#stories of old south florida

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year - 2023 Edition

Welcome to our special edition newsletter recapping the best news from the past year. I've picked one highlight from each month to give you a snapshot of 2023. No frills, just straightforward news that mattered. Let's relive the good stuff that made our year shine.

January - London: Girl with incurable cancer recovers after pioneering treatment

A girl’s incurable cancer has been cleared from her body after what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date.

2. February - Utah legislature unanimously passes ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy

The Utah State Legislature has unanimously approved a bill that enshrines into law a ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy.

3. March - First vaccine for honeybees could save billions

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the world’s first-ever vaccine intended to address the global decline of honeybees. It will help protect honeybees from American foulbrood, a contagious bacterial disease which can destroy entire colonies.

4. April - Fungi discovered that can eat plastic in just 140 days

Australian scientists have successfully used backyard mould to break down one of the world's most stubborn plastics — a discovery they hope could ease the burden of the global recycling crisis within years. 

5. May - Ocean Cleanup removes 200,000th kilogram of plastic from the Pacific Ocean

The Dutch offshore restoration project, Ocean Cleanup, says it has reached a milestone. The organization's plastic catching efforts have now fished more than 200,000 kilograms of plastic out of the Pacific Ocean, Ocean Cleanup said on Twitter.

6. June - U.S. judge blocks Florida ban on care for trans minors in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’

A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.

7. July - World’s largest Phosphate deposit discovered in Norway

A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for fertilisers, solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 50 years, according to the company exploiting the resource.

8. August - Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

If the claim by Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim of South Korea’s Quantum Energy Research Centre holds up, the material could usher in all sorts of technological marvels, such as levitating vehicles and perfectly efficient electrical grids.

9. September - World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials

The ability to regrow your own teeth could be just around the corner. A team of scientists, led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup, are getting set to start human trials on a new drug that has successfully grown new teeth in animal test subjects.

10. October - Nobel Prize goes to scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines. Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman will share the prize.

11. November - No cases of cancer caused by HPV in Norwegian 25-year olds, the first cohort to be mass vaccinated for HPV.

Last year there were zero cases of cervical cancer in the group that was vaccinated in 2009 against the HPV virus, which can cause the cancer in women.

12. December - President Biden announces he’s pardoning all convictions of federal marijuana possession

President Joe Biden announced Friday he's issuing a federal pardon to every American who has used marijuana in the past, including those who were never arrested or prosecuted.

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And there you have it – a year's worth of uplifting news! I hope these positive stories brought a bit of joy to your inbox. As I wrap up this special edition, I want to thank all my supporters!

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[marlowe1-blog]

"Geraniums" (The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor)

Racism!

So yeah, I don't know if I'm going to make this into my third book to be reviewing but short stories do work better than actual books (I'm about 30 pages away from ending Hound of the Baskervilles and starting Les Miserables but I'm not going to review that one chapter by chapter because reading Les Miserables could be enough of a chore. And I found out that I can still be bored by classic books with Tale of the Genji where almost every chapter was "who are these people? Why should I care about these people? Did he just adopt that girl to groom her? Was that acceptable back in the day? I bet if I knew Japanese these poems would be really cool" and even found out that it was the favorite translation.

So I'm going to start reviewing these stories because I did like the Flannery O'Connor stories I read in grad school and I'll be getting to those, but it's a complete collection. It's not even a cultivated complete collection like with John Cheever who had some duds at the beginning of this collection. O'Connor died in her thirties so this was one of those "hey this great 20th century writer needs to have all of her stories published now" collections.

The first 5-6 stories were stories that she wrote in her 20s while in grad school. Or college. Grad school. I think it was grad school. I just read the damn introduction and I forgot the details. Wait.

Worse. She sold this story to a magazine called Accent at the age of 21 and the first six stories were published in her MFA thesis for the University of Iowa. Seriously fuck the University of Iowa. Granted there was a time when I was impressed by it because there was a very pretentious dude at a Theater party talking about how he was going to be a great writer and go to the University of Iowa which was the writing program of writing programs (he also had an idea for mounting a play where a closeted homosexual date rapes his friend. That also impressed me so much I wanted to play that character. Thankfully, that never got off the ground) and his favorite writer was Raymond Carver (sigh) so yeah the complete 20th century "let's not get too political here as we talk about these character sketches" package.

But of course, this one was political because everything is political. But this one is more political than most because it's written by a Southern writer in 1946. But it's also not political because it's supposed to be a character sketch.

So anyhow (I really thought I was going to write fuck this ofay and leave it there) the old man is living with his daughter and we don't even know at first that he's living in New York City. He's obsessed with the geraniums that the people across the street put in their window at 10:15 am. Unlike their neighbors who don't know anything, they know that you don't just leave geraniums in your window indefinitely.

Then there's a lot of exposition because this story is 90% exposition about how he moved to New York City because his daughter insisted. His son-in-law doesn't like him and he used to go fishing and even had a guide who knew the river and "there was no other N----- who knew it like him"

And then a N----- moves in. Should I just do the white guy safety word of Ninja? Or would that make that even more confusing. No. Best just use Ninja when singing along to rap songs. Else Old Dudley being confused when he sees a Ninja go into the apartment building and thinking that the neighbors have a Ninja servant only to find out that his daughter is going to be fine with living next to a Ninja.

Ok that's a funny image, but yeah, that's what happens. Only not with a Ninja. And goddamn Flannery O'Connor is not shy about that work. Hard er, even.

So poor Old Dudley, the protagonist who is feeling sad because he has to live in New York with his daughter, is upset because there's a N---- living next door. He's got a lot of internal monologue/exposition about how he raised her better than to just choose to live next door with one of them.

And her response of "I don't want any trouble with the N-----" doesn't exactly make her a paradigm of "woke" (sorry guys). She's just slightly less racist than her very racist grandfather.

The ending is that the geranium fell and the guy who had the geranium is yelling at Old Dudley. Only aren't they on the opposite sides of the street? I mean he's not looking out the window at the next building in the alley? Even then, you can't have a fucking conversation yelling across the street and understand a damn thing. This is the literary equivalent of people speaking from a tower that happens in fantasy movies (Return of the King deleted scene and the scene between Cersei and Tyrion in Game of Thrones - NO ONE CAN HEAR ANYONE THAT WAY)

Anyhow, we are supposed to feel bad for the old racist. But seriously fuck that guy.

Now how racist was Flannery O'Connor? Who knows. I don't think she's endorsing her racist fuck of a protagonist character. There's no "of course, there were demons because of race mixing" lines like you see in Robert Howard. And with the University of Iowa, there's really not supposed to be judgment of these characters. So who knows. Actually I kind of how I write my stories. Or something I aspire to. Sometimes.

[doctorbeth]

Rabbit -- one of your cherished stuffed companions

Rabbit belongs to one of you dear people, and she gave me permission to share his story with you.:-) He was in the hospital about a year ago.

She initially wrote:

I live in South Florida and I am a big fan of your hospital! I have a stuffed rabbit plush animal, I believe he may have once been a Bugs Bunny plush, but to me he has always been "Rabbit" and I cannot find any leads online as to his "origins". Rabbit has been with me since I was 6 months old-- he's almost 24 years old! He's been my constant companion, and I still sleep with him and love him to this day. As you might imagine, this has led to many surgeries... 

Lately, Rabbit has had very thin fabric fur, and you can see through to the stuffing (mostly on his tummy). He's also in need of some new stuffing, as his current has gotten pretty clumpy over the years. My mom and I have talked about possibly giving him a  complete fur transplant on his tummy as we have applied patches before, but we aren't experts and don't want to cause him harm! He gets holes in his fabric very easily as he has become very delicate from love over the years... We are almost afraid to touch him with anything other than a hug! 

Now there were many photos attached to this note, and just fyi, for diagnosis the more photos the better, but you all don't need quite so many close ups... here are three critical photos from his diagnosis:

You can really see in the last two photos how thin his fabric was getting.... but he has such a cute face, and it's mostly embroidered, and I thought they may want to keep that, so.... there were many (actually 7!) options for his care. Keep in mind, he's over 2 feet long, too. Here were the treatment options (a spa could be added to any):

1) Given his style of fabric, and his artistic belly patches, and the fact that he has embroidered facial features, we could line his body with new fabric.  This reinforces his body and limbs while keeping his current appearance.  He would get all new body stuffing as part of this treatment, as the stuffing would need to come out for lining and it can't go back in.  But, a small amount of original stuffing would be preserved in a heart in his chest.  With this treatment, he could still wear, but you would see lining before stuffing.  Also, for future repairs, the lining could take the pressure of stitches away from his skin.  I would also minimize the older scarring on his side. 

2) I can do everything in option 1, plus line his head. 

3) I can do everything in option 1, plus line his head and ears. 

4) Instead of lining, we could recover just his belly and lower sides of limbs. His original skin (and old patches) would remain underneath, reinforcing the new fabric.  I would get as close as possible to his current fabric color and texture.  Perfect fabric matches are rarely possible, but if that is the case, I will send photos of him with transplant options so you can choose what you like best. I would also minimize his scars. 

5) I can recover his entire torso and limbs (leaving his head and ears as is). I would also minimize his scars.

6) I can recover his belly and lower side of limbs around his patches (keeping his artistic appearance). I would also minimize his scars.

7) I can recover his belly around his patches and recover the rest of his body and limbs. I would also minimize his scars.

His person thought about it, discussed it with her family, and ultimately decided on option 5: recover his entire torso and limbs but leave his head and ears as is. They also added a spa for Rabbit, which would treat the lumpiness of his stuffing as well as clean him.

So Rabbit flew to the hospital and began treatment with his bubble bath:

He got restuffed before recovering, so here is his heart being made and installed with a bit of his original stuffing:

I started by recovering his gray areas, leaving the white of his pawpads and tail original. At this point, I sent chubbiness approval photos and let his person decide whether she still wanted to recover the white (which was in better shape than the gray):

His person wrote: "Wow, he looks amazing!! His chubbiness looks perfect, I can't wait to hold him! I would like to recover his white patches of fur"

So Rabbit got closed up, and the white got recovered, and then he was ready to fly home!

Approved, Rabbit flew home to Florida. When he arrived back cross country, his person wrote:

Rabbit is home!! Thank you so, so much!! He looks amazing, he's soooo soft and cuddly, I can't wait to spend many many more years with my darling angel rabbit! I cannot thank you enough Doctor, you're truly an angel!! I'm so blessed to have found you and your lovely hospital!! My mom and I can't stop gushing over how soft and cuddly Rabbit is, he's like brand new! I'll continue to treasure him for the rest of my life with your help!

[vylewa]

Over the last few weeks, I have been spending my time working on my save file because I'm gearing up to start a Let's Play series on Youtube. As I've been building the stories for the characters in my save file, I started thinking about the Sims universe as a whole and how I want my Sims to travel between worlds. It got me thinking that some worlds feel like they're just a short 4-hour car ride away, while others feel like you'd need a plane to get there.

So, I decided to map out my sims universe. I got a lot of inspiration from different Reddit posts as well as the EA descriptions of each world. This has been so helpful for me as I plan out the buildings I want to place in each world. It has been so helpful with finding inspiration for creating builds. I hope you can find this helpful too.

I'm really happy about my Sims universe turned out. I'd love to hear what you think about it! Are there any worlds you disagree with me on? Also, when are we getting an African world, EA?

North America

New Crest reminds me of suburban New York, mostly because you can still the city skyline from there.

Brindleton Bay reminds me so much of New England.

San Myshuno is quite obviously New York.

Willow Creek gives me a New Orleans vibe.

Magnolia Promenade is somewhere in the south because of the name (magnolias grow in the mostly in Southern United States - Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina). I placed it close to Willow Creek for story telling purposes.

Chestnut Ridge gives me a strong Texas vibe.

Del Sol Valley is undoubtedly Los Angeles.

Oasis Springs I think of as Palm Springs with the desert and all, also the Langraabs live there.

San Sequoia I think of as San Francisco mainly because of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay area, I have all my tech gurus living up there.

Strangerville is straight up Area 51 with all the weird stuff going on there.

Granite Falls gives me a National Park vibe, so I chose my favorite, Yellowstone which is mostly in Wyoming.

Copperdale seems to be in the rocky mountains, I placed it in Montana because of the old mining town description. Butte, Montana used to be a huge mining town.

Moonwood Mill reminds so much of the thick woods in the Pacific West somewhere Washington or Oregon.

Glimmerbrook I imagine is close to Moonwood Mill and the witches and the werewolves are always beefing.

Evergreen Harbor gives me a strong Pacific West port city like Vancouver (I know Vancouver is not in the US, but you get the drift).

Sulani reminds me so much of Hawaii, the beautiful beaches, volcanoes, and mountains and the culture portrayed by Sulanians.

Ciduad Enamorada reminds me so much of Mexico City, Mexico.

South America

Selvadorara gives a strong Amazonian vibe so I placed it in Brazil.

Europe

Britchester because of Britchester uinversity reminds me of Universtiy of Oxford, or University of Cambridge so I placed it in the UK.

Henford-on-Bagley gives off a strong English country vibe so I placed it South Central England.

Windenburg gives off a German vibe because of the style of buildings placed in the world.

Forgotten Hollow I think of as somewhere in Transylvania so I placed it in Romania.

Tartosa is undoubtedly mediterranean so I placed it in Italy.

Asia

Tomarang with the tuk tuks and the tiger sanctuary reminds me of Indonesia.

Mt. Komorebi, my absolute favorte world, is Japan. I can't wait to visit someday.

P.S. Batuu is not included in my sims universe because it is in space, I don't anticipate my sims ever traveling there, but if I ever feel otherwise, I will include it in here.

[welldigger62]

Story Of A Bridge -

I found some old photographs the other day that might be of some interest to my Michigan followers. My followers that are overseas can look up more information in a Google search for: Zilwaukee Bridge.

I have posted pictures from here before. This bridge is part of freeway I-75 that runs from Sault Ste. Marie Michigan (at the Canadian border) down to Miami Florida. The top picture shows how it looked in 1988 after the new bridge span was opened.

The old bridge used to be a drawbridge and when a Great Lakes freighter came downriver, the traffic on the two lane freeway would backup for miles. The old bridge had two lanes for northbound traffic and two lanes for southbound traffic.

This second photo is how the bridge looks in September 2024. Building the new bridge turned out to be a fiasco and part of it fell into the river. There was a new construction company hired eventually. Some of my older Michigan followers might have even gotten caught in one of those legendary traffic jams.

This is a picture I posted a couple weeks ago and you can see why the old drawbridge would have to stay open so long. These freighters are not exactly speed demons and there is a bend in the river right where the ship is now standing.

The new bridge has 4 lanes going both north and south.

[sgiandubh]

A tale of two brands

Sophie Mancini's Departures paper on S in NY started a flurry of comments even before the whole content was made available on blogs. That people - mostly in Mordor - jumped in to add their two booing cents on the matter, based on two or three Instagram Story screencaps only, is a testimony to Tumblr's community deep interest in S's slightest PR/sales move and the easiness with which people like *urv managed to push their own agenda, in the process, to her unsuspecting, bicep-loving crowd.

Many of these comments asked just one question, more or less kindly and more or less openly: who are you, Sam Roland Heughan? Some of them, more along my alley, took a different angle: who are you talking to, Sam Roland Heughan?

Let me count the US crowds: the Wall Street yuppie crowd? the old money, WASP Knickerbocker / Colony Club crowd? Tribeca's sophisticated, culture-ish snob crowd? the UN international crowd? the laid-back (-ish) brownstone Brooklyn crowd? the DC politico types? the Boston Brahmin crowd? the Silicon Valley Bitcoin crowd? the Florida Latino crowd? the Bible Belt crowd? the Deep South charmingly old-fashioned crowd? the yee-haw, witty and ambitious Texans? the gourmet, nature-loving Seattle crowd? I am sure I am missing some (it's been a while I haven't traveled to the States and I have to say I miss all 50 of them, plus and perhaps above all my beloved DC :), but you get the idea. And the problem, or rather its first layer.

The second question this very poorly written article prompted is: what are you talking about, Sam Roland Heughan? I mean, what destination are you trying to promote? Scotland, through your Scottish gin, which I truly believe is exceptional? The Big Apple, like a counterpart to Sting, you know - a Scotsman in New York? That's not very clear, since that superficial girl just whirled you to a couple Chinatown speakeasies, rat pitter-patter included (bye-bye, Knickerbocker crowd right there) and that's pretty much it. New Zealand, that you mention at length, Maori tattoo story re-hashed, just because the book comes out next Tuesday? Ha-wa-wee, perhaps in a belated attempt to mitigate Tunagate? California, even, because it takes you back to humble beginnings? Granted, the Frisco one, not LA: that would be a horrible faux-pas, in a NY centered paper, much like me whimsically and idiotically mentioning Istanbul (instead of Constantinople), in a conversation with my Greek friends.

My head spins. And then let's add to that a ladle of recycled talking points, yours and C's altogether, like this gem:

Aspirational. Mmmhm. She said that. You said that. Multiple times, in multiple contexts that probably didn't even call for it. This is *** PR right there. I am not JAMMF. I am not Claire. But we aspire to that. Stop thinking we are these characters. No sane fan ever did: the insistence is unnecessary and has a real backfire potential. Stop thinking, period. But let it be my shipper sin, then, not to believe an iota of it and stubbornly think you people are, by now, way past the aspirational stage.

So, I took a long walk down memory lane today, while driving, trying to understand what the hell your personal brand is. Once upon a time, things were clear: you and C were a single brand. S&C - the fresh-faced, candid, witty and funny and oh, so in love new kids on the block. The spark was real and it was strong (it still is, only dampened and muted by PR-prompted shenanigans) and OL's audience was under its spell. People loved you, both of you, and some of us still do. You showed us as much as you could and for a while, it seemed to be convenient for just about everybody. That created expectations, but at the same time, you could have sold us land concessions on the Moon and we would have bought them, no questions asked.

And then, things happened. We know what: IFH, EFH, Remarkable Week-end. The spell was broken for many, who left in droves. Fans turned into bashing other fans. The S&C brand was progressively compromised and along with it, your Barbour Ambassadorship (for different reasons). Let's stop a bit at this point, in fond remembrance: that was the perfect pitch, for the perfect kind of corporate brand, for the perfect niche, for the perfect guy. A guy who had a credible, authentic story to tell, with a really strong potential to attract people outside of OL's crowd. Image and message perfectly aligned. Best case scenario.

So, with ***'s and your own PR benediction, what once was your solid gold starting point was ridiculed, trampled, shot to shambles, in a (failed) attempt to be sent to complete oblivion. You then had to think of something and try to branch out of both the blessing and curse of it.

MPC suddenly became more important than just any other charity project, of which there were a few (Cahonas Scotland comes to mind, the blood cancer one, as well). Cue in Sam the Athlete, Sam the Healthy Living Evangelist. The project was turned into a lucrative business, with a strong charity side. People bought subscriptions, people changed their eating and lifestyle habits, people lost weight - but really, I shouldn't write 'people', but 'women'. This was a women-oriented endeavor. A problem, again, on the long term.

Ha-wa-wee 1 happened, to more scandal and shrieks (that, I believe, was the reason you lost the Barbour project, another gold opportunity squandered because ten Internet bitches knew better). Then we were told another avatar was born: Sam the Entrepreneur. With a genuine, carefully curated, labor of love first alcohol product that clearly used the discarded S&C brand: The Sassenach and believe what you want, but just buy it. Mommies obliged. Antis obliged. Shippers obliged. All wallets are created equal, as I (often) use to say. And then COVID-19 came, putting a very real, very dangerous logistic strain on it.

Yet, you still had to somehow mitigate delays and losses. The Sassenach went exotic, with that limited edition tequila that probably won't be remembered by many outside OL's fandom, and that is a pity and a shame. The reason it won't be remembered is that you almost did not promote it, spare one or two Tick-Tock and Instagram clips. Does that justify the investment, the trips to Mexico, the very expensive retainers and commissions your tequila friends took for their trouble? I very much doubt it. That was, until being proved completely wrong, a flop. It brought absolutely nothing in terms of personal branding, spare perhaps a new faction in this paranoid cesspool of a fandom: the Gay Crowd, fueled by the image of a Lonely Bandana Cowboy, instead of the intended Sophisticated Traveler and Connoisseur. Yes, people are stupid, like that. Your PR and Sales team, too - and this comes from a place of deep understanding and appreciation.

We are now talking gin and boy, am I glad we do! This is perhaps an opportunity. Finally, a more democratically price-tagged, carefully tailored (again) drawing card product. But who is selling it to me? The California Boat Party Host? In that case, I won't buy it, but never mind me: maybe the fun-loving California Millennials would (we know the Smuggling Mommies would do it, anyways). The Sophisticated Traveler and Connoisseur you tried to show us again in Mancini's abysmal Departures paper and who is invited to important events, in recognition of his efforts?

You can't have the two of them, Sam, whatever those incompetents told you. You're either a 43-years old midlife crisis-stricken and shirtless clown or an Old World Industrious Thespian, with a stature and a status to match. A real Entrepreneur, not a cartoon scuba diver/beach boy Influencer. Eye Candy vs. Brain Power: after all, you are a '3x NYT best selling author', aren't you? Your pick, not mine. Stop the Sri Mataji-style Hugging and Booze tours: it's nonsense and that geriatric crowd is nowhere near what you need to make your dream come true. Do some real soul searching and stop listening to clueless 28-year old journalists, who tell you tacky rings are fun: they aren't. They make you look like an ageing Atlantic City Sinatra wannabe:

Sam Roland Heughan: currently at crossroads, trying to not choose between two opposite personal brands. Tricky position and an even trickier context, with the strike still lingering on and the pressing need to find an after OL strategy.

I promised you a tale of two brands and I think you wonder, by now, what happened to C, the other half of the primary SC brand?

The answer is, I honestly believe, not much. She has no personal brand, so to speak. Until now, she is just an Enthusiastic Dilettante. Book Club - started, unfinished and with that, farewell to any fan engagement. Cinema production rights - bought and then silence. Botanical Gin - first batch released (?) with no promo, no interviews (mentioning it in a podcast does not count), no reviews. Then teasing, then crickets again: a bit late, now, for the end of year celebrations. And I have to say I miss her or the part of her I never witnessed in real time (is such a thing possible?). I miss that starry-eyed, funny and witty girl. That girl was somehow completely swallowed by an Acrid Matron, who thought it was intelligent to yell at an Internet nobody, on Christmas Day, 'I am not married to Sam!' (ok, you aren't, but you're still lying). And I honestly don't know which one is best (or worst, for that matter): try to build something and make mistakes and try again until you hopefully find your way, or say nothing, do nothing and of course, never be controversial.

Now I am really interested to see how is she going to promote her gin. But you know what, I am not holding my breath, for some reason.

[ausetkmt]

Lynching victim Rubin Stacy’s story being told by his family in film screening at NSU

Anne Naves knew something bad had happened to her uncle when her male relatives came home from fishing, each wearing a pall of silence. Dad wasn’t cracking jokes like usual. Grandfather looked grave. And her uncle, Rubin Stacy, hadn’t come back. The next day, someone from the funeral home said a body had been dropped off.

Naves, 8 years old at the time, only discovered the full gruesome truth about her uncle years later. On July 19, 1935, acting on an unproven accusation from a white woman, a masked lynch mob strung up Stacy under a Fort Lauderdale tree, hanged him and shot him 17 times as spectators gawked and children laughed.

The brutality and silence of Stacy’s lynching is revisited in the new documentary, “Rubin,” which will screen on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at Nova Southeastern University. In the hourlong film, the farmhand’s death is recounted through the eyes of his surviving descendants, but mainly through Naves, who was the last living eyewitness to the trauma — and to the secrecy — that followed.

The film, the first to be made by relatives of Stacy’s family, also chronicles the history of lynchings in America, used as a tool of punishment and to foster silence.

“I think (my family) knew that, without telling us (kids) what really happened, they would save us a lot of trauma,” Naves says in the documentary. “The neighbors and our church members respected our silence, too, because they knew that if it could happen to our family, it could happen to theirs.”

For “Rubin” director Tenille Brown, who is a cousin of Rubin Stacy, the film has in recent weeks also morphed into something else: a posthumous tribute to Naves. After filming her interviews for the documentary, she died on Sept. 18 at age 96, leaving behind a strong legacy: She was a Broward County educator for 25 years, teaching at Pines Middle and other schools.

“The biggest piece of the film was Anne,” Brown says in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Without her, there’s no story. She’s the driving force. She was ready to talk. She told me to record her. She really pushed me when I didn’t feel confident and said, ‘Record me anyway. Just go.’ ”

The rest of America witnessed the cruelty of Stacy’s lynching long before Naves did. A series of photos immortalize the moment when a white crowd gathered around Stacy’s body hanging from a tree. These images ran in newspapers nationwide, were published by the NAACP, Life magazine and National Geographic, and are now archived in the Library of Congress.

It was a tale of Jim Crow-era racism that Fort Lauderdale would’ve rather forgotten — the brother of a corrupt Broward County sheriff participated in the lynching — but city officials have made strides in recent years to acknowledge the tragedy by placing memorial markers around Fort Lauderdale. One is on Davie Boulevard and Southwest 31st Avenue, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, near where Stacy took his last breath. There’s another on the 800 block of Northwest Second Street, where he lived, and a third at Woodlawn Cemetery, his final resting place. In February 2022, a section of Davie Boulevard was renamed Rubin Stacy Memorial Boulevard.

“I’m glad they acknowledged it,” says Brown, of Pompano Beach. “These stories make some people in the state uncomfortable, but if they are based on fact, we need to tell the truth. You can’t turn your head. These are things you can’t ignore.”

For Brown, it was these memorials — and Naves’ willingness to break her silence — that motivated her to reconstruct Stacy’s story. To do so, she also interviewed Ken Cutler, Parkland commissioner and historian, and Tameka Bradley Hobbs, library regional manager of Fort Lauderdale’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center.

“My family didn’t want to talk about it out of fear for years,” Brown says. “There was shame. There’s an element of hurt, and you can hear that emotion in Anne’s voice. Now it feels freeing. This is a story that was suppressed for years and by sharing it, this is how we overcome.”

Michael Anderson, a producer for “Rubin,” says the film also tackles what too many school textbooks don’t stress enough: the history of Black lynchings.

“For Black youth to know their stories, they have to know the history of lynchings,” Anderson says. “They still don’t know how lynchings were used as a weapon to keep a community quiet. That’s exactly what it did to Rubin Stacy’s family.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Rubin”

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3

WHERE: NSU’s Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd., Davie

COST: Free, but tickets must be presented for entry

INFORMATION: 954-462-0222; MiniaciPAC.com

[fishfingersalad]

Rvb bbc ghosts x buzzfeed unsolved au Leonard “Alpha” Church III and his older sister Carolina Church inherit a creepy manor in the middle of nowhere halfway across the country after their great grandfather Leonard “Epsilon” Church dies of old age (yes Epsilon being their great grandfather is odd, it's for lore reasons).

Church’s college roommate Tucker has a ghost hunting youtube channel (Church edits his videos for him) and decides the manor seems spooky so he tags along to check it out with his co host (Kai) and camera/audio guy (Caboose) as well as Junior. Tex (Churches on again off again gf) comes along to bully them for getting scared, whenever she ends up on the show their views go up so they don’t complain. Carolina doesn’t wanna be stuck alone with Church’s friends so she invites her workout buddy Wash.

Unbeknownst to them, Tuckers “rival” youtube channel (the reds, Simmons is video and editing, Grif is audio, Lopez is in charge of their other equipment) catch wind of their plan to investigate the manor (Kai told Grif who accidentally let slip to Sarge) and they (literally just Sarge) take it as a challenge and they decide (are forced by Sarge) to follow the others to the manor to do their own investigation (Donut flirts with Locus the gas station attendant. This is important to me for some reason). Doc is unofficially part of the red team crew as first aid aka he follows them around bc he's worried about them going to all these abandoned buildings with no medical knowledge

Cw: talk of deaths in some detail, especially fires.

The Manor is actually haunted, by fifteen different ghosts:

Wyoming: 1840’s, fell out a window onto a weathervane

Florida: 1960’s, aspirin overdose 

York: 1980’s, car crash, has poltergeist abilities

North: 1850s, arsenic poisoning

South: 1850s, arsenic poisoning

Maine: 1910s, hunting accident, can sometimes be seen as a looming shadow in the dark

Ct: 1940s, military spy, shot

479er: 1960s, pilot, small aircraft crash

AI: 1920s, Children of a rich man who burned his house down while his wife was away with their youngest son, Leonard “Epsilon” Church (age 2 at the time). Delta (17), Theta (7), Eta (11), and Iota(11) died from smoke inhalation,  Gamma (15) and Omega (14) were burned,  Sigma (18) escaped the fire but succumbed to infection while still on the manor grounds. All of the ai ghosts carry a smell of smoke wherever they go (I have a drawing of them somewhere)

The only ones who can see the ghosts without outside influence (cameras, sensors, that stuff) are Church, Carolina, Wash, Donut, and Caboose, due to all five of them having near death experiences in their pasts, and later Doc after he’s possessed by Omega. Junior is also able to see ghosts though no one is sure why. 

Most of the au’s “story” is just silly interactions with the ghosts pranking the youtubers and various shenanigans. Wash deadpan pretends there are no ghosts to annoy both York and Tucker. Junior befriends Theta, Eta, and Iota, which concerns Tucker to no end especially since he tends to act like a horror movie child, all “Daddy, the lady with the hole in her head is in the corner again, daddy my friends with no faces wanna go play outside”. Sarge has a holy water super soaker that he carries everywhere incase of “ghouls”. South takes great joy in tormenting Simmons specifically. York follows the youtubers around and throws things at them, he only uses his poltergeist abilities for mischief. Ct finds a secret joy in sneaking up on Church to make him jump. Donut keeps telling his friends that the ghosts are there and real but none of them really believe him despite York pelting them with random objects. Wash finds a stray kitten and the ghosts are all immediately infatuated and begin following it around. Florida and Donut gossip together. Doc has to figure out how to deal with a rage fueled fourteen year old taking over his body. Tex punches Tucker on camera and it becomes their most popular video to date. Their second most popular video includes Tucker being attacked by Sarge with his holy water super soaker.

I just have so many little silly ideas about them...

[bcolfanfic]

saw your tag about you giving helen Lore in young veterans au and what you've done with her so far has made me so /wipes tears/ i'd love more if you have more you want to share! her and jean being besties is so cute, was the FB group they met in a military thing?

helen my love <3 more below the pics (hi nash)

yeah the fb group her and jean met through was in my mind some sort of spouses/families group for the guy's unit. they were both young wives with lil babies so they started messaging and got tight pretty fast. jean called the group cursed in the social media au bc there was always drama, notttt from them though. helen and jeanie are good girls <3 mostly <3

but winding it back, helen grew up in west virginia in the same little area that nash did and that's how they met.

grew up catholic but her family went to a charismatic catholic church so. catholic and deep south charismatic protestant mashed together. super healthy combo of things for a young girl to grow up in (: obviously (:

met nash in high school and he was kinda her saving grace when her home life was rough/her parents were really goin' a little crazy. nash would go stand outside her window at night and cheer her on crawling out and being soooo brave jumping the like. two feet down to come see him.

then they'd go run off in the woods by her house and (: talk (:

literally. he was a good little catholic boy too. at /most/ before they got married they got a little hot and heavy making out fully clothed.

which good little nash went to confession over. tells that story to the guys in bagram once when they're shooting the shit about religion (in the vein of "i told my priest i needed to repent over busting in my pants") and they laugh so hard they're in tears lmfao.

her parents liked nash though. well, his nice catholic parents more than him but. good enough.

his folks weren't as crazy as hers and adored helen/were happy to have her hanging out at their place instead of going home.

got married the second helen graduated high school (nash graduated two years before her) and she got pregnant with baby wyatt on their wedding night. bc of course.

he already started to process to enlist before they got married so talk about timing w/ her being pregnant. but he gets through basic and tech school before the baby comes.

is in florida doing some sort of training thing under rosie w/ the guys in that crew when she's gettin' reallll close to giving birth. but rosie likes him, and likes helen so he pulls some strings so that nash can get his butt back to west virginia in time.

that baby is his whole world <3 best day of his life. best day of helen's life. if it's a smidge because it's the happiest her parents have ever seemed with her then that's something to unpack later but.

she loves nash, loves their baby boy, life is good.

he ends up bringing her and the bby down to florida so he can be with him while he's still stationed at the base down there which is for quite a bit. the distance from her folks does her some good too.

then that crew of guys gets their orders to deploy to bagram (((:

wyatt is about eight months old. they see him off from florida and then move back up to west virginia to be closer to family while he's gone.

except seeing him off in florida is the last time her and baby wyatt will ever (outside of a screen, they do video call a bit before It Happens) see him again.

this is getting long so i’ll call this past one and end it here but i can do more parts if ppl are interested (: <3

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

A few months back I was chatting with @bengiyo when the subject of queer cinema came up (unsurprising considering…ya know, the whole being BL buddies thing). As a semi-recent queerness realizer, and a Certified Baby Gay(™), Ben took it upon himself to share a post between himself and @shortpplfedup that inspired @the-conversation-pod and which also included a Completely Hypothetical Queer Cinema Syllabus Build Up to BL for Baby Gays. According to @bengiyo this started as a thought experiment. 

But, unfortunately or…fortunately? for him, I constantly crave queer media, and @waitmyturtles and her Old GMMTV Challenge have inspired me to try my hand at working my way through this syllabus. I cannot guarantee that I will finish all these films. I have no idea how long it would even take, but I wanted to at least try! 

I have been saying I would do this for months now, but I am inundated with BL content, and getting more every day, so I have been pushing it to the side. BUT! This evening a local movie theater played The Birdcage (1996) and I went and bought tickets and decided now was as good a time as any to get this started, I am hoping to take a page out of Turtle’s book and write notes/thoughts on the movies I end up watching. Forgive me the long winded introduction, but I figured some context would be nice if this ends up being a thing I stick with. So without further ado…

The Birdcage (1996) [Comedy]

Syllabus Unit 6: Gems

Summary: A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents. 

Characters:  Armand: Gay cabaret owner, played by Robin Williams  Arnold: Drag queen partner, played by Nathan Lane Val: Armand’s son, played by Dan Futterman Agador: Armand and Arnold's maid? friend? live in slutty pool boy? played by Hank Azaria Katharine: Val's biological mother, played by Christine Baranski

Overall Reflection

This is a film I had never seen before. Hell, I didn’t even know it existed until around the time Ben shared his syllabus, and someone reblogged a scene from it that ended up on my dashboard. This was an interesting film to experience in theaters, because while watching with an audience made the funny bits funnier, there were also moments that I absolutely did not read as funny that other people did, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. 

This film is set primarily in South Beach, Florida and partly in a drag club, which meant that the only thing I could think about whenever the drag club was on screen was Palace, the gay bar, drag brunch, queer club spot in Miami. On the other funny casual note, as a Floridian I feel seen by the moment where Katharine calls and says she’s going to be late, and it zooms out to show she is stuck at the bridge. Real. 

I feel like the majority of gay media I have consumed in my life very much centers around two very masculine characters. So it was really nice to watch a story that involved more femme characters, and that the femme characters were not left as the butt of the joke. Which I recognize might be ironic considering this is a comedy and therefore there are jokes abound. But, when you compare the femme character in something like Legally Blonde, to the femme characters here, they are allowed to be dramatic, and they are allowed to trip and fall, but the love that Armand has for Arnold is palpable, they squabble and they get annoyed at each other, and they hurt each other, but they are partners, and they love each other too, and it shows throughout the film. 

This sounds fucked up, I guess, but I love the undercurrent of pain that is threaded throughout the story. The way that Val starts off seeming like he is very content with the way he grew up, the parents that he had. The way that Val feels so so loved by his Dads, and he hurts them anyway. Because he is scared, because he loves Barbara and he knows that she is good, and that her parents aren’t, and that he has to hide his family. But in making them hide who they are, he is hurting them and at first you can see and feel the ways that Armand is trying to rebel against it. You can tell that initially he is angry, disappointed, upset, incredulous:

“Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I'm a middle- aged fag. But I know who I am, Val. It took me twenty years to get here, and I'm not gonna let some idiot senator destroy that. Fuck the senator, I don't give a damn what he thinks.”

gifs by @hellboys

It is one of my favorite lines in the film. Because Val needs to be called out on exactly what he is asking his father to do for him. Because Armand's pain is visceral in this moment. But Armand loves his son and so eventually he relents. 

Arnold’s presence and importance in Val’s life are constantly disregarded and he is allowed to be upset, and Armand is allowed to constantly put his son’s engagement and wedding in jeopardy to prioritize his partner and his partner’s feelings, because Arnold is a part of this family, and to hide him away is unfair. 

I certainly had to grapple with some complicated emotions around the character of Val. I could understand where he was coming from, that he loves his fiancee and that their families have to meet, and that it is almost certainly physically safer for everyone if his parents are not visibly and obviously queer around the ultra conservative moralist senator. But the ways he ends up exhibiting casual disdain, anxiety, and judgment around the aspects of his parents’ home, his parents’ friends, his parents’ themselves makes me kinda hate him a little bit. It is hard for me not to see Val as entitled, not to consider him low-key dickish, because of how frequently he seems to get annoyed and disappointed that Armand and Arnold are not acting straight enough, that their house isn’t straight enough, that their family isn’t straight enough. But the film does not shy away from the mental toll it takes. 

Were there aspects of the film itself I didn’t like? Honestly, not really. There are some jokes and terminology that do not fully stand the test of time, so if I watch it with a modern lens I think I would give it a 9.5. If I watch it in the context of the time it was written, I would probably give it a 9.8. But watching it in theaters certainly altered the way I engaged in certain scenes. 

Mostly with the “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking dressed like this, I’m even more obvious” scene. 

gif by @rosalie-starfall

Because people in the theater were laughing during this moment. Which is not to say I am judging them, I’m not mad at them for finding the moments leading up to that scene funny. I can understand how Arnold constantly having to catch himself and change his body language could come off as funny. But there is a weight to that scene for me that made the laughter feel incongruous. It is, in my opinion, an incredibly impactful scene. And it was hard for me to fully embrace that moment the way I know I would have if I was alone, after I realized that not everyone reads that scene as a serious one. 

(Side Note: When I was looking for pictures of the movie poster, I found three different versions of it, and I chose the one above because it was the most intriguing to me in the way it presents Arnold. Because it is the only one of the posters that puts Arnold in a suit.)

The other moment, that I think I would have had a stronger response to if I was alone, was the moment near the end where Val takes off Arnold’s wig and introduces Arnold as his mother.

gif by @nicholasbritel

If I had watched this scene alone, I think there is a very high likelihood I would have gotten teary eyed during that moment. Because Val has spent so much time throughout this film trying to hide Arnold away. Wanting to send him off for the evening so they didn’t have to worry, trying to replace him with his biological mother, who he had never really met just for the sake of maintaining appearances. 

Arnold LOVES Val. It is glaringly obvious from the first moment they share a screen that to Arnold, that is his kid. And I cannot imagine what it must have felt like for Arnold to literally have his every move critiqued and criticized for acceptable levels of gayness by his son and his partner. To feel unwanted by his son and his partner. To feel replaced by his son and his partner. He deserves to see and hear his son choose him, to know that Val considers Arnold his parent. Especially when Val’s biological mother is standing right there. 

And as for the comedy aspect of this movie? I mean, it’s Robin WIlliams and Nathan Lane so it is obviously going to be a truly hilarious film all the way through.

gif by @argentinosaurus

Where does it fall in my By, For, About Queers Categorization? 

For and About 

Any piece of media that places queer characters at the center of it is something I would categorize as “About Queers” 

As far as I can tell, the writers and director are not queer. I consider films to be made By Queers when a queer person has a role in controlling how the story unfolds, usually this means a writer or director for me, actors too if they have any influence  over changing the story. (As an example, The Last of Us Episode 3 would be something that I would place in a By Queers category because Murray Bartlet who played Frank is gay and also was consulted to shape the way the characters were written and the story played out.) While Nathan Lane is gay, and I am sure a number of actors who play side characters are as well, I do not know how much influence they had over the film itself. Which is why I am currently excluding it from the By Queers categorization. 

And as for the For Queers aspect? That moment where Arnold appears in a suit and tie before the dinner party, where he appears so much more obviously gay when he’s in “masculine clothes” that is written for the people who understand. The undercurrent of pain I mentioned, that exists to be recognized by the people who understand. Also, I watched this at the movie theater and I saw what kind of crowd it drew lmfao. 

Favorite moment in the film? 

Well, I could go sappy with it and pick one of the scenes I referenced above, but I would be lying. My absolute, hands down, no contest favorite moment in this film was seeing Agador in this cropped tank top: 

gif by @thevelvetgoldmine

Now, I know that Ben told me that the Units could be done in any order, but I think I want to start from Unit 1 and work my way through from there, so stay tuned for a write-up about Pariah (2011) from Unit 1: Coming of Age Post Moonlight.

[autistic-writer-angel]

OCtober Day 1

Prompt: Voyage

Words: 455

Canon to my other stories: Yes

Additional notes: This one takes place before Angel meets the Octonauts.

Credit to @apromptingwewillgo for the prompts.

The Voyage of the Damned.

The phrase sprang into Angel’s mind randomly. Where had she heard it before?

Oh, that was right! It was the name of a Doctor Who episode. Her dad and older siblings watched Doctor Who all the time. She’d watched it too for a little while, but she hadn’t seen this particular episode. She just remembered the title.

The phrase sure was appropriate, though.

*****

The boat pulled away from the dock, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

“We’re off, guys!” Angel’s mother, Sally, announced. “To the South Pacific!”

Angel and her three siblings watched as the dock and the town behind it get smaller and smaller. They smiled and waved to the people on land, even though they didn’t know any of them. Some people returned the gesture.

“Just smile and wave, boys”, Angel’s eleven-year-old brother, Benji, quoted Madagascar. “Smile and wave!”

“Are we there yet?” Angel joked the second they were out of the dock.

Sally laughed. “It’s going to be a long trip, but we’ll see some amazing things. In Australia and maybe a few other countries too.”

That sounded very cool to Angel. She had always wanted to travel the world. So far, she’d only been to England, Australia and the United States (Florida, to be specific).

In fact, she’d done the least travelling of any member of her family: Grace had also been to France and Portugal; Benji had had an additional trip to America (to Texas) and Skylar had also been to Germany. Although, her dad had made it up to her by taking her to London for the day (and at least she remembered that; Benji didn’t remember Texas and Skylar didn’t remember Germany). She was excited to add some more countries to her tally.

Just two days ago, she had opened up a fortune cookie that had told her she would go on a long trip to exotic places. That sounded promising! (She’d already known about this trip, but took that fortune as a sign that they would definitely cross international borders!)

“I can’t wait, Mum!” the ten-year-old declared sincerely.

Sally beamed, thinking that this was a refreshing change. Angel had been less than enthusiastic about their previous family holiday: a road trip to Sydney and Canberra.

Angel had wondered why they couldn’t fly to Sydney, instead of drive, but her parents had wanted the chance to see Australia.

Now, she still would have preferred to fly, but the boat would be almost as good. Plus, this way, she didn’t have to miss her home and her bed.

This is going to be the best holiday ever! the ten-year-old thought excitedly as they set out on their voyage.

But oh, how wrong she was!

[afeelgoodblog]

#075 - The Best News of Last Week - February 27, 2023

🐈 - Do you know Gacek, the most famous cat in Poland?

Hey there! It's Erica here, and I'm excited to share with you some of the most uplifting news stories of the week. In a world that can sometimes seem filled with negativity, it's important to focus on the positive and find inspiration in the good things that are happening around us. Let's dive into this week's collection of wholesome news!

1. 8-year-old boy missing from Washington state for 8 months is found in Missouri

A boy who has been missing from Washington state since at least mid-June was found safe in Missouri, the FBI office in Seattle said Tuesday.

Authorities said 8-year-old Breadson John had vanished by June 17, when a welfare check at his home in Vancouver, Washington, just across the state line from Oregon, determined his absence.

2. World’s biggest four-day working week trial hailed a ‘major breakthrough’

The trial of a four-day working week in the UK, the largest of its kind in the world, has been celebrated as a “major breakthrough” after the majority of participating companies announced their intention to continue with the shorter week.

The trial, which ran for six months from June last year, required firms to reduce their working hours for all employees by 20 per cent without any reduction in wages.

At least 56 out of the 61 companies confirmed they will continue with the four-day working week, while 18 of them have made the policy a permanent change.

3. This dying baby turtle survived after drifting 4,000 miles to Ireland

A family strolling on a beach in Ireland earlier this month spotted a seafarer that had washed up on the rocks. Less than a year old, the female loggerhead survived a months-long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, teeming with dangers including predators and plastic. Although she was still alive, the turtle was dehydrated, massively underweight.

They called her Cróga, the Irish word for “brave.” After finding Cróga in the northwestern part of Ireland, the family called a few groups that rehabilitate whales and dolphins. There, Cróga’s rehabilitation began.

4. A Hernando toddler found alive after being missing for nearly 24 hours

A 2-year-old boy was lost in the Florida woods for 24 hours. Everyone feared the worst. Hundreds of volunteers came out to look for him.

One volunteer came to a fork in a field: right or left? He trusted his gut, went left and soon heard a whimper. It was the little boy, crying but in good health.

I found something interesting while reading this article: If you are part of a SAR team looking for a child to not only call their name but also that they aren’t in trouble. Young children sometimes hide from potential rescuers because they’re afraid they’ll get in trouble.

5. German man remains free of the HIV virus years after receiving stem cell treatment.

Researchers are announcing that a 53-year-old man in Germany has been cured of HIV.

Referred to as "the Dusseldorf patient" to protect his privacy, researchers said he is the fifth confirmed case of an HIV cure. Although the details of his successful treatment were first announced at a conference in 2019, researchers could not confirm he had been officially cured at that time. Today, researchers announced the Dusseldorf patient still has no detectable virus in his body, even after stopping his HIV medication four years ago.

6. South Korea court recognises same-sex couple rights for first time

A South Korean court has for the first time recognised the rights of a same-sex couple in the country. In a landmark ruling, the Seoul High Court found a government health insurer did owe coverage to the spouse of a customer after the firm withdrew it when it found out the pair were gay.

The men had held a wedding ceremony in 2019, but same-sex marriage is not recognised in South Korea.

Activists say the ruling is a leap forward for LGBT rights in the country.

7. A fat cat has become the top-rated tourist attraction in a Polish city with a perfect 5-star average on Google Maps

A fat black-and-white cat called Gacek has become the top-rated tourist attraction in the Polish city of Szczecin.

Gacek has a perfect five-star rating on Google Maps. His name, pronounced gats-ek, means "long-eared bat" in Polish. Gacek first drew international attention when he appeared in a YouTube documentary in 2020

- - -

That's it for this week. If you liked this post you can support this newsletter with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Let's carry the positivity into next week and keep spreading the good news!

[callowaysinks]

for sale: twink that writes you things

I love meeting new people and writing their commissions. I hate landlords. I will provide two simple reasons why when I write you something, it's both safer, more compassionate, and imminently less intimidating than tier-based commissions for a first-timer in TWO bullets (the same number of bullets that were fired into the trunk of my 2003 toyota prius last Wednesday).

You can pay me, a friendly twink, roughly $30 USD to write you a story that you really want written. Word counts may vary, but they won't be less than 7,500, and imporantly, they will be complete! I will put time and energy into telling a good story.

It fights landlords (mine) and their dark sorcery (the rent)

Maybe you're going, oh god, that's so embarrasing. I can't imagine paying a stranger to write something in my head. I've never done that! But here! Bang! Just like last Wednesday, one more bullet!

I am a twink from south florida. nothing you can say or do will approach, even fractionally, the fear I metabolize every time I open grindr. My body has kept the score and it has won. Is your story idea going to force me at gunpoint into the trunk of my own 2003 toyota prius? Then stop being a coward and pay the twink

Additionally:

I am a pathetic gay man in his midtwenties. If you're requesting yaoi, this is basically as close as you can get to buying organic. Archive of Our Own is but Plato's Cave and I am the shadowmaster. The words on that screen are real and I have lived them. I and I alone posess arcane boykissing knowledge and I do not intend to use it responsibly.

Okay! Reading comprehension check! $30 for me to tell your story between 7,500 - 10,000 words, you don't pay until you have the comission in your hands :) friendly neighborhood twink, here to make your stories actually happen in a way that is relational, fun, secure, and not weird or transactional.

DM me or email rowanmfieldgreen@gmail.com ! I am chronically online and should respond pretty quickly even late at night or if this is an old post.

[conjuremanj]

The Souls Within Spanish Moss.

Here in the Southern U.S states, our old trees have this spiderweb-like plant called Spanish moss aka (old man's beard) some say. It's really not a moss at all. But It grows from Louisiana, all the way to Virginia even through some of South Carolina I read, basically anywhere there a lot of moister. Even Native Americans used it for medicine. This is the kind of plant that gives the south a Gothic look, that is shown is seen in a bunch of movies and Tv shows.

This Moss absorbed the humidity and helps keep the heat bearable. Some Slave families would sit under those trees to rest. Some people with Gullah heritage would celebrate their, or Congolese people in Louisiana gathered by a big tree with moss to celebrate their hopes, dream. You can probably imagine the amount of spirits of slaves that still have their hearts, souls and struggles in the moss, The men & women who built these plantations all those years ago.

Spanish Moss In Magical Practices. In Voodoo & Hoodoo practicers Some use spanish moss for positive and negativity workings. It absorbs the energy that the practicer gives to it. This moss can be used to create dolls like our voodoo dolls here in New Orleans. Its added to bottles of War Water & Snake Oil. (See my posts on both) It can be used to create a protection oil or wash. Therefore, Spanish moss have magic properties that is used in southern hoodoo & voodoo traditions alike.

How to Work with Spanish Moss in Your Magick First, If you buy or collect your Spanish moss yourself wash it, Sometimes It can have small pests/ bugs, ants etc that lives with in it. And I would know I got bit by fire ants years ago collecting some.😁 Now after it's clean let it dry.

Ways That It's Used. Stuffed into dolls for workings, used to make War water, Stuffed into herbal pillows. Put in spell bottles. Attached to ceremonial clothing. Use on the altar as a representation of the South and traditional hoodoo. There's many ways to use it.

The Legend of Spanish Moss and the Princess’ Hair In Florida. I read a old Native legend about how Spanish moss began and I wanted to share it. There was a Native Princess who fell in love with a Spanish soldier. Her father, the chief, forbade her to see her true love. The story is tragic – the Princess hangs herself by a tree when she realizes her father had her true love killed. Her hair stayed in the tree and continued to grow, becoming what we call Spanish moss. Another variation of this legend tells the tale of an old man who’s long beard is caught in the trees and becomes Spanish moss.

[noxturnalnymph]

Writing Update

If any of you read my LIFE UPDATE then you know I have had quite the busy 2+ weeks. I thought I would have time to write during my travels but my divided attention, motion sickness, cramped accomdations, and all the other drama I described really set me back.

I am working on the motivation to finish what needs to be finished before I hit the ground running on new stuff I've come up with or been inspired to write. Below the cut are my plans.

Devotion🖤

I obviously want to finish their story for you. My plan was to finish the last 3 chapters by the end of this month and I will attempt to stick to that timeline. If this goes into June just know that I am NOT going to abandon this series or make you wait a long time between updates for the conclusion.

Sanity is a Cozy Lie🔪

I have part 3 (The Surprise) to this series half-written already, I just needed the motivation to finish it off. I feel like this story has gotten some renewed attention and I am very excited to deliver this next part. Ideally I'd like to finish this before the end of May.

WIP (Series) - Sheriff Tim Rockford⭐

Detective Tim Rockford is ready to retire after 25 years on the job, but when he gets offered a Sheriff position from an old friend, he decides to spend his "golden years" of policing in a quiet, sleepy little area in the South. He meets a young woman who goes by "Thorny" (OFC), and unexpectedly finds himself more than willing to let her turn his whole life upside down, putting everything he's worked his whole life for in jeopardy.

This will absolutely be my next series, I've already got the entire plot planned out (I had to do something with my mind during an 8 hour drive from Louisiana to Florida and I could only listen to TTPD so many times).

Photo Tax: I spent the day yesterday with my husband who got this AMAZING tattoo. It's a sugar skull of one-eyed Willy (from the Goonies).

[lukin08]

Up In The Air- Chapter 1

Kristanna Modern AU

Rated: T

WC: 1234

Summary: Tired of her nomad lifestyle, traveling nurse Anna Arendelle on a whim picks Pensacola Florida as her new town to try find a sense of home. Meanwhile, Navy Pilot Kristoff Bjorgman has accepted a dream position at the Naval station in the same town. After a chance encounter goes south, the two of them find their lives entwined, with neither of them all that happy about it!

Also available on AO3 here

Happy Birthday @kristoffxannafanatic! This is as much her story as it is mine and please consider her the co-author. I just managed to write down all our ideas! Hope you enjoy

10:50

There really was no point in checking the time, he already knew before he looked.  Kristoff sat his phone down and leaned forward on the bench at the foot of the bed, elbows on his thighs as he scrubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger of one hand.  He hated this.  Only ten minutes to go and it felt like an eternity.  Five months of hustling, mostly on his own dime in the hopes that he would even get noticed had all boiled down to the longest ten minutes of his life.

He sat up and looked around.  It was oddest feeling whenever he was back home, sitting in his old room with almost all the remnants of his childhood stripped away.  It was a neutral color now, with a new bed and bland as any guest bedroom you would imagine.  But there still were the nicks on the closet from where Kristoff used to lean his hockey sticks against and a couple trophies his mother didn’t have the heart to throw out were on the dresser.  A few remaining snippets of a simpler time.

A week had gone by since he first graced his parent’s doorstep.  It was the longest stint he’d been home since the summer before his senior year of college.  That was well over ten years ago and he’d been a nomad the whole time since.  He had to admit it was comforting to be back home.  It had been an anchor for him during the chaos of the week and the thought of wanting to stay had started to creep up on him.  Now he was stuck between the desire to escape from the reminder this wasn’t his room or even his home anymore and the intense pull that was calling for a sense of some permanence.  In ten- no, eight- minutes he’d know if he’d be able to answer that pull.

This was better than the other candidates had for sure.  While the others went back to their temporary barracks, Kristoff came home to a comfortable bed and most importantly, his parents.  One of the many benefits of being local, a piece of information Kristoff had kept close to his chest the entire process.  His days and nights had been long, but he always took the time to sit with his mom and dad for a bit before heading upstairs and collapsing into bed.  He felt bad he hadn’t been able to spend more time with them.  Regardless of the outcome of the call at 1100 hours, Kristoff was going to take the next week off to decompress and spend some real time with them before heading back to Norfolk.

He thought about going downstairs since no one was home.  His mother promised she’d be out of the house until after lunch, but he knew her too well.  It would be all too convenient for her to have “forgotten” something and come home and he really didn’t want an audience for what most likely was going to be a polite rejection.  There were only eight pilots after all that flew for the Navy’s Blue Angels, and four were returning from the previous season.  Four open slots for the 90 candidates that started officially with him in April.  Now they were down to 20 vying for those 4 positions.  He knew the odds, had rehearsed what to say to sound professional when the rejection came.  But still…there was something that also told him to plan for what to say just in case it was a yes.  He would want to sound excited, but not like some idiot screaming and jumping up and down.  Kristoff shook the thought from his head, accepting the impending rejection.

10:55

Kristoff sat and reflected on the events that led him here.  He had officially put his formal application for the Blue Angels in February through his Naval chain of command.  By March his application had been accepted and he was on his way to his first airshow.  Spring was a blur, with his everyday duties during the week, followed by a rush to an airshow whenever he could to shadow the team by sitting on team briefs, post show activities and social events all to haul it back to base Sunday night to start the week again.     

The application process was described to him like rushing a fraternity.  Something Kristoff knew nothing of except that he probably wouldn’t be good at it.  But he did understand the game.  The process objectives were clear: meet the candidates and find out if they were the type of people you want to be part of your organization.  The team needed to get to know the individual and Kristoff’s personality wouldn’t get him there attending one or two shows.  So, he showed them his tenacity attending as many events as he could, talking to each team member on an individual basis, meeting the fans, showing them what he could do.

10:57

Whatever he did worked because by June he received an invitation to Pensacola for finalist week in July.  Now he was at the end of the time that had consisted of a dizzying number of activities – dinner with the team only, dinner with team and families, social beach party with team and families, strength tests, the briefs/shows/debriefs, and the dreaded interview.

All 16 Blue Angels officers from the different departments were at the interview and they each asked him one question.  He had taken the time to prepare for it, just by thinking about some things that were important to him.  It didn’t matter how many flight hours he had or the combat missions he flew.  Everyone sitting on the interviews had the same qualifications as him.  Kristoff told himself to be honest at all costs.  It was the only way it would work.  He had once made a promise to see this through and he was going to keep it.

10:59

He came out of the interview feeling good about it.  At the very least, if he didn’t get the job, he knew he had given them everything he could.  His dad casually mentioned that evening the officer who was renting his place had been transferred and the family were leaving by September and maybe they should hold off putting a listing up.  

It was all too convenient and too hopeful. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to have that conversation yet.

Kristoff’s alarm went off.  He grabbed the phone and took a deep breath. The moment of truth was here.  He had a five-minute window to call the Boss.  His commanding officer at his base in Norfolk had let him in on a little secret.  If the Boss put you on speaker, you were in, otherwise you were out.  Kristoff placed the call trying to keep his hands from shaking too much.  

“Lieutenant Commander Bjorgman,” he identified himself and was asked to hold.  

A minute later Boss Kesselring answered then said “hold on a sec.”  Kristoff heard the unmistakable change in background sound of being put on speaker.  His heart raced as he only had an instant of prep for what the Boss was going to tell him.

“You there Bjorgman?”

“Yes, sir.”

There was a moment of silent before a group of voices yelled in unison, “Welcome to the team asshole!”