#(<- hes got ball cancer if memory serves

[gravesend666]

just incase any not brits wanted to know how we've been feeling about the queens death 2yrs later, heres what the general consensus seems to be, at least from my perspective. [id in alt]

[liesfallaciesfabrications]

Mr. Queen Analysis

My take on the rather heartbreaking and vague ending of the KDrama, Mr. Queen.

  Okay, I’ve been thinking long and hard on this subject (way too much) and have come to the following consensus:

Bong-Hwan and So Yong are both versions of the same soul. What got me thinking about this was that scene in episode 5 where SoBong talks about original and past lives but then mentions parallel time-streams. To illustrate, she draws two lines running side by side and explains how a past life can be in one and the original/current being in the other. This had me stumped a bit, and I thought it a bit random that they put that in there, but then I looked up “reincarnation and parallel lives” and there’s a surprising number of articles on it - though obviously not conclusive or scientific as it involves spirituality. 

Episode 5 also explains why time in the present is flowing at the same rate as the past, which we discovered when BH’s consciousness briefly reentered his body and explain why they chose to reveal that fact. Time isn’t linear here but more fluid with both versions existing simultaneously - harkening back to the two lines Mr. Queen drew to illustrate.

The reincarnation theory would explain many of the elements of the story that I found hard to accept. For example:

If So Yong’s separate soul was in there with Bong Hwan’s soul then why did he never feel her? In fact, the show repeatedly makes reference to the idea that Bong Hwan does not feel another soul and attributes characteristics of SY to the body (telling her after the kiss that the soul is in control of the body so she ought to behave and in another scene he tries to get her soul to return by addressing the lake - where he believes she is hiding).  The only time he accuses her of being a separate entity inside of him is when he wants an excuse for his feelings and reactions to CJ. The “it must have been her that took control. If I knew it was CJ I would have....still enjoyed it?!? What’s wrong with me?” moments. LOL What if the reason he couldn’t feel another presence was because there wasn’t another? He merely had his consciousness wake up in the body of his past life but didn’t realize it.

It would explain the gradual integration of both personalities. For example, when CJ returns the book to Mr. Queen, she never thinks of herself as NOT being the girl from the well as she did when he first confesses his love for her at the lake. As BH spends more time in her previous body, the lines become more blurred not just in memory but also in identity because he IS her. If they were two separate souls, I don’t think she would have that same reaction nor do I see anything to indicate that So Yong “took over” in that moment or any other. Memories were accessed, personality traits were mingling, but we saw SY come out in episode 20...that personality was immediately recognizable. Fantastic acting by SHS - especially as she had me loving the one and hating the other, despite being both.

It would explain why Mr. Queen falls for CJ so hard, despite his initial protests. I never liked the idea of his feelings being manipulated, but I can get on board with the idea that he accepts his feelings for CJ because this is a man that some part of him has always loved - and falls in love with “again” through their shared experiences and journey.

It would also explain the question of why Bong Hwan. What was the connection between this man and So Yong? They are reincarnations of each other. When So Yong was feeling hopeless and needed strength, she pulled upon her stronger version of herself to help her - made possible in that moment when she desperately wanted to give up on life and he desperately wanted to live. She came to him in that pool and appeared to the queen again when she was looking for answers in the lake. This does not give the impression of a soul cruelly imprisoned in her own body against her will. 

It would also explain why, when Bong Hwan briefly went back to his body, So Yong did not reappear. She wasn’t being suppressed. She purposefully had her reincarnated self come to give her strength and was not ready at that time to assume her life again. I found her choice of words at Byeong-In’s grave to to be telling. She said he always knew where to find her whenever she was hiding. It’s also why I believe BI didn’t realize Mr. Queen wasn’t SY - for the same reason CJ doesn’t at the end of the drama. These two men, both of whom deeply love her, could sense it was her, just in reverse order. CJ-SB-SY and BI-SY-SB.

It would also solve the pesky issue of why BH is an overall better person - not just at the moment of his return but before. Someone on Reddit mentioned the implausibility of CJ’s political accomplishments causing a ripple effect to change BH, and I agree. However, if we look at BH as SY’s reincarnation, then the positive attributes he now displays in the altered timeline can be accounted for because he prevented his previous incarnation from killing herself, therefore in his next lifetime his soul didn’t carry those grudges. This fits with the idea of reincarnation as a person’s life experiences and emotions/grudges/regrets/mindset at death will determine the psychological and even physical manifestation of their next life. 

SY was told by evil Kim that she had no power b/c she was a woman - next life is a man. 

SY had her love cruelly rejected - next life is a playboy who doesn’t seem to believe in love. 

SY felt that she was living a lie - next life is a man who doesn’t care who he offends with his opinion and does what he wants when he wants - to the point of selfishness - though this changes when he prevents many of these resentments by his actions in the past. 

Finally, it would explain why CJ is so “oblivious” at end of the show. He promised when he returned the book to SB that he would never fail to recognize her, and he doesn’t. While her personality has changed, it’s intrinsically also the same person, though this is the area I felt the writers dropped the ball in execution, but I get that they were pressed for time. The implications of this aspect also seem to be what KJH meant in his comment to a fan’s question of whether the king knew that BH had left.That it didn’t matter: SY or BH didn’t matter, only how CJ saw her.

So why send BH back? I believe they did it because it wouldn't make sense for him to live a life he essentially already lived as SY. Reincarnation is meant to be for a soul to grow and spiritually evolve, which it could not do by simply repeating what it had already done. Also, for some reason (I suspect so as not to offend Koreans by skipping over one of the most prominent historical figures in their culture - Queen Min), they still have CJ dying at age 32. This can be seen in the book BH is looking at when he's seeing his portrait, and is mentioned as early as episode 1. This was never going to be a happy ending for CJ/BH in the sense that many viewers wanted. Rather, he was going to facilitate the relationship of SY/CJ so that his previous life could run its course...ugh, I feel sick typing that out...with the hope that they meet again in another lifetime. Our SB is many things but trapped in Joseon without modern medicine, a miracle worker she is not. CJ dies without any heirs; his baby with the queen dies at just six months. If the BH decided to stay for love and then lost the baby and CJ, that would be just as heartbreaking for me as the ending I received. 

Wiki and other sources speculate the CJ was poisoned by the Andong Kims, but many historians (including Bong Hwan’s mother, it seems) dispute that fact as it would serve no purpose since he was a puppet king and since his death then allowed the Jo family to briefly take control until King Gojong’s father pretty much crushed both the Kims and the Jos. In reality, he probably died of unhealthy habits and a life of excess. In the show’s world, who knows...cancer or any number of possible illnesses that could not be treated at that time. During the banquet planning, we see CJ suffer a nosebleed. In the spinoff, Mr. Queen mentions how CJ is trying hard not to collapse from the strain of his burdens. These could be hints left by writers to indicate that CJ’s health has been compromised by the grueling struggles and stress he’s had to endure, not to mention allowing himself to get blown up.

They writers did give us the hope for another reunion - perhaps in BH’s lifetime or perhaps another one. It’s why I think they tried to imply a SY/CJ connection in the Bamboo Forest prequel (the only prequel in the spinoff) as well as end Bamboo Forest with a reincarnation wish. The setup seemed quite intentional and in specific order. The prequel created a sense of destiny. The next segment was about Mr. Queen confirming if it was just his body or his soul that was attracted to CJ...literally the words out of the character’s mouth...and they gave an answer to that with the last shot. The final segment introduced the wish for CJ to meet his queen again, and he is clearly thinking of Mr. Queen - so why the prequel, which would seem to introduce a separate love interest, unless it’s actually not because they’re one and the same with the middle segment emphasizing the genuine attraction and love for each other.

This might not be everyone’s cup of tea; it certainly wasn’t mine, and I think the writers should have handled the leaving better instead of going for an quasi mind-wipe of all the characters’ remembrances of Mr. Queen. I mean, CJ went from being horrified at Mr. Queen acting like a perfect little queen for a few seconds a mere handful of episodes ago to just asking "why the formality" at a more permanent display of temperament and seemed practically oblivious otherwise. Then Choi and Yeon were "shocked" when So Yong didn't revert to her witch of the palace act and chastise the maids that were laughing by the pond - as if Mr. Queen didn't already change that way of thinking months ago. Not to mention that they were also nonplussed by the fact that their relationship to the queen had gone from being regarded as family back to a servant/master status quo. Even with the soulmate angle, there was to much deus ex machina thrown in. The idea of soul mates is a romantic one, but the execution of it fell through.

They should have never gone with the reincarnation route, especially if they were never intending to let SY have a true voice in the drama, even if it’s just a final conversation between herself and BH before he leaves, made possible in that split second before true separation. Viewers never got to bond with her, and in those moments we did see her, she was either a watered down version of the personality we were emotionally invested in or emphasized the opposite characteristics (demure, feminine, etc...) that we loved Mr. Queen for rejecting. Also, this angle gives us no true feeling of completeness and satisfaction. SY is with CJ in the past - we won't see them develop their feelings for each other and grow to like them as a couple. BH is in the present but who knows if he'll find CJ's reborn soul and happiness with whoever it is. Promises without fulfillment demand too much from the audience to fill in the blanks. If that's the case, next time just give us a tag line and tell the audience to imagine the rest.

Even if they share the same soul, we are given two distinct personalities and not enough connection between them in terms of their recognizing each other, acknowledging their feelings for CJ to each other in some sort of passing the flame moment that would make it feel more homogeneous and prevent feelings of resentment at what we perceive as an injustice to a personality we adore.

Instead of creating an emotional divide between the two, they should have just have SY die before BH's soul enters, and develop the romance between CJ and HB's as the novel and even that cheap and campy Chinese version did. Having SY there just muddied the waters, and became a distraction and an excuse for every emotional milestone Mr. Queen experienced, negating that character's development and laying it at SY's feet or claims of deliberate interference.

They should have chosen a fictional king and not boxed themselves into a limited outcome. Granted, it gave them a valid reason for booting BH back to present times, but look at the result: limited number of years with someone the audience isn't really familiar with for our beloved ML (plus their baby dies) and a huge question mark for our F-turned back into ML in the present with the hope that maybe the reincarnation thing works in his favor but who knows because they couldn't even toss us that small crumb which would have alleviated some of our heartache for BH as well as give more credence to the fact that SY/BH are the same and thereby lessened the feelings of resentment to the SY character as well. Or they could have gone with a multiverse theory and left it wide open as to what sweeping changes would occur. BH being initially thrown back to the Joseon era as a result of his dying would have achieved that because then the audience would have no reason to revisit the present nor see that the worlds were linked via changes upon his return and stuck with the poisoning threat averted. Blow recorded history to smithereens and leave that to our imagination instead.

Yes, the fish-out-of-water hijinks were great fun, but the completion of the character arcs/relationship/etc...shouldn’t be an afterthought. 

The other element I would have liked to have seen that was in neither of the televised versions (though the Chinese one came very, very close) but was in the web novel is the king fully accepting that his wife is not the woman she was, believing that her previous body was a man, falling in love regardless and she with him. However, I think we all knew that wasn’t going to happen in a kdrama. 

[pakistannews2021]

Imran Khan Biography

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FULL NAME Imran Khan Niazi

BORN October 5, 1952

HEIGHT 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

NATIONALITY Pakistan

ROLE All-rounder, Right-arm fast Bowler, Right handed Batsman

RELATION(S) Bushra Manika (Spouse), Ikramullah Khan Niazi (Father), Shaukat Khanum (Mother), Sulaiman Isa Khan, Qasim Khan (Sons)

Imran Khan Biography

In addition to being a former first-class cricketer, Imran Khan Niazi is also the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Currently serving as a Member of the National Assembly, he was born on 5th October 1952 in Lahore, Punjab.

Pakistan’s national team used him as an all-rounder between 1971 and 1992.

Just behind Garry Sobers as the best all-rounder in the history of the sport is this right-handed batsman.

He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.

Background

In Lahore, imran Khan made his debut as a first-class cricketer at the age of sixteen. A few years before making it into the main team in 1970–71, he played for smaller teams based out of Lahore.

During 1973–1975, imran Khan played for the Blues Cricket team at Oxford.

In his county cricket career, he played medium-pace bowling for Worcestershire from 1971 to 1976.

Debut

On 3rd June 1971, he made his Test debut against England which ended in a stalemate as he failed to take a single wicket across both innings and scored just five runs.

Three years after making his debut in the ODI format, he played against the same opponents for the Prudential Trophy at Trent Bridge.

However, he finished his 10 overs with the third best economy of the match while failing to claim a single wicket.

Rise to Glory

The following year, he returned to Pakistan, where he has been an integral part of the national team since 1976–1977 after completing his education at Oxford and serving his tenure at Worcestershire. He played his initial Tests against the mighty teams of New Zealand and Australia.

Tony Greig subsequently signed him up for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket after the West Indian Series.

With a speed of 139.7 km/h, he finished as the fastest bowler in that tournament, which was the third-fastest ball.

A bowler with at least 50 wickets in a year had an average of 13.29 while playing nine tests in 1982. He got 62 wickets at that average, the lowest in Test history.

It took the all-rounder only 75 Tests to achieve the all-rounder’s triple of 300 Test wickets and 3000 Test runs, second fastest behind Ian Botham who reached the milestone 3 matches earlier.

Club Career

From 1975–1976, he played for Dawood Industries and between 1980–1981, he played for Pakistan International Airlines.

His time as a student in England saw him represent Oxford University, Sussex, and Worcestershire. As a member of Australia’s New South Wales team during the 1984–85 season, he also represented the United States.

Captaincy

Javed Miandad appointed him captain at the age of 30. His side won 14 tests and lost eight matches while he was their captain.

Over the course of his 139 ODIs as a captain, he lead his team to victory 77 times and lost 57.

It is suspected that the injury caused him to miss more than two years of the 1982 international season.

In the 1984–1985 season, he returned to basketball. He retired from International Cricket after failing to reach the 1987 World Cup before returning to the team in 1988.

He provided significant contributions with both the bat and the ball throughout the 1992 Cricket World Cup, as he took Pakistan to victory at the age of 39.

Imran’s Record in Numbers

The Wisden Cricketer of the Year award was given to him in 1983.

A cricketer among fifty-five inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Cricket Council during its centennial celebration, he was one of fifty players.

Even in 1985, he was named Player of the Year by the Sussex Cricket Society.

Retirement

When Pakistan faced Sri Lanka in the series decider, he played his final test as a Pakistani.

After failing with the bat in his first two innings, he failed to bowl either innings. Pakistan eventually won the series by 3 wickets.

He is Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi (born October 5, 1952, Lahore, Pakistan), former cricketer, politician, and prime minister of Pakistan (2018 — ) for leading the Pakistani team to a Cricket World Cup victory in 1992 and then became interested in politics during the corruption scandal in Pakistan.

Early life and cricket career In addition to being educated at elite schools in Pakistan and the UK, Khan was born into an affluent Pashtun family in Lahore. In his family were several accomplished cricket players, including two elder cousins who served as Pakistani national team captains, Javed Burki and Majid Khan. He continued to play cricket at the University of Oxford even as he studied philosophy, politics, and economics. The first time Khalil Khan played for Pakistan’s national team was in 1971, but he did not become a regular member of the team until after he graduated from Oxford University in 1976.

imran Khan was named captain of Pakistan in 1982 due to his outstanding skills as a bowler and all-rounder in the early 1980s. Khan gained fame in Pakistan and England because of his athletic ability and good looks, and his appearances at London nightclubs provided entertainment for the British tabloid press. The 1992 World Cup was the greatest sporting accomplishment of Khan’s career, as he led Pakistan to its first World Cup championship. The year after he retired, he was regarded as one of the greatest cricket players in history.

imran Khan remained a prominent philanthropist after 1992. The young man had embraced Sufi mysticism and shed his playboy image after experiencing a religious awakening. Khan served as the primary fund-raiser for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, a specialized cancer hospital in Lahore that opened in 1994. Khan’s mother died of cancer in 1985, and the hospital was named after her.

Entry into politics imran khan became an outspoken critic of government mismanagement and corruption in Pakistan after retiring from cricket. In 1996, he founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Justice Movement; PTI). Khan won only one seat in the 2002 elections, a seat he filled with less than 1 percent of the vote in the following year’s national elections. His party had received less than 1 percent in the election the following year, and it lost no seats in the National Assembly. Khan attributed his party’s low vote total to vote rigging. Khan was among a group of politicians who resigned from the National Assembly in October 2007 in protest of President George W. Bush. Currently, Pervez Musharraf is running for president. Musharraf, who had declared a state of emergency, briefly imprisoned Khan last November. For its part, the PTI opposed the state of emergency, which ended in mid-December, and boycotted the 2008 election to express its opposition to Musharraf’s government.

Although imran Khan’s populist positions found support, especially among young people, in spite of the PTI’s electoral struggles. Pakistan’s participation in the fight against militants near the Afghan border belied a lack of economic equality and corruption, which he opposed. In addition, he attacked Pakistan’s political and economic elites, accusing them of being Westernized and out of touch with Pakistan’s religious and cultural norms.

A list of Khan’s published works includes Warrior Race: A Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans (1993) and Pakistan: A Personal History (2011).

Political ascent imran Khan and his party drew large crowds at their rallies in the months leading up to the early 2013 legislative elections and attracted the support of several leading politicians from Pakistan’s established parties. A 2012 opinion poll found that Khan was the most popular political figure in Pakistan, which is further evidence of Khan’s political rise.

Days before the 2013 legislative election, imran Khan fell from a stage at a campaign rally, causing injuries to his head and back. From his hospital bed, he addressed the nation hours later. Although the PTI won its highest numbers ever, it won only half as many seats as the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PMLN) led by Nawaz Sharif. PML-N leader Khan accused them of rigging the polls. The opposition leader, along with other opposition figures, led four months of protests in late 2014 in order to bring Sharif to justice.

When the Panama Papers linked Sharif’s family to offshore holdings, suspicions of corruption were heightened. Later that year, Khan organized new protests but canceled them in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to open an investigation. He was forced to resign from office after his candidacy was disqualified by an investigation. Khan, meanwhile, was also discovered to have offshore holdings, but in a separate case, the Supreme Court did not disqualify him.

