#Private Parts 1997

[spockvarietyhour]

Private Parts (1997) directed by Betty Thomas

[vanalex]

Type O Negative - Pictures of Matchstick Men

From the demo's of October Rust 💚🖤

[canadachronicles]

"Tonight, he had wanted the comfort of a fire, but it had died down and he wasn't about to build it up this close to bedtime. He knocked the ashes out of his pipe on the grate, gave the embers a quick rake with the poker, and picking up his candlestick, went over to the window. The street below was moonlit, quiet and peaceful as a painting in a Christmas card. Yesterday, there had been a light snowfall. Not heavy or with staying power but a warning of what was ahead, and some snow remained on the rooftops and in the clefts of the tree branches. This was going to be his second Christmas without Liza, and he felt such a pang of loneliness, he had to move to keep the pain at bay. Forget about sleep right now, he knew he'd just be tossing around for the next two or three hours. He walked over to the brass box by the fire. It was supposed to be used for firewood, but he kept his dancing shoes in it. They were fancy, two-toned black and white with an elasticized side piece and soft, flexible soles. He took them out, kicked off his slippers, and pushed his bare feet into the shoes. Whenever he put them on, he felt different. He fancied his back straightened, his steps got smoother, and his shyness disappeared."

--And I've picked up Let Loose The Dogs again! It is December, and now the weather fits the words, although there has only been a light dusting rather than a snowfall a couple of weeks ago. But Christmas nears, and I too have a pair of black and white shoes I might slip on today to dance (to 1920s rather than 1890s music; but still!) And since Maureen Jennings' paper Murdoch likes a pint and a pipe, I can feel a little kinship with him.

[sandhu-59]

Hilton's president and chief executive officer is Christopher J. Nassetta. In 2007, he became a part of the team.

Prior to this, Mr. Nassetta served as Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc.'s president and chief executive officer, a role he had since 2000. Executive Vice President when he first joined Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. in 1995, he was named Chief Operating Officer in 1997.

Venue

A EVENT SPACE IN TORONTO

Private Parties

Community Events & Fundraising

Religion Events & Celebrations

Corporate Events

Anniversary Parties

Sweet Sixteens

Birthday Parties

Weddings and Private Bashes

Meeting type

Meetings and conferences at Hilton

Challenges

The Hilton Hotel in Reading creates a cozy environment that makes guests feel as though they are living in their own homes. The famous shopping center, the Thames River, and Reading's historic city center are all about four minutes away.

[littletroubledgrrrl]

[shopping490490]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165986006034 #pin #button #forsale #pinback #howardstern #private #parts #movie #collectibles #gift #holiday #musthave #checkitout #1997 https://linktr.ee/shopping490490 #ebay #mercari #shopify #etsy #poshmark #bonanzamarket #twitter #tumblr #facebook #instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp49QlGuyBU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[lovelytsunoda]

welcome to wherever you are // lance stroll

summary: weddings are supposed to be joyous occasions. but for lance's fiancee, the wedding is just another big milestone that her father never lived to see, like her first day of kindergarten, or her high school graduation.

pairing: lance stroll x hutchence!reader

warnings: depictions of greif, mentions of a parental death.

author's note: i've been on such a bender lately listening to inxs, they truly were one of the greatest bands of the 80s, and I think its a shame that things ended like they did with micheal's death in 1997. i could genuinely talk for hours about it, and about the very real daughter he left behind, but for now i'm going to let the fic speak for itself.

also i feel like i've only done smaus lately bc i've just been in a total idea rut and these are so easy to make lmao

y/n.hutchence just posted to her private story!

VOGUE Weddings: Inside the wedding between Aussie-rock darling YN Hutchence and F1 driver Lance Stroll (you might have to click on these to read them properly)

y/n.hutchence just made a post!

liked by lancestroll, kirkpengilly, officialinxs and 34,508 others.

y/n.hutchence today was a hard day, despite being the happiest of my life. like most milestones, it was bittersweet. while i spent most of my day in love, and excited for what's to come, part of me was also grieving. my dad should have been here to walk me down the aisle, to meet my husband. to give a speech at the reception. i miss you, dad. but i know that you'd be so proud of me.

to my lovely lance, thank you for choosing me, for loving me. for reminding me that its okay to feel all the emotions at once. i love you forever, my husband xx

see all comments

lancestroll i love you, my darling wife. you are so strong.

andrewfarriss michael would be so proud of you, kiddo

user the fact that she went public for the day just to speak about her grief on her wedding day . . . that's a caliber of person i could never be

sebastianvettel thank you both for including me in your special day

user she walked down the aisle to 'beautiful girl'....i'm totally not crying my goddamn eyes out

user im not crying you are

user her dad died over 20 years ago....she needs to let it go

-> user lmao imagine telling someone who never knew her father outside of how the media portrayed him after his death to 'get over it'.

mickschumacher 10/10 pasta bar, would come again. your harem of old men scared the crap out of me, though.

-> kirkpengilly old?? who are you calling OLD

-> y/n.hutchence you mean my non-biological uncles? mick, they're the biggest sweethearts

y/n.hutchence just added to her story

y/n.hutchence and lancestroll just posted!

liked by astonmartinf1, sebastianvettel, timfarriss and 29,808 others

lancestroll mr. & mrs. hutchence - stroll, march 2024, sydney australia

see all comments

y/n.hutchence i think lance hutchence sounds pretty great

-> lancestroll and i think y/n stroll sounds pretty good too

scottyjames you're taking her last name? good on you, bro

astonmartinf1 welcome to the family y/n! (or should we say 'welcome to wherever you are'? see what we did there?)

fernandoalonso did anyone else get a little teary eyed during the vows?

-> timfarriss i was right there with you mate

-> mickschumacher i saw esteban cry so hard he gave himself the hiccups

y/n.hutchence hey google, play 'never tear us apart' by inxs ( and say thanks to kirk for playing the sax almost all night)

(next part)

TAGS:

@magnummagnussen @libraryofloveletters @httpiastri @lorarri @cartierre @thatsdemko @sidcrosbyspuck @scuderiamh

[uyuforu]

hii! if you have time could you do a synastry reading for jk and mingyu from seventeen? mingyu just revealed his birth time (10:08am) and it turns out he’s a gemini rising!

Jungkook (BTS) & Mingyu (Seventeen) Synastry

This is interesting! I had no idea Mingyu revealed his birth time, perhaps Eunwoo is the next one lol! Well Mingyu Astrology will also be part of the contents from now on. Since it is Synastry, with this post we will look at how JK and Mingyu feel toward each other. I'll make a Composite post later to see how is their relationship and dynamic :) I will also mostly focus on conjunctions here otherwise the post will be too long... I hope you will enjoy this post!!

Jungkook was born on 1997/09/01 at 3:23pm

Mingyu was born on 1997/04/06 at 10:08am

All pictures were found on Pinterest

Other posts you could like:

જ⁀➴ celebrities astrology masterlist

જ⁀➴ jungkook's astrology masterlist

જ⁀➴ jungkook's style evolution

Book a private reading: menus ; Q&A ; rules ; instagram

Buy me a Kofi •ᴗ•

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Sun in Mingyu's 4H: Jungkook seems to see Mingyu as someone he consider like a member of his family. It seems like a very true and very close relationship. You can tell JK feels very comfortable with Mingyu with this aspect. This is good. JK sees Mingyu as like a brother to him.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Sun in JK's 3H: Mingyu can enjoy talking to JK often, and he perhaps feel like talking with JK is something very fun and he probably likes to do it everyday. Sun 3H synastry is a sign of sharing deep thoughts and secrets often, it's feeling secure to speak about anything with the other person. Mingyu and JK could have a lot of inside jokes together.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Moon in Mingyu's 3H: JK feels like he can speaks about anything to Mingyu, and mostly about his feelings, his shadow side, and he feels like anything he shares to Mingyu, it will be safe but also it will be received without any judgment. JK and Mingyu could often speak to each other about how they feel, it could feel like they are helping each other with their emotions and how they deal with it. If one of them have a bad day, you can surely know they will talk about it together. Same with anger, sadness, etc.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Moon in JK's 3H: Same as JK!

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Mercury in Mingyu's 4H: JK feels like he can talk to Mingyu in a very casual and open way. He feels like he can tell us his secrets and deep thoughts, those will be safe. And it will. JK also thinks talking to Mingyu is like talking to a brother, a family member, someone he knows and someone he can trust. They could spend a lot of time talking to each other, and this could also be a sign they speak daily.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Mercury in JK's 4H: Same as JK!

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Venus in Mingyu's 5H: JK absolutely adores Mingyu! JK thinks of Mingyu as someone he always has fun with, it seems like a cheeky relationship, like two brothers being playful with each other. He thinks he has the most fun with Mingyu, so hanging out with him a lot makes sense. JK must really like to spend time with Mingyu.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Venus in JK's 3H: Mingyu really like to talk with JK. He may talk the most with him to be honest, so I am not surprised if they talk the most to each other. Mingyu could often say to JK how glad he is to be in his life. Mingyu could often confide to JK, they could laugh and have a lot of different conversations together. Mingyu could also talk about his love life to JK the most. He loves the way JK talks and it must also be that they could sing a lot together too, like going to Karaoke.

๋࣭ ⭑JK's Mars in Mingyu's 5H: JK may like to hear Mingyu compliment him. He may enjoy hearing Mingyu praising him, because Mingyu's opinion matters much to him. JK could also become more extrovert when he is with Mingyu, he could be more confident too. He feels like he shines with him.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Mars in JK's 8H: Mingyu could feel energized by JK's energy. JK could help Mingyu being more confident and doing things more proudly. Mingyu could also feel more prone to competition with JK. Actually, JK could motivate Mingyu to be more hardworking. They could exercise a lot too together. JK may push Mingyu to go over his limits.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Jupiter in Mingyu's 9H: JK could often find himself sharing a lot of life lessons with Mingyu, and they could also just share a lot of experiences together in general. He can help Mingyu see further in his dreams but also in his experience in life in general. Thanks to JK, Mingyu could learn more from JK.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Jupiter in JK's 2H: Mingyu could help JK a lot with money and how to manage it. He could help JK about investments, or anything money related. They could talk about possessions together, and Mingyu could know a lot about it. Mingyu could help JK about self confidence too and self acceptance.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Saturn in Mingyu's 11H: JK could be quite jealous when it comes to Mingyu's friends and connections. He could often want Mingyu to hang out a lot with him, and like... only him? lol that's very JK. JK could see his friendship with Mingyu being longterm. Mingyu could know more people than JK and could be friends, like close friends, with more people than JK. So Mingyu could invite JK to know more people.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Saturn in JK's 3H: Mingyu could sometimes not truly understand JK, and there could be miscommunication between them. They could sometimes argue about some subjects or because of the miscommunication. They could say some harsh words to each other sometimes. Mingyu could criticize JK sometimes and be harsher than JK, and JK could not like it.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Uranus in Mingyu's 8H: JK will help Mingyu in his life and probably create a deep transformation. Perhaps healing traumas can happen too, and this could make sometimes Mingyu feel triggered, but JK is here to help.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Uranus in JK's 1H: Mingyu could help JK about self esteem and illusions JK holds about himself. JK could speak a certain way about himself that Mingyu doesn't agree on and could help JK see the truth about himself. Mingyu could also help JK change his appearance if JK desires too, to adopt a certain aesthetic.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Neptune in Mingyu's 8H: Not gonna lie, Neptune 8H Synastry is the n°1 delusional aspect in synastry lol. JK could sometimes stalk Mingyu online, but it's a friendship there, so this could mean JK sometimes check his social for example to see what is going on. JK could feel a very spiritual connection to Mingyu, as if he could heal with him about his traumas. This is a very intense connection. So they have to be careful about it not being toxic!

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Neptune in JK's 1H: Mingyu could feel like one of his duty is to take care of JK, he could feel very connected to JK and mostly his emotions. Mingyu could see through JK's appearance how he really feels, and so they could totally understand each other. Mostly Mingyu to JK. Mingyu could also idealize JK a lot, but they have to be careful about not being delusional.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Pluto in Mingyu's 6H: JK could help and transform Mingyu's life in general. This could be about health and routine. JK could introduce Mingyu to a new diet style or a new sport or routine. JK could ask Mingyu to exercise often with him. Mingyu could find himself change his routine thanks to JK. This could be a healthy transformation.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Pluto in JK's 11H: Mingyu could help JK invest himself more into humanitarian pursuits and also making more friends. Mingyu could introduce JK to new people and could want to make JK more social and extrovert. He could often ask JK to hang out with him outside. This can feel threatening to JK sometimes, mostly since it conjuncts his Saturn too.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Rising in Mingyu's 7H: Mingyu could see JK as someone balanced and someone who he can be friends with easily. He could also see JK as friendly. But there could be time when Mingyu feel like JK could be a threat to him. He could feel some kind of competition sometimes.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Rising in JK's 6H: JK could see Mingyu as someone stable and who is healthy, he could also see him as someone who exercises often, someone who eats healthy and someone who is concerned about his health. He could also see him as very hardworking.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Vertex in Mingyu's 3H: JK will be a major turn in Mingyu's voice. He could help Mingyu about his singing/ rapping abilities, but he could also help Mingyu being more confident about his voice. Not being afraid to speak up. He will change that about Mingyu, but he could also help him open up and express his feelings.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Vertex in JK's 10H: Mingyu will be a major turn in JK's career. Perhaps Mingyu helped JK a lot with his career, and it made a major change for JK.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's North Node in Mingyu's 4H: JK could be in Mingyu's life to help him with his family perhaps. He could also bring a sense of home to Mingyu's life, like a brother. He could help him find a place to be safe with.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's North Node in JK's 9H: Mingyu could be in JK's life to help him expand his point of view on life, see a wider perspective on things. He could also help him discover other cultures, or teach him some life lessons.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Chiron in Mingyu's 5H: JK could help Mingyu with his creativity. If Mingyu finds himself stuck and without any inspiration, JK could help in that. JK will probably also help Mingyu discover other talents of his or just make his talents stronger.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Chiron in JK's 10H: Mingyu could help JK heal a lot of traumas related to career. If JK struggles with his reputation and image to the public, Mingyu will help him with it. He will be present for JK during scandals or rumors, which JK will appreciate.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Part of Fortune in Mingyu's 7H: JK may feel like his relationship with Mingyu is perfect, and he feels very lucky to have him in his life. Perhaps Mingyu brings him a lot of luck and balance in his life, and JK feels thankful for that. He feels like Mingyu is the perfect friend for him.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Part of Fortune in JK's 5H: Mingyu feels like JK is bringing him more luck in his life, he feels like he is more lucky with JK in his life. He also feels like life is more fun with JK in it, it's so cute :((( This could also mean JK and Mingyu has some kind of competition between them, but it could be not that serious tbh.

