im cooked. school is kicking my ass.
but yk who’s cooking? mako. that’s right, I have more to yap about him cause he’s my boy !!
so this post is gonna be shorter because I just wanted to share: mako is 100% an incredible cook. you give this man scraps he will put gordon gd ramsey to shame. I know in my heart that when they first became orphans (mako was eight, bolin six) bolin was THE pickiest eater. he didn’t actually care too much about what was in his food, but if you told him it was vegetables or if it wasn’t in a pretty shape he would not eat it. or if it was cooked three minutes too long? not going in this kid’s stomach.
so mako, willing to raze the world to the ground for his baby brother, learned to cook anything they got just right and make it into little smiley faces or sectioned into neat squares. bolin loved it. as he got older and started helping pull scams and stuff he got less picky (recognizing some of the desperation of their situation, despite mako shielding him to the best of his ability) but mako still made stuff look cute and presentable and at that point he’d just gotten so good at cooking whatever he had that bolin couldn’t complain if he wanted to.
cooking turns into his love language for the krew and asami is actually pissed that the fuckass rich people restaurant she took him to as an (apology?) date is genuinely mediocre in comparison to mako’s cooking. she’s like,, you were so impressed. why. you literally cook so much better that date was actually ass in retrospect with this information. and mako’s just like ?? you bought me a whole suit ?? no one has ever spent sm money on me ???
also he absolutely goes on autopilot and makes little smiley faces and kiddie style meals sometimes. the first time it happened korra poked fun, but asami and bolin beat her ass when mako refused to cook for them for two whole weeks. they were SUFFERING, korra.
he still does it but they don’t say anything. js giggle to themselves when he’s not paying attention 😭
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" peeking through your mind, tell me every single thing "
so i listened to this fire song and i just had to mess around lol.... anyway you get DR KINITO!!!!!!!!
also i made a sketch of my kinitopet oc (about time!) and i'll show about it below the cut
oh yea the song i referenced is this (the og is japanese tho i only chose the teto english cover of it because i really liked the translation)
Franny!!! he's a dirona albolineata aka frosted sea slug
ive been thinking of his design for a week now while i was finishing off my finals and he's finally here.... he is a trapped user and has been trapped in the code for a long time now... also he has memory issues; funnily enough in this world he's some kind of a doctor boioioioioing
i'm thinking like you could play and help him with his memory game.. matching up gummy fish and sharks placed under cups
i'll make a proper ref for him soon
OK I'LL STOP YAPPING
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"I think we should kill it.."
The bug on the shoulder suggested while the colourful one kept yapping its little mouth in response to Verm.
Slug stopped talking but now was doing a little dancey dancey on its briefcase
"Uh well.. I don't think he's exactly a threat." Verm mentally was baffled that he even considered it a threat. He's doing a dancy dance after all!
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with the jellies it’s probably easier to like... hamsterball them for Water Activities, because of their weird bodies
with anemones they... probably are hardly ever interested in entering salt water, much less submerge. Inklings might occasionally be interested in Looking At Fish and other underwater sights, but anemones do not have eyes with which to do that... If you can’t splash around and feel the (fresh) water there isn’t much of a point in entering water. If the odd anemone desires a diving experience then an inkling fitted drysuit will likely suffice
slugs though... slugs... huge head... Tail... hm. yeah probably hamsterball them also actually
This wouldn’t be so complicated if you assholes just took the boat and/or submarine tour instead of trying to have an Individual Experience
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Men: women shouldn’t own a bank account, they should be paid less and take care of the kids at home so they can’t build a career
Also men : why do I have to pay at the restaurant :’( fucking golddigers !
Men: women are meant to stay at home and clean and take care of the kids, women are weak
Also men : why am I dying at war and women get to stay :’(
Men : women exist to carry and nurture kids while men work
Also men : why women always get custody :’(
Men: women can’t control their emotions and are less reasonable than men, women are crazy
Also men : why is my prison overpopulated :’(
Men : the gender pay gap is a myth :)
Also men : Actually it makes sense for the woman to stay home and raise the kids, since the man usually earns more... / Actually it makes sense that women should be paid less because they work less and leave early to take care of the house and the kids...
Men : pfff that bitch considered me a friend when I just wanted to fuck her, #friendzoned again
Also men : why do women think we're all predators ? This is sick and offensive !
Men : we are not dangerous, stop the paranoia, men are in much more danger than women in fact
Also men : these sad statistics show that we die much more than women due to the fact that we like to kill each others so stop talking about danger this is SAD what is feminislsms doing about it ????
Men : we want to fuck as many women as we can, it's evolution, rape is natural, also we are attracted to young girls because biology
Also men : feminazis say we're all rapists ! This discrimination has to stop :'(
Men : social justice warriors are snowflakes getting triggered over nothing haha
Also men : they are making a remake of Ghostbusters with a female only cast !!! this is a WAR on MANHOOD by the feminazi agenda !! can we even be white men anymore ? ???? ?,, this is how the jews must have felt :!! men are under attack !!!
Men : women are so superficial with their beauty shit, so fucking vain, ugh
Also men : women who look like actual humain beings are ugly slugs, fat cows, disgusting lazy chimps ugh
Men : women have a maternal instinct, it’s in their nature to want to nurture, they all should have babies :)
Also men : look at this one statistic I found out of context, it shows women abuse their children more than men ! so women are just as bad as men ! check mate feminists !
Men : teenage girls are so vapid, their interests so pathetic, look at them getting overexcited over some effeminate kpop dude pfff listen to them yap, omg emabarrassing
Also 10 men sitting on a couch screaming at the top of their lungs while watching TV : “GET THE BALL !!!!! yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !!!! OMGOMGOMGOMG !!!! haaaaaaaaaaa !!!! heeeeeeeeee !!! omg let’s all hug !! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA that guy is my HERO!!!”
Men : have some balls dude ! our balls is our strength !
Also men getting kicked in the balls by a 2 years old : scream, fall down, vomit and pass out instantly
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MultiVillain x Reader || Drabbles
Plot: Okay, so this is how it goes. Reader’s in love with (Villain), and (Villain) is in love with them… but no one ever said it out loud, and now Reader is marrying someone else.
Includes: Napoleon Boneparte (Misc), Human!Oogie Boogie (Disney Villain), Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham), Slenderman (Creepypasta), The Clown (Horror Villains)
Warnings: Alcohol intake, talk and hints towards murder of course, and swearing.
Notes:
Inspired by ‘Marry Me’ (Either by Thomas Rhett [The guy’s POV which is what this will be in] or Elle Mears [Your POV, if you wanna see how Reader’s thinking]) and I recommend you listen while you read! ^^
I’m so happy!! I finally wrote something more then headcanons for Oogie! And this is also my first time writing for the Clown, so be easy on me XD
I hope you like this- I for one, am actually pretty proud of it!
~~~
Napoleon Boneparte (You’re having a nighttime wedding- you made this decision of course so your friend and secret soulmate could attend):
She wants to get married, she wants it perfect
She wants her grandaddy preaching the service
Yeah, she wants magnolias out in the country
Not too many people, save her daddy some money
Before walking into the church, I halt a moment at the side so others may get inside by me. This will be hard. I need a moment, just a moment… to pull myself together. It would be very bad, if I were to panic as Y/N makes their way down the aisle.
Hand on the church, more to hold myself together rather then to hold myself up. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be here? Should I leave? That stupid Capone said I might not be able to control myself and will object when the preacher asks… he’s not right, is he? It’s true, I don’t feel entirely under my own control right now…. But I need to be here. To support Y/N on their big day.
… I do love them, far more than any man every should a nearly married person, and even if I can’t have them for myself, I would, happy, do very near anything to make them happy.
So, if… If they want me here, as they said they do… Then I have to go in. I can’t chicken out now. I am the great Napoleon Boneparte. I can attend a wedding. Bon dieu.
Viva La France.
I can do this.
Forward!
As soon as I walk in, it is as if I am strolling into Y/N’s mind. This is just as they always wanted, with a few obvious added things by the other one that’s getting married today, like the chiselled cat head mahogany chairs… not that I think Y/N would disapprove if they weren’t, in fact, kind enough to just agree right away, seeing as it isn’t only their day.
