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Anthropologist Zelia Nuttall transformed the way we think of ancient Mesoamerica

An illustration of the Aztec calendar stone surrounds a young portrait of anthropologist Zelia Nuttall. “Mrs. Nuttall’s investigations of the Mexican calendar appear to furnish for the first time a satisfactory key,” wrote one leading scholar.Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

By Merilee Grindle

Author, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient Civilizations

On a bright day early in 1885, Zelia Nuttall was strolling around the ancient ruins of Teotihuacán, the enormous ceremonial site north of Mexico City. Not yet 30, Zelia had a deep interest in the history of Mexico, and now, with her marriage in ruins and her future uncertain, she was on a trip with her mother, Magdalena; her brother George; and her 3-year-old daughter, Nadine, to distract her from her worries.

The site, which covered eight square miles, had once been home to the predecessors of the Aztecs. It included about 2,000 dwellings along with temples, plazas and pyramids where they charted the stars and made offerings to the sun and moon. As Zelia admired the impressive buildings, some shrouded in dirt and vegetation, she reached down and collected a few pieces of pottery from the dusty soil. They were plentiful and easy to find with a few brushes of her hand.

The moment she picked up those artifacts would prove to be pivotal in the life and long career of this trailblazing anthropologist. Over the next 50 years, Zelia’s careful study of artifacts would challenge the way people thought of Mesoamerican history. She was the first to decode the Aztec calendar and identify the purposes of ancient adornments and weapons. She untangled the organization of commercial networks and transcribed ancient songs. She found clues about the ancient Americas all over the world: Once, deep in the stacks of the British Museum, she found an Indigenous pictorial history that predated the Spanish conquest; skilled at interpreting Aztec drawings and symbols, and having taught herself Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and their predecessors, she was the first to transcribe and translate this and other ancient manuscripts.

A 19th-century engraving of the pyramids of Teotihuacan. The Pyramid of the Sun was restored in 1910, on the centennial of the Mexican War of Independence. Bridgeman Images

She also served as a bridge between the United States and Mexico, living in both countries and working with leading national institutions in each. At a time when many scholars spun elaborate and unfounded theories based on 19th-century views of race, Zelia looked at the evidence and made concrete connections based on scientific observations. By the time she died, in 1933, she had published three books and more than 75 articles.

Yet during her lifetime, she was sometimes called an antiquarian, a folklorist or a “lady scientist.” When she died, scholarly journals and some newspapers ran notices and obituaries. After that, she largely passed from the public’s eye.

Today, anthropologists often have specialized expertise. But in the 19th century, anthropology was not yet a discipline with its own paradigms, methods and boundaries. Most of its practitioners were self-taught or served as apprentices to a handful of recognized experts. Many such “amateurs” made important contributions to the field. And many of them were women.

She was born in 1857 to a wealthy family in San Francisco, then a fast-growing city of about 50,000 people. Near the shore, ships mired in mud—many abandoned by crews eager to make their fortunes in the gold fields—served as hostels to a restless, sometimes violent and mostly male population. Other adventurers found uncertain homes in hastily built hotels and rooming houses. But the city was also an exciting international settlement. Ships arrived daily from across the Pacific, Panama and the east via Cape Horn.

Her well-appointed household stood apart from the city’s wilder quarters, but the people who lived there reflected San Francisco’s international character. Her mother, Magdalena Parrott Nuttall, herself the daughter of an American businessman and a Mexican woman, spoke Spanish, and her grandfather, who lived nearby, employed a French lady’s maid; a nursemaid from New York; a chambermaid, laundress, housekeeper, coachman and groom from Ireland; a steward from Switzerland; a cook and additional servants from France; and nine day laborers from China.

When Zelia was 8, her family left San Francisco for Europe. Along with her older brother, Juanito, and her younger siblings Carmelita and George, Zelia and her parents set off for Ireland, her father’s native land. Over the course of 11 years, the Nuttalls made their way to London, Paris, the South of France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Throughout that time, Zelia was educated largely by governesses and tutors, with some formal schooling in Dresden and London. But her time overseas shaped her interest in ancient history and expanded her language skills, as she added French, German and Italian to her fluent Spanish. All of this expansion thrilled her mind, but it also made her feel increasingly out of step with the expectations for young women of her age. “My ideas and opinions form themselves I don’t know how, and I sometimes am astonished at the determined ideas I have!” she wrote in a November 1875 letter.

She took refuge in singing and tried to be pleased with the few social events she attended. Photos from the time show Zelia as an attractive young woman with large, dark eyes, arched eyebrows and stylishly arranged hair. Nevertheless, she was unhappy. “I was infinitely disgusted with some of the idiotic specimens of mankind I danced with,” she wrote in an 1876 letter after a party.

The Nuttalls returned to San Francisco in 1876, when she was nearly 20. Two years later, she met a young French anthropologist, Alphonse Pinart, already celebrated in his mid-20s as an explorer and linguist. He had been to Alaska, Arizona, Canada, Maine, Russia and the South Sea Islands. Pinart may have led the family to understand that he was wealthy. In fact, he was almost penniless, having already spent his significant inheritance.

They were married at the Nuttall home on May 10, 1880. During the next year and a half, the couple traveled to Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Pinart introduced Zelia to a burgeoning academic literature in ethnology and archaeology, and she began to understand the theories of linguistics. She found 16th-century Spanish hardly a challenge as she consulted annotated codices—pictorial documents that traced pre-Columbian genealogies and conquests in Mesoamerica. While Pinart dashed from project to project and roamed widely among countries, tribes and languages, Zelia began to demonstrate an intellectual style that was more focused and precise.

Despite the excitement of discovery, something began to go wrong in the marriage. Hints of Zelia’s distress can be found in her effusive letters home. There was, for example, the shipboard admission that her husband was less attentive than she had anticipated. She noted that he was “so quiet and undemonstrative” that it was hard to imagine they were newly married. Some fellow passengers thought they were brother and sister—an odd assumption to make, even in Victorian times, about newlyweds.

By contrast, Zelia is nowhere to be found in Pinart’s surviving correspondence. On April 6, 1881, she gave birth to a daughter, Roberta, who lived only 11 days. To add to this melancholy time, her beloved father died in May, leaving her doubly devastated. A letter Pinart wrote to a friend just a few months later from Cuba appeared on stationery with a black border, signifying mourning, but he made no reference to his wife, her father or their child.

Zelia found solace in learning about her heritage when she and Pinart traveled to Mexico in 1881. She was eager to see her mother’s homeland and to hone her understanding of its pre-Columbian cultures. While Pinart carried out his own research, she began to learn Nahuatl, and she toured villages where dialects of the language were still spoken and ruins where the marks of the past could still be found.

The couple returned to San Francisco on December 6, 1881. By then, Zelia was pregnant again. In late January, Pinart set out to spend several months in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama, while Zelia awaited the birth of her second child, Nadine, at her mother’s house.

What finally drove Zelia to sue for divorce, on the grounds of cruelty and neglect, remains elusive. She may have felt that Pinart had married her for access to her family’s fortune. Many years later, she angrily informed Nadine that Pinart had spent the $9,000 she had inherited from her father as well as her marriage settlement. When the money was gone, and when her family was firm that he shouldn’t expect any more, he abandoned his wife and child. Once Zelia demanded a separation, he did not contest it, though obtaining the divorce was a long process that started soon after the couple’s return from their travels and didn’t conclude until 1888.

In later life, Nadine Nuttall Pinart would reflect on how much it had cost her to grow up without a father. “From the time before I can remember, he was taboo to me,” she wrote in a 1961 letter to Ross Parmenter, a New York Times editor who wrote numerous books about Mexico and developed a fascination with Zelia Nuttall. “I was frightened by the violent scoldings I got for mentioning his name. Later, I compromised with myself and when asked about him quietly said, ‘I never knew him!’ I realized that people thought he was dead and were sorry for me and said no more. In those days it was a disgrace to have a divorced mother.”

If the period between 1881 and 1888, when Zelia finalized her divorce, was fraught with tension and heartache, this was also when she set about redefining herself as a woman with a vocation. She spent five months in Mexico with her mother, her daughter and her brother between December 1884 and April 1885, visiting Cuernavaca, Mexico City and Toluca, and exploring archaeological ruins. It was during this time that Zelia made her fateful winter visit to Teotihuacan and acquired her first artifacts.

The pieces of pottery she picked up that day were small terra-cotta heads. They were abundant in the area among the pyramids. At the time, the site was still being used as farmland, and the artifacts came to the surface during ploughing. The heads themselves were an inch or two long, with flat backs and a neck attached. Scholars before Zelia—Americans, Europeans and Mexicans—had mused creatively about such relics, describing differences in their facial features and the variety of headdresses they had sported. Drawing on 19th-century fascination with the topic of race, the French archaeologist Désiré Charnay became convinced that he could see in them African, Chinese and Greek facial features. Charnay mused: Had their creators migrated from Africa, Asia or Europe? And if racial identity was a marker of human development, as many believed at the time, what might this curious mixture of features reveal about civilizations in the Americas?

This kind of thinking was typical. Mistaken ideas about Darwinism led many Western scholars to believe that civilizations evolved along a linear, hierarchical path, from primitive villages to ancient kingdoms to modern industrial and urban societies. Not surprisingly, they used this to legitimize beliefs about the superiority of the white race.

Zelia Nuttall divided her collection of terra-cotta heads into three classes. The first included rudimentary efforts to represent a human face (as seen above, far left). The second class (including the bald second head from the left above) had holes for attaching earrings and other ornaments. The third category included the rest of the heads pictured here, sporting what Zelia called “a confusing variety of peculiar and not ungraceful headdresses.” Public Domain

Zelia generally accepted her era’s assumptions about race and class, and she was comfortable with her elite status and its privileges. Yet in her research, she did not categorize civilizations as primitive, savage or barbaric, as other scholars did, nor did she indulge in racial theories of cultural development. Instead, she sought to sweep aside this kind of speculation and replace it with observation and reason.

The more Zelia examined her terra-cotta heads, the more she realized she needed guidance from someone who had more experience in the study of antiquity than she had. At the time, there were no departments of anthropology in colleges or universities, no degrees to be earned, no clear routes to building a career. To pursue her burgeoning interest in the ancient civilizations of Mexico, and to decipher the meaning of an assortment of terra-cotta heads, she contacted Frederic Ward Putnam, the curator of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and a leading expert on Mesoamerica. He agreed to meet her in the fall of 1885. The meeting was all she hoped for: Putnam warmed to her work and encouraged her to follow her intuitive grasp of how to observe and interpret evidence.

Putnam’s regard for women’s intellectual capacities was clear. He was one of a small number of Harvard researchers who gave lectures at “the Annex,” an institution established for women who had passed the college’s admissions test but were not allowed to attend classes or earn a degree. (The Harvard Annex eventually became Radcliffe College.) He hired a resourceful administrative staff of women and encouraged them to play a role in managing the museum. He also had a “correspondence school,” which he conducted through a widespread exchange of letters. As he once wrote, “Several of my best students are women, who have become widely known by their thorough and important works and publications; and this I consider as high an honor as could be accorded to me.”

Within months of their first encounter, in late 1885, Putnam asked Zelia to become a special assistant in Mexican archaeology for the Peabody. Less than a year later, in the annual report of the Peabody Museum, he wrote about her appointment in glowing terms: “Familiar with the Nahuatl language … and with an exceptional talent for linguistics and archaeology, as well as being thoroughly informed in all the early native and Spanish writings relating to Mexico and its people, Mrs. Nuttall enters the study with a preparation as remarkable as it is exceptional.”

With guidance from Putnam, Zelia wrote an investigation of the terra-cotta heads, her first published scientific report, which appeared in the spring 1886 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology. “At the first glance,” she wrote, “the multitude and variety of these heads are confusing; but after prolonged observation, they seem to naturally distribute themselves into three large and well-defined Classes.”

Each class, she theorized, had been created at a different time and represented a different stage in the culture. The first class contained “primary and crude attempts at the representation of a human face.” The second class included the first efforts at artistry. Her inspection revealed “holes, notches and lines,” suggesting ways in which tiny headdresses, feathers or beads could have been attached to the heads, and noted traces of several colors of paint and different kinds of clay.

The third class was the most important, Zelia argued, because of the quality of the molding and carving. This class had “modifications of feature sufficient to give every specimen an individuality of its own,” she wrote. “The faces are invariably in repose, in some the eyes are closed … faces young and smooth, others very elongated, some with sunken cheeks, others with wrinkles.”

By comparing these terra-cotta heads with ancient pictographs and writings, she showed that some of the heads represented children while others depicted young men, warriors or elders. Others showed the distinct hairstyles described in the writings of Bernardino de Sahagún, a 16th-century Franciscan friar who spent 50 years studying the Aztec culture, language and history. “The noblewomen used to wear their hair hanging to the waist, or to the shoulders only. Others wore it long over the temples and ears only,” Sahagún had written. “Others entwined their hair with black cotton-thread and wore these twists about the head, forming two little horns above the forehead. Others have longer hair and cut its ends equally, as an embellishment, so that, when it is twisted and tied up, it looked as though it were all of the same length; and other women have their whole heads shorn or clipped.”

These concrete observations allowed Zelia to challenge popular ideas about the supposed African, Asian, European or Egyptian origins of the “races” in the Americas. For example, by studying the ornamentation the heads displayed, she was able to identify the person or god each artifact represented and interpret its ritual or symbolic purpose. One clearly corresponded with Tlaloc, the pan-Mesoamerican god of rain, who had been shown in the pictographs with a curved band above the mouth and circles around the eyes. Another head, molded with a turban-like cap, corresponded with the goddess Centeotl; Zelia speculated that the clay turbans once had real feathers attached. She also noted the significance of various poses. “In the picture-writings, closed eyes invariably convey the idea of death,” she wrote.

The article revealed how Zelia intended to be seen as a scholar. First, she made it clear that she had read what others had written. Then she revealed that she would go beyond existing speculation to answer questions that had puzzled others; hers was to be original and important work.

In 1892, Zelia presented a paper in Spain about the Aztec calendar stone. Buried during the destruction of the Aztec Empire, the calendar stone had been unearthed in December 1790, when repairs were being made to the Zócalo, Mexico City’s central plaza. The sculpted stone, some 12 feet in diameter and weighing 25 tons, became a popular attraction exhibited in the Mexico City Cathedral, steps from where it had been found. Antonio de León y Gama, a Mexican astronomer, mathematician and archaeologist, had written about its discovery and praised the intelligence of the Aztecs who had created it. Alexander von Humboldt, who saw the stone when he visited Mexico in 1803-1804, included a drawing in his Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, published in 1810, and encouraged Mexican intellectuals to study the meaning of its concentric circles and numerous glyphs. Many others took on its puzzles in the years that followed.

At the time of Zelia’s presentation, the Mexican upper classes were carefully crafting a new national image—a story that would allow Mexico to take its place among the modern nations of the world. The Aztecs, Maya, Olmecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs and other cultures had left their imprints throughout the country in magnificent temples, enigmatic statues, gold jewelry, jade figurines and painted murals. This history was reclaimed as a national heritage every bit as glorious as those of Greece and Rome. A statue of Cuauhtémoc, the Aztec king who resisted Cortés, took its place on Mexico City’s elegant Paseo de la Reforma in 1887. The calendar stone had been installed in a place of honor in the National Museum in 1885. But little was known about the actual customs and beliefs of those ancient people.

