#william review : january

[world-of-wales]

─ •✧ WILLIAM'S YEAR IN REVIEW : JANUARY ✧• ─

12 JANUARY - Catherine and William were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside (Mr. Mark Blundell). They opened Royal Liverpool University Hospital and later visited the Open Door Centre in Birkenhead. 17 JANUARY - William visited Together As One (Aik Saath) in Slough, where he was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire (Mr James Puxley) 19 JANUARY - He visited Depaul UK at Sherborne House in London. 20 JANUARY - William spoke via video link to residents affected by flooding in Australia. 24 JANUARY - William held an Investiture Ceremony at Winston Castle. Afterwards, he held a Royal Foundation Meeting. 26 JANUARY - William and Catherine visited Windsor Foodshare in Berkshire. He later visited the Earthshot Finalists Training Session in Windsor Great Park. 29 JANUARY - William attended the 1953 Floods Memorial Service in Snettisham. 30 JANUARY - William and Catherine attended the Centre for Early Childhood "Shaping Us" Campaign Preview and Reception. 31 JANUARY - He spoke via video link to athletes & volunteers participating in the 2023 Arctic Winter Games in Wood Buffalo, Canada

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2023 - January

I'm trying something new and writing vague thoughts on the books I've read this month as I've finished them. So if I repeat myself or I ramble (more than usual) then I apologise. Not that anyone reads these anyway 😅

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare - pleasantly surprised! I remember not getting on with The Winter's Tale when I first read the play as I found it disjointed. However, this time I really got into the themes and Shakespeare's examination of age/corruption/irrational passions vs. youth/rejuvenation/constancy in love. It's a WEIRD play and it definitely has a confusing plot, however, I did enjoy myself.

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson - an underwhelming reread. Rhythm of War wasn't my favourite to start with and this reread really showed how formulaic sections of this book were (mainly ALL the stuff in Urithiru). I really didn't need another Kaladin fight scene after part one and that's sort of half the book... I did enjoy elements, such as looking at Kaladin's depression and Raboniel, but the vast majority was disappointing.

On the Knocking on the Gate in Macbeth by Thomas de Quincey (essay) - interesting essay I read randomly whilst on a break in the library at uni, it discusses act 2 of Macbeth and how Shakespeare creates an emotional response from the audience with a knock. I don't have much to say tbh...

Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Distress by Robert McCrum - a pointless vanity project that shouldn't have been published. I only continued with this because I bought it and I NEVER buy nonfiction - clearly a rule I need to stick to! The points of interest came from McCrum pulling from other people's work (and citing it badly!!!) either by paraphrasing or directly quoting. I still don't really know what McCrum had to say for himself on the subject of what makes Shakespeare "Shakespeare" or "Shakespearean"... So what was the point? I also found myself disliking McCrum on a personal level, he came across like that unpleasant public schoolboy in your uni class who thinks he's smarter than everyone else, and is slightly sexist... Not a great impression.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare - a reread of an old favourite. I found this read very different to my previous experiences, this isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it but I found myself bored with the "B" plotline with Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch... And Olivia wasn't as dazzling as usual... However, I did really enjoy discovering how fabulous Viola is and thinking about late Elizabethan/early Jacobean gender norms and identity. So swings and roundabouts.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - I really wasn't expecting to like Earthsea, I'm not sure why but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be for me... I was so wrong! I had a lovely time with this first book. I don't think it's going to be a new all-time favourite series, but it is one I'm going to enjoy picking up every now and again as the mood takes me. Le Guin is a beautiful writer, her prose is lyrical and captivating in a way we rarely see in fantasy. It's simple, elegant, and layered - a child could read Earthsea and yet there is a rich thematic lining to this story that I loved pondering as I read through. The characters and narrative distance did mean I couldn't lose myself in the story as I would with someone like Robin Hobb, but I loved A Wizard of Earthsea in a different way. I'd highly recommend giving it a go if you're interested in classic fantasy!

The Poems by William Shakespeare - I've never tried Shakespeare's poetry before, at least not seriously, you can't go through the British education system without reading sonnet 18 at some point. Poetry usually isn't my thing and I only enjoy epic and narrative poetry...and this is still the case, as this collection proved. I enjoyed Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece much more than The Phoenix and Turtle or The Passionate Pilgrim. Both of the longer narrative poems gave me something to think about, usually surrounding the themes of each poem and its historical context. The shorter works I found myself largely indifferent - although The Phoenix and Turtle is very beautiful.

[itgetsbetterproject]

Some tangible Black queer history for you!

In case you needed any more proof that we've always been here - this amazing collection is courtesy of the Stonewall National Musuem and Archive!

Rafiki: The Journal of the Association of Black Gays, Vol. 1 #1 (Fall 1976)

"Rafiki was a quarterly publication from the Association of Black Gays (ABG), a Los Angeles, California gay activist group that organized through education, political engagement, and grassroots activism to improve the conditions for Los Angeles’s Black gays and lesbians.

According to the journal, the title Rafiki was chosen because it means “friend” in Swahili and “that’s what [ABG] hope to be for you.” This first issue includes an article on the history of ABG and the fact that Black gays and lesbians have been largely excluded from the political, social, and economic advances of the gay community.

Included in this issue are articles such as “Homosexuality in Tribal Africa” and “Disco Discontent” (an open letter to the owner of Studio One, Scott Forbes), as well as poetry by Steven Corbin and Frances Andrews, and book reviews. It even contains an ad for the famous Catch One Club owned by Jewel Williams, which is still operating today!"

I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities by Audre Lorde (Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1985; from the Freedom Organizing Series)

You can read this one here!

"This small twelve-page publication derives from a speech Audre Lorde gave at the Women’s Center of Medgar Evers College in New York City regarding the exclusion of Lesbians in the feminist movement and how Lorde’s identity as both a Black woman and lesbian are inextricably linked.

Primarily, heterosexism and homophobia are major issues Lorde states are “two grave barriers to organizing among Black women.” Lorde ends the essay with the statement: “I am a Black Lesbian, and I am your sister.”

Her emphasis on the duality of this identity stems from a 1960s poster that said “He’s not black, he’s my brother!,” which Lorde states infuriated her because “it implied that the two were mutually exclusive.”

Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press was founded by Barbara Smith—another Black Lesbian feminist—and Audre Lorde in 1980 to create a publishing apparatus for women of color who at the time did not have control over how they were published except through the white-dominated outlets."

Flawless! The Life & Times of T.B.D.J. AKA Tiffani Inc. AKA Mrs. … (Manuscript) by Tiffany Bowerman (July 2007, A&E Publishers)

This autobiographical manuscript traces the life of Tiffany Bowerman aka Tiffany B.D. Johnson (b. 1959), who states that she “was the first African-American Transsexual to have state issued birth certificate reissued [1990]… was the first to legally marry three different active duty military men… [and] first… to found their own Christian Denomination… The Agape-Ecumenical Christian Denomination.”

Further, she states “I have tried to put together something striking and original[,] a journey from childhood to self aware adult. A life that was and is with all regrets included.”

This manuscript is a preliminary copy of a rough draft, and contains various memoirs, photographs, legal documents, and ephemera.