The white makes a beautiful backdrop for their chosen accent colour, and the people in the room are exactly who I would imagine to accompany Y/N in her daily life, when I cannot be there. There’s not a sour, or in any way unexcited and unencouraging expression in the place.
Honestly, with my whole heart, wish I could feel the same as them.
Then Y/N comes into the room, and steals the breath right out of my chest. Like always.
Human!Oogie Boogie:
Ooh, she got it all planned out
Yeah, I can see it all right now
I'll wear my black suit, black tie, hide out in the back
I'll do a strong shot of whiskey straight out the flask
Christ, what kinda shindig is this?? I’ve asked everyone and their cat, including somebodies’ mother who looks like a cat, to play a tiny game of Blackjack with me while we wait for the main event, but nothing! Nada! What’s wrong with these people? Are they dying to just sit around and contemplate their loneliness until the two hosts get hitched??
I, for one, am not playing that game today.
Of course, I’m also avoiding Y/N at all costs so maybe I’m not the best example of a man controlling his emotions.
“Oogie!”
My shoulders seize up visibly, at Y/N’s voice behind me and I stop shuffling my cards. I only decide to turn around and face them like a man, when they give up waiting and round me so I can see their beaming face.
Oh, they look so happy.
That’s nice… in a terrible, heartbreaking, awful kind of way.
“Heya, Y/N. You look great!” I start shuffling the cards again in my hand, distracting my hands from and refraining myself from, taking their hand and kissing it, or pulling them into a hug. If I did that, I think theirs an acute possibility I would end up saying something we would both regret, in a moment of determination… and devastation, of course. Can’t forget that.
Really, I can’t. It’s a very prominent feeling right now in my chest, just being here. Just knowing this is happening.
“Thank you!” They beam wider, and oh Jesus. They’re so beautiful when they look happy- I wish I could make them this happy.
… But that’s all the other guy. The one they’re hitching.
They run their bottom lip through their teeth, looking down at the cards in my hands and then smirking in that mischievous way that always somehow makes this blackheart’s insides clench up. In a good way, but still. Tilting their head, they look back up at my face. “Had no luck getting anyone to bet with you yet?”
I let out a deep, theatrical sigh full of frustration. “No! Your guests all suck, Y/N.”
“Even you?”
“No, not me. I’m the King.”
“Right,” They laugh, then goes and sits down at a nearby table. “Well we have 10 minutes until I have to go get ready to walk- I’ll play you if you want!”
My heart pops like a balloon, and goes flying, wheezing around in my rib cage as I just smile at them for a good moment- unmarried, and free, and mine. For ten to fifteen more minutes. Hell yeah, I’m going to sit down and play with them.
Why aren’t I telling them not to? I wonder, as I deal us both cards and they pick theirs up and make cheeky ‘Hmmm’ sounds to throw me off. Why don’t I tell them, right now, how I feel? Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I here, is also a valid question but I already beat myself up over that last night when I was picking out my tie. I’m her friend, and they deserve to be… yuck. Happy, with the person they chose.
And I guess, that’s the answer to all my other questions too.
Let me just enjoy this last game, this last 600 seconds with them.
Oswald Cobblepot:
I remember the night when I almost kissed her
Yeah, I kinda freaked out, we'd been friends for forever
And I always wondered if she felt the same way
When I got the invite, I knew it was too late
And I know her daddy's been dreading this day
Oh, but he don't know he ain't the only one giving her away
As soon as Y/N leaves my side to go and freshen up for the aisle walk, I find myself a seat in the very back of the church / auditorium and rest in for the event. I will not be moving from this hidden away spot, in convenient shadow, with my secret flask of terrible smelling stuff that Victor gave me before arriving, until this shitshow is over and I can leave.
I’m only here in the first place, because Y/N asked me. And, evidently, my idiocy runs deep because I accepted such an invitation. I will do anything, for them. I learnt my lesson in dealing in peoples love lives, with Edward and Isobel- I will not let my relationship with Y/N go as badly as that one did, with Ed.
So if I must sit here and watch them marry that moron, (Fiancé’s Name), then that is what I’ll do. But I won’t sit in the front and watch it, and I will be as drunk as whatever this drink can make me.
Maybe I should text Victor, the deadly assassin, and ask what the contaminants are…
An unevolved, ap-like woman walks past my seat and I must be too close to the aisle because I can hear her yap like a strangled cat about what a cute couple Y/N and (Fiancé’s Name) are together and how they must be soulmates, and I don’t think twice before gulping down a huge mouthful of the alcohol. If this is how I die, then so be it, I think bitterly as I slide further down the aisle.
“Fuck!” The word comes out of me before I can stop it, my face probably the picture of horror and disgust. This… drink, if I can even call it that -more of an undiluted acid, if you ask me, - tastes like regret and earwax.
The same ape-like woman from before flashes a stern, disapproving look at me like she thinks she’s my mother, and I show her my middle finger. Uncouth, yes, but affective. This is a bad day, and I am in no mood to deal with bitches like her. She quickly looks away, and I take another, smaller, sip of the drink.
Another moment passes and the wedding doesn’t seem to be even a second closer to ending, so I sit up straight and close my eyes, holding the flask in my lap. Take me back to a better time…
In the silent, middle-of-the-conversation lapse moment, I allow myself to look down at Y/N’s mouth. They have a soft smile, left over from whatever we were just talking about, on their face as they sit comfortably in our silence and I suddenly feel total confidence. They’re here, with me, instead of off with that boy toy / girl toy / gender neutral or fluid toy. They’re with me. That must mean that I mean something to them, right? And Ed said they looked at me like… like, they love me. Or ‘care deeply’, as he put it. But we all know that was just his stiff version of the word ‘love’. Ever since Isobel… had her unfortunate accident… he’s been focused on one emotion only and it is not, love.
Anyway, the confidence spreads through me and I smile. It mixes with my perpetual desire to kiss them, and goddamnit, I should do it. I should just lean over and press a gentle kiss on their mouth- if they aren’t interested or pull away, I can blame it on the wine between us. If not…
Butterflies erupt in my stomach and my chest, and I’ve just lean an inch forward… when their phone rings on the table and I see (Boyfriends Name) flash on the screen.
I rush to lean completely back in my chair, as they answer. I don’t like to believe fate has anything to do with Gotham, but… that was entirely too close.
My eyes snap open and I roll my shoulders back, inhaling another, bigger slug of the contents of the flask and feel even angrier.
That was, most certainly not a better time, you nitwit.
Slenderman:
Bet she got on her dress now, welcoming the guests now
I could try to find her, get it off of my chest now
But I ain't gonna mess it up, so I'll wish her the best now
I’ve been sitting in the back of this church, a place I likely shouldn’t ever enter in the first place -Well, at least I’m not Offender. I would probably burn to death, in that scenario, - for over 2 hours and I only got to see Y/N for 45 and a half minutes of that time.
Not that that really matters. Its more important that they see me. I certainly don’t want to see them. I don’t wish to see them, or their wedding clothes, or their wedding guests, or the stupid moony smiles on their faces, or the cake, or their partner. Definitely not their partner. If they show their face before they absolutely have to, or worse, talk to me, I will promptly go home and kill 30 people. I don’t want to be here.
I shouldn’t be here, in fact. If I were a good man, I wouldn’t be here. A good man would never turn up to a wedding that he know’s he’s just going to sit back in and think unholy, too-fond and too-angry thoughts about one of the marriage participants. Marriage is supposedly a sacred thing, and if I were this good man that I’m thinking about, I wouldn’t urinate on it like this.
But I am not a good man.
So, really, what would I know about what a good man, would do in the first place?
Enough thinking about good men, it’s making me queasy and very uncomfortable.
I don’t look around, but I can infer with general certainty, that Y/N will be welcoming all her other guests now that I ‘allowed’ -Not that I could have stopped them. They just didn’t want to leave me in my own company,- them to let me be alone here. And they’re in their wedding clothes, which look lovely on them, and their smiling and their giddy.
