#ii. ｢ sarah wilder. ｣

[sakialumei]

Look at that, I'm a vlogger!

I made a video about Rhysand from ACOTAR and how certain aspects of his (lack of) character development wasted a lot of potential.

PLEASE mind the CWs at the beginning of the video. Thanks!

[solisaureus]

Everything I Hate About Rick Riordan's Interpretation of the Hunters of Artemis

I believe that Rick Riordan has good intentions and that he has done a lot to promote inclusivity in YA fantasy, both at a fictional representation level and at a level of authorial diversity. However, he has fumbled the ball numerous times in his writing, and my biggest complaint against him is his handling of the Hunters of Artemis. So I wrote an essay on everything I hate about it.

Part I: Mythological context

Artemis is the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, nature, unwed maidens, animals, archery, childbirth, and other domains. She is known for keeping a company of nymphs and inhabiting the wilderness with them, giving rise to Riordan’s concept of the Hunters of Artemis.

Artemis is also famous for being a virgin goddess, vowing never to marry. The concepts of virginity and marriage in ancient times and the understanding we have of them today are quite different. Here is an excerpt describing Artemis (and Athena’s) status as virgin goddesses from Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity by Sarah Pomeroy:

“The Artemis of classical Greece probably evolved from the concept of a primitive mother goddess, and both she and her sister Athena were considered virgins because they had never submitted to a monogamous marriage. Rather, as befits mother goddesses, they had enjoyed many consorts. Their failure to marry, however, was misinterpreted as virginity by succeeding generations of men who connected loss of virginity only with conventional marriage. Either way, as mother goddess or as virgin, Artemis retains control over herself; her lack of permanent connection to a male figure in a monogamous relationship is the keystone of her independence.”

Note how this differs from modern Western concepts of marriage and virginity. Marriage, for a woman of antiquity, means a monogamous, submissive union with a man. A virgin, in the context of Artemis and her Hunters, is an unmarried, independent woman, not a woman who does not desire sex or romantic love. It is likely that Riordan, as a classics scholar, knows this.

Artemis was known to keep companions in the myths, both men and women. Orion is the most famous male companion of Artemis, and in some iterations of the myth he is a lover of Artemis. Another notable figure is the nymph Callisto, who was exiled from the Hunters after Zeus raped and impregnated her in Hesiod’s Astronomia. (According to Hyginus’s recounting of this story, Zeus seduced Callisto by disguising himself as Artemis, insinuating that Callisto and Artemis had been lovers). I assume this is where Riordan got the idea that becoming “smitten with boys” (The Titan’s Curse, p. 38) gets you kicked out of the Hunters.

Another known devotee to Artemis was Hippolytus. In the play Hippolytus by Euripides, the eponymous character (the son of Theseus with the Amazon Hippolyta), was enamored with the hunt and had no desire for marriage, worshipping Artemis as his patron. His disinterest in romance offended Aphrodite, and she cursed Theseus’s wife Phaedra to fall in love with Hippolytus. The rest of the play does not end well for either of them, but the important thing is that ancient Greek plays did acknowledge unmarried male devotees of Artemis. This, combined with the myth of Orion, confounds Riordan’s choice to interpret the Hunters as exclusively female.

Part II: Feminist separatism

So, given the existence of Orion and Hippolytus, where does the anti-men thing come from? One possible explanation is the story of Actaeon, who spied on Artemis while she was bathing, and was harshly punished for his indecency when Artemis transformed him into a deer and set his hunting dogs on him. But mythologically, the Hunters were not exclusive to women, and in a modern context, I think Riordan’s interpretation of them as such is inappropriate and irresponsible.

In the 1970s, there was a movement to form communities of exclusively lesbians who seek to escape patriarchal society by forming insular colonies, known as lesbian separatism. On a surface level, it might seem empowering — many lesbians and other women seek to escape the male gaze and heteronormative expectations, and making their own exclusive all-female social communities may seem like a utopian escape. But this movement was notoriously transphobic, with these lesbian separatist communities explicitly rejecting transgender women and relying on gender bioessentialism to determine who was “really” a woman or a lesbian. It was gatekeeping in its most radical form (Separatism by Andrew Matzner).

So for Riordan’s Hunters to model feminist separatism (except with celibate women instead of lesbians) is a similar TERF trap. It is never clarified in canon whether the female requirement for membership includes either closeted or out transgender women, or if the Hunters expel transgender men who come out after joining the Hunters. Given that the Hunters — a community of people who seek to reject conventional patriarchal society — would likely appeal to queer people of all ages, genders, and sexual identities, why is it exclusive to adolescent celibate girls?

Part III: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

In The Dark Prophecy, Riordan supplements the lore of his Hunters with a bombshell: female Hunters who fall in love with each other are expelled for breaking their oath of virginity. Emmie, who is Hemithea of ancient myth and had been a part of the Hunters for millennia, was excommunicated with her lover Jo, and they form a new life together in Indianapolis. This is described as a voluntary, heartwarming departure and a show of the two women’s commitment to each other.

The positive spin that Riordan puts on this story is shocking, considering the fact of the matter is that these characters were forced to choose between their family and their queer love. Losing one’s family, especially one that had been Emmie’s whole life for literal ages, as a result of coming out is a homophobic tragedy any way you look at it. How are we supposed to think positively of Artemis or the Hunters after seeing them cast out their own because of their lesbian relationship? Especially when LGBTQ homelessness as a result of this exact trauma is such a prominent problem?

Hell, in The Sun and the Star, Nico di Angelo expresses that his worst fear in coming out as gay was to be abandoned by his friends or ostracized by his community (p. 216, 219). Yet this is exactly what happened to Emmie and Jo when they came out in the Hunters. The fact that this outcome is acknowledged as terrifying and traumatic in The Sun and the Star makes it baffling that it’s framed as congenial and unavoidable in another Riordan book.

The fact that the Hunters are a militant force makes the expulsion of lesbians reminiscent of another notable LGBTQ rights issue: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). This American legislation, which was in effect from 1994 to 2011, prohibited openly gay, bisexual, or lesbian individuals from serving in the armed forces. It was acceptable to be closeted while serving, but disclosing one’s identity as lesbian, gay, or bisexual resulted in being discharged. The repeal of DADT in 2011 was seen as a major victory for LGBTQ rights in America…which makes it concerning that Riordan would implement the same policy for his fictional militia in a book that was published in 2017. And then portray it as positive and empowering.

Riordan doubling down on the “no romance allowed” aspect of his iteration of the Hunters by excluding lesbians from membership is a bizarre commitment to his misconstrued translation of the ancient Greek concept of virginity. Remember that Artemis’s vow of virginity was a commitment to independence and a rejection of marital submission to a man in a patriarchal society, not a condemnation of romance and sexuality. By this definition, virgins include lesbians, and it is ridiculous to construe two women’s romantic commitment to each other as violating the oath of virginity. Riordan’s choice to vilify lesbians in the Hunters was his choice, not an appropriate application of mythology. Considering that Artemis has been used as a relatable cultural icon for modern lesbians, this seems especially insidious.

Part IV: Asexual misrepresentation

Asexuality is a spectrum of queer identities which describe those that experience little to no sexual attraction to other people of any gender. Aromanticism is a related spectrum of queer identities entailing little to no romantic attraction or interest in other people of any gender. There is a very broad range of asexual and aromantic experiences, including those that overlap with other queer experiences, including lesbianism. Asexuality is not the same thing celibacy and aromanticism is not the same thing as being single. Rick Riordan does not seem to grasp this, construing his anti-romance portrayal of the Hunters as a haven for aromantic and/or asexual girls such as Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano.

While a community like the Hunters, with its emphasis on rejecting patriarchal, heteronormative standards, would certainly appeal to many aromantic and/or asexual individuals (as well as most other queer people), there are several issues with conflating the lifestyle of Riordan’s Hunters with asexuality/aromanticism.

First, the Hunters in this setting are exclusively young girls, with the oldest being Thalia Grace, who is 15. Feeding into the stereotype that asexual/aromantic people are immature and childish is hardly positive representation. Second, requisite celibacy is not the same thing as natural asexuality. In fact, I find the whole enforced celibacy, anti-romance thing weirdly Catholic and repressive for a group of people devoted to a Pagan goddess of nature and unconventional independence.

I will iterate it again, this is a reductive, ill-fitting application of the ancient concept of virginity that is associated with Artemis. It is valid for modern asexuals and aromantics to admire and relate to the mythology of Artemis, but Riordan’s misapplication of this association does a disservice to asexuals, aromantics, and queer community as a whole. Riordan’s Hunters feed the harmful, incorrect stereotype that asexuals and aromantics look down on all forms of romantic/sexual love (including queer love) and see themselves as superior to the culture of love and sex. This is not positive aromantic/asexual representation.

Part V: Alternative interpretations

With all of this said, the Hunters serve an important narrative role in Riordan’s stories and a lot of potential as an alternative life path for demigods. Abolishing the Hunters would do the story and its setting a disservice; but I believe they should’ve been written very differently.

The Hunters should maintain their core purpose of an uprooted existence, rejecting conventional society to connect with nature. They should provide community for those who are not served by the heteronormative, cisnormative patriarchy. This would include people of all ages, genders, and romantic/sexual identities. There should be an emphasis on solidarity among marginalized sexual and gender identities instead of overt hostility and gatekeeping.

Members of the Hunters should be discharged only when they decide to rejoin mainstream society or settle down with a lifestyle that is incompatible with the aforementioned purpose of the Hunters. I believe this structure would be far more empowering and liberating than what Riordan has envisioned.

[corazondebeskar-reads]

hold on easy - a "you know you never stood a chance" bonus

you know you never stood a chance series

bonus: hold on easy (a father's day/pride month special)

series masterlist

Joel Miller x f!reader

words: 2.9k

summary: joel miller spends father's day with (most) of his girls and the whole-but-broken pieced-together family he thought he'd never have. takes place about 1.5 years after the epilogue. (aka I'm a menace who cannot let these two go 😭)

warnings: discussions of father-daughter relationships, reader discusses her father, dead dads and dead daughters, grief, passing reference to era-typical bigotry, found family, implied smut but not explicit, Joel Miller is a Good Dad, technically tlou pt. ii spoilers but not really and the angsty events of the game never happen.

also on ao3

dividers by @saradika-graphics

You’re in the mess hall. All of you. Your whole goddamn family, minus one absentee sister and the daughter you never met, would never claim as your own, but hold a spot for in your heart regardless. But even as that heart aches for the first little girl you raised and the first little girl Joel raised, this, what you've managed to grab a hold of and keep amidst the end of the world, is still an overwhelming feeling.

