Sniles Sno Sneetly :)

Scylla || 25 || 18+ || It/Maw/Hyr Store-brand Sappho

[jujoobedoodling]

happy new years sluts

[wachinyeya]

Flint Finishes Replacing 11,000 Lead Pipes, Concluding Activists' Decade-Long Effort to Secure Clean Water

A decade after lead-contaminated water was found in Flint's water system, the legal battle to replace lead water pipes is nearly finished.

Jul 9, 2025

The Flint water crisis began in 2014, after lead-contaminated drinking water was found to be leaching out from aging pipes into homes citywide.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Natural Resources Defense Council, with help from other activists and nonprofits, have released statements on the recent progress, celebrating the milestone.

The statements which they chalk up the crisis to “cost-cutting measures and improper water treatment,” that the state “didn’t require treatment to prevent corrosion,” after a “a state-appointed emergency manager” switched the water supply to the Flint River.

There is no safe level of lead exposure; each nanogram causes harm. In addition to long-known risks, such as damage to children’s brains and certain cancers, there is also significant evidence that exposure to lead is linked to numerous cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attack.

The coalition mobilized the citizenry and filed a lawsuit against Flint and Michigan state officials to secure safe water. The result was a settlement in March 2017, under which a federal court in Detroit ordered Flint to give every resident the opportunity to have their lead pipe replaced at no cost, as well as conduct comprehensive tap water testing, implement a faucet filter distribution and education program, and maintain funding for health programs to help residents deal with the effects of Flint’s tainted water, according to the NRDC.

The coalition then returned to court six times in six years to ensure the city and state kept to the timeline, which was delayed by COVID-19, and other reasons which The Detroit News described as “spotty record-keeping” and “ineffective management.”

On July 1st, the State of Michigan submitted a progress report to a federal court confirming that, more than eight years after the settlement, nearly 11,000 lead pipes were replaced and more than 28,000 properties were restored where the maintenance had taken place.

Of the 4,200 buildings where lead pipes are known to still be in service, their owners have either left the properties vacant, abandoned, or have declined the free replacement under the Safe Water Drinking Act. The coalition has said it will continue to monitor city and state progress on these remaining lines.

“Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, we are finally at the end of the lead pipe replacement project,” said Pastor Allen C. Overton of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, one of the organizations that sued the city. “While this milestone is not all the justice our community deserves, it is a huge achievement.”

[elist0rre]

[grauline]

anyway in the hopes that i can save just one person from living the horror of my 20s: if you have a friend that seems a little too invested in callouts i hope you can get out of there safely

[grauline]

it's so easy to think to yourself "i don't have anything to hide, what do i have to worry about?" but having morals and generally doing your best not to hurt anyone will not save you. you can never be good or pure enough for these people. the target is constantly shifting and if they cannot find dirt on you they will change gears and tighten the circle of acceptable behaviors until you fit their new description of a threat. you are fully disposable to them and they are waiting to take the shot. don't confront them, don't give them the opportunity to darvo you. just hit the bricks 👍 the peace will be worth it

[oracleeater]

I forgot how deeply difficult it is to have community discussions about how this whole “consumption of fiction” debate is quite literally a tool being used to keep large swaths of people from actually mobilizing and how this normalization of a surveillance state is actually bad in the face of what’s going on anywhere other than like… here, and then only sometimes

[letmeshifttotheowlhousebro]

real question,

why do proshippers love rape so much? do you guys want to rape someone irl?

why do you guys love pedophilia/grooming so much? have you ever had thoughts about doing those actions or irl minors?

why do you guys love incest so much? is this just a way for you to vent your frustration cause your sibling(s) /step sibling(s) rejected you for your literal illegal behavior?

why do you guys love all these crimes so much? why do you love it when someone calls sexual and predatory abuse attractive as if it hasn't traumatized billions of people word wide?

this is like a genuine question I'm being deadass

[fozmeadows]

Proshippers do not "love" these things. Rather, we're committed to defending the right of people to write about them - even in ways we might personally find disgusting or upsetting - because we understand that engaging with something in fiction is not predicated on defending or desiring it in real life. Even if someone is aroused by something in fiction, it doesn't logically follow that they're aroused by the same thing in real life, because context - the question of how, when, why and with whom - is foundational to both desire and consent. Meaning: it is possible - and, indeed, extremely normal - to enjoy something only as a fantasy: to be compelled, aroused by or interested in it only because it's fictional, in much the same way that we might be compelled, aroused by or interested in all manner of ideas or activities only under specific conditions.

