They also usually have free wifi. One of the few places you can use the wifi without being expected to buy something.
I do love when I get a whaler’s journal that has a lot of misspellings. It makes it slower to get through, but in my forever-fascination with New England accents prior to the latter half of the 19th century…when he spells things phonetically you get a better sense of his voice. I always try to preserve them.
In all the things I’ve cobbled together regarding early 19th c New England accents, ranging from the Biglow Papers to children’s speller books (targeting ‘mispronunciations in rural accents’), and whaler journals I can only describe it as like…
A Twangy Brogue. I love it. I’m so fond.
Examples off the top of my head to get a sense.
Catch - Kitch Certain - Sarten Oil and boil - Ile, bile Such - Setch Lantern - Lant-horn Coin - Quine Chair - Cheer After - Arter Birthday - bethday Water - Warter Exhausted - Exorsted Get - Git Sit - Set Girl - Gal, gel Chimney - Chimbly Dirt - Dut Learn - Larn Cards - Cairds Solider - Soger Nervous - Narvous Afraid - Afeared Turns of phrase like asking ‘be you happy’ instead of ‘are you happy’, swapping ‘on’ and ‘of’ such as ‘she died of a summer day, and fever was what she died on’ instead of ‘she died on a summer day and fever is what she died of’. ‘Wake snakes’ meaning stirring up trouble. etc. etc. etc. Love all of it.
I have had it with this likescolding. “Tumblr doesn’t have an algorithm so likes don’t actually do anything” motherfucker I am not clicking that heart to give some post better ~algorithmic visibility~ I am clicking that heart to help my internet friend microdose on serotonin as god fucking intended
another poll because I want to see just how much of an outlier I am:
+ pls only include burner free trial email addresses if you maintain access and/or use them repeatedly
Anonymous asked:
"That shouldn't work. And yet when Doyle writes it, with one of the most popular heroes in all fiction, it does."
No seriously. Moriarty shows up in this ONE story where he basically just slips away from the authorities, fakes a message to get Watson away from Holmes, and fights Holmes to the death.
All of the traits making him a nemesis to Holmes is from one monologue where Holmes tells us he was involved in a great mental chess match of move and riposte that finally ended with Holmes destroying this mighty criminal empire, a battle of geniuses like nothing ever seen. It's like if Death Note was just Near and/or L telling someone about Light Yagami's brilliance, about their cat and mouse game, and that it would soon end, just before he and Light both manage to kill each other.
Yet it WORKS? Maybe it's that this story was standalone so we knew we couldn't see the whole thing, maybe it was Holmes taking it seriously enough to want him and Watson to be out of the way, maybe it was the skill of the writing of Holmes's monologue, maybe it's just that this was what (briefly) killed Holmes? Or possibly a combination of all of the above.
Nevertheless, this is one of the only times where a character manages to simply TELL us "This guy's my archnemesis, my true equal against whom I've been engaged in a legendary battle of wills." And everyone bought it. Now whenever there's an adaptation, if Holmes gets a nemesis it's Moriarty.
Not bad Doyle. Not bad at all.
EXACTLY. Exactly. That's the thing!
By all the standard rules of serial storytelling, it seems to me it shouldn't work. Especially when we know, and everyone at the time (I think) knew, that the primary writing goal here was Holmes's death. It should be like when a character gets killed off in a TV show and you're like "...yeah, we know they would've survived that it you'd wanted them to survive." It should be like when the Strongest Guy Ever in an anime gets ripped to pieces by the shiny new villain, and you just sort of roll your eyes because you know strength keeps growing as the plot demands. It seems like it should be both of those combined! But we all respect Moriarty. We believe in Moriarty's abilities.
