#Summer 2018 Survival Guide

[goodstuffhappenedtoday]

10 years ago, Batkid was battling bad guys and cancer — now he's 15 and healthy

Today, Miles Scott is a healthy teenager with a passion for baseball. He plays catcher for his high school in Tulelake, Calif. "I wear all-black in baseball," Miles said. "So the dugout's always screaming 'Batkid! Batkid!'" Ten years ago, the then-5-year-old Miles won hearts both in his hometown and around the world when he transformed into the black-clad superhero Batkid for a day, becoming an instant media sensation. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit that grants wishes to children who are seriously ill, partnered with the City of San Francisco to organize the adventure for Miles, who had been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since he was just 18 months old. According to the Yale School of Medicine, the disease is the most common type of childhood cancer. Survival rates used to be low, but these days children with the disease have up to a 90% chance of going on to lead a healthy life. Granting the wish Make-A-Wish went to elaborate lengths to make Miles' dream of becoming Batman's sidekick Batkid true. The foundation enlisted the help of The Mayor of San Francisco (the late Ed Lee), the San Francisco Police and Fire Departments, the San Francisco Giants and many other individuals and entities. San Francisco was re-dubbed "Gotham City" — Batman's fictional home — for the day. Clad in his Batkid costume and accompanied by a grownup Batman (played by Eric Johnston), the pair zipped around in their Batmobile thwarting villains — they prevented The Riddler from robbing a bank vault — and undertaking daring rescues, including freeing the San Francisco Giants' mascot Lou Seal from The Penguin's clutches.

Thousands of people descended on San Francisco to cheer Miles on. He earned a key to the city. The San Francisco Chronicle published a special edition of its daily newspaper to mark the occasion. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama sent Miles words of encouragement via a video message on social media. "The feeling was palpable; you could just feel the positiveness and how the community came together," said Miles' mom, Natalie Scott. "People flew in from everywhere and it just gave everyone some sense of peace almost." The event was covered by many mainstream media organizations, including NPR. And millions of people around the world followed the #Batkid hashtag on social media. Batkid lives on Batkid's legacy didn't end on that day.

The wish was the subject of the 2015 Warner Bros. documentary, Batkid Begins. Media organizations have revisited the story over the years. "He plays Little League, attends fifth grade, helps on his family's farm and sold his first market goat at the fair over the summer," reported his hometown California paper, The Siskyou Daily News, on Batkid's fifth anniversary in 2018.

And Miles himself has been free of cancer for the past few years. "Every year he goes for a checkup, and everything's been on the straight and narrow, so, we hope to keep it that way," said Nick Scott, Miles' dad. Miles has grown out of his Batkid costume. But his kid brother Ben donned it last Halloween. Miles is now in high school and is looking ahead to the future. "Right now, he's dead set on going to Alaska and being a 'pack mule' for his cousin's husband's guide business," said Natalie Scott. "And he has a lot of interest in welding. So we'll see!"

[the-forest-library]

April 2024 Reads

Just for the Summer - Abby Jimenez

Only and Forever - Chloe Liese

Say You'll Be Mine - Nana Kumar

The Governess's Guide to Passion and Peril - Manda Collins

The Lying Game - Sara Jane Woodley

The Prospects - K.T. Hoffman

The Husbands - Holly Gramazio

Begin Again - Helly Acton

One Moment - Becky Hunter

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice - Elle Cosimano

Interesting Facts About Space - Emily R. Austin

Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson

The Tusks of Extinction - Ray Nayler

The Reappearance of Rachel Price - Holly Jackson

Every Time You Hear That Song - Jenna Voris

Rules for Rule Breaking - Talia Tucker

Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman - Matt Fraction

No One Returns from the Enchanted Forest - Robin Robinson

Dear Sophie, Love Sophie - Sophie Lucido Johnson

Out of Left Field - Jonah Newman

Continental Drifter - Kathy MacLeod

Fiona the Hippo - Richard Cowdrey

Woodland Dreams - Karen Jameson

Mushroom Rain - Laura K. Zimmermann

Bluets - Maggie Nelson

Sociopath - Patric Gagne

Grimoire Girl - Hilarie Burton Morgan

I Am the New Black - Tracy Morgan

The 2000s Made Me Gay - Grace Perry

The Bookseller at the End of the World - Ruth Shaw

Dear Fahrenheit 451 - Annie Spence

Why We Read - Shannon Reed

Says Who? - Anne Curzan

The Anxiety Sisters' Survival Guide - Abbe Greenberg, Maggie Sarachek

The Microstress Effect - Rob Cross

Overcome Anxiety - Lilly Andrew

Mindfulness Now - Jesse Sands

The Cure for Burnout - Emily Ballesteros

Grown Woman Talk - Sharon Malone

Unfiltered Enneagram - Elizabeth Orr

Dear Prudence - Daniel M. Lavery

Bold = Highly Recommend Italics = Worth It Crossed out = Nope

Thoughts: 

A few standouts this month: Only and Forever brings the Bergman Brothers series to an end, and it was a worthy wrap up to these stories featuring MCs with disabilities and neurodivergence.

Just for the Summer is my new favorite Abby Jimenez book with several laugh out loud moments - especially the raccoon scene - which was hilarious on audio.

The Bookseller at the End of the World is not the cozy bookseller tale you might expect. Ruth led a varied and adventurous life filled with heartbreak and hope.

And I really enjoyed Says Who? - a super accessible and fun guide to English style and grammar.

Goodreads Goal: 150/200

2017 Reads | 2018 Reads | 2019 Reads | 2020 Reads | 2021 Reads | 

2022 Reads | 2023 Reads | 2024 Reads

[totowlff]

chapter forty-six — the loneliest

➝ it's not always easy to deal with your own mind

➝ word count: 1,9k

➝ warnings: mental health issues

➝ author’s note: yes, it's an update. yes, it's a shorter chapter. yes, the conversation is based on real dialogues.

JULY, 2018

As she sat on the couch in Alma’s office, Elisabeth felt pathetic. She couldn’t help it. This always happened during her appointments. Alma had assured her that it was completely normal and that she was far from the only client that experienced such strong emotional releases, it didn’t matter.

She had already been sobbing in front of the therapist for 20 minutes, without being able to complete even a coherent sentence to answer the only question she had asked so far. Such a simple question, but it had been able to make her crumble under the weight of all the fear she still felt.

— I believe it has been a difficult few days for you — Alma said calmly, her hands folded gently in her lap. 

— Yes, very difficult — Elisabeth managed to say, as she dried her nose with the tissue she had taken from the small table next to the armchair she was sitting on.

— Is there any point that you have found more difficult? — Alma asked, as Elisabeth nodded — And what would it be?

Elisabeth took a few deep breaths, trying to contain the whirlwind of emotions that had taken over her since the beginning of the month. Then, after sniffling and drying her eyes, she looked at the therapist again.

— My father's hospitalization — she said, quietly.

— I believe you are following everything closely…

— At first, yes, but now…

Niki's first few days in the hospital were reassuring. The immunosuppression therapy had shown satisfactory results in a short time, which cheered everyone up. However, it didn't take long for predictions of a possible rise before the end of the summer break to turn into what they didn't want to hear.

Elisabeth had just returned from an appointment with the obstetrician when Marlene called her and told her, with a choked voice, about Niki's worsening situation, that he had been transferred to the ICU. She felt tears welling in her eyes as her mother described her father's situation, stating that his lung tissue was deteriorating rapidly.

However, the final blow was when Doctor Idzko said that all treatments had been exhausted at that point, leaving only one option left.

— He needs a double lung transplant to survive. 

Alma pursed her lips, seeming to absorb the impact of the information.

— I assume he's already in line waiting for the organs, right? — she asked, earning a positive nod from Elisabeth — And you, how do you feel about this situation?

— Anxious, anguished, scared, all of that together. It's like there really is a chance that my father will die and I — she hesitated for a few seconds, feeling her throat tighten. After taking a deep breath, Elisabeth continued — I don't want to lose my father.

Even the possibility of it left her feeling disoriented. She didn't see herself being able to move forward without her father's presence in her own life, especially considering the magical phase that was about to begin in her life. How could Elisabeth be a mother without having her father by her side, guiding her in the same way he had always done?

— Why?

She raised her head, hesitantly.

— Because I can't see myself without my father. I don't see myself living in a world where my father isn't present, by my side, supporting me…

Alma pressed her lips into a thin line.

— Elisabeth, you are aware that no one lives forever, right?

— Yes.

— And you understand that our lives, at some point, will come to an end, right?

— Yes, but this is not the time…

— Who is to say that? — the therapist asked, her voice serious.

Elisabeth stared at her in silence, frozen. Sighing, the woman continued.

— It's understandable to be afraid of dying and losing our loved ones, but it's impossible to predict when or how we will all leave. In the end, only today is a reality.

— I don't want him to die now, he can't — she stammered, her eyes full of tears.

— No one wants to lose the one they love, that goes for anyone — Alma explained to her — But that's not up to you to choose, Elisabeth. And, in a way, we need to be prepared for that. To die, you just need to be alive.

She looked down at her hands, the diamonds on her fingers seeming to sparkle with tears. That statement was brutal, not to say cruel. How could life be something so intense and, at the same time, so delicate?

— I think this situation hurts more because you are living on both sides of the coin at the same time, dealing with a departure and an imminent arrival…

Elisabeth pursed her lips, her eyes dropping to her belly. That dichotomy was painful, especially because it was something she had always longed for, which was to see her father becoming her children's grandfather. And that seemed increasingly distant at that moment.

— Can I ask you something? — Alma said, making her wake up from her own thoughts and look up at the therapist.

— Yeah…

— Are you afraid of being alone?

She pressed her lips together tightly.

— Well, not necessarily. I've been alone on several occasions…

— I mean being without your parents, your siblings and your partner. Are you afraid of being completely alone in the world?

— Not a very pleasant prospect, is it?

— But it's perfectly plausible. No one is eternal, Elisabeth, and we never know what could happen the next minute — Alma explained, while her foot swayed slowly — So, do you have this fear?

Elisabeth had never stopped to think about it, but, in a way, it seemed too obvious. She couldn't remember a time when she was, in fact, alone. There was always someone around, whether it was his parents, his brothers and, more recently, Toto. There was always someone she could count on to provide support when needed.

