#40 number trivia

[math1089]

40 Mathematical Marvels that will Amaze You!

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture. Bertrand Russell Welcome to the blog Math1089 – Mathematics for All. Welcome to a captivating journey through the realm of mathematics! Prepare to be amazed as we unveil 40 Mathematical Marvels that will challenge your perceptions, spark your curiosity, and leave you…

[rassicas]

today on splatoon mythbusters: is Agent 4 a country bumpkin?

no lol this is probably the funniest widespread misconception to come out in recent years A big part of it is because people misunderstood this map.

I came across this trivia point on the wiki page for agent 4 while making this post LOL agent 4 has better access to public transportation than 95% of you With all that green on the map and nothing marked in between, It seems that people have been assuming the population density of inkopolis looks something like the image on the left. While it's unclear exactly how big the population is of inkadia and the surrounding area is, going roughly off of how irl east Tokyo and neighboring Chiba prefecture look, i think its safe to guess were dealing with an urban area that looks more like whats on the right.

(side note about population count: i take the account of the Low Water Party with a grain of salt since that isnt even a real number they used. something that is more reliable is that graffiti artist Sally has over 240k followers on social media. while followers can be from anywhere in the world ofc, it sounds like her fanbase is largely in inkopolis. i think its safe to say inkopolis is a very big city!)

If we're to look more at the irl equivalent of the area, it seems the Inkopolis Coastal Connector is based on the Keiyo Line. Following that line roughly to where 4's house is lands us in a ward in Chiba city. It doesn't look like much, but about 100k people live in that area. Not a super crazy urban area like tokyo, but still urban.

(incidentally, a major landmark on the Keiyo line is Makuhari Messe, where 3 of the irl splatoon idol concerts have been held. maybe a coincidence but maybe gives more credence to the idea that that's what the coastal connector is based on?) Apparently on the Japanese side, there's a theory that 4 is from Yotsukaido, which is a little further north of the area i circled. why there? Yotsukaido means "4 town street"...4...haha

Ok enough guessing based on "vibes" and real maps that may or may not be accurate to how things are in the splatoon world. The Actual lore: On Splatoon base it's confirmed they grew up about 40 minutes away from Inkopolis by train, close to the city. That's like a nothing amount of distance.

Another developer interview from 2017 goes into more detail.

Inoue: Agent 3 had a very "I've finally made it to the city" feeling, with a strong desire to become fresh. 4 on the other hand, not so much. Rather than being someone from the countryside, they're more like someone who came from a commuter town within the greater metropolitan area. It's like a place where the limited express trains wouldn't stop at, but the semi-express trains would (laughs).

so agent 4 is very clearly, a city kid. agent 3 is the country bumpkin, from an area so far away its not even on the map. According to splatoon base...

Far enough away that they moved to inkopolis alone. meanwhile 4 lives close enough that they could just go home to their parents after battling.

Also this is something that I never see brought up. Amidst the dubiously canon early concept comics in the back of the artbook, there's a comic about agent 3 leaving their hometown, mentioning they live in a seaside town called [REDACTED] with a population of 5000.

Again, these comics are dubious since theyre so old. but there are ideas in these comics that have carried over to the final games in some form, and this is consistent with agent 3's final characterization that they come from a far away small town and had a longing for the city.

anyway tldr i think its funny how agent 4's fandom characterization/backstory got swapped with 3's all because of a misread map

[princess-of-the-corner]

Random Trivia Fact I just learned: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl have the highest total storage capacity of any Main Series Pokémon game, allowing 1,2000 Pokémon to be stored. It also has the most "boxes" at 40 (each individually able to store 30 Pokémon).

Additionally, Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee has the lowest number of boxes (1) the highest storage capacity for a single box (1,000 Pokémon), which also gives it the second-highest total storage capacity of any Pokémon game.

Basically, it seems that the less gritty games have on the Switch more space for storing Pokémon.

GOD you can catch so many pokemon

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Liz Fraser, born on 29th August 1963 has the most unique voice of our singers.…..

Elizabeth Davidson Fraser was born in Grangemouth not far from where I live in Falkirk, Liz is best known as the vocalist for the pioneering alternative rock group Cocteau Twins. Her distinctive singing earned much critical praise. She was once described as ‘the voice of God.’ and that it “veers between semi-comprehensible lyrics and abstract mouth music” I agree with the voice of God description, it makes my spine tingle listening to her.

Liz was spotted in 1981, dancing in a club by founding members of the Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie, they asked her join the group, the late great John Peel helped them get their break and they were very successful on the Indie scene, with six top ten albums in the Indie charts, four of which were number one.

Mainstream success was limited, the fantastic “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” being their top single in 1984, and a more than respectable, six top 40 albums over the years. Liz was in a relationship with her band member Robin Guthrie, he was abusing drugs and alcohol throughout the years they were together which led to her having a nervous breakdown and ultimately their breakup in 1983.

Cocteau Twins, did however continue producing music together for a number of years after until the band split up in the late 90’s. Fraser was then in an “intense” relationship with the very talented Jeff Buckley, she wrote the song Teardrop, recorded by Massive Attack after the singers accidental death, Liz recently teamed up with the band at their first gigs in five years, I will post the song from their Bristol gig, please listen to it, she has definately not lost that great voice!!!

Liz has recorded songs with many others over the years, including featuring in The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. her solo stuff has been sporadic, my fave tune is the Tim Buckley Song to the Siren performed by This Mortal Coil. A wee bit trivia, last year Elizabeth Fraser had an asteroid named after her, courtesy of the International Astronomical Union.

First discovered in 2013, the “Fraser” asteroid does not pose a threat to humanity, and isn’t set to collide with Earth for millions of years. It can be viewed only via advance telescope, imaging from which is available on NASA’s website.

When posted on Twitter/X fans quickly took to the comment section to share their excitement over the asteroid. One user wrote, “Brilliant. She is truly a celestial entity,” while another commented, “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of anything more appropriate in my life.”

[liketwoswansinbalance]

MASTERPOST for The One True School Master of Vault 41

This is a continually updating table of contents to help with navigating my posts about TOTSMOV41, my WIP longfic.

The fic's premise: Sophie joins forces with a resurrected, former lover in the midst of trying to get Tedros back onto Camelot's throne, but that's not even half the uphill battle: rogue psyches and distrust abound and threaten to shatter the present state of the Woods as everyone knows it.

or

In which Rafal is resurrected during the events of One True King and things go horribly, disproportionately wrong!

Also, the fic will not be published for a very long time, so don't expect to see it anytime soon. I'm still on draft zero/the outline/script.

