Sincerely, Ghoulia

[hotvintagepoll]

Anybody else desperately miss summer reading programs from like. 20 years ago.

[hotvintagepoll]

for everyone telling me to check my library of COURSE I have, those are what I’m talking about! But the adult ones my library runs 1) are through an app 2) don’t have any prizes, or the prizes are raffle tickets 3) aren’t themed around Space or Castles or Dinosaurs or Pirates, the only themes I will accept

[hotvintagepoll]

and 4) don’t start until 3 weeks from now

[hotvintagepoll]

I have checked all the libraries remotely close to me they are all run through apps. if you have paper printout fun reading programs at YOUR library for god’s sake send me a picture so I can dream of the beautiful analog summer reading I could be having

[aghoulstory]

Our adult library reading program doesn't have fun activities, just asking that you read twenty minutes per ticket. But you actually get two tickets. One goes in a raffle for actually fun prizes (teapot that looks like a frog! Vase that looks like a crossword news paper page! Over gloves thaht are dogs!) BUT the second ticket goes into a box for one of two good causes and at the end, those cuases get money raised from the number of tickets. I think this is such an amazing thing for a reading program that kids and grown ups can both take part in.

[allisondraste]

Acknowledging that “critical thinking” means “thinking about things in a thorough way from different perspectives” and not “finding every flaw in a thing and fixating on it until all the joy is gone” is so liberating.

It’s supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, not about finding ways to devalue things that aren’t perfect or that we personally dislike.

[polls-by-fip]

im curious about a specific generational divide

regardless of you being queer or not, did your parents ever gave you the "if you turn out to be gay it would be fine" talk, before you ever had the chance to say anything on your own about that?

gen z, yes

gen z, no

millenial, yes

millenial, no

gen x, yes

gen X, no

baby boomer, yes

baby boomer, no

Voting ended onJun 20

because it happened to me and im wondering if this was a product of the ongoing cultural change around gay issues. before i ever had the chance to say to my parents "i am this" my mom was already sitting me aside to tell me "if there is anything you want to tell me, i want you to know ill accept you no matter what"

[aghoulstory]

#no #we never had a specific conversation #but neither I nor my sister are not queer #so it may be why #conversations about the future left that as a possibility I guess #I think my dad was more concerned that we realize how hard a marriage with a person of a different faith might be #they were friends with gay and lesbian people #supportive of their queer college students #and family and friends who have come out as Trans or gay#my mom said the AIDS epidemic was what radicalized her #in retrospect they were very supportive for the 90s #an era in which it felt like people mostly pretended queerness didn't exist

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

[contemplatingoutlander]

And the Roberts Court in decimating the Voting Rights Act by pretending these states have moved beyond racism, just gave them the ability to once again disenfranchise Blacks.

[transtenzin]

not to be maya on side but please do not call someone or something “mayan” when talking about our people, culture, etc. “mayan” refers to our language family (a language FAMILY, in which there are plenty of unique languages). we are the maya, not the mayans. i am maya, not mayan. it is the indigenous maya community, not the indigenous mayan community. 

[transtenzin]

you can reblog this 😔

[1000-life-hacks]

[archeologist-prophet]

Lovely to see we have spaces where you can gain access to so much literature!

[bitchesgetriches]

The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There

[saywhat-politics]

Wyoming lawmakers say tight new restrictions on abortion are needed to grow the state's population. Demographers and others say economic conditions are more to blame for an exodus of young people.

At the anti-abortion March for Life rally in D.C. last year, Vice President J.D. Vance had a clear message.

"So let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America," Vance said to a cheering crowd.

As birth rates fall in the U.S., prominent conservatives such as Vance are encouraging Americans to have more children. They say that's crucial to maintaining the nation's workforce, so there will be enough caregivers for an aging population.

Now, those arguments are being cited to pass new state-level restrictions on abortion, including in Wyoming, which recently passed a law to outlaw abortions once there's a "detectable fetal heartbeat."

Wyoming lawmakers use pro-natalist arguments to justify proposed new partial abortion ban

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/05/nx-s1-5810606/wyoming-lawmakers-use-pro-natalist-arguments-to-justify-proposed-new-partial-abortion-ban

[porterdavis]

[akaratna]

So maybe a great idea would be to volunteer in (or start up) free literacy classes in one's community.