The Aztec calendar stone, a central focus of Zelia’s research, has been on display at Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology since 1885. Alamy

With her extraordinary knowledge of surviving codices, Zelia offered a novel “reading” of the giant calendar stone that had stumped others and provided new insights into the annual and seasonal cycles of daily life in ancient Mexico, illuminating the cosmology, agriculture and trade patterns of the Aztecs. She presented another version of the paper at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Zelia returned to Mexico City in February 1902, and after a personal audience with Mexican President José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz, arranged by the U.S. ambassador, she embarked on a spree of travel to archaeological sites she had long wanted to visit. In May, she and 20-year-old Nadine joined friends at the Oaxacan ruins at Mitla, a religious center, where the “place of the dead” harbored both Mixtec and Zapotec art and architecture. On this dry, high plain ringed by mountains, Zelia strolled across vast stone patios, inspected the elaborate geometric friezes that lined and decorated them, explored temples and imagined a sophisticated society of kings, priests, nobles, artisans and farmers.

When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico in the 16th century, the Aztec Empire dominated the area. This map of its largest city, Tenochtitlan (now the historic center of Mexico City), was printed in 1524 in Nuremberg, Germany, likely based on a drawing by one of Hernán Cortés’ men. It shows the city’s elaborate network of roads, bridges and canals, complete with aqueducts and bathhouses. The Spaniards executed the last Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin, and forced his people to convert to Catholicism. Alamy

Zelia was welcomed into the international community of anthropologists in Mexico. She and Nadine traveled in the Yucatán with the young American anthropologist Alfred Tozzer, where they were beset by frequent rain and terrible roads. Arriving tired and wet in a small town, Tozzer, who would one day chair Harvard’s department of anthropology, was impressed by the women’s resilience. “Imagine the picture,” he wrote to his family on April 8, 1902. “Mrs. Nuttall, never accustomed to roughing it, a woman entertained by the crowned heads of Europe, sitting at a bench with the top part of my pajamas on drinking chocolate and her daughter with a flannel shirt of mine on doing the same.”

After a few months, Zelia and her daughter returned to Mexico City and purchased a mansion they called Casa Alvarado, in the upscale suburb of Coyoacán. The grand house never failed to impress. Frederick Starr, an anthropologist from the University of Chicago, was one of many who found the palace beautiful and restful: “We rode out to Coyoacán where we found Mrs. Nuttall and her daughter really charmingly situated. The color decoration is simple and strong. Nasturtiums are handsomely used in the patio and balcony effects. … While Mrs. Nuttall dressed, Miss Nuttall showed us through the garden, where a real transformation has been effected.”

Living in Mexico energized Zelia. In addition to her affiliation with Harvard, she had funding to travel and collect artifacts for the Department of Anthropology at the University of California. “With me here, in touch with the government and people, I think that American institutions can but profit and that I can do some good in advancing Science in this country,” she confided to Putnam.

Impressed by her knowledge of the country’s past, public officials and foreign visitors came to see her and listened carefully as she led them around her home and garden, explaining the collection she was busy assembling. Her garden, patio and verandas were home to an increasingly large number of stone artifacts, a beautiful carving of the serpent god Quetzalcóatl, revered for his wisdom, among them. She took up “digging” near Casa Alvarado, an activity one guest later recalled fondly. “Every morning after breakfast Mrs. Nuttall would give me a trowel and a bucket. She herself was equipped with a sort of short-handled spade, and we would go out into the surrounding country and ‘dig.’ We mostly found broken pieces of pottery, but she seemed to think some of them were significant, if not valuable. … She was a very handsome woman and very charming. She lived in great style, with many Mexican servants.”

The Codex Borgia, an accordion-folded document of Aztec life, was brought to Europe during the Spanish colonial period. Made of animal skins and stretching 36 feet when unfolded, the codex catalogs different units of time and the deities associated with them. It also includes astrological predictions once used for arranging marriages. Zelia drew on the codex to help her decode the Aztec calendar. Courtesy Ziereis Facsimiles

A section from the Codex Borgia

Zelia continued to travel throughout the country. She found a 14-page codex painted on deerskin, with commentary in Nahuatl, that she believed so valuable that she bought it with her own money, selling some of her possessions to afford it. “Owing to my residence here I must keep it a profound secret that I possess and sent out of the country this Codex,” she wrote to Putnam.

While she was not above smuggling treasures out of Mexico, Zelia also worked in the National Museum, contributing to its displays and archives, and she became an honorary professor of the institution.

Zelia had never owned a home until she bought Casa Alvarado in 1902. In a letter, she described the property as “a beautiful old place with extensive gardens.” Smithsonian Archives

Her Sunday teas at Casa Alvarado were a study in salon orchestration. “She would have 30 or 40 people and she would change the groups she invited,” one visitor recalled. “Sometimes they were all people who knew each other. Or else she would bring people together she wanted to introduce to each other. They weren’t like old-style Mexican parties, with all the women on one side and men on the other. The men and women were mixed together.”

According to an oft-repeated legend, at one of her soirées, she advanced to welcome an eminent guest just as her voluminous Victorian drawers came loose and dropped to her ankles. She calmly stepped out of them and proceeded as if nothing had happened. Zelia was, above all, self-confident.

Zelia Nuttall left Mexico during the early months of 1910 and did not return to her beloved Casa Alvarado for seven years. Throughout that time, Mexico was in the midst of a violent revolution. As many as two million people lost their lives in the ten-year conflict, and the country’s infrastructure was reduced to tatters. Even after the end of the most extensive violence, turmoil erupted sporadically until the late 1920s.

By then, visitors to Casa Alvarado agreed that Zelia was rooted in a bygone era. She was a middle-aged woman with thick glasses who favored shawls, laces and jet beads. Her palace was still filled with stuff only a Victorian could accumulate, but Mexico was telling new stories about itself.

The writer D.H. Lawrence used Zelia as a model for a fictional character—“an elderly woman, rather like a Conquistador herself in her black silk dress and her little black shoulder-shawl.” Antropo Wiki

The elites of the previous generation had asserted that descendants of the Aztec, Maya and other civilizations deteriorated into poverty and abandon. Young artists and intellectuals now rejected this belief. In Diego Rivera’s vast public murals, he showed the people of Mexico being ground into poverty and submission by Spanish conquistadors, a rapacious church, foreign capitalism, the army and cruel politicians. Quetzalcóatl replaced Santa Claus at the National Stadium; Chapultepec Park hosted Mexico Night.

Zelia did not like the revolution and she did not approve of what came after it. She did not celebrate the masses; she believed in hierarchy and a natural order of classes and races. Yet she was determined to be relevant to a new era in Mexico. Casa Alvarado became a meeting place for politicians, journalists, writers and social scientists from Mexico and abroad, many of whom came to witness the possibilities of change in the aftermath of a people’s revolution.

Nevertheless, the stubborn elegance of Casa Alvarado in the 1920s was clear testimony that Zelia was not willing to give up her lifestyle. When the French American painter Jean Charlot was a guest at one of Zelia’s teas, he was aghast at the Mexican servants in white gloves.

When Zelia Nuttall died in 1933, the U.S. consul in Mexico City wrote to Nadine—by then a 51-year-old widow living in Cambridge, England—assuring her that they’d given her mother a tasteful funeral. “Your Mother was very highly thought of here, as evidenced by the floral offerings and the number of her friends who came to the funeral service at the cemetery, it being estimated that about one hundred persons were present.”

By that time, the field of anthropology was dramatically changing, becoming more systematic and organized. Those who entered the field in the 1920s and 1930s built expertise in the classroom and under supervision in the field, passing a variety of tests and milestones determined by academic experts and acquiring a credential as proof of the right to pursue these inquiries. With these rigorous new standards, they asserted their superiority as scholars over those of Zelia’s generation.

Researchers thought this item at Vienna’s Museum of Ethnology was a “Moorish hat” before Zelia identified it as a Mesoamerican headdress. Alamy

Yet Alfred Tozzer, in his memorial in the journal American Anthropologist, reflected that Zelia “was a remarkable example of 19th-century versatility.” She was wrong in some of her overarching theories. For instance, she fallaciously argued that ancient Phoenician travelers had carried their culture to Mesoamerica. But she was right about many other things. Through her letters, articles and books, we can trace what she got right and what she got wrong as a scholar, and we can follow her as she moved from one research obsession to the next.

Her private life is harder to grasp. Among all the artifacts, there is little about the quips and gossip she exchanged with friends, the piano music she liked to play and sing. We cannot know what was in the boxes of papers in the cellar of Casa Alvarado that were burned in the housecleaning undertaken by its new tenants. We cannot retrieve personal and public documents lost in the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

What we do know is that she had to make sacrifices, often very personal ones. We can feel her vulnerability, uncertainty, anger and embarrassment in the letters she wrote, as well as her self-assuredness. It required unusual self-discipline to learn so many languages and to gain a mastery of ancient pictographs. Her almost constant travels imperiled her health even while they advanced her vast network of friends, colleagues and patrons. But she continued to work, and that work helped establish the foundation on which many others now build.

A single mother pursuing a career while looking after a family in a man’s world: In some ways, Zelia Nuttall was a very modern woman.

Adapted from In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient Civilizations by Merilee Grindle, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Copyright © 2023 by Merilee Grindle. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

#Women in history #Women in Anthropology #Zelia Nuttall #The Aztecs #Merilee Grindle #In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico's Ancient Civilizations #Books by women #Books about women #teotihuacan #mesoamerica #Nahuatl #Published women #Many of the first anthropologists were women #Alphonse Pinart was just another man who blew through his money #Women's careers flourishing after dumping a parasitic man #Frederic Ward Putnam #Men who encouraged women #The Annex #Lady scientist

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brookstonalmanac · 10 months ago

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Events 2.13 (after 1940)

1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. 1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. 1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences. 1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game. 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. 1955 – Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy. 1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons. 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug. 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain. 1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. 1978 – Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman. 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) long section of the Hood Canal Bridge. 1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky. 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany. 1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. 1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre). 2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944. 2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". 2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more. 2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 2021 – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. 2021 – A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico.

#Events

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calypsocoverpg · 1 year ago

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[May, 27, She/Her, GMT] is that Isabelle Ariel Ambrose? They bear a striking resemblance to Sydney Sweeney. I heard she is a 24 year old fae who came to the Hotel La Lune 6 months ago seeking safety from her husband-to-be and parents. Word has it they are a mechanical engineer. I guess the locals will have a lot to say about her…

Born to a wealthy and highly esteemed old fae family in the Winter Court and growing in the fae realm, Isabelle had what you might call a sheltered upbringing. One of her parents’ younger children and their only daughter, Isabelle was doted on from the moment she was born. Her parents valued wealth, status and success above all else, and instilled this in their children from a young age. As a teenager Isabelle developed a certain charisma, learning how to use her looks and charm to get what she wanted. Things came easily to her - good grades, lots of friends, fellow fae fawning over her. But she wanted more than just what her looks could offer her - having discovered an early interest in science and mathematics, this was what she quietly focused on, while maintaining the air of someone who took their studies much less seriously. She had it all - the status of popularity and perfect grades.

In her final year of highschool, her parents announced to her that she was to be married, having promised her to the song of the King and Queen of the Winter court - a young, self-centered and arrogant prince whom Isabelle had had the displeasure of meeting just once before. Her parents were determined for her to go through with the marriage, eager as ever to gain the status that would come with having a princess for a daughter. Always the faithful daughter Isabelle initially agreed, but the night before her wedding, she disappeared out of the realm, fleeing to the human world in the hopes of escaping her marriage. Between her fae charm and natural intelligence, she was quick to be offered a place at Harvard University in Massachusetts to study a degree in mechanical engineering. After finishing her engineering degree with honors, Isabelle moved straight into her masters, whipping through that with what seemed like ease, but all the while the knowledge that her parents and her husband-to-be were likely searching for her weighed heavy on her mind. It all came to a head just as she was nearing the end of her masters, her husband-to-be showing up in the human world and demanding she come home. She was forced to drop out of university just weeks before finishing her masters, fleeing to Hotel La Lune in search of protection.

That was six months ago, and things have not gotten better for Isabelle. She remains hidden away in Hotel La Lune, reluctant to even venture further out into Calypso Cove despite knowing that the whole area is protected. She waits in fear, certain that either her parents or her husband-to-be will find her and drag her back to the realm, stripping her of everything she has come to know since arriving in the human world.

#calypsoadmin #oc rp #supernatural rp #new rp #new rpg #rp #rpg #town rp #small town rp #horror rp #mystery rp #beach rp #oc rpg #horror rpg #mystery rpg #small town rpg #calypsobio

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usastuffstates · 5 months ago

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Illinois

Chicago • 300 South Wacker • 360 Chicago Observation Deck • Anderson Shumaker • Balboa Monument • Batcolumn • Big Monster Toys • Big Smile Dental • Billy Goat Tavern • Billy Goat Tavern (at The Mart) • Billy Goat Tavern (Navy ) • Billy Goat Tavern (near United Center) • Billy Goat Tavern (Ohare Airport- Concourse C) • Billy Goat Tavern (The Original) • Billy Goat Tavern (Wrigleyville) • Bob Newhart Statue • Bohemian National Cemetery • Busy Beaver Button Co • Chicago Architecture Center • Chicago Fed Money Museum • Cloud Gate • Creative Circle • Crown Fountain • Daley Plaza • Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy • Douglas Tomb State Historic Site • Field Museum • Former 7th District Police Station • Fountain of Time • Gallagher House • Geographical Center of Chicago • Graceland Cemetery • Grant Park • Historic Begin Route 66 Sign • Hotel Lincoln - JDV by Hyatt • Hubcap Yard House • Humboldt Park • Hyde Park Hair Salon & Barber • International Museum of Surgical Science • Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art • Jack Brickhouse Memorial • John Hancock Center • Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum • Kocol Mark S • K Three Welding • L. Frank Baum Yellow Brick Road • Los Portales Mexican Restaurant • McDonald's • Merchandise Mart • Midwest Eye Center - Chicago • Monument To The Great Northern Migration • New Colony Building • Nuclear Energy Sculpture • Obama Kissing Rock • Oz Park • Ravenswood ArtWalk • Robin Williams Mural • Rosehill Cemetery • Sanchez Lab • Shit Fountain • Sims Metal Management • Skydeck Chicago • SP+ Parking • Superdawg Drive-In • Swoon • Taco Bell Cantina • Tribune Tower • Twisted Spoke • United Center • University of Chicago • Victory Gardens Theater • Walt Disney Birthplace Home • Weber Grill Restaurant • Winston's Sausages • Wolfy's • Wooly Mammoth • The Wormhole Coffee • Wrigley Field

Fox River Grove • Bettendorf Castle

Freeport • Little Cubs Field • Union Dairy

Fulton • The Dutch Oven • Heritage Canyon • Windmill Cultural Center

Galena • Belvedere Mansion • U.S. Grant Home State Historic Site • West Street Sculpture Park

Galva • Galva City Police Department

Gardner • Streetcar Diner • Two Cell Jail

Gays • Two Story Outhouse

Geneva • Chicago Soccer Academy • Fabyan Windmill • Oak Hill Cemetery • Good Templar Park Association

Glen Ellyn • College of DuPage • College of DuPage, Health and Science Center

Glenview • Abt Electronics

Granite • Chain of Rocks Bridge • Everclean Car Wash • Granite City Park District

Grayslake • Lake County Farm Bureau

Greenville • DeMoulin Museum

Gridley • Telephone Museum of Gridley

Griggsville

Gurnee • El Rancho Motel

Hartford • Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower

Harvard • Five Point Park • RavenStone Castle

Hebron • Basketball Water Tower

Herod • Gap Bar • Garden of the God's • Herod Cave Historic Site • Shawnee Bigfoot Statue

Highland Park • Giant Hawk Head and Nest

Hillsboro • Abraham Lincoln Statue Plaza

Hillside • Mount Carmel Cemetery

Hinsdale • Robert Crown Center For Health Education

Homewood

HoopPole • St. Mary of the Fields Catholic Church

Hopewell • Whispering Giant Park

Hudson • Comlara Park

Hudsonville • Hutson Memorial Park

Inverness • Village of Inverness

Iuka • Quandt's Supply

Jacksonville • Brennan HVAC

Joliet • Blues Brothers Copmobile • Dick's Towing Service Inc • First Dairy Queen Location • Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 • Liberty Meadow Estates • Old Joliet Prison • Route 66 Food n Fuel

