#mr. marc reviews

[bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews]

One Mann's Movies Film Review of "Mr Burton". A solid and entertaining biopic of Richard Burton's early life. 3.5/5.

[gladiatorcunt]

- MOLTEN LAVA CAKE / IV.

when i get to heaven, please let me bring my man

cw: kinktober prompt (creampie), unprotected sex & playing fast and loose with it’s possible consequences, yandere behavior, age gap (reader 20’s, capitano & zhongli 50s, baizhu 40s), power imabalance, non con somno (childe), dub con, innocence kink & lowkey medical malpractice (baizhu), reader has a pussy, implied kidnapping (capitano), if you squint childe & capitano’s sections are connected, frequent breeding kink type talk, manipulation & coercion, implied baby trapping, dead dove do not eat

please do not repost, translate, or feed this work to ai

kinktober 2024

CEO!Zhongli

“Do be quiet, darling.” Zhongli grits, cupping your head with both of his palms and tugging you upwards. “I have no intentions of being an exhibitionist today.”

You arch off his grand wooden desk and gasp at the spark of pain in your neck, but you’d take that over drowning yourself in paperwork any day. Your boss’s cock is ramming into your ass at a porn star’s speed, the wet smacks of flesh slapping against flesh bounce off the one way glass walls.

This situation is the most cliché porn plot in the book though, the distant slightly emotionally unavailable boss bending his secretary over his desk and zipping down their pants. You had been running late that day, you forgot to set your alarm for Mr. Zhongli’s breakfast tea run and you had less cat food than you thought so you had to make a break for the grocery store.

By the time you scrambled in with a steaming cup of your boss’s favorite tea and his stack of reports to review and meeting requests to schedule, the older man was tapping his foot and crossing his arms. He didn’t look disappointed, not quite, but the gentle warmth in his eyes was gone and his small smile was flat.

In your desperation not to lose your job, this was your first and you’re only in your junior year of college, you follow him into his office and set down your things. Your cherry Marc Jacobs tote bag (bought by him, his papers and tea (bought by you with his money), your SINOCULTURAL orchid leather handbag (also bought by him, for variety).

Zhongli wasn’t the kind of pervy boss who’s hit on you before, you guess now that he was just lying in wait. You were the one that draped yourself over his desk with tears in your eyes, desperate and naive and relying on the principle of ‘sex sells’.

He’ll draft up a different beginning to your love story at your wedding.

“You take cock so well, perhaps we’ll have to have a discussion about adding this to your list of duties, hm?”

The condom sliding in and out of your walls makes you want to pout, but you know he has to have one. How he was able to pull a pack from his desk drawer on the spot is beyond you, you’re not quite willing to admit that you’d be so willing to keep your job you’d risk a baby and/or STDs.

“A-ah! Y-yes, sir, whenever you’re available, i-i’ll do anything.” You whisper over your shoulder and push your ass up, wanting the sight of his long cock disappearing under the thick cheeks to be as enticing as possible.

You clutch onto the golden plague bearing his esteemed name for dear life, muffling your sounds into the furniture’s lacquer, and let your boss pour all his stress into your holes. You tried to goad him into taking your ass but he gave you an amused chuckle and a firm pat to each cheek, chiding at you that he’d do it properly another time. He’s a gentleman under his silvered tongue and all his golden scales.

Zhongli seems to get fed up with the condom the closer he gets to his roaring orgasm, and all you’re able to let out in a punched squeal as he sharply pulls out and rips the condom off.

“This damn thing,” He huffs, snarling as he tosses the shredded scraps of plastic to the side, sinking back into your pussy in one go. “There, much better.”

You’re discovering that Mr. Zhongli is not the kind of man who groans unabashedly in the heat of the moment, he's prone to contented sighs and easy laughs. The closest you get to anything animalistic is the guttural grunt he lets slip as you clench around him near the end of his deep thrusts, milking him for all the cum this HR nightmare of a quickie can get you.

“One more thing before you go, be a dear and clean that up for me.” He points a black nail down at the puddle of cum expectantly, somehow having pulled his cock free with a wet flopping noise when you were too dizzy to notice, sinking back into his swiveling chair.

Sugar Daddy!Capitano

Your back hits the hotel wall, softened by Capitano’s hands coming to slide in between you and the surface.

“Mmfh- I’ve never… I’ve never done this before.” You shyly admit as your sighs fade into whimpers, the man’s stubble rubbing on your neck during his rain of kisses.

He laughs and his hot breath hits your pulse point, your heart skips a beat. “So you’ve told me. Don’t worry, you’re nothing but safe with me. I’ve already wired the initial 50,000 for our first meeting to your account, we don’t have to do anything that you are not comfortable with.”

You nod and run your fingers through his black hair, offering up more of your unmarked neck. Of course you’re comfortable, you were so nervous you could die hours earlier, but your first sugar daddy experience has turned out to be the ideal. Capitano made sure you were happy and pliant, offering ten times the amount of what most other men would just for this one dinner. What wouldn’t you be down with doing now?

He nips at your bottom lip, wrapping his burly arms around your chubby thighs and hoisting you up. You wrap your legs around his waist and giggle as you fall onto the bed of the hotel’s presidential suite. You trade sloppy and clumsy kisses for less and less articles of clothing, he places your jewelry and your accessories neatly on the nightstand.

“So you don’t prick yourself or worry about losing them, bambi.” He explains and pulls you into another syrupy kiss.

You lose yourself to fit of giggles as he reverently kisses down your body. The next hour is spent with your new sugar daddy licking your pussy, eating you out like a man would gulp down an oasis after a lifetime of being stranded in the desert. You couldn’t say how many times you flood his awaiting mouth with your juices and seed, but you’ll always remember how his Adam's Apple bobs on every swallow. As if it nourishes him, replenishes his soul from inside and out, warms like a good hearty soup.

Capitano slithers up your body to stroke a finger down your face, “Are you ready for me, honey? You’re spewing like a fountain but we can always just cuddle.”

“No, I'm ready, I want this, want you. Please, Daddy, need your cock.” And your money, but mostly your cock right now.

You settle into your position on your back and spread your legs, you grab the back of your ankles and keep them that way. Bearing yourself for the hungry gaze of a man twice your age.

“Alright, needy love, aren’t you? Here you go.” He coos, lining up his fat dick with your slick entrance and sinking in.

You almost wish you had turned the lights off. The way his massive looks hovering above yours, muscles tense and waiting to be exercised. You don’t have to look down at where his cock feeds your pussy, it’s like you can feel what every nerve and vein is doing and touching in your guts. You’re so glad the conversation about being tested was had on the sugaring app, you’re both clean and on the pill so you thought why not indulge in another first.

“Gorgeous cunt. Worth so much fucking more than 50,000. You like France, bambi? I’ll get you a castle in the countryside, this pussy would look divine getting pounded in one of their foyer’s and over their balconies.” He groans, husky and scratchy, kissing you and grinding his cock deep in your quivering pussy like you just got married.

You have to show him how to take a video of his goopy cum dripping out of your puffy folds, spreading them with your fingers and pushing it back inside.

The next morning, you wake up to a bundle of fresh roses and a calligraphy note on the pillow next to your head. You smile and take it all in, but eventually you tug on last night’s clothes and grab your bag. You grin down at your phone, feeling the butterflies play war drums in your stomach, this going somewhere good. There are times when you can just tell.

The suite door is locked, a man’s voice outside asks if you’re ready to be taken back to the boss’s home. On the way there you look through your bag, a message from your intuition, and your birth control is gone. But there are listings for several foreign properties, with a sticky note attached to the first.

‘Tell me which ones you like when you get home. I have my broker on the phone.”

Stalker!Childe

It’s a routine for him, slip in under your window, sink onto your bed and straddle your sleeping body, and fill you up with his cum until your belly bloats. You’ve never noticed, he’s good at cleaning up. And if you have, you’re docile enough to let him keep at it. Let the rabid wolf keep pawing at your door with bloody paws, leaving a carcass at your feet and doing it all over again the next day.

You know it’s just your boyfriend loving on you in private until you’re ready to go public. He understands you’re shy, a lot of the partners he’s had in the past haven’t exactly been social butterflies, but baby it’s just little ol’ Ajax! He wouldn’t hurt a fly let alone his precious significant other, don’t be silly. He has these kinds of conversations with you through hushed whispers against your ear and trembling fingers slipping under the straps of your tank top.

Ajax always preps you, save for a couple of times in the beginning because he was too excited. He prefers doing it with his tongue, but he does love a good fingerbanging session. He’d never cause any pain that wasn’t fun for the both of you, cross his heart and hope to die. He even brings a back up inhaler that he stole from your pharmacist in case you lose your current one.

He grins as he shimmies you out of your sleepwear, you never much, another sign that you’re meant to be “Shh, lovebug, I hope you’re having the sweetest dreams right now. I’m just stopping by to say hi. I have to be quicker this time, I'm real sorry, bub.”

Some as-gentle-as-possible rough fingerbanging it is.

Ajax keeps his eyes peeled so wide they burn a little as he crooks and curls his fingers in your tight pussy, marveling at your groggy whimpers that sooner than later snowball into light moans.

“You looked stunning in your outfit today, I like looser tops on you. I can see your titties bounce, swear to god. The leggings were a nice touch too, wanted to jog over during your walk and smack the shit out of it. But that’s not the meet cute you deserve, is it cutie?” He grips your face in one hand, the free one that’s not knuckles deep in pussy juice, shaking your head for ‘no’ for you.