For instance: I enjoy cake! But if someone handed me a piece of filthy, rotting cake they found on the floor, I would not want to eat it, because the context of the cake matters to my willingness to consume it. Similarly, I enjoy murder mysteries! But if someone in my life was brutally killed by an unknown assailant, I would be devastated, not entertained. And this latter example is particularly important, because our consumption of fiction is at all times informed by our awareness of the fact that the characters don't exist. No matter what befalls them on page, stage or screen, no real person has been harmed, which allows us to react to the content differently than if we were seeing the same events unfold in person, or in a live recording.

Now: it's true that, just as fiction is influenced by reality, so too can reality be influenced by fiction, both on the individual level and at scale. Fictional characters might not exist, but their stories still meaningfully impact real human beings, both positively and negatively. But this impact doesn't work on anything even vaguely resembling a universal, one-to-one basis, such that X story is guaranteed to cause Y effect, or that X topic is only ever explored for Y reason - and this is just as true for dark, unsettling and taboo topics as for anything else.

Which is why it's important to understand that, particularly when it comes to sex and desire, human beings are complex. At the most basic level of arousal, our bodies and brains are frequently in conflict. From teenagers dealing with unwanted erections to seniors mourning their loss of libido, none of us has perfect control over when and how we get turned on - and this extends to situations involving rape and assault. It is common, for instance, for rape victims to experience some level of arousal in response to their assault, because our bodies and minds do not exist in a state of perfect sync. Many victims experience deep shame as a result of this, thinking that, because they got hard or wet or came, they must've secretly wanted it - a trauma that's intensified if their assailant makes the same claim. Victims, too, can have complex relationships to their assailants, particularly if they were abused by family members or as children; can sometimes take years or decades to understand that they were harmed at all.

Regardless of whether we've been victimised ourselves, are proximal to someone else's trauma or are simply impacted by living in a world where such things can happen, fiction is the safest possible way to explore these ideas. But precisely because people are so different - precisely because our reactions to the same event or idea can vary so wildly - these stories will not always look the same. What disgusts or triggers one person might be healing to another, and that's not determined by how eroticized the content is or isn't. Sexual trauma responses can encompass opposite extremes: where one rape victim might be utterly repulsed by rape content and need to avoid it for their healing, another victim will feel compelled to seek or create it in order to achieve the same ends, and neither of them is wrong.

I have, for instance, known victims to write their own assaults into fiction. Sometimes these accounts are eroticized as a way of regaining control over a situation in which they had none. Perhaps the writer wants to accurately depict the confusion they felt at being aroused while being assaulted; or, conversely, perhaps their lack of arousal at the time increased the level of physical pain they experienced, and they want to write something which shows that, even if they had been aroused, it would still have been rape. Or on yet a third hand, perhaps they weren't sure if a given experience was rape or not, and want to try and make sense of it. Perhaps they want to try and imagine their assailant's perspective, to better comprehend what happened to them and why. This might mean a complicated, nuanced depiction that sways between awareness of the crime and minimization of it; it might also involve painting them as a flat-out villain, or as someone who believed they were acting only out of love. All of these things are possible! But no matter how much some or all of these portrayals might disgust you, the casual reader, you will not be able to tell, just by looking, who has "really" been assaulted, and who is exploring these topics for other reasons.

