#did he have to give speeches during assemblies???

[frchillingrn]

So since Gary was the head boy did he have to host/plan the pep rallies??? Cause if so that is absolutely hilarious

[foldingfittedsheets]

One of the most memorable speeches I've ever heard was given at my beloved's graduation. They attended a pretty crunchy school natural medicine. They went for acupuncture but they also had many degrees including nutrition, naturopathic medicine, and most importantly to this story: midwifery.

The common consensus across campus was that the midwives operated on their own frequency which is a nice way to say they were usually really weird, even by the standards of a pretty alternative crowd of people. Not weird in a bad way. But weird nonetheless. They straddled the boundary between life and death and it changed them.

I had never experienced a midwife before the ceremony which is why I didn't think anything of the fact that a midwife stepped up to give the graduation speech. My friends nearby had a stir of repressed amusement and elbowing each other which did puzzle me slightly.

The speech began as a story, which I heartily approved of. The midwife related an experience in which a woman told her that during her first birth she had screamed too much and used up her energy in that instead of pushing and the midwife, to the collective masses assembled to watch a solemn ceremony, said, "I told her this time she would need to scream with her vagina."

The audience was slightly stunned by this, myself included. I scanned the crowd to see dropped jaws and wide eyes. It was such a bold statement to make in an academic setting and no one quite knew what to make of it.

The midwife continued unperturbed.

She related that many dads didn't know what to do during the birthing process and that this particular dad chose to chant over and over, "You're gonna be huge, you're gonna be huge," as his wife screamed with her vagina to birth their child. The midwife mused that she didn't know if he was talking to their child or his wife or if he even registered what he was saying in that moment.

Then the subject strayed toward how the student body had strained and striven toward this goal, this endgame that was the result of sleepless nights, hard work, and camaraderie. The speech seemed to have moved onto more solid ground and traditional graduation reminiscences. The crowd settled, thinking the worst had passed.

But as the midwife wrapped up she said, "As you go forth into the world, pushed out by this noble institution to help the masses, just remember one thing," she paused and the audience held their breath while the beat drew out before she finally whispered:

"You're gonna be huge."

There was a roar of astonished laughter as her speech neatly tied their graduation into a metaphor for being birthed unto the world and we finally understood the point of her anecdote.

The speech lives in infamy in all our collective memories. Years later my beloved's dad will still be like, "Remember that bizarre graduation speech?"

And it was. It was bizarre. But I'll say this. I've attended a lot of graduations, and I don't remember any of the speeches half so well as I do that one.

[the-nosy-neighbor]

Bug-a-Bye and Goodnight

As always, I have edits:

This will make more sense at the end.

I came across some theories about this song, and wanted to look at it in depth.

We are reading with the understanding that he may be referring to Eddie.

[A gentle piano and bassoon track begins playing.]

The sun is low, it’s cold and dark,— end of season, but could also be a reference to night and danger after dark

Just wind and snow, I must remark,

The bugs all head to slumberland,—interesting given the use of toyland, also the commercial about remderem/insomnia (some must sleep but Wally is in the opposite state. Too aware?), but could be a reference to death, like “the big sleep”

Some might find it sad, but I understand,—on face value, he will miss his friends, but knows that it is inevitable.

Even if I might not be able to see you,—can’t see Eddie because he is gone/buried

I know it’s for the best, I can’t keep you,—Eddie staying would lead to serious consequences for Eddie

It’s time for all of you to get some rest,—after what we saw Eddie go through, I bet he would be better in a different state

To tuck you all into your arthropod nests,—bug stuff; also Julie's hibernation?

At this point, those last few lines could refer to a sort of death for Eddie. Almost like frank can preserve him in some way by giving him a death in this universe. If we are talking puppet world, which we did see in commercials, most of Eddie’s anxiety happened in that state. So, can Frank give Eddie a suspended or death like state in one of the layers of reality and he is preserved in storybook world or our real world?

With one last check, that nothing is amiss,

I can see you safe into your chrysalis,—this reads that he will put Eddie into a different state of being that he can come back from. The coming back is my interpretation only at this point because I assume frank wouldn’t choose death for him or would for sure be hurt by Eddie’s death. Things would have to be very bad if true death is a better option for Eddie.

Also, it hearkens back to the horror butterfly image. Another also, caterpillar to butterfly, an insinuation of emedging into a new form. I don’t see allusions to Howdy in here, but I suppose it is possible that this could refer to more than one neighbor and Frank is taking them all out.

As you snuggle down into your dirt,—reference to being buried?

I want to assure you that I won’t be hurt.

This clarifies that it is a sleeping type state, not death. Ok, here is we’re Eddie’s Halloween costume comes in. Frankenstein, changed from the Scarecrow in earlier art (presumably from wizard of oz). Interesting thing about scarecrow vs. Frankenstein is that we see scarecrow taken apart during that film and Frankenstein is famously assembled from parts of different people. Interestinger is the fact that they are both afraid of fire. (I love that Young Frankenstein shows up more than the original in a search.)

Frankenstein (and scarecrow) are both put back together, but for Frankenstein it seems more of a new being, not just a reassembling. Frankenstein (aka frankenstein’s monster) is a thinking, speaking individual that was horrified at the situation he was in. Frankenstein in the book murders to punish his creator for the immorality of creating him and the resulting loneliness that the monster feels. As such, the choice is very interesting. If the puppets of welcome home come to be aware or sentient, I wonder how they would feel about Ronald Dorelaine or their situation?

If the movie version is the focus of Eddie’s costume choice, then he would be a potentially thinking and feeling being (he is afraid of fire), but without further evidence we don’t know his thoughts.

Scarecrow is a guy without a brain, with the power of speech, so a kind of opposite. I think they all end up just needing to be confident, which is why some shyster from the Midwest is able to help. This almost seems to be more in tune with Eddie's character--Eddie has a tendency to appear kind of ditsy, is constantly being dismissed by others. In the end, we find out he is actually smart but lacks confidence. I can see that being true for Eddie as well.

If I had to pick out a character for Frank, it would be the Tin Man. Poppy is the Cowardly Lion, Wally is Dorothy. Home is Home. There are more parallels here than I was expecting. Howdy is the Wizard, Julie can be Glenda, and the Wicked Witch...is kind of no one? Sally can be a flying monkey. She works my nerve. Also, the whole spying thing was done by the monkeys in the movie.

But now that I am thinking about it, this comparison makes a lot of sense, in terms of the complex relationships, as well as the levels of reality that you find in Wizard of Oz. A big event leads to a shift in the understanding of reality, and the lead finds themselves in a very colorful world that doesn't much resemble their own, but is very flashy, has songs, beloved characters, and a sense of danger. There are some things when thought about in the context of real life, or the black and white portion of Wizard of Oz, would be truly frightening.

Of course, Wizard of Oz shares a lot of parallels with Alice in Wonderland, which also seems somewhat related. In terms of source material, the Wizard of Oz is considered to be a parable that expresses the thoughts about US economic policy in the 1890's. This is a theory that you can read more about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

It isn't super related, and not everyone believes that this is the case. However, it seems to be a very American type story, no matter what you believe, that touches on the experience of normal people while much larger forces lie and fuck around with everything.

As the holidays begin to approach,

I gently kiss, each and every roach,—kisses for Eddie. We have seen a realistic roach on the secret page with the mishmash of one script where Wally is deciding what to draw

I made sure to keep, my garden cozy,

So you can safely sleep, in fallen posies,—this whole stanza shows a desire to and promise of a quiet death and maybe even a maintained grave. I looked up posies to see where Eddie could potentially be buried. Posies refer to a nosegay, or small bouquet of flowers. It was a Victorian secret code thing, a way to declare love or even reject people based on flower and color. One that sticks with us in the form of red roses signifying love. On the map, there is a cluster of yellow flowers to the side of Frank’s house. Not sure this counts as his garden, since it is on the other side of the house. Julie has a group of flowers behind her house, but once again, not his garden. No fallen flowers that I can ID.

When googling posey, this is what comes up. I felt that there was a flower called a posey, and these do look like the big yellow flowers by Frank’s house. If any flowers fall in updates, I am going to assume someone is buried there.

There is also the ring around the roses rhyme, which could relate, but I don’t really see a correlation.

It’s time to get comfortable in your honeycomb,

take your winter intermission in your garden loam,—dirt, burying again

neatly nestled from the cold in roots and rhi-ya-zomes, — cozy dead

sleeping side by side under stately stones,—2 dead? Headstones is the link I make there--OK, now look at the pic! (I know, it's a reach.)

…And I’ll be inside of my home,—frank is staying to oversee something. It reads like calming the person who will die. This seems to bolster that arguments that I addressed in the post about bugs on the previous website, that Frank is working against, or at least parallel to Wally. With the bugs, the whispering to Eddie, and using his first name, I think it is reasonable to suggest that Frank is working against Wally and/or Home.

Another potential clue is the hidden video with the clothespins where 1 is upside down. I have theorized that it is a reference to Barnaby dying, but it could be Barnaby and Eddie. Only one clothespin is shown upside down though, so Barnaby or Eddie?

Regardless of how I feel you need to go away,

I’ll be the one to tell you, you just can’t stay,—he likes bugs but this is extreme of Frank, if he is talking about actual bugs

Thankfully I lack a sentimental sensibility,—true that, he generally seems calm.

I enjoy my Methodical Mundanity,—why is this capitalized? I looked and looked but I can’t find the origin of this phrase, though it came up a few times in random posts and articles. Clown does have a tendency to capitalize things that seem random. Me below is also capitalized. I listened as well, and I have to wonder why the singing is so bad? I don’t think the voice actors are bad at singing, seems like a deliberate choice to have reedy and unsteady vocals, pitch issues and pacing problems.

Where all that’s left is… Me.

So, this is a bit extreme for a song about hibernating bugs. I think that given our many references to bisecting or otherwise putting people into pieces (Eddie butterfly horror, frank in a pile of body parts, look I made a dog, and slinky Barnaby, now Frankenstein and Scarecrow) that we could be looking at death in a sense that works in one layer of reality. You disassemble a puppet, it is no longer a puppet. So what if Frank = Frankenstein and Eddie is Frankenstein’s monster? Frank can take him apart and put him back together in puppet reality?

If I had to guess, I am sticking with my working theory. Frank, as the smartest guy in the neighborhood, is the resistant force in the neighborhood. Wally/Home is/are the catalyst for the scary stuff. They are central to everything, physically and otherwise.

I have mentioned that in the last update, Sally and Poppy have the appearance of spies or managing Eddie. Given that Poppy doesn’t attend to party, I am anticipating that Eddie was isolated and watched by Sally during this planning period, where Wally and Barnaby walk the neighborhood to find out what Homewarming is. Given that it is said that Wally and Home instigated Homewarming, it is strange that everyone knows what it is except for Wally. It reads more as an attempt to achieve a goal, despite everyone knowing about the holiday. Even Julie is at the party, and she is supposed to be hibernating. Well, they don't say exactly when Julie hibernates (maybe there was something about her doing it after the holiday?) Anyway, Poppy isn't at Homewarming. She could be at home, but the book stating that they are all here seems like an attempt to cover up her absence. What is she doing? Snooping in the Post Office while Sally watches Eddie? Does Eddie want to go home for not feeling well or he has an idea of what is happening while he is gone?

Maybe Frank sees his boyfriend and comrade at arms about to get hit with something bad, so to preserve him and the opposition, he is going to disassemble him (cue Johnny 5) for protection.

In the past, Sonny (the Brazilian bird) was cast as the opposition to Wally, and included in a relationship with Frank. This work in particular comes to mind:

Clown has stated that they removed Sonny from the project due to the story changing from one with a hero, to one without, as that wasn't the story that they wanted to tell. What if, though, instead of Sonny being written out for the hero reason, there was another reason? What if we are seeing Frank taking on being the neighborhood's savior? He is just snarky enough to make it seem less like a hero situation and more because it was impacting his garden.

[trutrustories]

STUDY IN LOKI ROMANCE

Part 2: Breaking Brad

Since we're only a few days away from the last episode, I decided to COUNT DOWN everything we´ve got so far ( that can be interpreted very easily as romantic ) and discuss what the actual fuck is going on with second season. Because even though I shipped lokius practically from S1E2, I absolutely did NOT expect this kind of development. (Not that I´m complaining)

Warning: This is gonna be LONG post, lots of screenshots, lots of SPOILERS, lot of "oh-my-god-they-so-cute" language, and little bit of meta.

