight was the night. The Chief Rat Catcher had a job to do.” (Ch 19, p225) YES SERAFINA!!!!!

“She… kept lacing her dress up her back with shaky fingers, but she was having a terrible go of it. Normal girls must have extremely long and bendy arms to do this every night, she thought. Help she’s so funny 😭

“She hated walking straight. And she hated walking slow.” REAL

“She was a China doll, and she was a wraith, in and out of shadows, a girl in between.” Very nice

oooohhhhhh she’s hoping the mountain Lion will show up to kill him. I didn’t realize that the first time i read this

“Come out, my dear child, before I become angry with you.” Thanks to @secretly-a-catamount for telling me Thorne was meant to be a warning to children about child predators because now I SEE IT even more clearly than I did earlier

”At that moment, all the power and ferocity of closed motherhood came ripping out of the woods.” YESSIR

GIDEAN TO THE RESCUE!!!

”she was mightily perturbed he hadn’t stayed dead” 💀 😭

yesyesyesyes die rat bastard!!!!! Mr Thorne is dead!!!!! Let’s go!!!!!

LEANDRA!!!!!

Braeden putting together a search party for serafina and sending gidean out ahead is so perfect and wonderful

Am I the only one somewhat perplexed that all Mrs&Mr Vanderbilt did was send down some beds? Like why not give them a proper room even in the servant’s floor or something? Idk

“There are few skills more important than picking good friends.” — Mr Vanderbilt, the man who befriended Mr Thorne 😂

ahhhh I loved this book. I can’t WAIT to reread the rest!

[methodstomymadness]

Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC

More here

[transitofmercury]

Pulitzer Family Fact Post (Katherine's Siblings Edition)

I'm finally doing it, after threeish years, I'm finally making posts about my acquired knowledge of the Pulitzer family. I'm starting with what I know about his kids because I think that's what people would find most interesting. I'd quite like to go on about Pulitzer's siblings and what people have managed to figure out about his childhood but I'll do that another day. It's been a while so I might forget stuff or get things slightly wrong but I'm doing my best to be accurate. Information is mostly from James McGrath Morris' book, 'Pulitzer: A life in Politics, Print and Power' and records I looked at on Ancestry (I got really weird about this).

Pulitzer and his wife, Kate Davis, had 7 children: Ralph, Lucille, Katherine, Joseph, Edith, Constance and Herbert. I'm just going to go through kid-by-kid and reel off everything I remember that is actually semi-interesting.

Ralph Pulitzer: Born June 11th, 1879. Died June 14th, 1939. He was born in St. Louis because Pulitzer hadn't bought The New York World and moved the family to New York at this point.

All the kids seem to have been sickly (like their father) but Ralph was asthmatic and small for his age, his health was always a concern. The family would spend a lot of time in Europe but he and Lucille were the ones who usually joined their parents while the younger ones were left in America. He didn't like learning Latin (From a letter to Lucille: "I never imagined a language capable of such filthy, beastly rules and contradictions") and preferred Greek. He was educated at St. Mark's School and would've been at Harvard by the time that Newsies happened.

All the sons were a bit detached from the realities of how newspapers worked because they were raised in mansions and boarding schools but Pulitzer was surprised and very upset about them having limited journalistic skills. He really wanted them to be prepared to run the paper after him and they really weren't. He started to become president of The World around 1907. When Pulitzer died, he got 20% of the newspaper stock in the will. He was the main person running The World before they sold it in 1931. Ralph preferred high society life to newspapers. He married Frederica Webb who was vaguely a Vanderbilt in 1905. They had two sons, I think, and eventually divorced. He remarried and had two daughters but one died very young. He died in New York following complications to do with abdominal surgery.

Lucille Irma Pulitzer: Born September 30th, 1880. Died December 31st, 1897. She was probably also born in St. Louis but I haven't been able to find the record. Her middle name seems to come from one of Pulitzer's sisters.

She was Pulitzer's favourite, that's the key thing about her. He had very high expectations of his children and a lot of rules, and she managed to meet those expectations and didn't break those rules. She was focused on her studies, she could speak multiple languages and play multiple instruments. In Pulitzer's code-book, she's referred to as 'Lulu' instead of Lucille. Seems to have spent a lot of her younger years in Europe. When she was 14 she had a minor throat surgery and Pulitzer got upset that everyone was paying her more attention than they were him (his wife got really mad at him and he sent Lucille flowers to apologise).

I think I read about her graduating from Miss Brown's School for Young Ladies in May 1897 when she would've been 16. Summer of that year they held a party at the Chatwold (their place in Bar Harbour) to basically debut her. A couple days later, she became ill. She had Typhoid and despite the family's efforts, she died months later at the Chatwold on New Years Eve. After her death, Pulitzer established the Lucille Pulitzer Scholarship at Barnard College, which makes me think she wanted to go to college and that he would have supported this.

Katherine Ethel Pulitzer: Born January 30th, 1882. Died May 9th, 1884. Same as Lucille, probably born in St. Louis but I've never seen the records. She's the one daughter whose middle name I can't link to one of Pulitzer's family members but her first name comes from her mother. There's not much to say because she died so young. She died of Pneumonia in New York almost a year exactly (one day off) after Pulitzer purchased The World.

This is quite sad (it's already sad) but she is either omitted or forgotten in the 1900 census. They asked for the number of children born and the number of children living, at this point all 7 had been born and 5 were alive but the Pulitzers responded that 6 had been born instead. They weren't forgetting Lucille after three years, so it seems like Katherine was not counted.

Joseph Pulitzer II: Born March 21st, 1885. Died March 30th, 1955. One of the few children born in New York.

Less sickly than the others but Pulitzer was constantly disappointed by him. He was also sent to St. Mark's School. As a teenager he didn't do what his father told him to and didn't pay enough attention to his studies. He got thrown out of St. Mark's in 1901 after he and some friends snuck out to buy beer and then ended up climbing into the headmaster and his wife's bedroom when they were sneaking back in. Pulitzer was really angry about that. Pulitzer managed to get him into Harvard but he just kept being the same as he was before so Pulitzer pulled him out of Harvard.

