#fetes teachers

[forestlion]

our French teacher let us watch la boum die fete in 5th grade while he was off doing whatever

[johndpg]

SPANKING ON TV #7

His Mother's Lover (2012) d. Nica Noelle

This film is set in the early 1930s and follows an American boy struggling with his homosexuality while attending boarding school in England. When Robert is caught in a passionate tryst with another lad, he’s beaten by the Headmaster with his own belt and given a four-week suspension. Back at home Robert meets his mother’s new fiancée, the older, nurturing Daniel. Feeling an instant, mutual attraction, the two look for ways to get closer, while dark family secrets begin to emerge.

Well, where to start with this… It’s basically a gay soft porn film with delusions of grandeur (it’s even got a mournful score)—but you’re probably well ahead of me and worked that out from the synopsis. The fact that the director is feted as a trend-setter and "the most important adult film director of her era" says it all really, although all the hyperbole is undermined somewhat when you find out she works for Lust Cinema.

Obviously, the main thrust (ho, ho) of the movie isn’t the corporal punishment, but that’s what we’re here for. It’s an American production, so of course they get British schools totally wrong (I’m not sure what Sting Pictures’ excuse is lol).

In this scene Robert finds out he’s going to get a flogging (sic) and a suspension, and must take off his own belt and give it the Head, who surprisingly doesn’t seem to have any suitable implements of his own tucked away. Robert is told to drop his trousers and bend over the desk to be belted, at which point the Head removes his jacket, loosens his tie and rolls up his sleeves to show us He Means Business. I was caned and slippered at school and none of my teachers felt the need to turn into Bruce Willis, so I kind of feel like I missed out. Anyway, he’s belted for real eight times (does that count as a flogging?) and then off he goes to meet mum’s fiancée, who I’m certain will turn out to be a top bloke (sorry).

Not much is known about youthful lead Chase Austin other than he’s clearly over 18. This was his first big break, and he went on to feature in such cinematic masterpieces as He’s Tempted by Cock and For Your Eyes Only (no, not that one). The Head should probably be on a list somewhere and Ian Whitcomb, who plays him, delivers his lines like he’s recovering from a stroke. Meanwhile, whilst Chase looks young enough to play a convincing schoolboy, Travis Irons, who plays his young lover at school, is anything but. I’m reminded of that bloke Brian McKinney who sneaked back into his old high school in his 30s to resit his exams.

Here’s the clip for your eyes only (sorry, Chase):

[the-crow-binary]

Im quite curious about your opinion on the portrayal of the french revolution; I know it was a super complicated political moment with multiple fronts from the commoners wanting better life conditions, the bourgeoisie wanting to get the nobility out of the way (which it's part as to why it cant be directly translated into 21'st century american capitalism analogy 🙄), how multiple nobles supported the revolution for moral values despite going against their families interests (bc social class influences but doesnt instantly determines your morals) and that many revolutionary groups supported the independence of Haití (heck, many members of my countries independence participated and almost got beheaded in the resulting mess. And ad hundred and something years later France would try to invade us lol). What im trying to say behind my ramble here (sorry for that lol) its that im sure nfcv made it a slavery bad black ppl vs white ppl american dilemma without getting into the complexity of it and i say this as a foreigner with basic history knowledge, so i do wanna see your take on it

Which portrayal of the French Revolution? 🙃

I swear this very important Historical event that affected not just France but all of continental Europe and is considered as one of the world's biggest events was just used as background for the characters to fight and be racist. The characters keep throwing around the word "revolution" from all sides, but we don't see shit. Maria gives context in the first episode (there's a revolution, they overthrown the monarchy and declared a republic, they arrested the king...), talking to a group of revolutionaries, and from then on the story could've literally taken place in an imaginary country with imaginary politics it would've been the same.

Oh, what am I saying, there IS one thing. Our motto. 🙃"Liberty, equality, fraternity" 🙃 Yeah it has been thrown here and there... Except that it wasn't our official motto yet. We had the notion of liberty and equality, sometimes fraternity, and it was in the middle of other words such as "friendship", "sincerity", "charity" and "union". There is some people and even some books who used this motto but it was abandoned then taken back later... Just this is a mess lmao but the point is. I cringed everytime the characters screamed "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!". And while we're on the subject, Richter, at some point, meets three girls during a festival (I suspect one of the girls to be Marianne, who wasn't a real person but the symbol of Liberty) talking about dressing up as Liberty and Equality and Fraternity. And Richter, thinking he is so smart, say that you need to be a man to dress up as Fraternity, because it means "brotherhood" (and the girls go "sisternity then" and don't correct him). Oh, and the writers clearly thought it was very clever too, since later on Annette's teacher (and even the Messiah I think??) will ALSO talk about the motto, saying "liberty, equality, brotherhood". IT DOESN'T MEAN "BROTHERHOOD". I MEAN IT CAN. BUT IN THIS CASE IT MEANS "FRATERNITY". IT'S A TERM TO TALK ABOUT A BOND EXISTING BETWEEN PEOPLE CONSIDERED AS MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. AKA IT CONCERNS EVERYONE. YOU ARE NOT CLEVER, AMERICAN WRITERS.

Also I thought a fucking festival at a time like that where people dress up at the concepts of our not-exactly-official-motto-yet was stupid, and it is. There was no such festival, however, we did have the "cult of the reason". To put it simply: it was a serie of events and civic holidays wich were organized by a group of atheists. In it there WAS an event called "Fete of the Reason"... Where one ACTOR dressed up as Liberty. It was NOT multiple people representing liberty, equality or fraternity.

The fun fact is, the French Revolution was a pretty good occasion for NFCV to promote it's CHURCH BAD mentality. We were taking away the church's power, more people became atheists, anti-christian vandalism and blasphemy was actually encouraged, it was a mess. Paris even ordered to shut down churches at some point, wich did not happen in the end. So yeah, this precise moment, right before the Vendée War, was perfect for the church-haters those writers are. And it ended up just being as bad as the original show, without any nuance... Ok there might be a little bit of nuance because of Mizrak, a guy who served the church and in the end actually team up with Richter and the gang, and it looks like he's there to stay. Emmanuel (the abbott) tries to be complex, but in the end, he is still a God-obsessed man that makes terrible decisions and is not a good representation for the church. So okay, it might be a BIT better than the original show thanks to Mizrak, but it's not saying much.

Another thing. Only the main characters are shown to have a dislike for the church. We don't see ANY of the french people doing anything against the church (but we do hear the church complaining about the revolutionaries, tell don't show y'know), not even talk about it. It's mostly jokes about how haha priests are sexual predators/they can't keep it in their pants (with the occasional "it exploits the people and take their money" line, and by occasionnal I mean once). There IS a few shades thrown at God here and there, honestly I didn't bother remembering the exact lines because they are so cliché and really not that deep. I think Maria is the one complaining the most.