I think part of it probably is how much we respect Holmes's intellect and judgment—him telling us to take this guy seriously, as long as Holmes himself remains in-character and well-written, is the most convincing evidence we could have that Moriarty is Bad News. Part of it is that Doyle never wrote a comparable scenario for Holmes, as far as I can remember, before or even after this; the fact that we've never seen anyone on Holmes's level like this, or a threat to him in a sense other than "currently holding a gun," means that Moriarty continues to stand out as a genuinely greater threat to Holmes. This is an escalation in the stakes of previous canon in several ways, and the great thing is that future canon doesn't escalate—Doyle didn't write any more comparable evils after this! This helps sell the original presentation of Moriarty as Uniquely Terrible.
But yeah, all that's just a part of it, I think. It's ultimately just...really, really successful, and I really admire it.
I'm really enjoying watching all the Letters from Watson readers discovering that there is both a Professor James Moriarty and a Colonel James Moriarty.
I can't wait till they find out there's three of them.
the summer is like well what if it was unbearable outside and you can't wear any cool jackets. and everyone's going to tell you that this is the best time of the year. and you're the crazy one
The Tingler | 1959
#i love this movie so much#every once in a while you can find a showing in a theater that has all the william castle gimmicks#including the special chairs that will give you a slight 'tingling' electric shock#i highly recommend attending one of those if you can#the movie is great on its own#but seeing it in a room of enthusiasts is even better
appall-deactivated20230419
[ID: pink text on a black background that reads, “no unfortunately i cannot give you directions around the city i have lived in my entire life” /end ID]
#i can give you very specific directions to very particular things#but they will not be helpful to you#because i cannot remember street names no matter how hard i try#so i navigate solely by landmark#and a lot of them are things like#'that field where they have two black and one red cow'#or 'sometimes i've seen a white horse there'#or 'the empty hill where all the foxglove grows in summer'#or 'one time i saw an osprey in that tree'#this is not useful to other people
“My friend told me a story he hadn’t told anyone for years. When he used to tell it years ago people would laugh and say, ‘Who’d believe that? How can that be true? That’s daft.’ So he didn’t tell it again for ages. But for some reason, last night, he knew it would be just the kind of story I would love. When he was a kid, he said, they didn’t use the word autism, they just said ‘shy’, or ‘isn’t very good at being around strangers or lots of people.’ But that’s what he was, and is, and he doesn’t mind telling anyone. It’s just a matter of fact with him, and sometimes it makes him sound a little and act different, but that’s okay. Anyway, when he was a kid it was the middle of the 1980s and they were still saying ‘shy’ or ‘withdrawn’ rather than ‘autistic’. He went to London with his mother to see a special screening of a new film he really loved. He must have won a competition or something, I think. Some of the details he can’t quite remember, but he thinks it must have been London they went to, and the film…! Well, the film is one of my all-time favourites, too. It’s a dark, mysterious fantasy movie. Every single frame is crammed with puppets and goblins. There are silly songs and a goblin king who wears clingy silver tights and who kidnaps a baby and this is what kickstarts the whole adventure. It was ‘Labyrinth’, of course, and the star was David Bowie, and he was there to meet the children who had come to see this special screening. ‘I met David Bowie once,’ was the thing that my friend said, that caught my attention. ‘You did? When was this?’ I was amazed, and surprised, too, at the casual way he brought this revelation out. Almost anyone else I know would have told the tale a million times already. He seemed surprised I would want to know, and he told me the whole thing, all out of order, and I eked the details out of him. He told the story as if it was he’d been on an adventure back then, and he wasn’t quite allowed to tell the story. Like there was a pact, or a magic spell surrounding it. As if something profound and peculiar would occur if he broke the confidence. It was thirty years ago and all us kids who’d loved Labyrinth then, and who still love it now, are all middle-aged. Saddest of all, the Goblin King is dead. Does the magic still exist? I asked him what happened on his adventure. ‘I was withdrawn, more withdrawn than the other kids. We all got a signed poster. Because I was so shy, they put me in a separate room, to one side, and so I got to meet him alone. He’d heard I was shy and it was his idea. He spent thirty minutes with me. ‘He gave me this mask. This one. Look. ‘He said: ‘This is an invisible mask, you see? ‘He took it off his own face and looked around like he was scared and uncomfortable all of a sudden. He passed me his invisible mask. ‘Put it on,’ he told me. ‘It’s magic.’ ‘And so I did. ‘Then he told me, ‘I always feel afraid, just the same as you. But I wear this mask every single day. And it doesn’t take the fear away, but it makes it feel a bit better. I feel brave enough then to face the whole world and all the people. And now you will, too. ‘I sat there in his magic mask, looking through the eyes at David Bowie and it was true, I did feel better. ‘Then I watched as he made another magic mask. He spun it out of thin air, out of nothing at all. He finished it and smiled and then he put it on. And he looked so relieved and pleased. He smiled at me. ‘'Now we’ve both got invisible masks. We can both see through them perfectly well and no one would know we’re even wearing them,’ he said. ‘So, I felt incredibly comfortable. It was the first time I felt safe in my whole life. ‘It was magic. He was a wizard. He was a goblin king, grinning at me. ‘I still keep the mask, of course. This is it, now. Look.’ I kept asking my friend questions, amazed by his story. I loved it and wanted all the details. How many other kids? Did they have puppets from the film there, as well? What was David Bowie wearing? I imagined him in his lilac suit from Live Aid. Or maybe he was dressed as the Goblin King in lacy ruffles and cobwebs and glitter. What was the last thing he said to you, when you had to say goodbye? ‘David Bowie said, ‘I’m always afraid as well. But this is how you can feel brave in the world.’ And then it was over. I’ve never forgotten it. And years later I cried when I heard he had passed.’ My friend was surprised I was delighted by this tale. ‘The normal reaction is: that’s just a stupid story. Fancy believing in an invisible mask.’ But I do. I really believe in it. And it’s the best story I’ve heard all year.”
—
Paul Magrs (via
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My heart
(via fictions-stranger)
OH NO
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Source: lifeonmagrs.blogspot.de
Hello again
It's weird shit Sherlock time
- there is a man who is simply called "Bannister"
- to hide their identity, two people write a note and trade off words so their letters are harder to identify
- one character anonymously sends pearls to another so she doesn't feel alone
- Sherlock likes to greet inanimate objects: "hello, what's this? A peice of paper?"
- over the series Watson uses the word "ejaculated" instead of "said" about 10000 times. If anyone has a searchable pdf, feel free to let me know the exact number
- 221b Baker Street is in Central London, near to Parliament, a couple of palaces, cathedrals, Marylebone Station and just off Oxford Street, which might be the busiest shopping street in the UK. The whole area is rammed with people. Sherlock still regularly looks out of the window and identifies clients
- several plot points in different stories involve people holding important documents and then wandering off, sometimes because they fancy a coffee
- one man has a bad day at work and takes six weeks off because he has "brain fever". Wish we could still get away with this
- Sherlock and Watson visit a house in Kent and find it packed with Indian and Hindu decoration, so it looks like a palace
- Sherlock disguises himself as an elderly priest and fools Watson
There's a family of swallows nesting in one of our vents and now every time I go into the downstairs bathroom it sounds like there's a bird in there.
showing someone a movie is like fuuuuuck its bad now
☕ ☕ ☕
have realized that while i am not a fan necessarily of "people meet and immediately fall in love" i am a fan of "people meet and are immediately obsessed with each other." the love can come later but the absolute fixation should be immediate
obviously don't put your home address in the tags and invite people to steal your car but here's today's curiosity poll
this ain’t that scientific so there’s no official dividing line between urban/suburban/small town/rural just decide that with your heart
Rich person incognito: I heard your bank was a safe, discreet place.
Mr Holder*: It sure is!
Rich person incognito: Great. Store this very expensive and valuable artifact in it for a few days.
Mr Holder: Gosh I'm not sure I trust the company I OWN to do it's job. Better not do what I was hired to do and take it home instead of putting it in this secured vault. Also better tell everyone so they know there's a steal-worthy item around instead of keeping my mouth shut.
Expensive and valuable artifact: gets stolen
Mr Holder:
*Mr HOLDER? ACD with the pun names?