Merry Green Land

Came for the Mad Men, stayed for a bunch of other things, including Mad Men. I like romance novels, musicals, ASOIAF, Child Ballads, cats, dogs, history, and really stupid jokes.

[bayneofmyexistence-blog]

Put fandom for the first fic you posted online and the year your posted it in the tags.

[maddie-grove]

Based on current trends, I predict that the Carrie White of the 2030s will be a medium-popular, moderately stressed-out honors students/volleyball player whose Christmas-and-Easter-Christian parents don’t want her to wear those leggings with the seam that goes way between your ass cheeks. And she freaks out after gym class, not because she doesn’t know what her period is, but because she’s off-schedule due to stress and she wasn’t prepared and now she has period blood on her already uncool leggings.

[bloodcrownedking]

Learning to drive so that i may have a more complex and nuanced understanding of the themes within bruce springsteens music

[json-derulo]

it pains me to say it but the more people talk shit about the women who wear those shorts/leggings with the weird butt seam that looks like it gives you a terminal wedgie, the more compelled I feel to take the women’s side

[json-derulo]

ohhhhhh my godddddddd you saw someone wearing really tight revealing pants in public? should we throw a party? should we invite goody proctor

[json-derulo]

and while we’re at it, I’m done worrying about cameltoe. I don’t have time to be pulling and tugging at my clothes all day. if you can see the outline of my pussy you should say thank you and go about your business

[json-derulo]

SAME WITH NIPPLES!!!!

[json-derulo]

[theehorsepusssy]

[maddie-grove]

This is more effective anti-drug propaganda than the actual drug murders in this book.

[maddie-grove]

I’m sorry your new drug friends aren’t hot enough, Susan!

[maddie-grove]

Susan’s boyfriend (?) Patrick gets into a fight with Tim, during which he comments that Tim must be into drugs if he’s hanging out with Susan, who’s convinced everyone (including Patrick) that she’s into drugs. He’s mainly mad because Tim claimed to be fucking Susan, though. Tim isn’t known for using drugs, let alone dealing, so he decides that he just might need to shut Patrick up…by attacking him from behind so he won’t know who put him in the hospital! And, by the time he’s out, he’ll forget all about the drug thing. Instead of, idk, concluding that the one guy in school who’s been antagonizing him recently did it and becoming more suspicious. To be fair, that does sound like a coke plan.

[maddie-grove]

Patrick does get pushed down the stairs and he does immediately figure out who did it because duh.

[maddie-grove]

This is more effective anti-drug propaganda than the actual drug murders in this book.

[maddie-grove]

I’m sorry your new drug friends aren’t hot enough, Susan!

[maddie-grove]

Susan’s boyfriend (?) Patrick gets into a fight with Tim, during which he comments that Tim must be into drugs if he’s hanging out with Susan, who’s convinced everyone (including Patrick) that she’s into drugs. He’s mainly mad because Tim claimed to be fucking Susan, though. Tim isn’t known for using drugs, let alone dealing, so he decides that he just might need to shut Patrick up…by attacking him from behind so he won’t know who put him in the hospital! And, by the time he’s out, he’ll forget all about the drug thing. Instead of, idk, concluding that the one guy in school who’s been antagonizing him recently did it and becoming more suspicious. To be fair, that does sound like a coke plan.

[maddie-grove]

This is more effective anti-drug propaganda than the actual drug murders in this book.

[maddie-grove]

I’m sorry your new drug friends aren’t hot enough, Susan!

[maddie-grove]

This is more effective anti-drug propaganda than the actual drug murders in this book.

[lickingandsuckingchristmascoins]

come over

[trangoldin]

American diet and "healthy living" culture is insane and runs DEEP

[jennamoran]

who the heck is eating dice, cards, and pool

[aniseandspearmint]

WHAT is the first one supposed to be? It looks like 'piecing between meals' to me, but that can't be what it says, right?

[prfury-lavaca]

It does in fact say “piecing between meals” and it refers to snacking

[prokopetz]

I'm more struck by the fact that the progression set forth here implies that laudanum and cocaine are less concerning that spicing your food.

[godlessondheimite]

you got trouble in river city

[liarsblade]

there's this weird thing people fall into online a lot, where people assume that if the [perceived-to-be-inferior] version of [activity] is discouraged then people will, naturally, do [perceived-to-be-superior] version of [activity] instead. When really it's just as (or more) likely that if [perceived-to-be-inferior] version of [activity] is discouraged people just won't do it at all.

[liarsblade]

audiobook listeners are not necessarily people who would otherwise do a lot of traditional reading if audiobooks did not exist, many are people who simply would experience zero books. Booktok romance readers would not necessarily be reading the classics if booktok did not exist, many of them would simply not read. Fanfiction writers would not necessarily be novelists if fanfic wasn't an option, many would just be people who didn't write. You know?

[vaporeonlover2]

[maddie-grove]

I went ahead and read Life without Friends (the second installment of a 1980s YA thriller/problem-novel duology by Ellen Emerson White) before reading the first book, Friends for Life. And it’s striking how much worse the first book is. Susan, the heroine, is technically doing something interesting (pretending to be a “bad girl” so she can investigate her best friend’s drug-related death), but she’s one of the blandest YA heroines I’ve ever encountered. Which is especially unfortunate in a story that relies on the tensions of putting on a false persona. It feels like the author was trying to maximize relatability by not making her too nerdy or prissy or alternative or much of anything at all. And her sort-of-boyfriend Patrick’s main trait is jealousy (which actually would be understandable if he flounced off after she started reciprocating the evil drug dealer’s flirtations without explaining her plan, but his flouncing is extremely premature). In contrast, the heroine of the second book mostly just hangs out being sad, but I was invested in her getting along better with her stepmother and choosing where to go to college.

[maddie-grove]

I really enjoy that Colleen Donaghy is reading Urban Fervor by Kevin Grisham in the third-season 30 Rock Christmas episode.

[maddie-grove]

I’ve been able to track down most of the gritty and/or downbeat 1960s-1990s YA novels that I plucked off homeroom unweeded library bookshelves as a child, except for:

A probably terrible book about a fat girl with a skinny popular older sister, a nagging stepmother, and maybe some obnoxious younger stepbrothers? She goes to a school dance and everyone is super-snotty, except for a new boy who shows interest (but, given the general vibe, I felt like this was shaping up to be some kind of scam or cruel prank). To make matters more frustrating, her classmates’ mean nickname for her is the same as the title of a Judy Blume novel, so it’s basically unfindable.

A duology, where the first book was about some honors students who die of a drug overdose (in the school cafeteria???) and their friends begin to suspect that they were POISONED because they weren’t DRUG PEOPLE. And it turns out they’re right and a drug dealer poisoned them. The second book is about the drug dealer’s timid ex-girlfriend dealing with the fallout of the events of the first book.

None of these sound great so it’s no big loss but it’s driving me nuts.

[maddie-grove]

I did actually find the duology and I read the second book (Life without Friends). It’s not bad!

[maddie-grove]

Ooh this book is getting political.

[maddie-grove]

The drug dealer asks Susan whether she likes angel dust, and she says, “It’s okay.” And maybe this is my own inexperience talking, but angel dust kind of sounds like a “you love it or you hate it” thing.

[maddie-grove]

Susan also identifies angel dust correctly without a single hint from Tim (the drug dealer). Impressive!

[maddie-grove]

I’ve been able to track down most of the gritty and/or downbeat 1960s-1990s YA novels that I plucked off homeroom unweeded library bookshelves as a child, except for:

A probably terrible book about a fat girl with a skinny popular older sister, a nagging stepmother, and maybe some obnoxious younger stepbrothers? She goes to a school dance and everyone is super-snotty, except for a new boy who shows interest (but, given the general vibe, I felt like this was shaping up to be some kind of scam or cruel prank). To make matters more frustrating, her classmates’ mean nickname for her is the same as the title of a Judy Blume novel, so it’s basically unfindable.

A duology, where the first book was about some honors students who die of a drug overdose (in the school cafeteria???) and their friends begin to suspect that they were POISONED because they weren’t DRUG PEOPLE. And it turns out they’re right and a drug dealer poisoned them. The second book is about the drug dealer’s timid ex-girlfriend dealing with the fallout of the events of the first book.

None of these sound great so it’s no big loss but it’s driving me nuts.

[maddie-grove]

I did actually find the duology and I read the second book (Life without Friends). It’s not bad!

[maddie-grove]

Ooh this book is getting political.

[maddie-grove]

The drug dealer asks Susan whether she likes angel dust, and she says, “It’s okay.” And maybe this is my own inexperience talking, but angel dust kind of sounds like a “you love it or you hate it” thing.

[maddie-grove]

I’ve been able to track down most of the gritty and/or downbeat 1960s-1990s YA novels that I plucked off homeroom unweeded library bookshelves as a child, except for:

A probably terrible book about a fat girl with a skinny popular older sister, a nagging stepmother, and maybe some obnoxious younger stepbrothers? She goes to a school dance and everyone is super-snotty, except for a new boy who shows interest (but, given the general vibe, I felt like this was shaping up to be some kind of scam or cruel prank). To make matters more frustrating, her classmates’ mean nickname for her is the same as the title of a Judy Blume novel, so it’s basically unfindable.

A duology, where the first book was about some honors students who die of a drug overdose (in the school cafeteria???) and their friends begin to suspect that they were POISONED because they weren’t DRUG PEOPLE. And it turns out they’re right and a drug dealer poisoned them. The second book is about the drug dealer’s timid ex-girlfriend dealing with the fallout of the events of the first book.

None of these sound great so it’s no big loss but it’s driving me nuts.

[maddie-grove]

I did actually find the duology and I read the second book (Life without Friends). It’s not bad!

[maddie-grove]

Ooh this book is getting political.