Giddy. Ugh, I hate that word, especially in this sense. Defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as ‘feeling silly, happy, and excited and showing this in your behaviour’. And by the Oxford, to ‘Make (Someone) feel excited to the point of disorientation.’. Yes, I looked up these definitions and memorised them before I came, and loathe every single word, in that order.
Because apparently, as if it wasn’t already obvious by the very fact that I’m HERE, I hate myself.
This other person has made Y/N giddy, while I have to sit here and pretend, I’m happy for them both and that I don’t feel like vomiting for the first time in 5 centuries.
But I can’t do anything about it, because I love them, Y/N, and I will… I will not, allow myself to be the reason their wedding wasn’t perfect. So, I wish them the best.
Or I try my damn hardest to.
The Clown / Jeffry Hawk / Kenneth Chase:
So I'm in my black suit, black tie, hiding out in the back
Doing a strong shot of whiskey straight out the flask
I'll try to make it through without crying so nobody sees
Yeah, she wanna get married
Yeah, she gonna get married
But she ain't gonna marry me
I don’t know if I’d call this a real wedding. For one, its in the entities realm so how ‘magical’ could it really be? And for another reason, the only white thing here is my grease paint. Its pretty laughable. I would laugh, in fact, if I didn’t know it would cause a coughing fit and bring attention to me as Y/N walks down the aisle- O don’t need them looking at me. I might accidentally blurt out an ‘oopsie’ or something not-at-all funny like that, with all the whiskey I’ve injected today. Not that that would be the biggest issue with these kids seeing that I’m here, in the first place. Only Y/N knows, I’m hiding by a tree.
But, I digress I guess. They’re calling it a wedding. The big one with the beard is officiating -I guess he has an online certificate from before he was brought here,- , Y/N’s wearing a pit of plastic bag on their head like a make shift veil / bit of plastic bag fashioned sort of like a tie, and all the lovely little fingers, or survivors as they like to call themselves, watch. With silly gleaming smiles and hope in their eyes- Pft, suckers.
Honestly the idea of weddings in the first place make me a bit uncomfortable. All those wide eyes watching and perving on your happiness?? Seems pretty creepy to me, and I’ve been told I’m pretty creepy myself! So, I would know!
The fact that possibly the sweetest, perfect person I’ve ever had the pleasure of setting my gaze upon is the one getting married, has absolutely no stake on my take on weddings in this moment.
Absolutely not…
Aha… hahahaha…
I kill myself.
I kill them, too, but let’s put that on the backburner like their fingers, for now.
Let me wallow in self-pity for a while longer before we start making jokes.
Yeah, let me… I take a swig of my flask -a bee-oootiful concoction of all the most toxic hootch I have in my collection, and maybe also some actual poison maybe since I wasn’t paying much attention when I created it this morning and I keep it all in relatively the same place, - and savour the horrible flavour on my tongue. Let me wallow, for a little bit.
This is going to be a bad day, for these little fuckers when I get into the game.
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Your first mental image when thinking about lips or mouths might be a passionate kiss. Percy Bysshe Shelley said “Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.” However, lips and mouths are more than kissing (or eating) machines. This post provides hundreds of ways to describe them in creative writing and poetry.
Emotion Beats
The way people move their lips and mouths reflects overt or hidden emotions.
Pouting might indicate agitation, aggravation, confusion, contemplation, disapproval, disbelief, dislike, exasperation, flirtatiousness, impatience, irritability, nervousness, pessimism, resentment, sadness, skepticism, suspicion, wariness, worry, et al.
In fact, pouting can imply so many emotions that it’s probably best to consider alternative body language.
A few more emotions mirrored by lips and mouths include:
Adulation, arousal, flirtatiousness
Parted lips
Running tongue over the lips
Anticipation of a delicious snack or entrée
Smacking the lips
Watering/salivating mouth
Determination
Pressing lips into a thin line
Dislike
Pressing lips into a thin line
Fear
Bad taste in the mouth
Chewing on lips
Clenched mouth
Dry mouth
Gaping mouth
Gulping huge mouthfuls of air
Licking the lips
Trembling lips
Impatience
Pinched lips
Repressed hatred
Pressing lips into a thin line
Shyness
Pinched lips
Skepticism
Biting the lips
Stubbornness
Tight lips or mouth
Uncertainty
Forceful exhalation through pursed lips
Adjectives (1)
Adjectives such as haughty save words by telling about a character’s motives or personality. Use sparingly. They function well in flash fiction or third-person omniscient point of view, and when you want to speed the pace.
Several adjectives, when describing lips, may suggest something different when describing mouths.
Provocative lips might indicate a seductive tone, but a provocative mouth might be aggravating.
Demanding lips evoke a sexual image, whereas a demanding mouth implies an overbearing character.
Generous lips might be large, or they might be yielding and responsive. Provide context if necessary.
Rather than modify lips or mouth, a number of the following words could refer to faces, expressions, or motivations.
Many skin attributes also perform well as lips and mouth descriptors.
A
Active, adulterous, adventurous, affectionate, aflame, aggressive, alluring, amorous, amorphous, ample, appealing, ardent, audacious, avid, awkward
B
Barbarous, belligerent, bewitching, bitchy, bitter, bloody, bone-dry, bony, Botoxed, boyish, brash, brutal, busy
C
Cadaverous, callous, capable, capacious, careworn, carnivorous, caustic, cautious, cavernous, chaste, cheerful, cheery, childlike, clumsy, coarse, coherent, cold, complacent, conspicuous, contemptuous, corrugated, critical, crooked, cruel, crumpled, cynical
D
Dainty, dead, delectable, delicate, delicious, demanding, demure, desirous, desiccated, determined, devilish, disdainful, dispirited, disrespectful, dissatisfied, doll-like, dour, downcast, droll, dry
E
Eager, effeminate, elastic, electric, eloquent, energetic, enigmatic, enthusiastic, evil, expectant, experienced, expressionless, expressive, exquisite
F
Fascinating, fevered, feverish, fine, firm, flaccid, flat, flawless, fleshy, flexible, flirtatious, foolish, forceful, formless, foul, fragile, fragrant, frigid, frothy, full, furrowed, furtive
G
Generous, gentle, girlie, girlish, glassy, glib, glossy, gnomish, goofy, grave, greasy, greedy, grim, grotesque
H
Hard, haughty, heartless, heavy, helpless, heretical, hesitant, honeyed, hungry
I
Icy, impassioned, impassive, impatient, imperious, impertinent, impetuous, implacable, impudent, incoherent, inflamed, inflexible, innocent, insatiable, inscrutable, insubstantial, intractable, inviolate, irreverent
J
Juicy
K
Kissable
L
Lax, leathery, lecherous, lewd, libelous, libidinous, licentious, lifeless, loathsome, loose, lopsided, lovable, luscious, lush, lustful
M
Malicious, manly, masculine, masterful, meager, meaty, merciless, merry, mischievous, misshapen, moist, motionless, mute, mutinous
N
Narrow, nasty, naughty, nervous, numb
O
Obstinate, oily, oversized
P
Passionate, pathetic, pebbly, perfect, perfumed, petulant, pinched, piquant, playful, pliable, pliant, plump, practiced, prim, prodigious, profane, proficient, prominent, proud, provocative, puffy, pugnacious
Q
Querulous
R
Randy, rapacious, ravenous, raw, relentless, reluctant, repulsive, resolute, responsive, restless, reticent, reverent, rigid, ripe, rough, rubbery, ruthless
S
Sacrilegious, sad, sarcastic, sardonic, sassy, satirical, saucy, savage, scabrous, scaly, scornful, scurrilous, seductive, sensitive, sensuous, serious, sexy, shapeless, shrunken, silent, silky, sinful, skillful, slack, slick, slippery, sloppy, smooth, soft, sore, sour, spicy, stained, starving, stern, sticky, stiff, stony, strong, stubborn, submissive, succulent, sulky, sullen, sultry, sunken, sweet, swollen
T
Talented, tense, tentative, thick, thin, thirsty, tight, timid, toothless, tough, traitorous, tremulous, truculent
U
Uncertain, uncooperative, unrelenting, unresponsive, unsatisfied, unsmiling, unwilling, unyielding, upturned
V
Vacuous, virgin, voluble, voluptuous, voracious, vulgar
W
Wanton, warm, waspish, waxen, well-cut, wet, wide, willing, winsome, wistful, withered, witty, wormy, worshipful, wrinkled, wry
Y
Yielding, youthful
Adjectives (2): Upper Lip
Although some of these adjectives might suit lips or mouth, they excel for describing the upper lip:
A to Z
Bifurcated, bushy, clean-shaven, furry, hairless, hairy, long, mustachioed, naked, perspiring, short, stubbly, sweaty, whiskered
Adjectives (3): Lower Lip
Likewise for the lower lip:
A to Z
Droopy, exaggerated, floppy, generous, missing, non-existent, pendulous, sagging, soul-patched, split, square-cut
Adjectives (Misc.)
Besides describing lips and mouths, writers can:
Describe the teeth, or mention missing teeth
Describe a person’s smile.
Similes and Metaphors
When creating comparisons, familiar animals are a good place to start. Readers know what they look like and will conjure an immediate image of the lips so compared.
Some of the following act as adjectives, while others function best in as or like similes. For example:
Fred had horse lips.
Fred had lips that looked like they belonged on a horse.
A to Z
Angel fish, apish, baboon, baboon’s butt, bestial, bovine, camel, Cheshire cat, chimpanzee, chipmunk, dead fish, duck, frog, giraffe, goldfish, horse, largemouth bass, leeches, lizard, porcupine’s back, raw oysters, reptilian, serpentine, simian, squirrel, toad, twin slugs, zebra
Other comparisons could include:
A to Z
Ancient prunes, angel’s cheek, blow-up doll’s maw, bread dough, cherries, embers, glue, lily petals, overstuffed sausages, pincushion, pinecone, plum, pomegranate blossoms, raspberries, raw liver, rose petals, rosebuds, rubies, sandpaper, satin, suction cups, twin cacti, velvet, vise grips
And here are a few more thought starters:
Awkward as a newborn trying to find his mama’s nipple
Bigger than his ego
Deader than a slab of cement
Dry as the Sahara
Foul as an overflowing cesspit
Fragile as butterfly wings
Large as Texas
Like a cow chewing its cud
Moist like morning dew
More brutal than a pounding sledgehammer
Smelly as an old sock
Colors
Foods excel as color substitutes. Words such as cherry, bubble-gum, and tangerine capture color, scent, and taste.
In a modern novel, lipstick and stage makeup allow lips to be almost any color. Not so much in a Victorian-era piece.
A to F
Anemone-pink, ashen, bloodless, bubble-gum, burgundy, carnelian, cherry, colorless, coral, coralline-red, cotton-candy, crimson, flamingo, florid, freckled
G to Z
Golden, grey/gray, licorice-twist, pale, pallid, pasty, peach, pink, purple, red, rosy, ruddy, seashell-pink, sunburnt, sunset-scarlet, swarthy, tangerine, vermillion, wan, wine-red
See also 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors.
Shapes
Many of the following words function well in similes or can be converted to adjectives by adding suffixes such as –like, -ish, or –esque.
A to Z
Apical, asymmetrical, bleeding heart, blimp, bow, cherry pie, cinnamon roll, cinnamon-heart, doughnut, fishy, goldfish, heart, inner tube, O-ring, peaked, petal (name specific flower), shapeless, shapely, sharp, stop sign, unsymmetrical, toilet boil, urinal, watermelon, wedding ring, yield sign
Verbs
Some verbs relay feelings or senses of the POV character, while others are appropriate for secondary players.
Consider antonyms. Rather than belittle, a mother’s lips might praise her child. Instead of relaxing his lips, an uptight worrywart might tense them.
You might prefer to pair many of these verbs with characters themselves rather than their body parts. Listen to your writer’s voice and choose what works best for you.
A to F
Belittle, blister, burn, caress, clamp, clench, close, coax, coerce, compress, contort, crack, crimp, criticize, curl, denounce, deprecate, dribble, drool, entice, force, fuse
G to R
Gossip, graze, heal, insult, kiss, loosen, lure, meld, open, perspire, practice, press, pucker, purse, quirk, relax, respond
S
Salivate, scrunch, seal, slaver, slide, slither, slobber, smart, smooch, sparkle, spasm, spit, squirm, squish together, sting, stretch, suck, sweat, swell
T to Z
Tempt, throb, tighten, tingle, turn down, turn up, twist, ulcerate, unlock, yield
Nouns
Inventing nouns to replace lips or mouth can lead to silent snickers while you hunch over your keyboard or pore through your favorite thesaurus. Try some of these:
A to L
Bazoo, blower, bragger, cakehole, chops, doughnut disposal, doughnut hole, flycatcher, flytrap, food vacuum, gob, hatch, hot-air vent, jabberjaw, kisser, laughing gear
M to Z
Maw, motormouth, mug slit, mush, muzzle, nagger, oral cavity, oral orifice, phiz slit, pie hole, puss, skull cave, soup sucker, trap, woofer, word hole, yap, yapper, yodeler
Props
Add humor, suspense, or atmosphere with well-chosen props.
Does your protagonist notice a roll of duct tape on the counter in his apartment—then whip around to see a face-masked intruder with a gag in hand? Duct tape + gag = kidnapping. Or maybe an amorous encounter. Or__________?
A to O
Acne, asthma inhaler, baby bottle, blueberries, chewing tobacco, cigar, cigarette, coughing fit, dirt, duct tape, electric razor, facemask, flute, gag, glitter, handkerchief, intubation tube, kazoo, lipstick, mouth guard, mouth organ, mud pie, mustache, muzzle, nebulizer, oboe
P to Z
Piercings, pimples, pipe, razor, scar, scuba regulator, sneezing, snorkel, soot, soother, spit, spit up, stain, straw, teeth, thumb, tic, tissue, tongue, toothpaste, toothpick, trumpet, veil, wart, whistle
Clichés and Idioms
Some narrators might warrant trite phrases, but it’s usually best to avoid them—except in dialogue.
All mouth and trousers: arrogant, brash, brazen
Born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth: born privileged or wealthy
Button one’s lip: hush, keep quiet, shut up, stop talking
By word of mouth: orally, verbally, via gossip
Down in the mouth: dejected, depressed, glum, sad
Foam at the mouth: fume, rage, rant, seethe
Give some lip: disrespect, sass, speak rudely
Have a stiff upper lip: display fortitude, exercise restraint, remain resolute (in the face of adversity)
Have one’s heart in one’s mouth: be afraid, alarmed, apprehensive, or terrified
Leave a bad taste in one’s mouth: nauseate, repulse, disgust
Live hand to mouth: barely get by, eke out an existence, subsist
Lock lips: French kiss, kiss, smooch
Look a gift horse in the mouth: be ungrateful, find fault with a gift
Mouth off: rant, sass, sound off, spout
On everyone’s lips: popular topic of conversation, trending, widely discussed
Pay lip service: agree in public while personally dissenting, pretend to agree
Put one’s foot in one’s mouth: blurt, say something tactless; blunder
Seal one’s lips: keep a secret, keep classified
Shoot one’s mouth off: boast, brag, talk indiscreetly
Slip of the lip: inadvertent mistake (while speaking)
Stiff upper lip: fortitude, resignation, stoicism
Straight from the horse’s mouth: from a reliable source
Talk out of both sides of one’s mouth: contradict oneself, lie (usually to please the most people)
Through word of mouth: orally, person to person, verbally
Zip one’s lip: hush, say nothing, shut up, stop talking
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Levidromes
A levidrome is a word that when spelled backwards makes another word.
Well, at least not yet. It is not in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Levi Budd is a six-year-old boy from British Columbia in Canada who has coined the term 'levidrome' after spotting that the word 'STOP' spells 'POTS' backwards. After realising that there is no such word in English for this phenomena, a social media campaign has started to get this word in popular usage (hence this post).
