#James Big E Williams

[moviemosaics]

Sing Sing

directed by Greg Kwedar, 2023

[x-heesy]

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated. -William James

#autosuggestion #pointofview #codingyourself #programyourself #endlessness #creatingyourself #neverstoplearning #fantasy #empathy #equality #respect #love #basics

Drugs and Choices by Superhero 🦸‍♂️

[yeoldenews]

A Guide to Historically Accurate Regency-Era Names

I recently received a message from a historical romance writer asking if I knew any good resources for finding historically accurate Regency-era names for their characters.

Not knowing any off the top of my head, I dug around online a bit and found there really isn’t much out there. The vast majority of search results were Buzzfeed-style listicles which range from accurate-adjacent to really, really, really bad.

I did find a few blog posts with fairly decent name lists, but noticed that even these have very little indication as to each name’s relative popularity as those statistical breakdowns really don't exist.

I began writing up a response with this information, but then I (being a research addict who was currently snowed in after a blizzard) thought hey - if there aren’t any good resources out there why not make one myself?

As I lacked any compiled data to work from, I had to do my own data wrangling on this project. Due to this fact, I limited the scope to what I thought would be the most useful for writers who focus on this era, namely - people of a marriageable age living in the wealthiest areas of London.

So with this in mind - I went through period records and compiled the names of 25,000 couples who were married in the City of Westminster (which includes Mayfair, St. James and Hyde Park) between 1804 to 1821.

So let’s see what all that data tells us…

To begin - I think it’s hard for us in the modern world with our wide and varied abundance of first names to conceive of just how POPULAR popular names of the past were.

If you were to take a modern sample of 25-year-old (born in 1998) American women, the most common name would be Emily with 1.35% of the total population. If you were to add the next four most popular names (Hannah, Samantha, Sarah and Ashley) these top five names would bring you to 5.5% of the total population. (source: Social Security Administration)

If you were to do the same survey in Regency London - the most common name would be Mary with 19.2% of the population. Add the next four most popular names (Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah and Jane) and with just 5 names you would have covered 62% of all women.

To hit 62% of the population in the modern survey it would take the top 400 names.

The top five Regency men’s names (John, William, Thomas, James and George) have nearly identical statistics as the women’s names.

I struggled for the better part of a week with how to present my findings, as a big list in alphabetical order really fails to get across the popularity factor and also isn’t the most tumblr-compatible format. And then my YouTube homepage recommended a random video of someone ranking all the books they’d read last year - and so I present…

The Regency Name Popularity Tier List

The Tiers

S+ - 10% of the population or greater. There is no modern equivalent to this level of popularity. 52% of the population had one of these 7 names.

S - 2-10%. There is still no modern equivalent to this level of popularity. Names in this percentage range in the past have included Mary and William in the 1880s and Jennifer in the late 1970s (topped out at 4%).

A - 1-2%. The top five modern names usually fall in this range. Kids with these names would probably include their last initial in class to avoid confusion. (1998 examples: Emily, Sarah, Ashley, Michael, Christopher, Brandon.)

B - .3-1%. Very common names. Would fall in the top 50 modern names. You would most likely know at least 1 person with these names. (1998 examples: Jessica, Megan, Allison, Justin, Ryan, Eric)

C - .17-.3%. Common names. Would fall in the modern top 100. You would probably know someone with these names, or at least know of them. (1998 examples: Chloe, Grace, Vanessa, Sean, Spencer, Seth)

D - .06-.17%. Less common names. In the modern top 250. You may not personally know someone with these names, but you’re aware of them. (1998 examples: Faith, Cassidy, Summer, Griffin, Dustin, Colby)

E - .02-.06%. Uncommon names. You’re aware these are names, but they are not common. Unusual enough they may be remarked upon. (1998 examples: Calista, Skye, Precious, Fabian, Justice, Lorenzo)

F - .01-.02%. Rare names. You may have heard of these names, but you probably don’t know anyone with one. Extremely unusual, and would likely be remarked upon. (1998 examples: Emerald, Lourdes, Serenity, Dario, Tavian, Adonis)

G - Very rare names. There are only a handful of people with these names in the entire country. You’ve never met anyone with this name.

H - Virtually non-existent. Names that theoretically could have existed in the Regency period (their original source pre-dates the early 19th century) but I found fewer than five (and often no) period examples of them being used in Regency England. (Example names taken from romance novels and online Regency name lists.)

Just to once again reinforce how POPULAR popular names were before we get to the tier lists - statistically, in a ballroom of 100 people in Regency London: 80 would have names from tiers S+/S. An additional 15 people would have names from tiers A/B and C. 4 of the remaining 5 would have names from D/E. Only one would have a name from below tier E.

Women's Names

S+ Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah      

S - Jane, Mary Ann+, Hannah, Susannah, Margaret, Catherine, Martha, Charlotte, Maria

A - Frances, Harriet, Sophia, Eleanor, Rebecca

B - Alice, Amelia, Bridget~, Caroline, Eliza, Esther, Isabella, Louisa, Lucy, Lydia, Phoebe, Rachel, Susan

C - Ellen, Fanny*, Grace, Henrietta, Hester, Jemima, Matilda, Priscilla

D - Abigail, Agnes, Amy, Augusta, Barbara, Betsy*, Betty*, Cecilia, Christiana, Clarissa, Deborah, Diana, Dinah, Dorothy, Emily, Emma, Georgiana, Helen, Janet^, Joanna, Johanna, Judith, Julia, Kezia, Kitty*, Letitia, Nancy*, Ruth, Winifred>

E - Arabella, Celia, Charity, Clara, Cordelia, Dorcas, Eve, Georgina, Honor, Honora, Jennet^, Jessie*^, Joan, Joyce, Juliana, Juliet, Lavinia, Leah, Margery, Marian, Marianne, Marie, Mercy, Miriam, Naomi, Patience, Penelope, Philadelphia, Phillis, Prudence, Rhoda, Rosanna, Rose, Rosetta, Rosina, Sabina, Selina, Sylvia, Theodosia, Theresa

F - (selected) Alicia, Bethia, Euphemia, Frederica, Helena, Leonora, Mariana, Millicent, Mirah, Olivia, Philippa, Rosamund, Sybella, Tabitha, Temperance, Theophila, Thomasin, Tryphena, Ursula, Virtue, Wilhelmina

G - (selected) Adelaide, Alethia, Angelina, Cassandra, Cherry, Constance, Delilah, Dorinda, Drusilla, Eva, Happy, Jessica, Josephine, Laura, Minerva, Octavia, Parthenia, Theodora, Violet, Zipporah