I originally thought that this post would be everything at once, but since I have just too many screenshots this time around, I´ll have to split it. so every post will be one episode. Color coding means:

IIIIIIIIII = anything, that coud potentialy be just acting choice.

IIIIIIIIII = everything else (tzn.: whatever was written, and/or carefully prepared by filmmakers. )

side note: I already wrote, about how amazing it is, that Mobius is unable to fight but fights anyway and how beautifuly, and ridiculously brave he is HERE. But this is about Loki/Mobius interactions, so I´ll try my best not to talk about THAT. (Even when I´m really happy, that s2 continues with this formula and Mobius is still his completely defenseless while aggressively brave self. I love him, btw.)

EPISODE 1 HERE

Okay, Check-list, ep 2:

11) matching suits part 1 THIS ⬇️ costume department did a great job and they look badass together also, they´re walking very close to each other.

12) Loki defending /saving Mobius from Brad (with magic!) also, Mobius, dear, (my beloved) you were really going for it! Always so ready to fight! I can´t xD

Loki "don´t u dare hurt him" Laufeyson, look at his face!

13) Mobius and Loki struggling to assemble IKEA furniture- sorry Tapmad together

14) " And he knows..." I mean yeah, sure. keep remind us, that Mobius knows everything about Loki, and saw him at his worst, so we can appreciate even more the fact, that Mobius likes him and cares for him so damn much 💚🤎

15) Loki finding Mobius´s joke amusing Mobius: cracking joke right after Loki´s threatening speech:

Loki:

16) Loki being very concerned for Mobius after his outburst, saying that It´s okay, and then suggests having pie because he knows Mobius so well and is avare of the fact, that his man is stress eater I´m gonna cry they´re too pure for MCU someone adopt them

17) Bickering like married couple (part 2) 18) The whole freaking pie scene!

Just them, sharing calm, intimate moment together

Mobius opening up to Loki, and admiting he "lost it"

Loki trying to make him feel better and absolutely KILLING IT! btw, I know, that some people think, this scene doesn´t make sense, because Loki didn´t "lost it" during avengers, but was controlled by mind stone, etc.... well I think that it actually doesn´t matter. Guess what else doesn´t make sense? For example the fact, that they already talked about Loki fighting Avengers ( during their first meeting.) Loki is aware, that Mobius saw New York invasion at least twice now, and he´s telling him anyway. I would say, that point here is Loki trying to lift Mobius´s spirit, entertain him, make him smile. Why else woud he start his monolog by "remember, when...?" And I think, that this is huge, actually: Loki, using his bad memory, defeat, his humulianting experience to make Mobius feel better. So not only, that we see, he no longer care about being rurel but we see him making lightly fun of it FOR MOBIUS´S SAKE! He has different priorities now... our immortal god is a grown man now... it´s just so fucking beautiful... 🥺

Also Mobius saying to Loki: "come on, you´re the God of Mischief" Like it´s a best thing in the world, and Loki gives him THIS LOOK! (I mean that head tilt would be considered "acting" category, but I´m already making concessions by including all these things under one number :D

19) Loki and Mobius: mischievous duo

Mobius trusts him so completly!

They both such a drama queens!

And they works so well together!

like... seriously, Brad didn´t see this coming, AT ALL! xD

also... Loki complimenting his plan?!

20) "They say opposites attract. NO." Mobius´s wishfull thinking xD (But hey, it IS true. Opposites attracts. And works greatly together. That´s the only reason, why, for example, trope like grumpy one/sunshine one is so popular!) I can´t! just look at his face 🤣 Oh honey! just calm down

He is sooooooo NOT chill here xD bless him

21) Loki, not following Sylvie, but actually staying with Mobius and comforting him. AGAIN. (which is an absolutely glaring contrast compared to episode 2 in first season!)

[lettingtimepass]

Loki s2e5 Thoughts & Feelings (Spoilers)

THE INTRO LOSING THE LETTERS!! I'm a sucker for when an intro is slightly changed. And in the end credits when the lines and type get all wonky! I love it.

Ok I have a question. When Loki finds everyone, they are all on branched timelines, not the Sacred Timeline. So doesn't that mean the lives on these branches could be slightly different or totally different than their original lives on the Sacred Timeline? Sylvie says they're back in their "real lives", but is that even true? 🤔 Also, I know people are theorizing that Don's wife was dusted during the snap, but technically in this branched timeline, the snap might not have happened.

B-15 being a doctor was so good 🥺 "I looked happy." Yes, you did... I just noticed her name on the captions was "Dr. Willis!"

Don!Mobius said he'd seen Loki in the shop before, did Loki timeslip there and not remember it? Or... has that not happened yet?

OB's workshop looking super similar to the one at the TVA - So cool!

"So I am gonna write a bestseller!" Stop he's so pure!!

Did anyone clock that OB's book cover looks similar to Loki and Slyvie on Lamentis? 👀

"It's impossible. But don't let that stop you."

This is probably obvious but Loki couldn't control the timeslipping until he truly accepted his "why." Not to protect the timelines from HWR, but to protect his friends.

Don!Mobius literally dropping everything to talk to Loki and offer him a drink. Fellas.....

"You saw something in me that I hadn't seen in myself." NO THIS IS STRAIGHT OUTTA FIC THO 😭

I can't believe Loki assembled his own Avengers 😭😭😭

Gawd, the show starting with Loki's speech about how humans don't need choices, and now he's fighting to give his friends choices..... that's the good shit.

"I want my friends back." DO YOU REALIZE THE CHARACTER GROWTH?!?! Loki never had a friend other than Thor. He was so closed off, he didn't think he ever needed anyone else. He told the lie that he was fine, better off, by himself. For him to admit that he has friends, and he wants them, and doesn't want to be alone...? 🤌🤌🤌

"But without them... Where do I belong?" WHERE IS TOM'S EMMY?!?! The tear, the voice shake... this man 😭😭😭

Remember, this Loki is a "cosmetic mistake." He isn't supposed to exist. Mobius saved him from being reset. Without the TVA, without Mobius... he has no reason to exist... no glorious purpose. But he was still willing to let them all go to do the right thing 🥲🥲🥲

Mobius trying to sell a Jet Ski to B-15 is too funny.

THE MONKEY FROM THE INTRO!! I've been wondering what that was all about... we also see OB's sticky note wall!

"The pens... we have all the pens!"

When they all start spagettifying being parallel to the dusting scenes in Infinity War.... RUDE, MARVEL. MR STARK I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD.

"I can rewrite the story." YES YOU CAN KING!! And my immediate reaction was "Loki, God of Stories"! At first I thought Loki and Sylvie were going to run the TVA together, but now I feel like it might be Loki alone (with Mobius' help of course), managing all the timelines... writing the story.

THAT ENDING!!!! I'M SO READY BUT NOT READY FOR NEXT WEEK!!! I can't believe we're at the end.... I'M SO SCARED! 😭

[compacflt]

Rumors from Pearl Harbor.

When Admiral Kazansky first comes to Pearl, he brings with him about half of his previous staff, all exceptionally-hardworking people hand-picked over years—advisors, flag aides, secretaries, ranks all over the board. But his new hires, upon getting acquainted with the old guard, are shocked to discover that his previous staff still hardly knows him at all.

“He keeps to himself, mostly,” Lieutenant Commander Hartford explains over a pint. “I made the mistake of asking him once what he did for fun. You know, like, hobbies and stuff. He blinked at me for a second, and then said, ‘I read.’ That’s it! I read! My advice to you newcomers would be, don’t ask him questions about his personal life, because it tends to be pretty boring.”

“It sounds to me like he’s a walking, talking Wikipedia page,” says Captain Calvert, who worked for the previous two Pacific Fleet Commanders and thinks she knows how to deal with them by now. “We owe it to ourselves to figure him out. It’ll make our lives easier, anyway. So, let’s put our heads together: what do we know about him?”

What they know are his habits, which they’ll come to learn intimately over the next few years, and which are admittedly pretty boring. Admiral Kazansky is one of the first to show up to work in the morning and one of the last to leave in the evening. He often answers e-mails past 2300 hours, but never later than midnight. Jokes never catch him off-guard; he rarely smiles, and when he does, it has an ulterior motive. When he’s not working, he’s scheming and making plans to go back home to San Diego, and his requests for leave are always granted, because he works like a pack mule from home anyway. He signs off every e-mail with “Sincerely,”…

“Is he sincere, though?” asks Chief Warrant Officer Kent halfway through Admiral Kazansky’s first year. (Admiral Kazansky is surely unaware that his staff now spends the second Friday of every month chit-chatting about him over drinks in downtown Honolulu.) “I can’t ever tell. And he lives in Hawaii. San Diego’s nice, I know, but what’s so different about the beaches there that he can’t get here?”

“I genuinely don’t think he’s human,” confesses Commander Stoddard. “People warned me about that when I came here, and I laughed it off, but… he keeps his desk biologically sterile. Not one fingerprint, but I’ve never seen anyone wipe it down. I’ve looked through his drawers. Don’t judge me, I got curious. Everything squared away, like he’s goddamn Einstein or something. Have any of you ever seen him in his civvies?” No one has. “God damn it, where does he shop for groceries? No one’s seen him at a grocery store? Does he even own a pair of jeans? Does he wear his uniform to bed, too?”

“He probably goes grocery shopping on the whole other side of the island to avoid all the enlisted kids,” laughs Captain Calvert. “Come to think of it…you know how he always eats lunch in the office? It’s always a salad. And always the same kind of salad. This guy survives on one cup of coffee and one spinach salad a day. Maybe he really isn’t human.”

They build out their wealth of knowledge and come to learn that Admiral Kazansky is defined by his extremes, by what he always does and what he never does. Admiral Kazansky gets his uniforms dry-cleaned every week, though he never spills anything on them. No one has ever seen Admiral Kazansky stumble over his words while giving a speech, or trip over a sidewalk curb, or push a “pull” door. He is always polite and never friendly. Sometimes he is cold, and sometimes he is cruel in his patience with you when you’ve fucked up, like a cat toying with a hemorrhaging mouse. But he never raises his voice. He is always immaculately put-together, well-groomed, constructed every day like a product on an assembly line. Nothing is ever out of place. Allegedly his umbrella once turned inside-out during a rainstorm; he disdainfully shook it once, as a hunter might pump a loaded shotgun, and it flipped itself right-side-in again. The laws of physics do not seem to apply to him. Nor do the natural embarrassments that come with being human. Admiral Kazansky is never flustered, never harried, and never falls apart.

“I found this old picture of him shaking hands with another pilot on the Internet,” says Chief Warrant Officer Kent in Admiral Kazansky’s second year. “Smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Never seen him smile like that in all my years working with him. And he had frosted tips, too. Like Guy Fieri on a diet and steroids. It was the eighties, sure, but it’s like he knew how to have fun, once upon a time. Wonder what happened to him.”

“I feel lonely for him sometimes,” says Commander Stoddard. “Strict guy like that, no family, no friends, no wife, nothing to live for but the Navy? He’s like a workhorse with blinders on. Nowhere to go but forward. That’s a lonely existence.”

“Not if you’re a robot,” says Lieutenant Commander Hartford. “I swear, sometimes he breathes and it makes me jump, ‘cause I forgot he was alive!” —What else doesn’t Admiral Kazansky do?

That’s when they realize that none of them, not the old guard nor the new, has ever, not once, ever seen or heard Admiral Kazansky sneeze.

And they all finally give up the game and quit arguing and agree that, no, he really isn’t human after all. He must be some cyborg from the future sent to whip the Pacific Fleet into shape, and you can’t ask for too much humanity from someone who’s doing a pretty damn good job of it.

The rumors start soon after that. Jokes that could get them all tossed out of the Navy, but probably won’t. Jokes that accidentally spread like wildfire.

Yes, Admiral Kazansky could be a cyborg, but he also could be a Mormon fundamentalist, or a Scientologist, or a really weird Catholic. Maybe he goes home to San Diego so often because in his spare time he’s really a mule ferrying cocaine across the Mexi-Cali border. That’s what he does for fun. He eats spinach salads because he’s a reincarnation of Popeye the Sailor Man, and he needs all the super-strength he can get to deal with the Navy’s modern-day bullshit.

“I don’t know if that story makes sense,” laughs Captain Calvert on the phone with her husband in Washington, “but it makes more sense than the real Admiral Kazansky does!”

So the rumors get spread around.

“I don’t know if you know this,” Maverick comments, watching Ice make their bed from the relative comfort of the bedroom doorway, “or if I should tell you this, because you might crack down on it, which would be a shame, ‘cause it’s funny. But every time you send a mass e-mail to the Pacific Fleet commissioned officer corps, you become the main topic of conversation between all of us officers for a solid day and a half.”

“Oh?” says Ice with a smile, struggling to fit the last corner of the fitted sheet to the mattress. He sighs, tugs on the strings of his old ratty-ass hooded sweatshirt, and looks at Maverick balefully through his glasses. “Help me out over here, would you? —What are people saying? All good things, I hope.”

“Not really,” Maverick says, stuffing a pillow into a pillowcase as he stares out the window into the San Diego sunshine. “Some pretty crazy shit, actually. Hard as hell for me to keep a straight face. I heard this one—you know, people are saying you eat nothing but salads?”

“Oh,” laughs Ice, hospital-cornering the free sheet. “Yeah, that one’s kind of true. I bring salads in to the office sometimes.”

“You hate salads.”

“I know, it’s torture! Move over.” He bumps Maverick out of the way to tuck in the last corner. “But, I figure, if a man torments himself with spinach-and-arugula salads three times a week, you ought to respect his commitment. It’s all an act. You get to a certain Defense Department paygrade, it all starts being storytelling and stagecraft.”

“Or trickery and deception, depending on how you look at it.”

“Sure. But you could say that about everything. —Besides, I’d rather the Navy discuss my salads than discuss… well, this.” He gestures to Maverick, then down to the bed. They start tugging the comforter over it together. “How much slack you got over there?”

“‘Bout a foot.”

Ice pulls his side down a couple more inches to match, then flips the top up. “Is that it? That’s all people are saying about me?”

Maverick grins and bends down to pick up a pillow. “They’re also saying that you’re the reincarnation of Popeye the Sailor Man. I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam, and all that. Think fast.”

Ice doesn’t think fast, and the pillow hits him square in the face, and he laughs again as he catches it in his arms. “Shit, that’s good,” he says; “I was just about to call Slider, think I’ll tell him that one. That’ll make him laugh. Popeye Iceman.” He tosses the pillow onto the made-up bed and pulls out his cell phone, but—then he frowns, grimaces, mutters “Ah, no,” and turns away to sneeze.

[deeplyunfunny]

Fanfic idea

Charles & Erik are secretly dating (i'd say that they're really not. Just that they don't advertise it & no one has either connected the dots or just asked them). It's 5 times where the X-Men find Charles / Erik looking at eachother lovingly (or w/ desire) & +1 where they're making out.

1- The X-Men & the Brotherhood team up temporarily (& quite spontaneously) to break out some experimented on mutant children from a facility (for some reason Charles had to go, perhaps it was their first official mission & was there as back up?) & the X-Men find Charles staring at Erik while he's bending some metal.

A lot of the Brotherhood (including Erik) & X-Men end up hurt. Charles convines Erik into letting them stay at the mansion to heal.

2- A few days after the mission Charles is giving a speech / assembly to the students (Abt the Brotherhood perhaps?) & they catch Erik staring intensly at Charles w/ a loving gaze.

3- The X-men enter a kitchen & encounter a delicious smell - Erik is cooking. Erik & Charles are talking with eachother abt smth. Erik is giving his back at charles & using his powers manuver the cooking utensiles. Charles is staring the way his muscles move while he does so.

4- Charles is teaching a class outside - one of using mental powers as they all are somewhat similar (this is a hc of mine, that all powers that are of controling smth function similarly). Erik is looking as he teaches, not paying much focus on the actual lesson / the children but more so just looking at Charles, from not very far away. Most of the children dismiss his attendance as for safety purpuses (bc he can stop any dangers from escalating) they still notice tho.

5- The X-men have something to request from Charles late at night. They go into his office & find Charles & Erik locked in a game of chess. They linger at the door before making their existance known, watching 2 or more turns of their game. They see how while Charles is in his turn - looking at the board & thinking - Erik is staring at him (or his lips). They watch Erik glance down as Charles makes his move & the roles are now switched: Erik is thinking of a next move while Charles observes Erik's face (lips). Eventually they make their presence known & the game is stopped temporarily

---

+1- Another day (also late at night) the X-Men need Charles' presence for something trivial (I'm thinking of them needing him to break off a discusion abt a board game?). Expecting their professor & Erik to be just playing chess (as they normally do at an hour like this) they barge into his office & instead of them playing chess they're making out, a forgotten game of chess on the table.

---

Personally I've thought of this fic w/ a movieverse AU (w/o Apocalypse & Dark Phoenix tho) in which everything has been somewhat maintained the same with some tweaks:

1) Raven & Charles treated each other's mutations much better in general - Charles encouraged Raven to use her own skin & she let him stay in her mind w/o overstepping, forming a close thelepathic bond.

2) They didn't end in such bad terms after beach divorce (all of them). They stayed for Charles' recovery but ended up still parting ways (the same mutants as in first class went w the same person they did)

3) No Darwin death & he stayed w/ Charles after beach divorce

4) Angel didn't leave w/ Shaw at the CIA but eventually did w/ Erik to the Brotherhood. The Shaw attack still happened & them going to mansion too (but w Angel)

5) The school wasn't shut down & Charles didn't fall into such a bad depression (the loosing his legs still affected him tho & he still struggled w his alcoholism).

6) Logan still came from the future to convince Raven to not kill Trask but it was much easier. Charles & Erik mended their relationship during this & here is when they begun to date. Erik continued w/ the Brotherood & Charles w/ the school not rlly supporting Erik's ways but they reached a compromise (They didn't). Publicly they still are portrayed as enemies & very much are still somewhat so - even if they're together.

(Erik was still at the pentagon for 10 years. Reason why Charles didn't rescue him sooner was that bc of the school & the Brotherhood the contact between Charles & Raven was practially lost & w/ Erik it was practically non-existant so when eventually they stopped talking he didn't think much of it)

7) [edit] no offsreen character deaths either

-

However I do think this idea fits different canons / AUs. If you do actually want to write this idea feel free to ignore anything abt it that you don't like & change the canon it's in (i have however only watched the moveies & X-Men '97).

Personally I'd think it'd be hilarious if the X-men dont really catch on & kinda dislike Erik. So they're really surprised that they're together (this is my fave in cherik fics it's so sad it's not written more tbh).

Myb eventually I'll write this fic myself but rn I don't have the time nor motivation to do so propertly. So I can only hope that someone capable of doing so can get inspired by this post & do it themselves.

---

If you've read this far thank you for hearing my idea out, I hope it brings others as much joy as this little idea does to me.

[mariacallous]

Embattled South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared��martial law on Tuesday in an extraordinary attempt to consolidate his power. But after South Korea’s National Assembly unanimously voted to reject the move, Yoon’s self-coup has ended in a humiliating failure.

Yoon sought to use South Korea’s army to prevent the National Assembly from voting, but politicians from all parties defied the move, and protesters formed human barricades against soldiers. If troops had obeyed Yoon, the crisis could have spiraled, including confrontations between the army and the public. Instead, the army retreated from the National Assembly, and Yoon has announced that he will officially lift martial law in the morning. The crisis is now likely to end with Yoon’s impeachment.

Yoon has been in a budget confrontation, which escalated last week, with the legislature, where his People Power Party suffered sweeping losses in elections this year and the Democratic Party now holds a firm majority. Yoon cited the confrontation in his Tuesday announcement, saying that it was “clear anti-state behavior aimed at inciting rebellion” and accusing the Democratic Party of being “shameless pro-North anti-state forces.”

Yoon’s declaration of martial law was a wildly unexpected move.

Rumors have circulated for months that Yoon might make such an attempt, but mainstream political analysts painted them as fringe conspiracy theories. Martial law under South Korean democracy was envisaged as only a response to war or a major confrontation with North Korea. But while Pyongyang has been taking some worrying steps in recent months—including sending soldiers to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine—there is no military crisis.

Article 77 of the South Korean Constitution gives the president the ability to declare martial law and temporarily execute “special measures” on speech, assembly, and other freedoms during a national emergency. But the National Assembly also has the right to demand that the president cancel martial law with a simple up-and-down vote, as it did just hours after Yoon’s declaration.

Constitutionally, Yoon was bound to obey the legislature, but he took steps to try to prevent it from acting. South Korean army chief Park An-soo, a Yoon ally and the appointed martial law commander, issued a proclamation to block political activity, including that of the National Assembly, and take control of the media. South Korean media did not comply, while Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung asked both politicians and the public to gather at the National Assembly building in Seoul.

Using the army against the National Assembly is likely illegal even under the terms of martial law in South Korea, since Article 77 only allows the president to take measures affecting the executive and the judiciary, not the legislature. Yoon was attempting an autogolpe, or self-coup, in which a sitting leader seizes dictatorial power.

Declaring martial law was a desperate move by an unpopular politician who has grappled with crisis since South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April. Yoon, who took office in May 2022, faces a serious influence-peddling scandal, which has contributed to his poor approval ratings. Lately, he has regularly polled under 20 percent among the public.

Still, Yoon retained an audience in Washington due to his tough stance on North Korea. “He has almost always been highly unpopular,” said Karl Friedhoff, an Asia policy fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “But for those in D.C., he was saying and doing all the right things. He returned to Cold War rhetoric—calling the progressives North Korea sympathizers, for example. That is something that aligns with the view of many in D.C. about [former South Korean President] Moon Jae-in.”

Many in Yoon’s party announced their opposition to martial law in South Korea, including leader Han Dong-hoon, and the eventual vote to cancel the declaration was an unanimous one among all 190 members who made it to the legislature to vote. Though Han was a protégé of Yoon’s, he has emerged as a political rival in the last year.

People Power Party members such as Han are likely to join the opposition in impeaching the president, which requires 200 of its 300 members to vote to impeach. “I expect the move will net out to giving the opposition—which is well-positioned to win the Blue House in 2027—still more momentum,” said Robert Manning, a fellow at the Stimson Center

The South Korean public assembled in large numbers to protest Yoon’s move and will likely stay in the streets until he goes. The idea of martial law is extremely unpopular in South Korea, where many older people recall its use in 1980 under the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan, a general who seized power after the assassination of former dictator Park Chung-hee. In May 1980, the South Korean military killed scores of protesters in Gwangju, an event now commemorated in South Korea.

South Korea also has an efficient and sophisticated protest infrastructure—built on the experience of life under the dictatorship, decades of protest against the U.S. military presence in the country, and the mass movement that brought down conservative President Park Geun-hye in 2017, in which more than 16 million people took to the streets.

Conscript forces, who may be more unwilling than other soldiers to use force against protesters, make up a slim majority in South Korea’s army. Park tried to use the then-Defense Security Command, a counterintelligence force, to suppress her political enemies and came close to attempting martial law herself amid protests in 2016.

It is unlikely that U.S. politics played a major role in Yoon’s decision to declare martial law. Though the South Korean government has attempted to build ties with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, President Joe Biden still has more than month left in office; events in Seoul are likely to play out quickly. The Biden administration put out a mealymouthed statement, falling either to back Yoon or wholeheartedly condemn him.

One consequence of the failed coup will be undermining U.S. efforts at Japan-South Korea reconciliation, in which Yoon played a major role—which also cost him politically at home. “In D.C., there just wasn’t enough thought of how failure of domestic policy will have knock-on effects for foreign policy,” Friedhoff said.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Aaron Sibarium

July 25, 2024

Princeton University is on the verge of promoting a professor who participated in the occupation of a campus building that disrupted university operations and led to more than a dozen arrests, according to an email reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.FreeBeacon

The university has recommended that the classics scholar Dan-el Padilla Peralta, who along with 13 anti-Israel student protesters stormed Princeton’s historic Clio Hall in April, be promoted from associate to full professor, pending the approval of the university’s board of trustees. Peralta already has tenure, but the promotion would make him eligible for university leadership roles, including deanships.