He got sent to St. Louis to be trained by the people Pulitzer had at the Post-Dispatch and actually developed journalistic talent. His father could not see this talent and was still disappointed in him. He only got 10% of the newspaper stock when his dad died. He ran the Post-Dispatch far better than his brothers ran The World. He tried to punch Hearst which is just really funny to me. He married Elinor Wickham in 1910, she died in 1925 and a year later he married Elizabeth Edgar. He had similar health problems to his father towards the end of his life and after he died, the Post-Dispatch passed to his son, Joseph Pulitzer III, it stayed in the family's hands until very recently (either the 90s or the 00s) but there was a legal battle about whether to sell it in the 80s.

Edith Louise Pulitzer: Born June 19th, 1886. Died April 6th, 1975. She was born in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her middle name seems to come from Pulitzer's mother.

Pulitzer was not that interested in his younger daughters but he still had high expectations for them. When she was younger and her parents travelled to Europe, she seems to have been left in America more than her older siblings but later on she seems to have been just following her mother around to wherever she went. She was 13 when the Pulitzer house fire happened in January 1900. Morris mentions an incident where she got upset at her father for constantly criticising her and the two of them had a bit of an argument. She was sent to Miss Vinton’s School for Girls in Connecticut.

She married William Scoville Moore a couple weeks after her father died, I think I read that they had to have a pretty boring, scaled back wedding because, officially, she and her mother were still in mourning. They had five sons. William died in 1944 and then two of their sons died in 1944 and 1945 fighting in the war. Another son died in 1957. She lived the longest out of all of the children, and 1975 feels so strangely recent for a child of Joseph Pulitzer to have been alive then. She and Constance both got the same amount in the will and it was obviously a lot of stuff but I think she might've tried to claim that it wasn't enough and that her father wasn't in his right mind when he made the will.

Constance Helen Pulitzer: Born December 13th, 1888. Died July 14th, 1938. She was born in France, probably Paris, because the family (Joseph, his wife and the eldest two children) were in Europe looking for advice on his worsening health when she was born. According to census responses from the early 20th century, her first language was French while all her siblings' had been English. Her middle name seems to come from another one of Pulitzer's sisters.

Pulitzer did not see her for very extended periods of time in her early childhood. She was also at home when the Pulitzer house fire happened, she was 11 at the time. Once, when Pulitzer was away from home, he only received a letter from Constance and told his wife to tell the other children he didn't love them (that's a quote, "To all the rest of the children you can say I do not love them"). She also followed her mother around Europe a bit when she got older. She debuted in 1907.

In 1913 she married William Grey Elmslie who had been her younger brother's tutor. The family expressed their support for the marriage but I think only Edith was actually present. Oh, this is Newsies relevant: she and Edith shared a property in Santa Fe. She died at 49 which is young even by Pulitzer family standards and makes her the first child to die in adulthood but I can't find a cause of death so I don't know what went on there.

Herbert Pulitzer: Born November 20th, 1896. Died September 4th, 1957. He was born in New York. I see him get called Tony a lot, he might've had a middle name that gets forgotten.

This is a twist you're not expecting: he may have not actually been Pulitzer's son. There's (significant) evidence that Kate was having an affair with Arthur Brisbane when she got pregnant with Herbert and it's definitely possible that Arthur was Herbert's father. He was born a long time after Constance considering that the first 6 children were born within 10 years of each other. And if you look at pictures of Pulitzer and his older sons at around the same age, they look very similar - I don't think Herbert looked that much like him but he does kinda look like Arthur. We can't really know but I do think it's very, very possible. Pulitzer never doubted that Herbert was his, and he seems to have been the favourite of his sons since he got 60% of the newspaper stock. He briefly ran The World in the years before it was sold but apparently people who worked there didn't like him. He was very young when the Pulitzer house fire happened and Kate had to go back inside to save him.

I'm less certain about details in Herbert's life than the other children, I'm not sure why I know less about him but I do. He was the only child at his father's deathbed, when he was only a teenager. He learnt to fly and fought at the end of WW1. Married Gladys Munn in 1926 and they had two children together. Their son, also called Herbert, led a messy life (highly publicised divorce). Herbert died of uremic poisoning, which is described "urine in the blood" and, yeah, that's the note this post is going out on.

Again, it's possible I've made mistakes or forgotten stuff here. I also can't stress enough how much information James McGrath Morris' book has provided this post.

[vintage-every-day]

Cornelia Vanderbilt, Wedding gown design by Farquharson & Wheelock, Biltmore House (Biltmore Estate), April 29, 1924.

With Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt's father having died in 1914, her mother Edith gave her daughter away.

[indiesole]

THE 236 GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN THE ENTIRE KNOWN HISTORY/COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS WORLD! (@INDIES)

i.e. THE 236 GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN WORLD HISTORY! (@INDIES)

Rajesh Khanna

Lionel Messi

Leonardo Da Vinci

Muhammad Ali

Joan of Arc

William Shakespeare

Vincent Van Gogh

Online Indie

J. K. Rowling

David Lean

Nadia Comaneci

Diego Maradona

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Meena Kumari

Julius Caesar

Harrison Ford

Ludwig Van Beethoven

William W. Cargill

Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche

Samuel Curtis Johnson

Sam Walton

John D. Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie

Roy Thomson

Tim Berners-Lee

Marie Curie

James J. Hill

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Roman Polanski

Samuel Slater

J. P. Morgan

Cary Grant

Dmitri Mendeleev

John Harvard

Alain Delon

Ramakrishna Paramhansa (Official God)

The Lumiere Brothers, Auguste & Louis

Carl Friedrich Benz

Michelangelo

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Ramana Maharishi

Mark Twain

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri

Bruce Lee

Bhagwan Krishna (Official God)

Charlemagne

Rene Descartes

John F. Kennedy

Bhagwan Ganesha (Official God)