H - Alberta, Alexandra, Amber, Ashley, Calliope, Calpurnia, Chloe, Cressida, Cynthia, Daisy, Daphne, Elaine, Eloise, Estella, Lilian, Lilias, Francesca, Gabriella, Genevieve, Gwendoline, Hermione, Hyacinth, Inez, Iris, Kathleen, Madeline, Maude, Melody, Portia, Seabright, Seraphina, Sienna, Verity

Men's Names

S+ John, William, Thomas

S - James, George, Joseph, Richard, Robert, Charles, Henry, Edward, Samuel

A - Benjamin, (Mother’s/Grandmother’s maiden name used as first name)#

B - Alexander^, Andrew, Daniel, David>, Edmund, Francis, Frederick, Isaac, Matthew, Michael, Patrick~, Peter, Philip, Stephen, Timothy

C - Abraham, Anthony, Christopher, Hugh>, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Walter

D - Adam, Arthur, Bartholomew, Cornelius, Dennis, Evan>, Jacob, Job, Josiah, Joshua, Lawrence, Lewis, Luke, Mark, Martin, Moses, Nicholas, Owen>, Paul, Ralph, Simon

E - Aaron, Alfred, Allen, Ambrose, Amos, Archibald, Augustin, Augustus, Barnard, Barney, Bernard, Bryan, Caleb, Christian, Clement, Colin, Duncan^, Ebenezer, Edwin, Emanuel, Felix, Gabriel, Gerard, Gilbert, Giles, Griffith, Harry*, Herbert, Humphrey, Israel, Jabez, Jesse, Joel, Jonas, Lancelot, Matthias, Maurice, Miles, Oliver, Rees, Reuben, Roger, Rowland, Solomon, Theophilus, Valentine, Zachariah

F - (selected) Abel, Barnabus, Benedict, Connor, Elijah, Ernest, Gideon, Godfrey, Gregory, Hector, Horace, Horatio, Isaiah, Jasper, Levi, Marmaduke, Noah, Percival, Shadrach, Vincent

G - (selected) Albion, Darius, Christmas, Cleophas, Enoch, Ethelbert, Gavin, Griffin, Hercules, Hugo, Innocent, Justin, Maximilian, Methuselah, Peregrine, Phineas, Roland, Sebastian, Sylvester, Theodore, Titus, Zephaniah

H - Albinus, Americus, Cassian, Dominic, Eric, Milo, Rollo, Trevor, Tristan, Waldo, Xavier

# Men were sometimes given a family surname (most often their mother's or grandmother's maiden name) as their first name - the most famous example of this being Fitzwilliam Darcy. If you were to combine all surname-based first names as a single 'name' this is where the practice would rank.

*Rank as a given name, not a nickname

+If you count Mary Ann as a separate name from Mary - Mary would remain in S+ even without the Mary Anns included

~Primarily used by people of Irish descent

^Primarily used by people of Scottish descent

>Primarily used by people of Welsh descent

I was going to continue on and write about why Regency-era first names were so uniform, discuss historically accurate surnames, nicknames, and include a little guide to finding 'unique' names that are still historically accurate - but this post is already very, very long, so that will have to wait for a later date.

If anyone has any questions/comments/clarifications in the meantime feel free to message me.

Methodology notes: All data is from marriage records covering six parishes in the City of Westminster between 1804 and 1821. The total sample size was 50,950 individuals.

I chose marriage records rather than births/baptisms as I wanted to focus on individuals who were adults during the Regency era rather than newborns. I think many people make the mistake when researching historical names by using baby name data for the year their story takes place rather than 20 to 30 years prior, and I wanted to avoid that. If you are writing a story that takes place in 1930 you don’t want to research the top names for 1930, you need to be looking at 1910 or earlier if you are naming adult characters.

I combined (for my own sanity) names that are pronounced identically but have minor spelling differences: i.e. the data for Catherine also includes Catharines and Katherines, Susannah includes Susannas, Phoebe includes Phebes, etc.

The compound 'Mother's/Grandmother's maiden name used as first name' designation is an educated guesstimate based on what I recognized as known surnames, as I do not hate myself enough to go through 25,000+ individuals and confirm their mother's maiden names. So if the tally includes any individuals who just happened to be named Fitzroy/Hastings/Townsend/etc. because their parents liked the sound of it and not due to any familial relations - my bad.

I did a small comparative survey of 5,000 individuals in several rural communities in Rutland and Staffordshire (chosen because they had the cleanest data I could find and I was lazy) to see if there were any significant differences between urban and rural naming practices and found the results to be very similar. The most noticeable difference I observed was that the S+ tier names were even MORE popular in rural areas than in London. In Rutland between 1810 and 1820 Elizabeths comprised 21.4% of all brides vs. 15.3% in the London survey. All other S+ names also saw increases of between 1% and 6%. I also observed that the rural communities I surveyed saw a small, but noticeable and fairly consistent, increase in the use of names with Biblical origins.

Sources of the records I used for my survey: 

Ancestry.com. England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1988 [database on-line].

Ancestry.com. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [database on-line].

[kenobers]

✨Jason Todd's Bookshelf✨

i think it's so interesting to see what books Jason Todd would read/own, so here's my own contribution! some of these are canon* (hence the *), some are popular headcanons and some are my own speculation. i'll probably continue to add to this.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas*

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen*

1984 by George (Wh)Orwell*

The Prince by Machiavelli*

The Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*

The Art of War by Sun Tzu*

Hamlet*

An additional complete works of William Shakespeare

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

i think Holden Caulfield secretly reminds him of Bruce

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Metamorphosis and The Trial by Franz Kafka

specifically owns a copy that has both of them in there

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

this may be a bit on the nose, but Jason would love a good satire

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibu Tufail

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

but lowkey he hates it

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Iliad by Homer

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

i don't see Jason as being a big fantasy/sci-fi guy unless it falls under the magical realism or gothic categories (i.e, Beloved, Frankenstein), however i do think he would jive with Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and (unfortunately) Harlan Ellison

i can also see him jiving with R.F Kuang and i think The Poppy War specifically would be an exception to his usual disinterest in fantasy

i think he maybe also has a stash of paperback Star Wars novels stashed away somewhere

if jason is a theatre kid into adulthood, i think he would be the kind that reads solely straight plays

Fat Ham by James Ijames

Complete Works of Arthur Miller

Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

he typically avoids stuff that’s so directly about mortality, but this play would really resonate with him and honestly be a healing read

being the hater that he is, he's also hate read at least one Collen Hoover book (and promptly left it in the Batcave to frame Bruce for the crime)

[queer-ragnelle]

Seeking a book to read this winter break?

Brand "New" List of Additions to the Arthurian Preservation Project Archive

In time, all books will be added to my Retellings List or Medieval Literature List respectively, and possibly a third page for handbooks/informational resources. Retellings may be under construction for a bit as I reformat to accommodate the influx in links. There are some duplicates—Alan Lupack's and Mike Ashley's anthologies occasionally contain a one-off story I've otherwise included in an individual volume of collected works by the author.

Links connect to corresponding PDFs on my Google drive where they can be read and downloaded for free. But if you like what I do, consider supporting me on Ko-Fi. I haven't yet read these listings in full; I cannot attest to their content or quality. A big thank you to @wandrenowle for the help collecting!

Modern Retellings

Merlin in Love by Aaron Hill (1790) — Opera about Merlin & his love interest Columbine.

The Fortunate Island by Max Adeler (1882) — A family shipwrecks on an island only to discover its populated with Arthurian knights, including Dinadan, Bleoberis, & Agravaine.

Sir Marrok by Allen French (1902) — Werewolf knight.

The Story of Sir Galahad by Mary Blackwell Stirling (1908) — Illustrated retelling of Malory's Grail Quest.

The Story of Parzival by Mary Blackwell Stirling (1911) — Illustrated retelling of Eschenbach's Parzival.

Stories From King Arthur and His Round Table by Beatrice Clay (1913) — Illustrated retelling of Malory.

Cloud Castle and Other Papers by Edward Thomas (1922) — Contains two Arthurian entries: the story Bronwen The Welsh Idyll about Agravaine & his lady Bronwen, & the essay Isoud about the Prose Tristan.

Collected Poems by Rolfe Humphries (1924-1966) — Contains Dream of Rhonabwy about Owain & Arthur's chess game, A Brecon Version about Essylt/Trystan, Under Craig y Ddynas about Arthur's "sleeping" warriors, & The Return of Peredwr about the Grail Hero's arrival to court.

Peronnik the Fool by George Moore (1926) — The quest for the Holy Grail based on Breton folklore.

The Merriest Knight by Theodore Goodridge Roberts (1946-2001) — Anthology of short stories all about Dinadan.

The Eagles Have Flown by Henry Treece (1954) — A third Arthurian novel from Treece detailing the rivalry between Artos & Medrawt, with illustrations this time.

Launcelot, my Brother by Dorothy James Roberts (1954) — The fall of Camelot from Bors perspective, as a brother of Launcelot.

To the Chapel Perilous by Naomi Mitchison (1955) — Two rival journalists report about the goings on in Camelot.

The Pagan King by Edison Marshall (1959) — Historical fiction from the perspective of Pagan King Arthur.

Kinsmen of the Grail by Dorothy James Roberts (1963) — The Grail Quest but Gawain is Perceval's step dad.

Stories of King Arthur by Blanche Winder (1968) — Illustrated retelling of Malory.

Drustan the Wanderer by Anna Taylor (1971) — Retelling of Essylt/Drustan.

Merlin's Ring by H. Warner Munn (1974) Gwalchmai is a godson of Merlin's that uses his ring to travel through the magical & real worlds.

Lionors, Arthur's Uncrowned Queen by Barbara Ferry Johnson (1975) — Story of Arthur's sweetheart & mother of his son, Loholt.

Gawain and The Green Knight by Y. R. Ponsor (1979) — Illustrated prose retelling of SGATGK poem.

Firelord (#1), Beloved Exile (#2), The Lovers: Trystan and Yseult (#3) by Parke Godwin (pseudonym Kate Hawks) (1980-1999) — Book 1 Arthur, book 2 Guinevere, book 3 Trystan/Yseult.

Bride of the Spear by Kathleen Herbert (1982) — "Historical" romance retelling of Teneu/Owain.

Invitation to Camelot edited by Parke Godwin (1988) — Anthology of assorted Arthurian stories from authors like Phyllis Ann Karr & Sharan Newman.

Arthur, The Greatest King - An Anthology of Modern Arthurian Poems by Alan Lupack (1988) — Anthology of modern Arthurian poetry by various authors including E. A. Robinson, William Morris, C. S. Lewis, & Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The White Raven by Diana L Paxson (1988) — "Historical" romance retelling of Drustan/Esseilte.

Merlin Dreams by Peter Dickinson (1988) — Illustrated by Alan Lee.

The Pendragon Chronicles edited by Mike Ashley (1990) — An anthology of Arthurian stories, including some translations such as the Lady of the Fountain, and retellings by John Steinbeck & Phyllis Ann Karr.

Grails: Quest of the Dawn edited by Richard Gilliam (1992-1994) — Anthology of Grail Quest stories.

The Merlin Chronicles edited by Mike Ashley (1995) — Anthology about Merlin from authors like Theodore Goodridge Roberts & Phyllis Ann Karr.

The Chronicles of the Holy Grail edited by Mike Ashley (1996) — Anthology about the Holy Grail from authors like Cherith Baldry & Phyllis Ann Karr.

The Chronicles of the Round Table edited by Mike Ashley (1997) — Anthology of assorted Arthurian stories from authors like Cherith Baldry & Phyllis Ann Karr.

Sleepless Knights by Mark H Williams (2013) — 1,500 years have passed but Lucan the Butler’s still on the clock.

Medieval Literature

Three Arthurian Romances (Caradoc, The Knight with The Sword, The Perilous Graveyard) [This is on the Internet Archive & cannot be downloaded. If someone could help with that, lmk!] translated by Ross G. Arthur

Le Bel Inconnu (The Fair Unknown) translated by Colleen P. Donagher

Segurant The Knight of the Dragon (Portuguese) edited by Emanuele Arioli

An Anglo-Norman Reader by Jane Bliss

Stanzaic Morte Arthur / Alliterative Morte Arthure edited by Larry D. Benson

Sir Perceval de Galles / Ywain and Gawain edited by Mary Flowers Braswell

Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales edited by Thomas Hahn

Prose Merlin edited by John Conlee

The Middle English Breton Lays edited by Eve Sailsbury & Anne Laskaya

Il Ciclo Di Guiron Le Courtois Volumes 1-7 (Italian)

Wace's Roman de Brut / Layamon's Brut by Robert Wace & Eugene Mason

Arthurian Literature by Women edited by Alan Lupack & Barbara Tepa Lupack

Handbooks

Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance by Lucy Allen Paton (1960)

A Companion to the Gawain-Poet edited by Derek Brewer (1990)

The Mammoth Book of King Arthur edited by Mike Ashley (2005)

A Bibliography of Modern Arthuriana 1500-2000 by Ann F. Howey & Stephen R. Reimer (2006)

[cyberkitty1]

E!42 miles x thick/chubby black reader Part 2

Part 1

warnings: lowercase intended, mean family members

she walkes up eyeing miles like he was a prey and she was hunting him down, not before looking st you with utter disgust. “ not sure how ou could pull someone like this” she days looking at miles smiling “ and eho are you?” she says sweetly, way to sweetly.

“ miles” he says plainly “ no need to be salty! you can come with me so your not as sad, how bout it?” something inside you snapped, why was she always picking on you? its not like she looked any better, she looked like wendy williams post rehab.

“ no he wouldn’t sorry” she looks over at you “ i dont think i was talking to you?” “yea just like he dosent want to talk to you, if you dont mind, or even if you do could you leave?” she scoffs “ and who do you think your talking to miss piggy? why dont YOU leave? i thought you’d be gone by now!” she laughs as if you havnt heard it before.

“ oh you want me to leave? sure ill leave just like your 4 baby daddies that dont even pay child support might i add” the whole party was looking at you guys now, music turned down

“ you know its crazy how ive sat here all these years getting bullied by you but atleast i can keep a man! girl you get pregnant every year! arnt you on baby number 6? that baby bump is more visible than that volcano on your face” miles looked at you in utter shock “ how old are you again? 25?! have you ever heard of condoms or birth control?” at this rate she might as well left because everyone was snikering and laughing “ and dont even get me started on your lifted lace and chunky make up, i may not be skinny but atleast i know my shade, you walk in here lookin like that one james charles meme DONT play with me today”

everyone goes silent she just looks at you dumbfounded “if you have anything else to say, say it now or forever hold your peace” you say one last time before she scoffs rolls her eyes and walks off.

everyone kind of goes back to normal and miles just looks at you “ ive never seen you like this before” he says looking you in your eyes “ yea, sorry i just got fed up-“ “ hey you don’t have to apologize it was actually kinda hot” you laugh a little “ thank you miles” before you can bask in the radiant feeling your aunt, your cousins mom walks up to you

“ now who do you think you are talking to my baby like that?” you look at her dumb founded “ are you kidding me? you guys only talk down on me and now you have the utter audacity to walk up to me and ask why i’m treating your daughter how her and you have been treating me for YEARS?” you pause

“ you know there is absolutely nothing stopping me form dragging you too, you’re built like your constantly taking a big breath, you got the worst camel toes i have ever seen in my ENTIRE life and now i know where your daughter gets the “have a ton of baby daddies to the point where you dont know who the father is “attitude. that reminds me arnt you pregnant with your 10th child? and your 9th baby daddy? thats a world record somehow. you should call Nick Canon up here, y’all would make great friends.”

“ don’t ever talk down on me again or there will be consequences” you say finally before grabbing miles hand and leaving the party. miles stands next to his car looking at you absolutely dumbfounded “ what?” you ask confused “ you just dragged yo auntie in front of everyone! what do you mean what? ive never seen you stand up for yourself like this i’m proud of you” he says giving you a kiss on the cheek.

i just imagine you doing that like ugly giggle he loves lmao

.

.

.

🏷️ @soseoulol @shoyofroyoyoyo @pandoragalora @miles-42-morales @heavisdelulu @lilcassipuff @levanneisdumb @thebaddest @sussybaka10 @itsznanabanana @malllywally @missyysyx @c4nth3lp1t @sgmianne @miles4hour @ulovejayy @onginlove @buckleyverse @lexixiii @swaqlover @yoursidehismain @florencepughswife030196 @lethycia @edgyficuselastica @druiggf @onsimpshii @lovely-horror-show @vivsamortentia @leighs-gallery @remuslupinsno1slut @steve-harringtons-bitch @shurisbbymama @bunnybabylovesstuff @karmascute @c4rine @janaeby @mookiebutt @paraccosm @zkristuz @reflectionsinrealtime @mindymeeksrules @nagi3seastorm @popeheywardssecretgf @be3_Fl0w3er @piopio @hoodypunpurri @hiyoo-o @enchanting-violet @inluvwithneteyam

if y’all think this is cringe lmk so i can remake it lmao

[aaronstveit]

read in 2024!

it's that time again! i loved doing reading threads in 2022 and 2023 so i will definitely be carrying on the tradition this year. as always, you can find me on goodreads and storygraph, and you're always welcome to message me about books!

Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu* (★★★★★)

Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Stones by Ngozi Ukazu* (★★★★★)

Check, Please! Chirpbook by Ngozi Ukazu* (★★★★★)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (★★★★★)

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert** (★★★★☆)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (★★★★★)

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (★★★☆☆)

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (★★★☆☆)

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett (★★★★☆)

Dream Work by Mary Oliver (★★★★☆)

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (★★★★☆)

Cain’s Jawbone by E. Powys Mathers

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (★★★★★)

You’ve Been Summoned by Lindsey Lamar** (★★☆☆☆)

The Seven Ages by Louise Glück (★★★★☆)

The Last Girl Left by A.M. Strong & Sonya Sargent** (★★★☆☆)

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang (★★★★★)

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Normal People by Sally Rooney (★★★★★)

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin** (★★★☆☆)

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen (★★☆☆☆)

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (★★★☆☆)

The Drowning Faith by R.F. Kuang (★★★★★)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (★★★★★)

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang (★★★★★)

King Lear by William Shakespeare (★★★★☆)

All These Sunken Souls by assorted authors, edited by Circe Moskowitz (★★★★☆)

The Big Four by Agatha Christie (★★★☆☆)

The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1 by Carly Usdin, Noah Hayes (★★★★☆)

That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton (★★☆☆☆)

The Avant-Guards, Vol. 2 by Carly Usdin, Noah Hayes (★★★★☆)

Jurassic Park by Michael (★★★☆☆)

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis (★★★☆☆)

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (★★★★★)

Violeta by Isabel Allende (★★★☆☆)

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (★★★★☆)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (★★★★☆)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (★★★★☆)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (★★★★★)

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes (★★★★★)

Third Girl by Agatha Christie (★★★☆☆)

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (★★★☆☆)

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (★★★★★)

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (★★★★★)

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (★★★☆☆)

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz (★★★★★)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (★★★★★)

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd (★★★★☆)

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (★★★☆☆)

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie* (★★★★★)

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (★★★★☆)

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin* (★★★★★)

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (★★★★☆)

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (★★★★☆)

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson (★★★☆☆)

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard (★★★★☆)

You Shouldn’t Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose (★☆☆☆☆)

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (★★★★☆)

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (★★★★☆)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (★★★★☆)

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien* (★★★★★)

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson (★★★★☆)

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith (★★★★★)

4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie (★★★★☆)

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (★★★★☆)

From Turtle Island to Gaza by David Groulx (★★★★★)

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (★★★★★)

Cryptid Club by Sarah Andersen

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (★★★☆☆)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (★★★★☆)

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat by Bill Watterson (★★★★★)

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (★☆☆☆☆)

An asterisk (*) indicates a reread. A double asterisk (**) indicates an ARC.

[breathingxspace]

[S04Finale02] The Exposition After Dark

It may be night cycle on the orbital, but that doesn't mean the fun has to stop.