“I promise we’re gonna meet soon, it breaks my heart to see you look so lonely, bub.” He’s not fazed when you seem like you’re waking up, he just ‘aw’s and strokes his thumb on your clit until you’ve fallen back asleep. “I can’t wait. I’ve gone over everything a million times, what I’m gonna wear, what I’m gonna say, our first date, our “first” time, I'm so ready for it all with you.”

You’re adorable, your brow is pinching and you’re tossing and turning. Your soft moans become louder and since you’re a heavy sleeper that doesn’t live in an apartment (not that he’d stop anyway, he’s seen how your next door neighbors check you out when you’re not looking), he scissors his fingers and speeds up the thrusts of his hand.

After months of this and vigorous hours at the gym, his wrist has stopped cramping entirely. He slips his free hand under his jeans and clasps it around his leaking dick, jerking himself off as he finger fucks your perfect pussy.

“Oh, there it is, honey.” Ajax gasps, tightening his grip around his painfully hard cock just as your walls tighten around his fingers. “It’s okay, keep going for me, you can do it.”

He times his strokes to the thrusts of his fingers, his breathing in sync with every rise and fall of your chest. You’re so wet, you’re leaking around his digits, your pussy making a sick squelching sound

“Oh fuck! I’m gonna cum baby, just from fingering your pretty pussy.” He pants, circling his thumb over the head of his weep dick and smearing his precum all over his length.

He’s moving so fast his hand is a blur, and he really doesn’t even register the sensation of fucking himself with his fist. Instead what he feels is the way your thighs seize up and your breath hitches, you arch your back off the bed in your sleep and that’s when he knows it’s time.

“Fuck, okay. Lemme get a little closer, lovebug, don’t want any of it to go to waste, right?” He keeps stroking his throbbing cock and blasting his fingers into your pussy, awkwardly trying to find his footing so he can get a good position.

He takes his fingers out of you and his heart squeezes in his chest when your hips buck after them and you whine.

“Here it comes, baby.” Ajax laughs at his own joke, positioning the tip of his dick right against your hole. With a shaky breath and an even shakier smile, he breaches your hole with only that part of himself, loving the way your cunt welcomes it in.

He laughs again when he floods your insides, crossing his fingers behind his back for this one to take. Don’t worry, it’s only a fantasy for now, you should at least have your first date before he knocks you up.

OBGYN!Baizhu

“Just lie back on the exam chair for me and we can begin.” Dr. Baizhu smiles warmly at you as you nervously play with your hands in the clinical room.

You nod, wanting to speak at little as possible. The chair’s paper covering crinkles and creases as you climb onto it, shuffling around before settling into a somewhat comfortable positon lying on your back. You look to Dr. Baizhu on your right, he’s available on your insurance and he has stellar reviews on any site worth trusting you could find. You’re just anxious anyway, and this is something you have to do, it won’t do you any good to get paranoid about all the things that could go wrong in a doctor’s office.

Baizhu’s eyes crinkle in the corners and he takes a seat on one of those rolling black stools. “So I take it that this is your first pelvic exam? Well, then be assured that you’re in good hands. It’s nothing scary, but I need to make sure your vulva and reproductive organs are in perfect working order.”

You laugh awkwardly and mutter back a “I know, I'm fine. Just a little tired, traffic was a nightmare.”

Your nerves already feel like they’re fading away, Dr. Baizhu’s voice is so pleasant and he has such a kind demeanor, you understand why this clinic was so eager to have him. The woman who signed you in was raving that it was his first day after leaving a major hospital, that they were so lucky and you were too.

“Now I'll have you slide down to the end of the table and put your knees in these stirrups, it’s perfectly safe and if you need to take a breather, please let me know.” He croons, allowing you the freedom and comfort to act on your own. He’d never want to make you feel panicked, as if he were forcibly restraining you.

The exams aren’t really a big deal when you’ve gotten over that hump, but Baizhu knows that first times of any variety can be scary. Especially for skittish patients such as yourself, with as much prey drive as a barn bunny being chased by a sheepdog.

You lie there and endure every probe and thoughtful hum. Your vulva is fine and Dr. Baizhu ends that part of the inspection with a quick pat to your mound, his lips twitching as if trying to resist the urge to kiss.

“Okay, now I'm just going to check out your cervix, keep still.” The man hums, smoothing a hand down your right calf from the stirrup to your knee. “You’ll feel some pressure, but nothing painful.”

“Really?” You bite your lip and eye the instruments on the little table by the sink.

Dr. Baizhu chuckles, “Of course. Some patients do experience pain, but it’s not a definite thing, everybody’s different. At most, you’ll feel a tad uncomfortable and exposed.”

So you brace yourself and expect to feel the cold metal of what looks like some kind of forceps. Instead you look down to see your doctor unbuttoning his pants.

He catches your eye and waves off your concern, “Cold metal just seems so abrasive for your first time. You might do better with a more… human approach, something to test how well you can stretch. Don’t worry, I'll put protection on, I'd be a horrible doctor if I didn't.”

Sure enough he slides a latex condom on, covered in tiny holes but you brush it off as being a part of the design. Baizhu’s cock twitches, feeling a sick thrill at how easy you are, at how he can whip his dick out and you’ll believe it’s in your best interest.

He doesn’t release you from the stirrups, and they rattle as he plunges inside inch by inch. Slowly and mind numbingly, to properly gauge your cunt’s ability to expand around the intrusion. You gape up at him, feeling far more than just a tad uncomfortable and exposed. His lips twitch again, torn between maintaining the facade and stuffing your cervix with his cock or breaking character and dipping down to kiss your adorably parted lips.

“I’d give you a piece of candy if that wouldn’t embarrass you. You’re doing great, just relax and the pressure will ease up.”

“Ngh- hah- O-okay, doctor. Thank you for helping me.” You don’t know why you say it, who thanks their doctors for doing a basic exam? But he groans and his hips rush forward all the same.

Your cunt is impossibly tight, which is to be expected but it’s not any less delightful to experience.

The paper underneath you makes you want to claw your eyes out as his thrusts force your back to slide back and forth on it. That, the stirrup straps clacking, and your shared soft pants are the only sounds in the locked room. It’s not as anxiety inducing as you’d expect, the planets in the office orbit around the doctor and as long as they think he’s in an appointment (and isn’t he?) they won’t interrupt. His eyes crease, he promises to give you a home visit when you’re done here, just to be thorough and make good on that promise of candy.

Something sweet for the embodiment of the cavities is in his soul, cunny strangles him tighter than a noose.

Dr. Baizhu shudders as you reflexively clench around his pulsing cock and attempt to kick out your legs only to be held back by the stirrups, “Don’t mind the mess, ‘s all par for the c-course, my dear.”

You squirt on his next thrust, and your tangy juices drip down onto the cold gray floor. The gooey cum that escapes the holes in the condom follow suit and form a little pool. Dr. Baizhu takes several pictures of your seed heavy pussy with his flip phone for medical reference.

[unreesonable]

Stage/Fright

This post was used to track guest appearances during the West End run of Stage/Fright. I updated it after every show (twice on matinee days!) until the final performance at The Wyndham's, 5th April 2025

Leaving it here as a historical record. I'll be sharing more details about the guest appearances, photos etc over at @fuckyeahstagefright Last updated 05/04/25

I update this post after every show - that’s every day Mon-Sat and twice on matinee days! (Thursday and Saturday)

Photos and reviews are at the end of this post

I'm going to try and track the celebrity guests throughout the run. Asks/DMs are open if you have a tip for a show you've attended, or you can comment below.

Celebrity guests

(plus the mime for their name and the show name / character name / catchphrase that Len keeps getting wrong)

Previews

16/01/25 - Jim Howick (Gym Cow Sick - Horrible Histories) 17/01/25 - Ralf Little (Death in Paradise) 18/01/25 - The Actor Kevin Eldon (Cave In Held On - Fist of Fun) 20/01/25 - David Morrisey (Day Vid Morris [Boris] See - The Walking Dead) 21/01/25 - Marc Wootton (Mr Poppy, Nativity) 22/01/25 - Adrian Dunbar (Ted Hastings, Line of Duty) 23/01/25 - Nick Mohammed (Nick More Ham Head - Ted Lasso) 24/01/25 - Katherine Parkinson (Cat Thin Parking Sun - The IT Crowd) 25/01/25 - Gary Kemp (Car Reek Hemp - the running joke was the Spandau Ballet song 'True') / Martin Freeman (Fart Tin Three Man - Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings) 27/01/25 - Matthew Kelly (Mat You Ceilidh - Stars in Their Eyes) 28/01/25 - Lee Mack (Lemur Ick - Not Going Out)