The following year, in July 2018, elections were held. Despite being attacked for too cozy relationships with the military, Khan ran on a platform of fighting corruption and poverty. Following PTI’s majority in the National Assembly, Khan was able to form a coalition with independents. On August 18, he was sworn in as prime minister.

Premiership

As prime minister, imran Khan faced a mounting balance of payments crisis. A key reason for the growth in the economy, imports, and debt commitments is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).  CPEC News And Updates When the United States refused to provide Pakistan with $300 million in promised military aid just a few weeks after becoming prime minister, the crisis deteriorated rapidly. In a bid to use foreign assistance to help Pakistan’s macroeconomic situation, Khan eschewed a bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A dozen previous packages from the IMF had failed to solve the country’s macroeconomic problems. In the absence of favorable terms for foreign assistance from other countries, Pakistan requested financing from the IMF. The United States, China, and Saudi Arabia offered him foreign aid in return for investment.

In addition to courting foreign aid, Khan presided over several significant developments in Pakistan’s foreign relations. Both the country and the United States achieved a mutually beneficial understanding through negotiations with the other. In February 2019, India launched its first air campaign against Pakistan in over five decades after a suicide attack on Indian security personnel killed 40 Indian soldiers in Kashmir. An attack by one country raised concerns about a possible conflict with the other.

Pakistan has downplayed the impact of the incident and appears to have avoided escalating the situation. India again entered Pakistani airspace, leading to Pakistan downing two fighter jets and capturing a pilot, who was later returned to India. As a result of this incident, Khan passed legislation to establish international standards in Pakistan’s laws, made arrests, and shut down multiple religious schools.

Early in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the economic situation of China. Khan was less eager to endorse a lockdown than some of his critics. In contrast, the opposition-controlled Sindh government imposed an immediate lockdown on the province in March. His government eventually instituted a nationwide lockdown in April and began limiting it to areas with high rates of infection in May.

Efforts by Khan to crack down on militants and keep close ties with the military continued to draw opposition. With a stated goal of increasing the independence of civilian governments from the military establishment, the major opposition parties formed a coalition in late 2020, called the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM). The PDM has called for Khan to “step down” in protests and rallies organized by it down.

Khan’s coalition partners narrowly survived a vote of confidence in his government in March 2021 after these parties boycotted it.

Quick Facts

Birthday: October 5, 1952

Age: 68 Years, 68 Year Old Males

Sun Sign: Libra

Also Known As: Imran Khan Niazi

Born In: Lahore, West Punjab, Dominion Of Pakistan

Famous As: 22nd PM Of Pakistan

Quotes By Imran Khan Cricketers

Political Ideology: Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf

Family:

Spouses/ex-: Bushra Maneka (M. 2018), Jemima Khan (M. 1995–2004), and Reham Khan (M. 2015–2015)

Father: Ikramullah Khan Niazi

Mother: Shaukat Khanum

Siblings: Aleema Khanum, Rani Khanum, Rubina Khanum, Uzma Khanum

Children: Qasim Khan, Sulaiman Kha

What is Imran Khan’s background?

The 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan is Imran Khan Niazi, a former cricketer. Young cricketers looked up to him as an inspiration. One of Pakistan’s finest cricketers, he rose to popularity with his incredible skills. From cricket’s biggest heartthrob to one of the most influential politicians, his journey is remarkable and inspiring. During his reign as Pakistani captain, he led the country to its first Cricket World Cup title in 1992 by beating England. This led him to be described as one of Pakistan’s most famous and accomplished captains. As he could bowl fast and was a good all-arounder, this outstanding cricketer made the game of cricket more popular in his country. Cricket and politics were not the only areas in which he excelled. His involvement in politics began in 1992 when he formed his own political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice). Following the death of his mother from cancer, he established Lahore’s first cancer hospital. By raising money for health and education projects, he is helping the underprivileged and deserving.

Childhood & Personal Life

Ikramullah Khan Niazi and Shaukat Khanam raised Imran Khan Niazi in a well-to-do Pashtun family in Lahore.

Following schools at Lahore’s English-medium Aitchison College, he went to Warwick, England, for higher studies at the Royal Grammar School.

The University of Oxford graduated him in philosophy, politics, and economics in 1975. Growing up in a family of cricketers, he played the game in Pakistan and in England.

Career

As a result of his not-so-good performance in the 1971 English series in Birmingham, he failed to make a mark in tests.

When he returned to Pakistan in 1974, he debuted for the first time in one-day international (ODI) matches through the Prudential Trophy.

In the 1980s, he became a prominent fast bowler in Pakistan after a stellar performance against New Zealand and Australia in 1976–77.

Pakistan chose him to be their captain in 1982. In a stunning performance, he led India to its first Test win over England after 28 years at Lord’s, as a fast bowler and all-rounder.

A draw was achieved in 8 of the 48 matches Pakistan played under his captaincy. A total of 139 ODI matches were played, with 77 victories, 57 losses, and one tie.

For two years, he was sidelined by a stress fracture in his shin. Following a win over India in 1987, he also won in England to give Pakistan its first-ever Test series win.

General Zia-ul-Haq invited him back to Pakistan after he retired in 1987. With 23 wickets in three tests, he was named ‘Man of the Series’ against West Indies.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust was established in 1991 as a charity organization for cancer research and development that honors his mother.

A test and ODI record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets, and a ODI record of 3709 runs and 182 wickets, prompted him to retire in 1992.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was founded by him in 1997 as a means to eliminate corruption and mismanagement in Pakistan.

Mianwali was the seat he won at the October 2002 elections.

Besides founding Namal College, a campus of the University of Bradford, he also set up the Institute of Imran Khan Foundation.

In 2013, he launched ‘Naya Pakistan Resolution’, which threatened the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rejected his proposal to collaborate.

When he fell off a stage during a campaign rally, four days before elections, he injured his head and back and had to be hospitalized. However, he maintained his campaign appeal through the hospital and his party lost.

Imran Khan’s party finished first in Pakistan’s general elections, defeating the ruling party. In August 2018, he became Pakistan’s 22nd Prime Minister.

A number of British and Asian newspapers as well as Indian publications have published his views on cricket, including Outlook, Guardian, Independent, and Telegraph.

As an active cricket commentator, he has worked for Star TV, BBC Urdu, and TEN Sports.

Records & Achievements

In 1992, despite suffering from a ruptured shoulder cartilage, he became the hero of Pakistan by winning the first-ever ODI Cricket World Cup for Pakistan, defeating England in the finals at Melbourne.

Three thousand runs and three hundred wickets made by an all-rounder in 75 tests are second only to Ian Botham’s 72 wickets in test cricket.

Aside from most wickets, best strikes and best averages, he also had best figures (8 wickets for 60 runs) when he was captain.

Awards

The Cricket Society Wetherall Award was given to him in 1976 and 1980 for being the best all around player in England’s first-class cricket.

1985 was the year he was named Sussex Cricket Society Player of the Year.

Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the second highest civilian award given by the Pakistani Government to him, was the highest civilian honor he received.

As a result of his support for various charitable programs, he received the Asian Jewels Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in London in 2004.

On April 28, 2007, in Kuala Lumpur, he received the Humanitarian Award for setting up Pakistan’s first cancer hospital.

As one of many cricket legends present at the AICC (Asian Cricket Council) Awards in Karachi in 2009, he was presented the special silver jubilee award.

During the centennial celebration of the International Cricket Council (ICC), he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2009.

Towards his activities in Pakistan treating cancer in 2012, he was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Globa lPost recently ranked him #3 in its list of the top nine world leaders of 2012.

Personal Life & Legacy

It was in Paris, in May 1995, that he married socialite Jemima Goldsmith, a convert to Islam, in a traditional Islamic ceremony. After a month, they remarried in Richmond in a civil ceremony. Both sons are born to them — Sulaiman Isa (1996) and Kasim (1999). Jemima cited difficulties adjusting to Pakistani life as the reason for the couple’s separation in June 2004.

Jemima’s father was Jewish, making Jemima’s decision to enter politics a source of attacks by his opponents.

In January 2015, despite objections from his own family, he married British-Pakistani divorcee Reham Khan, a former BBC weather girl, in a secret ceremony at his home in Islamabad. In October 2015, the couple divorced after being married just a year.

Bushra Manika, his spiritual advisor, married him in February 2018

He belongs to a cricketing family that has produced successful cricketers, including Javed Burki and Majid Khan, both of whom graduated from Oxford and served as captains of the Pakistan national team.

Vote for Your Favourite Pakistani Leaders

Famous As: 22nd PM of Pakistan

Birthdate: October 5, 1952

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Lahore, West Punjab, Dominion of Pakistan

The current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan is also the founder and chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Before making an entry into politics, Imran Khan was an extremely popular international cricketer who led Pakistan to its first ever Cricket World Cup title in 1992. As a philanthropist, he established Pakistan’s first cancer hospital in Lahore.

[lance-not-a-lot]

Intro

Lancelot Thaddeus (Daniel Sharman, 30, male, human) Blimey! Is that (LANCELOT THADDEUS)? (HE/HIM) is/are the (COOK) on the Cursed Serpent and has been onboard the ship for (JUST DISCOVERED IT). Legend has it they are (CUNNING & ASSERTIVE), but don’t get on their bad side, because I hear they’re (RECKLESS & INSECURE). Aye! Stop staring! (LANCE) has their (RAPIER) out! (ooc: Alixx, PST, 26, they/them, triggers - abuse, self harm/suicide, rape/sexual assault) 

DETAILS -

PERSONAL:

Full Name: Lancelot Thaddeus

Nickname/Preferred name: Lance

Parents: Arthur and Genevieve Thaddeus 

Parents nationalities: Father - English, Mother - French

Siblings: Arthur Jr. (fraternal twin brother) and Athena (younger half-sister)

Grandmother: Juno Thaddeus

Birthplace: England

Birthday: March 15, 1664

Gender: Cis male

Pronouns: he/him

Sexuality: Gay, but slightly bi-curious

Languages known: English, French, and some Spanish

PHYSICAL:

Height: 6'2"

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Blue

Hair + Facial Hair looks: short || long

Scents: herbs, spices, and essential oils, mainly lavender, rosemary, and paprika 

PERSONALITY TYPES:

MBTI: ENFP-T (Campaigner)

Enneagram: Two (The Giver)

Alignment: Neutral/Chaotic Good

Zodiac Big Three: Pisces {sun} ~ Cancer {moon} ~ Pisces {rising}

BACKSTORY (TW: Homophobia, Abuse, Violence, Death) - 

After being caught sleeping with another man in his father’s battalion the two of them were put on trial for execution. His brother Arthur managed to convince their father to ensure that Lance would be spared, but his lover was not so lucky, a guilt that would haunt Lance for the rest of his life. Instead of death, Lance was banished, sent off to the West Indies with no plan or support system. When he first arrived in the West Indies and was trying to find shelter he pretty much lived out of taverns and garbage scraps. He was 75% alcohol 100% of the time. He had become disenchanted with everything which made him reckless, with little regard for his life. This eventually got him into trouble with a group of werewolves, but before they could harm him he was saved by a sorcerer named Emrys Aurelian who took him in and helped him get back on his feet.

Both Emrys and his magic fascinated Lance immensely and they eventually fell in love, as people do sometimes when one has had their life saved by the other. The two spent most of their days talking about the intricacies of magic, it’s history, and it’s theory despite the fact that Lance could never learn magic himself as a mere human. For nearly three years this lifestyle suited Lance just fine, he always admired Emrys with all his skill and passion. However, at the back of his mind, he always felt undermined by and jealous of of his boyfriend’s magic abilities. Perhaps it made him feel too week and dependent, maybe he felt guilt for not being able to pay Emrys back in any way that felt meaningful enough. Emrys never seemed to notice or mind, but eventually Lance’s inability to live up to the wonder that Emrys encapsulated became too much for Lance to bear. Even though his love for his boyfriend was deeper than any he had ever known, he still needed to find his own purpose.

He had been hearing word of a ship called the Cursed Serpent and it’s crew’s quest. He thought if he could gain the power of a jewel he could finally feel worthy of his lineage, of Emrys, and most importantly himself. So he made a plan to leave without word. He knew that, if they talked, Emrys would have just tried to convince him to stay and he wouldn’t have the power to say no. So he packed a small bag, taking with him an enchanted twinned amulet Emrys had given him that glowed brighter the closer they were to the one they loved. He snuck out in the dead of night in search of the Cursed Serpent, watching the light fade from his amulet, hoping sincerely that he was making the right choice.

PERSONALITY -

At Lance’s core, above all else, he is a kind hearted individual. In some ways one could think of him as a mirror, except instead of reflecting everything back, his mirror filters out the bad and shines back the good in people. His instinct is and will always be to trust in an individual’s room for growth. He’s very sensitive and in tune with his emotions which often helps him empathize with the struggles of others.

Lance is quite extroverted, though it takes a bit of time to really feel comfortable around people, but once you get to know him he’s very charismatic and playful. He can be a bit of a trickster and doesn’t like to take things very seriously… even though there are things from his past that make him very Serious & Angsty^TM sometimes. He’s very insecure, having been made to feel inferior most of his life, but that doesn’t stop him from being recklessly courageous to a fault. In battle he will always throw himself headfirst into a fight, even if he knows he’s up against forces much stronger than him.

THE CURSED SERPENT -

Lance had heard about the crew’s quest and hoped joining the crew might help him find purpose and direction in life. Lance joined a few weeks ago in Westburgh and is still getting acclimated to the environment. He admires the crew, but is still awkward around them, once he comes out of his shell though he’s bound to be a real good time. Assimilating to their world also symbolizes a huge ‘fuck you’ to him and Athena’s dad and he’s living for that energy.  He’s heard of the former captain and thought of him as almost a living legend, so he’s a bit disappointed he never got to meet him. 

SECRET -

His biggest secret is probably his navy lineage and the reason his father sent him away. He not only was he viewed as worthless by his father, but was also deep in the closet. At a ball celebrating his father’s long tenure in the navy his father discovered that Lance had been sleeping with another member of their battalion. This was the last straw. Because of this he keeps his general family history pretty under wraps. Lance also probably keeps his life after being sent away and living with Emrys fairly secretive due to guilt and wanting to keep those good memories to himself. 

KEY RELATIONSHIPS -

THE ANCHOR: This person would help keep Lance grounded and out of his head. They’d serve as a distraction, helping him keep his eyes on the future, not the past.  Someone who’s just easy to be around, someone to spar with and joke with. 

THE HELM: Someone to help him bear his emotional burdens. This person is someone Lance feels most comfortable with, trusting them above all others. In turn, they are someone who Lance would be there to support most through anything that may come to pass. 

THE MAST: The person who keeps Lance on his toes. They don’t always agree, but they work well together despite their clashing personalities. No matter their differences, at the end of the day Lance always wants what’s best for them.

[collectablecorner]

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity supports the entire Armed Forces family. It is a UK non-profit charity that provides long life support to individuals who are currently serving or have served within the British Armed Forces and their families. This impressive organization has been operating since 1885 and was founded by Major James Gildea. Today SSAFA boasts of 5,000 volunteers to help upwards of   people every year and is the UK's oldest national tri-service Armed Forces charity.



Why is Collectable Corner choosing to support SSAFA?

The problem people tend to have when it comes to charitable donations and fundraising is not knowing how much of the donors funds are reaching the desired goal of helping someone in need. While we can't speak for the charities themselves, we (myself and my family) can talk about our experience with SSAFA and why we're confident that the money gets exactly to where it is needed the most.

Brian Cook, a loving husband, father, great grandfather and (my) grandad served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was a part of the Christmas Island nuclear bomb tests in the 1950's which exposed the soldiers to radiation due to being closer to the bombs than any human should ever be. Today only a handful of the Suicide Squad Veterans are still alive. Almost (if not all) of the soldiers involved died through multiple various cancers and ill health such as chronic arthritis and heart, lung, liver diseases. There is evidence to support the fact that these health conditions can be directly related to what the soldiers were made to do. But not only has it affected the veterans themselves but their families genetics has also caused numerous health problems generation after generation. This will carry on for generations to come also and the UK is one of the only countries involved to not accept these findings and therefore the support for these individuals and families has been lacking. Unfortunately Brian (grandad) was no different, neither is his family.

In January 2018, Brian fell ill and was taken to hospital where within three days of admittance was diagnosed with late stage liver and lung cancer, all that could be done was to make him as comfortable as possible. Over the course of the following four days we prepared for his return home. We gave a sofa away from our living room to make room for the hospital bed due to Brian losing the use of his legs, and we turned a downstairs room into a bathroom. Monday came round and Brian had been in hospital for 7 days, Monday to Monday. He arrived home via hospital transport and we got him settled in as best we could. Grandad always wanted to die at home my grandmother tells me. At 3am tuesday morning, after being home for around 10 hours Brian, my grandmother's husband, my mother's father, and my very special grandad passed away. It was, as anyone who has lost a loved one will know, devastating. It all happened so fast.

During the period between Brian's death and his funeral service SSAFA actually offered us money towards the cost, which we refused based on the fact we would rather it had gone to someone more in need than ourselves, but it stuck with us in our hearts and minds. What we learned is that SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, gets the money and help to the people who really need it. We didn't expect nor ask for it either. At this period in Collectable Corner  didn't exist, what existed was another hobby project that never worked out but a vow was made by myself to use the public platform to raise donations for SSAFA in loving memory of RAF Veteran Brian Cook. Now after a couple of years of hard work, dedication and grind, Collectable Corner, i am elated to tell you is working out and in a position to honour that vow and may he rest in peace.

Who does SSAFA help? And how does it help?

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity helps people in a variety of ways.

For currently serving personnel and their families provides:

Support in service communities

SSAFA has a network of volunteers on Army, RAF, and Naval bases in the UK and around the world who give local support.

Housing

Housing for wounded, injured, and sick serving personnel and their famiies SSAFA Norton House, Stanford Hall provide home-from-home accommodation for families visiting wounded, injured, sick service or ex-service personnel and outpatients. SSAFA also provides day-to-day management of Fisher House UK at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (QEHB).

