Ticker Tape Parade

Writing reference sideblog. Main blog @Apolloette. Icon by @peebsayle.

[homunculus-argument]

One thing I’ve learned about writing is ”give everything a face”. It’s no good to write passively that the nobility fled the city or that the toxic marshes were poisoning the animals beyond any ability to function. Make a protagonist see how a desperate woman in torn silks climbs onto a carriage and speeds off, or a two-headed deer wanders right into the camp and into the fire. Don’t just have an ambiguous flock of all-controlling oligarchy, name one or two representatives of it, and illustrate just how vile and greedy they are as people.

it’s bad to have characters who serve no purpose in the story, but giving something a face is a perfectly valid purpose.

[tlbodine]

This is the real heart of “show don’t tell”

[peng-guin]

My film teacher always says “write visually” and people are so confused what he means. I take it as “don’t explain the events/theme/emotion, write something that exemplifies the events/theme/emotion” ex) I am angry vs I throw the beautiful pot my grandmother made for me on the ground, and it works for me!

[willowcrowned]

there's something so compelling about stories where a character's virtues intensify into flaws that lead to their downfall. loyalty and love becoming so all-consuming that compassion outside of them ceases to exist. duty overwhelming any moral compass until order becomes more important than justice. selflessness so intense it becomes self-destruction. let me watch while whatever saved the hero in the beginning destroys them. let me see them fall to their own worst impulses disguised as what once made them good.

[primulaceas]

Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

[letterful]

In Orwell’s essay “A Hanging,” the writer watches the condemned man, walking toward the gallows, swerve to avoid a puddle. For Orwell, this represents precisely what he calls the “mystery” of the life that is about to be taken: when there is no good reason for it, the condemned man is still thinking about keeping his shoes clean. It is an “irrelevant” act (and a marvelous bit of noticing on Orwell’s part). Now suppose this were not an essay but a piece of fiction. And indeed there has been a fair amount of speculation about the proportion of fact to fiction in such essays of Orwell’s. 

The avoidance of the puddle would be precisely the kind of superb detail that, say, Tolstoy might flourish; War and Peace has an execution scene very close in spirit to Orwell’s essay, and it may well be that Orwell basically cribbed the detail from Tolstoy. In War and Peace, Pierre witnesses a man being executed by the French, and notices that, just before death, the man adjusts the blindfold at the back of his head, because it is uncomfortably tight. The avoidance of the puddle, the fiddling with the blindfold—these are what might be called irrelevant or superfluous details. They are not explicable; in fiction, they exist to denote precisely the inexplicable. This is one of the “effects” of realism, of “realistic” style. 

But Orwell’s essay, assuming it records an actual occurrence, shows us that such fictional effects are not merely conventionally irrelevant, or formally arbitrary, but have something to tell us about the irrelevance of reality itself (…) There was no logical reason for the condemned man to avoid the puddle. It was pure remembered habit. Life, then, will always contain an inevitable surplus, a margin of the gratuitous, a realm in which there is always more than we need: more things, more impressions, more memories, more habits, more words, more happiness, more unhappiness. 

— JAMES WOOD, from How Fiction Works.

[tlirsgender]

I think monsterfucking is about vulnerability. When you think about it

[tlirsgender]

Something about knowing this being could destroy you and trusting them not to and in turn the monster is letting you see this part of them and trusting you not to be afraid or disgusted etc etc

[tlirsgender]

It's also about fangs sexy

[transangelicism]

confessions, elle emerson

[kaijutegu]

STUFF NOBODY EVER TOLD YOU ABOUT TEETH (and how to take care of them if you are poor and/or depressed)

Contrary to what the US health industry would have you believe, your teeth are NOT luxury face bones. You need them. Healthy teeth are a cornerstone of good health in general for a lot of reasons. You can’t eat well without them. You need them to speak. And tooth bias is real.

This makes me very sad because I love teeth. I am not a dentist. I’m a biological anthropologist whose expertise is oral disease and the evolutionary anatomy of teeth. My dad’s an oral surgeon and I worked in his office from the tender and illegal age of 8 to the ripe old age of 18, which is when I went to college. At 12, I was assisting with the disposal of biowaste, aka packaging up the teeth to send them to dental schools. I live, breathe, sleep, and occasionally eat teeth. I found a human incisor on my floor this morning and wasn’t even surprised. I study how teeth go bad partly so that I can help living people protect the teeth they’ve got. It’s my goal with this post to teach you about a couple of different types of procedures and oral injuries, as well as what you can do to help keep your teeth functional. So in this post, what I am going to do is outline a few common things that can go wrong with your teeth, how they happen, and how to catch them before they get bad. A lot of the advice in this post is for people who maybe can’t get to the dentist for a cleaning and checkup every six months. This post is also gonna be LONG AS HELL and there is going to be a separate post called “luxury face bone hacks for the busy/broke/b’mentally ill” or something like that, so like. If you don’t like super long posts, just hit this one with a like and actually read through that one.

First, let’s talk about dental anatomy.

What Are Teeth?

