cherry valley forever
Keni
Show & Tell
Monterey Bay Aquarium
occasionally subtle
Acquired Stardust
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Andulka
Peter Solarz
No title available
Stranger Things
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Claire Keane
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
AnasAbdin
taylor price
trying on a metaphor
Janaina Medeiros
shark vs the universe
hello vonnie
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from Vietnam
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Romania
seen from Colombia
seen from Colombia
seen from Colombia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from United States
@justmori
Crowley Flipping The Bird
The Glorious 25th of May
Truth!
Justice!
Freedom!
Reasonably priced Love!
And a Hard-Boiled Egg!
I haven’t read Night Watch yet
I haven’t read Discworld (yet)
I don’t plan on reading Discworld (why?)
Other?
“To each their own.”
I have encountered this version of the idiom often. No one I have asked about it appears to have difficulty understanding that it’s about people having different preferences, more or less. No one I asked even brought up the use of the word “their” paired with the singular “each.”
Even people who seem against the use of singular they had no problem with the idiom. People continue to baffle me.
I cannot get this poem out of my head. It haunts me. Joyously, it haunts me.
This poem format is my favorite thing and this is the first time I’ve ever seen it’s origin story. I love it. Every time.
THE SACRED TEXTS!
I forgot the context! It’s beautiful!
ID: text from a screen capture
+ [-) Chamale 6403 points 12 hours ago
My stepdad used to be a baker in an authentic recreation of an 18th century New French fortress. Because they sell bread to the public, the health inspector came by, and she was ripping into my stepdad for violations like the stonework walls, the doorless entranceways, or the lack of a mosquito zapper. He pointed out that they were following the highest standards except for things that would destroy the authenticity of this 18th-century bakery. The health inspector relented and agreed to give him a pass after verifying the food storage area was secure. They went to the shed, which was a doorless building attached to the bakery.
As the health inspector went in, there happened to be an escaped cow licking all of the loaves. My stepdad could only say, "Honestly, this never happens." They passed the health inspection.
tl;dr: Health inspector witnesses escaped farm animal licking all the bread in a bakery, passes health inspection anyway permalink embed save report give gold reply
- [-] Poem_for_your_sprog 6409 points 10 hours ago
my name is Cow, and wen its nite, or wen the moon is shiyning brite, and all the men haf gon to bed - i stay up late. i lik the bred.
/END ID
A YA romantasy writer filed suit against another writer for copyright infringement, and as is always the case with these things, she padded her claims with delusionally spurious examples. The judge issued a 160-page ruling against the plaintiff where you can tell from the start how resentful they (or whatever clerk actually did the work) are to have been forced by duty to have read the works in question.
"Alaska is a place known to the public, so setting a novel in a Alaska is not copyrightable."
I'm giggling. This is so sassy.
"That was a lot of reading." lmao
Oh, that is a VERY irritated judge.
"Hot, sexy dangerous boys...cannot be copyrighted"
ID: screen captures of portions of the referenced 160 page ruling, including many numbers which may make sense in context only
1. IV.
The Works
The Court has personally read every word of the four Wolff books and the six Freeman
drafts and nine sets of notes at issue in this case. That was a lot of reading. Each of Freeman's first five drafts is approximately 450 double spaced pages long. The sixth (Masqued 2016) is 108 pages long; it appears to be incomplete. There are approximately 55 additional pages of notes, variously
single and double spaced. Each of Wolff's four novels is about 650 pages long, but that number is
highly misleading because, with each successive volume, the print and the margins on each page
get smaller and the line spacing gets closer. When Wolff's works are normed for changes in print
and margin sizes, they easily exceed 3000 pages - which means the Court has read upwards of
6000 pages of romantasy fiction.
2. into any draft of her novel) live on a "large compound like a castle." Dkt. No. 397-9 at 5. Likewise,
the notion that Katmere is substantially similar to the "Old-World European chateau" in which the MacKays live, simply because "chateau" is the French word for "castle," borders on the frivolous.
No building in any of Freeman's drafts looks or feels remotely like the ancient dragon's lair in the
Alaskan wilderness that is Katmere Academy. This is a motif we will encounter again and again
as we examine the factors that play into the "total look and feel" of these two sets of works.
3. Ash/Roman and Jaxon, the heroines' boyfriends, are also quite different. Though Freeman
characterizes both romantic leads as "wild," "sexy," "beautiful," "smoking hot," "gorgeous" and
"dangerous," Dkt. No. 543-1 at 27-28, hot, sexy, dangerous boys - central to virtually all young adult romance novels - cannot be copyrighted. The Viking Ash/Roman has rosy cheeks and sun-
4. f. Total Concept and Feel
And so, having discussed individually the various elements of substantial similarity, we
come to the ultimate test - could the more discerning ordinary reader conclude that, despite their
many differences, the aesthetic appeal of Freeman's work and Wolff's is the same? See Gaito, 602
F.3d at 66.