Justice • Resurrection Cemetery

Kankakee • 5th Avenue Community Gardens • Alexander Construction and Innovative Mobile Marketing • American Legion Kankakee Post 85 • Dairy Queen

Kaskaskia • Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial

Kent • Blackhawk Battlefield Park

Kewanee

Lemont • Argonne Welcome Center Northgate

Lerna • Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site • Shiloh Cemetery • Thompson's Welding Service

Lexington • Crazy Presidential Elephant

Liberty

Libertyville • Lambs Farm

Lincoln • Hotel Lincoln Inn • Lincoln City Hall • Lincoln Watermelon Monument • The Mill Museum on Route 66 • Postville Courthouse State Historic Site • Tiny Church • The Tropics Restaurant Neon Sign

Lincolnshire • Par-King Skill Golf

Lincolnwood • Novelty Golf & Games

Livingston • Pink Elephant Antique Mall

Lockport • Lincoln Landing • Lockport Powerhouse

Loda • Loda Park

Lombard • Weber Grill Restaurant & Cooking School

Long Grove • Sock Monkey Museum

Lynnwood • Clarke's Garden Center & Stone Depot

Lyons • Chicago Portage National Historic Site

Macomb • Living Lincoln Topiary Monument

Makanda • Giant City State Park Lodge & Restaurant • Rainmaker Art Studio • Water Tower

Malta • Old School Pizza

Mapleton • Butler Haynes Pavilion • Hollis Park District

Marseilles • Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial

Marshall • 1918 Brick National Road • World's Largest Gavel

Martinsville • Martinsville Agricultural Fair • Moonshine Store

Matanzas Beach

Mattoon • Burger King (Mattoon)

McCook • Welcome To Fabulous McCook Illinois Sign

Melrose Park • Kiddieland Amusement Park Sign

Metropolis • Big John Super Foods Store • Fort Massac State Park • kryptonite rock • Lois Lane Statue • Masonic Cemetery • Massac County Courthouse Annex • The Super Museum

Midlothian • Bachelor's Grove Cemetery

Milford

Mokena • Creamery

Moline

Monmouth

Morton • Red Barn Tree Shop

Mount Carroll • Raven's Grin Inn

Mount Morris • Illinois Freedom Bell

Mt Olive • Soulsby Shell Station • Union Miners Cemetery

Mt. Pleasant • Grave of King Neptune the Pig • Trail of Tears Welcome Center

Mt. Vernon • Mt.Vernon Overhead Door

Murphysboro • Holiday Inn Express & Suites Murphysboro-Carbondale

Naperville • Central Park • Dick Tracy Statue • Highlands Elementary School • Millennium Carillon • Naperville Public Library - 95th Street Library • Naperville Public Library - Naper Blvd. Library • Naperville Public Library - Nichols Library • Naperville Train • Wrinkle Fairy

Nashville • The Traveler’s Chapel

Nauvoo • Nauvoo-Colusa Elementary/Jr High School

Newton • A-J Welding & Steel • Burl Ives Statue • Mug Tree

Niles • Booby's • Leaning Tower YMCA • Niles Veteran's Memorial Waterfall • President Abraham Lincoln bench • Veterans Memorial Monument Nilwood • Turkey Tracks on Route 66

Normal • Carl's Ice Cream Factory • Sprague's Super Service Station

Norridge • Westlawn Cemetery & Mausoleum

North Aurora • Scott's Vintage & Antiques

North Riverside • Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care

Norway • Norwegian Settlers State Memorial

Oak Brook • Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center

Oak Forest • King Heating and Air Conditioning

Oak Lawn • Cardinal Liquor Barn Inc

Odell • Standard Oil of Illinois Gas Station

Oglesby • The Rootbeer Stand • Starved Rock State Park

Olney • Olney Chamber of Commerce • Olney City Park • The Repair Shop

Oquawka • Norma Jean, Circus Elephant Monument

Oregon • Lowden State Park • Lowden State Park Campground • Oregon Park East

Ottawa • Ho-Ma-Shjah-Nah-Zhee-Ga Indian Monument • Lincoln-Douglas Park • Ottawa Avenue Cemetery • Remembering the Radium Girls • Shoe Tree • Volvo at Carling Motors Co. Limited

Palatine • Ahlgrim Family Funeral Services

Pana • Giant Hand with Painted Nails

Park Forest • Chinese House @ 428 N. Orchard Drive • Park Forest Rail Fan Park

Pekin • Double D's Soft Serve

Peoria Heights • Heights Tower

Peoria • C.T. Gabbert Remodeling & Construction • Neal Auto Parts • Peoria Plaza Tire • Peoria Riverfront Museum • Richard Pryor statue by Preston Jackson • Wheels O' Time Museum Paris • Sapp Bros. Travel Center

Peru

Petersburg • Oakland Cemetery

Piasa • Southwestern Middle School

Plainfield • Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202

Plano • Smallville Superfest

Pontiac • Burma Shave Signs • Livingston County War Museum • Route 66 Association of Illinois • Route 66 decommissioned Illinois State police headquarter

Port Byron • Will B. Rolling Statue

Princeton • Owen Lovejoy House • Red Covered Bridge

Quincy • St Peters Cemetery

Rantoul • Chanute Air Force Base (Decommissioned) • Hardy's Reindeer Ranch • Rantoul National Aviation Center Airport-Frank Elliott Field

Rend Lake • Rend Lake Golf Course Restaurant & Banquet

River Grove • Hala Kahiki Lounge

Riverdale • Riverdale, IL Water Tower

Roanoke

Rochelle • Vince's Pizza & Family Restaurant

Rock Island • Black Hawk State Historic Site • Chippiannock Cemetery • Rock Island Arsenal

Rockford • Beyer Peaches Stadium • Lockwood Park & Trailside Equestrian Centre • Midway Village Museum • Rock Men

Rolling Meadows • Rolling Meadows Park District Headquarters

Romeoville • White Fence Farm Main Restaurant

Rondout

Roscoe • Historic Auto Attractions

Roselle • Mark Drug Pharmacy and Home Health

Rosemont • Rosemont Water Tower Russell • Russell Military Museum

Salem • Pollard Motors

Sandwich • Bull Moose Bar & Grille • Sandwich City Hall • Sandwich Opera House

Savanna • Savanna Army Depot

Schaumburg • Al Larson Prairie Center For the Arts • Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament • Weber Grill Restaurant & Cooking School

Scott AFB • Scott Field Heritage Air Park

Seneca • LST Memorial Public Boat Launch

Shelbyville • Mobile Wedding Chapel & Wedding Ceremony • Shelby County Courthouse

Silvis • Hero Street Monument Committee

South Barrington • Goebbert's Farm - South Barrington

South Elgin • Fox Valley Trolley Museum

Springfield • 1908 Race Riot Memorial • Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum • Ace Sign Co • Capitol Complex Visitors Center • County Market • Cozy Dog Drive In • Derringer Auto Care • Dumb Records • Illinois State Capitol • Illinois State Fairground • Illinois State Military Museum • Lauterbach Tire & Auto Service • Lincoln Monument Association • Mahan Filling Station • Oak Ridge Cemetery • Pearson Museum • Shea's Gas Station Museum • Southeast High School • Springfield Amtrak Station • Young Lincoln Mural

St. Anne • St. Anne Caboose

St. Charles • Ghoulish Mortals

St. Elmo • Driftstone Pueblo

Staunton • Henrys Rabbit Ranch

Stewardson • Moomaw Truck Alignment INC. Stickney • Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Stockton • Bottle Shed Bar & Pizzaria

Stone Park • Casa Italia

Streamwood • Spirit of America Car Wash

Streator • Canteen Monument • Pluto Coffee and Tea • Schultz Monument Co

Summit • Argo Community High School

Sycamore • Statue of Mr. Pumpkin

Tampico • Ronald Reagan's Birthplace

Taylorville • Christian County Circuit Clerk • Oak Hill Cemetery

Teutopolis • Monastery Museum

Towanda • Dead Man's Curve

Troy Grove • Wild Bill Hickok State Memorial

Union • Illinois Railway Museum

University Park • Governors State University

Urbana • Natural History Building • U of I Pollinatarium • University of Illinois Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Vandalia • Jay's Inn • Kaskaskia Dragon • Vandalia City Hall • Vandalia Statehouse State Historic Site

Vienna • Big Boys Bar & Grill

Villa Park • Safari Land

Volo • Jurassic Gardens • The Party Barn at Volo Museum • Volo Museum • Volo Museum Auto Sales

Wadsworth • Gold Pyramid

Wapella • Prairie Built Barns Wapella

Washington • Lincoln Statue “Return Visit” Washington Park • Eddie's

Watseka • Smiley Face Water Tower

Waukegan • Club Tiki Bar & Video Slots • Waukegan Public Library • Waukegan Roofing | TPO Commercial Flat Roof Repair & Replacement

Wedron

Wenona • Coal Mine Car Monument

Westport • Lincoln Trail State Memorial

Wheaton • Armerding Center for Music and Arts • Billy Graham Museum • Jack T. Knuepfer County Administration Building • Wheaton College • Wheaton College Marion E Wade Center • Wheaton College Observatory (IL) • Wheaton Windmill Wheeling • Superdawg Drive-In

Whitehall

Willow Hill • Mound Cemetery

Willowbrook • Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket

Wilmette • Bahá'í House of Worship

Wilmington

Winnetka

Woodlawn

Woodridge • Hollywood Blvd Cinema

Woodstock • Royal Victorian Manor • Shoe Tree

Worth • Ball Fore Miniature Golf

0 notes

littletittie · 5 months ago

Text

Illinois

Fox River Grove • Bettendorf Castle

Freeport • Little Cubs Field • Union Dairy

Fulton • The Dutch Oven • Heritage Canyon • Windmill Cultural Center

Galena • Belvedere Mansion • U.S. Grant Home State Historic Site • West Street Sculpture Park

Galva • Galva City Police Department

Gardner • Streetcar Diner • Two Cell Jail

Gays • Two Story Outhouse

Geneva • Chicago Soccer Academy • Fabyan Windmill • Oak Hill Cemetery • Good Templar Park Association

Glen Ellyn • College of DuPage • College of DuPage, Health and Science Center

Glenview • Abt Electronics

Granite • Chain of Rocks Bridge • Everclean Car Wash • Granite City Park District

Grayslake • Lake County Farm Bureau

Greenville • DeMoulin Museum

Gridley • Telephone Museum of Gridley

Griggsville

Gurnee • El Rancho Motel

Hartford • Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower

Harvard • Five Point Park • RavenStone Castle

Hebron • Basketball Water Tower

Herod • Gap Bar • Garden of the God's • Herod Cave Historic Site • Shawnee Bigfoot Statue

Highland Park • Giant Hawk Head and Nest

Hillsboro • Abraham Lincoln Statue Plaza

Hillside • Mount Carmel Cemetery

Hinsdale • Robert Crown Center For Health Education

Homewood

HoopPole • St. Mary of the Fields Catholic Church

Hopewell • Whispering Giant Park

Hudson • Comlara Park

Hudsonville • Hutson Memorial Park

Inverness • Village of Inverness

Iuka • Quandt's Supply

Jacksonville • Brennan HVAC

Justice • Resurrection Cemetery

Kankakee • 5th Avenue Community Gardens • Alexander Construction and Innovative Mobile Marketing • American Legion Kankakee Post 85 • Dairy Queen

Kaskaskia • Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial

Kent • Blackhawk Battlefield Park

Kewanee

Lemont • Argonne Welcome Center Northgate

Lerna • Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site • Shiloh Cemetery • Thompson's Welding Service

Lexington • Crazy Presidential Elephant

Liberty

Libertyville • Lambs Farm

Lincolnshire • Par-King Skill Golf

Lincolnwood • Novelty Golf & Games

Livingston • Pink Elephant Antique Mall

Lockport • Lincoln Landing • Lockport Powerhouse

Loda • Loda Park

Lombard • Weber Grill Restaurant & Cooking School

Long Grove • Sock Monkey Museum

Lynnwood • Clarke's Garden Center & Stone Depot

Lyons • Chicago Portage National Historic Site

Macomb • Living Lincoln Topiary Monument

Makanda • Giant City State Park Lodge & Restaurant • Rainmaker Art Studio • Water Tower

Malta • Old School Pizza

Mapleton • Butler Haynes Pavilion • Hollis Park District

Marseilles • Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial

Marshall • 1918 Brick National Road • World's Largest Gavel

Martinsville • Martinsville Agricultural Fair • Moonshine Store

Matanzas Beach

Mattoon • Burger King (Mattoon)

McCook • Welcome To Fabulous McCook Illinois Sign

Melrose Park • Kiddieland Amusement Park Sign

Metropolis • Big John Super Foods Store • Fort Massac State Park • kryptonite rock • Lois Lane Statue • Masonic Cemetery • Massac County Courthouse Annex • The Super Museum

Midlothian • Bachelor's Grove Cemetery

Milford

Mokena • Creamery

Moline

Monmouth

Morton • Red Barn Tree Shop

Mount Carroll • Raven's Grin Inn

Mount Morris • Illinois Freedom Bell

Mt Olive • Soulsby Shell Station • Union Miners Cemetery

Mt. Pleasant • Grave of King Neptune the Pig • Trail of Tears Welcome Center

Mt. Vernon • Mt.Vernon Overhead Door

Murphysboro • Holiday Inn Express & Suites Murphysboro-Carbondale

Nashville • The Traveler’s Chapel

Nauvoo • Nauvoo-Colusa Elementary/Jr High School

Newton • A-J Welding & Steel • Burl Ives Statue • Mug Tree

Niles • Booby's • Leaning Tower YMCA • Niles Veteran's Memorial Waterfall • President Abraham Lincoln bench • Veterans Memorial Monument Nilwood • Turkey Tracks on Route 66

Normal • Carl's Ice Cream Factory • Sprague's Super Service Station

Norridge • Westlawn Cemetery & Mausoleum

North Aurora • Scott's Vintage & Antiques

North Riverside • Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care

Norway • Norwegian Settlers State Memorial

Oak Brook • Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center

Oak Forest • King Heating and Air Conditioning

Oak Lawn • Cardinal Liquor Barn Inc

Odell • Standard Oil of Illinois Gas Station

Oglesby • The Rootbeer Stand • Starved Rock State Park

Olney • Olney Chamber of Commerce • Olney City Park • The Repair Shop

Oquawka • Norma Jean, Circus Elephant Monument

Oregon • Lowden State Park • Lowden State Park Campground • Oregon Park East

Ottawa • Ho-Ma-Shjah-Nah-Zhee-Ga Indian Monument • Lincoln-Douglas Park • Ottawa Avenue Cemetery • Remembering the Radium Girls • Shoe Tree • Volvo at Carling Motors Co. Limited

Palatine • Ahlgrim Family Funeral Services

Pana • Giant Hand with Painted Nails

Park Forest • Chinese House @ 428 N. Orchard Drive • Park Forest Rail Fan Park

Pekin • Double D's Soft Serve

Peoria Heights • Heights Tower

Peru

Petersburg • Oakland Cemetery

Piasa • Southwestern Middle School

Plainfield • Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202

Plano • Smallville Superfest

Pontiac • Burma Shave Signs • Livingston County War Museum • Route 66 Association of Illinois • Route 66 decommissioned Illinois State police headquarter

Port Byron • Will B. Rolling Statue

Princeton • Owen Lovejoy House • Red Covered Bridge

Quincy • St Peters Cemetery

Rantoul • Chanute Air Force Base (Decommissioned) • Hardy's Reindeer Ranch • Rantoul National Aviation Center Airport-Frank Elliott Field

