#jim the frog official post

[wubadubwrites]

Jim the Frog Official Post no. 5

it says his name. it is working as advertised

[indigovigilance]

Aziraphale, Kermit the Frog, and Fraggle Rock

Inspo from @crowleys-hips, images shamelessly ripped from original post:

The costumes and set design in the Book of Job episode were supposedly inspired mostly by The Ten Commandments but I’m ignoring that for right now because this is more fun. Now that I’ve written it, this is actually one of my dark ones.

Ready? Let’s go.

read on Ao3

The Frog Prince

[Source]

Kermit, created in 1955, was originally an abstract character without a defined species. He did not [officially] become a frog until The Frog Prince episode in 1971. At the same time, he gained his pointed collar. Kermit is not the prince in this retelling, but is one of the many frogs, who don’t believe that the Frog Prince is actually human and try to convince the Frog Prince that even if there is a curse, they don’t need to try to break it, being a frog is great!

Sing out for the swamp and sing out for the ooze The life of a frog is the life you should choose Sing out for the mud and sing out for the bog It’s ever so jolly just being a frog We love the old mud hole, we say that we soak The feeling’s so good that we just gotta croak The muck and the mire, the slush and the slime Are the reasons a frog has a wonderful time

It’s a very weird musical number. I have exactly one semester of music theory under my belt but it sounds awfully minor key to me.

It’s very much about bullying someone who doesn’t feel like they belong into conforming. Exchange “frog” for “angel” and we’ve got a pretty on-the-nose parallel story here.

Two Interpretations

First: Aziraphale is a prince among frogs whose unique identity is being ignored. The ones he has turned to for help are ignoring his pleas and insisting that their way is the best way, even though it is clearly not.

Second: Aziraphale is the frog! Kermit gained his collar when he finally began to solidify as a character with a set identity. Both of these themes apply to Aziraphale’s arc in Book of Job.

*topic change*

Jim Henson & Richard Hunt

Coming back to the extreme queer theming of Season 2 (God bless you GO production team) we have a nod to Jim Henson and Richard Hunt. Much like Pterry and the Notorious NRG, both men began their artistic journeys very young. Henson began in high school, where he began developing what would later become the Muppets; he continued his work on puppets on Sesame Street. He is the creator of Kermit the Frog. He’s also well-known for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, other queer culture mainstays. Some years later, at 18 years old, Richard Hunt shot his shot and asked for a job puppeteering on Sesame Street in 1972; he got it. He would continue to work as a puppeteer with Jim Henson on the Muppets and related works until he died in 1992 at the age of 40 due to complications of AIDS.

Gone But Not Forgotten || Terry Pratchett

If you have not read my meta on Terry Pratchett’s representation in the Final Fifteen, I will link it at the bottom as well and highly suggest you read it. It’s not necessary reading for what comes next, but it is relevant.

Richard Hunt was openly gay and heavily involved in the New York gay community during the AIDS epidemic. He was in a relationship with a painter named Nelson Bird, who died of AIDS related complications in 1985. There is some speculation that Fraggle Rock Season 5 Episode 7 is an artistic representation of Richard Hunt losing his partner. In that episode, Wembley makes a new friend, Mudwell, played by Richard Hunt, that he abruptly loses at the end of the episode following a confession of mutual affection. You can follow the link below to watch the full episode. The final-fifteen parallel content begins at 12:30:

Gone But Not Forgotten (Fraggle Rock S05E07)

The loss is followed by a conversation between two characters that centers around remembering those who have been lost by keeping the things and memories they left behind, and the partner who [survived] goes through rituals of grieving.

If you scrolled past it but would like to read it now, here’s a link to my meta Terry Pratchett’s representation in the Final Fifteen.

[noelcollection]

Frogs & Twain

Some of us may have childhood memories of playing a game of leap-frog or reading the adventures of Mr. Frog and Mr. Toad; but did you know there is an official frog jumping day? This week not only celebrated the motherly figures in our lives but it was Frog Jumping Day Saturday, May 13th.

The origin of this unique little day steams from a short story by Mark Twain, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” was first published in 1865; though the more common title is “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” but there is a third title associated with this short story: “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” This short story is considered to be Twain's first success as a writer, to which he would be later accused of plagiarism from an older Greek variation and Twain claimed it was a true case of history repeating itself and his story would be later referenced in a Greek textbook in the early 1900s. The story was also translated into French and then Twain retranslated “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” back into English. Twain’s opinion of the French language was not a kind one. The date of May 13th has no known correlation to Mark Twain’s life but there is an annual frog jumping competition that began in 1849 in Calaveras County, California. It is also interesting to note that the international date for frog jumping is February 19th. 

This time we are featuring two items from our collection. A 1930s publication featuring Mark Twain’s frog-centered short story with its original title and scientific book detailing different frogs. The Favorite Works of Mark Twain (https://bit.ly/42nqfUX) contains a short story which starts with a man seeking an old acquaintance named Leonidas W. Smiley. However, the tale the seeking friend ends up with is a different Smiley. Jim Smiley was a gambler and had a pet frog named Dan’l Webster. Jim claims his frog can out-jump any frog in the county and he is challenged by a stranger with a bet. However, the challenge was fixed to Jim Smiley's disadvantage. And the narrator is left with no positive information on his old acquaintance.

The Frog Book: North American toads and frogs with a study of the habits and life histories of those of the northeastern states by Mary Dickerson (https://bit.ly/3phffKc) features illustrations and photographs of various frog species of North America. The Frog book contains several color plates of various frog species which have been selected for this post. The frontispiece is charming as well with its colored plate of a flora and a little white tree frog. 

Also, did you know that there is lore of a frogman/people cryptid in Loveland, Ohio? So, how can you celebrate Frog jumping day for next year? You can jump like a frog, read a frog themed book, or wear a frog printed top.

[jamesbracket]

Round 2 matchups!

We made it to round 2! Brackets 1-3 have already been posted, and 4-6 will be posted tomorrow. Here are the matchups:

Bracket 1:

Jim Hopper (Stranger Things) VS. James “Bucky” Barnes (Marvel)

James Bonde (Moriarty the Patriot) VS. James Bond (James Bond)

Jimmy Carter (Real Life) VS. James Byrd (@byrdsfly)

James Phryllas (Real Life) VS. Jimmy Z (Wild Kratts)

Bracket 2:

James Baxter (Adventure Time) VS. James Webb Telescope (Real Life)

Jim Henson (Real Life) VS. Jim Gordon (DC Comics)

James Henry Trotter (James and the Giant Peach) VS. Jimmy Neutron (Jimmy Neutron)

James McCloud (Star Fox) VS. James (Wii Sports)

Bracket 3:

James Norrington (Pirates of the Caribbean) VS. Jim Hawkins (Treasure Planet)

James Flint (Black Sails) VS. Jamie McCrimmon (Doctor Who)

Dr. James Possible (Kim Possible) VS. James (Princess and the Frog)

Jim teacher (TikTok) VS. James Vane (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Bracket 4:

James (Pokémon) VS. James P. Sullivan (Monsters, Inc.)

James Sunderland (Silent Hill 2) VS. Private Jimmy (Red vs Blue)

James Rallison (Real Life) VS. Jimmy McGill (Better Call Saul)

Jimmy Novak (Supernatural) VS. Jem Carstairs (The Infernal Devices)

Bracket 5:

James Wilson (House MD) VS. Jim Lake Jr. (Trollhunters)

Jimmy (Scott Pilgrim) VS. James-Roman Grilfalinas (@artificialkids-2k23-official)

Jamie Winter (Midsomer Murders) VS. James Holden (The Expanse)

James Garrett (Zoey 101) VS. Jay Merrick (Marble Hornets)

Bracket 6:

James Maguire (Derry Girls) VS. James Black (Detective Conan)

James the Cat (James the Cat) VS. Jim Johnman (Monster Factory)

Jimmy (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) VS. James Diamond (Big Time Rush)

James West (The Wild Wild West) VS. James E. Negatus (Yonderland)

[somebody-a-little-gay]

~OFFICIAL FANDOM LIST~

the official list of characters you can expect to be on this blog!

Last Updated: April 8th, 2024

✨ = my favorite characters

-----------------------------------------------------

MCU

✨Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier

✨Steve Rogers/Captain America

✨Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Homecoming/Iron Spider Era)

Sam Wilson/The Falcon

✨Loki

✨Thor

Vision

Tony Stark/Iron Man

Bruce Banner/The Hulk

Clint Barton/Hawkeye

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Yelena Belova

T'Challa

✨Shuri

Killmonger

Runaways

Harry Potter

Harry Potter

✨Hermione Granger

✨Ron Weasley

✨Fred Weasley

✨George Weasley

✨Luna Lovegood

Neville Longbottom

Tom Riddle

✨Draco Malfoy

Disney

Encanto

Bruno

Luisa

Isabela

Dolores

Camilo

Mirabel

Julietta

Pepa

Félix

Augustín

Antonio

Abuela

Tim Burton

Nightmare Before Christmas

Betelgeuse

Frankenweenie

Corpse Bride

OG Disney Films (Pre-Frozen)

Lion King

Mulan

101 Dalmations

Bambi

Little Mermaid

Lilo & Stitch

Tangled

Princess and The Frog

Disney (Post-Frozen)

Moana

Encanto

Frozen

Raya and the Last Dragon

Coco

Luca

OG Disney TV Shows/Movies

Wizards of Waverley Place

Good Luck Charlie

ANT Farm

Suite Life of Zack and Cody/On Deck

Kim Possible

HSM

Musicals

Rent

Hamilton

Wicked

Maze Runner

✨Gally

✨Newt

✨Thomas

Minho

Teresa

Frypan

Ben

Winston

Star Wars

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Luke Skywalker

Leia Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker

Padme Amidala

Kylo Ren

Han Solo

The Outsiders

✨Dallas Winston

Ponyboy Curtis

✨Sodapop Curtis

✨Johnny Cade

Two-Bit Matthews

Darry Curtis

Steve Randle

Tim Shepard

Youtube

✨Daz Games

Jacksepticeye

Markiplier

Emkay

Dee Lee

lilsimsie

✨Hazbin Hotel

✨Helluva Boss

Buzzfeed Unsolved

✨Watcher

TV Shows

Teen Wolf

✨Stiles

Scott

Allison

Lydia

Jackson

✨Derek

✨Liam

✨Isaac

✨Malia

Peter

Cora

Hazbin Hotel

✨Charlie

✨Vaggie

✨Alastor

✨Angel Dust

✨Husk

✨Nifty

✨Sir Pentious

✨Lucifer

Adam

Lute

Lilith

✨Emily

Sera

Vox

Valentino

✨Velvette

South Park

Queen's Gambit

Psych

The Office

Michael Scott

Dwight Schrute

Jim Halpert

Pam Halpert (Beesely)

