#dec 79

[get-back-homeward]

So the phone rang and John said, “You know, I want to do a record but I don’t know if I want to do a record. I have some material, I’ve been writing for a while, writing down here in Bermuda” and of course he had a near-death experience sailing in a storm down there, which I think changed his perspective completely. Because almost all of those songs were written in Bermuda.

So it was like one creative burst. Was this 1979?

Yeah, ’79. And so I agreed that I would listen to the stuff. And he said, “Yoko has it” and she handed me an envelope that said, “For Jack’s ears only.” And I took it home and he called me at home the next day and asked, “What do you think?” And my honest opinion was that they were very primitive, a whole bunch of cassettes, there was narration in it, he talked me through it. The songs all began with an explanation, a lot of it funny, and all of them ended with, “What a piece of crap. I’m going to give it to Ringo for his solo album.”

Were these all songs that ended up being on the album?

No, there were still a few more. And there was so much on that tape that I didn’t put on the album. But the Beatles had completed "Real Love" many years later, from that cassette. They built off of that cassette. Actually, I had the original so they built that off of a copy that maybe Yoko had.

Were there any songs from that tape that immediately hit you?

Oh yes, there were so many. So many. There was so much material on that tape. Two cassettes.

Do you still have that tape?

Yes.

Did you ever digitize it?

Yes. But they’ll never be—it’s property of Yoko. Period. It’s her property. So anyway, most of it’s been released.

On the box sets [John Lennon Anthology and John Lennon Signature Box]. Yes, most of those demos have been released... Maybe not with his dialogue, which is quite funny, but he’s singing into a tape machine like a beat box, like a Panasonic from back in the day. He’s singing into it, playing guitar, and then playing that into another, just from the speakers and then singing along with it, like playing percussion or doubling his vocals. It was so primitive. Banging on pots and pans. Very primitive. And my first reaction was, “I don’t think I can beat it, to tell you the truth. It’s so good.” And he’s like, “Oh, no, no, no, that’s not—“ and I said, “John, put this out. It will be sensational. Just put this cassette out. I’m putting myself out of the greatest job I’ve ever had in my life, but I’m just telling you.”

—Jack Douglas, producer of Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey albums, on how he was first recruited by John Lennon [x]

[thelibraryghost]

Early 1880s Name Embroidery Patterns

more 1880s embroidery patterns at my blog

Weaver, Jane. "Alphabet for Handkerchief." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 6 (Jun. 1882), p. 486. Weaver, Jane. "Small Table-Cloth [Marguerite, Maria]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 82, no. 4 (Oct. 1882), p. 316. —. "Alphabet and Numerals for Marking." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 2 (Feb. 1882), p. 164. —. "Alphabet for Marking." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 2 (Feb. 1881), p. 163. —. "Initials [W, B]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 4 (Oct. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Emilie]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 2 (Feb. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Jeanne]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 3 (Mar. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Agnes]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 2 (Aug. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Edith]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 2 (Aug. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Anna]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 3 (Sept. 1881), p. 233. —. "Name for Marking [Mary]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 3 (Sept. 1881), p. 235. —. "Name for Marking [Adéle]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 6 (Dec. 1881). —. "Name for Marking [Marie]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 1 (Jan. 1882), p. 83. —. "Name for Marking [Mariha]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 5 (May 1882). —. "Name for Marking [Marianne]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 6 (Jun. 1882). —. "Name for Marking [Clara]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 6 (Jun. 1882), p. 489. —. "Names for Marking [Fannie, Sadie]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 1 (Jan. 1881). —. "Names for Marking [Marie, Matilda, Jeanne]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 4 (Apr. 1881). —. "Names for Marking [Mariha, Kate, Nellie]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 79, no. 6 (Jun. 1881), p. 475. —. "Names for Marking [Jenny, Elisabeth]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 80, no. 6 (Dec. 1881). —. "Names for Marking [Caroline, Ellen]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 81, no. 2 (Feb. 1882), p. 169. —. "Names for Marking [Lucy, Martha]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 82, no. 3 (Sept. 1882). —. "Names for Marking [Fanny, Jane]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 82, no. 3 (Sept. 1882). —. "Names for Marking [Marie, Louise]." Peterson's Magazine, vol. 82, no. 5 (Nov. 1882). —. "The Name 'Mary' in Cuneiform Letters for Marking Handkerchiefs." Godey's Lady's Book, vol. 100, no. 4 (Apr. 1880), p. 368.

[nintendometro]

Nintendo Power #79, Dec '95 - 'Donkey Kong Country 2' Cover.

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

Unreal Tournament

"Our new 'Game of the Year' Edition requires some special equipment." (PC Gamer #79, Dec. 2000)

[pillowfort-social]

End Of Year Fundraiser Update

Hey everyone! Thanks to your amazing support, we are already 79% of the way towards our fundraising goal of bringing in $25,000 by Dec 31st. We can’t express our thanks enough. Today we have more information for you all about the rewards we will be giving out for the success of this fundraiser:

INDIVIDUAL USER REWARDS Funding Badges - Every Pillowfort user who donates or is subscribed to Pillowfort Premium duringthe timeframe of Nov 1st, 2023 to December 31, 2023 will receive a limited edition badge for helping to keep the lights on. We’ll have a form available soon for gifting these badges to other users who can’t donate to us directly. Stay tuned to this space. 

