#i might make a tag for these footnote posts? i think its a fun way to document what ive written about without sharing All of it

[pyrriax]

HI TUMBLR late footnote posting before i go to bed (i took a nap today........ ate up most of my time)

not a lot to talk about with footnotes today since i was Busy and my brain wasnt working pfndkmlfd i blame seven hours of modded oneblock

[oh-boy-me]

Obey Me Devilgram Posts and Comments: Makeup Time/Under the Cherry Blossoms

Three events until we’re caught up!

This would have been out a little earlier, but I fell into a rabbit hole of Classical Japanese verbs lol

This set is really interesting because I think we might have the first instance of the localization team straight up misreading a kanji.  It’s in the footnotes, but I wonder if you can find it just by comparing the official translations with my own.

Maybe either one works, but I triple checked my kanji and I have a feeling mine is more accurate.

日本語は私の第三言語ので、��々間違えます。日本語話者、間違いを見たら教えてください。 (Japanese is my third language, so I make mistakes sometimes.  Japanese speakers, if you see a mistake, please tell me!)

And as always, we have the #devilgram rush tag and there’s a full transcript below the cut.

A Camera, Hana Ruri-tan, and You

monSOLO: A nice hobby

Lucifer: Levi’s trouble when he’s angered

stn: As for me, cats and books

LordDiavolo: I’ve heard this song before

#CherryBlossoms #OshiAndOshi(1)

Let’s Go Flower Viewing!

AsmoBaby: A party? A party?

Angeluke: Should I also bring something?

ButlerBarb: Young Master!  Why did you go ahead?!

Lucifer: That much is easy for Diavolo

#FlowerViewing #Magic

Cherry Blossom Decorating a Loved One's Hair

DDSimeon: Is Lucifer having fun?

Mammoney: I sense a get-rich-quick scheme!

Beelzeburger: I sense food!

stn: Let’s get a special harassment ready

#CherryBlossoms #SecretForTwo

Devildom-Style Flower Viewing

Belphie: Bring a pillow for meee

LordDiavolo: It’s a very beautiful flower from the Devildom

Angeluke: I won’t eat it!

BulterBarb: Please have a peaceful time

#FlowerViewing #DevildomFlower

Makeup Transformation!(2)

L3V1: I want my oshi’s eyeshadow

stn: With those makeup supplies you’ll be dolled up and pretty

Mammoney: Ya gonna make money with that skill?

ButlerBarb: You’re very skilled

#Makeup #ThatsOurAsmo

Let’s Play at Home!

Lucifer: What’s wrong, Chihuahua

Belphie: It’s peaceful

Beelzeburger: Looking forward to the souvenirs(3)

DDSimeon: It’s a kind world

#HandCream #Friends

Painting Good Luck Charm

AsmoBaby: Flashy!  Amazing!(4)

LordDiavolo: Will I get one from you too?

L3V1: I want(5) gacha luck!!!(6)

monSOLO: It has a sorcery-related meaning too

#FacePainting #Wish

1. This was in a post before (I think the Devil’s Coast one?), but an oshi is your favorite member of a group/character in a show, etc.  Since it’s made its way into the Anglophone otaku subculture I didn’t translate it further. 2. This one is literally “makeover with makeup” so I did what I could to make it less redundant, and then it turns out it’s the same exact thing as they did in the official localization lmao 3. The localization makes him say “I’ve got the souvenir”, so I think they actually misread 待ってる (matteru - to be waiting) as 持ってる (motteru - to have) 4. He uses すごい (sugoi), which you probably all know by now, but using translations like “cool” or “awesome” sounded un-Asmo and using something like “great” or “wow” sounded almost sarcastic here?  Lol I did my best 5. The verb here can mean “to wish for”, “to demand”, “to seek”, “to request”, “to want”, etc. etc., but I think “want” is the safest here, since I’m think he’s directly asking Barbatos. 6. Wow two in one comment!  What could Levi be saying this time?  It’s not something I know much about, but he uses the verb 求む (motomu), which is actually an archaic form of the modern 求める (motomeru).  From what I know, 二段 (nidan) verbs like that one died out in speech a long time ago, but 求む specifically can still be found in some circumstances like hiring. ＊二段 (nidan) refers to how the different conjugations would split down two (二) vowel paths, as opposed to ichidan, which sticks to one vowel the whole time, and the modern godan which uses all five.  With a few exceptions, most nidan verbs mutated into ichidan verbs over time.

Masterpost

カメラと花ルリたんとおまえ

monSOLO: 良い趣味だ Lucifer: レヴィを怒らせるとめんどうだぜ stn: 俺で言うと猫と本か LordDiavolo: 聞き覚えのある歌だね ＃桜　＃推しと推し

お花見に行こう！

AsmoBaby: パーティー？パーティー？ Angeluke: ぼくもなにか持っていこうかな ButlerBarb: 坊っちゃま！なぜ先に行かれたのですか！ Lucifer: ディアボロならその程度簡単だろう ＃お花見　＃魔法

恋う人の髪に飾りし桜の花よ

DDSimeon: ルシファーは楽しんでる？ Mammoney: 儲け話の気配！ Beelzeburger: 食べ物の気配！ stn: とっておきの嫌がらせを準備しよう ＃桜　＃2人の秘密

魔界式お花見

Belphie: ぼくの為に枕も持ってきてー LordDiavolo: 魔界ではとても美しい花なんだよ Angeluke: ぼくは食べないからな！ ButlerBarb: のんびりとお過ごしくださいませ ＃お花見　＃魔界の花

メイクで大変身！

L3V1: 推しのアイシャドウとか欲しい stn: メイク用品は飾って綺麗だよな Mammoney: その技術で稼げるんじゃね？ ButlerBarb: お上手ですね ＃メイク　＃さすがアスモ

おうちで遊ぼう！

Lucifer: どうしたチワワ Belphie: 平和だな Beelzeburger: 土産を待ってる DDSimeon: 優しい世界ってやつかな ＃ハンドクリーム　＃友達

ペインティングのおまじない

AsmoBaby: 派手！すごい！ LordDiavolo: 君もやてもらうのかい？ L3V1: ガチャ運求む！！！ monSOLO: 魔術的な意味もあるからね ＃フェイスペインティング　＃願い

知ってる？ワシントンDCが年次桜祭りはかけられる！

[mithrilwren]

Fanfic ask game for procrastinating on writing, which as of this week is actually accurate, since I’m finally writing again! (or, more specifically, editing what I wrote two months ago so I can get back to writing.)