What angers me the most is the lack of ANY ACTION FROM THE FRENCH PEOPLE. It's like nothing is actually happening except vampire killing people and vampire hunting (wich begs the question: WHY bother making it happen during the FRENCH REVOLUTION?). Nocturne literally made the french people the side (oh what am I saying, the BACKGROUND) characters in their OWN REVOLUTION. AND ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS. WHAT THE FUCK. Maria is supposed to be a revolutionary leader but she doesn't lead anyone. We never see anyone do anything outside of the main characters. The french are literal planks, except from those three girls from the festival and villains, they don't even have a voice. At some point the vampire Messiah arrives in town, in plain view, and people are like "OUR SAVIOR IS HERE! OUR DELIVERER!" and I thought the people shouting were vampires, but no, there is humans TOO. ALL TOGETHER. And you have no idea how much I hate that they basically portray the french people as not doing shit and needing someone else to save them 🙃 To do things for them 🙃 And also. That that someone else is not even french themself. 🙃 Even without the Messiah... the revolutionaries we saw were led by Richter (romanian/american/british idk at this point), Annette (Haitian, even if Saint-Domingue was owned by France at the time), Tera (Russian) and, of course, Maria, who's both Russian and French, at least. Those four were doing most of the work while the french people were in their houses cooking baguettes, I guess. And by "work" I mean fighting vampires and night creatures, there was nothing done about the Revolution. Almost like there is NO REASON TO MAKE A CV SHOW ABOUT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Oh and I just HAVE to talk to you about Saint-Domingue, and the BLACK PEOPLE ARE OPPRESSED theme going on with Annette. And that's when I'll have to take out this magnificent dialogue again:

"Even these french with their high ideas, what do they know about we've suffered? And what do they care? They're building new world, but it won't be freedom, or equality or brotherhood for US"

This is said by Annette's teacher. Worth to note that before that, in episode 3, she also shat on the French revolution and our motto. Basically, the show portray the French Revolution as being one thing and the slaves in Saint-Domingue having their own other revolution. And not just that, it implies that the French did not care about slaves, and that they do not know what suffering is (yeah, people just start revolutions because they feel like it y'know 🙃). And the anti-white dialogues are portrayed as normal and are even applauded, btw. And it is BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLSHIT. MY FUCKING GOD. OH THIS SHOW MAKE ME SO ANGRY.

First off: Only the colonies were pro-slavery. The french pretty much weren't. A "Society of friends of black people" was even created in France in 1788 to fight for the abolition of slavery. People fought for black people's rights during the French Revolution. Books written by black people to join the fight came out. The French Revolution scared the colonies who were very against losing their slaves and it led to Haiti's own revolution (slaves rebelling, killing their owners, burning the plantations... Nocturne at least got that part right). So both revolutions are very closely linked and the slaves might not have rebelled at this point if it wasn't for the French Revolution threatening Saint-Domingue's economics and creating social upheavals.

And what does those shitty american writers remember? BLACK PEOPLE OPPRESSED. BLACK PEOPLE SUFFERED SO MUCH MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE. LOOK AT THESE POOR BLACK PEOPLE. WHITE PEOPLE ARE SO POWERFUL. THE FRENCH ARE UNGRATEFUL ACTUALLY. BLACK CHARACTER IS RIGHT TO SHIT ON THE WHITE FRENCH WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM.

FUCK.

Oh, and I mentioned the Vendée War earlier... So, fun fact, during the revolution, we have what we call "la Terreur". It's a pretty gruesome period of time during the Revolution that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. La Terreur happened from 1793 to 1794. So one year after this first season of Nocturne. 🙃 I'm just saying. It wouldn't surprise me if they used this for season 2. 🙃(I literally do not trust them)

And the vampires... Look the vampires have their own can of worms that I'm not motivated enough to open. I'll just say that, of course, in classic NFCV fashion, the message the show is trying to pass is not subtle at all. They're just evil. All of them. All of the french nobles. Evil evil EVIL EVIL!! NUANCE AND COMPLEXITY ARE FOR PUSSIES.

Also the count of Vaublanc? Annette's ex-owner? This guy existed. And he never owned slaves. He was pretty pro-royalty, at some point he voted against slavery, then later voted in favor of it... but he did not own slaves. But honestly I don't care about that guy much, I just wanted to show that NFCV really doesn't care about nuance. Everything has to be black or white (lol) and that's why we have no human nobility in Nocturne.

Urgh. UUUUUURGH. I SWEAR WATCHING THIS SHOW WAS A PAIN AND THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE MORE PAINFUL IT BECOMES. THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NFCV IS DOING JACKSHIT WITH IT. I MEAN IT'S SO MUCH FUNNIER TO SHIT ON THE BELMONT CLAN AND SHOW TIDDIES TO MAKE THE FANS HORNY.

So, my opinion on the portrayal of the French Revolution: CREATE YOUR OWN FICTIONAL REVOLUTION NEXT TIME AND LEAVE THE HISTORY OF MY COUNTRY ALONE.

[kirkenovak]

Due to a popular request (one person mentioned it) here is your Midsomer Murders Dreamling AU:

- Dream’s family is one of the several hundred Extremely Wealthy Posh Upper Class families that seem to be dotted all over Midsomer, living in their 18 rooms mansions, on their 400 acres of land

- Dream forsakes his family and chooses to live as a Poor Artisté (TM) in a small cottage at the outskirts of the village. The cottage is worth more than an average person will earn in their lifetime. Dream has a £7m trustfund.

- Hob is the village teacher. He’s very popular and liked, adored even. Nobody gets him and Dream as a couple.

- the Burgesses are the rivals of the Endless. Roderick Burgess is the victim, so naturally, all Endless are suspects, especially the odd painter that, as a popular rumour states, once was kidnapped by Roderick Burgess and kept in a basemen due to some Rich People Drama

- yes, Dream is a painter here. He paints dark, disturbing, goth-y paintings, has a raven called Matthew and wears eyeliner

- Hob wears beige sweaters with patches on the elbows. Him and Dream are known in the village as “that nice teacher and his weirdo goth boyfriend”

- Dream has no alibi and his hatred of Roderick Burgess is well known. He admits it’s because Roderick’s son killed Dream’s pet raven Jessamy and when Dream confronted him about it, that’s when The Basement Thing happened. None of Dream’s family cared and that’s why Dream abandoned them (took his money tho)

- Hob is the next suspect, as it turns out he has a dark and shady past he’s hiding from everyone. He was suspected of multiple robberies, he gained and lost a fortune in very bizarre circumstances, and both his wife and son died. A man like that would have no problem killing someone.

- Death is Dream’s favourite sibling who was away from the village during the Basementgate. It’s finally revealed that the real reason why Burgess kidnapped Dream was because he had a beef with Death, blamed her for his elder’s son death. Was she attempting to avenge her brother?

- then, of course, there’s a very nice and charming Corinthian who is not a suspect at all because why would he be? :)

- John Dee, the village I’m Just Saying It As It Is!, is found out to be Burgess’ yet another son. A secret son. Whose mother he seduced then rejected (well actually she robbed him and run but you know) If that’s not a motive I don’t know what is.

- Alex Burgess inherits everything. Money are a motive as old as money itself.

- Desire, Dream’s sibling, and their twin are found to attempt to frame Dream for the murder. Why? “Oh why not, darling?” But maybe they were trying to frame him because they are guilty.

- The Corinthian did it. Turns out he’s a serial killer and killed Roderick because he wanted to.

- additional scenes: village fete goes wrong when Alex Burgess publicly accuses Dream of murdering his father and then tries to fight him. Hob knocks him out.

- additional scene 2: Barnaby gets an epiphany because of something random that Matthew does

[justforbooks]

Henry Kissinger, who has died at the age of 100, was the most controversial US foreign policy practitioner of the last half-century, the architect of American detente with the Soviet Union, the orchestrator of Washington’s opening to communist China, the broker of the first peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, and the man who led the US team in the protracted talks with North Vietnam which resulted in US forces leaving Indochina after America’s longest foreign war.