First assess need. Different communities have different literacy needs.

Design the classes to be fun. Design them around things that people enjoy or have vested interest in. This is another good thing to assess. Different communities or different groups may have different affinities.

As we create the thing, we discover that the learning goes BOTH ways. That what this is, is mutual aid.

Get a local institution to donate space -- libraries, town buildings, churches, other.

Get local businesses to donate food. Feed the body as well as the soul.

People who come to the program as students graduate as potential teachers. This is how the program self-propagates and disseminates into the community, even beyond the walls of the teaching space.

A great companion work for this would be to set up little free libraries in neighborhoods.

Just a thought.

[aghoulstory]

It is also important to note that- 1) many sixth graders can do all the above things at least a little bit. 2) The statistic says at or *below*, so there are some American adults who won't be able to do those things. But- if you are reading at a 5th or 6th grade level you likely *can* do all of these examples- at least a little. Enough to think you have an answer, without actually checking or thinking deeper.

The takeaway from these two points isn't "oh, people are functional adults if they can read at a 6th grade level." I'm NOT saying that. What I am saying is- there are American adults- probably many- who read at a 5th/6th grade level and who don't realize it. That many probably think they are reading well enough and won't even realize they might be the ones who are being duped by people who take advantage of uneducated people.

[saywhat-politics]

Red state elections chief accused of breaking state law to satisfy Trump

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has been hit with a misconduct complaint alleging that he violated state elections law to hand over vo

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has been hit with a misconduct complaint alleging that he violated state elections law to hand over voter data to the Trump administration's Justice Department.

According to the liberal election outlet Democracy Docket, "Wyoming is one of 17 states that have complied with DOJ’s demands for full, unredacted state voter rolls, which include addresses, driver’s license numbers, and social security numbers. Enter George Powers, who spent 40 years practicing law in the state. In a complaint to Attorney General Keith Kautz (R), he is alleging that Gray’s decision to hand that data over was illegal."

In a statement to the local paper Cowboy News Daily, Powers said, “When Secretary Gray released the unredacted [voter rolls] to DOJ, he willingly and knowingly released information that was confidential under Wyoming law. He released these confidential records in response to a mere request.”

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

Pick a human trait you can receive

Can see without corrective lenses

Can hear without hearing aid & actually understand conversation even

Can walk for like 4-8 hours without having to spend the next day lying down

Can enter a social situation without feeling like you're being hunted by dogs

Socks cease to feel evil / Shoes don't hurt

The Itching Finally Stops

Can eat all human foods without dietary repercussions

No longer allergic to it

Can sleep, for 8 uninterrupted hours, and feel refreshed, on command

Ability to focus on task, until task is complete, at the time of your choosing

Voting ended onApr 7

[knifefightscene]

[valtsv]

it fucks me up that tolkien only died in 1973. dude has the vibe of a victorian scholar who wrote all his manuscripts by candlelight but then you look him up and realise that he knew what color tv was. what the fuck.

[tiwaztyrsfist]

Tolkien had personal beef with the Beatles

[solepunk]

He actively encouraged Led Zeppelin to write songs based on the LOTR series and considered it an honor

[sillymarillion-comics]

[luccorvus]

When the current queen of Denmark was young, she made illustrations for his books and sent them to him under a pseudonym. He liked them and they were printed in the Danish version of the book.

[kaispeakshermind]

WHAT

[helenakey]

The Queen of Denmark drew LoTR fanart 😮😩

[iconuk01]

Well, it started as fanart, it became canon published artwork approved by the author.

[spartanlocke]

Also he strictly forbade Disney from making any sort of cinema of his books. 

[source]

Not only did this dude see the moon landing, know what color TV was and hate the Beatles, but he knew Walt Disney was a piece of shit before anyone else, and all because of some dwarves. 

[elodieunderglass]

In 1937, in communication with American publishers regarding illustrations for The Hobbit -

It might be advisable, rather than lose the American interest, to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible (I should like to add) to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).

Tolkien in 1961, being a crunchy parenting advocate, lmao;

God help the children! I would as soon give them crude and vulgar plastic toys. Which of course they will play with, to the ruin of their taste. Terrible presage of the most vulgar elements in Disney.

(That’s so Montessori of him, hahaha.)

[aghoulstory]

#That's actually very Waldorf of him

[duel-of-the-dolls]

Which historical era/event should the next American Girl doll be from?