Because of course, not all people who write about abuse have experienced it themselves; nor should this be a requirement. Sometimes, we write about dark things, not to achieve catharsis in relation to a personal experience, but to conquer our fear of it happening to us, or perhaps even just to get an adrenaline rush - as is, for instance, extremely common with fans of horror content. Our brains produce a variety of fun chemicals in response to various stimuli, and we don't generally get to choose which ones we find the most engaging. Some people are horror junkies from childhood, seeking out scary stories from the moment they're old enough to ask for them, while others remain terrified of something as mild as cartoon comedy horror well into old age. There's no morality associated with this; it just is - and that all comes back, once again, to the fact that we understand fiction as a separate thing to reality. No matter how horrific the thing depicted, our enjoyment (of whatever kind) is predicated on knowing that no actual human beings being harmed, even if the bad in the story - an axe murder, a war, a rape - is something that really does happen. And returning again to matters of sex, regardless of whether they rise to the level of a kink or fetish, all sexual proclivities are ultimately products of native inclination, life experience, trauma, and/or the overlap of all three, while a specific fantasy might be either literal, metaphoric or a mix of both. A literal fantasy, for instance, might be: what if my hot boss fucked me over his desk at work, because he's hot and I want to sleep with him. A metaphoric version of the same fantasy might be: what if I was so insanely desirable that my boss fucked me despite his being married and straight and me being a man. To take another example, and one which has been studied extensively by psychologists, literary historians and academics alike, rape fantasies are commonplace, not because the vast majority of people are rape apologists, but because, at the level of metaphor, they allow the possibility of sex without having to take ownership of one's own desires, which is of particular value if, say, you've been taught that wanting sex makes you slutty and wrong and gross; which is, in turn, why so many old Harlequin and Mills & Boon romances feature encounters that we'd now class as non-consensual between the hero and heroine. It wasn't because the writers didn't understand rape: it was because they were writing in a time where women were taught that wanting sex made them harlots, such that it was difficult for them to fantasize without shame. The hero knowing what the heroine "really" wanted and giving it to her despite her protests was a loophole. I could go on, but the key point is this: given that nobody on Earth can perfectly control their own arousal, it is imperative to acknowledge that being turned on by something doesn't mean wanting it in real life, because the alternative is forcing yourself to choose between sexual shame and justifying it in real life. And neither of those things has ever led anywhere good.

[v-as-in-victor]

Reading through the OP's replies to people in the comments I am going to suggest something that may seem very harsh to people: I think they should get off the internet and go get a doctorate in philosophy. I was going to suggest a basic course on logic but I think they need the whole six to twenty years of suffering as a grad student. Then they might calm down.

[letmeshifttotheowlhousebro]

doctorate in philosophy...?

BITCH I'M BARELY ENTERING MY FRESHMEN YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL LMAO????

[thescholarlystrumpet]

Well that does explain why you have so much left to learn, right?

Wouldn’t you agree that your own frontal lobe is barely formed?

The all or nothing thinking and need to conform to an “in” group, separate from the “out” group is deeply embedded in this formative stage of your development. The visceral anger you clearly feel makes perfect sense both developmentally and as a member of this particular youth generation.

You were born into a world on fire. No one was prepared to give you the tools you needed to navigate it because the caretakers in your life were probably in their own survival mode and likely unprocessed trauma.

It makes sense that you might struggle to trust the older generations of fandom who are in your notes giving you very reasonable information and an overview of fandom history. What have adults in your life ever really done that’s useful? Probably not enough.

The world is terrifying and divisive these days. Fandom *used to be* a safe haven where we could unite in love. There were ship wars and battles with censorship, sure, but this in-fighting about morality in fiction is still a relatively new phenomenon. And I’m sorry to inform you it was heavily driven by the Far Right.

The rhetoric of “anti” only serves the Right and their desire to increase censorship. If you look into the history of things like the Hayes Code in film, you will see this plays out over and over. As soon as Queer and other minority creators gain ground, there is a massive push back to suppress.

The Right sees ALL of it as morally corrupt. Even two consenting adults in a same age relationship. Especially if those two adults are same sex.

Their goal is FULL censorship and control. Antis are, often unknowingly, furthering that agenda. You are always allowed to be grossed out by things and avoid them. That is your right. But to insist others NOT CREATE things - that is the heart of censorship.

You may not read any of this. I’m just another stranger on the internet, after all. And that’s ok. Maybe someone else will see this and gain a little bit of understanding about themselves and about media history.

