#if i were to *only listen* to the opera id probably skip them. BUT.

[widevibratobitch]

Top 5 Rodrigos

1. Ettore Bastianini because of course

2. Mario Sereni

3. Paolo Silveri

4. Mariusz Kwiecień and Etienne Dupuis*

5. Tito Gobbi

[steves-on-a-plane]

Secret, Secret

Words:1552 Pairing: Peter Parker x Male!Reader  Other relationships: Dad!Bruce Banner Request: “hi can I request a Peter Parker x male reader. that's just filled with fluff.” -Anon Summary: So I got the idea for this story from this request^ but I might also write something else that’s also just Peter Parker X Reader. Anyway this turned into Peter & Male reader telling the reader’s Dad, Dr. Bruce Banner, that they are in fact a little more than best friends. IDK it was just a idea I had, and im not even sure I’m happy with the final product. Let me know what you think! 

“Peter, I don’t know if this is such a good idea after all.” You frowned nervously. The two of you were walking together down the pebbly path that led to the entrance of the Avenger’s Compound. You had decided it was finally time to let the rest of the team in on your biggest secret.

“[Y/N], it’s going to be fine.” Peter insisted. He reached out and took your hand. “Remember how worried you were when we told Aunt May?”

“This is different.” You insisted. “Aunt May doesn’t turn into a rage monster at the drop of a hat.”

“You’ve never been over when I forget to take out the trash.” Peter rolled his eyes. “C’mon, we’ll talk to your dad first. He likes me.”

“Dad like’s everyone. It’s the other guy you have to worry about.” You tried to smirk, wishing you could be as calm and self-assured as Peter Parker. Then again, he was Spiderman, he had a good reason to be confident. You swiped the Avengers ID that your “Uncle” Tony have given you and the two of you entered the building. Wanda and Vision were coming down the main hallway that you and Peter were walking up. You always liked the couple a lot, even before they showed they could keep yours and Peter’s secret.

“Hello, [Y/n]. Hello Peter.” Vision greeted to two of you pleasantly. “What brings you young gentlemen here today?”  

“We’re here to see Dr. Banner.” Peter explained.

“Are you finally going to tell him about the two of you?” Wanda asked excitedly.

“Wanda, shhh! Say it over the PA system, why don’t you?” You looked around uncomfortably. You would hate for your Dad to hear your news from someone else first.

“[Y/n], your concern is unnecessary. Dr. Banner is working in his soundproof laboratory with Mr. Stark.” Vision told you.

“If they’re working, maybe we should come back another time.” You suggested to Peter.

“They’re always working!” He laughed, grasping your hand again. You wriggled out of his touch for fear that someone else might see. Peter looked hurt, but he understood what you were worried about. You loved your dad and you were fairly close. After your mom died you only got closer. The two of you told each other everything and he knew you would feel much better once you had your only secret out in the open.

“We’d better go before I change my mind.” You sighed. “Catch you later, Wanda, Viz.”

You and Peter weren’t exactly quiet as you came into your father’s lab. For one thing, you were laughing loudly at a joke he’d just told you to lighten the mood. Your deep bellow seemed to boomerang around the room and echoed back to you. Seemingly undisturbed by anything your father and Tony kept their eyes on their work.

“Uh, Dad?” You called from the door before taking a few steps towards him. He didn’t respond to you. “Hello? Earth to Dr. Banner!” Still no response, so you walked even closer. You were now standing about a foot away. “Opera sucks!” You called trying to get his attention. “Dude!”

“[Y/n], he’s wearing headphones.” Peter pointed to your dad’s ears which you now saw were in fact covered by over the ear headphones. You reached out and gave your dad’s shoulder a gently shove.

“Sorry,” He apologized, taking the headphones off. “I was trying to concentrate.”

“Your kid thinks your music sucks!” Tony yelled from across the room. Before casting his eyes back at his computer screen.

