#Morning-Top-Down-Jan-17

[muse-write]

Towering Past

Here's my entry for the 2024 Inklings Challenge (@inklings-challenge)!

Jan. 12, 2023

H.,

Sorry for not responding to your Christmas letter…or your New Years’ letter. Really, I am! I know you probably think I’m tired of this method of communication—and I can’t rightly say I’m not—but there was more to my lack of response than sheer avoidance. I know you well enough to know you haven’t watched the local news anytime recently, so you might not have heard about the October explosion on the upper east side of the city. They’re saying it was a bomb planted in the subway system. It took out half the Northern line and a couple of blocks in every direction.

I have my own story to tell about that explosion, but I would sound insane, so I’ll leave this letter at that. And anyway, my hand is hurting from scribbling this letter out in record time now that I feel up to writing at all. You at least know I’m alive and hopefully you believe I wasn’t avoiding responding on purpose.

How are Jen and the kid doing? If you weren’t so set on letters like this you could text me pictures, you know! Why can’t you just call me like a normal person, H.?!

Love,

Frankie

Jan. 17, 2023

Dear Frankie,

Thanks for responding—finally. I was about to hop on a plane or send a strongly worded letter to your commanding officer just to make sure you hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth. I suppose a cellphone would make this kind of thing easier, but we’ve had that conversation too many times to rehash it now. Jen’s doing fine. Eric is running around and getting into trouble, and we both know who he takes after on that score. I always was a good son, Mother always said. If you please, you might want to drop by and visit next time you’re in the area; you might have some tips born of experience for how to deal with a little boy who insists on coloring on the walls.

What a vague way of ending your story; you aren’t saying you were anywhere near the explosion, are you? I know it’s your job and all, but don’t blame a man for getting worried when his sister defuses bomb threats on the daily. Anyway, you know I wouldn’t find any of your stories insane, and you must tell me your version of events. Just don’t wait another two months to do so, or I really will send your CO a letter asking after you.

Glad to know you’re alive,

Henry

P.S. In the envelope is a bracelet Jen borrowed from you a few years back. She was very worried that you thought she was planning on keeping it forever.

Feb. 10, 2023

H.,

I’ll tell you what happened if you insist. But you have to promise me not to laugh. I haven’t told anyone else what happened; I’m not entirely certain it was not a vivid dream. And you know I’m not much of a storyteller, so it won’t rank among your beloved novels. But it will be what happened to me, as accurately as I can put it. Forgive the late letter. This took days to write down.

First off, the explosion wasn’t an explosion at all—so you can put your fears about me being among the defusement team to rest, at least this time. I had woken that morning to a leisurely day, not having so much as a drill to look forward to on my day off, and that meant I had a clear view out the window at the precise moment a tower erupted from the concrete sidewalk only a block or two away from my apartment. When I ran from my complex down the street, I had no thought of entering the tower—I didn’t even know if it was that kind of tower, one that could be entered—but I knew someone had to check it out, and that someone had best be me, with my gun and military training. I brought my Sauer and phone with me (not being a technophobe like you) and approached the tower.

It was not pretty or elegant or admirable in any way. In fact, it was rather ugly, with sharp jagged peaks—I forget what they are called—at the top, and the walls made of black brick—except it wasn’t brick, it was more like marble or stone, lopsided and uneven, like the tower had been thrown and glued together. And it was completely silent. Nothing moved, except at the very tip-top there was a flashing blue light. Like a signal. It didn’t seem to be Morse code or any other signal method I could make out.

And then something moved in the very highest window, and through a pair of binoculars I took from a man next to me (there was a crowd forming by now) I peered up at it and saw that it was a human.

Henry, do you remember Lieutenant Gorsk? A few years back. It was him. Somehow he had found his way into the tower and all the way to the top, and any doubt of my venturing in there was put to rest.

I would find him.

I am ashamed to say that I didn’t prepare. I was so afraid that if I went back home and returned with gear it would prove to be a dream that I marched straight up to the entrance—I know you’ll beg for a real description, but all I can say now is that it was a door, black and wood of some kind, with an ornate gilded knob for a handle—opened it, and walked through, my hand on my Sauer the whole time. I still had the binoculars from the man outside.

This is where it gets insane, H. The interior of the tower was like one of those ancient cathedrals, you know the ones, like in England. The ones tourists go to and exclaim about and take pictures of sunlight streaming through the windows. Though there wasn’t any stained glass here. And the windows—don’t laugh—they didn’t look out onto Seattle, H. They looked onto a completely different world.

I can’t describe it. I can’t remember it all that clearly, either, it’s a huge blur in my head, after the hospital and…anyway, I remember that outside the sky was red—like blood-red, and below there was a dark river, sluggish and black and I didn’t like to look at it for very long, so I turned away and looked at the tower instead. It was Gothic, I guess. You’re the architecture freak. I’ve attached some pictures below, so make of them what you will.

Anyway, I’d entered a large foyer-like hall, with a great staircase sweeping up the far side and climbing the walls in spiraling loops. There were statues in this room, tons of them, but they were—they had such terrible expressions of sadness and terror that I couldn’t look at them for long, either. Even more than the sights, it was the feeling that stays with me, even months later; there was something utterly depressing about the place despite its eerie beauty. It sank deep into my bones and chilled me to the core. But I had to get to Lieutenant Gorsk. I tightened my fingers on the Sauer and began up the stairs, ready for…well, anything. I had no idea what to expect from a place like this.

And what I encountered, I had no way of expecting at all.

What descended down the stairs towards me when I had only climbed a few steps was a horde of—I don’t know what to call them. Demons, I suppose. They were not like the demons you see on church windows under the feet of angels. Some of them almost looked human, but were spindly and covered in scales like lizards or dragons or fish, scales that were matte and dark and reflected no light. Others weren’t human at all, but animal-like, though they resembled no animal I’ve ever seen except that they traveled on four legs, or maybe more. The horde of things surged toward me and I raised my gun to shoot.

I have killed people in my career, H., you know that. I’ve spent entire nights awake in my bed unable to get rid of their faces. I killed these things almost too easily, though the scaled ones gave my bullets some trouble. I had to resort to picking up a sword, fallen on the ground a few feet away from a bleached skeleton, to pierce through the gaps in the armor. It was helpful in preserving my ammo, since I’d only brought the few rounds that were in my gun, and I would need one round for when I reached the top--though I wondered what kind of other world I’d stumbled into. Who had this person been who had ventured in and died with a sword in their hand?

I proceeded up the stairs past the corpses, which were dusting away as though they had never existed in the first place. The tower reared up above me. Along its walls were grotesque tapestries of things I do not wish to remember, and I kept my eyes on the stairs and the gaping doorways I passed, waiting for another horde of demon-like things. I have been a soldier for decades, and never have I been more grateful for it than when I was ascending those stairs. My training kept me safe.

I reached the first landing and had to fight through another horde. I will not describe them all—some of them I don’t remember clearly enough, and others were simply too odd to put into words. All I know is that, with gun and sword, I managed to clear a path up the stairs.

But then one of them got the first hit in. I remember these clearly: three large, hulking things, with mouths like lions and bodies like eagles, large golden wings sending strong wind swirling around the landing. I could not move forward. My bullets barely pierced their hides. My sword could not break through their guard, and one of them sent an arm forward and its claws slashed my shoulder to ribbons. It burned like a gunshot wound, and I knew there was no hope of me defeating all three of them. I could only run and hide and hope they didn’t pursue me, so I turned and left the staircase to venture into the rest of the tower.

This floor was full of branching halls and large empty rooms that smelled of decay. The red sky outside left a garish red tint to everything that unnerved me, but I ran down hallways at random and tried to remember my way back to the stairs in case I lived long enough to return. The lion-eagle creatures chased me, but gave up soon afterward, and vanished into other areas of the tower. I ducked into an empty room and used the relative peace and quiet to inspect my arm. It was bleeding heavily, and I made a note to myself to check it for infection later in the day, assuming I survived that long.

I could have turned around. Abandoned my quest. Left Lieutenant Gorsk up at the top of the tower and returned to the peace of my house, a peace I had fought so hard for and tried to attain for so long. But you know what he did to me, Henry.

At the time, it seemed obvious to me that this was my second chance at justice. My chance to make peace, finally, with what had been done to me, and leave it in the past.

It never occurred to me to wonder how Gorsk had found his way here, or what had been done to him in the process, until much later on that day.

I wrapped my wound in strips from my shirt and hoped it would hold and wished I had some antiseptic, but a dirty shirt would have to do as gauze. Then I tried to creep out of the room, but realized that the door was locked. I had not closed it.

Demons appeared in the room around me, the scaled spindly ones I had fought off before, and I had become used to their movements and attacks and knew with relative certainty how to defeat them. A few strong strikes with a sword would weaken them, a gunshot through the head would finish them off. I would rely mostly on the sword now; I was running low on ammo, and I did not know how many more floors I would have to fight through. I refused to think about the fight back down once I reached the top. There had to be ten demons in the room, and my shoulder was burning and slowed me down, and there were quite a few close calls I prefer not to think about. I don’t know what it would have been like to be killed by one of these things and I don’t want to imagine it. They had sharp teeth meant for ripping and biting, and at some point after I killed a few of these I began tearing those teeth from the corpses’ mouths for extra weapons.

Ten of these demons were more than enough to test me, but with a lot of luck I managed not to die, and had a pocketful of demon teeth-blades to show for it at the end.

The door unlocked by itself as the last demon corpse dusted away.

I ventured back to the stairs, losing my way a few times in the process, and it was amazing what a relief it was to see the familiar grand staircase spiraling up over my head once again rather than the red wash of the old windows. The castle grew darker as I headed further up, and there were less and less windows, and less and less red, until I began to long for the light, eerie as it was. It was never dark enough to blind me, but it was surely dark enough for the shadows to shift and move and look like demons. I have had decades of experience calming terror in combat; this tower tried my nerves in a way I have never experienced before and hope to never experience again. In all of those books you’ve read, have you heard the phrase, “bear wrongs patiently”? In the military, I turned that into a talent. I bore the hazing, the combat, the setbacks and the horror and the fear. I tried to do that here, too, but the tower seemed to steal that control away from me, until even I was left trembling like a little girl surrounded by monsters. I gripped my gun in one hand and my sword in the other and ventured on, wishing more and more that I did not feel such an urge to find the Lieutenant. Wishing that I could be normal and move on from that time.

You can maybe understand why it took me so long to finish writing this letter.

I will leave it at that for now, so that you can get your letter in two months and not feel the need to call up my superiors. Though I think a glare from you, looking like some Oxford don, might just frighten Commander Paik more than all the roughest thugs in the city.

Love,

Frankie

Feb. 18, 2023

Frankie,

I don’t quite know how to start this.

First, let me say thank you for trusting me with your story. I don’t think you’re insane, and I didn’t let out a single chuckle.

Second, I am familiar with that tower. It appeared in my own city—around the time yours did. It looked exactly as you describe, and the pictures confirmed it. It was the same, or one of the same type. I entered the tower, though not at all for the same reasons.

You see, when I looked up at the top of it, in the window I saw Jen. Of course, I couldn’t leave her there.

I did not tell you of this before because I did not wish to worry you or cause you alarm; after all, what transpired became something much greater and more beautiful than I could have imagined when I first stepped through the door.

I sympathize with your quest to get to Lieutenant Gorsk. I remember him very well, and I wish I could have been there too, to punch him in the face (a second time, if you remember!). I don’t know if I can condone your mission, nor the intentions you implied, but after what the man did to you, I can’t say I wouldn’t have considered the same. And considering you are not writing me from a jail cell, I need to know the end of the story as soon as you can bring yourself to give it to me.

I did not bring a gun with me—you know my stance on them well enough—but, as with  you, there were plenty of demons. I have never been a fighter, but I picked up a stray sword and a dagger or two and managed to hide and slip past many, and fought those I couldn’t. It was with a great deal of trepidation that I climbed those stairs—I can only imagine you, flying up them like a goddess of vengeance with wings at her feet! It was an eerie experience for me; the light made everything look as though blood covered it. The sun outside was not—right. It was deep and vibrant and would have maybe been pretty if not for the sickly pallor to the sky around it, like when a tornado is about to touch down.

I deciphered that I had entered a new world a little earlier than you. I had found a storage room to hide in—and what a storage room, with jars and masks and boxes—and could not help reading a few of the files I found stuffed in drawers (I know you’re rolling your eyes at me about now, so stop it!). The files were plain documents, just text written in a crusted brown substance I refused to consider any further than necessary, but I couldn’t read a word of it. It was not Latin, nor Greek, nor any derivation of any language I have ever come across. The letters themselves were indecipherable, and anyway I felt like it was best not to know what was written in them, so I shoved the papers back into their drawers and did my best not to wonder. I am not very good at that, but it was time to move on, and my survival (and Jen’s) relied on not being overly distracted by the theoretical.

I reached the top of the tower perhaps slower than you, but with far fewer injuries (please tell me you went to the hospital, Frankie!), and emerged from the stairs into a long corridor that extended to a single door. This part of the tower was not a maze, as I had discovered in the lower levels; it was very straightforward and clear about where I was meant to go. That door was my destination, and behind it must be Jen, and the window through which I had glimpsed her.

There were no enemies laying wait for me along that corridor, but I fully expected there to be some monstrous creature waiting for me behind the door. I grasped the knob. It swung open easily, terrifyingly easy.

I assume this room looked much the same for me as it did for you—circular walls, broad windows letting in that wash of red light anew, a view of a mountain range of some other world, dark and strange, stretching out beyond. Jen was there, and I called her name, but saw that she could not move, because, though she stood, she was enclosed within a barrier of some sort—her hands, I saw, were burned where she had attempted to push through it. There would be no breaking it.

And then the monster—appeared. I mean that very literally; one moment it was not there, and then I blinked, and it was. I could not make sense of it at first; it did not fit your descriptions at all of any of the demons you encountered. It was hulking and winged, but appeared to be made of chitin all over its body, like an insect has, and blue flame flared from the gaps in this natural armor. It bared teeth—I suppose would be the expression, on something that had such an unnatural face—at me, and there were two rows of sharp needle-like prongs.

This terrified me.

But it held Jen, my wife, the mother of my son, and what would I ever say to Eric if I let this beast harm her, or whatever it planned to do with her? Whisk her away? Kill her? Keep her imprisoned here, like some damsel out of a fairy tale, to lure adventurers with?

I tightened my grip on my sword, feeling a sense of hopeless doom fall upon me (yes, that was the only way to describe it, let me have my sense of poetry once in a while without mocking me, Frankie!). There did not seem to be a way I could triumph over such a foe. But neither could I hide or flee or distract it. So fight I must, even if it led to my own death.

I see no reason to regale you with the battle; there was nothing glamorous about it, as you well know. Suffice to say, I charged at it, which was not a good strategy, and my strategy changed to accommodate this. I was injured (and Jen gave me a good lecture about my stupidity later) and the pain nearly made me sick, but miraculously I managed to stay upright. It was a long battle, the monster was fast and strong and wanted me dead as badly as I wanted it dead, and I was afraid every instant, but eventually I managed to get lucky, and the blade sunk deep into one of those infinitesimal cracks in the monster’s chitin, and with a wrench I managed to twist the blade hard into its heart. That is not a feeling I wish to relive, Frankie.

But in the end, the monster lay there, its breath rattling out, and the barrier simply disappeared, just as the monster had suddenly appeared. Jen could move again—she later told me that the barrier had not been there until, presumably, my hand had touched the door; the monster’s doing, I assume—and she rushed to my side. I have never before felt like a brave man, especially when compared to you, brave sister, and I wish it had not taken such awful circumstances to turn me into one.

Jen told me later that she had no idea where she had been; in a moment she had been whisked from the living room of our house to the top of the tower, and for hours she had been staring out at that dark mountain range and the red sky and attempting to find a reasonable way of climbing out. The door had been locked, and the lock had repaired itself even as she had broken it, and escape seemed hopeless, unless she were to throw herself out, and she had not been quite that desperate yet.

Hearing your story, I simply wonder why? Why was it Jen who was picked up and plopped in that window to send me creeping up the stairs? Why was the same done to Lieutenant Gorsk? Was it a punishment? Or coincidence?

Do you have any theories, Frankie?

Henry

Feb. 30, 2024

Henry,

I never would have imagined that you had had such an experience, or that both of us have been carrying it around with us for months without letting on. We’re both stubborn—well, a soldier’s language isn’t something I want to subject you to, so I’ll leave it there.

When I finally did reach the top—though I don’t think it was so much as a goddess of war as a very frightened, very stubborn military-trained soldier—it looked the way you described it. The same long corridor, the same door at the end, the same suspicious lack of enemies. I had one bullet left in my Sauer, and plenty of demon teeth in my pockets.

Except there wasn’t a monster for me. Maybe the tower had decided I’d had my fill. Maybe the final challenge I encountered was the monster. I don’t know. I didn’t think much of it then. I just knew that odious lieutenant was behind that door, and I needed to get in there and shoot him dead, military protocol be damned.

It was a desire for murder, plain and simple, but I wasn’t thinking about the consequences then. I was thinking about those two years of hell, with the king of demons being Lieutenant Gorsk and his stinking breath and wandering hands and my only savior the friendship of Corporal Alice Lewis.

I turned the door, and there he was. Oddly, he was kept in place by the same barrier you described.

H., have I ever told you how easy it is for me to kill someone with a gun? My trusty Sauer, familiar and worn in my palm, my callouses formed around it, my target in its sights. It’s far easier to pull the trigger on my old friend than it is to take my Swiss knife and stab someone in the guts, but I’ve done both. I was prepared to do either, if it meant ridding the world of someone like Gorsk.

By now it’s been…what? Eight years since I was under his command? Not that long, in the grand scheme of things. Two years of hell, and eight years recovering.

I’ve put him out of my mind as best I can. I had almost imagined that I could go my whole life and think only of moving forward, but that vanished the second I laid eyes on him again. All my old rage and hatred and desire for vengeance came back to me in a moment, and propelled me up those stairs. Maybe in that way I was some goddess of vengeance after all.

My gun was lined up with his temple. He stood there, unable to move, his hands and arms burned by the barrier, knowing that I would be the last sight he saw. There was no doubt in his mind in that moment, I’m sure, that I would kill him.

I did. I did kill him, Henry.

I pulled the trigger and he fell back against the wall. It was a clean, cold kill. The door behind me unlocked, and I stepped out onto the stairs again. Going down, there were no enemies to fight, and I relived the moment I had shot him again and again, and did not regret leaving his body there at the top of the tower. I was victorious, the winner, the survivor, and I had killed the man who had made my life a misery for years.

I returned to my apartment, and the tower…crumbled. It fell, brick by brick, stone by stone, back underneath the city, and left no sign it had ever been there. I was quite satisfied with myself, and didn’t feel guilty about what I’d done until that night, when I remembered suddenly that he had had a wife, the last I had heard. Maybe a son, too, but I’m not sure. The next morning, while I ate breakfast, he appeared in the news—but not news of his death. Instead, there was something about some promotion to Major General, and I stabbed myself with my fork and threw my plate across the kitchen.

I realized what had happened soon after that.

I am not writing this from a jail cell, Henry, because to all intents and purposes Lieutenant Gorsk is still living—in this world, anyway. In whatever terrible, twisted mirror world I found myself wandering through, Lieutenant Gorsk is dead, a bullet’s clean entry and exit wound through both sides of his skull. I know I killed him, and I must live with knowing that I was capable of doing so, that I was fully aware of what I was doing. In my mind, he lies in a pool of spreading blood.

Love,

Frankie

[autumnmoonsurveys]

NEW YEAR’S DAY 2024 4:10 PM

(I love her bathroom!)

What's for dinner tonight?

Pork & sauerkraut with garlic mashed potatoes!

Do you prefer cold or room temperature drinking water?

Cool, not cold. So, closer to room temp. I don’t put ice in my water.

How many different things have you had to drink today?

Water with my morning pill and two mugs of instant espresso with fat-free half & half and a little sugar. About to have my third and final.

When you read a book, do you use a bookmark or simply dog ear/fold the top of the page?

USUALLY, I just remember the page number I’m on.

What's the nearest city to you with a population of at least one million?

Philadelphia is the one PA city with 1mil+.

During the pandemic, did you use reusable or disposable masks?

Both. I bought us reusable masks at first, but learned I preferred the disposables.

What is your favourite local restaurant?

There aren’t a whole lot of “local” restaurants here, but I’ll say Vince’s for their chicken salad wrap.

Have you ever been harassed while minding your own business walking down the street?

Of course.

Do you own a gun? Have you ever thought about getting one?

No; yes.

Do you know anyone who owns a gun?

Tons of people.

What year is/was your 10 year high school reunion? Will you (or did you) attend?

2020, and no.

Do you cut your sandwiches into triangles or rectangles?

Either-or.

Have you ever seen a panda in real life? Where was it?

At zoos, I’m sure.

Are there any postcards hanging around the house? If so, where are they from?

No.

Does it snow where you live?

Yes. It snowed right at midnight the big, chunky, heavy snowflakes and it was magical.

When was the last time you took a flight? Where did you go?

Aug. ‘21, to Mexico — Cancún airport. I had paid $6K (all-inclusive resort & flights) for my husband and me to travel with our friends to Punta Cana again this past August, but we had to take the loss and stay back because the house we bought that we knew we belonged in was going up for auction during our vacation. We won though! 🤍 Side note: it wasn’t a foreclosure; farm auctions are popular around here. It’s a great way to make tons of money if you’re selling a home with a farm or lots of land.

Is there a flight path over your house?

Yep.

Does your neighbourhood have a lot of hills?

We do live on a mountain.

Have you ever had covid? What was your experience like?

Just once, to my knowledge. It was mid-Jan. ‘21. I had my usual flu-like symptoms of severe body aches, headache, and feeling like I’m freezing. It was a 24-hour ailment.

Do you have any alcohol in your house right now?

Yes.

Do you tend to keep alcohol around the house for when you might want it?

I don’t drink, but my husband does.

Has a romantic partner ever given you a pet as a gift?

No.

Do you ever talk on the phone with friends?

No.

What was the last thing someone said to you in person?

My son was explaining to me how he slipped out of the trampoline since it’s wet.

Are you hungry right now? What would you like to eat?

Nah.

How far away are your parents right now?

I don’t know where my mother is, but she lives 7.5 miles away. My father is deceased.

Do you believe in aliens?

I do.

Have you ever been bitten by a spider?

I believe so.

Do you own any clothing made from animal products like leather or fur?

No.

What's the best vacation you've ever been on?

My favorite was Oct. ‘17 when my husband and I took our four little kids (and my mom for help) to Disney World for a week over my daughter’s sixth birthday. Our kids were 15 months, just shy of 4, just turning 6, and just shy of 7. 🥹 They’re now 7½, 10, 12, and 13! 😭

[sixth-light]

I posted 2,059 times in 2022

110 posts created (5%)

1,949 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

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I tagged 2,036 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#in the queue - 1,241 posts

#wheel of time - 210 posts

#wot book spoilers - 134 posts

#tumblr stuff - 90 posts

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#wot tv show - 88 posts

#lgbtqia - 72 posts

#fandom - 69 posts

#fanart - 52 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#and she only asks about food in the context of 'are you having any digestive issues' and monitoring of things like iron and b vitamins

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I am extremely not going to dignify that 'walkable cities ARE ableist actually' post which has crossed my dash with a reblog, but four things to keep in mind:

'Walkable cities' is almost always a shorthand for 'cities which deprioritise cars as a mode of transport and make it possible and enjoyable to travel by other modes instead', rather than a call for everybody to walk and only walk everywhere all of the time. We live in a golden age of micromobility options, for starters. And when most people do not need to use cars, it will be much easier for people who do.

Advocacy for walkable cities and active transport often does slide right into ableism and fatphobia and this needs to be directly challenged whenever it appears (as someone who has been a cycle commuter my whole adult life and overweight for all but five minutes of my whole adult life, if I never hear "if everybody cycled we would solve the '''obesity epidemic'''!!!" again...)

