#but still UK...so tangentially related?

[too-antigonish]

Sunday Confessional: Feeling English…

I'm having feelings about the UK in general and England in particular because one of my distant English cousins just passed away. She lived a long, full life and reached a very ripe old age, but over the past few years I've very much wanted to visit her in person (it's been decades since I last saw her) and now I won't be able to.

Worth Clough Cottages where my 4x great-grandparents lived. Built 1814 by Lord Warren-Bulkeley for the miners at the Lord and Lady Coal Pits.

Part of my family came from Stockport to the US in 1862. They were coal miners in Poynton (now part of "Greater" Stockport) when the Lancashire Cotton Famine hit because of the American Civil War. What to do? Pull up stakes and become coal miners in America! Which was having a Civil War!

Wisdom of the move and its timing aside, the funny thing is that the folks who stayed in England and the folks that went to America stayed in touch. In fact we're still in touch 163 years later! I have copies of letters from the original siblings from the 1870s. I have newspaper clippings about various voyages across the Atlantic for visits in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1939, just before the start of WWII, two of them—David and Marjorie—came for an extended stay. I have the photographs.

1939 Picnic: English cousins with the Illinois cousins in California

Then came the war. David wrote lots of letters about what things were like in the UK and how he thought the US would have to join the fight. Of course we eventually did. My grandfather ended up in the army and was stationed in England and later in various parts of Europe. He spent all of his leave living with the English cousins and got to know them very, very well indeed.

After the war there were many letters, packages (especially while there was still rationing in the UK), and as often as possible, visits in both directions. One of those visits included me. It was the last trip that my grandparents were able to make to the UK. We spent three weeks in various parts of England, Wales, and Scotland but a full week of that time was spent staying with the cousins—who by now had moved to Bradford and Derby.

House in Bradford where my cousins lived

It was an amazing trip—even if we did spend what I thought was a rather excessive amount of time touring historic coal mines. This was perhaps because my beloved grandfather was only one generation away from the original family business and the side of his family that hadn't mined coal in Poynton? Well, they mined coal in Merthyr Tydfil. 

Still, I managed to see enough of the above-ground part of the UK that you could probably attribute my undergrad in medieval studies to that single trip alone. Coming home, the US was just so painfully *new* and I've never quite gotten over it.

For a whole variety of complicated reasons, I haven't been able to make it back to the UK since. I'm still holding out hope that this will change at some point because I'd *really* like to visit again someday! Until then, I'll do video calls and trade photos with the remaining cousins and we'll see how much longer we can make the 163 year streak last.

Baby Antigonish. At the Bingley Five-Rise Locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Steepest flight of locks in the UK.

[duckprintspress]

Fandom Lexicon: S

This one is going up a day early, because I’ll be vending all tomorrow (June 22nd 2024) at the Johnstown NY Toying Around Block Party! And here we are, with the letter S, which has the most entries of any letter in our entire lexicon.

View the entire Lexicon posted thus far!

See something incorrect? Notice an entry we’ve missed? Let us know!

Lexicon Entries Beginning with S: (read more)

S[#]: Abbreviation for “season (number).”

SALS: Abbreviation for “ship and let ship.” A different way of saying “you do what makes you happy, it’s none of my business.” See also: DL;DR, YKINMKATO (pending). Read more about the term “SALS.”

Sapphic: An umbrella term for women or women-aligned people who love women, regardless of the sexuality of the women in question. See also: Achillean. Read more about sapphism.

Schmoop: Cavity-inducingly sweet or cute. Typically refers to either scenes within, or the entire setting of, a fanwork. See also: fluff. Read more about schmoop.

Schroedinger’s [Thing]: A thing that may or may not exist so long as we do not attempt to confirm. Reference to Schroedinger’s Cat.

Scrunkly: Cute, but not in a conventional way; scruffy, ill-kempt, messy. Example: Eddie Munson.

SD: Abbreviation for “super deformed.” See also: chibi.

Sealioning: A type of trolling in which the troll demands evidence to “prove” a counterargument, but no amount of evidence will actually convince them. Read more about sealioning.

Secret Masters: A term for the people who run everything; in fandom, this has often been used to reference show runners. Sometimes, it abuts with antisemitic tropes. Sometimes, it leads into illuminati and other conspiracy theories. See also: TPTB (pending).

Self-Insert: When an author writes themselves into a story as a character, typically the protagonist. Often conflated with, but not actually synonymous to, a “Mary Sue.” Not to be confused with reader insert fics. See also: Gary Stu. Read more about self-inserts.

Self-Pub: Shortened term for “self-publishing” and “self-published books.”

Selfcest: When two versions of the same character engage in sexual relations (or are simply sexually attracted to each other). For example, a character has traveled back in time and meets themselves. Tangentially related to the “would you fuck your clone?” meme, and therefore sometimes called “clonecest.” Read more about selfcest.

Seme: In Japanese mlm fandoms, the seme is the character who sexually tops. See also: uke (pending). Read more about the term “seme.”

Sex Pollen: A fic trope in which a character inhales/consumes an airborne aphrodisiac and is overcome with sexual need. Read more about the sex pollen trope.

SFF: Abbreviation for “science fiction and fantasy” as genres.

SFW: Abbreviation for “safe for work.”

Shelfie: In book-loving circles, a shelfie is a photograph of someone’s bookshelves, often showing them attractively organized.

Ship: Shortened version of the word “relationship.” Believing that two or more individuals are/should be/would be good/terrible/interesting/hilarious in a relationship with each other. Typically used for romantic/sexual pairings, but can refer to platonic ones as well. Generally, romantic/sexual ships are denoted with a slash, hence slash becoming a synonym for shipping, and platonic ships are denoted with an ampersand. The verb form refers to the act of treating two or more characters as being in a relationship with each other. Shipping is one of the cornerstones of transformative fandom. Read more about shipping.

Shitpost: 1. Something shared on the internet that is intentionally provocative in some way. 2. Something shared on the internet that minimal effort was put into and that should therefore not be taken seriously. 3. A pointless, silly post that is still relatable in some way that causes it to go viral. Read more about shitposts.

Shoto: Shortened version of “shotacon.”

Shotacon: A Japanese genre that focused on young or young-looking male characters, often sexually. See also: lolicon. Read more about shotacon.

Shou: In Chinese mlm fandoms, the shou is the character who bottoms sexually. See also: gong.

Shoujo: A Japanese genre of YA stories that usually feature groups of young women who are friends, adventure, romance (most often between teenaged characters), and are aimed primarily at teenage women. Examples: Hana Yori Dango, Fruits Basket, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura. Read more about shoujo.

Shounen: A Japanese genre of YA stories that usually feature large casts of young men who are friends with each other and often engage in match-based story lines (for example, sports events, arena fights, etc.). Aimed at teenage men. Not to be confused with shounen ai. Examples: Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto. Read more about shounen.

Shounen-ai: A Japanese genre of mlm stories, usually with the relationships less explicit than in yaoi titles. Approximately a synonym of BL. Not to be confused with shounen. Read more about shounen-ai.

Slash: Gay fanworks, most often mlm. Sometimes used for wlw, or those works may be called femslash. Read more about slash.

Slow Burn: A story that contains a romantic/sexual element that takes most of the work’s word count to resolve. Can be used on works of any length but is most applicable on longer ones. Read more about slow burn.

Smushname: A smushed-together ship name, as in when parts of two or more character names are combined to create a new name used to refer to that ship. For example, Spirk means “Spock/Kirk,” Bingliushen means “Luo Binghe/Liu Qingge/Shen Qingqiu,” etc. Read more about smushnames.

Smut: Works that include explicit sex scenes. Read more about smut.

Snert: A term used to refer to someone as an asshole. Originally aimed at teenagers, it supposedly stands for “Snot-Nosed, Egotistical, Rude Teenager,” though there are variations on that and there’s no agreed-upon definition.

Sockpuppet: A fake account created on a given platform to present as someone other than/in addition to oneself. Not typically done in good faith. Also is used as a verb. Sockpuppeting is the act of creating multiple fake accounts to cheerlead someone, bully someone, advertise someone, etc. Sometimes shortened to just “sock.” The most famous instance of fandom sockpuppeting is the Ms. Scribe affair. Read more about sockpuppets.

Songfic: A fanfiction story written around (and usually including some lyrics from) a specific song. Read more about songfics.

SPAG: Abbreviation for “spelling and grammar.” A term often used when discussing copyediting, as in, “I edited for SPAG.”