Teeth are extremely cool. They’re these amazing little packages of dentin pulp, protected by enamel, nestled into the jaw like truffles in a box of chocolates, held in place with a teeny tiny ligament. They’re gorgeous– enamel is a beautiful substance, translucent and opalescent. Teeth are also extremely weird when you think about them. You have these weird not-bone things emerging from holes in your jawbones. They’re snapped into place with a biological bunjy cord and you can actually SPRAIN THEM if you put too much pressure on them.

Here are some important things to know about teeth!

First, the nerves in your teeth were never meant to be exposed to the air. They only process stimulus one way: pain. This means that when you get a cavity or do anything else that exposes the nerve, it is going to hurt like a bitch.

Your teeth may come loose! Usually they stay put and go back to normal in a day or two. Don’t panic. This is usually the result of you spraining your dental ligament that holds the tooth in place.

Root canals suck but they can prevent dental abscesses. Dental abscesses can kill you. If they spread and get into your sinuses, they can cross the blood/brain barrier and you will die. This doesn’t happen much any more, but in rare cases… it can.

The phrase “like pulling teeth” is a misnomer. Pulling teeth is extremely easy if you know what you’re doing. Extractions are usually a very simple procedure. What’s complicated is things like root canals and setting up implants, which, in the case of implants is the literal opposite of pulling teeth.

Pregnancy will fuck up your teeth because a.) the fetus is leaching your vital essence and other nutrients and b.) your hormones are telling a lot of ligaments in your body to loosen up to get ready to give birth. Sometimes wires get crossed and other ligaments at non-mobile joints get the loosen up message, too. Just be sure to keep up your dental hygiene regimen during pregnancy and you’ll be fine.

Your gum tissue isn’t just weird wet skin. It’s a mucous membrane that protects the mouth. It can get diseased and inflamed, so pay attention to it! Also, there’s a lot of blood vessels so if you poke yourself with something, you’ll bleed like a stuck pig for a minute. The kind of bleeding you should be worried about is prolonged bleeding, where you see blood welling up around your teeth for no apparent reason.

Now that you’ve been equipped with some fun facts, lets talk about diseases and procedures.

Braces: if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need them

First: Pediatric orthodontia is largely a scam. People who put standard braces on their child before that child has lost all of their baby teeth are stupid and causing their child needless pain because those teeth are going to fall out anyways and the alignment of the adult teeth was decided long, long ago. The kids who NEED orthodontic intervention are kids with bad crossbites/underbites/overbites. This requires specialized headgear most of the time and is more intense than the standard braces because they are made to solve a much bigger problem. The standard bracket-and-wire braces? Don’t put those on a child. They won’t help. Also, your kid doesn’t have their third molars yet, and those are the molars most likely to come in twisted anyways.

As an adult, you may want braces for cosmetic reasons or for comfort reasons. This is a CHOICE that is YOURS TO MAKE. If your dentist suggests you need braces, ask why. You don’t have to get them. Now,If you have certain kinds of dental overlap- like, your lateral incisors have been pushed behind your frontals- then yeah, you should get braces. But is it the end of the world if you don’t get braces? No.

Wisdom tooth removal: you might not need it

The human jaw is in a state of evolutionary mismatch right now. Basically, our last molar, the third molar, doesn’t come in until we’re an adult. Unfortunately, thanks to ten thousand years of agriculture, give or take a few millennia, we have much more gracile jaws than our ancestors. There’s not always enough room for it. Now, this isn’t true for everyone, because no two skulls are identical and all, but sometimes there is a condition where you really should get those suckers out. If they are impacted, or coming in sideways, they can push your other teeth out of alignment and cause jaw issues down the line. If they come up straight, don’t worry about it.

Cavities: you need to get these taken care of

Cavities are a pain in the ass and are honestly the main reason you should go to the dentist for checkups, so that they can take the x-ray of your mouth and see how any potential trouble zones are progressing. You should call a dentist and seek help if you notice pain that persists over three days, as that’s an indicator of something more serious than just a sprain.

Tooth Grinding: this is a problem

If you grind your teeth, your dentist may recommend a night guard. Actually listen to them about this. Grinding your teeth can cause major jaw alignment problems that are a pain to fix, so just bite the silicone and suck it up. Also maybe talk to a therapist if you can, because grinding can be a result of stress/anxiety.

Whitening your teeth: bad idea

First off, your teeth ain’t supposed to be white. Enamel is not white. Enamel is translucent and pearlescent, so its actual color is very hard to pin down. Your teeth are naturally going to look more ivory-colored over time. That’s just part of being human and having teeth. Embrace it. You are a badass omnivore with thirty-two gorgeous enamel teeth. They weren’t put in your mouth to look pretty, they were put in your mouth to feed you.

Second: Whitening your teeth weakens your enamel. Once your enamel’s gone, it ain’t coming back, baby. There are some gentler whitening methods, like whitening toothpaste, but these are only going to give you about one to two shades worth of improvement. If you have extremely stained teeth and you want to whiten them, make sure you talk to your dentist about all the risks. Unfortunately, there is no truly safe and effective home-style (read: not a million gotdang dollars) remedy for whitening teeth.