But what about when there was no one?

— Do you think I'm afraid of being alone?

— You tell me, Elisabeth. Do you have this fear?

— I don't know.

Alma smiled.

— I think you know.

Of course she did.

She knew because she felt the agony building every time she woke up alone in bed in the morning. She knew why she had to face her classmates with her head down and pray that they would ignore her presence there, without telling anyone how they had made her life a living hell. She knew because she had experienced loneliness and rejection as a teenager and hated it.

Elisabeth was afraid of being alone.

She was afraid of not having anyone by her side, of being abandoned, of seeing everyone leave and her being left behind. She was afraid of not having anyone around her who understood her, no one who saw her as she really was and welcomed her with the love she had accepted she deserved, no matter how much she thought she was a complete disaster.

— I think I… have that…

Alma tilted her head.

— Fear?

— Yes, that fear.

— And why are you afraid?

— Because it's bad.

— What is ‘it’? — Alma raised an eyebrow.

— The loneliness. Loneliness sucks. And I don't want to be alone.

— Well, if we think about it — the woman began, looking at the notepad she had in her hand — You're not really alone when there's no one around. You're in your own company.

— I don't like my own company — Elisabeth replied.

— Why not?

She remained silent for a few seconds, thinking about the right words.

— Because I'm not a pleasant person to be around.

— You don’t think so? — Alma questioned — From what you told me, you have loving parents, brothers who really like you and a very loving partner, as well as a child on the way...

— But I don't feel like I’m very pleasant to be around, Alma. I feel like I'm a burden that everyone has been condemned to carry...

The therapist gave a small smile.

— I can assure you that you are not a burden, Elisabeth. And, if you have any doubts, try asking anyone around you and tell me the answers in the next session.

After saying goodbye to Alma, Elisabeth drove back to the penthouse in silence, the woman's words reverberating in her head. In just one session, she had realized that she couldn't change her father's fate and that she would be alone, one way or another, and that she would need to get used to her own company.

It seemed like a bleak prognosis.

She was still thinking about the therapist's speech about death when she entered the apartment, seeing Toto sitting on the couch with his iPad.

— Good evening, Liesl — he said, giving a smile, to which she responded shyly.

— Hello, darling.

— Is everything okay? — the team principal asked, setting the tablet on the coffee table while Elisabeth walked over, dropping her coat and bag on the armchair before dropping down next to him with a groan of pain.

— Yeah, everything is fine.

— How was therapy?

— Therapeutic — she replied without much emotion in her voice, making him laugh.

— That's good, it means it's working — Toto said, as he put an arm behind her head and brought her close to him. With her head resting on his shoulder, Elisabeth felt her body react to his heat and familiar scent, her muscles slowly relaxing, as if her unconscious mind knew that she was safe there — And our aprikose?

— They are making my feet swell and making me feel like crying about everything, but other than that, they’re fine. 

— That's good — he smiled, placing a hand on her belly — No more kicks?

— We don't know if they're kicks — Elisabeth murmured.

— Due to the gestational age, they could very well be — Toto said, smiling — And that means we're going to have a very active person to keep us company in this house.

She would have smiled too, if it weren't for the memory of the conversation with Alma. And that didn't go unnoticed by the team leader.

— Are you okay, my love?

— Yes, I was just thinking.

— What were you thinking about?

Elisabeth pursed her lips, hesitating for a few seconds.

— Whether our child will enjoy my company.

Toto raised an eyebrow.

— Liesl, it’s our child. Of course he will enjoy your company, you are his mother.

— But he might find me too boring and not want anything to do with me.

A giggle escaped the team principal's lips.

— Are you listening to what you're saying?

— Am I wrong?

— Yes!  — Toto exclaimed — You've never been so wrong in your life.

— But I…

He adjusted himself on the couch and placed his hands on her face.

— You are incredible, Elisabeth. You are smart, witty, funny and, above all, loving. You will be a wonderful mother to our baby and I am absolutely sure that he or she will not find you boring or will not want your company.

The words filled her eyes with tears.

— And you? — she stammered.

— Are you asking if I enjoy your company? — Toto returned the question with a smile — Know that, if I didn't enjoy your company, I wouldn't have asked you that question in the office.

Elisabeth blinked.

— Which one?

Taking her right hand, the team principal lifted it until it was between them.

— The one who put this ring on your finger.

Looking at the diamond, a small smile appeared on Elisabeth's lips.

— Can you promise me something? — she asked softly.

— Anything.

— Don’t leave me alone.

It was Toto's turn to smile.

— Not even if you want to, Liesl. I promise you, my love.

[xtruss]

A Spotless Giraffe, Pictured in Namibia 🇳🇦, was seen and photographed for the first time in the wild just weeks after another animal with this type of coloring was born at a U.S. 🇺🇸 Zoo. Photograph By Eckart Demasius and Giraffe Conservation Foundation

Another Rare Spotless Giraffe Found—the First Ever Seen in the Wild

The sighting occurred just weeks after the unusual condition was seen in a newborn giraffe at a Tennessee zoo. Is it more common than scientists thought?

— By Dina Fine Maron | September 12, 2023

Just weeks after a giraffe at a U.S. Zoo was born missing its characteristic spots, another spotless giraffe calf has now been seen and photographed in the wild for the first time.

The unprecedented sighting occurred at Mount Etjo Safari Lodge, a private game reserve in central Namibia. Tour guide Eckart Demasius saw and photographed the solid-brown calf during a game drive on the roughly 90,000-acre reserve, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. Demasius, who was not immediately available for comment, shared his photos with the giraffe nonprofit.

Sara Ferguson, a wildlife veterinarian and conservation health coordinator at the foundation, says the two recent spotless sightings are pure coincidence and that there’s no data to suggest this coloring is occurring more frequently than it had in the past.

This finding is just another example of “the weird way the world works” she says, adding that she’s “so amazed and pleased there is so much more to learn and discover about giraffe.”

Genetic Anomalies

The spotless reticulated giraffe born at Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, earlier this summer was recently named Kipekee, which means “Unique” in Swahili. The recent wild sighting occurred in another giraffe subspecies found in southern Africa, the Angolan giraffe.

Before these recent births, a giraffe with all-brown coloring was last seen at a Tokyo Zoo in 1972.

The spotless giraffe and its mother were photographed on a reserve with around 800 giraffes in central Namibia 🇳🇦. Photograph By Eckart Demasius and Giraffe Conservation Foundation

Scientists, including Ferguson, believe the solid coloring is likely due to one or more genetic mutations that haven’t yet been identified.

Some aspects of giraffe spots are passed down from mother to calf, according to a 2018 study in the Journal Peer J, and larger, rounder spots appear to be linked to higher survival rates for younger giraffes, but the reasons for that remain unclear.

Derek Lee, a Biology Professor at Penn State University and a co-author on the PeerJ Study, says that technically these two recent examples are not spotless animals, but instead —"one-spot-all-over giraffes."

It’s impossible to say what this genetic anomaly means for the animal’s health, he says, but there’s no evidence the color difference puts the animal at a disadvantage.

“We have a sample size here of one, so time will tell what happens.”

[ntenvs3000f24]

Unit 9 Blog

If theres one thing I've found amazing about nature, it is its resilience and ability to not only endure but also regenerate after facing incredible adversity, whether through natural disasters or human-made challenges. This is not only about nature's survival, but also about its profound capacity to heal, adapt, and thrive, often against the odds.

For example, a forest that has been taken over by a wildfire. It may seem like a scene of complete devastation yet within weeks, the landscape begins its slow but steady recovery. Shoots of new growth push through the blackened earth, wildflowers bloom to attract pollinators, and over time, the forest rebuilds itself, often becoming and looking better than before. In the textbook, Tim Merriman reflects, the act of interpretation can reveal to people the "practical alternatives" and they way nature continuously reclaims and renews (Beck et al., 2018).

Living in Canada, we have had extreme storms that can often lead to chaos in the environment around us. Recently in the summer we were struck by a storm that caused intense flooding. This was a time where the trees in my neighbourhood were standing tall even when leaves were stripped and branches were broken, the tree was still providing to birds and insects. This is an example of nature's power itself.

The resilience of natural ecosystems after human-made challenges and disasters is just as incredible. Our oceans for instance, have been filled with issues like pollution, overfishing, and climate change. Yet, efforts to protect marine life and make sustainable choices can allow species to make recoveries (Beck et al., 2018). In many parts of the world, overfished populations have rebounded due to conservations efforts and management acts, showing just how ready nature is to heal if we let it!

As an interpreter, my role is to help people not just see but feel this resilience, to guide them in understanding that this is not simple "nature as usual" but a powerful, ongoing response to adversity. Merriman highlights that interpreters have a unique task, we don't just relay information, we create connections between people and the stories of the natural world (Beck et al., 2018). When people understand that the toughness of nature reflects a powerful will to thrive, it's impossible to not feel inspired, or perhaps even motivated to support the environment.

From forests recovering from fires to ocean species steering away from near extinction, nature's strength is a lesson in patience, adaptability and coordination. Witnessing this is a reminder of nature's power, a force we are part of and can support through actions and interpretation.

[queerfriendship]

"unimaginable until it begins to breathe": meeting grief and friendship at the end of the world

introduction to "prelude: lament" (aug 2023)

my friend, teri joaquin, passed away in january 2022 in san diego, california. by the time of their passing, we had only intermittent contacts and had grown distant since my relocation abroad in 2018. i know little about their life in the last few years before their passing. the last time i saw them was in summer 2019 -- after not seeing them for almost a year. even then, they had become almost unrecognizable to me, physically -- their body born the crushing weight of everyday survival as a poor, brown, queer and gender nonconforming person (and a working artist) in racial-capitalist and settler-colonial america. how could someone who i used to share so much time, space, and conversation with -- in an open and tender way that a friendship is -- become physically broken down before my eyes and then disappear?

this project is about asking what queer friendship on the underside of colonial modernity holds for us in the end time of capitalist enclosure. it came from a place of deep grief -- of unanswered questions, of belated reckoning, and of unfulfilled justice beyond the individualistic framing of premature death. in a sense, it is a somatic forensics for transformative justice toward life against deprivation, displacement, and desolation under colonial-capitalist occupation. to frame queer friendship as a matter of transformative justice -- an abolitionist practice of world making in the everyday -- is to bring attention to the potential (and failure) of friendship as an life-affirming relational infrastructure against the violence of state and capital. what kind of world can i imagine where teri gets to live and thrive? what practices of queer friendship could aid in the birthing of that world? meanwhile, who are we in our grief, and and in what ways does it guide us in our practice of being with change and transformation, as i take the cue from adrienne maree brown?

the prelude to the project -- titled "lament" -- took place over just 2 days through video- and tele-communication with 2 collaborators, john maria gutierrez and chris kirubi. the sense and condition of distance were salient -- i was physically in a studio at dance east in ipswich, east of england, through a residency program, while chris was in london and john in new york. separately with john and then with chris, we hopped on zoom, chatted, wrote, and moved together through guided improvisation. we shared the sound score together virtually when we moved. we debriefed the session through a phone call afterward. our practices felt delicate, ephemeral, yet potent across the distance of time and place which struck me as a pertinent architecture for grief tending. if embodied longing, as chris spoke about during our session, is an "active negation" of the present conditions, then it potentially holds information about inhabiting another time and place -- immanent in the living past of queer friendship, and emergent in the unfolding future of collaborative becoming -- all the worlds where teri will live.

