#teacher krauss

[vxxcte]

TRUMP & LILIUM stageplay + manga spoilers !

hot take!! someone on twt asked me my thoughts on Klauss’s state at the end of the play/manga but I HATE splitting stuff I have to say into different replies like twt or tiktok and this is kinda long SO here we go

Why I think it would be better if Klauss were dead:

To preface, I want to say that this opinion is partly formed because I had SEVERAL misconceptions about the events of the manga for a WHILE.

The manga wasn’t fully translated on the manga websites when I was reading it so I had to read the last 8ish chapters on tiktok. And sometime during constantly switching between the manga panel slides and the translation slides (no shade to the translator who is infact carrying the fandom), I missed some points and misunderstood some others.

One such point is: in the manga, as opposed to the play (which I watched much later), it was not as clear to me that Klauss is supposedly still alive.

When I watched the play I was so surprised by Klauss’s remaining alive, I thought the manga had not stayed faithful to the play.

So what I thought happened here at first was something like, only one immortal HAS to be around at any given time, so Klauss was able to die because Sophie was now immortal, or Sophie is TRUMP now. And given the way that Klauss said, “I finally reached the stars with my own hands,” I also thought that he meant he could finally die.

I felt that the intent behind this statement being, ‘I can finally die,’ gave the ‘I finally reached the stars’ moment a better meaning than the ‘I found a remnant of you and made it immortal’ part.

This is especially because part of the reason Allen affected Klauss so much was because Allen was aware of how awful immortality can be. I thought Klauss said he was able to reach the stars (like Allen wanted to) because now he was able to die.

When Allen always talked about having the stars, and in contrast when Klauss said in the forest that he doesn’t think his hands can ever reach them, it came off to me as a sort of ‘Allen is able to think like this and be so hopeful and whimsical because he has not been around for as long as Klauss has, and he has this security in knowing that he will not be stuck here forever.’

So kind of, reaching the stars = having the freedom to die. AND klauss can’t reach the stars = klauss can’t die.

This is why I thought, when Klauss said at the end, “I finally reached the stars with my own hands,” that he was able to die, and I thought that this gives that whole thing a better meaning, rather than just attempting to end his Allen-centric loneliness by immortalizing Sophie.

Okay now this one is not as strong of a point but going off how it’s ‘I can finally die,’ VS ‘I found a remnant of you and made it immortal’, it also just doesn’t seem as in line with what Allen would have wanted.

But maybe that was the point actually… now that I’m writing this out, it is pretty good how in the end, in the name of Allen, Klauss ended up doing to Sophie what Allen would never have wanted for himself, as if this was his opportunity to fix what he wasn’t able to do before. It makes it a lot sadder this way. I shouldn’t have doubted u suemitsu oopsies

My other reason for preferring Klauss died would be because it makes Sophie’s character more tragic. He’s spending 3000+ years looking for this guy thinking he has some kind of hope to end being alive for so long, but imagine this guy is not around anymore? then he’s just spent several millennia on a wild goose chase for hope.

And the OTHER other reason is just Sophie is my favorite because of his insane aura and he’d have MUCH more aura if he really was TRUMP. Just reread the last couple of scenes in the manga while imagining he’s TRUMP the aura go crazy..

But yeah!! I think that it just made a little more sense if Klauss had died at the end, because of how they set up that line + the contrasts between him and Allen to come off, and also just the whole point of him saying he reached the stars at all. and also sophie 🐐🙏

I did not mean for this to get this long tbh but yesterday I wrote a little essay for my creative writing class on Ul and tried to keep it short and it was still a page longer than allowed. so uh. we r not republicans but we stay yapping about TRUMP yippee?

and maybe i’m wrong about all this idk maybe it didn’t make sense or I missed something ELSE that was crucial to my understanding of this. if anyone has any thoughts on this or disagrees for whichever reason, please share!! I would love to hear

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Alrighty are you ready for a bunch of rapid fir questions? Yes I did leave for like thirty minutes and then come back!

Favorite song

Favorite artist

Favorite colors ( I know basic but I genuinely like knowing)

Favorite movie

Favorite Christmas movie

Favorite holiday

Zodiac

Favorite classes/ least favorite classes ( yes I did directly plagiarize this from you)

Favorite way to get out of class ( random I know but I'm running out of ideas and inspiration is always helpful)

Favorite mobile game

Favorite book

Favorite queer book ( I need some recommendations)

Do you or do you not like jewelry? Favorite kind of jewelry ( bracelets, earrings, rings, ect)

Do you paint your nails? What color?

Do you play any musical instruments, which ones

Favorite pride flag only based on the colors not what it represents

I'll probably come up with more in like three seconds but right now this is what I got!

Aiight, let's goooo!

Favorite song: start with something hard why don't we! I have far far FAR too many favorite songs, and it tends to swap a lot. I'd say my current is One Voice by the Wailin' Jenny's because it's blorbo coded. I'd say more long term is probably Down to the River to Pray, specifically the Alisson Krauss version because it has many happy childhood memories attached.

Favorite Artist: uhhhhh. Currently, the Crane Wives, Madds Buckley, The Longest Johns, The Jolly Rogers, The Wailin' Jenny's and The Haunted Windchimes! That's not in any particular order, I just can't pick!

Favorite Colors: this one does actually have complicated answers for me! I would say really generally and generically, I like blue (because I'm boring). However. My favorite color to wear is gray, I like owning things in any pastel colors, and my favorite color combination is a violent and hideous contrast of orange and magenta!

Favorite Christmas Movie: KLAUS! GO WATCH IT! RIGHT NOW! KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS KLAUS! It's on Netflix, it's an adorable animated comedy, I am OBSESSED, and I will watch it as a comfort movie ANY time of year!

Favorite Holiday: Halloween! I love spooky season! The vibes, the fun, the community, the weather---all of it is very fun.

Zodiac: virgo, but only JUST barely

Favorite classes: I like all my classes because I am a pathetic little nerd. In high school my favorites were probably orchestra and choir, but that feels like a copout because they're so different from other classes. As far as core 4 subjects, I really like history and social studies. In college it was my psychology classes HANDS DOWN!

Favorite way to get out of class: HMMMMM. So I actually HATED missing class in high school, and my parents would usually just let me take a mental health day if I needed it because they are the best. In college you can just . . .skip. Like. You shouldn't. But you can.

As far as what I learned from my peers, it depends on who you need to justify the skipping to. Generally though:

1) Period cramps are being extra bad

2) Friend or family member is having a mental health or physical health episode and needs help RIGHT NOW

are the two most reliable, but the way most of the kids in my school did it were to just be fully honest about skipping and bribe the teachers and parents. Like. The teachers cared a lot less that you showed up a half an hour late if you bring them burger king and a box of donuts for the class. Your teachers also don't tend to care as long as you show up most of the time, get all your assignments done, and keep your grades up.

Favorite Mobile Game: 2048

Favorite Book: For a long time I struggled to answer this, but I've decided in the past couple years! My favorite book is Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison. It's the second book in a series called The Land of Tyme (although it's not marketed under that). The first book is Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel, and the third book is Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince.

They're all really amazing and immaculately worldbuilt fractured fairytales that are all woven together. Like the worldbuilding is so good that I was able to use Disenchanted for a civics essay because it is a civics textbook disguised as a fantasy novel.

Disenchanted is my favorite because I am most attached to the characters there and also because it is the most grounded in the world. It's got the least extraneous fantastical plot going on, and the characters are all a lot more street level. But they're all very good and you should all go read them right now.

Favorite Queer Book: I really liked Aces Wild. Ragtag squad of asexuals that met online pull elaborate cons and heists on Vegas elite. Very very entertaining and heartwarming.

Jewelery: I think jewelery is really pretty on other people and I also can't touch any of it myself with a 10 foot pole because of my sensory issues. VISCERALLY despise being in contact with any and all jewelery. I can't even wear cloth jewelery, lanyards, watches, etc. It all just triggers my sensory issues out the wazoo.

Nails: Makeup of any kind also unfortunately drives my sensory issues up the wall, although that one's more about the smell than the feel.

Instruments: I do! I've been playing the cello for a little over 9 years now, and I'm pretty good at it! I also play guitar, which I mostly taught to myself during COVID. I can play the ukelele as an extension of the guitar too. I can also play the piano sort of. By which I mean I can read the sheet music for it, I know how that maps onto the keys, and I practice a lot, but I haven't had formal lessons since I was 7 and I don't think I'm very good. Didn't stop my church from having me play it for the tiny children during sunday school though.

Favorite Pride Flags Based Only On Colors: Any and all iterations of the lesbian flag are UNFAIRLY pretty. I'm actually also a huge fan of the aroace flag. I'm also pretty fond of the gay men's flag, the trans flag, and the genderfluid flag!

Thanks so much for asking! This was fun!

[clonerightsagenda]

#recently read 12/23

What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama. A series of vignettes following different people unsatisfied with their lives who find new direction thanks to book recommendations.

A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. Terrible Space Facts: The Book. A great read unless you really want to believe in space settlements in your lifetime. (They are not happening.)

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan. Zhu, Ouyang, Madam Zhang, and Baoxiang's ambitions all lead them further on bloody paths to the throne.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Struggling teacher Charlie inherits his uncle's estate and learns he was a supervillain, complete with volcano lair - but he's also inherited his enemies.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. The unexpectedly connected stories of a lonely old man, a novelist (or is he?), and the girl named after a character in that novel.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu. Hamlet retelling where the family was working on cutting edge biomedical research and Horatio is a sentient AI.

The September House by Carissa Orlando. Margaret has endured her house's violent haunting, but when her husband goes missing and her adult daughter insists on visiting, she can't keep all her secrets.

[snailor-bee]

You're the Lucky One

GN!Reader / SFW / 1.5k

Summary: Kyojuro is called to help out a fellow demon slayer on a mission. It's easy enough, but somehow you weren't quite what he was expecting. Tags: Kyojuro POV, no pronouns for reader, pre-relationship.

Song: "The Lucky One" - Alison Krauss

Branches blocked out the faint light of the stars, the leaves rustling in the breeze. The moon was absent tonight, making the forest feel that much more dark and foreboding. 

Not that that bothered Kyojuro. He stretched his senses out, bright smile trained on his face as he walked briskly down the path. 

He heard a noise before he saw anything. Kyojuro cocked his head as he turned the bend and he saw you. Ah, ha! So you were close by. 

Hurrying his steps, he was careful not to make a noise. As he got closer, the sound you were making cleared into a song. He couldn't quite make out the words but the melody was crisp and clear. Lovely, in a strange way, though why you were attracting attention in a demon-filled forest was beyond him! 

He'd been hoping to surprise you—it was important to always keep one's senses up!—but somewhere above a crow cawed and you looked over your shoulder, voice halting suddenly. The quiet seemed oppressive in the song’s absence. 

"Oh!" you said, dipping your head in a slight bow. "Rengoku-san, isn't it?" 

"Yes! I was alerted to help out a fellow demon slayer, as I was close by!" he boomed as he came up to you, his voice echoed out into the forest but he figured it didn't matter. If demons were close they would have already heard you singing. "What's your name?" 

"That's very kind of you!" you said with a smile and gave your name before you turned to continue walking. "I was just scouting the area."

Kyojuro began to walk beside you and he hummed. "Very good! I will just be here for assistance if you need it. Otherwise, I will let you take care of things!" 

Normally, lower-ranked demon slayers got nervous at that. They figured his presence meant they didn't have to do any work themselves and could instead sit back to let the Hashira handle things. Not at all what should happen! Kyojuro was adamant that experience was the best teacher. 

But you didn't falter, just nodded your assent, eyes trained on the treeline that booked the path on both sides. 

"Do you like music, Rengoku-san?" you asked suddenly. 

He blinked a few times at the question. "Well enough!" he answered quickly. 

"Do you have any favorites?"

"Not that I know of!" Unbidden, a memory of his mother singing a lullaby came to mind. Warmth filled him and he let the memory linger for just a moment before he pushed it aside.

"Would you like to hear a song that makes me think of you?" 

"Perhaps after the mission is completed!" He didn't know why you were asking such a thing, but it seemed harmless enough. 

Kyojuro sensed something from his right and was just opening his mouth to point it out to you when another bird caw had you turning sharply, eyes intent in the direction he felt a demon lurking. 

Wordlessly you stepped off the path and Kyojuro let you take the lead, ever-present smile growing. How interesting! You'd found it all on your own.

"You're the lucky one, so I've been told." Kyojuro almost jumped with surprise as your voice suddenly rang out, singing again. "As free as the wind blowing down the road." 

If it wasn't for your hand on the hilt of your sword, Kyojuro might have reprimanded you. Still, you seemed focused enough, random singing moment aside. 

You stopped in the middle of a clearing, back straight. He could sense your breathing as it weaved along with the words you sang. Interesting, he hadn't seen someone do that before. "Loved by many, hated by none... " The words drifted before all once, the sound of claws hitting steel rang out. 

The demon had lunged and you met it easily. Just as the demon was jumping back, you followed, swiftly cutting off its head. 

You didn't relax, both hands firmly grasping the hilt of your katana. Good. Kyojuro could feel several more demons rushing towards the two of you. 

"You look at the world with a smiling eye and laugh at the devil as his train goes by."  You were smiling, Kyojuro noticed with a gleam of intrigue. "Give you a song and a one-night stand and you'll be lookin' at a happy man, 'cause you're the lucky one!" At the end of the line, another demon burst out into the clearing and you rushed to meet it. 

The battle was easily won, a swarm of demons descended upon you but you handled them all with ease. They were low-level demons but apparently they had sectioned out this forest amongst themselves, as travelers frequently had to travel down its path in order to trade and barter between the towns on either side of it. 

Kyojuro only had to intervene at the end, when a demon tried to jump you from behind while you were busy beheading another. A roar of flames briefly lit up the space, bringing with it a rush of heat before they faded, leaving only the two of you standing there. 

"That was amazing, Rengoku-san!" you praised, sheathing your katana. 

"I could say the same about you!" Kyojuro returned, just as joyfully as he did the same. "You did great work!" 

You smiled back. "That means a lot, coming from a Hashira. I'm sad though!" Suddenly your expression fell and Kyojuro stared back, suddenly worried you'd gotten injured without him noticing. "I barely got to see your flames," you continued with a pout.

Kyojuro burst out into surprised laughter. "I apologize! I felt it better to eliminate the demon rather than show off." At his teasing tone, you shoved at him playfully as you walked back towards the path. 

"That's not what I meant, Rengoku-san!" 

"What did you mean then?" he asked, suddenly curious. 

You hummed, clasping your hands together. "Ah! Well. It might seem a little silly but it's like a goal of mine to be able to see all the different forms of breathing!" 

"I see!" Kyojuro burst out. "I don't think that's silly at all!" 

Giggling, you shrugged a little self-consciously. "Thank you. A lot of people think it's weird but I just think it's really cool to see the differences and how people take to the techniques. Water breathing looks like dancing, don't you think? And of course Thunder is so fast! I could barely see anything at all but the impact—" You clapped your hands together "—that sudden boom is just so electrifying, wouldn't you say?" 

"HA! I would!!" Kyojuro agreed with enthusiasm, laughing loudly at your pun. 

"And you look just like a flame!" you gushed leaning into Kyojuro's space as he smiled back. "With your hair and eyes, it's really beautiful!" 

Unbidden a flush rose to his cheeks with your easy honesty and compliment. His smile didn't waver though. "Thank you!" 

"Mmhm." 

The conversation petered out as the two of you hit the path. Kyojuro felt a bit flattered but also curious. 

"If I may ask a question?" 

"Of course," you looked up at him. 

"Why was it that you were singing before? Aren't you concerned about demons hearing it?" 

The wind whistled as it rustled your hair and clothes. "Not really," you replied. "I sing all the time. I've found demons think that it means I won't hear them coming and encourages them to charge me. It's actually worked out more in my favor because I don't have to chase after them." You tilted your head before smiling wide. "I think it's important to have any kind of joy we can in this life, you know? Singing makes me happy, so does witnessing new breathing techniques I haven't seen yet. I know these are small things but every day may be our last. I try to cling to the things that lift my spirits." 

"I see!" Kyojuro felt the tips of his fingertips tingling, excitement and joy rushing through him. "I think that's a great way to look at things and I greatly encourage you to continue doing so!" 

You thanked him and Kyojuro watched you from the corner of his eye. This was the first time he had met you but he liked your spirit immensely.

Yelling your name loudly, you jumped but dutifully turned to face him when he stopped walking. "I would love to show you the rest of my flame breathing, if you'd like!" He crossed his arms, looking above your head, not quite wanting to meet your eyes. 

Gasping loudly, you grabbed onto his arm, jumping in place with excitement. "Really?! That would be so great, Rengoku-san!" 

He nodded. "It will depend when we arrive at a Wisteria House but if neither of us are called out on a mission—"

"Then let's go at once!" you interrupted, grabbing at a wrist and tugging him down the path. "There's ten forms isn't there? Oh, I can't wait! You'll show all of them won't you?" 

Laughing, Kyojuro caught up to your pace easily and agreed readily. 

Neither mentioned how long it took for you to finally drop your grip from his wrist and Kyojuro didn't bring up the fact that the skin where you touched felt almost like it burned. 

A thought to explore later, maybe. His smile grew. 

[carewyncromwell]

"Little one, when you play, Don't you mind what they say -- Let those eyes sparkle and shine, Never a tear, baby of mine...

If they knew sweet little you, They'd end up loving you too... All those same people who scold you, What they'd give just for the right to hold you..."

~"Baby Mine (cover)" by Alison Krauss

x~x~x~x

original links for posters (1) and (2) on the wall // edited with help from Lunapic!

x~x~x~x

Hey, all! This is my entry for #ockiss24, organized by @ockissweek, depicting my OC, Lane Bach Cromwell, kissing her eight-year-old son Jacob goodnight! For those of you wondering where my girl Carewyn is, well, she IS in the picture, even if you can't see her...because this is set in 1972, the year Carewyn was born! (Lane's in her second trimester.)

But yeah, prior to Carewyn's birth, Jacob's life was...not great. From not getting on with his clean-cut, conventional Muggle father Evan to being completely alone and outcasted at school because of his "delinquent" outbursts (in truth evidence of very powerful underage magic), Jacob was a very unhappy child. Partly to vent his frustrations and resentments, Jacob would act out and disrespect or even flat-out ignore his teachers, which this year in particular almost resulted in him not being allowed to go on to year 4 of primary school. It was only his distinctly average grades at the time that kept that from happening, because no, boy genius Jacob was not having trouble with any of the material: he was just bored as all get-out and hated jumping through hoops for people who looked down their noses at him. Even so, the conference that Evan and Lane had with Jacob's principal -- in which the principal ripped into Evan for his and Lane's lack of discipline and even suggested at one point that Jacob could do with a year or two of military school to straighten him out -- resulted in Evan summoning Jacob down to the dining table for a "family meeting" that night that ended up way more heated than it should've.

Evan was very stern. He told Jacob that he and Lane did not want to have to send him to military school when he was more than smart enough to know better and respect his elders -- Jacob snapped back that his teachers didn't want respect from him: they just wanted him to sit down and shut up and be a mindless little bobble-head, just like all the other kids in class, so that they could keep acting like they were smarter than the toadies they taught. For someone like Evan -- whose father had been arrested and sentenced to life in prison when Evan was a very young boy -- Jacob's lack of respect toward authority figures was very troubling. Evan scolded Jacob that he would never amount to anything worthwhile if he didn't put in the work and behave himself, and even shamed Jacob, pointing out that he and Lane had more than enough to worry about with a new baby on the way without having to punish Jacob for things he knew he shouldn't do. Jacob lashed out in response.

"Oh yeah, right, 'the baby!' The baby, the baby, the baby! Can't forget about how many more hours at work you suddenly have to put in 'because of the baby!' As if that hasn't just been a lovely little excuse for you to not be around to deal with all the stupid stuff I get blamed for -- if you'd actually been around, then maybe you would've bloody realized that I'm already getting punished, all the time, for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG!"

From there, Evan and Jacob's tempers only flared further. Lane -- ever a pacifist and yet completely unequipped to deal with such explosive anger, thanks to her abusive childhood -- was unable to step between them or bring the temperature down...and so the fight only ended when Evan, his temper thoroughly spent, lost his head. Jacob yelled at Evan for never seeing him as anything but a troublemaker, and Evan responded in perhaps the worst possible way.

"BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE, JACOB! Every other day, I have to read a message from your teachers, or your principal -- even other parents about the trouble you get up to, and time and again, you refuse to take any responsibility for the trouble you cause! How is anyone ever going to see you as anything other than a shame and a burden, when all you ever do is cause everyone else trouble?!"

Jacob was so overwhelmed with pain and anger he couldn't properly express that he shoved his chair aside with enough force that the bottom of the legs actually somehow caught fire. Lane hurriedly rushed to put out the magical flames before Evan could pay them too much mind, but Jacob -- too emotional to even acknowledge that outburst of magic -- ran out of the dining room and upstairs to his bedroom, where he slammed the door shut with force.

Evan was regretful about what he'd said, after the fact. He didn't quite know how to broach the issue, since he still felt Jacob had done wrong and needed to own up to it before he gave their son a proper apology -- so Lane went upstairs to speak to Jacob herself, after calming Evan down and making sure she'd given Jacob enough time to cool off too. When Lane opened the door to Jacob's room, she found her poor son burying his face into his pillow, trying in vain to obscure the many messy tear tracks down his cheeks.

"Did I cause you trouble again, Mum?" was all he could mumble miserably through his pillow.

Her heart hurting, Lane brought a stool over so she could sit next to Jacob's bed. She sat near him for a while, letting Jacob vent and reassuring him multiple times that Evan was just upset: that she and he didn't just see Jacob as a burden or a troublemaker, that they loved him, and all they wanted was for him to be the amazing, talented, smart boy they knew he was. Lane wasn't sure how much Jacob believed this -- he had trouble meeting her eye, even as he changed into his pajamas and she tucked him into bed. It didn't take long for Lane to suss out why, after Jacob echoed Evan's words from earlier.

"I wasn't trying to cause trouble, Mum. Honest. I know you're not feeling well...I know you have to worry about the baby now, not me..."

It was hard to miss the miserable, faintly resentful tone to her son's words. Lane's eyes softened sadly.

"Jay...of course I'll have to worry about the baby...and yes, I might need to spend a lot of time with them, since they won't be able to clean, feed, or dress themselves yet. But just because I'll have to take care of your little brother or sister when they arrive does not mean I'll stop taking care of you. It doesn't mean I won't still be here for you, when you really need me..."

She brought a hand through Jacob's curly black-brown hair.

"Time might have limits, but love doesn't. I remember my friend Judy liked to say that love is renewable -- it's not a cake that has to get cut up into smaller pieces for more people to enjoy it. The more you love, the more love there is to go around. No matter how much I will love your baby brother or sister when they get here, it doesn't mean I will love you any less. You will always be my little Blue Jay. And I will always love you with all my heart."

Jacob wasn't even fully aware of it when he started crying again, but as his mother kissed him goodnight, he felt the tension relaxing in his shoulders. He laid back against his pillows, closing his eyes.

"...Mum?" he asked hesitantly after a moment.

"Yes, Jay?"

"Do you think the baby will like me?" he mumbled.

The doubt and uncertainty echoing through the question broke Lane's heart.

"They will love you," she said gently.

"Even if I'm nothing but a troublemaker?"

Lane frowned deeply. It truly did seem that those words of Evan's had hurt him far too deeply for Lane's reassurance alone to heal.

"You are not, have never been, and will never be 'nothing,' Jacob. ...I promise, one day, you will see what I see, when I look at you -- a smart, curious, creative, special boy...ready to take flight and take on the world. And when that day comes, I know the whole world will see it too."

Jacob's face seemed to soften a little bit, losing some of the creases in his features.

"...Thanks, Mum."

Lane's blue eyes softened as she turned off the wall light and gently closed the door to her son's room.

A few months later, Lane gave birth to Jacob's little sister, Carewyn. And true to Lane's words, the little baby she nicknamed "Winnie" loved Jacob dearly, and ended up being his first real friend in the world.

[nonesuchrecords]

Pianist Jeremy Denk is on Speaking Soundly, a podcast in which host and MET Opera Principal Trumpet David Krauss talks with fellow performers about their creative process and lives as artists, to discuss his acclaimed memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine, share lessons he learned from numerous piano teachers over the years, and more. You can hear their conversation here.

[starzfield]

Dragon Girl

Name : Reina Krauss 26, Female, 1m78/5'10 Main verse : Modern fantasy Resume : An energetic dragonkin woman, zumba coahc and hip-hop dancer teacher, always one for fun and parties.

Appearance :

[lizzygrantarchives]

Billboard, October 22, 2015

After reinventing herself as a cryptic Hollywood femme fatale, the 30-year-old singer has fought off the haters to become a proper, if unusual, pop star. In a rare interview, she opens up about coping with anxiety, her new-age mentors and how she almost played Sharon Tate on the big screen: “I could have become an American nightmare.”

LANA DEL REY AND I WERE FIRST introduced at an Architectural Digest pimped manse off Pacific Coast Highway during a party thrown, weirdly enough, for Werner Herzog and his bud, the physicist Lawrence Krauss. (Del Rey, 30, has spoken before of her interest in science and philosophy.) On that night, she wore an unformfitting Polo shirt dress with a personal-old-fave vibe. In deglamorized “Stars Without Makeup” mode, she was unpretentious and softly gregarious, like a doe-eyed, underdressed newcomer to the Town. I was at the same table, and she caught me staring off at the horizon. Del Rey was sardonically attuned, nudging her boyfriend, the Italian photographer-director Francesco Carrozzinni, to have a look at the cliché: Old Brooding Man. Her warmth took me out of myself.

Lana Del Rey’s fourth album, Honeymoon, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in September, but when I asked if she planned to go on the road to promote it, she shook her head. “I do everything backwards. It already happened — I’m actually done with the world tour I started four years ago, when I needed to be out there. I really needed to be out there singing.”

That exodus was partly born of the need to heal following a 2012 appearance on Saturday Night Live that elicited a slaughter-of-the-lamb storm of derision over the then up-and-coming star’s seemingly zoned-out amateurism. She was tarred as a poseur — part Edie Sedgwick, part Valley of the Dolls, a Never Will Be Ready for Primetime Player — but it turned out that Del Rey was only at the end of Act One in an all-American A Star Is Born passion play of celebrity crucifixion and resurrection.

Born Lizzy Grant in Lake Placid, N.Y., Del Rey moved to Manhattan at 18. “For seven years I wrote sexy songs about love,” she says. “That was the most joyous time of my life.” The screen that so many gossipy personas have been projected onto (rich preppy, suicidal anti-feminist, morbid dilettante) has instead transformed into a nearly religious dashboard icon of ghostly seduction. She’s a global phenomenon, part of the national conversation and cultural soundscape. Nielsen Music puts her total U.S. album sales at 2.5 million, and her videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Del Rey is now a few years into her return from the desert, having arrived on a mystery train of Santa Ana winds, existential dread and “soft ice cream” (to quote her song “Salvatore”) that is uniquely her own.

I meet her for the interview at a John Lautner house she rents in Los Angeles. Lautner was a seminal Southern California architect, and Del Rey says her choice of lodging was deliberate. She production-designs her life. She greets me in the drive — inquisitive, friendly and aware. For a moment, she looks like Elvis and Priscilla, all in one. The hair is old-school Clairol dark, the eyes siren green, the auburn ’do the most done thing about her.

“You’d love my dad,” she says. She was just on the phone with him; her parents are visiting. He’s a realtor, and Mom’s an English teacher whose passion is reading history books. Del Rey lives here with her younger sister, Caroline Grant, a photographer who goes by Chuck. (Del Rey tells me that her sister was so shocked by the force of the fans’ emotions during concerts that she doesn’t take pictures of them anymore.)

“My dad’s that guy with perfect Hawaiian shirts and matching shorts,” says Del Rey. “The other day he said, ‘We should see about getting you a vintage Rolls.’ I said, ‘Um, it’s a little attention-grabbing.’ And he said, ‘Uh, yeah.’ ”

What do you do with yourself now that you have nothing on your schedule?

I go for long walks, long drives. I’ll get in the car and drive the streets, feeling for places. I go to Big Sur. I love Big Sur, but it has gotten so touristy. I went to the General Store, and there were hordes. On a Monday! But I’m drawn there. Sometimes I go to write. I’ve been thinking it might be time to do a longer video, a 40-minute video. I was watching The Sandpiper, and I was working on something kind of based on that.

Have you thought of writing something for yourself? Shooting down the paparazzi helicopter in the video for “High by the Beach” was your idea, no?

Yeah, it was. I’d like to write a book one day. But you need a beginning, a middle and an end! I can deal with four minutes — but I’m not so sure about a book.

Your song “God Knows I Tried” fits somewhere between The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” I’m thinking of Cohen because of that line “Even though it all went wrong.”

I love Leonard — because he’s all about women. Women and God.

Does it all go wrong?

It’s hard for me sometimes to think about going on when I know we’re going to die. Something happened in the last three years, with my panic…

I had read that you were prone to that.

It got worse. But I’ve always been prone to it. I remember being — I was, I think, 4 years old — and I’d just seen a show on TV where the person was killed. And I turned to my parents and said, “Are we all going to die?” They said “Yes,” and I was totally distraught! I broke down in tears and said, “We have to move!”

How do you cope?

I saw a therapist — three times. But I’m really most comfortable sitting in that chair in the studio, writing or singing.

The panic won’t last forever.

I don’t think so, but … sometimes you just want to be able to enjoy the view. I think I’m really like my mother, in the sense that I make small lists. To calm myself down. I reward myself. You know, “If I finish this, then I’ll do that” — I’ll go for a walk on the beach or swim in the ocean. I go for swims and am actually shocked I do that. Because one thing I’m terrified of is sharks.

Do you think having a child would chill you out? Do you want to have kids?

I’ve thought about it. Really thought about it lately because I’ve just turned 30. I’d love having daughters. But I don’t think it’d be a good idea to have kids with someone who wasn’t … on the same page.

Someone who…

Who isn’t exactly — like me! (Laughs.) Though maybe it’s best to have kids with someone who’s … normal.

When was the last time you got trashed by a love affair?

The last one — before the boyfriend I’m with now — was pretty bad. It wasn’t good to be in it, but it wasn’t good to be out of it, either. He was like a twin. Not a facsimile twin, but a real twin.

So maybe finding the same person doesn’t work. Are relationships hard for you?

For someone like me — and it’s not a codependent thing — I just like having someone there. I’ve been alone, and that’s fine. But I like to come home and have someone there. You know, to say, “Oh, he’s here. And this other thing (Mimes a table.) is there. And this (Mimes setting down an object on the table.) is there. (Laughs.) I’m very methodical. I have to be. I’m like that in the studio too. Mixing and mastering can take four more months after we’re done — three to mix and one to master. I like having a plan. Though I do leave spaces for ad-libbing in the studio when I write.

Do you mind if I write all this? Because I don’t want to piss off Francesco.

Oh, he’s going to read this! But he’ll have things to say anyway. He’s very … aggressive. (Smiles.) And besides, I didn’t say he wasn’t just like me.

There’s something weirdly shamanistic about your work. You channel Los Angeles in ways I haven’t seen from anyone, at least not in a long while. Places now extinct, streets and feelings that you have no right to be able to evoke because of your age. And it’s so unlikely that you’re the one to be the oracle that way. But it’s for real.

I know. I know that. I love that word, “shamanistic.” I read energy; I always have. One of the books I love — aside from [Kenneth Anger’s] Hollywood Babylon — is The Autobiography of a Yogi. And Wayne Dyer … I was so upset when he died! [Dyer, part Buddhist, part New Thought motivational speaker, was best-known for his book Your Erroneous Zones. He died in August.] He gave me so much over the last 15 years. I went to see a clairvoyant. She asked me to write down four things on a card before I came in, things I might be thinking about, and she nailed all four. I asked about the man I was seeing — that one, before the one now. She said, “I don’t really like to go there, but … I just don’t see him present.” I went, “Ugh.” She’s seeing the future and doesn’t see him present. Oh, no!

Are you aware of your effect on men?

I’ve only recently become aware of the heterosexual males who are into my music. I remember when I was 16, I had a boyfriend. I think he was… 25? I thought that was the best thing. He had an F-150 pickup and let me drive it one time. I was so high up! I panicked and was worried I might kill someone — run over a nun or something. I started to shake. I was screaming and crying. I saw him looking over, and he was smiling. He said, “I love that you’re out of control.” He saw how vulnerable I was, how afraid, and he loved that. The balance shifted from there. I had the upper hand — until then.

Do you want to be in the movies?

Well… I’m open to it all. James Franco asked me to be in three films that were going to be directed by a Spanish director, and I was hesitant. I think he heard my hesitance and got scared. Someone wanted me to be Sharon Tate. I thought, “That’s so right.” At that time, there were three Manson movies being talked about, but none were ever made. So maybe that was the answer.

Have you ever been the “voice of reason” for a friend in crisis?

I have — I can be. It’s easier to do that sometimes … for someone who’s half-checked out.

Meaning you.

Yes. (Pauses.) You know, I was living in Hancock Park once and thought about a movie idea. I was renting this house whose high walls had been grandfathered in, so of course I kept making them taller and taller. And I had an idea about writing something about a woman living there, a singer losing her mind. She has this Nest-like security system installed, cameras everywhere. The only people she saw were people who work on the grounds: construction people and gardeners. One day she hears the gardener humming this song she wrote. She panics and thinks, “Oh, my God. Was I humming that out loud or just to myself? And if it was aloud, wasn’t it at 4 in the morning? Did that mean he was outside my window?” Then a storm comes, one of those L.A. storms, and the power goes out except to the cameras, which are on a different source. And the pool has been empty for months because of the drought. And she goes outside in the middle of the night because she hears something — and trips over the gardener’s hoe and falls into the empty pool and dies facedown like William Holden at the end of Sunset Boulevard.

For me, one of the most interesting things about you and your story — and of course your work — is that you broke through. That it has turned out well.

I think about it, and I’m so grateful. I am aware that it could easily not have happened. That I could have become … an American nightmare. I see her — Lana — I listen to her and watch her, and I’m … protective.

Let’s end with Big Sur. Do you think your interest is by way of your kinship with the Beats? Your enthrallment with Kerouac?

Big Sur challenges me to surrender. What draws me is … the curves. I’m really drawn to the curves.

Originally published on billboard.com, and in the October 31, 2015 issue of Billboard with the headline An Inconvenient Woman.

[strictlyfavorites]

Guitar Teacher REACTS: Vince Gill & Alison Krauss "Tryin' To Get Over You"

[opera-ghosts]

Marie-Gabrielle Krauss (24 March 1842 – 6 January 1906) was an important 19th century Austrian-born French operatic soprano. She created major roles in operas by Anton Rubinstein, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Auguste Mermet, Clémence de Grandval, Errico Petrella, Antônio Carlos Gomes and Émile Paladilhe. She also created roles in local premieres of Verdi and Wagner operas. Krauss was a leading soprano at the Paris Opera for 13 years, and also sang with great success in Italy and Russia. Her first important appearance was in Schumann's cantata Das Paradies und die Peri in Vienna on 1 March 1858, when she was still only 15 years old. In July 1859, she made her operatic debut as Mathilde in Rossini's William Tell. On 23 February 1861, she created the role of Maria in Anton Rubinstein's opera Die Kinder der Heide at the Kärntnertor Theatre. She sang in Vienna until 1867, her other roles there including Anna in Boieldieu's La dame blanche and Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. Her French debut came in Paris on 6 April 1867 at the Theatre-Italien, as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore. She later appeared there in the title role in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, Ginevra in Halévy's Guido et Ginevra, and other roles such as Donna Anna, Fidelio, Norma, Lucia, Semiramide and Gilda. She created a role in Clémence de Grandval's opera Piccolino on 25 November 1869. Italy first saw Krauss in Naples in 1872, when she created a role in Errico Petrella's Manfredo, an opera based on Lord Byron's poem Manfred. She also created a character in Petrella's Bianca Orsini (4 April 1874) and sang in Verdi's Aida. On 16 February 1873, she created the title role in Antônio Carlos Gomes' Fosca at its premiere at La Scala, Milan. She created Elsa in the first production in Milan of Wagner's Lohengrin (30 March 1873). She returned to Paris in 1873, and also sang in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1874. Her "Grand Farewell Concert" at the Bolshoi Theatre included excerpts from Rossini's Stabat Mater, an aria from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Leonore's recitative and aria from Act I of Beethoven's Fidelio. Krauss first sang at the Paris Opera on 5 January 1875, the opening night of the Palais Garnier, as Rachel in the first two acts of Halévy's La Juive, and then again on 8 January in the complete opera. On 5 April 1876, she created the title role in the first world premiere to be presented at the Palais Garnier, Auguste Mermet's Joan of Arc. The opera was not successful, closing after only 15 performances, but Tchaikovsky used Mermet's libretto as one of the sources for his opera The Maid of Orleans. Krauss also created Pauline in Gounod's Polyeucte (7 October 1878); Hermosa in his Le tribut de Zamora (1 April 1881; her patriotic aria "Debout! enfants de l'Ibérie!" had to be encored); the title role in the revised version of Sapho (2 April 1884) and Catherine d'Aragon in Saint-Saëns' Henry VIII (5 March 1883). She sang in the Palais Garnier premieres of Aida (title role; 22 March 1880), Rigoletto (Gilda; 2 March 1885), and Émile Paladilhe's Patrie! (Dolores, 20 December 1886). She remained with the company until 1888, apart from a short period in 1885/86, singing leading roles in over 40 operas. Tchaikovsky saw her in Paris in Weber's Der Freischütz in 1879 and wrote a glowing review of her performance as Agatha, while criticising other aspects of the production. Krauss became as much renowned for her acting ability as for her singing, and she was popularly known as "La Rachel chantante". In 1876, Jean-Baptiste Faure dedicated his valse-légende "Stella" to her. After retiring from the opera stage, she continued to give recitals and became a teacher. Krauss died in Paris in 1906, aged 63.

[katherinewilliams221b]

For A Greater Good 9/18

not my gif just the text (The Art of Transfiguration)

Summary: Kate Williams, young healer and member of the Order,   joins Durmstrang’s staff at Dumbledore’s request. Her mission? Find a   Death Eater and survive long enough to tell the story. Set in 1996.

Pairing: Charlie Weasley x ofc/mc

Masterlist

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

[Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8]

-

“You’re going to get us caught. Act normal or it’s over.”

“I didn’t know what to do. What if it was him?” Cassandra, metal box in hand, approached Kent Jorgensen with a furtive look.

“It wasn’t him.” She handed him the box, “These are the ones I found.”

“Listen to me, Cassandra. How much longer are we going to hold out? One thing is... but attempted murder?”

“It wasn’t him.” He insisted.

“How are you so sure? You really don’t think it’s a possibility?” Jorgensen saw in her eyes how doubt quickly took hold, fear too, but she controlled it.

“And then there’s her. She’s not a bad girl, but she’s starting to ask questions. Have you ever stopped to think about why Astrid brought her so late in the year if not for this?”

“Stop it. You have a meeting now, right? Go.”

“It was nice of you to give her some time off... even though she’s using it to snoop around. Or did you want to get rid of her?”

“I have my moments.”

Kate snaked through the corridors until she found the meeting room Astrid Rhode had told her. She couldn’t wait to see the look on the other teachers’ faces when they saw her there.

The night before, she had been practicing one of the legilimens lessons she had received from Snape, but despite her efforts, she was unable to connect with Charlie’s mind without seeing him and knowing where he was.

On her way to the meeting, she forced herself to open her mind and let all the thoughts and emotions around her envelop her. It was overwhelming, yes, but necessary in order to control it.

She let out a long sigh of exhaustion and despair. Dumbledore did not choose well. The amount of information that was accumulating was difficult to handle, and her attempts to put it all on paper ended in deep confusion.

When she reached the right door, hidden in the darkest tower of the castle, she went to push the knob, but instead of making contact with the metal, her whole body went through the wood and appeared on the other side.

“Welcome.” Astrid, sitting at the end of a long table, greeted her. Several people were already in the windowless room.

Kate responded with a nod and the faintest rise of the corners of her mouth. Her head ached, and she looked around.

Mawut, sitting to Astrid’s left, gave her a bright smile which Kate returned. Next to her, she saw who she thought was the Magical Creatures professor.

She pulled back a few red curls from her shoulder and leaned forward, “Denise Krauss”

“Kate.” She waved.

Mer Yankelevich was looking at her intently from across the table, when Kate looked up at her, her eyebrows raised.

“This I did not expect.” She snorted and pursed her lips in a comical smile before patting the empty chair next to her.

Sitting close to Rhode and with his back to Kate was Libor Marek with his arms crossed. He didn’t bother to turn around to see who had just arrived, he just waited for Kate to sit next to Yankelevich and followed her movements.

Holding her gaze, her lips curled down in a gesture of approval.

“It’s not that surprising.” He said, addressing Yankelevich. He turned his head to look at Rhode and continued, “I have class.”

Astrid raised her eyes from her papers over her reading glasses. “There’s still time. Your students can do without you for ten minutes.”

Another body appeared through the door and Kent Jorgensen came out of the shadows.

“Sorry I’m late... Williams.” Kate couldn’t identify his expression.

Jorgensen sat down next to her and questioned her with his eyes. Kate just shrugged and forced a smile.

“Well, we can get started.” Astrid announced.

Before she could continue, Libor Marek interrupted her.

“Angelov is missing.”

“He’s always late, Astrid starts without him, and Libor gets angry because... well, he gets angry about everything.” Yankelevich whispered in her ear. Paying attention to her, she couldn’t hear the argument between Libor and Astrid.

Jorgensen bent down in front of Kate to include himself in the talk. “He gets angry because he never wants to be here.”

“And you do? We already know what we’re doing here, except for Williams, probably.”

Kate mustered all the willpower she could find and kept her mouth shut. Astrid stood up and asked for silence.

“We will continue without Angelov and Rosberg...” she continued her speech, but Kate only heard Yankelevich’s whisper again, saying she meant the divination teacher.

“It will not be necessary.” Angelov stumbled his way to the chair next to Libor. Rhode gave a sharp nod and ignored Marek’s roll of the eyes.

“I called you as soon as I made my decision. As you know, for the past few weeks, Flavia Hodges has been under supervision as a result of the murder attempts she’s been suffering from.”

Murmurings flooded the room.

“Who said they were trying to kill her?” Leron asked.

Kate leaned over to the table to get Angelov to look at her.

“Hodges herself. And I confirm it. Just like Miss Steiner. She was poisoned and then thrown down the stairs...”

“This was a while ago, Leron, where have you been?” Interrupted Yankelevich.

Kate kept her eyes on Leron, but unlike Jorgensen, his blue eyes couldn’t intimidate her. She quietly challenged him to say another word, but he turned his head to look at Mawut, who was talking.

“Do we know what she was poisoned with?” The coach demanded.

“What does it matter?” Marek retorted. Kate looked away from Libor and squinted her eyes when an idea flashed through her head.

“Yes, with Wee... I’m almost sure with a very high concentration of belladonna.”

For some reason, the conversation she heard through the door of Rhode’s office repeated itself in her head, and she remembered that someone had been stealing potion ingredients.

“Belladonna,” she continued, “is a crucial ingredient of the Weedesoros potion, not only used as a poison but also for various kinds of ailments...”

“And then how are you so sure it was with that?” Jorgensen asked.

Several conversations erupted, and it was proving impossible to keep track of them all at once. Kate looked at Astrid and in a mute agreement, decided not to give any more details.

“Does that tell you anything?” Rhode asked

Mer Yankelevich crossed her legs and shook her head. Leron Angelov rubbed his nose before scratching his neck, and Libor Marek and Kent Jorgensen shared a look.

“It tells me that the person responsible has access to belladonna.” Marek spat.

“Are you trying to say something, Libor?” Jorgensen replied.

It was time to focus on the minds of those present. Unfortunately, Kate sensed so much nervousness in the room that she could not identify where it came from. Her own feelings were interfering with the process, and she sat back in her seat in frustration.

“May I ask you something?” Yankelevich intervened. All eyes were on her. “What is she doing here?” She pointed to Kate with one of his mile-long nails. If she didn’t know Jorgensen was the animagus, she’d think Yankelevich was a hawk, because of her claw-like hands.

“That’s the next point. In light of events, Flavia Hodges will be moved to an institution where she will be protected. I have personally taken care of the paperwork and she will leave this week.”

Kate noticed how Marek turned his head to look at her, but she ignored him and continued to listen to Astrid.

“Miss Williams will take her place temporarily.” Now not only was Marek’s gaze upon her, and the murmurs and complaints erupted again.

Rhode raised a hand before she put her glasses on, effectively silencing those present.

“Now, with this settled, I must communicate to you...” She glanced briefly at Kate and after sighing continued, “that Karkarov has been seen on the castle grounds.”

The reactions to the statement were varied, and Rhode had no choice but to shut the room up again.

“Does that mean he’ll be back?” Yankelevich asked.

“He can’t come back after all that’s happened.” Jorgensen answered.

“Karkarov will not return to the school and I will make sure that he does not stain Durmstrang’s reputation any more. Now, on Flavia’s departure, castle guards will control all entrances and exits to the building, the Quidditch field and the lakes, the ship included.”

A new round of protests and grievances filled the place, and Astrid and Kate looked on.

“I remind you that this is a purely informative meeting and there is no room for debate or vote. If we can prevent the ministries from interfering with Durmstrang, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

Marek slapped the table. “If that’s all, then I’m leaving.”

Astrid gestured vaguely so he could leave, and in the blink of an eye he had already walked through the door.

Jorgensen and Mawut were next, and Mer Yankelevich followed. Denise Krauss greeted Kate again and left as well.

Leron Angelov stared vacantly at the wall, but after a moment he got up too and left without a word, leaving Kate and Astrid alone.

“I didn’t know you were going to comment on Karkarov.” Accused Kate.

“I wanted to see their reactions.”

“And?”

“I don’t know.. Keep an eye on Marek. He didn’t like the decision to have guards. Are you nervous?”

“For my first day of school? I’m terrified. Although I still have to tell Steiner. I’ll be going now.”

--

 Kate stood behind the desk of room 82 and tried to calm her nerves. When she proposed being a substitute for professor Hodges, she was thinking about getting closer to the other teachers and overlooked a minor detail: she would have to perform as a professor. 

She had no training, no experience, and no one to give her advice. 

It’s just your first day, Kate, try to know the students, and... and figure out how to teach with this useless book.

The doors of the classroom opened and Hodges’ fifteen children appeared, some fought for their seats, others sat down patiently and a small group entered pushing each other. She moved to the front and leaned on the desk and waited for them to settle. They sat quietly at first, but soon the whispering started.

“Good evening, I’m Kate Williams. I’ll be teaching your herbology classes now that your former professor is... indisposed.”

She mentally winced at the wording and crossed her legs in front of her.

“Okay, well… You won’t have a lesson today because I found out that I would replace Hodges just yesterday so…”

A girl in the front row raised her hand. “We have exams in less than two weeks.”

“I know. I’ll do my best to prepare you as fast as I can for that, but it won’t be easy. However, I’ll talk to headmistress Rhode and try to convince her to let me make some changes.”

The whispering started again and Kate shifted uncomfortably in her spot before grabbing the copy of the book she had with her and opening it to the contents table page.

“You were supposed to get to Unit 5: Soils.” She looked up expecting some sort of confirmation but received silence instead. “So that’s what we’ll try to do.”

She left the book on the table again and crossed her arms.

“How many days a week do you work in the greenhouse?” There was silence again, and that started to make her worried. “Do you go to the greenhouse at all?” 

A boy from the third row raised his hand.

“Jon Hopkins, professor. Professor Marek says that Durmstrang is focused on martial magic and Dark Arts. That is over-qualified for plants, professor.”

“Of course he does…” she jumped the small step from where the desk was placed and walked through the space between the two blocks of seats. “I come from a place where herbology is also underestimated, and it is true that plants can be boring, sometimes.”

She turned around and re did the path she made, looking at the students and their desks.

“Do you know any herb or plant a bit more interesting than, let’s say, grass?” She huffed, amused at her own words, and kept pacing.

“Dev... devil’s snare?” Said a timid voice behind her. A boy was looking at her with big blue eyes.

They immediately recognised each other.

“Micael, right?” He nodded, “Devil’s snare! One of my favourites will choke you to death at the first opportunity. It will grab you with its multiple tentacles and won’t let you go…”

She walked to the desk again and hopped on it, sitting with her legs crossed.

“You will learn how to recognise it, how to escape its firm grip if you have the misfortune of encountering one. Come on, more.”

She waited long seconds and observed how they whispered to each other. Afraid of losing control of the class, she kept going,

“Have you ever heard of Venomous tentacula? Its spiky vines will try to trap anything near it. It’s not part of the program, but we can make an exception if you’re interested.”

The girl that spoke to her before murmured something to her classmate on the right, and Kate managed to catch some words.

“Ah, mandrakes.  They may seem harmless with their cute little faces…. But listen to their shrieks without protection,” she snapped her fingers in the air, “and you’re history.”

She dropped her hand as she saw the expressions of pure disinterest on their faces and nodded. The clock indicated that there were still thirty minutes left in the class. However, no one had anything else to say.

“Well, you can go now. I promise to have a class ready by Wednesday and we’ll start studying for the exam.”

Everyone left the room as quickly as they could, and Kate looked at their backs as they left. The last kid who left got her attention.

“Michael, can I talk to you?” The boy walked towards her looking at the floor and secured his bag to his shoulder.

“Is it because I haven’t raised my hand to talk? I promise to get it right next time.”

Kate was about to laugh at the absurdity of the phrase when she saw actual fear on Michael’s face and mind.

“No, I’m glad you participated, it made me feel less ridiculous. I wanted to know if you were okay.”

“My wrist doesn’t hurt anymore.” He shifted in his place, still not looking at her.

“That’s not what I meant.” Finally their eyes met. “Are you okay?”

Kate knew the answer and hoped Michael understood what she was asking him. The boy nodded quickly and looked back at the floor.

“I want you to know that in my class you are safe. You can talk without fear and count on me whenever you need to.”

“Do you say that to all the students, or just to me?”

“I say that to everyone. If someone needs help, I’ll give it to them. I thought it was a good idea to let you know now.”

With an almost inaudible “Goodbye” he left Kate alone, taking a deep breath and wondering where she went wrong. 

--

No matter how hard Kate tried to get them to learn something, she was failing as a teacher and so were her students. Few of them managed to answer more than half of the questions correctly, and yet none of them stood out particularly.

The preparation for classes, tests, and the extra hours she had used for individual tutoring had consumed every available hour since she began. She was now wondering how good of an idea it had been.

In addition, the security Astrid had implemented only caused concern among the inhabitants of the castle. Ever since Hodges’ departure, everyone seemed to be tiptoeing around, and that didn’t help her inquiries.

This is not working, Kate thought on the way to the Great Hall, and she wasn’t just referring to her competence as a teacher.

It was the first day of March and Astrid Rhode had called a meeting to inform the entire school about the most important event of the year: The Annual Exposition of Dark Arts, or as they called it, the AEDA. Today the theme, rules and prizes available for those who wished to participate in the competition would be presented.

Neither students nor teachers could hide how excited they were, and you didn’t have to be legilimens to notice.

Kate entered through the already open doors of the room. It was difficult to get to where the other teachers were, but eventually she made it and leaned against the side wall where she had a view of the whole room.

Durmstrang’s policy on the teachers’ uniform was a little more flexible, allowing her to wear her own robes as long as they were an appropriate colour, and she wore the band with the Durmstrang emblem around her chest.

Dressed in black from head to toe, and with her band firmly fastened, she went unnoticed in the crowd, and although it was not something she needed, for some reason she preferred to remain in the shadows.

“You have spoiled me.” said a low voice to her left. Libor Marek looked at her with arms folded.

“How come?”

“You’re the only one who didn’t complain about the explosions in my class. Now it’s getting harder for me to put up with those whiny mediwizards.”

Kate forced a smile that ended up looking like a grimace and waved Marek goodbye, who went off to find a free seat.

After a while, Mer Yankelevich came over too.

“I hear you’ve been having difficulties. You can ask for my advice anytime.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Absolutely not, she thought.

She saw her leave and approach Marek. They had a brief conversation until he made a dismissive gesture for her to leave.

“Attention please, sit down, sit down.” Astrid Rhode pointed her wand at her throat and her voice was amplified all over the place.

After a while, everyone in the room was sitting down and ready to listen to what Headmistress Rhode had to say.

“For those of you who don’t know, every year the largest exhibition of dark arts in Europe is held at our school. Not only is it a magnificent event to enjoy, but also a valuable learning opportunity.”

A strange feeling made Kate frown. She stopped listening to Rhode’s words and opened her mind while looking around.

It was something she’d never felt before, as if a mind would just shut down and turn on again.

By the window, Leron Angelov was sitting in a chair looking at the ground. Kate bowed her head and waited for something to happen.

He grabbed the sides of the chair firmly and looked up at Astrid again, but without loosening his fists.

“Whether or not you decide to enter the competition, I encourage you to attend the event. Wizards from all over the world come to Durmstrang for this reason alone, and it’s a unique opportunity to make contacts or find your professional path.”

Kate stopped looking at Astrid again and met Jorgensen’s eyes for a split of a second. He immediately looked away and pretended to listen to the headmistress.

She shook her head slightly and couldn’t believe that Jorgensen thought she hadn’t caught him staring at her.

“Each and every one of you has until the first day of April to register and until the 15th of June to submit a project. We consider that this is enough time. Now, the theme this year will be: The Art of Transfiguration.”

Astrid waited for the murmurs to stop before continuing her speech, but Kate was distracted again.

She searched through the hundreds of faces around her, but both Angelov and Jorgensen were gone. No one noticed when Kate slipped through the crowd and left the room as well.

She looked to both sides and to her right she saw a cape shaking behind a corner. She trotted over there, but when she turned, she found no one.

The corridors were empty.

A flutter alerted her, and she turned to meet an owl flying in her direction. As it passed over her head, it dropped a card with Durmstrang’s stamps on it.

Katherine Williams has mail in the owlery

She looked again into the empty corridor and with a sigh went to the main gates to leave the castle.

Dear Kate,

We’ve had difficulties locating you, however we’ve decided not to charge you for all the inconvenience you have caused us.

Please accept this well-meaning gift, which is part of our Weasley catalogue.

Be aware of the honour of trying one of our most exclusive items. We accept a review and 10,000 galleons as compensation.

Yours sincerely,

Gred and Forge

Kate looked at the package with suspicion but opened it, anyway. It was long, like one of Ollivander’s boxes.

After removing a velvet cloth, she touched the wand with her index finger to check that it wouldn’t explode and when she felt more secure; she grabbed it.

“It’s not terrible quality.” She said to herself and pointed to a feather on the ground with it, “Merlin help me... Wingardium Leviosa.”

The stick flew out of her hand and into the air. As if it was playing an invisible drum, but replaced by her head, the wand began hitting her. She shrieked and all the owls in the tower started to get agitated; some flew off in all directions.

Slapping one hand in the air and laughing endlessly, she reached into her robe to find her real wand, as she tried to escape the Weasley’s trick item. 

As soon as it stopped, she would immediately write to them so that Charlie could also receive a surprise gift.

--

If you are binge-reading this, this chapter is a good place to stop and go to sleep or rest

[Part 10]

--

A/N: I know this isn’t the most exciting chapter but there were important things that needed to be said

Tag List: @eldritchscreech​ @meteora-fc​ @cazreadsstuff​

[selemina]

Now if i can also ask about some of the other characters, Who's your character in that winter campaign, is he the four armed guy in the art you showed? What's his story?

Aaaah, mister Sephiran Krauss, my necromancer and first ever wizard! :D

Krauss is a Vedalken! :) Those are essentially the Vulkans of DnD : Blue skin, four arms, an unwavering focus, and an absence of expressed emotions. That whole picture up there would make him look like an over-reacting lunatic to his own kind, to give you an idea. XD

Krauss has one, very simple, but very ambitious dream : Record and know all of the spells in the world. The limiting factor, for him, is time ; vedalkens live a long time, but not nearly long enough to reach that goal. So? Extending his life is a necessity. How? Well, there is the classical lich-dom, but he’s not too much about that, not really... That would make the rest complicated... As it turns out, somewhere in Europe, the scientific community says they’re about to discover the secret to immortality! That would be ideal... But as he is traveling there, in the middle of summer, snow starts falling from the sky...

30 years pass, with him working in the mall community where the adventure starts. He is the community’s teacher : those kids will learn to read, count and have a notion of history, damnit, snow or not! He is also in charge of keeping the treadmill farm going for electricity, by making skeletons run on them until they break. His focus shifted rather drastically on necromancy, with the urgent need to find a solution to the sudden risk of dying the next day, but he is very open about it, and freely discusses it with anybody that asks, without making it wierd.

He also quickly noticed that his lack of expression was causing problems between him and the other passionate races (which was : everybody in the mall”, so he has been training for 30 years now to express his emotions in a way that puts others at ease. He’s still struggling with his centuries of being told to hide everything and be ashamed of any show of emotion, but he is fighting it. We had a moment of him going temporarely amnesiac, and he reverted back to his purely logical self... I like that it freaked people out so much, in the long list of mental ailment everybody had, it was addressed very early! XD He was not about to be dangerous, but NOBODY liked cold and rational Krauss! XD

In this campaign, we have (now 2) warlocks of the Archives :  a place where you can learn what you want, at a cost to your mental health. Temporary, but still scary... It’s where Krauss has been looking for the spell Clone, to have a backup in case he died, but anyways, remember the archives for later. ;)

FIRST, we need to talk about William of the Winter : the only person in 30 years to have a connection with the divine! The gods have been silent since the start of the winter, so realize : no healing magic, no clerical assistance, no resurrections or revivify! But here comes William, not even knowing he has clerical abilities as a divine soul sorcerer. People lose their shit. With the help of Krauss, he develops an imperfect resurrection spell, with a chance to fail and function as a Raise Dead spell. He then feels a pulse to go in an abandonned church where another PC used to live, where said PC’s husband, a cleric, was burried. Preparing for the resurrection, everybody does a little something to help, and Krauss heads over to the statue of the cleric’s god.

Now, as a logical individual, Krauss sees the gods as powerful entities, but not unfathomable or all-mighty. Faith is not his thing... but bargains can be struck. Without anybody to believe in them for 30 years, gods are almost powerless now, so Krauss “prays”, offering a deal : if the gods help in this resurrection, as a teacher he will teach his students about the pantheons, and see if some of them are interested in faith. A favor for a favor. And the offering bowl suddenly fills up with high quality gun powder (the temple was to a god of firearms, technolgy and community) as a sign.

The night before the resurrection, Krauss has a special dream : he’s on the plane of fire, and there is a big battle happening, in which a full group of heroes fights against an army of purple-coded invaders. Krauss manages to ask if this has anything to do with the Winter in some way, and he feels like the gods are saying yes.

The resurrection works fine, and they all go back to base with all of that in mind. On their next trip to the Archives, Krauss looks into those purple mages in the plane of Fire... and realizes there is no information there. Because the Void has swallowed this knowledge. The Void is, I believe, another reccurring element of @girugin‘s stories : a plane or something, that sometimes eats things : everything it eats gets erased from the world’s memory, aside from people with very direct, very intimate links with it. But if THEY forget it too, whatever the void has taken has no chance of escaping. Pulling knowledge from the void on something you’ve only seen in a prophetic dream sounds like madness... But Krauss starts working on it, driving himself up the wall for days to record into a book whatever knowledge he can pull from the void about those purple mage and their kind of magic he had never seen before.

His original intent, once he’s done with making the book, was to just read it and offer it back to the archives, as a gift (to make learning the clone spell easier), but there is another big player that is interrested by exclusive knowledge and its price : Newt, the patron of trades and deals. And more specifically, his representative in the community : an energetic Kobold called the Ecclectic. When trying to make a deal for a magical item to protect him, Krauss mentions the book he’s writting, and the Ecclectic immediately starts offering him a deal : Give HIM the book, instead of the archives. Pressed a bit more by Krauss he shares a bit more. He has a dept towards Newt that he desperately wants paid, and the archives might not be as safe to use as they seem... He’s willing to give everything he has to Krauss for the book, including a few items NOW before he decides who to give the book to. He also reveals a dangerous weak point of the Archives, and defense mechanism, that could probably end up killing Krauss if ever the Archives grew mad at him. Problem is, just by knowing of this defense mechanism, Krauss might be seen as dangerous by the archives...

Weighing all of it, Krauss decides ultimately to give the Ecclectic the book, and try to sell his knowledge of the Archives’ weak spot to Newt, insuring he wouldn’t be attacked by the archives if he went back. He’s still nervous about going back, sending one of the warlocks in with an offering of knowledge to test the waters. Apparently the Archives doesn’t mind him being around... but Krauss is VERY nervous still. XD He doesn’t remember why, but he knows he should tread carefully now.

Also, helping the Ecclectic made it so that he could regain his original form : an ancient metallic dragon (brass or copper, I never remember. XD) now more than happy to protect the community against the white dragon up north that was terrorizing the area! :) And that’s the story of how Krauss bought himself a boyfriend with knowledge from the Void! ;3c

The campaign is still ongoing, we should actually play it in an hour or so! :D But I doubt we’ll be getting anything new about the winter’s origins, I want the story to take some time to focus on other people now, Krauss has seen enough spotlight for the time being. :) Balance between players and screentime is very important, and getting A FULL-ASS DRAGON on our side seems like a big enough achievement for Krauss for now! XD

[sassyfrassboss]

Hi! Love your blog, but as a children’s librarian I did want to say the “Duck, Rabbit” was not written by a foundation, but by Amy Krauss Rosenthal, who very tragically died from cancer a few years ago. She wrote a Modern Love column called “You May Want to Marry My Husband” shortly before she passes that I still can’t think about without crying. Her husband established the foundation after her death.

Thank you! Yeah I actually knew that. I researched it all yesterday so it’s bad on me because it was easier to type “foundation” than Amy Krauss Rosenthal! I am sorry I was being lazy...I will make sure to write out her name in the future. My mom was a HS English teacher so she would be appalled by my lack of author credit. I wrote the title of a book the other day and I didn’t put it in italics and I had a a guilty conscious. Plus I was close with my HS librarians since my mom taught at my HS, and they would slap my wrist for being lazy. 

I was reading about the foundation yesterday. Her husband...le sigh...his bio was amazing. Such love....My husband for sure wouldn’t start a foundation in my name...lol...I also probably wouldn’t recommend for someone to marry him...hahahaha! I will have to read her love column though. I was crying the other day because there is this guy on IG that posts often whose wife just died of cancer and he is all on his own with 3 children, one of which is my son’s age. He wrote this long post and I was sobbing. My husband thought I was nuts. 

I was actually thinking about my high school library the other day. I saw the movie Joy Luck Club on Netflix I believe, and I remember checking out the book in my HS library my sophomore year, we actually had to read it for my AP English class and that was the first time I realized that the books are not always like the movies. Total bummer. That was also the year we had to read The Count of Monte Cristo...I don’t think a single one of us in class finished the book, and we had the whole summer beforehand to read the thing. I still have flash backs to trying to get through that book. 

[utexaspress]

Remembering John Prine

By Eddie Huffman

One friend had a Spanish teacher in high school who sang and played John Prine songs on her guitar after class. Another learned about Prine as an exchange student in Canada when a guy sang “Hello in There” between slugs from a whiskey bottle. One sang “Paradise” a capella with his buddies as they backpacked across Guatemala. COVID-19 killed John Prine, but his death Tuesday pushed pandemic news – and almost everything else – off my social media feeds. Decades after Prine’s music spread turntable to turntable, guitarist to guitarist, the people who loved him honored him with fond memories and favorite songs. Keenly observed character sketches like “Angel from Montgomery” and “The Oldest Baby in the World.” Raucous novelty tunes like “Dear Abby” and “The Bottomless Lake.” Songs of hard-won romance like “Unlonely” and “Boundless Love.” Meditations on death both somber (“Sam Stone”) and serene (“When I Get to Heaven”). Eight years ago, when I started researching the book that would become John Prine: In Spite of Himself, the protagonist seemed well past his prime. He was a beloved cult figure meandering to the finish line after years of hard living, pushing through divorces and bouts with cancer. He toured regularly, but his years as a vital songwriter seemed far behind him. Or so I thought. Prine got his start at the dawn of the 1970s, when the music business was a star-making colossus overflowing with cash. That business model did little for Prine, though. His songs captured the small-but-telling details of life, from the chain-smoked Camel cigarettes in “Grandpa Was a Carpenter” to the melting snowmen in “All the Best.” Appropriately, his music rippled out into the world via similar moments in the lives of ordinary people, in dorm rooms and coffeehouses, on porches and beaches. So Prine left Atlantic and Asylum behind, started his own little record label, and kept right on doing what he had always done. He had his biggest hit album to date in 1991 at the unlikely age of 45. That was thanks in small part to contributions from friends and admirers like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. But the real stars of The Missing Years were the brilliant songs inspired by his second divorce and new romance with Fiona Whelan, the Irishwoman who would become the mother of his sons, his third wife, and his final manager. He ended the millennium with a bang, a delightful album of duets, In Spite of Ourselves, that inspired the title of my book. He went through his first bout with cancer while making that album. After he quit smoking and had part of his neck cut out, he emerged with a clean bill of health and a voice even more ragged than before. Prine released a second album of charming duets in 2016, For Better, or Worse. Otherwise he mostly marked time and toured, delighting audiences with his classic songs and bone-dry sense of humor. His family did the world a huge favor when they ordered him to write material for a new album. He checked into a hotel in downtown Nashville and checked out a week later with the songs that would make up 2018’s The Tree of Forgiveness. Prine hit the studio with a hot modern producer, Dave Cobb, and created a mordant reflection on death and dying that’s great fun to listen to. If the success of The Missing Years when Prine was 45 seemed implausible, the success of The Tree of Forgiveness at 71 seemed inconceivable. But the record put Prine in the Top 10 of the Billboard album chart for the first time in his career, and he began an extended victory lap that included launching his own festival in the Dominican Republic, signing new artists to Oh Boy Records for the first time in years, and winning a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Daffodils and wisteria have exploded across my part of North Carolina recently, pandemic or no pandemic. Since 1988 their colors have signaled the approach of MerleFest. Organizers announced in December that Prine would make his fourth appearance in 2020, joining Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, and the usual horde of pickers and fiddlers. But COVID-19 canceled MerleFest and everything else in sight before it started cutting down beloved musicians, from Ellis Marsalis and Manu Dibango to Adam Schlesinger and Joe Diffie. The first red flag for Prine went up three weeks ago when Fiona Whelan Prine announced that she had coronavirus. By March 28 her husband had pneumonia in both lungs and a ventilator to help him breathe. Fiona recovered. John did not. He died at Vanderbilt Medical Center on Tuesday, April 7. He was 73. Nashville will undoubtedly throw a hell of a party in Prine’s honor when the pandemic that took him from us finally subsides. In the meantime, tributes have poured in from people in self-isolation around the world. Like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash before them, a generation of younger artists loves Prine’s music, including Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, and Brandi Carlile. On Thursday Stephen Colbert posted a video from home where he spoke fondly of Prine before introducing Carlile, who delivered the most gorgeous version of “Hello in There” I’ve ever heard. Last night my partner and research assistant, Gwen Gosney Erickson, said there seemed to be no middle ground with Prine: People had either never heard of him or loved him. She was shocked to find her Facebook feed as flooded as mine with tributes from people she had no idea even knew Prine existed. There are dozens of good reasons for that, songs and performances that boil life down to its essentials. Prine may have used up all nine of his lives, at long last, but his music will live as long as people strum guitars and sing about love, loss, and all the funny little things that make us human.

[flyaway-33]

Get to know me tag game

I was tagged by @benders-diamond-earring, thanks!

Name/Alias: Missy

Birthday: March 3rd

Zodiac sign: Pieces!

Height: 5’4”

Hobbies: Sewing, singing, trying to learn piano

Favorite color: baby blue

Favorite books: Harry Potter series, Gone with The Wind

Last song I listened to: GIRL— Marren Morris

Last film I watched: hmm probably BoRhap, don't have much time for movies anymore...

Inspiration for muse: lol wut

Dream Job: Kindergarten teacher

Meaning behind my URL: From both  Spread Your Wings by Queen AND I’ll Fly Away by Allison Krauss & Gillian Welch, plus my lucky number.

I’ll tag… @rogertaylor-stole-my-heart @rhythmsectionbros @supersonicfreddie @roger-taylors-car

[colicalrilp1987-blog]

A Call for a Low-Carb Diet That Embraces Fat

People who stay away from sugars and eat increasingly fat, even immersed fat, lose more muscle versus fat and have less cardiovascular dangers than individuals who pursue the low-fat eating regimen that wellbeing specialists have favored for a considerable length of time, a significant new investigation shows.

The discoveries are probably not going to be the last salvo in what has been a long and regularly argumentative discussion about what nourishments are ideal to eat for weight reduction and in general wellbeing. The idea that dietary fat is destructive, especially soaked fat, emerged decades prior from examinations of sickness rates among huge national populations.

But later clinical investigations in which people and their eating regimens were surveyed after some time have delivered an increasingly intricate picture. Some have given solid proof that individuals can strongly diminish their coronary illness chance by eating less sugars and progressively dietary fat, except for trans fats. The new discoveries propose that this system all the more adequately lessens muscle to fat ratio and furthermore brings down generally speaking weight.

The new examination was financed by the National Institutes of Health and distributed in the Annals of Internal Medicine. It incorporated a racially various gathering of 150 people вђ" an irregularity in clinical sustenance thinks about вђ" who were allocated to pursue slims down for one year that constrained either the measure of carbs or fat that they could eat, yet not generally speaking calories.

“To my insight, this is one of the main long haul preliminaries that␙s given these weight control plans without calorie restrictions,␝ said Dariush Mozaffarian, the senior member of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not engaged with the new investigation. “It demonstrates that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs causes you get more fit without concentrating on calories. What's more, that␙s extremely significant in light of the fact that somebody can change what they eat more effectively than attempting to eliminate their calories.␝

Diets low in starches and higher in fat and protein have been regularly utilized for weight reduction since Dr. Robert Atkins promoted the methodology during the 1970s. Among the longstanding reactions is that these eating regimens cause individuals to get thinner as water rather than muscle to fat ratio, and that cholesterol and other coronary illness hazard elements climb since calorie counters perpetually raise their admission of immersed fat by eating more meat and dairy.

Many nutritionists and wellbeing specialists have ␜actively prompted against␝ low-starch eats less, said the lead creator of the new investigation, Dr. Lydia A. Bazzano of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “It’s been felt that your immersed fat is, obviously, going to increment, and afterward your cholesterol will go up,␝ she said. “And then awful things will occur in general.␝

The new investigation demonstrated that was not the case.

By the finish of the yearlong preliminary, individuals in the low-starch gathering had shed around eight pounds more by and large than those in the low-fat gathering. They had fundamentally more prominent decreases in muscle to fat ratio than the low-fat gathering, and enhancements in fit bulk вђ" despite the fact that neither one of the groups changed their degrees of physical activity.

While the low-fat gathering lost weight, they seemed to lose more muscle than fat.

“They really lost slender bulk, which is an awful thing,␝ Dr. Mozaffarian said. “Your equalization of lean mass versus fat mass is significantly more significant than weight. What's more, that␙s a significant finding that shows why the low-carb, high-fat gathering did so metabolically well.␝

The high-fat gathering pursued something of an altered Atkins diet. They were advised to eat generally protein and fat, and to pick nourishments with basically unsaturated fats, similar to angle, olive oil and nuts. In any case, they were permitted to eat nourishments higher in soaked fat too, including cheddar and red meat.

A common dayвђ™s diet was not difficult: It may comprise of eggs for breakfast, fish plate of mixed greens for lunch, and some sort of protein for supper вђ" like red meat, chicken, fish, pork or tofu вђ" alongside vegetables. Low-carb members were urged to cook with olive and canola oils, however margarine was permitted, too.

Over all, they took in somewhat more than 13 percent of their every day calories from soaked fat, more than twofold the 5 to 6 percent point of confinement prescribed by the American Heart Association. Most of their fat admission, notwithstanding, was unsaturated fats.

The low-fat gathering included more grains, oats and starches in their eating regimen. They diminished their complete fat admission to under 30 percent of their every day calories, which is in accordance with the administrative governmentвђ™s dietary rules. The other gathering expanded their complete fat admission to in excess of 40 percent of every day calories.

Both gatherings were urged to eat vegetables, and the low-starch gathering was informed that eating a few beans and new organic product was fine as well.

In the end, individuals in the low-sugar gathering saw markers of irritation and triglycerides вђ" a sort of fat that flows in the blood вђ" dive. Their HDL, the supposed great cholesterol, climbed more strongly than it accomplished for individuals in the low-fat group.

Blood weight, complete cholesterol and LDL, the alleged awful cholesterol, remained about the equivalent for individuals in each group.

Nonetheless, those on the low-sugar diet at last did so well that they figured out how to bring down their Framingham hazard scores, which compute the probability of a coronary episode inside the following 10 years. The low-fat gathering by and large had no improvement in their scores.

The decline in hazard on the low-sugar diet вђњshould convert into a considerable benefit,вђќ said Dr. Allan Sniderman, a teacher of cardiology at McGill University in Montreal.

One significant indicator of coronary illness that the examination didn't survey, Dr. Sniderman stated, was the relative size and number of LDL particles in the circulatory system. Two individuals can have a similar generally LDL focus, however altogether different degrees of hazard contingent upon whether they have a great deal of little, thick LDL particles or few huge and soft particles.

Eating refined sugars will in general raise the general number of LDL particles and move them toward the little, thick assortment, which adds to atherosclerosis. Soaked fat will in general make LDL particles bigger, increasingly light and more averse to stop up conduits, in any event when starch admission isn't high, said Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, the previous executive of the American Heart Associationвђ™s dietary rules committee.

Small, thick LDL is the benevolent ordinarily found in heart patients and in individuals who have high triglycerides, focal corpulence and different parts of the supposed metabolic disorder, said Dr. Krauss, who is likewise the executive of atherosclerosis explore at Childrenвђ™s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

“I’ve been a solid backer of moving soaked fat down the rundown of needs in dietary suggestions for one reason: due to the expanding significance of metabolic disorder and the job that sugars play,␝ Dr. Krauss said.

Dr. Mozaffarian said the exploration proposed that wellbeing specialists should turn away from fat confinements and urge individuals to eat less handled nourishments, especially those with refined carbohydrates.

The normal individual may not give a lot of consideration to the government dietary rules, yet their impact can be seen, for instance, in school lunch programs, which is the reason numerous schools restrict entire milk yet serve their understudies sans fat chocolate milk stacked with sugar, Dr. Mozaffarian said.