Spam: Rapid/repeated activity or content sharing that may be annoying to others. Typically associated with low value/low effort content/activity, but volume and speed are the more important defining traits. Also used as a verb. Read more about spam.

Spam Liking: Going through someone’s social media account and “liking” many of their posts in rapid succession. Some people love when others do this, others feel it’s rude or even creepy. These differences in opinion are often generational and/or related to the platform being used (for example, spam liking is often considered fine on Tumblr but inappropriate on Instagram.)

Spec Fic: Shortened version of “speculative fiction,” the overarching genre that includes science fiction, fantasy, modern paranormal, horror, ~punk, and related subgenres.

Speedrun: Performing a lengthy activity in a time frame often deemed implausible or impossible by conventional measures by taking advantage of media-relevant shortcuts (for example: taking advantage of glitches, skipping nonessential episodes, and reading plot summaries). Originates in video game fandoms, where people speedrun to complete a game as quickly as possible. Read more about speedrunning.

Spiders Georg: A humorous way to refer to a statistical outlier who should not be counted when compiling data. Refers to a Tumblr post about a spider who eats 10,000 spiders a day and throws off the average spiders eaten a day statistic. A thing might be called [Thing] Georg if its behavior is exceptionally outside the ordinary and the person making the reference is amused by it. Read more about Spiders Georg.

Spork: 1. Outdated: To lovingly encourage a fanfic author to please write more (of a specific thing or in general). 2. The practice of mocking bad fic. Read more about sporking. 3. Noun: a fanwork created as a parody of a specific bad fic. 4. A combination fork and spoon.

Squee: A high-pitched happy noise, typically made in relation to a character, ship, or individual, but can also be in response to good news. Read more about the term “squee.”

Squick: Content that an individual would prefer not to interact with and/or finds uncomfortable. Not to be confused with a trigger (pending). See also: YKINMKATO (pending). Read more about squicks.

SSC: Abbreviation for “safe, sane, and consensual.” A term used by the BDSM community to define a baseline of expectations for sexual activities. See also: PRICK, RACK. Read more about SSC.

Stan: An unusually obsessed fan. Coined by Eminem in 2000 in a dark song by the same name. Often said to be a portmanteau of “stalker” and “fan.” Despite its dark origins, this work is often used as a light-hearted self-descriptor. See also: tinhat (pending). Read more about stans.

Strikethrough: Refers to when, in 2007, Livejournal performed a mass deletion without warning of accounts that it found objectionable, with devastating results for fandom. Coined because deleted accounts on Livejournal are marked with a line/strikethrough over their name. Read more about Strikethrough.

Sub: 1. A submissive in a BDSM Dom/Sub relationship. 2. A topic-focused messageboard (“subreddit”) on Reddit.

Super Deformed : An art style that puts extreme emphasis on certain body parts. For example: large chests, large heads, long legs. See also: chibi.

Superhell: A reference to the Big Empty in Supernatural, where angels go when they die. It is “superhell” because it is worse than actual hell (also present in the show), and in reference to the show title. Has come to be used synonymously with “a place where gay characters go to be disappeared from canon,” as in a variation on the “bury your gays” trope. See also: eeby deeby.

Sus: Shortened version of the word “suspicious.” A term with a complex history that became extremely common after the game Among Us became popular.

SW: Abbreviation for many things, with the most common being “sex work” and “Star Wars.”

SWERF: Abbreviation for “sex-work-exclusionary radical feminism.” A form of radical feminism that is anti-sex work and anti-sex workers and explicitly excludes sex workers from their activism. Fuck SWERFs. See also: TERF (pending).

[threebooksoneplot]

love this podcast so much! this is probably a bit of a nuts ask but i just wanted to let you guys know that you've genuinely helped me in real life- I was approached by two Mormon missionaries today (i live in the UK so it was Unexpected to say the least) and for the entirety of the conversation I was remembering how you mentioned on one of your episodes (99% sure it was you guys) about how being on missionary is most Mormons' first experience of the wider world so you should do your best to be polite etc. all the context you gave genuinely helped me navigate the conversation so much lmao, you guys are entertaining AND educational 10/10

oh wow!! daaaamn, good for you!

and yeah, that sounds like something we would say. I (G) can't seem to dig up receipts right now but the tl;dr is that oftentimes, door-to-door evangelism of the kind mormon missionaries and jehovah's witnesses engage in is less effective at converting people, but highly effective at reinforcing to the group's members that all outsiders are Cruel And Sinful and therefore you should never leave The Church because that's where the only good and kind people are.

but also, like, 90% of the time the reason I (G) try to be kind to mormon missionaries is because they're like 20 and have never been allowed the simple joy of a macchiato (but must try to fill that void with vile concoctions of dr pepper, gummy worms, and half 'n half, apparently.)

also, let the record show that "being kind" does not mean showing any interest whatsoever in converting to mormonism, or leading them on to that effect! but it costs $0 to wish them a nice day and be a shining example of how wearing spaghetti straps does not in fact lead to sacrificing live goats to satan.

anyway. we're proud of you, anon! glad you like the ole podcast 🤠

—G

yeah this is awesome to hear!! and even to add onto this, that sort of advice is pretty good to utilize just in general when talking to people from these ultra-conservative, super-sheltered (and yes, usually religious) upbringings. like G said, you don't need to lie to them and make them believe that "oh yeah totally i'm absolutely going to see you this sunday and I sure will consider changing the entirety of my belief system/morals!" but, yknow, just be kind. it's good to do even for Normal Regular people you see on the street. but this isn't sesame street so I won't start that brand of schoolyard lecture.

semi-related, but a little tangential: my super-strict catholic high school used to invite mormon missionaries to come and 'speak with' specific religious classes (usually the TrulyCatholic bitches took these) every year. and every year we heard about how "lol the ridiculous mormons keep coming and being nice to us to try and talk about their religion as if we're EVER going to change our minds and believe in their FAKE and WRONG version of christianity?? isn't it so stupid that they're so patient and kind to us even as sister catherine anne stands back and lets us bully—I mean, debate these guys? anyways I wonder when the morons—I mean, mormons, will stop coming back. 😌💅"

and to this day I still think about those guys! because I never understood their willingness to come back every year, and I could not fathom why they were consistently so nice. learning more about mormonism through this podcast has really helped my ex-catholic ass look at the outside world and be like "oh, we were the assholes. I mean, I knew that already, but shit." and tbh i'm sure they honestly loved coming to my school, because nothing will solidify your own stance/opinion on a group of 'outsiders' than a mob of privileged ravenous catholic teenagers. anyways, let that be a refrain for you on your new day-to-day: don't be like the catholics, be kind. amen 🙏

—shannon

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 20/04/2024 (Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, Perrie Edwards)

Hozier sticks to a second week at #1 on the UK Singles Chart with “Too Sweet” and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we actually have a bit of a massacre so we must bid adieu to: “7 Minute Drill” by J. Cole (that one we literally say farewell to, it’s been deleted), “Cinderella” by Future and Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott, “Make You Mine” by Madison Beer, “CARNIVAL” by Hitler and Goebbels featuring Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti, “Made for Me” by Muni Long, “bye” and “yes, and?” by Ariana Grande, “Would You (go to bed with me?)” by Campbell and Alcemist, assisted by a remix with Caity Baser, “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, yes, really, “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift and finally, even though we all know it’ll be back, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

It actually turns out that the most interesting stories here outside of the top 10 and new tracks… are the returning entries, because there are quite a few, they’re quite high and also quite - at least tangentially - related to a cultural event. Firstly, we have the release of a biopic revolving around the late singer Amy Winehouse who has captivated audiences long after death and the recent release of Back to Black, as well as its soundtrack, mostly a compilation of Winehouse’s songs and her influences, has propelled the studio album of the same name to #22 on the album chart whilst giving some of her legacy catalogue a solid boost. The song of the same name, “Back to Black”, had several initial runs from 2007 to 2008, peaking at “only” #25, but returned with stride after her passing to find a new peak of #8 in 2011. At #1 that week was “She Makes Me Wanna” by JLS featuring Dev. The charts don’t always reflect what music actually stands the test of time, let’s just say that. Today, it’s at #51. An even more storied chart run comes in at #44 with “Valerie” by Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse. Ronson’s version largely eclipsed the original Zutons version released the year before. The Liverpool indie rock outfit peaked at #9 with their version, whilst Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater” topped the charts, but by the time Ronson and Winehouse came along, the chart was instead reigned by Sugababes with “About You Now”, which halted “Valerie” from hitting #1. Similarly to “Back to Black”, it did return to the chart after her passing though not very high, so I assume that it must have some degree of prominence in the biopic, I’ve yet to see it.

