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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@librarianofrnd
I heard some people are upset about there being a black Arial. This shouldn’t be a big deal, though. It’s not like the newer Arial is replacing the older one. The original Arial is still there! You can select the version of Arial that you want to see whenever you like. Having different Arials just gives people more choices, and I think that’s a good thing.
In an instruction session...
ME: So where would you look for sources?
STUDENT #1: Google.
ME: Where else might you look?
STUDENT #2: Bing.
ME: No, you wouldn't.
What I understand from the cover of this book is that laser accidents are TOTALLY AWESOME, in a bad 1980′s sci-fi movie kind of way.
Actual, serious books I found in the Geography section with titles that sound like pulp sci-fi/adventure novels:
Atlas of the Lunar Terminator / John E. Westfall
Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons / Sir Clements Robert Markham
The Periplous of Skylax of Karyanda / Michael Louis Allain
Classic She-Ra 1x21: Funny joke!
I watched She-Ra: Princess of Power daily when it originally aired, but have few clear memories of it. I remember playing with the action figures more, which may explain why I sort of misremembered the basic premise of the show. In my memory it was about She-Ra and her Girl Squad vs. Catra and her minions, and oh yeah there was a guy with a heart on his shirt around sometimes too.
(Above GIF from childrenoftherainbowbriteera, all others by me.)
In reality, the main villain is Hordak, and Bow is by far the most prominent of She-Ra’s allies. He’s in nearly every episode, while the various female allies only show up occasionally. Glimmer is the one who appears the most often, but she’s typically less useful than Broom. Who is an actual broom.
Episode 1x21, “The Stone in the Sword”, initially seems like it’s going to be an exception. Hordak attacks the Whispering Woods with his Doom Balloon, and Glimmer runs out to defend them with her magical powers...
...only to get zapped. She even has to be carried to safety by Bow. This is still an improvement over Glimmer’s usual role, not that that’s saying much.
This episode is an exception to the norm in another way, though. I remember that as a child I admired the way She-Ra made humorous quips while fighting. Rewatching the series as an adult, it’s been disappointing to find that She-Ra actually makes TERRIBLE “dad jokes” while fighting. For instance, she might say “This should lift your spirits!” while tossing a Hordebot into the air. That sort of thing might have amused me as a little kid, but as an adult I feel it barely even qualifies as a pun.
In this episode She-Ra manages to make a funny joke for the first time in the series. Even Hordak takes note.
I think the funniest part is actually her pin-up style pose. She-Ra occasionally winds up in fanservice-y poses during action sequences, but this time she seems to be doing so intentionally (and ironically) as part of the joke.
“The Stone in the Sword” is also notable because it marks the first appearance of Light Hope, who’s mentioned in the opening sequence but hasn’t otherwise been seen until now. Confusingly, She-Ra is already familiar with Light Hope and the viewer isn’t given much explanation. The backstory on how She-Ra first found Light Hope actually appears in the next episode, 1x22 “The Crystal Castle”.
Classic She-Ra 1x26: Kids Who Can’t Read Good
I was surprised to find that She-Ra: Princess of Power had another intellectual freedom episode so soon after 1x17 “A Loss for Words”. Unlike that episode, 1x26 “Book Burning” doesn’t use any magical metaphors. It’s quite plainly about the destruction of books for political reasons. For a children’s cartoon with a fantasy setting, the depiction of how and why censorship occurs is actually pretty realistic.
The episode opens with Adora and Bow visiting a school to talk to the students about spicing things up in the bedroom resisting the Horde.
Some Hordesmen show up, but Adora and Bow escape. The teacher fares less well. She loses her job, and the Horde seizes all books that aren’t explicitly pro-Horde to prevent the spread of subversive ideas.
While the teacher may look like Betty Crocker, she’s a total rebel. In defiance of the Horde, she keeps a stash of banned books in her home and allows the children to come read from them. Unfortunately for her, an obnoxious kid named Cory has fallen for the Horde’s propaganda. He snitches on the teacher, and some Hordebots show up to arrest her. Her books are also taken to be added to the upcoming book burning.
She-Ra naturally comes to the rescue. She breaks the teacher out of jail and they race off together on Swift Wind to save the books.
Shockingly, they fail.
I seriously was not expecting this. I mean, She-Ra never fails, but she was too late to stop this big ol’ Nazi style book bonfire.
She does manage to prevent the Horde from taking all the children away to a reeducation camp in the Fright Zone. Cory learns the hard way that the Horde cannot be trusted, and realizes he would be better informed if he read more.
This was not my favorite episode (ALL THE BOOKS GOT BURNED!), but as a librarian I was impressed that it was devoted to the importance of protecting the freedom to read.