[S04Finale2] The Exhibition After Dark

part 1: https://shorturl.at/SwrjQ

part 2: https://shorturl.at/BSeSi

And join us tonight at 6pm pacific for our very last live-listen premier

Written by Amy Young, Ash Seguinte, Hera Alexander, Interiority, James Big, Kale Brown, Kasha Mika, Kale Brown, Mel Nichols, Scott Paladin, & SJ Ryker

Edited by Amy Young, Erik Seguinte, Kale Brown, Maddie Cooper, Sam Stark, Scott Paladin, & SJ Ryker.

Transcribed by SockX, E. Marie Davis, Mel Nichols, & Nancy Sandland

It includes

Sam Stark Mel Nichols Ella Watts Jesse Hall Amy Young Lauren Tucker Pacific S. Obadiah Kale Brown Daisy McNamara Kira Stark Michael E. Fremantle Bonnie Calderwood Aspinwall Ari Ingalls Oz Stark SJ Ryker Rachel Scully Aubrey Akers Lou Sutcliffe Rae Lundberg Jill Bee Rebecca Krause Kasha Mika James Big Quill Turner Rose Williams Philip C. SockX Interiority Hera Alexander Emma Laslett Essay Scott Paladin Thomas Fleming E. Marie Davis Melissa Lusk Vic Collins Mihai Matei Mike Ihrke

[scotianostra]

February 7th 1837 saw the birth of James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

A couple of things that I love about this, 1; a Scot was the first editor of the most famous English dictionary, a 2; the picture of Murray, he just looks the part!

He was certainly something of a prodigy as a child, despite his humble background. Born in the Borders village of Denholm, near Hawick, the son of a tailor, he reputedly knew his alphabet by the time he was eighteen months old, and was soon showing a precocious interest in other languages, including—at the age of 7—Chinese.

Thanks to his voracious appetite for reading, and what he called ‘a sort of mania for learning languages’, he was already a remarkably well-educated boy by the time his formal schooling ended, at the age of 14, with a knowledge of French, German, Italian, Latin, and Greek, oh and of course Gaelic, along with a range of other interests, including botany, geology, and archaeology. After a few years teaching in local schools—he was evidently a born teacher, and was made a headmaster at the age of 21—he moved to London, and took work in a bank.

e soon began to attend meetings of the London Philological Society, and threw himself into the study of dialect and pronunciation—an interest he had already developed while still in Scotland—and also of the history of English. In 1870 an opening at Mill Hill School, just outside London, enabled him to return to teaching. He began studying for an external London BA degree, which he finished in 1873, the same year as his first big scholarly publication, a study of Scottish dialects which was widely recognized as a pioneering work in its field and was the first ever sustained history of the Scots tongue.

Only a year later his linguistic research had earned him his first honorary degree, a doctorate from Edinburgh University: quite an achievement for a self-taught man of 37.

In 1876 Murray was approached by the London publishers Macmillans about the possibility of editing a dictionary, he accepted the challenged and it was generally thought the publication would take around ten years to complete and run to 6,400 pages, in four volumes, he undertook the work while still teaching at Mill Hill, although he did enlist help in several assistants.

Five years later- no- he hadn't finished it, he was a genius but not that much, they published the first volume, A-Ant, to steal the words from a future film, they were going to need a bigger book!" The team sent out the call for volunteers all across the country. one American man, William Chester Minor, even responded from his prison cell in Broadmoor while serving a life sentence for murder. still suffered from paranoid delusions, some saw his work on the Oxford English Dictionary as a form of therapy. Minor became a regular collaborator with Murray as he sent his notes to the editor every week for 20 years. Every letter Minor signed with the closing, “Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire.

Murray soon had to give up his school teaching, and moved to Oxford in 1885; even then progress was too slow, and eventually three other Editors were appointed, each with responsibility for different parts of the alphabet. Although for more than three-quarters of the time he worked on the OED there were other Editors working alongside him—he eventually died in 1915—and although he had a staff of assistants helping him, it is without question that he was the Editor of the Dictionary.

It was not until 1928 that C. T. Onions and William Craigie finally finished the main text. In terms of the methodology he developed, The Oxford English Dictionary is largely Murray's creation; as the ‘Historical Introduction’ to the OED states, ‘to Murray belongs the credit for giving it, at the outset, a form which proved to be adequate to the end’.

In his private life Murray married an Ada Agnes Ruthven and they found time to have 11 children together, all of whom reached adulthood, and unusual occurrence back then. Some even helped him in the compilation of the OED. The third pic is great and shows him astride a huge ‘sand-monster’ constructed on the beach during one of the family’s holidays in North Wales.

He was never made a Fellow of an Oxford college, to their shame, and only received an Oxford honorary doctorate the year before his death.He died of pleurisy on 26 July 1915 and requested to be buried in Oxford beside the grave of his best friend, James Legge.

[formulatrash]

at the risk of being part of the madness in your inbox, i firmly believe much of the hate for Stella, Vowles etc. comes from people who do not have experience (largely through age, i suspect) of senior leadership in effective organisations, but do have plenty of access to the extremely online concept that being polite to or about someone while being critical of them is inherently and at all times a form of abusive manipulation, and the conception of F1 teams as some sort of family rather than a highly competitive workplace.

(see for example a lot of the reaction to how Vowles spoke about Logan Sargeant to the media - the flip from "daddy Vowles and his gentle parenting" to "this is straight-up emotional abuse" as the words grew more critical but the tone changed.)

combine this kind of thinking with the profound psychological effect that lando's big brown eyes and emotional openness have on many (i am admittedly not immune), and it's easy to create a narrative in your head that he's being treated unfairly - statements like Stella's at the weekend pointing out that Lando's needed to learn and improve on weaknesses over the season morph into projections that either he or the viewers are being gaslit by Stella's apparent calm and decency.

Zak Brown's whole "McLaren family" bit definitely doesn't help with this because it's very apparent that he would be perfectly happy to sell one of his drivers to Silicon Valley for one corn chip and a shiny sticker on the front wing.

so yeah - given the choice between managers who are (a) aggressive shouty bastards that leave everyone demoralised (b) ruthless cunts who act nice then break your spirit (c) slick political operators who prioritise efficiency over growth and (d) reasonable, polite people with high expectations that make you want to live up to them, i'd go for option (c) every time, but i suspect that if you haven't had the experience of the first three types and are looking at them through the lens of non-professional relationships, it's harder to identify the behaviours or their impacts.

or i don't know, maybe i'm reading the situation completely wrong.

