#Ban The Immortal

[mishy-mashy]

Technically an OC fic that's not Resistance-based-

Involves:

Yoichi singing the American anthem to make a baby sleep. It's the only song he ever heard on the radio, and it actually works

Kudo throwing a baby Factor over the edge to kick them out of the void because Bruce wouldn't do it

Bruce felt himself wither and die a bit more at what was expected of him.

Kudo rolled his eyes. "If you're not going to do it-"

"Second, don't you dare-"

"Kudo," Yoichi tried.

"I will," he finished, heaving her up by the back of her onesie like she were a trash bag. Raising her up to eye level, he did a brief three-finger salute.

Her head was too heavy, and neck too weak, for her to look anywhere but at his feet, biting her gums onto her little knuckles. She had no idea what this man was about to do to her.

"Hasta la Vista, kiddo. Enjoy your last seconds of life."

"KUDO!!!"

En speedrunning the marriage process because his friend wanted to (both ace, it's a QP relationship)

"Sorahiko-senpai, give me the marriage certificate," En nearly hissed over their burgers.

Sorahiko chewed slowly. "Why?"

"I'm about to set the world record for fastest divorce—!!!"

Quirk bullcrap where the story focuses on what happens if a Quirk Singularity can't adjust, and how Factors are their own personality.

AKA, when a Quirk Singularity is in a normal person, and not like OFA or AFO.

Gran Torino is bad at relationship advice

"In my experience, which is none—"

Aizawa has problem children (definitely plural) acting out on day 1

Aizawa slammed the door open.

"Hi, Shouta!" she waved, a raging blonde stuck to the classroom wall and screaming up a storm. The first day had barely started, too. "Fancy seeing you here-!"

Aizawa slammed the door shut.

Setting up a Monopoly game for the vestiges to play

"I want the doggy."

"I want the doggy!"

Kudo didn't even blink. "Shut up, Fifth, Yoichi gets the dog."

###

She looked at Midoriya, who suddenly went quiet. His expression was a bit cowed, staring blankly at the tiny player pieces.

"What?"

"Ah..." His head jolted, called to attention. His head immediately fell down a bit as he admitted, a bit awkwardly, "They're, fighting over the doggy..."

###

"Yoichi grew up with nothing. Are you really going to deprive this orphan of even a playing piece?"

"Are you seriously playing the pity card right now?!"

"I'll play any card to let Yoichi have what little he never got when he was alive,” Kudo sniffed, arms crossed. “I may have been a murderer, but wow. I never took you for a heartless monster, Fifth."

"Guys," Shinomori spoke up quietly, completely ignored and otherwise unheard underneath their spreading bickering, "it's just a board game..."

[reginashorsepainting]

reposting some of my recent fanart oops :') ft: the crossover only like three other people care about

[the-starry-lycan]

“HE HAS A YAOI LABORATORY?!”

Don’t be so surprised, Resh’an… you probably helped him build it for the both of your enjoyment…

[trystanthorne]

id mc

[fionnalovesanimeboysandholo]

What were Ban and Elaine doing when they made Lancelot ?! That kid is on Ban level almost !!!

[gaywatch]

Hey brittanyyy Here are some leaks of luo yunxi as chu xun from immortality (when will it air im so sad)

https://www.tumblr.com/stellarflex/710415267980886016

W A I T

I haven't looked at the MDL page for this in aaaaaaaages, what the fuck do you MEAN Chu Wanning is Till The End of the Moon guy who was all over my dash for months last year!?!!!?!!?! WHAT DO YOU MEANNNNNNN

[5-pp-man]

another one of my fave character power archetypes is "guy who explodes into blood and viscera but its ok"

[a-eo-iu]

world's worst uncle <3

[sambusa]

Hey, this is Taylor from a few years back. Sorry for the ask. I haven't used this app in a few years and forgot how to message lol. I was looking through my old account and saw yours was still up and running, and I just wanted to tell you thank you for the time you were my friend and how patient you were with me. You were a great friend and an even better influence. Hope you're doing good!

This was such a wonderful surprise... I have so many words and yet none at all. Thank you for being my friend, too, and for the kindness you showed me. I hope the future has treated you kindly 🥹🫶🏾

[red-moon-at-night]

Shidou terrifies me. His general vagueness 99% of the time which then switches into devout adoration and obsession about his family/children... it's REALLY hard to read the guy because I don't know what's real and what's fiction with him. I'm nervously anticipating trial 3 Shidou with my back to the wall and a frying pan in my hand - just in case we gotta whack him out of some medical god complex stupor.