Out in Black and White: A Directory of Publications By, About, For People of Afrikan Descent In-The-Life by the Broward County Library Outreach Services Department Exhibit/Programming Services with direction by Eric Jon Rawlins (January, 1996)

Out in Black and White is a directory of various serial publications (magazines, newsletters, journals, etc.) throughout the United States that are focused on the Black LGBTQ experience. According to the directory, “[t]his project was inspired by the atmosphere of strength, oneness and productivity created by the Million Man March [on October 16,] 1995.”

The Million Man March was a political demonstration that took place at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with the purpose of encouraging involvement in the improvement of the conditions of African Americans. Eric Jon Rawlins was a Broward County, Florida librarian who at one time was also the second vice president of the NAACP Fort Lauderdale branch in the late 1980s.

Currently, the Eric Jon Rawlins Collection consisting of personal and professional papers, as well as his 6,000 vinyl record album collection, are housed at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center Special Collections in Broward County, FL.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

The DM's Excerpts - Charles III: New King, New Court

Robert Hardman (who also wrote Queen of Our Times, published 2022) has written a new book about the British Royal Family. The Daily Mail is serializing parts of the book over four days, from 12 - 15 January 2024. Here are the links. If anyone has any others, feel free to share them in the comments.

If you don't want to give the DM clicks, I've included highlights below. (My browser doesn't recognize archive.vn or archive.ph as a valid domain so I can't create or access those links.)

TL;DR--

The day the Queen died, 12 Jan 2024

Secret summits over making Charles regent in Queen's last years, 13 Jan 2024

How the royals have dealt with a torrent of allegations from Harry and Meghan, 14 Jan 2024

Harmdan's intimate portrait of a woman who dances at Abba concerts, jabs the King with her handbag and 'knows when to wink at a bishop,' 15 Jan 2024

Excerpt #1, 12 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The last time most of her staff saw The Queen was at the pre-dinner cocktails the evening of September 6th. She was happy, chatty, and in a good mood. (September 6th was the Boris Johnson-Liz Truss transition.)

It was sheer luck that Anne and Peter were at Balmoral during this time. Anne was passing through for work, Peter was preparing for a shooting party he was going to host over the weekend (which ended up cancelled). Also Sarah Chatto was nearby.

On September 7th, The Queen planned to attend the Privy Council meeting as it involved new Cabinet officials being installed. She eventually cancelled on medical advice. This was the first signal to many that she wasn't doing well.

Charles and Camilla were on the western side of Scotland for a series of engagements September 7 - September 8. The morning of September 8, Anne called Charles to come to Balmoral at once. On the helicopter to Balmoral, everyone was reviewing the Operation London Bridge papers. They arrived at Birkhall around 10:30am and traveled to Balmoral in a borrowed car.

William was called around breakfast time and informed of the situation, including that was on his way to Balmoral. Charles himself called William (and Andrew, Edward, and Harry) that they should also come. After Charles's calls, Kensington Palace began coordinating with Royal Lodge (Andrew's office*) and Bagshot Park (Edward's office*) on travel to Scotland. William and KP did not reach out to the Sussexes because betrayal, and they felt the responsibility should have been on the Sussexes to make contact. (*Not really their offices, but it's the easiest way to keep them separate so you know who I'm talking about.)

Everyone was disturbed by Harry's inclusion of these events, especially the "Meghan's not coming/she's my wife/Kate's not coming either/that's all you had to say" bit, in his memoir. Harry's recollection of how he was notified of The Queen's death isn't true - he claims no one was talking to him but actually Charles and the palace had been trying to reach him repeatedly. The calls weren't going through because he was in the air. (Interesting that he'd check the BBC first as opposed to calling back after seeing a dozen of missed calls...or not springing for the wifi package...)

Liz Truss, the new PM, was in a G7 conference call on September 8th when she was notified of the situation in Scotland. She bowed out of the call early and quickly. The G7 leaders knew what was happening.

Charles was rather close to Balmoral when he received the call that The Queen had passed. William, Andrew, Edward, and Sophie were on the way to Balmoral from the Aberdeen airport. Charles called them himself to let them know.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was in France on a personal holiday. He and his wife began preparing to return home after seeing the palace's first statement about The Queen's health. They drove home overnight so Welby could make an address in the morning.

Excerpt #2, 13 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The Queen had been quite ill in her final year. She knew and was aware her time was ending that summer.

A regency would have been created had she lived as long as The Queen Mother because everyone was fearful of a health condition flaring up in public.

Planning for Charles's accession and coronation began in 2015. Sir Alderton, his private secretary, created a "training video" of the accession/transition then that Charles, Camilla, and William watched in the evening of September 8th during their private dinner at Birkhall, while Princess Anne hosted the rest of the family at Balmoral. If Harry wasn't such a dick (my word, not Hardman's), he'd have been part of the Birkhall dinner but he wasn't and there were very serious concerns he would write about it in Spare.

The announcement of The Queen's death was delayed because family members hadn't been informed yet. (I think it was Harry they were waiting on, per the events in the first article.)

The royals were very touched by the outpouring of public affection for The Queen, themselves, and their family. Camilla was struck by how supportive the crowd was of her. Anne was touched by the tractors, horses, and the crowds that lined the roads in Scotland. It was a six hour drive, and she and Tim had had snacks in their car but they both felt it would have been rude to everyone that came to see the procession and pay their respects to be seen eating.

Camilla sobbed through Charles's first speech.

The Privy Council were concerned that the political upheaval in the government would cause problems for the accession, transition, and royal mourning.

It was William's idea for him, Kate, and the Sussexes to do the Windsor walkabout together. He organized it in two hours. No one found it easy or enjoyable.

Excerpt #3, 14 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The Queen felt she had to say 'yes' when Harry contacted her about naming his daughter Lilibet and she was very angry with him for it. (Reading between the lines, it sounds like the decision was presented by the Sussexes as "fait accompli" and The Queen took offense.)

The Sussexes tried to force the palace to go along with their version (that they had asked The Queen for permission) but the palace refused to play. They also tried to intimidate the press with legal action if anyone didn't report "their" version of events, even going so far as threatening the BBC with a lawsuit.

Everyone at the palace rolled their eyes about the Sussexes getting the RFK "Ripple of Hope Award." They felt that the "legacy" the Sussexes were being rewarded for was laughable, especially when compared to Charles's work.

The Caribbean gets its news through the US media. (I believe this confirms the theory that Sussex PR influenced the Caribbean's coverage of the Royal Family)

William saw Harry's comments in the Netflix documentary that they're expected to marry someone who fits the mold as an attack on Kate and he's been furious since. He feels betrayed by Harry having discussed their relationship so freely, thinks it's an intrusion of privacy.

Neither William nor Kate have read Spare but they are aware of what's being said and their staffs have briefed them.

Harry's version of events when The Queen Mother died is totally made up. (In Spare, Harry says he was alone, it was springtime just before Easter, and he took the call himself, but actually he was in Switzerland skiing with Charles and William and all three were told together by an aide.)

It's very suspicious that Spare largely skips May 2018 - March 2020. The palace thinks it'll be covered in the second version or Meghan's memoir.

The door is open for Harry and Meghan to return but they'll have to make the first steps since Charles has given up.

Anne's seat the coronation in front of Harry was a last-minute change so she could leave more quickly after the service in the procssion. She was concerned about keeping her hat on since it was "decent-sized" but she was told to keep it on.

