#yeah whatever I accept any Matt smith

[thetorturedlovergirl]

Smash.

[modosphere]

All I Want For Christmas Is You

“Soph! Can you come down for a moment, please? Your father is calling you!”

“Down in a sec!” I yelled back, closing my bedroom door again, so I could say my goodbyes to Rose. “Okay, drive safe and text me, alright? I want to know how everything goes. I’ve got to go, my parents want me.”

“Alright. I’ll talk to you later, bye!”

I hung up and head downstairs, throwing my phone onto the bed before I did. 

“What’s up?” I asked, walking into the dining room. Mum and Dad were sitting at the end of the table, a cup of tea each and a packet of biscuits between them.

“Sit down.” Dad told me, a small, smug smile on his face. Oh dear God, this wasn’t going to be good. Not for me, anyway. “Don’t look so worried, Soph, relax.”

More reason for me to be worried.

I sat down on the other end of our table, opposite my dad, at the head. Bring it. This was bad. Either Dad was having another mid-life crisis and had decided to moan about his life more publicly than usual, or they were adding to my weekly quota of family time again.

“Soph, Zayn’s parents just rang.” Mum told me calmly. Dad watched me carefully beside her and I felt my stomach flip at his name. Okay, I was definitely not ever going to get used to that. His name, I mean. Even from my mother’s mouth it sounded ridiculously appealing to me and that in itself was so dysfunctional beyond words, I almost shuddered in disgust.

“Oh, did they?” I tried to sound neutral. It kind of worked. “What did they say?”

Dad took a sip of tea and looked over at me.

“They’re inviting us to their Christmas party.” He said the last two words with contempt and I tried not to wince and roll my eyes at the same time. Dad was still having... Issues about that. “It’s next week on Christmas Eve and then they invited us to spend Christmas Day with them, too, to have... Lunch.”

“That was nice.” I opted for saying, going with the neutral answer. “A bit short notice, isn’t it?”

“Well, apparently, Zayn was meant to mention it to you.” Mum turned to me and I felt my body tense slightly at the icy look in her eye. “You see, this is why we don’t like our young, Muslim daughter working in journalism and finding her own husband, because we can’t control your exposure to him and find everything out last.”

I couldn’t help but feel my anger rise slightly, even though I knew I was rising to the bait.

“Well, not really, you know exactly what happens and when I see Zayn.” I frowned, irritation seeping into my voice. 

“Yes, darling.” Mum said patronizingly, in that way that made my skin itch. “But if we had from the beginning, you wouldn’t be engaged right now, would you? You didn’t tell us when you met Zayn before, because you knew we’d disapprove.”

I scowled, even though I’d heard that wasn’t a great look for somebody who had graduated. 

“I think what your mother is trying to say,” Dad interrupted coolly. “Is that it would be nice if you didn’t withhold information from us, sweetie.”

He called me sweetie.

Yeah, I wanted to kill them both.

“So either Zayn’s parents are lying, which I don’t see any reason for them to do.” Dad continued. “Or Zayn didn’t tell you. Or you didn’t tell us.”

“And if Zayn didn’t tell you, that’s not a very trusting relationship, is it, darling?” If my darling mother patronized me one more time, I was going to jump across our stupid glass dining table and rugby tackle her to the floor. 

“He did tell me, I just didn’t think it’d be your thing.” I said defensively, not liking the way my parents automatically wanted to blame Zayn. It wasn’t because they even wanted to think their daughter perfect; no, it was because the more dirt they had on Zayn, the more they could rub it in my face. 

“Leave it to us to decide whether it’s our thing or not.” Dad said, sounding slightly menacing now. I clenched my jaw and tried to envision happy thoughts. See? I couldn’t win. If I didn’t back up Zayn, I was marrying a total loser and my parents would be on my back about it. If I took his side, they felt all pissy because I wasn’t a part of their crappy little gang. Urgh, I hated them both. “Now-”

“I just thought you guys wouldn’t want to go and anyway, you wouldn’t unless they called to invite you.” I frowned.

“See, there, it wasn’t so hard to tell the truth, was it?” Dad smiled patronizingly and again, the urge to rugby tackle somebody took me over. I shook my head to protest, but Dad just shook his head at me. “Now, now, Soph, we’re just trying to help, we’re not throwing accusations, are we, Ruby?”

Mum just raised an eyebrow at me.

“So, what did you say to them?” I sighed in defeat, clenching my fists under the table. “Do you want to go, then?”

“Well, I was going to tell them we’d think about it, but your father thought that would be too abrupt.”

I decided to not look in my mother’s direction. When she was like this, I only wanted to gauge her eyes out with a plastic fork.

“Do you want to go?” Dad asked me carefully.

Oh, God, I knew this was a trick question.

“Are you here that weekend?” I asked, proud of the neutrality in my voice. “And doesn’t that mean we’d have to stay in Bradford for a few days or something?”

“You leave that to me.” Dad told me calmly. “Do you want to go, Soph?”

I was tempted to tear my hair out. I mean, what a stupid question. Did I want to spend Christmas with Zayn? As opposed to staying, okay, yes, in London, but with my family, awkwardly fighting for volume control as I tried to watch the Doctor Who special? 

Then again... Even if Matt Smith was no David Tennant... There was still the Doctor Who special.

“I think it’d be nice.” I said carefully, ignoring the triumphant looks on my parent’s faces. You’d think they’d be a bit more mature. I mean, for goodness sake, Zayn was my goddamn fiance, the least they could do was understand that that meant something. 

“You won’t just be seeing Zayn, his entire family will be there.” Mum told me coldly and even though I knew she was only playing Bad Cop so Dad wouldn’t, she was still seriously pushing it. Whether she admitted it or not, she liked Zayn, so I didn’t see what the goddamn fuss was. “I hope you’re not just doing it to please him. I mean, God forbid you should try and please your parents, but this boy comes along and oh, you’ll do anything for him-”

“Alright, Robina, do you want to have this conversation with her when I’m not here?” Dad snapped. Ah, there it was. Dad’s false sense of manliness. What difference did it make if we spoke about feelings? Not that I did that anyway, but I did simply loved the way my Dad acted like we were talking about periods or something whenever my feelings for Zayn came up. Not that I really... Had anyway. I mean, a second ago I’d referred to him as my fiance and no matter how true that was, IT CREEPED ME OUT TO SAY IT. “Soph, if you want to go, we’ll go, okay? Do you want to go?”

I nodded reluctantly. Hadn’t somebody once warned me that love was all about sacrifices? Well, I was screwed. I refused to admit I had any type of positive feelings for Zayn and I was still sacrificing the years of teenage rebellion I’d built against my parents for him. What even.

“Right, then your mother can call them back now and we’ll tell them we’ll see them next week. It’s not a problem.” Dad smiled at me and it was one of those rare moments that I didn’t know whether to accept his sudden niceness and forgot he was mostly a prick, or be suspicious. Mum opened her mouth to complain, but Dad just glared at her. “Oh, for God’s sake, Robina, she’s already marrying the damn boy, what more embarrassment can she cause us?”

Yeah... Prick it was.

“Hey, Adam!” I yelled over the din of surround-sound Power Rangers. “Do you want to go to a Christmas party next week?”

“No.” Adam shouted back, before shuffling in, in all of his eleven-year-old glory. “No, wait, whose party is it?”

“Zayn’s parents.” I told him calmly, feeling slightly better as our parents watched us, confused. “I think it’s in Bradford, though.”

Adam thought for a minute.

“Is Zayn going to be there?” 

I nodded.

“Yeah, that’d be cool, we’ll go.” Adam told us importantly, before going back into the lounge and watching whatever crap it was he was watching. 

“Adam, why should we go and see Zayn?” Mum shouted out, teasing. I heard Adam grunt at the interruption. He’d finished his studying for the day, I knew what that meant; his brain was officially dead until he had to wake up for school tomorrow. “Don’t you think it’d be more fun to stay at home, just us four?”

“No.” Adam said back, snorting from the other room. Mum could see him from where she was sitting, but I didn’t need to watch him to know what face he was giving her; the look that clearly meant she was crazy. “Zayn’s cool, he said he’d play COD with me.”

“When did you meet Zayn?” Dad asked sharply.

Adam was so good, I didn’t even bat an eyelid.

“I didn’t, but he follows me on Twitter.” Adam said. “I’m watching TV now.” Translation; shut up and leave me alone.

So we did.

. . .

1 WEEK LATER

“Make sure Zayn knows the boundaries.” Mum was telling me quietly as Dad parked the Range Rover somewhere we wouldn’t get blocked in. “If your father sees him touching you, he’ll kill him.”

“I know!” I sighed, rolling my eyes as we waited for someone to open the door. The driveway to the new house was packed with cars. I knew the boys would be here. Rose was going to be late – Harry was picking her up from the station, he’d been running late anyway – but the others should be here.

Including Zayn.

I’d gone for the natural look today, not that I’d had much choice, what with the whole no-red-lipstick-until-the-wedding-day thing. I was still wearing more make-up than usual, though. Black eyeliner, mascara, tinted moisturizer, fairly natural looking pink lip-gloss. The clothes I had chosen myself, for fear my mother would make me so feminine, Zayn wouldn’t recognize me. I was wearing skinny black jeans, a stripy jumper that screamed “festive season” and some navy high-top Converses to match the stripes. 

Adam clearly looked the smartest out of all of us. He also looked way too much like a rockstar for my liking. Skinny black jeans, a white shirt and a black blazer, with his own black Converses. He and Mum had argued over the shoes, but Adam had argued that if I was the only reason we were all going and I wasn’t being forced to glam up, he shouldn’t be either. And Dad had just agreed because we’d been running late.

I rang the doorbell, chewing on the inside of my lip nervously.

“Soph, don’t be nervous.” Mum told me quietly, squeezing my hand. “You look hot, Zayn must be bloody blind if he doesn’t see that.”

That made me snort, especially as I saw Adam shoot Mum the most freaked out look ever.

And then the door opened.

“Louis, you wan-” Niall’s eyes widened as he saw me, eyebrows raised, standing with Mum and Adam. “Soph! You made it!” Niall shrieked, before grabbing me in a great bear hug.

Now, I love Niall’s hugs, I do. But my mother isn’t such a fan.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or not. He was so... Enthusiastic. I hadn’t seen any of the boys for the past few weeks, what with the second leg of the tour and everything. I’d spoken to Harry a few times about the whole thing he was going through and the other guys had emailed a couple of times... I hadn’t really spoken to Zayn much. Sure, he’d called and text, but I’d always found a reason to cut it short. 

Don’t judge me, okay? The whole... Getting married thing was scary. Especially considering... Well, everything we had gone through to get here. But it all seemed so much more real now. I mean, I was getting married. To Zayn. Of all people in the world.

“Soph’s mum, nice to meet you.” Niall grinned, letting me go to hug Mum instead. Adam and I glanced at each other, trying not to laugh, as Mum politely hugged him back, looking confused. 

“Hi.” Dad nodded to Niall as he let go, appearing out of nowhere. He had his polite voice on. “Shall we come in?”

“And you must be Soph’s Dad!” Niall yelled happily, shaking Dad’s hand enthusiastically. I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Lovely to meet you all, truly. And you must be Adam!”

“Hi.” Adam said politely. 

“Welcome to the brotherhood, man, we’re all playing video games in the other room, so stick around.” Niall told him sincerely and I felt my shoulders relax as Adam smiled broadly up at him. It was one thing for Adam to approve of Zayn, but it was another for him to approve of the other boys. “I’m Niall, by the way.” Niall said to Mum and Dad, smiling. “I’m the token Irish one in the band, I work with Zayn.”

I knew Mum recognized him from my hardcore One Direction days, back when they’d just released the first album. Dad nodded and smiled like he knew what was going on and Mum brightened a little. I knew what she was remembering; me and her cheering Niall on as he Irish-danced on Alan Carr.

Niall hustled us in and I stared at how... Busy everything was. There were people everywhere, to start with. Drinking, laughing, talking – yelling at kids.

“I’d avoid her if I were you.” Niall told us cheerfully. “One of Zayn’s relatives friends or something, all I know is that she likes shouting a lot, she hasn’t made many friends.”

I shook my head at Niall, smiling, as he took our coats.

“Soph, I’ll go and find the rest of the boys, they’ll be so glad you’re here, we didn’t know if you were coming or not.” Niall grinned. “I mean, Zayn told us you were coming with family, but we didn’t know if you’d actually be able to make it or not, coming in from London and all.”

“Nice save.” I mouthed as soon as my parents back were turned and Niall shook his head at me, Adam giggling beside us. The boys knew about the constant battle Zayn and I were having against my family. 

“Adam, come with me, you can join our little tournament.” Niall clapped a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Soph, I’ll-”

“Oh, you’ve arrived!” I heard somebody gasp and I turned, with a smile, to my future mother-in-law. God, that term was dysfunctional. “Niall, why didn’t you tell me? Honestly, you boys are useless – Robina, you look lovely!”

I let Patricia do the whole happy-hostess thing. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her to pieces, but I knew she had to play it up for my Dad. Which she did. She looked stunning, as always. Yaser – sorry, Uncle Yaser (future father-in-law, oh God) came out and he and Dad seemed to be getting along.

It was surreal, I’m not going to lie. Not the party; the 1D Mums loved me. Why wouldn’t they? I kept Harry in check, pushed Liam to get a love life, ate relatively healthily with Niall, made sure Louis didn’t let anybody use his minutes so he had enough to stay on the phone with his Mum and... And, yeah, okay, Zayn was my future husband. But still. The girls came over and said hi. The usual; hugs, kisses, “Oh my God, you look great!” being passed around.

“Oh, there you are!” Aunt Patricia – you see, I had no problem calling her Aunt, I mean, c’mon, I’m Asian, I’d been doing it for years, but it was weird, because the boys instantly thought it made Zayn sound like my cousin, which, just, ew, no – looked behind me, rolling her eyes. I felt my shoulders tense. She only reserved that equally loving and irritated tone for one person. “Look who’s arrived.”

I knew I shouldn’t have tied my hair away from my face, what shield did I have now?

I turned and saw Zayn standing behind me, his hands shoved into his pockets. I’ll admit it; my heart stuttered a little bit. He’d let his hair grown out even more than from the last time I’d seen him; it wasn’t gelled up, so was a thick, wavy mess. Black trousers, a black V-neck jumper. Of course, his black and purple Air Max trainers.

He didn’t have his studs in, because he knew it irritated my parents. He’d shaved properly, so there was no end-of-day stubble. He was standing slightly awkwardly and I quickly looked away, as I saw his head begin to turn in my direction.

This was utterly pathetic. He was putting the ring on my finger and making our engagement fully public in a couple of weeks. God, when I’d hated him I’d been way more confident, how was it that, having one of the hottest guys on the planet want to marry me made me feel all... Gushy?

Easy. Because I was still trying to pretend that it didn’t bother me that he’d made the first move, how much I truly cared for him and Hell, how I fully planned on jumping him repeatedly on our wedding night.

Ahh, wedding night. How about I didn’t think about that right now??

“Hi Uncle.” Zayn said with a small smile on his face, shaking Dad’s hand. He kissed Mum on the cheek. “Aunty Ruby, you look stunning-” I blocked out, wincing as I heard him high-five Adam. It was so wrong. Zayn and Adam getting along was just so wrong. I mean, Adam felt protective over me when Dad complained about his tea, but the guy I was marrying? No, Adam was cool with that.

This is what I got for brainwashing Adam into a Directioner in my teenage years. 

I chewed on my lip, arms folded over my chest as I looked up, feeling Zayn turn to me. 

I looked into his stupid, stupid, stupid brown eyes. They looked green in this light.

“Hey.” He said softly, smiling that stupid, horrible, cute, brilliant, sexy little smile he saved just me. 

“Hi.” I managed to say, just as quietly, chewing on my bottom lip with a small, forced smile. Oh, God, I felt sick. Oh, God, Zayn was making me feel sick. See, this was a problem. Why couldn’t it be the way it had been when we’d hated each other? I’d had way more confidence then! 

There was a flurry of instructions then. Uncle Yaser (FATHER-IN-LAW, SO VERY DYSFUNCTIONAL, PEOPLE) took Dad to sit with the other men, Aunt Patricia took Mum off with a wink, Niall whisked off Adam and then... It was me and Zayn.

“Why are you staring at me like you would the penguin enclosure?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him and feeling slightly more comfortable at how confident I sounded. Not felt, but sounded. 

“You look beautiful.” Zayn told me, allowing himself to grin at me goofily. “I think someone made the effort for me.”

“Oh yeah, Mum was out to impress.” I nodded, knowing that was exactly what he hadn’t meant. I went to walk away, agonizing over the fact I’d have to walk past him. 

I didn’t get far.

As I went by, Zayn subtly placed his hand over my wrist, our shoulders touching.

Ah, ah, ah, help, help, help, close proximity!

“I think you made an effort.” Zayn murmured to me quietly, looking into my eyes. Oh, God, it was really hard to be in denial when he was pulling out the eyes. I mean, that was unfair. I didn’t have eyes like his. I mean, they were brown, but they didn’t have freaking superpowers like his. “I appreciate it.”

“You know if my parents see you touching me before the wedding, they’re going to butcher you, right?” I managed to ask, my voice sounding slightly shaky, even to my own ears. I could smell his aftershave. I could feel his hot breath on my cheek as he spoke and dear God, I wanted to run away screaming. And not because I hated it. The opposite. 

“I don’t see you complaining.” Zayn smirked at me. He shuffled slightly closer, so he was standing half in front of me, obscuring everybody else’s view, his chest not too far away from being pressed against mine. Help. Have mercy. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Not... Not avoiding.” I managed to stammer. Oh, God, oh GOD, his lips were RIGHT THERE... This had been a bad idea. “Just creating suitable distance.”

Zayn’s smirk widened.

“You’re going to be my wife in a couple of weeks, Soph, we’re going to be close.” Zayn’s eyes fell from mine and travelled slowly up and down my body, giving me tingles. “... Very close.” Okay, that was it. I was going to cry out of pure sexual frustration.

Yes, I said it. Sexual frustration.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was glad (sort of) that it’d be... Special, when the time came. 

But, in case nobody else had noticed, my fiance was ZAYN MALIK, okay? It was torture. Especially when he did... This. I mean, I hadn’t even kissed the guy. Not that I didn’t already know about the absolutely epic sexual chemistry we already had. I mean, come on, last week had been practically nothing to what was going to happen on D-Day (aka, Wedding Night, aka When Soph Stops Being Virginal). 

“Sounds like you’ve got it all planned.” I cleared my throat first, sounding nonchalant. I tried to tell myself I just didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of getting me flustered... But I knew that was a lie.

A LIE.

Because I knew the more I acted like he wasn’t bothering me, the more Zayn would try. And honestly, I didn’t want him to stop talking.

“Oh, yeah.” Zayn nodded neutrally, before smirking at me, his eyes smoldering from underneath those killer long eyelashes. Arrgh. I was going to throttle him, I swear to God. I was going to pull a total Lady Macbeth and stab him in his sleep. Was that Macbeth? See?! Zayn was messing with my brain so much, I was getting my literature mixed up! ME! “I should probably warn you, actually, so you’re prepared. I’m going to start with your-”

“Soph!” 

I almost passed out with relief as Liam popped his head around the door, beaming at me. Zayn stepped back smoothly, letting go of my wrist, his head down as he hid his giant, triumphant grin. Smug bastard. 

