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lestatslestits · 5 months

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I am once again posting by the skin of my teeth, but it’s still Thursday here which means I’m not late for TOTA Takeover Day Four, dedicated to Fergus MacKinnon.

Fergus is a very special character to me, and his arc is devastating. I work in mental health and out of all of the characters in the show, Fergus is the one who hits closest to home for me.

And as a result it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to write. In the end, I’m pleased with the outcome and I hope y’all enjoy it too.

Note: this is a direct follow up to Rosalie’s ficlet from Day One, in the sense that they take place in the same day/night, and this fic makes reference to that one (although it’s brief and you can definitely still understand this one if you haven’t read it)

He can’t sleep, so he decides to go to the kitchen.

He likes kitchens, they’re filled with the kinds of things he understands: things powered with electricity, things alive with faint humming noises and barely-there vibrations that no one notices but him. This kitchen, massive and industrial, sounds nothing like his mam’s kitchen growing up, or even the kitchen in the flat he had occupied until he occupied a series of loony bins instead, but there’s still something he finds grounding about it, especially late at night when there are no staff members to chase him out because they are afraid he’ll learn where the knives are kept.

(He already knows where the knives are kept, and how to pick the lock on the cupboard door.)

(He once spent an entire afternoon hiding in an entirely different and thoroughly forgotten cupboard just to prove to himself that he could do it without being caught out. To this day, no one knows.)

There are two ways to get into the St. Jude’s Hospital kitchen when you’re not on staff. One involves abseiling down the side of the building from his fourth floor room and the other involves being able to walk silently, blend into the shadows, keep his head down, and be massively underestimated by everyone who sees him. He’s not in the mood to rig up a rope this late in the evening, so he chooses the latter option.

Stuart doesn’t typically work the graveyard shifts, and the aides who do are less inclined to act like big stupid guard dogs eager to slam patients into walls. The one occupying the nurse’s station nearest to the kitchen has brought a book to read and it must be a good one because he doesn’t even look up as Fergus slips past him.

He wishes he knew what the book was. He’s already read everything in the hospital’s single-shelf “library,” and money is always tight so hasn’t picked up any books on his last few outings. But as he can’t very well go up and ask, he puts the thought aside and focuses on picking the locks on the kitchen door. There are two, and he knows how to pick them both with paperclips.

(Technically speaking, he isn’t meant to have paperclips, but they are remarkably easy to nick from almost any desk in the hospital, so he’s always got plenty on hand.)

He slips into the kitchen and shuts the door behind him. He breathes easier in here, out of the line of sight. Even so, he turns one of the locks behind him, and navigates in the dark so that no light shines out under the crack in the door.

For a long moment he relishes his hard-won freedom, and loses himself in the sounds all around him.

In his younger days no one had believed or even had any interest in listening to his insistence that there were voices—whispers—in the electrical hum of the world around him. In fact, no one had cared about the voices he heard at all, until they started shouting abusive litanies and telling him to follow the hidden messages he heard in television and radio broadcasts.

(After that they had cared a lot.)

(To this day the voices he hears in the ambient noise of the modern world are the only ones he actually finds comforting—and the ones no one else seems interested in.)

He allows himself this moment of peace where these voices drown out the ones demanding self-hatred and paranoia.

(The meds that they give him make those voices quieter, but they never silence them completely.)

Once he’s fully grounded in the space and his eyes have adjusted to the darkness, he reminds himself that he’s on mission and moves primarily by sound and touch in search of his prize.

The cocoa here is shit. It’s cheap powdered stuff bought in bulk and mixed with hot water, often without much effort at stirring out the clumps. He’s working with what he’s got, but he swaps water out in favor of milk, a small luxury. Once it’s boiling gently he stirs in the cocoa mix, using the light of the open refrigerator to determine when the clumps have been properly obliterated.