There are a few that are kicking around, but seriously, some of them are dangerous. Do NOT rub wood ash on your teeth. That’s lye. Don’t put that in your mouth. Do NOT use actual bleach, hair dye developer, or non-dental peroxide gel. They are poisonous. DO NOT PUT ACETONE ON YOUR TEETH i have seen this exactly once and the person came into my dad’s office with chemical burns on their gums and lips. I do NOT want to see this again.

It is a misconception that brushing your teeth keeps them looking white. Brushing your teeth removes plaque and biofilm, but those buildups don’t actually stain the enamel itself. Instead, really the only way to keep your teeth looking light is to pay attention to what you’re putting in your mouth. If you’re a tobacco user, vape! Tar is a major staining agent. Coffee’s also a major stainer, and the big trick there is to put a little milk in it. See, enamel staining doesn’t come from the color of the food. It comes from chemical properties. Acidic foods stain because acid damages enamel. Food with high levels of tannins, like coffee or tea, stain because the tannins change the PH of the mouth. So what you should do to avoid staining is balance your mouth PH by eating something basic after eating something acidic. Add a lil milk to your coffee or tea to weaken its acidity just a bit. Swish with water afterwards to help clear the acid. Don’t eat lemons or any other acidic food after drinking coffee. Why would you want to eat lemons after drinking coffee, anyways? Seems like a weird flavor combo to me.

And while we’re on the subject…

MOUTH CHEMISTRY

What’s in your mouth? Your teeth, your gums, your tongue, your spit… yeah, your spit. Saliva’s important. It’s probably THE most important thing in protecting your teeth because salivary production constantly washes the teeth, clearing off as much bad bacteria as possible. If you have an issue with saliva production, you should drink as much water as you can throughout the day, and get a bottle of dry mouth tabs for nighttime. Or daytime, if they don’t bother you. This is really important because dry mouth is a major side effect for a lot of drugs, like anti-depressants. This is actually a huge part of my research- the population I study used a natural painkiller, but in the end its use caused them more pain because the way it works, it decreases the efficacy of the salivary glands. They stop making sufficient saliva, the teeth dry out, the mouth PH changes, and the bacteria that destroy enamel go buckwild. If you can’t make your own spit, store bought is fine. Water for the day, tabs for the night.

Now, you might think that ok, acid isn’t great, let’s eat more basic foods to balance that out. You can, but it… isn’t great. Your saliva is naturally acidic for a reason, and if you neutralize it completely, that ALSO messes with your teeth. You should be drinking plain water as much as possible.

Seltzer and Soda

Some people think seltzer may hurt your teeth, but it really won’t… unless it’s citrus-flavored. Reason: citrus seltzer uses citric acid as a flavoring agent, and that messes with your teeth. So if you want to drink citrus seltzer, drink it with a meal or with food. Don’t sip it slow over the day.

Soda, on the other hand is a goddamn nightmare. The acid’s kind of a problem but the sugar… dear god the sugar. So. your teeth are covered in a bacterial biofilm. Some of these bacteria excrete acid, and that’s what gives you cavities. This is another part of my research- looking at how cavity prevalence changes as sweetening agents and sugar availability changes. As different carbohydrates enter the diet, populations’ disease responses change. I know more about this than probably anybody else in the world, and here is what I know: the best thing you can do for your teeth is stop drinking American soda.

It’s the corn, you guys. The chemical compounds in corn make the cavity-causing bacteria kick into overdrive. Sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup create the perfect environment for these dudes to excrete out a storm. Sugary beverages in general promote cavities, but NOTHING does it like sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or any other corn byproduct. Try to limit your soda and juice consumption and if you can, make sure that when you do have them, you’re getting some food,too.

Other Acids

Ok this next part is going to deal with eating disorders. I’m going to be talking about some of the side effects of bulimia, what they can do to your teeth, and how you can take care of them. Eating disorders are serious business and I hope if you need this section you are in supportive recovery and have the love and support and resources you need. If you don’t want to read about what this can do to your teeth, scroll real quick until you seen the big green text.

If your teeth are in frequent contact with stomach acid, acid etching can be a real problem. Your enamel is tough but stomach acid is gnarly, and your gums don’t have that same protection. If you find yourself vomiting frequently, for whatever reason, try to swish water around in your mouth afterwards to help clean it out. I know that’s not the thing that’s likely on your mind after that, but a lot of what we’re doing here is damage control. I’m not here to judge you in the slightest. I’m just here to help you with your teeth.

Do not brush your teeth immediately after vomiting. The enamel is weaker, and you can cause even more damage by brushing too hard. Wait for at least an hour until after you’ve rinsed your mouth to avoid spreading the acid around.

You can also add some (1-2 tsp) baking soda to the water you rinse with, if you feel ok with doing that. It will taste gross and salty but it will help neutralize the acid. You just rinse with this, you don’t swallow.

ok that part is over

TOOTH HACKS

This is the funnest part, I get to tell you good ways to take care of your teeth that require very few spoons and very little money!