[nymphoutofwater]

Here's a remade masterpost of free and full shakespeare adaptations! Thanks @william-shakespeare-official for this excellent post. Unfortunately, a lot of the links in it are broken, so I thought I'd make an updated version (also I just wanted to organize things a bit more)

Antony and Cleopatra: ~ Josette Simon, Antony Byrne & Ben Allen - 2017

As You Like It: ~ At Wolfe Park - 2013 ~ Kenneth Brannagh's - 2006

Coriolanus: ~ NYET Alumni - 2016 ~ Tom Hiddleston - 2014 ~ Ralph Fiennes - 2011

Cymbelline: ~ Michael Almereyda's - 2014

Hamlet: ~ David Tennant - 2009 ~ Ethan Hawke & Diane Venora - 2000 ~ Kenneth Branagh's - 1989 ~ BCC's Part One & Two - 1990 ~ Broadway - 1964 ~ Christopher Plummer - 1964 ~ Laurence Olivier's - 1948

Henry IV: ~ BBC's Part One & Two - 1989 ~ The Brussel's Shakespeare Society's - 2017

Henry V: ~ The BBC's - 1990 ~ Laurence Olivier's - 1944

Julius Caesar: ~ Phyllida Lloyd's - 2019 ~ The BBC's - 1979 ~ John Gielgud - 1970

King Lear: ~ The RSC's - 2008 ~ Laurence Olivier - 1983 ~ The BBC's - 1975 ~ James Earl Jones - 1974 ~ Orson Wells - 1953

Love's Labour's Lost: ~ Calvin University - 2016

Macbeth: ~ Stockbridge Drama Society's - 2019 ~ The RSC's - 2019 ~ Antoni Cimolino & Shelagh O'Brien's - 2017 ~ Ian McKellen & Judi Dench - 1969 ~ Sean Connery - 1961

Measure for Measure: ~ Hugo Weaving - 2019 ~ The BBC's - 1990

The Merchant of Venice: ~ Al Pacino - 2004 ~ Trevor Nunn & Chris Hunt - 2001 ~ The BBC's - 1980 ~ Lawrence Olivier - 1973

The Merry Wives of Windsor: ~ The Royal Shakespeare Company's - 1982

A Midsummer Night's Dream: ~ Oliver Chris & Gwendoline Christie - 2019 ~ City of Columbus's - 2018 ~ Julie Taymor's - 2014 ~ The Globe's - 2013 ~ The BBC's - 1988 ~ Lindsay Duncan & Alex Jennings - 1986

Much Ado About Nothing: ~ Shakespeare in the Park - 2019 ~ David Tennant & Catherine Tate - 2011 ~ Kenneth Branagh - 1993 ~ The BBC's - 1984

Othello: ~ The BBC's Part One & Two - 1990

Richard II: ~ David Tennant - 2013 ~ Deborah Warner's - 1997 ~ The BBC's - 1978

Richard III: ~ Ian McKellen - 1995 ~ Laurence Olivier - 1955

Romeo and Juliet: ~ Simon Godwin's - 2021 ~ The BBC's - 1988 ~ Laurence Harvey & Susan Shentall - 1954

The Taming of the Shrew: ~ Ontario production? ~ American Conservatory Theater - 1976 ~ Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor - 1967 ~ Mary Pickford & Samuel Taylor - 1929

The Tempest: ~ Gregory Doran's - 2017 ~ The BBC's - 1988

Timon of Athens: ~ Barry Avrich's - 2024

Troilus and Cressida: ~ Audio Production ~ This one I found on youtube? - 2016

Titus Andronicus: ~ Anthony Hopkins - 1999

Twelfth night: ~ Texas Shakespeare Festival's - 2015 ~ Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright & Ralph Richardson - 1970

Two Gentlemen of Verona: ~ Katherine Steweart's - 2018 ~ The BBC's

The Winter's Tale: ~ Antony Sher - 1999 (Warning: they don't have a bear...)

Bonuses:

Time Loop Hamlet! (A personal fav of mine)

Rock Opera Hamlet???

Shakespeare animated tales

The Complete Works Of Shakespeare Abridged comedy

Romeo and Julieta: A Día de los Muertos Love Story

There’s also many other Latine Shakespeare adaptations listed in this archive

MacChef, a retelling but well... in a kitchen!

From the original post:

A Midwinter's Tale, about a man trying to make Hamlet.

Russian Hamlet here

Here's Scotland, PA, the 2001 modern Macbeth retelling.

Rave Macbeth for anyone interested is here.

This one is the Taming of the Shrew modern retelling.

The french Romeo & Juliet musical with English subtitles is here!

Here's the 1948 one,

the Orson Wells Othello movie with Portuguese subtitles there

A Lego adaptation of Othello here.