Press night and end of previews

29/01/25 - Alexander Armstrong (All Lick Hair Arms Wrong - Classic FM) 30/01/25 - Daniel Mays (Down Yell [Theresa] Mays - Line of Duty) 31/01/25 - Mat Baynton (Mat Pain Tonne - Horrible Histories) 01/02/25 - Les Dennis (Les[bian] Tennis - New Faces) / David Harewood (Day Vid[eo] Hair Wood - Martin Luther King, The Mountaintop) 03/02/25 - Tamsin Greig (Tame Sing Gregg - Friday Night Dinner) 04/02/25 - Monica Dolan (Moan Knickers Dough Lamp - Mr Bates vs the Post Office) 05/02/25 - Ophelia Lovibond ([James] Bond - W1A) 06/02/25 - Julian Rhind-Tutt (Julie [Andrews] Wine Tut - The Madness of King George) / Paterson Joseph (Peep Show) 07/02/25 - Mel Giedroyc (Smell Head Roy [Orbison] - The Great British Bake Off) 08/02/25 - Denis Lawson (Dentist Law Son - Star Wars) / Sue Perkins (Soup Hare Skins - Great British Bake Off) 10/02/25 - Dara Ó Briain (Parachute O Brie - Mock the Week) 11/02/25 - Rory Kinnear (Roar Reek In Ear - Black Mirror) 12/02/25 - Matt Berry (Mat Bear Eye - The IT Crowd) 13/02/25 - Mackenzie Crook (Mack Hen See Rook - The Detectorists) / Mark Bonnar (Boner - Line of Duty) 14/02/25 - Phil Daniels (Fill - Quadrophenia) 15/02/25 - Emilia Fox (Meal Ear Fox - Silent Witness) / Sarah Hadland (Sir A Add Land - Strictly Come Dancing) 17/02/25 - Gemma Whelan (Jam A Wee Land - Yara Greyjoy, Game of Thrones) 18/02/25 - Joe Thomas (Sew Tom[cat] Ass - Fresh Meat) 19/02/25 - Lenny Henry (Sirloin Knee Hen Wee - Comic Relief) 20/02/25 - Matthew Horne (Mat Horn - Gavin and Stacey) / Nigel Planer (Gel Plane - Filthy, Rich & Catflap) 21/02/25 - Charlie Higson (Charl[eston] Lie His Son - Swiss Tony, The Fast Show) 22/02/25 - Morgana Robinson (Mow Garden Robin Son - Pippa Middleton, The Windsors) / Mark Gatiss (Margate Tits - The League of Gentlemen) 24/02/25 - Rob Brydon (Rob Bride On - Would I Lie to You?) 25/02/25 - Gareth Malone (Car Alone - Military Wives) 26/02/25 - Liza Tarbuck (Please A Starbucks - Upstart Crow) 27/02/25 - Bob Mortimer (Knob More Timer - Gone Fishing) / Julian Clary (Jewel Ink Lairy - The Joan Collins Fan Club) 28/02/25 - Stephen Merchant (Steep Hen Merchant - The Office)

01/03/25 - Robin Askwith (Rob Bin Ass Quiff - The Madame Blanc Mysteries) / Matt Lucas (Mat Loo Gas - The Great British Bake Off) 03/03/25 - Jane Horrocks (Jay No Rocks - Bubble, Absolutely Fabulous) 04/03/25 - understudy show - Steve Pemberton (Steed Pen Button - Inside No 9) 04/03/25 - Joel Dommett ([Billy] Joel Dominatrix Meet - The Masked Singer) 05/03/25 - Alex Horne (All Licks Horn - The Horne Section) 06/03/25 - Micky Flanagan (Mick [Jagger] Key Flannel - "Out out") / Josh Widdicombe (Posh Wee Dick Cum - The Last Leg) 07/03/25 - Joe Pasquale (Joke Pass Quality Street - New Faces) 08/03/25 - Paul Chuckle (Pull Chuck El[bow]- “To me, to you”) / Michael Sheen (Mic[rophone] El[bow] Shin - Good Omens) 10/03/25 - Stewart Lee ([Air] Steward Wee - Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle) 11/03/25 - Chris McCausland (Cry Smack Oars Land - Strictly Come Dancing) 12/03/25 - David Walliams (Slay Vid[eo] Wall Iams - Britain's Got Talent) 13/03/25 - Pauline McLynn (Pull Lean Muck Lean - Mrs Doyle, Father Ted) / Richard Osman (Reach Hard Oz Man - The Thursday Murder Club) 14/03/25 - Tamzin Outhwaite ([Lion] Tamer In Mouth Weight - Red Cap) 15/03/25 - Clive Anderson (Clay Van Der Son - Whose Line Is It Anyway?) / Stephen Fry (Steep Hen Fry - Jeeves and Wooster) 17/03/25 - Paul Merton (Pull Mare Tonne - Have I Got News for You?) 18/03/25 - Mark Addy (The Full Monty) 19/03/25 - Adam Buxton (A Dam Books Tonne - The Adam and Joe Show) 20/03/25 - Elaine Paige (E Lane Page - I Know Him So Well) / Jason Manford 21/03/25 - Romesh Ranganathan (Row Rang - The Weakest Link) 22/03/25 - Neil Morrissey (Knee [Elm] Tree - Bob The Builder) / Paul Whitehouse (Pull Why Toes - Gone Fishing) 24/03/25 - Simon Pegg (Sigh Mump Leg - Mission Impossible) 25/03/25 - Meera Syal (Me - Goodness Gracious Me) 26/03/25 - Robert Lindsey (Robbing Lean Sassy - My Family) 27/03/25 - Danny Dyer (Fan Knee Higher - Eastenders) / Su Pollard (Soup All Hard - You Rang Milord?) 28/03/25 - Danny Baker (Fan Knee Baker - Pets Win Prizes) 29/03/25 - Ross Noble (Row Snowball - Have I Got News For You) / Prof Brian Cox (Brr Iron Cocks - Things Can Only Get Better) 31/03/25 - David Tennant (Slay Vid Ten Ants - Doctor Who) 01/04/25 - Sandi Toksvig ([de]Tox Fig - QI) 02/04/25 - Sophie Willan (Sew Feet Willy - Alma's Not Normal) 03/04/25 - Miles Jupp (My Edge Jump - The Thick of It) / Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Feet Bee Wallop Bridge - Fleabag) 04/04/25 - Sir Ian McKellan (Serene Muck Alan [Sugar] - Lord of the Rings) 05/04/25 - Louis Theroux (Loo Wee T (kanga)roo - Weird Weekends) /Jonathan Ross (Johnny Thin Rose - The Masked Singer)

Press Night Photos by Marc Brenner

Press Reviews Roundup

compiled by u/NanetteFuckingNewman on Reddit

4 stars from The Guardian: “An ingenious edge-of-your-seat, one-step-ahead show”

4 stars from WhatsOnStage: “Joyously silly … great, all-encompassing fun”

4 stars from The Telegraph: “STAGE/FRIGHT reaffirms [the writers’] rare ingenuity… Bravo”

4 stars from Financial Times: “Another wildly clever, madly innovative and suddenly moving show from this inspired duo”

4 stars from Chortle: “A hugely impressive coup de theatre, keeping you guessing and gasping to the end”

5 stars from All That Dazzles: “Wickedly funny and impressively clever, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith really have made theatrical magic”

4 stars from The Independent: "This is one play you won’t be checking your watch in"

5 stars from the Radio Times: "The production is fabulous across the board... it's a thrilling ride that shouldn't be missed"

4 stars from Time Out: "A delight, the duo at the peak of their powers"

4 stars from The i: "Riotously fun... raucously entertaining"

No rating (but highly positive) from Beyond The Joke: "This spectacular show is both side-splitting and spine-chilling... If you don't enjoy Stage/Fright, contact a doctor immediately, you might be dead. This is brilliant. Go see it." "In the interests of fairness, there have been a few more moderate reviews from the Evening Standard, The Stage and London Theatre (all 3 stars), and one stinker from The Times (2 stars). There’s always someone…"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Donald Trump has just taken Richard Nixon’s playbook of weaponizing government “to screw our political enemies” to a new, deeply alarming place. He is now targeting law firms that represent his political enemies. We have never seen this before—which is why well-known national security lawyer Mark Zaid called this, “the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.” Yet it’s still barely getting the coverage demanded. This all began two weeks ago when Trump did the unheard of by using the power of the federal government to retaliate against the well-known Washington. D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling that “employs high-profile Democratic lawyers who worked in the Obama and Biden administrations.” Trump announced that he would strip security clearances from lawyers in that firm—which would mean that these lawyers could not work on legal cases involving national security, review classified documents that are part of a case or even have access to certain government buildings.

As legal experts note, lawyers who work in this area and have their clearance pulled will see a “substantial impact on their business.” That is Trump’s very goal. What did the lawyers at Covington & Burling do to merit this punishment? Did they take classified documents home and store in their bathroom like Trump? Were they charged with over 30 counts of violating the Espionage Act like Trump was? Nope, the law firm simply provided free legal advice to former Special Counsel Jack Smith because he was concerned that Trump might criminally prosecute him. That led Trump to issue an order on Feb. 25 revoking security clearance of any lawyer “who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith” by providing these legal services.

As the NY Times rightly reported at the time, this was “a breathtaking escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to employ the vast powers of the presidency” against not just his announced “political enemies” like Smith but also extending that to law firms who represent those “enemies.” However, given Trump did not face much of a backlash for this action, on Thursday he went alarmingly much further in weaponizing government to punish Democratic linked law firms who represent people Trump hates. Trump signed an order sanctioning the well-known law firm of Perkins Coie—which “regularly represents Democratic and liberal groups.”

This time Trump not only stripped security clearances for lawyers at the firm—which will impact their ability to represent certain clients—but also orders government agencies to cancel any government contracts with the firm and even ban lawyers from entering federal government buildings. More disturbingly, Trump ordered his Attorney General and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate the law firm for embracing diversity programs that resulted in hiring as Trump put it “individuals of preferred races.” This investigation will likely cost the firm a great deal of money to hire outside counsel and perhaps lead to fines.

What did the law firm Perkins Coie do to merit this punishment? Simple, during the 2016 campaign they represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee as well as contracted with the research firm that drafted what came known as the “Steele dossier.” That dossier detailed Trump’s interactions with Vladimir Putin’s government and other Russian actors. (The two main lawyers who were involved with the dossier, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, have long since left the firm.) Trump’s executive order sought to justify this clearly political action by falsely accusing the law firm of “undermining democratic elections, the integrity of our courts and honest law enforcement.” In reality, the law firm’s “crime” was that they represented Trump’s “political enemies.” In addition, the Perkins law firm is also suing the Trump administration in two cases--one focused on immigration and another representing transgender service members who are challenging the Trump administration’s ban on joining the military. While not mentioned in the order by Trump, this is obviously another reason Trump is gleefully targeting these firm. saying Thursday about the order, “This is an absolute honor to sign.” Trump is sending a message that if a lawyer or law firm represents anyone Trump views as an enemy, he will use the vast powers of the federal government to punish you. The goal being, of course, to deter other firms from representing anyone who dares defy Trump. As the NY Times noted this sweeping new order “could cast a chilling effect over the entire legal profession.”