Feted for these accomplishments as national security adviser and later secretary of state under Richard Nixon, Kissinger achieved global celebrity status and in 1973 was awarded the Nobel peace prize. But it later emerged via leaked documents and tapes and former officials’ memoirs that behind his diplomatic skills and tireless energy as a negotiator there lurked an inordinate love of secrecy and manipulation and a ruthless desire to protect US national and corporate interests at any price. His contempt for human rights prompted him to ask the FBI to tap his own staff’s telephones and, more seriously, to give the nod to Indonesia’s military dictator for the invasion of East Timor, to condone the actions of the apartheid regime in South Africa in invading Angola, and to use the CIA to help topple the elected government of Chile.

A formidable academic before he worked for the government, Kissinger reached greater heights of political influence than any previous immigrant to the US. His nasal German accent never left him, an eternal reminder to his adopted countrymen that he was a European by origin. To Kissinger himself, the fact that a man born outside the US, and a Jew to boot, could become its secretary of state was a never-ending source of pride.

Although Kissinger was often seen as a supreme believer in a world order based on realpolitik and a balance of power, at heart he was ultra-loyal to the individualistic American ideal. In love with his adopted country, he was infused with a missionary zeal to maintain American hegemony in a shifting world.

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born to a comfortable, middle-class family in Fürth in Bavaria. His father, Louis, was a teacher, his mother, Paula (nee Stern), a housewife. As a boy, he was old enough to comprehend the collapse of their domestic stability when the Nazis came to power. He and his younger brother were beaten up on the way to school, and eventually expelled. His father lost his job. The family emigrated to New York in 1938.

Kissinger rarely discussed his refugee past, and once told an interviewer to reject any psychoanalytical link between his views and his childhood, but some observers argued that his personal experience of nazism led to his horror of revolutionary changes as well as to the underlying pessimism of his analysis of world affairs.

After George Washington high school in Manhattan, his accountancy course at the City College of New York was interrupted in 1943 when he was conscripted. He was with the US army in Germany for the Nazi surrender and the first months of occupation. He won a bronze star for his role in capturing Gestapo officers and saboteurs in Hanover. In 1946 he went to Harvard, where he stayed intermittently for the next quarter of a century. He received his PhD in 1954 with a study of the 19th-century European conservatives Metternich and Castlereagh, which he turned into a book entitled A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822 (1957).

His subsequent studies led him to become a specialist on nuclear weapons, who caught the eye of Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of New York and a bastion of east coast liberal Republicanism. Kissinger’s desire for influence on policy was already leading him to spend time in Washington, and he combined his academic work with consultancies for various government departments and agencies, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council under Dwight Eisenhower.

Kissinger’s patron, Rockefeller, failed to make much headway in the presidential campaigns of 1960 and 1964, but after Nixon won the presidency for the Republicans in 1968, Kissinger was appointed national security adviser, with an office in the White House. His intellectual drive, as well as geographical closeness to the president, allowed him to turn what had previously been a backroom job into a high-profile, decision-making post.

Kissinger knew that access is power, and that the relationship goes both ways. Having the ear of the president gave him the ear of a competitive, news-hungry Washington press corps which admired his charm and brilliance and eagerly printed a generous amount of his on-the-record comments while finding ways to divulge unattributably the confidential titbits and insider gossip that he loved to drop.

A battle developed between Kissinger and the secretary of state, William Rogers, the nominal architect of US foreign policy, during Nixon’s first term. Kissinger won it easily. Rogers was excluded not only from the administration’s central concerns – Vietnam, the Soviet Union and China – but even the Middle East, the one area where he achieved some praise in 1970 with the so-called Rogers plan. The plan was a US effort to impose a settlement between Egypt and Israel with the backing of the Soviet Union. Israel rejected it while Kissinger felt that the goal of US policy in the region, as indeed throughout the developing world, should be to reduce the Kremlin’s influence rather than give Moscow equal status.

When Rogers eventually resigned a few months after the start of Nixon’s second term, Kissinger got the job he coveted most. Four years of private advice and back-channel negotiating were to be crowned by formal acceptance as Washington’s senior international representative and America’s major speechmaker on foreign affairs. Kissinger had already scored the two biggest coups of his career, proving that he was more than just an academic consultant and bureaucratic in-fighter, but a cunning negotiator. He ran the secret diplomacy which culminated in July 1971 with the stunning announcement that Nixon was to go to China to meet Mao Zedong the following year. He also led the negotiations in Paris with Hanoi for the peace treaty that sealed the departure of American troops from Vietnam. For the second of these feats, he shared the Nobel peace prize with Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese negotiator, though the latter refused to accept it.

The award aroused a huge controversy since it coincided with revelations that Kissinger had supported Nixon’s decisions to mount a secret campaign of bombing Cambodia in 1969. Cambodia had long been used by North Vietnamese troops for bases and supply depots, but Nixon’s predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, resisted pleas from the joint chiefs of staff to bomb them. The country was officially neutral and its leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was desperately trying not to take sides.

But the Nixon administration wanted to send a strong message to North Vietnam that the new president would be tougher than Johnson. Tapes of White House conversations (the Watergate tapes) revealed that Nixon called it the “madman theory” – “I want the North Vietnamese to believe that I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war,” he told his chief of staff, Bob Haldeman. Kissinger endorsed the concept, though he preferred to put it in more academic language by arguing that US policy must always retain an element of unpredictability.

In March 1969 Nixon and Kissinger ignored the reluctance of Rogers and launched waves of B52s on carpet-bombing missions over Cambodia, as they had already done in Vietnam. The raids went on for 14 months, although officially the administration pretended the targets were all in South Vietnam. Initially, Kissinger did not even want the pilots to know they were striking Cambodia, but he was advised that they would soon find out and be more likely to leak the information unless sworn to secrecy ahead of the raids.

The bombing remained secret in Washington for an astonishing four years, becoming public only when a military whistleblower wrote to Senator William Proxmire, a prominent critic of the Vietnam war, and urged him to investigate. In Cambodia the campaign led to an estimated 700,000 deaths as well as 2 million people being forced to flee their homes. It also led a pro-US army general, Lon Nol, to seize power from Sihanouk in 1970 and align the country with the US. The bombing and the coup fuelled popular unrest, added to the strength of Cambodia’s communist guerrillas, the Khmer Rouge, and paved their way to power in 1975.

The Paris peace talks on Vietnam also coincided with an escalation of US bombing in Vietnam itself. At the height of the negotiations at the end of 1972, Nixon and Kissinger took the war to new heights with the “Christmas bombing” campaign, comprising targets across North Vietnam. It enraged the US peace movement and provoked a huge wave of new protests and draft-card burning by conscripts. Kissinger’s aim was not so much to intimidate Hanoi as to persuade Washington’s ally, South Vietnam’s president Nguyen Van Thieu, to accept the accords which the US was making with the North. The bombing was meant to assure him that if there were any North Vietnamese violations after the accords came into effect, they would be met with all-out American force.

Kissinger was aware that the Paris deal was flawed, and might well lead to Thieu’s replacement by a communist government. His goal was merely to win a “decent interval” between the pull-out of US troops and the inevitable collapse of the regime in Saigon so that the US could escape any perception of defeat. The phrase “decent interval” appeared in the briefing papers for Kissinger’s secret trip to Beijing in 1971 that were later declassified. They show he told the Chinese that this was US strategy in Vietnam. A year later he informed China’s prime minister, Zhou Enlai: “If we can live with a communist government in China, we ought to be able to accept it in Indochina.”