⸻

—Table of Contents—[Pre-Publication of Fic]

1. Title reveal and associated music

2. Round I of Excerpts

3. Apparently, the tag "otk" is banned from tumblr.

4. The misleading trope hint

5. Round II Excerpt

6. Visual ref. 1

7. Facts about the fic

8. Reblog #1

9. Aesthetic for one of the first scenes (and flower trivia in the comments)

10. A Peek at My Outline Process

11. Reblog #2, dialogue, and reference to suicide

12. Round III of Excerpts

13. Sketch - Rafal got punched in the face.

14. Screenshots of my Pinterest board for the fic

15. Update, more facts about the fic, and its references to philosophic concepts

16. Round IV Excerpt

17. Cover Reveal

18. Reblog #3

19. Reblog #4

20. Reblog #5

21. Hypothetical Non-Excerpt

22. The Recurring Japeth Punchline

23. Reblog #6

24. Reblog #7

25. Three "Fun" (Incongruous) Facts

26. Thanatos drive reference mentioned

27. Reblog #8

28. Reblog #9

29. Reblog #10

30. Ask containing minor fic trivia

31. Update and Round V of Excerpts

32. Which wizard is this? (a.k.a. The Tedros Insanity Poll)

33. Reblog #11

34. Reblog #12

35. Reblog #13 and Fic Tags

36. Round VI Excerpt

37. The Suffering Scale

38. Word Ask Game

39. Word Ask #1

40. Word Ask #2

41. Word Ask #3

42. Results of the Tedros Poll

43. Round VII of Excerpts

44. Guess the Last Verb/Noun

45. Minor Spoilers

46. Reblog #14

47. Reblog #15

48. Reblog #16

49. Visual ref. 2

50. Reblog #17

51. Slightly Cursed Thought?

52. Aesthetic

53. Round VIII of Excerpts

54. Scrapped Hypothetical Scene

55. Reblog #18

56. Visual ref. 3

57. Reblog #19

58. Reblog #20

59. Deliberate or Not Deliberate?

60. Update and Another Ask Game

61. Page Number Ask #1

62. Page Number Ask #2

63. Visual ref. 4

64. Visual ref. 5

65. Reblog #21

66. Reblog #22

67. Reblog #23

68. Reblog #24

69. Reblog #25

70. Verbing Nouns

71. Reblog #26

72. Reblog #27

73. A Little News

74. TLEA Evidence for One of My Theories

75. Reblog #28

76. Reblog #29

77. Trick-or-Treat Ask Excerpt

—The Story— [Links TBA after publication.]

Part I: Of Solipsism, Sophistry, and Storians.

Part II: Great Mistake II, Great Mistake III, and Verisimilitude

Part III: Phantoms, Prescience, and the Pen

Deleted Scene

Meta post

Fic Analysis, Commentary & Trivia

Propaganda

⸻

Need-to-Knows (a.k.a How I'm meddling with canon):

This fic will involve Rafal being resurrected, and lead up to an alternate continuity of plot events, all set during One True King. Thus, its title will be: The One True School Master of Vault 41. However, the title may or may not be a bit of a misnomer, so I might just end up subverting your expectations after all.

There will be a form of "psyche travel," or an approximation of time travel, using Dovey's crystal ball like in ACOT, the arson of a certain Wizard Tree to look forward to, and some offbeat, unprecedented action taken by the Storian. Of course, Agatha and Rafal will bicker a lot while Sophie plays the role of mediator. And, oh, Rafal will be tortured, slightly…

Additionally, there's a couple things to note about the premise and the changes I've made to canon, for context:

1. The fic will disregard Fall as canon, yet will acknowledge Rise.

2. There are several canon elements I'm not using. The Rafal is the fic is him from Rise, and also from TLEA. I decided to only acknowledge Rise but not Fall because I didn't want to work with the identity-swap twist. So Rafal is Rafal is Rafal in this case. I will draw from both his Rise characterization and his TLEA characterization.

3. Later in the fic, Rise Rhian only has minor appearances, and is present in Rafal's psyche, but he will not actually be a character until I write a possible sequel, if I ever do reach that point. So, you can assume Rhian was moderately Good to grey on the morality scale, and that Rafal was the one who ultimately committed the fratricide for the purposes of this fic.

4. I've decided not to acknowledge the OTK parentage twist. To clarify, Rafal will have no relation to Japeth, simply because it felt out of character for him to have children with a woman he seemed to loathe, even if it may have been less out of character for the canon Rhian falsely disguised as "Rafal." I personally thought it contradicted Rafal's characterization, so Japeth's placeholder father, who probably won't even be mentioned in the story, will be the Green Knight, to explain his magical prowess as the Snake.

Otherwise, for the most part, this fic is alternate continuity "canon," and diverges at some point during OTK.

I've tried to set the stage, eradicate confusion, and mediate potential disappointment as best as I could above, but if anyone would like me to demystify anything about the fic, my writing process, or ask anything else at all, feel free to send questions to me! Yet, I might not be able to answer everything, for various reasons, including limiting excessive spoilers, so please keep that in mind.

[jules-has-notes]

Aca Top 10: Disney Heroes — VoicePlay music video

Disney animated movies are probably best known for their music, and almost all of them have a showstopping tune for their main characters. Singing or listening to those songs can feel empowering. So, sit back, relax, and spend a few minutes being inspired and entertained by these goofballs.

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 — Disney Heroes (feat. J.None)

original songs / performers: "Go the Distance" by Roger Bart as Hercules in Hercules (1997); [0:37] "When Will My Life Begin?" by Mandy Moore as Rapunzel in Tangled (2010); [0:55] "You'll Be In My Heart" by Glenn Close as Kala & Phil Collins as the narrator in Tarzan (1999); [1:24] "One Jump Ahead" by Brad Kane as Aladdin in Aladdin (1992); [1:44] "Colors of the Wind" by Judy Kuhn as Pocahontas in Pocahantas (1995); [2:06] "Reflection" by Lea Salonga as Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998); [2:33] "Part of Your World" by Jodi Benson as Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989); [3:00] "How Far I'll Go" by Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana in Moana (2016); [3:23] "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" by Jason Weaver as Simba, Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, & Laura Williams as Nala in The Lion King (1994); [3:40] "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel as Elsa in Frozen (2013)

written by: "Go the Distance" by Alan Menken & David Zippel; "When Will My Life Begin?" by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater; "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins; "One Jump Ahead" by Alan Menken & Tim Rice; "Colors of the Wind" by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz; "Reflection" by Matthew Wilder & David Zippel; "Part of Your World" by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman; "How Far I'll Go" by Lin-Manuel Miranda; "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" by Elton John & Tim Rice; "Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 21 September 2017

My favorite bits:

J.None's clear, hopeful tone on "Go the Distance"

the rhythm section being confused as to where they're supposed to be looking before their parts begin

Eli shrugging off his own muscles compared to Earl and J 💪

Layne's little finger wiggle from the beginning of "You'll Be In My Heart" being redirected at Geoff

the crunchy harmonies on the ♫ "Whoa-o-o-oa, number seven" ♫ transition

Layne's scampering percussion riff in "One Jump Ahead"

Geoff looking over at Layne while singing ♫ "why he grins" ♫, and Layne shrugging

J's flirty little wave to the camera during "Reflection"

Eli and J following the lyrics for ♫ "jumping, dancing" ♫

that lovely bell chord on ♫ "street street stree-ee-ee-eet" ♫

the back row dramatically looking left and right as they sing the words

everyone's befuddlement at Geoff taking the lead on the beginning of "Let It Go" ("That's not your song, bass man.")