"I'm sure you will want to join me in congratulating Dan-el on his promotion to a full professorship," the chair of the classics department, Barbara Graziosi, wrote to her colleagues on July 18. "This is still 'unofficial' news, because the Board of Trustees will have to rubber stamp the recommendation made by the committee that oversees promotions, but I was told I am allowed to share the news internally and do so with glee."

The board is all but certain to accept the recommendation, professors familiar with the matter said, given that the group signs off on virtually all appointments. Princeton and Peralta did notrespond to requests for comment.

The promotion comes as Princeton’s peer universities have taken a soft-on-crime approach to the unlawful and at times violent protests that have rocked campuses since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. The Harvard Corporation this month reversed its decision to withhold degrees from 11 students who led an encampment in Harvard yard, one of whom is a Rhodes Scholar set to attend Oxford University next year. Other schools, including Northwestern and Middlebury, ended their encampments by negotiating with protesters and acceding to many of their demands.

At Princeton, Peralta played a leading role in the most disruptive protest the campus had experienced in years. He and another professor, sociologist Ruha Benjamin, joined 13 students in occupying Clio Hall, the home of Princeton’s graduate school administration, as 200 additional protesters cheered them on from the outside.

Police eventually warned the occupiers that they would be arrested if they did not exit the building. Peralta and Benjamin did so, but the students did not.

After a chaotic effort to stop the police—at one point the crowd surrounded a bus where two of the protesters were being held—all 13 students were arrested while the professors who had encouraged them escaped without sanction.

The showdown followed a four day sit-in in the university’s McCosh Courtyard, where several Princeton faculty members, including Peralta, had delivered remarks. Though the sit-in relocated to another part of campus after the occupation of Clio Hall, it was allowed to continue in its new location for over a week.

A classicist who argues that "whiteness" is inseparable from classics, Peralta is perhaps Princeton’s most prominent scholar-activist.

He spearheaded a faculty letter in 2020 that called on the university to give minority professors extra pay and sabbatical time—compensation for their "invisible work," the letter said—and is a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which calls for an economic boycott of the Jewish state.

During the sit-in in April, Peralta also proposed a faculty resolution granting amnesty to "students and other university affiliates involved in peaceful free speech and assembly for justice in Palestine." The non-binding resolution passed narrowly in May and condemned the university’s decision to discipline the students who stormed Clio Hall.

Unlike Harvard, which promised harsh sanctions before walking them back, Princeton was lenient from the get-go: A university spokeswoman announced in May that the students were unlikely to get more than probation.

[theantonian]

Antony after Caesar

The first coin with Antony's portrait, struck within two months of Caesar's assassination. Antony is shown veiled and bearded as a sign of mourning.

Antony’s career independent of Caesar started with the Ides of March 44 BC. The murder of Caesar sent shock waves through the population, giving rise to diplomatic activities with the purpose of both conciliation and the factionalism, resulting power struggles and eventually civil war. As Caesar’s seeming successor, Antony had to strengthen his own position without provoking immediate conflict. Would he be able to lead the Republic? He held imperium of all the armed forces, which was the most important factor, not only to rise to power, but also to keep it as Sulla, Pompey and Caesar before him. Huzar notes “the fact that Caesar made Senate and Comitia truly ineffectual lies behind the helplessness of these bodies”.

After Caesar’s death Antony brilliantly took control (Cass. Dio 43.27.1; Cic. Ad. Fam. 4.6.3; 6.16; 15.3-4), while also ensuring his safety as he was guarded by his praetorian guards and 6000 veterans. In order to get the mob on his side he swayed them with his passionate speech at Caesar’s funeral by his oratorical talent and his exhibitionism. Even though Suetonius (Jul. 85) says he held no formal speech, Cicero and Plutarch (Ant. 4.3 9-4), among others, describe how he swayed the people to rage, inciting them to burn the body and buildings and assault the murderers. With the acquisition of Caesar’s papers and money Antony was in a strong position. Although Cicero accuses Antony of falsification “on a colossal scale” (Phil. 2.36), and forgery of the papers may have been possible on a practical level, it could not be proven, then or now.

Antony, however, was not deterred by the common belief that he was resorting to forgery; and a little later he obtained a sum of money from the Cretans in return for granting them, again on the authority of Caesar, future exemption from taxation. His justification is that he needed funds for the upholding of his authority, and for winning the support, for instance, of Caesar's veterans; and it is certain that, he spent the bulk of the money in the public interest.

Antony continued to use the popular assembly to ensure Rome and the empire does not fell into anarchy. Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for six years, and the retention of four Macedonian legions, which he transferred to Gaul. Since his campaign in Gaul (off and on between 54 and 51 BC), Antony must have realized the importance of being in control of especially Cisalpine Gaul, the “gateway to Italy".

Legislation like municipal legislation on qualifications for holding office and census regulations continued Caesar's plans. Unfortunately, we hear of his programs chiefly from his enemies. When a judiciary law extended eligibility for jury duty to men of centurion and even legionary rank and transferred the hearing of final appeals from the courts to the people, Cicero charged that Antony was packing the courts and fostering mob violence. The democratic measures were never given a fair trial, for with Antony's other measures, they were cancelled in 43 B.C. When Antony failed to hold the scheduled election of the censors owing to the unwillingness of the majority of the senate, but did issue an edict on sumptuary laws, it became the object of ridicule because of his reputation. Nevertheless, that Rome remained calm during these days of transition indicates a strength and stability in Antony's administration of the state.

[ausetkmt]

“An Absolute Massacre” – The New Orleans Slaughter of July 30, 1866

Reconstruction Era National Historical Park

Political Cartoonist Thomas Nast drew this political cartoon, "The Massacre at New Orleans," criticizing President Andrew Johnson for his role in permitting the violence to unfold in New Orleans on July 30, 166

The Confederate military and government collapsed in the Spring and Summer of 1865, effectively ending the Civil War with the United States preserved and slavery destroyed. But the violence was far from over. White resistance to Black citizenship during Reconstruction often turned violent – as it did in New Orleans on July 30, 1866. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln had hoped that Louisiana, with a strong US military presence in Louisiana would serve as the model for readmitting states back to the United States. In 1864, the state ratified a new constitution that abolished slavery, but did not grant Black Louisianans the right to vote – something that President Lincoln began to consider as the war ended the next year.

In his last speech, delivered on April 11, 1865, Lincoln openly expressed his desire to enfranchise select freed people and emphasized that “…voters in the heretofore slave-state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union… held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man.

Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional (Thirteenth) amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.”1 In the crowd was John Wilkes Booth. Incensed at the thought of Black citizenship and voting, Booth assassinated President Lincoln a few days later. The violence did not stop at Ford’s Theatre.

Harry T. Hays had served as a General in the Confederate Army. But in the Summer of 1866, he was the Sheriff of New Orleans, and deputized a posse of ex-Confederates to confront a citizen's convention in the city.

Gilder Lehrman Institute

This image from Harpers Weekly depicts Confederate veterans opening fire on the crowd in New Orleans. The placement of the US flag in the drawing served as a reminder to readers that some former Confederates had not yet accepted the outcome of the war.

Library of Congress

In a matter of approximately two hours, 34 African American supporters were killed, while the wounded numbered 119. Three of the delegates who had assembled in the Mechanics Institute were killed, while 17 were wounded, and approximately 200 others arrested. When the streets around the Mechanics Institute fell quiet, General Baird ordered martial law, which remained in effect into early August. On August 1, the Cleveland Daily Leader published sentiments that were shared by many other papers across the North: “Remember that this work was done by the constituted authorities of the city of New Orleans, rebels in record and in heart, but placed in power over loyal men by the policy of a renegade President. Remember that these scenes are but a prelude of what is to be… if Mr. Johnson’s policy shall be carried out.”5 Paired with news of the tragedy that occurred in Memphis months before, the New Orleans massacre contributed to major changes in Reconstruction policy. The 1866 elections saw to it that a Radical Republican majority ruled in both the House of Representatives and Senate, and ultimately contributed to the passing of the 14th and 15th Amendments. It could even be said that the violence which transpired on July 30, 1866, in a twist of irony, gave rise to several policies that would be enacted in following years, including Federal military presence in the South, temporary disenfranchisement of former Confederates, and for a population of more than four million freed people - the right to vote. 1 Lincoln, Abraham, and Scott Yenor. “Document 5: Last Public Address.” Reconstruction: Core Documents, Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, 2018, pp. 13–17. 2 O'Donovan, Susan, and Beverly Bond. “‘A History They Can Use’: The Memphis Massacre and Reconstruction's Public History Terrain.” The Journal of the Civil War Era, 10 Jan. 2018, www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2016/08/history-can-use-memphis-massacre-reconstructions-public-history-terrain/. 3Reynolds, Donald E. “The New Orleans Riot of 1866, Reconsidered.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 5, no. 1, 1964, pp. 5–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4230742. Accessed 30 July 2020. 4 The New-Orleans Riot. Its Official History. New York Tribune, 1866. 5 The Louisiana Convention. Cleveland Daily Leader, 1 August, 1866, p. 1. by Park Ranger Rich Condon, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park

[yr-obedt-cicero]

any good hamdad anecdotes? i've heard of a few and they're always really cute

Absolutely. I'll spare you the sad ones.

The time Hamilton chose crabs over Angelica's pie and teasingly reassured her it wasn't because they moved it (Hamilton was prone to forgetfulness, it's likely Angelica taunted him about this);

Give my love to Angelica & assure [her] that I did not leave her pye out of resentment for her having changed its original destination; but because it was impossible to take it with us without abandonning a basket of Crabs which was sent to my care for Mrs. Rensselaer. It has always been my creed that a lady’s pleasure is of more importance than a Gentleman’s, so the pye gave way to the Crabs. It was a nice question, but after mature reflection I decided in favour of the latter. Perhaps as a Creole I had some sympathy with them.

(source — Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [1801])

Three days before the duel, Hamilton laid out under a tree with all his kids until it got dark;

The next day, Sunday, before the heat of the day, [Alexander Hamilton] walked with his wife over all the pleasant scenes of his retreat. On his return to the house, his family being assembled, he read the morning service of the Episcopal church. The intervening hours till evening were spent in kind companionship; and at the close of the day, gathering around him his children under a near tree, he laid with them upon the grass until the stars shone down from the heavens.

(source — Life of Alexander Hamilton, by John Church Hamilton)

While preparing for the Grange, camping out in the yard reminded Hamilton of his war days and he told the kids about war stories;

[D]uring the erection of [Hamilton’s] rural dwelling, he caused a tent to be pitched, and camp-stools to be placed under the shading trees. He measured distances, as though measuring the frontage of a camp; and then, as he walked along, his step seemed to fall naturally into the cadenced pace of a practiced drill. It was his delight in his hours of relaxation to return to scenes and incidents of his early life, when fighting for this country, and praying for its protection.

(source — Life of Alexander Hamilton, by John Church Hamilton)

Hamilton often slept besides his kids, and found amusement in playing with Holly;

I am here my beloved Betsy with my two little boys John & William who will be my bed fellows to night. The day I have passed was as agreeable as it could be in your absence; but you need not be told how much difference your presence would have made […] The remainder of the Children were well yesterday. Eliza pouts and plays, and displays more and more her ample stock of Caprice.

(source — Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [March 20, 1803])

Hamilton used to sing while Angelica played the piano;

Hamilton's gentle nature rendered his house a joyous one to his children and friends. He accompanied His daughter Angelica when she played and sang the piano. His intercourse with his children was always affectionate and confiding, which excited in them a corresponding confidence and devotion.

(source — Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton)

Hamilton used to take James on carriage rides when he had to travel places and gave him advice;

While we were living at the Grange I used to drive out with my father, and often accompanied him when he dined with his friend Gouverneur Morris. During one of these drives, soon after my conversation with my uncle, I told my father what I had learned, and made the suggestion which Mr. Morton had requested. He replied without hesitation, ‘‘No, my son; if I received a part of the profits of that business, I should be responsible for it; as I cannot attend to it, I cannot consent to receive what I do not earn.’’

