#CL for legend magazine

[alicegzb]

CL for #legend magazine

[maracllea]

She's slaying Paris Couture Week, but Korean megastar CL (@chaelincl) also found time to turn up the heat on our July cover.

[chaemintcherry]

+CL for #legend+

[2ne1edits]

CL x Legend

have a great day ♡ please like or reblog if you save 💌

[onsunnyside]

thinking about how after college, cl!steve if going to become a famous football star that is thirsted over by the public, but is married to legacy who he keeps on his arm as his perfect, pretty little trophy wife. somehow she is always seemingly pregnant and she stays at home all day taking care of their lovely home and beautiful kids and greets steve at the door when he comes home every evening with a sweet kiss. just how steve always wanted life to be…

this is the end of CL !!

he's a big star, the golden college legend now in the NFL, married to his college sweetheart and the father of two children with one on the way. his family comes to every game, and he posts about them all the time, he's very proud of his babies and you, his beautiful, pregnant wife. lots of baby bump pictures and can't forget your maternity shoots that always make people swoon.

you're always in the public eye, some people joke about you giving up your journalism career to become a trophy wife and baby maker. it's ironic that you wanted to work in that field and are now constantly in the tabloids and magazines. it's fame you never wanted but got anyway, Steve is proud of it and what he's made of you.

[thecreaturecodex]

Hurgeon

“Epic hedgehog adventure” © FurAffinity user Nero_Eternity, accessed at their gallery here

[And we’re back. Following a brief stress-induced breakdown and a week’s hiatus, the Creature Codex resumes with a three-a-week schedule. Mondays are for Dragon Magazine, and we’re on issue 94, with the Creature Catalogue 2. Similar to the CC1 in that it was dominated by Ed Greenwood and Roger Moore as authors, this article was at least contained within the pages of the magazine itself. The hurgeon is one of many “small, sylvan humanoids” that has cropped up over the years in D&D, and I made this a monstrous humanoid instead of fey in order to help it stand out a bit more.]

Hurgeon CR 1 NG Monstrous Humanoid This tiny creature, no more than a foot tall, resembles a bipedal hedgehog. Its hands are small and nimble, and it carries a sword and sling.

Hurgeons are creatures that resemble tiny, humanoid hedgehogs. They are typically shy of other humanoids, but are kind-hearted and may assist someone lost in the woods with gifts of food or markers to safety left from hiding. Many people consider them a legend, but those that are cruel to animals or disrespectful of a hurgeon’s forests learn of their reality at their own peril. Hurgeons are physically weak, but possess a variety of magical abilities and are experts with a sling. Their tiny sling stones can fly surprisingly fast and strike surprisingly hard, and woodsmen would underestimate a hurgeon militia at their own peril.

Hurgeons usually live in underground galleries located deep in the forest. The entrances to these communities are typically concealed by a tree stump or boulder. Hurgeons are not sexually dimorphic, and the sexes can be distinguished only by those familiar with their people. They are loving parents, and their children are doted on by all members of the community. Like the hedgehogs they resemble, hurgeons are omnivores with a decided sweet tooth. They are skilled at working with leather, and typically wear leather aprons, or heavier garb if expecting combat. Hurgeons venerate powers of the First World and various nature deities, and consider mushroom circles (“faerie rings”) to be sacred.

Hurgeon        CR 1 XP 400 NG Tiny monstrous humanoid Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +4 Defense AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +2 natural, +2 armor) hp 7 (1d10+2) Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +2 Defensive Abilities prickly Offense Speed 15 ft. Melee short sword +2 (1d3-1/19-20) Ranged sling +5 (1d2+2) or sling +3/+3 (1d2+2) Space 2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft. Spell-like Abilities CL 2nd, concentration +3 Constant—speak with animals 3/day—detect animals and plants, hide from animals (DC 12), magic stone, pass without trace 1/day— calm animals (DC 12), entangle (DC 12), faerie fire (DC 12) Statistics Str 8, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 13 Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 10 Feats Great Fortitude Skills Climb +3, Craft (leatherworking) +6, Knowledge (nature) +3, Perception +4, Stealth +14, Survival +8; Racial Modifiers +4 Survival Languages Elven, Hurgeon, Sylvan, speak with animals SQ sling mastery, wild empathy +6 Ecology Environment cold and temperate forests Organization solitary, militia (2-7) or clan (8-32) Treasure standard (sling, 20 bullets, short sword, leather armor, other treasure) Special Abilities Prickly (Ex) Any creature grappling a hurgeon takes 1 point of piercing damage a round. A hurgeon wearing medium or heavy armor does not damage opponents grappling it in this way. Sling Mastery (Ex) A hurgeon adds their Dexterity bonus to damage with slings instead of their Strength bonus and can make multiple attacks a round with a sling as if they had the Rapid Reload and Rapid Shot feats. Wild Empathy (Ex) A hurgeon can use wild empathy as a druid equal to its Hit Dice, and gains a +4 racial bonus on wild empathy checks.

[fyeahkoreanphotoshoots]

CL - #Legend Magazine July Issue '22

[flordevanidad]

CL for legend magazine ✰

[do-itall]

▲kaisoo one-shot (A-L)

→ One-shot

188 paper stars

1954

Addiction

After the rain

Agenda

A journal of conquests

A little more us

All that matters

All These Things

All the way to the stairway

Amidst Antenuptials and Elevator Kisses

Amor et nocet

Anosmia

And never let go

And to all a good night

Another Time Another Place

The Art of Seduction

A taste of compulsion

August medley

Babe-raham Lincoln

Baby tooth

Be mine

Best friends (not a very good word)

The best of friends

Birthday boys

BITE

The boy who makes my morning latte

Booty call

Break Rules, Not Hearts

Bridges (shall fall)

Bright lights in paradise (for just you and me)

Bring them crashing down

Broken doll

Bucket lists and blind dates

Burning sun

Caffé rouge

Candy coated

Can You Keep a Secret?