Mentoring for service leavers

SSAFA's mentoring scheme was set up in 2011 and supports those transitioning out of the Forces. SSAFA's volunteer mentors provide support to wounded, injured, and sick leavers through a long-term 'one-to-one' relationship that underpins the transition from the military. SSAFA Mentoring is nationally accredited by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation.

Adoption for military families

SSAFA is a registered adoption agency dedicated to helping military families through the adoption process.

Additional need and disabilities support

SSAFA provide specialised support to military families with additional needs including their Forces Additional Needs and Disability Forum (FANDF).

Short breaks for children and young people with additional needs from Forces families

SSAFA coordinates holidays and events that focus on offering new experiences and activities for children and young people from services families.

Stepping Stone Homes for women and their children with a service connection

Stepping Stone Homes provides short-term supported accommodation, help, and advice during difficult times. Female spouses and partners of serving or ex-service personnal, along with their dependent children are all eligible to stay there.

Professional health care

SSAFA's professional health care staff provide patient-focussed care to military families worldwide.

Personal support and social work for the RAF

Working alongside the RAF, but outside the Chain of Command, SSAFA staff provide support for RAF personnel and their families worldwide. 

Independent Service Custody Visiting

SSAFA provides independent oversight of Army Service Custody facilities.

 

Support available to veterans and their families:

Housing advice

SSAFA offers practical housing advice and support to Armed Forces veterans and their dependents including guidance around housing benefits and accessing social housing.

Debt advice

SSAFA can help veterans to get advice on dealing with debt when they have fallen behind on their bills or repayments to credit cards and are struggling to get by or at risk of losing their home.

Mobility assistance

SSAFA volunteers seek financial assistance for veterans to help maintain mobility and independence at home. Trained volunteers can help veterans get mobility equipment such as Electronically Powered Vehicles (EPV) or mobility scooters, stair lifts, riser and recliner chairs.

Providing household goods

SSAFA can provide veterans with essential household items, including white and brown goods.

Support for homeless veterans

SSAFA has a range of specialist services to support veterans who are homeless or facing homelessness.

Joining Forces

SSAFA's partnership with Age UK to improve the lives of veterans born before 1950.

Gurkha services

Providing tailored support for Gurkhas and their families who live in the UK.

Glasgow's Helping Heroes

Glasgow's Helping Heroes' is an award-winning service provided by SSAFA in partnership with Glasgow City Council for current and former members of the Armed Forces and their dependants or carers who live, work, or wish to relocate there. It's dedicated team work with national and local governments and third sector providers to resolve clients employment, housing, health, financial and/or social isolation issues.

Forces helpline

SSAFA also offers Forcesline, which is a free and confidential telephone helpline, web chat, and email service that provides support for both current and ex-service men and women from the Armed Forces and their families.

As you can see, SSAFA goes above and beyond to help as many serving and veteran pesonnel and their families as possible who have sacrificed for our country and ensures the aid gets to exactly the places it is needed most. To do this requires a lot of time and money, as you can imagine.

Covid-19 and the SSAFA Emergency Response Fund

Covid-19 has had an impact on everyone regardless of if you are ill. It looks like it will remain a part of our lives for a long time to come, heck, it may be a permanent part of modern life. At SSAFA, calls and requests for help from the vulnerable people, such as the elderly, low income households, and those with serious underlying health conditions. In response to this SSAFA has an Emergency Response Fund. The strain on the organization is obviously high as more people need help with mental health, housing, and financial issues. SSAFA provides this support for the British Armed Forces, serving and veteran personnel, and their families but to do this SSAFA needs to ensure it's staff and volunteers are kept as safe as possible with PPE. Combine the huge rise in help requests and the need to protect SSAFA staff, volunteers and those they help results in a large increase in costs which is why donations are so important and critical to its operations to continue the vital work SSAFA does.

What is Collectable Corner doing to help?

We have purchased over a thousand Royal Air Force (RAF)  Dog Tags, Ball Chain Necklaces, Rubber Silencers and Packaging, which we are asking for a donation of £10 per set plus £2.29 for postage of which 100% of the £10 is being donated to SSAFA. Collectable Corner is paying any processing fees and extra postage fees that may incur. Essentially, the Dog Tags are a token of gratitude from us to you for making your donation and helping us to support and help as many people as we can together. In total we have 504 sets of Dog Tags available so that equates to £5,040 in funds to generate. We also have the ability to purchase more should we require them.

How are the donations being made and how often?

We will deposit the donations directly to SSAFA at the end of each month via bank transfer to an account SAFFA has provided to us*.

How will donors know that donations were made?

We understand how important it is to be absolutely transparent with charity work to ensure that everyone knows when and how much is being donated and it is just as important to us at Collectable Corner as to donors and customers. Collectable Corner will of course be publishing monthly updates on our blog and in our newsletter which we urge you to sign up for, along with publishing the donation receipts and sales records minus people's private data such as names and addresses etc. We also have a backend application running on our website which allows visitors to CollectableCorner.shop to view in real time exactly how many sets of dog tags have been claimed.

Share your experiences of SSAFA

Collectable Corner is welcoming you to share your stories with visitors to our website. On each product page is a review section where anyone can make use of by letting others know your story. Maybe it is about how SSAFA has helped you or someone close to you, or maybe you have fundraised and donated in the past. Maybe you are someone who works or have worked with and volunteered for SSAFA who wants to share with us all, or maybe you simply want to say hello.

Thank you... 

We, at Collectable Corner, want to thank SSAFA for the amazing work the staff and volunteers have, will and do do. The impact this charity has had on so many lives truly is something to be marvelled at.

Thank you to anyone who helps us to make some real world differences by ordering a set of RAF dog tags with the knowledge that you are donating to a truly awesome cause.

Thank you to all of the past, present and future British Armed Forces personnel who have sacrificed, and do sacrifice everything for our great nation. You make us proud each and every day.

Finally, thank you Brian Cook, my Grandmother's Husband, my Mothers Father, a Great Grandfather, and my Grandad for being such an inspiration, thank you for being the best and only Father i ever had. May you sleep easy and Rest in Peace.

*Please note that the information in this article has been vetted by and in part supplied by SSAFA prior to being released to the public and is accurate at the time of this publication. Collectable Corner has the permission of SSAFA of the logo to be used and they are the copyright owner. SSAFA is a non-profit charity registered in England and Wales (210760), Scotland (SCO38056) and the Republic of Ireland (20202001). Collectable Corner is not in a partnership with nor affiliated by SSAFA, however we are in contact. Anyone who wishes to confirm that SSAFA is aware of Collectable Corner's campaign to raise donations and the methods being used can do so by emailing commercial@ssafa.org.uk or GaryDavidson-Guild@ssafa.org.uk

[salaciouscrumpet]

Whumptober Day 10

Whumptober Day 10 Prompt: “Unconscious”

This one actually ended up being more fluff than whump. In fact, it’s not really whumpy at all, but I had a lot of fun writing it.

CW: animal death (humanely and not the focal point of the ficlet)

Characters: Charlie, Luke, Kate, a bunch of happy sleepy critters 

Charlie was trapped, pinned in on all sides, but he wasn’t terribly bothered by his predicament. 

He sat, back to the headboard and supported by a mountain of pillows, his legs stretched out in front of him. To his right Luke was sprawled on his side, his head buried under a pillow, his scarred right arm draped lazily over Charlie’s hip. To Charlie’s left Kate was still for a change, her body curled around his leg and her head pillowed on his thigh. The pair of them were out cold, and although Charlie was tired himself there was something about their exhaustion that made him want to stay awake and alert and to watch over them. 

Bear was, for once, curled up on the doggy bed on the floor. He had tried coming up onto the bed with his humans, but three adults took up a lot of space even on a king-sized bed, and besides that the cats had already staked out their own territory and made it clear the dog was unwelcome. And for all that Titter was frail and elderly and Bear outweighed her by a good hundred and sixty pounds, she was in charge, and Bear had been terrified of her ever since he’d come home as a rambunctious puppy and she’d put him in his place with a single slash of her tiny paw. Sekhmet, the undisputed queen of the house, was perched on the pillow at Luke’s shoulder while Titter slept in a tiny little ball at Kate’s feet. Spud, the kitten, had been relegated to the doggy bed with Bear for being too rowdy, and so he was nestled in against Bear’s thick fur, purring so loudly Charlie could hear him from the bed. 

It was a peaceful scene but it had been hard-won after a day filled with victories that felt Pyrrhic at best. 

Charlie’s day had been tinged with bittersweet sadness. The Petersons had brought their old German Shepherd, Max, in to be put to sleep; Max had been battling hip dysplasia and now Charlie was pretty sure the dog had cancer as well. The euthanasia had been arranged in advance, and the Petersons had given their beloved pet a grand send-off with a day spent doing all the things the old dog enjoyed: basking in the sunlight on the beach while the kids played around him, a short walk in the woods, all of his favourite foods (including the things he wasn’t supposed to eat but loved), and of course lots and lots of cuddles. It was sad, but the Petersons were good people who loved their pet very much, and so they sat with him and cried while he went to sleep in their arms. Max had led a good long life for a large-breed dog and he’d been well-loved, and Charlie’s heart ached for his humans who would miss him very much. He was grateful the Petersons had stayed with Max; it was a hard thing to do, but it always made him think better of his patients’ humans. 

Charlie had come home from work feeling sad and tired, and he’d found Luke huddled in bed with a migraine and his cellphone turned off. Luke’s mother had called, something she did periodically that managed to upset him every single time. His parents were holding a dinner party and expected Luke to attend – alone, so that he could meet the daughter (or daughters) of their wealthy, well-connected friends within the Order. His parents refused to acknowledge Luke’s relationships with Charlie and Kate: Charlie, the child of a human and one of the Fair Folk (Unseelie Court, but still acceptable in the eyes of the Knights of Oberon), was unsuitable because he was a man; Kate was a woman, but she was the offspring of a demon, which barred her in Luke’s parents’ eyes. It probably also didn’t help that neither Charlie nor Kate fell under the definition of “tractable” or “obedient,” which were qualities deemed of utmost necessity in a future wife and mother. Luke’s own opinions on the matter – that he loved Charlie and Kate, that they were committed to each other, that he liked his life the way it was – were irrelevant, as was, apparently, the fact that his parents had disowned him a decade ago. 

So Luke and Rita had argued over the phone, because every time Luke and his mother spoke, they argued. And Kate and Charlie hadn’t been home, so the argument had gone on for way too long because Luke was terrible at telling his mother ‘no’ (and his mother was even worse at listening to it) and then afterwards he’d spiraled until he’d given himself a stress-induced migraine. Charlie’s healing magic was good for a lot of things, but migraines were, unfortunately, not on the list. The only thing to be done was for Luke to try and sleep it off, which was one of the many reasons their bedroom had blackout curtains in the windows, because he was particularly sensitive to light when he had a migraine. 

Then, just as Charlie had walked in the front door of the farmhouse the three of them shared – seconds after stepping in a puddle of cat vomit, almost certainly courtesy of Sekkie – he got a text from Devon, letting him and Luke know that Kate had been injured while on patrol. Nothing serious (which, in the context of superhumanly resilient people like Luke and Kate, meant nothing actually life-threatening, but probably still actually serious for anyone else), and they’d already had one of the only other charmers at the camp heal her up, but she was going to be on light-duty for a few days. Rishaan, bless his heart, would drive her home. Kate got home about forty-five minutes later, tired and grumpy and limping on what had only shortly before been a leg broken in several places, the result of a fall. Charlie suspected there was more to the story – Kate was not known for simply falling – but it could wait until morning. Charlie had long ago learned to pick his battles, and confronting a post-injury Kate about how she’d come to be injured was not the hill he wanted to die on that night. 

Some time later the cat puke was cleaned up, the animals were fed (and Charlie helped himself to some leftovers; neither Kate nor Luke was hungry), and Charlie managed to get his two miserable partners tucked into bed on either side of him. Luke’s migraine was mostly over with, which set it on the shorter end of such things for him, and Kate’s leg – healed up but still stiff and tender – was covered in a smelly ointment Charlie made from scratch that only had a few magical properties. Magical healing took a lot of energy out of both the charmer and the patient, so Kate was out like a light. Charlie had lulled Luke to sleep with a scalp massage (and only a tiny amount of magic to urge him on), and the animals had piled onto the bed. The bedroom was dark and just cool enough to make climbing under a pile of quilts seem like a brilliant idea. There was a mountain of pillows, the cats were purring, and somewhere in the distance a loon called out over the lake behind the house. 

Charlie had been reading on his tablet, using the warmer light settings specifically designed for nighttime usage. He leaned over Kate and set the tablet on the end table before settling back against the headboard again. He was tired but at peace, even with the heartache from earlier in the day and the stresses that had met him upon arriving home. He played with the end of Kate’s braid, coiling it around his hand before running his hand over her head. He and Luke were the only ones who were allowed to touch or play with Kate’s hair; she claimed she didn’t like being petted and fussed over �� unless she shifted into a cat, which was her ‘comfort’ form – but they could get away with it because they were hers. Charlie’s other hand stroked along the solid curve of Luke’s shoulder, brushing over the stark black and red tattoos that lined him from neck to wrist. He couldn’t actually see the markings, but he knew them so well he could picture them in his mind: based off primitive Scythian tattoos, each one a different animal Luke had chosen to indicate an important moment or memory. Soon he would need to start moving on to his chest and back, because he was running out of real estate on his left arm, and he wasn’t willing to tattoo over the scars on his right. Charlie was never sure what to make of that – as the man responsible for healing Luke’s badly burned arm, Charlie saw those scars as a sort of failing, that he hadn’t been able to make his lover completely whole again. Luke, on the other hand, was grateful simply to have an arm that functioned (and functioned well), and didn’t much care about the aesthetics. The scars had meaning to Luke, just as his tattoos did. And both represented a break from his past, although for completely different reasons. 

Down on the floor Bear let out a small yelp, one of his hind legs scuffing against the hardwood as he kicked and chased something in his dreams. The movement dislodged the kitten, and within seconds Spud was up on the bed, casting cautious glances at both Titter and Sekhmet. Both female cats were ignoring him, so Spud wound his way over the quilts and in between Luke’s legs, snuggling in the crook of his knee. His noisy purr – which sounded something like a broken engine – seemed to take on a triumphant note as he made himself comfortable on the bed despite his mean and territorial older sisters. 

“Be nice,” Charlie whispered softly when Sekhmet opened her eyes to glare pointedly at the kitten. She turned and blinked at him, falling back to sleep. There was no doubt in his mind that she had simply chosen to continue ignoring Spud, and not that she was listening to or obeying her human’s commands. Sekkie was the queen of the house; Charlie and the others just lived there, to serve at her leisure. 

“’M always nice,” Kate murmured sleepily, smushing her face into Charlie’s hip. 

“Lies,” Luke replied, every bit as sleepy. His voice was muffled by the pillow he still had pressed over his face. 

“Shush,” Charlie said. He stroked one hand over Kate’s hair and the other over Luke’s shoulder, and Spud’s contented, broken-machine purr rumbled out through the room. The day had been a shitshow, and no doubt tomorrow Charlie would still need to deal with the fallout of Luke’s conversation with his mother as well as Kate’s inexplicable injury, but until tomorrow he was content to sit and snuggle with the family they had made for themselves.

[hillaryisaboss]

8/25/2016: Hillary was the first to call out Trump's racist history and dog whistling to racists.

This speech should be required viewing. Required reading. The woman who got 3 million more votes called it. She was 100% right. She had the crystal ball. If only a few more of us had listened.

This speech needs to be burned into our memories forever:

"After all, it’s hard to believe anyone – let alone a nominee for President of the United States – could really believe all the things he says.

But the hard truth is, there’s no other Donald Trump. This is it.

Maya Angelou once said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Well, throughout his career and this campaign, Donald Trump has shown us exactly who he is. We should believe him."

~Hillary Rodham Clinton; 8/25/2016

She warned us.

"Everywhere I go, people tell me how concerned they are by the divisive rhetoric coming from my opponent in this election.

It’s like nothing we’ve heard before from a nominee for President of the United States.

From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia.

He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties.

His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous.

...

It takes a lot of nerve to ask people he’s ignored and mistreated for decades, “What do you have to lose?” The answer is everything!

Trump’s lack of knowledge or experience or solutions would be bad enough.

But what he’s doing here is more sinister.

Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.

It’s a disturbing preview of what kind of President he’d be.

This is what I want to make clear today:

A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military.

If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?

Now, I know some people still want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

They hope that he will eventually reinvent himself – that there’s a kinder, gentler, more responsible Donald Trump waiting in the wings somewhere.

After all, it’s hard to believe anyone – let alone a nominee for President of the United States – could really believe all the things he says.

But the hard truth is, there’s no other Donald Trump. This is it.

Maya Angelou once said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Well, throughout his career and this campaign, Donald Trump has shown us exactly who he is. We should believe him.

When Trump was getting his start in business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino tenants.

Their applications would be marked with a ���C” – “C” for “colored” – and then rejected.

Three years later, the Justice Department took Trump back to court because he hadn’t changed.

The pattern continued through the decades.

State regulators fined one of Trump’s casinos for repeatedly removing black dealers from the floor. No wonder the turn-over rate for his minority employees was way above average.

And let’s not forget Trump first gained political prominence leading the charge for the so-called “Birthers.”

He promoted the racist lie that President Obama isn’t really an American citizen – part of a sustained effort to delegitimize America’s first black President.

In 2015, Trump launched his own campaign for President with another racist lie. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals.

And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border. None of that is true.

Oh, and by the way, Mexico’s not paying for his wall either.

If it ever gets built, you can be sure that American taxpayers will be stuck with the bill.

Since then, there’s been a steady stream of bigotry.

We all remember when Trump said a distinguished federal judge born in Indiana couldn’t be trusted to do his job because, quote, “He’s a Mexican.”

Think about that.

The man who today is the standard bearer of the Republican Party said a federal judge was incapable of doing his job solely because of his heritage.