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.” Your Dad chuckled. “What’s up guys?” He asked looking away from Tony and over at you. “It’s Thursday, don’t you usually have dinner with Aunt May on Thursdays?”

Bruce Banner was basically Dad of the year every year. You were the only kid you knew whose parent actually paid attention to you and knew where you were at all times. He always remembered that you tutored Math and Science on Mondays and Wednesdays, and worked on the school newspaper basically around the clock. He knew all of your friends’ names and could probably tell you five fun facts about each of them. He knew that Peter was your best friend, and while you spent most of your time hanging out at the Avengers Compound, you made time every Thursday to visit with Aunt May.

“We’re kind of blowing Aunt May off this week.” Peter explained. “She understands.”

“What’s so important? Deadline at the school paper?” You dad was concerned. It wasn’t like you to skip out on a commitment.

“Not exactly.” You tried not to bite your lip. It was a telltale sign that you were nervous and he’d pick up on it in an instant. “Pete and I have to talk to you about something.”

“Oh. Okay.” You Dad reached up and removed his glasses a telltale sign that he was nervous. “Should we, go somewhere more…?”

“The lab’s fine.” You assured him. “Besides, Uncle Tony’s going to find out eventually anyway.” You inhaled a deep breath. This was the first time you were going to admit to your dad who you really were. You always assumed he sort of knew. You’d never brought any girls home for him to meet. You never talked about being interested in any girls, or boys for that matter.

“You remember when you wanted to start seeing Natashia? And you gave me that great speech about how you weren’t trying to replace Mom, but you were ready to move on and you wanted to try with Nat because she understood you for who you really were and not just the man behind the Hulk?”

“Yeah. I remember.” He nodded. “You handled it very maturely.”

“Awesome. I’m just asking that you do the same for me.” You said, wringing your hands together. “So you know how Peter and I met at the school Newspaper? We started spending a lot of time together because I would write articles and he would take pictures…”

“He knows how a newspaper works.” Peter piped up.

“Right. Listen, Dad, Peter understands me the same way that Natasha understand you. He’s not just my best friend, Dad.” You still couldn’t exactly put to words what you were trying to say, but your dad was smart; a genius. Some things were more powerful than words. You reached over and entangled your fingers inside of Peter’s for the first time ever in front of your Dad.

You didn’t say anything and neither did Peter nor your dad. The room was silent except for the random bleeps coming from Tony’s computer in the back of the room. The longer the silence stretch the more uncomfortable you begin to feel. In your head, you were begging for someone to say something. You probably would have even settled for one of Tony’s witty comments in that moment. The seconds stretched on for what felt like years and still no one said anything.

“I know this probably wasn’t what you wanted from your only son…” You started to say, but your dad interrupted you. He put his glasses down on the counter next to the microscope he’d been working with, and got up off his chair.

“I’m sorry,[Y/N], but I have to stop you right there. This is who you are. You can’t change who you love any more than I could change my eye color or Uncle Tony could stop being sarcastic. And I think Peter,” your Dad turned to look at your boyfriend. “is perfect for you. You’re both smart, strong young men who I couldn’t be prouder of.” Then your Dad surprised you both by pulling you and Peter into a tight bear hug.

“Can I say something now?” Tony stepped out from his workstation coming alive for the first time. Now you couldn’t help but bite your lip. In the back of your mind you had hoped your dad would be cool with whatever you told him. It was a relief to know that he was. But Tony on the other hand, He was unpredictable, who knew what he was about to say. You felt your dad put a protective hand on your shoulder and assumed his other was on Peter’s.

“Tony…” Your Dad almost sounded like he was growling. You were too afraid to look back and see green in his eyes.

“I just want to say,” Tony began, holding both of his hands up in a sign of peace. “that I’ve had my suspicions since Underoos and Mini Hulk started having weekly dinners with May. Now don’t go all Jolly Green Giant on me, but we’ve had a pool going…”

“We?” Bruce repeated.