You never thought you’d have this. Not in all your lifetime. 

There’s no real head of the table, not in the traditional sense, but fittingly, Maria’s sat there anyway. You sit to her left across from Alé, who is thankfully not too old at five to exchange silly faces between bites. Tommy sits beside her and across from Lulu. The girls usually sit beside one another or across, but Alé’s patience with your (almost) two-year-old has worn thin for the day. Understandably. 

Joel is on her other side, coaxing food into her mouth while she tries to babble at Ellie, whose patience has blessedly not worn thin, never does, even as she tries to listen to Dina, who’s trying to tell both Ellie and Jesse about her unsuccessful attempts to induce labor that morning. 

It’s been a very strange thing, Father’s Day. It was last year, too, but it was all still so surreal then. But your tiny baby is now a small person, no longer a squirming, shapeless swaddle but a little girl with her daddy’s eyes and scowl. 

But Father’s Day hadn’t been a day you or Joel liked to think about, not before Luna. You’d never talked about it, no siree, not when it was a veritable landmine of trauma and easily ignorable in the apocalypse, where days and months slurred together like watercolors oozing from a dirty brush. 

And now, somehow, you’re here. With people who understand your loss, a comfort swallowed down with a grimace like the crude liquor shared with Maria when you take a sharp moment to remember your fathers—a grief your flesh and blood sister had never understood, not really, having been too young when he passed. 

And with this man, who has a little girl calling him daddy again, and a not-so-little girl who says “Joel” in the same fond way. And maybe he never wanted this. Never wanted his heart pried forcibly open by this swarm of incessant people who inexplicably took one look at him and saw down to his bones. 

He thought he should feel worse today. That he should hurt the way he did last year, the way he had for twenty-odd years. For her. For the betrayal of loving another daughter—no, worse—daughters, like he was a greedy man unsatisfied with his first. Like he was scavenging still, out in the wilderness, tricking these nice folks into thinking he was more than a fraud and taking more than his fair share. 

But he doesn’t. Something in the last year has settled in his chest. Luna grew sturdier and Ellie started to shed the flight instinct, swapping it for one of his old coats, and finding ground to hold. He must have done the same, since you look at him less and less these days like something you need to commit to memory. 

And he thinks less and less these days about how Sarah would resent him for his new life when she would never have one and more about how much she would have adored her sisters. About how many more gray hairs he’d have if she and Ellie had met. 

How she’d have goaded Tommy into helping her tease him to death for being “over the hill” with a baby. 

So in the span of six years, you went from having no one to having a husband (the novelty hasn’t worn off yet, even if it feels a little silly), a brother and sister, a niece, a baby (shut up, she’s still one for another couple of weeks), an adult daughter, said adult daughter’s pregnant not-girlfriend, and the not-girlfriend’s baby daddy.

Suffice to say there are no more quiet days and no more empty apartments. Your home (a real home, with photographs and furniture and laughter) is full, your stomach is full, your heart is full. You feel complete and it’s even better knowing they all do, too.

At least, you thought so. 

Everyone’s finished, just a few stragglers chasing peas around their plates to avoid putting their dishes away, when you catch the tail end of Dina’s story and the look on Ellie’s face. You start a countdown in your head for them to produce flimsy excuses to leave and only make it to three when Dina mutters something about her aching back and darts out of the hall to the quiet streets.

You start over and only make it to six before Ellie stands up. She’s less subtle. 

“So,” she says loudly, staring at the other end of the table where you and Joel are sitting with a shit-eating grin. “We’ve all been talking, and we think there should be another kid to round out the group. Tommy’s going to watch Luna tonight, and I’ll sleep over at Dina’s so you guys can make me another sister, okay?” 

Tommy groans and puts his hands in the air. “We have not been talking,” he protests while Joel splutters.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he says. 

You bury your face in your hands for a moment before shooting a look at Tommy, who’s busy pleading his case to Joel’s deaf ear. 

Joel’s starting in on Ellie, now, knowing she’s the true ringleader here. “I am 61 years-"

“Sixty-two,” you interject.

“I am 62 years old,” he tries again. “I ain’t havin’ any more kids.” He pauses and turns to you. “Right?”

“Right,” you say definitively, leaving absolutely no room for argument. 

“Right,” Joel affirms, turning back to Ellie. “You want a baby so bad, you have one.”

“A grandpa with a toddler,” Tommy mutters, only for Joel to actually hear him this time and round in on him about conspiring.

Ellie is saved from Joel seeing how pink she’s gone in the face when he goes off on Tommy, and ducks out of the mess hall. 

You don’t bring it up, but Joel does, on your short walk home. Tommy and Maria really had offered to take Luna for the night, and while you both loved your daughter dearly, you were also still, well, you.

And technically still newlyweds, even if neither of you put any stock in it. You had only agreed to the whole ordeal for the kids’ sakes anyway (and to shut Tommy up, which you’re realizing now is a good percentage of the reasons behind many things you reluctantly do). What did a bootleg marriage license from a fake local government matter at the end of the world? 

But it was as good of an excuse as any to go home and fuck until you fell asleep by nine like proper old geezers, as Ellie put it. 

“What the hell was she thinkin’?” Joel grumbled.

“She was thinkin’,” you copy his accent, “that it was a good distraction from her going to ‘help Dina induce labor.’” 

His brow furrows, confused to the point of ignoring your mockery. “What do you mean?” 

“You know what I mean,” you say with a sigh. “I’ve been tellin’ her to get that girl locked down before she pops so we can have a grandbaby.”

Joel stops in the middle of the street. “What’re you on about?”

You stop and turn slowly on your heel. “Oh, Joel.”

“Don’t you ‘oh, Joel,’ me,” he grumbles. “Jus’ tell me whatever it is.”

“You… you know they’re sleeping together, right?”

“They’re having a sleepover, yeah,” he says, but you can tell he knows he’s got it wrong. “That’s what she’s been saying.” 

He’s not a stupid man. He feels like one, but you know he isn’t. He’s just a straightforward kind of man who takes people at face value. So when Ellie said she was sleeping over at Dina’s, that’s all he heard. 

“Not that kind of sleepover, huh,” he says. 

The look on his face makes your stomach drop. “No, yeah, I thought the same thing,” you lie. “But they’re sort of dating. Maybe not officially.”

Joel scowls at the placation. “Don’t.”

You rub a hand over the back of his shoulders. “Sorry.”

He starts walking again, tugging your hand from his back to entwine with his own. “Does she…” he sighs, closing his eyes just long enough to betray the hurt behind them. “Does she think I’d be… weird about it?”

“I don’t know,” you say honestly. “You are a Texan from the 1900s.”

He looks at you, mouth agape. “Don’t word it like that. The hell is wrong with you? The 1900s…”

You laugh, squeezing his hand. “It’s true,” you tease.

“Shut it. I feel old enough already tonight.” He sighs and shakes his head. “You’re 'from the 1900s,' too. Why wasn’t she worried you’d be like that?”

“Well, probably because I told her about my first girlfriend apropos of nothing to try to get her to fess up.” 

He stops again. His mouth opens and closes once, twice. “You never told me that. Did you think I’d be an asshole about it, too?”

“No. It just never occurred to me to tell you.” You feel guilty about it, now, but the truth is, you really haven’t talked about much from before. Neither of you have.

He scowls again but starts walking, still holding your hand.

“Joel,” you say quietly. "I am sorry. I didn’t think you were a homophobe or anything; I just… you know. I had one girlfriend and then one boyfriend, and then my dad passed, and, well, you know what happened after that, at least.”

He grimaces. “Yeah, I get it.” He thinks for a few minutes. “So you got her to talk because you had that to go on. How the hell am I supposed to make her feel like she can talk to me?”

You hum and think, falling into silence beside each other on the way home.

It’s not until you’re fucked out and falling asleep that you have the idea.

“You gotta give her the talk,” you say abruptly, rising up on your elbows and accidentally jabbing him in the gut.

“Wha?” he grunts sleepily, and you take a moment to admire how soft his eyes are when he’s like this. 

You run a thumb over his beard, watching him get with the program. “You have to give her the talk. You know. The talk.”

“She’s nineteen. I ain’t givin’ her the talk. Reckon’ she already knows.”

“No, Joel, listen! I never came out to my dad, right? He just suspected. So he sat me down and he said ‘you may not be able to get pregnant but you can still get STDs.’ and that was that.”

He sits up a little, propping his head up on a folded arm, elbow sinking into the ancient mattress. “That easy, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, until I brought a boy home, and he had to give me the talk a second time. He didn’t quite get it, y’know, liking both, but he tried.”

Joel snorts and thinks for a minute. “You really think that’ll work?”

“She’ll be so mortified you’re talking to her about sex that she won’t even realize until it’s over. And,” you pause, having to wrestle with the way the grief feels almost fresh after so many decades buried deep, “I don’t know what she’ll feel, but I’ll tell you what. I never felt so understood until then. You know? Like… there had still been a little part of me scared that he wouldn’t love me the same. But he made it so normal.”

In the warm June twilight, tucked under the covers, Joel smiles. 

“I gave Sarah the talk,” he says quietly.

“Yeah?” you prompt with a soft smile of your own. These moments are rare but less so with each passing year. Just the other day, you came home to find him on the floor with Luna, rolling a soccer ball back and forth, his gentle voice spinning a story of her sister from way back when.

“It was awful,” he admits. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doin’. I fumbled it so bad, and she didn’t look me in the eye for two days.”

You laugh. “I think that’s just how it goes.”

“I’ve never said penis that many times in a ten-minute period, and I forgot what the fallopian tubes were called. She had to correct me.”

You can’t help but laugh harder. “Sorry, I just—that’s so fuckin’ embarrassing.”

“Shut up,” he says, shoving your shoulder before wrapping his arm back around to draw you in. “Like you’d do any better.” 

“I guess we’ll see,” you say, but fall quiet. There’s an ever-present shadow, being older parents. Even before the apocalypse, the chances of seeing your little girl grow up would have been slim. But now?

Joel picks up on your train of thought and nuzzles his beard against your neck, laying scratchy kisses down his path. “Stop it. You’re going to live to be an old crone and embarrass our girls for a long, long time,” he murmurs.

“And your stubborn old ass will be right beside me.”