Even the Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, described that as “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”

To this day, he’s never apologized to Judge Curiel.

But for Trump, that’s just par for the course.

This is someone who retweets white supremacists online, like the user who goes by the name “white-genocide-TM.” Trump took this fringe bigot with a few dozen followers and spread his message to 11 million people.

His campaign famously posted an anti-Semitic image – a Star of David imposed over a sea of dollar bills – that first appeared on a white supremacist website.

The Trump campaign also selected a prominent white nationalist leader as a delegate in California. They only dropped him under pressure.

When asked in a nationally televised interview whether he would disavow the support of David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump wouldn’t do it. Only later, again under mounting pressure, did he backtrack.

And when Trump was asked about anti-Semitic slurs and death threats coming from his supporters, he refused to condemn them.

Through it all, he has continued pushing discredited conspiracy theories with racist undertones.

Trump said thousands of American Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t.

He suggested that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Perhaps in Trump’s mind, because he was a Cuban immigrant, he must have had something to do with it. Of course there’s absolutely no evidence of that.

Just recently, Trump claimed President Obama founded ISIS. And then he repeated that nonsense over and over.

His latest paranoid fever dream is about my health. All I can say is, Donald, dream on.

This is what happens when you treat the National Enquirer like Gospel.

It’s what happens when you listen to the radio host Alex Jones, who claims that 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombings were inside jobs. He said the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were child actors and no one was actually killed there.

Trump didn’t challenge those lies. He went on Jones’ show and said: “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

This man wants to be President of the United States.

I’ve stood by President Obama’s side as he made the toughest decisions a Commander-in-Chief ever has to make.

In times of crisis, our country depends on steady leadership… clear thinking… and calm judgment… because one wrong move can mean the difference between life and death.

The last thing we need in the Situation Room is a loose cannon who can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction, and who buys so easily into racially-tinged rumors.

Someone detached from reality should never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.

It’s another reason why Donald Trump is simply temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States.

Now, some people will say that his bluster and bigotry is just over-heated campaign rhetoric – an outrageous person saying outrageous things for attention.

But look at the policies Trump has proposed. They would put prejudice into practice.

And don’t be distracted by his latest attempts to muddy the waters.

He may have some new people putting new words in his mouth… but we know where he stands.

He would form a deportation force to round up millions of immigrants and kick them out of the country.

He’d abolish the bedrock constitutional principle that says if you’re born in the United States, you’re an American citizen. He says that children born in America to undocumented parents are, quote, “anchor babies” and should be deported.

Millions of them.

And he’d ban Muslims around the world – 1.5 billion men, women, and children –from entering our country just because of their religion.

Think about that for a minute. How would it actually work? People landing in U.S. airports would line up to get their passports stamped, just like they do now.

But in Trump’s America, when they step up to the counter, the immigration officer would ask every single person, “What is your religion?”

And then what?

What if someone says, “I’m a Christian,” but the agent doesn’t believe them.

Do they have to prove it? How would they do that?

Ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, America has distinguished itself as a haven for people fleeing religious persecution.

Under Donald Trump, America would distinguish itself as the only country in the world to impose a religious test at the border.

Come to think of it, there actually may be one place that does that. It’s the so-called Islamic State. The territory ISIS controls. It would be a cruel irony if America followed its lead.

Don’t worry, some will say, as President, Trump will be surrounded by smart advisors who will rein in his worst impulses.

So when a tweet gets under his skin and he wants to retaliate with a cruise missile, maybe cooler heads will be there to convince him not to.

Maybe.

But look at who he’s put in charge of his campaign.

Trump likes to say he only hires the “best people.” But he’s had to fire so many campaign managers it’s like an episode of the Apprentice.

The latest shake-up was designed to – quote – “Let Trump be Trump.” To do that, he hired Stephen Bannon, the head of a right-wing website called Breitbart.com, as campaign CEO.

To give you a flavor of his work, here are a few headlines they’ve published:

“Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.”

“Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”

“Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement’s Human Shield”

“Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.”

That one came shortly after the Charleston massacre, when Democrats and Republicans alike were doing everything they could to heal racial divides. Breitbart tried to enflame them further.

Just imagine – Donald Trump reading that and thinking: “this is what I need more of in my campaign.”

Bannon has nasty things to say about pretty much everyone.

This spring, he railed against Paul Ryan for, quote “rubbing his social-justice Catholicism in my nose every second.”

No wonder he’s gone to work for Trump – the only Presidential candidate ever to get into a public feud with the Pope.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, Breitbart embraces “ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right. Racist ideas.

Race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant ideas –– all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.’”

Alt-Right is short for “Alternative Right.”

The Wall Street Journal describes it as a loosely organized movement, mostly online, that “rejects mainstream conservatism, promotes nationalism and views immigration and multiculturalism as threats to white identity.”

The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump Campaign represents a landmark achievement for the “Alt-Right.” A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.

This is part of a broader story -- the rising tide of hardline, right-wing nationalism around the world.

Just yesterday, one of Britain’s most prominent right-wing leaders, Nigel Farage, who stoked anti-immigrant sentiments to win the referendum on leaving the European Union, campaigned with Donald Trump in Mississippi.

Farage has called for a ban on the children of legal immigrants from public schools and health services, has said women are quote “worth less” than men, and supports scrapping laws that prevent employers from discriminating based on race -- that’s who Trump wants by his side.

The godfather of this global brand of extreme nationalism is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In fact, Farage has appeared regularly on Russian propaganda programs.

Now he’s standing on the same stage as the Republican nominee.

Trump himself heaps praise on Putin and embrace pro-Russian policies.

He talks casually of abandoning our NATO allies, recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and of giving the Kremlin a free hand in Eastern Europe more generally.

American presidents from Truman to Reagan have rejected the kind of approach Trump is taking on Russia.

We should, too.

All of this adds up to something we’ve never seen before.

Of course there’s always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment. But it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.

On David Duke’s radio show the other day, the mood was jubilant.

“We appear to have taken over the Republican Party,” one white supremacist said.

Duke laughed. There’s still more work to do, he said.

No one should have any illusions about what’s really going on here. The names may have changed… Racists now call themselves “racialists.” White supremacists now call themselves “white nationalists.” The paranoid fringe now calls itself “alt-right.” But the hate burns just as bright.

And now Trump is trying to rebrand himself as well. Don’t be fooled.

There’s an old Mexican proverb that says “Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are.”

We know who Trump is. A few words on a teleprompter won’t change that.

He says he wants to “make America great again,” but his real message remains “Make America hate again.”

This isn’t just about one election. It’s about who we are as a nation.

It’s about the kind of example we want to set for our children and grandchildren.

Next time you watch Donald Trump rant on television, think about all the kids listening across our country. They hear a lot more than we think.

Parents and teachers are already worried about what they’re calling the “Trump Effect.”

Bullying and harassment are on the rise in our schools, especially targeting students of color, Muslims, and immigrants.

At a recent high school basketball game in Indiana, white students held up Trump signs and taunted Latino players on the opposing team with chants of “Build the wall!” and “Speak English.”

After a similar incident in Iowa, one frustrated school principal said, “They see it in a presidential campaign and now it's OK for everyone to say this.”

We wouldn’t tolerate that kind of behavior in our own homes. How can we stand for it from a candidate for president?

This is a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Trump. It’s a moment of reckoning for all of us who love our country and believe that America is better than this.

Twenty years ago, when Bob Dole accepted the Republican nomination, he pointed to the exits and told any racists in the Party to get out.

The week after 9/11, George W. Bush went to a mosque and declared for everyone to hear that Muslims “love America just as much as I do.”

In 2008, John McCain told his own supporters they were wrong about the man he was trying to defeat. Senator McCain made sure they knew – Barack Obama is an American citizen and “a decent person.”

We need that kind of leadership again.

Every day, more Americans are standing up and saying “enough is enough” – including a lot of Republicans. I’m honored to have their support.

And I promise you this: with your help, I will be a President for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. For those who vote for me and those who don't.

For all Americans.

Because I believe we are stronger together.

It’s a vision for the future rooted in our values and reflected in a rising generation of young people who are the most open, diverse, and connected we’ve ever seen.

Just look at our fabulous Olympic team.

Like Ibtihaj Muhammad, an African-American Muslim from New Jersey who won the bronze medal in fencing with grace and skill. Would she even have a place in Donald Trump’s America?

When I was growing up, Simone Manuel wouldn’t have been allowed to swim in the same public pool as Katie Ledecky. Now they’re winning Olympic medals as teammates.

So let’s keep moving forward together.

Let’s stand up against prejudice and paranoia.

Let’s prove once again, that America is great because is America is good.

Thank you, and may God bless the United States."

~Hillary Rodham Clinton; 8/25/2016

The woman who warned us.

Trump is a con-man propaganda artist:

Never Normalize Trump.

#strongertogether

[onceabluemoonwrites]

To The Heavens and Beyond (Eldritch Mantle’s Donned)

Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Summary: ‘’So… was that your true form?’’

Kyoko shrugs. ‘’Onii-san was the sun, but he kept drifting away. I could hardly remain a sky if I wanted to help him, isn’t it?’’

Hana looks at her strangely. ‘’You became an eldritch horror so your brother would stop losing quite that many memories?’’

‘’Wouldn’t you?’’

Disclaimer: I don’t own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

FF.net | AO3 

My fic master list here.

My late birthday present for @operaeagleicelynlacelett! Happy belated birthday, darling! I hope you’ll enjoy this!

Ryohei slides the ring onto his finger, and the world suddenly looks different. It nags at him, in the back of his head, while training with Colonello. It’s like the furniture has been put two centimetres to the left and he keeps bumping into it- like wrestling with a soap bar in a bath.

There’s something off. But what?

The thought slips his mind like everything else. He gets used to this. Yesterday is forgotten- there is only today, maybe this week if he’s lucky.

Or not lucky.

He can never quite remember that.

For as long as Kyoko can remember, Onii-san has been there. A yellow presence in the back of her mind, beaming with the power of a thousand suns.

Sun. That’s what the adults call him when he runs around, with her on his shoulders.

Kyoko likes it. It fits him.

Onii-san forgets, but she remembers for the both of them. Always.

Onii-san forgets a lot. He was born that way, her parents told her.

It’s not that bad. She’s good for him. The only one he always remembers, the only one who can help him remember. Onii-san is a ball of fire, high, high in the sky. Kyoko will just have to become space to keep him from drifting away.

He’s her brother. She’ll do anything for him.

As the sun goes down, they go to sleep. Tomorrow, she’ll tell him who he is again.

Kyoko’s parents are shining orange and murky purple, the wisps that escape their souls so pretty to look at. She likes the way it looks like fire, the way it dances in their hands.

The sight of it being extinguished, cancer finally having ruined her otou-san’s body completely, is devastating. She clutches her brother's hands and cries.

Kaa-san is wailing, screaming, flames running over the corpse as if to reanimate it with her own life force. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

When their mother begins to pull on her own hair, Onii-san lifts Kyoko up. She buries her head against his chest as he walks out of the room, tears wetting his shirt.

When he wakes up the next morning, he knows there is a hole, but he does not recognize the man on the picture at the funeral, and Kyoko has no idea if that’s a blessing or a curse.

It hurts. It hurts so much.

Kaa-san follows after otou-san, and Kyoko is mad.

Kyoko is mad, but she understands, because Kaa-sans flames kept reaching out into the void, kept falling back expecting someone to be there to catch her, only to fall to the ground. It was no surprise- Kaa-sans flames had warned Kyoko days and days before it happened, but she’s six and didn’t know what to do.

Onii-san didn’t either, but that’s a whole different story altogether.

It drives the lesson home. Broken bonds mean death. She clutches her brother’s arm tighter to her side.

The Kurokawa household is a cold place, but they allowed Kyoko to stay with Onii-san, so she is eternally grateful.

Hana, their daughter, isn’t fun to play with at all. She thinks Onii-san is weird and keeps saying it, every day, and Kyoko bottles and bottles and bottles it up, because this is her only chance to stay with her brother, and she’s not going to mess it up.

The two new kids in Hana’s house are weird and Hana doesn’t hesitate to tell them so.

The boy laughs it off, yelling something about her being honest, but the little redhead glares at her from underneath her fringe. For a second, Hana thinks the girl will kick her, but all she does is clench her fist. ‘’I’m going to the dojo with onii-san.’’

And she’s off, dragging her brother with her in her wake.

Hana huffs. Boys are stupid, and if the new girl won’t play with her, then she’ll just go amuse herself. Who needs those monkeys anyway?

Hana is bored, Kyoko amusing, so she says it again. ‘’Your brother is weird.’’

Something dangerous glints in those golden eyes, and oh, Hana is loving this.

So she says it again. And again. And again.

Until Kyoko explodes.

Literally so, flames pushing outward like a flood, a hurricane of flames in motion. It sings, it screams, it’s like a thousand voices have spoken up, and for a second, Hana is hundred percent sure that this is what an Eldritch Abomination must be. Stars whirling out before her, space unfolding to eternity. Golden eyes burning in the darkness.

God, she must’ve been blinded by the brightness of the flames.

Hana is small, in the face of this, but being small has never stopped her from standing tall, and Kyoko having a little God-like power tantrum isn’t going to change that.

But god, she wants. There is something inside those flames, and Hana is too young to be afraid of losing herself yet. She has no idea if what she’s seeing is real, this gigantic face, this expanse of space in the middle of the living room where Kyoko stood just a moment before, but it is there and it is irresistible.

The mouth of flames opens, a black hole behind it, and Hana jumps in, sucked all the way into the heart.

Hana is inside of Kyoko now, the same way Ryohei is a star enfolded in her space. But unlike Onii-san, Hana floats, an interstellar cloud, made of gas, plasma and dust. She’s everywhere and nowhere, disassembles as easily as she forms into a person again.

Kyoko feels her inside her heart, even as she stands beside her.

‘’So… was that your true form?’’

Kyoko shrugs. ‘’Onii-san was the sun, but he kept drifting away. I could hardly remain a sky if I wanted to help him, isn’t it?’’

Hana looks at her strangely. ‘’You became an eldritch horror so your brother would stop losing quite that many memories?’’

‘’Wouldn’t you?’’

Hana basks in the warmth of Ryohei’s heart inside of Kyoko as she floats past. ‘’…I suppose I can’t say no to that.’’

Kyoko smiles. That’s enough for her.

Hana’s parents are still cold and almost never there, but the Kurokawa household has ceased to feel like the artic because she’s got a sun and a cloud to fill her space now.

Haru is very down to earth. This does not, mind you, mean she isn’t crazy. No, in fact, the craziness is part of being so down to earth.

Haru is a black hole, constantly consuming everything around her, her magnetic fields so large that she cannot help but generate charges of lightning. She’s mad genius with an aesthetic a la Frankenstein, and her ideas only get better as she ages.

It all starts with a cake- eyes meeting over it, and Kyoko’s heart screams, consume, consume, consume, devour what is yours.

Haru appreciation day indeed.

(Kyoko does not consume Haru the way she enveloped Ryohei, nor the way she tempted Hana- no, Haru strolls over, takes a look at the back of her tongue and goes: ‘’Hello, yes. I’d like this stomach. It is mine now.’’ And forces her to swallow.

Kyoko is happier for it).

Before everything goes to shit, Kyoko meets him. His name is Moretti, and he can stop his heart. She feels it stop, is concerned for a moment and reaches for his soul. He’s still alive. He is a small rain, barely even a shower- wait.

This feels strange.

Moretti is not a rain. Oh sure, he feels like he is, at first, but Kyoko is space, and she knows no air. Neither does this man- very little of him contains oxygen. He is a compressed ball of water- freezing at a moment’s notice.

She blinks at him prettily and smirks when he tumbles into her- falling into space like he’s been meant to do so forever.

This rain- this body of water- will serve her well.

Water, when in space, boils, before rapidly freezing. Moretti enjoys his new power- the boiling is akin to a heart attack, the freezing the stopping of his heart. ‘’It helps my job, you know.’’

‘’Which is… Pretending you’re dead?’’

‘’No, assassination. Nobody expects the dead to get up to murder you, after all.’’

Kyoko hums. ‘’Specific cases only, I take?’’

He shrugs. ‘’I’m part of the Vongola. I can afford to take only special cases as long as I do my normal duties too.’’

‘’Vongola?’’

‘’…I fucked up, didn’t I?’’

Kyoko beams up at him, hands behind her back. ‘’Me, out to get you? Why, I would never!’’

‘’Me, no. Becoming a victim of Omertá, however? Why do I feel like that’s on your agenda?’’

Hana leans over Kyoko’s shoulder, eyes cold as steel. ‘’Because sooner or later they’ll come for us, and then we’d better be ready. Give us a fighting chance, Moretti, or get the fuck out of here.’’

It surprises absolutely no one, but Moretti stays.

Onii-san gets better and better at remembering, until one day, he forgets everything.

Kyoko can feel it in her soul as he is ripped out of her, a gaping hole in space, a black hole nothing next to it. She rages and screams and screeches, as stars die in her world, as the sun is gone, as the warmth is gone from the universe as a whole.

When he gets home, there’s a ring around his finger.

There is only one other Sky in town, and when Onii-san asks her where’s she going- if he can extremely come along- she smiles, pats his arm and says: ‘’Please do.’’

Her elements fall into step behind her, as space bleeds out of her through the hole the intruder left when he took her brother from her.

‘’Kyoko, who are they?’’

She clenches her fists and says: ‘’Our family, onii-san.’’ You best remember that, almost slips from her mouth, but it is not he who has gained her ire. Her brother is not at fault- only the person she’s going to destroy for this is.

She arrives in front of the Sawada household, and Lambo runs into her. ‘’Lambo-chan, I-pin, please go play at the playground with Fuuta, okay? I’ll give you grape candy later.’’

It is a dirty trick, but children must be kept safe- she’ll murder the man behind this, but the children will remain alive.

She walks around the house and enters via the backdoor.

