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the-empress-7 · 2 years

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Rumor-tracking anon here. I feel like I should make a side-tumblr with the name.

So many many apologies in advance for another long one. This one is incredibly nuanced because there are a lot of moving pieces and it does sound tinhatty but I PROMISE there's a point.

TL;DR - I need People Anon's help in trying to figure out the timing of the interview and the photoshoot if Kashner was filing his story around 8/2/17. I'm totally okay with extrapolating if she can only answer/give context using People's weekly format. My questions:

1) How long before a monthly magazine is published does the book close? 2) How long before the book closes are the articles and photographs due to be filed? 3) How far in advance of a publication's release are the advance copies/previews done?

The two three rumors I am working on are:

Harry proposed a very long time before they announced the engagement.

They kept the engagement a secret for a long time for a specific reason.

Something happened that caused the palace and Harry to "let" Meghan stay after the VF interview when in the past, Harry notoriously cut friends and girls out if they talked to the press.

And the Big Question is: when exactly did Harry propose?

So now the verrrrrrry long version. (feel free to put a cut here!)

Bower's VF excerpt says:

After Harry proposed, they discussed announcing the engagement when The Queen returned from her summer in Balmoral.

They were engaged when Meghan did the VF interview.

VF sent a preview copy when Meghan and Harry were in Botswana for her birthday, which Meghan saw after returning home.

The pictures accompanying the VF article were taken in London.

Meghan, Harry, and the Palace were angry that the VF story was about Harry. (Meghan b/c she wanted the focus to be her philanthropy, Harry b/c he didn't want to be in the article, and the Palace because she existed.)

From internet sleuthing -- all dates 2017 unless noted otherwise and I'm using American date convention (mm/dd).

Meghan shut her social media down in April 2017. We know she thrived on social media so she wouldn't have shut it down without something definite and concrete being given to her in return.

Meghan was papped with Harry in May 2017 - early May at polo and mid-May around Pippa's wedding.

Meghan did not attend Wimbledon 2017. (Serena wasn't playing so of course Meghan wasn't going to waste her time.) So she was not papped in London in late June/early July.

Per the Court Circular, Harry's summer holiday started 7/29. We know he was back in London by 8/29 as he attended the Diana Sunken Garden thing on 8/30.

Per the Court Circular, The Queen was in Balmoral from 8/7 to 10/10 so Harry and Meghan weren't planning to tell anyone they were engaged until at least 10/11.

Meghan's birthday is August 4. Meghan and Harry were papped at the airport in Botswana on 8/4 and her PR said there was a birthday party for her that night. We can assume Meghan flew into London around 7/28, when Harry took off for the summer.

Suits Season 7 announced filming dates of 4/4 - 11/15. Production actually wrapped on 11/23. The last pictures of Meghan on the Suits set were from 11/11. Meghan's stand-in tweeted on 11/17 and it seems to be a goodbye/thank you tweet, suggesting that 11/17 was her last day, meaning no more scenes involving Rachel Zane.

Suits Season 7 was split into half-seasons, with the first half airing in summer 2017 (7/12 - 9/13) and the second half airing in spring 2018 (3/28/18 - 4/25/18). This suggests that the production took a break in the summer for the cast to do PR for the premiere.

Members of Suits started doing PR for the new season in June 2017 with the ATX Festival. Meghan is seen in set photos taken 7/12 to celebrate filming Suits' 100th episode that Sarah Rafferty posted on IG.

On 11/20, Meghan moved to London after being spotted in the London airport and after movers were seen at her Toronto house.

The engagement was announced on 11/27.

So all of this to say I think the VF photoshoot was at the end of July, probably no later than 7/28 since Harry usually didn't work when she's visiting. Since Kashner (the VF writer) ended his story by saying Meghan texted him right before he was filing that she would be unreachable and a couple days later were the Botswana airport pics, that suggests he was probably filing the story around 8/4.

If Kashner filed on 8/4, then it was probably after a few weeks for VF to fact-check her, a week or two to write the story and turn in a draft for fact-checking, and a day or so for the interview. That puts the interview happening in early July, or at least sometime before July 12 when we know definitively she was still in Toronto on the Suits set. Which means that the photoshoot was either at the end of July when she was flying in ahead of the Botswana trip or in early/mid-May when she was papped at polo or Pippa's wedding. The latter sounds like it might be too early in the process since if the interview was early July, then they were probably negotiating the article in June with the offer being made late May/early June. (People Anon, help! Does this timeline sound reasonable? Is this the process?)

And if Bower's tea that they were engaged before she did the VF interview is true, then the evidence is indicating they actually got engaged in April or May. (Of course, it's also entirely possible there were other secret trips to London in the intervening time but when you look at Meghan's PR cycle, which always had a pap walk or a story about her being in London with Harry every 3-4 weeks like clockwork and there are no new stories between Pippa's wedding and August, it does seem unlikely.)

We know from their engagement interview that the proposal was very spur-of-the-moment, unexpected, and Harry had been unprepared. To me this sounds like Harry didn't have a ring for her. He just got caught up in the emotions of seeing her again and proposed, sans ring. Was that May? Maybe. Was that July? Maybe. Definitely wasn't November when she moved to London like their PR's been claiming since 2017. Definitely wasn't September or October like maybe they told friends, if they told people they were waiting till The Queen came back from Balmoral. Maybe Harry presented her with the ring around that time to make it official and that's their story, they're sticking to it, but it doesn't jibe with Bower's findings nor basic internet sleuthing.

(In other words, shenanigans afoot since the very beginning as everyone rightly suspected.)

So if they were secretly engaged when she did the VF interview, that means the proposal or the discussion to marry was in the late spring. And if Harry did propose in the late spring/mid-summer like the evidence shows (rather than the autumn like they claim), then why did they wait 4 to 7 months till November to announce? Why didn't they announce it around August 31st, the 20th anniversary of Diana's death, in a tribute to his mother's legacy? (It was guaranteed wall-to-wall press coverage and Meghan probably would've sold out the VF issue if they did, possibly cementing her as a "serious" cover girl at Kate's level.) Why didn't they announce it in September ahead of the Toronto Invictus Games and after the VF article? (Arguably they did with Meghan's strategic product placement of the Husband shirt.) Why didn't they announce it the second The Queen was back from Balmoral?

My theory: Harry knew they effed up with the VF article and delayed it to let the palace's anger blow over, and luckily Big Bro William to the rescue announcing Kate's third pregnancy right before Meghan's VF issue dropped so the firm could ignore the Meghan story in favor of pushing the new Cambridge baby.

And if Harry proposed before Meghan did the interview and if they were engaged before the issue dropped/the advance copy went out, then that explains why Meghan got to stick around after talking to the press about their relationship and why Meghan got the official royal treatment at Toronto IG despite being "just" a girlfriend; Harry was already committed and engaged to Meghan.

So finally FINALLY all this to say that People Anon might help me confirm this long-held Tumblr rumor: Meghan had something over Harry that caused him to keep her after she talked to VF about the relationship, and that was their engagement.

Whew.

If you want to respond with that Charlie Day gif from It's Always Sunny, the one where he's crazy on coffee explaining conspiracy theories in front of the wall of paper, I totally understand.

Although at this point I've been researching and writing this up for so long that now I'm doubting Bower's excerpt says they were engaged when she did the VF interview and I made that part up by overthinking it too much. I'm just going to click submit and you can tell me if I imagined that part.

I'll crawl back into my research hole now.

Phew. I hope you are saving all these somewhere.

Paging People Anon for Rumor Tracking Anon.

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yeonchi · 1 year

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Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 8/10: Series 8

After Series 5 and 6 established a status quo for the Matt Smith era, Series 7 saw it being shaken up in numerous ways. With Peter Capaldi becoming the new Doctor following Smith’s departure, Series 8 would establish a new status quo in a darker, yet down-to-earth series compared to previous ones as the production team prepared to ride the waves from the 50th Anniversary. While there was no split series like there was in Series 6 and 7, the series wouldn’t start until August. Since fans had gotten used to this autumn start thanks to the split series, they didn’t seem to mind that the usual Doctor Who schedule for the year had been broken. In addition, the definition of “13 episodes” was changed to mean “12 episodes and a Christmas Special”, not that it was much of a problem for fans including myself.

Although 2014 was the year I intended to wind down and focus on my high school studies, various circumstances, such as the aftermath of the 50th Anniversary year, led to me deciding to keep the fires burning for another year, and so I decided to keep Doctor Who going in my personal project for two more series, the latter of which would “premiere” at the same time as the premiere of the BBC Series 8. So let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 8 and relive the experience of riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary just as the production team and fandom did.

1. The World Tour and live events

Peter Capaldi was revealed to the world as the Twelfth Doctor in a live event special hosted by Zoe Ball on 4 August 2013. Matt Smith did not participate in the live event, but he was interviewed for it along with a few other special guests. This would later be followed up with another live event special on 23 November following the broadcast of The Day of the Doctor, which infamously featured a crossover with the boy band One Direction (more like Louis and Niall), who were also doing their own live event, 1D Day, in Los Angeles to promote their new album, and were having technical difficulties that impacted their crossover with the Doctor Who event, not to mention the fact that despite Zoe Ball’s claims, they hadn’t watched The Day of the Doctor, let alone the series, so their clearly prepared questions were apparently inappropriate to the occasion.

Said event also featured actors who played Doctors and companions in the classic series and their treatment was regarded as disrespectful, particularly the infamous moment when Rick Edwards accidentally sat on Katy Manning and crudely tried to cover it up, which would probably be considered sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era.

After completing their filming on the series in August 2014, before the premiere of Series 8, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat embarked on a world tour to promote the upcoming series in Cardiff, London, Seoul, Sydney, New York, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. I don’t recall the Chibnall era doing anything like this; heck, even Jodie Whittaker’s reveal in 2017 was just a minute-long minisode with a teaser that was just as long, and it was broadcast during Wimbledon. This shows that the Moffat era did better with marketing and promotion compared to the Chibnall era (the RTD era fitting in between them).

2. Humble returns

As is obvious, Jenna Coleman would reprise her role as Clara Oswald for Series 8, her character now a teacher at Coal Hill School to commemorate the 50th Anniversary. Peter Capaldi’s first episode, Deep Breath, also featured the return of the Paternoster Gang for what would be their final on-screen appearance. The Clockwork Droids make a return following their debut eight years prior in Series 2’s The Girl in the Fireplace, being assigned as the crew of a sister ship to the one that appeared in said episode, though the Doctor doesn’t seem to remember them.

The episode starts off with a female dinosaur in the middle of the Thames during the 1890s. The dinosaur coughs up the TARDIS, which had been swallowed by her when it crashed in prehistoric Earth. The Doctor and Clara came out of the TARDIS and the former was taken back to the Paternoster Gang’s home when he collapsed due to his post-regenerative trauma. Later that night, the Doctor hears the dinosaur in pain and heads outside to promise that he will take her home, only to see her spontaneously combust. Both the Doctor and the Paternoster Gang rush to the Thames, where the Doctor points out that the point, in regards to what the important question is they should be asking, isn’t actually who could have done this, let alone how; the point is actually if there have been any similar murders. The Doctor jumps into the Thames as he takes up the case, which leads the Paternoster Gang to do so as well.

The next morning, the Doctor stumbles into an alley, wondering and ranting to a nearby tramp why he has the face he has. He then notices a newspaper with an article about spontaneous combustion and takes the tramp’s coat in exchange for his favourite watch. Meanwhile, Clara sees a notice addressed to the “Impossible Girl” in a newspaper and deduces that the Doctor wants to meet her at Mancini’s Family Restaurant. Clara heads there and is met by the Doctor, who had also noticed the notice, but didn’t place it himself. As they argue over who could have placed the notice, the Doctor and Clara were brought down to the Clockwork Droids’ ship, where they saw the Half-Face Man recharging itself; the Clockwork Droids had been harvesting the flesh and organs from humans as they rotted and combusted the bodies to hide the evidence of mutilation.

As the Doctor and Clara are separated, Clara gets the idea to hold her breath so that the Droids won’t notice her breathing, but she eventually passes out and is brought in front of the Half-Face Man. By using her experiences from her first days as a teacher, Clara manages to elicit information about the Droids’ intentions to reach the Promised Land before the Doctor rejoins her, having changed his clothes. The Doctor questions the Half-Face Man as to why he put the message in the newspaper to bring him and Clara to the restaurant, only to realise that he didn’t do it.

The Paternoster Gang are summoned to fight the Droids in the ship. The Half-Face Man heads back up to the restaurant, which is actually an escape pod, with the Doctor following. As the Doctor confronts the Half-Face Man, convincing him that there is no Promised Land and that he has replaced every single part of himself to the point where there is no trace of his original self. Down in the ship, the Paternoster Gang and Clara struggle against the other Droids until Clara tells them all to hold their breaths. Despite their best efforts (and Vastra sharing her oxygen with Jenny by way of a kiss), they are unable to hold on further when Vastra stops Strax from killing himself. It is then that all the Droids suddenly deactivate, the Half-Face Man being impaled on top of a clock tower. Whether the Doctor pushed him or the Half-Face Man jumped is open to interpretation, though if I had to say, I would have to say that the Doctor drove the Half-Face Man to jump, giving us a glimpse of the darker Doctor and darker storylines the Capaldi era had to offer.

Clara heads back to the present day with the Doctor, now with the mystery of the woman in the shop brought to the forefront from the notice in the newspaper as the Doctor surmises that there is a woman who is very keen that they stay together. Clara gets a call from the Eleventh Doctor, calling her from Trenzalore just before his regeneration finished, to tell her that his new incarnation will need her more than she can imagine.

Meanwhile, the Half-Face Man finds himself in a garden, where he is met by Missy, who tells him that he has made it to the Promised Land. More on her later.

Deep Breath is an extended episode that manages to bridge the Capaldi era with the Smith era while still giving fans a glimpse of the darker storyline to come. Matt Smith’s cameo was filmed towards the end of the filming for The Time of the Doctor, solidifying the episode’s status as a bridging episode between the two eras. Like The Day of the Doctor before it, Deep Breath also received a cinematic release, coupled with a Paternoster Gang prequel that was really Strax describing the previous Doctors; the Doctor Who Extra instalment for the episode (to replace Doctor Who Confidential); and for UK screenings on 23 August 2014, there was also a live Q&A hosted by Zoe Ball.

