#and andrews mostly being backhanded | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brutcllysoft · 3 years

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andy vs addie fight ft. @becamedcath

setting: restaurant in nashville, august 2015.

ANDY

AUGUST, 2015. Andy hadn’t anticipated their night taking this turn. Truthfully, when Rowan brought up her parents wanting to meet him, he was hesitant -- He’d never been with someone long enough to met the parents, and even if their relationship wasn’t exactly traditional, he was still nervous about it. He wasn’t sure what to expect -- Addie and Henry Fisher were just names and not people to him. Rowan hadn’t spoken to him about them before but never in much detail. Complicated families are nothing new to him -- He hasn’t even tried to tell Rowan anything about his, knowing that the Thane family will send her running for the hills. When he walked into Mary Ann’s diner, hand in hand with Rowan -- He had expected to meet some meek, mild couple from Montana. Things started out nice enough, small talk and the expected shock and judgmental look that comes when he tells them about his career path and the kind of music he makes. It’s clear they’re not that interested in what Rowan’s doing, either -- Something that bothers him more than he cares to admit. He plays nice through drinks and appetizers, mostly for Rowan’s sake, though he doesn’t miss the backhanded comments her mother makes. It makes his blood boil, finding it baffling that someone could look at Rowan, and not see what he sees; not see what Reina sees; not see what the world sees. He’s not sure when it happens, but at some point in the dinner her mother makes a comment -- And Andy snaps. While he had wanted to make a good impression in the beginning, all of his efforts were thrown out the window within seconds, voice raised as he laid into Rowan’s mother.

It makes him feel like he’s in the Twilight Zone, not understanding how the people who raised her couldn’t see her talent, heart, or kindness if it bit them in the ass. He had accepted his own fate with his family, knowing from the get-go that there was no shot in hell for the Thane’s to be anything close to a ‘traditional’ family. But for Rowan? This didn’t add up. He makes a scene without question, making it very clear how he feels about the woman in question, while simultaneously destroying any chance he had of having a quiet night with her and her family. There was an anticipation for guilt to come after, but it never finds him -- He’s happy to defend Rowan to anyone, even after knowing her for only a few short months that she’s something to behold. Tension comes after he’s done, apparently having shocked Addie Fisher into silence. It’s overwhelming, and once it’s over, the realization of what he’s done dawns on him. There’s no regret for it, but a bit of confusion -- Making it clear to Andy that his crush on Rowan wasn’t as small as he tried to pass it off to be. He excuses himself, not bothering to notice all of the other diner goers who are staring at them, stunned at his outburst -- It’ll probably end up on twitter, TMZ, or some bullshit. All that he wants right now is to get some fresh air, and smoke a cigarette to calm his nerves. Once he has a lit cigarette between his lips, it’s not much of a help, but once he turns to find Rowan exiting the diner -- There’s a certain calm that finds him. “I’m not plannin’ on going in thee for an Act II, in case you're curious.” He greets her, taking another drag of his cigarette.

ROWAN

This dinner had been doomed from the very start. In fact, Rowan had tried to get them out of it more than once but Addie is like a dog with a bone when it comes to Andrew Thane. Even over the phone, it had been clear that Addie didn’t approve and really, Rowan isn’t surprised. Not because of anything that actually has anything to do with Andy but rather just because of who her mother is as a person and how their relationship has progressed over the years. Rowan loves her mother and has been desperately seeking even the smallest amount of approval for years but she seems to fall just short every time. Part of her thinks she could cure cancer and her mother would ask why she hadn’t found a cure for alzehemiers while she was at it. It’s just something she has learned to live with — or at least she tells herself that until she finds herself face to face with Addison and back at square one, grasping at straws for anything.

Now that the night is in progress, doomed doesn’t feel like it adequately covers it. Addie is snippy from the moment she arrives, nitpicking her way through a list of topics — the traffic, the wait time, the food and her favourite, her daughter (and unfortunately for him, Andy’s association with Rowan has also landed him right in Addison’s line of fire). Rowan is used to this. She has learned to roll with the punches and to sift her way through backhanded compliments and thinly veiled insults to find something that doesn’t make her feel like a complete failure. And yeah, maybe when she gets home she’ll shed a few tears but that isn’t anyone’s business but hers, is it? Except the night seems to take a hard left when Andy erupts beside her. Rowan watches the whole thing in a stunned silence, eyes wide and lips pressed together. She’s barely aware of him pushing his way outside until he’s gone and her mother is breaking the silence, a dramatic huff leaving her as she turns on the crocodile tears and begins talking about how rude he is.

Rowan excuses herself only a few seconds later, following Andy outside. It’s been a few weeks since their almost kiss, leaving Rowan feeling like they’re in limbo and part of her isn’t even sure if he’ll even want to see her after that or if he’d rather be alone — or if he’ll even still be there. For all she knows he’d hopped in their car and gotten the hell out of dodge. She wouldn’t blame him, it certainly looks appealing to her. But there he is— shoulders tense, cigarette between his teeth, frustration practically dripping from him. “I wasn’t going to ask you to,” she sighs quietly at his comment, hands raising in faux surrender. “I just wanted to see if you were okay. I told you she could be intense.” Which is a very delicate way of saying it but at the end of the day she’s still her mom, regardless of how fucked up their relationship has become.

ANDY

Andy genuinely wanted to make a good impression on Rowan’s parents. This was foreign territory to him, but for her -- He was willing to try. But now that the night has completely gone to shit, he’s given up on trying to salvage what’s left. It’s clear that Addie and Henry are set in their ways (Addie more so than her husband), happy to live on some planet where Rowan isn’t the center of their universe. It’s bizarre to him that those two people could create someone with such a big heart, but he tries not to dawn on it -- The last thing he needs is to get worked up again and come rushing in with And another thing!. Rowan comes out soon after he does, and truthfully -- He’s not sure what kind of reaction is going to come from her. They may be in this will they, won’t they stage together, and somehow he’s sure that his outburst may end up putting them in the latter. Even if he’d come to her defense, he’d still yelled at her mother in a public place during their first encounter. Not exactly a good first impression.

There’s a wave of calm that comes from the sight of her, even if he’s sure he’s about to get a lecture. “I’m fine,” he answers easily, though his tone makes his frustration far too clear. Pausing, Andy takes another drag of his cigarette before speaking again. “Intense is one way of putting it.” He continues, unable to hide the bitterness that comes with the words. Being put down by a parent was nothing new to him, but he still couldn’t wrap it around his head that Rowan Fisher’s parents were happy to push her buttons any chance they had. Taking another inhale, he spares a glance back in the diner to her mother and father in a hushed conversation, Addie clearly still upset. It makes him want to go back in there and remind her she has no reason to cry, but instead -- He breathes deeply, before tilting his head back to avoid blowing smoke in Rowan’s face. “I’m not goin’ to apologize to her.” He states point blank, knowing that even if Rowan ended up giving him a long lecture about respecting elders or some shit -- Andy stood by everything he said. “I meant all of it, ya know.”

ROWAN

Andy says he’s fine, but everything about him screams the opposite. It’s easy to see that he’s still frustrated and that her mother had gotten under his skin --- she’s not surprised, really. Addie has that effect on people. Her gaze follows his inside, watching as her mother turns on the dramatics and her father encourages the whole thing which is just business as usual. She loves her parents but Christ, being around them can be so exhausting sometimes. If it isn’t Addie’s nitpicking and constant scrutiny then it’s just Henry’s indifference and really she isn’t entirely sure which is worse. Despite herself, a laugh does manage to leave her when Andy says he’s not apologizing, knowing that it wouldn’t change anything. “She wouldn’t accept it anyway. Not really, anyway. You know how they say it’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission? There’s not really any point in doin’ either one of those with my mother.” Rowan has long since learned that the hard way. “She loves her grudges.”

She softens when Andy tells her he meant what he said, feeling admiration and affection bloom in her chest. That familiar desire to be close to him kicking in again and she wraps her arms around her middle to keep her hands from reaching out to him, giving him a soft smile and nod. “Thank you.” A stroke of embarrassment creeps up her spine at the fact that he’d had to come to her defense at all, knowing she surely looked like a sad little girl being berated by her mother but she tries not to dwell on it. “You didn’t have to do that, though. We don’t really…” she trails off for a minute, trying to find the right words to string together but ultimately coming up short. “We usually just let her say whatever she needs to get off her chest. S’usually just easier that way.” As fond of her father he has always been passive when it comes to her mother -- spineless even, and Rowan can’t judge them. After all, she’s the same way. “But, hey, at least my sister wasn’t here. Small miracles, right?” She laughs a little, though it’s not full of much humour but she is grateful for the sudden reminder that Aspen isn’t around, sure her sister would have followed them out for round two on the street. “I won’t hold it against you if you make a break for it.”

ANDY

This is still so strange to him, especially how nonchalant Rowan is being. Admittedly, Andy had created a narrative for her parents and what he thought would happen, and this — It still feels like it’s coming out of left field. He understands it, having a complicated relationship with his parents as well — Even if it’s in a vastly different way. It still brought an anger out in him, one that made him want to grab Addison Fisher by the shoulders and scream how do you not understand this? At least he wasn’t out here left to stew. A bitter laugh comes with Rowan’s “explanation” of her mother, eyes rolling at the thought of what her mother’s list of grudges looks like. He’s sure tonight has made the top five, at least. “Somehow, I’m not shocked.” He begins, glancing back inside of the diner before his eyes return to her. “I got a feeling this’ll be the hot topic for her book club for a while.” Andy jokes, wanting to lighten the mood a little now that he’s not moments away from exploding.

His eyes watch as she wraps her arms around her middle, wishing he could pull her close and tuck her head under his chin. Even if he has a crush on her, they’re not those kind of people — Their affection is strictly for cameras, not each other. You didn’t have to do that. He waved away the words with his cigarette hand, giving her a serious look. “I know I didn’t have to. I wanted to.” Andy points out, brow arching as she explains their usual routine. “My dads a lot like that, too.” The words slip out too easily, leaving him feeling like he’s revealed too much — Even with something as simple and vague as that. The last thing he wants is to expose Rowan to anything having to do with the Thane family, even if his father is always happy to make a comment about how stupid and ungrateful his son is to whatever reporter knocks on his door. At the mention of her sister, he lets out a small laugh, taking a quick puff of his cigarette. “I bet I could take ‘er.” He smirks, eyes leaving her as he drops his cigarette butt on the ground and stomps it out with the heel of his boot. Brows furrow as she mentions him making a break for it, and truthfully — If it were anyone else, he would. “And leave you here to deal with that? No way. If I call the car, you’re comin’ with me.”