(source — Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton)

Hamilton often helped his sons with their speeches, and once gave James a thesis on discretion as a subtle hint he was a bit too talkative;

The first impression as to the words underscored was, that I might need the Thesis as an exercise. Immediate subsequent events of the most painful character induced the belief that it was intended as an admonition that I wanted that ‘homely virtue,’ discretion, of which the thesis treated. How far I have profited by the admonition this relation of the errors of my life may prove. The reader may perhaps say that in attempting to write these reminiscences I have shown that the admonition was thrown away.

(source — Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton)

Hamilton was overjoyed at Philip's performance at his last oration, that he said he was the only one who could have surpassed him;

The eldest child was a son, on whom his hopes rested with a confidence that would not have been disappointed. Distinguished for genius and elevated feeling from his earliest years, this youth had recently graduated at Columbia College. So satisfied was his father with the display of talent in an oration delivered by him at the end of his academic career, that he re-marked: ‘‘I could not have been contented to have been surpassed by any other than my son;���’ and never was he more delighted than with the gratulations which poured in upon him on this occasion.

(source — History of the republic of the United States of America, as traced in the writings of Alexander Hamilton and of his contemporaries, by John Church Hamilton)

He used to play marbles and fly kites with his younger boys;

What a home Hamilton's lovely nature made to all its inmates! By his family he was adored; the humblest member of his household seemed contented with his lot, as he walked forth at early morn to direct their labors with kind greetings and kinder smiles. “Would not this be well?” “Might not this be better?” were the terms of his guidance. [...] Their education now was under his frequent supervision; their course of reading was indicated, and their themes corrected. Every source of usefulness and virtuous pleasure he would cultivate with severer studies—music; (he sang a little)—the graces and the arts; with his younger boys he played marbles and flew kites, making merry pastime.

(source — History of the republic of the United States of America, as traced in the writings of Alexander Hamilton and of his contemporaries, by John Church Hamilton)

Hamilton was too anxious about letting Philip travel on his own, so he barely let him travel for very long and had a friend keep an eye on him;

As my eldest son Philip, who lately graduated, will pass through Providence on his way to Boston, I give him this line barely to introduce him to you; since the time I have prescribed for his return will not permit the stay of more than a day at Providence.

(source — Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Olney, [August 12, 1800])

The night before the duel, Hamilton slept besides John C.;

I recall a single incident about it with full clearness. [...] The day before the duel I was sitting in a room, when, at a slight noise, I turned around and saw my father in the doorway, standing silently there and looking at me with a most sweet and beautiful expression of countenance. It was full of tenderness, and without any of the business pre-occupation he sometimes had. “John,” he said, when I had discovered him, “won't you come and sleep with me to-night?” His voice was frank as if he had been my brother instead of my father. That night I went to his bed, and in the morning very early he awakened me, and taking my hands in his palms, all four hands extended, he said and told me to repeat the Lord's Prayer. Seventy-five years have since passed over my head, and I have forgotten many things, but not that tender expression when he stood looking at me in the door nor the prayer we made together the morning before the duel. I do not so well recollect seeing him lie upon his deathbed, though I was there.

(source — Interview with John Church Hamilton, reminiscences about his father)

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there's more.

[floripire]

SEASON 1 THROUGH THE EYES OF FLORIBETH DALISAY WITH MENTIONS OF: @fellvespers + @founderscouncil & @silencedrage + @shadowbrn

1x01: in this is the part where you run, there is a five foot three vampire named floribeth dalisay present during the scene where lizzie talks to rafael at the sports field. this vampire wears a necklace with tiny stars, a pastel colored sweater and a skirt and has headphones on. this vampire will be seen again at the end of the episode, during the party at the old mill, where she keeps to herself, drinks a blood bag and stares at the werewolves being rowdy; she stares at one werewolf in particular: jed tien.

1x02: during some people just want to watch the world burn, flori is present at the annual flag football game for wade and wade only. even if he doesn’t really have that big a role. he’s still her friend and she’s there to support him. she’s not really a big sports fan so it’s no skin off her nose whether the salvatore stallions win or lose.

(the dragon girl that hope kills in the woods, however, is the dragon princess from the night world, unbeknownst to anyone.)

1x03: the next time flori appears is in we’re being punked, pedro which means that she, too, got in trouble. well, she got in trouble by proxy because some of the timberwolves taped the flag football game, questioning kaleb’s sudden agility. flori hacked their devices and deleted the video in question and now she’s joining mg, lizzie, hope and josie in the town square.

during this episode it becomes clear that she mostly hangs out with mia hirsch who is flori’s best friend, alongside loren bennett - flori's other best friend. together, they form the anti squad to the super squad.

there is an extra scene in which flori laments about getting in trouble for doing the right thing.

during this episode flori sees donovan lockwood for the first time but the two won’t interact at all until donovan triggers his wolf curse and transfers.

connor throws the milkshake on lizzie and acts as though it was an accident but the milkshake hits mia too. fortunately it’s strawberry and not chocolate, otherwise things would have ended up very ugly. donovan - a bystander to all of this - doesn’t say anything and flori leaves with mia, disappointed in his actions.

once they’re back at the school, lizzie refuses to go back to the square and goes to help out the tiny witch kids which includes everyone’s favorite kiddo pedro.

flori vanishes to her room after double checking and making sure that mia is okay, leaving her with loren; though she promised emma, dorian and alaric she would quit hacking, she intends to get into dana and connor’s devices, either scrambling it or extracting information to be used at a later date, for what they both put mia through.

flori is present in the assembly hall when alaric gives his speech, but she’s only half listening to what he’s saying, busying herself with thoughts of vengeance on certain timberwolves.

1x04: so of course she’d want to join the team during hope is not the goal. connor and dana hurt one of her best friends and this cannot go unpunished. emma tig, however, knows what makes flori tick and explicitly forbids alaric to send flori to mystic falls high. for once, he listens to her.

this means that she’s at the school and present during lunchtime when jed and rafael have their stand off in the mess hall, as she’d been sitting with josie who has been pouring over the curriculum.

later, when it turns out that dana and connor are both incapitated, flori feels bad. they were terrible people, yes, but they didn’t deserve to get hurt and potentially die for it.

flori abandons her short lived revenge plot, choosing instead to focus on researching whoever or whatever the new monster seems to be. because the humans of mystic falls high seem to be dropping like flies.

she doesn't think it's kaleb's fault, although he did feed on cheerleader beula hammond and she's glad when hope, josie and lizzie vanquish the real monster; she's never been a fan of creepy crawlies.

1x05: in malivore, flori wants nothing to do with the honor council. she’s got her own things going on and being on that council would only interfere. flori votes for kaleb over mg.

weirdness aside, landon seems like a nice enough person. flori’s gotten used to his presence and will miss seeing him around - he’s one of the people aside from wade and mg who speaks nerd fluently - but she also understands why he got voted out.

flori is warmer to donovan and is willing to be his friend, seeing in him a lot of what she sees in jed: someone who hides his good heart, someone with the potential to be more than what he is right now; someone who needs a person in their corner. flori is willing to be that person. provided donovan apologizes properly to mia first.

1x06: during mombie dearest, flori drops by the twins’ bedroom while they’re getting ready to drop off her presents for them, and to inform them that she's not coming to their birthday, mere minutes before penelope shows up to deliver the bad news about caroline.

jo and cassie aren’t the only ones brought back: the necromancer also brings back flori’s mom selena, citing that it’s easier to pull people back to life who have a connection to the supernatural. when asked why her dad isn’t here, the necromancer says that her dad already found peace and wouldn’t budge.

flori spends the rest of this episode with her mom, catching her up to speed, only for her to reveal that she knows most things already. selena had been at peace together with raul and they’d been watching her.

when they’re walking to the old mill, she apologizes for the fact that her actions led to their deaths. selena hugs her and says that she is forgiven and that her dad forgives her too.

flori tells her mom that she’s a vampire and her mom takes it in stride. says that she figured it was something like this. it reminded her of the poetry slam flori took her and her husband to before she came out as pansexual. instead of a poetry slam, it’s a zombie slam.

they briefly talk about her friends and about the guy she’s got a crush on. flori’s mom tells her that jed’s rough around the edges but that she likes him so much more than doug carson.

unfortunately they’re attacked by zombies again and both flori and her mom flee, finding refuge within the school.

while the twins siphon the magic keeping her alive from jo, selena crumbles to dust in flori’s arms.

(flori initially assumes that the connection that the necromancer talked about was her being a vampire. later, she’ll find out that selena harman is actually descended from a powerful witch bloodline and chose to erase her memories and bind her powers.)

1x07: rememberance day is never a good day for flori. but during death keeps knocking on my door, she writes two letters as she does every year: one to her parents and one to sue carson.

turns out that the latter also got revived due to having unfinished business.

while the necromancer is being held in a cell, mg and kaleb are snacking on humans and rafael and alaric are figuring out what happened to cassie, flori just wants to spend as much time with sue as she can and lays everything out in the open, apologizing for everything.

sue doesn’t believe her at first, thinking this is all an elaborate joke and expects doug to be in on it, so flori has to show sue her true face. then, sue goes from thinking it’s a joke to being understandably horrified. she backs away, saying she wants to go home; she wants nothing to do with flori, either. not even when she feels her end coming.

though it breaks her heart to do so, flori says her goodbyes and tries her best to honor that decision.

flori ends the episode with putting the letters in an old shoebox at the back of her closet in which she keeps them all. but not before taking a picture of them on her phone. for safe keeping.

1x08: in maybe i should start from the end, flori is still reeling from everything that happened prior.

not only is she still mourning her parents and sue all over again - her former roommate - a witch called druscilla isobel saitou, makes it clear that she’s gonna have loren in her coven - druscilla collects powerful witches, see. it sucks because druscilla had been nice at first. perfectly pleasant, if a bit dark. she also badgers flori about her very obvious crush on jed, reminding her that there’s a chance she’ll have to bury him - and everyone she’ll ever love - in the end.

landon’s brought back home and when flori overhears hope muttering something about triad industries to herself, she once again resumes digging into them again.

1x09: exam week rolls around soon afterwards and not even flori - who has always been a meticulous student and is known for her good grades - is immune to stress, nightmares and the trappings of the night hag slash oneiroi in what was hope doing in your dreams?

flori’s nightmares are mostly about sue and her parents but there are also flashes of the memory she’s repressed about the time she got turned into a vampire by derek machado (who is, indeed, related to ethan, maya and sherriff machado) and other deep seated fears like getting captured by triad industries and having her fangs pulled out of her mouth without anaesthesia.

she ends the episode in the library at first, talking to dorian. he suggests, gently, that she should go and see emma.

1x10: in there’s a world where your dreams came true, flori appears in each of lizzie’s quote-unquote ‘dream worlds’.

in the first reality, flori has arrived shortly before jed does and watches while he gets the tour. when asked why she stuck around in the first place, flori reveals that she has nowhere else to go.

in the second reality, flori is a transfer student from maple hollows high and a bit of a delinquent who uses her skills for favors or extra cash; she hides the fact that she’s a vampire but yearns for a place where she can openly flash her fangs. when the students of the mikaelson school roll up, flori is quick to leave with them.

in the third reality, flori is on her own while triad wages war against all supernatural creatures. flori’s attempts at exposing triad for being shady backfired: her parents died and sue died as well. wade died in front of her eyes too and she’s lost sight of loren and mia. after getting out of the triad industries detention facility, her plan is to wait it out in one of the bunkers she stumbled upon. but when jed accidentally breaks into said bunker, flori joins forces with him and, together with jed and kaleb, takes lizzie to find alaric and the resistance, where flori earns her keep by helping with communications.

1x11: flori is determined to once again stay out of the limelight in we’re gonna need a spotlight. she knows how to warble a tune and hold one too but has a severe case of stage fright. when pressed, flori says that just like landon, she doesn’t sing in front of people.

later, kaleb and mg rock the house down and flori sits in the front row, cheering loudly. she also cheers during the talent show redo when josie sings and when the vampires do a sit in protest during the second go around, flori slips out the door, intending to hang out with loren and mia, whose enrollment in the school is now finalized.