Tyrant 47’s authoritarian attacks against Democratic-affiliated law firms Perkins Coie and Covington and Burling are a gross escalation of the war on rule of law.

See Also:

Law Dork: Trump lashes out, acting as an authoritarian in attacks on perceived opponents

[darkmaga-returns]

The funny part is that this swarm of Jacobin botflies from Norm Eisen to Sen. Thom Tillis thought (and acted) as if Ed Martin was the only MAGA lawyer capable of uncovering the steaming pile of seditious poo festering, lo these many years, in the DC federal district (i.e., the Swamp). Like, get rid of Ed and our troubles are over. Really? Don’t you suppose that there are dozens of other capable, patriotic, seasoned lawyers, seething over the corruption that is Swamp crime, who can effectively occupy the office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia.

The second funniest part is apparently the Jacobins thought that Ed Martin would just skulk off into the gloaming like a whipped dog and be gone — when, in fact, Mr. Trump folded him at once into three jobs in the Department of Justice that don’t require confirmation by the Senate, and will allow him to attend to exactly the same set of grave problems afflicting this republic from a position of power. Mr. Martin will now serve as Director of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Pardon Attorney reviewing the legitimacy of “Joe Biden’s” auto-pen signing of important documents — meaning, he’ll have the power to bring cases on his own and make criminal referrals to the US Attorney for DC.

You must also imagine that in his 100-plus days as Interim US Attorney for DC, Mr. Martin assembled quite a portfolio of evidence around the manifold blob wrong-doings of the past decade, but especially the treachery of the J-6 / 2021 blob operation at the US Capitol, and the ensuing cover-up of all that, including the intel community’s role in it, the perfidy and perjuries of Chris Wray, Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and others, and the gong show of lies and villainy that was the House J-6 committee chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), (with remedial support from Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney, Jamie Raskin, (and, backstage as always, lawfare ninjas Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Marc Elias, Ben Wittes, and Andrew Weissmann).

[toesuckersplaining]

Disclaimer! This never happen, i don't want to offend anyone, don't read if you don't like because this is kinda...

this post contains:

-boypussy

-marc pov

-naughty vocabulary(veery descriptive and honest)

Marc's fuck journal top10(with marc reviews):

Yes mr 46 i be able to fuck with many guys i want because im a modern omega

1.-Vantino Rossi(not Valentino): Yeah. He was good, no blue pills needed. 1000/10

2.-Dovi: The biggest i ever had, good moves for an old man. 10/10

3.-Dani: You heard that thing about tiny men? they compensate for their lack of centimeters in other parts of their bodies. Logistics was kinda complicated but we found the way. 9/10

4.-Aleix: Very careful, very good moves but moans Jorge’s name when he comes. 7.5/10 (i have feelings too :c)

5.-Pecco: A little(very) bit clumsy, it was like he never see a pussy in his life but when he learns DEAR GOD. 9.5/10 :p

nani note: don’t know what to put here. imagine very italian hot attractive men

10.-Iannone: H E A R  M E  O U T  im not proud of this but you know we humans make bad decisions when we are horny so…mediocre fuck but goooood blowie. 6.5

[salvadorbonaparte]

2024 in Books

Every Book I read in 2024 very briefly reviewed. I'm ignoring re-reads.

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie (I definitely want to read the rest of the series but I haven't managed to get my hands on it yet)

Death's Country - R.M. Romero (I read this as an ARC, it's a journey to the underworld in free verse)

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James (I love this guy's ghost stories)

100 Poets: A Little Anthology - John Carey (I read this as an ARC, would have liked more international voices)

Ariadne - Jennifer Saint (Very solid version of Ariadne's story highlighting the lack of agency under the patriarchy)

Cien Microcuentos Chilenos - Juan Armando Epple (Not gonna lie I barely understood anything)

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (I'm soooo not normal about this one)

The Murderbot Diaries 1-4 - Martha Wells (I'm really enjoying this series but I had to wait for months to get a library loan for the 5th one and now I forgot everything that happened)

Darius the Great is Not Okay & Darius the Great Deserves Better - Adib Khorram (Actually made me cry which tells you what kind of year I'm having)

The Jeeves Collection - P.G. Wodehouse (A 40h long anthology of Jeeves stories read by Stephen Fry what more can you want)

Von der Pampelmuse geküsst - Heinz Erhardt (Funny)

Die Jodelschule und andere dramatische Werke - Loriot (Funny)

Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree (This was truly so cozy)

Poemas Portugueses - Ed. Maria de Fátima Mesquita-Sternal (Good collection of different works)

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride (Highlight of the Year)

Quality Land - Marc-Uwe Kling (How is his satire so real??)

When Women Were Dragons - Kelly Barnhill (Highlight of the Year)

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe (Very affirming to read)

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (I'm so not normal about this that I'm considering getting a tattoo about it)

Andorra - Max Frisch (A play about antisemitism but in that very Max Frisch way)

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman - Richard Feynman (I want to study this guy under a microscope but I also learned a lot about education and people skills)

Von Juden Lernen - Mirna Funk (Bad, unfortunately)

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski (I've been reading this on and off for the better half of a decade and I have many thoughts none of them coherent)

Views - Marc-Uwe Kling (One of the most upsetting books I ever read and I mean that positively)

Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (What the fuck is happening but also oh cool)

People Love Dead Jews - Dara Horn (the other really upsetting book I read this year but beautifully written)

It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror - Ed. Joe Vallese (An anthology so up my alley you'd think it's fake)

Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle (More upsetting than scary but a really good read)

Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry (Very funny and insightful if you've just moved there)

You Like it Darker - Stephen King (I'm still thinking about some of the short stories)

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut (Also not normal about this one)

The Song of Roland - Unknown, Trans. Glen Burgess (It sucks that this slaps so much because it's blatant propaganda)

Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum - Heinrich Böll (Worst year to read and watch this tbh but highly recommended)

Herzog Ernst - Unknown (Medieval Fantasy but like actually Medieval)

Willehalm - Wolfram von Eschenbach (Sorry I only partially read this because I got too busy with school)

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (Better still than Camp Damascus but again more upsetting than scary)

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 5-14: The Monkey Miraculous: What the Hell, Kim?

Alright, I've heard a lot about this episode. Apparently it explains the reason why Marinette is such a stalker is because she was traumatized last year from a prank by Chloe when she was confessing to Kim, which makes sense for Kim. He was the third member of Team Chloe in season 1 until Dark Cupid. But apparently he regresses back to his season 1 personality because this is Season 5 and the characterization has gone to hell. Kagami's going to date Adrien's evil twin later in this season. No matter. What's important is Girlsquad Lore.

The eepy sleepy

I know PTSD works in irrational ways, but I have to wonder why it's flaring up now and didn't during Mr. Pigeon 72. They had pretty similar scenarios. Did Kim want to confess to Marinette as well?

Sponge

Babe, wake up! New outfit models! Model! Hehehe, Adrien was a model. Or was that used in season 4?

Alright, he's just being a himbo at the moment...

Straight to the Akuma!

Water physics!

Flashback!

Welp, in my canon it's two years in a row and every year except for one. The Marc year. Also I like how Marinette has a different hairstyle because the pigtails are to honor Soqueline!

Wow, why did Chloe stop pranking Marinette like that during the next school year? At most she did a gum prank.

This is too much even for Ms. Mendeleiev.

1. Where's Alix?

2. Accidental roast

3. To be fair, Mylene, your mother isn't a hyper-famous person that could easily become a role model for you and your father isn't rich enough to spoil you because of how fucked-up you most likely were that your mother left you.

Yes! Soqueline!

The spy

Yeah, this feels kinda OOC.

I mean, people will probably just think you're a jackass, Chloe.

Now that isn't even realistic writing. That's just an attempt as an excuse.

And now he's back to pre-Dark Cupid. >:(

Looking at Ondine's body and why is her abdomen so damn thin?

Also in general the animation feels more robotic this episode.

Laugh track

Chat Noir's fucking PISSED

Technically, Ladybug's the one at fault there. By stopping Chat like that he was an easy target for Dark Humor. Good name btw

Terlet shard

Oh. Another scene to show how eeeeeevil Chloe is.

The flashback half of this episode would've been good if it was set up back in season 1. Other than that I was right on all counts, plus Chloe's evil feels OOC as well. Disrespectful. Either way, I can start doing my Girlsquad lore next!

[storkmuffin]

The first thing we do - let's kill all the lawyers.

Richard III says this, in Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2, by Shakespeare.

Full text below the cut.

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to severely punish the law firm Perkins Coie by stripping its lawyers of security clearances and access to government buildings and officials — a form of payback for its legal work for Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign.

With the order, Perkins Coie becomes the second such firm to be targeted by the president. Late last month, he signed a similar memorandum attacking Covington & Burling, which has done pro bono legal work for Jack Smith, who as special counsel pursued two separate indictments of Mr. Trump.

While the Covington memorandum sought to strip clearances and contracts from that firm, the Perkins Coie order goes much further, seeking to also limit its lawyers’ access to federal buildings, officials and jobs in a way that could cast a chilling effect over the entire legal profession.