ROWAN

The mention of this being the topic of his mother’s book club has her letting out another quiet laugh, shrugging her shoulders and rolling her eyes. “More than likely.” Rowan knows that this is something that Addie will hold onto for a long time, making sure to bring it up any time she and Andy are in the same vicinity. But with that thought comes the reminder that they’re in a contract and Andy probably won’t have to be around her parents very often at all over the next few years. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up tomorrow morning to a message from Reina saying that Chris and Andy wanted to add that to the contract --- no more time with her parents. “It’ll give her and her friends somethin’ to talk about, at least. There’s not much excitement back home --- pretty sure they spend most of book club talkin’ about how the neighbors grass is more than six inches long so… at least this’ll be a change of pace,” she’s rambling now, trying to avoid a potentially awkward silence between them.

Rowan hates the effect Andy’s words have on her. She hates that him telling her he had wanted to defend her has her wanting to reach for him even more, has her heart feeling like it’s slamming against her ribcage. She’s no stranger to crushes --- Christ, sometimes Rowan thinks she falls in love with anyone who gives her the smallest bit of attention (she tries not to think about what that means in regards to her views on herself), but somehow with Andy it feels different. Which brings on a whole new level of complicated because not only does she feel like she’s falling harder than she usually does this quickly, but they’ve got this added layer to them thanks to their arrangement that makes it nearly impossible to figure out where they actually stand. There is no denying that the last few months have had a shift between them --- flirty comments made behind closed doors, hands lingering on the other a few moments after the cameras are gone, late night phone calls, not to mention the kiss they almost shared on the 4th. It’s confusing to say the very least and while she’d like to think that he’s as into her as she is him, the truth is she’s just never really sure. Especially since their almost kiss hasn’t been brought up that night. It’s something she’s thought about asking him about --- wanting to just lay all the cards on the table and be on the same page but ultimately that fear of rejection keeps her from doing so.

She wants to thank him again but for now refrains, biting her tongue as he carries on. A knowing nod comes when he mentions his dad. It isn’t something that Andy’s ever talked about, but Rowan has certainly seen the comments he’s made on gossip sites before. At least her mother keeps her criticism private. “Parents,” she huffs a little, leaning against the wall of the diner and looking up at Andy. “Who’d keep our egos in check if not for them?” It’s said somewhere between teasing a bitter, leaning more toward the latter but she isn’t looking to go down that particular road right now, knowing it’ll likely only cause him to clam up and push her away. She nods when he mentions being able to take her sister, corners of her lips turning up just a little. “I’m sure. You handled Addison fine, the mini would’ve been a breeze.” Though, admittedly, Aspen can sometimes be worse --- where Addie usually has the sense to keep things relatively quiet and private, Aspen would’ve had no qualm screaming right back in Andy’s face. His next words bring a slight pink tinge to her cheeks, the idea of leaving having never been more appealing than now. Green eyes turn to look inside the restaurant again, lingering there momentarily. “To be honest, she’s probably gonna spend the rest of the night given’ us the silent treatment, if she sticks around. Stormin’ out’s usually her gig, so she’s probably counting down the seconds until we go sit back down and she can do it. So, s’not like we’d be missing anything.”June 8, 2020

ANDY

“I can’t imagine there’s a whole lotta interesting shit happening in -- Wyoming? Montana. It’s Montana, isn’t it?” He replies, stumbling over what state she’s actually from. Eyes roll at the thought of Addison Fisher and her book club discussing the heathen her daughter is dating, but at least it’s something he’ll never have to deal with. It’s clear that Rowan’s parents don’t have any interest in the world he and their daughter live in, uninterested in making any sort of effort to be a piece of it. “At least they’ll lay off poor Bill’s grass for a while.” He jokes, laughing lightly at his own words, knowing this isn’t exactly an ideal conversation to be having. When it comes to his own parents -- He’s as detached as they come, feeling as though they’re just a story to be told rather than actual people only a couple of states away. If Andy were in Rowan’s shoes, he wouldn’t have bothered introducing her to his family, knowing it’d be a wash from the beginning. Admittedly, though -- There’s a voice in the back of his head reminding him that his Ma would love her. There’s a weird twinge in his chest that comes with the passing thought, gone just as quickly as it came. It’s confusing to him -- As much as he never wants to return to his hometown or see his parents, he finds himself thinking of what it would be like to have her see that part of him. The feeling only adds to the tension of the evening, combined with the obvious -- Their dinner with her parents, as well as their close encounter on the 4th of July, he’s become a mess.

Connection is something he doesn’t come by easily -- Andy assumes most people either want something from him or to have a story to tell the next day, but Rowan… It’s different. Part of him feels like he’s just letting himself get in too deep, letting himself make this up in his head and run with it, rather than remind himself that the only reason they even met face to face was because of a business deal. But then he starts wonder where she stands, reminds himself that she had been the one to point out he didn’t know when to make a move when they’d gone shopping weeks prior; that she’d stepped forward and gotten just as close before they were interrupted. Eyes remain on Rowan as she leans against the wall, huffing out the word as if she was about to add amirite? at the end. “You gotta get humbled every now and again,” he jokes along with her, moving to lean his shoulder against the wall, turning to face her. “Sometimes it’s charity work, sometimes it’s gettin’ berated at dinner.” Brow raises at the mention of her sister being a mini version of her mother, and it’s enough to make Andy never want to meet her. If tonight was any preview into what the Fisher family was like, he’d pass. He got the only good one, anyway.

Rowan’s prediction of how her mother will act once they walk back in isn’t all that surprising to him. He figured it’d be a lecture or silence, punishing him, and Rowan by association. The idea of dealing with the theatrics and Addie storming out are less than appealing, enough for him to make a face at the thought. There’s a pause, eyes lingering on Rowan, before Andy speaks again. “Why don’t we get out of here, then?” He suggests, “Might as well give our audience a finale.” He teases, glancing back at the couple inside of the diner. “I don’t think they’ll miss us, either.”

ROWAN

“Montana. We can’t all be from somewhere as exciting as New Orleans,” she confirms with a small nod of her head, a quiet laugh slipping between her lips. Honestly, the most exciting thing to happen in her town before she’d been signed was when they added a stoplight in town back in 2005. She wonders what growing up in New Orleans would’ve been like, what his parents are like. Rowan knows that the chances of her meeting them are slim to none and she can’t blame him for that --- between the disaster that tonight had turned into and the fact that their relationship, for lack of a better term, runs on borrowed time, why would she? The only reason she had introduced him to her parents was because her mother had pushed so hard for it, anyway. Still, she can’t help but want to know him better -- to get to know all of him, including the parts of his life that he keeps to himself. Maybe especially those parts. She can’t deny that there’s a selfish part of her that would like getting to know parts of him that no one else has before, getting to have a version of him that only she knows. Regardless, it isn’t something she’s going to go pushing for --- not right now, anyway. Not when they’re still stuck in this weird limbo where she can barely tell if he actually likes her or if she’s just looking at it all with unjustified hopefulness.

Her gaze tears away from the diner window when he mentions getting out of there, hesitating for a few seconds. It’s appealing in the best ways but she can’t deny that she’s a little afraid of the verbal ass kicking she’ll get from her parents later. Addie will surely leave her a shrill voicemail later, one that will be arguably deserved for skipping out on them, and then ignore her calls until she feels that her daughter has been sufficiently punished. Part of her wonders if it’s worth the stress that will come from it, or if she would be better off just sucking it up and going back and enduring another hour with the two of them. It’s what she would do any other time but something about Andy always has her acting out of the norm, stepping outside of her comfort zone. Her actions are always so carefully planned --- precise lines that she needs to stay within, a script she needs to follow and that isn’t something she has ever ventured out of before. At least, not until last month when she let Andy give her a last minute wardrobe adjustment and now this. It leaves her feeling just a little out of control, something that would normally send her into a tailspin but somehow it just comes with a rush of adrenaline --- the kind that makes her feel like she’s flying, not falling. Like she’s not about to tank her entire career over one misstep or she’s not about to get her heart smashed into a million pieces. Like maybe she could be safe around him. It’s something she tries not to let herself linger on, but when her stomach is twisting and untwisting itself into knots over and over again when they’re together, it’s impossible not to. “Okay.” The word rolls off her tongue with surprising ease, nodding.

It doesn’t take long for the car to roll up in front of them after Andy calls. If she’s being honest, a part of her had expected to back out --- like the second she saw it pull up she’d snap out of whatever spell she’s under and revert herself back to who she usually is and rush back inside to try and apologize and worm her way back into her mother’s good graces. But she doesn’t -- in fact, she doesn’t even really feel guilty about leaving. She barely manages to spare one last glance into the window to see the look on Addison’s face when it becomes clear that they’re leaving --- it’s obvious she’s pissed and part of Rowan can’t help but feel a little bit of vindictive justification over it. Her shoulders slump when the door closes behind them and she feels the vehicle pull away from the curb, relaxing as they leave that particular mess behind. A hand moves to tuck blonde hair behind her ear, turning to look at Andy with slightly flushed cheeks. “I know you said you wanted to but you didn’t have to do that tonight.” She repeats her words from earlier, knowing that it isn’t really needed but she just wants to make sure he knows that it had been appreciated. “No one’s ever really done that before and it ---” she stumbles over her words for a minute, trying to find the right ones to say. “It just means a lot, so thank you. Again.”June 11, 2020

ANDY

The word New Orleans makes his heart jump, even though it’s not a secret that he’s from the city -- Andy tries to keep his family and childhood away from the spotlight, something that remains mysterious and unconfirmed. Mostly, he wants to keep his father out of his life as best he can, never wanting to return to that part of his life. And in Rowan’s case, he never wants her to meet his parents, never wants her to come face to face with his father. Addie can certainly put on a show, but her antics are childsplay compared to what terror his father would be happy to send their way. There’s no way she hasn’t seen the statements his father has made in numerous tabloids, the cruel and venomous story he tries to spin with each and every comment -- It’s never been something he’s openly talked about, only having told Chris about it once or twice. He knows if she knew more than what the tabloids say, if she could see how much worse the real story is, it’d send her running for the hills. Reina, and her legal team would be knocking down his door to get her out of their contract. “It’s not as glamorous as you’d think,” he settles with, shrugging a shoulder. “Better than fuckin’ Montana, I guess.” Andy teases, chuckling lightly at his own words.