Brush ‘em twice a day. Once when you get up to clear out whatever happened the night before, and once before you fall asleep. You can brush more but you don’t have to. Use a soft-bristled brush and whatever toothpaste you like. If you hate mint, kid toothpaste that tastes like bubblegum or berries is totally fine!

Don’t want to get out of bed? totally fine. Use a finger toothbrush! these are designed for babies which is actually great because they are SUPER soft. If you have sensitive gums, these are going to be really helpful.

Don’t have access to a finger toothbrush? honest to god you can just dip your finger in water (though a mix of water and baking soda or water and salt is better) and brush your teeth with just your finger. The point of this isn’t to freshen your breath or anything, it’s just to get the biofilm off of your teeth and protect them.

Floss. This gets the biofilm out from between your teeth and promotes good gum health. Don’t just run it between the teeth- you need to floss below the gumline a little bit to help clean out plaque.

If you don’t have the spoons to do your whole mouth, floss between your molars if you can.

There’s lots of products that are great for people who can’t go through the whole flossing routine. Pre-threaded flossers are ideal because they’re designed for minimal effort and maximum gain. These are also killer for people with physical disabilities that affect hand dexterity.

If flossing hurts because you have sensitive gums, a water flosser can really help. This is more expensive but will last a very long time.

You can also get topical numbing gel that you can smear on your gums when flossing. Just be careful that you’re not flossing too hard because you can’t feel it. This brand is kind of expensive but it has a nice minty flavor. If you have a dollar and a way to get there, I saw Orajel at Dollar Tree yesterday… when I was buying a bunch of those pre-threaded flossers to throw in my car. I oughta do a Dollar Tree field trip to show you like, what products are available at the absolute cheapest in the US. Dollar Tree has a LOT of good dental options.

There’s a tiktok that says you can use a strand of hair to floss. This is a bad idea. A single strand of hair is likely to break and can cut into your gums. If you want to use hair as floss, you need to use a couple of strands twisted together. Go slow and gentle if you’re using hair. Obviously actual floss is better but this isn’t “perfect dental tips for perfect people,” this is “life sucks but your teeth don’t gotta.”

If you can’t floss or can’t brush, gargle. Put two tsp of baking soda in a glass of warm water. Swish it around, spit it out. If you can do that, you’ve helped clear out biofilm and bacterial waste.

Prioritize your teeth. You only get two sets and you lose the first one by the time you’re twelve. If you can only do one hygiene thing today, make it be your teeth.

Eat some pineapple. Bromelain, which is only found in pineapple, is super good at protecting enamel.

That’s… all I got for you now. Take care of your teeth!

[r1ddl3-m3-th15]

What I Say: My favorite genre is alternative history

What People Hear: I like considering what would happen if the Civil War/WW2/Cold War ended differently

What I Mean:

[madlori]

In case you’re wondering this is a synopsis of Sarah Gailey’s delightful novel “American Hippo” which is actually two novellas squished together but THAT’S OKAY WE DON’T CARE IT HAS HIPPO COWBOYS AND A NONBINARY ROMANCE

also the hippo thing was a real proposal in history that thankfully went nowhere.

[antique-scarecrow]

i feel like it’s important to note this is the cover

 A GIFT OF VIOLENT, UNEXPECTED GLEE

[elucubrare]

i know why people don't like the trope of revenge leaving you empty, but i love it, and I think it's because i love pretty much any permutation of "i've accomplished the great Goal and now what? i'm still the same person who set it, still me, but now i've lost the central thing that drove me onwards to greatness"

[elucubrare]

I also love mercy as a greater show of dominance than actually going through with the final blow - you've shown you can defeat them and now they have to live with the fact that you have them in your power

[gardeninglovers]

zero light plants

[blackwoolncrown]

THIS IS SUCH A SPECIFIC AND SUPER NECESSARY POST.

[lionesshathor]

Spider plants are among the best natural air filters you can put in a flowerpot. They don’t just produce oxygen, they clean out other gases and toxins and whatever else is floating around the room.

Also they’re easy as fuck to grow more of because they reproduce by putting little mini plants out on stalks. Clip one off, stick it in a pot and you’re good!

[braincoins]

Spider plants are safe to have around cats, too!

[nintendosixty420]

Spider plants are safe around cats only if you’re okay with your cat being enlightened once in a while. Spider plants can have a mild hallucinogenic effect on cats, and if your cat is anything like my idiot, you may catch them chewing on a leaf then wandering the house amazed by everything around them.

It’s not harmful at all, just be aware of when your pets are getting ‘high.’

[darkbookworm13-deactivated20240]

I have to hide my spider plant from my cats, because it has been eaten down to the roots multiple times in their frenzy to reach nirvana. Its predecessors were all mercilessly devoured so many times that I didn’t have any spider plants for ages until a friend gave me a baby she had started in a recycled container.

