#post w claire incoming

[orlamccools]

(its been a long time coming) ITS YOU AND ME! THATS MY WHOLE WORLD!!! THEY WHISPER IN THE HALLWAY SHES A BAD BAD GIRL

[solar-halos]

i finished the umbrella academy s4. i am not amused. here are my thoughts (looong post incoming)

1. i don’t remember diego being so fucking annoying. actually that’s a lie he’s always been annoying but since he was hot i let it slide but now that he’s not treating lila right (how do u fumble a baddie THAT HARD) i think he should participate in the shut the fuck up challenge

2. “their uncle will pick them up” HUH? like obviously this timeline is different but you’re telling me lila has uncles (and parents! or someone! she was talking to some elderly couple before the party!). what does that mean for the others… were their mothers still killed in this timeline or did klaus live out his little amish dream, even if he wasn’t around to experience it? ykwim? like did they show up to this timeline and someone was like “omg where did u wander off to? i was looking all over for u!” and then it turns out it’s their sibling/uncle/whatever in that timeline and they just have to be like ah yes. i surely do know who u are

3. what they did to lila and diego was criminal!!! “she said she couldn’t get pregnant while breast feeding. but she could” dramatic ass reveal for no fucking reason. like get over yourself diego

4. ok i know they prob couldn’t get rays actor to come back but what the fuck do u mean he walked out. and how can allison afford that nice house when all she’s doing is being in commercials nobody wants. our girl has a BEAMER. also i thought they weren’t supposed to have phones or anything like that so why does allison have a vape lollll. not complaining bc that scene was funny to me but why and how

5. ughhh they were tryna set up lila and five SO BAD in the beginning. and even then they still gave off intense sibling vibes

6. ok maybe im just too american but the gun imagery was kinda not it for me. like idk i think the bit with santa claus coming out shooting at everything was supposed to be funny but idkk i think im just too sensitive bc i was like mkkk whatever not funny. also i know luther has super strength but even in s1 he still got majorly injured when that chandelier fell on him but now he’s fucking indestructible apparently?? like getting shot at and stuff?? what???

7. ok but that grandma loading her old timey gun while she turned to the siblings like O.O was funny i’ll give them that

8. speaking of guns wtf siblings are killing EVERYONE. like ik they started the apocalypse and everything but idek just the way they did it was so weird. like less detached/guilty and more like… triumphant? satisfied? idk but it had a different tone than even s3, i remember in s2 it was such an intense ordeal when allison made those two european brothers kill each other but this time they straight up mass murdered a bunch of ppl in a small town and were like B). like ok. like allsion mutilated that guy in front of her DAUGHTER and it was just chill. major tonal shift

9. “you just had to one up me” 1) you just killed a bunch of ppl diego!! 2) that is NOT the lila and diego i know. the real lila and diego would have started making out nasty style the moment lila killed that guy w her laser eyes. also wtf were the point of the laser eyes. she used them like twice and then that was it

10. with that being said all that affair stuff and recovery and addiction and relapse was getting so heavy. which ik is the point and the umbrella academy has always been heavy but like holy shit u GOTTA pick a struggle. is lila gonna groom five or is klaus gonna give claire trauma cos u can’t have both

11. speaking of claire… “would it help to remind u that we were just as shitty at her age” no u fucking weren’t. u could have breathed at ur british alien father wrong and he would have made u do drills until u puked. don’t play rn

12. why did they not trust the audience to pick up on the fact ben spiked their drinks. like we did not need a full on FLASHBACK. or like to be fully immersed in that scene, a tiny little flashback would have done

13. ok but why is this season so scary. like that train station made me paranoid

14. i will never forgive them for what they did to my girl lila. she used to serve CUNT

15. that british lady alien annoyed the fuck outta me

16. WHERE was pogo. and grace. they needed to find a way to bring them back. maybe they could have transported to a universe where the apocalypse happened and now the world was getting ruled by a planet of [gunshots]

17. why the fuck was diego acting like jennifer and ben weren’t linked in some way when all of s3 they alluded to the jennifer incident every other scene. i get it was supppsed to be so obvious even to someone who has ONLY watched s4 that jennifer and ben were linked so it was just a case of diego being stupid BUT that doesn’t work when it’s already been established that they all know jennifer played a part in ben’s death. hence calling it the Jennifer Incident

18. “they tried to address that in later scenes” they failed. they didn’t know how ben died, fine. but they knew jennifer had something to do w it. i’m tired of scenes that poke fun at diego for being stupid. he’s not stupid—he’s cocky

19. okay no but this season was SO gory. like. whatever they have guns this is a revolution but the guts? the intestines?? they wanted to be stranger things sooo bad

20. no but we need to talk about that. the monster thingie at the end was so stranger things and the guns and the military and everything it was like we were back in s3 (or whenever we met the russians)

21. LOL but that scene where diego finds out about five and lila was lowkey funny. this season was so meta in general

22. speaking of the holidays… i sure did love watching everyone sing christmas carols and walk around in the snow when it was hot asf in real time

23. i do like how many parallels there were to s1. like w viktor and reggie, it was very viktor and leonard in s1. and klaus getting kidnapped. although i was kinda tired of klaus getting abducted and his siblings not giving a fuck. i thought there was supposed to be growth there

24. okayyy but ben and jennifer were cute SORRY. “let’s get married” that would have worked on me. however being rude to me while i was at work WOULDNT have worked on me so maybe yall are right maybe we didn’t need a love interest this season

25. i did NOT expect them to actually drag out lila and five’s love story. other than the age gap (no matter how ur looking at it) you already knew it was gonna be bad as soon as they had their first kiss. i hate those multiple little open mouthed kisses that are literally just ALL lip and spit like that’s fucking gross if ur gonna stick ur tongue in my mouth u better do it by the third little :O we got going on there. and then five was giving boy. like literal boy. and lila is a literal goddess but a goddess that’s well into her 20s and the contrast was so sharp it rlly was giving mom and her caucasian child. i mean that bit about lila viewing it as survival vs five actually clinging onto it showed their different levels of maturity, but since it’s never specified if five is still a 50 year old man or just aging normally, his reaction rlly was such a teenage boy thing. “i’m gonna kill him” man shut the fuck up

26. ok no bc we need to talk about this. i think fives actor is my age—maybe even a little bit older—but i don’t see how anyone over the age of 18 is supposed to find him attractive. like idk it’s weird in the show but even creepier irl cos lila’s actor had to have known him when he was still a minor. why did anyone at the umbrella academy think we wanted this

27. anyway not to make this about myself but when i was writing the odesta longfic there were a lot of lore inconsistencies as we kept going bc i forgot some of the details and was too lazy to go back and read it sometimes, and i think that’s what happened this season. the most notable detail is when klaus covered his ears while everyone was shooting at each other. i was expecting some sort of vietnam flashback but like no. he was just there being normal about it, all things considered

28. “ex-squeeze me?” it wasn’t funny when klaus said it in s1. and it wasn’t funny here

29. alright i think that’s really all i wanted to say about the season tbh… like idk diego and lila starting a family made sense i guess and i know they were falling out of love (even tho they would never do that…) but i didn’t rlly feel any of the love w the kids. like even when lila stepped off the train at the last min and her daughter was banging at the glass it looked more like she was like “oh no :(“ and then just started poking at the glass. i don’t even think it matters that she didn’t fully know what was going on—if you’re a child and ur mom steps away in an unfamiliar situation, you’re gonna start to freak. especially w everything else that was going on

30. ok this is such a small thing to harp on but they abused the fuck outta that time skip font. like i don’t think they ever used it that much before now

31. now let’s get into the ending. this is how i would fix it:

we can keep jennifer. whatever. that thing they added at the very last second about her having a particle that causes the end of the world was… whatever. like i get it. they needed a way to explain the end of the world and that was the thing they used and even if it was very late to introduce such a (admittedly confusing) bombshell, at least it fits in with what we already know about this universe’s rules. magic and particles and marigold and whatever. jennifer is fine.

tbh when jennifer started feeling sick i was honestly thinking that they were gonna go the surprise pregnancy route even though they weren’t even fuckinf hinting at that i just have no media literacy. i wouldn’t have minded that tbh, like the monster transformation made more sense but imagine if we did a twilight ripoff for a second, except that jennifer and ben were both equally protective of the killer baby growing outside of jennifer’s womb (or in her womb… whatever. point is there’s a baby). i don’t think this is a good idea—if anything i think this is a shit idea. but something that’s always been so prominent in tua are the moral implications of what they’re doing, like with everyone wanting to kill harlan in s3 instead of letting the entire world die, and with everything that happened with viktor in s1. there was the whole “i can’t kill my brother” bit, sure, but everyone kinda didn’t rlly seem too enthusiastic about it.

actually the baby addition is actually a shit idea. i’m just keeping that part of the rant in bc we need SOME sort of moral dilemma that isn’t just viktor arguing w hargreeves and then his siblings dropping in later with opinions that don’t even seem that strong. everyone needs to have a strong opinion on SOME sort of moral issue that we wanna introduce—that, in a perfect world, we’d be building up to throughout the season—and then yeah whatever there can be an epic fight scene

i don’t watch/read a lot of time travel stuff, but from what i gathered, the timeline can never be restored once it’s fucked with. there has to be consequences, like with any story. and tua did address that—they tried restoring the timeline thousands of times—but i think they shot themselves in the foot there. time travel with a (somewhat) happy ending is possible—there just has to be something to lose, and it has to be something that isn’t nonnegotiable. claire was nonnegotiable, which is why i think they stayed in s3’s timeline for as long as they did

point is, i think they should have gone back to 2019. i mean i don’t think anyone really wanted them to die. i made a joke in s3’s rant that i would just give up, but lucky for me, i am not a fictional character in tua, so the fact they just die in the last five mins and we’re supposed to be ok w that makes the last three seasons pointless. like, actually pointless. what was the message here? why is the ending of the show painted as some sort of utopia just bc we got rid of the siblings? and why is five okay with that? i think him being on board w dying could have been an interesting route to take if they showed his relationship w his siblings consistently deteriorating (both on screen AND off screen) but they only rlly managed to do that with diego, and it was for something fucking stupid

ANYWAY. bring those fools back to 2019, but don’t make them totally happy. just give them something that makes them all just stay put, like how allison has claire (doesn’t matter which timeline. it could be from the fucked up timeline. i don’t think the cleanse would happen bc of that bc claire is only one person and not an entire fucking organization like tua or an assassination like jfk. so hell. might as well throw harlan and sissy in there for viktor. that makes lila and diego’s motivation really easy for staying put, cos then they have their kids. klaus is klaus and no offense to him but i think hes just gonna roll w the cards he’s dealt without trying to fight back, for better or for worse. then ben can have jennifer and since they love each other idk they just stick around. then five’s motivation for staying is that his family is alive and none of them want to leave and that’s good enough for him bc that’s why he time traveled in the first place

again… i don’t think what i came up with is any good. i just think it’s better than them all dying at the last fuckin second. i think this show relied on a lot of haha random xd humor at the beginning and they tried to keep that intact here but everything got so serious that i think them all dying rlly did seem like the only way out but.. it’s not. they could go back to the way things are as long as there were consequences. it would suck, and none of them would be as happy as they could be, but they know that’s as happy as they’re gonna get, so whatever. like, if we were gonna take the suicide route, we might as well gone the time loop route and gone back from the very beginning when five blinks back to 2019. i think that rly would have driven home the “this all would have happened anyway” point way better than them just being like guess ill die :) bc ughhh. no they wouldn’t. also they wouldn’t let lila leave bc she still had marigold in her but… what about her and diego’s kids?? they’re half marigold, and claire is a quarter, so… what’s up with that?

[balrogballs]

Have you been working all the time when writing? I was thinking a book advance is like a salary you get paid, but is it not really that much to make a living? Does it vary between genre or is it a standard price? Btw, your job sounds so awesome too

I'm apologizing again for all the questions, and love u for answering them all, I'm an aspiring novelist and nobody I know in real life knows I want to write for a living. I'm very grateful for your lists last week as well.

No problem, happy to help!

Keeping the answer under the cut though, since IDK if ppl who followed balrogballs for elrond reasons want to hear balrogballs go on about the publishing industry LMAO

Working/Writing:

I have indeed worked throughout my writing career, though for most of the first book writing time I was finishing my PhD. Most authors work on the side, unless you reach absolutely top level and can coast off royalties and speaker fees etc.

Eg. I was at an event where Rushdie gave the keynote, and overheard his rate for the evening was around 55K USD. The vast majority of writers will never pull those figures — the highest I've ever been paid to do a talk was £1.5k, and that was a one off and probably won't happen again.

Put it this way, I know a Booker winner and a Nobel winner personally, both wins in the last 5 years, and both worked part time as university professors till the win. Living off writing is very difficult in the traditional publishing sense unless you hit a certain level of success.

And thank you for your nice words about my job — I do enjoy it and it's very fulfilling, and means I have a ton of free time when I'm not posted overseas so I have ample time to write (and can fuck about on here lol).

Advance

Take anything I say here with a pinch of salt, as this varies tremendously due to a ton of different factors including genre, publisher, location, market etc.

The advance isn't paid like a salary, it's paid in chunks. For me, I had it in 4 lots across around 2 years. So that method of payment means it's not feasible to use as salary.

Keep in mind, you're not paid while you write your second book — only once it sells will you get the second advance, so again, the 'gaps' need to be covered. I took around a year to write the second one and sent the draft manuscript in June to my agent for edits, and it'll only go to the publishers early next year. So thats a lot of time w/o steady income.

How much it is can vary immensely — mine was around double my general salary. I got very lucky in that the book went to auction and my agent is an outstanding negotiator, so the bidding contributed to the final sum. But yes, it varies based on a ton of different factors.