Rend Lake • Rend Lake Golf Course Restaurant & Banquet

River Grove • Hala Kahiki Lounge

Riverdale • Riverdale, IL Water Tower

Roanoke

Rochelle • Vince's Pizza & Family Restaurant

Rock Island • Black Hawk State Historic Site • Chippiannock Cemetery • Rock Island Arsenal

Rockford • Beyer Peaches Stadium • Lockwood Park & Trailside Equestrian Centre • Midway Village Museum • Rock Men

Rolling Meadows • Rolling Meadows Park District Headquarters

Romeoville • White Fence Farm Main Restaurant

Rondout

Roscoe • Historic Auto Attractions

Roselle • Mark Drug Pharmacy and Home Health

Rosemont • Rosemont Water Tower Russell • Russell Military Museum

Salem • Pollard Motors

Sandwich • Bull Moose Bar & Grille • Sandwich City Hall • Sandwich Opera House

Savanna • Savanna Army Depot

Schaumburg • Al Larson Prairie Center For the Arts • Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament • Weber Grill Restaurant & Cooking School

Scott AFB • Scott Field Heritage Air Park

Seneca • LST Memorial Public Boat Launch

Shelbyville • Mobile Wedding Chapel & Wedding Ceremony • Shelby County Courthouse

Silvis • Hero Street Monument Committee

South Barrington • Goebbert's Farm - South Barrington

South Elgin • Fox Valley Trolley Museum

St. Anne • St. Anne Caboose

St. Charles • Ghoulish Mortals

St. Elmo • Driftstone Pueblo

Staunton • Henrys Rabbit Ranch

Stewardson • Moomaw Truck Alignment INC. Stickney • Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Stockton • Bottle Shed Bar & Pizzaria

Stone Park • Casa Italia

Streamwood • Spirit of America Car Wash

Streator • Canteen Monument • Pluto Coffee and Tea • Schultz Monument Co

Summit • Argo Community High School

Sycamore • Statue of Mr. Pumpkin

Tampico • Ronald Reagan's Birthplace

Taylorville • Christian County Circuit Clerk • Oak Hill Cemetery

Teutopolis • Monastery Museum

Towanda • Dead Man's Curve

Troy Grove • Wild Bill Hickok State Memorial

Union • Illinois Railway Museum

University Park • Governors State University

Urbana • Natural History Building • U of I Pollinatarium • University of Illinois Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Vandalia • Jay's Inn • Kaskaskia Dragon • Vandalia City Hall • Vandalia Statehouse State Historic Site

Vienna • Big Boys Bar & Grill

Villa Park • Safari Land

Volo • Jurassic Gardens • The Party Barn at Volo Museum • Volo Museum • Volo Museum Auto Sales

Wadsworth • Gold Pyramid

Wapella • Prairie Built Barns Wapella

Washington • Lincoln Statue “Return Visit” Washington Park • Eddie's

Watseka • Smiley Face Water Tower

Waukegan • Club Tiki Bar & Video Slots • Waukegan Public Library • Waukegan Roofing | TPO Commercial Flat Roof Repair & Replacement

Wedron

Wenona • Coal Mine Car Monument

Westport • Lincoln Trail State Memorial

Whitehall

Willow Hill • Mound Cemetery

Willowbrook • Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket

Wilmette • Bahá'í House of Worship

Wilmington

Winnetka

Woodlawn

Woodridge • Hollywood Blvd Cinema

Woodstock • Royal Victorian Manor • Shoe Tree

Worth • Ball Fore Miniature Golf

0 notes

newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Monday, December 11, 2023

The Old New Way to Provide Cheap Housing (Nicholas Kristof/NYT) Homelessness is an American tragedy, but it’s not hopeless. Houston has become a national model by reducing homelessness by more than 60 percent. Homelessness, above all, reflects a shortage of cheap housing. So I’m intrigued by an approach to providing such housing that’s gaining ground around the country. It’s an idea so old, it seems new: converting single-family houses to rooming houses. Rooming houses, boardinghouses or single room occupancy (SRO) hotels used to be ubiquitous. President Thomas Jefferson stayed in a boardinghouse for several months before moving into the White House. SROs largely disappeared over the past half-century, partly because of zoning and economic development projects. In Houston I dropped in on a home operated by PadSplit, a company that offers furnished bedrooms for working-class Americans. PadSplit, which is something like a long-term Airbnb for rooming houses, has housed 22,000 people so far and is growing fast. The PadSplit model is to take a house that is near public transportation, convert the living room to a bedroom, put locks on each bedroom door and then rent out each room by the week. This typically means a shared bathroom and kitchen, and some tenants have complaints, but it’s affordable for people who have few other options.

Major storm slamming East Coast with heavy rain, snow, wind and severe weather (Washington Post) A significant storm system is sweeping over the East Coast, delivering high-impact hazardous weather and setting the stage for cascading travel delays into the start of the workweek. A dramatic clash of air masses is waging war over the Eastern United States, with concerns for flooding rain, snow and potential severe thunderstorms. Flood watches stretch from Virginia to Maine, with winter storm warnings for the interior Northeast, where a plowable amount of snow is likely. Coastal New England will deal with damaging winds, while a tornado risk could creep into the Carolinas and Virginia Tidewater. It comes barely a day after the same system caused a deadly tornado outbreak in the Tennessee and lower Mississippi Valleys that left at least six people dead. Other tornadoes hit Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Penn president, board chair resign amid backlash to remarks on antisemitism (Washington Post) University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned after intense criticism from donors, alumni and others of her testimony at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses. Magill came under withering criticism after her testimony before a House committee on Tuesday in which she declined to state plainly that a call for genocide against Jews would violate the university’s code of conduct. Magill appeared at the hearing alongside Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth. The presidents sought to defend values of free expression, while assuring that they would punish harassment or bullying. To many, though, the academics’ attempts at nuance came off as weak-kneed and legalistic equivocations. Magill’s testimony alienated key constituents, including the state’s governor, the board of the Wharton School of Business, and an alumnus who is threatening to withhold a $100 million donation. A video Magill released late Wednesday, walking back her remarks from the hearing, did little to placate critics.

International bodies reject moves to block Guatemala president-elect from taking office (AP) International and regional leaders have rejected the latest attempt by Guatemalan prosecutors to prevent progressive President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office on Jan. 14. Prosecutors asked a court Friday to strip Arévalo of his legal immunity and alleged that minutes seized during a raid of electoral offices showed that results from the presidential runoff vote he won in August had irregularities and were therefore void. Arévalo said the prosecution was seeking to undermine his ability to govern. Guatemala’s high electoral court, the Organization of American States and officials from the United Nations, the British Foreign Office and the European Union echoed his sentiment. The victory of Arévalo and his Seed Movement party posed a threat to those who have long wielded power in Guatemala. The anti-corruption crusader has been a target of legal salvos for month, including arrests of party members, raids and repeated court requests to lift his immunity so prosecutors can investigate him directly.

The inauguration of Javier Milei has Argentina wondering what kind of president it will get (AP) As economist Javier Milei assumes Argentina’s presidency on Sunday, the nation wonders which version of him will govern: the chainsaw-wielding, anti-establishment crusader from the campaign trail, or the more moderate president-elect who emerged in recent weeks. Milei, 53, rose to fame on television with profanity-laden tirades against what he called the political caste. He parlayed his popularity into a congressional seat and then, just as swiftly, into a presidential run. The overwhelming victory of the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” in the August primaries sent shock waves through the political landscape and upended the race. As a candidate, Milei pledged to purge the political establishment of corruption, eliminate the Central Bank he has accused of printing money and fueling inflation, and replace the rapidly depreciating peso with the U.S. dollar. But after winning, he tapped Luis Caputo, a former Central Bank president, to be his economy minister and one of Caputo’s allies to helm the bank, appearing to have put his much-touted plans for dollarization on hold. His moderation may stem from pragmatism, given the scope of the immense challenge before him, his political inexperience and need to sow up alliances with other parties to implement his agenda in Congress.

For Putin, winning reelection could be easier than resolving the many challenges facing Russia (AP) For President Vladimir Putin, winning reelection will probably be the easy part. His sweeping grip on Russia’s political scene has virtually assured him another six-year term that would extend his two dozen years in power. More daunting will be the thorny challenges that lie ahead. What Putin expected to be a quick campaign in 2022 to establish Kremlin control over its neighbor has turned into a grinding war of attrition that has incurred massive personnel losses and drained Russia’s resources. Putin expects that continuing warfare will gradually exhaust Ukrainian resources and undermine Western support for Kyiv, but a protracted conflict also exacerbates Russia’s economic woes, deepens social problems and fuels divisions within the ruling elite. While bruising U.S. and EU sanctions have failed to deal a knockout blow to the Russian economy and force the Kremlin to halt its invasion as some in the West have expected, the restrictions have curtailed revenue from oil, gas and other key exports and sharply limited access to Western technology. Adding to the pain, 300 billion euros of Russian Central Bank reserves have been blocked in the West.

Hong Kong Wants More Tourists, but Mostly ‘Good Quality’ Ones, Please (NYT) One by one the tour buses descended on the blue collar neighborhood in Hong Kong known as To Kwa Wan—literally translated as Potato Bay—unloading throngs of travelers from mainland China outside large restaurants where a quick lunch awaited them inside. The return of budget mainland tour groups in recent months for the first time since China’s borders were closed by the pandemic in early 2020 has revived old tensions in a city transformed by Beijing’s political crackdown. Before the pandemic, an influx of mainlanders and their wealth into Hong Kong sent prices and rents soaring, fueling frustrations among the city’s residents that sometimes spilled over into outright bigotry. Now, the public response to the budget tourists has been less than welcoming, and at times, downright rude. Even some members of Hong Kong’s legislature, which is fully stacked with pro-Beijing lawmakers, have lost patience. “Can we have some good quality tour groups?” Kitson Yang asked his colleagues during a recent legislative session while holding up printed pictures of the tourists deluging parts of the city.

Philippines says Chinese coast guard assaulted its vessels with water cannons for a second day (AP) The Chinese coast guard assaulted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts Sunday and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just a day after similar hostilities at another contested shoal, Philippine officials said. The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, immediately condemned the latest confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Philippine navy-operated supply boats and two Philippine coast guard escort ships sailed to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces in a long-marooned navy ship that serves as a territorial outpost. China’s ships, which have surrounded the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal for years, have blocked Philippine coast guard and supply boats in a yearslong effort to take control of the hotly disputed atoll claimed by both nations. Second Thomas Shoal is more than 700 miles south of China's Hainan island.

For West Bank Palestinians, the Future Is Being Bulldozed (NYT) The men came alone that morning, leaving families and sheep behind, and climbed the hill to see what was left of their village. On the crest, they found a scene of wreckage: The windows of the makeshift clinic had been smashed, household furniture lay shattered; sections of the schoolhouse had been burned to ash. There were drifts of clothing and stray shoes spread on the ground throughout the abandoned village, small things dropped in haste when the families fled. The Palestinians who live (or lived) in this hilltop hamlet had decamped in terror a few weeks earlier. A gang of Israeli settlers—their neighbors—had been tormenting them for weeks, they explained, beating them up and threatening murder if they didn’t leave. Similar scenes are playing out across the West Bank these days as Israeli settlers, backed and sometimes aided by soldiers, force Arabs out of villages, farmlands and herding pastures. Human rights monitors say they are documenting an apparently coordinated campaign to bring vast swaths of land under the control of Jewish settlements (all of which are illegal under international law, and some of which are also illegal under Israeli law) while forcing Palestinians into densely populated cities and towns.

U.S. plans to sell more weapons to Israel after vetoing cease-fire resolution (Washington Post) The United States drew criticism from rights and aids groups for blocking a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as well as the unconditional release of all hostages, on Friday. The resolution had near-unanimous support from member states. The State Department is selling $107 million of tank supplies to Israel and subverting congressional approval to do so. Human Rights Watch said the United States was at risk of “complicity in war crimes,” and the Palestinian Authority’s president said the United States was responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinians. A U.S. envoy defended the veto, calling the resolution “divorced from reality” and noting that it did not condemn the Hamas attack. Israel’s ambassador, characterizing the resolution as “distorted,” praised the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who used the emergency declaration to sell weapons to Israel because “it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the State Department said in a news release.

Aid groups warn of starvation in Gaza (Washington Post) Palestinians in Gaza are facing mass starvation amid a punishing Israeli offensive that has “stripped families’ options for survival,” aid groups warned Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a U.N. cease-fire resolution that the groups said would have facilitated the delivery of food and other emergency supplies. The warnings over spreading hunger—from the United Nations, international aid agencies and Palestinian relief workers in Gaza—compounded fears for civilians already grappling with fierce fighting, heavy Israeli bombardment, the collapse of the health system and repeated displacement. The U.N. World Food Program’s deputy executive director, Carl Skau, told Reuters after visiting Gaza that “half of the population are starving” and described the humanitarian needs as “massive.”

#headlines #news

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puutterings · 2 years ago

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unbleached cotton, a caution to the rest

But one morning after school had called and all seemed quiet, a shocking circumstance occurred. Betty Briley came in dressed in indigo-blue, with short skirt and nankeen pantalettes. She made a great contrast between the back-wood girls in their long, scant skirts. The larger boys drew down their heads behind their slates and snickered; and Nat and Towhead put their heads close together and whispered, very low: but it broke the rules of the school. The teacher’s back was turned, too, but she heard all the same; and the way she jerked those little urchins off their seats into the middle of the room was a caution to the rest. She demanded an explanation of what they were saying; but they were so frightened that they could not have told if they would, and would not if they could. For punishment she thrust them down on a seat between some little girls — and one was Better Briley. It seemed a terrible disgrace. A flogging with those hickory wisps would not have seemed half so bad. It proved to be one of those never-to-be-forgotten lessons learned in the first days of school. The excitement soon died away, and it was not long before every girl in the country went into pantalettes. John Brown had many a puttering job dipping short lengths of unbleached cotton in his vats, after hides were taken out. Tan bark made durable nankeen color, and was thought to be cheaper. The circuit preacher came around every four weeks to hold meeting in the new schoolhouse, instead of in the deacon’s barn, which seemed more sanctimonious. For his dedication sermon he took for his text; “And a little child shall lead them,” and Nat wondered if it could be that the teacher meant Betty Briley; but he noticed that he did not say anything about pantalettes.

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ex Permelia Corey Thomson (whose name appears not on title page, but in prefatory note), her How the Coreys Went West : Fifty Years in Crossing the Continent (Press of Frye & Smith, San Diego, Cal., 1908) : 78-79 (78) : link (Harvard copy) same (but University of California; Bancroft Library copy) via hathitrust : link the latter bears presentation inscription : “For dear Miss Scripps in memory of Mother. / Estelle Thomson, Adelle Thomson / 1917.”

in chapter 24 “Bound for the Land of Sunshine,” Rufus Corey late in life takes his family out to “the bay region of San Diego county in Southern California, and they settled on a ranch in one of the valleys, in an adobe house shaded by a great pepper tree...” near the border with Mexico.

re: Estelle and Adelle Thomson, came across this letter to the editor of The Desert Magazine 2:12 (October 1939) :

Hollenbeck Home, Los Angeles, California Dear Mr. Henderson: We had never seen a copy of “Desert Magazine” unti three weeks ago — then a friend found one of February 1939 in a wastepaper truck — and brought it to us. We polished it and found it a jewel. In addition to being 93 and blind I have a broken bone and live in a wheelchair. My sister who is 84 takes care of me. She has not time to read . . . So we have five readers, who read such books as Longstreth’s “Laurentians,” all by Shackleton, “Land of Little Rain,” Mary Austin, etc. With our books we have traveled almost all civilized lands and some uncivilized. You may imagine how the “Desert” appealed to us. We found one current “Desert” issue, August, visited nearly every second hand magazine shop in Los Angeles and finally were rewarded with December 1937, July ’38 and May ’39. For some we paid fifty cents a copy. They were worth it! But we exhausted the supply. Fifty years ago I roamed over much of the wild land around San Diego and Tiajuana for Philadelphia “Times” and “Press.” My sister retired after 30 years as head cashier at Hotel del Coronado, with the advent of automobiles, coached thousands of guests (El Centro bound) as to the “jump” of sidewinders. Estelle Thomson. by Adelle Thomson.