Pothos is not safe around cats, and should be kept well out of their reach as it can make them throw up if they eat it. I can’t speak for the others, just these two.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

the cooking show I’m watching is rated PG-13 for language and nudity

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

no it’s not cutthroat kitchen or gordon ramsey it’s a documentary exploring the anthropological & historical significance of cooking, and the dangers of the mass industrialization of food.

and i misspoke it’s rated TV-14 (for language and nudity)

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

this guy is so fucking angry about sliced bread (justifiably) that he really came out on camera with this absolute banger of a quote:

“And this is really how capitalism usually works. It creates a problem, and rather than fix the problem, it creates a new business to solve the problem.”

utterly scathing and yes this is from a 60 minute documentary episode dedicated entirely to the subject of Bread

[indigokyra]

You can’t just not tell us why sliced bread is terrible D8

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

right ok so technically it’s not sliced bread but industrial, mass-manufactured bread that is…causing problems. Here’s the theory as the show presents it:

For about ~10,000 years bread was a fucking staple of the human diet. we evolved to eat this food, our bodies, our societies were built on this food, but all of a sudden we’re seeing a rise in gluten sensitivity* (distinct from celiac disease). Aka our bodies are rejecting this food we’ve spent 100 centuries eating. Where is this coming from?

Well, a big part of it is probably that less than 100 years ago corporations changed the definition of bread. (Like, figuratively and literally, they petitioned the FDA to change the legal definition of bread so they could put in additives.) In fact, industrialization has changed the process and the ingredients used to make bread, to the point manufactured bread is a profoundly different product from what our ancestors knew as bread. Let’s start with:

1) The Process: For thousands of years, humans relied on naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria found in the air to make (leavened) bread and bread starters (fermented dough used to “start” new loaves. hence the term “sourdough”). you can still do this at home–all it involves is leaving a mixture of water and flour lying around for a few days. notice something missing? that’s right, YEAST. this process of making bread involves yeast–yeast from the air around you–but it doesn’t involve concentrated baker’s yeast. Baker’s yeast refers to various strains of yeast that are added directly to flour & water mixtures as a leavening agent. This allows the bread to rise more quickly and cuts down on the overall production time. Convenient, right?

Now, adding yeast is not automatically a bad thing, and bakers have been doing it for a damn long time in interesting ways (such as using yeast from beer brewing). But lately we’ve taken it to extremes–we’ve gotten too good at creating more and more efficient forms of commercial Baker’s yeast, specifically for industrial use on a mass scale. Manufacturers want bread to rise as fast as possible, because that is how you get more product on the shelves. Making bread in factories now takes a small fraction of the time it used to.

And why is this a problem? Because it turns out a more traditional “long fermentation process allows bacteria to fully break down the carbohydrates and gluten in bread, making it easier to digest and releasing the nutrients within it, allowing our bodies to more easily absorb them.” [1] This (added to the fact that some commercial breads contain extra added gluten) has the unfortunate result that the product you buy from the grocery store is less digestible and nutritious than the bread human societies traditionally relied upon. Hence the rise of gluten intolerance–the gluten we are eating is simply more difficult to tolerate than gluten in properly fermented bread. (This is the reason many people with gluten sensitivity don’t experience symptoms when eating more traditionally made, longer-fermented sourdough.)

That’s not the only issue though. There’s also:

2) The Ingredients. not just the countless additives, but specifically: the flour. See, a grain of wheat is…incredibly nutritious, honestly. It has almost everything we need to sustain life and health. Civilizations did–and do–rely on bread as a fundamental dietary staple, to the point that you can track political instability with rising wheat prices. It’s essential. Look at this:

In a single grain, the essence of life.

So yeah, wheat is nutritional. We can build bodies and civilizations out of wheat. But it’s also, like…super difficult to access that nutrition. Well, more so than with most foods. If you eat a handful of wheat grains, a spoonful of flour–your body can’t digest that, you get basically nothing out of that (also raw flour isn’t safe to consume, don’t do that). Unlike many crops, wheat relies on being carefully and correctly processed in order for the final product to be as nutritional as possible. As stated above, part of that process is about fermentation. Another part is the quality of the flour, what it contains and how it has been milled and treated.

And that quality has changed a lot in just a century or two. Take white flour, for instance. White flour has been around for a long fucking time actually, but until the late 19th century it was considered a luxury item, a treat for the very wealthy. White flour was never considered a staple food–until industrialists learned how to manufacture it cheaply. [2] And then it was everywhere. And suddenly, surprise surprise, we started to see a rise in nutrition related illnesses. Because the bran and germ have been stripped away, white flour has only a fraction of the nutritional value of whole grain. But because this gives it a higher shelf life, it was more convenient (and profitable) for manufacturers. So when they learned about the health issues, what did they do? Go back to making healthier flour?

Pshaw. Of course not. No, instead they kept removing nutrients, then artificially adding them back in. And that is how we got enriched flour–flour which is still significantly less nutritious than whole wheat flour. [3] And this is what the previous quote about capitalism was referencing. The food industry created a problem, and rather than undoing the problem, they created a whole new business to “fix” it:

And thus came the mass rise of “enriched” foods.

Eat Wonder Bread! It has as much protein as roast beef! As much calcium as cottage cheese! As much iron as lamb chops! No need to eat real foods, when you can eat highly processed foods instead! Don’t cook your own meals, let trustworthy corporations feed you! Mass-produced factory foods are easy, are healthy! There will be literally no downsides or long-term repercussions to public health & wellness!