“Yeah, you know the whole team. Rogers, Barton, Wilson…speaking of which Romanoff and I had ‘before prom’ so it looks like we win.” The next thing you knew, Tony was pulling out his wallet and handing you a small stack of bills. “Take each other out to dinner on me and congrats. I’m very happy for you. Really.”

“Well that was easier than I expected.” You sighed in relief.

“I told you, you had nothing to worry about.” Peter smiled.

“I guess you were, right.” You leaned over and kissed Peter right there in the lab in front of your dad and Tony.

[trendingnewsb]

Wisconsin: Go Drunk, Youre Home

One winter evening earlier this year, in a nondescript small town off a nondescript highway in northern Wisconsin, a male relative of mine suffered a mild heart attack while getting a fresh beer from his fridge. On his way to the hospital, the ambulance carrying him hit a deer. Another ambulance had to take everybody the rest of the way. Everybody turned out fine, except, I suppose, the deer.

Every aspect of that story screams Wisconsin. The deer. The heart attack. But mostly, the beer.

This week, 24/7 Wall St. released its list of the top 20 drunkest cities in America. Ten of the top 20 drunkest cities in America (and all of the top four) are in the Badger State.

Wisconsins prominence on this list might seem puzzling to a person who isnt familiar with Wisconsin or its alcohol-centric culture. Maybe people drink a lot there because its cold, but a lot of other nearby states also have shit weather without using alcohol to cope. It could be the states German heritage, but German descendants live all over the U.S. Wisconsin has a lot of college towns, but so does California. What makes Wisconsin different? Whats wrong with it?

I posed the question to a random assortment of people who have lived or currently live in WisconsinWhy so drunk?and it seems there isnt a single reason that drinking is so central to the culture there; there are several reasons.

Wisconsin contains multitudes. And, in a state with such a wide range of ideology, drinking is a neutral activity.

I was born in Wisconsin and lived the first 18 years of my life there. My home state has produced a stunning array of historical weirdos, from zealot Joseph McCarthy to murderer Ed Gein to artist Georgia OKeeffe to my brother, who for Mothers Day gave our mom a coffee mug with his own (stern) face on the side of it with the word FAMILY inscrutably emblazoned over the corner. The tallest point in Wisconsin is a little over 1,000 feet above sea level, but the glacier that carved the great plains skipped a triangle of land in the southwestern part of the state, so driving from Madison toward LaCrosse takes a person through an almost eerie undersea landscape. Weve got a whole lot of Lake Superior lakefront, in case anybody feels like swimming in water almost too cold to drink; Lake Michigan lakefront, if anyone prefers the excitement of swimming in water that may contain pee that drifted north from Chicago; and 11,000 freshwater lakes in case anybody want to smell like algae and maybe get swimmers itch. The town where I grew up has recently seen an influx of Amish and Mennonites snapping up cheap land and farming it with horses, so I guess you could say its de-gentrifying in parts.

Its politically weird, too. The Republican Party was born in Wisconsin. The John Birch Society is based there. But also, my Norwegian great-grandfather used to have socialists over to his farm after church, to sit around and complain about the captilists, like a modern DSA meeting except with fewer wrist tattoos. Anybody who has seen Waynes World can tell you that the city of Milwaukee has elected three socialist mayors. Speaker of the House and Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin, but so is dyed-in-the-wool liberal Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Wisconsin contains multitudes. And, in a state with such a wide range of ideology, drinking is a neutral activity. [Drinking] is open to everyone who is interested, requires a limited skill set, can be done any time, anywhere, is socially encouraged, and is a pastime weve internalized and embraced as part of our state identity, says Rachel, a teacher in her mid-thirties who lives in Burlington.

A fancy beer might set a person back $4. You can get half-drunk for the price of a single movie ticket.