Tagged by @essektheylyss! Thank you, this is exactly the kind of activity my brain needed tonight.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

72! I was hovering at 69 for quite a while, sad to break the streak haha

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

~550K, which is somehow both more and less than what I expected

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Many, lmao. According to my Ao3 (omitting any blanket tags) I’ve got 22 there, plus at least two more over on ff.net from back in the day, and probably a couple more just on Tumblr. Most of them I’ve only written one fic for, though. I think the only fandoms where I’ve written more than one are Critical Role (35), Supernatural (15), Haikyuu!! (3), The Exorcist (2), Dimension 20 (2), and Yu-Gi-Oh! (2)

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Pick a Number, Any Number

Surprisingly, my number one is NOT a Critical Role fic, nor is it even one of my longer multi-chapters! It’s actually a one-shot I wrote for Haikyuu!! back in the day that took off far beyond what I expected. I wrote it for DaiSuga week, which was a ship I (to be completely honest) wasn’t even terribly invested in, but I had a fun idea and people seemed to like it! (It’s also much fluffier than what I usually write, which might be part of its broader appeal ;))

A Winter’s Ball

Unsurprisingly, the next four are all CR ;). This one was a M9 x VM crossover that I primarily wrote between the hours of 3-8am over the course of two insomnia-wracked nights and honestly, I think it shows in its uncharacteristically unstructured format (compared to my typical style, which tends to favour shorter scenes with very intentionally-placed breaks between, as opposed to scenes that flow into each other without pause). That’s not to say I think it’s a bad thing! The story, which follows Beau as she drifts through a party in Whitestone and observes the interactions between the various guests, actually flows better without that kind of interruption. This was also my first Beaujester piece. I started writing it right before Beau’s confession aired, and published it the week after, which definitely pushed me to make what had been only subtextual in the first half of my draft into the emotional lynchpin of the story.

Only the Nightingale Sings

I’m really glad this one still ranks as high as it does, because this story is absolutely my pride and joy. At one time (though I’m not sure that’s true anymore) it was the longest gen fic in the fandom, which is pretty cool! Plot-heavy, twist-heavy, angst-heavy, with seven points of view to follow and multiple interwoven storylines, it was a beast of a thing to write, and took almost exactly a year to finish, but the long process was oh-so worth it. Literally nothing makes me happier today than seeing a new comment or kudos on this story.

Closer Still

One of my earliest shadowgast fics, this one asks the question “how can you make the ‘stuck in an elevator trope’ fantasy?” The answer is, as always, demiplanes. This fic, perhaps more than any of my other shadowgast fics, is interesting to revisit, because it was written before the ep 97 reveal, but literally everything Essek does in it would suggest otherwise. It reads like I already knew he was a spy working with Trent, and yet I was firmly in the “Essek is NOT the spy” camp at the time. Gotta chalk that up to Matt telegraphing his growing guilt into the preceding episodes - even if I couldn’t see it, it was clearly there.

your dust from mine

My other novel-length CR multichapter, this fic brought me so much joy in the otherwise bleak summer of 2020. Most of my best memories of those four months come from working on this story. A Fjorclay adaption of The Goose Girl (my favourite fairytale) this story is about healing, growth, and figuring out what happiness means to you. While I know most people don’t read stories for this pairing anymore, for obvious reasons, I still cherish your dust from mine for how much of my heart I poured into it, and I look back on it with a huge amount of fondness.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do my absolute best to respond to every comment someone leaves on a story of mine, even if it occasionally takes a month or two. Replying to comments is one of my favourite parts of the fic-writing process - it gives me a chance to revisit peoples’ kind words and (often, incredibly insightful) observations, and I hope it also shows how appreciative I am of each and every one. 

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Though I write a lot of angst, I honestly tend more towards bittersweet endings than straight-up sadness. The only one I can really think of is What You Own - mind the tags if you follow the link, this is definitely one of the gnarlier things I’ve written for CR - whose ending is, admittedly, bleak. But this story so far removed from canon that I don’t think it’s the kind of angsty ending that lingers with you, as much as it packs a punch and then lets you go on your way.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I tend to enjoy thinking about crossovers moreso than actually writing them. I’ve brainstormed a few, but none have ever made it much farther than the first page.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times! Not often, thankfully. Only one time in particular really sticks out to me, mostly for how it rocked my confidence in a way that I don’t think any comment could now, since I’ve had a few more years to build up faith in my own writing.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Very, very occasionally.

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not! 

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Oh man, back in the Glee days... yeah. Yeah, I have. Nothing that ever got published, though ;)

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Not sure I have one! Ships come and go with the seasons, and sometimes they’re best left in the era you found them.

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The Shadowgast figure skating AU. It’s never going to happen, but I wish it had.

15) What are your writing strengths?

I would say probably structure, in terms of constructing narrative arcs and through-lines. I’m organized with my writing in a way that I am in few other areas of my life, haha. I’d also say my sense of place - I think I’m pretty good at constructing living, breathing settings and exploring how my characters interact affect/are affected by them.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

I have a tendency to be wordy (which you might surmise from the length of this post, lol) and repeat myself, usually by going over emotional beats that don’t need the extra reinforcement. On the other hand, I tend to underexplain certain elements (particularly, important plot details in fic, and character motivation in original writing), which can lead to confusion.

A couple years ago I would have said dialogue, but I’ve put a lot of practice into it and I honestly think I’ve improved a lot, which is pretty cool!

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never done it myself, and it’s not generally my favourite thing to read (like @essektheylyss said, it makes me hyper-aware that I’m reading words on a page, especially if I have to follow a footnote somewhere). That said, I’ve definitely also seen it used effectively, so I think it’s more down to whether it suits the particular story!

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Yu-Gi-Oh!

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

As mentioned above, Only the Nightingale Sings.

[resplendentroses324]

Things I love and Appreciate™️ about Good Omens from both the book and show in no particular order:

- Crowley makes a point of saying he didn’t mean to fall, ergo he never meant to become a demon

-When he did fall it wasn’t falling it was a SAUNTER (vaguely downwards)

-David TenNANTS SAUNTERING

-Aziraphale shielding Crowley with his wing in the rain

-Crowley’s LOOKS™️ throughout history

-For some fucking amazing reason if Crowley leaves cds in his car for too long it turns into the Best of Queen

-Crowley trapped a demon in a cassette tape and considered leaving it in the car so it would turn into Queen

-Aziraphale being perceived as “gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide”

-The Earth being a Libra

-Crowley started the first conversation he and Zira ever had

-Crowley wanting to take Jesus to travel the world

-Crowley taking the stain out of Zira’s coat because he pouted at him

-Aziraphale lighting a cop’s ticket book on fire as he was writing Crowley a ticket

-CROWLEY BRINGING ZIRA’S DOVE BACK TO LIFE WHAT DEMON /DOES THAT/

-Uh......CROWLEY, just like, in general

-Crowley walking into a church even though it pains him to step on holy ground to save Zira from Nazis.

-One of the Nazis being Mark Gatiss who just magically appears as a background character in every british show

-After blowing up said Nazis and the whole church with it made sure that Zira’s books miraculously survived the explosion

-Aziraphale turning a gun into a water pistol because it was pointed at Crowley who wasn’t paying attention.

-Crowley being called a Flash Bastard.

-Crowley being asleep throughout the whole 19th century because he likes naps

-Golden Girls is one of Crowley’s favorite shows

-The part about Greasy Johnson and how they drop the bomb on you that he’s Baby B in a FOOTNOTE and the only reason you put two and two together is because of the comment about tropical fish

-Crowley ensuring Hamlet would be popular because Aziraphale pouted at him and asked nicely

-Aziraphale just wanted to make Anathema’s bike nicer for her

-How lovingly Crowley calls Zira ‘Angel’ when you’d expect him to say it sarcastically.

-Aziraphale thinking he ought to tell Crowley about a situation and promptly realizing that he wanted to tell Crowley something before he told Heaven about it

-Aziraphale knowing something was wrong just because of the way Crowley answered the phone

-Crowley legitimately tries to model himself as a type of person and makes decisions in decorating based on what kind of human he think’s he’d be. Aka Crowley has a humansona

-Crowley’s plants are the most beautiful in London because he yells at them

-Aziraphale is the only angel that knows how to dance

-MICHAEL SHEEN’S ADORABLE SMILE HE HAS WHEN DANCING IN THE SCENE WHERE THEY EXPLAIN THAT ZIRA DANCES.

-The TERRIBLE 70s montage dance that Crowley is doing in the same scene to explain how demons dance but fucking awfully

-The guy that thought Crowley and Zira were breaking up on the street and gave Zira his sympathies

-The first swear Aziraphale had said in more than 6000 years being ‘bugger’ and then immediately five minutes later says fuck

-Somebody to Love playing over Crowley searching for Zira in the burning shop

-Aziraphale in Paris about to be executed nevermind that he’s an angel and perfectly capable of rescuing himself waits for Crowley to come rescue him and acts relieved when HE REALLY COULD HAVE LEFT AT ANY TIME

-“Don’t look so disappointed. Perhaps one day we could...we could go on a picnic, dine at the Ritz”

-“I’ll give you a lift. Anywhere you want to go”

-YOU GO TO /FAST/ FOR ME CROWLEY

-“Because, underneath it all, Crowley was an optimist.”

-Crowley thinking Zira to be dead and instead of drinking himself silly decides to still try and save the world

-Crowley saving the world simply because his husband threatens to not talk to him ever again

-Aziraphale and Crowley getting HeavenandHell.exe to stop working simply by asking if they were sure the Great Plan was the same thing as the Ineffable Plan.

-Any instance where Crowley is just bullshitting someone ie: the phone hoax

-‘God does not play games with His loyal servants’ “whooo-ee, where have you /been/“

-ZIRA AND CROWLEY HOLDING HANDS TO FACE SATAN

-“It’s all worked out for the best though...just imagine how awful it might have been if we had been at all competent....” “......eeeeeuh....point taken” DUMBASSES

-Crowley ‘has good cheekbones’ and ‘can do really weird things with his tongue’

-“SO LONG SUCKAAAAA” *procedes to do really weird snake tongue hiss*

-Crowley ALSO doesn’t blink much and hisses when he’s frustrated. SNAKE. MAN.

-THE SWAP. How well they know each other to be able fucking fool their bosses of more than 6000 years

-How you can tell the Swap was made between the bus scene and the next day because of “Zira”’s face and attitude when he went into the shop and “Crowley”s giddy smile at the sight of the Bentley

-Zira hailing a cab when he was pretending to be Crowley instead of driving the Bentley because he probably respects the car and its owner too much to take the driver’s seat

-Both of them asking about the shop/car because they’re switched and want to know the state of their beloved things and both of them assuring their husband that their precious car and shop were ok

-Crowley knowing the shop well enough to notice there were books that weren’t there before

-How much fun Zira appeared to be having pretending to be Crowley like ‘hee hee im a demon!’ meanwhile Crowley is using his time as Zira to spit hell fire at Gabriel for being mean to his husband.

-That heartwarming toast to the world and the LOVE in Aziraphale’s eyes.

-demon wings are the same as angel wings except demons groom theirs better

-The strawberry popsicle and the vanilla ice cream cone

-Them dining at the Ritz while a Nightengale sings in Berkley square

-THE DELETED SCENE FROM THE SCRIPT BOOK WHERE CROWLEY BRINGS ZIRA FLOWERS AND CHOCOLATES TO COMMEMORATE THE OPENING OF HIS SHOP

-THE SAME SCENE CONTINUED ON TO CROWLEY SCARING GABRIEL INTO LETTING ZIRA STAY ON EARTH BECAUSE ZIRAS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN “THWART HIS DEMONIC PLANS”

-Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett never thinking this absolute masterpiece would ever be popular in any way, and then it WAS

-Michael Sheen and David Tennant openly saying that it’s a love story and talking about the romance and discussing how the characters love each other and how they express it and how Michael makes a point of saying how he stares lovingly at Crowley in scenes.

-How I very rarely obsess over something enough to post so much of it at once and declare my blog dedicated to it and how the post I made right before this one was a declaration that this is now a Good Omens blog

-The fact that I’ve edited this post at least eight times because the ineffable husbands tag keeps reminding me of more good shit™️

[vateacancameos]

Chapters: 1/1 Words: 2263 Fandom: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens) Additional Tags: Autumn, Post-Canon, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, So much fluff your teeth will ache, Gen or Pre-Slash, we'll be getting into slash territory in the rest of this series, adorable Aziraphale, cranky crowley, but not really, he's too busy having heart eyes to put in the effort, Footnotes, gross overuse of footnotes, my footnotes have footnotes, buckle in people Series: Part 1 of Ineffable Seasons

Summary: Aziraphale coos all over autumn and Crowley tries to pretend he doesn't find it adorable.

Story:

Aziraphale takes a deep breath, a smile on his face, his whole being practically glowing. It’s disgusting. Crowley glances away so he can’t be pulled further into the entrancing vision in front of him. But he looks back as soon as his best friend begins speaking.

“Oh, isn’t it glorious? The crisp temperatures, the smell of falling leaves. Jumpers and cider. And pumpkins.” At this final word, Aziraphale breaks his beatific pose—hands clasped in front of his chest, the sun hitting behind him at just the right angle to give him a halo—Hela,[1] did this angel have no shame—to crouch down and pick up a pumpkin in front of him. He holds it under his arm and throws another smile at Crowley, which has Crowley sighing and rolling his eyes to once again protest this whole silly endeavor. How he’d let himself get roped into this inane activity, he’ll never know.[2]

[1] Crowley, tired of trying to figure out which entity to use when he experiences feelings, has recently started using made-up gods instead, starting with the gods of the underworlds. He hasn’t found one that works yet, but he’s willing to try them all if necessary.

[2] It certainly has nothing to do with the strategically sweet and pleading face that had greeted him when he’d entered the bookshop to pick up his favorite angel[3] for lunch.

[3] The only angel he even deigns to like, in point of fact.