The president’s animosity toward Perkins Coie dates back eight years, to when two lawyers at the firm, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, played roles in what eventually became an F.B.I. investigation to determine if anyone on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign conspired with Russian agents to influence the outcome of that election. Both lawyers left that firm years ago.

The executive order denounces what it calls “dishonest and dangerous activity” at Perkins Coie, singling out its hiring of a research firm that led to the compilation of a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations against Mr. Trump related to possible ties between his campaign and Russia. The executive order accused the firm of “undermining democratic elections, the integrity of our courts and honest law enforcement.”

The order instructs federal agencies to suspend any security clearances that Perkins Coie lawyers may have. It also orders government agencies to determine if they have any contracts with the law firm, and then cancel them.

Additionally, the order instructs the heads of all federal agencies to limit Perkins Coie lawyers’ access to federal buildings “when such access would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States.” It also instructs federal officials to limit their interactions with employees of the firm and seeks to prevent Perkins Coie lawyers from being hired by the federal government.

It is not clear what immediate effect the presidential decree will have on the firm. The president and his supporters have railed against what they call the “weaponization” of the legal system against him, arguing that he was unfairly targeted by prosecutors, judges and private practice lawyers for political purposes, rather than any wrongdoing on his part.

“This is an absolute honor to sign,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “What they’ve done is just terrible. It’s weaponization, you could say weaponization against a political opponent, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”

The same executive order also accuses the firm of unfair hiring practices, and calls for a far-reaching review of top law firms to see if they promote diversity, equity or inclusion in a way that the Trump administration dislikes.

The federal review ordered by Mr. Trump will seek to determine “whether large law firms reserve certain positions, such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races; promote individuals on a discriminatory basis; permit client access on a discriminatory basis; or provide access to events, trainings or travel on a discriminatory basis.”

In a written statement, the law firm said the executive order “is patently unlawful, and we intend to challenge it.” It was not immediately clear how many lawyers at the firm have security clearances.

Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit against Perkins Coie in 2022, accusing the firm, along with his former rival Hillary Clinton and others, of participating in a left-wing conspiracy to derail his presidential campaign. That lawsuit was quickly tossed by a judge who said it lacked substance and legal support.

Earlier this week, the president of the American Bar Association, William R. Bay, warned that Mr. Trump might take additional punitive measures against law firms he does not like, and said such behavior undermines the nation’s legal system.

“Lawyers must be free to represent clients and perform their ethical duty without fear of retribution,” Mr. Bay said in a written statement. He added: “We reject the notion that the government can punish lawyers who represent certain clients or punish judges who rule certain ways. We cannot accept government actions that seek to tip the scales of justice in this manner.”

[thedissociatives]

tagged by @tauverse tysm !!

1 - last song: faster - manic street preachers

2 - last book: i'm a decent way through kids in the riot rn but the last book i finished was the penguin book of first world war poetry :)

3 - last movie: withnail and i (if we're not including the gavin and stacey xmas special 💀)

4 - last tv show: apple tv+ was free this weekend so i watched the completely made-up adventures of dick turpin. 10/10 would recommend was pleasantly surprised to see marc wootton on screen even if i can only ever see him as mr poppy

5 - sweet/savoury/spicy: savoury >>>>

6 - relationship status: single

7 - last thing i looked up on the internet: lyrics to ana's song by silverchair. can't even remember what i needed them for

8 - current obsession: sports as always (even though i'm not posting as much i constantly have swindon town + red wings on the brain). but also music stuff (libs and manics really atm i think). so same as really

9 - looking forward to: going back to class tomorrow so i can see my friends >:) also the short film festival in town next month that i'm helping out at doing reviews

tagging @joyridingmp3 @eriecanal @memphisbelle :)

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: Doing good (Issue 34)

Moon Knight, Issue # 34: Primal Scream

Written by Tony Isabella and drawn by Bo Hampton. 

And Bonus short: The Vault of Knight

Written by Tony Isabella and drawn by Richard Howell.

Let's stop for a second. Take a little comic history lesson tour. 

This is not written by the usual Moon Knight team. 

Let's get into a little Moench history here and why he left. 

He did not really get along well with the then Marvel Chief editor James Shooter. Understandable. Here’s why: 

James Shooter got his start writing for DC then moved to Marvel. During the 70s and 80s, Marvel was experiencing a huge boom in content and new titles (like Moon Knight!) 

Further more, Stan Lee stepped away from monitoring comics to heading the animation works in LA right when Shooter became the cheif, leaving him fully in charge. 

Many felt that Shooter ran the place like a dictator, but there had been a huge influx of missed deadlines and Shooter put a stop to that. 

Despite keeping things running and overseeing a lot of new and important titles, he also alienated a LOT of long-time Marvel creators. 

Many of the long-time creators, like Moench, left Marvel to join with DC, who had a new editor. (He got to write for Batman!) 

NOTE: Shooter also enforced a policy forbidding the portrayal of Gay Characters in the Marvel Universe. In fact, the ONLY and first portrayal of a gay themed comic was of gay men attempting to rape Bruce Banner in the YMCA (which Shooter himself wrote), thus making Marvel to be widely considered Homophobic throughout Shooter's reign. (You should look into the history of LGBTQ+ in comics. It's a ride.)

I would like to point out that Moench's last issue during this time was about a reporter that was obsessed with making her deadlines and who wrote shitty pieces that were praised but awful and caused harm and eventual death in one character she wrote about. HMMMMM. 

When did he leave? Sources say the end of 1982, but those that understand the publishing timeline will note comic publish dates don't match the date they reach the shelves. 

So what is the official last Moon Knight Comic Moench worked on?

Let me put it this way... We aren't going to see Moench anymore for the 1980s run. 

He DOES come back for a bit later on, but it's short lived for a couple of limited run editions.

(And this is all new knowledge for me, who thought he originally finished the 1980s run and now I'm looking at an earlier review I did out of order because I'm an idiot and realize I've made a grave mistake.... Oh joy.) 

Farewell my sweet writer Doug Moench. Hats off to you. 

Now! That out of the way, let’s take a look at the first step we truly take away from Mr. Moench. 

For some reason, any time a guest writer sits in for early Moon Knight, they feel the need to over explain the character and introduce his past. Almost as if they were trying to explain who they are writing or getting a grasp on it for themselves. 

This is also a special double large edition. Another cause for writers to try to over explain characters as Marvel expects a bigger issue to draw in new fans. 

However, this is an odd story to push on the hopes of new fans. 

Let’s get into it! 

Yep. We open with a fast recap on who these characters are. 

It leaves me wondering what happened when Moench left. Did he have a script written out? Did he have to give notice and they knew he was leaving and this writer was already on the backburner? Or was this done in a hurry to get a planned comic deadline out on time? 

I would ALSO like to point out that when Bill left, he got a send off. Moench did not get a send off. He just disappears from the credits. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. 

"He was born Marc Spector and Spector wasn't a very nice man...Not so much evil as callous...A mercenary whose concern was reserved solely for himself and his Bankbook. 

That man could never have come to this deserted industrial wasteland on a mission made of equal parts mercy and vengeance." 

I disagree. Marc would be all over vengeance in a deserted wasteland. 

"Steven Grant could have. You've read about Grant... The committed millionaire about town...A pretty defendable guy as the upper crust goes. Still... 

Grant couldn't have found this place without Jake Lockley. Jake is the eyes and ears of Grant and Spector...A cabbie whose heart pulses to the beat of the city." 

Putting a bit on Steven, but he'd want to do good. But a gritty back alley is not really his style. 

"Ready for the kicker? Spector, Grant, and Lockley are all the same man...A man you know better as..." 

(A side note... We see Moon Knight running through a warehouse complaining it smells like a sewer. HE WOULD KNOW. And then he's startled by a cat. This is hilarious to me for so many reasons.) 

And that leads us to the title page where a young man is leaking off the crates above to tackle Moon Knight. 

"Frank? Hate to do this to a hopped-up kid, but the quicker I put him down...the less chance of his getting hurt! Though when I think of what he did to Gena..." 

He tosses Frank across the warehouse. 

Moon Knight again alludes to the damage this kid did to Gena's diner after getting high on some new 'junk'. 

Moon Knight is about to call in to Frenchie to get the medics out to take care of the hopped-up kid when the kid takes off. 

He isn't worried. The fight has been knocked out of him and the police shouldn't have an issue. 

Now we head back to the diner where we find Jake having a cuppa wihth Gena and Crawley. 

Crawley is talking about "The Raiders" which is a young men's social club (read 'Gang'). They are known to be brutal and even the police are afraid of them. 

Gena mentions about how she never raised her boys to run in gangs. Out back, we see Frank leading a group of gang members up to the back door of the diner. 

The gang busts in and attacks the patrons, demanding food. 

Jake isn't about to lay down and let it slide. 

He clocks one of the kids and worries about his friends. 

"Gotta get over to Crawley and Gena fast! They're not used to this kind of action!" 

Jake's heart is made of gold. 

One of the kids jumps Jake, growling and snarling. 

"A for effort, punko, but I've seen a real werewolf up close--And all you've got in common with him are lousy table manners!" And Jake flips the man off. 

Frank jumps on Genna while Jake is preoccupied. He cries out that he's hungry and he bites into her arm. 

Her cries distract Jake and someone bashes him on the back of the head, knocking him out. 

On waking up, Jake immediately asks how Gena is. He finds Gena loading up into an ambulance. 

"His name is Frank... So much for my perfect record. Find him before the police do, Jake." 

"I...Understand. I'll make sure the boy isn't harmed." 

"You don't understand! I want that ungrateful little maggot harmed! I want him harmed so badly he won't ever be able to walk upright again! I treated that boy like family! He treated me like today's hot lunch special! Get him for me, Jake! Bring me his stinkin' head on a platter!" 

Jake's pretty irked about Gena getting hurt, but... 

"But that's not what Moon Knight stands for, is it? I'm the agent of vengeance, not vengeance itself." 

That’s an interesting thought for Jake to have. Jake who so often slips out to let the others handle the Moon Knight mission. He trusts that they can handle things. But what is the difference between being an agent of vengeance and vengeance itself? Perhaps, looking to another comic is where we see that line and the difference between Moon Knight and the Punisher. 

He sets out to find Frank and his gang. He hopes having Frank brought in will help Gena. 

"Because I never want to look into the eyes of someone I care for and see so much hatred and despair there. I've seen it too many times before... Within myself." 

So this issue I’m just going to be crying over Jake the whole time. Okay. Good to know. 

Back at the diner, Gena is out of the hospital and facing her fears. 

Moon Knight is searching the hideout of the Raiders. He fllows the smell till he comes across a delirious woman with some sort of chemical burn blotches all over her. 

Looking around, he realizes, Steven Grant has been here before. An old factory he had been trying to save to create jobs has fallen into ruin. 

The factory is left to rot and all the chemicals inside are left there as well. 

He radios to Frenchie to make sure medical is on standby. These kids have been living in the toxic waste too long. 

He asks if the police got anything out of Frank when they grabbed him. 

Yeah... they didn't get him. He got away. 

And he's still looking for food from Gena. 

Back at the diner, we see Gena trying to clean up on her own. 

She is skittish as she cleans but tries to tell herself that no one's coming for her. 

"Besides, I'm not gonna let anybody or anything chase me away from what's mine!" 

And that's when Frank breaks back into Genas’.

Moon Knight finds one of the kids conscious enough to talk. Alcaide, their leader, didn't let them leave the hideout. He found drums full of a top secret toxic waste that drove people wild and crazy. 

Moon Knight recalls that Grant had learned that the factory used to work for the government. 

"Grant saw that in their public records. But the Spector part of me can't help but wonder if they didn't also do some more discreet research for the feds." 

Bingo bango. He finds the drums, filled with "Primal Project" chemicals. 

Oh! time for a Marc Spector flashback! 

"Spector was working for the feds at the time, escorting a man named Wenzel through a south American jungle..." 

They were heading to meet up with a professor in Manaus (that’s in Brazil!) to shut down the Primal Project. 

"It was supposed to slow a man's thinking process...Make him docile...Easy to handle. Something went wrong." Wenzel talks about the project. 

Marc stops them in their tracks. He hears something stalking them from the trees above. 

A creature leaps at them and Marc fires his gun. 

The beast is hit and lays dead. Deformed and animalistic. 

Marc asks if this is the work of the professor they're heading to see. 

"Spector...That IS the professor." 

They reach the campsite to find men dead across the site and more creatures running around. 

They are attacked adn have to fend off the beasts. They ended up blowing up the site to get rid of the beasts and the remaining chemicals. 

Apparently not all the chemical was destroyed. 

Now, Alcaide, the gang leader, approaches, fully a beast now. 

Back in the diner, Gena fights for her life. 

The cops have arrived at the factory and the paramedics are working on the gang. 

Moon Knight still battles the crazed beast and so does Gena. 

The next day, Jake stops in to see Gena. 

Most of the kids will make a recovery and their lawyers claim they were unter the influence of the Primal toxin. 

Gena is still shaken deeply. 

"I trusted Frank like he was one of my own, Jake...And every time I come in here all the pain comes back. Maybe it wasn't all his fault, but nobody forced him to join that gang. And is it right that I can't walk into my own diner without getting sick?" 

Jake tries to comfort her. Or perhaps, he reaches out to her in a way that he wishes he could with himself and with Marc. Because he knows that it does eat them up. It eats Marc up every day. He isn’t sure if it will ever stop eating them up.

"No. But you're too good a lady to let this eat you up forever." 

"Yeah... I'll work it out."

Poor Gena. 

She shoos them away. She needs to lock up for the night. 

This story is beautiful. This one time special guest writer, Tony Isabella and artist Bo Hampton really did a beautiful job here. 

They manage to keep the usual Moon Knight pace and story feel. We have Jake trying to protect his people. We have Gena facing a kid she helped to raise up, despite him not being her own, joining a violent gang and hurting her, we have Governmental neglect to clean up their mess and doing experimental biochemical weapons on unsuspecting people (a thing that really did happen in ‘Nam), we have economic failure for the factory that lead to the failure to clean up the toxic chemicals, and then we go back to Gena who is now facing trauma. 

No one in this story won. No one goes home feeling good about the day. They just have to pick themselves up again and move on. And they shouldn’t have to. Yet here they are, facing it all alone. 

This moves us to the short story afterwards. "The Vault of Knight." 

This is a weird one. Stranger still is that the short is written by the same person who wrote the main line. That’s pretty rare. Usually the short is done as a commission to be filler or bonus issues. 

Weirder still is the way it’s presented. A commentary on the main storyline! I've seen it done before. It's sort of like the Watcher to the audience. 

We have a strange looking character that addresses the audience. He's dressed like a baseball catcher with a Cubs cap on. Fitting. 

He calls himself "The Score-Keeper". 

And this... Let me tell you....

"Aloha, Adventure-addicts! Was twenty-four pages of gratuitous Do-Gooding enough for you...Or does your Hero-Habit demand even more of (yawn) Moon Knight's exciting escapades? I'm your sinister statistician, The Score-Keeper, and what I wanna know is... 

What is this Turkey in his cowled skivvies accomplishing? Does he really make a difference? Let's add it up. You can't lie to a Scorecard!" 

Interesting. A common question that pops up in Moon Knight comics. 

"Take last story for example. Sure he put ONE gang of teen terrors out of commission, but what's he doing about the rest of the anti-social adolescents in this city?" 

We see Moon Knight on a stakeout, waiting where someone's been hitting the same place for a week. 

The someone is two punks that dress up like werewolves and rob the shops in the area. In fact, they've hit five places in the past week alone! 

They hit a store where an old man cowers in fear....Until Moon Knight swoops in and knocks the thugs out. 

"You...You're that Moon Mensch fella! And you came into MY shop to save me from those Gonifs." 

"It's sort of my job." Moon Knight pauses. 

"Nu? To you, it's maybe a job. To me, if my store gets robbed, maybe I don't eat that night. So I thank you a lot, you and your job." 

"Friend, it was a mechaieh." 

Oh boy oh boy oh boy you have no idea how happy I am to hear Moon Knight say THAT. 

Back to the score-keeper, he's not impressed. "Why can't these heroes ever save Bloomingdales?" 

And the score-keeper starts talking about Gena and the previous issue. 

"What about Gena? One of Moon Knight's own team and he couldn't prevent what happened to her in this issue's other story. I don't think she's over it yet." 

We see Gena's boys Ray and Ricky head into the diner. 

"What did you want to talk to us about?" 

"I...I was talkin' to your uncle Rollie today, the one with the big restaurant out in Houston and he...Well, he kinda offered...I mean..." 

Score-Keeper scoffs. 

"Way to go M.K. While you're brushin' up on your Yiddish, one of your closest friends is bookin' this urban paradise. Maybe we should ask the rest of your little outfit what they think of you..." 

And this cracks me up because we get Frenchie, Marlene, and Crawley. Each one speaks of a different altar. And Frenchie is just SO pissy about it and so protective of Marc... He calls him his friend. Marc could always count on Frenchie back in the day. 

I’m…Not going to get into the “Faces of Eve” thing. It’s… A lot. But it was the big DID story and eventual movie that came out around this time that somewhat inspired a loose input into the creation of Moon Knight having DID. 

"You ask me, you care more about these guys than you care about Moon Knight." 

A misnomer. These people are what makes Moon Knight and keeps him going. In his adventures, helping him, and even when he fails them, they stay with him. 

Score guy jabs at it, noting that Moon Knight hasn't protected any of them. 

Frenchie's girlfriend, Marlene's brother, Crawley's son... 

He moves on to Detective Flint. 

Flint waits for him in a back alley. 

"Something happened --Didn't want you to read about it in the papers first. That Alaide kid you brought in was found dead in his cell an hour ago." 

"Yeah, that would've ruined my Breakfast all right." 

(Honestly, Jake is the one that reads the morning paper and eats breakfast. Jake would have been upset.) 

"Wasn't anybody's fault, guy. You know how crazed the kid was --He strangled himself before anyone could get to him." 

"That supposed to make me feel better?" 

"No...This is. It's the room number of the officer that was injured that night." 

Moon Knight pays the officer a visit. The officer is surprised to see him, thinking that he might not come. 

"Flint tells me that storage drum busted three ribs. I'm sorry. Maybe if I'd moved a little faster..." 

"It's all part of the job. But I don't have to tell you that...

You know, I figure you're pretty much a regular guy under that mask. Weird clothes, but no special 'powers'. I'll be honest... This job scares me a lot, like all the time. I was shaking when I went into that warehouse." 

Sometimes he doesn't see the good he does. 

Sometimes all he can see is the pain he leaves behind. Blaming himself for the pain of his friends. 

Maybe he doesn't really understand why this Daniels is thankful for him. But maybe in this moment he thinks it might be worth it. It might be why he is still trying. 

Back to Score-Keeper. It's time to add up the score. 

"Is Moon Knight doing any good or is he just swinging against the wind?" 

He looks at the results and seems surprised. Ripping up the scorecard, he tells us to figure it out for ourselves and leaves. 

A weird story, but I'm not mad at it. It ties into the main story line, shows the aftermath of what happened, and still shows their friends standing by them. 

