A Vichyssoise of Thoughts

I'm Benjamin and post whatever I want. It was originally to be just to share original photography but then I got trapped within the tumblrverse. Feel free to ask me anything. I will NOT hold anything you ask me against you. Siriusly.

[catbushandludicrous]

[zombeesknees]

#just think   #when this gifset first passed my dash   #however long ago that was   #I didn’t even recognize the name Elon Musk   #what I wouldn’t give to return to that innocence

[artbyblastweave]

My father's funeral was yesterday. There are a lot of ways that I could attempt to eulogize him, but for the sake of expediency I'm going to go with an incident, towards the tail end of the Obama administration, where I was sitting in the living room reading, and he charges in in a big huff, says, "Look at what he sent me! Can you believe this guy?" and hands me this:

[rain-droplet]

I'm so so curious what death panels could possibly be. is this a council that decides who dies ? what does this mean ?

[artbyblastweave]

A major Republican talking point/smear during the early Obama years was the idea that the Affordable Care Act would inevitably result in a slippery-slope towards the existence of dystopian bureaucratic review panels who would assess whether it was cost effective to keep any given person alive using state resources (colloquially referred to as "death panels.")

The intended joke was that my father was LARPing as a hypothetical insane person who heard about the concept of death panels, misunderstood them as an actual plank of Obama's platform, thought they were a great idea, and then spent eight years badgering the surgeon general about how to sign up for them as if it were akin to jury duty, before Obama personally intervenes to try and get him to stop. The tone of the conversation right before he handed this to me had undertones of a guy feeling backstabbed about a politician not following through on campaign promises.

[hyperhypnotichyena]

Oh my god the absolute commitment to the bit he must have written so many times to get Obama to personally write him

[artbyblastweave]

My father wrote this letter himself. That was the point of the bit. None of this happened

[cpericardium]

Why didn't your Dad put an #unreality tag then

[escuerzoresucitado]

[findingfeather]

I absolutely fucking hate this. Gold star, no notes.

[jartita-me-teneis]

[leog4u]

[sociallyunacceptableart4]

This was my art school’s water fountain. Drink from them wolf tiddies

[mando-lore]

Assignment misunderstood. I have now built a city.

[mando-lore]

[mando-lore]

Give it a day

[alexaloraetheris]

[threadatl]

Study: transportation struggles are a big barrier for Atlanta nightlife

by Darin Givens | Feb 13, 2025

The City of Atlanta has partnered with a consultant to study issues with the city's nightlife and the report is now online.

Unsurprisingly, it's filled with complaints about transportation. One of the biggest issues people raised in the study is the difficulty of getting to and from nightlife businesses.

One smart comment in the report: "Public transportation needs to improve. Parking is going to keep disappearing."

Exactly. While the study's recommendation of discounted parking options for employees of nightlife business is likely doable, it's not realistic to expect that free or cheap parking will significantly expand for customers in the city's hot entertainment districts.

If there's anything we've learned from the great urban planner Donald Shoup who passed away last week, it's that parking has a high cost that can't be ignored -- especially in growing cities.

Over time we need to build the city (and the larger metro area) in in a format that better supports options like transit, walking, and biking. Which, at least in part, means employing the dreaded "d" word: density. Because when we build most of our places at a lower-density scale for cars, we get car traffic, along with scarce alternatives.

But while that change happens, we also need to do everything we can to provide better options for getting around without cars late at night. That could include expanding service hours for transit, and turning some car lanes into safe lanes for bikes/e-scooters.

Obviously, these improvements could help many people beyond just nightlife employees and customers.

Atlanta looks to improve safety, transportation options to support city's nightlife

A new study shows that nearly half of Atlanta's nightlife patrons are going out less than they had been a year ago, which could be trouble f

[mokeonn]

The Princess Bride is such a funny book to read after ONLY seeing the movie. Like Goldman made up a fake author from a fake country and proceeded to write the book as an abridged version of what the fake author wrote... and then he proceeds to add in notes to the "abridged version" mentioning all the boring world building stuff he skipped because it was boring.

Like shout out to William Goldman, man really did make an entire book that is just "the cool scenes you thought of in your head" and then made up a fake author to abridge so he doesn't have to connect them.

And it slaps

[thuriweaver]

I used to work at a used bookstore, and had a group of three teenage boys come in wanting the "Unabridged Version" of Princess Bride.

They would not believe that it was a narrative device and the unabridged version didn't exist. Said no author would credit someone else for their own writing, that was ridiculous, and was there a guy who knew about fantasy they could talk to?

I grabbed a coworker and left him to deal with it. Heard him explaining the concept of a pen name as I walked away.

[horizon-penblade]

the unabridged princess bride 🤝goncharov

fictitious works of media that sound very interesting but can never exist in a way that lives up to the expectations built by their nonexistence

[necarion]

Although one of the big things of the "Unabridged Princess Bride" is that Goldman-as-character has declared that it's actually...super boring [if you aren't a tumblr user fascinated by political satire].

In Goldman's "footnotes," he describes how his father used to read The Princess Bride aloud to him; thus the book became Goldman's favorite without him ever actually reading the text. As a father, Goldman looked forward to sharing the story with his own son, going to great lengths to locate a copy for his son's birthday, only to be crushed when his son stops reading after the first chapter. When Goldman revisits the book himself, he discovers that what he believed was a straightforward adventure novel was in fact a bitter satire of politics in Morgenstern's native Florin, and that his father had been skipping all the political commentary and leaving in only "the good parts." This moves Goldman to abridge the book to a version resembling the one his father had read to him, while adding notes to summarize material he had "removed." Morgenstern and the "original version" are fictitious and used as a literary device to comment on the nature of adaptation and to draw a contrast between the love and adventure of the main story and the mundane aspects of everyday life.[5] The nations of Guilder and Florin are likewise pure fiction.[5] Each section or chapter takes place in a certain setting or place. It's an episodic structure with each "episode" taking place in a specific part of the Kingdom of Florin (the Cliffs of Insanity, the Fire Swamp or the Forest of Thieves). [6]

Also, this is too funny to leave out:

In the novel's commentary, Goldman writes that he added nothing to the "original" Morgenstern text. He did write one original scene, a loving reunion between Buttercup and Westley, but, he said, his publisher objected to this addition.[13] He invites any reader who wants to read the "Reunion Scene" to write to the publisher (formerly Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; now Random House) and request a copy. Many readers wrote in to the publisher and did receive a letter, but instead of an extra scene, the letter detailed the (obviously fictitious) legal problems that Goldman and his publishers encountered with the Morgenstern estate and its lawyer, Kermit Shog. This letter was revised and updated periodically; the 1987 revision mentioned the movie, while the 25th Anniversary Edition published the letter with an addendum about Kermit's lawyer granddaughter Carly. The 30th Anniversary Edition has a footnote that the three pages of the reunion scene were now available online.[14] However, the website itself contained nothing but the text of the original three letters. This website has since been taken down and superseded by the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt product page for the book, which provides the 2003 version of the Reunion Scene letter as a digital download.[15]

[depsidase]

[twistdmentality]

[rfpreiwaphase]

[transcript: Cameron Klein, seated: I’m not going to launch those ships. Captain’s orders. Brock Rumlow, draws firearm: Move away from your station. Klein closes his eyes. Sharon Carter crosses the room, her weapon raised to aim at Rumlow: Like he said… Captain’s orders. Uniformed security teams (presumably Hydra) and jacket-and-button-up office workers all draw weapons in a stand-off. Rumlow: You picked the wrong side, Agent [Carter]. Carter: Depends on where you’re standing.

/end transcript]

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

I want to share this analysis of this scene from cakeisnotpie

Because we are seeing that right now with the world situation and the fight against the Orange Fucker and Muskrat. All kinds of people gumming up the works, including people within the government itself, saying “no, I’m not doing that.” and many of them will be fired or removed. But people are digging in their heels for the small moment of mercy it will grant us.

May everyone with the power to resist find the will and courage to do so. Be like Cameron.

[cakeisnotpie]

Oh.

OH.

I’m crying @comicgeekscomicgeek because I needed to hear this right now. To see my own words, to know that someone read the thought I shouted into the void and remembered. Thank you for being my Sharon Carter and reminding me that I do have a choice.. there’s always a choice.

So, Cap’s orders, I’m not taking my pronouns out of my email signature or pulling Nimona from my class. I can’t change anything, but I can plant myself like a tree, let my students take shelter behind me, and say, “no, you move.”

[nochd]

[dirtbaby2016]

[shower-thoughts-last-responder]

Good bitch, I'm glad none of your people have an ounce of loyalty to you

[evilkitten3]

does that suck, mark? is it not fun to have your privacy violated? do you feel uncomfortable with people knowing things about you that you'd rather they not know? tell me more about how much you value your security and privacy, mark.

[wilwheaton]

I say this with love. Do not cite the old magic to me, friend. I was there when it was written.

I appreciate this ... acceptance? It's nice to be acceptable.

But I feel obligated to point out that I've been posting on this hellsite (affectionate) since at least 2008.

I don't know what this invasion is, but I am not part of it. I've been here so long, I'm part of the furniture.

I'm not going to play the Elder card, but I am going to tap the sign.

[a-ginger-in-black]

It's almost as if celebrities are people! Who do things like join social media platforms!

This is the man who wrote a 1,000-word essay about his childhood experience going to see Goncharov, for heaven's sake. He belongs here.

[wilwheaton]

I didn't expect my original post up there (which, honestly, was amusing to me in a wry, gen x way) to blow up a little bit like it did, but I'm just overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and kindness and all the things that continue to make this hellsite (affectionate) worth protecting and defending until the sun goes out.

I am deeply grateful for your acceptance!

But that's not why I reblogged this. I reblogged this because that thing I wrote about Goncharov is one of my favorite things I have ever written. I don't recall another time I had that much fun writing anything. And it made me so happy to read it all over again, I wanted to share that happiness.

Remember how fun that was? That wonderful moment when we all just agreed to play a global improv game, and celebrated each other's creativity? There were no bad ideas, just fun additions and the largest online gathering of Theater Kids And Associates the world has ever seen?

That only happened because Tumblr can't not be Tumblr. And to bring it all back around, I've been here so long, I'm really happy to be one of the many Elders who care about nurturing it for the future, if I am ever allowed the privilege.

[sindar-princeling]

I know I've said it before but every rewatch I do cements this thought further - elijah wood's performance in LOTR is absolutely insane, they really had a character whose name means "wise by experience", hired an 18-year-old to do it, and he delivered so much that not only is it a beautiful and moving role on its own, it's a performance equal to those of the absolute powerhouses he played side by side with like ian holm and ian mckellen. to name just a few

[sindar-princeling]

apparently it's not common knowledge that he was 18 at the time (insert that xkcd comic, you know which) but. yeah

"let's task this teenager with the monster assignment of portraying trauma of war in a quiet and subtle way. what can go wrong" and then somehow nothing did. because he killed the role

[safe-from-emails]

Kissinger had an assistant named Lawrence Eagleburger, which is possibly the most American name conceivable.

[vriskakinnieaynrand]

[psshaw]

Wow, that was indeed worth the google.

[atlantathecity]

Hey you know what would be nice to have in between the sycamore trees and the patios on the Eastside Beltline? A couple of train tracks. Put 'em right here Andre Dickens -- I think we've done enough studies.

[spaceybread]

[butch-king-frankenstein]

@terreurs :)

[terreurs]

ooh thank god

[sungodsevenoclock]

I know, I know, gatekeeping the outdoors, that's supposedly bad, right, but I think if you show up to do a hike and you brought a portable speaker with you to play music while you hike, I think, like hear me out, there should be a gate, and someone at the gate should keep you from doing the hike.

[nicdevera]

playing music in public should get strong social disapproval

[squareallworthy]

Recorded music, anyway. Live music is different rules. If you want to lug an entire cello up a mountain you can do whatever the hell you want.

[headspace-hotel]

Carrying a speaker on a hike to make everyone listen to your bullshit, and simply sitting under a tree and playing a fiddle in the woods, are two activities so different they may as well not exist in the same world.

[unclear-contributions]

I think the critical difference is that the bringing of recorded music with you ties the space to Elsewhere, whereas the creation of live music with an instrument you brought both binds you to the space, and drags everyone who hears you play into it as well.

[headspace-hotel]

I think you're right.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Yeah I'll accept this into my belief system.

[doubleca5t]

idk man I think according to color theory this is actually an excellent design for the carpet