Here's commentary on David Tennant's Richard II

[nightmaretour]

This disability pride month I'm BEGGING you to acknowledge and care about the people in this community who often fly under the radar when it comes to positivity and information. People who require equipment to live, like ventilators, pacemakers, and feeding tubes. People who are bedbound. People with visible differences. People who have disabilities caused by things like substance abuse, overdose, or self harm. People with conditions so rare that they've never met someone who has the same one. People who need full time care and have to have help to use social media.

If you want to support the community, that means supporting all of the community. Disability pride means being proud of every last one of us, and making sure everyone feels heard. Make sure to amplify the voices of those who need it this month, and ideally for the rest of the year too.

[nightmaretour]

I'm going to clarify here and now that "visible difference" =/= mobility aid user. There is plenty of positivity on this site for mobility aid users. Visible differences are things like limb differences and facial differences, for a couple of examples. Please don't make this another post about mobility aid users in general, that isn't the point at all.

[snow-nose]

people with ID/DD

please please please i wish people cared about people with ID/DD

that's intellectual and developmental disabilities

and autism IS a developmental disability (a big portion of people with which are also sorely underrepresented anywhere, and even often pushed out of "autism-friendly" spaces for various unfair and unreasonable reasons, like having symptoms in a way people don't like- bluntness or being too excitable or not knowing things or not knowing what is and isn't appropriate to say or taking things to heart, or for being highly symptomatic and/or higher support needs and talking about it) but i mean developmental disability that is especially like this, but it's hard for me to articulate, like a bunch of different colors of paint sloshed together in a bucket:

you get chromosomal or genetic conditions which cause unique facial features and sociocognitive profiles like williams syndrome and fragile x syndrome, neuromuscular or neurological conditions like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, then all of the physical disability and illness that comes from those or can be caused by those as a "complication", like scoliosis and lordosis and kyphosis especially, possible intellectual disability, possible autism or adhd, possible learning disability/learning disabilities, possible cognitive disability especially brain damage, possible eating disorders, possible speech disorder/s, possible seizure or tic disorders, possible ocd, possible other mental illnesses, possible allergies, intolerances, and skin conditions, possible vision and/or hearing issues especially strabismus, gait and limb differences, frequent infections and illnesses, and a lot lot lot lot more, some of us even just have a whole lot of birth defects for no real reason

all together in one person

and it's a lot of people who are like this. a lot more people than people think. we're not rare

but i don't see people talk about it

and even, i think a lot of disabled people feel repulsed by us, that they feel like we're "not the same thing as them"

and every time somebody DOES talk about symptoms that can happen with ID/DD there's pushback, people say, "no, they know what they're doing and that it's wrong/inappropriate/annoying/rude and they're just using disability as an excuse", people think that everything ID/DD people do is deliberate and calculated

we get alienated and isolated, even though we didn't do anything wrong. we get singled out for "being disabled wrong" by other disabled people, they don't want to be associated with us, but abled people don't want to be around us either. we get avoided and ignored for being "weird" or "creepy" or "annoying" or "immature". people don't even think of our existence, and if they're told about it, they contest it, they don't think anyone can just not be totally aware, or not be able to learn or do certain things at all whatsoever, they don't understand or care that someone could genuinely not understand and not be able to understand certain concepts like boundaries, consequences, good and bad, theory of mind, and what is and isn't appropriate to say or do. they don't think anyone can be... genuinely disabled?

i just want acceptance for all of me and the people i grew up with and the people i care about so so so bad

people still make fun of strabismus all the time, it's impossible to avoid, it's in deltarune multiple times, it's in dungeon meshi multiple times, that spongebob meme, the crazy emoji, memes random people do of their characters or sonas, or speech impediments, there's a streamer i watched and she does this voice and i can't enjoy it when she does that because that sounds like me, the speech is "simple" and the things she says makes no sense and she slurs when she does it. homestar runner sounds like people i knew growing up. roulxs kaard's lisp is just a joke to people and to toby maybe. brain damage and intellectual disability are just a joke to everyone, even to socially conscious people who care about ableism, and it's not fucking fair, why are we always, always, always the acceptable target of mockery and why don't people ever THINK about it

i know a lot of sped classes are isolated from "regular" classes but i still never understand how it seems like THIS MANY people have never met an ID/DD person in their life, or that if they have they just don't care, because i don't think they see us as HUMAN

[oracleeater]

Also stop fakeclaiming people you don’t know. Stop posting about “fake DID cringe”. Stop calling people “sociopaths” and “psychopaths”. Stop using the phrase “narcissistic abuse”, stop demonizing narcissists. Stop mistreating people with ASPD and labeling them as “evil”. Stop demonizing people with low/no empathy. Stop mocking people’s limps or stutters. Also stop being fatphobic

[soyboyanarchy]

Had to make this first

[picketyvvitch]

happy fat femme friday to all who celebrate 🎊

[howldean]

“june is over so now it’s gay wrath month” blah blah reminder that july is disability pride month and is often ignored and disregarded!! funnel that wrath into advocating for your disabled peers and amplifying their voices

[oracleeater]

I’m going to talk very openly and honestly about being a physically disabled/mentally ill person in the United States right now, and I’m not going to censor my language. If that’s too much for you I understand, but I need to talk candidly or I’m going to go insane.

Every day I get closer to just putting a bullet in my head and being done with it. Not because I’m suicidal, I’m actually trying to live for the first time in my life. But because I am disabled in the US, and therefore such a financial drain on my mother. I cannot work, but I live in the United States so it is impossible for me to get on disability. Plus with all the cuts that are about to get made, disability may as well not exist here in the next few weeks. My food stamps are likely getting cut next month, and then I will have nothing. However much they cut my food stamps will just be how much less I get to eat. Which I’m used to, I’ve lived in severe poverty before, I know how to live off microwave popcorn and a single baked potato per day.

But I felt miserable when I had to do that before, I was always tired and dissociated and ill. And I don’t want to go back to that. I live in a world rapidly descending into fascism that I can do nothing about, right as I’ve actually reached the point in my recovery mentally where I want to live. It’s so awful that I’m just having trouble bearing it. I have a compound fracture in my spine that didn’t heal right, fibromyalgia, severe C-PTSD, autism/ADHD, DID, OCD, all these other things that make existing near impossible on its own, and it just keeps getting harder for reasons outside my own control.

My mother is about to be 60 and wants to retire one day, she’s been working her whole damn life and was only able to escape my father in the last five years. She deserves to live her life not being dragged down by yet another dependent relative. Plus next year I turn 26, which means I’ll loose my insurance. And Medicaid is about to see such massive cuts that I don’t know if it’ll even still exist by next March. And even if I do, I’m still going to loose access to my therapist because the place she works through doesn’t take Medicaid.

I just can’t comprehend why the world hates me so much. Why it hates disabled people, why we aren’t allowed to live like everyone else. I am such a burden on my mother that I consider every day just killing myself to free her of my dependency, even though mental health wise I’m finally getting to the point where I want to live. But now more than ever, the country around me is pulling away every possible thing that could allow me to keep living. I can’t understand why. Why? Why do I not deserve to live and be happy and exist like everyone else? Why is the only way they lay out before me death?

I don’t want to die, for the first time in my life I want to live. I want to live long enough to reach some semblance of recovery. But it’s seeming more and more impossible, and I don’t know what to do. I wish the world was kinder. I don’t know how else to express it beyond that. I wish the world was just kinder. I miss feeling hopeful, I miss feeling like there was a future for me. I don’t really know what else to say, or do.

I’m tired

I’m just so fucking tired

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

art by @niochemblyat

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

I always know its getting toasty out in the world because girls start reblogging this post like crazy

[the-muppet-joker]

can’t believe you didn’t post anything for yuri day

I was too busy studying the art of Yuri as one might study the blade to post any such thing

[approaching-the-scrungularity-d]

I think I may never be sad ever again. There is a statue entitled "Farewell to Orpheus" on my college campus. It's been there since 1968, created by a Prof. Frederic Littman that use to work at the university. It sits in the middle of a fountain, and the fountain is often full of litter. I have taken it upon myself to clean the litter out when I see it (the skimmers only come by once a week at max). But because of my style of dress, this means that bystanders see a twenty-something on their hands and knees at the edge of the fountain, sleeves rolled up, trying not to splash dirty water on their slacks while their briefcase and suit coat sit nearby. This is fine, usually. But today was Saturday Market, which means the twenty or so people in the area suddenly became hundreds. So, obviously, somebody stopped to ask what I was doing. "This," I gestured at the statue, "is Eurydice. She was the wife of Orpheus, the greatest storyteller in Greece. And this litter is disrespectful." Then, on a whim, I squinted up at them. "Do you know the story of Orpheus and Eurydice?" "No," they replied, shifting slightly to sit.