‘’Sawada Tsunayoshi,’’ it thunders from a mouth that is not visible in any physical way, ‘’Come out, for thy have defied the Laws of Nature. I shall avenge mine brother, feast upon thy flesh- come out, Sky-worn Sun-thief.’’

Sawada Tsunayoshi squeaks like he is still the little boy she took under her wings when they were less than five years old.  

Kyoko narrows her eyes. He has no room to talk, for he has stolen what is hers. She began the goddamn space just to stabilize her brother, and Tsuna has butchered him out of her and left her brother in pieces.

She will not stand for this.

But- But- The look he gives her is not from one who is guilty. Not even from one who realizes what he has done. To be sure- he does not even look like he knew anything about it.

Her fifteen hands spread- claws tickling his face. ‘’Who- who, if not you?’’

‘’Kyoko- what. I-‘’ Tsuna swallows thickly, all wide eyes and trembling bottom lip.

‘’The ring! Who dared to lay a ring bound to your soul fire onto my brother!’’

Tsuna blinks. ‘’...Wait, Reborn gave one of those to Onii-san?’’

He is dumbfounded enough that he forgets to be afraid.

Kyoko battles the Sun Arcobaleno and wins.

Reborn does not know whether to be grateful that she does not force him into her sky or fearful for the future.

All Sawada Tsunayoshi can think as he stares at them, at the space expanding around Kyoko, is: The apocalypse on legs and I still adore her.

But the sky is but a little thing in space, and he knows, inside his heart, that if he ever had a chance, it is long gone. She is beyond him. Not out of his league- simply out of his atmosphere, never to be reached, never to intermesh.

He cannot breathe without oxygen, and space possesses little of it.

(She’d asphyxiate him before he’d get to hold her hand)

Kyoko lets Tsuna release the hold he has over Ryohei. Because if she did it, she’d break the bond. And broken bonds, my friends, lead only to death. Tsuna would be little more than a burned out husk, as dead inside as he’d be outside.

Ryohei is back inside of her, eyes clearing as his memory returns as if the period away from her was nothing but a strange dream, obscured by clouds.

He is hers, and the whole world will know it.

So is the delicious little Mist, no matter what Tsuna may think. Haru has taken a liking to Chrome- Kyoko saw her licking her lips, it was not particularly subtle- and watching the ring battles is great fun. Next to her, Tsuna’s sun, a shy boy called Shoichi, shudders as the boy possessing Chrome’s body laughs.

Kyoko wrinkles her nose. So like Tsuna to take in the ex-criminals without realizing it. If it were her, she’d have broken the poor boy out of prison already.

Actually, she might just do that for Tsuna if he stays this nice. After all, he did deliver her a Storm to her doorstep and Chrome is definitely a nice addition.

(Bianchi rages inside of her. A true storm, courted by combat, in love with the Space that defeated the Sun she so adored. Relentlessly she followed Kyoko- and how could Kyoko not take in a woman with such lovely habits? Bianchi’s heart is so bright, her soul so clean and clear, and yet her hands are painted red and her nails filed to spears.

Bianchi is hardly a mass of clouds and lightning, rains falling from her until one cannot help but call her a storm- no, Bianchi is a solar flare, all poisoning radiation, all explosive destruction for everything that crosses her path.

She belongs in space, and demands the place in Kyoko that is hers)

Chrome is icy, a cold presence slowly warming her hands to the warmth that is Ryohei. She is small, her water particles a fine mist, spreading slowly throughout Kyoko’s veins.

And like that, instead of the Sky battle going down, Xanxus di Vongola stops to stare at the girl on the sidelines, flanked by three people on either side.

‘’You- how…’’ His eyes glitter, ‘’How are you so fucking large?’’

Kyoko laughs, light and airy. ‘’I am Space!’’

He looks like he just heard gospel. ‘’Marry me.’’

Her eyes glide across his face, then behind him. He… Might just have what it takes. The drive, as well the elements that have souls so hard they can survive without air. Her eyes twinkle.

‘’Catch up, Sky-dear, and I might just consider.’’

In the background, Sawada Tsunayoshi shivers, unable to decide where he is glad or horrified. On one hand, he won’t have to fight Xanxus anymore- Kyoko would find a way to stop this thing. On the other hand-

She means it.

Sawada Tsunayoshi, age fourteen, sees the end of the world in the gleaming eyes of a girl.

(She’ll devour the earth as he knows it)

Author’s Note

Light by @fullmetalruby totally inspired me to go eldritch abomination in my work, and of course, I had to combine it with KHR :D 

Also, Ryohei with memory problems was inspired by Ara-chan’s own fic Sonder. 

As to what would have happened if Kyouko had not turned Eldritch, that’s what Rose Petals Between the Sheets (One Bed Only, Indeed) is about. 

I hope you enjoyed it, Ara-chan! <3 Love you!

[soccerdrawings]

9 Outrageous Ideas For Your Cartoon Soccer Ball Step By Step | Cartoon Soccer Ball Step By Step

ETCHED IN: Those we’ve absent in 2019 (including John Witherspoon, Agnès Varda, Walter Mercado and Grumpy Cat) will be categorical in our memories for decades to come.ILLUSTRATION BY GREG HOUSTON

Free Cartoon Soccer Balls Pictures, Download Free Clip Art .. | cartoon soccer ball step by step Another year has passed, and we’ve had to ache the accident of figureheads in assorted industries including, music, film, sports, art, activism, and for artlessly actuality a photogenic cat. We’ve taken the time to epitomize the amazing lives of individuals who didn’t accomplish it into the new decade, but will be remembered for abounding added to come. Andre Williams(Nov. 1, 1936–March 17, 2019)Not abounding bodies get a big breach in the music business. Andre Williams got two.Born in Bessemer, Alabama, Zephire “Andre” Williams aboriginal hit it big as an R&B accompanist aback he confused to Detroit in the aboriginal 1950s and won an amateur-night competition. He anon alive to Fortune Records, acceptable advance diva in the Bristles Dollars, afresh rechristened Andre Williams and the Don Juans. A abounding writer, he additionally denticulate alone hits, including “Jail Bait,” “The Greasy Chicken” and “Bacon Fat,” which absurd the Top 10 on the Billboard R&B chart. He additionally wrote Bristles Du-Tones’ “Shake a Tail Feather,” afterwards performed by Ike & Tina Turner (and abundant later, featured in The Blues Brothers and Hairspray), and alike served a abrupt assignment as a songwriter for Motown, co-writing Stevie Wonder’s aboriginal song, “Thank You for Loving Me.” But by the 1980s, Williams hit bedrock bottom: Addiction begin him alone in Chicago. In the 1990s, however, Williams was rediscovered by the bedrock ‘n’ cycle awakening scene. That led to annal like Greasy, arise accordingly on indie labels Norton and St. George Annal in 1996, and Silky, arise on In the Red in 1998. Added indie bedrock collaborations followed, with Williams recording advance with Jack White, Mick Collins of the Dirtbombs, and the country bandage the Sadies. His proto-hip-hop sing-talking style, affection for abusive lyrics, and sartorial alternative for blatant apparel and analogous hats acceptable him the appellation by some of “the asperse of rap.”Williams connected to attempt with addiction, but he additionally connected to accomplish music, absolution I Wanna Go Aback to Detroit City in 2016. He died in Chicago at age 82 from cancer, but he never stopped: His manager, Kenn Goodman, told Billboard a ceremony afore his afterlife that the accompanist “was committed to aggravating to sing and almanac again.” — Lee DeVitoRuss Gibb(June 15, 1931–April 30, 2019)If Iggy Pop is the Asperse of Punk, afresh Russ Gibb is its uncle.After alive as a Detroit-area schoolteacher, radio DJ and promoter, “Uncle Russ,” as he was known, became a aloft booster of Motor City bedrock ‘n’ cycle aback he founded the Grande Ballroom in 1966, aggressive by a appointment to San Francisco’s Fillmore. The breadth became accepted for booking bounded acts like the Stooges, Alice Cooper, the Amboy Dukes and the MC5, who served as the venue’s abode bandage and recorded its admission Kick Out the Jams alive there. That’s all in accession to booking civic acts like Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, Cream and the Who, amid others, abounding of whom played some of their aboriginal U.S. shows at the venue.Gibb was complex in added milestones in bedrock history as well. In 1969, while alive as a part-time DJ on WKNR-FM, Gibb took a alarm from a adviser who claimed the Beatles’ Paul McCartney died and was replaced with a look-alike, and that there were clues in the band’s lyrics and anthology artwork. The cabal approach anon went viral. (Perhaps it would arise as no abruptness that abundant afterwards in life, Gibb would advance Donald Trump’s cabal theories about Barack Obama’s bearing affidavit on his blog.)Gibb bankrupt the breadth in 1972. But in the 1980s, he was aback in the music business, accouterment banking abetment for the Graystone Hall, a Detroit jailbait venue. All the while, Gibb formed as a history and media abecedary at Dearborn High School; he died in April at 87 of accustomed causes. The Grande, however, continued alone and now antic an MC5 mural, could anon see a new life: It’s now endemic by Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church, who said they ability charter it out for contest — including accessible music concerts. — DeVitoJohn Witherspoon (Jan. 27, 1942–Oct. 29, 2019)“John Witherspoon is atramentous history,” Twitter’s Rembert Browne tweeted afterwards the banana amateur died of a affection advance at his Los Angeles home in October at age 77. It was a fair assessment: Witherspoon’s filmography spanned decades, including appearances on The Richard Pryor Show, the Friday franchise, Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Wayans Bros. and The Boondocks, as able-bodied as Jay-Z and Goodie Mob music videos, amid others. Born in Detroit to a ancestors with 11 siblings, Witherspoon got his alpha demography amphitheater classes in the Motor City in the aboriginal ‘70s. He got into standup at the bidding of his acting instructor, who anticipation he’d be funny in a ceremony brawl show. Witherspoon anon relocated to Los Angeles, aperture for the allegorical Richard Pryor at the Brawl Store. Later, Pryor casting him as allotment of his brief NBC array appearance in 1977 afore it was canceled for actuality too risque. For many, though, Witherspoon will consistently aloof be “Pops” — the amusingly bad-tempered ancestor to Ice Cube’s Craig Jones in the 1995 stoner brawl Friday. Witherspoon would reprise the role in 2000’s Abutting Friday and 2002’s Friday Afterwards Next, and was casting in a agnate role as “Granddad” in the banana strip-turned-Adult Swim animation The Boondocks, which debuted in 2005. Afterwards years of development hell, a fourth Friday blur was assuredly accustomed the blooming ablaze in 2017, but was alone in pre-production at the time of Witherspoon’s death. He was additionally set to arise in a afresh appear Boondocks reboot, admitting that activity had not amorphous assembly yet either. In an odd way, Witherspoon got to adore a final goodbye. In 2012, aback a apocryphal address of his afterlife went viral, Witherspoon reacted to the account aloof as Pops might. “What the hell ya’ll talkin ‘bout on here?!?!?” he tweeted. “I ain’t dead, I’m in Ft. Lauderdale.” — DeVitoBernice Sandler(March 3, 1928–Jan. 5, 2019)In 1969, Bernice Sandler was a ablaze adolescent adviser at the University of Maryland, acquisitive to acreage a full-time atom on the faculty. She knew she was a acceptable teacher, and there were seven accessible positions. So aback she was almost considered, she asked a macho adroitness affiliate if he had any insight. He conceded she was calmly qualified, “but let’s be honest, you arise on too able for a woman.”Sandler, who died in January at age 90, apparently again that adduce bags of times in interviews and speeches in the bristles decades that followed. “Sometimes bodies ask me what aggressive me to get complex in women’s issues,” Sandler allegedly said in 2012 afterwards accepting a beastly rights award. “I accept to acquaint you, I wasn’t aggressive at all. I was mad.”She began researching sex bigotry and begin an controlling adjustment barring organizations that accustomed federal money from acute based on race, religion, civic agent or gender. Armed with that information, Sandler filed complaints adjoin 250 universities, aggressive the arrangement that commonly discriminated adjoin changeable agents and students. She partnered with crusading U.S. congresswoman Edith Blooming to canyon Title IX. The 37-word bill, alive in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, has aback become a able and able apparatus for angry sex discrimination. Best famously, it has been activated to bookish sports, guaranteeing changeable athletes opportunities ahead exceptional of. Sandler spent the blow of her activity advocating for according rights. She served as armchair of the Civic Advisory Council on Women’s Educational Programs beneath presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, was inducted into the Civic Women’s Hall of Fame and has been cited as a hero by some of this country’s top athletes. But she never forgot that bandage about advancing on “too able for a woman.” It turns out, she was too able to be stopped. — Doyle Murphy

Drawing a cartoon soccer ball - cartoon soccer ball step by step | cartoon soccer ball step by step Dan Robbins(May 26, 1925–April 1, 2019)Dan Robbins was a abstruse bartering artisan at a Michigan acrylic aggregation in the backward 1940s aback his bang-up asked him for an abstraction to advice advertise acrylic sets to adults.Robbins eventually acclimatized on a arrangement that accustomed alike the best unskilled, amateur chump to actualize paintings that looked professional, if not absolutely absorbed with an artist’s originality. His paint-by-numbers kits were a bona fide awareness by the aboriginal 1950s.The aboriginal offerings were aside bandage drawings, created by Robbins himself, intricately disconnected into sections that corresponded to pre-mixed acrylic colors. Soon, an army of artists, alive beneath the Ability Master casting for Detroit-based Palmer Acrylic Co., were churning out kits based on Robbins’ model. Using the byword “Every man a Rembrandt,” 20 amateur kits were awash in 1955.Artists and critics were afraid that painting had been angry into a step-by-step apprenticeship adviser and accumulation marketed, but Robbins didn’t assume to mind. “I remembered audition that Leonardo acclimated numbered accomplishments patterns for his acceptance and apprentices, and I absitively to try commodity like that,” he already told the Associated Press.The paint-by-numbers chic comatose aural a decade, and Robbins’ bang-up awash the business. But he fabricated a mark, alike biting an art apple that derided his efforts. Andy Warhol riffed on the model, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Civic Museum of American History alike displayed an exhibition of paint-by-numbers pieces in 2001 and 2002. Robbins died at 93 alive he had afflicted legions of bodies who ability accept never best up a besom if not for him.“We like to anticipate dad was one of the most-exhibited artists in the world,” his son Larry Robbins told AP. “He enjoyed audition from accustomed people. He had a able box of fan letters.” — MurphyNorma Miller(Dec. 2, 1919–May 5, 2019)People were done with the flit and annoyed of the tango as the ‘20s came to a close. The chic that came abutting was swing, a vivacious, freewheeling brawl built-in in Harlem. Swing advance aloft brawl floors the apple over with the advice of the brawl accumulation Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, alleged for the Lindy Hop, an abnormally able-bodied affiliate of the exhausted brawl family. It was a specialty of Norma Miller, a ballerina who acceptable her atom in a accumulation that counted Dorothy Dandridge and Sammy Davis Jr. amid its members, and whose accomplishment and acclamation acceptable her the moniker “Queen of Swing.”Miller was a woman of abounding specialties. A Harlem native, she formed as a choreographer, actor, columnist and a Redd Foxx-backed comedian. But actuality a atramentous babe in aboriginal 20th-century America was a accident with bound paths adjoin success. Her mother bankrupt houses, and Miller acceptable faced a agnate activity of adamantine labor, but she was acutely an all-powerful talent. By 5, Miller was wowing locals at aptitude shows. She and her aberrant bound were apparent alfresco the acclaimed Savoy Ballroom and, by 14, she was in Paris assuming with Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s, the accumulation set the accepted for exhausted on all-embracing tours and in movies like the 1941 aloft motion account Hellzapoppin’. Miller, who anesthetized abroad this year of congestive affection abortion at 99 in her Fort Myers home, was not aloof the youngest affiliate of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers but additionally the aftermost actual member. Into her 90s, she was teaching exhausted courses, speaking at engagements, choreographing dances and basic music. In the documentary about her, Queen of Swing, Miller summed up the abstruse to her continued and alive life: “Keep on swingin’.” —Solomon GustavoBarbara Hillary (June 12, 1931–Nov. 3, 2019)Barbara Hillary was not an explorer. Because she was the aboriginal atramentous woman to ability the North Pole, and the aboriginal to acme the South Pole, she is generally declared as one, agreement her in the aggregation of audacious trekkers like Robert Peary and Matthew Henson.She able those firsts almost recently, extensive the North Pole in 2007 and the South Pole in 2011, a aeon afterwards men aboriginal set basal on either spot. Hillary was commodity more: a cultural adventurer, charting paths advanced by atramentous women like her — but additionally paths that few cartel traverse. The Harlem native, built-in in 1931, fabricated her pole expeditions in her 70s (North, age 75; South, 79). She consistently capital to biking and, afterwards backward afterwards added than 50 years as a nurse, began authoritative affairs to appointment non-touristy locations. How abounding atramentous women afore her, how abounding bodies in general, accept apparent Paris? Now, how abounding accept been to the actual tippy-top and actual basal of the globe? She went to Manitoba to photograph arctic bears, and went dog-sledding in Quebec, and afresh she abstruse no atramentous woman had been to either pole afore and absitively to be the one. Those treks are arduous, with stretches of acute hiking and skiing acute immense backbone adjoin acrid acclimate altitude that would bassinet an amateur of any age. She assassin a trainer and started bistro added vegetables.It was the affectionate of claiming that appealed to Hillary, who commonly stared bottomward aerial obstacles throughout her life. She exhausted breast blight in her 20s and lung blight at 67. In Queens, New York, she founded and was the editor-in-chief of The Peninsula Magazine, a nonprofit multi-racial advertisement that was the aboriginal of its affectionate in the area. She said she abhorred accent and maintained beatitude and a youthful, pole-summiting spirit, by allotment to break unmarried. In 2017, she batten at the admission of the New School, her alma mater, and brash the grads, “At every appearance in your life, attending at your options. Please, do not baddest arid ones.”   That was Hillary’s style. She created her own desires, destinations that she accomplished by afterward a ambit of her own making. — GustavoScott Walker(Jan. 9, 1943–March 22, 2019)