He does the washing up when he’s finished with the kitchen: puts everything back into order and escapes with one perfect cup of cocoa, locking the doors behind him. The aide at the desk has not looked up from his book.

~~~

“I’ve got something for you.”

The figure in the narrow bed shifts under a multitude of blankets. “Fergus? What time is it?” His voice sounds thoroughly wrecked.

“Late. You slept through the cocoa round. Figured you needed the rest, though.”

“So you’re waking me now instea—oh.” Campbell Bain has flopped onto his back and is now squinting up at him with bleary, watery eyes.

He extends the cup he’s holding. “Made it myself,” he explains, answering the unasked question of where he got cocoa at this hour.

“Do they no keep the kitchen locked up tae keep the loonies out of the knives and all?”

“They try,” he agrees amiably, with a subdued smile. Then, “It’s going cold.”

Campbell heaves himself into a sitting position and coughs mightily for his effort. Fergus waits until he’s done before he hands him the cocoa.

“Rosalie stopped by. Earlier.”

“Oh?”

“She couldn’t—“

“Right,” The boy’s head bobs in understanding. He sips the cocoa and declares, “That’s no bad. Different than what we get on the cocoa round, though.”

“I used real milk.” He’s actually properly proud of that, and feels the pride legitimized by Campbell’s appreciative smile. It drops when he asks, “How’s the throat?”

“Hurts.”

Fergus brushes Campbell’s absurd fringe from his face and presses a hand to his forehead. Still feverish.

“Thanks for the cocoa. I didnae know you could cook.”

“It’s just cocoa, Campbell.” He hesitates and adds, “I like kitchens, though. They whisper to me.”

It’s not a strange thing to say. Not here. And anyways, Campbell never seems to register strangeness. He looks unsurprised, and there’s sincerity in his voice when he asks, “What do they say?”

“Good things,” Fergus replies. He doesn’t elaborate. It’s too personal, anything beyond that. Campbell doesn’t press.

“That’s nice,” he says, drinking the cocoa to the dregs. “I’m glad. Thanks for the cocoa.”

“Don’t mention it.” He means that literally: this has to be a secret between the two of them.

Campbell nods in earnest understanding.

“And get some rest. You look like hell.”

Before any offense can be registered, Fergus slips out the door and back towards his room a floor above. He’s less restless now. Maybe he’ll even manage to get some sleep.

#takin over the asylum #TOTA Takeover #tota #fergus mackinnon #takin’ over the asylum #tota fandom #tota fanfic

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karilapio · 1 year

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En ekalla kertaa lukenu tota enkku pätkää ku räjähti pää jo ennen sitä mutta on kai sekin patrioottinen potaska käytävä läpi. Tätä menoa musta tulee vielä sellanen rasittava tyyppi joka tekee 3 tunnin videoesseitä...

In English, the following screenshot is but romanticized, patriotic version of history that Finnish people are taught in primary schools (you know how you teach history to children you don't start with heyyy your country was ruled by horrible people, slaughtered its own citizens and allied with literal n*zis! You start with simplified, cleaned up version and get deeper into detail in higher education although patriotism never quite goes away) and romanticed fiction. There's been a culture of silence out of respect for the Veterans but very few exist today so we have finally started to critically examine our past. Well, some have. Outside Finland it's been given that Finns were willing allies with n*zis and all evidence supports this but in Finland... for many it is simply too shameful to even think about nevermind admit. One great example being Finns getting upset every time someone points out some parts of our air force STILL has a sv4stika on their flag! In memory of the n*zi tht gave us our first aircraft no less...

It's nothing new - USA does the same trying to white wash their wars as do pretty much every country who would want to look bad if they can tidy up their own story instead - so of course a former proud ally of the "baddies" tries to sweep the bad in our history under the rug (including the part rarely talked about Finland being the one starting conflicts against ussr in 20s before ussr indeed started the actual Winter War) and in doing so, we are unable to learn from our history and are doomed to repeat the same mistakes again - far right government has just been elected to power and despite having (in name only) social democrats in power last time even they have fallen so far away from left values they were the ones that lead us to become allies militarily once again with autoritarian/fash countries like Turkey, Hungary.. Poland bears honorable mention and of course USA, the biggest baddest in the worl. Not that its a competition. But many Finnish people only know USA from Hollywood and Turkey as a fun holiday resort so once again it would take another long post to even start debunking the propaganda and falsified image of those countries to Finns that don't even know their own history nevermind the here and now political situation of foreign countries.

It's okay, not everyone is interested in history or politics and that is fine - I for sure regret picking up history instead of say gardening as knowledge is pain and makes you sad but once you start learning you can not stop - but we have a saying in Finland "empty pots make the loudest noise" and my problem is more so with people who know the least seem to be the loudest in sharing their opinions. And agreeing the Emperor has nice clothes gets you better Results than daring to say the Emperor is not only naked he is waving a sv#stika flag.

And for a country that build it's prosperity through socialism and good relations with both west AND USSR, Finns today sure can be quite anticommunist, even those who claim to be "leftists". But that's another long post lol and I must confess it was a long road and a lot of reading, listening and thinking for me as well to shake those patriotic myths and propaganda thus I want to stay understanding as nobody is born with all the knowledge in the world and I prefer not to engsge direcrly as you can never know if a person with lazy thinking or shocking opinions online is indeed only 14... teens are entitlef to odd opinions! Or a school dropout (usually not their fault!) or an actual neon*zi. Any case, no reason to engage with people who do not ask to be educated, it can be seen both rude (nobody likes to get a well achtually in their mentions) and most often a waste of time as someone already defensive of their view is too hunkered down to accept new information.. Rather I will make posts of my own that people can either read or not - and can decide for themselves if what I have to say is worth a follow or unfollow. People learn at their own free will. Just like I did and am still doing myself

It's very telling that the screenshot left out the Civil War. It's just as important what is left out and why than what is included.

And getting into Ukr war would be a whole another can of worns I do not wish to open, but because I'm in my "Fuck It" era I will say this: if you absolutely need to compare the two wars the only good comparison between 1939 and 2022 would be how once again people in power care more about a plot of land than about the people living there.

Otherwise, you can not in good faith compare the two. Unless you are claiming ukr are n*zis and the capitalist oligargy hell that is russia today is somehow same same as ussr (which included ukr!!!) and that my friend is a Put1nist view. We do have those in Finland, our current election winner party is literally the Sister party of Put1ns and they only cut ties fairly recently to avoid "bad optics" but nobody talks about it!

Or, are you comparing Karelian separatists, a group (not all) who wanted to join Finland to ukrainan separatists in donbass who wanted to join Russia? This comparison would either make Finns in 1939 the bad guys or Russia today the good guys?? Do not think any of these are my opinions, I am simply trying to showcase by examples how comparing these vastly different conflicts in vastly different times does not work.

I doubt the screenshotted account meant it thisbeay either as it is clear they don't have very good knowledge about history or political climate of the era so it was just a logic gone wrong due missing information situation. As a Finn I can see how they might have come to the conclusion but it is a very surface level understanding and that's why you should not take your information solely from one source or social media - keep an open mind and challenge your views but don't trust anyone at face values, Including myself! Go ask a librarian for books about stuff from writers with opposing biases and you will find much more reliable information comparing how a finnish, russian, german, british etc writers tell the same story. Somewhere in the cross section lays a grain of truth. But its okay iif you are not that interested.. what is a Basic life skills in today's internet is source criticism, understanding everyone has a bias and possible an agenda whether they are open about it or not and being vary of anything that provokes a strong emotional reaction. When that happens, take a step back before engaging. That is what propagandist use so well and algorithms love. Once again that should have its own post lol what can I say world is complicated and I do t eqnt to write a novel on tunblr.

Last note about wikipedia

If you want to link sources, link actual sources NOT wikipedia. You can only think what kind of people would have time and agenda to be editing the pages about this stuff and it's not actual historians (mind you, many patriotic historians also exist, nobody is without bias as we are only human). Keeping a certain pure image of our country is important to many Finns, we are after all still sort of "Keep Face" culture as seen in my anecdote about not talking about atrocities our side committed out of respect to remaining veterans. But it is time we talk about the dark side of our history and stop spreading the romantizied myths or we will be doomed to repeat the same again and again...

#finnish history #we need to learn history good and bad ESPECIALLY the bad or we risk making the same mistakes again #finland #suomen historia #kansallishäpeä #joo on mullakin esi-isissä lahtareita ei sitä historiaa voi muuttaa se pitää hyväksyä ja ottaa opiksi ja tehdä itse parempaa tulevaisuutta #ainoastaan siihen voit vaikuttaa.. nykyhetkeen ja tulevaisuuteen #postaan tänki nyt ni voi siirtyä hauskempiin aiheisiin En tiiö kiinnostako ketää mut ainakin näil karkottaa n*tsinpoikaset pois seuraajista

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thechembow · 7 months

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Denver area snow totals for October 29

Oct. 29, 2023 - The Denver Gazette

Amazing results from our Denver gifting! BIG October snow in Denver and all around Colorado! It's crazy to think we were driving in these places just over a week ago gifting orgonite. We did bring our snow chains because we know what orgonite gifting does.

The Denver metro area recorded its first snowfall of the season as a fall storm dumped snow throughout the state this weekend. Snowfall totals in the metro area ranged from as low as 3 inches in the northern suburbs to as much as 10 inches in portions of Douglas County.

Heavier bands hit parts of South Denver and Aurora, as well with 8.5 inches in Englewood and 9.5 inches near Cherry Creek Reservoir.

Here are the 24-hour snow totals for Denver, and surrounding areas, as of 9:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the NWS.

Denver – 5.5 inches

Denver International Airport – 6.5 inches

Southwest Denver – 8 inches

Aurora – 6.1 inches

Boulder - 5 inches

Westminster – 4.6 inches

Arvada – 3.5 inches

Commerce City – 6.5 inches

Golden 9 inches

Thornton – 4.4 inches

Englewood – 8.7 inches

Littleton – 7.1 inches

