Luigi Mangione Is Not A Hero. You Celebrate Him Because You’re Ignorant. You’re Anti Rich People

I see your 'Sky has asthma and that's why he can't run', and I raise you: Sky has Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia, and that's why he can't run.

Now, before you run away because you've never even heard of IST, hear me out. (If you don't know the condition, it's a dysautonomic heart condition vaguely similar to POTS, just without the low blood pressure.)

We all know Sky's lived above the clouds with minimal oxygen levels his entire life, as have most of his decedents, so it wouldn't make sense for him to have shitty lungs, right? That's where IST comes in. See, it's not related in the slightest to physical health or upbringing, it's just a non-genetic thing that is due to your sinus being a bit funky. It's also not life threatening, so that takes away from Skyloft needing to have non-canonical advanced medical procedures. IST's main symptom is that it severely decreases your stamina by making your heart race and you become extremely out of breath, often meaning you have to stop and wait for a bit for your heart to calm down.

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so too.

However, and here's the real seller- unlike asthma, you can just power through and not die. It really, really sucks, but this ability is quite the gamebreaker for me when you think about all of the extreme physical tasks Sky has completed in game, not to mention his swordplay, that if he had exercise induced asthma would've very likely set off an attack. With IST tho, yes it would feel like you were dying, but it is absolutely be possible to just power through your symptoms and have no adverse effects except from your extreme discomfort and fatigue afterwards.

TLDR: Sky has Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia because it fits him so much better than asthma, as someone who has both asthma and IST. And no, this isn't just me projecting my hyper specific heart condition onto one of my favourite characters, what do you mean....

This is gold. Absolute gold.

Maybe the reason why Aslan called the Pevensies to Narnia was because three of them were meant to die young in a train crash. Maybe Aslan let them grow old as Kings and Queens because they were brilliant people who could’ve been wonderful adults. Maybe Aslan chose them because one of them would need the strength to live on when everyone else was gone, and what better way is there to prepare for such a daunting tragedy than to defeat an evil witch at the tender age of twelve?

"okay boomer"

People definitely shout this??

not to sound corny but the textile arts make me feel connected to the world around me. it's so intentional and deliberate and when i sit and do it, i think a lot about how many other women that came before me used to do it, how many hands have used the same supplies i am using, and how many other people might be doing the same thing as me all across the world right now

The roads would have been a mess right after the Snap. Just think: you're driving down the road, stuck in traffic cuz everyone needs to get home while the aliens attack, when half the drivers are suddenly gone. Cars are going out of control at 55mph at least on the freeways/highways. Doctors disappearing mid operation. Ovens and candles still on then the owners get snapped, starting fires. Single mothers who get snapped but their baby/small kids don't. The snap would have been worse than 50% fatal.

Down by the banks of the hanky panky where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky, with an eeps, ipes, oups, oops, you miss a lily pad cur-plop.

alright, question for the esteemed jury (though I imagine this will be a uniquely american, if not perhaps also canadian, experience):

are you familiar with the children's game that involves slapping hands around a circle while singing a song that begins "down by the banks of the hanky panky"

and if you are, how did the rest of the song go for you

Behold the ultimate Groose

Started rewatching Skyward Sword again 🍃☁️

Concerning Juliet’s age

I find a big stumbling block that comes with teaching Romeo and Juliet is explaining Juliet’s age. Juliet is 13 - more precisely, she’s just on the cusp of turning 14. Though it’s not stated explicitly, Romeo is implied to be a teenager just a few years older than her - perhaps 15 or 16. Most people dismiss Juliet’s age by saying “that was normal back then” or “that’s just how it was.” This is fundamentally untrue, and I will explain why.

In Elizabethan England, girls could legally marry at 12 (boys at 14) but only with their father’s permission. However, it was normal for girls to marry after 18 (more commonly in early to mid twenties) and for boys to marry after 21 (more commonly in mid to late twenties). But at 14, a girl could legally marry without papa’s consent. Of course, in doing so she ran the risk of being disowned and left destitute, which is why it was so critical for a young man to obtain the father’s goodwill and permission first. Therein lies the reason why we are repeatedly told that Juliet is about to turn 14 in under 2 weeks. This was a critical turning point in her life.

In modern terms, this would be the equivalent of the law in many countries which states children can marry at 16 with their parents’ permission, or at 18 to whomever they choose - but we see it as pretty weird if someone marries at 16. They’re still a kid, we think to ourselves - why would their parents agree to this?

This is exactly the attitude we should take when we look at Romeo and Juliet’s clandestine marriage. Today it would be like two 16 year olds marrying in secret. This is NOT normal and would NOT have been received without a raised eyebrow from the audience. Modern audiences AND Elizabethan audiences both look at this and think THEY. ARE. KIDS.