(followed by a letter from Barry M. Goldwater !)

link (pdf) via mindat.org : link

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from search : "puttering" inauthor:corey : link

#1908 #Permelia Corey Thomson #short skirt and nankeen pantalettes #indigo

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mrskennedy · 3 years ago

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16 June 1964

original caption

Mrs. John F. Kennedy, widow of the President, leaves St. Regis Hotel in New York City after attending a dinner in her honor. The dinner was also a tribute to New York Area trustees of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library to be built near Harvard University

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sciencespies · 2 years ago

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The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos

https://sciencespies.com/news/the-mysterious-dance-of-the-cricket-embryos/

The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos

In June, 100 fruit fly scientists gathered on the Greek island of Crete for their biennial meeting. Among them was Cassandra Extavour, a Canadian geneticist at Harvard University. Her lab works with fruit flies to study evolution and development — “evo devo.” Most often, such scientists choose as their “model organism” the species Drosophila melanogaster — a winged workhorse that has served as an insect collaborator on at least a few Nobel Prizes in physiology and medicine.

But Dr. Extavour is also known for cultivating alternative species as model organisms. She is especially keen on the cricket, particularly Gryllus bimaculatus, the two-spotted field cricket, even though it does not yet enjoy anything near the fruit fly’s following. (Some 250 principal investigators had applied to attend the meeting in Crete.)

“It’s crazy,” she said during a video interview from her hotel room, as she swatted away a beetle. “If we tried to have a meeting with all the heads of labs working on that cricket species, there might be five of us, or 10.”

Crickets have already been enlisted in studies on circadian clocks, limb regeneration, learning, memory; they have served as disease models and pharmaceutical factories. Veritable polymaths, crickets! They are also increasingly popular as food, chocolate-covered or not. From an evolutionary perspective, crickets offer more opportunities to learn about the last common insect ancestor; they hold more traits in common with other insects than fruit flies do. (Notably, insects make up more than 85 percent of animal species).

Cassandra Extavour, a principal investigator on the study, in her office at Harvard University. “We should pick the right tool, and that includes the right organism, for the sort of question we want to ask,” she said.Tony Luong for The New York Times

Notebooks and a plate of crickets in Seth Donoughe’s home lab near the University of Chicago. He described embryology as the study of how a developing animal makes “the right parts at the right place at the right time.”Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

Dr. Extavour’s research aims at the fundamentals: How do embryos work? And what might that reveal about how the first animal came to be? Every animal embryo follows a similar journey: One cell becomes many, then they arrange themselves in a layer at the egg’s surface, providing an early blueprint for all adult body parts. But how do embryo cells — cells that have the same genome but aren’t all doing the same thing with that information — know where to go and what to do?

“That’s the mystery for me,” Dr. Extavour said. “That’s always where I want to go.”

Seth Donoughe, a biologist and data scientist at the University of Chicago and an alumnus of Dr. Extavour’s lab, described embryology as the study of how a developing animal makes “the right parts at the right place at the right time.” In some new research featuring wondrous video of the cricket embryo — showing certain “right parts” (the cell nuclei) moving in three dimensions — Dr. Extavour, Dr. Donoughe and their colleagues found that good old-fashioned geometry plays a starring role.

Humans, frogs and many other widely studied animals start as a single cell that immediately divides again and again into separate cells. In crickets and most other insects, initially just the cell nucleus divides, forming many nuclei that travel throughout the shared cytoplasm and only later form cellular membranes of their own.

A time-lapse video of two cricket embryos inside their respective eggs, captured during a five-day period of their development. Video by Seth Donoughe

In 2019, Stefano Di Talia, a quantitative developmental biologist at Duke University, studied the movement of the nuclei in the fruit fly and showed that they are carried along by pulsing flows in the cytoplasm — a bit like leaves traveling on the eddies of a slow-moving stream.

But some other mechanism was at work in the cricket embryo. The researchers spent hours watching and analyzing the microscopic dance of nuclei: glowing nubs dividing and moving in a puzzling pattern, not altogether orderly, not quite random, at varying directions and speeds, neighboring nuclei more in sync than those farther away. The performance belied a choreography beyond mere physics or chemistry.

“The geometries that the nuclei come to assume are the result of their ability to sense and respond to the density of other nuclei near to them,” Dr. Extavour said. Dr. Di Talia was not involved in the new study but found it moving. “It’s a beautiful study of a beautiful system of great biological relevance,” he said.

Journey of the nuclei

Fluorescent cell nuclei dividing in the cricket embryo. Video by Taro Nakamura

The cricket researchers at first took a classic approach: Look closely and pay attention. “We just watched it,” Dr. Extavour said.

They shot videos using a laser-light sheet microscope: Snapshots captured the dance of the nuclei every 90 seconds during the embryo’s initial eight hours of development, in which time 500 or so nuclei had amassed in the cytoplasm. (Crickets hatch after about two weeks.)

Typically, biological material is translucent and difficult to see even with the most souped-up microscope. But Taro Nakamura, then a postdoc in Dr. Extavour’s lab, now a developmental biologist at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Japan, had engineered a special strain of crickets with nuclei that glowed fluorescent green. As Dr. Nakamura recounted, when he recorded the embryo’s development the results were “astounding.”

That was “the jumping-off point” for the exploratory process, Dr. Donoughe said. He paraphrased a remark sometimes attributed to the science fiction author and biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov: “Often, you’re not saying ‘Eureka!’ when you discover something, you’re saying, ‘Huh. That’s weird.’”

Initially the biologists watched the videos on loop, projected onto a conference-room screen — the cricket-equivalent of IMAX, considering that the embryos are about one-third the size of a grain of (long-grain) rice. They tried to detect patterns, but the data sets were overwhelming. They needed more quantitative savvy.

Dr. Donoughe contacted Christopher Rycroft, an applied mathematician now at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and showed him the dancing nuclei. ‘Wow!’ Dr. Rycroft said. He had never seen anything like it, but he recognized the potential for a data-powered collaboration; he and Jordan Hoffmann, then a doctoral student in Dr. Rycroft’s lab, joined the study.

Over numerous screenings, the math-bio team contemplated many questions: How many nuclei were there? When did they start to divide? What directions were they going in? Where did they end up? Why were some zipping around and others crawling?

Jordan Hoffmann helped to identify higher-order geometric patterns in the movements of the nuclei.Tom Jamieson for The New York Times

Dr. Donoughe, a biologist and data scientist, enjoys “thinking about the spacing of cells, the sizes of cells, the shapes of cells.”Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

Taro Nakamura engineered a strain of crickets with nuclei that glowed fluorescent green.Kosuke Okahara for The New York Times

Christopher Rycroft, an applied mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a principal investigator on the new study.Tony Luong for The New York Times

Dr. Rycroft often works at the crossroads of the life and physical sciences. (Last year, he published on the physics of paper crumpling.) “Math and physics have had a lot of success in deriving general rules that apply broadly, and this approach may also help in biology,” he said; Dr. Extavour has said the same.

The team spent a lot of time swirling ideas around at a white board, often drawing pictures. The problem reminded Dr. Rycroft of a Voronoi diagram, a geometric construction that divides a space into nonoverlapping subregions — polygons, or Voronoi cells, that each emanate from a seed point. It’s a versatile concept that applies to things as varied as galaxy clusters, wireless networks and the growth pattern of forest canopies. (The tree trunks are the seed points and the crowns are the Voronoi cells, snuggling closely but not encroaching on one another, a phenomenon known as crown shyness.)

In the cricket context, the researchers computed the Voronoi cell surrounding each nucleus and observed that the cell’s shape helped predict the direction the nucleus would move next. Basically, Dr. Donoughe said, “Nuclei tended to move into nearby open space.”

Geometry, he noted, offers an abstracted way of thinking about cellular mechanics. “For most of the history of cell biology, we couldn’t directly measure or observe the mechanical forces,” he said, even though it was clear that “motors and squishes and pushes” were at play. But researchers could observe higher-order geometric patterns produced by these cellular dynamics. “So, thinking about the spacing of cells, the sizes of cells, the shapes of cells — we know they come from mechanical constraints at very fine scales,” Dr. Donoughe said.

A simulation of cell nuclei dividing and moving within the cricket egg. Each colored blob represents the space around each nucleus. Video by Jordan Hoffmann

To extract this sort of geometric information from the cricket videos, Dr. Donoughe and Dr. Hoffmann tracked the nuclei step-by-step, measuring location, speed and direction.

“This is not a trivial process, and it ends up involving a lot of forms of computer vision and machine-learning,” Dr. Hoffmann, an applied mathematician now at DeepMind in London, said.

They also verified the software’s results manually, clicking through 100,000 positions, linking the nuclei’s lineages through space and time. Dr. Hoffmann found it tedious; Dr. Donoughe thought of it as playing a video game, “zooming in high-speed through the tiny universe inside a single embryo, stitching together the threads of each nucleus’s journey.”

Next they developed a computational model that tested and compared hypotheses that might explain the nuclei’s motions and positioning. All in all, they ruled out the cytoplasmic flows that Dr. Di Talia saw in the fruit fly. They disproved random motion and the notion that nuclei physically pushed each other apart.

Instead, they arrived at a plausible explanation by building on another known mechanism in fruit fly and roundworm embryos: miniature molecular motors in the cytoplasm that extend clusters of microtubules from each nucleus, not unlike a forest canopy.

The team proposed that a similar type of molecular force drew the cricket nuclei into unoccupied space. “The molecules might well be microtubules, but we don’t know that for sure,” Dr. Extavour said in an email. “We will have to do more experiments in the future to find out.”

The geometry of diversity

Dr. Donoughe’s “embryo-constriction device.”Seth Donoughe

This cricket odyssey would not be complete without mention of Dr. Donoughe’s custom-made “embryo-constriction device,” which he built to test various hypotheses. It replicated an old-school technique but was motivated by previous work with Dr. Extavour and others on the evolution of egg sizes and shapes.

This contraption allowed Dr. Donoughe to execute the finicky task of looping a human hair around the cricket egg — thereby forming two regions, one containing the original nucleus, the other a partially pinched-off annex.

Then, the researchers again watched the nuclear choreography. In the original region, the nuclei slowed down once they reached a crowded density. But when a few nuclei sneaked through the tunnel at the constriction, they sped up again, letting loose like horses in open pasture.

This was the strongest evidence that the nuclei’s movement was governed by geometry, Dr. Donoughe said, and “not controlled by global chemical signals, or flows or pretty much all the other hypotheses out there for what might plausibly coordinate a whole embryo’s behavior.”

Fluorescent nuclei in a cricket embryo that has been constricted by a human hair. Video by Seth Donoughe

By the end of the study, the team had accumulated more than 40 terabytes of data on 10 hard drives and had refined a computational, geometric model that added to the cricket’s tool kit.

“We want to make cricket embryos more versatile to work with in the laboratory,” Dr. Extavour said — that is, more useful in the study of even more aspects of biology.

The model can simulate any egg size and shape, making it useful as a “testing ground for other insect embryos,” Dr. Extavour said. She noted that this will make it possible to compare diverse species and probe deeper into evolutionary history.

But the study’s biggest reward, all the researchers agreed, was the collaborative spirit.

“There’s a place and time for specialized knowledge,” Dr. Extavour said. “Equally as often in scientific discovery, we need to expose ourselves to people who aren’t as invested as we are in any particular outcome.”

The questions posed by the mathematicians were “free of all sorts of biases,” Dr. Extavour said. “Those are the most exciting questions.”

#News

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gaytravelinfo · 3 years ago

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Hotel 1868 - Cambridge, MA

Hotel 1868 – Cambridge, MA

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chiseler · 3 years ago

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Putzi

In Hitler’s inner circle of thugs, lunatics, imbeciles and perverts, Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl stood out as an oddity among the oddballs. Where they tended to be snarlingly parochial bumpkins, he was a cosmopolitan man – a Harvard man – with an international set of high-placed friends and associates that included not only Adolf Hitler but Franklin Roosevelt. It wasn’t that he didn’t look the part of the Aryan goon. He stood a mountainous six foot four, with broad shoulders, a barrel chest, huge hands, and a boulder of a head with a lantern jaw and lidded eyes designed for the threatening glower. But he was a big man who only wanted to be liked, aggressively ingratiating as a golden retriever. He was universally known by his childhood nickname, Putzi.

Putzi was born into a prosperous and cultured home in Munich in 1887. His German father was well-known dealer in fine art reproductions, with galleries in London and on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. His mother was an American of fine New England pedigree, with a Civil War general in her family tree. They sent him to Harvard in 1905. In 1911, at 24, he moved to Manhattan to run Galerie Hanfstaengl at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street. Yet his first love was music. He was an accomplished pianist if a sometimes overenthusiastic one who, it was said, occasionally banged the keys so hard with his sledgehammer hands that he broke strings. Many mornings before opening the gallery he could be found at the Harvard Club around the corner, playing the piano there. That was where he met another grad, state senator Franklin Roosevelt, who breakfasted at the club. Putzi was an assiduous cultivator of the celebrated and influential; he’d later write that “the famous names who visited me” at his gallery “were legion,” including “Pierpont Morgan, Toscanini, Henry Ford, Caruso, [the aviator Alberto] Santos-Dumont, Charlie Chaplin, Paderewski, and a daughter of President Wilson.” He also made friends with the artists and writers in Greenwich Village, including an affair with Djuna Barnes.

The coming of the Great War made life very difficult for him in New York, as it did for many German-Americans. The Justice Department investigated him; his Harvard Club fellows turned cold; the gallery’s windows were smashed more than once; and then, toward the end of the war, the government seized the gallery as “enemy property” and auctioned it off for a pittance.

In 1921 he returned to Munich with his wife and infant son. The following year, a Harvard classmate at the American embassy asked Putzi to go hear a political speech and give his impression. The speaker was Adolf Hitler, and Putzi was definitely impressed. He immediately ingratiated himself with Hitler, becoming his constant companion, his court minstrel and court jester. He saw his role as introducing some culture and refinement to Hitler and his loutish crew. He played Wagner and Liszt to soothe Hitler’s nerves, and tried to get him to grow out his moustache, which Putzi called his “snot-catcher.” He provided Hitler an entrée to upper-crust Germans and their money, and personally footed the bill for expanding the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter from a thin weekly to a thriving daily.

On November 8, 1923 he was inside Munich’s Bürgerbräu Keller when Hitler launched his failed putsch. Escaping the chaos of the next day, Hitler fled to Putzi’s country home some 40 miles south of the city. The American journalist Dorothy Thompson, who knew Putzi, showed up, pursuing a rumor that Hitler was hiding out there, but the police had gotten there first. “HITLER SEIZED NEAR MUNICH,” the front page of the November 13 New YorkTimes reported. “Found in Home of E. F. Hanfstaengl, Ex-New York Art Dealer.” [November 13, 1923]

Putzi maintained loose ties with the Nazis during their low ebb in the 1920s; then, when Hitler’s fortunes seemed to be reviving in 1931, Putzi re-hitched his wagon, joining the party – a commitment he’d resisted until then – and convincing Hitler to let him be his foreign press spokesman. He certainly had the international press contacts, from Thompson to Quentin Reynolds to William Randolph Hearst, though Thompson would dismiss him as “an immense, high-strung, incoherent clown,” and Reynolds sneered, “You had to know Putzi to really dislike him.”