“You’re goddamn right I will.”

Your lie-in is disturbed not by the dry heat rolling through the open window but by the cacophony of voices from down the stairs. Lazily wrapping up in a robe made from an old blanket, you wander down to find Joel and Ellie both red in the face and not looking at one another. 

Ellie is staring up at the ceiling while Joel has two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. She looks up first when the landing squeaks. 

“Oh good, someone sane,” she says. “Please explain fourth-grade anatomy to him. Please. Spare me.”

Joel groans and scrubs a hand over his face. “I don’t need a fuckin’ biology lesson—“

Ellie ignores him. “He’s all—“ she puts her hands on her hips and drops her voice into a deeper drawl, “‘You need to be responsible, Ellie,’ and ‘A child is a major commitment, Ellie.’” She drops her arms dramatically to her sides. “I didn’t get her pregnant!”

“I know you damn well didn’t—“ Joel tries, but he’s growing too flustered. 

“Oh, Joel,” you sigh. 

“I only came over to tell you that Dina’s in labor,” Ellie groans. “I’m going back. I’ll let you know when the baby is here.” And she bolts before Joel can make another attempt. 

You take his wrist gently, prying his hand from his face to uncover the flush in full bloom. Unfortunately, you can’t hold your laughter any better than you can hold your tongue, and he shoves you away with no real force or malice. 

“Where’d you go wrong?” 

Joel groans and sinks onto the sofa. “Right from the start,” he grumbles. 

“Poor baby,” you tease with a pout. “Well, at least she knows you know, now.”

“Shut up,” he grunts. He tugs you down onto his lap, letting you run your fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. Now that he’s growing it out, it curls at the ends, and he’s more than content to let you toy with it. 

“I’m not doin’ it next time. I’m ‘oh’ for two.”

“Nuh-uh. It’s tradition now. Those girls will bond over the mortifying ordeal that was the sex talk with Joel Miller.”

His exasperation comes in the twist of his lips and heavy brows plus a light, scolding pinch to your ticklish side. You swat at his shoulder with the same levity, and laugh. 

“Don’t worry, honey,” you croon. “I know you know what sex is.”

He rolls his eyes. 

“On second thought, maybe you don’t. Maybe I’m starting to doubt you…”

His eyebrow twitches, and so does his cock. “Oh yeah?” He rumbles, the sharp predatory glint back in his eye. “Maybe I gotta show you, then.”

“Maybe you do,” you whisper. “Maybe you should prove it.”

By the time Tommy comes around to drop off Luna and tell you about baby JJ’s arrival, Joel’s proven himself several times over. Enough so that Tommy wrinkles his nose when he comes into the house, Luna on his hip. 

“Open a goddamn window,” he gripes. 

“Watch your fuckin’ language around her,” Joel snipes back, but they’re both grinning. 

“Hang on,” you say with a frown. “You said the baby’s name is JJ?”

“Yep,” Tommy crows. “And based on how everyone over there was acting, I think y’all might be grandparents.”

Joel’s distracted by the implication, but you don’t let up. 

“No, Tommy, hold on, you can’t keep giving other people’s kids new names. First Lulu and now JJ?”

He suddenly looks smug, a grin breaking across his face and a wink. “They called him JJ, not me. But I’ll let them tell you what it stands for.” 

Later that night, when Ellie confesses the seriousness of her relationship, she buffers the news that she’s moving in with Dina by handing the little bundle over. 

And her scheme works. When she looks you both in the eye to say, “Meet Jesse Joel,” your husband weeps. 

“Happy belated Father’s Day, or whatever,” she mumbles, shifting her weight back and forth as she struggles with the burden of his emotional display. 

“You little shit,” he grunts, undermined by tears and a baffled smile, and she grins. 

*title from "my little girl" by Tim McGraw ("gotta hold on easy as I let you go")

[mongrelmutt]

My books read list for 2023! For the first time I met my goal of at least one book a week!! 😁

1. "A Conspiracy of Kings" -- Megan Whalen Turner

2. "Thick as Thieves" -- Megan Whalen Turner

3. "Return of the Thief" -- Megan Whalen Turner

4. "Vatican II" -- John O'Malley

5. "The Catholic Church: A Short History" -- Hans Küng, translated by John Bowden

6. "Confessions" and "Letter to Coroticus" -- St. Patrick

7. "Through the Brazilian Wilderness" -- Theodore Roosevelt

8. "The Wind in the Willows" -- Kenneth Grahame

9. "Period: The Real Story of Menstruation" -- Kate Clancy

10. "Star Wars: Padawan" -- Kiersten White

11. "Star Wars: Master and Apprentice" -- Claudia Gray

12. "Deep Down Dark" -- Héctor Tobar

13. "The Lost World" -- Michael Crichton

14. "Provida Mater Ecclesia: Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII Concerning Secular Institutes" (English translation) -- Pope Pius XII

15. "Frankenstein" -- Mary Shelley

16. "Kenobi" -- John Jackson Miller

17. "Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law" -- Mary Roach

18. "Trigun" and "Trigun Maximum" -- Yasuhiro Nightow

19. "Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution" -- Andrew M. Wehrman

20. "Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith" -- Eve Tushnet

21. "The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth" -- Beth Allison Bar

22. "Turtles All The Way Down" -- John Green

23. "All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1)" -- Martha Wells

24. "Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2)" -- Martha Wells

25. "Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3)" -- Martha Wells

26. "Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries #4) -- Martha Wells

27. "Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) -- Martha Wells

28. "Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6) -- Martha Wells

29. "Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" -- Erik Larson

30. "The Johnstown Flood" -- David McCullough

31. "The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World" -- Riley Black

32. "Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel" -- Nancy F. Castaldo

33. "The Rise and Reign of Mammals: A New History from the Shadows of the Dinosaurs to Us" -- Steve Brusatte

34. "Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Dog" -- John Bradshaw

35. "Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (or Don't)" -- Alex Bezzerides

36. "Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive" -- Philipp Dettmer

37. "Catholicism and ADHD: Finding Holiness Despite Distractions" -- Alex R. Hey, PCAC

38. "The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery" -- Sam Kean

39. "An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us" -- Ed Yong

40. "Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig" -- Mark Essig

41. "The Mind's Eye" -- Oliver Sacks

42. "Loveless" -- Alice Oseman

43. "The Monkey Trial: John Scopes and the Battle Over Teaching Evolution" -- Anita Sanchez

44. "The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet" -- Henry Fountain

45. "Kiki's Delivery Service" -- Eiko Kadono (translated by Emily Balistrieri)

46. "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas" -- Jennifer Raff

47. "Ancillary Justice" -- Ann Leckie

48. "An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives" -- Matt Richtel

49. "System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7)" -- Martha Wells

50. "Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures" -- Nick Pyeson

51. "Howl's Moving Castle" -- Diana Wynne Jones

52. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" -- Shirley Jackson

53. "Sarah, Plain and Tall" and "Skylark" -- Patricia MacLachlan

54. "The Haunting of Hill House" -- Shirley Jackson

55. "All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings" -- Gayle Boss (illustrated by David G. Klein)

[imaginariumgeographica]

@teabooksandsweets tagged me to spell my URL with songs

Here's a playlist of everything!

I - I'll be your Girl by the Decemberists

M - Midnight Show by Soda Blonde

A - A Little Bit Happy by Talk

G - Grace, Too by The Tragically Hip

I - I See Gold by the Good Lovelies

N - Natural Disaster by Half Moon Run

A - Astronaut by City and Colour

R - Risk by Metric

I - If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot

U - Ukiuq by The Jerry Cans

M - Mercury II by The Tourist Company

G - Gold Teeth by Hey Rosetta!

E - Emmylou by First Aid Kit

O - Options Open by Kathleen Edwards

G - Gonna Get Good by the Once

R - Realise, Real Eyes by Said the Whale

A - August 1973 by Joshua Burnside

P - Portland, Maine by Donovan Woods

H - The Hideout by Sarah Harmer

I - I Guess I'll Just Lie Here by Noah Ried

C - Casual Viewin' by 54-40

A - Aral Sea/Southern Winds by The Wilderness of Manitoba

[madscientist008]

Who is Bear Grylls?

If you are a fan of adventure, survival and outdoor challenges, you have probably heard of Bear Grylls. He is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and businessman who has become famous for his daring exploits and wilderness skills. But who is he really and what makes him tick? Here are some facts you may not know about him.

He has a royal connection

Bear Grylls was born Edward Michael Grylls on 7 June 1974 in London, England. His father was Sir Michael Grylls, a Conservative politician and member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. His mother was Sarah “Sally” Ford, a descendant of William Augustus Ford, a first-class cricketer. His grandfather was Neville Ford, another cricketer who played for Leicestershire. His sister Lara Fawcett gave him the nickname “Bear” when he was a week old.

Bear Grylls attended Eton College, one of the most prestigious schools in England, where he started its first mountaineering club. He also studied Spanish and German at the University of the West of England and Birkbeck College. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

In 2000, he married Shara Cannings Knight, a former model and author. They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry. They live on a private island in Wales and also have a houseboat on the River Thames.

Bear Grylls has a close relationship with the British royal family. He is friends with Prince William and Prince Harry and has taken them on several adventures. He is also the youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories, a position he has held since 2009. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 for his services to young people, the media and charity.

He has a military background

Bear Grylls joined the British Army in 1994 and served in the 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve), or 21 SAS. This is a reserve unit that trains and supports the regular SAS, one of the most elite special forces in the world. He underwent rigorous training in survival, combat, parachuting, climbing and explosives.

In 1996, he suffered a serious injury when his parachute failed to open during a free-fall training exercise in Zambia. He broke three vertebrae in his back and had to undergo several surgeries. He was told he might never walk again.

However, he defied the odds and recovered from his injury. He left the army in 1997 with an honorary rank of lieutenant colonel. He later said that his military experience taught him discipline, resilience and courage.

He has broken several world records

Bear Grylls is not one to shy away from challenges. He has embarked on numerous expeditions that have tested his physical and mental limits. Some of his most notable achievements include:

Climbing Mount Everest at the age of 23, becoming one of the youngest people to reach the summit.

Crossing the North Atlantic Ocean in an inflatable boat with five other men, facing storms, icebergs and sharks.

Flying over Mount Everest in a powered paraglider, setting a new altitude record.

Trekking across Antarctica on foot and by kite-skiing, covering 1,700 miles in 94 days.

