True Story

Schwen, 22, College Student, bored

[schwen]

New bedding and the pup approves

[christophfanalways]

[sixpenceee]

The above is Umpqua Hot Springs located in Oregon, United States. (Source)

[actualdogvines]

[artyowlsstuff]

Okay people, history-fail story-time...

So back in the 1780′s when our country was still figuring crap out and ol’ George Washington was just elected president, G.W. decided to send a letter to Congress along the lines of ‘Looking forward to working with you all, this will be exciting!” Congress, not wanting to slight the president and also trying to express their own enthusiasm, sent back a letter along the lines of “Glad you’re excited, we are also looking forward to working with you!”

Then George sends another letter back saying something like “Cool cool bros, glad you’re just as excited as I am,” and Congress, again not wanting to be awkward or just ignore the PRESIDENT, sent back ANOTHER letter saying some dumb crap that was probably along the lines of “Glad you’re excited that we’re excited that you’re excited.”

Democracy at its finest.

And while this in itself is funny, that is not even the best part.

George Washington, while being powerful, was not extremely eloquent, and at this point was also aging, busy, and overall very stressed about his new position (which he did not want in the first place).  So he asked his old friend James Madison, who had a much better way with words, to write the first note to Congress.  Good old James Madison, wanting to oblige his friend, did just that and composed the note to Congress.  Now, J-Mads was himself a member of Congress, so when the note arrived, he was in session to hear “Washington’s” letter read.

Congress got nervous and worried about who could possibly compose a formal and acceptable letter back to Washington.  Who better than his old friend, James Madison?  So Jimmy, being obliging, wrote the response.  When Washington received the reply, he once again asked his friend to write the response.  

And who did Congress choose to write their final letter? That’s right….none other than Jimmy-James-Madison himself.

So James Madison, future 4th president of the United States, wrote himself 4 letters under the guise of George Washington and the first Congress of the U.S.  And he was too embarrassed to admit it.

[peasantbarbie]

catfish of the millenium

[is-thisathing-blog]

jeopardy y u do this

@linmanuel

[fuckyeahanthonyramos]

HOLY SHIT WHAT

[schwen]

I think everyone needs to see my Grandpa holding my Aunt's new puppy, Goose.

[redditfront]

[poorquentyn]

It puzzles me when people cite LOTR as the standard of “simple” or “predictable” or “black and white” fantasy. Because in my copy, the hero fails. Frodo chooses the Ring, and it’s only Gollum’s own desperation for it that inadvertently saves the day. The fate of the world, this whole blood-soaked war, all the millennia-old machinations of elves and gods, comes down to two addicts squabbling over their Precious, and that is precisely and powerfully Tolkien’s point. 

And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again. 

And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil. 

“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”

So where’s this silly shallow hippie fever-dream I’ve heard so much about? It sounds like a much lesser story than the one that actually exists.

[emilysidhe]

People don’t often include LotR as post-WWI literature because of the fantasy setting and because so much time passed, but young Tolkien had a particularly horrific WWI experience and that understanding of what war , even just war, is like and how trauma changes you suffuses every page.

[camaronez]

[goldenblack-girl-blog]

Used to be hype af when she saw

[curvesncurls-deactivated2017090]

I still do this 😂

[degasdad]

i’ve pretty much never been less surprised by anything

[schwen]

when you’re a felon and exiled to a far off island with shit ton of animals that basically want to kill all humans you just gotta drink

[animentality]

Winnie the Pooh quotes make me cry.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” 

“I used to believe in forever, but forever’s too good to be true” 

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,“ said Pooh. “There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.” 

“I wonder what Piglet is doing,” thought Pooh. “I wish I were there to be doing it, too.” 

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” 

“We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?” asked Piglet. “Even longer,” Pooh answered.

“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.” 

“Forever isn’t long at all, Christopher, as long as I’m with you.” 

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

[schwen]

german duolingo lady: Er trinkt

me: i didnt hear this better click the Slow Pronunciation Turtle of Shame

german duolingo lady, now with intense judgment and hate in her voice, articulating like im 5 years old: ER..... TRINKT......

[katrinageist]

When I explain cultural misappropriation to children, I use the example of The Nightmare Before Christmas.  

It’s effective because especially for children, who don’t have enough historical context to understand much of the concept, you can still fully grasp the idea.  

There was nothing wrong with Jack seeing the beauty and differences in Christmas town, it’s when he tried to take what is unique about Christmas town away from those it originally belonged to without understanding the full context of Christmas things is when everything went wrong.

When Jack tries to get the folk of Halloween town to make Christmas gifts for children, etc., children understand that the Halloween town folk do not have the full context for the objects they are making, and they are able to see that the direct repercussions and consequences are very harmful.

[jumpingjacktrash]

what i like about this is the implication that if jack had taken the time to understand christmas town, bringing christmas to halloween town would not have been harmful. that’s how it works, folks. cultural sharing is GOOD, it’s only misappropriation when it’s done in ignorance and disrespect.

[kelseyridge13]

There’s an interesting level here in that Jack tried to understand Christmas town. He could see the magic while he was there, and he did try to explain it that way to citizens of Halloween town.  But they weren’t interested in the kind of life he was describing, so he started “rebranding” Christmas so that it was not like Christmas but was like Halloween. The people of Halloween town, never having actually encountered Christmas, have no way of knowing that what they’re being told about Christmas and “Sandy Claws” is inaccurate. Jack also tried to study Christmas and its culture, though he couldn’t quite get it; eventually, he literally decides to take it for himself, even as he knows it’s not really for him.  He started out feeling sad the others in Halloween town didn’t ‘get it,’ but he then decided it’s not important to fully ‘get it’ but instead to have it.

So it’s not just accidentally removing things form their context; he has intentionally disregard the meaning of the rituals he purports to be recreating, making them more fun for the recreaters but not like what the rituals are supposed to be and without the related significance.

[calamitycons]

This is the best way to conceptualize the wrong way to share culture I have ever seen and I think I finally get where people are coming from when they talk about “cultural appropriation.”

[okayilubuhbye-deactivated201611]

This is an EXCELLENT explanation through example!

[birffed]

[joshpeck]

what a wholesome vine,

[afriendandboy]

according to hetero dating law the girl shouldn’t pay for her meal which, logically, means that if two girls go on a date together nobody pays and they get everything for free but the catch is that they have to stand the whole time bc no one can pull out a chair

[polysprachig]

me: *notices similarities between German and Dutch*

me: *notices similarities between Irish and Norwegian*

[langue-etrangere-deactivated201]

Everybody, go home. This is the best langblr post. Nothing can top it.