#Happy Saint Lawrence Day!

[juridical-angel-blog]

Happy Saint Lawrence Day!

[britneyshakespeare]

This is just a map of New England (minus Connecticut the fake New England state)

[tomicscomics]

08/09/2024

Happy (almost) feast day of St. Lawrence, my patron saint!

___

JOKE-OGRAPHY:

St. Lawrence was a deacon of Rome in the mid-200s during a time of heavy persecution. When the prefect of Rome demanded all the treasures of the Church, Lawrence asked for a few days to gather it all together. In those few days, he gave all the material wealth of the Church to the poor. When it came time to face the prefect, Lawrence showed up, not with gold and jewels, but with a crowd of poor people, declaring, "Behold, these are the treasures of the Church." The prefect was so amused by this that he had Lawrence roasted alive on a gridiron. Just before he died, Lawrence gave one last quip: "Turn me over, I'm done on this side." Hence, he's the patron saint of cooks and comedians.

[zippidi-dooda]

Written 2yrs ago and haven't reread it (just posting here) so may be more cringe than my current writing. Yes, I had the mangas in hand as I searched for dates and details. Ready 4 new black butler season: my offering

Gregory Violet x Fem. Noble Reader

~

The word "fag" will be mentioned in this story, but it only means someone who does a lot of things for a house's prefect.  Hope you enjoy.

~

2 June 1889

Dear Diary,

It is finally the 2nd of June, just two days before Weston College's interhouse cricket tournament. That means tomorrow the tournament eve's festivities will be held and I can once again meet my beloved Gregory at his school.  I hate that his school prevents me from seeing him often, but he seems happy going there and he sends me many letters with some of his lovely drawings, many inspired by the people at his school, so I suppose it's not all bad.  His house may not win the tournament this year, but I know that at least his house's match will be entertaining, as it is every year.  I wonder if he'll be busy drawing instead of participating again this year?  Or if he'll dance with me after the tournament ceremony tomorrow.  I usually dance with his fag [a fag, in this, means someone who acts similar to a butler towards the house prefect], Cheslock, or Scarlet Fox's prefect, Edgar.  They're both wonderful, but I'd rather dance with Gregory, he is my betrothed after all.  If he declines tomorrow, then I'll just have to drag him onto the dance floor.  It's very unlady-like to do so, but I must dance with him at least once before we're married.  And besides, I've seen some girls oogling him during the festivities in previous years, and I'm not fond of it.  They are either too shy or scared to actually talk to him, but that doesn't mean the same can be said for this year.  I know his heart belongs to me, but I can't help but want to make that clear to those ladies by dancing with him.  Yes, I've decided, I will dance with Gregory tomorrow, no matter what I must say or do to make it happen.

-Y/N L/N

3 June 1889

Dear diary,

Today was absolutely wonderful!  After each house and their players entered the Grand Dining Hall and the P4 lit the Flame of Saint George, the festivities began.  Well, after the vice headmaster fell down the stairs.  It was startling, he had blood running down his brow, but he walked around just fine afterwards.  He's always been rather clumsy, but I think this is the first time he's ever got himself hurt that bad.  I hope he's truly okay.  But, anyhow, I finally got to dance with Gregory!  I can feel his hand on my waist and in mine as if he is still guiding me across the Grand Hall's floor.  My heart is still jumping with excitement.  He was wasn't too thrilled at first and protested profusely, but Edgar and Cheslock convinced him to dance with me.  He sighed and, reluctantly, led me in a dance with a pout on his face.  But his frown soon turned upside down as we talked throughout the dance.  I told him what's been happening with me and vice versa.  He has such a lovely smile, I wish he showed it more often.  I'll figure out every small thing that makes him smile soon, and do my best to keep him happy.  Oh, and before I forget, I met the new housemaster and student of Sapphire Owl House that Gregory mentioned in his letters.  The new housemaster's very tall and handsom (and appears to be much younger than the other housemasters), and says such flattering words.  But, I can tell that his smile's fake and his words insincere.  He was trying to leave the ceremony early but was prevented from doing so.  As for the new student, he's short and cute, in a younger brother sort of way.  His house's prefect, Lawrence, and his rather large family were surrounding him, as well as Green Lion's fag, Edward, and his family, for a majority of the night.  According to what Gregory's said, and from what I've seen, the two are very popular.  Gregory thinks there's something suspicious about the pair, though.  I hope it's nothing to be concerned about.  Anyways, tomorrow is the start of the cricket tournament.  I won't be able to be with Gregory the whole day since he'll have to be waiting with and for his house to play, but I'll be cheering him on wholeheartedly from the sidelines.

-Y/N L/N

[callmebrycelee]

MAN CRUSH MONDAY

JOSH HARTNETT

Joshua Daniel Hartnett was born July 21, 1978 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The 46-year-old actor is best known for his roles in the films Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later, The Faculty, The Virgin Suicides, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, and 40 Days and 40 Nights. Josh played The Salesman/The Lady Killer in Sin City, Dwight "Buck" Bleichert in The Black Dahlia, Slevin Kelevra in Lucky Number Slevin, Eben Oleson in 30 Days of Night, and Ernest Lawrence in Oppenheimer. Josh also has several TV roles including Penny Dreadful, Black Mirror and The Bear. He has made apperances in the following music videos: Faith Hill's "There You'll Be", The Chicks' "Travelin Soldier" and "Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi. Josh can currently be seen in the M. Night Syyamalan psychological thriller film The Trap which premiered July 24, 2024. Josh is 6 feet and 3 inches tall.

[dk-thrive]

There is no work — as long as it is not harmful or dishonest — that cannot be ‘hallowed,’ that cannot serve as … a path to happiness.