When the North Vietnamese army and its southern allies, the Vietcong, stormed into Saigon in April 1975, forcing the US ambassador into a humiliating helicopter escape, the image was clearly one of defeat, in spite of the two-year interval since the departure of most US troops. But Kissinger blamed Congress, claiming it had undermined the peace deal by refusing to finance new arms shipments to Thieu. This was a favourite refrain. He continually attacked Congress for interfering in foreign policy, apparently never recognising the value of democratic checks on strong executive power.

Turning his skills to the Middle East, Kissinger gave birth to the concept of shuttle diplomacy, a term first used to the press by his close aide Joe Sisco. He flew between Jerusalem and Cairo during the October 1973 war to hammer out a ceasefire after the Israelis had sent their troops across the Suez canal and come close to the Egyptian capital. He later secured Israel’s withdrawal back across the canal, and shuttled to and from Damascus to make a deal with Syria for the Israelis to withdraw from a small part of the Golan Heights.

Behind all three issues lay the Americans’ competition with the Soviet Union, then at the height of its international power. The US opening to China was designed to wrong-foot the Russians by turning what they thought was an evolving, bilateral relationship of parity and mutual respect with Washington into an unnerving triangle which seemed to ally China and the US against them. Kissinger hoped to exploit the two communist powers’ rivalry to persuade both of them to abandon the Vietnamese, thus making it easier for the US to win the peace, if not the war. So he threatened Moscow and Peking (now Beijing) with the argument that they would lose the benefits of dialogue and trade with Washington if they did not stop their arms supplies to Hanoi.

In the Middle East, Kissinger’s aim was to exclude the Russians, who had been longtime allies of Egypt and Syria. By extracting concessions from Israel and brokering a ceasefire in the 1973 war, Kissinger persuaded Cairo and Damascus that only the US could achieve movement from the Israelis, thanks to its unique influence. A year before the war, Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, had shown his distrust of Moscow by asking thousands of Russian advisers to leave Egypt. The move was meant as a signal to Washington that Egypt preferred good relations with the US, provided Washington put pressure on Israel. Kissinger missed the signal and did nothing until Sadat, in desperation, launched his attack on Israel in October 1973.

Kissinger’s strategy of detente with the Soviet Union was also designed to reduce Moscow’s room for manoeuvre. Although rightwing Republicans criticised it as appeasement, he argued that Washington should not just contain the Soviet Union, as previous American administrations had sought to do. The US should tame it by giving it a stake in the status quo. Instead of going for ad hoc deals with the Kremlin, Kissinger was the first senior American to try to establish a complex of agreements with a range of penalties and rewards for bad and good behaviour. This, he argued, would limit Soviet adventurism. Sometimes he called it a network, at other times a web, but in both cases the aim was to provide the Soviet Union with benefits from expanded trade, investment and political consultation with Washington.

The strategy failed to produce a new world order because Kissinger was not willing to abandon adventurism on the American side. In the developing world, in particular, Kissinger pursued policies of confrontation with Moscow, often based on faulty analysis of what the Russians were doing or exaggerated claims of the extent of their influence. The successful US effort to overthrow the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, in 1973 fitted into the long US history of intervening in Latin America against leftwing governments that nationalised US corporations (in this case, the big copper companies). But Kissinger also disliked Allende’s closeness to Moscow’s ally, Cuba. “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people,” he commented.

By 1974 Kissinger’s boss was being engulfed by the Watergate scandal. Although Kissinger was involved in secretly taping his own staff, he was not connected to Nixon’s decision to burgle the headquarters of the Democratic party at the Watergate apartment complex in 1972 and then cover up the truth – the charges that brought the president down. In spite of the scandal – or perhaps because of it – Nixon’s relationship with Kissinger remained close, in large part because the beleaguered president saw Kissinger as his best ally in foreign policy, the area where Nixon felt that he had been most successful. He wanted Kissinger to be the man to preserve his legacy.

In his memoirs, Kissinger described how Nixon virtually clung to him during his last hours in the White House in August 1974. The disgraced president asked him to pray beside him in the Lincoln bedroom for half an hour. “Nixon’s recollection is that he invited me to kneel with him and that I did so. My own recollection is less clear on whether I actually knelt. It is a trivial distinction. In whatever posture, I was filled with a deep sense of awe,” Kissinger wrote.

Although Kissinger was not charged over Watergate, his image nonetheless became tarnished. Damaged by revelations of the secret bombing of Cambodia, the favourable media bubble burst. Kissinger’s path from miracle worker to being perceived as a cynical trickster proved short. If Nixon was a serial liar on the domestic stage, Kissinger was seen as a similar villain on the international one. Nevertheless the next president, Gerald Ford, who had limited foreign experience, kept Kissinger on as secretary of state as a symbol of continuity. But Kissinger’s star was in decline. He tried to change his focus by shifting his attention to Africa, which he had ignored until then.

His results were far from positive. He may well have set back the fall of apartheid by several years by approving the involvement of the CIA in the Angolan civil war and giving the nod to South Africa’s invasion in 1975 as the Portuguese withdrew from their erstwhile colony and granted it independence. The South African intervention prompted Cuba to send hundreds of troops to support the Angolan government, thereby launching one of the bloodiest “proxy wars” between the superpowers.

When the Republicans lost the White House to the Democrats under Jimmy Carter in 1976, Kissinger’s time was up. He spent the next decades as a consultant to multinational corporations, and speaking on the international lecture circuit. In 1982 he founded his own firm, Kissinger Associates.

Although he had brief hopes of a comeback when Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election, the new president and his men did not feel comfortable with Kissinger’s image or the strength of his personality. His public persona of pragmatism did not fit their crusading ideology of anti-communism and their constant claims of Soviet expansionism. They were from the school which felt his contacts with the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, during the period of detente, had smacked of appeasement.

The charge was absurd. It reflected the difference between subtlety and simplicity, as I discovered at one of the occasional deep-background “non-lunches” which Kissinger gave for representatives of European newspapers. Europe was never a high priority for Kissinger, in large part because it was not a region of US-Soviet competition. He favoured a strong and united western Europe so as to keep Germany in check, hence his much-quoted comment: “If I want to call Europe, who do I call?”

But he seemed to like meeting European correspondents, flattering us with the sense that we asked deeper questions than our American colleagues. At one such lunch, I was staggered by Kissinger’s emotional outburst when someone delicately raised the appeasement charge that rightwing senators were making. “Do you really think a man who stopped Allende wouldn’t want to stop Brezhnev?” he retorted.

If ever there was an American super-patriot, it was Kissinger. As a European intellectual, he knew better than his adopted compatriots how to run an empire. The bedrock of his policies was fear of a resurgent, “unanchored” Germany, a firm desire to keep western Europe closely tied to the US, and a fierce determination to outwit the Soviet Union and maintain American dominance, if necessary through the use of military might. It was no surprise that in his 80s, long after the Soviet Union had collapsed, he became a close consultant of George W Bush, supporting his invasion of Iraq.

Kissinger’s private life was a tempestuous subject in the Washington gossip columns, at least in the interval between his two marriages, which happened to coincide with his years at the apex of power. His first, to Ann Fleischer, with whom he had two children, Elizabeth and David, ended in divorce in 1964. Ten years later, he married Nancy Maginnes, one of his former researchers. She and his children survive him.

🔔 Henry Alfred Kissinger, statesman, born 27 May 1923; died 29 November 2023.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mrdirtybear]

Alexander Kiselev (1838-1910) was feted by the Russian state, and was well known beyond Russia as a painter and a teacher of the art of landscape painting.

