#i need like a the bear version of irish twins

[kulliare]

timeline anon back again! Omg I feel the same the whole of 2×06 I was watching it thinking. That's just John mulaney and Sarah Paulton. What're they doing here? It was wacky

I think you're right about the writers retconning or straight up forgetting their own details lol..but my timeline idea is so rough it's basically. Carmy moves out at 19 or 20, goes to New York or somewhere first for a few years -> (but not the s1 nightmare New York stuff) -> goes to Copenhagen -> 2×06 Christmas Dinner is the same year as copenhagen (w luca! I did really like that detail hehe. Amazed Carmy had any friends 💀) -> afterwards he dives back to New York to escape his family and works at the scary Chef Joel place all the way up until Mikeys death and then he returns to The Beef. Hm. Sort of a rough mess but that's the way it makes sense in my head

Hope you're having a nice soup day too!

it honestly took me out of it a little bit. i don't know sarah but whenever john was on screen i was like... huh.. what.. but i was still too confused by the chaos to really care and it still was an a+ ep

agree with carmy leaving around that age-- i think he does go to culinary school during that time (he's worked at the bear for awhile so he would be considered a good option, might be able to get scholarship bc of that? im so sorry to the ppl who actually work in kitchens i feel like an academic trying to talk abt something on my high horse and getting all the details wrong) but with his like emphasis on learning fundamentals in kitchens it makes sense.

tbh i imagine w luca its like. linkedin friends but it counts for carmy he needs a W wherever he can get lol. and it really was nice to hear people did have good impressions of carmy like.. i wish he could've heard that too but i guess it would've also fed into his idea that work is the only way he can get any value like. ugh nasty boy. i kind of like that he ended up being a bit more nasty this season but i think it's bc i like unlikeable protags in small doses

WHAT I REALLY wonder is how they're going to handle s3-- i think i'd actually be happy for it to end at s3 bc i'm terrified of shows generally losing the plot and main character ideas as the show goes on. i liked s2 but in my brain i'm still treating s1 as main canon and s2 a possibility of what might've happened because of the Fear.

my wants for carmy are for him to actually get more into therapy, but i doubt that's going to happen before he has a final breakdown that finally gets him to finally realize he can't live like this. one interesting detail that i don't think will come up in the show is that noma is actually closing due to similar issues that the bear brings up-- if they bring it up i think it'll be interesting but at the same time i want carmy to actually break down and not too worked up over minor interesting facts

[italian-sides]

Hello everyone! / Ciao a tutti!

I know I’m late since the first Remus’ appearance but shhh, the important thing is to post, still better than not posting it at all, hahaha 

also for this post you’ll have to thank both @misslilidelaney, which is basically the source of half or even more of the headcanons you’re reading, and @watcher-from-the-heights for being the best beta reader ever ((tagging @ts-italian-gang as well bc i can))

today I will indeed introduce to you the Italian version of Remus; since there will be some phrases in heavy Roman dialect, i’ll put a translation at the end of it to better understand what people are saying: so, enjoy your reading, y'all!

oh, yeah, before anything else:

tw: mention of weed

Romeo Stella

- Romolo and Remo’s elder brother, born on 25/06/1988, more or less a year before the twins.

- since he was a child he has always given very clear signs of his love for gore-y and creepy stuff in the drawings he brought to his parents from kindergarten, something which the aforementioned initially worried about but later accepted, albeit with some  difficulty.

- in high school he attended the liceo artistico and he definitely chose it because he wanted to develop this creative flair for drawing, that and because the Green Stuff that used to be spread at his school was the best in the neighborhood- i mean what?

- after gradutation he started attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome but at one point he stopped because he found a job almost immediately in a very… particular field and he seized the chance: basically he’s a cameraman for erotica movies, and every now and then he takes part in the scenes himself and if at the beginning he both studied and worked to round up his expenses, after a while he quit his studies to devote himself full time to filming.

- once his parents found out about his job, since Romeo continued to lie saying that he was studying when in reality it wasn’t true, they literally kicked him out of the house and at first begged for hospitality among the houses of his actor friends and the studio where movies were usually filmed, then Remo invited him to Bologna with the promise of a low-priced apartment and showing him the announcement of a film production agency, of the type “he likes so much” looking for a cameraman, and so then he moves up to North Italy.

- as far as his personality goes, Romeo “Er Mejo Der Colosseo” [1] Stella, as he calls himself, is A Mess™: inconsistent like few, he overshares about his life and sometimes his work a lot, to the point of often making uncomfortable  both the Italian Sides and Dolce&Remì’s customers.

- as far as his sexuality is concerned, inconsistency here too reigns supreme because he constantly changes labels and an example of his conversations on the subject is: “I’m bisexual” “I’m pansexual” “No, no, in the end I am straight” “Yes, but that guy has a divine ass” “Okay, I’m gay” “Okay but THOSE BOOBS”, so you can understand what a mess this human being is.

- he wants to be considered triplets with Romolo and Remo at all costs, but each time they introduce themselves to someone new, the conversation between the three of them goes something like this: Romeo: “eh, sì, siamo gemelli” Romolo: “ma n'è ‘n cazzo vero” Remo: “ma che cazzo stai a di’?”[2]; plus the twins don’t speak much or almost never about him because they’re a bit embarrassed about his job.

- if you think that the Stella twins together are chaotic, you have never had the opportunity to experience the Stella brothers: Romeo: “A’ Burino” Remo: “A’ Cazzaro” Romolo: “A’ NFAMI VE PARCHEGGIO NA MANO 'N FACCIA”[3]; the first time that the Main Four witnessed a scene like this, Virgilio was half creeped out and half turned on and Luca was comforting a rather upset Patrizio from all the bad words flying around.

- for the reason described above films and TV series’ marathons with all the Sides are organized in rare, very rare occasions, because while Romeo would only like gore/splatter horrors and most documentaries on True Crime, the others, except Giuda, are like: “EW NO”

- Romeo: “VE GUARDATE I FILM DA FICHETTINE, IO VOJO VEDE GLI HORROR. ME SERVE ER SANGUE NO 'E CANZONI DAA BELLA E LABBESTIA” Luca: “Ma volevamo fare la maratona della Marvel” Romeo: “Notteprego 'amo girato a parodia porno e nun posso più guardà Thor coji stessi occhi”[4]

- he’s besties with Giuda and they bonded almost immediately and if the Venetian is not at Dolce&Remì or with Emilio, he’s certainly at home playing videogames on Playstation with Romeo. This is because a while back, at the very beginning of the internet, Virgilio, Romeo and Giuda were invited to a random group on Skype to make friends and while in the beginning they were all very close-knit, over the years Romeo and Giuda had become a bit much for Virgilio and slowly, taking advantage of his transfer to Bologna, he moved away from them, while Giuda and Romeo simply lost sight of each other after a while, limiting themselves to the usual Christmas/birthday wishes; Virgilio low key can’t bear the two of them too much because he’s anxious that they could bad-mouth him on the things that he said and did in his past, but they also have the same fear of him as well, therefore they keep quiet

- him, Giuda and Tommaso are fans of “La Mamma di Crystal” ((“Crystal’s Mom”)), a Saint Seya’s parody, and since the first time they all discovered that the other two follow it too, all three of them don’t have a conversation without quoting it in at least one sentence

[1]: “The Best of the Coliseum”: it comes from the italian version of Thomas O'Malley, the stray Irish cat from the Aristocats, that in Italy was characterized as a Roman cat [2]: Romeo: “heh, yes, we’re twins” Romolo: “but that’s not fucking true” Remo: “what the fuck are you saying?” [3]: Romeo:“You’re a hick!” Remo: “You’re a jackass!” Romolo: “You fools, I’m gonna park a hand on your face!" (as in, slap) [4]:  Romeo: "You always watch movies for pussies, I want to see the horror ones. I need blood, not Beauty and the Beast songs.” Luca: “Actually, we wanted to do a Marvel marathon-” Romeo: “No, please, we shot a porn parody of some of the movies and I can’t watch Thor with the same eyes again.”

so che arrivo in ritardo rispetto all'apparizione di Remus ma shhh, l'importante è pubblicare, ahahah 😂 per questo post dovrete ringraziare sia @misslilidelaney, che ha praticamente la fonte di metà o più delle headcanon che state leggendo, e @watcher-from-the-heights per essere l* mi* beta

oggi appunto introdurrò la versione italiana di Remus quindi buona lettura a tutti! ah, sì, prima di cominciare tw: menzione di marijuana

Romeo Stella

- fratello maggiore di Romolo e Remo, nato il 25/06/1988, più o meno un anno prima dei gemelli.

- fin da piccolo ha dato segni ben evidenti del suo amore per il macabro e il gore nei disegni che portava ai genitori dall'asilo, cosa di cui i suddetti all'inizio si preoccupavano ma che poi col passare del tempo hanno accettato, pur con qualche difficoltà.

- alle superiori ha fatto il liceo artistico e l'ha sicuramente scelto perché voleva sviluppare questo estro creativo verso il disegno questo e perché la roba che girava a scuola era la migliore del circondario i mean what?

- ha cominciato l'Accademia delle Belle Arti a Roma ma a un certo punto ha smesso perché ha trovato lavoro quasi subito in un ambito molto... particolare e ha colto la palla al balzo: praticamente è un cameraman per film osé, per cui ogni tanto partecipa egli stesso alle scene e se all'inizio studiava e lavorava per arrotondare, poi ha mollato gli studi per dedicarsi full time alle riprese.

- una volta che i genitori hanno scoperto il suo lavoro, visto che Romeo continuava a mentire dicendo che stava studiando quando in realtà non era vero, lo hanno letteralmente cacciato di casa e se all'inizio elemosinava ospitalità tra le case dei suoi amici attori e lo studio dove riprendevano di solito i film, poi Remo lo ha invitato a Bologna con la promessa di un appartamento a basso prezzo e proponendogli l'annuncio di un'agenzia di produzione di film "che ti piacciono tanto" che cerca un cameraman e quindi si trasferisce su al Nord.

- per quanto riguarda la personalità, Romeo "Er Mejo Der Colosseo" Stella, come si soprannomina lui stesso, is A Mess™: incoerente come pochi, straparla della sua vita e talvolta del suo lavoro fin troppo, a tal punto da mettere spesso a disagio sia i coinquilini LAMP(A) sia i clienti del Dolce&Remì.

- per quanto riguarda la sua sessualità, l'incoerenza anche qua fa da padrona perché cambia labels continuamente e un esempio delle sue conversazioni in materia è: "sono bi" "sono pan" "no no alla fine sono etero" "si ma quel tizio ha un culo divino" "okay I am gay" "okay but THOSE BOOBS", quindi capite bene che casino che è quest'essere umano.

- vorrebbe essere considerato a tutti i costi un gemello, ma ogni volta la conversazione tra i tre quando si presentano a qualcuno di nuovo va più o meno così: Romeo: "eh, sì, siamo gemelli" Romolo: "ma n'è 'n cazzo vero" Remo: "ma che cazzo stai a di'?"; plus i gemelli non parlano poco o mai di lui perché si vergognano del suo lavoro

- se pensate che i gemelli Stella insieme siano caotici, non avete mai avuto modo di fare esperienza di assistere ai fratelli Stella: Romeo: "A' Burino" Remo: "A' Cazzaro" Romolo: "A' NFAMI VE PARCHEGGIO NA MANO 'N FACCIA"; la prima volta che i coinquilini LAMP(A) hanno assistito alla scena, Virgilio era mezzo inquietato e mezzo turned on e Luca stava consolando un Patrizio piuttosto sconvolto da tutte le parolacce che volavano in giro.

- per questo motivo descritto sopra le maratone di film e di serie tv con tutti sono organizzate in rari, rarissimi casi, perché mentre Romeo vorrebbe solo horror gore/splatter e al massimo massimo documentari sul True Crime, gli altri a parte Giuda sono tipo: "EW NO"

- Romeo: "VE GUARDATE I FILM DA FICHETTINE IO VOJO VEDE GLI HORROR. ME SERVE ER SANGUE NO 'E CANZONI DAA BELLA E LABBESTIA" Luca: "Ma volevamo fare la maratona della Marvel" Romeo: "Notteprego 'amo girato a parodia porno e nun posso più guardà Thor coji stessi occhi"

- è migliore amicissimo con Giuda e hanno legato praticamente subito e se il veneziano non è al Dolce&Remì o con Emilio, è sicuramente a casa a giocare alla Play con Romeo. questo perché ancora un sacco di tempo fa, agli inizi di internet, Virgilio, Romeo e Giuda avevano formato un gruppo su Skype un po' a random per fare amicizia e mentre agli inizi erano tutti e tre molto affiatati, col passare degli anni Romeo e Giuda sono diventati "troppo bad boys" per Virgilio e pian piano, approfittando del trasferimento a Bologna, si è allontanato, mentre Giuda e Romeo semplicemente dopo un po' di sono persi di vista, limitandosi ai soliti auguri di natale/compleanno; Virgilio low key non li regge perché ha l'ansia che lo sputtanino sulle cose che ha detto e fatto nel suo passato, ma anche loro hanno lo stesso timore quindi se ne stanno buoni

- Romeo, Giuda e Tommaso sono fan de "La Mamma di Crystal", una parodia dei Cavalieri dello Zodiaco, e dalla prima volta che hanno scoperto che lo seguono, tutti e tre non hanno una conversazione senza citarne almeno una frase

[morethanonepage]

thoughts on Keanu Reeves Constantine?

y’know this is an interesting question bc i actually have a lot of….if not affection for the movie, at least respect for some of the adaptation choices made. Like the most common line in re: film!Constantine is that it’s a good movie but it’s not a good Hellblazer movie and in a sense that’s right, it’s not – but it’s interesting. A noble failure, definitely.

What I think it hinges on is that it’s an American setting so they went full blown American with it – which is a mistake in my mind bc the point of Hellblazer is that it’s a quintessentially English story, and that’s why every run with an American writer in the comics is meh for me – but in the sense of “American AU Constantine” I think there were some really interesting/clever choices made.

Like starting with their John – Keanu is all wrong for original brand Constantine. His John is broody, he’s brunet, he’s Good At Magic. And comics!John is the opposite of all those things. And while comics!John can be broody, the important thing is the comics themselves tend to undercut that – there’s a lot of kind of snarky takes about John being in a sulk for whatever reason, some of it even from John himself. You get very little of that in the movie, and the movie itself is very TAKE THIS MAN’S PAIN SERIOUSLY about it, so. BUT in a sense that loner self flagellating thing is an American Male Archetype the way comic John has a very English & self deprecating sense of humor, so: ok, I can kinda see it, more as a translation (to American audiences) than an adaptation. 

[READ MORE BC OMG WHY DID I CARE SO MUCH???]

They make John Catholic in the movie, which is another kind of interesting choice – in the comics he’s not anything specifically though I would imagine he would’ve been raised Church of England as likely as anything else. But they kind of commit to John’s Catholicism in the movie, most likely because it has more ~mysticism~ (and the association with exorcism in general) behind it. But it also kind of sets John up as An Other, because it’s the religion of a lot of the second class immigrants (like, the Irish initially, then Latinx Americans, etc). White Catholics have a bit of a different rep, but given that the film is set in LA in the late 20th century, for me it set up more of those associations than anything else. It’s also so much more about the SUFFERING and the MARTYRDOM and the REDEMPTION NARRATIVE, which is not so much a thing in the comics (where John often does/tries to do good things but usually NOT for the explicit purpose of ~cleansing his soul~, so it’s kind of notable/interesting that both American-based adaptations [TV and Movie] focus on that a lot more. It’s may also make more sense as an arc for the medium but y’know) but IS notably a big thing in the movie. 

And the thing about John, even in the comics, is that he’s an Other but Normal Passing – with comics he presents in a very Proper English Man (which is why it’s SO IMPORTANT for me that he starts off on his adventures with his shirt properly done up and his tie right, and then as the day/his bullshit unfurls he gets sloppier) way, he’s white, he’s blond, he’s handsome etc, but he’s also a bisexual mess/working class disaster mage with a progressive bent, and in the movie he’s kind of a traditional American anti hero but also has his own stuff going on. It’s not as well executed as it could be – there’s not a lot of subversion in the film version, which is kind of the point of John – but at least you get hints of his potential sexuality and they go into his mental health issues (suicide attempt, etc) and his smoking, etc. 

So John is an interesting translation – not perfect, but interesting. I would even argue that he’s the weakest point in the movie as a translation-not-adaptation (tho lol baby bear Chas Kramer is up there), bc he’s very basic supernatural protagonist with no flourish. Which is not the case for the rest of the film, which COMMITS to the genre it is and does it honestly very well.

For instance I love their conception of Ravenscar, the mental hospital John has A Bad History with – in the comics it’s got an old, spooky, mad house aesthetic from the 19th century, which fits the comics and John’s history and vibe really well. The movie version goes what I feel is a very modern American direction with it: one of the 20th century industrial monsters, a huge grey building, with the fear of mental health coming from that very specific post-war fear of anything ABNORMAL (including sexuality but y’know). 

The setting of LA is great – a couple of (American) comic writers have given John’s arcs there, probably for the irony of CITY OF ANGELS etc, but I think it’s a really interesting choice/contrast to everything London (where John’s mostly based in comics, tho he does sometimes roam the countryside fucking things up) represents: superficial, modern, bright days, beauty, opulence vs the grey gritty grunginess of John’s London life, etc. So for that to be movie!John’s homebase is kinda neat, frankly, esp because of the cases John gets to work on there. The set design is also great – very colorful, very willing to pull in the florescent glare of a modern city, with the Latinx Catholic touches on the streets (look the votive candles and shrines are SUCH an easy go to for ~creepy urban flavor~ and it’s probably at least a little problematic for this film featuring some other really questionable racial choices I will get to later, but) in general it LOOKS great. Their conception of hell is also fascinating and very well executed imo. 

I also think there’s ONE (1) thing I think the movie does better than the tv show: the setting is WAY more dug into the working class/legit poverty of LA behind the shiny surface Hollywood stuff. The show really only hit that point in the New Orleans ep and even then….didn’t fully commit to it, but it’s SUCH a key part of the comic universe. Like Chas himself (in the show) is pitch perfect but in the ep about his family they’re LIVING IN A BROOKLYN BROWNSTONE which, real talk, is worth millions of dollars. Literally millions. On a cab driver’s salary???? Ridic. Still mad about it w/e w/e. Baby Bear Chas Kramer with his shitty cab and probably shitty apartment, following John around like a stunned duckling, is way more comics canon accurate, probably. 

Rachel Weiz’s character has a lot of potential – they make her Catholic too, to have some sort of connection with John, which is eh, and they also make her a twin, whose sister kills herself at Ravenscar. Given how much John’s early backstory issue are focused around HIM being a twin (whose birth killed both his mother and his (theoretically stronger) brother) that could’ve been a cool thing to allude to, but they don’t touch on it. And Angela (ANOTHER ANGEL THING) is p cool as a character – she’s unconvinced about the ~spooky shit~ stuff until she sees evidence of it, and then believes it, as a normal average human likely would. She’s brave, she asks questions, etc. She’s not just Love Interest tho there’s a bit of that. And anyway I love Rachel Weiz generally, she’s great, could’ve had more to do though.

Tilda Swinton shows up a lot in the gifs and it was a cool choice to cast her as Gabriel – they play up the androgyny and make her less obvious of a dick than comics Gabriel is (though she ends up being…probably more of one, or at least more effective). I think their Lucifer is good too – oily and weird and creepily gentle at times. He also doesn’t get a lot to do, but he doesn’t need to – he doesn’t in the comics, usually, either. 

BUT the racial stuff – the supernatural macguffin that’s supposed to bring about the end of the world is found IN A MEXICAN DESERT and then SMUGGLED OVER THE BORDER to LA to bring about the end of the world, like, who wrote this, Donald J. Trump?? – is generally #bad. But this is something it shares with the show (GOD THOSE MEXICO EPS, I LEGIT ALMOST QUIT THE SHOW BC OF IT), tho at least they had an actual Mexican actress to temper that nonsense. NO SUCH LUCK from the movie – just lots of creepy zombish brown people trying to bring around an apocalypse, super cool.

And not only is meh as a metaphor, to impute such a conservative metaphor into a the Hellblazer Verse, with its infamous/classic DEMON YUPPIES FROM HELL and in general tips toward the progressive/pro immigrant ethos, is BAFFLING to me. I mean maybe more in tune with American sentiments about everything, which I have argued above is an interesting choice, but still, boooo.

Also the fact that John quits smoking at the end of the movie is such Hollywood garbage it almost outweighs the positives. I mostly imagine he and Angela date for like a month, he’s such a bitch when going through withdrawal that she dumps his ass, and then he goes back to smoking/sulking around LA doing bad exorcisms. That’s the real John Constantine, babey!!!

[frangipanidownunder]

Stranger Twins

This is the first part of a series. I have no idea where it’s going, so bear with me. Inspired by the Doppelganger episode. Tagging @today-in-fic and @fictober.

Part One

He looked in the mirror, and not for the first time wondered who the hell he was. His blue striped tie, his white shirt, sleeves rolled up, his tailored pants, slim cut for today’s taste. He wore the trappings of someone confident in their ability, someone of standing in the community, a government official with a badge and weapon. But Fox Mulder felt like a fraud, an imposter. Was he really an experienced FBI agent or was he an obsessive with a questionable mental history? Was he a trusted confidant to his sceptical partner or was he just a drain on her rationalism? Was he a father who did the right thing for his family or was he simply a coward who ran away? Was there a way to separate the two warring halves? Become the better version?

The man in the mirror stared back. He was tight-lipped, holding his secrets in tight. If he looked hard enough, if he willed it, maybe he could separate the two selves and walk with confidence in the skin of the real Fox Mulder.

 He rolled over and sighed. His head throbbed and his eyes stung. He hadn’t felt right since he and Scully had interrogated the suspect in the fraud case they’d been investigating. He was convinced it was some kind of telepathic or telekinetic ability that Visser used, but Scully just sighed and said, using air quotes and a strange inflection voodoo mind control, Mulder, really?

           He was convinced Visser had defrauded dozens of wealthy clients out of millions of dollars despite reports from investment fund and bank managers that cited it was the clients themselves who had withdrawn the money. But the clients were always miles away; sometimes overseas at the time. Video surveillance appeared to back up the claims that it was, indeed, the clients but when Mulder pointed out that the film was fogged and blurry, Scully rolled her eyes and said, psychic photography, Mulder, really? And in that same tone.

But Visser got rich. Clients got poor. There was something unnatural about it. He just knew. Scully scienced and rationalised and evidenced and generally just Scullied. And the case fell apart when a smart-mouthed lawyer got involved. Scully pulled Mulder out of the interrogation room with a sharp Mulder, can I have a word, which was usually the precursor to a Mulder, you’re crazy.

Now, he felt groggy and perturbed more than his usual default setting. Scully snored softly next to him. He lifted the covers and went to get out when she shot up, clutching the duvet up to her chest.

“Mulder?”

His heart raced and he felt clammy but it was Scully who seemed to be locked into a night terror. Her eyes wide, her breathing shallow, her skin prickled with goosebumps.

“Scully, it’s okay. You’re in bed. You’re safe.”

She licked her lips and shifted back a little. “What are you doing?”

He reached out to touch her but she jumped out of bed, knocking into the bedside cabinet. “Where am I? What am I doing here?” Her hands were twined together, arms pressed to her chest.

“Scully, it’s me. You’re at home. You’re safe.”

She started to get dressed. “Mulder, this is not my home. This isn’t even your home. Why are we here? I don’t remember anything after Visser’s lawyer got nasty. What happened? Why were we in bed together? Did we…?”

He walked around the bed and sat on her side. “No, we didn’t…but Scully, we’ve lived here…on and off…for 15 years. This is our house, our bedroom.”

She tucked her hair behind ears, then untucked it, pulling out strands and holding them in front of her. “Why is my hair so long?” She looked at her clothes. “And whose pants are these?” She flipped on the bedside lamp and stared at Mulder, eyes raking over his body, naked but for boxers. He knew he was blushing. It was always kind of hot when she did that. “And why are you so….old?”

He launched himself to the bathroom, pawing at this face in the mirror. Sure, he had some greys, his stubble was silvered and the worry lines had deepened over the years. Scully joined him and pushed in front of him. She gasped and let out a strangled mewling cry.

“What the fuck?”

He turned around and put his hands on her shoulders. “What was the last case we worked on? The one before Visser?”

“The Colonel Budahas case. Aurora spy planes. Mulder, what did they do to you at that air base?”

He shook his head. “It’s not what they did to me, Scully. I’m fine. It’s what Visser did to you in that interrogation room. I think he’s got some kind of ability to transform himself into other people. Like Eddie Van Blundht.”

“Who?”

“Never mind. Scully, the Colonel Budahas case was 20 years ago.”

She pushed him out of the way and stormed out of the bedroom. He pulled on his tracks and a tee. A beat later she was back in. “Where do I keep my handbag? I need to go home.”

“Scully, this is your home.” He showed her his phone. “Look. This is a smart phone. Look, it’s 2017.”

She flopped onto the bed, his phone in her hands as she pressed icons and scrolled through the photo gallery. When she looked back up at him, she had tears in her eyes. “Mulder, what’s happening to me?”

He sat next to her and took the phone from her. “What if Visser does have that ability? That he’s somehow managed to transform you into a younger version of yourself. There are precedents in different cultures around the world. In Egyptian mythology the Ka was a spirit double with the same thoughts and feelings. In Norse mythology the Vardoger is a ghostly double that performs the person’s actions. In Irish culture, a Fetch is an apparition of a living person. In Germany, the doppelganger is a double of a person, a twin stranger.”

She wiped at her eyes and sniffed. “So what you’re saying is that I’m not me.”

He took her hand and rubbed the skin there. “No, Scully. You’re still you.” How could she ever not be Scully? “You’re a different version of you.”

“A younger version?” She looked at her hand, the skin. “Well, on the inside anyway.”

He chuckled. “There could be some advantages to that, Scully.”

She took her hand away and stood up. “So, we…”

Chewing his lip, he nodded slowly. “Yes, Scully. We…”

“That is so unprofessional.” Her hand thumped on  the bed.

He laughed out loud this time. “And that is so you, Scully. We’ve seen this kind of thing before. Body transformations and the like. But this time, I don’t understand why Visser chose you. It doesn’t make sense.”

“None of this makes sense, Mulder.”

Grinning, he rubbed his chin. “That’s the very nature of the X Files.”

“No, I mean, me and you. Together.” She shook her head and tears began to roll again. “How did that happen?”

That was indeed the question, he thought. He wasn’t sure she was ready for the answer. Or answers. He wasn’t even sure if he could explain it. Well, not in a succinct summary, anyway. He turned her face to his, thumb under her chin. She blinked away the tears. “We fell in love, Scully. That is essentially how it happened.”

Her hair was tangled down her back and she was pink-cheeked and upset. But she still let him pull her in for a hug. “What are we going to do, Mulder?”

“We’re going to find Visser.”

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #123 - Back to the Future Part III

Spoilers below.

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes!

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes. #385.

Format: Blu-ray

1) I like really enjoy this film and I don’t know why. In some ways it is my favorite of the trilogy (but not really, the first one is my favorite). There are just so many things I love about it. The Western genre, the greater emphasis we get on Doc, Thomas F. Wilson as Mad Dog, there are just a lot of things about this film that really work for me on a base level. Outside of the original, this is the one I watch most of the trilogy.

2) Universal decided to unveil a new logo at the start of this film because 1) it was the studio’s 75th anniversary and 2) this was their most popular series at the time. It is the rare occasion when a logo actually adds to the weight of a film, as it feels more magical and we have a greater sense of time than we did with past logos.

3) Because the last film ended with the climax of the first film, and because this film’s opening scene was the ending of the last film (kudos if any of that made sense to you), this means that the end of the clock tower scene is the only sequence to appear in all three Back to the Future films.

4) The film’s opening theme actually introduces a new love theme from composer Alan Silvestri. A lighter melody which reoccurs throughout the film which I always tied to Doc and Clara’s relationship. But in hindsight it could just as easily be used to relate Doc and Marty’s friendship.

