#washtub base

[blondebrainpowered]

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, 1977

[focsle]

I've seen you answer a few asks about whaling history before, so hopefully I'm not offbase asking you questions out of the blue? But anyway, how did people bathe (or keep clean if not by bathing) during long sea voyages?

Not off base at all! Out of the blue whaling history questions are some of my fav asks to receive; I find them thrilling. I can’t help but write an essay every time.

It was particularly hard to keep clean on a whaler, and whalemen were often disparaged by those in other maritime professions. In 1839, naval Lieutenant Charles Wilkes said of the crew of the whaleship America, 

“I have seldom seen at sea a more uncombed and dirty set of mariners than his crew.“

J.E. Haviland of the Baltic, 1856, complained of besmirching his journal pages with the grime that he was unable to scrub off his hands after tarring the rigging, self consciously saying:

“My hands + clothes would look beautiful for a ladies Parlor. I see they even collor the paper but I cannot get the tar out. The Old Man says he intends to have me tar down the rigging a few days before we get in New Bedford so that I shall not forget too soon that I have been a sailor.”

General ships’ work  such as tarring could be messy, but a whaler’s work was even messier. When trying out blubber it was futile to attempt maintaining any semblance of cleanliness during the process. William Abbe of the Atkins Adams, 1859, said that during boiling, a watch would turn in to their bunks a few hours rest, merely ‘after wiping off your bare body with oakum to take off the thickest of the oil”.

But the gore and oil wasn’t forever. After the particular job was done the ship would be meticulously cleaned, and the whalers would tend to themselves too. As Herman Melville wrote,

“The crew themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland. Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics; propose to mat the deck; think of having hanging to the top; object not to taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle. To hint to such musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short of audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and bring us napkins!”

Haviland expressed gratitude in getting a chance to get clean after all the work of boiling blubber was done:

“I feel much better to day I have given myself a good wash + a clean shave + got in all clean clothes. You would not have known your own son if you could have seen him yesterday. I was nearly black with smoke + dirt. (with shame) I say it was the accumulation of 2 months dirt + 4 months beard. Everything looks as clean + bright as it did before we took the whale”

Being able to bathe was such a highlight that Abbe titled one of his journal pages “Washing myself!!” With TWO exclamation points!

“I write with pride in my fastidious journal that this morning I washed my face + hands with castile soap + fresh water — when shall I do the like again? When shall I write the pleasant and comfortable fact that I have shaved? The future and fair weather only can tell.”

The ship’s slop chest—its general store—had toiletries for sale, often at a very high premium. Whaling account books show men buying pounds of oil soap for their own personal stores. The fresh water was often rainwater collected for this purpose, rather than the casks set aside for drinking.

“This has been a rather squally day,” wrote Mary Lawrence, whaling wife who accompanied her husband on his ship Addison in the 1850s. “Considerable rain has fallen, and everybody on deck is using an abundant supply of rainwater for washing purposes.” She also added, though this is speaking of laundry rather than bathing, “Having stopped up the scuppers, the use the whole deck for one grand washtub.”

They’d use the sea, too. John Martin of the Lucy Ann, wrote of bathing via rain and sea whilst near the equator on January 24th, 1842.

“Towards noon the rain came down in torrents. The weather being sultry the watch on deck shipped off their shirts to it. John the boat steerer went entirely naked with the exception of a handkerchief tied around his privates. In the afternoon it cleared away, when I asked permission from the Captain for the crew to take a bathe over the side. He said we might do it if we rigged a studding sail over the side, which was soon done & all hands that could swim were to be seen jumping from different parts of the ship. Some went out to the end of the flying jib boom & jumped off there. Even the dog was thrown overboard & got his share of washing. I like bathing at sea but for one thing, and that is sharks. I always have a fear that one might be hovering about and give one a nip before he was aware of it.”

It was challenging for whalers to keep clean by nature of the job, but man when they were able to they really seemed to revel in it. For many of them it was more than just a bath; it was a symbolic return to a home they were long away from, or to the man they perceived themselves to be back on shore, or of a society that they felt cut off from in their line of work.

If you’re interested I also wrote a thing about doing laundry on whaleships too, yonder!

[handeaux]

Here Are Some Weird And Wonderful Histories Of Cincinnati’s Most Famous Bathtubs

Over the years, Cincinnati has found itself tangled in some unique and curious bathtub mythology. Since so much of our city’s history involved the manufacture of soap, that may not be surprising at all. Here are some of the Queen City’s more iconic bathtub tales.

The Great Cincinnati Bathtub Hoax Cincinnati’s most famous bathtub never existed at all. It was created out of thin air on 28 December 1917, when a satirical essay by H. L. Mencken, titled "A Neglected Anniversary," was published in the New York Evening Mail. In this essay, Mencken claimed that the very first bathtub in the United States was installed in a Cincinnati home by one Adam Thompson in 1842. Further, Mencken claimed, “Some papers designated it as an epicurean luxury, others called it undemocratic, as it lacked simplicity in its surroundings. Medical authorities attacked it as dangerous to health.” Although this was totally “fake news,” and although Mencken himself was eventually compelled to expose his own hoax, the Great Cincinnati Bathtub Hoax was repeated as truth many times over the next century and still pops up as “fact” online today. Cincinnati, of course, puffed with pride on learning of the city’s pioneering role in American hygiene, to the extent that John Behle, manager of Cincinnati’s 1935 Municipal and Industrial Exposition, attempted to procure the antique vessel from Henry Ford for display! Ford, according to a rumor based on a rumor, had allegedly acquired Mr. Thompson’s non-existent tub for his own collection.

Cincinnati’s First Real Bathtubs It is very likely that the earliest residents of Cincinnati bathed in the Ohio River. As late as 1837, the revised City Ordinances of Cincinnati attempted to prohibit bathing in the river and even later, it was said that famed journalist Lafcadio Hearn only consented to indoor bathing when it was too cold to splash around our riverfront. Private citizens, when the urge struck them, performed their ablutions in the same washtub in which they did their laundry, but they could have used actual bathtubs as early as 1826 when Peter Gibson, a pioneer plumber, advertised his ability to install baths in Cincinnati homes. That was a good 16 years before Mencken’s imaginary tub. Although Cincinnatians had access to bona fide bathtubs as early as the 1820s, such laving basins were not often found in private homes but at Archibald Woodruff’s bathhouse. Woodruff led a colorful life. He was once arrested on orders from Napoleon himself, and he created Cincinnati’s first pleasure gardens. While engaged in various other business ventures, he maintained Woodruff’s Bath House on Sycamore Street across from the National Theater. There he offered warm, cold, shower, and salt-water baths. Woodruff advertised the availability of spare bathtubs for the benefit of invalids, to be delivered anywhere in the city.

Florentine Hotel Stakes A Claim Legend has it that no Cincinnati hotels offered in-house bathing until the Florentine Hotel – a short-lived establishment whose building was later occupied by a dime museum – installed a hefty bathtub in one of its upstairs rooms around 1860. To get this monstrosity, described as “large as a canal boat,” into the hotel a derrick was constructed on Vine Street. According to the Cincinnati Times-Star [14 December 1920], “Thousands of Cincinnatians viewed the tub as a great curiosity, as the thought of lying down while ‘taking a wash’ appealed to their sense of humor.”

Doctor Karshner’s Electro-Therapeutic Baths In 1858, Cincinnatians were invited to visit the Electric Infirmary of Doctor William Karshner on Barr Street in the West End to immerse themselves in the patented “Electro-Therapeutic” tubs available there. Inquiring patients found two metal tubs connected to galvanic batteries, one allegedly “negative” to “strengthen the system,” and the other “positive” to eliminate impurities. The patient reclined on an array of gutta percha straps, while scrubbing themselves with an electrified sponge. Doctor Karshner claimed his electrically charged tubs could cure syphilis, scrofula, delirium tremens, hysteria, consumption, asthma and a variety of mental conditions. He received a U.S. patent in 1859 for his “electrical bath,” and licensed his system to doctors up and down the Ohio River. After a couple of somewhat vague lawsuits against him and his wife, Doctor Karshner disappears from the historical record. He was the first, but far from the last, Cincinnati purveyor of electrical cures.

Floating Bath House The Floating Bath House, opened in the 1870s by brothers Robert and Rudolph Schmidt, was a sight to behold, 200 feet long and 50 feet wide and rising 15 feet out of the water. The center of the vessel had no floor, allowing swimmers to plunge into Ohio River water through an opening 65 feet long and 20 feet wide. Aligned with the river currents, fresh water flowed through the Bath House continually. The swimming area was surrounded by 68 dressing rooms supplied with a couple of towels, soap, a mirror and a bathing hose. Fore and aft of the main bathing area was an array of 24 private bathing areas – essentially, bath tubs filled with circulating river water. Naturally, the Floating Bath House raised protests from Cincinnatians. A letter, signed only “August” appearing in the Cincinnati Enquirer [30 May 1874], complained, “It is a well enough institution for private baths; but oh, for the public baths. At times there are at least sixty-five together in one tub. Is this not outrageous? Where do a great many young men go to spend their Sunday instead of going to church? They go to the river.” That complaint was confined to men because, before 1880, only men were allowed onto the Floating Bath House. Women gained access after years of complaint and enjoyed the joys of river-bathing two days a week, though always on the lookout for Peeping Toms.

Lily Langtry’s Apollinaris Water Bath In February 1883, legendary British beauty Lillie Langtry arrived in Cincinnati for an engagement at Robinson’s Opera House and took rooms at the Grand Hotel. Inevitably, her maid drew a bath, but after one glance at the murky, coffee-colored fluid Lily refused to subject her beauty to such treatment. It would be 25 years before Cincinnati filtered the water it pumped directly from the Ohio River. Miss Langtry dressed and hurried down to see the hotel manager. Struck by inspiration, he ordered enough Apollinaris water delivered to her suite to suffice for her bath. She was immediately satisfied, and the manager continued to send up bottles of the sparkling water throughout her stay at the hotel. An enterprising marketer for the Apollinaris water company, on learning of this creative use of his product, had a gold plate engraved to designate Room 100 of the Grand Hotel as the “Apollinaris Suite” and that plate hung on the door for the next 50 years. Generations of young men, inspired by visions of Lillie Langtry, sans clothing, immersing her voluptuous body into a tub of sparkling water, kept that room occupied for decades.

The Demon Bathtub of Cincinnati The Alta Flats, a respectable apartment building on the southwest corner of Sycamore and Fourth Streets, held a ghastly Gay Nineties secret. Two people, five years apart, died mysteriously in the same bathtub. Frank Cabell was the first to die, on a cold November day in 1893. He was 27, a clerk for a railroad and a dedicated student of Theosophy. One evening, Frank agitatedly told his brother, who roomed with him, that a “White Mahatma” had accused him of an unpardonable sin. Frank was found next morning with his throat slashed in the tub. Almost exactly five years later, on 6 Nov 1898, the coroner arrived at the very same apartment to find a dead, nude woman in the very same bathtub. Edith Garfield, aged 23, had drowned after what was described as a “debauch,” a “merry night,” and an “orgy” in the rooms then occupied by a well-known stationer. The dead woman was a prostitute “kept” by yet another man who worked as a cashier in his father’s bank. Also involved in the “debauch” was a married woman, who fled the flat after the body was discovered. No one was ever charged. Were the two deaths just a coincidence? Not according to the Enquirer, which opined: “Does the spirit of the great white Mahatma lure unfortunates on to death in the Alta apartment house?”

Procter & Gamble’s Imputed Bathtub It was just 20 years ago that a Procter & Gamble archivist disclosed evidence that the company had spent the previous 125 years pushing a thoroughly bogus explanation for the origins of Ivory Soap. According to the “official” story, a machine tender in 1879 left his stirring kettle run through his lunch break, whipping too much air into a batch of P&G white soap. The batch shipped, and the company began getting requests for more of that “floating soap.” P&G discovered the cause of the errant batch, branded it Ivory after a verse in the Bible, and the rest was history. Until, that is, the archivist found this line in James N. Gamble’s 1863 research notebook: "I made floating soap today. I think we'll make all of our stock that way." The founder’s son, in other words, created floating soap 15 years before the company went to market with it. Lost in this legend – whichever version you want to believe – is a simple question. How did they know the soap floated? Presumably, someone put it in a tub of water. Was that tub at Jimmy Gamble’s laboratory in Brighton? Or was it at home with Mrs. Gamble? Or was it an apocryphal customer’s tub? Somewhere, there is an unsung bathtub that revealed the magic of Ivory Soap.

Big Bill’s Bathtubs Cincinnati’s bathtub infatuation extends even to the White House. That proud son of the Queen City, William Howard Taft, finds himself inextricably linked to two bathtubs. The more famous bathtub never existed at all and the bathtub that did exist is hardly mentioned these days. Despite a century of denials, there are folks who still believe that Big Bill got stuck in a bathtub at the White House and required the assistance of four men to extract him. Easily believable because Taft topped six feet in height and weighed somewhere north of 300 pounds, but it never happened. The first mention of Taft’s indelicate predicament didn’t appear until a White House usher named Irwin “Ike” Hoover’s posthumous memoirs appeared in 1934. In reality, soon after his election, Taft sailed south on the battleship North Carolina to inspect the Panama Canal. On board was an immense bathtub, manufactured by the Jordan Mott Company of New York, capable of holding four normal sized men. A photo of this gargantuan fixture appeared in the February 1909 Engineering Review and similar tubs were installed at the White House, the Presidential Yacht, and Taft’s brother’s home in Texas to ensure our hefty chief executive remained unstuck.

Arnold’s Legendary Bathtub Although it’s a fixture at the annual Bockfest parade, the famous bathtub of Arnold’s Bar & Grill owes its reputation more to the silver tongues of Elmer Arnold and Jim Tarbell than to the Eighteenth Amendment. Both men were exceptionally prolific raconteurs, and Elmer, the last of the Arnold family to manage the establishment, deftly avoided fact-checking when he put his family’s saloon on the market in 1959. Official records confirm that Arnold’s totally shut down throughout Prohibition while the Arnold family decamped from Eighth Street to Mount Lookout. Elmer reluctantly reopened the restaurant in 1933 only because his chosen career – selling horseshoe nails – had dried up. While it is true that Elmer’s father, Hugo, was convicted on bootlegging charges in 1922, Dad was caught with quarts of bonded whiskey, not bathtub gin, suggesting that George Remus, rather than upstairs plumbing, was the source. Elmer was smart enough to know that a good rumor would pique the interest of buyers. When Tarbell took over Arnold’s in 1976, he was not about to let a good legend fade away. With customers clamoring to dine in the bathtub room, he knew he had marketing gold and launched the motorized bathtub that enlivens so many parades today.

[lesliesaurussims]

Welcome to my first Simblr post! 🎉 Thank you in advance for your support - I appreciate you stopping by to check out my creations and share in my love/hate relationship with The Sims (IYKYK) 😂

THE INSPIRATION

I've always had an affinity for Maine (as well as all things ocean, lobster and blueberry), so I was drawn to this little oceanside bungalow when it showed up in my feed one day.

There's a lot about it I couldn't replicate exactly, so I decided to give it a bit of a more lux renovation to make it a little less "shabby chic". It still retains the charm of a little cottage by the sea, but feels like a place where you could escape for a long weekend to relax and unwind with nature without having to tough it out surrounded by mosquitoes.

Tip: To make it look more like the real thing, change the roofing to the red "Heavy Metal Paneled Roof Sheet" that came with the Eco Lifestyle pack. I loved the way it looked, but in terms of blending in with the neighborhood, it just stuck out like a sore thumb.

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LOT SPECS

Brindleton Bay, in the Cavalier Cove neighborhood

20x20 (replacing Bedlington Boathouse)

Residential

Tier 3 tiny home (70/100 tiles)

1 bed, 1 bath

$68,225

LOT TRAITS

Bracing breezes

Homey

Natural light

PERKS OF THE PROPERTY

Ocean views

Beach access

Wild rabbit home and two resident rabbits ready to be your new friends

Lots of greenery, inside and out

Washtub and clothesline, saving you money and infusing your freshly laundered clothes with the refreshing scent of salty sea air

A bike for easy-going rides around the neighborhood to do some beach combing and fishing

EXPANSION PACKS/STUFF PACKS/KITS USED

Expansion Packs: Cats & Dogs, Cottage Living, Discover University, Eco Lifestyle, For Rent, Get Together, Growing Together, High School Years, Horse Ranch, Journey to Batuu, Outdoor Retreat, Seasons, Snowy Escape, StrangerVille, Vampires

Stuff Packs: Backyard Stuff, Home Chef Hustle, Laundry Day

Kits: Bathroom Clutter, Blooming Rooms, Decor to the Max, Modern Luxe

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CUSTOM CONTENT

A huge thanks to these amazing creators for providing the materials that made this build possible! I want to be you when I grow up.

awingedllama: Apartment Therapy Inspired V2 // Boho Living // Nostalgia Living

Felixandre: Grove Part 1 // SOHO Part 1

Harrie: The Brownstone Collection 1 // The Coastal Collection Part 1 // The Coastal Collection Part 2 // The Coastal Collection Part 3 // The Coastal Collection Part 4

heybrine: Crystal Clutters // The Nana's Collection Part II // Noova

House of Harlix: Colonial Set Part 3 // Jardane // Kichen // Bafroom // Baysic // Orjanic Part 1

Joyceisfox: Simple Live Collection #5 // Simple Live Collection #7 // Summer Garden Part 1 // Forever Autumn Part 4

MAX20: Cozy Bathroom Kit // Master Bedroom // Garden at Home

myshunosun: Luna Bedroom // Rosa Bathroom

Peacemaker: Creta Indoor & Outdoor Kitchen // Hudson Bathroom // Round Jute Rugs

Pierisim: MCM House Part 5 // Oak House Collection (Parts 1-5) // Woodland Ranch Part 2 // Woodland Ranch Part 3

SIXAM CC: Kessler Kitchen

Syboulette: Happy Stairways Set

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ABOUT ME

About me💃🏼 Hi, my name is Leslie and I identify as a broken Sims patch update \(ツ)/ I mean well and do my best, but sometimes I'm glitchy. But hopefully, my builds never will be!

Base Game only? Nope! 🏡 I own almost every Sims 4 expansion pack, game pack, stuff pack, and kit - and I intend to use them! That's not to say I'll never have builds that are base game only, but if that's what you're in search of, I'm probably not the right creator for you.

Custom content🎨 I also own a decent amount of custom content from amazing creators who make Build/Buy and CAS items - and I intend to use those, too! I will always provide a list of the custom content used in each build in the description of each release. I don't make my own custom content at the moment (but never say never).

Playtesting ▶️ I'll never roll out a build that hasn't been playtested. I'm not about builds for the sake of aesthetics - I want them to work! And if for some weird reason I do release without playtesting, I'ma call that out in the release post.

Download the build on my Patreon for free!

[glowyjellyfish]

Narniapocalypse: Round One, Spring, DeBateau (part two)

I just ran through about a day so I could test whether various mods were functioning. Turns out Sell from Inventory wasn't working (I suspect the problem is that I also had the Born Salesperson version in), so I made the DeBateau household a farm stand. The Institution sign STILL wasn't working, and I discovered after I quit out that I NEVER ACTUALLY INSTALLED the extra files for it, I literally just downloaded them. Finally, it became increasingly clear that Mod Ur Dig wasn't working, and I was POSITIVE I had installed it... but I never did, apparently. This is what happens when you have multiple different game setups and try to install the shiny new mods in multiple game folders at once. I seem to have installed it in a couple of old-timey gameplay folders but forgot to put it in my medieval game. Okay. That has now been corrected, and I did what I could for all the other issues.

Meanwhile, I had Justin travel to The Woods to see if he could sell the map he dug up to anybody, and when he couldn't, I let him meet some other SimCity refugee teens an go fishing for a bit. He's not attracted to Miranda Capp, but likes Jules O'Mackey!

This day was the inevitable slide into misery for everybody, as the toddlers got increasingly fussy with lower and lower hygiene, and the moment Tara used the toilet bucket and gave herself a spongebath and then went to try digging a little in the rain... she got struck by lightning. Eventually, I caved and bought a cheap washtub for the lot, just so the toddlers could be bathed. Of course, the kids who were still doing fine on hygiene immediately beelined for it. I may keep it in somebody's inventory until it is needed.

I think I'm going to allow all households to keep the $500 I gave them as emergency funds to start with, rather than setting them to $0 as would be story-appropriate, because I'm just not skilled enough and/or didn't plan in advance well enough to cope with $0 starting funds. I AM going to have the elf king demand his 40% tribute out of their entire remaining funds at the end of each round, and switch to 40% income for future rounds. If Sell from Inventory works, I may shut the farm stand back down and only allow that.

I also did a little more age correcting--the mod works, but I wanted to adjust the teens' ages since 1 Day = 1 Year has teens from age 13-22 (technically 23), and I didn't want any of the teens to be starting over age 18. The mod wanted Justin to be 20, but I made him start at age 14. He's 16 now on day/year 2. Currently, Tara is 15, Sofia is 11, Sally is 9, and Marcus and Etsu are both 4. The toddlers will be aging up in 2 more days, and so will Sofia. It does go fast with this mod, doesn't it? Luckily, I made a backup of the hood before I really got started, so if the whole thing goes way too fast, maybe I'll start over with Gestation-Base Aging installed instead!

I'm going to make another attempt at playing tomorrow, and hopefully it'll all work smoothly and I can just play.

[burlveneer-music]

schroothoop - MACADAM - for a band that makes instruments out of scrap, the music is more mellifluous than I expected, favoring international grooves over skronk

Belgian junk jazz trio schroothoop (which translates as ‘junk yard’) bring together multi-instrumentalists Rik Staelens (wind & string instruments), Timo Vantyghem (bass & thumb piano) and Margo Maex (percussion). Their new album called ‘MACADAM’ will be out April 7 via Sdban Records, home of many strongholds in the lively contemporary Belgian jazz and groove scene. In 2020, schroothoop first emerged with their much-acclaimed and infectious debut album Klein Gevaarlijk Afval (Small Hazardous Waste). “Music on homemade instruments with a surprisingly good result” (De Standaard). “Schroothoop show that material limitation can be liberating and that sometimes the source of new sounds is just old junk.”(Written in music). “We assure you that this “scrap heap” is worth gold!“ (Le Grigri). On their second album, to be released on April 7, schroothoop explore the vast sounds of discarded objects found on the macadam streets of Brussels. Wooden crates turn into guitars and lyres. Scrap metal becomes a thumb piano, a cimbalom, or percussion bells. Their compelling collection of semi-improvised songs is born out of several fruitful residencies and live performances during which Margo Maex, Rik Staelens and Timo Vantyghem dive deeper into the possibilities and unique timbres of their DIY instruments. The junk jazz trio find inspiration in traditional Afro-Cuban and North-African rhythms, New Orleans second line grooves, and Arabic Hijaz scales. On Macadam, the band also explore the realms of electronic music, not shunning hints of drum and bass, dub riddims and ambient soundscapes, using pitch shifting delays or gauzy reverbs. The album delivers a mesmerizing trip through the most diverse capital of Europe, mixed and post-produced by none other than sound wizard Dijf Sanders. The trio originally met in the Brussels street orchestra scene. One night they found themselves jamming on trash cans, buckets and other illegally dumped materials. Soon after, they started building their own DIY instruments from street trash. Imagine flutes made out of pvc pipes, a scrap metal drum kit, thumb pianos made out of old kitchen knives, a tin can violin, worn-out cutting discs as gongs, and a washtub bass. Delivering their own brand of “junk jazz”, Schroothoop literally gives junk a second life by immortalizing a whole range of lost and found objects through music. The Brussels-based group effortlessly incorporates jazz, Northern African music, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, resulting in a danceable and hypnotic trip through the city’s melting pot.

[toxics-sims-adventures]

Decided to categorize what I think are the most invasive packs (that I own) in ts4. Updated 1-18-24

Explanations under the cut:

~STAY OUT OF MY GAME FILES:

BUST THE DUST. Unlike Laundry Day where the laundry mechanic won’t activate without a laundry basket or the laundry machines/washtub and clothesline, you have to buy the vacuums to make your sims clean up the dust overlay on your floors and remove the dust bunnies. Apparently there’s a setting to turn it all off, but I don’t want this kit even looking at my game files.

~INCREDIBLY INVASIVE: These packs impact gameplay heavily.

THE BASE GAME is needed to play TS4 at all so I just threw it into incredibly invasive for laughs.

ECO LIFESTYLE causes the most annoying effect of turning my neighborhoods into industrial hellscapes just because most of Oasis Springs uses plaster and stucco and Willow Creek uses plastic siding. If I turn it off in settings though, I can’t remove the industrial cloud over Evergreen Harbor. NAPs make people litter my neighborhoods in junk items that I can’t just pick up and delete because it’s not part of my lot, or I end up with the most active kleptomaniacs in any game since my days in the Sims 1 where I’d literally build a treasure vault maze to punish the burglars. I have to turn off NPC voting just to make them all stop. I still get constant notifications from each voting cycle saying something won even though absolutely no votes went through and there’s no actual NAP put into place but still. High key annoying.

GROWING TOGETHER adds gameplay to infants to make them less bland than the base game version of infants, annoyingly kind of necessary to have any actual fun raising them. And consequences. If you raise an infant poorly or don’t spend enough time teaching them skills like sitting up and crawling, they get a negative trait just like with parenthood. But the most important feature of it besides adding gameplay majorly for Infants and minorly for Children and Elders, is the extra ‘learned traits’ mechanic added to the game. No longer are we constrained to only three traits for Young Adult/Adult/Elder sims! But you will get a bunch of annoying popups for your sim’s new preferences, such as liking or hating complaints or negative traited sims. Your sim who’s a slob can also get a trait change option pop up to ask if you want to make your sim neat now that you’ve been torturing them with the household chores.

PARENTHOOD. You cannot escape the character values. They effect every toddler, child and teen, like it or not. You constantly receive school projects in the offspring’s inventory even if you don’t want them. If there was an option to turn it off at the expense of getting the bonus traits, this would drop straight into only invasive with interaction.

MY WEDDING STORIES replaces the wedding party. Gone is the simple day of decorating Willow Creek’s cherry blossom park with an arch, a piano and a bar to get an easy progression through your soulmate aspiration. Without mods anyway.

WEREWOLVES. A lot of that Werewolves invasiveness happens because either Greg decides to suddenly visit Oasis Springs for ZERO reason and scares everyone on my street, or because Jake Volkov keeps coming to Copperdale High in full fury furry mode and makes everyone run screaming from the classroom. Like, dude, just stay home, call in sick, take the mental health day. Cripes. (There’s a setting in the menu now to keep the werewolves in Moonwood Mills while transformed, but they can show up in places while still having temperaments that can result in unwanted transformations. Like going to a nightclub and having the sensitive hearing temperament, which will make them enrage quickly.)

~Moderately Invasive: These packs can affect gameplay pretty often

SEASONS adds weather to all worlds. You can turn most of it off though, the only weather you can’t avoid is sunny and cloudy days. It also adds temperature effects to Sims, but you can turn that off completely in the menu if you’re tired of sims overheating or freezing to death. Other than the seasonal life cycle of plants from gardening, which can only be subverted with indoor greenhouses or a pot in your sims living room to shelter the plant, the other thing Seasons does that would be considered annoyingly invasive would be the holidays. Even if you turn off all the major holidays preset in the pack, Love Day, Harvestfest, etc.  by deleting them from the calendar, you’ll still get random holidays popping up that keep coming back (without a mod to disable it) like the lottery or fight a sim day, which if you refuse to participate in can give your sim a sad buff depending on their traits.

GET FAMOUS adds the fame system. Everything you do can effect your sims fame level making their lives easier or harder. You can however step out of the spotlight so your painter monkey doesn’t get famous in the basement. (I have never made a painter monkey in the basement but some of you do and I’m as intrigued as I am terrified of you all.) BUT Get Famous also has a reputation system that you CAN’T turn off. Every friendly action/new friend you make will change your reputation positively and every mean interaction/enemy you make will change your reputation negatively. You can end up with a beloved or beloathed sim who when meeting new people will have their reputation precede them and effect their future relationships. Celebrities will show up anywhere, grinding pretty much everything to a halt so NPCs and even your own sims can swoon over them. (Plus Judith Ward and every other celebrity will always walk through your neighborhood no matter where you live, breaking the immersion. Yes even if you live in bumfuck nowhere, Strangerville.)

HIGH SCHOOL YEARS will NOT stop making me teen sims miserable. Acne all the time! Hair in weird places ALL THE TIME. To stop hair growth I have to go into cas and turn off the option for every body part FOR EVERY DIFFERENT SIM. Acne is in the actual pack settings to turn off. You have to turn off the check in the career tab in-game to stop the popup that asks if you want to follow your teen sims to school, for every teen sim. AND THE RANDOMIZED TOWNIE OUTFITS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE. I hate Trendi with a passion.

DREAM HOME DECORATOR. Sims will constantly go around critiquing my furniture choices, even in bedrooms they weren’t invited to, because they like or hate certain styles and it’s incredibly annoying. It’s not worth setting their furniture style likes or dislikes for the little happy moodlet when they like living in a midcentury modern decorated home.

~Only Invasive with Interaction: You’ll have to actually use these packs to make an impact on gameplay

GET TO WORK gave us our first occult sim, not counting ghosts. However, if you engage in the scientist career, you better prepare for absolutely every night to be filled with alien abductions. I never, ever see alien abductions or get pregnant male sims unless someone in the household is a scientist. The illnesses that come with the pack also can’t be disabled which is a little annoying when your previously healthy sim suddenly turns dazed because of a hidden buff of having a cold, or your screenshots are suddenly ruined because someone sprouted orange tiger stripe rashes. The only cure for these illnesses are the medicine bought off the computer, or the shopping for gifts menu from the phone. And sometimes they don’t work to fully cure your sim so sometimes you have to wait and take another medicine to completely cure the illness. However it’s largely easy to ignore and easy to fix so I won’t count it as totally invasive when faced with absolutely everything else this game can do to give your sims a billion moodlets.

CATS AND DOGS won’t really affect your gameplay unless you adopt one for your household. Yeah, you’ll still see the occasional stray in your neighborhood but that’s it really.

FOR RENT has emergency events that crop up like trash overload that your sim will have to fix or call their landlord to fix. It’s a random event for both landlords and tenants, so there’s no predicting and preventing when they’ll occur. There are also some gameplay objects to fix every so often but aside from the emergency events, living in a residential rental is pretty much like living in an apartment.

SPA DAY only affects gameplay due to the refresh, which gave the new trait High Maintenance. Which is very likely to make the sim with that trait freak out over any little thing under the sun. Including the sun. Sitting makes them uncomfortable. They get weird dreams that make them tense. They need constant spa days and wellness activities or they get angry and tense. If they don’t have the High Maintenance trait though? You will never need the Spa Day stuff close at hand.

VAMPIRES used to visit your sims at night pretty much all the time to bite and suck their plasma and give them a day long uncomfortable moodlet that you had no way to avoid without locking your doors to outsiders or engaging in the Vampire knowledge skill to make garlic braids and prevent feedings from garlic allergic vampires. Now you can turn off their nightly visits by clicking on the front door and disallowing vampire visitors. Just remember to do that whenever your sims move houses.

STRANGERVILLE only really affects the residents of Strangerville. The possession moodlet only affects the sims that eat the bizarre fruit to get the Infected trait and the vampires that drink from sims with the infected trait. On occasion you’ll see certain Strangerville townies go possessed but only if you have them invited out from before 1am in-game.

REALM OF MAGIC introduced spellcasters and they really don’t do magic outside of the realm. They’ll ride brooms outside of the realm but they tend to stay grounded if they’re going to walk through your neighborhoods. Having a spellcaster with spellcaster friends results in a lot of phonecalls inviting you to a magic duel at the dueling grounds but that’s all really.

LAUNDRY DAY is only invasive and adds gameplay IF you put a washing machine, washtub, a dryer, clothesline and/or laundry basket on your lot. If you just want the cas and build objects aside from those, you will never see a stinky pile of laundry.

MY FIRST PET STUFF doesn’t bug you about the rodents unless you have them and it’s all notifications, BUT having a rodent and neglecting it CAN lead to a deadly, highly contagious outbreak of Rabid Rodent Fever, which can result in ghost furries.

TINY LIVING only affects your lot’s number of room tiles when selecting to live in a tiny home residential. If you exceed the maximum number of tiles, 100, you just won’t get the hidden lot traits that benefit your sims from living on a tiny home residential.

PARANORMAL STUFF only becomes invasive on haunted house residential lots. You will not see a specter, Guidry, or Temperance without going into the paranormal investigator freelance career otherwise.

~Not All That Invasive: These packs can have an impact on gameplay but are very easy to ignore.

GET TOGETHER will occasionally give you a notification about clubs or have townies call to invite your sims to the discotheque or parties in the ruins and bluffs.

CITY LIVING will give you a notification about whatever festival’s going on and NPCs will call to invite your sims out to them.

DISCOVER UNIVERSITY will give a popup to remind you that your sims can enroll and get a degree once in a while for every new teen or older sim.

COTTAGE LIVING will give a notification every weekend for whatever fair is happening in Henford on Bagley

DINE OUT won’t give an effect to your game until you place a restaurant, and even then it’ll just be another location NPCs will invite your sims to.

~Wait I have that pack?: Even if you focus on using these packs they don’t impact gameplay.

ISLAND LIVING is pretty much self contained. Other than occasionally seeing mermaid sims around town, the gameplay is self contained to Sulani.

SNOWY ESCAPE gives a residential world with a few vacation lots so your sim can vacation in the mountains. This pack is self contained.

Wait I have that pack? additions:

Horse Ranch does not allow free roaming horses, which was my BIGGEST CONCERN due to how TS3 horses would show up even in Bridgeport. Even if you do have a horse on your lot, they are designed to walk through 1 tile wide doorways which is a huge relief when my biggest problem with TS3 horses was that even wild horses would glitch through the walls and get stuck in my living room, until I broke down an entire wall and shooed them out of my house. The horse events don’t come as notifications to clutter up the activity feed, so it even spares me that issue that most other packs have. You will have to turn off Neighborhood Stories though, otherwise random people will just start adopting horses for no reason.

OUTDOOR RETREAT gives a vacation world centered around camping. The herbalism skill doesn’t need to be interacted with and you don’t have to capture bugs. This pack is self contained.

JUNGLE ADVENTURES gives you a new vacation world and is easily the fastest way to get a ton of simoleons to end your rags to riches nightmares. Just make sure your sim is skilled enough to avoid getting poisoned/cursed to death. Otherwise this pack is self contained.

JOURNEY TO BATUU gives you a call and notification that you can visit at any time but you’ll never see a star wars character outside of Batuu unless you make friends with them. This pack is self contained.

LUXURY PARTY just adds the punch/chocolate fountain and buffet table to the game, no other additional gameplay.

SPOOKY STUFF adds a party type and that’s it.

MOVIE HANGOUT will give your sims the option to watch movies and you wont’ see any other gameplay unless you toss the popcorn maker into your kitchen, which I consistently forget about.

ROMANTIC GARDEN adds a bunch of flowers and a few bits of furniture and the wishing well doesn’t do anything until you interact with it.

BACKYARD STUFF just gives you the option of having a waterslide in your backyard.

VINTAGE GLAMOUR adds no gameplay except for the butler and the tiny bit that is the vanity table but does nothing else.

FITNESS STUFF adds no gameplay except for the climbing wall which can help build fitness or climbing skill if you own Snowy Escape

MOSCHINO STUFF fixes the limited photography skill but doesn’t do much else.

NIFTY KNITTING. You can knit and unlock some things in CAS and that’s it.

~Doesn’t Add Gameplay: They don’t add anything that isn’t already in the base game. Little campers does have a projection screen but it’s just a new TV.

HOLIDAY STUFF (the free pack) adds no gameplay

KITS. I don’t own a majority of the kits but almost all of the kits are CAS or Build kits that add no gameplay that isn’t already in the base game except for Bust the Dust. The Modern Luxe Kit has a vanity table but since I don’t own that kit and I do own Vintage Glamour, I don’t know if it adds the vanity interactions to the base game or not.

~Don’t Own It: I don’t own these packs, so I can’t say what is or is not invasive from the listed but since these are stuff packs with one or two gameplay objects in each, they probably all fit under the Wait I have that pack? category:

Toddler stuff, Bowling night, Kids room, Cool kitchen, Perfect Patio, Home Chef Hustle

[goatofgehenna]

PRIMA VISTA INTERIOR MAP

This isn't really pretty art (haha) but I figured you all might find some interest in this. It came to my attention that I had a very vague idea of how the inside of the Prima Vista's lay out was based on the game.. so I spent several hours doing research with the game trying to piece the thing together into something coherent.

As expected, there are some areas that just seem a little nonsensical from FMV to gameplay and so on.. so I had to get a bit creative. Sorry if it's difficult to read my handwriting!

The Prima Vista overall appears to be made up of four floors, five if you're counting the loft that seems to be above the ship's bridge.

Two of those floors are above deck and two are beneath. The second page, middle panel, is designed to just give a closer view on only the theater side of the ship.

I gave the ship two back up engines - they can't support the ship for a long duration without the main engine, but give it a better chance of safe landing should an accident occur.. there's also an emergency cooling system in the event that the main engine become so catastrophically overheated that it's dangerous.

Washrooms mainly would have been little more than bedpans, buckets and the one more *luxury* privacy room with non-plumbing bench toliet located on one of the larger towers on the outer portion of the ship deck - the tower opposite holding a washtub. Smaller towers appear to hold equipment pertaining to the propellers and interestingly what looks like two bells near the stage..

Most residents sleep in bunks in shared bedrooms, aside from Ruby (being the sole female) and Baku (as captain). I added a Galley or kitchen area and a food pantry. The oven would have provided extra heat to the main floor in the colder regions.

I also added a Parlour or sitting room on the top floor - a place for the Tantalus to congregate when they're not doing so in the kitchen or meeting room.

Added a dressing room on bottom floor, the theatre side, including stair access (from the dressing room to the engine level hallway) for the 'underneath the stage room' where the risers are kept (for best functionality during a performance).

[history-with-berry]

Admittance (Oneshot)

Based on research I've done. Some things might not be completely accurate, but it's the best I've got.

-1829-

Caolán (kee-lin) didn't know what he did wrong. He didn't steal, he didn't lie, and he didn't pick trouble, so why was he here? He was told America would be paved with gold, and he could have a good life, so why was he being dragged off by a police officer?

Before he knew it, they were in front of a large building, and he was shoved through the big door. Once inside, he was met with another burly man who asked him a question.

"What's your name, kid," he growled, not looking at Caolán's face, but right above it at his flaming red hair.

"Caolán," he said. A pause. "Sir."

"Enough for me. Take 'im inside," And Caolán was once again whisked away, this time to a room with lots of chairs and mirrors.

"Sit." the man who had pulled him here barked at him, and Caolán did.

He was pushed back in the chair, and a few seconds later felt scissors roughly chopping away at his hair.

"What're you- " he started.

"Quiet, boy!" a voice snarled from behind him. He tensed up, but shut his mouth.

Once his hair was cut very close to his head, he was pushed through another door. This one had a washtub in it, and yet another burly man standing beside it.

Caolán was given a firm shove towards the tub.

The new man handed him a washcloth and a bar of soap, and said, "In," and pointed to the tub.

And so Caolán got out of his clothes, and washed himself all over, all while under the watchful eye of the man.

Sometime when he wasn't looking, the man had switched the clothes he had taken off for new, crisp ones, and once he had looked behind his ears, handed them to him.

Caolán put them on, and from there was pulled through the door, and down a maze of hallways to yet another room. This room was a fully furnished office, complete with a painting of a scary old man, and a younger, alive man, both staring him down.

He was sat on a chair in the center of the room, and then the man who brought him left, leaving Caolán alone in the room with the scary man with eyes that pierced into him.

The man stayed silent, and the only sound that was in the room was the ticking of the clock, and the creaking of the floorboards as he slowly walked around him, eyes never leaving Caolán.

Caolán slowly shrunk into his chair, his heart beginning to race. Who was this man? What did he want with him? He had done nothing wrong, right? He had heard stories of this place, and none of them were good. It was a jail for kids. You got beatings like rich men got pennies. It was inescapable. You could be worked to death.

Those stories were the reason Caolán stuck to the shadows, and never did anything that could even possibly get him sent here. He followed every rule, he paid for what little he ate, and he was even friendly to what police he saw.

Maybe he said something wrong. All he said was 'Good day' though. How could that get him sent here? Maybe he wasn't supposed to say something at all.

After what seemed like forever, but was probably five minutes, the man broke the silence, making Caolán jump.

"There are two rules here that you must memorize. One, Never tell a lie, and 2, Do as well as you know how. Repeat those back to me."

"Never tell a lie, and do as well as you know how?" Caolán said.

The man cringed. "Good. We'll have to work on getting rid of that accent though."

Caolán was confused, but was given no time to think about it because the man kept on speaking.

"My name is Superintendent Hart, and I'm in charge around here. You do anything wrong, and you'll have to answer to me. Let's hope it won't come to that though. First, I'd like to get something out of the way. This institute is unlike any Penitentiary or State Prison, seeing as it is not a prison, but rather a reformatory for wicked and unfortunate children, such as yourself. Our goal is not to punish you, but turn you in the direction of good. But should you be disobedient, there will be no hesitation to punish you however we see fit. We hope we can be fathers to you though. That clear?" he said.

"Yessir," Caolán peeped out.

"Good. Rules?"

"Never tell a lie, and do as well as you know how?"

"Speak up, boy!"

"Never tell a lie, and do as well as you know how."

"Again!"

"Never tell a lie, and do as well as you know how," Caolán said a bit louder.

"Good." Hart said, and walked over to his desk. He opened his drawer and pulled something out of it. It was a little badge. "You see this?" he asked.

Caolán nodded.

"This badge is a privilege. It means you're in Class 1, which is almost the highest class," He walked over and pinned it on Caolán's sleeve. "You break the rules or disobey staff, and this might be taken away, and you don't want that. The lower your Class, the worse the punishments get. However, if you are good, you could be moved up to the Class of Honor. In order to be promoted, you'll have to follow regulations for a whole month. No funny business. If you do that, you'll get a blue band. Yes?"

Caolán nodded. "Yessir."

"Alright. Barnes!"

Yet another burly man stepped into the room.

"Take him to get settled."

And without a word, Caolán was whisked off, down more passageways.

To think, just two hours earlier he had been cheerfully walking around the city, and now he was in jail, having no idea where he was, where he was going, or what would happen next. He hadn't even done anything wrong!

They arrived at a doorway, and Caolán was shoved through it. Inside he saw probably around 50 boys sitting at tables, all hunched over, their hands twisting at something he couldn't see.

"Williams!" the guard, Barnes, Caolán remembered, yelled. A boy with golden blond hair and blue eyes who looked to be around Caolán's age's head snapped up. "Git over here!"

The boy ran over, slightly favoring his left side. "Yessir?"

"Show this Irish what to do."

"Yessir. C'mon," the boy said, and gestured for Caolán to follow him. Caolán did.

Pt. 2 coming whenever I feel like writing again. It was supposed to be in with this, but I feel a big depressive episode coming on, which isn't good. Anyway, I hope you like it. Any feedback would be good, and boost my mood about writing

[littlemssam]

Mod Updates & Translations

Upcoming Patch Infos:

Probably on Tuesday will be a new Patch released. Chances are high that a lot of mods will be affected by it. As always you have three Options: 1) Don't Patch until your must have Mods are updated or confirmed to be compatible 2) Patch and play without Mods/CC until your must have Mods are updated or confirmed to be compatible 3) Patch and play with all your Mods/CC without checking for updates etc. on your own risk (not recommended)

A friendly reminder:

Support Questions via Discord only please! Tumblr and/or Twitter are not good places to ask for support. Discord is much easier for me, since i often need more Infos like Screenshots etc. to be able to help.

Mod Updates

As always delete all old Files and your localthumbcache.package when updating mods!

+ Moved all Phone Foster Family Interaction to a new Phone Category now. + Added new "Foster Family Settings" to the Foster Family Menu. There you can choose which Foster Kids/Pets you want to foster. Toddler, Children, Teens & Cats or Dogs (Kitten/Puppy, Adult or Elder). You can choose one or mulitple. Added a "Clear all Foster Family Settings" Option as well. If you want to go back to default (All Ages and/or All Pets) or want to change your Settings you need to clear them all first. Settings work only for Sims who are registered to the Foster Family System. + Foster Kids/Pets Autonomy changed to on lot only so they will hopefully not roam around the neighborhood on their own. Except Cats with the Aloof, Free Spirit or Prowler Trait, they will still roam around the neighborhood unless locked in. + Sims will only get a sad Buff when they have a certain Trait: Dog Lover/Animal Affection Sims when a Foster Dog moves out. Cat Lover/Animal Affection Sims when a Foster Cat moves out. Family Oriented Sims when i Foster Kid moves out. Sad Buff now has a Mood Weight of Sad +1 and the Duration is lowered to 12hrs. All other Sims will get a neutral Buff with a Duration of 2 hrs. + Notifications when Sims come back with a new Foster Kid/Pet now have the Pic of the Sim so you can click on it to get to the Sim faster. + When a Foster Kid/Pet aged up you'll get a Notification now, so you won't miss their recent Brithday.

Foster Family

***

Reworked Mod so it is not Buff Based anymore but the actual Bed gets a Better Mattress Statistic added. There is only one Buy Interaction now. This will work for all Beds incl. possible new Pack Beds and CC Beds. The Mattress will be "used" after some time. You'll get a Notification when a new one needs to be bought. Added a 40% Discount on Discount Days (Holiday - Seasons) and a 100% Discount for Uni Students in Dorms. (Since all Texts changed, all languages except english and german need to be translated again)

Buy a better Mattress (Better Energy/Comfort on Beds)

***

Added "Journey to Batuu" Drinks

Improved Spa Day Tablet

***

Employees of unowned or NPC owned Retail Lots restock in 2 minutes now.

Retail Overhaul (Hire certain Employees/Better Shopping as a Customer & more)

***

Dinner Party "Call Guests to Meal" Goal should get fullfilled now. Fixed missing "Grab a Serving" on Rack of Lamb.

No Auto Food Grab after Cooking

***

Fixed missing Interactions on Rack of Lamb

Choose who you Call to Meal

***

Added "Washtub Vampires Are Faster" Part - Vampires now take 15 minutes to wash Clothes in the Washtub & Animation is faster as well. "Washtub Less Puddle" updated to work with the new Part.

Small Laundry Overhaul

***

Reworked Mod Files a bit.

Quick Walk (with the Dog)

***

Added Addon "Job NPCs not affected"

Dress Code | Custom Lot Traits

***

Added a testset to the Fridge Package which will hopefully prevent some interactions for NPCs on fridges i was not able to prevent so far.

Personal Objects (Computer, Tablets & more)

***

Changed Trimester Buff Test to Object State test for better compatibility with other Mods which replace the Trimester Buffs.

Miscarriage Chance & Abortion Ultrasound Scan

***

Update of "Auto Check Toddler Tweaks" (Small Tweak to Cooldown), "Change into Everyday" (React to Thermostat Cooldown set from 3 hrs to 14 Days, Script Tweaks), "Auto brush Teeth" (Better Reaction Tweaks), "Dogs Change Into Everyday After Walk" (My Pet Mod compatibility)

Random Small Mods

Translations

Miscarriage Chance & Abortion (Update of Czech by Xeria)

Cookbooks (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

SimDa Dating App (Update of Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Anti Fear Training (Pets) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Anti Heat Pill (Pets) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Ask to Go for a Walk & Bath (Dogs) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Quick Walk (with the Dog) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Calm Bees (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Better Butler (and Hire more Butler) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Working Pet Water Bowls (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Celebs Undercover (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Dog Walker & Dog Jogger (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Dress Code | Custom Lot Traits (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Improved Meditation Stool (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

More Visitors | Custom Lot Trait (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

New Vampire Powers | “Be able to eat Human Food”, “Enable own Mirror Reflection”, “Stop Hissing” and more (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Go for a walk with more Pets (Rabbitholes) (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Force to Leave | New Door Interaction (Added Italian by zaffirogarnet)

Foster Family (Update of Translations: Spanish by Atheduchess, Swedish by hellogreeny, Danish by Nadi DK/NL, French by Lorraine3055, Italian by xISYx, Czech by Xeria. )

Don't download these Updates if you have the Legacy Edition!

[sokkarangsims]

Medieval Themed Careers (MASTERPOST)

Blacksmith, Knight, Midwife, Priest, Page (and more COMING SOON)

Much research went into these careers, and while I'm sure they aren't 100% accurate, but they sure beat Tech Guru and Astronaut in being era appropriate

Descriptions, objectives, pay rates and hourly shifts are meant to reflect historical accuracy. The Peteran and Jacoban branches of the Priest career are based on the careers from The Sims Medieval, and the images used for both come from TSM wiki.

These are rabbit hole careers, not Active or Work from Home professions.

Attempts were made to use gender neutral language in every career, but the Priest career especially made that difficult. There are no gendered pronouns in the career descriptions, including the Midwife career, which uses neutral terms in place of mother/father to fit your diverse Simming needs.

Made using Zerbu's Mod Constructor. Thank you to the testers @atheduchess-transl​ and Mimi, and for the advice from @llazyneiph​ and @mizoreyukii​.

Download and career levels under the cut ->

BLACKSMITH (Teen-Elder) 

Link to download at MTS

Apprentice ->Toolmaker->Weaponsmith->Armorsmith->Master Blacksmith

PRIEST (Young Adult-Elder)

Link to download at MTS

Some objectives require Spa Day (meditate) and Discover University (Research and Debate skill), but the career will work fine without them.

Faith Scholar->Doorkeeper->Acolyte->Lector

BRANCHES

Clergy

Deacon->Bishop->Archbishop->Pope

Jacoban Priest

Shepherd->High Shepherd->Eye of Jacob

Peteran Priest

Friar->Prior->Abbot

KNIGHT (Young Adult-Elder) 

Link to download at MTS

Squire->Knight->Crusader->Paladin->Noble Sergeant->Royal Bodyguard->Grand Master of the Knighthood

MIDWIFE (Teen-Elder) 

Link to download at MTS

Some objectives require Laundry Day (use washtub) and Parenthood (gain Parenting skill, write in journal), but the career will work fine without them.

Rag Cleaner->Birth Attendant->Midwife's Apprentice->Nurse Midwife->Reproduction Educator->Maternity Expert

PAGE (Part-Time job for Children and Teens) 

Link to download at MTS

Meal Server->Armor Polisher->Horse Groomer->Academic->Squire in Training

I am open to feedback and requests. If you have an idea of how these mods can be improved, or if something does not work the way it should, please send me an ask.

Download them all at Mod the Sims

[sunmoon-starfactory]

Forging On - Metalsmithing Station

Steel yourself and strike while the iron is hot! With an anvil and the proper body skill, a sim may forge various components, wares, tools, and even weapons and armor.

Download  Metalsmithing - SFS

Download Auto Tool Update - SFS

Download/View - The Keep

See under the cut for details and instructions, or visit the Keep link for the same and more images.

REQUIRED OTHER SUN&MOON SETS: ● Refine And Shine – Metal Ingots, Shovel Tool ● All Fired Up – Fire Grates ● Great Grains – Field Sickle Tool ● Cheese Please – Cheese Knife ● Gone Fishin’ – Fillet Knife ● Mining 3.0 – Pickaxe ● Rainy Day Savings – Metal Safes/Strongboxes ● It’s A Trap! – Animal Traps

THE ANVIL: This is the station used for metal smithing. It comes in two versions, one that is a whole set up of anvil on stump with quenching barrel, and the other that is just an anvil to be placed anywhere. Of course if you choose just the anvil, be aware that the animation may be off depending on the height of the surface it is placed.  

Skill Level 0-2: Perfect starting projects for an apprentice or someone just getting into the craft. Learn the basics first! ● Wooden Components ● Chains ● Nails ● Findings ● Hoops Skill Level 3-4: Now that the basics are there, time to learn to make more complex or delicate shapes and bends. ● Previous Tier Items ● Horse Shoe Set ● Spigots ● Sink and Washtub ● Tools ● Kitchen Utensil Set ● Lanterns ● Alarm Bells ● Tableware Sets ● Animal Traps ● Candlesticks/Holders Skill Level 5-6: Those shapes are muscle memory now, time to get to confidently producing more sturdy goods prone to wear and tear. ● Previous Tier Items ● Cookware Set ● Security Keys ● Stoves ● Fire Grates ● Buffet Platter ● Safes Skill Level 7+: Items that require more fine detail or precision are now the goal. ● Previous Tier Items ● Idols ● Iron Sword ● Mail Armor Writ Of Mastery: ● Previous Tier Items ● Plate Armors ● Steel Weapons

FUNCTIONAL ITEMS ANIMAL TRAPS: While the files for the traps themselves are not included in the download, the metalsmith station is capable of making three fully functioning animal traps. *Note: Traps are not restockable from inventory in a business setting. Future update to Animal Hunting will cover that. ● Fox Trap ● Wolf Trap ● Bear Trap

PORTION KNIVES: ● Cheese Knife ● Fish Fillet Knife

LANTERNS: Place Anywhere/Holdable Lanterns: Copied files of existing creations from Ocelotekatl who allowed me to incorporate the files into the station. Retains old GUIDs, but have been renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code. Accessory packages are included. ● Box ● Cylindrical ● Oblong

STOVES: ● Skyrim Cauldrons/Pots/Spit: Copied files of existing creations from Sunni. Retains old GUIDs, but have been renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code. ● Muffin Maker: Copied files of existing creations from Motherof70. Retains old GUIDs, but have been renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code. ● Cooktop Ring: A stove that can be placed on countertops or anywhere really. ● Pot Belly Stove: Copied files of existing creations from Numenor. Retains old GUIDs, but have been renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code. ● Eva's Hanging Cauldron:Copied files of existing creations from Eva/Sunni. Retains old GUIDs, but have been renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code. ● Auld Crow Stove: TS2 stove with some bits and bobs removed. 

BELLS & KEYS: ● Fire Alarm Bell: Copied files of existing creation by Kate. Retains old GUID, but has been remapped, renamed and given Restocking From Inventory Code ● Alarm Clock Hand Bell. Based on Inge's Alarm Clock for more customization and setting. ● Security Keys - Custom Burglar Alarm. Make sure to download Midge's Mod for Custom Burglar alarms to make it work. 

BANKS While the files for the banks themselves are not included in the download, the metalsmith station is capable of making three fully functioning metal banks. ● Skyrim Metal Safe ● Skyrim Strongbox Safe ● Witcher Metal Safe  

SWORDS/DAGGER: Based off of Paladin's Dueling Swords, but heavily modified, new weapons are available for use by sims teen and older. All swords and the dagger may perform the following actions: ● Challenge: This action allows two sims to spar with swords. They will continue to do so until they reach motive failure, but the action can be interrupted at any time. ● Practice: This action allows a sim to practice their sword work and footing and thus gain mechanical (dexterity) skill. Note that the sword will “disappear” from where it has been placed with this action, representing a sim has it in use. ● Kill: This action allows the current selected sim to have a brief fight with another sim and the target sim will die at the end of the fight. Use with caution, death is always the outcome for the target sim. ● Grab: Standard Grab function that adds a sword into a sim’s inventory. It is enabled for visitors, as well as children. So deliveries can be made, or thievery can happen. The grab in non-autonomous however. All Swords use NixedSims Accessory Swords from her Training Dummies V3 set, and retain their original GUIDs. If you have these already in your game you can delete them from this set. Each Sword utilizes 5 packages. All swords share the FIGHT AREA package but must have their own Object, Accessory, and Actions Packages. Different swords cannot share the latter 3.

IDOLS: Models picked based on aspects they can represent rather than any real world religion. These objects are a combination of the available actions found on KevinHope's Cross and Rebecah's Bible. Each comes in gold/silver/bronze recolors. ● Azura ● Dibella ● Mara ● Meridia ● Mermaid ● Watcher

WASH BASINS: Two items for hygiene and cleanliness. The tub is enabled for pets, and the sink is a place anywhere style. ● Metal Washtub - Bathtub ● Basin Sink

ARMOR: These smithed items can be sold to a sim who can then use it for an actual clothing grant to their wardrobe. It is one time use, thus incentivising a smith to continue to make more. There are five levels of armor that require different base metals: Iron, Steel, Gold, Mithril, and Chain. Armors DO NOT come on prebuilt display racks. They float in the air and are meant to be slotted into a display.

STATIC/SLOTTED ITEMS COMPONENTS: Components are to be used as parts in the making of other items. They are purely deco and intended for sale or further refinement. ● Chain ● Nail Box ● Spigot ● Hoops ● Findings ● Horse Shoe Set ● Wooden Bits and Bobs

INVENTORY TOOLS: The metalsmith may craft any autonomous inventory tool from Sun&Moon sets. The versions of the auto tools included in this download are updated with restocking code ans should replace any previous versions in any set released thus far. *Not pictured: Shears

COOKWARE/KITCHEN UTENSIL SETS: A set of items that when opened places single items into a sim's inventory. These items are considered inventory tools for future stations, as well as decorative slotted items. ● Cookware Set Contains: Stock Pot, Gratin Pan, Pancake Frying Pan, Roasting Pan, Sauce Pan, Saute Pan, and Wok. ● Kitchen Utensil Set Contains: Spatula, Dipper, Slotted Dipper, Ladle, Large Fork, and Whisk.

TABLEWARE SET/PLACE SETTINGS: A set of flatware, charger, and drinking vessel to set upon your sims tables. Sims will place their bowl/plate on the charger and eat. Each set has an invisible recolor of the drinking vessel/flatware so that they can be hidden. With everything but the charger plate hidden, players can decorate around the plate using five different slots with tableware or items of their choosing. Comes in three styles; Lower Class, Middle Class, and Upper Class. Each set has a different drinking vessel and is made of a different metal.

CANDLE HOLDERS: A set of various candle holders with functional slots. ● Fancy Candlestick - Tall and Short ● Fancy Candelabrum ● Simple Candlestick ● Simple Candle Dish

BONUS ROUND ARMOR STANDS: You can’t have your armor just floating there in the air (unless it’s an enchanted shop of course) so you have to have something to put it on. Some basic wooden armor stands that are found in the catalog under Surfaces > Shelves. The Armor stand has two slots to pop in Armor of your choice and a sword of your choice. The Chainmail Shirt stand had one slot. CHAIN DISPLAY STAND: Can't have floating chains either, so store them here. Five slots for five lengths of chain. Can be found in the catalog under Surfaces > Shelves.

REFERENCE TOME: A handy dandy knowledge source to know how to craft various items. This will tell you what metals and how many of that metal you will need for each item. Can be found in Hobbies > Knowledge.

REPO FILES: This set is HEAVILY respositoried. A list of all main files follows:

● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_TablewareSet_LowerClass ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_TablewareSet_MiddleClass ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_TablewareSet_UpperClass ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_Cookware_StockPot ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_KitchenUtensil_Spatula ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_Findings ● Sun&Moon-Smithing_Product_Candlestick_Fancy_Tall

DUPLICATE FILES: All items from other creator’s sets have been renamed to match the file structure, and have been given additional restocking code or other minor updates. They retain their original GUIDs and should be removed in favor of these versions of files.

EXTRA CREDITS & THANKS: Nixedsims, Davina, Fire_flower, CelestialSpider, crowderhead (sims-historicalish),  Gayars, Ocelotekatl , mustluzcats, solfal, Paladin, Sunni, Mo70, Liz, Sherahbim, Inge, Cynnix, Maxis, Cassandre, Numenor, S99, Kate, TSM, TS3, Skyrim, The Nexus, DAZ3D, Unity.

[owillofthewisps]

the water i’m wading in

notes: i’m in it now, lads. idk what *gestures at this whole post* this is, but it’s here i guess. this was supposed to be smut lol. probs a bit too soft for geralt but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i just really needed to get this out of my head. imma go scream into my hands ljsldfjsldf

title is from lykke li’s ‘i follow rivers’

rating: teen. fluff, but geralt still has a terrible mouth and also maybe a lil bit melancholy.

pairing: geralt x gender neutral reader

word count: 1.3k

a Witcher’s burden is heavy, and the world’s touch can be exhausting, but you will always let him rest.

He’s tired.

The exhaustion rolls off him like morning mist, soft and suffocating. Geralt drops his spaulders to the floor as you rise from your spot by the hearth.

You had thought you’d seen him as tired as he could get. Thought you’d seen it all - injured, energy depleted, a hunt gone wrong, a creature that was no monster slain without reason - but today, there is a weariness to him that is foreign, a skeleton sketch beneath his skin.

He is a statue come to life, living, breathing stone, hard-edged and heavy and achingly delicate. Statues shatter too, you know, are worn down by the world around them, eroded by existence.

You cross to him quickly, cup his face between your palms. He meets your gaze steadily, the firelight catching on his amber eyes, glazing them soft golden. You ache for him. It’s a low, humming pain, rooted deep inside of you, a bruise that can’t quite heal.

“Are you alright?” you ask quietly.

“I’m fine. Long hunt.”

He isn’t. It wasn’t - it’s been a scant few days since he left. But you don’t need to scrape him to the bone, to cut into the meat of him and make him bleed just for him to tell you what you already know.

You kiss him, pull him to you and drink from his lips. He curls an arm around your waist and tugs you closer, fits you into the curve of his broad frame. His shoulders slump, that mountain range of muscle crumbling just slightly, and sometimes you forget that Geralt wears more armor than most. You sweep a thumb across his cheekbone softly.

“Come,” you say, pulling away. He chases you, one massive hand rough at the nape of your neck, his calloused fingertips striking sparks under your skin, a tinder strike touch. His kiss, though - his kiss is slow, an ember’s soft glow, gentle and steady. You melt into him, weave your fingers through the snowfall drift of his hair.

Geralt teases your breath away with his tongue, steals something from you that you’ve always been willing to give.

“Come,” you say again, whispered against his lips as he rests his forehead against yours. You close your eyes, feel his breath like hearthfire against your lips, all lingering warmth. His thumb traces your jawline, a crescent moon of a scar cut into the thick digit catching against your skin. You tilt your head into his touch, press a kiss against his palm. “Bath, then bed.”

He grunts. You nip at the pad of his thumb.

“No arguing,” you say.

“I didn’t say anything.”

You laugh softly, the sound trickling out of you like wine, full-bodied and rich. “You didn’t need to,” you tell him. “Go.” You nod towards the full copper tub tucked near the hearth.

He goes.

It tells you all you need to know, lets you see that the exhaustion has sunk into the very marrow of him, lines all of his bones. He moves slowly as he undresses, his fingers almost clumsy. His pale skin is warmed by the fire’s glow. You watch the shift of his muscles beneath his skin, swallowing as they cord and flex, a testimony of the raw power he carries in his broad body.

There’s a wine dark bruise spilling across his back, puddling just beneath the thick ridge of his shoulder blade. You should be used to it, you know. You've become an astronomer of sorts, can trace the constellation of scars he’s collected through the years without looking, but the star map of his skin is ever changing, new scars always blooming into being, scattered stark and raised across his body. You will never grow entirely used to it.

You putter around, preparing for an early night. There’s a quiet, familiar crackle of flames, just for a breath. Igni, then. You glance over your shoulder.

Geralt steps into the copper tub and the steam curls up around him, winding up the trellis of his thick thighs before fading into the air. Your breath catches. The firelight throws him into stark relief, kisses golden across his scarred skin, shadows the cut of his hip. It is easy to be blinded by the sheer strength of him, the way his muscles ripple and bunch.

There is more to him, though. There always has been. He sinks into the water, wearing weariness like a cloak, something silken and heavy that lines every inch of him. “Fuck,” he groans, tilting his head back as the water envelops him.

He cracks open an eye as you pad to the washtub. His golden gaze always reminds you of sunlight; you can feel it warm on your skin each time he looks at you.

“Budge up,” you say, stooping to press a kiss at the corner of his lips.  

“Demanding little thing.”

“Yes,” you say, starting to strip.

Geralt grunts, watching with interest as you bare your skin, reaching out to trace wet fingers over the curve of your hip, dipping low to drag his thumb against the crease where your thigh and hip meet.

You pull in a soft breath, the callused pad of his thumb catching on the silk of your skin. Geralt looks up at you, and the softness of the early dawn is in his eyes, those hushed hours when the world belongs to just the two of you tucked secret into his gaze.

“Move,” you chide, nudging at him gently.

He grumbles but sits up to let you settle behind him in the tub. It’s not the most graceful thing you’ve ever done, but it’s worth it to have your thighs bracket his hips, his wet skin slick against yours.

A hush drapes over the two of you like the night sky, encompassing and tender. You pull Geralt’s hair loose, the strands gone silvery at the water’s touch. It flows over your fingers like moonlight. You hum to yourself as you work delicately at the knots, knowing your soft touch unravels more than just the tangles.

Geralt is quiet, but you have long learned to hear the words in his silence.

You coax him forward and sink your soapy hands back into his hair, your fingers slow and firm against his scalp. You dig your thumbs in the wide, knotted column of his neck and drag them up to the base of his skull.

“Fuck,” Geralt mutters, his voice thick gravel. You huff a little laugh.

You rinse the lather from his hair slowly. The water slips over him, waterfalls over skin and scars alike. You press a kiss to a ropey scar that winds fat over the ridge of his shoulder, the feel of it familiar and foreign in the same breath, like a dream fading from memory as you wake. You card your fingers through his hair before weaving it into a heavy braid.  It’s an intricate pattern, one that anyone from your village would tease you for, a declaration without words.

Geralt has never asked about it, but you think he knows.

You recline against the tub’s high side, tugging at Geralt gently until he follows you. His broad back is warm against your chest, and you can feel each breath he takes, how it ebbs and flows like the tide. You don’t need words, not right now.

He sinks into you, into the cradle of your body, lets you envelop him like water. You can feel the exhaustion melting into something softer, seeping from him like poison from a wound.

You close your eyes and wrap your arms around him, keep him close.

The world makes him weary, you know.

You will always be a place for him to rest.

taglist: @beautifuluniversityhoagieslime @writingstudent  @ayamenimthiriel @bumblingandblooming @sageandberries-png @alwayshave-faith @nonamejustshame @1950schick  @bucksgoat @whitewolfandthefox @tutuwho @inber @mstgsmy @hina-chans-stuff @riviawitch3r @yespolkadotkitty @weaponizedvirtue @raspberrydreamclouds @consultingdetextive @theunwantedomega @restingnurseface @msgeorgiarae @fairytale07

[highlifeboat]

"Stitched and Covered" is based on Russian Criminal's idiom, meaning "Done, without a trace left behind".

And Washtub is just rhimes with it😁

I like the thought Stiched and Covered had actual thought put into it and then they were just like "Wait we need a third name for the round kid"

"Washtub"

"Perfect"

[welcome-to-mauveburry]

“My first yard guide! This is based off of the witch hut set-up that I made for Nan on my island! Images are from Nookazon, Nookipedia, and Canva! Feel free to comment if you're confused as to what items are depicted!”

Since there isn’t a character limit on tumblr, I can freely list what items I chose!

Plants!

Flat mushroom

Cedar tree

Skinny mushroom

Round mushroom

Yellow cosmos

Red cosmos

To add the mushrooms, you can just grab one from your stock and drop it, but be careful! Too many items dropped on the ground will negatively affect your island rating.

Furniture!

Pink star clock

Ordinary mush log

White mush lamp (I also used blue and ordinary ones!)

Simple well

Old-fashioned washtub

Wooden bucket

I’ve seen a technique online where people turn the star clock backwards to hide the hands from view. This is what I did, and what I would recommend if you just want the “star” and not the “clock” part.

I also have a list of gifts that I want to give Nan to help her embrace the “witchy” aesthetic that I had in mind when decorating her yard. Let me know if you want to see that as well!

[disneyat34]

Dumbo at 34

A review by Adam D. Jaspering

We remember things as we want to remember them. Memories distort perception and perception distorts reality. Childhood is especially remembered well. If not the entire childhood, elements. People romanticize memories from the feelings they evoke, and discard the reality. 

The circus is a prime example. The circus was once a staple of American pleasure. It brought entertainment, excitement, and exotic animals to small towns across the US. In days before the internet, before TV, and before movies were mainstream, it was a necessity. 

People remember the old-timey charm, the whimsical environments and otherworldly aura. Nobody wants to remember the adverse working conditions, the high rate of injury, or the gross abuse of animals. Nobody remembers the smell of port-a-potties or the heaps of animal manure. People remember the calliopes and cotton candy. 

It’s quite appropriate Dumbo takes place at a circus. Everybody remembers the movie fondly, but nobody seems to acknowledge its flaws. It’s heralded uncontested as a Disney masterpiece despite a number of problematic issues.

For starters, the film is only 64 minutes in length. This includes the opening credits. From a logistical standpoint, one can understand the purpose. Disney Studios took a financial hit from Pinocchio and Fantasia. They needed something not only profitable, but cheap. The same way that a three-wheeled car saves money on tires.

The story of Dumbo is one of growth and confidence when faced with adversity and doubt. However, the plot is about a young elephant finding an act in a circus. Dumbo tries, and he fails. He tries again, he fails again. Finally, he tries and he succeeds. An entire plot thread seems missing from the film. Dumbo learning to fly (both literally and figuratively) should support a larger narrative.

There are no stakes for Dumbo. His failures don’t affect the circus’s income or popularity. Dumbo is ostracized, but still cared for as well as any other animal in the show. He is ridiculed, but still performs every night. 

The movie ends before any growth or change is displayed by the secondary characters. Everybody likes Dumbo once he can fly, but do they like him, or do they like his profitability and popularity? If a lion with an extra long tail is born, will he be mocked until he earns respect too?

Everybody in the circus feels comfortable calling him “Dumbo” at the movie’s end. Canonically, his official name is Jumbo Jr, named so by his mother. Everybody calls him Dumbo, a deliberate insult. The name sticks, even for the viewing audience. Either Dumbo begrudgingly accepts this epithet, or reclaims it. Either way, at least his mother should refuse it.

Dumbo’s mother is Mrs Jumbo, a pariah and outcast among the other circus elephants. What causes this exclusion is never explained or hinted at. The other elephants are just jerks. She has no friends, no confidantes, and is apparently widowed; there is never a mention or allusion of a Mr Jumbo. She has nobody in her life. This is presumably why she is so desperate to become a mother at the movie’s inception.

The film begins with a muster of storks delivering babies to various circus animals. It’s a cartoon staple and a very convenient workaround, explaining the miracle of a baby without the depiction of childbirth or implications of procreation. It also justifies how Dumbo is born despite there being no male elephants anywhere in the circus.

For whatever reason, these storks all deliver their parcels on the same night. All except for Mrs Jumbo’s coveted baby elephant. Baby Dumbo is delivered the following day. After seeing everyone else enjoying their children. After her hopes are dashed. There’s no explanation why the stork arrives late, well after the circus is dismantled and loaded aboard a train. Dumbo is delivered a day late for the sake of drama.

The train itself is almost a character itself. It has a name: Casey Jr. It has a face. It emotes. It speaks. But can he be rightfully called a character? Casey Jr doesn’t interact with other characters. He has no goals or desires besides acting and moving like an ordinary train. It’s an odd design choice, leaving Casey Jr halfway between being a robot and the pathetic fallacy.

Casey Jr is an interpretation of the famed children’s story, The Little Engine That Could. Casey Jr even uses the famous line, “I think I can, I think I can” as he climbs a hill. The story’s most famous interpretation was a 1930s picture book by Watty Piper (a name one could only have in the 1930s). The character and story itself belongs to the public domain. 

It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody at Disney Studios tried and failed to make an animated short based on the story. As consolation, they retrofitted the character for a bit part in an unrelated, developing film. The cumbersomely named 'Little Engine That Could' was renamed ‘Casey Jr,’ and a new character is added to Dumbo's universe. A character Dumbo never meets or interacts with, and has no bearing on the plot. If nothing else, he adds five minutes to Dumbo’s anemic runtime.

Design is one of Dumbo’s weakest points. Human characters are hyper-stylized caricatures of actual people. Perhaps intentionally, so we empathize more with the comparatively realistic animals. But the animators went too far. The Ringmaster is so rotund, he seems inflated. The clowns have bizarre proportions which are somehow reigned in by their baggy costumes and floppy shoes. The rowdy child who assaults Dumbo looks more like a chimpanzee than a boy. 

The character of Timothy Q Mouse is perplexing. Is he employed by the circus, or just a circus enthusiast who hangs around the fairgrounds after hours? What would a circus gain from hiring a mouse? Why does he dress like a bandleader? Does this imply an unseen mouse marching band? He never displays any musical ability. He’s there because the movie needs him to be there.

Being Dumbo’s sole friend is Timothy’s secondary purpose. His primary purpose is to outwardly verbalize the thoughts and emotions of Dumbo. Our protagonist is mute throughout the film and most characters avoid talking to Dumbo directly. Without Timothy, Dumbo would stare at camera sadly for the movie’s run.

The circus folk themselves are weird, and not just their physical attributes. The Ringmaster is a bombastic Italian man who, as Timothy describes, “never had an idea in his life.” He seems genuine, eager to entertain his audience with an entertaining and original show. His real malice is never workshopping ideas. He will not hesitate to endanger the lives of his employees or animals on his fanciful whims. 

Can six full-grown elephants balance on a rubber ball? Who knows. Let’s put it in the show. Is it safe to have a baby elephant drop twenty feet into a washtub full of shaving cream? We’ll find out. Is it a good idea to start a fire underneath a canvas tent for the sake of a firefighter sketch? The audience likes it, so who cares? Go stand next to the fire, clowns.

There’s an old adage about doing anything for a laugh, but the clowns from Dumbo take it to a sociopathic extreme. The clowns develop an entire act around humiliating Dumbo. When the skit is a success, they drunkenly decide to put Dumbo in more humiliating situations and more precarious stunts.

It’s implied the clowns are the low men in the circus’s caste; those who cannot perform elsewhere are subjected to the humiliation of clowndom. Does the scorn beget the malice, or did the malice beget the scorn? 

Perhaps this is why the clowns are never shown as actual humans. Throughout the movie, they either appear in their grotesque, make-up clad personas, or in various states of undress as silhouettes inside a circus tent. At all times, they are either 100% clown or some spectral figure. They are never seen as human, because there is certainly no humanity to them.

However, the most questionable employees are the laborers. The laborers are not entertainers; they have no face time with any circus patrons. And yet, they are the most important employees of the circus. They are responsible for unloading the train and erecting the many circus structures. 

These laborers, tasked with the most arduous and backbreaking of work, are all large black men. As a stylistic choice, they are all depicted faceless. Not even worthy of dignity, they are robbed of any identity and distinguishing characteristics beyond skin color. 

To cushion our objections, the laborers sing about how much they like the work. The song is no comfort. They sing about being illiterate. They sing about being underpaid, and routinely subject to wage theft. They sing about how its their very nature to be irresponsible with money. They literally use the word “slave,” and “ape” to describe their circumstances. Thank you, 1940s.

The only other black characters are a murder of crows introduced in act three. These crows must be less racist in depiction and demeanor than the laborers, right? They couldn't possibly be worse, right? Then one learns the leader of the avian posse was named “Jim Crow” on all Disney material until the 1960s. 

The entire Civil Rights Movement needed to happen, but somebody eventually realized a children’s cartoon character named after the most provocative blackface character in history, the namesake of the American laws that enforced segregation, was a bad idea. It didn’t help Jim was voiced by a white actor. Cliff Edwards voiced Jim Crow (later renamed Dandy Crow), the same actor also voiced Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. Jiminy Cricket has appeared regularly as a beloved figure in Disney merchandise and material. Dandy Crow has not.

To Disney’s credit, the other crows were voiced by actual black actors. Although, one has to wonder if the AAVE was written into the screenplay, or if the director asked the actors to create it on the spot. There’s no good answer.

The crows’ musical number was performed by the all-black Hall Johnson Choir (with the exception of Edwards’s vocals). Their number, When I See an Elephant Fly, is one of the better pieces of music in the Disney catalog. It's full of jazz scatting and clever wordplay. It’s a shame its existence is marred by its racially charged source.

How an oversized pair of ears grants the ability to fly is not important. It’s a cartoon. The ears are a means to an end: the physical feature that made Dumbo a laughingstock also granted him a most unique ability. Differences make us strong. It’s a good moral (even if the film is hypocritical).

The depiction of the moral’s resolution, however, raises eyebrows. Upon discovering he has the ability to fly, Dumbo seizes the opportunity to take revenge on those who wronged him. He circles around the big top, swooping at the ringmaster, scaring the clowns, shooting peanuts at the other elephants like bullets from a machine gun. ‘Make your enemies pay,’ is the takeaway. Suffer all, enemies of Dumbo.

Some may argue Dumbo’s character arc is not redemption for himself, but for his mother. Mrs Jumbo spanks a young boy who assaults her infant son. The circus folk misinterpret this act as a rampage. She’s is subsequently shackled and imprisoned for the forseeable future. 

Even after being deemed hazardous and mad, Mrs Jumbo is never sent away. There is no indication of punishment beyond isolation (why the circus keeps a dangerous rampaging elephant on circus grounds is a creative liberty). The true punishment is being separated from her son.

The movie ends with Dumbo as the star of the show. Everyone sings his praises, he has his own personal train car, and Mrs Jumbo is freed. The question is, why is Mrs Jumbo freed? Just because Dumbo is beloved, why is Mrs Jumbo’s perception as a threat forgotten? Why is she forgiven because her son is popular? Dumbo cannot speak, how can he serve as a character witness? Why does Dumbo's achievement redeem his mother's actions? The writers delivered a happy ending by solving a problem that was never actually solved.

Dumbo is a film full of illogical scenes and developments. It's grandfathered into the cultural pantheon despite outdated imagery and storytelling. It has good intentions, utilizing themes of overcoming adversity, the endurance of familial love, and appreciating each other's differences. But these good intentions are drowned in too many narrative shortcuts and a sloppy execution. It’s a pleasant movie the less you remember, and most people’s memories are hazy. What’s more appropriate from a film whose most famous scene is a surreal drunken musical hallucination?

Fantasia Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pinocchio Dumbo