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On one hand I understand not teaching cursive in school anymore, because it actually is slower than regular handwriting and almost everything is typed on a keyboard now anyways.

On the other hand, so much of our (even recent!) history was written in cursive, and having a whole generation of kids who can't read letters written by their grandparents, momentos saved by their great-grandparents, or even photo albums from theur immediate family seems like a dangerously quick way to detach us from previous generations.

And on the third, related but slightly malformed hand, I feel bad that yet another form of small, everyday art that brings joy in the middle of mundane tasks, which celebrates personality and individual style and self-expression, is about to fade into obscurity because it wasn't efficient enough for today's world to put up with.

Like... if we continue to whittle away the small arts out of every day life, what's going to be left except stark, ruthless pragmatism?

Maybe writing a grocery list is less mundane when you get to feel elegant for a moment. Maybe you're a little more proud of what you write when you see it flow together like a painting

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I was born in the early '50s, and knew kids who got polio and were crippled for life, knew families who lost children to it. My mother was hardly a "Christian sort" who didn’t believe in doctors, but she was afraid of them because in the minds of many in her generation, you only saw doctors when they were going to send you to the hospital to die. My dad, fortunately, was far better educated and more open minded, and made very sure we kids got all our shots when they became available. We were Catholics, and our churches made arrangements for the congregation to get the flu shots and polio vaccines after Sunday Masses. We didn’t question it, it was what you did to keep yourself and your community safe. Sure, there were people who scoffed at it, and they were inevitably the families whose members got sick and suffered lifelong disabilities or even death because of it. These days, we have reasons to question the motives of for profit healthcare systems and big pharmaceutical companies who want to make lots of money, but every single doctor, nurse, and workers in clinics that I’ve spoken to understand that the scientists developing the vaccines aren’t the ones in it for the bucks. When they lose patients who were made afraid by misinformation, it kills a part of their souls, because they got into their profession to save lives and make them better.

No, no vaccine can prevent disease 100% effectively, but they can reduce the odds hugely and make them far less damaging. And if you do get sick, don’t try to tough it out if you know there are medications that can be prescribed to help you get well more quickly and reduce the impact being sick will have on you. I’ve had COVID twice. The first time it appeared literally on the first day of lockdown, when there were no vaccines, no effective treatments, and no real understanding of all the symptoms. I already had damaged bronchial tubes from a bout of pneumonia I’d had in my late 20s that went untreated for lack of medical insurance; that round of Covid damaged them further. In late 2023, despite having had every shot and booster I could get, I came down with Covid again. It was much less severe, partly because my doctor was able to get me on paxlovid as soon as I tested positive, but it still did more damage, and I now have to use an inhaler when I suffer bouts of shortness of breath.

But I’m still alive, and while I could wish I was healthier, I’m far from young anymore, and I’m grateful there were things my doctor could do for me because of dedicated scientists who came up with tests, treatments, and vaccinations. They want to help, despite what some people might say to the contrary. Please, let them help. Help others by helping yourself stay healthy. We're all in this together.

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For those who cannot have chamomile (if you have hayfever, you may also be allergic to chamomile, I’ve discovered that through sad personal experience and subsequent research), try substituting ginger. It works very well with the lemon and other flavors and has its own soothing and clearing healing properties. In fact, my sister and I found a brand of bottled juice from an organic grower, RW Knudsen (available at a lot of health food stores and groceries with large natural and organic foods sections). It's Lemon Ginger Echinacea, and heated up to drink while sick with a cold, it’s a godsend since it requires no more work than heating it up. Because echinacea will not prevent a cold, only help with shortening the duration when you have one, it’s not recommended to be used to try to ward one off. But the Jesus Tea recipe is great to have around, especially if you’re nursing someone through a bout! Bottled juice gets mighty expensive. (And hear hear! about getting vaccinated. Even with all the shots I’ve had, I managed to get Covid twice, though the first time came before they had vaccines or knew all the symptoms. You do NOT want it, or the flu. Trust me.)

JESUS TEA

So it’s Flu Season again, and this recipe for Tea To Fix What Ails You was given to me by a Christian friend, and I’ve taken to calling it JESUS TEA due to it’s miraculous properties.  Even though it, technically, contains no tea.  This tea is as caffinie-free as anything processed in a US plant can get, but be sure to check the provenance and all ingredients in case of allergies.

You will Need:

A Bigass Pot, becuase this is something you make in large quantities

working stovetop

those lil cloth sachets you use for wassail/empty teabags/those lil reuseable loose-leaf tea steepers.

Recipe:

about a quart of water

1 cup apple cider

about half a lemon’s worth of juice

a shitwhack of honey- try to get as local as possible and generally the less-processed the better if you want to build a resistance to local allergens. If you have allergy concerns or don’t like the taste of honey, go ahead and use more processed stuff/another sweetener instead.

three tablespoons/three bags chamomile tea

three tablespoons/three bags rooibos tea

teaspoon crushed cloves

1 cinnamon stick (more if you like it spicier)

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cayenne or white pepper

Bring water to a simmer in the pot.  Add the chamomile, rooibos and spices to steep about 4-5 minutes or longer if you like tea-flavored tar which given you have the flu you probably do.  Add Cider, Lemon Juice and Honey until dissolved.  Drink all of this in the course of an hour to stay hydrated, make more pots as needed or until you pass out. 

FOR MAXIMUM EFFECTIVENESS: gargle warm salt water first for as long as you can, it’ll break up the mucus in your throat and soothe the soreness.

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I wholeheartedly agree with the analysis of Dickens' story, but have one observation to add: while Dickens makes it clear in his writing that the purpose of the ghosts are to aid Scrooge in the development of character and understanding that will lead him to change his life and his ways, I have seen performances in which Scrooge shows little or no change in his behavior or ways of thinking until he sees his name on that tombstone. Suddenly, the wrenching, grasping, scraping covetous old sinner is gone, and now he's weeping and wailing about how he will not be the man he was only because he wants to live and sponge away the writing on the stone. This is not a failure of the story Dickens wrote, but rather a failure on the part of the actor and/or the director of that particular production.

(Conversely, I have to admit I’ve also seen a few productions in which the cantankerous Scrooge was not played well, to the point that one really never believes he won't reform because the actor portraying him really doesn’t have a good handle on how to play that sort of nasty character.)

But yes, Scrooge's core tale is one of his redemption, and to make it meaningful to him and the reader/audience, we need to see the stages of it, the roots of his life that was, his life that is, and his life as it yet could be. One of Dickens' best, imho!

"Scrooge only changed because he saw how nobody mourned him after his death" NO NO NO NO. You don't get it! The last spirit only worked because of the spirits that came before softening him up! If the spirits had shown him dead and ungrieved only it would not work. As the night goes on amid the visits Scrooge is already visibly changing. He's different after the first spirit and even more so after the second. And it's because of how much he's already changed that the final spirit is able to succeed

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I’ve seen a bunch of posts asking about people's favorite Christmas movie. Being an old fogey, I have many, and it would be very hard to pick just one. Also because I’m an old fogey, many of those aren’t on any of the current lists. But one I enjoy every year is the 1947 film "The Bishop's Wife," with David Niven as the bishop and Cary Grant as the charming angel that drives him nuts (Loretta Young is the titular wife). One of the reasons I like it so well is for its closing scene, in which the bishop gives "his" Christmas sermon, which he doesn’t even know was written by the angel, not him. In these times, I think it bears remembering.

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. Oh, we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share: loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

Merry Christmas, my friends, both those I know and those I have yet to meet.

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We finally got enough snow to make it feel more like Christmas. What can I say, I’ve lived in the Great Lakes region all my life, and the progression to less and less snow every winter has been sad. Oh, and yes, Bruno is still on the tree, just a little harder to find amid all the other ornaments.

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My family and friends have celebrated St. Nicholas' Day (Dec. 6) for as long as I can remember, and this year, my best friend gave me this in my stocking. Given his stance, Bruno could be in the manger instead of hanging on the tree. He'd make a lovely Wise Man, bringing the gift of… rats. 🤣

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I highly recommend a rather old book by Maurice Dolbier, "All Wrong on the Night: a comedy of theatrical errors." I found this at a local library when I was in high school way back when, and it still cracks me up. Physical copies are hard to find, but it is available on the Internet Archive. (And yes, I lived through my share of plays and musicals with some of the most absurd accidents and feuds among the cast. It’s a tradition!)