Invitation Rewards - This year we are also offering limited edition badges for users who help grow our Community. Every user who invites 25 or more new users between Nov 1 and Dec 31 will receive a limited edition badge. You can generate invitation links here.  In order to facilitate this we’ve increased the number of invites each user can generate per week to 50!

REWARDS FOR ALL USERS If we hit 100% of our goal by Dec 31st, we will release a new site theme and a new avatar frame for all users in the first quarter of 2024! Details on both of these TBA– let us know if you have any suggestions/requests for what you’d like to see!

Thanks again for all your support, we couldn't do any of this without you!

Best, Staff

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Hamas has released 3 different vids of the same three hostages over the course of just 24 hours, in the first it claims they're all alive, in the second it questions that, and by the third, it's claiming 2 of these Israelis hostages are dead. The IDF is reminding everyone that Hamas is waging a psychological war against Israeli civilians, and intentionally tormenting the families of the hostages. Nevertheless, it also says there is real concern for the lives of these 2 hostages, Itay Svirsky (on the right) and Yossi Sharaby (on the left). Itay's parents were both murdered on Oct 7. Noa Argamani (in the center) was forced to read the statement about the death of the men. Her mother, Liora Argamani, has stage 4 cancer, and has repeatedly expressed her wish to see Noa one last time before she passes away.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Thomas Hand, who is the father of Emily (a hostage of Hamas released after 50 days in captivity), said he's daughter is doing quite well, that more than 50 days after her release, her speech volume is almost back to normal, and she's only suffering from the occasional nightmare.

Mira and Barak Ayalon, the civilian mother and son who were killed by Hezbollah the other day, were buried last night in their community, Kfar Yuval. Because of the threat to everyone in northern Israel, the double funeral had to be held at night, in the dark, with a limited number of participants. Not that long ago, when Gal Hershko, an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza, was buried in a similar manner, Hezbollah aired the images, and then showed how in contrast, they bury their own killed terrorists in broad daylight, with lots of participants present. We can't even bury our dead in peace, and then we get mocked for it, and that's the reality that people want Israel to continue to accept on our northers and southern borders.

I don't write daily about the Israeli soldiers killed in the war in Gaza, but we learned about at least one more death every single day. Today, we learned that 37 years old reservist Noam Ashram, who was injured on Dec 29, has succumbed to his wounds, and 21 years old Nitzan Schessler was killed in southern Gaza, bringing the death toll of Israeli soldiers in the ground operation to 190.

The IDF estimates that the terror tunnel network spreads over up to 720 kilometers (roughly 447 miles) in Gaza, with more than 5,700 shafts that allows Hamas terrorists to carry out surprise attacks.

It only took over 100 days (disregarding everything that happened before Oct 7), but the European Union has finally designated the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, as a terrorist, allowing for the freezing of his assets. Looking forward to that being done to every Hamas terrorist senior.

This is 79 years old Edna Bluestein.

She's the woman murdered in the Palestinian terrorist attack yesterday in Ra'anana. The final number of additional casualties in that attack is 19 people, 4 of them severely wounded. Just a small reminder, the 2 terrorists intentionally targeted the elderly Edna, and another casualty, a 66 years old man, and kids, as 7 were wounded.

This is 22 years old Amit Man.

She was a paramedic with Magen David Adom (Red Star of David), and on Oct 7, as the attack on Israeli civilians began, she left her home, where she could have stayed in the safety of her apartment's bomb shelter, and rushed to her community's dental clinic, where the wounded of kibbutz Be'eri were being brought. For several hours she took care of them, and corresponded with her family members. During that entire time, Amit expressed her fear over how close to them the terrorists were, fear over how she could best take care of her patients, and repeatedly asked for the IDF to be directed to the clinic. The last voice messages she left for her family make it clear that she understood that she's not gonna make it out alive. Her apartment was found intact. She would have survived, had she not gone to the clinic, to help others. You can hear Amit's voice message to her sisters, her fear and the relentless gunshots, at this time stamp, and her very last voice message ever here, where she's just begging for it to stop.

Amit's mom recounted that after a difficult shift, when she had lost a patient, after they would talk, Amit would go into her room and record herself singing. The family mentioned that Amit chose to become a paramedic as a teenager, after she saw the dedicated medical treatment her dad got, before he passed away from cancer. If she hadn't made that choice, I think she would probably have been a singer, she had a beautiful voice, and it's clear this was an important way for her to express herself.