AT THE SAME TIME, while this will change in degree from place to place, the Venn diagram between 'people who advocate for walkable cities' and 'people who advocate for accessible cities' has a significant degree of overlap. There's probably at least one car-centric conservative out there who genuinely advocates for accessibility by the law of averages, but it's neither a coherent nor common position. Walkability IS a form of accessibility. It is not accessibility for everybody but no single kind of accessibility is, which is why we need cities with MULTIPLE kinds.

Therefore, as with goddamn near everything in life, if you actually want to see more accessible cities...advocate for more accessible cities, and what that means for you. Going 'but there are some people who will always need cars therefore walkable cities is ableist' does exactly nothing except turn people off the idea of change. Say what you want to see. Be specific. Imagine better futures. TL;DR - cui bono when we lock ourselves into "cars vs walkability"? you guessed it - people who benefit from the (observably harmful) car-prioritising status quo. so is this assertion always a cynical psy-op? No. Does it function as one in practice? fuck yes. be smarter.

2,024 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#4

 As of the morning of 17 Jan, local time, regarding the Tonga eruption: even nearby governments have extremely limited information on what has happened/is happening on the ground. Recon flights have not yet launched. The internet is down. There are 36 inhabited islands in Tonga and there has been no confirmed contact with most of them. There has been no formal government-to-government communication. We know there was a volcanic eruption, a tsunami, and significant ashfall following. That’s a good 90% of what’s reliably known. 

The impetus in these circumstances is always to “do something” but the reality is that there is almost nothing anybody outside Tonga can do right now. Quite frankly, if you don’t have a direct personal connection/knowledge I would hold off even on donating to fundraisers until there’s more clarity on what is actually needed and where that help can best come from. (It remains true as with almost all disasters that money is the best and most useful thing you can give; however, given the limited info/lack of contact and how little most people on the internet know about Tonga, this is going to be prime scammer territory.)

A lot of social media content that purports to describe local conditions is likely untrustworthy - there’s only been a few verified videos and images, because of the undersea cable being out of action. RNZ, which has an excellent and very active Pacific bureau, is being very conservative with its reporting because it does not want to promote misinformation. Just...cool your jets on this one for a few more hours or possibly couple of days, everybody. We don’t know what we don’t know. 

2,343 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#3

I am very pleased for everybody losing their minds over Our Flag Means Death (I shall be watching it on the weekend) but if it’s alright, I’ll just be over here in the interim losing my mind that Tumblr’s new boyfriends are the Say No To Racism guy and the 2Degrees Ad Guy. 2022 is really Something Else 

3,149 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

#2

The thing that has been vexing me lately about Fantasy Historical Sexism (vs the real kind) is how it flattens out actual historical politics - particularly in the high medieval period, sexism against female rulers was a tool for people who were already their political opponents for political reasons, rather than a common primary motivator for contesting inheritance. Fairly large numbers of women in medieval Western Europe inherited estates ‘suo jure’, in their own right - not even getting into things like the political power of abbesses (who could often be those same women in retirement, or their sisters or daughters or mothers). 

Historical fantasy tends to be so obsessed with having One Special Woman Who Is Fighting Sexism that it actually erases from the popular conception of history the women who were already there, and the complexity of their lives, and it’s just...very...dull. 

4,379 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I think one of the things that makes OFMD feel freshest is how it balances being a romantic comedy and being queer - specifically, a romantic comedy about queer men (& Jim). Queer men are not unknown in the romantic comedy genre! But what makes the show stand out is how exceptionally careful it is to ensure that the fact of their romances, and of their queerness, is never the source of the comedy. It’s never meant to be funny that someone is queer, or that someone is in love. Coming out, even in the most casual and incidental way, is never used as a punchline. 

And yet, it’s also not a utopia where stereotypes about queer people and homophobia (the things that ultimately fuel those kinds of jokes) don’t exist - they do! But every time somebody tries to make them funny, it falls completely flat. It steps outside the acceptable bounds of the genre and the characters react to it in that way. Homophobia isn’t a central obstacle, it’s a faux pas. It’s not allowed to be funny and it’s also not allowed to take up space in the narrative by being the thing the characters must overcome to get their happy ending. Which is a hell of a balancing act.

That scene with Izzy trying to mock Black Pete and Lucius is absolutely crucial to this tone. These characters know they’re in a comedy and they react to things like they’re in a comedy, but they don’t react to his mockery like it’s a joke OR like it has power to shame them. They react like Izzy is embarrassing himself by failing to read the room - like he’s a bully, but a pathetic one. You can be evil in comedies and still be funny, but Izzy is committing the cardinal sin of failing to be funny...and what that does is draw very clear boundaries around what the show is going to allow as a legitimate joke. Homophobic jokes can only be funny when the people making them have consensus from the rest of the group that they’re funny. Instead, in this show, it is clear instead that they are acts of violence and (attempted) control. Which defangs them, because the ultimate power in a romantic comedy always comes from acts of comedy. I find it extremely powerful for a queer romcom to look homophobia in the eye like this and say “nah” than either to ignore it completely, or to make it a central problem.

It’s very very smart writing and acting and it should be cited every time someone tries to whine about comedy and boundaries and not being allowed to be homophobic/transphobic any more. You can be extraordinarily funny about queer people and be received well. Queerness just can’t be the punchline. 

10,662 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[littleharpethcrossfit]

Sunday, 11 August, 2024

It should be a sunny and cool morning, and a sunny and warm afternoon at the Barn. Classes at 0730 and 1 PM.

Perfect weather lately, except that this dry spell is lasting too long. In my opinion, we could use some rain.

Warmup

3 Rounds

10 Light Banded Flys

I like these for warming up the shoulders and improving their flexibility.

Strength

Push Press..........2 EMOM X 12

Increase Weight Gradually.

Last 3 Sets The Same With 2 Second Pause at The Top.

No Dropping !!

Bernie=195 Shane/Armando=185 Ed=165 Smoothie=145 Average Dave=135 Herb/Dana=125 Tom=115 Cheri=85 Linda/Britt/Sue=75 Shannon=70 Sabrina=55 Sandy=40 Jasper=25 Coach/Larry/Alicia/others=did it

WOD

2 Dumb-Bells.....(50/35/20)

1 Wreck Bag.....(50/35/25)

400m With Wreck Bag

THEN.....15 / 12 / 9

Dual DB Shoulders To Overhead

Toe's 2 Bar

400m With Wreck Bag

THEN.....12 / 9 / 6

Dual DB Shoulders To Overhead

Toe's 2 Bar

400m With Wreck Bag

THEN.....9 / 6 / 3

Dual DB Shoulders To Overhead

Toe's 2 Bar

Larry**=15:49 Average Dave=17:22 Dana=19:15 Sue*=20:18 Cheri=20:25 Sabrina=22:03 Shannon=22:04 Shane=22:09** Bernie*=22:23 Jasper=22:40 Ed*=22:48 Armando*=22:50 Sandy=24:12 Herb*=24:24 Smoothie*=24:50 Linda/Coach/Alicia/Britt/Tom/others=did something

Cool-Down:

This would be a great day to take a group of friends and go for a Run/Jog/Walk In The Arboretum. I saw Shannon do this, and I think Britt went looking for wife Jan, and Miss Linda did it later.

Notes:

Tuesday at 4 PM.

[cyarskj1899]

GMA’s shamed Amy Robach looks downcast as she’s spotted for first time with husband Andrew Shue since TJ Holmes ‘affair’

Caitlyn Hitt

Published: 17:42 ET, Jan 14 2023

GMA'S Amy Robach has been spotted in an awkward reunion with husband Andrew Shue amid the TJ Holmes 'affair' drama.

The embattled morning show host met up with her partner in New York City to hand off their family dog. 

9GMA3 star Amy Robach was spotted during an awkward reunion with her husband Andrew ShueCredit: TheImageDirect.com

9The pair had not been seen together since Amy's alleged affair with TJ Holmes became publicCredit: Getty

9The Melrose Place actor looked serious, but in good spirits as his wife handed off their dogCredit: TheImageDirect.com

Amy, 49, looked sullen as she strolled down the street, leash in hand, to meet Andrew, 55. 

The TV personality kept it casual wearing a two-toned brown sweater with a black shirt underneath and a form-fitting pair of jeans.

She capped the look off with a pair of brown high-heeled boots and a back hung over her shoulder.

Her husband wore a grey sweater with a slightly darker grey puffer coat over top.

He also had on a pair of black pants and track shoes.

The pair appeared to chat briefly as she handed over the dog.

Amy and her husband kept a slight distance between them. 

Andrew bent down at one point to greet the dog while Amy appeared to look at her phone.

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AMY'S AGONY 

GMA's Amy Robach 'blindsided' by extent of TJ Holmes' past office 'affairs'

They both walked off on their own after the hand-off.

9Amy and Andrew have been married for ten yearsCredit: TheImageDirect.com

9They share no children togetherCredit: TheImageDirect.com

9The pair chatted during the hand-off and went their separate waysCredit: TheImageDirect.com

FEAR OF FIRING

The reunion comes amid reports that Amy and TJ, 45, are concerned that they may be firedby ABC as the network's investigation into their alleged affair drags on.

A source close to the pair told the U.S. Sun exclusively that they are bracing for the worst possible outcome after their rumored romance was exposed. 

Amy and TJ have brought on two high-powered lawyers to help them as they deal with ABC.

One insider alleged: "It certainly sounds like they are out.

"They've been off the air for nearly seven weeks. They would have been back on the air if everything was fine."

A second source said that despite a report that Amy and TJ have already been fired, the network hasn't made any conclusive decision.

They said: "It's not accurate to say they are out, since no decision has been made."

Meanwhile, another source close to them claimed that they have added high-powered attorneys to their respective teams because they're taking the investigation extremely seriously.

The insider said: "They feel this has dragged on absolutely way too long and think it's bizarre that there is no information about what's happening with the investigation coming from ABC.

"The couple believes there is no scandal, these are two consenting adults and had they been put back on air over the holidays, this would all be behind them by now, and nobody would care."

The same source suggested that while it's not typical to get lawyers involved in this type of situation, TJ and Amy may be considering a lawsuit.

Amy hired Andrew Brettler, a powerhouse attorney who confirmed to The U.S. Sun that he was part of her team.

TJ, on the other hand, enlisted the help of Eric George, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

ABC also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

TMZ broke the news that Amy and TJ had lawyered up. 

Back in November 2022, the GMA3 anchors were spotted on a series of PDA-filled dates.

Both were married to other people at the time. 

IT'S OVER

While Amy and TJ's professional lives hang in the balance, the pair continue to spend time together.

Weeks after reports of an alleged affair between the duo surfaced, TJ filed for divorce from his wife Marilee Fiebig. 

Us Weekly broke the news, reporting that the TV personality filed for divorce in New York City in December 2022. 

When photos of him and Amy together began surfacing online both were still married and neither had filed for divorcefrom their respective spouses.

There are conflicting reports about whether there were separations in place, however.

There's been some speculation that Amy and TJ each left their respective partners as early as August 2022.

Both had been married for 10 years.

Amy shares no children with her former Melrose Place star husband.

TJ, however, is a father to a nine-year-old daughter, whom he shares with his estranged wife. 

A source told Us of the alleged romance between TJ and Amy: "They always had a spark, and their work trips away together brought them even closer."

The insider claimed that their rumored romance "blossomed from a friendship."

They added that the pair "have been trying to keep their relationship a secret until they were ready to announce."

TJ and Amy began working together in 2020.