Apparently my director went to see a production of West Side Story a few years ago, and the guy playing Chino forgot his gun before coming out for his final scene. Once it got to the big scene where he is supposed to shoot Tony, he screeched “Poison Boots” and kicked the actor playing Tony until he went down. The girl playing Maria then had to jerk the shoe off of Chino’s foot, and had to do the gunshot scene asking “How many kicks Chino? How many kicks, and one kick left for me”. 

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Fanfiction Writers!

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Comment resources

Receiving comments means so much to fic authors so we’d love to encourage people to leave more. But we appreciate that leaving comments can be a bit daunting or draining, especially on days when we are tired or already stressed. So here are a few resources to hopefully encourage us all to leave more and to make doing so easier.

Archive of Our Own floating comment boxes

There are a couple of versions of these out there and they can be helpful. They are browser extensions that allow you to keep the comment box on the screen whenever you like so that you can easily comment as you read, rather than getting to the end and panicking about what to say.

Here are two different versions:

AO3 Floating Comment Box by ScriptMouse

Floaty Review Box by ravenel ← I use this one and think it’s great - Squid 💕

Feed The Fandom Fest

Have you heard of the @feedthefandomfest bingo cards? Because if you’re participating in these, maybe one of the recs on this blog could be the perfect way to tick off a square on these cards. Or, if you’ve not started one yet, why not pick one to encourage yourself to comment more and have some fun while doing so?

Here are the different cards:

Original Card

For Beginners

Fluff Edition

Angst Edition

Smut Edition

Old Fic Edition

Billy Hargrove Edition

Or put your own together!

I’d also just recommend having a look through the Feed The Fandom Fest blog in general, it’s such a wonderful resource 💖

Additional AO3 Kudos

Here’s some images of additional kudos for when you’re longing to mash that button again but all it greets you with is that mocking red smiley face. These are complete with the html to easily put them in!

AO3 Random Nice Comments

This browser extension will give you a short, nice comment from a list at the press of a button. It may be useful for beginner commenters who want to say something nice but are unsure what.

Comment prompts

If you want to craft your own comments but are unsure what to say, here’s a few starting points:

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think back on the fic? I’m sure the author would love to know

Who was your favourite character in the fic?��

Where are you reading the fic?

Speculate on what could happen after the end of the fic

How did you react emotionally? Did you laugh? Cry? Smile? Scream?

Or there’s the simple but ever loved:

Keyboard smash

String of emojis

‘Loved this!’

Here’s some more lists of prompts:

Good and easy comment ideas by ao3-shenanigans

Some more easy comment suggestions by ao3-shenanigans

Unhinged fic comment ideas by magpie-murder 

Our comment stickers

Here’s a few stickers we made to use in place of comments if you want to leave something but still don’t know what to type out yourself:

html for the above, in order:

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/yYRJxJ8C/readforbookclub-sticker.png" alt="sticker with stars and text reading: I READ THIS FIC FOR FANFIC BOOK CLUB AND LOVED IT"/>

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/yxgDFxh9/greatwork-sticker.png" alt="sticker with stars and text reading: I ADORE THIS FIC GREAT WORK"/>

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/c12gd7Zc/howtheactualheck-sticker.png" alt="sticker with stars and text reading: HOW THE ACTUAL HECK IS THIS SO GOOD?"/>

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/V6HSrntm/amazingwriting-star-sticker.png" alt="star-shaped sticker with text reading: AMAZING WRITING!"/>

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/RZzWHMW6/screamingcryingthrowingup-star-sticker.png" alt="star-shaped sticker with text reading: SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP"/>

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/1XkfMSMd/mayiofferyoumyfirstborn-star-sticker.png" alt="star-shaped sticker with text reading: MAY I OFFER YOU MY FIRSTBORN? OR PERHAPS MY SOUL?"/>

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Reading other posts (with restricted replies) about fanfic readers who gush over works with their friends in private but do not comment on the work they apparently love to the author…. It brought something to mind.

Writers are storytellers. Their "performance" is in the works they produce. Fan writers, who do not go through publishing houses nor get paid for their work, "perform" on free websites, not unlike street musicians performing on corners and in parks, though the fan writers hope to be paid by comments being thrown their way rather than a few coins or bills. It's their only venue and the only "income" they’re allowed.

So ask yourself this: if you and your friends were huge fans of some famous professional singer and went to one of their concerts, would you sit through the whole thing in dead silence and leave without even applauding, only to gush about how wonderful it was once you were somewhere private, where the singer couldn’t hear you? Would you go to a convention where your favorite professional author was doing a meet and greet and make not a single sound when they offered to shake your hand and asked how you liked their latest book, then say how much you loved it to your friends when you’re in the privacy of your hotel room?

The comment button on websites like AO3 is an invitation to share. If the writer didn’t want to hear what you have to say, they'd disable it. Oh, we all have times when we can’t quite seem to put together a coherent comment or simply haven’t the time to do so, and we resort to the kudos or like buttons to at least let the author know that yes, we enjoyed their work. But in a manner of speaking, giving a story a like or a kudo is polite and well meant applause and is of course appreciated; an actual comment, however brief, is a standing ovation. And no matter how much enthusiasm you share with your friends, it’s rather disheartening — and hurtful — to the author if you never share it with them.

You can’t pay fan writers with money. So please, please if you enjoy their work, pay them with a few kind words. It’s a way to help save them from creative starvation.

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Lovely thoughts, even if they sprang from the bitter lemon that life has been for so many of us, lately. You touch on things that I myself have pondered again and again over my 70+ years (right down to the kneejerk reaction to being commanded). And if I might share with you one thought that has occurred to me more and more often as my years have piled up: "love your neighbor as yourself." So simple, yet so apparently impossible for many. Why? If my many years have taught me one thing, it's that too many people don’t truly love themselves. We see plenty of things masquerading as self-love — selfishness, arrogance, narcissism — but little of the true thing, which is kinder, gentler, generous of spirit.

I know it’s something I struggle with, and I have been working for years to unlearn what had been drummed into me since I was a child, that I was unworthy. And it’s hard to love your neighbor when you live with a heart that doesn’t even love itself. But as has been said by others, God doesn’t make garbage. We are all worthy of love, from Him and from each other. And if we could all open our eyes enough to see that loving ourselves — as you say, purely, joyfully — is key to loving one another as God loves us, as Jesus commanded, then maybe we would finally be on the right path to making this a kinder and happier world.

Just my two cents. Have a peaceful and loving Thanksgiving, my friend and neighbor.

It feels like life has been handing me mutant zombie lemons lately. So many things are a struggle, and it's been hard to find joy in the things that once took no effort at all to love and appreciate. A Bible verse of the day study recently helped give me some clarity, and I wanted to share it, and my journaling thoughts, for my own future reference and in case it helps someone else who's in a low spot. ❤️

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12

I think a lot of people – myself included – tend to see the first part of this verse – “My command is this” – and think – Ah. Yes. A command. And some days my lip curls and something inside me shrivels and my heart is very stubborn and proud and doesn’t really like to be commanded, and I begrudgingly accept this command, and try to live it out as a duty, but it’s a bitter, sour thing.

And some days, my heart is so incredibly tired, I could weep with the thought of having one more thing to do and I just feel like I can’t. Another command? Another responsibility? Please, Lord – no more.

And then I read a little more and come to “love each other” – and this is familiar. We know we should love each other. Jesus taught it as one of the greatest commandments – “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” [Matthew 22:37-39]."

We know we should love each other, and so we try to do that, and we try and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail and here is what I think the problem is – or what my problem is, sometimes.

I try to do it on my own. I try to love others like I love. And my love is well-intentioned but sometimes selfish and often messy. I need to read all the way to the end of the verse – all the way to the end of the command.

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

Which led me to ask the question – Jesus said this as he was preparing for his death, at the Last Supper, at the celebration of the Passover, with his dearest friends. He knew these would be some of his last words with them before his death. This moment and these words were important. So - how did Jesus love his disciples?

If we go just a few verses prior to this, we see one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” [John 15:9]

Jesus has loved his disciples as God himself has loved Jesus.

How has God loved Jesus?