Stanley Hudson

Kevin Malone

Angela Martin

Meredith Palmer

Oscar Martinez

Andy Bernard

Phyllis Vance

Erin Hannon

Parks and Rec

Grey's Anatomy

✨Alex Karev

Meredith Grey

Andrew DeLuca

✨Arizona Robbins

✨Callie Torres

✨George O'Malley

Jackson Avery

✨April Kepner

✨Miranda Bailey

Richard Webber

Katherine Avery (Fox)

Izzie Stevens

✨Cristina Yang

✨Lexie Grey

Mark Sloan

Derek Shephard

Amelia Shephard

✨Addison Montgomery

Owen Hunt

Teddy Altman

Nathan Riggs

Jo Wilson

✨Stephanie Edwards

✨Maggie Pierce

Friends

Rachel

Pheobe

Ross

Monica

✨Chandler

✨Joey

Merlin

✨Merlin

✨Arthur

Morgana

✨Gwaine

Elyan

Leon

✨Percival

✨Lancelot

✨Gwen

Mordred

Gaius

Uther

Avatar: The Last Airbender

✨Sokka

✨Katara

Aang

Toph

✨Zuko

Legend of Korra

✨Korra

✨Mako

✨Bolin

✨Asami

Stranger Things

✨Steve

✨Eddie

Mike

✨Eleven/Jane

Henry/001/ Vecna

Lucas

✨Dustin

Max

Billy

✨Robin

Nancy

Nancy Drew CW

Nancy

Nick

✨George

✨Ace

✨Bess

911 (OG & Lone Star)

Bobby

Athena

✨Hen

Chimney

Maddie

✨Buck

✨Eddie

Ravi

TK

✨Owen

✨Carlos

✨Grace

✨Judd

Wyatt

✨Marjan

✨Paul

Matteo

Nancy

✨Tommy

Video Games

Stardew Valley

✨Shane

✨Sam

✨Sebastian

Abigail

Alex

✨Haley

Emily

Harvey

Marnie

Jas

Vincent

Pam

Penny

Maru

Penny

Demetrius

Uncharted

Sims (3 & 4)

Animal Crossing

[archive-multimuse]

Official line-up for post-move: 

Adrien/ (  Ladybug  )

Aeon/  (  Ladybug  )

Alistair/ ( Ever After High )

Amity ( Owl House )

Anastasia ( Cinderella )

Ayano ( Yansim )

Ben ( Jwcc )

Ben King ( Descendents )

Brooklyn ( Jwcc )

Bumpy ( Jwcc )

Capper ( Mlp )

Cassandra ( Tangled )

Charming ( Cinderella )

Chloe/ (  Ladybug  )

Cindy Lou ( Seuss )

Coraline ( Coraline )

Darius ( Jwcc )

Darling Charming ( Ever After High )

David ( Camp Camp )

Discord ( Mlp )

Dragonborn ( Skyrim )

Eggs ( Boxtrolls )

Elsa/ ( Frozen )

Eugene/ ( Tangled )

Facilier ( Princess And The Frog )

Feldspar ( Tangled )

Felix ( Ladybug )

Ferb (p&f)

Finn ( Adventure Time )

Fiona ( Adventure Time )

Fluttershy (mlp)

Greg/ (su)

Gwen ( Camp Camp )

Hans/ ( Frozen )

Hiccup/ ( Httyd )

Jack ( J&tcch )

Jack Frost ( Rotg )

Jess (  Ladybug  )

Jim ( Treasure Planet )

Kenji ( Jwcc )

Kevin (eene)

Kevin (su)

Killian ( Ouat )

King ( Owl House )

Kristoff ( Frozen )

Lars ( Steven Universe )

Luz/ ( Owl House )

Mae ( Nitw )

Mal ( Descendents )

Marceline ( Adventure Time )

Marco Diaz/ ( Svtfoe )

Marianne ( Strange Magic )

Marinette/ (  Ladybug  )

Marshall Lee ( Adventure Time )

Max ( Camp Camp )

Merida ( Brave )

Merlin ( Red Shoes )

Moana ( Moana )

Monika ( Ddlc )

Naveen ( Princess And The Frog )

Ned ( Seuss ) -request only; not a real muse-

Nick ( Zootopia )

Penn Zero/ ( Penn Zero )

Phineas (p&f)

Pidge/ ( Voltron )

Red Shoes ( Red Shoes )

Red/ ( Tangled )

Sammy ( Jwcc )

Shay ( Broken Age )

Sokka ( Atla )

Spinel/ ( Steven Universe )

Steven/ ( Steven Universe )

Taro Yamada ( Yansim )

Tiana ( Princess And The Frog )

Twig ( Hilda )

Varian/ ( Tangled )

Woodman ( Hilda )

Y-5 ( Adventure Time )

Yakko ( Animaniacs )

Yasmina ( Jwcc )

Zack/ ( Milo Murphy’s Law )

[mhaccunoval]

i finallyyyy finished the explanations for my tlb playlistttt so come get yall juice

if you haven’t already seen my first (official) post about this silly little playlist then you are still in luck !!! here is the spotify and the youtube links !!! oh yeah also all of the songs are in chronological order (maybe not by month but definitely by year) because i had to be organized like that sbjhshsjbs

———

❥ title

i mean. there isn’t much to explain about it but sbjshbsjhs it’s based on sam’s line “you’re a creature of the night, michael!” of course but i made it plural because this playlist is sort of a. general boys / movie playlist, if that makes sense??? but yeahhhh they’re all littol creechers who love the night >:o]

———

❥ paint it, black — the rolling stones

so !!! i was kind of trying to relate it to the boys vampirism and. love of black clothes sbhsjbshjs but no. similar to the title, they. literally live in darkness because of not being able to go into the sun and because of the few lights in the lair but there’s also a sort of duality where being vampires in an internal darkness??? like. each of the boys takes heavy advantage of the benefits of being undead but i can’t imagine it’s without its faults outside of the lack of sunlight and such. i’m sure there’s a kind of uh. monster complex that follows it, especially with the way outsiders view them, which certainly fits with the song’s vibe of being washed with this sort of sensory overload to color and earning weird looks for it

———

❥ riders on the storm — the doors

first of all, there’s a giant ass jim morrison poster in the lair therefore the boys definitely listen to the doors (if not idolize jim) so jot that down. but also !!! it has very Them vibes !!! i think the storm effects definitely relate to boys in how storms create a darkness that is soothing in its own way, and comes on strong, just like the boys’ presence. and. technically they Are killers on the road that Will kill a sweet family sbhjsbshjsb but no most of all the !!! “into this house we’re born // into this world we’re thrown” and !!! the found family that the boys have going. like, if you look at. vampirism as the house they have LITERALLY been born into it and been thrown into a whole new world, depending on each other for comfort and pleasure !!! oh also. they ride motorcycles so they’re also literal riders sbhjsbshjs (fun fact, according to genius lyrics: apparently it was the last song jim recorded before he died a few weeks later 😳)

———

❥ love her madly — the doors

whole jim morrison poster and listening to the doors reasoning is sustained. HOWEVER for the rest of reasoning… perhaps it’s more straight up 95060 than anything but sbhsjbsshj the whole woman walking in and out of the audience’s life is very symbolic of michael being in and out with the boys, never really deciding whether he wants to fully join them and straining. all of his relationships with that indecision and sitting on the picket fence (those who sit on the picket fence are impaled by it). although, it could also be partly symbolic of that indecision, as he does find Some charm in the boys’ lifestyle and keeps finding himself drawn back enough to even consider partaking in it. also, if you wanna go the parko route, paul loves marko madly enough to go after the frog bros personally for killing him <3

———

❥ walk this way — aerosmith

i am. blanking on how to tie it in other than being on the movie’s soundtrack (yes i avoided it and people are strange until the very end of making the playlist, but one of the evils got me clearly— have always ADORED people are strange though). but. i guess you can make the case that the song is full of innuendos and some scenes, like the feeding scene, are lowkey horny sbsjhbshjsbs and YES it’s the aerosmith version instead of the run dmc one because. i prefer this one and it’s my silly little playlist <3

———

❥ the boys are back in town — thin lizzy

technically the boys never Left town but !!! *christopher walken voice* Boys !!! them cast ARE crazy and they’re ALWAYS dressed to kill, ready to spill some blood and pick a fight !!! yeah no it’s just a very fun song that i think really works to. represent their crazy lifestyle and infamy around town due to causing trouble !!! and you can almost say that in this scenario star is the girl who used to dance a lot and slapped the shit out of someone <3 just girlboss moments <3

———

❥ xanadu — rush

hehehe… this started as the. desire to add more rush to the playlist for my own amusement but the more times i listen to it, the more i’m like “!!! it actually fits”… like. xanadu here is meant to a sort of utopia that’s long searched for, partly BECAUSE of the promise of immortality which !!! the boys have (unless. harmed in one of the ways at the end of the movie) because of their vampirism. like even if we don’t know the exact reasons they got turned, they all still, mostly indirectly probably, sought out that same principle. And the dining on honeydew and drinking the milk of ‘paradise’ is similar to their thrill-seeking tendencies and general enjoyment of being unable to die, leaving them to enjoy their undead lives to the fullest. not to mention, in [b part 2] (as genius refers to it) there’s talk of many, many years passing and waiting for the world to end, which we know there’s been quite a few years in between the boys getting turned and the movie, as well as i’m sure they sit back and wait on Some apocalypse, if not just to watch the world burn. in writing this, i’ve ALSO realized how it can be considered very Michael; he didn’t exactly seek this life out but he found it and indulged, only to be that “mad immortal man” towards the end of the song