[mejomonster]

Justice in the dark, finished ep 2:

I am just so beyond overwhelmed I'm watching it honestly. I was lucky to experience Guardian a year after it came out, which got me into cdramas and cnovels and studying chinese, which got me into priests writing in particular, and i never had to anticipate or hope for guardian. I was lucky to just find it's cdrama version as my first experience period of a cdrama and of the story. It was everything I loved personally (just the perfect niche choices for Me). I never had to anticipate or wonder or hope if an adaptation would exist or be good. Because for me it was already perfect on first watch (yes even horrifically bad cgi cat da qing - I have a particular fondness for awful cgi at times especially in campy shows like Xena and Doctor Who so the low budget only added to my enjoyment personally lol).

Then Word of Honor came out. After id studied chinese for a year, worked a lot to drag myself through reading 28 chapters of tian ya ke and my first significant chunk of reading a priest novel in original chinese. I had OPINIONS. My biggest being they NEEDED to be morally grey fucked up people, needed to lie and put on acts like in the book, and Gong Jun was my dream casting for Wen Kexing but I'd have settled for anyone with a decently fitting performance. My expectations of a live action drama were absolutely blown away. The cast was actually my specific dream cast, Gong Jun pulled a better performance than I've Ever seen him do prior (just perfect in WoH specifically he really did amazing), Zhou zishu is SUCH a hard character to act much like Zhang Qiling in dmbj in that he is quiet and keeps himself private so an actor NEEDS to be really good at the performance to the audience to get across the characters internal world and get the character to come off correctly. He did it. So absolutely blown away by performances as good as Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong did for Zhao yunlan and shen wei, when I had no expectations they'd be As Good only hopefully sufficiently good. So acting was WOW. the side cast actors also absolutely blew me out of the water. The entire show team did honestly - the costumer showed how MUCH can be done with costumes and wig regardless of budget (compare WoH wigs to The Untamed or Eternal Love - just more unique designs for everyone's wigs in woh). The sets are simple but distinguishable and again while it's just a simple X setting in woh I still found the sets more memorable than the Eternal Love sets overall, the fighting is choreographed GOOD (1 I heard by the same person as Ultimate Note which would explain a lot as both have fun action scenes, 2 I love The Untamed in many regards but also there's fight scenes where extras swing at nothing so fight choreography wasn't quite as strong u know), the color design in post production isn't like ideally natural but it shows off the costumes and further makes the limited budget look distinguished as it's own fully realized concept. Way Better than I ever expected honestly (guardian had limited set budget too and honestly it DID look cheap it only was beloved by me because they make it so Ridiculous in certain aspects it Crosses into Doctor Who level weird sci fi design). And finally the script - handled by a good writer, I felt, that kept the core story elements I wanted and added some more. I didn't like the "knew each other as kids" element which if you know me you know why. But since I always treat live action cdramas as Alternate Universe stories? I could appreciate they didn't bring up knowing each other in a like "we are connected cause of it way" but more as a "strangers who briefly crossed paths once and so have some experiences they both somewhat relate or connect to" which let the script writer mostly keep the original novel relationship vibe. Basically? I'm still absolutely stunned and blown away we got a GREAT drama, let alone a good one.

I knew Sha Po Lang had a drama filmed and DONE. I hadn't read it so I thankfully had no great attachment to the story being done right. I was excited because I love priest stories so I know it'll be based on good source material, and I LOVE the idea of steampunk historical. I had no idea on what to expect though besides potentially horrifically bad cgi for the steampunk elements if they didn't cut them out completely? Or cheap but functional cgi like Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain (it'll be miraculous if it's like The Lost Tomb Reboot or Utlimate Note or Love Between Fairy and Devil in terms of quite Decent nice cgi). I had no expectations until an actor I admire was cast as one of the leads. Then I figured: well this will be a GOOD show to watch. Because that actor is worth watching Just by being in it since he'll give a great performance, and the source material came from priest so it can only be so bad. I figured THAT drama was what to mentally prepare for! Then it didn't come! We're still waiting.

