Episode 175: The Man Who Was Killed Four Times

A famous actor has been killed. Yumiko hits him on the head with an urn when he comes into her dressing room and harasses her. So she confesses to the murder. Then Haruyuki confesses to the murder because the actor went to his room after regaining consciousness to harass him too. And Haruyuki hit him on the head with an urn as well. Finally he went to Katsumata’s room to harass him, and he also hit him on the head with an urn, and confesses to the crime. But it was actually his wife, who killed him with stomach medicine. (No urns were harmed in the making of this episode.) 

New ways I've discovered to take alka seltzer:

1. Dip the pill in water and lick it as it dissolves to get the dust, which tastes better in large quantities for some fucking reason

2. Put a pill in your mouth and slowly drink water while it dissolves

I think the reason I can’t decide on a hair color for him is because nobody else can either

medicine should be sold in clear containers . i wanna see the colour. i wanna feel the Whimsy

i'm supposed to be WRITING not suffering from CRAMPS

my medication: take with a full glass of water first thing in the morning a full 1/2 hour before eating :)

me, dry swallowing my pill in between mouthfuls of granola bar on my way to work: interesting suggestion. however,

Meet the original source of the flavouring know from toothpaste, mouthwash, and chewing gum - the spearmint plant (Mentha spicata). This plant thrives in shady spots in the garden during the summer. The distinctive taste and scent comes from the naturally occurring chemical R-(-)-carvone. The taste of genuine spearmint is far richer and more complex than its artificially flavoured version, and spearmint plants have been bred to have many different shades of flavour such as “chocolate mint” and “pineapple mint”. It’s an excellent tea herb and it combines well with many other fresh herbs from the garden. There is medical research supporting spearmint’s herbal medicine uses for digestive system issues and antimicrobial properties.

Sleeping pills by Yoshiki’s bedside

Actually, the wise women/Cunning Folk system was Norse in origin and the rest of Europe had wise women replace their own ritualized medical systems (think sleeping at Asclepius's temple) because Europe was conquered by Danish tribes during the end of the Roman period.

No seriously, Scandinavians have (or had, it's dying out because of how good their healthcare system is) a long history of kloke folk that dates back to the pagan seidrmadrs.

Considering what the medical system was like back then, most of the wise women were in many ways a good deal less quackish than the men with MDs, considering they understood the wonders of antiseptics and MDs looked at the concept as some rustic superstition.

No, actually, I want wise women back because their services were free. I mean, yeah, they'd obviously charge a fee NOW, but Granny Weatherwax's comment that, "They didn't pay in cash, but rather in respect, which was cold hard currency" was actually a reality for these women, considering their communities protected them from the witchhunters.

Granted, the witch trials were a little more complicated, considering the word for witchcraft in Nordic countries was troldfolk (who were believed to send curses via illness), who were fought by the kloke folk. ("Sickness is curses sent by the Jotuns" is metaphorically true...) Wise women didn't get properly killed off until the Progressive Era, due to modern medicine finally being both effective, available, and doctors passing laws against "quacks".

Okay, so, by free admission, early modern Nordic history is VERY NOT my main area of expertise. This could all be entirely true for Scandianvian vernacular magic/folk healing practice. But I definitely now it wasn’t true for all practitioners termed “wise women” across Europe.

Just looking into the system of Scandinavian wise women superficially, though, it seems that they- like their British counterparts the cunning-folk, who I’m more familiar with -didn’t need community protection from witch hunters because they were seldom targeted by them. Based on the better sourced parts of the “cunning folk” Wiki page, a charge of “superstition” seems to have been brought against Scandinavian wise women more often, and they did get arrested and sentenced fairly frequently. But the sentence wasn’t usually capital, and for some of them it seems to have acted as good advertising.

(Also in Britain and British colonies, cunning-folk often acted as witch-hunters. So, sorry, granddaughters of the witches they couldn’t burn: you’re actually the granddaughters of the witches who threw innocent people under the bus to deflect suspicion. Or because they genuinely believed those people were evil. Or for the payout. Take your pick.)

I’m also not sure about the assertion that their services were free. In Britain, at least, cunning-folk definitely did not work for free as a rule- why would they, when this was their livelihood? They often received payment in trade rather than currency, but...they very much did expect payment of SOME sort, as I understand it. You have to eat somehow, after all, and I’m not sure one could run a totally self-sufficient farm and a folk medicine/magic practice at the same time.

And even if you could, still better to have Old Tom down the lane mend your fence in exchange for physicking his cow than do it yourself, right? Save yourself the work.

The assumption of total altruism is one of my big issues with this ask series, and the other is the idea that wise women knew Good Medicine and doctors did not. Obviously, yes, early medical doctors were often convinced that folk medicine practitioners had nothing to offer the field, and I’m sure some practices by some wise women/cunning-folk worked.

But.

Some of the latter were also, to put it bluntly, full of shit.

There WERE people, unfortunately, who used the title of “Wise Woman” or “Cunning-Man” or whatever to fleece their community out of resources in exchange for dodgy cures and ineffective charms. Because that’s just how humanity goes: some people are good, some people are evil, and some people are just out to make a buck (so to speak) however they can. I find it very hard to believe that all laws against Quackery(TM) were totally motivated by early modern doctors’ fragile egos, simply because bona fide quacks have been around forever. From my past research, it seems that that British cunning-folk at least seemed given to pronouncing illness that doctors could not diagnose, the result of curses or hexes. While many did practice herbalism, and some herbalism has medical value given that many medicinal chemicals now usually synthesized are found in plants...there was another side of it, too, that could frequently involve attributing medical problems to magical causes.

And I would be very surprised if that were a phenomenon exclusive to Britain and its colonies.

I understand the longing for a time of free, quality medical treatment from your local badass village wisewoman, protected by her reverential community from evil doctors and omnipresent witch-hunters. I really do. But it seems to me that, for a variety of reasons, that time never actually existed.

(Also I would definitely like a citation on the antiseptics thing. Just because they thought garlic could ward off evil or something doesn’t mean they understood that it had antiseptic properties, or advocated for using it in effective ways. And I can’t really blame doctors for questioning ideas like that- phrased that way, it does sound like rural superstition. If nobody knows the background logic behind why something works, and it only works some of the time, and the people saying it works are making that claim for reasons that fly in the face of then-current science...you might understandably think it doesn’t work at all.)

(It’s not like the cunning-folk were saying “use autoclaves for your surgical tools to avoid infection!” and the doctors shot back with “INFECTION IS A MYTH INVENTED BY SATAN!!!!” At least, not that I know of.)

daily whistlepaw until ah becomes PoV day 1167

I think I finally understand how people feel when around a crush, can't say I enjoy it

Fuck it, giving Izzy my chronic fatigue.

Wasn’t as bad when he was younger and he had Ed, Jack, maybe Sam to help him out when it gave him trouble.

Then Ed’s the captain and Izzy’s the first mate so they can work around his increasing issues to the point where they really don’t crop up but once in a blue moon.

Once they’re on the Revenge tho things get bad cause nobody else is doing the work and Izzy would like to not die so he picks up a lot of the slack. He pushes through but he’s flagging pretty hard, it’s why the Revenge crew gets the drop on him for the mutiny, he was resting cause he thought being in charge would mean it was safe to do. Also why Ed didn’t wake him til the toe came off, he’d otherwise be too paranoid post mutiny attempt to sleep that deeply (even with Ed back on board calling the shots) but he started stressing again and had to work extra hard in between Ed’s mood and the crew still not wanting to do any work.

During the reign of the Kraken he’s dead on his feet at all times, he’s maybe running on reserve adrenaline but that’s rapidly decreasing.

Once Stede comes back and the captains make up he crashes hard. He spends at least a week in bed and hates himself for it. He can’t find the energy to get to the galley for food, barely manages the few trips to the chamber pot (few because he’s not really got anything in him to empty out).

Ed’s still in a weird place with him so he thinks they’re just avoiding each other, most of the crew thinks so too, though they are starting to get concerned.

. . . This is getting too sad for me so it’s now cjizzy time so I can make it happier lmfao.

Jack finds them with the purpose of bitching at Ed and Stede for almost getting him killed (he simply does not blame Izzy ❤), figures out Izzy’s not been on deck for over a week and that he’s having a really bad episode, proceeds to bitch at the rest of the crew too for not figuring it out and helping him because: ‘Ain’t this supposed to be like, the friendship boat or some shit? Thought you fuckers looked after your own!’ Ed, Stede, and the rest of the crew apologize to Izzy and promise to do better by him.

Jack then takes care of Izzy til he manages to rest up enough that he only needs help with most things instead of everything, teaches the rest of the crew how to spot when he’s flagging and how to convince him to let them help or to get some rest (with the help of Wee John, he also has some measure of chronic fatigue 😌), threatens to kidnap Izzy over to the Kingston if Ed doesn’t get his shit together, ‘Anne and Mary’d be happy to have him and you know it Eddie!’ Winds up staying on board because that’s his babygirl and he wants to make sure he’s alright and taken care of when he can’t do it for himself, thought they do make the occasional visit to Anne and Mary on the Kingston cause they really do love Izzy too. Also visit Sam on the Whydah cause he also loves Izzy. And Jackie. My point is Izzy gets all the love and care. That’s all.

ya know what I’m deciding not to give a shit if my job doesn’t like me missing work bcuz I’m in agonizing pain

so you guys see why i hate my house

talking to yourself can be a sign of psycosis

Going 2 the south 4 a week to see my grandparentsss and aunts and uncles and cousins. btw. Bus takes off at 12 n we're heading out 2 the bus terminal soon 🥳 I Just hope I don't frow up 😭😫😫