Caught in a comet’s tail

Check Me Out

Chocolates and Apple Cinnamon

Cold black hearts (don’t do crushes)

Cold hands

Come Back Baby Please (Cause We Belong Together)

Come for the early (stay for the late)

Convenience

Cosmic love

Crystal clear

The dark before the dawn

Dépaysement

Do Kyungsoo’s Guide to Romance (ft. Kim Jongin)

Double trouble

Early mornings, warm coffee and Kim Jongin

Edge of you and me

Emergency

Encore and curtain call

Everlasting light

Everlastingly in Love

Everything is safe and sound

Expectations

Falling

Fast and furious

Favorite hyung

Feeling this is like to fall awake.

Fill the blank

Fireflies

Flour

Flower doodles and their consequences

Flutter

For good

For life

For Me, You’ll Always Be 18

Funky at heart

Gentle bones

Give me a sign

Glass jar

Go down, sunshine

God damned desire

God only knows

Gold and silver

Graceless heart

Gravity

Groundless

The guardian

Hand-holding

Happy years and adolescence

Hearts and bones

A heavenly gift

Heavy snowfall

Here’s a tip

He said go

Hey Mr.ambiguous

Hey sooliet

Hope you’ll be mine

Home

How to Push Your Boyfriends Buttons

(Hues of you) make everything better

Ice hears not

I don’t need a man

If we love again

I look for you In magazines

Ignition

I’ll fly until my wings burn  

(I’m) a picture in your wallet

I’m a screamer (make me mute)

Inked

In the street lights (you are my stage)

Into the pan

In which Jongin’s powers are smarter than him

Is this love?

Is this real?

It’s dangerous business walking out your front door

It’s different from the outside

It’s possible

Joining the dots

Just to get by

Kiss and Hug

Kiss me, kiss me on the cheek

Knuckling under

Kris and tell

Kyungsoo, the chinchilla

The language of flowers

Language of living

Learn to stay cl(ass)y

The Legend of l’EXODUS Town

Lego house

Lemon drop

Let love in

Let my words be heard

Let’s have something sweet

Light’s out

Like a Star (Across My Sky)

Like glass

Look at me, love me

Look both ways before crossing

Love feeturing you

Love from last night

Love Me Through the Decades

- Admin Vic 

[tipsoctopus]

"Destined to be average": Many Spurs fans blast "fraud" who looks "like he's on work experience"

Tottenham Hotspur were cruelly dumped out of the Champions League last night as they struggled to come out on top in their two-legged Round of 16 tie.

It means Jose Mourinho’s side have very little chance of achieving anything of note as they only have pride to play for in the Premier League currently.

Spurs lost 4-0 on aggregate with three goals coming in Germany.

The north Londoners have it all to do as they have now exited all three cup competitions and sit some seven points behind the top four – this may well have been the last time on the elite European stage for quite some time.

Some of the travelling support were furious with the performance of Ryan Sessegnon as he earned a rare start at left-back.

Here’s what has been said…

Sessegnon is actually useless

— ⚪️ (@thfcmourinho_) March 10, 2020

There were people who actually argued that Sessegnon deserved to be in the England squad because he notched some goals in the championship.

Massively overrated. Not good enough defensively to be a left back and not good enough going forward to be a winger. 🤷🏼‍♀️

— Adrian John (@AJ37700304) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon is an absolute nothing player man. Even at Fulham, he always looked destined to be average

— Carlos Remontada (@carlosramrz2) March 10, 2020

Winks and Sessegnon off right now absolutely pathetic from both of them. Tanganga looks well out of his depth too

— Keith🇮🇪 (@Keith_678) March 10, 2020

Halftime thoughts: •We have one good player on the pitch – Lo Celso. •Sessegnon is dreadful. •Sell our whole defence • Get a new goalkeeper. •Winks just isn’t good enough – Getting outmuscled every time.

— Max (@thfcmax___) March 10, 2020

Ryan Sessegnon is a fraud.

— khev (@theyhatekhev) March 10, 2020

There were plenty of words used to describe the young Englishman, including “pathetic” and “useless” whilst one supporter went as far as blasting him for being “overrated”.

A further member of the Spurs faithful called him a “fraud”.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Per SofaScore, the 19-year-old lost possession 23 times, won none of his 14 duels both on the ground and aerially, and also failed to provide an accurate cross or a successful dribble.

Which is why other fans have been slamming him for looking like a “schoolboy” or someone on “work experience” for the club…

Is it just me or does Sessegnon look like he's on work experience?

— Rob Gray (@bobbyg83) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon looks like a lost schoolboy out there. One hell of a jump Badung up the championship to playing CL football. As for Lloris 🤣🤣🤣🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

— Sausage Roll FC (@MikeCOYSpurs) March 10, 2020

Tanganga and Sessegnon look like two school boys who have won a competition to play a game for spurs

— MoggyN17 (@Mohammed_Mogra) March 10, 2020

Some even slammed the price they paid Fulham for him and the fact that he appears to be a “poor bit of business” and you’re inclined to agree with this viewpoint as it was only his 12th appearance of the entire season.

He may not have many more after such a disastrous showing.

https://twitter.com/Christianjw92/status/1237473572492279814

Ryan Sessegnon was clearly never going to improve the squad. Yet Pochettino thought it was a good idea to sign him for THIRTY MILLION POUNDS

— Poch’s Ghost (@lovespursh8poch) March 10, 2020

Plenty believed he should be playing at a lower level of football with the likes of the Championship and League Two being mentioned.

Sessegnon was even slammed for being a winner of a magazine competition.

Lamela is 💩 Moura is an impact sub Dele is a lazy complaining prat Winks is bang average Sessegnon looks like a Div 4 player Aurier is a shambles & a clown Lloris is finished Toby is old Dier is a cart horse

That’s 9 out of 11#RBLTOT #ChampionsLeague

— Stephen Price (@PVsupercars) March 10, 2020

Sessegnon is a Championship level footballer at best

— Greg Jacobs (@GregJacobs1) March 10, 2020

all I'm seeing is Mourinho slander. yet you've got;

Winks – doing his best Mark Noble impression Lamela – plays like he's dancing on ice Sess – looks like he's won a magazine competition Lloris – I've seen diesel tractors move faster Aurier/Lucas – stealing a living

— loco coco 🤺 (@cremedelacoco) March 10, 2020

Ryan Sessegnon is the worst player I've seen in a Spurs shirt for a long time. I honestly don't think he will make it in the premier league.