1x12: during there’s a mummy on main street, it is revealed that flori is actually the one who told josie about the biggest ball of yarn in the country. it is also revealed that flori hails from maple hollows.

extra episode: there would be an extra episode detailing flori’s backstory pre enrolling as a year-round student at the salvatore boarding school, including the way in which she got turned.

it is set before the boy who still has a lot of good to do and after there’s a mummy on main street in season 1 called the girl who does not remember where she came from will never reach her destination. which is a mouthful but it’s chosen for a reason.

this is actually a filipino  proverb that not only ties into flori’s culture - i feel like her dad, especially, would be fond of proverbs like this - but also introduces her as a character because the way flori got turned by derek was so traumatic that she repressed the memory until she worked on it and through it with emma.

(personally i also feel like that episode title nods to finch, who is also filipina, too because finch repressed the memory of her turning into a werewolf as well due to it also being traumatic.)

it also ties her to her mom selena harman-dalisay who drank from the cup of lethe, becoming a lost witch after she thought she lost not only her younger sisters but their kids as well.

(fortunately, the kids survived, but that’s for later seasons.)

this episode title deliberately mirrors mg’s, tying their triad stories together.

1x13: in the boy who still has a lot of good to do, flori joins the impromptu roadtrip to visit mg’s parents but never comes back. most of the events play out as they do on the show, except veronica recognizes and remembers flori and remembers her hacking into the triad industries database.

veronica knocks her out with vervain and holds in the basement of the greasley house where veronica intends to question her, making it clear that she is not above using extreme methods, if necessary.

said extreme methods come in the form of ying liu, who injects flori with a self made chemical compound, serving as a truth serum. unfortunately, it's a powerful compound and flori ends up telling ying everything. there's a burn wound on her left elbow where ying dipped the syringe into a vervain solution before injecting it directly into her bloodstream.

at some point after the interrogation, flori blacks out.

1x14: during let’s just finish the dance, flori’s not present and wade gets more and more pissed off with the fact that people are having a fucking pageant instead of looking for floribeth! like, hello?! priorities, people!

when it becomes clear that neither the super squad nor the adults give a fuck, he takes matters in his own hands and informs his crush brock - who sees it fit to inform rafael and jed, just in case wade calls upon brock to help out - as well as mia and loren.

wade leaves a note for donovan, too.

throughout the episode, it becomes clear that wade only pretends to be a bumbling fool; he’s actually rather shrewd and cuts deals left and right. he knows what’s going on in and around the school at all times.

1x15: in i’ll tell you a story, flori awakens at triad industries, next to landon.

veronica tells flori that she’s the one who ordered the hit on her parents after she caught flori hacking into the database; she actually wanted flori dead for her transgressions but when it turned out she wasn’t home, she ordered her firing squad to take out flori’s parents instead, to send a message. out of the goodness of her heart, she told them to make it look like an accident, too. veronica didn’t have to do that, but she did. because she’s no monster. and really, if flori hadn’t been snooping, none of this would have happened in the first place.

she tells clarke to prep flori for transport to the triad industries detention facility. she also tells clarke to tie up loose ends and throw landon into the pit.

then, she leaves. clarke unties landon, who in turn unties flori. clarke beseeches landon to help him, but he refuses at first. flori, on the other hand, is more willing to cooperate. even if everything about triad is shady as hell.

clarke escapes with landon and wade rescues flori. they hug and wade mutters wetly that they’re even now because flori got him out of the zetes institute.

1x16: triad storms the school in there’s always a loophole and flori runs into kaleb while he’s trying to get the kids out and to the bus. she, wade and the others help with that.

after the siege, flori is one of the many students sitting in the assembly hall. alaric comes clean about everything and gets voted out.

the episode ends with loren and flori laying on the floor of loren’s bedroom; flori reads a text aloud, it’s from mia telling them she’s on her way from the kitchen with snacks. loren tells flori that bonnie will come back to teach at the salvatore boarding school in the fall now that alaric’s booted out.

[galerymod]

revolution for inclusion

All well and good, now you have to put it into practice in the real world and really start a revolution of inclusion.... so that it spreads.... Disabled people must become uncomfortable so that they are recognised politically, culturally and economically.

This is only possible by pointing out grievances and fighting...... Revolution means fighting to achieve goals and eliminate grievances.

Fight back and be outraged!

mod

IPC President Andrew Parsons has ignited a 'revolution for inclusion' with an impassioned speech at the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games in Paris. In a rousing speech, the head of the International Paralympic Committee called for the games to be played in the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity, shouting 'liberte, egalite, fraternite' to the assembled heads of state and spectators on the Place de la Concorde.

'Liberte! "The right to live freely and without oppression," Parsons exclaimed, his voice ringing with energy as he spoke of the importance of equality. Every person with a disability has the right to a life without barriers, without discrimination and without marginalisation – and we are going to make it happen! Fraternité! We are one, and we are so much more than the same! "We all belong to the same family: humanity!" He is determined to overcome the 'enormous obstacles' that people with disabilities still face, especially outside of sport.

'Through their incredible performances, Paralympic athletes will challenge stigmas, change attitudes and redefine the boundaries of what is considered possible,' Parsons continued. '225 years ago, the Place de la Concorde was the centre of the French Revolution. I hope that the spark of the inclusion revolution will now also ignite here. Vive la revolution de l'inclusion!' This call should resound beyond France to the whole world.

Please find down the speech given by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee on August 28, 2024, on the occasion of the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony. Find attached the french translations (pronounced and full). 

 [IN FRENCH DURING THE SPEECH]

"Dear athletes,

Dear lovers of the Games in France and around the world,

Welcome to the country of love… and the country of revolution.

Since tonight is the start of the most beautiful of all revolutions: the Paralympic revolution.

Tonight, the revolutionaries are you, the athletes.

Like our ancestors with their phrygien caps, you have panache and audacity.

Like all the revolutionaries around the world, you have courage and determination.

Like them, you are fighting for a cause that is bigger than you.

But, in your case, your weapons are your performances.

In your case, your weapons are your records.

In your case, your weapons are the emotions of sport.             

Even if all your life stories are unique, you have often lived with people listing all the things you are unable to do.

Until the day you first entered a sports club.

On that day, you understood that sport would not impose any limits.

On that day, you understood that sport would never put you in a box.

Like all athletes, you trained, you sweated, you failed and you got back up again…

And you became the great champions that we are honoured to have with us tonight.

What makes you revolutionaries is that, when they told you “no,” you continued.

When they said “disability,” you replied “performance.”

When they said it was impossible, you did it.

And tonight you are inviting us to join you in this Paralympic revolution.

Tonight, you are inviting us to change our perspectives, change our attitudes, change our society to finally give every person their full place.

Because when the sport starts, we will no longer see men and women with a disability, we will see you: we will see champions.

With you, we are going to re-live all the most beautiful things that sport has to offer.

We will be like kids when you are on the start line.

We will be like coaches when it gets to match point.

We will be wild supporters when you cross the finish line!

As with the Olympians, each of your victories will make an entire country proud.

But your power is such that each of your victories will also make a whole country change.

Each of your victories will help to move the world forward.

Because every emotion that you make us feel will carry a message that will never be forgotten:

You have no limits, so let us stop imposing limits on you.

That is the Paralympic revolution.

A gentle revolution, but one that is going to profoundly change every one of us, forever.

An individual revolution, but one with a universal reach.

A sudden revolution: on 9 September, we are going to wake up different.

There are few events that can truly make the world a better place.

The Paralympic Games have this unrivalled power, not only to thrill us but also to transform us.

So tonight, I want to thank the International Paralympic Committee and its President Andrew Parsons: thank you for giving us this unique opportunity to revolutionise the way we see the world.

I would also like the thank all those public and private partners who have allowed this revolution to start:

Thank you, Mister President of the Republic,

Madam Mayor of Paris,

Madam President of the French National Paralympic Committee,

Madam Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games,

Madam President of the Ile-de-France region,

Mister Presidents of the Greater Paris Metropolitan Area and the Seine-Saint-Denis department,

Ladies and gentlemen representatives of French and international sport,

Dear partners,

Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for putting all your passion and ambition into this project.

Thank you to this frenzied public that we discovered this summer, and that is back with us this evening!

Dear lovers of the Games, dear fans of ‘Les Bleus’

It’s not over, we’re going to experience more incredible moments!

It’s not over, our French athletes still need you!

Tonight, Team France is back in business, ready to break all the records!

Dear French athletes,

You’ve been waiting for this moment forever, and you are going to have the most wonderful crowds to carry you all the way to the podium.

They’ve practiced their songs,

They’ve painted their faces,

They’ve got their flags ready

They are going to make you feel the force of a whole country behind you.

[IN ENGLISH DURING THE SPEECH]

There are 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide. That is 16 per cent of the entire world population. The majority of them (80 per cent) live in low-income countries and have poorer healthcare, less education and are poorer than people without disabilities. Yet disabilities could often be avoided through prevention.

In 77 per cent of all people with mild visual impairment or even blindness, the cause can be prevented or treated

In children, almost 60% of hearing loss is due to preventable causes.

80% of all people with moderate to severe hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries.

What a potential that is simply lying idle and can certainly make the world an even better place.

mod

Show yourselves, become visible..... time on the sidelines is over!

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Do you know anything about the supposed affair between Madame Roland and Buzot as well as maybe her relationship with Barbaroux?

Thank you!

The first time Manon mentions Buzot in her conserved correspondence is in a letter to Brissot dated April 28 1791 — ”your good friend Pétion got excited and spoke of it all the better; but why do the vigorous Robespierre and the wise Buzot not give themselves up to the advantage of written speeches, to the kind of reason for which one can then add the magic of declamation?” We do however have to wait until the fall of the same year to find a letter indicating the two were also becoming personal friends, it is dated September 9 1791 and adressed to Jean-Marie Roland:

I had promised myself to write to Madame Buzot; she could not imagine my sensitivity to the testimonials of interest that she has been kind enough to give me; I left her with a sort of haste, because I had to tear myself away, but that moment never leaves my heart. Tell her and her worthy husband how dear they are to us; you can speak for both of us, since you love them as much as I do.

During her interrogation held after her arrest on June 1 1793, Manon admitted her relationship with Buzot had started earlier than what her correspondence reveals, claiming she and her husband ”had been linked since the Constituent Assembly with Brissot, Pétion and Buzot” and ”that she knew them with Roland and through Roland; and that she had for them the degree of esteem and attachment each of them seemed to deserve according to her.” In her memoirs, she also reports the following about her relationship with the Buzots during the period of the Constituent Assembly:

During the Constituent Assembly, at the time of the revision, I was one day with Buzot's wife, when her husband returned from the Assembly very late, bringing Pétion for dinner. It was the time when the court had them treated as factious, and painted them as intriguers, all occupied in stirring up and agitating. After the meal, Pétion, seated on a large ottoman, began to play with a young hunting dog with the abandonment of a child; they both let go and fell asleep together, snuggled on top of each other: four people conversing did not prevent Pétion from snoring. ”So here we have this rebel,” said Buzot, laughing; ”we were looked askance on leaving the room, and those who accuse us, very agitated for their party, imagine that we are to maneuver!”

Buzot did not live very far from us; he had a wife who did not seem on the same level as him, but who was honest, and we saw each other frequently. When the success of Roland's mission, relating to the debts of the commune of Lyons, enabled us to return to Beaujolais, we remained in correspondence with Buzot and Robespierre; it was better followed with the former; there reigned between us more analogy, a greater basis for friendship, and a fund otherwise rich to maintain it. It became intimate, unalterable; I will tell elsewhere how this connection was tightened.

It’s most likely after the two were reunited for the National Convention in September 1792 that the relationship became more than platonic — at least it’s only after this we find signs of this being the case. Throughout  the latter months of 1792 we have a series of frosty letters exchanged between Manon and her protégé Lanthenas, which all seem to allude to the affair (check out page 261-262 of Marriage and Revolution: Monsieur and Madame Roland for an analysis of these). On December 25 1792 we also find a note Manon sent to Servan, telling him that ”after my husband, my daughter and one other person, you are the only one to which I make [my portrait] known.” In her memoirs, she further claims to have visited Buzot’s wife only a single time since the beginning of the Convention, a choice we might imagine was influenced by the growing feelings between her and François:

As for the alleged confabulations at the house of Buzot's wife, no charge in the world is as ridiculous. Buzot, whom I had seen a great deal during the Constituent Assembly, with whom I had remained in friendly correspondence; Buzot, whose pure principles, courage, sensitivity, gentle manners, inspired me with infinite esteem and attachment, came frequently to the Hôtel de l'Intérieur: I only went home to his wife's once since their arrival in Paris for the Convention.