[holyshit]

About how young they (especially h) were - I'm a year younger than him and when I was sixteen I would have thought I could handle it no problem. Well, I'm a teacher now and I look at my students and I wouldn't want ANY of them to go through that and I don't think they could even. I get fiercely protective of fetes 1D now, whenever I think about it too much.

yeah exactly :/ like, i recognized at the time how wild it was that they were around my age just in the sense of them travelling the world, being famous, etc, but i really did not fully understand the gravity of how intense and how much it must have affected them to be under that much pressure, to be that over-worked, and to go through all that in front of the whole world at such a young age until i was old enough to see my own teenagehood/early 20s more objectively and to be able to compare how i was at that age to where i am now, with my fully developed over 25 year old brain. and then to see people who are that age now through that lens as well. it's a lottt, and i can imagine a lot of their 20s has been working through some of the after effects of that

[hollysoda]

I’m gonna get a bit emotional for a bit because I suddenly remembered how much I miss my Year 3/4 teacher. She was honestly the kindest, funniest and most understanding teacher I ever met. Shit was so rough for me as an undiagnosed autistic child as so many other kids would pick on me for my inability to control my emotions and/or intense interests. I would always be getting in trouble for lashing out without meaning to, and while most adults severely punished me she made sure to talk to both me and the bully. I also took longer to understand/learn how to do things, and while my horrible maths teacher destroyed my confidence my main teacher let me do things at my own pace and encouraged me. She loved how creative I was, and encouraged me to continue writing and drawing. We had the same birthday and one year she bought me a little bracelet (which I think I’ve lost now). When I left her class she would always look for me on the playground and chat to me about how I was getting on. The rest of my teachers in junior school were great, but I always wanted to go back to her class.

Obviously I eventually went to high school and didn’t see her for years until there was a fete at the junior school. She was there. Her hair was still neat and curly, but it was grey. She still wore the same shape glasses and was starting to get wrinkles. The funniest part was how small she was next to me (I was 14 then). She hugged me, asked me how I was getting on and what GCSE’s I was doing. We couldn’t chat for long but I remember her wishing me luck with my exams.

I didn’t visit my junior school again until September 2022 when they had a grand reopening after having a huge remodel. My Year 6 teacher was still there and gave me and my mum a little tour and I obviously asked about her. She retired at the end of the 2020/21 school year and moved probably as far away from where I live in the UK as you could. My Year 6 teacher didn’t have any contact with her. Maybe at the time I didn’t really think anything of it, but now after I’ve been diagnosed with autism I wish I could see her again. I think she knew long before anyone else did. It hurts a little, and maybe I wish she’d said something, but I think all I want to do is just say thank you and hug her one last time. I just hope she knows what a positive impact she had on my life.

[amiramorozova]

Best Friends to Eternal Lovers- Five years, Anna starts training

When we arrived I was tired but also hungry as he got down and helped me down as he led me in. I knew that it wasn't like I did much with not using my small science knowing it wasn't in the cards right now. So when people came to him asking about for the fete he handled it but never let me go. 

You'll never let me go again..will you? I thought

His hand tightened around me as if he heard what I thought but I knew that was impossible. Yet as time went on I had to miss the first fete cause Anna and Nikolai both came down ill and someone had to take care of them. I didn't mind since there was plenty of opportunities to meet the king and I just had to wait but we'd decided on doing a long engagement so it didn't give the wrong impression.

So for five years this was our life, everytime Baghra tried to get close to me something came up that I was detoured away. I think she was starting to get the idea. Anna turned seven and Nikolai was nine, they'd ended up becoming friends with Anna under my care and Nikolai seeming to always be under his and by engagement mine. 

Now Anna was old enough to go train with the kids her age as I was doing some paperwork that morning and I felt Aleks come up behind me kissing my neck on a hickey he'd gave me. "Amira, you should take Anna to the kids training grounds. As her guardian, you would be the best fit for this job and if anything happens to her you may come to me immediately." Aleksander said as I looked up and closed the file. "You're right.." I said as I stood up

I put my kefta on and finished up as I was about to leave when he pulled me close and kissed me. I kissed him back as I was completely in love with him and he was with me as I couldn't wait till the day I was his wife. "In a few months Amira, we'll do the wedding. After things calm down from this years fete and you can finally go now that Anna will be able to figure things out with kids her own age." Aleksander promised

I nod as I smiled and went to get Anna as Aleks had kept her in his hallway with her being my charge as I went to get her as we'd already all ate and knocked on her door. Anna opened the door as she looked up and smiled. "Anna, you get to socialize with the kids here your age." I said as I held my hand out to her and she took it as I led her there. Aleks had shown me all the places there and I was glad that he did so I knew the little palace like the back of my hand. 

Anna: 

When we made it there I was able to relax knowing she'd be fine and we made it. The teacher of the kids approached me and showed respect as most respected me here. "You are the General's fiancé." The teacher said knowing most of them didn't even socialize with me. "Yes, but please call me Amira. This is Anna, she's in my care but she's finally old enough to start training with the other kids." I said as the teacher nod and looked at Anna. "Nice to meet you Anna." 

Anna was still shy so she kept close but I had her come around me as I made sure she stayed infront of me and I kneeled down to her height. "I'll be back to get you after your training unless I have to go with Aleks by the fold. If that happens your friend will come get you and bring you back." I said as she nod and then went with the teacher. 

Nikolai and Anna are such good friends..kinda reminds me of me and Aleks at that age. I thought 

I walked away to get back to Aleks when Baghra was out of her hut and she'd used her cane to cut me off from walking as I stopped. "You're quite lazy, aren't you?" Baghra said as I looked at her like she was crazy. "I am not, I work with him. I'm constantly doing things to help when he needs me even if you don't see me." I said as I was going to walk around when she went to swing her cane at me and again I grabbed the cane in mid air. "If you're coming at me because I am not Ravka's savior to fix the problem. Tough. He doesn't want me risking my life for the problem and if you keep this up I think my grandmother may have something to say." I said 

Despite it pissing her off I didn't care and I knew that Aleks and I had been in talks about the future. We were debating if we wanted kids of our won but I'd never tell her that. I was going to do everything in my power to keep her from messing this up for us. Once I got away I went to speak with the Fabrikators about the details of the wedding things..like my dress. They then told me about this piece that would go under my dress on my leg called a garter normally done in grisha colors but mine were secret so they didn't know how to do it. 

What do I do? It's classified.. I thought 

I heard someone walk in and Aleksander just seemed to show up at the right time as he handed them a paper. "Read this, then destroy it for that part. She's to be protected at all costs." Aleksander said as he put a hand on my head and I blushed a bit knowing he could just affect me in ways and I'd become used to this after five years of it. "General, what about her fete attire?" One of them asked as Aleksander thought about it "Her fete attire in my color only. We must keep my fiancé away from this mess even though she's partially involved as my 2nd in command." Aleks answered them. 

This must be doing with the Apparat..I crossed paths with him once but since I am just in Aleks's color he paid no mind to me. Not only that people would think I'm a saint.. I thought

TagList: @lifeisingrey​,  @houseoftoomanyfandoms​, @mizelophsun11​, @budugu​ ,   @wheresthesunshinesblog  

[wearebackbagels]

more modern au seekings/cooper for you!

the village holds an annual fair/fete including all the usual things (a coconut shy, a water gun game, a hammer strength game etc).

one of the best inclusions (as thought up by the school teachers) is a kissing booth!

johnny gets nominated to be the one to sit in it all afternoon.... he's delighted when reg keeps coming back to give him little kisses and eventually plucks up the courage to give reg his number after the 5th visit to the booth

That would be something! What would the other get up to? what would they do at the fair do you think? Im asking this as I dont have an idea. Btw i think we have to be better at tagging our stuff, many of our convos doesn't even have the ship-tags.