Earl's adorable power pose at the end

Trivia:

○ VoicePlay had recorded and/or performed several of these songs previously:

"How Far I'll Go" was in their "Moana medley" video just one month before.

"I Just Can't Wait To Be King" was included in The King Returns medley on their 2012 album "Once Upon an Ever After". It was also part of the "aca-Disney" mashup they created for the Disney On Broadway 20th anniversary celebration.

"When Will My Life Begin" was in their condensed Tangled performance at the 2015 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

"Let It Go" was part of their "Wow! Vol. 1" medley during the 2015 Sing-Off tour. Layne also snuck it into one memorable rendition of "Road Trip".

○ A couple of these songs were revisited in later videos:

"Part of Your World" was, of course, included in their "Little Mermaid medley" with Rachel Potter in 2020.

They recorded a full version of "Go the Distance" with EJ Cardona in 2021.

○ Eli's incredible riff and declaration of "Xtina for life!" at the end of the "Reflection" excerpt are in reference to the pop version of the song that Christina Aguilera recorded for the movie's end credits.

○ J.None had sung "You'll Be In My Heart" as part of his audition process to perform at Disney World in 2013. He was cast as Nakawa in the Festival of the Lion King live show.

○ The YouTube description includes a parody verse for "Reflection" — "Whooooooo is that Earl I see… / Staring straight at Eli? / When will my REFLECTION show / Jellied ham and RICE!!? / Yummmmmmmmm… "

○ The guys are all wearing graphic t-shirts featuring characters from the movies included in the countdown:

J.None — Hercules flexing his biceps, surrounded by a circle of text reading, "Don't act like you're not impressed"

Earl — Pua the pig from Moana with the inscription "I'm no bacon"

Eli — Ariel and Sebastian in a circular frame with "Little Mermaid" in jagged heavy metal style lettering across the top

Geoff — Genie from Aladdin with a microphone in hand and a blue neon sign reading "Applause" emerging from his shoulders

Layne — Mufasa's face from The Lion King with the word "king" in black letters across the top

○ This is the first in a mini-series within their "Aca Top 10" series, that was followed by countdowns for "Disney Sidekicks" and "Disney Villains" over the next year and a half.

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 213 Trivia (Part 1)

I guess things were going too well for too long..?

Gen's drawing of Senku here was probably inspired by very early chapter cover images. I don't know why else he'd be holding an exploding container.

We've now got three interpretations of Whyman: the generic one, Luna's, and now Gen's.

I like how Gen's has arms and legs coming out of the skull!

Finally! The Kingdom of Science can watch Dr. Stone together!

As long as someone animates it…

Kenjiro Takayanagi of Shizuoka University is considered one of the main pioneers of television, succeeding in displaying the character イ (i) on his Braun tube display in Dec 1926. Over the next few years, he improved the image allowing more detailed images such as human faces.

By 1939, Japan's first television station began broadcasting from NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). After the war, Takayanagi Sensei's work was used as a foundation for other televisions and related industries around the world.

If everyone thought working on a second cell phone after they'd spent months making one was bad, they're not ready to hear about what they'll need to make for television broadcasts. (Senku also never changes...)

I didn't realize how big their other boat was. I guess things made in the USA really are bigger?

The Perseus not being the biggest ship anymore makes me a little sad :(

SAL 9000 is a reference to HAL 9000, the AI antagonist from Space Odyssey. It stands for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer", so in this case it might be "Senku programmed" or even "Sai programmed"!

The "NES" (actually the Famicom again, both in the drawing and Sai's comment in the Japanese version) and SAL 9000 don't have the exact same specifications:

SAL 9000 is specialized for math operations and thus has a longer word length (16 bits vs 8) which allows more significant figures in the numbers. They've also got more RAM (SAL has 16 kB while the NES has 2).

The downside is that because they used parametrons, their clock speed (how fast they can do calculations) is slower than if they'd used transistors.

The large amount of ROM they've also got could imply that they have several built-in programs. Xeno's work, perhaps?

CRT screens only reach a maximum diagonal length of around 40 inches (~101 cm), as a larger screen needs a larger tube, and the thickness of the glass increases with size to handle the vacuum without shattering making it very unwieldy with the added weight and thus not worth manufacturing for sale.

Senku's here is obviously much, much bigger. Possibly even world record; the biggest CRT screens made were 61 inches (~152 cm) on the diagonal.

SAL 9000 has both air and water cooling, probably used depending on what's better for individual parts. Normally you only need one or the other.

It'd be good if they could get the carbonated water maker in there and ferment some alcohol faster too using the computer's heat…

SAL 9000 also has 3 phase power like modern power transmission. They're AC power sources, phase shifted by 120° so that at any point in time, their sum is 0. The advantage to this is that you don't need return lines for the current, so you can use half as many cables.

The games shown are inspired by Tetris (featuring Ishigami Village and Roppongi!), Pacman, a combination game of Gyruss and Tempest, then another combination game of Galaga and Asteroids.

The transmission towers can only be headed towards the dam, so we have an approximate direction for where that is! There's a few rivers nearby in modern Tokyo, but over 3,700 years they've probably changed a lot.

(Next part)

[le-trash-prince]

Only Friends (But It’s a Jazz Musical)

Here is the 100% self-indulgent project that I have been working on since the series started! This began when I realized I was adding a lot of jazz songs to my regular OF playlist that didn't flow with the vibe of the other songs, so I separated them and realized how much they really worked on their own. I narrowed this down to a selection of ~40 tracks to just 11 to make it album-sized.

I think, despite the fact that these songs aren't modern at all, they fit the series really well. As musical theatre is wont to be, though, this would be very anachronistic—not tied to a particular place or point in time, and with a range of music genres utilized. It's the type of thing where producers would say "Who cares? It's Broadway!" while critics write scathing reviews on how musical theatre is the lowest form of art.

Mostly it's just meant for fun. 😊 Listen on YT

Tracklist + Scene Breakdown

I’m Gonna Live Till I Die

(YT / lyrics) The opening number. The scene at the bar where we meet the cast. I love the long opening vocal note to this song and can picture each of the four main friends standing under a solo spotlight as the music builds, until the beat drops and the curtain parts and the stage bursts into life. The instrumental break in the middle would be lengthened in order to give Mew a chance to introduce the cast to the audience.

Something’s Gotta Give

(YT / lyrics) This is the scene of Top hitting on Mew during trivia night. The irresistible force (haha) meets an immovable object. The line "something's gotta give, something's gotta give, something's gotta give" would easily be a recurring leitmotif sung by the chorus ensemble in the background of some of TopMew's tense moments and arguments.

You Go to My Head

(YT / lyrics) This is the SandRay theme of the show. Ray starts off singing this to Sand when they're at Ray's house that first time. The direct comparison to alcohol shows that Sand is Ray's new fixation. An instrumental variation of this would play during most of their scenes, with a refrain sung by Sand later in the show ("Still I say to myself, get ahold of yourself")

I Put a Spell on You

(YT / lyrics) Nick sings this while Boston seduces Top—through dance of course. This number is about both Boston coercing Top ("I put a spell on you") and Nick’s possessiveness over Boston ("because you're mine").

