something very fascinating about discworld as a setting is how the books are mostly set during a period of after
the color of magic and the light fantastic are set during the waning days of barbarian thug heroes. cohen and his cohorts are either old or dead, and the incoming generation isn’t finding much profit in the hero business. tax fraud is more profitable than pillaging.
the mention of horrific wizard wars that are so old that even the aftermath of them are relegated to allusions instead of explicit description.
lancre is haunted by the spectre of black aliss, who never appears on screen and has been hansel and greteled by the time of granny and nanny being the witches of authority, and even they feel like their time coming to a close.[1]
uberwald is the remnants of a fallen evil empire.
ankh-morpork had kings, then despotic tyrants, but on page is governed bureaucratically by a man who, i will always argue, was working to ultimately get rid of his own job.
we are introduced to a city watch that has been defanged and recovering from several failed revolutions.
moist von lipwig is a reformed con man being forced to repair the damage done to public institutions by other con men, but we never truly see the shell games played by moist or others.
even small gods concerns itself with the reformation of a fire and brimstone religion.
basically, if epic fantasy is a party, discworld is the story of the people who have to clean up afterwards despite not being on the guest list for the event.
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[1] the way that shepherds crown is not only an explicit conclusion to granny weatherwax’s tenure, but quietly implies nanny receding from prominence herself is an aching sadness i wish pterry had the time to explore. tiffany is the person who arrives first to an empty but clean dance club.
“When there are extreme weather events like heatwaves, the level of violence also rises, including domestic violence.
In this comic strip a local woman shares her story in the hope that other people in similar situations might also seek help.
If you or someone you know needs help, click the link in the bio. We’ve got a list of organizations that provide free, confidential support at the end of the linked blog post.
Our heartfelt thanks to this survivor who co-wrote this story with Meredith Li-Vollmer. Artwork by David Lasky.”
“Stay safe from cold water shock in the hot weather coming this week—especially kids! Always wear a life jacket and test the water before jumping in!
Rivers and lakes can run cold, and an involuntary gasp can fill your lungs with water and lead to drowning even close to shore and for strong swimmers.
When the sun is out look for symptoms of heat exhaustion, take breaks in the shade, and drink plenty of water. Adults age 65+, people who work outdoors, and people with health conditions like diabetes are at higher risk.
Please share this information and check in with friends and family who may appreciate a cool place to hang out as things heat up.”
State colleges slowly became more and more expensive because Ronald Reagan listened to his “education adviser’s” warning of how affordably higher education could lead to an “educated proletariat.”
In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California.… In May 1970, Reagan had shut down all 28 UC and Cal State campuses in the midst of student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. On October 29, less than a week before the election, his education adviser Roger A. Freeman spoke at a press conference to defend him.
Freeman’s remarks were reported the next day in the San Francisco Chronicle under the headline “Professor Sees Peril in Education.” According to the Chronicle article, Freeman said, “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. … That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go to college].” [emphasis added]
I grew up queer in a red state when gay marriage was illegal. Now, I’m raising my kids in a blue city on the West Coast. Four years ago, when my oldest child came out as transgender, my first reaction was relief that we lived in a supportive environment. Then I felt a pang of fear.
I wasn’t worried about parenting a trans child. I was afraid on my kid’s behalf. I wanted to protect him from a world that so often struggles to accept him.
My son is almost 16 now, and he has three friends whose families fled their homes in Texas and Florida to relocate to our state, which still protects gender-affirming care. Having them here has reminded us of the profound privilege our family is experiencing, as we’ve been able to maintain our roots. Still, when I asked my son and his friends what story about trans people was missing from the news, they said, “Sometimes we’re scared, but mostly, we’re just trying to have fun and get through the day like anyone else.”
I recall my own teen years, when gay and queer folks spent so much energy trying to convince our straight, conservative peers that our lives were more similar to theirs than different. Now, legal and societal changes have created a level of scrutiny that makes it hard for transgender folks to just be.
My family is lucky that life hasn’t changed that much since January. We work and go to school, play board games, share funny videos of our rescue pug, and are planning our annual Disneyland vacation. I’m in contact with several families like mine living across the country in supportive communities, and they all express the same sentiment.
“We surround ourselves with people we love and go about our day, ignoring the rest,” Amy, the parent of a trans teen in Arizona, tells me.
To understand how folks are nourishing themselves in less-accepting environments, I talked to three trans women who live, more or less, in the spotlight, and who focus on joy and connection as subtle acts of resistance.
no matter how little you think you know about history you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it because there is always someone who knows less than you and is more confident about it. someone once said that bridgerton was medieval to me
another person also thought that the middle ages were the period in between wwi and wwii so you should always be proud of yourself for having any sort of knowledge about the medieval period. i’m proud of you for not thinking fdr was an important medieval figure.
Something I need to be reminded of often. Yes, I’m very lazy and also have executive problems up the wazoo (the difference? laziness is fun), but the cultural expectation of being productive every waking moment isn’t healthy either. And the business of feeding ourselves is especially fraught these days.
This is the same topic and screenshot that gave some of my chudliest chud haters such a meltdown after I posted it myself once, they raged at me for days and one by one dropped off of Tumblr forever. This subject kills idiots.
based on what we’ve found in Pompei the majority of roman citizens in the city got their food from fast food places like this
from a cultural perspective a roman’s typical daily schedual after work would look no different to a modern day worker commuting home and swinging by a fast food joint for chinese, kebab, or a pizza on the way as they unwound before bed
Human life remains the same down through the ages just as much as it changes
“trans people in sports is such a complex issue” it really isn’t. make the sports skills-based instead of segregated by gender. “ohhh but so many people’s lives depend on their sports for scholarships” okay then let’s make university universally funded so people don’t have to worry about paying for it based on how well they can throw a ball. how are you not keeping up
“the cis women and girls will always lose though” why are you assuming they can’t compete at the same level. even taking trans people completely out of the equation, why are you assuming cis women can’t compete against anyone except other cis women. why are you infantilizing them. if i was a cis woman i’d be pissed as fuck if someone said i needed a whole other sports group because i apparently suck so badly at the sport due to my womanhood
No no - this is about men worried they’ll lose to a woman (or anyone they consider ‘not a man’).
Most sports were men-only until they were forced to give others access - the concession was to have 'women only’ divisions (separate but equal? No, not really) so They Could Play Over There, Do Not Bother Us With Your Petty Demands.
Every time a skills-based division is suggested, women’s fragility and physical difference is brought up - and the fact of variation within the group being higher than between groups is dismissed as nonsense (who cares about facts, right?)
Eh, remember when Babe Ruth got struck out by a teenage girl? And when Katie Ledeckie was training at her usual rate and destroying the egos (and will to live) of the boys in the same pool?
Being shown up as “less than” is a constant fear for some men. And when a woman does it it’s like 100 times worse.
Some major shifts must happen before we’ll successfully have skill based competition becoming ungendered, and it’s NOT BECAUSE the girls and women and enby folks aren’t up for the challenge.
what you need to understand is that textile work is basically the closest i have seen to Real Magic and the reason old ladies in quilting spaces are either the grumpiest or the most whacky cheerful people you’ll ever meet is because they’re basically wizards who have studied the ancient crafts too long
Over the last two days I stitched a little sampler of various lines, but for fun I made it look like grass instead of a more traditional sampler. I really like the end result, it feels very painterly for some reason. I used 10 different colours, some variegated, some solid, a few different weights and materials (cotton, silk, wool). The stitches, from left to right at the bottom of the piece:
1. Backstitch
2. Double laced running stitch
3. French knots
4. Stem stitch
5. Running stitch
6. Alternating stem stitch
7. Couching
8. Hungarian heavy chain stitch (not sure if this is the actual English name, I found it in my Dutch stitch bible, which states that it is a Hungarian variation on the heavy chain stitch)
9. Heavy chain stitch
10. Laced back stitch
11. Chain stitch
12. Triple back stitch (once again, translated from my stitch bible, no idea about the actual English name)
13. Whipped back stitch
14. Satin stitch (without an underlying outline/padding)
15. Coral stitch
16. ‘Open backstitch’ I don’t know if this stitch has an official name, probably, but it is just a backstitch where there is a small gap between the stitches. It has a more pronounced texture than running stitch, and doesn’t make the fabric wavy as easily as a running stitch.
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