#so ill just be releasing these periodically about donnie's life

[beannary]

its a bit hard masking all the time isnt it?

(psssst you can check out my The Little Prince Separated AU over here!)

[clexa--warrior]

Hey, Have You Heard About This Coronavirus Thing? Crazy Shit, Right? (Ferret/Shower Cap)

History texts depicting this period will read like deranged Choose Your Adventure books written by sadists; no matter how frantically you flip backwards, you just can’t seem to find the page when you still had the option to vote for the really smart lady with the email server. Anyway, join me for a quick news round-up, it won’t take long, and when we’re done, I give you permission to run away to join a roving Thai monkey street gang.

(As always, find this post WITH nifty news links here: http://showercapblog.com/hey-have-you-heard-about-this-coronavirus-thing-crazy-shit-right/)

For those of you just waking up from a Rip Van Winkle nap, the United States is facing a massive, coast-to-coast, health crisis, whose tragic consequences have exploded exponentially because our Idiot Manchild President really believed, in that churning campground septic tank he calls a mind, that protecting his personal approval ratings by understating the problem was more important than the health and safety of the American public. I don’t know what you can call that but murder. On the one hand, it’s weird to say “wow, the President murdered a bunch Americans through boneheaded, unforgivably selfish, neglect,” but we already saw him get away with precisely that crime in Puerto Rico, so here we are.

Now, I have come to expect malice from the federal government under Hairplug Himmler, but sometimes their capacity for raw, senseless, evil still shocks me. This is my way of saying that, until they got fucking caught, the Department of, and Someone Should Slap the Word Out of Their Filthy Mouths, Justice attempted to remove CDC fliers offering potentially life-saving information regarding the coronavirus from...immigration courtrooms. My God. What a small but potent horror. Feels like the work of an ambitious intern in Stephen Miller’s office, doesn’t it? Trying to impress the boss? Just a sinister little trick, to spread a little more pain, a little more misery, a little more death in an already vulnerable, and whatta-coincidence-nonwhite, community? Fuck these awful, awful, people.

It seems President Liposuction Clinic Dumpster has been calling up leading Taliban terrorists on a secret U.S. kill-or-capture list, presumably to trade tips n’ tricks on how to undermine the USA at home and abroad. Now, negotiating with these murderous dirtbags is a big diplomacy no-no (and of course Donnie Dotard got rolled anyway) but in all honestly, if I had access to a secret kill list contact sheet, I’d probably give in to the temptation to make some prank calls. “Is your refrigerator running? Yeah? Are you sure it’s not a FLEET OF DRONES ABOVE YOU RIGHT NOW?”

For Jeff Sessions, the wages of sin turned out to be a faceful of Trump-branded fecal matter, as the Candycorn Skidmark, whose campaign Ol’ Beauregard embraced way back before fascism was cool in conservative circles, endorsed his opponent in the coming Alabama Senate runoff. How must it feel to have been the very fellow who flipped the switch on the Rube Goldberg/Mousetrap Board Game device that destroyed America, and to watch the machine work its destructive magic for years, only to realize it’s also got one special crotch punt in store for just you personally. I’d feel bad for Bilbo Bigot, if it he weren’t, y’know, one of the very worst people alive.

Alex Jones got arrested for drunk driving, and, upon his release, got right back to work selling...sigh...selling some bullshit toothpaste that he’s telling the rubes magically cures the coronavirus. Authorities are cracking down on Jones and fellow charlatan Jim Bakker over their odious snake oil peddling enterprises, but I don’t know what’s more shocking and disappointing to me, that there are such vile fuckwads in the world, who seek to profit off the fear of the misinformed during times of crisis, or that said fuckwads have so many blind, willing, disciples?

Speaking of fuckwads, Ron Johnson seems to have backed down, for now at any rate, from his quest to stage a show trial for Hunter Biden in the U.S Senate. And that’s awesome and all, but never forget how ready, how eager, RoJo has been, to corruptly manipulate the vast powers of the government for his democracy-stomping Turdlord’s political benefit. Ron is the kind of fellow you’d have found stamping documents outside trains bound for Dachau.

But yeah, I suppose the big story is still that coronavirus thing. Great choice on evolution’s part, the way symptoms don’t necessarily manifest right away, so we can spread that shit around without knowing we’re even infected. Anyway, I made sure to thoroughly disinfect tonight’s blog before posting, and medical professionals inform me that though the virus can linger on plastic and metal surfaces for as long as days, it cannot survive on a poo joke, so please rest easy, knowing you can safely consume this content in comfort. Unless you're reading it next to somebody with the coronavirus, but that's on you, kid.

The Shart Administration has actually slowed progress in this crucial fight, by classifying high-level coronavirus meetings, because they’re more worried about congressional oversight of their crimes n’ fuckups than they are about OUR LIVES, and y’know what, I do believe I’ll be voting Democrat this November.

And of course, many conservatives are more concerned with blaming the virus on the Chinese than preventing its spread; by gum, there’s no need to abandon yer principles, even when your ineptitude is getting countless folks sick and/or killed! “We may be a cabal of dangerously incompetent assclowns, but let none forget that we are also RACIST assclowns!”

With the stock market finally catching up to the rest of the world in noticing a pudding-brained twit had inexplicably been placed in charge of the most powerful nation in history, Pumpkin Spice Pol Pot oozed into the Oval Office for a prime time speech, and if his goal was “fuck up the entire world as much as humanly possible in ten short minutes,” then he succeeded beyond his wildest imaginings.