Excerpt #4, 15 Jan 2024 - TBD

Highlights

It's been a difficult transition to Queen for Camilla, but everyone believes she handled it well. Her family finds it surreal.

Camilla doesn't mind being second fiddle to Charles.

She still has her Wiltshire home, Ray Mill, which she bought after divorcing Andrew PB. She still visits and stays there to this day.

Everyone walks a bit on eggshells around Charles because he's a bit temperamental, but Camilla steadies him.

Camilla likes her rooms hot. Charles like his rooms cold and windows open.

Charles skips lunch. Camilla does not.

Camilla keeps Charles running on time when he gets chatty.

Camilla is hands-on with her charities and patronage.

I find her sister is overstaying her welcome. After her starring role in the coronation documentary and now her interviews with Hardman for the book, it's too much and feels like she's trying too hard.

Other stories by Hardman from his book:

Foreign Office officials 'ditched buses for dignitaries' at coronation after backlash at the Queen's funeral, 13 Jan 2024

Brigadier who helped carry Queen's coffin was at a wedding in Corfu, 13 Jan 2024

Queen's funeral rehearsal was a comedy of errors as even the band went AWOL, 13 Jan 2024

Prince Andrew could be 'far more damaging outside the loop,' 14 Jan 2024

The DM's other royal reporters - Martin Robinson, Rebecca English, Natasha Livingstone - are publishing "recaps" of Hardman's excerpts. Some of Rebecca English's stories are augmented by her own sources. Here are a few:

Insiders revewal how the Queen was so upset by Harry and Meghan's Lilibet decision that she told aides 'the only thing I own is my name. And now they've taken that': The royal row taht troubled Her Majesty in twilight of her reign, 15 Jan 2024

'For William, this was the lwoest of the low,' 15 Jan 2024

Camilla was given the affection nickname 'Lorraine' before seh became Queen, 14 Jan 2024

Harry and Meghan likely caused Queen 'distress' in her final years over naming of baby Lilibet, 15 Jan 2024

The Queen's final years were overshadowed by Harry and Meghan's hunger for publicity, 15 Jan 2024

Also, these are reminding me of some things Harry and Meghan (Harry mostly) have claimed and Hardman's articles are debunking them. I need to do a bit of research to check if the dates on what I'm remembering line up with the timeline Hardman is presenting. I'll do a separate post on that since this is already quite long.

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 8th of January, 2023

This is speculation only

Cards drawn on the 8th of January, 2023

Question: Is King Charles going to abdicate this year?

Not the reading I was going to do, but one that I needed to do to clarify some of the cards that were coming up in the year ahead readings.

Interpretation: He is conflicted about it.

Card One: The Three of Wands.

This is my card for the passing on of power within the monarchy. The picture is of King Pelias offering the crown to his nephew Jason (Jason has to go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece before he actually gained the crown). This tells me that King Charles is thinking about abdication. It also tells me that if he does abdicate, his heir, Prince William, will face some testing times ahead between the abdication and his (William's) coronation.

It is interesting that the picture on the card shows the King offering his crown to a red haired man. I feel Harry vibes from that picture. Prince William will definitely succeed King Charles, there is no doubt about that, but I am picking up envy and hatred from the red haired man, and also fantasy thinking (wands are creativity, and fantasy thinking falls under that).

I have never seen the card this way before but tonight the red haired man (Jason) looks extremely arrogant and full of himself to me, and the black haired King looks humble and crushed, as though he has a lost a war to the red haired man. I think that Harry is fantasising very hard about being King and having his father humbling himself before Harry, I also have suspicions - nothing else - that Harry may try to interfere in any decision made by his father about abdicating and - I want to say sway the decision in his favour, but that is not possible. Gah! Harry definitely has thoughts and fantasies about this matter that are coming through along with King Charles thinking about abdicating.

Card Two: The Six of Cups.

This is the card of nostalgia for the past, childhood, and children. The energy of the King's children (William and Harry) is coming through strongly here, as is a longing for what is seen as the happier, peaceful days of the past when the two boys got on and supported each other (I think King Charles is seeing the past through rose coloured glasses here).

The energy is of a desire to return to those days, to live out his life in peace with his two sons supporting each other and working together for the good of the monarchy, to be able to retire knowing he is leaving the monarchy in their capable hands. For some reason the energy is of both sons, not just one son. King Charles wants both his sons to be living together in harmony before he retires. He is not willing to the crown over to Prince William while there is antagonism between William and Harry. There is a definite reluctance to do that coming through, although that may change if he decides he wants peace more than he wants to be King.

The energy of this card, very strongly, is a desire for peace and a return to the rose coloured days of the past where he had both sons working together in harmony and supporting him.

Card Three: The World.

The World is a card of ending, of one phase of life coming to a close while another opens, of carrying a project through to a successful conclusion and sitting back and reviewing the results. King Charles is definitely thinking about ending his time as King. There is an energy of 'Do I really want to leave something that has been the goal of my entire life' and another energy of 'I am so tired, I just want to rest and be done with all this stress and bother'. The energy is unsettled. Nothing is decided. King Charles may want an end to the stresses that come with being King, but I don't think he is quite ready to give up the position just yet (another few weeks/months and he may be - the energy s almost there but not definite as yet, and if something good happens it could push him in the other direction and he may decide that he quite likes the job after all).

Underlying Energy: Five of Wands.

This is a card of conflict, competition, and arguments. I think that King Charles is very conflicted about what to do. He wants peace, but he also doesn't want to leave while things are in a state of conflict.

The card shows a red haired man and a black haired woman, who give me Meghan and Harry vibes, attacking a green dragon who is holding a golden fleece. To me, this speaks of Harry and Meghan trying to attack and defeat the Waleses (the symbol of Wales is a dragon, albeit a red one) and wrest the prize of the golden fleece, the position of being the next King, from Prince William and his family,

This conflict, between William and Harry, will be the reason why King Charles does not abdicate. It is worry over this conflict between the Harkles and the BRF (in general terms) ad between his two sons (in specific terms) that is influencing his decision - on one hand, the stress of it all makes him want to leave and let someone else deal with it, on the other hand, he feels it is up to him to sort this out as he is the father. There is also a minor energy of not wanting to leave William to deal with this by himself, but I don't know if that is because King Charles wants to protect Prince William or if it is because he is worried about what Prince William will do to Harry if King Charles is not around. It could be a mix of both.

Conclusion.

King Charles is definitely thinking about abdication. He wants to return to the peace of the past, where he had two supportive sons and none of the worries and stresses of being King. He definitely longs for peace, that is a very strong energy from this reading. King Charles's energy feels old and worn and just plain tired.

I don't think King Charles is quite ready to give up his position as King, but he may come to that decision soon (i.e. sometime in the next few years). His main concern appears to be his sons and the conflict between his sons. He definitely wants his two sons to get along and support each other, and as that is not happening, he feels that he has to sort things out before he can rest.