I think these are all good points - I do think James Vowles is an interesting outlier case amongst the quiet engineers because he's got Mercedes habits at Williams (which is interesting because eg: Stella and Mekies don't really have Ferrari habits at their teams?)

where Vowles deserves to take some heat over Sargeant is Australia. it was the wrong call to give Alex Logan's car, even if he'd scored points it was just the wrong thing to do. unfair pressure to put on Alex and just a devastating blow to Logan, from which he never really came back and that's pretty understandable. there's really no bigger vote of no confidence you can give someone than saying honestly we think it's better if you don't drive.

what he then said about Logan, as his season deteriorated, was (unfortunately) just true. it wasn't nice but it was what was happening. as someone who really rates Logan I actually wish he'd been fired earlier since being dragged across the season unable to do anything to turn things round was firstly horrible to watch and secondly is the sort of thing that has a man needing 3-4 seasons in Formula E to recover from.

[deadpresidents]

2 and a half weeks until JC passes Cactus Jack!

It took me a little bit to figure out what you were referencing, but yes, Jimmy Carter will pass John Nance Garner as the longest-living President or Vice President in American history on September 18th. And if he is still with us on October 1st, Carter will be the first President or Vice President in American history to celebrate their 99th birthday.

And since I'm a huge dork who finds this stuff interesting, here's the big, complete list of longest-living to shortest-living Presidents and Vice Presidents in American history: (Presidents are in bold text, Vice Presidents are in italics, and those who served as both POTUS and VP are in bold italics.) John Nance Garner: 98 years, 351 days Jimmy Carter: 98 years, 337 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Levi P. Morton: 96 years, 0 days George H.W. Bush: 94 years, 171 days Gerald R. Ford: 93 years, 165 days Ronald Reagan: 93 years, 120 days Walter Mondale: 93 years, 81 days John Adams: 90 years, 247 days Herbert Hoover: 90 years, 71 days Harry S. Truman: 88 years, 232 days Charles G. Dawes: 85 years, 239 days James Madison: 85 years, 104 days Thomas Jefferson: 83 years, 82 days Dick Cheney: 82 years, 216 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Hannibal Hamlin: 81 years, 311 days Richard Nixon: 81 years, 104 days Joe Biden: 80 years, 287 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) John Quincy Adams: 80 years, 227 days Aaron Burr: 80 years, 220 days Martin Van Buren: 79 years, 231 days Adlai E. Stevenson: 78 years, 234 days Dwight D. Eisenhower: 78 years, 165 days Alben W. Barkley: 78 years, 157 days Andrew Jackson: 78 years, 85 days Spiro Agnew: 77 years, 261 days Donald Trump: 77 years, 81 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) George W. Bush: 77 years, 59 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry A. Wallace: 77 years, 42 days James Buchanan: 77 years, 39 days Bill Clinton: 77 years, 15 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Dan Quayle: 76 years, 211 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Charles Curtis: 76 years, 14 days Al Gore: 75 years, 156 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Millard Fillmore: 74 years, 60 days James Monroe: 73 years, 67 days George Clinton: 72 years, 268 days George M. Dallas: 72 years, 174 days William Howard Taft: 72 years, 174 days John Tyler: 71 years, 295 days Grover Cleveland: 71 years, 98 days Thomas R. Marshall: 71 years, 79 days Nelson Rockefeller: 70 years, 202 days Elbridge Gerry: 70 years, 129 days Rutherford B. Hayes: 70 years, 105 days Richard M. Johnson: 70 years, 33 days William Henry Harrison: 68 years, 54 days John C. Calhoun: 68 years, 13 days William A. Wheeler: 67 years, 339 days George Washington: 67 years, 295 days Benjamin Harrison: 67 years, 205 days Woodrow Wilson: 67 years, 36 days William R. King: 67 years, 11 days Hubert H. Humphrey: 66 years, 231 days Andrew Johnson: 66 years, 214 days Thomas A. Hendricks: 66 years, 79 days Charles W. Fairbanks: 66 years, 24 days Zachary Taylor: 65 years, 227 days Franklin Pierce: 64 years, 319 days Lyndon B. Johnson: 64 years, 148 days Mike Pence: 64 years, 88 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry Wilson: 63 years, 279 days Ulysses S. Grant: 63 years, 87 days Franklin D. Roosevelt: 63 years, 72 days Barack Obama: 62 years, 30 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Schuyler Colfax: 61 years, 296 days Calvin Coolidge: 60 years, 185 days Theodore Roosevelt: 60 years, 71 days Kamala Harris: 58 years, 318 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) William McKinley: 58 years, 228 days Warren G. Harding: 57 years, 273 days Chester A. Arthur: 57 years, 44 days James S. Sherman: 57 years, 6 days Abraham Lincoln: 56 years, 62 days Garret A. Hobart: 55 years, 171 days John C. Breckinridge: 54 years, 116 days James K. Polk: 53 years, 225 days Daniel D. Tompkins: 50 years, 355 days James Garfield: 49 years, 304 days John F. Kennedy: 46 years, 177 days

[ominous-arcade]

Character Onions for Curtain Call

posting them here for no particular reason I suppose! they'll be easier to find this way too

Put under the cut for convenience

Vanessa Shelly

Kim - Scott Pilgrim

Alice Liddell - American McGee's Alice

Helly R - Severance

Care - Petscop

Carrie White - Carrie 1976

Bea Santello - NITW

Sidney Prescott - Scream

Jack Townsend/Deputy O'Brien - Tales from the Gas Station

Asuka Langley Sohryu - Evangelion

Narrator - Fight Club

Asa Mitaka - Chainsaw Man

Mima Kirigoe - Perfect Blue

Handunit

Glados - Portal

Friend Computer - Paranoia

SCP-079 - SCP foundation

AM - I Have No Mouth and I must Scream

Old L Corp - Project Moon

Doctor Money - Presentable Liberty

P03 - Inscryption

You Must Be Happy - Lobotomy Corporation

AUTO - Wall-E

BOB - Sam & Max Save the World

Mr.Milchick - Severance

Vanny

The Velveteen Rabbit - The Velveteen Rabbit

Spinel - Steven Universe

Pyro - Team Fortress 2

Photo negative Mickey - Abandoned By Disney

"Mima" - Perfect Blue

You Want To Get Beat? Hurtily? - Limbus Company

Raggedy Ann - Raggedy Ann

SCP-1048 - SCP foundation

Happy Teddy Bear - Lobotomy Corporation

Robbie the Rabbit - Silent Hill

Bugs Bunny - Looney Toons

Crimew - Real Life

Spring Bonnie

Bear - Bear in the Big Blue House

Barney - Barney & Friends

The Velveteen Rabbit - The Velveteen Rabbit

Friend Francis - Angel Hare

Bucky Beaver - Shipwrecked 64

Salvador - Presentable Liberty

Elsie the Borden Cow - Real Life

Angel Gabby - Angel Hare

Teddy - Beyond the Sleep

Truman - The Truman Show

Fred Rogers - Mr.Rogers' Neighborhood

Toriel - Undertale

William Afton

Nick - Parents 1989

Forge Fitzwilliam - D&D: Honor Among Theives

Victor Frankenstein - Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

Calvin's Dad - Calvin and Hobbes

Terry Blake - The Stepfather 1987

Madam Hotel - The Hotel Podcast

Willy Wonka - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Sea Leopard - Real Life