Leading a team of injured veterans to climb Mount Everest again, raising funds and awareness for wounded soldiers.

Hosting a live TV show from the top of The Shard, London’s tallest building.

Completing a solo paramotor flight over Angel Falls, Venezuela’s highest waterfall.

Eating maggots, snakes, spiders and other disgusting things on camera.

He is a media star

Bear Grylls is best known for his television shows that showcase his survival skills and adventurous spirit. His first show was Man vs. Wild (also known as Born Survivor), which ran from 2006 to 2011 on Discovery Channel. In each episode, he would be dropped into a remote location with minimal equipment and demonstrate how to survive various scenarios.

He also hosted other shows such as Escape to the Legion (2005), Worst Case Scenario (2010), Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls (2013), The Island with Bear Grylls (2014-present), Running Wild with Bear Grylls (2014-present), Mission Survive (2015-2016), Bear Grylls: Breaking Point (2015), Bear Grylls: Survival School (2016), You vs. Wild (2019) and World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji (2020).

He has also written several books based on his experiences and expertise, such as Facing Up (2000), Facing the Frozen Ocean (2004), Born Survivor: Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth (2007), Mud Sweat and Tears (2011), A Survival Guide for Life (2012) and Soul Fuel: A Daily Devotional (2019).

He has also appeared in movies such as Ghost Flight (2014) and Animals United (2010) as well as video games such as Man vs. Wild: The Game (2011) and Kinect Sports Rivals (2014).

He has also launched his own brand of clothing, equipment, food and drinks that cater to outdoor enthusiasts.

He is a philanthropist

Bear Grylls is not only an adventurer but also a humanitarian. He supports various causes that are close to his heart, such as:

The Scout Association: As the Chief Scout, he promotes scouting as a way of developing young people’s skills, confidence and character.

The Prince’s Trust: As an ambassador for this charity founded by Prince Charles, he helps disadvantaged young people achieve their potential through education, training and employment.

Global Angels: As a patron for this international charity founded by his mother-in-law Molly Bedingfield, he helps provide clean water, health care, education and protection for children in need around the world.

Tusk Trust: As an ambassador for this conservation organization that works to protect Africa’s wildlife and natural habitats.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution: As an honorary life governor for this charity that provides lifesaving services at sea.

The Jo Cox Foundation: As an ambassador for this charity that honors the legacy of Jo Cox MP who was murdered in 2016 by promoting social cohesion and combating loneliness.

He is an inspiration

Bear Grylls is an inspiration to millions of people around the world who admire his courage, passion and spirit of adventure. He has shown that nothing is impossible if you have faith, determination and perseverance.

He has also shared his wisdom and insights on how to live a fulfilling life through his books, speeches and interviews. Some of his quotes include:

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just that little word - extra.”

“Survival can be summed up in three words - never give up.”

“Don’t listen to the dream stealers.”

“The rules of survival never change whether you’re in a desert or in an arena.”

“If you risk nothing you gain nothing.”

“Life is an adventure - live it.”

So there you have it - some facts about Bear Grylls that you may not have known before. He is more than just a TV star - he is a man who lives life to the fullest and inspires others to do the same.

What do you think of him? Do you have any questions or comments? Let me know below!

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Who has been nominated for a NTA Award?

The NTA longlist was unveiled on Tuesday 21st May.

New Drama

A Gentleman in Moscow

After The Flood

Baby Reindeer

Breathtaking

Coma

Criminal Record

Fallout

Fifteen-Love

Fool Me Once

Hijack

Interview with the Vampire

Mary & George

Masters of the Air

Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Murder Is Easy

One Day

Passenger

Red Eye

Renegade Nell

Shardlake

Shōgun

The Couple Next Door

The Long Shadow

The Marlow Murder Club

The Reckoning

The Sixth Commandment

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Woman in the Wall

Wilderness

Wolf

Drama Performance

Adeel Akhtar, DS Sami Kierce, Fool Me Once

Aidan Turner, Glenn Lapthorn, Fifteen-Love

Ambika Mod, Emma Morley, One Day

Anna Próchniak, Gita, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Anne Reid, Ann Moore-Martin, The Sixth Commandment

Arthur Hughes, Matthew Shardlake, Shardlake

Ashley Jensen, DI Ruth Calder, Shetland

Ashley Walters, Dushane Hill, Top Boy

Austin Butler, Major Gale 'Buck' Cleven, Masters of the Air

Brenda Blethyn, DCI Vera Stanhope, Vera

Callum Turner, Major John 'Bucky' Egan, Masters of the Air

Cliff Parisi, Fred Buckle, Call the Midwife

Cosmo Jarvis, John Blackthorne, Shōgun

Cush Jumbo, DS June Lenker, Criminal Record

Danielle Macdonald, Helen Chambers, The Tourist

Daryl McCormack, Detective Colman Akande, The Woman In The Wall

David Tennant, The Fourteenth Doctor, Doctor Who

David Jonsson, Luke Fitzwilliam, Murder Is Easy

Dominic West, Charles, Prince of Wales, The Crown

Eleanor Tomlinson, Evie, The Couple Next Door

Ella Lily Hyland, Justine Pearce, Fifteen-Love

Ella Purnell, Lucy MacLean, Fallout

Emilia Fox, Nikki Alexander, Silent Witness

Ewan McGregor, Count Alexander Rostov, A Gentleman in Moscow

Gary Oldman, Jackson Lamb, Slow Horses

Gemma Whelan, Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, The Tower

Georgie Glen, Miss Millicent Higgins, Call the Midwife

Idris Elba, Sam Nelson, Hijack

Imelda Staunton, Queen Elizabeth II, The Crown

Jacob Anderson, Louis de Pointe du Lac, Interview with the Vampire

Jamie Dornan, Elliot Stanley, The Tourist

Jared Harris, Hari Seldon, Foundation

Jason Watkins, Simon, Coma

Jenna Coleman, Liv Taylor, Wilderness

Jennifer Aniston, Alex Levy, The Morning Show

Jeremy Allen White, Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto, The Bear

Jessica Gunning, Martha, Baby Reindeer

Jing Lusi, DC Hana Li, Red Eye

Joanne Froggatt, Dr Abbey Henderson, Breathtaking

Jonah Hauer-King, Lali, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Julianne Moore, Mary Villiers, Mary & George

Kane Robinson, Gerald 'Sully' Sullivan, Top Boy

Katherine Kelly, Emily Jackson, The Long Shadow

Angela Van den Bogerd, Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Kris Marshall, Humphrey Goodman, Beyond Paradise

Leo Woodall, Dexter Mayhew, One Day

Lesley Sharp, DI Hannah Laing, Before We Die

Louisa Harland, Nell Jackson, Renegade Nell

Luke Newton, Colin Bridgerton, Bridgerton

Martin Short, Oliver Putnam, Only Murders in the Building

Michelle Keegan, Maya Stern, Fool Me Once

Monica Dolan, Jo Hamilton, Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Ncuti Gatwa, The Fifteenth Doctor, Doctor Who

Nicholas Galitzine, George Villiers, Mary & George

Nicholas Ralph, James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small

Nicola Coughlan, Penelope Featherington, Bridgerton

Nicola Walker, DI Annika Strandhed, Annika

Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Will, Wilderness

Paapa Essiedu, George, The Lazarus Project

Peter Capaldi, DCI Daniel Hegarty, Criminal Record

Ralf Little, DI Neville Parker, Death in Paradise

Reese Witherspoon, Bradley Jackson, The Morning Show

Richard Armitage, Dr Matthew Nolan, Red Eye

Joe Burkett, Fool Me Once

Richard Gadd, Donny Dunn, Baby Reindeer

Robert Carlyle, Robert Sutherland, COBRA: Rebellion

Ruth Wilson, Lorna Brady, The Woman In The Wall

Sam Heughan, Danny, The Couple Next Door

Sam Reid, Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with the Vampire

Samantha Bond, Judith Potts, The Marlow Murder Club

Selena Gomez, Mabel Mora, Only Murders in the Building

Siân Brooke, Grace Ellis, Blue Lights

Sonequa Martin-Green, Captain Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery

Sophie Rundle, PC Joanna Marshall, After The Flood

Steve Coogan, Jimmy Savile, The Reckoning

Steve Martin, Charles-Haden Savage, Only Murders in the Building

Suranne Jones, Amy Silva, Vigil

Timothy Spall, Peter Farquhar, The Sixth Commandment

Toby Jones, Alan Bates, Mr Bates vs The Post Office

DCS Dennis Hoban, The Long Shadow

Tom Hiddleston, Loki, Loki

Ukweli Roach, DI Jack Caffery, Wolf

Vicky McClure, Lana Washington, Trigger Point

Wunmi Mosaku, DI Riya Ajunwa, Passenger

https://www.nationaltvawards.com:80/terms

Shows and individuals are nominated in the longlist for the 2024 National Television Awards. This year is so competitive 😉

Posted 22nd May 2024

[yenpet-yenaet]

Gen. 16 to 18

ii chr. 4

Despite God’s several promises to Abram that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars, Abram still doesn’t have a son and Sarai is starting to be upset too. See suggests to Abram that he use her slave-girl Hagar as a surrogate mother. Sarai gives Hagar to Abram as a wife, they do the deed, and Hagar conceives. After conceiving, Hagar was no longer submissive enough for Sarai’s taste so she goes to Abram and is upset at him too. Abram says Hagar is her slave-girl, so Sarai can do with her as she pleases. Sarai harrasses Hagar, driving her out into the wilderness, and Hagar starts to make her way to her native Egypt, dejected. That’s when an “angel of the Lord” finds her and asks her where she’s going. “From Sarai my mistress I am fleeing,” she says. And the angel of the Lord says to her, “Return to your mistress and suffer abuse at her hand.” Big yikes! Sounds pretty awful, but at least God will make a great nation of her as well. The angel tells her to name the child Ishmael, because the Lord heard her suffering. And this Ishmael will grow up to be “a wild ass of a man.” Hagar names God as ‘El-Roi’ (God who sees) and then wonders how she can still be alive after seeing God. Also apparently there’s an old well associated with the place where Hagar saw God and its name is Beer-lahai-roi. Finally, Hagar goes back to Sarai and Abram, and has Ishmael when Abram is 86 years old.