Pursuing my own fraught labors, I sometimes still feel anxious. But Brother Lawrence is with me. On good days, his practice offers relief from constant worries over deadlines and money. While I don’t exactly share his faith, I let him remind me to breathe. To pay attention as I fetch the mail or pour nuggets of cat food into a bowl that is robin’s-egg blue. That’s often just enough to keep the anxiety from spiraling into fear. Ellsberg writes, “There is no work — as long as it is not harmful or dishonest — that cannot be ‘hallowed,’ that cannot serve as … a path to happiness.” I cling to that idea. It reminds me to bring a bit of reverence to my work.

I also like thinking about how Lawrence, like me, had a youthful vision that stuck. Except his was the inverse of mine: Out walking in winter and stopping before a bare tree, he was flooded with the truth that in a little while it would be putting forth leaves and generating blooms that would bear fruit. That the movement of the seasons is a promise we can count on. A resurrection, if you will.

— Jim O’Grady, You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Live Like a Saint (NY Times, September 10, 2024)

[quordleona03]

Classic Fantasy in English

250 years, 69 books, 48 writers

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - 1726

Fairy Tales Told for Children - Hans Christian Andersen - 1835-1863 tr. Mrs. H. B. Paull 1867-1872

The Water-Babies - Charles Kingsley - 1863

Alice in Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll - 1865/1871

Mopsa The Fairy - Jean Ingelow - 1869

At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald - 1871

The Princess and the Goblin/The Princess and Curdie - George MacDonald - 1872/1883

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - R. L. Stevenson - 1886

The Happy Prince and Other Stories - Oscar Wilde - 1888

News from Nowhere - William Morris - 1890

The Book of Dragons - E. Nesbit - 1901

The Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling - 19021

Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie - 1902-1911

The Enchanted Castle - E. Nesbit - 1907

Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies - Rudyard Kipling - 1906/1910

Lud in the Mist - Hope Mirrlees - 1926

The Midnight Folk - John Masefield - 1927

Dr. Dolittle in the Moon - Hugh Lofting - 1928

Patapoufs et Filifers / Fattypuffs and Thinifers - André Maurois - 1930/tr. Rosemary Benet 1940

The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas - Erich Kästner - 1931, tr. Cyrus Brooks 1934

Jirel of Joiry - C. L. Moore - 1934-1939

The Tale of the Land of Green Ginger - Noel Langley - 1937

My Friend Mr Leakey - J. B. S. Haldane - 1937

The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien - 1937-1955

Le Petit Prince / The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 tr Katherine Woods

The Wind on the Moon - Eric Linklater - 1944

Mistress Masham's Repose - T.H. White - 1946

The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge - 1946

Trollkarlens Hatt / Finn Family Moomintroll - Tove Jansson - 1948 tr. Elizabeth Portch 1950

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell - 1949

Seven Days in New Crete - Robert Graves - 1949

The Borrowers / Afield / Afloat / Aloft / Avenged - Mary Norton - 1952/1955/1959/1961/1982

All You've Ever Wanted / More Than You Bargained For - Joan Aiken - 1953/1955

To the Chapel Perilous - Naomi Mitchison - 1955

Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce - 1958

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis - 1950

The 13 Clocks - James Thurber - 1950

Round the Bend - Neville Shute - 1951

The Armourer's House - Rosemary Sutcliff - 1951

The Once and Future King - T. H. White - 1938-1958

Candy Floss / Impunity Jane / Miss Happiness and Miss Flower - Rumer Godden 1954 / 1960 / 1961

Sword at Sunset - Rosemary Sutcliff - 1963

Book of Heroes - William Mayne - 1966

Tree and Leaf\Smith of Wootton Major - J. R. R. Tolkien - 1945-1967

The Crystal Cave / The Hollow Hills / The Last Enchantment / The Wicked Day - Mary Stewart 1970-1983

Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey - 1968

A Wizard of Earthsea / The Tombs of Atuan / The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin - 1968/1971/1972

Red Moon and Black Mountain - Joy Chant - 1970

Tom Ass or The Second Gift - Ann Lawrence - 1972

The Dark Is Rising/Greenwitch/The Grey King - Susan Cooper - 1973 / 1974 / 1975

[fangirlinglikeabus]

chapter 49! which has a long title that i'm not going to write out all of

never “How is her husband?” though I might be burning to know; because I had not the hypocrisy to profess any anxiety for his recovery, and I had not the face to express any desire for a contrary result. Had I any such desire?—I fear I must plead guilty

me  🤝  gilbert   just wanting huntingdon to fucking die already

gilbert refers to helen as an angel here - but it still feels like it comes with less expectation from him that therefore she’ll cater to his every need than it does with huntingdon

But I devoured those precious letters with my eyes, and never let them go till their contents were stamped upon my mind; and when I got home, the most important passages were entered in my diary among the remarkable events of the day.

this is really such an innocuous paragraph but it does make me lose it a bit…like oh she’s such an important part of his life now that her experiences exist utterly entwined with his own in his diary even when she’s far away from him...augh!