Now finally to Silent Reading. It's my favorite priest novel. Of any adaptations to have expectations about, it's this one for me. I made edits for this one. I watched bilibili fanvideo edits for the book and had opinions on which aesthetic choices worked best. I cared. I saw it (like a couple other novels I'm excited for adaptations for) was getting adapted too! After sha po lang, way later, casting dragging on. I assumed okay temper yourself you won't even see it until Immortality 2ha is out (lmao ;-; ). I also decided BECAUSE it's my favorite? I figured I would be disappointed and let down. So I tried not to even hope itd be good. I hoped, desperately, decent actors would be cast who could do a good solid job. I got immensely lucky when Fei Du was cast cause I know from Go Ahead that guy can ACT so at least fei du would be wonderful to watch. I had no idea about anyone else and again tempered my expectations to please please just be Decent. (So Tao Ran being Perfectly cast and acted is blowing my goddamn mind nonstop). I also hoped, for an expectation, a visual aesthetic like Under the Skin or some video edits I'd seen on bilibili. Just a sort of Beyond Evil, Flower of Evil, The Guest, sort of gritty thriller grounded somewhat in reality but at the edge kind of. A detective show with a psychologically heavy lean to it. Possibly a little stylistic even in color choice cause I personally like shows that visually look like Their Own thing (even if it looks less natural - like I love Goodbye My Princess and Heroes visually even though it's such extreme color editing). And finally I hoped for a serviceable bare minimum... bare minimum... solve murders and stick at least basically to the book cases script. I really had no idea what to expect of writing wuality except a "PLEASE be Decent you're working with great source material, it's already got an audio drama with a script u should barely have to work to make this Decent just don't make it awful." So yeah. Low expectations. I probably could have been happy with Granting You a Dreamlike Life level writing quality, visual quality (except dear fuck please with blues instead of that yikes yellow gyadl used a ton), and passable actors.

Instead I got way better than my expectations and it's breaking my mind a little. Color grading? Blue greens and I'm sure some people hate it I fucking love it to pieces. (If I'd give any visual critique it's that I think they're over smoothing actors and I love gritty real looking skin but I recognize a lot of cdramas generally make the choice to face smooth and use filters so it's going to crop up in some stuff I watch :/ it's not totally awful in that I can see Luo's stubble and sometimes Fei Du's cover-up powder on his little nose, but overall the contrast intensity and color grading they chose makes the skin look less gritty in combo with I imagine some skin smoothing filters). I personally Love the cgi I have seen, which i assumr either means cheap cgi came up EONS since guardian or they got bigger cgi budget for a crime drama that shouldn't need them than I would've figured. The city bits that I imagine are fake establishing shots look way better than guardian and in line with Ultimate Note quality at times (at least they're not too noticeably bad is my point). The extreme lighting choices are unnatural for sure but I really like them since there's a heavy metaphor right now of Luo as the light and Fei Du in the dark, and seeing that visual metaphor play out with actual bright lights/intense shadows frequently in scenes is so visually satisfying to me, you can read their mental states just by the lighting (one scene Fei Dus emotions drop and it goes from sunny to storming which is REALLY on the nose and funny but also I love how thoroughly this way of using light is through the entire show). Green and blues also seem to be being used for light and dark, life and death, warmth and cold, Luo and Fei. I never had the expectation so Much detail would be put to visuals and I'm so beyond grateful.

Next, the music. Oh my god the music. So far it's not like Life Changing to me the way Guardians soundtrack was (I love Chen Xuerans music - he also did some Tomb of the Sea music I also love). But I didn't expect the music to even be more than servicable, yet I'm enjoying it enough I want to go look up the tracks? (Also WoH had a banger soundtrack forgot to mention that). I love the choice of piano instruments frequently in the background music, it's extremely fitting of this particular story with priest naming chapters after famous literature and just the vibe of old detective stories. At the same time? Again there's this comparison between a very piano and western orchestra background ost, and the very modern English song that's kind of pop music that Fei Du plays often and with Tao Ran and sometimes plays in scenes with Luo. It's like the light/dark lighting, the music juxtaposition. It's such a noticeable choice, and it really adds to how effective the scenes are. I did not expect the music to shine to me. It's not like WoH levels yet in terms of any particular song lyrics, but the music playing when Fei Du was young seeing his mom, and the music playing at the end of ep 2 as Luo talks to Fei Du about his mom, were both impactfully used.