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

(YT / lyrics) Mew sings this about Top's betrayal. This was about how blind he was at the beginning, and the song culminates in Mew setting Top's drawing on fire.

I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead (You Rascal You)

(YT / lyrics) Both of the pool fights are combined in this scene, Mew going after Boston and Ray going after Top. It’s a little physically comical with lots of people chasing each other back and forth across the stage, but Mew and Ray are absolutely out for blood.

If I Didn’t Care

(YT / lyrics) Sand is singing this onstage at club YOLO while all the boys try to process their unresolved feelings for each other. Lots of longing glances and loaded looks across the room.

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

(YT / lyrics) This is Boeing's "I'm too hot for you to blame me for the chaos I bring and I'm going to set Top's life on fire" song. I absolutely envision this as a casual tap dance number, and he does the entire thing with his hands in his pockets and a shit-eating grin on his face.

If That Ain't Love

(YT / lyrics) This one is on Sand's shuffle playlist in Ep 12, but I thought it really fit for a Boston solo! And I wasn't gonna not include the only jazz vocal playlist in the series. This is Boston trying to convince Nick that he loves him, even though Boston has no experience with romantic love.

You Always Hurt the One You Love

(YT / lyrics) All of the boys are singing this song. Hurt people hurt people. Top, Ray, and Boston are singing together on one side of the stage, with Mew, Sand, and Nick on the other, with all three pairs meeting in the middle and clasping hands at the end. (circa ep 10/11)

My Way

(YT / lyrics) This is the closing number and a duet between Mew and Boston on their final meeting. For a musical theater adaptation, compared to the original series, there's going to be more of a bang than a whimper at the end of this friendship, with both of them standing proud about who they are, faults and all. People were hurt, crimes were committed, questions remained unanswered, but Only Friends did it in a way no one else has.

I hope y'all can give this a listen because I really enjoyed working on it. Doing a more theme-specific playlist was new for me, since I usually just throw anything and everything into my playlists, so I'd definitely like to try something similar with another fandom in the future. I hope y’all enjoy 😊

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Another new episode! Getting into the home stretch!

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number 8 on my list: Universal Pictures’ 1936 screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, directed by Gregory La Cava, written by Morrie Ryskind and Eric Hatch, based on a book by Eric Hatch, and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard.

The rich and spoiled Bullock sisters, Irene (Carole Lombard) and Cornelia (Gail Patrick), are participating in a scavenger hunt that requires them to find a “forgotten man,” so they race to a shanty town at a city dump. Cornelia gets there first and approaches a homeless man named Godfrey (William Powell), who finds her rude and condescending and therefore refuses to take her offered $5, instead causing her to fall into an ash pile. Irene is amused by Godfrey’s treatment of her sister/rival, and after a brief conversation, Godfrey is amused enough by Irene to agree to be her forgotten man. Irene is so grateful to him for helping her win the scavenger hunt against Cornelia that she offers him a job as the butler for their wacky family, and he accepts without having any idea what he’s in for.

I remember being introduced to this movie rather early in my foray into old Hollywood back in 2002. I can’t recall my exact first impressions, but I’m pretty sure I had seen it several times and was already kind of obsessed with it before I started keeping track of the movies I watched. Once I started keeping track, I watched My Man Godfrey six times in 2003, three times in 2004, three times in 2005, twice in 2007, once in 2008, twice in 2009, once in 2010, twice in 2011, once in 2013, once in 2014, once in 2017, once in 2018, twice in 2019, twice in 2020, once in 2021, and once in 2022.

The main thing that initially drew me to this movie was its silliness. Based on the movies I’ve talked about on this podcast so far, I think it’s pretty clear that I love to watch a bunch of ridiculous characters having a fun romp, and that’s what a lot of My Man Godfrey is. Angelica, the scatterbrained mother of the Bullock family, played delightfully by Alice Brady, is one of the silliest characters in any movie ever, and when I was a young teen, all she had to do was open her mouth to crack me up. Now I find some of her antics a bit grating, which they are definitely meant to be, but some of her lines do still make me laugh every time, like, “I’m positive I didn’t ride a horse last night because I didn’t have my riding costume on!” and “If you’re going to be rude to my daughter, you might at least take your hat off!” and, in response to Godfrey saying that he sold short to save the family from financial ruin, “I don’t understand, you sold short? You mean, gentlemen’s underwear?” My brother was particularly tickled by that last one as a child, to the point that when we played The Sims together, we created a character named Gentleman’s Underwear after that line.

Angelica is far from the only silly character in this movie, and what I love about the whole ensemble is that each character is entertaining in a different way. Angelica is scatterbrained and doesn’t really care what’s going on, while her husband Alexander (played by Eugene Pallette) has lost track of what’s going on mostly because he’s so fed up with his wife’s ridiculousness. And then there’s Carlo (played by Mischa Auer) who is Angelica’s “protégé,” and I’m still not really sure exactly what that means. I can’t tell if it’s a euphemism, or if she’s like, supposed to be teaching him piano? We definitely see him playing piano, and eating, and impersonating a gorilla, and reading to Angelica, and that seems to be all he does. So unclear what his purpose is, but he is amusing. On the other hand, Molly (played by Jean Dixon, who also played Edward Everett Horton’s wife in Holiday) has the very clear purpose of being the Bullock family’s maid. Her dry, sarcastic wit is amusing in an entirely different way that I love very much. There’s also Tommy Gray (played by Alan Mowbray), a friend of the Bullock family who also happens to recognize Godfrey from their college days. Not wanting to reveal that he came from a wealthy Boston family, Godfrey says that he was Tommy’s valet in college, forcing Tommy to try to invent a story explaining why Godfrey wouldn’t have given him as a reference when the Bullocks hired him. Tommy seems like a relatively normal guy who isn’t particularly bright. Watching him flounder in that scene could have easily become uncomfortable, but they managed to portray it in a way that’s just silly. And his invention of a wife and five children for Godfrey adds to the confusion and tension behind the main romance in the movie.

If you’ve listened to previous episodes of this podcast and have an especially keen memory, you may recall that Gregory La Cava also directed Stage Door, which was number 31 on my list and came out the year after My Man Godfrey. I’m not sure how much say he had in the casting of both of those movies, but I enjoy that there are several people who appeared in both, such as character actors Franklin Pangborn and Grady Sutton, neither of whom was credited in My Man Godfrey but both of whom make memorable appearances. The most notable cast member the two movies have in common is Gail Patrick, who was Ginger Rogers’s main rival besides Katharine Hepburn in Stage Door and Cornelia Bullock in My Man Godfrey. In both of these, as in most of her movies, Patrick’s character is rather unpleasant, but Cornelia is a bit more complex than that, and she fascinates me. She’s bitter and spoiled and mean to her sister and can’t decide if she wants to seduce Godfrey or hurt him or both. After Godfrey tells her what he thinks of her, she tries to frame him for robbery by hiding her pearl necklace under his mattress, but he manages to find it and hide it better before the police search his room. Cornelia is so insistent that it must be under the mattress that the police get suspicious and ask why she’s so sure of that, to which she responds with the amazing and thoroughly unconvincing line, “I read that that’s where people put things when they steal them!” Shockingly, even after all of this, the story actually redeems Cornelia somewhat. Godfrey is able to save the family financially by pawning her necklace, and after he reveals this he tells her that he, too, was once a spoiled child, and that she has the potential to be a good person if she so chooses. Cornelia is visibly moved by his words, and while we unfortunately never see her again after that scene, I like to believe that she takes them to heart and stops being so awful going forward.