5) I mentioned in my post about Back to the Future Part II that the sequels play with the idea of history repeating itself by recreating scenes from the original in new circumstances. This trend continues in Part III immediately when Doc doesn’t believe that Marty actually came back FROM the future and refers to him as, “future boy,” only for Marty to talk to Doc through a locked door and convince him otherwise.

6) Doc reading the letter his future self wrote to Marty from 1885 is great. We get to see a lot of fun from 1955 Doc in reacting to ideas like the flying Delorean and briefly thinking that, “Einstein,” was someone other than his own future dog. Also it makes both Doc & Marty tear up. I’m all for tearful bromances.

7) As I mentioned before, this film does succeed in some nice emphasis on Doc’s character. Before he was a funny enthusiastic scientist and we didn’t get MUCH of his backstory, but here we get nice little details which flesh out his character more. Notably, his love for Jules Verne inspiring his desires to be a scientist. We also learn that he LOVED the Old West and as a kid he wanted to be a cowboy. That’s such a fun idea!

8)

Marty [after finding a picture of his great-great-grandfather Seamus McFly, also played by Michael J. Fox]: “That’s him. Good looking guy.”

9) So Doc is about to send Marty into the old west dressed as a “cowboy” and Marty points out he never saw Clint Eastwood dress like this.

Doc: “Clint who?”

Marty [looking at the movie posters]: “That’s right. You haven’t heard of him yet.”

The movies featured at the drive-in - Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula -both actually feature a young Clint Eastwood in them!

10) According to IMDb:

The drive-in theater was constructed specifically for this film. It was built in Monument Valley, and demolished immediately after filming. No films were ever screened there.

I would have LOVED to go to that drive in. Like that would be a must see destination for sure.

11) This is a nice callback to the original:

1955 Doc (telling Marty about how he’ll have to drive through the desert): “Remember where you’re going there are no roads!”

12) The gag with the Native Americans is pretty clever. For those of you who haven’t seen the film: Marty is concerned about running into the drive in wall with the Native Americans on it but is concerned he’ll hit them, but Doc points out he’ll travel back in time when there was no wall. Except when he travels back in time, there’s a group of (possibly stereotypical) Native Americans charging right at him (because they’re being chased by the cavalry).

13) Michael J. Fox as William McFly.

Fox continues his excellence of acting out multiple characters from the first film with his performance as Marty’s ancestor Seamus. He plays it totally different than he does Marty. Quieter, kinder, a little less brash, and with a killer Irish accent. Like his acting in the previous film, you never feel like you’re watching Fox play against Fox. They’re two totally different characters and he does well to show that.

14) Not only does this film play well with preexisting gags, but it also adds to them.

Marty: I had this horrible nightmare. Dreamed I w-... dreamed I was in a western. And I was being chased by all these Indians... and a bear.

Maggie McFly: Well... you're safe and sound here, now, at the McFly farm.

Marty: McFly farm? (Marty jolts out of bed to see Maggie) Why, you're my, you're my, my...(realizes he’s never actually met this woman in his whole life, as opposed to all the times he’s done this with his mom.) Who are you?

15) Just as Fox plays Seamus well, Lea Thompson does a great job as Maggie McFly.

Maggie is so different from Lorraine or...huh, I guess she’s only played different versions of Lorraine before. But she’s a little fiercer, being an immigrant at all, is able to hold her own with her husband, and again the Irish accent is great! I very much enjoy Maggie.

16) Robert Zemeckis directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit before the two Back to the Future sequels...

17) Think about this: we have seen seven full generations of Marty’s family.

His great great grandparents, Seamus and Maggie.

His great grandfather, William (as a baby).

His grandparents, Sam and Stella (in the original film)

His parents and his mother’s siblings (in the original film)

His parents.

Him and his siblings.

His children.

That gets to an excellent point about this series: it’s not about random time travel, it’s very much about family and the relationships we form between blood and friends. The fact that we meet seven generations of one kid’s family I think illustrates that perfectly.

18) Marty wandering through town illustrates how he wanders through town in the earlier films, giving us some nice throwbacks/foreshadowing (I don’t know which it is in a time travel movie) when we see A. Jones Manure Company.

19) The three bar patrons:

Dub Taylor, Harrey Carey. Jr., and Pat Buttram made careers out of playing sidekicks, town drunks, and colorful townsfolk in hundreds of westerns and television shows. Buttram in particular provided memorable voice over work in The Fox & The Hound as Chief and Disney’s Robin Hood as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

20) Bufford ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen.

This was Thomas F. Wilson’s favorite film to shoot out of the Back to the Future trilogy because he got to be a cowboy pretty much. Wilson is truly underrated throughout this film. In so many ways Mad Dog is a wildly different character from Biff and Griff. He’s more of a classic thug, he feels like he’s straight out of an old western and Wilson is chameleonic in the part. You don’t see Biff or Griff or any of other Wilson’s work, you just see Mad Dog and I will forever shout to the heavens that Thomas F. Wilson does not get enough credit for his work in this film.

21) These films really lucked out in their pop culture references. From the original we’ve had references to films, TV and music which have stood the test of time. These include Star Wars, “Star Trek”, Jaws, and - in this film - Clint Eastwood and Michael Jackson. Marty’s Michael Jackson dance when Mad Dog asks him to Dance is great!

22) In each film Marty pisses off a Tannen family member in a place to drink and is chased through town by him and his gang. This film is a bit more serious with that idea, as Mad Dog and his crew ride their horses and practically hogtie and lynch Marty. It’s the one time the town chase has not ended with Marty coming up on top, needing Doc’s sharpshooting to save his life. According to IMDb:

Thomas F. Wilson who plays Buford Tannen, performed all his horse riding stunts himself. He also did the trick where he lassoes Marty just before we meet the 1885 Doc.

When "Mad Dog" tried to lynch Marty, Michael J. Fox was accidentally hanged, rendering him unconscious for a short time. He records this in his autobiography "Lucky Man" (2002).

23) I never knew how amazing Doc Brown as a badass gunslinger would be until I saw this film.

24) It’s interesting to note that Doc does not remember helping Marty get to the Old West when he did so thirty years earlier. My working theory is this: we know that Doc hit his head a lot, so I’m guessing at some point he just banged himself up so much he forgot his own future in the Old West.

25) The Mayor in Part III was a part which was offered to Ronald Reagan after his presidency, as he was a fan of the original film. He ended up turning it down.

26) The whole idea of an act committed by Marty and Doc changes the name of Clayton Ravine to Shonash Ravine then to Eastwood Ravine is basically a more obvious version of the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall joke in the first film.

27) Clara Clayton.

With the exception of Lorraine, the Back to the Future films don’t exactly excel at representing female characters (they literally left Jennifer on the porch in the middle of the last film and she won’t show up again until the end of this film). Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton is a nice change of pace for that. Although largely introduced as a love interest for Doc Brown, she is developed into an interesting character to match Doc’s. She has the same love for Jules Verne and science as he does (a rarity in the Old West), she’s able to fend for herself around Bufford Tannen, but she and Doc also connect on a really fascinating level. Even though they just met, the chemistry between Lloyd and Steenburgen make you really believe that these two love each other (the scene where Doc agrees to fix her telescope is so cute!). I love Mary Steenburgen in this film, and she’s a worthy addition to the trilogy.

28) With the extension of the story to a trilogy, we get to see when the famous Hill Valley clock starts clicking in 1885 (in Part III) and when it stops clicking in 1955 (in the original film). Thinking it through, you can figure out exactly how long the clock ran. The clock in the clock tower started running at 8:00 p.m. on September 5, 1885 (the date is provided by the caption on the photograph Doc gives Marty at the end of the movie). The lightning strikes the clock tower at 10:04 p.m. on November 12, 1955. This means that the clock tower operated for exactly 70 years, 2 months, 7 days, 2 hours, and 4 minutes.

29) Much like how Huey Lewis made a cameo in the original film, ZZ Top (who sings the song “Doubleback” which plays during the credits) cameos as the 1885 town bad during the dance.

According to IMDb:

According to the book "Billy Gibbons: Rock & Roll Gearhead", ZZ Top was hanging around the set and was asked to be the town band. During one take, the camera broke. While waiting for the camera to be repaired, Michael J. Fox asked if they would play "Hey Good Lookin'" which they did. Afterwards, more requests were played. Two hours later, someone inquired if the camera had been repaired. Robert Zemeckis replied that it had been fixed for quite a while, he just didn't want to stop the party that had evolved.

Also the song they’re playing is an acoustic version of “Doubleback” from the film.

30) I’m sharing this largely for the first 22 seconds.

After watching the modern “Doctor Who” series I immediately think of this:

You Whovians get me.

31) I’ve seen this film probably around ten times (maybe eleven now) but this was the first time that the actor playing the Colt salesman looked familiar to me.

Well that’s because the last time I watched this film and my most recent viewing I’d see Blazing Saddles twice and, well...

32) And of course this has to continue because it wasn’t resolved in Part II:

Mad Dog [to Marty]: “You yella?”

Again, I don’t have an issue with this as much as other people do, but it’s hardly my favorite aspect of the trilogy.

33) This part makes me laugh every time:

Mad Dog: Then let's finish it, right now!

Gang Member #1: Uh, not now, Buford. Uh, Marshal's got our guns.

Mad Dog: Like I said, we'll finish this tomorrow.

Gang Member #2: Tomorrow, we're robbin' the Pine City Stage.

Mad Dog: What about Monday? Are we doin' anything Monday?

Gang Member #1: Uh, no, Monday'd be fine. You can kill him on Monday.

Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen: I'll be back this way on Monday!

34) Doc and Clara stargazing melts my cynical heart.