A Torah scroll had been dedicated in her honor at the Be'eri synagogue, and a rock band that she loved, Knesiat Ha'Sechel (Church of the Mind) used one of her recordings to create a postmortem duet. The song is called Nothing Is Going to Hurt Me, the original lyrics written by an Israeli soldier, 21 years old Erze Shtark, who died in a military helicopter accident in 1997. Knesiat Ha'Sechel, led by a band member who lost his brother in the Second Lebanon War (2006) turned Erez Shtark's written words in 2008 into a song, as part of a national project, called Soon We'll Become A Song, where many Israeli musicians have been doing the same for fallen Israeli soldiers along the years. The Song has two voices, that of the soldier swearing that nothing would hurt them, because that's what they promised their family, and the voice of the family, saying if anything happened to the soldier, there is no point to their life. "If you're standing here above me," the song goes, "I must have failed my promise. I'm sorry, I swear on my life." In the new version, Amit sings the part of the soldier, and the band sings the part of the family. Here's the duet, and in the vid you can also see the band performing it for Amit's family:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[blueiscoool]

Three Students Just Deciphered the First Passages of a 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Burned in Vesuvius’ Eruption

A Roman scroll, partially preserved when it was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, has been virtually unwrapped and decoded using artificial intelligence.

The feat was achieved by three contestants in the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition launched in March 2023 in which people around the world raced to read the ancient Herculaneum papyri.

Papyrologists working with the Vesuvius Challenge believe the scroll contains “never-before-seen text from antiquity,” and the text in question is a piece of Epicurean philosophy on the subject of pleasure. The winning submission shows ancient Greek letters on a large patch of scroll, and the author seems to be discussing the question: are things that are scarce more pleasurable as a result?

The author, whose identity is unconfirmed, doesn’t think so: “As too in the case of food, we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant,” one passage from the scroll reads.

The three members of the winning team had previously individually made significant contributions to the competition. Luke Farritor, a computer science student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Youssef Nader, a machine learning Ph.D. student at Freie University in Berlin, had been two of the first contestants to detect a smaller number of letters, winning $40,000 and $10,000 respectively. Julian Schilliger, a robotics student at ETH Zürich, developed a tool that began to automatically segment the scrolls. They will share the $700,000 grand prize.

Nat Friedman, a tech investor and executive, and one of the challenge’s organizers, recently printed out the winning submission. “All this has been in this dreamlike digital world in my imagination before," Friedman says. "Seeing it on paper, rolling it up, it just made it so tangible.”

There’s a lot more to discover. The scroll partially decoded by the winning submission was one of 800 discovered in a southern Italian villa that was first uncovered in 1750. The combined efforts of the competitors and organizers so far have resulted in around 5% of one scroll being read.

The final scramble to read the scrolls

Since the Vesuvius Challenge launched nearly a year ago, participants had both cooperated and competed, sharing their latest techniques with each other and posting pictures of their progress. But as the race for the grand prize intensified, the Discord, a social media platform where the participants shared information, went dark, says Friedman.

Of the eighteen submissions for the grand prize, most of them were received on the last day of the contest, Dec. 31, and three were sent in the final ten minutes, according to Friedman. Friedman recalls he was at home with his family around Christmas, decorating for the holiday while compulsively refreshing his phone, when the winning submission came in. “I ran into my little office at home and popped it open,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is really magnificent.’”

In accordance with the criteria set in March 2023, the winning submission contains four passages of 140 characters each, with at least 85% of the characters in each of those passages recoverable by professional papyrologists. It also contains a further 11 columns of text.

It isn’t known who authored the ancient scroll, but experts have developed theories. “Is the author Epicurus' follower, the philosopher and poet Philodemus, the teacher of Vergil? It seems very likely,” writes Richard Janko, professor of classical studies at the University of Michigan. “Is he writing about the effect of music on the hearer, and comparing it to other pleasures like those of food and drink? Quite probably.” Robert Fowler, a professor of Greek at the University of Bristol, also believes the author to be Philodemus. “Like other Epicureans, he valued pleasure above all - but pleasure rightly understood, not mere indulgence,” Fowler writes of the philosopher.

In the final section of the scroll, the author appears to criticize his intellectual adversaries, who “have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular, when it is a question of definition.”

“I can't help but read it as a 2000 year old blog post, arguing with another poster,” says Friedman. “It's ancient Substack, and people are beefing with each other, and I think that's just amazing.”

What comes next

The Vesuvius Challenge has issued a new grand prize for 2024 that will allow the AI-enhanced decoding to move at a faster pace.

The competitors largely have been developing algorithms for automatic letter detection—using AI to see traces of ink on segments of virtually unrolled scrolls. Aside from letter detection, the other main challenge associated with reading the scrolls is segmentation—separating the layers and virtually unrolling the scrolls. So far, this process has been highly manual; the Vesuvius Challenge employed three full-time segmenters. In order to ensure that they’d have segmented enough of the scroll for someone to win the grand prize, Friedman bought the team new monitors and computers to boost their productivity. The challenge for 2024 is to automate the segmentation process.

Friedman admits that he has had other tempting offers of new quests to pursue. Over the last year, he says his inbox has been filled with Robinson Crusoe-esque proposals, from people alerting him to lost shipwrecks and ancient cities, undecoded languages, and strange glyphs on the sides of mountains.

But he can’t walk away. He wants to help read all of the 800 scrolls already discovered in the villa. And some archeologists believe there is a main library containing tens of thousands of scrolls, still waiting to be excavated.

To expedite the excavation, Friedman has obtained the mobile number of the Italian civil servant responsible for the villa, whom he has texted, twice. “My hope is that I won't have to go and dig it out myself,” says Friedman. “But if that's what it comes to, I will.”