“Seriously, angel?” Crowley asks, sliding his sunglasses down just far enough to allow Aziraphale to see the disbelief in his eyes. “Autumn is terrible. Now winter, that’s the best season. Everyone harried and worried about money. Slushy rain and wet socks. Furnaces that stall or overheat. People stuck in their houses wearing terrible jumpers, forced to interact with family members they hate. Shoveling snow, if you live in a place that has that. Yeah, winter is a good one …” He lets himself grow nostalgic, remembering his favorite winters past.

“Oh pish. I’ve seen you light up like a child when seeing Christmas light displays. The closest you get to Scrooge is as him on Christmas morning, buying up roasted meat for the poor children of this world,” Aziraphale argues with a fond eye roll.[4]

[4] Let the reader note that, in fact, the closest Crowley gets to Scrooge is when David Tennant voices Scrooge McDuck on the DuckTales revival, including a great Christmas episode that employs meta jokes that reference Doctor Who, another popular show David Tennant played a part in. This author suggests you check out both shows if you have not yet done so. She’ll wait for you to get back. Okay, back now? Good. That was fun, wasn’t it? 

“That’s not– Ngh– I do n–. Stop it right now, or I’ll shove you into the back of the Bentley and take you right back to your bookshop, no cider and certainly no pumpkins.”

Aziraphale’s mouth drops open, and Hades help him, Crowley can’t tell how real or manufactured the look is. The angel often does an amazing impression of being completely innocent, but there are times that his naivety is real.

“You wouldn’t dare. You’re too–”

“Bless it,[5] angel, if you say nice–”

[5] Sometimes Crowley forgets and falls back on old curses and blesses. He’s been using them for millennia, after all. 

[read the rest under the cut or over at ao3.]

Aziraphale shoots him an exasperated look. “Of course not. I was going to say you’re too invested in teasing me for my every autumnal exclamation today to back out now.” He raises an eyebrow in challenge.

Dear Persephone, he’s right. From the moment Aziraphale had asked for a ride to the autumn festival/pumpkin patch monstrosity,[6] Crowley had been coming up with ways to tease him for his love of the season and all its trappings.[8]

[6] Complete with corn maze, cider, too many games involving gourds, and a—he can’t believe he’s even thinking of it—a hayride. Really, humans are far better than he is at inventing pure misery.[7] 

[7] Let the author again note how amazing she thinks autumn is. That being said, hayrides are itchy, dusty, and bumpy, and you’re stuck sitting far too close to excitedly screeching children. She doesn’t blame Crowley for hating them. 

[8] Just wait until Aziraphale turns the tables at Christmas. 

Crowley acquiesces with a flop of his hand that he knows Aziraphale will read as both “Fine, fine, you caught me, I want to tease you,” and “Fine, let’s go look at these gourds you’re so interested in. Did you by any chance spend too much time in the New World back when it was still new?”[9]

[9] It was only new to the dumb, egotistical Europeans, though. It was plenty old to the native peoples of that continent by the time the Europeans showed up. 

Aziraphale beams, gently placing the pumpkin back on the ground and dusting off his hands and jumper.

“Did you buy that jumper just for today?” Crowley asks as they begin strolling through the pumpkin patch/festival/field of torture. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in one before.”

Aziraphale somehow smiles even more brightly. Crowley is glad he’s wearing his sunglasses.[10] The angel pats the fuzzy, cabled, oatmeal affair covering his upper body. “Do you like it? I saw it in a window display and it just called to me. And it was right after the weather began to turn, and I just had to try it on. And then it was so soft and warm, I couldn’t not buy it. It’s like being wrapped in a hug.[11] I thought today would be the perfect time to debut it. It might get regular rotation with my jacket this autumn and winter.”

[10] To shade his eyes from the terrible angelic brilliance, of course. It has nothing to do with hiding his reaction to said smile.

[11] Crowley would love to be wrapped in a– nope. Nope. That thought will not see the light of day.

“Mm hm,” Crowley responds, quite brilliantly. “Oh look, the cider booth.”

“Oh! Cider? That sounds lov–”

“I’ll just get one for you, shall I?”

He hopes Aziraphale will find another squash to coo over, but he feels his presence next to him as soon as he’s queued up, but he’s cheerfully quiet. They wait in comfortable silence for the people in front of them to get their ciders, Aziraphale’s wide eyes taking in every aspect of the event, and Crowley softens. He enjoys teasing his best friend—doesn’t think their friendship would have survived without it, and truthfully Aziraphale can give as good as he gets, so he doesn’t feel guilty for it[12]—but he also does genuinely enjoy seeing Aziraphale enjoying himself. That smile can have Crowley walking on air for days, even when it isn’t directed at him. It’s the reason he asks the angel out to lunch so often, despite himself being the type to drink his meal rather than eat it. There’s nothing better than watching Aziraphale eat. Or find a new book to fall in love with. Or … yes, even enjoy this absolutely awful season they currently find themselves living in.

[12] Not that demons ever feel guilty. Crowley makes a single exception for back in the beginning and the thing with the humans and the apple. But they don’t talk about that.

They finally make it to the front of the queue, where Crowley asks for one cider, extra cinnamon, for Aziraphale, and one mulled wine[13] for himself.

[13] Which the vendor is surprised to find she has, despite winter still being a good few months away.

They start strolling again, and Crowley lets the angel choose the direction, following along, like he always does, as he always will do.

“I don’t understand it.”

“No surprise there, angel. You may be smart, but sometimes daily life confuses you.”

“Oh hush, you,” Aziraphale admonishes with no heat, patting Crowley’s arm, which has unknowingly been tucked into by Aziraphale’s non-cider-holding hand. That’s been happening a lot lately, but Crowley’s not about to call attention to it, lest it stop. “What I meant was, you said mere months ago that—and I quote—‘I like spooky.’ At the old satanic hospital in Tadfield, if you remember.”

“If I remember? As if I could forget any part of that God-forsaken[14] week.”

[14] Yeah, he means that appellation there. Do you hear that, God?[15]

[15] Yes, She hears that. The author (and Crowley) would do well to remember that the game She plays is complicated and ineffable, thank you very much.

“Well, anyway. That’s beside the point. The point is, you like spooky.” Here, Aziraphale punctuates his words with more arm pats. “And autumn is when Samhain[16] occurs. You can’t have spooky without autumn.

[16] Pronounced saah-wn. Not Sam-hain, like they said on Supernatural that one time, which shows how little research TV writers sometimes do. This author is not stupidly obsessed with this fact. At. All.

Crowley rolls his eyes. “Most spooky these days is over-manufactured swill sold to the masses for profit. It’s torture porn or silly ghosts. None of it frightens me.”[17]

[17] Except the current U.S. president. Now that shit’s scary.[18]

[18] Head office tried to give him a commendation for that whole debacle, but he noped right out of that one.

“Torture porn?” Aziraphale asks, a disgusted and confused wrinkle in his brow.

“Yeah, porn is a term current humans use to mean anything over-indulged in, but it has nothing to do with sexual acts. Well, most of it. Like, torture porn, food porn, space porn.” Aziraphale looks more disturbed the longer Crowley speaks, so he waves it away. “Never mind. I’m just saying, none of that manufactured spooky does anything for me.”