Fast forward 13 years; Ishmael is now 13 and Abram is now 99. And he and Sarai still don’t have a son. God appears to Abram to make another covenant with him. God will make Abram’s children numerous, he shall be the ancestor of many nations, his descendants shall be kings. God again promises the land of Canaan to Abram’s progeny in perpetuity. As part of the covenant, Abram’s name is now Abraham, and a few verses later, Sarai’s becomes Sarah. The sign of this covenant will be that every male child in Abraham’s house will be circumcised at the age of eight days, and every adult who is in Abram’s house right now, free or slave, will also be circumcised. “So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant,” says God. He adds that any male who isn’t circumcised will be cut off from his people because he broke God’s covenant. Going back to Sarah, God blesses her with the name change and promises her a son, that she might give rise to nations. Abraham laughs at this and thinks Ha! Can a child be born to me, 99-years-old? And can Sarah even bear, being 90? He says to God that he’d consent to Ishmael being his heir, with God’s blessing. But no, Abraham’s heir will not be Ishmael, because in a year from now, Sarah will have a son whose name shall be Isaac. And God will also establish a covenant with Isaac for ever and ever. As for Ishmael, he’ll do just fine being the future father of 12 princes and all. After this little exchange with God, Abraham gathers all the men in his house, his relatives, slaves, Ishmael, and he circumcises them as per the new covenant.

Chapter 18 gets a little weird. So, God appears to Abraham while he’s sitting in the entrance to his tent because it’s hot outside. Abraham looks up and sees three men whom he immediately treats as important, calling one of them ‘my lord’ and frantically being hospitable to them. He says he’ll bring some water, wash their feet, and bring a little bread, so that the visitors might refresh themselves. So Abraham dashes off, hastens to tell Sarah to quickly make three gallons of bread and cakes, and then he goes over to his herd, takes a calf, and gives it to a servant to prepare. He also takes milk and curds and brings them out to the visitors. The visitors ask where Sarah is; Abraham says “in the tent.” Then one of the visitors says he will return in due time and Sarah will have a son. Sarah hears this, laughs, and thinks to herself, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” God hears her thoughts and asks why she laughed. Sarah denies laughing, but God knows. 

After two of the visitors look toward Sodom. God and Abraham are together, and God wonders if maybe he should hide from Abraham what he’s about to do. He resolves against it, thinking “No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” He tells Abraham that the outcry, the cries of the afflicted, coming from Sodom are great, and their sin is great. God will go down and see what to do about that. The two other men leave for Sodom, and we will catch up with them tomorrow, but for now, Abraham protests God. He is outraged that the Judge of the earth would destroy the city if there were even 50 righteous people in it. God acquiesces. Abraham keeps haggling down the number of righteous people for whose sake Sodom wouldn’t be destroyed down to 10. For the sake of 10 righteous people, God won’t destroy the city. 

This first story of Hagar getting exiled, because there is another, has quite a few things going on. It stands at the center of Abraham’s chiasmatic story, flanked on either side by similar themes such as the Covenant, Lot, and Sarah. The story itself serves as a precursor to the birth of Isaac, with the birth of Ishmael, but also looks forward to the Exodus in a way. An Egyptian being oppressed by an Israelite and fleeing to Egypt. Another oddity of this story is the first naming of God and the first appearance of God’s messengers. Verse 7 is the first verse to ever mention a ‘messenger of the Lord’ or ‘an angel of the Lord’ coming down to speak with humans. However, this particular instance is complicated by the fact that Hagar refers to it as God, wondering how she could have even survived seeing Him. The angel should be interpreted as entirely humanoid, lacking any features like halos or wings, similar to the visitors in chapter 18. There have many explanations posited as to why this entity goes from being an angel to God himself, from an author editing a previous version that was ‘too’ anthropomorphic, to being explained by the authors having a fundamentally different understanding of angels than we do today; being more emanations of God than separate beings. The name that Hagar gives God is quite strange too, as it seems like a hackneyed explanation for why that has that particular name. Or it could be the cult of YHWH absorbing local Canaanite gods and adding them as alternative names of the One God. That being said, the name itself is very important to Hagar’s story as it serves a thematic purpose: “the outcast slave girl is vouchsafed a revelation which she survives, and is assured that, as Abram’s wife, she will be progenitrix of a great people" (Alter). Basically, God is looking out for the outcasts. Ishmael’s name itself means ‘God heard’ because God heard Hagar’s plight.

This is the second time Abraham has made a covenant with God, and all the covenants ultimately are reminiscent of the first one with Noah. Similar to the one with Noah, this covenant is bound to Israel as an everlasting covenant because it is grounded in what God does, not what the humans do. Why the sign of the covenant is circumcision specifically isn’t known. We know it was a somewhat common procedure in Egypt, but it would have been foreign to Mesopotamia. It was also usually done around puberty, not infancy. Perhaps it’s connected with fertility, as that does seem to be a thing God constantly promises Abraham. The changing of their names is also probably a sign of the covenant, and that seems to be a somewhat recurring event; Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter, and Saul became Paul. Abraham’s laughter here, in addition to anticipating Sarah’s laughter in the following chapter, again looks forward to the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘he laughs.’ 

The first half or so of chapter 18 starts off by showing the extremity of Abraham’s hospitality, how he does so much for the visitors and prostrates himself before them. This is compared with Lot’s hospitality and the people of Sodom’s inhospitality in the very next chapter. It has been recognized that the actual text pertaining to the visitors makes no sense. Sometimes there’s three of them, and sometimes it’s just God. The text can be made sense of by picturing God as one of the visitors and two of his angels with him, two angels who go to Sodom later. Still, the text is… weird. We know that all three are divine, or at least not human, by the fact that they know Sarah’s name and that she will have a son in due time. The whole opening scene bears striking similarity to the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat, in which a childless man is visited by a god, and then Aqhat makes his wife prepare a meal for them. 

Sarah’s speech is full of euphemisms and circumlocutions. “Ceased to be with… after the manner of women” means she’s postmenopausal. “Shall I have pleasure?” is obviously (obviously!) a double entendre. And her laughing, too, anticipates Isaac. It should be noted here just how humanlike God is in these stories, sitting in tents, chatting with people, having banter, haggling, and so on. After the little dialogue with Sarah, God thinks to himself that he made a covenant with Abraham to teach his household justice and righteousness. The text then uses those two same words over and over in Abraham’s haggling with God over saving Sodom for the sake of a few righteous people. God’s speech before this mirrors his language from the Tower of Babel episode (“I must go down and see…”). Unsurprisingly, the outcome will be similar too. 

Next up: 19 to 21.

[packedwithpackards]

Chapter IX: Barnabas, Mary, and Plainfield

This is the 11th in a series of articles which serializes my family history, which I wrote in November 2017, titled "From Samuel to Cyrus: A fresh look at the History of the Packard Family." Below is the 9th chapter of that history:

With the death of Barnabas Packard I in 1824, there were two Barnabas Packards remaining. One of them was the first child son of Barnabas Packard I and Sarah Ford, and was named Barnabas Packard II. He was born in Bridgewater and was briefly mentioned in the previous chapter. [194] His story, that of his wife Mary Nash, and Plainfield, north of Cummington, is the subject of this chapter. Sometime between 1764 and 1789 he moved to Plainfield, Massachusetts, clearing the “wilderness for a farm in what is now Plainfield’s Maple Street” as one history put it. On September 17, 1789, he married a Plainfield woman by the name of Mary Nash. [195] While some sources say that her age was not recorded, using her gravestone as a guide, she would have been 28, meaning that she was three years older than Barnabas. As some recent articles have indicated, this could have increased her mortality rate, but even if that was not the case, it doesn’t follow the trend (currently changing) of older men marrying younger women, so it is a different dynamic. [196] This Barnabas reportedly built his own “home and barns” and the story goes that his wife Mary chased “a bear away from the hog-pen with a pitch-fork.” Considering the agricultural lifestyle they had, this story is within belief.

The town of Plainfield was not at all new. The town had begun to be settled in 1770 but was not incorporated until 1807. Hence, Barnabas and Mary were part of the wave of settlers before incorporation. The area itself has moderate to rugged terrain, with some areas having relatively gentle hills. [197] No major waterways go through Plainfield with existing local streams and brooks flowing into Westfield River, with such streams and brooks enough to run mills in the 19th century although they were not rivers. No settlements by indigenous peoples are known. It was only used as a resource area or division between indigenous nations, while the area did not have colonial population until about 1770, with locals attending religious services in Cummington since the town, at the time, did not have religious services. [198] In terms of an economy, it is relatively self-explanatory. The inhabitants were mainly farmers, so the economy was largely agricultural, with no railroads constructed in the area from 1830 to 1915, apart from some small cloth shops. [199] The town was small. It only had 570 people in 1870, producing potatoes and other agricultural products like maple sugar and apples, along with cattle raising even in the late industrial period, and continuing to be agricultural even into the 20th century. [200]

This would make the town a perfect place for the Packard family. They would stay in Plainfield even into the 1890s, when one historian, recounting the town’s genealogy, would say, they have “quite a family” in the area. [201] This would continue for many years, with some descendants still living there.

Barnabas and Mary would have eight children. One of them, as the story goes, “died in infancy” in 1794. Their first child was Achsah Packard. As the existing family history states, he was born on April 26, 1790, he died 15 months later on June 21, 1791, from a cause which is not known. [202] This cannot be confirmed or denied. Their second child was Sally Packard, born on July 3, 1792 and died on April 25, 1868. [203] While she never married, she lived with her sister, Ruby, and Edward Beals in Plainfield in 1850 and just with Ruby in 1860 in the same location. Nothing else is known. Their third child was Barnabas Packard III. He was born on June 10, 1795, in Brockton, Massachusetts, and died on December 1871, living in Cummington, Massachusetts in 1800. [204] Other information about him and his family will be explained in the next chapter.

The other five children have varied levels of documentation. Their fourth child, Patty Packard, was reportedly born on August 25, 1797, is said to have married Nathan Beales/Beals on July 13, 1815. Searches on Find A Grave and elsewhere cannot confirm or deny this information. Ruby Packard, their fifth child, is a different story. Her gravestone shows she was born on September 29, 1799, and died on October 25, 1871, at age 72 and one month. [205] No other information can be determined at this time. Some of their other children have more information on their lives, helping tell their story.