The answer is no. No trier of fact could plausibly find that a more discerning ordinary
observer "would recognize the alleged copy as having been appropriated from the copyrighted work." Knitwaves, 71 F.3d at 1001 (citation omitted). Therefore, the works are not substantially similar as a matter of law.
5. Freeman contends that the works are substantially similar because both take place in a high
school in Alaska. Alaska is a place known to the public, so setting a novel in Alaska is not
copyrightable. Neither is setting a novel about teenagers in a high school.
6. A handsome, sun-kissed New Boy arrives at school on a motorcycle with a gorgeous girl
in tow - his sister. He pays attention to our heroine in their shared classes, one of which is taught
10
Case 1:22-cv-02435-CM-SN Document 548
Filed 03/16/26 Page 11 of 157
by his parents, who are archaeologists. The parents, the boy, and his sister are shapeshifting paranormal creatures and members of an ancient order. They are in Anchorage searching for
objects that were supposedly cursed by a Celtic Druid and subsequently brought to Alaska from New Zealand by Captain James Cook.
Mean Girl Taylor - beautiful and popular with all the boys - announces that she wants New
Boy to be her next boyfriend, but New Boy expresses no interest in her.
New Boy drives the heroine home on his motorcycle, to the consternation of her mother.
Because her mother will not talk to her about such matters, the heroine discusses her
family's past and her own future with her aunt, who is a witch and a veterinarian.
The heroine casts a Tarot reading about New Boy; the cards come to life and she tries to
interpret the resulting vision, which involves a maiden, two knights, wolves, a cup, a flower, and (in some versions) a dagger.
A month passes, during which our heroine and New Boy have minimal contact.
Our heroine is rescued from having to each lunch alone by her long-time biracial male
friend - the Class President, whom the heroine alone knows is gay - and his friends.
The heroine begins to develop mysterious markings on her neck and spine, which her aunt
hides with a salve that makes them disappear.
New Boy asks the heroine to meet him at a school dance, which she attends with her gay
friend and three of his pals; she is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.
Mean Girl Taylor makes sure that our heroine overhears her talking about her "date" with
New Boy, and our heroine is bereft. She leaves the dance and goes outside. New Boy follows.
After New Boy explains that he was not on a date with Mean Girl Taylor, our heroine and
New Boy enjoy their first romantic moment outside the school under the Northern Lights.
7.Moreover, Freeman cannot prevail on a theory of fragmented literal similarity because the
"literal" similarities to which she points are simply ordinary words or common phrases that any
author is free to use. Examples of fragmented literal similarity identified by Freeman include
Wolff's use of the following phrases: "things that go bump in the night," "pang of disappointment,"
"my stomach is roiling," "he gives me a knowing look," "grab my backpack and head out,
"everything is going to be okay," "my blood freezes in my veins," "the whooshing sound," "tears
streaming down my cheeks," "I'm so sorry this happened," "I don't have a clue," "I feel exactly
the same way," "harder than I thought it would be," "and to hell with the consequences," "and that's when it hits me," "kisses the top of my head," and "like a sack of potatoes." See Dkt. Nos. 276-34; 276-53; 276-54; 276-56. Arguing that the use of these common phrases demonstrates substantial similarity trivializes copyright law.
8. Freeman also suggests that the heroines share "parallel, specific lifestyle details." Id. at 26.
For example, she says that the heroines' favorite food comes from a local Mexican restaurant, and
they often drink tea. The heroine also "ducks her head down" when she is uncomfortable, loves
homemade chocolate chip cookies, and eats apples and yogurt at school. Id.
Putting aside that a shared love of Mexican food or tea is not borne out in the works
themselves (Grace's favorite food is Pop Tarts - although she does like tacos, as do many teenaged
girls - and while she may drink tea on occasion, she much prefers Dr. Pepper), these alleged
similarities are both unprotectable and nothing more than random, minute details that do nothing
51
Case 1:22-CV-02435-CM-SN
• Document 548
Filed 03/16/26
Page 52 of 157
to address the question of whether the characters themselves are substantially similar. Moreover,
there is no "local Mexican restaurant" in Crave - there is not a restaurant anywhere close to
Katmere. When Grace eats tacos, it is at a stall in a marketplace in a prison in New Orleans or
when Jaxon brings her favorite street tacos from her hometown in San Diego - not in a local
Mexican restaurant.
9. It should come as no surprise that Alistair has grey eyes. He is, after all, a gargoyle - a creature made of stone.
Interestingly, in his magical gargoyle form his eyes are red, not grey.