(GIF sources unknown [if these are your GIFs please let me know].)

35) The only time in the entire trilogy when the catchphrases are flipped!

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

And I laugh every time.

36) It is a truly fascinating scene to watch when Doc tells Marty he wants to stay in 1885, but Marty knows Doc so well he is able to pretty easily convince him otherwise (mainly by appealing to the scientist in him). It shows just how great a friendship these two have.

37) You know what I never got: why does Doc not want to take Clara with them to 1985?

SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ANYWAY!!!!

38) My heart breaks every time Doc tries to tell Clara the truth about himself, and each time I watch this film there’s a part of me that thinks it won’t happen this time. I’m always wrong.

(GIF originally posted by @whatshouldwecallme)

39) This fucking scene:

Doc [after a traveling salesman tells him you never know what the future holds]: “Oh...the future. I can tell you about the future.”

(Feel free to stop watching after 1:44)

40) I’m starting to realize this film has some of my favorite gags in the whole trilogy.

Marty [after Doc faints after taking a shot]: “How many did he have?”

Bartender: “Just one.”

Marty: “‘Just one’?”

Bartender: “Now there’s a man who can’t hold his liquor.”

41) Marty realizing what we all should when dealing with someone like Tannen:

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

42) If I didn’t ship these two enough, just listen to how Clara describes Doc:

Clara [asking about Doc]: “Was this man tall, with great big brown puppy dog eyes and long silvery flowing hair?”

I love it!

43) Originally Mad Dog Tannen (after falling in manure) was arrested for killing Marshal Strickland and this was said by the deputy. However, this scene was deleted as the filmmaker decided it was too dark. They pointed out the fact that no one dies and stays dead in the Back to the Future films. Hence the re-dub.

44) When Doc blows the train whistle he gleefully exclaims, “I’ve wanted to do that all my life!” This sentiment would be repeated by the main character in 2004′s The Polar Express, also directed by Robert Zemeckis.

45) The entire climax with the train - while no Clock Tower scene from the original - is a great ride! It keeps the film’s standard for exciting and well done action in check while also feeding in incredibly into the western genre. It’s just a lot of fun!

46) This moment:

(GIFs originally posted by @gif-weenus)

HIS FACE! HE’S JUST SO HAPPY AND I LOVE IT! YES!!!!

47) It’s so sad when we think that Marty will never see Doc again because the Delorean is destroyed. Thank god for time travel.

48) Needles looks like a moron. Did people really dress this way in 1985?

49) In the last film it was established that Marty got into a car accident with a Rolls Royce after being called chicken, a decision which sent his life spinning down the toilet. This time we see the scene itself and while Marty decides not to race Needles (and in doing so he avoids the accident), because of time travel something is different this time:

JENNIFER IS IN THE PASSENGER SEAT OF THE CAR! JENNIFER WOULD’VE FREAKING DIED!

That could’ve been very bad for Marty.

50) I have a lot of fan theories in my head that fill up a lot of plot holes, but one thing I can’t figure out is how did Doc get the barriers to the railroad to drop before he traveled back in the time train to meet Marty & Jennifer?

51) Jules & Verne.

If you watch carefully, you can see the younger of the two - Verne - doing random stuff with his hands during the wide-shot. That’s because a crew member was in charge of doing things with his hands that the child actor would mirror, mainly with petting the dog. But when the crew member started gesturing for someone to come by them Verne continued mirroring him. And it’s in the final film.

52) This is a great closing message for the entire trilogy.

I love Back to the Future Part III. I love all the Back to the Future movies honestly, but something about Part III just really does it for me. I love the Western setting, I love the emphasis on Doc, I think Lloyd and Wilson get to really shine, and Clara is such a wonderful addition to the story. It’s just a really great way to close out one of the best film trilogies in movie history! So go watch it! Not just this film, the whole trilogy. You won’t be sorry.

[thisdaynews]

12 people and things that ruined British politics

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/12-people-and-things-that-ruined-british-politics/

12 people and things that ruined British politics

Tunku Varadarajan is executive editor at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO Europe.

On December 12, the United Kingdom will conclude the tawdriest election in memory — which is saying a lot, given how inglorious the last one was in 2017.

That election confirmed Theresa May as prime minister — arguably Britain’s second-worst leader since Lord North, the man who lost America in the 18th century. (The worst PM since North is agreed to be David Cameron, for his decision to have a Brexit referendum in 2016, the results of which have poisoned British politics ever since.)

Looking at Boris Johnson, the prime minister, and at Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition, one is hard-pressed to find in history a less edifying pair of party leaders in competition for No. 10 Downing Street.

How did we get here? What follows is a list of a dozen people, institutions or ideas that have turned British politics into an emetic farce.

1. Winston Churchill & Charles de Gaulle

Central Press/Getty Images

The toxic twins on whose bygone fumes Britain chokes today. Churchill’s cherished myth — of a people standing alone in the face of peril from the Continent — entrenched the view that Britain is at its best when on its own.

That imperious ingrate De Gaulle played his part by confirming to Britons that a European compact was a French project. Twice he vetoed Britain’s application to join the European Economic Community, in 1963 and 1967, delivering a resoundingnonto Harold Macmillan and his successor, Ted Heath.

“The French always betray you in the end,” Macmillan wrote in his diary after the first betrayal. Brexit is the much-delayed fruit of those inauspicious beginnings.

2. The National Health Service

Graeme Robertson/Getty Images

Created in 1948 by Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, minister of health in the postwar government of Clement Attlee, the NHS is as much a political shibboleth as it is an institution cherished for giving Britain a veneer of socioeconomic equality.

The NHS has not only distorted rational debate about health and social care, it has become the institution by which a delusional Britain sees itself as a cut above the United States, its free-market fellow traveler. Not surprisingly, politics in recent days has been dominated by fears that the NHS will unravel in any future trade deal with the U.S., as Donald Trump’s barbarians arrive to carve up this sacred cow.

3. Oxford University

William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images

Britain’s oldest — and most worldly — university is the womb of conservative anti-Europeanism.

The Oxford Campaign for an Independent Britain was hatched in 1990 in a High Street coffee shop — in opposition to the Maastricht Treaty, which turned the European Community into the European Union in 1992. Founder members included Tories (or ex-Tories) Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Reckless and Daniel Hannan, the primordial ideologues of Brexit long before the likes of Nigel Farage erupted on the scene.

Modern British politics might, in fact, be seen as an extended spat between Oxford adversaries. These include George Osborne (Cameron’s former No. 2 and would-be successor, now a newspaper editor, who encouraged the demented plan for a referendum); Rory Stewart (a prominent Remainer who ran against Boris, himself an Oxford man and former president of the Oxford Union Society); and Nicky Morgan (a Remainer and Cabinet minister). All of them were members of the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Conservative Association, whose diaper politics in the early 1990s foreshadowed national politics two decades later.

4. The U.K. Supreme Court

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Had the Brexit referendum not bagged first place, the abolition of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords and its replacement by a U.K. Supreme Court would be regarded as the worst political misjudgment by a modern British prime minister.

Created by Tony Blair and his former flatmate-cum-lord chancellor, Charles Falconer, in 2009, the court has an implicit mandate to wade into constitutional questions from which the House of Lords, by demure but wise convention, had always shied away.

Blair shredded centuries of legal and constitutional history with his curial “reform.” The consequences were evident in the court’s recent ruling, in which it found that Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament was unlawful because he didn’t provide adequate reasons for prorogation. This was a ruling without precedent on a matter that the old House of Lords would have regarded as beyond the scope of a court of law.

The court’s chief justice, Baroness Hale, is an unapologetic progressive in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg mold, and it will not be long before the U.K. court is beset by the same problems of partisanship that ail the Supreme Court in the U.S.

5. John Bercow

Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Among the institutional actors that abdicated their responsibility to remain neutral is John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons. Bercow bears a good deal of the responsibility for a poisoned atmosphere in the House of Commons by abandoning his role as referee and, instead, choosing to become a partisan goal-scorer for the Remain side in the Brexit debate.

As speaker, he (with the help of some others in the House) twisted parliamentary conventions to block “no deal” as a position the prime minister could take, thus robbing the government of leverage in its negotiations with the EU. Immodest to a fault, his actions have enraged many voters and corroded popular trust in parliament.

6. ‘The Stalinists’

Will Oliver/EPA

A dark trio of Stalinists steers a course for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In 1976, Andrew Murray, a privately educated young Englishman, joined the British Communist Party. He associated himself with Straight Left, a monthly run by Seamus Milne, above, another posh young Englishman. Fellow Communists knew them as “super tankies” — not just pro-Soviet but Stalinist. Four decades later, they are two of the three people thought to be the inner sanctum around Corbyn, the other being the dauntingly leftist trade union leader Len McCluskey.

Together, they’ve brought Stalinist sectarianism to the running of the Labour Party, once a social-democratic Big Tent but now a body where power is hoarded in closed meetings and loyalty to the leader is all.

7. Anti-Semitism

Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

Transparent anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has contributed to the ugliness of British politics since Corbyn became leader in 2015, when hard-left extremists joined the party in droves. “The vast majority of British Jews,” wrote the Jewish Chronicle in a recent front-page editorial, “consider Jeremy Corbyn to be an anti-Semite.” (The newspaper conducted a poll which found this majority to be 87 percent of all British Jews.)

Corbyn has not only refused to address the problem adequately, he has contributed to it by failing to dispel the belief that he is anti-Semitic himself. The Labour Party is also under investigation for anti-Semitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Only one other party has been investigated by the EHRC for racism: the nakedly nativist British National Party.