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Princess of Wales’ Year in Review: January

January 1st - A photo of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince George and Princess Charlotte appeared on the internet, taken in December at Lapland UK January 6th - Jay Rutland released a photo of Catherine and her three children trick-or-treating at his house on Halloween January 11th - Catherine was spotted on the school run January 12th - William and Catherine were spotted leaving Windsor on their way to their first official engagement of the year. They travelled to Liverpool, where they opened the new premises of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The Prince and Princess of Wales then travelled to Birkenhead, to visit the Open Door Centre January 13th - The Princess of Wales, Patron of the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, held an Early Years Meeting January 18th - The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron of the Royal Foundation, visited Foxcubs Nursery January 19th - The Princess of Wales held an Early Years Meeting in her role as Joint Patron of the Royal Foundation. She then held a reception at Hampton Court Palace to celebrate the World Cup win of the England Wheelchair Rugby Football League team, in her role as Patron of the Rugby Football League January 25th - The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron of the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, held a meeting with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood Advisory Group January 26th - The Prince and Princess of Wales visited Windsor Foodshare. Catherine, Joint Patron of the Royal Foundation, then held an Early Years Meeting January 28th - Kensington Palace released two photographs and a video of the Princess of Wales, alongside an open letter, to soft launch her new Early Years project January 30th - The Prince and Princess of Wales, Joint Patrons of the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, attended the Centre for Early Childhood "Shaping Us" campaign preview and reception January 31st - A video was released of the Princess of Wales and the "Shaping Us" campaign. Later, Catherine travelled to Leeds, in her role as Patron of the Royal Foundation, to launch the "Shaping Us" campaign. She first visited Kirkgate Market, before visiting the University of Leeds

[houseofbrat]

I’m so interested to hear your thoughts on the announcement HoB.

Unpopular opinion probably but me personally - I’m not buying it. It wouldn’t have taken this long to reveal cancer post her surgery date.

Nor do I buy that William is the hero that Kensington Palace is desperately trying to paint him as. It’s crass how their children are used as human shields in that statement.

It will be interesting to see the online reaction to this because the timeline on this story is fishy as hell and against Willy is hiding behind her skirt to save his reputation.

So I listened to Sky News for the announcement and the immediate commentary afterwards, which included an oncologist.

I think it's important to remember that she does NOT have an active cancer diagnosis, which people seem to be forgetting. Her own statement said "preventative chemotherapy," which as the oncologist on Sky News clarified is an adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapies are something to prevent cancer from returning, not active cancer treatment. The Sky News oncologist speculated that she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which has already been treated.

The sequence of events seems to be that she had "major abdominal surgery," which was probably on her colon. They did routine pathology on the tissue that was removed. Pathology usually takes seven to ten days to confirm. The pathology on an unspecified amount of tissue came back as cancerous.

They've known about this since February. She was not diagnosed with this in March. It seems to be more that she had some kind of emergency abdominal surgery in January--due to an intestinal blockage, perforation, or whatever. Recovery in the hospital for almost two weeks, which not even every colon cancer patient requires. They received the pathology results after she probably got out of the hospital. She started adjuvant therapy/"preventative chemotherapy" after her medical team determined it was appropriate post-surgery.

I know everyone is freaking out about CANCER, but she does not currently have cancer. Again, her own statement "cancer had been present." (Past tense!) She had some cancer that was removed during surgery, which may not have even been a surgery designed to remove cancer in the first place, and is now doing preventative therapy.

The problem with all of this is that they've known that she's had this SINCE FEBRUARY. It doesn't take two months for pathology to come back. That's where the PR problems are clearly evident. We all know when the kids go on break. They had a week long break in February, and they didn't announce this when they could have.

If they really had wanted to just wait until the kids were out of school for almost a month, then why didn't they create a strategy based on that weeks ago? Why release the problematic Mother's Day photo if you were planning on making an announcement when the kids are going to be out of school a few weeks later? Why not make a better strategy in dealing with the press? Why throw a fit about Carole & Kate being photographed on a public road? Why throw a fit over The Colonel's Review in June?

Oh, wait, all is supposed to be forgiven now because Kate HAD cancer.

HAD.

Past tense people.

King Charles has an ACTIVE cancer diagnosis. Kate's cancer has already been solved. It was solved back in January when it was removed during surgery. She is only doing preventative treatment currently to decrease the future risk.

But, hey, Kensington Palace and Catherine used the c-word (CANCER!), so all those previous fuckups should be forgiven.

[pierppasolini]

A YEAR IN REVIEW: CREATIONS OF 2023

Post your favorite and most popular post from each month this year (it's okay to skip months).

i was tagged by @anthonysperkins thank you!

JANUARY MOST POPULAR: Female Trouble (1974) // dir. John Waters (35k) FAVORITE: Cruising (1980) // dir. William Friedkin

FEBRUARY MOST POPULAR: James Dean photographed by Sanford Roth, 1955 (1.4k) FAVORITE: Desperate Living (1977) // dir. John Waters

MARCH MOST POPULAR: My Own Private Idaho (1991) // dir. Gus Van Sant (2.6k) FAVORITE: Pink Flamingos (1972) // dir. John Waters

APRIL MOST POPULAR: Buenos Aries Zero Degree: The Making of Happy Together (1999) // dir. Kwan Pun-leung, Amos Lee (2.1k) FAVORITE: Hellraiser (1987) // dir. Clive Barker

MAY MOST POPULAR: The Golden Girls - 2.02 - Ladies of the Evening (9k) FAVORITE: Preppy Summer (1985) // dir. William Higgins

JUNE MOST POPULAR: The Living End (1992) // dir. Gregg Araki (1.2k) FAVORITE: City Hunter ‘91 - The Place Where Gun Smoke Goes: City Hunter Dies at Dawn

JULY MOST POPULAR: Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix photographed by Bruce Weber, 1991 (3.1k) FAVORITE: Il Decameron (1971) // dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

AUGUST MOST POPULAR: My Adventures with Superman - Zero Day: Part 1 (10k) FAVORITE: The Dukes of Hazzard - 1.07 - Luke’s Love Story

SEPTEMBER MOST POPULAR: The Dukes of Hazzard - 1.10 - Deputy Dukes (6k) FAVORITE: same as the most popular

OCTOBER MOST POPULAR: Evil Laugh (1986) // dir. Dominick Brascia (9.1k) FAVORITE: I racconti di Canterbury (1972) // dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

NOVEMBER MOST POPULAR: The Dukes of Hazzard - 4.08 - 10 Million Dollar Sheriff: Part 1 (2.8k) FAVORITE: PASOLINI ...

DECEMBER MOST POPULAR: The Golden Girls - 2.11 - ‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas (11k) FAVORITE: The Golden Girls - 2.11 - ‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas (different one from the most popular above)

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz with William James Metzelaar (of the radio station KFRO) in San Francisco, January 1967; and the poster advertising the sold out show at the Cow Palace on January 22, 1967.

From a review of the Cow Palace show:

“Finally Davy Jones, [Micky] Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith — the Monkees — came on… in vivid technicolor, each leaping onstage in a wild display of psychedelic lighting with a recording of an unintelligible Monkees hit blaring in the background. Screams of thousands sounded like millions as Davy Jones — resembling a cross between Dorian Gray and Little Lord Fauntleroy — led off the first number, which was drowned in the inevitable ocean of screams. […] Shortly after this, the fruit began to fly. Peter Tork was soloing as half an orange — with citrus strands bristling in the flashing lights — caught poor Peter right in the eye. It didn’t hurt him but settled, once and for all, the big question. The Monkees did their own singing. Peter stopped, and so did the sound of his voice.” - Peggy King, Oakland Tribune, January 25, 1967

And, in 1995, Peter recalled...