It hurts to think of what will come after this dinner. He may never have to see her parents again, but Rowan isn’t cut off from them. He can already imagine that her mother will hold this over her head for as long as she can, happy to remind her daughter of the heathen she brought to dinner and the fight that broke out. Andy knows far too well how that can go, sure his father would be happy to remind him of any shitty thing he’s done if given the chance. Admittedly, he’s a bit shocked that Rowan agreed with him without him pushing the idea. Okay. A brow arches, head nodding. “Okay.” He repeats the word, something of a smile at his lips. He calls his driver, and after a brief conversation about their plans changing -- He’s at the door, holding it open for her to climb in before he follows after. He doesn’t miss the way she slumps the moment the car door is closed, wishing he could pull her close and reassure her that everything was okay. Andy shifts to better face her when she begins to speak, reminding him that he didn’t have to come to her defense. No one’s ever really done that before. There’s a twinge in his chest at her words, anger bubbling all over again over the conversation with her mother. He waves a hand, hoping that his casual demeanor will show her that he has no remorse over what he said, felt no obligation to say it. “Trust me -- S’no problem, baby.” Baby. He hadn’t meant to call her that, but it’s too late to take it back now -- Part of him hopes she doesn’t catch the nickname, hoping he hadn’t crossed a line with her. They may have a certain… something between them, but Andy’s still not convinced that it’s not just all in his head

ROWAN

Something about Andy always seems to make even the most mundane things seem new and exciting. His hand against the small of her back will leave a trail electricity running up her spine, a grin from across the room will have her stomach erupting in butterflies and now the way he calls her baby has her heart slamming against her rib cage. Andy isn’t the first boy to call her baby— in fact, she feels like almost everyone she has dated in the past has done it at least once or twice — but the way it drips off of his lips, sweet and smooth, it’s never sounded so nice; Never made a warmth spread through her like this. Part of her knows that it’s something stupid to get hungup on — just as he isn’t the first boy to say it to her, she’s sure she isn’t the first girl he has said it to and it wouldn’t be illogical to think it’s just a slip of the tongue after hours of pretending to be together rather than something actually meant for her. But within a split second, she can’t help herself.

Rowan doesn’t even realize she’s moving until she feels the curve of his jaw under her palms. Her instincts have kicked in now, acting on something she feels like she’s wanted forever when it’s really only been a few months, moving to pull his head down so she can press her lips against his. Of course, they’ve kissed before — dozens of times when they know there’s a camera around and a voice in their ear tells them it’s a good opportunity. But this is different. All of that had just been for show, something to fulfill their contract and get their picture in a magazine or their names gossiped about around a table on daytime television. They hadn’t been real — but this is. At least, it’s real for Rowan and she tries to make that clear through actions, one hand slipping into his hair as she kisses him until her lungs feel like they’re screaming. It’s only when they break apart that it occurs to her she could have just crossed a very dangerous line and that this could spell disaster for her, but she tries not to dwell on it yet. “You still never learned how to make a move,” she breaths the words out quietly, watching with wide eyes to see if that had been an okay thing to do or if she’s ruined everything.

ANDY

Andy’s called plenty of girls pet names -- Baby, honey, sweetie, whatever would get them to lean in closer and eventually go home with him at the end of the night. It’s never meant anything to him, but with Rowan, he finds himself more aware of the things he says and does. First because of the contract, and eventually from the crush he formed -- She’s not some girl at the other end of the bar, who stayed after a show just to try and fuck a band member. But this is different, everything with Rowan is different. She’s someone he wants to come home to, wants to fall asleep talking on the phone with her -- He wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s in love with her, but the terrifying and exciting part of it, is that he could. It scares him to think that he could see something past contracts and staged paparazzi photos, that he could see them five years from now. The feeling creates knots in his stomach, a shiver down his spine -- Part of him wanting to pull her in and the other wanting to dive roll out of the car.

What happens next throws him for a loop, having expected for them to have another almost moment -- Something like the boutique dressing room, where they’re a little too close for a little too long, hands lingering and words meaning more than they did before. They’re in a strange limbo, one he didn’t see coming back in March. Rowan Fisher was the last person he ever imagined himself yearning for, yet here they were -- He’d spent the entire night listing all of the things he’d come to love about her to her mother, practically creating a neon sign that says I’m into you. And yet, he hadn’t expected her to kiss him. There’s an initial shock that follows, having him frozen in place for a second before he’s leaning into it. This isn’t new -- They’ve become masters of PDA, never sparing a moment to be disgustingly in love for the cameras. He knows this isn’t anything like that, this is… genuine. There’s no cameras following them, no quotes or obligations to meet -- Just Andy and Rowan. His hands slip around her waist with ease, inching them closer. He’s not sure what’s about to happen, or if she somehow feels obligated -- But he wants to enjoy this, to let himself be present in this, rather than drown in whatever scenarios and narratives he’s created in his head. Andy wants nothing more than for this to be real, to let himself believe that Rowan isn’t just caught up in the moment and actually wants someone like him.

As she pulls away he finds himself leaning forward, hating that this was already over. You still never learned how to make a move. He words pull a laugh from him, a callback to the last time they found themselves in this position -- Or, almost, before getting interrupted. It’s all the encouragement he needs, the words pushing away the doubts that constantly plague him. “I’m startin’ to take the hint.” His tone is hushed, eyes never leaving hers. It’s hard not to let his emotions take over, to breathe her in and never want to let go. Andy can’t recall the last time there was anything real behind a make out, a hook up, anything in between -- It’s always nameless strangers and bar bathrooms. He doesn’t want this feeling to ever leave him. A hand moves to cup her cheek, the other remaining around her waist to keep her close. “Now might be a good time.” There’s a light laugh with his words, his thumb moving along her bottom lip. It’s strange to deal with the fact that he’s finding himself wanting nothing less than actual romance with her -- Not the bottled version that they display in magazines, but this, tucked away from the rest of the world. Just the two of them. Taking advantage of what little space is left between them, he leans forward to kiss her again, trying to commit this moment to memory

ROWAN

Honestly, it doesn’t even occur to her that this could be anything but genuine. She doesn’t contemplate any ulterior motives or feelings of obligation, though those will surely come after all of this is said and done --- because all she can focus on is the fact that it feels like lightning is running through her body when he pulls her closer, and when he leans in to kiss her again she sees fireworks so bright that she can’t even fathom the idea that he doesn’t see them, too. “Now’s a great time,” the words come out with a laugh, muffled slightly against Andy’s lips. Though it isn’t a secret that Rowan so often falls fast and hard, she can’t help the thought that Andy is different from popping into her head. She knows that it’s a cliche and one likely to end in her heartbreak (she can hear a cynical voice in her head, one that sounds like Reina, asking aren’t they always different) but she can’t help herself. There’s something so magnetic about him, pulling her closer even if she wants to pull away; something so special so can’t even string together words to describe it.

The next few minutes are a blur of roaming hands and rushed kisses, each seemingly deeper than the last, the hesitance and uncertainty seeming to disappear as the seconds tick by. There are a lot of things about this scenario Rowan still isn’t sure about — she isn’t sure this publicity stunt is going to have the long term effect they want, isn’t sure she’ll be able to keep it up forever, isn’t sure if it’s even a stunt at all anymore — but what she is sure of is this moment, and that she wants to be with him — at least for tonight. This isn’t something Rowan wants to brush under the rug; she doesn’t want it to be a one off and to end up as just another name on his list of conquests but it’s hard to think about those things in the moment, instead swept up on how easy it is to just melt into him.

There’s a buzz in her chest that comes with this, a high she wants to keep chasing and reveling in for as long as he’s willing to let her. Reluctantly, she pulls away again — though stays close enough that her lips still brush against his when she talks, something that doesn’t take much considering she’s practically ended up in his lap somehow. They’re stalled at a red light, not far from her apartment and Rowan is reminded of the fact that this could be coming to a close, a sense of disappointment bubbling in her stomach. Her hands move to push his hair back, breathing deep to catch her breath. “You gonna walk me up to my door when we get there?” She asks, coy grin pulling up on her lips, the true question behind her words coming out loud and clear, “or do I have to drop hints for another few months to get to that point?”

ANDY

The best and worst thing about Rowan Fisher is the way she was able to pull Andy in with quite literally anything she did. She entered a room, and his eyes were on her; She kissed him, and he’d forgotten about the rest of the night entirely. Thoughts of her parents, their dinner, the screaming match that ensued — All gone, leaving him only able to focus on the feeling of his arm around her, the other threatening to tangle in her hair. With a light laugh against her lips, he speaks, but carefully remains close enough that his lips brush against hers as he does. “I think that’s a good idea.” He settles with, part of him beginning to wonder if he’s dreaming; That once the town car comes to a halt at the end of her driveway, he’s going to wake up alone in his bed and remind himself there’s no way Rowan would hold any interest in a guy like him. There’s no denying he wants her in every capacity — Whether it’s a make out in the back of the car, or sitting in a diner booth with an arm around her. Though, if tonight is any indicator, he’d prefer the former. There’s a voice in the back of his mind that reminds him that come morning, she’ll be over this now that she’s gotten it out of her system, or Rowan will be left with nothing short of regret and shame. If anyone could see this, hear his thoughts — They’d smack him upside the head and tell him he’s being an idiot. If she didn’t want to kiss him, especially like this, she wouldn’t. They knew the boundaries of their contract, and while it included PDA — It all paled in comparison to this.

There’s a wave of different emotions running through him, but Andy chooses to follow the one telling him not to pull away from her. Their kisses are rushed and needy, from two people who clearly have wanted this for longer than they care to admit. Her hand in his hair as him practically in a trance, eyes half open and lips parted as she speaks. “What kinda guy would I be if I didn’t?” He replies, unable to resist the urge to pull her in for another kiss as soon as the words pass his lips. About a month and a half ago, once he’d found himself developing feelings for her (even if he wouldn’t admit it), walking Rowan to her door had become part of their nightly routine — Just to end with his phone ringing by the time he’s back in the car, Rowan’s name popping up on the screen, eager to begin their nightly ritual. “Believe me, I hear ya loud and clear, baby.”

