#21stc

[1966loveminuszeronolimit]

what era are we in besides holocene .. i think i heard digital dark age once, not terrifically fond of it but it does fit in some ways … are there other descriptors that u have heard of or used to describe this period of time we are living in ?

[alarmalade]

How to Tell My Dad that I Kissed a Man

Blame your drag queen roommate—Lamar by day, Mahogany by night—and then blame his sequined dresses—all slit high, up to his balls Explain that dusk smells so different in Spain—musky cherry- tight tangerine burst—sage mixed with lavender Tell him you were under the influence of bees or bats— the spin and swirl of doves Tell him you were half asleep—about to leave to the dunes just west of Madrid—better yet say fores—he knows that crazy shit happens in a forest Tell him no tongue but his mouth—wax-like and wet Tell him timing Tell him ease Tell him sweat and sweat Tell him lips Tell him the juice—yeah saffron juice Tell him flat-chested Tell him, "crook"—I mean, "creek" Tell him tales—lies—tears—water—weakness—churros— chocolate—hot—heat—heave— Hush Hush Hush Tell him anything you want—then tell him You did it again

"How to Tell My Dad that I Kissed a Man" by F. Douglas Brown, from Zero to Three (2014)

[greenerteacups]

Hey GT! Lionheart is my favorite; I haven't stopped raving about it in weeks. Just wondering what pronouns you use? 🦁🤎

hey what's good, thank you friend! I use she/her IRL, but I don't mind they/them, either. so if someone mentions me in passing, "they" is totally fine.

[seagull-astrology]

1933, Cold Fractions & Yellowstone's Record Low

Astrometerology has a cool sounding name, but has been very hard for astrologers to peg down. https://www.celestiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/astrometerology-in-yellowstonemp3.mp3 Continue reading Untitled

[thegildedbee]

:: February 20 :: Selection for Week 8 of 2025 :: 🐝 "the adventure of black peter" (1904) from sherlock holmes: a year of quotes* 🖊️

Holmes was working somewhere under one of the numerous disguises and names with which he concealed his own formidable identity. He had at least five small refuges in different parts of London, in which he was able to change his personality.

O, the legendary disguises of the world's only consulting detective!!! As points of departure, they offer so much to tease out regarding cases of identity and personality! Especially because -- at least so I've heard -- no matter how hard you try, disguises are always self-portraits :-)

Although . . . I'm setting aside the disguises for now, because what I'm most curious about from the quote are the circumstances surrounding the "five small refuges": the existence of multiple pied-a-terre (feet on the ground) that Holmes has concocted throughout the city. It's not a common detective hack historically; the only one that pops into my head straight-away is the thrilling shared storage unit hideout of Benjamin Ferel's that we see in Series 2 of Lupin :-) I love the creative potential of the refuges for Holmes's sleuthing and for story-making about the crafty detective. [I think referring to these sites as "bolt-holes" is from BBC Sherlock, but I'm not well-versed enough in the original ACD lingo to know for sure.] (To digress slightly, the first quotation in the OED under "bolting-hole" is from 1851's Dialect & Folk-lore of Northamptonshire:

Bolt-hole, the hole from which the rabbit makes its escape; or, in the phraseology of the craft, ‘bolts’.

Which then makes the 19thc/21stc mash-up for the term in Sherlock a "bolting-into (?) :-)

221B may be home base for where Holmes' private life and consulting life intersect, but the criminals he pursues are spread throughout the city -- and, thus, with his refuges, so is Holmes, which I find an interesting dimension of all of this. With his contingency planning, the existence of the refuges also speaks to Holmes's being several steps ahead of his potential adversaries, an articulation of his investigative methods.