You don't get the full amount btw, it's taxable income + the agency will take a cut. High advances are also a double edged sword, however - you need to "earn them out" before you get any royalties. For instance, I had a great signing advance, but this means there's no chance I ever see any royalties.

So again, that means no income at all when writing the second thing.

It's not an issue in litfic since literally nobody earns out unless you get one of the biggest prizes, though am not sure about other genres. But yes, big advance = much longer wait for royalties, and royalties themselves aren't normally very much either, so keep that in mind when thinking of salaries etc.

Social Profile

I'll answer your other question re: whether social media and public profile is beneficial for a writer here just to not clog ppls feeds. Prior to querying, only if you're writing a non fiction book will your social following actually matter, as you are very much part of the "package deal".

In fiction, it matters much less. Cassandra Claire trajectories are very rare, and whilst Booktoker book deals have happened, again they have VERY large followings to the point that they are part of the product itself.

Whether it's important after publishing, I'm not sure. My agent says no, but equally, others say yes.

Some authors are very active on SM, but equally many others I know are like me in that they have an anon profile somewhere but nothing identifiable. Eg. w. me, I don't have any socials other than this and won't be getting any — a publicist handles the official accounts so I can be unhinged here in peace and not worry about accidentally tweeting about balrog testicle LMAOOO 🙏

Hope this has helped ✨

[veronicasvanitycc]

This post is specifically for other CC creators. If you can/would make any of these items for the Sims community, I would lose my mind. Or if you know where they can already be found, please let me know! ❤ All credit of course will be given and you will be shared on my tumblr and patreon. I am also a member of TBS/DSC on facebook so you will be shared there as well when I post! If you see anything on the list that you would love to see in the S4 Community, reblog pleaseeeee!

If any of these items are found, I will update the list with a link for everyone. ❤

Lot Traits

Aquarium

Stripclub

Fraternity

Sorority

Dispensary

Psychologist

Elementary School

High School

Waterpark

Salon/Nail Salon

Tattoo Studio

Low Income Housing

Apartment Building

Bachelor Pad

Farm

Deco Sims

Sitting Santa (LP Photos)

Models

Male Strippers

Toddlers (Daycare)

Babies (LP Maternity Ward)

Gothic/Emo

Celebrities

Zoo Keepers/Amusement Park Workers/Disney Characters

Homeless

Casino/Resort Workers

Dentist/Psychologist

Basketball/Football Players

Teens (Prom/School/Having Fun etc)

Prison Inmates

Band "Geeks"

School Jocks

Cheerleaders

Tanning/Waxing Salon Clients

Tarot/Paranormal Sims (Tarot shop)

Fishing

Security

Maids

Singers

Church (Pastor/Choir/Confessional)

TSA/Airport Staff/Judge

Postal Workers

Edible Foods & Recipes

Beef & Cheddar Sandwich (Arbys)

Gyro

Baklava

Curly Fries

Chili Dogs

Spanakopita

Cheese Curds

Fried Okra

Garlic Parmesan Fries

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Honey Walnut Shrimp (Panda Express)

Crab Rangoon

Teriyaki Chicken

Fried Cabbage W/ Bacon

Brisket/Cornbread/Collard Greens

Corn Dogs

Funnel Cake

Mushroom & Swiss Burger

Colesaw

Taco Platter/Rice/Beans

Chorizo/Egg/Cheese Burrito

Biscuits & Gravy (I thought I saw this released???)

Sweet Potatoes W/ Brown Sugar & Marshmallows

California Sushi Roll

Shrimp Tempura Sushi Roll

Philadelphia Sushi Roll

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

Sloppy Joes & Chips

Mexican Red Rice

Toastadas & Ceviche

Taco Salad

Carne Asada Tacos

Birria Tacos W/ Consumme

Dolmades

Honey Biscuits (Churchs Chicken)

Dirty Rice (Bojangles/Cajun Style)

Souvlaki

Loukomades

Sub Sandwiches (Subway Build)

Bratwurst W/ Saurkraut

Carnitas W/ Red Rice

Waffle Fries (Chick Fil A)

Swedish Meatballs W/ Butter Noodles

French Dip Sandwich W/ Au Jus

Seafood Boil

Chicken Fries (Burger King)

Spicy Chicken Sandwich (Popeyes!!!!!!!!!❤)

Whopper Sandwich (Burger King)

Salt Fish & Cabbage

Jambalaya

Dumbo

Cobb Salad

Creamy Chicken Over Rice

Ackee & Salt Fish

Boiled Peanuts

Sweet Tea

Hushpuppies

Objects

Functionality is hard so decor items are are just as good!

Diving Cage (Decor/LP Use)

Waterslides (Is it possible to make other designs through necrodogs functional water slide?)

Earring Display Turnstyle (Claires Build)

Ear Pericing Gun

Earring Stud Stand (Choose your studs before you get your ears pierced lol)

Ear Cleaner

Tattoo Goo

Incense Tubes (Retail Style/Pick & Choose)

Aquarium Touch Pool (Anything works for this!)

Wall Candy Dispensers

Prison Visitor Phone (Anything for a visitation room)

Dunk Tank (Necrodog Fair Pack Add On?)

Whack a Mole

Tall Froyo Ice Cream Machine

Ring Toss (Necrodog Fair Pack Add On? Jcope?)

Goldfish Toss (Necrodog Fair Pack Add On? Jcope?)

Kiddie Coster (Necrodog Fair Pack Add On?)

Balloon Darts (Necrodog Fair Pack Add On? Jcope has one, but something not as circus related?)

Bumper Boats ( I am dyinggggg for this!!! Even if its decor only)

Cornhole Game (horseshoe toss style)

Snow Cone Machine (This would be dope to be functional!)

Coin Operated Rides (outside of stores)

Functional/Non Functional Casino Stuff/Games Etc

Wet Bar (Sims 3 Conversion?)

Freakshow Decor (Venice Beach Freakshow)

Bingo Ball Spinner/Cage/Caller? (What do you call it lol)

Bingo Cards

Plastic Surgeon Chair

Sol De Janeiro Stuff (I need!!!)

Fake Nails (Boxes for retail)

Body Jewelry Decor Displays

Store Signs

Del Taco

Whataburger

Bojangles

Burger King

Churchs Chicken

Jack In The Box

Culvers

Golden Corral

Cheesecake Factory

Cracker Barrel

In & Out

Dairy Queen

Raising Canes

A&W

Texas Roadhouse

Zaxbys

Carls Jr,

Captain D's

Bush's Chicken

Blockbuster

Seaworld

Disney World

Horrorland (Goosebumps Style)

Cascade

Ulta Beauty

Museum Of Death (LA Museum)

Claires

Shady Acres (Junky Sign/Trailer Park Build)

Jelly Belly

NFL Store

Spelman College (Britechester/Foxbury Text Override Mod)

Morehouse College (Britechester/Foxbury Text Override Mod)

Michael's (Craft store)

Hobby Lobby

Caesars Palace

Hells Kitchen

Party City

American Girl Dolls

"The Boardwalk" (Like the Santa Monica Pier Arch)

Charlotte Russe

Motel 6

Good Burger

Mondo Burger

Planned Parenthood

Sanrio

Rainforest Cafe

Universal Studios

If you know of any place I can find these items, please let me know!!! If they are used in any of my builds, I will give you that entire build early access as well as share you all over and probably obsess over you for the rest of my life. ❤ (creator or not) I am aware that this gives away my future ideas, but oh well. We can all win yall.

[paperclipninja]

Younger post-ep ramble 6x11

I may be on holiday but if you think that’s going to stop me offloading some thoughts and feelings about this week’s episode of Younger, ‘Holding Out for a SHero’, then you’d be sorely mistaken (any chance to over-think and over-analyse my fave fake reality). In saying that, this will be a briefer version of my usual post-ep ramble, what I shall refer to as Ramble Lite™. There were parts of this episode I really liked and parts I felt disappointed with, but it largely played out in a way that I expected, with the exception of that twist at the end! Hats off to Joe Murphy for that fab misdirection, I may have gasped.

This episode opened with Maggie in her tomato garden looking radiant and Liza filling her in on the decision not to see Josh anymore because it’s complicated and feelings and that undeniable thing called chemistry (or something like that). I applaud Maggie’s consistent use of Chaz (I really hope we get to hear her say it to his face at some point) and Liza stating out loud that she chooses Charles, but this scene also delivered one of the two big moments of disappointment I had in this ep. If anything was ever going to be out of character on this show it would be Liza, a writer and editor, being unable to come up with decent adjectives to describe the man she is supposedly in love with. Yet here she is describing Charles as ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’ as reasons for choosing to be with him. For real? I understand the effort to paint him as the sensible choice vs. the less sensible, the head vs. heart, in this triangle that’s been resurrected. This particular way of describing men has always served a clear purpose in the Youngerverse and ngl, my alarm bells went off in episode 7 when Michelle referred to Charles as ‘appropriate’. Liza uses this exact term to describe Richard, the horrendous man Michelle sets her up with in S1E2 who starts reading emails at the dinner table on their date, he’s ‘age appropriate’. She also described Jay as nice, viable, legitimate prospect, sure, but she also sobbed on his shoulder because she was so in love with Charles that her heart was aching at the thought of missing the chance to be with him.

It feels so painfully deliberate, Charles has gone from intellectually invigorating and romantic and been relegated to safe and ‘appropriate’. My disappointment comes from the fact that if this triangle must remain in play, there can be two men who are vibrant and compelling and really different, without painting one as ‘boring’ and one as ‘fun’. Knowing the way Liza talks about the important people in her life, with such admiration and affection, I feel she would at least say Charles is intelligent and romantic or kind or thoughtful or SOMETHING better than being ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’. I do believe that as viewers we often form our own interpretations of characters and when they don’t behave the way we imagine we are disappointed, but in this case it’s the disappointment that Liza’s entire reason for being attracted to Charles is being reduced to the idea that it’s sensible when we have been shown this is simply not the case. Phew, glad I got that off my chest (and so much for Ramble Lite™ lol).

Once in the office Liza is running Diana through the wedding planning, which frankly I cannot wait to see all come together. I love that Liza’s already secretly planned a bachelorette party and really does know Diana well enough to know she’ll want one (so many lols @ Diana’s, ‘yes that’s why I was bringing it up, because I don’t want one’ and could Liza look any more pleased with herself that she’s managed to pull the wool over her eyes? Adorbs). Charles arrives looking for Kelsey and is wanting to see how she would like to break the news that he is once again publisher, because that’s how they work now that they’re the dynamic duo and have I mentioned this week how much I LOVED seeing their dynamic last week? Kelsey proves that she has indeed kept her head and announces that Millennial secured a new investor and that Charles is once again in the boss seat and I am once again extremely impressed with Kelsey this season, as is Diana (and honestly if you have the D.Trout stamp of approval, what more do you need?).  I will also never tire of seeing Diana, Kelsey and Liza as true peers and now friends, it’s undoubtedly a highlight of season 6.

The book pitch of the week is extremely timely (as always), a manners for millennials piece that aims to counteract the generation’s greatest shortcomings, such as ghosting exes and not RSVPing to weddings. This episode really did have some stellar lines and the fact that Liza can now drop jokes in meetings, such as her ‘neither was I’ response to the author’s ‘I am not proud to be a millennial’, is the kind of goodness I am here for since the lie is no longer a thing. Naturally Liza and Diana are both very interested in finding out more about these topics and it turns out the best way to get some finality with the ex is to write a good ol’ fashioned Dear John letter (best way to get those RSVP’s -unknown). This is reinforced nicely in Charles’ office, when Liza leaps off Charles’ desk as though she and Charles were caught christening the damn thing (which would’ve been very ok by me and at this point you should know I’m not at all sorry) by Diana bearing flowers and note from Alice the author letting them know she will not be publishing her book with Millennial (so no Charles, the flowers are not for you).  All this talk of how good letters are leads to Liza penning her Dear Josh letter that night, which we only catch a tantalizing glimpse of initially, before the narration and accompanying montage when Josh actually receives it.

While it was only brief, Charles asking Liza how she feels about him being back as publisher and her answering honestly, she just wishes Kelsey hadn’t been unceremoniously stripped of the title, is yet another lovely insight into their relationship. Charles continuing with, ‘what about you, always thinking of others, how do you feel?’, excuse me while I clutch my heart at the sweetness of it all and seriously, does ANYONE ever ask Liza this? The family picture on Charles’ desk is noted and it’s great but I also can’t help but feel it’s somewhat ominous so I’m putting my gush on pause (v. open to being proven wrong on this).

Kelsey and Zane continue to be all over the place, I have so little investment in them as a pairing and I really think it’s because I have simply not seen enough of them together to know whether I care, though I have enjoyed a number of their interactions recently. It also doesn’t help that Zane has been many shades of douche this season. Since professing their love for one another, he is being caring at the start of this week’s ep, apologising and saying he feels partly responsible for Kelsey’s demotion and trying to allay Kelsey’s self-doubt. It is Kelsey who says that she doesn’t know how to do this with Zane and that one of them always loses (the old editors-who-were-peers-and-then-one-became-the-boss-but-now-they’re-peers-again curse), which returns Zane to Douchetown in time for the staff meeting.