I wrote a short Python script this morning that will pull all of the levidromes from a dictionary file. The full list is copied below.
aa
ab
aba
abac
abba
abo
abos
abut
acca
ad
ado
ados
ae
aga
agar
agas
agenes
ah
aha
ahs
aia
aider
air
airts
ajar
aka
al
ala
alan
alif
alma
alula
am
ama
amahs
amas
amen
amene
amir
amis
amla
amman
an
ana
anal
anan
anana
anes
anew
anger
animal
animes
anna
annat
anon
ante
apod
araara
arak
arb
arbas
are
ares
arf
aril
arret
arris
arum
arval
aryl
assam
asses
at
ataata
ate
ates
aua
auks
ava
aval
avel
avid
avo
awa
ay
ayahs
ba
bac
bacs
bad
bag
bal
bals
ban
bans
bard
barf
bark
bas
bat
bats
bed
beef
ben
bens
bib
bid
big
bin
bins
bird
bis
blub
bo
bob
bobac
bobak
bod
bog
boh
bok
bon
bonk
boob
boord
bor
bos
bots
bows
boy
bra
braced
brad
brag
braw
bro
brod
bros
bru
bub
bud
bug
bulb
bun
bunk
buns
bur
burd
burg
bus
but
buts
cab
caba
cabob
cam
camus
cap
card
cares
cep
ceps
cire
cires
cis
cit
cite
cito
civic
clat
cod
cor
cos
cot
cram
cran
crem
cur
da
dab
dace
dad
dag
dah
dahs
dal
dam
dap
daraf
darb
darg
dart
darts
das
daud
daw
daws
day
de
deb
debut
decaf
decal
decarb
dedal
deed
deem
deen
deens
deep
deeps
deer
dees
deet
deets
def
defer
deffer
deffo
deg
degami
degged
deid
deified
deifier
deil
deke
deked
del
deled
delf
delis
deliver
delos
dels
deman
demit
demits
den
denier
denies
denim
denis
denned
dennets
dens
depart
deport
depot
depots
derat
derats
dere
dered
deres
deros
derris
dessert
desserts
deus
devas
devil
devils
devots
dew
dewans
dewed
dexes
deys
di
dial
dialer
dials
diaper
dib
did
died
dif
dig
dim
din
dinar
diol
diols
diram
dit
div
diva
do
dob
doc
dod
dog
doh
dohs
dol
dom
don
dons
doom
door
dop
dopa
dops
dor
dorb
dormin
dorp
dorps
dort
dorter
dos
doser
dot
doy
drab
drac
drail
dram
drap
draps
draw
drawer
draws
dray
drey
drib
drier
droob
drool
drow
drows
drub
duad
dual
dub
dud
duel
duo
dup
dups
ea
ean
eas
eat
ecad
ecce
ed
edile
edit
ee
eel
eels
een
ef
eh
ehs
eke
eked
elide
elides
elutes
em
eme
emes
emir
emit
emits
emmets
emong
emos
en
ene
enema
enes
enol
enows
er
era
ere
ered
eres
ergo
eric
eros
ervil
eses
esnes
espial
esse
et
eta
etas
etat
etats
eten
etic
etna
euk
eve
even
evil
eviler
evils
ewe
exul
eye
faced
farad
fe
fed
feeb
feer
fen
fer
fet
fid
fier
fig
fila
fir
fires
fled
flog
flor
flow
fool
fra
frab
fret
fro
gab
gad
gag
gal
gals
gam
gan
gans
gaps
gar
garb
gas
gat
gateman
gater
gats
gay
ged
gel
gelder
gem
gen
get
gib
gid
gif
gig
gins
gip
girt
girts
git
gnar
gnat
gnats
gnaw
gnaws
gnome
gnus
gob
god
golf
gon
gons
goog
gorp
gorps
gos
got
grad
gram
grub
gu
gub
gul
gulp
guls
gum
gums
guns
gup
gups
gur
gut
guv
guy
ha
habus
had
hadedah
hah
hahs
hajjah
halalah
hales
hallah
hallan
halos
han
hap
haram
hay
he
heh
henry
hep
her
hey
ho
hob
hod
hoh
hon
hoo
hoop
hop
hos
huh
hup
id
ikat
imaged
io
iris
iron
is
it
itas
iwi
jar
kabob
kaiak
kak
kam
kara
kat
kay
kayak
keek
keel
keels
keep
keet
keets
ken
keps
kier
kips
kirks
kis
kiths
knaps
knar
knit
knits
knob
knop
knot
knots
know
knub
knuts
kob
kook
kor
korat
kow
krab
krans
kue
la
lab
laced
lacer
lad
laded
laer
lag
lager
laid
laipse
lair
lam
lamina
lana
langer
lap
lares
larum
las
laud
lava
lavra
leat
leben
led
lee
leek
leep
leeps
leer
lees
leet
leets
leg
leir
lemel
leper
les
let
leud
leva
level
lever
levins
levo
lez
liar
liard
liart
lias
lied
lies
lin
lion
lira
lit
live
lived
livre
lobo
lod
loges
loid
lone
loof
looks
loom
loons
loop
loops
loord
loos
loot
looter
loots
lop
los
lotos
lug
luxe
lyra
ma
mac
macs
mad
madam
maes
mag
mak
mal
malam
mallam
mals
mam
man
map
maps
mar
marah
marc
marcs
mard
marg
marid
marram
marrum
mart
mas
massa
mat
maws
may
me
meed
mees
meet
meets
meg
mem
merc
meter
mets
mew
mho
mid
milks
mils
mim
mined
minim
mips
mir
mis
mm
mo
mod
mom
mon
moo
mood
mool
mools
moops
moor
moos
moot
mop
mor
mos
mot
moy
mu
mug
mum
mura
mural
mures
murram
mus
mut
muton
muts
na
naan
nab
nae
nag
nah
nala
nallah
nam
named
namer
nametag
namma
nan
nana
nap
napas
nappas
naps
naras
narc
narcs
narks
nas
nat
naw
ne
neb
nebel
ned
nee
need
neep
nef
neg
nek
neks
nelis
nema
nemas
nep
net
nete
nets
neve
neves
new
nib
nid
nil
nimrod
nip
nips
nis
nit
no
nob
nod
nog
noh
noil
nolos
nom
non
nona
nonet
noo
noon
noop
noops
nori
nos
not
notes
notum
now
noy
nu
nub
nun
nur
nus
nut
nuts
nys
oat
ob
oba
obey
obo
obol
od
oda
odas
offed
offer
ogre
oh
ohm
oho
ohos
oi
oiks
om
on
ono
oo
ooh
oohs
oom
oon
oop
oor
oot
op
oppo
orb
orf
os
otic
otto
oud
ova
ovel
ow
owt
oxo
oy
pac
pacer
pad
pah
pal
palp
pals
pam
pan
pans
pap
par
pard
part
parts
pas
pat
pats
paw
paws
pay
pec
peed
peek
peel
peels
peen
peep
pees
peh
pelas
pen
peons
pep
per
perp
perts
pets
pig
pin
pins
pip
pir
pis
pit
plap
plug
po
pod
poh
pol
pols
pom
ponk
poo
pooh
pool
pools
poon
poons
poop
poor
poort
poos
poots
pop
port
ports
pos
pot
pots
pow
pows
prat
prep
prod
prog
pud
pug
puh
pullup
pup
pupils
puris
pus
put
puy
radar
rag
raga
rager
rages
raggas
rail
rait
raj
raja
ram
ramis
rang
ranid
rank
rap
raps
ras
rast
rat
rats
raw
ray
re
real
reaps
rebus
rebut
recal
recap
recaps
reccos
redder
redes
redia
redips
redleg
redraw
redrawer
reed
reef
reeks
reel
reels
reens
rees
ref
refed
refer
reffed
reffo
reflet
reflow
regal
regar
regna
regnal
regos
reh
reif
reified
reifier
reik
reiks
reined
reird
reknit
reknits
reknot
reknots
relaid
relit
relive
reliver
reman
remeet
remit
renies
rennet
rep
repaid
repaper
repel
repins
repot
repots
res
resat
resod
retag
retem
retool
retrod
retros
revel
reviled
reviler
reviver
reward
rewarder
rewets
rexes
ria
rial
rias
ribas
riel
rif
rim
rima
rime
rims
rip
rits
rob
roc
rod
rok
rolf
rom
rones
roo
rood
room
rooms
roop
roops
roots
rosies
rot
rotator
rotavator
rotor
rub
ruc
rucs
rug
rums
run
sab
sabir
sabra
sad
sadis
sado
sados
sae
sag
saga
sagas
sagenes
saggar
sail
sair
sakis
sal
salep
salles
sallets
sam
sama
samas
samen
san
sanes
sap
sapan
sappan
saps
sar
saran
saros
sarus
sat
sate
sati
sav
saved
saw
saz
scab
scam
scares
scot
scram
scran