Greenwood Village – 9 inches

Cherry Hills Village – 8 inches

Lakewood - 8 inches

Wheat Ridge – 6 inches

Broomfield - 4 inches

Ken Caryl - 9 inches

Castle Pines – 10.6 inches

Elsewhere in the state:

Southern Colorado Springs - 11 inches

Northern Colorado Springs - 5. 3 inches

Fort Collins - 3.7 inches

Copper Mountain - 16.9 inches

Loveland Pass - 11.7 inches

Breckenridge - 16 inches

Silverthorne - 15.6

Eldora - 14 inches

Berthoud Pass - 13 inches

Estes Park - 11.7 inches

#orgone #orgone energy #orgonite #orgonite gifting #weather #denver #colorado #snow #geo-restoration #planetary healing

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useless-catalanfacts · 2 years

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A beautiful song with a very genuine sound to it: Balansiya by Xavi Sarrià feat. Sandra Monfort, Rafel Arnal and Pep Gimeno “Botifarra”. “Balansiya” was the Arabic name for València.

This song mixes modern music with traditional Valencian music, and lyrics that talk about Valencian history. In this album, Xavi Sarrià talks about the heritage in Valencian culture (mostly in music) that was inherited from the Moorish people, who lived in large numbers in the Valencian Country and the south of Catalonia. In the year 1609, the Hispanic monarchy released a decree by which all Moorish people had to either convert to Christianity or leave. By that time, one third (!!) of the population of the Kingdom of Valencia was Moorish, so as a result it lost a huge amount of population, but many others stayed and hid among the Christians.

The culture of the Valencian Country and the south of Catalonia was already a mix of Moorish and Christian elements back then, and it has continued to be so until nowadays. This is most noticeable in traditional music, which has similarities with the traditional music of Northern Africa.

Here are the original lyrics in Valencian-Catalan and the translation to English:

Una alqueria, estreles i flors abraça l’aurora un país de cançons els joves dansen, la lluna ha mudat no plores mare que el cel està albat ha mort la innocència, en l’han arrancat ja no hem de mentir per dir la veritat la nostra alegria no ens la dona el vi és l’emoció pura que ens batega al pit

A farmhouse, stars and flowers a country of songs hugs the dawn young people dance, the moon has been changed don’t cry, mother, for the sky is light* innocence has died, it has been stripped from us we no longer have to lie in order to tell the truth it’s not wine that gives us this joy but the pure emotion that beats in our chest

La teua presència és com una oració pregue morir si no visc no amb amor tot l’univers està dins de tu naveguen les barques com rajos de llum pels oceans d’aigües sensorials al centre de tot on brolla qui soc un camp magnètic sense coordenades melodies nues de cançons sagrades

Your presence is like a prayer I pray to die if I don’t live with love the whole universe is inside you the boats sail like rays of light on the oceans of sensorial waters in the centre of everything where who I am springs a magnetic field without coordinates naked melodies of holy songs

Palmes, postisses, guitarra i dolor no et posem cara però et sentim al cor gemecs sense esquema, art de resistència, veus esguerrades d’exili interior negra és l’esperança que es perd però se sent verda és la mort que no vol fer el dol ara ho entenc i no puc callar se m’eriça la pell quan t’escolte cantar

Handclapping, castanets, guitars and pain we don’t know your face but we feel you in our heart groans without plan, resistance art, broken voices of interior exile the hope that is lost but can be felt is black the death that doesn’t want to mourn is green I understand it now and I can’t be quiet I get goosebumps when I hear you sing

Una sandinga, una seguidilla una malaguenya, una granaïna la llavor germina, plora i s’extasia quan s’obri en canal la nostra ferida redades, presons, expulsions i matances no han pogut callar l’emoció amb què cantes et perseguiren però tu et camuflares prenyares per sempre les nostres entranyes

A sandinga, a seguidilla a malaguenya, a granaïna [styles of traditional songs] the seed sprouts, cries and goes into raptures when our wound opens. Raids, prisons, expelling and slaughters have not been able to make quiet the emotion with which you sing they persecuted you but you disguised yourself impregnated forever our entrails

A les nits de l’alqueria, hi ha llaüts i guitarrons pintant les penes d’alegria amb cançons de mil colors Les cantarem tota la nit no oblidarem que ens van ferir que la música és la sang, la festa i la tradició del nostre País Valencià.

In the farmhouse’s nights, there are lutes and guitarrons [traditional instrument similar to an ukelele] Painting the sorrows in happiness with songs of a thousand colours We’ll sing them all night long we won’t forget that we were wounded that music is the blood, the festivity and the tradition of our Valencian Country.

A les nits de l’alqueria a la lluna de Balansiya. (x2)

In the farmhouse’s nights, at the moon of Balansiya. [“at the moon of València” is an expression in the Catalan language that we explained in this previous post]

A les nostres festes, seguirem cantant amb la resiliència que vam heretar canviaren les lletres per negar qui eren i sobreviure a les seues fogueres memòria amputada, versos mutilats queda un dolor íntim que no hem oblidat van cremar els llibres però guardem al pit la biblioteca dels nostres sentits.

In our festivities, we’ll keep singing with the resilience that we inherited they changed the lyrics to deny who they were and survive to their bonfires amputated memory, mutilated verses an intimate pain remains, which we have not forgotten they burned the books but we keep in our chest the library of our senses.

No parle d’altres, parle de nosaltres les arrels profundes que ens van ocultar negres, jueves, morisques, gitanes filles prohibides de Balansiya els teus melismes són recitacions la pena perviu a les nostres cançons et perseguiren però tu et camuflares prenyares per sempre les nostres entranyes.

I don’t talk about others, I talk of ourselves the deep roots that were hidden from us black, Jewish, Moorish, Romani forbidden daughters of Balansiya your vocal runs are recitations the sorrow lives on in our songs they persecuted you but you disguised yourself and impregnated forever our entrails

(Repeat chorus)

*I’m not sure of the translation of this line. “Està albat” could mean that it has light, that the sun has risen (“alba”=sunrise), but the word “albat” means a child that has died in its first days, before being baptised. “Albat” could also be a literary word to mean “white”.

#música #arts #xavi sarrià #pep gimeno botifarra #país valencià #valencian country #balansiya #història #history #world music #traditional music #folk music #music #song rec #al-andalus #al andalus #1600s

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ahleezeruinavt · 10 months

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My Super Shitty Fast Food Experience (and just stuff I’ve noticed because of it)

If there’s one thing I’ve always despised after working my first job, it’s how fast food places (never worked retail so I can really only talk about fast food), don’t want you to be seen doing things that people just… do.

At my first job we weren’t allowed to do or be seen doing a lot of things (mainly when the GM was working). It was one of those drive thru only places, so nobody ever really saw the inside, but we did have windows to see stuff outside.

One of the big rules was that you couldn’t take you break or be seen relaxing in front of any of the windows. Not even taking a sip of your drink. Now remember how I said it was one of those Drive Thru only restaurants? Yeah. We didn’t have anywhere to really sit or “take a break” at, and since most of us were teenagers who’s parents dropped us off or biked, we couldn’t just go eat in our car. Additionally, that “no being seen relaxing / not working” rule applied to our breaks, so we couldn’t even go sit at the outside benches to eat. There was a very small side table which was normally crammed with drinks where you could eat, but there was still no place to actually sit and eat. There were no chairs or stools in that entire building, not even when we had a pregnant lady working. And if you were injured or felt dizzy, you had to sit *on the floor*. Which mind you, wasn’t very clean.

Next was the fact that we weren’t allowed to have any tattoos, unless they were super super small, like the size of your fingernail (though this rule seemed to be just specific to my location). There was a girl who ended up quitting simply because of the fact that she wanted a small cross tattoo on the inside of her forearm and the GM flat out told her that if she was going to do that, she would be fired.

But wait! There’s more! I didn’t mention this at the start but I started working around the time when COVID was “dying down” (I use that term loosely, but it was when a majority of people started unmasking in my state). I had asked the manager what the protocol was for being alerted about being exposed to COVID on your shift. He simply said there wasn’t one. You’d figure out if you caught it yourself. And, if you caught COVID you were still responsible for finding people to cover your shifts. Failure to do so could result in you being fired. So the first thing I had to do when I had gotten COVID was, instead of resting, sit at my phone for a good hour or so to text all my available coworkers about covering my shifts because I had COVID. There was even one time when I was just sick (not with COVID, just had some food poisoning and a fever), that I was forced to come in because I couldn’t find coverage. I was forced to work for about 3 hours while vomiting almost every 15 minutes. They had me taking orders right next to where food was. I expressed a discomfort about that, especially since I had already practically begged them to let me go home. Mind you, this wasn’t the first time this happened. One of my coworkers projectile vomited when coming out with food, and they just put the food in a new bag (the food itself was untouched but still kinda gross), and told her to go get cleaned up and continue serving food.

Workers comp was REPEATEDLY ignored and not filed unless you were one of the managers. I had developed pretty bad tendonitis and actually fractured one of my wrists (scooping ice as funny as it is), and I hadn’t really noticed anything was wrong until a day or two later. I got yelled at for not filing the same day and then the paper never got put in. The GM had also forced a girl, who thought her finger was broken, to finish up the last few hours of her shift serving food. As a side note, I tried staying on top of the GM and he kept waving his hand and telling me he’ll get it done.

Same GM also stole money from me which ended up taking basically all my tips and when I had said I think he forgot to adjust my total at the end of the day, he asked me if I was accusing him of something. I am GREAT with keeping track of money. There was no way I was specifically missing $74 (and some change) when that was the specific amount he took from me for a cash in cash out (a cash in cash out is- and this is how it was explained to me so sorry if I’m wrong- when they need to pay something for the store so they typically take money from the carhops and then take it off of our total we owe back to the store at the end of the night). So I was down $74 in TIPS because of this guy and he had the audacity to ask me if I was accusing him of stealing money from me. Which, to be fair, I kinda was, but that was because he basically had. So yeah, if you were, for some reason, short on cash at the end of the end of the day you had to pay it out of your tips (I think what we used was you had to have something like 10 five’s and 15 one’s or something like that, and then another thing for your changer).

Then there was politics in the workplace. And I don’t mean LGBTQ+ people working there, or non-white people working there. I mean the GM constantly tried to talk to people about his thoughts on gun laws and abortion and, not surprisingly, equal opportunity employment. I want you to picture this. Super skinny white guy with a small mustache, who’s kinda tall and openly talks about how he has been working at this company for 30 something years and is super proud of it while having the BIGGEST stick up his ass with “the customer is always right” attitude. Yeah. That was my GM. A coworker of mine wore a hat with a rainbow pin on it. Not even a flag iirc, just a rainbow, and she got told that “we don’t represent that here”. This was an employee who was very open about being queer and this manager harped on her for wearing a rainbow pin on her hat. The very same guy who made multiple of us uncomfortable because he discussed things like gun laws at work, and went into gruesome detail about how women get assaulted so they should like guns more. Also told two black coworkers that they looked similar despite being two entirely different builds and not even having any features in common except skin color. He really sucked at hiding his biases.

Then, when I finally quit I didn’t give notice. I was sick and tired of my requests to be off work to not be respected, the DISGUSTING working conditions, how stuff wasn’t cleaned properly, and how I’m pretty sure they were breaking some sort of health laws. I got a call from the manager and he said that he’ll say I left on good terms in case I ever wanted to come back. I hung up. I didn’t care. It wasn’t a shock that almost NOBODY who I worked with back then even works there now. Almost the entire staff changed after about 6-7 months. They’re still trying to advertise getting people’s teenagers to work there on almost every stall and the place is pretty much dead now.

Almost no one goes there and the reviews suck because people get food poisoning, not cold ice cream, or even are flat out ignored when they say they’re allergic to something. So yeah. I’m glad I quit because I would not want to be there anymore. But there are a few key things I noticed from this.

These places don’t want their workers to seem like actual human beings. You have to keep a smile on 24/7 and be nice even if the customer is being rude to you. You aren’t allowed to express who you are for the fact that a customer might find a rainbow pin offensive. People aren’t even allowed to see us off the clock in our uniforms waiting for our parents to pick us up. And the BIGGEST thing I learned is these places absolutely take advantages of teenagers who are just trying to earn some money. And they don’t listen to requests until a parent gets involved. They don’t even care if their workers are sick, just so long at the company is still making money.

You couldn’t even request certain days off unless your parents confirmed you couldn’t come in that day. Not to mention PTO was supposed to be a thing and… it wasn’t. Never got paid it. Never got that workers comp. All I have to say is fuck how “beginner jobs” (fast food and retail more specifically) treat their workers and how they allow their workers to be treated.

#I literally hated working there #Ranting just because #feel free to leave your’re own stories #i hate people #man im glad i could leave that place #fast food work sucks #ex fast food worker #literally got food poisoning every time I ate there #got covid from eating there once too

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radgirl-spray · 2 years

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My experience growing up kinda gnc. My mom was really non conforming (not that she knew) She rarely wore make up. I saw her in a dress only sundays, because she wore it to the church (until she stoped believing when i was like 10), the rest of the week? joggers, big boots, simple t-shirts. Most of the time she put on my dad's clothing. And most of it was stained with paint. She never painted her nails, and didn't cared about jewerly or hair, far too occupied doing stuff around the house and by that i mean building stuff, fixing furniture, working on the garden, choping wood, plating, hammering, getting shit done, etc. On that same note, i can count with one hand the times i wore a dress in my childhood. Since we were dirt poor, i inherited my clothes from my older brother so girly clothes was never a thing for me and my brothers themselves had very long hair as children. I spended my days playing in the mud, jumping, climbing trees, budget too tight for barbies. I played in the woods, fought with wooden swords with my brothers and sister, dress up and tried to make my own tree house at 12 (a total failure of course) but the imput was there. Even for school, we had uniforms with skirts, but mom sended me with pants because it was too cold. And even when mine was a girl's school, since we were only girls, no one compared us with any boys, so we found a ball and played until we broke some windows among other things.

As a result by the time i got to puberty, my mom wanted me not to wear makeup, that i didn't need it, but me being a 14 yo insisted. I wanted to be goth and wore dark make up and stuff because i thought it was super cool. Not because i was a girl, but because i liked cool shit. If anything i always gravitated towards boys who had long hair and wore make up, and girls who did cool stuff like playing drums or whatever. This is why when people speak of "girl stuff" and "boy stuff" it sounds so fucking out there to me. It sounds so weird and i really cannot comprehend why people cannot separate biology from everything else. This is also why i believe a child raised in a gender non conforming home will rarely feel inadequate to their sex. If someone had told little me "if you like skirts you are a girl" i would have imediatly told them "i am a girl and i don't wear skirts." not even because i didn't like them, but because i simply didn't had them. They weren't a necessity in a home where 4 children share jeans and t-shirts. Where children play outside. Why would my mom put myself and my sister in skirts if we were playing football outside with the boys? And i did wanted to be a sailor moon as a child, but i also wanted to be an evil vampire and singer and a veterinarian. None of it meant i was or wasn't a girl. But growing up i found out that my biology did meant that people would misstreat me. That people would doubt me and make me uncomfortable, but i never for a single second thought it was my fault for being a girl, nor it was girlhood nor my body. After all my body took me places and allowed me to do stuff. My girlhood was me hunting spiders, playing videogames and stealing apples from my neighbour's backyard. It was the people. My parents always warned me about what people do to women of course, and i also had to go through the "boys will be boys" stuff while my sister and i were responsible for stuff my brothers weren't, but i always knew it was not my fault that everyone is sexist. My mom teached me that being a woman meant that i could do and look whatever and that i would be it even if people (family included) would want me to be many stupid things that weren't necessary with her own example, so i cannot understand how is so difficult for a bunch of people to grasp that simple fact. And is because of this that i care about women droping stupid ass stereotypes. Is also why it offends me so much when some braindead gendie say stuff like "i'm not like the women" or "woman is a gender" because is not. Because is totally possible to be at peace with yourself and your body while understanding that you don't have to perform femininity. That is not that the world is garbage because you are a woman, but rather people treat women like garbage just because we have a body that's different to men. That i don't feel anything in particular about my biological reality, because i am not different than my body, i am my body; but i'm hella pissed that people might kill me because of it and that somewhere out there, there is a girl, like me, who likes to build stuff and play videogames and loose clothing and some stupid fuck is telling her that she's not a girl because of it; alienating her from her body, lying to her about how the world will treat her if she convinces herself to be something else. That out there is someone telling her she should feel anything but neutral about the body she has, instead of making a confident and rational woman of her, filling her with insecurities and doubts of her own existence, convincing her that she needs hormones and surgery to be her "true self", that she has too buy a binder so no one knows she has breasts, instead of using the money to get herself a cool videogame or tools for some hobby that makes her happy. That her uterus is useless and that someone calling her female is wishing her death because being a woman is hell and the worst thing that could happen to her

#long rant because today i've seen some shit

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itsnothappening · 2 years

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prejudice | jasonette

word count: +1k

summary: on one hand, she could simply deny it and walk away. but, marinette had never been one to avoid a confrontation especially on the prejudice against her blood status.

a/n: not very graphic depictions of violence, dw.

tw: blood; violence

@maribat-calendar-events

ao3 | wattpad | series masterlist | masterlist | prompts

Marinette liked to think of herself as a very positive person, who got along with everyone in Hogwarts, despite their differences in houses. Of course, there were some prejudiced arses who judged her on her blood status — muggleborn — but generally, Marinette steered clear of them.

Having just finished writing her potion's essay — couldn't Snape give them a break for once? — Marinette was heading back to the Hufflepuff common room, her arms laden with heavy textbooks on the potions in the OWLs syllabus this year.

Sighing at the fact that fifth year was going to be tonight every night, Marinette didn't notice the seventh-years until they were crowding around her, whispering and snickering.

"Oi!" One of the boys yelled, "Aren't you the muggleborn fifth year?"

Marinette stopped walking — not that she could anyway — and exhaled through her nose slowly. On one hand, she could simply deny it and walk away. But, Marinette had never been one to avoid a confrontation especially on the prejudice against her blood status.

"Yes," Marinette said calmly, eyes sharp and icy as she took in stock of the 'men' around her. "Can I help you?"

One of the more unappealing boys stepped up to her, his foul breath attacking Marinette's nose with fervour.

"I bet you can," he sneered, looking down at her. "By leaving Hogwarts, that is. We don't need your filthy blood polluting our pure blood."

Marinette grit her teeth as her blood boiled, trying to remember who he was.

Realising they were all waiting for a pathetic, sniveling answer from herself, Marinette shot him an icy glare. "You're hardly one to talk. After all, the only reason your blood is pure is because it's the result of varying levels of incest."

Smirking as she felt the tension in the seventh-year build, Marinette added, "Probably explains why your face looks like a flat potato."

Letting out a roar of anger, the boy snarled at her, swinging his fist her way.

Raising her eyebrows at him, Marinette ducked slightly, wondering if she was an adrenaline junkie. It would explain why she didn't immediately shy away from these situations as most did.

The boy's — his name Marinette did not care to know, she could easily pick him out — fist missed her head by a good few inches.

Feeling the others around her beginning to move, Marinette clutched her wand, hidden in her robes, ready to start shooting as soon as things became unfair.

Sure enough, the other two boys advanced on her, wands out and ready.

One of them began to yell out, "Petrificus Tota—"

Well. Marinette couldn't let that happen, could she?

Immediately, her wand pointing at him, Marinette whispered, "Silencio."

Voice gone, Marinette smirked as she saw him clutch his throat and panic at the sudden loss of his voice. He didn't seem very bright.

But she became too arrogant, forgetting about the other seventh-year behind her.

A fist bludgeoned itself into Marinette's cheek, sending her body flying a few paces backwards. Marinette had the sense to cover her head from the stone floor as she fell, otherwise she'd probably be suffering from a severe concusssion.

The impact of landing on the floor was jarring, and left Marinette disoriented for a few moments, long enough for the three boys to advance on her, predatory grins pasted across their faces.

Marinette swore under her breath at her stupidity — why did she think she could do this again? — and looked for a way out. Spying the heavy textbooks, she had dropped earlier on the sides, Marinette scrambled to get up, ignoring the ache in her body as she heaved a textbook up and threw it at the boy she had silenced.

It hit his head with a resounding thud! but Marinette couldn't bring herself to feel bad about it. He deserved it.

Assuming he was unconscious, Marinette dug her hand into her pocked, looking for her wand. That was, until she realised it was on the other side of the seventh-years, essentially out of reach and leaving Marinette defenseless.

Dear god, she was so screwed.

Marinette stumbled again as her vision tunneled threateningly, and realised she had to act quick. Either she could let herself become a victim of these bullies or she could take a chance.

Trying to stay conscious, Marinette readied herself to run between the two boys, gritting her teeth against the pain.

The one who had accosted her in the beginning was coming closer — too close for Marinette's liking. He was saying something she couldn't hear over the pounding of her heart, but she did notice him laugh.

"Incarcerous," a distinctly male voice said from behind him, and within seconds, the boy was silenced, rolling on the ground furiously making muffled noises.

Marinette's mouth dropped open, watching as yet another boy walked in (a sixth-year maybe?) but this time, on her side. She watched soundlessly as the boy snarled at the last standing bully, who, she noticed, left in quite a hurry after talking to the newcomer.

Marinette didn't realise she was staring at him until he walked in front of her, looking down at her with concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked, cringing slightly as he took her into consideration.

Wordlessly, Marinette nodded, her gaze finally tearing away from the handomse boy in front of her to her wand, lying innocently on the floor.

"My wand," she croaked, her throat sore and voice hoarse for some reason.

Offering her a kind smile, the boy walked to it languidly, picking it up and inspecting it for damages.

In the mean time, Marinette had the sense to gather her things, picking up her satchel and textbooks, ignoring the blackening edges of her vision and static running through her ears.

"Here," said the boy, his voice sounding funnily tinny. "Do you want some help?"

Marinette nodded again, but as she did so, a red drop of something fell onto the floor below them.

The last thing she saw the boy's worried face as the blackness overcame her vision, until she knew no more.

When she woke up later, Marinette would realise that the boy who helped her? Well, he was part of the famous — or infamous, really — Wayne family.

Jason Todd.

#jasonette july 2022 #jasonette #jason x marinette #marinette x jason #jason todd #marinette dupain cheng #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #hogwarts au #blood purity #muggleborns #bullies #violence

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cultml · 15 days

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metamoonshots · 7 months

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[ad_1] Ameriprise Monetary Thursday introduced a giant hike in its adjusted earnings for the third quarter and and attributed the success to a major growth in consumer belongings and a surge in belongings underneath administration. In a strong efficiency, the agency noticed whole consumer belongings swell by virtually 15%, reaching a formidable $816 billion, up from $711 billion in the identical interval the earlier 12 months. The corporate’s belongings underneath administration and administration skilled a 12% bounce to whole $1.23 trillion on the finish of the third quarter. This development was fueled by what Ameriprise described as sturdy web inflows from purchasers and favorable market developments. Jim Cracchiolo, CEO of Ameriprise, expressed his satisfaction with the results, highlighting the wealth administration sector as a pivotal drive driving the corporate’s development. He underscored the sturdy interactions between purchasers and advisors in addition to the wholesome inflow of consumer belongings as key contributors to the agency’s success. “Our advisors are targeted on guaranteeing purchasers are extremely engaged and deepening relationships with them,” Cracchiolo mentioned within the convention name. “Importantly, consumer satisfaction stays at a superb 4.9 out of 5 stars. “We proceed to draw extra new purchasers and transfer up market as we develop our consumer base,” he mentioned. “We all know from business analysis that extra traders want steerage. In actual fact, among the many fluid households, many traders within the market nonetheless don’t have a proper plan to handle belongings, revenue, bills and retirement.” When trying on the adjusted working earnings, excluding unlocking, the agency reported $823 million, or $7.68 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. This marks a notable enhance from the $716 million, or $6.35 per share, reported throughout the identical interval within the prior 12 months. Money ranges for the agency additionally reached a brand new excessive for the third quarter, at $72.5 billion, up 35% from a 12 months in the past. Money sweep and certificates balances had been the agency’s hardest hit, as sorting slowed within the latter half of the 12 months, and ended the quarter at $40.5 billion, which was down $5.8 billion from the year-ago interval. Walter Berman, chief monetary officer at Ameriprise, mentioned money ranges have been flat since August. The typical dimension of money sweep accounts is about $6,000, whereas 67% of money sweeps are in accounts underneath $100,000. Nonetheless, Berman mentioned actions out of those accounts have been restricted. “Monetary profit from money stays sturdy,” he mentioned in the course of the convention name. “This will probably be an essential and sustainable supply of earnings going ahead.” Whereas the agency’s monetary advisor head depend was down within the third quarter together with franchise retention, it began to bounce again towards the latter a part of the quarter. Cracchiolo mentioned the decline was on account of summer time months, with many taking day without work. Earlier this 12 months, Ameriprise struck a deal with Comerica financial institution that noticed it take over administration of extra 100 advisors and $18 billion in buyer belongings. “It’s the totality of our complementary enterprise and the advantages that it gives, backed by our wonderful workforce, that permits us to persistently obtain this degree of outcomes,” Cracchiolo concluded. Ameriprise Monetary focuses on wealth administration companies, catering predominantly to households possessing between $500,000 and $5 million in investible belongings. Economic system half-full, ‘high quality’ shares like SAP abound, says Ninety One supervisor [ad_2]

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gettatranslations · 7 months

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Out of my 6 trading cards 5 of them were 17ki Yumigeta Ako (23.10.25)

Good evening🌛

I'm Yumigeta Ako🛑

Thank you very much for your comments yesterday！

Hold up、that's the sting ray's nose？？？笑笑lollol

No way笑lol I had no idea！🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I was pointing at the ray's nose

Saying 「He's looking at meー！」⁉️笑lol How embarrassing😂

I'm glad I found out while I'm still young。

I've learned a new fun fact、thank u so much 笑lol❗️

...

Also today we had a Send Off Event！

At our Ikebukuro Sunshine City event I remember thinking

「I wonder how many years it'll be until I can fully participate in this kind of event」

So I was super happy when I found out that we'd be having a mini live & send off event at Shinagawa for this single！

It was totaーlly different from regular concerts！

...

To everyone who came to see us、and to everyone who cheered us on！

Really thank you very much( .ˬ.)"

Lots of people said that they'll be coming to our individual events too！

Our individual events are coming up 💕︎

I'm so excited

⋆┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋆

Well then it's time for today's 【Gettaa Life】✨

Today I went to Tower Records with Inoueー！！！！

(The entrance was covered with Morning Musume。which made me emotional…Thank you very much🙇‍♀️)

Since it's our debut single、Inoue and 1 each bought 3 CDs for each of the 3 editions！

We'd already been given a CD copy

But I wanted the special bonuses ＆it's my debut single so I wanted to buy it myself😊

By the way for the special bonuses…

I wanted the trading cards、and obviously since I'm a Morning Musume。wota I'd have been happy with anyone but as I was opening them I kept chanting Oda-san Oda-san Oda-san Oda-san。

I'd have been find if all 3 cards were Oda-san‼️‼️‼️。

But who do you think I actually got？

It's really amazing

｢Suggoi FEVER！｣▶︎ Yumigeta

｢Wake-up Call～Mezameru Toki～｣▶︎ Inoue

｢Neverending Shine｣▶︎ Inoue

And Inoue got

｢Suggoi FEVER｣▶︎ Inoue

｢Wake-up Call～Mezameru Toki～｣▶︎ Yumigeta

｢Neverending Shine｣▶︎ Okamura-san

…？！？！？！

Out of 6 cards 5 of them were 17ki…

Plus putting our cards together we'd have had the full 17ki set if we got my Neverending Shine trading card、

It's simply amazing。

...

Inoue who was lucky to get Okamura-san as she wished and Yumigeta who is unsure about how she feels about getting herself

What are the chances…

...

I feel like pulling myself or my gen mate for 5 out of 6 cards for our debut single is pretty Suggoi 笑lol

I'll treasure theーmm‼️

I Getted ｢An deep connection with my gen mate(？)｣✨️

Ah、and I got 3 posters as special bonuses！

...

It was given at random、so you could get Fukumura-san's solo poster or a whole group one。

Obviously both me and Inoue wanted Fukumura-san！

And our results were…

A total fail。

Neither Inoue or I got hers…

But we both got group posters (and they're pretty big too)！

...

But even so we were like

｢We wanted Fukumura-sannnnnnnnnn｣

So the shop worker kindly gave us Fukumura-san's poster anyway which got us so excited！

I have my own poster…💕

I'm so happy I could fly✈️

That's all！This has been 【Gettaa Life】！

⋆┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋆

T/N News and information has not been translated

⋆┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋆

I'll have the ramen Inoue gave me for dinner tonight🌙🍚

...

Well then I'll see you tomorrow！

This has been YumiGettaa Ako！Good night🐥🐥🐥

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college-girl199328 · 1 year

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When you name your YouTube seawall video How Vancouver’s Waterfront Became So Boring, subtlety is not your aim.

Even so, Uytae Lee‘s 11-minute mini-doc on one of the city’s world-famous gems got under a lot more people’s skin than the urban-planning filmmaker anticipated.

“It generated a lot of controversy in some circles,” Lee said. “I’m friends with quite a few urban planners in the city and I think there were some feathers ruffled.”

The short film, posted in mid-February, has garnered more than 120,000 views and more than 750 comments.

Lee, who graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax with a bachelor's degree in community design and urban/regional planning, was inspired to make it after watching a debate last April sponsored by Urbanarium, a non-profit platform for community planning and design discussions that partnered with Lee to make the video and UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

A poll before the four speakers took the podium — two of them yay, two of them nay — showed 73 percent were against the idea of more commercialization along the seawall, which runs uninterrupted from the convention centre downtown to Spanish Banks in Point Grey.

After the four speakers were done, another poll was done of the 50 or so people in attendance at Robson Square and another 400 or so viewing online, and the results had inched more toward commercialization: 61 percent con, 39 percent pro.

“There’s so much potential there for people to come down other than just walking or riding a bike,” Lee said. “That’s what struck a chord with me.”

Lee’s video contrasts the seawall, which he admits is perhaps one of the “most celebrated waterfronts in the world,” with attractions in other waterfront cities: Harbourfront in Halifax; Porto’s restaurants in Portugal; Hat Yai’s floating markets in Thailand; Oslo’s Harbour Promenade in Norway; Coney Island’s amusement park, New York.

“I see all these unused spaces in some of the most prime real estate in Vancouver. I can’t help but think there’s a missed opportunity here,” Lee said. “Other cities’ waterfronts make Vancouver’s look like a snoozefest.”

The seawall, at 28 kilometres, is the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path, according to the City of Vancouver. It passes through more than 20 parks and a dozen or so restaurants.

Case in point, he said, is Cultural Harmony Grove at the south end of the Burrard Bridge.

“A patch of grass with trees and a few benches. I guess one way to create harmony is to make a park so boring everyone agrees not to use it.”

Then there’s the unlikely Existential Alley, next to the David Lam dock at Homer Mews.

These are just two of numerous examples of boring public spaces, he said, and that includes the seawall.

And to see the difference between the Halifax waterfront, say, and Vancouver’s seawall, wait until the sun comes down, Lee said. After dark, Halifax’s boardwalk still bustles while the seawall after dark is “basically shut down,” he noted.

“It’s like the city doesn’t want anybody to be out here after sunset. There’s no lighting, very few people, it’s no man’s land.”

A popular restaurant at Kits Beach next to the tennis courts had to deal with local outrage. A proposed beach volleyball court at Sunset Beach was rejected in part because West End neighbours complained it would create dust.

In 2001, when Coal Harbour was being developed, the B.C. Restaurant Foodservice Association proposed turning it into a “mecca for fun and food,” but the city council of the day kiboshed the idea because neighbours protested.

The next year the park board proposed developing what became the Boathouse. “The result? Raucous public meetings,” Lee said. “There’s a long history of people opposing all sorts of activity on the seawall.”

Even bikes were not always welcome. In the 1970s, cycling was illegal and the Vancouver Sun noted that police would “perch at various key locations along the seawall, nab cyclists and write $100 tickets, about 3,000 in total by 1976.”

Not to be outdone, Vancouver Sun columnist Allan Fotheringham wrote that widening the seawall was a “genuinely idiotic” plan “to accommodate goofy cyclists to bash into all the peaceful pensioners and sane pedestrians who enjoy a quiet stroll.”

Even today it’s a challenge to get a daycare installed in Coal Harbour without neighbours complaining about the potentially ear-splitting noise coming from pre-schoolers.

But it’s more than NIMBYs at work, Lee said. There is a pervasive ideology at play, as well.

“It turns out there are a lot of park planners and policy-makers who want public spaces without much else to do other than walk,” he said.

Across Burrard Inlet, Vancouver’s seawall falls under two jurisdictions, the city and the park board, and earlier this year the board lifted a moratorium on new commercial initiatives in the city’s parks, directing staff to prioritize a “Think Big” revenue-generating strategy.

“This strategy may lead to recommendations to the board to explore opportunities along the seawall for increased commercial operations, attractions or other installations, but at this stage, it’s too early to speculate on what this might look like,” David Harrison, a park board spokesman, said by email.

Recognizing that, she said she thinks of the seawall like a bracelet, not just strung with pearls or diamonds.

“With a bunch of different kinds of jewels on it,” Long said. “Each one is uniquely different.

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daydreamerdrew · 1 year

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

the Hulk stories in The Hulk! (1978) #13-18

Within this batch of issues I went from February 1979 to December 1979. Also appearing in this series are back-up stories starring Moon Knight, but I’m skipping those for now and intend to read through them all once I’ve finished with the Hulk stories in this series. All of these stories were written by Doug Moench and I’d actually put off reading more of this series because I hadn’t cared for his writing on the previous issues, but here there was some hits and some misses. I appreciated some of the Bruce sections, particularly as Bruce hasn’t been getting a proportional amount of attention as the Hulk has gotten in their other concurrent comic appearances, and the way some of the stories approached the Hulk was interesting to me too. Issues #13, #16, and #18 fell flat for me, issues #14 and #17 were decent, and #issue #15 was the best of the batch.

That highlight issue that Bruce attempt to cure himself of the Hulk, inevitably fail as always, but then the Hulk got captured by soldiers and was taken to a military base where he reverted back into Bruce, who knocked out a doctor and disguised himself in his clothes which then led to him having to pretend to be a therapist and go through a session with a soldier in order to maintain his cover. This was an interesting setting to see Bruce in and the session led to Bruce trying to rescue said soldier from the military program they were in, said soldier turning on Bruce, Bruce transforming into the Hulk, and then the soldier dying through trying to fight the Hulk with the weaponry of the military program that Bruce had been so concerned about. I have some nitpicks about the characterization in the other issues, but this one was really solid for both Bruce and the Hulk. The issue ends with the Hulk recognizing that it was the negligence of the military program that resulted in the soldier’s death and comparing them to Bruce as a scientist trying to kill the Hulk earlier and then destroying the whole base. There was a little moment earlier in the issue where the Hulk smashes Bruce’s car and says “Hah! Now Banner will have to walk!” which I really loved.

The stories in issues #13-15 and #17-18 were penciled by Ron Wilson, while the one in issue #16 was penciled by Mike Zeck. The story in issue #13 was inked and colored by Bob McLeod. The story in issue #14 was inked by Rudy Nebres, the ones in issues #15 and #17-18 by Alfredo Alcala, and the one in issue #16 by John Tartaglione. The stories in issue #14 and #16-18 were colored by Steve Oliff and the one in issue #15 was colored by Marie Severin. Art-wise, the inking work of Alfredo Alcala and the coloring by Marie Severin were the highlight of the batch for me.

DC Comics:

The Human Target (2021) #10-11

Both of these issues came out in January 2023 and were written by Tom King and drawn by Greg Smallwood. This series is premised as at the beginning the main character has twelve days to live, one per each issue. With only one issue left in the maxiseries, issues #10-11 did a lot to wrap up the main mysteries of the series, but there's a big question raised at the end of issue #11 as to what to do with that information. Greg Smallwood's art is great as always, and I'm still really engaged and invested in the story. I have to wait until the last issue is released to make any final determinations, but I think The Human Target could be my favorite Tom King book, beating out the heavy hitters of Strange Adventures (2020) and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021).

Eastern Color Printing Company:

the Connie pages in Famous Funnies (1934) #51-71

Famous Funnies primarily reprinted newspaper comics, with some original content in its later years. The “Connie” newspaper strip, which was written and drawn by Frank Godwin, began in 1927 and ended in 1941. Within the Famous Funnies book I went from September 1938 to May 1940. There was one Connie strip reprinted per issue in this batch for a total of eleven Connie strips read in this batch. There isn’t really a way for me to check when the specific Connie strips reprinted in this book were first published.

There was another content shift in this batch of Connie strips, but not as drastic. The first batch of Connie strips I read primarily depicted Connie as a detective, with the majority of the stories having her solve a self-contained mystery. The second batch of Connie strips primarily focused on her social life/interpersonal relationships, with only a few detective stories. This batch of issues also primarily focused on Connie’s social life, but rather than having her be a detective occasionally, a few of the stories had her working as a reporter for the Daily Buzz.

The Connie strips are always self-contained and don’t ordinarily have any overarching events, so I’ve never had any indication of which stories might have been reprinted out of order, if any. But the strip in issue #57 has Connie complain that “I haven’t had Jack to myself one evening since Uncle Phineas came to visit!” and depicts her and Jack working together to circumvent him so that they can spend time together without him, and then the story in issue #58 has Connie’s uncle first arriving and Connie and Jack have to work together to circumvent him for the first time. And then there were actually quite a few strips based around different ways Connie and Jack attempt and fail to having an evening to themselves without him.

I noted in the last round-up that Connie and Jack both seemed to be interested in each other but weren’t quite fully dating yet, and that Connie actually still had a bit of an eye for other boys in some strips, but this batch made their relationship seem more serious and committed.

There’s also a new recurring character in addition to Connie’s family members and her friends Jack and Willy: another boy named Alex who first appears in the strip reprinted in issue #60.

I also previously noted how over time the formatting of Famous Funnies changed as they improved how they reprinted comic strips into this early comic book. In this batch, the lettering changed a bit starting in issue #60 with the words being a little bit bigger but with there also being more white space in the speech bubbles making them less crammed and more legible, and then issue #65 makes the lettering a lot bigger.

There was also notably a Connie pin-up at the beginning of issue #63. Each issue of Famous Funnies has a pin-up of one of the many characters featured in it, and that was the first time it was Connie.

the Jane Arden pages in Famous Funnies (1934) #2-11

The “Jane Arden” strip began in 1928. Within the Famous Funnies book for Jane Arden I went from August 1934 to May 1935. I don’t have a way to check when these specific strips were first printed, but they were all written by Monte Barrett and drawn by Jack W. McQuire. There were four Jane Arden strips (and paper doll cut-outs) reprinted per issue of Famous Funnies for a total of forty Jane Arden strips read in this batch. This was my first time reading this comic strip character and I started it without knowing what it was about because the dolls stood out.

These aren’t self-contained stories like Connie’s are. Jane Arden is a reporter for a newspaper and she has arcs of stories that she’s investigating which go on for multiple strips. This means that rather than miraculously always solving the case immediately like Connie does, Jane Arden can be on the wrong trail sometimes to stretch out the story.

She’s also very fashionable, as evidenced by the paper doll cut-outs that accompany every story, each one providing a doll and multiple outfits either for Jane or for one of the side characters. None of these paper dolls have been cut out of the physical copies of these Famous Funnies issues which have been scanned and uploaded online, and I believe that at the size they would have had to have been printed at to fit on the same page as a Jane Arden strip and one of her companion strip Lena Pry, that the paper dolls would have actually been largely unusable, but they presumably weren’t in the original newspapers these strips were made for.

And the first story reprinted here is clearly not the first Jane Arden story ever, as it begins with her returning home from a preceding adventure to which she’s in the middle of the feud with another girl for the attentions of a man who are both clearly established characters.

The first plot covered 14 strips over issue #2-5 and had Jane searching for the missing part of a recipe for a cheap and powerful gasoline alternative, then kidnapped to be used as blackmail by the criminals to get ahold of the other half, then escaping in order to prevent that exchange from taking place. The underlying thread to this is that the person the recipe was stolen from, Carl, is in love with Jane, but Carl is spending time with Sue who has tricked him into thinking that Jane doesn’t like him, and Jane is spending time with Jeff, who is actually one of the criminals after the gasoline alternative recipe, because Sue’s machinations have made her think that Carl isn’t interested in her.

The second plot covered 11 strips over issues #5-8 and had Jane working as a phone operated in an apartment building in order to spy on the communications of a member of a smuggling band that lives there. There are twists and turns as the criminals realize their calls are being listened in on and so begin using code to communicate in secret while also misleading Jane down false leads, but then Jane is able to break their code and resume getting accurate information about their schemes while they believe she’s still mislead. This storyline also has her kidnapped but then escape on her own.

The third plot covered 9 strips over issues #8-10 and had Jane and another woman, Cherry Case, looking for a Prince Henry at a hotel. But while Jane is looking for him in order to interview him, Cherry is intending to lure him to where kidnappers can capture him. This is all complicated by both Cherry and Jane mistaking another random man at the hotel for the prince, who initially goes along with it for the attention, and then that both Jane and Cherry tell the real prince that the other is a spy with bad intentions for him. The storyline ends with Jane having helped save Prince Henry from the kidnappers and Prince Henry, now knowing that Jane was the one telling him the truth about Cherry, saving Jane from those same kidnappers. The prince is then interested Jane but Jane has to reject him because she was only there for a story and him being a prince complicates things.

The fourth plot covered 6 strips over issues #10-11 and had Jane working on a circus, the reason why being unclear, and in a rivalry with another performer named Lida.

I’m not sure that these storylines came right before and after each other in the original newspaper publication. The first storyline ends will Carl confessing his love for Jane and Jane not being sure what to do with that because she likes but does not love him. And then second storyline begins with Carl attempting to talk to Jane because “I can’t let you go like this” and Jane ignoring him because she’s busy with work. It’s possible that there’s nothing missing there but it does feel like there is an interaction or two between them between those two points. Whereas the fourth storyline is clearly in patches and has critical pieces missing. As it begins in Famous Funnies, Jane is already a part of the circus and the strips have her in this established setting with missing context. Notably, one strip has Lida attempt suicide after realizing that Jane can prove she is guilty of a crime, with the intention of framing Jane for her murder, but there’s no strip that depicts Lida committing a crime or Jane solving it.

There was a snafu in issue #5 with strips for this plot and the next one being printed out of order, but the entire storyline seems to be here. And then the strips printed in issue #6 are in the opposite order with the last chronological one appearing first and so on, yet the “continued on the next page” and the “continued next issue” are in the corrected order for how the strips are printed, indicating that the person who added those lines for the reprint and then put the strips in the book possibly didn’t fully read them themselves.

The way that the strip is printed in Famous Funnies is changed partway through issue #10. This new formatting makes the dolls a bit bigger and their dedicated space rectangular, rather than a crammed square on the page, and also puts the title of the strip within the strip instead of above it.

Dell Comics:

the Annibelle pages in The Funnies (1936) #2-6 and #8-11 and #13

There were seventeen strips of Annibelle reprinted across these The Funnies issues which went from October 1936 to August 1937. Eleven of the strips by Dorothy Urfer, five were by Virginia Krausmann, and one was a duplicate. The “Annibelle” comic strip was originally printed as part of the women’s page of a newspaper and went from 1929 to 1939. It was originally created by Dorothy Urfer and then was taken over by Virginia Krausmann in 1936 when Dorothy Urfer got married. I started reading the strips because the lovely art style stood out to me. The strips were focused on either Annibelle’s interactions with her other vapid socialite friends or her dating life and I enjoyed them, but this appears to be all of the strips that were reprinted in The Funnies.

the Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire pages in Popular Comics (1936) #6-8 and in The Funnies (1936) #1-6

Within these issues I went from May 1936 to February 1937. There were 2 “Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire” strips reprinted in each Popular Comics issue and 3 strips reprinted in each The Funnies issue for a total of twenty-four strips reprinted in this batch, which was not actually very far into the story of Don Dixon. What I’ve covered so far has had Don Dixon and his friend Matt and his dog Dusty travel to the kingdom of Pharia which was hidden in Brazil where he and his friend were declared to be “white strangers” that are favored by the sun-god Rav and have formed a close friendship with the Princess Wanda and her maid-in-waiting Marcia. These kids are presumably inexperienced with such things but are depicted as essentially heroic knights that are skilled in sword-fighting. According to the original announcement for the beginning of the strip in the Sunday Eagle newspaper “the hero is a small boy who goes through a series of such adventures as every child likes to imagine happening to himself.” So far I’m really enjoying the fantastical artwork, though there is some awkwardly racist elements in this fantasy story that began in 1935 with the kingdom of Pharia enslaving the “yellow people” who are depicted as conniving and villainous for fighting against them.

Fox Features:

the Flick/Flip Falcon in the Fourth Dimension stories in Fantastic Comics (1939) #1-21

This character is called Flick Falcon in the first three stories, and then is changed to Flip Falcon for the remainder of them. These issues went from October 1939 to June 1941. All of the stories were signed with the pseudonym “Orville Wells.” The Grand Comics Database tentative credits the art for the story in issue #1 to Don Rico, then the art for the story in issue #2 to either Don Rico or Claire S. Moe. Then the script for the story in issue #3 is credited to Claire S. Moe and the art is credited to Don Rico. Following that the art for the stories in issues #4-8 and #14-16 are credited to Don Rico, as well as the story in issue #17 but only tentatively, and the art for the story in issue #12 was credited to Claire S. Moe. The art in the earlier stories in particular was really great to me, the simplistic sci-fi style worked well with the ‘anything can happen’ feeling of the Fourth Dimension. I’m particularly charmed by the characters travel through the Fourth Dimension, which is just flying through while holding onto one another without a space ship or anything.

Early stories had Flick, as well as his gal Adele (who is sometimes called Peg), going on adventures to different planets in the Fourth Dimension for the first time, and I found them really enjoyable. The stories in issues #9-10 are actually time travel-based. The majority of stories after that are based around Flip either fighting or helping the “demi-things” that reside in the Fourth Dimension, which are demon-like and vaguely villainous as they are explained to be “condemned to whirl forever in the maelstrom” because of their “unforgivable crimes against mankind.” But as Flip’s responsibility is to maintain balance in the Fourth Dimension and not to eradicate the demi-things, he protects them when other things in the Fourth Dimension get out of line.

Also, the beginning stories present Flick’s Fourth Dimension machine as a very novel invention and the first story is his first ever time traveling there and he’s laughed at when he tries to discuss it with people other than Adele. But the later stories present the Flip as very familiar with the Fourth Dimension, always knowing the names of people and places. And other people seem to be familiar with it to, even if Flip is the only one that can go there, as multiple stories have the premise of someone approaching Flip because they need something specific that can only be found in the Fourth Dimension.

There was one particularly amusing moment to me in the story in issue #5 when Flip and Adele go to Fourth Dimension Mars and Flip is given a mind reading helmet by the Martians so that he can communicate but then can’t get one for Adele as it’s illegal to give a woman a mind reading helmet because “they would talk too much.” Adele is also more involved in the earlier stories than the later; she goes from almost always going with him to the Fourth Dimension to only either sending him off and/or then seeing him again when he returns or not even appearing once at all.

the Marga, the Panther Woman, stories in Science Comics (1940) #1-8 and in Weird Comics (1940) #8-20

These stories, which went from January 1940 to October 1941, covered the entirety of Marga the Panther Woman’s existence. All of the stories were signed by the pseudonym “James T. Royal.” The Grand Comics Database tentatively credits the art of the story in Science Comics #1-4 to Emil Gershwin, credits the art of the story in Weird Comics #8 to Louis Cazeneuve, and tentatively credits the art of the story in Weird Comics #20 to Bob Powell. It’s a disappointment that there’s not any credits for the writer and not more credits for the artist, because I really enjoyed this character both story and art-wise and I would really have liked to be able to seek out more of the work of the creators behind some of the completely uncredited stories. While that’s not a new sentiment for me when reading these old Golden Age comics, this character was particularly solid throughout her run. The first seventeen Marga stories are 8 pages and the four stories are 6 pages. Note that only the first two and last two pages of the story in Science Comics #7 are available online.