Critically, it is also not normal for fathers to force daughters into marriage at this time. Lord Capulet initially makes a point of telling Juliet’s suitor Paris that “my will to her consent is but a part.” He tells Paris he wants to wait a few years before he lets Juliet marry, and informs him to woo her in the meantime. Obtaining the lady’s consent was of CRITICAL importance. It’s why so many of Shakespeare’s plays have such dazzling, well-matched lovers in them, and why men who try to force daughters to marry against their will seldom prosper. You had to let the lady make her own choice. Why?

Put simply, for her health. It was considered a scientific fact that a woman’s health was largely, if not solely, dependant on her womb. Once she reached menarche in her teenage years, it was important to see her fitted with a compatible sexual partner. (For aristocratic girls, who were healthier and enjoyed better diets, menarche generally occurred in the early teens rather than the later teens, as was more normal at the time). The womb was thought to need heat, pleasure, and conception if the woman was to flourish. Catholics might consider virginity a fit state for women, but the reformed English church thought it was borderline unhealthy - sex and marriage was sometimes even prescribed as a medical treatment. A neglected wife or widow could become sick from lack of (pleasurable) sex. Marrying an unfit sexual partner or an older man threatened to put a girl’s health at risk. An unsatisfied woman, made ill by her womb as a result - was a threat to the family unit and the stability of society as a whole. A satisfying sex life with a good husband meant a womb that had the heat it needed to thrive, and by extension a happy and healthy woman.

In Shakespeare’s plays, sexual compatibility between lovers manifests on the stage in wordplay. In Much Ado About Nothing, sparks fly as Benedick and Beatrice quarrel and banter, in comparison to the silence that pervades the relationship between Hero and Claudio, which sours very quickly. Compare to R+J - Lord Capulet tells Paris to woo Juliet, but the two do not communicate. But when Romeo and Juliet meet, their first speech takes the form of a sonnet. They might be young and foolish, but they are in love. Their speech betrays it.

Juliet, on the cusp of 14, would have been recognised as a girl who had reached a legal and biological turning point. Her sexual awakening was upon her, though she cares very little about marriage until she meets the man she loves. They talk, and he wins her wholehearted, unambiguous and enthusiastic consent - all excellent grounds for a relationship, if only she weren’t so young.

When Tybalt dies and Romeo is banished, Lord Capulet undergoes a monstrous change from doting father to tyrannical patriarch. Juilet’s consent has to take a back seat to the issue of securing the Capulet house. He needs to win back the prince’s favour and stabilise his family after the murder of his nephew. Juliet’s marriage to Paris is the best way to make that happen. Fathers didn’t ordinarily throw their daughters around the room to make them marry. Among the nobility, it was sometimes a sad fact that girls were simply expected to agree with their fathers’ choices. They might be coerced with threats of being disowned. But for the VAST majority of people in England - basically everyone non-aristocratic - the idea of forcing a daughter that young to marry would have been received with disgust. And even among the nobility it was only used as a last resort, when the welfare of the family was at stake. Note that aristocratic boys were often in the same position, and would also be coerced into advantageous marriages for the good of the family.

tl;dr:

Q. Was it normal for girls to marry at 13?

A. Hell no!

Q. Was it legal for girls to marry at 13?

A. Not without dad’s consent - Friar Lawrence performs this dodgy ceremony only because he believes it might bring peace between the houses.

Q. Was it normal for fathers to force girls into marriage?

A. Not at this time in England. In noble families, daughters were expected to conform to their parents wishes, but a girl’s consent was encouraged, and the importance of compatibility was recognised.

Q. How should we explain Juliet’s age in modern terms?

A. A modern Juliet would be a 17 year old girl who’s close to turning 18. We all agree that girls should marry whomever they love, but not at 17, right? We’d say she’s still a kid and needs to wait a bit before rushing into this marriage. We acknowledge that she’d be experiencing her sexual awakening, but marrying at this age is odd - she’s still a child and legally neither her nor Romeo should be marrying without parental permission.

Q. Would Elizabethans have seen Juliet as a child?

A. YES. The force of this tragedy comes from the youth of the lovers. The Montagues and Capulets have created such a hateful, violent and dangerous world for their kids to grow up in that the pangs of teenage passion are enough to destroy the future of their houses. Something as simple as two kids falling in love is enough to lead to tragedy. That is the crux of the story and it should not be glossed over - Shakespeare made Juliet 13 going on 14 for a reason. 

Good morning to those who wish people a good morning, those who mean that it is a good morning whether anyone wants it or not, those who feel good this morning, those who feel it is a morning to be good on, those who suppose they mean all of these at once when they say good morning, those smoking a pipe of tobacco out of doors in the morning, and those who never thought they’d see the day they’d be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son.