“Hey!” I forced a smile and stepped away from Zayn, feeling giddy. Arrgghh, Zayn was making me swoon. How pathetic. Hey, would he catch me? OH GOD, SOPH, NOT HELPING. “Sorry, I was, uh,-”

“Are your parents around? Or can I hug you?” Liam whispered, looking around.

I laughed and hugged him quickly, making sure to inhale deeply. Liam smell. Not Zayn smell. Zayn smell made me feel giddy, Liam smell just smelt good.

“Zayn messing with your head?” Liam asked me quietly, sounding amused.

“Aha, you have no idea.” I whispered back, before pulling away.

. . .

The party was... Great.

The food was great (though I didn’t say it in front of Zayn, because I knew he’d helped and he was charming my parents too much for my liking already), everybody was really friendly (except that one lady who we’d seen when we’d walked in, but Adam and I had mostly avoided her) and even my Dad was having a relatively good time. I mean, I’d seen him laughing.

Shock, horror.

“He’s fitting in well.” Zayn nodded towards where Adam and Louis were battling each other on the X-box, sidling up behind me. 

“Too well. He’s adapting better than I am.” I smiled, shaking my head and turning to face Zayn – freezing as I saw how close he was. His face was inches away from mine and the way I could see the teeniest of smirks on his lips – on the lips I was very, very close to – instantly made me know that it was deliberate. “The party’s going well.”

“Yeah, you’ve gone down a hit.” Zayn murmured, smirking again. I stared at him for a moment, about to say something – but unsure of what – before I turned away. “Everybody’s going to be leaving soon.”

“So early?” I asked in surprise, turning back to him, but making sure there was more distance between our faces this time.

Zayn gave me a funny look.

“Soph, it’s nearly midnight.” Zayn blinked. “Countdown to Christmas starts in a couple of minutes and then people will be leaving. Including you. Are you coming to lunch tomorrow?”

“No idea.” I shrugged, stiffening and wincing as, by shrugging, my arm grazed Zayn’s stomach. Okay, so he was wearing a jumper, but still. WHAT IF HE HADN’T BEEN? Oh my God. I was going to find that out soon enough, wasn’t I? What it was like to brush against Zayn, in general, when he wasn’t wearing ANYTHING? Argh.

You see, this was why I had been “avoiding” Zayn. It wasn’t avoiding him as such; it was more the fact that I was kicking myself. I mean, I’d been this super-confident, borderline-cocky, perfect flirt before. Not before, before, I mean between before before and now before and URGH – you get the point. And with the wedding approaching (by wedding I mean D-DAY), I was expected to still be that sexy motherfucker (if I do say so myself). And I wasn’t. I was petrified. Not in THAT way, but just, generally...

Argh.

“Oh, God.” I muttered, seeing couples standing up and slow dancing, as a cover of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Michael Buble began to play. Mum was shifting next to Dad, who was probably playing a game, on his iPhone. Zayn followed my eyes. “Way to make her feel like shit, Dad.”

“What’s the matter?” Zayn frowned, looking at them. “Your parents?”

“He’s not dancing with her.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “It’s something small, but it’ll hurt her. And even if she says it – which she probably already has – he’ll brush her off.”

“Does that bother you?” Zayn turned to me, his eyebrows furrowed. Argh. Perfect eyebrows. NO SOPH, STOP IT. “That she’s not dancing, I mean. Do you want her to?”

I snorted.

“Yeah, watching my mother slow-dancing has always been on my bucket-list.” I snorted, before sighing. “But... I don’t know, she doesn’t have memories like that with my Dad. Romantic ones, I mean. That makes me sad, not the fact she’s not dancing.”

Zayn folded his arms across his chest, watching Mum, and I could see the shape of his arms.

I’m going to go and kill myself now.

“I’ll be back in a sec, alright?” Zayn told me, walking off before I could answer.

“Yeah, that’s-” I stopped muttering and felt my eyes widen as I saw him walk over to my parents. OH DEAR GOD, NO. “Zayn!” I hissed, even though he couldn’t hear me. Which was weird, because I saw him incline his head slightly, from the other side of the room. “No, no, no, Zayn, no, you stupid-”

“What’re you spazzing about?” Adam asked, appearing of out nowhere, looking at Zayn. Adam frowned. “Why’s he over there?”

“Come on.” I muttered, edging closer to them with Adam, trying to make it look natural.

“... Married first.” Dad was saying, glowering at Zayn’s head. I winced. Not good. “Then she’ll be your mother-in-law, ask me if you can dance with her then.”

I can safely say both Adam and I gaped at Zayn after hearing that.

“Well, Uncle, I was going to ask you, but it didn’t seem your thing.” Zayn told Dad sweetly, smirking a little. I stifled a gasp over my mouth. Oh my God.

“Nooo.” Adam muttered. “Dude, no way.”

“Shut up, Adam, it’s not funny.” I muttered, trying not to laugh. No. Not funny. “He’s challenging Dad’s authority, that’s not nice, that’s not, uh, what’s that word? Oh yeah, respectful...”

“He’s also standing up to the grumpy old man, I don’t know what planet you’re living on, but I find this bloody hilarious.” Adam snorted.

“Shut up, Adam!” I shoved him gently, covering my mouth as I laughed. Okay, so it was a little funny. Very funny. “Oh my God, look.”

Dad had waved his hand dismissively, standing up and already calling somebody, Zayn taking Mum’s hand, her face full of a mixture of surprise and a blush at what I guessed was Zayn’s flattery.

I smiled to myself, without meaning to. Yeah, Zayn was good at stuff like that.

I watched as Zayn said something to Mum, making her laugh and slap him on the shoulder, telling him to shut up. Zayn was grinning as he danced with her, slowly, to the music.

As the song began to finish, Zayn caught my eye over Mum’s shoulder (not that that’s particularly hard, at exactly five feet, Mum was the family midget) and smiled at me. 

I mouthed a thank you, trying not to smile too much. Stupid charmer.

. . .

Ten minutes to midnight.

Dad had to disappear to the hotel; something about an emergency meeting with Pakistan about the new school or something. Mum was having a great time with Aunt Patricia somewhere – she’d cheered up considerably since Zayn’s efforts – and Adam was inside, playing with the boys.

Zayn had asked if he could talk to me in the garden.

It was cold and I was ill-equipped without my coat, so Zayn gave me the jacket he’d (cleverly) brought with him into the garden. It was snowing in Bradford. A real white Christmas. Maybe it was worth missing the Doctor Who special, not that I hadn’t recorded it. In London, all we wouldn’t gotten was slush.

Kudos, Maliks.

“Well, this is cliché.” I said suddenly, laughing. Zayn looked at me. “You know, the whole... Thing. Me and you originally hating each other, becoming friends and now we’re getting married... Cliché, don’t you think?”

“Should I take that as a compliment?” Zayn asked with a confused smile.

“Definitely.” I nodded. “Rose and I sob like babies every time we see The Notebook, cliché works.”

Zayn didn’t say anything, walking to the end of the garden. He brushed some snow off the small back wall and sat down, motioning for me to do the same.

“Nu-uh.” I shook my head. “I’ll get your coat wet.”

It was weird. Zayn gave me a strange, small little smile.

“It’s fine, Soph.” He said gently, freaking me out even more. “C’mon, sit down.”

I went to argue again, but – realizing that it sounded like I cared – I shrugged quickly instead and sat down, going to brush away the snow. Zayn got there first, shrugging when I looked at him questioningly.

“What do you want for Christmas?” I asked suddenly, looking at him. It was starry tonight. “I never really thought about it before, what do you want?”

“What?” Zayn laughed in disbelief and I shrugged at him, grinning for some strange, strange reason that was unbeknownst to me. “Bit late, isn’t it?”

“Tell me.” I commanded, grinning still.

“Well, good thing you don’t need to go looking for it.” Zayn smiled at me sweetly and I watched him, questioning. “I just want you.”

Oh.

“Well, I, you, I mean, uh, we, um-”

“I mean, all of you.” Zayn said quickly and I stopped stammering to stare at him in surprise. “I know you’re holding back, Soph. I just don’t know why. If you really don’t want to do this, we don’t have to get married, I-”

“No!” I burst out, feeling my cheeks turn red as Zayn raised his eyebrows at me. Awkward. “I... I mean...” Damn it. I took a deep breath. Man up, Soph, where’s your metaphorical penis now? “I do... Want to... Get married.” I said awkwardly. “To you.” I added quickly, watching Zayn’s mouth twitch. “”Oh, get lost!” I muttered, laughing as Zayn burst into laughter. “I was clarifying!”

“I noticed.” Zayn grinned, before becoming more subdued. I watched him, feeling... Weird. Happy weird. GOOD weird. “And you’re sure?” I nodded. Stupid question. I wasn’t exactly one to go gushing my feelings but... I... Liked Zayn. A... A lot. “Well, in that case...”

“In that case what?” I smiled, watching him take a nervous breath. “Zayn?”

“Well, my Malikah-”

“Oh, you Asian.” I snorted loudly. “Princess in Arabic? Next you’re going to start praying aloud on a bus.” I pretended to tut at him, watching Zayn’s incredulous expression. “Bloody terrorist.”

Zayn fought it. I watched him. His mouth was twitching and he was biting his lower lip to not laugh, but his shoulders were shaking and before I could even fully start grinning at him, he’d let out a large hoot of laughter and was trying not to fall over.

In fact, he nearly fell face-forward into the snow, so put a hand on my knee to steady himself, still choking.

For a moment, I froze. Anybody could be watching, aka, my parents.

But... I realized I didn’t mind.

So I laughed too.

“That... Is not the point.” Zayn laughed, shaking his head. “Look, I know we’re not meant to do this until February-”

“If you try and rape me, I swear to God, I’ll kill you.” I said automatically. Not that it mattered. I mean, what could any guy say to that?

“Yeah, it’s not rape if you like it.” Zayn smirked and I felt myself blush. Yeah. He could say that. I watched as Zayn went into his trouser pocket, pulling out a –

I covered my mouth with my hand, refusing to gasp. A turquoise box with a white ribbon. 

A Tiffany’s box.

“Zayn...” I managed to whisper.

“Your favourite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I thought it gave me a bit of a clue.” Zayn smiled at me. “Hand?” 

Wordlessly, I let him take my hand as he opened the box.

“I know I can’t give it to you now, but I wanted to see if it fit.” Zayn told me quietly, not looking at me properly. I didn’t see the ring as he took it out of the box and put the box away in his pocket. Silently, he slid it onto my wedding finger and tilted my hand in the light, showing me.

I gasped.

It was stunning.

It was simple. A shining, beautiful plain silver ring, a circular, beautifully cut diamond nested in the middle. As it caught the light from the house, it sparkled brilliantly, making me stare at it, speechless.

It was amazing.

“Soph...” Zayn seemed to struggle with his words. Not that I was listening. Oh my God, this ring was stunning. OH DEAR GOD, THIS WAS MY ENGAGEMENT RING. “I l- I really like you. You know that, don’t you?”

“I love you too.” I murmured, staring at my ring. Oh my God. This must’ve cost a bomb. I couldn’t let him buy me this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was so pretty and it fit perfectly and everything and OH MY GOD, I’D JUST TOLD ZAYN I LOVED HIM.

My words died on my tongue, but I kept my face on the ring. Oh God. I’d just told Zayn how I felt...

... And it hadn’t killed me.

And it felt good to finally say it.

I loved Zayn.

I could feel him staring at me. Slowly, I brought my eyes up to meet his.

“Well, that’s one way of putting it.” Zayn was fighting a smirk, but he lost; he broke into a smirk, then a smile and then such a big grin, he looked at the ground sheepishly and laughed self-consciously.

And instead of pretending I rolled my eyes in my head and thought he was being a girl, I did the same thing. I laughed.

I’d finally admitted my feelings for Zayn. I mean, it was no secret why I hadn’t in the first place; my horrendous commitment issues, maybe, or the fact that we were so different, we were bound to fail?

But... Well, we hadn’t.

Because, yes, we were different and yes, I’d seen people just like us – so opposite – who’d tried and failed to have relationships, even marriages. And I’d seen my own parents stuck in their own, unhappy marriage, despite how crazy they’d been for one another and I’d gone through so much of my life not believing in love, even when it – he, Zayn – had been on my doorstep.

It felt good to allow myself to be happy for once.

And in that moment, I wasn’t scared anymore. I wasn’t scared of D-Day, or the wedding, or what it would mean to be Mrs Soph Malik after it. The pandemonium that would ensue once we released to the press, the constant battle it was going to be to maintain a relationship when Zayn was away; not that we’d discussed that yet.

The idea of us being and making a family.

I’d always told myself I never wanted kids. Cars were better than kids was what I’d snorted at any girl who told me about their plans for a family in high school (you’d be surprised at how low aspirations were for girls with IQs over 100). But, I had secretly admitted to Rose and a few scarce others, that I didn’t want any children because it was likely that, even if I did end up loving my partner, it wouldn’t be the kind of love that could sustain a child. I wanted to be so happy, so in love, so perfect in my life and the man I was spending it with, that having a baby and sharing that love with him or her was the most brilliant idea in the world. I didn’t want to just have a baby for collateral, or because at four years of marriage, that was what I was supposed to do, before my ovaries got dusty and fell out.

Who would’ve thought that guy would be Zayn? If anybody had told me that, I would have punched them in the face.

I still might.

We heard fireworks go off and a loud cheer from inside the house. It was midnight.

“Merry Christmas, Soph.” Zayn told me quietly.

I didn’t think about what I did next, or who might be watching, or whatever other crap. I just did it. I tangled my hand with Zayn’s, my engagement ring sparkling under the sky.

I turned to him and smiled. I loved Zayn. I was in love... With ZAYN.

“Merry Christmas, Zayn.”

[rkwendy]

Five Times Around The Sun: A Rookies Fifth Anniversary Special

Dear Rookies,

First of all, I’d like to wish the roleplay a happy fifth birthday! I’m aware that not many roleplays live to make it this far. For you guys to make it, I’ll bet it’s some sort of achievement. And it’s all because of the work both the mods and the members of the community put into this. Let’s give ourselves a round of applause!

I warn you that this is more than 5,500 words long. So yeah. You are free to just skip over this if you wish!

There’s so much I want to say, but I’ve never been great at expressing my feelings. (Fun fact: my mom and I start laughing whenever one of us starts getting cheesy or emotional.) I never even properly celebrated either muse’s anniversaries despite them being in Rookies for more than two years! Forgive me if this gets too long. I promise I’ll do my best to keep this concise (Wow, big word!)

With this knowledge, please bear with me as I struggle to convey all that I want to say without cringing at myself.

I guess it’s safest to start sharing the story of why I opted to join Rookies in the first place. Like majority of what happened to me in terms of KRP, it was a complete accident. I have been in KRP since 2011 (if any of you have heard of ADiS, then… yeah… shifty eyes). I kind of stopped roleplaying because a job with a newspaper was difficult af. (I only went home to shower and eat. I was lucky to be able to sleep, lbr here) Anyway, I needed something to do once I resigned from my old job, and my friends got me back into KRP via a Kingsman-themed one, since they wanted someone to RP Infinite with them. I think some of you know which one it is. /cackles/

MOVING ON. This same friend also planned to join the Rookies and wanted a ship for their muse. We both ended up doing applications, but I was the only one who was able to submit because my friend ended up getting a job. Thus, my friend was never able to join the RP and I got accepted.

A little history time! Please bear with me, this is going to be irrelevant to you but I feel like I need to talk about this. Fun fact I probably never told anyone! Wendy was originally meant to be a Krystal muse. However, I had to make a few adjustments because there was either a Krystal reserve or there was a Krystal muse in the RP. I can’t remember which one it was. The muse was loosely inspired by Berry Good’s Johyun and NCT Dream’s Jaemin, who both used to be competitive speed skaters before they became idols. I changed the sport to figure skating because that is the sport I know best. Wendy was also based on several friends of mine, who were all a bunch of somewhat pretty overachievers. (Going to one of the top universities in the country enables you to meet these people, more on that when I talk about Johnny later on.)

I’m not going to lie, this was the first time I was in a directory that was this HUGE. (Not even ADiS was this huge. Min, please correct me if I’m wrong.) It was easy for me to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in the directory, along with concerns that my muse was just going to drown among the many way more interesting muses than what I had to offer.

It would have been easier for me to quit, since the reason I joined was gone. However, Jen ( @yujurk ) turned out to be one of my friends from my Indie RP days! Not going to lie, if it wasn’t for Jen, I doubt I’d have stayed in the roleplay at all. Jen helped ease me into the roleplay in all ways imaginable: by plotting with me, introducing me to muns from the same timezone, and answering any questions in case our good mods weren’t online.

As I was navigating and slowly finding my place in the RP, the third season of the MGAs happened! Not going to lie, I wasn’t sure I was ready for Wendy to be signed, but I thought I might as well do it for the lulz. I know I said this a lot, but the MGAs were probably the among the wildest things I ever put a muse through that I swore that I was never putting another muse through it. Despite that, I’m glad I put Wendy through the experience. It taught her a lot about herself, as well as how far she was willing to push in order to achieve her dreams. At this point, I would like to give a shout-out to Team Nova! Wendy and I can’t imagine having any other teammates besides Jungwoo ( @jungwooxrk ), and the former Luhan ( who is still around as @rksoojung and is still one of Wendy’s loves ), Mijoo, and Soyou (RIP muses). Of course, Wendy owes Ricky ( @rkrxcky ) a lot for leading her to where she is today. Thanks you guys.

After the MGAs, Wendy signed with Nova. I’d like to thank everyone in the Nova family, both past and present, for putting up with this tiny girl who claims to be their future CEO. After two years with the company, Wendy has become (hopefully) an even better vocalist and composer. Sure, her dancing and charisma can use more work — scratch that, a lot more work — but we will get her to a level that’s passable. After all, if she intends to inherit the company someday, she has to do well in the department Nova is known for. I never thought Wendy would last this long as a trainee, but here we are. She could have easily left during Royal Survival, but she didn’t. OOC, the event happened when I was taking TOPIK so RIP. IC, the reason was because she believes in whatever plans Nova has for her (if there are any LMAO). Although she’s having second thoughts now, she’s still determined to see it through. She intends to inherit the company from Hyun Bin, so she has to stay. LOL.