3. The Capaldi title sequence

The title sequence for the Capaldi era episodes was designed by Billy Hanshaw, aka billydakiduk on YouTube. He was scouted by Steven Moffat after seeing his original concept title sequence from September 2013 and decided to refine the idea for the new title sequence. The final product was a complete subversion of the usual Time Vortex sequence as the camera goes through some clockwork, a spiral of Roman clock face numbers and through some circling planets. Whatever “Time Vortex” was shown towards the end was not shown at any point in the Capaldi era - even the Time Vortex used in Twice Upon A Time was completely different. The titles also showed the Doctor’s eyes in a throwback to his debut cameo instead of his face as was done during Series 7 Part 2.

Some episodes saw variations to the opening sequence, such as Before the Flood having a rock version of the theme, Heaven Sent only having Peter Capaldi being credited, or the 2014 and 2015 Christmas Specials having Chrismassy flairs to them; this was omitted for the 2016 and 2017 Christmas Specials.

For some reason, the production team managed to screw up the consistency of the title sequence; at least 10 of the Capaldi era’s 40 episodes had titles that were out of sync with the theme music, most notoriously seen in Face the Raven that had the titles run five seconds ahead of the music. At the same time, fans also noticed inconsistencies in the formatting of the episode title and writer credits, which is honestly baffling as I wonder if no template was used or if no quality control was taken.

For the Series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who in my personal project, I opted to use two of NeonVisual’s title sequences from 2013 which were clearly inspired from the Series 7 Part 2 title sequence. Do you think they would have worked better had the BBC hired NeonVisual instead? Feel free to let me know.

4. A Good Dalek

Into the Dalek has the Doctor discover a Dalek that had turned good. In going inside the Dalek’s casing in an attempt to repair it, during which it was discovered that the Dalek turning good was caused by damage to his power source, the Doctor accidentally reverted Rusty, the name he gave the Dalek, to its original programming.

The Doctor is seemingly proven right that there can be no such thing as a good Dalek, but Clara convinces him that this isn’t what they learnt, and so the Doctor has Clara and the rest of the crew find the memory that made the Dalek turn good which he goes face-to-eye with Rusty. In doing so, Rusty managed to tap into the Doctor’s hatred for the Daleks, causing him to turn on the Daleks and unwittingly save the crew of the Aristotle. This disappoints the Doctor as this outcome was not what he was trying to get Rusty to see.

This episode starts a story arc where the Doctor begins to question whether he is a good man after everything he has been through following the Time War. It may seem a bit hard to tell given the Doctor’s abrasiveness throughout the series, but the Doctor manages to work it out for himself in the end.

5. The mysteries that befall us

Listen is a surreal episode that asks whether people are truly alone when they are alone while also setting up some mysteries that are left answered. After coming home from a disastrous date with Danny Pink (we’ll talk about him next), Clara is picked up by the Doctor, who immediately begins to explore his hypotheses with her, that at one point, everyone has dreamt about someone grabbing their ankle from under the bed while they are alone in their bedrooms. The Doctor connects Clara to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and tries to get her to focus on the time she had the dream, only to end up at a children’s home in mid-90’s Gloucester.

At the children’s home, eerie things happen to the night manager, which is revealed to have been the Doctor stealing his coffee, and Clara meets a boy named Rupert Pink, which she deduces is actually a younger Danny. During this encounter, a figure emerges under the blanket of Rupert’s bed and the Doctor gets the idea to have Rupert and Clara turn their backs to it, allowing it to leave without revealing itself to them. The Doctor poses a theory that it could have been one of Rupert’s friends playing a prank on him, or it actually isn’t. Some fans pose a theory that it was a Floof, a monster with uncanny hiding abilities that cause mischief, from one of Steven Moffat’s short stories written in 2006, but Moffat claims that he doesn’t remember writing it. I choose to believe there actually was a creature under there because for it to actually just be one of Rupert’s friends would be anti-climatic. After Clara puts some toy soldiers under Rupert’s bed to guard him, with one of the soldiers not having a gun which Rupert calls Dan the soldier man, the Doctor then wipes Rupert’s brain of the encounter, leaving him with a dream about him becoming Dan the soldier man.

Clara has the Doctor return her to her date with Danny, but is then called away by a spaceman, which leads Danny to leave. Clara follows the spaceman into the TARDIS and the spaceman is revealed to be Colonel Orson Pink from a hundred years in the future; strangely, Orson doesn’t have any old family photographs of Clara. The Doctor had activated the TARDIS telepathic circuits and it brought him to where Orson was at the end of the universe when he was only supposed to go a week into the future; he was stranded there for six months. When the Doctor travels back to the end of the universe, he and Clara discover that Orson was apparently being threatened by unknown creatures, given how he had to remind himself not to open the door to the capsule. Clara discovers that Orson has a toy of Dan the soldier man, with him saying that it is a family heirloom passed down for good luck.

The Doctor decides to wait for whatever is lurking outside the capsule at night; when strange things begin happening, the Doctor has Clara go back into the TARDIS while he uses his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door. When the air shell is breached, causing all the air to be sucked out and potentially the Doctor with it, Orson rescues the Doctor and brings him back to the TARDIS before Clara uses the telepathic circuits to leave.

The TARDIS lands in a barn and Clara heads out. She sees a crying child under a blanket in a bed, but is forced to hide under it when two people come into the barn. Through their conversation, Clara realises that she has gone back to Gallifrey during the Doctor’s childhood. Once the two people leave, the Doctor regains consciousness inside the TARDIS. The boy, the child Doctor, hears the Doctor and gets up, only for Clara to grab his ankle, resulting in her creating the nightmare the Doctor was investigating in the first place. Clara tells the child Doctor about how fear is a superpower and how he will return to the barn on a day when he will be very afraid, referring to the day when the War Doctor arrived at the barn to detonate the Moment. After leaving Dan the soldier man to stand guard under the child Doctor’s bed, Clara returns to the TARDIS and has the Doctor promise her to never find out where they just were before returning Orson back to his time and taking Clara home.

We’ve theorised who the monster was in Rupert’s bed, so who was the monster apparently terrorising Orson at the end of the universe? My theory for what the planet is, based on other people’s theories and what we would see later on, is that it is a dying Gallifrey at the end of everything. As for the monsters? A Big Finish audio speculates that it was River Song and Jack Harkness playing a prank on Orson and that the planet he was on was actually Gallifrey, but personally, it could be another Floof for all I care.

Listen may be an unsatisfying episode in terms of mystery, but it is still kind of satisfying in that it gives the Doctor good character development while also giving Clara another chance to be the Impossible Girl. The Doctor and Clara heading into Danny’s past as Rupert might have brought up some bad vibes I got from the Impossible Girl arc, but they only went to one point and the Doctor scrambled Rupert’s mind at the end, so it’s kind of okay where that’s concerned. Admittedly, the Doctor’s character development in this episode lost its poignancy when the Timeless Child revelation came out, but it’s still an alright episode nonetheless.

6. PE

This section is funnily ironic to me because at high school, I actually had a teacher (or two) who taught PE and maths.

Series 8 introduces a new love interest for Clara in the name of Danny Pink, played by Samuel Anderson, to divert Clara’s focus from the Doctor and to make the Twelfth Doctor less of a romantic compared to previous incarnations during the revived series. Danny was a soldier in the army who served as a sergeant in the Middle East before leaving after having a “bad day”. He became a maths teacher at Coal Hill School and set up the Coal Hill Cadets to teach students the disciplines and morals of a soldier. Danny was introduced to Clara and after some awkwardness and “family stuff”, they go on their first date in Listen, which goes about as well as you would expect. In trying to hide her travels with the Doctor, Danny got defensive and asked Clara to tell the truth before having enough and deciding to leave. However, Clara reconciles with Danny at the end of the episode.

Two episodes later in The Caretaker, Clara is shown struggling to balance her real life with her Doctor life and things go from bad to worse for her when the Doctor decides to go deep cover at Coal Hill as a caretaker in order to track down a Skovox Blitzer. When the Doctor is introduced to Danny, the Doctor immediately assumes he is a PE teacher based on his history as a soldier. The Doctor then sees Clara with another teacher named Adrian and is happy for her, assuming that Adrian is the boyfriend Clara has been talking about due to the resemblance to his previous incarnation.

That night, as the Doctor lays a trap for the Skovox Blitzer and prepares to lure it in, Danny sees the chronodyne generators placed around the school and moves them, resulting in the Skovox Blitzer being transported two days forward instead of billions of years. Danny discovers Clara’s familiarity with the Doctor and Clara tells him about her adventures with the Doctor.

On parents’ evening, Clara uses an invisibility watch to sneak Danny onto the TARDIS, but the Doctor is able to detect him, which results in the two having an argument during which Danny calls the Doctor an officer in contrast to him being a former soldier. Later, during the interviews, the Skovox Blitzer returns and the Doctor has Clara distract it while he gets a contingency plan ready. Clara manages to lure it to where the Doctor is; the Doctor impersonates its superior and tries to get it to shut itself down, but he forgot to enter the final input code and the Skovox Blitzer begins to self-destruct. It is then that Danny comes in, using the invisibility watch to buy the Doctor a few more seconds. The Doctor successfully gets the Skovox Blitzer to shut down before setting it adrift in space.

Looking back, I have mixed feelings about Danny. His demands for Clara to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor kind of seem controlling, particularly since they hadn’t been dating for long, but I kind of like how he calls out the soldier-officer dynamic with the Doctor, in that the officers push their soldiers and make them stronger until they find themselves doing things they never thought they would have to do. In the end, there really isn’t much to Danny other than he was a soldier who left on a bad day and the Doctor doesn’t respect him because he doesn’t respect soldiers. I really think Moffat could have done more with Danny because it felt like the only reason he was there was so we could have a “love triangle” of sorts.

On a side note, The Caretaker would be Gareth Roberts’ final work on the series. The transphobia thing wouldn’t come until three years later (so your opinions regarding it, whether you agree or disagree with him on the whole thing, are irrelevant to this paragraph), but apparently Roberts came into conflict with the production team on set, then made public comments denigrating Moffat and Capaldi, thus he was not rehired for future series. This probably might be a rumour so you don’t have to take it that seriously.

7. Coal Hill School

Following its return in The Day of the Doctor for the 50th Anniversary, Coal Hill School plays a significant role in Series 8, further showing that Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor is a more down-to-earth one. Clara is now a teacher at the school, where it and its students are shown prominently at various points throughout the series.

Coal Hill School was first shown in An Unearthly Child as the school where the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, attended and her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, taught science and history respectively. The school would not return again until Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988 for the 25th Anniversary season. Sadly, Coal Hill School would only make a brief appearance at the start of Series 9 before it was never shown or mentioned again.

In October 2016, a spinoff named Class premiered on BBC Three (which had become a streaming-exclusive channel by then) which prominently featured Coal Hill School and was written by Patrick Ness. The school was shown to be renovated since its last appearance at the start of Series 9. The Doctor also made a short appearance in the spinoff’s first episode and there were rumours that the 2016 Christmas Special was to be a crossover, but it ultimately never eventuated and Class was never renewed for another series.

To restate my own words from my review of Village of the Angels, I felt that the series was okay, but if it wasn’t cancelled, I probably would have liked it more. Personally, the “renovation” of Coal Hill School was a waste of time given what transpired and there is no way a whole school can be rebuilt in under a year without significant interruptions. I’ve seen individual buildings being built during my time in school, but not every building. The finale also teased something epic involving the Weeping Angels, but we never get to see what happened due to the cancellation of the series. Frankly, it’d be better if we just pretended that the series never existed and Coal Hill School was never renovated.

I know Class premiered between Series 9 and 10, but I thought I’d talk about it now and get it over with so I don’t have to later.

8. Out of line?

Midway through the series, the Doctor and Clara have a falling out because of something the Doctor did. While I didn’t think much of it when I first watched it, I would have to argue that after rewatching it recently, the Doctor was being out of line.

Kill the Moon begins with Clara asking the Doctor to tell Courtney Woods that she is special after he told her that she wasn’t, which leads to the Doctor offering to make Courtney the first woman on the moon. The three of them head to the moon in 2049 where they find a hundred nuclear bombs in a recycled space shuttle. It is then that they realise that they are actually on their way to the moon and upon landing, they are met by a crew led by Captain Lundvik, who have come to destroy the moon as its increased mass is causing chaos on Earth with high tides everywhere at once and satellites being whacked out of orbit.

As the group investigates, the Doctor learns that the moon is actually an egg for some creature and that it is about to hatch, which is causing the moon to gain mass. Lundvik is intent on killing it, but Clara and Courtney are against killing it. It is at this point that the Doctor decides to leave and let the three remaining females make the decision that will decide the future of humanity, which angers Clara. When ground control makes contact with the three, Clara decides to make a broadcast to humanity, giving them 45 minutes to decide if they should kill the creature or let it live. Humanity votes to kill the creature, but just at the last moment, Clara defies public opinion and stops the detonation. It is then that the Doctor returns to pick them up and take them back to Earth, where they see the creature hatching and laying a new egg.

Once Lundvik and Courtney have left the TARDIS, Clara becomes angry at the Doctor because she had to make a pivotal decision for humanity’s future and the Doctor knew what would happen, yet still lied to her and left her to decide. And honestly, I kind of have to agree with Clara berating the Doctor at the end, because Earth might as well be his home if he spends so much time there and his actual home planet is destroyed. Also, as crass as he may be, it’s not in the Doctor’s nature to run away in a crisis involving an entire planet. Pompeii may be one city and its destruction a fixed point in time, but this is the future we are talking about and it’s not just one city, it’s an entire planet he spends a lot of time on, so the least the Doctor could do was be there for Clara and guide her to make the right decision.

Clara meets with Danny and she tells him what happened, but Danny tells her to finish things with the Doctor when she is no longer angry with him. The Doctor and Clara decide to have one last hurrah and we move onto Mummy on the Orient Express, a double-banked companion-lite episode produced alongside the Doctor-lite episode Flatline, which would premiere the following week.

Running off a throwaway line from the end of The Big Bang, the Doctor and Clara board a space train known as the Orient Express, or rather a replica of it. As some people are killed by a mummy that only they could see, giving them 66 seconds before they would die, the Doctor is separated from Clara, who is with a passenger named Maisie, and learns that the train is a front for an investigation into the mummy, known as the Foretold, led by an evil computer known as Gus. Several more people die as the Doctor tries to work out what the Foretold is, then when Maisie was the next person to be targeted, Clara reunites with the Doctor and he tells her that Gus had tried to lure him onto the TARDIS before, meaning that he lied to her again and that he made her lie to get Maisie to where the Doctor was.

The Foretold appears to Maisie and the Doctor uses some equipment to make himself the target instead. In the ensuing 66 seconds, the Doctor manages to deduce that the Foretold is actually an ancient soldier, wounded in battle and augmented with equipment that wouldn’t let him die until the war was over. At the end of the 66 seconds, the Doctor surrenders to the Foretold. Everyone is suddenly able to see it as it disintegrates into dust. With the mystery now solved, Gus removes the air from the train, but the Doctor uses the Foretold’s teleporter to teleport everyone away, however when he tried to hack Gus from the TARDIS to find out who was behind it, it triggered a failsafe that blew up the train.

In the end, Clara gains a better understanding of the Doctor and decides to lie to Danny about leaving him while also deciding to stay with the Doctor. This is the turning point where Clara is pushed to become more like the Doctor, with Flatline forcing Clara to essentially be him when the TARDIS gets shrunken with the Doctor still inside. It’s an okay resolution to their conflict, but I don’t think it should have happened in the first place.

9. What is death?

Teasers of Missy and the Nethersphere, also known as the Promised Land, are scattered throughout the series. When I started watching the series, I was expecting at least one character to die in every episode and be sent to the Neversphere, but I suppose doing that would give away the mystery.

In Dark Water, Clara calls Danny in an attempt to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor before he gets to her flat. While Clara complains about the way Danny says “I love you” to her, Danny is hit by a car or a milk float driven by Missy (according to extended media) and dies. Clara appears apathetic to Danny’s death, but in truth, she is absolutely distraught, which leads her to use a sleep patch on the Doctor. Landing the TARDIS next to a volcano, Clara tries to blackmail the Doctor into saving Danny by throwing a key away every time he says no to her. She then suddenly throws the rest of the keys away, leaving her with one of the seven keys left. After throwing the last key away, Clara is overcome by the impact of what she did when the Doctor reveals that they are still in the TARDIS, having worked out what Clara was doing and using the sleep patch back on her. The Doctor, having seen how far Clara would go to be with Danny, agrees to help find him and they are led to the 3W Institute.

Meanwhile, Danny is brought to the Nethersphere where he is greeted by Seb, an AI interface created by Missy. Upon arrival, there was a request to meet him from someone, namely a boy he accidentally killed during his time as a soldier in Afghanistan which led to him leaving the army. Danny meets the boy and tries to apologise, but he runs away. Soon, Danny gets a call from Clara, who was put into contact with him from the outside. Clara, on the Doctor’s advice, tries to make sure that the Danny she is speaking to is real by having him say something only he could say, but when he keeps telling her “I love you” in a manner unsatisfactory to Clara, she ends the call.

The Doctor discovers that the Nethersphere is actually a Gallifreyan matrix data slice, that 3W is actually a front for converting dead bodies into Cybermen, and that Missy is actually the Master in a new female incarnation. Danny is given the choice to delete his emotions, but the sight of the boy behind him leads him to refuse.

Continuing with Death in Heaven, 91 Cybermen are assembled outside St Paul’s Cathedral and people are taking pictures with them when Kate Stewart, Osgood and UNIT show up. Suddenly, the Cybermen fly into the sky and hover above a British city before self-destructing and spreading Cyber-pollen into the graveyards and morgues, converting the dead into Cybermen. The Doctor and Missy are brought onboard Boat One, where the Doctor is appointed President of Earth in accordance with incursion protocols. As the Doctor discusses what is happening with the UNIT forces, Missy kills Osgood and summons the Cybermen to Boat One. After revealing that she was the woman in the shop who brought the Doctor and Clara together, then kept them together by putting the notice in the newspaper, Missy sends Kate flying out of Boat One before teleporting away. The Doctor hangs on for dear life but he ends up falling out as well until he uses his TARDIS key to summon it to him.

Meanwhile, Clara poses as the Doctor in an attempt to evade the Cybermen, furthering her character development as a mirror of the Doctor. The episode also goes so far as to have the title sequence feature Jenna Coleman’s name before Peter Capaldi’s and also feature Clara’s eyes instead of the Doctor’s. However, the now-converted Danny manages to call out her lies and take her away. Clara is taken to a graveyard where Danny reveals his face to her and asks her to turn on the emotional inhibitor. After Clara fails to get the Doctor to come and help her, the Doctor arrives and tries to stop Clara. He then asks Danny if he can access the Cyber hive mind to find out what Missy’s plan is, but in an effort to prove his point about the Doctor being an officer, Danny explains that he can’t see much because he needs the emotional inhibitor on to do so. The Doctor gives the sonic screwdriver to Clara so she can do it and when she does, Danny tells the Doctor that Missy is planning to use the Cyber-pollen to convert all of humanity.

Missy arrives and tells the Doctor that the Cyberarmy she created is a gift for him. The Doctor tells Missy that he doesn’t need an army but she insists that he does. Recalling some of his past adventures, the Doctor begins to realise that he is not a good man, nor a bad man, a hero, a president or an officer, but an idiot with a box and a screwdriver. In addition, Danny’s love for Clara stopped him from hurting her after his emotional inhibitor was turned on. The Doctor lets Danny take control of the Cyberarmy and after a speech that to me, sounds a little off at the end due to the pitch of Danny’s voice, he and all the other Cybermen fly into the sky and self-destruct, destroying the Cyber-pollen.

A defeated Missy tells the Doctor the current location of Gallifrey, claiming that it has been restored to its original location. Clara prepares to shoot Missy, but the Doctor offers to do it himself to stop Clara from doing so. It is then that Missy is shot by a remaining Cyberman, who saved Kate from falling out of Boat One. The Doctor learns that that Cyberman was actually Kate’s father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and he salutes the Cyberbrig before he flies into the sky.

Two weeks later, Clara hears Danny in the night and finds a portal to the Nethersphere in her hallway. With the Nethersphere collapsing and the portal only having enough power for one person to go through, Danny sends the boy from earlier through it, asking Clara to find his parents. Another two weeks later, the Doctor meets with Clara and deduces that Clara and Danny are back together when that was actually not the case. He then tells Clara that he found Gallifrey when he actually didn’t after going to the coordinates that Missy gave him. Clara decides to believe the lie about her and Danny as the Doctor decides to part ways with her.

The Series 8 finale was good, but I don’t think it and the whole series lived up to expectations. I thought the dead people who we saw in the Nethersphere scenes would return in the finale and that the finale would have something much deeper than dead people being converted into Cybermen. The return of the Master as Missy was another highlight of the story and it marked the first on-screen instance of a male Time Lord regenerating into a female incarnation, which meant that the next mystery was to find out how the Saxon Master regenerated into Missy. Paying tribute to the Brigadier by making him a Cyberman I found meh, but I can see why people didn’t like it. If you want an alternative, remember that Osgood wasn’t the only person in that room whose appearance got copied by a Zygon.

And speaking of Osgood, I’ve always contended that the Zygon Osgood was the one who Missy killed in this story. The Zygon two-parter in Series 9 would keep the answer ambiguous by purposefully obscuring it, with even Osgood’s actress, Ingrid Oliver, keeping her take on the question a secret. Then in 2019, a Big Finish audio confirmed that it was actually the Zygon Osgood who was killed by Missy, putting the question to bed in a manner that ended up being logical.

10. Every Christmas is Last Christmas

In the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas, the Doctor reunites with Clara as they investigate a polar base in the North Pole. They encounter Shona trying to distract herself from the Sleepers before they are attacked by Dream Crabs. Following this, Santa and his elves came in to convince everyone that they are dying in a dream and that they need to wake up. The Doctor also deduces that the Dream Crabs can create dreams within dreams and so, he helps everyone get out of each layer until Santa comes back with his sleigh to take them out of the final layer when they are confronted by more Sleepers, which are actually the parts of their mind that have succumbed to the Dream Crabs.

When the Doctor wakes up, he hurries to save Clara from her Dream Crab, only to find that she is 62 years older than when they last parted. As they pull a Christmas cracker, just as they did before in The Time of the Doctor, Santa appears, meaning that this scene was another dream layer. The Doctor and Clara wake up for real and Clara is relieved to see that she is young. The Doctor invites Clara to travel with him again and she quickly accepts, ending the special. Apparently, Jenna Coleman intended to leave Doctor Who at the end of Series 8, but she enjoyed working with Capaldi so much that she decided to do the 2014 Christmas Special before leaving. During the World Tour, Capaldi (and Moffat) managed to convince Coleman to stay on for another year; she informed Steven Moffat of this following the readthrough of Last Christmas and plans on a replacement companion, possibly Shona, were abandoned and the ending was slightly changed thanks to Moffat preparing for such a scenario.

Last Christmas is an alright Christmas Special. It has the Doctor and Clara admit that they lied to each other on their final meeting before they get a second chance together on the TARDIS. Danny also returns as a construct of Clara’s dream to conclude his character arc and to admit that he only saved the world for Clara. The one thing I didn’t like was Nick Frost playing a sardonic Santa when the common stereotype is that he is supposed to be jolly (which is called out by the Doctor in the special). I think it would have worked better if Santa was played by Seth MacFarlane using his Carter Pewterschmidt voice.

Series 8, like the series before it, is another mixed bag. I came into each episode expecting this thing or that thing to happen, only for it to not happen or a completely different thing to happen altogether. The Doctor and Clara have deeper dynamics and character development than they did and the inclusion of Coal Hill School was an alright extension of the 50th Anniversary.

Up until the last instalment, I’ve used Clever Dick Films’ Doctor Who Review videos as one of my research references, but at the time of writing this instalment, he hasn’t done his retrospective on the Capaldi era and I don’t expect it to come out for some time, but I’m sure I have enough opinions or story summary fillers to make it through the last parts of this series. Stay tuned for Part 9 as we continue riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary with my 10 takes on Series 9.

#doctor who #doctor who 10 for 10 #doctor who series 8 #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi

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40xeventsdublin · 6 months

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Meet your Sports Legends

Do you fondly remember the glory days of sports when heroes like Ray Houghton, Michael Jordan, or Sonia O’Sullivan graced the fields and arenas with their unmatched talents? If you're in your forties and seeking an extraordinary experience that will take you back to the golden eras of sports, look no further! 40xEvents Dublin are thrilled to present an exclusive opportunity for you to attend talks with historical sports figures who've left a permanent mark on the world of sports.

These legends not only made history but were history themselves. Our company’s hand-selected events bring them back to life as they share their incredible stories, insights, and memories. You'll have the unique chance to sit down with these icons and relive the moments that defined a generation. Imagine having a one-on-one conversation with a sports legend. Listening to them recount their most thrilling moments, their fiercest rivals, and their personal journeys. Whether it's hearing Houghton’s recap of sticking the ball in the English net, Michael Jordan’s time with the Bulls, or Sonia’s journey to Gold in 1995, these talks will transport you back to the heart of the action. You'll gain an unparalleled understanding of the sports you adore and the heroes who made it legendary.

Our selection of events are meticulously designed to immerse you in the world of these historical sports figures. From the moment you step in, you'll be greeted by a mesmerising atmosphere that transports you to a different era. Be ready to be swept off your feet as you enjoy captivating storytelling, exclusive memorabilia displays, and the opportunity to meet like-minded sports enthusiasts.

An Evening With Liverpool Legends The Stores Bar, Naas 13/12/2023

Come on down to The Stores Bar in Naas to enjoy and evening with Liverpool FC legends Bruce Grobbelaar and Sammi Lee. Hear about Bruce’s spaghetti legged tactics and Sammi’s incredible career as both a player and assistant manager. This is an event not to be missed by any football fan of the 80s, including but not limited to Liverpool fans!! For just €20 you can grab a pic with the legends themselves, socialise with other footy-maniacs and have a laugh listening to the great careers of these Liverpool Legends.

A Night With John Hartson Peadar Browns, Dublin 17/11/2023

John Hartson comes to town this November to chat with fans of the nineties and noughties. Join in on the Q&A session with this Luton, Arsenal, West Ham, Wimbledon, Coventry, West Brom, Norwich and Celtic legend at Peadar Browns pub. The Welsh icon of Celtic Football club is excited to meet and greet fans to discuss his journey from grass root football, through to Champions League football, and all the way to punditry! Tickets start at €23 and are selling fast for this one!

An Exclusive Evening with World Cup-Winning Rugby Legend, Jason Leonard OBE Woodbourne House, Isle of Man 09/11/2023

Join us for a midweek trip to the Isle of Man, to experience the culture of this tiny island which finds itself sandwiched between Ireland and Great Britain. Come greet English Rugby Legend, Jason Leonard, and hear of his lengthy, 14 year long rugby union career which found him making 114 caps for his country and even winning a Rugby World Cup!!! We have organised transport and tickets for a day trip from Dublin to the Isle of Man for this spectacular event. Tickets cost €100.

#events #dublin #dublinevents #sports #football #sportslegend

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dan6085 · 10 months

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Top 20 of the greatest records from the Guinness Book of World Records:

1. Longest reigning monarch - Queen Elizabeth II has reigned for over 70 years as the Queen of the United Kingdom. Her long reign represents an era of remarkable change.

2. Most Olympic gold medals - Swimmer Michael Phelps has won 28 Olympic medals, including 23 gold medals. His accomplishments make him one of the greatest Olympians ever.

3. Tallest man - The tallest man ever was Robert Wadlow from the USA, who was 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) tall when he died in 1940 at age 22. His great height was due to a disorder of his pituitary gland.

4. Longest human beard - The longest beard ever recorded belonged to Hans Langseth from Norway. It was over 17 feet long when he died in 1927 at age 81. Keeping his beard so long took great care and dedication over decades.

5. Most wins at Wimbledon - Tennis player Roger Federer has won Wimbledon a record 8 times, showing incredible skill and dominance on grass courts over nearly two decades.

6. Highest jump by a dog - A greyhound named Cinderella May jumped over 75 cm or 30 in high in 2016, an astonishing leap demonstrating a dog's athleticism.

7. Most followers on Instagram - Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed person on Instagram with over 388 million followers. His fame and influence is truly global.

8. Heaviest airplane - The Antonov An-225 cargo plane can carry over 700,000 pounds (317 tonnes). Its massive size and weight capacity make it a marvel of engineering.

9. Longest fingernails - Shridhar Chillal from India set the record for longest fingernails in 2016, with a combined length of over 29 feet across both hands. Keeping them so long for decades took incredible dedication.

10. Strongest man - The record for strongest man is held by Kevin Fast from Canada, who lifted 61 kg (134 lb) with one finger in 2005, showing astounding strength.

11. Most expensive painting - Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi sold for $450.3 million in 2017, the highest price ever paid for a painting. Its history and beauty made it highly desirable.

12. Largest prime number - The largest known prime number is 282,589,933−1. With over 24 million digits, it represents a groundbreaking discovery in mathematics.

13. Tallest high dive - Laso Schaller jumped from a height of 58.8 m (193 ft) in 2015, setting the record for highest dive. The thrilling plunge into water demonstrated courage and skill.

14. Fastest circumnavigation by bicycle - Mark Beaumont cycled around the world in under 79 days in 2017, averaging over 200 miles per day. His achievement took immense fitness and endurance.

15. Longest running TV show - The Simpsons is the longest running scripted primetime TV show, having aired over 680 episodes since 1989. Its humour and characters have had cultural impact worldwide.

16. Most career Grand Slam singles titles - Tennis player Margaret Court won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, demonstrating remarkable tennis ability over two decades.

17. Largest mammal - The blue whale can grow to over 100 feet long and weigh up to 200 tons. Its enormous size makes it the largest animal in the world.

18. Most prolific writer - Author L. Ron Hubbard published over 1,084 works, writing an average of 63,000 words per day at his peak. His productivity was truly prolific.

19. Longest legs (female) - U.S. model and actress Heather Greene's legs measure 132.8 cm (4 ft 4 in) in length, recognised for their exceptional length.

20. Most selfies in 3 minutes - Mehmetcan Yakici from Turkey took 715 selfies in just 3 minutes in 2015, demonstrating lightning fast photographic reflexes.

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littleharpethcrossfit · 10 months

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Saturday, 15 July, 2023......... Warmup..Ground To Overheads .....A Triplet.

It started raining around midnight and continued until 10 AM. It rained hard at times, but eased up to a sprinkle for each of the classes today. Very humid.

Warmup

With A Leader

15 Perfect Pushups

Rest 1 Minute

15 More Perfect Pushups

The 2nd class also incorporated a spontaneous mobility session led by various Elites.

Strength

Ground To Overheads:

3 Touch & Go Reps Every 2 Minutes

7 Sets

Increase Weight As You Go

Ed/WG/Robert=165 Larry/Shane/Bernie=135 Dyer=115 Rodney=95 Coach=85 Cheri=75 John/Joe/Kayla/Sandy=65 Linda/Sue=55 SC=45 Tripp=42 Faith (The Kid)=22 Warren A/Alicia=PJ Big Lew=Bike ERG For 1000 Calories

Just for Big Boy motivation, I shared a brief video of our little girl Esther performing this same lift for 160 lbs 2 days ago.

The WOD

“2 Miles”

8 Rounds

Run 400 / Row-Ski 500 / Bike 1000m

10 Pushups (Several did the original Pullups)

5 Shoulder To Overheads (135/95/65)

Chose Weight That Allows 5 Reps Unbroken First Set

Tripp=24:13 Faith (The Kid)=25:53 WG=26:24 Larry=27:16 Cheri=27:18 Shane=27:25 Ed=28:22 Sue=28:28 Bernie=28:42 SC=29:03 Rodney=29:23 Robert=29:50 Kayla=30:29 Joe=31:10 John=33:05 Sandy=33:50 Coach=34:15 Dyer=36:09 Linda=14:52 (Half) Warren A / Alicia=PJ Big Lew=Biked

Notes:

A very good and hardy group(s) here this morning in spite of the weather. They could have stayed home, had breakfast, and watched Wimbledon and/or the Scottish Open on TV.

The Kid (who can RUN !!) and Big Brother came and allowed Dad to coach them, Mom being the tennis lover, presumed to be watching Wimbledon at home.

Kayla led several of our girls in the now traditional making of Barn-Made Cold Brew Coffee. Delicious. I don’t want to mention how Dunkin’ Donuts would taste great with the coffee ‘cause Kayla would do it.

Today is Dyer’s 65th birthday, and also Scott Schwartz’s (I don’t know which) birthday. His Sister’s are there celebrating. The Founder of CrossFit will be 67 yo next Saturday. Ed Reminds us weekly that his birthday is in October. I hope we don’t forget.

Sunday at 0730 and again at 1 PM. The weather-lady assures us we will enjoy better conditions.

Yes, we have NO H20 (that’s the same as water Kayla & Alicia) at the Barn. If you are so inclined, please tote a case of water in plastic cancer causing, ocean polluting, landfill glomming plastic bottles.

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enfotimes · 2 years

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Wimbledon Updates | Serena, Swiatek and Nadal play Day 2

Job : June 28, 2022 / 5:13 a.m. CDT Updated: June 28, 2022 / 5:13 a.m. CDT WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — The latest news from Wimbledon (all times local): ___ 11 a.m. Serena Williams makes her singles return on day two at Wimbledon. Her last singles match was a year ago at the All England Club when she suffered a first-round injury. The 23-time Grand Slam champion will take on Harmony Tan of France…

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coquelicoq · 2 years

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another themed puzzle 🥰

Across

1. Casual conversations 6. British network nickname, with "the" 10. "A Farewell to ___" 14. Party hearty 15. Poker pot starter 16. Horn sound 17. ___ acid (protein building block) 18. Actress Rowlands 19. Male turkeys or cats 20. Show up late to Wimbledon? 23. In a snobby fashion 24. "___ High" (1999 song that name-drops Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Aphrodite) 28. Striped shirt wearer 29. Suffocate 30. Non-___ (label on some organic foods) 33. Insult Sesame Street's resident vampire? 36. Satisfied sounds 38. Shortly before? 39. Farm equipment 40. Put one's money where one's foot is? 45. Broadway sign acronym meaning "we have no more seats to sell" 46. Binge 47. ___ capita 49. "It has a certain je ___ quoi" 50. Like an issue divided along party lines 55. Take a whack at farming? 57. In this place 60. Peeples and Long 61. Patterned upholstery fabric 62. Awestruck 63. "Give or take" 64. Run in the wash 65. Musician related to Herman Melville who shares a name with a Herman Melville character 66. "Read 'em and ___!" 67. Makes, as income

Down

1. Studies into the wee hours the night before a test 2. Surround 3. Dispatch boat 4. Tightening muscle (anagram for NOTERS) 5. Like spoons used to make spaghetti 6. "Everything" breakfast item 7. Foe 8. Sicilian volcano 9. "Heck if I know" 10. Above all others 11. Friend of Pooh whose name rhymes with "Pooh" 12. May honoree 13. Ave. crossers 21. Old 45 player 22. Popular ice cream flavor, for short 25. Synagogues 26. Mister in Mexico 27. "One lump ___?" 29. Storage space for yard equipment, often 30. West African nation 31. Purple shade 32. "That's for sure" 34. Labor Day mo. 35. Uno + due 37. Game plan 41. ___ to the throne 42. "Whoa, Nelly!" 43. Mortgage figs. 44. 1970 Beatles chart-topper 48. Swiss lozenge brand 50. New moon, e.g. 51. "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" writer 52. Downhill racer 53. Kind of wrench 54. Requires 56. Goodyear product 57. Western omelet ingredient 58. Bigheadedness 59. Burgle

#i like this one because i think the theme clues are quite clever! and theme clues are really hard for me #cruciverbs #my posts #i said the other day that simple/common french and spanish was allowed in american crosswords but there is also a very little #german and italian that is allowed. german: the numbers 1-3 (4 and 5 are pushing it)‚ a‚ the‚ no‚ Frau‚ Herr #i've seen echt a few times but it always reeks of desperation. if a constructor can use anything else in that spot‚ they will #danke and to a much lesser extent bitte #italian: the numbers 1-3 and 7-8‚ ciao (which doesn't count because it's been borrowed into english)‚ sera (as in buona sera)#and sometimes german and italian is included if it's part of the titles of famous works but i would count that separately #japanese: obi is very common. i used to see hai but haven't in a while. nisei. tatami. noh (this one also reeks of desperation)#a bit of arabic. a bit of scots but honestly i don't know enough about it to know whether it's scots gaelic or scottish english #nyet in russian. sometimes you'll see duma and dacha. as you can see it's either words that are extremely well known #(greetings‚ yes/no) or words that just have a very convenient arrangement of letters #of course words that have been borrowed into english are fair game. there are several yiddish words/phrases that show up #some hebrew. names of holidays in various languages #lots of names of culinary dishes which i also wouldn't count because usually they are retained in english #now i'm thinking about sera and how sometimes it's clued to be about que sera sera #and how up until like...a month ago i just had that filed in my head as italian #and idk why i was thinking about it but suddenly i was like wait. que is not an italian word. that is definitely not italian #i just looked it up and apparently it's not spanish either (or it's ungrammatical spanish)#fascinating! you can put whatever in a song and americans will just be like sure sounds like it could be some language or other #and then not think about it ever again #i think all americans should learn more languages so i have more options for words to put in crosswords #i kid i kid. that's a stupid reason. unless...? 😳#just found this in my drafts and idk why it's in here. it seems fine to post? so i'm posting it lol #it's already been printed in the freakin' newspaper

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xthelastknownsurvivorx · 2 years

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RWRB, A Comprehensive Timeline

I wanted to make an extremely detailed for rwrb since some of the ones currently floating around online are missing an event that I consider important or the dates of firstprince's texts/emails. But since it's comprehensive its also long as fuck so everything is below the cut. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING

All of the dates are either based on direct book information, the 2019-20 calendar, plus a couple of inferences on my part. The dates that are based more on speculation are marked with an asterisk*.

September 2019

Start of book

Flight to England

Royal wedding

The White House Trio and the HRH Prince Henry Fact Sheet

That weekend: Alex's solo trip to England

Saturday: Alex arrives and meets Henry at the stables, late night ice cream

Sunday: This Morning interview, Cancer Ward visit and the Medical Supply Closet

A Friday: Alex visits Rafael Luna

Alex forgets to meet June for dinner but they end up eating together for Family Pizza night

October 2019

Henry texts Alex for the first time

Over the next few weeks: back-and-forth banter over text, sharing snippets of their lives

Wed, Oct 30: extended texting about Henry's tie, "you are the thistle in the tender and sensitive arse crack of my life"

November 2019

Sun, Nov 17: Claremont campaign buttons, "tell shaan I said hi and I miss that sweet sweet ass"

Wed, Nov 27: The Great Turkey Calamity

December 2019

Sun, Dec 8: the bond marathon

A day or two prior to Christmas: Oscar arrives at the White House

Tues, Dec 24: Alex spends time with his dad, tense Christmas dinner, Alex calls Henry to spill about nutso family stuff, June teases Alex about making a new friend

A few days later: the White House Trio plans the New Year's Eve party

Tues, Dec 31: New Year's Eve party, Alex kisses Nora at midnight, first prince New Year's kiss outside in the garden

January 2020

Alex's sexuality crisis as he starts the final semester of college

Wed, Jan 8*: June forces Alex out on a run

Mon, Jan 13*: Alex starts his campaign job

Sat, Jan 18* or later: The Coming-Out Convo with Nora

Thurs, Jan 24* (night): Alex is late for his review session, he gets a little pissy over Henry kissing a mysterious blond then is sad when he realizes it's probably interference, then he calls Liam

Fri, Jan 25* or later: the state dinner, makeout session in the Red Room, then Alex invites Henry up to his room

February 2020

Sat, Feb 9*: The Charity Polo Match

March 2020

Mar 3-4: first emails about Paris fundraiser

Weekend of Mar 6-8: Paris shenanigans, "he forgets they don't spend the night so they do"

Weekend of Mar 27-29: New York birthday celebrations

April 2020

Alex learns about Henry's dark moods

The two of them talk about gay history

Zahra catches Alex with a hickey

Last names, Nixon, baby, Henry's family, Alex's high school experience, I miss you

The Texas binder and conversation with June

May 2020

Alex's final week of classes while Henry and Pez holiday in Wales and work on their philanthropy projects

Alex finishes his finals

Sat, May 16: Alex graduates summa cum laude from Georgetown, graduation party at the White House

Weekend of May 29-31: Super 6 karaoke night and after

June 2020

Sun, June 8: you are a dark sorcerer emails

Things get ugly with Richards leading the ticket

Alex misses DC Pride

Texas on the path to become a Battleground state

WASPy Hunter being an ass about flipping Texas

Mon, June 23: 3 Geniuses and Alex group chat

July 2020

Sun, July 6: Wimbledon and Henry's apartment

A few days prior to DNC: Richard's campaign rally at Vanderbilt

July 13-16: DNC

Tues, July 14: Zahra has a boyfriend, Luna is the independent that joined Richards, Henry visits Alex at the Berkman, "you are good"

Wed, July 15: Zahra discovers Alex and Henry in the hotel room

After the DNC: Alex comes out to his mom, Ellen makes a PowerPoint about it and kicks Alex off the campaign

August 2020

Sun, Aug 10: A Mass of Fools and Knaves email about Hamilton, "see attached bibliography" and "history huh", "shall I tell you that when we're apart your body comes back to me in dreams", they start to include quotes from the letters of gay historical figures, Henry's story about The Prince and the Sorcerer

Weekend of Aug 21-23: The Texas Lake House

Day 1: the White House Trio drives down and meet Henry, Oscar brings up Luna then Henry, "Alex is so in love he could die"

Day 2: Alex makes breakfast and reflects on loving Henry, they all go swimming, Alex thinks about roots, the I love you and the aftermath

Day 3: Henry is gone when Alex wakes up, the note in the kitchen the last message Henry sends him

Mon, Aug 30: Alex flies transatlantic and storms Kensington Palace

Tues, Aug 31: Alex and Henry talk it out, how long, "it had better be forever"

September 2020

Wed, Sep 1: (2 AM) The V&A night

Thurs, Sep 2: Henry gives Alex has signet ring, Alex returns home, Hometown stuff email

Sat, Sep 4: Henry comes out to Philip, metaphors about Buckingham Palace, list of things Alex loves about Henry

Mon, Sep 13*: Zahra is engaged, photos from the DNC of Alex and Henry leak, June offers to take the heat

Alex and Nora go on a date

Alex and Henry meet in a security car and kiss

Thurs, Sep 24: "Seria una mentira, porque no seria el"

Mon, Sep 27: Bad Metaphors about Maps email, THE SECRET IS OUT

Tues, Sep 28: Zahra takes Alex to London to see Henry and she reveals that Shaan is her fiance, Bea gives Alex some advice about Henry's grief

Wed, Sep 29: meeting with the queen, mural of Alex and Henry as Han and Leia

October 2020

Alex returns from London

Nora barrels in with the evidence against the Richards campaign

Bills, Bill's, Bills show transcript

Fri, Oct 2: Alex's Address from the White House

Alex and Luna talk

End of October: Alex and Henry's Royal photo Shoot, Bea spills the secret of the youth shelters

November 2020

Alex and Nora have a conversation about everything that happened and plans going forward, June gets her book deal

Tues, Nov 3: election night, Alex gives a speech, Texas goes blue and they win, Alex brings Henry to his childhood home

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #rwarb #rwarb spoilers #alex claremont diaz #first prince #henry fox mountchristen windsor #alex and henry #prince henry of wales #super six #white house trio

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duchesscambridges · 2 years

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I posted 1,686 times in 2021

20 posts created (1%)

1666 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 83.3 posts.

I added 2,507 tags in 2021

#self reblog - 597 posts

#duchess of cambridge - 483 posts

#queue - 460 posts

#i’m at work - 257 posts

#duke of cambridge - 184 posts

#srf - 150 posts

#five years ago! - 113 posts

#four years ago today! - 95 posts

#seven years ago! - 85 posts

#non royal - 83 posts

Longest Tag: 53 characters

#whenever i get to edit again i’ll make a set of these

My Top Posts in 2021

The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Alexandra Palace for the 2021 Earthshot Prize.

63 notes • Posted 2021-10-17 16:15:08 GMT

The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of "No Time to Die" on September 28, 2021.

69 notes • Posted 2021-10-11 23:01:39 GMT

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of "No Time to Die" on September 28, 2021.

104 notes • Posted 2021-10-11 21:43:07 GMT

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of "No Time to Die" on September 28, 2021.

106 notes • Posted 2021-10-11 20:30:18 GMT

The Duchess of Cambridge attends Day 13 of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Tennis & Croquet Club on July 11, 2021.

127 notes • Posted 2021-07-11 16:04:49 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#text posts #my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #duchesscambridges

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world-of-wales · 10 months

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THE MANY FACES OF LOTTIE AT WIMBLEDON!

Princess Charlotte watches Carlos Alcaraz vs Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon 2023 men's final on Centre Court during day fourteen of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club || 16 JULY 2023

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fiirstprince · 4 years

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THE RWRB 2020 TIMELINE

i created the list of dates from the best timeline there is aka the rwrb timeline so we could celebrate everything properly. some dates are taken literally from the book, some i had to figure out myself so they might be a day or two off so if you see any mistakes, let me know💖

december 31 - january 1 – new year’s eve party, FIRST KISS💖💖

january – alex has bisexual crisis

the end of january – THE state dinner, make out sesh against alexander hamilton’s portrait

mid-february – THE polo match

march 6-8 – PARIS

march 12 – henry’s birthday

march 27 – alex’s birthday

march 27-29 – new york birthday celebrations

may 16 – alex graduates summa cum laude from georgetown university with a bachelor’s degree in government

may 22-24 – weekend with kimonos, karaoke night and „I wanna make a supersonic man outta youuuuu!”

july 6 – THE WIMBLEDON NIGHT💖💖

july 13-16 – dnc

july 14 – henry visits alex at the beerkman hotel

july 15 – zahra finds out

august 10 – ellen finds out

august 10 - „history, huh? bet we could make some.”

august 21-23 – texas vacation, Alex is so in love he could die

august 30 – THE KENSINGTON PALACE CONFRONTATION, THE I LOVE YOUS💖💖

the night of august 31 / september 1 - the V&A night💖💖

september 2 – henry gives alex his signet

september 25 - „Sería una mentira, porque no sería él”

september 27 – THE SECRET IS OUT

september 28 - zahra takes alex to london to see henry

september 29 – meeting with the queen, alex sees the mural of him and henry as han and leia

OCTOBER 2 – alex’s speech from the white house

the end of october – alex and henry’s royal photoshoot

november 3 – election night!!!!

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #firstprince #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #rwarb

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avid-author-activist · 4 years

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future dates in rwrb

6/7/2020: fundraiser in LA... alex and henry’s first time ;)

7/6/2020: wimbledon; henry plays alex “your song” on the piano

7/13/2020: first day of DNC; rafael luna signs onto the richards campaign (no conclusive evidence of said date in the book, but the dnc irl was going to be on july 13 if corona weren’t a thing); zahra finds out about alex and henry

8/10/2020: alex first writes “history, huh?” in an email; henry responds with the iconic “should i tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams?”

8/22-8/23, 2020: the weekend at lake LBJ

8/31/2020: alex buys tickets to heathrow and calls henry an obtuse fucking asshole at kesington palace

9/2/2020, 2am: henry shows alex around the V&A museum

9/27/2020: the emails are leaked, and henry and alex are outed to the entire world.

9/29/2020: alex meets the royal family. catherine tells mary to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down and stop being homophobic. support for henry and alex pours in from around the world.

9/30/2020: the administration leaks evidence to the press that richards set alex up to be outed. rafael luna ditches the richards campaign.

10/2/2020: The Speech. “I am the First Son of the United States of America, and I am bisexual. History will remember us.”

11/3/2020: Election Day

Early Morning 11/4/2020: Alex shows Henry his childhood home. Book ends.

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #firstprince #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor

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paralleljulieverse · 3 years

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70th anniversary of Red Riding Hood Theatre Royal, Nottingham, 154 performances (23 December 1950 - 10 March 1951)

This week marks the 70th anniversary of another milestone event in the early career of Julie Andrews when the young fifteen-year old star opened in the title role of Tom Arnold’s lavish Christmas pantomime, Red Riding Hood at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.

Red Riding Hood would be Julie’s second professional pantomime, following her earlier run in Humpty Dumpty at the London Casino in 1948/49. On paper, a stint at a provincial theatre might seem a downward career step after the West End, but Nottingham’s Theatre Royal was no backwater playhouse. One of the most luxurious venues of its day, the Theatre Royal opened in 1865 as a cultural monument to the booming prosperity of the East Midlands and, with convenient railway links to London, it soon became one of Britain’s preeminent touring houses, hosting repeated visits from major stars, both national and international, including Lillie Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Henry Irving and Anna Pavlova (Beynon, 11-13).

Moreover, Red Riding Hood wasn’t your run-of-the-mill small-town panto. It was a theatrical extravaganza produced by Tom Arnold, the foremost impresario of the British provinces. Specialising in prestigious family entertainments and theatre spectaculars, Arnold was reported to have staged over 400 pantomimes during his long career, earning him the nickname of Britain’s “New King of Pantomime” (”Personalia” 105; “King”, 11; “Obituary”, 15). The words “A Tom Arnold Production” on a pantomime poster or programme was a guarantee of first-rate entertainment with top-drawer talent and state-of-the-art production values.

The 1950 Christmas season would be one of Arnold’s most ambitious with a roster of big pantos in simultaneous production up and down the length of the British Isles including, Dick Whittington On Ice at the Empire Pool, Wembley; Queen of Hearts at the Wimbledon Theatre; Puss in Boots on Ice at the Brighton Sports Stadium; Dick Whittington at the Grand Theatre, Leeds; Humpty Dumpty at the Liverpool Empire; and Cinderella at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow (“Xmas Holiday Shows”, 12-21). Red Riding Hood at the Theatre Royal was the jewel in the crown with a generous budget, lavish set design, and A-list casting.

Charged with overseeing the Nottingham production of Red Riding Hood was Frank P. Adey, an enterprising young producer who had managed several earlier Arnold productions -- as well as big shows for other impresarios such as Emile Littler and Bernard Delfont -- and who would a few years later go on to helm the legendary Ocean Theatre in Clacton (Howlett, 5). Unlike today’s producers who are principally concerned with behind-the-scenes business, Adey was “a producer from the days when the title meant someone who put the whole show together from choosing the artistes, constructing the programme and lighting the scenery to directing the performers” (Hudd, 6). In the case of Red Riding Hood, he even co-wrote the script.

Just one year earlier, during the 1949 pantomime season, Adey had produced another version of Red Riding Hood for John Beaumont at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield, which is possibly why he was tapped to helm the even bigger Tom Arnold production at Nottingham (“Xmas Holiday Shows,” 1949, 15). When deciding on the cast for the 1950 show, Adey called on several of the performing talents who had worked with him in Sheffield (“Nottm.,” 6). Announced in early September, casting for the Nottingham show included:

Cherry Lind as Prince Valiant of Alluria (principal boy): A popular singer and radio personality of the post-war years, Lind had performed the “pants” role of Prince Valiant in the 1949 Sheffield production. She had also appeared previously at the Theatre Royal Nottingham in the title role of Rose Marie in 1945 (“Cherry Lind”, 5). Lind enjoyed a solid career on radio and TV into the early-60s before retiring to Brighton where she passed away in 2005 (Steel, 114-15).

Albert and Les Ward as Billy Blue and Jimmy Green (double act): This comedy brother duo were popular performers on radio variety shows of the era such as Welsh Rarebit, Variety Bandbox and Petticoat Lane. Known for their riotous “skiffle” musical performances using unconventional instruments such as washboards, bicycle pumps and spoons, the pair was cast as the comic “villainous sidekicks”, the Baron’s Henchmen, a role they had previously performed in Sheffield (“Cherry Lind”, 5; “Kings”, 24). The two brothers continued to live together in their family home in Cardiff till their deaths in 2001 and 2004 respectively (Baker, 131).

Tony Heaton as Mother Hubbard (dame): A stalwart of the British variety circuit, Heaton specialised in playing “dame” roles in pantomimes (“Dames,” 3). He had also performed this part of Mother Hubbard in the earlier Sheffield show (“Cherry Lind”, 5; “Tony Heaton”, 3). Sadly, Heaton took his own life in the sea off Blackpool in 1965 (“Drowned”, 12).

Laurie Main as Baron Pie Face of Merryvale Hall (comic): Also returning from the Sheffield production was this young character comedian from Australia who plied his trade in British variety and pantomimes throughout the 50s, before moving to the US in 1959 where he carved a solid career in theatre, film and TV till his death in 2012. As a tidbit for fans of Julie-related trivia, Main would re-team with Julie many years later when he had a brief cameo as a French general in Darling Lili (1970) (Raleigh, 5; “Laurie Main,” 11).

John Bernell as King Wolf (villain): Not a lot of information is available on Bernell, though newspaper reports indicate he made regular appearances in regional theatre productions and pantomimes throughout the 30s-50s. He had played this same role in Sheffield where he was praised as a fine stage villain with thrilling swordsmanship skills. In one of his on-stage duels with Cherry Lind, Bernell fell and fractured his wrist but, in true show-must-go-on spirit, he finished the performance before going to hospital (“Variety Gossip”, 4).

Doreen Brebner as Fairy Silverleaf (good fairy): 22-year old Brebner was a talented young ballerina from South Africa who had come to the UK under a bursary scheme. Placed under contract by dance teacher and choreographer, Izna Roselli, she did honours as the lead dancer in the Sheffield production of Red Riding Hood, supported by the Izna Roselli Girls and Kirby’s Flying Ballet. For the Nottingham show, she was ‘promoted’ to the role of the protecting fairy (”6,000 Miles”, 5).

Tony Hancock as Jolly Jenkins (comic): Last but certainly not least, the other major principal role announced in early casting was Tony Hancock in the comic part of “the silly billy, well-meaning page to the Baron” (Fisher, 102). Hancock was one of the few new additions to the Nottingham line-up, taking over a role that had been played in Sheffield by Gene Durham. Today, he is one of the most famous names in the Nottingham cast, but, at the time, Hancock was still relatively unknown. His celebrity would increase markedly the following year when he was contracted to take over the lead role of the tutor in the 1951 season of Educating Archie, before eventually proceeding to secure his own radio show and lasting fame (Fisher, 102-3).*

The one glaring omission from the early casting announcements was the title role of Red Riding Hood herself. In Sheffield, this “principal girl” role had been performed by Valerie Ashton, a young singer-dancer and stage beauty who, by all accounts, acquitted herself well enough -- “a typical and pleasing Red Riding Hood” was the verdict of one reviewer (“Spotlight”, 5) -- but a bigger marquee name was needed to helm the more expensive Nottingham production and serve as a box office draw.

It’s not known when or how the idea to cast Julie Andrews in the title role of Red Riding Hood first emerged but, by 1950, she was a young star firmly on the ascendant. Her celebrated debut run in Starlight Roof and subsequent appearance as the youngest ever performer at a Royal Command Performance in 1948 had earned her widespread publicity as “Britain’s youngest prima donna”. While her increasing presence on radio, especially her regular stint on the hit BBC programme, Educating Archie, boosted her celebrity and helped make her a nationwide name. Julie had also worked on a previous Tom Arnold production with her 1949 summer run in Coconut Grove at the Blackpool Hippodrome, so she would have been on the company’s radar.

Either way, negotiations to secure Julie for Red Riding Hood commenced at some point in 1950. They were protracted and, one suspects, intense. Whereas casting for all the other principals was announced in September, Julie’s participation wasn’t officially confirmed till much later in November (“Julie Andrews”, 1; “More”, 5). Throughout this period, there were persistent rumours of her involvement, with one over-eager newspaper having to issue a front-page retraction after it had published a premature report in early October that the young star had been signed. “Nothing definite has yet been arranged. No contract has been signed,” it clarified, “but it is hoped that Miss Andrews will play Red Riding Hood” (“Red Riding Hood: Premature Report,” 1). In the end, a contract was signed and formally announced in mid-November, giving Julie co-star billing with Cherry Lind and, reportedly, a £200 weekly fee -- “big money then for a 15-year old entertainer in Britain” (Cottrell 57 ).

Rehearsals for the pantomime commenced on Monday 11 December with all the company and principals congregating for a script read-through, save Cherry Lind whose arrival was delayed due to a broadcasting commitment in Bristol (“Nottm. Panto. Rehearsals,” 6). Such was the level of public interest in the show that the 'table read’ was covered widely in the local and regional press. For the first week, the cast rehearsed at the Orchestra Club in Nottingham, before moving into the Theatre Royal the following Monday 18 December for on-stage rehearsals. In her memoirs, Julie recounts how her mother and aunt motored up with her to Nottingham in the family caravan where they all stayed for the two weeks of rehearsals to help Julie settle in; after which the two women returned home and Julie moved in to the Country Hotel with Cherry Lind and the other principals for the run of the show (Andrews, 129).

As was customary with pantomime, Red Riding Hood hewed to the time-honoured formula of a well-known fairy tale told with a colourful mix of music, comedy, spectacle and audience participation. By the mid-twentieth century, the received industry wisdom for mounting a pantomime was to offer something for everyone in the audience: “broad but not coarse comedy for the kids...lots of song and dance for the grown-ups, and the whole thing mov[ing] quickly from scene to scene so that no one has time to get bored” (Robertshaw, 15). This variety showcase of “events and comedy routines” was typically keyed into “the skills of the performers booked” with pantos of the era often playing “like spectacular variety shows” (Taylor, 34-35).

Producer Frank Adey, however, was of the conviction that a good pantomime needed to adhere to a well-crafted story without too many extraneous elaborations. “Everyone who comes to panto gets in to the spirit of things,” he said, “and that spirit is the story. You must not deviate and make it a revue. It must be first a pantomime and last a pantomime” (“Nottm. Panto. Rehearsals,” 6). Thus, whatever schtick individual performers were allowed was for the most part integrated into the book and showcase moments were largely played “in character”.**

With Julie in the title role -- and the equally popular singing personality, Cherry Lind as co-star -- the Nottingham production placed a premium on music and song. Indeed, Adey revised the script so that Red Riding Hood would burst into song whenever she was afraid, thereby “giving Julie ample opportunity to show her stuff” (Arntz and Wilson, 17). In classic panto style, popular songs of the day were interpolated into the score so that audiences could sing along. Thus, at one point in proceedings, Julie and Cherry Lind led the house in a rousing rendition of the newly minted Christmas hit, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (Stevenson, 3). Other popular standards featured in the show included: ‘If You Feel Like Singing” and the Flanagan and Allen hit, “Hey, Neighbour”(Stevenson, 3). However, Adey also revived the “earlier pantomime tradition” of featuring classical music by “composers such as Tschaikovsky...Offenbach, Edward German and others” (ibid.). In this way, Julie got to air her classical training by singing “amongst other things the 'Waltz Song' from Tom Jones with its many trills” and ‘The Gypsy and the Bird' by Sir Julius Benedict (Stevenson, 3; see also Andrews: 130).

The final dress rehearsal for Red Riding Hood took place on 22 December in front of a charity audience of over 550 children from local care homes and hospitals (“Night of their Lives,” 2). Newspaper reports described that the excited children “oohed and aahed” and “gurgled with glee” and “gasped at their first view of Fairlyland,” noting that:

“A special cheer was reserved for the first entrance of Red Riding Hood. Miss Andrews, only a few months older than the oldest of the children, showed her gratitude by singing to them..with a voice like silver” (“Night of their Lives,” 2).

Once the show had officially opened on 23 December, press reviews were similarly appreciative:

The Nottingham Journal: “Cherry Lind and Julie Andrews...are the best principal boy and girl whom Nottingham has had for many a long year. Both have delightful voices -- Julie’s being phenomenal” (Stevenson, “Showpiece,” 4).

The Nottingham Guardian: “Principal Boy Cherry Lind and Principal Girl Julie Andrews have youth and lovely voices to help them make their parts everything they should be. Julie Andrews’s voice especially is astonishingly good -- good for a singer of any age, astonishing because she is only 15...We can’t all sing like Julie Andrews, but the next best thing when mid-twentieth century conditions become a little too fearsome is to go and hear her and escape for three hours to the world of pantomime” (“Emphasis on Tradition”, 5).

The Nottingham Evening Post: “Red Riding Hood is everything it should be...Principal Boy Cherry Lind and Principal Girl Julie Andrews make the most charming pair...They, with Archie Stanton conducting the theatre orchestra, attend to the music and the heroics” (“Nottm. Panto. Sticks,” 1).

The Nottingham Evening News: “It would be necessary to go back many years to find a principal boy and girl equal to Cherry Lind and Julie Andrews. Both have lovely voices but, because of her age, Julie’s is phenomenal. Who would expect to hear the soaring notes and the trills of a coloratura soprano coming from the throat of a fifteen-year-old who looks ‘that nice youngster from next door’. Their duet ‘Your heart and My Heart’ is one of the the most delightful things imaginable” (WBS, 1).

The Football Post: “This year’s show is firmly based on tradition and is packed with action, colour, spectacle, song and dance. Cherry Lind as the Prince and Julie Andrews as Red Riding Hood make an admirable couple, and they are supported by a strong comedy team (“Pantomime Keeps,” 11)

The Stage: “Frank P. Adey is this year giving Nottingham the most lavish pantomime it has seen for a good many years...Red Riding Hood has all colour, melody, melodrama and well-known jokes and situations that have always delighted children -- and their parents -- but a little more emphasis is laid on the melody and song than is perhaps usual. And it is natural that this should be so, for Cherry Lind and the young Julie Andrews, in addition to making a very charming Prince and Red Riding Hood, show that they have two of the sweetest voices heard in Nottingham for a long time” (“Xmas Holiday Shows,” 1950, 15).

The glowing reception of Red Riding Hood extended equally to audiences. Ticket sales were excellent and the show played to capacity houses. Coach and rail tours brought a steady flow of group bookings from near and far. Red Riding Hood “continues its triumphant course at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham,” noted one newspaper report in mid-January, “with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of patrons queueing to see Cherry Lind...and Julie Andrews” ( “New Revue,” 11). Audience demand was so strong that the show was extended several times beyond its original closing date of early February (“Panto. Extended.” 11). The run was initially extended till 3 March, after which it was extended a further week, finally closing on 10 March after 154 performances.

Notes:

* Quite a few commentators suggest erroneously that Julie and Tony Hancock already knew each other prior to Red Riding Hood due to the fact they had worked together on Educating Archie (Stirling, 38). Even Julie makes the claim in her memoirs: “Since he [Hancock] had performed in Educating Archie, I knew him a little and liked him, although we hadn’t had much connection on the radio show” (Andrews, 131). However, Tony Hancock didn’t start performing in Educating Archie till the second series in August 1951, many months after the end of Red Riding Hood.

** I say “for the most part” because Red Riding Hood did include an extended "interval” where the popular local specialty act, the Musical Elliotts, did a comic virtuoso turn playing miniature concertinas, followed by another family troupe, Walton’s Marionettes, who put on a puppet show, but this interlude was designed largely as a self-contained “show within a show” that gave the main cast -- and the audience -- a breather between acts (Stevenson, 3).

Sources:

“6,000 Miles From Home.” Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 14 January 1950: 5.

Andrews, Julie. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.

Arntz, James and Wilson, Tom. Julie Andrews. Chicago, IL.: Contemporary Books, 1995.

Baker, Richard A. Old Time Variety: An Illustrated History. Barnsley: Remember When, 2011.

“Beware Something is Cooking.” The Nottingham Journal. 22 December 1950: 5.

Beynon, Robin, ed. The Theatre Royal Nottingham, 1875-1978: A Theatrical and Architectural History. Nottingham: Nottingham City Council Theatre Royal Sub-committee, 1978.

“Cherry Lind Stars in Nottingham Pantomime.” The Nottingham Journal. 12 September 1950: 5.

Cottrell, John. Julie Andrews: The Story of a Star. London: Arthur Barker, 1968.

“‘Dames’ Win Praise.” The Star Green 'Un. 7 January 1950: 3.

“Drowned Comedian Faced Arrest.” The Guardian. 28 August 1965: 12.

“Entertainments: Lyceum Theatre Sheffield.” Derbyshire Times. 22 December 1949: 10.

“Emphasis on Tradition in ‘Red Riding Hood.” The Nottingham Guardian. 27 December 1950: 5.

Fisher, John. Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography. London: HarperCollins, 2008.

Howlett, Sue. “Frank of the Ocean Calls It a Day.” Clacton Gazette. 6 May 1977: 5.

Hudd, Roy. Roy Hudd's Book of Music-hall, Variety and Showbiz Anecdotes. London: Robson Books, 1994.

“Ilkeston Firm’s Event.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 16 December 1950: 1.

“Julie Andrews Will Be Red Riding Hood.” The Nottingham Journal. 22 November 1950: 1.

“Variety Gossip: John Bernell.” The Stage. 16 March 1950: 4.

“The Jones Family Goes to Fairyland.” The Nottingham Journal. 23 December 1950: 3.

“King of Pantomime Dies”. The Illustrated London News. 8 February 1969: 11.

“Kings of the Washboard: Albert and Les Ward.” The Hampshire Telegraph. 6 December 1957: 24.

“Laurie Main, Narrator on TV’s ‘Welcome to Pooh Corner,’ Dies at 89.” Hollywood Reporter. 16 February 2012: 11.

“More about Theatre Royal Panto.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 20 November 1950: 5.

“New Revue for the Nottm. Empire.” The Football Post, 13 January 1951: 11.

“Night of their Lives: Children at Panto. Dress Rehearsal.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 23 December 1950: 2.

“Nottingham Bill of Christmas Entertainment.” The Football Post. 23 December 1950: 11.

“Nottingham Dancers in Pantomime.” The Nottingham Journal. 12 December 1950: 3.

“Nottingham Panto Principals.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 4 December 1950: 1.

“Nottm. Panto. Principals.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 11 September 1950: 6.

“Nottm. Panto. Rehearsals Begin.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 11 December 1950: 6.

“Nottm. Panto. Sticks to Tradition.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 26 December 1950: 1.

“Obituary: Tom Arnold.” The Stage. 6 February 1969: 15.

“Panto. Extended.” The Football Post. 3 February 1951: 11.

“Panto King, Tom Arnold, is Dead.” Daily Mirror. 3 February 1969: 5.

“Pantomime Forecasts.” The Stage. 24 November 1949: 8.

“Pantomime Keeps Christmas Spirit Going.” The Football Post. 30 December 1950: 11.

“Personalia: The New King of Pantomime.” The Sphere. 20 April 1935: 105.

Raleigh, H.M. “The Repertory Theatre: Talented Players at Sheffield.” Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury. 24 June 1950: 5.

“Red Riding Hood: Premature Report.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 3 October 1950: 1.

“‘Red Riding Hood’ Rehearsals.” The Nottingham Evening Post. 11 December 1950: 1.

Robertshaw, Ursula. “Bo-Peep in Bath.” The Illustrated London News. 6 January 1968: 14-15.

“Spotlight on Entertainment.” The Derbyshire Times. 13 January 1950: 5.

“Stars from this Season’s Nottingham Theatre Royal Pantomime.” The Nottingham Journal. 20 December 1950: 1.

Steel, Tracey. “Whatever Happened to...?” Evergreen: A Miscellany of This & That & Things Gone By, Summer 2019: 114-15.

Stevenson, Bernard. “Stage and Screen: Panto in Full Swing in Nottm and District.” Nottingham Evening News. 30 December 1950: 3.

Stevenson, W.B. “Showpiece: First Red Riding Hood since 1919.” The Nottingham Journal. 12 September 1950: 4.

Stevenson, W.B.“‘Red Riding Hood’ in Tradition.” The Nottingham Journal. 23 December 1950: 3.

Stevenson, W.B.“Showpiece: Hot Music or ‘H.P.’” The Nottingham Journal. 27 December 1950: 4.

Stirling, Richard. Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography. London: Portrait, 2007.

Taylor, Millie. British Pantomime Performance. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2007.

“Tony Heaton.” The Stage. 2 September 1965: 3.

W.B.S. “A Grand Panto: Red Riding Hood opens in Nottm.” The Nottingham Evening News, 26 December 1950: 1.

“Xmas Holiday Shows.” The Stage. 30 December 1949: 12-21.

“Xmas Holiday Shows.” The Stage. 29 December 1950: 12-21.

#julie andrews #red riding hood #pantomime #christmas #theatre royal #nottingham #british theatre #1950 #theatre history #70th Anniversary #panto #the parallel julieverse

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survey--s · 2 years

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40.

1) When was the last time you walked more than five miles? How come you did it? Last Friday for my last day at work. 2) Do you ever get blisters in really unusual and/or painful places? I tend to get them on my heels or underneath my toes. I don’t know if either of those places would be considered unusual, though?

3) Is it too hot not to have AC where you live, or could you/do you cope without it? It would be nice to have it sometimes, but life is perfectly manageable without it. I certainly wouldn’t rush to go out and get an AC unit above other things. 4) What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it? Alice by Christina Henry and yes, I would absolutely recommend it. It’s like a dark twist on Alice in Wonderland and it’s really good so far. I love it. 5) What was the last flavour of ice-cream you had? Raspberry sorbet.

6) What did you order the last time you went out for dinner? Does McDonald’s count as going out to dinner? I had chicken nuggets, fries, cheese dippers and an apple pie. 7) Do you prefer listening to music or watching television when filling out surveys? Watching TV for the most part. I only tend to listen to music when I’m driving these days. 8) Do you struggle to sleep if your room is too hot or cold? Yes, most definitely. 9) If you eat breakfast, what’s your favourite thing to eat? If not, why not? I normally just have croissants or a piece of toast as I don’t have much appetite in the mornings, but during the holidays I’ll have things like waffles or bacon sandwiches etc. 10) Would you ever want to run a marathon, or does it just seem like too much effort? Nah, I’ve never ever seen the appeal of running - it’s just far too much effort lol.

11) Who is you favourite character on “Scrubs”? (if you watch it, that is). The Janitor, Dr Cox and Dr Kelso. 12) Have you been watching the World Cup this year? I did watch some of it the last time when it was on, yeah. 13) How many pillows do you sleep with? Two. 14) What’s one thing your parents do that really gets on your nerves? My mum often picks at little things like my eyebrows or my hair...she means well but it’s just really annoying, lol. My dad is just really hard to make conversation with and if it’s not something he’s interested in, he’ll just say nothing. 15) Do you think you could ever become a vegan? I mean, if I had no choice due to allergies, I could do it, but I certainly wouldn’t ever choose to do it voluntarily. 16) Do you have a certain routine that you do whenever you do your hair? No, not really. It depends on how I’m going to style it and what the weather is like and all that. 17) Are you one of those people who is constantly glued to their phones? Ha, pretty much, but I use my phone for my business, reading, the internet, gaming and chatting. Like most people, my life is on my phone.

18) If someone gave you £10,000 tomorrow, but you had to spend it within 24 hours, or you’d lose it all, what would you buy? A load of groceries that could be stored for months (tins and stuff), pet food and supplies (again, that could be stored), stock for my business and I’d spend some of it on a fancy holiday too. 19) Do you watch Wimbledon? If so, who’s your favourite tennis player? Sometimes, yeah. I like Roger Federer. 20) Do you drink as much water as you should? I can’t remember the last time I drank plain water. 21) I read somewhere that you can get bacon cheeseburgers in a glazed donut, instead of in regular burger buns. Would you ever eat something like that? I’d try like, a bite of someone else’s but I wouldn’t buy one for myself. 22) Have you ever gone to any ridiculous extremes to lose (or gain) weight? No, I don’t think so. 23) When’s the last time someone told you off for something? I honestly don’t remember. 24) What do you eat when you get late-night cravings? It depends on what the cravings are, but normally cereal or toast. 25) How often do you eat fast-food? Once a fortnight or so. 26) Do you use hairspray on your hair once you’ve styled it? I use mousse if I’m going to be leaving it curly. 27) Do you ever buy albums anymore, or do you just think it’s too expensive/too much hassle? No, I just use Spotify for all my music. 28) What’s your favourite television show that’s still being made? The Simpsons. 29) Do you ever get really hot feet at night? Yeah, even in the depths of winter. 30) Does anyone in your immediate family have any habits that worry you at all? Yeah, my dad has orthorexia which is an obsession with healthy eating to the point where it’s unhealthy. It really worries me sometimes.

#survey #surveys #30 questions

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carly-they-jepsen · 4 years

Text

RWRB Timeline

I originally worked out the timeline for Sep. 27, 2020, and when people suggested I post it on tumblr, I said fuck it and did the whole book.

Go big or go home, right?

I have spent the past 3 days working on this. It’s half summaries of the events of the days in order, and half “here’s a one sentence summary of the day”.

Whenever possible, I’ve detailed out when things happen by the hour, like the day at Wimbledon, or the email leak day, including guesstimations on flight times, and what time EST and BST Alex is taking off and landing. I often forgot to add vague things like “morning” in, so sorry about that.

I’ve bolded all the dates I’m sure of.

Bold and italics means an official date: emails, text threads, tweets, holidays, Georgetown, etc.

Two asterisks ** = official dates.

Just bold means a day I’m sure of, based off of official dates: Two weeks later, day one post lake house, “a tuesday”, etc.

One asterisk: * = something I’m sure of based on official dates.

I’ve also bolded days of the week I’m sure of, even if I’m not certain of the date.

I’ve left a few things vague. Like, October 2020 is a lot of “sometime between these days, this happened”. Feel free to pick a day in that range to your heart’s content.

If you don’t like the day I picked for little things like Bea walking in on face time, or coming out to June, feel free to change it.

I didn’t bold everything I’m certain on, as I technically don’t have textual evidence to back it up. (Things like the wedding day, Alex and Henry’s texts at in the beginning, some things during the campaign.)

I’m 100% willing to answer questions on why I chose certain days, and any other questions or comments you may have!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

**Aug. 28, 2019 (Wed.) — Alex starts classes at Georgetown, Winter Semester 2019

Sep. 7-Sep. 8, 2019 (Sat.-Sun.) (p. 5-6) — Alex and June attend an event and listen to an hour and a half of speeches about carbon emissions. June is whisked away to a star studded gala. Alex shows up to the presidential suite with a bottle of champagne. Around 4 a.m. Alex leaves after fake hooking up with Nora.

Sep. 12, 2019 (Th.) (p. 3-8) — June and Alex go over the tabloids. Alex has been working on a research paper all week

Sep. 13, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 8-12) — The US crew flies to London.

6 a.m. EST: Take off.

5 p.m. BST: Land in London. (Wiggle the take off time to your heart’s content. Flight is around 6 hours give or take for Air Force 1, plus time to and from the airport, plus the time change. The flight time is “11 hours” with the time change if that helps you calculate the landing time in London.) They potentially have 1-2 appearances that evening.

Sep. 14, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 12-20) — The royal wedding. The US crew has 1-2 appearances before arriving at the ceremony. The ceremony happens. Reception happens at a Buckingham ballroom. The White House Trio chats, Henry dances with June. Alex finds Henry hovering by the champagne fountain and they argue. Alex trips over his own foot and crashes into the $75k wedding cake, pulling Henry down with him.

Sep. 16, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 21-27) — Alex gets chewed out over the Incident by Zahra and the President in a White House briefing room. He gets told he will be leaving Saturday to make nice with Henry in England.

Sometime between Mon. Sep. 16 and Fri. Sep. 20, 2019 (p. 27-32) — Alex, Nora, and June meet in the Whitehouse and go over the HRH Prince Henry Fact Sheet. Alex bemoans the fact that he just finished his midterms.

Sep. 21, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 32-37) — Alex leaves in the early a.m. EST and arrives late afternoon/early evening in London. (11-12 hour difference in takeoff time to landing time. Note, this is just DC to Lon., not the other way round.). Meets Henry at the stable and a royal photographer takes pictures.

Sep. 22, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 37-53) — 12:00 a.m.: Alex is wide awake and goes into the kitchen for a snack. Henry stumbles in, and Alex posts a photo of them with their ice cream on Instagram.

9 a.m.: Interview with The Morning.

Afternoon meeting with cancer patients. Alex and Henry spend some time in the closet chatting after fireworks are mistaken for gunshots. Before his flight home, Alex puts his number in Henry’s phone. Likely lands around 7-8 p.m. EST.

Sep. 27, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 54-61) — Alex has a lecture on presidential sex scandals. Texts Nora about the probability of one of them having a sex scandal by the end of the second term and she replies with 94% and a link to a gifset of Henry and Alex at The Morning where someone has commented “omfg make out already”. Alex meets with Rafael Luna after his class.

Sometime between Sep. 27, 2019 (Fri.) and Oct. 6, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 61-68) — June, Alex, Leo, and Ellen have dinner together. June texts Alex to have dinner and he forgets to respond until 1.5 hours later when Ellen texts about family dinner. She offers them jobs in the campaign and June turns it down the next morning.

Oct. 9, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 68) — Henry texts Alex while Alex is in a policy lecture. His opening line is “this bloke looks like you” with a picture of the Ewok Chief Chirpa from Return of the Jedi.

Oct. 16, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 68-69) — Alex finally responds a week later after seeing a headline on the cover of People about Henry in Australia with a photo of him in a pair of minuscule navy swim trunks. “you have a lot of moles. is that a result of the inbreeding?

Oct. 18, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 69) — Henry texts Alex a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet that says “Is Alex Claremont-Diaz going to be a father?” with the caption “But we were ever so careful, dear.” Henry texts Alex a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet that says “Is Alex Claremont-Diaz going to be a father?” with the caption “But we were ever so careful, dear.” Alex gets ejected from Zahra’s weekly debriefing meeting with him and June.

Oct. 19-Oct. 28, 2019 (Sat.-Mon.) (p. 69-71) — Henry and Alex text regularly on a variety of topics including family, friends, beer, boats, and Hogwarts houses.

**Oct. 29, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 71-72) — Henry texts Alex about being in a meeting with Philip. Later that night Alex replies, asking what the meeting was about.

**Oct. 30, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 73) — 1:07 p.m. EST Henry and Alex text about Henry’s grey tie in his instagram post.

**Nov. 17, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 74) — 11:04 a.m. EST: Henry receives a box of Ellen Claremont campaign buttons with Alex’s face on them. Sniffer dogs were nearly called after the security theme thought it was a bomb. Alex and Henry text about it.

**Nov. 25, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 75-84) — Alex finds out that the turkeys his mom will be pardoning have been staying in the Willard Hotel on taxpayers dime. He convinces her to put them in his room.

10 p.m. EST/3 a.m. GMT: Alex regrets his decisions. He calls Henry to prove they’re as terrifying as Alex claims and they have a long conversation about the turkeys, Henry’s pets, and how Henry surprises Alex.

**Dec. 8, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 84) — 8:53 p.m. EST: Alex texts Henry about a Bond marathon happening on TV. He asks if Henry knows his dad was a total babe, which Henry replies with “I BEG YOU NOT”

*Dec. 20, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 84-85) — Ellen reads an article in the Post with the headline “Senator Oscar Diaz Returns to DC For Holidays With Ex-Wife President Claremont”. She continues to stress about decorations in the Lincoln Bedroom for Oscar.

*Dec. 21, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 85) — Oscar Diaz arrives at the White House. June nearly breaks a vase launching herself into his arms. Oscar and June disappear to the chocolate shop on the ground floor.

*Dec. 22, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 85-86) — Oscar and Alex bond over a cigar on the Truman Balcony.

*Dec. 23, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 87) — Alex catches Oscar in the kitchens with two of the cooks, laughing and dumping peppers into a pot.

*Dec. 21-23, 2019 (Sat.-Mon.) (p. 86-87) — Alex wishes it could be like this more often and misses having everyone under one roof.

**Dec. 24, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 87-95) — Christmas dinner is held on Christmas Eve so Zahra can still attend. Zahra wears a sensible red turtleneck. Alex wears a sweater covered in bright green tinsel. ‘O Christmas Tree” plays out of a speaker near his armpit when he presses a button on the inside of his sleeve. Dinner conversation moves to the election. Oscar and Ellen argue. Alex loses his temper and leaves.

9:30 p.m. EST/2:30 a.m. GMT: Alex changes into an old lacrosse shirt and calls Henry. Henry is wearing candy cane pjs. Alex tells Henry about the divorce and what happened at dinner and only realizes he’s been talking for an hour when henry says “It sounds like you did your best.) June knocks on the door and Alex hangs up after thanking Henry and wishing him a Merry Christmas.

10:30 p.m.: June and Alex talk about what happened after Alex left and then Alex tells her he was talking to Henry, not Nora.

**Dec. 26, 2019 (Th.) (p. 95-97) — Alex spends the day going over waivers for the “Legendary Balls Out Bananas White House Trio New Year’s Eve Party” aka “The Young America New Year’s Eve Gala” aka “The Millennial Correspondents Dinner”.

Dec. 27, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 96-97) — Alex discovers Henry is coming to the party and bringing Pez when he glances at the final guest list while the Trio are looking at confetti samples and eating cake samples.

**Dec. 31, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 97-103) — Pez posts a picture of him and Henry on a private jet headed to DC with the caption “USA bound! #YoungAmericaGala2019” Pez has dyed his hair pastel pink, and Henry is wearing a grey sweatshirt. Alex texts Henry that he will be wearing a burgundy suit and warns Henry to not attempt to outshine Alex, as he will fail and Alex will be embarrassed for him. Henry replies “Wouldn’t dream of it”. After that the Trio begins getting ready. Nora’s short curls are swept to the side with a matching silver pin to the geometric designs on the bodice of her black dress. June’s gown is midnight blue and perfectly compliments the navy-and-gold color palette they chose for the party.

8 p.m.: Guests begin to arrive. The first wave includes some White House interns, and the daughter of a first time Senator and her girlfriend. The second wave is the politically strategic invites chosen by the press team, and finally the fashionably late, including Minor to mid-range popstars and the children of major celebrities.

Pez and Henry show up. Pez is in a colorful floral print shiny silk bomber jacket. Henry is wearing a simple dark blue suit with a bright coppery-mustard tie in a narrow cut. Alex realizes this is the first time they’ve seen each other in person since their weekend in London and feels like he’s meeting a new person.

There's dancing and mingling, and June makes a speech about the immigration fund they’re supporting with their donations. June and Henry talk at the bar.

The live band breaks and the DJ takes over. Alex finds out Henry hasn’t ever dry humped to “Get Low”. There’s more dancing and crowd pleasers until midnight.

11:59 p.m.: They huddle together for the countdown.

**Jan. 1, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 103-108) — 12:00 a.m. Nora kisses Alex

Alex loses track of things. Alex goes looking for Henry. He eventually finds him under a tree. They talk. Henry is vague and Alex is dummy thicc. Henry calls Alex thick and kisses him. Henry pulls away and disappears from the party.

*Jan. 1-Jan. 4, 2020 (Th.-Sat.) (p. 109) — Alex tries listening in on his mom’s meeting as a distraction but can’t pay attention. Zahra bans him from the West Wing.

*Jan. 5-Jan 7, 2020 (Sun.-Tue.) (p. 109) — Alex studies bills going through Congress and considers making the rounds at the Senate or starting a rumor with Nora, but he has no enthusiasm.

**Jan. 8, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 109) — Alex begins his final semester at Georgetown.

*Jan. 9-Jan. 14, 2020 (Th.-Tue.) (p. 109) — Alex throws himself into classwork, meets with the social secretary to plan his graduation dinner. Henry doesn’t answer his texts.

*Jan. 15, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 110-114) — June is fed up with Alex’s pacing and takes him out for a run. Alex does some introspection. Alex tells his mom he wants to start his campaign job now, instead of waiting until he graduates.

*Jan. 20, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 115) — Alex starts his new job at the campaign offices.

*Jan. 20-Jan. 25, 2020 (Mon.-Fri.) (p. 115-116) — Alex puts 23 hours into his new job and Definitely Does Not Think About Henry.

*Sometime between Jan. 25 and Jan 29, 2020 (Fri.-Wed.) (p. 116-122) — Alex comes out to Nora and tells her about Henry.

*Jan. 30, 2020 (Th.) (p. 122-127) — Alex rushes from work to his lecture and review and returns to the White House in a bad mood. June has the week’s tabloids. Alex freaks out at the idea that Henry is going on a date with a girl. Alex finally realizes he’s not straight. Alex calls Liam.

*Jan. 31, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 128-146) — The state dinner. There's a hot makeout session and Alexander Hamilton watches.

10:48 p.m.: Alex paces around his room.

10:54 p.m. Henry arrives at Alex’s rooms

*Feb. 1, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 122) — Alex has a campaign event in Nebraska

Feb. 13, 2020 (Th.) (p. 146-147) — Henry informs Alex of a charity polo match in Greenwich, Connecticut. That evening, June asks why he’s bailing on the fund-raiser he’s meant to be at

**Feb. 15, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 147-152) — The polo match. Alex spends 4.5 hours driving up, stays for 3 hours, and then drives 4.5 hours back.

**March 3, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 152) — 7:32 p.m. EST: Alex sends Henry an email asking if he will be in Paris for a fundraiser that weekend.

**March 4, 2020, (Wed.) (p. 152-156) — 2:14 a.m.-2:43 a.m.: Henry replies, and eventually concedes after a brief back and forth.

*March 7-8, 2020 (Sat.-Sun.) (p. 157-158) — Henry and Alex have a clandestine hookup in Paris and spend the night together.

*March 8, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 158) — Zahra texts Alex a screenshot of a buzzfeed article about him and Henry.

*March 9-March 27, 2020 (Mon.-Fri.) (p. 158-159) — Alex and Henry continue to text.

Sometime between March 23 and 26, 2020 (Mon.-Th.) (p. 159) — Alex tells Henry about a voter drive he will be attending in NYC at the end of March and Henry re-schedules his visit to NYC for that weekend.

*March 27, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 159) — Alex and Henry celebrate their birthdays with champagne and a buttercream cupcake.

April 1, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 159) — Alex convinces Henry to download Snapchat.

April 4, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 159) — Henry sends a snap of him on a sailboat.

April 5, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 182) — Bea walks in on an after-dark FaceTime session.

April 9, 2020 (Th.) (p. 160) — Henry is right that Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long and won’t hear a word against it.

April 10, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 161) — June notices the photo of the man with AIDS protesting pinned over Alex’s desk

*April 11, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 162) — Henry and Alex meet at a gala in Berlin. Alex ties Henry’s wrists to the bedpost.

*April 13, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 162-163) — Zahra notices the hickeys on Alex’s neck at the weekly briefing.

*April 25, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 163-173) — Someone paints “Powder Princess” on the side of Bea’s car. Late afternoon EST: Henry and Alex have a phone call largely centered around family.

April 30, 2020 (Th.) (p. 173-182) — 9:44 p.m.: Alex redraws districts in Texas and misses dinner with June. After getting back to the Residence, June reveals she’s known about Alex and Henry the whole time.

*May 2, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 183-185) — 4 a.m. EST/9 a.m. BST: Alex FaceTimes Henry and Pez at Llwynywermod.

**May 1-9, 2020 (Fri.-Sat.) (p. 185) — Georgetown finals week

**May 15, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 186-189) — Alex graduates summa cum laude from Georgetown. Jacinto drops out, making Richards the official Republican nominee. Alex eavesdrops on a conversation between Rafael Luna and Oscar Diaz.

Sometime between May 16 and May 22, 2020 (Sat.-Fri.) (p. 189) — Henry invites the Trio to a fund-raiser in LA the next weekend.

*May 30, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 189-200) — Alex gets lunch with his dad, who changes the subject every time Alex brings up the conversation with Luba. Alex attends the fund-raiser in LA followed by partying. Henry and Alex fuck.

*May 31, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 200-201) — 7:00 a.m.: Alex and Henry wake up. June, Nora, and Pez are heavily implied to have had a threesome. Alex realizes he has friends now.

**June 8, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 202-206) — 3:23 p.m.-7:21 p.m. EST: Henry and Alex exchange emails.

**June 13, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 207) — Alex misses his first DC pride while in Nevada. He “talks to his minibar about it”

*June 20, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 207) — Houston rally at Minute Maid Park.

*June 22, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 207-210) — Alex argues with WASPy Hunter about Texas. Alex looks up LSAT testing centers in DC.

*June 23, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 210-213) — Alex texts the groupchat “3 Geniuses and Alex” with Nora, Bea, and Henry asking where his speech for Milwaukee is.

Sometime between June 24 and July 3, 2020 (Wed.-Fri.) (p. 213) — Alex receives an invitation to Wimbledon

*July 5, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 213) — 10:20 p.m. EST: Alex takes off from DC for London.

**July 6, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 213-221) — Alex spends his one day off from the campaign at Wimbledon with Henry.

10:35 a.m. BST: Alex lands in London.

11:30 a.m.: Alex makes it through customs and Henry and Shaan pick him up at the airport.

12:30 p.m.: Arrival at Wimbledon

1:00 p.m.: The first game at Central Court begins

4:00 p.m.: Philip and Martha show up. Philip is an idiot that says “Morning”. Bea, like a smart person, says “Afternoon”. Henry and Philip argue, and Henry runs off.

4:10 p.m.: Alex finds Henry in the clubhouse

4:12 p.m.: Henry “shows Alex round the clubhouse”. Alex and Henry cum for the first time

After that they go to Kensington. Henry plays the piano for a while. They make out for what could be hours. They move to Henry’s room where Henry, at least, cums for the second time that day. Alex spends almost an hour making Henry cum for a third time. After that, Henry asks Alex to fuck him again, where Henry cums for the fourth time that day, and Alex cums for at least the second time, possibly a third time.

Alex takes hours to sleep.

*July 7, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 221-222) — 9:00 a.m. BST: Alex flies home to DC and lands around 9:10 a.m. EST for DNC prep.

The Richards campaign leaks they’ve tapped an independant.

*July 9, 2020 (Th.) (p. 222) — Claremont campaign releases the official platform.

*July 11, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 221-222) — Richards holds a rally at Vanderbilt University.

**July 14, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 223-224) — The gang flies to NYC on the evening of the second day of the DNC.

9:00 p.m.: The Richards campaign announces that the Independent senator joining Richards’s cabinet is Rafael Luna.

9:15 p.m.: Air Force One lands and the White House crew goes into crisis management meetings. Alex texts Luna “What the fuck”

11:00 p.m.: Luna responds “I don’t expect you to understand”.

*July 15, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 224-234) — 12:00 a.m.: Alex and June leave meetings and get harassed by a Post reporter. June goes to bed, and Alex goes to the bar where he meets Henry. They retire to Alex’s room.

6:45 a.m.: Zahra wakes Alex (and Henry) up, and discovers their relationship.

July 20, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 235-239) — 1:00 p.m.: Alex comes out to his mother.

2:00 p.m. — Ellen gives a PowerPoint presentation, then makes Alex do paperwork and kicks him off the campaign.

**Aug. 10, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 239-247) 1:04 a.m.-8:22 p.m. EST — Henry and Alex exchange emails about the complex nature of their relationship, and Alex extends an invite to the lake house.

*Aug. 22, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 247-257) — Day one of the lake house. The Trio arrive earlier, possibly on Friday. Early morning: They gas up the car before taking it to the hangar to pick up Henry in Austin. 1.5 hours — The drive to the lake. They arrive, Oscar welcomes everyone. Alex barbecues ribs. They spend the evening after dinner singing and playing guitar. Alex and Henry sleep in separate bunks

*Aug. 23, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 257-264) — Day two of the lake house. Alex makes breakfast. In the afternoon, Henry talks to Oscar about boats and outboard motors. They swim. That night, Henry and Alex go skinny dipping

*Aug. 24, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 264-265) — Alex wakes up to find that Henry has left.

*Aug. 25, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 266, 267) — Alex sends five texts to Henry. He also paces on the roof of the residence and wrecks his heels.

*Aug. 26, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 266) — Alex sends two texts to Henry.

*Aug. 27, 2020 (Thu.) (p. 266) — Alex sends no texts to Henry.

*Aug. 28, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 266) — Alex trains himself to check his phone after two hours instead of one.

Sometime between Aug. 25-28 (Tue.-Fri.) (p. 267) — Alex’s Claremont for America mug is smashed in the sink. 2.5 different dreams of Henry’s hair. An email is drafted and deleted.

*Aug. 29, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 267) — Luna makes his fifth campaign stop for Richards. Alex breaks his phone screen and it is replaced by the end of the day.

*Aug. 31, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 267-276) — Alex finds the note Henry left in the pocket of his kimono and smashes his phone.

5:45 a.m. EST/10 a.m. BST: Alex buys first class nonstop tickets for him and Cash and sends Cash a text.

7:45 a.m./12:45 p.m.: Alex and Cash’s flight begins boarding

8:00 a.m./1:00 p.m.: Alex and Cash’s flight leaves Dulles for London. Alex calls Zahra on the runways and asks her to call them a car in London

3:15 p.m./8:15 p.m.: The plane lands and they leave for Kensington

4:00 p.m./9:00 p.m.: They arrive in Kensington.

*Sep. 1, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 276-284) — Henry goes for a run. Philip eats plain toast. They have a conversation in the kitchen. Alex wakes up alone. Henry brings Alex coffee. They spend the day together.

**Sep. 2, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 284-293) — 2:00 a.m.: Henry and Alex sneak out and explore the V&A.

5:00 a.m. EST/10:00 a.m. BST: Alex and Cash’s plane departs from Heathrow to Dulles.

3:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. BST: Alex arrives back home.

5:12 p.m. EST: Alex emails Henry to say he arrived back home

**Sep. 3, 2020 (Th.) (p. 294-297) — 2:49 a.m. EST: Henry replies, mentions he’s considering coming out to Philip and he may have to enlist.

6:20 a.m. EST: Alex responds, worried that Henry might have to enlist. He is supportive of Henry coming out.

**Sep. 4, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 297-304) — 7:58 p.m. EST: Henry says he came out to Philip and talks about putting memories into rooms.

8:31 p.m. EST: Alex responds and sends Henry an incomplete list.

Sep. 14, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 305-310) — Zahra shows up with a diamond ring at the breakfast weekly brief. Footage of Henry and Alex at the DNC is leaked. June posts a photo of her and Henry on instagram and it spreads within hours.

Alex takes Nora on a fake date as Henry flies to DC. Henry lands in the middle of the night.

Sep. 15, 2020 (Tue.) (310-313) — June lets Alex into her SUV in the morning on the way to her fake date with Henry. After an hour at the cafe, Henry and Alex meet in the SUV and kiss. They don’t notice when someone takes pictures

*Sep. 24, 2020 (Th.) (p. 314-318) — Alex meets with Luna and comes out to him. He returns to the residence, attempts to call Henry, and then gets drunk.

**Sep. 25, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 319-321) — 3:21 a.m. EST/8:21 a.m. BST: Alex sends a drunk email.

6:07 a.m./11:07 a.m.: Henry replies.

**Sep. 27, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 321-344) — Email Leak Day

3 a.m. EST/8 a.m. BST: News breaks.

3:23 a.m./8:23 a.m. Zahra wakes Alex up and puts him on communications lockdown. Alex meets with his mom.

6:00 a.m./11:00 a.m.: Philip arrives at Kensington

8:00 a.m./3:00 p.m.: Alex gets out of meetings, starts napping

1:00 p.m./6:00 p.m.: Zahra tells Alex to pack a bag

7:00 p.m./12:00: They arrive at Kensington

11:00 p.m./4:00 a.m.: Alex finally climbs into bed next to Henry.

*Sep. 28, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 344-358) — Philip shows up at Kensington, hair uncombed and suit askew. Philip yells at them in the kitchen about breaking the communication embargo. Henry leaves, and Alex follows and leaves Philip red in the kitchen.

6:00 a.m./11:00 a.m.: They meet with the queen.

Alex takes a photo of a mural and posts it on Twitter on his way to the airplane

**Sep. 29, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 358-367) — 9:15 p.m. Jezebel tweets about DC Dykes on Bikes chasing Westboro Baptist protesters down Pennsylvania Ave.

Alex gets back to DC. Nora comes busting in with proof.

*Sep. 30, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 367-370) — The White House leaks proof of the Richarads campaign stalking, surveilling, hacking, and outing Alex. Rafael Luna announces on twitter he has left the campaign. The podcast Bills, Bills, Bills, records an episode about it.

**Oct. 2, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 370-383) — In the morning, Alex gives his speech, which June wrote. Henry is there to support him. They make out for like 45-55 minutes before the speech. Jeffrey Richards goes on CNN. Alex sees Luna in his office. Luna tells Alex about his past with Richards.

*Oct. 3, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 375) — A crowd at the Mall. Cash, Amy, and Amy’s wife are there.

*Oct. 4, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 383-385, 409) — 7:32 a.m.: The boys wake up.

9:30 a.m.: Henry leaves back to England.

Alex goes back to the campaign trail. Liam calls.

*Oct. 4-10, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 389) — The crown makes decisions about what to do about the emails: re Bea's addiction reveal, and Henry enlisting.

Sometime between Oct. 11-17, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 391) — Philip has a falling out with the queen and apologizes to Henry and Bea.

Sometime between Oct. 25-31, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 386-392) — The photoshoot in Hyde park.

*Nov. 2, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 393-399) — Day before election day. Alex struggles to pick a tie. June gets a book deal. The Trio falls asleep in the bed together.

**Nov. 3, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 400-418) — Election day

Alex votes.

6:00 p.m.: The Trio arrives at the election night event.

6:37 p.m. Henry texts Alex about plane troubles.

7:32 p.m.: Oliver Westbrook from Bills, Bills, Bills tweets about GOPers backing Richards even after everything that’s happened.

8:04 p.m.: 538 politics tweets that they’re confused about Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin being too close to call.

9:15 p.m.: NYT tweets that Claremont is at 178 and Richards is at 113

9:30 p.m.: Ellen worries about losing and asks June to write a concession speech. June refuses. Alex makes a speech. Henry finally arrives.

10:30 p.m.: Richards takes Iowa, Utah, and Montana. Claremont gets California’s 55 electoral votes.

12:00 a.m.: Claremont has the lead. Alex runs into Liam. Florida and Nevada go red.

12:30 a.m.: Texas goes blue.

1:00 a.m.: Alex unlocks the door with the key around his neck.

#rwrb #rwarb #rwrb spoilers #rwrb timeline #alex claremont diaz #prince henry of wales #this is exactly 5k #meta #i guess #long post

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