8. Priti Patel

Pool photo by Hannah McKay/Getty Images

One of the more incongruous — her critics would say distasteful — sights in British politics this year has been that of Patel, Britain’s first home secretary of Indian origin, telling the Conservative Party conference that she will “end the free movement of people once and for all.”

Patel’s parents are Gujarati immigrants from Uganda who left a few years before Idi Amin stripped all Ugandan Asians of citizenship and expelled them from the country in 1972. Almost all of these refugees were taken in by Britain. Under the strict immigration rules Patel favors, her kith and kin would not have been able to resettle in the U.K. That irony notwithstanding, this Gujarati version of Norman Tebbit says that she, a “daughter of immigrants, needs no lectures from the north London metropolitan, liberal elite.”

9. Bien-Pensant Bubbles

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the British media and educational elites reside in a bubble — or, better put, in a fortress that excludes the entry of inconvenient opinions.

The BBC has displayed a notably monolithic Remain bias, as has Channel 4. And if the print media offers a more varied ideological menu, it is counterbalanced by an enormous anti-Brexit prejudice in the academy — compounded by the modern tendency to favor senior editors with plum jobs as heads of colleges and universities (Will Hutton as principal of Hertford College, Oxford, is one example; Alan Rusbridger at Oxford’s Lady Margaret Hall another).

The bias in universities ranges from individual cases — such as that of A.C. Grayling, a philosopher driven mad by Brexit, who embodies the refusal of extremist Remainers to compromise with the will of the electorate ��� to entire faculties of EU law at universities. This last group of scholars is a bastion of inflexible Remainer resistance, making Brexit much harder than it otherwise would have been.

10. The Democratic Unionist Party

Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

This cohort need not detain us, for there is no subtlety or nuance to be explained. Adamant in their adherence to the Orange credo of No Surrender to the Irish backstop, these Ulster loyalists have exploited to the limit the “mathematics of the Commons” — to use the phrase of columnist Daniel Finkelstein.

“We have all been trying to find something in Brexit that can unite us,” Finkelstein wrote recently in the London Times. “I’m excited to say that I think I’ve found a contender: we can all agree that we have had enough of the Democratic Unionist Party.”

11. Ed Miliband

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

This is the man — only the second-best politician in his own family — who in 2015 led the Labour Party to its worst general election defeat since 1987. He had shifted the party well to the left, making it sweetly unnecessary for Corbyn, his successor, to have to make a case against centrism and compromise.

More helpful to Corbyn than Labour’s prevailing ideological current were its rules to elect the party leader, which Miliband had changed in 2014 to one-member-one-vote. Members of the public could vote for Corbyn on payment of a mere £3.

This led to a wave of what Trotskyists called “entryism” on the left — with new hardline Corbyn voters flooding the zone — and the rest is history. Labour became unelectable.

12. Michel Barnier & Sabine Weyand

John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

This is the EU’s Brexit negotiating team, a Frenchman and a German woman whom the Brits just could not budge. They’re on this list not because they are malign, but because theirs was a job superbly done. And if the result of their labors was great pain in Britain, it might be said that much of that pain resulted from the Brits shooting not merely their own foot, but also at each other.

UK NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visitPOLITICOPoll of Polls.

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[biofunmy]

Connected by Cannabis – The New York Times

Hillary Peckham felt a different kind of pain when Maren Hall-Wieckert, whom she had been dating for four years, decided in August 2016 to leave New York to attend the University of Colorado, where he would begin a Ph.D. program in learning sciences.

“I was stunned and really hurt,” Ms. Peckham said. “This happened just after my sister’s wedding, and at a time when I thought Maren and I were about to move in together.”

It also happened at a time when Ms. Peckham, who was an avid horseback rider and runner, was still dealing with the excruciating pain that followed a failed hip surgery in 2009, which left her walking on crutches and in physical therapy for two years.

“There wasn’t a specific moment when I got hurt,” Ms. Peckham said. “But I had a labral tear and my psoas muscle was almost severed due to a structural abnormality in my hip. It wasn’t pretty.”

As Ms. Peckham slowly began to recover, there was yet more pain to endure. Her grandmother, Frances Keeffe, was suffering from a long and agonizing battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. In the spring of 2012, just weeks before Mr. Hall-Wieckert came into Ms. Peckham’s life, her grandmother died.

“My mother was my grandmother’s caretaker, and a doctor had suggested that she try and find medical marijuana to comfort my grandmother while she was declining in health,” Ms. Peckham said. “Though there was no legal way to procure it, my mom and I went ahead and started doing all sorts of research on the subject.”

Ms. Peckham and her mother, Amy Keeffe Peckham, considered creating their own medical marijuana business. “We had both experienced firsthand how pain management could be mismanaged,” Ms. Peckham said. “We knew that medical marijuana was an alternative that could provide for quality of life in many situations.”

Ms. Peckham and her mother began putting together a “highly skilled and knowledgeable team of industry experts” to apply for a license in New York State to grow and distribute cannabis.

Their team included physicians, horticultural experts, pharmacists, manufacturing engineers, and Mr. Hall-Wieckert, who was living in Brooklyn at the time and working as a researcher for the Graduate Center Advanced Science Research Foundation of the City University of New York.

“I was spending my weekends writing sections of the license application, it became a second job,” he said. “I learned right away that the Peckhams are doers, and I was very excited and extremely motivated about being a part of their vision.”

Ms. Peckham, now 28, and Mr. Hall -Wieckert, 27, met in June 2012 at a 21st birthday party for Ms. Peckham and her twin brother, J.D. Peckham, who brought along Mr. Hall-Wieckert, a friend from Oberlin College in Ohio who was about to enter his senior year. The party was held at the Peckham family home in the Bedford Hills area of Katonah, N.Y.

“I thought Maren was really cute,” said Ms. Peckham, who was about to enter her junior year at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. “We started talking, and I could tell that he was a very smart and thoughtful guy.”

They talked, and talked some more. Around midnight they kicked off their shoes and began dancing in the basement.

“She was very personable and a lot of fun,” Mr. Hall-Wieckert said, “and she was awfully pretty.”

They began dating, spending long hours on the phone and in their cars, with each making the 14-hour round-trip drive from Oberlin to Hamilton at least once a month.

“Maren was the first person that could turn Hillary’s head,” her mother said. “They made each other laugh, which is what made them work so well together.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert learned that Ms. Peckham was one of four children born to Amy Peckham and John Robert Peckham, the owner of a construction company in White Plains who described his daughter as “a very hard-charging person who has always been very focused and aggressive about pursuing goals and challenges.”

Ms. Peckham received a business certificate from Dartmouth after graduating from Hamilton with a degree in music and a minor in biology. As a lover of animals from the time she was a child, she had dreams of becoming a veterinarian, though her injury and subsequent interest in medical marijuana led her down a different path.

“Growing up, we had four dogs, a pig, a few dozen chickens, rabbits and reptiles,” Ms. Peckham said. “I know I would have enjoyed a career being around so many different animals, especially those that needed my help.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert, the oldest of two children born to Karen Wieckert and Rogers Hall, was 10 years old when his father, a professor of learning sciences at the University of California-Berkeley, moved the family to Nashville, Tenn. to take on a similar role at Vanderbilt University. Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s mother soon became a Nashville-based, independent software design contractor.

In July 2014, 14 months after the Peckham team applied for a license to sell medical marijuana products, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law the Compassionate Care Act, legalizing medical marijuana and giving birth to their company.

Ms. Peckham’s mother, who is of Irish descent, named the company Etain, after an Irish goddess, and it became, and still remains, the only family-run, women-owned medical marijuana company in the state of New York.

By July 2016, Ms. Peckham, her mother, and her older sister, Keeley Peckham, a certified horticultural therapist, had grown their business into a 50-employee operation that included four medical marijuana dispensaries in Manhattan, Syracuse, Yonkers, and Kingston, N.Y., and on-site pharmacists at each dispensary. The company also constructed a cannabis manufacturing plant in Chestertown, N.Y.

Though Team Peckham’s vision had come to fruition, Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s decision to leave the team to study for a Ph.D. was something that Ms. Peckham did not see coming.

“It was our moment of uncertainty, and a particularly kind of devastating moment for me,” she said. “I tried to appear not to be so upset and be supportive of Maren, but I don’t think I did a good job, and things got a little bit rocky from there.”

“We talked about it at length,” she continued, “and I finally told him that if he didn’t come back, I didn’t think the relationship was going to work.”

Though Mr. Hall-Wieckert had completed a full semester of classes by the spring of 2017, he also began “feeling pretty miserable,” he said, regarding the emotional and geographical distance that he had put between himself and Ms. Peckham.

“Hillary was my best friend — the person who helped turn me into a better version of myself, a more social, outgoing, motivated and courageous person,” he said. “I knew for sure that I had made a mistake.”

He told her as much in April 2017, at a rendezvous in Budapest, where Ms. Peckham and her family was visiting her younger brother, Gregory Peckham, who was enrolled in a study-abroad program there.

“I was thrilled to hear what he had to say,” Ms. Peckham said, “because I very much missed his laughter and his unconditional support.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert decided to forego the rest of his Ph.D. studies in Colorado and returned to New York the following month to be reunited with Ms. Peckham, and resume his role as Etain’s director of information and technologies.

“Maren is a pretty smart guy, so it didn’t take him too long to realize that Hillary was a lot more compelling than his PH.D. program,” said Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s mother, Karen Wieckert. “I was very happy with his decision.”

Ms. Peckham and Mr. Hall-Wieckert were engaged in September 2018 in “a mutual proposal,” as Ms. Peckham called it.