Wisconsin was one of the last states to raise the drinking age to 21 (in 1986), and that was only because the federal government threatened to withhold highway funding. My parents met at a bar in 1978, when my mother was 18. Underage people are still allowed to drink in bars in Wisconsin, provided they are accompanied by a parent, guardian, or spouse who is of-age and their of-age companion does the ordering. (That means that somebody could order their 5-year-old a beer, theoretically, but during my summers waitressing I never saw anybody try to pull anything crazy like that.) Hunting and fishing culture contributes as well; while its probably ill-advised to get hammered before deer opener, the entire point of ice fishing is sitting in a small, uninsulated room that isnt in your house and getting drunk while staring at a hole in the ice and listening to the Packer game on an FM radio.

The states tradition of beer brewing means that alcohol is cheap, too, as Cullen, an Eau Claire resident in his late thirties, points out. Mixed drinks are $2.50 and beer is $1.50. Those are the real prices, he says. A fancy beer might set a person back $4. You can get half-drunk for the price of a single movie ticket.

Weather and ennui certainly factor into Wisconsins drinking habit. Six months of the year are reliably terrible, weather-wise, driving people indoors to socialize. Breanna, a bartender, says that people feeling economic pressure often drown their sorrows in her bar. And Tyrell, who has since moved to Minneapolis, notes, Wisconsin is boring as hell. Theres nothing to do except get drunk and play the lottery.

Theres also the Midwestern stoicism factor. Its the deep pervasive culture of immigrant Scandinavians (we dont talk with people, we talk about people and eat/drink our feelings) and stoic German farmers (dont talk about the feelingthere is only one, right?pissed), writes Sarah, who has since moved to Colorado. This results in kids and families not knowing how to reconcile, say I love you, share real feelings, ask real questions, etc.

Wisconsinites love each other when theyre drunk, and Wisconsin performatively loves how drunk it is.

Drinking is often the center of family celebrations, too. My extended familys Christmas Eve party, traditionally held at my grandparents house down the road and around the corner from where I grew up, would go from wholesome fun to extremely lit party right around when it started getting dark in the mid-afternoon. My uncles would get in tipsy, borderline nonsensical debates about things like: Who is the Paul Wellstone of the Minnesota Twins outfield? My grandmother would sing the Volga Boatmen song in an opera falsetto, a demonstration of how she used to sing that way to get her six sons to settle down, because all of her sons hated that singing. Unsupervised, my cousins and I would do things like mix all of the condiments into a tall glass of water and dare my brother to drink it, and he would. Wed play extremely competitive games of Balderdash that escalated to shouting. Wed find glitter, and take it out of the cupboards. Wed play hide-and-seek, but with screaming. Wed put on our winter boots and run around in the snow, chased by our dogs, their breath rising as steam as they bounded past us. Some of my best childhood memories are from nights all of the adults were Christmas drunk.

Wisconsins drinking culture isnt necessarily accompanied by the sort of aggression one might associate with a bar district. One Eau Claire resident, who has worked at a busy bar downtown in the second drunkest city in America for the last six years, says hes never seen a fight. We have a drinking culture, he says. But its not vomiting wackos and aggressive creeps. Its just what we do.

Bryan, a resident of Grantsburg, adds, Wisconsin is the only state that can consume excess amounts of alcohol and love their neighbor at the same time. Most states would start a war.

Wisconsinites love each other when theyre drunk, and Wisconsin performatively loves how drunk it is. The stores in airports in Madison and Milwaukee display hooded sweatshirts and beer koozies that read DRINK WISCONSINBLY. DRINK WISCONSINBLY is to Wisconsin what I (heart) NY is to New York. But because its so proud of itself, Id take the entire drunkest cities list with a grain of salt. Wisconsin lacks the requisite shame that often accompanies intoxication and thus would lean in on any survey that would allow them to self-report their drunkenness.

Were just not embarrassed about it, says Noah, who grew up in Madison. Minnesotans have a deep sense of shame about things in general.