“We were just doing the Cow Palace — I remember that concert, I got hit in the face with a banana [laughs].” - Mike & Maty, November 1995

[homomenhommes]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in GGay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 2

1806 – Ohio repeals its common-law reception statute. Since it has no sodomy law, sodomy becomes legal and remains so for nearly eighty years.

1900 – (Charles William) Billy Haines (d.1973) was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality. Haines never returned to film and instead started a successful interior design business with his life partner and was supported by friends in Hollywood.

Billy Haines was born in Staunton, Virginia. Haines ran away from home at the age of 14, accompanied by another unidentified young man whom Haines referred to as his "boyfriend". The pair went to Hopewell, which had a reputation for immorality. Haines and his boyfriend got jobs working at the local DuPont factory for $50 a week. To supplement their income, the couple opened a dance hall, which may have also served as a brothel. His parents, frantic over his disappearance, tracked him through the police to Hopewell. Haines did not return home with them, remaining instead in Hopewell and sending money back home to help support the family. The couple remained in Hopewell until most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1915. Haines moved to New York City settling into the burgeoning gay community of Greenwich Village. It is unclear whether his boyfriend accompanied him.

He worked a variety of jobs before becoming a model. Talent scout Bijou Fernandez discovered Haines as part of the Samuel Goldwyn Company's "New Faces of 1922" contest and the studio signed him to a $40 a week contract.

Haines's career began slowly, as he appeared in extra and bit parts, mostly uncredited. His first significant role was in Three Wise Fools (1923). However, he continued to play small, unimportant parts at Goldwyn. It was not until they loaned him to Fox in 1923 for The Desert Outlaw that he got the opportunity to play a significant role. In 1924, MGM lent Haines to Columbia Pictures for a five-picture deal. The first of these, The Midnight Express (1924), received excellent reviews and Columbia offered to buy his contract. The offer was refused and Haines continued in bit roles for Goldwyn.

On a trip to New York in 1926, Haines met James "Jimmie" Shields, probably as a pick-up on the street . Haines convinced Shields to move to Los Angeles, promising to get him work as an extra - some sources say Shields worked as Haines' "double' in his films. The pair were soon living together and viewed themselves as a committed couple.

In 1933, Haines was arrested in a YMCA with a sailor he had picked up in Los Angeles' Pershing Square. Louis B. Mayer, the studio head at MGM, delivered an ultimatum to Haines: choose between a sham marriage (also known as a "lavender marriage") or his relationship with Shields. Haines chose Shields and they remained together for almost 50 years. Mayer subsequently fired Haines and terminated his contract, quickly recasting Robert Montgomery in roles that had been planned for Haines. Haines did make a few minor films then retired from film.

Haines and Shields began a successful dual career as interior designers and antique dealers. Among their early clients were friends such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and George Cukor. Their lives were disrupted in 1936 when members of the Ku Klux Klan dragged the two men from their home and beat them, because a neighbor had accused the two of propositioning his son. Crawford, along with other stars such as Claudette Colbert, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Kay Francis, and Charles Boyer urged the men to report this to the police. Marion Davies asked her lover William Randolph Hearst to use his influence to ensure the neighbors were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but ultimately Haines and Shields chose not to report the incident.

Haines and Shields remained together for the rest of their lives. Joan Crawford described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood."

Haines died from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73, a week short of his 74th birthday, which was on the new year of 1974. Soon afterward, Shields, who suffered from what many believe to be Alzheimer's Disease, put on Haines' pajamas, took an overdose of pills, and crawled into their bed to die. They were interred side by side in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.

1905 – Over the twentieth century, Sir Michael Tippett, (d.1998) a most unlikely composer and musician, progressed from being the great enigma of British classical music to being one of its most respected and influential figures. His visionary, idealistic humanism, which, while firmly grounded in the traditional, embraced contemporary and popular forms as well. Tippett was, in the words of his partner Meirion Bowen, an "unabashed homosexual," and he defied the social taboos of his time by incorporating homoerotic themes in his operas.

Michael Kemp Tippett was born in London, and raised in Surrey, where he lived most of his life. Unlike many composers, he was not a child prodigy, and, aside from piano lessons, he had little early involvement with music. In his teens, however, he attended concert performances of Beethoven's symphonies, and as a result of this experience he realized his desire to become a composer.

Consequently, he persuaded his parents to support his studies at the Royal College of Music, from which he graduated in 1928. For several years, he taught French in a preparatory school and conducted local musical ensembles. In 1940, he was appointed Director of Music at Morley College in London, a post he retained until 1951.

Although Tippett's early compositions had their first public performance in 1930, the work that brought him widespread recognition came a decade later. The oratorio A Child of Our Time (1939-1941) was inspired by Tippett's concern for the oppressed and his outrage over Nazi persecution of the Jews. The work is dedicated to Hershel Grynzpan, a gay Jewish youth who, in 1937, assassinated a Nazi official in a Paris club frequented by homosexuals, an act that the Nazis used as a pretext for the acts of anti-Semitic terror known as Kristallnacht. Tippett also wrote the libretto for this oratorio, as he would subsequently do for all his vocal compositions.

Aside from A Child of Our Time, he is perhaps best known, for his operas. Tippett's first opera, The Midsummer Marriage (1955), was first staged at Covent Garden with a young Joan Sutherland, then beginning her stellar career, in the lead role. Although the opera has endured the test of time, the plot at first bewildered audiences used to more traditional opera fare.

King Priam (1962) retells the ancient story of the siege of Troy and, in one scene, presents the homoerotic attachment between Achilles and Patroclus. More daring is The Knot Garden (1970), an examination of the dynamics of contemporary relationships. Among the main characters are Mel and Dov, an unambiguously gay, mixed-race couple.

Tippett's final major work was the opera New Year (1989), written by the octogenarian composer as a sort of postscript to his long career. In keeping with Tippett's ongoing interest in contemporary currents in music and culture, this late piece is perhaps the first opera to include a "rap" vocal.

Tippett was a lifelong humanist and pacifist who stood by his beliefs, even when they were out of step with the rest of society. In 1943, he was incarcerated for three months in London's notorious Wormwood Scrubs prison for refusing to do the civil defense duty expected of conscientious objectors; he responded to his conditions by organizing and conducting the prison orchestra.

Tippett was, moreover, openly gay at a time when male homosexual acts were criminal in Britain. Yet despite his "outlaw" history, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966, made a Companion of Honour in 1979, and granted the Order of Merit in 1983. Tippett remained active through his eighties, and only declined at the very end of his life.

His autobiography, Those Twentieth Century Blues, was published in 1991. In November, 1997, while attending a retrospective celebration of his music in Stockholm, he was stricken with pneumonia. He died of the illness in his London home on January 8, 1998, days after his ninety-third birthday.

1918 – Clyde E. Martin (d.2014) was an American sexologist. He was an assistant to Alfred Kinsey on the Kinsey Reports and served as a co-author on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.