———

❥ runnin’ with the devil — van halen

i just van halen is neat sbjshbsjsh and would definitely be something the boys would actually listen to hsjbshjsb i don’t Necessarily think vampires are in any way tied to the devil but. here it’d be more like a metaphor of “taking a walk on the wild side” if you wanna call it that; also, they all truly live their lives like there’s no tomorrow (not that they have to worry about death until the very end), have stolen a lot of things just to get by (probably in life AND death), don’t bode well with the ‘simple’ life (likely including the idea of a nuclear family like max proposed) because of it’s lack of pleasures, and don’t exactly have any “love [that] you’d call real” unless you read into the subtext 

———

❥ hot blooded — foreigner

originally this was going to be another joke about the. lowkey horniness of the boys and the movie as a whole but i’ve realized in writing these explanations thus far and rereading the lyrics that it’s. it’s just michael-centric sbshjsbsh sam is “at the mercy of his sex glands” and so is the audience of both the movie and the song sbhsjbshsj like. michael finds himself attracted to star immediately and tries for two secret rendezvouses, with only one working, and. can be said that he also finds a fever running within him when he’s around david and the boys sbhjsbshjs i just 🙈

———

❥ renegade — styx

renegade is my favorite styx song so i just said “fuck it” and added it sbshjsbshj but !!! you can say that, again, the boys live their lives on the wild side and. probably commit enough crimes to warrant dozens of sentences, some that would lead to death row (like, ya know, the. manslaughter) but they manage to get away unscathed. And the law man serving as an allegory to all of the people, including the frogs and grandpa, that want them dead for being vampires, with the bounty to be rewarded being the ridding of their trouble from santa carla

———

❥ big shot — billy joel

mikey :o) … ok yeah he isn’t the. silver spoon in hand (nose) type but he’s LITERALLY the type to open his mouth and get himself deep in enough shit that a fight breaks out, potentially bloodied his eyes, nose, and/or fists. i don’t have much of an explanation outside of he is a himbo jock who pulled a “i didn’t know how to talk to my crush so i wrote a note telling them to get out of my school” except he said it with his fist instead of his mouth sbjshbshsj

———

❥ boys don’t cry — the cure

pretty sure this is one of the ones i stole off of shovel (@/iswearimavamp) sbshjbshjs but i do love this song in a general sense too. in regards to the movie, like. none of the guys. obsess over masculinity or anything— and both david AND michael cry at different points— so that’s not necessarily an issue. but, there *is* still a lot of hurt and stepping on toes in many of the relationships in the film that can be stretched to fit, i would think sbjhsbshjs

———

❥ highway to hell — ac/dc

this and back in black were some of the last two i put on here because i. wanted to make an ‘even’ 35 sbsjhsbshjs BUT, like with runnin’ with the devil, it’s about a devilish lack of care for one’s own life or the “status of their soul” and just doing what feels right or like the most fun, no matter if it lands them in hell or not. and !!! “my friends are gonna be there too” fits with the friendship within the boys’ found family and how they’ll all always be together, no matter what !!!

———

❥ back in black — ac/dc 

i can’t really think of an explanation that differs from highway to hell so just reread the above sbsjhsbsh

———

❥ witch hunt — rush

OK !!! this is the song i’m the MOST excited to explain !!! right off the bat, moving pictures as a whole is an IMMACULATE album, absolutely love it. right so !!! this song literally SOUNDS like it belongs on the movie soundtrack; it has the same overtones and sounds as cry little sister and it’s just !!! and with the title, a witch hunt is BASICALLY what sam + the frogs went on in search of the lose boys, relying on little else but hearsay and catching glimpses at what was happening to michael, “confident that their ways are best” and moving along like a mob of three to get to the bottom of it. “features distorted in the flickering light // faces are twisted and grotesque” is very reminiscent of the faces the lost boys pull when they’re about to attack, and “they say there are strangers who threaten us” is symbolic of them being outsiders/outcasts that make everyone uncomfortable, even if You aren’t going to be their next victim. “the righteous rise with burning eyes” AND “quick to judge, quick to anger // slow to understand // ignorance and prejudice // and fear walk hand in hand” can apply to any number of characters, particularly the mains who are all pitted against each other, the humans fighting for their lives and the vampires fighting for their Right to live, neither taking into consideration the other’s perspective. i just… ADORE this song…

———

❥ red barchetta — rush 

this one was mainly just because of the car that grandpa keeps in the barn and both sam and michael’s fascination with it sbhjsbsshj and just to get more rush on here shjsbshjsbsh

———

❥ maneater — hall & oates

one of the first songs to hit the playlist !!! because the boys eat people !!! they’re the lean and hungry type that only come out at night !!! they’ll be sitting with you but their eyes are on the door and if you want love from them, you won’t get very far !!! the beauty IS there but there are beasts inside that can rip your world apart !!! they’ll chew you up but also leave you begging for more :o)

———

❥ hungry like the wolf — duran duran

the second song to have gone on the playlist !!! the boys are always on the prowl for fresh meat (in both the food AND turning senses) and they come alive while on the hunt, blood no doubt rushing through their veins (assuming it still can) !!! and in the movie, michael is the one they’re after for the turning connotation, all wanting a taste of him for themselves !!!

———

❥ subdivisions — rush

this rush song actually went on before the others shbsjsbshj but !!! it still fits just as well (certainly better than red barchetta)… the movie all takes place on the fringes of the city, “in between the bright lights // and the far unlit unknown”, and while it’s not exactly in the suburbs, there’s still little comfort to soothe the restless dreams of youth. there IS a drawing like moths into the city, for both the emersons and the lost boys, which is what ends up bringing all of them together, although it starts are cruising for action just to feel the living night. and just !!! NOBODY fits in !!! if you take the movie title as them being Lost instead of an allusion to peter pan, then you get slapped with thinking about what actually makes them lost and how they don’t conform in any way, shape, or form to just about. anything. and !!! the emersons are new, which immediately puts them at a social disadvantage, but they Also don’t seem too terribly great at making new friends in general so !!! “nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone”!!! 

———

❥ abracadabra — steve miller band 

i just love this song for whatever reason. and i think the allusion to magic to very fitting for the hallucinations that david gives michael, putting a sort of magic spell on him if you want to look at it that way. not a lot of silk and satin going gone but plenty of leather and probably some lace in there somewhere ( ;o] ) … also michael DOES heat up like a burnin’ flame whenever his name is called and the situation with the boys just keeps going round and round with no exact end in sight, only the calling of desire 

———

❥ separate ways (worlds apart) — journey

you would think i would have more journey on here ??? because i love them ??? but instead i stole this off of shovel too ??? it’s fine. time to be back on the 95060 bullshit sbsjhbsjhs we all know david Really wants michael to join them but. michael is reluctant, so that hesitance sets them worlds apart from each other— as if they weren’t already— and there’s still love between them, or at least the bgeinning sparks of it, even if michael refuses to act on them and only keeps pushing david away 

———

❥ cum on feel the noize — quiet riot

just some boys loving to party <3 some boys with evil yet dirty minds, out of time singing, funny faces, and that have a lazy time <3 yeah no this is one they’d rock out to and someone would probably pull a muscle over because it’s just such a banger sbshjsbsjh

———

❥ rebel yell — billy idol 

Another stolen off of shovel sbjhsbsjhs also ever since it’s been pointed out to me that david looks like billy idol i’ve just been losing it a little sbhjsbshjs Anyway. they’d definitely idolize him to some degree, even if just for looks, and it certainly fits the way that they. most Definitely let out a rebel yell at the midnight hour if you know what i mean— *taken out by a sniper*

———

❥ every breath you take — the police

would to believe to know i took it from shovel (i swear the last three where i say that will be rock you like a hurricane, livin’ on a prayer, and cherry pie sbshjsbsh) BUT !!! the watching every move is yet another. david keeping watch over michael and uh yearning from afar moment, heart aching the longer he’s away and the longer he keeps up this game of not knowing what exactly he wants to do 

———

❥ handsome devil — the smiths

ok THIS one was lent to me by ej (@/maybe-strawberry-blue) sbshjbshjsbs and let me tell you. this song (especially when paired with this charming man) is Very homoerotic, aka perfect for this movie shbjsbshjsbs like what got me first was “let me get my hands // on your mammary glands” and just. thinking about trans parko sbhsjbshjs but also in general the. “and i would like to give you // what i think you’re asking for” and “a boy in the bush // is worth two in the hand” and just sbhjsbshjs Everything. fits the ambiguous homoeroticism. And i think the boys would listen to the smiths (will elaborate more in the other smiths song explanation)

———

❥ panama — van halen

i Told you all i think van halen is neat sbsjsshjb what can i say. the boys like fast moving vehicles, hard partying, and tender loving sbsjhsbhsj also forgot to mention that i think they’d all be :eyes: about pre-1985 david lee roth and i cannot blame

———

❥ rock you like hurricane — scorpions

third to last shovel snatch sbshjsbh Here you can replace any one of the boys with the animals mentioned, as they’re always hungry and need to feed… they come out scratching and ready to win, willing to rock anyone who gets in their way like a hurricane— including with lust, depending on the situation 

———

❥ livin’ on a prayer — bon jovi

i actually can’t even manage an explanation for this one either just because of the song’s plot and how greatly it differs the movie plot <3 however it will stay because shovel said one of the boys (i forget which) would listen to it and friendship is more powerful than my small brain <3

———

❥ the queen is dead — the smiths

rightttt so here’s the deal, buds and duds. something in my gut just tells me that david would pull a me and. listen to this entire album on repeat, particularly bigmouth strikes again and i know it’s over when in dramatics bshjsbsjh BUT to make a case for the title track itself, breaking into buckingham palce— or really any major building— with only a sponge and rusty wrench would ABSOLUTELY be an endeavor the boys would get up to And they’d all pale (worse than normal) about finding out they’re the descendant of some royal. “oh, has the world changed, or have i changed” and “life is very long, when you’re lonely” is quite fitting of their immortality, which i can only imagine would leave them questioning how the world has evolved and, although they have each other, i’m sure living forever still can get a Little lonely. And they’d certainly celebrate the death of a royal (because anarchy <3). mostly i’ve just been listening to this song on repeat for days sbhjsbshj but, i think it’s the most. generally related to all of the boys, whereas like. cemetry gates would be more solely 95060 

———

❥ need you tonight — inxs

my favorite inxs song… technically the 21st century Wasn’t yesterday when the movie came out nor when the song did sbhjsbshjs but there *is* a lot of sweating from desire and aiming to put that passion into use, very blatantly letting everyone know that sbjhsbshjs

