#i have a bridge to sell you

[olena]

"I have a bridge to sell you."

George C. Parker (March 16, 1860[1] – 1936) was an American con man best known for his repeated successes "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge. He made his living conducting illegal sales of property he did not own, often New York's public landmarks, to unwary immigrants. The Brooklyn Bridge was the subject of several of his transactions, predicated on the notion of the buyer controlling access to the bridge. Police removed several of his victims from the bridge as they tried to erect toll booths.

If you've ever heard the phrase "[if you believe that], I have a bridge to sell you" (meaning someone is gullible) — this is where it originates.

Some sources like to say that George sold the bridge as often as twice a week, one time for $50,000. (Unverified)

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"GETS THREE-YEAR SENTENCE IN 'GOLD-BRICK' FRAUD CASE," Toronto Star. September 29, 1933. Page 1. --- Mussolino Goes to Penitentiary - Pat Bruno 18 Mos., Emmanuel Three ---- THEY GOT $1,500 ---- The three men found guilty of conspiracy and false pretence in the "gold-brick" case received sentences in general sessions to-day.

The charges were conspiracy and defrauding a young man of $1,500.

Antonio Mussolino was sentenced to three years in Kingston penitentiary on each of three counts, concurrent.

Patrick Bruno, found guilty on two counts, was given eighteen months in Ontario reformatory on each, concurrent.

Emmanuel Bruno, found guilty of conspiracy and strongly recommended to mercy by the jury, was sentenced to three months at the jail farm.

Judge Parker imposed the sentences in place of Judge Widdifield, who sustained an accident subsequent to the trial. His honor told Mussolino he was taking into consideration the intimation restitution of $1,133 was to be made.

"Otherwise," said his honor, "you were fiable to be sentenced to seven years."

During the trial three "gold- bricks" used by the accused to deceive were sawn apart, and experts found an alloy of copper, brass and other metals. semblance striking. to They said the re- genuine gold was

[Mussolini appealed his term but lost out and had his conviction confirmed. He was 49, single, born in Calabria, and had served terms at Burwash Industrial Farm and the Toronto Jail Farm. He was convict #3220 at Kingston Penitentiary and worked in the tin and paint shop. He was released in November 1935, having earned his full 'good time.']

[distortedplatinum]

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY FE3H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Putting them into funger because it's my current brainrot.

hds under the cut

[estebanbicon]

don't tell me yall still believe random anons claiming shit 😭 have yall learnt nothing from the horner does coke, and alonso and his gf are swingers asks lmao

[crimsonmonsoon]

If you can’t tell I am entirely obsessed with this guy

[yellowocaballero]

At this point you've written at least four different roleswap AUs, so I was wondering if you had any thoughts or takes about how a roleswap AU should be? - someone who's planning on making a roleswap AU

Please don't remind me. I'm embarrassed about this. I know I need to write other things. I don't know why the AU concept is so incredibly fun to write. I can't explain it. Roleswaps are very easy to write and a lot of fun and involve being a freak about everything. Who wouldn't write 10 of those bitches.

But yes, as someone whose roleswap AUs are like 9 out of her 51 fics, I feel qualified to talk about this. These are just my own opinions and takes, and other people might do it differently - if you write roleswaps too, feel free to add in your two cents!!

Before sitting down to write literally anything I always figure out the rules of the story. Writing is little more than a nonstop series of decisions, and if you abide by the rules of your story or characters then your decisions will be coherent and cohesive. By rules I don't mean worldbuilding - I mean the internal logic of the story and the characters. "X character will never explicitly say how he's feeling" or "the leads have to both win and lose every encounter".

I find establishing writing rules for roleswaps especially important - it's figuring out exactly how the roleswap works. Here are the ones that I find important, and kind of the process:

Decide what is swapped. Is it more of a universal swap, personality swap, backstory swap, chronology swap, or alignment swap? No matter which one you choose, all of these things are probably going to change anyway, but there has to be one central point for each character that guides your decisions. Are you actually swapping the narrative role in the story, or are you just changing it? You have to be really precise and have a very good idea of what exactly is swapped, and it has to be consistent throughout the story. It can't just (just) work on what you'd like to see, it has to be exactly the same between characters.

Decide the point of divergence. Sometimes that point is pretty abstract (She's a teenager in the 90s instead of the 20s). Sometimes it's much more specific, just one moment (He developed his superpowers at this moment instead of that). The point doesn't have to be immediately obvious, but you should know it - I did a backstory swap ages ago, and it seemed like a complete change, but like 150k in I dropped that a character dropped out of the police academy instead of completing it and that her entire life changed from there. If the swap is more abstract, then maybe it's just a series of smaller decisions - character A has these seminal points in his story, and I'm swapping him with character B, so here's what character B did during these seminal points instead, and how it changed him and his narrative.

Decide who the character is. This might be more personal, but for me, I think of the character as...there is a central tenet of them, of who they are as a person, that does not change no matter what. That's three or four traits of who they are, that you will not change, and that's what makes their swapped life their own instead of the OG dude's. But there's a lot of traits and behaviors around that core personality that's the result of their environment, backstory, and experiences. That's what should change. It's about figuring out how these essential traits + what is swapped + the point of divergence = an entirely different character and story. The roleswap you'll end up with will be a combination of all of these things: how the essential aspects of a character mix with what's swapped to create an entirely new environment and set of behaviors, which cause a chain reaction to create something new. As a writer, you sit down and say, "I'm keeping these parts of the character, I'm swapping out those parts, this new mix changes these points in their backstory, this results in this new person".

This is more of a guideline, but it's the most important to me: your characters have to be recognizable as the character. The reader shouldn't go, "this OC is making some weird choices". The reader should go, "I don't know how, because he's the exact opposite of his canon self in every possible way, but somehow he still feels like my favorite character". This is why you isolate those basic traits before changing the rest - so long as your character is still who they are deep inside, then they still feel like that character. And that's the fun of the story. You're selling something insane, and the reader is buying it.

It's a lot of really heavy character work. You have to really understand the characters you're writing - the less I get the original character, the more issues I'm perpetually having. I tend to fly fast and loose with characterizations, but when writing roleswaps I have to refer back to canon and the source material a lot ("In canon he did X thing, with his newly different backstory how would that decision change?"). The more you're rooted in canon, then the funkier and more divergent you can get.

Personally, I like to play a fun little game I call: how exactly opposite can I make this character until he stops feeling like this character? I Sometimes my goal in writing is "how deeply can I ruin this story". This is not a good game and people should not play it. I find that the lazier I get about getting in touch with the canon character, about keeping track of the canon decisions, and about following these guidelines, then the more difficult a story is to write. If you structure a story well then it's easy to write, and roleswaps are pretty easy. Thanks for the question!

[ehlnofay]

@lemon-embalmer I need you to know that these tags made me laugh out loud. best most succinct description of her character in the world

[chronotopes]

This was a mistake I’m gonna throw up

[minorfamilysupremacy]

quick note: if you're turning on build due to the most recent chat leaks, do me a favor and unfollow, then learn critical thinking skills and ask yourself why you're happily playing into the hands of a known liar and abuser.

[the-physicality]

c*thy and chr*stie are the same in that they will both get labeled "successful" for what happened under their "leadership" but at the end of the day all the good things that happened happened in spite of them.

[wewontbesleeping]

if i had a nickel for every time taylor swift was friends with a trump supporter named britany, i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"CONSPIRACY VERDICT IN GOLD-BRICK CASE," Toronto Star. September 22, 1933. Page 3. --- Mercy Is Recommended for Emmanuel Bruno ---- Antonio Mussolino, Patrick Bruno and Emmanuel Bruno were found guilty of conspiring to defraud in connection with the sale of three alleged "gold bricks" for $1,500, by a jury in general session before Judge Widdifield yesterday. The jury's verdict, returned after an hour's deliberation, brought a six-day trial to a close.

Coupled with their verdict was a strong recommendation for mercy toward Emmanuel Bruno.

On a second count of obtaining $1,500 by false pretences with intent to defraud, Antonio Mussolino and Patrick Bruno were found guilty. Mussolino was also convicted on a third count of fraud.

[danthropologie]

ralf: checo is out (everyone reblogs) also ralf: max gets to choose his next teammate and it's going to be lando (we do not see it) lol

we're allowed to pick and choose our delusions just as much as ralf does <3

[spring-ephemeral]

i'll be honest the simple fact that i'm not extremely neurotic about death and dying makes like 90% of rat and rat-adj posts completely incomprehensible to me, although the specific ones implying that this must mean I am either just coping, haven't had enough experience with death/haven't actually thought enough about it or am a terrible person for this are kinda funny. a) stop assuming shit about my life but also b) i earnestly just can't bring myself to care. That's the entirety of it.

[theothervonkarmagirl]

Like father like son then. you know considering outside adopting Corrin we don't hear much of dadmeragi completely unrelated to blog I apologize I'm starting to wonder if he was a terrible I almost want to say deadbeat dad too. for something not related Clara advice for if you get spanked. think calming thoughts don't pretend it won't happen it will hurt more.

🍭:

Now as a dad, it seems like as far as kings go, Sumeragi was pretty involved with his kids and tried to raise them properly. They all have fond memories of him and respect him as a person, not just because he was their father. I think he was kind to them, for the most part.

Now as a husband I think he was a dog lmaoo

Mikoto was a side chick at first, he had a whole side chick while the mother of his children's b ODY WAS STILL WARM! HE MOVED HER INTO THE HOUSE!!!

They hadn't even buried the woman and he was sleeping with Mikoto, ok, he was a dog for that.

(Which personally, to me, means he was not a good dad because you're disrespecting the mother and the kids are seeing it, so you're not really doing a service to your children. But you know. Royalty and samurai and shit. People turned away.

I still think that was messed up though lol.)

[pervertyandere]

bitch what the fuck is an irl yandere