"Would you like to?"

"Sure!"

So I told them. I told them the story as I know it- and I've had a bit of practice. Orpheus, child of a wishing star, favorite of the messenger god, who had a hard-working, wonderful wife, Eurydice; his harp that could lull beasts to passivity, coax song from nymphs, and move mountains before him; and the men who, while he dreamed and composed, came to steal Eurydice away. I told of how she ran, and the water splashed up on my clothes. But I didn't care. I told of how the adder in the field bit her heel, and she died. I told of the Underworld- how Orpheus charmed the riverman, pacified Cerberus with a lullaby, and melted the hearts of the wise judges. I laughed as I remarked how lucky he was that it was winter- for Persephone was moved by his song where Hades was not. She convinced Hades to let Orpheus prove he was worthy of taking Eurydice. I tugged my coat back on, and said how Orpheus had to play and sing all the way out of the Underworld, without ever looking back to see if his beloved wife followed. And I told how, when he stopped for breath, he thought he heard her stumble and fall, and turned to help her up- but it was too late. I told the story four times after that, to four different groups, each larger than the last. And I must have cast a glance at the statue, something that said "I'm sorry, I miss you--" because when I finished my second to last retelling, a young boy piped up, perhaps seven or eight, and asked me a question that has made my day, and potentially my life: "Are you Orpheus?" I told the tale of the grieving bard so well, so convincingly, that in the eyes of a child I was telling not a story, but a memory. And while I laughed in the moment, with everyone else, I wept with gratitude and joy when I came home. This is more than I deserve, and I think I may never be sad again.

Here is the aforementioned statue, by the way.

[momowho34]

Here’s to hoping that every single person with schizophrenia or a schizoaffective disorder or DID or NPD or any other ridiculously demonized mental illnesses has a wonderful day

[momowho34]

oh and people with ASPD and borderline and bipolar disorder and anybody who experiences psychosis but doesn’t have schizophrenia or a schizoaffective disorder. i love all of you and i wish you the absolute best <3

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

For all of the northerners that stood up for Texas during our freeze and said, "Don't make fun of them, they've never dealt with this before. Their infrastructure isn't made for snow and freezing."

This one is for you.

Where I live 108°F with 80% humidity with no wind is normal.

Pacific North West is dealing historic best waves 35-40°C or 95-105°F.

First of all. Don't make fun of them for bitching about the heat. Just like Texas isn't built for a freeze and our pipes burst, Pacific North West isn't built for heat and a lot of their homes don't have AC.

If you live somewhere with a high humidity like 80+ HUMIDITY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. The "humidity makes it feel cooler" is a lie once it gets beyond a point.

If you live somewhere with a lower humidity, misters are nice to cool off outside.

Once you get over 90°F (32°C) a fan will not help you. It's just pushing around hot air. (I mean if you can't afford a small AC unit because they're expensive as hell, by all means a fan is better than nothing).

If you have pets, those portable AC units aren't safe. If your pets destroy the outtake thing, it'll leak CO2. Window units are safer.

Window AC units will let mosquitoes or other small bugs in. Sucks, but that's life.

Now is not the time to me modest. If you have to cover for religious reasons, by all means. If you don't, I've seen people wear short shorts and a swim top. It's not trashy if it keeps you from getting heat stroke.

If you do have to cover up for religious reasons, look for elephant pants or something similar. They're made with a breathable material.

Shade is better than no shade, but that shit it just diet sun after some point. Don't think shade will save you from heat stroke.

I know the "drink your water" is a fun meme now, but if you're sweating excessively you need electrolytes. Drink Gatorade, Powerade, or Pedialite PLEASE. I don't care if you're fucking sitting in one spot all day. That shit WILL save you from heat stroke.

Most importantly. RESEARCH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAT STROKE AND HEAT EXHAUSTION PLEASE!