It was a speech that completely failed to reassure, instead reminding the world that this drooling manbaby, this bathtub drain hair clog in an ill-fitting suit, truly is President of the Entire United Fucking States, and not only is he light years out of his element but he’s probably spending most of his time practicing his “the world is ending, you have to go out with me now” phone call to Salma Hayek rather than pursuing desperately-needed solutions.

Despite being on teleprompter, with the text of the fucking speech right fucking in front of him, Dorito Mussolini somehow managed to catastrophically misrepresent his own administration’s policies, dropping one more cartoon anvil on the stock market’s already-throughly-bludgeoned ballsack. This is, of course, on top of nonsensical non-solutions like banning travel from Europe, when the virus had already had weeks to spread throughout the country thanks to presidential bungling and neglect.

For 73 years, this cretin has somehow never encountered a problem he couldn’t lie, buy, or bully his way out of, but COVID-19 doesn’t care how much money your daddy gave you, little man. And may I say, on behalf of the thousands who are about to become sick, fuck you. Fuck you eternally with a rusty shovel, for daring to take on such an important job without the skills, temperament, or character to execute its duties. Asshole.

In contrast, Smilin’ Joe Biden gave a speech of his own; calm, collected, solemn, and filled with concrete steps to address the problems facing the nation. And America collectively went, “Oh right, it’s actually highly abnormal to have a gibbering, rectum-mouthed, dolt for a President, and we can actually have a decent, competent, one again! Soon!” It was like leadership porn. I got aroused.

Meanwhile, our already-hopelessly-overmatched Golf Cheat in Chief is multitasking, lobbing missiles at Iran-backed militias in Iraq. I’m just hoping the buttons on his desk are clearly labeled, y’know? Or at least that there’s somebody hanging around who can tackle him before he bombs Seattle and launches 500 respirators at Tehran.

So, um, in the midst of this once-in-generation shitstorm, I guess Sarah Palin dressed up in a bear suit to perform “Baby Got Back” on a reality television program. I’m not a religious person, honestly, but I’m increasingly open to the idea that there is a God, and that s/he’s been on a meth bender since mid-2016.

Social distancing is the zany new anti-dance craze sweeping the nation as we all do our damndest to not get sick and die! As a result, public gatherings are getting called off left and right. March Madness, MLB, NBA, PGA, SXSW, Broadway...personally, I don’t think I fully appreciated the scope of this crisis until I saw the XFL shut down their season. Like, are we even America anymore without one billionaire’s sad attempt to reboot his once-failed vanity project?

As sensible organizations all over the world made painful but obviously necessary sacrifices to, y’know, slow the spread of a deadly disease and save lives, naturally the Velveeta Vulgarian was among the last holdouts, canceling his precious hate rallies only grudgingly, because the safety of even his own fervent base is secondary to the sugar rush of their rageful cheers, filling, if only for a moment, that empty space within him where most people have a soul.

Now more than ever, I am brimming over with gratitude that we took the House back in 2018. Thank god there’s a little leadership, a little accountability, a little common frickin’ sense in Washington now. And thank god for Katie Porter, one of the standouts in a freshman class packed with absolute ass-kickers, cornering the CDC chief into exercising his legal authority to make coronavirus testing free for every American. Imagine if Kevin McCarthy were running the House right now. He’d be fleeing from reporters, in mismatched loafers, trying to sell the public on a bill bailing out nothing but Trump University and Marm-a-Lago.

Well, the Emperor of Hemorrhoids finally buckled and declared (acknowledged) a state of emergency over the coronavirus, which is admittedly a pleasant change from his previous “do everything I possibly can to help the fucker spread” position. We’re still woefully behind, and god only knows how deeply the virus has penetrated while the doddering old bastard diddled and dawdled, but the good news is, the President of the United States finally moved his bloated ass out of the road so we can get to work cleaning up his mess, which is, I suppose, as close to an act of kindness as he’s come in his entire misspent, treacherous, life.

In the middle of today’s press conference, Vice President Mike Pants paused to give Boss Turdworm a rhetorical handjob seemingly designed to last through an entire 14-day quarantine. Jeeeeesus. Mikey Hairshirt was a man once. Not much of one, to be certain, but at least he didn’t have to worry about the possibility of bored schoolchildren pouring salt on him, which would of course prove swiftly fatal in his current state.

A reporter asked Government Cheese Goebbels, “Hey, if you’re not too busy fellating yourself over fucking up slightly less than you’ve been fucking up for weeks, why the fuck did you close down the pandemic office, you nation-wrecking clod?” and he whinged that the question was “nasty,” before reiterating his refusal to take responsibility for the things that are, objectively, his fault. I truly do not understand how this trembling coward’s approval rating isn’t 0%

So Nancy Pelosi spent the week trying to hammer out an emergency bill with Steve Mnuchin, but Republicans naturally balked at many necessary measures. It’s a tricky spot for the GOP; they can’t risk the mass-extermination of the underpaid labor/consumer force that keeps their donor class filthy rich, but doing anything to improve working folks’ lives is just instinctually anathematic to them. But at the time of posting, it does appear as though a deal has been reached, let’s hope no spray-tanned morons fuck it up, right?

In conclusion, I am sick of typing the word “coronavirus,” and you are sick of reading it, so let’s let’s all retreat to our quarantines for the weekend, okay? Enjoy the solitude! Read that novel you bought back in college! Watch that 425-minute Russian film set in a fish cannery! Hey, you can even peruse the archives at showercapblog.com if you feel like reliving just how the fuck it all came to this! Anyway, if you don’t hear from me for a bit, fear not, I’m turning production of this blog over to Jared Kushner, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.