I felt for Kelsey, it would be so hard sitting in that first meeting with Charles at the helm again, though him going through all the acquisitions and saying these are a credit to Kelsey’s impeccable instincts was great and necessary. But then Charles brings up the Arabian Seas book and the ‘we’ enters the conversation, along with a list of books that sound like they belong on the bargain shelf because yawn and yes it’s fine that Charles has his own instincts, but Zane in this meeting is awful. Kelsey calls him out, she is clearly and rightfully angry about the unfairness of her entire situation and she warns Charles to, ‘pay attention…and you too Liza. I didn’t have any boundaries at work and look what happened’. I have no idea if this is foreshadowing but I feel like it could be juicy if it was so let’s keep abreast of any future developments (yes that is a boob pun and you’re welcome).

Highlight of this whole scene of course is Liza ripping into the guy and the whole office when Kelsey walks out of the meeting and can hear that her meme has been made into a banger of a tune. We get fearsome Liza schooling the entire room on the fact that Kelsey did get the money, ‘that’s why we all have a job, she’s a goddamn hero’. YESSSSSS Liza *praise hands*. Kelsey in turn agrees to speak at the girls school event that Lauren put to her earlier (yes it IS ok to be angry and Kelsey no longer distancing herself from her social media mistake but using it as a platform to empower others and be a role model…where do I sign?).

Lauren was in ultimate PR and friend mode for Kelsey this week, trying to figure out how to spin Boobgate and trying to see the positive side of all the invitation cancellations. I always say it, I know, but Lauren’s unrelenting advocacy for her friends is absolutely one of her best qualities and her line, ‘you are an example of a woman who made a very simple mistake and the patriarchy seizing that opportunity to tear you down’, was fantastic. She also very much latched onto the SHero theme and I appreciated her use of the word at any given opportunity.

It is as Lauren and Josh are leaving to catch an Uber to Inkburg Midtown that we discover this means he is very relieved Claire doesn’t have to move to LA now. I really don’t get this. I said last week that Josh is far too woke to expect the mother of his child to bail on her career aspiration just so he doesn’t have to move to LA, especially considering he knows the struggle Liza faced in her own career journey after having Caitlin (who you may remember is her daughter…or was. Current status unknown). If we’d seen in their conversation Claire saying that she really doesn’t want to move but she can’t see another way to give Gemma the life she hopes, then ok, Josh finding a way to up his income is ace. So I do hope we find out at some point this was the case, because Josh deciding he’ll get more money so Claire and Gemma can stay for his convenience, it’s just nope.

Though I do have to say that the biggest benefit of Josh securing the Infinitely 21 partnership is getting to see more Shelly because omfg I cannot with her. The way she talks about paint colours, giving her personal number, the line I could not believe I heard, ‘but seriously, Josh, unload on me’ ( I love that this season has seemed censored af compared to previous ones – I don’t love this but you know what I mean- yet lines like this get dropped in. Too good), I am in awe of her complete and unabashed lust for him.

It is between picking paint colours that Josh finds the letter from Liza and it is heart wrenching. And beautiful. The emotion really is palpable as Josh leaves the store to find somewhere to read it once he realises what it is. The flashback montage is certainly something that hasn’t been utilized in the show and it really leaves such an impression. Coupled with the narration of the letter, it really captures the impact of Josh on Liza’s life and Liza’s genuine commitment to make her relationship with Charles work. If this show was wanting to move these characters past this old relationship it would have been a poignant and perfect way to do it. However it plays out in the long run, I thought it was really well done.

The hands down highlight of this entire episode for me was Diana’s bachelorette party. Lauren running at an unsuspecting Diana screaming, ‘get in the Hummer bitch’ is one of the funniest moments of the series, I will be laughing for eternity. Liza reminding Diana that, ‘I get you’, yes she does and I just love everything about seeing these women, all the Younger women, out together. I feel like the focus of this episode really got pulled to the other drama but this is the first time we’ve ever seen every female character of this show together in a room and I feel like THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Maggie schooling Diana on how strip clubs work and SO many brilliant lines, as Diana waves her money in the air only to tell the first stripper, ‘You’re a lot, no thank you’, then ‘Hi, little one’ as she flags another. The hilarity does not stop with Diana, Lauren’s, ‘here’s a fiver, you should smile more’ is every kind of YES (I sense a whiff of Liz Lemon in that line and I approve). As Liza and Kelsey talk about men and work and blah, Diana tries to bring them back to the purpose of the evening, ‘ladies, there are bulging crotches in your faces, can you focus?’. Listen to the Queen people. Yet another Diana wedding related event in which she ends up asking, ‘how did tonight become all about you?’ and I was thinking the same Diva. *Eyeroll*

The Hummer ends up at Inkburg because Lauren wants to help Diana fulfil her wish of doing something she’ll regret for the rest of her life (and obviously the reason they all need to be there is so Liza and Josh can have their post-letter confrontation). They are all so drunk, it’s hilarious and I would watch an entire feature film about the antics of this group while inebriated. Seriously, take my money. From Lauren’s, ‘Get out of the hummer Doana’ to Maggie’s, ‘I forgot we were in a car’, they cover the entire drunk person spectrum. On top of that we have Diana’s penis balloon hat position which just cracks me up because I am 10 but my fave is Diana saying to Josh, ‘John, just something small, tasteful and literary’ and then as she’s leaving, ‘it was nice to meet you Jake’. Obvs a wise choice not to go through with the tat but I’d love to know what Diana would have ended up with.

Josh calling Liza out on writing the letter and trying to walk away never talking to him was completely fair enough. Him reminding her that she said she would always be there for him, be Gemma’s aunt Liza, he’s not wrong and his hurt and confusion are understandable. But it is so nice to finally hear Liza making a choice and sticking to it (whether she does or not in the future). Josh saying that he gets it, she’s scared of what they were, they still are, it’s powerful and her defensiveness of Charles when he says that she’s making the safe choice is exactly the right response if she really means she has chosen him. And not because I love Charles and Liza together, but because Liza is standing up for her choice and her ‘don’t you tell me what I feel’ retort is so charged and fierce and I love it. ‘I know this is hard to accept Josh, but we were a moment in time. But the time has passed’ - this whole scene is wonderfully acted, the chemistry between these characters has always been strong and this is no exception. And obviously I agree that they need to move on. However my second big disappointment for this episode is the, ‘you forget Liza, I know you. I know when you’re lying (a couple of seasons of thinking she was 26 might contradict that but ok), especially to yourself.’

I absolutely understand the sentiment and I completely appreciate the setup for the zinger, ‘you wrote a letter to the wrong guy’ (though I do take issue with that line in general considering Liza has just said she’s made her choice. Even a simple, ‘I think’ in front of it would’ve made it less arrogant), but if this setup is leading to a Josh and Liza reunion down the track, then I would have preferred the execution be different because to me, this is not insightful or romantic, it’s Josh once again questioning Liza’s understanding of herself and her needs (I know it’s meant to be him trying to get her to ‘be real’ but it just doesn’t land like that for me). I have no doubt lots of fans are jubilant but it feels manipulative and is not a tactic that compels me to think they might have something worth revisiting. If after Liza said, ‘I love him more’ Josh had looked at her with that heartbreak in his eyes he can convey so well and said, ‘well then I hope he loves you the way you deserve’ or something and walked away, then THAT would show growth and make the possibility of him being an option again (which is clearly where this is all heading) far more compelling IMO.

So in one of the best bait and switch moments this show has delivered, Liza returns to the loft and has a good hard look at the gala photo with Charles and Michelle and Tom (and in my head she’s thinking about how good it is she and Charles promised each other they won’t go to things like that anymore) before we see another letter starting, Dear Charles. And just when all the Team Charles Stans were going to have a collective meltdown, it turns out it’s Kelsey writing her resignation letter and we all exhaled but then didn’t because Kelsey, what are you doing??? So. Much. DRAH-MAH, so little time.

Ramble Lite™, that was a good joke wasn’t it? Can’t believe we’ve reached the finale but I am also very ready because WE GET TO GO TO A WEDDING!!!! Better get my neckwear sorted…

[mysticandskepticmuses]

@anonymous sent in a question for me about saori & rori.

How did you come up with the ideas for the girls? ( rori and saori) They're really cool!

    Meep!  First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH ! As I’m sure everyone knows, I’ve been watching Altered Carbon pretty consistently the last month or so and I really loved the setting, the scenery, the ideals, the conflicts, the problems with and just the whole concept of the Envoys and the Uprising as led by Quell in the series.  I’d considered making one of the Envoys, there’s a female Envoy that’s played by the actress that played Sarah in the Crow series that I’ve always been a huge fan of and I had considered picking her up – she has like, five minutes of screentime and says two things, I think, but I always have a lot of fun fleshing out those characters but I was waffling about it, hadn’t quite decided.

    Then somebody on my dash had reblogged a photo set of Jessica Chastain in the Huntsman: Winter’s War and she was in leather and had a bow and arrow and it looked like she was covered in ashes (pretty sure it was snow but whatever) and it just struck me as very High Key Envoy Aesthetic.  And I kind of waffled about it, and reblogged a few things w/ Jessica as a potential face claim and then I thought about it some more, and made a couple sample icons.  And I’d been talking with @suburbanrelapse about some AC plots w/ Sage which included writing a verse w/ Elias & Tak & Sage & whomever else where Sage had been an ally / working with / scout for etc. the Envoys, where she’d known Takeshi, etc. and they’d worked together some but w/ Sage being either out on a mission or back in town for supplies or something during the attack on Stronghold and

    That got me thinking about how there were probably lots of other stragglers, go-betweens and allies / sympathizers for the Uprising, there has to be for any rebellion to work and Quell constantly emphasized the importance of making assets, of gathering allies, of taking advantage of any and all help that the locals in any area could provide, even if it ended up getting the locals killed, etc. because the Cause was what mattered and I figured that would be doubly important on Harlan’s World; they’d need constant help with supplies, intel, information about military ongoings, whether anyone knew they were there, where they were, etc. etc.  And honestly at first I kind of waffled between making Saori a straight up Envoy, because they’re bad ass, but I didn’t want to detract from the importance / trauma of Takeshi being the -last- Envoy and I waffled about how important to make her and how much she would actually know about the Uprising / how involved she’d be because I didn’t want to be a Power Player type when making her but I also wanted her to be important enough to actually have Plot Points and options when it came to interactions, whether it was with Envoys, day to day people in the city, Protectorate agents investigating her, whatever.

      So I mulled on that a bit and then I made a post about the things I was waffling about: whether to make her an Envoy, whether I wanted her to survive til Tak’s re-sleeving, general IDK WHAT TO DO WITH THIS SHIT and Liz poked me and suggested that it could be a descendant, same face claim, different personalities and histories etc and I was like !!! Yes, good !!!  So then I settled on having Saori as the daughter of a high ranking military officer on Harlan’s World, which would give her access to the information and supplies that would make her of interest to Quell / the Uprising at large, and then I had to decide what kind of personality she’d have, whether she’d be willing to help the Uprising out of anger and spite, or out of a genuine desire to help / true belief in the hazards of what Quell foresaw for the future, and it just sort of built itself in pieces from there.

       As far as spinning Rori off from that, one, I had to settle on how Saori got to Earth, why, and why her son would still have Dearing as a last name (Liz had also suggested that Rori could be the sister for her Claire, giving us a fun connection to play off of and tying in the connection to Takeshi & Harlan’s World).  And Liz and I talked options about personality and the relationship between Claire and Rori and Liz suggested Black Sheep vs Golden Child because we could – I decided to keep to the more idealized version of rebel child, as (an unknowing ic but fully aware ooc) homage to Saori, also with the intent of it being a little more like seeing a ghost in the flesh for Sage and Liz’s Takeshi / or anyone else that would have known Saori and sees her doppelganger in the flesh in Bay City, 250 years later.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about the various flaws in the system when it comes to the way that the penal system transformed over the centuries in Altered Carbon’s universe, and had so many problems with it as a concept of anything that is supposed to equal reform.  There’s so much debate between reform and punishment now in our world, in our time; the system in the future world represented in Altered Carbon literally removed any potential for reform, re-education.  It literally just puts you in a time out and the body that you came in with has to be rented by your family / friends if they don’t want it being rented out / sold off / handed off to the next batch of prisoners that are being released.  

      It doesn’t actually punish the hard core criminals - the only ones it punishes are the ones that actually care about their families and friends - it entirely removes the ability to think about your actions and consequences - it punishes your family if they are trying to come up with the money to keep your sleeve on the slab waiting for you - it punished your family if they can’t and they see someone else walking around with your face – there are just so many ethical issues and that’s assuming that the people that run the prison systems aren’t so corrupt that they’re literally just doing it for the money that can be made –

     So really, that seemed like something that I could very easily write a character being up in arms about, plus it’s the kind of thing that, as coming from a Meth family, she should be totally oblivious to or uncaring about, especially in contrast with Claire who as a Meth and a doctor / scientist, works at Psychasec in the field of developing the latest and highest end synth and cloned bodies that exist – so the contrast in concepts of basic morality and basic acceptance of the penal system and sleeving / resleeving norms of the age between the sisters was super appealing.  Plus, it was something that I figured Sage would be right there with, which would give plotting opportunities with @suburbanrelapse‘s awesome ac concept / verse – and it was something that both Liz’s Elias & Tak would respond well to / create potential plot hooks / thread ideas / Trouble plot points for etc.  

     Deciding on random personality bits, what kind of tattoos, piercings, body mods, how much trouble she’s actually gotten into, age, where she lives, what kind of income she uses vs. has access to etc. just kinda fell in as I was writing stuff up.  And I’m still fleshing things out for both of them, I probably will be for a long time but.   Yeah!  I hope this is the ramble you were wanting out of your question - if you want to know anything else at all let me know ?????

[mrmichaelchadler]

Social Animals

Nothing kills a comedy quicker than a clammy feeling that it’s a little too eager to prove how audaciously smart and subversively hip it is. Consider that “Social Animals” was originally titled “F*cking People.”  Good thing it was replaced since that coy little asterisk is just asking to be slapped. The film  desperately tries to be wild and out of control, but it ends up as more of a slapdash portrait of cartoony desperation than any sort of realistic depiction of millennial angst when it comes to current-day female lifestyle choices. Writer/director Theresa Bennett picks the over-tried but rarely true framework of focusing on three 30-ish women—struggling body-waxing salon proprietress Zoe ("Saturday Night Live" alum Noel Wells), engaged band manager Claire (Carly Chaikin) and neurotic mom of three Jane (Aya Cash)—as they grapple with the concept of what was once known as maturity but now is cutely referred to as “adulting.” In the process, Bennett basically kicks any Bechtel test considerations to the curb by primarily defining these ladies by their sexual proclivities (or lack thereof) with men. While there might be some gold to be mined from a deep dive into relationship choices beyond married with children, this depiction of alternate options barely skims the surface.

Bennett at least takes a stab at post-Trump social commentary with an early montage of outdoor graffiti art that decorates a gentrifying Austin, Texas, neighborhood. Needless to say, the messages lean to the left. Among them, “Make America Hate Again,” “Live a Great Story,” “So Close Yet So Far Out” and “Coming Soon: More Rich People.” Verbally, there is a slight attempt at a Melania joke, too. So far, OK.

Then the plot kicks in. Imagine if “Girls” were a mumblecore production packed with cursing and bad behavior but without any explicit canoodling. Pot-loving, flask-carrying party girl Zoe, who gets the most screen time, is given an excuse for her irresponsible behavior and lack of social skills. Her parents, who she describes as “the Bonnie and Clyde of tax evasion,” are both dead. She lives in a tiny trailer and is about to be evicted by her fed-up landlord—or, rather, lawn-lord—while her follicle removal biz is on the verge of going belly up. But instead of scrambling to get a new source of income, Zoe indulges in a string of one-night stands that she chronicles with Polaroid photos.

As for gainfully employed buddy Claire, her fiancé is such a diehard Republican, he gets turned on by re-watching the 2000 GOP presidential convention and forces her to wear a George W. Bush mask during sex. She goes through the garbage hoping to find signs of cheating just so she can leave him. Then there is Jane, who is overloaded by her truckload of responsibilities—including being the main bread winner as well as the caretaker of two unsmiling twin daughters straight out of “The Shining” and a 5-year-old son who thinks and acts as if he is a dog, to the point that he walks on all fours while on a leash. Meanwhile, husband Paul indulgently runs a cavernous video emporium, which appears to have zero customers – that is, until a curious Zoe stumbles in one day. Given that depressed Jane has lost all of her desire for Paul while encouraging him to have an affair, he and Zoe begin to hang together platonically—a situation that is bound to lead to romance.

The three ladies first intersect when they attend a wedding for bridezilla Lana (Samira Wiley in glow mode, who deserves a break from the travails of “The Handmaid’s Tale”), representing those women who look down upon steadfastly footloose singletons like Zoe. As for stand-up comic Fortune Feimster as sex-shop owner Sarah-Beth, she is tasked with pulling off the film’s detours into slapstick shenanigans, such as allowing Zoe to give her a Brazilian, a scene that doesn’t come close to Steve Carell’s man-scaping torture in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Feimster also delivers an oral sex seminar, in which cucumbers play a big role. But that demo pales next to Phoebe Cates’ school cafeteria carrot tutorial in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

I guess Bennett deserves some credit for focusing on female interactions in her feature directing debut. Yet, the lone character who feels the most real and deserving of sympathy is Paul, who is fleshed out with some semblance of subtlety by Josh Radnor of “How I Met Your Mother.” He is in the impossible position of not knowing how to satisfy a wife whose main complaint, other than the fact he is about to lose his lone source of employment, is that he never straightens the hand towels in the bathroom. Also, Wells ups her acting game whenever she and Radnor shares the same space. But that isn’t enough to make up for the fact that the song over the end credits is called “Shit Makes the Flowers Grow.”

  from All Content https://ift.tt/2sqRwqL

[nowagepress]

Now Age Minute: I Am Woman

Just when you thought the failure of the Democratic Party’s strategy of identity politics was dead and buried, its more notorious proponent is back, proving that her and her party have learned nothing from their humiliating electoral defeat. According to a story from the Guardian,

Wherever she goes – a hike in the woods near her Chappaqua home, at the theater for a Broadway show, delivering a speech to a room of women and girls – Hillary Clinton causes a stir. Fans ask for photographs. Crowds stand for extended ovations.

Such appearances have been rare. In the more than four months since her devastating election loss to Donald Trump, Clinton has largely resisted the spotlight. On Friday, however, she hinted that she is ready to return to public life.

Exploiting identity Like many efforts and movements that emerge from worthy origins, the idea of “identity politics” rose up in the 1970s to address issues of inequality facing women, as well as ethnically and sexually marginalized minorities. It didn’t take long, however, for the Democratic Party, no longer the “party of the working man” (embracing Wall Street immediately post-Watergate and Vietnam) to find a new populist horse to ride to electoral victory. It took three Republican presidential terms, however, for the Democrats to figure out that the identity politics game is a losing strategy, when Bill Clinton found victory in 1992 borrowing an inclusive campaign message from Ronald Reagan. Never mind the fact that both Reagan and Clinton ultimately served corporate, neoliberal interests. Boys will be boys. After Clinton, however, the Democratic Party returned to its pandering ways, losing twice to George W. Bush, till Barack Obama rekindled the slick, linguistic magic of Clinton and Reagan. But Obama first had to best Hillary Clinton in the primary, who was running the ultimate identity-driven campaign, as the “first woman to break the glass ceiling.” And while voters rejected Hillary’s non-inclusive message, she was back with it, full bore, for the 2016 race. But whether it was women, Latinos, LGBTQ or Black voters, the Democrat’s identity game ultimately alienated enough Americans simply interested in a better payday to deliver the party their worst across-the-board loss in generations. While political identity exploitation proved a dud for Democrats, however, it was effectively played by capitalists.

Capital exploitation Usually absent from common English language definitions of capitalism are its exploitive demands on human labor. One must visit Karl Marx for such critique. As such, capitalism by nature thrives with a deep labor supply, as excess demand of workers for jobs allow the capitalist to reduce wages and benefits for those jobs. This, incidentally, is why labor unions are necessary. Even better, it’s why Worker Self-Directed Enterprises offer equitable sustainability to workplaces. Back in the early 1970s, however, objections of second-wave feminists to traditional household structures coincided with neoliberal shifts in the economy that valued and promoted individualism over the collective. Out of fashion was social welfare; in vogue: personal responsibility, trends reinforced by new age and pop psychology of positivity and mindfulness.

The codependency of feminists and neoliberals is hashed out in an essay by Nancy Frasier, published in the Guardian,

In a cruel twist of fate, I fear that the movement for women’s liberation has become entangled in a dangerous liaison with neoliberal efforts to build a free-market society. That would explain how it came to pass that feminist ideas that once formed part of a radical worldview are increasingly expressed in individualist terms. Where feminists once criticized a society that promoted careerism, they now advise women to “lean in”. A movement that once prioritized social solidarity now celebrates female entrepreneurs. A perspective that once valorized “care” and interdependence now encourages individual advancement and meritocracy.

What lies behind this shift is a sea-change in the character of capitalism. The state-managed capitalism of the postwar era has given way to a new form of capitalism – “disorganised”, globalising, neoliberal. Second-wave feminism emerged as a critique of the first but has become the handmaiden of the second.

The failure for the feminist movement of looking to workplace and wage equivalencies as curatives for gender exploitation lies in the reliance on neoliberal prescriptions of individualism, as pointed out in an essay by Amit Singh, published in the New Internationalist,

Encouraging capitalism means promoting individualism over collective action. The celebrating of female entrepreneurs is an example of this. It is easy to point to a female entrepreneur such as Oprah Winfrey and come to the conclusion that there is no sexism or racism and that capitalism helps advance us all. Against this backdrop many women and vulnerable groups around the world are being exploited in a neoliberal world order.  

Still, despite decades and volumes of evidence suggesting that fighting the feminist battle in the workplace created casualty alongside victory, it’s difficult to offer even valid criticism of modern-day feminism without receiving pejoratives about being sexist. Why?

I am woman I recently wrote about the phenomenon of modern tribalism, and how that social dynamic is drawing people into groups that reflect the emotional and ideological over the practical and pragmatic. The danger here is that when groups identify this way they trend exclusive and xenophobic over inclusive and welcoming. There’s a reactive over proactive tendency to this sort of tribalism. Identification with our two major political parties reflects the danger in such tribal name tagging. And the inherent danger of reflexive identification as a feminist was on display at the Women’s March on Washington, which, when the dust settled, was revealed to be a production of liberal organizations aligned with the Democratic Party. In fact, the march was open to all genders. Who was not included, however, were women’s groups of a conservative, pro-life, pro-business bent. So what was advertised as a march for women was actually a march for liberals, exploited for their tribal identification by savvy, political propagandists.

With my own daughter entering the workforce, I’m certainly grateful for workplace advancements that allow young women like her to find career opportunities. But those opportunities comes at a price, according to a 2015 study of millennial women, as reported by the Washington Post,

Between 2007 and 2012—just before and right after the recession—birth rates among American women in their twenties declined by 15 percent, the report found. Financial hardship “causes young women who aren’t worried about the biological clock to say, ‘Things are tough right now. Let me put this off because I can,’” said co-author Nan Astone, senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

Additionally, according to a recent Pew survey on two income households, even in higher income groups, both partners are working longer, and report a lack of quality time, according to a report in The Atlantic on the survey,

Forty percent of moms working full-time “say they always feel rushed.” Half of dads who work full-time say they don’t get enough time with their kids…

This is a group of people who have been working longer and longer hours over the last few decades. According to Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times, today workers in the 6oth to 95th percentiles of earners work the most hours of any group—2,015 hours in 2013, up 5 percent since 1979.

Finally, with a recent report from Oxfam and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research showing that women fill a majority of low-wage jobs in nearly every state in the U.S., the marriage of second-wave feminism with neoliberal capitalism has – except for the lucky few atop the career ladder – watered down the labor pool, making two-earner households a burdensome necessity rather than a career choice for most women. Despite sprouting from worthy goals and intentions, the exploitation of second-wave feminism by capitalists provided the mechanism to evolve their neoliberal agenda by subjugating every American adult life to the ever-consuming demands of the marketplace.

While breaking the ceremonial “glass ceiling” would provide a symbolic breakthrough for women, only through emancipation from the shackles of the neoliberal workplace by providing a Universal Living Wage, or through exploration of Modern Monetary Theory might women and families finally thrive. Now that’s a feminism I can get behind.

I am woman watch me grow See me standing toe to toe – Helen Reddy, Ray Burton

More at www.NowAgePress.com

[bountyofbeads]

Harry Reid Has a Few Words for Washington https://nyti.ms/2RpFiwi

Harry Reid, suffering from aggressive cancer, has a few words for Washington. ⁦@MarkLeibovich⁩, who famously chronicled the Senate leader in “This Town,” visits Reid in retirement in Henderson, Nev.

Harry Reid Has a Few Words for Washington

The former Senate majority leader on President Trump and Senator Chuck Schumer, and on why he doesn’t regret ending the filibuster for judicial appointments.

By Mark Leibovich | Jan. 2, 2019 | New York Times | Posted January 2, 2019 |

Early on the afternoon of Dec. 11, about an hour after an Oval Office meeting between President Trump, the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and the incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi devolved on live TV into a shouting match — a “tinkle contest with a skunk,” in Pelosi’s postgame grandiloquence — I pulled up to a McMansion in a gated community outside Las Vegas. I presented my ID and pre-issued bar-code pass to a security guard. Another guard emerged from a sedan in the driveway, instructed me to leave my rental car across the street and pointed me to the front door.

“I put this out here because I knew you were coming,” Harry Reid, the former Senate leader, said, pointing to a large gold menorah on his desk. It was not clear whether Reid had someone buy the menorah especially for my visit or just keeps one lying around in case some reporter of (nominal) Jewish identity happens to drop by around Hanukkah. (Reid’s wife, Landra, was raised in a Jewish household in Los Angeles before she and Reid converted to Mormonism together, after they married.) Either way, Reid seemed both amused and pleased with himself, as if he could see that I was not quite sure how to receive this odd-duck gesture. During his time in office, he always got a kick out of embracing the awkward panders of political life, even if — especially if — they mocked the refinements of smoother politicians than him.

Reid, who is 79, does not have long to live. I hate to be so abrupt about this, but Reid probably would not mind. In May, he went in for a colonoscopy, the results of which caused concern among his doctors. This led to an M.R.I. that turned up a lesion on Reid’s pancreas: cancer. Reid’s subdued and slightly cold manner, and aggressive anticharisma, have always made him an admirably blunt assessor of situations, including, now, his own: “As soon as you discover you have something on your pancreas, you’re dead.”

I had planned to visit Reid, who had not granted an interview since his cancer diagnosis, in November, but he put me off, saying he felt too weak. People close to him were saying that he had months left, if not weeks. Valedictories were planned, and lifetime awards were bestowed. Efforts were underway to rename the Las Vegas airport in his honor, preferably before his own time of departure. Reid refuses to believe that this honor will ever happen. “When I practiced law, I did a lot of personal-injury work, and I never spent one penny until that check was cashed,” he explained to me.

When I went to see him in December, he was confined to a desk near the front door of the house, unable to move without the aid of a walker that rested behind him. Still, he looked better than I thought he would. The last time I saw Reid, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he was wearing dark glasses and was still bruised from a freakish exercise-session mishap in early 2015, when an elastic band apparently snapped and propelled him into some cabinets, breaking ribs and bones in his face and blinding him in his right eye. The visible damage from this incident had abated at last. Wearing a tan sweater over a dress shirt, he looked about how he did a decade ago: roughly his current age, in other words.

Reid’s health, even before the cancer diagnosis, was a factor in opting not to seek re-election for a sixth Senate term in 2016. Over the last few months, he has had chemotherapy and two back surgeries and has suffered a range of other ordeals, some related to the accident, for which Trump delighted in mocking him. “I think he should go back and start working out again with his rubber workout pieces,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post in September 2016.

In fairness, Reid had dismissed Trump as a “spoiled brat,” a “con man” and a “human leech.” As Senate majority leader, Reid was essential to passing President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, but his dead-eyed realism and morose tones always hung in contrast to the hope-and-change intoxications of those years. His den is adorned with a bright painted portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — one of his heroes, whose view that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” was often echoed by Obama. But Reid himself always seemed more predisposed to believing that the arc of the universe bent toward an ornery brawl.

Reid once called the Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan a “political hack,” Justice Clarence Thomas “an embarrassment” and President George W. Bush a “loser” (for which he later apologized) and a “liar” (for which he did not). In 2016, he dismissed Trump as “a big fat guy” who “didn’t win many fights.” Reid himself was more than ready to fight, and fight dirty: “I was always willing to do things that others were not willing to do,” he told me.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, he claimed, with no proof, that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes over the past decade. Romney released tax returns showing that he did. After the election, Reid told CNN by way of self-justification, “Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid took rightful criticism over this. Still, in retrospect, there’s something almost quaint about the outrage over the episode; Trump routinely surpasses Reid’s unscrupulousness with a few tweets before breakfast.

Leaving Washington on the eve of Trump’s takeover, Reid insisted that he was happy to be escaping. Maybe, he allowed, it would have been different if Hillary Clinton had won. But “with this, no,” he told New York magazine at the time. “I’m not going to miss it.”

And yet, two years later, it was easy to sense him pining for not just the political action but also the particular political action of Trump’s Washington. “No one would enjoy the fight with Trump like Harry Reid would,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who lost her re-election race in November. The president “is an inherently weak man,” she said. “Harry would smell the weakness and say, ‘Damn the consequences.’ ”

In some ways, Washington, under Trump, has devolved into the feral state that Reid, in his misanthropic heart, always knew it could become under the right conditions. Politicians are always claiming to be eternal optimists; Reid is no optimist. “I figure, if you’re pessimistic, you’re never disappointed,” he told me.

Reid has decided to live out his last years in Henderson, a fast-growing and transient Las Vegas suburb. His house is in the upscale Anthem neighborhood: a fortified village of beige dwellings of various sizes and otherwise indistinguishable appearances. There is a Witness Protection Program vibe to the place, accentuated by the security detail.

Reid attended high school in Henderson, hitchhiking 45 miles each way from his hometown, Searchlight: a drive-through smudge of a town between Las Vegas and Needles, Calif., which, in his youth, boasted at least a half-dozen brothels and not a single church. His acidic outlook was informed by his childhood, during which he endured extreme poverty and dysfunction and substance abuse in his family. He took up boxing in high school and put himself through George Washington University Law School by working as a Capitol Police officer. Back in Nevada, he was schooled in the piranha bowl of Las Vegas politics. This education included a stint as Nevada’s gaming chairman in the 1970s, which placed him in the cross hairs of the Las Vegas mob. (Some of the plot of the film “Casino” was based loosely on Reid’s experiences.) There were numerous threats to his life and at least one actual attempt (a bomb discovered under the hood of his family car).

The former F.B.I. director James Comey, after he was fired by Trump, compared Trump to the head of a mafia family, with its codes of silence and loyalty, its fear-based leadership style and fealty to a single godfather. “It’s not about anything else except the boss,” Comey said in a recent interview at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Others have drawn the same parallel, and I asked Reid if, given his unusually relevant professional experience in this area, it rang true. Reid expelled a quick and dismissive chuckle. “Organized crime is a business,” he told me, “and they are really good with what they do. But they are better off when things are predictable. In my opinion, they do not do well with chaos. And that’s what we have going with Trump.”

Still, Reid added: “Trump is an interesting person. He is not immoral but is amoral. Amoral is when you shoot someone in the head, it doesn’t make a difference. No conscience.” There was a hint of grudging respect in Reid’s tone, which he seemed to catch and correct. “I think he is without question the worst president we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ve had some bad ones, and there’s not even a close second to him.” He added: “He’ll lie. He’ll cheat. You can’t reason with him.” Once more, a hint of wonder crept into his voice, as if he was describing a rogue beast on the loose in a jungle that Reid knows well.

The Trump era and Reid’s illness have occasioned an inevitable reconsideration of Reid’s legacy and all its contradictions. The Affordable Care Act, which Reid managed to navigate past the oppositional tactics of his persistent nemesis, the Republican Senate leader (and now majority leader), Mitch McConnell, has so far withstood McConnell and Trump’s efforts to dismantle the legislation. Reid was also prescient in urging the Obama administration and congressional Republicans to go public about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election; the letter that Republican leaders agreed to co-sign weeks after they were briefed on the investigation did not identify Russia by name. “They did nothing — or nothing that I’m aware of,” Reid said.

But McConnell’s and Trump’s own most substantial accomplishment to date, the appointment to the federal bench of an unprecedented number of conservative judges, including two Supreme Court justices who might well end up hearing a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, was made vastly easier by Reid’s decision, in 2013, to get rid of the filibuster for judicial appointments. Reid remains unrepentant about this. “They can say what they want,” he told me. “We had over 100 judges that we couldn’t get approved, so I had no choice. Either Obama’s presidency would be a joke or Obama’s presidency would be one of fruition.”

Still, a certain nostalgia for the Senate leader has set in among Democrats, even those who had their disagreements with him. McCaskill was critical of Reid during their tenure together and did not back him for caucus leader in 2014. There are two major components of a Senate leader’s job, she said. “One is to make the trains run on time and getting things done that his caucus believes in,” McCaskill told me. “But the trains need to be bright and shiny while they’re running,” she added, referring to the communication and messaging part of the job that she said Reid was less well suited to.

McCaskill told Reid at the time that she did not plan to vote for him and explained her reasons to him. He replied that she was the only one of his nonsupporters who had the nerve to tell him directly. “Oh, no, why would I?” Reid told me when I asked him if he felt betrayed. “And I won, didn’t I?”

Reid’s successor is Chuck Schumer, his former caucus deputy who engineered much of the Senate Democrats’ communications and campaign strategy during Reid’s tenure. They had been close during Reid’s 12 years as Democratic leader, Reid serving as the arid desert yin to Schumer’s bombastic Brooklyn yang. When we spoke, Reid told me he did not wish to be seen as second-guessing Schumer. “My personal feeling should have nothing to do with it,” he said. But clearly Reid has more than a few of those personal feelings. He has told confidants that he felt Schumer was too eager to assume his job before Reid was ready to leave. Reid has also criticized, privately, Schumer’s instinct for accommodation with both McConnell and Trump.

In our conversation, Reid seemed incapable of not constantly reminding me that he did not wish to talk about Schumer, as if this itself was something he wanted me to emphasize. “I do not call Schumer,” he told me. Then: “I call him once in a while — not weekly. Let’s say monthly I may call him.” This sounded straightforward enough until he added: “I talk to Nancy often. I love Nancy Pelosi. We did so many good things, and we still talk about that.” And just the day before, he said, he called Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who, along with Schumer, was Reid’s top lieutenant in the Senate and is now Schumer’s Democratic whip. “We came to the House together in 1982,” Reid said of Durbin. “We had wonderful conversations.” (Schumer declined to be interviewed; his spokesman said in a statement that Schumer and Reid “have different styles but they complemented each other well. They are still good friends and talk regularly.”)

In fairness, there’s little that any Democratic leader can do at a time when the opposing party controls the presidency and both houses of Congress, as Republicans did until this month. Durbin told me that he has sat with Schumer and Trump together at the White House. “They are discussing things at a New York level that most of us on the outside don’t understand,” Durbin said. “With Chuck, it’s his grandfather who had some business with Trump’s father or some darned thing. It’s a totally different ballgame.”

I asked Durbin whether this approach had yielded any results. “The obvious answer,” he conceded, “is it hasn’t worked very well so far.”

David Krone, Reid’s former chief of staff, is of the view that leaving Washington saved Reid’s life. “He wouldn’t be alive today if he had pancreatic cancer and he was still the Senate leader,” he told me. “He would not have made it.” Still, Krone said, “I think he misses it, definitely.”

When he was in Washington, Reid used to spend an inordinate amount of time on the Senate floor. “I was always afraid that I would miss something,” Reid used to say and told me again in Nevada. In retirement, he said, “For me to sit here and say I don’t follow politics — you wouldn’t believe me, O.K.?”

On the Friday afternoon before Christmas, just hours before the government shut down over Trump’s demands for more funding for a border wall, I called Reid to see how closely he was following this latest brinkmanship. “Landra and I have been watching the news; we have it on now,” Reid told me. The shutdown, he allowed, was “interesting.” Reid takes an anthropological interest in the changes that Trump has wrought on his old institution. “You can’t legislate when you have a chief executive who’s weird, for lack of a better description,” he told me. He said he could never understand how his former Senate colleague Jeff Sessions allowed himself to be so abused and humiliated by the president. “Why in the hell didn’t Sessions leave?” he said. “Same with Kelly,” referring to the departing chief of staff, John Kelly. “I’d say, ‘Go screw yourself.’ I could not look my children in the eye.”

I asked him if he could identify at all with Trump’s dark worldview. “I disagree that Trump is a pessimist,” Reid said, as if to allow him that mantle would be paying him an undeserved compliment. “I think he’s a person who is oblivious to the real world.”

One of Reid’s assets as a leader, when he was in office, was his willingness to feed the egos of his colleagues before his own; he was happy to yield credit, attention and TV appearances. Yet when I visited Reid in Nevada, I detected a whiff of, if not neediness per se, maybe a need to remind me that he has not been forgotten. He told me that he received a lovely call that morning from Barbara Boxer, the former Democratic senator from California. He gets calls from his former colleagues all the time, he said, and they tell Reid he is missed. He had a final conversation with John McCain over the summer, just before McCain died, punctuated with “I love you”s.

Reading Reid can be difficult. Is he playing a game or working an angle or even laughing at a private joke he just told himself? When speaking of his final goodbye with McCain, he broke into a strange little grin, his lips pressed upward as if he could have been stifling either amusement or tears. It occurred to me that Reid, typically as self-aware as he is unsentimental, could have been engaged in a gentle playacting of how two old Senate combatants of a fast-vanishing era are supposed to say goodbye to each other for posterity.

Reid seemed to recognize my puzzlement and shrugged. “As has been written since I left,” he told me, “I was kind of a strange guy.”

[pcwpolwrestling]

Extreme Election Night 2018 Aftermath/Partial Shutdown Update

PCW NEWSLINE – 12/27/2018

Trump’s Surprise Trip to Iraq

Update on Shutdown (Red Brand and Blue Brand shows)

Extreme Election Night 2018 Results

New Universal PCW Champion

The Establishment, Sports Entertainment Corporation (SEC), and Corporate SportsEntertainment Programming Nation (CSPN) Up in Arms Over Universal Title Match

Progressive Alliance Not Happy Either

==

[A righteously indignant actress Alyssa Milano at a press conference.]

Alyssa Milano: Donald Trump is the first PCW CEO since 2002 not to visit our troops at Christmas-

PCW CEO DONALD TRUMP VISITS TROOPS WITH NEW CHAMPION RAY McAVAY PCW CEO Donald Trump flew to Iraq Christmas night with his wife Melania, new Universal PCW Champion ‘Red Solo Plastic Cup’ Ray McAvay, and McAvay’s valets and West Texas Adult Entertainment Legends Dark (McAvay’s wife) and Stormy.

While in Iraq, Trump and his wife thanked the troops for their service and posed for selfies with the soldiers. Trump also signed autographs and several MAGA hats while he was there.

McAvay also thanked the troops and Dark and Stormy posed for pictures inside a hot tub.

A group of soldiers line up around a portable hot tub with Dark and Stormy inside. The ladies meet and greet the soldiers and pose for pictures. They also give away the official PCW Ray McAvay “Show Up. Clock In. Shut Up. Get to Work” t-shirt.

[Dark, her black hair wet and slicked back, gets ready to take a photo with a young soldier. Both ladies are wearing dark t-shirts and their Daisy Duke cut-off shorts inside the hot tub.]

[Dark puts her arm around the soldier.]

Dark: Say cheese!

[And the photo is taken.]

SHUTDOWN UPDATE No progress reported in ending the ongoing Red Brand/Blue Brand show partial shutdown. PCW CEO Donald Trump shows no sign of standing down anytime soon. Progressive Alliance leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer show no sign of standing down anytime soon.

Both Pelosi and Schumer vow there’s no chance in hell Trump will get the security enhancements he wants at PCW shows. Trump vows no chance in hell he’ll reopen the Red Brand and Blue Brand shows until he gets the security enhancements.

So what happens when the proverbial unstoppable force meets the proverbial immovable object?

Oh right…we’re talking about business as usual in Washington D.C.

The only good news coming out of this is only two shows have been cancelled as a result of the shutdown: the final Blue Brand show of the year this past weekend in Boston, Massachusetts and the final Red Brand show in Charlotte, North Carolina.

‘Sports Entertainment Genius’ Mr. McMann continues to call the shutdown an absolute joke that hurts the people ‘who make money for PCW.’ McMann again decries the amount of income to be lost because of the cancelled shows and again complains about the PCW Heartland Brand being allowed to continue to prepare to tape their new bi-weekly show and then embark on their first round of house shows in over a year.

The owner of PCW Heartland, Dawn McGill, had this to say: “after thirty years of both the high muckity-mucks of the American Patriots and Progressive Alliance ignoring the middle and lower echelon of the pro wrestling world, I find it refreshing that someone in authority actually seems to be looking out for them.”

She also added: “*BLEEP* Mr. McMann and the horse he rode in on.”

FULL EXTREME ELECTION NIGHT 2018 RESULTS OHIO SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Sherrod Brown (Progressive Alliance) defeats Jim Renacci (American Patriots)

NORTH DAKOTA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Kevin Cramer (AP) defeats Heidi Heitkamp (PA)

Fox News (Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson) defeat MSNBC (Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell) and CNN (Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo)

MISSOURI SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Josh Hawley (AP) defeats Claire McCaskill (PA)

FLORIDA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Rick Scott (AP) defeats Bill Nelson (PA)

ARIZONA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Krysten Simema (PA) defeats Martha McSally (AP)

MICHIGAN SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Debbie Stabenow (PA) defeats John James (AP)

TEXAS SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Ted Cruz (AP) defeats Beto O’Rourke (PA)

UNIVERSAL PCW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Sports Entertainment Corporation: P.M.C. Banks and Charlie Blackwell (American Patriots) © defeat Union Jack and NPC (Progressive Alliance) and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A. Tom Bomb and Hy Drogen Bomb (Independent)

HOUSE WAR GAMES MATCH: Progressive Alliance defeat the American Patriots

MAIN EVENT/UNIVERSAL TITLE MATCH: ‘Red Solo Plastic Cup’ Ray McAvay (Independent/Les Miserables) defeats ‘Wall Street Market Analyst with the Man Crush on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit’ Kirk Walstreit, and ‘The One Man Hollywood A-List’ Stone Chism.

‘RED SOLO PLASTIC CUP’ RAY McAVAY IS THE NEW UNIVERSAL CHAMPION

MAIN EVENT: Extreme Election Night 2018 – Universal PCW Title Match

15th MINUTE [McAvay slaps on an inverted face lock…hooks the arm…and pulls backwards and up.]

Johnny Suave: DRAGON SLEEPER!

[Dark and Stormy end the striptease. The SEC’s Blackwell, Banks, and Tanaka climb into the ring. Les Miserables’s General DeBauchery, Al Cahall, and Nic Koteen throw themselves at the SEC. Walstreit starts to fade. Several other members of the Les Miserables hit the ring and attack Blackwell, Banks, and Tanaka.]

Johnny Suave: ALL HELL HAS BROKEN LOOSE! WE’VE GOT PEOPLE IN THE RING AND McAVAY IS HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE.

[Walstreit’s arm goes limp. McAvay breaks the hold…puts Walstreit’s head between his legs…and hits a sit-down powerbomb.]

Johnny Suave: McGILL BOMB!

[McAvay rolls him up. One…two…THREE!]

Johnny Suave: HE’S DONE IT!

*DING-DING-DING*

[Crowder can’t believe what’s just happened.]

Colleen Crowder: Son of a bitch.

Johnny Suave: WE HAVE A NEW UNIVERSAL PCW CHAMPION AND HIS NAME IS RAY McAVAY!

[With the Les Miserables celebrating in the ring, Kimber Marshall does the announcement from the floor.]

Kimber Marshall: YOUR WINNER AT FOURTEEN MINUTES AND FIFTY-NINE SECONDS…AND NEW UNIVERSAL PCW CHAMPION…’RED SOLO PLASTIC CUP’ RAY McAVAY!

[The referee hands the Universal title belt to McAvay- McAvay raises the belt in the air.]

Johnny Suave: I DON’T BELIEVE IT!

Colleen Crowder: I don’t believe it either.

Johnny Suave: TEN MONTHS AGO, RAY McAVAY UNDERWENT NECK SURGERY. TONIGHT, HE IS THE KING OF THE POLITICAL WRESTLING WORLD!

Colleen Crowder: God help us all.

Coming off neck surgery at the beginning of the year, McAvay was the surprise package entered into the three way dance for the Universal PCW Title at Extreme Election Night 2018. Nobody thought he’d walk away with the Universal Title.   But McAvay has always fed on being the underdog.

Ray McAvay’s PCW debut took place on PCW Extreme Political TV back on January 24th, 2011 against Brad Company. McAvay lost the match but he would lay the groundwork for what he would eventually become- a man of the people.   He would be a part of the PCW Tea Party movement in 2011-2012 and have some success in 2014.

REPLAY-6/30-2014 Extreme Political TV: Bird ‘The Mark’ Ridfych and ‘Tin Cup’ Ray McAvay w/his caddy Tromeo and Dr. Molly Greenwood vs. Tom Tebow- Tim Tebow’s Long Lost Black Sheep BrotherNo One Ever Knew Existed and ‘The Luchador With Insanely Poor Oral Hygiene’ Halitosis

[…Ridfych starts with a right hand.]

Crowd: BALL!

[And another.]

Crowd: BALL!

[And another.]

Crowd: BALL!

[Tebow whipped to the ropes.  Ridfych rears back…]

Crowd: BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…

[…and nails him.]

Crowd: …BALL!

[Tebow eventually tags out and Halitosis comes in and starts flying.  He takes the fight to Ridfych and then tags Tebow back in.  Ridfych in trouble and desperately needs to tag out.  McAvay stands on the ring apron arguing back and forth with Dr. Greenberg about purging his inner demons and seizing his moment.  Finally, Dr. Greenberg hands McAvay a seven iron and orders him to confront his inner demons in the ring.  Ridfych hot tag to McAvay.  McAvay climbs into the ring with the seven iron while Tebow ‘Tebows.’]

*WHAP*

Suave: Oooh.  What a well struck shot.  Crisp.  McAvay is a good ball striker.

[And that takes care of Tebow.  Cover.  1…2…3.]

McAvay would then headline the PCW Reunion show in 2015 and then play a huge role in the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton match at Extreme Election Night 2016 with his Les Miserables.

REPLAY: Extreme Election Night 2016

[Cut to Paul Ryan. He’s whistling while he ever so subtly tries to inch away from the ring, hoping that no one can see him subtly trying to inch away from the ring.   Mitch McConnell? He’s gone from ringside and nowhere to be found.]

[The rest of the establishment? Sitting in their seats reading the Wall Street Journal or on their phones making plans for their golf getaway.]

♫ Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men…♫

[Quick cut to the Les Miserables section. What had been a full section of people is now half empty.]

Johnny Suave: WAIT A MINUTE!

[‘Prairie Populist’ William Daniels Bryan, ‘Red Solo Plastic Cup’ Ray McAvay, and Charlie Blackwell stream to the ring followed by forty other people sitting in their section.]

Johnny Suave: It’s the LES MISERABLES!

Colleen Crowder: I’m confused Are they coming to help Clinton?

[Bryan hops up on the ring apron. He drapes Dana Milbank’s neck over the top rope and drops to the floor causing the Washington Post columnist to whiplash off the ropes and onto his back.]

Johnny Suave: BRYAN TOSSES MILBANK OUT!

[Bert the Janitor tosses McAvay a Big Bertha Driver.]

Johnny Suave: MCAVAY HAS THE BIG BERTHA!

*THWACK*

Johnny Suave: DOWN GOES CHUCK SCHUMER!

*THWACK^

Johnny Suave: DOWN GOES LINDSEY GRAHAM!

[Mitt Romney sees McAvay using the driver to pole axe his way through the crowd. He wisely uses discretion and decides to slip out of the ring.]

Johnny Suave: AND HERE COMES CHARLIE BLACKWELL!

[Blackwell jumps into the ring wielding a steel folding chair. and starts taking people out left and right.]

*CLANG*

Johnny Suave: BLACKWELL NAILS PAUL KRUGMAN WITH THE CHAIR!

[Blackwell turns and swings the chair again.]

*CLANG*

Johnny Suave: CNN’s DON LEMON GOES DOWN!

*CLANG*

Johnny Suave: HE GOT JEB BUSH TOO!

Colleen Crowder: WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

Johnny Suave: THEY’RE CLEANING HOUSE!

[The rest of the Les Miserables climb through the ropes and suddenly there’s a lot of people in close quarters.]

Colleen Crowder: DEPLORABLE!

[The American Patriots, Progressive Alliance, and media contingent still in the ring decide to hastily exit stage right leaving just Trump, Hillary, McAvay, Blackwell, Bryan, and the forty-odd Les Miserables inside.]

Colleen Crowder: THESE PEOPLE ARE DEPLORABLE! WHAT ARE ALL THESE DEPLORABLE PEOPLE DOING IN THE RING?

Johnny Suave: Actually, they’re Les Miserables.

THE ESTABLISHMENT AREN’T HAPPY WITH NEW CHAMPION

Suffice to say, the Establishment’s reaction to McAvay winning the title could be termed as ‘cool’ at best. The Coke Brothers (who is secretly funding the Red Brand shows) and George Moros (who is secretly funding the Blue Brand shows)…

…oh? Did we just spill the beans? Whoops.

The Coke Brothers and Moros have come out and complained about the fact that McAvay got a ‘free ride’ into the match by his ex-wife Dawn McGill.

Moros bragged that they ‘got rid’ of William Daniels Bryan because he wouldn’t play ball with the Establishment. He warned the new champion that he’d better defend his title at Red Brand and Blue Brand shows or else McAvay would suffer the same fate.

SEC AND CSPN AREN’T HAPPY WITH NEW CHAMPION EITHER SEC Mouthpiece Phil Finebaum complained that McAvay shouldn’t have been in the match in the first place. “He doesn’t wrestle for a power faction.   McAvay being in that match is the same as NCAA College Football allowing UCF to be in the Final Four. It shouldn’t have happened. And now we’re stuck with a substandard champion.”

CSPN CEO Mark Splitter concurred. “I’ve defended the exclusion of wrestlers of ‘lesser factions’ from title matches because they ‘probably don’t deserve to have the opportunity to wrestle for titles.  Because the competition as Phil Finebaum has pointed out is substandard. Now we have a wrestler from a non-power three faction who supposed to be the champion…the best of the best when in actuality he’s nothing more than the best of the mediocre.”

And in other news, Finebaum still hates Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer.

PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE REALLY AREN’T HAPPY WITH NEW CHAMPION The Progressive Alliance have registered a complaint with the PCW Competition Committee alleging that they did not have a wrestler in the title match at Extreme Election Night 2018 because ‘The One Man Hollywood A-List’ Stone Chism fraudulently presented himself a member of the faction. They want do-over.

As the Blue Brand Champion, Chism was the ‘Progressive Alliance’ representative to the match. But Chism allowed himself to be counted out of the match sparking a fracas at ringside with the Hollywood left until Conservative actor James Wood came to his rescue.

The PCW Competition Committee turned down the Progressive Alliance’s complaint.

The Progressive Alliance did strip Chism of the Blue Brand Title and will crown a new champion once the Blue Brand shows start up again.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS: Universal PCW Champion: ‘Red Solo Plastic Cup’ Ray McAvay (Independent/Les Miserables) Universal PCW Tag Team Champions: Sports Entertainment Corporation: P.M.C. Banks and Charlie Blackwell Universal PCW Women’s Champion: ‘Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin (SEC) PCW Red Brand Champion: Kirk Walstreit- the Wall Street Market Analyst with the Man Crush on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit PCW Blue Brand Champion: Vacant PCW Heartland Champion: Vacant PCW Red Brand Tag Team Champions: Banks and Blackwell PCW Blue Brand Tag Team Champions: Union Jack Taylor and the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior PCW Heartland Tag Team Champions: Weapons of Mass Destruction: A. Tom Bomb and Hy Drogen Bomb

[netmyname-blog]

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www.math.fsu.edu Growth and Mahler Measures in Geometry and Topology Preprint … Christopher J. Leininger University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA …… By a result of Smyth [Smy], the smallest Mahler measure of a non-reciprocal irreducible …… [34] Lakatos, Piroska, A new construction of Salem polynomials.

www2.cs.duke.edu #1 (2005)/Nordquist, Scott/Clark, Myers/McMillan, Thomas/Haynes … E il terzo giorno arrivò il corvo (1973)/Fineschi, Lorenzo/Tate, Lincoln/Strano, ….. Vera/Granado, Lily/Starace Sainati, Bella 07:07:13 (2005)/Smith, Trista 08 15 …… Dóra/Bulla, Elma/Almády, Ágnes/Vaszary, Piroska/Gögh, Zsuzsa 2000 Years …

bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com Oxaliplatin induces different cellular and molecular chemoresistance … LPS/IL-1 mediated inhibition of RXR function. 7E-03. 4.18E-02. CHST2, ABCB1 …… Notes. Piroska Virag and Ovidiu Balacescu contributed equally to this work.

[dailynynews-blog]

Wisconsin Map, Capital, Universities, History, Population, Facts

New Post has been published on https://www.dailynynews.com/2018/wisconsin-map-capital-universities-history-population-facts/

Wisconsin Map, Capital, Universities, History, Population, Facts

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state is divided into 72 counties.

Wisconsin’s geography is diverse, with the Northern Highland and Western Upland along with a part of the Central Plain occupying the western part of the state and lowlands stretching to the shore of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline.

Wisconsin is known as “America’s Dairyland” because it is one of the nation’s leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology (IT), and tourism are also major contributors to the state’s economy.

State of Wisconsin

    Flag Seal

Nickname(s): Badger State; America’s Dairyland (No official nickname) Motto(s): Forward   Demonym Wisconsinite Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Largest metro Milwaukee metropolitan area Area Ranked 23rd  • Total 65,498.37 sq mi (169,640 km2)  • Width 260 miles (420 km)  • Length 310 miles (500 km)  • % water 17  • Latitude 42° 30′ N to 47° 05′ N  • Longitude 86° 46′ W to 92° 53′ W Population Ranked 20th  • Total 5,778,708 (2016 est.)  • Density 105/sq mi  (40.6/km2) Ranked 23rd  • Median household income $55,425 (28th) Elevation  • Highest point Timms Hill 1,951 ft (595 m)  • Mean 1,050 ft  (320 m)  • Lowest point Lake Michigan 579 ft (176 m) Before statehood Wisconsin Territory Admission to Union May 29, 1848 (30th) Governor Scott Walker (R) Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (R) Legislature Wisconsin Legislature  • Upper house Senate  • Lower house State Assembly U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R) Tammy Baldwin (D) U.S. House delegation 5 Republicans, 3 Democrats (list) Time zone Central: UTC −6/−5 ISO 3166 US-WI Abbreviations WI, Wis., Wisc. Website www.wisconsin.gov

  Wisconsin state symbols

The Flag of Wisconsin

The Seal of Wisconsin

Living insignia Bird American robin Turdus migratorius Fish Muskellunge Esox masquinongy Flower Wood violet Viola sororia Insect Western honey bee Apis mellifera Tree Sugar maple Acer saccharum Inanimate insignia Beverage Milk Dance Polka Food Maize Zea mays Fossil Trilobite Calymene celebra Mineral Galena Motto “Forward” Rock Red granite Slogan America’s Dairyland Soil Antigo silt loam Song “On, Wisconsin!” Tartan Wisconsin tartan State route marker   State quarter

Released in 2004

Geography

Wisconsin is bordered by the Montreal River; Lake Superior and Michigan to the north; by Lake Michigan to the east; by Illinois to the south; and by Iowa to the southwest and Minnesota to the northwest. A border dispute with Michigan was settled by two cases, both Wisconsin v. Michigan, in 1934 and 1935. The state’s boundaries include the Mississippi River and St. Croix River in the west, and the Menominee River in the northeast.

With its location between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Wisconsin is home to a wide variety of geographical features. The state is divided into five distinct regions. In the north, the Lake Superior Lowland occupies a belt of land along Lake Superior. Just to the south, the Northern Highland has massive mixed hardwood and coniferous forests including the 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, as well as thousands of glacial lakes, and the state’s highest point, Timms Hill. In the middle of the state, the Central Plain has some unique sandstone formations like the Dells of the Wisconsin River in addition to rich farmland. The Eastern Ridges and Lowlands region in the southeast is home to many of Wisconsin’s largest cities. The ridges include the Niagara Escarpment that stretches from New York, the Black River Escarpment and the Magnesian Escarpment.

The bedrock of the Niagara Escarpment is dolomite, while the two shorter ridges have limestone bedrock. In the southwest, the Western Upland is a rugged landscape with a mix of forest and farmland, including many bluffs on the Mississippi River. This region is part of the Driftless Area, which also includes portions of Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. This area was not covered by glaciers during the most recent ice age, the Wisconsin Glaciation. Overall, 46% of Wisconsin’s land area is covered by forest. Langlade County has a soil rarely found outside of the county called Antigo silt loam.[63]

Education

Wisconsin, along with Minnesota and Michigan, was among the Midwestern leaders in the emergent American state university movement following the Civil War in the United States. By the start of the 20th century, education in the state advocated the “Wisconsin Idea”, which emphasized service to the people of the state. The “Wisconsin Idea” exemplified the Progressive movement within colleges and universities at the time.

Today, public post-secondary education in Wisconsin includes both the 26-campus University of Wisconsin System, with the flagship university University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the 16-campus Wisconsin Technical College System. Private colleges and universities include Alverno College, Beloit College, Cardinal Stritch University, Carroll University, Carthage College, Concordia University Wisconsin, Edgewood College, Lakeland College, Lawrence University, Marquette University, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Ripon College, St. Norbert College, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and others.

List of colleges and universities in Wisconsin

Active institutions School Location(s) Control Type Enrollment (fall 2010) Founded Accreditation Alverno College Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Master’s university 2,759 1887 HLC, CCNE,

NASM, NCATE

Bellin College Green Bay Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 329 1909 HLC, CCNE Beloit College Beloit Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 1,397 1846 HLC Blackhawk Technical College Janesville Public Associate’s college 3,339 1968 NCA, ADA, APTA,

JRCERT, NLNAC

Bryant & Stratton College–Wauwatosa Wauwatosa Private for-profit Baccalaureate/associate’s college 942 1854 MSCHE, NLNAC Cardinal Stritch University Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Doctoral/research university 5,842 1937 HLC, CCNE, NCATE,

NLNAC

Carroll University Waukesha Private not-for-profit Master’s university 3,396 1846 HLC, ADA, APTA,

CCNE

Carthage College Kenosha Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 3,144 1847 HLC, NASM Chippewa Valley Technical College Eau Claire Public Associate’s college 6,062 1912 HLC, NASM, JRCERT,

NLNAC

College of Menominee Nation Keshena Private not-for-profit Tribal college 615 1993 HLC, NLNAC Concordia University Wisconsin Mequon Private not-for-profit Master’s university 7,484 1881 HLC, ACPE, AOTA,

APTA, CCNE

DeVry University–Wisconsin Milwaukee Private for-profit Special-focus institution 521 1931 HLC Edgewood College Madison Private not-for-profit Doctoral/research university 2,626 1927 HLC, AAMFT,

CCNE, NCATE

Fox Valley Technical College Appleton Public Associate’s college 10,684 1967 HLC, ADA, AOTA,

NLNAC

Gateway Technical College Kenosha Public Associate’s college 9,052 1972 HLC, ADA, APTA, NLNAC Globe University–Eau Claire Eau Claire Private for-profit Associate’s college 728 1885 ACICS, ABHES Herzing University Madison Private not-for-profit Master’s university 6,032 1965 HLC, ABHES, NLNAC High-Tech Institute–Brookfield Brookfield Private for-profit Associate’s college 365 2006 ABHES Kaplan College Milwaukee Private for-profit Associate’s college 578 1937 ACCSC, ACICS Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College Hayward Public Tribal college 489 1982 HLC Lakeland College Plymouth Private not-for-profit Master’s university 3,936 1862 HLC, TEAC Lakeshore Technical College Cleveland Public Associate’s college 3,159 1967 HLC, ABHES,

JRCERT, NLNAC

Lawrence University Appleton Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 1,557 1847 HLC, NASM Madison Area Technical College Madison Public Associate’s college 17,463 1912 HLC, ADA, ADA,

AOA, NLNAC

Madison Media Institute Madison Private for-profit Associate’s college 488 1969 ACICS Maranatha Baptist University Watertown Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 962 1968 HLC Marian University Fond du Lac Private not-for-profit Master’s university 2,881 1936 HLC, CCNE, NCATE Marquette University Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Doctoral/research university 11,806 1881 HLC, ACME, ABA,

ADA, APTA, APA,

ASHA, CCNE, NCATE,

NLNAC

Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 1,277 1893 HLC, ADA, CEPH, LCME Mid-State Technical College Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point Public Associate’s college 3,430 1911 HLC, NLNAC Midwest College of Oriental Medicine Racine Private for-profit Special-focus institution 99 1979 ACAOM Milwaukee Area Technical College Milwaukee Public Associate’s college 19,827 1912 HLC, ADA, AOTA,

APTA, JRCERT,

NLNAC

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 700 1974 HLC, NASAD Milwaukee School of Engineering Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Master’s university 2,589 1903 HLC, CCNE Moraine Park Technical College Fond du Lac Public Associate’s college 8,484 1912 HLC, JRCERT Mount Mary University Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Master’s university 1,957 1913 HLC, ADA, AOTA Nashotah House Nashotah Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 114 1842 ATSCA Nicolet Area Technical College Rhinelander Public Associate’s college 1,455 1967 HLC, NLNAC Northcentral Technical College Wausau Public Associate’s college 5,120 1912 HLC, ADA,

JRCERT, NLNAC

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Green Bay Public Associate’s college 9,755 1912 HLC, ADA, APTA,

JRCERT, NLNAC

Northland College Ashland Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 603 1906 HLC Ottawa University–Milwaukee Brookfield Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 405 1865 HLC Rasmussen College–Green Bay Green Bay, Appleton, Wausau Private for-profit Associate’s college 1,342 1900 HLC Ripon College Ripon Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 1,065 1851 HLC Sacred Heart School of Theology Franklin Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 107 1932 HLC, ATSCA St. Norbert College De Pere Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 2,241 1898 HLC Sanford-Brown College West Allis Private for-profit Associate’s college 1,377 1866 ACICS, ABHES,

JRCERT

Silver Lake College Manitowoc Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 720 1885 HLC, CCNE, NASM Southwest Wisconsin Technical College Fennimore Public Associate’s college 3,431 1967 HLC, APTA, NLNAC University of Phoenix–Madison Campus Madison Private for-profit Special-focus institution 201 1976 HLC University of Phoenix–Milwaukee Campus Brookfield Private for-profit Special-focus institution 583 1976 HLC University of Wisconsin Colleges [note 4] Public Associate’s colleges 14,385 Various HLC University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Eau Claire Public Master’s university 11,413 1916 HLC, ASHA,

CCNE, NASM

University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Green Bay Public Master’s university 6,636 1965 HLC, ADA, CCNE,

NASM, NLNAC

University of Wisconsin–La Crosse La Crosse Public Master’s university 10,135 1909 HLC, AOTA, APTA,

CEPH, JRCERT, NASM

University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison Public Research university 42,180 1848 HLC, ACPE, ABA,

ADA, AOTA, APTA,

APA, ASHA, AVMA,

CCNE, CEPH, JRCERT,

LCME, NASAD, NASM, NAST

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Milwaukee Public Research university 30,470 1885 HLC, AOTA, APTA,

APA, ASHA, CCNE, NASM

University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh Oshkosh Public Master’s university 13,629 1871 HLC, CCNE, NASM, NCATE University of Wisconsin–Parkside Kenosha Public Baccalaureate college 5,160 1968 HLC University of Wisconsin–Platteville Platteville Public Master’s university 7,928 1866 HLC, NASM, NCATE University of Wisconsin–River Falls River Falls Public Master’s university 6,902 1875 HLC, ASHA, NASM, NCATE University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point Stevens Point Public Master’s university 9,500 1894 HLC, ADA, ASHA,

NASAD, NASD,

NASM, NAST

University of Wisconsin–Stout Menomonie Public Master’s university 9,339 1891 HLC, AAMFT, ADA, NASAD, NCATE University of Wisconsin–Superior Superior Public Master’s university 2,856 1893 HLC, NASM University of Wisconsin–Whitewater Whitewater Public Master’s university 11,557 1868 HLC, ASHA, NASAD,

NASM, NAST, NCATE

Viterbo University La Crosse Private not-for-profit Master’s university 3,238 1890 HLC, ADA, CCNE,

NASM, NCATE

Waukesha County Technical College Pewaukee Public Associate’s college 8,102 1923 HLC, ADA, NLNAC Western Technical College La Crosse Public Associate’s college 5,392 1912 HLC, ADA, AOTA,

APTA, JRCERT,

NLNAC

Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College Shell Lake Public Associate’s college 3,925 1972 HLC, NLNAC Wisconsin Lutheran College Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Baccalaureate college 840 1973 HLC Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology Milwaukee Private not-for-profit Special-focus institution 75 1978 HLC, APA

[humongoushologramkid-blog]

Real Call From Jojo Siwa Aplikacje Na Androida <p>W Google Play</p>

Joelle Joni Siwa (born May 19, 2003), generally credited as JoJo Siwa, is an American dancer, singer, television personality, and design. Even though Siwa has the boon of Abby Lee Miller, owner and teacher of the Abby Lee Dance Company and star of Dance Moms, the choreographer isn't handling or involved in the singing aspect of her career. JoJo says she's   very grateful for the chance to look on Dance Moms, understanding she is getting the ultimate experience in show business, and it is going to help her achieve her dreams of being a celebrity. Check out the interview with Jojo above, and see more interviews in the orange carpet of the 2016 Kids Choice Awards under. Nickelodeon announced Wednesday they formed an exclusive licensing deal with JoJo To develop a consumer product line inspired by the 13-year-old dancer/singer. JoJo Siwa was a finalist on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition , and then she was on Dance Moms , and she is on YouTube. In 2016, she won the Business Dance Award as favorite dancer in 17 years age group category. JoJo has moved on from Dance Moms and is ready for another chapter in her life. JoJo Bows are big and brightly colored accessories which have become popular thanks to American Youtube and reality television star JoJo Siwa. Since  finding her love for dance for a toddler, Siwa has gone to hit some significant milestones in her budding career, such as becoming the youngest contestant to appear on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition in only 8 years old, and starring in Dance Moms. While she was   on the show, Jojo also made the time to appear as herself in various programmings such as  The View (2015), Teens Wanna Know (2015), Make It Pop (2016), TeenNick Top 10 (2016), and Piper's Picks TV (2016). Now, Siwa has garnered an amazing social media after with over   5.5 million Instagram followers, 10 million followers on and almost   271,000 Twitter followers. Since June, JoJo's Bows -- made by H.E.R. Accessories, a licensee of JoJo's -- have been among the top sellers in Claire's, the shop popular amongst the middle-school set, according to Hind Palmer, Claire's global brand advertising and public relations director. Apart from everything that's already been mentioned, the dancer additionally receives a passive stream of income via Youtube. The doll will be available in Walmart stores starting this July for $19.88. However, fans can also jump on the pre-sale on starting today. jojo siwa phone number marked its third straight year at number one with kids, outpacing the competition most lately in 2016 by double digits. She frequently posts videos on the way to accessorise and make hair bows also has published an online tune named Boomerang, which copes with online bullying. SHE'S an American TV personality but, as a result of a invasion of JoJo Bows in UK schools, Brits are beginning to find out JoJo Siwa's name. Since June, JoJo's Bows -- made by H.E.R. Accessories, a licensee of JoJo's -- have been one of the best sellers at Claire's, the shop popular one of the middle-school place, according to Hind Palmer, Claire's global brand advertising and public relations manager.

[topinforma]

New Post has been published on Mortgage News

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2s45j5j

Why a reverse mortgage might be a good idea for some older homeowners

Dear Liz: I recently retired to a small house I bought 30 years ago. I refinanced four times to get the rate down from 11% to 3.5%. This provided me with a low monthly mortgage (just under $450), but my current 30-year loan won’t be paid off until I’m 92. I’ll be 67 in two months, and just received an inheritance of $400,000 following the death of my parents. My only income is $2,000 a month from Social Security and a monthly pension check of $1,100, although I do have an IRA that should be worth roughly $170,000 by July.

I’m thinking about paying off the $90,000 remaining on my mortgage, which would allow it to be passed on to my sister, nephew (or whomever) without any complicated bank or loan issues. It also would free up that mortgage payment for other household expenses. The house needs some work, such as a new carport, double-pane windows, proper insulation, deck repair and maybe termite work, all of which will probably eat up the better part of $100,000. Is it worth keeping the loan just to maintain the tax deduction or does it makes financial sense to pay it off?

Answer: Keeping a mortgage just for the tax deduction doesn’t usually make much sense. Here’s why: If you’re in the 25% federal tax bracket, you’re getting back only about 25 cents for each dollar in interest you pay. Most homeowners get even less back, and many don’t get any tax advantage from their mortgages at all.

It can make sense, though, to keep a mortgage to preserve liquidity. Younger people, especially, should be wary of tying up most of their net worth in a home if that equity would be hard to tap in an emergency. Home equity lines of credit offer one way to access that equity, although lenders can freeze or reduce those lines on a whim.

Because you’re over 62, you could consider paying off the loan and then setting up a reverse mortgage line of credit.

An FHA-insured reverse mortgage line of credit can’t be shut down once it’s established, as long as you abide by the loan rules (such as paying your property taxes and insurance, and keeping the home in good condition). In fact, the amount you can borrow can increase over time with a reverse mortgage credit line. You don’t have to make monthly principal and interest payments on the money you borrow with a reverse mortgage.

Any amount you borrow will grow over time, typically at variable interest rates, and will have to be repaid when you die, sell or permanently move out of the home. That would complicate leaving the house to your heirs, but if the amount you owe is greater than the home’s worth, your heirs aren’t on the hook for the difference with an FHA-insured reverse mortgage, also known as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage.

In any case, preserving an inheritance probably shouldn’t be your top priority. You should focus instead on preserving your quality of life and your financial flexibility.

Reverse mortgages have gotten safer and less expensive in recent years, but you would need to exercise discipline not to waste the money you borrow on frivolous purchases. You want that equity to be available for you when you need it, such as for nursing home or other long-term care expenses.

You would be required to get counseling before applying for a reverse mortgage, but you also should talk to an independent, fee-only financial planner to make sure this approach makes sense.

Living trusts and tax advantages

Dear Liz: You mentioned recently that there are no tax advantages if your assets are held in a living trust. Aren’t you forgetting the tax exemption feature that allows an exemption of $5.49 million for each person? Hence a married couple can exclude up to about $11 million of their estate through an appropriate living trust. And the unused portion for the first spousal death can be “ported” or used by the successor spouse. Big tax implications that I believe are available only through a living trust.

Answer: That’s a common misconception, but the estate tax exemption is available with or without a living trust. The primary purpose of a living trust is to avoid the court process known as probate that otherwise follows death, not to avoid or reduce estate taxes.

Caption

LA Pride went from party to protest this year. Sikhs are often targeted in hate crimes after being confused for Muslims. The next big boost to California’s tourism industry: pot. And a big day in sports for Rafael Nadal, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the U.S. and Mexico’s men’s soccer teams and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager.

Credits: Getty / Irfan Khan / KTLA / Claire Hannah Collins

LA Pride went from party to protest this year. Sikhs are often targeted in hate crimes after being confused for Muslims. The next big boost to California’s tourism industry: pot. And a big day in sports for Rafael Nadal, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the U.S. and Mexico’s men’s soccer teams and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager.

Credits: Getty / Irfan Khan / KTLA / Claire Hannah Collins

Caption

LA Pride went from party to protest this year. Sikhs are often targeted in hate crimes after being confused for Muslims. The next big boost to California’s tourism industry: pot. And a big day in sports for Rafael Nadal, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the U.S. and Mexico’s men’s soccer teams and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager.

Credits: Getty / Irfan Khan / KTLA / Claire Hannah Collins

LA Pride went from party to protest this year. Sikhs are often targeted in hate crimes after being confused for Muslims. The next big boost to California’s tourism industry: pot. And a big day in sports for Rafael Nadal, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the U.S. and Mexico’s men’s soccer teams and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager.

Credits: Getty / Irfan Khan / KTLA / Claire Hannah Collins

Caption

Thousands gathered at Hollywood and Highland to march for LGBTQ rights, and against government forces that would take away human rights. (Video by Claire Hannah Collins / Los Angeles Times)

Thousands gathered at Hollywood and Highland to march for LGBTQ rights, and against government forces that would take away human rights. (Video by Claire Hannah Collins / Los Angeles Times)

Caption

What do you get in a $3-million car? If it’s the Bugatti Chiron, you get a 16-cylinder, 1,500 horsepower, 261 mph, 0-60 mph in under 2.5 seconds, luxury supercar.

What do you get in a $3-million car? If it’s the Bugatti Chiron, you get a 16-cylinder, 1,500 horsepower, 261 mph, 0-60 mph in under 2.5 seconds, luxury supercar.

Caption

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Elaine Wakeland sit in an earthquake simulator before speaking about seismic safety at the mayor’s residence on June 9, 2017.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Elaine Wakeland sit in an earthquake simulator before speaking about seismic safety at the mayor’s residence on June 9, 2017.

Caption

How witnesses say the London Bridge attack happened. Of all the scenes in ‘Wonder Woman,’ the fight scenes proved surprisingly emotional for some. The Trump administration is calling this week ‘infrastructure week.’ California’s stepping up to battle climate change in light of the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Accord. First stop? China. Trump nominated Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official, to head the FBI. Compared to George W. Bush and Obama. Turns out, our species is older than we thought. James Comey delivers that startling account to Congress.

How witnesses say the London Bridge attack happened. Of all the scenes in ‘Wonder Woman,’ the fight scenes proved surprisingly emotional for some. The Trump administration is calling this week ‘infrastructure week.’ California’s stepping up to battle climate change in light of the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Accord. First stop? China. Trump nominated Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official, to head the FBI. Compared to George W. Bush and Obama. Turns out, our species is older than we thought. James Comey delivers that startling account to Congress.

Liz Weston, certified financial planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com. Distributed by No More Red Inc.

[fanzonesports]

Kiss Adds Zelina, Ulicny To Recruit Class

Kiss Adds Zelina, Ulicny To Recruit Class @StClairSaints1

Kirsten Zelina (L) and Anna Ulicny committed to the St Clair Saints on 17 May 2017. Photo courtesy of Ted Beale/St Clair Saints.

(WINDSOR, ON) – The St Clair women’s basketball team found some more weapons, adding 5’ 10” forward Kirsten Zelina, from Wallaceburg, and 5’ 5” guard Anna Ulicny, of Belle River, to their incoming 2017-18 recruiting class.

Ulicny is a product of the very successful St…

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: ArtRx NYC

“Solo was going to fire again but suddenly an invisible force swept up his pistol and delivered it to Vader’s hands.” A panel from Diguo Fanjizhan’s The Emperor Strikes Back (1982) (image courtesy Orion Martin)

 China’s Pulp Comics

When: Tuesday, January 24, 7pm Where: Parsons School of Design (2 W 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan)

For the NY Comics & Picture–story Symposium, Hyperallergic contributor Orion Martin will discuss what he calls the “largest comics industry ever”: China’s pulp comics. While they’ve waned in popularity in recent years, over eight billion of these hand-sized comics were printed in 1985. Known as lianhuanhua, they draw on history, folk tales, popular culture, and martial arts. Martin, who has written about Chinese comics for Hyperallergic, will trace their long history, stretching back to 1920s Shanghai. —EWA

 Shanzhai Poems

When: Wednesday, January 25, 6–8pm Where: Picture Room (236 Mulberry Street, Nolita, Manhattan)

For a project called The Shanzhai Lyric — resulting in a new publication, 閃 SHINE — Ming Lin and Alexandra Tatarsky wandered Zoo Market, a five-story clothing market in Beijing, looking at the way language is used on shanzhai (counterfeit) clothing. The result is a series of poems that explores how “shanzhai language might be included in post-colonial discourse surrounding the strategic use of language as a mode of resistance, as a subversion and reappropriation of American cultural imperialism.” That may sound lofty, but their Instagram promises some truly thoughtful provocation. —JS

A photo posted by @shanzhai_lyric on Nov 25, 2016 at 4:42am PST

 Make America Fun Again

When: Saturday, January 28, 12–6pm Where: To be announced!

Remarkably in its 13th year of unsanctioned chaos, the annual Idiotarod is taking to the streets this Saturday with its art-enhanced shopping carts driven by teams. This year’s theme is “Make America Fun Again,” and registration (plus your own shopping cart) is required to participate, though not to watch. Past teams have included Elvises and a Chapel-O-Love, and Andy Warhol with a giant banana. Just don’t get too attached to a cart creation; the 2013 edition ended with a flaming catapult. —AM

 Zine and Small Press Fair for POC Artists

Poster for the Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair (courtesy 3 Dot Zine)

When: Saturday, January 28–Sunday, January 29, 12–7 pm Where: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (80 Hanson Pl, Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

Diversify your zine collection and say hello this weekend to the first-ever installment of the Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair for Black and PoC Artists! Presented by 3 Dot Zine at MoCADA, the inaugural event highlights the printed makings of artists of color, celebrating these creative individuals in a city that’s already home to queer and feminist zine fests in addition to more established art book fairs. Alongside the usual tables offering publications for sale, the event will also feature a slew of programming, from Women’s Healing Space, a writing workshop, to a screening of the documentary #BlackGirlLit: Between Literature, Performance & Memory, to a panel discussing diversity and representation in self-publishing. The 19 participants include Blk Grls Wurld Zine, Collectiva Cosmica, and Yellow Jackets Collective. —CV

 A Night of Philosophy

When: Saturday, January 28, 7pm–Sunday, January 29, 7am Where: Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

In a time of extreme close-mindedness and “alternative facts,” a marathon devoted to the open and honest exchange of ideas sounds like a worthwhile antidote. On Saturday night, the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library will stay open for 12 hours straight, hosting dozens of discussions with international philosophers (e.g. Achille Mbembe, Simon Critchley), performances by Trisha Brown Dance Company and others, breakfast, and more. Go for the “What Is the Future of Democracy?” talk; stay for “On Hope & Despair.” —JS

 The Fight for Oak Flat

When: Sunday, January 29, 3:30–5pm Where: Queens Museum (New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens)

Dakota Access pipeline protesters may have won a temporary victory — which now looks like it will be reversed — but the fight to protect Native lands is far from over in this country. Take, for instance, the case of Oak Flat Campground, a 2,400-acre tract in Arizona that’s sacred to the San Carlos Apache. Protected since 1955, the campground is now threatened by a controversial land-swap deal that allows the development of a copper mine on the campground. This weekend, students in the Social Practice Queens MFA program will bring together Wendlser Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and Standing Fox, Apache Stronghold member and a Bedonkohe Apache photographer and artist, to discuss Oak Flat at artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s aspirationally named “Peace Table.” —JS

Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (via sculpture-center.org)

 Contemporary Art in Congo

When: Sunday, January 29, 2–5:30pm Where: SculptureCenter (44–19 Purves Street, Long Island City, Queens)

How can the contemporary art economy benefit plantation workers in Africa? The members of the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League, or CATPC), who are paid less than living wages for their work harvesting cocoa and other crops destined for foreign markets, have found a unique answer to this question by turning the byproducts of their labor into contemporary art that can supplement their incomes. At Sunday’s conference, they will discuss their work and its economic context, while scholars working on related subjects will frame CATPC’s unique project in a broader context of plantation and postcolonial economics, social justice art, and more. —BS

 So Long, Front Room

When: Ends Sunday, January 29 Where: Front Room Gallery (147 Roebling Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

These was a time that Hyperallergic’s home neighborhood of Williamsburg had a thriving group of galleries; by now most of them have closed or moved away, as chains like Brooklyn Industries and Whole Foods have crept in. Front Room is one of the holdouts: the gallery has inhabited a well-worn space on Roebling Street for 18 years. Come March, it will relocate to the Lower East Side (following in the recent footsteps of Pierogi), but not before saying goodbye with a group show of the some of the gallery’s artists, including Thomas Broadbent, Stephen Mallon, Miho Suzuki, and more. Stop by and wish them well. —JS

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With contributions by Elisa Wouk Almino, Allison Meier, Benjamin Sutton, and Claire Voon

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