— Stav thfc (@kingstav) March 10, 2020

What could’ve been… Can you name the clubs these football legends almost joined?

And in other news, our writers think Spurs are onto a winner with this Vertonghen replacement…

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/33fYTmc via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/2vYuPPx via IFTTT

[fassanda]

Olga’s Eindejaarslijstje

Naam: Ollie

Leeftijd: 33

Beroep: schrijver / journalist / mama

Beste gerecht in 2019 (waar, wat, wie?): Ken Sushi met de meiden.

Meest memorabel moment van euforie onder invloed in 2019?: Ben ik denk ik vergeten. Maar is vast iets met natuurwijn en niet naar je werk hoeven.

Meest aangename verrassing in 2019?: Heb me dit jaar definitief neergelegd bij het gegeven dat ik, ook al houd ik niet van verhuizen, erg van verhuizen houd. De plekken waar ik woon zijn als je het theatraal bekijkt decors die ik om de zoveel tijd afbreek en ergens anders weer opbouw.

Ik heb voor het eerst ....... In 2019?: Nederlandse temperaturen boven de 40 graden meegemaakt. Ik ben bang voor de dag dat de wereld alleen nog maar smelt.

Beste reis in 2019?: Die heeft mijn opa denk ik afgelegd. Rust zacht, lieve legend.

Beste collabo(s) in 2019?: Rijk x Thé, mijn tweelingzoontjes.

Beste aankoop in 2019?: Moos, mijn Siamese schootkater die ook nog muizen vangt.

Meest hinderlijke social mediapersonality in 2019?: Iedereen die nog #sorrynotsorry zegt.

Top social mediapersonality in 2019?: Wesley “ik heb het verknald” Sneijder. Oprechtste en ontroerendste post die ik ooit gelezen heb.

Beste televisie/YouTube programma uit 2019?: Joardy Season. Ik volg hem al jaren en ben echt crazy fan. In die zin dat ik zijn sketches ook heb opgenomen in mijn vocabulaire. Dan zeg ik ‘Nintende’ of ‘Jongen, je bent in Zaïre’, als de situatie er naar is.

Het komt voor dat ik net verwezen heb naar een van zijn filmpjes en dat ik hem dan dezelfde dag nog tegenkom op een vernissage of iets in die trant. Maar ik ken hem niet, en hij mij ook niet. Dus dan ben ik half starstruck, maar besef ik tegelijkertijd dat dat een aparte situatie is. Tijd om in 2020 van niemand meer fan te zijn om dit soort gênante emoties te voorkomen.

Beste influencercampagne uit 2019?: Is dit een strikvraag?

Domste influencercampagne uit 2019?: Ik vind alle influencerscampagnes dom. Begrijp ook niet dat ze werken, wat mij ongetwijfeld weer dom en wereldvreemd maakt.

Domste Vice artikel uit 2019?: Een van de mazzels van niet meer bij Vice werken is dat niemand mij kan veroordelen als ik die artikelen niet lees. Ik lees alleen soms nog wat mijn bff Nils de Lange schrijft en die stelt me niet snel teleur. En als het een keer wat minder is vergeef ik hem dat ook.

Beste klantenservice in 2019?: Geen idee. Is dit ook een strikvraag?

Nepste klantenservice in 2019?: Waternet. Let them burn in hell en dat er dan nergens water is om te blussen.

Beste podcast uit 2019?: Leen Schaap bij This American Life is vast niet de beste podcast maar wel zwaar ontluisterend.

Beste Instagram(profiel, post) uit 2019?: Wesley 'we zijn nog niet gescheiden’ Sneijder. Heart breaking.

Gemiste kans in 2019?: Iets met Ajax en de CL.

Beste artikel in 2019?: Het interview met Jan des Bouvrie in Volkskrant Magazine. Onwaarschijnlijke lul en onwaarschijnlijk mooi opgeschreven.

Beste expositie in 2019?: Vond Sam Andrea bij Vriend van Bavink te gek.

Grootse deceptie in 2019?: Mensen die nog steeds in zwarte piet geloven.

Het meest hoopvolle in 2019?: Heb lang over deze vraag nagedacht en het antwoord is: weet ik niet / geen antwoord. Volgens mij staat de wereld redelijk in de fik.

Persoonlijke overwinning in 2019? Dat ik opeens succesvol in Parijs aan het solliciteren was bij de groten der aarde.

Gezelligste feestje in 2019?: De eerste verjaardag van mijn boys, echt een saai antwoord maar is wel zo.

Gezelligste festival in 2019?: Niet dat ik erbij was maar dat moet de bruiloft van Katja geweest zijn. ‘Heeft iedereen een drankje?’

Beste #hashtag?: #okboomer. Fijn dat mijn onvrede over de babyboomer eindelijk breed gedeeld wordt.

Nepste #hashtag?: #spon #nospon #ad #partner.

Meest belabberde clip(s) in 2019?: MTV zendt geen muziek meer uit dus de tijd dat je belabberde clips moest kijken is voorbij. Wat jammer is trouwens.

Beste series uit 2019?: When They See Us, The Assassination of Gianni Versace en The Crown.

Beste documentaire uit 2019?: Die over Bellingcat. De muziek die Binkbeats ervoor componeerde is ook te gek.

Beste boek uit 2019?: Niet het beste, wel wat iedereen moet lezen: ‘Hoe gaan we dit uitleggen’ van Jelmer Mommers.

Muzikale hoogtepunten uit 2019?: Ghosteen van Nick Cave.