Writing: not much to say except oh my fuck I can't believe I'm seeing these scenes I love acted out. Acted out properly, like I pictured them. ;-; I'm amazed how much they're sticking to book honestly. I. Am just incredibly overwhelmed moving on. It feels like coming home honestly, a new scene starts and I know exactly where I am from the novel. I actually happen to enjoy when cdrama adaptations change story (Alternate Universe story) so id be just pleasant too if the story Does happen to change, but at the moment this is maybe the most faithful (*except the little sci fi intro note) adaptation I've seen of any book in general in my life. I am so so happy. I loved the scene in Tao Rans car. The scenes of Fei as a child is better than anything I could have possibly ever imagined (Luo coming from the light to cover his eyes and stop the horror, pulling him safe to the light, just the visuals and music absolutely <3 ;-; ). The scenes with Fei Du, Tao Ran, and Luo Wenzhou are just like I imagined them (this may not be true for everyone though lol - I read with the feeling they really were cold and bristly while caring/pushing into each other's business, but not even seeing each other as friend or romantic options at the start - this is coming off just like I imagined, with Tao Ran exactly just... right out of my brain perfect kudos to the guy playing him he's singlehandedly changing my life damn). I saw some people mentioning not seeing much chemistry between Luo and Fei. I may change my mind later but... as of ep 2? I'm happy to say I'm seeing exactly what the novel gave me at the same points in the plot. I actually think the shows giving a Touch more because it's really Really hammering home how Luo and Fei have revolved around each other 7 years, are stuck together in a situation they can't move past, are yin yang light dark warmth cold passion logic alive dead, and those kind of fucking parallels really hammer very obviously that as lovable as Tao Ran is it's really Luo/Fei who are the main characters and who have effected each other's lives most greatly. Yes Tao Ran is Luos best friend and was his partner since their first case of Feis mom - but Luo is who reached out slightly More to Fei Du, who made it his entire purpose to help this kid, who this kid Blamed for being unable to help, who chose to keep trying to take care of Fei for 7 years ever since (Tao ran also doing so because he was involved). Yes Fei Du crushes on Tao Ran as a safe outlet, because Tao Ran won't reciprocate (for a variety of reasons from being straight to thinking of himself as someone taking care of Fei like an older brother - and that emotional position of his is uniquely why he can give such direct advice to Fei that Fei wouldn't take as kindly to as from an actual romantic option like Luo). Fei Du acts emotionally more open with Tao, and certainly tries harder to try and live healthier by associating wirh Tao (and Tao indulges it because it does make Fei feel more human and connected). But it's clear Luos the one who makes Fei face his fears directly, who cuts through the shield entirely, the one who's words actually genuinely shake Fei Du. Tao Ran can call Fei out but on some level Fei won't break from it since it's Tao saying it, can close back up if he does open enough to take it to heart. Luo is fundamentally a person thats Too important to Fei for Fei to control how he handles him. Luo changed his life, was his hope then his hopelessness. And still remains both. The show is absolutely hammering that. Whereas the book? If you didnt know Luo was going to be the main character, you'd figure Fei/Tao was going to be at least an initial ship. Or Tao/Luo if only it was friends to lovers (just me then lol). My point is the shows clear irs got a very specific "bromance" angle and it's hammering it as much as Merlin/Arthur got hammered with 2 sides of the same coin he's your destiny. And more.

Acting again. I also love all the side characters so far. Love the casting choices all around. Zhang Donglan was not how I pictured lol but I liked his actor, the core investigation group is just like I pictured.;-; <3