By WILL HENSHALL.

[usafphantom2]

MAAM P-61 Nose Art – Introducing “Moonbeam Dream”

Moreno Aguiari

After 79 years, the P-61 now has it’s own unique identity. Photo by Nick Chismar

Aircorps Art Dec 2019

By Nick Chismar

Just over a month ago, in June 2024, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum (MAAM) unveiled a brand-new paint job on their Northrop P-61B Black Widow, USAAF #42-39445. The massive fighter sat proudly, fully covered in gloss black paint, as visitors from around the country stopped to take photos during the museum’s 33rd Annual World War II Weekend. Just recently, during the museum’s members’ day picnic on July 20th, there was another unveiling to do. After 79 years, their P-61 has its own identity and nose art; Moonbeam Deam.

MAAM P 61 Nose Art – Introducing Moonbeam Dream82539 copy scaled

Work was well underway just two weeks before the member’s day event. Tucked inside the main hangar, Hummelstown, Pennsylvania artist Jennifer “Hot Rod Jen” Thomas was steadying her hand against the side of the P-61. Jen’s interest in warbirds began with family ties as both her uncle and grandfather had flown Stearmans and worked alongside her father on the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation’s C-54 Spirit of Freedom. While Jen is well known for her automotive pinstriping, the P-61 is not her first piece of aviation nose art.

MAAM P 61 Nose Art – Introducing Moonbeam Dream80147 copy scaled

Recently, Jen painted the nose art on the Wings of War’s Cessna T-50 Bobcat, known as Bamboo Betty, which made its this year’s WWII Weekend. Not long after completing the gT-50’s nose art, a photographer suggested she contact MAAM President Russ Strine. It wouldn’t be until this year’s WWII Weekend that she could pass a card along, but it wasn’t long after that she was in contact with Russ, and things kicked off from there.

As Jen would tell me, there are some times when clients may not know exactly what they want, but not in this case. Having nose art on the P-61 has long been something Russ wanted to do. Since the aircraft had crashed only four days into its career, the crew never had the opportunity to properly name their aircraft. So, Russ set out to find something that he felt fit the project. Selecting from a book of Vargas pin-up girls, Russ looked for one that wasn’t too risqué or similar to that on their B-25 Briefing Time. The moon and stars were selected to symbolize how the P-61 fought in the night sky. He then chose the name Moonbeam Baby and added a full-size cutout to the aircraft which many visitors may recall seeing over past years. This name, however, was only intended to be a placeholder for inspiration.

The name Moonbeam Baby never really sat well with Russ, and after some time he decided to change the name to Moonbeam Dream. As he would tell me, “I was never really comfortable with the name ‘baby’, and I thought about it. I thought that the P-61 was a dream of ours, not only in acquiring it but restoring it to flying condition.” With the nose art already selected by Russ, Jen went to work.

MAAM P 61 Nose Art – Introducing Moonbeam Dream82547 copy scaled

With the full-size cut-out at home, Jen began by making tracings of the artwork and letters. Patterns and an electro pounce were made of the letters while the surface was thoroughly cleaned to begin painting. The image of the girl was first hung and then transferred using Saral paper for the outline and to be blocked in white to make it easier for skin tones to be painted. Using urethane and sign painting enamel paints Jen began the process of painting the nose art. Jen would use the Axalta urethane paint for the lettering and to block in the white and yellow on the pinup as well as for the moon. As a more aggressive paint, it bites into the black paint of the fuselage offering a sturdy base. For the rest, Jen would use 1-Shot lettering enamel to complete the nose art on the aircraft. Working from roughly 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and with an immense amount of skill and a steady hand, the nose art would slowly go on over the course of three days.

When member’s day came around and the first visitors rounded the tail of the museum’s replica D3A “Val” there was a sense of awe as they spotted the nose art. Comments could be heard about the level of detail and simply how impressive it was. As visitors continued and made their way to the other side of the P-61 they immediately took note of the emblem of the 550th Night Fighter Squadron, painted completely by freehand on the aircraft. Painted to the emblem’s left however were three names. Beneath the cockpit could be seen the name “Annie” in honor of Russ’ late mother, painted in bright red. Below that and in a more subtle blue was the image of the iconic “Kilroy” with the words “Pappy was here. Brenda too.” A tribute to Russ’ late father Eugene and Brenda Saylor, both of whom had spent countless hours to make their shared dream, a reality.

After 79 years, the P-61 now has its own unique identity. For Jen, this would be a special moment. After moving to Allentown years ago, friends soon told her about World War II Weekend. Jen said, “2006 was the first year I came here and I was hooked ever since. …coming here for years and the amount of work that is going into this aircraft is amazing. I’ve seen it when it was just barely anything and I loved the story, and I’m just blown away to be a part of it…it feels like a dream.” As Russ would tell me, “We needed to give the airplane our own identity, and this nose art, I think, accomplishes that.” With the names of the pilot Logan Southfield and radio operator Ben Goldstein who had been onboard during the fateful crash, the nose art is the final piece of the aircraft’s identity.