These private spots likely serve not only as dressing-rooms for disguised performances, but also as listening posts for intelligence gathering, giving a sense of Holmes as a rather dashing spy figure. They also are emblematic of Holmes's idiosyncratic Victorian presence, one that can easily cross boundaries, such as class. I think I like best picturing the refuges as places where Holmes places pieces on London's chess-board, or as extensions of the spaces in his mind palace :-) If I may be so bold, below, I've invented five secret Victorian/Edwardian hiding places for Holmes :-)

:: What better place to have a secret refuge than a grand hotel, especially one with a perpetually renewing international clientele, such as the Langham? After all, Holmes surely needed disguises that allowed him to mingle amongst the great and the good without recognition, so it could serve as an apt locale for stashing appropriate supplies. Perhaps he managed to clear up a sensitive criminal matter involving one of the guests, and subsequently the general manager (interestingly he was an American, and a former Union Army officer!), who then secured for him the use of an inconspicuous storage room in the basement for which only Holmes possessed the key. And if spending the night as a guest under an assumed name now and again was the occasional treat for closing a case, well why not? Of course, the Langham has some impressive Sherlockian bona fides. Arthur Conan Doyle often stayed there, and it's referenced in several stories (The Sign of the Four, A Scandal in Bohemia and The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax). Most importantly, it was where Doyle was invited for dinner in 1889 by J.M. Stoddart, the American publisher of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (Oscar Wilde was also invited, and persuaded by Stoddart to write what would become The Picture of Dorian Gray). Stoddart made it worth ACD's while to write a second Holmes novel. A second outing for Holmes wasn't necessarily in the cards -- A Study in Scarlet hadn't made much of an impression, and, in any case, Doyle placed much more stock in the historical fiction he wanted to write: the second Holmes novel that appeared through the intervention of the American publisher in 1890 was The Sign of the Four; the medieval epic that Doyle rated much more highly, The White Company, in 1891. (Once ACD began publishing the Holmes adventures as stand-alone stories, rather than in the form they came in as novels for the first two times -- the sky was then the limit for Holmes and Watson, much to Doyle's ambivalence).

:: Holmes would also need a bolt-hole in a working-class area, and perhaps a public house similar to the one pictured above might have had a friendly proprietor who would have allowed him a space in the store-room amidst the barrels of ale to stash some supplies and to bunk in a corner; or perhaps he was able to secure a room in a near-by run-down location. An example given in an article on dancing in Victorian London reports: "The Morning Post describes a blind fiddler working the taproom at the Salmon and Compasses in Brooke’s Market, Holborn, a miserably poor district. Money is collected, tables dragged to one side. Then, to quote a customer, ‘when the fiddler is paid he strikes up and we jump up and dances’." Can't you just picture Holmes in disguise as a blind fiddler in this scenario, having a grand time amidst the dancing pub-goers?

:: Another possible site for a good hideaway would be the Covent Garden area, bursting as it was with activity of all kinds, and attracting people from across different walks of life -- with the market trade (manual workers, porters, and vendors) and the wealthy taking their leisure at places such as the Royal Opera House, as well as there being a variety of shops and businesses in the neighborhood.

Tucked away off of Covent Garden is Cecil Court, populated by all kinds of commercial ventures that also had flats above the shops. Bookshops were popular, which would be properly Doylean (William and Gilbert Foyles opened their first West End bookstore in Cecil Court in 1904; it joined there the oldest esoteric bookshop in London “devoted to theosophy, philosophy, spiritualism and kindred subjects” -- making Cecil Court especially Doylean! Odds on that ACD made a purchase or two there:-) Or perhaps Holmes was befriended by one of the quirky second-hand booksellers in residence, all the better for discreet hiding away.

I'd also nominate Cecil Court for its connection to science, as indicated by the picture above from 1895 of one of the inhabitants: "A Practical Demonstration of the Latest Improvements in Photography. An Evening at the Camera Club." I think Holmes would enjoy the occasional night out at a scientific society that was also a club, especially one where he could chat about chemistry and new technologies (fodder, perhaps, for one of his noteworthy monographs?) The individual seen presenting the lecture is the President, William Abney, a distinguished photographic scientist (for example, in 1880 he discovered that hydroquinone reduces exposed silver halide crystals on photographic film into visible black silver.)