scur
seals
seam
seat
secret
seder
sedes
sedile
seed
seeks
seel
seem
seems
seep
seer
sees
segar
segol
seil
seined
seiner
seis
seisor
seities
sekos
sel
selah
selahs
seles
sellas
selles
seme
sememes
semes
semina
sena
senas
sene
senega
senegas
sennet
senor
sense
ser
sera
serac
seracs
seral
sere
sered
seres
seric
serif
serons
serres
serum
sese
sesey
sessa
sesses
set
seta
seton
setule
seven
sexed
sexer
sexes
sey
seys
sha
shad
shah
shahs
shakos
shales
shama
shay
shaya
she
shod
shoo
shtik
si
sib
sic
sidas
sies
sik
sikas
siled
silen
sim
sima
simar
simis
sin
sined
sinnet
sip
siri
siris
sirra
sirred
sirs
sirup
sis
sit
six
skat
skeer
skees
skeets
sken
skeps
skier
skio
skips
sklim
skool
skran
skrans
skrik
skua
slab
slaes
slag
slaid
slam
slap
sled
slee
sleek
sleep
sleeps
sleer
sleet
sleets
slim
slipup
slit
slive
slived
sloid
sloom
sloop
sloops
sloot
sloots
slop
slug
smart
smees
smew
smir
smits
smoor
smoot
smug
smur
smut
smuts
snab
snag
snap
snaps
snark
snarks
snaw
snawed
snaws
sneb
sned
sneed
sneer
snib
snig
snip
sniper
snips
snirt
snit
snivel
snod
snoep
snog
snool
snoop
snoops
snoot
snores
snort
snot
snow
snub
snug
so
sob
soba
soc
soccer
sod
soda
sodas
sog
soger
soh
soho
sokahs
sokes
sol
solah
soled
solon
solos
som
some
son
sonnet
sool
soom
soop
sop
soras
sorb
sore
sored
sorter
sos
sotol
sow
soy
spacer
spaer
spag
spam
span
spank
spans
spar
spard
spart
sparts
spas
spat
spats
spaw
spaws
spay
spaz
spec
speed
speel
speels
spek
speks
spets
spider
spik
spiks
spim
spin
spins
spirt
spirts
spit
spod
spool
spools
spoom
spoon
spoons
spoor
spoots
sports
spot
spots
sprat
sprits
sprod
sprog
spud
spug
sris
stab
stag
stang
stap
staps
star
stared
start
stat
state
stats
staw
staws
steed
steek
steeks
steel
steels
steem
stellas
stem
stemme
sten
stenned
step
steps
stet
stets
stew
stewer
stime
stimed
stims
stink
stinker
stir
stirps
stob
stonk
stonker
stool
stools
stoop
stoops
stoor
stop
stoped
stoper
stops
stot
stots
stoved
stow
stows
strad
strap
straps
straw
strep
stressed
stria
strig
strips
strop
strops
strow
struts
stub
stum
stums
stun
stunk
sturts
sub
subah
suber
succus
sued
sulu
sulus
sum
sumac
sun
sung
sup
suras
sus
susus
swad
swam
swang
swans
swap
swaps
sward
swat
swats
sway
swey
swob
swone
swop
sword
swot
swots
syed
syes
syn
ta
tab
tae
tael
taes
tag
tak
taki
taks
talc
tallat
tam
tan
tang
tanna
tao
tap
taps
tar
tared
tarok
tarp
tarps
tart
tas
taser
tat
tate
tats
tav
taw
taws
te
teed
teek
teel
teels
teem
teemer
tef
teg
tel
telfer
ten
tenet
tenner
tennes
tennis
tennos
tenon
terces
terf
terra
terret
tes
tet
tets
tew
ti
tiar
tic
tid
tide
tig
til
tiler
tils
time
timed
timer
tin
tink
tinker
tins
tip
tips
tirrit
tis
tit
toc
tocs
tod
tog
tom
ton
tonk
tonker
tons
too
tool
tools
toom
tooms
toons
toot
top
toped
toper
tops
tor
torot
tort
tot
tots
tow
tows
trad
trail
tram
trams
trap
traped
traps
trat
trats
tressed
trew
trig
trins
trips
trod
trons
troop
trop
troped
trot
trow
tsar
tub
tuba
tubed
tuber
tug
tum
tums
tun
tup
tut
two
ug
ulu
ulus
um
umu
un
urb
utu
vas
vat
vav
vid
vug
wad
wan
wang
wans
wap
waps
war
warb
ward
warder
warts
was
wat
wats
waw
way
wed
wem
wems
wen
wena
wert
wet
wets
wey
wo
wok
wolf
wolfer
won
wonk
wons
wop
word
wort
worts
wos
wot
wots
wow
xis
ya
yad
yag
yah
yahs
yak
yam
yap
yaps
yar
yard
yaw
yaws
yay
yebo
yeh
yerd
yes
yeses
yew
yews
yo
yob
yod
yom
yon
yos
yrneh
yug
yup
zaps
zas
zel
ziz
zuz
zzz
It is interesting to note that some levidromes are also palindromes. I wonder whether we need a new word to describe this phenomenon also? Furthermore, there is no word in English for "a word that you make up in order to make another word make sense". I suggest: "emordivel" ?
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The Violence at the Heart of Our Politics
By Joanne B. Freeman, NY Times, Sept. 7, 2018
Mike Huckabee waxed historic this week while denouncing protesters who interrupted Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. “Clear the room or start caning them when they open their yaps!” he tweeted, making a backhanded reference to the most famous caning in American history: the 1856 attack on Senator Charles Sumner. Outraged by one of Sumner’s antislavery speeches, Preston Brooks of South Carolina brutally beat him to the ground in the Senate chamber a few days later, stopping only when his cane broke.
Clearly, the United States has a long and storied history of polarizing crises. The 1960s was one such time, as were the late 1790s; in both cases, Americans of opposing politics turned on each other with violent outcomes. The 1850s were even more severe. The period’s raging debate over slavery fractured political parties, paralyzed the national government and divided the nation. In time, this struggle tore the nation apart.
In many ways, the crisis of the 1850s played out on the floor of Congress, the focus of national politics for much of the 19th century. A forum for national debate with the power to decide the fate of slavery, it became a bullpen for sectional combat, with armed clusters of Northerners and Southerners defending their interests with fists and weapons as well as legislation.
Some of the furor wasn’t slavery related; antebellum America was inherently violent, as was its politics, and Congress is a representative institution. The mighty oratory of the 1830s and ‘40s was accompanied by an undercurrent of brute force. Threats and fistfights were part of the political game, and congressmen sometimes put such violence to legislative purpose.
More often than not, such bullies were Southerners or Southern-born Westerners. So-called fighting men promoted their interests and silenced their foes with insults, fists, canes, knives, pistols and the occasional brick, giving them a literal fighting advantage over “noncombatants,” who were usually Northerners. Sumner’s brutal caning was far from the only violent incident in Congress.