Walt Disney

Albert Einstein

Nikola Tesla

Alfred Hitchcock

Pythagoras

William Randolph Hearst

Cosimo de’ Medici

Johann Sebastian Bach

Alec Guinness

Nostradamus

Christopher Plummer

Archimedes

Jackie Chan

Guru Dutt

Amma Karunamayi/ Mata Parvati (Official God)

Peter Sellers

Gerard Depardieu

Joseph Safra

Robert Morris

Sean Connery

Petr Kellner

Aristotle Onassis

Usain Bolt

Jack Welch

Alfredo di Stefano

Elizabeth Taylor

Michael Jordan

Paul Muni

Steven Spielberg

Louis Pasteur

Ingrid Bergman

Norma Shearer

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Ayn Rand

Jesus Christ (Official God)

Luciano Pavarotti

Alain Resnais

Frank Sinatra

Allah (Official God)

Richard Nixon

Charlie Chaplin

Thomas Alva Edison

Alexander Graham Bell

Wright Brothers

Arjun (of Bhagwan Krishna’s Gita)

Jim Simons

George Lucas

Swami Sri Lahiri Mahasaya

Carl Lewis

Brett Favre

Helen Keller

Bernard Mannes Baruch

Buddha (Official God)

Hugh Grant

K. L. Saigal

Roger Federer

Rash Behari Bose

Tiger Woods

William Blake

Jesse Owens

Claude Miller

Bernardo Bertolucci

Subhash Chandra Bose

Satyajit Ray

Hippocrates

Chiang Kai-Shek

John Logie Baird

Geeta Dutt

Raphael (painter)

Bhagwan Shiva (Official God)

Radha (Ancient Krishna devotee)

George Orwell

Jorge Paulo Lemann

Catherine Deneuve

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Bill Gates

Bhagwan Ram (Official God)

Michael Phelps

Michael Faraday

Audrey Hepburn

Dalai Lama

Grace Kelly

Mikhail Gorbachev

Vladimir Putin

Galileo Galilei

Gary Cooper

Roger Moore

John Huston

Blaise Pascal

Humphrey Bogart

Rudyard Kipling

Samuel Morse

Wayne Gretzky

Yogi Berra

Barry Levinson

Patrice Chereau (director)

Jerry Lewis

Louis Daguerre

James Watt

Henri Rousseau

Nikita Krushchev

Jack Dorsey

Dev Anand

Elia Kazan

Alexander Fleming

David Selznick

Frank Marshall

Viswanathan Anand

Major Dhyan Chand

Swami Vivekananda

Felix Rohatyn

Sam Spiegel

Anand Bakshi

Victor Hugo

Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Official God)

Steve Jobs

Srinivasa Ramanujam

Lord Hanuman

Stanley Kubrick

Giotto

Voltaire

Diego Velazquez

Ernest Hemingway

Francis Ford Coppola

Michael Douglas

Kirk Douglas

Mario Lemieux

Kishore Kumar

James Stewart

Douglas Fairbanks

Confucius

Babe Ruth

Raj Kapoor

Titian aka Tiziano Vecelli

El Greco

Francisco de Goya

Jim Carrey

Mohammad Rafi

Steffi Graf

Pele

Gustave Courbet

Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi

Milos Forman

Steve Wozniak

Georgia O’ Keeffe

Mala Sinha

Aryabhatta

Magic Johnson

Patanjali

Leo Tolstoy

Tansen

Henry Fonda

Albrecht Durer

Benazir Bhutto

Cal Ripken Jr

Samuel Goldwyn

Mumtaz (actress)

Panini

Nicolaus Copernicus

Pablo Picasso

George Clooney

Olivia de Havilland

Prem Chand

Imran Khan

Pete Sampras

Ratan Tata

Meerabai (16th c. Krishna devotee)

Queen Elizabeth II

Pope John Paul II

James Cameron

Jack Ma

Warren Buffett

Romy Schneider

C. V. Raman

Aung San Suu Kyi

Benjamin Netanyahu

Frank Capra

Michael Schumacher

Steve Forbes

Paramhansa Yogananda

Tom Hanks

Kamal Amrohi

Hans Holbein

Shammi Kapoor

Gerardus Mercator

Edith Piaf

Bhagwan Shirdi Sai Baba (Official God)

[xtruss]

Sleeping Late Isn’t a Sign of Laziness. Stop The Circadian-Rhythm Shaming

Fellow Night Owls, take Comfort: Our Sleep-Wake Schedule is Part of Our Genetic Makeup, Not a Moral Failing

— Matthew Cantor | Monday 30th January 2023

A person’s daily sleep-wake schedule, called a chronotype, is genetic. And bias against night owls is ‘purely cultural’. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

It’s January, the month of new year’s resolutions and other doomed efforts at self-improvement. And what better way to make more of one’s life than rising earlier to seize the day?

At least that’s what the voice in my head says as I hit the snooze alarm for the 10th time at 9.30am. Then it’s time to get up, racked with guilt at my laziness, as if sleeping in were some kind of ethical lapse.

It’s not, of course. People’s sleep/wake cycles are inherently varied, and if you, too, are a late to bed, late to rise person, you’re simply a night owl – or, in clinical terms, you have a delayed sleep phase.

It’s time for this circadian-rhythm-shaming to end. It’s nothing new – centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin made the shockingly biased claim that “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. In a 2018 essay in the Cut, Edith Zimmerman wrote that “waking up early gives you a surge of power; you feel superior, smug”. More recently, a Reddit user put it simply: “Night owls suck,” the person wrote. “Your sleep habits are an [obstacle] in the path of every plan that constantly needs to be worked around.”

But night owls, take comfort: as Robin Williams once said to Matt Damon, it’s not your fault. Your daily sleep-wake schedule, called your chronotype, appears to be mostly genetic. Assessments of how common it is to be a night owl vary: experts who spoke to the Guardian had heard estimates around 15%, while a recent study in Finland found 10% of men and 12% of women to be “evening types”. A 2007 study found that the most common chronotype, accounting for 14.6% of people, slept from 12.09am to 8.18am in the absence of “social obligations” – but half the population slept later. In any case, night owls: you are not alone.