As for our two other re-entries, they somehow have even more chart history dragged into them, so bear with me. Paul Simon wrote “The Sound of Silence” and recorded the track as a member of Simon & Garfunkel in 1964, and despite this being the most prominent and successful version, hitting #1 Stateside, it somehow never once appeared on the UK Singles Chart in any form until long after, specifically in 1966 when an Irish pop group The Bachelors covered it, basically taking any steam off of the original by peaking at #3. The Spencer Davis Group’s “Somebody Help Me” was #1 at the time. It wouldn’t appear on the charts again until damn near half a century later in 2012, when viral acoustic singer Kina Grannis took it to #93. However, and I really wish I couldn’t say this, the most successful cover may be from nu metal band Disturbed, who reached mainstream success worldwide by covering the track in 2016, by then it had been thoroughly memed to death as well as being a long-term pop staple, yet it still worked. Their mediocre version peaked at #29 and now it’s back at #47 because of an inexplicable, practically unlistenable house remix by Australian DJ CYRIL that Paul Simon could probably sue for murder. I didn’t like the Disturbed version, but this is a new level of groanworthy.

As for our final re-entry, we should look towards the album charts, wherein Oasis’ 1994 debut Definitely Maybe is actually down a full positions, lower than other Oasis albums. The irony in that is that it’s the iconic Britpop band’s 20th anniversary this past week, with them releasing special physical editions of their debut single “Supersonic” to mark the occasion. It never really peaked that high to begin with, only at #31, but it did stick around and return for several runs for basically most of the 1990s, only to return once again this week as our highest re-entry at #42.

The gains are a lot less interesting but there are still a handful of notable boosts, namely “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna and Skillibeng up to #38, “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan at #33, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by David Guetta and OneRepublic at #25 (Jesus Christ), and finally, “Hell n Back” by Bakar nearing its old peak at #21.

This week, our top five on the UK Singles Chart consists of: “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé holding at #5, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims floating at #4, “i like the way you kiss me” by Artemas smooching its way up to #3, Benjamin of Boontown is at #2 with “Beautiful Things” and of course, Hozier still at #1. Now, there’s actually quite a lot to discuss in our new entries, despite the fact that Taylor is still a week away yet, in fact this might end up the more interesting week because no-one is dropping the same day as her. So let’s review them, shall we?

New Entries

#49 - “We Still Don’t Trust You” - Future and Metro Boomin featuring The Weeknd

Produced by Metro Boomin, Peter Lee Johnson and MIKE DEAN

Yup, all of our new entries are within the top 50 this week, and most of them well into the highest reaches of the chart. Given Taylor only has three songs coming next week, I’m pretty excited for a from-the-top shake-up that won’t be immediately torn down… at least until the temporary Eurovision blockade, but we’ll deal with that when it comes to it. For now, I had only heard one of the songs debuting this week before today, and it was this one, the intro and title track to the second of the Future-Metro collaboration tapes, which debuted at #11 on the albums chart this week. Not every track hits on this second album, but if you remember what I thought about the first album, you’d recall I preferred the hazier, more melodically-focused pop-trap that was prevalent through the middle section, and this new record is essentially an extended version of just that with a triumphant victory lap full of bangers on the back-half bonus disc to balance things out. Future is a lot more emotive, Metro is delivering beautiful cloudy soundscapes, and the hooks are catchier than ever, though it’s not nearly as immediate so I understand that it performed less successfully even if it is a damn shame. It also means we only have the first track here, which is barely even a song ultimately, more so an extended, hallucinatory introduction blending punchy synthpop drums with garbled psuedo-hooks about freaky girls from Future, a looming falsetto from The Weeknd over a borderline nu-disco groove and semi-verses that don’t really form into a complete song. In the album context, this is a brilliant introduction to where the album will take you: a late-night drive taking your mind off “the hoes” so to speak. As a charting single by itself, it’s honestly just weird. Other than being the intro to an album most people I imagine didn’t finish all the way through, I don’t understand why “All to Myself” didn’t take this one’s place. I guess it didn’t have the video treatment but regardless, weird single to push, even if it’s a great moment.

#46 - “KiKi (What Would Drizzy Say?)” - D-Block Europe

Produced by Eight8, Harry Beech and Ari Beats

Well, Drake’s in the news thanks to all the dissing back and forth so being the young brilliant entrepreneurs they are, DBE pushed out a song with him in the title, in a vague reference to Drake’s own “What Would Pluto Do” but a much less vague, openly cheap interpolation of Drake’s “In My Feelings”, and the chart history did not stop with our re-entries as if there’s a coherent theme with some of these new tracks, it’s egregious referencing. “In My Feelings” samples a plethora of tracks in the first place, but none as explicitly as DBE have riffed from it here. The original spent four weeks at #1, but I don’t see Young Adz’s nasal auto-croon rendition getting any higher than #46. I actually feel kind of relieved with this because this is back to the stupid, barely functioning DBE of old (and by old, I mean the late 2010s), with a terrible bass mastering job, overly loud flutes that nearly drown out Adz himself attempting to sing his way out of his lack of content, in the same melody as Drake’s chorus until he just starts talking instead midway through. Some of the 2020s improvements are actually present here though; Youthful Advertisements has much tighter rhyme schemes once he actually starts rapping, and they aren’t as audibly out of tune or beat with everything else as they probably would be if they tried this out when the original was big. He also puts a shell in his back like he’s a turtle, tells the girl to close her mouth and leads into Dirtbike Lb’s small contribution, a brief, half-dead and wordy verse that still washes Adz: this is what I’ve come to expect from the duo. There’s not much of an attempt at wordplay but cool turns of phrase that kind of imply he thinks Hermés is the name of the crocodile they killed to make the bag and not just the brand name… they’re good enough. This is good fun.

#41 - “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” - Shaboozey

Produced by Nevin and Sean Cook

Okay, if we’re going to sample egregiously, this is how we do it: not trying to play it off as a completely new song but not serving in the exact same lane and purpose as the original. Instead, let’s make unabashed re-recordings and reimaginings that don’t necessarily modernise or improve the song, and don’t set out to, instead crafting a different experience from the same fundamentals. Now I don’t like the original 2004 track “Tipsy” by J-Kwon mostly because of, well, J-Kwon being useless, but there’s a great hook to it, especially the radio edit, and the beat making up nearly entirely of weird sound effects over a distorted clap sample is pretty clever. The original “Tipsy” peaked at #4 for two weeks, whilst “Lola’s Theme” by the Shapeshifters was #1, and later The Streets’ “Dry Your Eyes”. Shaboozey, a singer featured on Beyoncé’s latest pivot, has taken advantage of that extra traction to completely reimagine the chorus of “Tipsy” and its general conceit of having fun at a gathering to take your mind off problems, especially with girls… but there’s a lot of depth added through the extra populist twist thanks to the financial troubles referenced in the verses, and some particularly really smart intricacies like turning the counting gimmick into counting the rounds of drinks at the bar. He recontextualises a basically meaningless gimmick into something that is a lot more resonant, and that’s really special. Sonically, it feels like a bit more organic stomp-clap soarer, and isn’t really all that special, but the inspired interpolation of “Tipsy”, alongside some great strings in the post-chorus, makes this what it is, and it doesn’t run out of tricks. The shift to a rap flow in the second verse to continue the momentum is brilliant, the spoken backing vocals amidst the multi-tracked crowd hook, which I almost wish was even louder, is a fun idea… and that’s before that final chorus where it breaks down and becomes a true drink-a-long. Sure, this may be a reimagined version of a song I don’t like really at all, but it goes far beyond just that and creates a new experience not just as a cover but as a separate entity entirely that embraces and benefits from its referencing. This is how you do sampling in pop, it’s excellent. I hope this is a smash.

