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nimbus-notes · 13 days ago

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A Deal with a Dragon | Zhongli

✧ A/N: I quite enjoyed writing this and, with its premise, might expand on it in the future. Consequences of our actions, and all.

✧ Synopsis: Upon watching a stranger navigate Liyue Harbour, you start to theorize about their true identity. In this case, you believe the funeral parlour consultant is the Archon of Liyue, believed to be dead. The only course of action is to confront them, don’t you think? But sleeping dragons should never be woken.

You have a theory. It's not well-founded or even likely to be believed by the citizens of Liyue. Sharing such an idea would have a better chance resulting in your ostracization or even arrest for spreading sacrilegious delusions.

However, you are certain: the man who works at the funeral parlour is the former Archon of Liyue.

It took you a while to come to this conclusion. You had seen him around the port city, walking the streets and engaging the stall-keepers in idle conversation, often to the detriment of their business; eating at Liuli Pavilion, paying with another man's mora; gazing out toward the mountains, as though looking beyond this world somehow.

His speech patterns were strange, as well. More formal than the typical citizen, rich and cultured, his words eloquent as he spoke of even the most trifling things. His suspiciously astute knowledge of history; however, was the final nail in the coffin.

Because why else would a random man know the exact temperature that Morax took his mulled wine, the exact ratio of osmanthus flavouring he preferred, or the exact crag of the mountain he enjoyed drinking atop of?

"I know what you are," you say one day, making what you will later learn was a grave lapse in judgement.

Zhongli sits before you in his funeral parlour's office, raising an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?" he says calmly.

"I know," you say slowly, pronouncing each word, "what you are. Or who, I should say. I've figured you out."

For a moment, Zhongli only gazes at you. He looks neither surprised nor unsurprised by your words. "And what exactly is that, might I ask?"

"You're —" You hesitate. Speaking the words aloud seems taboo, even in this private space. "You're him. Morax."

"Am I." He sounds indulgent, like someone much older humouring the grand declarations of a child at their feet.

"I know you are," you insist. "It just makes sense. I've had an eye on you for a while now, so don't try and make me out as a fool. You're Rex Lapis. You're Morax. You're Liyue's Archon!"

Zhongli exhales a low breath. If you looked closer, you might have seen the glint of something sharper than teeth under his lip. "And have you shared this theory with anyone?"

"Well, no —"

"No? You haven't gone to inform the Millelith of your suspicions that their Archon remains in their midst? You haven't sent letters to share your concerns with the Liyue Qixing?"

Despite the fact that he's essentially feeding you ideas to give his identity away, he looks unbothered. He watches you serenely across the table, eyes amber in the dusky sunlight pouring in from the window.

At your silence, he leans forward.

"Tell me, then," he says, almost gently, "what did you hope to gain from this confrontation? Though, I doubt I can call it something so hostile. You seem uncertain as to your own next steps in this matter."

It’s true. To be frank, you hadn’t really expected him to entertain your conversation this long. You had expected denial if not outright labelling your theory blasphemous. But his tranquil manner of coaxing further answers out of you is strangely unsettling.

Something similar to the feeling of encroaching upon a pit viper’s den. What was the old phrase? Never wake a sleeping dragon?

“Why did you abandon your people?” you ask, voice wavering despite yourself.

“I have not abandoned anyone.” He gazes upon you evenly. “I am a man of Liyue, and here I remain, do I not?”

“But — you’re not acting like you should be — a God — they deserve to know! We had funeral rites and everything, for someone still alive!”

He raises his cup and drinks. Never moving his eyes from you. It is a peculiar sensation. When he lowers the cup, you see the wine-dark colouring of his mouth, so alike something less innocent.

The back of your neck prickles forebodingly, though you cannot see or hear anything amiss. Despite the lack of evidence, you trust your instinct and attempt to back out of the situation.

"Forgive my intrusion. I'm sorry if it came across like an accusation. I'll leave you be —"

You manage to turn, before he speaks out from behind you.

"I can forgive the transgression," he says silkily, "of speaking out of turn. My most prosperous citizens have always been the most brazen across history, I've found."

You stiffen at his words. At his implicit confession to your accusation. You glance back over your shoulder, quivering slightly. "You mean, you really are —?"

"Morax, former Archon of Liyue." He smiles, and it's less kind than before. Two salivating fangs bare at you. "As to what I was saying, while I can forgive your boldness, I cannot forgive the threat you've implanted of revealing my identity to those I've decided to conceal my presence from. You see, I took great pains to remove my influence from the nation, and it would not do to allow you to counter my efforts."

"I won't," you say quickly, taking a step back. Your nape is stinging anxiously. "I can promise you that I won't tell anyone."

"No? But I'm afraid I let slip potential methods for you to do so. The Millelith, the Liyue Qixing. All viable options, and you could select any one."

"I won't! I really won't —”

“And, as you so keenly declared, you feel my people deserve to know I linger in their lives. That is as blatant a threat as I can take it.”

He stands slowly, and you wonder if it's a trick of the light, or if he's taller than before. Larger. His silken dark hair, burnt umber, sweeps the floor as he circles the table toward you. Smoke exhales from his mouth. Draconic.

Without pausing to wait, to give another inch, you turn tail and attempt to flee. Terror pulses within you. The parlour seems like a labyrinth suddenly, every door leading to another room rather than an exit back out to Liyue's crowded streets. Just as you finally reach the front lobby; however, a massive block of golden stone erupts from the ground, shattering the tiled floors, rising to barricade the door.

You skid to a stop and stare in dismay. Behind you, shoes click and a soft sound, almost serpent-like, breathes by your ear, "Let's make a contract, shall we, little one?"

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vintagelasvegas · 3 months ago

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Sands Hotel & Casino '52-'96

Sands, December 1952

Kit Carson Club ('46-'50) Kit Carson Motel ('46-'63) La Lue nightclub ('50-'51)

'46: Kit Carson Club opened by H. Bynum, D. Anderson, G. Frisbee on US Hwy 91 outside of Las Vegas, adjacent to Kit Carson Motel. The club will later become LaRue nightclub, then the Garden Room of the Sands Hotel.

'50: Kit Carson Club reopened as LaRue nightclub opened by Billy Wilkerson, Nola Hahn, 12/23/50.

'51: LaRue closed by summer. Mack Kufferman buys LaRue, and hires architect Wayne McAllister to build around the existing club. Kuffman and partners apply for gaming license. The project is called Sands by 12/51.

Sands ('52-'96)

'52: Kufferman gaming license denied in Apr., sells to Jake Freedman (RG 4/9/52, RG 6/13/52). Partners running the Sands are B. Barron, E. Levinson (casino manager), S. Wyman, J. Entratter (showroom & restaurants). Hidden partners are believed to include J. Stacher, M. Lansky. Sands road sign designed by McAllister, built by YESCO. Sands opens 12/15/52 with 200 rooms in five buildings arranged in Y-shaped layout. The guest wings are named after race tracks: Arlington Park, Belmont Park, Haileah, Rockingham Park, Santa Anita. Three other wings of equal size were added circa ’53-54 (two were named Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park), another by ’58, and larger wing by ’60. The total room count in ’60 was 465.

'53: Frank Sinatra plays his first engagement at the Sands and becomes two percent owner in Oct; Carl Cohen joins the Sands as shareholder and casino manager in Oct.

'54: Sign modification: Second reader board added below the main board, Feb or earlier. Antonio Morelli joins the Sands as musical director for the Copa in Jul.

'55: Sands partners assume control of the Dunes in Sep. They sell the Dunes in four months later.

'58: Jake Freedman dies 1/19/58; Jack Entratter becomes Sands president.

'59: Sign modification: Attraction board attached to the sign, Feb or earlier. Baccarat begins at the Sands. Sands acquires the former Orinda Motel, property to the south, used for expansion of the Sands parking lot.

'60: Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop (the "Rat Pack") are first billed together in the Copa in Jan-Feb. during the filming of Ocean's 11. Senator John F. Kennedy visits during the Democratic primary campaign.

'63: Opening of Aqueduct hotel wing (83 rm) in Apr. Julius Gabrielle, architect (RJ 4/28/63). Sinatra surrenders ownership 10/7/63.

'64: Sands acquires the former Kit Carson Motel; Belmont and Arlington buildings (base of the Y) moved southward to accommodate construction of a hotel tower.

'65: Second sign in Aug; tower completed late in the year and officially opened Jan. ’66. Martin Stern Jr, architect.

'67: Howard Hughes buys the Sands, 7/23/67. Sinatra leaves his Sands residency after confrontation with Cohen, 9/11/67.

'69: Dean Martin leaves Sands to join Riviera.

'71: Entratter dies, 3/8/71.

'73: Cohen leaves the Sands, Jan. '73.

'80: Inns of America buys the Sands from Hughes heirs Summa Corp in Oct.

'82: Third sign, new porte-cochère, marking the completion of remodeling effort including new Copa room, 1/15/82.

'83: Summa Corp reassumes control of the Sands, 4/5/83.

'88: Kirk Kerkorian buys the Sands in Jan. Kerkorian sells to Interface Group led by Sheldon Addison in Apr.

'90: Sands Expo and Convention Center opens.

'94: Remodeling of the casino.

'96: Sands closes 6/30/96. Tower demolished 11/26/96.

Photos of the Sands

Sources include David G. Schwartz. At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang. December 1952 photo courtesy of Slidetreasurehunt.

Construction of the sign, 1952. The pylon sign pedestal was 56’ high, 21’ wide, with the S at 34’ tall. Design by Wayne McAllister, fabricated and installed by Young Electric Sign Co. Photo: YESCO Corporate Records (MS-00403), UNLV Special Collections & Archives.

Opens Dec 15. Danny Thomas, Connie Rusell, Lou Wills Jr, Ray Sinatra Orchestra. Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, 0007-0345.

Aerial view of Kit Carson Motel and the Sands, '62

#Sands #1952

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minervamagicka · 1 year ago

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I just wanted to note something publicly since someone privately (but kindly!) alerted me to some folks kicking up a stink over my SSO to TS4 conversions offplatform, and whether they violate the original game's TOS.

The fact of the matter is that they honestly, very likely do violate the TOS — Just as any sort of model conversion/porting/modding violates the TOS of most games. The same way writing fanfiction or making your own merchandise for licensed IPs also violates the TOS/copyright of those works; you don't own the content you're working with in those regards. The same way you actually don't even own the games you buy, according to most standard EULAs — You're effectively renting them.

The fact of the matter is that game modding as a whole, not just TS4 CC, is a gigantic legal grey area. Some companies pay attention more than others and some tolerate it more than others. We operate within that grey area with the knowledge that, at any time, we could get kicked down by the companies who own these spaces.

So yeah, I'm not particularly fussed if I break X terms of use, Y EULA or Z copyright, seeing as I'm already doing so just by participating in the act of modding. I don't profit, sell, or wholesale redistribute these assets either; not that, again, it's particularly hard to get your hands on them. Just googling "SSO 3d model download" gives you enough results to give a lawyer a heart attack.

However if you (whomever it may concern) do feel strongly enough about it to be against this kind of content being made and offered, then I kindly encourage you to just not engage. You won't get a medal for defending a gigantic company either to me or other players, to be frank.

o7 that's all, more CC to come!

#unrelated #but kind of related #🤷

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racefortheironthrone · 2 years ago

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What are your thoughts on government intervention to end labor disputes in general? On one hand, forced settlements almost always favour management, and if management knows that the government will intervene, they have an incentive to stall negotiations and run out the clock, so to speak. On the other hand, some shutdowns will have far reaching negative effects on society as a whole, particularly if the strike involves the public service or things like railroads or ports.

In terms of my take on government intervention to end labor disputes, I'm fully in favor of procedural hypocrisy (or, as a philosophy PhD might put it, consequentialism) because the only question that really matters is whose side the government is intervening on behalf of. (This is where I'm going to make a massive plug on behalf of my colleague Erik Loomis' book A History of America in Ten Strikes, and in particular recommend his chapters on the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 and the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1937.)

As a labor historian, I would say that as a rule, the state almost always intervenes in labor disputes at some level, whether it's the local cops and local government, the state militia, the U.S Army, or the courts. For most of labor history, the state has intervened on behalf of capital, and was broadly succesful in using its police power to crush strikes and keep the trade union movement economically marginal.

Where the union movement has been most successful is not when the state is neutral (because capital versus labor is not historically a fair fight between opponents of equal weight), but when the state intevenes on behalf of labor. So yeah, government intervention in labor disputes is awesome - when it's Governor Frank Murphy sending in the National Guard to keep the cops and the strikebreakers out of the plants in the Flint Strike, or the "Madden Board" NLRB enforcing the Wagner Act through the work of the Economic Division and the Review Division, or the National War Labor Board ordering Little Steel to recognize SWOC and agree to the union's terms.

Specifically on the issue of forced settlements, whether they're a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on whose terms the settlement is made, which in turn depends on how labor law is written and enforced (and staffed). The whole reason why the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 mandates that "neither party shall be under any duty to accept, in whole or in part, any proposal of settlement made by the [Federal Mediation] Service" is because one of capital's biggest grievances against the "Madden Board" NLRB was that the Board's orders and settlement proposals had systematically favored workers between 1935-1947.

I think the numbers tell the tale - when the state was at its most "neutral" at the turn of the 20th century, union density hit a ceiling of 10% of the workforce. The only time that the labor movement broke through that ceiling was during WWI and then the New Deal, when the state shifted to supporting unions. And then when the state began to shift back in the direction of capital and labor law increasingly favored management, the union movement began to shrink.

This is why I always tell my students that the state is like a great stationary engine, and the only thing that changes is where that engine's power is being sent to. If you refuse to engage in electoral politics and only rely on direct action, the engine doesn't go away - it just gets harnessed by the other side and the power is used against you.

#history #labor history #labor law #trade unions #forced settlements #strikes

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todaysdocument · 9 months ago

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Letter from Inspector in Charge J. H. L. Eager to Commissioner General Frank P. Sargent Alleging the Ward Line Company was Engaged in Smuggling Chinese, with Enclosed Passenger List

Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization ServiceSeries: Subject and Policy Files

Department of Commerce and Labor

Immigration Service

Office of Inspector

Port of Tampa, Fla.,

April 28, 1904.

Hon. FRANK P. SARGENT,

COMMISSIONER-GENERAL,

Washington, D.C.

Sir:-

I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of the names of Chinamen who sailed from Havana, Cuba, on two of the Ward Line S/S. Those marked with an asterisk did not make known their intended destination. The one that I have underscored with red ink-- LEONG HOPP, or Wing Lee Hopp, an alias, is the one whom Mr. Seraphic captured at Pensacola as cook for the U.S. Army officer.

Believing that the Ward Line S/S Co is deeply engaged in the Chinese smuggling business the fact is patent that there are but two Captains whom they trust, as all go on these two boats.

Notwithstanding the fact that communications--official papers-- which I have sent to Mr. Howard at New Orleans fail to elicit an acknowledgneny of receipt, I have sent him this day a copy of these names.

Respectfully,

J.N.L. Eager

Inspector in Charge.[full transcription at link]

#archivesgov #April 28 #1904 #1900s #chinese american

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justforbooks · 9 months ago

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Frank Stella

One of the most influential US abstract artists who started out as a minimalist but constantly reinvented his work

In February 2015, a pair of enormous stars, one in polished aluminium and the other unvarnished teak, appeared in the courtyard of the Royal Academy in London. These were by the American artist and honorary Academician Frank Stella, who has died aged 87.

For all their differences, the two stars were part of a single work called, with deadpan literalness, Inflated Star and Wooden Star. Given their size – each measured 7 metres in all dimensions – it seemed unlikely that these could have anything to hide. In 1966, in a dig at the mystical airs of abstract expressionism, Stella famously said: “What you see is what you see.”

It became the battle cry of a then newly emergent style known as minimalism – and also seemed to fit Inflated Star and Wooden Star to a T.

And yet Stella’s work raised many more questions than it answered. His stars were welded together by a tubular metal armature, as they were by their title. They seemed to be in orbit around each other, although which exerted gravitational pull on which was impossible to say.

Visually as materially, they were very different from each other. Inflated Star was plumped-up and cushiony, polished to a Jeff Koonsy high gloss; Wooden Star seemed austere and skeletal. It was impossible to read one without reference to the other, and yet the frame of that reference – before / after, older / newer, stronger / weaker – was left entirely to the viewer to decide.

Beyond this again was the question of puns. Both sets of Stella’s grandparents had arrived in the US as Sicilian immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. His parents, Frank Sr, a gynaecologist, and Constance (nee Santonelli), an artist turned housewife, spoke Italian to each other at home. Stella is Italian for “star”.

Stella’s engagement with the star form began early, and in two dimensions. By 1963, on a residency at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, he was making paintings on star-shaped canvases, such as Port Tampa City. These were joined by prints such as the 1967 Star of Persia series. In one form or another, Stella’s many hundreds of stars are to be found in galleries, plazas and sculpture parks all over the world. He remained testily insistent that the form was not his nominative calling card, and pointed out that the only person he knew who did not own a Stella star was himself.

Fame came to him early. The oldest of three children, Stella was born in Malden, an affluent suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and was sent by his ambitious parents to Phillips Academy, Andover, a local equivalent of Eton and alma mater to both Presidents Bush. The art lessons he had there were the only ones he would receive. After graduating with a BA in history from Princeton in 1958, he moved to New York, where he rented a loft in West Broadway and earned his keep as a house painter.

In this he had been trained by his father, who, despite working a 60-hour week, insisted on doing painting jobs around the house with the help of his son. Stella’s early Copper Paintings (1961) used the barnacle-repellent gunk with which he had caulked his father’s sloop the summer before. Another series, begun in the same year, was named Benjamin Moore after the well-known brand of house paint in which they were made. Andy Warhol bought an entire set of the works from new, beginning his own Campbell’s Soup series shortly after.

Stella was no pop artist, however. He used household paints and brushes not to satirise popular culture but because they were familiar to him. “The first time I saw a Pollock,” he said in a 2000 interview with the NPR radio network, “I knew straightaway how it was done.”

The black paintings that he began in 1959 remain among his most famous, canvases such as Die Fahne Hoch!, in the Whitney Museum of American Art, powerful in part because of the domesticity of their darkness. Built up of parallel bands of black household enamel separated by narrow strips of raw canvas, they are popularly known as “pinstripe” paintings; a mode that Stella would use into the 1970s. So instantly successful were these early works that their 23-year-old maker was included in the show Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1959, alongside Jasper Johns and Ellsworth Kelly. In 1970, at 33, he became the youngest artist ever to be given a MoMA retrospective.

Stella’s early insistence that a painting was “a flat surface with paint on it – nothing more” seemed reductive, but it gave him a set of rules to battle with. An early way around the self-imposed strictures of his own form of minimalism was the production of shaped canvases – stars, and so-called “notched” paintings such as Newstead Abbey (1960), in which nicks cut from all four sides of a vertical canvas generate a rhythm of lines that suggest a rhombus in the middle of them. The feeling is of a flattened ziggurat, as though Stella’s two dimensional work might at any moment spring into three dimensions.

That was more or less what happened in the mid-80s. For the ensuing decade, Stella made works such as La Scienza della Fiacca (4x) (1984) that responded in a broad way to the novel Moby Dick. Where the black and pinstripe paintings had worked with and against their own insistent flatness, Stella’s paintings of the 80s and 90s suddenly broke free of the wall, pushing outwards in curls and swoops of moulded fibreglass and aluminium, often dappled with paint. (“They’re surfaces to paint on,” he said of the new works at the time. “So it’s still all about painting.”) It was a short step from there to sculptures such as the stars that appeared in the courtyard of Burlington House in 2015.

If this seemed like a shift from minimalism to maximalism, change was itself part of Stella’s story. Also in the mid-80s, the cigar-chomping artist had become fascinated by the idea of turning smoke rings into sculptures.

Over the next 20 years, these slowly morphed, as smoke rings will, into works with names such as Atalanta and Hippomenes (2017), some wall-based and some made for the floor. As with his stars, Stella’s intention seemed to be to see how far he could push representation before it disappeared in a puff of abstraction.

Change also meant his work moving back and forth between media, dimensions and decades. When the World Trade Center was destroyed in September 2001, the large diptych paintings by Stella that had hung in the lobby of one of the buildings went with it. In 2021, they were replaced in the plaza of the rebuilt WTC by the sculpture Jasper’s Split Star, named after his friend Johns. This was both an entirely new work and one whose roots went back 60 years, to the painting Jasper’s Dilemma (1962-63).

By the 21st century, Stella was unquestionably one of the grand old men of American art. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. In 2023, Delta, one of his earliest black paintings, went on sale at Art Basel Miami with a price tag of $45m.

Stella married the art historian and critic Barbara Rose in 1961. They had two children, Rachel and Michael, and divorced in 1969. He had a daughter, Laura, from a relationship with Shirley De Lemos Wyse. With the paediatrician Harriet McGurk, whom he married in 1973, Stella had two sons, Peter and Patrick. She and all five children, and five grandchildren, survive him.

🔔 Frank Philip Stella, artist, born 12 May 1936; died 4 May 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #Frank Stella #in memoriam

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tilbageidanmark · 2 years ago

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Movies I watched this Week #119 (Year 3/Week 15):

Victim (1961) is a landmark Neo-Noir about closeted barrister (And actor) Dirk Bogarde, an important moment of queer film history. It helped change public attitudes about homosexuality, which was still illegal in the UK. It’s also a engaging and well-made thriller about blackmail and oppression. 8/10.

🍿

Azor, my 11th movie from Argentina, was one the best films I’ve seen this year! A tense and subtle thriller, a debut feature by a Swiss filmmaker, it tells of a discreet private banker from Geneva who arrives in Buenos Aires 1980 together with his wife. He needs to reassure his very wealthy clients about the continual services of his bank, as well as to find out what happened to his partner who had disappeared without a trace. The ominous background of the Junta’s dirty war and the lack of any action, makes this an understated study of evil, a masterpiece about the sense of danger. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes - and 10/10 from me.

🍿

(Returning to my first week of these reviews nearly 2.5 years ago:) The kooky screwball comedy Intolerable Cruelty. Why it is considered a minor Coen Brothers masterpiece when it’s so funny and crisp? With surprising Simon & Garfunkel references sprinkled throughout, goofy characters names (Gus Petch, Rex Rexroth, Freddy Bender and asthmatic hit man Wheezy Joe), a 100% quotable dialogue, and non-stop glamorous and hilarious action, it’s 9/10 again in my book.

“You want tact, call a tactician. You want an ass nailed, you come see Gus Petch”.

🍿

3 about young women’s sexual awakenings, all by female directors:

🍿 Girl Picture, a frank coming of age Finnish story of 3 late-teen young women looking for love and sex in the city, directed by an experienced female director. But in spite of their explicit talk about blow jobs and the sprinkling of American slang in their everyday speech, it was tedious and banal. 2/10.

🍿 My Favorite Fabric, my first unexpected film from Syria (!), a patriarchal and unforgiving society. A defiant young woman rents a room in the neighbor's brothel where she can dream about her sexual desires and identity. And all that during the first few months of the frightening uprising of the 2011 Arab Spring.

It would have been just an another exotic coming of age story in an oppressive and harsh milieu, except for her poetic flights of imagination, as she descents into a symbolic world of fantasy. She becomes a witch, a story teller in a reality turning into a nightmare. Grim and depressing - 5/10.

🍿 From an epic r/truefilm thread about ‘Female Directors’, Take care of my cat, (2001) a masterful coming-of-age Korean debut by the then-young Jeong Jae-eun. A sad and wonderful story about 5 girlfriends from the industrial port city of Incheon who struggle to adjust to life in the cold ‘real’ world after graduating from high-school, while also maintaining the friendships with each other. So that Teetee, the stray kitten which one of them receives as a birthday present at the beginning of the film, move hands from one to the other, as each of their fortunes deteriorate. (Photo Above).

A unique and mature vision, nearly in a New Wave style. 8/10.

Bonus: ‘Air Doll’ Bae Doona plays one of the friends!

I found her second feature, The Aggressives, and will watch it next!

🍿

First watch: Elia Kazan’s A face in the crowd, the debut performances of both Andy Griffith and Lee Remick. An early critique of celebrity-fueled influencers in American mass media and television, examining the marriage between entertainment and politics. A charismatic drifting bum found in a country jail becomes the populist 'Demagogue in Denim; of the 1950��s. Based on the Father Coughlin’s and Billy Graham’s of the past, and paving the way to loathsome grifters like Reagan, Limbaugh, and donild drumpf.

🍿

‘Austin Tucker’ X 2:

🍿 “... What would you say for a cup of coffee? - Baa-aah...

After re-visiting the fantastic ‘Marriage Story’ last week, I wanted to see Two for the road for which it was compared. But this tale of a husband and wife on the edge of divorce aged poorly. Very 60′s, with annoying non-linear flash-backs to 5 French trips, each with another snazzy convertible, and snappy fake dialogue. The fact that Albert Finney alpha-male character was a pompous asshole, didn’t help. Featuring William Daniels in an irritating role. 2/10.

🍿 Another re-watch of The Parallax View, a perennial conspiracy favorite, and one the most paranoiac surveillance thrillers from the 70′s. Post JFK and MLK and Bobby Kennedy and all the many others assassinations of that time. Masterful Gordon Willis style, with the 5-minute brainwashing montage, and the famously eery soundtrack.

I’ll always remember the cautious way Austin Tucker comes to meet Joe from behind the boat, shuffling his feet in the most distinct way... 10/10.

🍿

3 more re-watches:

🍿 “I wanna smoke a Molly with you”...

Long Shot, another one I keep watching again and again and again, and I wonder why: It’s a sweet rom-com with a perfectly-calibrated first act, most glamorous former babysitter Charlize Theron who falls for a a guy who’s definitely below her pay grade, and who drinks refrigerated Tequila from a ziplock bag, and a great Boyz II Men sound. But really why?

(Also, Bob Odenkirk’s POTUS here is just a clown). 10/10.

🍿 My first and only by Kevin Smith, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (actually the second, after the 2021 bio-documentary ‘Clerk’). In which we first had to tolerate the thought of Seth Rogen in a (non-masturbatory) sexual role. He just doesn’t seem the romantic lead type. So funny or not, you have to coat it with as much crudeness and porn jokes as possible. Also the 3rd act was just too too obvious. 3/10.

🍿 “Hey Look! It's Enrico Pallazzo!”

John Houseman's final film, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! still a goofy slapstick spoof. Also with the star of ‘O.J.: Made in America’, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Pahpshmir, and Elvis’s wife.

🍿

After the glowing Vox review (”The best Netflix show in recent memory”), and because I’m an Ali Wong fan, I binged on her new Road Rage series Beef. But there were very few moments there that didn’t disappoint: her masturbating with the gun, her hot sex with Steven Yuen’s young brother, and the last episode where they ingest hallucinogenic elderberries and bond with each other. The rest should have been cut into a 2 hour movie. 2/10.

🍿

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, the new documentary about Mindgeek, the Canadian porn conglomerate. Like all Netflix products is was shallow and unoriginal, but still highlighted issues of privacy, consent and free speech. It gave way too much time to far-right, evangelical organizations (Like NCOSE, MIM) which hate all sex and try to ban porn all together “..The attacks on pornography is an attack on sexuality, women...” 4/10.

🍿

From my favorite editor/director Kogonada: Wes Anderson likes overhead shots, Tarantino prefers to peer up from below, Aronofsky uses sharp sounds, and Kubrick often uses one-point perspective - Kubrick // One-Point Perspective

🍿

The Big Bus, an obscure, forgotten disaster parody, supposedly a dumb comedy spoof, but unlike ‘Airplane’ and ‘Top secret’, utterly unfunny. 1/10.

🍿

And 2 I couldn’t finish:

🍿 ‘True Lies’ and ‘The Bourne Identity’ are some of my few favorite action movies, so I thought that Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which Doug Liman did after ‘Bourne would compare. It’s strange that only 20-30 years later, most regular Hollywood movies from that time are unwatchable. And not only because Vince Vaughan was in it.

🍿 Focus, a “sophisticated” action “comedy” with conman Will Smith and grifter Margot Robbie, which tries to be smart, slick and fast, and ends up being shallow and boring.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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newsguide0 · 5 days ago

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Why is General Hospital not airing today (January 20, 2025)? Explained

ABC’s General Hospital which first aired on American television on April 1, 1963, has kept fans engaged and entertained with its captivating storylines for decades. The show was created by the couple Doris and Frank Hursely and is set in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York. General Hospital mainly focuses on the happenings in the lives of the members of the Corinthos, Quartermaine,…

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frankmayo · 26 days ago

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Parallel Worlds: Frank Mayo Biography

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Childhood

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Family

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Screen Stardom

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Bond With His Mother

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Half Brother

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Complicated Relationships With Women

Upper picture - Frank Mayo I (Frank Maguire Mayo) Center - Frank Mayo II (Edwin F. Mayo) Bottom - Frank Mayo III (Frank Lorimer Mayo) (Photoplay, May 1920)

Frank Mayo's grandfather Frank Maguire Mayo was one of the pioneers in American theatrical circles. He "created the virile, wholesome, tenderly humorous role of Davy Crockett, hunter and woodsman in the never-to-be-forgotten play. Later he repeated his former success in 'Pudd'nhead Wilson,' the play dramatized from Mark Twain's famous book by the same name."(*Motion Picture Magazine, Jan 1919)

Little boy: Edwin Mayo (Lormy's father) Standing man: Frank Maguire Mayo (Lormy's grandfather) (*David Carroll, "The Matinee Idols," 1972, p.47)

He had one son named Edwin and two daughters named Eleanor and Deronda. Edwin Mayo was likely born in California around 1862. He had divorced his first wife Jennie Bartine in Sep 2, 1886, and later he married an actress, Frances Graham(e) in Sep 12, 1888. Her off stage name was Frances Johnstone.

Parents of Frances Johnstone, George Lorimer Johnstone and Frances Hoy married in Ohio in December, 1857.

Their son George Lorimer, Jr. was born in Ohio in November 2, 1859.

Their daughter Alice was born in Ohio in 1861.

Their daughter Frances was born in Newport, Kentucky, in March 9, 1865.

Their son Paul Menifee was born in Newport, Kentucky in July 7, 1867.

Their daughter Kathrine Mary was born in Newport, Kentucky, in January 21, 1870.

These five children are shown with their father George Lorimer Johnstone, Sr. and an adult woman named Anna in Campbell, Kentucky Census of August 6, 1870.

George Lorimer Johnstone, Sr., who was an operator of a Mississippi steamboat line, died in New Port, Kentucky in October, 1870. And then, these five children are shown with their mother Frances Hoy in New York, New York Census of December 23, 1870.

"What do you mean—Frank? Dear old granddad had to be 'old Frank' because father was 'young Frank.' Now what am I? I happened to be christened Lorimer Frank, so from now on I am Lorimer Mayo." -Frank Mayo(*Motion Picture Magazine, Jan 1919)

Frank Lorimer Mayo was born in 28 June, 1889. He was the only child. Lormy made his stage debut as a child in his grandfather's company. One of the earliest articles to name Frank Mayo III was from May 20, 1892. It says, "Three generations of Mayos, Frank, his son Edwin and grandson Master Leon appeared in Davy Crockett last Saturday night."(*Crawfordsville Star, Crawfordsville, Indiana, May 20, 1892) And Lormy was the only grandson born during Frank Maguire Mayo's living years.

For your reference, his birth year was misreported as 1886 during his screen stardom years and he also said that his birth year is 1886 to the press. But actually his birth year is written as 1889 on the official documents such as his draft registrations and his first wife Joyce's passport application.

When Lormy was 6 year old, he was playing with grease-paint and was smearing all over his face with it, only to be caught by a property man. He grabbed Lormy by the back of his neck and threw him on the stage. In his role, he had to enter rubbing his eyes as if he had been asleep, and, when he dropped his hands, his grandfather took one look at Lormy's face and whispered, 'Get off this stage!' At the end of the act his grandfather came back to the wings, where Lormy sat huddled in his mother's arms, and told him that he is fired. This started Lormy's sobs, and he asked mother if we really would starve now he was fired. But next day, he was re-engaged.(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920)

Later, when Lormy became an motion picture actor in the United States, he was asked, what your grandfather and your father would have thought of motion picture as an art. he replied, "I fear grandfather would never have considered them seriously, for he was too much of the old school to welcome such a radical step. But I'm sure father would have welcomed them as a marvelous means of perpetuating the work of great actors."(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920)

Lormy continued to work as an actor until his grandfather died June 8, 1896. Lormy was on the train with him when he died.(*Moving Picture World, 1 Jan 1916) Lormy was placed in a military school in Peekskill, New York.(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920)

Lormy remembered Belle Stoddard, wife of Paul Menifee Johnstone, as “like a mother to me than aunt.” He said, "At the time I was sent to school at Peekskill my mother and father were both on the road, while my aunt had married Menifee Johnstone and decided to retire from the stage for a while. So I was left in my aunt's care for many years. Whenever my parents played in any city near New York my aunt would take me to visit them, and always on Christmas and at Easter time we would join my father and mother wherever they happened to be."(*The Canaseraga Times, Canaseraga, New York, Oct 1, 1920) Lormy said she had been "a real good sport" to him.(*Picturegoer, Dec 1921)

Later, his father died February 18, 1900. Lormy claimed that after his father's death, he and his mother clung to each other in their grief and spent several years traveling thru Europe and later settled in Liverpool.(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920) But actually his mother remarried in May 25, 1903, to an Englishman named Henry Butler Hardrige Palmer in Manhattan, New York City. Then it makes perfect sense that the three of them ended up living in the England. But Lormy never said about his mother's remarriage to American press.

In May 3, 1906, a boy named William Spencer Palmer was born to Henry Butler Hardrige Palmer and Frances Johnstone in Rock Ferry, Cheshire. He was baptized on February 24, 1907, in Bebington, where Bebington College, where his half brother Lormy attended(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920), was located.

I don't know when, but in England(*Photoplay, Apr 1917), Frank Mayo married an blue-eyed, auburn-haired English woman named Joyce Eleanor Moore.

Meanwhile, Lormy's uncle, George Lorimer Johnstone, Jr., who worked as a producer at the Santa Barbara Film Company(=American Film Manufacturing Company), invited Lormy to join him, so Lormy left his mother in England for the United States to join his uncle.(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920)

"When I sailed from Liverpool the last time, I watched my mother standing on the wharf until she was lost in the fog, and the memory of those moments calls up every ounce of emotion in me." -Frank Mayo(*Motion Picture Magazine, Sep 1920)

In terms of his early career, Lormy worked first at American Film Manufacturing Company, then at Selig.

(Group photo of Balboa Players at a ball at the Hotel Virginia: The Moving Picture World, 4 March 1916 Bottom right-hand photo: Photo of Mrs. Joyce Moore Mayo. Her passport application, 1920 / Family Search)

And then, he and his wife Joyce Eleanor Moore worked at Balboa during 1915-17. At Balboa, his frequent leading lady was Ruth Roland.

Mr. Mayo was described as "a very quiet, unassuming young man."(*The Moving Picture World, 23 Jan 1915) During his very early film career, he unintentionally rode on his grandfather's coattails. One article said, "His grandfather, Frank Mayo, one of the foremost American actors of a generation ago, is still remembered for his sterling characterizations in 'Davy Crockett' and 'Puddin' Head Wilson.' Although American born, Americans do not know much of this young man, for the greater part of his professional life has been spent abroad."(*Moving Picture World, 1 Jan 1916)

"He is a grandson of that sterling American actor of the same name who was known to all theatergoers a quarter of a century ago. The young man is an actor worthy of his name. He has a pleasing appearance; he possesses magnetism." -Moving Picture World, 20 Nov 1915

Lormy was likely signed with World in 1918. At World, He was usually portrayed as villain characters and often co-starred with June Elvidge.

Since about 1919, Lormy started to work for Universal. One article described the Universal films starring Frank Mayo as "Universal features full of punch and punches."(*Pictures and Picturegoer, Feb 1924) At Universal, Lormy was usually cast in the 'fighting Romeo' roles. He said that the reason of the success of Universal film The Brute Breaker (1919) is because there was a climatic fight in it. He said, "I should like to have a chance to show the public that I can at least try to do something else than fight. I do not care about playing society-man types. Pretty boys are out of my line. I wouldn't play a pretty-boy part because I hate the type."(*Pantomime, Feb 25, 1922)

Meanwhile, in 1919, Lormy and his wife Joyce are separated. One article describes Joyce Moore's conjugal pastime was throwing lamps at her husband.(*Motion Picture Magazine, January 1922)

In 1920, Joyce Moore charged Dagmar Godowsky, a co-star of her husband and a daughter of famous pianist Leopold Godowsky, with being the home-breaker.(*Photoplay, May 1920) It is said that Frank Mayo sued Joyce Moore for a divorce on the grounds of desertion(*Photoplay, January 1922) after Joyce had dropped her second suit for separate maintenance she filed against him.(*Motion Picture Magazine, November 1920)

In 1921, Frank Mayo received interlocutory decree of divorce. Three (or four) days later, on October 1, 1921, he married Dagmar Godowsky in Tia Juana, Mexico, because California laws require a divorced person to wait one year before marrying again. In other words, he married Dagmar before his divorce decree became final. Like Rudolph Valentino, Henry Walthall, he was investigated for bigamy. Unlike the general press, movie magazines incorrectly reported that Frank Mayo had married Dagmar after his divorce was finalized, which gave Mayo and Dagmar's marriage considerable support. The disgrace was that his picture appeared in the newspaper next to Henry Walthall's photo while he was investigated for bigamy, and the problem was that Lormy had no reason to flee to another country and marry whereas Henry Walthall had reason to flee to another state and marry(his mistress, Mary Charleson, had already given birth to his baby eight months earlier), so unlike Henry Walthall's marriage, Lormy's marriage could only be seen as bigamy no matter how they look at it. It must have left a huge stain on his career.

”Often, when the subject of Mrs. Mayo's career is broached, there is a friendly argument between husband and wife, for Frank wishes her to be content as the wife of a man who adores her."(*Pantomime, Feb 25, 1922) In response to Dagmar Godowsky's question, “But Frank, do married women have no rights? Must I sit at home just because I am your wife?” Lormy is said to have replied, “You must.”(*Pantomime, Feb 25, 1922) He once said, "I don't believe a woman should work after she is married.(*Photoplay, June 1922) I personally think that home life is happier for a woman's remaining in the home and making a career of domestic life; yet I sympathize with my wife's ambitions, and I know we shall continue to be happy no matter what happens."(*Picture-Play, April 1922) His idealized image of a woman seems to reflect Belle Stoddard Johnstone rather than his mother.

Meanwhile, Lormy's stepfather Henry Butler Hardrige Palmer died in November 4, 1922.

(Passenger list of SS Baltic which left Liverpool on September 29, 1923. / Family Search)

(SS Baltic arrived in New York City on October 9, 1923. W.S. Palmer's naturalization record of 1943 / Family Search)

In 1923, Frances Johnstone moved to United States from England with her son William Spencer Palmer.

(Picture Show, Sep 11, 1920)

There wasn't enough insistent demand for Frank Mayo to warrant owner of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle's giving him a raise and retaining his service.(*Screenland, Feb 1924) Lormy left Universal. He seems to have signed with Goldwyn around January, 1923. "Out of Universal, Mayo sold his services to Goldwyn for several times the amount he received at Universal City. But he didn't sign as a star; he signed as a supporting player. In other words, Goldwyn considers Frank Mayo several times more valuable to have around the studio than did Universal."(*Screenland, Feb 1924) His career took a downward spiral at least since 1925.

In 1925, one article reported that "Here it is almost the season for brides and not a single film star has announced her engagement. More of them seem to be contemplating divorce. Dagmar Godowsky is getting one from Frank Mayo but it seems to be that the papers have been full of that for years."(*Picture-Play, Jun 1925) The event that cemented Dagmar Godowsky's decision to divorce was her husband's involvement with Anna Luther.

"Anna Luther was a Keystone-Triangle leading lady during 1915-16, who left for Foxfilm comedies and feature films in the 1920s."(*Brent E. Walker, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, p.591) Dagmar Godowsky named Anna Luther as co-respondent in a suit brought against Frank Mayo in March 1925. Dagmar Godowsky discovered her husband with Anna Luther in his apartment. She claimed that her husband was wearing only a bathrobe.

When Dagmar said, “Now I can get my divorce.”, Frank Mayo reportedly said, “But why bother about that?” Dagmar then said, “You and I were never legally married and so the courts have nothing to say about parting us.”(*The Troy Sunday Budget, Troy, New York, Jul 12, 1925)

Meanwhile, Anna Luther claimed that she had been friends with Frank Mayo since the days when she was still at Keystone Studios and was merely comforting Mayo, who was suffering from a headache. "It looks pretty funny to me, Don't forget that Dagmar herself was the co-respondent in Frank Mayo's first divorce suit," unashamed but witty Anna Luther said.

In the same year, 1925, Frank Mayo applied for $2500 attorney fees to permit Joyce Moore to appear in connection with a suit between them over a property settlement that they had entered into in 1923. Joyce Moore was said to be in England and without means to come to America and appear in the suit over the contract under which Frank Mayo was to pay her $150 a week alimony. Joyce Moore also filed a motion after the interlocutory decree was entered, asking her default be set aside on the ground that she had been unable to come to America and fight the divorce suit. She was said to have been working at the time in Paris, France, as a chorus girl at a salary of $25 a week. During the arguments in the new case it developed that a final decree of divorce had never been entered.(*Photoplay, January 1925) This is what made marriage between Mayo and Godowsky was annulled.

However, I think that only movie fans were unaware that their divorce was not yet final but the parties (Frank Mayo and Joyce Moore) were aware of that. (There were reports in the general press outside of movie magazines that Frank Mayo's marriage was being investigated for bigamy.)

In May 29, 1925, He is granted a final decree of divorce from Joyce Moore.

An article about the preview of the 1927 film Ragtime, directed by Scott Pembroke, reveals that the hostess of the preview was Joyce Moore. The article describes Joyce Moore as “Mrs. Frank Mayo” and “known in stage and screen circles as Joyce Mayo”.(*Moving Picture World, 27 Aug 1927)

Margaret Shorey (The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, Dec 7, 1925)

In August 25, 1928, Frank Mayo married vaudeville performer Margaret Louise Shorey. The wedding took place in Lynchburg, Virginia, where the two were filling a stage engagement.(*Picture-Play, Jul 1929)

Meanwhile, Although Lormy's mother Frances returned to the United States after her husband's death, Lormy and his mother lived in separate parallel worlds.

According to United States Census, 1930, Frances Johnstone lives with her son William Spencer in New Jersey while Lormy living with his wife Margaret Shorey in Los Angeles, California.

According to United States Census, 1940, Frances Johnstone lives with her son William Spencer and her sister Kathrine Mary Johnstone in New York City while Lormy living with his wife Margaret Shorey in Los Angeles, California.

(William Spencer Palmer's WW2 draft registration / Family Search)

(Frank Mayo's WW2 draft registration / Family Search)

Most notable records showing these two parallel worlds are World War 2 draft registrations of Lormy and his half brother William Spencer. Lormy wrote the name of (Isa)belle Stoddard Johnstone, wife of late Paul Menifee Johnstone, on the space 'Name and address of person who will always know your address' while William Spencer wrote the name of his mother on that space.

(W.S. Palmer's personal description. World War 2 draft registration in 1940 (aged 34) / Family Search)

(W.S. Palmer's personal description. Naturalization record in 1943 (aged 37) / Family Search)

William Spencer Palmer married an American woman named Elizabeth Sherwood in June 27, 1941, and he became naturalized in the United States in 1943. Their daughter Frances P. Palmer was born in New York in 1945.

Frances Johnstone' sister Kathrine Mary Johnstone died in February 23, 1947.

According to United States Census, 1950, Frances Johnstone lives with her son William Spencer, his wife Elizabeth, and his daughter Frances in New Jersey while Lormy living with his wife Evelyn in Los Angeles, California. Back then, William Spencer Palmer was a proprietor of Jewelry accessory firm.

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from1837to1945 · 2 months ago

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Parallel Worlds: Frank Mayo Biography

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Childhood

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Family

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Screen Stardom

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Bond With His Mother

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Half Brother

｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.His Complicated Relationships With Women

Upper picture - Frank Mayo I (Frank Maguire Mayo) Center - Frank Mayo II (Edwin F. Mayo) Bottom - Frank Mayo III (Frank Lorimer Mayo) (Photoplay, May 1920)

Little boy: Edwin Mayo (Lormy's father) Standing man: Frank Maguire Mayo (Lormy's grandfather) (*David Carroll, "The Matinee Idols," 1972, p.47)

Parents of Frances Johnstone, George Lorimer Johnstone and Frances Hoy married in Ohio in December, 1857.

Their son George Lorimer, Jr. was born in Ohio in November 2, 1859.

Their daughter Alice was born in Ohio in 1861.

Their daughter Frances was born in Newport, Kentucky, in March 9, 1865.

Their son Paul Menifee was born in Newport, Kentucky in July 7, 1867.

Their daughter Kathrine Mary was born in Newport, Kentucky, in January 21, 1870.

These five children are shown with their father George Lorimer Johnstone, Sr. and an adult woman named Anna in Campbell, Kentucky Census of August 6, 1870.

I don't know when, but in England(*Photoplay, Apr 1917), Frank Mayo married an blue-eyed, auburn-haired English woman named Joyce Eleanor Moore.

In terms of his early career, Lormy worked first at American Film Manufacturing Company, then at Selig.

And then, he and his wife Joyce Eleanor Moore worked at Balboa during 1915-17. At Balboa, his frequent leading lady was Ruth Roland.

Lormy was likely signed with World in 1918. At World, He was usually portrayed as villain characters and often co-starred with June Elvidge.

Meanwhile, in 1919, Lormy and his wife Joyce are separated. One article describes Joyce Moore's conjugal pastime was throwing lamps at her husband.(*Motion Picture Magazine, January 1922)

Meanwhile, Lormy's stepfather Henry Butler Hardrige Palmer died in November 4, 1922.

(Passenger list of SS Baltic which left Liverpool on September 29, 1923. / Family Search)

(SS Baltic arrived in New York City on October 9, 1923. W.S. Palmer's naturalization record of 1943 / Family Search)

In 1923, Frances Johnstone moved to United States from England with her son William Spencer Palmer.

(Picture Show, Sep 11, 1920)

In May 29, 1925, He is granted a final decree of divorce from Joyce Moore.

Margaret Shorey (The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, Dec 7, 1925)

Meanwhile, Although Lormy's mother Frances returned to the United States after her husband's death, Lormy and his mother lived in separate parallel worlds.

According to United States Census, 1930, Frances Johnstone lives with her son William Spencer in New Jersey while Lormy living with his wife Margaret Shorey in Los Angeles, California.

(William Spencer Palmer's WW2 draft registration / Family Search)

(Frank Mayo's WW2 draft registration / Family Search)

(W.S. Palmer's personal description. World War 2 draft registration in 1940 (aged 34) / Family Search)

(W.S. Palmer's personal description. Naturalization record in 1943 (aged 37) / Family Search)

Frances Johnstone' sister Kathrine Mary Johnstone died in February 23, 1947.

0 notes

viajescruceros · 2 months ago

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Experience the Magic of a Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands

A Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands offer a unique blend of cultural immersion, scenic beauty, and historical exploration. This adventure provides travelers with the chance to journey through some of Europe’s most picturesque landscapes while exploring the rich heritage of the Netherlands.

Highlights of a Rhine River Cruise

Embarking on a Rhine River Cruise is like stepping into a fairytale. The cruise takes you through Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, offering breathtaking views of medieval castles, rolling vineyards, and charming villages along the way. Each port of call presents an opportunity to delve into the local culture and history.

Classic Destinations Along the Rhine

One of the standout features of a Rhine River Cruise is the array of classic European destinations. Cities like Cologne, with its awe-inspiring Gothic cathedral, and Strasbourg, known for its half-timbered houses and vibrant markets, provide a glimpse into the region's rich past. The charming town of Heidelberg, with its historic university and imposing castle, is another highlight. As you cruise through the Middle Rhine Valley, you'll encounter the legendary Lorelei Rock and picturesque villages that seem frozen in time.

Discovering the Netherlands

The Netherlands, often the final stop on a Rhine River Cruise, is a country that captivates with its scenic beauty and vibrant culture. Amsterdam, the capital city, is renowned for its intricate canal system, world-class museums, and lively atmosphere. A visit to the Van Gogh Museum or the Anne Frank House offers profound insights into the country's artistic and historical legacy.

Scenic Beauty and Cultural Heritage

Beyond Amsterdam, the Netherlands boasts many other attractions. The windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, provide a glimpse into the ingenious water management systems of the Dutch. The Keukenhof Gardens, with their stunning displays of tulips in spring, are a must-see. Exploring the Dutch countryside, with its charming villages and expansive fields, adds a delightful dimension to your journey.

Educational Opportunities: School Trips

A Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands can also serve as an enriching experience for students. School trips that incorporate this itinerary provide educational opportunities that go beyond the classroom. Students can learn about European history, art, and geography firsthand. They can explore museums, historical sites, and cultural landmarks, enhancing their understanding of the world in a fun and engaging way.

Unique Travel Experiences: Camps and Exchanges

For those interested in more immersive travel experiences, combining a Rhine River Cruise with participation in camps and exchanges in the Netherlands can be incredibly rewarding. Camps and exchanges allow travelers, especially young people, to engage deeply with local communities, learn new skills, and forge lasting friendships. These programs provide a unique way to experience Dutch culture and the everyday life of its people.

Exploring Beyond Europe: Classic Patagonia

While a Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands offer a quintessential European experience, travelers might also consider adventures beyond Europe, such as exploring Classic Patagonia. The stunning landscapes of Patagonia, with its towering mountains, glaciers, and unique wildlife, offer a completely different kind of travel experience. Combining trips to both Europe and South America can provide a diverse and enriching travel portfolio.

Plan Your Adventure with Viajes & Cruceros

To ensure a seamless and memorable journey, consider planning your Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands adventure with Viajes & Cruceros. Their expertise in crafting personalized travel experiences will help you make the most of your trip, whether you are exploring the scenic Rhine or immersing yourself in the culture of the Netherlands.

In conclusion, a Rhine River Cruise and the Netherlands offer an unforgettable travel experience, combining the beauty of Europe's waterways with the rich cultural tapestry of the Netherlands. Whether you are a history enthusiast, a nature lover, or someone seeking unique educational opportunities, this journey has something to offer. Let Viajes & Cruceros guide you on this enchanting adventure.

#Beaches (Punta Cana / MIAMI)#Turkey / Cappadocia #Middle East / EGYPT / MOROCCO Tours #Car and Bus Rentals #Northern Lights in Canada and Scandinavia

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crowsandmurder · 3 months ago

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Lucky Spencer Tags and Verses

Lucky ✖ (Aesthetics)

Lucky ✖ (Thoughts)

Lucky ✖ (Character Development)

Lucky ✖ (Crack)

Lucky ✖ (Headcanons)

Lucky ✖ (Photos)

Lucky ✖ (Starter Call)

Growing up with Luke Spencer as his father shaped Lucky Spencer significantly. He inherited Luke's adventurous spirit and sense of justice, but also some of his recklessness and tendency to bend the rules.

As a young child, Lucky witnessed his father, Luke, engage in dangerous activities and even commit acts of violence. This exposed him to a dark side of life and likely contributed to his later anxieties. He spent his early years on the run with his parents, hiding from dangerous enemies like Frank Smith.

Lucky eventually settled in Port Charles, where he was raised amidst the drama and intrigue of the town. When his sister Lesley Lu was born, he took it upon himself to know it was his job to take care of her, a closeness that has continued.His family tree is a little more complicated, after that. When Lesley Lu came down with Aplastic Anemia and a donor could not be found, all of a sudden a donor was found. It was then that Laura had to confess to Lucky and Luke that while she was held hostage on Cassadine Island, she gave birth to a son. His faith in his mother was shaken, and he was still determined to look after his family.

All he ever knew was that Spencers hated Cassadines and that passed on to Lucky and Nikolas. It didn't make it any easier, that they both fell for the same girl: Sarah Webber. She liked Nikolas and would lead Lucky on, when Nikolas wasn't around. He was blind to the fact, that her sister Elizabeth had a crush on him, although the two did become friends. His other friends growing up were mostly his cousin Sly and Emily Bowen Quartermaine.The night of the Valentine's Day dance, Lucky agreed to meet Elizabeth there but thought it was a friend thing, so when Sarah asked him, she told him she was going with a jock. When she didn't show up to the dance, he got worried and went looking for her.

When Lucky went looking for Elizabeth, he found her. He found her in the park, crawling out of bushes after being attacked. It took her a moment, but she let Lucky take her back to his house. He knew what had happened and he was horrified. He called his Aunt Bobbie, since Elizabeth wouldn't go to the hospital. But, they both knew that she had been raped. When Luke came down and saw her, he felt awful for her, but it was clear that he was reliving something, he tried desperately to leave in the past.

Lucky was horrified by what had happened to Elizabeth, and he talked to Luke a lot about wanting to find the guy but Luke kept telling him to leave it alone. Lucky did what he could to spend time with Elizabeth, encourage her to go back to school and work and to be there for her, all the time. She had only confessed to him the truth.Several months before, Nikolas had been shot outside Luke's club and suffered a stroke. Luke and Lucky both kept it from Laura who was away in Switzerland. Lucky, who was still in horror over what Elizabeth had been through, lashed out at a newly speaking Nikolas and was told , that it wasn't Stavros who raped Laura, it was Luke!

Lucky didn't want to believe it, but after research, he went and got his stuff to move out. The hero worship he had for his father was gone. But, Luke told him the story of the night of the campus disco, how he and Laura had moved on, how they had built a life together. But Lucky still feeling betrayed, left.He went and saw Elizabeth, to tell her he may be MIA and told her the truth. She tried to comfort him but she was still so shaken from her rape. Lucky didn't want anything to do with his parents. He took to sleeping on park benches and Elizabeth let him sleep on her floor. They only trusted each other.

When Laura came home, she was bombarded with the truth, and she had to bail Lucky out of jail for being underage. He then told her the truth and gave her no more understanding, than he gave Luke. He walked away from her too and continued to only trust Elizabeth, lashing out at his parents every single time he saw them.As summer started, they were more focused than ever to find her attacker. They thought it was her English teacher, but were mistaken and Elizabeth accidentally stabbed Lucky. When he moved into a boxcar, she painted him furniture. When it got locked, her grandmother let him move in.

Eventually, Jason Morgan gave him a room above the garage.He had moments of tolerating his parents, needing to see his sister. As Lucky and Elizabeth continued to be best friends, they were starting to grow closer. She even asked him to kiss her, but wound up scared. It was then that he admitted he'd wanted to for months. But, they still stayed friends. It wasn't until early fall, that they finally shared their first kiss.The biggest shocker of the fall was when Emily Quartermaine was being blackmailed and Nikolas and Emily went to Lucky for help. Out of it, Lucky and Nikolas became closer as did Elizabeth and Emily. The four of them were inseparable, despite Luke and Stefan's protests.

Upon finding out who Emily's blackmailer was, it was revealed that he also had raped Elizabeth on Valentine's Day, but because there was no physical proof they couldn't prosecute for that.On Christmas, Lucky and Elizabeth officially said I love you and he gave her a ring. They spent most of their time together, making promises never to lie to each other, wanting to move to New York together, even making vows to each other in a church on Valentine's Day.When they visited New York, they nearly consummated their relationship but decided to wait, until the right moment. Lucky made peace with Luke and Laura, but before they could move, a fire happened in his room and he was killed..or so everyone thought.

He was being held captive, although it was months before anyone knew that Helena Cassadine was mostly behind it, and she had brainwashed Lucky into thinking no one cared about him. His brainwashing ran deep.Lucky began to make progress, despite Helena's intense programming and he went to therapy. He and Elizabeth reconciled and eventually consummated their relationship. They became engaged, but broke it off when she found out that he didn't get back the connection to the love that Helena had taken from him.

The two stayed friends. Lucky became a police officer, much to his father's dismay. He dated various women, but no one could ever touch what he had with Elizabeth. Eventually, they got back together and married. They were different than they had been years before. Money problems, his injuries from a fall that developed into substance issues, infidelity on both sides, along with her lies about paternity made things hard.

They eventually became engaged again years later, but she had already started an affair with his brother. Once he found out, he was devastated and ripped into them both. She found out she was pregnant and despite Helena changing the test, Lucky was eventually revealed as the father, which she didn't tell him right away.

Lucky married Irish woman Siobhan, who was killed and it sent him on a tailspin. When he was working a drug bust and someone shot him up, it was Elizabeth who was there. She could feel him slipping away and faked a breakdown but he found out, and said that he had to leave, because they keep hurting each other.He has spent the last several years doing humanitarian work and has just recently returned to Port Charles, to get tested to help Lulu recover from her coma. But due to a parasite in a country, he wasn't viable, which left him reeling. He is trying to make amends to his son and to everyone else, but is still trying to figure out his life.

VERSES:

V: Always Protect your Mother & Your Sister [Childhood - Early Adolescence]

Lucky was raised on the run with famous parents, Luke and Laura. His father taught him so much, but always protect his mother. Once his sister was born, he was always to protect her too. Life settled down in PC could be hard too, especially when it's revealed his mother has another son.

V: I may be taller than you but you are my hero [High School Age]

With Laura in Switzerland mostly, Luke raises Lucky the same way he always has, more like a friend. He goes through the normal trials of a teenage kid until he finds out his family has more lies, this one more devastating than the last. He finds out that his father raped his mother a long time ago and right after finding out his friend Elizabeth Webber was raped. He moves out of the house and becomes attached at the hip with Elizabeth, eventually becoming closer to Nikolas. Over time, he makes peace with his parents and is planning to move to New York, until one night changes everything.

V: Protect the Queen [Lucky's Captivity and Brainwashing]

Although believed to be dead, Lucky is being held hostage and brainwashed by Helena Cassadine. The brainwashing has lasting effects that ultimately alters all of his relationships. He gets better, but not everything can be the way it was.

V: Officer & Detective Lucky Spencer [PCPD]

Lucky rebels against his father the ultimate way: he becomes a cop. This is his exploits.

V: Familiar Paths & Harder Problems [Adulthood and Beyond]

Lucky remains close to the same people but things aren't like when they were younger. They're older now. He falls into bad habits and it causes him relationships. He is left to deal with the fallout and has to make choices to get his life on track.

V: Humanitarian Work [Lucky leaves PC]

When problems finally get to be too much, he bails and sinks into humanitarian work, mostly in refugee camps. He isn't as good at keeping in touch, as he should.

V: Amends & Hope for the Future [Lucky returns]

When Lucky is brought back to hopefully save his sister, he comes back to the son who grew up without him, in addition to other amends he needs to make.

V: Feel This [Canon Divergent]

Sometimes, Lucky could have used a break and there was many times his life could have gone divergent.

#Lucky ✖ (Aesthetics)#Lucky ✖ (Character Development)#Lucky ✖ (Thoughts)#Lucky ✖ (Crack)#Lucky ✖ (Headcanons)#Lucky ✖ (Photos)#Lucky ✖ (Starter Call)#V: Always Protect your Mother & Your Sister [Childhood - Early Adolescence]#V: I may be taller than you but you are my hero [High School Age]#V: Protect the Queen [Lucky's Captivity and Brainwashing]#V: Officer & Detective Lucky Spencer [PCPD]#V: Familiar Paths & Harder Problems [Adulthood and Beyond]#V: Humanitarian Work [Lucky leaves PC]#V: Amends & Hope for the Future [Lucky returns]#V: Feel This [Canon Divergent]#✖ [Character: Lucky Spencer]#It's a permanent lock [Lucky & Elizabeth]#tags and verses

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postgamecontent · 4 months ago

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'Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel' Switch Review

We've reached the third and penultimate stop on the Ratalaika tour through the handful of titles comprising Sunsoft's ill-fated attempt to create a popular mascot in the 1990s. After this, all that remains to be reissued is the Game Boy Advance port of the original game. Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is the one and only spin-off of the Aero The Acro-Bat series, launching a half-year after Aero 2 and just over a year after the original game. Yes, they released that closely together. This was effectively the end of the road for the Aero franchise, and that particular incarnation of Sunsoft's American branch didn't last much longer. Well, maybe Sunsoft saved the best for last?

I want to take a second here just to say that I kind of respect what Sunsoft did with these games. The main characters have appealing designs for their time and place, and Sunsoft and Iguana clearly were able to turn out games that looked and sounded good. All they had to do was make some generic games that copied Sonic's homework like so many others did. But they got weird. The first Aero game had those odd level objectives. Aero's attack methods were awkward. Batasha. Just… Batasha. I don't think it did those games any favors at the time, but if nothing else it helps them stand out in hindsight.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is also an oddball. It comes off as part Sonic, part Shinobi. If that isn't an odd enough union, it also has a central mechanic that is tricky to master and becomes essential not far into the game at all. The Aero games were no slouches difficulty-wise, but Zero kicks things up a couple of notches. All the save states in the world won't help you much here, either. You either learn how to handle Zero's gliding, or you're not going anywhere. I don't hate that, but some people will.

Anyway, it's a stage-based platformer with large levels full of goobers to collect. Some of them have obvious uses, others are probably just for points. Collect goobers, beat enemies, and yank the banner to finish the stage. Sometimes you'll fight a boss or engage in other activities, too. The maze-like levels are best navigated by using Zero's signature glide ability, done by getting some air, diving, and then pushing in a couple of different directions. Zero can also throw shuriken and double-jump, because Shinobi. The game features vibrant, detailed graphics and some grungy rock licks, carrying itself well enough for a game of its era.

Zero himself is certainly a product of his time. A bag of stereotypes, but I suppose it was a 1990s mascot platformer. Ratalaika has made some edits in its marketing materials for the game, but once you're in-game the only real changes to this Super NES version are to some of the start-up logos and legal info. The wrapper here is similar to the one used for Aero the Acro-Bat 2, with all the same extras and options. Not as exciting the second time around, but I still prefer it to the older Ratalaika wrapper. I'm not really fond of the way the manual scans have been edited, removing all identifiable buttons and/or control diagrams. I get why, but replacing the information would have been far better than erasing it. As-is, a person has to look things up online to know the basics of how to play. I will again lodge my complaint at the Mega Drive version not also being included.

You could do a whole lot worse than Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel when diving into 16-bit mascot platformers, and Ratalaika's treatment of it is solid. It's not a game I would recommend to everyone due to the relatively high level of difficulty, and even the built-in cheats aren't going to help you at times. To be frank, some aspects of the game haven't aged well at all. But there is something to this game, and if you're the kind of player that enjoys picking at oddities, I think you'll get some kicks out of Zero.

Switch Score: 3.5/5

#nintendo switch #retro gaming #reviews #zero the kamikaze squirrel

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grimmmviewing · 4 months ago

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S2E1: “Bad Teeth”—C+ (Watched 9/19/24)

“I may not be awake, but I’m right.”

Similar to the season one premiere’s use of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” the first episode of Grimm’s second season gets immediate partial credit from me for using a quote from W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” which is one of my favorite poems, in no small part because of its big-feeling and ominous vibes. While not a story that can be adapted, I think “Bad Teeth” is somewhat trying to tap into that spirit of an uncertain, imposing future. There are certain images in this episode that feel like they operate on a grander scale, for example—the opening shot of a ship in a stormy sea and a later aerial establishing shot of a large castle at night, specifically. They’re more evocative than the usual, which feels like a good way to come back for a new season. It reads to me as pulling out all the stops (as much as one can in this format) to get the audience re-engaged.

The problem, of course, is that however much Grimm might want to tap into “The Second Coming” or even just convince its audience that this new season will be Exciting, it still is what it is: That ship coming into port with some sort of unsettling cargo aboard was only ever going to end with the reveal of another guy with a funny-looking monster face, which spoils the intensity and… immensity quite a bit. The new, expanded title sequence walks a similarly shaky fine line between hype and disappointment in that it’s no longer blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick, but the over-dramatic narration that only sort of barely explains the Grimm premise over shaky old footage still doesn’t work as well for me as an actual theme song.

Despite the focus on two MacGuffin-esque objects that have previously turned up in awkward ways in past episodes—The Key and The Coins—I still found the story here reasonably engaging. It ends strong, at least, with the villainous saber-tooth Wesen’s big ploy of the episode: pretending to be the body of a murdered FBI agent before raising up and coming at Nick right at the very end. That’s not unpredictable, but it was better than the guy just dropping from the ceiling (or something) like I expected.

There also continue to be quick flourishes, visual or otherwise, that suggest the people making the show care and are trying to liven it up as best they can. After the opening with the ship, for example, we get a fun retread of Nick’s fight with Akira Kimura from the season one finale but sort of from the perspective of Nick’s mother as she arrives on the scene and then ultimately intervenes. This functions like a somewhat clever “last time on Grimm” without being so obvious.

The presence of Nick’s Grimm mother immediately creates fresh drama with Monroe and Rosalee, which is a fun complication to their dynamic with Nick, but it’s also nice to experience the feelings of openness that come with the frank, honest answers to questions that we get by way of her as well. The concept of Grimm-hood as like a type of puberty—we’re told that girls tend to become aware sooner—is an interesting bit of lore that adds to the sense of complexity or texture in the show’s world.

Interestingly, the presence of Adalind’s mother in this episode also contributes to the fun that makes this a “+” rather than just a C. “Interesting” in that mothers add so much to this particular episode for some reason. And the way that Rosalee and Monroe are reading Nick the mother’s phone number over the phone and it… overlaps with the same number calling is just cute. It turns out this is Renard’s phone that’s being called, but there’s momentarily this sense of reading the number as an invocation or summoning: a “Speak of the Devil and he shall appear”-type deal. The mothers collide, in a sense, when Nick questions and then threatens Adalind’s mother in her home before reporting back to his own mother in the car outside. He says Adalind’s mother doesn’t know where Adalind is, to which his own mother says, “Did you threaten to kill her?” “Yeah, of course,” replies Nick, like this is just standard operating procedure for them and not remarkable at all. That’s just a fun beat, even if the story around it doesn’t seem all that striking.

(Also, I “enjoyed” the reveal that the malady afflicting Juliette could damage her memory, which plays into the exact strategy I mentioned in the write-up for the season one finale: The writers get to decide if they want to essentially double dip on the drama of Nick revealing his secret to Juliette by letting her sickness undo the confrontation from “Woman in Black.” It’s definitely “convenient,” but you could see it as “fun” too if you, like I do, enjoy the way that conflicts can be strategically drawn out over these multi-season, 20-ish-episode series.)

#nbc grimm #tv series #review

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brookstonalmanac · 8 months ago

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Events 5.28 (before 1960)

585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. It is also the earliest event of which the precise date is known. 621 – Battle of Hulao: Li Shimin, the son of the Chinese emperor Gaozu, defeats the numerically superior forces of Dou Jiande near the Hulao Pass (Henan). This victory decides the outcome of the civil war that followed the Sui dynasty's collapse in favour of the Tang dynasty. 1242 – Avignonet massacre: A group of Cathars, with the probable connivance of Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, murdered the inquisitor William Arnaud and eleven of his companions. 1533 – The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declares the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn valid. 1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port.) 1644 – English Civil War: Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby. 1754 – French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old Lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania. 1802 – In Guadeloupe, 400 rebellious slaves, led by Louis Delgrès, blow themselves up rather than submit to Napoleon's troops. 1830 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them. 1871 – The Paris Commune falls after two months. 1892 – In San Francisco, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy. 1907 – The first Isle of Man TT race is held. 1918 – The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia declare their independence. 1926 – The 28 May 1926 coup d'état: Ditadura Nacional is established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic. 1932 – In the Netherlands, construction of the Afsluitdijk is completed and the Zuiderzee bay is converted to the freshwater IJsselmeer. 1934 – Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy. 1936 – Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication. 1937 – Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded. 1940 – World War II: Belgium surrenders to Nazi Germany to end the Battle of Belgium. 1940 – World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first Allied infantry victory of the War. 1948 – Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa. He later goes on to implement Apartheid. 1958 – Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, heavily reinforced by Frank Pais Militia, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.

#Events

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crossover-enthusiast · 1 year ago

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It could hardly be credited, however, that I had, even here, so utterly fallen from the gentlemanly estate, as to seek acquaintance with the vilest arts of the gambler by profession, and, having become an adept in his despicable science, to practise it habitually as a means of increasing my already enormous income at the expense of the weak-minded among my fellow-collegians. Such, nevertheless, was the fact. And the very enormity of this offence against all manly and honourable sentiment proved, beyond doubt, the main, if not the sole reason of the impunity with which it was committed. Who, indeed, among my most abandoned associates, would not rather have disputed the clearest evidence of his senses, than have suspected of such courses the gay, the frank, the generous William Wilson -- the noblest and most liberal commoner at Oxford -- him whose follies (said his parasites) were but the follies of youth and unbridled fancy -- whose errors but inimitable whim -- whose darkest vice but a careless and dashing extravagance?

I had been now two years successfully busied in this way, when there came to the university a young parvenu nobleman, Glendinning -- rich, said report, as Herodes Atticus -- his riches, too, as easily acquired. I soon found him of weak intellect, and, of course, marked him as a fitting subject for my skill. I frequently engaged him in play, and contrived, with a gambler's usual art, to let him win considerable sums, the more effectually to entangle him in my snares. At length, my schemes being ripe, I met him (with the full intention that this meeting should be final and decisive) at the chambers of a fellow-commoner, (Mr. Preston,) equally intimate with both, but who, to do him justice, entertained not even a remote suspicion of my design. To give to this a better coloring, I had contrived to have assembled a party of some eight or ten, and was solicitously careful that the introduction of cards should appear accidental, and originate in the proposal of my contemplated dupe himself. To be brief upon a vile topic, none of the low finesse was omitted, so customary upon similar occasions that it is a just matter for wonder how any are still found so besotted as to fall its victim.

We had protracted our sitting far into the night, and I had at length effected the manoeuvre of getting Glendinning as my sole antagonist. The game, too, was my favorite écarté. The rest of the company, interested in the extent of our play, had abandoned their own cards, and were standing around us as spectators. The parvenu, who had been induced by my artifices in the early part of the evening to drink deeply, now shuffled, dealt, or played, with a wild nervousness of manner for which his intoxication, I thought, might partially, but could not altogether account. In a very short period he had become my debtor to a large amount, when, having taken a long draught of port, he did precisely what I had been coolly anticipating -- he proposed to double our already extravagant stakes. With a well-feigned show of reluctance, and not until after my repeated refusal had seduced him into some angry words which gave a color of pique to my compliance, did I finally comply. The result, of course, did but prove how entirely the prey was in my toils; in less than a single hour he had quadrupled his debt. For some time his countenance had been losing the florid tinge lent it by the wine; but now, to my astonishment, I perceived that it had grown to a pallor truly fearful. I say to my astonishment. Glendinning had been represented to my eager inquiries as immeasurably wealthy; and the sums which he had as yet lost, although in themselves vast, could not, I supposed, very seriously annoy, much less so violently affect him. That he was overcome by the wine just swallowed, was the idea which most readily presented itself; and, rather with a view to the preservation of my own character in the eyes of my associates, than from any less interested motive, I was about to insist, peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of the play, when some expressions at my elbow from among the company, and an ejaculation evincing utter despair on the part of Glendinning, gave me to understand that I had effected his total ruin under circumstances which, rendering him an object for the pity of all, should have protected him from the ill offices even of a fiend.

(Stopping so ya can read)

Atticus mention

#Sunny Tag

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