Salem Witch Trials

The War of 1812

Sinking of Titanic

The Gilded Age

The Donner Party

Reconstruction Era

Dust Bowl

Donna Kelce Home Renovation

Voting ended onMar 28

[sare11aa11eras]

GRRM is in fact really good at making up top tier characters i will use the starklings to illustrate the point okay you got: 1) high school freshman King Arthur stars in a shakespearean tragedy, as told by his mom; 2) local moody teenaged Starbucks night shift manager must do his very best to stop the zombie apocalypse through the power of friendship; 3) a middle schooler who keeps her sparkly butterfly gel pens in perfect rainbow order at all times is being held hostage by her evil middle school boyfriend and his evil blonde mafia family; 4) a scrappy but poorly-supervised middle-grade book protagonist bops about a war-zone looking for her family but instead! learns about Death; 5) paraplegic fourth grader Frodo Baggins receives mystical visions and must go on a quest to see a hundred-year-old tree guy; and 6) kindergartener that Bites

[sagesummersavory]

God all the adults in sansa and arya’s lives really set them up to fail each other.

Arya is constantly being shamed and criticized and nagged for being unable/unwilling to shrink herself down enough to fit in the role of a Society Lady and is always treated like she’s a failed runner up to her older sister. She’s hopeless at the few traits that are valued in women and her many, many strengths are constantly also framed as shameful or scandalous. Her feelings in any given situation are never seen as the “correct” ones and nobody seems to realize that her disobedience and “willfulness” come from a place of genuine distress over the unfair and hyperdemanding expectations she’s being held to.

Sansa is convinced that’s she’s only good and worthy of attention relative to arya bc she adopts courtesy and obedience better. She gets her entire self concept and worldview from her absolute buy-in to the kingdom’s gender roles because that’s what she’s primarily been praised and valued for her whole life. She does all this while watching arya get levels of honest and vulnerable emotional intimacy with the people around her that sansa cannot replicate because her life is based around the performance of a Good Girl.

Both girls are pointing at each other going “but SHEEEEEE gets so much more leeway” (points at a girl who is very much NOT getting a lot of leeway)

[agentrouka-blog]

This may be painting Sansa with too bleak a brush. She is not incapable of connection. It's more that her feelings are just as irrelevant to the people around her as Arya's, but it's much more complicated to grasp that disempowerment because she actually enjoys what she is supposed to do, so her oppression is much more abstract. Arya fights concrete situations. Sansa fights the foggy, gnawing horror that women are powerless against men, no matter how "good" they are. Because she has her mother's example right in front of her. She doesn't buy into gender roles, she buys into escapist models ("lady in a song") in the hope of escaping that cage because the strategies that Arya employs (sneak away to do unladylike things) don't align with what Sansa wants or enjoys.

Whenever Sansa does show her true feelings they are shut down as violently as Arya's, either through scolding or mockery (her whimsy is labled "stupid"). She has learned well and early to try and ignore them because that's what she was taught to do. It's not that she couldn't have moments of connection like Arya. It's that no one cares to give her feelings space at all. Like the way Ned chooses to do for Arya and explicitly refuses to do for Sansa.

[aghoulstory]

I think it worth mentioning too that Arya being constantly compared to Sansa *also* affect Sansa negatively. Every time the Septa scolds Arya, she compares her to Sansa. When she does that, we see Sansa trying to constantly compensate for Arya's "trangressions," both by striving to be even more committed to acting like a lady, and also by covering for Arya as well. Its like when a teacher sets "the good kid" next to "the rowdy one" to calm the "rowdy one". It almost never works; usually the "good kid" just gets neurotic trying to compensate.

It makes one wonder how much a different Septa might have made their dynamic (or another caretaker/governess who wasn't religiously affiliated) .

[lena-oleanderson]

also a poem from the new, unreleased collection. very possibly my own all-time favourite.

[p0ltergeistsworld]

I can't describe how much I love this poem. I want to hug it.

[profeminist]

"As Kansas' horrific SB 244 begins to go into effect, we want to send a message to trans Kansans that we are in this fight together and will always have your back. GLAAD is committed to uplifting local and community advocacy on the ground in Kansas and which will continue no matter what. Trans people exist and lawmakers can never erase us.

GLAAD