Norton, their sixth child, was born in 1802, on November 22 or 23, if you count backwards from his death date. [206] He married a woman named Mary Ann Thompson on November 2, 1828. They would have four children together: John Kirkland Packard (1832-1834) who lived in Cummington, Phidena Packard (b. 1834) of Cummington, Mainla Richardo Packard (b. 1837), and John Kirkland Packard (b. 1839). [207] In 1860, after the death of Mary, Norton would re-marry. On June 26, he would marry a woman named Eunice Rowley, the daughter or Erastus Rowley and Eunice. [208] They would live in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, within Berkshire, Massachusetts, from 1860 to 1871, when she died on September 28. Norton would live in the same place, not marrying again until his death on September 23, 1898 at age 96, 10 months and one day old, dying of old age and/or asthma. [209]

Milton and Roswell were Barnabas and Mary’s last two children. Milton E. was their sixth child. Born on January 10, 1805, he lived in Hampshire Massachusetts, likely Plainfield, from 1805-1865, dying in Cameron, Missouri, within Clinton County. [210] He married a woman named Charlotte Parker on January 6, 1828. While he, as the story goes, continued to operate his parent’s farm in Plainfield, he had at least four children with Charlotte: Lyman (1833-1867), Laura (1843-1870), Lozone (1845-1923), and Franklin Luther (1852-1920), all with the last name of Packard. [211] There is more to their story than just this simple recounting. Probate records focus on a number of Packards living in the area, including Milton, Charlotte, and their children, with the settling of their estates. [212] For Milton, Chalmers Packard (relation not known) became the administrator of his estate, while he also became a guardian to some of Milton’s children or related Packards.

The last child, the seventh child, was Roswell Packard. As the story goes, he was born on February 12, 1808. He married a woman named Susannah Bird on July 14, 1832. [213] If the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses refer to the same person, he moved to Racine, Wisconsin, and reportedly died sometime in 1883. Nothing else is known other than this photograph of him posted on Ancestry.com by a user named momcom1212 on November 7, 2009:

The records of Barnabas and Sarah’s family at this point are scant. While a probate, within the Massachusetts, Wills and Probates Records, 1635-1991, exists for Sally Packard of Hampshire, it does not exist for any other individuals. The 1790 census lists all three Barnabases, one in Cummington (Barnabas I), another in Plainfield (Barnabas II), and one in Easton (presumably Barnabas III). [214] Later years narrow down the results. As some note, Barnabas Packard II became church Deacon in 1799, and died on April 30, 1847, at age 83, with his wife dying 10 years earlier on July 10, 1837, at age 70, with both buried at West Hill Cemetery in Plainfield. At least 20 Packards are at this cemetery, while 33 or 34 are currently buried within Dawes Cemetery in Cummington, near Grace Hill Dairy on 47 Potash Hill Road. Both have signs. We know that Barnabas Packard II lived in Plainfield. Going through the results, Barnabas I (Cummington) and Barnabas III (likely the one in Easton) continue to be listed, but it is not until 1810 (and again in 1820) that Barnabas II appears once again in the U.S. Federal Census. [215] By 1830, there are two Barnabas’s living in Plainfield, one named Barnabas Packard (referring to Barnabas II) and another named Barnabas Packard, Jr (referring to Barnabas III), although the 1840 census does not distinguish between them both in this manner, the one with the bigger family is likely Barnabas II. With the death of Barnabas Packard II in 1847, this opens the door to telling more of the story of Barnabas Packard III in the next chapter.

Notes

[194] Birth date confirmed by Gen. Column of the "Boston Transcript". 1906-1941: 24 Jun 1908, 1108 along with Family Data Collection - Individual Records, while Massachusetts, Town Birth Records, 1620-1850 gives a different date.

[195] Town Records, Hampshire, Cummington, Massachusetts Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, p. 254, image 135 of 162. There was a marriage notice on July 26 (and 12) but they were married on that day, there is no doubt.

[196]  Alison Bonaguro, “Why Younger Women Marry Older Men (It’s Not Always About Money),” Men’s Health, Jan. 13, 2016; Anna Petherick, “Men live longer when they marry younger spouses. Why don't women?,” The Guardian, Mar. 31, 2016; Flannery Dean, “The reality of dating a much younger man,” Chatelaine, Feb. 24, 2014; Roger Highfield, “Why men like to marry younger women,” The Telegraph, Dec. 5, 2007; Ian Sample, “Marrying a younger man increases a woman's mortality rate,” The Guardian, May 12, 2010; Jean Lawrence, “Older Woman/Younger Man Relationships,” WebMD, Accessed July 11, 2017; Victoria Wells, “Older women married to younger men die sooner: study,” National Post, May 13, 2010; Justin Lehmiller, “Older Women Who Marry Younger Men: They're Stigmatized, but Highly Satisfied,” June 14, 2017; Valeriya Safrnova, “Younger Men, Older Women: A Pairing Becomes More Common,” New York Times, May 5, 2017; Catherine Rampell, “On Whether Women Can (or Do) Marry Younger Men,” New York Times, Apr. 1, 2013.

[197] MHC Renaissance Survey Report: Plainfield, 1982, Massachusetts Historical Commission, scanned copy published sometime after 2000, p. 1

[198] Ibid, 2-4. Later they would have their own religious services.

[199] Ibid, 4-5, 7. Later, Route 116 would go through the town center.

[200] Ibid, 6, 8.

[201] Charles N. Dyer, History of the Town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass, From Its Settlement to 1891 (Northampton, Mass: Press of Gazette Printing Co., 1891), 165-168. Dyer would also list the following Packards as residents of Plainfield at one time or another: David (p. 10, 42, 73), Wm H. (p. 13, 51, 86, 87, 127), Harold S. (p. 19, 65, 101), Noah (p. 19), Lieut John (p. 20, 22, 27, 28), Iram (p. 23, 66, 79), Harold S. (p. 24), H. Clark (p. 44, 53, 101), Minnie G. (p. 47), Cyrus W. Packard (p. 52, 101, 115, 177), Deacon John (p. 60), Barnabas II (p. 61, 165-166), Lucinda (p. 63), Eliza (p. 67), Philander (p. 73, 82), Phillip (p. 80), and Henry C. (p. 166).

[202] Find A Grave entry for Barnabas Packard II. The scanned records of Massachusetts births is hard to follow and look at online, so it cannot be used as a source. Some sources seem to say this is a she.

[203] As noted by Massachusetts Death Records, 1841-1915 (says she has a probate in 1868), and Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. For the next sentence, see the 1850 and 1850 United States Federal Censuses.

[204] Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, his Find A Grave entry, and the 1800 U.S. Federal Census.

[205] Gravestone of Ruby Packard.

[206] Gravestone of Norton Packard.

[207] Town Records 1762-1860, Hampshire, Cummington, Massachusetts Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, p. 228-229, 287, images 122 and 151 of 162, courtesy of Family Search. The 1850 census lists the following in the Packard household: Norton Packard, farmer (age 47); Mary A. Packard (age 41); George W. Packard (age 21); Milena M. Packard (age 15), Manila Packard (age 13), and John K. Packard (age 10). See Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 for more information supporting what is said in this paragraph.

[208] Gravestone of Eunice Rowley; Barnabas Packard in entry for Norton Packard and Eunice Rowley, 26 Jun 1860; citing Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States, Town clerks and local churches; FHL microfilm 1,902,438, Family Search; 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Richmond, Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1865 State Census of Massachusetts, Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA; Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915.

[209] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988; Gravestone of Norton Packard.

[210] Gravestone of Milton E. Packard; Gravestone of Charlotte Parker, 1830 U.S. Federal Census for Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA; 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA; Massachusetts State Census of 1855, Hampshire, Massachusetts; Massachusetts State Census of 1865, Hampshire, Massachusetts; Milton Packard, Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1976-1988, about 1875. All are courtesy of Ancestry.com.

[211] Gravestone of Lyman Packard; Gravestone of Laura Packard; Gravestone of Lazone Packard; Gravestone of Franklin Luther Packard, all on Find A Grave.

[212] Clinton, Probate Court Records, Volume C-E, Missouri Probate Records, p. 473, image 485 of 1000; Clinton, Probates vol D-E, Missouri Probate Records, p. 65, 82, 105, 175, 288, 291, 369, 462, 603, 606, 609-610, 612, 619, 631, images 312, 315, 316, 320, 326, 368, 378, 389, 426, 486, 487, 538, 587, 660, 663 of 682.

[213] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.

[214] Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, First Census of the United States, 1790, National Archives, NARA M637, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 4, Page 131. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Easton, Bristol, Massachusetts, First Census of the United States, 1790, National Archives, NARA M637, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 4, Page 209. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, First Census of the United States, 1790, National Archives, NARA M637, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 4, Page 455. Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

[215] Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Second Census of the United States, 1800, National Archives, NARA M32, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 15, Page 880. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Easton, Bristol, Massachusetts, Second Census of the United States, 1800, National Archives, NARA M32, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 19, Page 635. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Easton, Bristol, Massachusetts, Third Census of the United States, 1810, National Archives, NARA M252, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 17, Page 459. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Third Census of the United States, 1810, National Archives, NARA M252, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 19, Page 262. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Third Census of the United States, 1810, National Archives, NARA M252, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 19, Page 256. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Fourth Census of the United States, 1820, National Archives, NARA M33, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 19, Page 256. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Easton, Bristol, Massachusetts, Fourth Census of the United States, 1820, National Archives, NARA M33, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll M33_47, Page 307. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Fifth Census of the United States, 1830, National Archives, NARA M19, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 64, Page 419. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Sixth Census of the United States, 1840, National Archives, NARA M19, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 184, page 279, 281. Courtesy of Ancestry.com. These records are just a sampling of the many available.

Note: This was originally posted on July 27, 2018 on the main Packed with Packards WordPress blog (it can also be found on the Wayback Machine here). My research is still ongoing, so some conclusions in this piece may change in the future.

© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[glompcat]

I really need to gush some more about Suitors Inc. by Paul Magrs.

You know, the Doctor Who short story (collected in Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, published by Big Finish, it is the story representing lust) where Romana and K9 discover someone has made the Fourth Doctor the sexiest man on Earth and has been selling sex robots that look like him to old ladies. Also those old ladies have started to go missing. While Four and Romana focus on doing important things like going out for a candlelit dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan do some real investigating and uncover Iris Wildthyme is behind it.

First Romana found out about what was going on

So as someone markets Doctor lookalike sexbots all over the world, these two Time Lords are primarily occupied with.... going on a date.

Not to worry through, the literally stated by the text to be more conscientious than those two Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are here to break into the factory and find out what is going on.