I never was so easy since the fall.

i’m sure there’s a religious connection to be made here but i’m struggling to put it into words - like this is existing as a sort of metaphorical fall (satan from heaven? adam and eve from the garden of eden? man's fallen nature etc) as well as the literal one from his horse

“‘Don’t try to believe it, Arthur; there is joy and glory after, if you will but try to reach it!’ “‘What, for me?’ he said, with something like a laugh. ‘Are we not to be judged according to the deeds done in the body? Where’s the use of a probationary existence, if a man may spend it as he pleases, just contrary to God’s decrees, and then go to heaven with the best—if the vilest sinner may win the reward of the holiest saint, by merely saying, I repent!’ “‘But if you sincerely repent—’ “‘I can’t repent; I only fear.’ “‘You only regret the past for its consequences to yourself?’

for me this sort of exists hand in hand with huntingdon's earlier claims to like...having a head shape that's predisposed to sin, and stuff like that. he can't repent - he can only ever be (in his own eyes) that fixed unchanging version of himself - and so he fears death because he sees himself as doomed to hell for eternity

man...it may just be me but i always find huntingdon's death a really gruelling part of this book. like sure, him being gone is ultimately probably for the best for helen but it puts her through a Lot which comes across in the narration of it and i think really carries through that questioning of gilbert's wish for him to die vs lawrence's hope he'll sincerely repent. it's an interesting tension in the book because in order to open up space for the possibility of a happy ending huntingdon does actually kind of have to die EVEN THOUGH yeah, it's a horrible horrible thing to happen to anyone AND wishing death on him is narratively established as the Bad Thing To Do

[nijigasakilove]

Lol who would’ve guessed that Hazelita’s brother was a siscon 😂 all those marriage proposals going straight in the fire.

Really cute episode today, where to start. The “Cecilia-Killer” aka any compliment that Lawrence gives her is really sweet. He’s getting better at it, I’ll give him credit for sure. Calling her beautiful and saying he wants to learn about anything that’s related to Cecilia is so cute.

Was really interesting to learn about the extent of the saints’ divine blessing. So normally what Frederica did would not have been possible. Her love for Giselbert and Hazelita was just strong enough to surpass the normal limits of divine protection. That makes her untimely death even more tragic. Really wish she and Giselbert could’ve been happy together 😔

Switching to a lighter topic, the departure party for Lawrence and Cecilia was really fun. Cecilia looked absolutely gorgeous and so did Hazelita. I really appreciate the effort the mangaka went to with all these outfit designs! They’re always so cute and compliment the cast really well.

Carmilla interrogating Cecilia was hilarious 😂 she’s still not at a point where she can say she likes Lawrence out loud. But as they say, actions speak louder than words and it’s very obvious. Even a blind man can see. Just need Lawrence to wake up and smell the roses.

Glad Hazelita will get to stay with them provided she does well in her studies. She and Cecilia finally have a friend their own age and that’s massively important. Wonder if Abel will ever get off the couch and teach her something 😂

And that ending scene! So damn sweet. Cecilia falling asleep in Lawrence lap really made my day. I love this show so much.

[apprenticestanheight]

fic idea: first new years after the bathroom, Adam celebrating the holiday with Lawrence and thinking about how much his life has changed

Too Many Rock Bottoms- Adam Stanheight x Lawrence Gordon

Hiiiiiii nonnie!! I know that you sent this in either before or very very very close to christmas but I am SO SORRY for the wait time--I had meant to start it around christmas and get it queued for either yesterday, today or tomorrow because I knew myself and I knew that queueing it would help motivate me to edit, but then another passion project took hold for a bit and thus I got a delayed start with this one.

ALSO: this is technically the first new years after the bathroom--I had Adam go through a bit in the last half of 2004 because I was like 'okay yeah trauma but how does a romance develop in less than three months' so instead of being NYE into NYD 2004-2005, it'll be NYE into NYD 2005-2006, which I hope is all right with you!

If you're reading, though, I hope the wait turns out to have been worth it!

Fic type- this is fluffy!!

Warnings- this is very unedited, but there's also mentions of an infection from Adams wound being left for too long--it's nonspecific but there's mentions of it spreading to his heart and his lungs.

In the year since Adam woke up in the hospital post-escape, things have been quite the opposite of easy. Nightmares have become something of such a frequency that Adams body is capable of running on an hour of sleep so long as he stops at a gas station and buys a Redbull or two before he goes into work, and he can figure out when Lawrence has had a silent break down before he's woken up by just looking at him, tracing his face for signs of puffy cheeks or half-dried tear trails down his chin and neck.

He'd been trapped in the bathroom until very, very early October. Infection had taken hold of his shoulder and spread to his heart and his lungs and it was so severe that he had to be put into a coma to treat it.

He'd woken up three weeks after, on Halloween, and after an additional month spent in the recovery unit to make sure his shoulder wasn't paralyzed and that his heart and his lungs were working as they were meant to, he was released in very early December.

December of 2004, Lawrence walked into the hotel he was working as a receptionist at and just--just grinned like an idiot. He'd said that he'd heard where Adam worked from a friend of a friend (one of his fellow residents named Dr Lilith Whittaker was the girlfriend of Amara Saint Cloud, with whom Adam worked at the reception desk. Lilith had talked about how Amara was working with a guy who'd been said to have survived a trap and the road Lawrence walked lead back to Adam) and "let's grab dinner and catch up"'d his way back into Adams life.

A year on from that day and there are good days, bad days, and there are worse ones. Given, though, that Lawrences Christmas gift to him had been a series of kisses that left him delirious and the proclaiming of the fact that he'd booked the rest of the year off, he'd had a week of decent days to that point.

Their plans to ring in the new year hadn't amounted to much--Diana was spending that holiday with Alison as she'd spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Lawrence, so they didn't have a kid to worry about--Adam had figured that Lawrence would do some of the physical therapy exercises he'd been told he had to try to do at least thrice a week, and he would probably go for a walk to take photos of some of the prettier areas of Jersey before he came home with a pizza and a bottle of champagne, but they'd not really discussed doing much of anything.

Adam was happy with not doing anything, though. He'd never really understood the appeal of going out and getting shit faced on NYE, even though Scott had gotten him a fake ID and used to drag him out to the bars in the heart of the city while they were teens and up until they were both 21.

