#together: our community cookbook

[sussex-newswire]

"Even though she hasn't been a working royal since 2020, [Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex's] efforts are still paying off for the Royal Foundation. According to the organization's annual report for 2023, [Meghan's] 2018 cookbook, Together: Our Community Cookbook, continues to bring cash into the royal coffers. The Duchess of Sussex created the book with a group of women who had been affected by the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, a disaster that killed 72 people. Working with Hubb Community Kitchen, [Meghan] collected recipes and stories from the area after she took a 'quiet trip to Al-Manaar, a mosque close to the Grenfell community.' The book marked her first solo charity venture as a royal and even included some of her personal recipes.

...

"Last year, the book earned approximately $111,850, according to Express. Since its 2018 release, however, the cookbook has raised a cumulative £911,000, roughly $1,205,420."

[petermorwood]

Just out of the oven - a new recipe for a herb loaf which smells great, but is too hot to taste just yet.

Patience, patience... :->

The original recipe comes from one of @dduane‘s collection of comb-bound  community cookbooks, being modified for use in Food & Cooking of the Middle Kingdoms.

This is the first time making it, and - Middle Kingdoms again - there are already a few substitutions to move further away from the Italian-influenced original. I’m sure there’ll be other changes before it finally goes onto the website, so treat the following recipe as a First Draft...

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 Tbsp white sugar

1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast

3 cups bread flour

1/4 cup grated hard cheese (DD used Parmesan, though mature Cheddar or white Stilton would also work)

2 Tbsps oil (DD used pumpkin seed oil) ETA: thanks to me putting it away and not saying where, she couldn’t find it and used olive oil for this loaf

1 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp each dried herbes de provence, thyme, chilli flakes, savory, tarragon

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

Method:

Mix the warm water, sugar, and yeast together in a large bowl and wait until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Stir 1 cup flour, all the cheese, oil, salt, herbs, garlic and onion powders into the yeast mixture, then gradually mix in the remaining flour until incorporated; the dough will be stiff.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and silky, which should take 5 to 10 minutes (DD used a Kenwood stand mixer with dough hook, and kneading took 7 minutes at slow speed).

Place the dough into an oiled bowl and turn until the entire surface is coated, then cover with a damp dish towel and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Punch the dough down to release excess air; shape into a loaf and place into a greased 5- x 9-inch loaf pan (DD rolled the dough into a sausage shape and put it on a baking sheet) then let it rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Beat an egg and brush this wash onto the loaf, sprinkle on some herbs and Maldon salt, slash 3 or 4 times with a sharp knife or breadmaker’s lame and transfer at once to the oven.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown.

When done, remove from the pan or baking sheet and let cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing. (We’ve put ours in a bread bag and are leaving it overnight to let the crust soften a little; right now it’s so hard and brittle that slicing will cause a messy blizzard of fragments.)

[theiconicmeghanmarkle]

Spotted: Together: Our Community Cookbook seen in Vice President Kamala Harris cookbook stack 📚

[ms-m-astrologer]

2024 Cancer Solstice

Thursday, June 20, 20:51 UT

Chart erected for Washington, DC

The Sun, Mercury, and Venus are huddled together in the first decanate of Cancer. They all make sextiles to Mars/Taurus (I’m stretching that for the Sun, though). That is all about feeling comfortable and safe; we can work hard on domestic projects, but it’s really more of a “find we a time for frighted peace to pant” feeling. The little Centaur Pholus opposes that Cancer stellium, upsetting applecarts and blowing up everybody’s tranquility.

The ruler of that Cancer stellium, the Moon, is in Sagittarius - and is the focus of a mutable (new situation) t-square. She’s square both ends of the Juno-Lilith/Virgo opposition to Saturn-Nessus/Pisces. This new situation manages to be both judgemental and commitment-phobic. There’s a lot of pressure for “traditional” values and relationships, a lot of guilt trips going out. Some of us need to consider how “perfectionism” is really a cover-up for not wanting to do something.

One solution is to fill in the empty leg and work on those qualities. Here, that is Gemini. Be a little intellectually detached - light-hearted - don’t insist that there is Only One Right Way to do things - and work on listening and communication skills.

Go ahead and focus on those domestic projects, but don’t shut out the rest of the universe. We need to be aware of what’s going on because that improves our plans. It’s still a Cardinal- and Mutable-sign emphasis; things are changing.

=+=+=+=+=+=

Back when I had a teenaged boy to feed, I always made a vegetarian feast for the Cancer Solstice: Spanish rice salad, lime-thyme potato salad, carrot-mango-pineapple salad, and Starhawk’s summer solstice cupcakes. Most of those recipes are now on the internet. Back then, I worked out of cookbooks and cooking magazines.

The teenaged boy always demolished most of that; once he moved out, though, the then-teenaged girl wasn’t quite as ravenous. (She also isn’t fond of leftovers.) I finally gave up on making the feast. This year, I think I’ll make tuna salad for just me!

I like the green lushness of this time of year (even though, living as I do in a semi-arid climate, I don’t always get it). There’s a lot of wild sweet peas, now - and chicory - which I also enjoy, and watch for.

But, it’s not remotely my favorite season, mostly because I hate hot weather. I probably need to work on that a bit. (Ms M Jr, on the other hand, hates cold weather. We have a good balance!)

[mariacallous]

The inside cover of my grandmother’s cookbook is inscribed with her handwriting, “Think of me when you cook.” It is a copy of the same spiral-bound book that has been given to all of the women in my family. “The Sephardic Cooks: Comé Con Gana” has somehow made its way from one synagogue in Atlanta to Sephardic communities and families from New Jersey to California. It has all the classic recipes, including a section titled “Main Dish Pastries.” These dishes are the cornerstone of the Sephardic tradition, desayuno.

The word “desayuno” literally translates to “breakfast” in Ladino, the dying Judeo-Spanish language historically spoken by Sephardic Jews. Yet, the meaning extends beyond that one meal. In Sephardic culture, desayunois a category of foods associated with the large Saturday morning meal that would be served after Shabbat, including egg dishes and savory pastries. 

These desayuno foods are some of my favorite things to eat and the ones I most associate with my own family traditions. The blocks of crustless quajado (spinach quiche) that always seemed to be in my childhood freezer, ready to thaw for lunch. The doughy, cheesy spinach boyos my grandmother would have ready for our breakfast every time we traveled to visit her. The pasteles (mini meat pies) my great-aunt taught to a room filled with four generations of cousins at our family reunion last summer. The rice-and-cheese-filled bureka pastries my mom comes over to make with my kids and me. 

While delicious and crowd-pleasing, these are also some of the most time-consuming recipes to prepare. I picture my great-grandmother standing in a friend’s kitchen as all the ladies of the community work together to knead mounds of dough, mix a vat of filling, fold and crimp sheets and sheets of burekas. Whether this is accurate or just my imagination justifying why it feels intimidating to make these by myself, desayuno pastries do not align well with today’s fast-paced, individual lifestyle. Save for the times my mom comes to bake with us (importantly, bringing a container of prepped filling), making dough and pastry from scratch is not happening in my kitchen. 

I hope to be a part of the thread that keeps Sephardic traditions alive, yet I do not want to let perfection be the enemy of my intentions. I think my grandmother would agree. While she baked burekas with all of her grandchildren and always had a freezer full of freshly baked rosca (coffee rolls), she was never one to turn down a good shortcut. She developed her own boyo recipe featuring Hungry-Jack biscuit dough as the base and once described to me a full lentil soup recipe, only to end it with, “or you could just buy a can of lentil soup.” She loved when I would call her to share that I had tried a Sephardic recipe, such as cinnamon biscocho cookies or lemon chicken soup. Whether my attempts had been successful or a flop (like my rock-hard biscochos), her smile would be audible through the phone saying, “I’m just so glad you tried.” 

As Sephardic culture and traditions fade and assimilate, food provides an important outlet to preserve history and share it with family and friends. More important than getting it right or spending hours in the kitchen is remembering our traditions, trying recipes, talking about or simply eating Sephardic foods, regardless of who made them.  

In that spirit, I would like to propose lowering our standards, for the greater good of keeping traditions alive. Consider a desayuno with fewer parts or with a little help from the freezer aisle. Rather than the large spread my ancestors would prepare for days in advance, consider making one thing from scratch (though I won’t tell if you cook zero things). You could make a batch of burekas or a quajado, arguably the easiest of the Sephardic breakfast dishes, or even just prepare a pot of hard-boiled eggs. Supplement with frozen spanakopita, Ta’amti Bourekas or a Trader Joe’s Greek cheese spiral for a full table. 

Nothing will taste quite like homemade pastries fresh from the oven and I still aspire to make them (occasionally). Yet, even when I munch a makeshift Sephardic meal, I will be thinking of my grandmother, just as she inscribed in her cookbook. As long as we are sharing food together, talking about Sephardic traditions, remembering meals and people who matter to us, I will call it desayuno. I think my grandmother would be proud. 

[andiatas]

Masterpost: Royal Authors

This is a text version of the original list I curated, which can be found here. The royals are listed chronologically based on their first name (not title). The books are listed with the oldest book first & most recently published book last.

Some of the mentioned people have published books or lent out their names for books as private citizens; this post & the original list only cover royal members & books published under their royal title. This means that some books & some people have been excluded due to not falling under those criteria.

Note: Some of the following links are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission on every purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.

Princess Akiko of Mikasa

Reconsidering early modern Yamato-e: perspectives from Japan, the UK, and the USA (2013)

Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

The Memoirs of Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester (1983)

Memories of Ninety Years (1991)

Catherine, Princess of Wales

Hold Still (2021)

Puzzles for Spies: The brand-new puzzle book from GCHQ (2022)

King Charles III

The Old Man of Lochnagar (1980)

Tomorrow is Too Late - A Celebration of Our Wildlife Heritage (1990) (with Sir David Attenborough, among others)

The Prince's Choice: A Personal Selection from Shakespeare by the Prince of Wales (1995)

Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World (2010)

Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World - Children's Edition

One Is Deeply Concerned: The Prince Charles Letters, 1969-2011 (2011)

The Prince's Speech: On the Future of Food (2012)

The list is too long; that man puts his name on literally everything. Check the page for more.

Princess Christina, Mrs Magnuson

Days at Drottningholm (2016)

Diana, Princess of Wales

British Sign Language: A Beginner's Guide (1988)

PEOPLE OF THE 90's: In Aid of the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children (1995)

Hannah Riddell: An Englishwoman in Japan (1996)

Head Injury: A Practical Guide (1997)

King Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor

Launch! A Life-Boat Book (1932)

A King's Story: The Memoirs of the Duke of Windsor (1951)

The Crown and the People, 1902-1953 (1953)

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent

Jackie Stewart's Principles of Performance Driving (1986)

Australia Bound!: Story of West Country Connections, 1688-1888 (1988)

Deep into Blue Holes: The Story of The Andros Project (1989)

The Institution of Industrial Managers: A History 1931-1991 (1991)

The Story of E. H. Shepard: The Man Who Drew Pooh (2000)

Tribal Odyssey: A Photographic Journey Among Tribes (2000)

Chasin' the Sound: Tales and tunes from the career of Pipe Major Brian B Heriot, Scots Guards (2016)

A Royal Life (2022) (his memoir)

One Crew: The RNLI's Official 200-Year History (2024)

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

The Country Life Book of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1978) (actually by Charles & Godfrey Talbot, not her)

Henrik, Prince Consort

Fit for a Royal Dane: Gastronomic Views and Recipes of Prince Henrik (2002)

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Together: Our Community Cookbook (2018)

Princess Michael of Kent

Crowned in a Far Country: Portraits of Eight Royal Brides (1986)

Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours (1991)

The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King (2004)

A Cheetah's Tale (2017)

Princess Märtha Louise

Why Kings and Queens Don't Wear Crowns (2004)

The Spiritual Password: Learn to Unlock Your Spiritual Power (2014)

Emperor Naruhito

Costume at Castle Howard (1975)

The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford (1993; 2006; 2019)

Queen Noor

Art of Jordan: Treasures from an Ancient Land (1991)

Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy

Leadership and the United Nations: The International Leadership Series (2003)

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (2003)

Breaking Ground: From Landmines to Grapevines, One Woman's Mission to Heal the World: Transforming Mines to Vines (2020)

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh's World Tour 1956-1957 (1957)

Selected Speeches 1948-1955 (1957)

Prince Philip speaks: 1956-1959 (1960)

Environmental Revolution: Speeches on Conservation, 1962-77 (1978)

Men, Machines and Sacred Cows (1984)

Down to Earth: Speeches and Writings of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on the Relationship of Man With His Environment (1988)

Survival or Extinction: A Christian Attitude to the Environment (1989)

The list is too long. Check the page for more.

Queen Rania

The Sandwich Swap (2010)

Prince William, Prince of Wales

Blown Away: From Drug Dealer to Life Bringer (2022)

Puzzles for Spies: The brand-new puzzle book from GCHQ (2022)

Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet (2021)

The Earthshot Prize: A Handbook for Dreamers and Thinkers: Solutions to Repair our Planet (2023)

(this post & the original list is a work in progress & will be updated whenever "new" books come on my radar)

[anonniemousefics]

I have this distinct memory of driving down South Willow Street in Manchester, NH, preparing to turn onto the interstate at a series of traffic lights on a bridge, and internally bemoaning the fruitless direction of my life. I remember how badly I wanted to be a writer -- it's all I've ever really wanted to do -- but all of the advice I'd gotten was to write the things *you* want to read. Write what's on your insides, they'd say. And I knew in that moment, with my turn signal clicking and my heart in my shoes, that if I wrote what I really wanted, then I would lose everyone.

My world at the time was filled with religion and church expectations. I was married to a pastor, a new mother myself, and my life course felt very set. Women in my position wrote cookbooks or memoirs of their faith intended to encourage other women only -- they didn't write about girls who saw ghosts and learned magic and fought just as well as boys. Women weren't allowed to preach at our church, let alone best a man at something.

But this was my community at the time. I'd come to depend on friendships and routines and the support of my family, and all of it was built on these beliefs: that there was an order to the world, and within that order, I could not have the same kind of authority as men.

So I didn't write.

I didn't write -- and I lost everyone anyway.

It took another couple years from that moment on South Willow Street, but eventually I woke up to what I'd done to myself. The world was shifting. People I'd once respected had begun to say and support ideas that were more extreme than I'd ever been used to that I felt I had to start educating myself outside their worldview just to help myself feel less insane. And that's when I started to understand -- all of these relationships, this entire community I'd relied on my entire life, existed because people like me tolerated being used. There had never been any genuine respect for the person under the gender. Leadership was pleased with you and comfortable with you as long as you said the right things and did the right things and *were* the right things. The support I thought I couldn't bear to lose was entirely dependent on my compliance and unwavering obedience, not love and respect for me as a fellow human being. I had never really known what that would look and feel like.

The process of piecing this all together was traumatic. The woman I'd been on South Willow Street was right to fear it. Every new lightbulb moment was rage-inducing and horrifying and gut-wrenching. I spiraled briefly into madness. I needed medications and therapy, and if I hadn't had a few solid friendships outside the church in the midst of this, I don't know if I would have made it at all.

Eventually, though, I learned how to choose myself.

Eventually, I started writing again.

And this time -- oh, this time.

This time I got to experience what I'd been wanting from the start.

I got to meet people who liked the same things as me. I got to meet people who laughed at the same jokes that made me laugh. I got to be loved for who I am, not for how well I perform. I found I could withstand letting go of relationships that couldn't compare. I learned how to say No, lovingly and often. I discovered that learning to love myself exactly as I am -- the thing that I'd heard pastors decry my entire life as one of the many slippery slopes to Satan -- was actually the secret ingredient that made loving others easy. I learned the thing the church has always actually feared was never really our sins -- just the loss of control.

If I had one thing to tell that woman I was on South Willow Street, I'd whisper so gently to her to choose herself instead. I'd tell her to choose the pen and the page, which are always there for you without conditions. I'd tell her to start there -- that is your new standard, I'd say. I'd want her to know it's worth the risk. I'd want her to know the pain will be as terrible as she fears, but that she is so much stronger than she knows. I'd tell her -- and I'll tell you -- if given the choice between community and writing, choose to write. Because a community that can't accept you for you isn't a community at all.

[kikisdeliveryzine]

✨Contributor Spotlight✨

Whipping together a batch of delicious treats, VeloxVoid (Bluesky | Ao3) joins us as one of our zine's chefs!

Alt text below:

A graphic that reads 'Contributor Spotlight' at the top in bold letters, below that in smaller text is 'Chef: VeloxVoid, with the social handles for bluesky and ao3 as VeloxVoid. Below this is question and answer section.

Q. chef fact A. Hey there! I'm Hawk, and I've loved Ghibli since I was a tiny, tiny kid. It's an absolute honour to join the zine community in creating for this gorgeous zine! P.S. Have you read the original Kiki's Delivery Service book? It's ADORABLE. Q. fave character A. Tombo 🥺🥺 Q. What's kiki delivering? A. A full 12 hours of sleep

In the lower right of the graphic is a hand drawn sign labeled with Food Inside pointing to the next spotlight graphic.

The second graphic shows a photo of Syrup's Magical Mushroom Toast created for a Legend of Zelda cookbook! It's a herby garlic mushrooms on toast, with sauteed onions and baked beans :D

[lazyworksinprogress]

Cookbook Club: First Lunch

My friend Su started a Cookbook Club this year ~ we read a cookbook we're interested in or about a cuisine we're keen to learn about and have a bring-and-share meal made from recipes from that book.

This quarter, we read Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan.

Amidst the ongoing use of famine as part of the genocidal acts against the Palestinian people (and during Ramadan), I had mixed feelings about sharing a feast and celebration.

I am not religious, and we are a group of shared values but disparate faiths, availability, and beliefs. Conspicuous celebration and plentiful food can be used to mock people in unimaginably cruel circumstances. I wondered about appropriateness and respect for the scale of the unfolding historical moment. I approached it with the thought that there is a gravity and simplicity to acknowledging our lives are being changed by witnessing this injustice through a meal at a lowkey home gathering. The timing was difficult, but so is the situation, and we decided to go ahead.

My contributions to the shared dinner: aubergine and feta kefte, and a molten chocolate dessert (not pictured).

Our group was lively, and subjects were mixed. Neurodiverse women and topic maintenance are not always friends, so gossiping, ideological discussions, and playfulness were what kept us talking and eating into the night together. We were emotional and available to each other. Su read an excerpt from the book before we started eating. It felt significant beyond the mundane, and we all need a ceremony sometimes.

Despite being powerless in some ways, this reminded me that we have transformative ways to resist occupation. I think one is sharing and respecting Palestinian culture. The book itself has many resonant quotes about this idea, and I encourage everyone to read Zaitoun and make the recipes! They're economical, tasty, and can be easily adapted to local produce.

"Palestinian food tasted alive. And in a region that too often feels as though it is dying. I appreciated that more than ever." - Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen.

I think remembering, acknowledging community and humanity, and exchanging cultural memories are absolutely necessary and should be practiced as much as a person is able to, even in grief, even in despair. Oppression denies our humanity. It is nourishing to a human being, to eat and share, and enjoy food. It's part of creating families, communities, and enchanted life moments. Our celebration happened during Ramadan, while some of our members couldn't take part for different reasons, and their absence was felt with bittersweet understanding. Our group will continue to explore, learn, and try to preserve Palestinian cooking as well as cuisine from other people in the world.

[sussex-newswire]

Meghan's Accomplishments

Today in the smear campaign: Tina Brown launched a Substack and filled it full of Meghan-bashing quotes to get clicks. The tabloids are happily picking them up and recycling it all ad nauseum. "The trouble with Meghan is that she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world. She’s flawless about getting it all wrong...all of her ideas are total crap."

Hm! Does this bear any relationship to truth? Let's look at Meghan's accomplishments, starting with the toe she dipped into Tina Brown's career area, magazine editing:

The issue of British Vogue that Meghan guest-edited, "Forces for Change," was their fastest selling edition in history, so overwhelmingly successful that they recently revisited it for a fifth anniversary retrospective.

Sure seems like Forces for Change is the kind of "total crap" idea that Tina Brown wishes she could come up with!

But of course, magazine editing was a one-off for Meghan. She just casually hit that home run while strolling through the ballpark. At the same time she was also busy with other projects, like:

Together: Our Community Cookbook, Meghan's first project as the Duchess of Sussex. This cookbook spotlighted the community of women displaced by the Grenfell fire and it was a huge hit, winning awards and raising more than half a million pounds for the Hubb Community Kitchen.

What a total crap idea! Let's look at a few of the others:

Meghan's picture book for children, The Bench, was a #1 New York Times Bestseller in its category.

Meghan's podcast, Archetypes, reached No. 1 in the podcast charts in more than six countries. It won the People's Choice Award for "The Pop Podcast of 2022," and Meghan was named as the "top entertainment podcast host" at the Gracie Awards.

The Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries holds the record for the biggest debut for a Netflix documentary and remains Netflix's second-highest ranked documentary ever.

Wow! Banger after banger after banger! This woman has a golden touch—everything she does breaks records for success!

Oh and speaking of awards:

With Harry, Meghan collected the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award for their "willingness to speak up" and "moral courage." They were also honored with the 2022 NAACP Image Award for "join[ing] the struggle for equity both in the U.S. and around the world." Meghan alone was singled out for her "global advocacy to empower and advocate on behalf of women and girls" at the 2023 Women of Vision Awards.

Moral courage and global advocacy—crap ideas for sure!

And what has Tina Brown done lately, after quitting The New Yorker to go and work for Harvey Weinstein, a choice that she herself now calls "the dumbest career move of anybody’s life"?

Well, she's got a Substack, and the only reason she's getting any attention for it is by putting lies on Meghan's name.

It's pretty obvious which one of these women has good ideas. And it's not Tina Brown.

[thepowersblogging]

Meghan Markle’s First Royal Project: Together, Our Community Cookbook continue to Pay off for the ROYAL FOUNDATION AS it RAISES 1 Million Euros.

She left in 2020 but Princess Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex’s work is still paying off for the Roayl Foundation. As per annual report 2023, her 2018 project, Together: Our Community Cookbook ,continues to bring in the money which are used in grants to varoious UK charities that are close to Meghan’s heart. When Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, embarked on her first solo project as a royal,…

[handgiven]

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 

repost and list 5 songs that inspire you to write your muse  :

i. il cantico delle creature -- angelo branduardi ii. yellow (coldplay cover) -- scala & kolacny brothers iii. i won't hurt you -- the west coast pop art experimental band iv. absolute lithops effect (mountain goats cover) -- carrie elkin v. FUNGUS -- the narcissist cookbook

list 5 quotes that inspire you to write your muse   :

i. "here's your sorrow, and here's my shoulder." (try as i might, i can't find the source for this one, but the original is arabic -- "هذا حزنك وهذه كتفي") ii. "the little things? the little moments? — they aren’t little." -- john zabat-zinn iii. "touching people’s lives in a positive way is as close as I can get to an idea of religion." -- keith haring iv. “sometimes i stand for hours at a single place, without hardly moving. (i’ve had the wind stop in my hand.)" -- richard brautigan

v. "The first language humans had was gestures. There was nothing primitive about this language that flowed from people’s hands, nothing we say now that could not be said in the endless array of movements possible with the fine bones of the fingers and wrists. The gestures were complex and subtle, involving a delicacy of motion that has since been lost completely. During the Age of Silence, people communicated more, not less. Basic survival demanded that the hands were almost never still, and so it was only during sleep (and sometimes not even then) that people were not saying something or other. No distinction was made between the gestures of language and the gestures of life. The labor of building a house, say, or preparing a meal was no less an expression than making the sign for I love you or I feel serious. When a hand was used to shield one’s face when frightened by a loud noise something was being said, and when fingers were used to pick up what someone else had dropped something was being said; and even when the hands were at rest, that, too, was saying something. Naturally, there were misunderstandings. There were times when a finger might have been lifted to scratch a nose, and if casual eye contact was made with one’s lover just then, the lover might accidentally take it to be the gesture, not at all dissimilar, for Now I realize I was wrong to love you. These mistakes were heartbreaking. And yet, because people knew how easily they could happen, because they didn’t go round with the illusion that they understood perfectly the things other people said, they were used to interrupting each other to ask if they’d understood correctly. Sometimes these misunderstandings were even desirable, since they gave people a reason to say, Forgive me, I was only scratching my nose. Of course I know I’ve always been right to love you. Because of the frequency of these mistakes, over time the gesture for asking forgiveness evolved into the simplest form. Just to open your palm was to say: Forgive me. If at large gatherings or parties, or around people with whom you feel distant, your hands sometimes hang awkwardly at the ends of your arms – if you find yourself at a loss for what to do with them, overcome with sadness that comes when you recognize the foreignness of your own body – it’s because your hands remember a time when the division between mind and body, brain and heart, what’s inside and what’s outside, was so much less. It’s not that we’ve forgotten the language of gestures entirely. The habit of moving our hands while we speak is left over from it. Clapping, pointing, giving the thumbs-up, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together. And at night, when it’s too dark to see, we find it necessary to gesture on each other’s bodies to make ourselves understood." -- nicole krauss

tagging :

whoever wishes to do this, but namely @void-foxy, @spookyagentfmulder, @beyondthescully, @shilohgreen, @talentforlying, @thcmcnstcr, @primordialchoice, @crowiley who are all ofc not forced to do this but !! i'd love to read it from them if they do :')

[newwayastrology]

THE NOEL TYL MASTERS COURSE

When Noel Tyl became seriously ill, he asked me to take over his Master’s Course and payment of noeltyl.com.

Over 500 students have enrolled in the Course throughout some 24 countries; many graduates are now working as professionals at their highest skill level; and all of us are sharing an extraordinary time of learning discovery and fulfillment.

There’s a lot of unrealistic junk being sold as astrology that will lead you down the wrong path. I see things on social media that are embarrassing.

What I liked about Noel’s work from day 1 was the idea of putting the horoscope in the context of the person living it, not the other way around. What’s the other way around? It’s when you take a position, aspect, or whatever and MAKE the person what you read in a book.

I remember the very first knowledgeable person in astrology looked at my chart. He said, With Sun square Saturn, don’t have high expectations of achievement.” Huh? What? I’m not going to achieve because you read something in a book?! I went on to make 2nd team all-state in basketball, worked in a Grammy award-winning production team and more. What’s more, squares and hard aspects aren’t “bad.” They are motivational and tell you what you need to work on in order to grow, evolve, and be happy. The horoscopes of people who achieved are not full of trines and sextiles. Find Steve Jobs’ chart, take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

The Course has 19 Lessons and a Final Exam. Each Lesson is about 2-3,000 words in length, printed. There is no completion expectation. If it takes 3 months to complete a lesson, so be it. You proceed at your own pace. Each lesson has an assignment. Upon completion you email the assignment to me. I go over it and send back any necessary comments. If for any reason you need to talk to me, you can always call as long as it is after 1 PM eastern time up to 8 PM eastern time or we can do a Zoom.

The Lessons in the Course cover every detail of psychologically rich, deep analytical astrology, following the text Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology -The Professional Manual (by Noel Tyl, Llewellyn Publications), a 1,000-page book. With just a few lessons behind you, you'll be able to make valid assessments of analysis of a horoscope.

Additionally, astrologers in the Course are linked together throughout the world on TylNet, a free e-mail channel for networking and mutual support.

The Course is crowned by my certification of you through a full-color, grand certificate suitable for framing and, dare I say, a good deal of prominence, such is the pride I have of my students, my publicity for them, our international internet Course Network, etc..

****I can promise you that after four Lessons, your 'head will be turned around'; after 9, you're a pro; and after 19, you may stand by anyone in the world.****

The prerequisites are important, of course: you must have some experience as an astrologer (some people in the Course have been active in astrology for 20 years, some for 2), with experience doing horoscopes, perhaps minimally 15-20 of them; you must have good astrological software, capable of double-ring charts, mid-point tables, aspect grid, and time changes throughout the world; word processing capability, since the Lessons must come back in executive text, clearly presented; and you must be serious, since the Course takes 1.5-2 years to complete. This is not a lot of this means that cookbook junk.

The cost is US $650 to begin. $300 gets you started and an additional $350 is paid at the onset of Lesson #9. There are no refunds for any reasons, including demise of student or teacher. (My lawyer makes me state that that way!). For those who want to pay the whole thing, I reward you with a reduction to make the total cost $500.

I assure you that the turn-around of communication is swift, and that I am available by phone or internet should a problem arise. I want to share my years of experience (some 25,000 charts, probably) with you in the way that will make you the best astrologer you can be!

I look forward to your personal communique: please telephone me for further discussion, for registering for the Course. We will start a professional, personal relationship that will be rewarding for both of us in the times ahead: 215-432-3385, 14:00 to 20:00 EST/EDT USA.

LESSON TITLES

1. Organization of the Horoscope and First Impressions

2. Indispensable Keys to Analysis

3. More Indispensable Keys to Analysis

4. Still More Keys to Analysis

5. Astrological Patterns of Life Development

6. The Logistics of Prediction

7. Rapport Measurements, Solar Arcs, and Integrated Transits

8. Testing the Validity of a Birth Time, Anticipating Behavior

9. Rectification Study

10. Organization of Life Analysis

11. The Energy of Attitude

12. Fine Tuning Analysis; Analysis from Aspect Grid Alone

13. Vocational Guidance

14. Sexuality

15. Relationships; Health Matters and Body Weakness

16. Making Creative Connections in analysis

17. Special Considerations: Client Need, Astrologer-Client Relationship, the Power of Suggestion, Using Aphorisms

18. The Astrology of Events and Elections; the Consultation Chart

19. Reading My Mind! Analysis of my Analysis

FINAL EXAMINATION: to recognize your personal poise and confidence, your astrological technique; your interpretive imagination and empathic humanistic outreach.

[arqueete]

New Year's Meme 2023

This is a survey reflecting on the year that I've been diligently filling out since Livejournal days. Anyone is welcome to take it for themselves.

1. What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before?

I visited Italy! I went on a trip with my in-laws where we stayed in a rented house in Tuscany for a bit and then my husband and I spent a few days on our own in Venice.

I rode a water taxi in Venice.

I'm not 100% sure but I think I had actual tiramisu (as opposed to tiramisu-flavored things) for the first time this year?

I got into very seriously and deliberately writing a romance novel.

I went rollerblading at Red Arrow Park in Milwaukee which only opened to roller skates for the first time this summer.

I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (just before it closed.)

After making several recipes out of a Milk Bar cookbook, while we were in New York we got to actually get dessert at Milk Bar

I got this little display called a Tidbyt and I wrote an app for it that identifies airplanes that go past my apartment. (I also visited the observation lot at the airport for the first time because I'm a nerd.)

I went down to Chicago and visited a museum there by myself.

I got a Polaroid camera and took some photos with it.

I got food (biryani) from an Indian restaurant.

I went to beloved Milwaukee bar Bryant's and had a cocktail that was set on fire.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?

In 2023, I wanted to be more regular in going to the pottery studio where I have a membership, and I did work on that for a while but then I started to slow down again. I don't seem to do well with hobbies where I have to drive somewhere to go do them. I'm hoping to do more pottery stuff at home next year.

I also wanted to throw away less food and use up leftover ingredients in better ways. Still working on this, but my husband and I have a list on our fridge now of stuff we have sitting around that we know needs to be used soon.

I also wanted to ride the bus a little more. I did a pretty good job of this, I think! I bussed to the beach, to a favorite bookshop, to the State Fair, and to the train station.

In 2024, here's what I'm going for:

I want to get this novel I'm writing to the point where I can get some people to beta read it.

I used to keep a budget but since I got married and my husband and I got a joint account, we haven't really figured out a good way to keep a budget together. I'd like to start budgeting again.

I want to read every book the bi book club I'm in has on its schedule for 2024. I also want to reread more books I already own.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I went to a baby shower for one of my husband's cousins. I'm happy for them and their baby boy! 4. Did anyone close to you die? We lost one of my husband's best and oldest friends to suicide earlier this year. It's been rough, to be honest.

5. What countries did you visit? I went to Italy! Trying to learn some Italian from scratch stressed me out but I especially loved eating way too much gelato and walking around Venice. 6. What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023? Last year I said I wanted closer relationships to people who live nearby, to invite people over more. We tried to do a bit of this. We had guests over for dinner a few times, including my husband's cousin who literally lives in our apartment building so it's a little embarrassing that we haven't seen him. Also, things have been ramping back up with the bisexual community group I'm a part of.

I would like to have less stress in 2024 though, you know, wouldn't we all? 7. What date from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? In trying to think of dates off the top of my head and my brain says, hmm, April 7th, the day I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I mean, that was a good and important day in my life. 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Maybe writing multiple drafts of a novel. I've gotten past first drafts before but it's been years since I've been writing this much and this regularly and I've been enjoying it. 9. What was your biggest failure? After feeling like I was managing my anxiety really well in recent years I think this year it became more of a struggle for me again. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I'm very lucky to generally be a healthy person but this year I dealt with some things... In the spring my chronic hives did finally stop. But then I got Covid. Then I got a painful cyst on my ovary. Then I got the stomach flu.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Probably the Tidbyt. It's a cute little super low res screen that sits in my living room and tells me things like the sunrise/sunset times, the weather forecast, the nearest airplane, and the flavor of the day at Kopp's Frozen Custard. Even though it's a tech thing it's helping me appreciate the little things and I like that about it. 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Sufjan Stevens definitely seemed to have a shitty year but it was nice to see him making progress in recovering from his illness and, you know, I'd like to celebrate the great album he put out.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I already complained about Elon Musk in last year's survey but seeing Twitter fall apart has been depressing this year. 14. Where did most of your money go? Besides rent, probably to the Italy trip. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Airplanes! I got really into reading about commercial aviation this year and paying attention to the planes that pass by my apartment. 16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2023? We got a new Sufjan album, Javelin, in October and I listened to it a ton at that time.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or sadder? Sadder. ii. Older or wiser? Older. iii. Thinner or fatter? The same. iv. Richer or poorer? Richer. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I felt like I really didn't pay much attention to the news and world events this year. It seemed like everyone around me was outraged about one thing or another and I've just been tired and uninformed. I'm not proud of that. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Staying up late even when I knew I wouldn't get enough sleep. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas Day with my husband's family out in Madison.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? We have late dinner reservations and plan to hang around the restaurant bar until midnight.

22. Did you fall in love in 2023? I celebrated my first anniversary with my husband (went went to a nice new restaurant in the city called Lupi & Iris.) 23. How many one-night stands? None.

24. What was your favorite TV program? I loved the new seasons of What We Do In the Shadows and The Bear.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I like to read snark pages about fundamentalist Christian influencers and I've loved to hate Girl Defined and watching them just kind of spiral out of control this year. 26. What was the best book you read? I read a lot this year (I finished 18 books!) and I started a Goodreads account if anyone wants to be my reading buddy. Probably the best book I read this year in terms of quality was Educated by Tara Westover which is well-known and highly rated for good reason.

In terms of books that are not impressive in a literary way but made me feel totally rabid in a fandom way, I recently finished With Love, From Cold World and bought a copy just so I can reread it some time next year. 27. What was your greatest musical discovery? I discovered Jose Gonzalez this year and he was really scratching an itch for me while waiting for a new Sufjan album. His song "Heartbeats" was on my Spotify Wrapped top songs.

28. What did you want and get? I wanted an inflatable Lapras so bad and in previous years they kept selling out before I could buy one but this summer I got one! I got the Lapras!!! I rode it out on the lake!

29. What did you want and not get? There were three different times that people were supposed to come visit us this year and it didn't happen. My husband's friend was supposed to stay with us and he passed before that happened. One of my husband's cousins was supposed to visit and then we got Covid and had to cancel. Then another one of my husband's cousins was supposed to visit and my husband had to go out of state for a relative's funeral and we canceled that, too. These are the sorts of things that added up to the year feeling like there were hard times around every corner, even though we had a lot to be grateful for. 30. What was your favorite film of this year? I saw a surprising amount of movies in theaters this year! I think Barbie was the most memorable (also, the theater I saw it in, The Downer Theatre, has since shut down so I will also remember it for that.)

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 33. My husband and I got lunch at an Italian restaurant and then saw the matinee of Skylight Music Theater's production of School of Rock, which I did enjoy even though mostly it just made the both of us want to rewatch the movie.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Maybe not getting Covid. 33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? I'm loving flannel shirts and sweater dresses this fall/winter. In the summer I was wearing a lot of dresses, too. I've gotten into tucking shirts into shorts or jeans. 34. What kept you sane? All the reading and writing I've been doing has helped me feel productive and grounded. 35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Maybe Ayo Edebiri on The Bear. 36. What political issue stirred you the most? Climate change felt relentless and inevitable this year, especially with the wildfire smoke we dealt with over the summer and the mild winter so far. 37. Who did you miss? I don't go on Twitter anymore and that's generally good for me, but there were some interesting people I followed on there where I'm like huh, wonder what they're up to now (but not enough to go back on Twitter and find out.) 38. Who was the best new person you met? My team at work went through a lot of changes this year and I always get nervous about new people getting hired (like, what if they're assholes?) Fortunately everyone who joined our team has been really nice and I'm grateful. 39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023: This year I found a lot of freedom in taking a Marie Kondo-esque approach to my physical surroundings and just throwing shit out if I don't use it and it doesn't have active sentimental value to me. At the same time, this year I stopped being so hard on myself for buying things like coffee shop drinks all the time. So I guess generally the lesson is about recalibrating my idea of what is valuable to me to reflect what I actually enjoy day-to-day more than what I think I'm "supposed to" keep around or spend money on.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

He said that nothing lives long, only the earth and the mountains As he quoted Black Kettle's death song The words drifting off into the emptiness Of this great land where we’ve never belonged

Death Cab For Cutie - "Foxglove Through the Clearcut"

[glompcat]

Genuinely beyond excited for this thing a friend and I are organizing, so much so that at 2:40 am I am having trouble stopping myself from continuing to work on this planning spreadsheet.

Long shot, but if you happen to have a favorite cookbook by a queer author, please please please please please please let me know.

You remember that cookbook club in my parents town I am so in love with?

Well, let's just say that a queer variant may be coming to the Brooklyn Community Pride Center sometime soon and that the queer cookbook club will focus on boosting queer author's books while building a community of queer folks who love to cook and want to bond over it shared meals together. Like we have already worked out with the Pride Center a monthly recurring time slot at one of their locations and really just need to finalize the details before publicly launching sign ups for our first meeting type this may be coming soon.

[valya-dudycz-lupescu]

A Little Goncharov for Thanksgiving

I learned about Goncharov the way I learn about most memes and pop culture, from my teenagers. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, we had a group chat spring up on Discord that included two family friends who were going to be joining us for the holiday from out of town. One of the topics of conversation turned to Goncharov, the imaginary film around which an active Tumblr fan community had sprung up, as if it had been a real, little-known cult classic from 1973 made by Martin Scorsese. 

It became a fun creative exercise—in the middle of the day, one of the kids would send a question about Goncharov: “What do you think about the relationship between Katya and Sofia?” or “What did you make of the clock tower imagery?” or “Goncharov… iphone or android guy?” To which someone else would playfully answer. 

This same kind of thing was happening on a massive scale on Tumblr, where artists created movie posters and promotional materials, composers posted songs and soundtracks, people posted deleted scenes and script fragments. There are reviews and academic papers, fictitious Wikipedia and IMDb listings, and A LOT of fan art.

Lynda Carter posted a photo on her Tumblr with Henry Winkler that she captioned, “Me and ‘The Fonz’ at the premiere of Goncharov (1973) at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.”

Discussions popped up about the characters and who would play them in the reboot. Posts were shared hundreds, then thousands of times. A Goncharov (1973) Lore Google Doc and Discord server were created to help keep the content organized.

Our family’s fan-favorite character was Ice-Pick Joe, so I wrote “Musings on Ice-Pick Joe” in between chopping veggies for stuffing and waiting for the sweet potatoes to roast, complete with some AI-generated art. That was four days ago, and the post has been liked and shared more than I anticipated, and I keep thinking about why that is.

Conversations around Goncharov have continued, and I find myself wondering what it is about this moment in time and this type of activity that continues to capture so many people’s imagination and engagement?

Tumblr is a hub for public fandom culture and community in a way that the other social media platforms are not. It’s where you can find discourse and fanfiction/fanart for almost anything.

Still, this is a little different and on a much larger scale. At a time when people are looking for Twitter alternatives, with the stress and joy of holidays approaching, what is drawing so many people in?

We talked about this over Thanksgiving: the way Goncharov allowed people low-stakes permission to create, to play to their particular strengths, to connect with other people, to escape reality for a moment, to build a new community. We talked about the shortcomings and challenges we saw: power dynamics, issues of race, etc.

It’s an evolving experiment, and as such, it has been shaped by the many variables involved and course-corrected each time someone notices a gap or opportunity: What would a musical look like? What if some of the actors had gone on Sesame Street or the Muppet Show? What if Gonzo played Goncharov and Miss Piggy played Katya? What would the remake look like set in 1980s NYC? What recipes might be created for the Goncharov cookbook? (I remember how much fun we had making the Forking Good cookbook.) There really is no end to what people can come up with. I’m waiting to see if Goncharov gets a Tom Gauld comic or a mention on Saturday Night Live. 

It seems relevant that role-playing games, both online and tabletop, have recently increased in popularity. Dungeons and Dragons was the cornerstone of Stranger Things, and 50,000 people attended Gen Con (tabletop game convention) in 2022. It’s not my world, although I’ve watched the joy my kids take in it. My energy goes into writing, but I can absolutely appreciate the fun of playing together. 

As a writer, I walk around with worlds in my head, but I don’t get to share them until they get published. Something like Goncharov, which was not an intellectual property “owned” by anyone, gives people permission to imagine and play.

I think it speaks to a need we have an human beings to experience connection, joy, wonder, and hope. We've always had those needs. People have been gathering around fires or tables, telling stories, for thousands of years.

Today, the hearth may be a computer or a phone, but the desire is not that different. My November began with the publication of Mother Christmas, my graphic novel, the secret origin of the Santa Claus story which is rooted in the ancient Muses, whose gifts inspire humanity. One of the questions my story attempts to answer is: Where does inspiration come from?

If we look at Goncharov we can see that inspiration comes from so many places. So much is possible when people given themselves permission to play, to shrug off the inner critics and outer trolls, and to imagine for a moment a different world that they have a part in creating. That is such a powerful and compelling idea.

Stories remind us that we are not alone, that we share struggles, and that we can overcome obstacles. There are so many challenges in the world right now.

Maybe Goncharov is a lens through which people are seeing themselves and each other, reminding us how much fun it is to make-believe and how powerful it can be to have a shared image of the world.

The first step in creation is imagining. Exercising that muscle, allowing ourselves to play and tell stories and make art is a worthwhile one, and I think it's one that we need to survive.  The Goncharov phenomenon gives me hope, because if we can have this many people put their energy into creating a whole world around Goncharov, just imagine what else is possible?