One evening in 1935 another Harvard man, the New York writer Varian Fry, stepped out of his hotel in Berlin to witness “a band of some 200 Nazis, clad in civilian clothing but many of them wearing Storm Troop boots and trousers,” surge along the fashionable Kurfürstendamm, attacking anyone they thought was Jewish. They yanked people out of cars and cafes to beat and kick them senseless. They smashed the windows of Jewish shops and restaurants, as they sang the “Horst Wessel” song and chanted anti-Semitic slogans. Fry saw one young man “whose eyes became filled with blood so that he could not see where he was running,” and the Jewish proprietor of an ice cream shop badly beaten as his shop was wrecked. Fry returned to his hotel room, telephoned his report to a wire service, and the next day it was in the Times and other newspapers.

The Völkischer Beobachter, unsurprisingly, blamed Jews for inciting what it described as the spontaneous disturbance Fry witnessed, supposedly outraging good Germans by hissing at an anti-Semitic Swedish film in a Kurfürstendamm theater. To Fry, the riot “gave every evidence of careful planning” and was clearly led by storm troopers. The morning after, he went to Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda for some answers, and was ushered into Putzi Hanfstaengl’s office. At first Putzi went into boola-boola overdrive, one Harvard man to another, but when Fry resisted, Putzi deflated. Apparently he was finding his job of explaining the Nazis to the world rather daunting and frustrating. He was remarkably, even recklessly candid with Fry. He confessed that it was most likely storm troopers who had hissed at the Swedish film as a pretext for the rioting. More amazing still, he told Fry that two factions in the Nazi Party leadership were arguing over how to deal with Germany’s Jews. The moderates, in which he counted himself, maintained that the answer was to segregate or send them all away, perhaps to Madagascar. The radicals, who he said included Hitler and Goebbels, preferred exterminating them. Fry reported this conversation to the Times as well, seven years before the Nazi hierarchy formally adopted the Final Solution.

Putzi grew increasingly uncomfortable with making excuses for Hitler over the next couple of years. By 1937, Hitler and his inner circle harbored doubts about his loyalty. Fearing that Hitler planned to liquidate him, Putzi fled Germany for England, where he was hoping to be embraced as a political exile. Instead, the British interned him as an enemy national.

In 1942, Roosevelt took pity on him. He arranged with the British to have him transferred from a POW camp in Canada, which was reducing Putzi to a miserable sliver of his jolly old self, to a house outside Washington. There, under house arrest and constant guard, Putzi was kept busy writing voluminous psychological profiles of Hitler and other Nazi leaders for possible use by American intelligence and propaganda services. For a while his guard was his own son, Sergeant Egon Hanfstaengl, who had also fled Germany, come to America, and enlisted in the U.S. Army.

After the war Putzi was allowed to return to Germany, where he submitted to the humiliating process of being “de-Nazified.” He spent the rest of his life trying to convince anyone who’d pay attention that he’d been a “victim of Nazi political persecution,” even asking for cash reparations from the German government. In 1974 he made the news again when he was allowed to return to Harvard for his 65th class reunion. He died the following year.

by John Strausbaugh

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godlymvmi · 4 years ago

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Donald Trumps racism through the years

Since there's always Trump supporters arguing on my post, I thought I’d make a nice post they'd be able to understand :)

1973: The US department of Justice sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing act. Evidence was found that Trump had lied to black tenants about available apartments and refused to rent to black tenants.

1980s: According to a former employee, Trump would have all the black people in the casino ordered off the floor when Ivana and himself came to visit.These black employees would be moved to the back. In 1992 a $200,000 fine was issued towards the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino for moving black men and women off tables. This was to accommodate a gamblers views and prejudices.

1989: During the infamous Central Park Five case, Trump ran an ad in a local paper stating they needed to “bring the death penalty back.” Even after the release of all five males, a settlement of $41 million paid by the city and DNA evidence proving they could not be guilty of this crime, Trump still believed they were guilty as late as October 2016. Oh, did I mention? Four of these teenagers were black and the fifth was latino.

1991: A former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, John O’Donnell, quoted Trumps comments on a black accountant. “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” Later on, Trump claimed “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true,” while doing an interview for Playboy in 1977.

1993: In a confessional testimony, Trump stated he didn't think some Native American reservations should be allowed to operate casinos as “they don't look like Indians to me.” In 2000, Trump secretly ran a series of ads after the St. Regis Mohawk tribe proposed a casino that he deemed to be a direct financial threat to his own establishments in Atlantic City. In these ads, Trump suggested the tribe had a “record of criminal activity (that) is well documented.”

2005: After season two of Apprentice where Trump famously fired Kevin Allen, a black man, for seemingly being too educated, Trump publicly pitched the idea for what was essentially The Apprentice: White people vs black people.

2010: “Ground Zero Mosque” caused a lot of controversy during the year of 2010. This was a plan to build a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, this being near the area of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Trump offered to buy out one of the investors, claiming that this plan was insensitive and publicly opposed to the project. Later, on The Late Show with David Letterman, Trump argued his point further and said, “Well, somebody’s blowing us up. Somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff.”

2011: Trump, among others, played a huge role in pushing the false rumours that Obama, the first black president, was not born in the United States and still reportedly continues to push and believe this theory in private despite Obama releasing his birth certificate. In the same year, Trump also argued that Obama wasn't a good enough student for Columbia or Harvard Law school to accept him. “I heard he was a terrible student. Terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?”

2015: When Trump started his campaign in 2015, it was largely focused around his desire and promise to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out of the United States and he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and that they were “bringing drugs” and “bringing crime” to the United States.

Also in 2015: During his time as a candidate 2015, Trump called for a ban on all Muslims coming into the US. Eventually, his administration did implement a watered down version of this policy.

2016: Judge Gonzalo Curiel was overseeing the Trump University lawsuit in 2016 when Trump argued he should step down from the case. This was due to his Mexican heritage and his membership in a Latino lawyers association.

Also in 2016: “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?” Trump said as he tried to get black voters on his side.

During this year, he also tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton in front of a pile of money and a Jewish Star of David that said “Most corrupt candidate ever!” Despite the obviously anti-semitic imagery, Trump insisted the star was a sheriffs badge and maintained his campaign should not have deleted it.

He has repeatedly referred to Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas;” using her controversial and then walked back claims that she had Native American heritage as a punchline.

2017: Trump attacked NFL players who chose to take the knee during the national anthem numerous times.

Also in 2017: Following the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump claimed “both sides” were to blame for the violence and chaos that occurred. This suggests that the counter protestors protesting against racism and white supremacy were morally equivalent to the white supremacist protestors. He also claimed there were “some very fine people” among the white supremacists. White nationalist, Richard Spencer praised Trump for defending the truth.

Also in 2017: Trump reportedly claimed everyone who came to the US from Haiti “all have AIDS” and that people who came from Nigeria to the US “would never go back to their huts.” The following year (2018), Trump reportedly asked “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He has since denied these comments but some senators attending the same meeting did claim this happened.

2019: Trump mocked Elizabeth Warren and her presidential campaign, calling her Pocahontas again in a 2019 tweet before adding “See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!” The capitalisation of “Trail” is seemingly a reference to the Trail of Tears. This was a horrific ethnic cleansing of the Native Americans where they were forcibly relocated. This caused thousands of deaths.

Also in 2019: Trump took to twitter to tweet that several black and brown members of Congress: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), are from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” and that they should “go back” to said countries. Three of the four members of Congress targeted by Trump were, in fact, born in the US.

2020: Trump has referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.” This is highly offensive and large numbers of Asian Americans have reported hateful incidents targeting them due to the virus.

Also in 2020: Trump suggested that Kamala Harris, a black and south asian woman, “doesn't meet the requirements” to be Vice President.

Trump has always been slow to condemn white supremacists who endorse him and during his 2016 campaign he retweeted multiple tweets from Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

This is not even the full list and the article itself states its not a comprehensive list. But it does speak to his pattern of racism and bigotry. The article this list is from is linked below, I’d recommend everyone to read it and educate yourself using other resources as well. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg. I will also be making a post of his inappropriate, problematic and vile behaviour towards women.

The article: https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history

#lets educate and be more aware #this is the man you voted for.#and you can't deny this u mings #donald trump #election 2020 #blm

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ourplaceinthecosmosphff · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 16. Fight or Flight

‘I am healing by mistake. Rome is also built on ruins.' Eliza Griswold

“It’s a private street,” Harry explained as he walked me on quickstep towards the big black gates in red brick ahead. “Technically owned by the Crown Estate. Most of the houses are embassies or former embassies now owned by billionaires.” “Was someone supposed to have stopped me from just walking in?” I asked, already guessing the answer.

“A little weird to have a central London address mostly habited by dignitaries and rich people and forbid people from entering it, isn’t it?” He grinned. “So it’s open for pedestrians and cyclists twenty-four-seven. Cars only authorized. And, of course, they are free to kick you out if they think you’re behaving strangely.”

“Understandable.” I smiled.

“...So…” He started, shifting on his feet as he walked, adjusting my bag on his shoulder, “Where’s Christopher?”

“...Right now? Halfway to Canada, probably. On business.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “And… your security?”

I looked around at the street lights, avoiding his eyes. “It’s just me.”

“Right… but, should it be? Isn’t it a bit--?” Before he could finish -- ‘dangerous’ was probably going to be his last word -- I stopped, and looked at his, heaving a sigh. “This is weird. Isn’t it? I’m sorry, I can get a hotel.”

Under the moon and lamp post lights, I thought I saw his cheeks redden. “No, that’s not--! I don’t-- You’re welcome here, of course! I was just… worried. You shouldn’t be walking around on your own.”

At this charming revelation, said in an even more charming tone, I smiled, sheepishly. “Well, I am.”

“So, no… major changes after the… new succession?”

I sighed, remembering Joyce, my protection officer that had been replaced, and Cadie. “Some. Not tonight, though.”

We were quietly ushered through a pedestrian steel door a few steps after the big gates, which magically opened when Harry approached. His protection officer followed after us.

“Uh, sir?” He called when we kept walking.

Looking back, Harry startled slightly. “Oh, that’s right. Do you mind?” He looked at me, “They need to sign you in.”

“Oh, of course.” We walked to the security cabin near the bigger gate, where another guard, this one in uniform, smiled at us.

“ID, ma’am?”

I handed him my passport from my coat’s pocket, which I had kept handy for the train.

“I’m sorry about this,” Harry said, worried, “It’s… bloody protocol.”

“It’s alright.” I smiled. “You do remember I live in a palace, too? If there’s one thing I understand in life is protocol.”

He smiled back. “She’ll already be registered.” Harry told the guard. “She was here last October.”

I remembered, distantly, filling up my passport in security forms before the tour, and we had come to Kensington for tea once. A lifetime ago.

The guard returned my passport and wished us a goodnight, so Harry walked me towards the palace, now unaccompanied by any officers.

We didn’t go into the main building, however, like when I visited William and Catherine’s house, we went around it.

“So…” Harry started. “I don’t live in the main palace. I don’t got an apartment. It’s… small, my place. Really small. Two bedrooms! So, should be fine, but–”

“Is this--?” I stopped walking, my mind finally catching up to where I was and what I’d done. “Should I not have come? This is weird, right? I didn’t mean to barge in and--”

“No!”

“I’m sorry, I can get a hotel–”

“No, really– It’s fine!” He assured me. “I just wanted you to be prepared, because it’s not a… big, fancy place like my brother’s house, or my father’s house. It’s just… a cottage, really. It’s tiny. I live alone, so it’s quite good just for me–”

I sighed, feeling relieved. Now almost amused. “Agani, fellow royal. I live in a palace? I know how it works. It’s not all a palace.”

He smiled. “Yes… It’s just that people always seem to think it’s all very glamorous.”

The house was nice, it was, as he had mentioned, smaller than most, but it made up for it with that warm, comfortable look of a real home. The front door led into what seemed like one room, with sliding doors separating the smaller half – a kitchen with faded yellow cabinets that needed upgrading, but looked nice. The other half had a blue three-seat sofa and a matching armchair in front of a wooden chest of drawers in which was propped up a flat-screen TV – the only thing in the room that looked like he had actually purchased and not inherited, or maybe borrowed from the Royal Collection.

“It’s nice.” I told him in the silence. He was still watching me from the front door, which he’d just closed, my bag still hanging from his shoulder. “I like it.”

“Are you hungry?” He asked, with a smile, moving quickly into the kitchen. “We could order takeout. I like thai food, there’s a nice place not far from here. Or, I have stuff to make sandwiches, if you’d prefer– what?”

I was smiling at the way my bag would sway around as he moved quickly around his small table to reach the fridge, looking slightly frazzled. “Nothing.”

He smiled, too. “Or!” Excitedly, he walked over to the microwave and opened it, removing a small plate. “Ta-da!”

I approached, realizing he was holding a plate of the entrées from the wedding. “You stole the entrées?!” I laughed.

“I asked! Politely asked if I could have some of the leftovers. You were right, they were delicious.”

We laughed. “Scandalous!” I said, grabbing one and moving to the sofas. “I’m not that hungry, actually, but thanks.”

I sat on the larger sofa, realizing the room also had a small, marble-top coffee table on top of a Persian rug and a corner bookcase with picture frames. I got up to look at his books, realizing it was a mixture of books, CDs and DVDs, even some vinyls. My eyes were first caught by Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, 1984, by George Orwell and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. He also had Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, which made me smile. I pulled out an orange spine -- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson -- and he moved behind me, the only time I heard him since walking over.

"That was a gift." He explained, in a justification tone.

I smiled back at him, returning the book to its place and noticing a white one with large black letters next to it, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge, which had a summary that regarded it as 'the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.' I returned it to its place, smiling.

“So you like fantasy.” I concluded, when I found The Hobbit and at least two Harry Potters.

“More like sci-fi.” He replied. “I like The Hobbit, and I made an exception for Harry Potter, which is iconic.”

“I liked the movies.”

“You haven’t read the books?”

“Could never really get into it.” I shrugged.

He closed the distance between us, my bag still on his shoulders, and stared at me from up close, seriously.

“You didn’t like Harry Potter?!”

“What I said was I couldn’t get into it.” I repeated, fighting a grin.

“That’s what people say when they tried something and didn’t like it.”

“Well–” I reflected on the option. “You don’t have any evidence that’s an universal truth. Surely not that that’s how I meant it.”

“Okay, counselor,” he sighed, impatiently. A grin made its way into my lips. “Did you or did you not like reading Harry Potter?!”

“I believe I have a right against self-incrimination in Britain, I certainly do as a Savoy citizen, so I will be evoking that right at this moment.”

He took in a long breath, running a hand through his hair, “Wow.” He sighed, making me laugh. “Just… wow. I am… outraged. As a British man, as a human being–”

“Okay, calm down.” I laughed.

“Harry Potter is incredible!”

“It was just… really childish for me.”

“The first book was written for children! The tone changes as the books go along!”

“Yes, there’s like ten of them. It’s a lot.”

“Seven, and you went to Harvard! You can handle seven children’s books!” My bag fell off his shoulder at his exasperated arm movements, but he was quick to grab it by the handle before it hit the floor.

“And why are you still carrying that?”

“I just…” He shrugged, walking over to the armchair to put my bag there. “I imagine you’ll need it.”

He looked back at me, pulling his long sleeves up past his elbows.

“I--I imagine your protection detail will be ‘round shortly to collect you.”

I chuckled, nervously. “What–? Why? I told you, it’s just me tonight.”

“Yes, and you’re the next in line to the throne of a country. I can’t go anywhere without security, and I know my brother has at least two at all times, so I’m assuming you have at least one person looking for you out there by now.”

There was an awkward silence as I shifted on my feet, hands still in my coat pockets, mouth agape, searching for what to say. He didn’t look upset, and it wasn’t like I’d just committed a crime by omitting what happened, but it still felt as if I had done something incredibly wrong, and the more I looked at him, the more uncomfortable the thought of continuing to lie was.

“It’s–It’s… It’s not like they’ll rush in here screaming that you kidnapped me or something.” I said, nervously forcing a giggle at the thought. “I don’t even know if they’ve noticed I’ve gone yet.”

