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Good for you. I've always followed you and found your content interesting and informative. I'm not very emotionally invested in either the show or the actors, but once in a while I liked to skim through various blogs to see what's new. I wish you the best for the future.

FYI

I need to take some distance from this fandom. Although I will always be an Outlander book fan, I’m not sure I if I can get past this to even watch Outlander again. I haven’t seen the new episode. 

I’ve loved that show. I’ve loved Sam and Cait as Jamie and Claire but all of it has become toxic for me. 

I’m gong to be moving all the Outlander fandom stuff to a side blog and turning this blog into a general blog with a greater focus on politics (and of course cat gifs 😽). 

I will be shifting the Outlander content to a side blog because I accumulated a huge body of work regarding Outlander and the fandom that has been useful to countless fans over the years. I’ve had millions of page views and visitors to my blog (and even more than my Statcounter numbers show, since that program often inexplicably dies for me for weeks at a time each year). 

I’ve been thanked in DM by so many former shippers and fence sitters over the years for helping them to get out of or to avoid the ups and downs of extreme shipping. So I do know my posts had value to many.

I currently have 2034 followers. I know that’s nothing compared to the big shipping, gif or fan fiction blogs, but for a controversial nonshipper blog, it is pretty good. 

I’ve had the vast majority of these followers for years. I thank them for hanging in there with me through thick and thin. I know that many of you have been afraid at times to publicly support me for fear of being harassed yourselves or for fear of being drawn into the drama, but I really do appreciate all of your support in DMs and by continuing to follow me. You have kept me going through thick and thin. 

But this is not fun for me anymore. 

I came to this fandom and naively thought I could hold a position where I could dialogue with people on both extremes of the fandom in an attempt to make it less toxic and to facilitate understanding. Instead, too many times I’ve let myself get caught up in the drama and contributed to some of the toxicity. I apologize for my part in that and I am deeply sorry if have hurt anyone by anything I have said or by any behavior of mine over the years.

My attempt to stay somewhere in the middle also contributed to me becoming the target of harassment from both sides, but during the past three years I have mostly been harassed by certain (NOT all) of the members of the extreme nonshipper/ truther (NST) side, which I sadly have to say in my experience has been worse than the harassment I ever received from the extreme shippers.

What is so sad is that certain (NOT all) NSTs so believe they are the “good guys” that they seem completely unaware when they behave like a mob of bullies. I’m sure any one of them would have been traumatized if they had been subjected even one time to what they have put me through repeatedly for years. It is sad to me that many (NOT all) of them have not been able to switch perspective and realize how someone in my position might have felt when they mobbed me. 

I’ve decided that with rare exceptions one really cannot dialogue with extreme fans of any “side.” It isn’t in their nature to dialogue. They prefer to see the world in black-and-white terms and really don’t want to understand someone who is trying to allow for the shades of gray. 

So I’m moving on. 

I have built too many great DM friendships to leave this blog entirely, so I will stay under a new name and non-Outlander content.  

Maybe in the future I can care about Outlander again and use my side blog to fan the books and show. But I no longer care to discuss fandom issues. This fandom is so toxic, it is not worth talking about anymore.

My advice for new Outlander fans.

Avoid the extreme groups. Whether they are extreme shippers, extreme nonshippers/ truthers, Sam stans, or Cait stans–any extreme group of fans are going to ultimately be toxic. It is the nature of extremes. 

We are a fandom of adult women. Why on earth have we let ourselves become obsessed with the private lives of a couple of actors? We are living in the time of a pandemic. People are dying. Many of us are in demographic groups that have a high vulnerability to Covid-19. Our health and lives can turn on a dime. Why do we care about two actors? 

They certainly don’t care about us. We are just faces in the crowd. 

Years ago, I wrote a funny series about being an Outlander fan called the No Verra Sensible series. I started by describing a tongue-in-cheek “disorder” called “Sam/ Jamie Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” It was meant as a fun way of trying to understand my own obsession with Sam and Jamie. If you haven’t read it, it is worth a read. It might make you smile. 

But I am completely over my Sam/ Jamie obsession now. I’m glad I finally am. 

It’s way past time to move on. 

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George H. W. Bush Supports Dana Carvey Cold Open | 

SNL | 10.22.94

I loved how George H. W. Bush enjoyed Dana Carvey’s impersonation of him to the point where he even good heartedly joined in one of Dana’s skits about him. They apparently became friends as a result of Dana’s impersonations (see POST).

I’m a progressive Democrat but Mr. Bush was a true statesman and gentleman. He will be missed.

RIP | George H. W. Bush | June 12, 1924 to November 30, 2018

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New photo

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😂😂

Happy Thanksgiving! 

(Run turkeys run! 😉)

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Richard presenting an award to Sophie Okonedo ⭐️

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A little reunion with Idris

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Courtesy Kat Pave Instagram (X)

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Richard Madden Photographed For TheWrap

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Richard Madden on The IMDb Show

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Happy Friday friends!

I'm looking forward to a great weekend - I've finally started reading Outlander (I'm at the part when she's taking over a previous doctor's office at Castle Leoch and sorting through things like mouse ears - ew!) and it's all I intend to do all weekend! Yay! Thanks DG

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Don’t be sad

Don’t be sad

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I didn't know you were a fan!

Unrelated but Backstreet Boys are doing an European tour this summer and I could pretend to be cool about it but I’M SO FUCKING GOING!!!

I swear to god… I last saw them back in 2000 when they did their Millenium tour.

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From Instagram

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Bodyguard S01E05 (2018)