Our chronotype is “part and parcel of who we are”, says Dr Beth Ann Malow, a neurologist and sleep expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s not something like: ‘I’m gonna choose to be a night owl, and I’m lazy.’ It’s a biological preference.”

Infographic of a Conventional Circadian Rhythm. Image Credit: Elenabsl/Shutterstock.com

Dr Phil Gehrman, a clinical psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees. Bias against night owls is “purely cultural”, he says, citing Franklin, who helped found his university. (Ben Franklin was also a proponent of something akin to daylight savings time, which is a whole other circadian mess.)

The 9-5 schedule might be good for earlier risers, but it works against those who need to sleep later. And that might not just be the owls: a 2014 study found that, in general, the later work and class started, the more sleep participants (who were not all owls) got. “It’s the combination of early work start and long commute that is driving short sleep,” the study’s lead author, Dr Mathias Basner, director of Penn’s unit for experimental psychiatry, division of sleep and chronobiology, wrote in an email to the Guardian.

The problem comes when we have jobs or classes that don’t align with our circadian rhythms. When the obligations of waking life clash with one’s sleep schedule so badly that it’s difficult to function, night owldom shifts from a tendency to a condition known as delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, in which one’s circadian rhythms make daily functioning difficult. About 0.2% to 1.7% of adults have this condition.

“What’s crazy,” Malow says, is that whether a person’s sleep habits are viewed as a disorder or simply a tendency “is going to depend more on their lifestyle and their employment than it is anything else.”

Malow says treatment often starts with seeing if people can adjust their work schedules to suit their biological rhythms. She describes a patient who struggled in high school but blossomed when he began working as a chef; or students who are able to sign up for late classes.

In an ideal world, she says, we’d be less rigid about work start times – in health terms, the best-case scenario would be finding ways to adhere to our own body clocks. Instead of trying to match social demands, “I would much rather [patients] stay on a consistent schedule where they’re going to bed at two and waking up at 10 or 11.” Of course, many people aren’t lucky enough to have such shifts as an option – in which case the disorder can be treated with light exposure, melatonin and exercise. Such techniques make it possible to change circadian rhythms, Gehrman says, but people have varying success rates (he has coined a term for this: circadian flexibility).

But outside of concerns over work schedules, are there fundamental health benefits to waking up early? Research has, for instance, suggested a link between late rising and poor mental health or unhappiness. But according to Gehrman, the jury is very much still out on this.

Circadian Rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them.

“There are a lot of epidemiologic studies showing that being a night owl is associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety and all these things. But the open question is: is it the fact that you’re a night owl? Or is it the fact that most night owls are forced to follow a schedule that’s earlier than their circadian rhythm – what we often refer to as a mismatch,” he says. Recent studies have pointed to the latter, he says: “It’s certainly not conclusive, but that’s what we think is going on.”

The upshot is: if you’re a night owl, don’t feel bad about it, and if you’re an early bird, go easy on your night-owl friends. In fact, by painting late sleepers as lazy, you might just be supporting The Man: the British researcher Dr Paul Kelley has speculated that we stick to a 9-5 schedule because it suits fiftysomething bosses, whose age means it’s easier to get up earlier.

“People shouldn’t change their schedule because of the belief that following their schedule is bad for them,” Gehrman says. “As humans, we always seem to say if someone’s different from us, they’re therefore wrong.

“I think people should look at circadian rhythm differences the same way they look at any other differences between people.” So don’t come at us with your judgments – especially not before noon.

[dollycas]

Murder at Vinland (A Gilded Newport Mystery) by Alyssa Maxwell #Review / #Giveaway @KensingtonBooks @Alyssa__Maxwell

