#ms moynihan

[victor-veloci-simp-69]

Episode 1:

I've always loved the intro song ngl. A good intro song makes me love a cartoon. That's how W.I.T.C.H and Huntik got me

Fiona gets to class. Ms Moynihan says she broke three rules. She says this before Fiona bites her apple. Fiona then says that's only two and then misses her shot, making three. This inplies that Fiona either does this regularly, or that Ms Moynihan has some form of clairvoyance.

(The clairvoyance thing could make some absolutely fantastic fanfiction ngl. *writes that down* oooh, I have IDEAS now) anyway, back to episode

The fact that Fiona only took one bite of that apple bothers me

Oh man, that bio class room looks almost exactly like the one I had in high school.

Oooooh yaayyyy! Mah Boi is here!!! Stripey gay boi

Okay, first off:

This place looks like a giant OSHA violation.

Regardless of that (Peter, go fix this giant OSHA violation. Hey, maybe that's why we never see him again, he's too busy fixing the questionable workplace) those scientists look properly enriched.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE THINGS IN THE TUBES THEY LOOK LIKE THEY'RE FROM BEN 10 I SWEAR TO GOD THAT LOOKS LIKE SWAMPFIRE.

On that note, why do we never see Veloci's creepy test tube creatures??? His scientists worked hard on The Horrors

The one on the pink test tube looks like the rose from beauty and the beast

Is that a fucking rail track. I think I remember that one featuring in an ep, but I could be wrong. If I'm right then why was the continuity placed here and not on anything else???

"I got into business to swim with the sharks, not be eaten by them"

Me: Oh, you're declining it? Unexpected.

Peter: I'm in!

Me: ???

That bit of dialogue has always thrown me off. Its the clunkiness.

Bye Peter. It was nice to meet you.

"Break into your usual groups". The dinosquad comes together but kinda acts like they've never interacted before.

Max and Roger seem like they've teamed up before tho.

Caruso at 4:21 is barefoot. He has shoes on at 4:26. We know he had no time to put shoes on and off and on because he's barefoot when he leans over and drops his jacket. When he picks it up he has shoes on again.

...why did they all (I understand Caruso getting his jacket and Buzz getting thrown in) go into the water????

Roger says "nah, I ain't getting in" and then not only gets in the water but throws buzz in.

(The fact that Roger throws Buzz in the water which later results in him becoming a Dino is a great angst fic waiting to happen. If Roger hadn't thrown him in, he would still have been living a normal life)

Ms Moynihan shows up and goes " I thought I made it clear no one was to go in the water"

First off, that was never shown on screen and I don't like that

With the context of dinosquad as a whole, this kind of implies she knows Veloci is dumping his nuclear jizz in the water

I guess it could also be because she didn't want wet students on the bus, but still.

Wait. If no one was suppose to go in the water, and there doesn't seem to be an area with tide pools, then Caruso's stupid sushi list is even more useless since fish don't count.

Anyway, MY BABY RUMP!!! BOOBOO! I LOVE YOU BABY! MY BABY!!!

Hnnngg sexy library I wants please I will crawl into my computer just let me at that library I can live with dinosaur shenanigans. (But can I live with redoing high school? No.)

"Young man, if you don't remember, this is a library 😡 "

My brother in christ, what horrors have you been through that you hear a dinosaur roar and conclude that that is the sound a normal teenager makes naturally.

Caruso's jacket gets shredded. He immidiately blames the dry cleaners. Bro, it was whole when you put it in your locker. What

Fiona gets a tail and it sticks out her truck window. My good bitch, how did you not feel the cold air on your tail???

The fact that Buzz waves his arms while playing video games is kinda adorable

The fact that Ms Moynihan showed them what happened telepathically leaves a lot of possibility for her to leave certain things out and show them only what she wants them to see and think.

And besides that, its also kinda fucked up. There are implications here. My brain is a little fried to parse them all, but there are implications. I know it.

Ohhh!! The cave has a light source! That implies that there are two entrances, which solves my age old question of how tf did they get out of that cave.

Oh holy shit. Young Ms Moynihan is HOT

...she looks a lot like Caruso. Hmmm. Formulating THOUGHTS tm

You think that (if the story she tells is actually true and not her lying to hide a bigger truth that she doesn't want them to know about) Ms Moynihan and Veloci gained the ability to transform because of. Idk. Space radiation or something?

Cuz your genes don't just. Mutate. For no reason. This backstory feels fake af. I think she just lied bc she knew her students knew fuck all about biology and would believe anything

Why did ms Moynihan change foreheads. Did she want to be inclusive and touch everyone's forehead or is she afraid their brains can only handle so much... or did they refuse to hold hands like she asked and now she has to switch foreheads?

"You're a vicious Carnivore!"

"I've moved past that but there is one who hasn't: Victor Veloci"

Might be because I'm getting back into twilight, but this gives off major Vegetarian Vampires vs Normal Vampires vibes.

In this case, Ms Moynihan is Dr Carlisle Cullen and Victor Veloci is Aro Volturi.

"What do you believe?"

Ms Moynihan: "Humans gained dominance because brute force lost out to reason...and love. That's why I parted ways with Veloci long ago."

I smell a Secret. I smell Tea. Spill. I can practically hear tragic dramatic backstory. Was this a "I fell in love story" or a "Veloci didn't care about me" story. Ms Moynihan sounds bitter.

Also, the sheer contempt in her voice when she talks about Victor Veloci. Say what you will about Dinosquad, but it has some pretty good voice acting sometimes.

Max: "I don't want to be a dinosaur"

Ms Moynihan: this is bigger than you, this is about saving the world.

"Can you cure us?"

"Yeah"

Roger: "But I want to stop Victor Veloci :( "

Ms Moynihan mentally: *nevermind, ya'll are too stupid to help me save the world. What was I thinking*

(Genuinely a very confusing arguement. People changed opinions so quickly damn. Not even a line space in between)

"I can't afford all the fancy tech Veloci has" <takes them to her lighthouse filled with huge computers and monitoring equiptment> hmmm. Ms M, I'mma assume you banged some rich bitches in your time and inherited, because no way can you affort a lighthouse on a teacher's salary.

Conclusion: Ms M is loaded.

"The cold forces the Dino DNA to the skin as it seeks warmth" um. That's ominous. It makes the DNA sound like a living parasite. Ugh

Ms Moynihan definitely faked "curing them". She is way too calm about the situation. She was very insistent on them helping her fight Veloci before. And the fact that she could cure literally everything else except for them is sus.

That Megalodon shark was trolling ngl

Veloci sees Fiona as dino: this can only be bc of my experimental dna...or....

That 'or' implies things. Ms Moynihan things.

The fact that Veloci sees the Dinosaurs but not the squad turning into dinosaurs the dinosaurs. Like, by the time Ms Moynihan jammed the feed several transformations have already taken place

Veloci ending with his ominous ass "can't wait to find out more about my new dinosaur friends" is so fun. Love him. Dramatic ass fuck. Ominous. Very sexy.

[choccochocco]

Hey, please tell me your thoughts on Dinosquad, I want to hear them so much.

I love/reluctantly watch it

So many inaccuracies. The autism episode was a one off, they should've had more disability representation. I think it would've been cool if ms Moynihan was an amputee. If she and veloci have been around for that long, one of them is bound to have lost a limb at some point, and I don't want it to be Victor, disabled villain trope and all. (If they rewrite and make her an amputee) They should also consult an amputee when writing ms Moynihan. She should also have a bunch of trauma of we're assuming that she lived through both ww1 and ww2

I want an episode where they slowly piece this together, and they realise that she's better at hiding it than they thought. They also debate getting her therapy, but realise she'll be seen as mad (not just the dino thing, but the experiencing ww1 and ww2), so they take it upon themselves to learn how to help, they learn from ms Moynihan that she prefers them to communicate what they're doing, as she was concerned about them potentially slacking. Or it's better written, as I don't know her character all too well

I ramble, sorry (but not really)

I think I love the concept of it, and wish to at least vocalise (? This is a text post so idk) how I wish it was done. also, hc that Victor only transforms his head in front of employees bc his raptor form embarasses him because they expect him to be bigger, and his intimidation no longer works (rewrite au)

[al-gay-tor]

I think Fiona might be a bit upset at Veloci

[hotratking5592]

Made one for Ms. Moynihan. I wish she got more screen time as a Dino, I love her color pallet.

[rerarlo]

Magical meteor radiation is actually an interesting explanation for what happened with those two. Maybe the radiation massively de-stabilized their dna which lead to them not only rapidly adapting to their environment (aka turning into humans over time and the telepathy) but also being able to shapeshift. That de-stabilization could also account for the long lifespan as aging is (as i understand it and in an extremely over-simplified manner) the imperfect replication of cells eventually stacking up and leading to degradation. Which could be nullified by their genes going haywire. In a reboot this could also be a chance to eventually introduce other dinosaurs who survived as enemies or allies or simply one off characters. (Maybe they even shape shifted into other things like a T-Rex turning into a bird of prey or something) also I have not seen that old Dinosaur sit com at all or even heard about it- why was that child so violent??

Time to feed the DinoSquad Fandom a little.

Have a sketch-esk re-draw of the circling scene in the last episode and little character sketches for the scrungle Veloci and tired teacher Moynihan. I gave her wrinkled because i can.

[joanne-the-mothersaurus]

Read my story! It's pretty good, I promise. I try to update every week.

Mostly Inaccurate Quotes from the story (mild spoilers):

Veloci: I like my humans like I like my coffee. Moynihan: And how's that... Veloci: Roasted, ground, boiled, and cold. Moynihan: Ah.

Rodger looking at Rexy: Hey Max, maybe she's cougar. Max: STFU Rexy: GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN YOU WHIPPERSNAPPERS

Caruso *ogling some cute girls AND a cute guy tour guide* Girls make fun of Buzz Also Caruso: NOW SEE HERE, YOU TRAGICALLY UNFASHIONABLE BITCHES

Victor Veloci: Dr. Wu! It's so good to see you. Would you care to join me for dinner? Henry Wu:...I'm not the dinner, am I? Veloci: Whatever gave you that idea?

Veloci: Hey Masrani, it would look really sick if you got in that helicopter and saved us all. Do it for the gram.

Owen Grady: *random primate noises* Blue: Hey Dad, you ever considered maybe speaking raptor for once? Joanne: Sorry dear, he's not that smart. Blue: WHATTHEFUU------

(Maybe) Blue muttering: Overgrown chew toy... Bumpy:....bitch

[honey-minded-hivemind]

@crowwithguns @thewickedweiner @sugar-soda @dinosquad-central

Hey, psst... Should I do OG Dino Squad as platonic yanderes?

You'd have Ms. Moynihan your suspicious teacher who's also an old old OLD velociraptor who is supposedly NOT evil or suspicious at all; you have the Five Idiots, erm, Friends: Max the leader who likes football and can turn into a Tyrannosaurus rex; Rodger who likes inventing and can turn into a Styracosaurus; Caruso the diva who can turn into a Stegosaurus; Fiona the sports enthusiast who can turn into a Spinosaurus; and Buzz the lover of odd animals who can turn into a Pterosaur; you also have Victor Veloci, definitely suspicious velociraptor a CEO who wants to bring back dinosaurs and mutate the world and its animals and knew Ms. Moynihan in the past, long long long ago...

(This show was kinda... not the greatest with writing or story arcs or character development or personality beyond one dimensional, but hey, the concept was awesome, and you should watch the show for free on YouTube!)

(No clue how long I'll be on for Dino Squad, but woo! It's a fun idea to imagine them as a but darker than the show! And maybe with extra personality and backstory)

(Gooooooooo~ GO DINO!)

[disneytva]

The Walt Disney Company Earns Multiple Animation Nominations At Children’s & Family Emmys 2024 As The Ceremony Moves To Spring 2025

The Children’s & Family Emmys are on the move. As the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the nominations for the 3rd annual event, it also announced that the ceremonies would take place on March 15 in Los Angeles. (The competition’s first two years were held in December.)

As for the nominations themselves, leading the charge was Disney+’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” with 16 nods — including for young teen series, where it faces off with “Goosebumps” in terms of animation Disney Animation Divisions like Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney Television Animation, Disney EMEA Animation, Disney Junior Educational And Inclusion, Marvel Animation and Lucasfilm Animation

BEST CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG TEEN ANIMATED SERIES

-Kiff

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

BEST SHORT FORM ANIMATED PROGRAM

-How NOT To Draw

-I Am Groot

-Once Upon A Studio

-The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse In Steamboat Silly

BEST VOICE PERFORMER IN A PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

-Bobby Moynihan as Bobby Boots - Pupstruction

-Kari Wahlgren as Granny Caterina, Ms. Poochytail & Magda - SuperKitties

VOICE PERFORMER IN A CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG TEEN PROGRAM

-Ben Feldman as Tylor Tuskmon - Monsters at Work

YOUNGER VOICE PERFORMER IN A PRESCHOOL, CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG TEEN PROGRAM

Simisola Gbadamosi as Tola Martins - Iwájú

BEST WRITING FOR A CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG TEEN ANIMATED SERIES

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur - Dancing With Myself

-Hailey's On It! - I Wanna Dance With My Buddy

BEST DIRECTING FOR AN ANIMATED SERIES

-Monsters At Work - “Descent Into Fear”

-Iwáju - “Kole”

-Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire: “Moremi”

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur - “The Molecular Level”

VOICE DIRECTING FOR AN ANIMATED SERIES

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur -Monsters At Work

-Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures

BEST MUSIC DIRECTION AND COMPOSITION FOR AN ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures

BEST ORIGINAL SONG FOR A A PRESCHOOL ANIMATED PROGRAM

-“Let Your Wish Carry You Away” - Alice's Wonderland Bakery

BEST SONG FOR A CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG TEEN PROGRAM

-“Kiss Your Friend” - Hailey’s On It!

-“Things” - Kiff

BEST EDITING FOR A PRESCHOOL ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures

BEST EDITING FOR AN ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

-The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse In Steamboat Silly

SOUND MIXING AND SOUND EDITING FOR A PRESCHOOL ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures

SOUND MIXING AND SOUND EDITING FOR AN ANIMATED PROGRAM

-I Am Groot

BEST CASTING FOR AN ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Monsters at Work

[dinosquad-central]

Did… did she just jump on the first humans to get turned into dinosaurs and straight-up lie about not being able to turn them back so that she could have help stopping Veloci?

Because that… might actually make sense…

Anyone ever think the reason the squad are perfect dinos is cause moinaham used her psychic powers on them?

[choccochocco]

Imagine dinos squad, but accurate dinosaurs. Would it be better if dr veloci was normal size for a velociraptor, or had gigantism?

Or if ms. Moynihan had some health complication that meant that she couldn’t fight veloci without it taking a toll on her, so she pretended to be on his side for a while to bide herself time?

what if they hunted together (or dino dated) and that’s one of the reasons he didn’t hunt her down earlier. As in, he felt too guilty to use her as an experiment early on in his science thing, and he is too conflicted about it, so she got away, and he didn’t use her dna to make a dino army

imagine a role swap au, veloci being the teacher/ kind of parent figure to the squad, and ms Moynihan is the evil scientist.

[al-gay-tor]

Biblically accurate Veloci and Moynihan + my actual designs for them

[dinosquad-central]

You know what? I actually didn’t consider that, but your absolutely right! She just went “Welp, looks like ye cannae be cured” and never tried again???

So it was kind of implied that the reason the DinoSquad became “perfect dinos” was because they were humans who got mutated rather than animals, right? So how come when Veloci tried to mutate all those football players none of them became perfect dinos? And if it wasn’t them being human that made them perfect dinos then what was it? It couldn’t have been something in that specific batch of ooze, or else rump and that megalodon would’ve been proper dinos rather than dino mutants. And there had to have been some reason the ooze couldn’t be removed from them too, right?So what gives? I’m with Veloci on this one. I want to study them.

[wise-lizard-wizard]

thoughts on dino squad? (2007)

(btw it’s episodic. You can watch it in any order tbh (first episode is titled ‘the beginning’))

I absolutely adore it!

I run the account Victor-Veloci-Simp-69.

I've been thinking about linking it to my Main, purely bc when I reblog and reply on posts, it shows my main, so it seems like I don't interact with people as my DS account, which makes me sad because it feels like I might be interpreted as standoffish? But I never have time, and it feels insignificant to do so.

I watched the show when I was a kid, then rediscovered it a couple of years ago, and now every few years I rewatch it.

Its not Technically a "good" show but eh. I love it.

I think the reason why I'm so obsessed with the show is because (This going to get so long, I am so sorry, I have so many thoughts)

There are so much that is just never adressed. I have so many thoughts. There is so much to expand on, so many AUs that are there for the imagining.

I genuinely like the episodes. The plot is genuinely so much fun. The why's of these plots is...questionable. The how's is fun tho.

IT IS SO INCONSISTENT! Okay, not part of why I like it, but Ahhhhhhhhh. None of it makes sense. The characterization changes literally seconds apart!!!!! WHAT!!!!!

JUST FROM EPISODE 1: WHY IS BUZZ DEPICTED AS AN ANIMAL LOVER AND THEN GOES "NAH, I'M NOT SAVING THE DOG FROM DROWNING". This happens seconds Apart!!!!

Why does Roger act indifferent about the assignment and then say "we should work together on this assignment" and Care about the assignment. SECONDS APART!!!!!

THEN THERE'S THE ANIMATION! OH MY GOD. At 4:21, Caruso is shown barefoot. At 4:25 HE HAS SHOES ON.

Ms Moynihan after they get mutated goes: "I told u not to go into the water" NO YOU DIDN'T. YOU NEVER SAID THAT. WHY R U LYING.

(Okay, so she could have said that off screen,I'll give it a pass, but also Literally No Where was that message implied to have been said before she stated that. Also, that implies that she knows Veloci is regularly dumping shit in the water.)

Also, Veloci injects Peter in episode 1 and this is just...never adressed again? What does that do to Peter, besides his eyes changing? THERE IS NO EFFECT WHAT DOES IT DO, I DON’T REMEMBER SEEING THE GUY EVER AGAIN WHAT!!! WHY DID VELOCI DO THAT.

Since Peter was injected with the Ooze, but Veloci is looking for his "perfect dinosaurs", then that inplies Peter is a failed dino. What happened to him? I am in hysterics. What. DOES VELOCI JUST HAVE LIKE A BUNCH OF STAFF THAT ARE FAILED DINOS!!!? I HAVE QUESTIONS!!!

I AM....AHHHHHHHHHHHH....I am so normal about this hahahaha.

Which is probably why it sticks in my head so much. Any media I get obsessed with usually has some aspect that makes me want to rip apart a chair with my teeth. Half the fun is telling my friend about the thing that makes me choke in frustration/rage. I like ranting. Its part of the fun to me.

4) I love the animation style.

5) I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS, I AM CLAWING AT MY ENCLOSURE, HOW!!! HOW DID VELOCI AND MS M SURVIVE IN THAT CAVE???? WHERE THEY SLEEPING FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS??? IF SO, HOW WHERE THEY NEVER DISCOVERED BY HUMANS IN ALL THAT TIME?

AT WHAT POINT DID THEY AWAKEN? THROUGH WHAT TIME PERIODS HAVE THEY LIVED? HOW DID THEY EXPIERIENCE WORLD WAR 1? WORLD WAR 2? ALL THE TRAGEDIES? How did they get from point A to point B????

How did they get to their current lives?

There is so much that remains a mystery. And with the large amounts of time Veloci and Ms M had, there is so much thats just. Not there. There are so many gaps to fill. There are so many AUs that can happen. And with the inconsistencies, there are so many places where I can't image the characters are anything but either unreliable or maybe even straight up lying...

Oh, and that's the other thing:

5) They are all, and I mean every single character, Major Assholes. The assholiest. Their only consistent character trait is being an asshole. I love it.

Anyway, I am sooooi normal about this show. So normal.

Also, very important! I love your dinosquad posts!!!! They're really cool, and I love seeing you in the fandom! Just. Feel really gushy about your posts. Also, I always feel really happy when I see you liked one of my Dinosquad posts. Its a small fandom, so I always feel like I'm talking into a void.

I have more thoughts, but this post has gotte really long as is lmao. I am so sorry.

This ask meant a lot to me, so thanks ♥.

[farfromhome999]

Some SIlly Rambly Notes on Foxy Brown 

[WARNING: Mentions of SA]

The sexualization of Grier in this film is insane compared to today’s standards around revealing skin in film. The first time the audience sees her, she's in a see through fluffy orange night dress that she raises up to see her tiddies. I was shooketh. In this same scene though, we see her stash a gun in her bra, linking her sexuality to danger.

I AM. IN. LOOOOOOVE with Grier’s outfits in this movie. HOLY FUUUU-

Link, Foxy’s brother, was selling dope to try to answer the call of “all this ambition” that’s in him from seeing people in fancy homes with fancy lives. He’s upset because he doesn’t fit into any of the roles that may help him get there— he’s not smart enough to go into government, he’s not attractive enough to marry rich, etc. So he turns to drugs. This was such a hopeless moment. I almost felt bad for him. But then he decided to be an idiot.

When Link learns that Foxy’s boyfriend is still alive— a man the gang that’s after him has been looking for— he betrays his sister by giving the man up to save his own hide. Later in the film, when the gang members find Link, he tells them what Foxy is up to. One of the (white) men, upon hearing of Link’s actions up to that point, says, “That doesn’t make sense.” Another (white) man replies that “maybe those people don’t believe in family loyalty, Eddie.” This makes me think of the Moynihan report which discusses the ‘broken’ family structure of black families. It made me fume after having read Spillers’ response to it.

Foxy isn’t the only woman to use their sexuality to get what they want. The same goes for the leader of the gang, Ms. Carrie, and several of the smaller side characters who are similarly highly sexualized.

The film employs a lesbian to keep one of Foxy’s friends and accomplice at a bar. Foxy fights against a gaggle of women who are all readable as butch lesbians to get her accomplice away from them. This was the first time I’d seen such a depiction of people in the LGBTQ+ community. I’m really glad that we have better representation nowadays in the media.

Foxy telling a table full of men to “take care of the justice and. [she’ll] handle the revenge [herself]” because she’s the only one that wants to change things. This was a very starkly contrasted scene because it felt like Foxy was standing alone at the one end of the table with little back up.

Foxy as the Jezebel who lures the pilot of the plane to Mexico—where the gang is doing their next drug deal—in with her looks simply by sitting alone and twiddling her hair.

The final scene… just watch it: Foxy Brown (1974) End Of The Movie

[globaloscillations]

Rediscovering New York

Quite a while back now we grabbed tickets to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers live in New York at the Beacon Theater. Back on March 9th we made that trip and it was our first time in New York City proper since 2015. 🤯 For this particular trip Kristen and I, because it had been so long, kind of wanted to rediscover things and get our bearings on our own terms. It's fair to say though that it won't take us almost another almost entire decade to make it back. Though it pains the 'Boston is better rivalry' part of my soul to fully admit it was a fun adventure and there's a lot to explore we left planning our next trip.

At least some of my mind-shift on New York is based on the fact that in a lot of the best ways it feels kind of like another country. We took the train there, there's a bustling transit network, a unique culture, lots of dining and pubs, world class cuisine (mmm bagels LOL), and a seemingly endless amount of entertainment, landmarks, museums, etc. to explore. Our trip started by hopping on the Amtrak Acela and heading down the Northeast Corridor for a quick 3 and a half hour trip, perhaps the most Europe equivalent train journey you can make in the United States. You'd be unlikely to drive it in that time with typical traffic and if you did you'd of course miss out on "train beers." 😉 As a transit nerd aside one nice thing about the BOS-NYC section of the Northeast Corridor is it has some of the fastest sections of track on the whole corridor (except you Connecticut come on get with the program!). We emerged into the new 'Moynihan Train Hall' Amtrak's primary station in New York City (more on that later) and made our way to the cab stand for a short ride to our hotel in Chelsea.

We had more extensive plans from Saturday evening but by the time we made it to our hotel room and got settled the rain had started teeming down and we didn't really have the appetite for traipsing across the city. So we made our way to the 'Barcade' located a few doors down from our hotel. Apparently these are a chain across at least the NYC are and they're a lot like what they sound like. Overall the beer selection was good with a bunch of craft beer options on draught and the selections of games was fairly solid as well. There were classics like Frogger, Galaga, Ms. Pacman to pretty wild things like Sega Time Travler, Tron DISCs, and a Trivial Pursuit in arcade cabinet form. For me the highlights were a version of Tapper with the proper Budweiser branding both on the cabinet and in game as well as the Asteroids & Lunar Lander with the proper vector displays. To me the most unique thing I saw was an Apollo 13 pinball game which was very well themed and instead of having the standard pull to shoot the ball it had a replica of the Apollo Command Module abort handle that you had to twist to launch the ball, very unique. Overall we had fun imbibing, vibing, enjoying some above average nachos, and alternating between our favorite games. All in all a pretty solid date night we'd have to work harder than walking a few doors down to achieve at home. I certainly forget at times the convenience of city level density, not that it doesn't come with its inconveniences to.

Sunday morning we headed uptown and stopped for what else? BAGELS! I got in the epic line to order and it took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at in the display cooler...cream cheese like I've never seen it. Mountains of it in flavors I wouldn't have dared to imagine. Pretty wild honestly. 🤯 I placed our order and took a seat at the table Kristen had found. After a few minutes a guy came over not sure if he was the owner, manager, or just MC it is apparently a thing most legit bagel places in Manhattan have someone out on the floor to kind of keep order, mingle with tourists like us, direct traffic, add some local flavor to the experience, etc. He asked where we were from and told us an amusing story about a family that had been down from Massachusetts not long ago and were very hesitant to reveal their origin. LOL. He was like "Hey own it!" Absolutely. Honestly I've never had a hostile reaction to being in NY and from the Boston area. Maybe some good natured ribbing but I'll be the first to admit there ain't much of a Sox/Yankees rivalry these days and that's in favor of the Yankees with the Red Sox lagging the last several seasons.

After some delicious bagels, no one does it better than NY, we headed over to the Museum of Art and Design for an exhibit they've been running on Taylor Swift's various concert attire, outfits, fashion, artifacts. The collection was donated and curated by Swift herself. It's always interesting to see the genuine article for stuff like that. After the museum we headed back downtown to our hotel and as Kristen had some work to finish up I went the next block over to Smithfield Hall which is a soccer pub in NY and often home to Manchester United fans in NY area. Sadly United weren't playing but I caught the tail end of the Liverpool/City game and had a beer so I could say I did.

By this point it was time to head to dinner. I'd picked a place I thought looked good and we hopped a cab. Unfortunately when we got there it was apparently trivia night and there were no tables. My suburban proclivities were caught of guard by the concept of a trivia night on a Sunday but hey who am I to judge the customs of another culture? Since the place happened to have a Cask Ale on I had one before we headed up the street to a different pub and were seated quickly without issue. I had a solid steak sandwich and ended up partaking in another unusual custom of this different culture something known as "happy hour?" Apparently the custom involves drinks being discounted, sometimes heavily, to draw in patrons at times when business might otherwise be slow. Truly this is a foreign custom! (Aside: I kid but for those not in the know Massachusetts has outlawed happy hour since the 1970s. There was an accident involving an attractive young woman being tragically killed in a drunk driving incident and people had had enough. It is not, as commonly thought, a Puritan thing but it does fit with that narrative. There have been some efforts to revive it but change around anything alcohol related takes time lots of time here in Massachusetts.)

Time for the main event, or at least rationale for this trip in the first place, some stand-up courtesy of John Oliver and Seth Meyers. I don’t think they need any introduction. John Oliver was up first and his set was more or less in the lane I would have expected. What I was most impressed by though is the absolute effortlessness and lightness he proceeded through his set with it. It was impressive and not unexpected but fun to see from a master practitioner of the art. Seth was up next and had a great set as well. His material was more centered on family and parenting vs. the well trodden path of ‘Closer-Look’ segments. Still a very funny set and fun to witness. Afterwards the two teamed up for a Q&A that was definitely worth staying for despite their insistence that all were free to leave and probably should (😂). Perhaps the best review/summation of the evening was Kristen who said as we were leaving “I’m pretty sure I just laughed for two hours straight.” I don’t disagree.

So here’s the thing reader... As travelers we aren’t great at the ‘last day’ of a trip. Monday morning we headed of for some bagels (obvi) and the made our way down to checkout some shopping in the area of the hotel. Sadly one of the places we were hoping to check-in on was the LEGO store and it wasn’t open. Also unfortunate the iconic Flat Iron building is currently covered in scaffolding. Which is a theme I thought about a few times over the course of the trip was how much work it is to maintain the iconic landmark buildings in and among all the new construction. Personally I’m glad the effort is made because there’s nothing I love more than some 1930s Art Deco architecture. The LEED certified glass monstrosities that Boston seems to throw up if it gets the chance just feel so uninspired in comparison. On our very wind walk back to the hotel we spied the Empire State Building poking out every so often and I thought about what it’d be like trying to dock a Zeppelin to the top in those winds! (Aside: the design of the Empire State Building was such that at Zeppelins might dock to the top of the building and man would that have been absolutely amazing to see!)

After making our way back to the hotel in the crazy wind we decided that we didn’t really have a strong plan for the rest of the day. With our train being at 5pm we could probably have made more use of the day but with the wind and lack of planning we didn’t have a strong sense of what we’d do. We ended up making our way over to Moynihan Train Hall and grabbing a couple of day passes to Amtrak’s “Metropolitan Lounge.” The passes are $50 bucks a day for the NYC lounge and you get a spacious private lounge that lover looks the train hall, a buffet of food and non-alcoholic drinks, private cash bar, and pre-boarding of your train. All in all it didn’t feel like that bad a deal especially when we got a private escort right on to the train platform a good 15 minutes before everyone else. This made an already pretty hassle free experience of boarding the train (vs. any commercial airline experience in the US) pretty much sublime.

We spend a fair bit of the day looking out over the relatively new (apparently it has been 3 years?!) Moynihan Train Hall the primary arrival in NYC for Amtrak trains traveling the Northeast Corridor. Honestly the facility is impressive and apparently at one point in time was the primary mail sorting facility for the USPS in New York. The impression the openness and architecture provides on first arrival in my opinion rivals most of what I’ve experienced in the UK or Europe. A realization that comes with a twinge of frustration because it takes so much to get big infrastructure projects over the finish line in this country but look at the result when we do! When they happen, all to rarely, they’re a reminder that we can achieve things worthy of the greatness we like to ascribe to the fragile experiment we call America. Then it was time for the rain ride home which was the same relatively three hour trip but no quite as fun. Did get to spend a minute looking out at the gridlock on I-95 from the bar car though.

It was a fun mini-trip and we hope to do it a fair bit more in the future explore some more and hopefully meet-up with friends in the are on subsequent trips!

“New York is not a city, it’s a world.” – Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958)

[victor-veloci-simp-69]

I have no idea when I made this post, I just found it in my drafts.

I do now headcanon that the reason why Ms Moynihan is older and Victor is young is because she chose to shapeshift to look like that, for the following reasons:

She feels old, not just because she is old in the millions of years sense, but also because having to deal with Veloci's bullshit made her feel old lmao

She feels like an old lady

Probably to look harmless?

Probably as a tactic to hide from Veloci. He's probably not expecting her to take the form an older woman, purely because his own ego can't comprehend not being 100% young and (by his standards) beautiful.

I have so many Dinosquad questions.

Like: wtf did Ms M and Veloci eat in their cave? How did they get out? How long were they trapped in there? Did they hybernate or have they just been fucking around on the earth for 65 Million years?

If so, how are they immortal?

And why is Victor young and Ms M old?