To Minju ( @jinkyungxrk ), thank you for being one of the first to welcome Wendy to the company and making it easy for her to adjust to trainee life. Ani ( @rkmiya ), Wendy and Sunmi have made it! Can you all believe it took Wendy TWO FREAKING YEARS to get comfortable enough with Sunmi to call her unni? And can you all believe it took us around that long to actually plot properly? JFC we are both such snails. Matt ( @rksona ), wherever you are, Wendy will always consider Dawon as one of her Nova best friends. After all, they’re both vocalists who signed pretty close to the same time. To my fellow KRP senior citizen MC/Jae ( @sujirk ) (IDK which you prefer so I’ll use both), it’s nice to know there’s someone close to my age who’s still RP-ing too, despite feeling like that Will Smith meme when finding out how YOUNG some of these children are. And here’s to Wendy and Suji getting to know each other and becoming closer. Maddy ( @rkkaeun )… Where do I even begin? Wendy likes Kaeun a lot and is excited to see how Kaeun will grow, and I feel the same about you too. To Chaeyoung mun ( @rkchaeyoung ) (Honestly, I have no idea how you like to be called, so I shall refer to you as Sowon and Chaeyoung mun for now, I’m so sorry!) and Sunny ( @rkmeiqi ), Chaeyoung and Meiqi are special to Wendy because they are simply the first fellow 98-line girls to join Nova. To Neo ( @rkyngsun ), we have yet to talk a lot and plot more, but I’m grateful that you’re okay with Wendy going all Regina George on your girl. This is going to be a slightly slow burn ship before these vocalists become gay for each other in a way. But I just hope we stick together for this crazy ride. And Nana ( @hyunark ), with Hyuna signed to Nova, Wendy’s even happier than ever, despite feeling some occasional salt at their beloved CEO. Here’s to our girls writing more songs together~

To the boys of Nova, thank you all for being the best boys you can possibly be. To Jess ( @rkhuidong ), thank you having Hui be kind of like a dad/older brother to Wendy. Thank you for assuring her that she did the right thing even if she was punished for it. To Chanel, (OMG this is mention number 2, Chanel!) Ricky is Wendy’s coach and kind of mentor, as well as the fourth-wall reality check. To Lex (you better get used to this. I have a feeling you’ll be mentioned A LOT), our kids have gone through so much, haven’t they? The MGAs, surviving Nova, and a lot more. Wendy cares for Jungwoo a lot, and she hopes they can tough this out together. To Joi ( @bambamrk ), Wendy’s always admired how cool and nice he is. She hopes he’s happy. To Fifi  ( @haknyeonrk ), Circe ( @rkmbin ), and Lulu ( @rksxngyeol ), Wendy would love to get to know your boys all so much better. To Rome ( @rkromeo ), (the now-gone) Jinyoung, and (old) Kihyun, you will always be honorary Nova Boys to Wendy, no matter what.

To Roe ( @rkhugo @rkyooa @suhork ), Wendy wouldn’t let me lump Hugo with all the other boys of Nova. After all, Hugo is special. I’m grateful that Roe entrusted Hugo’s heart in Wendy’s inexperienced hands. I’m honored that Roe actually agreed to have Hugo go through a slow-burn ship, especially when I’m aware that she isn’t the most patient of people when it comes to that. Thank you for putting up with both Wendy’s lack of affection and her inexperience when it comes to relationships, and all the things she fears. Thank you again for putting up with my snail’s pace replies, but I want you to know it’s because I want to give Hugo the replies he deserves. The muse for this ship is alive and kicking, and I intend to keep it that way. Both Wendy and I love you and Hugo so much, Roe. LOL I spent so much time talking about Hugo that I forgot to mention how much both Wendy and Johnny also care about Yooa and Suho, but they do.

Now I’m on the topic of thanks to, I think I should also give a special shout-out to the girls of rkredvelet. Though we don’t talk as often as I’d like, I have to admit you were among the first to plot with me when I was new here. You are all Wendy’s best friends for life.

To Rose ( @rkyeri ): I like seeing you tweet about dancing and your takes on things. I also learn a lot from you! Your comments in the KT groupchat crack me up a lot as well. You’re doing amazing, bb! On a muse perspective, Yeri is one of Wendy’s oldest friends, going back from their days in Canada. Wendy just wants Yeri to know that she’s proud of her for being one step closer to her dreams. She’s also asking when she can start printing the Anna slogan.

To Keith ( @rkjxy ): Hoy, bakla. Other than being a ray of sunshine to both Wendy and me, thank you for everything. Just as Wendy and Joy have fun together anytime, anywhere, I like to think it can become something like that for us both. I love our discussions about local stuff and fandom. May mapapagraduate na ako! /cries proud mom tears/

To Kyle ( @seulgirk ): One of the true MVPs of my life. Just as I honestly have no idea where Wendy would be without Seulgi, I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to me if you hadn’t helped me out all those times. Seulgi is practically Wendy’s person. (LBR, if Hugo had to be threatened by anyone, it’s Seulgi.) I also enjoy commiserating over watching winter sports at godforsaken timeslots (one of these days, I’ll understand hockey enough), as well as listening to to you/reading your tweets discussing your muses/muse ideas. And those puns of yours give me so much life.  

Anyway, next up, I’d like to give a shoutout to rkbrosquad!!!! Honestly, having you guys made life a lot more colorful for me, as well as both my muses. I’m not going to lie, this is probably one of the first group chats I was ever in, in terms of KRP. It’s like my muses gained a new family with this insane, but loving bunch. I also like how this chat can also turn into a meme dumpsite, a spazz area, and a tea corner if we need it. Here’s to more adventures with our muses and if distance isn’t an issue, I bet we’d all look for chances to meet.

To Jen, you are one of the reasons we have a squad in the first place. Without you, I bet I wouldn’t have stayed after the first week. Having a familiar face who’s been with the RP for a long time helped me get settled much more easily. It was your helpful self that inspired me to pay it forward for the future muns who’d enter the RP. So if anyone’s grateful that I was friendly to them, please direct your compliments to Jen for setting a good example! Other than that, you and your muses changed my muses’ lives completely. Shoutout goes to her mentor Jieun and one of her closest friends Soyeon.

To Lyn ( @rkavery @rkxsnn ), hoy mumsh. It’s refreshing to able to talk to more people in the same language. Not to mention, your muses always got up to the wildest antics that had both my muses and me laughing. I’m cheering for you both in rp and in real life. Alam mo ‘yan. And muse-wise, thanks for letting your former boy be the James Potter to Johnny’s Sirius Black (or vice versa). Johnny and I will miss your boy loads, but we also welcome your new girls with open arms. And also thanks for shipping with Wendy at some point, even if she ended up broken. (ULOL ang drama!)

To Shinobi ( @rkgray @rkkangjoon ): You are legitimately one of the sweetest people I have ever had the fortune to meet. You’re nice to everyone, get along well with people, and have the most awesome characters ever. Your ideas are just A+++. Gray will also always be the reason Wendy’s standards for men are so high, since in her eyes, Gray is perfect. (Gray will get Johnny’s love in the KT Boyz segment) Meanwhile, Kangjoon will be that handsome brother Wendy will be protective about because she thinks he deserves the best. Johnny will always thank Kangjoon for accidentally smacking him in the butt, which lead him to the best squad ever. #NEVERFORGET

To Nana: OMG! This is your second mention. All those posts of Hyuna and LE to send the group chat into a gay panic are more than welcome. It’s always fun plotting with you and your muses, no matter which one it is. Wendy is proud of Jihoon ( @jihoonrk ) in Convex, as well as looking for a chance to release some hilarious pre-debut shit. As for Hyuna, we all know how much Wendy admires Hyuna and loves her a lot. Here’s to hopefully getting to plot with Younghyun sooner or later!

To Maddy ( @aronrk ): Yes, this is your second mention too. Wendy and Aron have yet to thread together, yeah? LOL. Anyway, Wendy obviously cares a lot about Aron, Kaeun, and Nayoung. And I think it carries over to me caring a lot about you. It’s cool to talk to someone who works in the same industry as I do (rather as I used to) and have the same interests. Bonus points for living in the same timezone! (Aron will get Johnny’s love in the KT Boyz segment)

To Sammi ( @rkxminhee ): You are also one of the nicest people I have ever met. I love learning about girl groups from you, since I’m generally clueless about the ones outside of the Big Three or aren’t as well-known. I’m not going to lie, everytime I see Minhee, I think of you. I remember seeing Minhee post that she was in my country, and the first thing I thought was, “DOES SAMMI KNOW MINHEE IS IN MY COUNTRY?!”

To Em ( @borark ): You’re doing an amazing job as a momma to a cutie pie! Anyway, Bora is one of the coolest girls Wendy has ever known, just as I think you are one of my faves. We need a proper thread ASAP when we’re both not busy T_T

Bet y’all thought that was done, right? Nope. We still have a long way to go. Trust me, if you’re getting tired reading this, I’m even more exhausted writing it. We’ll all just have to deal with it. RIP @ us.

Back in 2016, NCT U, NCT 127, and NCT Dream had debuted. Back then, I was aware that Johnny, the SM Rookie who trained with SM the longest had yet to debut. So as a joke, I thought to myself, I’ll debut him before SM does. He came in a month after Wendy got signed at the MGAs. I figured I could handle two muses so LOL. He started as an NPC friend for Wendy who had a crush on Seulgi, and then I thought I could bring him in.

The first time I knew it was time for Johnny to graduate from NPC to actual muse was when I was watching a local drama called “On the Wings of Love.” One of the characters was a spoken-word artist, and I felt like it was something that suited the Johnny muse I had. I also wanted to bring in a muse who can speak Filipino, so I had an excuse to say PUTANGINA on the dash, as well as spread OPM to Rookies.

From there, Johnny just started becoming more real to me as a muse. Johnny was also based on several college friends of mine, who were all a bunch of insanely intelligent and talented people. He was inspired by a classmate who was actually a MYX VJ (local music TV channel) who was also taking up a pre-med degree. Johnny was also inspired by the guy who became our class valedictorian: a dork who was smart AF and could sing, dance, act, write songs, and was part of the debate team with me. One of my closest friends who I miss a lot was gifted with a superior IQ and an almost flawless memory, and she was also a CF model. All these people inspired me to bring Johnny to life.

Honestly, Johnny brought on a new series of challenges that I never thought was possible. I was less awkward when I brought him in, since I was already somewhat at ease with the community. The challenge was to make him want to be an idol. But somehow, fate let things happen and loh and behold!

From not wanting anything to do with the entertainment industry, Johnny finds himself immersed in it all. He would like to thank the former Jungkook muse (who might make a return as a different FC hint hint) for forging his application for that Samsung modeling casting. That started his interest and curiosity for modeling. However, he got his feet wet only when his teacher told him to go for it. But still, that forgery got him a start.

Then, the life-changing talent show happened. Johnny owes Hugo a huge-ass thank you for signing up him for that Hongdae talent show. He is now proud to be a KT (KermiT) Boy. I still have no clue how Johnny wants to develop from being a genius turned model to becoming the artist he can be. But I guess that’s what we will all have to anticipate.

I hadn’t planned for Johnny to fall in love. In fact, I was planning to make him an asexual hermit. Sure, he’s had crushes on Seulgi and Lisa, but he never dreamed those could amount to anything. He was supposed to be forever alone. (To Roe, that time Yukji tried flirting with Johnny will always be one of the most iconic moments.) However, Ten happened! Yay! Nine asked to plot so nicely, and I figured why the hell not? Okay, fun fact, the reason I planned for Johnny to be a hermit was because I was too scared to be called out for face-chasing. I’m relieved that Nine reached out first. And now they’re the cutest boyfriends. Again, I would like to apologize for my snail’s pace when it comes to replies. I will talk a little more about this later on. I promise.

Another reason Johnny has stayed alive for so long was because of all the friends he’s made over the time we’ve been in this RP. Honestly, every single one of these friends have made Johnny’s life more exciting, more colorful, and have taken him in directions he never would have considered if left to his own devices. I guess the long-ass thank you messages are now in order.

To rknctea:

To Nine ( @tenrk ): You go first simply because Johnny asked me to. Besides, I want to thank you and Ten for making Johnny believe that he’s capable of love and sexual feelings. Ten makes Johnny want to be the right person for Ten, and to be a better boyfriend. I don’t know whether I ever mentioned this, but Johnny sees Ten in his future. OOC-wise, I’m thankful that you brought us NCT typists together in the group chat. Not to mention, you make me laugh with all the stuff you link in there. In our DMs, I love how we both get soft together over JohnTen. Whether it’s plots for our boys or IRL JohnTen doing stuff, it’s always great sharing the feels with you.

To Yurim ( @rktaeil ): To one of the people I’ve known longest in RK (outside the brosquad), my experience in Rookies wouldn’t be the same without you. I’m glad you brought in Taeil. Although I reply at a glacial pace now, I’m excited to see what happens to Taeil. I still find it hilarious that you declared your NCT bias will be whose calling card you’ll draw. Anyway, the reason your barrel man has yet to come to you is because I will personally bring it to you when I fly there next year. If you have any other requests, please let me know anytime before I fly. (I will let you know when we’re arriving so we can meet.)

To Hunnie ( @yutark ): We have been through a lot during the time we’ve known each other. You point out things I don’t notice otherwise and work way harder than I do, just as Yuta shows Johnny perspectives that are immensely different from his own. I struggle coming up with ways to ruin my muses’ lives and to just write in general. I don’t know how you do it so religiously and so diligently on top of schoolwork. We also spazz over a lot of different fandoms together, and I’m happy that you’re a lot happier now. Also, welcome to the UAAP life. I’m glad you decided to watch basketball with me and that you’re somehow rekindling your love for the game. Game Two, here we come!

To Min ( @rkjaemin ): You would have gone first but Johnny insisted otherwise. Buwisit siya. We have been together since 2011 and I hope this doesn’t change at all. You knew me from when I was a total noob to the RP world, and have been one of those who saw my writing improve or deteriorate over the years. You are one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met IC or OOC. I’m happy you joined this madhouse called Rookies with me, and I hope this is good healing for you from work. I love you and can we please have dinner with the rest of the girls soon? Just as I will always be rooting for you and will be available to help, please tell your evil spawn of a muse that Johnny’s willing to help him too. Same goes for Wendy and Somi.

To Peach ( @rkhaechan ): When I first told Min to join Rookies, I never thought you two would find each other. But I’m glad you did. You make my girl so happy, and with that, I’m happy too. I will go down with the S.S. PeachMin. I better be invited to that wedding. Anyway, Johnny loves Haechan a lot, especially because he makes evil spawn Jaemin so happy. Haechie may be my new fave of your muses, but Soyou will always be special to me. After all, Wendy wouldn’t have lasted in the MGAs without your girl going all soccer mom on the whole team. Wendy hopes that Jihyun unni is proud of her.

To Jen ( @rkmxrk ): You are honestly one of the most fun people I have ever talked to. We can talk about fandom, winter sports, and just about how our days went. It doesn’t really matter. Long live KKT calls. Not to mention, long live being a professional enabler who convinces the rest of us to spend our hard-earned money on our faves. LMAO. One thing I also learned from you, is to be careful of what I say because you’ll have RECEIPTS. Just as Johnny looks after Mark and wishes for him to succeed, I wish the same for you. And Johnny’s proud that Mark’s finally getting what he’s been trying to say for the last few months.

To Fifi ( @jaehyunrk ), Dayo ( @rkxsicheng ) , Phil ( @rkdoyoung ), Grey ( @rkjeno ), Adri ( @rktaeyxng ): although we don’t talk as much, I’m still thankful that you’re all here. I’d like for us to get to know each other even better, even if I’m either a shy hermit, a lazy egg, or just awake when you’re asleep. But you all bring lots of laughter to the group chat, and I’d like for Johnny to plot with your boys too. (Or in Fifi’s case, Get Johnny and Jaehyun a new thread challenge)

To Lex: Damn it, Lex. I’ve lost track how many times I’ve mentioned you. I hope you’re enjoying your stay in the rknctea group chat. And I hope that somehow, Johnny and Jungwoo find their ways to each other.

To the KT Ent muses and muns:

To Carly ( @taeminrk ) : I was really planning to save this for later when I got to my thank you mods part, but I thought oh well. Anyway, I want to thank you for being one of the best mods to help me get settled when I was new here. As well as answering any questions I had, no matter how stupid they were. I’m glad I got over the initial intimidation of “OMG MOD!” to someone I can actually have fun talking to. I just hope Johnny eventually gets over that “OMG SUNBAE!” vibe Taemin gives out. Johnny always saw Taemin as the senior he has to impress and not disappoint. Trust me, Johnny’s trying but he feels like he’ll never be good enough for Taemin’s standards. LMAO

To Maddy: Johnny always thought of Aron as one of the coolest, happiest, and most talented people he’s ever met. Aron radiates sunshine in Johnny’s opinion, and he wonders how someone can be so bright all the time. Yes, Aron has permission to climb Johnny like a tree and Johnny will enjoy it.

To Shinobi: Johnny will always say Gray is his idol. Hands down. He can give Jongdae a run for his money. He will also go down with the old man ship of Gray and Huidong.

To Lulu ( @minhyukxrk ): Johnny’s rooting for his fellow twin tower and he hopes that Minhyuk will one day be the rich, talented billionaire he knows Minhyuk can be. Tall people unite despite this short revolution!

To Yurim ( @rkxkjd ): If Taemin is the strict dad, then Jongdae is the cool dad Johnny wants to be like when he grows up. After all, Jongdae is probably the muse who’s known Johnny the longest. These two go way back and are both nerds.

To Lex ( @rksungho ): Oh man, I gave up counting how many mentions you got. This is probably going to be the last. Sungho and Johnny are different as they can be, despite a somewhat similar skillset. Not going to lie, Johnny wants to get along with him, despite Sungho just being so angry at everything.

To Cherry ( @rkjimin ): We don’t get to talk as often as I’d like, but I’d like for that to change as soon as we’re both not busy. Jimin is a lovely muse, and Johnny looks forward to getting to know him better in the future~

To Hunnie ( @rksunwoo ): Sunwoo is special to Johnny, because they joined KT at around the same time. There has to be something to be said about two strangers who started a journey at the same time. Johnny wishes he was as talented and talented as Sunwoo. I like to think that Johnny and Sunwoo have a unique bond that only the two of them can understand.

To Shino ( @rkjinjin ): Johnny and Jinwoo, aka big guy and small fry. Just kidding. Though for real, Johnny is always impressed with Jinwoo’s talent and is grateful to learn so much from him. As for you Shino, having you around is lots of fun. I have learned not to say any silly stuff in the group chat unless I wish to be exposed. (Never forget: VORE TAEMIN)

To Hyunjin mun (T_T IDK How you want to be addressed) ( @rkxhyunjin ): You are the only KT Boy Johnny has no thread with. I’d love for us to change that ASAP. Please?

To the females at KT, Johnny loves and respects you a lot. He’d love to get closer with you all. For now, he declares Haseul ( @haseulrk ) and Jennie ( @rkjennie ) as his faves, because he’s closest to them. Johnny never thought he’d be a step-parent to a dog, but Ahyoung  ( @rkxblue ) somehow got him to do it, so she’s special too. He also sees Minji ( @rkariel ) as the older sister you don’t want to disappoint, while Yeri is the younger sister he finds hilarious. He’d also love to get to know Audrey, ( @rkaudrey ), Momo ( @rkxmomo ), Luda ( @rkxluda ), and Chungha ( @rkchungha ) better!

To Carly and Keith, and by some extension, Kate, Johnny has come to see Luna ( @rkluna ) and Jisoo ( @rkjisoo ) (and Eve ( @rkxeve,) by extension) as his lesbian moms. He low-key blames and credits them for being why he is the way he is today. You don’t get raised by two extremely opposite but equally bad-ass women and not be some mix of weird. He doesn’t get to talk to his moms so much, but he wants them to know he loves them a lot.

I can’t leave this without yelling at Lari! Baekhyun ( @rkbyunbaek ) is the best host brother Johnny could ever ask for. Both of us can’t imagine this boy living with anyone else but Baekhyun’s family. Johnny feels bad that they hardly ever see each other anymore, but that doesn’t change how much he loves Baekhyun. Johnny is actually going to be upset when he’ll have to move out of the Byun residence because he’s going to miss this host family a lot.

I’d also like to thank people I have yet to properly thread with (or seldom get to thread with) but talk to frequently OOC, especially on Twitter. There’s way too many of you to be tagged, but you know who you all are. I love how we can talk about anything, ranging from K-Pop to local showbiz, to current events, and more random topics.

Finally, I’d like to thank the mods, each one, having helped me in some shape or form. Kyle, Keith, and Carly, you all got long-ass love letters from me, so I won’t bother repeating myself anymore. To Sera, you truly are hard carry AF. Thank you noticing my hiatus messages and just being there in general. I’ve always told people you are great, and I’m glad my faith isn’t misplaced at all. To Bianca, thank you for answering my stupid AF questions during events. Because I swear even I would roll my eyes at myself for some of the things I ask sometimes. To Mira, you were one of the mods who welcomed me back when I was new. So I’d like to thank you for that. Wendy misses one of her mean girl friends~ To Razel, those graphics are A++++ Here’s to more talking about PH showbiz, food, and to us finally having a proper thread!

I bet I forgot so many people, but this is about how much I can write. Fun fact! I started writing this post at around 11:30am, and I finished writing this at around 6pm. If you made it this far, congratulations!

I’ll spare you all from my rambling, and I’ll just end it here.

My muses and I are cheering for everyone and their muses in their endeavors, whether IC or OOC. I would also like to apologize for the times I have offended you, whether I was aware of it or not. (I’m sure I’ve apologized if I was aware of it, but yeah.) I’m trying to be a better person than I was the day before. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll do my best to be a better mun to both Wendy and Johnny, as well as be a better member of this community.

With all my love,

Clara (rkwendy and rkjohnny)

[companionjones]

Truth or Dare (Part 2)

Part 1

Imagine: Playing Truth or Dare with the Eleventh Doctor.

Imagine by: @eleventh-and-his-bowties

Fandom: Doctor Who, 11th Doctor

Pairing: 11!Doctor x Reader

Warnings: ..........Nudity (this is an odd story), SOME sexual references (ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXPLICIT! I KNOW IT SEEMS UNLIKELY BUT THIS IS A SMUT-FREE STORY!)

Author’s Note: At some point during this story, you’ll run across the word probe (pronounced: pro-bee). In case you don’t know what that is, it’s just another word for ‘new agent’.

The Doctor smiled. “Truth or Dare.” He turned around and wandered around the TARDIS’s console, flicking switches and pressing buttons.

“Truth?” You winced jokingly.

He leaned around the console, into your eyesight. The Doctor had a look of confusion on his face.

“I know,” you admitted with your hands up, “I’m weak.”

The Doctor smirked, and circled around the console over to you. “Ah, you’re not weak, love.” He hugged you.

This was one of the reasons why you loved him. He always made sure you knew you were loved, even if you were joking around.

“Oh, just ask me my truth,” you sighed, returning the hug.

The Doctor broke away, a sly smirk on his face.

You grimaced, “Oh God, what is it.”

“Have you...ever gone streaking?”

Your eyebrows shot up and you froze. “...I’m sorry...,” you finally spoke, “...what.”

“You heard me. Have. You. Ever. Gone. Streaking?” He emphasized each word.

Your blush said what you couldn’t.

The Doctor walked away while he chuckled, and started using the console to direct the TARDIS to the destination he had in mind. His chuckling turned into a real laugh.

“Y/n, it’s your choice. This wasn’t a dare. I won’t force you to do this...,” he laughed again, “But by the smile that I see on your face now, y/n you wanna go, don’t you.”

You giggled. This wouldn’t be the first time you’d see each other naked, when it comes down to it.

“Y/n, have I ever taken you to Richard Nixon’s inauguration?”

“No.”

The TARDIS stopped.

“I’m going to need to see your clothes on the ground, y/n.”

You started to strip. “You do realize this is insane, right?”

“You do realize you’re the one who agreed to this, right?” The Doctor quipped back as he got rid of his clothes as well.

Minutes later, you were completely naked, and the Doctor was clad only in a bowtie and a fez. He didn’t have a fez earlier, and you had no idea where he got it from, but you figured it best not to ask questions.

“You ready?” The Doctor asked with his usual shining grin on his face.

Hands sweeping quickly over your face, you said, “As ready as a person who is about to run in front of POTUS naked will ever be.”

The grin only got wider. He ran by you, taking your hand and pulling you out the door with him. He yelled, “HERE WE GOOOO!!!!!”

There was a lot of sounds making themselves known as the two of you ran. Screams of joy coming from you, the Doctor and the odd audience member who appreciated how awesome a feat you and the Doctor were performing. Then there were screams of distress, because there were children there after all. You also heard secret service shouting at you, and at each other. Then there’s the basics, like birds chirping. What you didn’t expect to hear was the Marine Band, which for some reason hadn’t stopped playing in all the commotion. The optimist in you thought it was because they were cheering you on.

What you couldn’t get out of your head was the sight of Nixon’s face. It reminded you a lot of Elvis’s face on your last adventure with the Doctor. You know, right after the Doctor kissed the singer. Yeah, other sights caught your eye, too, like everyone else’s shocked faces and the guards running at you, but Nixon! You could’ve gone down laughing right there. Though, you didn’t, of course.

Smell was more diverse than you thought it would be. You could smell all the different kinds of food that was being sold nearby. By some weird chance, you could even smell (your favorite food). For a split second, you wondered if there was time to stop by for some. Then you remembered your attire, and the secret service chasing you. You laughed.

Every once in a while you would feel someone grab you, most of the time an agent, but you’d been with the Doctor far to long to not know how to shake them off and keep running. The cement was cold and scratchy, and you were just beginning to feel the cold. Goosebumps were appearing all over you, and your nipples hardened. Wind blew your hair back. People were starting to throw stuff at you, not that you cared at all. You laughed again.

The last thing you thought about was, oddly, the tastes on your tongue. Do you ever catch the taste in the air just before it rains? Well, that’s what you tasted just then. There was also the wind flitting against your tongue. That’s pretty much it, but who wouldn’t want to take in every aspect of life when they were with the Doctor?

The two of you made a loop around the stage, and back to the TARDIS, but of course, nothing can be that easy. Secret Service were waiting for you just around the corner.

“We’ve been over this. I am the Doctor, and myself and my companion here were streaking!” The Doctor declared, as if it was the most normal and obvious thing in the world.

The agent sitting across from the two of you was clearly at the end of his wits. “Sir, do you understand what you just said? You just admitted to breaking at least five laws.”

You sighed and rested your head in your hands. It wasn’t hard to admit, this was not one of the Doctor’s smartest plans. Quietly, you sat there, while the Doctor talked with the special agent.

“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never went and gone out and gone streaking with your lover.” He winked at you.

The agent blinked, “No, I can’t say I have.”

“But you’ve thought about it.”

Humorously, the agent didn’t answer.

You giggled, and the Doctor slyly looked back over to you.

“Now,” you started, “I think that’s enough.” You flashed the psychic paper towards the guard.

The Doctor glanced at the psychic paper, then back at you. “Where have you been keeping that all this time?”

You winked, and the Doctor blushed and looked away. You held back a chuckle. Of course, it’s okay whenever the Doctor is flirting with someone, but as soon as that someone does it back, it was like flirting with a shy fourteen-year-old girl.

The nameless special agent, who seemed to have been deaf to the little exchange that had just taken place, gave a surprised start, and jumped up, saluting you and the Doctor. “Oh! I’m so sorry agents!”

You and the Doctor stood up, and as per the Doctor’s usual, he saluted the agent back. He clumsily let his arm down after a second.

“Yes, you should know better by now to figure out that we were on special assignment! How long have you been working here?” You put on an important sounding voice.

“Only a few months, ma’am/sir,” stated the agent, clearly almost wetting himself. Whatever he had seen on the psychic paper must’ve made you and the Doctor really important.

The act you were playing stayed silent for a moment, surveying the agent coldly before you said, “Acceptable, but you won’t be getting anymore excuses or chances. Get out.”

“Y-yes, of c-course, sir/ma’am,” the agent stuttered as he scampered out of the room.

Just before he left, the Doctor called out after him, “And could we please have some clothes?!” But it was no luck. The probe (pronounced: pro-bee) was already gone.

That’s right, you went through that entire interview in the nude.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to get out of here the old-fashion way, then,” you commented with a smirk.

That’s what lead you and the Doctor to go charging through the hallways of the White House completely naked, well, not completely for the Doctor, because of his bowtie and fez he’d somehow managed to hang on to.

Someone might’ve caught the two of you, but the Doctor kept everyone around you busy by causing small explosions with his sonic screw driver.

“Where have you been keeping that all this time?!” You called out after the Doctor.

He just shouted back, “Oh, you know where, my love!”

You laughed out loud.

After about another ten minutes of running, the TARDIS door swung shut behind you. While you spent some extra time catching your breath, the Doctor started pulling his clothes back on.

“Is streaking always that...eventful?” you asked.

The Doctor laughed, “Everything’s eventful when you’re involved, y/n!”

You blushed, laughed again, and started redressing yourself. Once your shirt was over your head and back on your body, the Doctor kissed you.

It was a short kiss, lasting less than two seconds, but made your heart and the Doctor’s hearts flutter, and it showed the adoration the Doctor had for you.

Once the two of you separated, your foreheads pressed together and you whispered, “Truth or Dare.”

Author’s Note: Thank you so much for reading this! Fill up that heart if you liked it. Over on my page, I have a lot more fics on Doctor Who (so far Doctors Ten and Eleven), and other stories on Hamilton, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, and many, many more. Also, requests aren’t being closed any time soon, so feel free to drop one in my box. If you’re hesitant on weather or not I write for that fandom, just ask (there’s a good chance I do). As long as it’s not anime (sorry!), because the only one I’ve seen is Ouran High School Host Club (I’ll write for that anime, though). I only have one rule for my requests. No smut please. Sorry if this is too long, but have a nice day/night, or whatever time it is for you, and I love you.

**Credits for the character the Doctor goes to Matt Smith and the creators of Doctor Who. Credits for the character the TARDIS goes to the creators of Doctor Who.**

[networkingdefinition]

Play Quotes

Official Website: Play Quotes

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• A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn’t play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly. – Pablo Neruda • A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. – Wayne Gretzky • A name, for me, is a short way of working out what class that child comes from. Do I want my child to play with them? – Katie Hopkins • A person might be able to play without being creative, but he sure can’t be creative without playing. – Kurt Hanks • All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare • All work and no play doesn’t just make Jill and Jack dull, it kills the potential of discovery, mastery, and openness to change and flexibility and it hinders innovation and invention. – Joline Godfrey • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – and Jill a wealthy widow. – Evan Esar • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. – Stanley Kubrick • American writer 1803-1882 Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning. – Diane Ackerman • And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. – Khalil Gibran • And yet the artist will go on with his work without knowing in some way if any of his representations are sound or unsound. The artist knows nothing worth mentioning about the subjects he represents, and that art is a form of play, not to be taken seriously. – Plato • As a matter of fact, I rarely ever play myself. – Frank Langella • As a performer, you can’t just sit around waiting for the phone to ring. You have to write and develop projects for yourself, because casting people aren’t always going to see you the way you want to be seen. Write a one-person show, shoot a short film, do plays, whatever – activity breeds activity. No one’s interested in a stay-at-home actress. – Wendi McLendon-Covey

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Play+', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_play').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_play img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars. – Henry Van Dyke • Bobby Fischer started off each game with a great advantage: after the opening he had used less time than his opponent and thus had more time available later on. The major reason why he never had serious time pressure was that his rapid opening play simply left sufficient time for the middlegame. – Edmar Mednis • But I’d play on everything from pop records to a lot of the glam stuff to rock stuff to classical stuff. I used to get called to do all those things, it was great. – Rick Wakeman • Champions keep playing until they get it right. – Billie Jean King • Colin Morgan gives a stunning performance in Parked; he plays Merlin in the BBC TV show and he says the two characters are like night and day. Watch him. He’s got everything it takes to be top notch. – Colm Meaney

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought. – Albert Einstein • Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. – Peter Ustinov • Contemporary American psychiatrist It is a happy talent to know how to play. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of ones chosen form. – Stephen Nachmanovitch • Culture arises and unfolds in and as play… culture itself bears the character of play. – Johan Huizinga • Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays. – Friedrich Schiller • Darren Fletcher is the type of player who would walk over hot coals to play for his country, and he has done – Andy Gray • Deep meaning lies often in childish play. – Friedrich Schiller • Does it not appear to you versatility is the true and rare characteristic of that rare thing called genius-versatility and playfulness? In my mind they are both essential. – Mary Russell Mitford • Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you. – Charlie Parker • Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. – Miles Davis • Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. – Voltaire • For me right now I think being the world number one is a bigger deal than being the world champion because I think it shows better who plays the best chess. That sounds self-serving but I think it’s also right. – Magnus Carlsen • For my part I think it is a less evil that some criminals should escape, than that the government should play an ignoble part. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. • For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again. – Matt Damon • Generally the younger generation are not hard working. They will have to put in more effort to achieve results in tournaments. most of them can perform well but they cannot deliver when they play abroad. – Jahangir • God does not play dice. – Albert Einstein • He is not someone who went off to play in Europe and only a few Americans follow. He has the potential to be on magazine covers and more newspaper coverage. – Lamar Hunt • He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o’ th’ sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt fort. – William Shakespeare • Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. – Edward de Bono • I believe that the artist’s feelings are in some way generative. And I suspect that much of the artist’s most productive emotion – not all of it but much of it – is felt in the course of playing around with form. – Carter Ratcliff • I can play songs that I hear from a movie and just play it a few times on the keyboard. I will hit all the notes on the keyboard until I find the right key, and then I will play the rest of the song. – Callan McAuliffe • I come to sing for the people, not for the government. God made the sunshine for everyone and made the moon for everyone. We have to follow his example so we have to play music for everyone too. We have a message, and in order for our message to reach the people, we have to play. – Ziggy Marley • I didn’t really play dress up when I was a kid, and I’m really T-shirt and jeans-y. – Ellen Page • I didn’t really want to be an actor when I was growing up – I wanted to be whatever I was reading about or seeing at the time. When I read The Firm I wanted to be a lawyer; when I saw Top Gun, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. So that’s why acting probably turned out to be a good thing for me because I get to be people for five minutes or 90 minutes. I’d be curious to see if I had the attention span to be like those guys on 30 Rock and play the same character season after season. – Jason Sudeikis • I don’t give a damn about any actors. What good will John Barrymore do you with the bases loaded and two down in a tight ball game. Either I get the money (more than Barrymore), or I don’t play! – Babe Ruth • I don’t have a favorite place to play. – Keren Ann • I don’t have to support Bibi, his government or any other conservative organization in order to come and play music in Israel, for people who want to come and listen to music. I think it’s b******t to ask me to boycott Israel and not America. It’s interesting that some people choose to pick on Israel and isolate her… I was invited to perform and that’s why I’ll perform, as long as the border is open and I’m welcomed. I’m just coming to play. – Anton Newcombe • I don’t think I’m very ambitious at all. But I seem to play people who have that quality. – Catherine Keener • I don’t wear bright orange clothes or leopard skin boots, but it was really good fun to play someone that does and have an excuse too! – Sally Hawkins • I guess the characters I play may be at the more destructive edge of the spectrum, more damaged or whatever, but I find a lot of female roles uninteresting. – Lili Taylor • I had this health teacher who kept me after class one time, saying, ‘You’re missing a lot of class.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but I’m doing this play.’ He said, ‘Community theatre is not going to take you anywhere. Maybe you should stay in school’ – Dane DeHaan • I like to be other people, not me. And when you’re on the red carpet, it’s like, ‘Here’s Tom Hardy.’ I don’t want to be me. That’s why I play other people. – Tom Hardy • I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people. – Lili Taylor • I love doing voiceover work. I started doing voiceover work when I had just dropped out of school, and the first few professional jobs I got were plays, but then I started making money doing voiceovers. – Justin Long • I love the game – and I hate the Russians because they’ve almost ruined it. They only risk the title when they have to, every three years. They play for draws with each other but play to win against the Western masters. Draws make for dull chess, wins make for fighting chess. – Bobby Fischer • I love to play bid whist as much as I love football. – Emmitt Smith • I love to play games. I really like football, and I also like to ride horses. – Mary-Kate Olsen • I must be absolutely clear about this. Britain cannot accept the present situation on the Budget. It is demonstrably unjust. It is politically indefensible: I cannot play Sister Bountiful to the Community while my own electorate are being asked to forego improvements in the fields of health, education, welfare and the rest. – Margaret Thatcher • I often tell my students that you can’t worry about the end of an improv scene because the end is not up to you. You just play as hard as you can until someone changes the scene. The scene has changedthe end is not up to us. – Mark Sutton • I play an 89-year-old man whose wife has Alzheimer’s in a movie called ‘Still.’ I play a World War II veteran, I acted with my son and it’s called ‘Memorial Day.’ – James Cromwell • I play bad golf for good charities like the LA Police. – Robert Stack • I play guitar and I love the Beatles and melodic music. – Stephen Dorff • I play guitar, piano, bass and percussion. – Teena Marie • I play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision… because I didn’t know how to play it, so I was a shitty teacher. I would never have went to me. – Mitch Hedberg • I play with microbes. There are, of course, many rules to this play…but when you have acquired knowledge and experience it is very pleasant to break the rules and to be able to find something nobody has thought of. – Alexander Fleming • I play, like, 12 instruments. Guitar, piano, harmonica, African drums… I’m working on mastering the accordion. – Lucas Grabeel • I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. – Leo Buscaglia • I think the media makes it tough to play in New York. There are so many papers and TV channels covering the Knicks and the expectations for the Knicks are so high. • I thought it was such a unique concept to play parents who happen to be super heroes and have a son who is going through puberty and starting high school. – Kelly Preston • I thought people would ask me really personal questions because I’ve shown more of myself, but it’s a comedy, and people understand that it’s a game we play. – Charlotte Gainsbourg • I was in lots of dodgy bands growing up and I always fancied myself in a band. But, you know, I was rubbish at writing music. So maybe one day I’ll play a rock star, or punk rocker. – Gemma Arterton • I wasn’t allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were canceled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn’t do. – Dave Brubeck • I’ll play Pretty Pretty Princess with you if you just let me watch a little bit of March Madness. – Matt Damon • I’d like to do plays, maybe a one man show. – Jean Reno • I’d like to one day play Amanda, the mother, in The Glass Menagerie. – Bernadette Peters • If I only get to play Malaysian roles, there wouldn’t be very many roles for me to play. – Michelle Yeoh • If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. – William Shakespeare • If music be the food of love, play on. – William Shakespeare • If you can play the first ten or fifteen moves in just as many minutes, you can be in a state of bliss for the rest of the game. If, on the other hand, Bronstein thinks for forty minutes about his first move, then time trouble is inevitable. – Alexander Kotov • If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. a lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed. – Kanye West • If you play an audiotape of a yawn to blind people, they’ll yawn too. – Malcolm Gladwell • If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. – John Cleese • If your opponent is short (on time), play just as you played earlier in the game. If you are short keep calm, I repeat, don’t get flustered. Keep up the same neat writing of the moves, the same methodical examination of variations, but at a quicker rate. – Alexander Kotov • I’m not afraid to play my age. I never was. I’ve never been an ingenue. I like getting older. – Maria Bello • I’m sure civilizations will still evolve through play, or rather as play, since that seems to be a fundamental mechanism of our humanity. – Diane Ackerman • In academic life, false ideas are merely false and useless ones can be fun to play with. In political life, false ideas can ruin the lives of millions and useless ones can waste precious resources. An intellectual’s responsibility for his ideas is to follow their consequences wherever they may lead. A politician’s responsibility is to master those consequences and prevent them from doing harm. Michael Ignatieff, a former professor at Harvard and contributing writer for the magazine, is a member of Canada’s Parliament and deputy leader of the Liberal Party. – Michael Ignatieff • In art, everyone who plays wins. – Robert Genn • In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play. – Friedrich Nietzsche • In my early life my mother tried to create a nurturing environment in which my mind could play. Her big rule was “Never lose in your imagination.” She told me that thoughts were things and that I would become the thing I thought of most. This kind of empowerment is crucial to creative thinking. – Joey Reiman • In my sophomore year, a kid told me that the secret to getting women is to play really, really hard to get. I followed his advice, and I didn’t have so much as a date that year. – Greg Kinnear • In our play we reveal what kind of people we are. – Ovid • In the midst of wanton aggression, we still call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions – provisional or permanent. – David Ben-Gurion • It is better to play than do nothing. – Confucius • It is fair to say that insofar as sport is taken seriously by those who play it, then to that extent their conduct in play – their ability to deal with loss or victory, their ability to meld strategic thinking and brute force – can be taken as a small-scale model of how they, or others like them, might behave in life. – Will Self • It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it. – Maya Angelou • It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. – Donald Woods Winnicott • It is my opinion that the 21st century will be the century of play, and the heteroglossic activity of artists in the 20th century has been the forecast. – Brian Sutton-Smith • It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them. – Leo Buscaglia • It is the fertile hallucination that makes paint so compelling. Paint is like the numerologist’s numbers, always counting but never adding up, always speaking but never saying anything rational, always playing at being abstract but never leaving the clotted body. – James Elkins • It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven’t done. – Judi Dench • It may be that other developers are finding that their games play better on one platform over the other, so they’re choosing to migrate to that platform. – Sid Meier • It seemed like the right time. You reach a point when you say to yourself, ‘Do I want to keep doing this?’ There are other things on my plate I want to do — I’ve been writing a play, I’ve been neglecting my standup. – Joy Behar • It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity. – Michel de Montaigne • It’s been liberating to be able to play someone who’s a bada– or promiscuous, because that’s the opposite of who I am … It’s like a drug. – Jessica Alba • Its impossible to go onto the Tardis set and not play with things and fiddle with dials. – Jenna Coleman • It’s the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam. – Graham Coxon • I’ve always been attracted to women who are assertive and have confidence – qualities older women possess. They’ve been on the Earth a little longer. They’re more seasoned. They don’t play games. They know what they want, and they’re not afraid to tell you. – Taye Diggs • I’ve always wanted to play a role in inspiring people to be better, to live higher quality lives and to feel good about the way that they look and feel. – Apolo Ohno • Jazz of the sort we play is a happy, extroverted music. You don’t have to think about it too much. – Chris Barber • Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game. – Michael Jordan • Late in the third quarter the Cougars were behind 12-0. Duva had completed 5 out of 20 passes. Edwards looked at Gifford Nielsen. Giff had never done a thing, in practice or anywhere else, to give us confidence in him. . . . . . . the coach said later. He sent him into the game anyway. First play was a 19-yard completion. Second was a 6-yard run. He threw again on the third play to running back Dave Lowry who ran 37 yards for a touchdown. – LaVell Edwards • Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain. – Aristotle • Let’s not play games. I was suggesting – you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. – Barack Obama • Life is a challenge, meet it! Life is a dream, realize it! Life is a game, play it! Life is love, enjoy it! – Sathya Sai Baba • Life is too short to play bad music – Bob Brozman • Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. – William Shakespeare • Looking at the championship-winning quarterbacks, Edwards remembered their particular talents: Gary Sheide: The image of Joe Namath. He even had Joe’s number. Had just a great feel and touch for the game. A great athlete who could play all the sports. He was more of a streak guy than any of them. He could miss two or three passes and then get hot and hit ten straight. He was the one who got it all started. – LaVell Edwards • Love is a game that two can play and both win. – Eva Gabor • Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, once told me that when a brass band plays at a small club back up in one of the neighborhoods, it’s as if the audience—dancing, singing to the refrains, laughing—is part of the band. – Tom Piazza • Man does not cease to play because he grows old, he grows old because he ceases to play. – Drew Lachey • Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. – Heraclitus • Man’s most serious activity is play. – George Santayana • Men should learn to live with the same seriousness with which children play. – Friedrich Nietzsche • My 10 year old son likes it. He’s trying to play guitar and everything. He likes that kind of music. – Merle Haggard • My acting’s very understated. I think my sad and happy don’t play that differently onscreen. – Bret McKenzie • My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn’t very into films. – Gemma Arterton • Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. – Paulo Coelho • Of course, money matters to everyone even if some don’t want to admit it. If I won the Race to Dubai, I look at that prize money and think it could pay off my new house or the range I’m building. I am privileged to play golf for a living – look around St Andrews, that’s my office. • One aspect of play is the importance of laughter, which has physiological and psychological benefits. Did you know that there are thousands of laughter clubs around the world? People get together and laugh for no reason at all! – Daniel H. Pink • One man in his time plays many parts. – William Shakespeare • One night I was in the players’ parking lot at the Fleet Center in my Celtics warm-ups about a half hour before a game, waiting for one of my dealers to come up from Fall River, because if I didn’t get my stuff I was too sick to even go through the pre-game layup line, never mind actually play in the game. – Chris Herren • One will only be free when one plays and one’s society will become a piece of art. – Herbert Marcuse • Paul Klee seems to handle colors and dreams as if they both came out of a box of children’s toys. He plays and dreams with whatever he finds. – Jean Helion • Play becomes joy, joy becomes work, work becomes play. – Johannes Itten • Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning…They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play. – Fred Rogers • Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience. – Johan Huizinga • Play is the exultation of the possible. – Martin Buber • Play is your route to mastery. – Sara Genn • Playful arising is authorized by both risk and trust in the process and in oneself. To be truly playful and improvisational one must not look for results. – Joshua L. Goldberg • Russia will occupy most of the good food lands of central Europe while we have the industrial portions. We must find some way of persuading Russia to play ball. – Henry L. Stimson • Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld • Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. – Miles Davis • Sound is not simply what we hear or play, but equally a feeling in the body – Howard Snell • Surely all God’s people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. – John Muir • That’s what I love about acting, you get to find little pieces of yourself in every character you play. – Julianna Margulies • The artist must ever play and experiment with new means of arranging experience, even though the majority of his audience may prefer to remain fixed in their old perceptual attitudes. – Marshall McLuhan • The beauty of playing together is meeting in the One. – Stephen Nachmanovitch • The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it. – Mikhail Tal • The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. – Carl Jung • The creative mind plays with the object it loves. – Carl Jung • The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously. – Sigmund Freud • The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. – Carl Jung • The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines. • The Holy Spirit, in the variety of his gifts, unites us and enables us to contribute to the building up of the Church in holiness. In this great work, each of us has a part to play; each of us, as a “living stone”, is needed for the growth and the beauty of God’s holy temple. Let us ask the Lord to help us to take an ever more active part in the Church’s life and mission, guided by the Holy Spirit and with Jesus as our cornerstone. – Pope Francis • The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. – James A. Michener • The only time it dominates is during a solo, or when we play a low blues and I put figures in behind Eric’s vocals. There’s never any real problem fitting guitar and organ together. – Alan Price • The opposite of play is not work. It’s depression. – Brian Sutton-Smith • The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery. – Erik Erikson • The Play’s the Thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King. – William Shakespeare • The play’s the thing. – William Shakespeare • The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas. – George Bernard Shaw • The spirit of playful competition is, as a social impulse, older than culture itself and pervades all life like a veritable ferment. Ritual grew up in sacred play; poetry was born in play and nourished on play; music and dancing were pure play….We have to conclude, therefore, that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play…it arises in and as play, and never leaves it. – Johan Huizinga • The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day. – Dr. Seuss • The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. – Arnold J. Toynbee • The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything. – Friedrich Nietzsche • The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay… you’re either free to play, or you’re not. – John Cleese • The world is open for play, that everything and everybody is mockable, in a wonderful way. – Robin Williams • There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago. – J. Robert Oppenheimer • There are times when I love to play all kinds of complicated games in painting. But this is one case when I need to be fairly straightforward. I’ll just try to paint the man, his intelligence, his amiability and his stature, maybe paint him fairly close to humor and try to get it just right. – Nelson Shanks • There is for many a poverty of play. – Donald Woods Winnicott • There is something about seeing real people on a stage that makes a bad play more intimately, more personally offensive than any other art form. – Anatole Broyard • There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness. – Gelett Burgess • There’s such a sense of theatre in getting glammed up; it’s like putting on a play or short film. – Felicity Jones • There’s that thing that can happen to you when you meet somebody and you don’t consider them extraordinary at all and then they do something like play the cello or write amazing poetry or sing and suddenly you look at them completely differently. – Yvonne Prinz • There’s very little to be said for learning a piece note by note, reading the rhythmic markings, practising the fingerings and following your instructor’s suggestions, if you haven’t any idea how the music will eventually sound and feel. If you learn a piece mechanically, you may have to ‘unlearn’ it before you can play it with expression and feeling. – Barry Green • They said I couldn’t play anything but an English boy. I knew I could. So I went to New York. – Roddy McDowall • This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. – Alan Watts • Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched. – Miguel de Cervantes • To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual exploration. – Rachel Pollack • To start your life as a character of 120 years when you are in your late thirties, and then go back in time about 20 years later to play the same character who is your own age then, its very complicated, but very interesting. – Ian McDiarmid • To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition. – Albert Einstein • To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! – Charlie Chaplin • Tony Vigorito has grown a cult following of thousands for one reason – his stuff is fun to read… It’s… filled with the freshness and the freewheeling independence that made his reputation… This book is the ‘work’ of one of the least pretentious and most enjoyable to read novelists at play in America today. – Kris Saknussemm • Usually most characters I play are quite realistic. – Virginie Ledoyen • Very often the effort men put into activities that seem completely useless turns out to be extremely important in ways no one could foresee. Play has always been the mainspring of culture. – Italo Calvino • We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing – Charles E. Schaefer • We can’t all be Einstein (because we don’t all play the violin). At the very least, we need a sort of street-smart science: the ability to recognize evidence, gather it, assess it, and act on it. – Judith Stone • We could play them through the week, and then the weekend we could play the black joints. I learned to be very versatile and learned to love it. So it stays with me even up to now. – Little Milton • We don’t play slow and we don’t play fast, we play half fast – Louis Armstrong • We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. – George Bernard Shaw • We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square. – Michelle Obama • We live in a world of entertainment in full color with a lot of fast action, a world in which many children grow up thinking that if it isn’t fun, it is boring and not worthwhile. Even in family activities we need to strike a balance between play and work. – Joe J. Christensen • We often say that psi is like musical ability: it is widely distributed in the populate, and everyone has some ability and can participate to some extent – in the same way that the most nonmusical person can learn to play a little Mozart on the piano. On the other hand, there is no substitute for innate talent, and there is no substitute for practice. – Russell Targ • We tend to think of the Faustian man, the one who fabricates, manipulates, seduces and ends up destroying. But the new image will be man the creator, the artist, the player. – Jean Houston • Well, I am very happy that I was able to play a part in bringing music from the streets onto the radio and into modern culture, I worked very hard and always believed in the sounds I was creating. – Ice T • Well, I play Jews and parrots. Parrots are how I’ve branched out. – Gilbert Gottfried • Well, it’s a marvelous night for a Moondance With the stars up above in your eyes… And I’m trying to please to the calling Of your heart-strings that they play soft and low And all the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush… One more Moondance with you in the moonlight On a magic night – Van Morrison • What if not just women, but both men and women, worked smart, more flexible schedules? What if the workplace itself was more fluid than the rigid and narrow ladder to success of the ideal worker? And what if both men and women became responsible for raising children and managing the home, sharing work, love, and play? Could everyone then live whole lives? – Brigid Schulte What we play is life. – Louis Armstrong • When I play from my mind I get in trouble. – Stevie Ray Vaughan • When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn’t want to play. – Joe Morton • When I tour I’m going to countries to play music for people. My presence in a country is not an endorsement or a condemnation of that country’s policies. My presence in a country is an effort to connect with people through playing music. – Moby • When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast. – Miles Davis • When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you’re a good player or not. – Johan Cruijff • When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all. – Theodore Roosevelt • Whoever wants to understand much must play much. – Gottfried Benn • With passion pray. With passion make love. With passion eat and drink and dance and play. Why look like a dead fish in this ocean of God? – Rumi • Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable. – Carl Jung • Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions. – Mark Twain • Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. – Mark Twain • Working with Sturges was like working with a guy who wanted to have a party all the time. He was very serious about his work, but in between shots, he was fun and we would play games. – Eddie Bracken • You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four. – Miles Davis • You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. – Albert Einstein • You play to win, to get that World Series ring, All-Star games and whatever comes with it. – Nick Johnson • Your government has problems…my government has problems. I can’t be a judge. All I can do is be an ambassador of love. I’m a musician, not a soldier, and if I’m invited to a place in order to play and bring love, I’ll always accept the invitation. – Meshell Ndegeocello • Your money is like your willy, it only grows if you play with it – Len Goodman • You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play. – Warren Beatty

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[equitiesstocks]

Play Quotes

Official Website: Play Quotes

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• A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn’t play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly. – Pablo Neruda • A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. – Wayne Gretzky • A name, for me, is a short way of working out what class that child comes from. Do I want my child to play with them? – Katie Hopkins • A person might be able to play without being creative, but he sure can’t be creative without playing. – Kurt Hanks • All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. – William Shakespeare • All work and no play doesn’t just make Jill and Jack dull, it kills the potential of discovery, mastery, and openness to change and flexibility and it hinders innovation and invention. – Joline Godfrey • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – and Jill a wealthy widow. – Evan Esar • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. – Stanley Kubrick • American writer 1803-1882 Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning. – Diane Ackerman • And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. – Khalil Gibran • And yet the artist will go on with his work without knowing in some way if any of his representations are sound or unsound. The artist knows nothing worth mentioning about the subjects he represents, and that art is a form of play, not to be taken seriously. – Plato • As a matter of fact, I rarely ever play myself. – Frank Langella • As a performer, you can’t just sit around waiting for the phone to ring. You have to write and develop projects for yourself, because casting people aren’t always going to see you the way you want to be seen. Write a one-person show, shoot a short film, do plays, whatever – activity breeds activity. No one’s interested in a stay-at-home actress. – Wendi McLendon-Covey

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Play+', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_play').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_play img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars. – Henry Van Dyke • Bobby Fischer started off each game with a great advantage: after the opening he had used less time than his opponent and thus had more time available later on. The major reason why he never had serious time pressure was that his rapid opening play simply left sufficient time for the middlegame. – Edmar Mednis • But I’d play on everything from pop records to a lot of the glam stuff to rock stuff to classical stuff. I used to get called to do all those things, it was great. – Rick Wakeman • Champions keep playing until they get it right. – Billie Jean King • Colin Morgan gives a stunning performance in Parked; he plays Merlin in the BBC TV show and he says the two characters are like night and day. Watch him. He’s got everything it takes to be top notch. – Colm Meaney

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought. – Albert Einstein • Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. – Peter Ustinov • Contemporary American psychiatrist It is a happy talent to know how to play. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of ones chosen form. – Stephen Nachmanovitch • Culture arises and unfolds in and as play… culture itself bears the character of play. – Johan Huizinga • Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays. – Friedrich Schiller • Darren Fletcher is the type of player who would walk over hot coals to play for his country, and he has done – Andy Gray • Deep meaning lies often in childish play. – Friedrich Schiller • Does it not appear to you versatility is the true and rare characteristic of that rare thing called genius-versatility and playfulness? In my mind they are both essential. – Mary Russell Mitford • Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you. – Charlie Parker • Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. – Miles Davis • Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. – Voltaire • For me right now I think being the world number one is a bigger deal than being the world champion because I think it shows better who plays the best chess. That sounds self-serving but I think it’s also right. – Magnus Carlsen • For my part I think it is a less evil that some criminals should escape, than that the government should play an ignoble part. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. • For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again. – Matt Damon • Generally the younger generation are not hard working. They will have to put in more effort to achieve results in tournaments. most of them can perform well but they cannot deliver when they play abroad. – Jahangir • God does not play dice. – Albert Einstein • He is not someone who went off to play in Europe and only a few Americans follow. He has the potential to be on magazine covers and more newspaper coverage. – Lamar Hunt • He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o’ th’ sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt fort. – William Shakespeare • Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. – Edward de Bono • I believe that the artist’s feelings are in some way generative. And I suspect that much of the artist’s most productive emotion – not all of it but much of it – is felt in the course of playing around with form. – Carter Ratcliff • I can play songs that I hear from a movie and just play it a few times on the keyboard. I will hit all the notes on the keyboard until I find the right key, and then I will play the rest of the song. – Callan McAuliffe • I come to sing for the people, not for the government. God made the sunshine for everyone and made the moon for everyone. We have to follow his example so we have to play music for everyone too. We have a message, and in order for our message to reach the people, we have to play. – Ziggy Marley • I didn’t really play dress up when I was a kid, and I’m really T-shirt and jeans-y. – Ellen Page • I didn’t really want to be an actor when I was growing up – I wanted to be whatever I was reading about or seeing at the time. When I read The Firm I wanted to be a lawyer; when I saw Top Gun, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. So that’s why acting probably turned out to be a good thing for me because I get to be people for five minutes or 90 minutes. I’d be curious to see if I had the attention span to be like those guys on 30 Rock and play the same character season after season. – Jason Sudeikis • I don’t give a damn about any actors. What good will John Barrymore do you with the bases loaded and two down in a tight ball game. Either I get the money (more than Barrymore), or I don’t play! – Babe Ruth • I don’t have a favorite place to play. – Keren Ann • I don’t have to support Bibi, his government or any other conservative organization in order to come and play music in Israel, for people who want to come and listen to music. I think it’s b******t to ask me to boycott Israel and not America. It’s interesting that some people choose to pick on Israel and isolate her… I was invited to perform and that’s why I’ll perform, as long as the border is open and I’m welcomed. I’m just coming to play. – Anton Newcombe • I don’t think I’m very ambitious at all. But I seem to play people who have that quality. – Catherine Keener • I don’t wear bright orange clothes or leopard skin boots, but it was really good fun to play someone that does and have an excuse too! – Sally Hawkins • I guess the characters I play may be at the more destructive edge of the spectrum, more damaged or whatever, but I find a lot of female roles uninteresting. – Lili Taylor • I had this health teacher who kept me after class one time, saying, ‘You’re missing a lot of class.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but I’m doing this play.’ He said, ‘Community theatre is not going to take you anywhere. Maybe you should stay in school’ – Dane DeHaan • I like to be other people, not me. And when you’re on the red carpet, it’s like, ‘Here’s Tom Hardy.’ I don’t want to be me. That’s why I play other people. – Tom Hardy • I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people. – Lili Taylor • I love doing voiceover work. I started doing voiceover work when I had just dropped out of school, and the first few professional jobs I got were plays, but then I started making money doing voiceovers. – Justin Long • I love the game – and I hate the Russians because they’ve almost ruined it. They only risk the title when they have to, every three years. They play for draws with each other but play to win against the Western masters. Draws make for dull chess, wins make for fighting chess. – Bobby Fischer • I love to play bid whist as much as I love football. – Emmitt Smith • I love to play games. I really like football, and I also like to ride horses. – Mary-Kate Olsen • I must be absolutely clear about this. Britain cannot accept the present situation on the Budget. It is demonstrably unjust. It is politically indefensible: I cannot play Sister Bountiful to the Community while my own electorate are being asked to forego improvements in the fields of health, education, welfare and the rest. – Margaret Thatcher • I often tell my students that you can’t worry about the end of an improv scene because the end is not up to you. You just play as hard as you can until someone changes the scene. The scene has changedthe end is not up to us. – Mark Sutton • I play an 89-year-old man whose wife has Alzheimer’s in a movie called ‘Still.’ I play a World War II veteran, I acted with my son and it’s called ‘Memorial Day.’ – James Cromwell • I play bad golf for good charities like the LA Police. – Robert Stack • I play guitar and I love the Beatles and melodic music. – Stephen Dorff • I play guitar, piano, bass and percussion. – Teena Marie • I play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision… because I didn’t know how to play it, so I was a shitty teacher. I would never have went to me. – Mitch Hedberg • I play with microbes. There are, of course, many rules to this play…but when you have acquired knowledge and experience it is very pleasant to break the rules and to be able to find something nobody has thought of. – Alexander Fleming • I play, like, 12 instruments. Guitar, piano, harmonica, African drums… I’m working on mastering the accordion. – Lucas Grabeel • I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. – Leo Buscaglia • I think the media makes it tough to play in New York. There are so many papers and TV channels covering the Knicks and the expectations for the Knicks are so high. • I thought it was such a unique concept to play parents who happen to be super heroes and have a son who is going through puberty and starting high school. – Kelly Preston • I thought people would ask me really personal questions because I’ve shown more of myself, but it’s a comedy, and people understand that it’s a game we play. – Charlotte Gainsbourg • I was in lots of dodgy bands growing up and I always fancied myself in a band. But, you know, I was rubbish at writing music. So maybe one day I’ll play a rock star, or punk rocker. – Gemma Arterton • I wasn’t allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were canceled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn’t do. – Dave Brubeck • I’ll play Pretty Pretty Princess with you if you just let me watch a little bit of March Madness. – Matt Damon • I’d like to do plays, maybe a one man show. – Jean Reno • I’d like to one day play Amanda, the mother, in The Glass Menagerie. – Bernadette Peters • If I only get to play Malaysian roles, there wouldn’t be very many roles for me to play. – Michelle Yeoh • If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. – William Shakespeare • If music be the food of love, play on. – William Shakespeare • If you can play the first ten or fifteen moves in just as many minutes, you can be in a state of bliss for the rest of the game. If, on the other hand, Bronstein thinks for forty minutes about his first move, then time trouble is inevitable. – Alexander Kotov • If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. a lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed. – Kanye West • If you play an audiotape of a yawn to blind people, they’ll yawn too. – Malcolm Gladwell • If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. – John Cleese • If your opponent is short (on time), play just as you played earlier in the game. If you are short keep calm, I repeat, don’t get flustered. Keep up the same neat writing of the moves, the same methodical examination of variations, but at a quicker rate. – Alexander Kotov • I’m not afraid to play my age. I never was. I’ve never been an ingenue. I like getting older. – Maria Bello • I’m sure civilizations will still evolve through play, or rather as play, since that seems to be a fundamental mechanism of our humanity. – Diane Ackerman • In academic life, false ideas are merely false and useless ones can be fun to play with. In political life, false ideas can ruin the lives of millions and useless ones can waste precious resources. An intellectual’s responsibility for his ideas is to follow their consequences wherever they may lead. A politician’s responsibility is to master those consequences and prevent them from doing harm. Michael Ignatieff, a former professor at Harvard and contributing writer for the magazine, is a member of Canada’s Parliament and deputy leader of the Liberal Party. – Michael Ignatieff • In art, everyone who plays wins. – Robert Genn • In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play. – Friedrich Nietzsche • In my early life my mother tried to create a nurturing environment in which my mind could play. Her big rule was “Never lose in your imagination.” She told me that thoughts were things and that I would become the thing I thought of most. This kind of empowerment is crucial to creative thinking. – Joey Reiman • In my sophomore year, a kid told me that the secret to getting women is to play really, really hard to get. I followed his advice, and I didn’t have so much as a date that year. – Greg Kinnear • In our play we reveal what kind of people we are. – Ovid • In the midst of wanton aggression, we still call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions – provisional or permanent. – David Ben-Gurion • It is better to play than do nothing. – Confucius • It is fair to say that insofar as sport is taken seriously by those who play it, then to that extent their conduct in play – their ability to deal with loss or victory, their ability to meld strategic thinking and brute force – can be taken as a small-scale model of how they, or others like them, might behave in life. – Will Self • It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it. – Maya Angelou • It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. – Donald Woods Winnicott • It is my opinion that the 21st century will be the century of play, and the heteroglossic activity of artists in the 20th century has been the forecast. – Brian Sutton-Smith • It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them. – Leo Buscaglia • It is the fertile hallucination that makes paint so compelling. Paint is like the numerologist’s numbers, always counting but never adding up, always speaking but never saying anything rational, always playing at being abstract but never leaving the clotted body. – James Elkins • It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven’t done. – Judi Dench • It may be that other developers are finding that their games play better on one platform over the other, so they’re choosing to migrate to that platform. – Sid Meier • It seemed like the right time. You reach a point when you say to yourself, ‘Do I want to keep doing this?’ There are other things on my plate I want to do — I’ve been writing a play, I’ve been neglecting my standup. – Joy Behar • It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity. – Michel de Montaigne • It’s been liberating to be able to play someone who’s a bada– or promiscuous, because that’s the opposite of who I am … It’s like a drug. – Jessica Alba • Its impossible to go onto the Tardis set and not play with things and fiddle with dials. – Jenna Coleman • It’s the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam. – Graham Coxon • I’ve always been attracted to women who are assertive and have confidence – qualities older women possess. They’ve been on the Earth a little longer. They’re more seasoned. They don’t play games. They know what they want, and they’re not afraid to tell you. – Taye Diggs • I’ve always wanted to play a role in inspiring people to be better, to live higher quality lives and to feel good about the way that they look and feel. – Apolo Ohno • Jazz of the sort we play is a happy, extroverted music. You don’t have to think about it too much. – Chris Barber • Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game. – Michael Jordan • Late in the third quarter the Cougars were behind 12-0. Duva had completed 5 out of 20 passes. Edwards looked at Gifford Nielsen. Giff had never done a thing, in practice or anywhere else, to give us confidence in him. . . . . . . the coach said later. He sent him into the game anyway. First play was a 19-yard completion. Second was a 6-yard run. He threw again on the third play to running back Dave Lowry who ran 37 yards for a touchdown. – LaVell Edwards • Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain. – Aristotle • Let’s not play games. I was suggesting – you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. – Barack Obama • Life is a challenge, meet it! Life is a dream, realize it! Life is a game, play it! Life is love, enjoy it! – Sathya Sai Baba • Life is too short to play bad music – Bob Brozman • Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. – William Shakespeare • Looking at the championship-winning quarterbacks, Edwards remembered their particular talents: Gary Sheide: The image of Joe Namath. He even had Joe’s number. Had just a great feel and touch for the game. A great athlete who could play all the sports. He was more of a streak guy than any of them. He could miss two or three passes and then get hot and hit ten straight. He was the one who got it all started. – LaVell Edwards • Love is a game that two can play and both win. – Eva Gabor • Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, once told me that when a brass band plays at a small club back up in one of the neighborhoods, it’s as if the audience—dancing, singing to the refrains, laughing—is part of the band. – Tom Piazza • Man does not cease to play because he grows old, he grows old because he ceases to play. – Drew Lachey • Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. – Heraclitus • Man’s most serious activity is play. – George Santayana • Men should learn to live with the same seriousness with which children play. – Friedrich Nietzsche • My 10 year old son likes it. He’s trying to play guitar and everything. He likes that kind of music. – Merle Haggard • My acting’s very understated. I think my sad and happy don’t play that differently onscreen. – Bret McKenzie • My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn’t very into films. – Gemma Arterton • Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. – Paulo Coelho • Of course, money matters to everyone even if some don’t want to admit it. If I won the Race to Dubai, I look at that prize money and think it could pay off my new house or the range I’m building. I am privileged to play golf for a living – look around St Andrews, that’s my office. • One aspect of play is the importance of laughter, which has physiological and psychological benefits. Did you know that there are thousands of laughter clubs around the world? People get together and laugh for no reason at all! – Daniel H. Pink • One man in his time plays many parts. – William Shakespeare • One night I was in the players’ parking lot at the Fleet Center in my Celtics warm-ups about a half hour before a game, waiting for one of my dealers to come up from Fall River, because if I didn’t get my stuff I was too sick to even go through the pre-game layup line, never mind actually play in the game. – Chris Herren • One will only be free when one plays and one’s society will become a piece of art. – Herbert Marcuse • Paul Klee seems to handle colors and dreams as if they both came out of a box of children’s toys. He plays and dreams with whatever he finds. – Jean Helion • Play becomes joy, joy becomes work, work becomes play. – Johannes Itten • Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning…They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play. – Fred Rogers • Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience. – Johan Huizinga • Play is the exultation of the possible. – Martin Buber • Play is your route to mastery. – Sara Genn • Playful arising is authorized by both risk and trust in the process and in oneself. To be truly playful and improvisational one must not look for results. – Joshua L. Goldberg • Russia will occupy most of the good food lands of central Europe while we have the industrial portions. We must find some way of persuading Russia to play ball. – Henry L. Stimson • Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld • Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. – Miles Davis • Sound is not simply what we hear or play, but equally a feeling in the body – Howard Snell • Surely all God’s people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. – John Muir • That’s what I love about acting, you get to find little pieces of yourself in every character you play. – Julianna Margulies • The artist must ever play and experiment with new means of arranging experience, even though the majority of his audience may prefer to remain fixed in their old perceptual attitudes. – Marshall McLuhan • The beauty of playing together is meeting in the One. – Stephen Nachmanovitch • The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it. – Mikhail Tal • The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. – Carl Jung • The creative mind plays with the object it loves. – Carl Jung • The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously. – Sigmund Freud • The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. – Carl Jung • The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines. • The Holy Spirit, in the variety of his gifts, unites us and enables us to contribute to the building up of the Church in holiness. In this great work, each of us has a part to play; each of us, as a “living stone”, is needed for the growth and the beauty of God’s holy temple. Let us ask the Lord to help us to take an ever more active part in the Church’s life and mission, guided by the Holy Spirit and with Jesus as our cornerstone. – Pope Francis • The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. – James A. Michener • The only time it dominates is during a solo, or when we play a low blues and I put figures in behind Eric’s vocals. There’s never any real problem fitting guitar and organ together. – Alan Price • The opposite of play is not work. It’s depression. – Brian Sutton-Smith • The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery. – Erik Erikson • The Play’s the Thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King. – William Shakespeare • The play’s the thing. – William Shakespeare • The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas. – George Bernard Shaw • The spirit of playful competition is, as a social impulse, older than culture itself and pervades all life like a veritable ferment. Ritual grew up in sacred play; poetry was born in play and nourished on play; music and dancing were pure play….We have to conclude, therefore, that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play…it arises in and as play, and never leaves it. – Johan Huizinga • The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day. – Dr. Seuss • The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. – Arnold J. Toynbee • The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything. – Friedrich Nietzsche • The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay… you’re either free to play, or you’re not. – John Cleese • The world is open for play, that everything and everybody is mockable, in a wonderful way. – Robin Williams • There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago. – J. Robert Oppenheimer • There are times when I love to play all kinds of complicated games in painting. But this is one case when I need to be fairly straightforward. I’ll just try to paint the man, his intelligence, his amiability and his stature, maybe paint him fairly close to humor and try to get it just right. – Nelson Shanks • There is for many a poverty of play. – Donald Woods Winnicott • There is something about seeing real people on a stage that makes a bad play more intimately, more personally offensive than any other art form. – Anatole Broyard • There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness. – Gelett Burgess • There’s such a sense of theatre in getting glammed up; it’s like putting on a play or short film. – Felicity Jones • There’s that thing that can happen to you when you meet somebody and you don’t consider them extraordinary at all and then they do something like play the cello or write amazing poetry or sing and suddenly you look at them completely differently. – Yvonne Prinz • There’s very little to be said for learning a piece note by note, reading the rhythmic markings, practising the fingerings and following your instructor’s suggestions, if you haven’t any idea how the music will eventually sound and feel. If you learn a piece mechanically, you may have to ‘unlearn’ it before you can play it with expression and feeling. – Barry Green • They said I couldn’t play anything but an English boy. I knew I could. So I went to New York. – Roddy McDowall • This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. – Alan Watts • Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched. – Miguel de Cervantes • To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual exploration. – Rachel Pollack • To start your life as a character of 120 years when you are in your late thirties, and then go back in time about 20 years later to play the same character who is your own age then, its very complicated, but very interesting. – Ian McDiarmid • To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition. – Albert Einstein • To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! – Charlie Chaplin • Tony Vigorito has grown a cult following of thousands for one reason – his stuff is fun to read… It’s… filled with the freshness and the freewheeling independence that made his reputation… This book is the ‘work’ of one of the least pretentious and most enjoyable to read novelists at play in America today. – Kris Saknussemm • Usually most characters I play are quite realistic. – Virginie Ledoyen • Very often the effort men put into activities that seem completely useless turns out to be extremely important in ways no one could foresee. Play has always been the mainspring of culture. – Italo Calvino • We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing – Charles E. Schaefer • We can’t all be Einstein (because we don’t all play the violin). At the very least, we need a sort of street-smart science: the ability to recognize evidence, gather it, assess it, and act on it. – Judith Stone • We could play them through the week, and then the weekend we could play the black joints. I learned to be very versatile and learned to love it. So it stays with me even up to now. – Little Milton • We don’t play slow and we don’t play fast, we play half fast – Louis Armstrong • We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. – George Bernard Shaw • We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square. – Michelle Obama • We live in a world of entertainment in full color with a lot of fast action, a world in which many children grow up thinking that if it isn’t fun, it is boring and not worthwhile. Even in family activities we need to strike a balance between play and work. – Joe J. Christensen • We often say that psi is like musical ability: it is widely distributed in the populate, and everyone has some ability and can participate to some extent – in the same way that the most nonmusical person can learn to play a little Mozart on the piano. On the other hand, there is no substitute for innate talent, and there is no substitute for practice. – Russell Targ • We tend to think of the Faustian man, the one who fabricates, manipulates, seduces and ends up destroying. But the new image will be man the creator, the artist, the player. – Jean Houston • Well, I am very happy that I was able to play a part in bringing music from the streets onto the radio and into modern culture, I worked very hard and always believed in the sounds I was creating. – Ice T • Well, I play Jews and parrots. Parrots are how I’ve branched out. – Gilbert Gottfried • Well, it’s a marvelous night for a Moondance With the stars up above in your eyes… And I’m trying to please to the calling Of your heart-strings that they play soft and low And all the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush… One more Moondance with you in the moonlight On a magic night – Van Morrison • What if not just women, but both men and women, worked smart, more flexible schedules? What if the workplace itself was more fluid than the rigid and narrow ladder to success of the ideal worker? And what if both men and women became responsible for raising children and managing the home, sharing work, love, and play? Could everyone then live whole lives? – Brigid Schulte What we play is life. – Louis Armstrong • When I play from my mind I get in trouble. – Stevie Ray Vaughan • When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn’t want to play. – Joe Morton • When I tour I’m going to countries to play music for people. My presence in a country is not an endorsement or a condemnation of that country’s policies. My presence in a country is an effort to connect with people through playing music. – Moby • When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast. – Miles Davis • When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines wether you’re a good player or not. – Johan Cruijff • When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all. – Theodore Roosevelt • Whoever wants to understand much must play much. – Gottfried Benn • With passion pray. With passion make love. With passion eat and drink and dance and play. Why look like a dead fish in this ocean of God? – Rumi • Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable. – Carl Jung • Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions. – Mark Twain • Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. – Mark Twain • Working with Sturges was like working with a guy who wanted to have a party all the time. He was very serious about his work, but in between shots, he was fun and we would play games. – Eddie Bracken • You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four. – Miles Davis • You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. – Albert Einstein • You play to win, to get that World Series ring, All-Star games and whatever comes with it. – Nick Johnson • Your government has problems…my government has problems. I can’t be a judge. All I can do is be an ambassador of love. I’m a musician, not a soldier, and if I’m invited to a place in order to play and bring love, I’ll always accept the invitation. – Meshell Ndegeocello • Your money is like your willy, it only grows if you play with it – Len Goodman • You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play. – Warren Beatty

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[flauntpage]

A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final

So you're not a fan of the Washington Capitals or Vegas Golden Knights, huh? You don't have any interest in watching them play for a championship, huh? Stanley Cup Final ratings year after year indicate the neutral observer would rather watch Scrubs reruns than a game involving two teams he or she doesn't care about but maybe that's because nobody has given you a compelling case to hop on a bandwagon.

This year's Super Bowl involved the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, which was like choosing between watching your parents ripped apart by bears or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; no matter what happened, you were going to be irrevocably psychologically damaged. With the Capitals and Golden Knights, we get to pick between two likable teams looking to cap off unexpected championship seasons.

The only proper way to decide your allegiances is to look at what the Capitals and Knights offer and hitching your wagon to the team you want to call your own for a couple weeks. Let's break down each team in some very important categories that were not chosen specifically as vessels for jokes. How dare you even think that?

THE CITIES

On one hand you have Washington, a city without any casinos, sports books or a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have Las Vegas, which hasn't shut down since it opened.

Which is better? Each city is a place filled with people looking to hustle you out of your hard-earned money but at least Las Vegas gives you free booze while they do it.

THE DOUCHEBAGS

On one hand you have Tom Wilson, a player without any conscience, regard for human life or the power to keep his city's mass transit system running after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have... James Neal? He did knee Brad Marchand in the head that one time. Alex Tuch wore a border control costume this Halloween, which is extremely douchey.

Which douchebag is bigger? Wilson has run more people into the ground than a sadistic cross country coach and doesn't seem to give two shits about it, so it's another easy answer.

THE BELEAGUERED STARS WITH SOMETHING TO PROVE

Alex Ovechkin has taken the blame for everything wrong with Washington since he arrived in 2005. The playoff failures, the participation banners hung in the arena, Nicklas Backstrom's failures, the outdoor game uniforms, government shutdowns, Kirk Cousins' contract situation and departure, the lack of a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down, Dan Snyder's existence and the Capitals' lack of a Stanley Cup. With four more wins, Ovechkin can play the rest of his career and chase the all-time goals record in peace.

Marc-Andre Fleury has three championships—one as a starter, one as a backup, and one as a helper—but was cast aside in Pittsburgh after last season when Matt Murray took his job and made him expendable. Fleury was the scapegoat for the Penguins' failures between 2010 and 2013, which means a Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup would complete his redemption story.

Who is more worthy of your love? Fleury lost his job fair and square in Pittsburgh and come on, he has three Cups. Ovechkin has zero and who knows if he ever gets this far again. You should be pulling very hard for Ovechkin.

FAN BASES MOST UPSET BY THE OUTCOME

If the Capitals finally win a Cup, the most pissed off people will be Penguins fans and Rangers fans; Penguins fans have forged an identity through laughing at the Capitals and that will go away completely. Rangers fans have the goaltending version of Ovechkin, and if the real Ovechkin wins a Cup, that shines (an equally dumb and unfair) spotlight on Henrik Lundqvist's lack of a Cup.

If the Golden Knights win a Cup in their first season, it will piss off [Gary Oldman in The Professional voice] EVERYONE. I believe it should be something to be celebrated by everyone but I know it won't be. Fans across North America will spend the offseason wandering the streets, lost, confused, muttering to themselves about a rigged expansion draft.

Which is better for you? This really comes down to how much you hate the Penguins and Rangers, which, based on my online experience, is a lot. If you have those fans in your life, sure, I get why you want them to suffer. But what's best for everyone is chaos, and that's what Vegas winning the Cup will provide. This decision is between you and your heart.

CANADA'S LEVEL OF ANGER

If Canada can no longer hold the whole no Cups thing over Ovechkin, the nation may collapse. The Ovechkin Isn't A Winner takes make up 45 percent of the Canadian economy and there's no telling what a collapse like that will do to the global markets. Does Don Cherry have enough money saved in the event of an Ovechkin Take Crisis?

It's been 25 years since a Canadian franchise has hoisted the Cup and there's no telling what a first-year franchise in a desert community winning it will do to Canada. My guess is Canada is so numb to losing the Cup every year that the acceptance of American hockey dominance happened a long time ago and they won't even feel it when Deryk Engelland takes the Cup from Gary Bettman.

Which is better for you? I lean toward Ovechkin winning the Cup, because it will lead to a whole bunch of people apologizing or inventing new crazy takes to survive. "Ovechkin has one Cup... but he should have more!" "Ovechkin's Cup came against an expansion team, and that's why it shouldn't count!" There's way more upside to a Capitals championship.

SHIT YELLED DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

During the sacred ritual that is singing America's theme song before a sports game, each teams' fans scream one of the lyrics during home games. In Vegas, it's "gave proof through the KNIGHT" because of the Golden Knights and in Washington it's "rockets' RED glare" because the Capitals have the color red in their uniforms. So when Seattle joins the league and becomes the Vampire Wolves, they will go with, "At the TWILIGHT'S last gleaming."

Which is better? Neither! What are you people doing? Either sing the entire song from start to finish or keep your traps shut. Every fan base is looking for some gimmick during the anthem and they are all stupid. Rangers fans mumble a disorganized "LET'S GO RANGERS" and Jets fans scream "TRUE NORTH" during "O Canada" to honor the corporation that owns the Jets, which seems like a gag they'd do on Silicon Valley at Hooli. How long before Flyers fans start yelling "BROAD stripes" at home games? This is a PUSH (I was listening to Matchbox Twenty while writing this).

PREGAME ARENA SHOWS

Vegas offers a free Medieval Time show before every game where a fancy knight on skates has a sword fight with a person or something like a jet plane. I have no idea what even happens in Washington. Does a guy dress like Ben Franklin and read from the Constitution? Who cares?

Which is better? Unless the Capitals get some dudes with muskets shooting at each other, this is a no-brainer.

TEAM SLOGANS

It's #ALLCAPS vs #VegasBorn in what has to be the dorkiest hashtag matchup in Final history. Of course you're "Vegas Born"—your team was born in Vegas. What sort of lazy-ass slogan is that? What stops any other team from doing this? I guess all the relocating. Yeah, that's the answer to that question. I take it back.

Which is better? All earnest hashtags are bad. That's the lesson here.

WHICH OUTCOME IS FUNNIER

The Capitals finally getting a Cup with what is objectively a worse team than they had the previous two years is hilarious. Barry Trotz pooped all over Kevin Shattenkirk this season and essentially blamed him for the Capitals' losing in the second round last year and it turns out maybe he had a point. Braden Holtby was so bad that he wasn't even the starter when the playoffs began and now he has a chance at winning the Conn Smythe. There are a lot of laughs packed into a potential Washington victory.

But the Golden Knights winning it all in their first year is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or whatever movie you find really funny, I don't care) of sports comedy. You won't ever laugh like this in your life. Literally nobody—not me, not you, not team owner Bill Foley—thought this was possible and now the Knights are favorites in the Cup Final.

And this last answer is all that matters. You should be pulling for Vegas. Thinking about every NHL GM staring at his TV as Brayden McNabb hands the Cup to Luca Sbisa, who hands it to Ryan Reaves, who hands it to Colin Miller, who hands it to Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith at the same time, who put down the Cup and hold up a sign that reads, "THANK YOU DALE" is something too good to pass up.

There's plenty to enjoy about a Caps win but nothing in the history of hockey will be more pleasurable than the Vegas Golden Knights being crowned Stanley Cup champs.

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports CA.

A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final

So you’re not a fan of the Washington Capitals or Vegas Golden Knights, huh? You don’t have any interest in watching them play for a championship, huh? Stanley Cup Final ratings year after year indicate the neutral observer would rather watch Scrubs reruns than a game involving two teams he or she doesn’t care about but maybe that’s because nobody has given you a compelling case to hop on a bandwagon.

This year’s Super Bowl involved the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, which was like choosing between watching your parents ripped apart by bears or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; no matter what happened, you were going to be irrevocably psychologically damaged. With the Capitals and Golden Knights, we get to pick between two likable teams looking to cap off unexpected championship seasons.

The only proper way to decide your allegiances is to look at what the Capitals and Knights offer and hitching your wagon to the team you want to call your own for a couple weeks. Let’s break down each team in some very important categories that were not chosen specifically as vessels for jokes. How dare you even think that?

THE CITIES

On one hand you have Washington, a city without any casinos, sports books or a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have Las Vegas, which hasn’t shut down since it opened.

Which is better? Each city is a place filled with people looking to hustle you out of your hard-earned money but at least Las Vegas gives you free booze while they do it.

THE DOUCHEBAGS

On one hand you have Tom Wilson, a player without any conscience, regard for human life or the power to keep his city’s mass transit system running after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have… James Neal? He did knee Brad Marchand in the head that one time. Alex Tuch wore a border control costume this Halloween, which is extremely douchey.

Which douchebag is bigger? Wilson has run more people into the ground than a sadistic cross country coach and doesn’t seem to give two shits about it, so it’s another easy answer.

THE BELEAGUERED STARS WITH SOMETHING TO PROVE

Alex Ovechkin has taken the blame for everything wrong with Washington since he arrived in 2005. The playoff failures, the participation banners hung in the arena, Nicklas Backstrom’s failures, the outdoor game uniforms, government shutdowns, Kirk Cousins’ contract situation and departure, the lack of a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down, Dan Snyder’s existence and the Capitals’ lack of a Stanley Cup. With four more wins, Ovechkin can play the rest of his career and chase the all-time goals record in peace.

Marc-Andre Fleury has three championships—one as a starter, one as a backup, and one as a helper—but was cast aside in Pittsburgh after last season when Matt Murray took his job and made him expendable. Fleury was the scapegoat for the Penguins’ failures between 2010 and 2013, which means a Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup would complete his redemption story.

Who is more worthy of your love? Fleury lost his job fair and square in Pittsburgh and come on, he has three Cups. Ovechkin has zero and who knows if he ever gets this far again. You should be pulling very hard for Ovechkin.

FAN BASES MOST UPSET BY THE OUTCOME

If the Capitals finally win a Cup, the most pissed off people will be Penguins fans and Rangers fans; Penguins fans have forged an identity through laughing at the Capitals and that will go away completely. Rangers fans have the goaltending version of Ovechkin, and if the real Ovechkin wins a Cup, that shines (an equally dumb and unfair) spotlight on Henrik Lundqvist’s lack of a Cup.

If the Golden Knights win a Cup in their first season, it will piss off [Gary Oldman in The Professional voice] EVERYONE. I believe it should be something to be celebrated by everyone but I know it won’t be. Fans across North America will spend the offseason wandering the streets, lost, confused, muttering to themselves about a rigged expansion draft.

Which is better for you? This really comes down to how much you hate the Penguins and Rangers, which, based on my online experience, is a lot. If you have those fans in your life, sure, I get why you want them to suffer. But what’s best for everyone is chaos, and that’s what Vegas winning the Cup will provide. This decision is between you and your heart.

CANADA’S LEVEL OF ANGER

If Canada can no longer hold the whole no Cups thing over Ovechkin, the nation may collapse. The Ovechkin Isn’t A Winner takes make up 45 percent of the Canadian economy and there’s no telling what a collapse like that will do to the global markets. Does Don Cherry have enough money saved in the event of an Ovechkin Take Crisis?

It’s been 25 years since a Canadian franchise has hoisted the Cup and there’s no telling what a first-year franchise in a desert community winning it will do to Canada. My guess is Canada is so numb to losing the Cup every year that the acceptance of American hockey dominance happened a long time ago and they won’t even feel it when Deryk Engelland takes the Cup from Gary Bettman.

Which is better for you? I lean toward Ovechkin winning the Cup, because it will lead to a whole bunch of people apologizing or inventing new crazy takes to survive. “Ovechkin has one Cup… but he should have more!” “Ovechkin’s Cup came against an expansion team, and that’s why it shouldn’t count!” There’s way more upside to a Capitals championship.

SHIT YELLED DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

During the sacred ritual that is singing America’s theme song before a sports game, each teams’ fans scream one of the lyrics during home games. In Vegas, it’s “gave proof through the KNIGHT” because of the Golden Knights and in Washington it’s “rockets’ RED glare” because the Capitals have the color red in their uniforms. So when Seattle joins the league and becomes the Vampire Wolves, they will go with, “At the TWILIGHT’S last gleaming.”

Which is better? Neither! What are you people doing? Either sing the entire song from start to finish or keep your traps shut. Every fan base is looking for some gimmick during the anthem and they are all stupid. Rangers fans mumble a disorganized “LET’S GO RANGERS” and Jets fans scream “TRUE NORTH” during “O Canada” to honor the corporation that owns the Jets, which seems like a gag they’d do on Silicon Valley at Hooli. How long before Flyers fans start yelling “BROAD stripes” at home games? This is a PUSH (I was listening to Matchbox Twenty while writing this).

PREGAME ARENA SHOWS

Vegas offers a free Medieval Time show before every game where a fancy knight on skates has a sword fight with a person or something like a jet plane. I have no idea what even happens in Washington. Does a guy dress like Ben Franklin and read from the Constitution? Who cares?

Which is better? Unless the Capitals get some dudes with muskets shooting at each other, this is a no-brainer.

TEAM SLOGANS

It’s #ALLCAPS vs #VegasBorn in what has to be the dorkiest hashtag matchup in Final history. Of course you’re “Vegas Born”—your team was born in Vegas. What sort of lazy-ass slogan is that? What stops any other team from doing this? I guess all the relocating. Yeah, that’s the answer to that question. I take it back.

https://sports.vice.com/en_ca/embed/article/mbxw9v/the-expansion-vegas-golden-knights-are-stanley-cup-favorites-and-make-absolutely-no-sense?utm_source=stylizedembed_sports.vice.com&utm_campaign=qvnvmd&site=sports

Which is better? All earnest hashtags are bad. That’s the lesson here.

WHICH OUTCOME IS FUNNIER

The Capitals finally getting a Cup with what is objectively a worse team than they had the previous two years is hilarious. Barry Trotz pooped all over Kevin Shattenkirk this season and essentially blamed him for the Capitals’ losing in the second round last year and it turns out maybe he had a point. Braden Holtby was so bad that he wasn’t even the starter when the playoffs began and now he has a chance at winning the Conn Smythe. There are a lot of laughs packed into a potential Washington victory.

But the Golden Knights winning it all in their first year is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or whatever movie you find really funny, I don’t care) of sports comedy. You won’t ever laugh like this in your life. Literally nobody—not me, not you, not team owner Bill Foley—thought this was possible and now the Knights are favorites in the Cup Final.

And this last answer is all that matters. You should be pulling for Vegas. Thinking about every NHL GM staring at his TV as Brayden McNabb hands the Cup to Luca Sbisa, who hands it to Ryan Reaves, who hands it to Colin Miller, who hands it to Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith at the same time, who put down the Cup and hold up a sign that reads, “THANK YOU DALE” is something too good to pass up.

There’s plenty to enjoy about a Caps win but nothing in the history of hockey will be more pleasurable than the Vegas Golden Knights being crowned Stanley Cup champs.

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports CA.

A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: Lavish Leafs make more dubious decisions

Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello has made some questionable decision this offseason. (Nathan Denette/CP)

(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.)

By virtue of having a fairly young roster and what was previously a rebuilding attitude, the league’s richest team entered the summer with a huge amount of cap space to spend.

They were apparently determined to spend a good chunk of it. It’s difficult to understand why.

Next season the Maple Leafs will pay several guys not to play for them: Bought-out Jared Cowen and Tim Gleason (a little more than $2 million), salary-retained Phil Kessel ($1.2 million), LTIR’d-but-effectively-retired Nathan Horton and Joffrey Lupul ($10.55 million that gets buried when the season starts), which they can do because they’re the Maple Leafs and they print money. Most of those obligations — all but Kessel and Horton, a combined $6.5 million — comes off the books for 2018-19 anyway.

Also expiring: the contracts for James van Riemsdyk (whom they would be wise to re-sign), Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, Eric Fehr (who will play in the AHL anyway), Dominic Moore and Ben Smith. They will also need to re-sign Willy Nylander, Martin Marincin, Connor Carrick, and a few other RFAs.

And they still haven’t signed Connor Brown for this coming season but it is widely accepted that a trade will take place later in the offseason before they do so (maybe for Tyler Bozak, but also maybe not).

Point is the Leafs now appear to be over the cap by a pretty significant margin, but for all intents and purposes that’s not actually the case. Nonetheless, their offseason expenditures kind of boggle the mind. Just because you have money to spend doesn’t mean you absolutely, positively have to spend it.

The $6.25 million AAV for three years to Patrick Marleau is defensible only insofar as the money doesn’t matter and you have to assume they’re going to find some way to cynically LTIR him, as they have plenty of other guys in the past. They don’t call it Robidas Island for no reason, and if they’re basically spending $18.75 million for one or maybe two seasons of 37-year-old Patrick Marleau I’m not sure I get it, but it’s not my money and the Leafs will make that back no problem regardless of the term of the investment.

Marleau is, of course, not worth $6.25 million any more. His power play production is declining and while he had plenty of goals at even strength last season (20 of ’em), it was because the Sharks shuffled him down the lineup for much of the season. He only played a little more than 17 minutes a night and if the Leafs try to bump that up again, I don’t care how good his linemates are, he’s gonna be in tough. We just don’t have the evidence that he can handle top competition anymore, and attaching him to, say, Auston Matthews’ wing will be an impediment.

We have plenty of evidence, however, that the Leafs — or more specifically, the Leafs’ coaches — don’t really care about this sort of thing. After all, there’s no other way to explain why Zach Hyman played almost 90 percent of his 5-on-5 minutes with Matthews last season despite a clear inability to finish. You shouldn’t play nearly 1,000 minutes at full strength with a 40-goal scorer and come away with only 28 points in 82 games.

How’s this for a stat? Hyman had five points in his last 31 games of the season. Playing with Matthews and Nylander. Over the same stretch, Nylander and Matthews had 26 each. That’s one of those things that seems like it would be almost impossible to do. It seems like it would be impossible for literally any NHLer to play 31 games with those two (especially when they’re scoring at a nearly 70-point pace) and come away with that few points.

Marleau, who even in decline still hit 46 points last season, will be an upgrade, but how much of one? It’s tough to say for sure but Matthews is likely to see his goal production drop at least somewhat because shooting 14-plus percent two seasons in a row isn’t easy and he already bombed in more than three shots a game, which is a hard number to improve upon.

So basically the Leafs are likely planning to slot a definitively middle-six forward onto their top line to move a definitively bottom-six forward off it. Which is an upgrade, but it’s not one you’d prefer to pay $6.25 million for in anything resembling an ideal scenario. Especially because they more recently gave that bottom-six forward $2.25 million of his own — not a big deal in and of itself — but for four years, which seems like it didn’t have to happen.

The problem for the Leafs isn’t necessarily next season, of course. They’ll be better than they were and their core is locked up for a while here. But when you have to re-sign Nylander next summer. And Matthews, Mitch Marner and Jake Gardiner the summer after that. What do you suppose those three cost combined? Plus whatever van Riemsdyk gets. Plus whatever a handful of other roster replacements cost.

The Leafs have just $45 million committed to 13 players after 2017-18. That’s 10 roster spots to fill and maybe like $38 million to spend, and a pretty good crop of prospects from which to draw. Not a bad position to be in. Assuming huge paydays for a few guys still gives you lots of money to play with.

These are upper-class problems, no doubt. When you have good players and plenty of success, you end up paying the price one way or the other. Maybe you hope the cap goes up a little more than it has in recent seasons. Or maybe you think the next two years, before Matthews starts pulling an AAV in the eight figures, is your time to really and truly go for it, then you worry about the rest later.

I think that��s probably a good strategy. Pay through the nose for whatever talent you can get your hands on for the short term, connive to get out of any overly onerous deals you may still have around when the tax man comes, and come out the other side with a top-heavy but strong roster that’s truly competitive in the Eastern Conference as the Penguins and Capitals age.

The near- and medium-term thought process behind devoting $8.5 million to Marleau and Hyman should be a little concerning — and unfortunately in lockstep with the brain functions behind Matt Martin’s dumb, bad contract. However, the Leafs’ finances are set up well enough that even a few perplexing contracts probably aren’t going to sink their long-term ability to compete.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: Dennis Rasmussen is what’s now considered a notable signing even at this point in July. Hmm.

Arizona Coyotes: Rick Tocchet? Okay sure. I have no idea what to make of this team or its direction, so have fun out there.

Boston Bruins: Ah it turns out that Don Sweeney is really smart and good at his job. I was worried that someone in the Boston media would say that he wasn’t, but he is, so we’re all good.

Buffalo Sabres: Justin Bailey has been to five Sabres development camps. Four different coaches and three different GMs have been in charge during that time. And I gotta tell ya: This time it’s definitely different!

Calgary Flames: Flames fans are getting their hopes up about a 22-year-old college UFA signing who dominated a weak league. And that’s never worked out badly for anyone.

Carolina Hurricanes: It’s not about the defense or offense. It’s about getting a goalie who can make stops. Scott Darling will make more than Eddie Lack or Cam Ward. Probably a lot more. I think it’ll all be fine.

Chicago Blackhawks: Well, they better hope not.

Colorado Avalanche: Oh so there will be people coaching this team next season? Big change. Let’s see how it plays out.

Columbus Blue Jackets: This is actually very smart by Columbus. Few are talking about this.

Dallas Stars: Think we see Heiskanen in the NHL next season? I wouldn’t do it!

Detroit Red Wings: This Todd Nelson interview is great.

Edmonton Oilers: Yes, Leon Draisaitl had a lot of points last season. How many 5-on-5 goals do you think came with Connor McDavid on the ice? The correct answer is “all but three of them.” Hmm.

Florida Panthers: Locking up Mark Pysyk is one of the few unequivocally good things the Panthers did this summer. So that’s nice.

Los Angeles Kings: Here’s your Jonathan Quick replacement three years from now.

Minnesota Wild: Luke Kunin was a capital-P Player at Wisconsin. Can he jump right from college to the NHL? I dunno.

Montreal Canadiens: Are the Canadiens better now than they were last year? I don’t think so. So what’s the point of even trying to be?

Nashville Predators: I’m sure it’s extremely up to Dennis K. Morgan whether he’s still the anthem singer for Preds games.

New Jersey Devils: The question is: Does Cory Schneider need fixing or was last season just a one-off fluke made worse by the fact the team was horrendous? Tough to know the answer.

New York Islanders: Oh yeah, the Islanders are still in the market for Matt Duchene. I forgot about that. Fun.

New York Rangers: I mean maybe Boo Nieves is your guy on the fourth line but if he’s not, you can get fourth-liners anywhere.

Ottawa Senators: Thinking about the Erik Karlsson extension is fun because you start by asking how much bigger the AAV is than Connor McDavid’s. So the question is: Will Melnyk pay it?

Philadelphia Flyers: At this point the Flyers are basically like, “Can literally any U-23 defensemen make this roster? Please? We’re begging you. Someone do it.”

Pittsburgh Penguins: Kinda gotta give ’em a pass after two straight Stanley Cups and everything like that but there are a lot of difficult questions about this team for next season and not a lot of good answers.

San Jose Sharks: An “unlikely hero” showed up at Sharks development camp. Let me guess: Jeremy Corbyn.

St. Louis Blues: This is another team that needs young players to make an impact at the NHL level. Tough to know what we should make of the Blues for next season.

Tampa Bay Lightning: The Bolts don’t have a take on removing a Confederate monument from downtown Tampa. Seems like a weird thing to not care about.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Nice boy Timothy Liljegren might end up being one of the big steals of this draft. Teams really held that whole “getting mono” thing against him.

Vancouver Canucks: When was the last time the Canucks developed a top-end defenseman? Are we gonna count Chris Tanev or do we have to go back to Alex Edler?

Vegas Golden Knights: Teemu Pulkkinen has 13 goals and 22 points in 83 career games for three different teams. Is he even an NHLer?

Washington Capitals: Scroll down for an absolute scorcher of an Ovechkin take.

Winnipeg Jets: Haha the Jets might think they solved their goaltending problems. Adorable.

Gold Star Award

Someone sign Jagr please.

Minus of the Weekend

The expansion draft is what ruined free agency, not the borderline-horrible class of free agents.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Year

User “yzerman” wants to invalidate everything I just wrote.

Aaron Ekblad For Mitch Marner

I’m not saying I don’t love it.

Signoff

Lord Palmerston!

—

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final

So you're not a fan of the Washington Capitals or Vegas Golden Knights, huh? You don't have any interest in watching them play for a championship, huh? Stanley Cup Final ratings year after year indicate the neutral observer would rather watch Scrubs reruns than a game involving two teams he or she doesn't care about but maybe that's because nobody has given you a compelling case to hop on a bandwagon.

This year's Super Bowl involved the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, which was like choosing between watching your parents ripped apart by bears or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; no matter what happened, you were going to be irrevocably psychologically damaged. With the Capitals and Golden Knights, we get to pick between two likable teams looking to cap off unexpected championship seasons.

The only proper way to decide your allegiances is to look at what the Capitals and Knights offer and hitching your wagon to the team you want to call your own for a couple weeks. Let's break down each team in some very important categories that were not chosen specifically as vessels for jokes. How dare you even think that?

THE CITIES

On one hand you have Washington, a city without any casinos, sports books or a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have Las Vegas, which hasn't shut down since it opened.

Which is better? Each city is a place filled with people looking to hustle you out of your hard-earned money but at least Las Vegas gives you free booze while they do it.

THE DOUCHEBAGS

On one hand you have Tom Wilson, a player without any conscience, regard for human life or the power to keep his city's mass transit system running after the sun goes down. On the other hand, you have... James Neal? He did knee Brad Marchand in the head that one time. Alex Tuch wore a border control costume this Halloween, which is extremely douchey.

Which douchebag is bigger? Wilson has run more people into the ground than a sadistic cross country coach and doesn't seem to give two shits about it, so it's another easy answer.

THE BELEAGUERED STARS WITH SOMETHING TO PROVE

Alex Ovechkin has taken the blame for everything wrong with Washington since he arrived in 2005. The playoff failures, the participation banners hung in the arena, Nicklas Backstrom's failures, the outdoor game uniforms, government shutdowns, Kirk Cousins' contract situation and departure, the lack of a mass transit system that runs after the sun goes down, Dan Snyder's existence and the Capitals' lack of a Stanley Cup. With four more wins, Ovechkin can play the rest of his career and chase the all-time goals record in peace.

Marc-Andre Fleury has three championships—one as a starter, one as a backup, and one as a helper—but was cast aside in Pittsburgh after last season when Matt Murray took his job and made him expendable. Fleury was the scapegoat for the Penguins' failures between 2010 and 2013, which means a Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup would complete his redemption story.

Who is more worthy of your love? Fleury lost his job fair and square in Pittsburgh and come on, he has three Cups. Ovechkin has zero and who knows if he ever gets this far again. You should be pulling very hard for Ovechkin.

FAN BASES MOST UPSET BY THE OUTCOME

If the Capitals finally win a Cup, the most pissed off people will be Penguins fans and Rangers fans; Penguins fans have forged an identity through laughing at the Capitals and that will go away completely. Rangers fans have the goaltending version of Ovechkin, and if the real Ovechkin wins a Cup, that shines (an equally dumb and unfair) spotlight on Henrik Lundqvist's lack of a Cup.

If the Golden Knights win a Cup in their first season, it will piss off [Gary Oldman in The Professional voice] EVERYONE. I believe it should be something to be celebrated by everyone but I know it won't be. Fans across North America will spend the offseason wandering the streets, lost, confused, muttering to themselves about a rigged expansion draft.

Which is better for you? This really comes down to how much you hate the Penguins and Rangers, which, based on my online experience, is a lot. If you have those fans in your life, sure, I get why you want them to suffer. But what's best for everyone is chaos, and that's what Vegas winning the Cup will provide. This decision is between you and your heart.

CANADA'S LEVEL OF ANGER

If Canada can no longer hold the whole no Cups thing over Ovechkin, the nation may collapse. The Ovechkin Isn't A Winner takes make up 45 percent of the Canadian economy and there's no telling what a collapse like that will do to the global markets. Does Don Cherry have enough money saved in the event of an Ovechkin Take Crisis?

It's been 25 years since a Canadian franchise has hoisted the Cup and there's no telling what a first-year franchise in a desert community winning it will do to Canada. My guess is Canada is so numb to losing the Cup every year that the acceptance of American hockey dominance happened a long time ago and they won't even feel it when Deryk Engelland takes the Cup from Gary Bettman.

Which is better for you? I lean toward Ovechkin winning the Cup, because it will lead to a whole bunch of people apologizing or inventing new crazy takes to survive. "Ovechkin has one Cup... but he should have more!" "Ovechkin's Cup came against an expansion team, and that's why it shouldn't count!" There's way more upside to a Capitals championship.

SHIT YELLED DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

During the sacred ritual that is singing America's theme song before a sports game, each teams' fans scream one of the lyrics during home games. In Vegas, it's "gave proof through the KNIGHT" because of the Golden Knights and in Washington it's "rockets' RED glare" because the Capitals have the color red in their uniforms. So when Seattle joins the league and becomes the Vampire Wolves, they will go with, "At the TWILIGHT'S last gleaming."

Which is better? Neither! What are you people doing? Either sing the entire song from start to finish or keep your traps shut. Every fan base is looking for some gimmick during the anthem and they are all stupid. Rangers fans mumble a disorganized "LET'S GO RANGERS" and Jets fans scream "TRUE NORTH" during "O Canada" to honor the corporation that owns the Jets, which seems like a gag they'd do on Silicon Valley at Hooli. How long before Flyers fans start yelling "BROAD stripes" at home games? This is a PUSH (I was listening to Matchbox Twenty while writing this).

PREGAME ARENA SHOWS

Vegas offers a free Medieval Time show before every game where a fancy knight on skates has a sword fight with a person or something like a jet plane. I have no idea what even happens in Washington. Does a guy dress like Ben Franklin and read from the Constitution? Who cares?

Which is better? Unless the Capitals get some dudes with muskets shooting at each other, this is a no-brainer.

TEAM SLOGANS

It's #ALLCAPS vs #VegasBorn in what has to be the dorkiest hashtag matchup in Final history. Of course you're "Vegas Born"—your team was born in Vegas. What sort of lazy-ass slogan is that? What stops any other team from doing this? I guess all the relocating. Yeah, that's the answer to that question. I take it back.

Which is better? All earnest hashtags are bad. That's the lesson here.

WHICH OUTCOME IS FUNNIER

The Capitals finally getting a Cup with what is objectively a worse team than they had the previous two years is hilarious. Barry Trotz pooped all over Kevin Shattenkirk this season and essentially blamed him for the Capitals' losing in the second round last year and it turns out maybe he had a point. Braden Holtby was so bad that he wasn't even the starter when the playoffs began and now he has a chance at winning the Conn Smythe. There are a lot of laughs packed into a potential Washington victory.

But the Golden Knights winning it all in their first year is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or whatever movie you find really funny, I don't care) of sports comedy. You won't ever laugh like this in your life. Literally nobody—not me, not you, not team owner Bill Foley—thought this was possible and now the Knights are favorites in the Cup Final.

And this last answer is all that matters. You should be pulling for Vegas. Thinking about every NHL GM staring at his TV as Brayden McNabb hands the Cup to Luca Sbisa, who hands it to Ryan Reaves, who hands it to Colin Miller, who hands it to Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith at the same time, who put down the Cup and hold up a sign that reads, "THANK YOU DALE" is something too good to pass up.

There's plenty to enjoy about a Caps win but nothing in the history of hockey will be more pleasurable than the Vegas Golden Knights being crowned Stanley Cup champs.

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports CA.

A Bandwagon Guide to the Unlikely Capitals-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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Fanboys, Freddie Hockey and Justin Bieber's sports take (Puck Daddy Countdown)

NASHVILLE, TN – JUNE 03: Frederick Gaudreau #32 of the Nashville Predators celebrates after scoring a second period goal against Matt Murray #30 of the Pittsburgh Penguins (not pictured) in Game Three of the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the Bridgestone Arena on June 3, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

(In which Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

8. The Rinne Haters!!! (again)

Well gang, this time last week we were all saying, “As long as Rinne doesn’t completely crap his pants in Game 2, the Preds should be fine.” And wouldn’t you know it, he crapped his pants like a hundred times, to the point that incredibly smart, cool people who are so handsome were saying, “Well I think you probably gotta go to Juuse Saros in Game 3.”

But then Rinne did a crazy thing: He allowed two goals on 52 shots (.962) and the series is even and everything is fine again. No more controversy! He’s still only .886 in the Cup Final, but Matt Murray is .902, and went .862 in Nashville. So who’s laughing now?

7. Miserable fanboys

And speaking of the whole “Murray looked bad in Nashville” thing, well, it takes a certain kind of psychopathy to start screaming like the sky is falling because the series is…… tied?

See, I understand, the Penguins have not looked good at any point except for those two stretches of three-ish minutes where they scored the bulk of their goals in the series. And even then, those were, as the soccer-likers say, against the run of play. They’re still getting caved in. And if you don’t think injuries are a big reason why, you haven’t been paying attention.

To that end, the Cup Final is progressing more or less how I expected: Predators absolutely raking, but the series is tied because it’s hard to shut down all that talent.

People in Pittsburgh cannot, however, accept this. They want Murray benched. They want a miracle comeback from Letang. They want Mario to come out of retirement (probably). They want Sullivan fired.

Now it’s a best-of-three instead of best-of-seven. And the Penguins are at home twice. It’s not like this is some sort of Horror From The Mind Of Clive Barker.

The hottest take of all is that Crosby and Malkin’s legacies will be tarnished if they somehow don’t drag this banged-up team kicking and screaming to another Cup against a team that’s been perhaps the deadliest in the league since February.

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Man, imagine if Pittsburgh got the results they actually deserved in this series? It’s a sweep. At best it’s 3-1. It would be impossible to talk all those fanboys off all those bridges. 

6. Not today with the trade rumors, alright?

A lot of teams have been out of the playoffs for at least a month at this point, and you can see people getting restless. That means we’re dealing with a lot of trade rumors. And I gotta tell ya, folks: Not a fan.

You wanna make a trade, go for it. By all means. But I can’t be bothered to pay attention to whether the Kings might trade a third liner or something. The whole expansion draft is coming up a week or two after the Cup Final ends. We’re gonna have a lot to talk about. Give it a week!!!

5. Freddie Hockey

I feel weirdly bad for Frederick Gaudreau, who has three goals in this Cup Final and had literally never scored in the NHL before that.

My man was just in the ECHL last season and now he’s the big Stanley Cup Hero to date (sorry, Jake Guentzel). But here’s the thing. He has a total of 15 NHL games under his belt. He has 3-1-4 in those 15 games. He’ll probably make the big club next season — or at least get a long look — and that might be when his trouble starts.

He was undrafted. His career high in the QMJHL was only 71 points (believe me, in the Q that’s not exactly a ton). The reason I am nervous for him is that he is building himself a reputation to which he is unlikely to ever live up. We’re talkin’ Dave Bolland status. Ville Leino, maybe. And I feel bad because he is a pure and beautiful boy.

He modestly lit up the AHL the past two years, yes. He had 40 goals and 90 points in 141 games, which is pretty good.

But man, three pretty damn big goals to start your career is a great way to convince everyone you’re the next true genius of the sport. He isn’t.

Hockey great Wayne Gretzky, right, greets former NBA player Charles Barkley, left, during a news conference before Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals between the Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday, June 5, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

4. The Round Mound of Watchable Intermission Segments

I said during Game 4 that it’s amazing what a talking head with an actual personality does to make an NHL intermission report engaging and fun. I was wrong to say it. I think Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick have personalities. “Dumb old grump” is a personality, right? (Keith Jones is a flat-out boring guy who’s only wrong 60 percent of the time, which makes him the best analyst NBC has.)

But if you watch basketball games, Charles Barkley is a dumb old grump on the NBA intermission shows, too. But he’s a gregarious dumb old grump, and I think that’s the difference. Say what you want about Sir Charles, but he’s always been a Personality first and foremost.

Try as poor Liam McHugh or Kathryn Tappen might, they cannot wring blood (entertainment) from stones (chronically wrong people). How many times do you watch an NBA halftime segment and it’s just Kenny Smith and Shaq making fun of Charles Barkley for being a fat, grumpy dope? More than you’d ever think, that’s for sure.

We remember the times Tappen or, like, Bob McKenzie make fun of Mike Milbury for being a horrible GM, because it’s both funny and true. They are basically winking to the audience: “This man is not qualified to give you even vague platitudes about what teams should or shouldn’t be doing.” And yet they persist on television, turning every segment they touch into grim, skippable affairs that are also occasionally tinged with Cold War-era xenophobia.

There’s a lesson in this. Neither NBC nor the NHL will learn it.

Let’s note here that Carrie Underwood did the segment on the first intermission, and it was also just fine and nice. But the fact that Eddie Olczyk kept calling her “Mrs. Mike Fisher” is some pathetic stuff. Mike Fisher is, what, the 80th-best center in hockey? He’s been in the league since 1999 and still doesn’t have anything close to 300 goals. Meanwhile, Carrie Underwood has 65 million records worldwide since 2007. Mike Fisher’s career high in points is only 53. He’s Mr. Carrie Underwood, and to pretend otherwise is to grossly overrate him in any way, shape, or form.

ON THE OTHER HAND: All this shows you what a sad organization the NHL is. Are you, like, a Q-list celebrity? You will be invited to present at the NHL Awards, guaranteed. The annoying neighbor kid from Small Wonder will be presenting the Vezina this year. And if you’re actually famous, like Charles Barkley is, you will be given a platform to say literally whatever you want about hockey. Barkley could have gone up there and said Sidney Crosby is a vampire (a popular theory that is impossible to disprove) and everyone would have chuckled straight through it.

And how did Barkley get to Game 4? How did he end up on a panel with Wayne Gretzky? Because he said on a national basketball broadcast — something lots of people actually watch — that hockey is good. Man, this is a thirsty-ass league when it comes to literally any amount of attention.

Can you imagine if Tom Cruise or someone like that were a hockey fan? They’d just give him the goddamn Jets.

3. Sticking with it

Hey whaddaya know: If you continually out-attempt, outshoot, and out-chance your opponent — and you also get the benefit of last change and a few bounces to finally go your way — you’re gonna pick up some easy Ws.

And because the Preds haven’t really deviated from their approach, they’ve also made all four of these games pretty fun.

I’m a big fan of this Final. Up-and-down hockey. The league could use more of this.

2. Nashville

Folks, I don’t know if it’s ever gonna work as a hockey market. Not like Winnipeg, where they struggle to sell out a 15,000-seat arena now that the novelty’s worn off and the team still sucks. These Nashville people are all going to go away in like seven or eight years when this team stops being competitive!

I’m from Canada, by the way.

1. The Justin Bieber sports take

Not specifically hockey-related but apparently people were all over Justin Bieber for wearing a hockey jersey that was not his “home team” Toronto Maple Leafs. So Bieber went on this mini-rant on Twitter about it. And it is the purest and rightest sports take I have ever experienced:

I support all sports I'll put ANY jersey from ANY pro team if I'm whack for wearing jerseys they give me out of love then I'm Whack

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 5, 2017

Leafs above all but other than that u give me ANY JERSEY THAT LOOKS COOL ILL THROW IT ON

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 5, 2017

I also don't know enough about sports to Really have valid opinion but I do enjoy sports!! And enjoy any high level sports game. Any team

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 5, 2017

Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah. Doesn’t matter to me who it is doing the cool stuff in sports, as long as the stuff is cool.

We can all learn a lesson from this. If you don’t like Sidney Crosby because you’re a fan of another team in the same division, you have to ask yourself how being a Flyers/Rangers/Islanders/Devils fan has broken your brain. Because it definitely has.

This goes for any sport. You don’t have to like the fact that the Warriors are running the Cavs out of the Finals, but damn do you gotta respect how ruthlessly they’re operating here. I don’t like the Patriots for their politics, but let’s not act like Tom Brady isn’t the best to ever put a helmet on.

Basically in sports I just want to see elite athletes do amazing stuff I have never seen before. That’s the real thing worth rooting for.

Thank you, Justin Bieber, for saying what needed to be said. Purpose was a perfectly good album. Thanks everyone. Have a nice week.

(Not ranked this week: The bad breath controversy, which I refuse to call Breathgate.

As a means of highlighting just how humorless the NHL is, generally speaking, we literally turned what was a very, very obvious joke from P.K. Subban into a three-day controversy. This league, man. Dumbest in the world.)

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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