Marga was once a blonde nurse, but in her origin story she’s captured by a mad scientist who fuses the blood of a panther into her, which turns her hair black. After she escapes the scientist laboratory, Marga wanders the jungle and finds that she’s been otherwise changed. She tries to eat fruit from a tree but finds that the taste disturbs her. Then she comes across a deer and instinctively kills it with her new claws and eats it. After this, her “primitive senses” alert Marga to a tiger preparing to pounce on her, but she’s able to cut its throat with her claws and kill it too. At this point I thought that this character might become a villainous protagonist. Eventually she comes across a futuristic-looking city and wanders into the airport, where two military pilots are hanging out. One hits on her and she immediately knocks him out. The other soldier, who turns out to be named Ted Grant, is impressed with her punch, but has to leave immediately due to a threat to the city. But Marga stows away on his plane and ends up saving him. The story ends with Ted telling Marga that “I’m sure we can be of mutual help to each other!” and Marga responding “Er- I’m sure we’ll get along Ted.”

Following that origin, there are two main premises for Marga stories. Either she’s wandering around the jungle and comes across someone that needs help or she’s hanging around with Ted at the city airport and helps him with a mission. These are generally separate premises, so the story in Science Comics #5 stands out because it begins with the first premise, but has Marga enlist the help of the soldiers, though Ted is not one of them. I like this story because it demonstrates that Marga has positive relationships with the military outside of Ted. There’s a page where two soldiers who have to stay behind to defend the city and don’t get to fight with Marga say to each other and say “isn’t she the cute one… and so strong and brave” and that they “would love to see Marga in action.” Note that while Ted isn’t a complete damsel, Marga is still very much the protagonist.

One thing I particularly liked about Marga’s stories is how uniquely violent they can be for an early 1940s comic. Rather than being a villainous protagonist, she turned out to be a brutal heroine. Her go to move is slicing people’s throat with her claws, and in the later stories she also bites people. The blood isn’t drawn more often than it is, but even without it the stories are still notably violent, and with it they’re even more shocking.

There was an interesting idea presented in the story in Science Comics #6 that Marga’s “animal emotions are no longer compatible with the rules of civilization.” In it she joins a circus as a performer; her act is fighting a wild tiger until it submits. Two people plot to kill Marga, the owner of a rival circus and a man who was upset that Marga rejected her when he asked her out after seeing her performance, which they attempt by infusing the tiger that Marga fights with lion’s blood, thinking that this would make the tiger stronger than Marga. Marga still wins, breaking the tiger’s leg then strangling it, but “the dead tiger’s blood arouses all the primitive emotions in Marga.” Marga chases the two men and the police follow but it’s too late, she kills them both. She’s arrested, but the judge refuses to sentence her and she’s offered her job back, which she rejects because she feels that she belongs in the jungle.

Eternity Comics:

Spicy Tales (1988) #4-7

Spicy Tales is a series that reprinted comic strips from Frank Armer’s line of pulp magazines from the 1930-40s which otherwise primarily contained text stories that had some accompanying art. These comic strips reigned from simply genre stories to more often sexual and even sado-masochistic. The editorial by John Wooley in issue #4 quotes a Stephen Mertz Xenophile article that explains that “Armer’s outfit was bottom line, kind of sleazy house, paying low rates and written almost exclusively by contract writers, as opposed to being an ‘open market’ to the general freelancer the way most magazines were. Nearly all of the regulars were either hungry newcomers […] or old timers who had seen better days.” And in issue #6 he quotes Will Murray as saying “Sexy comics strips were a staple in the girlie pulps before the Spicies came along- in mags like Pep, Breezy Stories and College Humor. But they usually revolved around college girl situations, not genre stuff.”

And the rest of this comics round-up is under a cut due to discussion of said “sexy” comics:

There were four 4-page Sally the Sleuth stories, written and drawn by the character’s creator Adolphe Barreaux, republished from the October 1940, December 1940, August 1942, and December 1942 issues of Spicy Detective. In comparison to the Sally the Sleuth stories from the 30s, the ones from the 40s do seemed to be tamed down a bit, but it's a bit difficult for me to pinpoint exactly how because it's not as though she's not still depicted in revealing clothing and in exploitative situations. There isn't any complete nudity in the 40s stories, but that's not occurring frequently enough in the 30s stories for that to account for the entire change. I will say that I prefer the art style Adolphe Barreaux used in the 30s stories over the one in the 40s stories because the former is a lot cuter to me, while the latter seems more generic. It did stand out to me that the kid sidekick character Peanuts appeared in the December 1942 story since he hadn't previously appeared in any of the 40s stories and I had assumed he'd been dropped from the strip in the late 30s. I'll also note that December 1942 story was a particularly racist one of the "remember Pearl Harbor" variety.

And there were eleven 2-page Sally the Sleuth stories, also written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux, which were reprinted from the April to June 1936, August 1936, November 1936, December 1936, February to April 1937, August 1937, and September 1937 issues of Spicy Detective. These Sally stories were largely continuing the trend from the last batch of issues. Regarding Sally's competence as a detective, she's certainly not not a detective, and I think that part of her incompetence comes from the constrain of having a 2-page story in which a mystery is presented and then solved and also a woman has to get at least partially undressed and in an suggestive position. An easy simple structure for this is Sally trying to solve a case and getting kidnapped and restrained and sometimes also tortured in a sexual way (in this batch she's been whipping, was precariously chained up in a bondage-esque way above a spike, and was also stripped and had freezing water pouring on her as an attempt at a subtle murder) before being rescued by the Chief and his guys at the last second. The February 1937 story stood out to me because Sally was restrained (mostly unclothed, of course) by a bad guy who intended to murder her but rather than be rescued by the Chief she kicked him at just the right moment that his snake bit him instead of her. Also, she's often rescued because either Peanuts alerted the Chief or because he had some knowledge about the case and figured out what was going on on his own, so the August 1937 story stands out because Sally is able to get a message to a police officer outside the building she's been held in from the bonds on her own. The June 1936 story also stood out to me as unique because of how blatantly the intended sexual assault was alluded to, rather than the typical more vaguely suggested approach in the Sally stories. It had Sally hired to help protect a jewel, but after she ensures that all of the doors to the house were locked the owner., who turns out to have been the thief who got there before she did and killed the real owner, turns on her and chases through her the house because he had a "weakness for blondes." Though, of course, he only manages to rip off her dress before the Chief arrives with a gun.

There were four 7-page Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, stories, written by the character’s creator Robert Leslie Bellem and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux, republished from the March 1944, October 1944, April 1945, and September 1947 issues of Hollywood Detective. These are, as they have been, the Spicy Tales stories with the least amount of sexual content. There aren't even any women at all in the April 1945 or September 1947 stories. Though the October 1944 story had a woman nearly strangled on panel.

There were three 2-page Polly of the Plains stories, written and drawn by Joseph Sokoli, republished from the April 1937, June 1937, and July 1937 issues of Spicy Western. Even though they’re all two pages, always happens in the Polly stories. It’s discovered that Polly helped Jean escape from Pancho and Pancho intends to (sexually, of course) torture her for it by having her whipped while tied up on a cross, but one of Pancho’s men intervenes due to a grudge against Pancho, and is then killed instead. We next see Jean restrained in the home by a “marijuana crazed addict” who drugged her and is in the process of taking off her clothes when Polly appears with a gun and shoots him. (There’s a missing story from May 1937 that would have explained how Jean got there and how Polly escaped Pancho herself.) The two of them continue on together but are stopped by quicksand. Jean is able to save Polly from the quicksand but then they are found by the new character Senorita Diablo who upon learning that they’d escaped from Pancho captures them and takes them back to him for unclear reasons.

And there were seven 2-page Diana Daw stories, written by Clayton Maxwell and drawn by Max Plaisted, republished from the April to June 1935 and September to December 1935 issues of Spicy Adventure. There’s a story missing from Spicy Tales from March 1935 because the beginning of the first Diana Daw story in this batch from April 1935 begins with the contextual note that “Diana Daw and Ted Morton, prospectors, are saved from the vengeance of an African tribe by Bulo, who desires Diana as his mate” but that was not where the character was left off in February 1936 in the last batch. This actually moves away from the previously established Diana Daw format of her behind captured by a someone new and then saved by a new man in each story, as Diana then continues to work with Ted throughout the rest of the stories in this batch. The two of them work together to escape Bulo, then are captured and separated by “desert nomads.” After Diana threatens the Sheik Hammad with a knife when he tries to force himself on her, she’s taken to be sold in the “slave markets,” but the person who purchases Diana is actually Ted in disguise, and the two of them escape again. There’s another missing gap (presumably two stories from July to August 1935) and we next see them after they’ve “by a ruse escaped from a fort of the French foreign legion where Ted was sentenced to be shot as a deserter.” The two of them are captured by another band of desert nomad who, of course, force Diana to dance for them while naked, but they manage to escape and take control of a French plane that had been shot down. When they’re targeting by an Italian plane, Diana takes her clothes off in order to distract the other pilot, but then they have to land due to fuel loss and are captured (while Diana is still naked) by another group of desert nomads, who are then overtaken by German soldiers who are working with the Ethiopian army. Predictably, the German commander tries to force himself on Diana, but Diana and Ted manage to escape by plane again, though Diana doesn’t have the time to get more clothes. Where we’ve left off in this batch, their plane has crashed again and they’ve taken refuge in a plane where they’ve stumbled across a solider of some kind. The main core of this series is Diana’s (and now also Ted’s) attempts to “return to civilization” which is repeatedly impeded by various “savages” that sexually threaten Diana.

#comics read this past week #my posts

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