Murder at Vinland (A Gilded Newport Mystery) Historical Cozy Mystery 12th in Series Setting – Rhode Island Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington Books (August 20, 2024) Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1496736214 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496736215 Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CLZ43C91 AudioBook ASIN B0DC7515RJ Audio CD ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D5K1LSPH Reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews must stop a bold poisoner who is targeting the society wives of the Four Hundred in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island . . . August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Listening to the speakers and observing the ladies in attendance, Emma is struck by the contrast of the Viking warrior–inspired elements in the house and the admirable but admittedly genteel cause of bird protection. Vinland bears the name of the Vikings’ first landfall in North America, but in this room today there is most assuredly no one to fear. Emma’s observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly’s houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt. They promptly rule out the Second Lady as a suspect, but someone has poisoned the cakes. Soon another box of desserts as well as letters tainted with ink containing caustic toxins show up at other grand Newport cottages. Are the ladies from the luncheon being targeted? Emma and Jesse must sort through possible motives and means because now more than the birds need protection . . . Dollycas's Thoughts  Vinland is a Viking-themed seaside home owned by Emma's relative Florence Vanderbilt Twombly. Mrs. Twombly is hosting a fundraiser for the new Rhode Island Audubon Society where the guest of honor is the wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, Edith. Emma attends, listens to the speakers, observes the other ladies attending, and finds the cause of bird protection interesting and admirable but finds the Viking warrior-inspired elements in the home troubling. Thankfully there should be no need for them today. The following morning though, one of the guests staying with Mrs. Twombly becomes gravely ill from an unknown cause. Emma agrees to help police detective Jesse Whyte with his investigation. While checking out the guest's room she finds a box of petit fours with several pieces missing that appear to have been sent by the vice-president's wife. Knowing that is a ruse, Mrs. Roosevelt is not put on the suspect list. Soon more desserts and letters written in toxic ink are received by other ladies who attended the fundraiser. Why are these ladies being targeted? After a warning is sent out to watch for tainted deliveries Emma and Jesse try to piece together who had the means, motive, and opportunity to wage a strike against the group of supposed bird lovers. _____ Emma and Derrick are getting comfortable in their married life at Gull Manor and have some big plans. I am so pleased with the way these characters have evolved over the course of this series. Emma has always been very independent and Derrick knows she isn't going to change. While he does worry when she takes on an investigation he supports her. She realizes his fears so whenever they can tackle something together they do. They want to do something special together but in this story that project could be in jeopardy. Again, they tackle it together. There are a plethora of suspects that could have sent the toxic letters and pastry and Florence Vanderbilt Twombly doesn't make the investigation easy. She takes Emma to task several times for questioning her guests and friends but Emma and Jesse need to follow clues and press for answers. Emma ruminated on all the options repeatedly but all the clues didn't fall into place until Emma found herself in a dangerous situation. I scooted right up to the edge of my seat as everything played out unsure whether our protagonist would survive. I wasn't totally surprised as to the guilty party but they had been low on my list. I enjoy how Ms. Maxwell takes us back in time to mix history with mystery. Her descriptions of Vinland and the beautiful cover of this book made it so easy to visualize the manor and its rooms and grounds. Gull Manor is always clear in my mind after virtually being there many times. Everywhere Emma travels and everyone she meets comes alive with Ms. Maxwell's words. Murder at Vinland is marvelously plotted and written.  I know when I open a book in this series that I will escape into the pages and that it will be a struggle to return to real life. I was quickly engaged by the wonderful characters, captivated by the twist-filled mystery, and in awe of another historical Rhode Island manor that was notably enlarged by the Twombly's in a surprising way. Another Perfect Escape from Alyssa Maxwell! I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent About Alyssa Maxwell Alyssa Maxwell is the author of The Gilded Newport Mysteries and A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mysteries. She has worked in publishing as a reference book editor, ghost writer, and fiction editor, but knew from an early age that she wanted to be a fiction author. Growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain and Ireland fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles drew her to the mystery genre. She and her husband have make their home in South Florida. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the South Florida Fiction Writers. Author Links  Twitter X - Facebook - Webpage - GoodReads - Facebook Sleuths In Crime - Instagram Also by Alyssa Maxwell   This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Escape With Dollycas. I am giving away an ARC review copy of Murder at Vinland! The contest is open to anyone over 18 years old with a US or Canadian mailing address. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Void where prohibited. You do not have to be a follower to enter but I hope you will find something you like here and become a follower. Followers Will Receive 2 Bonus Entries For Each Way They Follow. Plus 2 Bonus Entries For Following My Facebook Fan Page. Add this book to your WANT TO READ shelf on GoodReads for 3 Bonus Entries. Follow Kensington Books on Twitter for 2 Bonus Entries! Follow Kensington Publishing on Facebook for 2 Bonus Entries!  Pin this giveaway to Pinterest for 3 Bonus Entries. If you share the giveaway on Threads, X, or Facebook or anywhere you will receive 5 Bonus Entries For Each Link. The  Contest Will End September 10, 2024, at 11:59 PM CST The Winner Will Be Chosen Using Random.org The Winner Will Be Notified By Email and Will Be Posted Here In The Sidebar. Click Here For Entry Form  Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” “As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.” Read the full article

[susanhaley1111]

Friday 4/12/24 Pigeon Forge to Asheville NC 100 miles. This next venture ws an easy and non stressful trip. The weather is much cooler here with lows in the 40's. There was plenty of wind so we are out of shorts weather, at least early in the day. Dana had to take to his bed for 2 days and so missed the tour of the estate.

I saw advertisements of the Chuhulys glass exhibit on the estate. We decided to go, and bought tickets to both while we were in Stone Mtn. I went alone on Sunday to see the exhibit and inside of the mansion. The glass exhibit was quite interesting. The artist is in his 80's but still makes glass pieces with the help of his aides.

Ashville is best known for the Biltmore Estate. It was built by George Washington Vanderbilt begining in 1889. Construction of the main dairy and horse barn began in 1990. George passed away in 1914 and the property has remained in family hands since then. It is still privately-owned. Some of the offspring have homes on the property now.

Th flood of 1916 decimated the lowest parts of the city. The Vanderbilts made most of their money farming the flood zones. They had 250,000 acres at one point but were nearly penniless after the flood. Georges' late wife Edith made some very good decisions by selling off most of the Biltmore village property to save the estate. The current estate has 8,000 acres.

Dana felt better on Monday so we dropped the truck off for the window replacement and ubeted into town. We hoped on a 2 hr narrated trolly tour of the town.

Asheville is a honeybee city. Individuals and businesses plant pollinators known for nourishing the bees and butterflies and hummingbirds. The city is known as a beer city as well.

Slowly, the flooded areas have come back. The flood zones must be occupied by locally owned, commercial, businesses, and they must have graffiti on the outer walls. I fact only locally owned businesses are allowed downtown too.

[readitreviewit]

Biltmore Estate: A Tale of Love, Loss, and a Really Big House Looking for a book that is as grandiose as the Biltmore Estate itself? Well, look no further because Denise Kiernan's The Last Castle is the perfect choice for anyone who loves a good rags-to-riches story. But this is no ordinary story; it's the true tale behind the largest private residence in North America and its role in shaping American history forever. From the very first page, Kiernan plunges readers into the glamorous world of high society during the turn of the 20th century. Wealthy families from all over the country flocked to Newport, Rhode Island and Paris to see and be seen, but none were as recognizable as the Vanderbilts. George Vanderbilt was a bookish man who had a particular passion for European art, architecture, and culture, and had dreamt of creating a chateau in the United States that rivaled any of his beloved European estates. But it wasn't just George's vision that made the Biltmore Estate so spectacular. He enlisted Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous landscape architect responsible for designing Central Park, to tame the rugged North Carolina wilderness and create a picturesque backdrop for his chateau. And in Richard Morris Hunt, he found a renowned architect who could not only design the mansion itself but also incorporate George's extensive collection of art and antiques from Europe. But as they say, behind every great man is a woman who is even greater, and Edith Stuyvesant Dresser did not disappoint. Edith was a society darling who had grown up in Newport and Paris, and was thrilled when George proposed to her. But she quickly realized that being mistress of Biltmore would not be the glamorous life she had imagined. With a responsibility for overseeing the estate, the village beyond its gates, and the surrounding rural area, Edith found herself at the center of a business empire that was nearly three times the size of Washington, DC. Kiernan masterfully weaves together the stories of the Vanderbilt family, their famous guests, and the estate workers to create a captivating narrative that spans almost 125 years of history. Rich with detail and vivid descriptions, you can almost feel the lush gardens, smell the damp soil, and taste the mouthwatering dishes from the estate's kitchens. But it's not just the beauty and grandeur of the estate that makes this book so compelling; it's the stories of the people who called it home. From F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, who found inspiration in the mansion's opulence, to Teddy Roosevelt, who used the estate as a retreat during his presidency, to Edith Wharton, who celebrated the estate's enduring legacy in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence, the Biltmore Estate has been a source of inspiration for generations. And it's not just a story of wealth and excess, but one of love, loyalty, and sacrifice. When changing times threatened the Vanderbilt fortune and their beloved estate, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore and secure its place in history. Overall, The Last Castle is an engaging read that gives readers a glimpse into the lives of America's elite during the Gilded Age, as well as the enduring legacy of one of the country's most magnificent homes. Kiernan's writing is both intimate and sweeping, transporting readers to a time and place where anything seems possible. So if you're looking for a book that is both entertaining and educational, look no further than The Last Castle. Don't miss out on the insightful and entertaining journey that awaits you in this must-read book! Buy your own copy today or sign up for a 30-day free trial of Audible to experience the story come to life through the powerful voice of the narrator. Get started now and transform the way you see the world! Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[scarred-serafina-fan]

[smolandweirdwriter]

Serafina and The Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: Chapter Three

Babe wake up new slang just dropped: “gnawin’ on leather” 

Her pa doesn’t like mr poe gives “my dad won’t let us watch horror movies so you have to sneak them over in a different dvd cover if we’re gonna watch a horror movie when you sleep over later tonight” omg rowena & serafina girltime au?? (Lol sorry)

Oooooh the dynamo’s busted I wonder what thaaat meeeaannnssss (hehehe)

Biltmore being one of the few homes to have electricity is a nice reminder of the time period

“she’d been trying to follow [her pa’s] rules at least some of the time” lol

“Spotting an upholstered chair she felt an overwhelming desire to run her fingernails over the plush fabric” REAL

Her being shocked at flower vases & the idea of flowers INSIDE the house is so funny

Awwww poor sera, looking for her momma and siblings everywhere…

Serafina is super smart. just putting that out there. She’s brilliant and I love her

Oop the first description of Edith Vanderbilt kinda gives chatgpt-generated ngl (obviously it wasn’t bc it predates chatgpt & shitty ai writing generators, & this book is SO MUCH BETTER than anything an AI could generate regardless) 

“A refined and attractive woman, Mrs. Vanderbilt had a pale complexion and a full head of dark hair, and she seemed at ease in her role of hostess as she moved through the room.” Idk what about this makes me think “AI generated” but it just DOES

“Serafina loved to climb the tapestries at night and run her fingernails down through the soft fabric” AGAIN SHES SO REAL FOR THIS

OHOHOHO MR THORNE NAMEDROP:

“I’m sure that most of you already know Mr. Montgomery Thorne,”… Mrs. Vanderbilt said with a gentle sweep of her arm toward a gentleman. “He has graciously offered to play [the violin] for us today.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Vanderbilt,” Mr. Thorne said with a smile as he stepped forward. ... To Serafina, who’d been listening to Biltmore’s visitors her entire life, he didn’t sound like he came from the mountains of North Carolina, or from New York like the Vanderbilts. He spoke with the accent of a southern gentleman, maybe from Georgia or South Carolina.”

Serafina having an eye for fashion was NOT what I was expecting from this reread lol (she describes mr t’s outfit then says “all of which she thought went nicely with his silvery-black hair and perfectly trimmed sideburns”)

Hmmm interesting she actually sympathizes with/likes mr Thorne at first?? I did nOT recall that

Lol serafina liking to watch mr Thorne’s fingers move as he plays and wanting to pounce on them is so Cat of her

OMG BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN

Apparently he looks “sickly, a little frail even” which I do not recall, but hes also got “watchful, sensitive brown eyes” and “a rather fetching tussle of wavy brown hair”

“Are you lost?” WE GOT IT WE GOT THE LINE but more importantly we got the NEXT LINE which is “May I help you find your way?” And hes described as not timid or shy but also not overly confident which I LOVE (fun fact this line is very similar to one of the characters of my other favorite kid’s book series, Keefe Sencen’s “you must be lost” line)

Lol Braeden always sharing his food with Gideon annoys the chefs i LOVE him

OMG HE BOWS TO HER WHEN SHE GIVES HIM HIS NAME LIKE SHE’S A PROPER LADY!!!!! MEN!!!! TAKE NOTES!!!!!! THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE!!!

Name drop at last, missing girl’s name is Clara Brahms. Honestly I’m a little sad Clara isnt a recurring character later on. Braeden, Serafina, and Clara could’ve been a good trio 

OOOOHH “She had heard the servants in the kitchen joke that their master must have secretly found the Fountain of Youth” what a NICE SET UP for how the black cloak keeps people young & serafina’s suspicion of mr Vanderbilt

Mr Vanderbilt: *wears dress shoes to go riding*

serafina: criminal activity right there. Lock him up

This was my favorite chapter so far, probably because it introduces us to so many different characters and moving parts. I like Mr. Vanderbilt a lot more than I remember (as a historical figure now that I know more about him & also as a character) and Braeden is, of course, perfect in every way.

[indiejones]

THE 236 GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN THE ENTIRE KNOWN HISTORY/COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS WORLD! (@INDIES)

ie. THE 236 GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN WORLD HISTORY! (@INDIES)

Rajesh Khanna

Lionel Messi

Leonardo Da Vinci

Online Indie

Muhammad Ali

Joan of Arc

William Shakespeare

Vincent Van Gogh

J. K. Rowling

David Lean

Nadia Comaneci

Diego Maradona

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Meena Kumari

Julius Caesar

Harrison Ford

Ludwig Van Beethoven

William W. Cargill

Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche

Samuel Curtis Johnson

Sam Walton

John D. Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie

Roy Thomson

Tim Berners-Lee

Marie Curie

James J. Hill

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Roman Polanski

Samuel Slater

J. P. Morgan

Cary Grant

Dmitri Mendeleev

John Harvard

Alain Delon

Ramakrishna Paramhansa (Official God)

The Lumiere Brothers, Auguste & Louis

Carl Friedrich Benz

Michelangelo

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Ramana Maharishi

Mark Twain

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri

Bruce Lee

Bhagwan Krishna (Official God)

Charlemagne

Rene Descartes

John F. Kennedy

Bhagwan Ganesha (Official God)

Walt Disney

Albert Einstein

Nikola Tesla

Alfred Hitchcock

Pythagoras

William Randolph Hearst

Cosimo de’ Medici

Johann Sebastian Bach

Alec Guinness

Nostradamus

Christopher Plummer

Archimedes

Jackie Chan

Guru Dutt

Amma Karunamayi/ Mata Parvati (Official God)

Peter Sellers

Gerard Depardieu

Joseph Safra

Robert Morris

Sean Connery

Petr Kellner

Aristotle Onassis

Usain Bolt

Jack Welch

Alfredo di Stefano

Elizabeth Taylor

Michael Jordan

Paul Muni

Steven Spielberg

Louis Pasteur

Ingrid Bergman

Norma Shearer

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Ayn Rand

Jesus Christ (Official God)

Luciano Pavarotti

Alain Resnais

Frank Sinatra

Allah (Official God)

Richard Nixon

Charlie Chaplin

Thomas Alva Edison

Alexander Graham Bell

Wright Brothers

Arjun (of Bhagwan Krishna’s Gita)

Jim Simons

George Lucas

Swami Sri Lahiri Mahasaya

Carl Lewis

Brett Favre

Helen Keller

Bernard Mannes Baruch

Buddha (Official God)

Hugh Grant

K. L. Saigal

Roger Federer

Rash Behari Bose

Tiger Woods

William Blake

Jesse Owens

Claude Miller

Bernardo Bertolucci

Subhash Chandra Bose

Satyajit Ray

Hippocrates

Chiang Kai-Shek

John Logie Baird

Geeta Dutt

Raphael (painter)

Bhagwan Shiva (Official God)

Radha (Ancient Krishna devotee)

George Orwell

Jorge Paulo Lemann

Catherine Deneuve

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Bill Gates

Bhagwan Ram (Official God)

Michael Phelps

Michael Faraday

Audrey Hepburn

Dalai Lama

Grace Kelly

Mikhail Gorbachev

Vladimir Putin

Galileo Galilei

Gary Cooper

Roger Moore

John Huston

Blaise Pascal

Humphrey Bogart

Rudyard Kipling

Samuel Morse

Wayne Gretzky

Yogi Berra

Barry Levinson

Patrice Chereau (director)

Jerry Lewis

Louis Daguerre

James Watt

Henri Rousseau

Nikita Krushchev

Jack Dorsey

Dev Anand

Elia Kazan

Alexander Fleming

David Selznick

Frank Marshall

Viswanathan Anand

Major Dhyan Chand

Swami Vivekananda

Felix Rohatyn

Sam Spiegel

Anand Bakshi

Victor Hugo

Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Official God)

Steve Jobs

Srinivasa Ramanujam

Lord Hanuman

Stanley Kubrick

Giotto

Voltaire

Diego Velazquez

Ernest Hemingway

Francis Ford Coppola

Michael Douglas

Kirk Douglas

Mario Lemieux

Kishore Kumar

James Stewart

Douglas Fairbanks

Confucius

Babe Ruth

Raj Kapoor

Titian aka Tiziano Vecelli

El Greco

Francisco de Goya

Jim Carrey

Mohammad Rafi

Steffi Graf

Pele

Gustave Courbet

Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi

Milos Forman

Steve Wozniak

Georgia O’ Keeffe

Mala Sinha

Aryabhatta

Magic Johnson

Patanjali

Leo Tolstoy

Tansen

Henry Fonda

Albrecht Durer

Benazir Bhutto

Cal Ripken Jr

Samuel Goldwyn

Mumtaz (actress)

Panini

Nicolaus Copernicus

Pablo Picasso

George Clooney

Olivia de Havilland

Prem Chand

Imran Khan

Pete Sampras

Ratan Tata

Meerabai (16th c. Krishna devotee)

Queen Elizabeth II

Pope John Paul II

James Cameron

Jack Ma

Warren Buffett

Romy Schneider

C. V. Raman

Aung San Suu Kyi

Benjamin Netanyahu

Frank Capra

Michael Schumacher

Steve Forbes

Paramhansa Yogananda

Tom Hanks

Kamal Amrohi

Hans Holbein

Shammi Kapoor

Gerardus Mercator

Edith Piaf

Bhagwan Shirdi Sai Baba (Official God) .

[journeydb]

July 7 2022 Asheville NC and Denver CO

We visited The Biltmore Estate this morning, which is a major tourist attraction and resort in Asheville.  According to Wikipedia 

“Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States.  Still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants, it remains one of the most prominent examples of Gilded Age mansions.

In the 1880s... George Washington Vanderbilt II began to make regular visits with his mother, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt, to the Asheville area. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to build a summer house in the area, which he called his "little mountain escape". His older brothers and sisters had built luxurious summer houses in places such as Newport, Rhode Island, the Gold Coast of Long Island, and Hyde Park, New York.

Vanderbilt named his estate Biltmore, combining De Bilt (his ancestors' place of origin in the Netherlands) with more (mōr, Anglo-Saxon for "moor", an open, rolling land).  Vanderbilt bought nearly 700 parcels of land, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries; a portion of the estate was once the community of Shiloh.  A spokesperson for the estate said in 2017 that archives show much of the land "was in very poor condition, and many of the farmers and other landowners were glad to sell.”

Construction of the house began in 1889. In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite. A three-mile railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. Construction on the main house required the labor of about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons. Vanderbilt made extensive trips overseas during construction to purchase decor. He returned to North Carolina with thousands of furnishings for his newly built home, including tapestries, hundreds of carpets, prints, linens, and decorative objects, dating from the 15th century to the late 19th century. Among the few American-made items were the more practical oak drop-front desk, rocking chairs, a walnut grand piano, bronze candlesticks, and a wicker wastebasket.

George Vanderbilt opened his opulent estate on Christmas Eve of 1895 to family and friends from across the country, who were encouraged to enjoy leisure and country pursuits. The Gilded Age mansion reportedly cost $5 million (today's equivalent of $180 million) to construct. Guests to the estate over the years included novelists Edith Wharton and Henry James, ambassadors Joseph Hodges Choate and Larz Anderson, and U.S. presidents. George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898 in Paris, France. Their only child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born at Biltmore in the Louis XV room in 1900, and grew up at the estate

Stressed by Congressional passage of income tax and the expensive maintenance of the estate, Vanderbilt initiated the sale of 87,000 acres to the federal government. After Vanderbilt's unexpected death in 1914 of complications from an emergency appendectomy, his widow completed the sale. She carried out her late husband's wish that the land remain pristine, and that property became the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest.  Overwhelmed with running the large estate, Edith began consolidating her interests, selling Biltmore Estate Industries in 1917 and Biltmore Village in 1921. She intermittently occupied the house, living in an apartment created in the former Bachelors' Wing, until the marriage of her daughter Cornelia to John Francis Amherst Cecil in April 1924. The Cecils had two sons, who were born at Biltmore in the same room where their mother was born.

In an attempt to bolster the estate's finances during the Great Depression, Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930 at the request of the City of Asheville, which hoped to revitalize the area with tou rism. Biltmore closed during World War II. In 1942, 62 paintings and 17 sculptures were moved to the estate by train from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to protect them in the event of an attack on the United States. The Music Room on the first floor was never finished, so it was used for storage until 1944, when the possibility of an attack became more remote. 

After the Cecils divorced in 1934, Cornelia left the estate never to return, but John Cecil maintained his residence in the Bachelors' Wing until his death in 1954. Their eldest son, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, occupied rooms in the wing until 1956. At that point Biltmore House ceased to be a family residence and was operated as a historic house museum.

Their younger son William A. V. Cecil, Sr. returned to the estate in the late 1950s and partnered with his brother to manage the estate's financial trouble. They worked to create the profitable and self-sustaining enterprise that their grandfather had envisioned. William Cecil inherited the estate upon the death of their mother, Cornelia, in 1976. His brother George Cecil inherited the more profitable dairy farm, which was spun off as Biltmore Farms.”

Down in the basement one of the most interesting things about the house museum was this display about the building of the mansion.

Some of the artwork on the walls, which was done by guests during a party, was amazing!

As a gardener, my favorite parts of the estate were the gardens and the greenhouse.

So, the question just begs to be asked.  What made the Vanderbilt family so exceedingly RICH?  Cornelius Vanderbilt came from a middle class family.  His father was a farmer but also started a shipping business.  Cornelius borrowed money from his father to start his first ventures in trading and ferrying, especially military troops and supplies.  From that success he build an empire in the railroad industry.  But was he TRULY a “self-made man” as so many industrialists were claimed to be?  Looking it the history during those years there were many other factors working in their favor. 

 According to the Grunge history website:

“After all, this was the Industrial Revolution; it wasn't really kind to the everyday worker. Low wages and horrific working conditions were just part of the era (via Legends of America). And that was true of the railroads, too; according to The Atlantic, the normal wage for a man working on the railroad was a pitiful 75 cents a day. That's next to nothing, especially compared to the millions in the pocket of the Vanderbilt family. It also feels like it lines up with something that Vanderbilt's son, William Henry Vanderbilt, said to the press: "The public be damned." They only really cared about their stockholders and investments,

Basically, the government wasn't really on the side of the working class; they definitely sided with corporations. As History explains, the government worked to keep foreign competition out of the picture, giving industrialists the chance to create monopolies while facing few consequences. (Honestly, maybe that's also because plenty of politicians were easily bribed, gladly helping out their friends with deepest pockets, making sure legislation favored big business over the everyday worker).

And even where rampant corruption wasn't involved, there was ignorance. Encyclopedia.com says that Cornelius Vanderbilt wasn't above manipulating the stock market as he saw fit, he and other business owners selling stocks at inflated and unwarranted prices, simply because the government regulation wasn't there to tell them to stop.”

And they also paid LITTLE TO NO TAXES!  Unfortunately, it sounds like not a lot has changed since the “Gilded Age”.  Yes, there are some regulations and controls on industry and corporations, but most of them aren’t strong enough to prevent monopolies and mistreatment of employees.  Just look at Amazon, Google and Meta (formerly Facebook).  And they are the biggest, but there are MANY other multi-national corporations monopolizing industries and union-busting so that they can maximize their profits.  That’s unbridled CAPITALISM for you, combined with political corruption, patriarchy, and GREED. The world has been plagued by this for centuries, if not millenia.  If you don’t believe me, read “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari.  It doesn’t have to be this way and many believe that a complete overhaul of the political and economic systems worldwide, as well as advancing feminism, would go a long way towards creating a truly egalitarian society.  I’m among those people. 

Bruce and I left North Carolina this afternoon to finish our vacation in Denver.  We realized that if we contracted COVID we would be stuck at the Omni with NO ROOM SERVICE and no ability to leave to get food.  Don’t ask me why that never occurred to us but seeing all those people not wearing masks was a wake up call and we hightailed it back to Colorado, where we checked into the Four Seasons Hotel, which has room service and is close enough to drive home at a moment’s notice.