After Harry and Sarah Jane have done all of their investigating, long past when they have been captured and made prisoners.... hours upon hours later... after K9 has shown off his Top Trumps card collection to the Doctor even... Four and Romana finally make their sweet way over to the factory to find out what is going on.

Insulted that Romana would follow up an accusation that only a person who isn’t sane would be into the Doctor by collapsing and laughing “like a crazy woman” the Doctor sneaks into the factory on his own pretending to be one of the Erotic DoctorBots. Naturally this leads to him finding Sarah Jane and Harry

You know you are reading an exciting story when HARRY FIGHTING A ROBOT THREE is not the most !!!! inducing thing going on. How does a moment like this get LOST in a story? It’s Harry Sullivan squaring up with a sexrobot version of Three in full Venusian akido mode!

Romana and K9 meanwhile have a bit of a different approach to dealing with the situation than fist fighting the robots, of course

Oh and did I mention that Iris is actually here under duress? Rather, she was charged with kidnapping a million elderly women by someone who is holding her bus hostage. The Erotic DoctorBots are her actual best plan for carrying that out. Because of course it is. She also was spoiling herself rotten taking advantage of her robots’ sensitive fingers

I love this story so much

I truly can not stop thinking about it.

Everything up to and including the scene where K9 shows off his Top Trumps card collection to the Doctor is just amazing.

Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Romana, K9 and Four taking on an army of sexbots that look just like the Doctor. Also they are taking on Iris (who just wants her bus back. Well that and to have lots of lovely sex with her Erotic DoctorBots). I suppose they’re actually here to take on the Pussyworld (who are actually behind all of this)?

What an incredible concept.

[loopedliability]

tag drop #2

[thetudorslovers]

Women of the Bible Part II:

1.Jezabel: "When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter.” (Kings 9:30-37)

2.Priscilla: “He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:26).

3.Elizabeth: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41).

4.Delilah:"When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands."(Judges 16:18)

5.Martha: "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:38–42).

6.Jehoshena: “But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.” (2 Kings 11:2).

7.Sarah: “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him” (Gen. 17:19).

8.Mary of Bethan:“Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound[a] of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me’” (John 12:1-8).

9.Michal: "Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife." (Samuel-1 18:27)

10.Leah: "Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her..."(Samuel-1 18:27)

11.Abigail: "Now the name of the man [was] Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and [she was] a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man [was] churlish and evil in his doings; and he [was] of the house of Caleb."(Samuel-1 25:3)

12.Zipporah:"Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God."(Exodus:18:1-24)

[mozelledeliond]

Defining Deliond

(art by Noirsnow)

Name:: Mozelle Isadora Deliond Alias/Nicknames:: Katrina Inkwither; Veronica Jaspers; Mozzarella Pronouns:: She/Her or They/Them Age:: 27 (December 17th) Western Zodiac:: Sagittarius Eastern Zodiac:: Water Rooster

Abilities/Talents:: Archery; Medicine (Battlefield, Wilderness, Toxicology); Leatherworking; Occult Knowledge; Trivia.

Alignment:: lawful / neutral / chaotic / good / neutral / evil / true Religion:: N’Zoth, God of the Deep; publicly a follower of Aviana. Sins:: envy / greed / gluttony / lust / pride / sloth / wrath Virtues:: charity / chastity / diligence / humility / justice / kindness / patience Languages:: Common (Fluent); Orcish (Conversational); Shath’Yar (Liturgical)

Family:: Samantha Valarie Deliond née Rhoden (mother, deceased);  Avendral Deliond (father, deceased);  Elsa Helene Deliond (older sister, deceased);  Seth Jasper Deliond (twin brother, deceased) Friends:: Karthe Surick;  Mary Foxglove;  Avannaril Violetbirth;  Tavarres Stagheart;  Sarah Hadley;  Willaude Pratchett

Sexuality:: heterosexual / bisexual / pansexual / homosexual / demisexual / (gray) asexual / unsure / other Relationship Status:: single / partnered / married / widowed / open relationship / divorced / not ready for dating / it’s complicated Libido:: sex god / very high / high / average / low / very low / non-existent

Build:: slender / average / athletic / muscular / curvy / other Hair:: naturally black; dyed deep ultramarine. slight messy wave. Eyes:: sky blue, too reflective of light; to those who can see the Gift of N’Zoth, Mozelle’s manifests as a replacement for their missing left eye. Skin:: ashen-pale, veins visible beneath the skin. Height:: 5′3″ Scars:: a novella’s worth. aside from what is plainly visible on the face, there are claw marks going from the top of the scapula to the collarbones on each side of Mozelle’s shoulders; a silvery stabbing scar over their solar plexus, the skin around it mottled as if bruised; mild acid burns on left arm; ghoul claw scars on right forearm; a sizeable gash across the abdomen from multiple passes of a blade.

dogs or cats || birds or bugs || snakes or spiders || coffee or tea || ice cream or cake || fruits or vegetables || sandwich or soup || magic or melee || sword or bow || summer or winter || spring or autumn || past or future

Five songs that remind you of them: i.   Hollow — Cloudeater | ( and I’m ill with all that I know / ‘cause it shows what little I know / I want sacred / I want final ) ii.  Metaphor — The Crane Wives | ( I’ve gotten good at making up metaphors / I’ve gotten good at stretching the truth out of shape ) iii. The Wall of Sleep — Aviators | ( what horrors have I dreamt of? / will I shudder if I stare? / am I strong enough to transcend? / am I brave enough to dare? ) iv. Fly By Night Only (Yaarrohs Cover) — The Glitch Mob | ( feel the wind brush back the road and clean you of your lies ) v.  In This Twilight — Nine Inch Nails | ( night descends / could I have been a better person? / if I could only... / do it all again )

Tagged By:: @longveil​ Tagging::  @ms-winford​ • @cerusaniduskbinder​ • @opliscadumere​ • @aldoreth​ • @merelliahallewell​

[gilmoregirlsrevival2016]

Season 1 Gilmore Girls References (Breakdown)

Yay! All the season 1 references have been posted. Before I start posting season 2, I wanted to post this little breakdown for your enjoyment :) It starts with some statistics and then below the cut is a list of all the specific references.

Overall amount of references in season 1: 605

Top 10 Most Common References: NSYNC (5), Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (5), Taylor Hanson (6), Leo Tolstoy (7), Lucky Spencer (7), Marcel Proust (7), PJ Harvey (7), The Bangles (8), The Donna Reed Show (8), William Shakespeare (10)

Which episodes had the most references: #1 is That Damn Donna Reed with 55 references. #2 is Christopher Returns with 44 references 

What characters made the most references (Only including characters/actors who were in the opening credits): Lorelai had the most with 237 references, Rory had second most with 118, and Lane had third most with 48.

First reference of the season: Jack Kerouac referenced by Lorelai 

Final reference of the season: Adolf Eichmann referenced by Michel 

  Movies/TV Shows/Episodes/Characters, Commercials, Cartoons/Cartoon Characters, Plays, Documentaries:

9 1/2 Weeks, Alex Stone, Alfalfa, An Affair To Remember, A Streetcar Named Desire, Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman, Avon Commercials, Bambi, Beethoven, Boogie Nights, Cabaret, Casablanca, Charlie's Angels, Charlie Brown cartoons, Christine, Cinderella, Citizen Kane, Daisy Duke, Damien Thorn, Dawson Leery, Donna Stone, Double Indemnity, Double Mint Commercials, Ethel Mertz, Everest, Felix Unger, Fiddler On The Roof, Footloose, Freaky Friday, Fred Mertz, Gaslight, General Hospital, G.I. Jane, Gone With The Wind, Grease, Hamlet, Heathers, Hee Haw, House On Haunted Hill, Ice Castles, I Love Lucy, Iron Chef, Ishtar, Jeff Stone, Joanie Loves Chachi, John Shaft, Lady And The Tramp, Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows, Love Story, Lucky Spencer, Lucy Raises Chickens, Lucy Ricardo, Lucy Van Pelt, Macbeth,  Magnolia, Mary Stone, Mask, Midnight Express, Misery, Norman Bates, Officer Krupke, Oompa Loompas, Old Yeller, Oscar Madison, Out Of Africa, Patton, Pepe Le Pew, Peyton Place, Pink Ladies, Pinky Tuscadero, Ponyboy, Psycho, Queen Of Outer Space, Rapunzel, Richard III, Ricky Ricardo, Rocky Dennis, Romeo And Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, Sandy Olsson, Saved By The Bell, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Schroeder, Sesame Street, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Sex And The City, Sixteen Candles, Sleeping Beauty, Star Trek, Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski, Stretch Cunningham, The Champ, The Comedy Of Errors, The Crucible, The Donna Reed Show, The Duke's Of Hazzard, The Fly, The Great Santini, The Little Match Girl, The Matrix, The Miracle Worker, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Outsiders, The Shining, The Sixth Sense, The View, The Waltons, The Way We Were, The Scarecrow, This Old House, V.I.P., Valley Of The Dolls, Vulcans, Wild Kingdom, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Wheel Of Fortune, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Working Girl, Yogi Bear, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Bands, Songs, CDs:

98 Degrees, Air Supply, Apple Venus Volume 2, Backstreet Boys, Bee Gees, Black Sabbath, Blue Man Group, Blur, Bon Jovi, Boston, Bush, Duran Duran, Everlong, Foo Fighters, Fugazi, Grandaddy, Hanson, I'm Too Sexy, Joy Division, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Kraftwerk, Like A Virgin, Livin La Vida Loca, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Man I Feel Like A Woman, Metallica, Money Money, My Ding-A-Ling, NSYNC, On The Good Ship Lollipop, Pink Moon, Queen, Rancid, Sergeant Pepper, Shake Your Bon Bon, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Sister Sledge, Smoke On The Water, Steely Dan, Suppertime, Tambourine Man, The B-52s, The Bangles, The Beatles, The Best Of Blondie, The Cranberries, The Cure, The Offspring, The Sugarplastic, The Wallflowers, The Velvet Underground, Walk Like An Egyptian, XTC, Ya Got Trouble, Young Marble Giants

Books/Book Characters, Comic Books/Comic Book Characters, Comic Strips: 