9Amy's reunion with Andrew came amid reports about concerns she and TJ haveCredit: TheImageDirect.com

9The pair have been off the air for seven weeks amid a network investigationCredit: GMA

9TJ recently filed for divorce from his wife, Marilee FiebigCredit: Instagram

Sent from my iPhone

[newcountryradio]

In The New Country Music Express    #1156 (715) van 19 december 2022  (wk 51) tussen 19.00 -22.00 op Smelne fm (Herhaling op 26 december )

De Top Albums van het Jaar 2022 

met Radiocollega ‘s  Hanneke Vd Hei en Jan Theo vanHoudt 

         Artiest                                     Title                            Album

1.    Chris Hillman  -   Bidin’ My Time                     bidin’ my time

2.    Lainey Wilson       Atta Girl                                 bell bottom Country 32

3.    Lainey Wilson       Watermelon Moonshine     bell bottom Country 32

4.    Cody Johnson      Human                                 rockin’ cjb live          31

5.    Sunny Sweeny     Married Alone                      married alone          30

6.    Cole Swindell – She Had Me At Heads Carolina    Stereo type               29

7.    Tenille Arts            One Bedroom Apart            girl to girl                   28

8.    Dillon Carmichael - Son Of A                            son of a                     27

9.    Bailey Zimmerman – Fall in Love                     leave a light on        26

10. 49 Winchester      Russel County Line -   fortune favors the bold  25

11. Jim Lauderdale    - I’ve Heard Of That            game changer         24

12. Miranda Lambert   - If I Was A Cowboy           palmolino                  23

13. Willie Nelson        I’m Gonna Live forever -    tribute to Billy J Shaver          22

14. Luke Bryan           Buy Dirt                                 prayin’ in a deer stand  21

15. Luke Bryan           Country On   #1                   prayin’ in a deer stand  21

2e uur :

16. Chris Hillman  -    Here She Comes Again     bidin’my time

17. High Valley             All My Lovin’                           way back                    20

18. William Beckman   Bourbon Whiskey                   faded memories         19

19. John pardy              Fill er up                                 mr Saturday night       18

20. Luke Combs           Doing This                              growing up                  17

21. Tyler Hubbard         5 foot 9                                   dancing in the country   16

22. Hailey Whitters     Raised                                   raised                        15

23. Dolly Parton          Big Dreams and faded jeans     run rose run                14

24. Zach Bryan –        Something In The Orange     American heartbreak 13

25.  Ronnie Dunn        Broken Neon Hearts           100 proof neon        12

26.  Ronnie Dunn        Where The Neon Lies        100 proof neon        12

27.  Wade Bowen          A Guitar, A Singer And A Song    Between The Secret ..  28. Wade Bowen        Between The Secret And The Truth         “ ”          11

29. Ned Ledoux          This Ain’t My First Rodeo         buckskin                   10

30. Ned Ledoux          Rodeo Dreams                    buckskin                   10

3e uur

31. Chris Hillman       Hickory wind                        morning sky

32. Morgan Wallen     Somethin’ Country  #1album dangerous double  

33. Dailey & Vincent  Message From The Farm         Let’s Sing some country ! 9

34. Randy Houser      Remember How To Pray   note to self-             8

35. Aaron Watson       Old Man Said                      unwanted man         7

36. Billy Strings           Long Journey Home           me/and/dad              6

37. Charley Crockett  The Man From Waco          the man from Waco 5

38. Drake Milligan      Going Down Swingin’ Ft V. Gill   dallas/fort worth         4

39. Willie Nelson        My Heart Was A Dancer    a beautiful time        3

40. Tami Neilson /Willie Nelson Beyond The Stars  kingmaker                 -

41. Molly Tuttle           Side Saddle                          crooked tree             2

42. Molly Tuttle           Crooked Tree                       crooked tree             2

43. Joshua Hedley     Neon Blue                            neon blue                 1

44. Joshua Hedley     Country & Western             neon blue                 1

                    -

[andromeda1023]

Comet Leonard is coming!

On January 3 this year, Senior research specialist Greg Leonard at Mt. Lemmon Observatory discovered a faint speck. The 19th magnitude speck was an incoming comet, now called A1 Leonard (or simply comet Leonard). This comet will pass the closest to the Sun, its perihelion, on January 3, 2022, exactly a year after its discovery. But before that, comet Leonard is all set to decorate the skies of the Northern Hemisphere and will be visible with naked eyes. So if you missed comet NEOWISE last year, here’s your chance to see the ‘comet of the year!’

When the comet was discovered, its apparent magnitude was +19, way beyond the range of naked eyes. As the comet came closer to the Earth by November end, its magnitude came down to +8, still invisible without a telescope.

However, Comet Leonard will brighten up in the first week of December. It will be first visible to the viewers in the Northern Hemisphere. Here are some of the important dates and positions of the comet.

Comet Leonard’s apparent magnitude will fall below +6 in the first week of December. {Dec. 6th is the best day} It is currently predicted to peak at +4. December 6 is one of the best days to see the comet because of its proximity to the fourth brightest star in the night sky, Arcturus.

All you have to do is wake up early in the morning — about 90 minutes before the sunrise — and look east. First, try to locate Arcturus in the Bootes constellation. An easy way is to look for Ursa Major and extend its arc of stars, as shown above. The first bright star you spot along the extended arc is Arcturus (Remember the ‘arc to Arcturus’). Look to the left of this star, and you will have an excellent chance to see comet Leonard.

The comet is moving at an impressive speed of ~254,000 km/hr. It’s so fast that it will change its position every day with respect to the background stars. As the month progresses, comet Leonard will travel closer to the horizon, and each day, it will become trickier to spot it. Finally, on December 12, A1 Leonard will pass the celestial equator Southward and pass 0.233 AU from the Earth — its closest approach to our planet. By now, the comet will be close to the Sun, as seen from the Earth, and won’t be easily visible.

December 12 will be the last day when comet Leonard can be seen in the morning sky. After that, it will switch to an evening object, lying at the western horizon at dusk. {Dec. 13th} Around this time, the comet will top out at a magnitude of +4. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere now have a chance to spot the fading comet in the coming days.

On December 17, about 30 minutes after sunset, A1 Leonard will be located below planet Venus. You will need access to very clear horizons to see comet Leonard near Venus.

Exactly a year after its discovery, comet Leonard will reach its closest point to the Sun. {Jan. 3rd} It will come interior to Venus’ orbit and then continue its hyperbolic trajectory and escape the solar system, never to return. By Christmas, the comet will be beyond the apparent magnitude of +6.

Although comet Leonard will be visible under perfectly dark skies with naked eyes, a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars would be advantageous.

Full article/pics: https://www.secretsofuniverse.in/comet-leonard-december-2021/?fbclid=IwAR173C79BXuG57mtsIzJZs7tesbYnju71lDaocvOqX3P2sg4vtXWZvOH2ag

[96thdayofrage]

A local investigation into the death of a 17-year-old Georgia student who was found dead in 2013 in a rolled-up gym mat has been closed with no charges filed.

Kendrick Johnson’s body was found in a wrestling mat Jan. 11, 2013, in the Lowndes High School gym in Valdosta, Georgia. State and local law enforcement officials ruled the death an accidental asphyxiation, saying Johnson died after he climbed into a rolled-up mat to retrieve his sneakers.

The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office reopened the case in March. Sheriff Ashley Paulk detailed his findings in a 16-page document, concluding that evidence and other information do “not produce anything to prove any criminal act by anyone that would have resulted in the death of Kendrick Johnson.”

Johnson’s family, however, has repeatedly said they believe he was killed, and they reiterated that Thursday afternoon after the release of the sheriff's report.

“I will fight as long as I have to uncover what exactly happened to Kendrick Johnson,” said his father, Kenneth Johnson, wearing a T-shirt that read: "Kendrick Johnson didn’t roll himself up into no mat.”

Kenneth Johnson said at a news conference that he believes his son's death is being covered up.

Paulk, the sheriff, could not immediately be reached for a response Thursday.

The report addresses a number of what Paulk calls "rumors and accusations," including claims of a cover-up. Paulk wrote that because so many federal and local agencies were involved, “any person who looks at this case objectively would know that it would be impossible to conceal any evidence.”

He said an FBI investigation also found that there was no cover-up or conspiracy.

Paulk wrote that video inside the gymnasium showed Johnson “walking at a fast pace toward the area where the mats are stored” shortly before 1:30 p.m. Jan. 10, 2013. That was the last time he was seen alive.

His body was discovered the next morning when a class entered the gym and sat on the bleachers next to the mats, the report says. Johnson's body was head-down in a rolled-up mat that was positioned vertically. The report says his feet were visible from the top of the mat.

A coach placed the mat in a horizontal position, “exposing the upper half of the torso," according to the sheriff's report.

One person said he saw a small bruise on Johnson's jaw, according to the report, while another person "who viewed the body" said he did not observe any signs of trauma.

The sheriff's report was based on about 17 boxes of files provided by the U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio, Paulk said.

The files included material from the Justice Department, the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. attorney’s office for Middle Georgia and several other law enforcement agencies. They also included federal grand jury testimony from 58 people, as well as additional autopsies by a doctor hired by the Johnson family and the Defense Department.

The U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio declined to comment Thursday.

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office for Middle Georgia said in a statement: "The final conclusion in the Kendrick Johnson investigation was reached and announced in 2016 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, which handled the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia was recused from the investigation many years ago."

Seven people testified that students, including Johnson, often stored shoes or other items inside the mats, according to the sheriff's report. One student testified that they would go down into the mats to retrieve the items, according to the report. Another said he and Johnson had stored their shoes in the mat in the past and would retrieve them by tipping the mat.

The report also details the findings of several separate autopsies. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted the initial autopsy Jan. 14, 2013, and listed Johnson's cause of death as positional asphyxia with the manner accidental, Paulk wrote in his report.

William R. Anderson, a doctor hired by Johnson's family, conducted the second autopsy in June 2013 after his body was exhumed. He found that Johnson died from "blunt force trauma to the right neck involving the right mandible," Paulk said.

In September 2018, Anderson added an addendum to his report to include "blunt force trauma, right thorax" after the body was exhumed a second time.

The Armed Forces Medical Examiner did the final autopsy and in an August 2014 report listed the death as positional asphyxia and the manner accidental. The agency amended the autopsy in 2016 to say the cause and manner of death were undetermined, according to the sheriff.

"This change is attributed to the fact that additional materials were submitted for evaluation by the United States Department of Justice," the report says. "The most significant item that was added appears to be a report from the South Georgia Medical Center Mobile Healthcare report that states they saw a bruise on the right side of the jaw."

Paulk also addressed claims that two students may have been involved, as well as conflicting accounts of Johnson's missing organs.

He wrote that a student was alleged to have left the school about an hour before Johnson was last seen alive for a wrestling tournament. Before his death, Johnson had gotten into an altercation with the student's brother.

The brothers, who have repeatedly denied involvement, were not charged. An FBI video analysis concluded that they were in different areas of the school when Johnson entered the gym.

In a section of the report addressing the missing viscera, or internal organs, Paulk wrote that the viscera were in the body when it was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for the initial autopsy and that the "only plausible explanation would be that the viscera were disposed of by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation because of their advanced decomposition."

"In closing, I am quite sure that there will still be a contingent that will believe there was foul play. I encourage everyone to study ALL the evidence in this file before forming an opinion," wrote Paulk, who was not sheriff when Johnson died.

[keyofjetwolf]

THE GIFTENING 2020 Schedule

HEY FRIENDS IT’S TIME FOR YOUR GIFTENING

Actually, I’m still picking the pitches (I’ve narrowed it down though!) so I’ll leave those as future announcements for now, but I can tell you what’s happening and when without those details, SO LET’S

Every day we’ll run from 10am to 4pm, for six glorious hours, so make sure you’re in your comfy place with snacks and regularly scheduled pee breaks!

Monday, 11 Jan: Non-Anime Animated vote winner, The Owl House

Tuesday, 12 Jan: Live Action vote winner, PGSM because you people are sluts for PGSM

Wednesday, 13 Jan: Miscellaneous Day, featuring two hours blocks of the following vote winners

Intros Only (nominations opening Monday!)

Jet Wolf reviews her old Top 100 Sailor Moon Moments

Jet Wolf recreates scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina, Hot Pocket, and whatever shit she has lying around the house

Thursday, 14 Jan: Anime vote winner, Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 9, with a bonus tidbit, stay tuned!

Friday, 15 Jan: Non-Anime Animated pitch winner, The Animals of Farthing Wood

Saturday, 16 Jan: Live Action pitch winner, tba

Sunday, 17 Jan: Anime pitch winner, tba

Monday, 18 Jan: Misc pitch winner(s), tba

Tuesday, 19 Jan: Bonus Question winner(s), to be drawn the morning of Tuesday the 12th

So tomorrow morning, meet me here for the start of THE GIFTENING, beginning with The Owl House.

SEE YOU THEN, GOODNIGHT TUMBLR

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 20, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

So many stories landed today that some will have to wait. Tonight’s news, though, boils down to Republican attempts to retake control of the government in the 2022 elections…and, if Trump has his way, even earlier.

This morning, CNN revealed another bombshell story from the forthcoming book by veteran reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa: a six-point memo from pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman laying out a plan for then–vice president Mike Pence to steal the 2020 election for Trump.

The memo started by falsely claiming that seven states had sent competing slates of electors to the President of the Senate; in fact, Trump loyalists demanded their own electors, but each state had certified one official slate of electors. If Pence—or, if Pence recused himself, the then–Senate president pro tempore, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley—rejected the ballots from those seven states, Eastman claimed, Trump would have ten more electoral votes than Biden and would win the election.

When Democrats howled, Pence could instead assert that neither candidate had a majority and throw the election into the House of Representatives, where each state would get a single vote. Since 26 of the 50 states were dominated by Republicans, Trump would win there, too.

“The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter,” Eastman wrote. “We should take all of our actions with that in mind.”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tried to convince Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to back the scheme; someone also ran the idea past Republican senator Mike Lee of Utah. Both dismissed it. But, notably, neither revealed this extraordinary attempt to destroy our democracy.

When Pence ultimately refused to go along, Trump turned on him and told attendees at the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that “if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.” He explained that “the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country,” had offered a plan, and that “Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us….”

Aside from the obvious, Eastman’s memo raises three interesting points. First, it refers to the idea that Pence might hand over the count to Grassley, a plan that needs more investigation. Second, it relies on the work of emeritus Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, who tweeted that it took snippets of his work out of context to create “a totally fake web of ‘law’ that no halfway decent lawyer would take seriously…. Ludicrous but scary as hell. Think 2024. Those guys mean business....” And, third, it debunks the current right-wing talking point that Trump wanted only to question the results of the election. Clearly, he wanted to be declared the winner.

Even after President Joe Biden was sworn in, Trump supporters continued to insist that the election had been fraudulent. Famously, the Arizona state senate hired a company called Cyber Ninjas to reexamine the votes from Maricopa County, although the county board of supervisors, a majority of whom were Republicans, had already audited the ballots and the machines and found no problems. The county board strongly opposed the new “audit.”

The Cyber Ninjas examined ballots for bamboo to see if China had hacked the election, used insecure practices, rejected observers, and finally sent voting information to Montana for analysis. Documents released by the state senate under a court order in late August revealed that groups backed by pro-Trump loyalists Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, and two correspondents from the One America News Network paid for the Arizona investigation.

Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the state senate and the Cyber Ninjas had to release the records concerning their activities. Cyber Ninjas is refusing to do so, offering as a reason—among others—that it is busy writing its report (which is already four months late) and document production will take time away from that effort. Its lawyer says it will “produce documents out of goodwill and its commitment to transparency” when it has time, but does not recognize any legal obligation to do so.

Seeking an Arizona-type “audit” in Pennsylvania, Republicans in that state’s legislature last Wednesday voted to issue subpoenas for personal information of about 6.9 million state voters, including names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Republicans say a private company needs that information to fix issues in election procedures uncovered in 2020, but the Republican leader of the investigation has declined to say how the information will be used.

Democrats sued Friday to stop the release of the voter information, and two Democratic representatives to Congress have asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether the subpoenas could violate federal laws by leading to voter intimidation.

A new story sheds more light on the election reform Republicans are talking about. On May 6, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised eyebrows when he signed a new election law in front of television cameras for the Fox News Channel, excluding all other media. While Republicans insisted they wrote new election laws to prevent voter fraud—despite the lack of evidence of any such widespread fraud—internal emails and text messages from Florida Republicans revealed today by Politico show that their concerns were actually about gaining advantage in the 2022 elections.

Joe Gruters, the state senator who chairs the Florida Republican Party, repeatedly said in public that the new bill would “make it as easy as possible to vote, and hard as possible to cheat.” But in private text exchanges with state representative Blaise Ingoglia, the former chair of the Florida party, Gruters called for getting rid of existing mail-in ballot requests, saying that keeping them would be “devastating,” since Democrats used them more frequently than Republicans. “We cannot make up ground,” Gruters wrote. “Trump campaign spent 10 million. Could not cut down lead….” Ingoglia told Politico: “This was a policy decision all along and had nothing to do with partisan reasons.”

Finally, tonight, the immigration issue is back in the news. Republicans have tried to make immigration their key issue for 2022, but the terrible surge in coronavirus in Republican-dominated states like Texas has captured the news cycle. For the past few days, though, the rise in Haitian refugees on the U.S. southern border has reclaimed headlines. Haitians have long come to the southern border for admission to the U.S., but the recent earthquake in Haiti, along with the assassination of the country’s president and hopes that the Biden administration will be welcoming, has brought 12,000–15,000 Haitians in the past few weeks.

The situation there remains much as it has always been under Biden: the administration kept the public health guidelines established during the pandemic under former president Trump, and it is turning away most adult immigrants and refugees. It has been returning Haitians to Haiti by plane, with seven flights daily set to begin on Wednesday.

But right-wing media is, once again, insisting that Biden is allowing a flood of immigrants to overrun the U.S. At the same time, images of white border patrol agents on horseback riding down Haitian migrants, with their reins swinging, has horrified those who see in them the history of southern slave patrols hunting enslaved Americans. The Biden administration will have to thread a very thin political needle: disavowing the actions of the border patrol agents without opening itself to Republican attacks that it is “soft” on immigration. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has launched an inquiry into the agents’ behavior.

For his part, Trump does not want to wait until 2022 for a change in government. On Friday, he wrote to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger charging that 43,000 Georgia ballots were “invalid.” He called for Raffensperger to decertify the 2020 election “and announce the true winner,” warning that the nation “is being systematically destroyed by an illegitimate president and his administration.”

Trump is under criminal investigation in Georgia for his previous attempts to overturn the state’s election results.

—

Notes:

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/09/20/devastating-florida-republicans-worried-about-2022-as-they-crafted-election-law-1391121

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21065006-arizona-senate-status-report-and-renewed-motion-to-consolidate#document/p328/a2054912

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-audit-2020-election-recount-gop-maricopa-county/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cyber-ninjas-arizona-vote-audit-court-order_n_614678cce4b0efa77f80caf1

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/09/20/eastman.memo.pdf

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/trump-pence-election-memo/index.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/09/15/pennsylvania-election-audit-gets-off-to-wild-start-as-gop-subpoenas-personal-details-on-every-voter-in-state/

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/pa-democrats-sue-over-gop-election-investigation/2963753/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/17/this-is-how-embarrassing-trumps-fraud-claims-have-gotten/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/20/us-begins-deportation-flights-haitians-texas-border-town

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/border-haitians-horses-agents/2021/09/20/c489c3ae-1a41-11ec-914a-99d701398e5a_story.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/politics/georgia-probe-trump-election/index.html

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[newstfionline]

Monday, February 15, 2021

Warning to travellers: You have until Feb 22 to return or pay up to $2,000 for Canada’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine (Yahoo News) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the mandatory hotel quarantine for travellers coming to Canada by air will come into effect on Feb. 22. Minister of Health Patty Hajdu confirmed that people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine are not exempt from these requirements at this time. Non-essential travellers to Canada by air are required to take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hour before departure. Proof of a negative test result must be with them during travel. They must submit their contact and quarantine information using the ArriveCAN app before boarding a plane. Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, confirmed that 93 per cent of air travellers are non-essential travellers. Beginning Feb. 22, travellers need to take a COVID-19 test when the they arrive in Canada, at their own cost, before they leave the airport. Travellers will then go to a quarantine hotel until their test result is returned, up to three days. They need to reserve their stay prior to arriving in Canada. Hajdu indicated hotel booking information will be available online on Feb. 18. Travellers must stay in a hotel in the city in which they first arrive in Canada. When their test comes back negative, they can then take a connecting flight to their destination.

Impeachment proves imperfect amid US polarization (AP) Three Republican senators spent an hour talking strategy with lawyers for the accused. The entire Senate served as jurors even though they were also targets of the crime. No witnesses were called. And the outcome was never in doubt. The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump laid bare the deep imperfections in the Constitution’s only process for holding a president accountable, for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The proceedings packed an emotional punch and served as history’s first accounting of the Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol, but the inherently political process never amounted to a real and unbiased effort to determine how the insurrection unfolded and whether Trump was responsible. The results were ultimately unsurprising: a fast impeachment in the Democratic-led House followed by acquittal in the Senate, where 17 Republicans were needed to convict. Congress has rarely deployed its power to hold a president accountable for crimes and misdemeanors: impeaching Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in the 1999 and Trump twice over the past year. The House also launched impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, but he resigned from office before a vote on charges. Each of the other instances ended with the president—or in this most recent instance, former president—acquitted, and few satisfied with the process.

Postmaster general’s new plan for USPS is said to include slower mail and higher prices (Washington Post) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is preparing to put all first-class mail onto a single delivery track, according to two people briefed on his strategic plan for the U.S. Postal Service, a move that would mean slower and more costly delivery for both consumers and commercial mailers. DeJoy, with the backing of the agency’s bipartisan but Trump-appointed governing board, has discussed plans to eliminate a tier of first-class mail—letters, bills and other envelope-sized correspondence sent to a local address—designated for delivery in two days. Instead, all first-class mail would be lumped into the same three- to five-day window, the current benchmark for nonlocal mail. That class of mail is already struggling; only 38 percent was delivered on time at the end of 2020, the Postal Service reported in federal court. Customers have reported bills being held up, and holiday cards and packages still in transit. Pharmacies and prescription benefits managers have told patients to request medication refills early to leave additional time for mail delays.

Hundreds of thousands without power in Northwest ice storm (AP) A winter storm blanketed the Pacific Northwest with ice and snow Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupting travel across the region. Freezing rain left roads, power lines and trees coated in ice in the Portland, Oregon, region, and by Saturday morning more than 270,000 people were without power. The extreme conditions, loss of power and transportation problems prompted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to declare a state of emergency Saturday afternoon. Winter storms and extreme cold affected much of the western U.S., particularly endangering homeless communities. Volunteers and shelter staffers were trying to ensure homeless residents in Casper, Wyoming, were indoors as the National Weather Service warned of wind chill reaching as much as 35 degrees below zero over the weekend.

With the Economy on the Ropes, Hungary Goes All In on Mass Vaccination (NYT) Hungary on Friday began injecting citizens with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, becoming the first country in the European Union to administer a coronavirus inoculation that has yet to be tested and approved by the bloc’s regulators. With Hungary’s economy suffering and a national election looming next year, embracing such vaccines is part of the government’s strategy to go all in on fighting the coronavirus after a series of missteps allowed it to spread in Hungary. The decision by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, to move forward with the ambitious vaccination plan comes after the European Union’s own response to vaccine distribution has lagged behind the United States, Israel, and Britain. Mr. Orban has few options for reviving the Hungarian economy, as he is opposed to handing out meaningful relief aid to citizens and businesses and appears to be betting big on getting the whole country vaccinated, with an eye on next year’s elections. While many E.U. members have expressed frustration with the bloc’s sluggish procurement procedures, Hungary is the only one so far to break from the collective strategy.

Even India’s Ex-Chief Justice Won’t Go to Nation’s Courts (Bloomberg) A former chief justice of India says he won’t go to the country’s top court with his grievances because he would have to wait endlessly for a verdict, a comment that lays bare the nation’s clogged legal system. “You want a 5 trillion dollar economy but you have a ramshackled judiciary,” said Ranjan Gogoi, who retired as the head of the country’s judiciary in November 2019 and is now a member of the upper house of the parliament. Gogoi was speaking at an event organized by the India Today Group, a news network. Gogoi’s remarks calling for an overhaul of the judiciary’s capacity and efficacy highlights India’s troubles with delayed verdicts and enforcing contracts. Court systems in Asia’s third-largest economy are clogged with over 43 million cases and a shortage of judges means that some cases can end up taking years, even decades, to find a resolution. Companies invested in India have a tough time once entangled in a legal dispute.

Hundreds of thousands protest in Myanmar as army faces crippling mass strike (Reuters) Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Myanmar for a ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations on Sunday, as the new army rulers grappled to contain a strike by government workers that could cripple their ability to run the country. Trains in parts of the country stopped running after staff refused to go to work, local media reported, while the military deployed soldiers to power plants only to be confronted by angry crowds. As evening fell, armoured vehicles were seen in the commercial capital of Yangon for the first time since the coup, witnesses said, and the U.S. embassy urged employees to be cautious. A civil disobedience movement to protest against the Feb. 1 coup that deposed the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi started with doctors. It now affects a swathe of government departments. The junta ordered civil servants to go back to work, threatening action. The army has been carrying out nightly mass arrests and on Saturday gave itself sweeping powers to detain people and search private property. But hundreds of railway workers joined demonstrations in Yangon on Sunday, even as police went to their housing compound on the outskirts of the city to order them back to work. The police were forced to leave after angry crowds gathered, according to a live broadcast by Myanmar Now.

Japan’s Quake Evokes a Painful Memory (NYT) A large earthquake shook a broad area across eastern Japan late Saturday night, with its epicenter off the coast of Fukushima, near where three nuclear reactors melted down after a quake and tsunami nearly 10 years ago. As of Sunday morning, no deaths had been reported from the quake, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. But more than 100 people were injured, according to the state broadcaster, NHK. The quake left nearly a million households without power across the Fukushima region and forced the closure of roads and suspension of train services. While rattled residents braced for aftershocks, a landslide cut off a chunk of a main artery through Fukushima Prefecture. Japan’s meteorological service reported the quake’s magnitude as 7.3, up from the initial assessment of 7.1. The quake was an unnerving reminder of the vastly more powerful 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011, killing more than 16,000 people. After the subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, 164,000 people fled or were evacuated from around the plant.

New Zealand city going into 3-day lockdown after virus found (AP) New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland will go into a three-day lockdown beginning just before midnight Sunday following the discovery of three unexplained coronavirus cases in the community. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the move after an urgent meeting with other top lawmakers in the Cabinet. She said they decided to take a cautious approach until they find out more about the outbreak, including whether the infections are of the more contagious variants. The lockdown is the first in New Zealand in six months and represents a significant setback in the nation’s largely successful efforts to control the virus. It will also force a delay in the America’s Cup sailing regatta.

Ancient mass production brewery uncovered in Egypt (Reuters) Archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old brewery that could produce thousands of litres of beer in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry said. The site in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate likely dates back to the reign of King Narmer around 3,100 BC, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The brewery, which had a production capacity of 22,400 litres, was split into eight sections each containing 40 clay pots used to warm mixtures of grain and water.

[artificialqueens]

Lemon's Misadventures in Dating, Chapter 5 (Lemon x the world) - Mermelada

A/n: Hej hej hej! I’m very late in posting this to AQ after Ao3, so please forgive me! I hope you all like *~* filler chapters *~* because there’s a couple of them coming up! I’ve already written the next couple of chapters, but PLEEEAAASSSEE let me know if you have any requests or suggestions! Namely, should I attempt to write smut or not lol! Thank you again for all your lovely words about the fic, I love you all massively <3 <3

Having not slept in her own bed for the last two nights, Lemon decided to take a well-earned evening for herself, partly because she was running out of excuses for her parents as to why she’d been out so much lately, and partly to give the various bruises and bite-marks on her body time to heal. With Gus the dog snuggled into her side, she waited for The Sims to load on her laptop as Chromatica blared from her phone. She pressed on its screen to check the time, and saw she had received a new text message.

Dr Rita <3 [16:45] “I hope you survived your walk of shame, mon petit citron! Thank you again for a great night and day :-) x”

Rita was amazing. She was the epitome of a dark horse: she was so kind and patient with Lemon during her panic crisis, as she had so adorably put it, and made her feel all the safety and love she needed all morning. Yet not long afterwards, after some lazy chatter which had made Lemon inexplicably horny, she was once again fucking her to within an inch of her life. Speaking two languages was far from the only thing she could do with her mouth. They had even gone for lunch together after round 2 – and round 2.5 in the shower – before reluctantly parting as Rita prepared for her nightshift at the hospital. It was over lunch where they both agreed that pursuing anything serious wouldn’t be worth it, but they would definitely like to work on a friendship. Lemon had, however, still managed to charm her way into borrowing a hoodie from the older woman, both of them secretly pleased that it gave them a reason to hang out again. She quickly sent off a reply, thanking her once again for her help that morning and wishing her luck for the long night ahead in kidneyland with her love interest from the ward. 

Looking back to her laptop, the loading bar appeared to have frozen. Rolling her eyes, she held down the device’s power button to restart it. The snoring lump beside her clearly wasn’t going to entertain her as she waited, so she bit the bullet and opened up her new favourite app.

She grinned upon seeing that her most recent message was from Kyne.

[16:20] Remember I told you about my roommate who works in a porn studio lol? She came home just now with a box of those custard tarts you were telling me about, they are so good!!! 🤤 You really do have the best taste 😘

That’s a lot to unpack, she laughed to herself, she’s persistent, fair play to her! Plus it turns out she actually WAS listening! I just hope they were clean… I’ll reply later. Now what about Kiara, eh Gus-bus? She was nice, let’s see what she’s said! 

[09:12] How was the party? 🙂 I hope it was tudo bem!!

Lemon and Kiara had continued chatting yesterday until Lemon had to leave for her date, a ‘family party’ being the first reasonable sounding thing that came to mind when having to end their conversation. She hated lying, she really did, but how acceptable was it really to tell one Tinder-match that you were going on a date with another Tinder-match?

[17:03] It went well, merci! But I was too hungover to function all day lol 🤯

[17:03] How has your day been? 😊

Right, who’s next? Two new matches and a message from Boa! Let’s see what she has to say about me spamming her before she blocks me. Clicking on the girl’s message from last night, however, Lemon was pleasantly surprised that her texting blunder wasn’t the end of her chances.

[20:55] Lololololololololol no YOU’RE fun!!!!

[20:55] Clock the good grammar

[20:55] So what’s a girl like you doing on an app like this?

[20:56] 🍆🍆🍆

Now that was a question Lemon still occasionally asked herself, and she didn’t even know if she had an answer. So the best she could do was be honest.

[17:07] Well I’m recently single so I’m just seeing what happens, really, a few dates here and there to get me back on my feet again! To quote the great Kelly Rowland, I am down for whatever 😉

[17:07] How about you?

She had, once again, been well and truly sucked into the Tinder vortex. Closing her laptop and placing it on her bedside table, she nuzzled her face into Gus’s head, the dog making no effort at all to reciprocate the sudden attention. Squishing a kiss to his head, she turned back to the app, and her new matches: Scarlett and Ilona. They had both matched at around the same time, making their chat windows sit neatly at the bottom of Lemon’s screen. Sending them both standard “Hey gorge! What’s up? 😊” messages, she went back to swiping through profiles, although within less than a minute, a reply from Scarlett flashed at the top of her screen. 

[17:13] Hey gorge! I’m doing much better now that I’m speaking to you 😉

[17:14] What’s up with you?

A bit of enthusiasm goes a long way, she smiled, maybe Scarlett is the one? Or maybe she’s too into me and I should be worried? Surely not!

[17:15] I’m glad I can help! I’m pretty good thanks, having a lazy night in tonight! Are you doing anything fun?

Lemon debated giving the girl more details of her night in, but she was worried about what she might think… She’s covered in tattoos and eats fire, for god’s sake, there is no way she likes Lady Gaga or The Sims. She probably listens to death metal and drives a motorbike and has a pet snake, I could never compete! 

Fortunately, Scarlett was charming and very easy to talk to, and the two exchanged details - both mundane and exciting - through quickly typed messages. She learned that the other blonde was a lawyer, but had gone to circus school at weekends throughout university - which explained a lot - and was currently in an open relationship with her girlfriend. Lemon had never been ‘the other woman’ before, but as long as she wasn’t hurting anyone, surely it’s not that bad! Eventually, though, one message made Lemon’s anxiety start to creep in again.

[17:57] So I know this probably seems WAY too fast, so don’t worry if you don’t want to

Time seemed to stand still between this message and the next one. What does she want to do that’s fast? Sex? That’s not that big a deal, it must be more than that. Unless she’s into super kinky shit, which wouldn’t surprise me, does she want to piss on me? Does she want her girlfriend to piss on me? Does she want me to be her fake girlfriend at her sister’s wedding where we have to share a bed before eventually realising we loved each other all along? Finally, right on cue, the follow-up arrived.

[17:59] It’s my birthday on Saturday and I’m having a party at my house before heading out on the town, it’ll hopefully just be a few friends, and it would be cool if you could make it 🥳

[18:00] You can bring a friend if you want! But again no pressure!!

Wow, that wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. She started blankly at her phone, letting her heart rate settle back down to its normal speed. A party, cool. I can do that!

[18:02] You had me worried for a second there! But that sounds fun, I’ll be there! 😀

Exiting the app, she hastily composed a message to Jan. Jan loved parties, she had such a natural charisma which she exuded effortlessly whenever she entered a room. She was able to chat to anyone about anything, and Lemon was always responsible for getting her out of tricky situations on nights out where her natural friendliness had been mistaken for something else. She would be the perfect person to deflect any potential awkwardness that may occur at a Tinder-date-she’d-never-met-before’s birthday party. As she awaited Jan’s reply (Please please please say yes, Jan, you’re my only hope!), she checked on the app again, swiping through countless samey-looking profiles. Until she reached one that she’d definitely seen before.

Priyanka, 29

Within 10 miles

I already swiped for this girl, look! There’s her in her lengha, there she’s at pride… Oh she has new pictures now, how weird! Priyanka did indeed have an additional two photos on her profile which Lemon hadn’t seen before: a professional-looking black and white image of her face and torso, showing her dark waves flowing down her shoulders, and her eyes directly piercing Lemon’s soul; and finally, a picture of the dark-skinned girl wearing a blonde wig, cowboy hat, and appearing to be screaming into a microphone… I do like a Hannah Montana fantasy, get it girl!

Just like before, Lemon swiped Priyanka’s profile to the right, but unlike last time, the notification she’d been hoping for appeared straight away.

Congratulations! You have matched with Priyanka!

Buoyed by the excitement of matching with somebody so quickly - and someone so gorgeous - Lemon jumped straight off the bed and started dancing, ‘Rain on Me’ blaring beside her for the third time that evening. Even Gus seemed to pick up on the change of energy, running up and down the bed, wagging his tail merrily. As the pair danced, the familiar ‘ding’ of a new notification sounded through the room. And again.

Briefly pausing to pick up her phone, she saw the two messages she had received. Firstly, from Kiara.

[18:12] Unnggghhh work today was the worst, but I found a really cute Portuguese café on my walk home! I have eaten so many natas lol. We could go sometime if you want to? 🙂

Before replying (yes, obviously… I didn’t download Duolingo yesterday for nothing!), she went to check on the second message, which was from her recent match, Ilona.

[18:12] See you on Saturday bitch! xox

Well that seems ominous.

[purplesurveys]

1052

surveys by lets-make-surveys

1 - Who was the last person to knock on your door? Were they there to see you? Nina usually knocks briefly in the evening to let me know it’s time for dinner. Other than my ex in the past, I don’t let anyone stay in my room for long. Knocking and peeking into my room is enough.

2 - Have you left the house yet today? If not, do you have plans to leave the house later on? No, as it’s only 10 in the morning and I don’t really have a reason to be out somewhere this early. I might go out to buy presents for more relatives, but that’s only if I feel productive enough today. We’ll see.

