Reblogged naryrising
If I may.
Reblogged jonaldronaldrolkientolkien
The Fortunates are one week old!
Prophet - Intriga Oraculum
Kismet - Intriga Meant To Be
Bonnie - Intriga Bonanza
Felix - Intriga Felix Culpa
Seren - Intriga Serendipity
Mars - Intriga Stars Align
Kallista - Intriga Fortunate One
I would very much like to give the tum a scritch. I'll be gentle, I promise.
Reblogged softlypause
me in the spring sun
me in th
me in the spring grass
Beware the Bane of Herc.
Reblogged burnttongueontea
... Yeah. ...
Reblogged bluebellofbakerstreet
Holmestice is a twice-yearly digital fanworks exchange for the Sherlock Holmes multiverse. The name derives from the fact that the schedule for the exchange revolves around the Summer and Winter solstices. All versions of Sherlock Holmes media are welcome (movies, television shows, books, games, comics, radio dramas, podcasts, etc.). All characters, pairings, and ratings are welcome. All media types that can be exchanged digitally (fic, art, vids, podfic, graphics, original music) are also welcome.
Scamper on over to Dreamwidth and signup for another round. Open until April 14!
DIFFERENT THIS ROUND: The signup period is much longer than usual because two members of the mod team, Coat and Vulgarweed, will be at 221B Con in Atlanta (April 11-14), spreading the word about the exchange and hopefully picking up some new folks. Come talk Holmestice with us!
Follow the link for instructions and rules! Join us for another round if you’re an old hand at this, and be very welcome if you’re new!
No Holmes Barred!
In a Methodist Church on a fortuitous day, the church secretary directed me to a broom closet that contained a cardboard box filled with hundreds of letters. “1965” was scrawled in black Sharpie over the top. The letters had come to Reverend Robertson in that year in response to a “kneel-in,” a common demonstration during the civil rights movement in which integrated students would seek entry into segregated churches and, if rebuffed, would kneel in front in protest as a “moral spectacle,” to borrow Steve Haynes’s phrase. Most of the handwritten or typed responses criticized the church for its “unchristian” segregationism, but some cheered its courage against outside agitation or insincerity. They tended to be theological in nature, citing verses and doctrines, making them rich materials for my argument on theological crises posed by the freedom struggle. But there was one letter that was different. Postmarked from Houston, TX on August 4, 1965, I opened the thick envelope to first pull out a card size pamphlet with a beatific white Jesus on one side and on the other a mirror image, this one of a proud and regal Adolph Hitler. The caption read: “…and no one spoke openly about him for fear of the JEWS!”
This was fascinating. Horrifying. Encouraging in the sense people have been fighting this fight much longer than I've been alive. Depressing for much the same reason. You know, pretty much par for the course in this the Year of Our Lord 2025.
I don't entirely agree that all white supremacism, even in the theological context, comes out of to supersessionism and anti-Semitism. Though it's certainly not helpful and tied up with the whole horrible mess. I did enjoy the chance to dip my toe in this bit of history, and mostly I enjoyed the connection of someone else struggling to understand all the hate in the air these days. It helps, at least a bit, at least for me.
News of the Day 4/3/25: Health is Wealth
I wish I could call this an exaggeration. Health and Human Services, the US government agency that handles most of our public health, medical research and Medicaid/Medicare administration, previously had 82,000 employees; they're looking to fire 20,000, so that's nearly a quarter. They wish they were only being decimated.
As upset as I am for the people being fired (so inhumanely and haphazardly!), the real concern is the work they won't be able to do any more to keep us healthy and safe. I'm all for making things more efficient, but truly, there's only so much fat to cut.
RFK's unique (*coughs*) health priorities and his downplaying vaccinations and other established medicine, and this becomes a real mess. Trump's pauses on university funding over alleged campus anti-semitism, which a lot of goes to medical research done by graduate students, really isn't helping either. My inner prude wants to use my grandmum's favorite PG swear, fuster-cluck, but given all the mess with bird flu that just seems in poor taste.
More news coverage of all the cuts and their impact below the cut.
Reblogged tobermoriansass
Summary:
On Christmas Eve, 1966, Jim Hacker, a Reuters reporter stationed in Beijing, met Humphrey Appleby, the private secretary of the newly-appointed chargé d'affaires in China, Sir Basil Corbett, at a cocktail party.
Author's note:
Set during the Cultural Revolution, no particular update schedule, not posting inside the Firewall (cause I don't wanna get yelled at), posting here for fun. I didn't really do any research, just wanted to see Jim/Humphrey in a chaotic situation. But I did reference the '67 arson case at the British Office of the Chargé d'Affaires, the proceedings of the House of Commons on the question of Chinese authorities detaining British citizens in China, George Watt's China Spy (1973), as well as Anthony Grey's Hostage in Peking (1970). Basil Corbett has secretly been in foreign service the whole time and is Humphrey's boss, not a politician.
Holy shit lol
As the wise man (Lewis Carroll) said:
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Trump & Co. are deporting more pro-Palestinian foreign students, including one from a school with the same abbreviation as where I did my master's. Totally unrelated school, but every time I see CSU in the headline it makes it feel much more personal.
I hate that I need that personal jolt of even false connection. I mean, I don't, but it does make something distinctly wrong ...more intensely so, I guess? More personal feeling, less avoidable? Something like that. And of all the gripes I have with Mr. Rubio these days, this one doesn't even break the top ten. But even so: not cool. :-(
Reblogged stepfordgeek
is your cat/chihuahua/reptile an asshole, or is it just a very small creature with limited options to establish boundaries with an enormous and very strong ape
Yes.
Reblogged jouissants
I've been watching this off and on today.
It feels odd to be proud of a speech so long I could barely tell you anything particular he said, and where as far as I can tell it didn't accomplish anything or even aim to accomplish a particular thing. This wasn't a filibuster where they were trying to defeat a specific bill or something.
But he spoke for as long as he could. He spoke longer than Strom Thurmond back in the 1950s over the Civil Rights Act. He just kept speaking, and the point seems to be these times are uniquely bad, bad enough you've just got to do anything you possibly can to call it bad even if you can't do anything more.
I don't know. That gives me a little hope. I'm not sure why, but that doesn't change the fact it does.