It also lets Moon Knight take a moment to feel appreciated. 

And it does ask a question that Moon Knight has asked time and time again. “Am I doing good?” 

Is he causing the harm or is he just shouldering the blame because of his past traumas? The question remains over the years as things become more and more broken for them, and the answer has always been there. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard for them to see it… or accept it. 

[coochiequeens]

A hospital made amends to one woman by paying to exploit another?

NHS pays £1 million for woman left infertile by bungled surgery to have a surrogate baby

Donna Roberts, 41, was left infertile by a botched operation 15 years ago

Baby Mia was born last summer and Donna hopes for her to have two siblings

By JAMES TOZER

PUBLISHED: 17:00 EDT, 4 August 2023 | UPDATED: 17:29 EDT, 4 August 2023

A woman left infertile by a bungling surgeon has fulfilled her dream of becoming a mother after the NHS paid £1million for a surrogate in California.

Donna Roberts, 41, was injured in a botched operation for a bowel condition 15 years ago.

The internal damage left her infertile, apparently robbing her and husband Marc, 47, of their hopes of starting a family. 

But in 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that women left unable to conceive due to medical negligence can claim the cost of a surrogacy abroad.

Mrs Roberts' lawyers secured a settlement to fund an egg donor and surrogate in San Diego.

And baby Mia was born last summer – and celebrates her first birthday next Saturday. The couple now hope the payout will fund up to two siblings for Mia.

'I still can't believe she's really here,' Mrs Roberts said yesterday. 'We're both absolutely besotted with her. 

After everything we've gone through since my surgery, it's incredible to think that we've finally got a family of our own.

'Mia is doing brilliantly, she's such a cheeky, bubbly, happy little thing. What I went through in hospital has changed my life forever, I'll never be the same again. But Mia is the ultimate silver lining.'

Mrs Roberts had surgery at Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, North Wales, in 2007 for complications from ulcerative colitis.

But after an operation, which a review found to be 'doomed to failure', she was left battling sepsis and MRSA, and told she could not conceive. 

The surgery meant it was unsafe to harvest her eggs. so she and her electrician husband began legal action.

After the Supreme Court ruling, their lawyer, Richard Malloy of Gregory Abrams Davidson Solicitors, secured an apology from Betsi Cadwaladr health board.

A confidential settlement covered the £300,000 cost of organising a surrogate to California – where commercial surrogacy is legal – including legal, travel and accommodation bills. 

After choosing an egg donor who resembled Mrs Roberts and shared their Welsh roots, the eggs were fertilised in a laboratory using Mr Roberts' sperm. 

The embryos were then implanted in teacher Reggi'e Webster's womb. Mia was born on August 12 last year.

'It was just the most incredible moment,' Mrs Roberts said. 'Because surrogacy is so normal in California, there was absolutely no awkwardness about it.' 

The couple, who moved from Llangefni in Anglesey to Liverpool after losing faith with the health service in North Wales, now hope to try for a second child using the same surrogate. 

Mrs Roberts said: 'For some people the best option may be adoption. But for us it's been a dream come true.'

Mr Malloy said: 'The very significant hospital failings cruelly deprived Donna of the ability to conceive naturally, and we are delighted to have been able to support her and Marc.'

Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital is run by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which is in special measures after its leadership was branded 'dysfunctional'.

Executive medical director, Dr Nick Lyons, said: 'We offer our most sincere apologies to Mrs Roberts and hope that the settlement reached will provide the support she needs.' 

He added that 'significant changes' had been made to the way patients were treated and the operation she had was no longer offered.

[whereareroo]

RAINY DAY VIBE

WF THOUGHTS (9/10/11).

Before we get back to serious issues, let’s spend another day on music. OK? If it’s not OK with you, go take a hike.

Yesterday morning, it was raining here. I don’t run on rainy mornings. I have a different ritual.

On wet mornings, while Mrs. Lifepartner sips her tea, I review the news online and give her my own little news broadcast. She doesn’t really like it, but I do it anyway. She’s a good sport. She’d be happier if I went running and let her enjoy her tea in peace.

Rainy mornings create a “low energy” vibe. After I recite the news, I raise the energy level by blasting a song. I always pick a song that has something to do with rain. Mrs. Lifepartner is never thrilled with the loud music.

Yesterday morning, I played one of my rainy day favorites. I played “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn. You might know it. It qualifies as a “rainy day” song because of the first line: “Put on my blue suede shoes and boarded the plane, touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain.”

It’s an upbeat song based on a positive trip that Cohn took to Memphis when he was down in the dumps. For Cohn, the trip was an uplifting experience. Beale Street is the most famous street in Memphis. I’ve been there. Cohn was so energized by his experience that he believed that he was floating on air. The song says that he was “walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale.”

I guarantee that you’ll feel energized by the song. It’s perfect for a rainy day. Cohn released the song in 1991.

Until yesterday, I didn’t know that Cher released a version of the song in 1995. I guess I learn something new every day. I’ve always liked Cher. In many ways, she was the Lady Gaga of my generation. Cher can sing. After playing Marc Cohn, I also played the Cher version for Mrs. Lifepartner. She didn’t seem to appreciate the treat. I thought that Cher did a great rendition of the song. The video was really good too.

The next time you see rain, play “Walking In Memphis.” Go big and play both versions. The positive tone will change your day. You’ll be uplifted. If you doubt the power of this song, just ask Mrs. Lifepartner.

[dankusner]

Rashee Rice’s cases are ongoing 1 year after Dallas highway crash

In the year since his high-speed excursion on a Dallas highway turned into a multi-vehicle hit-and-run, Rashee Rice has faced little accountability.

The Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver and former SMU football star is still waiting for eight criminal charges to be presented to a Dallas County grand jury, a panel that will decide whether the cases against him should move forward.

Without an indictment or no-bill, Rice and the victims pursuing legal action against him have been left in limbo.

At least one lawyer involved in a civil case against Rice believes his stature and his counsel’s position in state politics has had “undue influence” on the proceedings.

Kyle Coker, who represents the company that rented out one of the totaled sports cars, pinned blame on the Dallas County district attorney’s office for the delay.

“If this was any other person other than a football player who retained a state senator … then this would’ve gone very different,” Coker said. "

 I don’t want everybody to forget about it, and I don’t wanna let the guy off.”

A spokeswoman for the DA’s office declined to comment, citing the pending case.

In the days after the crash, Rice wrote on social media that he took “full responsibility,” and his attorney said the NFL player would “do everything in his power” to bring normalcy back to the victims’ lives.

A spokesperson for the Chiefs did not respond to an email or phone call seeking comment on whether Rice faces disciplinary action from the franchise.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the matter remains under review.

Meanwhile, representatives of the victims from the March 30, 2024, collision said Rice has yet to make good on his public promises.

“Mr. Rice has offered absolutely nothing to make amends,” said Marc Lenahan, attorney for an Uber passenger injured in the crash.

24007546

“Mr. Rice has apologized, but his lack of actions to match leaves in doubt whether that is sincere or a manipulative and cynical ploy.”

In the days after the crash, Rashee Rice wrote on social media that he took “full responsibility,” and his attorney said the NFL player would “do everything in his power” to bring normalcy back to the victims’ lives.

21206800

State Sen. Royce West, who represents Rice, said the attorneys’ allegations are false. He declined to elaborate or specify when Rice last reached out to victims from the crash, noting the case is still pending and it’d be improper to try to resolve it in the media.

“What occurred was unfortunate and we’re doing everything that we can in order to make certain that the victims are treated fairly,” West said.

“We’re seeking solutions, not fame.”

Rice faces one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury.

So, too, does his former SMU teammate Theodore “Teddy” Knox, accused in the same wreck.

Knox’s attorney, Deandra Grant, confirmed “nothing has happened” in his cases as well.

00787578

She did not provide further comment.

While it is unclear why Rice’s case has stalled, West requested more time in civil proceedings because of the ongoing Texas legislative session, court filings show.

Messina Madson, a defense attorney and former prosecutor not involved in the case, said Rice’s legal team may be gathering its own rebuttal experts to analyze the crash.

“These cases are very difficult because unlike other crimes, jurors can identify with the person charged,” Madson said.

“We’ve all driven a car, we’ve all made poor driving decisions, we’ve all been in near-accidents, and so it’s unpredictable how they will review the decisions made that night.”

Rice and Knox face accusations they drove into multiple vehicles about 6:20 p.m. in the 6600 block of North Central Expressway, then walked away as victims waited for help and stood stranded on the highway for hours.

Police officials have said a driver in a Chevrolet Corvette and a driver in a Lamborghini Urus were speeding in the far left lane, near University Boulevard, when they lost control.

The Urus traveled onto the shoulder and hit the center median wall, causing a chain reaction collision involving four other vehicles, police officials have said.

Footage shows the Urus and Corvette attempting to pass cars in the left lane before slamming into a white sedan, then colliding with multiple vehicles across lanes of traffic.

Rice was driving 119 mph in the Urus, which he’d rented, police wrote in an arrest-warrant affidavit.

Knox is accused of driving 116 mph in a Corvette registered to Rice, then slowing to 91 mph about a second before the collision.

The speed limit is 70 mph on that stretch of highway.

The Dallas Morning News first reported that police suspected Rice.

News stories and visuals of Rice, Knox and three other men leaving the crash site soon circulated nationwide.

(Police have said the passengers in the luxury vehicles will not face charges.)

Rice and Knox turned themselves in to police a week later.

About a month later, Rice was also suspected of punching a photographer outside a Dallas nightclub.