JK & Mingyu share the same Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto since they are only 5 months apart. Those conjunctions only represent the fact they come from the same generation and were born at the same time basically.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Sun conjuncts Mingyu's Mars: JK and Mingyu could have a certain competition going on between them. This could for example be at their gym session where they compete who will finish first, this kind of competition. The competition feeling could be more on Mingyu's side who feel like he could need to compete with JK, wanting to be at the same level as him. They could also argue easily even if it is not a big deal.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Sun conjuncts JK's Saturn: Mingyu could sometimes feel like JK is not that okay to do things with Mingyu. Mingyu could want to push JK's limits, and make him go out of his comfort zone. This is a very karmic aspect to be honest, and so JK could sometimes feel uncomfortable with Mingyu.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Mercury conjuncts Mingyu's Mars: Arguments could happen more often than what we think! They could argue or have some fights sometimes, and they could go quite verbal about it. But it could also mean when they face conflicts, they will most of the time talk about it instead of hiding their pain and anger to each other, which is quite healthy in my opinion. Otherwise, the way they speak to each other is often very entertaining and passionate. Could sometimes insult each other just for fun.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Venus conjuncts Mingyu's Chiron: JK will help Mingyu heal his traumas a lot. It's a very tender and loving way to be honest, JK is here to support and encourage Mingyu.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Venus conjuncts JK's Saturn: Karmic aspect, once again. They both feel like their friendship is something they see longterm but they could sometimes pass through obstacles together which can be hard emotionally sometimes.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Mars conjuncts Mingyu's Vertex: Conflict could happen sometimes between them. This could be related to career or competition in general. Probably inevitable for both of them to argue one day over envy, jealousy and competition.

๋࣭ ⭑ Mingyu's Mars conjuncts JK's North Node: Mingyu will help a lot JK on his life path, he could feel very invested in helping JK reaching his life mission. He could not realize it, but it just means Mingyu will play a major role in JK's life, mostly towards his purpose in this life time.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's Chiron conjuncts Mingyu's Chiron: Once again, this conjunction could be because they are only 5 months apart. But Chiron conjunct Chiron could be a sign of healing their traumas together. They could trigger each other about certain things but helping each other about those. SO this could be sometimes a painful relationship, because this is never easy. But they will help each other a lot.

๋࣭ ⭑ JK's North Node conjuncts Mingyu's North Node: Are on the same life path!! This makes sense since they are 5 months apart, but it means they probably met in order to help each other reach their life purpose.

Thank you for reading!

back to index ; ask ; request ; rules

[youunravelme]

NEW FIC?? RATTHEW???? im SATTTTTTTT do u have any sneak peeks for us 👀👀👀👀 cant wait!!! <33

hmmmmm, well i guess i could give you a sneak peak rn since you're being so nice :)

the fic is split into two different timelines, before and after, so that's why you'll see "before" at the beginning of the sneak peek.

anyway, here's wonderwall

before

you were incredibly aware that you didn’t quite fit in. your mom drove you to school in a beat up 1997 toyota camry which looked incredibly out of place among the bmws and audis. your mom offered to walk you in, but she was wearing her scrubs from her night shift and her face looked tired, so you declined the offer and got out of the car yourself.

it shouldn’t have been as daunting as it was, but your old school wasn’t as prestigious as this one. your previous schools in cedar rapids had been public schools. no one was wearing a uniform, and most of the backpacks worn came from the same walmart in your old neighborhood. 

but your parents had decided they wanted a better education for you, even if neither of them had the money to fork out thousands of dollars for a private school. your mom’s parents, however, were loaded. they were more than willing to fork out a small fortune for your schooling under the conditions of your family uprooting your lives to missouri. you were too young to realize what a sacrifice that was, you didn’t notice the snide comments your grandparents made about your father’s choice of career or your mother’s choice in husband.

you didn’t see your grandparents any more than you usually did since you’d moved to missouri two weeks ago. they’d been out of town on a trip to rome up until three days ago and hadn’t reached out to have dinner or hang out at all.

not that you cared at the age of nine, you were more focused on unpacking your room. but now that you were standing in front of the giant school alone, you felt like you should’ve been more concerned with how nice your school supplies were.

a kind woman greeted you at the entrance of the school. she smiled and introduced herself, though you couldn’t hear her over the roaring in your ears. she stood next to a blond haired blue eyed boy who was your height.

“are your parents here?” you weren’t sure how you heard her over the noise in your head.

you shook your head. “my mom had to go home and my dad is at work.”

the woman blinked. “is today your first day?”

“mom, it’s everyone’s first day of school,” the boy groaned.

“i wasn’t talking to you, matthew,” she said, though her eyes never left your own.

“i just moved here,” was all you said, albeit a bit quietly. 

“well, you can walk in with us.” She placed a warm hand on your back and ushered you inside next to her son.

you took notice of her nicer clothing compared to your mom’s scrubs or your dad’s tattered khakis, though the woman’s clothing wasn’t as ostentatious as other parents’.