Martin commenced study in economics at Indiana University in 1937. Soon after in December 1938 Martin actively sought out Kinsey and gave Kinsey his sexual history. The pair formed a bond, and Kinsey offered the cash-strapped Martin work in his garden. From spring 1939, he was assisting Kinsey with tabulation of his sexual history surveys. In 1941 when funding for the project was received from the National Research Council, Martin became the first researcher hired by the project. In 1960 he resigned from the Institute for Sex Research to pursue his doctoral degree, receiving his Ph.D. (in social relations) from Johns Hopkins University in 1966. From 1966 until 1989, he conducted research, specializing in gerontology and sociology at the Francis Scott Key Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. He retired in 1989, and died on 5 December 2014, aged 96.

In May 1942, Martin married his girlfriend, Alice, in the garden of the Kinseys' house. Before marrying, he had a sexual relationship with Alfred Kinsey.

The 2003 musical Dr. Sex focuses on the relationship between Martin, Kinsey and his wife, with the character of Wally Matthews being based

1928 – Ray Kassar was president, and later CEO, of Atari Inc. from 1978 to 1983. He had previously been executive vice-president of Burlington Industries, the world's largest textile company at the time, and president of its Burlington House division. A member of the Board of Directors, Kassar had spent over thirty years at Burlington.

Ray Kassar was hired in February 1978 as president of Atari Inc.'s consumer division by Warner Communications, which at the time owned Atari. By this time, rifts had begun to develop between the original Atari Inc. staff (most of whom had engineering backgrounds) and the new hires brought in by Warner (who, like Kassar, mostly had business backgrounds).

In November 1978, when Atari Inc. co-founder Nolan Bushnell left the company after a dispute with Warner over the future of Atari Inc., Kassar became CEO. Under his leadership, sweeping changes were made at Atari and the laid-back atmosphere that had existed under Bushnell's leadership all but disappeared. Kassar's twenty-five years at Burlington Industries had given him a taste for order, organization, and efficiency and his efforts to revamp Atari along similar lines provoked substantial animosity. Kassar shifted the focus away from game development and more toward marketing and sales. Atari Inc. began to promote games all year around instead of just at the Christmas season. R&D also suffered deep cuts and the discipline and security at Atari Inc. became strict.

In a sense he also helped create the video game maker Activision. While Kassar was at Atari he angered a large number of the game developers by not crediting them in any way to the point where they walked out of Atari. He told them that they were no more important to the games then the people that worked on the assembly line. They started their own company and called it Activision.

Ray Kassar is the namesake the widely popular game “ Yar’s Revenge.” The creator of the game was a former employee at Atari “Yar” is Ray spelled backwards. The title is a deliberate jab at Kassar, mocking his dictator-like work ethic as well as his flamboyant manner. Ray Kassar was known by the employees at Atari to be an extremely flamboyant homosexual outside the work place. Employees didn't care what his sexual preferences were, but they were irked by his daily habit of being chauffeured to work in a limo and then proceeding to make grand entrances into the office.

Kassar built Atari into a video game giant that it was, before he was forced to resign because of allegations of insider trading in 1983. He sold all of his shares in Atari just hours before a report was published that Atari had suffered monetary loses in the millions.

1929  – Charles Beaumont (d.1967) is born Charles Leroy Nutt. He was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. He is remembered as a writer of classic Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Howling Man", "Miniature", "Printer's Devil", and "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You", but also penned the screenplays for several films, among them 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Intruder, and The Masque of the Red Death.

In 1954, Playboy magazine selected his story “Black Country.” Playboy has been loved by straight men for decades but it was this gay short story that built its reputation. Hugh Hefner was the only one to accept a science fiction story about heterosexuals being the minority against homosexuals. When letters poured in, he said: 'If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong too.'

1961 – Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.

In 1987, while an MFA student at Bard College, Haynes made a short, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which chronicles the life of American pop singer Karen Carpenter, using Barbie dolls as actors. The film presents Carpenter's struggle with anorexia and bulimia, featuring several close-ups of Ipecac (the prescription drug Carpenter was reputed to have used to make herself vomit during her illness). Carpenter's chronic weight loss was portrayed by using a "Karen" Barbie doll with the face and body whittled away with a knife, leaving the doll looking skeletonized. The film is also notable for staged dream sequences in which Karen, in a state of deteriorating mental health, imagines being spanked by her father.

Superstar featured extensive use of Carpenter songs, showcasing Haynes' love of popular music (which would be a recurring feature of later films). Haynes failed to obtain proper licensing to use the music, prompting a lawsuit from Karen's brother Richard Carpenter for copyright infringement. Carpenter was reportedly also offended by Haynes' unflattering portrayal of him as a narcissistic bully, along with several broadly dropped suggestions that he was gay and in the closet. Carpenter won his lawsuit, and Superstar was removed from public distribution; to date, it may not be viewed publicly. Bootlegged versions of the film are still circulated, and the film is sporadically made available on YouTube.

Haynes' 1991 feature film debut, Poison, garnered Haynes further acclaim and controversy. Drawing on the writings of "transgressive" gay writer Jean Genet, the film is a triptych of queer-themed narratives, each adopting a different cinematic genre: vox-pop documentary ("Hero"), 50s sci-fi horror ("Horror") and gay prisoner love story ("Homo"). The film explores traditional perceptions of homosexuality as an unnatural and deviant social force, and presents Genet's vision of sado-masochistic gay love as a subversion of heterosexual norms, culminating with a marriage ceremony between two gay male convicts. Poison marked Haynes' first collaboration with producer Christine Vachon, who has since produced all of Haynes' feature films.

Poison was partially funded with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The film subsequently became the center of a public attack by Reverend Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, who criticized the NEA for funding Poison and other works by gay and lesbian artists and filmmakers. Wildmon, who had not viewed the film before making his comments publicly, condemned the film's "explicit porno scenes of homosexuals involved in anal sex", despite no such scenes appearing in the film.

Poison went on to win the 1991 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, establishing Haynes as an emerging talent and the voice of a new transgressive generation. The film writer B. Ruby Rich cited Poison as one of the defining films of the emerging New Queer Cinema movement, with its focus on maverick sexuality as an anti-establishment social force.

Haynes achieved his greatest critical and commercial success to date with Far From Heaven (2002), a 1950s-set melodrama inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk about a Connecticut housewife Cathy Whittaker (Julianne Moore) who discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) is secretly gay, and subsequently falls in love with Raymond, her African-American gardener (Dennis Haysbert).

Haynes is openly gay. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

2005 – Bonnie Bleskachek became the first openly lesbian fire chief of a major city, Minneapolis. She was demoted two years later amid claims of harassment and discrimination, but return to the department as a staff captain. She co-founded the Minnesota Women Fire Fighters Association.

[capinejghafa]

A YEAR IN REVIEW: CREATIONS OF 2023

Post your favourite and most popular posts from each month this year (it's okay to skip months)

tagged by @girlbutcherwife, @taiturner, @crowley-anthony THANK YOU <333 I realized i just giffed a lot last year and I might need to chill lol

JANUARY

MOST POPULAR: Dream - Do my own subjects not know me? (1.3K) FAVORITE: dream of the endless + location of his tools

FEBRUARY

MOST POPULAR: aziracrow + i forgive you (913) FAVORITE: kanej gif/fic collab with @oneofthewednesdays

MARCH

MOST POPULAR: kanej + dream sequence (3.3k) FAVORITE: (1) the crows + colors (2) kanej + sankta neyar quote

APRIL

MOST POPULAR: kanej + incorrect quote (iasip) (1.2k) FAVORITE: (1) kanej + "no saint ever watched over me. not like you have." (2) kanej + incorrect quote (addams family)

MAY

MOST POPULAR: kaz + "the city's price is blood" (703) FAVORITE: genya + "your beauty is your armor."