It didn't seem worth all the effort it took just to get drunk, woozy and if you were lucky, get something so strong that it just knocked you right out. He'd stopped letting Scott drag him out to places willy nilly on NYE when he hit 22, and at twenty-seven and living with someone who he cared about so deeply it astounded him, he found that he was in no mood to get drunk at a bar or get hit on by someone who thought he was straight enough to be interested.

Still, though, as he wakes up and thrums through the motions, it's hard not to think of the last year and reminisce.

This time last year, he was four weeks out of hospital with chronic shoulder pain, had still been living in a roach infested apartment that had holes in the walls from bullets and termites alike, and could hardly afford to put food on the table.

Now, though? Lawrences place is no longer just Lawrences place, but it's theirs. Adam wakes up next to Lawrence everyday, goes to sleep next to him every night. It's Lawrence who coaxes him into the shower when the fear of water kicks up so bad that Adam has to fight panic attacks, Lawrence who kisses his shoulders and the back of his neck whenever something has tripped the trauma up and caused a bad reaction.

He's the one who calms Lawrence down whenever the phantom pains from his foot give Lawrence the jitters or a flashback, the one who makes him coffee when he wakes up from a nightmare or pulls him back into his arms while he reminds Lawrence that it's just a nightmare, it's not real, he'd had no choice but to leave Adam behind to survive and Adam had survived anyway so it balanced out.

Things are just so different to how they used to be, and as Adam goes through his day, it's hard not thinking about it.

He thinks about it as he kisses Lawrence goodbye to take a photo walk, thinks about it again as he snaps a photo of a crow, which he knows Lawrence will, at a minimum, find amusing because the crow is wielding one of those white plastic forks you get when you order takeaway.

He reminisces on the first of many late-night phone calls as he grabs a book that Lawrence had mentioned wanting a couple days beforehand, the fact that what had started as a bickering match over which Christmas movie was better--the options being White Christmas and It's A Wonderful Life. Adam had won the debate and Lawrence had snickered when Adam made the point about the fact that Clarences angel thing could've been a hallucination and yeah, the acting was iffy but anything was better than something that featured Bing fucking Cosby--but had ended in Lawrence apologizing for shooting him and Adam shushing him by reminding him he had to do it.

On the walk back, he thinks of the first night he'd spent in Lawrences house, barely managing to make it through a shower because the trauma had kicked up nastily that day, putting on one of Lawrences t-shirts and being engulfed in the scent of his cologne. They'd not meant for Adam to stay the night but by the time they were realizing how late it was, it was almost midnight and Lawrence had offered to let him use the shower and lend him a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, which Adam would never have refused.

He remembers falling asleep with Lawrences heartbeat thrumming in his ear that night, the two of them lightly bickering as they dozed. He remembers wanting to fall asleep the same way every night for the rest of his life, scoffing at the idea because never did someone like him ever get that fuckin' lucky.

As he unlocks the door, the book he'd bought for Lawrence tucked under his arm, a smile has crossed his face.

He's had a year of ups, downs, and far too many rock bottoms to justify counting all of them, but it's been a better year than the last one was, and as he opens the door, steps into his and Lawrences place, he has to think all of it was worth it just to get to that point.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Thomas “Tom” Conti  born November 22nd 1941 in Paisley.

Tom began taking piano lessons at the tender age of four. According to “The London Observer”, by the time he was six he was “threatening to be a genuine prodigy.” 

A student at Hamilton Park Catholic School (for boys), he initially trained for a musical career as a classical pianist but switched gears while attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Tom auditioned for the drama department and from that day forward he was hooked. Conti’s acting credits began with the Citizen’s Theatre’s 1959 production of “The Roving Boy” at age 18.

After years of success on the stage, Tom’s first film role was as Andrea, in Joseph Losey’s “Galileo”, 1975. He then landed a leading role in the movie “Flame”. Tom played the part of “slick, cynical promoter” for the music group “Slade”. According to the “Guardian”, Tom’s portrayal was “well-nigh perfect”.

It wasn’t stage or film that finally gave Mr. Conti true stardom. It was the 1976 television series The Glittering Prizes, where he played Adam Morris that helped launch his career. He was named Britain’s best T.V. actor in 1976 and soon earned more applause as Norman in the 1978 ITV mini-series The Norman Conquests.

Stage appearances and 3 movies soon followed his success on television. Eclipse, Full Circle aka The Haunting of Julia, with Mia Farrow, and the role of doctor in the film The Duellists. Perhaps the role that Mr. Conti is best known for was created by himself… that of Ken Harrison in Whose Life Is It Anyway?  Ken’s spinal cord is severed in a car accident. Being a former sculptor, Ken begs for the right to decide his own fate, not wanting to spend the rest of his life on life support.

This role was the most challenging of Tom’s career. He could only rely on facial expressions and his voice to portray the struggles and torment of Ken Harrison. After two runs in London to packed houses, Whose Life moved to Broadway where Conti was almost replaced by the Actor’s Equity Council. According to the Union, Tom was not an ‘international star’, and thus should be replaced with an American. His case was represented at a special arbitration meeting where the show’s producer, a film critic and a talent agent stepped up to the plate for Conti. The Conti team won, and opening night raves soon supported the Conti cause. After three months, critics were still amazed with his portrayal of the role. That year Conti received a Tony award for best actor!

Returning to London in 1979, Conti was successful in a handful of directorial debuts, most notably in Beyond Therapy. After a successful run as co-star of They’re Playing Our Song, Tom won an Oscar nomination for best actor of the year for his portrayal of Gowan McgLand in Reuban, Reuban.

I think at home Tom is arguably most famous for playing Costas Dimitriades, the owner of a Greek tavern and the famous lines “Boat is boat, fuck is fuck.” My favourite role of Tom’s however is Col. John Lawrence in the brilliant film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.