A Mencken Chrestomathy, A Tale Of Two Cities, Anna Karenina, Belle Watling, Boo Radley, Carrie, David Copperfield, Dick Tracy, Dopey (One of the seven dwarfs) Goofus And Gallant, Great Expectations, Grinch, Hannibal Lecter, Hansel And Gretel, Harry Potter (book as well as character referenced), Huckleberry Finn, Little Dorrit, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Mommie Dearest, Moose Mason, Nancy Drew, Out Of Africa, Pinocchio, Swann's Way, The Amityville Horror, The Art Of Fiction, The Bell Jar, The Grapes Of Wrath, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Lost Weekend, The Metamorphosis, The Portable Dorothy Parker, The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath, The Witch Tree Symbol, There's A Certain Slant Of Light, Tuesdays With Morrie, War And Peace, Wonder Woman

Public Figures:

Adolf Eichmann, Alfred Hitchcock, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole Smith, Annie Oakley, Antonio Banderas, Arthur Miller, Artie Shaw, Barbara Hutton, Barbara Stanwyck, Barbra Streisand, Beck, Ben Jonson, Benito Mussolini, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Crudup, Bob Barker, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Catherine The Great, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Charles I, Charles Dickens, Charles Manson, Charlie Parker, Charlotte Bronte, Charlton Heston, Charo, Cher, Cheryl Ladd, Chris Penn, Christiane Amanpour, Christopher Marlowe, Chuck Berry, Claudine Longet, Cleopatra, Cokie Roberts, Courtney Love, Dalai Lama, Damon Albarn, Dante Alighieri, David Mamet, Donna Reed, Edith Wharton, Edna O'Brien, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Webber, Elle Macpherson, Elsa Klensch, Elvis, Emeril Lagasse, Emily Dickinson, Emily Post, Eminem, Emma Goldman, Errol Flynn, Fabio, Farrah Fawcett, Fawn Hall, Flo Jo, Francis Bacon, Frank Sinatra, Franz Kafka, Fred MacMurray, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, George Clooney, George Sand, George W. Bush, Harry Houdini, Harvey Fierstein, Henny Youngman, Henry David Thoreau, Henry James, Henry VIII, Herman Melville, Homer, Honore De Balzac, Howard Cosell, Hugh Grant, Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Jaclyn Smith, James Dean, Jane Austen, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Tandy, Jim Carey, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hoffa, Joan Of Arc, Joan Rivers, Jocelyn Wildenstein, Joel Grey, John Cage, John Gardner, John Muir, John Paul II, John Webster, Johnny Cash, Johnny Depp, Joseph Merrick AKA Elephant Man, Judy Blume, Judy Garland, Julian Lennon, Justin Timberlake, Karen Blixen AKA Isak Dinesen, Kate Jackson, Kathy Bates, Kevin Bacon, Kreskin, Lee Harvey Oswald, Leo Tolstoy, Leopold and Loeb, Lewis Carroll, Linda McCartney, Liz Phair, Liza Minnelli, Lou Reed, M Night Shyamalan, Macy Gray, Madonna, Marcel Marceau, Marcel Proust, Margot Kidder, Marie Antoinette, Marie Curie, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain, Mark Wahlberg, Marlin Perkins, Martha Stewart, Martha Washington, Martin Luther, Mary Kay Letourneau, Maurice Chevalier, Melissa Rivers, Meryl Streep, Michael Crichton, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Miguel De Cervantes, Miss Manners, Mozart, Nancy Kerrigan, Nancy Walker, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Nico, Oliver North, Oprah Winfrey, Oscar Levant, Pat Benatar, Paul McCartney, Peter III Of Russia, Peter Frampton, Philip Glass, PJ Harvey, Prince, Queen Elizabeth I, Regis, Richard Simmons, Rick James, Ricky Martin, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Robert Smith, Robin Leach, Rosie O'Donnell, Ru Paul, Ruth Gordon, Samuel Barber, Sarah Duchess Of York, Sean Lennon, Sean Penn, Shania Twain, Shelley Hack, Sigmund Freud, Squeaky Fromme, Stephen King, Steven Tyler, Susan Faludi, Susanna Hoffs, Tanya Roberts, Taylor Hanson, Theodore Kaczynski AKA The Unabomber, The Kennedy Family, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo Marx AKA The Marx Brothers, Venus and Serena Williams (The reference was "The Williams Sisters"),Thelonious Monk, Tiger Woods, Tito Puente, Tom Waits, Tony Randall, Tonya Harding, Vaclav Havel, Vanna White, Vivien Leigh, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, William Shatner, Yoko Ono, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Misc:

Camelot, Chernobyl Disaster, Cone Of Silence, Hindenburg Disaster, Iran-Contra Affair, Paul Bunyan, The Menendez Murders, Tribbles, Vulcan Death Grip, Whoville, Winchester Mystery House

[pinehutch]

For the ask meme: 1. Have you ever written or considered writing songs? 2. Do you have any Fall Traditions? Doing anything special for Halloween? 3. Can you recommend any songs about, or set in, southern Ontario? I am making a homesick Spotify playlist and it can't all be Owen Pallet 😂

________

1. I have this memory of a songwriting assignment from high school. I remember working on that song all weekend, and then -  I had written a very mediocre song. I liked to make up songs when I was a little kid, and I love many, many songs, but every time I have a song-writing idea it’s just Big Meh and so I trust the songwriters of the world to do it better. (Also, I don’t really play anything, which I think would be helpful for writing songs?) I can sing as well as anyone who isn’t a Singer, but I can accept that I’m not a songwriter. 

2. Fall traditions! Not as such, but tendencies, I guess? 

I go for more hikes and ambles in the woods. I listen to folk music, including a lot of my parents’ music. I make a plum tart while blue plums are still in season.

 Most years, Halloween has been spent at some friends’ house, spooking their neighbourhood kids, but I often try to do a private little thing for myself on or around Halloween to recognize my own dead. I will almost definitely watch Clue (1985) at some point, and I read through as many entries in the annual Jezebel Scary Stories contest as humanly possible. Things are fairly covid-y in this part of the country again, so this year I think I’ll drink some wine and pull out my Tarot cards and make a jack-o-lantern and eat its delicious seeds and who knows!

This October I’ve been doing my best to write a poem-a-day, so maybe that will become a thing. 

3. Songs about southern Ontario? How dare you! 😊 (Songs are linked for anyone who wants to open some tabs!) 

Okay, so first and foremost let me say that at some point I really need to buy these tracks from Smithsonian Folkways: Folk Songs of Ontario. The recordings are from the 1950′s, but there are absolutely songs in here that my grandpa said he learned working at lumber camps in the 1920′s and 1930′s (e.g. “Johnson’s Hotel”). Not really playlist music, but something cool. 

If you want some semi-ironic nostalgia to go with your indie homesickness, what about 416/905 by Maestro Fresh Wes, hurling us all back in time to watching Much Music circa 1998?  (Rascalz’ ”Northern Touch,” from the year before, is a much better example of 90′s Canadian pop hip hop but isn’t as on the nose, so!)

A bit less cheekily, “Ambulance Blues.” It’s not exclusively an Ontario song (”along the Navajo Trail,”) but On The Beach is my favourite Neil Young album for soft and hazy southern Ontario summer evenings, and the second half of the song fits that really well. 

Sarah Harmer’s “Lodestar”, if you haven’t gotten it already, for the cottage country vibes. 

“Orono Park,” by the Wilderness of Manitoba. (Studio version is definitely on Spotify.) 

Keaton Henson’s “Ontario” is non-specific but if you haven’t watched the video, please do, and enjoy the feelings of an Englishman’s view on our home province. 

“Kiss Cam”, by the Arkells. Campfires? Non-specific references to being “up north” that are probably not actually that north? Summer heat? Those good-natured lads from the Hammer know what’s up. 

Not that it needs a rec, but I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t include “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).” It’s again, non-specific, but is there a better song for it? There is not. 

My small-town heart will always love “Hockey Skates,” though I suspect yours does, too. 

So! Some songs! (Did I mention that I get p folky in the fall? Also this isn’t really ground-breaking stuff, I can definitely get more creative but it was what came to mind first.) 

Thank you for asking!

[weirdletter]

In the Company of Wolves: Werewolves, Wolves and Wild Children, edited by Sam George and Bill Hughes, Manchester University Press, 2020. Info: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk.

In the company of wolves presents further research from the Open Graves, Open Minds Project. It connects together innovative research from a variety of perspectives on the cultural significance of wolves, wild children and werewolves as portrayed in different media and genres. We begin with the wolf itself as it has been interpreted as a cultural symbol and how it figures in contemporary debates about wilderness and nature. Alongside this, we consider eighteenth-century debates about wild children ­- often thought to have been raised by wolves and other animals - and their role in key questions about the origins of language and society. The collection continues with essays on werewolves and other shapeshifters as depicted in folk tales, literature, film and TV, concluding with the transition from animal to human in contemporary art, poetry and fashion.

Contents: Preface – Sam George Introduction: from preternatural pastoral to paranormal romance – Sam George and Bill Hughes   Part I : C ultural images of the wolf, the werewolf and the wolf-child 1. Wolves and lies: a writer's perspective – Marcus Sedgwick 2. 'Man is a wolf to man': wolf behaviour becoming wolfish nature – Garry Marvin 3. When wolves cry: wolf-children, storytelling and the state of nature – Sam George 4. 'Children of the night. What music they make!': the sound of the cinematic werewolf – Stacey Abbott   Part II: Innocence and experience: brute creation, wild beast or child of nature 5. Wild sanctuary: running into the forest in Russian fairy tales – Shannon Scott 6. 'No more than a brute or a wild beast': Wagner the Werewolf, Sweeney Todd, and the limits of human responsibility – Joseph Crawford 7. The inner beast: scientific experimentation in George MacDonald's 'The History of Photogen and Nycteris' – Rebecca Langworthy 8. Werewolves and white trash: brutishness, discrimination and the lower-class wolfman from The Wolf Man to True Blood – Victoria Amador   Part III: Re-inventing the wolf: intertextual and metafictional manifestations 9. 'The price of flesh is love': commodification, corporeality, and paranormal romance in Angela Carter's beast tales – Bill Hughes 10. Growing pains of the teenage werewolf: Young Adult literature and the metaphorical wolf – Kaja Franck 11. 'I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself': the metafictional meanings of lycanthropic transformation in Doctor Who – Ivan Phillips   Part IV: Animal selves: becoming wolf 12. A running wolf and other grey animals: the various shapes of Marcus Coates – Sarah Wade 13. 'Stinking of me': transformations and animal selves in contemporary women's poetry – Polly Atkin 14. Wearing the wolf: fur, fashion and species transvestism – Catherine Spooner Bibliography Index