Muzikale dieptepunten uit 2019?: DGTL. Zet de volgende keer dat geluid wat zachter aub dankjulliewel. Er wonen ook nog kinderen, bejaarden en andere mensen in Amsterdam die geen boodschap hebben aan jullie zogenaamde duurzame festival.

Nepste bitch in 2019?: Annabel Nanninga.

Beste bitch in 2019?: Greta.

Doelstellingen voor 2019?: Lang en breed gehaald.

Uitkijken voor ....... in 2020?: Mezelf.

[maracllea]

+ 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔪𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔎𝔭𝔬𝔭 +

[biofunmy]

Sahara-Level Sand Dunes, Mediterranean-Blue Water: Welcome to Michigan

The Dune Climb is one of the most popular things to do in a remarkably beautiful, off-the-radar corner of northwest Michigan called Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Yet it had me suffering like a modern-day Sisyphus on a June afternoon. With each oxygen-sucking, uphill step, I slipped and slid backward on the sandy slope. My lungs burned, my bad knee ached, I was drenched with sweat — and I was only halfway to the top.

For locals, the sandy clamber is a childhood rite of passage. “Our mom would take us there to tire us out,” a friend told me, “while she lounged in her beach chair and drank Tab.”

And on this day, kids galloped past me and rolled down the 300-foot dune, their squeals as high-pitched as the cries of the herring gulls overhead. For visitors like me, the steep climb was a way to dig into the park’s quintessential feature: sand.

The park has a plethora of the stuff, from 35 miles of beaches to “perched dunes” towering 450 feet above Lake Michigan — part of the state’s 275,000 acres of sand dunes, which help make up the largest freshwater dune system in the world.

Under a blazing morning sun, I forged upward, thinking — possibly hallucinating — about a cool drink and a dive into the lake, which, I’ve been promised, is two miles across the sand. I could have been in Dubai’s desert; this certainly looks like no landscape I saw growing up in Middle America. Elsewhere in the 71,000-acre park, pristine beaches and bone-white lighthouses call to mind Maine. And all of it curves along the third-largest of the great lakes, as deep-blue and sparkling as the Mediterranean Sea.

For all the park’s odd, otherworldly beauty, it can be reached year-round via a short flight from Chicago (In summer, there are direct flights from several major airports). Yet, like many lifelong Midwesterners, I’d never heard of it until a few years back, when it garnered headlines after “Good Morning America” viewers voted it Most Beautiful Place in America.

Even as I triumphantly crested the top of the dune, it was difficult to imagine that such an extraordinary place existed here. I was pleased to find the view didn’t disappoint. Behind me stretched a forest canopy, rolling wooded hills, farmland and the iridescent waters of sprawling Glen Lake.

And just ahead (after a bit more hiking), Lake Michigan appeared in the distance, shimmering like a mirage, delicious enough to drink. Stretching west, so vast and sapphire blue, the lake seemed endless as an ocean, stopping only when its farthest edge met the pale sky — two shades of blue colliding to form the distant horizon.

Even locals don’t grow immune to the beauty; many keep an annual park-entrance pass dangling from their car’s rearview mirror for spontaneous after-work outings (a less-expensive weekly pass is $25). “We chase the sunset,” Emily Betz Tyra, a native of the region and editor of Traverse Magazine, told me, “and everyone has their favorite beach.”

The following day, ignoring a gray sky, I set out to find my own private stretch of sand. I had arrived at an awkward time, in early June, when the weather can require a tank top one day and a down jacket the next. The actor Tim Allen, who has long summered in this part of northern Michigan, famously compared its climate to “ripe pears — really good for a short period of time.”

Like me, he’s among those who think that, on a sunny summer day, the area looks more like the Mediterranean than modest Michigan. “If you get there between the Fourth of July and late August, in a stretch where it’s 90 degrees, and you’re standing on a white sand beach — you’d be hard-pressed to tell me where you were, if you didn’t know,” the actor told Forbes magazine.

Weather is a subject much on the minds of locals these days. Lake Michigan’s water levels reached near record highs this year (after hitting an all-time low in 2013). Past decades have seen the lake’s water levels wax and wane with the vagaries of rain, snow and climatic conditions; for now, with great swaths of sand underwater, the park’s beaches are “much narrower” than in 2018, more than one person said. Sleeping Bear Dunes’ deputy superintendent, Tom Ulrich, put it this way: “You can still play Frisbee on the beach; you just have to be a lot more accurate.”

I was speaking to Mr. Ulrich at the Sleeping Bear Dunes visitors center in Empire, population, 375, a Rockwellian hamlet smack-dab in the middle of the park. Antique stores and ice cream shops populate the one-stoplight town’s Front Street, while Carol Cunningham’s baked-goods stand runs on the honor system from her front yard. (Just drop your coins in and snag one of her popular cherry scones.)

From there, I drove to nearby Esch Beach, following a gravel road through a pristine woodland, windows open. I could almost hear the ghosts of Aral, a logging boom town here in the late 1800s that all but disappeared once the timber was gone, around 1930. On impulse, I stopped and cut the motor; only the symphony of birdsong filled my ears. Drinking in the fresh air, I felt intoxicated. By the time I got to the nearly deserted beach, I was in full Zen mode.

On this day, Lake Michigan was painted in a moody palette of grays and silvers, with a straight dark line at the overcast horizon. With no wind, the water was as smooth as glass and crystal-clear, its sandy bottom peppered with stones rounded by endless waves. I crouched by the water’s edge and listened to the quiet, which was broken only by the gentle lapping of water on sand, as soothing as any sound machine.

Less gentle was the frigid water, which wouldn’t warm to swimsuit-worthy temperatures until July. I waded in to my knees, feeling my calves turn numb as a pro athlete’s in an ice bath. A more appealing way to enjoy the lake appeared when three standup paddle boarders glided by, silent as swans. Surfers, too, can be seen catching waves year round, and you can rent a board or take a lesson through the friendly Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak shop in Empire.

I ambled down the beach to where a couple and two young children scavenged for Petoskey stones (Michigan’s state stone) — fossils beautifully laced with a honeycomb pattern, relics from when warm seas and coral reefs covered this region 350 million years ago.

“Find any?” I asked.

The father shook his head, while his impatient wife — a Nebraska native — had given up, deeming the treasure “an urban legend,” Lake Michigan’s version of the Loch Ness monster. (Local stores hawking the stones, polished to a high sheen and often made into jewelry, would disagree.)

As a lakeshore overseen at the federal level, with the same protections as a national park, Sleeping Bear Dunes’ beaches are blissfully free of snack bars, jungle gyms, life guard chairs and other trappings of civilization. They’re in their natural state, these long expanses of sand. And amid the 35 miles of coastline, it’s easy enough to find a deserted strand where you’re free to do as you please — up to a point: A sign along Esch Beach warns sun worshipers to KEEP YOUR SWIMSUIT ON. (A portion of the beach was once popular among nudists.)

Curious about Sleeping Bear Dunes’ history, I learned that some 14,000 years ago, retreating glaciers carved out Lake Michigan and left behind ridges and glacial moraines (headlands of rock and dirt). Westerly winds blowing across the lake piled sand atop the moraines, creating the spectacularly steep and tall dunes — known as perched dunes — that define the park. Following the retreat of the glaciers, Anishinabek Indians were active here when Europeans arrived in the mid-1600s, and some of the 100 miles of hiking trails trace well-worn paths the Indians followed across the dunes to reach their fishing camps.

The park also maintains villages that thrived in the late 19th century: Port Oneida, a lumbering and farming community, and Glen Haven, a port town along an expansive beach where steamers stopped seeking food, lodging and wood for fuel. You can step back a century or so by meandering through their preserved buildings, including a fruit cannery (now a boat museum), general store and blacksmith shop.

There’s another way to enjoy the coastline and the lake: from up high. The easy, 1.5-mile Empire Bluff Trail led me through a beech-maple forest to a lofty bluff above Lake Michigan, where I gaped at one of the prettiest views in all of the park, north along the lake’s dune-draped shoreline. A more challenging hike took me huffing and puffing to the top of a steep headland known as Pyramid Point (a popular launching point for hang gliders and paragliders). But standing there, nearly straight above the lake, the only airborne things I saw were herring gulls coasting below me on the breeze.

Happily, there’s a way to see dramatic vistas without a hike that feels like a cardiac stress test: Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a seven-mile blacktop road that leads cars and cyclists through the wooded hills and towering dunes. (It’s an especially lovely route when the leaves turn in fall.)

Numbered stops show off spectacular views, and the highlight is Stop 9, which boasts a wooden platform perched precariously atop a fiercely angled dune, some 450 feet above the water. It’s surely the most Instagrammed spot in the park — and perhaps the best place in the entire Midwest to watch the sunset, slowly melting into Lake Michigan.

It’s certainly not true that if you’ve seen one sunset you’ve seen them all, but I confess I spent as much time on the viewing structure looking down — at folks racing to the bottom of the dune, then plodding back up. Those at the water’s edge looked like mere specks from my perspective — and had clearly ignored the sign that warned: “Running down may sound fun. Trust us: Climbing up 450 feet of hot sand and gravel definitely is not.” Some learn the hard way: Last year, park rangers rescued 17 souls too tired, sick or scared to make their way back to the top.

Climbing a dune is like walking up a down escalator, as many sand-savvy folks have noted, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard. But Mr. Ulrich, the park’s deputy superintendent, appreciates the impulse. “Anyone who visits Sleeping Bear Dunes,” he concedes, “should go home with a little sand in their shoes.” Back home from my trip a few days later, I readied my hiking socks for the wash and unleashed a small avalanche onto the floor.

Lucinda Hahn, a Chicago area native, is a freelance writer who lived on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan for two years while she was the editor of Lake magazine.

Sahred From Source link Travel

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[hermanwatts]

Men are From Cimmeria, Women are From Earthsea

There has been round of blog posts in the wake of an interview I had at Jared Trueheart’s Legends of Men blog. That interview spurred a response by Jason Ray Carney who disputes that sword and sorcery is man’s fiction. Daniel Davis joined in at his Brain Leakage blog. Jason Ray responded to that. Go read these posts. Jason said that Jared, Daniel, and I were hysterical. You are not subjective when you are the object of comment. Comment if you find where any of us were “hysterical.” Jason states that sword and sorcery is “gender neutral.”

Gender neutrality: Are we talking androgyny, hermaphrodites, eunuchs, or neuters?

Sword and sorcery got its start in Weird Tales magazine with a few stories in its competitors Strange Tales and Strange Stories. I have already written on female readers of Weird Tales push back against Robert E. Howard once the Conan series got rolling. E. Hoffmann Price wrote later in Amra that Conan saved Weird Tales more than once.

Farnsworth Wright knew his readers.

Let us look at some random issues of Weird Tales. September 1932– twelve stories and one poem. Two stories by women and one poem. October 1935– nine stories, three poems; one story by a woman. March 1938– 10 stories, two poems; one story by a woman. So, the average female percentage as writer is around 10%.

Now to the letters section, “The Eyrie,” to get an idea of female readership. August 1932– 12 letters, all from men. March 1934– 3 out of 19 letters by women. September 1938– 3 out of 23 letters by women. So, female readership of Weird Tales hovered somewhere around 12-15%. This is probably a higher percentage than the science fiction magazines of the period.

Weird Tales used Margaret Brundage as the almost exclusive cover artist from 1933-1936. Most of her paintings have nubile, beautiful young women in various stages of undress. Editor Farnsworth Wright who was notoriously nervous about not alienating readers had no problem with art that would be considered offensive today. He must have had an idea of gender breakdown of readers.

The case of C. L. Moore is used as a battle cry as a True Cross for Amazon equality crusaders. I first read about Jirel and C. L. Moore from Avon’s Reader’s Guide to Fantasy in the early 80s. Ace Books did a mass market paperback collection in November 1982. I remember distinctly buying it along with two Fritz Leiber paperbacks in mid-May 1983. Back then, you could go to the local B. Dalton or Waldenbooks and get the paperback Conans, Elric, Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, Kane, some Brak, David C. Smith, and even the Timescape Clark Ashton Smith. I tore in Jirel of Joiry finding “Black God’s Kiss” on the slow side. “Black God’s Shadow” even slower and then just bogging down and scanning through the stories. This past winter, I sat down and reread in detail and it was not a pleasant experience. Moore’s prose is painfully slow and overwritten. Her narrative also had a habit of turning into word salad at crucial scenes.

“Around the dark image a mist was swirling. It was tenuous and real by turns, but gradually she began to make out a ring of figures–girls’ figures, more unreal than a vision–dancing girls who circled the crouching statue with flying fee and tossing hair–girls who turned to Jirel her own face in in as many moods as there were girls. Jirel laughing, Jirel weeping, Jirel convulsed with fury, Jirel honey-sweet, Jirel convulsed with fury, a riot of flashing limbs, a chaos of tears and mirth and all humanity’s moods. The air danced with them in shimmering waves, so that the land was blurred behind them and the image seemed to shiver within itself.”

W.T.F?

There is one scene at the beginning of “Jirel Meets Magic” where Jirel handles a sword. That is it. She deals with adversaries as a vehicle using supernatural third parties. When you look at the plots of the stories, “Black God’s Kiss” is a captivity/kidnapping narrative. It is The Sheik with hallucinogenic passages. “Black God’s Shadow” is the second half of a romance arc. As a friend of mine said, Jirel was treated rough by Guillaume and she liked it. “Jirel Meets Magic” is Alice in Wonderland. “The Dark Land” is another captivity story. “Hellsgarde” is a haunted house story. Moore did not seem comfortable writing scenes of physical combat as I could find only one brief scene with no carnage depicted, just Jirel flailing around with her sword.

There have been three mass market and one trade paperback printings of the Jirel stories, each over a decade apart.  That puts her a notch ahead of reprints of Norvell Page’s “Prester John” series. If Jirel is such an iconic series, why hasn’t the book been in continuously in print? People like the idea of Jirel, many just don’t like reading Jirel.

I was thinking of Moore’s influence through the Jirel series. The only thing that came to mind were two stories by Tanith Lee in the Amazons! Anthologies featuring “Jaisel” that read like homages to Moore. C. L. Moore’s writing style would change. Some stories reprinted in the collection Judgement Night are listed under Moore’s name instead of “Lawrence O’Donnell.” “Paradise Street,” “Heir Apparent,” and her novel Doomsday Morning are written in a stripped-down hard-boiled manner.

CL. Moore was a gracious and lovely lady from what anyone who met her has told me. One friend did tell that in the late 1970s at a science fiction convention, she laughed at the idea she was some sort of feminist icon.

If you add up the writers of sword and sorcery in the 1930s- Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, H. Warner Munn, Nictzin Dyalhis, Clifford Ball, David H. Keller, Seabury Quinn, Henry Kuttner, Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Fritz Leiber, Norvell Page, and C. L. Moore, you come up with a little under 10% female participation rate, a percentage that equals that of Weird Tales and a little under the readership.

There is a type of story found mainly in Planet Stories that is not technically sword and sorcery but has the attitude of it. Poul Anderson’s “Virgin of Valkarion” is Exhibit A. Leigh Brackett was a writer for Planet Stories in the 1940s with a few stories in the 1950s. Her writing style is a cross between Edgar Rice Burroughs and Dashiell Hammett. It is an interesting case of gender ventriloquism. Brackett wrote in a faux-masculine style most of the time. Every now and then the mask would slip as in “All the Colors of the Rainbow.” I can remember sending a Leigh Brackett book to a friend of mine. He returned it unimpressed. He pointed out a fight scene where Brackett had two guys rolling around in the dirt and the emphasis was on how they were getting their clothes dirty instead of physical damage. I can remember the first Brackett I ever read was “The Secret of Sinharat” and being disappointed at the rather tame ending. I was expecting Eric John Stark (aka N’Chaka) was pile up the bodies at the climax. The follow up “People of the Talisman” was more blood and thunder. That was the story that was rewritten by Brackett’s husband, Edmond Hamilton and expanded by 40%. I need to compare the texts someday.

If we look at writers of sword and super-science for Planet Stories, the list includes: Gardner F. Fox, Bryce Walton, Emmett McDowell, Ross Rocklynne, Basil Wells, Erik Fennel, Alfred Coppel, Stanley Mullen, Poul Anderson, and Leigh Brackett. Again, the female participation rate is around 10%.

There were a few sword and sorcery stories that filtered out in the 1950s with E. E. “Doc” Smith, John Brunner, L. Sprague de Camp, and of course Jack Vance. The 1960s gave us Roger Zelazny, John Jakes, Michael Moorcock, Lin Carter, Gardner F. Fox, Ben Haas as “Richard Meade” and “Quinn Reade.” You did have Jane Gaskell’s “Atlan” books shoe horned into the genre. Those are Perils of Pauline type books featuring Cija. They are not very good but always seemed to have great covers whether by Frank Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Boris Vallejo, or James Gurney.

Leigh Brackett could have written a bona fide sword and sorcery story with an antediluvian setting and supernatural elements. Editors would have snapped up anything she wrote. She didn’t but she at least gave us the excellent Skaith trilogy which had its share of physical action.

Sword and sorcery spread out into popular culture starting around 1966 with the paperback books and the Warren magazines. You could buy Frank Frazetta posters at a lot of record stores. Bands like Nazareth were using sword and sorcery imaging on their record album sleeves.

Ted White became editor of Fantastic Stories in 1969. The magazine was a grab-bag of different types of stories. Sword and sorcery did have an increasing presence. White tapped into all sorts of artists talent and you had very traditional sword and sorcery type covers by Jeff Jones, Esteban Maroto, Doug Beekman, and especially Steve Fabian who painted idealized female bodies. Ted White must have known who was buying the magazine.

Ted White knew his readers.

In the middle 1970s, you had the next great female talent, Tanith Lee. I have written on her sword and sorcery when she died. She was unique. I prefer her stories to her novels, but her novels are preferable to much other out there.

Not Sword and Sorcery

Lee showed up in the original sword and sorcery anthologies of the late 1970s. Swords Against Darkness ran for five volumes 1977-1979. It had a total of 57 stories, seven stories and one poem by females for a participation rate of 14%. Heroic Fantasy (D.A.W. Books, 1979) had 17 entries (including some non-fiction pieces), two were by female for a participation rate of 11.7%. Tanith Lee was present in five out of six of those anthologies.

Jessica Amanda Salmonson edited to Amazons! Anthologies (1979 and 1982). Technically, they are not sword and sorcery but amazon anthologies. She was able to invert the 10% number that keeps popping up. Amazons II had 12 stories, three by men so the ratio rose to 25%. Salmonson probably took the series as far as she could though she edited two more anthologies for Ace (Heroic Fantasy).

Marion Zimmer Bradley edited the Sword and Sorceress anthology for D.A.W. Books. It has all the appearance of continuing the idea of Salmonson’s Amazons! But with an in-house writer. The books were not so much sword and sorcery but fantasy of all sorts with a feminist orientation. The first volume had 15 stories, six by men for a 40% participation rate. That would shrink in subsequent volumes. It has a type of fiction that I call “femizon” which split off into its own genre the same way Glen Cook did with military fantasy around the same time.

One last example. My favorite sword and sorcery anthology of the past 10 years is Rogue Blades’ Entertainment’s Return of the Sword. The stories were by amateurs and small press people. It has heart and sincerity. 21 stories by 22 authors, one female for a 4.5% participation rate.

Not Sword and Sorcery

A personal observation: I have known two women personally that like reading Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. One is mid-50s, the other around 60. One is a pharmacist, the other a nurse that runs a hospital operating room. So, just like the authors, the XX chromosome readers are on the rare side. I think most women are not particularly interested in reading fiction with lots of scenes of intense physical action.

I will give an anecdote that forms opinions. About 15-16 years ago, my office manager’s high school aged daughter read The Lord of the Rings. I thought I would build on that. I lent her one of L. Sprague de Camp’s sword and sorcery anthologies, either Sword & Sorcery or The Spell of Seven. Either of those books are excellent introductions to the genre. She did not like the book as she has problems with the vocabulary. She was constantly going to the dictionary to look up the meaning of words. If you want your kid to score high on the English potion of the S.A.T test, have them read sword and sorcery fiction. Then I lent her Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. She did not like that at all. It really upset her. Sword and sorcery is not going to pass through the feminine filter of a good portion of the fairer sex.

This came to me this week. A good portion of women like horror especially that more in the Gothic fiction end of the spectrum. Horror light if you will. There might have been an opportunity for a clever editor to sell sword and sorcery disguised as gothic romance to women readers. Phyllis Whitney did have a story in Weird Tales in the 1930s.

Here is a writing exercise of high school or college students. Have them start with a scene of traveler in the woods looking for shelter and finding a manor or castle. See how the story breaks down between the sexes.

So to wrap this up. My friend, the late Steve Tompkins used a phrase “the exception that proves the rule.” Crunching some numbers swerves that way. The history of sword and sorcery has had a few female outliers who wrote in the genre but the 10-12% rule appears consistent for decades.

Where’s the Sword and Sorcery?

Sword and sorcery fiction may not be totally male, but it skews heavily in the XY chromosome end of the spectrum. Women were not excluded but participation was also for the most not much beyond token entries. I think gender skewed, not gender neutral is a better way to describe the genre. I think editors like Don Wollheim, E. F. Benson, Larry Shaw, and Roy Torgeson were quite happy to pick up a few female readers along the way, but they knew which side their bread was buttered on when publishing sword and sorcery. If the genre is gender neutral, why did the incoming female editors such as Betsy Wollheim at D.A.W. Books and Susan Allison at Ace Books pretty much kill off publishing sword and sorcery? Wouldn’t all the female readers keep it going?  I was there, there was a K-T event in 1985. A few books that were already probably slated made it into the later 1980s, but the genre was decapitated. David Gemmell adapted by writing 300 page + novels with an ensemble cast and lost of domestic goings on but the efficient 60,000 word novel featuring one hero was gone.

This is an example our modern society’s obsession with equalitarianism. De-gendering the genre strikes me as post-modernism. It is also risible. A few weeks ago, an endocrinologist was telling me about hormone supplementation for trans-gendering. The men upon getting estrogen become emotional and weepy. The women getting testosterone develop a sense of humor and are generally less depressed.

I can sympathize with Jason Ray Carney. He teaches at a college. If he were outed that he is interested in what is perceived as masculine fiction, outside of a few sane colleges like Hillsdale or Grove City, he would be hauled up against a tribunal by the commissars for Wrong Think.

Gender Neutral

Men are From Cimmeria, Women are From Earthsea published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[thecreaturecodex]

Warduke

“Dungeon 105 Cover” by Wayne Reynolds, © Paizo Publishing

[I keep getting distracted by retro villains! I wasn’t born during the 80′s D&D boom, so I missed the action figures and the cartoon growing up. I did subscribe to Dungeon Magazine, though, and issue 105 wasn’t my first, but it might have been my second or third. It certainly made an impression on me. Warduke is the Boba Fett of D&D (quiet, cool helmet, more badass in later appearances than the original canon, first appeared as a toy). And so Warduke appeared twice in my various campaigns in high school and undergrad, once in a prehistoric game (as an ophidian), and once in the Age of Worms. Both left a high body count in their wake. The Age of Worms rendition even managed to kill the same character twice in one round.