That case was dropped after the photographer signed an affidavit declining to pursue prosecution against Rice, according to the internal police record obtained by The News.

Rice played for the Chiefs in the fall, but was sidelined for much of the season because of a knee injury.

Knox was suspended from the SMU football team, and he entered the transfer portal last April.

He is not listed online as playing with any team.

The two men also face a volley of civil lawsuits — by Edvard Petrovskiy and Irina Gromova, a Dallas couple who said the crash caused them brain trauma, lacerations to the face, contusions, disfigurement and internal bleeding; and by Kamlesh Desai, whose injuries from the collision may be permanent, according to Desai’s lawsuit.

00794245

Sanjay Mathur, an attorney who represents Petrovskiy and Gromova, said his firm hasn’t been able to move the lawsuit “as fast as we wanted” after the court granted West’s request to delay proceedings.

He said his clients are still coping with injuries, adding Gromova needs plastic surgery on an eye that was scarred in the crash.

Other victims spoke out after the collision, including Kayla Quinn, who said she and her 4-year-old son were shaken up by the crash that left their Hyundai Accent “un-drivable.” Quinn did not reply to requests for comment over text for this story.

“He has taken the least amount of accountability as possible,” said Coker, the attorney for the car rental company. "

 He’s getting away with it and thumbing his nose at the system.”

[seph7]

By Mel Gussow

Nov. 2, 1979

IN his Pulitzer Prize‐winning drama, “The Shadow Box,” Michael Cristofer dealt compassionately with death and dying. In “Ice,” which will run through Sunday at the Manhattan Theater Club, he is concerned with bleak survival, death in life: two lonely men and a woman in an isolated cabin in the Alaska wilderness.

Clearly, Mr. Cristofer has intended to write an archetypical drama about vagrant people, who, through force of circumstance, have become more animal than human. However, the result is unfocused and unsavory — a selfparody whose best feature is its brevity.

•

The owner of the cabin, played by William Russ, begins as a clean‐cut outdoorsman. Inexplicably, he invites a scrofulous derelict to share his quarters, and talks to him as if he might be an old buddy from high school, instead of a filthy, crab‐infested stranger. By the end of the play, the derelict (J. T. Walsh) is sober, shaven and even articulate — with cleanliness comes good speech. On the other hand, Mr. Russ is chattering to himself like a deranged parrot. The switch in roles is as obvious as it is farfetched. As Susan Sharkey, playing a woman called Sunshine, says, “Surprises are hard to come by out here.”

Miss Sharkey is the primary asset of Robert Woodruff's production. She is, as usual, a striking and sensual presence, but her role and the play are marshaled against her. Sunshine is loosetalking and promiscuous, aggressively available to one man and another. The men in the play are usually passive when it comes to sex, although in other respects they can be whirligigs of energy, charging into the night to walk four cold miles to stand alone at the nearest bar.

As director, Mr. Woodruff is unable to give the play a basis in credibility. He and Sally Jacobs, as designer, err in not stressing Arctic authenticity. The play begins with Mr. Russ unboarding a window in his cabin, exposing the room to inclement weather, but the place never seems the least bit wintry.

In contrast, for Mr. Walsh's first entrance, the makeup department has outdone itself in seeking versimilitude, caking the actor with what appears to be grease and spittle. He looks as if someone stepped on his face with muddy boot. The probable explanation for the seemingly unnecessary intermission is that it gives Mr. Walsh time to wash up and change his clothes.

One other theatrical footnote: this is the second time in a week that an ax has been used as a comic stage prop. In “Emigres” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a character uses one to open a tiny tin can. In “Ice,” Mr. Russ takes an ax, raises it high over his head, and with unerring aim chops himself a nice neat slice of birthday cake.

“Ice” was first presented at the Mark Taper Forum in 1976, and since then, Mr. Cristofer has written a number of other plays. Perhaps this one should be regarded as the equivalent of a successful novelist's failed second novel — something to be forgotten.

A Sunday matinee at 3 P.M. has been added to the schedule of “The 1940's Radio Hour,” the musical at the St. James Theater, 246 West 99th Street. T‐shirts with the logo of the show will be given free to the audience at this Sunday's matinee, tickets for which range from $11 to $20.

Cabin Fever

ICE, by Michael Cristofer. Directed by Robert Woodruff; setting and costumes by Sally Jacobs; lighting by Marc B. Weiss; production stage manager, William Chance. Presented by the Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow, artistic director; Barry Grove, managing director. At Upstage/Cabaret, 321 East 73d Street.

Murph ... William Russ

Ray ... J.T. Walsh

Sunshine ... Susan Sharkey

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I still get a bit lost in my new gig — at WillowTree — as a React Native/TypeScript dev. The syntax is making more sense and getting easier to follow, but, I do have a difficult time understanding the errors produced by yarn ts:check. It’s the same each time I learn a new language.

I’m also developing an interest in Rust. That’ll have to be a part time interest for a long time I suppose. I have more important business to attend to. 😃

Onward!

Filipe Espósito • 9to5Mac

Shareshot is an iOS app that transforms how you share iPhone and iPad screenshots

A friend of mine, Marc Palmer, is part of the duo who created Shareshot! It is, as always, absolutely beautiful, full featured, and stable.

If I’m not too lazy moving forward I should use it to make screenshots for Stream blog posts and the like.

Congratulations, Marc! 🥳

Andrew Carter • WillowTree Blog

Mobile app interactivity, multimodal voice technology, and AI are all converging with Apple Intelligence — Apple’s new artificial intelligence feature set announced at this year’s WWDC, coming soon with iOS 18 (maybe in October). And the secret sauce powering those awesome interactions is something called App Intents.

Andrew is pretty legendary in the halls of WillowTree. So damned smart and witty, and he plays a mean fiddle and banjo.

Anywho, go give his piece on App Intents a gander, you might learn a thing or two.

Kelly Crandall • Racer

Austin Dillon has been stripped of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff eligibility that came with his victory at Richmond Raceway.

Austin Dillion looked great all night. I don’t recall how many laps he lead but it was a lot. He was two laps short of victory when a late caution came out.

On the restart he was beat off the line by Joey Lagano and fell into second place.

I wanted to see Mr. Dillion win so badly. He hasn’t had a win in a couple years and Richard Childress Racing needed one but the way he did it was not great.

He kept the win but was stripped of his points and playoff berth. They should’ve disqualified him and given the win to Legano, if I’m being honest about my feelings.

Scharon Harding • Ars Technica

Sonos is laying off about 100 people, the company confirmed on Wednesday. The news comes as Sonos is expecting to spend $20 to $30 million in the short term to repair the damage from its poorly received app update.

It’s incredible how much an app redesign can make or break an application or company.

Another critically acclaimed podcasting app called Overcast was also redesigned and released recently. It too has had a very difficult time with its subscribers. Lots of one star reviews and hate.

Rewrites can kill companies. Don’t do it. Evolve your code over time. Think of it as a Ship of Theseus.

Tasha Robinson • Polygon

Ryan Reynolds had very specific tech (and humor) requirements for Wolverine’s corpse

I still haven’t see the new Deadpool but I really want to. Deadpool’s obsession with Wolverine is funny as heck and I’m here for it. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are hysterical.

Juan José López Jaimez and Meador Inge • Google Bug Hunters

In a throwback to the past, this blog post takes us on a journey back to a time when eBPF was a focal point in the realm of kernel security research. In this update, we recount the discovery of CVE-2023-2163, a vulnerability within the eBPF verifier, what our root-cause analysis process looked like, and what we did to fix the issue.

Fresh off the heels of the Crowdstrike fiasco we get a story of how Google engineers found vulnerabilities in a Linux technology that allows for similar extensions to the OS. Similar in desired outcome, not in implementation.

Matthias Endler

Quite a few websites are unusable by now because they got “optimized for Chrome.” Microsoft Teams, for example, and the list is long. These websites fail for no good reason.

Chrome has definitely become the new Internet Explorer in a way. Devs have become lazy and don’t code for the open web, they’re coding against a specific browser. Not good. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Stan Alcorn • Rest of World

How Spotify started — and killed — Latin America’s podcast boom

What Spotify has done is not podcasting if it doesn’t allow any podcast player to subscribe to a feed. That’s part of what makes a podcast a podcast. What they’ve done is something that needs a new name.

Lately I’ve heard some podcasts announce ad free versions available on Apple Podcasts, which is also just as bad as Spotify’s locked up audio thing.

Please, don’t do this, keep your podcast a podcast and find a better way to create subscriptions. Others have done it. You can too.

Patreon

Apple is requiring that Patreon switch to their iOS in-app purchase system starting this November, or risk being removed from the App Store. Here’s what’s coming, and what you can do about it.

My opinion on this is simple.

If they really believe in creators Patreon should abandon their iOS App in favor of a really great mobile experience on their website.

Liam Proven • The Register

Before WordPerfect, the most popular work processor was WordStar. Now, the last ever DOS version has been bundled and set free by one of its biggest fans.

It’s not surprising how many fans of WordStar exist. Many of them are novelists and columnists. The best of the best writers in the world. Of course they’re most likely of a certain ventage, if you know what I mean? 😂

I started as a BASIC programmer and used WordStar as my editor until I discovered Brief. True story.

David Edwards • Raw Story

Judge Chutkan faces call to seize Trump’s passport after threat to flee to Venezuela

Can Judge Chutkan do the opposite and encourage Trump to move to Venezuela, now? That would solve a lot of problems with the upcoming election and help preserve democracy.

It would be a great service to the country. 🇺🇸

Rex Huppke • USA TODAY

Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.

I listened to it for a few minutes and the Orange Man sounded like Sylvester the cat!

Sufferin’ Suckatash! 😋