But as much as I love all the supporting characters, I don’t think I’d have watched this movie nearly as many times if not for the leads. William Powell brings just the right combination of sophistication and jadedness to the role of Godfrey, making it easy to believe that he was once a rich man but lost everything he had to a woman he loved who betrayed him. It’s beautiful to watch him rediscover his own purpose and humanity in response to the Bullocks’ kindness and choose to focus on the positive aspects of their quirks. When William Powell was offered the role of Godfrey, he agreed to take it only if Carole Lombard would play Irene, knowing that she would be perfect, and he was completely correct. Lombard absolutely kills it as Irene, flawlessly combining the dramatic naïveté of an overgrown toddler with a genuine desire to be a good and mature person. And the way Powell and Lombard play off each other is utterly delightful. Their first conversation sets up their dynamic beautifully – he’s rather amused by her, but she takes everything he says extremely seriously. Like when she asks him, “Why do you live in a place like this when there are so many nice places?” and he responds, “It’s because my real estate agent felt that the altitude would be very good for my asthma,” she doesn’t seem to know that he’s joking, and says, “Oh my uncle has asthma!” And he just rolls with it and replies, “No! Well, now there’s a coincidence!” This is already funny as written, but their delivery and facial expressions make it so much funnier. Then probably my favorite part of the movie is when Irene is sulking and trying to get Godfrey to notice her, but she mostly just comes across as ridiculous, and Cornelia is heckling her mercilessly. Godfrey is trying to act uninterested, but it’s clear from a few of his glances in her direction that he really does want to give her the attention she craves. It’s readily apparent from all of their scenes that they both thoroughly understood the assignment and knew how to play off each other. Powell and Lombard had worked together twice before and had even been briefly married to each other from 1931 to 1933. Despite the fact that things didn’t work out between them romantically in real life, they remained good friends, and seem to have only used their history to bring out the best performance in each other here. It is kind of funny that Godfrey keeps telling Irene that she’s way too young for him because it’s like, “You clearly didn’t think she was too young when you married her five years ago!” Mostly, though, it just makes me really happy as someone who has no interest in pursuing romantic relationships to know that it was Powell and Lombard’s post-divorce friendship that led to possibly the best movie that either of them ever made. It’s so encouraging to see the evidence that sometimes the relationship between two people can actually get better when they stop trying to make it romantic.

However, it took me a while to see things that way, because in the movie itself, Godfrey and Irene do end up together romantically. Once I learned that the actors were divorced in real life, my first thought was more, “Wow, amazing that they could still pretend to be in love after falling out of love.” In more recent rewatches, I’ve come to realize that the romance in the movie is very weird – which, to be fair, is quite usual for screwball comedies – but I think as an obliviously aromantic teenager it greatly informed what I thought romance was. Irene meets a nice man who helps her win a game against her awful sister and decides to be in love with him, so all she has to do is convince him that he’s also in love with her. Not understanding that romantic attraction was a thing that I was not experiencing, teenaged me thought that was how that worked: you just pick somebody and decide you have a crush on them, and if the other person has also picked you to be their crush, romance is born. Right? Apparently not. Anyway, in more recent rewatches, when it gets to the part where Godfrey tells Irene, “You’re grateful to me because I helped you to beat Cornelia. And I’m grateful to you because you helped me to beat life. But that doesn’t mean that we have to fall in love,” I’m like, “Correct! It doesn’t mean that! You don’t have to fall in love!” But the movie implies that Godfrey is suppressing his feelings for Irene because of the previous bad relationship that led to his homelessness, and it expects us to all be on board with the way Irene follows him after he quits and basically forces him to marry her. The older I get, the more this ending bothers me. I realize that it’s meant to be part of the screwball silliness of it all, and that it was inevitable for a movie like this to make the male and female lead end up together, but it’s like, can we maybe make sure that Godfrey is on board with that first? I can very much see their marriage going the same way as that of the actors who played them, with Irene and Godfrey ultimately concluding that they’re better suited as friends than lovers. But again, as a young person watching this movie, I thought their relationship was beautiful. Soon after I first got really into My Man Godfrey, my friend had a Build-A-Bear birthday party, and I named my bear Godfrey. I can’t remember who I was talking to or how this came up, but I remember making the declaration that if I was still single at 40, I would marry that Godfrey bear. So if you’re listening to this, consider yourself invited to our wedding in seven years. It probably won’t be much weirder than Irene and Godfrey’s wedding at the end of this movie.

There is another element to My Man Godfrey besides its silliness and unconvincing romance that makes it particularly fascinating. While most 1930s screwball comedies seem to be intended to help audiences temporarily forget about the hardships of the Great Depression, My Man Godfrey uses the Depression as a big part of the plot. The rich are portrayed as frivolous and ridiculous, while the homeless “forgotten men” are portrayed as resilient and noble. Godfrey reveals to Tommy that after having his heart broken, he intended to drown himself in the river, but seeing people living at the dump next to the river, determined to survive despite their circumstances, made him change his mind. The hard times even impact the well-to-do, with Alexander Bullock nearly losing everything in bad investments. At first it seems odd that Godfrey would use the money from Cornelia’s necklace merely to help the rich snobs, but then it’s revealed that in addition to that, he converted the dump he used to live in to a nightclub, creating jobs, and affordable housing. And all of that was possible because the jobless men convinced Godfrey to keep living, then Irene was nice enough to employ Godfrey as a butler, and Cornelia was bitter enough to try to frame him for robbery. I assume that doing something like that would not have been nearly as easy as the movie makes it look, but I appreciate that instead of leaning into the pure escapism of so many films from that era, My Man Godfrey says, “Yes, times are hard, but don’t give up hope. Things can improve unexpectedly at any time. And small kindnesses can add up to make a very big difference.” And that message continues to resonate 87 years later. So while this is mostly a very silly comedy, its genuine moments showing the importance of human connection help keep it from descending into complete and utter chaos like some other screwball comedies I could name.

