#mod ej nerds

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[Image Description: Tag reading “sacrificing virgins: fun for the whole family”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: Agamemnon

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[Image Description: Tag reading “yes its true Moscow ran out of vodka during the victory celebration of WWII”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: Please ask me about the Russian vodka ban in 1914?

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Do tortoises fuck?

There is a principle in Jewish law called "marit ayin" which says that an action which is permissible in theory but which looks sufficiently like an impermissible action that they are not distinguishable is also impermissible. For instance, animal blood is not kosher and cannot be eaten. Fish blood, on the other hand, is kosher. But under the principle of marit ayin, fish blood cannot be eaten, because someone eating fish blood looks exactly like someone eating animal blood.

While tortoises could in principle fuck, people have trouble telling the difference between turtles and tortoises, and might, seeing tortoises fucking, assume they were turtles and wrongly conclude that turtles fuck. Therefore, it is clear that, by marit ayin, tortoises, while they could fuck, are forbidden to do so.

[ao3tagoftheday]

[Image Description: Tags reading "lmao I should really title my chapters BUT WHAT, I'm so bad at titling I'll probably name my first born Chapter One"]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: Please take this opportunity to ask me about Roman naming practices

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[Image Description: Tag reading "I wrote this out of pure spite"]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: Someone please take this opportunity to ask me about the Pumpkinification of the God Claudius

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Why are you such a buzzkill lol

European universities originally developed as guilds of scholars, comparable to similar guilds of artisans or merchants. The guild hierarchy of apprentice, journeyman, and master still has its remnants in the modern university structure of undergraduate student, doctoral student, and professor. Titles such as Master of Arts are also relics of guild structure (compare to a title like Master of Weavers). The guild origins of the university can also be seen in the exclusivity of academia and the institution of tenure. Anyone who has studied the economic consequences of a guild economy will be able to recognize the similarities, but basically, guilds exist partly in order to control how many people can enter an industry and how quickly, thereby protecting the status of the masters running the guild. That's...basically how academia works a lot of the time.

[ao3tagoftheday]

[Image Description: Tags reading “excessive use of the word ‘damn’, because you can’t say ‘fuck’ in the 19th century”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: When you want to write a Victorian AU but you curse like a sailor

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Why the fuck are you telling that anon that their gender "can be made more fun" holy shit. Genders are not accessories! You can't just fucking switch when it's no longer fun to you! Why are you taking a massive shit on dysphoria with the notion that you can "experiment" with something as serious as physical identity? Don't even come at me with that "gender is mental uwu" shit, that's fucking ableist. GNC isn't trans, stop misinforming potentially trans youth. You should be ashamed of yourself

I now present Mod EJ Nerds in Response to Anon Hate: Trans Edition.

In traditional Jewish liturgy, a series of short blessings called the Birkat Ha-Shahar is recited in the morning prayer service. Among these blessings is one which goes, “Blessed are you, G-d, Lord of the Universe, who did not make me a woman.” For obvious reasons, this blessing is often omitted or changed in modern Jewish liturgy, but it was standard in 1322, when a Jewish scholar named Qalonymos ben Qalonymos published a book of his writings. This book contained the following poem (translated by Peter Cole):

On Becoming A Woman

Lord in heaven,who brought forth wondersby fire and water for our Fathers,cooling Abraham’s Chaldean kiln,so in its flames he’d not be burned;who altered Dina’s fate in the womb,and made a serpent of Moses’ wand;who whited with illness Miriam’s handsand turned the Sea of Reeds into land—transforming the muddy bed of the Jordaninto passable sand,and making from stone and shalea pool whose springs would not failif only you would make me female!

If that alone might be done,how wondrous then would be my fortune!Spared the arduous labor of men,I’d settle down and raise my children.But why complain and bitterly whine?If my Father in heaven is so inclined as to fashion me with a lasting deformity,how could I ask that He take it from me?Worry about what just can’t beis incurable pain and endless misery;empty condolence is hardly an answer.“I’ll just have to bear it, “ I said, “though I’ll suffer until I wither away and die.”

And since long ago I learned from traditionthat both good and bad deserve benediction,in the faintest of whispers I’ll mutter each morning;Blessed art Thou, O Lord—who has not made me a woman

[Note: This ask gave me some trouble because I genuinely want to respond to the theoretical point it raises. I just don’t want to engage with anon hate, and I refuse to let some asshole bait me into doing so. If anyone wants to ask me about this issue in a constructive way, I’ll be delighted to respond.]