Luos actor. So eyecandy in a screencap he is not particularly. In motion? He's looks wise passable for Luo. Which is like... when I read the book Luo was traditionally handsome like some superhero (Captain joke from the book and all) but in regular man's roughed up clothes of regular financial means, basic work haircut, could tone himself down if needed. So Zhao Yunlan, while I love him (good job Bai Yu) is too "pretty" to be Luo - the leather jacket too flashy, the whole look just too flashy. Luos styling in the show is acceptable as it looks like an everyday man's less flashy version of Zhao Yunlan, which is about where Luo lands. I imagined a more Model handsome type for Luo just because I imagined him more Abruptly in your face handsome hero (think Captain America) compared to "blends into the background next door neighbor cute" that is Tao Ran (and tbf show Tao Ran is Perfect.... I imagined Yang Yang but dressed/styled toned down, and this actor visually is like a 96% match to an actual fancast edit I made so.. he's perf). Luos actor instead also has a similar "everyday man next door" handsome. On the upside its probably realistic given he qnd Tao Ran should feel on the same level. On the other no its not mu mental picture of Luo - I couldn't even fancast him because he's SO specific in my mental interpretation. But back to the point: as an actor he does look suitable while playing the role. His actual acting? That's where it really matters. When I read, Luo was SUCH a specific character to me if an actor can't pull it off it'll hurt. His actor is doing Perfect. I'm beyond grateful. He's just like Luo in my head. His voice is a touch different but it's acted great so it's fine. The only scenes that jar me are ones where I can clearly know someone edited a scene or added a thing to his costume to make him look like Zhao Yunlan lmao, just because it feels less like Luo and I know it? Like his scene saving a girl from a mugger on a bike was so reminiscent of show Guardian Zhao Yunlan getting off the motorbike. The glasses and leather jacket in ep 1 on Luo screamed "similar to Zhao yunlan" but toned slightly down, and the scene he talks to get into the crime scene felt very echoey of Zhao yunlan doing that to get into the first crime scene in Guardian. The actor made it flow fine, and he Feels like Luo so I'm happy as peaches. But there were some moments in ep 1 I think lol either director or writer or someone wanted to reference Guardian or rely on that similarity to give the watcher a familiar impression. The actor is Really nailing the small moments of acting with his team, and the emotional moments with Fei are just so well done.

Anyways in summary? I had so few expectations and they've been far surpassed. I'm amazed how much extra stuff I didn't even want to hope for is also lovely in this. I'm so !!!!

[greenapplebling]

Tim: Who suffers more, God or us?

Jason: God will suffer when I get there

Dick: And that's why he won't let you die for real

Jason: Cursed with immortality? Outrageous...

Tim: Or cursed to spend your other life in the limbo

Jason: I'm banned from Hell too??

[ryan-sometimes]

Who were the lesbian blood sisters?

“Suddenly, the hospitals were full of lesbians who were volunteering. Volunteering to go into those rooms and help my friends who were dying. I remember being so moved by them because gay men hadn’t been too kind to lesbians. We’d call them ‘fish’ and make fun of the butch dykes in the bars – and yet, there they were.”

In the 80s, the AIDS crisis was devastating the world of GLBT people - as the acronym read at the time. Gay men were banned from donating blood, which was desperately needed by patients dying from AIDS. The fear around HIV was so great that doctors and nurses refused to even enter the rooms of AIDS patients. These patients were often abandoned by their families in their dying days. There was a crisis was in the GLBT community, and so lesbians stepped in.

Lesbians organized blood drives in order to give blood to AIDS patients who desperately needed it. These blood drives attracted dozens, if not hundreds of lesbians at a time who all donated their blood. They called themselves the Blood Sisters, and they organized regular blood drives for at least 4 years. HIV patients needed frequent blood transfusions due to anemia induced from the virus, and so lesbians provided this blood.

In addition to blood drives, lesbians also took place as physical caretakers for gay men with AIDS, who were often abandoned by their families and even nursing staff who refused to go into their rooms. Lesbians held hands, fed, and took care of them.

In order to honor the efforts of lesbians during the AIDS crisis, the GLBT acronym was changed to LGBT, with lesbians deliberately at the front. Lesbians were a crucial part of the fight against AIDS, and this change would immortalize it in our community.

[princeinsomniavoid]

Tbh never expected a post of mine to do numbers like this I thought Tumblr staff would shadow ban me for this fuckin post 💀💀💀

[13thpythagoras]

I meditate on this often, as someone who expects to have ridiculous longevity and already looks 15 years younger than I should

if it wasn't for capitalism we'd have a life expectancy of 500 years and every car would be a UFO lol

nah when we abolish capitalism this could be come a real problem, the potential loss of scarcity-derived-time-value

Ram Das has the solution

"Be here now"

"so real right now!" was the message when I first tried shrooms maybe 13 years ago. I became aware that our universe has as much detail and nuance as we'd care to observe, it's not all "relevant-to-survival-or-reproduction-TM" nuance but it's always there, that shimmer derived in part from tiny fleeting burns in our retinas all the way to the psychedelic background radiation of observing the universe from a biological body...

I love it. Even if you have a life expectancy of 50,000 years you still know that the arc of truth only bends towards justice through the flexing of our muscles and hard work.

That arc of justice in our universe observed by Martin Luther King Jr, that arc does not BEND towards justice without our hard work, and let us commemorate the hard work and sacrifice of him and those before us who did bend that arc toward justice.