They come to a booth with caramel popcorn, and without even looking at his angel, Crowley signals for a bag, handing it over to Aziraphale as he counts out the correct number of coins. Aziraphale sighs happily and begins munching on it immediately.

“You’re just a stick-in-the-mud,” he says, going back to their conversation.

“Excuse me? I’m the stick-in-the-mud, Mr. I’ve-worn-the-same-jacket-for-one-hundred-and-eighty-years?”

“You’d do well to remember your car is ninety years old.”

“Practically new compared to your old smelly coat.”

Aziraphale’s jaw-drop this time is definitely not feigned. “You take that back. You said it looked good on me.”

“Yeah, in 1840.”

Aziraphale looks truly hurt. “It’s my favorite,” he says quietly, and Crowley relents. He can’t not, when he’s up against that face.

“It’s a nice coat, angel. But it’s good seeing you in something else for once.”

“Thank you, my dear. But the point is, you have no room to call me a stick-in-the-mud. Autumn is wonderful, and you can’t take that away from me.”

Crowley tries and fails to hide his smile. “How’s the popcorn?”

“Perfect!” Aziraphale says, the glow coming back to him. “This is all perfect. The weather could not be more beautiful or autumnal. I can smell spices and caramel and corn husks. The pumpkins look a particularly brilliant shade of orange this year. There are happy people all around. It’s lovely.”

Crowley looks around, seeing a particularly fiendish child twirling his unaware sister’s hair around a candied apple—who he silently cheers on—a small toddler screaming their head off when their parental figure offers them a pumpkin, a couple fighting near the corn maze. The stench of city and human beings is far too strong to be drowned by the sweets and spices, though it does fight for dominance with the moldering leaves blanketing the ground. And though the weather is nice now, he can see a storm building in the distance. They’d do well to hurry through the rest of the festival before they get caught in a chilly downpour.

But He won’t suggest this. He’ll follow his angel as he coos at the children posing for pictures with goofy scarecrows, as he bounces over to the candied apple vendor for a (non-twisted-in-hair) treat, as he begs with his soulful eyes for a hayride. He’ll follow his angel to the end of the world. He’s already done so, and he’d do it all over again if he had to. He’ll let them get caught in the freezing, miserable rain because Aziraphale is too taken with the pumpkin carving contest to notice the darkening clouds, though he will miracle them dry as soon as he’s able. He’ll follow his angel back into his shop, lugging the bag of things Aziraphale didn’t have enough arms to carry himself, and too big of eyes and stomach to not buy.

Aziraphale will light a fire, make two cups of whiskey-spiked chai, and wiggle his way into his favorite chair in the back room. Crowley will follow, landing on the sofa that has molded to his angles and long legs. They’ll talk about Poe and Mary Shelley. Crowley will talk Aziraphale into watching Young Frankenstein. Then Aziraphale will beg to be allowed to read aloud “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,”[19] and Crowley will concede it’s just a little spooky. Though only just a little.

And though he won’t say it out loud, Crowley will think that maybe, just maybe, autumn isn’t so bad, when you’ve got your favorite person by your side.

[19] Read it here. 

[sol1056]

I've just read that word of god post you've reblogged and i agree that if it's not in the canon then it's not in the story. but what is the canon exactly? if we take vld as an example, can the extra materials like the guide books or interviews be considered canon when they give us information that is never talked about in the source material, that is in the show itself?

Canon, at its simplest, is “what the community consider the official record.” Its ‘things recognized as authentic,’ and by extension also ‘a standard by which something is judged [as genuine]’. Frex, to say ‘this album is modern jazz’ requires comparing the music to the modern jazz canon. 

For fiction, canon applies the idea of an ‘official record’ to the story itself. The purpose is to delineate the ‘actual’ (genuine) story, and the standards by which new stories (sequels, spin-offs, etc) become canon. The common standards tend to be: who created it and/or was involved, form of distribution (ie official channels), and how widespread it was. Frex, a song played once in a small club in Chicago and never recorded would probably not be considered part of the ‘canon’ of modern jazz (that is, would not be used as the ‘standard’ by which newer works could be judged, because the work is too obscure). 

That brings us to the next level (and often the most fiercely debated): which texts are deuterocanonical. It’s a fifty-cent word but it’s exactly the word we need, here. It means ‘secondary canon’ and it’s texts that could be canon but fell short by some measure. Different author (or ghostwritten), written years later or years earlier, retcons everything, completely different story but with cameo of canon character, and so on. 

Adaptations are often deuterocanonical: a book to a movie, a movie to a TV series, a TV series to graphic novels. Each media has different storytelling conventions, so the story changes, and if you were a fan of the ‘real’ story, you might see the adaptation as just a shade too different. Plenty of fans of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga see the first anime (which diverged wildly) as a secondary canon — interesting, but not crucial; fewer say the same of the second anime, which was much more faithful.  

Continuations also tend to be deuterocanonical, especially when the media changes. If your intro to a fandom includes the warning that everyone ignores a certain continuation, sequel, or spin-off, the community may have decided the later works are a secondary canon. This dismissal comes with the usual flamewars, at least until the fandom agrees to disagree.  

Best criteria is whether parallel or subsequent stories impact or develop the ‘main’ story. Agents of SHIELD is a spin-off of the Avengers movie series, and it pivots mid-story due to movie events. The TV show may be deuterocanonical for movie fans, but the movies are canonical for TV show fans, because those stories have significant impact on the events in the TV show’s storyline.

And then we get to words about the story: meta. Tolkien’s estate has published his drafts and notes; these books satisfy canon per authenticity (written by Tolkien), and stamped as official by the estate. You don’t have to read every rough draft to get the final version, so Tolkien’s notes aren’t really primary canon, but they probably would be considered deuterocanonical. 

The same doesn’t apply when it’s just anyone writing meta, even a published Field Guide or Annotated Glossary — a fancier and footnoted version of the same kind of meta fans have always written on their favorite works. No matter how well-researched, that third-party meta is not canon, no matter who wrote it or where it was published.  

And then we get to word-of-god, however it’s relayed (panel quotes, interviews, tweets, blog posts, etc). Word-of-god, like handbooks and marketing material, are not the story; it’s talk about the story. It’s meta, and as such it can never be more than – at best – secondary canon, and even then under limited circumstances. 

The next thing to consider in word-of-god is: who’s the god, here? It’s easy enough with Tolkien, Rowling, Kipling, Austin, any one-author work where one voice did the bulk of shaping the ideas and words and story. It’s another matter when we get into multi-creator, collaborative stories like movies, television shows, even stage plays or dance where the work passes through multiple hands on the way to becoming a final product. 

If the actor chose to read those lines as though the character were in love, that has an impact on your experience of the story. Is it enough of an impact? Does that make the actor right to say, “this character is in love”? Does the actor have that authority? Or an executive producer who didn’t write the script, direct the episode, voice any of the lines, storyboard any scenes, or animate any frames? How do we measure the contribution of ‘enabling others to create’ to determine whether word-of-god applies? What about a story editor whose outline was informed entirely by exec notes? Can we say the writer of a particular episode even has word-of-god authority, if every line was altered by the actors to a smaller or larger degree? 