Jean-Marie also found out about the relationship. In her memoirs, Manon writes the following about it:

I honored and cherished my husband like a sensitive daughter adores a virtuous father, to whom she would even sacrifice her love. But I found the man who could be that love, and, while I remained faithful to my duties, my ingenuous nature was unable to conceal the feelings that I was suppressing for their sake. My husband, a man of extreme sensitivity, both in affection and self-love, was unable to tolerate the slightest alteration of his rule; his imagination painted things in the darkest colours, his jealousy irritated me; happiness had fles far away from us, and both of us were unhappy.

The affair also didn’t go unnoticed by contemporaries. In his Étude sur Madame Roland, Charles-Aimé Dauban cites the following passage from the Moniteur on June 15 1793:

Duroy: I'm from the same department as Buzot; I have worked with him, and I am convinced that he would sacrifice the whole republic to satisfy his ambition. The marked incivility of Buzot dates from September 13; at that time, he received a letter from the wife of Roland (laughter is heard); he read it to me: the wife of Roland complained that the revolutionary commune had issued a warrant for the arrest of the virtuous Roland.

Dauban suggests the reason people laughed after hearing Manon mentioned is because they knew about the relationship between her and Buzot.

Their relationship also appears to be what Desmoulins is talking about in his Histoire des Brissotins (May 1793) when he writes: ”Jérôme Pétion told Danton in confidence that ”what makes poor Roland saddest is the fact people will discover his domestic sorrows and how bitter being a cuckold is to the old man, troubling the serenity of that great soul.” The girondin Louvet also seems to be alluding to it in his memoirs (1795) when remembering the day he said farewell to Buzot, Pétion and Barbaroux for the very last time:

[Pétion, Buzot and Barbaroux] were going, a few leagues away, towards the sea, to seek an invertan asylum; with what sorrow we bade each other farewell! Poor Buzot, he carried deep in his heart very bitter sorrows, which I alone knew, and which I must never reveal.

And the deputy René Vavasseur reported in his memoirs: ”Salles and Buzot were the most irritable of the party. We know one of the causes of Buzot's excessive irritability.”

Manon was arrested on June 1 1793, while Buzot fled Paris to avoid the same fate. They would never see each other again. We do however know of five letters Manon wrote to Buzot while in captivity (first published in 1864 within Charles-Aimé Dauban’s Étude sur Madame Roland et son temps). These, it would appear, are the only letters exchanged between them that have been conserved, or at least published (the letters Buzot wrote to Manon that the latter mentions, would for example appear to have gone missing). Since all five letters are quite long I’ve decided to only include the parts dealing with their relationship here:

June 22 How I reread them! I press them to my heart, I cover them with my kisses; I no longer hoped to receive any!... I had in vain searched for news of Madame Ch(alot); I had once written to M. Le Tellier, to É(vreux) so that you may have a sign of life from me; but the post is violated; I didn't want to send you anything, convinced that your name would cause the letter to be intercepted and that I would have compromised you. I came here, proud and calm, forming wishes and still harboring some hope for the defenders of liberty, when I learned of the decree of arrest against the twenty-two; I cried: My country is lost! I was in the most cruel anguish until I was assured of your escape; they were renewed by the decree of accusation which concerns you; they deviate well this atrocity to your courage! But, as soon as I found out that you were in Calvados, I regained my peace of mind. Carry on, my friend, with your generous efforts; Brutus despaired too soon of the salute from Rome to the fields of Philippi; as long as a republican breathes that he has his freedom, that he keeps his energy, he must, he can be useful. The midi offers you, in any case, a refuge; it will be the refuge of good people. It is there, if the dangers accumulate around you, that you must turn your eyes and carry your steps; it's there there that you will have to live, because there you will be able to serve your fellow men and exercise virtues. As for me, I will be able to either wait peacefully for the return of the reign of justice, or suffer the last excesses of tyranny, in a way that my example becomes just as useful. If I have feared something, it is that you have made imprudent attempts in my favor; my friend! It is by saving your country that you can bring my salvation, and I would not want my salvation at the expense of the other; but I would die satisfied knowing that you serve your country effectively. Death, torment, pain, they are nothing to me, I can defy it all; go, I will live until my last hour without wasting a single moment in the confusion of unworthy agitations. […] I spent my first days (in prison) writing a few notes which will one day give pleasure; I put them in good hands and I'll let you know, so that, in any case, they do not remain foreign to you. […] I dare not tell you, and you are the only one in the world who can appreciate it, that I was not very sorry to be arrested. ”They will be less furious, less ardent against R(oland), I said to myself; if they attempt a lawsuit, I will know how to support it in a way that will be useful to his glory; it seemed to me that I thus acquitted myself towards him of a indemnity due to his sorrows; but don't you also see that in finding myself alone it is with you that I remain? Thus, through captivity, I sacrifice myself to my husband, I preserve myself to my friend, and I owe to my executioners to reconcile duty and love: don't pity me! The others admire my courage, but they do not know my pleasures; you, who must feel them, keep them and all their charm by the constancy of your courage. This amiable Goussard! How taken I was to see his sweet face, to feel myself being pressed into his arms, being wet with his tears, and see him pull from his bosom two letters from you! May these details bring some calmness to your heart ! Go! we cannot cease to be reciprocally worthy of the sentiments which we have inspired in each other; we are not unhappy with that. Farewell my friend; my beloved, farewell!

July 3 What sweetness unknown to tyrants, whom the vulgar believe happy in the exercise of their power! And if it is true that a sublime intelligence distributes goods and evils among men according to the laws of rigorous compensation, can I complain of my misfortune, when such delights are reserved for me? I received your letter from the 27th; I still hear your courageous voice, I witness your resolutions, I experience the feelings that animate you, I am honored to love you and to be dear to you. Tell me, do you know sweeter moments than those spent in innocence and the charm of an affection that nature avows and that is regulated by delicacy, which pays homage to the duty of the privations it imposes on it, and nurtures the very strength to bear them? Do you know of any greater advantage than that of being superior to adversity, to death, and to find in your heart what to taste and beautify life to its last breath? Have you ever experienced these effects better than through the attachment that binds us, despite the contradictions of society and the horrors of oppression?  I told you, I owe it to said attachment to please me in my captivity. Proud to be persecuted in this time when character and probity are proscribed, I would have borne it, even without you, with dignity; but you make it sweet and dear. The midwayers believe they are overwhelming me by putting me behind bars... Fools! what do I care if I live here or there? Don't I bring my heart everywhere I go, and reassure myself in prison, isn't that giving myself up to it without share? My duties, as soon as I am alone, are limited to vows for all that is just and honest, and what I love still occupies the first rank in this order. Go, I feel too well what is imposed on me in the natural course of things to complain about he violence that overthrew it.[…] I found it delightful to unite the means of being useful to [Roland] with a way of living which left me more to you. I would like to sacrifice my life to him in order to acquire the right to give my last breath to you alone. Except for the terrible agitations which the decrees against the exiles caused me, I never enjoyed greater calm than in this strange situation, and I tasted it without mixing once I learned almost all of them were in safety, since I saw you working in freedom to preserve that of your country. […] May this letter reach you soon, and give you a new testimony of my unalterable sentiments, communicate to you the tranquility that I enjoy, and add to all that you can feel and do that is generous and useful, the inexpressible charm of the affections that tyrants never knew, affections which serve both as trials and as rewards to virtue, affections which give value to life and make it superior to all evils! Greetings to our friends, and especially to the sensitive L(ouvet).

July 6 Yesterday I saw for the second time this excellent V(allée). He gave me your letters from the 30th and first. I didn’t dare to open them in his presence. One does not read a friend’s letter in front of a third party, if only he had known what he was carrying. […] I feel all the generosity of your care , the purity of the wishes, and the more I appreciate them, the more I like my present captivity. […] Four days ago I had this dear picture brought to me, that I, through some sort of superstition, didn't want to put in a prison; but why then refuse this sweet image, beautiful and precious as a revelation of the presence of the object? It is on my heart, hidden from all eyes, felt at all times and often bathed in my tears. Go, I am penetrated by your courage, honored by your attachment and by all that they both can inspire in your proud and sensitive soul. I cannot believe that heaven only reserves sorrows for sentiments so pure and so worthy of its favour. This sort of confidence makes me support life and contemplate death with calmness. Let us enjoy with ignorance the goods which are given to us. Whoever knows how to love as we do carries with him the principle of the greatest and best deeds, the prizes of the most painful sacrifices, the compensation for all ills. Farewell, my beloved, farewell!

July 7 […] How I adore the bars behind which I’m free to love you without limits and where I can think of you without stop. Here, any other duty is forgotten, I no longer owe myself to anything except to the one who loves me and deserves to be cherished so well. Continue your career with generosity, serve your country, save liberty, each and everyone of your actions is a pleasure for me, and your conduct is my triumph. […] I am interrupted; my faithful maid brings me your letter from the 3rd; you are worried about my silence. […] If fate did not allow us to reunite soon, should we therefore abandon all hope of ever being brought together, and see only the tomb where our elements could be confounded? Metaphysicians and vulgar lovers talk a great deal about perseverance, but it is that of conduct which is rarer and more difficult than that of the affections. Surely, you are not made to lack anything that belongs to a strong and superior soul: do not therefore allow yourself to be carried away by the very excess of courage towards the goal where despair would also lead. You have seen my reasons for not accepting, under these circumstances, a dangerous expedient which does not seem necessary to me; but if the circumstances were to worsen decidedly, I would not persist in refusing a measure that their rigour would justify. It is only a question of calculating calmly, so as not to give to the impetuosity of feeling what it is for prudence to determine.

August 31 Know, my friend, the heart and attachment of your Sophie. You can’t yet imagiene her emotion, her delight at receiving your news. But what incertitudes remains with her, what worries devour her! Why don’t you talk a bit more about your business ventures, so perilous under the circumstances? The modesty of your small properties, the successes you can achieve for yourself are the only benefits she is likely to enjoy in the languor to which she is reduced; she breathes only for the fatherland and will die if you must suffer. I have taken it upon myself to speak to you for her and you cannot hide from yourself the need she has for employing a foreign hand. I will tell you better about her condition. Her sickness has, since your departure, taken a fatal character. […] The state of her family and the idea of ​​your prosperity supported her at that time. I saw you, happy in suffering, preserving her serenity, the freedom of her mind, enjoying the goods she thought reserved for you and looking at herself as a propitiatory victim whose fate perhaps wanted the sacrifice for the price of the advantages assured to those who are dear to him. […] In the strange destiny which unites you so closely to disperse you more cruelly still, enjoy at least, oh my friend! the aspiration to be cherished with the tenderest heart that ever was. What tears I saw poor Sophie shed, kissing your letter and your portrait! Save your days for her; it is not impossible that her age resists the attacks which she bears with such courage; and you owe yourself to her love as long as she exists. She asked me to ask you if you neglected to take your speculations to America? She is convinced that, in spite of the embargo which opposes exports, but which cannot last long, it was with the United States that it was convenient for you to deal. She would like your views to turn in that direction; she was so penetrating with the depth of this disposition, that she is tormented by the suspiciousness which she believes to appear in your letter in this regard. […] Be wiser, my friend, don't think of anything from now on except with these brave republicans, there is no trust and security except with people of this species. Sophie awaits announcement of your resolution in this respect as it was the only means to parry your misfortunes. Farewell, man most beloved by the woman most in love! Farewell! Oh, how you are loved!

The correspondence appears to end here, despite it being another two months before Manon was executed. Through a letter from October the same year we learn that Manon gave away the portrait of Buzot she talks about in the fourth letter to a friend, telling him to take good care of it — ”it is my dearest property, I could only get rid of it in fear that it would be profaned.”

After the death of Manon we find a letter from Buzot to Jérome le Tellier, where he writes the following:

She is no more, she is no more, my friend! The scroundels have murdered her! Judge if I have anything left to regret on earth! Once you learn of my death, you will burn her letters.

Finally, among Buzot’s effects was found the following portrait depicting Manon (cited on page 260 of Marriage and Revolution: Monsieur and Madame Roland):

As for the relationship between Manon and Barbaroux, I’ve not been able to find any letter between the two. A lot does however point towards such things having existed, but, like in the case of Buzot, been either destroyed or gone missing.