[blackkudos]

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial discrimination. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

Biography

1933–1954: Early life

Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at the age of three or four; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local church. Her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was 12. Simone later said that during this performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. She said that she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front, and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement. Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (née Irvin, November 20, 1901 – April 30, 2001), was a Methodist minister and a housemaid. Her father, Rev. John Devan Waymon (June 24, 1898 – October 23, 1972), was a handyman who at one time owned a dry-cleaning business, but also suffered bouts of ill health. Simone's music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist her continued education. With the help of this scholarship money, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina.

After her graduation, Simone spent the summer of 1950 at the Juilliard School as a student of Carl Friedberg, preparing for an audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her application, however, was denied. Only 3 of 72 applicants were accepted that year, but as her family had relocated to Philadelphia in the expectation of her entry to Curtis, the blow to her aspirations was particularly heavy. For the rest of her life, she suspected that her application had been denied because of racial prejudice. Discouraged, she took private piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a professor at Curtis, but never could re-apply due to the fact that at the time the Curtis institute did not accept students over 21. She took a job as a photographer's assistant, but also found work as an accompanist at Arlene Smith's vocal studio and taught piano from her home in Philadelphia.

1954–1959: Early success

In order to fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano, which increased her income to $90 a week. In 1954, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone". "Nina", derived from niña, was a nickname given to her by a boyfriend named Chico, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the 1952 movie Casque d'Or. Knowing her mother would not approve of playing the "Devil's Music", she used her new stage name to remain undetected. Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small but loyal fan base.

In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage. Playing in small clubs in the same year, she recorded George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 20 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue followed in February 1959 on Bethlehem Records. Simone lost more than $1 million in royalties (notably for the 1980s re-release of her version of the jazz standard "My Baby Just Cares for Me") and never benefited financially from the album's sales because she had sold her rights outright for $3,000.

1959–1964: Becoming popular

After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with Colpix Records and recorded a multitude of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. After the release of her live album Nina Simone at Town Hall, Simone became a favorite performer in Greenwich Village. By this time, Simone performed pop music only to make money to continue her classical music studies, and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.

Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961. He later became her manager and the father of her daughter Lisa, but he abused Simone psychologically and physically.

1964–1974: Civil Rights era

In 1964, Simone changed record distributors from Colpix, an American company, to the Dutch Philips Records, which meant a change in the content of her recordings. She had always included songs in her repertoire that drew on her African-American heritage, such as "Brown Baby" by Oscar Brown and "Zungo" by Michael Olatunji on her album Nina at the Village Gate in 1962. On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone in Concert (1964), for the first time she addressed racial inequality in the United States in the song "Mississippi Goddam". This was her response to the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers and the September 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young black girls and partially blinded a fifth. She said that the song was "like throwing ten bullets back at them", becoming one of many other protest songs written by Simone. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in some southern states. Promotional copies were smashed by a Carolina radio station and returned to Philips. She later recalled how "Mississippi Goddam" was her "first civil rights song" and that the song came to her "in a rush of fury, hatred and determination". The song challenged the belief that race relations could change gradually and called for more immediate developments: "me and my people are just about due". It was a key moment in her political radicalization. "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow laws. After "Mississippi Goddam", a civil rights message was the norm in Simone's recordings and became part of her concerts. As her political activism rose, the rate of release of her music slowed.

Simone performed and spoke at civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Like Malcolm X, her neighbor in Mount Vernon, New York, she supported black nationalism and advocated violent revolution rather than Martin Luther King's non-violent approach. She hoped that African Americans could use armed combat to form a separate state, though she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.

In 1967, Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor. She sang "Backlash Blues" written by her friend, Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes, on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album 'Nuff Said! (1968) contained live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair of April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She dedicated the performance to him and sang "Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor. In 1969, she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park.

Simone and Weldon Irvine turned the unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry into a civil rights song of the same name. She credited her friend Hansberry with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black) and Donny Hathaway. When reflecting on this period, she wrote in her autobiography, "I felt more alive then than I feel now because I was needed, and I could sing something to help my people".

1974–1993: Later life

In an interview for Jet magazine, Simone stated that her controversial song "Mississippi Goddam" harmed her career. She claimed that the music industry punished her by boycotting her records. Hurt and disappointed, Simone left the US in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of her desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income.

When Simone returned to the United States, she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (unpaid as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War), and returned to Barbados to evade the authorities and prosecution. Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time, and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow. A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia. When Simone relocated, she abandoned her daughter Lisa in Mount Vernon. Lisa eventually reunited with Simone in Liberia, but, according to Lisa, her mother was physically and mentally abusive. The abuse was so unbearable that Lisa became suicidal and she moved back to New York to live with her father Andrew Stroud.Simone recorded her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, in 1974, and did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, was fairly well-received critically and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later, Simone recorded Fodder on My Wings on a French label.

During the 1980s, Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging with her audiences sometimes, by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in Britain. This led to a re-release of the recording, which stormed to number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK.

Later, Simone moved to Europe, first living in Nyon, Switzerland, and in 1988 moved to Nijmegen and later Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Simone published her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, in 1992. She continued to tour through the 1990s, but rarely traveled without an entourage. During the last decade of her life, Simone had sold more than one million records, making her a global catalog best-seller.

1993–2003: Final years, illness and death

In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. In the same year, her final album, A Single Woman, was released. She variously contended that she married or had a love affair with a Tunisian around this time, but that their relationship ended because, "His family didn't want him to move to France, and France didn't want him because he's a North African." During a 1998 performance in Newark, she announced, "If you're going to come see me again, you've got to come to France, because I am not coming back." She suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, on April 21, 2003. Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and hundreds of others. Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She is survived by her daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, an actress and singer, who took the stage name Simone, and who has appeared on Broadway in Aida.

Activism

Influence

Simone's consciousness on the racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with black playwright, Lorraine Hansberry. The influence of Hansberry planted the seed for the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone's repertoire. One of Nina's more hopeful activism anthems, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright's passing, acquiring the title of one of Hansberry's unpublished plays.

Beyond the civil rights movement

Simone's social commentary was not limited to the civil rights movement; the song "Four Women" exposed the eurocentric appearance standards imposed on black women in America, as it explored the internalized dilemma of beauty that is experienced between four black women with skin tones ranging from light to dark. She explains in her autobiography I Put a Spell on You (p. 117) that the purpose of the song was to inspire black women to define beauty and identity for themselves without the influence of societal impositions.

Artistry

Simone standards

Throughout her career, Simone assembled a collection of songs that would later become standards in her repertoire. Some were songs that she wrote herself, while others were new arrangements of other standards, and others had been written especially for the singer. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart.

During that same period Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, after it was featured in a 1986 Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was also created by Aardman Studios. Well-known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne me quitte pas" (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song) and "Feeling Good" on I Put a Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966).

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and her takes on "Feeling Good" and "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) have remained popular in cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by The Animals), sample usage, and their use on soundtracks for various movies, television series, and video games. "Sinnerman" has been featured in the films The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), High Crimes (2002), Cellular (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Golden Door (2006), Inland Empire (2006), and Harriet (2019), as well as in TV series such as Homicide: Life on the Street (1998, "Sins of the Father"), Nash Bridges (2000, "Jackpot"), Scrubs (2001, "My Own Personal Jesus"), Boomtown (2003, "The Big Picture"), Person of Interest (2011, "Witness"), Shameless (2011, "Kidnap and Ransom"), Love/Hate (2011, "Episode 1"), Sherlock (2012, "The Reichenbach Fall"), The Blacklist (2013, "The Freelancer"), Vinyl (2016, "The Racket"), Lucifer (2017, "Favorite Son"), and The Umbrella Academy (2019, "Extra Ordinary"), and sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli (2003, "Get By"), Timbaland (2007, "Oh Timbaland"), and Flying Lotus (2012, "Until the Quiet Comes"). The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album Tha Carter III. "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s & Heartbreak. The 1965 rendition of "Strange Fruit", originally recorded by Billie Holiday, was sampled by Kanye West for "Blood on the Leaves" on his album Yeezus.

Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and introducing her to a younger audience. In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder.

The following single, a rendition of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", also reached the UK Top 10 in 1969. "The House of the Rising Sun" was featured on Nina Simone Sings the Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on Nina at the Village Gate (1962).

Performance style

Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "the High Priestess of Soul". She was a piano player, singer and performer, "separately, and simultaneously." As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk, and to numbers with European classical styling. Besides using Bach-style counterpoint, she called upon the particular virtuosity of the 19th-century Romantic piano repertoire—Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis spoke highly of Simone, deeply impressed by her ability to play three-part counterpoint (her two hands on the piano and her voice each playing a separate but complimentary melody line). Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element. Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman. She was known to pay close attention to the design and acoustics of each venue, custom tailoring performances to each location.

Simone was perceived as a sometimes difficult or unpredictable performer, occasionally hectoring the audience if she felt they were disrespectful. Schackman would try to calm Simone during these episodes, performing solo until she calmed offstage and returned to finish the engagement. Her early experiences as a classical pianist had conditioned Simone to expect quiet attentive audiences, and her anger tended to flare up at nightclubs, lounges or other locations where patrons were less attentive. Schackman described her live appearances as hit or miss, either reaching heights of hypnotic brilliance or on the other hand mechanically playing a few songs and then abruptly ending concerts early.

Critical reputation

Simone is regarded as one of the most influential recording artists of the 20th century. According to Rickey Vincent, she was a pioneering musician whose career was characterized by "fits of outrage and improvisational genius". Pointing to her composition of "Mississippi Goddam", Vincent said Simone broke the mold, having the courage as "an established black musical entertainer to break from the norms of the industry and produce direct social commentary in her music during the early 1960s".

In naming Simone the 29th-greatest singer of all time, Rolling Stone wrote that "her honey-coated, slightly adenoidal cry was one of the most affecting voices of the civil rights movement", while making note of her ability to "belt barroom blues, croon cabaret and explore jazz — sometimes all on a single record." In the opinion of AllMusic's Mark Deming, she was "one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic". Creed Taylor, who annotated the liner notes for Simone's 1978 Baltimore album, said the singer possessed a "magnificent intensity" that "turns everything—even the most simple, mundane phrase or lyric—into a radiant, poetic message". Jim Fusilli, music critic for The Wall Street Journal, writes that Simone's music is still relevant today: "it didn't adhere to ephemeral trends, it isn't a relic of a bygone era; her vocal delivery and technical skills as a pianist still dazzle; and her emotional performances have a visceral impact.

"She is loved or feared, adored or disliked", Maya Angelou wrote in 1970, "but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation". Robert Christgau, reviewing her album Baltimore, wrote that her "penchant for the mundane renders her intensity as bogus as her mannered melismas and pronunciation (move over, Inspector Clouseau) and the rote flatting of her vocal improvisations." Regarding her piano playing, he dismissed Simone as a "middlebrow keyboard tickler ... whose histrionic rolls insert unconvincing emotion into a song". He later attributed his generally negative appraisal to Simone's consistent seriousness of manner, depressive tendencies, and classical background.

Mental health

Known for her temper and frequent outbursts, in 1985, Simone fired a gun at a record company executive, whom she accused of stealing royalties. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed". Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late 1980s. In 1995 while living in France, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with an air gun after the boy's laughter disturbed her concentration; she was sentenced to eight months in jail, which was suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation and treatment.

According to a biographer, Simone took medication for a condition from the mid-1960s onward, although this was supposedly only known to a small group of intimates. After her death the medication was confirmed as the anti-psychotic Trilafon, which Simone's friends and caretakers sometimes surreptitiously mixed into her food when she refused to follow her treatment plan. This fact was kept out of public view for many years, until 2004 when a biography, Break Down and Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan, was published posthumously. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, a one-time friend of Simone's, related in her own autobiography, Society's Child: My Autobiography, two instances to illustrate Simone's volatility: one incident in which she forced a shoe store cashier at gunpoint to take back a pair of sandals she'd already worn; and another in which Simone demanded a royalty payment from Ian herself as an exchange for having recorded one of Ian's songs, and then ripped a pay telephone out of its wall when she was refused.

Awards and recognition

Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her interpretation of "I Loves You, Porgy." On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone.Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from Amherst College and Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Two days before her death, Simone learned she would be awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute of Music, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.

Simone has received four career Grammy Award nominations, two during her lifetime and two posthumously. In 1968, she received her first nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the track "(You'll) Go to Hell" from her thirteenth album Silk & Soul (1967). The award went to "Respect" by Aretha Franklin.

Simone garnered a second nomination in the category in 1971, for her Black Gold album, when she again lost to Franklin for "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)". Ironically, Franklin would again win for her cover of Simone's Young, Gifted and Black two years later in the same category which Simone's Black Gold album was nominated and features Simone's original version of "Young, Gifted and Black". In 2016, Simone posthumously received a nomination for Best Music Film for the Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? and in 2018 she received a nomination for Best Rap Song as a songwriter for Jay Z's "The Story of O.J." from his 4:44 album which contained a sample of "Four Women" by Simone.

In 2018, Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by fellow R&B artist Mary J. Blige.

In 2019, "Mississippi Goddam" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Legacy and influence

Music

Musicians who have cited Simone as important for their own musical upbringing include Elton John (who named one of his pianos after her), Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Adele, David Bowie, Boy George, Emeli Sandé, Antony and the Johnsons, Dianne Reeves, Sade, Janis Joplin, Nick Cave, Van Morrison, Christina Aguilera, Elkie Brooks, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kanye West, Lena Horne, Bono, John Legend, Elizabeth Fraser, Cat Stevens, Anna Calvi, Cat Power, Lykke Li, Peter Gabriel, Justin Hayward, Maynard James Keenan, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Mary J. Blige, Fantasia Barrino, Michael Gira, Angela McCluskey, Lauryn Hill, Patrice Babatunde, Alicia Keys, Alex Turner, Lana Del Rey, Hozier, Matt Bellamy, Ian MacKaye, Kerry Brothers, Jr., Krucial, Amanda Palmer, Steve Adey and Jeff Buckley. John Lennon cited Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" as a source of inspiration for the Beatles' song "Michelle". American singer Meshell Ndegeocello released her own tribute album Pour une Âme Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone in 2012. In late 2019, American rapper Wale released an album titled Wow... That's Crazy, containing a track called “Love Me Nina/Semiautomatic” which contains audio clips from Simone. The clips outline the message of the song, as Simone was an active activist in her lifetime.

Simone's music has been featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including but not limited to, La Femme Nikita (1990), Point of No Return (1993), Shallow Grave (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Disappearing Acts (2000), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Sex and the City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Home (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010), and Beyond the Lights (2014). Frequently her music is used in remixes, commercials, and TV series including "Feeling Good", which featured prominently in the Season Four Promo of Six Feet Under (2004). Simone's "Take Care of Business" is the closing theme of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Simone's cover of Janis Ian's "Stars" is played during the final moments of the season 3 finale of BoJack Horseman (2016), and "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" were included in the film Acrimony (2018).

Film

The documentary Nina Simone: La légende (The Legend) was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers and based on her autobiography I Put a Spell on You. It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with family, various interviews with Simone then living in the Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply, Nina. Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment and is screened annually in New York City at an event called "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976" which is curated by Tom Blunt.

Footage of Simone singing "Mississippi Goddam" for 40,000 marchers at the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches can be seen in the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis and the 2015 Liz Garbus documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?

Plans for a Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992) and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006; Simone's daughter, Simone Kelly, has since refuted the existence of a romantic relationship between Simone and Henderson on account of his homosexuality. Cynthia Mort, screenwriter of Will & Grace and Roseanne, has written the screenplay and directed the 2016 film, Nina, which controversially stars Zoe Saldana in the title role.

In 2015, two documentary features about Simone's life and music were released. The first, directed by Liz Garbus, What Happened, Miss Simone? was produced in cooperation with Simone's estate and her daughter, who also served as the film's executive producer. The film was produced as a counterpoint to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort film, and featured previously unreleased archival footage. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was distributed by Netflix on June 26, 2015. It was nominated on January 14, 2016, for a 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The Amazing Nina Simone is an independent film written and directed by documentary filmmaker Jeff L. Lieberman and was released in more than 100 cinemas in 2015. The director initially consulted with Simone's daughter before going the independent route and instead worked closely with Simone's siblings, predominantly Sam Waymon. The film debuted in cinemas in October 2015, and has since played more than 100 theatres in 10 countries.

Drama

She is the subject of Nina: A Story About Me and Nina Simone, a one-woman show first performed in 2016 at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool — a "deeply personal and often searing show inspired by the singer and activist Nina Simone" — and which in July 2017 ran at the Young Vic, before being scheduled to move to Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.

Books

As well as her 1992 autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992), written with Stephen Cleary, Simone has been the subject of several books. They include Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (2002) by Richard Williams; Nina Simone: Break Down and Let It All Out (2004) by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan; Princess Noire (2010) by Nadine Cohodas; Nina Simone (2004) by Kerry Acker; Nina Simone, Black is the Color (2005) by Andy Stroud; and What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) by Alan Light.

Simone also inspired a book of poetry, me and Nina by Monica Hand.

Honors

In 2002, the city of Nijmegen, Netherlands, named a street after her, as "Nina Simone Street": she had lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990. On August 29, 2005, the city of Nijmegen, the De Vereeniging concert hall, and more than 50 artists (among whom were Frank Boeijen, Rood Adeo, and Fay Claassen) honored Simone with the tribute concert Greetings from Nijmegen.

Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

In 2010, a statue in her honor was erected on Trade Street in her native Tryon, North Carolina.

The promotion from the French Institute of Political Studies of Lille (Sciences Po Lille), due to obtain their master's degree in 2021, named themselves in her honor. The decision was made that this promotion was henceforth to be known as 'la promotion Nina Simone' after a vote in 2017.

Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

The Proms paid a homage to Nina Simone in 2019, a prom titled Mississippi Goddamn is performed by The Metropole Orkest at Royal Albert Hall led by Jules Buckley. Ledisi, Lisa Fischer and Jazz Trio, LaSharVu provided vocals for the prom.

[callme--starchild]

Auntie Goldie

Summary: Unca' Scrooge has a girlfriend! And Donald couldn't be happier for that.

Donald didn't think there were ducks the same or more rich and more amazing than his dear Unca' Scrooge, he thought sucking his thumb like any four-year-old kid would. But there he was, in a ball dedicated to the most powerful people in Duckburg.

Even if they weren't as amazing as his uncle.

Even so, being surrounded, the boy felt intimidated by so many unknown presences, and curled up in the old duck's chest, wrapping in his heartbeat like a lullaby.

"Ah wan' ta go ta th' m'or, Unca' Scrooge" babbled as he could, despite the finger in his bill and his partially distorted voice.

Even so, his caregiver seemed to understand the communicated message, and gave him a smile scooping him on his arm, holding the cane with his free hand as he continued to enter the Club, not worrying if the duckling's little hands wrinkled his deeply ironed suit.

"Dinnae worry, Donnie. Yer unkie jus' needs tae find new entrepreneurs t' socialize wit'. We willnae be here long. Besides, ye look absolutely charming in yer suit," adding, he tickled his nephew's belly, satisfied with the giggle that caused on him and dispelled his fear.

Of course, he was no longer Donald's Papa, constant visits and talks by Hortense made the infant perceive the genealogical difference between Quackmore and Scrooge; but that did not disturb the strong affection that the old Scotsman had since then.

"Besides, Ah'll be with ye all th' time. Who knows wha' yer mother would do with Unca' Scrooge if something will happen t' ye," for a few seconds he thought of joking, playfully saying that his sister would kill him if she knew that her son was injured in the care of the old duck; but he considered it knowing that this would not be the right vocabulary for a wee child.

Besides that he also didn't want to consider the possibility of the lad getting hurt. Much less being in his care.

Donald pulled his thumb from his bill at his uncle's words, giving him a smile despite the saliva that ran through his finger.

"But Ah know ye will never let anything happen to me, Unca' Scrooge. Ye're tougher than toughies after all!" With clear pride, Donald exclaimed raising a finger skyward.

Suffice it to cause a warm smile in the elder, taking with little problematic a handkerchief from the pocket of his coat to clean the nephew's salivated hand.

"That's right, Donald. And smarter than the smarties, just like ye." Finishing to clean his hand, he winked at his, self-satisfied with the smile the younger one was sketching.

After reassuring the little duckling, he firmly held his cane again and continued to enter the Gala of the Billionaire Club, saluting the millionaires he already knew.

He tried not to smile and remain stoic when Donald innocently corresponded to the greeting with a gesture and a bright look, keeping the manners learned in his short period of life.

He continued to avoid the aristocracy, furtively analyzing the face of each of them until the buffet began to glimpse, perceiving how almost immediately the child extends both hands, trying to take each snack despite the obvious distance.

"Are ye hungry? But if we ate before coming." Scrooge laughed softly, holding Donald and putting his other hand on his chest feeling his heartbeat. He finally reached the huge table and lowered the duck at his feet. "Whatever ye do, dinnae get away from Unkie Scrooge, awricht?"

He soon felt the little arms of his nephew circling one of his legs, feeling him bounce excited while trying to stand.

Wow, he was too elusive to be in the middle stage of walking, but fortunately he was just as obedient. Scrooge couldn't help a smile at it.

However, while searching for something suitable for an infant, he wondered why he had not brought the chopped fruit. As he mentioned, they had eaten something before they left for the gala, and had not considered carrying the huge duffel bag because they would not be there for a long time and would not need it.

He had clearly forgotten that he was dealing with the stomach of a four-year-old duckling.

"Do ye want a cookie, Donnie?" Looking at the boy, he took a considerable amount of the snack.

Donald nodded almost immediately.

"So soon you go to the buffet, Scrooge?" At that moment, a female voice interrupted the duck in his movements, and the youngest one clung more to the leg of his caregiver, hiding in him and at the same time wanting to protect the older.

After all, with all the riches and amazement that defined his unca', he would not be surprised if there were no good people who would try to take it away from him as happened in the stories Mama told him.

His very short stature allowing him not to see the funny smile that the Scottish's face adopted.

"Do ye appear here soon, Goldie?" Hidden in the old duck's back, Donald was baffled by the unnoticed confidence in his voice; that did not allow him to lower his guard or release his leg, though. "What did ye find during me absence?

Standing on tiptoe, he tried to see the face of the person who dared to approach his uncle, being intercepted by the table that looked immense in his eyes.

Goldie's name sounded terribly familiar to him, but he couldn't identify from where. Nor could he dare to speak to his uncle and risk interrupting his conversation. It would be a lack of education, and Donald Fauntleroy Duck was anything but a ill-mannered boy.

"Don't get excited, Scroogey," however, the ease in the other voice took him off guard when they referred to his uncle in that way. And if it weren't for the timbre of voice and that unknown touch that put Uncle Scrooge's feathers on end, he would have thought it was Mommy who they were dealing with. "I haven't been much longer than you, really. And answering your question, I would say no, these rich men didn't bring anything interesting tonight; fortunately, I just found something really valuable."

For some strange reason, the boy felt his caregiver's body shudder, his hiding place and attachment denying him the sighting of the plumage of his cheeks red-tinted.

"Answering yer question equally, dear Goldie, Ah woold dare tae say tha' Ah came t' see ye." Incredulous, Donald looked at the elder. A confident expression seemed to invade his features, watching as he slowly seemed to soften discreetly. "Sadly, me young chaperon seemed to get ahead."

Subsequently, he felt Uncle Scrooge's hand ruffling his hair feathers, taking the cookies stretched a little hesitantly. He heard the woman sigh in surprise before he could bite the first one.

"Young chaperone?" Listening to the small tapping of heels against the floor on the soft, slow music, Donald got even more attached to his uncle's leg, feeling his own trembling slightly, not sure if it was because of someone they faced or his little dominance in walking.

But whoever it is, he would not fear defending his beloved favorite adventurous uncle. The adventure was in him since he was born under the McDuck legacy, and it would not take long to prove it to protect him.

Donald was not afraid of anyone, not even—

An elegant duck dressed in a beautiful white dress. Her blond hair, beautifully neat in a way that looked strange to him, completely bathed in a varied but beautiful selection of precious gemstones that did not compete with his mother's, shone in the great hall in such a way that he questioned how he did not distinguish her when he was in his uncle's arms—maybe, he supposed, it was because he was more focused on talking to him.

He thought he saw her green eyes wide when he felt her gaze on him.

"...Oh," she seemed to have noticed something, something he couldn't identify while holding on to Scrooge. "Who is this cute young man?"

But perceiving the discreet amount of gold that ran through her jewelry, a skill that still required improvement, added to the beauty that came off in her simple presence, Donald recalled some of the stories that Unca' tells him before he slept.

Among all the gold hunts, amazing adventures and impressive discoveries, the blurry story of, Klike?, Klondike?, yes, K’ndikay, became present.

And in it, the image of a blondie duck that accompanied and betrayed his uncle over and over again slowly became clear.

But it couldn't be her, could it?

"This laddie? Oh, he's me lovely nephew, Donald." Soon, he saw himself again in his uncle's arms, and settled down to keep listening to his heartbeat, stopping to eat his cookie when he perceived it faster than usual. "And dinnae be fooled. He may seem like the most adorable duckling in the world, but this little imp is a whole bit."

Involuntarily, Scrooge thought about the occasion in which Della at her two years had plotted to make a joke by dressing, acting and even speaking exactly like her brother, and how it took all afternoon in which he took care of them to distinguish one from the other.

Or how they helped each other to throw or hide the vegetables they should ate, or sneaked into the kitchen, managing to avoid even Duckworth to reach the vase of cookies in the highest cabinet, being discovered and reprimanded when the elders gave with the wasted food or they accidentally broke the vase.

And how to forget the occasion when he had to improvise an adventure in the manor when both, at age three, had hidden to avoid a visit to the doctor that involved the application of an injection? Their hiding place was discovered thanks to a sneeze and the consequent Della's reprimand. They had cried a lot, and had not spoken to him for weeks until the strong love they had made them beg for apology.

Unfortunately, Della was prey to a chicken pox, which is why he was commissioned only with the youngest twin while the female duckling was recovering; that perhaps prevented them from making a mischief during the evening, but that made them look incomplete.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Donald," the boy said nothing at the older woman's forced tone, shaking his opposite hand hesitantly at his uncle's watchful eye, "I'm Goldie O'Glit."

A few seconds passed.

Goldie... O’Glit? The name rang in a loop, and Donald had to see for not suffering a outburst that made him look like a bad duck.

Of course it sounded familiar!

"Is she the friend, Unca'?" He inquired with a glow of curiosity in his gaze, looking at his uncle as he pointed to the woman in front of them.

Not knowing the reason why his dear unca's face turned red and nervous, as well as the small laugh that evoked the elegant duck.

Scrooge smiled broadly, laughing nervously.

"Children, huh? They have a great imagination," the old Scotsman said awkwardly, unsatisfied with the amused smile on Goldie's face.

"Yes, it seems so." Goldie rolled her eyes while still smiling slyly, sensing the peculiar way in which he stopped his hand on the duck's head, stirring the hair feathers with such familiarity and warmth that she didn't think she would see in Scrooge McDuck.

Inquisitive, Donald looked at his uncle again, tilting his head in confusion. He admitted to having an overactive imagination, especially when he was with his sister, but he wasn't sure that the facts of his Unca's stories were a product of his mind.

Unless he wanted to express in the kindergarten how much he admired his uncle, and how fascinating it was to have him in his life despite spending most of his time working in his studio, going out to work more in the money bin or counting his vast amount of money.

"But Unca' Scrooge..." but on that occasion it wasn't like that, and he was sure.

Being interrupted again by Scrooge.

"Wha's up, Donald? Do ye wan' tae go tae th' bathroom?" What? The duckling was wondering, looking at the old Scottish man, finally perceiving his nervous expression and colored feathers. Donald sighed in surprise. "If ye'll excuse us, Goldie, Ah have work tae do."

Excusing nervously, Scrooge withdrew from the buffet feeling how slowly the knot in the pit of his stomach was falling apart, sighing with relief.

For the next gala he would remember to bring his nephew's food, or minimally small zyploc bags in which he would carry the food he could, he thought as he headed to the bathrooms at the watchful eye of his ex-partner, determined to keep his facade…

"Is she yer girlfriend, Unca' Scrooge?"

Stopping abruptly in his footsteps to observe the curiosity in the glow of his wee Donald's eyes as he slowly chewed a cookie.

"W-What?" He repeated. And no, he hadn't stuttered or got nervous, thank you very much.

Much less, his behavior had attracted more attention of the child.

"Do ye wants that lady the same way Daddy wants Mommy?" He smiled, and Scrooge could not identify whether that innocence was false or not. "Because Daddy sometimes gets like this when Mommy is near."

The old duck cleared his throat, suddenly feeling his throat dry and his sweaty brow.

"No, no, Donnie. Yer tough uncle dinnae wan' that lady the same way..."

"But she was pretty!" And ye seemed to get along very well." Scrooge rolled his eyes, recognizing that Donald was still too young, innocent and gullible to understand the complex relationship between Goldie and him, "can Ah call her Auntie Goldie?"

Despite the shock, his reflexes were equally fast, and he knew how to react when his grip on the duckling loosened.

Well, now he was playing with him; Scrooge already recognized the false innocent smile on his nephew's face when he was plotting something.

"Wha'? Nae!" Having to fight against his willpower so as not to redden more than he already was to satisfy the wee one, he stared at his satisfied expression behind that plump pretty face. "Donald Duck, there is nothing between Goldie and me; so ye can forget the idea of calling her yer aunt."

Having to wait a few seconds to appreciate how his nephew's teasing expression slowly became a pout that made him look more adorable than he already was.

"Oh, phooey." In an attempt to snap his finger, his uncle didn't see when he got sad.

"Donald, language," of course, he was sure that the expression was created in a moment of boredom, but something told him he didn't want to know the meaning of it.

Until the duck's gaze shone again, and he smiled for a moment.

Scrooge did not see how the duck's face changed consecutively from a pout, to that cheerful expression and how, finally, he made the brightest look he could in a vain attempt to cry.

"But..." His voice was more unintelligible than usual, and he continued when he felt his uncle's gaze on him, "in a moment Ah will have to grow up, Unca' Scrooge."

Thought that, quite honestly, the Scotsman didn't even want to think. If an adventure offered him the possibility of finding an artifact that would allow him to keep his baby like a baby forever, he would accept it without hesitation.

"Ah wooldn't want to leave ye alone when that happened, but what if Ah did? Ah would like to leave ye with someone who loved you as much as I... maybe not so much" sobbing, he snatched the buttoned shirt of Scrooge with his cookie-free hand, and hid his face in small sobs.

And the old duck didn't know what to do or say when his nephew looked at him with puppy eyes and threads of tears running down his cheeks.

He sigh heavily, leaning his back against a nearby wall, leaning his cane to the side, to affectionately disarray Donald's hair feathers.

"Donald, m'boy, Ah willnae be alone," as he expected, his nephew looked at him with a trembling beak, waiting for an explanation, and smiled sweetly, wiping his cheeks with his thumb and forefinger. What did it matter if someone saw him acting so fatherly? Anyone would expect to see that with an lovable bairn in his arms. "Ah will have all me money..."

But that's something material, unca', and mommy says family is the most important thing."

Of course, Hortense would say that, Scrooge thought seeing the boy's confused expression, smiling before approaching and planting loud kisses on his face.

"But ye will always be me family, Donnie. Della, Hortense, Quackmore, yer Auntie Matilda, even yer cousin Gladstone" he tried not to laugh at the pout created by the boy at the mention of the goose following the strange resentment that enveloped the luck of both bairns. "Regardless of distance, time, or circumstances, we will continue to be family."

"Ah know, Ah know, but..."

"Besides, I know that this heart is so big not to leave this old duck on his own." Of course, he considered himself more than capable of taking care of himself from minor threats like Glomgold or the Beagle Boys, but feeling Donald's steady heartbeat as he stabilizes, he acknowledged being right.

Now he understood why the wee child loved to feel his.

Meanwhile, the young duck could not help smiling in shock. He had waited for the right moment to ask his uncle about the alleged marriage to Goldie, waiting for his replies about the so-called crocodile tears that Della and he had used so many times.

But he had obtained something better.

Unca' Scrooge does not usually speak with him so sincerely and familiarly, considering unnecessary feelings for business, which made him cherish the occasions when he looked like someone else.

Then there won't be Auntie Goldie?" Trying to sound disappointed, he stopped his hand over Scrooge's. The smile at his bill was what gave him away, though.

"There willnae be Auntie Goldie," he carried his nephew on his hip and took his cane again. "And if ye excuse me, laddie, this unca' needs tae go tae the bathroom and refuses tae leave his nephew alone."

He heard the duckling snort and eat the last cookie.