In fact, in the course of researching how the culture of politics changed after the 1790s--the subject of my first book--I uncovered roughly 70 physically violent political confrontations between 1830 and the Civil War, most of them in the House and Senate chambers, a few on nearby streets and dueling grounds. Fistfights, shoving matches, weapon wielding, mass brawls: Largely forgotten now, these clashes show a momentous political struggle unfolding in real time.
Initially, most of the fighting centered on matters of personal honor, party loyalty or regional pride. Take, for example, the 1838 duel between Representatives Jonathan Cilley, a Democrat from Maine, and William Graves, a Whig from Kentucky. Although their duel had dire consequences, it was sparked by little more than political name-calling in the House. When Henry Wise, a Virginia Whig and a notorious bully, suggested that an unnamed Democratic congressman was corrupt, Cilley leaped to the defense of his party. Wise then did what bullies were wont to do: He tried to silence his opponent by taunting him with a duel challenge and then declaring him too cowardly to fight. Like many a Northerner, Cilley faced a difficult choice. Should he ignore Wise’s taunts and risk dishonoring himself and his constituents by proxy? Or should he risk fighting a duel and be ostracized by his constituents for engaging in a barbaric Southern practice?
In the end, Cilley opted to fight, though not with Wise. Because of the niceties of the code duello, and a chain of Whigs who took offense at Cilley’s actions, he ultimately fought a duel with Graves, who had done nothing more than hand Cilley a message from a far more belligerent Whig. Cilley and Graves liked each other fine; there was no ill will between them. But for the sake of their regions, their states, their parties and their reputations, both men felt compelled to fight a duel, and only one man survived it. Cilley was 35 years old when he died.
The growing immediacy of the problem of slavery made matters worse. Congressional brawling increasingly pitted North against South, fracturing national parties across sectional lines and rendering routine congressional violence far less tractable. Westward expansion set off a desperate debate over the slavery status of new states, and Southern congressmen defended their slave regime by attempting to silence antislavery advocates with threats and violence.
Take, for example, Representative John Dawson, a Democrat from Louisiana. Dawson routinely wore both a Bowie knife and a pistol, and he wasn’t shy about using them in the House, particularly when someone dared to attack slavery. In 1842, when Thomas Arnold, a Whig from Tennessee, defended John Quincy Adams’s right to discuss antislavery petitions, Dawson strutted over to Arnold with his knife plainly visible and threatened to cut his throat “from ear to ear.”
Dawson went even further three years later in what may well be the all-time greatest display of firepower on the floor. When the Ohio abolitionist Joshua Giddings gave an antislavery speech, Dawson, clearly agitated, positioned himself in front of Giddings, vowing to kill him, and cocking his pistol. Four armed Southern Democrats immediately joined him, which prompted four Whigs to position themselves around Giddings, several of them armed as well. After a few minutes, the pistoleers sat down. But the potential for bloodshed was very real.
The 1854 debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act made matters worse. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had drawn a virtual line across the country separating the free North from the slaveholding South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act seemingly undid that compromise, enabling future states to decide slavery’s fate on their own through popular sovereignty. Not surprisingly, debate over the act raised the passions of the slavery debate--and congressional violence--to new heights.
The press amplified the crisis. In their efforts to rouse public sentiment for or against the act, newspapers promoted conspiracy theories about sectional plots to seize control of the Union. Antislavery papers argued that an organized “Slave Power” was trying to spread slavery throughout the Union by stifling Northern opposition. Pro-slavery papers insisted that Northern aggressors were trying to isolate and destroy the slaveholding South. New technologies like the telegraph broadcast these accusations with ever-increasing speed and reach throughout the nation, and did just what editors and reporters hoped they would do: outrage the public and encourage them to fight for their rights and demand the same of their congressmen.
The Republican Party was born of this furor. The arrival of a Northern antislavery party in Congress caused violence to spike. Dedicated to fighting the Slave Power, Republican congressmen did their duty, confronting Southerners as never before, and Southerners replied in kind. Sumner’s caning was of a piece with this wave of violence. Slavery supporters saw his raging antislavery rhetoric as proof of Northern attempts to degrade and subjugate the South. Antislavery advocates, in turn, saw Brooks, Sumner’s attacker, as part of a Slave Power plot to dominate the North. Joined with some recent assaults on Northern congressmen and the rising intensity of antislavery efforts, for Northerners and Southerners alike, the caning seemed to prove the existence of a sectional conspiracy to seize national control.
One House brawl in 1858 shows such thinking in action. During an overnight debate about slavery in Kansas, Galusha Grow--a feisty Pennsylvania Republican--raised an objection while standing amid Southern Democrats. One of those Democrats--the equally feisty Laurence Keitt of South Carolina--immediately took offense, insisting that Grow object on his own side of the House. When Grow declared that it was a free hall and he could do as he liked, Keitt stalked over to Grow, mumbling “We’ll see about that,” and grabbed his throat in preparation to throw a punch. Grow responded by slugging Keitt hard enough to knock him flat.
A horde of Southern Democrats--many of them armed--immediately rushed toward the combatants, some to calm things down, others to attack Grow, a living embodiment of Northern aggression. Seeing the rush of Southerners, a stream of Republicans--some of them also armed--raced to the point of conflict, leaping onto chairs and desks in their hurry to save a fellow under fire. The end result was an enormous brawl in front of the House speaker’s chair featuring punching, shoving and tossed spittoons.
To onlookers in Congress and the country alike, the implications of the Grow-Keitt rumble were clear: North and South had gone to war in the House chamber. Congressmen on each side assumed that the other side was angry, overbearing and itching for a fight. This distrust was no back-of-the-mind matter of speculation. It was immediate. Both sides jumped into action in seconds. And the public shared these suspicions. By the late 1850s, Northerners and Southerners alike were urging their congressmen to fight--literally--for their rights. Some Northerners even gave guns to their congressmen, who were less likely to carry arms than their Southern colleagues. Distrustful of each other and of Congress’s ability to contain their struggle, Americans were prepared for open combat in the Capitol.
The lessons of this breakdown are severe. It shows what can happen when polarized politics erodes the process of debate and compromise at the heart of republican government. Americans lose faith in their system of government and ultimately lose faith in one another. Splintering political parties can’t contain the damage. Violence begins to seem logical, even necessary. And the press can fuel this distrust with conspiracy theories and extremist spin; the antebellum press wasn’t in the business of objectivity--and it mattered.
The destructive power of the press becomes even more marked when spread with new technologies. In the 1850s, the telegraph confronted Americans with a steady stream of virtually instant information: contradictory, confusing, overlapping and inaccurate, it scrambled and intensified the political climate. Today, social media is doing the same. At its heart, democracy is a continuing conversation between politicians and the public; it should come as no surprise that dramatic changes in the modes of conversation cause dramatic changes in democracies themselves.
If Congress’s checkered past teaches us anything on this score, it teaches this: A dysfunctional Congress can close off a vital arena for national dialogue, leaving us vulnerable in ways that we haven’t yet begun to fathom.
Joanne B. Freeman is a professor of history and American studies at Yale, a co-host of the history podcast “BackStory” and the author of the forthcoming book “The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War.”