And perhaps it was that touch of seriousness that led this mostly silly comedy to six Oscar nominations: Gregory La Cava for Best Director, Eric Hatch and Morrie Ryskind for Best Adapted Screenplay, William Powell for Best Actor, Carole Lombard for Best Actress, Mischa Auer for Best Supporting Actor, and Alice Brady for Best Supporting Actress. This made My Man Godfrey the first movie to be nominated in all four acting categories, which isn’t saying much because that was also the first year that the Oscars had four acting categories, but it remains the only film to this day to be nominated in all four acting categories without being nominated for Best Picture. And it was the only movie to be nominated in those six categories without winning anything until American Hustle, 77 years later. Of all the people nominated for Oscars for My Man Godfrey, only Alice Brady would ever win one, for In Old Chicago the following year. The director and one of the writers would each be nominated once more, also the following year, for Stage Door. William Powell had been nominated once before, for 1934’s The Thin Man, and would be nominated again for 1947’s Life With Father. But this was the only nomination for both Mischa Auer and Carole Lombard. Lombard in particular really wanted an Oscar and moved on to dramatic roles for a few years hoping that would help, but it didn’t. So she briefly returned to comedy before her career and life were tragically cut short by a plane crash in 1942, when she was only 33 years old. So, my age. I feel like, had Carole Lombard lived longer and continued to make more films in a similar vein, she probably would have made it into more than one of my top 40. The more I rewatch My Man Godfrey, the more impressed I become with her performance. This is one of the few old movies that actually has a blooper reel available, and that shows just how different her normal speech and facial expressions and mannerisms were from Irene’s. I have watched and enjoyed several of Lombard’s other films, but a lot of them are a bit too silly even for me, and I really wish she could have been in more of the still fun and kooky but not-quite-as-screwball-as-the-‘30s comedies that were just starting to become popular around the time of her death. But at least we get to see her in My Man Godfrey. Thank you, William Powell.

My Man Godfrey was remade in 1957, and I watched that version one time in 2003, reacted with, Ew, they ruined it,and have never rewatched it. Maybe I will someday, just to see if it’s as bad as I remember it. No offense to that cast – there was no possible way to reach the standard set by the original. Sometimes remakes are great, but sometimes the original was already perfect and shouldn’t be messed with, and in my opinion, My Man Godfrey absolutely falls into the latter category. So what I’m saying is, if this podcast has made you want to watch this movie, make sure you get the 1936 version.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. Next week I will be joined by not one but two very special guests, to discuss the longer of the two movies I watched 30 times, which is going to be very fun, so stay tuned for that. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Wait up! Wait for me! Not you, I don’t even know you!”

[flowermountainpress]

Lord of The Rings Trivia Night in the form of Jeopardy, potentially next Saturday (07 October)

I'm doing a drawing for this Silmarillion-inspired sketchbook (usual rules for shipping apply) that I made by hand! It's 40 sheets, 80 front/back pages, a faux leather hardcover with a ceramic decoration.

Supporters of my Patreon will be automatically entered into the drawing, but each member of the winning jeopardy team will be entered as well.

Patreon supporters should also note that participating in trivia is worth 20 points, being on the 2nd place team is worth 50 points, and being on the winning team is worth 100 points.

(To those unaware, I run a points system on my patreon where points can be exchanged for things like stickers, bookmarks, and even free books & sketchbooks. Check that shit out)

Currently, I'm thinking a solid three teams will be ideal, if we can get the numbers for it. Winning team will also win some LOTR bookmarks I'll make; runner up team/second place team will likely get some stickers.

To see what kind of numbers we're looking at, I made an interest check form via Google sheets.

Wanna win prizes? Wanna spectate? Maybe you're just into LOTR and want phenomenal bragging rights....

[dollsahoy]

this is obvious to mathy types, not so much to the rest of us

trying to fall back asleep this morning, and my brain decided to think a whole lot about the weird and wonderful things that happen when you multiply by nine

like, when I was learning multiplication and hadn't gotten anywhere near memorizing the times table, Mom told me about the trick of subtracting one from a number to get the tens place, then the ones place is whatever you add to that number to equal nine, because numbers multiplied by nine always end up as numbers that add together to make nine

but that was only for multiplying nine by one through ten, and no-one ever told me the shortcut beyond that, so my brain--THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING--decided to figure it out, and what I came up with is not what I'm seeing online (although I'm seeing a lot of shortcuts for multiplying by nine online, so I'm sure it's out there)

So, multiplying 1-10 by nine is subtract one from the number, then after that goes whatever you'd add to make nine. I figured out that 11-20 is subtract two and then add whatever is needed to make nine. 21-30 is subtract three, 31-40 is subtract four, etc. By the time I got to 101 and beyond, I was actually falling back asleep, but I suspect it's consistent, just a bit harder to juggle mentally (and we live in the age of calculators so it's just trivia at this point)

and then there's the "multiples of nine always add up to nine" thing: 9 x 5 = 45, 4 + 5 =9 9 x 11 = 99, 9 + 9 = 18, 1 + 8 = 9

but

when it gets to bigger numbers 9 x 478 = 4302, 4 + 3 + 0 + 2 = 9 however 43 + 02 = 45, 4 + 5 = 9 and 40 + 32 = 72; 7 + 2 = 9 as well as 320 + 4 = 324; 3 + 2 + 4 = 9 and oh hey 24 + 03 = 27; 2 + 7 = 9 likewise 24 + 30 = 54; 5 + 4 = 9 and you can keep going with any combination of any grouping of numbers you get by multiplying by nine ultimately adding up to nine

I know the 'subtract one and add something to make nine' thing worked for me from the start, but when I have tried to explain it to anyone else, they have always given me very strange looks, and I know there are other shortcuts to multiplying by nine, so this isn't to teach anyone and it's not to ask for suggestions

it's mostly just to show what my brain does when I should be sleeping, and that I am not a particularly math-oriented person

[eahsayswhat]

Year 2 of “Ever After High Says What?” in review

Today marks the last day of the second year this blog’s been active! Let’s review this blog’s stats before we go:

The total number of words spoken in Year 2 was 748. The most common word spoken was “you”, which appeared 29 times.

The character with the most lines (lines being all words, including beats between words, sound effects, & emoticons) was C. A. "Charlie" Cupid, who had a total of 65 lines. The character with the fewest lines (excluding non-speaking appearances) was Ramona Badwolf, who only had 1.

The character with the most appearances in Year 2 (based on how many comics they were tagged in) was Maddie Hatter, who appeared in 8 comics out of 24 total. 6 of these appearances were speaking appearances, tying her with Raven for the character with the most speaking appearances in Year 2.

The comic with the most lines was Comic 27 with 57 lines. The comic with the fewest lines was Comic 7 with 10 lines.

The top 5 comics of Year 2 by notes ATOW were Comic 31 with 144 notes, Comic 35 with 129 notes, Comic 28 with 96 notes, Comic 40 with 52 notes, and a tie between Comic 27 and Comic 32 with 48 notes each.

The bottom 5 comics of Year 2 by notes ATOW were Comic 45 with 5 notes, Comic 46 with 12 notes, Comic 30 with 13 notes, Comic 43 with 15 notes, and Comic 37 with 16 notes. Interestingly, there are no ties in the note counts of the bottom-ranked comics ATOW, and Comic 45 is the only comic with a single-digit note count as of 3/13/2024.