[nuadox]

The Atlantic is at risk of circulation collapse – it would mean even greater climate chaos across Europe

- By Robert Marsh , University of Southampton , The Conversation -

Amid news of lethal heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere comes the daunting prospect of a climate disaster on an altogether grander scale.

New findings published in Nature Communications suggest the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or Amoc, could collapse within the next few decades – maybe even within the next few years – driving European weather to even greater extremes.

The Amoc amounts to a system of currents in the Atlantic that bring warm water northwards where it then cools and sinks. It is a key reason why Europe’s climate has been stable for thousands of years, even if it’s hard to recognise this chaotic summer as part of that stability.

There is much uncertainty in these latest predictions and some scientists are less convinced a collapse is imminent. Amoc is also only one part of the wider Gulf Stream system, much of which is driven by winds that will continue to blow even if the Amoc collapses. So part of the Gulf Stream will survive an Amoc collapse.

But I have studied the links between Atlantic currents and the climate for decades now, and know that an Amoc collapse would still lead to even greater climate chaos across Europe and beyond. At minimum, it is a risk worth being aware of.

Amoc helps keep Europe warm and stable

To appreciate how much Amoc influences the climate in the northeast Atlantic, consider how much warmer north Europeans feel compared to people at similar latitudes elsewhere. The following maps show how surface air temperatures depart from the average at each latitude and highlight patterns of warm and cool spots around the planet:

Surface air temperature departure from 1948-2018 zonal average in January (top) and July (bottom). Marsh & van Sebille, 2021; Data: NCEP/NCAR, Author provided

Most striking in the northern winter (January) is a red spot centred to the west of Norway where temperatures are 20°C warmer than the latitude average, thanks to Amoc. The northeast Pacific – and therefore western Canada and Alaska – enjoys a more modest 10°C warming from a similar current, while prevailing westerly winds mean the northwest Atlantic and northwest Pacific are much colder, as are the adjacent land masses of eastern Canada and Siberia.

The weather and climate of Europe, and northern Europe in particular, is highly variable from day to day, week to week and year to year, with competing air masses (warm and moist, cold and dry, and so on) gaining or losing influence, often guided by the high-altitude jet stream. Changes in weather and climate can be triggered by events located far away – and over the ocean.

How ocean temperatures are linked to weather

Over recent years Europe has witnessed some particularly unusual weather, in both winter and summer. At the same time, peculiar patterns of sea surface temperatures have appeared across the North Atlantic. Across great swathes of the ocean from the tropics to the Arctic, temperatures have persisted 1°C-2°C above or below normal levels, for months or even years on end. These patterns appear to exert a strong influence on the atmosphere, even influencing the path and strength of the jet stream.

To an extent, we can attribute some of these sea surface temperature patterns to a changing Amoc, but it’s often not that straightforward. Nevertheless, the association of extreme seasons and weather with unusual sea temperatures might give us an idea of how a collapsed Amoc would unsettle the status quo. Here are three examples.

Northern Europe experienced successive severe winters in 2009/10 and 2010/11, subsequently attributed to a brief slowdown of the Amoc. At the same time heat had built up in the tropics, fuelling an unusually active June-November hurricane season in 2010.

In the mid 2010s a “cold blob” formed in the North Atlantic, reaching its most extreme in the summer of 2015 when it coincided with heatwaves in central Europe and was one of the only parts of the world cooler than its long-term average.

The cold blob looked suspiciously like the fingerprint of a weakened Amoc, but colleagues and I subsequently attributed this transient episode to more local atmospheric influences.

Spot the blob: temperatures in 2015 – at the time, the warmest year on record – compared to long-term averages. NASA/NOAA

In 2017, the tropical Atlantic was again warmer than average and once again an unusually active hurricane season ensued, although the Amoc was not as clearly involved as 2010. Extensive warmth to the northeast in late 2017 may have sustained hurricane Ophelia, emerging around the Azores and making landfall in Ireland in October.

Based on just these few examples, we can expect that a more substantial reorganisation of North Atlantic surface temperatures will have profound consequences for the climate in Europe and beyond.

Larger ocean temperature extremes may alter the character of weather systems that are powered by heat and moisture from the sea – when and where temperatures rise beyond current extremes, Atlantic storms may grow more destructive. More extreme ocean temperature patterns may exert further influences on tropical hurricane tracks and the jet stream, sending storms to ever more unlikely destinations.

If the Amoc collapses we can expect larger extremes of heat, cold, drought and flooding, a range of “surprises” to exacerbate the current climate emergency. The potential climate impacts – on Europe in particular – should add urgency to our decision-making.

Robert Marsh, Professor of Oceanography and Climate, University of Southampton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

--

Read Also

Record low Antarctic sea ice is another alarming sign the ocean’s role as climate regulator is changing

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

KISS AWAY 4: War, children, it’s just a shot away

MIKE COOPER & TASOS STAMOU London Taximi cassette (Coherent States, Greece - 2017)

Somehow overlooked this last year,  an  absorbing sixty minutes of duo taximi (“the improvisation during the performance of traditional musical pieces, using soloistic folk instruments”) recorded between 2014 and 2017. Cooper is such a hero around the FRR office, his Pacifica improv and lap steel bending is nonpareil, so of course we dig this A LOT.  Tasos Stamou is new to us (though he’s been performing for at least a decade), an electro acoustic composer who knows how to loop a bouzouki in the right company. Like the best of this stuff, it’s hard to discern who’s doing what as the particulars coalesce.  There are patches of twang flotillas, percussive swells, John Berberian psychedelic swatches, extended neutronic tones, bouzouki yowling, rebetika detours and plenty of space for sighing. Superb recording.

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018 presents… GIMME SHELTER: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR THE RESISTANCE!

KISS AWAY 1:  A storm is threat'ning our very life today (THE ART GRAY NOIZZ QUINTET)

KISS AWAY 2: If I don’t get some shelter (BRABRABRA)

KISS AWAY 3: Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away! (SPIRITUAL CRAMP)

MIKE COOPER at Cooparia!

TASOS STAMOU

MIKE COOPER with TASOS STAMOU at the FLIM FLAM CLUB February 2017

✰✰✰✰✰✰ ✰✰✰✰✰✰ ✰✰✰✰✰✰

SUMMER 2018 SURVIVAL GUIDE

EMILY’S LIST: “We elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.”

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA

The Nation

SWING LEFT: 2018 Control of the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NATIONAL ABORTION AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ACTION LEAGUE (NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA): “NARAL Pro-Choice America uses numerous tactics to lobby for liberalized access to abortion, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. It sponsors lawsuits against governments and hospitals, donates money to politicians supportive of abortion rights through its political action committee, and organizes its members to contact members of Congress and urge them to support NARAL’s positions.”

Previously on Fuckin’ Record Reviews:

…our Summer 2017 diversion: Best Reasons To Write Fuckin’ Record Reviews in 2017 presents: TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT

…our Fall 2016 diversion: Best Reason To Write Fuckin’ Record Reviews in 2017 presents…ELECTED!

…our Summer 2016 diversion…Best Reasons To Write Fuckin’ Record Reviews In 2016 presents…THIS AIN’T THE SUMMER OF LOVE

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2017

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2016

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2015

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2014

[dumb-of-ass-pure-of-heart]

Fun and Cool Free Zines on Archive.org:

Blocing Up

Firearms & Self-Defense: A handbook for radicals, revolutionaries, and easy riders (1970)

Betrayal: A Critical Analysis of Rape Culture in Anarchist Subcultures

A Critique of Ally Politics

Taking the First Step: Suggestions to People Called Out for Abusive Behavior

Towards An Anarchist Ecology

Edible, Medicinal, & Utilitarian Plants: Vol. 1

Supporting A Survivor Of Sexual Assault

Punk Planet 80 (2007 July-Aug) [final issue]

Anti-Mass: Methods of Organization for Collectives

Security Culture: A Handbook for Activists

Beyond Squat or Rot: Anarchist Approaches to Housing

Towards a Less Fucked Up World [Sobriety and Anarchist Struggle]

Build Your Own Solidarity Network

Prisoner Letter Writing & Support

Insurrectionary Ecology

Build Those Collectives!

Critical Thinking as an Anarchist Weapon

Direct Action Tactics

POLICE/POLICING and LIFE WITHOUT THE POLICE

Fight the Man and Get Away Safely

A Civilian's Guide to Direct Action

9 Theses on Insurgency

Building Community Resilience to Fight State Repression

Copse: A Cartoon Book of Tree Protesting

Squatters' Handbook: "Political" Squatting Tips

Deserting the Digital Utopia

Stop Hunting Sheep

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

Collective Process: Overcoming Power

Leftism 101

The Economy is Suffering, Let It Die!

Social War on Stolen Native Land: Anarchist Contributions

DIY Doula: Self-Care for Before, During and After Your Abortion

Re: A Guide To Reproduction

How to Form an Affinity Group

Basic Blockading

Collectives: Anarchy Against The Mass

Miniature Guide to Bike Repair

We Are Being Doxxed: What to Do to Keep Each Other Safe

Radical Resistance for Prison Abolition by Comrade Frank Talk, a Captive New Afrikan Revolutionary

Resisting A Grand Jury

Indigenous Voice 2.2 (2018 Summer)

Who Are You Streaming For?

NYPD Challenge Coins: Members Only

How to Survive a Felony Trial: Keeping Your Head Up Through the Worst of It

No Against Adult Supremacy [note: this is 326 pages of collected essays]

Reading for Revolution

Accounting for Ourselves

All Power to the People!

So You Say You Want an Insurrection

Ten Blows Against Politics

Self as other: reflections on self-care

Due to the nature of some of these and my wish not to get banned from Tumblr I am 100% absolutely sharing these simply as thinkpieces and not in any way as tools to use in real-life contexts. All theoretical and for the use in say, a paper for freshman students who have just started class accross the United States.

[sunqyu]

Prepare for Kingdom | YT-marathon

Since a lot of people will be new to some of the groups who are joining mnet’s show Kingdom, I thought I’d make a post with some youtube-vids you can watch to get to know the groups and their styles! I will update this and let me know if there are video’s you think I should add. Here is the teaser for Kingdom. It starts on the 23rd of February at 20:00 KST and international fans can vote as well!

Let’s start with this video as a warm-up and you can click the names of the groups for a picture.

The Boyz

Info:

11 members, debuted December 2017 (with 12 members) under Cre.ker ent.

Won ‘Road To Kingdom’, only leaving the #1 spot once during the entire show.

Fandomname is TheB or Deobi.

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

Road to Kingdom performances:

1. Sword of Victory

2. Danger (og. by Taemin)

3. Reveal

4. collab with ONEUS

5. Shangri-La (og. by VIXX)

6. Checkmate

Their MAMA performance

The Stealer MV

Reveal MV

No Air MV

Giddy Up MV

Bloom Bloom MV

Member Guide

iKON

Info:

6 members, debuted September 2015 (with 7 members) under YG ent.

Went through two survival shows before debuting, WIN and MIX&MATCH.

Fandomname is iKONIC

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

This amazing performance

Pretty much all of the two survival shows but especially this one from WIN and this one and this one from MIX&MATCH.

Love Scenario MV

Killing Me MV

Rhythm Ta MV

Bling Bling MV

Member Guide

This video is also very important.

and member Bobby won Show Me The Money 3 so watch this performance too.

ATEEZ

8 members, debuted October 2018 under KQ ent.

Fandomname is ATINY (ateez + destiny)

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

Literally any performance because STAGE PRESENCE IS THEIR MIDDLE NAME, you can start with this one and this one.

Their KQ Fellaz performance videos. 1. 2. 3.

Their MAMA performance and last years too.

HALA HALA MV

Wonderland MV

Answer MV

Inception MV

Say My Name MV

Member Guide

Stray Kids

8 members, debuted March 2018 (with 9 members) under JYP ent.

Went through survival show ‘Stray Kids’ before debut.

Fandomname is STAY.

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

Their entire survival show but especially this and this performance from the JYP vs YG episode.

Their MAMA performance.

Back door MV

God’s Menu MV

Victory Song MV

Easy MV

Hellevator MV

My Pace MV

Member Guide

Also Bang Chan is the ultimate idol to stan for emotional support so watch this too.

BTOB

Info:

6 members, debuted March 2012 (with 7 members) under CUBE ent.

Fandomname is Melody.

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

They’re live even better than studio versions, so this performance and this one.

Also, actual comedians. Watch BEATCOM for proof.

Wow MV

Movie MV

I’ll be your man MV

Missing you MV

Thriller MV

Beep Beep MV

Member Guide

Minhyuk is one of the most athletic idols out there and was a regular on Dream Team. I’d recommend watching all episode but the vault jump one is probably the most iconic.

SF9

Info:

9 members, debuted October 2016 under FNC ent.

Fandomname is Fantasy.

Full profile can be found here.

Video’s to watch:

This KCON performance 

O Sole Mio MV

Good Guy MV

Summer Breeze MV

Now or Never MV

Fanfare MV

Member Guide

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Rockwell B-1 Lancer

The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers in the U.S. Air Force fleet as of 2018, the other two being the B-2 Spirit "Stealth Bomber", and the B-52 Stratofortress.

The B-1 has a blended wing bodyconfiguration, with variable-sweep wing, four turbofan engines, triangular fin control surfaces and cruciform tail. The wings can sweep from 15 degrees to 67.5 degrees (full forward to full sweep). Forward-swept wing settings are used for takeoff, landings and high-altitude maximum cruise. Aft-swept wing settings are used in high subsonic and supersonic flight. The B-1's variable-sweep wings and thrust-to-weight ratio provide it with improved takeoff performance, allowing it to use shorter runways than previous bombers. The length of the aircraft presented a flexing problem due to air turbulence at low altitude. To alleviate this, Rockwell included small triangular fin control surfaces or vanes near the nose on the B-1. The B-1's Structural Mode Control System rotates the vanes automatically to counteract turbulence and smooth out the ride.

Unlike the B-1A, the B-1B cannot reach Mach 2+ speeds; its maximum speed is Mach 1.25 (about 950 mph or 1,530 km/h at altitude), but its low-level speed increased to Mach 0.92 (700 mph, 1,130 km/h). The speed of the current version of the aircraft is limited by the need to avoid damage to its structure and air intakes. To help lower its radar cross section (RCS), the B-1B uses serpentine air intake ducts (see S-duct) and fixed intake ramps, which limit its speed compared to the B-1A. Vanes in the intake ducts serve to deflect and shield radar emissions from the highly reflective engine compressor blades.

The B-1A's engine was modified slightly to produce the GE F101-102 for the B-1B, with an emphasis on durability, and increased efficiency. The core of this engine has since been re-used in several other engine designs, including the GE F110 which has seen use in the F-14 Tomcat, F-15K/SGvariants and most recent versions of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. It is also the basis for the non-afterburning GE F118 used in the B-2 Spirit and the U-2S.The F101 engine was the basis for the core of the extremely popular CFM56 civil engine, which can be found on some versions of practically every small-to-medium-sized airliner. The nose gear cover door has controls for the auxiliary power units (APUs), which allow for quick starts of the APUs upon order to scramble.

The B-1's defensive electronics include the Eaton AN/ALQ-161A radar warning and defensive jamming equipment, which has three sets of antennas; one at the front base of each wing and the third rear-facing in the tail radome. Also in the tail radome is the AN/ALQ-153 missile approach warning system (pulse-Doppler radar). The ALQ-161 is linked to a total of eight AN/ALE-49 flare dispensers located on top behind the canopy, which are handled by the AN/ASQ-184 avionics management system. Each AN/ALE-49 dispenser has a capacity of 12 MJU-23A/B flares. The MJU-23A/B flare is one of the world's largest infrared countermeasure flares at a weight of over 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg). The B-1 has also been equipped to carry the ALE-50 towed decoy system.

Also aiding the B-1's survivability is its relatively low radar cross-section (RCS). Although not technically a stealth aircraft in a comprehensive sense, thanks to the aircraft's structure, serpentine intake paths and use of radar-absorbent material its RCS is about 1/50th of the similar sized B-52's RCS; this is about 26 ft² or 2.4 m², roughly equivalent to the RCS of a small fighter aircraft.

The B-1 has been upgraded since production, beginning with the "Conventional Mission Upgrade Program" (CMUP), which added a new MIL-STD-1760 smart-weapons interface to enable the use of precision-guided conventional weapons. CMUP began with Block A, which was the standard B-1B with the capability to deliver non-precision gravity bombs. Block B brought an improved Synthetic Aperture Radar, and upgrades to the Defensive Countermeasures System and was fielded in 1995. Block C provided an "enhanced capability" for delivery of up to 30 cluster bomb units (CBUs) per sortie with modifications made to 50 bomb racks.

Block D added a "Near Precision Capability" via improved weapons and targeting systems, and added advanced secure communications capabilities. The first part of the electronic countermeasures upgrade added Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), ALE-50 towed decoy system, and anti-jam radios. Block E upgraded the avionics computers and incorporated the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD), the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air to Surface Standoff Munition), substantially improving the bomber's capability. Upgrades were completed in September 2006. Block F was the Defensive Systems Upgrade Program (DSUP) to improve the aircraft's electronic countermeasures and jamming capabilities, but it was canceled in December 2002 due to cost overruns and schedule slips.

In 2005, a program began to upgrade crew stations and integrate data linking. A B-1 equipped with the fully integrated data link (FIDL) first flew on 29 July 2009; the FIDL enables electronic data sharing, eliminating the need to enter information between systems by hand. In January 2013, Boeing delivered the first integrated battle station (IBS) equipped B-1. This replaced several displays with new multi-function color display units, an upgraded central integrated test system, and a newer aircraft performance monitoring computer. In June 2012, the B-1Bs are receiving Sustainment-Block 16 upgrades to add Link 16 networking and digital flight instrumentation.

In 2007, the Sniper XR targeting pod was integrated on the B-1 fleet. The pod is mounted on an external hardpoint at the aircraft's chin near the forward bomb bay.Following accelerated testing, the Sniper pod was fielded in summer 2008. Future precision munitions include the Small Diameter Bomb. In 2011, the Air Force was considering upgrading B-1s with multiple ejector racks so that they can carry three times as many smaller JDAMs than previously.

[geckosong]

Anime Recommendations

Here is a list of ten anime (in no particular order) that are definitely worth watching, yet don’t seem to get nearly as much recognition as they deserve. 

Terror in Resonance (2014)

This is my personal favorite anime and I push people to watch it whenever I can, which is exactly what I’m doing here.

This show is set-in present-day Tokyo, which has been decimated by a terrorist attack, and the only hint to the identities of the culprits is a bizarre video uploaded on the internet. For the majority of the show the plot follows two different narratives: those of the investigators tasked with bringing down the terrorists, and of the terrorists themselves.

           My Rating: 10/10

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun (2020)

This anime is probably one of my favorites, if not my number one, in terms of art style. I love everything about the character designs and the colors used. It is just so soothing to look at.

The famous "Seven Wonders" that every school seems to have are a staple of Japanese urban legends. One of the most well-known of these tales is that of Hanako-san: Rumors claim that if one successfully manages to summon Hanako-san, the ghost of a young girl who haunts the school's bathrooms, she will grant her summoner any wish. When Nene Yashiro, a girl hoping for romantic fortune, dares to summon Hanako-san, she discovers that the rumored "girl" is actually a boy! After a series of unfortunate events involving Nene's romantic desires, she is unwillingly entangled in the world of the supernatural, becoming Hanako-kun's assistant. Soon, she finds out about Hanako-kun's lesser-known duty: maintaining the fragile balance between mortals and apparitions.

My Rating: 8/10

Kids on the Slope (2012)

If you love jazz, or history, or even heartwarming tales of friendship then this is the show for you. I will admit that is has a bit of a slow start, but by the time you get to the end you’ll be wishing for more.

In 1966, introverted classical pianist and top student Kaoru Nishimi has just arrived in Kyushu for his first year of high school. Having constantly moved from place to place since his childhood, he abandons all hope of fitting in, preparing himself for another lonely, meaningless year. That is, until he encounters the notorious delinquent Sentarou Kawabuchi.    

Sentarou's immeasurable love for jazz music inspires Kaoru to learn more about the genre, and as a result, he slowly starts to break out of his shell, making his very first friend. Kaoru begins playing the piano at after-school jazz sessions, located in the basement of fellow student Ritsuko Mukae's family-owned record shop. As he discovers the immense joy of using his musical talents to bring enjoyment to himself and others, Kaoru's summer might just crescendo into one that he will remember forever.

My Rating: 6/10

Hyouka (2012)

Energy-conservative high school student Houtarou Oreki ends up with more than he bargained for when he signs up for the Classics Club at his sister's behest—especially when he realizes how deep-rooted the club's history really is. Begrudgingly, Oreki is dragged into an investigation concerning the 45-year-old mystery that surrounds the club room.

Accompanied by his fellow club members, the knowledgeable Satoshi Fukube, the stern but benign Mayaka Ibara, and the ever-curious Eru Chitanda, Oreki must combat deadlines and lack of information with resourcefulness and hidden talent, in order to not only find the truth buried beneath the dust of works created years before them, but of other small side cases as well.

           My Rating: 6/10

Tonari no Seki-Kun: The Master of Killing Time (2014)

I absolutely adore this show. The episodes are only about 8 minutes long, and there is very little talking, yet the story still comes through perfectly. It never fails to brighten my day when I’m feeling down.

All Rumi Yokoi wants to do is focus during school, but she is constantly distracted by Toshinari Seki, her neighboring classmate. Paying attention during class is the least of Seki's worries, as he obsesses over intricate setups created using an assortment of items, from an elaborate domino course on his desk to a treacherous war played out with shogi pieces. Yokoi desperately attempts to focus in class, only to be repeatedly sucked into his intriguing eccentricities; however, they always seem to end up with her getting in trouble with their teacher. Fortunately, lessons will never be dull with Seki's antics around!

           My Rating: 9/10

Classroom of the Elite (2017)

On the surface, Koudo Ikusei Senior High School is a utopia. The students enjoy an unparalleled amount of freedom, and it is ranked highly in Japan. However, the reality is less than ideal. Four classes, A through D, are ranked in order of merit, and only the top classes receive favorable treatment.

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji is a student of Class D, where the school dumps its worst. There he meets the unsociable Suzune Horikita, who believes she was placed in Class D by mistake and desires to climb all the way to Class A, and the seemingly amicable class idol Kikyou Kushida, whose aim is to make as many friends as possible.

While class membership is permanent, class rankings are not; students in lower ranked classes can rise in rankings if they score better than those in the top ones. Additionally, in Class D, there are no bars on what methods can be used to get ahead. In this cutthroat school, can they prevail against the odds and reach the top?

           My Rating: 7/10

The Morose Mononokean (2016)

The start of Hanae Ashiya's high school career has not been easy—he has spent all of the first week in the infirmary, and his inexplicable condition is only getting worse. The cause of his torment is the mysterious fuzzy creature that has attached itself to him ever since he stumbled upon it the day before school began.

As his health continues to decline and the creature grows in size, Hanae comes across a flyer advertising an exorcist who expels youkai. Desperate and with nothing left to lose, he calls the number and is led to the Mononokean, a tea room which suddenly appears next to the infirmary. A morose-sounding man, Haruitsuki Abeno, reluctantly helps Hanae but demands payment afterward. Much to Hanae's dismay, he cannot afford the fee and must become an employee at the Mononokean to work off his debt. And to make things worse, his new boss is actually one of his classmates. If Hanae ever hopes to settle his debt, he must work together with Abeno to guide a variety of dangerous, strange, and interesting youkai back to the Underworld.

           My Rating: 6/10

Beyond the Boundary (2013)

Another of my favorite aesthetically pleasing anime, this show has been the one that I show to friends who claim that anime cannot be beautiful (yes, several of my friends have actually said things along that line).

Mirai Kuriyama is the sole survivor of a clan of Spirit World warriors with the power to employ their blood as weapons. As such, Mirai is tasked with hunting down and killing "youmu"—creatures said to be the manifestation of negative human emotions. One day, while deep in thought on the school roof, Mirai comes across Akihito Kanbara, a rare half-breed of youmu in human form. In a panicked state, she plunges her blood saber into him only to realize that he's an immortal being. From then on, the two form an impromptu friendship that revolves around Mirai constantly trying to kill Akihito, in an effort to boost her own wavering confidence as a Spirit World warrior. Eventually, Akihito also manages to convince her to join the Literary Club, which houses two other powerful Spirit World warriors, Hiroomi and Mitsuki Nase.

As the group's bond strengthens, however, so does the tenacity of the youmu around them. Their misadventures will soon turn into a fight for survival as the inevitable release of the most powerful youmu, Beyond the Boundary, approaches.

           My Rating: 7/10

Mekakucity Actors (2014)

I think about this show far more than I’d like to admit. The way they bring different plot lines together continues to amaze me 6 years after watching it for the first time.

On the hot summer day of August 14, Shintarou Kisaragi is forced to leave his room for the first time in two years. While arguing with the cyber girl Ene who lives in his computer, Shintarou Kisaragi accidentally spills soda all over his keyboard. Though they try to find a replacement online, most stores are closed due to the Obon festival, leaving them with no other choice but to visit the local department store. Venturing outside makes Shintarou extremely anxious, but the thought of living without his computer is even worse. It's just his luck that on the day he finally goes out, he's caught in a terrifying hostage situation.

Luckily, a group of teenagers with mysterious eye powers, who call themselves the "Mekakushi Dan," assist Shintarou in resolving the situation. As a result, he is forced to join their group, along with Ene. Their abilities seem to be like pieces of a puzzle, connecting one another, and as each member's past is unveiled, the secret that ties them together is slowly brought to light.

           My Rating: 8/10

Angels of Death (2018)

You totally want to get emotionally attached to cereal killers, right? Of course you do, that’s why you should totally watch this anime.

With dead and lifeless eyes, Rachel Gardner wishes only to die. Waking up in the basement of a building, she has no idea how or why she's there. She stumbles across a bandaged murderer named Zack, who is trying to escape. After promising to kill her as soon as he is free, Rachel and Zack set out to ascend through the building floor by floor until they escape.

However, as they progress upward, they meet more twisted people, and all of them seem familiar with Rachel. What is her connection to the building, and why was she placed in it? Facing a new boss on each floor, can Rachel and Zack both achieve their wishes?

           My Rating: 7/10

Bonus: Stars Align (2019)

I am adding one extra because this anime deserves so much more than it got. I adore every single character in this show and want nothing but to see them be happy. There is so much I adore about this show that I can’t put it all into words. I would recommend you watch this so you can share in my rage that the story was cut off halfway through with no current plans of completing it. There is no manga. There is no way of knowing what happens next. This recommendation is entirely for the purpose of generating more public outcry in the hopes that that causes them to finish the show. Please anime gods, if you are reading this I need to know what happens to my smol tennis boys. Are they safe? Are they alright? 

Constantly outperformed by the girls' club, the boys' soft tennis club faces disbandment due to their poor skills and lack of positive results in matches. In desperate need of members,

Toma Shinjou is looking to recruit capable players, but he fails to scout anyone. Enter Maki Katsuragi, a new transfer student who demonstrates great reflexes when he catches a stray cat in his classroom, instantly capturing Toma's attention. With his interest piqued, Toma ambitiously asks Maki to join the boys' team but is quickly rejected, as Maki doesn't wish to join any clubs. Toma refuses to back down and ends up persuading Maki—only under the condition that Toma will pay him for his participation and cover other club expenses.

As Maki joins the team, his incredible form and quick learning allow him to immediately outshine the rest of the team. Although this gives rise to conflict among the boys, Maki challenges and pushes his fellow team members to not only keep up with his seemingly natural talent, but also drive them to devote themselves to the game they once neglected.

This story focuses on the potential of the boys' soft tennis club and their discovery of their own capability, while also enduring personal hardships and dealing with the darker side of growing up in middle school.

[96thdayofrage]

Goose Island workers tried to unionize before the COVID-19 pandemic. The company pushed back — and then laid off leaders of the effort.

Like many union drives, workers at Goose Island Beer Co. began organizing quietly, in spring 2019.

For months, a core of employees leading the effort at Chicago’s oldest brewery met covertly with colleagues — coffee shops in the morning and bars at night, with full workdays in between — offering visions of a more equitable workplace.

By early 2020, as many as 75% of Goose Island’s approximately 125 employees eligible to join a union expressed support, organizers said in interviews with the Chicago Tribune. Months of toil seemed poised to succeed.

But then, weeks before taking the union drive public, organizers ran into a pair of buzz saws. First, management learned of the plan and responded with what several organizers believe was an aggressive and occasionally intimidating effort to thwart unionization.

Weeks later came the second hurdle: the COVID-19 pandemic. With all but essential production employees furloughed or shifted to working from home, momentum waned.

Finally, on June 2, 2020, citing a downturn due to the pandemic, Goose Island laid off what union organizers estimate to be at least 20 employees. Among those sent packing were several vocal union advocates, including the three core organizers.

The Chicago Tribune spoke with seven former Goose Island employees involved in the union drive, some at its core and some who were supporters; five were laid off.

Several people active in the union drive say they don’t doubt the company was under financial strain at the time. But they also believe Goose Island used the layoffs to target leading union activists and to finish off their efforts. According to current and former employees, the idea of unionizing Goose Island has withered away.

“I don’t know if I think there were only layoffs because of the union drive,” said Grace Vasquez, a core organizer laid off during summer 2020 after nearly three years as a server, bartender, tour guide and floor manager. “But I think who got laid off was in direct response to the union drive.”

Goose Island declined to answer questions about the union drive or the layoffs. But in a statement from Goose Island president Todd Ahsmann issued Sept. 17, the company said it “always respected our employees’ right to decide for themselves about union representation.”

The statement attributed the layoffs to the pandemic, which it said “significantly impacted our business” and led the company to combine sales and marketing forces for Goose Island and its subsidiary, Virtue Cider, “to share expertise, maximize resources and focus on opportunities that will allow our business to adapt to the changing industry.” The pandemic also led to layoffs at the brewery’s two Chicago bars and shuttering the Philadelphia pub Goose Island launched in 2018, the statement said.

“The incredibly difficult decision to separate with some sales, marketing and pub employees, both salaried and hourly, was entirely based on the new operating realities facing our industry, particularly bars and restaurants,” the statement said. “We continue to be grateful for their contributions to the company during their time here.”

Like many businesses, Goose Island’s global parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, struggled during the pandemic, with revenues declining 3.7% in 2020, according to its annual report to shareholders.

But a bright spot was in the U.S., where Anheuser-Busch led the nation’s beer industry in dollar growth, according to market research firm IRI, due in large part to the company’s “above core portfolio,” which includes craft breweries such as Goose Island, the report says.

Brewing discontent

Goose Island’s response to the union drive as described by organizers is similar to the approach often taken by companies trying to fend off unionization, said Nik Theodore, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied employer reaction to unionization.

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Employers usually oppose unionization, he said, to stave off rising costs associated with a labor contract and losing unilateral power over employees.

When confronted with a union drive, a company may respond first with the suggestion that issues can be handled in-house without a union, Theodore said. Escalating tactics often include mandatory meetings, anti-union literature and warnings that moving forward would cost jobs or benefits, he said.

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In some cases, Theodore said, laying off employees at the core of a union drive can be seen as a final step when trying to quash such efforts. In such scenarios, he said, employers will cite business needs to justify layoffs and may also lay off employees not affiliated with union drives along with union leaders.

Positive incentives are also commonly used, he added.

“It’s not all about punishment,” he said. “Some people will be promoted. Some people will get bonuses or will get raises. It’s a signal: ‘As a company, we are here to take care of you.’”

Organizing has been a continuing theme in the beer industry since San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing unionized two years ago, which one labor lawyer called “a potential watershed moment” for the beer industry. Since then, brewery workers in Minneapolis and Cleveland have also taken steps toward unionizing.

At Goose Island, the broadest support for unionization was at the brewery’s Clybourn Avenue pub, where the brand launched in 1988. Multiple former pub employees said they felt like second-class citizens compared to workers at Goose Island’s Fulton Street headquarters.

Bartenders at the Fulton Street taproom had a base pay close to three times the hourly rate as bartenders at the Clybourn pub, according to people who have worked at both locations. Adding in tips, the disparity could map out to $30 to $40 an hour for Fulton Street bartenders compared to about $15 to $20 an hour for bartenders at the Clybourn pub.

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But frustrations ran deeper than money, some former employees said. At Goose Island’s holiday party in 2018, the former employees said, Clybourn pub employees had to serve workers from the Fulton Street headquarters, which led to broad discontent.

Vasquez, who was among those serving at the party, said workers felt “embarrassed, ashamed, unlucky and unappreciated” to wait on people they thought of as peers.

[Most read] Surviving kin of Chicago’s famous O’Leary family ready for new chapter following harrowing past. ‘I think it’s time for closure.’ »

“It was always a stressed and tense space,” Vasquez said of the Clybourn pub. “The staff isn’t respected by other parts of Goose Island. There was always an ‘us against them’ tension.”

Unionization efforts began the following spring. Each department had its motivating issues, organizers said, with some upset at the sense they would be paid better doing the same work elsewhere, including at the U.S. parent company, Anheuser-Busch, which bought Goose Island from founder John Hall in 2011.

Goose Island sale 10 years later: Anheuser-Busch got what it needed from the deal, but what’s left for Chicago beer drinkers is more complicated. »

Employees sometimes put in hours of unpaid work outside their scheduled shifts, according to a former employee and union organizer, who did not want to be named because he remains active in labor organizing at his current job and other workplaces.

One common motivating issue among workers, especially brewers, was safety, particularly repetitive injuries and chemical exposure, the former employee said. Many of the most effective safety standards at Goose Island were passed down from Anheuser-Busch; several brewers hoped to see a contract that would further cement safety as a priority, he said.

A brewery can be a physically demanding workplace, with kegs that can weigh upward of 160 pounds and minor construction projects at beer festivals and events, the former employee said.

In some cases, former employees felt, safety didn’t seem like a primary concern.

In a September 2019 example, union organizer Maddie Mathie said she was changing a keg in a refrigerated room at the Clybourn Avenue pub when she became lightheaded and felt as if she might pass out. When she told management something was amiss, she said, a manager asked if she had remembered to eat breakfast.

Black-owned breweries are rare, but more are opening in Chicago. Here’s why that matters. »

Another manager checked the keg room and confirmed something was wrong, according to Mathie, which led to the discovery of a poisonous carbon dioxide leak. The situation was resolved, but Mathie said management never addressed the issue broadly with workers or provided instruction in case such an issue were to happen again. Managers joked for the rest of the day that she had been “the canary in the coal mine,” Mathie said.

“I always felt there were a lot of things handled too casually, and that further instilled this idea that no matter what happens, things will blow over,” she said.

Ahsmann acknowledged the 2019 incident in a statement Sept. 22, saying a “CO2 tank was inadvertently left open during routine tap line maintenance. This was addressed immediately in accordance with our protocols.”

[ruminativerabbi]

What To Read This Fall

As I embark on this, my seventeenth year of writing weekly on matters close to my heart (and, I hope, also to yours), I’d like to talk about three books I’ve read over the holiday season that affected me in different ways.

The first is David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, a remarkable volume published earlier this year by TLS Books in London. The author, whose name was unknown to me before reading the book, is apparently a well-known British comedian. (He was actually born in Troy, New York, in 1964, but has basically lived his entire life in the U.K.) But this book is not at all funny. Just the opposite, actually: it is 123 pages of very angry prose directed at a world that simply refuses to take anti-Semitism seriously as a form of pernicious racism. Mostly, his fire is aimed at progressives and liberals. But although there is more than enough ammunition left over for him also to take aim at right-of-center groups and conservatives, he’s particularly enraged at people on the left for whom the slightly hint of racism or bigotry is intolerable, yet who seem more than able to tolerate even overtly-stated, ham-fisted anti-Semitic remarks without reacting even slightly negatively, let alone with real revulsion or even feigned outrage.

Even though the book itself is really just an extended (a very extended) essay on the topic, the author has more than enough ammunition at the ready to buttress his point. Over and over he cites instances of public figures, including A-list celebrities, making overt or allusive anti-Semitic comments without facing any sort of public censure, let alone being “cancelled” in the way people who make openly disparaging remarks about other minority groups become personae non gratae overnight and are, at least in some cases, never heard from again. Some of the people he quotes will be familiar to American readers, but others will not be. Nonetheless, his analysis of the reason the comments those personalities are cited as having made are more than tolerated by the liberal public—for the most part because speaking negatively about Jewish people, Jewishness, or Judaism is somehow legitimized with reference to some specific ethnos-wide character trait that people can legitimately use as a rational basis for hate—will be familiar to any Jewish reader who lives out there in the world, who reads a daily newspaper, or who spends time wandering around in the blogosphere.

The author draws an interesting portrait of himself. He declares himself not to be a Zionist, which I take to mean that he has neither any specific interest in the fate of the State of Israel or sense of a personal stake in its wellbeing. So that puts him outside the camp in which an overwhelming majority of Jewish people I know live. And the author also self-defines as an atheist with no specific allegiance to Jewish ritual or belief, thus putting him even further outside the ranks of the kind of Jewish people who occupy the world I personally inhabit. In many ways, his prose made me think of him as the latter-day version of those German Jews in the 1930s who were so busy being German that they were amazed that the Nazis considered them to be part of the Jewish problem at all. (There’s a certain irony in that thought too, given that Baddiel’s grandparents fled Nazi Germany.) Perhaps that lack of connection to traditional Jewish values or beliefs and his disconnection from Israel is what fuels his rage—he (and so many like him) see themselves as having done nothing to offend, as holding no beliefs that set them apart from the British mainstream, as being as properly ill at ease regarding Israel’s vigorous efforts to defend itself—so how dare the world refuse to censure, or let alone to cancel, people who are overtly anti-Semitic in the way those very same people would never dream of tolerating homophobic or anti-Black racist comments!

I recommend the book strongly, despite all of the above comments. It is a short read, but a forceful, dynamic statement that readers on this side of the Atlantic will have no trouble translating into local terms. It is upsetting, and in a dozen different ways. But that only makes it more, not less, important and worth your time to find and read.

The second book I’d like to write about today is Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews, published this summer by W.W. Norton. The author, born in New Jersey in 1977, has taught at Sara Lawrence and at CUNY. Some of my readers will know her work from essays published in The Atlantic and the New York Times. And she has written five novels, mostly recently A Guide for the Perplexed in 2013 and Eternal Life in 2018. People Love Dead Jews is her first book-length work of non-fiction.

The book itself, about 100 pages longer than Baddiel’s, is also about anti-Semitism, but is written in an entirely different key—one given away subtly by the book’s subtitle, Reports from a Haunted Present. And, indeed, the book’s twelve chapters, while all discrete essays that can be read separately and without reference to each other, are also all rooted in the same soil: the author’s slow, eventual understanding and coming to terms with the fact that most of the way the world thinks about Jews—and, even more to the point, the way Jews think about the way the world thinks about Jews—are floating along somewhere between dishonest and disingenuous. Her opening chapter, for example, about Anne Frank points out that the great success of her diary rests to a great extent on the endlessly cited passage in which Anne, still hiding in the Achterhuis and hoping to live to adulthood in a liberated Holland, writes that she still believes, “in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” She surely changed her mind when she got first to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belsen, where she and her sister Margot died in the spring of 1945. But that detail, unpalatable to those who wish to see Anne not as a murdered Jewish child but as an apostle of universalist optimism, is generally ignored. And so, to address that issue specifically, Horn provides an obituary for an imaginary Anne who survived the camps and lived into her 90s, and who definitely did not end up thinking that all people, presumably including the guards at Auschwitz, are truly good at heart. It’s that kind of writing that will grab readers from the very beginning and keep them engaged to the end.

The three chapters devoted to the rising level of anti-Semitism in the United States should be required reading for all Americans, but particularly for Jewish Americans still living in their grandparents’ fantasy world regarding the impossibility of America ever engendering its own violent version of “real” anti-Semitism, the kind that moves quickly past quotas and sneers to actual violence, including the lethal kind that cost those poor people in Pittsburgh their lives one Shabbat morning in 2018. Yes, the book is uneven. The admittedly fascinating chapter about her trip to Harbin, China, is at least twice as long as it needed to be. The chapter about the recent Auschwitz exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage is unfocused, the author’s point (at least to me) unclear. The chapter about The Merchant of Venice will leave most readers without university degrees in Shakespeare at least slightly confused. But the book itself is wonderful—thoughtful, intelligent, challenging, and stimulating. I recommend it to all without hesitation.

And the third book I want to recommend for my readers’ reading pleasure this fall is Noam Zion’s Sanctified Sex: The Two-Thousand-Year Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy, published earlier this year by the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia. The other two books were short, perhaps even too short, but no one will say that about Zion’s book, which weighs in at almost 550 pages. But potential readers who allow themselves to be put off by the book’s size would be making a huge error of judgment—the book is long and complicated because its subject is complicated and the sources he cites, often at length, are many and complex. But the book itself is a true tour-de-force and deserves to be considered in that context.

Most readers, used to thinking of sex as something antithetical (or at least unrelated) to religious philosophy, will be amazed to learn how seriously rabbis writing over the last two millennia have taken the very same topics that engage moderns when the talk turns to intimate matters: the limits and boundaries of marital fidelity, the relationship of fantasy to reality in the healthy sexual context, the possibility of legitimate sexual liaisons outside of marriage, the relationship of homosexuality to heterosexuality (and, by extension, of gay people to straight people with respect to the legitimacy of their coupling), the precise nature of the obligation spouses bear to provide sexual satisfaction to each other, and the relationship of reproductive possibility to ongoing sexual activity in the absence of such possibility.

The book is organized chronologically with respect to the sources the author cites, but most readers will be far more impressed by the breadth and depth of the sources than by their relationship to each other chronologically. Many of the authors cited, particularly from the Haredi world, will be unknown to almost all readers. Only a tiny percentage of them wrote in any language other than Hebrew or Yiddish. An even smaller percentage have had their books or essays translated into other languages. As a result, reading Zion’s book is something like being ushered into an art gallery featuring works of great creativity and depth by painters you’re slightly amazed never to have heard of. (I include myself in that category, by the way: almost all the books, essays, and pamphlets cited in the 150-odd pages on Haredi authors were unknown to me.) But the breadth and depth of Noam Zion’s reading of these books, and his willingness—given the riven nature of the Jewish world, his truly remarkable willingness—to consider these men (all of them are men) and their writings in light of writing on the topic by my own colleagues in the Rabbinical Assembly, by authors affiliated with various Reform Jewish institutions, and (even more impressively) with feminist authors of various sorts, that is truly what makes of this book something that my own readers should think twice about not reading.

Noam Zion is a friend. His home in Jerusalem is just a few blocks from our apartment. His wife taught the Lamaze course Joan and I took when we were anticipating the birth of our first child. I mention all that merely to be fully transparent, but also so that I can also say that I would recommend his book this highly even if he and I were not acquainted personally. It is a magisterial work on a complex topic that all readers interested in Jewish thought and its relationship to practice will find fascinating.

And those are the three books I would like to recommend to you all as autumn reading you’ll enjoy and find stimulating and very interesting.

[handeaux]

20 Curious Facts About The “Old Lady of Vine Street,” The Cincinnati Enquirer

On Saturday, the Queen City’s last surviving daily newspaper celebrates its 180th birthday. Here are a few nuggets of Enquirer trivia.

A New York Birthday Twin The first issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer came off the presses on 10 April 1841. On the very same day in New York City, Horace Greeley published Volume 1, Number 1 of the New York Tribune. Merging in 1924 with the New York Herald, the New York Herald-Tribune eventually shut down in 1967.

What Goes Around . . . With all the debate about the voting rights these days, it is interesting that the lead story in the very first edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer consists of the entire text of a bill under consideration by the Ohio General Assembly “To Preserve the Purity of Elections.”

Publishing On The Sabbath On 20 April 1848, the first Sunday edition of the Enquirer appeared and created a great deal of controversy. Although it should be obvious that a Monday morning edition required a lot more Sunday labor than a Sunday edition, tut-tutting ensued. Only four other newspapers published Sunday editions in 1848 and all have ceased publication, so the Enquirer’s is the oldest Sunday edition in the United States,

Stop The Presses In its entire 180-year publication life, the Enquirer has failed to publish on nine days. For its first 102 years, the Enquirer missed only one edition when, in 1866, fire destroyed Cincinnati’s Pike Opera House and, with it, the Enquirer’s print shop. Since 1943, the Enquirer has failed to publish on eight days – all due to labor disputes.

Three Groans For The Francophile Rag When France and Prussia went to war in 1870, Cincinnati’s newspapers, fully aware of the Deutschland sympathies of their readers, quickly announced their support for Prussia. All but one newspaper, that is. The Enquirer proclaimed support for France, right up to Prussia’s crushing victory. A day after France’s surrender, Cincinnati’s Germans marched through the streets, stopping at every newspaper office to cheer. All but one. In front of the Enquirer, the crowd gave “three tremendous groans” of disapproval.

No Respect For Artists Lafcadio Hearn’s grisly reporting on the hideous crime known as the Tanyard Murder in 1874 is well known. It is not often remembered that two other major Cincinnati talents were involved in the dissemination of the gruesome details of this foul affair. Artists Frank Duveneck and Henry Farny – both of whom have multiple works on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum – provided the gothic sketches accompanying Hearn’s spine-tingling prose.

The Compositor’s Despair During the 1880s and 1890s, the sports editor of the Enquirer was a former news reporter named Harry Weldon. This was the era before typewriters when journalists turned in their copy on handwritten sheets. Weldon’s penmanship was so atrocious that few typesetters could decipher it. He was nicknamed “The Compositor’s Despair.”

Corrupting The Morals of Cincinnati’s Youth Cincinnati’s Roman Catholic Archbishop decried the Enquirer’s flagrant immorality in the 1880s, describing it as “a daily newspaper unfit to be read by any human being, much less a Christian.” The offending material? A “personals” column in the classified advertising section, through which young men and women arranged illicit assignations and prostitutes marketed their services.

Set ‘Em Up, Colonel! In 1899, the bonifaces of Cincinnati collaborated on a small book called “The Bartender’s Guide,” full of recipes for their signature cocktails. Colonel Thomas Cody, star mixologist of Covington’s Latonia Hotel, contributed the Enquirer Cocktail: A glass half-full of fine ice over which is poured a wineglass of imported sherry, a half glass of cream of cocoa, and eight to ten dashes of orange bitters, served with an orange slice.

Flowers For The Old Lady The deep ruby-red “Enquirer” carnation has been described as the most perfect cultivar of that species, mostly by the newspaper that sponsored a carnation-growing contest in 1899. Winning the plaudits, and a gold medal, was Richard A. Witterstaetter of Delhi, who bred this outstanding flower and named it after the newspaper who awarded him the gold medal.

Not Today, Madame! Under the iron rule of Marion Devereux, society editor of the Enquirer from 1910 to 1939, no respectable woman in Cincinnati would dare to select a convenient date for a luncheon, charity event or family wedding on her own. Every society matron in the Queen City religiously conferred with Miss Devereux to be assigned a date consistent with the regal editor’s social calendar.

His S.O.B. Book John Roll McLean was owner of the Enquirer from 1881 until his death in 1916. For a time, he was the unelected boss of Cincinnati, predecessor to George “Boss” Cox. McLean ran for office several times and always lost. He carried around a little notebook containing the names of people he particularly disliked. He called it his “Son-of-a-bitch Book.”

Diamond Connection Perhaps the most famous diamond in the world is the deep blue Hope Diamond now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Few remember that this luxurious stone has a connection to the Cincinnati Enquirer. One of its owners was Edward Beale McLean, who owned the Enquirer (and the Washington Post) from 1916 to 1933. McLean bought the diamond for his wife, Evalyn. The diamond is reputed to be cursed. Maybe so; McLean died in an insane asylum.

The Rites Of Spring In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a young sportswriter named Whitney Tower gained a reputation as something of a character, even among the oddballs in the Enquirer newsroom. He was an excellent writer and turned out travel pieces as well as sports copy, but he really didn’t need the work because he came from wealth on both sides of his family. Every spring, he would enter the newsroom and proclaim a bawdy little ditty that began, “Hooray, Hooray, The First of May! Outdoor [lovemaking] begins today!“ Tower went on to cover horse racing for years at Sports Illustrated.

Owned By The Competition From 1956 to 1971, the Enquirer was owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, publishers of the competing Cincinnati Post. After buying controlling stock in the Enquirer, the Scripps Company purchased the only other remaining daily in town, the Times-Star, and merged it with the Post, leaving Scripps in control of every daily newspaper in town. Federal anti-trust regulators filed suit in 1964 and Scripps agreed to sell the Enquirer. Ironically, Scripps limped into a “joint operating agreement” with the Enquirer by the end of the decade in a last-ditch effort to save the Post.

Promo For A Face Change Throughout the summer of 1963, Enquirer readers found daily advertisements proclaiming nothing but “Bodoni Is Coming!” Curious subscribers called to ask whether it was a promotion for a trapeze artist or maybe a lawn fertilizer. On 30 September, the secret was out: The Enquirer had ditched Cheltenham, its long-suffering headline typeface for Bodoni Bold, adopted after much research into the optimum typeface to “give readers headlines they might read more quickly and with clearest possible understanding.”

I’m A Music Critic, Dammit, Not A Journalist! Longtime Enquirer classical music critic Henry S. Humphreys accompanied the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on one of its world tours. One night, he called the city desk to let the editor know he would not be filing a review of that day’s concert because the pilot got lost and landed the orchestra’s plane in the wrong city. He hung up on an editor dying for details but clueless as to where Henry had called from.

A Missed Bicentennial The Enquirer could have celebrated a bicentennial in 2018. Today’s daily newspaper traces its origins to a weekly launched on 23 June 1818 and originally named The Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser. Over the next couple of decades, the paper was renamed The Advertiser, The Advertiser and Phoenix, and The Advertiser and Journal. Along the way, it began publishing twice a week and, in 1838, daily. On 1 April 1841, owner Moses Dawson sold the whole operation to the Brough brothers of Marietta, Ohio, John and Charles, who bought new type, but published from the Advertiser’s offices and presses 10 days later.

Happy Birthday! The Enquirer celebrated its 150th birthday on Wednesday, 10 April 1991, by publishing the news that the newspaper had won its first Pulitzer Prize ever. The prize was awarded in editorial cartooning for the work of cartoonist Jim Borgman, who had joined the Enquirer staff 15 years previously.

Grand Or Grey? Over many years, the Enquirer was known as the Old Lady of Vine Street, the title of Richard K. Mastain’s book on efforts to save the paper in the 1950s. Sometimes it was the Grand Old Lady of Vine Street. That’s the title of Grady DeCamp’s survey of Enquirer history published for its sesquicentennial in 1991. But, among competitors and targets of the Enquirer’s investigations, not to mention art & design critics appalled by its somber, bland layout, it was always the Grey Old Lady of Vine Street.

[ravenbrenna09]

Hogwarts AU

In honor of Sobbe being Sobbe and BLESSING us with the Sobbe selfie that we’ve been wanting for years, here is the first time that Sander saw Robbe.

This is likely to be in the first chapter of my wtFOCK @ Hogwarts AU, which I decided will include some other POVs, but the main POV would be the main of that season. (Also, I changed Sander, Senne, and Noor’s ages to only being one year older than the main cast so I didn’t have to move up the timeline so “Season 3″ has to happen before Sander and Senne graduate).

Enjoy!

...

September 1st, 2018

Sander had spent the entirety of the train ride to Hogwarts in a compartment close to the front of the train where only the prefects and teachers sat. He had locked the door to the hallway, protecting it with a powerful charm that made people turn away, and closed the blinds so no one knew that he was in there. The only people who disturbed him was the sweet-cart lady, who he paid extra to keep his location a secret because he knew Senne was likely looking for him. 

But, it had always been the same thing with the sole exception of their first train ride together, where they had met and traded their tragic life stories. 

Senne would hang out with his other friends, and in later years his girlfriends who would hang all over him, and Sander would hide away in another compartment, sketching the scenery that they passed. It had become a routine that they had established, something they did every train ride, no matter the holiday. Senne would always find him on the platform without his other gang of friends and the girlfriend of the week, pretending to be angry that Sander didn’t want to hang out with him, and Sander would roll his eyes, letting Senne drag him to the carriages, teasing him for his anti-social behavior.

As the train started to slow down and Sander shifted to get up, his cat, Ziggy, who’s orange fur was more red than yellow, let out a frustrated meow, shifting and trying to burrow further into Sander’s lap. But, Sander picked him up by his sides, lifting him up and into the cage. He fought him, clinging to the outside of the cage until Sander pulled his claws from the edges of the cage, and meowed weakly for him to let him out, and Sander pouted all the same. 

“I’m sorry, but the train is about to stop and you need to be in your cage for the house-elves,” Sander replied with a huff. He closed the cage and Ziggy protested again, louder. Sander pouted at him, grabbing his wand from his boot to vanish the cat hair from his black clothes. “Don’t make me feel worse.” Another protest as Sander pulled his robes out of his suitcase. “Ziggy.”

“Mrow,”

“Ziggy.” 

“MROW.”

“The house-elves will let you out when you get in the room, I promise,” Sander informed him. The train slowed down completely, halting to a stop and nearly throwing Sander into the shelf above the seat. With seconds of the train halting to a stop, the younger years were racing off the train in the direction of the carriages. Ziggy glared at him all the same but allowed him to scratch under his chin through the bars of the cage. “I promise to give you all the love later tonight.” 

After taking down the charm and pulling up the blinds, Sander exited his compartment, moving out of the train, following the rush of traffic until he jumped onto the platform. Sure enough, Senne was leaning against the same lamp light that he always was with Noor leaning up against him. The two of them were talking, their Gryffindor robes wrapped on his shoulders, the artificial light from the lamposts illuminating them in a warm glow, and Sander moved towards them, smiling over at Senne. 

“There you are,” Senne remarked, halting his conversation with Noor with a simple shrug of his shoulders and a headshake. “Honestly, the number of times that you disappear from the train. I’m convinced that you don’t even want to be my friend anymore.” 

Sander rolled his eyes. “As if. I don’t have to spend every waking minute with you, Senne.” 

He pouted, looking like a child. “But I miss you.” 

“You can survive the train ride without me,” Sander remarked. “You spent the majority of the summer over at my house, helping me steal my father’s alcohol, and you were definitely over at my house more than you were at yours. Not like I’m complaining, my mom loves you. You’re the son she always wanted.”

It was a joke, but it was also the truth because Senne was always nothing but respectful to Katrjin Driesen and protective of Camille within her fighting breath, and Senne knows it, reaching out to shove Sander’s shoulder.  

“Besides,” Sander remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. “You know very well that Luka and I don’t get along.”

“You know I prefer you,” Senne teased. He reached out to grab at Sander’s jaw, snagging it beneath the pads of his fingertips, and purposely jetting his lips forward. Sander leaned from his grasp, slapping his hand, and Senne let out a booming laugh, followed quickly by Noor’s melodious laugh. “But, Luka throws wicked parties when his parents are away. You should go sometime, I’m sure you’ll have a blast.”

“He’d probably sit on the couch and people watch,” Noor commented. 

“Exactly! There’s always an interesting amount of characters at Luka’s parties, but you never show up. You never know who you might meet,” Senne remarked. 

“I already see enough of Luka in our dorm and that’s enough for me.”

“Just because you go to his party doesn’t mean you have to see him.”

“I’m never invited.”

“I’ll invite you!” 

“But, I don’t want to go!” Sander responded. Senne laughed loudly, wrapping an arm around Sander’s shoulders (which had become increasingly more difficult now that Sander was taller than him) and dragging him in the direction of the thestral-drawn carriages. Noor followed behind as Sander tried to free himself from Senne’s iron-clad grasp.

The crowd on the platform had already begun to thin considerably. Everyone had been eager to get on the carriages, to be whisked away to the castle, as if that would somehow make the food and sorting ceremony happen quicker. Senne returned to his conversation with Noor, which seemed to have been about Professor Potter’s short summer project, picking a topic from the next book that they wanted to learn about and explain why.

Up ahead, there was a group of fifth years, hanging outside one of the carriages. There were only two of them that he recognized, Jens and Moyo, and only because Jens frequently ended up in the Slytherin Common Room when he was dating Britt and Moyo seemed to have a crush on Noor (much to her annoyance). One of them was a long-haired girl, another Gryffindor, with her long hair tied up into a ponytail, reaching out to pet the thestral. 

To Sander, she was petting air. But Sander had known of thestrals since his second year. 

Senne could see them, had the entire time, but the two of them hadn’t been able to understand why Senne could see it and Sander couldn’t. The Head Boy had explained to them about thestrals and how only certain people could see them and Senne guided him to feel the snout of the horse-like creature. It was freaky, being unable to see something but feel it’s leathery, smooth skin beneath your fingertips. 

The girl reached out, snagging someone’s wrist, pulling them closer. 

It was a boy, a Ravenclaw judging from the blue and bronze on his robes which hung on his shoulders, with brown hair that curled at the end, long enough to be pulled into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. There were a few strands that broke free of the ponytail, falling on the sides of his face, framing his features beautifully, stunningly. They were a little far from the artificial light of the platforms, the moon shining on all of them, on him, as the girl placed his hand against the snout of the thestral.

A bright grin formed on the boy’s face, his grin lighting up his entire face, accenting it beautifully and perfectly, as his hand moved along the snout, petting it with the best of his ability, considering the fact that he (presumably) couldn’t see the beast, and Sander was almost glad that his friends weren’t paying attention to him because Senne would tease him for days and so would Noor. But, his soul screamed at him, him.

Him.

That’s him.

“Come on,” Jens spoke, climbing into the carriage, joining the curly-haired boy already sitting there. “Let’s go before they start the feast without him.” The girl climbed on the carriage, sitting down next to Jens and taking his hand. There was a look exchanged between Moyo and the boy as to who would get the final seat before they were off. 

Within an instant, the boy was around the thestral, climbing over the carriage side. The move was swift and agile, like he was born to do it, plopping down in the fourth and final seat of the carriage, before Moyo even had a chance to move that far. He let out a string of curses and the carriage took off, having automatically filled its four-person quota. Jens and the girl laughed. 

“Sorry, Moyo!” the boy called, grinning brightly. 

“That’s completely unfair! You’re too fucking small!”

“That’s why he’s the Ravenclaw Seeker!” 

Fuck, Sander thought to himself. How had he not noticed him before now?

Sander felt someone brush up to him and he turned to find Senne, nudging him with his shoulder and a concerned look on his face. “You okay?” Senne questioned. Noor popped up on Sander’s left, glancing at him as well. 

Sander nodded his head, wanting to have this conversation with his best friend later when it was just the two of them. “Yeah, I’m fine. Was just watching that interaction is all,” Sander commented, pointing at Moyo, who was staring at them, presumably Noor, now. 

Noor glanced ahead of them, letting out a frustrated breath, hissing out, “Oh, fuck me. Just what I need.”

Sander reached out, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and bringing her close to his side. He could see the disappointed, but not surprised, look on Moyo’s face, but he placed a kiss against the top of Noor’s hair for good measure. “I got you.”

Noor laughed, reaching up to intertwine their fingers, as Senne stepped towards the next carriage, laughing under his breath. “Thank you, Sander, the best fake-boyfriend I could ever ask for.”