Conti participated in a genetic-mapping project conducted by the company ScotlandsDNA (now called BritainsDNA). In 2012, Conti and the company announced that Conti shares a genetic marker with Napoléon Bonaparte. Conti has said that he "burst out laughing" when told he was directly related to Napoléon on his father's side.

Never one to stay quiet about his opinions Tom made the papers last year after labelling the Cop26 conference  “a waste of time and money.” going on he also branded  eco-saint Greta Thunberg the ‘high priestess’ of hysteria, saying: 'Greta is a silly girl. Her heart is in the right place, but her head is not.’ Showing how much of a dinosaur he really is he ended with  'There is no climate emergency. The world is not going to come to an end and CO2 is a wonderful gas — without it nothing will grow.’

As old age bites Tom  shows no signs of slowing down, he is set to feature in the credits of the Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer as Albert Einstein in 2023. He also recently featured in a short-film called Censure this year. Although he admitted he is not “terrifically fit”, the star has out-lived his parents significantly. His father, who reportedly smoked 60 cigarettes a day, died of a heart attack aged 63, while his mother died in her 70s from a brain tumour. Unlike his father, Conti has few bad habits and has been open about his efforts to cut down on sugar. He also admitted he’s on a diet of magnesium, anti-inflammatories, and statins to manage his health.

He says he also still moves around a lot, despite having “never been terrifically fit”.

[brookston]

Holidays 12.27

Holidays

Bitchmas

Constitution Day (North Korea)

Emergency Rescuer’s Day (Russia)

Howdy Doody Day

International Day of Epidemic Preparedness

International Random Song Day

Kobold Luring Day (Germany)

LEGO Build Day

Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day

Modern Medicine Day

National Abigail Day

National Case Day

National Free Balloon Day

National Goal Writing Day

National Martha Day

National Samuel Day

Radio City Music Hall Day

Sam Sharpe Day (Jamaica)

Third Day of Christmas

Topsoil Day (French Republic)

Visit the Zoo Day

Visual Impairment Awareness Day

Watch the Children Day

World Day of Forced Hijab

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Fruitcake Day

4th & Last Wednesday in December

Gimlet Day [Last Wednesday]

Independence Days

Urielandia (Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Benazir Bhutto Martyrdom Day (Pakistan)

Calli (House) Day (Aztec day for all things hearth, home & family)

Fabiola (Christian; Saint)

Feast of Marimba (Goddess of Musical Happiness; South Africa)

Festival of Nehebkau (Ancient Egypt)

Feast of Fools, Day 2 (St. John's Day)

Francesco Spoto (Christian; Blessed)

Frey and Freya’s Day (Pagan)

Haller (Positivist; Saint)

Hermann-Paul (Artology)

John the Apostle (a.k.a. John the Divine; Christian; Saint)

Kwanzaa, Day 2: Kuichagulia (Self-Determination)

Loki Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Louis Héctor Leroux (Artology)

Maximus of Alexandria, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Mother Night (Pagan)

Nicarete (Christian; Saint)

Only 5 Pasta Eating Days Left (Pastafarian)

Pauline and Homer (Muppetism)

Sára Salkaházi (Christian; Blessed)

Theodorus and Theophanes (Christian; Saint)

3rd Day of Noodlemas (Pastafarian)

Twelve Holy Days #2 (Taurus, the throat; Esoteric Christianity)

Twelvetide, Day #3; Feast of St. John the Apostle (a.k.a. the Twelve Days of Christmas or Christmastide) [until 1.5]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

Alice the Lumberjack (Disney Cartoon; 1926)

The Bars and Stripes Forever (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 9; 1959)

Ben 10 (Animated TV Series; 2005)

Chicago (Film; 2002)

Fried Green Tomatoes (Film; 1991)

From A Whisper to a Scream, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1981)

Hamlet (Film; 1996)

Hello Out There! Or There’s No Place Like Space (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 10; 1959)

Hopalong Cassidy (Radio Series; 1948)

Howdy Doody Show (Children’s TV Series; 1947)

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll (Poem; 1871)

John Wesley Harding, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1967)

Knots Landing (TV Series; 1979)

The Littlest Rebel (Film; 1935)

Naked Lunch (Film; 1991)

POne Mint Julep, recorded by Ray Charles (Song; 1960)

Pantry Pirate (Disney Cartoon; 1940)

The People vs. Larry Flynt (Film; 1996)

Radio City Music Hall (NYC Theater; 1932)

Show Boat (Broadway Musical; 1927)

Songs of Leonard Cohen, by Leonard Cohen (Album; 1967)

Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll (Novel; 1871)

Traffic (Film; 2000)

The Virgin and the Gipsy, by D.H. Lawrence (Novella; 1930)

Today’s Name Days

Fabiola (Austria)

Stanimir, Stanka, Stanko, Stefan, Stefka, Stoycho (Bulgaria)

Ivan, Ivana, Ivančica (Croatia)

Žaneta (Czech Republic)

Johannes (Denmark)

Sula, Sulve, Sulvi (Estonia)

Hannes, Hannu, Hans (Finland)

Fabiola, Jean (France)

Fabiola,, Johannes (Germany)

Mavrikios, Stefanos, Stephanos (Greece)

János (Hungary)

Giovanni (Italy)

Elmārs, Helmars, Inita (Latvia)

Dautaras, Fabijolė, Gedvinė (Lithuania)

Narve, Natalie (Norway)

Cezary, Fabia, Fabiola, Jan, Radomysł (Poland)

Stefan (Romania)

Filoména (Slovakia)

Fabiola, Juan (Spain)

Johan, Johannes (Sweden)