So is it possible that Wisconsin isnt as dramatically drunker than its neighbors as advertised? Sure. But as I sit here typing this on a laptop balanced on a pillow shaped like my home state, I know deep down in my heart that the bars back home are brimming with people Wisconsinbly drunk on $2 beers. And that neither the deer nor the drunks will know better than to stay off the roads.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/wisconsin-go-drunk-youre-home

from Viral News HQ https://ift.tt/2Hib2ue via Viral News HQ

[trendingnewsb]

Wisconsin: Go Drunk, Youre Home

One winter evening earlier this year, in a nondescript small town off a nondescript highway in northern Wisconsin, a male relative of mine suffered a mild heart attack while getting a fresh beer from his fridge. On his way to the hospital, the ambulance carrying him hit a deer. Another ambulance had to take everybody the rest of the way. Everybody turned out fine, except, I suppose, the deer.

Every aspect of that story screams Wisconsin. The deer. The heart attack. But mostly, the beer.

This week, 24/7 Wall St. released its list of the top 20 drunkest cities in America. Ten of the top 20 drunkest cities in America (and all of the top four) are in the Badger State.

Wisconsins prominence on this list might seem puzzling to a person who isnt familiar with Wisconsin or its alcohol-centric culture. Maybe people drink a lot there because its cold, but a lot of other nearby states also have shit weather without using alcohol to cope. It could be the states German heritage, but German descendants live all over the U.S. Wisconsin has a lot of college towns, but so does California. What makes Wisconsin different? Whats wrong with it?

I posed the question to a random assortment of people who have lived or currently live in WisconsinWhy so drunk?and it seems there isnt a single reason that drinking is so central to the culture there; there are several reasons.

Wisconsin contains multitudes. And, in a state with such a wide range of ideology, drinking is a neutral activity.

I was born in Wisconsin and lived the first 18 years of my life there. My home state has produced a stunning array of historical weirdos, from zealot Joseph McCarthy to murderer Ed Gein to artist Georgia OKeeffe to my brother, who for Mothers Day gave our mom a coffee mug with his own (stern) face on the side of it with the word FAMILY inscrutably emblazoned over the corner. The tallest point in Wisconsin is a little over 1,000 feet above sea level, but the glacier that carved the great plains skipped a triangle of land in the southwestern part of the state, so driving from Madison toward LaCrosse takes a person through an almost eerie undersea landscape. Weve got a whole lot of Lake Superior lakefront, in case anybody feels like swimming in water almost too cold to drink; Lake Michigan lakefront, if anyone prefers the excitement of swimming in water that may contain pee that drifted north from Chicago; and 11,000 freshwater lakes in case anybody want to smell like algae and maybe get swimmers itch. The town where I grew up has recently seen an influx of Amish and Mennonites snapping up cheap land and farming it with horses, so I guess you could say its de-gentrifying in parts.

Its politically weird, too. The Republican Party was born in Wisconsin. The John Birch Society is based there. But also, my Norwegian great-grandfather used to have socialists over to his farm after church, to sit around and complain about the captilists, like a modern DSA meeting except with fewer wrist tattoos. Anybody who has seen Waynes World can tell you that the city of Milwaukee has elected three socialist mayors. Speaker of the House and Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin, but so is dyed-in-the-wool liberal Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Wisconsin contains multitudes. And, in a state with such a wide range of ideology, drinking is a neutral activity. [Drinking] is open to everyone who is interested, requires a limited skill set, can be done any time, anywhere, is socially encouraged, and is a pastime weve internalized and embraced as part of our state identity, says Rachel, a teacher in her mid-thirties who lives in Burlington.

A fancy beer might set a person back $4. You can get half-drunk for the price of a single movie ticket.

Wisconsin was one of the last states to raise the drinking age to 21 (in 1986), and that was only because the federal government threatened to withhold highway funding. My parents met at a bar in 1978, when my mother was 18. Underage people are still allowed to drink in bars in Wisconsin, provided they are accompanied by a parent, guardian, or spouse who is of-age and their of-age companion does the ordering. (That means that somebody could order their 5-year-old a beer, theoretically, but during my summers waitressing I never saw anybody try to pull anything crazy like that.) Hunting and fishing culture contributes as well; while its probably ill-advised to get hammered before deer opener, the entire point of ice fishing is sitting in a small, uninsulated room that isnt in your house and getting drunk while staring at a hole in the ice and listening to the Packer game on an FM radio.