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

"Dave Bartram of Leicester's Showaddywaddy group, received a fantastic welcome when he opened and appeared at South Wigston High School parents'-teachers association summer fete.

Headmaster Mr. Eric Bothamley said 'He was immensely popular, particularly among the children, and entered fully into the spirit of the fete. He must have signed hundreds of autographs.'” (Oadby & Wigston News, June 12th 1981)

[source]

 “South Wigston High School parents'-teachers association summer fete.

Melanie Danvers has her arm autographed.” (Oadby & Wigston News, June 12th 1981)

[source]

[chiefmauskateer]

To put the point across for UK voters:

Yes, I know, "Not all old people", since my grandmother has been a staunch socialist her whole life and wouldn't vote blue if it meant she got eternal youth, BUT:

At the school fete yesterday, which is ostensibly to raise money FOR THE SCHOOL because SCHOOL FUNDING is SHITE in our area and the current funding is LESS THAN IT WAS BEFORE THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT TOOK POWER IN 2010 and we are in a cost of living crisis which means that while the school can't afford to hire people it desperately needs, it also doesn't have the readies to make anybody redundant and we can't afford heating and electricity and water and all the other shit that's also rather crucial for a functioning school building... anyway, there were people from the village, standing to my left as I queued for my hotdog, talking about voting. The three of them all looked over 70. Two vs One in the discussion and the two said, IN EAR SHOT OF A TEACHER WHOSE PROFESSION HAS BEEN DECIMATED BY THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT'S STUPID CHANGES AND BLAME GAMING AND SHIT FUNDING, I shit you not, "Well if you don't vote Conservative, who can you vote for?"

I mean. Wtf. The Conservative party, just 4 years ago, said that people their age should just die in the pandemic. "Let the bodies pile high", the Prime Minister said.

So yeah. Based on that interaction, and my family friends who are old? 2 thirds are going to vote Conservative because they can't conceive of another party actually giving a shit about people. Yes, Labour sucks and I can't bring myself to vote for them either, but there are the Lib Dems if you wanna go centrist. There is Green, if you wanna go proper left. There are independent people running. There's reform, which will split the tory vote, even though it proves your wrinkly old ass is also racist as shit.

Anybody under 60 MUST go and vote, no matter how "certain" the polls are that Labour's going to crush this.

They said Brexit wouldn't go through and that Trump wouldn't get in, in 2016.

Remember that.

Saying "voting doesn't matter" might reach your younger peers online but it certainly hasn't reached Clangus Hargbarg who was part of the kkk in 1951 and still sends in his ballot. He hasn't missed a one.

[forestlion]

my French teacher studied at the Sorbonne summa cum laude and then came back to buttfuck nowhere to show 5th graders la boum die fete

[brookston]

Holidays 11.19

Holidays

Alligator Wrestling Day

American Made Matters Day

Automatic Toll Collection Day

Day of Missile Forces and Artillery (Belarus, Russia)

Dedication Day

Discovery Day (Puerto Rico)

Equal Opportunity Day

Fast for an Abundant World Harvest

Fete de S.A.A. le Prince Souverain (Monaco)

Flag Day (Brazil)

Garifuna Settlement Day (Belize)

Get a Pal For Your Pet Day

Gettysburg Address Day

Glass Industry Workers’ Day (Russia; Ukraine)

Group Rates For Group Souls Day

”Have A Bad Day��� Day

Hydrometeorological Service Workers’ Day (Ukraine)

International Journalist’s Remembrance Day

International Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable Day

International Men's Day

International Whole Grain Day

Liberation Day (Mali)

Liberation of the Sami People of the Coast (Norway)

Martyr’s Day (Uttar Pradesh, India)

Missile Troops and Artillery Day (Belarus; Russia)

National Alina Day

National Ammo Day

National Blow Bagpipes Day

National Camp Day

National Carla Day

National Day (Monaco)

National Domino Day (Netherlands)

National Enteropathic Arthritis Day (Canada)

National Integration Day (India)

National Lewis Day

National Morgan Day

National Rural Health Day

National Treasure Day

Play Monopoly Day

Please Maintain Your Focus Today Day

Prince Rainier Day (Monaco)

Retired Teachers’ Day (Florida)

Rocky & Bullwinkle Day

Service Tree Day (French Republic)

Tamandua Day (Brazil)

Tape Your Face Day

Tertiary Education Workers Day (Russia)

’What Ever Happened to Gary Puckett?’ Day

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

World Anteater Day

World Banjo Ukelele Day

World Chess Day

World Citizen Day

World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse

World Day of the Poor

World Portable Sanitation Day

World Toilet Day (UN)

Zion National Park Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day

National Macchiato Day

National Soup Day (Germany)

Independence & Related Days

German Reich of Mednyat (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Karnia-Ruthenia (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Libri (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Rabenberg (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

3rd Tuesday in November

National Entrepreneurs Day [3rd Tuesday]

National Grief & Bereavement Day (Canada) [3rd Tuesday]

National Working Daughters Day [3rd Tuesday]

Parents Day [3rd Tuesday]

Prematurity Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]

School Pride Day [Tuesday of American Education Week]

School Related Professional Recognition Day [3rd Tuesday]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tapas Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Target Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tater Tot Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trivia Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trusting Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Two For Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning November 19 (3rd Full Week of November)

None Known

Festivals Beginning November 19, 2024

Latino Farmers Conference (Monterey, California) [thru 11.20]

National Gingerbread House Competition & Display (Asheville, North Carolina) [thru 1.5.2025]

Feast Days

Angrboda’s Blot (Pagan)

Barlaam (Christian; Saint)

Charlie Kaufman (Writerism)

Chhat Parwa (Nepal)

Elizabeth of Hungary (Christian; Saint)

Eustache Le Sueur (Artology)

Guru Nanak Jayanti (Sikh; India, Nepal)

Hans Liska (Artology)

Hate For the Sake of Hating Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Jane Freilicher (Artology)

Joanne Kyger (Writerism)

Karthika Purnima (a.k.a. Rahasa Purnima; Parts of India)

Nerses (Christian; Martyr)

Obadiah (Eastern Catholic Church; Prophet)

Onion Lore Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Pontian, Pope (Christian; Martyr)

Raphael Kalinowski (Christian; Saint)

Severinus, Exuperius, and Felician (Christian; Saints)

Sharon Olds (Writerism)

Singbad the Sailor (Muppetism)

Tony Hoagland (Writerism)

Warlock Day (Everyday Wicca)

World Toilet Day (Pastafarian)

Ximenes (Positivist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 53 of 60)

Premieres

Addams Family Values (Film; 1993)

Artistry in Rhythm, by Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (Album; 1943)

Arts and Flowers (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1956)

Babes in the Woods (Silly Symphony Disney Cartoon; 1932)

Boris Badenov Presents or The 20-Inch Scream (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 227; 1963)

Bosko’s Dizzy Date (WB LT Cartoon; 1932)

Brain Salad Surgery, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Album; 1973)

Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (WB Cartoon Compilation; 1982)

The Case of the Sulky Girl, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Novel; 1933) [Perry Mason #2]

Coda, by Led Zeppelin (Album; 1982)

Cowboy BeBop (TV Series; 2021)

Dance Suite, by Béla Bartók (Orchestral Work; 1923)

Debbie Does Dallas (Adult Film; 1978)