This version of Warduke is based on the Dungeon Magazine 3.5 version, with a few major tweaks. The shift from 3.5 to Pathfinder was kind to fighters in general and shield bash builds in particular, and he takes advantage of many Pathfinder-exclusive feats. I dislike the idea that Warduke’s glowing eyes are fiendish grafts, so I dropped that (it’s all about that helmet). Speaking of the helmet, I did make it a unique item, but not an artifact as it was in the Dungeon version. Understandably, Warduke is something of a cypher personality-wise, but I figured I’d give him a little backstory. Feel free to ignore it. In addition to Boba Fett, my main inspirations here were Angel Eyes (the “bad” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and the Dread Pirate Roberts.

And yes, I realize that my version of Warduke is stronger than my Venger, which may upset D&D cartoon purists. I like Warduke better.]

Warduke CR 18 NE Humanoid (human) This man’s face is concealed within a dark, bat-winged helmet, revealing only glowing eyes. He is powerfully muscled, revealing his physique under a set of mismatched armor and a fur belt. He carries a heavy sword in one hand, a round shield engraved with a horned, fanged skull in the other.

Warduke is the soldier’s bogeyman. He has fought a thousand wars, killed ten thousand men. He is a mercenary, bounty hunter and assassin par excellence, who slays lesser opponents with a blow and can challenge even the stoutest adventurers.This much is true, but claims that he has lived for centuries or is unkillable are greatly exaggerated, and there is as much myth as man about him. “Warduke” is a title, not a name. Anyone who wears the signature blue steel helm of Warduke, set with three gems and causing the wearer’s eyes to glow in a sinister fashion, can theoretically claim the title. It is even possible that multiple versions of this helm circulate, and there are multiple Wardukes simultaneously on different worlds.

The current Warduke is driven by selfishness and greed above all other goals. Warduke does have a claim to nobility—he was a minor lord who preferred to train in warfare than in statecraft, who was obsessed with the legend of Warduke upon learning that Warduke’s Helm was kept in his kingdom as a trophy. He stole the helm after murdering its keepers, and assumed the title of Warduke after forsaking his previous life. Those who knew of his former identity were slain to keep the secret. Warduke is a cynic and pragmatist, and he kills for the highest bidder. He calls his sword Nightwind.

Warduke favors attacking enemies while they are weak—after a long battle, when emerging from a dungeon, or while at camp. He has no sense of duty, honor or humanity. He is not so foolish as to believe he is capable of fighting all battles by himself, however, and may travel with other cutthroats to act as ranged or magical support. Warduke doesn’t have much loyalty for these associates; he knows he can always buy the services of others if he needs them.  Likewise, he does not retain loyalty to a patron once his job is done—his next job may very well be to revenge his previous mission, or betray them if he has learned a valuable secret.

Warduke’s Helm (wondrous item) Price 57,390 gp; Aura moderate conjuration and transmutation; CL 11th Warduke’s Helm grants its wearer 60 foot darkvision, and makes their eyes glow bright red as a consequence. This grants the wearer a +5 competence bonus on Intimidate checks. Once per day as a full round action, the wearer of Warduke’s Helm can attune the helm to a location, as if casting the word of recall spell. From that point, the wearer of Warduke’s Helm can transport himself, allies and goods as per word of recall. Warduke’s Helm can only be attuned to one location at a time. The Helm is cursed—it does not function for any wielder of non-evil alignment

Construction Requirements Cost 28,695 gp; Craft Wondrous Item, darkvision, word of recall, creator must have 10 ranks in Intimidate

Warduke                 CR 18 XP 153,600 NE Medium humanoid (human) Human fighter 18 Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +4 Defense AC 36, touch 15, flat-footed 32 (+3 Dex, +12 armor, +6 shield, +2 natural, +2 deflection, +1 insight) hp 211 (18d10+108) Fort +21, Ref +13, Will +16; +5 vs. fear DR 3/- Defensive Abilities bravery +5, fortification (75%), freedom of movement Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee Nightwind +35/+30/+25/+20 (1d8+17 plus 1d6 fire/17-20), +4 bashing shield +37 (1d6+14) Ranged dagger +25 (1d4+13/19-20) Special Attacks weapon training (heavy blades 4, close 3, light blades 2, axes 1) Tactics During Combat If Warduke does not feel threatened by opponents, he begins a fight with Dazzling Display to demoralize foes and weaken their defense against him. If enemies are more prepared, he waits to intimidate instead with his Dreadful Carnage feat. Warduke prefers to close with enemies and stay close, using Shield Slam to isolate his prey and Step Up to remain in melee reach. He always uses Power Attack, unless he misses with three or more attacks per turn. Morale Warduke is not stupid, and retreats from a losing fight using his helm. Statistics Str 28, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 13 Base Atk +18; CMB +28; CMD 45 (49 vs. disarm, sunder) Feats Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Dreadful Carnage, Furious Focus, Improved Critical (longsword), Improved Initiative, Improved Shield Bash, Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Missile Shield, Power Attack, Shatter Defenses, Shield Focus, Shield Master, Shield Slam, Step Up, Stunning Assault, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword) Skills Acrobatics +13, Climb +19, Intimidate +30, Knowledge (local) +12, Ride +10, Survival +16, Swim +19 Gear belt of physical might +6 (Str, Con), headband of Wis +6, Warduke’s Helm (see above), Nightwind (+3 flaming human-bane longsword), +4 bashing light steel shield, +3 glamered adamantine full plate of moderate fortification, ring of freedom of movement, ring of protection +2, cloak of resistance +4, amulet of natural armor +2, boots of speed, gloves of dueling, dusty rose prism ioun stone, bag of holding type I, flying ointment (x2), silversheen (x3), dust of appearance, potion of cure serious wounds (x3), 4 daggers, 900 gp SQ armor training 4, exceptional resources, inherent bonuses Special Abilities Exceptional Resources (Ex) Warduke has ability scores built with 25 points of point buy, and has treasure equivalent to an 18th level player character. This increases Warduke’s CR by 1. Inherent Bonuses (Ex) Warduke has accepted wish spells as payment for his dark deeds, gaining a +2 inherent bonus to his Strength and Constitution scores.

[fyeahkoreanphotoshoots]

CL - #Legend Magazine July Issue '22