“Ah.” He nodded, slowly, sitting down on the larger sofa. “So you ran away when they weren’t looking.”

“They were asleep.” I corrected, feeling my whole body warm in embarrassment. “And I would object to the word ‘ran’, I very calmly walked off the train when it stopped in London. It’s not my fault they didn’t notice.”

“They were asleep?!” He asked, his voice going higher than I’d heard before.

“It’s a long journey… Especially from Northern England.”

“Well, it’s their job! That’s… that’s so unbelievably unsafe!”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I raised my hands, in a placating gesture. “No harm done.”

“Well, you couldn’t have known that, could you?!” He asked, eyes widened. “But they sure should have, it’s their job! What if someone walked into the train and pointed a gun at you and forced you to leave?”

“What– I’m– I don’t even–” I sighed, frustrated. “Harry, I’m sorry, okay? Do you–? Would you like me to leave? I can get a hotel–”

“No!” He got to his feet. “I just–” He sighed. “I know how important security is, and… you… you’re a bigger target now, aren’t you? Your security profile must have changed since… you know.”

“I don’t.” I admitted. “They don’t really tell me much these days.”

I walked over, took off my coat, and sat down on the sofa. “Really, Harry, if this is a lot, I can get a place to stay, it’s no trouble.”

He walked over and sat next to me, laying his head back to rest atop the back of the sofa. “I don’t want you to leave.”

Relieved beyond understanding, I started to relax. So I sat back and laid my head next to his.

“So you didn’t miss the train.” He said, and seeing as it wasn't a question, I thought it would be best not to incriminate myself again.

“Marie? Did you?”

I looked at the ceiling. “Technically, I did. But I missed it because I got off.”

He let out a quiet, nasalized chuckle. “Why?”

I heaved a long sigh, and turned to look at him. “I don’t know… I just… I was in the train. And I couldn’t stop thinking about things. And I wanted to. And then we stopped in London. And I grabbed my bag and went to the bathroom, just to walk a little, to distract myself. But then I saw the doors opened. And my protection officers were asleep, so they didn’t even see me get up, so one second I was just fantasizing about how I could just… walk off, and the next I just… did.”

“I still think your security is incredibly irresponsible in this scenario.” He said, on a low tone, in which a hint of anger was only just noticeable.

“They have a right to sleep if we’re on a moving train.” I protested.

“What were you thinking about?” He asked.

“I just… I don’t know, okay? I just… The door was open and there was this colder breeze coming in, and I just… I just wanted to feel more of it. I don’t really understand it, either.”

“I actually mean… What were you thinking during the journey? That you said you didn’t want to think of anymore?”

“…Oh.” I looked back at the ceiling, biting my lower lip. “Everything, I guess. I just…”

I thought back to the train ride, the sound of the tracks, the dimmed lights as everyone seemed to either be asleep or blissfully entertained by their phones. To my heart, full of questions and… anger. I couldn’t tell him half of it.

“I just… I can’t–” I felt my voice break slightly as a knot found its way into my throat. “I can’t be in Savoy right now. I just… I don’t even– Sometimes it just feels like… Like–” I sat up, clearing my throat and turning to look at him, folding one leg to sit on top of it, facing him.

He’d opened his house to me out of nowhere. I knew how chaotic this must look. He deserved some explanation.

“It’s like they’re all playing a game and I’m the only one who wasn’t told the rules, but I’m still… part of it, you know? I’m the… I’m the game.” I said. “And I’m just… so tired of it.”

He was quiet, brows furrowed. He sighed… and then nodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll… I’ll go give security a call, and tell them if someone comes asking for you to say they haven’t seen you.”

My mouth opened, in astonishment, but I didn’t know what to say.

“And you… what do you want to do? Shower? Movie? Pizza? Sleep?”

I was still astonished, but I started to smile now. “A shower would be nice, I guess.”

“Great, let me show you to the bathroom and I’ll get you a towel.”

He got up, quickly grabbed my bag and smiled when he asked me to follow him. The guest bathroom was just around the corner from the living room, beyond the narrow, carpeted staircase up.

“This is the guest bath. You can use the one in my room, though, it’s better water pressure and you’ll be closer to the guest room.”

Upstairs, there was just a small hallway with three doors, one of which was a closet where he got me two towels. The one at the other end was his room.

The bed was made, but looked like it had been slept in recently. Another flat screen TV was mounted on the wall in front of it, with a paused Netflix movie displayed.

“Do you have pajamas, or–?.” He asked as he left my bag on the bathroom floor. “I can find you some of my clothes?”

I had a clean set of pajamas I’d brought to stay in the hotel overnight, but for some reason I smiled, sheepishly, and said, “That’d be great, thanks.”

“Sweatpants good? I’ll leave them in the bed. You can change here, I’ll wait downstairs.”

“Okay.” I smiled.

Inside, I got out of my travel clothes, brushed my hair down slowly, taking deep breaths, avoiding my reflection in the mirror. When I was done, I put my hair up in a tight bun, and finally looked at myself, but I couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re ridiculous.” I told mirror-Maggie.

As I showered, I tried to better answer the questions he had asked. I’d been thinking of Christopher, of his family ring, of why he would have decided to propose so soon after we got back together. I thought of why my father would say yes without consulting me. Of why my father would continually make decisions about my life without consulting me.

When I turned off the shower, I knew a couple of things for sure: I didn’t plan to run away. I just wanted to go to the bathroom on the train, to distract myself from my own thoughts. When I saw the door and realized that I could leave without my security seeing, all I wanted was to run. To feel… free. To be somewhere I wasn’t expected to give people the nice and polite answers they expected. For some reason, my heart decided this was that place. But this freedom also brought me guilt. What did that say for my relationship?

I wrapped myself in the towel and opened the bathroom door to find a pile of clothes in his bed. I brought them inside and got changed into a much too large for me black sweatpants and dark green shirt. Luckily – or maybe Harry had predicted this – the pants had drawstrings, so I could adjust them to my waist. I folded the bottom as best as I could.

When I did, my eyes fell on a bottle on the lower shelf of his cabinet. It was L’Occitane Cedrat Spray Deodorant. The name was familiar. I got up and realized there was another bottle on the shower caddie with the name – this one a shower gel. So I reached for the deodorant and sprayed a little of it in the air.

The smell almost knocked me to my feet. It was the smell Harry always had, the smell I remembered from London. The smell that brought me right back to an otherwise boring State Dinner, on a red dress, dancing barefoot in a room in Buckingham Palace where we weren’t supposed to be, his face leaning ever so much closer to mine, chills going down my spine, warming up my skin, getting on my tiptoes hoping to close the distance… before we were interrupted by my protection officer Joyce telling us it was time to go.

The smell took me back to flirty, happy texts planning a date. Running after Lourdes after she stole my phone. Waiting for a reply when Auguste and Montennon walked by with death on their faces… before everything changed.

I shook my head. I couldn’t add more things to the archive of stuff I had to think about.

Down the stairs, I found him in the kitchen. He bit down a grin when he saw me in his clothes. “Well, you look…”

“Ridiculous.” I smiled. “It’s a bit big.”

“No! You look cute.” He said, making me blush. “Security has been informed, by the way.”

“Right.” I sighed. “Thank you so much, Harry. I don’t think I said that yet.” He avoided my eyes, shrugging. “It’s not a problem. You’re always welcome here.”

“I know it’s... Weird… and I didn’t mean to interrupt your night.” I added. “I saw the TV on in your room.”

“Oh, I was just watching a movie. The new Transformers.” He told me. “It’s… not great. But in a good way? Does that make sense?” I smiled. “Kind of, yeah.” “Wanna watch it with me?” He asked. “I’d practically just started it. And it’s early-ish, still.”

“Sure.”

“Awesome.” He clapped his hands together and found a packet of popcorn in the kitchen cabinet.

A little while later, he handed me a bowl and a salt shaker. “Madame.”

I salted the popcorn as he walked around, grabbing napkins and a bag of M&M’s from a cabinet. “Chocolate or peanuts?” He asked. “And bear in mind, there is a right answer.”

“Dealer’s choice.” I returned.

“Coward.” He half-coughed, half-muttered, making me chuckle. “I have coke, orange juice, and beer.”

“Coke.”

“Right answer.” He nodded, approvingly, before turning to me with a slightly more serious expression. “I have… further questions.”

I pulled a chair and sat down, pushing the popcorn away. “Okay.”

“So… who knows– Did you tell Christop–” He sighed. “How many people know you’re here?”

I did the math in my head. “Five, or six, maybe?”

“Plus me and the security officers we walked by?”

“No, I– I mean you and the security officers.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“And the cab driver, but I don’t think he knew who I was.” He was quiet for a while, biting his lower lip. “Any other questions?”

He sighed. “Shouldn’t you tell someone?” At the way my face responded, he continued, quickly pulling up a chair and sitting next to me. “I mean, just that you’re okay, at least. They’ll think you were kidnapped!”

“If I turn on my phone they can track me.” I confessed. “All our phones are tracked by security headquarters.”

“Don’t you have a chip?” He asked, seeming genuinely surprised.

“Those tracking chips that go into your skin?” I asked, “No. The idea gets floated around every couple of years, but my siblings and I always hated it. And my mother thinks it’s too weird.” He nodded. “Do you have one?”

He smiled widely, teeth closed, and pointed at the right side of his jaw. “Just under this tooth here… But don’t tell anyone.”

I laughed. “Right, lesson one of anti-terrorism training. Your teachers would be very disappointed in you.”

He groaned, grinning. “Don’t remind me. Those guys are impressive, but they’re terrifying.”

“Do you ever get refresher training?”

“I think my last one was after my brother’s wedding, due to ‘increased media attention’.” He quoted, annoyed.

“Yeah, they made us take a refresher when Lourdes was born. It was awful.”

“Weren’t you, like, ten?!”

“Yes!” I confirmed, nodding enthusiastically. “That’s what made it awful!”

We chuckled, together.

He scratched his beard, looking at the ceiling. “God, we live weird lives.”

The TV in his room was bigger, so we took the popcorn, the cokes and the chocolate M&M’s – his favorite – upstairs where he started the movie from the beginning.

Admittedly, I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have, but I understood enough of it to know he was right: it wasn’t great. Great was the popcorn, the ice cold coke, and the chocolate M&M’s.

Eventually, though, my back started to hurt, so I slid down to lay on his pillows instead of sitting against the headboard, and my eyelids grew heavy, and the sound of explosions grew dimmer as I fell asleep. I shook myself awake a few minutes later, apologizing, but he only smiled and said, “It’s okay”, as he hesitated slightly, before reaching over and resting his hand by my head, brushing my hair so lightly I was asleep again in seconds.

When I woke up, the room was darker than before, the movie was over and the TV now displayed the long list of credits on a dark screen to a slow instrumental track. Harry nowhere to be found.

I heard steps from the hallway, and closed my eyes instinctively, just as I heard him come in. Slowly, I felt a warm blanket cover me, just at this moment realizing how chilly I had been a second before. I breathed in deeply, realizing how much his pillow smelled like him, and settled in to place to sleep again before I heard him step away. Opening my eyes, I realized he was leaving.

“Harry?”

He stopped at the door, and looked back. “Hey.” He whispered. “It’s okay, you go back to sleep. I’ll take the other room.”

“You should sleep in your own bed.” I said, forcing myself to sit up.

“It’s fine, Marie.” He smiled, approaching to gently tuck me back in, pulling the blanket up to my chest. “I promise, just go back to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He was almost leaving again, but my heart couldn’t take it.

“Harry?” I called, whispery, holding on tightly to two fistfulls of the blanket to stop from reaching out to hold his hand.

“Yes?”

I thought of his girlfriend, of my boyfriend, of the imaginary crown looming over my head, and yet, I couldn’t stop my lips from uttering, “Stay.”

He stared at me for one, two, three seconds before getting up. He walked around the bed and laid down, fluffing his pillows slightly as I stretched the blanket out to him.

We laid in silence, his warmth reaching over to me under the covers – or maybe my skin was just warmer than usual. I flipped over to lay on my stomach, hugging the pillow under me. When I did, my fingers hit something that felt like a needle. Carefully feeling it out, I realized it was a bobby pin. ‘This must be the side his girlfriend sleeps in when she’s over’, I thought, feeling suddenly sick to my stomach.

Turning to look at him, I breathed:

“Truth or dare?”

I heard his body move in the dark, and felt his knee brush against my leg as he turned to lay on his side, facing me.

“Truth.”

“Okay…” I held out the bobbi pin from under his pillow, pointing it at him. “Now, be honest… Do you curl your hair to sleep?”

His head raised from the pillow to look at what I was showing him, confused. “What–? Oh.” He smiled as I chuckled. “That’s–ha-ha, hilarious.”

He picked the bobby pin, and turned around to place it carefully in the bedside table next to him.

“Or does that belong to a lady-friend?”

He laughed. “A lady-friend?!”

“You never explained if you and Cressida broke up or not, so I wouldn’t want to speculate.”

“No, of course.” His tone was a mixture of sarcastic and teasing. “You’re just being respectful.”

There was a nice, quiet silence before I whispered, “You never answered the question.”

We laughed again. “No, Marie-Margueritte, I do not curl my hair before bed.”

“So how, pray tell, do you explain the evidence?”

“Objection, your honor,” he said, and I could still hear the giggle in his voice, “No follow-up questions, remember?”

I sighed, “Oh, right, that bullshit rule.”

“Enough stalling. Truth or dare?”

I smiled, sighing. “Truth.”

“…Do you think Clara could have done better than John? Be honest.”

I laughed. “You’re terrible.”

“Come on, we’re all thinking it.”

“Who’s ‘we’ in this scenario?”

“Every guest at their wedding.”

“You’re a terrible friend.” I giggled.

“Hey, I didn’t say that to him! I’m saying it to you, in confidence.” He justified, “And I can’t help but notice you’re avoiding the question.”

“Alright, fine. Admittedly, yes, she has dated guys I think were objectively better looking in a traditional way. But that’s not everything!”

“No!” He said, in an exaggerated way. “Of course not… that’s why your boyfriend looks like that.”

“What do you mean with ‘like that’?” I laughed.

“Oh, you know… the big, moussed up hair, the fancy suit, be honest, does he wear makeup?”

“Oh, my god!” I laughed. “You’re the worst. And you already asked your question. So, truth or dare?”

He sighed. “Truth.”

I considered for a long time what to ask. Long enough that he called out, “Marie?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Oh.”

Gulping, I tried to make the question sound as casual and playful as possible. “Who’s the mysterious owner of the bobby pin?”

“…oh.”

He was silent.

“Go on.” I laughed, nervously. “You must answer truthfully.”

“I–” He sighed. “It’s… It’s you.”

“I–” I startled. “What?”

He sighed, again, deeper now. “That day, my last day in Savoy. On the stairs. You were trying to remove your hat… I helped. I tried to give them back to you, but you– were distracted, I guess.”

“Oh…”

“Sorry.”

“No, don’t.” I turned around, laying in my side, facing him. “Harry, I’m the one who’s sorry… that day I was–I was acting completely insane.”

“Don’t apologize.” He asked. “You were going through so much–”

“Yes, but that doesn’t excuse hurting someone–”

“You didn’t hurt me.” He reached out, holding my hand in the space between us.

“I mean–”

“I know what you mean.” He assured me.

Breathless, I closed my fingers on his hold. I couldn’t know what he was thinking of, but I was thinking of the kiss. Or, more accurately, the almost-kiss. I could still feel his neck on my lips, his smell, right there on his pillow, had lived in my mind for the past five months. That‘s what I was apologizing for, but couldn’t say. I couldn’t speak of it. Speaking of it could lead to questions I had also been avoiding for five months like my life depended on it.

“Truth or dare?” He asked, without letting go of my hand.