If you're diabetic and can't drink Gatorade, mix water, fruit juice, and either lite salt or pink salt

If you can afford it, cover windows with thick curtains to insulate the house

If you have tile floors, lay on them with skin to tile contact. If you don't, laying your head on cool counters works too.

If the temperature where you're at is hotter than your body temperature, don't wear heat wicking clothing. Moisture wicking is safe though.

Check your medication labels. Many make you more susceptible to sun and heat

-Room temperature water will get into your body faster. This is something I learned doing marching band in high summer in Georgia, and it saved all of our asses. Sip it, don't gulp it, especially if you're getting into the red; same goes for whatever fluid you're drinking. And just in general drink during the day.

-If you are moving from an air conditioned space to an un-air conditioned space, if at all possible try to make the shift gradual. When my dad and I were working outside and in un-ac houses a few years ago, he'd turn the air down to low in the truck about ten-fifteen minutes before we got where we were going. This way your body doesn't go from low low temps to high temps. S'bad for you.

-If you can, keep your lights off during the day. Light bulbs may not generate a lot of heat, but the difference is noticeable when it gets hot enough. I literally only turn my bedroom light on in the evening when it gets too dark.

Don't be afraid to just like... pour water on yourself if you need to. The evaporation will cool you off.

Put your hand to the cement for 15 seconds. If you can't handle the heat, it'll burn your dog's paws. Don't let them walk on it.

Dogs with flat faces are more prone to heat stroke. Don't leave them out unsupervised.

Frozen fruit is delicious in water.

Wet/Cold hat/handkerchief on your head/neck will help you stay cool.

Pickle juice is great for electrolytes! You can even make pickle juice Popsicles!

Heat exhaustion is more, "drink water and get you cooled off." Heat stroke is more "Oh my god call 911."

Image Description provided by @loveize

[Image description: an infographic showing the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The graphic is labeled "Heat Dangers: First Warning." Signs of heat exhaustion: faint or dizzy, excessive sweating, cool, pale, clammy skin, rapid, weak pulse, muscle cramps. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat exhaustion, get to a cool, air-conditioned place, drink water if conscious, and take a cool shower or use cold compress. Signs of heat stroke: throbbing headache, no sweating, red, hot, dry skin, rapid, strong pulse, may lose consciousness. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat stroke, call 911. End description]

Be safe.

-fae

[bits-and-pieces-of]

As someone who works outdoors in the summertime: OP is very, very correct and heat is NOT a joke.

I would also like to add that beyond a certain temperature, cold water can genuinely be dangerous as a shock to your system. Roofers especially are often BARRED from drinking cold water, because going from nearly 40°C heat and then drinking something ice-cold can CAUSE ACTUAL SEIZURES.

Your best bet is lukewarm or slightly cool water, combined with wrapping an ice pack in some cloth and putting it on the back of your neck or tucking it into your belt.

And for the love of god if you have to go outside, wear BIG FLOPPY UGLY HATS as well as sunscreen. (Good Sunscreen. 60SPF minimum.) Sunburns retain heat and are Fucking Miserable on top of giving you cancer. Bad ones dry out your skin and can cause infections when you’re still sweating a lot and it gets into blisters.

Heat Stress is cumulative. If you are out trying to do the same thing Monday to Friday, something that you could manage on Monday is probably going to knock you flat on your ass on Friday if you don’t pace yourself.

If you’ve had any sort of heat-stress illness in the past, you are more prone to getting it again and more easily than someone who’s never had it.

[themythicalcodfish]

reblogging bc it’s getting solidly into the Deep Heat where I am.

[bard-llama]

Cooling towels like this can be lifesavers, but you have to be able to wet them regularly to keep them cool. Not sure how well they work in super humid areas, but in the dry heat of AZ, they are great.

[oracleeater]

Also for my friends in the Northeast, it’s supposed to get up to 100 without taking in the humidity and actual feel in NYC on Tuesday, please be safe

[scramratz]

If they do start rounding queers up it won’t be with the gestapo, but the police, and the crime won’t be written down as being queer, but public indecency, the indecency being queer in public, but that’s the quiet part no one will say out loud.

[scramratz]

Surprise surprise the bigots don't want to believe history