You still know that there is only ever the here and now, no one truly lives forever but we can possibly live a very, very long time, and the ancients claim to have achieved this, it's unwise to let the foggy goggles of capitalism blind us to the possible longevity that can be unlocked in our DNA

For example, there's a marine animal that can repair its own telomeres and essentially is this, immortal, it's called the lobster, this is hard science. Without the constant din of petty violence sprayed at us by the firehose of capitalism imagine if we could harness the biological wisdom of the lobster and achieve what those little sea insects have achieved in telomere repair...

people like to bring up things like "all your loved ones would die before you" as a concern re: immortality. But the real danger for me would be that i'd literally never get anything done again. I'd adopt the elvish lifestyle immediately. Not doing anything in a week that could be done in a century. Not getting anything done in a century that can be done in 10 centuries. Spending the next 100 years reading 1 book very slowly because i have infinite time and don't care.

[headspace-hotel]

What i've been learning thru my research is that Lawn Culture and laws against "weeds" in America are deeply connected to anxieties about "undesirable" people.

I read this essay called "Controlling the Weed Nuisance in Turn-of-the-century American Cities" by Zachary J. S. Falck and it discusses how the late 1800's and early 1900's created ideal habitats for weeds with urban expansion, railroads, the colonization of more territory, and the like.

Around this time, laws requiring the destruction of "weeds" were passed in many American cities. These weedy plants were viewed as "filth" and literally disease-causing—in the 1880's in St. Louis, a newspaper reported that weeds infected school children with typhoid, diphtheria, and scarlet fever.

Weeds were also seen as "conducive to immorality" by promoting the presence of "tramps and idlers." People thought wild growing plants would "shelter" threatening criminals. Weeds were heavily associated with poverty and immortality. Panic about them spiked strongly after malaria and typhoid outbreaks.

To make things even wilder, one of the main weeds the legal turmoil and public anxiety centered upon was actually the sunflower. Milkweed was also a major "undesirable" weed and a major target of laws mandating the destruction of weeds.

The major explosion in weed-control law being put forth and enforced happened around 1905-1910. And I formed a hypothesis—I had this abrupt remembrance of something I studied in a history class in college. I thought to myself, I bet this coincides with a major wave of immigration to the USA.

Bingo. 1907 was the peak of European immigration. We must keep in mind that these people were not "white" in the exact way that is recognized today. From what I remember from my history classes, Eastern European people were very much feared as criminals and potential communists. Wikipedia elaborates that the Immigration Act of 1924 was meant to restrict Jewish, Slavic, and Italian people from entering the country, and that the major wave of immigration among them began in the 1890s. Almost perfectly coinciding with the "weed nuisance" panic. (The Immigration Act of 1917 also banned intellectually disabled people, gay people, anarchists, and people from Asia, except for Chinese people...who were only excluded because they were already banned since 1880.)

From this evidence, I would guess that our aesthetics and views about "weeds" emerged from the convergence of two things:

First, we were obliterating native ecosystems by colonizing them and violently displacing their caretakers, then running roughshod over them with poorly informed agricultural and horticultural techniques, as well as constructing lots of cities and railroads, creating the ideal circumstances for weeds.

Second, lots of immigrants were entering the country, and xenophobia and racism lent itself to fears of "criminals" "tramps" and other "undesirable" people, leading to a desire to forcefully impose order and push out the "Other." I am not inventing a connection—undesirable people and undesirable weeds were frequently compared in these times.

And this was at the very beginnings of the eugenics movement, wherein supposedly "inferior" and poor or racialized people were described in a manner much the same as "weeds," particularly supposedly "breeding" much faster than other people.

There is another connection that the essay doesn't bring up, but that is very clear to me. Weeds are in fact plants of the poor and of immigrants, because they are often medicinal and food plants for people on the margins, hanging out around human habitation like semi-domesticated cats around granaries in the ancient Near East.

My Appalachian ancestors ate pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. The plant is toxic, but poor people in the South would gather the plant's young leaves and boil them three times to get the poison out, then eat them as "poke salad." Pokeweed is a weed that grows readily on roadsides and in vacant lots.

In some parts of the world, it is grown as an ornamental plant for its huge, tropical-looking leaves and magenta stems. But my mom hates the stuff. "Cut that down," she says, "it makes us look like rednecks."