How to Draw a Soccer Ball Step by Step Drawing Tutorial with .. | cartoon soccer ball step by step How could one ability an adapted epigraph to sum up the atypical agreeable activity of Scott Walker? Can you brainstorm Frank Sinatra in his afterwards years accommodating with a doom metal band? Or Justin Timberlake auctioning abroad distinction for cigarettes, sunglasses, Bertolt Brecht and slabs of raw meat as bang instruments? Walker did it his way, and afresh some. Fresh from a assignment as a boyish affair artisan in L.A., Walker (born Noel Scott Engel) became one-third of the Walker Brothers in the mid-1960s; they became actual sensations in the U.K., bond beat-combo moves with symphonic grandeur, acquiescent hits like “Make It Easy on Yourself” and the abiding “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.” Anon enough, Walker begin that the agreeable admirers and the pop activity weren’t for him, at one point apocryphally exhausted to a abbey to get his arch calm afore actuality ejected by the monks as admirers besieged the gates. Walker addled out on his own, and from 1967 to 1969 crafted four of the best admirable and affecting albums of all time, the eponymous Scotts 1 through 4. This was Walker at his best iconic: sunglasses, abandoned crew and a soaring, awfully attractive articulation alms no achievement whatsoever. Latterly hailed as the actuality by artists from David Bowie to Thom Yorke, these albums had the net aftereffect of antibacterial his career, eventually banishment him aback into the accoutrements of the Walker Brothers for a alliance in 1975, but Scott couldn’t alike do a contemptuous cash-grab right, penning the adverse “Nite Flights” and “The Electrician,” two aflame hits of dystopian electro-pop that still complete accompaniment of the art, pointing the way to accessible sonic futures alike now. From there, Walker began his bit-by-bit dematerialization act, exhausted to a activity based about the simple pleasures of bicycling, seeing movies, and activity to the pub and watching audience comedy darts. He’d appear every few years with ever-more aggressive and affective alone assignment — Climate of Hunter, Tilt and The Drift — but by the time Walker was accustomed the hagiography analysis in the 2006 documentary 30 Aeon Man, it was bright he wasn’t activity to accord admirers a boastful acknowledgment to the stage. Instead of the homesickness circuit, he gave them aberrant and admirable assignment like the active allotment for brawl “And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?,” collaborations with Sunn O))) and Bat for Lashes, a final alone album, Bish Bosch and two blur array for Brady Corbet.Walker anesthetized agilely this year due to complications from cancer, bewilderment absolutely intact. — Matthew Moyer Ken Nordine(April 13, 1920–Feb. 16, 2019)You may not apperceive Ken Nordine’s name, but affairs are you’ve heard his voice. Over the advance of a 60-year-plus career, Nordine put the “art” into the abstraction of a annotation artist. His cottony baritone graced the airwaves of Chicago radio stations, address The World’s Great Novels and added programs. He was additionally the articulation abaft several educational films, so if your abecedary anytime acclimated a woefully age-old filmstrip in class, you ability admit his timbre. His best constant creations, though, were his Word Applesauce albums, on which, over abetment advance of air-conditioned jazz, Nordine tells belief or acts out scenarios with a accurate focus on exhausted and sound.Nordine’s success with the Word Applesauce alternation acceptable him a account affairs of the aforementioned name on flagship NPR abject WBEZ in Chicago, and the appearance concluded up active for added than 40 years. His 1967 Colors album, in which Nordine expounds aloft the personalities of assorted hues, charcoal a admired of those absorbed in offbeat curiosities from yesteryear. (It grew out of his radio commercials for the Fuller Acrylic Company.)Lines from his recordings accept been sampled in songs by Aesop Rock, Pizzicato Bristles and the Orb, and in 2007, David Bowie himself asked Nordine to accomplish at the High Bandage Festival in New York.Nordine anesthetized abroad on Feb. 16, 2019, at the age of 98, preceded three years beforehand by Beryl Vaughn, his wife of 71 years. — Thaddeus McCollumSahar Khodayari(birthdate unknown, 1990–Sept. 9, 2019)Football — not the American affectionate — is the world’s sport, in allotment because of its low barriers to entry. You don’t charge any big-ticket accessories to alpha a soccer game, aloof a ball. But in Iran, bisected the citizenry is barred from entering sports stadiums. Women accept not been accustomed to watch their admired teams in actuality aback the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This has led some women to beard themselves as men in adjustment to appear games, alike admitting actuality bent acceptable agency imprisonment and accessible torture.One woman, 29-year-old Sahar Khodayari, absitively to booty the accident to see a bout at Tehran’s Azadi Amphitheater amid Esteghlal FC — her admired aggregation — and Al-Ain FC. She dressed as a man, but didn’t accomplish it to her bench afore actuality noticed and arrested by aegis guards for “openly committing a amiss act.” After actuality arise on bail, Khodayari was told that she was attractive at a six-month bastille sentence. In protest, she larboard the courthouse, caked gasoline on herself and lit herself on fire.She died in hospital a ceremony later.Since her death, FIFA, the all-embracing administering anatomy of football, abreast Iran that women charge be accustomed to appear appointed Apple Cup condoning matches demography abode in Iran. On Oct. 11, the Iranian civic aggregation exhausted Cambodia 14-0, animated on by 3,500 women sitting in a absolute area of the stadium. — McCollumLil Bub(April 2011–Dec. 1, 2019)It’s been a bad year for viral cats. Not alone did Grumpy Cat, conceivably the best bartering of all the internet beastly celebs, die in May, but aloof as we accomplished putting this commodity together, the consummate Lil Bub anesthetized abroad in her sleep, victim of a assiduous cartilage infection.Lil Bub’s “dude,” Mike Bridavsky, begin her in an Indiana barn in 2011, the runt of a clutter accepted to die bound due to her dwarfism and added abiogenetic anomalies. Enchanted by her billowing eyes and chubby legs, Bridavsky took in the toothless, droopy-tongued “permakitten” and gave her a activity aloft artful imagining, abounding of hand-fed ambiguous yogurt and specialized medical absorption — and she alternate his alert affliction tenfold in grit, spunk, and ambrosial cheeps, snorks and chirrs. (Truly, Bub seemed to allege a accent all her own, accompanying to but not the aforementioned as approved housecats’ meows.) Not alone did Bridavsky’s abounding Bub-centric $.25 of merch — socks, T-shirts, costly toys, fridge magnets — prove catnip to her internet fans, the monies aloft were donated to assorted beastly shelters and rescues for special-needs cats. And not alone did Bub’s camp mug affection on customer goods, she starred in a Vice documentary (Lil Bub & Friendz), hosted 14 episodes of a allocution appearance (Lil Bub’s Big Show, with guests including Michelle Obama and Steve Albini), recorded her own anthology (Science and Magic, with a awning analogy by Orlando artisan Johannah O’Donnell) and guested on Run the Jewels’ artful remix album, Meow the Jewels. Bridavsky consistently claimed Lil Bub was a “magical amplitude being,” and whether she came from alien amplitude or not, she absolutely seems to be magic: She aloft $700,000 for beastly charities in her abbreviate life, and brought immeasurable joy to millions. Good job, Bub. — Jessica YoungAgnès Varda

Soccer ball icon icon cartoon – cartoon images of soccer balls - cartoon soccer ball step by step | cartoon soccer ball step by step (May 30, 1928–March 29, 2019)She’s sometimes alleged the mother — or grandmother — of the French New Wave of cinema, but Agnès Varda was added of an Auntie Mame type: whimsical, generous, but nobody’s chump or den mom. Her assignment was apparent by a academic accuracy that afflicted her adolescent Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, but her angry humanism — a abysmal affair for women and workers — buoyed her aloft the style-obsessed pack. Her contempo accord with French muralist JR, Faces Places, acquired her added absorption in 2018 than she’d apparent aback the ‘80s. With her two-toned basin cut, sneakers and apart tracksuits and pajamas — although, we note, they were by Gucci — Varda was a acceptable haimish attendance on the awards season’s red carpets, attractive like a comfortable little kitchen witch amid the gazelle-like starlets.She inhabited the blur apple in the aforementioned way — assuming up aback and area and absolutely how she chose, afterward no rules but her own. Rather than stick with the anecdotal films that won her acclamation (Cléo From 5 to 7; One Sings the Added Doesn’t) she followed her brood to documentaries (Mur Murs; Jacquot de Nantes). She fabricated agilely dramatized biopics of her admired ones’ lives, casting ancestors associates as actors, and amid herself into her documentaries; she fabricated dramas, comedies, a sci-fi apologue and a feminist musical.More aphorism breaking: Afterwards accident backbone with the acceptable brawl of flat backing, she founded her own assembly aggregation to handle her films and those of her husband, Jacques Démy; but she ran the appointment (located aloft the artery from her home) like a shop, generally hand-selling DVDs to visitors or acceptance them to watch her editing. “I adulation actuality able to accept the absolute acquaintance with bodies who are consumers. It’s like a peasant, you know, who grows tomatoes and you can arise and buy the tomatoes at the farm,” she bubbled to Sight Complete annual in 2011.Her final film, Varda by Agnès, was arise posthumously in November. It’s a self-directed attendant of her 60-year career, a alive and antic flash to an bulk absent consistently with beastly behavior in the face of mortality. — YoungWalter Mercado(March 9, 1932–Nov. 2, 2019)Walter Mercado was abundant added than a TV astrologer built-in in Ponce, Puerto Rico. By the time he died at age 87 on Nov. 2, he had created a cultural bequest far aloft the televised predictions beheld by millions of abuelitas aloft Latin America: Mercado had become an figure and afflatus for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual bodies active in Latinx society.“This is a ability that’s been bedeviled by adulthood and homophobia for a actual continued time,” blur ambassador Alex Fumero told Fox Account aloft his passing. “He was absolutely brave.” It didn’t booty acumen to apperceive Mercado’s on-screen persona, a stylistic cantankerous amid Carolina Herrera and Liberace, was an act of courage. He endemic added than 2,000 capes and acicular to admirers through the camera lens with fingers adorned in bright rings. He never about discussed his sexuality, but he absolutely let audiences apperceive which aggregation he played for.In his decades of appearances on Telemundo Puerto Rico, Mercado became a accepted point of affiliation amid awesome oldsters and advanced adolescence — conceivably alike added so afterwards he confused to Florida to advertisement on Univision. In college, he had advised pharmacology, attitude and pedagogy, afore acceptable a acclaimed ballet ballerina and amphitheater star, and afterwards actualization in telenovelas. His admirers will conceivably bethink him best by his catchphrase, somehow alike added allusive afterwards his death: “Pero sobre todo, mucho, mucho, abounding amor,” or “Above all, much, much, abundant love.” — Dave PlotkinBill Buckner(Dec. 14, 1949–May 27, 2019)When he afraid up his cleats afterwards a arena career that continued aloft an absurd four decades, one of alone 29 ballplayers to do so in baseball’s absolute history, Bill Buckner laid affirmation to an absurd account of achievements. And those numbers and stats attending alike added absorbing now, 29 years afterwards his retirement. He ranks amid the top 200 men to anytime comedy the bold in hits (2,715, baronial 66th), RBIs (1,208, baronial 150th) and extra-base hits (721, baronial 174th). He was an All Star, a batting best and an advocate for the bold continued afterwards he stepped off the field, until his afterlife this year from Lewy anatomy dementia at the age of 69.After 22 seasons with stints spanning the Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, Angels and Royals, Buckner confused to Boise, Idaho, with his wife and three children, area he backward complex with the game, abutting the Boise Accompaniment baseball aggregation as a hitting adviser in 2012. For all his blatant stats and contributions that helped the Red Sox accomplish the 1986 Apple Series, his bequest was abundant more. As Gary Van Tol, who was the Boise Accompaniment drillmaster while Buckner was with the team, said, “He accomplished me humility, dignity, adroitness and patience.”And yet, he’s remembered in accepted ability for one error, an abominable absurdity during Bold 6 of the 1986 Apple Series, aback he was at aboriginal abject for the Red Sox. The Red Sox absent the abutting bold and with that the series; and Boston fans, rarely acclaimed for the advantage of forgiveness, focused their ire on Buckner, aqueous taunts, boos and alike afterlife threats on him. The heckling was best up by opposing teams and their fans, and followed him for years.   Seventy-eight players, abounding of whom played far beneath amateur than Buckner during his career, accept fabricated added errors at aboriginal abject than the allegorical stalwart. None of them were affected to move to Idaho to additional themselves and their ancestors the taunts and abhorrence of sports admirers and reporters who affliction far added about the after-effects of amateur than the altruism of the players that comedy them. — Vince GrzegorekDonald “Nick” Clifford (July 5, 1921–Nov. 23, 2019)We body things, ample and small, acting and permanent, and afresh years afterwards we curiosity at them. The names attached, through the names of these things themselves — congenital by, alleged for or committed to — are monumental, notable ones. But we additionally marvel, conceivably afterwards alive or absolutely recognizing, at the bodies who congenital these things, the men and women who toiled in means big and small, through account or labor, to accomplish them reality. So for all the names associated with Mount Rushmore — the four presidents, to alpha with; followed by Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum, the father-son sculptor and artisan aggregation who advised the monument; followed still by Doane Robinson, the South Dakota accompaniment historian who aboriginal conjured up the abstraction of a across-the-board mountainside carve to drive day-tripper cartage to a alone allotment of the accompaniment — let us additionally admire Nick Clifford, who died this year at the age of 98. Clifford was the aftermost active artisan who helped body Mount Rushmore, a job he fell into afterwards actuality recruited by the Borglums to South Dakota to comedy for a baseball aggregation they’d put together. Assignment began in 1927 and lasted 14 years, and aback Clifford angry 17 in 1938 and could authorize to assignment the site, he jumped at the adventitious to accompany the added 400 men. Bisected a aeon later, Clifford was anytime appreciative of his addition and was generally present at the Mount Rushmore allowance boutique to assurance copies of his book about the work, which paid accolade to the added workers who created the monument. Recognition for them was adamantine to arise by above-mentioned to Rushmore’s 50th anniversary, but with the anniversary came interviews and a adventitious for Clifford to aggrandize on his and their histories, while advantageous account to its designers.“None of us were sculptors,” Clifford, who was additionally a Apple War II veteran, said in one interview. “We had alone one sculptor — that was Mr. Gutzon Borglum.”A few years afore his death, Clifford said: “I feel like Mount Rushmore was the greatest affair with which I was anytime involved. It tells a adventure that will never go abroad — the adventure of how America was fabricated and the men who helped accomplish it what it is today.”Clifford was one of them, and let us bethink his adventure too. — Grzegorek 

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Fig Neutrons

Alright, if the cheeky name wasn’t obvious enough – today’s recipe is a healthy snack take on one of our favorite prior treats. Figs are one of Stacy’s favorite fruits, but their season is so short-lived, this dried-fruit version means we can snack with that delicious flavor all year long.

This recipe is our version of a date ball, but made mostly of figs. Obvious similar sounding Nabisco cookie aside, we call them fig neutrons after neutron stars because they’re clearly exactly the same. Like the astronomical feature, they’re dense, composed mainly of dried fruits, and definitely the remains of a collapsed star after a supernova or a trip through a food processor.

We decided to embark on a date ball project with some delicious figs after finding the Smyrna figs are super soft and tasty. These are the brownish-yellow figs as opposed to the dark mission figs you see most often. They’re honestly the best figs we’ve ever found. We added a couple of pantry staples to the mix, namely dates, walnuts, and dried coconut, and pulsed until combined.

Then all that’s left is the rolling! Not only is this a simple snack to make, but your kids will love to use the food processor (make sure to supervise for safety as is age appropriate) and roll the balls. Even your cynical 12 year olds who seem to only wear Rick & Morty shirts!

Are Figs Good for You?

Why might you want to eat figs, though? Well, figs have one of the highest fiber contents of any dried fruit, with 4g per serving. Not only that but they’re high in anti-oxidant polyphenols, meaning they fight oxidative damage and reduce cancer risk. They also have smaller quantities of a variety of nutrients, especially potassium and vitamin K. Fig Neutrons are not the empty calories their cookie cousins are!

Ingredients

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. Resulting mixture will be a chunky paste consistency.

Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Roll 2 Tbsp amounts into 1 inch diameter balls.

Optional: roll balls in coconut flakes

3.1

http://realeverything.com/fig-neutrons/

Matthew

Matt used to be a shy, nervous, anxious guy. Reclaiming his life with healthy lifestyle enabled him to now be full of confidence and bravado. He's got a lot of strong opinions and a ridiculously deep knowledge and memory of "useless triva" his Thirsty Brain loves to absorb. While he himself can take a hit to the chin if you don't agree with his view point, he'll defend his wife's honor like no other.

Source: http://realeverything.com/fig-neutrons/

[thrivinglifewithbipolar]

How it all started.

Mental health issues were taboo when I was younger. If you struggled with something, there must have been something “really wrong” with you. 

When I was 19 and a sophomore in college- a state away from home, I learned the news that my neighbor growing up had passed away. I knew he had cancer, but I did not know just how bad he had been for the last week of his life. His death was still a shock to me, as I knew he was sick but did not know the end was so near. His name was Les. He was a wonderful family friend and served as a father figure to me. He also mentored my father. 

It all started with depression. I had struggled with depression for years, but I never knew it. I could never put words to it. It just was. It is just how life was, always. I thought that was how life was for everyone. I thought that is what growing up was. 

I had been paralyzed by social anxiety, panic attacks and depression for years, but I didn’t realize there was a cause, a diagnosis, or even words to explain it. I thought that was just me. That I was messed up and insecure. That I just couldn’t be happy like other people because I wasn’t made to be happy or successful. I wasn’t made to be a leader. I wasn’t made to enjoy life. I wasn’t made to be comfortable in my own skin. My purpose was merely to help, submit, and allow others to thrive.

These were all lies. 