So yeah. Much of what we think of as “bread” is chemically and molecularly distinct from traditional bread, and is very different (and less nutritional) than what our ancestors were eating even just a century ago. (On an individual level, I’m not sure how to mitigate this, other than by purchasing the healthiest options available (e.g. whole wheat, sourdough), buying from small bakeries/farmer’s markets, or baking bread at home. Lately there has been a rise of small health-concious brands focusing on traditional fermentation and whole ingredients; some may be available in your area. But ultimately, it’s the entire wider system that needs to change.)

And there you have it! I have never been so incandescently furious about wonder bread. This documentary will do that to you–and will change your whole understanding of modern food. It’s a 4-part netflix series called Cooked (2016), based on Michael Pollan’s book of the same name. Most of the info above comes from the third episode, and is accurate to the best of my knowledge (but let me know if I got anything wrong).

*I want to be perfectly clear though, gluten itself is not inherently bad. It’s being demonized in the press on no scientific basis, just to push yet another diet fad. Unless your body has actual issues with gluten (e.g. celiac disease, gluten sensitivity) there are no proven benefits to eating gluten-free. There are, however, benefits to eating less processed, more nutritional (delicious delicious) bread.

tip jar :P

[curiouscarnifex]

Just going to note while the rise in gluten issues is probably related in part to the way bread is processed, the cause of celiac disease was only discovered in 1945 and it was pretty much a death sentence before then.

We’re only around three generations away from that and thus there’s been three generations where people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance have lived to adulthood and had children who have it or carry the genes on to their children.

Imo part of the reason that gluten free caught on as a fad is because it can take up 12 years from symptom onset to get a diagnosis, many of the supposed benefits of gluten free match up with symptoms of celiac disorder and people are exceedingly more likely to be exposed to the fad; which then stops their symptoms because they have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease; then they are to a doctor who can/will diagnose them.

[vaspider]

But also, if you’ve been on a strict gf diet and you DO have celiac disease, it becomes near-impossible to properly diagnose. You may get a tentative diagnosis of ‘you probably have it,’ but.

The preliminary screening test for celiac is a blood test which basically looks for ‘is there a war going on inside your body?’ bc when you have celiac and are eating gluten, your body is literally attacking itself all the fucking time. (Including your brain! Which is why one of the symptoms of celiac that we only just really figured out in the last 10y or so is increased anxiety and paranoia and irritability!) So if you’re on a totally gluten-free diet and have been for a while, that test will probably say 'no celiac here! lookin’ good!’

But let’s also say that your doctor goes 'mmm, I’m not sure, let’s do some further tests.’ Well, the definitive test for celiac disease is an intestinal biopsy - they take a tiny biopsy of the start of your small intestine and look at the state of your villi. The villi and microvilli are important bc they increase the surface area of your small intestine something like 600x, and when they get destroyed by celiac disease, your small intestine basically can’t absorb enough nutrition from your food, and, uh, you die. Other things happen too but that’s the tl;dr.

However, for someone like me, who definitely has celiac disease but has been on a totally gluten-free diet for close on to a decade at this point, I could go in to a hospital and have a biopsy and they’ve been like 'your insides look like someone who doesn’t have celiac disease, good job!’ (This is what my GI said to me at my last biopsy, matter of fact.) The whole point of the gluten-free diet is that I get to keep my villi and microvilli so I can digest my food and don’t get cancer or starve to death. Buuuuuut you can’t really definitively diagnose celiac then. WHICH IS FINE. Most doctors will either have you do a) a 'gluten challenge’ for like a week before a biopsy to see how your body reacts, bc a week of a glutened diet won’t kill someone with celiac, just make them very unhappy and grumpy and poop forever or b) just say 'you probably have it, let’s act like you have it, stay off gluten forever and ever.’

The other thing about celiac, lest people think they can 'catch’ it from modern bread, is that you have to have a genetic predisposition to it, and we don’t actually know how people develop celiac disease later in life. The best current guess is that if you already have a genetic predisposition toward it and your body goes through a bunch of trauma, your immune system might suddenly decide it’s time to light everything on fire the moment that it spots gluten. We’re pretty sure that’s what happened to me, since my celiac was diagnosed about 10 months after I had major spinal surgery. My dad also has celiac disease and he was diagnosed in his 60s, and he’s been through and out the other side of a skin cancer diagnosis, so it’s probable that’s what kicked him over, though we don’t know.

There’s a lot we don’t know about celiac, but what we do know is this:

It’s been around in humans for at least a couple thousand years; we’ve found evidence of it in skeletons going back that far. Celiac disease is not new, it’s not trendy, it’s not a manufactured thing. As mentioned above, we’re probably just seeing more of it now because more of us get to survive!

It’s an autoimmune disease that tends to cluster with other genetic autoimmune diseases like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome, etc. A lot of us have multiple autoimmune diseases, because the only thing strong enough to kick our asses is us, I guess. For people who have celiac, our immune system detects gluten and then runs around setting the whole fucking place on fire just in case there might be more gluten.