Special thanks to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum and Jennifer Thomas for allowing me to photograph the process of painting the nose art. Thank you to Russ Strine and Jennifer for taking the time to talk about their process in this latest part of the restoration.

MAAM P 61 Nose Art – Introducing Moonbeam Dream82554 copy scaled It has been a few years since we last reported on restoration progress with the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum‘s Northrop P-61B Black Widow #42-39445. As most of you will remember, a team from the museum recovered the aircraft from the side of Mount Cyclops in Hollandia, New Guinea during the late 1980s. They have made great strides in their effort to rebuild the WWII night fighter to airworthy condition, and we thought you would like to hear (and see) some of the work that has been going on with the Widow of late. Below are our two latest report.

Author ProfileRelated Posts

Moreno-Aguiari

Born in Milan, Italy, Moreno moved to the U.S. in 1999 to pursue a career as a commercial pilot. His aviation passion began early, inspired by his uncle, an F-104 Starfighter Crew Chief, and his father, a military traffic controller. Childhood adventures included camping outside military bases and watching planes at Aeroporto Linate. In 1999, he relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, to obtain his commercial pilot license, a move that became permanent. With 24 years in the U.S., he now flies full-time for a Part 91 business aviation company in Atlanta. He is actively involved with the Commemorative Air Force, the D-Day Squadron, and other aviation organizations. He enjoys life with his supportive wife and three wonderful children.

@Warbirdnews via X

[ttomm1357]

some fun trivias about Nymphia wind:

79

For the first time nymphia’s daughter bagel met plane jane at last dec 2023 in Taiwan, she didn’t know her personality and plane jane was so shy that she thought pj is a bit socially anxious.

Nymphia is famous and ppl bought her drink at club (and also for her friends) and pj was like “is that for me? You mean for me?No no no” and “no one wants to see me🥺everyone comes to see Nymphia”, bagel tried to console her and chat with her “i know! Nymphia is such a bitch right?”

i bet bagel must be shocking when she saw pj was such a hard talker on RPDR😆

[crochetedblorbos]

"Sorry, Elias, I can't hear you. There's a door in the way."

Character Name: Martin Blackwood

Fandom: The Magnus Archives [Podcast]

Voiced By: Alexander J. Newall (@rqbossman)

Yarn Used: Shoes: CraftSmart Value - Dark Almond Trousers: CraftSmart Value - Coffee Jumper: CraftSmart Value - Cornflower Skin: CraftSmart Value - Peach Hair: CraftSmart Value - Clay Ombre Glasses: Ashland Floral Wire - 22 Gauge/Iron/Silver

Basic pattern here.

Martin. My boy Martin. First character I put on this list before it was an actual list. (Why didn’t I do him first? Look…by the time I realized I had to actually do this, other podcasts were still ongoing and characters actively needed hugs.) It has been a long time since I have identified with a character so hard, and I love him so much. I couldn’t wait to get to hug him.

He differs from the base pattern as follows:

Shoes: I gave Martin loafers, or at least that was what I meant to give him. Therefore, I stopped with the shoe color at R6 (the final decrease) and switched to trouser color. I also knotted a small scrap of brown yarn on the tips and tied them in bows.

Trousers: So here’s the thing: Martin is fat. I know there are people who want to argue that the podcast never explicitly says the word “fat” - just things like “a bigger guy” and “roomy” and the like - and that that could mean he’s just tall or broad or muscular or whatever, but for fuck’s sake, there aren’t that many fat characters out there that aren’t punch lines, let me have this. Anyway, I am also fat, so I admittedly based a lot of my alterations on, well, me. And the first thing I decided was that Martin, like me, has trouble finding pants off the rack that fit him properly because everything that fits his waist has too long of an inseam, so I decided to give him cuffs on his pants by doing R7 as hdc in front loops of R6 only, then R8 as dc in the back loops of R6. I then continued as normal up through R17 and: R18: Ch 1, [sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st] 5 times around, sl st in first sc (20 sc). R19: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (20 sc). R20: Ch 1, [sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st] 4 times around, sl st in first sc (24 sc). R21-29: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (24 sc). After completing second leg, sl st to middle of inseam. Ch 4 and join to middle of inseam of opposite leg. R30: Ch 1, [sc in each st around leg, sc in each ch across] 2 times, sl st in first sc (56 sc). R31-32: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (56 sc). R33: Ch 1, sc in first st, 2 sc in next st, [sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st] 2 times, sc in next 32 st, [2sc in next st, sc in next 3 st] 3 times, 2sc in next st, sc in next st, sl st in first sc (62 sc). R34: Ch 1, [2sc in next st, sc in next 2 st] 4 times, 2sc in next st, sc in next 32 st, [2sc in next st, sc in next 2 st] 5 times, sc in next 2 st, sl st in first sc (72 sc). R35: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (72 sc).

Jumper: Let the record show that I bought this yarn specifically because it was the exact color I always had in mind in leaves when I referenced “the jumper Jon once offhandedly complimented him on”. I did it the same way I did Joseph’s hoodie, fpdc around each st in R34 and then continuing in sc, but I also decided to make his stomach a bit bigger as I went. Beginning with R39: R39: Ch 1, [sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st] 3 times, sc in next 32 st, [2sc in next st, sc in next 5 st] 3 times, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st, sl st in first sc (79 sc). R40: Ch 1, 2sc in first st, sc in next 78 st, sl st in first sc (80 sc). R41-42: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (80 sc). R43: Ch 1, sc in first 2 st, inv dec, [sc in next 4 st, inv dec] 3 times, sc in next 32 st, [inv dec, sc in next 4 st] 4 times, inv dec, sc in next 2 st, sl st in first sc (72 sc). R44-45: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (72 sc). R46: Ch 1, [sc in first 4 st, inv dec] 12 times, sl st in first sc (60 sc). R47-48: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st (60 sc). R49: Ch 1, [sc in first 3 st, inv dec] 12 times, sl st in first sc (48 sc). R50-57: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (48 sc). R58: Ch 1, inv dec around, sl st in first st (24 sc). R59: Switch to skin color. Ch 1, sc in back loop of each st around, sl st in first st (24 sc). R60: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (24 sc).

Head: I decided Martin has no neck really, but a slightly square head/jaw. (It came out a bit chinless, honestly, but it works for him.) So the pattern went as follows: R61: Ch 1, [sc in front loop of first 3 st, 2sc in front loop of next st] 6 times around, sl st in first sc (30 sc). R62: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (30 sc). R63: Ch 1, [sc in first 4 st, 2sc in next st] 6 times around, sl st in first sc (36 sc). R64: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (36 sc). R65-R82: Continue as in base pattern. I also gave him ears like I did Alice. For hair, I did the loop method again, just…significantly shorter, so I had to do more of it. (Which was fine, really, it kept me occupied on a long car ride…)

Glasses: I didn’t wrap these in thread this time, but I did cut the wire long enough that I could double it up the whole way across, so it works well, I think.

Arms: Like with the legs, I decided to make Martin’s arms fatter than usual, so at R12 I chained 2 and then did a pattern of (hdc, 2hdc) around to open it up to eighteen stitches from twelve. I also extended them to 33 rounds to fit better with his body.

[offender42085]

Post 1302

Frankie E Bybee, Florida inmate S42207, born 1970, incarceration intake November 2017 at age 47, scheduled for release July 2025

Exploitation of Elderly or Disabled Person, Fraud Use of Personal Identification

In January 2021, a former Sarasota County deputy whose sentence was partly reversed was resentenced.

Frank Bybee appeared frail and visibly shaking as he entered court in a wheelchair. He made an emotional plea to Judge Donald H. Mason: “I want to apologize to Marcia Sohl. She should never have had to go through any of this, the court’s distress. I want to apologize to my profession. The Sheriff’s Office is top notch, one of the best in the state of Florida. I used to work with (Assistant State Attorney and prosecutor) Karen Fraivillig. I’m sure it was hard for her and personal to come after me. I apologize for what it’s done to my family and my marriage, my three boys.”

Assistant Public Defender Marc Gilman said Bybee has had two brain surgeries to remove a tumor the size of a grapefruit and a stroke since he was imprisoned in 2017 for crimes against the elderly.

The victim, Marcia Sohl, 82, a former New York City teacher, died in July 2019.

Despite arguments that his health was declining because of poor medical care in prison, Judge Mason resentenced Bybee to 10 years in prison for exploitation of the elderly and 10 years probation for three counts of computer crimes.

Bybee will receive credit for time served on seven counts of fraudulent use of identification information, and five years probation on a count of fraudulent use of identification information. 

"I'm happy the judge took his medical condition into consideration," Assistant Public Defender Marc Gilman said. "I'm happy he got a little time off his sentence. That shows sometimes things can work out in good ways. I understand he still needs to be punished. That's part of what the system is designed to do."

In November 2017, Bybee was sentenced to 15 years in prison for 13 felonies that included kidnapping, exploitation of elderly, three counts of computer fraud and eight counts of fraudulent use of information.

But in an opinion filed by Second District Appeals Judge Susan Rothstein-Youakim in May 2020, Bybee’s kidnapping conviction was reversed. Rothstein-Youakim said Bybee received ineffective assistance from his defense attorneys. Their failure to move for a judgment of acquittal when there were serious concerns about evidence is reviewable on appeal, the judge said.

The charges against Bybee arose out of his relationship with the then 79-year-old woman and covered a period of about three months. He was sent to her house Oct. 16, 2016, because she was threatening suicide. She was transported to the hospital and involuntarily committed under the Baker Act. Bybee stayed to pray with her, and they exchanged cell phone numbers.

The woman and Bybee began communicating regularly. Over the next few months, the deputy came to her house to do chores such as painting and minor repairs.

As the woman’s health began to decline, she was admitted to the hospital more than once and spent time in rehabilitation facilities, according to court documents.

By December 2016, their relationship had soured.

The woman called the Sheriff’s Office twice to complain about Bybee’s involvement in her life. The agency told him not to have further contact with her.

After interviewing the woman, the Sheriff’s Office opened an internal affairs investigation of Bybee to determine if he was engaging in an inappropriate relationship with someone with whom he had been involved in an official capacity, court documents stated.

Investigators found that Bybee repeatedly accessed the woman’s AOL account and emails, accessed her financial information, accessed her PayPal account and withdrew money using her debit card.

On Dec. 29, after Bybee was told to cease his contact with the woman, she was once again Baker Acted. While evidence exists that Bybee sent a message from the woman’s email account that set in motion law enforcement’s response to her home, deputies and medical staff at the hospital made the decision to Baker Act the woman based on their observations.

“Both the responding deputies and the hospital staff were statutorily authorized to make the determinations that they made,” Rothstein-Youakim wrote.

Assistant Public Defender Karen M. Kinney, who handled Bybee’s appeal, called state prosecutors’ assertions that there was kidnapping a refutable “theory.” However, Bybee’s counsel, John Lakin and Ronald Kurpiers, did not raise an issue with the charge at the right time, she said.

Fraivillig, who represented the state during Bybee’s trial in October 2017, wanted his sentence to remain the same at 15 years for four second-degree felonies. She said the original judgment was a “merciful sentence.”

Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said at the original trial that Deputy Frankie Bybee had befriended the victim, a 79-year-old Sarasota woman, while responding to a service call.

Knight said when the woman entrusted Bybee -- an 18-year agency veteran and married father of three -- with her dog, whom the deputy sold the dog through Craigslist. The dog was reunited with the woman.

Knight said at the time, Bybee was placed on administrative leave after the deputy’s fingerprint was found on checks totaling $65,000 that the victim said had been fraudulently signed.

Bybee will need constant medical care and CT scans for the rest of his life.

4l

[tkachuktkaching]

Matthew Tkachuk put the world on notice this past season when he helped lead the underdog Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final. The 25-year-old superstar is now widely considered as one of the premier players in the NHL.

Tkachuk’s journey and path into professional hockey all began in Arizona.

On Dec. 11, 1997, Tkachuk was born in Scottsdale Arizona just over a year after his father Keith Tkachuk started playing for the Phoenix Coyotes, a newly established franchise at the time.

Matthew spent his early childhood years in Arizona as Keith played for the Coyotes from 1996-2001. It was there where Matthew believes his love for the game of hockey was truly brought to life.

“I’m sure that’s where I first started to love the game,” Matthew said in 2016 Via The Arizona Republic. “Obviously, you have a special place for that.”

Even at a young age, Matthew was always a hockey junky.

“He would watch the highlights at 3 years old,” said Coyotes head equipment manager Stan Wilson back in 2016. “When my wife would be babysitting him, they’d play hockey. He’d stand there and make her sing the national anthem. He’s been a hockey nut his whole life, that’s for sure.”

It's pretty hard to imagine but Matthew used to wear the Coyotes uniform with excitement as he started to understand hockey at a deeper level back when Keith used to play in the Valley.

“It was more of a thrill for me to see him than him really recognizing what was going on,” Keith said in 2016. “He had his tight little Coyotes jersey on, which was funny because he was a bigger baby. So it was awesome. It was a lot of fun.”

Now Matthew is one of the most feared players in the NHL playing a hard nose, ferocious type game. He is coming off his best statistical season where he had 40 goals, 69 assists and 109 points in 79 games.

Matthew plays the game with a passion that not very few players have. That rare type of passion and drive for hockey all started in Arizona. 

thehockeynews.com

[untitledmaturelady]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 174 notes - Dec 17 2023

2. 121 notes - Dec 8 2023

3. 110 notes - Dec 15 2023

4. 94 notes - Dec 9 2023

5. 79 notes - Dec 7 2023

6. 69 notes - Dec 8 2023

7. 53 notes - Dec 27 2023

8. 34 notes - Dec 26 2023

9. 34 notes - Dec 5 2023

10. 31 notes - Dec 20 2023

Created by TumblrTop10

[rustedhills]

Merobiba's Etymology: A Classical Discussion

The most likely place you've seen the word 'Merobiba' is Drawfee on Youtube - which has coined it as the name for a goofy little puppet-Merida from the hit film 'Bwave'.

Fig. 1: A screenshot from the original Drawfee video, posted Feb 2, 2023.

They pulled the word (among others) from the twitter account Weird Medieval, which posted this (Fig. 2) on Dec 6, 2022.

Fig. 2, the original 'merobiba' tweet, accessed via proxy

Weird Medieval sources the word (and others in the thread) to The dictionary of syr Thomas Eliot knyght, written 1490? - 1546, according to the University of Michigan Library [via the Early English Books Text Creation Partnership].

But where did syr Eliot acquire the word?

Fig. 3: the cover of Plautus' Curculio: Revised Edition, With Introduction and Notes by John Wright, which is what I'm currently using for class.

It was likely in a contemporary transcription of Plautus' Curculio, a Roman comedic play published around 200BCE. - Specifically act 1, line 77 (though different versions have slightly different numbering):

Transcribed from Plautus' Curculio: Revised Edition, With Introduction and Notes by John Wright:

77 - PH. nomen Leanaest, multibiba atque merobiba.

78 - PA. Quasi tu lagoenam dicas, ubi unium Chium

79 - solet esse. PH. quid opust uerbis? uinosissuma est;

The two characters - Phaedromus (PH), a young man madly in love, and Palinurus (PA), his sassy, unimpressed slave, are discussing an enslaved woman in the supporting cast (ancilla). Merobiba references her ability to drink very strong wines, and multibiba references the amount. As T. H. M. Gellar-Goad translates it in Plautus: Curculio: "she's a super-drinker and stupor-drinker" (pg. 10) [multibiba atque merobiba]. Phaedromus goes on to state uinosissuma est, which Gellar-Goad translates to "She's winetastic" (pg. 10). Phaedromus may not have game, but he has... a way with words...?

Gellar-Goad goes on to state that "Plautus has coined [multibiba and merobiba] by smashing together smaller, familiar words. ... Plautus' plays are chock-full of this sort of inventive, fast-and-loose wordplay, and it's a challenge for translators to keep up" (pg. 11).

Given Plautus' propensity for creating weird, cognate words for the sole purpose of sounding silly, it's highly likely that this is the truly first use of the word 'Merobiba'.

So, next time you hear "I'm merobiba!" and chuckle sensibly, remember:

You are keeping a 2200 year-old word alive. Thank you.

Note: If you've read to this point and think you've got an even earlier version--probably also in the colloquial/comedic Latin literature tradition--please rb with your findings!! And if I forgot a source pls lmk.

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

You Don't Know Jack 5th Dementia/You Don't Know Jack Mock 2

"You'll drop everything." (PC Gamer #79, Dec. 2000)

[fauxfickle]

We now return with your regularly scheduled and all too familiar feeling of malaise and the search for "The Great All American Pizza Show!"

So it's been a little under a month since my last post and I've been skimming through commercial compilations from the LA area. I've found some cool YT channels that archive old ads from that area but I obviously don't have anything to show for it. The ads are either too early or too late to be part of this campaign which is a bit frustrating. Something I neglected to mention last time was that I was also looking through Colossal Pictures demo reels to see if they had a snippet of the animated commercial but of course, there's nothing. There seems to be a cutoff point in the early 80s as most demos only show things from that far back. I was able to find some obscure, silent, avant garde, sci-fi film possibly connected to Colossal but I don't think that'll help me much.

Colossal had some sort of "meet the crew" type video where all the employees said they're names but only their first name so I can't really track them down or anything. I'll keep looking, I didn't look all too hard as I was kinda at my wits end at that time looking through ad comps for hours.

I took a bit of a break for a while before reading through the old Pizza Times newsletters from Dec 79 - May 80. The May 1980 newsletter had some cool info about commercials and news features filmed at the various stores. Some of these aren't technically part of TGAAPS campaign but ehhhhhh I don't really care. They're part of early PTT history and I wanna see them damnit!

Let's go through these starting with Citrus Heights. The Citrus Heights section is loaded with info regarding lost media, 3 in fact! Sacramento's Channel 40 (KTXL), which has since been bought out by FOX in the mid 80s, did a Newsplus at 10 feature on the cyberamic systems at the new store during it's opening week. If we consult the ever so useful Chuck-E-Pedia, we can find that this feature would have been shot and most likely aired on Christmas week of 1979. A perfect pin point set of dates to look through! Next, Chuck was seen in the lead up to the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon which also gives us some idea of where to look. Finally, a TV commercial was filmed, possibly with TGAAPS slogan. Bob Wilkins' ad agency produced it but I couldn't find ANYTHING regarding this company. It's mentioned on his wikipedia but not named, and a even his own website doesn't mention anything about it. It's surprising that someone who seems like a local celeb in there area could have an ad agency that goes almost entirely undocumented.

Next, we move to Sparks, Nevada. Channel 2 (KTVN) filmed a feature on the store for the PM Magazine. The store was visited by reporter Keith Hirshland. Now I'm actually pretty sure I've found this dude! I found a local online article talking about him and the timeline works perfectly. Assuming this was filmed in early 1980, Keith would of been still fresh out of college with a degree in journalism and around 23. He also says he grew up running down the halls of the KTVN office. As a little aside, I'd just like to say don't bother this man or anyone/company mentioned in any of my posts. The last thing we need is to scare off these people.

This last little piece of lost media probably has the best chances of being found out of all the rest. Ben Wattenberg's 1980, from what I can find, is a dry, uninteresting TV news segment hosted by an equally dry and uninteresting host, the neo-conservative Ben Wattenberg. Ben Wattenberg's 1980 itself seems to be almost entirely lost media as only a few stills, episode descriptions, and TV listings exist online. However, this show was on PBS which no doubt has it somewhere in it's archive. What's better is that that there not only an exact date of when the episode will air, but also the name of the episode itself! One user on taptalk was able to find a TV listing which unfortunately doesn't lead anywhere and isn't archive on the WayBack machine. Luckily people actually said the name of the supposed episode which would of been "Silicon Valley: The New Entrepreneurs". We can also find evidence of it in a newspaper from that June 15th.

I sent e-mails to KTXL-40 and PBS on 2/24, so far no responses. I'll wait a little longer and in the mean time look for more leads and contacts. As I said before, don't bother these people/companies. I don't want them to be swamped with calls and e-mails and clam up on us. Bye for now!