3 - What’s your favourite brand of chocolate? What type of chocolate bar from that brand is your favourite? The older I get the more I feel like gagging from the idea of chocolate bars lol; they’re all just so sweet. These days my top three would be Hershey’s cookies and cream bar, Whittaker’s chocolate peanut butter bar, and Twix bars. I also love Reese’s, but they aren’t bars.

4 - Have you ever met someone in person who you first met on the internet? Do you have plans to do that anytime soon? Yes, I’ve done this before and I’ve recounted the stories on here multiple times. As for the second question, yeah I technically do? I’ve only met my workmates online so far, so I’m constantly looking forward to the opportunity to finally meet them all in real life.

5 - What was the last thing you used a blender for? I’ve never used a blender. We don’t even own a blender.

6 - Have you ever got into an argument with a stranger on social media? Do you remember what it was about? Yeah, but I don’t even remember what it was about anymore...I do know it was this year, and the person deleted the comment that I replied to not long after.

7 - When was the last time you cracked your joints? Is that something you do often? Now that you reminded me, I just did. I do it at least once a day, whenever my fingers start to feel tight and tense.

8 - What time is it right now? If you weren’t doing a survey, what else would you be doing right now? It is 1:52 PM. I’d be heading to the mall to buy more presents, but I don’t feel like getting out of bed yet. I’d also do embroidery, but my online orders are taking a while to arrive :( My online shopping app says I'll be getting them by Jan 3rd, but the shipping tracker says it’s already being shipped from China to here so I’m looking forward to receiving it this week. I hope that’s the case; otherwise it’ll miss the point of being my hobby this Christmas break.

9 - If you had ten minutes to run around an empty supermarket and fill your trolley for free, what’s the first aisle you’d go for? The fancy meat/fish section. Then I’d go to the condiments/spice section, then frozen food, then chips.

10 - Aside from Tumblr, what websites do you visit the most and why? YouTube, because I find videos a soothing distraction; Twitter to keep me updated on local and international news; Reddit for quirky posts; and Wikipedia so I can continue learning trivia I’ll never have to use but want to gain anyway.

11 - Has COVID had any impact on your Christmas plans this year? What’s going to change or be different to normal? My dad is home for Christmas this year, which is one silver lining from Covid. But my relatives living abroad who usually fly back to the Philippines for the holidays obviously won’t be able to this year, so we’re not gonna have a packed family reunion like we normally do. Everything else is the same, but I think the biggest thing about this whole thing is that I can barely feel Christmas coming this year. I think it’s going to feel like such a plain Friday this week; and that makes me a little sad.

12 - What’s your favourite flavour of cake? Are you any good at making that kind of cake? My favorite flavor is chocolate, but my favorite kind of cake (which I enjoy a lot more than general chocolate cake) is cheesecake. I cannot make either, nor can I bake at all.

13 - Do you prefer sweet or sour candy? Sweet. I hate any sour foods with a passion lol especially sour candy; it is my absolute least favorite taste. I don’t find anything enjoyable or fulfilling about it.

14 - What colour is your favourite fruit? Is this a fruit you eat often? Already made my feelings for fruit clear on this blog, haha.

15 - Is your favourite restaurant an independent place or a chain? What is it that you love about it so much? It’s a chain, like most popular restaurants here. Independent places are a little hard to come by, to be honest. They make the best katsu I’ve ever had; and I also like that despite being a chain restaurant, the ambience is still quite sophisticated and date-friendly so I always feel like I’m treating myself whenever I eat there.

16 - Are you genuinely a fan of Starbucks or do you think it’s all hype? I personally enjoy everything about Starbucks. I like their coffees, their Frappes, the ambience in their coffee shops, their playlists, and their line-up of mugs and tumblers. I’ve always felt right at home in their shops and out of all the cafés I’ve been to, it’s always their baristas that have been the nicest.

17 - Do you own a Christmas jumper? What design/pattern does it have on it? No, I don’t.

18 - What’s your favourite fit/style of jeans? I was obsessed with mom jeans throughout 2020.

19 - What was the last non-essential item you spent money on? Overpriced coffee and a sandwich.

20 - Are you currently under any COVID-related restrictions where you live? Are people generally following the rules? Public places are super strict with requiring everyone to wear a face shield and face mask; before entering any establishment, people’s temperatures are taken and everyone’s also required to take a contact tracing form. Anyone under the age of 21 still isn’t allowed to go out for the most part, though I think there are some exceptions now because I see kids younger than me already going on out-of-town trips again. Some places that are big on tourism like Sagada, Batanes, and Baguio are still closed off from the public; those that have since reopened, like Boracay, follow strict protocol and everyone going there is required to undergo a swab test. Everyday Filipinos follow the rules; it’s the politicians and police force who don’t, which feels disgusting to say.

21 - What did you last leave the room you’re in to do? A package arrived for me so I had to pay for it. It was the phone case I ordered for my cousin.

22 - Have you ever read any self-help books? Did you find them useful? No. I don’t really believe in that genre, so I never felt pulled to buy a book.

23 - What’s your favourite programme on the Food Network (if you watch it)? If you don’t get that channel, what’s your favourite food/cookery show in general? All things Gordon Ramsay, man. MasterChef, Hell’s Kitchen, and Kitchen Nightmares are all *chef’s kiss* The Great British Bake Off is also great and something I like watching when I want to wind down :)

24 - Do you still watch cartoons? From time to time.

25 - Who do you know with the most number of siblings? Would you ever want to live in a huge family? My grandpa was one of nine siblings, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure if I know a bigger set than that. Unless my family was filthy rich, I would not want to have such a big immediate family.

26 - Are you a fan of garlic bread? Sure. I tend to ask for others’ too, heh.

27 - Do you own any personalised clothing? What’s the reason for getting it? No, not a fan. Two years ago we had a huge family reunion on my dad’s side and we had to wear these cheesy shirts that said “[Last Name] Reunion” with some cheesy motto at the bottom. My parents hated it, which made me feel better about my own feelings about the shirt lol.

28 - Is anyone else in the same room as you right now? What is that person up to? No, it’s just me here.

29 - What colours are you wearing right now? Does your wardrobe contain a lot of those colours? White, maroon, and scarlet. I have a lot of white and maroon; not so much of scarlet as I find the color too bold.

30 - Do you like adding condiments to your food? If so, what are some of your favourites? Yes. My food always needs to have soup, condiments, or sauces; otherwise I tend to feel the dish is too dry. I like mayonnaise, banana ketchup, hot sauce, and lechon sauce.

--

1 - What have you been up to so far today? Is that a typical thing for you to do on this particular day of the week? I’ve taken a couple of surveys and started binge-watching segments of my newest Korean reality show discovery, 2 Days 1 Night. The breakout actor from Start-Up and the newest love of my life HAHAHA is a cast member on the current season of 2D1N so I’ve been all over the show today. It’s hilarious; I can hardly believe I’m only discovering the show this late.

2 - Did you get a decent night’s sleep last night? How many hour’s sleep do you consider a decent amount? It was around five hours, which isn’t a lot to me. I usually sleep 7-9 hours these days, but I might wreck my body clock during the holiday break because I want to keep being awake and do the things I haven’t been able to do because of work.

3 - What is one silly thing that really gets on your nerves? Seeing pickles in a burger.

4 - Who was the last person you saw who wasn’t family? What did you guys end up doing together? The friendly Starbucks barista from yesterday; her name was Princess. We didn’t do anything lol, she just took my order and was super friendly about it, and she also gave me the Starbucks planner that I chose to redeem.

5 - Do you prefer hot or cold drinks overall? Cold. I avoid hot drinks now haha. Ever since I had that incident with the takoyaki, I’ve been too scared to let any hot food or drink touch my mouth.

6 - Do you own a decent set of waterproofs? If so, what do you use them for the most? If not, do you think that would be something you’d find useful? I don’t know what this is referring to, and I’m too lazy to Google right now. I’ve only ever known this word as an adjective, whoops.

7 - Do you have any plans for the rest of the day? Take more surveys, and maybe have another cup of coffee. I’ll also have to get started on a daily report I submit for work every weekday morning so that my load will be lighter tomorrow. Our office is technically on shutdown until January 4th, but some clients require a daily report every day and I’ll have to shoulder that with another co-associate. It sucks, but at least it’s the only thing I’ll have to do for the next two weeks.

8 - How often do you get your hair cut? When hairdressers were closed due to COVID, did you try cutting it yourself at home? I only go to the salon once a year, and I already did it this 2020 when I chopped off my hair and got bangs. Yeah, whenever my bangs start to get too long I either ask my mom to trim them or I do so myself.

9 - What did you wear the last time you left the house? Is that different to what you’re wearing at the moment? I walked Cooper half an hour ago and I just stayed in the same clothes I’ve been in all day, which was a tank top underneath an oversized hoodie and a pair of shorts.

10 - Would you rather have a relaxing beach holiday or a more active holiday in the mountains? The beach would be perfect right now, but I think my answer changes every time this is asked and I’m pretty sure I picked mountains the last time HAHAHA. I just realized being in the mountains would give me the same cooped-up feeling I’ve been having from staying at home for such a long time, and it might not be the best and healthiest trip for me...the beach definitely sounds more freeing and therapeutic.

11 - Do you know how to tie a tie? Nah, never learned. I’ve never been good at tying anything up, period.

12 - How old were you when you first had a sleepover at someone’s house? Did you miss home? I was 15 or 16; I’m not entirely sure anymore. Not at all, I was so excited to have been allowed to go to my first sleepover.

13 - How often do you spend time with your extended family? Under normal circumstances, we’d visit my grandma and cousins on my mom’s side once every few months or so. It was pretty regular since they’re just a stone’s throw away. But obviously we’ve since had to drastically cut our get-togethers back, and I’ve only seen them around three times since the beginning of the year. My dad’s family lives pretty far south, so I only get to see them once or twice a year even in pre-Covid days; not much of a difference there.

14 - When you get up in the morning, do you have a set routine? No. I just wake up feeling dread and have no choice but to wait for the weight in my chest to subside.

15 - Do you remember the last time you cried? Were they sad or happy tears? Yesterday in my car, in the mall parking lot. Sad tears.

16 - What do you have planned once you finish this survey? Look for another one. I misseddddd taking surveys and I plan on taking a crap ton of them this Christmas break. I may also be called for dinner, so there’s that.

17 - What was the last thing you cooked? Did you cook from scratch or just heat something up? I dunno if it counts as cooking, but I just made the DIY ramen kit that I received as a Christmas gift from the branch I was originally an intern at. Everything was already prepared in the kit and all I needed to do was boil water for the noodles and prepare the broth. Turned out surprisingly good.

18 - Are you a fan of hot chocolate? Do you like it plain or do you prefer to add things like whipped cream or marshmallows? I love hot chocolate and will order it sometimes, but given my aforementioned fear of hot beverages I always wait for it to considerably cool down hahaha. I like my hot chocolate plain.

19 - What caused your last injury? Cooper’s nails.

20 - How many tattoos and piercings do you have? Do any of them have an interesting story behind them? Just a piercing on each of my earlobes. No interesting stories...yet.

21 - What kind of flowers do you like the best? When was the last time someone bought those for you? I like peonies, though I’m not sure if my ex ever gave me a bouquet that included those.

22 - What’s the smallest thing you’ve ended a relationship over? I’ve only been with one person and I dated her twice, but I was never the one who ended the relationship either time so can’t really answer this.

23 - Would you rather order a starter (appetiser) or a dessert? Or would you be able to manage a full three courses? Three-course meal, pls. I’ve only experienced it once, when my parents treated me to dinner during my cruise gift for my 18th birthday; it was great and every dish was made amazingly well.

24 - How do you get most of your news, if you pay attention to it at all? I catch the evening news every weeknight because we keep the telvision turned on during dinner. I also get to read articles on social media.

25 - Have you or a member of your family been diagnosed with COVID yet? None that I know of, thankfully. It’s always been someone that a relative knows, but so far none of us have gotten it.

26 - Are you a vegetarian? If so, what persuaded you to stop eating meat? If not, is it something you’d ever consider? No. I have been considering it for years, but I truthfully don’t know if I could give up meat.