#v: nashville.#nash: andy.

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theliberaltony · 4 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to a special, post-debate edition of FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Just seven candidates made the debate stage on Thursday, which means with just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the field is slowly winnowing. And this has left us with a lot of questions — even if Thursday’s debate didn’t move the needle that much. For instance, is it really just a four-candidate race between Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg? Or did someone like Klobuchar have a break out performance?

What surprised you the most?

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): I guess in terms of surprises, it’s that Biden and Sanders didn’t really take much heat in the debate. They had one head-to-head encounter over health care that was notable, with Sanders defending Medicare for All and Biden attacking it for costing too much, but many of the other candidates spent all their time targeting Buttigieg instead.

Buttigieg is narrowly ahead in Iowa, so that probably influenced Klobuchar and Warren’s attempts to go after him. But it’s somewhat remarkable to see the guys with the top polling numbers nationally mostly avoid criticism from other candidates on the stage.

seth.masket (Seth Masket, political science professor at the University of Denver and FiveThirtyEight contributor): What surprised me the most was how different a 7-person stage is from a 10-person stage. The conversations were substantive and useful. I regretted the loss of some earlier voices, but the dialogue last night was impressive overall, as were the criticisms.

geoffrey.skelley: I’ll second that, Seth. It was a richer debate because we heard more from every candidate on stage.

geoffrey.skelley: Considering Iowa is the alpha and omega of Klobuchar’s campaign, her going after Buttigieg as intensely as she did definitely made sense. Warren needs Iowa and New Hampshire, too, so her hits on Buttigieg weren’t a surprise, either, but I am really surprised Biden or Sanders weren’t attacked more.

julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): I’m struggling to come up with a surprise. Maybe I was perhaps a bit surprised that the moderators mentioned race in the primary as directly as they did, but I also found the difference between the first half and the second a bit jarring. It was pretty collegial until it wasn’t.

Who struggled?

julia_azari: I forgot Biden was there for a while, and Warren’s decision to go after Buttigieg might very well backfire. I do think his criticisms of her wealth and campaign finance decisions illustrated some of the challenges of making populist appeals, though, and that could cut against what seems to be the main justification for her candidacy — her credibility and authenticity on economic issues.

seth.masket: I don’t think Buttigieg had a bad night, necessarily, but he did take a lot of heat. He largely had good retorts, I thought, but his surge may have already run its course and he clearly has some vulnerabilities.

geoffrey.skelley: The main question I have about Buttigieg is how the attacks will be received. And I just don’t know — we’ve seen attacks on Biden work to some extent (Kamala Harris) but also fail (Julián Castro).

sarahf: Yeah, I’m not sure what people will make of Buttigieg’s performance. He got high marks, for instance, after the last debate in our poll with Ipsos, but I wonder if he’ll get high marks this time around. Parrying attacks can be a tricky business, because as Geoff pointed out, it’s not always clear how they’ll land. I think all the #winecave business, regarding Buttigieg’s boozy and expensive fundraiser could backfire, for instance.

geoffrey.skelley: I’ve heard it’s trending on Twitter!

sarahf:

julia_azari: Yeah, political science twitter has been pretty vicious about Buttigieg. But I think it’s likely that he’ll benefit from having been attacked, at least in the media reports if not directly in polls.

Who had a good night?

seth.masket: Biden was good! He acted like a front-runner, mainly sticking to his strengths and areas of comfort, and I think he prioritized not screwing up over making big gains. His answer to the question about working with Republicans was very strong, especially given the impeachment events of this week.

julia_azari: Every time there’s a debate I feel like there’s wide consensus that Klobuchar had a good night, and maybe also that Yang had sort of a good night, so I guess I’m of that mind again.

seth.masket: Klobuchar definitely had some very well-executed moments. Her praise of colleagues’ lawmaking work on congressional committees was a backhanded way of criticizing Buttigieg’s relative inexperience, and it was some high-level shade.

sarahf: I’m curious if any of this will move the needle in the polls, though. To Julia’s point we seem to keep having this conversation around Klobuchar (and Booker when he was on the stage) about her having a strong debate performance — and Klobuchar has gotten relatively high marks in our polling with Ipsos, it has just never seemed to translate to a bump for her nationally. It’s hard for me to imagine it’s any different this time, especially given Biden had such a strong night.

geoffrey.skelley: If I had to pick the best nights on pure performance, I would go with Klobuchar and Sanders. I thought Klobuchar was strong on substance but also made a solid electability case by comparing her track record of winning statewide in Minnesota with Buttigieg’s lack of statewide electoral success: “If you had won in Indiana, that would be one thing. You tried, and you lost by 20 points.”

And Sanders also seemed really at ease, even more so than usual. He was passionate, of course, but also was quick on his feet. While most people may remember Buttigieg and Warren battling it out over #winecave, Sanders inserted himself into the fray by saying that Biden and Buttigieg were in a competition to see who could get the most billionaire donors, and that Buttigieg may be trailing Biden 44 billionaires to 39, but that Buttigieg is “an energetic guy, and a competitive guy” who could “take on Joe on that issue.” It was an attack punctuated with some humor, too.

Did you learn anything new?

seth.masket: Sanders is white?

geoffrey.skelley: South Bend has a river running through it?

seth.masket: But to be serious for a moment, on the identity claims, I was somewhat surprised to see Sanders say he was Jewish, as he hasn’t talked much about being a Jewish American, and Buttigieg to describe himself as a “gay dude in Mike Pence’s Indiana.” Political types know these things, but are they generally known in the population? I’m not sure.

sarahf: Hearing candidates stake out positions on USMCA, the new trade agreement among the U.S., Canada and Mexico that passed the House earlier this week in a bipartisan vote, was notable. It gave me a new lens to think through how some of the candidates would approach bipartisan legislation. Sanders was adamantly against it, arguing that he wouldn’t vote in favor of it because it wouldn’t prevent “outsourcing” or do enough to protect workers, while Klobuchar was in favor of the deal.

julia_azari: I mean, is it remarkable that there was an impeachment vote yesterday and it affected the debate … not at all?

geoffrey.skelley: I guess that speaks to how partisan the impeachment has been. Everyone on stage favored impeaching the president, so it wasn’t really an area to find notable disagreements. If Gabbard had made the stage, though, her “present” vote on both articles might have been fodder for debate.

seth.masket:I wonder if anyone will ask the candidates, “What if your opponent isn’t Donald Trump?” I mean, the odds of that happening are pretty low, but maybe it’s worth discussing?

How did the moderators do?

julia_azari: I thought they were pretty substantive at times, but the race question (why is there only one candidate of color on stage) addressed to Andrew Yang was a sour note, fulfilling stereotypes that non-white candidates bear the primary responsibility for addressing diversity issues.

seth.masket: Given the absence of several candidates of color, the moderators did a good job keeping the conversation focused on race within several issues. But yes, I agree with Julia.

geoffrey.skelley: From a substance standpoint, I thought they did well. There was more foreign policy in this debate — PBS gonna PBS — which is really something we should spend more time on given how much power presidents have in that arena. At the same time, it’s also

territory for many viewers.

julia_azari: They also asked about climate change relatively early on, which is an issue that has been absent from other debates and something that people have complained about.

geoffrey.skelley: That question at the end about gifts and forgiveness was silly, though.

julia_azari: Oh yes. Agreed, Geoffrey. Those closing questions can be so silly.

seth.masket: Yeah, that was a dumb question at the end, but as Renee Ann Cramer noted on Twitter, the answers were fascinating: Basically all the men wanted to gift their books and wisdom, while the women asked forgiveness.

Does the debate change anything in the horse race?

seth.masket: If Buttigieg has peaked (I think the polling trend is hard to discern at this point), I could imagine a Klobuchar surge. But as you all noted earlier, that hasn’t happened yet.

geoffrey.skelley: Depending on how those attacks against Buttigieg land, maybe this debate moves the needle in Iowa.

Remember that plenty of voters still haven’t made up their minds. A national CNN poll released on Thursday found that just 39 percent of Democrats had “definitely” decided on who they’re supporting. And as we get closer to the actual contests, more people will be paying attention, including last night — people could have been tuning in for the very first time. However, I expect the debate in January, when Iowa is right around the corner, will matter more in shifting opinions than last night’s.

julia_azari: The debate might refocus coverage on Buttigieg and give rise to some specific Buttigieg vs. Klobuchar moments or Buttigieg vs. Warren exchanges, which I think opens up a different vein than the Warren/Bernie vs. Biden thing that’s sort of defined the field thus far.

Biden’s closing statement was telling in that he said that everyone on the stage had “big progressive plans.” It seemed to me in this debate that the overall tone of the conversation had shifted left. Some candidates are still making the case for more moderate positions, but I think it’s clear that the left has set the terms of debate.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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badacts · 7 years

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i have a prompt if that's okay? neil being pissed w/ his tongue untied + "Out of all the people, why the hell would you think Andrew and I would be violent towards each other?"

[exception]

It starts with a bruise.

To be precise, it starts with a hickey - one too high on Neil’s throat to be hidden by his shirt.

He’s a marked man, but the kind of marks Andrew leaves on him are different. They’re the sort he doesn’t have to look away from in the mirror, the kind he can press his fingers to and feel the ache without attendant memories of real and frightening pain. They’re reminders of pleasure, pure, not quite simple but as close as the two of them ever get.

They’re past the point of avoiding them, these days. They’ve evolved a little past careful discussion, too - Neil can say, yeah, like that, I want it, I want you, and have it mean yes, I consent. And Andrew can trust that.

Careful isn’t something they’ll ever grow out of entirely, but there’s room there to stretch.

The Foxes live in close quarters, so it’s tricky to hide everything - kiss-swollen mouths, delicately discoloured finger-and-thumb marks on hips, traceries of scratches nowhere near deep enough to draw blood on backs, and the aforementioned hickeys. Neil tries - he’s a long, long way from shameless - but he also doesn’t want to put them on the same level as the scars he hid to stay alive for all those years.

Neil unbruised is a rarity, anyway. He plays hard on the court, in games and in practice, and Exy isn’t the kind of sport where you can walk away without a mark. He also has Andrew intent on teaching him a few more methods of protecting himself, with rare and precious determination. Neil repays that in spades, but there are consequences.

Andrew looks at him after one bout, Neil panting and sporting forearms that will look faintly blue and green tomorrow, and says, “I thought you were a faster learner than this.”

“No you didn’t,” Neil tells him. “I’m trying.”

“Try harder,” Andrew recommends. It’s not until later that Neil notices how he avoids those marks on his arms, and resolves to improve.

Neil doesn’t think much of it, other than that. It’s not until he sticks his head into Aaron, Matt and Nicky’s room to ask if Matt has seen his spare pair of gloves that it even occurs to him that someone else might.

The three boys are sprawled across the furniture. Neil feels a tiny burst of affection at the sight of them so relaxed together. It fades when Nicky cranes to see if there’s anyone standing behind Neil, and says, “Are you by yourself? Get in here.”

Neil steps inside the door and closes it behind himself without a question, puzzled but not suspicious. Andrew and Kevin are waiting in the car for him to locate his missing gear, Kevin probably still huffing about being ‘late’ while Andrew smokes and ignores him.

Matt and Nicky both shift in their seats, exchanging a quick look. Aaron is the only one who doesn’t move, his focus on the muted television still.

“Hey,” Nicky starts, brow furrowed. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” Neil says automatically, and then, “With what?”

Nicky opens his mouth, but it’s Matt who says, “With Andrew.”

“It’s fine?” It comes out like a question, but mostly because Neil is now openly confused. He clears his throat. “It’s fine. Good.”

He and Matt have had this conversation before, but it wasn’t like this - they’d both been drinking, and talking under the cover of blaring music. Then, Matt had looked amused. Right now, he looks deadly serious, in a way that he rarely does.

Nicky, meanwhile, looks nervous. He does when discussing Andrew even now, but Neil supposes he has a reason to. He knows Andrew cares about Nicky, but he’s not kind with it. Nicky is the sort to flourish with kindness and wilt with cruelty - that’s why it’s impressive that he stuck out the twins as teenagers. It’s also one of the reasons Neil likes him: his devotion to draw blood out of stones.

Right now, he wonders if he’s the stone. Especially when Nicky says, “Are you sure?”

Neil frowns. “Why?”

“Because - because of that,” Nicky says, pointing. Neil reaches a hand to his own throat, and then remembers there’s the edge of a mark there, purple and indistinct. Nearly covered, but not quite. He feels his ears heat with a blush.

“What about it?”

“You’ve had a lot of them recently,” Nicky says. “Bruises. Everywhere. Sorry, but it’s kind of hard not to notice. I thought I got used to them back in your first year, but apparently not so much.”

“I always have bruises,” Neil points out stupidly. Both Nicky and Matt are staring at him like they’re waiting for him to get it. That’s not particularly unusual, but it’s generally a source of amusement for the other Foxes. Right now, they’re the furtherest thing from amused.

“They think my brother is beating the shit out of you,” Aaron says, bored, and Neil could swear the floor tilts under his feet.

He thinks about his father backhanding his mother, bloodying her mouth - Mary Hatford, a queen in her own right, brought low by the Butcher’s hideous temper and utter disregard for her. They are nothing like that, nothing, but the implication turns his stomach anyway.

“Why the hell would you think Andrew and I would be violent towards each other?” he demands. “Don’t you think we’ve both had enough of that?”

Their faces say it’s not Andrew we’re worried about. And Neil has known for a long time what the Foxes think of Andrew, what they’re willing to believe about him, but he never really thought he’d hear it like this.

He waits for one of them to say oh no, you don’t understand, and then explain themselves. None of them do.

And just like that, the taste of bile in his mouth turns coppery. “He wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Do you think no one ever says that and believes it,” says Aaron coolly, without looking up, “Even when it’s not true? People justify getting hurt all the time, if they love the person enough.”

“You would know.” The words come out sharp as the report of a firing gun, rat-tat-tat. Aaron Minyard loved his mother. Neil doesn’t understand why he’s here, saying something that doesn’t apply at all to Andrew and Neil.

He finally turns to glance at Neil. He looks for an instant like his brother, flat-eyed and bored. It’s an affectation in a way that Andrew’s expression isn’t, blankness pasted on over his reaction. He says, “You’re right.”

“We’re just worried about you,” Matt cuts in. He sounds calm, a furrow between his eyebrows as he watches Neil. “Both of you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Neil says, staccato. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong, and you need to stop.”

“Okay, alright,” Nicky says, placating, his hands up. “We’re just making sure. It’s our job to worry about you, right? We’re family.”

Neil considers saying I asked for them. Then he remembers his mother saying don’t make him angry and thinks it might sound like someone saying it’s my fault. Maybe he shouldn’t feel like this when they’re just trying to protect him - even Aaron, in his sour way - but he doesn’t owe them all of his and Andrew’s secrets.

He can’t tell from their faces whether or not they believe him. That makes it worse.

“I’m guessing you haven’t bought this up with Andrew,” Neil says. His voice has taken on a lilt, almost teasing. It sounds familiar, but he can’t place it. “I suppose you thought he didn’t need the same warning as I do.”

“No,” Nicky says. “No, we-”

“Don’t,” Neil says. “You won’t like it if you do.”

It comes out pretty, like a joke, said on a huff of a laugh. Amusement, or a seeming of it, shown as a lie only by the words themselves and whatever expression is in his eyes over the smirk.

It comes out like it would from his father’s mouth. That’s why it’s familiar. Wesninskis are at their most dangerous when they smile.

He doesn’t slam the door behind him when he leaves. Andrew is waiting in the hall, leaning against the far wall in a slouch which everyone mistakes for insolent.

Neil walks straight past him down the hall. Andrew catches up in time to get into the same elevator car, and they ride down in silence.

Kevin is waiting in the passenger seat of the Maserati, and he scowls at Neil when they approach. “What the hell took you so-”

The crash of Neil’s door slamming closed cuts him off completely. Kevin jerks, and then for an extended moment they sit in total silence.

Andrew, who has his door open but hasn’t got into the car yet, leans down to look between the front seats at Neil. After a moment where Neil won’t look back at him, he says, “Kevin. Practice tonight is cancelled. Go away.”

Kevin starts to protest, turns to look at Neil, and then stops. Being readable to Kevin is a good reason to get control of himself, but right now Neil doesn’t care to. When he makes to undo his seatbelt again, Andrew says, “Not you.”

Kevin gets out of the car. Andrew gets into it and starts the engine, pulling out of the parking lot. He turns off campus and onto the backroads around Palmetto, a roundabout route towards the highway where there are no cops to see his flagrant breaking of the speed limit.

He heard. There’s no way he wouldn’t have, to have sent Kevin away. Neil curls his fingers into fists and waits in the thrumming silence for him to say something.

Eventually, he says, “Do you think I don’t know what they think of me?”

“No,” Neil replies. Monster. The upperclassmen still call him that, and it’s more than a habit. They mean it. Neil doesn’t often correct them, but now he doesn’t think he can hear that word again without breaking something.

“Then you know it’s a waste of time to get angry over it.” Andrew sounds careless, not resigned. That’s because he doesn’t care. Neil isn’t the same - he’s boiling inside, pressure behind his eyes and in his chest like his rage might blind and choke him with its power.

“When they accuse you of hurting me, I’ll get as angry as I fucking like,” he snarls back. He’s sick and tired of resignation, and he’s never been capable of carelessness.

“They think I’ll hurt anyone,” Andrew replies. “Did you think that you would be an exception to that belief?”

“I am an exception.”

It’s true. In every way, he’s an exception to Andrew’s rules - except for the ways where he’s only really an exception in terms of the people in Andrew’s life. Andrew edges him a look in the rearview mirror, the blue glow from the dashboard barely illuminating the impatient set of his jaw.

Neil told him once that he’d fight for him. He meant it. Whether or not Andrew thinks it’s necessary, he will, because he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t.

Andrew doesn’t disagree with him, which is as good as an agreement. Instead, he pulls over onto the side of the road in a spray of gravel, without indicating. There’s no one else out here, but Neil learned to drive according to the actual laws - mostly to avoid suspicion, but still - and winces anyway.

When they come to a stop in a billowing cloud of silver-lit dust, Andrew says, “I am not your chauffeur.”

Rolling his eyes, Neil climbs out of the back and into the front seat. “Happy now?”

“I have no interest in talking you down from a temper tantrum,” Andrew replies, even though that isn’t an answer, and isn’t even true. As always, he’s here. As always, that alone is enough.

“That works, because I’m not interested in being talked down,” Neil tells him. Him being there is enough, but his touch is what has Neil swallowing the last of the taste of blood in his mouth. When they kiss, it’s the same old thing he’d kill for.

#the foxhole court #andreil #discussion of domestic abuse #no actual abuse between the main characters #my fic #prompts #i hate to write bye #Anonymous #exception

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qcmallardshockey · 7 years

Text

Rush of goals in first period seals victory

MOLINE, IL -- A hattrick, a fight, and a changing of goalies were all part of the Quad City Mallards' return to home ice after 15 days. The Rapid City Rush came visiting on Saturday, bringing former Mallards Anthony Collins and Logan Nelson, as well as Adam Morrison. Morrison had participated in the Mallards' training camp last season before being cut due to the assignment of Steve Michalek and Brody Hoffman by the Iowa Wild.

Chris Francis opened the scoring just 74 seconds after the game began, slipping the puck past Austin Lotz with help from Kevin Gibson and Alex Gudbranson. Sam Warning scored his first goal of the night four minutes later, Grant Arnold and Justin Kovacs assisting. Arnold sent the puck to the net, Lotz mostly catching it. The puck slid out from between the body and elbow of Lotz, trickling towards the goal line. Lotz attempted to cover the puck with his glove, but the diving Warning poked the puck into the twine.

Nolan LaPorte extended the Mallards' lead to 3-0 later in the first frame, Francis and Michael Parks getting the assists. Just over a minute later Warning scored again, sending the puck in off a backhand shot from the left of Lotz' infront of the crease. Andrew Panzarella and Kovacs made their ways onto the scoresheet with the apples on that tally, helping to chase Lotz from the net. Morrison replaced the angry goalie, who threw his stick in the player tunnel after leaving the ice. Warning completed his hattrick two minutes later with help from Arnold and Panzarella.

A minute after the Mallards' fifth goal, Jack Nevins and Collins dropped the gloves in the visitors' defensive zone. Collins appeared to throw more punches than Nevins, but fewer of his swings landed; both combatants seemed equal in the bout. As the two skated to their respective lockerrooms due to the time of the fight, the hats finally rained down for Warning's achievement.

The middle frame was actionless save for Nevins' and Riley Weselowski's matching roughing penalties and the so-called fight between Gibson and Mark Cooper. Cooper checked Gibson hard into a corner, and Gibson didn't like that. He tried fighting, but was unable to land a blow before being taken down to the ice.

C.J. Motte's shutout was ruined 36 seconds into the final frame by Terrence Wallin. The Mallards' defense appeared to breakdown, allowing Hunter Fejes and Aleksander Mikalovich to assist on the goal. Panzarella earned a double minor for high-sticking at nine minutes and 56 seconds of the third. With 16 seconds remaining on the power-play, Tristan Grant scored off a face-off; Brayden Lowe got the only apple on that tally.

Lindsay Sparks drew the visitors to within two goals at the 16 minutes and 37 seconds mark, but three goals was all his team would get. Weselowski and Ryan Walters assisted Sparks' goal.

Alexander Kuqali made his Mallards debut after being acquired from the Florida Everblades on Tuesday.

The Mallards face the Kalamazoo Wings at home on Friday February 10 at 7 CST.

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1inawesomewonder · 4 years

Text

From Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, St. Anselm College, Goffstown, NH – December 23, 2019

Monday night the Grizzlies hosted an always well coached team from Lebanon in their fourth and final game before Christmas. Goffstown exploded for 4 goals on their first 8 shots of the game and skated to a 7-3 win to improve their record to 4-0 so far this season.

It’s not uncommon to have the first attempt or two at a December game with Lebanon to be postponed due to weather between here and the Upper Valley. On Monday though, the weather could not have been much more beautiful for a 23rd day of December, with sun, blue sky, and temperatures in the 50’s. It was warm outside for this time of the year.

Photo by Charron

Goffstown started the game like they were warm and ready to go. Actually, they started like they were more like red hot and ready to go. By the time 10:21 of game time had run off of the clock the Grizzlies were up 4-0 and were shooting at an astounding 50% clip with four goals on eight shots. Lebanon took their timeout in the opening period and made a change in net.

The first period ended up being even in shots at 8-8. Goffstown just did a great job of creating golden chances to score and then converted on them. Before we get to that though, Madeline Sage made a real nice right pad save for the Grizzlies at 4:31 of the period to keep the game scoreless. Then Goffstown hit on one chance after another for about four straight minutes. First, Grady Chretien scored on a great feed from Theo Milianes at 6:07. At 8:07 Calvin Sage made a series of moves to get in tight before setting up Luke Ouellette for a sweet goal. It’s fun to watch plays that end up with the puck in the back of the net especially when there is maximum effort mixed with skills and patience to make the right play. Then at 8:33 Milianes took his turn scoring after Chretien and Colby Gamache moved the puck beautifully to set him up.

Photo by Charron

Then Chretien struck again from Gamache at 10:21 and it was 4-0 Grizzlies. The period would end with score at 4-0. Goffstown started mixing in deeper line changes and the next two periods would be played in a much different manner. The rest of the game would be even on the scoreboard at, 3-3.

It was pretty clear that Lebanon was a different team after the first 10 minutes of the game, and that wasn’t Toby Cromwell’s fault. He was the goalie pulled in the first period. He may want some of those shots back but Goffstown had point blank chances to score on all of them. Either way, the Raiders skated with much more conviction in periods two and three. Hunter Robb played net in relief for Lebanon, but Sage showed she was on her game when she made a tremendous save on Jon Cloud’s breakaway at 0:39 of the period.

Photo by Charron

Grady Chretien scored his third goal of the night at 2:31 on a play set up by Gamache and Brennan Pierce. Jack Wilkinson was whistled for interference at 3:18, giving the Raiders a power play chance.Then Eric Purcell came within a whisker of being ejected when he was called for a major penalty on a check from behind. This gave the Raiders a 5-on-3 power play opportunity and they cashed in right away. Jon Cloud who was not only the Raiders best player by far, he was fun to watch. He is a threat from anywhere on the ice with his speed, reach, and ability to get to the net. He scored on the power play from Griffin Auch to make the score 5-1 at 4:09. Goffstown killed the remaining time on the major penalty but the shots added up as a result. There was no more scoring in the period, but Lebanon had a 13-8 advantage in shots for the period. Maddie Sage made saves when she had to and kept Goffstown in firm control.

Cloud was flying again in the third period. He made a brilliant move to create a great scoring chance early in the final period, but Maddie Sage made the save at 0:40 of the period. Lebanon would end up winning the shots battle in the 3rd period too, 10-6. Despite that fact, Jackson Burke made his shot count when he cranked in a goal ‘bar-down’ on a set up from Eric DesRuisseaux at 5:09. Then Goffstown got a gorgeous goal, from Grady Chretien on a sensational backhand from the slot at 5:56. The goal was his fourth of the night, and was assisted by Jake Klardie and DesRuisseaux.

Photo by Charron

Lebanon’s Jon Cloud went on the equivalent of a 40-yard sprint and snagged his second goal of the evening at 6:23, from Andrew Duany. Cloud struck again at 8:38 for a hat trick of his own, with the lone assist going to Jake Kriplin. The Raiders took a pair of minor penalties in the last two and a half minutes but nothing came of it.

Chretien had a night that made up for all of the times that Ben Hardy robbed him a week ago against Merrimack. Maddie Sage played well in net for the Grizzlies and despite three goals from Cloud, two of them were scored when he was completely alone in on net after beating everyone on defense.

The Grizzlies will be playing hockey at JFK Coliseum in Manchester on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the Brian C. Stone Memorial Christmas Hockey Tournament. While Lebanon will play in the Hartford High’s Phil Bouthillier Holiday Classic in Hartford, Vermont.

Photo by Charron

With Christmas vacations in full-swing, there weren’t many games on the slate for hockey in NH Monday night.

In Division II, St. Thomas rebounded from their loss to Oyster River with a 6-1 win against Spaulding.

NHIAA Hockey:

Updated records.

Goffstown (4-0-0) vs. Lebanon-Stevens-Mt Royal (1-2-0)

Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, St. Anselm College, Goffstown, NH

Monday, December 23, 2019. 7:30 PM Start:

Photo by Charron

Summary:

Goals:

Goffstown: 4-1-2 = 7

Lebanon: 0-1-2 = 3

Shots:

Goffstown: 08-08-06 = 22 Lebanon: 08-13-10 = 31

Scoring:

1st Goffstown at 6:07. Even. Grady Chretien (3) from Theo Milianes (3).

1st Goffstown at 8:07. Even. Luke Ouellette (1) from Calvin Sage (1).

1st Goffstown at 8:33. Even. Theo Milianes (1) from Grady Chretien (2) and Colby Gamache (3).

1st Goffstown at 10:21. Even. Grady Chretien (4) from Colby Gamache (4).

2nd Goffstown at 2:31. Even. Grady Chretien (5) from Colby Gamache (5) and Brennan Pierce (1).

2nd Lebanon at 4:09. PPG. Jon Cloud from Griffin Auch.

Photo by Charron

3rd Goffstown at 5:09. Even. Jackson Burke (2) from Eric DesRuisseaux (4).

3rd Goffstown at 5:56. Even. Grady Chretien (6) from Jake Klardie (1) and Eric DesRuisseaux (5).

3rd Lebanon at 6:23. Even. Jon Cloud from Andrew Duany.

3rd Lebanon at 8:38. Even. Jon Cloud from Jake Kriplin.

Special Teams:

Goffstown Power Play: 0 for 2. Lebanon Power Play: 1 for 2.

Saves:

Goffstown: Madeline Sage 28 of 31. (45:00)

Lebanon: Toby Cromwell 4 of 8 (10:21)

Lebanon: Hunter Robb 11 of 14 (34:39)

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The beginning of every article. (C) 1inawesomewonder 2017.

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors, mostly mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the schools, coaches, players, or characters listed in any of these blog posts. Or, maybe they do, but you would have to ask them directly. Either way, “It’s a great day for hockey” ~ the late “Badger” Bob Johnson.

Hockey: Goffstown 7 vs. Lebanon-Stevens-Mount Royal 3 From Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, St. Anselm College, Goffstown, NH - December 23, 2019 Monday night the Grizzlies hosted an always well coached team from Lebanon in their fourth and final game before Christmas.

#@1inawesomewondr #Goffstown Hockey #Lebanon hockey #NHIAA Hockey

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junker-town · 6 years

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Every team in the MLB postseason, ranked

Let’s take stock of the rooting situation before the Wild Card games.

After a wild final weekend for the National League in which the spoilers failed to do their jobs at all, resulting in two Game 163s that were also exciting, all of the 2018 postseason teams are finally locked in. That took long enough. RIP Cardinals.

So now that we not only know which teams are in the playoffs but their opening round positions as well, we’re going to rank each team for a fun yet completely arbitrary list of who to root for this postseason.

We already covered a ranking of every possible World Series matchup elsewhere on this fun site, so this isn’t dependent on who the teams are playing in any given round. This is just based on the levels of fun and rootability of each team, with points removed for any racist logos or alleged domestic abusers they might have hanging around. Every round, I’ll update these rankings based on the events of the previous round.

Feel free to yell at me about the rankings in the comments, but know in advance I won’t care and also probably won’t remember my ranking logic and reasoning by the time you get around to complaining. It’s the postseason, let’s have fun.

10. Cubs

The Cubs are ... sigh. They haven’t been especially fun this year, and that’s before the Addison Russell situation flared up again (which the team handled poorly) or they traded for Daniel Murphy (which the team also handled poorly). Cole Hamels is doing alright, so that’s fine. And, oh boy, is Javy Báez a lot of fun. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant remain their enjoyable Bryzzo selves even through slumps and injuries.

But other than that, the Cubs aren’t really a team you’re drawn to this postseason. Even some Cubs fans are having a bit of trouble supporting the team right now because of the aforementioned poorly handled player situations. They just won a World Series, so they’ll be fine without any extra fans on their side.

9. Indians

Besides José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor’s bats, one of which has been very sleepy heading into this postseason, the Indians don’t have a ton to latch on to this year. Gone is the team that rattled off an AL record of consecutive wins with a lineup to be feared.

Now they have Corey Kluber sans beard, Trevor Bauer rejoining the roster in time for the playoffs, and a racist logo they won’t drop and which some fans will still be wearing throughout their postseason run. All of that and every other team in the American League race is more fun by one metric or another. Just not a great year to latch on to Cleveland, there are better options.

8. Astros

One of those options is the Astros. They just won so there’s no desperation in their hunt, which is why they’re this low on the list, but they still have people like Jose Altuve, George Springer, and Alex Bregman being joyful on the field and in the dugout.

Yet where the “they could repeat as champs!” bonus should push them a little higher on this ranking, the “they traded for a domestic abuser at the deadline while he was still suspended by the league and court proceedings were ongoing, then pretended they still had a zero tolerance policy” thing cancels that bump out. At least watching Justin Verlander ruin batters’ lives throughout the postseason will still be fun, which is always an upside.

7. Brewers

The Brewers are ... fine. They’re fine! There’s nothing to really root against here other than Josh Hader succeeding in any way, shape, or form in October. Yet when you think about it there’s not really something to root for either besides Christian Yelich continuing to be a force to be reckoned with at the plate.

That Craig Counsell’s success with this Milwaukee team is a shock is a bit of a backhanded compliment but it also explains why they’re not the most enticing team to root for this year. Congrats to Jonathan Schoop for getting out of Baltimore? Mike Moustakas and Eric Thames still exist? Zach Davies still seems cool? Not much to work with. Sorry, Brew Crew.

6. Rockies

Rockies fans are going to be mad at me that they’re this low and that’s OK. But the Rockies end-of-season push can only place them so high in entertainment value and there’s no overarching story or theme that makes them more enticing to root for than the teams above them.

Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, CarGo, and German Márquez are all nice and fun and entertaining. Their pitching has mostly avoided the Coors Field Curse (hello, Kyle Freeland’s 2.85 ERA) and they’re more or less completely inoffensive as a team to get behind. They’re definitely the team most likely to move up these rankings as the postseason goes on though.

5. Yankees

A healthy Aaron Judge, pitching that runs very hot and very cold in the same game, 100 wins without winning the division, and the single-season home run record. The Yankees are good, and they are entertaining, but they are also the New York Yankees and if you are looking for a team to root for because you don’t have one I can’t in good conscience recommend them.

Yet, similar to last year, they’re a fun Yankees team. So I also can’t be mad if you decide you’d like to bandwagon them right now. You’d be wrong and unoriginal, but I’d at least understand. They’re most likely to launch up these rankings if it ends up being a Yankees-Cubs World Series or something. Oh god, can you even imagine?

4. Red Sox

The Red Sox are fun for the same reason the Yankees are (young stars, lots of dingers, facing their biggest rivals in the opening round) with the added bonus of being historically good. “They had to paint new number panels for the scoreboard” good is a type of good you don’t get to see that often.

They have two MVP candidates in Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale remains magical even in a slightly down year for the ace, and they have other young, entertaining guys like Rafael Devers, Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi, and Xander Bogaerts. But they are still the Red Sox and that’s understandably a tough pill to swallow for many people.

They also just won a World Series in 2013 (and two more before that, of course) so they wouldn’t come close to qualifying as an underdog even if they didn’t win 108 games. Boston is this year’s “wow are they fun to watch play baseball but no one wants them to actually win any games” team. Which is fair.

3. Dodgers

The Dodgers are this high by their sheer howdidtheyevengethere quality. If you put the Dodgers’ howdidtheyevengethere in a town’s water supply it would immediately qualify as unsafe levels for humans to consume. Their pitching situation alone should be classified as toxic waste.

For a team that barely made it to the postseason, they could also easily win the whole thing and avenge 2017’s seven game loss.

If they can get out of their own way of course. Which makes them way more interesting than many teams on this list. They are neither an underdog nor a steamroller, they are both. They are every possible outcome for a playoff team at any given time. They are so entertaining because they could swing between farcical and world beating within a two inning span.

2. A’s

The A’s have this weird thing going on where they are really fun as a team but when you break them into individual entities they’re not as purely awesome. Khris Davis won the home run title this year and is by all accounts very nice but could you identify one awesomely fun thing he did this season besides hit dingers?

Matt Olson and Matt Chapman are both defensive marvels and Olson can rake, but the most entertaining thing about the both of them is pointing at the screen and saying “that’s Chappie” when Chapman does something impressive. Jed Lowrie will always be Jed Lowrie, and we love him for it. But there’s also no one unsavory on this team and besides their ongoing ballpark situation ownership is doing a decent job of hiding all of the things that make people dislike baseball owners.

Their last World Series win was in 1989, long enough ago that it’s definitely a drought that we want them to end, and they’re gone through more than enough down seasons since then that the desire for them to win it all is boosted accordingly.

1. Braves

The Braves are at the opposite spectrum of the Cubs, and they’re here because in a lot of ways they are the opposite of this year’s Chicago squad. They haven’t won a World Series since 1995, which is long enough we can call it a drought and say it would be fun if they ended it, they’re ahead of schedule in their rebuild rather than battling a closing window so there’s not much downside if they don’t win it this year, and they’re fun.

They’re so much fun! Between Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuña, Jr., and Ozzie Albies, they have players that electrify games and force you to root for their happiness just through sheer charisma and talent. Thanks to the Phillies not living up to their rebuild promise this year and the Nationals being the Nationals, the Braves are in the postseason and poised to do something special thanks to a mix of talent and blind confidence.

If your team gets eliminated before the World Series and you’re looking for a group to invest in, you can’t do much worse than the Atlanta Braves. Bandwagon away. Just don’t look at the Tomahawk Chop and taxpayer money used to pay for their unnecessary new field behind the curtain.

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

Link

Support the Girls is a barely concealed double entendre of a title for a film set in an even less coy Hooters-style bar called Double Whammies. Every day, the waitresses — pretty girls in crop tops and cutoffs — serve beer and wings to the mostly male clientele, though Double Whammies insists it’s a family-friendly “mainstream” place.

“It’s like working at Chili’s or Applebees,” one of the veteran waitresses tells a new girl, “but the tips are way better.”

But Support the Girls is not at all the winkingly misogynist raunch-com for dudes that set-up might imply. Starting out as a workplace comedy featuring a sparkling female ensemble, the movie — set mostly over a single day — morphs into an affecting, startlingly insightful depiction of the bone-weary work of being a woman in a man’s world.

It’s a feminist movie, to be sure, but not a self-congratulatory one. It’s easy to imagine an optimistic, rah-rah girl-power version of Support the Girls, but this is decidedly not that. For a lot of women trying to just earn a living, Hollywood-style empowerment takes a back seat to staying employed and keeping everyone around them at work and at home happy, boyfriends and bosses alike.

The result is a film that rings bitingly true, but respects its audience enough to let them connect the dots themselves. It’s funny and smart, but never wields its insights like a badge of honor. If anything, it’s an apology to its own characters for what women like them encounter all the time — one that sometimes bares some wincingly sharp teeth.

Regina Hall turns out a terrific performance in Support the Girls. Magnolia Pictures

Support the Girls is the most mature film yet from Andrew Bujalski, who cut his teeth with “mumblecore” films — low-budget indies about young people in which plot takes a backseat to improvised dialogue — like Funny Ha Ha in 2002 and and Mutual Appreciation in 2005. His later films, like 2015’s Results, have headed in a more accessible direction, but a sensibility that emphasizes character and dialogue over plot has stuck around.

Accordingly, there’s not much of a plot to Support the Girls, though plenty happens. Most of the film stretches over one day and focuses on Tina (Regina Hall, in an outstanding performance), the longtime Double Whammies manager whose dependability extends far beyond the workplace.

Haley Lu Richardson and Regina Hall in Support the Girls. Magnolia Pictures

Tina is the backbone of Double Whammies, and also of Support the Girls. For many of the girls who work at the bar, Tina is an almost motherly figure: She listens to their problems, offers advice, gently keeps them in line, and ferociously throws men out of the restaurant who disrespect the women who work there. Her boss (James Le Gros) obviously doesn’t give her nearly enough credit.

And Tina’s day isn’t just filled with keeping customers happy. She has to call the cable company to fix the TV before the big fight is on that night. She needs to train new waitresses and warn friendly, bubbly Maci (Haley Lu Richardson) away from one customer. She haggles over schedules and looks after the son of a waitress, Danyelle (Shayna McHayle), whose child care plan falls through. She goes to see an apartment for her deeply depressed husband (Lawrence Varnado), from whom she’s separating. And along with the black staff, she tries to ignore their employer’s casual racism.

As the day wears on toward the big fight that evening — and the increased tips that will go along with it — the girls of Double Whammies navigate problems like Tina’s, hoping to get to the end of the day and making the best of whatever situations they’re handed. Good humor (or backhanded wit) keeps them chugging along; the customers expect it, after all. But everyone, eventually, has a breaking point.

Tina’s day is basically a living illustration of accruing a thousand mosquito bites: None of the small individual irritations will kill you, but the small indignities and problems quickly add up to become unbearable. The individual happenings aren’t as significant as the sense that Tina is being punished for the very qualities that make her a stellar friend and manager: her capability, her cheerfulness, her responsibility. She should be grateful, it’s implied, and she definitely should not complain when people take advantage of her.

And that mentality, Support the Girls suggests, is what keeps a place like Double Whammies (or the identical chain restaurant moving in nearby, called “Mancave”) in business. Each of the women have their own set of similar issues, and they’re all trying to cope in their own ways. The movie gives them moments to triumph — but the day will still, when it’s all over, end on a melancholy note.

Bujalski’s touch is light, and Hall’s deeply empathetic performance alongside secondary characters like Richardson’s and McHayle’s makes the whole thing feel authentic; you could almost believe you were watching a documentary in some spots.

When the TV is out, other forms of entertainment may have to do. Magnolia Pictures

But the issues that structure the film are serious. Support the Girls acknowledges that casual sexual harassment is, for many young women working for tips, just an accepted part of the job, something to be accepted. It shows how some workplaces and corporations pride themselves on “diversity” initiatives while actually just doing the bare minimum to escape scrutiny for racial discrimination.

Being a working single mother, paying for medical care without adequate insurance, encountering stereotypes about black women, catering to the whims of a clientele that likes to see you suffer a little — all of this comes into the film.

Yet that’s not really the movie’s point. This isn’t an exposé or a screed or even a socially conscious neorealist film. These are just the realities of the workplace, like lots of others, and they’re the film’s setup. The real story of Support the Girls is that, in the end, the only people the girls can depend on for support is themselves.

And so, in the end, they do. “Girl power” is too strong a word, but the movie is cathartic all the same. The ways they support one another have little to do with performative feminism and everything to do with love. If they’re not going to be respected by the people around them, at least, in the end, they can do that for one another.

Support the Girls opens in limited theaters on August 24.

Original Source -> Support the Girls, set in a Hooters-style bar, is an outstanding, quietly feminist comedy

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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pardontheglueman · 6 years

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Why Corbyn?

Over the next six weeks, as the general election draws ever closer, we can expect the Murdoch media empire to intensify its daily attacks on the Labour Leader. Those vicious attacks (Corbyn has been falsely vilified as a terrorist sympathiser, as someone who turned a blind eye to child abuse, and as a man who hates Britain), have been the order of the day, of course, since Corbyn was first elected to his post, and continued even after his re-election. Two landslide victories counted for nothing with his enemies, particularly those inside the Labour Party who, lest we forget, went to court to prevent Corbyn being able to stand in a contest for his own job! His unforgivable crime? He is a socialist leader (of a supposedly socialist party) who dares to posit old school socialist solutions to the inescapable crisis of neo-liberalism that threatens to drive western democracies into the arms of the racist right.

As someone who was never part of the Blair/Brown orthodoxy, the old Labour rebel has been on the wrong end of a scurrilous campaign to undermine him from the word go. Even past leaders of the party have seen Corbyn as fair game; who can forget the sickening sight of two-time General Election loser Lord Kinnock waving the party rule book about on The Andrew Marr Show, insisting that Corbyn had no automatic right to stand in the leadership re-run. One had to fear that the ex-left-wing firebrand was losing his grip on reality, a view that was reinforced by a cursory glance at a rule book which clearly states that an incumbent leader does not need to seek re-nomination! Either Lord Kinnock was in need of an urgent trip to Specsavers, or he was deliberately misquoting the Labour Party constitution. Of course, the courts ruled against Kinnock’s rambling “interpretation” of affairs. Furthermore, a ginger Welshman who fell, fully clothed, into the sea on his big press launch as leader having the gall to lecture Corbyn on electability is a classic case of terminal chutzpah!

Rumour has it that Lord Kinnock still waits for the phone to ring with an invitation to join Strictly, unable to accept, even after all these years, that this moment ended more than his just his chance of becoming Prime Minister. Still, at least the ‘Welsh Astaire’ has the consolation of his seat in the Lords! A terrific recognition of his quaint decision to hibernate throughout the Miners’ strike.

It is also impossible to erase from the memory banks the fulsome boast of the twice dismissed from office in disgrace Lord Mandelson (can you see a pattern of doing the establishment’s bidding emerging) ‘I am working every day to bring down Jeremy Corbyn’. A work ethic still shared by many of the 170 Labour MPs who launched a coup against Corbyn last summer, just as Labour had drawn level in the polls https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/new-yougov-poll-puts-labour-ahead/

This is an inconvenient truth that many (step forward the entire staff of The Guardian and The New Statesman and take a bow of betrayal) have tried to airbrush from history. Owen Smith, in his bizarrely incompetent leadership bid, consistently peddled the myth that as Labour was miles behind in the polls he had no option but to throw his hat into the ring of political opportunity. The context he always neglected to mention was, of course, that it was the stage managed coup that had brought about the collapse in the polls in the first place. The public doesn’t vote for a divided party, plain and simple. Ironically, many of the disloyal death eaters in the PLP (among them a great majority of Blair/Brown placemen and women from the good old day’s when constituencies weren’t allowed to choose their own MPs) are likely to lose their seats if the electoral bloodbath they’ve long predicted actually does come true.

Corbyn has a mountain to climb simply to prevent a Tory landslide and remains cursed by a parliamentary party still trying to push him over the cliff edge, even at this late stage. The day that May broke her word and called for an early election, more than one Labour MP called on Corbyn to resign.

Corbyn on Whitchurch Common

I was proud, though, to be among the 1,000 strong crowd who turned up at Whitchurch Common last Friday (who knows what the crowd size might have been if the Welsh Labour website had bothered to inform members he was in town). Proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with ex-classmates, ex-work colleagues, my 18 yr old daughter and her boyfriend, their school teachers, and the friends who stand on the terraces at Sardis Rd with me on a Saturday afternoon. A pretty fair cross-section of society, you might think, but apparently, we are all the brainwashed followers of JC (it must be the initials), who have been lured against our will into his fiendish personality cult (a strange occurrence, indeed, considering we are repeatedly told the bloke is utterly without charisma). Only Corbyn could be castigated for being deeply unpopular and deeply popular at one and the same time!

That’s the line, however, that some leading lights of the intelligentsia have been reduced to pushing in order to explain or denigrate the Corbyn phenomenon, and, at the same time, to discredit the dramatic surge in party membership (mostly made up of people inspired to join a political party for the very first time and those, like me, returning to embrace a Labour party we thought had been lost to us forever), that followed Corbyn’s sensational election triumph. Let’s remember, also, the response of the Blair/Brown cabal that still holds positions of great power in the party was to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of new members by artificially backdating the length of time they had to be a member in order to cast their vote. It was a dirty, deplorable anti-democratic trick which illustrated clearly the reactionary forces ranged against Corbyn. The truth is somewhat more straightforward - a great number of caring, compassionate people energised and enthused by a very basic concept - that the party is, at last, being led by a man who won’t sell out the labour movement for a seat in the House of Lords. It’s a fine thing, indeed, for a party to be led by an honest man, a leader who doesn’t want to slash the benefits of the disabled and the dying (May and Farron), who doesn’t reduce, like all penny ante patriots, political philosophy to a mere accident of birth (Wood, Nuttall and Sturgeon), and who won’t end his days as a pariah and a war criminal (Blair).

On that note, I watched George Galloway’s* The Killings of Tony Blair this morning, which covered Blair’s destruction of internal party democracy, his political corruption (Bernie Eccleston’s £1 million backhander to exclude Formula One from New Labour’s ban on tobacco advertising), the famously fraudulent dossier about weapons of mass destruction that conned the British people into initially supporting an illegal war that led to the rise of Islamic State, and the hundreds of millions in consultancy fees that Blair has trousered since leaving office by representing some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, such as Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Corbyn’s getting more appealing by the minute, isn’t he?

The Killings of Tony Blair

Corbyn’s Labour Party is often accused of lacking direction (partly true), and of allowing a policy vacuum to form at its heart (overegging it a bit). Labour’s 2017 manifesto will offer voters a real living wage; the nationalisation of the Railways; a massive programme of house building; a reversal of the privatisation of the NHS; genuine policies to tackle air pollution, climate change and tax evasion; a National Investment Bank and fair rent controls, just for starters. Focus groups continue to show these policies to be popular until they are pre-fixed with Corbyn’s name and then they are box-office poison!

It all comes back to the campaign of character assassination that the media and the PLP conspired to set in motion from the moment he assumed the position of Leader of the Opposition, with the sole aim of making him unelectable as P.M. It’s worth noting the despicable role of the BBC in that ongoing campaign and worth highlighting, in particular, the conduct of the station’s Chief political editor Laura Kuenssberg. Earlier this year the BBC Trust reprimanded their star reporter for a “failure of impartiality” in respect of an interview carried out with Corbyn in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks. The Trust’s investigation concluded "There was a significant difference between what Mr Corbyn said and what the report inferred. This led to a failure of due accuracy”. Giving viewers a false impression of Corbyn’s attitude to defending the country against terrorist attack should have led to Kuenssberg’s suspension from duty, pending further investigation into her “reporting”.

On the subject of the BBC, it’s worth commenting that Andrew Neil, a one-time henchman of Rupert Murdoch and sworn enemy of organised labour, still chairs seven political discussion programmes a week on the Beeb - The Daily Politics Monday through Friday, The Sunday Politics and This Weekon a Thursday night. Try imagining a scenario where Arthur Scargill hosts those programmes on behalf of the left!

Neil’s old chum Rupert has been right at the forefront of the campaign to destroy Corbyn. Two examples are particularly noteworthy. The first was a shameful attempt to suggest Corbyn was having a whale of a time dancing at a Remembrance Sunday service, an impression created by doctoring a photograph of the Labour leader which later appeared in The Sunday Sun

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-dancing-remembrance-sunday_uk_58299981e4b09ac74c52d3be

The second was a serious accusation, in March this year, that Corbyn had failed to declare his proper annual earnings when voluntarily releasing his tax returns-

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3017183/jeremy-corbyn-faces-claims-over-27000-of-income-on-his-tax-return/

The story was bogus, as might have been anticipated, yet a retraction or published apology is still outstanding.

I fully accept that Corbyn has some fundamental limitations; he has no real grasp of organisational leadership ( the disgraceful refusal of senior colleagues to serve in his cabinet has seriously undermined his efforts too), and the fact that he underperforms in his media appearances and at PMQ’s is apparent to viewers - all criticisms, though, that could have been aimed at many of his better-prepared predecessors!). However, any voter, even those dead set on using the election to re-state their support for Brexit should consider choosing as Prime Minister a man of principle over a man, or woman, motivated by naked opportunism (I’m practicing denial, here, over Donald Trump’s victory) , in such a vital election for the country. The odds are, though, that any red-blooded Labour revival will have to wait until a post-Brexit apocalypse has left the British economy in ruins with the ‘let’s make Britain great again’ mob rightfully shouldering all the blame. Corbyn will not be at the helm, of course, but if the Labour party is to challenge the neo-liberal agenda of endless austerity that has virtually wiped out state provision in Britain, then someone very much like him will have to have followed in his footsteps.

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