Stephan, Steven (Ukraine)

Adwin, Alvern, Alverna, Alvin, Alvina, Alwin, Elvin, Elvina, Elvira, Elvita, Elwin (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 361 of 2024; 4 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 52 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 15 (Ji-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 15 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 14 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 1 Fest; Oneday [1 of 5]

Julian: 14 December 2023

Moon: 99%: Warning Gibbous

Positivist: 25 Bichat (13th Month) [Haller]

Runic Half Month: Eihwaz or Eoh (Yew Tree) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 7 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 6 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Fest (Extra Month; J Calendar) [Holidaytime]

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.27

Holidays

Bitchmas

Constitution Day (North Korea)

Emergency Rescuer’s Day (Russia)

Howdy Doody Day

International Day of Epidemic Preparedness

International Random Song Day

Kobold Luring Day (Germany)

LEGO Build Day

Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day

Modern Medicine Day

National Abigail Day

National Case Day

National Free Balloon Day

National Goal Writing Day

National Martha Day

National Samuel Day

Radio City Music Hall Day

Sam Sharpe Day (Jamaica)

Third Day of Christmas

Topsoil Day (French Republic)

Visit the Zoo Day

Visual Impairment Awareness Day

Watch the Children Day

World Day of Forced Hijab

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Fruitcake Day

4th & Last Wednesday in December

Gimlet Day [Last Wednesday]

Independence Days

Urielandia (Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Benazir Bhutto Martyrdom Day (Pakistan)

Calli (House) Day (Aztec day for all things hearth, home & family)

Fabiola (Christian; Saint)

Feast of Marimba (Goddess of Musical Happiness; South Africa)

Festival of Nehebkau (Ancient Egypt)

Feast of Fools, Day 2 (St. John's Day)

Francesco Spoto (Christian; Blessed)

Frey and Freya’s Day (Pagan)

Haller (Positivist; Saint)

Hermann-Paul (Artology)

John the Apostle (a.k.a. John the Divine; Christian; Saint)

Kwanzaa, Day 2: Kuichagulia (Self-Determination)

Loki Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Louis Héctor Leroux (Artology)

Maximus of Alexandria, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Mother Night (Pagan)

Nicarete (Christian; Saint)

Only 5 Pasta Eating Days Left (Pastafarian)

Pauline and Homer (Muppetism)

Sára Salkaházi (Christian; Blessed)

Theodorus and Theophanes (Christian; Saint)

3rd Day of Noodlemas (Pastafarian)

Twelve Holy Days #2 (Taurus, the throat; Esoteric Christianity)

Twelvetide, Day #3; Feast of St. John the Apostle (a.k.a. the Twelve Days of Christmas or Christmastide) [until 1.5]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

Alice the Lumberjack (Disney Cartoon; 1926)

The Bars and Stripes Forever (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 9; 1959)

Ben 10 (Animated TV Series; 2005)

Chicago (Film; 2002)

Fried Green Tomatoes (Film; 1991)

From A Whisper to a Scream, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1981)

Hamlet (Film; 1996)

Hello Out There! Or There’s No Place Like Space (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 10; 1959)

Hopalong Cassidy (Radio Series; 1948)

Howdy Doody Show (Children’s TV Series; 1947)

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll (Poem; 1871)

John Wesley Harding, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1967)

Knots Landing (TV Series; 1979)

The Littlest Rebel (Film; 1935)

Naked Lunch (Film; 1991)

POne Mint Julep, recorded by Ray Charles (Song; 1960)

Pantry Pirate (Disney Cartoon; 1940)

The People vs. Larry Flynt (Film; 1996)

Radio City Music Hall (NYC Theater; 1932)

Show Boat (Broadway Musical; 1927)

Songs of Leonard Cohen, by Leonard Cohen (Album; 1967)

Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll (Novel; 1871)

Traffic (Film; 2000)

The Virgin and the Gipsy, by D.H. Lawrence (Novella; 1930)

Today’s Name Days

Fabiola (Austria)

Stanimir, Stanka, Stanko, Stefan, Stefka, Stoycho (Bulgaria)

Ivan, Ivana, Ivančica (Croatia)

Žaneta (Czech Republic)

Johannes (Denmark)

Sula, Sulve, Sulvi (Estonia)

Hannes, Hannu, Hans (Finland)

Fabiola, Jean (France)

Fabiola,, Johannes (Germany)

Mavrikios, Stefanos, Stephanos (Greece)

János (Hungary)

Giovanni (Italy)

Elmārs, Helmars, Inita (Latvia)

Dautaras, Fabijolė, Gedvinė (Lithuania)

Narve, Natalie (Norway)

Cezary, Fabia, Fabiola, Jan, Radomysł (Poland)

Stefan (Romania)

Filoména (Slovakia)

Fabiola, Juan (Spain)

Johan, Johannes (Sweden)

Stephan, Steven (Ukraine)

Adwin, Alvern, Alverna, Alvin, Alvina, Alwin, Elvin, Elvina, Elvira, Elvita, Elwin (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 361 of 2024; 4 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 52 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 15 (Ji-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 15 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 14 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 1 Fest; Oneday [1 of 5]

Julian: 14 December 2023

Moon: 99%: Warning Gibbous

Positivist: 25 Bichat (13th Month) [Haller]

Runic Half Month: Eihwaz or Eoh (Yew Tree) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 7 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 6 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Fest (Extra Month; J Calendar) [Holidaytime]

[noodlemaz]

Ready Singer One

I'm in a choir! Here's a short news segment about us. Happy All Saints Day!

The UK’s nerdiest choir. I’m in it. We’re on the news! A full segment on Ready Singer One specially updated from the initial footage and interviews for the evening news, featuring our pre-concert rehearsal! We love our Lawrence. Ready Singer One is a choir full of nerds – special BBC London feature here! Keep an eye on our gigs page and various channels (find socials here) for future events…

[svetlanamirchevaworks]

IMAGES OF THE WORD

solo exhibition

20 Nov.–Dec. 2014, Un Cabinet D’Amateur / Olivier Boissiere, Sofia

   Four series by Svetlana Mircheva based upon chance meetings with things and words    From rebus to cosmic constellations, to twisted slogans and computer explorations    a short sampling of possible intrusions of the visual arts in the infinite world of language.      Works in the exhibition:    4 Rebus collages on canvas, series    --Fly me to the moon    --At 11 o’clock put everything in the blue pot    --Cry me a river    --Menuetto in G major    For Laika with love, series, 9 calligrams, polymer clay biscuits    Ads for happy days, series, 3 twisted slogans, 2 Glagolitic sentences    --You've got questions, we've got mountain    --How many licks does it take to get to the center of a sun?    --Non stop cri ckets    --Me, knowing the letters, I speak / Glagolitic    --Speak the word strongly / Glagolitic  Make pages, 1-15, series, thesaurus for the word "make"  Make believe, thesaurus for the word "make"  Good morning, 1&2, ready made  Possible exhibitions, model 7          RANDOM, CHANCE, BLIND DATE, SERENDIPITY      “langage=jeu galant”. Marcel Duchamp     Once upon a time, there was a flâneur. Baudelaire followed him strolling the city leisurely both distracted and attentive to the new world (it would become brave later), looking for modernity. A viewer/voyeur, he would note the remarkable in the environment of his contemporaries, the spread of commercial activities as a consequence of the industrial revolution and the raise of consumerism. The flâneur attitude marked a significant shift in the points of views upon the world. Shop-windows became familiar scenes where artists would dig for inspiration. The cubist collage and Duchamp’s ready-made replaced the representation of the object by the object itself incorporated into assemblages exposed to language that would become the rule at mid-century. Walter Benjamin haunted the Paris “passages”, the Surrealists the flea market of Saint-Ouen looking for bizarre objects of undetermined functions and forms, craving for close encounters of the third kind , expecting surprise ( “soup-rice” as the Marx brothers had put it )      “One does not do poetry with ideas, one does poetry with words”1. Mallarmé said. He must have foreseen that poetry could become image by means of “a throw of the dice”. Freeing words from one another, dispersing them on the page opens new interpretations as well as a disconcerting design. Are they pure coincidence or an effect of the Zeitgeist? Mallarme’s poem might look as a prelude to the re-introduction of the word in visuals arts. From Picasso’s first cubic collages to Schwitters’ Merzbau, to Saul Steinberg’s rebus and Rauschenberg’s , then “Conceptual’ and Art language, Kossuth, Lawrence Wiener, then Bruuuuuuuce Nauman, Ed Ruscha et al, words, sentences, aphorisms did invade the art field. An art work could both express and enounce?      The computer age has generated a new version of the flâneur, the “geek” zooming and zapping on the freeways of information. Exit the street and the city. The world has turned global and the Net its cosmic echo. An all-over set of information both text and imagery has become available at fingertip distance. The somewhat naive first fans of cybernetics in the late 60s prophesized then the advent of some new Leonardo, Picasso or other artist genius who would take up the new medium and generate new masterworks. This has not happened (yet). But the amazing field of the Web providing for all kind of opportunities of criss- cross and short cuts is currently being explored. Wait and see…      Horace Walpole coined the name “serendipity”2 from an indo-arabian old legend where the three princes of Serendip described a lost camel that they had never seen through the traces and indexes which they had noticed on the road. Serendipity was defined as discovering by chance something that one was not looking for, or the art to take notice to the surprising and give it a pertinent interpretation. It was thus chance + sagacity. The word had a discreet carrier at first until it reached the scientific domain with the discovery of the penicillin (a fortuitous accident, according to Fleming) or Albert Hoffmann’s one of LSD. Even Isaac Newton and his apple were called in. It became an argument for free versus applied research. In the art field, it sounds like a fact, No usefulness is expected. Free imagination, innovation and fantasy are supposed to be the rules of the game. Serendipity is supposed to pop up without notice.    “The stupid call these strikings of the thought “chance” without thinking that chance never occurs to the dunces.”3          Svetlana Mircheva is the heiress of all the above.    She walks the city, collects abandoned objects, bits and pieces, sheets of left over papers, fragments of newspapers (preferably old) photographs of loves forgotten, rags of faded materials evocative of lives unknown, memories anonymous.    The artist reinserts them in comic strips, little tales to be deciphered, telescoping images and words (image as text, text as image) in poetic collages in the form of rebus, those “compositions that operate this great marriage of letter and drawing which has always haunted the baroque artists.”4      Mircheva’s attention to shop windows might be triggered by petty trivial domains. Exploring pet shops she has spotted a variety of dog food, biscuits wearing unexpected words suggesting pet loves …She has used them to design candid canine calligrams, nursery rimes whistling little tunes, pretty constellations, as many tributes to Laika, Pschyolka, Mushka and other moon dogs heroes of the first Sputnik age. Ironic compassion?    Love thy dog as thyself?      The interactive aspect of the computer can take (at least) two forms: communication with brothers/sisters internauts or direct dialog with the Machine, as it offers help/services to user/client. Mircheva contacted once by curiosity programs which given a name of your firm + keyword to your activity would deliver the right slogan for your advertising. The tests Mircheva did rapidly proved deceptive, either irrelevant or conventional. But a little twist on a sentence could make them funny on the verge of the absurd. So… Coincidently Mircheva landed on the glagolitic site. Cyril and Method had elaborated an alphabet before the Cyrillic. In their devotion, they had followed up with three sentences using each letter as a key to a word all to the glory of God. A sublime early use of sacred advertising!      Following up with her “mistakes” Mircheva has bumped into new intriguing incidents. A A4 found in a paper basket had all the visual seductions of the “conceptual” art of the 60s. The content, an exploration of the keyword “make” proved most serious and hilarious. A further research led (with the help of New York curator friend Eriola Pira) to a million words thesaurus accumulated by a very serious university department in Providence, RI, on the possibilities of computers in the field of language in the early 60s. With “Make” the viewer is invited to pursue with the game. Infinitely. “Language is a virus from the outer space.”5      Certainly serendipitous Svetlana Mircheva is not fooled by the process. She is well aware that the haphazard character of serendipity cannot ever constitute a method, only a state of mind. Told about the story of the three princes of Serendip, Mircheva had but a brief comment: “there is no normal camel” she said. Think of it.        Olivier Boissiere         1 Stephane Mallarmé “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard” in Cosmopolis Paris 1897   2 Sylvie Catellin “Serendipité, du conte au concept”    Seuil Paris 2014   3 Balzac “Theorie de la démarche” L’Europe litteraire 1833,    La Pleiade 1981 tome XXII   4 Roland Barthes about Saul Steinberg in “All except you”. Repères. Galerie Maeght. 1983.    See also Rosalind Krauss “Rauschenberg and the Materialized Image” in “The originality of the Avant Garde and other modernist myths” The MIT Press Cambridge Mass. 1985   5 William Burroughs      CATALOG ONLINE

[ellena-asg]

Yes, movies are great and I love them for making characters complex and interesting. Even without extra scenes and books their portrayal is so good and their motives are clear. But oh yes, extra scenes and books make the movies even more complete ♥️ (btw if one day someone makes tv series based on these books I'll be forever grateful).

I'm happy to see all these words you mentioned. Bad family household, abuse... Indeed, it happened in James' story and though it does not excuse some of his actions (and he's painfully aware of it), it lets people to understand him more, understand why such a fine kind man (cause Swanns weren't wrong about that) was so salty and wrong almost all the time.

Yeah, I saw some James haters on this site and quite many of them seem to hate him because he's in Royal Navy. I'm not a fan of such institutions either (and not that all pirates were saints) but I want to care more about character as person, about their heart, nature, choices and feelings. There are good and bad people on each side (and I think that these movies showed it well). And Jamie... He was on the wrong path, he was flawed (who is not?) but his heart was good and this heart won in the end (but seriously, he didn't have to die 😭). He was so sorry, he was visibly disgusted with himself and with Beckett's lies and cruelty, he understood all and chose the light... That's why I love him. That's why I hate guys like Beckett or Lawrence.

James' story shows well that sometimes we don't have a choice or: we think/we're told we don't have it. Cause sometimes there are wrong people around us. People wanting to destroy us.

And in James' case that was a real tragedy. He was a little kid, he was like 5/6 y.o. and already abused. Abused both mentally and physically. And brainwashed all the time, trapped in "guys like Lawrence" circle, without any help. His situation reminds me of all those children being brainwashed and trained by terrorists or some armies. Children being tools. And for Lawrence Jamie was such a tool, he even said that James had to continue Lawrence's arc. He wanted own son to become a killing machine. Lawrence treated James like his property, like his subordinate, his marionette, his thing. There was no warmth, no fatherly love. Only pain, shame, abuse. All what he gave James was suffering and low self-esteem. And horrible PTSD, I believe - gosh, no surprise that Jack was so furious and bitter about Lawrence and his people. He was so right: James (a child) shouldn't have been there in that day, shouldn't have been on any ship and shouldn't have seen the terror.

It's so hard to escape from such toxic and abusive circle. Especially when you're alone with your abusers. And it's hard to deal with your demons even when you're finally free. James struggled so much. He had his war but not really with pirates - with himself. And let's bless Jack Davenport ♥️

All these moments, all his "I'm always struggling, always walking disaster James Norrington" 😭♥️

To me he is a beacon of hope, and a role model (as I discussed in another post). He reminds me that we can break the cycle, find the right environment, be open for others perspective, which may mean you forgive yourself, so you can become your best you.

Oh, true and so beautifully said, dear ♥️♥️♥️

He did it, he found hope 😭

But oh, Jack and Willy? I would say that life wasn't fair to them either.

Will: orphaned, attacked (a kid!) by bloody pirates and saved by a miracle, living without any friends (I bet his only friend was that donkey from smithy), always working too hard (his boss in the movies? forever drunk - it was Willy who cared about that smithy and had to do everything by himself), always hearing "know your place, Turner", missing a dad he didn't know, being lied about his origin, loving Lizzie but fearing he's not good enough, he's not a part of the society (I can feel some issues there). And in the end killed, then resurrected and then robbed from his precious life with Lizzie and baby (and separated from his found friend and brother Jack)

Jack: he and James share so much that I can't 😭 Extra scene from the movie tells us that he was a hero (he freed slaves and said 'fuck you bastard' to Beckett) and we can also see that when he sees his father Teague... he's nervous. What books show: he had really hard time with these two. And he was abused by his family and other people too 😭 He truly understands little James and he knows the pain. The only difference is that Jackie hides his pain even better than James. All that "I don't care" and "I'm Mr Humorous" are his mask 😭😭😭

James, Jack, Will: three boys hurt by life, linked by destiny (and would be a great family if not that cursed AWE plot, gosh I love them all so much 😭)

Jack & James and James' awful father, part 3: Jack wants to save James (part 2, part 1 ) from Jack Sparrow: Sins of the father by Rob Kidd