My first memories of debilitating anxiety were in my freshman year of high school. All situations seemed to have more weight and importance than they should have. I got sick to my stomach daily from the pressure I had put on myself. I will never forget my first semester in Spanish class. I had been making friends, we had our first tests, people found out I was smart and I felt good about myself. But from that, I put more pressure on myself. I was humble and insecure. People thought I was good, but to me, I was never good enough. I wanted to be wanted and needed and respected. The pressure I had put on myself - I can’t even put it in to words - but it fueled my anxiety. My stomach would churn, and make noises. I wore layers and layers of clothes (in Phoenix, AZ) trying to stifle the sound. My posture changed and I slouched and curled into a ball. I started to gain weight. I tried to disappear into myself. I tried to become invisible. If they wouldn’t notice me, they wouldn’t hold me to the same standards I held myself to. 

To be continued... 

[lindyloushortstories-blog]

One Last Time

           Like some of you, God blessed me with the most loving and devoted parents a child could hope to have.

           As the pages unfold of my childhood memories, it occurred to me that a good part of my life, I waved or tried to see Daddy one last time before he disappeared from my sight.

           Daddy got this crazy notion to join the Navy his idea of stability and a great career.  Not too bad of an idea, except for the fact my parents lived in Edmonton where there isn’t an ocean, not to mention the fact that Mom was pregnant with me. And all her family as well as Dad’s were there. This meant he was to set things up in Victoria before Mom gave birth, then she was to fly to Victoria to start a new life with a sailor, a new baby and living in unfamiliar territory, with no family or friends around. Mom really loved him to agree to all of this, since sailors are hardly ever home.    

             He wasn’t there when I made my entrance.  This would be the first of many missed events.  He wired Mom beautiful flowers and card; these words were in all the cards and letters, he sent in the years to follow.                                                                                                                                                                

           Sorry I wasn’t there. I miss you both. See you soon. Love always and forever, Johnny.

           At one month, I had my first plane ride to Victoria, Daddy anxiously waiting for us. This was the first time he held me in his arms and of course, he probably couldn’t take his eyes off his little princess. Fast forward through all of the adjustments Mom made friends, learned to drive,( that was a hoot) and settled into the routine of a sailor’s wife and mother.

            By the tender age of six, Dad was truly the love of my life.  There’s a special bond between a father and his little princess that grows deeper throughout the years. I’d see other fathers home more often than mine and wonder why he was away so much.

           In between trips, I treasured the time he had at home. We played baseball, he taught me to ride my bike and just shared quiet times together.

           When he was home between trips he still had to go to work at the Naden Base. Usually the mornings were wet, cold and dark, with the fog-horn bellowing in the distance. On these mornings the front door closed which meant he was on his way, walking up the long road past my bedroom to catch the bus to Esquimalt. Jumping out from the bed, I ran to the window to wave good-bye. Dad would look up, we waved to each other he would turn and proceed to walk up the road to the bus stop, hands pushed into the pockets of his overcoat, the rain pelting on his white cap. My cheek was pressed hard against the window as I watched him one last time before he disappeared from sight.

           When he had to sail away to some distant country, the good-byes were the hardest. The longest time we spent apart, I was about thirteen.  He was drafted to Halifax for a year. He had been gone for nine months, when without warning one evening, there was a knock on the front door. I answered it and there, to my surprise, stood Daddy, smiling holding his bags. Stunned, I couldn’t speak. I turned and ran to get Mom.  Needless to say we were elated. (He had gotten a week’s leave because of his mother’s passing.) Unfortunately he had three months left to serve before the year was ended. This good-bye was the hardest.

           Mom and I drove him to the bus station so he could take the bus to the airport. The night air was damp and rather desolate when we dropped him off. We cried and hugged each other, promising not to look back, but as we drove away I had to glance back one last time, tears streaming down my checks.

           I love you Daddy! I sobbed.

           By the dim station light, he bent down to pick-up the duffle bag, wiping his eyes with his handkerchief.

           In the years that followed, he retired after serving twenty-five years in the Navy. We moved back to Edmonton. What a change for me after growing-up in Victoria. He retired from two more good jobs I got married, and had three children. Unfortunately on December 13, 2000 my beautiful mother passed away from cancer.  We missed mom so very much. I became his world.

           For the time we had together, he’d cut my grass, come shopping, help clean the house, along with other tasks so as to feel useful. Our long walks were an important part of our lives. It was a time to reminisce.

           “Hey, Dad did you ever wish you had a son?”

           “No never. You are my princess and that’s all that matters,” he replied teary eyed.

           Every evening at 9:00 p.m. we’d phone, chat for a bit and say good night, but this one particular evening he sounded terribly weak and hadn’t gotten out of bed. I found this alarming. My son and I raced over to check. Daddy looked like death, he was so pale. Trying not to panic I hugged him tightly then phoned the ambulance.  The doctors whisked him into a little cubicle. The only man in my life who I loved and adored was on the verge of passing away.  My knees buckled and heart breaking I overheard one of the doctors asking Daddy if his affairs were in order.

           “This isn’t happening, he can’t leave me,” I sobbed.

           Sitting in the waiting room, watching people come and go, everyone looking sad, tired and hurting, all I could do was stare at the clock and curl up in the chair waiting for some good news. At four in the morning the doctor came to me and said to go home, Daddy had pulled through and was resting. I broke down and cried tears of joy.

           Driving home with my son, I realized how close I came to losing him. Life can change in a heart-beat, just as it had with Mom. Nothing can prepare us for the loss of a loved one.

           I crawled under the covers when I got home, for a few hours of rest.  Daylight appeared and the phone hadn’t rung.  No dreaded call.  I rushed to the hospital, found a parking space then preceded to information to find out what room he was in.

           Quietly opening the door I tipped-toed up to the bed.  Poor Daddy had some tubes and IVS hooked up to him, but he didn’t hear me enter. Through tear filled eyes I stroked his forehead while he slept. The doctor later told me that he had fluid around his heart causing pressure.

           As the weeks passed I visited him almost every day. I could see the improvement in his health; he even got a television in his room.

           “Hi, Daddy I love you,” I said.

           “Hi, my princess, there’s an old movie on, come and watch it with me,” he’d say.

             I thought he’d be coming home, but after two months, he took a turn for the worst. One evening I entered his room and found him sitting on the chair. I leaned over and kissed him.  He looked so well groomed but his face was that of a child.

           In a whispered voice he said, “The pastor was here today and everything is in order.”

           “Don’t say that Daddy. You’re coming home. You can’t leave me,” I cried.

             Holding onto him tightly, I saw him grimacing in pain so I led him to bed, tucked him in,

 where he fell asleep. Gazing upon his sweet face tears rolled down my cheeks.

           A few days later the hospital phoned saying dad had passed. Walking towards the room reminded me of the same as my mother years before.

Now I stood beside the bed shaking, crying and numb with disbelief, unable to leave him. I fixed the covers under his chin, touched and kissed his forehead for the last time.

           How could I ever exist without this beautiful person who had been my father, best friend and mentor for fifty-four years? The most loving father a girl could have, who taught me to ride a bike, play ball and so many other things in life, but most of all gave me his unconditional love.

           Standing next to the brown casket, I look down into the open plot knowing Mom is waiting for her soul-mate of fifty-three years.

           The sun shone brightly down upon the lonely flower covered casket, the limo turned the corner, tears streamed down my face, as I turned around to see the casket one last time.            

            I will love you always Daddy! I wept.  

           I will someday embrace my wonderful parents and there will be no more one last time but forever.

[love-heights]

From Kindergarten to Cancer, This Love Story Defies All of Life’s Struggles

“The soldier never forgot his childhood crush, and once they reunited, neither war nor illness would keep them apart.”

James Garish is no spelling bee champ—in fact, he dropped out of school at 14 and spent more than half a decade in dead-end jobs before enlisting in the Army in 2008. But Garish never forgot the tricky string of letters that added up to the last name of his kindergarten crush, Elizabeth Stipkovits. He also never forgot the girl behind the name, which is why he typed it into his laptop one lonely night in 2010 while serving in Iraq.

“I started wondering how life had turned out for her,” said Garish, 34. He found her still living in ­Mc­Keesport, Pennsylvania, the working-class city where they had grown up. So he sent a friend request on Facebook.

Stipkovits had no idea who he was. She was half a world away, a single mother raising her six-year-old daughter, Maleena. But her mother did recall a James Garish.

“She told me I was in kindergarten with him. Then I remembered,” Stipkovits said. “He was ‘Little Bad Jimmy,’ the class clown, the one always getting yelled at by the teacher.” That the onetime five-year-old handful remembered her and her hard-to-spell name stopped her in her tracks.

That was eight years ago. The relationship that unspooled from that friend request has bound together Garish and Stipkovits in a foxhole of brokenness, determination, and love.

In 2014, four years after they reconnected, 31-year-old Stipkovits received her first breast cancer diagnosis. The cancer returned twice and metastasized. At the end of 2017, she was being treated for cancer in her femur and lung. In January, it had spread to her brain. “Little Bad Jimmy,” now a super­visor at a ­McKeesport Rite-Aid, never left her side.

“Chemo has taken a lot of my memory,” said Stipkovits. “But he always reminds me he’s been in love with me since kindergarten.”

Garish had only six months left in his three years of active duty when he friended Stipkovits on Facebook. Her calls brought relief from his high-stakes job as an escort for explosive ordnance disposal specialists, the military experts who get rid of explosive weapons.

“We would go out on up to seven missions a day. It was stressful, and I was sleep-deprived. One of the things I looked forward to most was talking on the phone with Liz,” said Garish, who was deployed with the third infantry division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Stipkovits knew how he felt, far away from friends and family. Her dad is a retired chief in the Navy and served in Kuwait. “Sometimes you just really need someone to vent to,” she said.

Stipkovits was delighted to be his someone. When Garish impulsively bought a plane ticket home for Christmas in 2010, she was even more delighted by the surprise of him on her front porch.

“It was dark out and he pulled me close, and it felt good,” Stipkovits said.

By the following summer, Garish had completed his service and moved back to McKeesport. He spent most of his time at Stipkovits’s house, coloring and playing games with ­Maleena while Stipkovits, then still healthy, worked as a medical secretary.

Reintegration to civilian life took time. “The neighborhood I lived in wasn’t the safest, and I had to give myself time to readjust to the point where I could be in groups of people and not freak out,” Garish said.

He had never been married and had no children, but Garish had shown an inclination to care for them. Before he and Stipkovits reunited in 2010, he’d donated much of his first Army paycheck, around $600, to Jamie’s Dream Team, a local charity. The money helped a six-year-old boy suffering from the genetic disorder Marfan syndrome go on a long-wished-for camping trip.

On August 20, 2017, three years after her first cancer diagnosis, Stipkovits was being fitted with a portable defibrillator at UPMC Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh. “I think we deserve something good to happen,” Garish said out of the blue. “Will you marry me?”

Stipkovits laughed. “It was just so funny,” she said. “I was in a hospital bed, dying. I looked at him and said, ‘You just want the insurance money.’”

But behind the laughter was elation. “I had the same wish every little girl does of a fairy-tale wedding, the crystals and the Cinderella ball gown. And I always told myself that if I found someone who bonded with my daughter in the manner he did, I would marry him.”

She said yes.

The fairy-tale fantasy, though, was far out of reach. The hospital bills were adding up, and Stipkovits had long been too sick to work.

But there are those around ­Mc­Keesport who believe in making dreams come true. Doctors had not told Stipkovits how long she could expect to keep fighting. But in late 2017, Lori McKown, an oncology social worker at the hospital, started contacting charities. A colleague told her about ­Jamie’s Dream Team. “Little did I know her fiancé had donated his first paycheck there,” she said.

Jamie Holmes, the founder of ­Jamie’s Dream Team, hadn’t forgotten Garish. “I was like, absolutely we’re going to put on a wedding for them,” she said.

On February 17, two months after Jamie’s Dream Team rallied more than a dozen Pittsburgh-area vendors to donate things such as flowers, a wedding cake, and a photo booth, Garish and Stipkovits were married before 200 guests at Old Stone Church in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

Stipkovits, flanked by four bridesmaids and Maleena, her maid of honor, wore a full-length white dress sewn with Swarovski crystals provided by the Exquisite Bride in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Her hair, full despite years of chemotherapy, was swept into a side ponytail. Garish, in a black tuxedo instead of his Army uniform, still wore a buzz cut.

The ceremony was punctuated by pauses so Stipkovits, who was on dialysis, could catch her breath and dab at her tears.

Guests didn’t seem worried at the reception when Stipkovits fell after Garish playfully pushed a piece of red velvet cake toward his new wife’s face. She quickly got up. Her father said, “This is the most energetic I’ve seen her in quite some time.”

Stipkovits and Garish had already endured more than most married couples. Before the wedding, Stip­kovits told Garish, “When we say our vows, the only thing we’ll have left to accomplish is till death do us part.”

A DJ played “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion for the first dance. The lyric “You were my strength when I was weak / You were my voice when I couldn’t speak” had onlookers in tears while Stipkovits and Garish held each other.

[eighthcircuit]

Okinawa, Japan

In August earlier this year, I was able to travel to Okinawa, Japan by way of The Okinawa Memories Initiative, a project organized by Alan Christy, a professor at U.C. Santa Cruz, my alma mater. Alan, who organized and oversaw the project (formerly called The Gail Project; it also included a larger student research component) co-led much of the tour with Atzuki Hiyoshi (Japanese name order), a local tour guide.

Alan, who I’ve described to friends and family as “the world’s biggest Okinawa nerd,” and Hiyoshi, who lives in Okinawa, together were able to provide deep insight into a fascinating island culture influenced alike (through trade, militarism and colonialism) by Taiwan, China, Japan, America and its native Ryukyuans.

Anthony Bourdain released a fantastic Parts Unknown episode that was my introduction to Okinawa, which I would highly recommend as either your own primer on Okinawa, or if any of what I’ve written below piques your interest, a continuation of the subject. That said, here are some things I saw and did in Okinawa that I think were particularly cool, fun and interesting.

Habushu

This is habushu, which I have tried to succinctly describe to others as “Okinawan snake liquor.” Describing it beyond that requires a minor dive into a few different facets of Okinawan culture.

The “liquor” used to make habushu is called awamori, which is a type of shochu. If you’re unfamiliar, shochu is a spirit made from rice. Compared to sake, which is a rice wine, shochu is closer in strength to vodka. Awamori is local to Okinawa, and from what I can gather, is unique in that it’s distilled from a specific strain of rice. My own assessment is that it differs from a more typical shochu in its stronger bite. It tastes a bit more “raw” than a standard shochu, which in my experience feels pretty clean, again, almost like vodka. Vodka-like this is not.

Habushu also contains a number of spices, and a species of snake called the Habu, which is indigenous to Okinawa. Frequently, outdoor locations on our trip would prominently display “Beware of Habu” signs. The Habu can mate for periods of up to 26 hours, so of course, plenty of men presumably wanted to drink the snake so they could fuck like the snake. It also looks kind of badass, which is great for enticing yen out of suckers like me.

The habushu I tried in this photo was from a vendor in the sprawling and winding kokusai dori, a covered shopping arcade with a considerable footprint in Okinawa’s capital city, Naha. The shopkeeper ladled the mini-shot I’m holding out of one of the two jars pictured. I believe I paid 800 yen, which is almost 8 dollars, for that little bit of magical snake drink.

While I was expecting something that tasted somewhere on the spectrum of middling-to-bad—which I was sure existed more for the novelty than taste—I was pleasantly surprised. It pretty much had the bite of regular awamori, times 10 or so. It tasted just about as “manly” as it looks.

Habushu is one of many Okinawan specialties (some others: Okinawan donuts, black pigs, koregusu hot sauce… there’s a bunch). You can buy a drink in most convenience stores, produced by Nanto Brewery called a Habu High Ball, a canned version of a drink you’ll find on many Okinawan restaurant menus. It’s exactly what it sounds like.

Tofuyo

This was one course of a pretty neat meal at a restaurant called Suitenro, which specializes in the cuisine that traditionally used to be served in Ryukyuan royal courts, castles and palaces. At the top is goya chanpuru, which is possibly the dish most emblematic of Okinawa. It consists of goya, or bitter melon, and a scramble of tofu, eggs and other vegetables and possibly meats.

Chanpuru is a word taken from the indigenous Okinawan language meaning “mixed,” or maybe more loosely, “some of this, some of that.” This is secondhand information, but I remember reading that this notion of “this and that” is both the defining idea of this staunchly Okinawan dish, as well as emblematic of Okinawa as a whole.

Of particular note, though, is the small bowl in the bottom center, a fermented tofu called “tofuyo.” Okinawa already has a distinct style of more regular tofu called “shima-dofu,” which is processed differently than in the rest of Japan. It has something to do with water; Google can tell you more (you will also commonly run into another style of Okinawan peanut tofu called “jimami tofu”).

Tofuyo is shima-dofu fermented in awamori and red koji, which is a common ingredient used to ferment all sorts of things in Japanese cuisine.

What makes this tofu special though is its totally fucking insane flavor. An individual little cube of tofuyo is served with its own utensil, which looks like a flattened toothpick (as you can see in my photo), because its flavor is so strong, people can generally only take small amounts at a time.

I would describe its flavor as equal parts strong cheese—like, think a roquefort—and booze. The awamori makes up a significant part of its flavor. I’ve been an adventurous eater for most of my life, and this was truly one of the gnarlier flavors I’ve encountered.

Goat Sashimi

This is goat sashimi. Yep—raw goat meat. How I even ended up trying something so unusual involves a little bit of a story.

After Naha, our trip stopped briefly in Nago, a city known for its beach-adjacent hotels (including a massive beach resort in which Bill Clinton famously stayed during the 2000 G8 summit, during which time Clinton and Vladimir Putin both wore kariyushi shirts—Okinawa’s version of the Hawaiian shirt—in turn giving the shirt style a major boost in popularity, to the point that they’re now a typical “business casual” look on the island).

Hiyoshi, the local tour guide I mentioned, invited me to accompany him to meet with an inn owner couple he knew in town. During tour guide gigs, Hiyoshi would sometimes have to stay in their cheaper inn, while his tour group lodged in a nicer hotel (I’m happy to report on our trip, Hiyoshi stayed in the same hotel we did). So, after a few years of that, he got to know the owners pretty well.