“do you know your teacher’s name?” the woman asked.

you nodded and showed her the crumpled paper in your hand. the night before, you were wracked with nerves and wrote your teacher’s on a blank sheet of paper and doodled around it. even at nine years old, you were concerned that you’d somehow forget. you couldn’t be more grateful for it now.

the woman’s face lit up. “oh how lucky! matthew look! you’re in the same class.”

matthew for his part, tried to look happy about it, but his eyes kept wandering to the hallways, like he was looking for people he knew. you felt bad for even being in this situation. you missed your friends from iowa and the light up shoes you used to wear before you were given a uniform.

matthew’s mom pointed out the classroom that was supposed to be yours and walked both you and matthew into the room. unlike her son, who immediately found his friends to do elaborate handshakes with, you stayed by her side. she was a stranger, sure, but she was more comforting that the classroom of fifteen other nine and ten year olds.

the woman sighed and bent down a little to look you in the eyes. “it’s gonna be a good day, sweetheart,” she said. “mr. terry is a great teacher, he’s really kind.” you weren’t sure how she would know that, but you weren’t going to call her a liar. “and if you need anything, ask matthew. he’s been going here since kindergarten, okay?”

you nodded.

mr. terry walked over and introduced himself. he had dark skin and a bright smile, showing you to your seat. your name was on a card with fun stickers on it. next to your seat, you saw matthew’s name. now it wasn’t necessarily an unpopular name, there were three matthews in your third grade class, so you weren’t holding out hope that it was going to be the matthew you walked into class with. but two minutes later, he was plopping down into the seat to your left.

matthew looked almost startled to see you sitting next to him, but when the shock wore off he gave you a crooked smile and stuck his hand out. “i’m matt,” he said, like you two didn’t walk into class together.

you shook his hand anyway and gave him a shy smile and told him your name, just in case he didn’t see it written on your desk.

if it was even possible, his smile widened. “pretty name,” he said.

[blueiskewl]

Lost and Found: Bottle Hunter Digs Extraordinary Farmland Treasures

Tom Askjem is a time traveler. Every May to November, he disappears into the bowels of the earth, descends to depths of 13’-plus, and returns to the surface with treasure—bottles and glassware from farming’s past.

After 1,800 pits and hundreds of thousands of relics, Askjem is equal parts archeologist, thrill seeker, and mole. Muscle on dirt, the North Dakota farm boy has turned an addiction into a career, multiple books, and a captivating YouTube channel with millions of views. However, Askjem seeks more than glass.

“I’m digging for adventure, history, and love,” he says. The past is in these holes and there are countless numbers of them across farmland.”

Time to hunt with a master.

The Infection

On the flats of extreme eastern North Dakota’s Traill County, Askjem, 32, prepares for a dig trip. “No mountains and no hills in the Red River Valley,” he describes. “You can see your dog run away for days. The land is mostly featureless, other than a few big cottonwoods and shelter belts where farms used to be.”

A mop of blonde hair sits atop a 6’-tall, lanky frame as Askjem saddles his pony—a Honda Civic. At the current mileage rate, the Civic will be junkyard fodder before it has a scratch: 60,000 backroad miles added to the odometer in the past six months.

Askjem piles layers of gear into the trunk, including three of each tool for insurance: shovels, pronged garden forks, trampoline pads, probe rods, buckets, plastic scoopers, trowels, tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, air mattresses, clothes, and waterproof, Redwing leather work boots.

“It never gets old,” he says, wearing a wide grin. “I caught the infection when I was a kid.”

Digging Bodies

Pushed from the Grand Forks area by the historic Red River flood of 1997, Askjem moved to a farm outside Buxton at six years young. The main property was an 1878 homestead—a progression from sod house to log cabin to the present standing 1898 farmhouse decked in Victorian-era woodwork and hardware.

Surrounded by history, including the skeletons of old wagons and rusting machinery, Askjem explored a 5-acre patch of woods on the property, and chanced on a garbage dump: pop bottles and trash.

Askjem dug.

“I went deep and found stuff going back to 1898. When you’re a kid living in the country, there’s no going down the street and there’s no hanging with friends to play video games—you make your own adventure. I started hitting up all the farmers I could find for leads.”

Behind the wheel of a rattling go-cart, Askjem sought Buxton old-timers and collected tips on abandoned houses. “They all helped me,” he says. “Nobody cared where I hunted because I was just a little kid exploring for all the right reasons.”

“I’ve still got an elementary school journal with an assignment describing my weekend,” he adds. “I wrote, ‘Me and Mom dug up old bodies.’ The teacher marked my paper out of concern,” Askjem describes, with an easy, deep chuckle. “I meant to spell bottles, not bodies. But it shows I was truly hooked.”

Indeed. Wonderfully hooked.

Soft Landing

Why are bottles buried under farmland and old house sites?

Prior to plastic and synthetics, glassware held everything: medicine, hygiene products, alcohol, soda, and beyond. Glass was it.

Additionally, prior to waste disposal services, homeowners discarded trash on-site—in back yard outhouses, trash depressions, burn pits, and wells or cisterns. In short time, the various ground receptacle spots were filled and forgotten.

“Let’s say, for example, a family moved in around 1880,” Askjem explains. “That site likely has two or three outhouse locations prior to World War l. The outhouse spots filled up at a rate according to family size. I dug one farmhouse site that had six outhouses in a 10-year span. Folks went into the outhouses and threw away bottles: medicine, opiates, beer, whiskey. It was convenient and private, and had a soft landing, and got covered quickly. Even now, the bottles often are still preserved.”

“Generally, these houses also had a burn pit and/or dump pit. In the early days, they burned all trash in the stove for heat. Also, homestead bucket wells were filled up with trash and bottles once they were replaced by pump wells. Cisterns also were eventually filled up, but most of those are associated with houses in town.”

And the sites remain, he emphasizes, hiding intact relics beyond the reach of farm machinery or tillage equipment.

X Marks the Spot

Location. Location. Location. Other than a tip or invitation, how does Askjem find dig sites?

X marks the spot, at least in the county courthouse or public library. He spends winters poring over early property transaction documents. “I look at lot sales. If several lots sold for $100 each in 1880, but one sold for $1,000 in 1885, the price climb tells the story and likely represents a building location.”

“I also read old newspaper archives, looking for hotel or business advertisements,” Askjem continues. “Then I can look up the proprietor’s name and keep tightening the scope, narrowing down the exact building location.”

“Every single house is different, but generally, in the countryside, outhouses were 30 paces out the back door. In the city, where most lots were 140’ long, outhouses could be as close as 5-10 paces.”

Confident of a site’s potential, Askjem first asks for permission to dig from the landowner. “Property owners are always so kind to me and I don’t hide anything I find. They’re curious about what is in the ground, just like anybody else.”

Second, he grids out the site. “I put down markers 2 paces apart, maybe 20 paces long. I push probe rods into ground and feel for compaction differences. Depending on the location, I’ll call in and have utility lines marked out for power and gas.”

Decked in Levi’s and a tank-top, it’s time to tunnel.

Claustrophobic Comfort

Shovel in hand, Askjem descends into a layer cake of dirt: black topsoil to brown-colored clay to telltale ash to a use layer containing treasure.

“Generally, I go deep to find old items in quantity. The earliest bottles were used to the last drop by farmers and thrown out empty. Therefore, when they froze in brutal Dakota winters, the glass didn’t break from liquid expansion.”

As Askjem extracts glass vessels from the dirt and grime, his encyclopedic knowledge registers with each find. He recognizes the type, manufacturer, and age. Ink bottles, hygiene bottles, medicine bottles, beer bottles, soda bottles—and far more spill from the holes.

“I find patented medicine bottles across the country, but my favorite are soda bottles because they are unique to their locale and have character. The old soda bottles are usually marked with the bottler and town name because they were returnable.”

The outhouse pits are typically 6’-deep at home sites, with an average size of 6’-by-4’-by-3’. “I’ve dug ghost towns, dug saloons, train depots, and pool halls that were 12’ long, 4’ wide, and 8’ deep. I remember a hotel pit that was 20’-by-20’ and 8’ deep. There was a military fort with pits behind the barracks that was 12’ long, 4’ wide, and 13.5’ deep: That was a week’s worth of digging.”

Askjem’s subterranean realm provides no comfort to the claustrophobic. At 8’-9’, he braces the holes with woodwork. “I’m in a solid clay base that doesn’t cave, but I have a healthy respect for the ground’s limitation. Sometimes, it looks like I’m digging a rabbit hole.”

Preserved in nature’s freezer, the artifacts unearthed by Askjem often are in phenomenal condition.

“Pieces of newspaper can still be read; bottle labels are legible; white lime used in decomposition is visible; and undigested seeds are everywhere. Even 120-year-old human waste sometimes is perfectly preserved and still smells like hell. I wear a hydrogen sulfide respirator in those cases.”

“It’s all there; almost like it was dropped yesterday.”

Ghosts in the Ground

In 2022, Askjem began chronicling his digs via a YouTube channel, Below the Plains, and soon captured millions of views. At two posts per week, he gins footage at a steady rate to feed the algorithm, a tough task considering the ground in his geography is frozen from mid-November to mid-May.

Additionally, Askjem has written two in-depth books (Nebraska Soda Bottles 1865-1930 and A History of North Dakota Bottling Operations 1879-1930) and has more on the way. “I put the bottle prices in the books because they can sell for a whole lot and I always tell the landowners. Listing prices draw criticism, but that’s important to me because it helps preserve the item, and preservation of history is what drives me.”

Covered in dust or mud at the end of each day in digging season, Askjem is highly respectful of what he finds—almost reverent after 1,800 digs. “I appreciate everything I uncover because it represents a part of someone’s daily life and existence. There’s nothing wrong with coveting bottles, but I’m really in those holes for the moment of discovery.”

Even when not digging, Askjem is on the move, surfing on the coasts or river diving for lost cargo. In the decades to come, will he continue burrowing into the past? “Twenty years from now, I hope I’m still digging and there’s nothing I’d rather be doing right now.”

“There’s not an infinite amount of lost bottle sites, but there’s certainly an incredibly high number,” he continues. “There were 300,000 homestead farms in North Dakota with a minimum of one well, one outhouse, and one trash dump. And that doesn’t include towns where most of the population lived. There are millions of these sites in North Dakota and far more in other states.”

Respect to a freewheeling hunter like no other. Bottles draw the eye, but ghosts draw the heart: “The moment never gets old when you uncover a bottle and find that history,” Askjem adds. “Never.”

By CHRIS BENNETT.

[mimi-0007]

Edna Mae Harris (September 29, 1914 – September 15, 1997), sometimes credited as Edna May Harris was an American actress and singer. Harris was one of the first African–American film actress of the late 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in films featuring mostly African–American casts.

Born in Harlem, Harris parents were Sam, a boxer and customs inspector; Her mother Mary Harris (née Walker) worked as a maid. Harris' family is noted as one of the first families to have migrated to Harlem. Settling near the Lafayette Theater, Harris was convinced into pursuing a career in show business by Ethel Waters and Maud Russell who were frequent visitors to her family home. After being coached on her singing and dancing by Waters and Russell, Harris began performing in the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA). An African-American vaudeville circuit, Harris performed with TOBA from 1929 until 1933.

Harris attended Wadleigh High School (later known as Wadleigh High School for Girls) in Manhattan. During the summer after her sophomore year of high school, Harris worked at the Alhambra Theater doing dramatic sketches with a stock company. During this period, Harris received excellent training in diction and stage delivery through her association with veteran performers. Harris was also an excellent swimmer in high school, and in 1928 she entered the New York Daily News' Swimming Meet and won a championship.

Harris first real Hollywood break came when she landed a part in The Green Pastures (1936), portraying Zeba, starring with Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson. Harris was a leading lady in Spirit of Youth (1938), the story of the rise of boxer Joe Thomas, which paralleled the life of Joe Louis. Harris also had leading roles in Oscar Micheaux films, Lying Lips (1939), and The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940). Her film credits also include such Hollywood films as Bullets or Ballots (1936), Private Number (1936), and Garden of Allah (1936), and the independent film Paradise in Harlem in 1939. Between picture commitments she toured with Noble Sissle's Orchestra as a featured vocalist along with Lena Horne and Billy Banks. In 1942, she played fourteen weeks at the old Elks' Rendezvous as the mistress of ceremonies and announced a weekly radio show over station WMCA in New York City. She also did character dialect parts on many broadcasts for the Columbia Workshop Program. Edna Mae Harris got to tell her story in her later years in the documentary, Midnight Ramble (1994), about independently produced black films.

Harris was married twice and had no children. Her first marriage was to Edward Randolph from 1933 until 1938, then to Harlem nightclub owner Walter Anderson from 1951 until his death in 1983. Harris dated boxer Joe Louis sometime during 1939 and 1940. Harris dated Robert Paquin, who co-starred with her in the Lying Lips from 1941 until 1942. Harris died of a heart attack on September 15, 1997 at the age of 82.

[mariacallous]

The soon-to-be ruling party in Britain has alighted on two motifs for its general election campaign: the red, white, and blue Union Jack and the word “change.”

If he is to win, Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, must pull off a voting shift greater even than that achieved by his mentor Tony Blair in 1997, the last time their party seized power. Yet such is the calamitous state of the Conservatives that after 14 years of misrule, a victory for Labour has been pretty much priced in for the election on July 4.

The only question is how great a majority it will achieve and whether that can produce a buffer large enough to keep it in power for a decade at least to tackle Britain’s many woes—from the economy to the health service, education, social care, and failed privatizations such as the postal service and water. Indeed, pretty much every area of public infrastructure needs repair.

There is another problem, one that is harder to enumerate but that also goes to the core of Britain’s unhappiness. Starmer often points to, if obliquely, the loss of the country’s status, its decline in esteem around the world and among the British themselves. There is little any government can, or should, do to address broad historical sweeps that produce such cultural malaise, such as postcolonial decline (which also affects France and similar countries).

What governments can do is chart a new course. Blair tried to modernize Britain’s image, with some success, at least until the Iraq War in 2003. Since then, it has retreated into the default position of desperately clinging to past glories, applying balm to cover more contemporary wounds. Starmer, for his part, will not talk about the central cause, Brexit; he refuses to countenance a formal return to European Union structures.

There are other causes of Britain’s malaise, however. The two most recognizable emblems of Britain’s soft power, the royal family and the BBC, are themselves beleaguered. There is little Starmer can do to address the former (though, within months of taking office, Blair persuaded Queen Elizabeth to show a little less stiff upper lip following the death of Princess Diana).

But there is much the prospective incumbent in Downing Street can do to help sort out the national broadcaster. The BBC’s future matters far beyond the island’s shores. It is central to the global battle for hearts and minds, an important tool for liberal democracy to counter the increasingly successful disinformation strategies of Russia and China.

In short, a reinvigorated BBC would also reinvigorate Britain’s reputation in the world. But to achieve that is easier said than done and will require considerable surgery.

Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote a piece reworking the famous acronym as “Broken, Beaten, Cowed.” Needless to say, the higher-ups at the network didn’t appreciate it. I stood by my argument then. I feel even more vindicated now.

Some of the problems are self-inflicted. The organization’s management has struggled to deal with a string of HR scandals, some extraordinarily sordid, over the years. These have damaged its reputation.

In the many decades I have known, and contributed to, the BBC, relations between staff and management have veered between suspicion and acrimony. Both sides seem to be equally responsible. The tens of thousands who work there have a deeply embedded civil service mentality. For many of these “lifers,” it has been their only employer.

Most of those now in charge of the organization have spent much of their careers outside it. That brings with it a difference in perspective but also a lack of loyalty to a venerable institution. They have pushed out a large proportion of the news and current affairs department and shut or pared back important foreign bureaus. Much expertise has gone with them. Many esteemed journalists have claimed they have been discriminated against and sometimes humiliated, while being encouraged to leave. Several employment tribunals are ongoing.

The bigger issues at stake are financial and political. The BBC has had to operate in an environment of deliberately stoked hostility. A series of Conservative culture ministers, almost one for each year in office, have either loathed or barely tolerated the publicly funded corporation. Its budget has been cut; its system of funding through a direct tax, the license fee, is now open to debate. Meanwhile, a Fox News-style culture warrior channel called GB News has been lavished with praise by the government.

The organization is facing a series of technological and demographic headwinds. Far fewer Gen Zers watch and listen to BBC output than older generations (a problem that other legacy media organizations grapple with). In a bid to keep up with the times, the BBC has changed the nature of much of its content. Serious detailed documentaries take second place to competing with TikTok.

The evening current affairs program Newsnight, on air since 1980, is now a low-cost, low-grade chat show. The morning radio program, called Today, which used to be an appointment to listen, has replaced much of its (more expensive) international coverage with round-Britain lifestyle segments.

The most visible area of withering is in the BBC’s global output. In a note to staff in April announcing her departure after only three years as director of the World Service, Liliane Landor expressed deep concern about the “operational capability” of the service, which broadcasts in 42 languages. “With media freedom under threat, the World Service is a force for good and the BBC needs to look after it,” Landor said in a statement.

The BBC announced in September 2022 that nearly 400 jobs in its global arm would be lost to save 28.5 million pounds (about $35.6 million). Several languages have been dropped, including Arabic, with Persian to follow. In 2021, the BBC spent 290 million pounds ($368 million) on the service, with the government, via the Foreign Office, committing to invest a further 94 million pounds ($120 million) a year until next March. After this, funding is up for grabs.

BBC Director General Tim Davie, while pushing through the cuts, has urged the government to provide more of the funding. “We cannot keep asking U.K. license fee payers to invest in it when we face cuts to U.K. services,” he said. “We will need to discuss a long-term funding solution … that comes from central government budgets.”

Back in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 fake news battle, the government gave the BBC an extra pot of money to fight disinformation coming from Russia, China, and elsewhere. The idea was to help expand a new unit verifying information and tackling bots. The sum, 8 million pounds ($11 million), while not unwelcome, was a drop in the ocean and does not compensate for the contraction of its traditional journalism.

The organization’s most recent annual report revealed that the weekly reach of the World Service had declined 12 percent year-on-year to 318 million people. Shortly after celebrating its centenary, the BBC is losing global influence at a time when it is most needed, with democracy in so much peril in so many parts of the world.

Starmer and his ministers will not want to get involved in the BBC’s day-to-day problems. Indeed, they will be keen, after a decade of interference by the Conservatives, to give it more operational independence.

Yet if there is one area where the government should be active, it is in preserving and extending the BBC’s role in providing impartial and reliable news and analysis to as many people as possible around the world. That will cost money – and Labour has made clear it will not spend what it can’t afford. Much of it could be found by abolishing the comical ‘GREAT’ campaign of British flag-waving that costs the taxpayer 60 million pounds per year. The government will have to do a new cost-sharing deal with the BBC and even if a little more has to be found, it is surely a price worth paying to give the UK an influence in the world it has steadily lost.

Whatever the costs, the long-term cost of watching as the organization’s international output continues to wither will be greater still.

[deeptrashwitch]

Marcus "Poison" Lombardi

Name: Marcus Lombardi

Nacionality: American🇺🇲/Italian🇮🇹

Age: 25

Date of birth: 8th march 1997 - New York City (U.S.A)

Residence: Killeen, Texas, USA

Afilliation: U.S Marine Corps / 75th Ranger Regiment Specters

Rank: Private

Callsign: Poison (Current)/ Charlie 3-6

Occupation: Infantry operator

Height: 1.86 m/ 6'1" ft

Weight: 80 kg

Blood type: AB-

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Straight

Languages: English (Native), Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian

AFILLIATIONS

Specters members:

-Captain Alicia Marchant (alive)

-Lieutenant Luke Michaelis (alive)

-Sergeant Jackson Blackwell (alive)

-Sergeant Edward Jackson (alive)

-Corporal Noah García (alive)

-Corporal Elijah Wilson (alive)

-Airman First Class Nicholas Fowlett (alive)

-Private Elliot Stevens (alive)

-Private Alexander Christensen (alive)

-Private Francis Scott (alive)

CIA:

-Chief Station Dominique Wright (alive)

Underworld:

-Liù Xiao Chen (alive)

FAMILY

-Kenneth Lombardi (Father) (alive)

-Janice Lombardi nee Crane (Mother) (deceased)

-Nick Lombardi (Uncle) (alive)

-Keyra Lombardi (spouse) (alive)

PERSONALITY

-He is energetic and joyful with his teammates, but when he's on mission his personality becomes a mix of cautious, ferocious and analytic.