Scar - The Lion King

Steve Raglan - Five Nights at Freddy's (movie)

Mr.Voice - Little Misfortune

Dexter's Dad - Dexter's Laboratory

Carol Afton

Lady Miss Kier - Deee-lite

Linda Flynn-Fletcher - Phineas and Ferb

Clarabelle - Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

Madam Hotel - The Hotel Podcast

Scary Godmother - Scary Godmother comics/movie

Miss Frizzle - The Magic Schoolbus

Morticia Addams - The Addams Family

Julie Joyful - Welcome Home

Midge Campell - Astroid City

Linda Belcher - Bob's Burgers

Elvira - Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

Esmé Squalor - A Series of Unfortunate Events

Kelsey

Nemesis (Goddess of revenge and retribution) - Greek Mythology

Tomie Kawakami - Junji Ito

Nano - Girl from Nowhere

Ant-mimic spider (Myrmarachne) - Real Life

Raguel (Angel of Justice) - Abrahamic Religion

The Phantom of the Auditorium - Goosebumps

James (Clone) - Goosebumps show (2023)

Columbo - Columbo

Themis (Goddess of Justice) - Greek Mythology

Kowaru Nagisa - Evangelion

Jesus of Nazareth - Abrahamic Religion

Snowy Owl - Real

Zombie Mike

Mettaton Neo - Undertale

Alpha Dave Strider - Homestuck

Wallace Wells - Scott Pilgrim

Funtime Foxy - Sister Location

Lucas Lee - Scott Pilgrim

Dorian Electra - Real Life

Orwelle Peck - Real Life

Johnny Blaze - Ghost Rider

High Roller - Toontown Corporate Clash

Johnny Cage - Mortal Kombat

Tyler Durdan - Fight Club

Ricky "Jupe" Park - Nope

Michael Afton

Nitro Rad - Real Life

Mike - FNAF Logbook

Angel Torres - Nope

Dave Strider - Homestuck

Netzach - Library of Ruina

Jack Townsend - Tales from the Gas Station

Chesed - Lobotomy Corporation

Toby Billings - Hide and Seek (Fazbear Frights: Blackbird)

Sans - Undertale

Mr.Renner - Animatronic Apocalypse (Tales from the Pizzaplex: Submechanophobia)

Mike - You're the Band (Fazbear Frights: Felix the Shark)

Bill S Preston - Bill & Ted

[uboat53]

Cabinet Endorsements

One thing that's flown a bit below the radar in this election is that former cabinet members haven't been acting like they usually do. Normally, former cabinet members will automatically endorse their former boss for re-election, but Trump's have not been doing that.

This is of particular interest because, while we, the voters, get to see the President give speeches and the like, we don't actually work with him. Presumably a cabinet member is someone who agrees with the president and who the president trusts and who gets to work closely with the president, so their opinion of the president is an important benchmark.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the 44 former cabinet members of the Donald J. Trump administration and the 2 former cabinet members of the Joseph R. Biden administration. I'll put an (E) next to the ones that have endorsed their former boss, an (H) next to the ones who haven't yet, and an (R) next to the ones who have outright refused to do so.

Cabinet Members of the Donald J. Trump Administration (R) VP Mike Pence (H) Sec. State Rex Tillerson (H) Sec. State/CIA Director Mike Pompeo (E) Sec. Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) Sec. Defense James Mattis (H) Sec. Defense Patrick Shanahan (nominated) (R) Sec. Defense Mark Esper (H) Sec. Defense Christopher Miller (acting) (H) AG Jeff Sessions (R) AG William Barr (H) AG Jeffrey Rosen (acting) (E) Sec. Interior Ryan Zinke (H) Sec. Interior David Bernhardt (H) Sec. Agriculture Sonny Perdue (E) Sec. Commerce Wilbur Ross (H) Sec. Labor Andrew Puzder (nominated) (H) Sec. Labor Alex Acosta (H) Sec. Labor Eugene Scalia (H) Sec. HHS Tom Price (H) Sec. HHS Alex Azar (H) Sec. HHS Pete Gaynor (E) Sec. HUD Ben Carson (H) Sec. Transporation Elaine Chao (H) Sec. Transportation Steven Bradbury (acting) (H) Sec. Energy Rick Perry (H) Sec. Energy Dan Brouillette (H) Sec. Education Besty DeVos (H) Sec. Education Mick Zais (acting) (H) Sec. VA David Shulkin (E) Sec. VA Ronny Jackson (nominated) (H) Sec. VA Robert Wilkie (R) Sec. HS John Kelly (H) Sec. HS Kirstjen Nielsen (H) Sec. HS Chad Wolf (nominated) (E) US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer (H) DNI Dan Coats (H) DNI John Ratcliffe (H) UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (H) OMB Directory Mick Mulvaney (E) OMB Director Russel Vought (H) CIA Director Gina Haspel (H) EPA Admin. Scott Pruitt (H) EPA Admin. Andrew Wheeler (H) SBA Admin. Linda McMahon (H) SBA Admin. Jovita Caranza

Cabinet Members of the Joseph R. Biden Administration (E) Sec. Labor Marty Walsh (E) OMB Director Neera Tanden (nominated) (H) Office of Science and Tech. Director Eric Lander

The first thing we notice, obviously, is that there are a whole lot more former Trump cabinet members. This is partially because Biden is still in office so his 23 current cabinet members are not counted (it'd be a huge surprise if they didn't endorse him and they probably wouldn't still be working for him if they didn't), but it's also because Trump had way above average turnover for cabinet officials, 19 in the first four years not including the 5 who resigned due to his handling of the 2020 election results (not included because Biden hasn't reached that point in his first term yet), while Biden has had far below average turnover, only 3 so far.

So a lot more people shuffling in and out of the Trump administration, but we also notice a ton more H's than E's there. Heck, there's almost as many R's among Trump's people as there are E's (5 to 7). Meanwhile, Biden's shooting 2 for 3 and the third one hasn't (at least not that I could find) ruled out endorsing him.

Keep in mind, endorsing the nominee of your party is pretty much the bare minimum that any party operative needs to do. Imagine if you applied for a job somewhere, the first question was "do you think this company should be in business", and you answered "no". You probably wouldn't be getting a job there. In other words, refusing to endorse has some big consequences for the people doing it, not just costing them a job in the potential next Republican presidency, but locking them out of the party entirely, and yet a good deal of the people who worked for Trump disliked working with him so much that they're doing it anyways.