Dog Tax Dodgers (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)

Dollars to Doughnuts or The Wonderful World of Cruller (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 228; 1963)

Dylan, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1973)

Festive Overture, by Ernst von Dohnányi (Orchestral Work; 1923)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Film; 2021)

Hector’s Hectic Life (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1948)

Heidi’s Song (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1982)

Homer on the Range (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1964)

Hiccup Hound (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1963)

Horning In (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1965)

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Film; 1932)

I’m Out of Bullets or Pour Me Another Shot (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 231; 1963)

It’s for he Birdies (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1962)

Joe’s Garage, by Frank Zappa (Rock Opera; 1979)

Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1995)

Kozmo Goes to School (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1961)

The Last Unicorn (Animated Film; 1982)

Liverpool Oratorio, by Paul McCartney (Oratorio; 1991)

Mansfield Park (Film; 1999)

Monster of Ceremonies (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1966)

National Treasure (Film; 2004)

The Night Watchman (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Northern Mites (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1960)

Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang, by Dr. Dre (Song; 1992)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Film; 1975)

Psalmus Hungaricus, by Zoltán Kodály (Choral Work; 1923)

Protek the Weakerist (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1937)

Round and Round, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 23 & 24; 1967)

Seasick Bullwinkle or How Green Was My Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 232; 1963)

Seven Samurai (Film; 1956)

The Sheepish Wolf (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1963)

Somebody to Love, by Queen (Song; 1976)

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Animated Film; 2004)

That’s My Mommy (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1955)

The Thrifty Pig (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Toy Story 2 (Film; 1999)

The Wheel of Time (TV Series; 2021)

The World Is Not Enough (US Film; 1999) [James Bond #19]

Today’s Name Days

Bettina, Elisabeth, Lisa (Austria)

Jakov, Matilda, Obadija, Salomeja (Croatia)

Alžběta (Czech Republic)

Elisabeth (Denmark)

Betti, Eliisabet, Eliise, Elis, Els, Elsa, Else, Ilse, Liis, Liisa, Liisi, Liisu (Estonia)

Eliisa, Elisa, Elisabet, Elise, Liisa, Liisi (Finland)

Tanguy (France)

Bettina, Elisabeth, Lisa, Roman (Germany)

Erzsébet (Hungary)

Fausto (Italy)

Betija, Elizabete, Līza, Līze (Latvia)

Dainotas, Matilda, Rimgaudė (Lithuania)

Elisabeth, Lisbet (Norway)

Elżbieta, Mironiega, Paweł, Seweryn, Seweryna (Poland)

Avdie (Romania)

Alexander (Russia)

Alžbeta (Slovakia)

Crispín, Matilde (Spain)

Elisabet, Lisbet (Sweden)

Bessie, Beth, Betsy, Betty, Elisa, Elisabeth, Elise, Elissa, Eliza, Elizabeth, Elsa, Elsie, Elyse, Elyssa, Elza, Libby, Lisa, Liza, Lizbeth, Lizette (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 324 of 2024; 42 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of Week 47 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Hagal (Hailstone) [Day 24 of 28]

Chinese: Month 10 (Yi-Hai), Day 19 (Ding-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 18 Heshvan 5785

Islamic: 17 Jumada I 1446

J Cal: 24 Wood; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 6 November 2024

Moon: 81%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 16 Frederic (12th Month) [Qxenstiern / Sully]

Runic Half Month: Nyd (Necessity) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 58 of 90)

Week: 3rd Full Week of November

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 27 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 11.19

Holidays

Alligator Wrestling Day

American Made Matters Day

Automatic Toll Collection Day

Day of Missile Forces and Artillery (Belarus, Russia)

Dedication Day

Discovery Day (Puerto Rico)

Equal Opportunity Day

Fast for an Abundant World Harvest

Fete de S.A.A. le Prince Souverain (Monaco)

Flag Day (Brazil)

Garifuna Settlement Day (Belize)

Get a Pal For Your Pet Day

Gettysburg Address Day

Glass Industry Workers’ Day (Russia; Ukraine)

Group Rates For Group Souls Day

”Have A Bad Day” Day

Hydrometeorological Service Workers’ Day (Ukraine)

International Journalist’s Remembrance Day

International Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable Day

International Men's Day

International Whole Grain Day

Liberation Day (Mali)

Liberation of the Sami People of the Coast (Norway)

Martyr’s Day (Uttar Pradesh, India)

Missile Troops and Artillery Day (Belarus; Russia)

National Alina Day

National Ammo Day

National Blow Bagpipes Day

National Camp Day

National Carla Day

National Day (Monaco)

National Domino Day (Netherlands)

National Enteropathic Arthritis Day (Canada)

National Integration Day (India)

National Lewis Day

National Morgan Day

National Rural Health Day

National Treasure Day

Play Monopoly Day

Please Maintain Your Focus Today Day

Prince Rainier Day (Monaco)

Retired Teachers’ Day (Florida)

Rocky & Bullwinkle Day

Service Tree Day (French Republic)

Tamandua Day (Brazil)

Tape Your Face Day

Tertiary Education Workers Day (Russia)

’What Ever Happened to Gary Puckett?’ Day

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

World Anteater Day

World Banjo Ukelele Day

World Chess Day

World Citizen Day

World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse

World Day of the Poor

World Portable Sanitation Day

World Toilet Day (UN)

Zion National Park Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day

National Macchiato Day

National Soup Day (Germany)

Independence & Related Days

German Reich of Mednyat (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Karnia-Ruthenia (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Libri (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Rabenberg (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

3rd Tuesday in November

National Entrepreneurs Day [3rd Tuesday]

National Grief & Bereavement Day (Canada) [3rd Tuesday]

National Working Daughters Day [3rd Tuesday]

Parents Day [3rd Tuesday]

Prematurity Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]

School Pride Day [Tuesday of American Education Week]

School Related Professional Recognition Day [3rd Tuesday]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tapas Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Target Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tater Tot Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trivia Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trusting Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Two For Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning November 19 (3rd Full Week of November)

None Known

Festivals Beginning November 19, 2024

Latino Farmers Conference (Monterey, California) [thru 11.20]

National Gingerbread House Competition & Display (Asheville, North Carolina) [thru 1.5.2025]

Feast Days

Angrboda’s Blot (Pagan)

Barlaam (Christian; Saint)

Charlie Kaufman (Writerism)

Chhat Parwa (Nepal)

Elizabeth of Hungary (Christian; Saint)

Eustache Le Sueur (Artology)

Guru Nanak Jayanti (Sikh; India, Nepal)

Hans Liska (Artology)

Hate For the Sake of Hating Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Jane Freilicher (Artology)

Joanne Kyger (Writerism)

Karthika Purnima (a.k.a. Rahasa Purnima; Parts of India)

Nerses (Christian; Martyr)

Obadiah (Eastern Catholic Church; Prophet)

Onion Lore Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Pontian, Pope (Christian; Martyr)

Raphael Kalinowski (Christian; Saint)

Severinus, Exuperius, and Felician (Christian; Saints)

Sharon Olds (Writerism)

Singbad the Sailor (Muppetism)

Tony Hoagland (Writerism)

Warlock Day (Everyday Wicca)

World Toilet Day (Pastafarian)

Ximenes (Positivist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 53 of 60)

Premieres

Addams Family Values (Film; 1993)

Artistry in Rhythm, by Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (Album; 1943)

Arts and Flowers (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1956)

Babes in the Woods (Silly Symphony Disney Cartoon; 1932)

Boris Badenov Presents or The 20-Inch Scream (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 227; 1963)