27 - Do you prefer rice or pasta? Rice.

28 - Is anything you’re wearing a gift? Who bought it for you? No.

29 - What’s the dominant colour in the room you’re in at the moment? I guess white, since my walls are white and that’s the first thing you see when entering my room.

30 - Did you do laundry yet today? If not, do you need to do any before you go to bed? Not my chore to do, but it was already done a few days ago.

[feliciamontagues]

Official promo pictures and episode summaries for  episodes 6-10 of Father Brown Series 8, airing on BBC in January 2020. Summaries under  the cut for length.   (Promo pics and photos for episodes 1-5 can be found here.)

The Numbers of The Beast (13 Jan 2020)

Mrs McCarthy strikes it lucky at the church bingo with the help of a fortune-teller.

Mrs McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack) is stunned when her sister Roisin (Niamh Cusack) arrives in Kembleford. Roisin’s made friends with a fortune-teller named Trafalgar Devlin (Grant Masters) and wants Mrs McCarthy to meet him. Over a cup of tea, Trafalgar predicts the winning jackpot line numbers for the Hambleston Church bingo event run by Samuel Hinds (Nigel Betts). Later, at the church bingo, Mrs McCarthy buys a card with Trafalgar’s numbers on it and wins the jackpot prize, much to her astonishment!

Meanwhile Anna Bailey (Alison Pargeter) is keen to speak to Father Brown (Mark Williams) urgently about some fraud she’s discovered. When Father Brown goes to see her the next morning to discuss the matter, he finds her dead. Her husband Peter (Graeme Hawley) is holding a bloodied murder weapon, and insisting it wasn’t him. But is Peter telling the truth?

The River Corrupted (14 Jan 2020)

Sid returns to Kembleford to ask his old family to help save his new one.

After Maeve Lochlin’s (Bronte Terrell) father Pat (Ian Puleston-Davies) is accused of murdering Roger Barford (Andrew Whipp), Maeve and her boyfriend Sid Carter (Alex Price) travel to Kembleford to ask Father Brown (Mark Williams) to help them clear his name.

Father Brown promises to do all he can and pays a visit to Blind ‘Arry’s (Alan Williams) where Pat is laying low. Things don’t look good for Pat when it is revealed that he and Roger had an argument about money on the night Roger was killed. Roger’s widow Georgina Barford (Hannah Yelland) is convinced that Pat is guilty, but Father Brown’s suspicions turn towards barmaid Polly Beavington (Gabrielle Creevy), who used to work for Roger at his textile factory. Were the two having an affair? And did Roger finish it? When Pat is arrested for murder, it’s down to Father Brown to prove his innocence before it’s too late.

The Curse of the Aesthetic (15 Jan 2020)

Father Brown must discover who is out to kill a tortured artist before it’s too late.

Tortured artist Benjamin Milton (George Webster) struggles to contain his emotions when an exhibition at his estate, Milton Manor, dedicated to his ‘muse’ Isabella (Isabella Peroux), doesn’t go to plan. A bust of her likeness is defaced; and a suspected attempt on his life is made when art collector Conrad French (Justin Avoth) tries to enter Benjamin’s studio and is electrocuted.

Meanwhile Benjamin is also at loggerheads with his sister Katie (Rhiannon Neads) over his share of the estate, which they both occupy. He also has to fend off the unwanted advances of would-be life model Rose (Danielle Phillips). Things get even worse when his housekeeper Nanny Ribble (Harriet Thorpe) is found murdered, with a knitting needle stuck in her neck. It’s down to Father Brown (Mark Williams) to work out who is responsible for Nanny Ribble’s death, and who would want to kill Benjamin and why.

The Fall of the House of St Gardner (16 Jan 2020)

A gossip columnist is murdered after threatening to expose the secrets of a fashion house.

When fashion designer Lady Vivien St Gardner-Verde (Rosalie Craig) heeds Bunty’s (Emer Kenny) warnings not to let gossip columnist Barbara Farrell (Amanda Lawrence) attend her new fashion show, Barbara promises revenge on the House of St Gardner. But when the fashion show venue falls through, Vivien decides to stage the event in Kembleford instead, along with the help of Sir Ralph Verde (Nick Waring), Harvey St Gardner (Ben Lamb), and model Camille Hogan (Ingvild Lakou).

However, when they arrive, they discover Barbara has tracked them down to Kembleford and is just as vicious as ever. Father Brown (Mark Williams) implores Barbara to choose a righteous path; but she ignores him. Soon after, Barbara is found dead in her lodgings - her head bashed in with a typewriter. Was she planning to publish a secret that would bring the St Gardner house down? Meanwhile Bunty, who is romantically involved with Harvey, is left wondering if he could be Barbara’s killer…

The Tower of Lost Souls (17 Jan 2020)

Father Brown joins forces with Chief Inspector Valentine to uncover a dark secret at Helmsley House.

After the body of Reginald Brody is discovered at the bottom of Helmsley Tower, Chief Inspector Valentine (Hugo Speer) returns to Kembleford to investigate. Suspecting that there is more to his death than suicide, Valentine enlists Father Brown (Mark Williams) to help investigate.

Meanwhile Alistair Helmsley (Gyuri Sarossy) and his wife Emily (Susannah Wise), with gardener George Oakley (Cal Macaninch), are determined to continue organizing a fundraiser for injured veterans at Helmsley House. Valentine suspects Alistair’s brother William (James Anderson) may have pertinent information and brings him in for questioning, but he refuses to talk. Later, at the top of Helmsley Tower, William is about to reveal the identity of Reginald’s killer when he is murdered, and Valentine is framed for his death, leading to his arrest. It is down to Father Brown and Chief Inspector Sullivan (Tom Chambers) to clear Valentine’s name and find the real killer.

[buckyfullerene]

Jorden van Foreest Wins Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

GM Jorden van Foreest became the first Dutch player in 36 years to win the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The 21-year-old grandmaster defeated his compatriot GM Anish Giri in a dramatic playoff after both had finished on 8.5/13.

"On top of the world," was Van Foreest's answer to the question of all questions—how he felt after winning the super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee.

The oldest brother from a large family of chess players won the "Wimbledon of chess," a tournament of 13 classical rounds over the course of 16 days by remaining undefeated, scoring plus four, and winning the blitz playoff in the armageddon game. He also broke 2700 for the first time as he won 30 rating points.

Meanwhile, it was a massive disappointment for Giri and his fans. The Dutch number-one seemed destined to finally win his first major tournament in which GM Magnus Carlsen participated, but instead he lost his second playoff in Wijk aan Zee, after the one in 2018 against Carlsen.

On the decisive moment, at the end of today's armageddon game, over 80,000 online viewers were watching the combined Chess.com broadcast streams (Twitch, YouTube, and international channels), and more than 700,000 watched over the course of the day. These are incredible numbers for over-the-board tournament play, normally only seen during world championships. The chess boom is real, and Wijk aan Zee profited from it.

The many online spectators witnessed a special moment in the history of Dutch chess. It has been mentioned many times, but van Foreest finally did what predecessors like Jeroen Piket and Loek van Wely couldn't: become the first Dutch winner since GM Jan Timman won it, 36 years ago, in 1985.

A big part of van Foreest's success was his final-round win against GM Nils Grandelius, and that win was largely based on his highly successful opening preparation.

"I have to give a big shoutout to my second, GM Max Warmerdam," said van Foreest. "We had this position on the board this morning. He said, '13...Bd7 is the human move.' We played around a bit, we got to this position with 16...Qb8, and he played 17.c4 and said it was slightly better for White according to the engines, but I didn't know the follow-up."

"In general, it's a very risky line for White," van Foreest added. "I believe Black is better if he knows it, but in this situation, the line is really very well-suited for this game."

Van Foreest continued playing the engine's preferred choices, including the wonderful 21.Nb5!. Grandelius initially defended well but got low on time and at one point collapsed. A nice final touch was van Foreest's king walking to h6, in the style of GM Nigel Short's win vs. 1985 winner Timman.

"It's crazy, it didn't really get through to me yet, I just finished the game. It was a really tough game, and I think happiness will come later," said van Foreest after this game, not realizing how prophetic these words would be.

By then, he knew that his win was going to be good for a tiebreak because it became clear that Giri was going to draw his game. Spanish GM David Anton was in control in this game but failed to convert his long-term advantage.

For a while, Giri's prospects did look rather grim. After two and a half hours, his wife IM Sopiko Guramishvili—on a short break from her own commentary—told an interviewer of the Dutch national broadcaster NOS: "I'm pretending not to be nervous!"

Giri himself was strolling confidently through the playing hall after almost every move he made and was out of trouble when he could play the thematic ...d5 pawn break.

GM Fabiano Caruana, who could still catch the leaders, had little chance for more than a draw against GM Aryan Tari, but that cannot be said about GM Alireza Firouzja. The Iranian teenager was doing rather well against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, and he had good chances to finish on the same number of points as Giri and van Foreest.

His Sonneborn-Berger (SB) tiebreak, however, was worse. During the round, it was already clear that a win wouldn't be enough for Firouzja to make it to a playoff, which according to the regulations would only be played by two players.

The all-Dutch playoff was scheduled to start at 18:10, two tables away from Firouzja-Wojtaszek, who were still playing. When these players reached the time control, the arbiters asked them to move to one of the tables farther away so that they would be less bothered by the moves of Giri and Van Foreest.

Firouzja was visibly disturbed (understandably so) and refused to leave the table. While the playoff was underway, he spoiled his promising position, and afterward, he was very angry at the arbiters and shouted at the main organizer. The whole affair was a stain on an otherwise wonderfully organized event in pandemic times.

The regular round saw two more decisive games. For starters, a win for the world champion, who at least managed to finish a bad tournament on a plus score as he outplayed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a Grunfeld.

"He went for a plan in the middlegame, which probably wasn't very good," explained Carlsen. "After he sac'ed the exchange, I think I was considerably better. 29.Nd2 was pretty nice, giving up another pawn but eventually winning based on domination."

"The overall performance was … shameful, to be honest," Carlsen reflected. "There were really very few moments of redemption in the tournament, it was really quite poor, and I have to do better in the future."

Besides van Foreest, another young grandmaster broke into the elite club of 2700 players for the first time in this tournament. GM Andrey Esipenko finished with a win against the luckless GM Alexander Donchenko.

The playoff consisted of two blitz games; the time control was 5|3. Giri missed a chance to take the lead.

Giri was also better in game two, where he won a pawn. However, too much had been traded by then, and van Foreest held it to a draw with accurate defense.

The match went down the wire with an all-decisive armageddon game. Van Foreest won the toss and chose to play with the black pieces.

Once again, it was Giri who took the upper hand, this time in a must-win game for him. He reached a winning position indeed but then blundered it all away in one move, missing an intermediate check, despite thinking for half a minute on that fateful 26.c6.

The Giri-Van Foreest armageddon game. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess.

As the players got low on time, it was van Foreest's turn to blunder, first a pawn and then a full piece. Giri was winning again.

In a hectic final phase, the moves were made so fast that the digital chessboard stopped registering them after move 58. To the online viewers, it looked like Giri lost on time in a winning position.

In reality, four more moves were made, and Giri turned out to be the last to blunder. In the final position, he couldn't prevent his opponent from queening a pawn, and as he leaned back in disbelief, he resigned while letting his clock run down to zero.

"In these blitz games, it basically comes down to a lot of luck," said van Foreest. "He played the better chess, but maybe I played the faster chess in the end. Blitz is just a coin flip basically."

Some viewers must have felt uncomfortable with the fact that a 13-round classical tournament is decided in a time scramble like this—especially the ones who were rooting for Giri.

Van Foreest: "I felt bad for Anish, and I felt a bit bad about this game. There was a lot of throwing pieces around. You don't want to win this way but it happened like this, and I'm just really happy now."

The youngest of the two Dutchmen, who is a friend and has helped Giri as a second in the past, praised Giri: "Full credit to him, he played a really good tournament, really deserved to win it. I mean, he could have won both of his last games too, but that is just how it goes."

Giri (second), van Foreest (first), Esipenko (third). Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess.

Thank you all and have a nice day :)