God has loved Jesus with the most delighted, biggest, purest, most all-encompassing love. God orchestrated the events of Jesus’ birth to meet hundreds of prophecies, announced his birth with a multitude of angels and a star in the sky, and announced at his baptism that ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ [Matthew 3:17].

God gave Jesus what he needed and he calmed the sea for him and multiplied fish for him and healed for him. God met with him in quiet places and gave him strength to do what he needed to do. In the Bible, we see that God loves Jesus completely with an all-encompassing perfect love.

And that’s how Jesus loved his disciples. With a big, pure, delighted, all-encompassing, perfect love.

He saw and accepted them for who they were, despite their flaws. While they were still flawed and confused and well-intentioned but messy and selfish, he called them, knowing one day he would be betrayed and abandoned by them. He saw the strength and good in them before they saw it in themselves. He sat with them, taught them, empowered them, protected their rest, prayed for them, fed them, corrected them, called them, sent them. He died and rose again for them, forgave them, reinstated them – he did this for them, and he does this for us all.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

Jesus was and is the perfect example of holy, Godly love.

God loves you (and I am speaking to you but I am also speaking to myself) – God loves you with a big, pure, good, all-encompassing, perfect love.

And he wants us to love others the same way.

In Christ, God acknowledges – he recognizes, accepts, and knows you as his child! He loves you, he chose you – to be holy and without fault in his eyes, in Christ – before he even made the world - it was always his plan for you to be a part of his family. God decided in advance to adopt us into his family!

He wanted to and it gave him great pleasure to do so! It was not a chore or begrudgingly done to keep his title of ‘good’. It was a sacrifice and it cost him something – it cost him everything. But it was for his ultimate joy. It was his desire to save you, rooted in his great love.

You are free from trying to earn this position – it is freely given to you by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I think a lot of times we mess this up, because we balk at ‘command’ - or we try to love each other in our own strength – or because we see ‘as I have loved you’ and have a twisted or darkened or fearful understanding of what it means to love as God loves.

But when we really, truly love each other like Jesus loved his disciples? Like God loved His Son? Like God loves us?

We see how simple and freeing that command really is. Not easy – no – because I am still flawed and still messy and still selfish. But it is simple.

We are free from stressing out over keeping hundreds of laws and maintaining appearances and from striving to earn something that is already ours – that we already possess.

Less fear – less obligation – and more freedom, in Christ.

Freedom to love God and love each other with big, pure, good, all-encompassing, perfect, humble, grateful love.

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That was last night; this is this morning….

The end of the growing season has finally arrived in my garden. Given that I live in Wisconsin and it's the final third of November, it’s way the heck overdue. The tomatoes I thought were dead started blooming again earlier in the week. My speedwell was flowering. A rogue cherry tomato that got into a crack in the patio pavement started growing. But today, my rose bush FINALLY met winter. I am not at all upset. It’s well past time. And my allergies want the mold to go to sleep.

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The end of the growing season has finally arrived in my garden. Given that I live in Wisconsin and it's the final third of November, it’s way the heck overdue. The tomatoes I thought were dead started blooming again earlier in the week. My speedwell was flowering. A rogue cherry tomato that got into a crack in the patio pavement started growing. But today, my rose bush FINALLY met winter. I am not at all upset. It’s well past time. And my allergies want the mold to go to sleep.

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I hit a pothole (a Michigan pothole so basically a sinkhole) today and my check engine light came on. I don’t have one of those computer plugins to reset the light and I knew it was just a sensor that got knocked so I was just like “well let’s see if this works” and on the way home I swerved and hit the pothole again and the check engine light turned off

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I had a full hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy in 2021 (right before the delta wave of covid hit, yay). I was terrified, too, but it turned out okay. You'll be fine, things are so much less invasive now with laparoscopic surgery. (My older sister, who had a hysterectomy back in the early eighties, thanks to PID from a ruptured appendix fifteen years earlier, grumbled at me about how she'd been in the hospital for weeks, while I was only in overnight.). Take care of yourself, and let those who love you take care of you, too.

The more people I tell the less likely I'll be to chicken out.

I'm finally getting a (partial) hysterectomy on Jan 8th, 2025!!!!!

I'm terrified but also relieved my suffering will soon be over.