[I also couldn't resist Cecil Court because it was the first London address for Wolfgang Mozart and his family, when they came in 1764 for he and his sister to play for King George III and Queen Charlotte!]

:: If I'm going to be imagining goings-on in Victorian London, then Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' dinosaur sculptures are always going to figure in there somehow! (These were the first full-scale reproductions anywhere of the fragmentary remains of species discovered to that date.) So, hear me out: one of Holmes's hiding places is inside the belly of the largest Iguanodon! (Perhaps there are openings on the inside of one of the legs that allow one to climb up to where there's a trap door that can be pulled open :-) This is an idea inspired by the famous event in the top image, when a celebratory dinner was hosted at the completion of the models, with the guests set up to dine inside the beast on New Year's Eve in 1853. The sculptures were placed across a lake at the Crystal Palace Park, which is the site where the 1851 Great Exhibition moved to, after it closed; the dinosaurs appeared when it opened in 1854. I can even rustle up an ACD connection to partly justify my self-indulgence: the park is in south London, in Sydenham -- and when ACD moved to London in the 1890s he lived in South Norwood, which would have been about 3/4 of an hour's walk between the two locations. I like to think he went to visit!

:: My fifth candidate for a secret refuge is one that I recalled from a recent event from 2020: the discovery of a closed-up passage in the House of Commons (there was an itty-bitty keyhole in one of the wooden panels in a hallway that had gone unnoticed until just recently. When a key was fashioned and turned in the lock, a door opened and the hidden corridor appeared!) Inside are hinges for a door that would have been 11-feet high, opening into Westminster Hall -- the set-up looks to have been designed as a passage to usher in the invitees for the coronation banquet of Charles II (and dating revealed that the ceiling timbers in the passage were harvested in 1659); the passage was also used for visitors going to and fro until it was blocked up in the 19th century (and then promptly forgotten!).

So, in my mind's eye, I have an image of Holmes discovering the existence of the hidden passage in a study of old architectural documents of Parliament, and finding a snug little spot for himself in an alcove, concealed, right under the nose of Mycroft and the government without their knowledge :-)

*Levi Stahl and Stacey Shintani, eds., U of Chicago Pr, 2019

& bespoke notifications as requested :-) [thanks for reading!]: @totallysilvergirl and @winterdaphne2 and @keirgreeneyes and @calaisreno

[werewolfetone]

Too long have we discoursed about what Henry Joy McCracken's stance on Sinn Féin would be when what we should be asking is what Sinn Féin's stance on being wiped out almost to a man by dysentery in 1795 would be

Arguing about which modern politicians historical figures would support if they were brought to the 21st century: boring, tired, silly, can get worryingly ahistorical

Arguing about which preventable diseases modern politicians would die of if they were brought to the 18th century: new, fun, exciting, sexy, GUARANTEE this will make you more popular at parties

[suzannahnatters]

I read this (Matthew Aldrich Says Netflix Rejected His Vision to "Update" Narnia Series) and now I'm MIFFED

Respectfully submit that Narnia does NOT have bad worldbuilding - it has precisely the worldbuilding Lewis intentionally used to create adventure and excitement in a world that is also FAMILIAR and SAFE ("lol Narnia has Turkish Delight but no Turkey" ok bro first of all this is a portal fantasy world populated ENTIRELY by people who originated on planet Earth, so calm down a hot minute)

in this day of secondary world fantasies not being considered worth their salt unless they are extensively worldbuilt complete with detailed hard magic systems, I can see how a lot of middle aged men would look at Narnia and deem it lesser

but they would be WRONGGG

Narnia was never meant to function like a 21stC secondary world fantasy. it has soft worldbuilding the way it has a soft magic system, & both of those are valid!

if you find that a barrier to adaptation you are, honestly, not the man for the job

the key to adapting Narnia would be to lean into what the books are meant to be FOR and not try to make them be something they're not, and so I have a large-sized hunch that Aldrich's departure was probably an excellent thing for the eventual adaptations

[tcr55]

Eveleigh Railway Workshops were built in the late 19th and early 20thC to maintain Sydney and NSW trains.