-During the conjoined missions he stays near the other soldiers as his Captain commanded, but he always is alert and is always trying to get the most information he can of them only by their looks.

-He always stays deep in his thoughts when he thinks about his parents, and sometimes is difficult to bring him back. Every time he came back, he shake his head and then sighs, and when he does that...everyone knows he has zoned out.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in New York City, New York. His family during many years were his father, his mother, his uncle and him, but now there's only the men. As a kid, he was an absolute mom's boy, although he keeps an amazing relationship with his father.

When he was younger they all lived on Little Italy, and he passed part of his time inside his father's store, helping with the register while he was on high school. During that time he met Keyra when she went to buy groceries, it was a daily thing, but that time was somehow different and they ended up dating after many funny situations. He took a year and half before enlisting, again to help with the family bussiness, and once he enlisted to the Marine Corps, he departed to Camp Pendelton.

When he finished basic training, he was assigned to one team, his first and last team before the Specters. After his first deployment, and even against some people advices, he proposed and married Keyra, and has never regreted it. But during that first years, he learned about his mom's diagnosis, she had stomach cancer.

It was difficult to hear, and mostly to see his father so drained when he accompained her to chemotherapy. He talked with Keyra about and both decided to help with the costs of the treatments, so a big part of his salary went to it. Even his uncle flew from Florence to help them with the bussiness, to gave his own brother a break, also Keyra helped her mother-in-law everytime she could.

Marcus had a hard time to go and see his mom, but when he was able to do it, he went even if it hurted like hell to see her that way. Right now he prefers not to evoke the image of his mother, how tired, sick and sad she looked, and how she tried to smile to him. That lasted during a couple more years before his mother passed away, and it hurted during the next two years and still hurts until today.

It was difficult to keep going, but he did, helping his father and with Keyra's help. After it, he continued inside the Marine Corps, and soon Wraith went to talk with him to offer him a place inside the Specters. Soon he arrived to Black Tomb, and there he has stayed from then on.

SKILLS

-Specialized on many fire weapons, his favorites during missions are a Galil 556. and a Carabin M4.

-Main and static part of the infantry squad, but he goes better during infiltration missions. They are the second squad to get inside the objective, always behind the recon squad.

COMBAT

His combat style is specialized on ofenssive, not as variated as the Captain's, but it make him almost an expert on MCMAP. His first choice weapon is also a Bowie knife. He's teaching their combat style to some of the team, and he practices usually with Alexander and the Captain.

TRIVIA

-Marcus loves to learn how to play every instrument he can get his hands on. So far he knows how to play guitar, drums, flaute, tamborine, bass and piano.

-He's madly in love with Keyra. Every time he's off deployment he arrives at the house with a flower bouquet, his wife favorite dinner and some beautiful jewels. He always feels guilty for leaving her during missions, but every time she reassures him that she'll be fine and that she's proud of him.

-He has no car but Keyra does. She got a blue Chevrolet Spark, it's nothing luxurious and a bit old but she uses it almost everyday.

-Marcus doesn't have a favorite music genre, but enjoys specially the music in spanish. Noah has played jokes on him many time because of it.

-Everytime he has the opportunity to talk about his wedding, HE WILL! It amuses the team, but they are happy to hear how their friend has a happy marriage. Everyone gave him ideas for some dates, and Marcus helped Luke with everything related to his own wedding.

-His callsign was an accident, to be honest. During a call with his now deceased mother, he heard her talking about a documentary she was watching, about true crime. His mother muttered something related a random fact mentioned, and he recognized it instantly a way of how killing with poison. They started calling him Poison, and it stayed!

-He always goes to get himself checked looking for any kind of cancer. He refuses to take a risk about it.

-His favorite drink is soda, he doesn't have a determined brand, just takes anything in stock. And his favorite food is pancakes, specifically the ones with banana and chocolate sirup! Everytime they go to a dinner or a cafe, Marcus will order pancakes and if it has also powdered suger on top...he can die happy.

Song

Moodboard

[nerdygaymormon]

LDS LGBTQ+ anniversaries for 2024

50 years ago

March 27, 1974 - BYU President Dallin H. Oaks delivered a speech on campus in which he spoke in favor of keeping criminal punishment for "deviate sexual behavior" such as private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity.

July 1974 - the Ensign magazine prints an answer from Dr. Lindsay Curits, a medical doctor, to the question "Why does the Church oppose homosexuality? Why is it wrong?" Dr. Curtis states that homosexuals have "chosen this way of life" but "can be helped" and that "homosexuals and lesbians seldom are happy people" and their relationships are "unnatural", full of "emotional problems" and "promiscuity", and lacking in "fidelity, trust, or loyalty". Additionally, they try to recruit "others into their practice…in their tender, impressionable years".

July 10, 1974 - President Spencer W. Kimball addressed the BYU student body and said that sex reassignment surgeries were a travesty

October 4, 1974 - President Spencer W. Kimball spoke at General Conference and stated that masturbation leads to homosexuality.

25 Years ago

May 11, 1999 - A letter was sent which was to be read in all LDS sacrament meetings in California which directed members to "do all you can by donating your means and time" to ensure that Proposition 22 (known as the Knight Initiative) passed, which would limit marriage in California to only being a man and a woman, denying same-sex couples legal recognition.

September 1999 - The Ensign magazine publishes an article which says that homosexuality is caused by things such as "temperament, personality traits, sexual abuse, familial factors, and treatment by one’s peers". It goes on to say that individuals can learn to diminish those feelings and become heterosexuals.

October 2, 1999 - In General Conference, President Hinckley says that "so-called same-sex marriage … is not a matter of civil rights; it is a matter of morality. … There is no justification to redefine what marriage is."

October 3, 1999 - 150 members of Affirmation protest outside of Temple Square in opposition to the church's involvement in the California ballot initiative that would reinforce marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman

November 14-17, 1999 - The World Congress of Families (WCF was formed in 1997 to promote Christian values internationally by opposing divorce, birth control, same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, while supporting marriage between a man & a woman) met in Geneva, Switzerland where the Director of BYU's World Family Policy Center, Kathryn Balmforth, delivered an address where she said gay rights activists are part of an anti-family movement which is hijacking the idea of human rights in order to gain new rights for homosexuals, and would use legal force to curtail freedoms for most of humanity

15 Years ago

November 10, 2009 - Church PR director Michael Otterson gave a statement at a Salt Lake City Council hearing in support of a proposed city anti-discrimination ordinance which would protect LGBT individuals.