“There was no dropping to one knee or anything like that,” she said. “I picked out the ring and he bought the diamond.

“After six years of dating, I think we both had waited long enough to get engaged,” she added, laughing.

They boarded a plane for Port St. Lucie, Fla., to celebrate the occasion before getting back to the business of creating and distributing medical marijuana. They also began discussing plans to buy a home in Bedford Hills, and achieved that goal in January.

The couple married Aug. 17 in an outdoor ceremony at the Bronx Zoo, an ode to a little girl’s love for animals.

“When I was growing up, my Godmother took me to the Bronx Zoo about once a month,” Ms. Peckham said. “Now I try to go to a zoo or animal reservation on any vacation or trip I take.”

That included her trip down the aisle as a live rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” filled the air on a scorching day more fit for lions and tigers than polar bears.

“They are both crazy, determined, passionate and fun-filled people,” said J.D. Peckham, who became a Universal Life minister to marry the couple.

“They are also extraordinarily intelligent and very driven,” he added, speaking before 220 guests, not including a small colony of California sea lions yelping a short distance away as part of the Madagascar exhibit, where the cocktail hour would be held. (Dinner followed in the Schiff Family Great Hall).

“I love you to the moon and back,” the bride told the groom during the exchange of vows.

“I love you as you are, as you have been and as you will be,” said the groom, fighting back tears as he spoke. “You are a dream come true.”

ON THIS DAY

When Aug. 17, 2019

Where The Bronx Zoo

Party Favors Most of the flowers and bouquets at the wedding had hemp leaves in them, and the party favors were jars of honey-based hemp lozenges produced by the bride’s company.

What They Wore The bride donned a dress from the designer Mikaella, purchased at Kleinfeld Bridal in New York; it featured a V-neck crepe bodice with guipure lace over sheer cap sleeves and sheer midriff. Her peacock-style shoes were from ParisXox. The groom wore a dark navy Hugo Boss Suit, black shoes from Alan Edmon, a shirt from Proper Cloth and bow tie from Brackish.

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[newyorktheater]

Broadway is busy with the Tony Awards on June 9th, but June is bustin’ out all over with new shows on other New York stages. A good number of the openings mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Fairview, at Theatre for a New Audience

Smiley at Repertorio Espanol

“Life Sucks”

Aenid Moloney in “Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom”

Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise

Several acclaimed plays are getting encore productions in other theaters, including  the Pulitzer-winning “Fairview.” Two different one-woman shows adapting the character Molly Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses for the stage. The Shed is offering a new Kung Fu musical, and the Atlantic a musical adapted from The Secret Life of Bees.

Below is a list of openings in June, 2019, organized chronologically by opening date, with each title linked to a relevant website. Color key of theaters: Broadway: Red. Off Broadway: Black, Blue, or Purple. Off Off Broadway: Green. Theater festival: Orange.  Immersive: Magenta. Shows marking Stonewall and those on gay themes will include the Stonewall 50 logo:

Many of the gay plays take place in non-traditional venues, and are of limited runs, often just a single performance. They and the theater festival offerings often don’t have official opening nights, so I list them by first public performance.

June 1

Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova at Greenwich House)

An encore presentation of the award-winning play inspired by an actual game that co-creator Scott Sheppard was forced to play in fifth grade, when his school re-enacted a bizarre version of the Civil War.

My review

Zen A.M. (Theatre for the New City)

After years of struggling, Bruno finally books a once in a lifetime project, only to develop major misgivings about participating and completing his painting

  June 2

 Pridetable (Storycourse)

Five courses.  Five personal stories from a diverse and intergenerational team of LGBTQ+ chefs.  A month long pop-up theatrical dining experience

  June 3

Dying City (Second Stage)

Revival of Christopher Shinn’s 2007 play, set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. The play explores the human fallout of global events

Nomad Motel (Atlantic)

A play by Carla Ching, directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, about kids raising themselves and making something out of nothing in the land of plenty.

Everything that happened and would happen (Park Ave Armory)

Artist and composer Heiner Goebbels reenacts 100 years of history to show a world in strife through performance, sound, movement, and moving image

Ant Fest (Ars Nova)

The 12th annual month-long festival begins with A People’s History of Silicon Valley, described as “a synth-pop send-up of techno-utopianism and startup bros.”

June 4

Long Lost (MTC at City Center)

A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”

  Little Women (Primary at Cherry Lane)

Kate Hamill’s take on Louise May Alcott’s novel

June 5

“The Bear.Mozart, Salieri and The Bear (West End Theater)

A double bill of short Russian plays: Pushkin’s little tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” challenges the question of who murdered Mozart.  It is partnered with Chekhov’s vaudeville,ieri-the-bear”>

  June 6

Global Gay (La Mama)

Dramatizes the plight of queer people around the world

Part of LaMama’s Stonewall 50 celebration

You Never Touched The Dirt (Clubbed Thumb @ Wild Project)

A play about economic transformation, the dreams it enables, and those it crushes. “The Lis, the Zhaos, the ghosts and the animals engage in a land feud.”

Public Servant (TBTB at Theatre Row)

Theater Breaking Through Barriers kicks off its 40th Anniversary season with this world premiere drama by Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us”) about a county commissioner and a woman who needs his help.

June 11

Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park)

Kenny Leon directs an all-black staging of Shakespeare’s comedy of romantic retribution and miscommunication

June 12

Handbagged (59E59)

The Iron Lady. The Queen. Born six months apart, each woman had a destiny that would change the world. But when the stiff upper lip softened and the gloves came off, which one had the upper hand?

June 13

The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic)

A musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s beloved novel, with music by Duncan Sheik and book by Lynn Nottage, about two runaways in 1960s South Carolina, taken in by beekeeping sisters.

  Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom (Irish Rep)

Aedín Moloney performs as Molly Bloom in a stage adaptation of the Penelope chapter of Ulysses written by James Joyce

Molly Bloom (Fusion at Theater 244)

Irish actress Eilin O’Dea performs her one woman show as Molly Bloom from the Penelope chapter of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”

Convention (Irondale) 

Using an ensemble of 40 actors, the play tells the true story of the 1944 Democratic National Convention; when the people’s favorite, progressive incumbent Vice President Henry Wallace, was denied nomination as FDR’s running mate in favor of the moderate Senator Harry Truman.

13 Fruitcakes (La MaMa)

13 staged musical vignettes about 13 significant LGBTQ figures (e.g. Leonardo daVinci) along with a song cycle based on poems by queer poets such as Wilde, Whitman and Lorca

Part of Stonewall 50 at La MaMa

June 14

Smiley (Repertorio Espanol)

Alex and Bruno’s differences seem insurmountable but they fall in love

  June 15

Veil Widow Conspiracy (Next door at NYTW)

This play by Gordon Dahlquist offers nested versions of a story that begins as a political murder mystery in 1922 China; then 2010 Hollywood; winding up in dystopian Brooklyn of the future.

June 16

Fairview (Theatre for a New Audience)

An encore presentation of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer prize-winning play about race and identity

Life Sucks (Wheelhouse at Theatre Row)

Aaron Posner’s acclaimed reimagining of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” is re-opening Off-Broadway

June 17

A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons) Michael R. Jackson’s musical about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical

Ode to Juneteenth (National Black Theatre)

Emancipation Jones tells us the true story of “Juneteenth”, the day two an a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation when Union Soldiers finally rode into Texas to announce the end of slavery.

Mel Brooks (Lunt Fontanne)

The first of two performances as part of the so-called In Residence on Broadway series.

June 18

Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson (A.R.T. NY)

A play written by Rob Ackerman and directed by Theresa Rebeck based on a true story about the making of a TV commercial in which a film director puts a movie star’s life in the hands of a very jittery props guy.

Leap and the Net Will Appear (New Georges at Flea)

What happens when Margie (raised to be a good girl; wants to be a lion) leaves home: twenty years whiz by like a moving train

June 19

Imminently Yours (Negro Ensemble Company at Theatre 80)

Descendants of American slaves resist expropriation of their inherited properties.

Out of Line: No Agenda Genda (High Line) Antonio Ramos presents a sci-fi piece of interactive dance theater dedicated to the legacy and memory of queer icons and movement-maker

  SheNYC (Connelly)

The festival begins with The Shoebox, in which four high school best friends write letters to their future selves — and then open them ten years later.

June 20

Toni Stone (Roundabout’s Laura Pels)

A play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story about the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues,

Pride Plays (Rattlestick)

More than a dozen play readings from celebrated LBTQIA voices, including Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally and the Five Lesbian Brothers, will be presented from June 20th through 24th

Contradict This! (LaMama)

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret presents a spectacle that is part trial, part birthday, part funeral, featuring original music performed by a host of misfits, drag artists, queers, and a local choir. Part of Stonewall 50 at La MaMa

June 21

Stonewall (NYC Opera)

A new American opera by Iain Bell and Mark Campbell “that captures the rage, grit, humor and, finally, hope of the LGBTQ community’s uprising in a Greenwich Village dance club on one hot night in June 1969. The work is divided into three parts and follows a diverse group of characters whose lives collide at that pivotal moment in history when the police push them too far and they find the courage to fight back.”

June 22

King Phillip’s Head is Still on That Pike Just Down the Road (Clubbed Thumb @ The Wild Project) The councilmen of Plymouth Colony determine how to be Good in the New World.

The Stonewall 50 Plays (Queens Museum)

The One-Minute Play Festival has organized 50 new Queer One-Minute Plays, which will be presented from 2 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

    June 23

Quilt  (Judson Memorial Church)

A musical celebration of those who died of AIDS and those who survived.

