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others: “so, how ~southern~ are you?”

me: “The entrance of my hometown has a shrimp boat sitting in the main street. At Christmas theres a shrimper Santa and alligators pulling him instead of reindeer.”

others: “what?!”

me:

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Blina Shifrova, a Russian Jewish Veteran of World War II, Brooklyn, NY. Photograph from Lilla Szász’s photoessay, Comrades.

As members of the Russian army, [Jews] fiercely fought German occupation from 1941 to 1945. In the 1990s because of the post-war anti-Semitism in their own country, they immigrated to the US and settled in the New York City area. Their common experiences in the war, in its aftermath, and as immigrants to the United States bind them deeply to one another. As The New York Times explained, “As Jews who shared both the deprivations of a brutal war against Hitler’s forces and postwar anti-Semitism under a Soviet system they had risked their lives to preserve, their allegiance is not to the former Soviet Union, nor to the Red Army, nor even to Mother Russia, but to one another.”

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Hmmmm hm. Okay. Worldbuilding/story idea.

One million years after humanity disappears, octopi and ravens have independently developed sapience. And one day an octopus child and an elder raven meet at the edge of the ocean.

Where is your mother and father? asks the raven. I have no mother or father, says the octopus, blushing pale. All octopi are children. Once we’re grown, we will mate and we will die. It is the first and the last thing our mothers tell us.

But that’s horrible, says the raven. It’s not all bad, says the octopus. We play, we hunt, we make games for ourselves in the deep. Yes, but who remembers your songs? the raven says. Who passes down your stories?

What is a story? the octopus asks.

And the raven thinks about this question. And finally it says: A story is how you remember things in the past. It is how you know where you come from, and what happened before you were born. A story can be a warning, or it can be advice, or it can be a silly joke told to make you feel good. Someone remembers the story and tells it to the next generation, who remember the story and tells it to the generation after them.

And the octopus thinks about this answer. And finally it says: Can you tell me a story?

And the raven tells the octopus a story. And it’s a good story. And the next day the octopus returns and asks for another. The next day it brings its octopus friends, and the raven brings its raven friends, and many stories are shared on the edge of the ocean.

Months later, the octopus returns to the raven. I am grown, it says. I am returning to the sea to find a mate and lay my brood. I will not be coming back. I’m sorry.

I will miss your company, says the raven.

I have one thing to ask you, says the octopus. In time my children will come to the edge of the ocean. I would like you to tell them a story I have made. And when they have stories of their own, I would like your children to remember them and pass them down to my children’s children.

Of course, says the raven. What is your story about?

And the octopus thinks, and says: It is about an octopus child and an elder raven who meet at the edge of the ocean.

And this story has been passed down to this day.

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Celestial tango

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i think maybe we could spend less time thinking about things that make us angry and more time thinking about other stuff

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its of utmost importance you have sound on while watching this

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Penguin from RuneScape (29 March 2004 – 29 January 2007)

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Raptor making rainbows during a demonstration at ACC’s William Tell 2023

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you're allowed to say "sex" on the internet. See? I just did it. Sex. Sex sex sex. You don't have to say s*x or smex or Adult Fun Times or s3x or "spice" any other variation of self-censorship on tumblr dot com you can just spell out the word SEX i am going to scream until the heat death of the universe

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me at work thinking I look nonchalant and approachable

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Sasha made her hat herself!

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Take a break, this cute tardigrade needs time to cross your dash:

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Take a break, this cute tardigrade needs time to cross your dash: