#winter socks for men in poland

[myselfariana]

One of the popular wholesale winter socks supplier has come up with a collection of such premium socks that you can browse through.

[earnestly-endlessly]

Hi! Do you have any Cherik Army AUs? I've managed to find just 3.

Hi Anon, thanks for the ask. I found some good Army AUs, though some might not quite fall into the category of 'Army AU'. There are, surprisingly, few Army AUs that I have found, whereas there are several military and war AUs, but those don't necessarily involve an army. I did include a variety that involve an army in one way or another, though some fit the bill better than others. I hope you find some that you enjoy!!

Cherik Army AU

I Want to Guard Your Dreams And Visions – luninosity

Summary: I was reading Barbara Hambly’s Abigail Adams mystery novels, and then Erik/Charles American Revolutionary War AU happened. Little snippet in which they share a tent, drink coffee, and provide support to each other.

The Eggnog Riot – Sophia_Bee

Summary: 1826. The American Military Academy in West Point. The day after Christmas. Cadet Erik Lehnsherr wakes up naked with a certain cadet Xavier sprawled across his chest. He can only blame the eggnog.

No Man’s Land – ikeracity

Summary: It's 1914 in Ypres, Belgium. British soldier Charles Xavier has been in the trenches for four months of endless artillery fire, bone-deep cold, and constant fear of the enemy. But on Christmas Eve, the gunfire falls silent, and they climb out of their trenches for a Christmas truce. Charles, of course, meets Erik, the German soldier across the way.

My Land’s Only Borders Lie Around My Heart – pseudoneems

Summary: WW1 Christmas truce of 1914. Opposing soldiers Erik and Charles meet.

Le soldat – Iggyassou

Summary: Erik is in the trenches, trying to survive the war so that he can go back to Charles, his young lover waiting for him back at home.

Names – Squeegee

Summary: In the summer of 1917, British soldier Charles Xavier finds himself taking cover in a shell crater.

Not sure if the 'graphic' tag applies or not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Quell a storm with pen and ink – patroclux

Summary: Charles had spared his life. That was not something he could easily repay.

They wrote letters to each other for two years, until Charles was pulled out of the war from a sudden illness and Erik remained to fight for a cause he didn't believe in. One that ultimately had no effect; one that stole away four years of his life.

Traumatized and persecuted, Erik applied for a post at Janus, a lighthouse in the middle of the Irish Sea. He thought being alone would do him good.

Despite the letters and despite the love, Erik didn't expect Charles to find him.

Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage – MonstrousRegiment

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a spy in the SS, and his British liaison is strategist Charles Xavier. Their relationship from the moment they meet to a year after the end of the war.

Theme and Variations: War – ninemoons42

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a musical prodigy and a man destined for great things and great stages. But his life is shattered by a terrible accident that leaves him blind and trying to find his way back to his life, his music, and his place in the world.

Then he meets Charles Xavier, an agent of Section 8 of the Military Intelligence Directorate of Providence, and he finds himself listening in to clandestine radio transmissions and clicking Morse code, and these sounds are part and parcel of a war that can only take place in the shadows and the hidden places of history.

Strib nicht von Mir – ravenoftheninerealms

Summary: A squad of Allied Forces, led by Charles Xavier, liberates the Nazi concentration camp where Erik was being held prisoner.

Cold foxholes, warm hearts – oddegg

Summary: Basically, this is Band of Mutants. A little slice of life in Bastogne.

Photographs and Memories – tirsynni

Summary: When war-battered Erik Lehnsherr met Charles Xavier, the man kneeling in the dirt and whispering to a lost refugee child, Erik feared his days of running from his deviance was done.

Marching Home – Quietbang

Summary: For a prompt on the meme asking for fic dealing with the fact that, in comics canon, Charles served in the Korean war.

War meant something different to this generation, Charles knew.

Crash on the Levy (Down in the Flood) – Quietbang

Summary: “This is much bigger than you think. You're in the middle of a war, and you don't even realize, do you?”

He pauses, and answers his own question.“No, of course you don't. How silly of me."

The Knight and the Dagger – Dow

Summary: A Lieutenant in the Soviet Army, Erik Lensherr had no other goals than to find the man that killed his parents. But when a discovery yields a little boy with wings like an angel, Erik is shocked to realize that he isn’t alone. There are other people like him, both dangerous and alluring.

Lifelong Service – Pookaseraph

Summary: Erik thinks he should be the one to teach their recruits hand-to-hand combat; Charles makes a persuasive argument to the contrary.

Footsteps of uprooted lovers – ninemoons42

Summary: Against a turbulent backdrop of artistic, social, and political upheaval, the playwright Charles Xavier and the photographer Erik Lehnsherr find themselves meeting under less-than-polite circumstances, but part rather more amicably than they'd met.

When they find each other again in a Barcelona that is falling inexorably toward war, they find themselves taking up arms, each in his own way, and together they join a struggle for freedom, for love, and for their very lives.

Dear Soldier – Lindstrom, ToriTC198

Summary: "Dear Soldier,

I pray that this package finds you well. The organization gave us a list of odds and ends that you might need, but I thought that a person so far from home might appreciate something more than soap and tube socks."

When Charles' school decides to send care packages to the soldiers fighting in Vietnam, he chooses to also include a letter and a few personal touches. When Staff Sergeant Erik is the recipient of that particular care package it will spur a relationship that will change them both.

Fortunate Son – blueink13

Summary: he days leading up to and during Alex's deployment in Vietnam. Everyone handles it in their own way. Some handle better than others.

You’re Here – Deshonana

Summary: Everyone decides its a good idea not to tell Erik when his boyfriend comes home from the military.

Welcome Home –  loveydoveyecstasy

Summary: It's been two years since Charles was deployed to Afghanistan, and Erik can't wait to pick him up at the airport.

When Secrets have Secrets – ximeria

Summary: The arguments that take place in General Xavier's office when General Lehnsherr has a bad day are legendary. Quite frankly, no one really knows what's going on and if the two men have it their way, no one ever will.

Quiet Company – Sophia_Bee

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is always on the move. He's spent the last many years going from war torn country to war torn country telling the stories of the people there through photographs. Then one of his pictures is selected as a winner for the Pulitzer Prize and Erik finds himself stuck in London for longer than he wants. He ends up with an assignment to photograph Charles Xavier, a wealthy philanthropist who is intrigued to find himself working with a Pulitzer-winning war photographer. Erik is far less intrigued by someone he considers privileged and out of touch. Both of their lives are about to change in ways they couldn't imagine.

The City is Ours – RedStockings

Summary: Erik felt his heart racing with excitement, lightened, and for once felt joyful. Charles had looked at him, really looked at him, and there had been something there, a knowing of a kind. As the soldiers laughed amongst each other, and joked each other about who would succeed in marrying the boy, Erik made himself a silent vow. Charles was going to be his, and nothing would keep him from having him. He’d marry him, and he’d save him, and Charles would love him for it.

Not even the war could keep them apart... right?

Sign of the Times – dsrobertson

Summary: Casablanca-ish AU.

Charles Xavier meets Erik Lehnsherr in Paris, 1937. They spend the next two years with one another, stupid in-love, until war comes heavy in September 1939. Erik leaves for Poland and the Resistance movement there, promising to return. Charles is left in Paris, where Nazi jackboots march in, Summer of 1940. He becomes a member of the underground French Resistance, publishing illegal newsletters, leaflets, until news comes through in February 1942: Erik is dead. Charles throws himself into more dangerous work, meeting with Communists, helping derail a German train, and he does too much, goes too far. His friends find him safe passage out of France, out across the Mediterranean, to Morocco, Casablanca. It is here he finds Erik, alive.

The Waste Land – nekosmuse

Summary: The White Queen and her Shadow King sit on their throne, safe behind the psionic shields of the Walled City. The armies of Genosha batter uselessly at the gates, a war locked in stalemate. Magneto, camped in the frozen mud, receives word the Citadel intends to send a telepath to the front lines. The same telepath he met two years ago, who sat across a carved wooden chess set and offered Magneto the first friendly smile in a lifetime. The same telepath who still haunts his dreams.

Winter Comes With a Knife – RedStockings

Summary: It apparently came to no one’s surprise that the war-mage Erik Lehnsherr took up residence in the Dark Keep. I knew he was going to choose my sister, Raven, to be his apprentice so why wouldn’t he let me go? What did he want from me?

My name is Charles Xavier, I can read minds and use magic. I’ve met Kings and Queens, mages and magic users. I’ve travelled through lay-lines and jumped through the Dark Void… but none of that really matters.

I am leading an army into war, I am scared and I never wanted this. I’ve come to realise that what I want, rode into my life when I was still a child. Now he’s out there, ready to charge into battle. Ready to die for me.

Polaris – LastAmericanMermaid

Summary: Charles Xavier is 19 years old, doe-eyed and soft; Erik Lehnsherr is 24 years old, steely-hard and bitter. One is a soldier, the other a refugee. Both are mutants. There will be pain, oh yes.

(An AU in which Charles is a wounded British soldier, Erik is the German hiding in France who nurses him back to health, and the contents of this fic are best read to the soundtrack of Atonement.)

Note: Unfinished

MEDIC! – paladin_danse

Summary: A British airborne medic finds himself alone and afraid behind enemy lines. When he decides to save the life of an S.S. German officer he finds wounded in the snow, he has no idea the choice he has made will alter the course of the war—and their lives—forever.

Note: Sadly unfinished

Suicide is Painlesss – weethreequarter 

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr did not become a doctor to pick bullets out of children. Unfortunately the US Army had other ideas.

Stuck in the middle of the Korean War, Erik and his fellow civilian surgeons have to battle not only the war, but also weather, mud, and boredom. And that's without mentioning Major Sebastian Shaw who thinks war is the best thing that's ever happened to him and never should've been allowed to pick up a scalpel, or Colonel William Stryker who may or may not work for the CIA and probably doesn't even know himself.

Throw in new arrival Captain Charles Xavier, and Erik is in for a very interesting war.

Note: Unfinished

A Light That Never Goes Out – R_Cookie

Summary: It was meant to be the war to end all wars; these two men were never supposed to meet. One a German Jew, the other a British surgeon. The odds that their paths should cross were next to none - but War defies the expected. It always has, and always will.

From the beaches of Dunkirk to the treacherous slopes of Monte Cassino - this is their story.

WWII AU.

Note: Unfinished

[greatworldwar2]

• Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

Ravensbrück was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, 90 km (56 mi) north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel).

Construction of the camp began in November 1938 by the order of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler and was unusual in that it was intended exclusively to hold female inmates. Ravensbrück first housed prisoners in May 1939, when the SS moved 900 women from the Lichtenburg concentration camp in Saxony. Eight months after the start of World War II the camp's maximum capacity was already exceeded. It underwent major expansion following the invasion of Poland. By the summer of 1941 with the launch of Operation Barbarossa an estimated total of 5,000 women were imprisoned, who were fed gradually decreasing hunger rations. By the end of 1942, the inmate population of Ravensbrück had grown to about 10,000. The greatest number of prisoners at one time in Ravensbrück was probably about 45,000. Between 1939 and 1945, some 130,000 to 132,000 female prisoners passed through the Ravensbrück camp system. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, about 50,000 of them perished from disease, starvation, overwork and despair; some 2,200 were killed in the gas chambers. During the first year of their stay in the camp, from August 1940 to August 1941, roughly 47 women died. During the last year of the camp's existence, about 80 inmates died each day from disease or famine-related causes.

Although the inmates came from every country in German-occupied Europe, the largest single national group in the camp were Polish. In the spring of 1941, the SS authorities established a small men's camp adjacent to the main camp. The male inmates built and managed the gas chambers for the camp in 1944. There were children in the camp as well. At first, they arrived with mothers who were Romani or Jews incarcerated in the camp or were born to imprisoned women. There were few children early on, including a few Czech children from Lidice in July 1942. Later the children in the camp represented almost all nations of Europe occupied by Germany. Between April and October 1944 their number increased considerably, consisting of two groups. One group was composed of Romani children with their mothers or sisters brought into the camp after the Romani camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau was closed. The other group included mostly children who were brought with Polish mothers sent to Ravensbrück after the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Most of these children died of starvation.

Ravensbrück had 70 sub-camps used for slave labour that were spread across an area from the Baltic Sea to Bavaria. Among the thousands executed at Ravensbrück were four members of the British World War II organization Special Operations Executive (SOE): Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort, Lilian Rolfe and Violette Szabo. Other victims included the Roman Catholic nun Élise Rivet, Elisabeth de Rothschild (the only member of the Rothschild family to die in the Holocaust), Russian Orthodox nun St. Maria Skobtsova, the 25-year-old French Princess Anne de Bauffremont-Courtenay, Milena Jesenská, lover of Franz Kafka, and Olga Benário, wife of the Brazilian Communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. Among the survivors of Ravensbrück was author Corrie ten Boom, arrested with her family for harbouring Jews in their home in Haarlem, the Netherlands. SOE agents who survived were Yvonne Baseden and Eileen Nearne, who was a prisoner in 1944 before being transferred to another work camp and escaping. Englishwoman Mary Lindell and American Virginia d'Albert-Lake, both leaders of escape and evasion lines in France, survived. Ravensbrück survivors who wrote memoirs about their experiences include Gemma La Guardia Gluck, sister of New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, as well as Germaine Tillion, a Ravensbrück survivor from France who published her own eyewitness account of the camp in 1975. Approximately 500 women from Ravensbrück were transferred to Dachau, where they were assigned as labourers to the Agfa-Commando; the women assembled ignition timing devices for bombs, artillery ammunition and V-1 and V-2 rockets.

Camp commandants included SS-Standartenführer Günther Tamaschke from May 1939 to August 1939, SS-Hauptsturmführer Max Koegel from January 1940 till August 1942, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Suhren from August 1942 until the camp's liberation at the end of April 1945. Besides the male Nazi administrators, the camp staff included over 150 female SS guards assigned to oversee the prisoners at some point during the camp's operational period. Ravensbrück also served as a training camp for over 4,000 female overseers. The technical term for a female guard in a Nazi camp was an Aufseherin. The women either stayed in the camp or eventually served in other camps.

When a new prisoner arrived at Ravensbrück she was required to wear a colour-coded triangle (a winkel) that identified her by category, with a letter sewn within the triangle indicating the prisoner's nationality. For example, Polish women wore red triangles, denoting a political prisoner, with a letter "P" (by 1942, Polish women became the largest national component at the camp). Soviet prisoners of war, and German and Austrian Communists wore red triangles; common criminals wore green triangles; and Jehovah's Witnesses were labelled with lavender triangles. Prostitutes, Romani, homosexuals, and women who refused to marry were lumped together, with black triangles. Jewish women wore yellow triangles but sometimes, unlike the other prisoners, they wore a second triangle for the other categories. For example, quite often it was for rassenschande ("racial pollution"). Some detainees had their hair shaved, such as those from Czechoslovakia and Poland, but other transports did not. In 1943, for instance, a group of Norwegian women came to the camp (Norwegians/Scandinavians were ranked by the Nazis as the purest of all Aryans). None of them had their hair shaved. Between 1942 and 1943, almost all Jewish women from the Ravensbrück camp were sent to Auschwitz in several transports, following Nazi policy to make Germany Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). Based on the Nazis' incomplete transport list Zugangsliste, documenting 25,028 names of women sent by Nazis to the camp, it is estimated that the Ravensbrück prisoner population's ethnic structure comprised: Poles 24.9%, Germans 19.9%, Jews 15.1%, Soviets 15.0%, French 7.3%, Romani 5.4%, other 12.4%. The Gestapo further categorised the inmates as: political 83.54%, anti-social 12.35%, criminal 2.02%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.11%, rassenschande (racial defilement) 0.78%, other 0.20%.

One form of resistance was the secret education programmes organised by prisoners for their fellow inmates. All national groups had some sort of programme. The most extensive were among Polish women, wherein various high school-level classes were taught by experienced teachers. In 1939 and 1940, camp living conditions were acceptable: laundry and bed linen were changed regularly and the food was adequate, although in the first winter of 1939/40, limitations began to be noticeable. Not long after conditions quickly deteriorated. Starting in the summer of 1942, medical experiments were conducted without consent on 86 women; 74 of them were Polish inmates. Two types of experiments were conducted on the Polish political prisoners. The first type tested the efficacy of sulfonamide drugs. These experiments involved deliberate cutting into and infecting of leg bones and muscles with virulent bacteria, cutting nerves, introducing substances like pieces of wood or glass into tissues, and fracturing bones. Out of the 74 Polish victims, called Kaninchen, Króliki, Lapins, or Rabbits by the experimenters, five died as a result of the experiments, six with unhealed wounds were executed, and (with assistance from other inmates) the rest survived with permanent physical damage.

All inmates were required to do heavy labor ranging from strenuous outdoor jobs to building the V-2 rocket parts for Siemens. The SS also built several factories near Ravensbrück for the production of textiles and electrical components. The women forced to work at Ravensbrück concentration camp's industries used their skills in sewing and their access to the factory to make soldiers' socks. They purposely adjusted the machines to make the fabric thin at the heel and the toes, causing the socks to wear prematurely at those places when the German soldiers marched. For the women in the camp, it was important to retain some of their dignity and sense of humanity. Therefore, they made necklaces, bracelets, and other personal items, like small dolls and books, as keepsakes. These personal effects were of great importance to the women and many of them risked their lives to keep these possessions. In January 1945 the SS also transformed a hut near the crematorium into a gas chamber where the Germans gassed several thousand prisoners before the camp's liberation in April 1945; in particular they killed some 3600 prisoners from the Uckermark police camp for "deviant" girls and women, which was taken under the control of the Ravensbrück SS at the start of 1945. In January 1945, prior to the liberation of the remaining camp survivors, an estimated 45,000 female prisoners and over 5,000 male prisoners remained at Ravensbrück, including children and those transported from satellite camps only for gassing, which was being performed in haste.

With the Soviet Red Army's rapid approach in the spring of 1945, the SS leadership decided to remove as many prisoners as they could, in order to avoid leaving live witnesses behind who could testify as to what had occurred in the camp. At the end of March, the SS ordered all physically capable women to form a column and exit the camp in the direction of northern Mecklenburg, forcing over 24,500 prisoners on a death march.Some 2,500 ethnic German prisoners remaining were released, and 500 women were handed over to officials of the Swedish and Danish Red Cross shortly after the evacuation. On April 30th, 1945, fewer than 3,500 malnourished and sickly prisoners were discovered alive at the camp when it was liberated by the Red Army. The survivors of the death march were liberated in the following hours by a Soviet scout unit. The SS guards, female Aufseherinnen guards and former prisoner-functionaries with administrative positions at the camp were arrested at the end of the war by the Allies and tried at the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials from 1946 to 1948. 16 of the accused were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.

On the site of the former concentration camp there is a memorial today. In 1954, the sculptor Will Lammert was commissioned to design the memorial site between the crematorium, the camp wall, and Schwedtsee Lake. Up to his death in 1957, the artist created a large number of sculpted models of women. Since 1984, the former SS headquarters have housed the Museum des antifaschistischen Widerstandskampfes (Museum of Anti-fascist Resistance). After the withdrawal from Germany of the Soviet Army, which up to 1993 had been using parts of the former camp for military purposes, it became possible to incorporate more areas of the camp into the memorial site. Today, the former accommodation blocks for the female guards are a youth hostel and youth meeting centre.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#220-211)

#220: Yiannis Dimitras -- Feggari Kalokerino (Greece 1981)

"Κοίτα τον έρημο γυαλό Σου ψιθυρίζω σ’ αγαπώ Τώρα θα χτίσω εκκλησιά Για της αγάπης τα τρελά παιδιά" "Look at the desolate seashore I whisper you “I love you” Now I’ll build a church For the crazy children of love" The opening shot, the rose on the piano, set the stage for such a romantic journey under the summer moon. And the soundscape created through the piano and instrumental throw us into this endearing scene, one which is also tinged with melancholy. Feggari Kalokerino is not only an ode to this beauty, but also an admission of craziness for falling in love. With such pretty lyrics, one can't help but get enveloped in this pretty world, where everything is so beautiful. The combination of Yiannis' singing and the woman's piano playing is also quite cute, albeit with some...interesting undertones to it. Either way, it's classical yet timeless.

Personal ranking: 3rd/20 Actual ranking: 8th/20 in Dublin

#219: Liliane Saint-Pierre -- Soldiers of Love (Belgium 1987)

“Neem elkaars handen Smeed nou die banden toe Hoor je die verre kreet? Geen mens vraagt dat leed” “Take each other’s hands Come on, weld those bonds Do you hear that distant scream? Nobody asks for that suffering” Top ten opening themes of anime, haha. It also helps that "Soldiers of Love" is the English translation for the song "Ai no Senshi" from Sailor Moon (which I've listened to many times but haven't gotten that far into the anime...). That said, Soldiers of Love packs a punch with the instrumentation and the high intensity of the melody. The lyrics are a powerful battle cry, albeit one which advocates for peace amongst people. There’s so much energy and determination in Belgium’s host entry, one would prepare themselves for battle for a good cause. Liliane really delivers this earnestly and with determination, though sometimes the military-style get-up stands out to me the most when I watch it again. Though those two guitarists turning their ends as if they were firing guns is a cool thing to behold.

It's one of the host entries that is better than the song which one it for the country, which is something because J'aime la vie is considered a fan favorite.

Personal ranking: 6th/22 Actual ranking: 11th/22 in Brussels

#218: Beth -- Dime (Spain 2003)

"Cuántas veces te llamé en la noche Cuántas veces te busqué Por mis recuerdos yo vuelvo Y no pierdo la fe" "How many times did I call you in the night? How many times did I look for you? I return for my memories And I don’t lose faith" For some reason, Dime reminds me of "Die for You" from two years earlier--both feature modern pop bops with ethnic influences, both imploring about the state of a relationship (while they both want to make it wor. And they're both in the same key! At the same time, Dime holds its own as one of the strongest 2000s entries from Spain. They had similar flamenco/Latin inspired entries in 2001 and 2004, which were highlights in rather mediocre years because of their uniqueness overall. But the guitar flourishes here work well with the dance beat, and it provides its own fun.

Personal ranking: 3rd/26 Actual ranking: 8th/26 in Riga

#217: Svala -- Paper (Iceland 2017)

“Drawing every bit of my truth Colour me in with your blue” I didn’t actually pay attention to this song in the follow-up to the 2017 contest. I also didn’t watch the semi-finals, which could’ve led to me neglecting the song entirely otherwise, especially I've heard a lot about Blackbird during that time. However, the summer after the contest, I discovered the song and listened to it. And I liked it! (And then I got hooked with Svala's other songs through her different groups) I was interested particularly in the lyrics, which discussed a fight between one’s mental demons and anxiety. I like the English version more than the Icelandic one; the latter is a bit more optimistic on winning against the battle whereas the former really takes the issue seriously. The production, while a bit staid, added to the feeling of helplessness with its electronic coldness. The staging also tries to incorporate this, though it didn't work in making it stand out. (I did like Svala's cape and makeup, though!) While I do love "Hear them Calling" a lot, I had a more interesting journey with Paper--it grew until it became something I highly enjoyed. Personal ranking: 6th/42 Actual ranking: DNQ -- 15th in the first semi-final in Kyiv

#216: Live Report -- Why Do I Always Get it Wrong? (United Kingdom 1989)

“You can do what you want to do now...” Honestly, this has to be one of my favorite British entries ever. While "Go" from the previous year gets a lot of acclaim because of its songwriting and Scott's performance (along with how it ended up second in the end), "Why Do I Always Get it Wrong?" is better on how it envelops a mood and could actually be found from this era (though it sadly didn't do too well commercially afterwards, sigh)

Whenever I do something wrong, or self-hate, this is the song I turn to a lot. The synthesizers drew me in—it fit well with the late 1980s-early 1990s sound elsewhere. It's also helped that Celine performed "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" earlier in the contest, which piqued my interest. And while Ray’s ponytail was a choice, it didn’t distract from how he delivered the song.

Despite getting more 12-points, it ended up losing to Yugoslavia by just six points that year. While not my favorite that year, I think it was the better one of the top three; it equally reflects the times and holds up!

Personal and actual ranking: 2nd/22 in Lausanne

#215: Tommy Nilsson -- En Dag (Sweden 1989)

“En dag vi alla förstår, En dag, när stillheten rår, En dag jag finner din hand, När vägarna möts förstår vi varann,” “One day, we all understand, One day, when silence rules One day, I find your hand When our roads meet, we will understand each other” My two favorites from 1989 are sonically different, diverging between despair and hope. I listen to "Why Do I Always Get it Wrong" a bit more, but "En Dag' would stand out for me in a few different ways, more from being just the optimistic song of the two.

The intro features really good brass, which leads way to the fun instrumental. I like how it builds, and Tommy’s interplay with the backing vocalists is incredibly strong. You get a sense of energy from the both of them as they send the song to new heights.

Basically, it's just glorious!

Personal ranking: 1st/22 Actual ranking: 4th/22 in Lausanne

Final Impressions of 1989: It's a pretty fine year, both in songs in production. There are a number of good songs there, though not many classics which hold out in the long-term (except for Vi maler byen rød, which became famous in Denmark and even became the premise of a musical!). Highlights include an overactive conductor from Turkey, two children, and an awesome interval act involving a crossbow!

#214: Bang -- Stop (Greece 1987)

“Ότι κάνεις για δόξα και λεφτά Δες τι χάνεις, αλλού είναι η χαρά”

“Whatever you do is for fame and money See what you are missing, joy is somewhere else”

I’ve heard this song compared to Wham’s output, especially with its vintage rock-n-roll sound (wake me up before you go go). This doesn’t make it any less bad, with its charming tone and thoughtful lyrics about how a girl who only wants material goods should stop chasing them.

(This is another reason why sometimes, the original-language version is better that any other one--the English version to this song has goes on a completely different tangent)

The performance also falls into vintage aesthetics, with the suits for both Thanos and Vassilis and sock-hop style dresses for the backing vocalists. It's really cute, and the way they dance fits the scene.

On another note, apparently Greeks saw this as a favorite at the time, can someone verify that?

Personal ranking: 5th/22 Actual ranking: 10th/22 in Brussels

#213: Guy Bonnet -- Marie-Blanche (France 1970)

“Nous sommes là dans une douce quiétude Nous avons mis fin à notre solitude Nos corps apprennent de tendres habitudes Et Marie-Blanche est à moi”

“We’re there in a soft stillness We’ve put an end to our loneliness Our bodies learn tender habits And Marie-Blanche is mine”

By 1970, chanson was on its way out; in its place was folk, rock-n-roll (spearheaded in France by Johnny Halladay, who has a great French version of "House of the Rising Sun"), and psychadelia. Within France itself, some of the #1 singles from that year include Comme j'ai toujours envie d'aimer, Let It Be, and Bridge over Troubled Water (a total masterpiece, I tell you).

So, what does one make of Marie-Blanche, in this case?

It's a really sweet love poem, in which Guy declares his love for the girl. and conveys a particularly cute scene. Whenever I listen to this, I envision two lovers cuddling inside while watching the snow fall during the winter. There's a sense of magic and serenity in all this, and the lyrics match the pretty piano melody.

Basically, hits are important to keep the contest alive. But songs like Marie Blanche can pull on the feels in the right ways.

Personal ranking: 2nd/12 Actual ranking: =4th/12 in Amsterdam

#212: Justyna -- Sama (Poland 1995)

“I czuła się tak marnie Poczuła się tak marnie Jakby Bóg, dobry Bóg Nie lubił pcheł..”

“And I feel poor Feeling so poor As if God, the good God Didn’t love little fleas...”

If 1994’s To nie ja represented something classic and hopeful, 1995’s Sama takes it and reverses it. (And in the grand Eurovision timeline, they're only separated by the last song of 1994, Je suis un vrai garcon from France) Instead of a young woman filled with life and singing a decent ballad, we have another one pondering herself, all alone, with nobody to help her.

Also, this is more of an acquired taste with its out-of-tune recordings and Justyna’s scream. But it doesn’t feel out of place within the 1990s, with its alternative influences and production, and I like Sama a lot for that!

Unfortunately, it also caused it to do substantially worse, which is simultaneously explainable and baffling. A good result would've made waves for future Eurovision entries; the 1990s are my favorite decade, but they did misalign quite a bit from the mainstream.

Personal ranking: 7th/23 Actual ranking: 18th/23 in Dublin

#211: The Shadows -- Let Me Be the One (United Kingdom 1975)

"You and I could have an affair/make sweet music, go anywhere"

Isn't this lyric really charming? I couldn't help but have a little giggle because of it; there's a sense of naughtiness (especially with choosing "affair"; are they trying to something illicit?) underneath it.

That said, The Shadows are mainly known for their instrumental rock, but Let Me Be the One has a neat melody line. The rock-n-roll vibe, which could be released within that decade, is light but lovely, and added a jolt of uniqueness to the otherwise poppy contest up to that point. The flubbed line in the beginning ("let me be the one who literally holds you tight", haha) adds to the whole thing, but they were able to carry on, nevertheless.

And while I like all the 1970s winners to some extent, I would switch out "Ding-a-Dong" for Let Me Be the One in terms of winners vs. runners-up; like with Sama, it could've changed the contest in a positive way.

Personal ranking: =3rd/19 Actual ranking: 2nd/19 in Stockholm

[newstfionline]

Friday, February 19, 2021

NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life (AP) A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped to their feet, thrust their arms in the air and cheered in both triumph and relief on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled Perseverance had touched down on the red planet, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months. Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars. Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to drill down and collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside to be retrieved eventually by another rover and brought homeward by another rocket ship.

Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising, new Census report shows (Reuters) The share of Americans working more than one job to make ends meet has been growing over the past two decades, and the pay from second jobs make up a substantial share of workers’ earnings, according to a paper published by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday. An estimated 7.8% of U.S. workers had more than one job as of the first quarter of 2018, up from 6.8% in 1996, according to new data unveiled by the Census bureau. The earnings from the workers’ second jobs make up an average 28% of their total earnings, showing that workers are likely relying on that pay, researchers said. In general, women were more likely to have multiple jobs than men, with 9.1% of women holding multiple jobs as of 2018, compared with 6.6% of men.

Desperate for Light and Warmth (NYT) Halfway through the week that Texas froze over, everything seemed to be in a state of frigid chaos. Some homes had no water at all while others watched it gush from burst pipes into their hallways and living rooms. On Wednesday more than 2.5 million people were still without power [now down to 330,000], while at least twice as many were being told to boil their water. In Houston, Catherine Saenz and her family, like most of their neighbors, have had no power or water for days, as the city remains in the grip of the fiercest winter in memory. But they are fortunate: They have a fireplace. Even fireplaces have to be fed, though, and to keep the two parents, two daughters and two grandmothers from freezing, her husband has spent hours in the afternoon scouring the neighborhood for fallen trees and rotten wood. “I never imagined that we would be in this situation,” said Ms. Saenz, who grew up in Colombia but has lived in Houston through Hurricanes Ike and Harvey. “No one is prepared, it is dangerous and we are very vulnerable.”

A silent killer inside: Carbon monoxide (Washington Post) With no electricity in their home for hours, the Houston family tried to fight off the freezing cold by running their car in the attached garage, authorities say. When Houston police officers entered the property to conduct a welfare check, they found the two adults and two children, police said in a statement Tuesday morning. The woman and girl did not survive, and the man and boy were taken to a hospital. The deaths are among a rising number of reports of people being poisoned by carbon monoxide as Texans face a deadly winter storm that has brought record-low temperatures and demands for electricity that overwhelmed the state’s grid, leaving more than 3.2 million people in the dark and with no heat for more than 24 hours. As more reports of poisoning emerged Tuesday, government officials sounded the alarm. “SPREAD THE WORD: The number of people being admitted to local hospitals for carbon monoxide is rising at a disturbing rate. Do not bring any outdoor appliances (grills, etc.) inside, or run your car inside the garage,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.

Word of flight to Cancun from frozen Texas lands Senator Ted Cruz in hot water (Reuters) U.S. Senator Ted Cruz faced widespread criticism on social media on Thursday after images went viral online that a journalist said showed him flying to a resort in Cancun while his home state of Texas struggled through a deadly deep freeze. Photos circulating on social media appeared to show the Texas Republican in airport line, in a passenger lounge and aboard an airliner. “Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they’ve visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn’t much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing.” former MSNBC anchor David Shuster tweeted shortly after midnight.

Rare Earths (Financial Times) It takes 417 kilograms of rare earth minerals—more difficult-to-obtain bits of the periodic table that have uses in elaborate semiconductors and instrumentation—to build one F-35 fighter jet, a critical set of components that are about to be much harder to find. China is considering an export ban on rare earth minerals, and given that they control about 80 percent of the global supply, that would put Lockheed Martin, which makes the aircraft, in a bit of a pinch. As it stands now, even ore mined in the United States has to be sent to China for refining.

Migrants on the move again in Mexico and Central America (AP) In the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, some 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel. Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed. Latin America’s migrants are on the move again. After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those in daily contact with migrants believe the flow north could return to the high levels seen in late 2018 and early 2019. The difference is that it would happen during a pandemic. The protective health measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, including drastically reduced bedspace at shelters along the route, mean fewer safe spaces for migrants in transit.

Weary of COVID restrictions, Finns take up running in deep snow in socks (Reuters) Finns keen to avoid gyms and other indoor sports venues this winter because of the coronavirus pandemic have found a new way to keep fit—running in the snow wearing no training shoes, just thick woollen socks. Finland has seen particularly heavy snowfall this winter and running outside in just socks provides great exercise as well as a sense of freedom, said Pekka Parviainen, a helicopter pilot and an avid barefoot runner. “This is traditional Finnish crazy stuff, I think we all agree,” said Parviainen. In Finland, where taking a sauna in winter and then running through snow to jump into an ice-cold lake is a traditional pastime, barefoot running has become popular in the past few years during the warmer months. Running in socks through heavy snow, now about half a metre deep in many places, takes this to the next level. Parviainen recommends wearing at least two, preferably three, pairs of woollen socks to get the most out of the run.

Two journalists jailed for two years in Belarus for filming protests (Reuters) A Belarusian court sentenced two Belarusian journalists from Poland-based TV news channel Belsat who filmed protests against President Alexander Lukashenko to two years in prison on Thursday. Katsiaryna Andreyeva, 27, and Darya Chultsova, 23, were detained in an apartment in November from where they had been filming protests taking place over the death of a protester who was killed several days earlier. Both women pleaded not guilty after being accused of orchestrating the demonstrations by filming them. Neighbouring Lithuania urged Minsk to end a “spiral of repression” while Poland said Belarus should end its persecution of journalists. More than 33,000 people have been detained in a violent crackdown on protests against Lukashenko’s rule following a contested election last August that his opponents say was rigged to extend his rule. He has been in office since 1994.

Protesters out again in Myanmar, police use water cannon in capital (Reuters) Protesters were out again across Myanmar on Thursday to denounce the Feb. 1 coup and arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with police resorting to force to disperse crowds, using water cannon in the capital and catapults in a northern town. The daily protests and strikes that have paralysed many government offices show no sign of easing despite a junta promise of a new election and appeals for civil servants to return to work and threats of action if they do not.

Facebook blocks news access in Australia (AP) In a shocking act of retaliation Thursday, Facebook blocked Australians from sharing news, a milestone in the increasingly frantic jockeying between governments, media and powerful tech companies. Australia’s government condemned the decision, which also blocked some government communications, including messages about emergency services, and some commercial pages. The digital platforms fear that what’s happening in Australia will become an expensive precedent for other countries. Facebook took the drastic action after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would make Facebook and Google pay for Australian journalism, said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Facebook said the proposed Australian law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it.” Both Google and Facebook have threatened retaliation if Australia enacts the law, which the government contends will ensure media businesses receive fair payment for their journalism being linked on those platforms.

Jerusalem’s Old City turns white after rare snowfall (Reuters) Jerusalem woke up to the rare experience of seeing its holy sites covered in snow on Thursday, with the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall under a layer of white after an overnight snowstorm. Before dawn children were up hurling snowballs at each other outside the Old City gates, as the faithful trudged to sites holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The snowstorm began on Wednesday evening, leading the authorities to shut down public transportation and block the main road to Jerusalem.

After delay, Israel allows vaccines into Hamas-run Gaza (AP) Israel allowed the Palestinian Authority to deliver the first coronavirus vaccines to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday despite objections from Israeli lawmakers who suggested they be used as a bargaining chip for the release of captives held by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers. Israel has faced international criticism for largely excluding Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza from its highly successful vaccination campaign. It held up the shipment for two days as the government faced questioning from a parliamentary committee before ultimately approving it. The dispute highlights the Palestinians’ reliance on Israel even as they struggle to combat the pandemic on their own.

[vikingcloths]

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[foreverleeah]

The Christmas Tale

Christmas may get covered under the indexes of seasonal joy, present purchasing, and a great deal of nourishment prep stress, however the 2 thousand-year-old occasion remembering the introduction of Jesus has one of the most intricate and fascinating timetables of any occasion with regards to the historical backdrop of the world.

The yearly celebration celebrated on Dec. 24, Dec. 25, January 7, and Jan 19 relying upon section, is both a social and profoundly religious event celebrated by billions of individuals around the globe. From the consideration of the Christmas tree to the yearly present giving, the banquet day that ranges through current history has numerous customs, fantasies, and stories that resound the world over.

As a principle festivity in the Christian ritualistic schedule, it pursues the period of Approach and introduces Christmastide, or The Twelve Days of Christmas. It was first chosen to the particular date in the Western schedule by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian priest who was an abbot in Rome. With Exiguus' exploration and scriptural writings, Jesus' introduction to the world was chosen to have happened on December 25, 1 C.E. There have been numerous disagreements about the genuine date of Jesus' introduction to the world since, yet Exiguus' date has stuck notwithstanding them.

Before Christian festivals, Roman agnostics praised the occasion of Saturnalia, seven days of rambunctious festivals from December 17-25, where Roman courts were shut and the law directed that residents couldn't be rebuffed for harming property or harming individuals during the devouring. The Romans accepted these festivals, which picked a network unfortunate casualty and constrained them to enjoy nourishment and celebrations, obliterated the powers of malice when they killed this injured individual at the finish of the week, on December 25.

In the fourth century, Christian pioneers were effective at changing over numerous agnostics to Christianity by enabling them to likewise proceed with the festival of Saturnalia, and this was its first association with Jesus' introduction to the world. Since the celebration of Saturnalia had no association with Christian lessons, pioneers attached the occasion of Jesus' introduction to the world onto the most recent day of the celebration. For a long time, counterparts of the time kept on enabling the festival to proceed in its uncivilized manner—with drinking, sexual extravagances, singing exposed through the avenues. Numerous cutting edge conventions have emerged from Christmas' initial beginnings, be that as it may, for example, caroling (we've quite recently chosen to wear garments), and the eating of human-formed rolls (we simply call them Gingerbread men now).

Despite the fact that the agnostic festivals ceased to exist as the agnostics were changed over to Christians, Puritans didn't watch the occasion because of its non-Christian starting points. Different Christians nonetheless, kept on observing Saturnalia and Christmas together, superbly eager to have agnostic occasions transformed into Christian ones as more individuals changed over to Christianity. During 1466 under the heading of Pope Paul II, Saturnalia was purposefully restored to concur with Christmas festivities, and at the beguilement of Rome, Jews had to run bare through the roads of the city. Well into the late 1800's, Christian pioneers and the religious network set out on against Semitic maltreatment of Jews in Europe, including Rome and Poland, and approved the homicide, assault, and damaging, of Jews during the festivals denoting the introduction of Jesus.

At the point when the Saxons, the Germanic clans of Europe, were changed over to Christianity, they brought "yule," which means mid-winter, with them to incorporate into Christmas conventions. In the next years, yule moved toward becoming to be characterized as Jesus' birthday, however it was not utilized until the eleventh century. For a long time, Europeans kept on commending the season by consuming a Yule sign in the chimney, and light a Yule flame, as opposed to following any of the traditions many partner with Christmas today.

Actually, numerous Christmas conventions of Europe, and America were not characterized until the mid-nineteenth century and were not regarded to be especially significant earlier until numerous years after the fact. What many anticipate at Christmas festivities today, for example, caroling, card giving, and tree enlivening, were hardened during the nineteenth century all through Europe and America.

Santa Clause Claus, one of the most unmistakable Christmas customs and one that was included during the mid-nineteenth century, is one that begins right off the bat in the Christian course of events. Nicholas, conceived in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE, would turn into the Minister of Mara and later, after his demise, the main holy person named in the nineteenth century. One of the senior clerics who went to the Gathering of Nicaea in 325 CE, which made the New Confirmation writings, he was well-loved and exceptionally prominent at the time, accomplishing religion status.

In 1087, a gathering of mariners cherished his bones in an asylum in Italy, supplanting a nearby god known as "The Grandma," who was viewed by the network as a kind god who filled youngsters' socks and tights with blessings. Individuals from the religion assembled here and observed Nicholas' passing every December 6. Afterward, the clique and adoration for the holy person spread north to arrive at the Germanic and Celtic agnostics, where his figure joined with Woden, the main Divine force of Germanic convention. Losing his swarthy, Mediterranean looks, Nicholas' appearance took on that of Woden, one with a long white facial hair, riding a winged steed, and grabbing chilly climate dress. As the Catholic Church offer for changing over the agnostics in Northern Europe, they acknowledged the festivals for Holy person Nicholas however moved his devouring day from December 6 to December 25.

It wasn't until Washington Irving's Knickerbocker History in 1809, a parody of Dutch culture, that St. Scratch reemerged. Alluding to a white-unshaven, horse-flying St. Scratch, whom the Dutch called Santa Clause Claus, Irving brought the character once again into pop culture. Under 20 years after the fact, Association Theological school educator Dr. Forebearing Moore read Knickerbocker History and wrote "Twas the Prior night Christmas," where St. Scratch's place in chronicled fantasy was indeed advanced. Flying down fireplaces and being carried on a sleigh by eight reindeer, Moore's St. Scratch is the one that was utilized by Coca-Cola in 1931 wearing Coca-Cola red and donning a carefree face to much recognition. What's more, as is commonly said, in this manner was brought into the world the Dad Christmas we perceive today; a Christian holy person, Agnostic god, and business ploy.

The Christmas tree, was likewise an agnostic convention, one where the Asheira religion, Druids, and their branches, had since quite a while ago venerated trees in the wild, or brought them into their homes and brightened them in respect for regular divine beings. Early Christians enlisted the Asheira, like their enrollment of agnostic Romans, to readapt this custom into one that was acknowledged and received by the Congregation. In the mid-nineteenth century, trees moved toward becoming to turn into a hugely famous Christmas thing all over Europe and America.

The gifting that is related with the special seasons has a murkier past, one that is related both with the Shrewd Men who visited Jesus bringing blessings, St. Nicholas, and the first Saturnalia festivities that Christmas got from. During Roman occasions, heads encouraged their most loathed natives to carry contributions to them, which later extended to blessing giving among the bigger masses. Later this was changed into a Christian custom under the stories of St. Nicholas' blessing giving legends. At the point when Christmas saw it's resurgence in mainstream culture during the mid-nineteenth century, presents were frequently nuts, popcorn, oranges, lemons, confections, hand crafted knickknacks, Merry Christmas Wishes cards, a long way from the colossal contributions individuals find in stores and under Christmas trees today.

[repost-this-image]

Important historical references for Castlevania fics

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and the Netflix series based on it are both set in the late 15th century in Wallachia (now the southern part of Romania).  For those of you who don’t specialize in history from this period, there are a LOT of things that were dramatically different back then that you probably never heard about.

So here’s a list of things that the average person might not know about food and clothing, that are relevant to Castlevania fics and other stories written in that time period:

(and it’s a LONG ONE, so I’m putting it behind a cut.)

First, fabrics.  Cotton was rare and expensive, and is actually harder to dye than the other fibers available at the time.  Cotton only became cost-effective for the average person to buy a few centuries later, when slavery--and later, mechanical separation of the seeds and other debris from the boll--drove the cost of production down.  (Well, the financial cost, anyway.  Ethically, this was obviously Not Good.)  Commoners were as unlikely to wear cotton as silk or ermine.

So what did most people wear?  Linen, wool, and leather.

Let’s start with linen.  Linen is made from flax, which has very strong fibers.  It is first soaked in water for a few months to soften up the fibers (yes, this means that flax has to rot before you can use it to make cloth).  The fibers are then spun and woven into linen fabric.    Linen is lightweight and cool in the summer, and because it’s soft, sturdy, and easy to wash, most undergarments and nightclothes were made of linen.

Wool, as most people know, comes from sheep.  Just like in the game Minecraft, you get wool by carefully clipping it off a sheep with shears.  (Modern shears are electric and look like the clippers used by a barber to cut human hair.)  An experienced shepherd is very good at shearing a sheep without cutting the skin, getting most or all the wool off.  Wool takes most natural dyes very easily, requiring only the dye itself and some kind of acid to use as a mordant.  (A mordant is basically the chemical that makes the dye “stick” to the fabric.)  I have literally dyed wool yarn with Kool-Aid and boiling water; the unsweetened packets contain food-safe dyes and citric acid.  Wool is basically AWESOME to use for your outer garments.  It’s warm, relatively water-resistant when felted, it wicks away sweat from your skin and undergarments, and it STAYS WARM EVEN WHEN WET, which is a good thing when modern waterproof fabrics don’t yet exist.  Equally importantly, knitted wool was the one natural material that could stretch, so socks and hosiery could be made skin-tight.  Spandex and elastic were a good 400 years in the future.  One reason black sheep were less common and less desirable is because black wool is too dark to dye, and thus makes fewer clothing colors than white or brown wool.  (This is also where the phrase “black sheep of the family” comes from.)

Leather is animal skin that’s been specially prepared to not rot off and stink.  It’s a bit more water-resistant than felt, though it can still get ruined if you let it get soaked through.  Most leather today is made from cows or pigs, but deer and goat leather make a softer leather and would also have been used.  “To handle with kid gloves” comes from the fact that the softest, thinnest gloves were made from kids (baby goats).  Kid-leather is banned today for ethical reasons.  A prepared sheepskin with the wool still on would have made for a super-warm blanket or rug, but wasn’t all that cheap.

Most women spent half the year spinning wool and linen into threads; it was simple enough (although VERY time-consuming) that you could spin while doing other things, and common women definitely did.  During the winter months, when you were stuck inside most of the time anyway, the weaving and sewing would take place.  Most spinning would have still been done with the drop spindle; spinning wheels existed, but they were still very uncommon.

So what color were clothes?  Well, a natural undyed cream color was more likely than pure white--bleaching fabric still involved urine and was a major hassle.  As for dyes, most of them came from plants or insects, and you could get just about any color except royal purple, a deep scarlet, or royal blue (because the sources of these shades were rare and difficult to harvest).  Sypha’s robes would probably have been dyed with woad, which produces the same pigment as the indigo plant (the same indigo that’s used to dye blue jeans).  For more information on dyes from this time period, or how it was done, I’d recommend you click here or here.  (This section is long-winded enough already.)

For the actual fashions of the time, check out the “Central Europe” section of this article, the late-15th-century part of this article, and if you don’t mind fudging it (since heaven knows Alucard’s tight leather pants aren’t period), the early 16th century works too.

Undergarments of the time include: the chemise (full-length for women, waist-length for men), the codpiece, early corsets, hose, and petticoats.  Underpants as we know them probably didn’t exist yet.

FOOD

Most of us know that people used to eat very differently than they do now, but aside from “well, there wasn’t a McDonald’s or anything,” that’s about it.  So here’s what you need to know about food.  (For a more in-depth look, this reddit post is pretty good.)

Dairy would have been milk, cream, and butter near a dairy farm, and mainly cheese elsewhere.  Cheese not only keeps for a very long time, but sharp cheeses actually get stronger and better with age.  There were dozens of varieties, and they would have made up a fair bit of your protein unless you were wealthy enough to eat meat every day.  (Commoners weren’t.)

Beans and nuts were your primary source of protein if you were a commoner.  They were cheap, shelf-stable, and easy to cook.  Just leave some beans and barley in a pot of boiling water for a few hours with your other ingredients, and you’ve got a filling meal.  Not all beans or nuts are European, but you’re pretty safe if you stick to: lentils, hazelnuts, chestnuts, peas, broadbeans, flax, almonds, walnuts, chickpeas (garbanzos), 

Grains were the staple food, and as such, you had them in stews, beer, and bread every day.  You know how the KJV of the Bible says things like “man shall not live by bread alone” and “give us this day our daily bread?”  That’s because bread was the ONE FOOD you were guaranteed to have at every meal, so the word “bread” was often used to refer to food in general.  If you had celiac in the Middle Ages, your life was pretty much guaranteed to suck.  Maize existed in parts of the Old World, but was only used as animal feed; “corn” was instead a general term for ALL grains, instead of the name of the yellow stuff that grows on a cob.  Bread was made of rye, wheat, millet, or barley, all of which were and still are quite common in Europe.  And yes, oatmeal was also A Thing.

Other vegetables you’d find in Europe in the 15th century included cucumbers, radishes, carrots, lots of varieties of onions, dandelions (yes, they’re edible), celery, broccoli, asparagus, spinach, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, garlic, parsnips, and cauliflower.  Since spices were expensive, most people seasoned their food with herbs like basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, oregano, chives, cloves, bay (laurel), wormwood, and dill.  Eggplants are not originally native to Europe, but they were brought over from Asia during the Middle Ages, so people definitely knew about them and cooked with them.  And of course, edible mushrooms have been eaten pretty much everywhere in the world you can find them, including damn-near all of Eurasia.

Note what is not on the list.  There were no potatoes in Europe.  It is a New World vegetable.  Potatoes weren’t imported into England and Spain until the 16th century, and didn’t reach the rest of Europe until the early 17th century.  They quickly became popular because they’re cheap, easy to grow, and calorie-dense, which is why a lot of traditional Irish food from the last 4 centuries has potatoes in it.  Do not write potatoes into a story set in the 15th century.  DON’T DO IT.  History buffs get very angry when you get potatoes wrong.  A lot of people are mad at the Witcher series for having potatoes in Poland at about the same time period, 100 years before they would have made it there.  Tomatoes are also a New World crop, as are pumpkins, peanuts, cranberries, maple syrup, chocolate and quinoa.  Don’t include any of them in your story either.

Fruits in the part of Eastern Europe we’re looking at would not have included bananas or citrus; the time it took to transport non-native fruits would have made it impossible to get either one.  Here’s what fruits you were likely to actually find:  Blackcurrant, pears, quinces, raspberries, apples, plums.  You might find the following Mediterranean imports when they were in season, but they’d be less common since the plants themselves can’t survive cold winters:  black mulberry, dates, figs, olives, grapes, jujubes, pomegranates.  How common each of these would be depends on how long it can go without spoiling; when in doubt, check.  Dried grapes, of course, are shelf-stable and could well have been imported under the names raisins, currants, or sultana.

Meats were most often eaten by the wealthy, unless you count fish and shellfish, which were mainly seen as food for the poor.  (The idea that fish and lobster and delicacies for the rich would seem completely absurd to people before the 20th century.)  Chicken was uncommon; your hens were more useful as egg-layers than as meat.  Beef, pork, venison, rabbit/hare, mutton (sheep), lamb, goose, and duck were relatively common.  Turkey and salmon are both New World animals and would have been unknown in Europe.  Fish were very common and easy to catch compared to modern times (bodies of water hadn’t been overfished like they are today) and came in lots of varieties.  Oysters, mussels and the like were also harvested and eaten by the common folk.

[gwendolynlerman]

Discovering the world

Latvia 🇱🇻

Basic facts

Official name: Latvijas Republika (Republic of Latvia)

Capital city: Riga

Population: 1.8 million (2023)

Demonym: Latvian

Type of government: unitary parliamentary republic

Head of state: Edgars Rinkēvičs (President)

Head of government: Evika Siliņa (Prime Minister)

Gross domestic product (purchasing power parity): $78.42 billion (2024)

Gini coefficient of wealth inequality: 35.7% (medium) (2021)

Human Development Index: 0.879 (very high) (2022)

Currency: euro (EUR)

Fun fact: It is home to Europe’s widest waterfall.

Etymology

The country’s name comes from the ancient Latgalians.

Geography

Latvia is located in Northern Europe and borders Estonia to the north, Russia to the east, Lithuania to the south, and Belarus to the southeast.

The country has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Temperatures range from −7 °C (19.4 °F) in winter to 23 °C (73.4 °F) in summer. The average annual temperature is 7.6 °C (45.6 °F).

The country is divided into 36 municipalities (novadi) and seven state cities (valstspilsētas). The largest cities in Latvia are Riga, Daugavpils, Liepāja, Jelgava, and Jūrmala.

History

1100-8200 BCE: Swiderian culture

9000-6000 BCE: Maglemosian culture

8500-5000 BCE: Kunda culture

5300-1750 BCE: Narva culture

4200-2000 BCE: Comb Ceramic culture

3000-2350 BCE: Corded Ware culture

1000 BCE-500: Brushed Pottery culture

880-1240 CE: Kievan Rus’

987-1504: Principality of Polotsk

1000-1253: Eldership of Piemare

10th century-1224: Eldership of Tālava

1041-1239: Principality of Jersika

1180-1208: Principality of Koknese

1186-1561: Archbishopric of Riga

1207-1561: Terra Mariana

1226-1561: State of the Teutonic Order

1234-1562: Bishopric of Courland

1236-1569: Gran Duchy of Lithuania

1297-1330: Livonian Civil War

1558-1583: Livonian War

1561-1795: Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

1569-1795: Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

1570-1579: Kingdom of Livonia

1629-1721: Swedish Livonia

1795-1918: Russian Empire

1918: United Baltic Duchy

1918-1920: Latvian War of Independence

1920-1940: Republic of Latvia

1940-1990: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

1934: coup d’état

1990-present: Republic of Latvia

Economy

Latvia mainly imports from and exports to Lithuania, Estonia, and Germany. Its top exports are wheat, chipped wood, and alcohol.

It has dolomite and limestone reserves. Services represent 73.7% of the GDP, followed by industry (22.4%) and agriculture (3.9%).

Latvia is a member of the Council of Europe, the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Demographics

Ethnic Latvians make up 62.4% of the population, while Russians represent 23.7%, Belarusians 3%, and Ukrainians 3%. The main religion is Christianity, practiced by 64% of the population, 36% of which is Protestant.

It has a positive net migration rate and a fertility rate of 1.6 children per woman. 68.5% of the population lives in urban areas. Life expectancy is 76.1 years and the median age is 44 years. The literacy rate is 100%.

Languages

The official language of the country is Latvian. Latgalian and Livonian are recognized languages.

Culture

Almost all people have sung in a choir at some point in their lives. Latvian people do not like to talk to people they have not been introduced to.

Men traditionally wear a long, embroidered shirt, an overcoat, linen pants, a belt, long socks, and a straw hat. Women wear an embroidered blouse, a long skirt, a cloth belt (josta), and a cloth crown.

Architecture

Traditional houses in Latvia have wooden walls, stone foundations, and thatched grass roofs.

Cuisine

The Latvian diet is based on fish, meat, potatoes, and vegetables. Typical dishes include pelēkie zirņi (gray peas with bacon and radish), rupjmaizes kārtojums (a dessert made of rye breadcrumbs, blackcurrant or lingonberry jam, and whipped cream), skābeņu zupa (sorrel soup), sklandrausis (a small pie filled with carrot and potato paste), and speķrauš (crescent-shaped buns filled with bacon and onions).

Holidays and festivals

Like other Christian countries, Latvia celebrates Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Second Day of Christmas Day. It also commemorates New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Midsummer’s Eve, Midsummer’s Day, and New Year’s Eve.

Specific Latvian holidays include Restoration of Independence Day on May 4 and Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia on November 18.

Restoration of Independence Day

Other celebrations include the Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which features choir and folk songs; the Riga City Festival, with art, entertainment, food, and music, and the Staro Rīga Light Festival, when lights adorn major buildings.

Staro Riga Light Festival

Landmarks

There are three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Historic Center of Riga, Old Town of Kuldīga, and Struve Geodetic Arc.

Historic Center of Riga

Other landmarks include the Gauja National Park, the Grobiņa Archaeological Ensemble, the Liepāja Beach, the Rundāle Palace, and the Turaida Castle.

Gauja National Park

Famous people

Deniss Vasiļjevs - figure skater

Elīna Garanča - singer

Elya Baskin - actor

Gidon Kremer - violinist

Jeļena Ostapenko - tennis player

Kristaps Porziņģis - basketball player

Ksenia Solo - actress

Laila Pakalnina - movie director

Mikhail Tal - chess player

Uljana Semjonova - basketball player

Gidon Kremer

You can find out more about life in Latvia in this post and this video.

[girlwithacatandadream]

|48 DAYS| Today I thought I would do a more serious post, so I'm going back to when I had the amazing experience of visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. What I originally posted a year and a half ago still resonates so deeply with me based on my experiences and the life that I get to live everyday. 'Today I got to experience a part of history that I have waited all year to see. Not many people would understand why I would want to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but for me it is places like this that put life in perspective. As I walked around in 2 layers of thermals, wearing 2 pairs of socks, waterproof boots, a scarf, beanie, gloves, hoodie and double layered jacket, I could still feel the chill. My toes were frozen as I walked through the halls of the blocks where people slept and the streets where people stood for hours upon hours for roll call. These people suffered through winters like this and probably worse, with clothes that are like something I would wear in summer and if they were lucky they might've had shoes. I walked the road where you're fate would've been decided on a lucky day, or on an unlucky day they would just send all of the new incomers straight for 'sterilization'. It wasn't just the Jewish who were sent to the chambers, innocent men, women and children of all ethnicities, race and religion were sent there to face an unfortunate fate. When you see all of what was left behind from those who died it is quite a chilling feeling. For me it doesn't get more real than it did today and I am so grateful for the life that I do have because of those who have suffered before us.' #travel #poland #auschwitzbirkenau (at Auschwitz-Birkenau)

[myselfariana]

Choosing the right winter socks for the cold weather for men, is essential to staying warm, dry, and of course stylish. As the temperature dips it is important for you to make sure your sock drawer provides you with the options you need to look cool, but stay warm.

[iammillenial-blog]

Time for Goosebumps

Story Found by: Angelica Louise Pfleider Source: https://www.creepypasta.com/tag/based-on-a-true-story/

Everyone loves a good story. I for one am a fan of horror; the kind that makes your hair stand on end, makes you afraid to use the bathroom, and will simply give you instant Nyctophobia. Or the kind that is more on realism and digs into the darkest pits of human nature and the human soul.  Here is a story I found from one of the sites I love, creepypasta.com.

The Well February 2, 2017 at 12:00 AM

My grandfather grew up on a chicken farm outside of Krakow, Poland. He passed away a few years ago at the age of 82. A few days before fis passing on, due to an aggressive form of stomach cancer, he sat me down next to him in his old rocking chair and said in his familiar polish accent “After I took the boat to New York, I promised to leave this story behind.” He didn’t look up as he spoke to me, simply staring into his cup of black coffee. “It’s been 70 years… and I must tell someone before I meet God.” “I was born in a smalll, quaint, empty town, which despite the Nazi occupation, still functioned. We lived in this two-bedroom farmhouse. My father, my mother, and my brothers Michal and Igor. I’m sorry, you never got to meet any of them. Anyway, Michal and Igor were twins, identical twins actually, and we had heard rumors of the Nazi fascination with identical twins. This forced us, and we already lived in a secluded part of the countryside, to be even more reserved. In order to not go into the occupied towns, we basically ate only chicken and eggs for every meal, and whatever mama could gather from the garden. It was lonely, but we survived. “ “The only two things which were really hard on me were the fact that I had to sleep in the basement, due to Michal and Igor being toddlers, they required my father’s and mother’s attention. The basement was cold, with only a small window and moonlight was the only light I got. Because of this, I always delayed going down there until I was absolutely exhausted, so I wouldn’t have to lie there awake. On the nights that I couldn’t manage to sleep, I would look out of the window, which gave me a small view of the garden and the large abandoned water well. This was my daily activity throughout those lonely war-torn nights. In general, it was boring and uneventful, but occasionally I would catch a glimpse of a family, lone men , or lovers sneaking their way through our garden up to our front door. They always looked rushed or frightened, and sometimes wore tattered uniforms. What would follow were horrible sounds of banging and pleadings for whoever lived here to open up, followed by an argument between my Father and Mother whether we should let them in. “ He moved the chair to adjust himself. “You see son, we didn’t know it, well I at least didn’t, that we lived fairly close to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and those people were escapees” “Well did your father let them in?!” I asked impatiently. “No.” he said “It would have been a death sentence for them as well as for us. The Nazis didn’t like Poles, but they tolerated us, it was easier to hide Michal and Igor than an entire family. My father did what he had to do in order to keep his family alive. As the war went on, less and less people began showing up in the middle of the night. Only our chickens and vegetables began to disappear. Losing our only supply of food would not have been possible, and at this point my father knew it was probably the escapees, so he built a fence around our property. Despite this, the chickens continued to disappear. They weren’t killed, they were simply… gone… just vanished from their cages and pens. “ “One night I decided to stay up myself in order to see if I could find out the answer. I battled my tiredness until the wee hours of the morning, and despite the poor lighting and rain, I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a human figure run across the garden. I rushed upstairs to tell my father and he ran outide with a knife, the best home-defense weapon we could afford, but we found nothing. No one.” “The next day we did find something though, footprints, leading from the chicken cages, to the water well. They were made in the wet mud from the rain, and they were of bare feet. No shoes, no socks, just feet. My father had mrcy on the man who was trying to find refuge and left him a note, indicating that he had 2 days to leave and then he would begin to seal the well.” I waited impatiently for my grandfather to tell me the fate of the man. “The following night, I conjured up the idea to take a blanket down to the well to the man since winter was creeping in. I waited until my parents were asleep and I snuck outside. I shouted down the well something friendly, indicating to the poor man that my intentions were benign, and I began my descent, hands and feet clinging to the pegs which were attached to stones. As I was approached the bottom, I smelled something absolutely horrific, and I pulled my father’s flashlight from my pocket and tried to shine it on the man, coming to the realization of how large the well really was, since it used to supply water for the entire toen and its families. Families which no longer remained.” “But I found no man, only… a hole. A hole in the stone, where the wall of the well had collapsed, opening up to some type of crevice. Only 2 meters wide , and 3 meters deep and tall, inside sat not  man. Inside was a family, with only a skeleton like creature as the only survivor. The light reflected off his sunken eyes, and grayish skin. His face was covered with blood and there were chicken carcasses scattered all around. There was a woman, a son , and a daughter, the children must have been barely 5 years old. They seemed to have been dead for weeks. The man, if he could even be called that, just stared at the light. I stared back, incapable of breaking his satre. I did not feel threatened by him for he lacked any sense of aggression. He simply sat there crouched over, witohut a sound, next to the putrefying body his loved ones, and chicken carcasses.” “He was empty, devoid of whatever in us makes us human. He should have realized his family was dead long ago, but he was still bringing food to their corpses. He couldn’t accept it. He did finally turn his head though, when I shined the light back onto the corpse of his daughter. He stared at her, and sat down closer to her, and continued to stare. “ “You can leave now. I’ll open the gate so you can escape. My father will seal the well in the morning.” I said to him. “Please leave now” my young voice and advice didn’t seem to have any effect on him.” “At this moment I decided it would be better for me to just climb up the well and leave, hopefully he man would follow and escape. As I began my climb I shined the light on him one final time…” “What did you see grandpa?” I stuttered “A tear fell from his eye, he had become a man once again. He broke free from the delusion, only when he saw the body of his dead daughter, which had been hidden by the darkness. He realized he had been bringing food, not to his family, but to corpses.” “That night it rained again, but I found no footprints leaving the well in the morning when my father sealed it.”

[ohjentravels]

Rivne and Lviv, Ukraine

Before we made out way out of Ukraine, we made our way west. Primarily so that we could cross the border via car rather than flying of Kiev into Krakow. We spent two nights in Rivne and one night in Lviv before crossing into Poland. 

After a day of hard shopping, we woke up early and trudged our way to the train station to catch our 7 hour train ride to Rivne. The train cost us about $5NZD each. Cheap of chips! It was a good train ride, there was nothing special about it and there was nothing horrible about it. Although, I wish we had purchased a thermal bottle, I really wanted one and it would’ve been handy as it was a pretty cold train! 

We both slept a lot on the train so the 7 hours flew by pretty quick. When we reached Rivne, we were hit with the cold, it was freeeezing! It wasn’t long before our hosts, Ihor and Dina met us and walked us to their apartment. We spent hours chatting at their apartment before we headed to one of their favourite restaurants for dinner.

We seriously overloaded. This wasn’t even all the food! David had one more main, as did I. Ihor and Dina also had more food. It’s safe to say we were all suffering a severe cases of food coma. Amongst my order were chicken hearts and I really enjoyed it (pictured on the right). David ordered fermented Rabbit and found it way too spicy to enjoy. I ordered a salmon salad also, which is the big white plate in the middle, that chunk on the top right of the plate is my serving of salmon, tiny! 

We only had one purpose for travelling to Rivne and that was to see The Tunnel of Love. We saw a photo of it online but we obviously didn’t go in the Summer time, nor did we go in the prime Autumn either, so the tunnel was neither a luscious green or a heavy leafed shade of yellow. We were definitely leaning more towards Winter than we were Autumn. 

Here is one of the typical photos of the tunnel: 

And here are our photos of the tunnel, you can read more about it here. We went on a week day so it was pretty quiet, we were there for about 2.5 hours and we only saw a family of four while we were in there. On the way out we had a coffee at the kiosk that is there and there two couples who had gone in and out in a space 5 minutes. 

Our host Ihor kindly walked us to the bus station for us to catch the marshrutka. If I recall correctly, it was a sixteen seater, but the size of it is probably irrelevant as no matter the size, it was packed! We were all squished into that transit van.

The people on the bus were really nice, as was the bus driver. We couldn’t see out of the van as we stood, hunching over. But when we reached our stop, we got taps on our shoulders with other passengers happily pointing at us and then pointing towards the path. It was our stop! 

No words were spoken, but one man kindly pointing down the street and smiled at us. So we walked towards where he pointed and saw a sign saying, “Tunnel of Love”. When we turned off the main road, we saw some dogs who proceeded to follow along the 10 minute walk to the tunnel.  

They then followed us as we walked up and down the tunnel, even when we ventured off the track, they followed. 

David kindly helped me fake the below photo and we spent a good 5 minutes shaking trees along the tracks to get a good photo. That’s a dedicated husband right there. 

When we left, we got a hot chocolate to warm us up from the kiosk at the entrance of the tunnel (tunnel is free) and while we were enjoying out injection of warmth, the man above was singing and doing a performance with his dog. When we went to leave, he insisted I sit on his accordion, he was relentless, so I sat on it. I had no idea what was happening, either did David. He continuously moved side to side, instructing David to take photos. The result was above. 

While we were exploring the tunnel, we bumped into a family and I had offered to take a photo of them, in return they did the same. When we were leaving, they asked where we were going and they offered us a lift back to Rivne. The family were from Kiev and were on a long weekend trip. 

When we got back to Rivne, Ihor and Dina took us to their favourite shop. I can’t remember the name of it but it was like an outlet store for end of line products, but in saying that, you could only get one of each product. So if you really like a jacket and it didn’t come in your size, you would be out of luck. 

We first arrived, we had asked them advice on how to keep warm in Winter and they said that they would help us out by taking us to this shop and the exchange was so good, we couldn’t say no. 

Collectively we got new wool thermals (tops and bottoms), socks, and I ended up with a pair of snow boots, a snow jacket, snow pants, leather boots, for $200NZD! Bargain! 

We spent our last day in Rivne, primarily at the post office, trying to send a heap of our shopping back to New Zealand. We’ve sent three packages home since being away and each time has been a real hassle and a half and has taken no shorter than 2 hours. That night I made a risotto and a pav for dinner. 

We woke up early and caught a blah blah car to Lviv. For me it felt like such a long drive, I threw up a few times and felt uneasy the whole day. I can’t even remember how long the drive was! 

When we arrived in Lviv, we had an hour or so to pass before we could check into our accommodation so we went to a cafe that another passenger in the car recommended. We were disappointed. We ordered chocolate pancakes and we got what you see below. David enjoyed his hot chocolate though. Hahaha. 

After checking in, we roamed the streets of Lviv in the hunt for new hiking boots for David as his were falling apart. We didn’t have luck! (We eventually found a pair in Krakow). 

The first thing I noticed about Lviv that it screamed, “European”. It was once under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, hence the style of buildings! 

There were several markets scattered around city, there were a lot of old men selling old war related items, badges, unusable guns, etc, it was so interesting looking at them, but obviously keeping your distance, we were easy targets for sale pitches. 

After a few hours of exploring, David just couldn’t do it anymore, it had already been a long day and the cosiness of the restaurant where we had dinner was just too nice not to have a nap in. He felt a lot better after his 5 minute power nap. 

[myselfariana]

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