———

❥ bad medicine — bon jovi

there’s just something so fun about this song… and while listening to it on the drive home, i was thinking about it from a 95060 perspective where. david’s a bit lovesick (hence the love like bad medicine) and the choir of voices in the bg, saying “that’s what you get for falling in love”, would be the other boys knowing he’s gotten himself in over his head over what was supposed to be a minor tease or a small fling (would be a real fun and poppy animatic i think)

———

❥ pour some sugar on me — def leppard

legitimately this started as a “haha what about my ‘what if the blood was kool-aid instead’ joke” and then i realized it was. a fair enough fit, especially with the feeding scene. except they’re actual vamps not just video vamps sbjhsbshjs anyway. sugar highs and red hot flames of passion for one another <3

———

❥ cherry pie — warrant

ok THIS is the last song i took from shovel and. my reasoning is pretty much the same as pour some sugar on me and. Friendship

———

❥ somebody told me — the killers

i wasn’t going to add any modern songs but. i thought it’d be funny if michael had had a girlfriend before leaving phoenix that looked a bit like david sbshjsbshj and then it only just added to angst sbhjsbshj

———

❥ you know what they do to guys like us in prison — mcr

i was reminded that vampires will never hurt you exists but. i went with my favorite mcr song instead because. vwnhy is more like ??? a vampire that fears themselves ??? so like. an edward cullen type ??? while ykwtdtgluip is more about the homoeroticism and community ??? i said what i said

———

❥ house of wolves — mcr

thank god this is the last song because i’m getting tired sbjshsjshb a little less homoeroticism, a little more general sinning and egotism <3

[beerecordings]

Umm is it possible to ask for different ipliers/septic egos accidently walking in on a Jim Jim religion meeting?

hahaha okay okay a goofy piece for a funny prompt. credit to the anon who suggested that the Jim twins would think JJ stood for Jim Jim, an idea which then progressed into us all joking about the twins starting a JJ-based religion (posts about it are tagged Jim Jim Jameson lol). so here’s a slightly crack fic but still a funny and sometimes cute look at the way the Jims interact with the others. a quick piece, slightly ridiculous hahaha <3

-------------

“Burgers? Who wants burgers and who wants hot dogs? Cheese? Who wants cheese? You know what, Derekson, just get me a list of everybody and what they want.”

“Wilford, sir, that’s not a spatula.”

“No? Then what is it, my dear boy?”

“Looks like somebody’s Wall-E DVD, Wil.”

Chase chokes on his soda and tries not to laugh aloud, though all he ends up doing is spitting Dr. Pepper out of his nose.

“Chase!” gripes Marvin, shoving his lawn chair away. “Gross!”

“He’s out of his fucking mind,” wheezes Chase, trying to keep it down.

“They all are,” hisses back Marvin, but he’s laughing too. Chase can see it in the shine in his eyes.

“Hey, shut up, man,” laughs Bing.

“You shut up,” shoots back Marvin.

“No, you.”

“You are two to one here, Bing-a-ling,” teases Chase, grinning.

“Aw, come off it,” chuckles the robot, sitting back. “Pass me a beer, will you?”

“You can’t drink liquids, Bing.”

“I like the aesthetic!”

“Wilford!” Edward is boxing Wilford away from the grill, trying to keep him from using Eric’s glasses as his second impromptu spatula. “I am grilling, you are absolutely one hundred percent banned from anything involving fire.”

“Now, see here, Bim,” growls Wilford.

“I’m Edward, Wilford. Google, tell Wilford he’s not allowed on the grill!”

On the other side of the space between the three houses, a head with shining black hair turns only slightly, and a smooth voice sounds.

“Wilford,” calls Google. “I have yet to see the darkness. Do you think he is in pain, stuck in his room?”

Wilford’s eyes flicker, distracted, even a little unnerved. He puffs himself up after a moment, dropping Eric’s glasses into the grass as if they were never in his hand to begin with. “What, my blackbird, stuck in his bedroom? I shall carry him if I have to. And we will sit on the grass and drink this cocaine soda everyone is always raving about!”

“For the last time,” groans Edward. “There’s no cocaine in Coca-Cola anymore!”

But Wilford is already hurrying off towards the house behind the peach trees, whistling to himself as he goes.

“Thank you, Google,” calls Ippy, sighing deeply, and across the yard the android raises a hand in silent acquiescence, his attention still on Jameson’s rapid signing. Something about American tea, as far as Chase can tell. He laughs and sits back against Bing’s legs, sprawling his own boots out in front of him and finishing his soda with a quiet sigh. There’s beer for his brothers but, like the residents of these three houses, he won’t have any. He’s supposed to be happy while they’re visiting this mess of a – would you call it a family? – and he won’t let old habits get in the way. He casts his eyes quietly around the yard, almost sleepy with the comforting laziness of the little vacation. Jackie is the center of Shep and Host’s attention, telling an enthusiastic story about a burning building that turned out to be a drug front he busted back in Brighton, Henrik is exchanging a birdie back and forth with Bim as they wait for Ippy and Eric to come back for doubles, and Marvin is right here, kicking Chase’s foot for fun while Google discusses Earl Grey in a monotone behind them.

“This is weird,” says Chase.

“Yeah,” says Bing.

“But not so much in a bad way,” adds Marvin, and they exchange grins over sodas and beers, warm in the sun and the scratchy California grass.

“Okay, I got everybody’s order, right?” calls Ippy, flipping a burger. “Host, you – oh, no, here you are. The twins, where are the twins? Hey, who knows what the twins want? Where are they?”

“I saw them going down into that little, uh, door?” says Chase, pointing at a pair of wooden doors sticking out of the earth by the third house.

“Oh, yeah, an old shelter,” sighs Ippy. “They hang out down there sometimes. I should get them, maybe, uh – ”

“Aw, no sweat, doc,” says Chase, clambering to his feet. “I’ll see what they want. You focus on getting the meat just right.”

“Thanks, Brody.”

Chase tweaks Marvin’s ear teasingly as he passes and steps towards the doors across the way, setting his feet and pulling them gently open. He steps down into the concrete basement and finds that it’s actually been decorated quite nicely for an underground bomb shelter – thick rugs are layered across the floor, leaving a little patch of space in the corner for a heater, and a pair of electric camping lanterns surround the twins where they’re sitting in the middle of the shelter, working on –

“Um,” says Chase. “Is that Jamie?”

Both twins let out shrieks of surprise and the first leans hurriedly down to blow out the candle of his lantern. It is, however, still electric. He groans in despair and flops down onto the rug, hiding the papers and pictures that litter the floor in his arms.

“Intruder!” wails the second, covering his eyes with his hands. “Jim’s fortress is breached!”

Chase is too distracted to reply by the pictures of his brother, which he now sees are not just littering the floor, but also covering the walls. Some of them are hand-drawn, hurried stick figures with mustaches and black hats, while others have been printed off from the internet, showing Jamie’s smiling face in sepia brown or grey and white.

“Uhhhhhh,” says Chase. “I, uh. What is this?”

“Nothing,” promise both twins, grabbing each other for support.

“Chase! Chase!” Feet patter down the stairs, bringing wild laughter with them, and Jackie and Shep appear with Jackie’s hands wrapped around the biggest toad Chase has ever seen, struggling in his hands. “Look at this fucking toad!”

“He just snatched it right off the ground,” howls Shep, who has always found anything Jackie did to be hilariously funny.

“I thought you’d appreciate more than Henrik, who slapped me for trying to make him pet it,” giggles Jackie, shoving it into Chase’s face. “He’s perfect and he – what the hell is all this?”

Shep and Jackie go just as quiet as Chase did, staring around the walls.

“Did you marker a mustache onto your puppy?” asks Shep, pointing at the stuffed animal in one of the Jims’ arms.

“Why does your computer have a livefeed of Jamie eating a hot dog?” asks Jackie a little more dangerously.

“Okay, fine, you have caught Jim!” cries the first one. “Jim is celebrating the great Jim Jim with knick-knacks and cute pictures.”

“His name – ” Shep pauses to sigh and smack his own forehead. “Boys. We have talked about some of these obsessions. The last thing you ‘celebrated’ was that three toed-sloth you saw on Planet Earth.”

“She was perfect!” howl both twins in sync. “Perfect, she was perfect! She just wanted a mate, Silver Jim, she just wanted a husband! She could swim, Silver Jim! She was a sloth with three toes!”

“Are they going to like, uh. Hurt and/or kidnap Jameson?” asks Jackie, touching Shep’s arm.

“What, the twins? No. They’re harmless. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, not on purpose. They once tied a string around one and then it died because they didn’t know how to feed it and they cried until Eric brought them popsicles, but that’s just the twins.”

Jackie steps politely over the babbling twins and carefully turns off the livefeed of Jamie.

“Jim likes JimJim!”

“Why is he leaving tomorrow?”

“Freedom of worship, Silver Jim! America!”

“Okay, okay,” cries Silver, waving his hands to quiet them. “Sh, boys, it’s okay, hey. Don’t fuss. Look, Jackie found a toad!”

The twins sniffle and turn their attention to the toad, instantly excited again.

“Oh! Like in Frog and Toad!”

“Like in Rango!”

“Like in the Princess and the Frog! But a toad! Can Jim have it, Mr. not-quite Jim Jim, please?”

Jackie shrugs and hands them the toad. “What are you going to call it?”

“Jameson!” cry both twins at once, happily petting the toad’s head as it croaks.

Jackie, Chase, and Shep exchange glances.

“Well, we’re heading out tomorrow,” says Chase.

“And I’m driving back to my apartment in the city,” adds Shep.

“Pretend we never saw this?” Jackie suggests.

“Yep,” answer Shep and Chase together, and the three of them turn and head right back up the stairs, passing a confused Ippy with two plates of hot dogs, who gives them one odd look and then continues down.

“Boys!” he hollers a moment later, and Chase, Jackie, and Silver all burst into laughter and hurry away, sitting down around Jameson, who wants to know what exactly is so funny?

“Nothing,” they all promise, ignoring Google’s eyeroll and Jamie’s indulgent smile. “Just another obsession of the Jims, haha.”

“Well, they go through three of those a week,” sighs Google. “Don’t get too excited. Whatever it is, they’ll be over it in a couple days.”

Perhaps that is usually true.

But not this time.

------------------

“Okay,” says Ippy, surveying the room besides the kitchen, blinking slowly. “This has officially gone too far.”

Host laughs rich and low, covering his mouth and leaning against the doorway, apparently endlessly amused by this newest interest of the cameramen’s. Eric giggles weakly, glancing around, but there’s a light of alarm in his eyes too, and it only makes Host laugh harder when he senses it, halfway collapsing against the doorway.

“Why is typewriter Jim laughing?” complains the second Jim, pasting another picture in a scrapbook labeled ‘the greatness of JimJim.’

“Is this a fucking cult?” asks Host. “I’ve seen worse but this one is certainly the cutest.”

“Jim is not cute!” protests the second Jim, while the first asks, “Oh, Jim, would you like to join Jim?”

“No, honey,” laughs Host, striding away. “I leave more patient men than I to deal with this.”

“Host,” grumbles Ippy, before sighing and turning his attention back to the Jims. “Boys, this isn’t a cult, right?”

“What’s a cult?” asks the second.

“Jim thinks the word doctor Jim is looking for is religion,” pipes up the first helpfully.

Edward turns around so he can swear without them hearing. Eric laughs again, relaxing the more he looks around and stepping over to sit down with the twins.

“Come on, Ippy. They’re just having fun.”

“Worshipping Jameson is not an appropriate way to have fun,” protests Edward.

“They’re scrap-booking.” Eric holds up the little book, which is, admittedly, rather well-made for a Jim project.

“And making a documentary!” exclaims Jim, holding his computer out to Eric, where iMovie is open to several very shaky shots of Jameson sitting on the couch or talking with the others or, on one screen, cooking omelets and turning occasionally to smile at the eagerly narrating twins.

“And making a documentary,” repeats Eric fondly, ruffling his hair. “It’s just arts and crafts.”

“There’s a poster of Jameson made out of sticky notes on the wall!”

“And look how good they did at putting the notes together!”

“Thank you, sweater Jim,” say both the twins politely, smiling.

“Eric, it’s creepy. They don’t need to learn to be obsessing over other people.”

“You let them stalk Mark for two months.”

“Oh, yeah, cause that was hilarious,” laughs Ippy, throwing his head back. “He was so confused. Fuck Mark!”

“Fuck Mark,” repeat the twins eagerly.

“No! Don’t swear, guys, I know you’ll start doing it at work if I let you do it at home,” sighs Ippy.

“Jim would never swear in front of the petting zoo animals!” cries the first Jim.

“And Jim would never swear while helping with the news!” adds the second, indignant.

“See how responsible they are! Ip, let them be. I’ll make sure it doesn’t get too creepy. Like, uh. The hairs in this scrapbook aren’t actually Jameson’s, are they?”

“Yes, from Jim Jim’s mustache,” answer both twins, beaming.

“Well, why don’t you let me have that,” suggests Eric, carefully unstapling the plastic bag with a few stray dark hairs at the bottom.

“You two will be the death of me,” says Ippy, shaking his head.

But they do look damn sweet when they’re smiling that big.

“Okay, but no filming Jameson when he’s not looking anymore.”

“Okay, doctor Jim,” promise the twins.

“Jim will do it when Jim Jim and doctor Jim are both not looking,” whispers the second.

“They’ll never suspect it,” agrees the first in a hush. Eric laughs, tidying their scrapbook materials a little.

“You could even learn BSL like Jamie, maybe,” he suggests.

The twins light up like fireworks.

“BSL!” repeats the first one, clapping his hands together.

“JIM CAN SPEAK AS THE GREAT JIM SPEAKS,” screams the second at the top of his lungs, and this is enough to startle Bing, who was about to ride his skateboard down the stairs. He yelps in alarm as his board slips beneath him, and a moment later he comes crashing hard down the stairs and lands in a heap of sparking parts at Ippy’s feet.

“The death of me!” repeats the doctor furiously, waving his finger around accusingly. “All of you! This whole house! This whole clearing! I’ll die at thirty-four! You’ll have to bury me! Have fun with my funeral expenses, you complete bastards.”

“Bastards!” repeat the twins.

“Look bastards up in BSL!”

“Look Jim up in BSL!”

“Look everything up in BSL!”

Ippy has the distinct feeling he’s being made fun of, just a little, but even Bing is laughing, and all he can do is try not to smile as he heads back out the door.

-----------------

“Can’t you move a body a little more quietly?”

Wilford hauls the heavy tarp across the pathway and grunts, flicking a little blood off his fingers. “Well, you could help!”

“Why would I do that when I have you to do it for me?” purrs back Dark, following him down the pathway towards the car.

“You just like to feel like you’re manipulating something,” scolds Wilford, pausing just to boop Dark’s nose. In protest, Dark vanishes back into the void and leaves Wilford with nothing but a sulking shadow drifting around his feet.

“And now you’re a smoke kitty,” coos Wilford, dragging the body farther down the path.

“Just hurry,” says Dark, re-appearing in a masculine form this time. “You know I prefer for the twins to stay sheltered and I don’t want them catching us again.”

“Catching what?” asks Jim, standing in the trees with his camera.

Wilford swears colorfully and Dark dissipates back into shadow on instinct, spitting out curses of his own.

“Now, see here, Iplier,” says Wilford. “It’s quite rude to be sneaking up on a fellow.”

“That’s Jim, Wil.”

“Oh. What in the name of Burt Reynolds are you two doing out here so late at night?”

“Oh! We’re filming for a documentary for Jim Jim.”

“They mean Jameson,” Dark tells Wil.

“Who’s Jameson?” whispers Wilford.

Dark sighs very deeply.

“He is the great Jim!” cries the second Jim, rising from the bushes like a Peanuts character on Halloween.

“The great Jim,” repeats the first Jim solemnly.

“He’s that little old-fashioned…” Dark waves his hand, trying to find the right word. “Jackson. You’ve met him.”

“Oh, I know who you mean. The British chap with the truly excellent mustache. But he’s not even out here, what are you filming?”

“Well, he is not here. But Jim has heard is very fond of hedgehogs. So Jim is trying to find some!”

“Are there hedgehogs in America?” whispers Wilford.

“Fuck if I know,” answers Dark irritably.

“Would you like to join Jim in the search for hedgehogs and ultimately the eternal worship of the great Jim Jim?”

“Don’t look so hopeful, you little miscreant, you know I avoid engaging with you at all costs,” growls Dark, but the twins just giggle.

“They used to be afraid of you,” teases Wilford.

“Shut up,” snipes Dark. “I could make them afraid in about two seconds.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“But you won’t.”

“The real question,” interrupts one of them – Dark can’t tell them apart. “Is what are Dark and pink Jim doing out in the forest late at night? Jim is a very good reporter, you know. Jim uncovers mysteriousnesses.”

“I think you mean mysteries,” says Dark. “And we’re, uh.”

Wil and Dark glance at the body in between them.

“Returning a lamp to the store,” finishes Wil.

Dark closes his eyes. His exasperation has set in so deep he can feel it in his broken spine. He’s going to kill Wilford. But then again, he thinks that about three times a day and never seems to make good on his threat.

“A lamp,” says Jim.

“A lamp,” repeats his brother.

They stare down at the wrapped corpse.

“That checks out,” says the first.

“Jim is an investigative journalist so Jim can tell,” agrees the second.

“Just get out of my sight,” snaps Dark, advancing on them with shadow cloaking his set shoulders, and the twins shriek in equal parts fear and excitement and go darting back into the underbrush.

“You’re it, Mr. Dark!”

“Run, Jim! Run!”

Dark crosses his arms over his chest and turns to glare at Wilford.

“I could scare them if I wanted to.”

Wilford just smiles and picks up the body again, pausing only to give Dark a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I know you could, little ghost. Hey, should we be worried they appear to be worshipping Jacksepticeye?”

“Should I be concerned you told me you worshipped the Pillsbury dough boy while you were drunk last week?”

“Oh, no, the body is slipping! Let me just – ” He picks it up and slings it over his shoulder, sprinting towards the car and away from any further questions. Dark rolls his eyes and drifts back into the shadows, following peaceably after him.

---------------------

Google blinks awake to a pair of eyes staring back at him.

Check that. Two pairs of eyes.

“Boys,” he says levelly. “I’m charging. This had better be an emergency.”

Jim and Jim exchange looks.

Carefully, they push a crumpled pamphlet with Jameson’s face drawn on it in crayon beneath his nose.

“Join our religion?”

Google gets out of bed in one swooping motion, drags them both out of the house, and, ignoring the shrill cries of “why, cruel computer Jim?” and “persecution! Persecution! Persecution!” dumps them both bodily into the lake.

---------------------

Everybody gets to hear about it at one point or another. The Jims’ amicability for JJ, taken a little too far, is occasionally annoying, but nevertheless remains largely harmless. In the name of the great JJ, they pick up more than one of his hobbies – taking care of injured animals, painting with watercolors, dressing in black and white – and develop rudimentary BSL that actually turns out to be really helpful on the days when the twins are distressed and won’t talk out loud. Most of them learn to tolerate it with amusement, though Host never stops thinking it’s one of the funniest things they’ve ever done and Google makes sure they learn the consequences of being too irritating. Bing and Eric bring them craft supplies and trinkets from the store that remind them of JJ, while Ippy entices them to eat their vegetables and sit still through examinations with made-up stories about how tough and healthy Jameson is. On Christmas Eve, as a reward for being good all year, Ippy asks Jameson to Skype with them for a little while, and he’d never seen the twins so excited and yet so well-mannered at the same time, even managing to use first-person pronouns for themselves once or twice, eager to impress JJ.

“Good signing,” he congratulates them, looking soft and snuggly in the Christmas Eve pajamas he and his brothers all exchanged for the night.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” sign the twins eagerly, and Ippy chuckles, blowing on their hot chocolate to cool it before he brings it to them.

“You must have been dedicated,” says Jameson, and when they don’t understand, he substitutes the word “good.”

“Good!” chirps Jim, clapping his hands together. “Good! We have! We have!”

“You will tell Santa to bring us gifts, then?” asks his brother eagerly. Ippy smiles and takes a sip of the chocolate, checking the temperature carefully.

JJ laughs. “How will I tell him? Did you write letters?”

“Yes, we did. But I bet he will believe it if Jim Jim puts in a good word for us!”

“That’s sweet,” chuckles JJ, keeping his hands slow. “But I think he will listen to you too! I’m just little old me.”

“Yeah,” says Jim cheerfully. “God.”

Ippy spits the hot chocolate out and races over to slam shut the computer before he can see Jameson’s reaction.

“Boys!” he hollers. “Too far!”

Iplier hears a thud as, up the stairs and narrating this story to himself, Host laughs so hard he tumbles right out of his bed.

[ahnsael]

I’m just gonna come out and say it. Biden is my guy. Even as a Bernie supporter (and county delegate four years ago; when I saw our county Democrats skew the results for Hillary and they blew me off when I called them out on it and actually left the party and I am officially unaffiliated now).

I know that “Biden is my guy” is not a popular opinion. Nor is it an educated one (to the extent that I know what I’m getting with Bernie, and I’m good with that if that’s where we end up), but...what changed between 5 years ago and now, between when we were sharing Biden memes about what a good person he was, vs now?

But if we don’t have Joe “Buying Everybody Ice Cream” Biden, I’ll GLADLY accept Elizabeth Warren. Or Bernie (though he would be as divisive as Trump but from the other end), so in our current climate I don’t think he’s a good idea even though I like him a lot). We all loved Biden as VP. What changed? Yes, he has issues...but he had those issues when tumblr was worshiping him. He had had those issues for a long time before those Obama/Biden memes were a thing.

If you’re holding out for a “perfect” candidate, good luck. Enjoy a lifetime of disappointment.

Whoever wins the Dem nod, I have to vote for them in November (unless it’s Bloomberg, in which case I will still vote in all other races but either leave the Presidential vote blank or write in Big Bird from Sesame Street because he would do a better job then either). The main goal is to get Trump out, but if it’s down to substituting him for another Trump...what’s the difference?

YOU ARE FREE TO REPLY TO THIS POST. Politics is about discussion and compromise (I wish politicians would remember this once in a while). I WANT to read your opinion. I may or may not respond depending my my schedule (and, let’s be honest, depending on my mood), but I DO want your input on this.

I have friends who say “vote your conscience” despite my conscience saying that if I vote for a third-party candidate, I help the worst person win. I mean, I voted Hillary in 2016 because, despite being a Bernie delegate in my county convention, and seeing how INCREDIBLY biased the leadership was towards her, she WAS NOT DONALD TRUMP so I voted my conscience in November and went with Hillary. Sure, I could have voted Vermin Supreme, but...what would that accomplish? I voted my conscience as in “I cast my vote for the greater viable good, and to try to prevent the greater catastrophe that is Donald Trump.”

So I mean, I get those who vote third party or write in Kermit the Frog or whatever (Kermit would actually probably be a pretty good President, if Jim Henson was still around to be the Vice President). But I would rather, under our current system, vote for the “lesser of two evils” than to vote for someone who cannot win. The system sucks, but as long as it’s in place we have no choice but to deal with the electoral collage.

Your conscience may say “I have to vote for the person whose beliefs most exactly align with mine” but my conscience says “it’s politics, NONE of their beliefs align exactly with mine, politics is all about compromise, so let’s go with the viable candidate whose beliefs are closest to mine, even if they don’t line up exactly, and who can make favorable compromises happen.”

Holding out for all or nothing is the SUREST way to lose.

[wubadubwrites]

Jim the Frog Official Post no. 3

the bucket may say property of stanley but it's jim's bucket now. he is feeling reassured

[sublime-samantha]

Just a Day in the Office

a/n: I know that i have been dead for the past million trillion years. My first ever fic was overwhelming liked by the Hamilton fandom community. but this is not a Hamilton based pic. this is a fic about  the office… the only blog, that i know of, that does The Office based fics is @theofficeimagines  Anywho,, i hope you enjoy it, whether you follow me or you dont: i hope you enjoy

Pairing: Jim Halpert (The Office U.S) x reader

Prompt(s): “Is that what your parents tell you?” “No, they usually tell me I’m a mistake.” AND “Have you considered space?”

Warning(s): I just typed this up and posted it, no joke, so grammar or spelling errors, unedited 

 a/n 2.0: Y’ALL I LOVE JIM AND PAM TOGETHER WITH AWLL MY HEART, THEY ARE JUST THE CUTES, I WANT ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS EVER TO BE LIKE THEIRS, BUT Y’ALL, JOHN KRASINSKI IS CUTE AS HELL, Y’ALL so imma write the anyway. Oh, ps, the lowercase is toat’s intentional

Background info: if ya care to read dis: You are a salesperson at Dunder Mifflin and sit where the big post is by Stanley and Phyllis.

worlds: about 1,283 - pretty short

it was 8:56 am. four minutes till work officially starts. you and Jim decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. you tell yourself its to change it up a bit, get a bit of exercise, but who are you kidding? you just took the stairs to more time to talk to each other before you have to go sell paper and printers for the next several hours. 

you giggle and smile shyly up at Jim as he opens the office door for you, he smiles at the back of your head and tells you with a chuckle, “okay, yeah, laugh it up sweetheart. i’m not the only one to ever trip while going up the stairs. in fact didn’t you so the exact same thing on halloween?”

you gasped, “Jimmothy, i thought we agreed to never speak of that, besides that you your fault, you were so eager to get in my pants that you wouldn’t let my go for like 30 seconds so i could walk up the stairs.”

Jim hummed,”whatever makes you sleep at night.”

you smiled at Erin as you passed her at the reception desk.

“hey girly.” you smiled and winked at your friend and co-worker Pam as you passed her while walking Jim to his desk. 

“Hey (y/n/n)” Jim responded. Pam glanced at Jim and then you with a half smile.

“woah, Pam, your voice… do like some water or something?” you asked looking at her with a smile.

she hid a laugh and fake cleared her throat, “no i think it was just a frog in my throat.” her phone rang and she smiled at you with that twinkle in her eye and picked up her phone.

you took that as an opportunity to lean down and press a kiss to Jim’s forehead, which was now accessible with him being seated in his swivel chair.

“oh, by the way, remember when you broke our blood oath-”

“-there was no blood, but go on”

“our oath that neither of us would bring up my tripping up the stairs incident, i’m going to steal all of your biggest clients.”

“oh really, cause of i remember correctly, i am better than you,” Jim teased back with a smirk. doing that short pause between each word Jim type of way.

“is that what your parents tell you?”

“nah, they usually tell me i’m a mistake.”

“your patents tell you that too? good cause mine say the same thing about you.

“anywho, imma go back to my desk, but not before i ask my main man Dwight K. Schrute how his weekend was!” you said and put your hand on Dwight’s shoulder, that he immediately shook off.

“(y/n) i do not need to be bothered by unnecessary questions about my free time, that is my business and my business alone. besides, i have bigger things to deal with.” ah, you could just hear Michael say, ‘that’s what she said’..

“and what’s that Dwight?” Jim asked shifting his gaze from you to the beet farmer in question.

“i have a man who wants to buy beets from my beet farm, not that you need to know that”

you and Jim smiled at each other, though your’s was slightly bashful- it always amazes you how Jim can make you so shy and melt into a puddle of goo with just one look, even after years of being together.

you walked to your desk deciding it was time to get started on your work.

11:45, your first out of two breaks, this one and lunch at 1:00. 

you picked up your mug and and went to the break room get another up of coffee.

“Drink anymore of that and you’ll be up all night, causing me to be up all night because when you can’t sleep all you talk about how proud of your sister you are, i get it, your proud that she’s married and had a kid, but i don’t need to hear that at 3:20 in the morning,” Jim said as he walked in, sat his empty mug by the coffee maker, and leant against the counter beside you with his arms crossed.

“okay mister, that was only a couple of times, and i am proud of her, it’s like she’s a little adult.”

“’little adult’?”

“Yes, she is only 21 and she has a husband and a kid, but only 21, so little.”

“M’kay, whatever you say. now hurry up, you take centuries to make your coffee.” 

unbeknownst to you, Jim looked around making sure no one was around and jogged to close the blinds to the main work area. he strolled back to you and wrapped his arms around your waist and nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck and let out a puff of air.

although this was overwhelmingly adorable, it was out of character of Jim at the work place.

“have you considered space?” you teased

Jim let out a small puff of air out of his nose as a laugh / response to your teasing, “actually, i don’t think i have, do you think there’s a dictionary somewhere i could look up that definition?”

“yeah, actually, i bet Oscar has one you could use, it would be under the ‘s’ as in space.” you turned your head slightly to put your nose is his hair to hide your smile.

“i suppose we should get back to work..” Jim trailed off.

you sighed, all you wanted to do was be at your house and cuddled up in bed and maybe have some hot chocolate with Jim, perhaps watch some “Parks and Recreation” but that will just have to wait for several more hours.

he slowly unwound his arms from around your waist, you turned to him and grabbed his mug filling it with the fresh coffee and then your mug. you both walked back to your desks, Jim kissing the top of your head head once you had sat down on your chair. 

ahh, 5:00, quittin’ time, second best time of the day. everyone around you started packing up, you grabbed your purse and started putting the small pile of paperwork you had to finish tonight.

you stood up and walked over to Jim, he was putting on his coat and grabbing his brief case, he pushed in his chair and held out his hand for you to grab.

“so how was the rest of your wok day?”

“well, i got Dwight annoyed to the point he went to Michael to complain about me again then Michael told him to go to Toby, who wouldn’t let him file a complaint, then he came back just made of rage… so i’d say it was a successful day.”

you smiled, “well, lets get goin’, bye, Michael!”

“bye bye, catch ya tomorrow, Jim, (y/n)”

you rode down in the elevator and walked out into the parking lot and to your car.

“okay, so who’s gonna be driving back home?” Jim asked.

“rock, paper, scissors?”

“okie dokie, let’s go,” 

“rock, paper, scissors, shoot.” 

“damn, i didn’t wanna drive,” you said while slumping your shoulders

“ahh, too bad, maybe you should practice your skills, cause clearly, as stated before, perhaps i’m better than you, just perhaps.”

you both got in the car and you put the car in the ignition and backed out and started the drive back to your house.

you parked the car out in the drive way.

you both walked hand-in-hand up to the front door. as you got in the house you took off your coats.

“so what do you wanna do you want to do for dinner?” you asked/

“pizza?” 

“sounds like a plan.”

[michiopa]

Persepolis Rising thoughts WITH HELLA SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK 

OKAY HERE WE GO

ROCI CREW THOUGHTS

i wish so much that naomi and holden could have actually retired and been happy, if anyone deserves it it’s those two

Captain Bobbie Draper is everything i didn’t realize i wanted until holden was talking about it. I’m really gald she did get a ship in the end, even if it wasn’t the Roci

Amos’ singular chapter was so good, one of my faves tbh. The fight with him and bobbie was good and the fact that she WINS was perfect.

I cannot WAIT to see how his dynamic with Bobbie evolves, the fact that she will actually make him deal with his shit where no one else ever really has is just perfect

I do wish the writers would spend more time with alex and his emotions. i did like how they acknowledged that he held the crew together in a way

alright it’s gotta be talked about

Clarissa

i saw her death coming but that didn’t make it hurt less. I wish she would have died, not better because her death had the weight an impact it should have, but i wish amos could have been with her, that more of her family could have been with her.

speaking of clarissa and amos holy SHIT i wasn’t expecting their relationship to be exactly what i wanted but it happened

the fact that of all the crew it was naomi, the one clarissa nearly killed, that was with her when she died fucking BROKE me

Other characters

the fact that chrisjen is still alive and kicking was very important and such a nice surprise. I really want her to live through the series if only out of spite

i loved all the brief mentions of past characters, it was nice getting confirmations that they are okay

WHERE IS FILIP NAGATA. WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM

It’s been so long since i read CB that i don’t remember a lot of the protomolecule stuff but BOI. duarte might be the WORST but he needs to stop fucking around with this stuff. I genuinely wonder if we’re going to see the beings that killed the creators of the protomolecule

Structural stuff 

not going to lie reading this book felt like watching a disaster in slow motion, and that’s not a knock on the writing. it was that feeling of helplessness, knowing everything is going to go wrong but not being able to look away. i’ve never really had a book make me feel like that before

this one was absolutely a step up in quality again, not that i didn’t like BA but it was weak and PR imo was much better (still not the strongest book but that’s just because it was setting up the final arc of the series)

I made a post about it earlier but god acting like duarte’s theory about ideaolgically conquering a place would mean more stability is like, THE most obvious thing to any first year poli sci student. literally was a question on my intro politics class test in college. OF COURSE soft power is more effective if it can be pulled off, it doesn’t take a political genius to see that. it’s like boiling a frog, it won’t jump out if it doesn’t realize it’s dying.

THE QUOTES I LOVED

There were kids old enough to vote now who’d never known what it meant to have only one sun. She didn’t know what Earth or Mars or Sol would be to them.

I need a POV from a kid like this. Singh was one thing, but he still remembered Sol. 

The vast alien intelligence that had engineered the ring gates and the massive ruins in the systems beyond them had found ways to manipulate distance , but the speed of light was the speed of light , and seemed like it always would be .

one of those, idk it’s just neat quotes. 

Anytime a few like - minded people could put together the resources for a colony and the fees for passage through the ring gates , the seeds of a new society could be sown out there among the stars .

i just love this one too, so hopeful BEFORE EVERYTHING GOES TO SHIT

In Holden’s experience , humanity’s drive out into the universe was maybe one part hunger for adventure and exploration to two parts just wanting to get the hell away from each other .

#mood

Alex , the best friend she’d ever had , and the person she’d realized recently she had every intention of growing old with , in spite of never having seen him naked.

this was honestly so important to me? like it’s clear they love each other but not really in a romantic way and as someone who is somewhere on the aro spectrum this meant so much.

The images from the seedpods could be the encrypted records of the fallen civilization that had built miracles they were still only beginning to understand . Or they could be the spores of whatever had killed them . Or they could be lava lamps . Who fucking knew ?

drummer’s humor is so on point i love it

In the dream , she knew all of that . But what she felt was relief . Saba was dead , and so he was safe now . Nothing bad could happen to him anymore . She couldn’t fail him or abandon him or feel the weight of his disappointment.

this CRUSHED ME 

In his opinion , faith was generally for people who were bad at math .

Singh’s one (1) funny line

“ There has to be a way to come to a final decision . ” 

“ No , there doesn’t . Every time someone starts talking about final anythings in politics , that means the atrocities are warming up . Humanity has done amazing things by just muddling through , arguing and complaining and fighting and negotiating . It’s messy and undignified , but it’s when we’re at our best , because everyone gets to have a voice in it . Even if everyone else is trying to shout it down . Whenever there’s just one voice that matters , something terrible comes out of it . ”

god this was one of the most impactful lines in the book. but then, that’s just jim holden. i love him

If she died here , would Saba see it ? Would the official Laconian newsfeeds be how they said goodbye ?

i nearly cried at this. drummer and her love for saba was so good, reminded me a lot of chrisjen and her husband tbh

It was always strange to remember that she knew things that other people didn’t . Not just about power - and signal - routing protocols . What it was like to murder someone who’d only ever been kind to you . How it felt when the people you’d dedicated your life to killing took you in as family . Even though she knew better , she always defaulted to the idea that her life wasn’t singular . That whatever she’d done must not have been that odd , because after all , she’d done it .

so this is where i started crying and pretty much just didn’t stop for the rest of the book. clarissa means so much to me

Some sins carried their own punishment . Sometimes redemption meant carrying the past with you forever . She’d gotten used to that over the years , but it was still pretty fucking inconvenient .

This is tied with holden’s thing for the best line in the book, so good

“ It’s the reward of old age , ” Avasarala said . “ You live long enough , and you can watch everything you worked for become irrelevant . ”

just a g8 chrisjen line

[cksmart-world]

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

March 10, 2020

WHY ELIZABETH WARREN LOST

Everyone knows by now our system doesn't necessarily select the most qualified candidate: Exhibit #1 — Donald Trump. So, our political analysts here at Smart Bomb did some numbers and crunched some exit polling snacks after Elizabeth Warren pulled out: Among the things they found was that Warren's sweaters cost her big among among young male voters who said she reminded them of granny. This group said they weren't against a woman president but wanted someone who looked more like Melania. Our analysts also noted that Warren's strongest support came from men and women with Ph.D.s in economics and astrophysics. They liked that Warren had a plan for everything from maternity leave to nuclear submarines. Unfortunately, this group is smaller than the American Bowling Association. Another weak spot for the senator was middle-aged plumbers, who wanted a strong male who would go off half-cocked when provoked. Although Warren outlined a progressive agenda, a large number of men and women in their late 20s and early 30s favored Bernie Sanders because he was grouchier and yelled louder. But in the end, it was suburban housewives who abandoned Warren because she was weak on shoulder rubs and hair touching. They're voting for Biden.

WILBUR ROSS: VIRUS WILL BOOST JOBS

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the Coronavirus pandemic is yet another opportunity to put America First and make some quick bucks. “The fact is, it does give business yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain,” Ross said on Fox News For Real Americans. “So I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America.” (We are not making this up.) The Coronavirus, is still quite mysterious. If and when it goes away, it may not really go away, according to some epidemiologists. Like influenza (flu), it could come back every fall. Already, entrepreneurial televangelist Jim Bakker is hawking a snake oil cure called the “Silver Solution,” developed by naturopathic doctor Sherri Sellman. It could (or could not) kill the virus in 12 hours. And in Australia, the Darwin-based NT News is doing its part to make up for the panic run on toilet paper by printing extra pages. “Run out of loo paper? The NT News cares,” the front page reads. “That’s why we’ve printed an eight-page special lift-out inside, complete with handy cut lines, for you to use in an emergency.” It's too early to tell whether the virus will benefit free trade. Maybe Trump could slap a tariff on the virus, because if we're gonna die, we should at least make a buck off it.

BLACK WATER KEEPS ON ROLLIN'

Remember that Erik Prince dude, who founded the mercenary outfit Black Water that killed civilians in Iraq. Well that dude — who happens to be Education Secretary Nancy DeVos' brother — never went away. Nope, he just changed the name of his private security firm to Academi, because this Dark Prince didn't want to miss out on the big bucks from the DOD. And after all, who is the Army going to send on illegal black-ops, while retaining deniability. (Dead civilians? We didn't kill no dead civilians.) Well, good ol' Erik has now branched out and hired former British and American spies to infiltrate Democratic congressional campaigns and groups that happen to be on Donald Trump's shit list. These undercover ops are in concert with Project Veritas, the right-wing cabal set up to embarrass mainstream media, Democrats and liberals. Typically, Project Veritas sets up undercover "stings" using false cover stories and covert video in an effort to expose “media bias.” (No surprise, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh aren't on their hit list.) Of course, Trump knows nothing about it. In fact, he barley knows who Erik Prince is. He might have met him once, but, you know, he meets so many people.

IN & OUT AT BYU

LGBT students at Brigham Young University don't know if they're coming or going. Last month, in something of Richter 7 earthquake, the Mormon school updated its “Honor Code” to allow “homosexual behavior.” Like a parting of the waters, LGBT BYU students celebrated: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last.” But then a strange storm swirled in and it rained frogs: The Tower of Power announced the revision did not mean “homosexual behavior” was copasetic, after all. According to BYU officials there was a miscommunication. “Even though we have removed the more prescriptive language, the principles of the Honor Code remain the same.” Well, that clears things up. It's kinda like a bad April Fools prank — just kidding, kids, back in the closet. But then, there was this from the LDS Church-owned Deseret News: “For the first time, BYU will allow same-sex partners to compete in a national dance competition the university is hosting this spring.” Confused? You're not alone. It couldn't be that BYU bigwigs pulled the old Itchy-Switchy on the International Dance Council in order to qualify for the big event, could it? Nah, they would never do something so cynical — would they?