Beyond that — and this applies from one-author texts up to multi-season series with a production staff in the hundreds — we cannot assume the author (if there is a single identifiable hand in the story) actually knows the story they’ve written. We writers can tell you what we meant to write, and what we wanted to write, but what we ended up with isn’t always where we’d planned to be. Hell, sometimes we don’t see the themes until a long time after the work is written, the same way we don’t always see where the story’s failed on other counts (representation, gender, cliches, plot holes, etc). 

I could add a lot of words, but here I’m just going to quote some of TV Tropes at you, since the entry does a good job of covering all the bases. 

A number of people reject [word-of-god]… If the creator had wanted a certain fact to be canon, the thinking goes, they should have included it in the work to begin with. [Others] go even further, considering the uncertainty and ambiguity of canon to be a good thing… Wimsatt and Beardsley’s “The Intentional Fallacy” and Barthes’ Death of the Author essay both argue that the interpretation of a work cannot be limited to attempts to discern the “author’s intentions.”

Another thorny issue is … collaborators may not actually agree with interpretations of their story that weren’t made explicit in the work. This is especially likely if they no longer work together, and particularly if they had a real-life falling out. In this case, there are multiple “Gods” given potentially contradictory explanations, so whose word is to be considered correct?

If a story requires the author pop up to explain each scene in some nightmarish reverse-MST3K scenario, then the story has failed. Point blank, full stop, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. The story has failed. 

But let’s pretend the story is fine, and you just can’t take lying awake at night wondering about that damn watermelon. There’s a place and time for creator explanations; easter eggs (like in-jokes and homages) definitely count, and can be a lot of fun. There’s nothing wrong with word-of-god, after all, so long as it’s taken in moderation. In the end, it’s just a slightly more knowledgeable voice, but never let it drown out your voice or your experience. 

Ultimately, this incessant emphasis on word-of-god has two sources. 

One is the current penchant for throwing wild swerves as a way to combat audience boredom. These get called ‘plot twists’ but in the hands of less-skilled creators, they’re just cheap shocks. Pushed too far, they’ll break the story. Groundwork and foreshadowing are left off the page or screen for fear the audience will ‘figure it out’ too soon, and the result is an audience struggling to make sense of the quagmire. Word-of-god doesn’t fix the story, but it can at least provide closure. You know why the watermelon was there, and you can move on to obsess about something else. 

The other source is our immediate and seeming direct access to a lot of creators: writers, directors, storyboard artists, voice actors, producers, all up and down the line. We could sit down and think hard about the story (if the story isn’t so broken that’s moot, at least), or we could just tweet or blog or tag a creator and ask. Or hope someone asks our question at a panel, or a podcast, or some other interview. Why bother with meta, when you can get a slightly more-informed meta from someone who looks like an authority? 

Hey, authors have been getting questions from readers since Lady Murasaki sat down to write. No, the real issue are creators who’ve come to crave (and encourage) the audience asking how to interpret the story. It’s a pretty heady thing, getting that kind of attention, and it can get away from you really fast. What began as a simple question about indestructible fruit becomes an ongoing interpretative dance by the author on behalf of the work. 

It’s flattering to have the audience clamoring for your words, but… it’s not about you, as the creator. It’s about the story. A creator needs to step back and let the story do the talking. The sooner some creators remember that, the sooner some fandoms will calm the fsck down. 

Primary or secondary canon, word-of-god or radio silence; in the end, the story’s got to stand on its own. If it can’t do that, no amount of explanation in the world will prop the story back up again. 

[junker-town]

Sosa-McGwire home run chase tracker

What was it like in 1998, during the nail-biting race to beat Roger Maris’ home run record? We track the big headlines and the dingers as the world watched.

Welcome to the spring of 1998: Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are coming off seasons of 58 and 36 home runs, respectively, and it’s McGwire’s first full season in St. Louis. Predictions of him breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark of 61 are already flying. Six short months from now, McGwire and Sosa will both have accomplished the feat with the former edging the latter by four home runs to set a new record of 70.

Before that finish line, though, both men would hit more than 130 combined dingers throughout the year, and there would be magazine covers, commercials, and late-night shows tracking them the whole way. The home run race would captivate baseball fans, as well as people who wouldn’t otherwise care about the sport, and it would stay lodged in the mind of kids everywhere — some of whom grew up to be today’s stars of the game, and can still articulate how they felt during that summer.

So, whether you’re someone who remembers the McGwire-Sosa home run chase in all of its enthralling detail, or a future MLB fan who wasn’t yet old enough to recall all of the specifics of the season-long battle (hi, hello, it’s me), either way, it’s been 20 years since that race and its can’t-miss action brought fans back to baseball. Let the dingers fly!

[Note: Our tracker took into account all available recorded dates, field positions, and distances for McGwire and Sosa home runs in the 1998 season.]

CARLO ALLEGRI/AFP/Getty Images

McGwire steps in, wins homer contest

McGwire’s home runs were already meriting column space in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in early March, but not because of a game situation. In a batting practice home run derby against Blue Jays players, he hit all of the Cardinals’ seven homers to win. That March 8, 1998, anecdote would be a prelude of what was to come, and he even did it without his usual bat.

Sammy time: “Sosa predicted last spring he would hit 50 home runs. Now he’s out of the prognostication business”

Sosa took a step back from the confident position he had with his 1997 home run totals in the March 9 edition of the Chicago Tribune. He should have stayed with it though, since even though he wasn’t “out there to hit 40 home runs” he did that, and more. It’s safe to say he did accomplish his goal of hurting teams every day.

McGwire’s chances of breaking homer mark is among topics discussed with Reds’ minor leaguers

Someone was making predictions though, at least for McGwire. Pete Rose, joining a trend that would be a big feature of that season’s Spring Training coverage, appeared in the March 15 Post-Dispatch confidently predicting McGwire could top Maris’ mark, and offering managers advice they wouldn’t quite follow: walk him a bunch. McGwire would end the season with 162 walks, but even that many free trips to first didn’t keep him from setting the record.

While McGwire was getting all the prediction coverage, Sosa had headlines following him during Spring Training.

RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images

“Sosa’s No. 1 need: Discipline at plate”

He struck out three fewer times in 1998 than in 1997 (171 to 174) but hit 30 more home runs than the previous year. So this March 22 Tribune headline isn’t necessarily wrong, but it turns out his plate discipline didn’t matter when it came to crushing as much as everyone thought. Hey, not every preseason prediction was going to land.

Over in McGwireville that same day, the Sunday edition of the Post-Dispatch fills us in on McGwire’s opinion on all his publicity with the most 1998 reference, saying, “He has graced the cover of The Sporting News Baseball Yearbook and the Sports Illustrated special baseball issue and the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated. He is on the cover of the Cardinals’ media guid. He’s been on more covers than Monica Lewinsky. And McGwire, predictably, isn’t wild about it.”