On June 13 1793 Barbaroux wrote to Lauze Duperret: ”Do not forget the estimable citizen Roland, and try to give her some consolation in her prison, by transmitting to her the good news; for that, you could go see Champagneux, head of the offices of the Minister of the Interior.” He followed that up two days later when telling the same person:

You will no doubt still have fulfilled my commission with regard to Madame Roland, by trying to pass on some consolations to her. She must be very unhappy, this estimable wife of the most estimable citizen! Ah! make every effort to see her and tell her that the twenty-two proscribed deputies, all good men, share her pain; may that relieve her! Do you think they have a plan to keep her prisoner? I don’t think so; I believe, on the contrary, that her virtue embarrasses them, and that they would like to see her removed. She should try the proposal to stay only under house arrest. May she soon enjoy her freedom, with our good friends! What a terrible crisis! but also what glory if we save freedom! I give you, enclosed, a letter that we have written to this estimable citizen; I don't need to tell you that you alone can fulfill this important commission: she must, at all costs, try to get out of her prison and find safety.

Duperret did as he was asked, writing to Manon on an unspecified date to tell her that ”I have for several days kept three letters Buzot and Barbaroux had adressed to me to give to you, without it being possible for me to send them to you.”

In another undated letter Manon responded to Duperret:

The news regarding my friends is the only good that affects me; you helped me taste it; tell them that the knowledge of their courage, and of all that they are capable of doing for liberty, consoles me over everything; tell them that my esteem, my attachment and my wishes will follow them everywhere, that the poster (affiche) of B(arbaroux) gave me great pleasure, etc.

All these letters were later used during Manon’s trial to help pass her death sentence.

Manon also shortly mentions Barbaroux in her fourth prison letter to Buzot. Her daughter’s music teacher Anne-Marie-Madeleine Mignot, did in her turn claim during her interrogation ”that [since August 13 1792] she noticed several deputies from the National Convention, such as Brissot, Gensonné, Guadet, Louvet, Barbaroux, Buzot, Pétion, Duperret, Duprat, Chassey, Vergniaux, Condorcet, and others whose names she doesn’t remember, often visited [the Rolands]; that especially Brissot, Buzot, Gorsas, Gensonné and Louvet came there more frequently than the others and had the most direct contact with femme Roland, who often received them in her cabinet.” Barbaroux would in other words have been a frequent visitor to the Rolands, but not the most frequent of them all. This was also confirmed by Manon herself, who during her own interrogation admitted Barbaroux came to visit her and her husband ”from time to time.”

Other than that, we basically only have their memoirs to rely on in regards to their relationship.

Manon’s memoirs:

It was in the course of July that, seeing affairs worsen by the perfidy of the court, the march of the foreign troops and the weakness of the Assembly, we sought a place where the threatened liberty could take refuge. We often talked with Barbaroux and Servan about the excellent spirit of the south, the energy of the departments in this part of France, and the facilities that this place would present for founding a republic there, if the triumphant court were to subjugate the North and Paris. We took maps; we traced the line of demarcation: Servan studied the military positions; they calculated the forces, they examined the nature and the means of transferring the productions: each one recalled the places or the people from whom one could hope for support, and repeated, that after a revolution which had given such great hopes , it was not necessary to fall back into slavery, but to try everything to establish somewhere a free government. “It will be our resource,” said Barbaroux, “if the Marseillais whom I have accompanied here are not sufficiently well supported by the Parisians to reduce the court; I hope, however, that they will come to the end of it and that we will have a Convention which will give the republic for all of France.

Barbaroux, whose features painters would not disdain to take for a head of Antinous, active, industrious, frank and brave, with the vivacity of a young Marseillais, was destined to become a man of merit and a citizen as useful as enlightened . Lover of independence, proud of the revolution, already nourished with knowledge, capable of a long attention span with the habit of applying himself, sensitive to glory; he is one of those subjects which a great politician would like to attach to himself, and which was to flourish with brilliance in a happy republic. But who would dare to foresee to what point premature injustice, proscription, misfortune can compress such a soul and wither its fine qualities! Moderate successes would have sustained Barbaroux in his career, because he loves reputation and has all the faculties necessary to make a very honorable one for himself: but the love of pleasure is next to it; if he once takes the place of glory, through spite of obstacles or disgust at reverses, he will weaken his excellent temper and cause him to betray his noble destination. During Roland's first ministry, I had occasion to see several letters from Barbaroux, addressed rather to the man than to the minister, and whose object was to make him judge the method that should be employed to preserve in the good path of ardent and easily irritated spirits, like those of the Bouches-du-Rhône. Roland, a strict observer of the law, and severe like it, could only speak one language when he was in charge of its execution. The administrators had gone a little astray, the minister had reprimanded them vigorously; they had become embittered: it was then that Barbaroux wrote to Roland to pay homage to the purity of intention of his compatriots, to excuse their errors, and to make Roland feel that a softer mode would bring them back more surely to the necessary subordination. These letters were dictated in the best spirit and with consummate prudence; when I saw their author, I was astonished at his youth. They had the effect which was unmistakable on a just man who wanted the good; Roland relaxed his austerity, took on a more fraternal than administrative tone, brought back the Marseillais and esteemed Barbaroux. We saw him more after leaving the ministry; his open character, his ardent patriotism inspired us with confidence; it was then that, reasoning from the bad state of things and from the fear of despotism for the North, we formed the conditional project of a republic in the South. “It will be our last resort,” said Barbaroux, smiling; but the Marseillais who are here will exempt us from having recourse to it. We judged by this speech and some others like it, that an insurrection was on the horizon; but confidence not extending further, we did not ask more about it. In the last days of July, Barbaroux almost ceased coming to our house, and told us, at the last, that we should not judge his feelings towards us based on the first glimpse of his absence, that his intention with it was to not compromise us. He set out again for Marseilles after the tenth, and returned as a deputy to the Convention. He did his duty there as a man of courage; many of his written speeches show excellent logic and knowledge in the administrative part of commerce; that on subsistence is, after the work of Creuzé-la-Touche, the best of its kind. But he would have to work to become a speaker. Barbaroux, affectionate and lively, became attached to Buzot, sensitive and delicate; I called them Nysus and Euryale: may they have a better fate than these two friends! Louvet, finer than the first, happier than the second, as good as both, became friends with both of them, but more particularly with Buzot, who served as a link to the other, and whose natural gravity made him a bit of a mentor.

Barbaroux’ memoirs:

I went to the interview. Roland lodged in a house in the rue Saint-Jacques, on the third floor; it was a philosopher's retreat. His wife was present at the conversation and participated in it. Elsewhere, I will talk about this amazing woman. Roland asked me what I thought of France and the means of saving her; I opened my heart to him and concealed nothing from him of our first attempts in the South. Precisely, Servan and him had occupied themselves with the same plan. My confidences brought his. He told me that liberty was lost if the plots of the court were not foiled without delay; that La Fayette seemed to meditate on treasons in the North; that the army of the center, completely disorganized , lacking all kinds of ammunition , could not prevent the enemy from making a breakthrough, and that finally everything was arranged for the Austrians to be in Paris in six weeks. Have we then, he added, worked for three years at the finest revolution only to see it overthrown in a day? If liberty dies in France, it is forever lost for the rest of the world: all the hopes of the philosophers are disappointed. The most cruel tyrant will weigh on the earth. Let us prevent this misfortune, let us arm Paris and the departments of the North: or, if they succumb, let us carry to the south the Statue of Liberty, and found somewhere a colony of independent men. He said these words to me, and tears rolled from his eyes. The same feeling made those of his wife and mine flow. Oh! how the outpourings of confidence relieve saddened souls! I quickly gave them an overview of the resources of our departments and our hopes. I saw a sweet joy spread over Roland's brow; he shook my hand, and went to look for a geographical map of France.

Finally, I also found the following footnote in Mémoires inédits de Pétion et mémoires de Buzot et de Barbaroux:

Barbaroux had been the confidant of Madame Roland and of Buzot. I learned this fact from M. Barbaroux, who learned it from his grandmother. We can see, moreover, the confirmation of this tradition in certain passages in the letters from Barbaroux to Madame Roland, which we have published along with the letters to Buzot in our Étude sur madame Roland. 

I have no idea regarding the letters from Barbaroux to Manon mentioned here however, I could find none whatsoever inside Étude sur madame Roland. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 1, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

On Friday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley spoke in Arlington, Virginia, at a farewell ceremony before his retirement after four years in the position to which former president Trump appointed him. Milley’s position as the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and the nation’s top military advisor during a stretch of U.S. history in which a president tried to overturn the results of a presidential election and undermine our democracy made his tenure perhaps more difficult than any of his predecessors’.

Milley had been at Trump’s side at the start of the former president’s march across Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, to threaten Black Lives Matter protesters, although Milley peeled off when he recognized what was happening and later said he thought they were going to review National Guard troops. Since then, Milley has spoken out against strongman rule and vocally defended the U.S. Constitution.

The day after the debacle, Milley wrote a message to the joint force reminding every member that they swore an oath to the Constitution. “This document is founded on the essential principle that all men and women are born free and equal, and should be treated with respect and dignity. It also gives Americans the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly…. As members of the Joint Force—comprised of all races, colors, and creeds—you embody the ideals of our Constitution,” he wrote. “We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,” he wrote by hand on the memo. “We will stay true to that oath and the American people.” 

Trump and his loyalists turned on Milley, and that fury has only increased. On September 22, 2023, former president Trump suggested that Milley, who has served in the military for more than 40 years, had committed what some would call treason when he reassured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. would not attack in the last days of the Trump administration—an assurance administration officials signed off on—in the face of Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior. Milley has told associates that if Trump is reelected, he expects to be thrown into prison. 

Milley responded to Trump’s attempted intimidation in his farewell address. He began by thanking President Biden for his “unwavering leadership.” “I’ve seen you in the breach, I’ve seen you on the watch,” Milley told the president, “and I know firsthand that you’re a man of incredible integrity and character.” 

After thanks to the president and vice president and to his colleagues, friends, wife, and children, and after good wishes for the incoming chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Air Force general Charles Q. “CQ” Brown, Milley went on to explain his principles for the nation. His speech did not mention any names, but it was nonetheless a sharp rebuke to former president Trump and those who would abandon our democracy in favor of a dictator:

“Today is not about anyone up here on this stage…. It’s about something much larger than all of us,” Milley said.

“It’s about our democracy. It’s about our republic…. It’s about the ideas and values that make up this great experiment in liberty. Those values and ideas are contained within the Constitution of the United States of America, which is the moral North Star for all of us who have the privilege of wearing the cloth of our nation. 

“It is that document…that gives purpose to our service. It is that document that gives purpose to our lives. It is that document that all of us in uniform swear to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

“That has been true across generations, and we in uniform are willing to die to pass that document off to the next generation. So it is that document that gives ultimate purpose to our death. The motto of our country is “E Pluribus Unum,” from the many, come one. We are one nation under God. We are indivisible, with liberty for all. And the motto of our army, for over 200 years…has been “This We’ll Defend,” and the “this” refers to the Constitution….

“You see, we in uniform are unique…among the world's armies. We are unique among the world’s militaries. We don’t take an oath to a country. We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. 

“We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.…

“Those who sacrificed themselves on the altar of freedom in the last two and a half centuries of this country must not have done so in vain. The millions wounded in our nation’s wars did not sacrifice their limbs and shed their blood to see this great experiment in democracy perish from this earth. No. We the United States military will always be true to those that came before us. We will never, under any circumstances, turn our back on our duty….

“From the earliest days, before we were even a nation, our military stood…in the breach, has suffered the crucible of combat, and has stood the watch and defended liberty for all Americans. Each of us signs a blank check to this country to protect our freedom. The blood we spill pays for our freedom of speech. Our blood pays for the right to assemble, our due process, our freedom of the press, our right to vote, and all the other rights and privileges that come with being an American…. 

“We the American people, we the American military, must never turn our back on those that came before us. And we will never turn our back on the Constitution. That is our North Star, that is who we are, and that is why we fight.”

It was a pointed statement, coming as it did from the highest-ranking military officer of the U.S. as he voluntarily stepped down from his position.  

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON