#macarthur 5

[endiatris]

Danny in coastguard, he is so cute

[lizbethborden]

I thought The Woman in the Yard was OK but had the following issues:

Felt the need to just flat-out state to the camera what and who and how the monster was, at the exact point it was perfectly obvious where the monster came from and why without needing to be told

Used devices that have achieved complete exhaustion in horror movies due to their use in the Flanaverse and its cultural children

Character work was overall pretty weak, lack of verisimilitude in the details of Ramona and the kids' material life

Bad and inconsistent dialogue especially for the kids, gave them a lot of adult language they wouldn't normally have without the kind of fleshing-out I think would make it work, to the point where their truly "kiddish" moments seemed confusing because of it

"Emmy-bait" style monologue once again just jumping out in the middle of the movie and flat-out stating things that were obvious from context, delivered from a mother to her son in a completely unrealistic way

Highlight was Okwui Okpokwasili who is truly becoming a scream queen and really sold a character that was extremely difficult to sell, mostly through body language and dialogue delivery. (I understand that she has a background in dance and performance art although I don't know much about her work, so it makes sense that she would have the skill to pull this off.)

[alikaheroes]

Look at them!!

Awwww.

[darkeagleruins]

GPS—Judge Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali has meet with the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamists at the Islamic Center of Washington D.C. and also, a 5 minute walk to Barack Obama’s White House located at 2446 Belmont Rd NW, Washington, DC 20008, over two dozen times just since the election, afterwards, the Biden Administration makes him a federal judge, AFTER the election Trump won!

So, how exactly does an Indian from Canada move to the United States, becomes a lawyer, Executive Director at the MacArthur Justice Center (the same radical organization that called for defunding the police and demanded that charges be dropped against violent BLM rioters) and then AFTER President Trump wins the 2024 elections, meets with the terrorist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Obamas and White House, after which, I repeat, literally weeks after Trump’s win, Joe Biden appoints him to a lifetime appointment as a Federal Judge, and, just luck, he draws THIS suit?

The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization spreading their terror via hundreds of front groups operating in America: CAIR, MSA, MPAC, ISNA, MAS.

They are much more dangerous than the cartels, and, unfortunately, they are totally embedded in the U.S. government, Congress and Senate, thanks to Barack Hussein Obama II.

@realDonaldTrump must designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Designated as a terrorist organization by Muslim-majority countries, like Egypt, KSA, Syria, and UAE.

Countries like Türkiye, Qatar, Persia are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and their radical Islamist leaders.

They are funding many splinter organizations and NGOs in the US, UK and beyond.

This radical Islamist judge, now forces our president to send money to other countries?

It’s long past time to get serious and start arresting these terrorist judges.

[inthemaelstrom]

So we're about six weeks out from another "most important election of my lifetime" and it's predictably making me literally sick to my stomach. When Trumpacabra got elected in 2016, I threw myself into politics in a way I never had in my lifetime and it almost wrecked me. I was one of those people who never voted for religious reasons (long, separate story) and I felt I had to make up for lost time. By the time 2020 rolled around, I was an unhealthy mess. I had stopped reading. Everything. When I wasn't watching MSNBC and political commentators obsessively, I started consuming absolute junk TV: home improvement shows, crack paranormal ghost hunter crap, etc. Things with no plot, no emotional investment, no danger. No fear.

Right before the 2020 election, old fanfic friends from my days in the Master and Apprentice Star Wars listserv found me and saved me.

They dragged me back into fandom, introduced me to Discord, and got me writing again. I updated a story I hadn't touched in 5 years. I made new friends online and in RL. I got some great fiction and fic recs from those friends and discovered a subgenre called Hopepunk—low stakes fiction with very little if any violence and fear and with happy endings. (Becky Chambers writes a lot of what I read, and Amy Crook has also become a favorite.)

One morning, I had one of those really vivid, realistic, linear plot dreams that literally dragged me out of bed to the keyboard. It was a meet-cute modern au of The Phantom Menace's characters, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I cranked out about 2000 words the first day. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. And so on every damn day for the next four years until I had four novels, about 668k words, several timestamps written by three other collaborators who've come on board, some beautiful art I've been allowed to use, and now a fifth book in the works.

This is the Yooperverse.

It's not just The Fic That Saved Me, it's the place where I'm writing a vision of what the world could be like into being. A place where people with fucking obscene amounts of money don't spend it on themselves, or hoard it, or exploit other people to get more, but use it to help other people. It's a place where people who are bigoted dicks either get their comeuppance and crawl back under their rocks, or learn better and do better. It's a place where abused kids get rescued, everybody gets therapy and healthcare and is paid a living wage, people learn to value themselves and each other, and protect each other and defend each other. It's kinky and queer (although I'm neither) and above all, if not entirely safe to be both, I'm trying to write both things as just being another setting on the dryer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's not a utopia, by any means, because there are still assholes and the government is still ... the government, and capitalism is still a thing. There's some danger, especially in the first book, and there are accidents and illnesses and the vagaries of life. In the middle of the series, I had spinal surgery and was out of commission for a few months and that made me start thinking more about my main character dealing with aging and the limitations thereof. There's a LOT of mental health issues and the working through thereof, and a lot of ongoing process. Nobody's perfect. The world outside is still pretty much what it is. But in the little corners where my characters dwell, life is pretty dang good, sometimes great.

It's a vision of a life we all deserve. It's the thing I loved about Star Trek's universe, where people's basic needs are cared for and the obstacles to them developing their best selves removed. It's what I've loved about science fiction in general, especially Ursula LeGuin's: that opportunity to explore possibilities that are better than the present. It's modeled on the MacArthur Genius grants, but you don't have to prove your worthiness first. My main character invests in people's potential, young or old, with scholarships and grants and a steadying hand. His partner builds low or no-cost housing for people in need. There's an informal network of queer and straight kid rescuing going on under the noses of unfriendly governments and failed social service safety nets. The main characters build refuges, literal and emotional. They love each other fiercely and respectfully.

Right now, we're living in a country that is almost the antithesis of these ideas, for far too many of us. People are being manipulated by their fears, which are stoked by unscrupulous, lying shitbag politicians whose all too real evil would never make it past the pitch if you were going to try to sell it as a TV show or movie. They're consciously turning us on each other with lies about our common humanity, about the state of our country, about who and what's responsible for many of its faults, sewing suspicion and hate. And though the Yooperverse started as my personal comfort fic, I'm trying in my very small way to counteract what's happening in the world right now.

I've always believed in the power of story to change people's minds and lives, and I've experienced it myself. When I talk about story, I don't just mean fiction, though. I mean the narratives we tell ourselves and others about our own lives as a whole and day by day or moment by moment. I mean the stories we tell about each other when we're together, at the bar, at wakes, at a party. I mean the stories we invest in as fans in whatever kind of media we consume. I mean the stories we spin for ourselves and others to explain what the everloving fuck is wrong with the world.

Stories aren't separate from the world, they are the world. They tell it into being. They give it shape and purpose and meaning and a sense of possibility. Whatever stories we tell ourselves or each other about how things should be or how we should act as human beings (also called our "beliefs" or "morals" or "ethics"), they shape us, and we shape society. We are society, both together and as individuals. One person with a big voice and a story can tip a mass of people into either violence or solidarity.

I have no illusions that the Yooperverse will ever have that kind of power. It has a tiny audience on AO3 and Discord and it's mostly written for me to explore the things I feel deeply about, and wish I could do, and to teach myself to be a better person and live up to my own ideals. It's a world I'd like to manifest, to call into being, even in a small way. Even if it's just a story.

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay II Finale!: Superman Smashes the Klan Review!: We All Share the Same Tomorrow

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the grand finale of Supermay II: The Sequel You Knew Was Coming. Previously in supermay I looked at the adventures of superman serial clan of the firey cross and Kev is paying me to finish the duology looking at it's 2019 Adaptation, the three part masterpiece Superman Smashes the Klan.

Superman Smashes the Klan was written by Gene Luen Yang, an acomplished comics writer who won a macarthur genius grant and was at this far longer than I realized with his breakout work, American Born Chinese coming in 2006. He also wrote the comic level up about a med student who wants to be a pro gamer, which I ran into in a campus library back in college and is now seemingly out of print. He made a career doing graphic novels like the Shadow hero, the Boxers/Saints Duology, and wrote the first 5 avatar the last airbender sequel graphic novel trilogies, which i've read and while it gets off to a bumpy start with the promise, the rest is a solid continuation.

This rose his star enough he landed at DC, just in time for rebirth and created New Super-Man, starring arrogant bully Kong Kenan as he grew into the role with the help of the rest of the chinese justice league. He'd have other ongoing works with Batman/Superman, The Terrifics and his wonderful reinvention of Shang-Chi that didn't get the love it deserved.

Doing such a good job with NSM and a brief new 52 stint on superman lead to him getting Smashes the Klan. Smashes the Klan is a deeeply personaly work: in an interview Yang stated that he based the Lees off diffrent periods of himself and diffrent ways he tried to assimilate and did research into the time and into the klan itself to prevent the villians from just being 2 dimensionals monsters, fleshing them out into fully realized monsters. This is a labor of love.. and one that's paid off winning a Harvey, a Mike Wierngo Spirit Award and Two Eisners, and stands proud as one of the most well loved Superman stories of the last decade. I'll be upfront: I love this comic. IT's a masterpiece and it's reputation is deserved and it only read better on a second read. I only haven't because it can be hard to read at times: it pulls no punches on the isolation and pain it's two leads feel and while not as out and out frightneing as the radio show, is still unsettling. It's a masterful work, made posible by Gurhuru, the japanese duo of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano with a style that nicely blends manga and american comics together. They've done a ton of work for Marvel, doing art for Uneblivible Gwenpool, Unstoppable Wasp, the 2004 Power Pack revivial and many more and had worked with Yang on all 5 of his avatar comics. Smashes the Klan is a wonderful well built journey of self discovery, standing up to hate, and acceptance of who you are and i'm gonna show ya'll why.

We begin our tale as most great tales do.. with Superman punching a nazi.

The Atom Man is a nod to another Adventures of Superman Serial as he spent most of the war fighting Nazi's in the radio. In the comics they danced around it a bit while the newspaper comics gave a shockingly simple explanation: he failed the eye test due to his x ray vision kicking in accidentally. Later comics set on Earth 2, where superman aged normally and was rocking that reed richards pepper, established hitler just had a magical spear that could brainwash superhumans so the heroes couldn't just swoop in and end the war, an explanation that was kept when earth 2 was merged with the main earth.

This is a fun cold open that helps set things up: Superman has his Golden Age power set pre-flight, meaning he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, you get it. I also like that being copy Lois has written.

As a VERY nice change from the serial, Lois.. is an active part of the plot. She shows up here fearlessly asking the nazi in the iron mask a few questions, a running gag as people are baffled she just.. has no fear. Yang gets the superman cast down pat and does a fantastic job with them. He was a fan, having warmed up to him with age after his mom tried to force superman on him as a kid instead of marvel comics and seen just how important to Superheroes he is and how great a character he is, and it shows, with tons of love for these characters.

Superman easily smashes the Nazi, breaking his jetpack when he tries to fly away with a pitch.. but finds the Nazi's power source makes him sick, a weird green rock. Superman has just met Kryptonite.. again. This origin's been told a few different times as how Superman found his greatest weakness is fascinating, and it works here as the Catalyst for Superman's arc. Thankfully though he gets a hand up from Inspector Henderson. The good inspector was in the original serial.. as the cop who constantly told Clark Kent "Dont' worry about the fanatic he won't try to say shoot up a baseball stadium". Henderson was sadly realistic, a cop who just can't buy that a person would go on a racist rampage, but a frustrating character.

Here he's instead a black cop who wears a badass Trenchcoat and is one of the sharpest characters in the story and works hard on his investigation into the Klan when that starts up.

Superman shrugs it off as possibly getting sick and waves off Lois questions about who he is, running as fast as he can across telegraph wires, how superman got around before his flight was added in the comics.

We then cut to our deutragonist, Roberta , aka Lai Shin as her and her family the Lees move into the wider part of metropolis from Chinatown. This was common at the time: Chinese-Americans were one of the few people of color that got to integrate with white neighborhoods after the war and unlike Black americans weren't barred from using the GI Bill to get houses. It's why a chinese family was chosen for Clan of the Firey Cross.

The Lees are given way more focus here. In the serial, they were a prop: Tommy Lee was called racist shit by his teamate Chuck, accidently beaned him, the Klan of the Firey Cross used that as a thin justification to do hate crimes, then Tommy got his arm broken and spent the rest of the serial in the father. His father Dr Lee showed up once or twice and his sister and mother were only mentioned.

Here the whole family is fleshed out and we see that on the car ride over: Tommy is now a brash young kid, a bit of a hot head who likes to tease his sister but still clearly loves her, Dr. Lee is trying hard to assimilate , forcing his wife who can barely speak english to speak english and trying to angelize everyone's name, and his wife is a kind thoughtful woman whose stymied by the fact she cant' speak english and her husband is kind of an asshole. He'll grow as a person but it is hard to watch him constantly tell his wife "English Dear". It gets a great payoff later. It fits the times but still feels super uncomfortable.

At the planet Clark is feeling real woozy and ducks out on Lois and Perry White entering his office.. and sees himself in the mirror .. as an alien. The Kryptonite has stuck with him and is causing him to see things... and as we'll see being seen as an alien is his greatest fear.

For now we get back with the Lees. Lan Shin thows up on her jacket and her dad just.. callously throws it away, says they can buy one and subtly implies a more Americanized one. Yeah this is part of why it's a hard read... Lan-Shin is having a rough go of it early on.

Dr. Lee's collegues visit, Dr Wilson and Dr Jennings. Wilson looks like Teddy Rosevlent and Jennings.. is an obvious creep, joking that the pie is apple not "dog". Lan-Shin nervously says "no hankshake throw up " and her dad.. berates her for.. being nervous. Yeah as a nervous autistic man fuck off dude. The story does well to make Dr. Lee naunced.. but he can be a LOT as most of his early scenes are urges to assimilate and being a dick to his wife and child without meaning to.

Thankfully Lan-Shin has Tommy who throws her a paper airplane to apologize for mocking her in the car. She lets him have top bunk and through it Tommy sees superman speed past. The two then meet Jimmy who true to this period of comics is a cool teen.. and to show that takes Roberta's no handshake throw up in stride. As for why she keeps saying this Roberta has motion sickness, a neat character trait. I thankfully wasn't cursed with that but I relate to being a shy kid with a disablity who tends to sit in the background, though mines mental rather than physical.

Jimmy invites the two to Unity House which in the original.. was never explained at all. It was just.. something Jimmy went to to play baseball and it was never elaborated on.

Thankfully the comic.. actually explains what Unity House is

Tommy is an instant hit all the kids impressed by his arm and warming up to him.. while Lan-Shin sits in the back, unsure how to approach them and missing her old life and her old jacket.

Everyone's happy to invite Tommy to join the team.. except Chuck Riggs, the soon to be former star player whose jelaous of tommy, just a bit racist and crowding the plate. The incident is almost 1:1 for the radio show.. except Tommy clearly stops carring about beaning Chuck for being too close after he's a racist little shit and Chuck is more openly racist here.

Chuck gets hit bad and Tommy does genuinely feel sorry for doing it. Lan-Shin just notices his red boots. Chuck.. refuses to apologizes, keeps throughing out racist insults and eventually throws out the CC slur. Tommy prepares to understandably beat Chuck up but Lan-Shin intervenes, and it's shown while she struggles with english she CAN speak it.. she just needs a second first, telling Chuck he'll have to go through him first.

Chuck storms off, practice resumes and we cut to chucks home. It's here we meet our villian, Matt. Matt Riggs in the original was an abusive monster who terrified his family. Here he's intimidating, wandering why Chuck threw away his uniform and telling him to go back and apologize.. only to turn when Matt talks about being replaced.. and once he mentions Lee well Matt turns a shade darker, getting into "Their replacing us " Shit and deciding to take Chuck to a meeting.

Back with the Lees, Tommy is in typical boy of the time fashion pissed his sister stood up for him... only for Lan-Shin to make it clear WHY she did: She knew if Tommy got into a fight he'd get kicked off the team too and loose all his new friends, with her admitting that Tommy fits in so easily he dosen't understand what it's like not to. Realizing his mistake Tommy apologizes and laughs about Chuck's anger at being upstaged by Lan-Shin.

Back with Chuck.. he is lead by his uncle Matt. Turns out Chuck has heard of the Klan as Matt gets him some robes the textbooks calling them bigots.. which feels off to me in a work this historically accurate that any textbook in the 50's would portray the Klan as the monsters they are, in part because they were still at full strength and very litigious, and part because a lot of america didn't see them as an actual problem because that problem was... over there.

We cut back to Clark whose having his own issues... dreaming of his parents.. but their aliens..a nd speaking in a familiar language. We flash back to little clark kent, as Jonathan has fixed a box for him... a radio.. from Krypton Martha takes him aside and asks what the hell and dosen't want Jonathan to tell Clark.. who can hear them.

Clark asks his alien parents what's going on and they tell him he's remembering.

On that note we cut to something truly sweet: Mama Lee comforting Lan-Shin, pointing out that she felt out of place when she first got to metropolis but found the secrets that made it special: the best day for egg tarts, the wooden bench at the park was the best place for a sunset and the tea lady who seemed grumpy is entirely sweet once you get to know her. A place becomes home the more secrets you know, a sentence that feels warm and very true.

Sadly some monsters are determined to make sure this isn't home, burning a massive firey cross into the lawn.

The Clan gives their racist spiel and their motto "One Race, One Color, one Religion". Despite this..

Damn straight. You.. can't reason with someone THIS bigoted. And they try to use the same tactic.. but it's the truth. They NEED help and instead he just wants to cowtow while Tommy decides to go out with a bat and take care of buisness.

Matt forces Chuck to throw an explosive.. but Chuck misses on purpose because he's not a monster and dosne't like.. well anyo f this. He blames the hood and they skedaddle and some kind black men show up to help.... only for Mr Lee to scream NO THIS IS GETTING WORSE and shoo them away

I get Gene is trying to write him as a nuanced character I do. Mr. Lee's racisim is internalized: He wants BADLY to fit in to pass as white.. but dosen't recognize no amount of clothes, americanized names or being racist to people just trying to help him like his white neighbors would is going to make bigots magically accept him. I don't have the answer for how a person of color should acclimate to a white environment because i'm white and there's no easy answer. There's no one universal fit that magically fixes racisim or bigotry in general. It's why I like all the perspectives of the lees: all the diffrent ways they try to fit in.

The day after Clark arrives with Perry having not told him he was covering the Klan which yeah.. maybe include that. Clark hasn't slept but snaps into action and comforts Lan-Shin. It's a perfect Clark reaction: Clark's first reactoin is to comfort a scared child, one ready to leave as is her mother. Her father.. is still convinced he can show them they were just mistaken and that their wrong

But enough of that, Clark comforts Roberta, making it clear that her leaving like she wants.. is what the bigots wants that she's welcome here and their on her side, something Lois confirms in a nice moment. Lan takes to both of them easily, and even slightly suspects clark seems familiar. Like the boots it's a nice indicator she has talent. She bravely decides to stay.

Whlie typing up her story her words, "I always kinda expected I dont' belong" trigger a memory in clark.. a deeply unplesant one. He was reading comics with Pete Ross. Pete is a recurring superman supporting character from his smallville days, his best friend before he left. His importants flucuates wildly and unlike Lana he's not brought back nearly as often.

Some bullies come by rip up pete's comics then prepare to beat him up and clark snaps.. and awakens something inside him

This scares the bullies.. but also pete. Who I could be harder on.. but he's a child. He has no idea how to process this nor is aware this was an accident. He should've came back, trusted hisf riendship with clark, but i'm easier on a child. Especially since his adult self signed on with Luthor as his VP fully thinking he could control him and was not a children when he did. IT's very hard to be the worst pete ross.

I love clark's backstory here, that he has a reason to fear his powers.. when their a part of him. This was a simple accident brought on by a noble impulse.. but it scares him because he has no way to grapple with this. Superman is the ONLY superhero and rather than spend his teen years in the future, he spends them alone after some deeply traumatic incidents. And that's plural, as this incident isn't the end of it.

For now the Siblings have an argument: the next day at Unity house Tommy postures about the incident.. and also makes a joke about frying up us wontons, making Lan-Shin seethe as she sees it as fake, playing into people's racisim to fit in and calls him on it. He responds with saying if she wasn't so concerned about judging people she could actually make friends and then is a dick when she cries about it. He isn't wrong that with her anxiety she puts up barriers between her and everyone else... but he put it in the most dickish way possible and is SUPRISED when it makes her cry.

Matt wakes up chuck and just.. always looks unsettling.. but forgives Chuck when he apologzies for "Missing". Chuck is HOPEFUL and hints that maybe that was enough.. but no it's clear Matt isn't done. And he proves it.. by pulling up to tommy luring him and kidnapping him.

Lan-Shin senses SOMETHING is wrong after he dosen't come back for an hour or two, and her instincts are right.. but she unfortuantely goes to the worst possible person for help

This scene is a gut punch.. very hard to read every time... because it's all too real. AN officer ignoring someone for help.. because their in a group the officer dosen't care about writing off their valad concerns or being well aware somethings wrong but doing nothing. The police CAN have good people, Henderson shows that.. but the system props up guy like this prick who do nothing.

I went back on forth over wether to write this next part. I did not want to be seen as profiting off a tragedy in a paid review.. .but getting that image hurt even more... as just the day before, Jonathan Joss, voice actor on king of the hill and actor on parks and rec, was shot dead in what his husband says, and I belivie is a hate crime. The couple had dealt with frequent harassment cumilating in some homophobes burning down their house and leaving the remains of one of their dogs that died in the fire at where it stood. The two were understandbly greving and sobbing.. when a neighbor showed up the two had an argument and shot joss. While the Police found it as murder.. they also claimed it wasn't a hate crime. That nothing of the sort happened. Because they just.. do not care. Despite trying to go to the polcie before all this.. the police only showed up to carry away the body and say "it wasn't what it was, this guy just did a murder he isn't a bigot too come onnn". It's why this hurts. Because shit like this happens every day and while there are a few good officers trying.. most will gladly ignore those who need protecting most because of their own bigotry, a bigotry built into their system.

Thankfully Lan-Shin DOES have actual allies in the city, and goes to the planet. She found out Jimmy was a cub reporter and as her only friend in town, she turns to him. He belivies her and she has him take her to Chucks. Jimmy isn't sure Chuck is that evil, and he's right, but Lan-Shin's suspcions are on the money. Thankfully for both of them Clark naturally follows and dosen't even have to make an excuse: the two kids bolting out of there is supsscious enough for Clark to understandably follow.

Mercifully unlike the Radio show clark.. isn't a shy about turning into superman. He has other issues, but waiting till it's dramatically convient isn't one. He gets this works faster.

Back with the kidnapping, it's a truly unerving scene as Matt describes what will happen to poor tommy just for sick kicks then says he "dosen't have an ounce of hate in his heart. China is just in his mind a crime den.

Not only is the hate part VERY innacurate, if how bigots put it.. .the kind of thing he describes is real racist propoganda put out to try to discourage chinese americans from moving into white neighborhoods. Yang did his home work, even watching modern bigots to get inside their heads, to try and flesh it out.. and it works. Matt here is as zealous as before.. but unlike the serial he's not treated as a one dimensonal madman. He genuinely loves chuck and dosen't once think of harming him, and while he's tough on the boy, he isn't abusive and genuinely wants to be a good father figure... but is still a racist monster who can't see how poison his own rhetoric is. How what he wants is not okay and is harming people... best shown when he chases Tommy after Tommy upercuts the son of a bitch and escapes... and ends up in the river, leaving the boy to die and laughing it off.

Jimmy and Lan-Shin's talk with Chuck goes as poorly as you'd expect: he denies it and when she tells him her proof, his red boots he goes nuts and swings a bat around. It's clear the kid is just scared, dosen't want to hurt his uncle, more on that later, and when he thinks he's hit her he's genuinely horrified. Thankfully he instead broke his bat on Superman who arrived just in time.

In a nice bit of irony added here.. Chuck is a big superman fan. We dont' get the long drawn out trying to hide who he is thing, more him trying to cover for Matt while still doing the right thing. Still superman easily gets to him: If you can do the right thing you should. So he grabs both kids, with Lan naturalyl insiting to come along and Jimmy scootering off to go fetch the good inspector. I also love that as it should be Jimmy knows superman, is already his pal and the two work in perfect synch. Clark just trusts his pal to go get help while running off with the kids. Roberta gets sick as part one ends.

Superman lands with Chuck having told him where the "Bigots in bedsheets" as Lan calls them are meeting... and once they land the poor girl throws up. I love that superman not only notices but after this makes note of her motion sickness. Clark is the only person in the story who not only gets it's a thing but actually adjusts to it, a nice subtle touch.

Clark once again see his parents.. and quickly finds out no one else does though in a clever way where the two are too distracted looking for chuck to realize Clark isn't talking about him. They urge him to look harder... and kick in his x-ray vision. He saves Tommy whose trapped under the river and wraps his cape around him.. but refuses his parents sugestion to use the vision on his bone, refusing to acknowldge the aliens. He does however speed by , having henderson take the kids home.

Roberta reflects on things.. and realizes , only now since she was a bit too gurgly to earlier, that Superman's landing was off.. like he's defying gravity and you can't bring him down. Jimmy digs in on Chuck who refuses and Henderson breaks it up.. he gets Chuck is a suspect.. but is only going to keep tensing up.

Clark gets Tommy to help but has other problems as his parents are here and talk to him admitting that's what they are. Their Jor-El and Lara... he just won't acknowledge them and wont' belivie it. Jor-El pierces through him with a gutting question; Why do you use some of your powers and not others?

We get a flashback to answer that: The mom of the bullies is accusing clark of being possesd by satan. SHockingly for the 30's whent his woul dlikely take place, the Cop does not buy it. Clark's mom assures him that night he's fine, he's their boy and that if he did do what they said.. the boys had it coming. Still he's curious and grabs the kryptonian radio.. and overhears his parents arguging about him... and their way of talking about him being normala nd the most perfectly normal boy.. is something that hurts him.. and when he accidently activates it he hucks the radio away and vows to be normal

It's another heartbreaking scene; Clark rejects part of who he is.. because he badly wants to fit in, somewhere i'm sure we've all been.. because he's AFRAID of it when he never shoudl've be and his parents rather than help him through it.. just ignore it became it's convient. THeir not malicous, not horrible, they love him and a later scene makes it clear they didn't care.. their just scared someone worse than a bunch of easily dismissed assholes will find out and take him away and cut him up.

The Lee parents show up and Dr. Lee is , wait for an asshole. To his credit.. this is the last time.. and it's a plot important time as hearing superman was involved he starts ranting about his good citzen act.. till roberta steps in and vocuhes for TOmmy: Superman saved him and is a hero.. and that breaks something inside the doctor. He's.. suprised Superman is willing to help. More on that later. Lan-Shinreturns the cape... and Superman gives it to her, his mom having made him extra and makes a good impression on the Lee Parents. Tommy also lies about the incident and has Lan-Shin cover for him. As Roberta later makes clear she gets it: Tommy didn't want to get forced out of metropolis by his fearful parents.. it's worth staying and there are things worth fighting for.

That night Lan's mom takes the cape which is adorable enough being used as a blanket.. and makes her daughter a new jacket. It's a truly sweet gesture, getting her a jacket that's both where she came from, something beautiful made by her mom.. and where she is... something from metropolis.. something from superman. It's beautiful

At the planet Perry calls clark in. He's fine with the story.. he's just pissed at the Klan doing this in his backyard and sets out the reward. In the serial Clarks initial idea was to draw Chuck out as Chuck had called him annomously.. but thankfully that whole thing is cut. It never felt right Superman was publicly shaming a child who had every reason to be afraid.

Chuck is unerved byt his but finds FAR WORSE in the garage.. Matt is seething about the police, superman the bounty Perry's put out.. everything.. and plans to strike back at Unity house.. and Warns Chuck. Chuck makes up a story about going scouting.. but really he just wants to save everyone.

Before he arrives though Tommy is doing his normal thing.. but for once Lan also gets attention and in a nice move, Tommy is the one to cast it on her bringing up her sweet new jacket. Jimmy also hypes her up.. and says it dosen't look bad on her. An dI like the little mutual crush the two have on each other. Nothing major comes of it.. but their both like.. 12-13. It's fine. It's not the focus but it is precious

Chuck runs in and tries to get everyone out... after a few failed attempts he convinces everyone to go see a movie and gets everyone out.. just as the Klan arrives with the bomb.

Meanwhile Lois looks into the department of health. Dr. Lee is starting to have doubts though.. and it's here we get a big pivot from the serial that was hinted at before, one I love that adds to superman's stories and spices up the climax. Last issue we caught sight of a mysterious lab montoring the nazi from the opening.. and Lois finds it in the department of health, monitorning both hima nd the kryptonite. Lois is ushered out by the racist from Earlier, Dr Jennings... but it's clear something is up there and she knows it. She also interviews him without an ounce of fear as you'd expect.

Both our heroes take a hit to the stomach emotoinally: At the movies Lan-Shin encounters her old friends from Chinatown.. only to find out they never liked her, finding her stuck up and thinking like her father she thinks she's too good for chinatown.. when really she's just motion sick and didn't want to car ride to the movies. It makes the poor girl realize she's held people at a distance and dosen't know how to stop it.

Meanwhile Lois unfairly assumes clark is starring at some random lady and huffs off, and he sadly notes why would he stare at ANYONE else when she's there. Instead it's his parents who he meets on a rooftop for privacy, simplier times and they once again ask why be half of who you are. Time for our penultimate flashback. Clark is being bullied by the idiots who want him to show everyone he's a demon. This is where this Clark meets Lana Lang. Lana was Clark's childhood sweetheart, which for various reasons never quite works out, but the two remain friends in adulthood. The mainline one recently married John Henry Irons aka Steel after a years long relationship, a pairing I really love. She'd previously married Pete Ross but that marriage fell apart with time and than god for that. She deserved better and got it.

As she gets the fuckers to back off Clark once again feels the anger in him.. but begs it to just GO AWAY GO AWAY. It's a hearwrenching scene but works and his powers are set at his golden age set: super speed, can jump good, invunerablity and super strength. He'd get x-ray soon into it too, but that's smartly kept. Everything he can do is thorughly human and it's a smart reconteculization of his powers. The ones that would mark him as not human.. are the ones he's locked away and he tells his parents to leave that he's too scared of loosing his precious little life to accept his heritage. He buries who he was.

Back in the theater Lan-Shin isn't enjoying the movie, Captain Desmo Vs Genghis Akhim, whose every bit as sterotypical as you'd expect and is actually a pull from DC's history, even living on earth 2 and was in Adventure Comics, which would eventually be taken over by Superboy then the Legion of Super Heroes. Yang has a history of taknig obscure racist parts of dc history and refitting them, using the Yellow Peril villian from the cover of Detective Comics #1 as a representatoin of yellow peril a villian is using to make a point and same villian showing Kenan Slam Bradly's racist rampages from early detective comics complete with caracture.. before having said caractures turn into regular asian people showing just how horrific that'd really be and showing the real point of such horrible shit.

Lan-Shin reflects on being alone, on her isolation, on the movies.. then realizes this whole scenario of being ushered out was suspcious. Chuck and Tommy are outside having buried the hatchet. It's intresting to see Chuck's evolution here as it's way more subdued than the serial. See halfway though Clan of the Firey Cross.. Tommy became a non entity. He was still mentioned once or twice, but the plot was focused on Perry's crusade against the Cross with Matt targeting Perry, Jimmy and Chuck. It's one of the serial's big weaknesses: while it gets a LOT right, it marganlizes it's chinese characters once it's done with them being a prop, pushing them aside for the white people.

Here Chuck is kept vital to the story and still gets followed up on.. but it's rightly not his story and having him interact with the Lee children more helps flesh him out. Instead of not being bigoted to begin with and seeing his uncle was evil Chuck is scared by his uncle but is pulled between his love for the man and the reality of what Matt is. It's a take many people are all too familiar with: you love someone.. but the views they've taken on or always had are just.. horrible. Truly vile. That disonance between the person you care about and how they think of others who their punching down against. It makes for a much better story that Chuck instead learns slowly: He backs off the racist side of things after seeing the depths of hate.. but he's just scared, torn between doing the right thing and loosing an uncle who genuinely loves him. Matt isn't a frothing abusive monster.. but a stern loving father figure who likely still provides finacially given the times. Loosing him may also hurt his mom. He has a lot to loose but also knows what Matt's doing is truly horrific and you feel for the kid.

I also like Tommy teaching chuck his fast ball.. that while Chuck is welcomed back now he's not being a racist sorehead, Tommy is genuinely helping him in the game. I like the two forming a friendship, something that allows Chuck to grow.

It also allows Tommy to read between the lines. Lan once again digs into Chuck... and Chuck admits to tommy he was at the house.. but really did miss on purpose. And Tommy.. instantly belivies him. His less walled off nature means he gets it and he has a valid point: Chuck's a fantastic pitcher and their house is a giant target. If he wanted to hit the house he would've. Matt belivies it because he loves his nephew and the mask thing is a good excuse. But Tommy knows better and Chuck geninely apologizes. He never wanted to hurt anyone.. but Lan once again spots the thread: Chuck mentions unity house and not wanting to hurt it.. and she gets something's up and puts it all together. He admits to ushering them out to keep them all safe.. but we find out he forgot something: The Reverend, Minister and Rabi, whose offices he didn't check.

So the kids spring into action with Jimmy who shows up just in time to hear everything.

I love JImmy's characterization here: It's one of my faviorites, along with My Adventures: he's brave, smart and despite being a teen here just as compitent as his mentors: he decides to pull a lois, Keep the bigots destracted long enough and hope superman hears them, while Tommy and Chuck each call the planet or the police, getting both here. This is a smart call as Clark overhears and jumps into action.. and while he does that INspector Henderson has arrived PISSED about Perry's bounty. We'll find out why soon. For now as Roberta fearlessly does her best lois one of the Klansman grabs her.. and we get one of the best pages in the whole comic

So damn cool. Superman takes one with him and leaves one in a tree., going to find the bomb.. but made a mistake. The one he choose is a fanatic just like Matt and would rather die than help. Superman finds the tied up holy men.. but can't find the bomb and while he tries to invoke his kryptonian side he can't. Superman realizes too late as he runs that his fears.. are holding him back. That not accepting where he comes from could've gotten people killed.

Henderson explains why he's pissed and makes a valid point: While Perry is right to want to fight bigotry as a private citzen.. this COULD have made his suspect, Matt, run aground. That more heat might of lead the Klan to back off. It didn't, but Perry realizes he fucked up... just in time for the Klan to prove Henderson wrong.

I love Henderson's inclusion here: A black officer who does his best, genuienly sticks up for those who need him and instead of assuming the Klan won't do shit makes a logical deduction the Klan MIGHT not do shit. Instead of just blindly assuming Matt won't do anything, there's some logic to it.

Lois naturally asks for an interview.. and gets the same response as she did with Jennings tipping her off, while a Klansman tries to get henderson to take off his badge. He refuses and another threatens his life.

Superman is stunned by his failure and we get a quick good dose of black comedy

And some truly wholesome ship tease as Jimmy tells Roberta, who blames herself for this that it's not her fault and if that she'd never come to metropolis he never woul'dve got to meet her. Awww. Shit gets real though.. he realizes if the Planet hasn't responded something BAD is happening. He's right, issue 2 closing on the firey cross being lit on the planet's globe.

We open on our last flashback, and for once one that dosen't involve any childhood Trauma for Clark. Clark is at the fair with Lana as a young man, the Kents teasing them about being a couple though unlike most versions we never find out WHY that never panned out.

The two get their tickets from a scarred bald ticket taker.. who Clark recognizes later as a strong man despite carrying himself diffrently. The strongman, Sampson leaps into actoin when the tent is struck by lightning and catches fire but is narrowly saved by clark. The two share a pop afterwords and Samson gives Clark some key advice

This origin to Clark's costume and how he hides himself here is clever: learning to use stagecraft ala Superman birthright but with a twist for the times.. a twist ripped straight from the creation of superman. Siegel and Schuster based Superman off circus strongmen and it's nice ot see that come back. Ma sews superman a costume with the symbol from Krypton.. which is also a nice little nod that despite their worries.. they really don't care.

Back in the present day for good, Superman puts out the firey cross but finds the Klan has taken Henderson, Lois and Perry. Lan-Shin once again proves her chops, thinking what would lois do: Leave a clue, a WJ written in lipstick.. and Jennigs racist dog joke bites him in the ass as Roberta remembers that and Jimmy looks him up.

Chuck and Tommy walk back from the destroyed unity house... and Chuck asks would it really be so bad if all the races were seperate? Tommy of course points out all the holes and how he never got to be on a team before now and Chuck blurts hout a heartbreaking line

It's an all to common problem in breaking away from bigotry.. wnating to know the people who cared about you aren't bad... but the hard truth is Matt is. His mom isn't but Matt's a monster, and while I lined out the consequences before.. it's not so easy. The two part not great with Chuck clearly not confident in any of this.

At Jennings house the Klan threatens their hostages but like Jimmy and Perry in the serial, where this plot was a lot more drawn out for time reasons and Jimmy was there instead of Lois and/or henderson, the trio mock their captors instead. Lois gets the best dig as she points out the "ancestral sword" matt plans to murder them with was 3 dollars which even back then is terribly cheap for a sword and was a real thing the KKK sold to make money. More ont hat later. For now Superman arrives like the kool aid man and easily cleans house. Said house burns down and when HEnderson tries to help put jennings out after he catches on fire he treis to burn him. .and gets a left hook instead. Man I love this guy. Though Jennings is worried as his badge was dinged up and while Perry makes it clear the badge makes the man Jennings makes it clear.. he knows that but several racist don't quite agree. We saw it at the Lee house earlier: the badge is sadly necessary.

Superman confronts Matt.. but Matt gets to him on two levels: the first is that Superman, while not going to kill him becuase of course he's not, can't just punch every member of the Klan. Their an idea and you can't kill an idea and Racisim is rooted deep into our nations history and institutions. The more chilling thing.. is pointing out that he looks up to superman and why he THINKS chuck does

IT's a truly disturbing thing.. and sadly real as a creation of two jewish men was probably thought of as some superior race bullshit at some point as bigots.. tend to miss the point a lot.

Superman flies them to the police station. In the original serial matt just.. escaped somehow, but I like Yang's solution better: The racist asshole officer from earlier? He's in the Klan and vows to get them out. While it's a revoltin development I like it on a story level: the Klan really was commonly stocked by police and policing came out of white hate groups. While as Henderson shows not every officer is bad or corrupt, the instution itself is rotted and needs refitting.

The final straw for Superman's self hatred comes from Roberta, who confronts him.. and makes it clear she knows he can likely fly.. but is holding himself back. That he's scared of himself. And while Clark tries to deflect she makes it clear she understands, that some would hate and fear him for being different... but that he can't afford to hold back. People could've died and while he saved the day, he could've done so faster if he could fly.

Superman zooms off and while Roberta worries she offended him.. she didn't. It was the last push he needed. Struggling thrice with the powers he had, being looked up to by a bigot.. Clark finally realizes that no matter what might happen no might the risk.. he needs to be his whole self. To keep people safe.. and to inspire them properly. To show them he dosen't just represent some ideal of a supermen but all men. He checks in with ma and pa one last time

And dives into the lake where the box has formed into the fortress of solitude.. and Jor El and Lara wait inside, now not seen as bug eyed monsters.. but as themselves.

A deshelved Matt heads to the head of the Klan... the head of the health department. Who is ... shall we say less than pleased with Matt's actions

More on this in a moment as we're with the Lees again that same morning. Mrs. Lee has prepared a chinese breakfast.. and Mr. Lee has quit, deciding he didn't agree with what the department was doing anymore. Their staying, he's just going to find another job. It's a clear change in him no longer trying to fit in or consider himself "better" but accept he's chinese and can fit in as he is. His wife always had but no longer has to tolerate that bullshit.

Lois shows up and gives Lan a pen, and offers her a job as a cub reporter, something sh'es glad to accept esepcially if the family needs the income.. and Lois encourages her to follow the lead of her dad abrubtly leaving.

Back with the head of the health department Matt finds out just what the Klan really was

This is, as I pointed out in the review of firey cross, almost verbatim from the actual serial and one of the few parts adapted 1:1. It's one of it's most impactful as the Klan REALLY was a pyramid scheme. Or if you prefer a Trapazoid but either way you put it it's a clear scam used to get bigots to buy tons of merchandise. I like that it's included here and had no idea this really was what the klan was about when I first read this comic.

The second part, is all Yang but it's a clever recontexulization of the Klan as it's still using the money for hate and fear: the Klan is using the money.. to research how to kill superman.

Back to Clark he finds out his origin: Sent from a dying world all too similar to ours in a rocket as a last hope.. but we finally find out what the radio was.. a box with a message telling him that they love him and that "we all share one tommorow" and while Jor el and Lara, as usual are dead... their messsage left behind can tell Clark something he badly needed to hear

I never noticed before how this hug parallels the one with his adopted parents... that he's thorughly human.. but he's throughly kryptonian. A child of both worlds.

So back with the racists, and Lan-Shin as she investigates her dad's journals and finds out what he was doing. Wilson is paranoid superman will someday exchange his cape for a crown. He's still a racist piece of shit, accepting dr lee as "he knows his place", bleugh, but not superman as he breaks out of it. So he's been trying to get a piece of something the Nazi's found: Der Greunstein, aka Kryptonite. The nazi's infused the Atom Man with kryptonite in his blood

And upon seenig Superman get weak from it, Wilson had the rock and the atom man transfered and hes been in a bacta tank in the middle of the department because they've been using his blood to create more kryptonite.. and a kryptonite gun to use against superman. Lan Shin meanwhile finds a weird orb her dad brought home.. containing kryptonite as both the gun and the orb naturally are lead coated.

Wilson.. then prepares to kill Matt as he's outlived his usefulness and "You are an insect but I am a god".. a god who quickly gets strangled by one of his own racist footsoliders because, like his radio counterpart he BADLY underestimated the zeal of a true bigot, not a grifter using bigotry for his own power and influence, a lesson that was sadly both timeless and prophetic given what happened with January 6th shortly after.

It's now game time. Roberta drug Tommy out there, but has her own reasons for coming to the game.

So adorable. Roberta also realizes that even if her and the Unity house girls don't become besties.. they can still be friends, opening up a bit.

Dr. Lee also opens up, running into Henderson whose with his friends from the other night.. and apologizing for being an ass. I may not like Dr. Lee for 2/3 of this story.. but I do like his growth as a person, admitting Henderson was "Just being a good neighbor"

Sadly the good times can't lass. Lan-Shin had another reason for coming besides her mutual crush: Lois, who she dosen't reach.. as Matt kidnaps her.

Matt marches out onto the field. In the original he was trying to snipe Jimmy, Perry and Chuck as they were all witnesses. He was not a rational man and still isn't deciding to just... shoot everyone he dosen't agree with, but in a more presceint way, carrying a gun and clearly ready to kill everyone. It dosen't matte rif he lives or dies, as long as his message is cemeented. Chuck is horrified and any illusions about his uncle not being evil are shattered. And when given a bat by Jimmy just as Matt is about to shoot Tommy for understandbly trying to save his sister, Chuck swings away.

God that felt good. It dosen't last long as Matt prepares to shoot the children, as you'd expect.. but a hero arrives as superman gently floats above the stadium. The reaction is as he feared.. except for one he never expected to be remotely afraid of him

IT's so adorable. Perfectly captures why these two work. Also if your wondering why this last half is so image heavy, the climax of this story is just that good. So many moments so many great panels and it's taking a lot not to show them all. What happens next though is important.

The kids stand by superman.. but everyone else bettrays him, giving into fear and hate instead of accepting Superman has always defended them.. been there.. and Matt gives the people what they want and opens fire. Superman naturally dosen't take it too well.. but luckily intersectionality exists and Lan-Shin brought the orb to show lois.. and thus tosses it to Superman which allows him to block the Kryptonite gun and jam it destroying it and restoring his strength.

If your wondering where Henderson was, the racist asshole from earlier pulled a gun on him.. and is distracted long enough for Henderson to punch him in the face.

Matt came with a plan b: a bunch of bombs strapped to his chest planning to just kill everyone.. thankfully Superman.. easily dispatches him with his new powers, flying him up up and away and then using freeze breath, freshly descovered to make the dynamite useless. We then get the best exchange of the comic as Matt tries to lay down his bullshit.. but superman responds as only superman could

It's a beautiful message.... and a true one. We all have diffrent histories, come from diffrent places and even when we come from the same place.. we're all diffrent.. but we can all make a better future, help make one free of hate and bigotry. It may never happen.. but it's something worth strivnig for, dreaming toward.. a tommorow that can always be better and better.

Matt of course.. rejects this and tries to stab him but the fact Clark tried to redeem even someone this monsterous shows who he is.. a hero, a kind man who is there for everyone but will not tolerate bigotry. He stands for truth, justice.. and a tommorow we can all live with.

Superman flies off and we get a sweet button for the unity house team. The game will obviously be rescheduled so the stadium can be rebuilt and such, but the two teams, the other from Gotham instead of also metropolis like the radio, decide to have a pickup game and Jimmy invites Lan as she has a hell of an arm.

So the next Day lois has broken the story, gotten her interview with superman and Clark of course feigns having missed the excitment. We get a final update on the rest of the Lee's: Mr Lee got a job, Mrs. Lee is taking classes at the university and Tommy is helping prepare for the rematch.

Roberta is here to give back the pen as it's expensive.. but Lois insists. She was serious about the position, Roberta having shown more than enough talent gladly takes it.. but questions that it has her intitals. Except it's not Lois'... Lois looked her up. And as is superman tradition... Lan-Shin is also an LL.. and takes her original name that I used the whole time out of respect back. We end with Superman flying ahead as Lois, Jimmy and Lan Shin all prepapre for the same tommorow.

Smashes the Klan is the rare story that is simply perfect. No question about it. It takes the best of the original serial and throws out the time wasting, updates it to fit the modern superman mythos and pays homage after homage to the characters rich history. It tells the best story of superman coming to terms with his roots, with My Adventures With Superman a close second, another one of superman's best modern stories and one I feel defintely takes some notes from this one as future adaptations all should. It's an instant classic, one that gets to the heart of the character, how racisim works and the immigrant story. Lan-Shin is a wonderful character and a wonderful addition to the cast and one I hope we see again someday. Smashes the Klan is possibly my faviorite superman story and one I recommend you read as soon as possible.

Thanks for visiting me this supermay that extended into June. Thanks for reading and remember i'm pulling for ya... we all share the same tommorow.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

John MacArthur Proves Peter Was Never The Pope Was Peter the first pope? The Bible contradicts such a foolish idea. Never is he regarded in Scripture as the head of the Church, the apostle of the apostles, the vicar of Christ or anything of the like. The early church fathers never described him as pope or leader of the Church. There's no evidence he was in a Rome or pastored a church there for Roman Gentiles. Such actually contradicts what Paul said in Romans 15:20 and Galatians 2:8. Peter was an apostle to the Jews, not Gentiles. Peter regarded himself as a simply an apostle and fellow elder (1 Peter 1:1, 5:1, 2 Peter 1:1) not the papal head of the Church or the leader of the apostles.

[hesgomorrah]

m*a*s*h — season 3 episode 5 o.r., for the lovely @persianflaw!!

Attention, attention. All personnel may stand down. Armed Forces Radio reports that General Mark W. Clark has just been appointed commander of the U.N. Forces in Korea. General Clark succeeds General Ridgway… who succeeded General MacArthur. And that's the news, generally speaking. No one's succeeding us at all.

[thenightling]

Things we learned about the character Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Spoilers below: 1. He's actually Italian. 2. His cause of death was poisoning. 3. He told the truth about having lived through the black death. 4. He's six-hundred-years dead. Age at the time of death unknown. 5. He married a soul-sucking succubus cult leader and somehow thought it would be fine. 6. He was a grave robber (and apparently didn't wear shoes). 7. His plan for a "Green card wedding" has now grown into an unhealthy infatuation / obsession with Lydia. 8. He's multi-lingual. 9. He's familiar with Russian literature. 10. He knows how to open a portal to Hell or Hell-like dimension. 11. He now has minion who are apparently all victims of the witch doctor we saw in the waiting room at the end of the first movie. 12. Beetlejuice now canonically loves a good song and dance number in every incarnation of the character from the movies, to the animated series, to the Broadway musical, to his appearance on Teen Titans Go. 13. He is well-versed in the many corridors of The Afterlife Social services office. (Is the Netherworld all one building in the movies? It was an entire dimension in the animated series where it was called Neither World). 14. He's actually really good at dividing his attention. (See the Wedding scene). 15. Beetlejuice has a weirdly romantic side and really wanted MacArthur Park to play at his wedding. 16. Beetlejuice is familiar with the German legend of Faust. (Note the contract signed in blood. (Who would have guessed he actually has some sense of culture???) 17. There's a very high chance Beetlejuice was born Jewish. He says L'chaim at one point in the Beetlejuice Broadway musical and Mazel tov in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

18. Beetlejuice's mortal marriage was definitely not Christian or Hebrew. The ceremony had him and his bride drink each other's blood, bite the heads off chickens, and sacrifice a goat. 20. Beetlejuice has a sense of justice, as twisted as it may be, going out of his way to show Lydia Rory's true nature, and sending the ghost to Hell (or a Hell-like dimension) that tricked Astrid. I'm starting to feel like the version of Beetlejuice from the animated series is the most "accurate" depiction of the character, as weird as that sounds. Since the movie version has shifted to be more like him and the Broadway musical version feels like a prequel to the cartoon.

[endiatris]

"Steve : You know, you really didn't have to drink that booze, Danno

Danny : What do you do with it ?

Steve : You pour it in the plant

Danny : Steve, do you really expect me to go around Killing plants ?

Sreve : Better than Killing yourself"

I love this scene so much

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week 4/14/25-4/21/25

No summary this week.

Opinion and Investigative:

Migrant Motherhood: The Invisibility Of Emotional Labour

It is time Liberia enacts legislation banning FGM

I’m a comedian – this is why Saturday Night Live’s jokes about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth didn’t work

A glimpse into the girlboss era

“Too Pretty for a Job”

An open letter on Katy Perry’s Blue Origin flight: Feminism isn’t a $450K joyride

Contraceptive access and teen childbearing: Lessons from Sweden

Challenges in the fulfillment of SDG 5 for today's Argentina

OPINION | How ‘full bush in a bikini’ TikTok trend furthered feminist discourse on female body hair

What I  learnt from having a breast op, aged 19

Culture War:

Air Force Deletes Pages on First Female Thunderbirds Pilot Amid DEI Purge

Women and Labor:

Upskirted teacher says women being 'targeted' by misogynistic attitudes in classroom

Farming Against Time: For Bhil Women, Natural Farming Comes At A Cost

Comfort, Control, Career: A Peek Into Tamil Nadu’s Thozhi Working Women’s Hostels

Morocco to Legally Recognize Women’s Domestic Work

LGBT:

The supreme court didn’t rule on the definition of ‘a woman’ – this is what its judgment does mean

Star Wars Actress Kelly Marie Tran Opens Up About Why She Came Out Publicly: 'It's Bigger Than Me'

Women In The News:

The mother and children trapped between two conflicts

Trump administration seeks criminal prosecution of New York attorney general

NPR CEO Katherine Maher addresses future of federal funding for public media

American doctor receives email from immigration officials telling her to leave the country immediately

Interview with Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold : Look – and see women’s tireless work for peace

Disgraced Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson Zoom-bombs meeting to attack colleagues debating her departure

Girl, 14, killed by lion in Kenya

Kristi Noem's bag with $3,000 stolen from DC restaurant

Ex-US senator's wife convicted in gold bars bribery scheme

Reproductive Rights:

Class-Action Lawsuit Against Crisis Pregnancy Center and Groundbreaking Massachusetts Law Regulating Ultrasounds: ‘A Chink in the Armor’

Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis

Women’s rights advocates raise voices against Turkish gov’t policies addressing women’s health

Federal Judge Rules Alabama Can’t Criminalize Help for Out-of-State Abortions

Male Violence Against Women:

Honor Killing: Italian court confirms life sentence for Pakistani parents

Regimes May Change In Syria — The Scourge Of Honor Killings Persists

Honor killing victim was being protected by police shortly before her murder

Rearming Domestic Abusers: Trump’s New Gun Policy Threatens Women Across the Country

Six men charged after woman was forcibly removed from Idaho town hall meeting

Man arrested after woman stabbed to death in Enfield

Feel Good Stories:

How young advocates are preventing child marriage and early pregnancy in Nepal

‘A weakness can become your biggest strength’ – wise words from 26 brilliant disabled women

Meet the “First Lady of Engineering” Yvonne Y.Y. Clark blazed a trail for Blacks and women in STEM

How Sheffield gave birth to women’s suffrage

Arts and Culture:

Eurovision singer Clodagh Rodgers dies aged 78

Alice Wong recently won a MacArthur genius grant. Her latest book, Disability Intimacy, is about more than sex

Q&A: Poet Marylyn Tan weaves flesh and feminism, queerness and ritual into work

Cannes Selects Film on Gaza Photographer Fatma Hassona; A Day Later, She’s Killed in Israeli Strike

Ms. Rachel responds to critics of Gaza rhetoric: ‘All children should be protected’

Feminist lawyer Pamela Cross among authors shortlisted for $60,000 Donner Prize

Melinda French Gates on what billionaires with 'absurd' wealth owe back to society

Photos: Ani DiFranco Announces the ‘Be Kind’ Platform at Thalia Hall in Chicago

Salvaging the Soul of Feminist Art: Reviving Suzi Ferrer’s Legacy at The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

Michelle Trachtenberg died of complications from diabetes, medical examiner says

Alicia Silverstone to reprise Clueless role in sequel TV series

The South Asian Feminism of ‘In Our Own Backyard’

MABELLE PRIOR’S THE NEW WORLD ADDS TO HER POWERFUL LEGACY OF FEMINIST STORYTELLING

India's sword-wielding grandmother still going strong at 82

Discover This Artist Leading Bali’s Feminist Visual Revolution

Women’s Rights:

India’s courts place conditions on women’s rights—can’t drink, trust men, get married

‘I’m giving up’: Cate Blanchett says she is retiring from acting

Commission proposes 300 reserved seats for women with direct polls

Meet the woman who turned female votes into political dynamite

MISC:

This Dept. of Labor Program Transformed Our Lives. Now It’s on the Chopping Block.

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective, covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Monday.

[lilfishiefigureskates]

2025 World Team Trophy Review

World Team Trophy was a vibe and I’m glad everyone had fun.

1. Team USA - 126 Points

Ilia’s opening 4F was so good it literally looked like a triple. He was definitely tired here, and it was very funny when he kinda just flopped onto the ice after his last spin lol.

Jason was perfect. 3A looked great. He is just a ray of sunshine. No notes.

Alysa’s MacArthur Park program was the perfect way to end the season. The vibes were just perfect. She was also looking quite tired at the end of the free.

I really thought Amber had the win in the bag, but her free program was a great note to end the season on. 3A was beautiful.

Alisa and Misha’s jumps were a little rough but they have great speed and they are both great at emoting.

Maddy and Evan were great. No notes. Love the free dance.

2. Team Japan - 110 Points

I’m going to miss Shun’s Ladies in Lavender program because it is sooo pretty. He was obviously very sick here but he pulled through. Things were looking a little scary during the middle of season but Shun really pulled through at the end and I’m so happy

Idk what’s going on with Yuma and the free program but I don’t like what I’m seeing. I hope he gets some well deserved rest. Both of his step sequences were beautiful.

Kaori is the literal love of my life who likes to make me nervous by saving her combo for last in the short program. She had a couple of tiny mistakes here and her GOE wasn’t as high as it usually is but all good.

Mone was great as per usual. Went down on the 2A in the short, and went down on the 3Lo in the free. She has had such a long season, and besides 4CC she slayed every competition. I am so proud of her and I hope she gets some proper rest.

Riku and Ryuichi slayed, especially in the short. Riku was fighting a bit to stay up in the free but they made it out alive. Riku basically dragging Ryuichi off the ice after the free was hilarious.

Yoshia and Morita had that fluke fall on the rotational lift in the rhythm which was so sad. I love their Romeo and Juliet program so much and I’m glad I got to see it one last time. I’m excited to see their progression next season.

3. Team Italy - 86 Points

I was so happy during Worlds because I thought that was going to be the last time I was going to have to watch Daniel’s Billy Elliot program but here we are. His jumps are so ugly. Idk

Nikolaj struggled in the short and then the quads didn’t work out for him in the free but I still love him. I’m really looking forward to watching him next season.

Lara slayed here. Only mistake was the popped 3F in the free. I’m so excited to see what programs she’s gonna have next season because she always brings the vibes. I love the Squid Game program so much.

Anna’s short was great, but she fell apart in the free. Still has the biggest jumps tho.

Conti and Macii were solid as usual. Maybe it’s because I knew it was the last time I was gonna see their free skate but I was really digging it.

Material matters and Guignard and Fabbri had such a bad free program this season, but the good news is that it can only go up next season lol. I never want to hear Land of 1000 Dancer again.

4. Team France - 78 Points

Adam’s short program was beautiful and I am going to miss it. I do not think I’ll miss the Dune program even tho I really like the idea of Adam Dune if that makes sense. His axis was a little cray cray tho. He is not allowed to get injured again. My heart will not be able to take it.

Kevin was en excellent team captain. Loved his day three outfit. No quads for him here, but it’s all good.

Lorine was pretty solid. Just had the popped 3F in the free.

Missed Lea’s short because the stream cut out, but she stayed up in the free which was good.

The Kovalev’s were on the struggle bus but I liked both of their programs.

The last Rasputin was beautiful. I shall miss it. Their GOE is pretty darn consistent. I am talking about Lopareva and Brissaud btdubz.

5. Team Canada - 72 Points

Roman’s 4S in the short was beautiful, shame he popped it in the free. Free was kinda sloppy in general, and he was moving slow.

Aleksa’s short was okay, and I forgot to take notes on the free.

Maddy’s butterfly program is very pretty, it I wish she would’ve finished the season with Danse because I liked it a lot, and she’s going to be doing the butterfly program next season. Lion Maddy was pretty good.

Also missed most of Sara’s short because the stream cut out which is sad because I like the Evanescence program. Second half of the free was low key rough.

Cannot stand Deanna and Max’s short and I am so happy that I never have to see it again but I thought the free was very pretty here. Struggled on the SBS jumps in both programs but they killed the throws.

Piper and Paul and spectacular. I love their rhythm dance so much and I will miss it.

6. Team Georgia - 68 Points

Nika was solid enough in the short, had a little trouble in the free with the 4S, and overall his GOE on his jumps were pretty low, which is not good because he doesn’t have a lot in the PCS department.

Morisi came out of retirement for this and then tried to do 4 quads in the free which is crazy but good for him.

Gubs said Redemption skate x2 and I’m so happy for her because Worlds was rough. It’s a shame she’s so inconsistent.

Alina also came out of retirement for this. She did a lot of doubles but she stayed up which is great and she looked like she was having the time of her life during her free skate which was amazing.

Metelkina and Berulava are so solid. Only mistake was her doubling the 3T in the free. Their GOE is great on all elements.

I was really surprised that Diana and Glen went ahead of the French team but I was really digging their Led Zeppelin free. I feel like their rhythm dance is a bit slow.

The 2024/25 season is officially over! I am feeling the figure skating burn out a bit not gonna lie, but I know I will be crying because I miss skating in a couple of months. I have a couple of posts planned out for the off season because I don’t want this blog to die during the drought and if I go too long without talking about figure skating I’ll probably combust lol.

[emilsgrippers]

People talk about how Geoff spoke abt Bridgette in RR and they still call her like a bad girlfriend but guys he mentioned her no less that maybe 5 times?(3ish that I can remember) so let me break it down for you

First time he just says hi to her and explains how Brody took what would have been Bridgette’s place if she weren’t in Australia surfin’ around. Everybody knows this duh but I just wanted to throw it in because cuties

Second(?) time, he explains to Brody how Bridgette ‘probably wouldn’t want him saving another princess (in reference to MacArthur & Sanders).

Bridgette has always had a jealousy issue. Final episode of TDA, she gets visibly jealous of Geoff signing sierra’s stomach and arm(?), and she even hits him with her surfboard for looking at another girl.

(Which-to her credit-was with a questionable smirk..but then again he’s always wearing that stupid smirk. But I see where she’s coming from.)

It’s not like Bridgette’s a pure saint. She isn’t some tiny weak girl who needs Geoff’s protection, and she isn’t some monster who treats him like shit. TDI, she snaps back at Heather, throws stuff at Heather, gets in a (verbal) fight with gwen…she’s allowed to be jealous.

But personally, I think the only thing that would have made her so jealous about that was the fact they were referring to the cadets as princesses.

Third(?) time When like..Emma and noah(?) had their kiss interrupted by Geoff and Brody to which Geoff says “if that ever happened to me and bridge, id be in the doghouse for weeks!”

Maybe Geoff was hit over the head one too many times before the race because when has she ever held a grudge. She would not have put him in the dog house be so real with me like look me in the eyes and tell me she would.

But let’s say you believe she would (for some reason.) While the most common definition of ‘being put in the doghouse’ is when you’re mad or at someone, it can also be when you’re just mad annoyed. Not at the person being ‘put in the doghouse’, but yeah.

Though the first definition is FAR more common so..shrugs.

Anyways Bridgette innocent . People would take those two sentences Geoff said and treat it like Geoff said “she throws me in a cage and doesn’t let me eat” be so real. Plus arguably Geoff was worse to her. What he did during TDA outweighs everything she did INCLUDING the cheating. I don’t stand for body shaming buddy

[gothikaxenon]

How I would recast the Total Drama characters as DC Comic characters

Gwen - Raven

Trent - Jericho

Geoff - Aquaman

Bridgette - Mera

Lindsay - Starfire

Heather - Blackfire

Leshawna - Bumblebee

Courtney - Star Sapphire

Duncan - Red X

Izzy - Poison Ivy

Cody - Beastboy

Noah - Brainiac 5

Ezekiel - Larfleeze

Dawn - Enchantress

Dakota - Supergirl

Mike/Mal - Two-Face

Anne Maria - Isis

Scarlett - Lena Luthor

Amy - Killer Frost

Shawn - Deadman

Sugar - Giganta

Sky - Wonder Girl

Jen - Zatanna

Tom - Lightray

Brody - Lagoon Boy

Kitty - Doctor Light

Crimson - Nightshade

Valentina “MacArthur” - Big Barda

Carrie - Miss Martian

Devin - Superboy

Dwayne Jr. - Kid Flash

Lauren “Scary Girl” - Harley Quinn

Mary Kate “MK” - Livewire

Julia - Golden Glider

Hezekias “Zee” - Plastic Man

Damien - Mister Terrific

Axel - Ravager

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Whats your beef with the other babes?

Oh boy. This is a simple question with a complicated answer, so buckle up.

First thing I need you to understand is how personal beetlebabes is for me. It was my childhood comfort movie. My mother tells the story of how I used to cry when the wedding was interrupted. Beetlebabes was the first fanfiction I ever read/wrote. Lydia was the first character I ever attempted to roleplay in my Myspace days when I was a preteen discovering fandom and the internet. The Burton fan chat I was apart of in those days (full of assumed beetlebabes shippers bc back then, if you were a fan, people just assumed you shipped it bc why else would you even be there?) was my first online friend group. Beetlebabes fanfiction is where I learned how to write and earned my first taste of clout. Beetlebabes made a heavy resurgence in my 20's with the release of the musical and the consequential fallout, and taught me hard lessons about who I want to be and who I want to surround myself with.

It has permeated every area of my life from infancy to adulthood. It's not like my other ships; easily forgotten, a passing fancy to entertain myself. Beetlebabes is an allegory. Lydia is every damaged little goth girl. Lydia is me.

And I had a rough childhood. I've had a rough life period. Things have been better the last 5+ years and are looking damn near perfect now, but overall it's not been a picnic. Name an abuse and I have endured it: physical, sexual, psychological, financial. Details aren't necessary or wanted here I think, but the context matters to answer the question.

The next important concept I need you to understand is what a "puritanbabe" is. They existed pre-musical and were just as annoying then but with BJ2 their numbers have grown along with their volume and stupidity. They're basically just antis in a beetlebabes hat. To me, an anti is someone who follows a certain morally bankrupt code of ethics, not someone who dislikes a ship. I dislike plenty of ships and I'm not a fucking anti.

Antis believe that fictional taste can be used to weed out and persecute thought criminals: people who think the wrong way. These people believe that it is not only acceptable, but necessary to disrespect, bully, and ostracize anyone who makes beetlebabes content that they find distasteful i.e. non/dubcon/underage.

So. Canon-based content.

This impossibly stupid demographic has made it their mission to normalize the erasure of the canon universe because it offends their delicate sensibilities. To be perfectly clear, I have no issue with vanilla aged up content. Some of my favorite beetlebabes fics meet that criteria. My beef is with the hypocrisy. It's about the attitude. These people think they're better than me on the basis of skewed morals, but I think they're fake fans who don't even like Betelgeuse and have deluded themselves as to who these characters are, who created them, and what the story is even about.

This is the type of person who typically hates dreamverse theory because it invalidates their platonic Betelgeuse in movie one headcanon, as well as the possibility of BJ3 ever happening. The amount of harassment I've gotten over a fan theory is staggering.

And let me remind everyone that no matter how badly you want it, Tim does not want to make BJ3 and there's a good reason for that. I see the constant pleading for it as disrespectful at worst, mentally lazy at best. Everything we could ever need to be happy forever exists in BJ2, and we didn't deserve any of it, but these bitches are un-fucking-grateful. They really think that if they beg enough and are annoying enough, there's going to be a BJ3 where Lydia and BJ get married for realsies and live happily ever after...and I can't work with that kind of delusion. There's no communicating with that.

I believe the drama that this uppity, self-righteous sector of fandom brings is part of why Tim used "MacArthur Park" to break up with us. He doesn't want anything to do with us and I don't blame him. This is a man that holds grudges. He has been known to lash out artistically. If studios force him to make BJ3 against his will, it will not be pretty for anyone, especially the shippers who were not grateful for the bounty that was BJ2.

It's also important to understand that I read a lot. My time on the internet is relegated to discord, AO3, and sometimes Tumblr. That's it. So when I say that the majority of beetlebabes fic kinda sucks, it's coming from someone with incredibly high standards. I'm not trying to hurt feelings(unless you're an asshole anon), I'm just giving the honest assessment of someone who spends all their downtime reading. There are younger monsterfucker ships with oodles more interesting, in-character content than beetlebabes, and if there were less puritanbabes spouting holier-than-thou bullshit, maybe more people would feel safer creating canonically accurate, quality content.

I'm also not taking any musical content into consideration because I don't like the musical and don't read it. As far as I'm concerned, it's an entirely separate fandom.

In closing, I've been here a long time. You spend enough time sitting still in the same place saying the same controversial thing and you'll amass plenty of friends and enemies both. They come and go. There are interpersonal beefs spanning years. There are people out there crying over hurt feelings I've forgotten, things I said to them while they were harassing me on anon that were wiped from my brain as soon as I clicked "post."

It's just the way it is. When it comes to other babes, I return the energy I am given.

Sorry for the novel. I'm sure you weren't expecting this and probably don't care that much.

[matttgirlies]

Matt & Me🎀

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a story heavily based on Priscilla Presley’s Book “Elvis & Me” based in the 1950’s - 1970’s.

fem! reader x singer! matt

disclaimer!! - in no way am i saying matt would ever support or do these kind of things, for the sake of the book certain unethical things do happen at times.

warnings - sexual refrences, drug usage

y/nn = your nickname for any confusion🩷

Chapter 9

Matt sent two first-class plane tickets. My father took a leave of absence from his duties in Germany, and we flew off to Los Angeles, where Matt was filming Fun in Acapulco.

We stayed at the Bel Air Sands Hotel, and Matt was the perfect host. He’d pick us up in either a white Rolls-Royce or his famous gold Cadillac and take us on a sightseeing tour along the ocean to Malibu or into Hollywood.

My father was impressed with Matt’s hospitality, but not enough to forget why he was there—to talk about my education and my future at Graceland. Matt didn’t want to jeopardize the deal they had already made, and every time my father brought up my schooling, Matt would find a Hollywood landmark to point out.

“And over there, Captain,” he said, changing the subject as we cruised down Hollywood Boulevard, “is Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I’m sure you’ve heard of that. If you get out here, you can see all the stars of your era, their handprints and footprints. There’s Betty Grable, you remember her, don’t you? Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy’s friend, and if you look hard enough, you might spot Trigger’s hoofprint.” As my father stepped out of the car, Matt added, “I don’t think MacArthur’s are there yet, but I’m working on it.” We all laughed at the incongruity of General MacArthur bending over the wet concrete next to Jane Russell.

After a few days, my father and I flew to Boston and he and James enrolled me in the school Matt had chosen, Immaculate Conception, an all-girls high school, while Matt himself remained in L.A. to finish the film.

Before I left, he assured me that he’d be home soon and that he’d see me in a few weeks.

Matt and I planned to live together at Graceland eventually, but we’d told my parents that I would be staying with James and Angela, so when I arrived in Boston, I moved into their home. James assured my father that I’d be in good hands and not to worry.

The concerned look on my father’s face moved me. It was such a helpless look filled with doubts and fears about whether he was making the right decision. Only time would tell. He returned to Germany and I settled into my new routine.

In the beginning James drove me to and from school, where word of my identity soon leaked out. As I walked down the hallway, heads would turn and whispers would start. Once, a note that was being passed in study hall ended up on the floor. I saw my name on it and picked it up.

“Her name’s y/n,” I read. “She’s supposed to be Matt Sturniolo’s new girlfriend. If we make friends with her, maybe she’ll introduce us to him. Oh, God, wouldn’t that be neat!”

I didn’t know who the writer was, but I couldn’t mistake the meaning. The friendly smiles concealed intentions to get to Matt through me. Consequently, I was afraid to get close to anyone at school, and began to feel lonely and unhappy.

Living with James and Angela was also difficult. I felt out of place in their home, and did not want to be an intrusion in their personal life. I began spending more time with Grandma at Graceland, often staying all night, and gradually, almost unnoticed, I began to move in my things. By the time Matt suggested that I move into Graceland, I already had.

But living on “the hill,” as we called it, was isolated. The only people there were Grandma and the maids, and during the day, the secretaries, Becky Yancy and Patsy Sturniolo. Patsy was Matt’s double first cousin (her mother was Mary Lou’s sister and her father was James’s brother) and also served as James’s confidante. We were close, and after school I would go into the office to talk with her and Becky. But James felt my visits kept the girls from working and finally he put a sign on the door specifying: no one belongs in the office unless they work there, or have an appointment. I knew that meant me too, so I curtailed my visits.

There were other restrictions. I was told that I couldn’t have girlfriends over because strangers weren’t allowed in the house. One day, I was severely criticized for sitting under the trees on the front lawn. I was playing with Honey, the poodle Matt had given me for Christmas, when a friend of Angela’s drove up and told me that I was making a public display of myself.

Even at school, I felt restricted because James was still chauffeuring me there and back. Without my own car, I couldn’t leave the school grounds to take a drive at lunch or when my classes were cut short. At last I asked James if I could use Matt’s Lincoln Mark V and reluctantly, he agreed.

That evening I went for a drive. With the radio blaring and the windows wide open I sped down Highway 51 South, enjoying my newfound independence. I pulled up in front of Patsy Sturniolo’s house and said, “Hop in. Let’s go for a drive.”

Patsy introduced me to Leonard’s Drive-In, where we would spend at least one night a week when we didn’t go bowling or to a movie. But I went out less frequently when the two hundred dollars that my father had given me rapidly began slipping through my fingers. Matt had assured my father not to worry about money, that if I needed any, his father would give it to me. So, with gas added to my expenses, I had no choice but to approach James, as Matt had instructed me.

Hesitantly I walked into his office. I was nervous about talking to James, who had a sharp tongue and said exactly what he thought. Finally I said, “Mr. Sturniolo, I was wondering if I could have some money. I’m spending a lot on gas, which doesn’t leave much for anything else.”

“How much do you think you need?” he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“I  . . . I don’t know,” I stammered.

He thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, I’ll give you thirty-five dollars. How does that sound?”

Thirty-five dollars sounded fine at the moment, but it didn’t go very far, not with movie tickets, gas, and clothes to buy. Two weeks later I asked him for money to go out with Patsy.

“Hot damn,” he snapped. “Didn’t I just give you thirty-five dollars?”

“That was two weeks ago, Mr. Sturniolo. I can’t stretch it any further than that.”

He stared angrily at me and then his face softened.

“Well, I guess things can get pretty expensive,” he said, counting out another thirty-five dollars. “Now you and Patsy be careful driving out there. You know there’s a lot of accidents on that highway. Why don’t you call me when you get to the theater?”

At the time his caution surprised me, but remembering what Matt had said about Mary Lou, I knew that this was also typical of the rest of the Sturniolos. They always felt better if you called when you arrived at your destination and again before you left for home.

Matt phoned later that evening. In the course of the conversation he asked, “How are you doing on cash, Baby?”

“Funny you should ask that,” I said, mentioning his father’s reaction when I asked for money.

Matt started laughing. “That’s my dad. He’s always been tight. Getting money from him is worse than going to the local bank, even if you’ve got good credit. That’s why I have him taking care of my bills. Every penny’s accounted for. I wouldn’t trust anybody else. Too many thieves. Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to him.”

I ended up laughing too. Matt’s sense of humor was contagious. He laughed about things that often wouldn’t make sense to anyone else, yet anyone around him would usually end up laughing too.

Unfortunately, Matt forgot to speak to his father. Rather than ask for handouts, I resolved to earn my own money. I began modeling part-time at a boutique near Graceland. When I told Matt about my job, he said, “You’re gonna have to give it up.”

“But I’m enjoying it,” I said.

“It’s either me or a career, Baby. Because when I call you, I need you to be there.”

I quit the modeling job the next day, which left me with very little to do. I started spending even more time in Grandma’s room. I liked being with her. She was always in her favorite chair, ready to share her loving stories about Matt.

Most of them dealt with his early years and the family’s struggle against poverty. Suffering and worry seemed to be the very fabric of Sturniolo’s lives. Any time Matt failed to call home for two days in a row, they worried that something terrible had happened to him in California. Matt’s enormous success and wealth notwithstanding, they were convinced that some misfortune was going to snatch it all away from them. Sometimes all this talk of suffering depressed me.

My only relief was Patsy Sturniolo, and I went to her every chance I got. But then Grandma complained that she was being neglected. She reminded me that Matt’s old girlfriends used to stay with her every single night he was gone. Torn, I couldn’t wait for Matt’s return.

I anxiously waited for his call. It usually came in the early evening.

“Hi, Baby. How’s my girl?” he asked, his voice bright and full of energy.

Happy to hear from him, I said, “I’m fine, Matt.” I tried to mention how lonely I was, but he cut in. “It won’t be long, Baby. Just a few more weeks, and we’ll be wrapping up.”

“I’m glad. I’ll be so happy to see you.”

“Well, then, let me hear some enthusiasm.” He began describing a silly incident that had taken place on the set that day, trying to make me laugh.

I wanted to say, “Matt, talk to me, help me get through these new experiences.” But I realized that he didn’t want to hear about my problems. He felt he had enough of his own. When he asked me how I was doing, I became very animated and said, “Just great, Matt. Everything is wonderful.”

But when we hung up, I still felt an emptiness. I began counting the days until he came home.

After several delays Matt finished Fun in Acapulco and headed back to Graceland. Still afraid of flying, he traveled with the entourage in his huge, custom-built bus, the same one we’d taken to Vegas the year before. At every stop he called Graceland with a progress report. “I’m in Flagstaff now,” he said. “Only a few more days and I’ll be home. How’s my Little Girl doing?”

With each day’s phone call I became increasingly excited. I awaited Matt’s arrival with open arms and a big smile.

Finally one evening he called and said he’d be pulling in around midnight. By ten o’clock, fans were already waiting at the gate. How they found out was a mystery. I was among a small group of his friends and relatives gathered in the living room. All of us peered impatiently out the large window facing the long circular driveway.

I had been hoping that our reunion would be intimate, romantic. But I could now see that it was not to be, and I wondered if Matt would be upset that so many people were around.

By twelve-thirty, the fans at the gate started shrieking and the powerful glaring lights of the bus swept the driveway. Matt was behind the wheel and smoothly brought the bus to a halt. He was the first one out and he came through the front door like a shot.

“Where’s my girl?” he called out, looking around for me.

“Hello,” I said. It seemed more like months than weeks since I’d last seen him.

“Hello?” he echoed in a mocking voice, coming up to me. “I’ve been gone all this time and all you can say is ‘hello’?” Then he lifted me into the air, kissing and hugging me. “God, it’s good to be home.” He looked around and saw his grandma.

“Dodger, you waited up for me too, bless your heart.” He hugged her and patted the back of her head. Then he greeted the rest of the household. Matt could be extremely affectionate, and this particular night he had hugs for everyone.

With his arrival, Graceland sprang to life. The maids started cooking, and the boys were talking, greeting their wives and girlfriends, and soon they were bringing in the luggage and unpacking it.

After being alone so long, I found this sudden intensity and energy overpowering. I stood amid the commotion, watching Matt go upstairs, as he called out to Pauline, “O Five, what’s for dinner?”

I didn’t know whether to follow him or wait. I didn’t want to appear too excited, so I stayed downstairs until I heard, “y/nn, come up here.” Then I couldn’t get up those stairs fast enough.

We had a few quiet moments together in his room. He asked how I was doing, if I liked school, and if his dad was taking care of me. I started to tell him everything I hadn’t been able to on the phone, that I had missed him, that I had been lonely, that I really wanted to find a job. Then I stopped myself. This wasn’t what Matt wanted to hear.

After a few minutes of talking about Grandma, he kissed me and said, “Well, let’s join the others and eat.”

When we got downstairs the rooms that for weeks had been so quiet were now filled with guests laughing and cracking jokes.

Graceland was—as local DJ George Klein put it—ready to rock and roll.

We had a down-home meal of pork chops, cornbread, home fries, and crowder peas. While we were sitting around the table, local friends dropped by to visit and to catch up on all the gossip about Matt’s latest movie.

“Goddamn, she was a big woman,” Matt was saying about his costar. “Body like a man—no hips, and shoulders broader than mine. I was embarrassed to take my goddamn shirt off next to her.”

“Yeah, but M,” Alan Smith kidded him, “she only had eyes for you.”

“No way, Son, not with John Derek lurking all over the place. I’d be goddamned if I’d start a conversation with her and see his possessive eyes glaring at me. You know he gave her a car, and on the steering wheel it said, ‘Baby, you’re indispensable.’ Head over heels in love with her. Never saw anything like it.”

I was surprised to hear how Matt was talking about Ursula Andress, the alluring sex goddess of Dr. No.

“Wasn’t she pretty?” I asked.

“Pretty?” he snickered. “Hell, she had a bone structure so sharp, it could cut you in half if you turned too fast.”

Everyone howled, including me. Matt’s stories went on for hours. Again I felt out of touch with the conversation and wished I had some colorful stories of my own. I kept wondering when we were going to have some time alone. My world consisted solely of him. I sat quietly, happily observing him. Whenever he winked at me or gave my hand a little squeeze, I returned the gesture, thinking, now? Does he want me to leave, so he can follow me? But then he’d lean back in his chair and begin telling another story.

It was almost dawn before he yawned and said, “Well, we better get some sleep.”

We all rose from the table. He looked over at me, smiled, and said, “Do I have to write a note for school saying you were sick today? Think they’d believe me?”

Everyone laughed—and I blushed.

He put his arm around my waist as we made our way up the staircase to his room. If I appeared cool it was because I was mindful of something he’d once told me: He detested aggressive women. In fact, I was ecstatic. I’m finally going to be alone with him, I thought. All the phone calls, the worrying, the anticipation, and the delays are now over.

I got ready for bed at least fifteen minutes before he came out of his bathroom. He counted out his usual number of sleeping pills and took them one at a time. “Why are you taking those now?” I asked. “You’ll fall asleep.” I had plans, and the last thing I wanted was for him to doze off.

“Don’t worry. It’ll take a while for them to take effect.” He handed me a pill. “Here, just take one of these and you’ll get a good night’s sleep. It’s okay since you’re not going to school this morning.” He cautioned, “I wouldn’t advise it on school nights though.”

I looked at the red monster, remembering my earlier experience with it. “It won’t knock me out for ten days, will it?” I smiled at him as I swallowed the pill. It gave me a nice feeling. My body tingled. I was light-headed but more in control this time.

Snuggled in Matt’s arms, I was happy to be near him, his warm body against mine. Because of the sleeping pill, I could feel my inhibitions dissolving.

“How’s my Little Girl been?” He was speaking very softly now. “I’ve missed her. Has she been good?”

“Yes, she’s been good,” I said. “But she’s been waiting for you. It’s been so lonely here. She couldn’t wait to be in your arms, and she’s been thinking about you so much.”

“Shhh, don’t say anything else. I know you’ve missed me. I want you to just be here with me now and don’t think about anything else. Let’s enjoy each other.”

I was aware of the distant hum of the air conditioner, the music from the radio, the soft glow of the dim lights. Gently and tenderly he began to touch me.

He was passionate and again seemed to be making up for lost time. I felt sure the night would end with Matt finally making love to me. I was drunk with ecstasy. I wanted him. I became bolder, reaching out to him, totally open and honest in my need.

Then, as before when we’d reach this point, he stopped and whispered, “Don’t get carried away, Baby. Let me decide when it should happen. It’s a very sacred thing to me. It always has been. You know that I want it to be something to look forward to. It keeps the desire there. Do you know what I mean?”

I sat up in anger. “What about Nicole?” I yelled. “You mean you didn’t make love to her the whole four years you went with her?”

“Just to a point. Then I stopped. It was difficult for her too, but that’s just how I feel.”

“That’s how you feel. What about me? How long do you think this can go on? God, Matt, that takes a lot of willpower. That’s asking a lot of another person, one who’s in love and has strong, healthy desires.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we can’t do other things. It’s just the actual encounter. I want to save it.”

Fearful of not pleasing him—of destroying my image as his little girl—I resigned myself to the long wait.

Instead of consummating our love in the usual way, he began teaching me other means of pleasing him. We had a strong connection,  much of it sexual. The two of us created some exciting and wild times.

Excerpt from: "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Scribd.

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a/n - i think im going to start doing longer chapters🎀