Lewinsky name drop aside, McGwire admits he would rather not be on covers and only be written about for his feats rather than constantly having to take photos and be the center of attention. “I would rather do the articles and that’s about it.” McGwire said. “I don’t like publicity.”

That is … not a wish that will come true.

Twin towers of power

In the March 25 edition of the Tribune, with the season almost underway, a prediction of 75 or 80 homers for Sosa and teammate Henry Rodriguez gets space in the sports section. They’d combine for 97 home runs, with Sosa accomplishing the bulk of that, of course. Rodriguez did end up notching 31 of his own bombs, only five away from his career high.

In response to Cubs’ first baseman Mark Grace being tagged as the cleanup hitter and Sosa slotting in third in the batting order, Grace said in the March 27 Tribune that he’s happy with that setup because, “I want to see Sammy get as many pitches as he possibly can. Because when Sammy puts the bat on the ball, good things happen.” If you only knew, Mark Grace. If you only knew.

Players: 61 HRs before .400

Also on the 27th, a small item in the Moline, Illinois, Dispatch noted that Grace said McGwire, Sosa, or anyone on the Rockies would have a chance at reaching Maris’ threshold and then passing it, which is a pretty close prediction considering Sosa didn’t break 40 the year before. Cubs GM Ed Lynch did Grace one better and named McGwire or Ken Griffey Jr. as players who could hit 70 home runs, specifically. Hit the nail right on the head there. Hopefully he bought some lottery tickets after media availability that day.

All eyes are on McGwire as he aims at homer mark

Two days from Opening Day, McGwire still wasn’t comfortable with being the center of attention while his teammates failed to garner the same close analysis and predictions. He told the Post-Dispatch: “I know there’s a lot of eyes on me. There should be a lot of eyes on everybody else.”

Hopefully he got used to it. Because once the season began, these confident preseason predictions would look like a middle-of-the-paper footnote compared to the home run race fervor. Covers and attention, ahoy.

Everyone [remembers] right? As a kid growing up that was amazing. Sosa was just so electrifying, so fun-loving. McGwire was that classic, stoic Cardinal Way just dropping bombs into Big Mac land. Every time we play in St. Louis it says Big Mac up on the third deck and you can’t help but remember that summer. What a great time for baseball. —Gerrit Cole, Houston Astros

It was very significant. You’d wake up every day and see if they hit one. I was just rooting for excitement, for homers. I wasn’t team Sosa or Team McGwire, I was just team excitement. —Jed Lowrie, Oakland A’s

“Get Ready for a Slugfest: Why Maris’ record and a lot of others could fall”

McGwire’s first cover of the season came eight days before he would hit his first home run. Sports Illustrated’s March 23 cover was all Big Mac with the exception of a brief mention of NCAA Tournament upsets happening that week (10-seed West Virginia had beaten 2-seed Cincinnati, 6-seed UCLA beat 3-seed Michigan, and 8-seed Rhode Island pulled off the upset over 1-seed Kansas).

I might have been in fourth or fifth grade? But I remember watching it every night. ...I think I was going for Sosa. I really liked the way he hopped. Plus I’m from North Alabama so Chicago, St. Louis, they’re right there. —Craig Kimbrel, Boston Red Sox

You know things are legitimate when the brands get involved. A trip for two to the World Series from Pepsi just for guessing the home run champion’s dinger total was a sure sign the race was top of everyone’s mind, instead of just the baseball world’s.

In May, McGwire and Sosa combined for 12 home runs in a single week.

Just a lot of home runs. I actually remember on ESPN they had a count and it seemed like every other day one of them was hitting a homer so it’s just cool to look back on that, to remember that. —Trevor Story, Colorado Rockies

It was amazing. Every time you watched a game when they were on the TV it was a home run and it was pretty interesting and electric to see two guys go at it for a home run title. —Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies

Nike’s “Chicks Dig the Long Ball” commercial, in which Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux train to hit home runs to impress fans (including Heather Locklear!!), who are more captivated with McGwire’s prowess at the plate. One of the best things to come out of the 1998 season.

I thank Sammy and McGwire for doing what they did because that brought baseball back. The fans came back to paying attention to baseball, because it was a little cold until they came in and did the home run challenge, which is almost impossible to do. Every baseball player should thank them for doing what they did, that’s why we are where we are right now. Everybody’s having a career right now because of it. —David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox (ret.)

As a kid, it was something that really drew you into the game of baseball and watching it every night. Not just those two guys, but all the fans and all the teams, you know it was definitely one of my early baseball memories. —Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

I was pretty young, but I just remember every day there was something. I didn’t know really how special that was until looking back on it and seeing how many people haven’t even reached 60 homers, some of the best power hitters ever. I’m glad those guys are out of the game now so I don’t have to face them. —Patrick Corbin, Arizona Diamondbacks

“Slammin’ Sammy: Sammy Sosa is on a record home run binge”

The next big cover featuring either Sosa or McGwire didn’t come until June 29, when Sports Illustrated put Sosa on a cover of his own. At this point, Sosa had 32 homers to McGwire’s 36, and the race was well on its way to the top of Hype Mountain. This cover just about marks the point where the race actually turned into a race and not “just” McGwire chasing Maris.

I think I was 12 maybe. So playing little league baseball, that was really exciting to follow. I remember no matter what we were doing, if we were at somebody else’s house or I even remember times when my dad was making me mow the yard, someone from inside the house would yell, “Hey, McGwire’s gonna come up” and I would run inside real quick and watch his at-bat and then have to go finish my chores. I appreciate that part of it, it got me out of doing some extra yard work. That might have been the summer where I fell in love with the game and it became my most favorite sport. —Sean Doolittle, Washington Nationals

I always watched SportsCenter when I was laying in bed going to sleep. Obviously, being able to watch that race was unbelievable. I was a McGwire guy. I liked the Cardinals a little more because they were closer to home, so I’d always watch the Cardinals. —J.T. Realmuto, Miami Marlins

“Outta Here!”

With McGwire at 44 home runs and Sosa at 40, TIME issued the first cover to feature them both. Neither of them posed for this one, and based on both of their reluctance at the beginning of the season to be the absolute center of attention, it’s notable TIME went the route of having an artist draw them rather than setting up a photo shoot or using wire photos.

The eventual World Series champions get a mention here, but it’s a small one. The Yankees’ even came after the note on stadium food. But the most important part of this subhead is the phrase “baseball is back.”

The predictions and the hope of a home run spike may have been one thing, but the actual race did something better than being exciting: it gave baseball a second life that wasn’t guaranteed after the 1994 strike.