Classic She-Ra 1x17: Freedom of Speech
Episode 1x17 “A Loss for Words” does a surprisingly good job of working a lesson about free speech into the context of a typical She-Ra episode. The “Wheel of Morality” segment with Loo-Kee is (as usual) pretty simplistic, but the episode itself is about the importance of political speech in resisting tyranny. The story involves a group of peasants who have been discussing whether to join with the Rebellion against the Horde.
Hordak sends Shadow Weaver to steal the peasants’ voices with a magical spell. (I assume she later taught this spell to her friend Ursula the Sea Witch.) In the process Shadow Weaver also captures the voice of She-Ra/Adora, who had been invited to make a speech about the Rebellion. This spell is even more effective at impeding the Rebels than Hordak and Shadow Weaver realize: since Adora can’t say her catchphrase, she can’t transform into She-Ra. She sets off with Bow to regain both her voice and her power.
Someone could probably get a whole paper out of exploring that theme, but instead I’ll share this GIF I made of Bow struggling to interpret the instructions that Adora has attempted to convey via charades.
Something that’s odd about rewatching this series as an adult today is how overtly queer Bow seems to be, even though I remember the 1980s well enough to be certain this wasn’t intentional. There were rarely LGBT characters on television at all then, and definitely not in heroic roles on shows for children. Sure, Bow is a singer who looks like a redheaded Freddie Mercury and has a snarky rainbow (!) following him around all the time, but it was 1985. That’s what cartoons were like then.
As previously noted, Bow does have a crush on She-Ra. Still, from a modern perspective this episode seems full of hints that he might "swing” both ways.
Classic She-Ra 1x20: Librarian of the Lost
In episode 1x20 “Three Courageous Hearts”, She-Ra gets sent off to the 6th Dimension (one dimension past the group that sang "Up, Up and Away") while Madame Raz, Broom, and Kowl handle the important stuff: going to the library!
I suppose “the Nameless Glowing Book” is at least as good a description as “it had a red cover”.
At the Valley of the Lost Library, the three sidekick heroes meet a librarian who frankly isn't that helpful, although unfortunately I can't say his behavior is unrealistic. I remember being explicitly warned in library school that it was all too common for librarians to just point patrons in the general direction of the book they needed.
I did wonder why there's no special collections librarian or archivist to assist with finding rare materials, then I realized that the Valley of the Lost must have cut their funding. This is also all too common in the real world.
Something that's obvious to me rewatching She-Ra as an adult is how many tricks Filmation used to produce shows quickly and cheaply. (Not that I fault them for that, this was a Monday through Friday cartoon back in the hand-drawn era.) There are frequently long pans over static backgrounds with no actual animation at all. A lot of these backgrounds are pretty cool, though. I really liked the spooky Inner Library with its towering stacks of mysterious books.
Classic She-Ra 1x19: She-Ra vs. Microaggressions
In episode 1x19 “The Enchanted Castle”, She-Ra encounters the most insidious villain of all: casual sexism.
This sort of thing is why she likes Sea Hawk better than you, Bow.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this episode features a one-off female villain (Queen Mortella) who, apparently frustrated by other people's incompetence, has isolated herself in a haunted castle in the woods and only does business with another witch. I found her the most relatable character in the series thus far.
Interestingly, Mortella is an independent villain who has no affiliation with the Horde. (I kept thinking she was going to turn out to be Shadow Weaver, but she’s not.) She doesn’t even seem to belong to the same genre as the Horde.
(Brace yourself, because I’m about to transform.)
FOR THE HONOR OF A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION! I AM A LIBRARIAN!
While She-Ra is mostly a “sword and planet” style adventure series, this episode (like 1x08 “The Red Knight”) has strong elements of medieval romance. Mortella (whose name evokes Morgana le Fay, although it actually means “Myrtle”) is a green-clad sorceress, and the plot also involves a beautiful young woman who’s cursed to look like an old lady.
Classic She-Ra 1x16: She-Ra/Sea Hawk
Not that you’d know it from my posts, but romance is actually a very minor part of She-Ra: Princess of Power. This is an action show made for young children, and is appropriately more concerned with relationships between friends and family members. There are occasional suggestions that one character has a crush on another, but the only episode I’ve seen so far that has an overt romantic storyline is 1x16 “Return of the Sea Hawk”.
Even then, the big love scene between She-Ra/Adora and Sea Hawk looks like this:
Compare that to her embrace with Frosta back in episode 1x06:
I know which couple I’m shipping, but if She-Ra is going to have a canonical male love interest then I’m fine with Sea Hawk (first introduced in episode 1x07 “The Sea Hawk”). However, I’m not fine with the way this storyline was handled.
Early in the episode, She-Ra discusses romance with Madame Razz, who is actually pretty insightful on the subject. She realizes that She-Ra is worried that Sea Hawk likes “She-Ra” better than “Adora”, which is a problem since She-Ra can’t reveal they’re the same person and spends most of her time as Adora. Madame Razz suggests that if Adora likes Sea Hawk, then Adora should tell him so.
I had already noticed that many episodes of this show are about someone other than She-Ra learning An Important Lesson. She-Ra herself is typically presented as a paragon of virtue who serves as a role model for others. However, she wouldn’t be the first tough, competent woman to lack confidence when it comes to her love life, so I thought this was finally going to be an episode about She-Ra overcoming a personal challenge.
Nope! Even though she was advised to declare her feelings for Sea Hawk and the official moral of this episode as stated by Loo-Kee is “If you like someone, tell them”, She-Ra/Adora doesn’t tell Sea Hawk that she likes him. She doesn’t have to, because at the end of the episode he declares his feelings for Adora. So She-Ra/Adora’s personal dilemma was solved without her having to grow as an individual or even really do anything, which is pretty disappointing.
Classic She-Ra 1x12: Bow/She-Ra?
In episode 1x12 “The Laughing Dragon” (the first of several episodes broadcast out of chronological order -- it should come before 1x10 “The Prisoners of Beast Island”), She-Ra and friends meet a friendly dragon named Sorrowful. A more appropriate name for him would be Timid, as he’s very meek. She-Ra, who has clearly seen Disney’s Dumbo, helps him find his inner courage by giving him some “magic” flowers.
At the end of the episode she also gives Bow a quick kiss in recognition of his bravery. He literally swoons, thus confirming that he does indeed have a bit of a crush on She-Ra.
Interestingly, this occurs only after she’s seen Bow (unintentionally) dressed in drag and made a laughing remark about how lovely he looks.
I honestly don’t know what it’s supposed to mean, Bow.
Classic She-Ra 1x08: A familiar voice
She-Ra: Princess of Power was my very favorite show when I was little, back when it was originally on the air. In the 30+ years since then, I had forgotten almost everything about it except the basic premise. Rewatching the show now as an adult, I think some parts hold up well while others seem clumsy, weird, or inappropriate by today’s standards.
For instance, this is a show targeted at young children, so what’s with the pin-up figures and impractically skimpy costumes? In fairness to the show, it is at least pretty egalitarian about this sort of thing. She-Ra’s costume is if anything more modest than her brother He-Man’s. Most of She-Ra’s female allies wear some sort of leotard with tights, while Bow wears a crop top with tights. He also seems to wind up in suggestive poses about as often as She-Ra.
I don’t get who this kind of fanservice was supposed to be for, though. Babysitters? Bored parents?
Anyway, this booty shot of Bow appears in episode 1x08, “The Red Knight”, set during the annual Rebel’s Fair. The Horde naturally plans to attack the festival, but the more interesting part of the story involves the titular Red Knight. He rides to the aid of our heroes at the beginning of the episode and sticks around for the fair. Bow is particularly impressed by him.
With the authority of someone who took one medieval lit course in college, I’ll say that I see some influence from tales of chivalry here. In addition to the mysterious knight who has vowed not to reveal his name or face, there’s also a tournament (the Rebel’s Run) in which the Red Knight defeats the reigning champion Bow.
I hope the design of that building in the background doesn’t get this post flagged for adult content.
While episode 1x06 contained lesbian subtext worthy of Xena: Warrior Princess, this time around there’s some heterosexual subtext. Bow seems especially excited about the fact that She-Ra will be awarding the prize to the winner of the Rebel’s Run. When he loses, he’s especially embarrassed that She-Ra witnessed his defeat. It’s not clear whether Bow wants to impress She-Ra because he respects her as a warrior or because he also finds her attractive, but his expression suggests the latter is a factor.
I liked that this episode gave Bow an antagonist here who wasn’t a villain. The Red Knight is good and honorable, but that doesn’t make it any easier for Bow when he loses the race. He goes off to sulk in the woods, but of course She-Ra shows him up to talk to him about toxic masculinity how there’s no shame in losing if you tried your best.
My one big criticism of this episode it that it builds up a lot of suspense regarding the true identity of the Red Knight and then totally fails to deliver. Queen Angella says repeatedly that she recognizes his voice (perhaps because he’s played by George DiCenzo, who voices most of the male characters) but isn’t able to place him. As I can tell from the Internet, the Red Knight never appears on the show again. So I’m just going to guess that he’s Sir Percival wearing the armor of the previous Red Knight and was too busy searching for the Holy Grail to return.
Classic She-Ra 1x06: Let It Go
She-Ra: Princess of Power episode 1x06 “Duel at Devlan” is the first one aired that wasn’t part of the He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword movie. The early part of the episode establishes that a young girl wants to stand up to the Horde, which is the main storyline. Then we see one of the Twiglets getting out his sled, even though there’s no snow. He explains that Frosta (the OG Princess Elsa) promised the night before to make some snow for him.