It’s most prevalent in but not confined to white people, because it’s genetic. I have to repeat that it is not confined to white people, because a lot of people do think it’s a “white person disease,” and that leads to underdiagnosis in literally everyone else. Having celiac is shitty, but it’s shittier if you don’t get it diagnosed and start taking care of yourself.

It can in fact kill you and absolutely used to. The life expectancy of someone with celiac disease before a doctor in Holland (I think) accidentally diagnosed it in 1945 (due to food shortages which led to people not eating bread/having access to flour for months at a time) was 5 years or less. If you think you might have it, please talk to a doctor.

If it’s poorly treated, you can end up getting some really shitty cancers (leukemia, small intestine, etc.). “Poorly treated” means not adhering very strictly to your gluten free diet over the long term. There is no such thing as a “cheat day” for celiac disease (unless you are doing like a gluten challenge or smth as above). You cannot safely ingest gluten. Just… ever.

There is no safe long-term amount of gluten for people with celiac disease. Non-reactive is not the same as safe. I know people with celiac disease who do not react to amounts less than 20 parts per million. They don’t feel bad if they get trace gluten. (This is not me, I am reactive down to 3ppm, yay me.) It’s still not safe for them to eat gluten at all. I’ve had many people say 'oh my friend says it’s safe for them to eat [gluten-containing thing] because there’s not much.’ Well, it’s cool if your friend wants to do that, that’s their body, but no, it’s not safe for celiacs to do that, so please don’t feed that to me.

Gluten is in so much processed food and it sticks to everything. It’s a cheap way to make things stick together, and it does not like to come out of stuff once it’s stuck to it. Wheat flour is in Twizzlers. I’ve gotten glutened by barley syrup being used in frozen lemonade. I can’t eat something supposedly 'gluten free’ that was made in the same facility as things containing gluten. If someone uses the same cutting board to cut bread as I use to cut my gluten-free bread, or the same toaster, I will get sick. (I am currently recovering from something like that happening on Friday night.) Once gluten gets in/on a porous material, it will never come out enough to be safe for a celiac to use it to prepare food. The only exception to stuff like that is cast iron, and that’s ONLY because you can put cast iron in a stove, turn that stove up to 500 F for 30m, and burn every trace of organic matter away. No, I cannot eat something out of your tupperware or prepared in your gluten-containing kitchen. I don’t even walk into glutenated bakeries bc inhaling flour is enough to make me feel like shit.

For most of us, it’s almost impossible to eat communally, and that can make us feel really shitty, because eating together is a prime human bonding experience. But, like, gluten is in fucking everything, and for most people, that’s fine! If you find a restaurant your celiac friend can really eat at, or make a point of accommodating them so they can eat with you at parties, you’ll be our favorite friend.

Celiac disease is not the same as gluten intolerance, but some people are at genetic risk of and who might develop celiac disease have gluten intolerance, but not everyone who has GI is at risk. Bodies are weird, okay? And we don’t know entirely why some people who have the genetic risk develop it and some don’t.

You can’t catch it, you’re not going to give it to yourself by eating store-bought bread, at least the best current research doesn’t think that’s the case. When we talk 'trauma’ that makes celiac come out, we’re talking like surgery, car accidents, anything else that causes big trauma to the body.

Celiac sucks, you don’t want it, it’s not trendy, there is no cure, it’s an autoimmune disease, don’t fuck around with our food. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[boigameista]

i dont think i posted these but here i made a little frog pattern to make tiny frog toys with my grandma

this is the first lil guy I made while still learning how i should sew it

[boigameista]

AAA ok so a lot of people have been asking for the pattern to this, tho I’ve been using just these two little papers to do the cut outs lol

i tried my best to translate it into digital so that people get a bit more accurate look at them. Tho bear with me I’ve never done an actual pattern design sheet before!

so basically my hope is that anyone could print these out to any size of their choosing and get the same result, but ive never tried anything larger than approx. 3 inches with these sooo idk if you try it tag me!

the goal is to sew the backs together to the lines at the tip of the head to the middle of the butt. then leaving a space along the belly piece near the butt end and sewing from one side of the butt including all the legs and the “mouth” to the other side with its legs to get back to the butt. if that makes sense

i usually pause sewing up the body once the head is fully sewn together,, usually after ive sewn both arms and ill yank it inside out where ill start sewing on the little poofball eyes so i know theyre in a good place, then resuming the body, and then pulling the whole thing inside out and pushing out the tips of the limbs with a skinny blunt object like a dull pencil until i can see the stitches. if you attempt this piece definitely make sure you stitch up the arm and leg crevices very well!!!!

then just stuff the lad and sew up his back end and its done :)

one suggestion for fabric is always try to use a stretchy soft fleecy fabric with these because its much easier if mistakes are made during sewing and to hold the ROUND shape better

Overall its a very good use of scraps if you’ve accumulated a lot and don’t know what to do with them 👍👍

[atomicelixir]

So I made a frog (huge)

[boigameista]

I literally can’t I’m losing my mind over the sheer girth of this frog.

Absolutely incredible.

11/10 and godspeed.

[argumate]

she had the face of an angel, a snow angel though

[argumate]

he had a body you’d expect to fish out of the river

[argumate]

her voice reminded you of why you left her in the first place, as she patiently listed all the reasons why you left her in the first place.

[argumate]

he had a face you’d want to punch, not because there was anything wrong with the face itself, but just because it was his and he was a dick.

[argumate]

ironically after all this time spent rebelling against her upbringing she had turned out exactly like her mother: an adult woman.

[argumate]

it was an ordinary Tuesday when you walked into my office, feeling vaguely uneasy about the use of the second person perspective.

[colubrina]

for the love of god, write all the self-indulgent scenes you want.  be utterly  shameless about including every last fantasy.  i know everyone likes to share quotes and quips about how miserably hard writing is, but please please try thinking of it as a joyful act where you get to be a messy human who makes art rather than some pain filled quest for icy perfection.

[bakwaaas]

even though it’s bad for my physical and mental health I can’t stop staying up until 3am because there’s something about those hours of the night which feel like they’re just mine. it’s quiet and still, the night belongs to me

[myurbanhomestead]

[lovely-low-waster]

Storing food in plastic often means that you’re using single use plastics or a reusable plastic container. While plastic reusables are still better than single use, if it’s time to replace them there are better options than buying new ones.

Putting greens in water in the fridge will keep them from going limp so fast as it keeps the water flow going when you trim the stem a little. During it’s time from the farm to your home the end has become dry so water can’t penetrate into the plant. Though make sure to save these cuttings for compost of vegetable stock!

Upcycling jars is a great way to get free containers that are goo for storing things in the cabinet, fridge, or freezer (though make sure you’re storing food properly in the freezer so they don’t break). This also works to reuse what you do get in plastic tubs as tubberware to give them more life and not just be single use. I like to save mine to use as takeaway containers when I have guests taking food home so I have less food waste and it saves them from using other single use items. 

Keeping the onions and potatoes in a dark place will keep them from going rotten faster. I do this with my potatoes by keeping them in a small basket at the bottom of my pantry. I don’t usually do this with onions because I don’t buy many of them at a time so I’ll just stick the one or two I’ve got in with my potatoes. 

Wrapping lettuce in a tea towel that is slightly damp will also keep it crisp. I prefer this over using the greens in a glass because it saves some space because I can layer them on top of each other in my vegetable drawer. 

Personally I’ve never heard of storing these fruits in the freezer, but it does work well if they’re starting to get overripe. It’ll keep them from ripening any further and from eventually rotting. I will do this for any type of fruit if I plan on using them for baked goods or smoothies instead of buying the prebagged frozen fruit. 

Beeswax wraps of the vegan equivalent if a good way to store little bits of partially used fruits and vegetables. They’re also good for sandwiches and other goods to pack into a bagged lunch. I’ll use them as well to cover bowls or plates that don’t have any kind of cover in place of a plastic wrap or foil. 

Steel and glass tubs are good in place of plastic ones if you’re in need of making the switch these are good options. They are also less likely to break if you want to freeze stuff in them because they don’t have a neck  to shatter as things expand inside of them. 

Putting carrots and celery in water will keep them crisp and firm. I’ll place my carrots in a shallow dish and fill it with water so they are submerged. Celery I’ll   put into a jar without a lid after cutting off the base. I like how easy these are and I get some prep done in the process. 

I like putting leftovers into jars for leftovers. It’s also a really easy way to bring food around to go from restaurants or from home for lunch. There are even certain jars made specifically for this with having a small cup attached to the lid to hold condiments or dressing for what’s inside the rest of the jar. 

I’ve never personally tried the bread one but it is a good way to store your bread if you make your own or get it from bakery or farmers market. This way you can avoid the plastic bag and keeps it from going moldy or stale. 

Of course there are far more ways you can avoid plastic when storing food. Avoiding buying new plastics all together is the best way to avoid it and refusing it when you can. And as always use what you have till it’s no longer effective!

[allisondraste]

Kind characters are not boring; in fact, due to the vast amount of people who hold that opinion, kind characters are as edgy as it gets. In this essay I will

[allisondraste]

You know what, I’m not done! I think that the whole concept that kind characters are uninteresting and vanilla is such a broad generalization and takes kindness to mean lawful or goody-two-shoes, when there are so many ways for someone to a character to be kind.

Kindness does not require passivity or social grace. Kind characters can stick to their guns and stand up for what they believe in. They can yell and scream and curse. Kind characters can be angry and disappointed when others do not show them the same compassion they show others. Kind characters can be tactless, oblivious. They may be rough around the edges (but have a heart of gold).

Kind characters often value justice and strive to stay connected to their humanity, even when the things they must do threaten to strip it away from them. Kind characters sometimes have to make difficult choices. Sometimes, kind characters even behave in a way that is unkind.

Kindness is complex, and it’s only a single solitairy characteristic that contributes to a character’s personality. While it can absolutely present as soft-spoken, honest, and open-hearted (my personal FAVE), it certainly doesn’t have to be.

TL;DR Kindness is not boring