I remember it was awesome feeling. Especially when they played each other. The way that they’d go at each other. I think that baseball really grew a lot after the strike and baseball got back on top after that. —Kenley Jansen, Los Angeles Dodgers

“The Great Home Run Chase: In pursuit of Mac, Junior and Sammy. A remarkable 72-hour odyssey”

Oh look, a Ken Griffey, Jr. reference on the August 3 edition of Sports Illustrated. Griffey would end the season with 56 home runs, a full 10 behind Sosa and a total that in most other years would have gotten him all of these covers. Instead he got this brief mention before the two main men in the race uncorked things and went on their August and September tears. At the time of this cover, he was one behind Sosa and four behind McGwire.

I just remember how much fun baseball was. Obviously, when you have two big names like that going at it with the home run race, two iconic organizations too … as a kid you can’t ask for anything better than that. —Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs

I remember how far and how long they were hitting them, how excited everybody was. The Home Run Derby was something I always watched growing up as a kid and that was a special event. It was Home Run Derby every day for them. —Michael Brantley, Cleveland Indians

Not every current player remembers the home run race. Whether because of youth or growing up in another country, their introductions to what McGwire and Sosa did came late.

I was in Brazil so I don’t want to say I barely watched baseball, but it was hard. When I moved here, to see that. Still to this day, 60’s and 70’s? It’s like, geez. I think I might have just gotten past that career-wise and those guys were doing it in one year. It’s really cool. You heard it a little bit on ESPN Brasil but at that time, I was playing baseball but wasn’t really following baseball as much. I was more following NPB, Japanese baseball. —Yan Gomes, Cleveland Indians

I didn’t have the opportunity to watch that in Cuba, we didn’t have the stations. But I heard about it and when I came here I watched videos of that. It was very special. —Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox

As McGwire’s record-breaking home run neared, pop culture made room for No. 62. Including Hank Hill from King of the Hill asking him to please hit the big one so their season could start. Hill’s 1998 season was delayed so FOX could make sure they aired McGwire passing Maris.

“One Cool Daddy: How Mark McGwire is beating the pressure”

There’s a lot of things about the September 7 Sports Illustrated cover that wouldn’t happen 20 years later: the pose that looks like McGwire is breastfeeding his son; the headline “One Cool Daddy” for a piece authored by Rick Reilly; and an article about golfers’ sex lives. Or at least you’d hope that all of those things are relics.

There it is, No. 62 and assured immortality in the record books. A 341-foot left field shot that just snuck over the left field wall a few feet from the foul pole. In any other context, a normal home run. But not here.

McDonald’s took advantage of the “Big Mac” nickname connection, promoting their line of baseballs with McGwire’s face on them for $3.99, and congratulating him for the achievement with that year’s “Big Mac getting a Big Mac” commercial.

It’s mid-September, both men had cracked 60 home runs and McGwire has officially passed Maris with a September 8 shot to left. So the covers are really picking up.

“The Record: What it means to Mark McGwire and to America”

McGwire, unsurprisingly, gets the cover of Sports Illustrated for breaking the record. But over on Newsweek it’s both Sosa and McGwire smiling and grinning with their arms around each other as the season nears its end.

In case you haven’t realized by now how big a deal the race was at the time, both the Swissair Flight 111 crash that killed 229 people and that summer’s market crash were demoted to the top bar with baseball getting the rest. On Newsweek!

I actually watched a little of the Sammy Sosa thing, I think it was E60. I watched that and it was showing some of the clips from that year. How they were hugging and doing that fist handshake and stuff, and it brought back some memories. Obviously being in the southeast, back then TV was WGN I think carried the Cubs and then TBS carried the Braves so that was kind of who we got. So I remembered a lot of it. It was something you probably won’t see again. —Mitch Moreland, Boston Red Sox

“Suddenly it’s This Close: Sammy Sosa jumps right back into the home run race”

Just because the record was McGwire’s doesn’t mean that the race was over, and a pair of covers from September 21 celebrate both things. Sosa stood at 63 home runs to McGwire’s 65 at the time so Sports Illustrated went with “Suddenly it’s THIS CLOSE” and ESPN the Magazine, still in the first months of its existence, dubbed McGwire’s 62 “the greatest sports moment of our time.”

McGwire answers the “Where do I go from here?” question posed on this SI cover in an exclusive piece from his own pen that reflects on the night of the record, how things have changed after unseating Maris, and what his priorities are now that people look at him differently and ask more of him as the single-season home run record holder. It’s a snapshot of one man’s mind in the days immediately after his life changed — for the better, at least at that point — and re-reading can be strange knowing what we know now, but also bring forth an appreciation of McGwire doing a piece this honest.

September 26 saw Will Ferrell do a Mark McGwire impression on Saturday Night Live, the only time he would portray the athlete on the show. If getting spoofed on SNL when it was at one of the peaks of its powers isn’t a sign that this home run race was consuming all, nothing was.

What A Season!

Sometimes, the numbers do all the talking. McGwire finished with 70 homers. Sosa won the RBI battle, even though McGwire jacked more home runs. Kerry Wood had a 20-strikeout game. Cal Ripken, Jr.’s consecutive games streak ended at 2,632. Alex Rodriguez had 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases. And oh yeah, besides all of that, the Yankees set an American League record for wins in a season.

But sometimes, talking does the talking. McGwire followed up his Season of Many Covers by appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman, and later spoke with Barbara Walters for her yearly Most Fascinating People special. McGwire’s Letterman appearance included guests who were very of-the-time, like “Life Is Beautiful” actor/director Roberto Benigni and singer Bruce Hornsby.

McGwire cracks jokes in an all-black, oversized 90’s suit that would make any tailor today cringe. He’s comfortable in the chair and brags a little, Hollywood style, but also veers into “aw shucks” territory with things like shouting out friends and family, and continually saying he can hit anything that’s over the “white part of the plate.” Letterman, for his part, does the Lord’s work by asking whether McGwire calls home runs dingers, taters, or something else. The semi-disappointing answer? “Homers.”

Letterman also points out that this race was what baseball needed and McGwire answers that he and Sosa did it “for the country,” not just baseball. That it doesn’t seem like hyperbole in that context is the most incredible part.

I always get on Big Mac, because he’s our bench coach, to get him to take BP one time but he won’t do it. He can still hit bombs for sure — he just won’t do it. He’s pretty quiet about it, but he’s awesome. —Brad Hand, Cleveland Indians

Sportsmen of the Year

On December 21, a pair of covers came out that featured both men but couldn’t have been more different. In one, McGwire and Sosa are named Sportsmen of the Year by Sporting News, and look like they’re going to a baseball-themed prom.

In the other, they’re named Sportsmen of the Year by Sports Illustrated and … the rest will live in infamy.

McGwire capped off his year with the Barbara Walters interview, once again taking the spotlight while Sammy preferred not to (or didn’t receive any offers to) appear on the top late-night or news magazine shows.

Walters refers to McGwire as “a gracious man” and the 1998 season as “a time we’ll all remember,” and neither description could be phrased better than that. Leave it to Barbara Walters to wrap up a season that simultaneously brought baseball back, and set baseball on a path to questioning many of its recent heroes in such an apt way.