JUNE

MOST POPULAR: grace le domas (ready or not) (1.2k) FAVORITE: hargreeves siblings + cleopatra by the lumineers

JULY

MOST POPULAR: (1) crowley's snake eyes appreciation post (4.7k) (2) the real reason why aziraphale turned bentley yellow… (4.7k) FAVORITE: the crows + "I think it’s brave to try to be happy..."

AUGUST

MOST POPULAR: crowley + regretting trying to get jimbriel to jump out the window (1.3k) FAVORITE: (1) aziracrow + jane austen (2) aziracrow + william shakespeare (3) number five + dynamic

SEPTEMBER

MOST POPULAR: (1) crowley + waiting for aziraphale (1.1k) (2) crowley + questions (1.1k) FAVORITE: beginner’s guide to kerch (island)

OCTOBER

MOST POPULAR: crowley + getting closer (2.4k) FAVORITE: (1) aziracrow + "this the precious, peaceful, fragile existence that we have carved out for ourselves here." (2) kaz + orange/black coloring (3) crowley + gray bg

NOVEMBER

MOST POPULAR: aziracrow + space | season one (1.4k) FAVORITE: (1) the crows + opening credits (2) crowley + good lad/not really)

DECEMBER

MOST POPULAR: aziraphale + the Second Coming (748) FAVORITE: (1) kanej + favorite crows' relationship (2) the crows + tumblr year review

tagging (no pressure/if you've already done it!): @yenvengerberg @stars-bean @samwwise @alivedean @rachelsennot @padme-amidala

[bitter69uk]

“Miss Kitt combines three epochs of womanhood. Her plaintive vibrato is that of an injured child, her face bears the scowl of a discarded mistress, and her words are those of a mistress-to-be. Beginning in a state of extravagant repose (no one in show business can hold a pause longer) she rises slowly to ecstasy, always seeming - and this is true of many stars - to be communing more with herself than with her audience. After a dozen numbers she curls up on the stairs, a silver cicatrice against the purple carpet, and sings a song about the day, long ago, when the circus left town; the tenderness of this item, and its hunger for lost paradises, make one forget for a moment the arrogance with which her act began; the moment when, icy and sullen, she sauntered down to the microphone and bade one grovel at her feet. Miss Kitt is the vocal soul of every Siamese cat who ever lived.”

/ Kenneth Tynan reviewing Eartha Kitt’s performance at London’s Café de Paris in January 1956 /

Born on this day: the most durable and feline of mid-twentieth century sex kittens, triple threat (actress, singer, dancer) and the definitive Catwoman – sultry bedroom-voiced chanteuse Miss Eartha Kitt (17 January 1927 – 25 December 2008)! Isn’t it great the slinky Kitt remains such an essential pop culture reference point? No Drag Race “Snatch Game” is complete without one of the queens doing an Eartha Kitt impersonation! The 2013 biography America’s Mistress: The Life and Times of Eartha Kitt by John L Williams is essential.

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson backlog special: Holmes' birthday

So Sherlock Holmes' birthday is often interpreted as January 6th, but why? Well, there have been a BUNCH of different scholars considering every aspect of the Sherlock Holmes stories over the years, and the common motivation among them is being considered a "Holmes Scholar" instead of a mere fan.

The evidence, as it has been presented over the years, has only one source that uh, has any connection to the actual text: The works of William Stuart Baring-Gould, best known for his only partially definitive Sherlock Holmes chronology. (AKA: The dead guy I have ongoing beef with and whose work in dating the Holmes stories I have been reviewing sporadically for the past year.) However, Baring-Gould is not automatically wrong, so let's follow his chain of logic, such as it is.

The final Holmes novel, Valley of Fear (1914-1915) starts on January 7th with Holmes being a bit tetchy

No boring Doylist explanation for Holmes' bad moods need apply.

No Watsonian explanation that Holmes is not always a good-natured roommate or considerate friend need apply either. No, Holmes, known for having no sleep schedule, no tolerance for his own failure, and no moderation in terms of taking mood altering substances more unusual than alcohol, must be hungover

Why would Holmes be hungover? He must have been up late celebrating.

What could he have been celebrating by drinking alone? His birthday! Therefore yesterday (January 6th) is his birthday! Case closed!

This conclusion is, kindly, a stretch, but in this fandom we love having answers almost as much as we love being the one to provide the answer. We must have rituals to keep a fandom alive over a hundred years, and celebrating Holmes' birthday on Jan 6 is as good as any other. I merely want to point out alternatives to the dates and timelines established by Baring-Gould like any good peer reviewer. Alternative speculation under the cut.

So... why, on his birthday, would Holmes have been celebrating by drinking alone, instead of drinking with Watson? Or going to the opera (alone or with Watson?) There is no indication at the beginning of Valley of Fear that it takes place when Holmes and Watson are living separately. They're having breakfast together. Or rather, Watson has long since finished breakfast, and Holmes has yet to start, which lends better support to the hangover theory than his momentary brusqueness, but not by a lot since the man is known to forget to eat. Reading it over without Baring Gould's conclusions in mind, I think very few fans would find this scene out of the ordinary for 221 Baker street, but since I'm willing to play along with Gould: what if the event that Holmes is celebrating privately isn't one that Watson would wholeheartedly accompany him for? What events occur on Jan 6th that Watson, the average victorian man, would not be a part of? Epiphany. No, that's literally the name of the holiday, part of the christmas season. It's cited as the date of the Wise Men's arrival to bring Jesus presents (er. presents but also you know, expensive dire omens regarding his eventual death, if you've never been forced to sing all the verses of "We Three Kings of Orient Are," which becomes grimmer as you go on.) It's the last of the 12 days of christmas and the "Twelfth Night" referenced in that one shakespeare comedy. It's not commonly celebrated in the modern (united states) conception of christianity, whether devoutly practicing or cultural. It was a great reason for the Victorians to party, however. ... which doesn't exclude Watson. Unless we imagine Watson as having been invited to an epiphany party and Holmes, either uninvited or uninterested in a party atmosphere, staying home, which is possible.

But this doesn't result in a revelation about Holmes' identity, so in the spirt of going out on a supported but not definiitive limb, I propose that Holmes is Catholic. (Not, most likely, practicing in any major way at this point in his life. There's belief and practice, and then there's culture, and if your only idea of growing up Catholic is John Mulaney skits about god not hearing you if you don't sing loud enough... well, it's far more complicated than that if you're a Victorian.) - Catholic celebration of the Epiphany has historically taken on a more somber tone than Protestant or Anglican celebration. (See: we've all had fun here during Advent and Christmas but you're obligated to remember that Jesus is gonna die. By mid spring. By the way, Ash Wednesday and Lent are coming up so if you got candy, eat it, you'll be giving it up in a month.) - Holmes' general slight out-of-step-ness with the general Victorian shared expectations and culture could be partially explained by being raised in a different iteration of Christianity. - And his reticence regarding his family history could be explained by growing up experiencing social rejection due to the anti-catholic sentiments that were absolutely all over England in the 1850's to 90's (and well the hell into more modern times too) - Anti-catholocism isn't something he could dodge by simply not actually practicing the religion he was raised in either. - Holmes' references to a french side of the family could indicate that he has, at the very least, catholic close-ish relatives, as that was the most common religion in france. - Enough scholarship has been written on "is Holmes secretly Irish?" given his surname and Doyle's background as an Irishman that I think we should spend at least a minute considering that these points could also be taken to mean that Holmes is Catholic.

People (Anglican descended Puritans, for example) were complaining about the secularized parts of christmas by the 1700's, (Meaning: any celebration that was not prayer inside the church) and the Victorian celebration of Christmas is the direct ancestor of the US and England's current Culturally Christian but not necessarily religious practice related celebrations, so I don't see Holmes having any difficulty fitting in with buying a goose, having a nice dinner, or listening to carols. But there's a chance that if he wanted to celebrate Epiphany with any family traditions, regardless of how far they were removed from actual religious practice, he might not invite Watson.

And if Watson knows, he has, loyally, not written a word.

[houseofbrat]

What I’m confused about when it comes to what you keep pointing out about Kate’s health being exaggerated and her not being unwell is that Kate said in the video that she told her kids that she’s ‘going to be ok’ and then said ‘as I said to them, I AM well’, where she emphasized ‘am’. I agree with you that people can get hysterical about cancer. And I say this having had a family member with it. I agree that the public is acting like it’s a death sentence. But there’s a difference between public hysteria and people getting caught up in hype, and Kate being forced to make that statement because everyone kept making up ridiculous conspiracy theories. I also don’t rule out them not being 100% honest about the timeline or details. But I don’t think Kate is proactively trying to get people to worry about her more than they need to. I do think though that she does think it’s necessary to share the seriousness of the situation even if the critical stage is in the past, in order to get everyone to back off.

There are so many problems that the situation is not "Where do you start?" but "Where does it end?"

The "planned abdominal surgery" announcement, which seemed to catch everyone by surprise, even the people who work in W&K's circle and Buckingham Palace. Spanish media reported that her surgery was NOT planned. And yet, Dr. Reiner seemed flummoxed by Kate's description of her "planned abdominal surgery," perhaps it wasn't really "planned" but emergency surgery?

Kensington Palace's public pissing match with the Ministry of Defence over The Colonel's Review in June.

The revelation that William didn't attend Constantine's memorial due to allegedly finding out about Kate's cancer, yet she also started "preventative chemotherapy" in the same time frame? Rumors also allegedly circulated in January amongst the UK media that they knew of Kate's cancer diagnosis then but never published the info.

The Mother's Day photo fiasco, which Kate (sort of) takes responsibility for, yet later articles state they plan to sack staff when this is "all over." (Whenever that is!)

A cancer announcement, which coincidentally whitewashes all previous fuckups, yet could have been adverted with a simple statement weeks earlier. The announcement is allegedly timed to coincide with the kids' term break due to media attention, yet appears to be in response to previous comms/PR failures. However, a simple statement/announcement weeks earlier would have reduced the media attention that had increased, purely based on all the previous fuckups by KP that ratcheted up the atmosphere. Additionally, the kids had already been without their mother for two weeks in January, watched her recover from surgery, and allegedly watched her react to "preventative chemotherapy" treatments that started at the end of February. But the media coverage at the end of March--that they likely don't read--is something more damaging to them than what they've already seen with their own eyes and ears at home? WTF?!

We have a new phrase added to the lexicon, "preventative chemotherapy." I'm sure there are plenty of doctors SO EXCITED to have their patients come into their annual exams asking for some "preventative chemotherapy" just like Kate because they're worried about getting cancer. It'll be the new "Kate Effect!" Can't wait for those articles to drop in the future.

NONE of this is going to age well. Not in three months. Not in six months. Not a year later.

Can't wait to read the future book that has all the behind-the-scenes details.

[conradscrime]

The Murder of Martha Moxley

October 01, 2023

On October 30, 1975, 15 year old Martha Moxley went out with her friends to "mischief night" which was a night where all the neighbourhood kids would pull pranks on the neighbours, such as ding dong ditch and TP'ing houses.

According to the other kids there that night, Martha had been flirting with a boy named Thomas Skakel and even kissed him. Thomas had an older brother named Michael. Their mother had died in 1973 from brain cancer and that was when Michael turned to drinking. It was said that the Skakel's would be given large sums of money and would be left unsupervised a lot.

The last time anyone saw Martha she was apparently with Thomas behind a fence, near the boy's pool in his backyard. This was at 9:30pm.

The following day, October 31, 1975, Halloween, Martha's body was found underneath a tree in her own backyard. Her pants and underwear were pulled down, though it was later determined she had not been sexually assaulted.

Pieces of a broken six-iron golf club were found near her. The autopsy indicated that she had been bludgeoned and stabbed with the club. The club was owned by the Skakel's.

Since Thomas Skakel was the last person to have been with Martha the night before he became the prime suspect. His father however, denied authorities to get any access to Thomas' school and mental health records.

Thomas' live in tutor, Kenneth Littleton also became a prime suspect. He had only started working a few hours before the murder. Neither Thomas or Kenneth were charged and the case was cold for decades.

Over the years both Thomas and his brother Michael changed their alibi's for the night Martha was murdered. Michael claimed he was window-peeping and masturbating in a tree beside Martha's home from 11:30 pm to 12:30 am.

Two former students who had gone to a centre for troubled youths reported they had heard Michael confess to killing Martha with a golf club. One of these students quoted Michael as having said, "I'm gong to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy." Michael's aunt was the widow of US Senator, Robert F. Kennedy. Michael supposedly had gotten special treatment at this centre.

A man named William Kennedy Smith was tried and acquitted for rape in 1991, and a rumour had begun that he had been at the Skakel house on the night Martha was killed. Though it was never confirmed if he had involvement, the case had a new investigation to go off of.

In June 1998, a one-man grand jury was set to review the evidence of the case. After 18 months, it was determined there was enough evidence to charge Michael Skakel with murder.

On January 9, 2000, Michael surrendered to authorities. He was released shortly after on a $500,000 bail. On March 14, 2000, Michael was arraigned for murder n juvenile court, because he was only 15 years old at the time of Martha's murder.

On January 31, 2001, a judged ruled he would be tried as an adult.

The trial began on May 7, 2002, in Connecticut. Michael's alibi at the time of the murder was that he was at his cousin's house. On June 7, 2002, Michael was found guilty of the murder of Martha Moxley. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Skakel and his team fought for a new trial many times, often being denied. However, on October 23, 2013, Skakel was granted a new trial by Judge Thomas A. Bishop who ruled his attorney had failed to adequately represent Michael when he was convicted in 2002.

On November 21, 2013, Skakel was released on a $1.2 million bond and conditions. He had to be monitored with a GPS device and have no contact with the Moxley family. He would not be allowed to leave the state of Connecticut and would be periodically checked in on over the phone.

In December 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated Skakel's murder conviction with a 4-3 majority decision. In 2018, they wanted the court to revoke Skakel's bail, and make him continue to serve his sentence in jail. Also in 2018 it was announced there would be a new trial ordered, but by October 2020, it was informed that Skakel would not be retried, with the state's chief saying the state would not be able to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt.

Michael Skakel remains released.