10 Years ago

January 10, 2014 - A letter from the First Presidency was read in all LDS congregations in the United States. The letter urged members to review the Family Proclamation and called for "kindness and civility" towards supporters of same-sex marriage. It also stated that everyone is welcome in LDS chapels as long as they "respect our standards of conduct while there".

March 25, 2014 - Tyler Glenn, lead singer of the band Neon Trees, comes out as a gay Mormon in Rolling Stone magazine.

5 Years ago

February 26, 2014 - Former BYU mascot Charlie Bird comes out as gay in the Deseret News.

April 4, 2019 - Elder Oaks announces that the November 2015 Policy of Exclusion is rescinded and “immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way.” Children of parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender may now be blessed as infants and baptized in the LDS Church without First Presidency approval.

April 29, 2019 - BYU valedictorian Matt Easton speaks at a BYU commencement ceremony. He states “I stand before my family, friends and graduating class today to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God.“ He receives rousing applause.

July 3, 2019 - BYU track athlete Emma Gee comes out as bisexual, becoming the first openly-queer athlete at BYU

September 13, 2019 - Jessyca Fullmer posts a video explaining that she’s dating a woman and has never been happier. She apologizes to people who may feel disappointed and explains that she asked the Church to remove her video from the mormonandgay website

September 10, 2019 - Becky Mackintosh, the mom who is featured in the mormonandgay video as supporting her gay son, releases a book titled “Love Boldly: Embracing Your LGBTQ Loved Ones and Your Faith”

————————————————————-

The change inside the LDS Church has been gradual, but these few snippets from the past decades show change is happening and accelerating

[littletroubledgrrrl]

[door]

my friend asked me for murder show recs and i put together a list of a bunch of them and thought i'd also share it here in case anyone else who was not raised by the glow of mystery! on pbs might want an intro. extremely subjective commentary, obvs. enjoy.

hello. welcome to the world of finding television shows about people getting killed comforting. it's fucked up, but who isn't. here's a list of the ones i like and why and where to watch them.

midsomer murders (1997-current): this is one of those sterotypical "it ran for 25 years and did nearly 18 episodes" british shows. it was adapted from a book series, which are the early eps. they're really fucked up and great imo. the later ones lose that sharpness, but until seasons 20+ i think it's a really solid show. the theme song is performed on a theremin. pluses: every great british actor shows up at least once, incredibly great deaths, lots of hyper niche hobby groups, tom barnaby is the best. minuses: showrunner brian true-may quoted as saying that his version of "english countryside" is entirely white. he was booted from the show at that point, however. i've watched the entire series 2-3 times, except for s5e3 "Ring Out Your Dead" because there's a death in it that i found particularly tragic the first time i watched it and have no desire to revisit it (but ymmv). robyn's fave ep is s3e3 "Judgement Day," because a brass band plays the show's theme song at a village fete and also Orlando Bloom is run through with a pitchfork. (ACORN)

Poirot (1989-2013): truly the goat. David Suchet bodies this role. i don't know how familiar you are with christie, but hercule poirot was her recurring detective character, a fastidious little belgian living in 1930s England. in this show, it's the late 1930s for 20 years, and the sets and costumes are so good. not a single streamline moderne property in england is overlooked. the early episodes are short--40ish minutes each--but they transition to 90 minutes at some point. they adapt all of the poirot books, with the big ones--murder on the orient express and death on the nile--done as higher budget tv movies. (BRITBOX)

marple (2004-2013): another christie adaptation, with 2 actresses playing miss marple in sequence. they also adapted a bunch of non-marple stories to have miss marple in them. set post-WWII, mainly countryside english mysteries. (BRITBOX)

miss fisher's murder mysteries (2012-2015, film in 2020): set in 1920s melbourne, mfmm follows independently wealthy private eye phryne fisher. it's an adaptation of modern novels, so it's less conservative than the christies. phryne's best friend is a suit-wearing lesbian doctor. it's a sharp, smart show, and phryne herself (as well as her relationship with buttoned-up detective jack robinson) is very sexy. it ran three seasons and was followed by a crowd-funded film in 2020, which isn't GOOD, but it is FUN. there's another a spin-off set in the 1960s called miss fisher's modern mysteries, which follows phryne's niece. again--not good, but fun. nothing beats the og series tho. (ACORN)

lewis (2006-2015): this is technically a spin-off of the inspector morse series, which started in the 80s, but i've never watched it so you should be fine. this follows very un-academic inspector lewis and his very academic assistant DS hathaway in EXTREMELY academic oxford england. i really dig the pacing of this, as well as how profoundly weird smart people can be. the big downside is the actor who played hathaway is laurence fox, who's a real stinker of a dude. right-wing, racist, etc. so. ymmv. (BRITBOX)

vera (2011-current): vera is a nearly retired, irascible, set in her ways detective in northumberland. she heads her own department, so part of the appeal is definitely trim youngsters dashing to do her bidding with a "yes mum." she drives a huge old land rover, wears a raincoat everywhere, has no patience for class barriers, and in short i love her. in the newer seasons there is also a detective in her squad called Jaq who is a very cute butch. (BRITBOX)

dalgliesh (2021-current): adaptation of pd james novels following detective-poet adam dalgliesh. set in the 1970s, which sets it apart and which i quite enjoy. his character is really sensitive and thoughtful is a way that's unusual for cop shows. (ACORN)

annika (2021-current): i'm gonna dive into some of the weirder ones now. annika is still pretty serious, but the title character has a habit of breaking the 4th wall to loop the audience in on the meta nature of her thoughts--usually relating to a book or story. it's set in glasgow and they investigate marine crime specifically. annika is played by nicola walker, who full disclosure i find VERY attractive. she's norwegian, she's odd, and she's trying her best. she has a teenage daughter who's gay. (PBS)

queens of mystery (2019-current): this one is VERY odd. think british murders meets pushing daisies. there's a narrator, and occasional technicolor flights of fancy. it follows a very serious detective who was raised by her three aunts after her mother was killed. she comes back to work in her home town and has to navigate both sides of her life, plus still wanting to know who killed her mother. production was interrupted by covid, so the main actress changed between seasons, but the new person is also very good. (ACORN)

brokenwood mysteries (2014-current): this one is sort of...sillier than the rest? it's a new zealand show set in a small town. it's fairly queer (although not nearly queer enough), and one of the things i love the most about it is it maintains a roster of recurring characters (which i think is only possible because of the small size of the NZ film industry). pretty good maori rep, especially jared, a local who seems to know or be related in some way to everyone in town. i adore him. he's off the show now, and i miss him. (ACORN)

mcdonald & dodds (2020-current): set in bath, this is an odd couple partnership of an ambitious young cop lately from london and a shy older cop who has lived in bath all his life and hasn't seen action in a decade. their interactions are funny and lovely, and it's refreshing to see a black woman character allowed to be ambitious. (BRITBOX)