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128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang
The slang senses of many words we use in conversation and in informal writing originated in jargon employed by criminals, often coined to disguise the activities they were describing when they spoke among one another. This post lists and defines a number of those words.
action: bet, or betting, or criminal activity
aggro: aggressive behavior
angle: approach, or plan
bananas: crazy (originally, “sexually perverted”)
beat: escape, avoid
beef: quarrel
blow: leave
boob: stupid person
boost: steal
bought: bribed
break it up: stop argument or fight
broad: woman
buddy: man (as in addressing a person the speaker does not know)
bum’s rush: act of being forcibly removed
bump/bump off: kill
bunk: nonsense
buy: bribe
case: check the site of a potential robbery
chisel: cheat
clam up: stop talking, or refuse to talk, to avoid giving information
con: scheme to trick someone into relinquishing money
con man: person who steals through trickery
cop/copper: police officer or private detective
crew: group of rank-and-file criminals subordinate to a leader; by extension, a group of people with whom one associates
crumb: worthless person; originally, a noncriminal
deep-six: bury
dive: low-quality establishment, such as a dark, dingy bar
doll: attractive woman
dope: drugs, or information
dough: money
dump: see dive
Feds: federal law-enforcement personnel
fence: trade stolen items, or one who does so
finger: identify
fix: situation in which law-enforcement personnel have been bribed to overlook criminal activity
fruit: homosexual (derogatory)
fuzz: police
glom: steal (by extension, “grab”)
go straight: cease criminal activity
goofy: crazy (by extension, “silly”)
goon: low-level criminal
graft: see con
grand: thousand (dollars)
grease: see buy
grill: interrogate
grifter: see “con man”
haywire: mentally unbalanced
heat: attention from law-enforcement personnel, or a gun (by extension, “psychological pressure”)
heel: an incompetent criminal (by extension, “a villain or someone who takes on a villainous persona or role,” as in professional wrestling)
hit: planned murder (by extension, “an attack on someone’s reputation”)
hood(lum): see goon
horn: telephone
hot: stolen
hype: cheat by short-changing, or hypodermic needle
jam: trouble, or a troublesome situation
jaw: talk
joe: coffee
joint: place
junkie: drug user
keister: buttocks, or a safe
kisser: mouth
knock off: see bump/“bump off”
knock over: rob
large: see grand
lay low: remain out of sight so as to avoid attention after committing a crime
legit: pertaining to legal business activities
lit: drunk
loan shark: one who loans money at high rates of interest
looker: see doll
lug: stupid person (by extension, “clumsy person”—often used affectionately and jocularly)
mark: person targeted to be a victim of criminal activity
marker: IOU, note acknowledging a debt
mitt: hand
muscle: force, or intimidate, or someone who forces or intimidates
mug: face
nail: capture
nick: steal
nix: no, or say no to something
on the carpet: situation in which a criminal is called on the carpet, or disciplined, by a leader (by extension, pertains to any similar event)
on the lam: moving secretly to avoid arrest after committing a crime
on the spot: targeted for assassination (by extension, pertaining to being held accountable for a failure or mistake)
packing heat: armed with a gun
patsy: person framed for a crime (by extension, “fool”)
paw: hand
piece: share of the proceeds from criminal activity (see action), or a gun
pig: police officer
pinch: arrest
pop: see bump/“bump off”
punk: see goon (originally, a submissive homosexual)
put the screws on: see grill
queer: counterfeit
rap: criminal charge
rat: give information about associates’ criminal activities to law-enforcement personnel, or someone who does so
ringer: fake
rub out: see bump/“bump off”
rube: easy victim
sap: stupid person
score: succeed in obtaining stolen money or goods
scram: see blow
scratch: money
sing: see rat (verb)
skip out: leave without paying
skirt: woman
slug: punch, or knock unconscious, or a bullet
snatch: kidnap
sock: punch
spill: see rat (verb), or talk (verb)
square: honest
stiff: corpse
sting: see con (by extension, “a law-enforcement operation to prompt and observe criminal behavior”)
stir: jail
stir-crazy: mentally disturbed because of incarceration
stool pigeon/stoolie: see rat (noun)
straighten out: resolve a dispute
string along: deceive
sucker: see rube
swag: stolen goods (by extension, “gifts offered to promote through publicity”)
tag: designation (by extension, “graffiti signature”)
tail: track a criminal’s activities, or a law-enforcement official who does so
take: share of profits from criminal activity
take a powder: leave
take (someone) for a ride: see bump/“bump off”
take the fall: be targeted for blame for a crime
tighten the screws: pressure
trap: see kisser
two bits: twenty-five cents
vendetta: vow of vengeance (by extension, “a passionate, sustained effort to avenge oneself or one’s family or group”)
yap: see kisser
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Original post: 128 Words with Senses That Started Out as Underworld Slang
from Daily Writing Tips
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/128-words-with-senses-that-started-out-as-underworld-slang/
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i dont even know how to interpret the splat slugs anatomy wise i just have to somehow drag whatever hatches out of the egg back into that shape, somehow
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in which i lost my mind for several hours over nudibranch mouthparts
ok. so the video True Facts: Freaky Nudibranchs just casually mentions nudibranch beaks. There’s a photo in the video, credited to Dr.Jeffery Goddard:
Having done a normal amount of googling about nudibranchs, their diets and mouthparts a few months back, I was like, what the fuck??. I was previously only aware of nudibranchs having a simple mouth opening and a radula to eat with. Well, no big deal, there’s plenty of shit I don’t know a damn thing about, and we find new things every day!
So I start googling variations of “Nudibranch beak”. Of course, nothing comes up other than results talking about nudibranchs (beakless) and cephalopod or bird beaks on the same page. I try looking up Dr. Jeffrey Goddard. I don’t remember what I found initially but my friend did later bother to locate his profile on researchgate. Does a lot of nudibranch stuff
I get distracted from that for a sec and, on a whim, search “Nudibranch jaws” instead. I come across a single line on wickeddiving.com:
“For example, many dorid nudibranchs (Suborder Doridacea) have broad radulae with numerous teeth for grazing on sponges, while most aeolid nudibranchs (Suborder Aolidacea) have narrow radulae and strong jaws for feeding on hydroids and bryozoans.”
Why would you not ELABORATE on the JAWS.
Anyways I start searching “Aeolid nudibranch “jaws””. I start having slightly more luck. Actual research papers describing nudibranchs, some of which have scans or illustrations of the jaw structure, and an old website from Earlham College which has a single sentence mentioning the existence of jaws.
I found a relatively easy to tell what the fuck im looking at image within “Description of a new aeolid nudibranch (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) belonging to the genus Phidiana” by R. C. Willan (that’s the url it says to link but if that doesn’t work then [here’s] the direct pdf link). On page 6, there’s these illustrations; we are focusing on 13, 14, and 15:
“13, entire left jaw laid fiat showing inner surface; 14,
detail of jaw's hinge; 15, enlargement of border of masticatory process...“
“Jaws (Fig. 13) ovate; strongly convex on outer surface; anterior end broadly rounded; posterior end elongate. Hinge region of both jaws thickened (Fig.
14); apical thickening of jaws consisting of a short ridge aligned parallel to dorsal margin and a single, strong projection that is directed vertically downwards. Masticatory process very thin, relatively short (about one-quarter length of dorsal margin); its outer border bears a single row of 12-15, rounded, lightly cuticularised denticles that are fairly even in size (Fig. 15)“
Ok. So. Based on that and the initial photo that spurred this entire quest, I assume that these fuckers have horizontally connecting jaws? Other mentions I could find of jaws on Nudibranchs were all also papers, which I had an easier time finding by switching to searching “Phidiana jaws”. [paper 1] [paper 2] (lost the links to papers 3 and 4 but they were also describing new-at-the-time species). My second guess is that it’s only Aeolid nudibranchs that have jaws, as every nudibranch whose jaws I could find were aeolids, and the couple of dorid nudibranchs I read the original descriptions of only had their radulas included, and no mentions of a jaw. Here’s a photo of Phidiana lynceus, a slug in the same genus as the one that jaw I posted up there belongs to:
After I briefly mentioned this Quest on the blog, I was notified that many other gastropods, like land snails and freshwater snails also have similar mouthparts. This, unlike the nudibranchs, was easy to find. [A Microscopic Look at Snail Jaws] [Apple Snail Digestion]
My question, after all that, is this: Why was this information (about nudibranchs) so hard to find. You would think it wouldn’t be difficult for more sources geared towards laypeople to mention that some nudibranchs have chitinous mouthparts in addition to the radula.
It’s been 2 days and I’m still thinking about this.
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I think that it is very easy to draw animals very cute if you find them inherently cute in the first place
This absolutely can become a curse if you’re trying to design a Scary Boy with animals inspiration
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If you guys want me to think about and produce something about a specific topic you have to provide the Questions and hope it stimulates the right part of the ideas brain. You can’t just ask me to think about a topic on my own it’s not how the con brain works sadly
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The sea hare ask might take a bit but hopefully I will start. Writing something
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I should get up off my ass and figure out anything at all about the anemones so I can utilize them in Background Characters
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