This is the first scene of the episode in which She-Ra/Adora herself appears, and is also the first time we see Frosta.
I hear the reboot also has LGBT characters.
Classic She-Ra 1x01: Mostly He-Man/Bow
I’ve been hearing a lot about the She-Ra reboot, but I haven’t watched it yet. Instead I’ve been rewatching some of the original 1980s She-Ra: Princess of Power on Netflix, because while I know I watched the show all the time as a kid I mostly just remember playing with the action figures.
The first five episodes of the show were originally released as the 1985 movie He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, and the first few are actually pretty light on She-Ra. Adora (She-Ra’s everyday alter ego) doesn’t even appear until the last few minutes of the first episode. Instead it mostly seems like someone’s He-Man/Bow slashfic.
Prince Adam (He-Man’s everyday alter ego) is introduced baking a cake with his pet cat Cringer. The Sorceress soon sends him to the world of Etheria on a quest to find the rightful owner of a magical sword, but the first thing he does when he gets there is stop in at a bar called the Laughing Swan.
The bar, which doesn’t seem to have a lot of women in it, is soon raided by the evil Horde.
Adam joins the rebel Bow, who looks like the Brawny Man in a crop top, to battle the Horde bots. They make short work of the villains, and ride off together on Bow’s horse. Adam seems to get a little handsy at one point.
They later battle some of Horda’s higher-level minions. This includes Scorpia, who looks like Kate Pierson of the B52s in costume to perform “Rock Lobster”.
There’s also a weirdly Rocky Horror-esque sequence in which He-Man (who looks like Rocky, come to think of it) is temporarily immobilized by one of Mantenna’s beams. This necessitates (?) an extended close-up of his quivering thighs that seems gratuitous for a cartoon targeted at young children. I apologize for the visible Netflix buttons; I was too embarrassed to go back and get a better screenshot.
Now I’m thinking this whole post may get deleted under Tumblr’s new adult content policy, so enjoy it while you can!
In the library break room...
COWORKER (entering the room): Sorry to interrupt.
ME: They were just about to hear how many pairs of socks I own.
COWORKER: Oh, then I'm not sorry.
A unicorn riding a unicorn over a rainbow
I don’t usually delve into politics here, but I haven’t seen anyone else post about this and I can’t keep it to myself any longer.
In his book The Briefing, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer describes Donald Trump as “a unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow.” This was widely reported (and mocked) when the book was released in July 2018. It is a really odd thing to say, especially about a political candidate.
Odd, but hardly unique. Spicer was (perhaps unintentionally) referencing the TV series Glee.
In episode 3x02 “I Am Unicorn” (original airdate September 27, 2011), Brittany describes senior class presidential candidate Kurt as “a unicorn” and makes a glittery campaign poster depicting him riding a unicorn over a rainbow.
This seems too weird and specific to be a coincidence, although I’m not sure how to interpret it. On Glee Brittany later uses similar imagery for her own campaign for class president, so Spicer could have been (subconsciously?) likening Trump to either Kurt or Brittany. Either way it’s a mind-boggling comparison, although not as mind-boggling as the possibility that Sean Spicer has been writing Glee/White House crossover fanfiction.
“Got the morbs” should be a thing.
Victorian slang is AMAZING, and select phrases really need to make a comeback.
“Bitch the pot” - Pour the tea (HOW RELEVANT IS THIS!?)
“Bang up the elephant” - Absolutely perfect; super stylish
“Well, that’s shot the bale” - Something that has missed the mark entirely
“Church-bell” - A woman prone to gossip
“Chuckaboo” - A dear friend, a bosom chum
“Beer and skittles” - A great time (see also: Irish Gaelic “craic”)
“Butter on bacon” - Something overdone or too extravagant
“Cupid’s kettle drums” - Breasts, particularly large ones
“Gigglemug” - A cheerful smiling face
All of these??? Make me smile??? They’re so weird and wonderful I love them??? Especially bitch the pot because that’s something I could totally hear myself saying…that and chuckaboo
I worked in a Victorian tea house in my youth and I’m telling you, you haven’t lived till you hear a the 98 year old lady (this was some 15 years ago) utter the words “bitch the pot” because it was what they used to say when the tea house first opened and it just sort of stuck through all the generations.
“Bitch” was also used as a slang term for tea among university students even before the Victorian era, apparently because it was considered a feminine beverage. According to Joseph Wright’s The English Dialect Dictionary, “The word tea is never used at Cambridge. It is always called bitch.”
This led to gatherings where tea was served being referred to as “bitch parties”. Really.
For more on historic slang relating to women and tea, see Gossip Girls: Tea Parties And The Sexist Slang They Inspired from NPR’s The Salt.
PS: “Got the morbs” is great, and if I didn’t know better I’d think it was slang from the 1980s rather than the 1880s.