Post Script — Well, holy shit, as they say on Wall Street. Whatever you do, don't look at your IRA or 401-K, you could lose all hope and start thinking your retirement will be spent in a sleeping bag under the viaduct. But as we learned from the Great Recession of 2008, just wait 10 years and things will get back to where they were. OK, almost where they were, unless you're rich, then you'll make a killing. Word from the White House is that things are going very, very,very, well. That means we're going to hell on The Princess of the Seas. The more “verys” Trump uses equates to exactly the opposite — as in, very, very, very, screwed up. Just be glad you're not on a cruise ship or in jail — there's not a lot of difference when it comes to Coronavirus, although inmates don't have balconies. Of course there is some good news: now Trump and leading Republicans admit that Coronavirus is a real thing. Since the outbreak in China last month, it's been a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and Fake News. This is what happens when one of the talking points of the political right go south. They just don't talk about it, like it never existed. Of course, global warming is still a hoax. But someday when the Atlantic laps up on Mar-a-Lago, it will be like Trump and Hannity had warned us all along that Democrats were creating a crisis. But as George W. Bush once said after winning the South Carolina primary thanks to a rumor spread by his campaign that John McCain had fathered a child with a black woman, “It's just politics, John.”

Well, Wilson, with the apocalypse looming and Trump at the helm, what have you and the band got to ready us for the coming shit storm:

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it / I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it / I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin' / I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' / I saw a white ladder all covered with water / I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken / I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children / And it's a hard, it's a hard / It's a hard, and it's a hard / It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall...

[rjzimmerman]

Connection between a Mark Twain story and the “recovery” of a frog species?

This is a long post, because it tells a complicated, and fun, story.

Mark Twain’ wrote the short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in 1865. Here’s the plot:

The narrator is sent by a friend to interview an old man, Simon Wheeler, who might know the location of an old acquaintance named Leonidas W. Smiley. Finding Simon at an old mining camp, the narrator asks him if he knows anything about Leonidas; Simon appears not to, and instead tells a story about Jim Smiley, a man who had visited the camp years earlier. Jim loves to gamble and will offer to bet on anything and everything, from horse races to dogfights to the health of the local parson's wife. He catches a frog, whom he names Dan'l Webster and trains to jump over the course of three months. When a stranger visits the camp, Jim shows off Dan'l and offers to bet $40 that he can out-jump any other frog in Calaveras County. The stranger, unimpressed, says that he would take the bet if he had a frog, and Jim goes out to catch one, leaving him alone with Dan'l. While Jim is away, the stranger pours lead shot down Dan'l's throat. Once Jim returns, he and the stranger set the frogs down and let them loose. The stranger's frog jumps away while Dan'l does not budge, and the surprised and disgusted Jim pays the $40 wager. After the stranger has departed, Jim notices Dan'l's sluggishness and picks the frog up, finding it to be much heavier than he remembers. When Dan'l belches out a double handful of lead shot, Jim realizes that he has been cheated and chases after the stranger, but never catches him.

Dan’l Webster the frog was a California red-legged frog. The frog is now considered threatened under the Endangered Species act. The first photo above is the red-legged frog. The photo below tells us why it has the name: the bottom part of its legs are red.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times (link), the frog practically disappeared from the Santa Monica Mountains nearly 100 years ago. But, National Park Service rangers and scientists who surveyed the creeks in the Mountains on March 14 found nine egg masses belonging to the California red-legged frog, meaning the frogs are breeding. Here is one of the egg masses they found:

The rest of the story about the egg masses in the Santa Monica Mountains:

The egg masses were likely laid by newly matured frogs that were part of the first class of eggs the Park Service introduced into the wild in 2014. That year, scientists took about 350 eggs from the only known population of red-legged frogs in the mountains, a small group located in the Simi Hills, to the north, and put them in a protective pen in a stream where they eventually hatched and were released. The egg masses found last week are the first sign the population is sustaining itself without human assistance, [NPS ecologist Katy Delaney] said. “I don’t think it’s too much to stay that this could be the start of a comeback. This would’ve never happened naturally,” Delaney said, before joking, “They would’ve never gotten across the freeway the way we drive them.”

The red-legged frog is the only species missing from the park’s ecosystem and because the species is so sensitive to its environment, experts view it as an indicator of the ecosystem’s overall health, officials said. When the surveyors revealed their discovery to Delaney, “there was a lot of shouting, whooping and high-fiving,” she said. “I’m really happy for every single milestone, but this is sort of the one we’ve been looking for.”

One more piece of weirdness, but involving the frog. You know one of my hangouts in the desert, where I do a lot of volunteer work, is in the Whitewater Preserve, just north of Palm Springs. The place used to be a trout farm. When it became a Preserve, the Wildlands Conservancy decided to retain the trout ponds, stocking the ponds with rainbow trout as the previous owners had done. One of my photos of one of the ponds:

All the trout have recently died, snatched as snacks by bears and bobcats or swept into nets by humans who raid the ponds after closing hours to steal the fish for dinner. Because the fish were gone, the rangers decided to proceed with their long-planned effort to drain the ponds and repair them, then refill them and restock them with new baby trout. But something happened. They found a California red-legged frog in one of the ponds as it was draining. They called in biologists, who took the frog’s DNA to learn its history, and try to guess how it got there. But, because the frog is considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the rangers can’t proceed with restocking until they figure out what’s next, because the trout eat the eggs and the tadpoles.

Species recovery sometimes happens in strange ways and is discovered serendipitously.

[timesnowpost]

Disney changing Splash Mountain, ride tied to Jim Crow film

Revamp reflects ‘diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year’ Amid calls to change the Splash Mountain over its ties to Song of the South, a 1946 movie which many view as racist, Disney officials said Thursday it was recasting the theme park ride to reflect The Princess and the Frog, […]

The post Disney changing Splash Mountain, ride tied to Jim Crow film appeared first on Times Now Post.

source https://www.timesnowpost.com/disney-changing-splash-mountain-ride-tied-to-jim-crow-film/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=disney-changing-splash-mountain-ride-tied-to-jim-crow-film

[untoadoption]

Green Gables Literary Tour

New Post has been published on https://untoadoption.org/green-gables-literary-tour/

Green Gables Literary Tour

We’ve just returned home from a glorious vacation– a pilgrimage back to my mother’s homeland, Prince Edward Island, for a sentimental sabbatical and literary field-trip to cap off our homeschool year.

For a week in Green Gables I’m going to do absolutely nothing but run free in a green world of summer. (Anne of Windy Poplars)

This year we read aloud together several volumes of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s classic Anne series. Bringing those tomes to life with in-person encounters was an incredible treat.

preparatory vacay pedi: green for the Cuthbert gables & pink for Marilla’s mother’s scotch roses

packed for the drive, toting a library book right out of the country

we read Anne’s House of Dreams in it’s entirety on this trip, I had to pause the read-aloud, choked up, several times on the drive through New England & the Canadian Maritimes en route to PEI

Through the window was glimpsed a distant, white-capped, blue sea– the beautiful Gulf of Saint Lawrence, on which floats like a jewel, Abegweit, whose softer, sweeter Indian name has long been forsaken for the more prosaic one of Prince Edward Island. (Anne’s House of Dreams)

The impressive, 8 mile Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to PEI.

Our cozy, coastal cabin accommodations, The Cedar Shanty; sun-drenched and sweet-smelling, insulated warm from the blistering salty air, like a healing sauna.

She dropped on her knees and gazed out into the June morning, her eyes glistening with delight. Oh, wasn’t it beautiful? Wasn’t it a lovely place? Suppose she wasn’t really going to stay here! She would imagine she was. There was scope for imagination here. (LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables)

celebrated 18 years of marriage during our stay

They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other’s keeping and both were unafraid. 

After spending our first night on the island I awoke to dashes of cotton-candy clouds glowing from the window and slipped out the front door, scrambling barefoot up the dune to catch the sunrise.

The sun stretched sleepy flaxen arms over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. (Sarah McCoy, Marilla of Green Gables)

I’ve never seen a finer sight than a summer sunrise over the gulf. (Captain Jim, Anne’s House of Dreams)

… And then this handsome fella watched as I sipped my coffee. Turns out he likes beef jerky.

Husband selected an idyllic vacation rental situated on the north end of the island, at Thunder Cove, nestled square in the center of the “cradle“, which protects that stretch of coast from strong tides and makes for gentle-waved beaches.

Though north enough to freeze over the sea come winter, the beach (and water!) is remarkably warm in summer months. Still, occasionally a mist rolls in, perfect for breezy, romantic strolls.

  The day had begun sombrely in gray cloud and mist, but it had ended in a pomp of scarlet and gold. Over the western hills beyond the harbor were amber deeps and crystalline shallows, with the fire of sunset below. The north was a mackerel sky of little, fiery golden clouds. The red light flamed on the white sails of a vessel gliding down the channel, bound to a southern port in a land of palms. Beyond her, it smote upon and incarnadined the shining, white, grassless faces of the sand dunes. 

We drove all over the island, exploring ‘most every corner, but atop our list was Avonlea.

The long harbor road was like a gleaming red ribbon.

Every country road’s a viewpoint, every snapshot a postcard.

the island’s most famous flower, lupines, grow in abundance on the roadsides

Her eyes fell affectionately on Green Gables, peering through its network of trees and reflecting the sunlight back from its windows and several little coruscations of glory. (Anne of Green Gables, chapter XXVII)

One June evening, when the orchards were pink blossomed again, when the frogs were singing silvery sweet in the marshes about the head of the Lake of Shining Waters, and the air was full of the savor of clover fields and balsamic fir woods, Anne was sitting by her gable window…

oh, you know, the lake of shining waters, #nbd

replica of Lucy Maude’s wedding dress, the original preserved for posterity, and her actual slippers (size three!)

the author’s original manuscripts, first editions, & hand-written letters

a national treasure, she penned the lyrics to the official island hymn

a wide array of books for sale, by some miracle I only bought two

a new keepsake, signed by the author’s cousin

I also brazenly had our library book stamped *gasp*, adding authenticity any Anne-fan or librarian would surely appreciate

We had the best lobster of our lives for ridiculously reasonable prices. My grandmother always claimed her daily consumption of the east-coast crustacean during her pregnancy was to credit for my mom’s exceptional health.

The entire island is a Maritime oasis; neat, clean, and orderly, trim and tidy. We enjoyed the restful, relaxing pace of life and #NauticalVibes.

spied a smack of jellyfish

jelly bloom

We also did manage to visit a few family landmarks.

this darling nautical shop in charlottetown reminded me of my great grandfather, Reginald

final resting place of my great grandparents and their son, my grandfather

stumbled upon the old dance hall in Georgetown that my grandma frequented every time she visited, from her youth to old age– she was always the first on the dance floor

I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures  following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string. 

All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer– one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going– one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends, and delightful doings, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.