#J. Draper

[petermorwood]

This is a fun watch.

J. Draper gets SERIOUSLY nit-picky about "The Muppet Christmas Carol", and as a nit-picker myself, I enjoy seeing how others do it.

I can also see why some of her nit-picks were subordinate to the requirements of a different medium, though I second her curiosity as to why the development of Scrooge's youthful character was changed between book and screen.

It would have been easy to retain the original book character (Scrooge didn't always hate Christmas, but a succession of Bad Things happened at the holiday season and soured him on it). The change is as mysterious as that decision to delete one song ("When Love Is Gone") while leaving its complementary book-end song ("When Love Is Found") in place.

That at least has been corrected on Disney +, though AFAIK it's still not the Official Version and the corrected movie needs selected down among Extra Features.

*****

Funny thing, a large proportion of the YouTube comments are about Christmas Pudding and US ignorance of same. If Christmas Pud is mysterious, wait till they start finding out about Yorkshire Pudding, Pease Pudding and Black Pudding... :->

Check "pudding" in my tags And Learn More...

[forgottenbones]

Answering White People's Questions About Slavery: The London History Show

[thesobsister]

A lovely video from J. Draper on Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales, the development of English, the impact of technology on language transmission, and more.

Her YT channel is chock full of videos on British history and language, often while in nicely done period costumes. So, if that's your jam, dig in.

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight:

Can you solve the sandwich sequence?

Annie Rauwerda (@depthsofwiki on Twitter), J. Draper and Geoff Marshall face a question about a sequential snack.

[narrativestringtheory]

NST #837: J. Draper, "Was Shakespeare Gay?" (2022)

A classic red-yarn variant appears in J. Draper’s examination of the question “Was Shakespeare Gay?” (2022).

From contributor Kelly Williams.

[oddballsducks]

Duckverse fan spotted in the wild*:

*A history YouTube short:

[world-of-wales]

CATHERINE'S STYLE FILES - 2021

29 APRIL 2021 || Kensington Palace released a new film featuring The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their three children to mark Catherine & Willam's tenth wedding anniversary.

[forgottenbones]

What Is It Like To Eat Ice Cream For The Very First Time?

[thesobsister]

A fun video from J. Draper, "Why Does Les Mis Have English Accents? or, The History of the Cockney Musical"

As noted in the comments, however, the omission of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's knees-up "Me Ol' Bamboo" is a missed trick.

Said Dick Van Dyke of this number: "Most of the dancers were 15 years younger than me and it took us 23 takes to get it right. In the last take, I only just make it. This was the hardest dance number I ever did."

She does, however, mention this work, which featured tunes from Lionel Bart, the man behind Oliver's music:

[cappymightwrite]

I don't think Jon gonna love Dany in books if jonsa is endgame. Even if he is conflicted about his feelings for his half sister, the torment isn't suddenly going away if he would meet Dany. It's because those feelings are going to be strong. Dany is basically foil to Sansa character and even starks in general. Considering he had met people who reminded Jon of dany but in negative light going to affect his viewpoint. He had to forget everything to love her.

This is a very old ask, apologies! I'm going to attempt to catch up with a few of them, now that I've got a free weekend 😅 Anyway...

I think more and more now, I agree. They are fundamentally too different for love to grow there, certainly from Jon's side because through the characters of Stannis and Melisandre, especially, we start to get a real sense of how D*ny and Jon's politics will likely rub each other the wrong way. Death by fire is truly horrifying and it's through Jon's eyes that we see that horror firsthand:

Jon watched unblinking. He dare not appear squeamish before his brothers [...] The horn crashed amongst the logs and leaves and kindling. Within three heartbeats the whole pit was aflame. Clutching the bars of his cage with bound hands, Mance sobbed and begged. When the fire reached him he did a little dance. His screams became one long, wordless shriek of fear and pain. Within his cage, he fluttered like a burning leaf, a moth caught in a candle flame. – ADWD, Jon III

The imagery of the burning of the glamoured Mance used above goes some way to mask its real horror by describing his writhing in excruciating pain as like "a little dance," his catching on fire as like "a burning leaf" or a "moth caught in a candle flame." These are far more palatable images, small, inconsequential things to make this horror smaller too, to make it easier to withstand and to watch, unblinking. It's a very human response, on Jon's part, because how else to you go on, having witnessed something so horrifying, if you don't attempt to minimise it in some way, if only for yourself?