The states tradition of beer brewing means that alcohol is cheap, too, as Cullen, an Eau Claire resident in his late thirties, points out. Mixed drinks are $2.50 and beer is $1.50. Those are the real prices, he says. A fancy beer might set a person back $4. You can get half-drunk for the price of a single movie ticket.

Weather and ennui certainly factor into Wisconsins drinking habit. Six months of the year are reliably terrible, weather-wise, driving people indoors to socialize. Breanna, a bartender, says that people feeling economic pressure often drown their sorrows in her bar. And Tyrell, who has since moved to Minneapolis, notes, Wisconsin is boring as hell. Theres nothing to do except get drunk and play the lottery.

Theres also the Midwestern stoicism factor. Its the deep pervasive culture of immigrant Scandinavians (we dont talk with people, we talk about people and eat/drink our feelings) and stoic German farmers (dont talk about the feelingthere is only one, right?pissed), writes Sarah, who has since moved to Colorado. This results in kids and families not knowing how to reconcile, say I love you, share real feelings, ask real questions, etc.

Wisconsinites love each other when theyre drunk, and Wisconsin performatively loves how drunk it is.

Drinking is often the center of family celebrations, too. My extended familys Christmas Eve party, traditionally held at my grandparents house down the road and around the corner from where I grew up, would go from wholesome fun to extremely lit party right around when it started getting dark in the mid-afternoon. My uncles would get in tipsy, borderline nonsensical debates about things like: Who is the Paul Wellstone of the Minnesota Twins outfield? My grandmother would sing the Volga Boatmen song in an opera falsetto, a demonstration of how she used to sing that way to get her six sons to settle down, because all of her sons hated that singing. Unsupervised, my cousins and I would do things like mix all of the condiments into a tall glass of water and dare my brother to drink it, and he would. Wed play extremely competitive games of Balderdash that escalated to shouting. Wed find glitter, and take it out of the cupboards. Wed play hide-and-seek, but with screaming. Wed put on our winter boots and run around in the snow, chased by our dogs, their breath rising as steam as they bounded past us. Some of my best childhood memories are from nights all of the adults were Christmas drunk.

Wisconsins drinking culture isnt necessarily accompanied by the sort of aggression one might associate with a bar district. One Eau Claire resident, who has worked at a busy bar downtown in the second drunkest city in America for the last six years, says hes never seen a fight. We have a drinking culture, he says. But its not vomiting wackos and aggressive creeps. Its just what we do.

Bryan, a resident of Grantsburg, adds, Wisconsin is the only state that can consume excess amounts of alcohol and love their neighbor at the same time. Most states would start a war.

Wisconsinites love each other when theyre drunk, and Wisconsin performatively loves how drunk it is. The stores in airports in Madison and Milwaukee display hooded sweatshirts and beer koozies that read DRINK WISCONSINBLY. DRINK WISCONSINBLY is to Wisconsin what I (heart) NY is to New York. But because its so proud of itself, Id take the entire drunkest cities list with a grain of salt. Wisconsin lacks the requisite shame that often accompanies intoxication and thus would lean in on any survey that would allow them to self-report their drunkenness.

Were just not embarrassed about it, says Noah, who grew up in Madison. Minnesotans have a deep sense of shame about things in general.

So is it possible that Wisconsin isnt as dramatically drunker than its neighbors as advertised? Sure. But as I sit here typing this on a laptop balanced on a pillow shaped like my home state, I know deep down in my heart that the bars back home are brimming with people Wisconsinbly drunk on $2 beers. And that neither the deer nor the drunks will know better than to stay off the roads.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/wisconsin-go-drunk-youre-home

from Viral News HQ https://ift.tt/2Hib2ue via Viral News HQ