I haven’t been to visit in years, and I was surprised by the developments.

The integrity of the place has been maintained, but added to it is 21stC touches, esp food outlets.

[inky-duchess]

Hi Duchess, can you help please? Setting is Modern Era-ish, certainly early 21stC, fictional small North-Central European liberal monarchy, mostly constitutional but the ruling King has some few actual active powers (not sure it is relevant, but I don't know). What would happen if the late teens / early 20s heir to crown came out as trans? Would she be allowed to call herself a Princess or would he be forced to remain a Prince? Or would she be forced to abdicate in favor of a non-lgbt sibling? Thanks.

I am unsure, this has never happened so there's no example to draw on but I would say yes, it would be allowed since most monarchies have done away with gender preference for succession so it doesn't really matter in that way. I think the worst obstacle would be public opinion and how it might divide support for the monarchy. This of course depends on the values of the culture and the public.

[indelicateink]

you know the pic. that one.

@smokiedokie is asking who's done this yet. an awesome question. I want to add to whatever iwtv/That Twelfth Night Photo art is out there (Two Cakes). but my god help me decide the order??

From left to right: The famous Audra McDonald (Olivia)/Anne Hathaway (Viola|Cesario)/Raul Esparza (Duke Orsino) Twelfth Night pic from the photoshoot from the play in Central Park (2009)--

would love to hear your opinions in the notes.

bonus pic (not pertaining to this poll; just nice):

[elimgarakdemocrat]

The fact that picards family canonically died in a fire feels extremely underdiscussed and a massive checkovs gun we never hear about again. Like fires are rare even now in the 21stC, wouldn't it be super suspicious in the 24th?

[alarmalade]

sting¹

Taught wet towel snapped the cute ass pink caught by surprise red blooms, beachside spit and hot water coaxed the barbed stem to the head of the welt thicker than forget but thinner than recall the insecure sun came fast after that nasty spell the tide looped on and on it was plot- less, incidental

¹Stingray venom is composed of the enzyme 5-nucleotidase and the neurotransmitter serotonin. When injected into smooth muscle, serotonin causes severe contractions, activating pain receptors in the brain.

"sting¹" - Hannah Nussbaum - Iterant issue #12

[communista-cymraeg]

What is going on in America is horrifying. People are actually wanting to put a convicted criminal in control of their country, who not only almost destroyed it once before, but tried to lead a 21stC putch against democracy when kicked out office!!

When you see the news about all of the heinous Supreme Court decisions that were just made please remember that every single one is a direct result of the fact that Donald Trump was the president from 2016-2020 and Hillary Clinton was not. And there are two conservative justices who will likely retire as soon as a second Trump term begins so he can appoint younger people and enshrine conservatism on the court for another 50+ years. So. Please vote. It will at least give us a fighting chance to get our rights back sooner

[seagull-astrology]

2017, January L'Aquila Quake

[daisyachain]

Not saying that KCD2 isn’t sexist but it is very funny how the introduction of the Devil’s Pack goes some way to recontextualize Katherine as a female member of the Freak brigade. Why are you as a woman wandering around with your stays only laced to the solar plexus (I know I know different standards of presentation and ‘cleavage’ is more of a 19th-20thC concept but it’s a game for 21stC players) and making continuous sex jokes @ Godwin when your commander and possibly love of your life is on his last legs? What are you doing, encouraging Henry’s mild sexual harassment? And then you meet the gang and you go oh. Well.

[tcr55]

The original people called it Gooweebahree, then the prison hulk, Phoenix, was moored here in the days of convict transportation, and resulted in this bay getting the name Hulk Bay.

Not a pretty name, so then it was renamed after the boatswain of the Phoenix, George Lavender.

In the 21stC, the view from Lavender Bay across to Sydney City is pretty special.

Luna Park, Opera House, and Harbour Bridge all sneak into the shot.