  June 26

Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise (The Shed)

The story of a secret sect in Flushing, Queens, that possesses the magical power to extend human life, and the twin brother and sister caught in the struggle to control it. Directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and written by the creators of the Kung Fu Panda movies, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

Working (Encores Off Center)

This concert version of Nina Faso and Stephen Schwartz’s 1978 musical based on Stud Terkels est-selling book feaures a cast that includes, Helen Hunt, Christopher Jackson, Javier Muñoz and Andréa Burns

Outside of Eden (New Ohio)

The Ice Factory Festival begins with this mix of opera and theater about the Byzantine Empresses.

  June 27

In The Green (Lincoln Center’s LCT3)

Grace McLean’s new musical tells the origin story of one of Medieval history’s most powerful and creative women: Hildegard von Bingen. Before she became a healer, a composer, an exorcist, and finally a saint, she was a little girl locked in a cell with her mentor, Jutta.

June 2019 New York Theater Openings: Stonewall 50 On Stage! Fairview Returns! Broadway is busy with the Tony Awards on June 9th, but June is bustin' out all over with new shows on other New York stages.

[biofunmy]

Connected by Cannabis – The New York Times

Hillary Peckham felt a different kind of pain when Maren Hall-Wieckert, whom she had been dating for four years, decided in August 2016 to leave New York to attend the University of Colorado, where he would begin a Ph.D. program in learning sciences.

“I was stunned and really hurt,” Ms. Peckham said. “This happened just after my sister’s wedding, and at a time when I thought Maren and I were about to move in together.”

It also happened at a time when Ms. Peckham, who was an avid horseback rider and runner, was still dealing with the excruciating pain that followed a failed hip surgery in 2009, which left her walking on crutches and in physical therapy for two years.

“There wasn’t a specific moment when I got hurt,” Ms. Peckham said. “But I had a labral tear and my psoas muscle was almost severed due to a structural abnormality in my hip. It wasn’t pretty.”

As Ms. Peckham slowly began to recover, there was yet more pain to endure. Her grandmother, Frances Keeffe, was suffering from a long and agonizing battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. In the spring of 2012, just weeks before Mr. Hall-Wieckert came into Ms. Peckham’s life, her grandmother died.

“My mother was my grandmother’s caretaker, and a doctor had suggested that she try and find medical marijuana to comfort my grandmother while she was declining in health,” Ms. Peckham said. “Though there was no legal way to procure it, my mom and I went ahead and started doing all sorts of research on the subject.”

Ms. Peckham and her mother, Amy Keeffe Peckham, considered creating their own medical marijuana business. “We had both experienced firsthand how pain management could be mismanaged,” Ms. Peckham said. “We knew that medical marijuana was an alternative that could provide for quality of life in many situations.”

Ms. Peckham and her mother began putting together a “highly skilled and knowledgeable team of industry experts” to apply for a license in New York State to grow and distribute cannabis.

Their team included physicians, horticultural experts, pharmacists, manufacturing engineers, and Mr. Hall-Wieckert, who was living in Brooklyn at the time and working as a researcher for the Graduate Center Advanced Science Research Foundation of the City University of New York.

“I was spending my weekends writing sections of the license application, it became a second job,” he said. “I learned right away that the Peckhams are doers, and I was very excited and extremely motivated about being a part of their vision.”

Ms. Peckham, now 28, and Mr. Hall -Wieckert, 27, met in June 2012 at a 21st birthday party for Ms. Peckham and her twin brother, J.D. Peckham, who brought along Mr. Hall-Wieckert, a friend from Oberlin College in Ohio who was about to enter his senior year. The party was held at the Peckham family home in the Bedford Hills area of Katonah, N.Y.

“I thought Maren was really cute,” said Ms. Peckham, who was about to enter her junior year at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. “We started talking, and I could tell that he was a very smart and thoughtful guy.”

They talked, and talked some more. Around midnight they kicked off their shoes and began dancing in the basement.

“She was very personable and a lot of fun,” Mr. Hall-Wieckert said, “and she was awfully pretty.”

They began dating, spending long hours on the phone and in their cars, with each making the 14-hour round-trip drive from Oberlin to Hamilton at least once a month.

“Maren was the first person that could turn Hillary’s head,” her mother said. “They made each other laugh, which is what made them work so well together.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert learned that Ms. Peckham was one of four children born to Amy Peckham and John Robert Peckham, the owner of a construction company in White Plains who described his daughter as “a very hard-charging person who has always been very focused and aggressive about pursuing goals and challenges.”

Ms. Peckham received a business certificate from Dartmouth after graduating from Hamilton with a degree in music and a minor in biology. As a lover of animals from the time she was a child, she had dreams of becoming a veterinarian, though her injury and subsequent interest in medical marijuana led her down a different path.

“Growing up, we had four dogs, a pig, a few dozen chickens, rabbits and reptiles,” Ms. Peckham said. “I know I would have enjoyed a career being around so many different animals, especially those that needed my help.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert, the oldest of two children born to Karen Wieckert and Rogers Hall, was 10 years old when his father, a professor of learning sciences at the University of California-Berkeley, moved the family to Nashville, Tenn. to take on a similar role at Vanderbilt University. Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s mother soon became a Nashville-based, independent software design contractor.

In July 2014, 14 months after the Peckham team applied for a license to sell medical marijuana products, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law the Compassionate Care Act, legalizing medical marijuana and giving birth to their company.

Ms. Peckham’s mother, who is of Irish descent, named the company Etain, after an Irish goddess, and it became, and still remains, the only family-run, women-owned medical marijuana company in the state of New York.

By July 2016, Ms. Peckham, her mother, and her older sister, Keeley Peckham, a certified horticultural therapist, had grown their business into a 50-employee operation that included four medical marijuana dispensaries in Manhattan, Syracuse, Yonkers, and Kingston, N.Y., and on-site pharmacists at each dispensary. The company also constructed a cannabis manufacturing plant in Chestertown, N.Y.

Though Team Peckham’s vision had come to fruition, Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s decision to leave the team to study for a Ph.D. was something that Ms. Peckham did not see coming.

“It was our moment of uncertainty, and a particularly kind of devastating moment for me,” she said. “I tried to appear not to be so upset and be supportive of Maren, but I don’t think I did a good job, and things got a little bit rocky from there.”

“We talked about it at length,” she continued, “and I finally told him that if he didn’t come back, I didn’t think the relationship was going to work.”

Though Mr. Hall-Wieckert had completed a full semester of classes by the spring of 2017, he also began “feeling pretty miserable,” he said, regarding the emotional and geographical distance that he had put between himself and Ms. Peckham.

“Hillary was my best friend — the person who helped turn me into a better version of myself, a more social, outgoing, motivated and courageous person,” he said. “I knew for sure that I had made a mistake.”

He told her as much in April 2017, at a rendezvous in Budapest, where Ms. Peckham and her family was visiting her younger brother, Gregory Peckham, who was enrolled in a study-abroad program there.

“I was thrilled to hear what he had to say,” Ms. Peckham said, “because I very much missed his laughter and his unconditional support.”

Mr. Hall-Wieckert decided to forego the rest of his Ph.D. studies in Colorado and returned to New York the following month to be reunited with Ms. Peckham, and resume his role as Etain’s director of information and technologies.

“Maren is a pretty smart guy, so it didn’t take him too long to realize that Hillary was a lot more compelling than his PH.D. program,” said Mr. Hall-Wieckert’s mother, Karen Wieckert. “I was very happy with his decision.”

Ms. Peckham and Mr. Hall-Wieckert were engaged in September 2018 in “a mutual proposal,” as Ms. Peckham called it.

“There was no dropping to one knee or anything like that,” she said. “I picked out the ring and he bought the diamond.

“After six years of dating, I think we both had waited long enough to get engaged,” she added, laughing.

They boarded a plane for Port St. Lucie, Fla., to celebrate the occasion before getting back to the business of creating and distributing medical marijuana. They also began discussing plans to buy a home in Bedford Hills, and achieved that goal in January.

The couple married Aug. 17 in an outdoor ceremony at the Bronx Zoo, an ode to a little girl’s love for animals.

“When I was growing up, my Godmother took me to the Bronx Zoo about once a month,” Ms. Peckham said. “Now I try to go to a zoo or animal reservation on any vacation or trip I take.”

That included her trip down the aisle as a live rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” filled the air on a scorching day more fit for lions and tigers than polar bears.

“They are both crazy, determined, passionate and fun-filled people,” said J.D. Peckham, who became a Universal Life minister to marry the couple.

“They are also extraordinarily intelligent and very driven,” he added, speaking before 220 guests, not including a small colony of California sea lions yelping a short distance away as part of the Madagascar exhibit, where the cocktail hour would be held. (Dinner followed in the Schiff Family Great Hall).

“I love you to the moon and back,” the bride told the groom during the exchange of vows.

“I love you as you are, as you have been and as you will be,” said the groom, fighting back tears as he spoke. “You are a dream come true.”

ON THIS DAY

When Aug. 17, 2019

Where The Bronx Zoo

Party Favors Most of the flowers and bouquets at the wedding had hemp leaves in them, and the party favors were jars of honey-based hemp lozenges produced by the bride’s company.

What They Wore The bride donned a dress from the designer Mikaella, purchased at Kleinfeld Bridal in New York; it featured a V-neck crepe bodice with guipure lace over sheer cap sleeves and sheer midriff. Her peacock-style shoes were from ParisXox. The groom wore a dark navy Hugo Boss Suit, black shoes from Alan Edmon, a shirt from Proper Cloth and bow tie from Brackish.

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