As I said, this tends to fly below the radar because it's kind of a formulaic ritual; of course members of the President's party who are closely tied to him are going to endorse him for re-election! That's why you should pay attention now that most of the people who've worked with Trump aren't doing so. It says something, something big.

[thorn-horn]

Things I noticed while rewatching smiling friends

S P O I L E R S

☺ the dust the witch uses is the same as Jason's

☺ gnarly says "I love you" to grim. (We're they lovers)

☺ Charlie claims to not know aliens exist while at the UFO Lookout meeting thing. In the fantasy episode he literally solved a long term conflict between the spiders and aliens

☺ Allan healed from the cruizifizion quickly.

☺ Filmore was in the background while the demon was getting destroyed

☺ Allan's tie is always crinkly

☺ Pim's cowboy hat gets wiggled in the rain

☺ the boss's bowtie looks like an untied tie instead of a bow when he's going crazy in the frowning friends episode

☺ Desmond puts the Dave land shirt on over the shirt he's wearing

☺ despite being able to drive, Allan takes a scooter to work.

☺ glep takes his hat off to pay respects to jason

☺ Allan and glep have the same gardening apron different sizes

☺ the building gets a Santa hat for Xmas so someone had to have put it on the building.

☺ even the devil is nice to fast food workers

☺ Britney dates men of huge influence. She went after Mr. Boss instead of Mr. Frog. We know Mr. Frog is rich and powerful as well. So who's richer?

☺ Jeremy has thing wings implying he could once fly

☺ if Charlie's grandma has a lollipop it implies that she ethier died with it or took it from someone in hell. Same with the rocking chair

☺ Biblies are in hell (thanks Desmond)

☺ in the after credits scene where the devil and Mr. Boss fight, hell is back to normal. Despite denying it, Charlie helped the devil

☺ the devil owns a keyboard (but not a fiddle?)

☺ the earth isn't flat when God sends Charlie back but is at the alien episode.

☺ glep gas a black hat for mourning

☺ if Alan is spraying gwimbly with DIRTY BROWN WATER the water where smiling friends takes place might be heavily polluted.

☺ Allan likely has PTSD from the Bible thing

☺ glep and Allan wear more clothes for vacation than work (they still don't wear shoes tho)

☺ the devil eats salty's

☺ they dine and dash

☺ it's mentioned by Charlie that the tv is broken (in the professor psychotic episode) which is likely the result of James ripping it off

☺ Charlie got the maid outfit quickly which means 1: he had it available 2: there's a shop on the street that sells it or 3: express shipping

☺ allan likes playing games

☺ shrimp are both members of society and food (does that imply cannibalism?)

☺ in America Presidents wear blue or red ties on their suits (red for Republican, blue for Democrat) but jimble wears yellow. Pim wears a red tie with a blue suit. William worm wears a blue suit and tie.

☺ Allan's one night stand wears big boots in bed.

☺ Allan jumped off a building without hesitation for paperclips

☺ idk what's more impressive in An Allan Adventure: the fact that Allan survived or that his stayed tied.

☺ Allan has anger issues

☺ Allan is more scared of a hole in the roof then nearly dying

☺ subway exists within the smiling friends universe

☺ Doug owns an iPhone

☺ Doug doesn't wear a hard hat on the job

☺ Allan and glep collapsed from Jason's dust

[bookquest2024]

100 Books to Read Before I Die: Quest Order

The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Under The Net by Iris Murdoch

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

A Passage to India by EM Forster

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

1984 by George Orwell

White Noise by Don DeLillo

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Oscar And Lucinda by Peter Carey

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré

Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Ulysses by James Joyce

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Herzog by Saul Bellow

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes

A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul

A Dance to The Music of Time by Anthony Powell

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Little Women by Louisa M Alcott

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

Watchmen by Alan Moore

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Money by Martin Amis

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

[mellifluouaamor]

⍣ | HETALIA

A

AERICAN EMPIRE

AMERICA

AUSTRALIA

B

BELGIUM

C

CANADA

CHINA

D

DENMARK

E

EGYPT

ENGLAND

he tries and fails to kabe-don you (scenario; gn!reader)

F

FINLAND

FRANCE

G

GERMANY

GREECE

H

HONG KONG

I

ICELAND

INDONESIA

IRELAND

ITALY ROMANO

ITALY VENEZIANO

J

JAPAN

K

KOREA

L

LADONIA

LATVIA

LUXEMBOURG

M

MALAYSIA

MOLOSSIA

N

NETHERLANDS

NIKO NIKO JR

NORTHERN IRELAND

NORWAY

O

OSAKA

P

PHILIPPINES

PORTUGAL

PRUSSIA

R

RUSSIA

S

SCOTLAND

SEALAND

SEBORGA

SINGAPORE

SLOVAKIA

SLOWJAMASTAN

SPAIN

STOMARIA

SWEDEN

SWITZERLAND

T

TURKEY

V

VIETNAM

W

WALES

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⍣ | ANOTHER COLOUR

IMPORTANT NOTE: I will not be following the accepted fan interpretations of the 2ps. The idea of them being utterly inhumane is just not my cup of tea. To me, the 2ps are the 1ps who responded differently to the pivotal events in their history and went down the "what if" paths.

ITALY VENEZIANO (LUCIANO VARGAS)

ITALY ROMANO (FLAVIO VARGAS)

GERMANY (SIEGFRIED BEILSCHMIDT)

PRUSSIA (SIEGMUND BEILSCHMIDT)

JAPAN (HONDA KURO)

AMERICA (ALLEN F. JONES)

CANADA (JAMES MATHIEU WILLIAMS)

ENGLAND (MORDRED KIRKLAND)

FRANCE (JACQUES BONNEFOY)

RUSSIA (VIKTOR BRAGINSKY)

CHINA (WANG ZAO)

ㅤ

⍣ | NYOTALIA

BELARUS (NIKOLAI ARLOVSKY)

BELGIUM (LIAM JANSSENS)

HUNGARY (DANIEL HÉDERVÁRY)

LIECHTENSTEIN (HR. NOAH STEIN)

TAIWAN (LIN YUN-SHEN)

UKRAINE (DMITRI CHERNENKO)

VIETNAM (NGUYEN VAN TRUC)

WY (CHESTER IRWIN)

ㅤ

⍣ | SERIES

moon embraces the sun (italy & romano; fem!reader; transmigration isekai)

( gangsta au ) one day, when you are cleaning the italian brothers' house, you suddenly remember your past life. this is the world of the manga hetalia, except it's a dystopian pangea where instead of countries, there are districts ruled by mobsters. as you try to grasp your new reality, you find that the memories of your current life have become fragmented, leaving you no choice but to seek ways to remember. to make matters worse, the representatives of the other districts are beginning to catch onto the fact that you're different, and it'll only be a matter of time before the big 5 hears of you.