56
10. In connection with her original motion for summary judgment, Plaintiff's counsel listed
hundreds of additional points of purported similarity between Freeman's drafts and the Crave
64
Case 1:22-cV-02435-CM-SN
Document 548
Filed 03/16/26 Page 65 ot 157
novels. See Dkt. Nos. 276-34; 276-44 through 276-56. But virtually all of the similarities Freeman identifies in these lists are either tropes/scènes à faire, similarities based on the shared use of ordinary words and common phrases, or trivial details that have no bearing on the total concept and overall feel of the works. Freeman's lists, for example, include such things as both works mentioning Hawaii and both heroines grabbing an apple between classes - as well as the fact that both novels featured the phrase "Well, well, well." Dkt. No. 276-3 at 98.
/END ID
Which notorious English class short story fucked you up the most?
* I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
*The King in Yellow
* The Lottery
* The Masque of the Red Death
* The Monkey’s Paw
* The Most Dangerous Game
* The Nameless City
* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
* There Will Come Soft Rains
*The Yellow Wallpaper
* The Veldt
* “you think those were fucked up? What about [X]!”
Which notorious English class short story fucked you up the most?
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
The King in Yellow
The Lottery
The Masque of the Red Death
The Monkey’s Paw
The Most Dangerous Game
The Nameless City
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
There Will Come Soft Rains
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Veldt
“you think those were fucked up? What about [X]!”
Okay I have things I should be seeing to but I couldn't help myself. In case you, like me, have not read all of these stories and would like to be amongst the lucky 10,000 today:
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers*
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson**
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard O'Connell
The Nameless City by HP Lovecraft
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Honorable Mention from the comments/reblogs:
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
*note: this is actually a collection of short stories and clocks in at about 72k words
**Originally published in the New Yorker in 1948; interestingly, the New Yorker still has this story archived on their website BEHIND A PAYWALL. CAN YOU IMAGINE.
Smirk or smile? A note to writers and other word lovers.
A smirk is a facial expression which is not simply pleasant, welcoming, open, kind or uncomplicated.
While a smirk is usually a close-mouthed, one-sided smile, it is not only that. Intent and context are key in regard to an actual smirk versus other lopsided smiles.
This is not to say that someone who smirks cannot be objectively attractive, it does convey that the smirker knows that they’re attractive or is overly confident in other areas.
A smirk involves one or more of these elements:
Mocking
Conceit
Concealed intent or meaning
Smugness (smugness is not generally pleasant, either)
Excess of self-confidence or self-assuredness
Amusement at another’s expense
While the word smirk has been used a great deal recently in regard to romantic characters, this does not mean it’s a good thing. Some people adopt a smirk to seem to be more complex than they are, based on the idea that arrogance and extreme self-confidence are attractive.
While the definition of smirk varies among dialects of English, it helps to know the definitions before using it in imitation of other writers. Your main character may seem like a jerk if they smirk.
ok guys but imagine how hard it's gonna hit if something good ever happens again
Happy Birthday to Star Trek’s George Takei, born in Los Angeles on April 20, 1937. Seen here in his favorite episode “The Naked Time.” Live long and prosper, old friend.
I cannot get this poem out of my head. It haunts me. Joyously, it haunts me.
This poem format is my favorite thing and this is the first time I’ve ever seen it’s origin story. I love it. Every time.
THE SACRED TEXTS!
I forgot the context! It’s beautiful!
Happy March 15th to those who celebrate.
The Window
by Raymond Carver
A storm blew in last night and knocked out the electricity. When I looked through the window, the trees were translucent. Bent and covered with rime. A vast calm lay over the countryside. I knew better. But at that moment I felt I’d never in my life made any false promises, nor committed so much as one indecent act. My thoughts were virtuous. Later on that morning, of course, electricity was restored. The sun moved from behind the clouds, melting the hoarfrost. And things stood as they had before.
I think this might be the most beautiful meme I've ever seen. I just spent five minutes extolling all its virtues to my husband:
It doesn't even mention Julius Caesar or the Ides of March.
It's from a very different segment of the play
It's not even the famous part of that segment that everyone knows by heart
The "I'm just sayin'" attitude of all the Seinfeldians in the screenshot (although if memory serves, what they're actually saying is, "not that there's anything wrong with that")
It just comes at the whole situation in such an oblique fashion
I don't think I've ever seen an Ides of March meme do anything like this before
I love it and I love you for bringing it to me.
ID: text from post, photo of page with heavy, uneven blue pen underlining much of the text.
WorkClassicists
Currently loving this interpretation of Caesar's last words
with his toga and let himself fall.' Suetonius adds that, according to some reports, he said in Greek: "Kai su, teknon' (which Shakespeare turned into the Latin 'Et tu, Brute?'). It literally means 'You too, child,' but what Caesar may have intended by the words isn't clear. Tempest cites 'an important article' by James Russell (1980) 'that has often been overlooked'. Russell points out that the words kai su often appear on curse tablets, and suggests that Caesar's putative last words were not 'the emotional parting declaration of a betrayed man to one he had treated like a son' but mores along the lines of 'See you in hell, punk.'
/End ID
Mothers Day on Ides of March situation is crazy