#35 - “These Words” - Badger and Natasha Bedingfield

Produced by Badger

Alright, once again, we have a sample, this time with Natasha Bedingfield’s “These Words”, that other song you might remember from the album that parents “Unwritten”. What you may not remember is that whilst this hasn’t had nearly as much longevity as the title track, it actually peaked much higher, debuting at #1 and topping the charts for two weeks in 2004. This is in spite of it being complete garbage. I like meta narratives in pop music when done well and outside of its camp, it can be genuinely difficult to get through the jerky, dated production and somewhat embarrassing performance, especially lyrically, from Bedingfield. I understand the appeal, and the writing isn’t really a deal-breaker usually, but it’s especially striking to me when the actual music behind her quest to find the best words for her love song… just plainly sucks. Come 2024 and enter UK garage producer Badger, who remixes the track, crediting Bedingfield on streaming but for whatever reason not on the Official Charts page, and I have to say, completely stripping this catchy hook outside of its tedious context is another inspired reimagining, mostly because it turns the “I love you, I love you” refrain into a muffled, glitchy funfest over some of the most detailed, hyperactive 2-step drums I’ve heard on the charts in a while, alongside a hazier synthscape that really shines against the rawer vocal from Bedingfield. Once again, modern artists turn a song from the 2000s I never really liked into a completely different experience, in this case completely removing you from Bedingfield’s narrative to fully envelop you in the euphoric end goal she hints towards in the original. Hope this takes off too.

#31 - “Tell Ur Girlfriend” - Lay Bankz

Produced by Johnny Goldstein

Speaking of taking off, it seems we finally have the inevitable breakout single for Lay Bankz. I’ve been paying attention to her casual flexing and dismissal of pretty much anything else over firy, fast-paced Philly club bangers for a while now, probably since I discovered “Na Na Na”, and it did seem like TikTok would grant her an easy hit any moment now. She finally got it with “Tell Ur Girlfriend” and here, if you don’t remember the specific production elements of its original material, you might not recognise this has yet another interpolation. I wasn’t a fan of Ginuwine’s 1996 track “Pony” for a long time because I felt its dissonance harmed its ability to be a sex jam but… let’s be real, rarely do sex jams actually succeed without being in some way disruptive due to awkward lyrics or stagnant beats. Once I learned to shut up and appreciate Timbaland’s vocoder burping that calls itself a bassline, all was right in my world. It peaked at #16 over here in 1997 and did have a shelf life extending to an EDM remix peaking at #39 in 2015. Bankz and Goldstein don’t really make much use of “Pony”’s fundamentals rhythm or melody-wise, outside of that out of place vocoder burp that is repurposed as a measure-demarcating stab over a comically jerky, sing-songy synth that slows down the pace enough for a 2-step-influenced 2000s throwback, Destiny’s Child-esque, not to rap but closer to R&B. Bankz surprises me to a degree with just how effortlessly she swaps between faster jabs to the smooth choruses, and it almost makes me forget that this is a song about mutual cheating. Does it justify that? No. And who cares? They’re having toxic fun over the Ginuwine “Pony” vocal burp and some of the ugliest synths to hit the top 40 in years, this is not morally righteous in any regard. It’s just pure, sweaty, regretful fun and does not waste any of its two-minute runtime trying to justify itself, and given this whole song is a sarcastic power move about how they should probably tell their partners they’re sleeping with each other, I don’t think she cares in the slightest.

#10 - “Forget About Us” - Perrie

Produced by Steve Solomon and Andrew Goldstein

Okay, the samplefest ended up going pretty fantastically, so I have some hopes for the trio of pop girlies we have lined up all debuting in the top 10, starting with the solo debut from Perrie Edwards of the former girl group Little Mix. She’s always been one of the most prominent vocal talents in the group, so regardless of if the song actually works, there’s going to be power here, and that’s guaranteed, even with an Ed Sheeran writing credit and a compressed to Hell and back mix. In this soarer, Perrie’s ex has become a successful singer after the breakup and Perrie is begging for them to never forget about what they lost in the relationship, especially given how neither seem all that over this relationship and its fallout. There’s a propelling pop rock drive to this, even if the lack of electric grit may harm it a tad, not letting it get into truly bitter territory… which might actually be for the best. Ms. Edwards sounds great belting here but there is a level of restraint in all the acoustic swell that might sing closer to the desperate content, acknowledging the flaws in the relationship and that it is over, but that it should, please, stick to them as a memory. A less kind approach may have flattened its overall sincerity, so even if sonically, I’m not over the Moon about this, I can recognise that this is a tightly-written, excellently performed little pop rock jam that will serve as a good introduction to the solo career. I just want to hear where it goes next.

#9 - “Illusion” - Dua Lipa

Produced by Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle

Okay, Dua, let’s be straightforward. Mixing PC Music’s wildcard Danny L Harle with Tame Impala should lead to much more interesting music than what we’ve heard from Radical Optimism - a disgraceful album title - so far, and I won’t lie and say what has been put out post-”Houdini” hasn’t been somewhat disappointing. I was hoping that “Illusion” could take a bit of a different step, tap into some less recognisable territory for Dua, and whilst it may not have done that exactly, it’s definitely much more interesting. Harle and Parker go for a much tighter house groove here, with elevated pianos, chips of percussion that end up much more minimal under the looming vocal loops and progressive electronic synth beeping, maybe much less impactful than you’d expect. So where’s that in the content? Well, Dua sings about disappointment, playing off a façade placed up by this guy who’s just not impressing her at all, as she’s growing up from just being reckless with her lovers. It’s in the same vein as “Training Season” but with a more unique and honestly more fitting soundscape for that kind of romantic disillusionment, especially given a major conceit of the bridge is that she’s still going to dance all night with that illusion, she still gives in despite her best interests. It also has a ridiculous synth solo slabbed right in for no reason. Genius. Inspiring.

#6 - “Espresso” - Sabrina Carpenter

Produced by Julian Bunetta

I really have not been going into Sabrina Carpenter singles that chart with high expectations or really any expectation that I’ll enjoy it, and she keeps proving me wrong, but not in the way that say Dua just did. No, Ms. Carpenter shares more in common with D-Block Europe in that the appeal, at least for me, comes in the lack of subtlety and disregard for functioning outside of existing pop tropes, whilst still thoroughly embarrassing her public image, cycling around enough for me to be unironically on board. Like “Nonsense” was a plain rip-off that ended up surviving beyond the genuine article on comedy alone, and “Feather” is as light as possible, no pun intended, yet still pinches at you with its infestation of hooks, “Espresso” is emphatically stupid. “Switch it up like Nintendo”? “My give-a-fucks are on vacation”? “I know I Mountain Dew it for ya”? “MOUNTAIN DEW IT FOR YA”? It reminds me all too much of Selena Gomez’s nu-disco embarrassment “Love On”, but instead of selling the cringe with sheer forcefulness, which did surprisingly work for the incredibly limited vocalist Selena is, Sabrina plays the guitar licks and downright invasive pre-chorus synths off with utter, robotic dismissal. Sure, there’s vocal riffing and harmonising, but the main vocal line in the chorus is a multi-tracked, reverb-drenched, Melodyne-controlled nursery rhyme, and it doesn’t escape that lane for nearly all of its three minutes. There are spoken word interludes where she acknowledges the stupidity of the song and its content, but it’s always breezy and lacking in the cringe that would come with it if she cared much at all. The deadpan “Yes” ad-libs in the pre-chorus, and the detail put into the production, are what really sell this to me though. It’s orchestrated to make it seem like she doesn’t care, but there is an entire team twisting the knobs to turn that faux carelessness to a seamless radio edit… and well, they need a raise. She’s done it again. This is ridiculous.

Conclusion

She doesn’t get the Best of the Week though because that, far and above, goes to Shaboozey for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, and the Honourable Mention… well, I can’t give out a Worst of the Week at all here. Or even a Dishonourable Mention. Sure, Perrie’s song is a bit generic and maybe my enjoyment of the DBE track is purely for the comedy factor, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with them, so I’m just going to tie the Honourable Mention between “These Words” by Badger and well, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, which is shaping up to thankfully be huge. As for what’s on the horizon… Taylor Swift and Drake. It’s back to the big leagues in the next episode but for now, thank you for reading, long live Cola Boyy, and I’ll see you next week!

[queen-beefcake-sqx]

re: last post — it drives me insane when people get mocked for learning more about a specific topic because it tangentially relates to something they like. ESPECIALLY if the thing that lead them there is cringey. Like! Don’t be an asshole to people for broadening their horizons!

I’ve joked about this before but growing up I was VERY bad at geography. Like, laughably horrible. I once unironically told my parents I wanted to visit Italy to see the Parthenon. I thought Russia was part of Europe. It was BAD, especially as someone who was otherwise very advanced compared to her peers in other subjects.

