#a10wea

[copperbadge]

I'm going to the printers row farmer's market this weekend! Is there anything you do/do not recommend buying?

Oh, I hope you have fun! And I hope it's okay I posted this publicly, other folks might be interested.

I don't have a ton of recommendations because there is some rotation amongst the businesses and I usually don't buy from the precooked food stalls (the crepe stand, etc). Stamper Cheese is usually there and if you're going early, go there first, because a line always forms; they're excellent and have recommended some nice new flavors for me in the past, and I love their dill cheese curds. Some of the stalls -- mainly the bakery stalls -- only take cash still, so I'd bring some along just in case. The bakery stalls tend to be better with breakfast pastries than with actual breads or cakes; I mean their bread is usually fine, just very pricy (it is small-batch artisanal after all).

Usually in the southwest corner of the park there's a stall that sells both vegetables and sweet and hot varieties of link Italian sausage; they often have a van parked behind them. I don't know the name of the stall or the farm, I'm afraid, but I have dual commentary, which is that 1. their sweet Italian sausage is VERY good and 2. they have never not been appallingly rude to me. I still get sausage from them occasionally, but they have far and away the worst customer service I've ever encountered. It's mostly teenage kids who are probably the children of the actual owner, so they get something of a pass, but if you want to have a pleasant experience there's also plenty of other places selling meat and eggs.

In the neighborhood, don't miss Sandmeyer's Bookstore (go to the southeastern edge of the park, the entrance is on Dearborn) and if you want coffee or a snack, I find Necessary & Sufficient (south of Sandmeyers) is a little more friendly than Cafe Deko (across Dearborn from the park) but Cafe Deko has more seating.

Lastly, the growing season for rhubarb seems to get shorter every year so if you like rhubarb and you see some for sale, snap it up -- you usually can't get it anymore, at least at the farmer's market, come August.

[sineala]

Hello, i think of you as a wise fandom elder and i have a question about Tony Stark in fandom - why is it so common for fandom works to depict him as Italian/Italian American, via his mother? Is this supported in 616 canon? Because as far as i know, there's no mention of it in MCU. just curious if you know the answer!

As far as I know, there is no actual textual support in 616 canon for this.

What I assume happened is that fandom concluded that Tony's mother, being named Maria, could very well be Italian, and given that New York famously has a fairly large Italian-American population, fandom probably decided that it would be nice if that was reflected in Tony's heritage.

When this discussion has come up before, people have pointed out that "Carbonell" (part of Maria's maiden name) is in fact a Catalan surname, FWIW. So there are a lot of ways you could go with this, but no specific canon about the character herself, as far as I'm aware.

Ults (1610) is a slightly more complicated story, because Tony's given name is in fact Antonio rather than Anthony (okay, sometimes it's Anthony because what even is continuity), more strongly suggesting that his family is probably either Italian or Spanish (I don't know enough about Catalan given names to know if this is an option, sorry) or, hey, from any country that speaks Spanish; I have seen people ask if he is, specifically, Mexican, but if that has ever been specified I haven't seen it.

But Ults is even more complicated than that, because Ults Maria's maiden name is also different -- it's Cerrera. Which, with that spelling, I have to admit I am unfamiliar with, but if it's a variation of "Carrera" then that brings us back to... well, either Spanish or Italian again, I think.

However! This piece of canon about Ults Maria is from Ultimate Iron Man by Orson Scott Card, the miniseries so bad that it got decanonized into an in-universe TV show; the Marvel Wiki page about this Maria Stark currently lists her as being from Earth-55921.

It also lists her maiden name as "Cerra" but this is an error on Wiki's part:

Anyway, so, none of that is the same person. I don't believe we actually know anything about 1610 Tony's mother's last name.

But, yeah, for 616, AFAIK it's basically "fandom thinks it would be cool and it seems plausible based on given names and the fact that, historically, there was a lot of Italian immigration into NYC."

[meidui]

Road trips and Stony for the ask game, please!

31. road trips

Tony rarely gets to stare at Steve so openly like this, but now, as sunshine and April wind pour in together through the open windows and they're driving too fast down the countryside road, Tony stares all he wants at Steve in the driver's seat, one of his arms spread out the window like he's flying.

He looks so relaxed, glowing in the sunlight like some kind of angel visiting earth as he hums along to Tony's CD. He looks so himself. He looks like the love of Tony's life.

"What are you looking at?" Steve asks, glancing over with a smile, sweet like he is and somehow still a little shy even after all these years, and Tony suddenly couldn't care less where the hell they're going. He'd drive all through this spring if Steve stayed this incandescently happy.

"You," Tony says, smiling, since he's been caught already, and Steve reaches out to take his hand and press it to his lips in a kiss that would be tongue in cheek if it were anyone else, but utterly charming because it's Steve. Tony taps his face. "Okay, hey. Eyes on the road."

Steve laughs and turns back to the open road sprawling out ahead of them, not letting go of Tony's hand.

[aurumacadicus]

Ask game: calling (or call or called or whatever other variation of the word "call")

Surprisingly, there were ten callings!

But then he’d managed to catch sight of the Mechanic’s calling card with his own eyes when an officer had shown it around the factory floor, demanding to know if anyone recognized it.

[aurumacadicus]

For your arranged witching au, why is Tony and Jan's power the reason for them being hidden away? So they don't get abducted or something?

It only happens during Grand Meetings, when local family covens come together to discuss politics/gossip. It also only really happens with witches that everyone considers who are young and 'exceedingly powerful,' especially if their family is hosting. The Starks are hosting the Meeting that Steve crashes, and Tony is, perhaps, one of the most powerful witches anyone has seen in several generations. Because he's young (early to mid-twenties), he's considered almost a danger to the Grand Meeting itself, because he could easily lose control of his massive power and accidentally curse everyone attending.

Ostensibly, anyway. Tony isn't quite sure he believes it, but his mother asks this of him, and he loves her, so he puts up with it. Even though he hates it and gets super bored because he can't use his tablet or computer or even his phone because the estate is warded against "outside forces" for the duration of the Meeting.

Jan was actually set to join the junior coven meet-ups after they aged off the kids' table, so to speak, but when she learned that Tony would be hidden away for his own safety and the safety of the other covens, she uh. Blew out the foyer. Which was more power than she'd ever exerted before so technically she has to be sequestered via the rules, but she should also be in her own room. But then she just blew a hole in the wall and spent the rest of the visit in Tony's so like. It's just easier on the structural integrity to just let her and Tony pass the Meeting in each others' companies.

(Historically most sequestered witches studied to hone their powers but both Tony and Jan can basically glance at a spell and do it perfectly so mostly they spend the week whining and complaining to each other and then seeing who can be the most obnoxious.)