Bosko’s Dizzy Date (WB LT Cartoon; 1932)

Brain Salad Surgery, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Album; 1973)

Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (WB Cartoon Compilation; 1982)

The Case of the Sulky Girl, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Novel; 1933) [Perry Mason #2]

Coda, by Led Zeppelin (Album; 1982)

Cowboy BeBop (TV Series; 2021)

Dance Suite, by Béla Bartók (Orchestral Work; 1923)

Debbie Does Dallas (Adult Film; 1978)

Dog Tax Dodgers (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)

Dollars to Doughnuts or The Wonderful World of Cruller (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 228; 1963)

Dylan, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1973)

Festive Overture, by Ernst von Dohnányi (Orchestral Work; 1923)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Film; 2021)

Hector’s Hectic Life (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1948)

Heidi’s Song (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1982)

Homer on the Range (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1964)

Hiccup Hound (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1963)

Horning In (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1965)

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Film; 1932)

I’m Out of Bullets or Pour Me Another Shot (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 231; 1963)

It’s for he Birdies (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1962)

Joe’s Garage, by Frank Zappa (Rock Opera; 1979)

Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1995)

Kozmo Goes to School (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1961)

The Last Unicorn (Animated Film; 1982)

Liverpool Oratorio, by Paul McCartney (Oratorio; 1991)

Mansfield Park (Film; 1999)

Monster of Ceremonies (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1966)

National Treasure (Film; 2004)

The Night Watchman (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Northern Mites (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1960)

Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang, by Dr. Dre (Song; 1992)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Film; 1975)

Psalmus Hungaricus, by Zoltán Kodály (Choral Work; 1923)

Protek the Weakerist (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1937)

Round and Round, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 23 & 24; 1967)

Seasick Bullwinkle or How Green Was My Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 232; 1963)

Seven Samurai (Film; 1956)

The Sheepish Wolf (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1963)

Somebody to Love, by Queen (Song; 1976)

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Animated Film; 2004)

That’s My Mommy (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1955)

The Thrifty Pig (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Toy Story 2 (Film; 1999)

The Wheel of Time (TV Series; 2021)

The World Is Not Enough (US Film; 1999) [James Bond #19]

Today’s Name Days

Bettina, Elisabeth, Lisa (Austria)

Jakov, Matilda, Obadija, Salomeja (Croatia)

Alžběta (Czech Republic)

Elisabeth (Denmark)

Betti, Eliisabet, Eliise, Elis, Els, Elsa, Else, Ilse, Liis, Liisa, Liisi, Liisu (Estonia)

Eliisa, Elisa, Elisabet, Elise, Liisa, Liisi (Finland)

Tanguy (France)

Bettina, Elisabeth, Lisa, Roman (Germany)

Erzsébet (Hungary)

Fausto (Italy)

Betija, Elizabete, Līza, Līze (Latvia)

Dainotas, Matilda, Rimgaudė (Lithuania)

Elisabeth, Lisbet (Norway)

Elżbieta, Mironiega, Paweł, Seweryn, Seweryna (Poland)

Avdie (Romania)

Alexander (Russia)

Alžbeta (Slovakia)

Crispín, Matilde (Spain)

Elisabet, Lisbet (Sweden)

Bessie, Beth, Betsy, Betty, Elisa, Elisabeth, Elise, Elissa, Eliza, Elizabeth, Elsa, Elsie, Elyse, Elyssa, Elza, Libby, Lisa, Liza, Lizbeth, Lizette (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 324 of 2024; 42 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of Week 47 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Hagal (Hailstone) [Day 24 of 28]

Chinese: Month 10 (Yi-Hai), Day 19 (Ding-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 18 Heshvan 5785

Islamic: 17 Jumada I 1446

J Cal: 24 Wood; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 6 November 2024

Moon: 81%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 16 Frederic (12th Month) [Qxenstiern / Sully]

Runic Half Month: Nyd (Necessity) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 58 of 90)

Week: 3rd Full Week of November

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 27 of 30)

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] Manu Bhaker at a felicitation function. Photo credit: Facebook Manu Bhaker allayed fears she had lost focus after her path-breaking efforts at the Paris 2024 Olympics where she won two bronze medals and finished fourth in the sports pistol event. On August 3, 2024, Manu Bhaker shot her last competition in Chateauroux and has not touched her pistols after that. Prescribed a 100-day break by coach Jaspal Rana, she has enjoyed the rest period. The number of felicitation functions she has attended are countless, yet the return to her alma mater, Lady Shri Ram College, in New Delhi on Thursday was beautiful. To be back with the faculty and college students, her juniors of course, was emotional for Manu. And when she was presented her graduation degree, a first class in Political Science, it was even more beautiful. To be in sport and yet pursue a degree from India’s premier university and rank high, not many can do it. “I promise to be back for my second Masters degree,” said Manu, who recalled an incident when a lecturer had once turned her away from the class for coming late! This was indeed inspirational talk for students who heard her speak maturely and at the same time capture her journey. Sitting in the audience was Maheshwari Chauhan, also a graduate from LSR College as well as Rhythm Sangwan’s parents. Rhythm is a third year English Honours student. To return to your own college and be feted as a champion was special but Manu was reverential in front of her teachers. One teacher who continues to be still a hard task master is coach Jaspal Rana. He was also felicitated by the college and spoke in his inimitable style. “If you are going to prepare for the LA 2028 Olympics, you cannot be late,” said Jaspal on stage. The function was at 11am and Jaspal himself arrived at 1030am. That’s the Dronacharya’s way of ensuring discipline, who should be back at the Karni Singh ranges with Manu from November 5/6. Back to Manu and her hunger for shooting, it is very much intact. Her whirlwind tours around India and a holiday with the family in Dubai have been a great experience. Deep down, she is still humble and ready to make a comeback, fully aware two medals from the Olympics are a historic feat but to rest on laurels will do no good. “Honestly, I want to get back to the ranges, the break was deserved but now I feel like enough is enough,” said Manu. She knows there will be no favours when she is back at training sessions. “I have resumed my physical training sessions and workout. As I am taking exams (Masters) till November 5, I will then get back to the ranges. Yes, I am looking forward to it. And I know, working on technique and the training methods are going to be hard, as ever, under Jaspal Sir,” added Manu. The good part is, she is ready for the grind and knows she has to start from scratch. She was in a lot of pain at the Olympics but the prescribed 100-day break has been well earned. Manu Bhaker at a felicitation function. Photo credit: Facebook “I know when I start shooting again, I will be nervous, initially. My base will be the Karni Singh ranges only and then depending on where all competitions take place, I will be travelling with my coach,” added Manu. So, does Manu have the same hunger or not? The fact is, she is ready to go through the grind and starting from scratch is important. To keep the Nationals in mind and then be part of trials again under the NRAI policy, there will be no short-cuts. At the same time, to face competition from the others is something Manu has loved. This time, youngsters will want to do even better than Manu. What will be crucial is her focus, which was evident when she spoke to this writer. “When I took a break after the Olympics, it was exciting. Now I am back at that stage where I am craving to shoot again,” stressed Manu. For the record, she has been speaking to many champions from other walks of life. What it has taught her, at 22, there is so much more to achieve in her shooting career.

Champions like Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang went through repeated Olympic cycles. For Manu, this will be the third, with an eye on the Asian Games first in 2026 in Nagoya. Also Read: Rafael Nadal leaves fans in tears with retirement announcement The post Manu Bhaker will be back at the ranges after November 5 appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports. [ad_2] Source link