Then the manga site I used got a hold of the Hetalia scanlations and YEAH, in hindsight, bad media. But it did send me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. “Why are these countries friends? [spends hours reading about Greek-Japanese relations] Hold up HOW did WWI start?? [reads about the assassination of Archduke Ferninand] Where the FUCK is Sealand? [squints at wikipedia article on Sealand and other micro-nations]”

This culminated in a massive fanfic where I spent TEN WEEKS following national and international news about the Gulf Oil Spill so I could accurately depict the socio-political issues happening. I STILL remember where the majority of our help came from (UK, Canada, and strangely Denmark) because I spent so much time researching for this dumb fic about modern US-UK tensions written when I was like sixteen.

Like yeah it’s embarrassing to admit “Yeah I like geo-politics and studying world history because I got really into Hetalia as a teenager” but it’s true! And just because I got into it because of a piece of media I liked — a bad piece of media I liked, even — doesn’t make the interest any less intellectual than a poli-sci major reading the international section of The Times every day.

[marlinspirkhall]

Back in the 60's it was legal to keep many animals as "pets" in the UK, so they think the wallabies escaped back then and have been flourishing in the wild ever since. It seems it's still legal to keep wallabies as farm animals here.

Via [TheConservation.com] @Lccaonpictus93 @thonoir

They don't know how many wallabies we have in the wild for sure, but they know there are 1700+ living on the isle of man, and the colony near us was "thought to be extinct" because there hadn't been any sightings since the turn of the millennium, but clearly no one told Duncan that. the good news is, there are probably at least 100 nearby.

Tangentially related, in 2019 two wallabies escaped from a farm.

"I lost my pet kangeroo", says local British man

"haha that's a hoax", I think, scrolling through my local Facebook feed, but then:

[absolutebl]

Duck daddy, I'm having an identity crisis! I am someone who, despite being generally awkward at life, can't handle awkward in media. I will literally cover my face or leave the room if a show is too awkward, although I seem to do better with Asian shows, possibly because there is more of a disconnect when it's not in my own language. But now I'm also liking high school setting! I've NEVER liked that before except in some manga! I thought Takara kun to Amagi kun was a one-off because they're so impossibly cute, but I just watched Kieta Hatsukoi and I found that unbearably precious too!!!!!! High school is like the DEFINITION of awkward, what is happening to me? I think now I'm just old so I see them as precious little babies flailing around at life, less relatable than college or adult awkward. I think you've said you prefer high school setting as well, what are the best ones?

Ah ha! the dreaded

Cringe Factor!

These are shows that make me wince from embarrassment for the character. It took me a long time to get used to it in BL, even though it is a hallmark of origin yaoi somehow it's easier to take in print. It’s not just the uke either, in Cherry Magic the second couple gives the seme all the cringe. 

Best High School BLs With Cringe 

Light On Me (2021) Viki - it’s Korea so the cringe it more awkward than it is frenetic, but on the basis of the dildo scene alone. Full review.

Takara & Amagi AKA Takara-kun and Amagi-kun AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun (2022) Gaga and Viki - Amagi is one of the best executions ever from Japan who specialize in this archetype, and I have more to say about this drama coming up in a full review. 

My Love Mix Up AKA Vanishing My First Love AKA Kieta Hatsukoi (2021) Viki - Aoki is a completely adorable absolute chaos bi disaster muffin of Japan’s First Order of the Frenetic Uke Brigade. We’d bow before the king but he climbed into a trash-bin with a banana 20 minutes ago. 

Mr Heart (2020) Viki - Korea’s version is always a little different, but pretty much this is their best effort at classic BL awkward uke cringe.

Sorry sorry, this is uni. I forgot. 

Make it Right (2016) YT - Fuse, one of Thailand’s best example of this archetype is a lot more subtle than what we get from Japan, but trust me he is the same kind of chaos monkey. 

Love Sick (2014) YouTube  - the OG of Thai BL and perhaps Noh is a bit more earnest and warm hearted than he is loopy, but wait tell you get him drunk. I think he still qualifies as a more subtle version. 

Great Men Academy (2019) grey - this is body swap and so maybe nto really BL, but Jamie’s portrayal of Love certainly fills this archetype. 

(Taiwan doesn’t love cringe outside of straight dude comedies and comic relief besties.) 

Tangential Archetypes that often cause cringe 

Disaster Bis 

Chaos Muffins

Adorable Bean Nuggets 

Himbos 

(source) 

[mcmansionhell]

Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny. 

This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”

This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting. 

I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history. 

From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture

Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers. 

Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.

Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media. 

Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious”  - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom) 

Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks.  It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.

Coronagrifting: An Evolution

As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles. 

Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid. 

But where, you may ask, did it all start?

One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.” 

Wearables and Post-ables

The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up. 

Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website. 

Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field. 

By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.” 

While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design. 

Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.” 

Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.” 

Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen. 

You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.

Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day. 

The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here. 

However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom: 

Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:

We truly, truly live in Hell. 

Which brings us, of course, to living. 

“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”

As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.) 

The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).

There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them. 

Enough, already. 

Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit. 

What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems. 

However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home. 

Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand. 

So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page. 

----

If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my Patreon, as I didn’t get paid to write it.  

[protectgeorgeweasley]

A set of reflections on a rainy writing day

Writing dialects from the UK is wild because:

-I'm not a prescriptivist, so we write our accents lexically here. [Nor am I a linguistics expert. It was a special interest a while back.]

-Every once in a while, something totally innocuous will have a completely unanticipated meaning, which is usually met with the utmost kindness and amusement by any readers from the UK. [Thank you.]

-Since I use a completely different set of slang in my daily life, sometimes I have to de-Americanize my writing. This has varying levels of success.

-Sometimes I have to part with really, really funny puns because the words aren't used in quite the same context, and it wouldn't be in character for George to say. This is especially heartbreaking because George is funny and I am middling at best in real life with humor, and the amount of befuddlement I've endured trying to write a clever person is excessive. I am not clever. I'm not. I'm an anxious ball of fettucine noodles that got left in a pot overnight and congealed.

-- [subpoint to the above, not related to dialect writing] I have so much social anxiety, that this blog has 80+ drafts that have never been posted of things I've thought to share with you all, then gone "oh, no. That might be too annoying/too personal/too awkward."

-the number of times I've googled "British word for [insert term here]" is astonishing. My instincts for when I need to google this phrase are spotty as well. Americanisms, therefore, do sneak their way in. [Tangentially--I know some people have British friends who read for specifically this type of thing. However, my writing schedule a mess, and I cannot subject someone else to its nonsense without feeling high levels of anxiety.]

-I'm still not positive about how "kip" is used grammatically/syntactically. I can't sort out the pattern in the syntax, so I've been fumbling with like two examples as a template this entire time. [I am an imposter.] [Truly. Is it "take a kip?" "Kipping?" "He's having a kip?" I do not understand.]

-So many words for raincoat. I love it. Never change.

-I do not live there, so I have less personal understandings of different regions and their quirks. I also don't know how new some words are in comparison to others, how far slang terms travel, and who would be more or less likely to use them. So, I've got to look all that up when I employ new slang or expressions.

-I tend to over explain in daily conversation. You might imagine, then, the pretzel that Cockney rhyming slang turns my brain into.

-"a bit" is used so often. It screams at me from the page. I stare at it, sometimes, wondering if it's repeated too much. Then I listen to someone from the UK talk and change my mind. [This is not meant critically or unkindly; every dialect has words it uses more than others.]

-Little references to things like soap operas, theme parks, or highways are the result of extensive research sprints, and there is one reader who consistently notices these things and every time they do, I nearly cry for joy.

-Wellies is my favorite word of theirs/yours. I love saying it. I love reading it. I love thinking about it. Wellies are a symbol of some of the most pure, joyful parts of existence to me. To have a set of shoes for walking through the rain/mud is to be cared for and to have your needs anticipated and to be prepared, and all of those things make me feel safe.

-I can't decide whether we're using British spellings or American. [Sorry if the back and forth between "color" and "colour" is driving you up the wall. It feels like I'm being fake if I use "colour," but I have physical difficulty using "colour" in written notes and things because that's not how the character would spell it. I know that it's most important to just be consistent. Yet here we are. Adrift in a sea of "o" and "ou," without a compass.]

-I've seen many jokes about British people not liking hugs. I've done my best to understand and acknowledge this while politely showing it the door within the context of Lumos, because 2020 and every year that's followed it has needed more hugs.

[doberbutts]

Only tangentially related to the toy terrier discussion, but I've been researching Toy Manchesters recently so I wanted to add that English Toy Terriers aren't necessarily known as Toy Manchester Terriers all over. Over in the UK (and I believe Europe in general?), English Toy Terriers are still considered a separate breed from Manchester Terriers. But here in the US and Canada, the English Toy Terrier and Manchester Terriers were combined into one breed with two size varieties, with the English Toy Terrier becoming the Toy Manchester Terrier.

I also wanted to add that maximaldog.com (run by AMTC's health chair) and mosaic.manchesters on TikTok (run by AMTC's public education chair, tho she breeds the standard variety) have been neat places with some extra Manchester information to absorb beyond the breed club website, in case someone else decides to look into the breed.

Interesting! Thank you for the additional information!

[yogpetshame]

Why havent the Yogscast ever teamed up with big streamers or youtubers to expand there fan base? like i feel they have there own bubble on youtube and twitch and really only allow a small amount of people in. This is odd as they are a business and in all fairness they arent doing as well as they once were, right? The second question is more around the drama with the Yogscast, like why havent YouTube drama pages picked it up? Do you think theyre scared the Yogs might flag the video or something?

Ummmmmm... I don't blame you for forgetting since they do it so irregularly, but they collaborated with Game Grumps in 2018 and 2020. They also have a vague business connection with Rooster Teeth that I still don't really understand beyond that it mainly seems to be ad based.

As far as why they've never managed to have a local UK presence... If we want to spitball ideas other than Turps being a jackass and his departure probably involving him taking his contact list home with him...

I want to sit and refresh you on the current Blizzard controversy but it's extremely lengthy so if you're not familiar just stick a pin in this page, go do as much reading as you care to, then come back.

Okay- so the Yogscast has always leaned heavily on Blizzard. Even when Blizzard had nothing to show for them. If the WoWfugee/Uninstallafell incident had predated the more important sex predator shit they still wouldn't have shifted focus because they have a narrow view of the industry and basically only seem to be able to notice games that were made in the west or were tangentially related to Blizz. Even "is this an out of season April Fool's Day prank" would not have dislodged the Yogscast from Blizzard's wrinkled teat.

The problem is, just like weathering crises as a Yogscast fan makes a fan base of idiots, the Blizzard stans are not exactly an invite-only crowd nowadays. The other games they pick out, like Gmod, are too generic and frequently seen on other channels to make crossovers worth anyone's time.

There's also that last factor that Lewis and Turps loved to bring up which I don't really believe- "it's hard to schedule people." You know when you tell someone, "we should hang out sometime" and they go "yeah totally, let's make plans soon" and then neither of you does anything? That's the Yogscast on networking.

[sleepykittypaws]

Celebrate the Olympic Spirit

Sure, the Olympics aren’t a holiday, per se, but the every-four-year, or two if you count both Summer and Winter editions separately, massive international sporting events sure seems like a reason to celebrate, especially given their recent, unprecedented delay. And what better way to get into the Games mood, than by watching a sports movie?

Here are my favorite motivating, inspirational, and aspirational tales of athletic derring do…

Favorite Sports Movies

The Cutting Edge (1992) - This figure skating romance was released around the 1992 Olympics, and actually name-checks that year's winter host city, Albertville, more than once.  It's not good in the traditional sense of great storytelling or athletic veracity, but I loved it so very much I saw it three times in the theater as a teen. Watching it at some point during every Winter Games is a tradition for me so, yeah, I can’t help it, I love this silly sports movie/romance, which also features a bit of holiday feels.

Wimbledon (2004) - It's a rom-com. It's a sports movie. It's a rom-com sports movie that really should be better known. Notting Hill but set at tennis' best-known event. Paul Bettany and Kristen Dunst have surprisingly great chemistry, and there's more sports-related tension than you'd think.

Friday Night Lights (2004) - A football movie for people who don't really like football. a.k.a. 🙋‍♀️. The TV series it spawned is also brilliant (”Clear Eyes, Full Hearts,” indeed), and well worth a watch, but the original movie, starring Billy Bob Thornton, is, honestly, a masterpiece. Definitely Peter Berg's best work and the original book, written by Berg's cousin, Buzz Bissinger, is a great read.

Muriel's Wedding (1994) - You mean you forgot this Australian export, which made Toni Collette a star, was a sports movie? Yep, one of my all-time favorite movies, of any genre, this absolutely brilliant, ABBA-soaked comedy is not only a girls-night go-to, but also a stealth Olympic sport classic.

Remember the Titans (2000) - OK, football isn't in the Olympics, but it sure does make for a good sports movie setting. Even if this early 1970s-set story is most definitely Disney-fied, Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Ryan Gosling and a baby Hayden Panettiere really sell this sort-of true story.

Invictus (2009)-Rugby isn't an Olympic sport, or even one most Americans know much about, but this Matt Damon-led, Clint Eastwood-directed, based-on-a-true-story tale made me care about a sport I'd only tangentially knew even existed before watching.

Hoosiers (1986)-I grew up in Indiana so, by law, I have to include this basketball classic on any "best of" sports movie lists. Also, it actually is really very good.

Rudy (1993)-Ditto the above. But, again, it's hard not to root for Sean Astin (and Jon Favreau!) in this love letter to the Fighting Irish. Plus, there’s no better scavenger hunt task or TikTok challenge than going into a bar and convincing a patron to allow you to put them on your shoulders and march around chanting, 'Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.' 

Miracle (2004) - Given how much more popular the Summer Olympics are, it's weird that the Winter Games seem to get all the good movies made about them, but this Kurt Russell-led true tale is another Disney sports movie classic.

McFarland, USA (2015) - Disney, and Kevin Costner, just really know how to make a sports movie, damn it! This movie made me care about cross country for which it, too, could have carried the title Miracle.

A League of Their Own (1992)-The best baseball movie ever. Yeah, I said what I said. Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty—even Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell are making it work. 1992 was a weirdly great year for sports movies.

Moneyball (2011) - A movie about baseball, and math, and yet it's also great, I swear. In addition to all of the above, it's also a stealth Christmas movie and maybe Chris Pratt's best non-Marvel, movie role.

Creed (2015) - This surprisingly effective Rocky reboot starring Michael B Jordan as Apollo Creed's illegitimate son has spawned its own movie series which, in many ways, exceeds the original Rocky franchise.

Rocky Balboa (2006) - Maybe it's because I was a toddler when the original Rocky came out, so only saw the ever-worse sequels as a kid, but this mid-aughts return to the character for Sylvester Stallone, as both writer and actor, is a triumph.

Eddie the Eagle (2016) - That Hugh Jackman features in as many movies (spoiler alert) on this list as Kevin Costner surprised me, too. This story of the English ski jumper who became infamous for being, well, less than golden, is one of those non-Olympic triumph stories that really works. If you're going to watch one underdog-at-the-Games movie, I definitely prefer this this to the more ubiquitous Cool Runnings.

Love & Basketball (2000) - Only because I'm an anglophile is this great, chemistry-filled Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps college basketball romance not my favorite sports-movie-meets-rom-com.

I, Tonya (2017) - Margot Robbie and a nearly unrecognizable Sebastian Stan are perfectly cast in this sarcastic, highly stylized look at the Tonya Harding scandal.

Pride (2007) - Apparently I like this swimming movie, which I think almost no one saw, better than critics, but I found this 1970s-set, Terrence Howard-Bernie Mac-starring story of inner city kids excelling in the pool emotional and entertaining.

Field of Dreams (1989) - This Kevin Costner magical realism baseball classic is often goofy and imminently tease-worthy and yet…It also works. Maybe it's no surprise that someone who loves cheesy Christmas movies as much as I do would have a soft spot for Field of Dreams.

42 (2013) - Chadwick Boseman is absolutely fantastic as legend Jackie Robinson. One of those movies that's ostensibly about baseball, but is really about so much more, except not in a pretentious way.

Race (2016) - Before Jason Sudeikis was Ted Lasso, he was famed track coach Larry Synder in this Jesse Owens biopic that is far from perfect, but still important. Plus, I honestly don't think Stephan James got enough credit for his relatively nuanced portrayal of Owens.

Goon (2011) - This overlooked gem starring Sean William Scott as a semi-pro hockey player whose main skill is his ability to take, and dole out, a beating, is surprisingly great.

Real Steel (2011) - This is a robot-boxing movie starring Hugh Jackman that is basically Rocky meets Over the Top—and yet it's actually really good. Yeah, I was surprised, too.

Forget Paris (1995) - OK, so maybe Billy Crystal playing an NBA referee doesn't really make this a sports movie, but it does begin and end (spoiler alert) at real NBA games, and I will die on the hill that this rom-com co-starring Debra Winger is wildly under-rated.

Bend it like Beckham (2002) - This girl-power sports movie has some highly questionable romantic dynamics (the coach is their love interest???) but this Parminder Nagra-Keira Knightley movie is also a heckuva sports movie and an inspiring immigrant story.

Bonus Pick: The Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso is one of the best things I watched in 2020, and I'm sure of that, because I watched it twice since, just to be sure. Jason Sudekis is absolutely perfect as an American college football coach taking over a UK Premier League team. This sweet show with a heart of gold is smart, funny, and absolutely impossible not to love—even for a cynic such as myself.

More Sports Movies Worth Watching

For someone not very into sports, I am, apparently, into watching movies about sports, so while not a comprehensive listing of the entire, vast genre, here are a few more suggestions I personally think are worth watching.

The Miracle Season (2018) - This movie about high school volleyball champs whose star player dies suddenly stars Helen Hunt and is a lot better than you'd think based on its tiny budget and, honestly, fairly small story. Just missed making my Top 25.

The Way Back (2020) - This Ben Affleck as a drunken high school basketball coach movie is a lot better than expected. Released just as the pandemic kicked into high gear, it was overlooked last year, but worth seeking out.

Fighting with My Family (2019) - Does it count if it's a show, not a sport? Either way (but that's why this isn't in my Top 25), this stealth Christmas movie/love letter to the WWE is a lot better than it ever needed to be thanks to some really great performances from Florence Pugh, Lena Headey and directer Stephen Merchant. Even The Rock reins it in.

Warrior (2011) - You couldn't pay me to watch an actual UFC bout, but this Tom Hardy story of (literally) battling brothers is incredibly compelling and well done.

Win Win (2011) - This movie isn't really enough about wrestling, even though its ostensibly centered around the sport, to make it into my Top 25, but it's still really good, and Amy Ryan gives an outstanding performance.

Fever Pitch (2005) - Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon star in this remake of a UK film whose ending they had to shift when the Red Sox unexpectedly won the World Series.

Fever Pitch (1997) - This Colin Firth-starring, Arsenal-centered original is much smaller, more realistic and arguably better than the big budget Barrymore-Fallon redux.

We are Marshall (2006) - A real-life sports tragedy made into a sports-movie tearjerker starring Matthew McConaughy. And my tears were very much jerked by the end.

Coach Carter (2005) - Samuel L Jackson plays real-life basketball coach Ken Carter and, because it's a Disney movie, doesn't use the F-word even once. Now that's a feat worthy of its own sports movie.

Invincible (2006) - Yes, it's Mark Wahlberg, and another based-on-a-true-story, Disney sports movie that hits all the cliches, but dang it, that works on me. It just does.

Glory Road (2006) - If you're sensing a theme with me and Disney sports movies…Well, you're not wrong. This look at the first all-Black starting lineup at the 1966 NCAA Final Four does, unfortunately, center white coach Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas (though I always mis-remember it as Josh Charles), making the important story it tells less than what it should be, but it still mostly works.

Million Dollar Arm (2014) - Admittedly one of the lesser Disney sports movie entries, and another that centers a white guy in a film mostly about people of color (not a great look), this Jon Hamm movie about a scout seeking an Indian cricket star who can make it in the Major Leagues still mostly worked for me.

The Mighty Ducks (1992) - One of the few movies on this list aimed directly at kids, this beloved peewee hockey saga actually is cute, and mostly does hold up.

Cool Runnings (1993) - Kind of shocked this movie that is part White Savior-movie and part-wacky kids movie essentially making fun of a real group of athletes of color came out in 1993 and not 1973, but the earnest charm of John Candy and a general Disney gloss keep this from being totally unwatchable and mostly just mildly, rather than extremely, offensive. Not really recommending, but feels like it belongs on an Olympic movie list.

Nadia (1984) - This made-for-TV, mostly true biopic, starring Talia Balsam as Nadia Comaneci, was a Disney Channel staple in that network’s early days. 

Munich (2005) - It's a movie with the Olympics very much at its heart—namely the 1972 Israeli athlete hostage tragedy—that isn't really about the Olympics at all, but this Steven Spielberg-directed movie about national revenge is compelling, if problematic if you think about it for too long.

American Anthem (1986) - Is this Mitch Gaylord-Mrs. Wayne Gretzky (a.k.a Janet Jones) starring movie good, realistic and/or well-written? No, no and none of the above. But did I still watch it 8,000 times as a kid on HBO? Yes. Yes, I did.

Men with Brooms (2002) - Once, on a business trip to Canada, my husband was stuck in a hotel that only got three channels, and one of them always seemed to be showing curling, which actually got him weirdly into this obscure sport. This movie wasn't quite as fun as I hoped, but it's still a mostly charming, if slight, Canadian classic.

Unbroken (2014) - The harrowing and incredible real-life story of Louis Zamperini deserved better than this Angelina Jolie-directed movie delivered, but it's still a serviceable version of a worthy tale.

Chariots of Fire (1981) - I remember being bored out of my mind by this movie trying to watch this movie on cable as a kid, but no denying that, if nothing else, the score is iconic and indelibly linked to sports-movie magic.

Without Limits (1998) - Jared Leto’s Prefontaine beat this one to the theaters, but this Billy Crudup-starring film is the better of the two movies about the life of running pioneer Steve Prefontaine. There’s also a 1995 documentary, Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story.

Personal Best (1982) - Mariel Hemingway’s story of ambition at odds with love, is a sports and LGTBQ+ classic. 

Olympic Dreams (2019) - The story of how this small, meandering movie was made during the 2018 Winter Games is, unfortunately, more interesting than the movie itself, but there is some charm in watching Nick Kroll as an Olympic dentist making his way through the real Village, while interacting with real athletes.

Foxcatcher (2015) - This excellently-acted story is more true crime than sports inspiration, but if you're seeking a look at the dark side of the Games—and don’t want to turn on a doc like Athlete A—this is very dark tale indeed.

Seabiscuit (2003) - Every great athlete deserves to have their story told.

Any Given Sunday (1999) - Oliver Stone and Al Pacino take on pro Football. 'Nuff said.

The Replacements (2000) - I mean, the movie isn't amazing, but Keanu Reeves is super charming and Gene Hackman is always worth a watch.

The Program (1993) - Another bit of a dark-side-of-football take, worth it if only for the fantastic cast: James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Eps, Joey Lauren Adams.

Everbody’s All-American (1988) - Not a movie I particularly love, but this Dennis Quaid-Jessica Lange football story that spans decades has always stuck in my memory.

Bull Durham (1988) - Just let Kevin Costner play actual baseball already.

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

May 14, 2020 Update.

LOL, I better update the last few days. 

The super-private couple updated People on what they did for Archie’s birthday. I don’t know about you guys, but I actually found this rather sad. Archie’s “best friends” are the dogs. Sigh.

https://people.com/royals/meghan-markle-made-archies-first-birthday-cake-and-his-two-best-friends-were-there/

The Oprah Magazine got the scoop on their “socially distant” Mother’s Day with Doria. Gee, I wonder who the source is. It’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma...

https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a32465756/meghan-markle-mothers-day-doria-archie/

They did a charity phone call and the decor of the Tyler Perry house is exactly as we pictured.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a32480138/meghan-markle-button-down-blouse-zoom-call/

And, speaking of the Tyler Perry house. It turns out you can see it from a nearby hiking path, so the harmless put up the world’s ugliest privacy “fence.” I guess this was the only house they were offered and they kind of had to put up with the hiking path.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8308771/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-erect-screens-Tyler-Perrys-18million-LA-mansion.html

And Meghan wanted everyone to know that she really does have “A-list neighbors,” or rather Tyler Perry does since they are just crashing his pad.

https://www.hellomagazine.com/homes/gallery/2020051489841/meghan-markle-prince-harry-famous-neighbours-la-home/1/

Then Sebastian Shakespeare confirmed Blind Gossip’s diary scoop. Lots of mentions to The Working Actress blog. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8317077/Meghan-Markle-kept-DIARY-time-UK-friend-claims.html

Very Private Meghan’s friends went to Vanity Fair to explain that she wasn’t writing a tell-all because, lol, Scobie’s “best-selling” book is already a tell-all. My take on this is that Meghan is shopping her diary, but she doesn’t want the rumor to eat into sales of Omid’s book.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/05/meghan-markle-rumors-diaries-tell-all

We also got a blind possibly about Meghan losing a role.

https://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2020/05/blind-item-3_14.html

In possibly related news, Ava DuVernay has been working on New Gods and “potential casting ideas” are starting to take shape.

https://batman-news.com/2020/05/07/ava-duvernay-confirms-all-widow-will-appear-in-the-new-gods-movie/

Blind Gossip also has a blind that could be about the Harkles or Kimye. I think it’s interesting that most of the guesses are about Kimey because “the Markles are used to being together all the time.” LOL, they actually aren’t, but their press makes it look like they do.

https://blindgossip.com/the-war-of-the-yellers/#more-100584

Katie Nicholl’s heard from Harry’s “friends” that he is rudderless, but is trying to stay in contact with the military.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/05/prince-harry-v-e-day-invictus-games-message

Katie Nicholl said that the brothers “reconnected.”

https://www.etonline.com/prince-harry-back-in-touch-with-prince-william-after-his-move-to-la-146449

Will mentioned Harry in his letter to The Diana Award, so maybe that’s what they “reconnected” about.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAK5Ne8HGEB/

They don’t seem to be reconnecting about the Diana statue, though.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8304209/The-saddest-casualty-William-Harrys-feud-Dianas-statue.html

In tangentially related Sunshine Sachs news, Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are wearing matching half-heart necklaces for their pap pics. I guess you can’t teach a dog new tricks. I actually laughed out loud when I saw this because it’s such an unlikely thing for Ben Affleck to do. LOLOLOL.

https://www.usmagazine.com/stylish/news/ben-affleck-girlfriend-ana-de-armas-wear-matching-heart-necklaces/

That’s it. Sorry for the absence. I’ll answer some anons and return tomorrow. LOL, it’s crazy how much content these two still produce even though hardly anyone cares anymore.

Oh wait, I almost forgot that the Shahs of Sunset guy confirmed the post-suits ghosting and gave some insight about how “woman among girls” Meghan behaved in high school.

https://www.eonline.com/news/1151624/shahs-of-sunset-s-nema-vand-says-meghan-markle-toyed-with-his-heart-as-a-teen

Have a good night!

[themusicsweetly]

Re: her “Sam who” cap. She got it in Vegas, brought it back home to the UK and then brought it with her to LA. I think she took the pic the same day she did the Skype panel for the New Jersey Con -if you look at gifs and videos of the panel you can see she was wearing the same white tank top and the same earrings, and was sitting on the same bed/couch- and posted it so randomly, and after she liked that particular quote Karolina shared, because she was missing him after her visit in SA. 💞

[Anonymous said] : When I sent you that ask about her “Sam who” cap I didn’t know all hell would break loose today. Wow! Such good timing… I still stand by what I said, though. I love that she’s taking that hat all over the world with her, and that her post was her way to say she misses him right after she liked *that* quote from Karolina.

Hey there Anon! Thanks for dropping by with some great info!

Someone else who was at the panel told me the same thing about the earrings and the couch, so I’d say this is legit. From Vegas to the UK to LA… that seems like a hat with special meaning if it’s going to get that kind of milage!

I definitely don’t think it was a coincidence that her posting this pic came right after her liking that beautiful Jorge Luis Borges quote. I don’t really see any other reason she wouldn’t share this the day it was given to her in Vegas, or the day of the Skype panel in New Jersey, unless she was holding on to it as something just for herself or something she only shared with the one person who matters. She could have been looking through her personal photos missing her Everday Partner reminiscing and decided to post it because it’s one of the photos that 1) we haven’t seen before and 2) is relatively “safe.” 

Either way, I love that she posted it. I love that she clearly loves teasing him because she just knows him that well. And I love that he publicly responded not very long afterward!

And I couldn’t agree more with your second ask. She’s missing him, plain and simple. That’s the only thing I’m reading into and not something that I feel is a tangential, barely related topic. She’s also been liking a lot of his posts recently, or posts about him and his philanthropy, activism, and, yes, his health-related activities. I love how supportive she is of him in his endeavors and that she always acknowledges how much hard work he puts into everything he does. Just beautiful to see 💜

[hellsbellschime]

Did you watch the Challenge yet? What did you think of Josh & Laurel's decision?

LMAO I am legitimately surprised that it took three episodes for the Americans to turn on each other, although I’m surprised that Wes of all people didn’t see it coming. Josh is a fucking idiot who is way overplaying his hand, yeah he’s making big moves but he’s a bad player, and you don’t want to be drawing a lot of attention to yourself when you’re pretty much a layup. He wants to make a name for himself and he’s probably just angling to get a call for another season but he’s so annoying and bad at the game, it’s just hilarious to me that he’s all like OH I’M MAKING MOVES NO ONE ELSE IS BRAVE ENOUGH TO like no dude no one else would do this because it’s a horrible move with no upside for you personally. I’m interested in how this might blow back on Laurel too because obviously she’s one of the best girls on the team but there are a lot of people who would like to see her gone and she gave them a reason to go for her. 

And this is only tangentially related, but I’m still dying over the US’s choice of Turbo over CT because it seems like they just handed CT a ticket to the final on a silver platter. The US team was always going to self destruct fast because these are all crazy ass vets who are now going to come at each other as soon as possible now that the dam has kind of broken. But even if someone on the UK team wants to vote in CT or if the US team wants to vote him in, no one on his team is really going to beat him at anything. It’s just hilarious to me that these people know how to play the game better than everyone but they legit cannot stop themselves from shooting themselves in the foot. We’ll see how it goes but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the vets who didn’t want CT on the team wind up going out of the game before he does. 

[marveltaughtmetoread]

I mean the comment is wrong on all fronts but the one my whiteself is best qualified to respond to, is 'suburbs' and how that's somehow supposed to be less diverse

He grew up in London, England

Not a city in America, but London

We don't really have suburbs, we have random spots after the postcode stops being a London one where you are like 'is this the countryside' and it's a thoroughly confusing experience, as well as commuter towns but those are the very edges of London, and Tom lived in a borough of London, a borough other Londoners would recognise as London, also known as not the edges

The outer London boroughs, which I am not even sure is what you can class Tom's borough as, are just slightly less busy than the centre of London, they still have great transportation links, you still wouldn't use a car, if you can help it, and still have a population density higher than literally any other city in the UK, so you still are considered and feel part of London, it's just not the centre

It's nothing like American suburbs, which from every description I have ever been given sound like they are only tangentially related to the city, the UK doesn't really have suburbs but the nearest equivalent would probably be commuter towns, which Tom didn't live in

I cannot stress this enough, but Tom lived in London, he did not live in a commuter town or past the edges of London, I obviously can't check what part of his borough he lived in, but the borough itself is a London one, it might be an outer London borough but it's still a London borough, so it may be considered a 'suburb' in America but it ain't one here

Do you know what my definitely outer London borough, that Americans might also consider a 'suburb' was like, in terms of demographic, it was one of the most diverse regions of London, so you definitely can't just assume it gets more white the further out it gets, it doesn't work that way in London

And whilst yes the UK, in general, is overwhelmingly white, London is not

London, like half of its entire population are immigrants and that's people who have moved here in their lifetime, not even counting people like me and my best mate who are second or third generation, I go to my grandparents village and I am the least British person there, by a long shot, I go home and I am just part of the crowd, my London identity is certain

And then you get to the population of London that is non-white, just under 50% of the London population is white, that means the majority is not, it's a very slim majority, but a majority it is

He probably grew up surrounded by people of colour

Far from being uncomfortable with their presence, as the Twitter user clearly assumes is the default, I would expect the opposite

A side effect of growing up a Londoner is I went away for Uni and I noticed how overwhelmingly white the city I moved to was, and I was uncomfortable with it because it was not something I was used to

And when I go home, get on the tube and immediately see the London demographic, and I feel at peace because it means I am home

For me, because I grew up in London, I assume I am going to be surrounded by people of colour and get surprised when that is not the case

And this Twitter user really just assumed Tom lived in 'suburb' and that meant he would have been surrounded by a mostly white population, and made assumptions based on that, but the very start of assuming London 'suburbs' are anything like American ones, and assuming London 'suburbs' would have the same demographic as an American suburb is flawed

(and that's before getting to everything else wrong with the tweet)

Twitter just gives people the confidence to post shit like this huh