The comic with the greatest absolute increase in notes since last year was Comic 11 with 385 new notes since last year's tally, making it still the most-viewed comic on the blog by far with 1089 notes ATOW. The comic with the greatest per capita increase in notes since last year was Comic 23, whose note count increased by 271.43% from the previous tally to 19 notes ATOW.

The fandom most often referenced was the Dreamworks Dragons TV series with 3 comics.

As an interesting bit of trivia, the first comic that did not introduce a new speaking character was Comic 27, while Comic 29 was the first comic that did not introduce any new character at all.

Tomorrow we start Year 3!

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Princess Diarist. By Carrie Fisher. Blue Rider Press, 2016.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: memoir

Series: N/A

Summary: When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved--plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher's intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time--and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: alcohol, adultery

The aspect of this book I liked best was Carrie's honesty. Carrie holds nothing back and is quite upfront about her insecurities, her naivite, and her desire to please. The effect is that this memoir reads like a snapshot of a teenage girl who is starstruck by a much older man, and it's both hilarious and a little sad (in that Harrison Ford comes across as... not great).

Let's just get this part out of the way: this is not an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Star Wars. The book jacket and marketing might be a little misleading on that front. If you're here for more Star Wars trivia or juicy gossip from one of the franchise's buggesy stars, best go elsewhere.

What this is, more than anything else, is Carrie's reflection on a number of things: her relationship with Harrison Ford while she was was a teenager and he was married and in his mid-thirties, how so-called "washed up" actresses struggle to make a living, the complicated feelings Carrie has regarding conventions and fame. For what it is, this book is endlessly funny, raw, and heartbreaking, moving from Carrie's characteristic humor and self-deprication to a hard-hitting insight into the workings of Hollywood and celebrity fandom.

Still, I don't think I can give this book more than 3.5 stars because there were aspects of Carrie's writing that didn't click for me. Some of her phrasing was a little awkward, and sometimes she would veer off in different directions (which is fine - that's the way her mind works - but it is also hard to follow sometimes). I also would have liked Carrie to deliver some sort of takeaway for each chapter - not necessarily a "moral to the story," but a clear(er) verbalizarion of the insights she gained by reflecting on the stories she's told.

The excerpts from her diary were also nice little insights to Carrie's headspace at the time, and if you care about Carrie as a person (not just Carrie as Princess Leia), they're a lovely look into the way her mind works.

But perhaps the section I liked best was Carrie's chapter on conventions. I found her honesty and complexity to be incredibly insightful and it shines a light on what she had to deal with for 40 years after the first Star Wars film.

Still, I'm glad I read this book. It's quick, it's amusing, and the photos are charming and nostalgic. The book perhaps hits a little different because both Carrie and her mother are gone, so some of my good feeling might be influenced by me being a fan who misses these icons. But if you love Carrie, you'll cherish this chance to "hear" her voice again.

[turtlethebean]

Introducing the OCs for my Newest CC AU/Fanseries: Part Aeron

For picrew links, see part Michelle

Spoilers under cut.

Name: Aeron Bryn

Age: 40

Birthday: 20th of May 1997

Origin: Newport, Wales

Residence: Cardiff, Wales

Gender: Cisgender male (also intersex)

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Gay

Family:

Nathan Bryn (Son)

Haydn Bryn (Husband)

Aderyn Bryn (Mother)

Unnamed stepfather

Unnamed younger sisters

Unnamed younger brother (deceased)

Height: 5 foot 9

Blood type: A+

Title: Tech Expert

Backstory:

Aeron was born and raised for the first part of his life in Newport, Wales. However, after an incident where his mother got severely injured, leading her to have a permanent disability, the family moved to his stepfather's farm.

After secondary school, he moved to Cardiff to live with some friends and his now husband. The two adopted Nathan when Aeron was 24.

Songs to describe them:

Kept in a Cage by Dead & Loving It

I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons

Welcome to the Internet by Bo Burnham

Karma by OR3O

I'm Just Your Problem from Adventure Time

How to Save a Life by The Fray

La Da Dee by Cody Simpson

Lemon Boy by Cavetown

Strange Love by Halsey

Star by Pepper Cyote

Trivia:

He has ADHD and dyscalculia (a learning disability involving math and numbers)

His nose ring actually has his deceased brother's name engraved on it.

Besides English, he also speaks Welsh and Chinese.

[dead-loch]

I'm trying to make sense of Skye's life for fic purposes and these are the notes I've taken so far:

Cath says she was Skye’s first girlfriend when she was 20 (or broke her heart when she was 20?? Who knows how long they dated).

Cath and Dulcie lived in Sydney prior to moving to Deadloch. Skye lived in Sydney at the same time they did (at some point, anyway).

Cath and Dulcie moved to Deadloch 5 years ago, and Ray moved to Deadloch, on Skye’s recommendation, prior to that.

Skye and Nadiyah and Tom only moved to Deadloch a year ago.

Between Sydney and Deadloch, Skye lived overseas (established when the other bodies pop up in the lake that Skye could not have killed them).

According to trivia, Skye was a teenager during the 1990s, which means she was born at least in the 1980s or slightly earlier?

Nadiyah is 30 years old currently (also based on trivia, unsure if she is exactly 30 or just in her 30s)

Skye says in her interview that Vanessa outed her, and that after that Trent and Gavin started bullying her, followed by adults, incl. her dad and Rod Dixon, “getting involved”. Skye is in that photo of the football team as a teenager, so still in Deadloch and evidently has not been outed yet, possibly when she's between 15-17?

In the same interview, Dulcie says Skye made her “triumphant return after 22 years”. If Skye is (let’s say), 37, that would mean she left at 15 (which I don’t believe works out in the timeline?). If she’s 40, though, it would mean she left at 18. This would mean she had Tom at 23, not as a teenager.

It would also mean that she had Tom years after leaving Deadloch, and after dating Cath.

It would mean she dated Cath after she left Deadloch, too.

I think I assumed that Cath is from Deadloch and that when she and Dulcie moved there, she was returning home. Did I make that up or is it said at some point? I might have assumed just cause she inserts herself into other people's lives like she's known them forever.

I might be missing some info, hard to believe with the number of rewatches, but I feel like with Mads Sami, Kate Box and Alicia Gardner all being in their early 40s in real life, it tracks that Skye would be around the same age (even though I had pegged her as younger tbh and thought that meant she'd had Tom at a very very young age)

[partyglimpse]

10 Best ideas what to do for wife’s 40th birthday?

Turning 40 is a significant milestone in a woman’s life, and celebrating this momentous occasion with thoughtfulness and creativity can make it truly unforgettable. As her 40th birthday approaches, you might be wondering how to make it special, memorable, and uniquely tailored to her personality. Whether your wife is someone who loves grand celebrations or prefers intimate gatherings, this guide will provide a range of ideas to help you plan the perfect 40th birthday celebration for her.

Understanding Her Preferences

Before diving into specific ideas, it’s crucial to consider what your wife would enjoy most. Reflect on her personality, interests, and any hints she may have dropped about her ideal celebration. Here are a few questions to help guide your planning:

View Original

1. What are her hobbies and passions? Does she enjoy cooking, traveling, painting, or music?

2. Does she prefer large gatherings or intimate celebrations? – Would she appreciate a surprise party with all her friends and family or a quiet dinner with just the two of you?

3. What is her style and taste? Does she prefer simplicity and unique touches, or does she want opulent experiences?

Ideas for a Memorable 40th Birthday Celebration

1. Plan a Surprise Party

If your wife loves to mingle and be the life of the party, throwing her a surprise party can be an exciting way to celebrate her 40th birthday. Here’s how you can execute it:

1. Theme:

Choose a theme that reflects her interests. It could be anything from a glamorous Hollywood soirée to a tropical luau or a vintage 80s party.

2. Guest List:

Compile a list of her closest friends and family. To make sure they can come and maintain the air of surprise, get in touch with them ahead of time.

3. Venue:

Depending on the number of guests, you could host the party at your home, a rented event space, or even an outdoor location like a garden or beach.

4. Decor:

Decorate the venue according to the theme. Think about incorporating elements that she loves, whether it’s her favorite colors, flowers, or a photo collage of memorable moments.

5. Entertainment:

Make a playlist of her favorite music or hire a live band or DJ. Incorporate her favorite games or pastimes, like karaoke or trivia.

6. Food and Drinks:

Arrange for a catering service or prepare her favorite dishes. Consider a signature cocktail or a dessert bar featuring her favorite treats.

2. Plan a Romantic Getaway

It’s a great idea to celebrate her 40th birthday with a romantic getaway, especially if she appreciates novel experiences and quality time. Here’s how to plan a memorable trip:

1. Destination:

Choose a destination she’s always wanted to visit or a place that holds sentimental value for both of you. It could be a cozy cabin in the mountains, a luxurious resort, or a charming city abroad.

2. Accommodation:

Whether it’s a vacation rental, a charming bed & breakfast, or a five-star hotel, reserve a stay somewhere that offers comfort and elegance.

3. Activities:

Plan activities that cater to her interests. This can include fine eating, outdoor activities, spa services, or cultural outings.

4. Surprises:

Throughout the journey, include unexpected activities like a private tour of a nearby landmark, a candlelit dinner on the beach, or a thoughtful present.

3. Host a Themed Party

A themed party can be a fun and engaging way to celebrate her milestone birthday. Choose a theme that aligns with her passions or interests:

1. Gourmet Dinner Party:

Organize a gourmet dinner party with a private chef or cooking lesson if she has a passion for food and cooking. Create a menu featuring her favorite dishes and pair them with fine wines.

2. Wine or Whiskey Tasting:

If she is an expert in fine wines or spirits, plan a tasting party. Engage a specialist to lead the tasting and offer analysis of each wine.

3. Art and Culture:

Arrange an art-themed party if she’s an art lover. This can be an evening of live performances, an art class, or a private museum visit.

4. Create a Personalized Gift

You can add even more particular touches to her 40th birthday with a bespoke and thoughtful present. Here are some ideas:

1. Custom Jewelry:

Think about getting a piece of jewelry engraved with your initials, a special occasion, or a message to yourself.

2. Memory Book:

Create a scrapbook or photo album filled with pictures, notes, and mementos from your life together. Include contributions from friends and family.

3. Experience Gifts:

Gift her an experience she’s always wanted to try, such as a hot air balloon ride, a cooking class with a renowned chef, or tickets to her favorite concert or show.

5. Organize a Day of Pampering

If your wife enjoys relaxation and self-care, a day of pampering can be a wonderful way to celebrate her birthday. Here’s how you can organize it:

1. Spa Day:

Make reservations for a daylong massage, facial, and other treatments at an opulent spa. If you’d like to partake in the relaxation as well, you may also schedule a couple’s massage.

2. Home Spa Experience:

With a variety of pampering goods, soothing music, and scented candles, you may create a spa-like ambiance at home. Treat her to a homemade facial, foot soak, and massage.

3. Personalized Self-Care Kit:

Put together a kit with her essential oils, bath salts, and favorite skincare products along with a comfortable robe or slippers.

6. Plan a Family Celebration

If your wife values family time, consider organizing a family-focused celebration. Here’s how to make it special:

1. Family Gathering:

Organize a get-together with your immediate family that includes a dinner, games, and fun activities that everyone can partake in.

2. Memory Lane:

Create a slideshow or video montage of family memories, including special moments with her and the kids. Share it during the celebration to highlight the importance of family.

3. Special Tribute:

Make arrangements for a unique speech or tribute from family members to share their thoughts about the deceased and their favorite memories of her.

7. Charity and Giving Back

If your spouse is enthusiastic about helping others and changing the world, think considering including a charitable event in your birthday celebration:

1. Charity Event:

Organize a charity function or fundraising in her memory. Get your loved ones involved in a subject she cares about by extending an invitation.

2. Volunteer Together:

Volunteer for a cause she is passionate about during the day. It’s a meaningful way to celebrate and give back to the community.

3. Donation in Her Name:

Make a donation to her favorite charity in her name. To honor the kindness, include a personalized note or certificate.

8. Adventure and Thrills

For a wife who loves excitement and adventure, plan an adrenaline-pumping experience:

1. Outdoor Adventures:

Organize activities like zip-lining, rock climbing, or a hot air balloon ride. Choose something that aligns with her sense of adventure.

2. Extreme Sports:

Make plans for her to go skydiving, bungee jumping, or race car driving if she enjoys extreme activities.

3. Travel Adventure:

Arrange an excursion that involves daring pursuits like trekking through a national park, snorkeling in a tropical locale, or taking a bike tour to discover a new city.

9. Host a Virtual Party

If an in-person gathering isn’t feasible due to distance or other constraints, consider hosting a virtual party:

1. Online Gathering:

Use video conferencing tools to bring together friends and family from around the world. Plan virtual activities such as trivia games, a talent show, or a virtual dinner party.

2. Surprise Boxes:

Surprise your visitors with boxes filled with party treats, candies, and handwritten cards. During the online celebration, open them all together.

3. Online Experiences:

Make plans for online events that everyone can participate in from the comfort of their homes, like a live concert, wine tasting, or culinary class.

10. Create a Memory Capsule

A memory capsule is a unique and sentimental way to celebrate her milestone birthday:

1. Assemble Memories:

Gather mementos, letters, pictures, and other treasures from loved ones. Include personal notes and messages that reflect on her life and achievements.

2. Seal and Celebrate:

Seal the items in a decorative box or container. Present it to her on her birthday and plan to open it together on a future special occasion.

3. Add to It:

As the year goes on, ask friends and family to add their mementos and comments, so that the capsule will grow over time.

Final Thoughts

Organizing a 40th birthday party that your wife will remember demands a combination of imagination, consideration, and meticulousness. Whether you opt for a grand party, a romantic getaway, or a quiet day of pampering, the most important thing is to make her feel cherished and loved. By considering her preferences, interests, and your shared experiences, you can create a celebration that reflects her unique personality and marks this significant milestone in a truly special way.