Breathing in, deeply, and knowing I still wanted to talk about it, but it may not be the right time, I said, “Truth.”

Quietly, I felt his fingers brush mine, slowly.

“Why did you ask about my ex?” He asked, whispery, barely audible.

“…I…” I gulped. “I was curious… I guess– I guess it feels… sad? That we lost touch. I wanted to know what– you know, what you’ve been up to.”

He was quiet. I ventured a look past our hands, to his face, where I could almost see a smile on his lips.

His finger slowly traced mine. His next question came even lower than the first, as if scared to make it even a little bit more real than it had to be. “Were you jealous?”

I felt my heart jump on my chest. His soft touch on my hand, the guilty knot of anxiety in my stomach to be laying in bed with him, as platonically as it was… it all made it impossible to lie.

But I was a lawyer.

“No follow up questions, remember?”

A silent second. And then I heard his nasalized chuckle. “Wow…”

“Your rules.” I shrugged, painfully pulling my hand from his while I still could, and turning to the other side. “Goodnight, Harry.”

He let out another low, appreciative chuckle. “Goodnight, Mary.”

I fell asleep smiling as the name echoed in my thoughts: ‘Mary’.

--- ---- ---

[A/N: heeeeeeeeeeey. how ya’ll doin? I really wanna write something cute and funny here about the chapter or about how much I appreciate you reading but its 4 am on a monday and i spent all sunday working on overtime and i am exhausted so... just know I appreciate you A LOT seriously thank you so much for reading!!! let me know what you think???????? the end of this chapter made me smile when i wrote it and the next chapter made me cry so you have that to look forward to. THANKS BYEEE]

#Princeharryff #prince harry fanfic #prince harry fanfiction #princeharryfanfiction #Princeharryfanfic #prince harry #brf #modern royalty au #modern royalty fanfic #fanfiction #OPITCphff #chapters

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winterromanov · 5 years ago

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Maybe a college Bucky one where he’s being playing games out of town, and trying to study for exams and he’s just so tired but trying to keep going and reader makes him nap and relax and it’s just very Soft ☺️

pairing: bucky x reader (set in the same universe as this fic)

Trying to play football and also be a competent college student is an Incredibly Difficult Feat. You know this, because watching Bucky vault himself from away games to home games to mid terms to finals is about the most exhausting thing you’ve ever seen. If he’s not studying he’s at practice, and if he’s not playing he’s in an exam. It’s like watching a manic, sleep-deprived whirlwind, living almost entirely off coffee and takeout noodles.

He’s not taking care of himself. He’s pushing and pushing and pushing, trying not to let anybody down--as if he could ever do that.

“You don’t have anything to prove,” you say, as he crashes face-down on the bed in your dorm, the night before he leaves to play a game at Harvard and minutes after his Cold War history deadline. You’ve not seen him eat anything the last twenty-four hours. “Look--you won the last game. Steve said you could sit this one out.”

A vague mumbling comes from your bed. His face is smothered by the pillow and he’s too exhausted to even turn over, so you poke his ass with your foot. His hand reaches out, reflexes still ridiculously quick, pulling you onto the bed with him.

“Sorry, love,” you smirk, curling as close to him as your tiny mattress will allow. His arm pulls you close to his waist, palm splayed across your back. His heartbeat is unrelenting beneath his shirt, thudding between you. “Didn’t quite hear that one.”

His head shifts so you’re basically nose-to-nose, his grin sleepy and delirious. He’s gonna pass out any second. You’ve seen it many, many times before in the last hectic few weeks--you’re probably gonna see it a few more. “I’ll be fine after nap. Promise.”

“Don’t you dare fall asleep before I can force a pizza down you,” you warn, and he laughs, deliberately snuggling into the pillow and letting his eyes flicker closed. You can’t resist--running your hand through his hair, along his face. Kiss his forehead. “Goddamn it, Buck. You’re making it very difficult for me to look after you.”

“You being here is enough,” he says softly and before you have chance to reply he’s gone, lost in some dream. You slowly creep out of his embrace, making the pizza for him anyway. By the time you wake up the next day his body is a phantom shape in your bed but the pizza is gone--he’s left you a bright pink post-it note on the plate. Scribbled in his usual scrawl are the words thank you always favourite girl.

we won!!! harvard ain’t better than us at FOOTBALL

wish u could have been there

renaissance lit is being a bitch :(( well done you STAR. miss you more every moment so get back quick

should i hijack the bus and speed down the freeway

if you must

consider it done

love you

love you more than anything

The next game is thankfully a home one against Yale so you can at least keep an eye on him--you’re just protective, that’s all, not wanting him to burn out in front of you. There’s a lot of gym sessions and library cramming and a grand total of one dinner date at his apartment, where you made a pasta dish with as many vegetables as you could think of in as possible (his mom had sent you a message afterwards with immense gratitude because her son needed his greens, damn it). The following evening you’d wrapped yourself in one of his jerseys and sat in the bleachers alongside an injured Sam--injured and bitter about it--and waited in the lights and the noise for the game to begin.

“Bucky tells me you’re worried about him,” Sam interjects rather suddenly and when you blink back, he shrugs his non-injured shoulder nonchalantly. “Not that I blame you. That dude just doesn’t let up, does he?”

“You could say that,” you reply, shivering a little. The November air is cold, even wearing Bucky’s sweater. “He keeps telling me the season will be over before long, but I...I don’t want that to be a couple of weeks too much for him, you know?”

Sam hums thoughtfully. Around you, the crowd practically fizzes with excitement, covered with facepaint and aggressively chanting team songs at the opposing side. You’d never been to a college football game before you started dating one of the team’s star players, but you have to admit, the atmosphere is kinda addictive. Watching Bucky play is kinda addictive.

“If I know Bucky, and boy do I know him,” Sam eventually replies, squeezing up closer to you as more people gather into your stand. A girl is openly staring at you both--it doesn’t happen that often, but more so at games. People know Bucky, and Sam, so people know you. “He’ll get through this all okay. He always does, (Y/N). I’d been pretty damn surprised if he doesn’t make captain next year.”

You stare at the bright, clean grass of the field, and think of a boy so fucking exhausted from trying to balance his life that he can barely function half the time. Bucky would be an awesome captain. You just don’t want him to become a dead firework because of it.

The game ends up being pretty close but Yale just snatch the victory. It doesn’t mean that they can’t win the season, but. Bucky makes his way over to your stand at the end of the game like he always does, taking off his helmet and mouthguard. He also looks extremely deflated, like he always does when they lose.

“It’s okay,” you say, taking his face in your hands. He looks angry at himself. And you know what he’s thinking. I should have pushed harder. “Shit happens. You were still amazing.”

He kisses you over the barrier in a display of affection you were once too shy to give away in public, but you need him as much as he needs you. When you break apart you plant a chaste, gentle peck on his jawline, running your thumb over the shadow.

“You two make me sick,” Sam interrupts the moment, arms folded. Bucky flips him off while smiling sweetly and you can’t help but laugh. “Honestly. Didn’t ask to be violated, but here we are.”

“Payback for every single time I’ve walked in on you doing unspeakable things with the girl from the top floor on our kitchen counter.” Bucky snaps back teasingly. You like watching the banter unfold between the two of them. You’d be worried if Bucky and Sam weren’t taking the piss at every given opportunity.

Sam gestures pointedly at his injured right shoulder. “I cannot believe you’d treat a fallen comrade like that. I’m disgusted.”

“And so was I when I saw the state of the kitchen counter.” Bucky gives you one last kiss, clutching your hand. “See you after I hit the showers, yeah?”

“I’ll be waiting.” Your promise him, and his eyes glow just a little brighter.

When Bucky facetimes you from Brown the very next week, he looks like he hasn’t slept for at least three days. His Ancient Chinese history exam is literally a day after he arrives back from the trip and he’s frantically cramming in his hotel room in Rhode Island, while also trying not to fuck up the team’s chances of winning the season.

“Just one more game after this,” his grainy voice says on the other end of the video feed, head lolling against the headboard of his Holiday Inn bed. You wish he was in your bed. God, you wish he was in your bed. “And the season is over and I don’t have to be away from you ever again.”

“I don’t think your mom would like it if I stole you away for Thanksgiving.” You joke, tongue poking between your teeth. His lips curve, half a laugh escaping from his chest.

“That’s why she personally invited you to stay with us for the holidays. She’s worried you might sneak in there first and drag me to Virginia. She already knows I’d go wherever you go.”

Your smile is kinda wistful. “Except when you go to Rhode Island.”

“Except when I go to Rhode Island.” He repeats, sighing dramatically. He rubs one of his tired eyes. “Ugh. Who thought coinciding pre-Thanksgiving exams and football season was a good idea, huh?”

“I have no idea, but I’m prepared to have words with them.” You tilt your head. “Don’t work too hard, yeah? It’s one exam. It’ll all be okay in the end.”

“I know, I know.”

You want to keep talking, on and on until the early hours like you do sometimes, because time is apparently not real when you and Bucky are on the phone together. But he needs sleep, and you need sleep, and occasionally you’ll do things for the greater good. “Good luck for tomorrow. Brown won’t know what’s hit ‘em.”

“They better not,” he jokes, “Will you be live-streaming the game?”

As if you wouldn’t. You can’t pretend that you always know what’s going on or any of the rules, but you always try to watch him if you can. He’d do the same for you, over and over and over. “Already got the tab open on my laptop and everything.”

Bucky’s grin is near effervescent, even through your patchy wifi connection. “I love you more than anything, you know that?”

“I may have had an inkling.”

hello y/n

HELLLOOOOO

u know brown are the best losers because they lose and give you TEQUILA

omg are you drunk

never been DRUNK IN MY LIFE!!!! but im at this cool party and stEv e has found a girl and i miss u

i miss u so much . and like i just do generally

whenever ur not ar oUnd

oh sweet boy. you are very drunk.

im serious though

sometimes i think about how much i love you and it scares me

because then i th ink what it would be like if you wreent there

and that makes me so fucking sad i cant breathe

y/n

y/n ???????????????

hellooo

have u gone to bed

no, just messaging steve to make sure he gets you back safe. im not going anywhere. just please please look after yourself. love you always

“I’m sorry about those messages I sent you last night.”

You grab him in the tightest hug possible, his hold all still hanging off his arm, rain spattering down from dark clouds outside his apartment block. You hold him for at least ten years, you reckon, because the thought of him being so fucking sad he can’t breathe makes you so fucking sad you can’t breathe.

“You’re a terrible drunk who says things that make me emotional.” You laugh tearfully into his sweater and he grips you even harder, if possible. The shards of glass jabbed between your ribs start to dissolve as you inhale every single part of him.

“I know, sweetheart,” he murmurs, “I know.”

His last game is the day of your renaissance literature exam and for once you’ve been the one not eating and relying on caffeine, anxiety lingering round your jittery bones like an irritating ghost. Your interactions with Bucky are a battle between you wishing him aggressive luck for what could be the winning game while he equally aggressively says your exam will go fine, they always go fine, it’s an easy A for sure.

Your exam isn’t until the afternoon so you spend the morning pacing about your bedroom looking at a sporadic mess of post-it notes on your wall declaring quotes and context that you hope will just stick in your brain. When Lizzie from down the hall says there’s a package for you you don’t actually think much of it, too busy to deal with something you’ve probably forgotten you ordered from Amazon--but she makes some comment about how fancy it is, wrapped up in striped paper.

Your name is in print across the front so it doesn’t leave a clue on the sender, but as soon as you rip into it and find a bundle of things nestled between tissue paper, you know instantly. It’s kind of embarrassing you didn’t click sooner.

Dear Y/N - you’ll ace it, favourite gal.

You try not to break down in sleep-deprived and emotional tears as you pull out a brand new sweater in your favourite shade of burgundy, a vintage copy of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, three different kind of Hershey’s bars and a dumb little teddy bear wearing your college jersey. He’s sent you a fucking care package. He’s away at Princeton, and he’s sent you a care package, because exams drive you crazy and he’s just... Well, he’s Bucky.

i got your present

have i ever mentioned that i love you

i may have had an inkling

He doesn’t really leave you a choice, does he? Besides, the game is only at Princeton, and if you catch the train the moment you escape the uneasy warmth of a crowded exam hall you should be able to get there in time.

You’ve never been to Princeton stadium before, but you grab one of the last tickets available and rush onto their crowded bleachers just before the game is about to begin. The lights are heady, the atmosphere is electric, and you’re about to watch the man you lovingly, completely, unrelentingly call your own play the game he loves almost as much as you at a stadium forty miles from home.

hey steve, you text his closest friend, hoping he’ll see it, get buck to look at the front of the stairs near block d when you come out

y/n if this is what i think it means he’s going to lose his goddamn mind

When the team runs out you notice the number five on his jersey straight away, a constant fleeting image in your head from the countless games you’ve seen him play. Even from a distance, Steve’s eyes catch your own and his arm starts gesturing violently in your direction, Bucky taking a couple of moments to catch on.

It’s a good job the game isn’t due to start for a few more minutes, because absolutely nothing can stop him from automatically sprinting to your side of the field and kissing you senseless, cameras and crowds be damned.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he says on a dizzy outtake of breath.

“Couldn’t miss the last game of the season, could I?” You gently push his chest, urging him to go back to his team. “And neither can you. Go back to them. I’ll be waiting.”

He steals your lips for one more second, giddy and pumped full of adrenaline. “I really lucked out the day I met you, didn’t I?”

His mouth is hot. Hot. Unmistakable. Real. Always, always real. “Not as lucky as me.”

my masterlist

send me a request

#big oof #ridiculously fluffy #soft bucky #college!bucky #bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x reader #bucky x you #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe

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waltereliasmickey · 4 years ago

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Here is The Walt Disney Company’s official biography of Walter Elias Disney, born 119 years ago.

During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana.

David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney "the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo." A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from throughout the world, including 48 Academy Awards® and 7 Emmys® in his lifetime. Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations; Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The creator of Mickey Mouse of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt early became interested in drawing, selling his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.

After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.

In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing materials, $40 in his pocket and a completed animated and live-action film. Walt's brother Roy O. Disney was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500 and constructed a camera stand in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first "Alice Comedy" short, and the brothers began their production operation in the rear of a Hollywood real estate office two blocks away.

On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. They were blessed with two daughters — Diane, married to Ron Miller, former president and chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions; and Sharon Disney Lund, formerly a member of Disney's Board of Directors. The Millers have seven children and Mrs. Lund had three. Mrs. Lund passed away in 1993.

Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world's first fully synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928.

Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor® was introduced to animation during the production of his "Silly Symphonies." In 1932, the film entitled Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards®. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique.

On December 21 of that same year, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard of cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Great Depression, the film is still accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

In 1940, construction was completed on Disney's Burbank studio, and the staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men and technicians.

During World War II, 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.

Disney's 1945 feature, the musical The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the cartoon medium, a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of the South and the highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, 81 features were released by the studio during his lifetime.

Walt's inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the award-winning "True-Life Adventure" series. Through such films as The Living Desert, The Vanishing Prairie, The African Lion and White Wilderness, Disney brought fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation's outdoor heritage.

Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its investment tenfold and entertained, by its fourth decade, more than 400 million people, including presidents, kings and queens and royalty from all over the globe.

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961. The Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro were popular favorites in the 1950s.

But that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design on an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.

Said Disney, "I don't believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future."

Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land — twice the size of Manhattan Island — in the center of the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole new Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982.

Prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment of California Insitute of the Arts, a college level, professional school of all the creative and performing arts. Of Cal Arts, Walt once said, "It's the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something."

California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the amalgamation of two schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Walt Disney conceived the new school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a "community of the arts" as a completely new approach to professional arts training.

Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds and emotions of millions of Americans than any other man in the past century.

Through his work, he brought joy, happiness and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly, our world shall know but one Walt Disney.

#walt disney #walter elias disney #biography #biografia

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