#facts about scotland

[redfroog]

Fun Fact 74: Scotland chose the unicorn as its national animal. In Celtic mythology, the unicorn is connected with both chivalry and dominance as well as purity and innocence.

[liamlawsonlesbian]

me, getting ready for work: man I have so much to do today, better get to the office and get cracking

me, seated at my desk, staring blankly at desktop monitor: what if I started calling charles “bonnie prince charlie” for the bit

[the-busy-ghost]

So it was that Jonathan Strange spent half of every year of his childhood at Mr Erquistoune's house in Charlotte-square in Edinburgh, where, it is to be presumed, he learnt to hold no very high opinion of his father. There he received his early education in the company of his three cousins, Margaret, Maria, and Georgiana Erquistoune. Edinburgh is certainly one of the most civilized cities in the world and the inhabitants are full as clever and as fond of pleasure as those of London. Whenever he was with them Mr and Mrs Erquistoune did everything they could to make him happy, hoping in this way to make up for the neglect and coldness he met with at his father's house. And so it is not to be wondered at if he grew up a little spoilt, a little fond of his own way and a little inclined to think well of himself.

"Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell", by Susanna Clarke

(The west end of Charlotte Square, Wikimedia Commons)

[a-luran]

please talk about scoteng toño my crops are dying and my tea grows cold

Astro noo ;A; yer tea!!! your crops... I am sorry it has been so long. Please take some historical thoughts with my contrition:

---

After the Battle of Otterburn, 1388 AD

-

It is worth less than its waning weight in gold; a waxing sun held in the palm of Alasdair's hand.

"Here," he says and means go. Go south, go home.

Arthur does not move to take it, hands lying limp between his thighs, shoulders splintered under the weight of his coat. He is ash-stained and ashen, the beds of his nails torn and packed with dirt. His knuckles are bruised and split, the wheat-gold of his hair lying limp and muddy, weighed down with sweat and another man's blood. Alasdair is not bearing up much better but at least he is on his feet.

The stench of shit and fear is so thick in the air he'll smell it with every step he takes from here to Stirling.

Arthur stands slowly, like it costs him. For a moment Alasdair thinks his left knee might give, bring him low again, but it holds. He forgets, sometimes, how young Arthur is in the eyes of men. He wonders what they might see in him; if it is anything like the child Alasdair knew before the compulsion to the wills of others made them cruel.

Arthur takes a step, finds his footing, and spits blood on the ground between his feet. Alasdair thinks he might have been aiming for his hand but he can't be sure. Arthur's eyes are dim and slow and it might figure that some of the blood dripping down from his temple is his.

He tries to knock past Alasdair and trips over his own feet when their shoulders meet. Alasdair grabs him by the arm to right him and shoves him forward before Arthur can shake him off. Arthur catches himself against a the ruins of a wall and Alasdair does not know what is worse, the tang of iron in the air or the pit in his chest.

Arthur is sick against the stones, shoulders heaving with the effort, and Alasdair fights the surge of pity in his gut. Arthur pants, coughs, spits again. Alasdair waits it out before reaching for him again, fisting Arthur's cloak with one hand thumping the other against his chest.

Arthur's chin drops to his sternum, an unreadable look on his face. Alasdair hates him, and loves him, and wants to see him gone from this place.

"Arthur." His voice is ragged, hoarse, and barely above a whisper. Speaking Arthur's name is the closest he will ever come to pleading.

He will never know what chit he bargains against Arthur's pride that day but finally, awkwardly, Arthur reaches up to brush his fingers against the back of the fist on his sternum.

Alasdair palms him he coin with halting fingers, hands brushing skin-warm and coarse, and only lets go of Arthur's shoulder when he is sure that he's tucked it away safely. Then he steps away.

Arthur goes without a word, heading south and away. Alasdair lingers, looks west, chasing after the sun and away from the embers that still burn to the east.

It is only long after Arthur has gone and he turns north that he thinks he would have liked to hear the sound of his voice.

[calamitys-child]

Bought and sold and traded so many fantastic zines this weekend and honestly my favourite interaction I had was with a very shy but very very determined kid who asked politely if I'd like to trade them one of my angry political transgender poems for some drawings they did in class. I will treasure it forever it was so cute this kid has such a fun scrappy art style and I look forward to seeing them at future zine fairs with more little drawings. Weird queer accessible inclusive art fairs you have my heart always and forever 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

[philcoulsonismyhero]

I keep getting rejected from conventions that I've been doing for multiple years this year and I heard on Friday that I didn't get Scotland Comic Con, which I've relied on for the last two years to be able to pay my fucking rent over the winter when there's no events, and it makes me want to scream because what the fuck am I supposed to do about it?? I'm making new stuff reasonably regularly, I make really good sales when I get into cons, I go out of my way to be reliable and show up on time and do everything they want exhibitors to do, and it's just flat rejection after flat rejection, sometimes without even the courtesy of a spot on a waiting list or a cursory 'sorry, we got a lot of applicants and we've got limited space'.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I don't think I even am doing anything wrong, I'm just getting repeatedly fucked over by event organisers who just see me as a way of increasing their own ticket sales rather than a human being trying to make a living.

And, like, part of me gets that I've been doing this for a while and folks who are new to it deserve a chance to get a foot in the door, but my ability to be charitable runs out when the biggest convention in the country decides no, we don't have enough room in our fuck-off huge venue for everyone so bye, fuck you, that ~15% of your yearly income that you rely on making at this con is just going up in smoke.

I like doing conventions, I'm good at it and it's fun, but it's getting Really Fucking Stressful to have my ability to eat and pay bills decided increasingly arbitrarily by the same five events companies who don't seem to give the slightest shit about anyone.

And I don't know what to do about it because the reason I'm doing this is because I'm too fucking autistic to get a real job, and I got kicked to the kerb by the benefits lot a few years ago because that system's fucking broken too, and the more effort I put in the less work I seem to actually get and frankly I want to fucking break something

[fellshish]

Sigh. Resigned myself to all the he’s scottish notifications i’m going to get

[alighted-willow]

Whilst I avoid both going to bed and my academics, I thought it a good time to say that when an American says they're “restoring a language” or “of X ethnicity”, they don’t mean they're from X. They know their nationality, they know where they were born, that's not the point.

When someone says they're Irish and are from America, it's just shorthand for “Irish American”. We put everything in a shortened form here because we all know what we mean and collectively remove redundancy.

When we say we're learning Z language because we're X, we don't mean it in terms of exoticism. The only people who do that are ignorant kids and folks who are going through a cultural/identity crisis. The rest of us are trying to learn these languages because our predecessors lost them or had them trained out. It is a dead language to us because these parts of us have been killed off, that's why it's a revival.

While I do research, I often hear people say something around the lines that “You are where you're from, not where your predecessors are from” which is true, to a certain extent. I am an American, a U.S. citizen. If U.S. culture was a bit more similar to how most other places in the world did it, I would say that I was from X state, an Xian. Here, though, we are more defined by our subcultures; little pockets of pooling culture brought in from where we originally hale.

This probably wouldn’t be the case if most of us had come here out of a desire to be here rather than having been forced out of our homelands. My family came here around 1930 and our records say it was because of food insecurity caused by a failed crop (and a surprise frost). The folks who settled the U.S.? Genocidal assholes, fuck 'em.

But back to the point. When someone says they're trying to get in touch with their culture— we're not trying to be you. We're trying to get back what was forced out of the people before us in order to survive over here. Our families came here with what they had and our culture has changed throughout the years. St. Patrick's day is odd (especially since Patrick was colonizing Ireland) and is over the top; that is the point. Not a single one of us thinks that to be Irish is to be bathed in clovers, downing alcohol, and belting about rainbows. It's a noxious, loud, proud declaration that we're still here. It is, at least by its origins, a public protest.

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

alright i have a mild dilemna that i need advice on

on my course we have to post these weekly self-reflection things responding to the themes of the week's class and some questions about it. i posted last week's and yesterday the course convenor replied to it in a way that implies i was wrong (in my SELF reflection) and just generally misunderstands my point/takes it in bad faith. i've shown these posts to others on the course and they agree that my original post adressed the things her reply asks about and that she has misinterpreted me, in quite a "cheeky" way

my issue now is: do i reply and try to explain myself better? or is it better to just let it go?

i don't want to dig myself in deeper if she's really opposed to my viewpoint, but at the same time i do feel like i answered the questions thoroughly in the first place and the things she's accusing me of aren't fair

[afishwithamoustache]

feesh

when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers/mutuals (positivity is cool)

[the-busy-ghost]

The fact that there has never been an In Our Time episode devoted to Aelred of Rievaulx is bizarre to me, out of all the subjects that are tailor made for that programme and its interests, as well as the specific background of its host, I mean come on

[wulv3r]

fr tho putting all the celtic dispora "okay but if we once THIS battle it woulda been DIFFERENT" energy into robb. he's therapy lol

[mariocki]

Inspector Morley, Late of Scotland Yard, Investigates: The Case of the Scarlet Letters (1.3, WGN-TV, 1952)

"Mr. Mullins, I have in my possession sixty-eight letters, none of which has begun to outlive its usefulness. I'm quite prepared to admit that blackmail is risky, but then murder has its disadvantages too - that is why I gave up murder."

[forlibcrty]

this is not remotely related to this blog. but. ever since i saw the trailer for mary & george, i have been on pins and needles to know whether they'd address the pup play thing. and i finally found a place to watch it and i'm SO happy to report that they do.

[rainingincale]

.

[thedreadvampy]

Ohhhhh my god I'm getting shit from outside the Comms team about not posting anything for black history month last year and I'm like my guy. we are a 200-person organisation with to my knowledge like 2 Black employees? and less than 10 people of colour in paid employment overall? maybe we should get our own fucking house in order before we start distracting from people who are actually doing something useful in the racial justice arena?????

like don't get me wrong overall my organisation does a lot of good work. but both our staff base and to my knowledge (although slightly less) our client base are pretty overwhelmingly white. and that's not a good thing so given that from this position anything we do put out about racial justice is basically hollow posturing with nothing to back it up maybe we should shut the fuck up until we have something of worth to say?

Let's uhhhh. not get on the soapbox about tackling racism when our own racial justice situation is a fucking embarrassment. Edinburgh is pretty white - 91.7% - but our organisation is, at my most generous estimate, more than 95% white people, and I don't think there's a single person of colour at even junior management level. half the people of colour in our organisation work as cafe assistants or PAs for fuck's sake, they're getting paid the bottom of the pay scale, and even with that we can't muster as many as 10 non white employees.

I just. Argh. We can be a voice in the sector on LGBTQ issues, gendered violence, neurodiversity and disability because we are PUTTING THE WORK IN TO IMPROVE ON THESE THINGS. but nothing gets me madder quicker than people thinking all we need to do to be a racially just organisation is to say the right words and post on social media about racism bad. nah man we have to actually back that up by DOING BETTER.