And this is just one person. One burning. I think you're quite right, Jon would have to erase this experience from his mind in order to love a person so cavalier with fire. And actually, even if he hadn't witnessed this, I don't think it's in his character to fall in love with D*ny, especially because Jon has also had the experience of somewhat being part of a democratic system at the Watch. I say somewhat because obviously it's flawed, but you know, they attempt to vote fairly on things, decisions aren't always down to one person. With D*ny, there is no taking a vote, it is her judgement at the end of the day and if she thinks you deserve to burn, then honey, you're burning, without any need to busy about setting up a pyre too.

I'm a Jonsa truther, but even excluding that... I think some readers are a little too happy to discount the politics of individual characters and families in favour of what would be "cool" for their fave — I'm talking about D*ny and Arya, D*ny and Arianne, getting along like besties, or just generally the idea of a Targ restoration.

You know, Ned had a very defined set of personal politics, of principles, an adherene to an "older way", and in Jon, as well as the rest of the Starklings, we see a continuation of those principles.

"King Robert has a headsman," he said, uncertainly. "He does," his father admitted. "As did the Targaryen kings before him. Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. "One day, Bran, you will be Robb's bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is." – AGOT, Bran I

Now, D*ny doesn't have a paid executioner, but like Targ kings before her, she is not the one swinging the sword either. It is her dragons who are her executioners with fire as their sword, and it makes you wonder... "a ruler who hides behind [dragons] soon forgets what death is." Contrast this with Ned and the Stark boys at the very beginning of AGOT, and then again, with Jon not only witnessing the burning of (the latter revealed to be glamoured) Mance, but also ordering archers to mercy kill him:

One arrow took Mance Rayder in the chest, one in the gut, one in the throat. The fourth struck one of the cage's wooden bars, and quivered for an instant before catching fire. A woman's sobs echoed off the Wall as the wildling king slid bonelessly to the floor of his cage, wreathed in fire. "And now his Watch is done," Jon murmured softly. Mance Rayder had been a man of the Night's Watch once, before he changed his black cloak for one slashed with bright red silk. Up on the platform, Stannis was scowling. Jon refused to meet his eyes. – ADWD, Jon III

And to bring this back round to Jonsa:

The smile that Lord Janos Slynt smiled then had all the sweetness of rancid butter. Until Jon said, "Edd, fetch me a block," and unsheathed Longclaw. – ADWD, Jon II

So... I'm sorry but, ya know, Targs and Starks, they're chalk and cheese really, and Jon is a true Stark, no matter his name or parentage. As the story progresses, D*ny is leaning more and more into the exceptionalist T*rg, fire and blood way, whereas Jon will always adhere to that "older way," a way that reveres ones duty to others, to what is fair and just, above all, and often the following of these principles comes at the cost of your own personal longings:

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. – ASOS, Jon XII Jon said, "Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa." – ADWD, Jon IV

You're right, D*ny and the T*rgs are very much foils to the Starks and we know how much Jon loves the Starks through his execution of Janos Slynt (who took part in Ned's execution), his defence of Sansa's inheritance, he striving to save (who he believes to be) Arya etc., etc. D*ny could be the messiah with bells on and even then she wouldn't come out on top over Jon's loyalty to and love of the Starks. It's just in him, deep in the very marrow of him:

"[...] you must do what needs be done," Qhorin Halfhand said. "You are the blood of Winterfell and a man of the Night's Watch." – ACOK, Jon VI

Jon knows who he is in the sense that he knows what kind of man he is, what kind of man he hopes to be (one like Ned). A lot of people have fallen under D*ny's dragon goddess spell, both in the books and outside of them, but I don't think Jon is going to be one of them.

Thanks for the ask and apologies for taking so long to answer it!

[screenshotingmonstertv]

[puckgoss]

maggie and truscott never hooked up. they just kissed at like 2 parties but she was clingy with him during that time like she usually is when she’s trying to get something else from the guys. also i don’t think jacob cares at alll about being loyal to ellie lol maggie is not the only girl he cheated with

they don't rly mind sharing girls so

that ain't right lol... nastaayyyyyy

[vonlipvig]

ok! ep1 of mad men, definitely into it. so far, all i can say is that i'm already having impure thoughts about jon hamm, and that other little guy can go fuck himself i hate him so much especially when he said he was 26

[biblicalhorror]

Is somebody gonna match my freak (writing multi paragraph essays about a fictional housewife from a tv show that aired 20 years ago)