The night we arrived in Nago was the first night of Obon, a Buddhist holiday during which families gather and honor the spirits of their ancestors. A couple times during our evening with the inn owners, friends of theirs dropped by and left small gifts.

One of these guests, who ended up staying for the rest of the evening, Hiyoshi excitedly informed me in English was the mayor of Nago! I later found out his mayorship held considerable political significance.

During the time of our trip, Okinawa’s governor had recently passed away from pancreatic cancer, and a new election was imminent. Toguchi Taketoyo, the mayor, had been elected just six months prior, in February, on a pro-American military base campaign. Very briefly, for those unaware, since World War 2, the American military has maintained a significant presence in Okinawa for its strategic value both in America’s alliance with Japan, and as a deterrent to potential Chinese and North Korean aggression.

The rationale behind anti-American military base sentiment is pretty obvious. Foreign soldiers and foreign military equipment being given real estate on an already small island isn’t great! However, a candidate like Toguchi (who won by a slim margin) is still able to rally considerable support from those who benefit from the American military presence, be it through an increase in business, or simply getting along well with the American soldiers they know. Some people with low-paying jobs will also seek out work on military bases that pay higher than what they might otherwise find in the struggling Okinawan economy.

It’s a complex issue—one easily much more complex than I’m qualified to tackle, let alone in the condensed amount of space that I’m giving it. I would be inclined to agree with the anti-base side, but as an outsider, I don’t think it’s my place to take a strong stance one way or another.

All of this to say, Toguchi was great company. I don’t want to malign the man who showed me a great time, even if I may stand somewhat on the other side of the political divide in which he’s played a role.

By the way… during the time of our trip, Alan explained that the pro-base candidate in the governor’s race had been chosen and was actively campaigning, while an anti-base candidate had yet to be chosen. This lack of readiness, plus the precedent set by Toguchi’s election seemed to indicate that the pro-base candidate was very likely to win the governorship. But yet…! In October of this year, anti-base candidate Danny Tamaki was elected governor of Okinawa.

Right. This all began with goat sashimi.

I’ll admit that the exact reasons a plate of goat sashimi were put in front of me aren’t entirely clear to me, either due to the information being relayed secondhand to me through Hiyoshi’s translations, or because after I heard “raw goat meat” I got too excited to pay attention to the particulars. It happens.

I believe that the inn owners, or someone close to them, owned and raised this goat, and had it slaughtered for Obon. This was fresh goat meat from what I’m pretty sure was their own goat! It wasn’t something they ate routinely, but to celebrate Obon, they brought the goat out, both raw, and in a stew (which included chunks of meat from throughout the goat, regular meat and organs alike; this was delightful).

Raw goat meat, which a few online sources have informed me is unique to Okinawa and not otherwise found in Japan at large, is served with grated ginger, and a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar. The vinegar is meant to mask its smell. Either the vinegar did its job, or the it wasn’t a huge deal in the first place, because it smelled fine to me.

It tasted… alright! Unlike the habushu, the novelty outweighed the flavor a little bit. The pieces with the kinda bizarre-looking green bit attached to them were pretty chewy. Otherwise it had what I can only describe as a standard meat flavor.

I am, of course, grateful to Hiyoshi and the inn owners for their hospitality, and giving me the chance to try something for what very likely will be the only time in my life!

Squirrel and Grapes

These stickers for the very specific pairing of squirrels and grapes were available as part of a children’s sticker-collecting activity, I believe, at Shuri Castle, which was traditionally where the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom resided in days past, and is now a major tourist attraction.

Here’s the deal: royal Ryukyu art at the time prominently featured a specific handful of animals, including the tiger, which is not indigenous to Okinawa or Japan. The Okinawans knew about tigers through trade with China, so Okinawans were pretty much painting Chinese paintings of tigers when they would depict them in their own works of art.

Same with squirrels! They also were only found in China, so the ancient Ryukyuans were really painting what they thought squirrels looked like. While tigers were probably renowned for their vigor, ferociousness, and manly man attitude, what Okinawans knew about squirrels is that they bred like rabbits. Except, well, squirrels.

They were paired with grapes because, to the Ryukyuans, grapes were the fertility fruit, because, of course, there’s a lot of them in one bunch. Lots of squirrels and lots of grapes.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

This faded poster for Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge was featured prominently on the actual, real-life Hacksaw Ridge.

*BONUS* Black Egg

As a little bonus, here’s a black egg! Before Okinawa, I spent a few days in Hakone, a town known for its hot springs, located near Tokyo.

The eggs become black after being boiled in natural sulfuric pools in the mountains just outside of town, and can be purchased at a gift shop the top of the mountain with the springs used to make them.

According to local legend, eating one of these eggs has extended my life by seven years, and will do the same per egg, per person.

You’re able to eat them at little stations within the gift shop that include a place to deposit the shells, and some salt you can add for flavor. By most estimations, they just taste like a typical hard-boiled egg. The back of the pamphlet pictured behind the egg includes eight different graphs: four comparing and contrasting the whites between a standard egg and the black egg, and four doing the same with the yolk.

According to this impressive collection of data, the white of the egg does, in fact, taste the same, but it’s the the yolk that stands out with its more umami-rich flavor. I’m not gonna dispute the numbers!

*BONUS 2* Three Cats

There are cats everywhere in Okinawa, and as a major cat lover, I could not have been more delighted by this. There were even multiple cat-themed souvenir shops in Naha. As another bonus, here’s a photo I took of three stray cats in a local park full of them!

[turnberrycountryclub]

Tiger Woods Caps 2018 Season With Win at Tour Championship

ATLANTA – When the last chapter is penned in the groundbreaking and infinitely complicated life of Tiger Woods, Sept. 23, 2018, may get lost in the details.

His two-stroke victory at the Tour Championship on Sunday was impressive by any measure, but it wouldn’t qualify as his most dominant or his most clinical performance. If we’re being honest, his 80th PGA Tour bottle cap was like so many others, a battle of attrition that never allowed for a modicum of doubt.

There was a three-stroke lead to start the day, a birdie at the first to pad his advantage and a parade of nondescript pars that gave the season’s final round a marching band to nowhere feel. Given the gravity of what was a seminal moment in his career it felt so mundane, but then that’s always been the hallmark of his greatness.

After four back surgeries, four knee surgeries, an arrest for driving under the influence and more cringe moments than an episode of “America’s Got Talent,” this victory was so much more than the sum of its parts.

Social media was abuzz in the aftermath of Woods’ walk-off. From the depths of pain, pedestrian performances and poor choices Tiger put an exclamation point on what was already a successful return.

It had some calling this the greatest comeback in the history of sports, but then the car Woods was driving last Memorial Day only bounced off a few curbs, not a bus.

To be historically aware, Ben Hogan’s comeback after nearly dying in a car crash in 1949, a horrific event that was followed by a run that included eight major victories, should be considered the category leader on this front.

But as Tiger whipped a day’s worth of sweat from his face and considered his answer the more relevant question is where the 2018 Tour Championship ranks on his own lifetime resume.

“It’s certainly up there with obviously all the major championships I’ve won, Players, World Golf Championships. But this is under different circumstances,” said Woods, who closed with a 71 at East Lake for his first Tour victory since the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I just didn’t know whether this would ever happen again.”

Woods is normally averse to this type of nostalgia, but even if he wanted to take a deeper dive it’s not a debate that lends itself to instant analysis. When your career has been a nonstop highlight reel of fist pumps and unforgettable moments there’s no easy way to rank greatness.

For some, the 1997 Masters, his first major championship, stands alone as a career high-water mark; while others may lean toward the 2000 U.S. Open where he lapped the field by 15 strokes.

“Those were special because of the way he did it,” said Butch Harmon, Tiger’s swing coach from August 1993 to August 2002. But for Harmon the Tour Championship was different. “He had a chance to win the last two majors. It’s impressive that just two years ago he couldn’t pitch the ball on the green. It’s not exactly Ben Hogan, but it’s along those lines.”

As far as clinical brilliance, most would say the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool is the benchmark. It was Tiger’s first victory after his father, Earl, died following a brutal bout with cancer and was nothing short of a ball-striking show.

“That was his best ball-striking tournament he’s ever had. That’s a different deal,” said Hank Haney, who served as Tiger’s second set of eyes from March 2004 to May 2010.

But it’s the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines that may stand as the competitive and physical pinnacle of Tiger’s career. On a broken leg with a torn ACL he endured 72 grueling holes to finish tied with Rocco Mediate and eventually prevailed on the first hole of a sudden death playoff after 18 holes on Monday.

“That’s No. 1, it’s not even close,” Haney said. “He didn’t win [at East Lake] with a broken leg. At the U.S. Open he won on one leg. It is unbelievable that he came back from four back operations, but once you’ve established that you’re back and you’re healthy you knew he’s going to win. A lot of things had to happen, he got off the prescription drugs and got his back healthy. But I felt like this was going to happen and he’s not done.”

But if the ’08 U.S. Open is the standard by which Tiger’s career will always be measured, his performance at East Lake deserves to be considered with a wider lens. This wasn’t about fairways hit or birdies made, this was about rounding a corner many never imagined he could.

At his darkest moments last year there was doubt he’d ever be able to swing a golf club again, never mind throw an 11-under total at the world’s best. The game had passed him by the critics claimed and even if he did find his way off the surgeon’s table the current cast and crew were a different breed who would be immune to his dominant ways and the aura he once held over the game.

This wasn’t Hoylake in ’06 or Pebble Beach in ’00, but in many ways it was better. There’s nothing better in sports than a comeback story and Tiger’s journey from a broken and burdened man to beaming on a final green is nothing short of a reinvention.

“The world is full of people who want to see a comeback story. We’re all coming back from something, so when you see someone do it inspires people to fight through it,” said Sean Foley, who stepped in for Haney in August 2010 and served as Woods’ swing coach until August 2014.

It was only last summer that the most common image of Tiger was a mug shot taken after his DUI arrest. The grainy image looking back at the world was a testament to how far he’d fallen, an unshaven and blurry-eyed shadow of the player who once seemed so untouchable. He couldn’t play golf, he couldn’t even ride in a golf cart his back hurt so bad, and his inability to do the one thing he was truly great at left Tiger to his own devices.

As he recovered from fusion surgery on his lower back he began to miss the game and the things that he’d done to transform it. As he returned, slowly at first before picking up the pace this summer, he allowed the world to see a different side, a player who was appreciative of what amounted to a final chance to be great.

There was emotion on Sunday and unbridled joy. His first victory in five years may defy assessment, but for Tiger there was so much more to his week in Atlanta than the history books could ever reveal.

“It’s totally different because of what he’s been through, but I’d have to put [his victory at East Lake] up there with one of his greatest victories ever because of what he’s been through, the mental and physical, the disgrace,” Harmon said.

Maybe the 2018 Tour Championship won’t go down as Tiger’s masterpiece when he hangs up his Nikes. Maybe what awaits will be the true measure of his genius.

“The greatest accomplishment in sports is going to be when he’s No. 1 again and that’s going to be pretty soon,” Haney said. “When he returns to No. 1 it won’t be a debate.”

With fans stacked five and six rows deep along every fairway, probably the biggest crowd East Lake has seen since Bobby Jones was stalking the rolling hills, Tiger played the script he invented, a bullish version of what Stewart Cink once called a prevent defense.

The only change to this all-too-familiar routine was the pregnant pause he allowed himself after putting out on the 18th hole, slamming his putter into the ground and raising his arms in triumph.

In a historic twist it was the same green where Jones, who pulled off an impressive comeback of his own once, ended his golf career. It was only apropos that Tiger would complete his comeback and restart his career on the same spot.

By: Rex Hoggard | Source: golfchannel.com

The post Tiger Woods Caps 2018 Season With Win at Tour Championship appeared first on Turnberry Country Club.

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Tiger Woods Caps 2018 Season With a Win at Tour Championship!

ATLANTA – When the last chapter is penned in the groundbreaking and infinitely complicated life of Tiger Woods, Sept. 23, 2018, may get lost in the details.

His two-stroke victory at the Tour Championship on Sunday was impressive by any measure, but it wouldn’t qualify as his most dominant or his most clinical performance. If we’re being honest, his 80th PGA Tour bottle cap was like so many others, a battle of attrition that never allowed for a modicum of doubt.

There was a three-stroke lead to start the day, a birdie at the first to pad his advantage and a parade of nondescript pars that gave the season’s final round a marching band to nowhere feel. Given the gravity of what was a seminal moment in his career it felt so mundane, but then that’s always been the hallmark of his greatness.

After four back surgeries, four knee surgeries, an arrest for driving under the influence and more cringe moments than an episode of “America’s Got Talent,” this victory was so much more than the sum of its parts.

Social media was abuzz in the aftermath of Woods’ walk-off. From the depths of pain, pedestrian performances and poor choices Tiger put an exclamation point on what was already a successful return.

It had some calling this the greatest comeback in the history of sports, but then the car Woods was driving last Memorial Day only bounced off a few curbs, not a bus.

To be historically aware, Ben Hogan’s comeback after nearly dying in a car crash in 1949, a horrific event that was followed by a run that included eight major victories, should be considered the category leader on this front.

But as Tiger whipped a day’s worth of sweat from his face and considered his answer the more relevant question is where the 2018 Tour Championship ranks on his own lifetime resume.

“It’s certainly up there with obviously all the major championships I’ve won, Players, World Golf Championships. But this is under different circumstances,” said Woods, who closed with a 71 at East Lake for his first Tour victory since the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I just didn’t know whether this would ever happen again.”

Woods is normally averse to this type of nostalgia, but even if he wanted to take a deeper dive it’s not a debate that lends itself to instant analysis. When your career has been a nonstop highlight reel of fist pumps and unforgettable moments there’s no easy way to rank greatness.

For some, the 1997 Masters, his first major championship, stands alone as a career high-water mark; while others may lean toward the 2000 U.S. Open where he lapped the field by 15 strokes.

“Those were special because of the way he did it,” said Butch Harmon, Tiger’s swing coach from August 1993 to August 2002. But for Harmon the Tour Championship was different. “He had a chance to win the last two majors. It’s impressive that just two years ago he couldn’t pitch the ball on the green. It’s not exactly Ben Hogan, but it’s along those lines.”

As far as clinical brilliance, most would say the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool is the benchmark. It was Tiger’s first victory after his father, Earl, died following a brutal bout with cancer and was nothing short of a ball-striking show.

“That was his best ball-striking tournament he’s ever had. That’s a different deal,” said Hank Haney, who served as Tiger’s second set of eyes from March 2004 to May 2010.

But it’s the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines that may stand as the competitive and physical pinnacle of Tiger’s career. On a broken leg with a torn ACL he endured 72 grueling holes to finish tied with Rocco Mediate and eventually prevailed on the first hole of a sudden death playoff after 18 holes on Monday.

“That’s No. 1, it’s not even close,” Haney said. “He didn’t win [at East Lake] with a broken leg. At the U.S. Open he won on one leg. It is unbelievable that he came back from four back operations, but once you’ve established that you’re back and you’re healthy you knew he’s going to win. A lot of things had to happen, he got off the prescription drugs and got his back healthy. But I felt like this was going to happen and he’s not done.”

But if the ’08 U.S. Open is the standard by which Tiger’s career will always be measured, his performance at East Lake deserves to be considered with a wider lens. This wasn’t about fairways hit or birdies made, this was about rounding a corner many never imagined he could.

At his darkest moments last year there was doubt he’d ever be able to swing a golf club again, never mind throw an 11-under total at the world’s best. The game had passed him by the critics claimed and even if he did find his way off the surgeon’s table the current cast and crew were a different breed who would be immune to his dominant ways and the aura he once held over the game.

This wasn’t Hoylake in ’06 or Pebble Beach in ’00, but in many ways it was better. There’s nothing better in sports than a comeback story and Tiger’s journey from a broken and burdened man to beaming on a final green is nothing short of a reinvention.

“The world is full of people who want to see a comeback story. We’re all coming back from something, so when you see someone do it inspires people to fight through it,” said Sean Foley, who stepped in for Haney in August 2010 and served as Woods’ swing coach until August 2014.

It was only last summer that the most common image of Tiger was a mug shot taken after his DUI arrest. The grainy image looking back at the world was a testament to how far he’d fallen, an unshaven and blurry-eyed shadow of the player who once seemed so untouchable. He couldn’t play golf, he couldn’t even ride in a golf cart his back hurt so bad, and his inability to do the one thing he was truly great at left Tiger to his own devices.

As he recovered from fusion surgery on his lower back he began to miss the game and the things that he’d done to transform it. As he returned, slowly at first before picking up the pace this summer, he allowed the world to see a different side, a player who was appreciative of what amounted to a final chance to be great.

There was emotion on Sunday and unbridled joy. His first victory in five years may defy assessment, but for Tiger there was so much more to his week in Atlanta than the history books could ever reveal.

“It’s totally different because of what he’s been through, but I’d have to put [his victory at East Lake] up there with one of his greatest victories ever because of what he’s been through, the mental and physical, the disgrace,” Harmon said.

Maybe the 2018 Tour Championship won’t go down as Tiger’s masterpiece when he hangs up his Nikes. Maybe what awaits will be the true measure of his genius.

“The greatest accomplishment in sports is going to be when he’s No. 1 again and that’s going to be pretty soon,” Haney said. “When he returns to No. 1 it won’t be a debate.”

With fans stacked five and six rows deep along every fairway, probably the biggest crowd East Lake has seen since Bobby Jones was stalking the rolling hills, Tiger played the script he invented, a bullish version of what Stewart Cink once called a prevent defense.

The only change to this all-too-familiar routine was the pregnant pause he allowed himself after putting out on the 18th hole, slamming his putter into the ground and raising his arms in triumph.

In a historic twist it was the same green where Jones, who pulled off an impressive comeback of his own once, ended his golf career. It was only apropos that Tiger would complete his comeback and restart his career on the same spot.

By: Rex Hoggard | Source: golfchannel.com

The post Tiger Woods Caps 2018 Season With a Win at Tour Championship! appeared first on Sanctuary Ridge Golf Club.